Dark Phoenix of Konoha by White Angel of Auralon

Part 31 - Naruto vs Gaara

"That will be the hardest fight for you, Naruto," Kakashi said seriously. "Not only is Gaara dangerous, I'm sure that he's going to be Suna and Oto's trump card. No ally would send an instable jinchuriki into a chunin exam. Therefore you are ordered to eliminate the threat he poses to Konoha with all methods, Naruto. This is an S-Rank mission. Do you understand?" The Hokage asked.

"Yes, I do," Naruto stated.

He didn't like killing but he would do it if it was necessary.

"We can't afford an open assassination attempt against the son of the Kazekage, but in the finals killing your opponent can happen. We are prepared for a worst case scenario, in other words a total invasion with superior numbers being against us.

"Sasuke, Sakura, Naruto, we will need all the ninjas we can get to push invading forces back, so I want you to make sure that you don't injure your opponents from Konoha too badly. Show your skills but remember you are up against our shinobi. We can't risk heavy injuries. When the invasion starts, don't show any mercy to anybody with a Suna or Oto forehead protector. Naruto, I want you to be ready to unleash the Flying Thundergod on any attackers after you neutralised Gaara as a threat. Let's show them why thinking that they could defeat Konoha is folly," Kakashi said and his students confirmed their orders.

Flashback end

Hayate took over.

"The last fight in the first round of the chunin exam finals. Gaara Sabaku of Suna versus Naruto Namikaze of Konoha. Begin," He announced.

Jiraiya was hidden in the shadows of the arena roof near the kage lounge. He was there to give additional protection against whatever plans the Kazekage might have concocted with Orochimaru. While they didn't know where Orochimaru was hidden, they knew that the two Hokages would be among the main targets of an invasion, alone to prevent them from interfering with the attacking troops.

For now he would watch the fight of his godson. After the cool start, they had managed to establish a working relationship with each other. Naruto had longed for a family for all his life and even if he was mad that his godfather had left him behind in a village where the majority of the inhabitants hated him, he wouldn't deny himself a family for the future. And Jiraiya had done all he could to make up for his absence. So he now had a perverted uncle, a wise grandfather and an annoying little brother. Konohamaru somehow grew on you once he got over his ego. His family might be unusual and not his by blood, but it was his nonetheless.

Jiraiya knew that it wasn't easy for Naruto to be ordered to kill Gaara, but the threat he presented to the village was too big to be ignored. Naruto knew that he could have ended like Gaara easily. So having to kill a fellow jinchuriki was really hard on him. If only he could place a five elements seal, then they could take him prisoner. But with the annoying sand armour that option was not available. And they had spied intensively on Gaara to find ways to take out the trump card Orochimaru planned to play in the invasion.

Naruto jumped back from Gaara to have enough space to evade the sand the boy would undoubtedly unleash. Well, Gaara would be in for a surprise there. The hidden mist jutsu, which he had learned with the help of Jiraiya and a scroll about the technique from Kakashi sensei, was out of the question for an opponent that wasn't dependent on sight. The sand could sneak up on him in the mist, so he wouldn't take away his own advantage. It was for the same reason he hadn't used it against Shino. His bugs could come from any direction. But it would come in handy later during the invasion to take out large numbers of opponents quickly.

While he jumped and ran around Gaara, he used his sensor abilities to try and find any weaknesses in the boy's sand defence. He could feel the chakra that was in the sand. It was even. He also knew that Gaara was using the ground to his advantage. Well, he would show him, what danger a water elemental with a shitload of chakra could pose to him. He flew through a chain of hand seals and finally unleashed his jutsu.