A/N: Hello guys! It's been a while, i'm sorry for not updating this story. i've been extremely busy lately due to school and work. I had no motivation to update this story but anyway, i'm back!
I should post 2 chapters per week. Anyhow, i hope y'all have a great day or night <3
Temari was not having a good day. First was her so called 'win' earlier, she had lost, everyone had known it but that boy had just given her the win. Her pride was hurt from that, she would be feeling the sting of that for awhile. But that paled in comparison to what was happening now. Gaara had started to release his inner demon sooner than planed, the invasion had to be started earlier and now she had even more trouble on her hands. She had gone down to get him out of the area, if he fully released here it would be very troubling. Too many of their own people were in the area.
Gaara was supposed to release in the population center of the village, not here. Also a part of her was worried. It was that small part of her that would always be his sister, some bonds like that you couldn't get rid of completely. She had never seen him bleed before, he had never been hurt like that before. She had tried to get him to go with her, she pleaded with him to listen to her. But he didn't, he shoved her away and the look she saw in his eyes told her that if she tried to move him, he would kill her.
She cast a look at her other brother at the problem they now faced. Not only was the Uchiha's teammates were here but a few others as well. Temari pulled her fan as her brother unleashed his newly repaired puppet. Kankuro didn't like the looks of things, with the boy and his dog, the blonde girl, and the fat boy with the others. Plus Gaara was a wild card at the moment too.
"Alright I have no idea what's really going on," Naruto said to the Suna team. "But whatever you're planning you can forget it."
Having hearing that voice caused Gaara to focus a bit. The voice in his head was screaming at him now, it was so loud and commanding. It was calling for blood, for death, to be let out among the world. A voice that never ended, never gave him peace. To Gaara, the days and night blured together, only in death, only in the blood he spilled did he find focus. Only then when he finally felt like he existed in the world. Now a new voice called to him, one from the outside, one that he marked for death. He looked at the blonde masked boy and grinned a savage grin.
"Naruto Hatake," Gaara rasped out as half his face was hidden behind a hand. "I wanted to give your blood to mother for so long now. We've had to wait for so long as well, tell me do you hear it as well? Do you hear the voice calling for blood like I do?"
Naruto was very uncomfortable about this, he had a feeling that Gaara was referring to the Fox. Although he did have a talk with it, while training with Jiraiya, it sounded like Gaara talked to his the entire time. He couldn't image what that was like, he had only met the Fox for a short bit and already he hated it. It was an evil force of nature, uncaring for humanity, only caring for chaos and destruction.
"No I don't, it's sealed up nice and tight with a gag." Naruto said noticing the questioning looks he got form his teammates who were close enough to hear his answer. He really was going to have to explain everything to them after this. He could tell they were already wondering about a few things lately, he had evaded it for now but he couldn't keep it up forever.
"Pity," Gaara said as he pulled his hand away from his face. They were shocked to see the skin under the palm had changed. No, in fact it was still changing as they watched it. The skin turned a light shade of brown, as it pulsed and grew out. The eye had changed from green to yellow and looked inhuman. Now veins on the left side of his face, neck and arm were growing as the skin there also started to change.
"Oh no," Temari said seeing what was going on. There was no way to stop things now. "Kankuro, we need to move!"
He didn't need to be told twice, staying anywhere near Gaara in that state he was releasing was suicide. He and Temari left for the stands to gain the high ground. Ino and Choji went after Temari as Kiba and Akamaru went after Kankuro. Leaving Team 7 alone with a transforming Gaara.
-In the Konoha Streets-
Even before the invasion, ANBU had been clearing the streets of enemies while helping chunins evacuate the civilians. But when the battle signal had started, ANBU could no longer act in secret, they had to attack out in the open. Luckily the enemy were confused by their lack of numbers and lack of people. They never suspected that the Leaf Village had been preparing all this time. Even now a team would be evacuating people at the stadium to an underground bunker quickly created under the stadium.
Although from the scattered reports, it was slow going. Apparently the non-ninja were put to sleep. So they had to carry them all down while fighting off enemy forces. Thankfully it seemed that Gai and Kakashi were helping them out.
Gai was a good person to have, but for ANBU Yugao Uzuki she was more thankful for Kakashi being there. She had only worked with him a few times before he quit ANBU but everyone knew him and respected his skills. The man was a legend like Itachi had been in the special services, that is before Itachi's downfall, now no one spoke that name.
She was currently leading her three members through a clean up sweep of an area. So far things had gone mostly in their favour. She could hear battle all around her, she knew that many would be injured and some would die. She knew all too well how swiftly death could come. All this month she had tried to focus on her work, because when she returned home she just broke down and cried her heart out. She had never cried so hard in her life since Hayate's death. Sure the man looked constantly sickly and coughed all the time, but he made her feel loved in ways no one else had.
A hole had been torn into her life, and she was going to fill that with as much blood as possible to those that had taken his life.
"We should have come into more resistance than this in this area, don't you think?" An ANBU with a Hawk masked asked her. The other two wore a Rat and Turtle mask.
Yugao thought about it, it was odd that they hadn't run into anyone yet. This was still a heavy fighting area so where were the enemy? They could be hiding but then where, inside the homes? She stopped as her team did, she did a slow scan of the area, looking for anything out of place. The place seemed quiet, in fact she noticed that the sounds of battle were more distance now then they had been. That meant there was a sound distortion but that only happened with something like a...
"Genjutsu!" She yelled out to released herself out of it. One of her teammates wasn't fast enough as he screamed as blood came gushing out of wounds that suddenly appeared. Rat cried out as he dodged but a slash on his arm was suddenly there. As the genjutsu dispelled from her forcing her chakra to release her senses she saw the enemy slowly start to appear. Sound ninja, all of them and they had them encircled. With one member out and another wounded she was outnumbered. Still she would give them one hell of a fight as she pulled her sword from it's holder behind her back.
Then she saw a shadow cross her vision, someone was jumping down from behind her. She quickly turned to parry with her sword, but nothing came. A figure in a cloak with two swords attacked two of the Sound ninja behind her. She didn't have enough time to think as the battle started. It was over in a few minutes but to her the battle seemed a lot longer than that. She managed to cut down three of her opponents before she noticed that all the enemy had either been killed or fled. She saw the rest of her team was unhurt, and the other member was tending to their wounded comrade.
She turned to face the cloaked man, "Who are you?"
"Jeez forgot me already huh?" A man said with a cough as he pulled down the hood.
For Yugao time just stopped, as the hood was pulled down she saw the face of her lover Hayate. She stood there unable to even think as she saw the impossible. She saw the body, she had buried him, and she had cried and mourned for him. And there he was, alive again. Hayate walked over to her his face serious.
Finally she managed to say something, her shaky voice managed to get out only one word. "H-How?" Her voice seemed so small in that moment, her eyes stinging with tears and she was thankful for the mask she was wearing.
She felt him hold her, and it was in that moment she knew it was him. It was really him, she broke as she hugged him tightly afraid to let him go. Afraid that if she did, he would be gone again.
"I'm sorry," He whispered into her ear. He felt her shake knowing she was trying not to cry.
Suddenly she pushed him back and slapped him, hard. "You bastard! You made me think you were dead!"
"Okay I deserved that one," He muttered feeling the sting on his face coughing again. "Look, I was brought in nearly dead, hell they told me I was lucky to be alive. They used a cadaver and made it look like me so that I would be considered dead. I didn't even wake up until a few days after they did it and I had to stay in one of Ibiki's cells for a whole month. I wanted to give you a message telling you I was alive but they were afraid of a security risk."
Yugao was furious, happy, and had so many emotions running through her it felt like a maelstrom inside of her. But she would have to deal with this later, they had a mission to take care of first plus she needed some time to come to terms with this. And the enemy would be a great way to work out her anger about all of this. "We're not done talking."
"Yeah *cough*, I had a feeling about that." He said although he said it with a smile. After a month away from her, even an angry Yugao would be nice to see again.
-Under the Stadium-
Over the month a steel bunker had been built in secret, first earth users had hollowed out while other ninja secretly constructed the area. It was a lot of hard work and it wasn't a palace but it would work. The only door was a thick steel one that matched the wall it was connected too. Gas laps were overhead to make light and there were many beds already set up.
Chunin guards were posted on either side of the door in case the enemy made its way down here.
Neji, Tenten and Lee were placing more bodies into prepared beds. So far Gai had told them to help with the removal of all the civilians still asleep in the stands. Thankfully there wasn't too much. Most of the stadium had been either ANBU, or other Konoha ninja prepared or enemies in disguise. Plus with the help of other ninja assigned to the duty it was going well. Those that had been in the medical room from injures from the matches were already here. Although they would prefer fighting, this was important too. They couldn't have any of the VIPs from the Fire country or other nations getting hurt or killed.
"Neji," a voice called out and said boy turned to see his father running carrying Hanabi.
"Father, is she okay?" Neji asked looking at his youngest cousin.
His father smiled as he gently laid her down on a bed, "Yes, just asleep. Can you take care of her, I'm needed to ensure that the last of the civilians is brought down."
Neji wanted to go with him, but it was his duty to look out for the Main branch, plus this was his cousin as well. He nodded his head not voicing his disappointment in not going out with him. He felt his father's hand on his shoulder as he looked up at the man.
"You made me very proud out there today son," He said simply with a smile and Neji could see the pride in his father's eyes. In that moment, despite everything that was going on, he felt his spirit fly as free as s bird on the wind.
Elsewhere in the upper levels four chunins were carrying the last two from the medical wing on a pair of combat stretchers. Mainly they were just a piece of cloth with two poles in them. The two were the Mist genins that had been in the first round eliminations.
"Man you think they would wake up with all this going on," One of the chunin said.
"Maybe the medics gave them something," The other said as they made their way as fast as they could with the wounded ninja. "Although I'm wondering if it also has to do with how they got their butts kicked. Our genins sure did a number on them."
"Yeah no kidding," His partner grinned. "Hey how's that girl back there you two?"
"Better," A female voice said as the two chunin looked to see the girl was back on her feet and the two chunins dead. Their throats looked to have been cut and there was fresh blood on those bandages she had on her arms.
"What the hell are you doing!?" One of the chunins said then heard a gurgling sound as the stretcher fell on the other end. He quickly turned to see his friend dying there holding his throat as blood came down. The last image he saw was the genin up and stabbing him in the head with a kunai. As the ninja lay dead at their feet the two Mist ninja looked at each other.
"Well this isn't what the plan said to do, I still can't believe we were beaten," Ami scowled clearing pissed at the whole affair.
Gendo only grunted, he felt the same way. But still their mission wasn't a complete loss. Although they would have to go back and get his sword from the medical room before leaving, they were done here. They came to accomplish what they needed to do. Although they had lost a teammate, that had been unforeseen and regrettable but he should have been stronger. In fact they both needed to be stronger, they thought they were better and they paid for their hubris.
"We need to leave and meet up with sensei and fill him in on what happened." Gendo said to Ami as they started to walk down the hallways. Both were feeling their injuries but they could still battle if needed. "With all of this going on it should be simple to slip out. They're worried about people coming in after all and as Mist ninja, whoever is battling out there shouldn't attack us."
"What will the Leaf think once we turn up missing or some see us leaving?" Ami asked.
Gendo only smiled coldly. "Then I guess we just have to kill them all so they can't talk. They'll think we were killed or something in the battle. Come on, we've wasted enough time in this village. We need to report back to the Mizukage with what we learned."
-Arena-
Temari couldn't believe she had to fight two people who didn't even make it into the finals. She had seen the fight they had and they wouldn't be much of an issue. Although by the looks of things she wouldn't be getting any help anyway. The few Sound ninja that were left were having a hard time with Konoha forces. Not only that but Konoha's people were taking the sleeping forms and taking them away. They must have had a safe place to place them all, something she would make note of for later.
Looking at the long haired blonde in purple and her fat teammate she didn't exactly feel threatened. "So this is the best that they can send against me? A pretty girl and a overweight genin? I think I'm insulted."
"What did you say!?" Ino yelled out a vein being shown on her head. Sure she had been taken out but she had trained herself over this month. Seeing how far she was behind the others, she felt she had to increase her abilities. Even Choji had been working with his father learning more family jutsus.
Ino grinned at the older girl, "Besides it was our teammate, the most lazy ninja in the world that managed to beat you. He played you the entire time and you only won because he felt sorry for you." Ino smirked seeing how much that angered the other girl.
"But Ino, weren't you yelling at him for-" Choji was cut off as Ino gave him a death glare. He knew enough not to say anything more.
"I was going to be easy on you two but for saying that, you can forget it." Temari said as she opened her fan. She used it to make a hug gust of wind knocking the two Konoha genin onto their backs. Temari smirked this time as she saw what happened. "Well. So you wear purple panties as well I see."
Ino sat up and looked to see that her skirt had been blown up, exposing her underwear. She got really red as she realized what happened.
"KYYYAAA!" Ino screamed out as she pulled her skirt down. She heard a noise and saw Choji with a hand over his nose and mouth. His face was all red and there was a little blood coming out between his fingers. "Choji!"
"I-I didn't see anything!" The big boy said quickly trying to save himself. Although to be perfectly honest he had seen everything.
Temari could only laugh at it, but she saw the battle Gaara was having and she stopped. She had to end this quickly before it was too late. Gaara was already starting to change, if he went full out she didn't want to be anywhere near this area. She heard someone coming at her and saw it was the two of them. She mentally cursed as she got distracted. Temari put a lot more power into her wind. Choji ballooned up, his increased size and weight helped to keep him from blowing away.
Ino wasn't so lucky. She was blown into a few stands laying there in a heap not moving.
"Ino!" Choji yelled out and Temari couldn't tell from the way the boy was in the way but she bet that girl wouldn't get up soon. If she was getting up, Temari was sure she would have heard her by now. Choji looked back to Temari with an angry glare as she pulled his arms into his body. Temari knew this attack, she had a good wind attack but she wasn't certain about this guy. With the girl out of the way she could easily deal with him, but she would have to keep from being in front of him.
He started to roll towards her, destroying the stands as he went, making a large groove as he went. Temari jumped onto a chair and kicked off to get out of the way. Only that Choji didn't stop, he actually managed to make a tight turn and was heading back towards her. Temari growled at this. She had to keep her chakra in check given they were in the middle of a war zone and she might need all she could to get away. She pulled back her fan ready to attack the ground under him.
Maybe if she cut out a trench he might get stuck or something. She was just about to launch an attack when she jerked suddenly. Then she smiled for no apparently reason.
"Hell yeah, take that you stupid blonde fan girl," Temari said suddenly as noticed Choji coming at her. "Choji stop it already! I'm in control now, it's me Ino!"
Ino (in Temari's body) had to jump down a few seats to avoid him. "Choji you bastard!"
Choji managed to stop himself and return to normal looking at the girl. "Ino, is that really you in there?"
"Here's a hint!" She said going up to him and pulling on his scarf to pulled him up a little to her eye level. "If you ever mention what I know you really saw earlier, I'll put you on a diet."
"Yeah it's you." Choji said as Ino released her hold. "It was a good thing she couldn't see you when she blasted you." He thought back to seeing her laying there between seats. At first he thought she was seriously hurt. But she had quickly spelled out what she wanted with hand signs, after quickly getting an idea of what she wanted, he went to work to distract the older girl. So then it was easy for Ino to use her mental jutsu on her, from when Temari wasn't looking.
With Kankuro things weren't going as he expected. He had to admit that his fight was about even so far. The other boy and his dog were a good match against him. Although Kankuro could use his puppet, only master puppet users could fight with their puppet while using it. He was still too young and inexperienced to try that, but this wasn't the first time he fought more than one opponent at once. But the boy and his dog had near perfect teamwork. When he went after one, the other would attack instantly.
In fact he was getting a bit annoyed at all of this.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Yelled out Temari as Kankuro paused to look at his older sister.
"What, I'm busy here." Kankuro said while keeping his puppet from being smashed, again.
Temari jumped down behind him, "Can't I leave you to do anything?"
Kankuro wasn't sure but his sister seemed a bit more bitchy at the moment. Then again it was hard to tell at times. Maybe she was having her period, she usually did get irritated on those days. Plus with everything going on he was getting very frustrated as well.
"Look just give me some wind and I'll finish them off." He said to her.
"Sure." He heard her say. What he didn't see was her lifting her fan and slamming it on top of his head, hard. Kankuro fell face first onto the ground leaving a very confused Kiba there.
"What the hell is going on?" Kiba demanded.
"It's me Ino," Temari told him. "I took over the girl's body. Now pick that guy up and help carry him somewhere safe. Choji is looking after my body and I want to make sure this girl is tied up before I release her."
Kiba wasn't sure at first, but for some reason he could tell that it was Ino. The way the girl talked and moved was definitely like her.
"Well hurry up dog boy!" Temari/Ino snapped at him.
"Yeah, it's her alright," Kiba sighed.
Team 7 wasn't doing much better, Gaara was proving to be a major force to be reckoned with. The new skin growing over him was harder than stone. They could stick things like kunai into it but they couldn't get any real penetration. Then the skin would just seem to eject the weapons a moment later. Also the other more dangerous part of him was that large arm of his. That arm could shift and change like the sand that Gaara normally used.
The large demonic looking arm flew out, extending impossibly long at Sakura. She only just managed to dodge it. She really didn't want to know how hard that thing would hit her. "Do we have any kind of plan? I mean I don't know if I have anything that can work?"
"What about that water thing I saw you use earlier?" Naruto asked as he tried to attack Gaara with his sword. The Suna ninja swatted the boy away like an insect. Naruto hit the ground but rolled, one of the many things Kakashi taught him growing up was not to stay in place in a battle.
"I could try but I need a distraction." Sakura said back as she used her tonfa to deflect an oncoming storm of sand bullets from Gaara. The small projectiles may not be sharp but they hurt like hell when they hit. She only managed to get most of them, a few hit her body and she knew that despite the light armour she had on, she would be getting bruised up from that. Plus her hands were going numb from the impact they made on her weapons.
Sasuke ran forward, "I'll try something I've been working on. It's not perfected but I managed to get the chidori down I had a thought from seeing that Suna girl." Sasuke jumped up as Gaara's massive arm went to attack him. Only this time he came down and stabbed his sword into the sand. He started to gather up the lightning charka like he had been taught, but this time he didn't form it all the way. He kept it loose and then sent it through his hand, the same one holding his sword.
It wasn't perfected by a long shot. In fact it would take him most likely a year to get it right at this rate. It was too uncontrollable and dangerous to both himself and to others, but for this moment it might work. The lightning went through the sword, well most of it, parts of it shot off in various directions. One arc of electricity nearly hit his own face. But the majority of the power went through the sword and into Gaara. Gaara cried out in pain as the electrical power sent through his body.
Although the sand helped to take most of it, he still felt the terrible pain. He was about to attack when a small tower of water hit him. The force of it knocked him back as Sasuke jumped off the arm. Gaara was not going to let himself be beaten by something like this. With a savage cry he swept his arm across the field. He managed to catch the pink haired girl, she cried out in pain as the two others went over to check on her.
"You okay Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked helping her up.
"I think so," She winced, she had caught most of it with her arm but she was still feeling some pain. Although she didn't feel anything break, she could barely move her left arm at the moment. Plus she must have bruised her ribs slightly too from how they were hurting.
"We have more trouble," Sasuke said as they both looked to see that Gaara's transformation was continuing. When they went to check on her, his body had started up the change again. Now most of his body was covered in that new skin, his face looked like that of a monster and a single tail was growing out of the back. Only his legs which were hardly even seen, were the only human things remaining.
"I'm going to enjoy killing you all!" Gaara screamed out at them, almost happy by the sound of it.
"I think we're in trouble," Sakura said seeing the boy. "Just what the hell is he?"
Naruto didn't say anything as he already knew what the boy was. A part of him was wondering if this is the kind of thing he could expect. He never really had drawn on the Fox's power all that much. If he did, would something like this happen to him? The thought scared him, of him turning into a monster. Looking at Gaara now, he had to wonder just how lonely the boy had to be. How afraid Suna had to be of him, when they saw him like this. Looking at Gaara's eyes earlier he had felt something in them.
That there had to be a spark left in them, a sense of loneliness behind all that anger and rage. The only question was, could that small part of him actually be reached?
Naruto didn't know, all he knew was that his team was in trouble and he could fight and die to protect them.
-Kage Section of Konoha Stadium-
Hiruzen Sarutobi was having his own difficulties. Even though he was the Third Hokage, he wasn't the young man that he used to be. His body wasn't as fast or as strong as it had been in his prime when he became the first non-Senju member to take up the mantel. Also his stamina was even in worse shape. Age was the deadliest thing to a ninja's career. No matter how strong you were, eventually age took everything from you. It was a patient beast that slowly gnawed away at you.
'Or at least it was supposed to,' The Third Hokage thought to himself as his fight with his one time student went. Orochimaru however didn't seem at all effected and he was in his fifties. Even Tsunade and Jiraiya slowed down a little bit. But thanks to him using forbidden knowledge, Orochimaru wasn't slowed down at all. In fact the man had seemed to have gotten stronger.
"What's the matter, feeling time catching up to you old man?" Orochimaru grinned during a small pause in the battle. "Perhaps I should show you something that I've saved for just this moment."
"You know I've went through a lot of trouble for this moment, I've thought about all the ways to deal with you. But you know what, I found the perfect way to ensure that you're end is poetic. Given that you passed me over for Hokage, what better way to thank you then to use them."
"What are you talking about?" The Third demanded although he had a very bad feeling. He knew of the kinds of things that Orochimaru researched, but he couldn't possibly have done what he was thinking of doing. But then again, his student had fallen so far into darkness that Sarutobi didn't know just how far he had gone.
"Let's make this reunion of ours more complete, shall we?" Orochimaru said as he started to create several hand seals. It looked like some kind of summoning but it was one that the Hokage had never seen before. Then suddenly out of the ground a wooden coffin started to rise. It bore the number one on it.
The Hokage's eyes widened as his deepest fears were starting to be realised. If those contained what he thought, then Orochimaru had stepped into the realm that no mortal should have ever stepped into. Then a second coffin rose up, by the time the third one was rising he knew that he had little time. He couldn't let all three rise up, especially if that third one held who he thought it might hold. He used a cancellation jutsu, he wasn't sure if it would work but he had to try.
Pouring as much chakra as he could, it was only a matter of putting in as much chakra as Orochimaru had put in to the jutsu. He could feel a tug and pull sensation and knew that he had a chance. He put everything he had into it and saw the third coffin slowly sink back down.
He released it when he saw that the coffin was no longer there. He felt the sweat on his skin from the toll it took on him. It took a lot of chakra and stamina to pull that off but he needed to be done.
"Oh well, I supposed two out of three isn't bad. I was looking forward to seeing the full reunion. But these two familiar faces should do just as well. I think it's time for them to come out." Orochimaru said grinning at the Hokage. The lids of the two wooden caskets fell forward as the pale figures of the First and Second Hokage were seen.
Near one of the exits of the stadium, Kakashi and Gai were finishing up with their task of clearing out the area of enemy ninja. Gai apparently was keeping sore of how many he was defeating, well Kakashi was too but he was a bit more aloof about it all. It was at that point that Gai noticed one of their ANBU members in an archway.
"Ah, you there what is the status of the battle?" Gai asked the cloaked ninja.
The ANBU slowly came out of the shadows, "Things seem to be going well."
Kakashi came up to the man, he didn't know that voice then again someone new could have been added to the roster. But he usually heard about that kind of stuff, many in ANBU considered him their 'sempai' after all, so he got a lot of inside information. "So how's the weather in Kiriakure, still wet and bloody?"
The ANBU paused for a moment, "Of course, isn't it always?"
Kakashi immediately threw a kunai at the man, he dodged it only by a fraction of a second as he clipped the mask slightly.
"Kakashi, what are you doing?" Gai shouted out surprised the man would attack a fellow Leaf ninja.
"He's not ANBU," Kakashi said evenly as he looked as the man rose up cautiously. "If he was, then he would have known the correct response to that statement."
"Then if he's not ANBU..." Gai left it hanging as it really didn't need to be finished. Both he and Kakashi had similar thoughts on the masked man who was pretending to be an ANBU.
"Most likely he's the little spy we've been watching," Kakashi stated.
The ANBU chuckled as he removed the mask, "So I was found out after all then?" Kabuto asked them. "Well if my cover has been blown, then I suppose that my role here has ended. Just as well I supposed."
"How can a member of the Leaf be a traitor, especially one so young?" Gai demanded to know.
"My reasons are my own," Kabuto stated coldly, in fact he was never really loyal to the Leaf village. After all, they had killed his family. The only reason he felt that the Leaf took him in, was because they felt sorry for him. "But sadly I won't tell you that, and I also can't afford to being caught as well."
With that Kabuto threw the cloak at them, when Kakashi sliced through it, the young man was already gone. Kakashi was quick to give chase with Gai right on his heels. The stadium was in good hands but if they could capture this spy, there was no telling what they could learn.
Team 7 was facing a very tough opponent, Gaara of the desert wasn't the normal kind of enemy. But only Naruto, knew just what Gaara was. Naruto had lived a good life, while he bet Gaara hadn't. They were two sides of the same coin, because Naruto had a loving family and friends, he hadn't been as lonely as he knew he could have been. Looking at Gaara, he wondered if he had no one to look after him, if this was something he would have turned into.
Looking at him now, it was hard to say how to beat him.
"Hey do you have any toads that can be used for this?" Sasuke asked him.
"Not sure, I could try," Naruto said as he bit his thumb again. He quickly made the seals and tried to summon anything he could. What he got was a small orange and very familiar toad. "Gamakichi!?"
"Hey what's up, whoa! What the hell did you bring me into and what is that thing!?" The young toad said hoping on top of Naruto's head. Sakura and Sasuke could only stare at the scene in front of them.
"So much for that idea," Sasuke said as he had to dodge one of Gaara's attacks again. "That skin is too thick for anything normal to get through. I'm not even sure I can use my chidori can get through it. He thought about using that curse seal but honestly given what he was told about it, and who it was from he didn't trust it.
"That's it I'm out of here, and you better not bring me into something like this again blonde boy," Gamakichi told Naruto before dispelling himself. Naruto sighed, he really didn't expect much from Gamakichi, he was still young after all.
"I have an idea," Naruto said as he got up. "Sakura-chan, Sasuke...I need you two to give me some room."
"Naruto what are you going to do?" Sakura asked him being supported by Sasuke at the moment.
"I have to fight him on his own terms," Naruto said as he looked at the boy. He knew that he couldn't keep things from them and he couldn't afford to keep this power locked up. Not when those close to him could die because of it. "Look, I know you'll have questions but trust me, I'll answer them when this is over."
"So there is something you've been keeping from us," Sakura said feeling hurt at it.
Naruto winced at the sound of her voice, "I didn't mean to, I only found out about it recently anyway. It's just not something I'm comfortable talking about. Maybe cause I'm still dealing with it." That was partially true, he was still getting used to the idea that he had the most powerful demon the world has seen, locked up inside of a seal on his stomach. Another was just how they would react to it.
"Just do what you have to already, we'll worry about whatever it is later," Sasuke said not really caring at the moment what was going on. They had more important things to worry about, like not dying for one.
Naruto nodded once and walked towards Gaara, "Gaara!"
"Oh what is it? You finally decided to show me the real you?" Gaara asked him grinning. He was looking forward to fighting him, he had never met another demon host before. Killing him would please 'mother' and also ensure that he existed in the world.
"This is the real me," Naruto declared. "I know you have something inside of you as well, just like me. But that thing inside of me, that isn't the 'real' me, it's just my prisoner."
"How can you call it that?" Gaara asked him, "You speak as though you hate it, you should love it as no one else will love you. Love yourself, because no one else will, that is my way."
Naruto looked at him with pity he couldn't even imagine what Gaara could have gone through to feel like this. How alone in the world must you be to feel that no one would care for you? He must feel like he's always alone, that he walks the world as though nothing else exists but himself.
"You're wrong Gaara," Naruto told him softly. "I don't know what you're life was like, but when I look at you I see what I could have become. I don't know why you're life was so different. Maybe it was because I did find those that would love and care for me."
"Lies," Gaara snarled at him. "Those that tell you that the love you are only lies and illusions."
Gaara could still remember his uncle, the brother to his mother. For the longest time, he was the only one that would talk to him. The only one that seemed to care for him, whenever Gaara had a problem he could always go to him, talk to him. He felt safe with him, he felt the only love in his life from his uncle. But that had all been a lie, the man had tried to kill him as a child. All because the man that Gaara thought loved him, had really hated him all his life. When he looked at Gaara, he didn't see family, only the murderer of his sister.
That was the night everything changed for Gaara that was when he finally saw the truth of life. Life was pain, death and loneliness. It was a dark and desolate world where you had only yourself to count on. It was a world where the strong lived and everyone else died.
"You're wrong," Naruto told him defiantly. "At first I only had my dad, but soon others started to show up in my life. I made friends and even found a girl that I like and she likes me back. There is no way I can believe that they would ever lie to me about how they felt. I would put my life on the line for all of them, and they would do the same."
"That's what it means to have precious people, they give you true strength."
"True strength," Gaara nearly laughed at that idea. "Strength only comes from within, but let's test this out." Gaara fired more sand bullets at Naruto, who tried to dodge them, but there were a lot. But that was only a distraction, one of Gaara's arms launched out as Sakura and Sasuke with blinding speed. The hand expanded as the two tried to get away and then split off, two clawed hands grabbed the two of them and sent them into the wall of the arena.
"Are you guys okay?" Naruto yelled to them.
"It's...hard to breath," Sakura managed to say. She felt the sand crushing her body and from the looks of Sasuke he wasn't in much better shape.
"Leave them out of this Gaara!" Naruto shouted as he tried to attack the boy with his blade. The blade was easily blocked by Gaara's tough skin and was thrown aside with a massive arm. He landed hard against the ground, so hard that he felt dazed from it. Gaara too this chance and encased him inside of a sand coffin. The sand wrapped around him like he was being buried alive above the ground.
Naruto was in the dark of the sand, there was no light and the place was getting smaller. He felt it was hard to breath at this point. 'No, I refuse to die! I won't die like this, my friends need me and Hinata-chan would be sad if I died. I said I would never make her sad and I won't. I won't let my dad lose someone else, I will get out of this. I will fight, I will win!'
Laughter was heard as Naruto felt his body slipping away from him.
"What will you do to win boy?" A familiar voice of the demon fox was heard by him. Naruto noticed he was back in his inner world. It was that same dark and damp area where the fox was imprisoned behind its massive bars. Naruto felt like he was floating on some water, he could feel it but he couldn't move his body.
"What the hell, I didn't call you," Naruto said angrily to the demon. He could see part of its form in the darkness of the cell. The large fox with wild and evil eyes, this was a creature of pure chaos and death. It was a natural disaster given form, like someone put all of the most destructive elements of nature mixed in with hatred for all things in one massive body.
"You're near death brat, that means the walls between us are thinning," The Kyuubi said to him. "I don't want to die just yet so you better use my power."
"I'll use your power when I say I will," Naruto shouted at him. He never liked using this power, it just felt wrong to him. The emotions he felt with it, Jiraiya had said while training that the Kyuubi's powers might be drawn out through emotions. Hate, anger all the negative emotions seemed to draw the power out easily. That unsettled Naruto a bit hearing that.
The fox roared at Naruto's limp form. "Fool, if you die then I die, besides you already use my power. Where do you think your healing abilities come from or your chakra? You drain me of my power every moment you live, what is a little more? Just enough to win, I can sense the power of another, the One Tail if I'm not mistaken."
Although the Kyuubi didn't know much of what went on beyond the bars, a precaution to prevent him from taking over the host's mind, he could still sense things now and then. Mostly it was when the host was injured but with another like Naruto here, he could sense the chakra of a Tailed Beast. After all, they nine of them were kin, they knew each other from anywhere since their birth.
"I refuse to lose to him boy, so you will take my power," the Fox leaned as close as he could to the bars as Naruto stared up into one of the massive red eyes. "Even if I have to force feed you my power. Normally I can't but since we're in this state it will be easy."
Suddenly red chakra started to seep out of the bars and enter Naruto, he cried out as he felt the power fill his body. He felt like his blood was on fire as the power filled him like he hadn't ever felt before.
On the outside Gaara grinned as he was about to crush the boy, he couldn't wait to feel the blood flow onto his sand. Then he would deal with his teammates and then anyone else, he would slaughter this village. He would bath the village in its own blood in honor of his mother. Then the unexpected happened, the sand coffin exploded. Anyone watching was shocked by what they saw.
There stood Naruto, his clothing torn and there was some blood on him but that wasn't what anyone focused on. There was this red chakra surrounding him, his hair seemed wilder and when he looked up, his eyes were red with slits on them.
"What is that?" Sasuke muttered seeing this he could feel the chakra coming off Naruto. It was malevolent and evil, which was something strange as that, was the total opposite of Naruto. Sakura could feel this too and she had a sense of déjà vu from the forest, only this time the power was larger and even scarier.
Up in the stands there were other shocked spectators, Ino and Choji were watching the fight from a safe distance. Temari was awake as was her brother but both were tied up by the two genins. They too saw what it was, but they knew what was going on.
"He's just like Gaara," Temari whispered out at the sight of it all.
"What do you mean by that?" Ino asked not taking her eyes off Naruto, someone she had known for a long time but since when could he do this? Plus what was up with that chakra, she could feel it from here and it just felt wrong to her.
"You really don't know anything do you?" Temari spat still pissed she had been tricked like that by a girl that hadn't even gotten into the finals.
"Spill it or I'll just rip it out of your mind, and I might accidentally erase a few things while in there," Ino said although she was bluffing. She could do that, if she knew more about her family jutsus but honestly she wasn't that advanced in them yet.
"He's a Jinchuriki, like my brother you air head," Temari spelled it out to her. "I'm not sure which tailed beast he has, but Gaara was implanted with the One-Tailed Shukaku."
"What, I don't believe you," Ino said back sharply. "Naruto would have told us something like this and there haven't been any of those things around here since...since..." Ino trailed off as something in her mind clicked. She thought back to one of Naruto's birthdays, they were a lot younger she forgot which one, but she remembered how she had seen his stuffed fox toy in his room.
She commented on how cute it was and he said something about wasn't cute. Ino didn't remember much, she had completely forgotten about that toy, plus Naruto's birthday also rang in her mind. October 10, the day the Kyuubi attacked. She knew that from school and she had thought it odd how Naruto's birthday was on the same day when she learned it. Thinking back to the year, it was the same year that he had been born too.
But it had to all be just coincidence, didn't it?
Meanwhile, Naruto was getting ready to attack Gaara. The chakra cloak around Naruto started to slowly shift and change as it took shape. Slowly a tail started to form as what looked like ears grew around his head. He roared out, a roar so loud that many could swear they heard it that day from blocks away. The roar was so powerful that his mask was shredded by the force of it. His whisker marks were also changed, they were more feral looking, he grew fangs as well. He looked more animal than man at the moment.
From nearby, Hinata felt the power and heard the roar slightly over the battle. She wasn't sure what it was, some distant part of her mind did remember that feeling. She felt it that night of her kidnapping, although she didn't remember it consciously. But that night, when she felt that power, some primal part of her always did remember and that's why she somehow knew it was Naruto and that something was wrong.
"Hinata, what's wrong?" Kurenai asked.
"Something is wrong with Naruto-kun," Hinata said as she looked back at the stadium.
"Hinata I'm sure he'll be fine." Kurenai told her. She knew the girl was worried about her boyfriend but they had a mission to deal with. But then Hinata just took off, running to the stadium. "Hinata, what are you doing?" She called after her.
"Should we go and get her?" Shino asked.
Kurenai shook her head, they still had things to do there was still fighting going on. "No, but I sure hope she knows what the hell she's doing."
Naruto crouched on all fours as the bloodlust of battle was pumping through his veins. Then he charged forward, he moved with such blinding speed that Gaara didn't have a chance to move. Naruto was too fast as he struck Gaara, and the chakra cloak could actually damage the other boy's body as well. The fist that smashed into Gaara, actually managed to knock the boy back.
Naruto didn't give up though, he was attacking like an animal. He would punch and claw at his opponent. Gaara tried to put up a defence but it wasn't easy. Naruto could burn the sand skin away or just tear it to pieces. Never had Gaara ever battled someone like this, he was enjoying it but he was also feeling something else. Something he hadn't felt in years, fear.
Naruto hard large claws of chakra shoot out and attack Gaara, as Gaara tried to use something similar with his sand. But the chakra was just too strong and the sand couldn't stand up to the power of the Nine Tails. Gaara felt the only way to beat Naruto, was to go all out and to even release the demon within. He had only done so twice before but he didn't care all he cared about was to just kill Naruto Hatake.
Naruto however would not let him have the chance to do it. The large red claws came to grip Gaara him on either side. The sand skin was burning from the touch of the violent chakra, then Naruto ripped him apart. Gaara cried out as the sand skin was literally pulled from him. The sand melted away as it no longer could be controlled by Gaara, Gaara himself felt to the ground in slight shock from what had been done to him. He didn't think it was possible to have his sand pulled away in that form. His whole body felt pain as he tried to concentrate.
Then one of the claws captured Gaara, he grunted out as Naruto's large clawed hand was slowly crushing the boy. Gaara looked into his eyes and saw the same kind of eyes he had seen before. He had to grin, now that was the true boy he was seeing, he felt. It was odd, how he felt so much fear. He never felt so much fear in his life, and was shocked to know that despite everything, he didn't want to die. He cried out as the large chakra claw was crushing his body.
Naruto didn't care about anything at the moment he just wanted to stop Gaara. He had to save the others he had to win no matter what. He didn't even really register what he was doing he just felt the need and the urge to kill him. It was like something deep inside of him was yelling out to kill, and he was going to do just that.
"N-Naruto-kun!"
Naruto stopped as a voice called to him through the fog of anger and rage. He looked to see that Hinata was there and she was crying. Her face had tears falling down as she looked at him and it stopped him cold.
Hinata could only cry seeing what Naruto was going through, she didn't understand what was going on but she knew that this wasn't him. This wasn't the Naruto she had been friends with, that she had come to love. She couldn't let him do this to himself, she had to stop him before he did something he would regret.
"Please stop this, this isn't you," Hinata said as she slowly walked towards him.
Naruto could only look into her eyes, she wasn't afraid, in fact she was in pain. She was in pain because of him. The last time he saw her cry like this, it was the night her mother had died. He had held her as she cried her heart out to him. He suddenly felt sick, he caused this new pain in her, he had sworn to protect her to never make her cry. He had broken that promise to himself.
As she came closer Naruto felt the anger and the power with it slowly leaving his body. The chakra slowly receded as his body slowly started to turn back to normal. Gaara fell as the chakra disappeared but he couldn't move. His body was too damaged to do anything other than look. He looked on confused with what he was seeing. She had seen what he was, so why was she crying like that, why was she not running away?
"Hinata-chan?" Naruto said as his mind slowly came back to normal.
She bit her lip as her tears increased, she quickly threw herself into his chest burring herself into the remains of his shirt and jacket. She held him tight as she cried that he was back to normal. "I was so w-worried about you, I-I thought that I was going to lose you or something. Please don't push yourself like this again, I was so worried about you!"
"I-I'm sorry Hinata-chan," He said softly holding her.
Gaara could only watch on in silence as he saw the scene in front of him. He wasn't the only one as Sakura and Sasuke had been freed. They were watching the scene too, Sakura had a small smile on her face seeing the two of them.
The Hokage was having a very troubling time with the two recently revived leaders of the village. It wasn't easy to fight those he had known so well, he had looked up to the brothers when younger and now he was fighting them. Sarutobi had no idea how Orochimaru had done this but this went beyond evil. To disturb the rest of those who had passed on was something that no man should do. It was also during this battle that they all saw what had happened with Naruto.
"This was not what I intended when I gave each nation one of the Tailed Beasts," The First Hokage said grimly.
"Hmmm, I wonder if you can still control them through a host?" Orochimaru thought out loud. "Well, after we deal with the old fool, we can test it out later. But I think it's time we end things quickly." Orochimaru opened his mouth as a snake holding a sword came out. This was the Kusanagi Sword, a weapon of legend that could, among other things, extend the blade to untold of lengths.
It was then that the Hokage had to battle for his life.
A little later, Team 7 with Hinata helping Naruto, made it to the roof in time to see the Hokage battling for his life. There were a lot of trees in the way from the First Hokage but they could still make out the battle within. Naruto saw the seal and knew it was trouble. Mainly because Anko threatened to put him in on, the one time when he was ten and kept bugging her when she was looking after him one day. He saw the ANBU there just sitting there watching.
"What are you guys doing? Can't you do anything? Naruto yelled at them.
One of cloaked figures turned to face him, "I'm sorry but the seal covers the entire area, even under the roof. And the four that are keeping it up, they are just as protected. We can't even touch the field."
"Damn it!" Naruto yelled out getting frustrated. He didn't know much about seals so he looked to Sakura. "Sakura-chan isn't there anything you know that can help? I mean you would know more about this right?"
Sakura blinked in surprise as she thought about it. "I don't think there is anything. The four of them are the anchors for this jutsu. If they were to fall then it will stop working, but they added a secondary layer that is tied in with the first. They're supporting each other right now. As long as their concentration and their chakra last they can keep it up."
Naruto started to think, there had to be a way. He kept thinking back to his dad's words, such as look underneath the underneath. Well he didn't think that would work out, the only thing under him was the damn building. He couldn't stand to just sit here while the Hokage battled for his life. It just wasn't fair the old man had always been there for him growing up. He was like a grandfather figure to him. He stopped his foot hard enough to break the tiles under it.
Suddenly an idea started to form in his head, "Hey what you said about concentration, could they keep it up if the ground wasn't stable?"
"I don't think so, in fact I'm pretty sure they wouldn't," Sakura then noticed that look in his eyes and had a bad feeling coming on. "Naruto, what the hell are you thinking?"
Naruto just grinned as he turned to leave, "Hey everyone, if this works I want you all to get out of here!"
Naruto jumped off as everyone looked at him, wondering just what he was thinking. Sasuke turned to look at the ANBU. "If I were you, I'd do what he says. Knowing him, this isn't going to be pleasant."
Naruto managed to get to the arena again now looking at the giant seal on the top. He had to make sure he had enough room for this, if he wanted to break that seal, he was going to do it, even if it meant bringing down the entire building. Naruto wasn't sure he had enough chakra for this. But he had no other way around this, he had to do something or the Old Man might not make it.
"Are you sure about this?" Hinata asked him.
He nodded, he still hated how he had made her cry like that. He would have to tell her everything after all of this. But first his plan, or what he had hoped would be considered a plan. He gathered as much chakra as he could, anything he could spare. When he was done, he had a few dozen clones.
"Shadow clones?" Hinata said confused.
"Just just regular ones," Naruto grinned at her as he looked to his clones. "You know what to do."
"Hai, taicho!" They rang out as they rushed into the building. The clones quickly found the major structural areas of the building. Or at least what they thought looked important, since Naruto didn't know much about buildings, but he did know how to wreck things. So anything important looking had a clone or two in there. When they were ready, they all started to explode. It was like a chain reaction, at first nothing happened with the explosions but soon the entire structure started to fall down.
The Sound Four who had been keeping the seal intact, soon found the ground beneath them coming apart. The seal did cover the ground, but it needed solid ground to stay anchored. With each member starting to fall in different ways, the seal was no longer equally spaced. It was too hard to keep the seal up and keep themselves from being buried alive. So they had to break the seal.
Naruto could only grin at the sight of the seal disappearing he just hoped that the ANBU were ready to help the Hokage. With that, he started to black out, he had used up all the chakra he could and he started to fall to the ground. He felt Hinata catch him, she was saying something but he couldn't make it out.
He was just too tired and couldn't keep away until the world went dark...