DUAL FLAMES CHAPTER 2

REVIEWS

Usagi-sempai:

Hope you keep reading! I am glad you liked it! Your wait is over.

Lindon2:

Always nice to hear that!

ON WITH THE STORY

Temari was sitting on her bed. It was midnight before the big exam and she couldn't sleep. She couldn't have been nervous. That wasn't her style. So what was keeping her up? As she pondered this question and many others, a pebble hit her window. She thought it must have been a mistake, but then another pebble hit her window, and she knew someone wanted her attention. She walked over and looked outside. Gaara was standing outside looking in. She opened the window and leaned out of her window on the third story. "What are you doing out there?" she asked, "It is like midnight."

"I forgot my key," He responded, "plus I needed to ask if it would be okay if my partner here would stay over night."

The guy who always wore the cloak walked out from behind Gaara. Temari's eyebrow arched. Who the hell was this guy? Temari shook herself and walked downstairs and opened the door and then the front gate. Gaara and his 'partner' walked in. Gaara took off his gourd and the belt attached. The guy in the cloak took off his mysterious garment. When he put it down, Temari deadpanned, for under the identity-covering cloak, he was wearing a mask and skull cap. This guy did have stunning blue eyes however. The only other eyes she had seen with that shade were that Uzumaki brat. Could it be? She stood next to him and measured him. This guy was taller than her, where as Uzumaki was a squirt. She turned around and continued to ponder on his identity. Gaara looked at her with his eyebrow arched. That was when she noticed it. He had all sorts of bruises and scratches. Her eyes widened. "What the hell happened to you?" she demanded.

He simply replied, "Our training has been rigorous."

What kind of training could have left Gaara actually wounded? She shivered and then looked at this Namikaze fellow, could he have done this to Gaara? Namikaze's eyes seemed to smile, Temari tilted her head, the only person who she had ever seen do that was Copycat Kakashi. She sighed, for now she was even more confused. Namikaze chuckled. Then Gaara did something Temari had never seen him do before, he smiled. Then Gaara said, "You're room is down the hall the third door on the right."

Namikaze nodded and walked in the correct direction. Temari shook her head and then said, "I am going to bed."

Gaara nodded.

THE NEXT DAY

Naruto looked around himself. The sand's arena was about the same as the leaf's. It was large and had three covered seating areas. The only real difference was that the leaf's arena had trees, but this was just a sand arena. Perfect for Gaara. Baki was the proctor of this final exam. The half-masked man faced the crowd and then said, "It is our great pleasure to be hosting this set of chunin exams. To the many lords and noblemen here today, please enjoy all the drinks you want courtesy of the village council. Here today representing our village is our regent for Kazekage, the leader of the village council, Elder Chiyo. Here representing the leaf village is the hokage: Lady Tsunade."

The crowd roared. Naruto was getting excited. Then Baki continued, "The first match will be the mysterious Namikaze of the leaf village versus……Kankuro of the dessert, from right here in the sand village!"

Naruto teleported down into the arena in a swirl of leaves. Gaara appeared right next to him in a swirl of sand. Kankuro and Temari calmly walked down the stairs. When Kankuro arrived in the center of the arena, Naruto was practically jumping up and down. He pointed at Kankuro and shouted, "Get ready for the Namikaze hurricane with a little help from the sand!"

Kankuro let the crow unfold from his back and then said, "Let the horror show begin."

The crowd roared. Gaara and Temari jumped back on to the walls on the side of the arena to await the call for help.

Kankuro molded chakra and swirled The Crow above the arena. As it made a circle it dropped a barrage of bombs down on Naruto. Naruto made the agreed upon signal and Gaara jumped in to create a wall of sand. This wall blocked out all the fire and explosions. Kankuro twitched, he had forgotten about Gaara being this kid's backup. The sound of four sliding objects brought Kankuro out of his reverie. Four of his opponents were sliding toward him. They all kicked him into the each one of them said, "Nam-i-ka-ze"

When Kankuro was in the air he substituted himself with his second puppet. The real Namikaze appeared above The Black Ant. He was planning on kicking the puppet down. Kankuro smirked and dropped the illusion. The Black Ant opened up. Namikaze fell in. As The Black Ant fell to the ground, The Crow split apart. All of its limbs had unfolding blades. These blades all shot into the Black Ant and stabbed Namikaze. Kankuro shouted, "Secret black move: Iron Maiden!"

Shadow clone smoke oozed out of the improvised Iron maiden. Kankuro's eyes widened. He looked up, and nothing, side to side, and nothing, and then he turned around. Namikaze had formed a shadow clone and together they were swirling chakra into a ball. The chakra became visible. The clone grabbed his original and threw him at Kankuro. Kankuro rapidly made the appropriate signal. Temari jumped down and blew Namikaze off course. The man tumbled and lost control of the jutsu. Kankuro turned to his puppets and quickly and efficiently rebuilt them.

Naruto stood up and made an imaginary signal. Kankuro reacted by telling Temari to shoot a jutsu to block Gaara. Gaara made no move however than to dodge Temari's jutsu. Naruto pulled out a Demon Windmill shuriken and threw it at Kankuro. Kankuro dodged and the Shuriken dropped its own illusion by turning into Four shadow clones. One went opposite of the real Naruto, one went into the air above, the last two jumped and stood in a way that Kankuro was surrounded. They all threw a demon Windmill at Kankuro. Temari formed a column of wind around herself and her little brother to block all the different shuriken. Naruto smiled, Kankuro had used up all of his assistance jutsu. Naruto made a real motion.

Gaara made a ton of small sand bullets shoot at Kankuro. These didn't do enough damage to do anything more than bruise and disorient him. Naruto formed another shadow clone and made the rasengan.

He ran up and shoved his Rasengan into Kankuro's chest. As Kankuro was thrown back, spinning like a top in midair, Naruto shouted, "Ninja Art: Rasengan, the Spiraling Sphere!"

Kankuro landed and did not get up. The crowd roared as Baki called the match. Naruto looked out to the crowd and laughed. Then he looked at Gaara and shouted, "Hehehe, I won, I won, thanks for getting my back, Gaara!"

Naruto and Gaara ran back up into the booth. Baki watched the medics bring Kankuro off the arena floor. He then addressed the crowd. "Because one of the back-ups for the next match is currently being worked on, we must postpone the next match and move on. The next match up is….. the psychotic Gaara of the Dessert versus….. The apprentice of Lady Tsunade herself, Sakura Haruno!!!!!!"

The crowd roared. Gaara and Naruto walked down the steps with their opponents, Sakura and Ino. When everything was set-up, the traditional banter began with Gaara saying, "I must warn you, we are most definitely strong."

Sakura seemed to not hear, but she said, "Don't fall behind now, Ino."

Naruto and Ino jumped backwards onto the wall behind them. Naruto's eyes were glued to Gaara, he had to wait for the signal and then he would get a little fight in himself. Gaara uncorked his gourd. His sand fell out into the rest of the sand. Gaara then pushed chakra into his feet and dashed up to Sakura. He stopped up just barely short of arm's reach and began the infamous Sand Hell. Sakura had picked out the pattern of his attacks during the preliminaries. All of Gaara's hits missed. Naruto's jaw dropped, when had she gotten so strong? She then got within arm's reach and punched. As she punched she gathered chakra into her fist and then let it explode out. Her chakra control had to be precise, and it was. Gaara got nailed. He flew backwards across the arena. He hit the wall and made the signal.

Naruto teleported into the fight and formed threes shadow clones. They converged on Sakura and used some light taijutsu to disorient Sakura and then they did the 'skyrocket' combo. Two kicked Sakura into the air, then one jumped onto the back of one of the firsts and kicked her higher and then the real Naruto jumped onto and then pushed off the third clone and did a devastating uppercut right to the bottom of Sakura's chin.

Naruto dispelled his clones and jumped back onto his place on the wall. Sakura made a twirling motion in the air with her finger. Naruto looked at Ino, the girl was running down the wall, but not in time. Gaara was standing back up. He created two fists of sand, and swung the two together, smashing Sakura in between. Baki jumped in and quickly called the match. Baki lifted up his arm and a medic jumped down into the arena. They whispered to each other for a time and then Baki turned to the audience and proclaimed, "While Sakura spends a little time in the infirmary, we are glad to inform you that Kankuro of the Dessert has made a full recovery. The next match shall be…. The tomboyish Temari of the Dessert v.s. ….the mystical Dresden."

Dresden stood up. He brought his large staff to chest level and parallel with the ground. The stick levitated in midair when he dropped it. He jumped on and flew down to the stadium floor. When he reached the ground he jumped off and held his staff above his head. The symbols flickered to life. He slammed on end of the stick into the ground. The stadium shook. The crowd roared. Naruto turned to see that Temari was smirking. She jumped onto her fan and flew down slowly. As she hit the ground, she swung and closed her fan. The resulting air current blew Dresden off his feet.

Baki jumped out of the arena, signaling the beginning of the match. Dresden jumped up, pointed his staff at his opponent and shouted, "Feugo!"

Small lances of fire shot out of the staff. Temari rolled to the side and out of the way. She pushed some chakra into her feet and dashed at Dresden. She opened her fan and shot a guided tornado right at him. He jumped out of the way, pointed his staff at Temari and shouted, "Forza-"

Temari's tornado had turned around and got his back. He was spun around in the air for about thirty seconds at high speeds and then released. Temari shouted, "Summoning: Blade dance!"

A plethora of sharp objects hit Dresden 's body and then formed a new tornado, this time even bigger and wilder than before. Then Temari shouted, "Not Yet!"

Temari bit her thumb, and spread the blood from this bite in a long line along her fan. A weasel with a scythe appeared on the fan. Temari swung her fan, propelling her weasel into the gigantic tornado. The weasel spun itself and then using the scythe and its own chakra, cut the tornado in half. When all the arena's sand cleared, Temari looked to see that Dresden was still standing. He was holding up a charm bracelet on his right hand. It looked to have shield charms. Suddenly the charms turned red with heat and then melted. Temari was nearly out of chakra so she looked to Kankuro. Kankuro was still in bandages, but he was standing. He made what was left of the crow swing around the arena, dropping bombs everywhere. Dresden had avoided the blast by jumping back, but he had left his staff in the sand. Temari dashed to it first and grabbed it. She jumped out of his reach and with a kunai, slashed through all the symbols, thus destroying the pattern. She threw the staff back to him. Temari closed her fan, and teleported behind him. With the flat side of her weapon of choice, she swung and hit his head. Dresden dropped. Baki called the match. The crowd roared, and then Temari jumped on her fan and flew up to the box. She looked around; Ino Yamanaka looked terrified, Bob looked like he was considering murder, Gaara looked unsurprised, and Namikaze waved.

As Temari inwardly celebrated her victory, Baki introduced the next contestants, "Sakura Haruno has made a full recovery, so the next match will be the final match of the first round, It is…..Ino Yamanaka versus……Bob!"

The crowd didn't pay too much attention to the match, it truthfully didn't interest them, they all wanted to see Namikaze versus Temari of the Dessert. Naruto didn't really watch the current match either, because either way, the winner would face Gaara and lose….so he decided to talk with Temari. She was sitting in the back of the box, sipping on a water bottle. Naruto sat down, and started the conversation, "So…either way our match goes, we are going to have to face down Gaara. If I win, then Gaara is my teammate, so I have to pick a new one, if you win…well, Kankuro is in no shape to face down your brother. I think we should start strategizing."

Temari looked at him with awe…not of his idea, but his stupidity. Why would she reveal her techniques to the guy she was about to face? Eventually her unbelieving stare became too much for Naruto, so he walked away. He came up to railings. Gaara had been watching the match. Gaara whispered to Naruto, "This guy excites me. I want to face him."

Naruto shivered. Gaara was still working his sanity out. Baki called the match. Naruto looked down into the arena. Baki was once again speaking in his best announcer's voice, "The next match is between two of this competition's most anticipated match-up……The Powerful Namikaze….vs….The wily Temari!"

Temari jumped onto her fan and then flew into the arena. She looked expectantly at Naruto. Naruto jumped out into the arena. He pointed at her and shouted, "I vow to win!"

Temari responded with, "You can talk the talk, now let's see if you can walk the walk."

Naruto formed five shadow clones. They all ran in at Temari together. Temari simply swung her fan blowing the shadow clones out of existence and a ton of sand in Naruto's face. As Naruto hacked and coughed the sand out of his mouth, nose, and eyes, Temari set up her blade dance. Naruto felt the first shuriken cut him, then more and more. Naruto realized what was happening and pulled out some red chakra. He sent out a wave strong enough to destroy walls out from his body, unfortunately, this only caused the weasel's scythe attack to cut a little less deep then intended. Naruto's cloak had been destroyed. He looked down and saw that his blue Konoha jumpsuit had been sliced up pretty bad too. In fact, he saw a little bone from his chest. Then the pain hit. Naruto screeched in pain. As Temari watched, she noticed that his eyes had become red, with slits for pupils.

Naruto shouted, "Gaara, sand shower!"

Gaara jumped in front of Temari and formed several shurikens out of sand and sent them flying at his sister. Naruto knew there was only one way he could keep the match going. He looked up at Jiraiya. His master nodded. Naruto breathed in and out, and formed the tiger seal and brought out his red chakra. He felt demonic chakra form its cloak around him. Two ears and one tail formed. Gaara looked back and his eyes widened. He jumped out of the way. Naruto roared. The crowd became deathly silent. Temari remembered all the times she had seen Shukaku. She panicked and started to rapidly swing her fan. Naruto roared and let another burst of chakra stop her wind cold. He dug his legs and hands into the ground and threw himself at his opponent. Temari quickly shook herself and flew up into the air. She dodged several more chakra bullets. Naruto wound up his arm and threw a punch. The punch obviously didn't reach Temari, but the chakra hand flew towards her.

Naruto grabbed Temari right off her fan. Her fan collapsed to the ground and Naruto brought her right to his face. His red chakra was burning both her clothes and her skin. Naruto noticed this and threw her to the side. As Temari lay in the sand, she realized that she was going to lose. She raised her hand and shouted, "I withdraw from the match!"

Naruto roared. The crowd was deathly silent. This was the true power of the hidden leaf. Naruto looked up at the crowd. Jiraiya was bringing the tips of his fingers against his neck in a 'cut' motion. Naruto understood and shoved the red chakra back down. His wounds had been healed, but his clothes were in tatters.

Baki proceeded to calm the crowd down. As Temari began to walk up the stairs into the contestant's box, Naruto caught up with her. She jumped away and shouted, "Stay away from me!"

"Look, I think I owe you this….you want to know who I am right?" Naruto brought his fingers up to his mask and showed her his whiskers.

Temari's eyes widened. She shook as she asked, "Uzumaki?"

Naruto nodded and said, "Look the reason me and Gaara were picked as a team was so that my master could teach Gaara to control his beast. He has got the one-tail Shukaku. I have got the Nine-tailed fox. I can't control all the way to nine tails yet, but I can control up to two. Pervy sage has made it so that Gaara has beaten his beast into submission. You don't need to worry about him anymore."

Temari dropped to her knees. Gaara was finally in control. This was great news; it meant that she would no longer have to sleep afraid that the worst might happen. Tears streamed down her face in the realization that this was because of the dork beside her. She looked up at him, this was a miracle. Naruto scratched the back of his head. He looked around and then said, "Um…look, I wasn't supposed to tell you all that stuff, so I would really appreciate it if you would keep it on the down low, alright?"

"So that is why Tsunade doesn't want you to reveal yourself….."

"You figured it out?!"

"Haven't you?"

Naruto shook his head. So, even though he was powerful, he was still as dumb as dirt. Temari sighed. Then she said, "Tsunade wanted to test how well you have got control over your beast, and she can't do that if all your friends started freaking out about you being a host. Get the picture?"

Temari observed as the wheels in Naruto's head started to turn. She shook her head and asked, "Does that hurt you?"

"Does what?"

"Thinking?"

Naruto's eyes narrowed as he said, "Why don't we just go and watch the next match now?"

Temari snorted. She got up and walked up to the box, she looked into the arena. Bob and Dresden were waiting, and Gaara stood alone. Naruto gasped and jumped out into the arena. Gaara shook his head at the blonde's antics. Baki swiped his hand down which signaled the beginning of the match. Naruto jumped back onto the wall. Gaara put his palms into the sand and whispered, "Sand burial."

Tendrils of sand wrapped around his opponent, and then solidified. Gaara raised his opened hand into the air and then closed his fist. But when the sand should have condensed, it exploded. Bob was hanging in mid air, his entire body alight. Naruto charged a rasengan and dashed up to Gaara's opponent. The rasengan hit Bob dead center, and sent him flying into the sand floor. Gaara quickly buried the man in more sand. Gaara made the sand pile up upon the flame-man. The sand of moving sand filled the arena. Gaara's palms slammed into the sand as he performed his ultimate jutsu. "Massive Sand Burial!"

As the sand began to condense, It turned red, and melted together, turned white, and then into glass. Gaara was floating on a cloud of sand and observed from above. Bob burst from the glass. The entire sand arena had been turned into shards of glass. Naruto's eyes widened, the heat required for such an act was amazing. Bob shrieked and jumped into the air directly at Gaara. Gaara used what was still sand in the glass shards to make them all fly at Bob. As the shards hit Bob, they cut him and then melted into the wounds. This caused massive amounts of pain. Bob fell down to the floor, and then lost consciousness. Baki called the match.

Naruto and Gaara traveled up to the box. Baki then shouted out to the crowd, "Due to the massive amounts of repair needed, the arena won't open for two more days. I assure you that all of you out there will receive free admission. We will have the final match in two days, this gives you time to request any missions you have been thinking about to whichever village you please, and it will give time to the two contestants to strategize with their new partners, so, until then….good bye!"

Baki then poofed into the box. He looked around. He then said, "Due to the fact that one team mate must face the other, new teams have been picked out. Namikaze will team up with Temari, and Gaara, you're with Bob, he will be fully recovered in a day's time. Namikaze, Lord Jiraiya and Lady Tsunade wish to speak with you immediately. You will meet Temari at eight tonight at training ground 13, here is a map."

Baki handed Namikaze a map with a large red circle. He nodded and jumped off into the kage box. There Tsunade and Jiraiya were waiting for him. Jiraiya pointed to a door behind them and entered the room. Tsunade entered directly after. The door made a quiet whoosh as Naruto closed it behind him. Tsunade instigated the conversation with, "You have improved greatly Naruto. For the next couple months, you will be strengthening the bond between Leaf and Sand by staying here and performing missions. This is because we have new intelligence on the akatsuki…."

Naruto looked up and asked, "What is the deal?"

"They are moving quicker than Itachi had said," Jiraiya said, "In fact, they have already stolen a host from Stone. I am going to teach you for only a couple more months more and then I have to send you away…"

"To where?!"

Tsunade pulled out a scroll. It was a map of the elemental countries. As she unrolled the map farther, the continent ended, and a new one began. Tsunade continued, "This is a continent far away from the akatsuki, and where you will be hiding. We call it the West because its true name is unpronounceable in our language. You have a special relation to this land. I know this may come as a shock, but it has to deal with your parents."

Naruto's eyes widened. Then they closed, tears streaked down his face as he said, "You knew who my parents were this entire time?!"

The two sanin flinched, and then Jiraiya said, "Your father is named Minato Namikaze, or as you know him, the fourth hokage."

Naruto slammed his fist into the table next to him, it creaked from the force of the blow, and seeing as how it was made of stone, this was quite a feat. Naruto turned back to face his teachers and shouted, "WHY THE HELL WOULD A FATHER SEAL A DEMON IN HIS OWN SON?!"

Tsunade made a motion to speak, but Jiraiya stopped her and then said, "Look, Minato was my apprentice, so I know he didn't do it without reason, I think that he knew that if you were anything like him, you would be able to use it to your advantage. Are you going to be okay?"

"I am the son of the fourth hokage…. I can deal."

"You are so like him in that aspect…. Now your grades….well, its light and day, but you have his instinct and his nindo, and that is what matters most for a ninja. You will be great."

"What about my mom?"

Tsunade pointed to a small portion of 'the West'. Then she said, "She was named Kushina Uzumaki, and she was born here, in the Land of Eddies, her clan was an elite clan there, they are not known for a blood limit like the Hyuuga or the Uchiha, but for a school of fighting, you are going to journey to this land, and there, you will study this school of fighting. You will study with what is left of your family, but you won't meet your mother there….she is dead."

Naruto nodded and then said, "I understand my mission, and I will do my best, I have to go strategize for how to take down Gaara."

Naruto walked out of the arena and then jumped out into the city. He got his bearings from outside the arena and then found his way to a clothing store and bought a new blue jumpsuit entendre. He then bought a curtain and used it to cover himself up. As he walked out of the clothing store, he realized that it was half an hour until eight, so he jumped off to training ground thirteen.

Temari was waiting for him there. Training ground thirteen was full of rocks and sand and it had a small hill and a canyon with a river. Temari turned around to see him and her eyes widened, she asked, "What's wrong? Your eyes are red…."

Naruto wiped his eyes and then sighed. He wasn't in the mood for training. He stared away from Temari, and asked, "Can you keep another secret for me?"

Naruto sat down on a rock and Temari sat down next to him and said, "Look, you had the courage to stand up to my brother, knock some sense into him and set him in the right path. I owe you more than I could tell you. I will keep as many secrets as you have, tell me what's on your mind."

"In the same way that Gaara grew up shunned from society, I was shunned in my village, Gaara had some sort of family, and I had nobody. I suffered from loneliness," Naruto said, "I finally made friends and stuff and now I think I am on the road of recovery, but I didn't ever know who my parents were…until tonight, Pervy Sage and Grandma Tsunade told me…."

"Who were they?"

"Well, I probably shouldn't tell you, but as you know, I have a monster inside me as well as Gaara, the Nine-tails, it was sealed inside of me when I was an infant by the Fourth Hokage….as it turns out, The Fourth Lord is my father."

Temari gasped and tears started to fall down Naruto's face as he continued, "My own father sealed the demon that has ruined my life inside of me… Pervy sage said he did it because he trusted his son to be his greatest legacy and all that jazz, but… still, it doesn't make sense to me…. Can you tell me why it happened? You're smarter than me," Naruto stood up and shouted to the heavens, "CAN ANYBODY EXPLAIN THIS TO ME?! WHY WOULD HE DO IT?!"

Temari flinched. She didn't understand it either. She stood up next to him and made him sit down and then said, "Let me tell you what I think, I think that what makes a man is not the reaction to trauma, but their response, there is a difference. How are you going to respond to this, are you going to cry, or are you going to take this for what it is, a destiny you have been handed, I thought that you nindo was to never give up! DON'T YOU DARE GIVE UP!"

Naruto looked up at her, with awe in his eyes, she was right. He jumped up and clapped his hands together. "You're right, it is time to get down to business, I am going to get stronger, I am going to defeat the akatsuki and I am going to bring Sasuke back!" Naruto said, "Thank you! Let's get to the training; I need to get ready to take down your brother!"

MIDNIGHT THAT NIGHT

Naruto and Temari both were both laying on their backs, totally exhausted, and staring up at the stars. Naruto said for the thousandth time, "This might actually work! I just need to practice with the red chakra a little bit more, and then, I will win."

Temari nodded and then asked, "So, after this exam, what are you going to do?"

"I have been ordered to stay here and wait for someone to take me to the West to train with my mother's people. Pervy sage said he would train me until that happens."

Temari nodded. But what she didn't get was why she cared….

THE DAY OF THE BIG MATCH

Baki stood in the middle of the new arena, featuring only dirt instead of mounds of sand, the crowd all seemed to sit forward in their seats in anticipation. Baki then raised his voice and said, "Today is the final match of this set of Chunin exams. The contestants are as you know, Gaara of the Desert, hailing from Suna, and Namikaze hailing from Konoha. Will the contestants please make their way down here?"

Naruto and Temari jumped out into the arena, while Gaara and Bob quietly made their way down the stairs. Gaara and Naruto faced the crowd. The crowd roared. Naruto waved and Gaara's eyebrow arched. Baki slung his hand down, signifying the beginning of the match. Temari and Bob took their respective places. Naruto untied his headband from his neck and tied it around his head in his usual manner. Gaara looked at his friend questioningly and then Naruto explained, "These headbands signify more than rank, they signify respect one has for another shinobi."

Gaara nodded and tied his own headband around his head. Naruto smirked and filled the arena with shadow clones. The crowd gasped at this amazing display of pure chakra. Naruto began his assault on Gaara's 'impenetrable defense'. Naruto tried all manner of taijutsu on Gaara but nothing actually got through. A smirk crossed Naruto's face as he thought of an idea. He charged up six Rasengans and charged Gaara again. One Rasengan got through the barrier of sand, only to barely hit Gaara's shoulder. Gaara shouted in pain and jumped back, signaling Bob. Bob jumped in front of Gaara and unleashed a torrent of fireballs. These took care of most of Naruto's shadow clones, leaving only the real Naruto plus a few spares. As Bob jumped back to his place Naruto scanned the arena. A ball of hardened sand sat on the opposite end of the arena, which meant that Gaara was currently dominating the one-tail into submission. Naruto knew he had roughly a minute before Gaara would emerge with the power of a tailed beast and complete control.

Naruto stood completely still, reached deep into his chakra and yanked the red chakra up to the surface. The fox's cloak formed, one tail waved in the air, and two ears stood at attention. Naruto roared, and the crowd gasped. Then, Gaara emerged from his sphere. He looked like a mini-shukaku. Gaara was smiling in this form; it felt awesome to have such power at your call. Naruto dashed at his fellow host and began his taijutsu techniques. He clawed and kicked madly to no effect. Gaara then just grabbed and threw Naruto across the arena. From the dust cloud resulting from the destroyed wall, Naruto emerged. He looked down at his hand, this chakra nearly boiled his skin upon contact. He looked up at Gaara and said, "I don't know how much longer I can bear this…"

Gaara's mad smile died down a bit, and he said, "I can't keep this up forever either…."

"….so I guess this will all come down to…."

"….One final attack…."

Naruto formed his rasengan in the way that he and Temari had practiced, a regular blue rasengan formed inside a vermillion-like colored chakra. Gaara built up chakra in his chest and shot out a gigantic blast of pure wind chakra, obliterating anything in its path. Naruto blurred behind Gaara and pushed his Vermillion Rasengan right into his friend's back. Gaara flew across the arena, and then the rasengan expanded, forming a vermillion sphere in the middle of the arena. When the chakra went away, only the regular Gaara sat there. Naruto breathed in and out, deciding he could in fact go just an inch farther to win the match. Temari appeared in front of him, just a moment before he was going to dash in. She pulled his face up to hers, burning her hand in the process and said to him, "Don't let this chakra control you Naruto, something seems off about you when you use it… You control the fox, not the other way around… I really regret not stopping my brother when I could have, I don't want to make the same mistake with you. Let. The. Chakra. Dissipate."

Naruto stood back up on his legs and nodded; he forced the chakra back down into the seal and looked back to Gaara. He was standing up and waiting for him, with a smile on his face, this had been the most fun he had had in a long time. Naruto dashed towards his opponent, and they both punched each other on each other's face. They flew apart and landed on the dirt, about five yards away from each other. They stood back up and charged at each other again, this time, their heads collided. Their headbands fell off and both of them hit the dirt. They were completely exhausted. Both of them inched their way up to their feet and were planning their next move when Baki jumped in between them. He shouted so the crowd could hear, "The village hidden in the Sand and the village hidden in the Leaves have both decided that this was enough. This match will not continue. We don't want anybody to die here. Those of you who are curious as to who passed, there are four genin who have qualified for chunin here…. They are as follows: Namikaze, Gaara of the Dessert, Bob, and Temari of the Dessert. Congratulations on your promotions."

Tsunade and a sand councilman both appeared in the arena, Tsuande handed Naruto a chunin vest, and the sand councilman handed Gaara and Temari their sand chunin vests. Naruto and Gaara smiled at each other and then the two friends fell over and blacked out.

AUTHORS NOTES:

I hope you guys will keep reading, I will update this story and Chasing Naruto every other chapter, so look out for chapter twenty four of Chasing Naruto soon. Thanks for the reviews.

Peace mah doohs.

IPOD384