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Temari's POV (Audience Section of Iron Arena - Land of Iron)
"Dear Kami, he's actually losing?" Kankuro asked, absolutely shocked. Temari sighed at this, as good as a shinobi as her brother was, he had always been a bit thick-headed. "I've never seen anyone land so much as a hit on Gaara, let alone hurt him to such a degree. I've seen him kill Jounin with little trouble… You don't think he'll?"
"No."
"No."
Both Temari and Baki answered sternly and dismissively of Kankuro's concerns. Kankuro growled angrily as he glared at the other two.
"I get that you may not care for him, Baki, but Temari—he's our brother. I hate the little creep sometimes, too, but that doesn't mean I want to watch him get torn apart," Kankuro said with a growl.
Baki merely ignored him, not interested in an unimportant discussion. He had never been much of a social man.
"Yes, I would be worried too. Unlike you, however, I don't try to threaten our younger brother," Temari replied sarcastically. "Furthermore, I'm much more informed than you. This fight has just started."
"It's been a while and a hell of a fight. Naruto and Gaara are surely heading towards the final stretch." Kankuro remarked with a raised brow.
"No, this was likely Naruto attempting to end the fight quickly. Unfortunately, he underestimated Gaara. He should've never stopped hitting him. Maybe if he kept up the assault it would've stuck. But now he'll see just how strong our brother has become," Temari countered confidently.
"That's stu-"
"Silence, fool." Baki interjected. "Your sister speaks with wisdom you do not have. Gaara has not shown nearly his full capabilities. Likely, neither has Uzumaki."
"Okay, Gaara is strong, there's a reason Temari and I fear our own brother." Kankuro agreed. "But come on, even he's just a Genin."
"You've never seen your father fight Gaara, have you?" Temari remarked. "You usually leave whenever Gaara gets like that."
"Father always wins." Kankuro countered.
"Yet it is never easy," Baki added. "You also were absent the day our team dynamic changed."
"Changed?"
"Gaara defeated Baki sensei…" Temari chimed in. "It was an absurdly close fight, but he managed it…"
"Bullshit," Kankuro interjected. "Even Gaara couldn't beat our strongest Jounin."
"Yet he did," Temari replied. "We haven't seen anything yet. Our brother has become something… different…"
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Naruto's POV (Courtyard of Iron Arena - Land of Iron)
"Oh Naruto…" Gaara said with a wild chuckle. "It's the only thing about you that matters…"
Naruto frowned at this and went to answer, but Gaara loudly continued. His odd tone made Naruto listen in morbid curiosity.
"Truthfully, do you think you're special?" Gaara asked as he merrily walked a loose circle around Naruto. Despite the Blonde having the edge to this point, he seemed confident and at ease. Seemingly unconcerned with the possibility of Naruto attacking. "You certainly have the potential, a jinchuriki of the strongest beast, a survivor of a clan famed for their ability to host such and the means to contain it, born into a strong village, the pieces are certainly there. By human and jinchuriki standards, you should be extraordinary. You are to be frank, but not nearly as much as you should be…" As Gaara finished, he seemed saddened, as if his perceived summarization of Naruto pained him.
"Good enough to be winning this fight, creep," Naruto replied frostily. Gaara seemed to have forgotten Naruto was much too fast and crafty now for him to keep up. "Besides, isn't talk cheap?" Naruto boomed as his Personal Atmosphere allowed him to shoot himself through the air at an absurd speed. But as he closed in, another Golden Orb rushed forward, matching his speed and attempting to snipe him out of the air. Naruto stopped his momentum, simultaneously flooding chakra into Riptide, and slashed away the orb. The force sent him back and sent painful vibrations tingling down his arm.
"Very true, Uzumaki, but I believe you should be frugal. You'll find action at this point to be rather costly." Gaara warned as several more orbs of gold formed. Naruto shifted into a stance, summoning two more clones to strengthen his defenses and joining them with two more surviving ones from earlier. "You hesitate." Gaara taunted. "Perhaps attempting to understand my new ability? No need to strain your mind, I need not take advantage of you being caught off guard. My sand control is linked to Shukaku. It allows me to easily control massive amounts of it. As well as defending me automatically. But my golden dust is different…"
Naruto flashed forward again, reinforced by his clones, as they attempted another sudden assault. "Don't care!"
The gold orb shot off seven, intercepting the clones and sending them flying back from the impact. Each orb boomed as it clashed with the clones, instantly countering the sudden assault. "You should, Uzumaki. At this point, I'm being sporting. You're more than strong enough to join, and I recognize I must shatter someone as strong-minded as you to ensure it. But I hope you prove even more power than I had ever hoped. As such, learn about my Golden Dust."
Naruto spat out some blood one of the orbs had, impacting his ribs and nearly breaking them. Stalling would ensue once he was healed, if Gaara wanted to monologue like a movie villain, Naruto would be foolish to stop him. Let him brag; Naruto would find the chink in his armor.
"My Golden Dust was born from a Kekkei Genkai relative to our family line for years. It is a bloodline unique to the Sand and rare even in our family. It is commonly referred to as Magnet Style. It allows us to either attract or repel various metals; it has many uses, though my father and I use it with gold. Using it masterfully, we can manipulate gold in various ways, though I use it much differently. Gold is much heavier than sand, meaning moving and using it as I do sand would be incredibly costly to chakra reserves. My father has the chakra efficiency and reserves to use it heedless of such, but even as a jinchuriki, I would struggle to do the same. Besides, gold is rather fragile; it makes for a poor defense by itself; even my golden armor is heavily reinforced with chakra to make it effective. So I decided to use it differently. I form it into simple shapes and repel and attract it all at once with great force. This leads to fast and powerful strikes, but often predictable and easy to counter. By themselves, it would be a decent trick but easy enough to bypass."
"So why bother Creep?" Naruto asked with a taunting smile. "Like to accessorize or something?"
Gaara chuckled ruefully at such. "Of course not brother. It's just that you struggled to deal with sand. Now, you must deal with both." Sand suddenly burst from the ground below Naruto and quickly formed into a net.
"Time to break you."
Naruto flinched before he lashed out with Riptide. As expected, it slashed through the sand with ease, but Naruto flinched as the sand parted around the blade, encompassing it and then anchoring it to the ground. Naruto planted both feet and attempted a tug to free Riptide. The ground cracked from the force, yet the blade did not emerge from the sand pillar. Naruto watched as his two remaining clones raced forward and, with a dance of Riptide and wind chakra, repelled the several golden orbs attempting to hammer the original Blonde. Naruto grits his teeth and pulls the blade free again but has to let go as two spikes shoot out from the pillar, attempting to pierce the Blonde. Naruto jumped into the air with a curse but smiled as one clone tanked the orbs, poofing from the mighty blows; the other slashed Riptide free and tossed it to the original as the orbs smashed him into oblivion. Naruto floated above Gaara, who smiled up at him as sand whipped around him in circled golden orbs, also whirling around him almost lazily.
"You don't cease to entertain Uzumaki." Gaara complimented him with a predatory smile. "You have proven your worth, yet I understand you will not join me. Tell me why not."
"I have things to do in my village, and I also don't hate humanity. They might hate us, but it's from a place of ignorance. Hating them back won't improve anything. It just makes you a hateful loser. Instead, I'll prove them wrong and earn their admiration regardless of how hard it may be," Naruto explained passionately.
"And you think that is a worthy cause? That is why you fight and risk your life for humans? You crave mere acceptance?" Gaara asks incredulously.
"I fight for myself." Naruto responded furiously. "I fight because I value the people around me and want them to do the same. I don't care if I'm human or jinchuriki or even some monster. I am Naruto Uzumaki, not the mere parts that make me."
"Yet you speak from a place of moral superiority? Because you work for your own tormentors, and I lash out? So much potential, and yet I cannot lie to you, Uzumaki. You disappoint me; I'll crush and remold you to meet the potential within. I find your foolishness slowly infuriating. I work to change the world that subjects us to such cruelness. To correct a mistake in the food chain, to make a world better for those cursed to live the life we lead. You merely wish to fit in."
"Oh, of course, the social recluse would have a problem trying to fit in." Naruto sniped back angrily. Gaara had barely spoken as much as he had now. His words seemed to reverb through Naruto's head. But he had never been the type to take disrespect lying down. "Have you ever considered that perhaps the world isn't "wrong" or "flawed," but maybe you were unlucky? Hell, you seem pretty dislikable to me so far, ya know? Perhaps it started out undeserved, but it's deserved for someone as monstrous as you, Gaara.
"Deserved?!" Gaara laughed manically. "I am the beast they created, I could've been born a regular child, but they needed to sacrifice yet another life for power. Then, they resented their own creation. I resent their ignorance; can they not see we are not cursed but blessed. We have such unique power and access to such unique creatures! How dare they not see us for our greatness. Instead, they demonize and isolate us. Slowly driving us insane, then blaming us for their own doing!"
"Just because we experience terrible things doesn't excuse our actions!" Naruto replied hotly. "Just because we're treated poorly doesn't give us the right to kill and maim as we please. It doesn't matter what we are, don't you see we're all the same?"
"You damn fool, we are anything but. You could be so much more if you only realized such!" Gaara roared. "We can survive wounds they could never hope to suffer; we have the power they can scarcely comprehend locked within, and we live years and years longer. We are objectively superior beings! One the humans have made clear is that they consider lesser and not the same."
Naruto tensed but stopped as he realized there were now more golden orbs. Sometime during their argument, Gaara had spawned more and had them surround him.
"It infuriates me, ya know?" Gaara mocked Naruto as the Blonde tensed and got ready to defend himself. "You should be the strongest of us. You could be more than any human or jinchuriki could hope to be. Yet you cling to your humanity. Even convince yourself it gives you strength. You naive fool… Golden Dust Manipulation: Golden Weasel Hunt." Gaara spoke. Suddenly, Naruto ducked an orb that sped through the space his head had occupied. He barely managed to raise Riptide to block another from his left. Though the force of the speeding orb made the Blonde's feet skid against the ground, the force nearly overwhelmed him. Naruto was left wide open; however, he slammed into his unprotected back for another orb. Naruto coughed up blood immediately after the blow, allowing the other orb to power through Riptide and smash into Naruto's chest. The two orbs forced the Blonde from his feet and to spiral through the air. The orbs, including the ones that had been orbiting Gaara, pursued the Blonde. Surrounding him the entire time. Naruto recovered in the air and, with a point of Riptide, repelled the orbs with a burst of wind. He flinched, however, when they immediately shot back towards him.
"That won't work," Gaara said as if he was sorry for the inconvenience. He looked as relaxed as earlier, calmly slowly circling the Blonde and orbs as they continued their desperate dance. Naruto was defending well, considering the absurd speed and power of the projectiles. He uses his blade and wind chakra to repel and dodge impressively. But it simply was impossible for Naruto to do such a thing perfectly. Several found holes in his defenses, crashing into his body and likely slowly breaking him down and killing him. His favorite technique was the one he had developed to defeat Baki sensei. "Golden Dust Manipulation: Golden Weasel Hunt is a cruel technique," Gaara explained. "Using my magnet style, I can magnetize you to the gold. I can attract or repel the gold to and from you by adjusting your polarity. This allows for a low-cost continuous technique; until I die or they are destroyed, they will pursue me. Either slowly battering you until you surrender or allowing my sand to capture you." Gaara explained.
Naruto would've loved to respond. But as he deflected an orb with one hand while jumping another and willing his Personal Atmosphere to deflect two more. Found himself struggling to stay in the game. How did this happen? Mere seconds ago, he had been faster than Gaara and faster than his sand. Now he struggled to keep up his gold, the heavy orb speed through the air little more than blurs. So far, he had managed to avoid a direct blow, but even blocking them shot pain and numbness down his limbs. Riptide seemed to be holding up, but the Blonde knew the sword wasn't meant to take such powerful attacks in succession.
Naruto had to repel this attack. It was going to overwhelm him-
Naruto felt a jarring and mind-breaking pain as his left leg was clipped by a golden orb. The force sent Naruto's body flying through the air. Even in his uncontrolled flight, the Blonde managed to deflect several more orbs with Riptide, but another found a hole in his defense, smashing into his ribs and robbing him of breath. This sent him skidding along the ground. Naruto rolled with momentum and managed to stop his flight. And with a yell of effort, sheathed and unsheathed Riptide "Uzumaki Style: Deflecting Draw!" The slash managed to send three golden orbs flying up into the air. Unfortunately, he left himself open to another three, which smashed into his body. Sending him careening through the field and crashing into the forest the impact of the Blonde smashing through a smaller tree. The orbs circled for a moment before shooting off towards the forest as well.
The momentum had changed in the battle…