Naruto and Sasuke are keeping up with Gaara in a battle. There's 2 of them and they are working together to which the Gaara was annoyed.
"You annoying bugs! Just stay still and let me kill you.!"
"Sasuke, charge up that Jutsu of yours I will distract him with my clones. Strike him when you see the opening" Naruto suggested to which Sasuke agreed immediately.
"Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!!" a thousand Naruto popped out.
"Let's go! Naruto's Ninja Handbook.!"
Naruto pulverised Gaara's armor and it looked thinner. Then at this time a thousand chirping birds were heard. Sasuke charged with his chidori ready. He aimed at Gaara heart but Gaara used his hand with little sand armor to protect himself. It wasn't enough, blood spilled but the wound was not deep enough to kill Gaara. Especially since he's a Jinchuuriki. This action only triggered Gaara more and he immediately became a Huge racoon with 1 tail. He fully transformed to shukaku's form.
"Sasuke!! let's do it together! Get over here!"
"What is it? what are you planning?"
"I'm gonna use the summoning jutsu to fight that monster so come closer to me make sure you don't fall"
"what? you can already use the summoning? tsk you've become stronger again huh. I must really hurry and train with kuro."
"You better do or I'll leave you in the dust."
"Both of you stop the chit chat and die!" an annoyed gaara attacked them with sand. who wouldn't be annoyed if the ones your battling are just having a chat.
Numerous Sand surrounded them but before it could come close, naruto weaved some signs and used the summoning jutsu. Gamabunta appeared. Naruto and Sasuke was on top of his head. Unlike the Canon, Naruto doesn't have a hard time getting along with Gamabunta.
"Kid why have you summoned me?" asked the toad
"Chief, We have an opponent. why don't you look at him for now."
"hmmn that's the shukaku of the sand. why am I seeing the shukaku here? it seems to be controlled by its jinchuuriki at the moment. Fine let's do this, what do you want me to do?" since naruto was stronger than in the Canon, he was easily acknowledged by Gamabunta when he was first summoned.
"Hold off it's attack as sasuke and I will deliver the attack to finish this battle."
"Got it, then hold on tight" the toad began moving and draw it's huge sword. He cut off shukaku's hand but let go of the sword due to the force needed just to cut off the arm. Sasuke tried a fireball but wasn't strong enough to do damage.
"We need something else, something with more power. My chidori can't penetrate through his sand, Naruto didn't you have that fist Jutsu that cuts which you've learned from kuro? Do you think it can penetrate through his defense?" asked Sasuke
"Hmmn for it to be able to take on that huge monster I'd have to put in more chakra than normal. Although sensei told me it's possible to make it more powerful but it takes time so we never tried it before. But if you and Gamabunta can hold him off long enough for me to prepare it, we might have a chance." says Naruto thinking hard about it which was not his forte so it's making hi head ache. 'all this thinking and planning is really not me. but kuro and perv sage has taught me it's needed to win against someone powerful so I have to'
'How can they be so strong? what is it. what's the difference between us? I have always been living for myself. Nothing is more important than myself. Everyone else are just bugs I need to kill. it's supposed to be as easy as that. yet this bugs are proving harder to kill. fine, ill let the monster out if that's what's needed to kill them' Gaara immerged from shukaku's head.
"Hmmn? that form, Naruto he's planning to let the shukaku out. You better get that Jutsu ready because its gonna get dangerous from here on out. make sure to target the medium on top of it's head. Are you kids ready for this?"
"yosha!!! I'm finally free! hahahaha. so you're the first target. Then die.! Wind style: wind bullets!" as soon as the shukaku was let out, he attacked immediately.
"water style: water bullet!" Gamabunta tried to cancel it with his own technique.
A lot of exchanges of the 2 Jutsu happened and the forest would either be blown away by an air Canon or washed by huge amount of water. As Gamabunta jumped off Sasuke prepared his chidori but Naruto has already been charging from the beginning on top of gamabunta's head. When Gamabunta reached the max height of his jump. Naruto and Sasuke also jumped. But Naruto jumped higher by using Sasuke as a platform. So the order of the fall should be Gamabunta, then followed by Sasuke with a charged up chidori and Naruto with a charged up KazeKen which is continuously getting stronger by Naruto's chakra.
Shukaku fired off another wind bullet but was again countered by the toad. Gamabunta then landed near his blade and picked it up. then still charged with the plan to cut off shukaku's head but was blocked off.
"Chidori.!" a thousand bird's chirp was heard along with sasuke's voice and the arm was cut off. Gamabunta continued to attack since the hand blocking him was gone but the blade was bitten this time.
"Eat this! This is my fully charged jutsu. KazeKen.!" The fist was aimed at Gaara but missed due to it being Naruto's first try, and its not really his forte to be able to control the jutsu properly. 'oh no I missed'
The punch landed on shukaku's head which was immediately beheaded while the rest of the body was continuously being cut by a wind chakra. Shukaku's form then crumbled apart and Gaara woke up. Naruto's forehead protector fell off both him and Gaara dropped on a tree. Naruto was totally worn out as he used up his chakra earlier.
"You..! why are you still alive. Why don't you just die already?!!" Gaara has never experienced this before where his target still lives even after letting the monster inside him loose.
"Because im fighting to protect the lives of those important to me, my sensei engraved that in me the hard way. He would always say: im not training you so can become strong, im training you so you can protect what's important to you. Because it is only when you're protecting something important can you become truly strong" says Naruto weakly ' isn't that right? kuro?'
"Then I'll kill them, I'll kill those who are important to you!" Gaara was preparing to leave to do exactly what he said. But Naruto arrived in front of him and headbutted him. Both of them fell to the ground. Gaara was lying there while Naruto all drained out struggling to crawl to stop Gaara. Both of their forehead was bleeding. Gaara was bewildered why Naruto would go so far for someone else. So he asked: " why? why would you go so far for them."
Naruto thoughts flashed back as he was slowly crawling up to Gaara.
A boy with dark red hair and deep green eyes whom he played with in the riverbank just invited him to lunch to his house and also asked to be his first friend. A few years later the same boy told him during the finals before the Invasion: "From the moment I offered to be your first friend I knew about you. If fate decides to turn back time I would still want you to be my first friend. I dont regret it"
A boy with black hair sat by the lake. They both looked at each other and both got annoyed. Both looked away and after a few moments both smiled. Few years later the same boy became his teammates and then became his rival: " Hey, you're not hurt are you? scaredycat.!"
It was deep in the night and he followed a teacher's mission for him to pass the graduation. That teacher turned out to have tricked him and now plans to kill him. Then as if he was waiting for his life to end he was saved by the teacher who annoys him the most for always reprimanding him. "He is not the Demon Fox Spirit. He is Uzumaki Naruto of the Hidden Leaf Village."
One by one, each person who accepted him and became his friend or someone he knew. They all came to his thoughts and the thought of protecting them is burning in his eyes even with his worn out state.
"I was there where you are. All alone in the dark. It was unbearable like I would break at any given moment. But I held on, I hel on long enough until someone accepted me for who I am and became my first friend. Before I knew it someone has already acknowledged me for who I am way back. And they saved me from the dark. They saved me from breaking apart. That's why, I will not fail to protect them. Even if I have to kill you. I will protect them no matter what." Then Sasuke came. Gamabunta was long gone and returned.
"Naruto that's enough, it's all over now." says Sasuke. Naruto who heard that sighed in relief and finally lost consciousness. Sasuke helped him up. Temari and Kankuro also came and helped Gaara. Sasuke didn't engage them and let them go. 'It seems the attack is over now. Naruto you've become stronger and stronger each time. I too must get stronger soon.'
A few moments ago while While Naruto and Sasuke was fighting Gaara. Inside a barrier there was another fight going on.
Kuro and Zo was engaging Orochimaru while Hiruzen was doing his best to seal the 1st and 2nd Hokage while fighting them.
"You're really interesting. Why don't you come to me so I can guide you on developing that Jutsu your studying?" offered Orochimaru.
"No thanks. I'd love to keep my body in tact. besides if burning you doesn't work. I can simply chop you little by little until you can no longer move." Kuro took out the executioner's blade. While Orochimaru took out a blade from his mouth. well literally from a snake's mouth which came out of his mouth.
Kuro immediately disappeared and tried to slash Orochimaru in half but was simply blocked. "Too obvious, it seems like you don't have that much knowledge when it comes to kenjutsu. Here let me teach you how" Orochimaru started to attack while kuro was sitting duck defending, it's a good thing Zo was there to help him defend. Orochimaru jumped and attacked long ranged with 3 snakes. Zo immediately weaved signs fast enough to defend with a wall of earth.
"I don't have knowledge with kenjutsu. But I still know how to wing it. Take this!" Kuro held the blade with both hands in air above his head. The blade ignited and was covered with flames. Then the flames felt like it roared for a moment. "Moeru Nami!" The flames grew higher then kuro slashed the blade in front of him. The flames left the blade and formed a wave of flames coming to Orochimaru.
[AN: It was really hard naming the attack but decided with Moeru Nami which means Burning Wave]
Orochimaru was surprised by the attack but that's it. He defended himself by attacking with a water style large enough to cancel out the attack and have it continue to rush towards kuro and Zo. But that wasn't what happened, his water style jutsu which was supposed to be more than enough to extinguish the flames was completely turned to mist instead.
"Don't underestimate my flames, shadow clone jutsu" He created 3 clones and gave them enough chakra to perform the an attack each.
"Captain Zo, If you can manage to get an opening please grab it. im nearing my limit." Zo nodded.