Chapter 11

The Chuunin Exams Conclusion & Attack!


[Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. It belongs to Masashi Kishimoto. This fiction is just for fun.]


"Character Dialogue"

Character Thought and Inner Sakura

"Telepathic Conversation"

"Jutsu"

"Demon /Summon"


Neji activated his Byakugan. "Are you prepared to lose, Uzumaki?" he said arrogantly.

Naruto said, "So, you want to dance, huh? Well, then let's dance, Hyuuga Neji!" His eyes had become cold "The dance of death."

Both Genins took their respective fighting stance before dashing toward each other. They clashed in an amazing taijutsu battle with neither side showing any sign of giving up. Naruto aimed a cross punch to Neji's left jaw, but Neji ducked under it and aimed his palm towards Naruto's stomach, but Naruto caught his hand effortlessly and tossed him away from him about five yards easily.

As soon as Neji landed on his feet, he rushed at Naruto to strike with two fingers. However, his fingers jammed hard against a log, the surface of which was considerably less forgiving than human flesh. He gave a wordless howl of rage as he recoiled, cradling his hand, and rounded to face Naruto again. He saw the blond threw a punch at him. At the last second, he managed to jump out of the way from being hit by it. The punch hit the ground, causing a small chunk of earth to peel off.

...oOo...

"Whoa! Did you see that?" Choji asked his best friend.

"Troublesome, yeah," Shikamaru said. He narrowed his eyes at the blond. The dance of death? Ryu had said the same thing before slaughtering all Gatou's thugs. Is Naruto personally knew Ryu?

Kurenai looked at the match and said, "Engaging a Hyuuga at close range is a bad idea."

"What are you saying, Nai-chan? The kid is doing well," Anko said, as she was enjoying the fight.

"I'm with Anko," Asuma said. He lit a cigarette, inhaling slowly and puffing out rings of smoke. He turned his attention at the match. "Just look at fight. Naruto knows what he's doing."

...oOo...

Naruto blocked Neji's strike with his metal arm protector before grabbing him by the arm. Neji went to hit him with his other arm, but Naruto grabbed that one as well. The blond smirked as a seal-less shadow clone popped up beside him. The clone sent Neji flying with a punch to the jaw.

Neji rose up slowly and spat out the blood that had entered his mouth. "Playtime is over, Uzumaki," he said, glaring at the blond angrily.

Naruto didn't say anything. His clone ran toward Neji to engage him in close combat. In the meantime, the real Naruto made two hand seals as fuinjutsu markings over his bare skin turned visible.

"Release!" he said.

Markings completely vanished.

Naruto cracked his neck. "Feel good," he said, and he tilted his head at Neji's direction to see he had managed to dispel his clone.

Only thanks to his reaction time, which he had gained from his training with Gai-sensei and Lee, allowed Neji to move his head enough to avoid the Naruto's punch. The blond had suddenly appeared next to him. Neji went for a full on palm strike with his free arm, but much to his surprise the punch went straight through the blond.

Neji's widened after seeing Naruto faded from his view. "After image?" he said.

...oOo...

Sakura asked, "Was that a bushin?"

"No, it was an after image," Gai said. Naruto's speed clearly impressed him.

Kakashi nodded his head.

"So it was a pure speed," Sasuke said, looking carefully at his teammate with his Sharingan eyes. He turned his head to his sensei. "What was that last jutsu he used to gain this speed?"

"It wasn't a jutsu."

Everyone looked at the direction where the voice came from. They saw a white haired, tall man.

"Jiraiya-sama," Kakashi said. He was happy to see him because he could finally get this great man's autograph on the Icha-Icha Golden Addition.

Walking toward the Cyclops Jounin, Jiraiya said, "Hello, Kakashi."

"You're Jiraiya, one of Sannin and the teacher of our late Fourth Hokage," Sakura said happily. It wasn't every day you could meet one of Leaf's legendary Sannin, who didn't want to kill you. "It's nice to meet you, Jiraiya-sama." She gave him a bow in respect.

"Finally, someone gave me the proper respect I deserve," Jiraiya muttered.

"Only because she doesn't know real you," Karasu told him telepathically.

If Brat isn't enough, his summon is also trying to humiliate me, Jiraiya thought. Walking forward to the railing, he looked at the fight between Naruto and Neji. "Anyway, the marking over Naruto's body is a weighting seal," he said.

"A weighting seal?" Ino asked.

"It's used to increase the weight of Living and Non-living things," Kakashi explained. "This seal is not for an actual combat. Its primary use is for training in a style similar to Gai's training method."

Sasuke questioned, "Why didn't you use this method to train me?"

Kakashi sighed. "Because this type of training cannot done in one month. Any normal person needs minimum three months to recover from its side effects."

"Then, what about Naruto?"

"Well, Naruto," Kakashi said. He was thinking about best possible answer. "He has an accelerated healing factor that allows ripped muscles and tissue to recover faster than normal."

"Naruto has an accelerated healing factor?" Shikamaru asked. He seemed to be surprised like other Genins.

Kakashi turned his head to Nara and asked, "Have you ever seen him injured more than one day?"

Shikamaru shook his head.

"Exactly."

Sasuke looked at his teammate who was effectively dodging and blocking Neji every gentle fist strike. How are you better than me, Dobe?

...oOo...

Naruto jumped away from Neji. He pulled out a shuriken and threw them at his opponent before making three hand seals. "Shuriken Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Instantly, the single shuriken multiplied to a thousand.

"Shit! Eight Trigrams Palm Rotation!" he announced, as he began to spin rapidly with his arms extending out, creating a giant dome around him to block and deflect all shurikens.

...oOo...

Hanabi's eyes widened seeing a technique of the main house of the Hyuuga clan. "Father," she said.

Hiashi seemed too shocked to reply properly as he was staring down at his nephew. He learned this technique his own and without any help... He is truly a genius, he thought. He activated his Byakugan to observe the technique as veins rooted from the area around his eye.

"What is this?" Sakura asked, as she washed Neji created a blue dome around him.

"It's Eight Trigrams Palm Rotation," Tenten said, gaining all Genins attention. "It's most powerful and perfect defence. It's Neji's trump card. Your blond friend is now in the deep trouble."

"Hmm, how is Naruto in trouble? Neji is the one injured in the fight. On the other hand, Naruto looks perfectly fine to me," Shikamaru said. It was a logical question.

Tenten decided to ignore him and watch the fight.

"Troublesome woman," he muttered when he didn't get any reply.

...oOo...

Neji stopped spinning as the dome died down around him. He slumped to the ground, panting heavily from chakra exhaustion. Blood was pouring out of multiple cuts he had all over his body because of shurikens.

How is this possible? he thought. Rotation is an ultimate defense.

...oOo...

"It's impossible. Rotation is an ultimate defense!" Tenten said in disbelief. How did simple kunais managed to penetrate it? It hadn't happened when she had been helping Neji to perfect this technique.

"Hmm," Kakashi said. He had lifted up his headband to look at Neji's chakra with his Sharingan eye. "There seems to be something off about his chakra and it's not because of chakra exhaustion."

"Our ultimate defense has failed," Hanabi wondered. Rotation was an ultimate defense. It was main branch proud technique. How it had failed was beyond her thinking.

"No, Hanabi. Neji didn't use the technique correctly. That's why it's failed to protect him from those shurikens," Hiashi said. He had seen his nephew's rotation with the Byakugan. There's something wrong with his chakra.

...oOo...

There's something wrong with my chakra. I can't control it correctly, Neji thought. He looked up at his opponent to see him smirking. "What have you done to my chakra?" he demanded, glaring at the blond.

The smirk still hadn't left Naruto's face. "I drugged you to mess up your chakra control," he answered.

Neji's eyes widened. "What...? When?"

Naruto pointed at the cut on Neji's arm. It was the first wound he had given to him. "The cut was just for distraction, so you couldn't feel the needle I used to inject the drug into you."

...oOo...

"It's over," Kakashi said while covering his Sharingan eye with his headband. "To shut the chakra points, user needs to inject right amount of chakra into the opponent's chakra pathway system, but Neji has barely any chakra left to even keep his doujutsu active. He has wasted his almost all of his chakra to pull out his last stunt. On the other hand, Naruto, who has four times more chakra than me, hasn't used any big jutsu. And only jutsu he had used wasn't much taxing."

"I like your kid, Kakashi," Anko said, smiling. "He isn't afraid to use any dirty tricks. He used everything to gain an edge in the fight. Psychological warfare, lies, drugs. The kid is best."

"I always know Naruto has devilish mind. Well, this proved my point."

"You really have some interesting Genins, Hokage-dono," Raikage said.

"Wasn't he dead-last of this academy?" 'Kazekage' asked.

"Deception is part of shinobi, Kazekage-dono," Hiruzen said. "It's better when people think you're weak; they'll underestimate you, and it will make fighting easier. The prime example is Neji, who is paying price for underestimating him."

...oOo...

Neji shakily stood up on his feet. He didn't have enough chakra to keep his doujutsu active. He glared at Naruto.

"I-It is not over, Uzumaki," he said.

"It's all over, Neji," Naruto said. "Besides, you showed me your trump card. To make this equal, I suppose it's my turn to show you mine."

Right beneath Neji, multiple black chains with sharp, hook-like dragon head-shaped tips erupted from the ground and wrapped around his arms, legs, and ankle before lifting him up in the air.

"What is this?" the Hyuuga genius asked, struggling to free from chains. He looked at Naruto to see chains coming out from his both arms.

...oOo...

"Chakra chains?" Jiraiya said. He's inherited Kushina's special chakra. But his chains certainly look different than her.

"What kind of technique is this?" Sasuke asked. "I've never seen something like this before."

"This is a unique technique, which molds the user's chakra into chains which, after materializing, can be used for various purposes such as physically restraining targets, fight them directly, or be used as a means of transportation," Kakashi said.

"Those chains are really strong," Jiraiya, said without taking eyes from his godson, as he got everyone's attention. "Even while near death, Kushina was able to use these chains to restrain and subdue the Nine-Tailed Fox, enabling Minato to use his special technique to defeat the Fox."

Such strong technique, Sasuke thought before he asked again, "Where I can learn it?"

"You can't," Jiraiya said, shaking his head. "It's a unique technique. Only special group of people can learn it, but they also need a special chakra to use this technique."

"You mean it's a bloodline," Shikamaru said. He came to one conclusion. "Naruto has a clan?"

Jiraiya cursed himself for giving too much information to Genins. "Yes, you could say that," he said.

"So what is his clan name?" Sakura asked, as she wanted to know more about her blond teammate.

Jiraiya sighed. "The Uzumaki clan."

"Never heard about them before," Sasuke said.

"Because the clan has destroyed during the shinobi war, and now only few Uzumaki are alive," Jiraiya explained. "The clan was distant blood relatives of the Senju clan. Even years after their destruction, all shinobis of the Leaf wear the Uzumaki clan symbol onto their uniforms and flak jackets as well as on the shoulders in memory of their friendship." He had pointed at the red symbol on back of Kakashi's flak jacket.

Taking a long deep puff from his cigarette, Asuma added, "Mito Uzumaki, Wife of the First Hokage, was also from the Uzumaki Clan."

All Genins looked down at the blond. In the last fifteen minutes, they learned many things they didn't know about him before, not even when they were with him in the same class.

"Ah, the Uzumaki Clan's famous chakra chains," 'Kazekage' said.

"This Genin is full of surprises," Raikage said. He looked closely at Naruto's face. Spiky blond hair and blue eyes... He is a carbon copy of Yellow Flash. And with his surname Uzumaki like Uzumaki Kushina. Could be...?

Hanabi asked, "Father, what are those things?" She referred chains coming out from Naruto's arms.

"They're chakra chains. They are solidified form of chakra," Hiashi said. He saw the condition of his nephew. It wasn't good. He can't break free from these chains... not without his chakra.

...oOo...

Naruto watched Neji struggling to break free from the chains. "Your struggling is useless. Those chains are made for hold things hundred times bigger and stranger than you, Neji," he said. "Now, forfeit."

"Never, my destiny—"

Naruto waved his hand as chains lifted Neji up in the air before slamming him on the ground hard. "I'm saying it again, you talk too much," he said.

Neji lay motionless on the ground. Naruto's last move had not only broken all bones in his body, but also shattered his strong belief in the fate.

"How?" he asked in a low tone.

"Because you underestimated your opponent by trusting too much on your destiny rather than yourself," Naruto said in a harsh tone. "There is no such thing as Fate or destiny. It is only created by people who have weak wills. Those who can't think about their own feat, and those who put the blame of everything on something that does not exist, so they won't feel guilty." He looked at the protector of the exam. "Call the match; it's over."

Genma walked toward them and checked Neji's condition before lifting his arm up. "Winner is Uzumaki Naruto!" he declared.

There was an ephemeral moment of stunned silence before applause erupted throughout the crowd.

Naruto turned his heel and started walking away, but suddenly stopped as if he forgot something. "Another thing, Neji. Even if God comes down from heaven to tell me my destiny is to be a die within the next few minutes, It won't stop me from fighting to see the sunrise of the next day. Even if I fail to do that, at least it will give me some satisfaction that I tried rather than accepting it like a coward," he said, and he took a few steps forward and disappeared in a swarm of black butterflies.

…oOo…

"Brat knows how to talk," Jiraiya commented.

Kakashi nodded and said, "Yeah."

"So, what are you doing here, shameless pervert?" Naruto asked. He had appeared next to Jiraiya.

A vein popped out of Jiraiya's head. "Brat, stop calling me that!" he said.

"How about Pervy-Sage?"

"What?"

"You are a pervert and sage, in short Pervy Sage."

Kakashi watched the scene with amusement from his spot.

"Jiraiya-sama is a pervert?" Sakura asked in disbelief.

Naruto turned to only girl in his team. "You know about those adult books that Kakashi reads in public, right?" he said, getting a nod from Pinky. "Well, author of those books is him," He pointed his thumb at the Toad Sage, "and his favorite hobby is sneaking a peek into a Women's Bathing House."

Sakura's jaw dropped to the ground after hearing it. He couldn't believe it Jiraiya, one of the legendary Sannin, was a pervert.

Damn, Brat! Jiraiya thought, as he could feel women near him glaring at him. Some of them were even leaking a killing intent.

"That was really a youthful match, Naruto-kun," Gai yelled, approaching Naruto. He gave him a nice guy pose and then pulled out a green jumpsuit similar to his and Lee seemed to nowhere. "This is the youthful dress for youthful person like you."

Naruto opened and closed his mouth. "Hmm, thanks for offer, Gai-sensei, but I cannot accept this. Sorry," he said. "And shouldn't you with your student Neji? It's... umm... unyouthful to stay here to watch the match when your student is badly hurt and need you most."

"Yosh!" Gai said. "You're right, Naruto-kun. Thanks for saving me from being unyouthful." And he ran in the direction of infirmary to check the condition of Neji.

"Nice way to avoid Gai, Naruto," Kakashi said.

...oOo...

"The next match is Sabaku no Gaara vs. Uchiha Sasuke," Genma declared.

"Hey, forehead girl," Ino said to get Sakura's attention. "Sasuke-ken's match is going to start soon."

Everyone, who were listening Naruto, looked at down at arena to watch most waited match between the youngest child of the Fourth Kazekage and the last loyal Uchiha of the Leaf.

Instead of looking down at the arena as others, Naruto was looking up at Kage booth. "Interesting," he said. His voice was so faint; it was barely audible. "Nii Yugito, the container of cat, and Killer Bee, the container of ox."

Nii Yugito was a long, straight, blonde haired, which bound with taut bandages, woman. She wore a short-sleeved black and purple blouse, black pants, both of which had a design similar to clouds on them, purple fingerless gloves, and a chain of blue beads wound around her left hand. As for Killer Bee, he was dark skin and a muscular build man with blond hair and a goatee. On his right shoulder, he had a tattoo of the kanji for "iron" and on his left cheek; he had a tattoo of a bull's horn. He wore oval shaped sunglasses and a white-colored forehead protector as well as his village's standard one-strap-over-one-shoulder flak jacket.

"Where did you get this information?" Jiraiya asked. He was standing next to Naruto, so he clearly heard that the blond had said. While Yugito and Bee were being Jinchuurikis of Cat and Ox was common knowledge in the Cloud, but it wasn't meant that it was common knowledge in the Leaf.

Naruto turned his at the Toad Sage. "Well, I've eyes and ears," he said. "Anyway, you shouldn't be wasting your time here."

"And why is that?"

"Karasu-chan, could you please tell him why?"

Karasu emerged from the shadow and perched on her master's shoulder. "Because some sound-nins outside of the village's walls are waiting for a signal to summon snakes, and other than the Master's summons, only your summonses are big enough to stop them."

Jiraiya's eyes widened before replacing into eyes of a battle-hardened shinobi that had lived through war and seen many of their comrades fall. "Where?" he asked.

"North side," Naruto answered.

Jiraiya nodded. He quickly made a few hand seals and disappeared with a puff of smoke.

Naruto turned his head to the match to see the proctor had already started the match between Gaara and Sasuke. The last loyal Uchiha was using his newfound speed, which was near Lee without his weights on, to land a blow on his opponent.

Not bad, the blond thought, and he turned sharply around to walk away.

"Naruto, where are you going?" Kakashi asked when he saw his blond student going somewhere.

Naruto stopped and tilted her head back to look at him. "To bathroom," he answered.

Kakashi nodded as accepted the answer and went back to see his other student's match.

…oOo…

When Naruto reached a certain place, he stopped there. He looked around to find any potential threat. He found no one, as he could sense no other ninjas nearby.

"Zetsu!" he called, and he watched as a White Zetsu clone slowly emerged from the ground near him. "Good, you're on time."

He made five set of hand seal and shoved his glowing hand into Zetsu's chest. Zetsu's form started to shivered and ripple like water. Then it twisted. In less than a minute, it changed into a prefect replica him.

Naruto pulled back his hand from his special clone's chest. "Go and take my place," he ordered.

Clone Naruto gave him a salute and said, "Yes, sir!"

Naruto shook his head at his special clone's behavior and watched him walked toward the direction of the Chuunin stadium. "Karasu-chan, stay with him," he said.

"Yes, master."

His pupils changed to a blood red color with three spinning tomoe around its center. He then disappeared, sucked into a vortex that opened up in his right eye.

…oOo…

Naruto's clone reached in time to see Sasuke imitating Lee's taijutsu moves on Gaara. Did he copy it with his Sharingan?

Sasuke made a swift kick at the sand clone that Gaara had made earlier. He then delivered another few quick strikes to turn the clone into just a pile of sand. He started to run toward real Gaara with a huge dust trail behind him and disappeared. Gaara got ready and sent a wave of sand in front of him, but Sasuke got right behind him while dodging couple of sand attacks. He kicked the Sand Genin, sending him back to the other end of the stadium, just like Lee.

With his foot up in the air, Sasuke said, "What's wrong...? Is that it?"

Incredible! most of Leaf Genins thought, who were watching the fight.

Sasuke ran toward Gaara again without waiting this time, running circles around the boy until he ducked under a ring of sand that Gaara was employing as a defense mechanism. He gave him a quick kick, grabbing the straps of his outfit and pulling the Sand shinobi onto his knee before moving away with noticeable difficulty drawing breath.

...oOo...

What... his taijutsu is like Lee-san's. And his speed is totally different than before, Sakura thought in awe.

Naruto, who was standing next to Kakashi, looked impressed. "Impressive if he can archive such speed in only one month. But keeping up that kind of movement uses up lot of stamina," he said, as he noticed Sasuke panting heavily. He turned his head to Gaara to observe his condition, which much wasn't better than Sasuke's. "The good thing for him is that his opponent's sand armor also uses up too much chakra," He turned the head to Kakashi. "Both of them can't keep it for long. Sasuke will get only one chance to use that jutsu and if he fails to use it effectively..." He shook his head. "Did you ask him about his favorite flower?"

"Believe in your teammate, Naruto," Kakashi said. He knew what Naruto was indicating. There was only small chance of Sasuke winning here.

...oOo...

Gaara then held up a hand seal and sand began to encroach on him from all directions and stated to form a large sphere of sand. Sasuke attempted to get a shot in before it closed, but was very nearly impaled by multiple sand spikes that shot out of the side when he got near of it.

Gaara isn't... not that jutsu, Kankuro thought. A fear was clearly visible on his face as he had clue what kind of jutsu his brother was using.

Sasuke was carefully looking at the sand sphere to find any weakness in it. Using all sand to protect himself...So it gets this hard when it's packed tight, he thought, panting. An absolute defense?

A small eye of sand materialized in the air nearby the sphere of sand, much to Sasuke's surprise.

There's no doubt about it, it's That jutsu, Temari thought, as she panicked. This is bad! Gaara's forgotten about the plan entirely.

Weren't late for nothing... Sasuke thought, and wasting no time, he attempted to use his speed and strength to find a way to break into the sphere, only to find none of his efforts was bearing fruit. He moved away from Gaara. He was breathing heavily as he used too much of his chakra. As I thought no good. Hiding in there I don't know what he's up to, but this is perfect, since mine also takes some time.

...oOo...

Damn it, Gaara. You won't be able to see the signal, Baki, a Jounin-level shinobi of the hidden Sand, said.

Baki was Jounin-sensei of the Sand Siblings. He is a very tall man, and had two distinctive, red markings on the right side of his face, the only visible part of his head, with the rest being covered by his turban-like headgear and by a sheet hanging from it on the left side of his face.

"Damn... Once he's like this there's nothing that can be done," Temari cursed, as she knew her brother very well. "Dose Gaara want to mess up plan?"

Shino was within hearing distance, so he heard every word that Temari said. Plan? he thought, wondering about what they were talking.

...oOo...

Sasuke then ran high up one of the walls before stopping, keeping himself rooted with chakra. He held his bandages arm down to the ground... or wall, while the other gripped his wrist tightly. He made some quick hand seals. Everyone, except few who had recognized the jutsu, was curious what Sasuke was doing. Lightning began to gather and spark around his hands. It buzzed threateningly.

...oOo...

"Incredible, you can clearly see a chakra in his hand. What's going on?" Sakura thought. She was surprised as well as impressed by this. "And what's this technique? And this sound."

"A simple stab," Naruto answered. He was carefully eyeing Sasuke's technique.

"Huh?" Sakura said, as the blond's answer made her more confused.

Turning around to look at Sakura, Naruto said, "This is Kakashi-sensei's first original technique." He got attention of all Genin who wanted to know about this technique. "This technique channels a large amount of lightning chakra to the user's hand. The amount of chakra is so great that it becomes visible. The high concentration of electricity produces a sound reminiscent of many birds chirping." He turned back to arena and looked at Sasuke, who was busy in performing the technique. "Once the technique is completed, the user charges forward and thrusts it into the target. This produces heavy amounts of damage that is usually fatal."

"What's it called?" Ino asked.

The last loyal Uchiha ran toward the sand sphere tearing up the wall and earth along the way. The Uchiha was getting closer and closer and the jutsu screamed like a thousand birds... the irony.

Sasuke stabbed the sand with the blade-like jutsu and shouted, "Chidori!"

"What an amazing technique!" Sakura said smiling happily, as she watched her Sasuke-ken's new technique easily pierced the sand shield.

"Yes, it's really powerful technique," Naruto said, gaining her attention again. "However, it has several weaknesses. For one, it requires a large amount of energy to be used and the user must be able to move at high speeds in order to get the necessary velocity. However, its greatest weakness is that while in use, the user is afflicted with tunnel vision, able to see only what is directly in front of them. This leaves the user open to counter-attack if they miss their target. Only Sharingan users can negate the drawback because of their Sharingan, which takes in every detail, regardless of how fast the user is moving."

Kakashi couldn't help but be a little bit surprised. "Just how much do you know about my technique?" he asked. It wasn't really a common knowledge and very few people knew about his technique's weakness.

"Knowledge is power. It can change the world for better or worse!" Naruto said, looking at Kakashi straight into the eye. "Do you know what one of my dreams is? My dream is to collect all the knowledge of the world. I want to know everything... learn everything."

Kakashi shook his head before turning his head to look the condition of his other student. He saw Sasuke hand went straight thought the Sand Genin's absolute defense.

Two sand siblings and their sensei looked quite shocked and slightly scared, as they couldn't believe their eyes.

Kankuro's eyes were wide open in shock. "No way! Gaara's absolute defense has been...!" he said in disbelief.

"It can't be...!" Temari said. Her condition wasn't much better than her brother was.

Baki said, "Impossible!"

...oOo...

"I've got you," Sasuke said.

Inside of the cocoon, Gaara had never felt anything like it, never before... He felt a strange sensation on his shoulder. "What's worm stuff? Mother, what's it?" he asked.

Outside of cocoon, in the stadium, everyone could hear Gaara's scream as he screamed in pain and shock. He had been wounded for the first time in his life.

"Blood, my blood!

Sasuke tried to pull his arm out from the sand and it wasn't working for him, so he flared his Chidori once more to escape, noticing a distinctly demonic arm following him out.

'It can't be!' Temari thought, as she saw her brother's blood on the sand. No way! Gaara took a wound.

The arm then retracted into the Sand Shield as Sasuke gripped his arm in pain. He saw another distinctly demonic feature within the circular shield, a large yellow crossed iris. Sasuke shuddered in fear at the imposing stare he was shot.

...oOo...

"Kakashi-sensei, W-hat's going on?" Sakura said in fear, as she could see Sasuke was injured and losing. In a matter of minutes, whole match had been turned upside down.

Kakashi didn't answer or even glance at her. "Naruto?" he said.

Naruto nodded and he answered his sensei's unasked question, "He's losing control."

"Hey, bro," Bee said.

A turned at back and looked at his adoptive brother. "Yes, Bee," he replied.

"He's just like us," Bee said. "He's a Jinchuuriki."

Yugito nodded and added another thing in that. "And he seems to be quite unstable to me."

"What?"! A shouted. He quickly turned his head to look at Kazekage. "Are you out of mind? You sent an unstable Jinchuuriki to participate the Chuunin Exams."

"Raikage-dono, I'm not much different than Hokage-dono," Kazekage said, showing mirth in his voice. "There is another Jinchuuriki in the exams... The Jinchuuriki of most powerful Tailed-Beast. And he's from the Leaf… Am I right, Hokage-dono?"

Hiruzen narrowed his eyes and said, "Yes, but he's stable unlike your son."

Kazekage smirked inside his mind and gave a hidden signal to his most trusted man.

…oOo…

"Did he transform into his complete form?"! Kankuro asked to his sister.

Temari said, "I don't know! It looks like he's been wounded. This has never happened before."

Both of them were equally worried. Despite their plan, Gaara still scared them senseless, and the One-Tailed was the most horrifying thing either of them had the discomfort of seeing.

The sand shield crumbled to reveal a bleeding, seemingly petrified Gaara. His shoulder was bleeding, and yet the brown strap over his shoulder wasn't damaged in the slightest, despite the fact the Chidori made a rather large hold in the almost impenetrable Shield of Sand. There were no inhuman features on the boy, confusing Sasuke greatly.

Naruto felt a chakra spike and felt a veritable sea of chakra falling from above. Looking up, he noticed a mass of white feathers falling from the skies. Temple of Nirvana Jutsu, he thought, as he recognized the jutsu. He flared his chakra to break the genjutsu around him.

Then an explosion in the Kage booth covered the Third Hokage, Fourth Raikage and Fourth Kazekage—along with their guards—in a thick smoke, shocking mostly all the Leaf Jounin. The Genins, who had managed to dispel the ninjutsu, weren't sure how to react in such a situation.

Temari and Kankuro used the commotion to get to Gaara, to prevent him going off the plan for any longer. Genma and Baki then appeared beside Sasuke and the Sand Siblings respectively.

"Gaara, the plan," Baki said, looking at the Kazekage's youngest child, who was clenching his head in pain.

"Know it," Temari said, as she had a clue what was wrong with her brother.

"What's wrong?" Kankuro asked.

"Fool!" Baki said. "Trying to transform into your complete form before the signal."

"He's experiencing side effects," Temari said. Kneeling beside Gaara to check his condition. Jinchuuriki or not he was her little brother after all. "It's impossible to proceed now."

"Then what are we supposed to do? Do it without Gaara?"! Kankuro shouted.

"Abort the mission," Baki said without taking his eyes from Genma. "You guys take Gaara and retreat."

"What about you?" Temari asked.

"I'll join the battle," Baki said. "Go!"

"Y-eah." Temari nodded. Immediately, she and Kankuro held onto Gaara and disappeared over the stadium wall.

"What's going on?" Sasuke asked, getting no obvious response. Suddenly, he fell down screaming as one ANBU agent just extracted a long needle from his neck.

"Orochimaru-sama sends you his regards, Sasuke-kun," the masked traitor said. He suddenly jumped aside, narrowly avoiding the wind chakra coated shurikens. He then turned his head to see his attacker. "Hello, Naruto-kun."

"Kabuto," Naruto said, his voice was calm and level.

"Impressive, Naruto-kun. You recognized me," Kabuto said cheerfully, standing over Sasuke's fallen form. He removed his mask.

"What did you do to him, traitor!" Genma growled.

"Enough with the chitchat!" Baki said, as he went to attack Genma and Naruto.

Naruto sprouted his black chakra chains from his back and buried into the ground around him, Genma and Sasuke, forming a chakra chain barrier around them. Baki slammed into the barrier, preventing him going any further.

"What the hell is this?" Baki shouted. He had fallen to the ground because of impact. He stood up and created Blade of Wind with a wave of his hand. The attack slammed into the barriers but did nothing.

Suddenly, two chains erupted from the ground and tried to wrapped themselves around Kabuto and Baki. Kabuto was successfully able to avoid capture, but Sand-nin wasn't as lucky as he was. The chain wrapped around him and lifted him up in the air.

"Better luck next time," Kabuto said. He disappeared using the body flicker Jutsu to escape the war zone.

"Uzumaki, take Uchiha to the hospital," Genma ordered. "I'll handle him."

Naruto nodded. He dropped the sand-nin to the ground, painfully and retreated chakra chains back to his body. He knelt down to grab Sasuke's shoulder and disappeared with him in a swarm of butterflies, leaving Genma to deal with Baki.

...oOo...

Sand and Sound ninjas jumped in the stadium from all directions only to be beaten back by the leaf ninja, especially from Kakashi and Gai.

"A large number," Kakashi said, watching a large number of Sand and Sound ninjas attacking the Hidden Leaf. They weren't skill as they were, but their number still large. Defeating all of them wasn't going to be easy.

"It's not just that. The situation is more dire than that," Gai said with uncommon serious tone rather than the usual youthful voice. "Look at the roof of the central watchtower."

Kakashi looked up to see the Third Hokage trapped inside of a purple barrier. "That's a barrier ninjutsu," he said.

"Kakashi, look within the barrier."

Kakashi's lone eye widened in shock. "Orochimaru!" he shouted.

Orochimaru? Sakura thought, looking up at the barrier. She was one of the Genins who was able to dispel the Kabuto's genjutsu. Why is he here? Not for us, I hope.

Suddenly, two sound ninjas appeared front of her and were ready to finish her off.

The pink haired kunoichi said, "Huh?"

Kakashi immediately appeared in between them and plunged kunais into sound-nins' skulls, killing them instantly. "Sakura, be careful!" he said.

"K-Kakashi-sensei," Sakura said. "What's going on?"

"The Hidden Leaf is under attack by the combined forces of Sand and Sound," Kakashi explained.

"We've got another problem, Kakashi-sensei," Naruto said. He had appeared there with unconscious Sasuke. He slid Sasuke's collar to show a mitsudomoe marking on left side of his neck to Kakashi.

Kakashi's lone eye went wide. "The Cursed Seal of Heaven?" he said.

Naruto nodded. "Kabuto is a traitor. He's responsible for Sasuke's condition," he informed. "He's one of the Orochimaru's men."

Kakashi thought, 'This is bad.'

"But this is only small problem," Naruto continued. "Gaara is unstable. We need to stop him before it's too late."

"So, what is in your mind?" Kakashi asked, thinking Naruto would have been stored something for Gaara.

Naruto smirked and pulled out a small paper from his pouch to show it to Kakashi.

Kakashi wasn't a fuinjutsu master, but he recognized design on the paper. It looks like a chakra-suppression seal, but much more advanced, he thought.

"It can suppress Tanuki's chakra. Without the special chakra, it'll be easy to penetrate Gaara's sand defense," Naruto said, pocketing the suppression seal.

Sakura had no clue what they were talking about. Tanuki? she thought.

Kakashi remained quiet, deep in thought for a few minutes before speaking, "Ok, but take your some fellow Genins with you for help."

"No, they'll only slow me down."

Before Kakashi could say anything, Naruto back flipped over the railing and started to fall toward the arena below. At the same time, Karasu emerged from the shadow. She was much bigger than before—two times bigger than any normal size horse. She flew up and caught Naruto midair. Naruto leapt onto her back, and Karasu spread her wings. They flew up higher into the sky and vanished with sonic boom.

"Kakashi-sensei, what was that?" Sakura asked. Her eyes were wide as dinner plates and her jaw hung slack.

"It must be his summon," Kakashi answered. He then looked at Sakura. "Sakura, wake up Shikamaru. I can sense he isn't affected by genjutsu. Just because Naruto doesn't want any help, doesn't mean we can't send help."

…oOo…

"What should we do, Raikage-sama?" Yugito asked.

A answered, "It's not our village. It's not our fight."

He and two hidden cloud Jinchuuriki were standing outside of the purple barrier with some Leaf Anbu. They had managed to avoid to being trapped inside the barrier with their skills. However, they had no clue why the Third Hokage didn't fight, and decided to stay inside the barrier.

Maybe he did know or had clue, Kazekage was Orochimaru in disguise, A thought, as he watched Hiruzen threw away his Hokage robe. Inside he was wearing his battle armor.

Both Hiruzen and Orochimaru quickly made the hand seals necessary for their respective jutsu.

...oOo...

"Shuriken Kage Bushin no Jutsu!" Hiruzen said before throwing one shuriken toward his former student. One shuriken became thousand and they all went straight toward Orochimaru.

Orochimaru called his jutsu's name. "Summoning: Impure World Reincarnation!" He cried out in a gleeful voice. "One!" A single coffin with kanji of one rose up from the ground. "Two!" The second coffin with kanji of second rose up in the same manner of first.

To use a summoning as a shield... And these corpses are... Hiruzen thought, as he carefully watched both coffins. At the same time, he was making hand seals.

"Third!" Orochimaru called, as the third coffin with Kanji of third rose up like first and second's.

Ugh, I must do something about fourth one, Hiruzen thought while doing some hand seals. He pushed as much chakra as possible into canceling Orochimaru's technique.

"Fourth!"

The fourth coffin with Kanji of fourth rose up, but stopped in midway. However, all coffins had succeed to shield Orochimaru away from Hiruzen's attack.

I was able to stop fourth one, but thing gets tougher now... Of all people, for him to summon those three, Hiruzen thought. He was able to identify all chakra signatures that coffins were releasing. While he had personally known first two, he had fought the person in the third coffin.

"So you manage to stop the third coffin. Doesn't matter," Orochimaru said.

The coffins open up to reveal three famous faces. First two persons were from the Hidden Leaf. They were famous Senju brothers, Senju Hashirama and Senju Tobirama. The First and Second Hokage.

Hashirama was a tall man with tanned skin, dark eyes, and waist-length black hair typically styled in a center-parted fringe that framed his face. His attire took the form of the standard shinobi dress of his era, consisting of dark red traditional armor. His brother Tobirama was a tall, fair-skinned man with white, shaggy hair, red eyes and three red markings on his face—one under each of his eyes, and one on his chin. He wore the wartime attire of kin: armor emblazoned with the Senju symbol worn over a simple black suit, with a distinctive white fur collar. His clothing was accompanied by sandals and a happuri engraved with the Leaf emblem, in the place of the more traditional forehead protector.

...oOo...

"How dare he...!" the Fourth Raikage clenched his teeth together in anger as he saw the third person Orochimaru had summoned.

The third person was from the Hidden Cloud. It was the Third Raikage, father of the Fourth Raikage. The Third Raikage was a tall, dark-skinned man with a largely muscular and well-defined build. He had a full head of white hair, which flowed, into his back along with a long beard. He had unusual eyes, which had green irises, dark sclera and no pupils. His face had pronounced cheekbones and tear troughs under his eyes, and a prominent crease across his forehead with a mole above his right eyebrow. His top lip also had a darker pigmentation than the bottom one. His canine teeth were also slightly elongated. He had the kanji for "lightning" tattooed on his right shoulder and a lightning bolt-shaped scar that runs across the right side of his chest. His typical attire consisted of the Hidden Cloud's distinctive, single-strap flak jacket with no other clothing underneath, a black forehead protector that he wore like a bandanna.

A turned around and looked at Yugito and Bee. "Change of plan. Go and help the Leaf ninja to defend their home," he said.

"Bro, but you said that it wasn't our fight," Bee said.

"Yes, it wasn't our fight. But disturbing my father's soul, Orochimaru has overstepped his boundary. Now, it's our fight," A said, showing some anger toward Orochimaru. "I've to find the way to enter inside the barrier to show Orochimaru what happens when you mess with the Hidden Cloud."

"Oh, I can help you with this." Ryu rose up from the ground like a ghost in front of the Fourth Raikage.

Both Bee and Yugito quickly moved front of their leader in defensive position.

"Ryu?" A said, narrowing his eyes.

"Hello, Raikage-sama. I can help you to go inside the barrier."

"Bee, be careful around this man. His chakra seems familiar," the Eight Tails warned, as he could sense Ryu's chakra.

The two tails cat said to Yugito, "Careful around this man, Kitten."

What's wrong? Yugito asked without taking her eye from Ryu.

"There's something wrong, Kitten, but I can't tell you what."

"Why should I trust you?" A asked, narrowing eyes at S-rank ninja.

"You can't trust me because I'm a ninja. And Ninja can never be trusted," Ryu said. "It's your choice... It's your decision. You can either take the risk or stay here to watch."

"Bee, Yugito, stand down!" A ordered. He moved forward. "I'll take risk."

Yugito said, "But Raikage-sama—"

A cut in, "Yugito, go and help the Leaf."

Yugito signed and nodded.

"Very good decision, Raikage-sama," Ryu said. In blink of eyes, he disappeared and reappeared front of the Fourth Raikage. He grabbed his shoulder and disappeared again, but this time with Raikage.

Fast, All Leaf Anbu and the Hidden Cloud's demon containers thought, whom were watching.

...oOo...

Both Ryu and the Fourth Raikage appeared next to Hiruzen.

"Ryu," Orochimaru said. "I didn't expect you would come here to help Sensei, you too Raikage."

"You've disrespected my father by summoning him here to your own gain," A said, as he really wanted to cut Orochimaru's head with his Lariat.

"My reason is different," Ryu said, catching everyone's attention. "I didn't want to waste the opportunity to fight with the person my grandfather saw as his equal."

All three legendary ninjas opened their eyes and stepped out of coffins.


(To Be Continued)