Chapter 45: Jinchuriki
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With this current battle that is about to flock and fly off, the crowd was waiting for their fight with pure anticipation from what was about to begin.
The two contestants that stood at the very center of the arena stared at each other without any wavering thoughts or intentions.
The only real difference was their own facial expressions that was currently being displayed to their faces.
While Naruto had a very calm look on his face, Gaara had a very murderous and devilish look on his face as he stared at Naruto.
"Your blood will be more than sufficient for mother," Gaara said very ominously with such a crazed look on his face.
Naruto stayed calm and nonchalant through the very serious and threatening words/comment that Gaara had spat out of his mouth.
"I don't plan on losing to you or your mother," Naruto said calmly, readying himself rather quickly as he waited for the their match to start
Genma looked at the two before he breathed in-and-out. This was going to be quite the battle between these two.
How should I approach this? Naruto thought as he stretched his fingers the were just itching to for the two of them to engage in a battle.
Genma went between the two.
"Start!" Yelled Genma, jumping back as the battle had finally started from that one word alone that came out of his mouth.
Expecting one of them to approach on another with a simple run, their expectations betrayed them through their actions.
Naruto backed away as sand from the ground suddenly rose up to attack Naruto in an instant because of Gaara's orders.
For me to be able to dodge the sand at a constant rate, I needed to conserve my stamina during and before this fight began. This was also another reason why he took his time.
Naruto breathed in-and-out as he saw sand get shot right towards him as he jumped to the side to avoid the sand once again. He then looked back, seeing the sand follow him at a quick rate.
"Tch. What an annoyance," said Naruto with a voice that was fulled of apathy. He looked right towards the side and saw the concrete wall that was just a few meters away.
Moving slightly to the left, Naruto jumped right towards the wall as the sand continued to follow him. With very nimble movement, Naruto readied his kunai and aimed himself downwards as he jumped off of the concrete wall.
The sand kept on following, but Naruto had his kunai and as he landed on the ground, he threw it right towards Gaara. As the kunai flew right towards Gaara, his intersected and protected him before he could get hurt by the kunai.
All I have to do is move faster than the sand itself. Naruto thought, forming a multitude of hand seals.
Snake → Ram → Monkey → Boar → Horse → Tiger
"Fire Release: Great FireBall Jutsu"
Naruto then inhaled and then exhaled out a large fireball that honed itself right towards Gaara at a rapid rate. Without flinching, the sand once again protected him from any serious damages.
Naruto observed this as he kept on running, his speed increasing each second that pasts. It seemed like if he wanted to turn his sand into glass, he'll need to pour in more chakra into the fireball next time.
The crazed look still remained on Gaara's face as he kept on sending out sand towards Naruto. Breathing in-and-out, Naruto managed to dodge it with his constant speed.
I need to get closer. Naruto thought, redirecting his direction very suddenly. This caused him to lose a bit of speed — and it honestly cost him quite the amount of speed.
The sand caught up to him, as Gaara controlled it by trying to sweep down and catch Naruto by the foot. With quick reaction, Naruto managed to create a Shadow Clone right above him.
It then threw himself via the clone.
Looking down, Naruto saw the sand rise up from the ground and follow him once more. As his hair swayed through the air, Naruto created another clone that appeared right to his side.
The clone then threw him right towards Gaara.
"You're dead!" Yelled Gaara, his crazy attitude once again erupting from his mouth. The sand that was following him was now in the air. Better yet, there was now another batch of sand that was coming his way.
Just before the two batches of sand came crushing him and his organs, Naruto managed to switch himself out with a log that took his place and sacrificed itself for Naruto.
The sand then crashed into one another, thus distracting Gaara for a split second. Shaking himself out of this shock, Gaara began to look around for Naruto's current location.
"You!" Exclaimed Gaara, seeing another fireball go straight at him. Using his sand once again, Gaara blocked the fireball with his sand for the protection that he needed to survive the flaming hot fire.
To his surprise, the sand that he wielded to protect himself suddenly became shattered glass — one that was beyond broken by a single fireball that came from Naruto.
Widening his eyes, the fireball broke though and launched him away. So where was Naruto? Well, if you were talking about a few seconds ago, he would be standing right on the wall.
Now? It would be him trying to gain enough speed to shatter Gaara into millions of tiny pieces. And, well, he was getting quite the amount of speed that will surely surpass the speed of Gaara's sand.
Gaara started to get lift up from the ground by his own sand with him slightly gritting his teeth out of anger. To think he got hit by something that was not someone purely just out-speeding him.
Well, that was until now.
As Naruto felt the fresh breeze brush passed him, Naruto started to slowly generate power within his fist. All everyone saw was a speeding bullet — a blur that was speeding through.
And as Naruto closed in on Gaara, he was now up and standing on the ground with a fierce glare on his face that was being directed at the one and only Naruto himself.
The ground below started to rise up and transform into a sharp spike that was aimed at the speeding Naruto that was just simply a blur of nothing. Grinding his teeth, Gaara was hoping to hit Naruto while he was running straight at him.
"I'll take your blood!" Yelled Gaara, having the need to kill Naruto and spill his blood on the ground. But, unexpectedly, Naruto disappeared from everyone's sight.
The sand that was supposed to hit Naruto, hit nothing but air. Naruto appeared right above Gaara, blocking his view from the glistering sun that was above them.
"Inferior," said Naruto. "Monster," he finished saying as he disappeared once again as more sand came his way. Naruto appeared right behind, crouching down before sending Gaara flying away before sand could protect him.
I'll break him — shatter him in a million pieces and truly prove who's mindset is inferior. Thought Naruto. He was a boy that only worked with efficiency. This battle will be his entry way.
And once he efficiently breaks him down, he'll have one less person to worry about in the future. Naruto — though slower than before — got back up on his feet and ran right towards Gaara.
Plus, I want to win. Naruto thought as Gaara got back up quickly due to his sand. With sand arousing from the ground, Naruto dodged and weaved the sand in a quick manner.
"Inferior? I'll show you inferior! HAHAHAHA!" Gaara laughed at the end as he kept on shooting his sand at Naruto with the plan to kill critically injure him beyond understanding.
Maybe even kill him.
I need to gain the speed back. Naruto thought, brushing right passed the sand, and appeared to the side, dodging the sand with very little effort. He then created a clone that appeared just above him and pulled him up to his level.
To think I'm holding myself back so much. Naruto thought, just narrowly dodging the sand with the use of his clones. His growth as a Shinobi was faltering.
And it was all because of him.
Throughout the month, Naruto had been able to go over a lot of things — one was the similarities between him and Gaara. He had asked Kurama about Gaara and his sneaking suspicion on him being a Jinchuriki.
And Kurama confirmed his suspicions to the tee.
Naruto saw it so clearly — that he could've been Gaara. He was a Jinchuriki like him, but he was just treated like shit; an outcast by his people.
His mental abilities was broken — by his own people.
But that's how they were different. Gaara's mentality was broken; Naruto's was not. And it's that very same mentality that let him get so strong alongside his very good genes that coursed through his body.
If his genes was the food, then his mentality was the plate that support and protect it. And it's also the same mentality that makes him weak. And like his genes, there's something that supports his mentality.
Himself.
And just like that, there's already 3 layers to the boy named, Uchiha-Uzumaki-Namikaze Naruto. He was raised by two monsters that existed in the world.
One hidden by false kindness.
One open to the world to see.
And to become stronger, I will embrace it — my own weakness that I created from my mentality. Naruto thought, quickly approaching Gaara as he dodged even more of the sand.
His weakness was part of his mentality, not weaknesses like flawed stances, or slow hand seals. It was just his mind — his memories. They were being a liability to him in every way possible.
And the only logical way to use this weakness and fully get rid of it is to use it for himself.
To become the greatest, every means necessary is needed to be used without any hesitation. Naruto could almost laugh at himself for being so pathetic.
Anyway, as Naruto dodged and weaved, Gaara's behavior became more erratic. He was starting to get irritated by Naruto's constant pressure on his mentality.
He noticed, but he doesn't do anything about it.
"Die! Die!" Yelled Gaara with such anger and crazed for blood laced inside of his voice. Naruto jumped into the air and managed to dodge the numerous spikes that rose up from the ground to potentially kill him without any mercy given to him.
Naruto managed to pass through the layer of offense and decided to go straight for the kill. With a quick plan come into mind, Naruto had a plan full of pure prediction.
As he closed in Gaara, another layer of offense and a layer of defense was about to be created. Naruto knew this from the fight that he had witnessed from before with Gaara and Lee.
He knew that Gaara was equally strong on both the offensive and defensive capabilities. But when someone of equal power and speed that can plow right through, Naruto saw that Gaara simultaneously brings out his defensive and offensive abilities to push them back.
But as long as someone has something to go around it, his plan of pushing them away will be useless. Naruto ducked slightly down as he created a clone to take the fall.
This distracted Gaara for just a tiny second.
That will be more than enough. Naruto thought, passing through the large sand spikes that took down the clone. As he passed through the spikes, the defensive abilities were about to activate.
Naruto then threw a multitude of kunai straight at Gaara to activate it. Once it was activated, Naruto then threw a punched right at Gaara. Unfortunately for Naruto, his hand was caught by the defensive sand from Gaara.
Gaara then strengthened his sand to crush Naruto's arm. He gritted his teeth in slight pain as he looked at the bloodthirsty look on Gaara's face.
"You're. . . DEAD!" Yelled Gaara, getting more sand to get thrown straight at him. After feeling the slight pain, Naruto sighed with a apathy laced within.
"Sacrifices are needed," said Naruto. Suddenly, a clone appeared from behind Naruto and jumped up into the air and kicked Gaara's face away.
This clone was the clone that was 'supposedly' destroyed by the sand spikes that was summoned by Gaara himself. But in reality, the clone had transformed itself into a twig that was very unnoticeable.
Naruto then sacrificed his arm to get an opening that was good enough for the real Naruto to capitalize on. Naruto then pulled back his broken arm.
Naruto grabbed the shirt of Gaara just before he was about to be blown away and punched him away. But Naruto was yet to be done with him.
Without faltering, Naruto bursted right towards Gaara and grabbed his shirt once again. Throwing him without any hesitation, Gaara hit the wall with full impact.
With the concrete wall smashed, Naruto threw a kunai at the vulnerable Gaara. The kunai managed to get through the sand shield before it could move to defend Gaara.
The kunai pierced Gaara's cheek and got lodged into the concrete wall that he had landed onto. Naruto threw even more kunai that were thrown in a lower trajectory.
With his sand shielding him from the other kunai, Gaara had finally noticed something.
"B. . . blood?" Questioned Gaara, his eyes widening as he saw the crimson liquid drip down from his cheek. He placed his hand right over the blood on his cheek and tainted his finger with his blood.
"My. . . blood."
"Blood."
"Blood."
"Blood."
"MY BLOOD!"
As his blood dripped down, the plan started to diverge, and everything that was surrounding the two contestants was about to go in light in endless flames of chaos.
This was only the beginning of the big event.
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