Naruto flashed back to the tree he had put his mark on. He took stock of the situation and nodded, satisfied. His teammate had managed to survive against Gaara in his absence.
Sasuke frantically dodged Gaara's sand claw. Just where was Naruto?! Gaara screamed, "WHY ARE YOU RUNNING, UCHIHA SASUKE?! COME FACE ME!"
Sasuke was about to snap back a reply when another voice called, "How about resuming our fight from earlier, Gaara?"
Both Gaara and Sasuke turned towards the direction of the voice. Sasuke released a long breath of relief while Gaara seemed to get pumped up even more. There was Naruto, standing on a branch with one hand by his side and the other twirling a tri-pronged kunai by its ring. A confident smirk graced his features as he looked Gaara in the eye, not at all unnerved by his toothy grin.
Gaara said in a low voice, "Excellent suggestion, Uzumaki Naruto. Let's make each other FEEL ALIVE!"
The last part was shouted in glee as he prepared to attack. Naruto's expression turned serious, and he turned to Sasuke. Sasuke immediately straightened up from the look, though he didn't know why.
"Get out of here and to a safe distance Sasuke, and keep Sakura safe while you're at it. I doubt you can fight any more in your current condition." That was all he said before turning his attention back to Gaara. Sasuke wanted to snap at him for dismissing him like that, but he was smart enough to not do that in the middle of such a fight.
Ever since he had begun fighting Gaara, he felt that somehow, Gaara was growing stronger in their fight. He seemed to have a crap ton of chakra like Naruto, while Sasuke had steadily run out of chakra in their fight. Even chidori had been useless as for it to work, you had to be extremely fast, faster than your opponent and catch him off-guard. One of those conditions was sadly, negated. Partially due to his own stupid bravado of wanting to face Gaara in the open. Also, Sasuke had struck only sand, which had reformed, causing no real damage to Gaara
He was more than glad to let Naruto take over. Retreating to a safe distance, he settled to observe Naruto fight.
Naruto jammed the kunai in his hand on the branch he was standing on. He put his hands in both of his pouches and in three quick draws, he scattered all the remaining Hiraishin kunai all over the area. Gaara seemed unaffected by this development, while Sasuke was closely examining one of the kunai that had lodged right in front of him. Was this the reason Naruto was able to get from one place to another in almost an instant?
He looked around, and upon seeing Naruto was concentrating on Gaara, he deftly took the lodged kunai out and put it in his pouch. He would examine it later.
Naruto pulled out the kunai he had jammed near him and took a stance. He already had set up his field, all he had to do was get Gaara into position. He channeled wind chakra into his kunai and jumped at Gaara, deliberately going slow enough so Gaara would be able to aim his attack at him. Sure enough, Gaara did exactly as he wanted him to.
"Suna Shuriken!" A hail of shuriken made of sand came racing towards him while he was in mid-air. He flashed to one of his kunai at the last second, right above Gaara. The sand shuriken completely missed their targets, crashing into some trees behind where Naruto was standing.
Gaara looked around, trying to find out where Naruto had vanished to. "Oi!" The call made him look upwards, where Naruto was crouched upside-down. He waved cheekily at Gaara before vanishing once again.
This time, he appeared right in front of Gaara, who snarled and made a hand sign. Multiple mouths appeared all over his body, which took a deep breath as one. "Fuuton: Mugen Sajin Daitoppa!" (Wind style: Infinite sand dust storm)
A huge dust storm blew towards Naruto, who simply flashed to another kunai, which was on a tree behind Gaara. Gaara grit his teeth and once again looked around to find Naruto.
"Are you that incompetent? You can't even catch me with your eyes, let alone your jutsu."
Gaara whipped around and sure enough, Naruto was standing on a branch with a taunting grin. Gaara's tolerance finally snapped. He was used to playing around with his stronger opponents before crushing them to death. But this time, his opponent was playing with him and was brave enough to taunt him? He would show him just who he was messing with!
With a roar, he jumped towards Naruto with the intent of tearing him into pieces right where he was standing. Naruto grinned; Gaara was so easy to rile up. Jamming his kunai on the ground between his legs, he feel into a stance as if preparing to tackle Gaara. Just when Gaara's claw was about to make contact with his face, he flashed to another kunai, away from Gaara.
Sasuke watched with awe and jealousy as Naruto neatly avoided all of Gaara's attacks, looking at complete ease. It seemed that the seal on the kunai was some sort of beacon for Naruto to flash to. Whatever it was, Sasuke was sure to crack it later for himself. If he could learn the secrets of that kunai, he would be able to fight on par with Naruto. Turning his attention back to the fight, Naruto seemed to be waiting for Gaara to some into a specific position, and if Sasuke knew one thing about his teammate, it was that Naruto was a master at setting traps up.
He watched with anticipation as Gaara snapped and bodily rushed at Naruto, intent on crushing him by himself. Naruto dropped the kunai and looked as if he was preparing to engage Gaara hand to hand. At the last second, he flashed to one of his kunai, neatly dodging Gaara's attack. Just what was the blonde planning?
Naruto smirked as Gaara released a roar of frustration as he once again missed him. He took out a regular kunai, wrapping a regular explosive tag around it. After all, he only wanted to weaken his armor. He made a promise to Temari to not kill her brother. He would be breaking that promise if he blew Gaara's ass to chunks with one of his own tags.
Nasty.
Anyways, he flashed back, this time, right behind Gaara. Without waiting for his tail to react, Naruto jabbed the kunai on a spot right below his tail. "Right here!"
Gaara reacted to the poke first, then the voice. As soon as he heard the voice, he immediately swung his tail to smack Naruto away, but Naruto was no longer there.
Naruto had flashed to a kunai a few trees away, grinning at the blast that covered Gaara. He felt Sasuke land beside him, saying in disbelief, "You poked him in the ass…..with an explosive kunai?"
Naruto scowled and turned to him, "It worked, didn't it? I don't see why you are complaining." He then turned around, looking at the giant remnant of a sand claw grabbing Sakura in what looked to be a very painful hold. He stepped to the claw and placed a palm against it. Yep, it was rock solid.
To Sasuke's amazement, Naruto seemed to channel red lightning onto the sandy rock. He was about to stop him, telling him that he might hit Sakura with her lightning, when cracks appeared in the claw around Sakura. It then shattered, freeing Sakura. Naruto caught her before she could faceplant on the branch. He handed her to an open mouthed Sasuke. "H-How did you that?"
Naruto waved a hand, "Not the time, Sasuke. Maybe later." He then flashed away to a kunai that was on the tree right before the one on which the explosion occurred. He whistled, thoroughly impressed at the results of the explosion.
The entire right half of Gaara's armor had collapsed, and the other half was barely holding on. Naruto wasted no time in seizing this chance. Ever since he arrived in this area, he had dispersed a moderate amount his own chakra in the air. Grasping that chakra, he entirely converted it to water. Dog-tiger; 'Suiton: Dai Suigadan no jutsu!' (Water style: Great water fang projectile)
Just as it had happened with Jiraiya, a huge spinning drill of water took form behind Naruto, going above him and rushing down towards a dumbstruck Gaara. He was so focused on recovering and reforming his armor that the water drill had caught him completely off-guard.
He couldn't even move when the drill crashed into him right into his stomach, with brutal force. To Naruto's immense satisfaction, Gaara impacted the ground with such force, that when the drill finally dispersed, Gaara had been buried into the ground in a crater that was shaped like his own body. All the sand that had been reformed had dispersed from his body, even the sand that was left after the explosion. The only thing that indicated that Gaara was still using his bijuu chakra were his eyes.
Naruto narrowed his eyes, and the kanji for the Five Elements seal once again formed on his fingertips. He dropped down from the branch, hand once again outstretched.
Gaara was angry and confused. Uzumaki had once again put his sand out of commission. He was now dropping from the branch, heading towards him with his hand outstretched and his fingertips glowing.
His mother was shouting in his head to do something. 'Gaara! I want him dead! Use my power, and crush him for good! Give me his blood!'
All the stress, attacks from Naruto, his failed attempts to draw blood and patience going towards negative finally did it for Gaara. "I…..I WON'T LOSE TO YOU, UZUMAKI NARUTO!"
Naruto was within five meters from Gaara's now exposed stomach when his danger sense rang haywire. He instinctively flashed to the farthest kunai, which surprisingly turned out to be Temari. Temari jumped when Naruto suddenly appeared beside her. She put a hand on her chest, heart pumping wildly, "You really shouldn't startle people like that."
Naruto shot back, "That's the only purpose I do it. What are you doing here anyways? I thought you were injured." His gaze turned quizzical.
Temari folded her arms, "I was able to heal myself with the medical supplies I had and what little I knew of medical jutsu." Truthfully speaking, she was downright impressed with the way Naruto had handled Gaara. Not many knew of the weak spot Naruto had chosen to exploit. Most of the times, they were busy escaping Gaara's attempts to kill them. Naruto had not only bested Gaara's attacks, but had managed to corner him twice.
Naruto nodded and turned back where Gaara was. It seemed he had flashed for good reason, for Gaara was no longer there. In his place, a huge raccoon made of sand stood, towering clear above the forest. They seemed like ants in its comparison. A huge amount of chakra had been molded, right before Naruto had flashed away.
Naruto stared at the one-tailed tanuki with unusually grave eyes. "This is quite bad…" he muttered.
Temari gave him a look like he had lost his mind, "Quite?! This is very, very bad! You can't stop him when he goes into this form!"
Suddenly, Naruto turned around and blocked a shuriken that was meant for Temari. Sasuke appeared one branch away, clearly angry. "What are you doing, Naruto?! She is the enemy!"
Naruto held a hand to calm the avenger down. "She isn't our enemy anymore, Sasuke. Don't attack her."
Sasuke's expression turned confused, "What do you mean?"
Naruto then tilted his head towards the giant tanuki, "We have bigger problems to deal with, that's why."
Sasuke grit his teeth and angrily gestured to the tanuki, "How the hell are you going to stop that?!"
Naruto then turned away and looked up, all three of them tensing when he saw its head turning to face them. He quickly said, "Both of you, get away from here as far and as fast as you can!"
Temari spoke the question before Sasuke did, "What about you?!"
Naruto gave her a discreet wink, whispering, "Trust me." Out loud, he spoke, "I have a plan. Now go!"
Sasuke looked reluctant to leave Naruto behind, so did Temari. But they still followed his command. Sasuke turned around and tree hopped away, Sakura safe in his arms. Temari was about to go as well when Naruto whispered to her, "Keep a safe distance from Sasuke. Even though I told him not to attack you, he still might do it."
Temari nodded and was about to jump when she noticed she couldn't move. Naruto and her both looked down in horror to see both of their feet stuck in sand, with the sand crawling up their bodies.
Naruto acted on instinct. He quickly put a hand on Temari's back and sent her to the farthest point he could, which he sensed was moving away?
He had no time to ponder on that because he was completely covered by sand.
Gaara watched in his bijuu form from above as he finally had Uzumaki Naruto in has grasp and this time, there was no escape. He clutched his claw into a fist. "Sabaku Kyu!" (Sand Coffin)
Usually when he used the desert coffin, blood would explode outwards, along with the muscles and organs. It always gave Gaara great pleasure to use it. But this time, instead of blood, only smoke seemed to come out.
Gaara was confused. Why did smoke come out?
Temari had been utterly surprised when one moment, she was standing beside Naruto, her feet stuck in sand. The next moment, she had suddenly appeared mid-air beside Uchiha Sasuke. Sasuke was equally surprised, and nearly lost his footing on the next branch. Temari was barely able to land on her legs, let alone make a graceful landing.
Temari was not so surprised, since she had witnessed Naruto send Shikamaru down for their fight the same way, using Hiraishin. Sasuke on the other hand, was stunned on a much higher level. 'He can even send people through that jutsu?! If he sent her here, does he know that I have one of his kunai?'
"Did Naruto send you?"
Temari looked at Sasuke and scowled. For some reason, she hated that bastard. "Yeah, he did." However, all her breath left her lungs when she heard the gravelly voice of Gaara, amplified in his bijuu form.
"Sabaku Kyu!"
'No,' Temari thought with eyes full of terror as she turned back to the area of the fight. She almost expected Naruto to flash beside her, easily avoiding the one-hit kill. Seconds trickled by, and the blood fully drained from her face.
Gaara had killed Naruto.
Sasuke froze on the branch for a completely different reason. While he had undoubtedly displayed potent jealousy towards Naruto for having techniques far superior to his own, he still considered Naruto his comrade, and Naruto was the closest thing to a friend that Sasuke had. Back in the stadium, is thoughts had been clouded with hatred and jealousy. But while fighting Gaara, the cloud had somewhat shifted, and he had gained respect for the blonde to handle Gaara the way he did. Naruto may have been a genius, but that alone doesn't make you powerful. Sasuke trained his ass off daily to get stronger. For Naruto to be this strong, he must have worked way harder than him. Which meant only one thing.
Sasuke would do anything he could to catch up to Naruto. Anything.
But witnessing the death of that comrade made him reflect back to their bell test. Kakashi had told them that people who broke the rules are scum, but those who abandon their comrades are worse than scum. He had abandoned Naruto to face his death, even if the blonde had told him to go himself.
Itachi had abandoned the entire leaf and by extension, his comrades. Sasuke had abandoned his comrade. Oh god, did that mean they were the same?
Before more horror could fill his being, a scream of horror from Temari snapped him out of his thoughts.
"NARUTO!"
Temari wanted to deny all of it. She wanted to deny that Naruto had fallen prey to Gaara's sand, but the truth was right in front of her, as if mocking her for not being able to do anything. She had these strange feelings growing inside her ever since she started meeting Naruto in the week before the exams. Feelings that she couldn't make any sense out of. She didn't meet him just because she wanted to learn his secrets for her village, no. She genuinely enjoyed spending time with him. He had become a sort companion that she never wanted to let go of, but reality struck hard.
"NARUTO!"
Suddenly, a huge amount of smoke appeared before them, causing both of them to gape. The amount of smoke released was large, easily large enough that it could cover the giant tanuki. Only, it wasn't a tanuki that emerged from the smoke.
XXXXXXX
Naruto barely been able to make a shadow clone in time. However, he did it so fast that he doubted someone could have seen him doing it, even if they were standing in front of him.
He had created the shadow clone with specific orders in mind. As soon as the clone flickered into existence, it vanished from its spot near instantaneously, flash stepping behind a tree. Then, it substituted with the prime, taking his place inside the the coffin. It grinned when he thought what Gaara's reaction would be when he saw that prime had managed to escape. It was its last thought before dispelling into smoke.
Behind a tree, Naruto was preparing his next technique. It was the only one he could think of that could deal with Gaara's current form and hopefully, it would be one of the last he would ever have to use against Gaara.
Cutting his left thumb, he swiped it against his right palm. Boar-dog-bird-monkey-ram. "Kuchiyose no jutsu!"
Before the exam, he had calculated that he required exactly a quarter of his reserves to summon Takeshi. However, after Kurama had increased his reserves, the amount had dropped significantly. The quarter of his previous amount of reserves that he previously required had now become two-thirds of the same quarter, which meant an entire one-sixth of his reserves. Of course, Naruto had roughly estimated this with Kurama's help.
In a huge blast of smoke, Naruto towered above the tree line, easily standing a head above the tanuki on top of Takeshi's head. He had his arms crossed as he looked down on Shukaku's form. It gave him a sense of authority, of power.
Takeshi blinked as he appeared with his arms crossed. He quickly deduced that Naruto had summoned him. "Ah, it seems you require my assistance, Naruto."
Naruto lightly laughed on top of Takeshi's head, "Very acute observation, Takeshi-san."
Takeshi chuckled at his summoner's cheek before turning a serious, yet still a bit amused eye forward. "Ichibi no Shukaku, huh? You sure do have an eye for strong opponents, Naruto. This might turn out to be a good fight after all," Takeshi grinned, his sharp teeth menacingly coming into view as he grasped the katana strapped onto the left side of his waist in anticipation.
Naruto nodded and explained his plan to the boss of the foxes. "Right now, the jinchuriki is in the final state of his transformation, but still in control. Our goal is to influence him enough that he would relish the control over to the tailed beast via falling asleep. Once Shukaku's consciousness is in control, I want you to hold him in one place while I wake up the host. Once Gaara is awake, I will slap a seal onto him that will cut him off from his tailed beast."
Takeshi listened carefully to Naruto's plan, and nodded in agreement. He couldn't help but comment, however, "Fighting an opponent like Shukaku at their strongest? You really know how to bring excitement into a fight, Naruto."
Takeshi was clearly excited to fight. He did not wait for his opponent to make his move. Naruto was glad he had stuck to Takeshi's head using his chakra, otherwise he would have fallen backwards on his butt.
Just as Takeshi came within striking distance, Gaara reacted. Shukaku's arm came forward to grab Takeshi's throat, but he wasn't fast enough. Instead of dodging the arm, Takeshi unsheathed his katana and in one clean stroke, Gaara's entire right arm came straight off.
XXXXXXX
Temari stared in amazement at what Naruto had managed to pull out of his sleeve this time. It was a humongous, dark blue fox in a white haori, with seven tails swaying behind magnificently. And it was large enough to tower over the tanuki.
"W-What is that?" She uttered in disbelief. Was it one of Naruto's summons?
Sasuke was in a similar state. He was at a loss of words for this….whatever Naruto had managed to pull off. But whatever it was, it was superior to even the tanuki in size. It was clearly very strong. The seven swaying tails had fully thrown him off.
With the exchange of words that followed, Sasuke was able to deduce that this was a summon, which meant that Naruto was the holder of a summoning contract. He couldn't hear what Naruto said, but it was clearly a signal to start fighting.
Both Sasuke and Temari then proceeded to watch, utterly dumbstruck and stupefied, the giant blue fox cleanly cut one of Gaara's arms.
Naruto flashed back to the tree he had put his mark on. He took stock of the situation and nodded, satisfied. His teammate had managed to survive against Gaara in his absence.
Sasuke frantically dodged Gaara's sand claw. Just where was Naruto?! Gaara screamed, "WHY ARE YOU RUNNING, UCHIHA SASUKE?! COME FACE ME!"
Sasuke was about to snap back a reply when another voice called, "How about resuming our fight from earlier, Gaara?"
Both Gaara and Sasuke turned towards the direction of the voice. Sasuke released a long breath of relief while Gaara seemed to get pumped up even more. There was Naruto, standing on a branch with one hand by his side and the other twirling a tri-pronged kunai by its ring. A confident smirk graced his features as he looked Gaara in the eye, not at all unnerved by his toothy grin.
Gaara said in a low voice, "Excellent suggestion, Uzumaki Naruto. Let's make each other FEEL ALIVE!"
The last part was shouted in glee as he prepared to attack. Naruto's expression turned serious, and he turned to Sasuke. Sasuke immediately straightened up from the look, though he didn't know why.
"Get out of here and to a safe distance Sasuke, and keep Sakura safe while you're at it. I doubt you can fight any more in your current condition." That was all he said before turning his attention back to Gaara. Sasuke wanted to snap at him for dismissing him like that, but he was smart enough to not do that in the middle of such a fight.
Ever since he had begun fighting Gaara, he felt that somehow, Gaara was growing stronger in their fight. He seemed to have a crap ton of chakra like Naruto, while Sasuke had steadily run out of chakra in their fight. Even chidori had been useless as for it to work, you had to be extremely fast, faster than your opponent and catch him off-guard. One of those conditions was sadly, negated. Partially due to his own stupid bravado of wanting to face Gaara in the open. Also, Sasuke had struck only sand, which had reformed, causing no real damage to Gaara
He was more than glad to let Naruto take over. Retreating to a safe distance, he settled to observe Naruto fight.
Naruto jammed the kunai in his hand on the branch he was standing on. He put his hands in both of his pouches and in three quick draws, he scattered all the remaining Hiraishin kunai all over the area. Gaara seemed unaffected by this development, while Sasuke was closely examining one of the kunai that had lodged right in front of him. Was this the reason Naruto was able to get from one place to another in almost an instant?
He looked around, and upon seeing Naruto was concentrating on Gaara, he deftly took the lodged kunai out and put it in his pouch. He would examine it later.
Naruto pulled out the kunai he had jammed near him and took a stance. He already had set up his field, all he had to do was get Gaara into position. He channeled wind chakra into his kunai and jumped at Gaara, deliberately going slow enough so Gaara would be able to aim his attack at him. Sure enough, Gaara did exactly as he wanted him to.
"Suna Shuriken!" A hail of shuriken made of sand came racing towards him while he was in mid-air. He flashed to one of his kunai at the last second, right above Gaara. The sand shuriken completely missed their targets, crashing into some trees behind where Naruto was standing.
Gaara looked around, trying to find out where Naruto had vanished to. "Oi!" The call made him look upwards, where Naruto was crouched upside-down. He waved cheekily at Gaara before vanishing once again.
This time, he appeared right in front of Gaara, who snarled and made a hand sign. Multiple mouths appeared all over his body, which took a deep breath as one. "Fuuton: Mugen Sajin Daitoppa!" (Wind style: Infinite sand dust storm)
A huge dust storm blew towards Naruto, who simply flashed to another kunai, which was on a tree behind Gaara. Gaara grit his teeth and once again looked around to find Naruto.
"Are you that incompetent? You can't even catch me with your eyes, let alone your jutsu."
Gaara whipped around and sure enough, Naruto was standing on a branch with a taunting grin. Gaara's tolerance finally snapped. He was used to playing around with his stronger opponents before crushing them to death. But this time, his opponent was playing with him and was brave enough to taunt him? He would show him just who he was messing with!
With a roar, he jumped towards Naruto with the intent of tearing him into pieces right where he was standing. Naruto grinned; Gaara was so easy to rile up. Jamming his kunai on the ground between his legs, he feel into a stance as if preparing to tackle Gaara. Just when Gaara's claw was about to make contact with his face, he flashed to another kunai, away from Gaara.
Sasuke watched with awe and jealousy as Naruto neatly avoided all of Gaara's attacks, looking at complete ease. It seemed that the seal on the kunai was some sort of beacon for Naruto to flash to. Whatever it was, Sasuke was sure to crack it later for himself. If he could learn the secrets of that kunai, he would be able to fight on par with Naruto. Turning his attention back to the fight, Naruto seemed to be waiting for Gaara to some into a specific position, and if Sasuke knew one thing about his teammate, it was that Naruto was a master at setting traps up.
He watched with anticipation as Gaara snapped and bodily rushed at Naruto, intent on crushing him by himself. Naruto dropped the kunai and looked as if he was preparing to engage Gaara hand to hand. At the last second, he flashed to one of his kunai, neatly dodging Gaara's attack. Just what was the blonde planning?
Naruto smirked as Gaara released a roar of frustration as he once again missed him. He took out a regular kunai, wrapping a regular explosive tag around it. After all, he only wanted to weaken his armor. He made a promise to Temari to not kill her brother. He would be breaking that promise if he blew Gaara's ass to chunks with one of his own tags.
Nasty.
Anyways, he flashed back, this time, right behind Gaara. Without waiting for his tail to react, Naruto jabbed the kunai on a spot right below his tail. "Right here!"
Gaara reacted to the poke first, then the voice. As soon as he heard the voice, he immediately swung his tail to smack Naruto away, but Naruto was no longer there.
Naruto had flashed to a kunai a few trees away, grinning at the blast that covered Gaara. He felt Sasuke land beside him, saying in disbelief, "You poked him in the ass…..with an explosive kunai?"
Naruto scowled and turned to him, "It worked, didn't it? I don't see why you are complaining." He then turned around, looking at the giant remnant of a sand claw grabbing Sakura in what looked to be a very painful hold. He stepped to the claw and placed a palm against it. Yep, it was rock solid.
To Sasuke's amazement, Naruto seemed to channel red lightning onto the sandy rock. He was about to stop him, telling him that he might hit Sakura with her lightning, when cracks appeared in the claw around Sakura. It then shattered, freeing Sakura. Naruto caught her before she could faceplant on the branch. He handed her to an open mouthed Sasuke. "H-How did you that?"
Naruto waved a hand, "Not the time, Sasuke. Maybe later." He then flashed away to a kunai that was on the tree right before the one on which the explosion occurred. He whistled, thoroughly impressed at the results of the explosion.
The entire right half of Gaara's armor had collapsed, and the other half was barely holding on. Naruto wasted no time in seizing this chance. Ever since he arrived in this area, he had dispersed a moderate amount his own chakra in the air. Grasping that chakra, he entirely converted it to water. Dog-tiger; 'Suiton: Dai Suigadan no jutsu!' (Water style: Great water fang projectile)
Just as it had happened with Jiraiya, a huge spinning drill of water took form behind Naruto, going above him and rushing down towards a dumbstruck Gaara. He was so focused on recovering and reforming his armor that the water drill had caught him completely off-guard.
He couldn't even move when the drill crashed into him right into his stomach, with brutal force. To Naruto's immense satisfaction, Gaara impacted the ground with such force, that when the drill finally dispersed, Gaara had been buried into the ground in a crater that was shaped like his own body. All the sand that had been reformed had dispersed from his body, even the sand that was left after the explosion. The only thing that indicated that Gaara was still using his bijuu chakra were his eyes.
Naruto narrowed his eyes, and the kanji for the Five Elements seal once again formed on his fingertips. He dropped down from the branch, hand once again outstretched.
Gaara was angry and confused. Uzumaki had once again put his sand out of commission. He was now dropping from the branch, heading towards him with his hand outstretched and his fingertips glowing.
His mother was shouting in his head to do something. 'Gaara! I want him dead! Use my power, and crush him for good! Give me his blood!'
All the stress, attacks from Naruto, his failed attempts to draw blood and patience going towards negative finally did it for Gaara. "I…..I WON'T LOSE TO YOU, UZUMAKI NARUTO!"
Naruto was within five meters from Gaara's now exposed stomach when his danger sense rang haywire. He instinctively flashed to the farthest kunai, which surprisingly turned out to be Temari. Temari jumped when Naruto suddenly appeared beside her. She put a hand on her chest, heart pumping wildly, "You really shouldn't startle people like that."
Naruto shot back, "That's the only purpose I do it. What are you doing here anyways? I thought you were injured." His gaze turned quizzical.
Temari folded her arms, "I was able to heal myself with the medical supplies I had and what little I knew of medical jutsu." Truthfully speaking, she was downright impressed with the way Naruto had handled Gaara. Not many knew of the weak spot Naruto had chosen to exploit. Most of the times, they were busy escaping Gaara's attempts to kill them. Naruto had not only bested Gaara's attacks, but had managed to corner him twice.
Naruto nodded and turned back where Gaara was. It seemed he had flashed for good reason, for Gaara was no longer there. In his place, a huge raccoon made of sand stood, towering clear above the forest. They seemed like ants in its comparison. A huge amount of chakra had been molded, right before Naruto had flashed away.
Naruto stared at the one-tailed tanuki with unusually grave eyes. "This is quite bad…" he muttered.
Temari gave him a look like he had lost his mind, "Quite?! This is very, very bad! You can't stop him when he goes into this form!"
Suddenly, Naruto turned around and blocked a shuriken that was meant for Temari. Sasuke appeared one branch away, clearly angry. "What are you doing, Naruto?! She is the enemy!"
Naruto held a hand to calm the avenger down. "She isn't our enemy anymore, Sasuke. Don't attack her."
Sasuke's expression turned confused, "What do you mean?"
Naruto then tilted his head towards the giant tanuki, "We have bigger problems to deal with, that's why."
Sasuke grit his teeth and angrily gestured to the tanuki, "How the hell are you going to stop that?!"
Naruto then turned away and looked up, all three of them tensing when he saw its head turning to face them. He quickly said, "Both of you, get away from here as far and as fast as you can!"
Temari spoke the question before Sasuke did, "What about you?!"
Naruto gave her a discreet wink, whispering, "Trust me." Out loud, he spoke, "I have a plan. Now go!"
Sasuke looked reluctant to leave Naruto behind, so did Temari. But they still followed his command. Sasuke turned around and tree hopped away, Sakura safe in his arms. Temari was about to go as well when Naruto whispered to her, "Keep a safe distance from Sasuke. Even though I told him not to attack you, he still might do it."
Temari nodded and was about to jump when she noticed she couldn't move. Naruto and her both looked down in horror to see both of their feet stuck in sand, with the sand crawling up their bodies.
Naruto acted on instinct. He quickly put a hand on Temari's back and sent her to the farthest point he could, which he sensed was moving away?
He had no time to ponder on that because he was completely covered by sand.
Gaara watched in his bijuu form from above as he finally had Uzumaki Naruto in has grasp and this time, there was no escape. He clutched his claw into a fist. "Sabaku Kyu!" (Sand Coffin)
Usually when he used the desert coffin, blood would explode outwards, along with the muscles and organs. It always gave Gaara great pleasure to use it. But this time, instead of blood, only smoke seemed to come out.
Gaara was confused. Why did smoke come out?
Temari had been utterly surprised when one moment, she was standing beside Naruto, her feet stuck in sand. The next moment, she had suddenly appeared mid-air beside Uchiha Sasuke. Sasuke was equally surprised, and nearly lost his footing on the next branch. Temari was barely able to land on her legs, let alone make a graceful landing.
Temari was not so surprised, since she had witnessed Naruto send Shikamaru down for their fight the same way, using Hiraishin. Sasuke on the other hand, was stunned on a much higher level. 'He can even send people through that jutsu?! If he sent her here, does he know that I have one of his kunai?'
"Did Naruto send you?"
Temari looked at Sasuke and scowled. For some reason, she hated that bastard. "Yeah, he did." However, all her breath left her lungs when she heard the gravelly voice of Gaara, amplified in his bijuu form.
"Sabaku Kyu!"
'No,' Temari thought with eyes full of terror as she turned back to the area of the fight. She almost expected Naruto to flash beside her, easily avoiding the one-hit kill. Seconds trickled by, and the blood fully drained from her face.
Gaara had killed Naruto.
Sasuke froze on the branch for a completely different reason. While he had undoubtedly displayed potent jealousy towards Naruto for having techniques far superior to his own, he still considered Naruto his comrade, and Naruto was the closest thing to a friend that Sasuke had. Back in the stadium, is thoughts had been clouded with hatred and jealousy. But while fighting Gaara, the cloud had somewhat shifted, and he had gained respect for the blonde to handle Gaara the way he did. Naruto may have been a genius, but that alone doesn't make you powerful. Sasuke trained his ass off daily to get stronger. For Naruto to be this strong, he must have worked way harder than him. Which meant only one thing.
Sasuke would do anything he could to catch up to Naruto. Anything.
But witnessing the death of that comrade made him reflect back to their bell test. Kakashi had told them that people who broke the rules are scum, but those who abandon their comrades are worse than scum. He had abandoned Naruto to face his death, even if the blonde had told him to go himself.
Itachi had abandoned the entire leaf and by extension, his comrades. Sasuke had abandoned his comrade. Oh god, did that mean they were the same?
Before more horror could fill his being, a scream of horror from Temari snapped him out of his thoughts.
"NARUTO!"
Temari wanted to deny all of it. She wanted to deny that Naruto had fallen prey to Gaara's sand, but the truth was right in front of her, as if mocking her for not being able to do anything. She had these strange feelings growing inside her ever since she started meeting Naruto in the week before the exams. Feelings that she couldn't make any sense out of. She didn't meet him just because she wanted to learn his secrets for her village, no. She genuinely enjoyed spending time with him. He had become a sort companion that she never wanted to let go of, but reality struck hard.
"NARUTO!"
Suddenly, a huge amount of smoke appeared before them, causing both of them to gape. The amount of smoke released was large, easily large enough that it could cover the giant tanuki. Only, it wasn't a tanuki that emerged from the smoke.
XXXXXXX
Naruto barely been able to make a shadow clone in time. However, he did it so fast that he doubted someone could have seen him doing it, even if they were standing in front of him.
He had created the shadow clone with specific orders in mind. As soon as the clone flickered into existence, it vanished from its spot near instantaneously, flash stepping behind a tree. Then, it substituted with the prime, taking his place inside the the coffin. It grinned when he thought what Gaara's reaction would be when he saw that prime had managed to escape. It was its last thought before dispelling into smoke.
Behind a tree, Naruto was preparing his next technique. It was the only one he could think of that could deal with Gaara's current form and hopefully, it would be one of the last he would ever have to use against Gaara.
Cutting his left thumb, he swiped it against his right palm. Boar-dog-bird-monkey-ram. "Kuchiyose no jutsu!"
Before the exam, he had calculated that he required exactly a quarter of his reserves to summon Takeshi. However, after Kurama had increased his reserves, the amount had dropped significantly. The quarter of his previous amount of reserves that he previously required had now become two-thirds of the same quarter, which meant an entire one-sixth of his reserves. Of course, Naruto had roughly estimated this with Kurama's help.
In a huge blast of smoke, Naruto towered above the tree line, easily standing a head above the tanuki on top of Takeshi's head. He had his arms crossed as he looked down on Shukaku's form. It gave him a sense of authority, of power.
Takeshi blinked as he appeared with his arms crossed. He quickly deduced that Naruto had summoned him. "Ah, it seems you require my assistance, Naruto."
Naruto lightly laughed on top of Takeshi's head, "Very acute observation, Takeshi-san."
Takeshi chuckled at his summoner's cheek before turning a serious, yet still a bit amused eye forward. "Ichibi no Shukaku, huh? You sure do have an eye for strong opponents, Naruto. This might turn out to be a good fight after all," Takeshi grinned, his sharp teeth menacingly coming into view as he grasped the katana strapped onto the left side of his waist in anticipation.
Naruto nodded and explained his plan to the boss of the foxes. "Right now, the jinchuriki is in the final state of his transformation, but still in control. Our goal is to influence him enough that he would relish the control over to the tailed beast via falling asleep. Once Shukaku's consciousness is in control, I want you to hold him in one place while I wake up the host. Once Gaara is awake, I will slap a seal onto him that will cut him off from his tailed beast."
Takeshi listened carefully to Naruto's plan, and nodded in agreement. He couldn't help but comment, however, "Fighting an opponent like Shukaku at their strongest? You really know how to bring excitement into a fight, Naruto."
Takeshi was clearly excited to fight. He did not wait for his opponent to make his move. Naruto was glad he had stuck to Takeshi's head using his chakra, otherwise he would have fallen backwards on his butt.
Just as Takeshi came within striking distance, Gaara reacted. Shukaku's arm came forward to grab Takeshi's throat, but he wasn't fast enough. Instead of dodging the arm, Takeshi unsheathed his katana and in one clean stroke, Gaara's entire right arm came straight off.
XXXXXXX
Temari stared in amazement at what Naruto had managed to pull out of his sleeve this time. It was a humongous, dark blue fox in a white haori, with seven tails swaying behind magnificently. And it was large enough to tower over the tanuki.
"W-What is that?" She uttered in disbelief. Was it one of Naruto's summons?
Sasuke was in a similar state. He was at a loss of words for this….whatever Naruto had managed to pull off. But whatever it was, it was superior to even the tanuki in size. It was clearly very strong. The seven swaying tails had fully thrown him off.
With the exchange of words that followed, Sasuke was able to deduce that this was a summon, which meant that Naruto was the holder of a summoning contract. He couldn't hear what Naruto said, but it was clearly a signal to start fighting.
Both Sasuke and Temari then proceeded to watch, utterly dumbstruck and stupefied, the giant blue fox cleanly cut one of Gaara's arms.