Far outside the Hidden Leaf Village, men dressed in tight leggings that showed off every curve of their legs and dalmatian print tops gathered to focus their chakra into the seal drawn onto the dirt ground. With eyes closed in concentration, the foreign ninja pushed forth their energies, calling their teammates from miles away.
Across countries, the rest of the Sound forces answered the call, disappearing in a poof of smoke. They appeared in the center of the sealing design. As more people joined them, they broke off into respective divisions and began their march down to Konoha..!
After Shikamaru and Temari's battle, Sasuke eyed Gaara over the corner of his eyes. So it's my turn, he thought. Finally. Naruto and Sakura were having too much fun. I'll take care of this guy and show just who it is that's coming out on top!
Gaara was eyeing Sasuke as well. Only his thoughts were a bit more macabre. Kill...kill...
The proctor motioned the two boys down. Sasuke jumped, landing with his usual flair, while Gaara disappeared in a whirl of sand and reappeared in the middle of the field.
"GOOOOO Sasuke!" Naruto whooped. "Sasuke! I meant to tell you this ages ago, but I guess I was a bit preoccupied with making fun of other people.
You know how much I like annoying people and pissing them off!" He shouted down to the field.
Sasuke had a tick mark on his face, as did Genma. The match was about to start, so what the hell was the kid doing?
Sasuke yelled, "You idiot! Hurry up and tell me so we can get on with the match!" Naruto smiled happily down at his friend.
"Okay, Sasuke! The thing is, I actually know Gaara's weakness! It's...it's...!"
"What, what?" Sasuke was pretty excited now. A weakness? That could work so well to his benefit!
"It's...!" Naruto paused dramatically. "Water! Sand is clogged by water! Haha isn't that great? Now all you have to do is pop our your resident water dragon and beat him up! Yeah!"
Sasuke felt a throbbing vein threatening to burst. IDIOT! I can't use water techniques! What the hell do you mean my 'resident water dragon?' Heck lot of help that was...Ugh next time I'm carrying a sealed tankful of water around with me at all times.
Genma coughed. "If we're done, then let's get on with the match." He raised a hand into the air and brought it down, "Gaara vs. Uchiha Sasuke, begin!"
Instantly Sasuke jumped far away, and good thing too. Gaara's sand had appeared out of nowhere and tried to clump down on him. He was quickly on the move again, as Gaara began hammering bullets of sand at him at sonic speeds. Dancing about, Sasuke quickly ran some ideas in his head. Fire wouldn't work...probably. Unless it was some ridiculously strong and hot fire that would melt his sand away. Could he even manage that level of technique? Well..he did sort of have his newfound kekkei genkai ability. A power he aptly named 'Enton'- Blaze Release. It did blaze like mad once he let it loose, but for him it was so easy to control it, despite its seeming volatility.
Since fire no longer hurt him at all (and he recently got himself some more excellent fireproof clothes including underwear and shoes, which he happened to be wearing right at that moment) he often liked to set his surroundings on fire and see how it fried all of Naruto's clones in a flash without backfiring on him..but this Gaara would need a very concentrated, dense attack, not a wide and spread out one.
Could he manage such an attack? Or would he have to get up close and personal? He did train for speed, and he had the Sharingan on his side, plus the seals on the ground. But he didn't want to end up like Lee. But he did have many other things Lee didn't. Like ninjutsu and super awesome eyes.
With that last thought, Sasuke stopped dodging and sprung into action, surprising everyone with his unpredicted burst of speed. Eyes blazing red and spinning, Sasuke jumped right into Gaara's defense, and in the next split second punched a fist filled with brilliant dark red flame and heavy-set with weight seals into Gaara's face. The crowd gushed as Gaara, his sand not moving fast enough to intercept Sasuke's speedy punch, flew to the surrounding walls and left a crater in his wake.
Gaara coughed, in shock, and began moving himself upright, his sand fretting around his form, trying to fix the huge cracks in his sand armor. But speedy Sasuke didn't give him an opportunity to stand, as Sasuke flashed to crouch right under Gaara's hunching form and smashed another charged fist into his opponent's lower jaw. Gaara went flying like a bullet from a pistol gun. The crowd oohed as Sasuke disappeared after Gaara, highly concentrated fire propelling him forward from his feet, keeping him afloat in the air.
Gaara, coming to terms with himself in the air, felt a sudden surge of bloodlust rush through him. It was wonderful! He had never been thrashed so badly before, let alone have anyone really punch him multiple times with easy grace! His sand armor was nonexistent now. Feeling a feral grin ripping his face into two, he called on his sand to protect him just as a foot nearly connected with his torso.
Thinking he blocked the attack, Gaara grinned savagely, his sand darting out rapidly to grab onto the offending leg and up to Sasuke's shoulders, ready to crush him to meaty pieces, when his opponent erupted in fire.
Civilians oohed and ninjas were spellbound as they watched Uchiha Sasuke literally set himself on fire, shooting hot glittering flames out of his hands and pushing out with the energy, creating a barrier of flame that repelled the sand globules.
Just as quickly as it appeared, the fire suddenly coalesced from a surrounding barrier to a compressed ball of fire between his open palms, the energy growing more and more volatile as the densely concentrated fireball rippled, unable to hold onto its circular surface. Still in midair, Sasuke yelled a great yell and lashed out with a solid white beam from his hand, the fireball having been powered and compressed to pure white flame, headed directly for the Suna ninja.
As Gaara fell through the air after having his sand thrown away violently, his eyes widened and his bloodthirsty look faltered when he saw the supercharged, superfast beam of fire headed directly for him. Using all his energy and skill, he mentally screamed at his sand to come forth, feeling his instincts shriek at the sight of the attack. His 'mother' screamed bloody murder and sand rushed from his gourd and the stadium floor to protect their master. Gaara landed with a great crash as the beam crushed its way to him.
Sasuke, managing to stay afloat using the propulsion of fire from the soles of his feet, watched as his ultimate Enton attack hit Gaara dead on. He hoped this would end things, without him having to reveal anything else, but his eyes told him there was a strange formation of chakra on the stadium floor. He debated between continuing to fly vs. landing and conserving chakra, but he decided to stay in the air for better visuals. The stadium was thick with dust after the crash. The spectators, tense on their seats, waved the dust away, waiting for what was to come next.
Eventually, the dust cloud cleared. Sasuke's keen eyes narrowed as they examined the tight sphere of sand down in the center of a huge crater at the bottom of the stadium. Laced thickly with chakra, the hard shell protectively covering the Sand ninja glittered in the harsh sunlight. Just be looking at it, Sasuke could tell his fire techniques won't work anymore.
At least I dealt him some damage. He couldn't have escaped that last attack completely unfazed. Sasuke thought. Before he could think more, a roar issued from the shell, vibrating the stadium. "Uchihaaa! I'm gonna kill you! I'm gonna make sure you die for making me bleed!" Gaara screamed as his mind went haywire with the foreign feeling of pain shooting up his abdomen and bruised limbs. Blood dripped from his side, skin having ripped open from the impact of hitting the ground. Though the sand had protected him from most of the attack, it had left his backside bare in an attempt to hold off the superpowered jutsu. The technique had left a glassy mark on the sand shell, and an ugly, smoldering black and red burn on his stomach.
Gaara continued to scream and the sand surrounding him slowly began to morph to their master's wishes. Blinking, Sasuke took in the huge sand claws that formed to slash at him. The claws didn't reach quite far enough, but Gaara continued to swish the giant hand in the air, desperate to crush the Uchiha.
Sasuke stayed calm. True, the shell was an absolute defense. True, the shell looked ridiculously hard. True, he might juuuust have an attack that could pierce through it...but,
There was one other trump card that he had. One he had been hoping to maximize its potential by trapping Gaara onto the ground using aerial attacks. Grinning, Sasuke brought his right hand up to his face in a half ram seal. "Kaboom!" He whispered.
Inside his protective shell, Gaara saw the glow of seals from around his feet. He stopped screaming and looked confused for a second, until he and his shell imploded from an attack from the inside.
Temari was horrified. What just happened? How could Gaara's ultimate defense crumble so easily? What would happen to the plan now? Was Gaara alright?
Shards and bits of compact sand flew into the audience, ensuing some screams and some gasps. Fortunately, they disintegrated to harmless sand before it hurt anyone. The smoke cleared, and everyone saw the motionless body lying on the field. Genma moved over to check the downed ninja. He stood up, and raised a hand to Uchiha Sasuke, who landed onto the field. "Winner, Uchiha Sasuke."
Everything was quiet, and then, the stadium burst into cheers. "YEAH! GO UCHIHA!" The spectators were overjoyed that the scion of the Uchiha clan put on such a good show. The daimyos from respective countries all looked very impressed while one Kazekage up on the box was shivering with delight.
Ooh, Sasuke-kun...Orochimaru licked his lips. That was so beautiful I couldn't stop staring at your glorious body...your glorious eyes, your glorious hot sexy fire, your glorious combat ability, your glorious Sharingan. It was so glorious I couldn't order my minions to start the plan until your match was over...But the time is up, now.
With a small signal, Kabuto, disguised as ANBU, spread a genjutsu over the entire stadium. Suddenly seeing feathers fall from the sky, civilians grew sleepy, unable to recognize or release the illusion being cast upon them. Ninja quickly dispelled the threat, rallying with nearby comrades. The Third Hokage had warned them of this.
Up on the balcony for the fighters, Temari and Kankuro started as they understood what the genjutsu meant: beginning of the plan! They both dashed over to their fallen brother and picked him up. Sasuke frowned. "Hey, what's going on? What are you two doing? What is this genjutsu?" Being an illusion type himself, he easily batted away the illusion. Genma frowned at the Suna shinobi as well.
"Don't try to stop us," Temari hissed. "You have no idea the power struggle that is going to come into play." She and her brothers leaped over the stadium walls and disappeared. Genma moved to intercept, but Baki appeared out of nowhere and slashed with his wind blade.
"You won't follow them anywhere, Konoha ninja," Baki faced off with Genma while Sasuke jumped up the balcony to see Naruto and Sakura.
Sakura was fine, having dispelled the jutsu on her own, but Naruto put a hand on his forehead and swayed. "Oh dear, I feel sleepy.." Before he could thump to the ground Sakura broke Naruto out of the illusion.
"Snap out of it Naruto! The village is being attacked!" Sakura cried. "We have to do something, but what?"
"I think we should go after Gaara. That Suna trio looked incriminating," Sasuke replied. "Or we can stay and fight off these invading higher level ninja."
"Hmmmm, I think...I think we shouldn't chase after Gaara," Naruto patted his imaginary beard. "Or at least, only one or two of us is needed to track them down and take them on. Sasuke already fried Gaara, which was awesome by the way-" (Sasuke grunted) "and from what I can see, Kankuro and Temari don't really have abilities that would be too much of a challenge for us. Especially for Sasuke, who's a fire elemental."
"You don't mean for us to split up?" Sakura asked worriedly. "We need each other's strengths right now." Sasuke and Sakura, looked unconvinced.
"The village is in danger. Not to overestimate ourselves or anything but I think we're much more powerful than the ordinary Genin. We can do it." Naruto's unusually serious face steadied his teammates. "If you guys are really not too sure about what to do, then stay here. Since Kakashi-sensei is nowhere to be seen I'll go ask old man Hokage."
Sasuke and Sakura agreed. A few minutes after Naruto flitted out the balcony and towards the Kage terrace two Sound ninja rushed in followed by Kakashi, hot on their trail. Kakashi yelled, "Sakura Sasuke watch out!" But they were already on it. Sasuke easily dispatched his opponent with a slash of a kunai, and Sakura punched the other into smithereens. "Uh, never mind. Looks you guys have it under control. Where's Naruto?"
"To the Hokage to ask for orders. We were debating how exactly we could contribute to stopping this invasion. You were nowhere to be found." Sakura beat up another ninja that hopped through the balcony. "Let's get out more into the open and kick these guys' asses."
Kakashi and Sasuke followed Sakura out to the rest of the stadium, defeating enemies as they went, but Kakashi's attention tugged to the sudden ominous dark energy emanating from the Kage terrace. A barrier?