The Final Fight
"Mmm…Ramen," Naruto said in his sleep, drooling all over his pillow. His alarm clock finally went off and landed on his head. "OW!" Naruto groggily looked at his clocked and realized what time it was. "Shit! I'm late! If I don't get to the training grounds pronto Sakura will beat the shit out of me!" After taking a swig out of an opened carton of mil he left while getting dressed.
xXx
At the training grounds….
While Masago was busy goiong over her scrolls she heard soft footsteps behind her. She smiled. "Come out of hiding. I know you're there."
A figure jumped out of the tree and landed behind Masago and Sakura. "Figures you'd know it was me," it said.
"Your footsteps betray you," she said, standing up. Masago turned around and finished, "Gaara-sama."
Sakura's eyes widened and said, "Gaara? What are you doing here?"
"I knew she'd do something like this," he said, as calm as stone.
"Why'd you send her in the first place?" the bound pink-haired girl demanded.
"That wasn't easy, Sakura," Masago said, shrugging her shoulders nonchalantly. "Good thing Gaara-sama's good at explaining things."
Gaara didn't miss a beat. "I don't know exactly when and how she did it, but Masago put me in a hypnotic trance. It still let me do things I'd otherwise normally do to avoid suspicion. She must've planted the idea of sending her during that time. A week after I sent her I came out of the trance and was ill up until this morning."
"You told it beautifully, Gaara-sama," Masago said with fake anime tears pouring down her face. "It moved me!"
"You shouldn't spend your time crying," Gaara said. Some sand burst out behind Masago.
She looked behind herself and dodged it. "Amazing," she said. "Even though you don't have the bijuu anymore you can still manipulate sand to your will."
Gaara motioned the sand after Masago. She pulled out a scroll and made hand steals while still holding it. She unrolled it and said, "Puppet Summoning Jutsu: Tori! Mongoose!" A big puppet bird and a puppet mongoose came out of it in a puff of smoke. Commanding Tori with her left hand and Mongoose with her right, she jumped in a tree. "Wind Scythe Jutsu!" she said, manipulating the chakra strings. Tori started to flap its wings and blew the sand away. The cutting gusts of wind came toward Gaara, but he surrounded himself in protective sand just in time.
"Never thought it'd be that easy to get rid of your sand," Masago remarked.
The sand barrier fell into a heap and Gaara was showing signs of exhaustion. Without Shukaku's help I can't control my sand, he thought to himself. I won't be able to fend her off much longer.
Then Mongoose wrapped itself around Gaara. Looks like this is it…again, he thought, and then he closed in eyes in preparation of what was to come.
"Rasengan!"
"Wha--?" Gaara said in shock. He saw Naruto launching a blue ball of rapidly swirling chakra at Mongoose, which annihilated it.
"What the hell was that for?!" Naruto yelled at Masago.
"He crashed in on my party," Masago said. "Took you long enough to get here." She put Tori back in its scroll and pulled out another one. "Ninpou: Buddha's Puppet Dance!" A four-foot sitting Buddha statue appeared on the ground. Masago jumped down and a hatch on the back of the statue's head opened up. She fed some chakra strings through the hole. Fifteen more hatches opened up with one chakra string coming out of each one. She summoned fifteen puppets and connected a string to each of them. "Buddha Kaiten Barrier," she said and a swirling sphere of chakra swirled around her and the statue.
"That looks like what Sasori did, kind of," Sakura remarked, remembering when Sasori summoned a hundred puppets against Elder Chiyo's ten.
"Where did you learn Kaiten from?" Naruto demanded.
"You can thank Hinata for the Kiaten," Masago said. "Ain't she a doll?"
"Why you—" Naruto said, almost going after her.
Gaara caught his arm and said, "I'm sure Hinata didn't know that teaching her that jutsu would lead to this."
"That's not the point!" the angry ramen-lover yelled, tearing Gaara's hand off his arm. He looked at Masago and said, "Why that obstinate little bi—"
"Naruto," Gaara said, once again laying hold on his arm. "Calm down. I have a plan."
"Eh?" Naruto bent down while Gaara gave him the plan.
"Nothing can save you now!" Masago said, launching her puppets at them. "You two shouldn't have crashed my party."
"Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" A multitude of Narutos launched themselves at the puppets. Most of the puppets came at him with taijutsu and various cutting implements as Naruto kind of figured. What he didn't put into account was that a few can perform fire- and water-style jutsus and one of them even looked like a big metal gorilla. The gorilla lobbed a few clones into the neighboring village, but Naruto as always was resilient. He just kept making more and more while Gaara was on one knee looking like he was concentrating some chakra. Whenever a puppet came after Gaara, Naruto took it out. Masago also pulled out more and more puppets out of scrolls to make up for the damaged ones.
What the hell are they up too? Masago wondered. Just then sand burst out of the ground. "What the—" was all she got out before she was enveloped in sand. The puppets became immobile and the Kaiten barrier dissipated.
Gaara had one arm outstretched and said, "Sabaku Kyuu!" He raised her up about ten feet and delivered a fatal blow. "Sabaku Sousou!" He clenched his fist.
"It worked!" Naruto said, getting rid of his shadow clones.
He spoke too soon.
The sand started to glow red and become goopy. This shocked both Naruto and Gaara. Gaara suddenly released his grip and looked at his hand. "What?" he said puzzled. "Burn marks?" The glob of burning ooze fell to the ground.
A glowing red figure rose from it with her head and arms down. Masago stayed like that for a few minutes.
"How come she survived your sand coffin?" Naruto asked Gaara, now spooked shitless.
Before he could give a reply Masago ran at him at blinding speed. Gaara had no time to react. She took a swipe at him and he flew hundreds of feet away. Masago ignored Naruto and went after Gaara.
"Looks like she won't go down any other way," Naruto remarked while concentrating chakra.
This was the third time Gaara stared death in the face. Masago was over him beating the crap out of his face. Somehow Gaara managed to rip her off him with sand. The sand instantly became goopy melted glass. He looked to his left and saw Naruto and his shadow clone both carrying a rather large sphere of charka. He knew that it was meant for her and put her in Naruto's path.
"Oodama Rasengan!" Naruto cried, lunging it right into Masago's side. The force was so great that it terminated the shadow clone and made Masago cough blood.
After the clouds of smoke and sand dissipated Naruto and Masago was in a huge crater in heaps. Naruto managed to crawl up to Masago.
"I've…failed…." Came a faint remark.
"What?" Naruto said, leaning close to her.
"Sakura'll explain…everything," she said, coughing more blood between words. She hastily made hand seals.
"You still want to fight?" Naruto said, shocked.
"No," Masago said. "Even though fighting until death is part of the Sand shinobi's ethos, I know when I'm beat. Figured it'd be the one to beat me first…." She put her arms around Naruto and said, "Goodbye…Naruto." Then she kissed him square on the lips. While this was happening she disintegrated into bits and pieces of dust which were carried off by the wind.
After Naruto recovered from the initial shock of what just happened, he staggered toward Sakura, passing a rather suspicious pile of sand in the outline of a person…. When he got there Sakura was freed by an exhausted Gaara.
"How did you—" Naruto began to say.
"His sand clone helped you fight Masago," Sakura interrupted. "While you were preoccupied his real body came and freed me."
"What happened to Masago?" Gaara asked.
"She died," Naruto said, with sadness in his voice. "She made herself disintegrate."
"I'm fine, thanks for asking," Sakura said, a bit surprised and miffed that Naruto hadn't asked about her condition. "It looks like you two need urgent care."
"Yeah," Naruto said, looking toward the crater. I wonder if it's that easy, he mused.
xXx
In the woods surrounding Kirigakure (Village Hidden In The Mist)….
A squad of Mist shinobi hunters were looking for a dangerous ninja they were alerted to. They gathered together around their captain. "Split up. Make sure he doesn't get away!"
"Yes, sir," they replied. Then they ran off deeper into the woods.
The captain turned around, looked up a tree, and said, "My, my. It certainly has been a long time…."
xXx
THE END…?
xXx
Author's Note: Thanks for your patience and comments! I hoped you liked this story. Well, there's nothing else to do but to write more chapters in my other story. Maybe I'll write another Naruto story with my own characters. Anywho, please comment. See ya later!