Hey guys...I know I've been gone a while. What can I say? I making statements and stuff to apply to uni and my courses just got tons harder! Thank you all those that have stayed with me and suppoted me. Darkravie, I owe you for that. Thanks to many others as well.

Hope you like this chapter, I did rewrite it because I wasn't happy at first. I'm happier with this version but knowing my typing there will be typos that I somehow manage to miss. If you see any, review and tell me!

Chapter 11

Mercury was a dark blur as he shot through the forest like a bullet. His blue flames setting light to nearby vegetation as he brushed past it, leaving a steady burning trail. There was thunder in his hooves as they pounded the dir beneath them, sounding for all the world like the steady beat of war drums. He snorted angrily as the wind whipped his face causing two jets of indigo flame to briefly flash through the air.

On his sleek, ebony back Naruto hung on for dear life. His eyebrows drew together as he brought his concentration to bear on the stead beneath him. His hands gripped the fiery mane and he knew it was only a matter of time before the hellfire burnt through his leather gloves. He began chanting under his breathe, but found he couldn't get the words out correctly because of the force of the wind on his face. He yelled in frustration and kicked Mercury in the side, "give us hand!" he growled, all patience gone.

The horse jumped wildly to one side, causing Sakura to screech. He angrily threw back his head and screamed in a way that was more like a lion than a horse. Instantly after that, however, black, sleek reins appeared under Naruto's hands and a bridle on Mercury's head. Similarly, a saddle formed beneath them.

Naruto, now finally able to fully control Mercury present course, urged the horse faster. As Sakura screamed, again he turned to growl; "can you please hush it down back there, it makes this damn horse very hard to steer with you yakking in my ear!" Not surprisingly, she shut up.

Kankuro and Shino barely had time to look down as a blur of blue and black shot between them. Mercury was not happy being urged into the trees in such an abrupt many and managed to kick the sand-nin quite proficiently. Naruto laughed as the tall boy was pelted into a tree and they continued on their course regardless.

Naruto, however, was not prepared for what greeted them when he finally broke into the clearing where Gaara and Sasuke were duking it out. There were trees hanging like broken toothpicks, leaves crumpled and floating lazily to the floor. Sasuke, gasping in pain with twisted black etching covering his pale, pale skin. Gaara, well he was just weird unto himself. His sand had coiled around him, undulating as if alive, forming a tail and clawed arm. He was drooling and laughing insanely.

The red head glanced and the new arrivals, Naruto suddenly got a very bad feeling. It was proved true as a jet of sand shot from Gaara's hand faster than he could follow. Sakura was jettisoned of Mercury's back with amazing force and slammed into a nearby, thick-trunked tree. She fainted as the sand tightened like a vice around her, slowly suffocating her.

Sasuke made an indignant sound and tried to rise to her aid. He was shocked when the one that pushed him down was not Gaara but the nin from Hidden Sword. "I don't think so, buddy. You ain't in no condition to fight no one," Naruto told the stubborn bastard. He completely ignored Gaara as he called Mercury to his side. "Take this," he said while dumping Sasuke on the disgruntled horse's back, "to Konoha eh? Take it easy, he's got some fractured ribs there…"

The horse looked to challenge him for a moment before moving away into the forest at a steady, yet speedy trot. He was gone within seconds.

Naruto sighed and turned to face the irate boy behind him. He ran a hand through his silvery hair tiredly, peeking through it at his salivating opponent. "I suppose there's no chance of you backing down at all, right?" he said with all seriousness.

Gaara gripped his head, grinning insanely. "We need your blood. We need it!" The following cry was almost animalistic.

Naruto rolled his eyes, "Here was me thinking we could do this easy, huh. Not a fucking chance." He pulled Cerberus from his belt and swung him once experimentally. "I could've been like you, y'know? All the symptoms were there…But I let my family help me. Safer than ignoring them, I suppose." He jerked his head up to gaze with cat-like eyes into Gaara's sickly yellow gaze. "Let me help you, stranger. Let me help you rest."

Naruto shot forward and Gaara roared with excitement. His sand arm swiped at the small figure of Naruto, only to miss as Naruto ducked beneath the wide sweep of the offending limb. His blades cut the underside as he dashed beneath it, causing Gaara to howl in anger. Naruto did not anticipate sharp sand spikes jutting out in response. The wild dodge this caused allowed him to be caught by Gaara's tail. He winced as he pulled himself out of a tree a second later.

He cricked his neck and flowed forward once more, yet all his hits seemed ineffective. He rebounded of the arm and tail like a fly, more annoying than an actual attacker. That sand also seemed to be creeping along Gaara's skin more and more as the battle progressed. The possession was becoming deeper and deeper. But, who was doing the possessing?

Shugaku…

The voice brushed across his mind like a whisper, the dream-talk of a long forgotten tenant. Hello there, Kyuubi. Naruto and Kyuubi had never been on bad terms, they were just too different. Though they were both devils of a nature they could not understand the reasoning of each other. Through the well of emotion from his tenant Naruto felt deep rage, an age old grudge against the demon that stood encased before him.

Piteous, squabbling, little sand-rat. Needs to be put in his place…the voice hissed once more. Kyuubi was silent after that, for Naruto's shields were strong. Form the information Kyuubi had gifted him with Naruto could only assume that Shugaku was of the same clutch that Kyuubi was, Bijuu. They were too troublesome for hell and left to roam the mortal planes instead.

Naruto, truly pitied Gaara. Humans were never meant to contain such power; the sealer of Kyuubi had known this. The body was too weak, the chakra flows the pitiful. A demon could never be convinced to house another of its kind, either. That only left half-breeds that had to be of a certain calibre. Rare, but not unheard of. Gaara was an example of a human fracturing under the weight.

The sand had now consumed a great deal of Gaara's form, Naruto was amazed he was not crushed under the weight of it. It was utterly grotesque, twisted, an abomination. To think Gaara must have known he could become this was terrifying; the child he had been must have lived in terror. The image, however, stirred an equally detestable beat within Naruto. Kyuubi's power tried to push to the surface to combat his ancient foe. It writhed like worms beneath his skin.

Naruto felt his teeth lengthen, his hair grew wild and, for a moment, the world was painted in red. Kyuubi could push a devil trigger past Virgil's, now broken, seal if he really tried. "Get back in the cage, fur-ball" Naruto growled irritably as he prepared himself for one final attack. As with Neji, he could risk a long battle, it was too dangerous. He thoughtfully began to swing Cerberus in a wide, lethal arc above his head at a fast speed. His blood glinted on the three blades.

Words in an archaic tongue spilled from his lips, guttural and disjointed. The blades glowed with a harsh, bright light that also ebbed from Naruto's eyes. It flicked menacingly, almost like flames with a will of their own. Gaara, or the creature that was him, hunkered down in preparation of an attack.

As his breath misted Naruto darted across the clearing in a blur of speed and brutality. Cerberus was invisible as it seemed to slice the very air above his head with deadly force. Gaara, expecting a side attack, moved to defend himself. He had not predicted that his foe would aim for the very weak section of his sand armour bellow the tail. For a moment all he felt was a light, cold tap and then nothing.

Suddenly, ice spread out like a consuming shadow from Naruto's point of touch. As it had contained Gaara's sand in the prelims it sought now to contain him. It move swiftly and crept like a vine, wrapping him in great sheets of ice. Naruto watched as it swallowed him whole. When it was finished he raised his left hand and snapped his fingers. The ice exploded in a flurry of shards.

Gaara collapsed in pain, even his armour was no match for an attack of such precision. He smiled, a worthy enemy was there at last. This one would make him feel truly alive. He cackled as the sand around him whirled and grew and undulated and expanded. Naruto watched, wide eyed, as the small boy turned into a huge monster made of sand.

Gaara gazed down at his opponent with a smug smile. "Now I will use my ultimate technique," he said simply, pulling his hands into a seal. Almost instantly he fell forward in a deep self-induced sleep. Shugaku roared to the surface triumphantly.

Naruto gazed as the demon promised his death, raising a huge sand paw with which to smite him. To think I'd be driven to this…I cannot risk a transformation. I had hoped that would finish him…feh! He swung Cerberus thoughtfully before tossing him high into the air, the swords hung there as if suspended by some imaginary force and for a moment time jilted to a stop. "I name you Gatekeeper, I name you Ice, I name you Old One and He Who Is Chained. With these names I bind you, with these names I call you to do my bidding! I call you to my command, Keeper of the Eastern Gate, Cerberus and Dog of Hell!"

For a moment there was a rusty silence. Then deep voices, "you know the price, young master. You know what must be paid for a crossing." The voices spoke with one mind, three overlapping rasps.

"I understand, debt made and price paid."

"Then it will be done." Time moved again as the shadows around Naruto's feet writhed. The great paw of sand plummeted down as they grew and formed shape. It collided with a white-furred shoulder. As Shugaku looked down, three sets of blue eyes met his gaze.

He leapt back to take a good look at the creature before him. It was a large dog with three heads; each head had its teeth bared and ears flattened to its skull. Its fur was a mixture of white and pale blue. Around the base of the three necks was a large, black, studded collar fitted with a ring form which dangled a broken chain. Its tail was bushy and long, if it had been a mortal dog the closest breed in comparison would have been a large, aggressive Alsatian. Upon the middle head stood Naruto, his arms folded and his expression deeply serious. This dog was undeniably a demon and a very powerful one. For the first time Shugaku was apprehensive about this boy.

"I will need to wake the boy, that will shatter Shugaku's power and hopefully we can get away without too much collateral damage." Naruto's voice was clipped, commanding and calculating. Cerberus was hard pressed not to see the resemblance to Virgil in that tone.

"We will distract as best we can," the dog growled. The middle head opened wide jaws filled with needed teeth and a roar reverberated around the forest. An icy blast shot out of its mouth and the dog leapt forward, freezing Shugaku to the spot. The demon took advantage and his three sets of jaws clamped down on the raccoon demon with crushing force. Shugaku shrieked and desperately tried to throw the dog off.

When this appeared to not be working, the raccoon demon drew a deep breath. This was the only warning Cerberus and Naruto had before three bullets of wind struck Cerberus in the stomach, causing him to wheel away, yelping in pain. The dog growled even louder and dodged a few more bullets while Naruto's gripped his fur tightly to stay aboard. "All you need to do is hold him, if only for a moment. I will give that kid a hell of a wake up call!" he growled, his voice becoming rough and demonic.

The dog demon leapt forward once more. This time the left head also roared causing ice armour to cover both the demon and Naruto, protecting them as wind bullets bounced harmlessly off the impenetrable shell. The right head raised its own voice which caused two great icicles to stab into the sand hands of the raccoon, pinning it down. The centre head's icy breath shot forward as well, sealing the raccoon's feet and tail. The great demon landed on Shugaku and held him down, large jaws nashing threateningly.

Naruto darted from the centre head, easily melting through the ice armour. He lunged up the head of Shugaku and raised a fist. For a moment he hesitated and gazed at the prone and asleep form of Gaara. "Sorry, man," he said cheerfully as his fist smashed into the red head's face. The form of Shugaku shattered as green eyes fluttered open and suddenly they were both falling, Cerberus disappearing also in an explosion of icy wind. Naruto gave Gaara an extra kick and they both landed on dirt bottom of the clearing, unable to move.

Naruto laid panting and a voice whispered, "Debt made and price paid." Naruto closed his eyes in preparation; a deliberate breach of his father's barrier had consequences after all. His lower body exploded in a haze of pain, he heard his blood splatter across the ground beneath him. He coughed blood onto his front too, his breathing now a rasp. He looked at his body from the chest down and found it a bloody, ripped, wrecked mess. "Well…fuck!" he grunted.

I hope you like the end of this chapter, I do. I think its a nice cliffhanger. Sad thing is folks is that this is the penultimate chapter of this arc. The next chapter will be the last, the next arc will be set after the time jump! I have planned the ending to this one and am happy with it so far, but do tell me what you think.

I used Cerberus as Naruto's summons because I don't think he would've learned how to use Jiriya's summons Gamabunta and Cerberus is bound to his family as Dante defeated him in honourale combat (third game).

My next fic will be a Kingdom Hearts 2 crossover and AU fic, guessed I like crossovers yet? You think this a good idea? Review and tell me!

Now I must go, very tired, long day, hate school. See you next update! gives cookies to all