Once More by ItsHardToFindAPenName

Chapter 18: Because We

Naruto's body crashed right through a tree with a sickening crack.

"Ow!"

"Ow" was definitely an understatement. He hadn't been damaged quite badly, but being punched through a tree by an arm made of sand definitely hurt. It felt just like when the real Shukaku punched him in the face.

'Pfff,' He heard Shukaku snorting in his head. 'My punch was much harder than that!'

His relentless assault with hundreds of shadow clones couldn't even get pass Gaara's defense. Whenever he and his clones approached Gaara, the redhead would just swat them away either with the monstrous strength of Shukaku, or with a wide, quick blast of wind.

'Naruto, taijutsu won't do anything against him! Try some ninjutsu!' Kokuoh urged him.

'I know! But what to use...'

From afar, Gaara growled.

"Why do you try so hard...? You're weak... Why struggling meaninglessly...? Why won't you just DIE!"

On his sand arms, the shape of a lot of shuriken started forming. Naruto understood immediately what was going to happen.

Blocking will just slow down his momentum. He will have to match the attack with his own attack...!

The gears in his mind immediately came to life full speed. The image of a kunai with all of the necessary details appeared in his head: the sharp diamond-shaped tip, the handle wrapped in cloth with a ring at the end, the black steel material, the way Tenten's father smashed his hammer on the red steel to shape the appearance of the ninja knife, the skills of all the shinobi who wielded this particular weapon...

"Sand Shuriken!"

"Multiply by 100! Creation: Weapon Projection Jutsu!"

A barrage of kunai formed around Naruto and launched themselves towards Gaara just as a barrage of shuriken made of sand shot our from Gaara's arms. The two storms of weapons met in midair, steel clashed with sand. The air was suddenly full of loud clanging noises.

'Alright! Finally got that jutsu down!'

'Not perfect, you mean.'

True, the kunai created by Naruto's chakra were now all popping into smoke after stopping the barrage of sand shuriken coming from Gaara.

'You don't need to say it like that...' Naruto pouted.

'Well, I was really surprised when the old man could pull that jutsu out with only one try, you know,' Isobu noted. 'I didn't think he had the structure of the weapon so perfectly, or had the chakra density to create them like that.'

During the training month, Naruto had once shown Hiruzen the jutsu. While he was complaining loudly about how hard it was to create the weapons perfectly from only chakra, the old man just pondered in thought, and after about five minutes of thinking, he suddenly smiled, and made some hand signs. After a puff of smoke, a perfect shuriken appeared on his hand, sharp and sturdy as if it was a real shuriken made from real steel, not from chakra, before the gaping mouth of Naruto and the amusing face of Jiraiya.

'Well, to be fair, he had been working with a shuriken for decades before Naruto was even born,' Kokuoh said wisely. 'So it's no wonder why he knew the shuriken so thoroughly just like the back of his hand... Watch out!'