VIII

The monster glanced over at Naruto, who had started to leave in search of Sirius. "Where do you think you're going?" the creature asked with an insane tone in its voice. The reddish-brown gas came from the fleshy side of the creature's body and rushed towards Naruto.

"Naruto!" Sakura cried to him, struggling under the extreme pressure.

But the reddish-brown gas made it to Naruto and suddenly he stopped. A red aura started forming around his body after a moment of silence. He started to growl suddenly. Sakura gulped nervously, not sure what was going on.

"Looks like my work here is done!" the creature sneered maliciously. "Your friend is under my control now!" It laughed manically and immediately sped off, letting go Sakura.

Naruto turned his head slowly. His eyes were red in blinded fury. The red aura became plasma and started to form a large tail behind Naruto. He growled fiercely and turned completely around.

"Naruto?!" Sakura called to him, not understanding why he was acting like this so suddenly.

Naruto didn't answer, but instead leapt at Sakura. Sakura was confused and scared. She didn't know what exactly to do. She leapt over to another branch as quickly as she could before Naruto had gotten a hold of her. Naruto stopped on the branch next to Sakura and launched a plasma claw at her. Sakura ducked, but Naruto immediately thrashed down the plasma; slamming Sakura down to the branches below.

Sakura didn't know how to defend herself. Last time she tried to calm Naruto down, it didn't work as she had planned, so her only other option was to stop Naruto. But Sakura couldn't defend herself against something that couldn't be hurt. She wasn't like Naruto or Sasuke. She didn't have a monster inside of her or a curse seal.

Naruto rushed down to the lower branched and grabbed Sakura with another plasma claw and threw her over to a nearby waterfall.

Sakura was shoved into the water and couldn't breath. She couldn't get the claw off of her either. She couldn't even touch it. I'm going to drown here if I don't do something! Sakura thought. But... what do I do?! Sakura struggled, tearing at the plasma claw, even though she knew she could do nothing. But... wait... She thought of something at the last minute. Her palm glowed green and, with extreme precision, she cut the claw and it disintegrated. This was her weapon... for now...

Sirius had no idea what was going on behind him, but he didn't care either. He had to get to the Valley of the End first and investigate the matter of Orochimaru's death. But, at the same time, he felt that he was being followed. Sirius stopped and turned around.

He grabbed his sword hilt and unsheathed his sword. "Who's there?!" Sirius called out. "Show yourself!" He knew for a fact he was being followed, but wasn't sure by what, exactly. He sheathed his sword back and kept on going onward.

Eventually, he came to the Valley of the End. "Finally..." he muttered. He looked around as if expected to find something. But what he found was not what he had expected.

"We meet again, Sirius," a familiar voice sneered. Sirius swept his head from side to side, then looked up. At the top of one of the heads, was none other than a small, distant figure of Sasuke Uchiha.

"You!" Sirius called to him, a spark of murderous intent in his eye.

"Yes... Surprised to see me?" he asked and then laughed.

"Not in the least bit!" Sirius retorted.

"No, I didn't think so..."

"So, why are you here?"

"I know you're investigating the death of Orochimaru. But, I know who did it, and I think you have a "grand" idea who, as well."

Sirius' eyes grew wide, "The Ragnorok...?!"

"Yes. That's the one..."

"But how did he-?"

"Well, it seems that seal you performed didn't last nearly as long you had thought it would, did it?"

"It was supposed to seal him into another dimension! How did he get out?"

Sasuke laughed again, "Wouldn't you like to know!"

"Tell me, Uchiha!" Sirius yelled, raising his voice.

"No..." Sasuke. "And if I did know... I wouldn't tell you, experiment!"

Sirius clenched his fist and unsheathed his broad-sword. He rushed over to the water fall immediately afterward.

Sasuke did the same, unsheathing his katana and shot down the waterfall with it in hand.

Their swords clashed intensely at the very bottom of the waterfall.

Sakura was thrown back into the waterfall that was much farther way from Sirius and Sasuke's location. Naruto had just grown two more tails for a total of three. One more, and I'm as good as dead, she thought frantically. To make things worse, she was losing too much chakra from using her technique so excessively. She didn't have anything else to go with. She jumped up from Naruto's attack with his plasma claws again and then threw a chakra-enhanced punch right at his head. It apparently connected, making a nicely sized crater in the ground with Naruto in the middle of it. Yes! I hit him! she thought as Naruto stood there motionless. But then, as she landed on her feet next to the crater, she noticed Naruto slightly twitch.

Just as suddenly, his body was covered in black and his body grew larger and more fox-like. NO! Sakura screamed in her mind. There was now no possible way she could prevail after this. Naruto was growing his fourth tail again.

After fully forming, the fox-like Naruto leapt up and landed on all fours with the ground crashing from below him. Sakura was pummeled back into the waterfall again. What now? It's over... Sakura gave up as she floated along the waterfall. A four-tailed Naruto was roaring triumphantly. She was going to die in this place... But... something odd happened that made Sakura feel kind of awkward... She closed her eyes and the water around her began to steam up. Strangely, it felt warm all around Sakura's body, and yet she had no idea why.

I'm not letting you die on me, girl! My power's yours now!

Who's that? Sakura thought to herself, dazed. Suddenly, her whole body glowed in a green aura. Her body had strings of pink chakra encircle it. Sakura's eyes opened slightly and then, she disappeared from the water and appeared on her feet, on land. A four-tailed Naruto became confused and slightly curious. Sakura's skin became slightly tanner with a grayish tinge to it. An empowered Sakura took her headband from her head and and tied it on her forehead instead. She knotted it and pulled the knot tightly. With her hands still there, eyes snapped open. The white of her eyes were black and the color of her eyes changed to pink with a small diamond where each pupil should've been with six smaller dots surrounding them. Sakura put her hands down, not letting her eyes off of the fox-like Naruto.

Sakura got into a stance. "What are you waiting for?" Sakura's voice was split with her own voice and a demonic voice. "Come!"