Inheritance

The Torch Passes

"Tajuu Kage Bunshin no jutsu!"

All around them Naruto's exploded into existence - hundreds of them, all with violently rotating spheres of blue in their hands. Rasengan barrage. They hurled themselves at the bijuu, who was so busy attacking Gamabunta that he had stopped paying attention at all to Naruto right up until the first of his clones made an impact and the Rasengan's chakra exploded into a violent sand-filled mist.

And then the rest began to strike and Ichibi howled. Explosion after explosion began to erupt all over the beast's body and it began to stagger around the forest as volleys of Naruto bunshin focused on different areas of its body. They started with its legs and the base of its tail, before working their way upwards, a devastating salvo of firepower that laid the Ichibi low. Its sand armour was being reduced to a pale imitation of what it had been and limbs lay scattered across the forest floor as mountains of sand, desperately trying to reform.

Suddenly, Gamabunta leapt into the air and spat a torrent of thick, viscous oil all over the shattered body of the Ichibi even as the bunshin continued their assault.

"Light him up, kid!" Gamabunta yelled and Naruto grinned a tired grin and formed the hand seal for a weak Katon jutsu. It wouldn't take much, after all. He fired the ember towards the Ichibi and a cavernous wall of flame erupted into life where the bijuu had once been, a raging inferno that burnt nearly white-hot. Naruto watched, wide-eyed as the Ichibi squirmed and screamed and writhed in agony within.

"Keep your guard up," the toad shouted over the roaring flames, "he'll keep his host alive inside, and the bijuu won't leave this world unless Gaara does. Be ready to wake him up!"

Naruto gritted his teeth and forced himself to watch the grisly sight, waiting for even a hint that Gaara still lived inside. The flames began to recede quickly - toad oil burnt hot and fast. The clearing left behind by the inferno was a blackened husk and smoke wandered idly upwards from soot-covered tree stumps.

The world without warning had been cast into silence, all the wildlife long since fled and the now absent sounds of battle still rang in his mind making the eerie quiet ring all the louder around him. In the centre of it all, a sphere - half-cracked glass, still soft and burning orange at the edge and half scorched sand - protected Gaara, whose own sand armour was blacked and crumbling.

The redhead stood inside it, eyes closed. Still sleeping. Naruto wanted to join him, to do anything other than move. He started walking. Each leaden, dragged footstep took him closer and closer. And around him, Gaara's sand began moving. At first, only a few grains, that slowly grew into a trickle, which built into a winding, creeping stream.

He reached Gaara, heartbeat exploding in his ears and body ready to finally give out. He cocked back a fist to deliver the blow that would wake the jinchuuriki and end this fight and swore violently when the stream of sand clasped his wrists. It wasn't so tight that it could damage him but no matter how much he fought against it he couldn't break its hold.

He summoned the last of his chakra, every scrap of energy he could manage and formed it into one final bunshin that weakly puffed into life beside Gaara.

"For Konoha," he ground out, and the Bunshin slugged Gaara squarely in the jaw. The Suna ninja fell limply to the floor but so did the remaining sand around them, ninjutsu finally broken - Gaara, unconscious.

Naruto dropped to his knees in relief, staying awake for just long enough to make sure that it really was over and to see Gamabunta disappear in a hazy explosion of smoke.

***

Hope you enjoyed the chapter!

Any comments and feedback are massively appreciated - one of my favourite parts of serial fiction is interacting with readers as they experience the stories I'm telling!

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As an extra little heads up, folks have been plagiarising the hell out of Inheritance by uploading it in its entirety to Youtube a bunch with a tts voice. As a result, I decided I may as well do it, then people can at least choose to listen to it via the author instead of some random chancer. If that's your thing, you can check it out on my IWriteFantasy youtube channel, where I'm posting Inheritance and Stand Tall chapter by chapter. In all honesty, just hopping across to sub would be hugely helpful too, so hopefully I'll see some of you there!

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