Hello hello to Eleven of Sky Ninja!
This entire story is now being supported by Ferousha the Panda Chick, my official Beta-Reader. And without her, I think I would be so screwed over. She has seen so many of my writing errors, and if she was next to me, I would bow down and kiss her feet for what she has done. She hasn't finished with all the chapters yet, but if anyone is trying to get a Beta-Reader, she is taken. Panda Chick is mine, ok?
Well I gotta say, I am really disappointed, mostly in myself. Honestly enough, with over 75,000 words already made and only five reviews. FIVE! And what makes that even sadder is when the majority of those reviews have come from Ferousha, the Beta-Reader. So I plead to you all, please review, it makes me feel a whole lot better about myself, even give me suggestions as to how the story could be improved or future ideas for the story. All I really want is some replies from my readers. Don't think I don't have any readers, I read my traffic.
To those who have reviewed, which is only two people, thanks, it is greatly appreciated.
Also, if no one has noticed, I had placed a poll up in my account for about four whole months, and not one vote had come in. It was to find out whether Seirei should get a girl himself or remain single. Since no one voted, I have decided on the outcome and had deleted the poll. But just to be sure, I didn't make some stupid mistake, I want you guys to tell me if you had ever seen a poll about this in my account. If you didn't then I apologize.
Anyways, to continue with the story, this will actually jump in and out of various fights, so be sure to keep track of everything.
Ino and Shikamaru had been left with the duty of dealing with about eight sound ninja, as the others left to go after Gaara and the other Sand Siblings. Each of the sound ninja were easily of chunin level from the looks of it, so the two leaf ninja were at a significant disadvantage.
"So, Shikamaru, got any ideas?" Ino asked, with worried smile.
Said ninja replied, with a smile of his own, "Give me some time." Shikamaru knelt down and went into his thinking stance. Ino gave a slight nod and jumped up above the enemy ninja.
All the ninja looked up at her, still with her smile on her face, and watched as she performed some handsigns. One of the shinobi noticed what she was doing and threw a shuriken at her. It made an impact into Ino's stomach and she poofed into a log. Obviously, the blonde performed a kawari jutsu. Looking around, they spotted Ino leaping from some bushes behind them. Without hesitation, two of the shinobi threw their shuriken at the kunoichi. Once again, she puffed away into a log, kawari. They then spotted her coming from out of a tree to their left. Ino landed on the ground and threw a kunai, striking one of the sound ninja in the shoulder. In retalition, four kunai and shuriken were thrown into her body, and she puffed into a log again. Now she had popped out from behind a tree to the group's right.
Ino readied herself, shouting to her teammate, "I could use some help here, Shikamaru."
Said ninja had just got out of his thinking stance, and said with a worried voice, "Sorry, you're on your own." Ino turned sharply towards her pineapple partner with an astonished look. What she saw was Shikamaru running into the woods, away from Konoha. She had been left alone with eight shinobi, no genin could handle this.
"Shikamaru! Get back here!" Ino screams fell upon deaf ears, as Shikamaru did not return.
"So," Temari said, still facing away from Seirei, "You gonna try and stop us?" Silence fell between the two.
Seirei then responded, "No." Temari turned with a somewhat shocked look on her face, "I am going to stop you."
Temari's expression turned to stone as she stepped back from the black-haired ninja. "Then as of now," She grasped the fan on her back, "You are my enemy." Temari pulled out the black metal bar from behind her and swung it across herself. As the closed fan went by, it collided with Seirei's sword with so much force that it flew in the other direction and out of the kunoichi's hands, falling down to the forest floor. Temari looked back at her opponent to see him standing where he was with his sword standing up on the tree branch in his hands. She had been made defenseless in mere seconds. With a snicker, she smiled, "Guess I should have expected that. You had beaten me before. Why should this be any different?" Seirei noticed a tear forming in one of Temari's eyes.
"I thought shinobi didn't show their emotions in the battlefield. Why do you?" Seirei asked with a sincere tone.
Temari didn't even make a gesture towards wiping away the tear, "Because, Seirei," As she blinked, the tear rolled down her cheek, "Because, this isn't a battle anymore, I've lost. I've lost to the only man who I have shown anything towards since my brothers." Temari did not begin to cry, as her life had made no room for such a thing, but sadness was shown in her eyes as she looked into Seirei's own.
Seirei walked towards Temari until their bodies were only inches away from each other. The just stood there for what seemed forever. One was barely holding their ground, trying not to collapse on the other. The other, was trying to do what they could do to stop this. Temari couldn't take the gazing into the shinobi's eyes any longer and lowered her head to the ground. Just as she did, she felt something wrap around her. Looking to her side, she saw that Seirei had brought her into an embrace.
"I'm sorry." Seirei said. With those words, Temari felt somewhat relieved of everything that had ever happened to her.
"Thank you." A small smile rolled onto her face, "I really needed to hear that." Just as she was getting comfortable in the embrace, Seirei brought her out of it and had grasped her arms in a gentle, relaxing way. Then everything went black.
"Women, what an amazing creation." Seirei lifted the unconscious Temari over his shoulder and went off towards Konoha, "But I no longer have that emotion."
Chichi and Hinata landed next to each other after having just dodged several senbon needles. Kankuro was keeping his ground surprisingly since it was three against one. Well, three against two. The puppet master had seperated the three, isolating Sakura with Kuroari, the red horned puppet, and dealing with Chichi and Hinata with Karasu, his original puppet. Karasu was relentless with shooting poisoned needles at his opponents, not giving either of them a chance to go on the offense. As for Sakura, being not fully experienced as the other two were, she was just evading the puppet and not trying to get killed.
"Yes, you little wimps, dance like puppets!" Kankuro cried out mockingly. He continued to swing around his arms, keeping his opponents on the run.
Sakura was able to throw some kunai in Kankuro's direction, but they were quickly blocked by Kuroari taking the brunt of the attack. After he took the kunai, he went sraight at Sakura at a quicker pace than before. The kunoichi was caught off guard by this sudden increase in speed, and for that, her leg was grabbed by the puppet. Kuroari dragged her body towards her, and as he did, the barrel belly that was his opened up and took Sakura in. Once she was in, the belly closed up and latched itself tight.
'Time to finish off one of them.' Kankuro thought to himself, growing a smirk on his painted face.
With a tiny twitch of his right ring finger, Karasu's left arm detached from itself and ventrued towards it's puppet counterpart. Karasu did not discontinue from his persuit of Chichi and Hinata.
As the arm reached Kuroari, Kankuro boasted, "This is all that Konoha can do. Three leaf shinobi, against one sand, pathetic." Karasu's left then began hovering next to Kuroari, and to Hinata and Chichi's shock, extended a blade from itself. While this was all going on, Sakura was banging on the walls of the puppets belly, trying to break free and failing at it.
Chichi and Hinata both looked at each other, and speaking almost telepathically, they nodded at the same time.
Both looking back at Kankuro, Chichi said to Hinata, "Just the first one, okay?"
Hinata snorted, "Fine." And with that, she disappeared into the nothingness. Meanwhile, Chichi took one of his kunai from his shoulder strap and placed it slightly to the left of his mouth. Quickly moving it up and down, the notes quickly changed to make a fluttering noise.
A tree shattered into splinters as Gaara's sand fist smashed into it, missing its original target. Naruto landed feet away from where the tree once was, but he had no time to relax. He took another leap as the fist came at him again. This time when he landed, Naruto went into a sprint around the fist and down along the arm. With the Taifuu Kasoku, Naruto sped along the sand limb and reached the monstrous Gaara. Throwing in a punch, the blonde though he had made contact with Gaara's face, but instead, he had been blocked by his tail emerging from the bottom of his gourd. Naruto did not hesitate and jumped straight up as the sand fist slammed into the ground. As Naruto was in the air, he threw three shuriken down upon his opponent's head. A sand shield arose to block the shuriken, but just before the shuriken hit, a senbon needle did instead and made the sand shield fall apart.
"Got ya!" Musuko said, hidden in the trees.
However, as the shield vanished, the shurikens struck into a second sand shield. Gaara's animalistic mouth curved up into a sinister smile, "That trick is not going to work on me anymore." the sand ninja let out a laugh, a laugh that only would come from one who wanted blood.
Gaara's tail shot up towards a tree branch and wrapped itself around it, pulling Gaara to them. As he reached the branch, Gaara used his tail once again as a slingshot to fire himself at Naruto. The targeted ninja moved quickly and barely dodged the fist bashing into the earth, but he wasn't able to avoid the tail from striking him. The tail sent him into the air, making him a perfect target for, "Suna Shuriken!(Sand Shuriken)" Gaara extended his beastly hand at Naruto and out from the hand came speeding balls of sand right at him. About two or three made full contact until Naruto puffed out of existence, a shadow clone. Seeing that no one was around and the area was silent, Gaara took this moment of cease fire; to talk.
"This is all you got Naruto? You just run away from me?" Gaara questioned in a voice not his own, but that of a creatures, "And you, Musuko? The one who defeated me in my original form. Neither of you have touched me yet." Sand came emerging from the gourd and began covering the other half of Gaara's body, "But don't worry," Gaara's smile grew wider, "I'll make sure your deaths are nice and painful." Once he had finished, his entire body looked that of tanuki. With his hunched back, drooling mouth, and spewing of killer intent, he was a creature who feasted on others blood.
"Oh crap." Musuko complained, "This is bad. Very bad."
Naruto landed down next to Musuko on the branch, "So, we got a problem now don't we?" Musuko silently nodded, "His body is now covered in that sand of his, no way we can get a good shot in now."
"Not to mention he can just throw things back at us with his sand limbs." the sky ninja replied, "I just don't know how to hit him where it hurts."
Naruto snickered, "Yeah, give him an old fashion kick in the bu-" Naruto stopped himself short. A few seconds later, that foxy smile of his appeared. Musuko was smiling too, but had no idea as to why. Then Naruto turned to his sensei, "Keep him on you. I got an idea."
"Shikamaru?Shikamaru!" Ino yelled out her partner's name, but Shikamaru did not respond. "Come on Shikamaru, this is so unlike you. Why on earth did you run off? Shika-!" Her last cry was stopped short as a kunai whizzed by her head. Ino turned around to see that the group of sound ninja had caught up to her.
A barrage of shuriken came at her from behind, she was able to dodge most of them, but two or three scraped her legs and had cut off some of the bandages. When she landed, Ino went down to her knees, blood had been stained on her leg bandages, and the pain was too intense to go off running again. She had no other choice but to turn around and fight. When the blonde kunoichi turned about, infront of her was a group of smiling shinobi, ready to take her life. Ino took out a kunai from her pouch and stood her ground. With her legs trembling, due to the wounds still bleeding slightly, Ino smirked and began talking to herself.
'Heh. So this is how it's going to end for me?' she smiled a bit more, 'As a genin, against eight sound ninja. Oh yeah, definetly a heck of a way to go.' Ino squeezed her kunai tighter, waiting for one of them to run forward. Just then, one did. He came at her with senbons in each fist, Ino readied herself, but then remembered, 'Wait! I haven't kissed Sasuke yet! I can't die! Not yet!' her courage that she had just had a few seconds ago had vanished in a second.
She winced away as the oncoming sound ninja pulled back his fist, covering her face. However, as she did look away, something had caught her eye before she covered them. It was a little yellow ball dangling on a branch to her right. She didn't know why that was the last thing she saw, but then it hit her like a bull. The yellow ball was a light bomb, something Shikamaru had always carried with him because of his justu. She knew that he was near and that he had formed a plan. That's when the plan took affect.
The light bomb blew up and illuminated the area in a blinding light. All the sound ninja flinched away from it, which then gave Ino the opportunity to sneak away behind some trees.
And just in time, "Kageman no jutsu." a black tentacle extended out from behind a tree and went towards the group of sound ninja. The tentacle split apart and attached itself to the shinobis' individual shadows which had been enlarge by the light bomb. Whent the light bomb's effects had faded away, Ino popped out of her hiding place and saw that all the ninja were squating down and holding their hands in a rat seal. Looking down from them, Ino saw her partner Shikamaru up in a tree in the same position.
"Took you long enough." Shikamaru said in a bored tone, "I was beginning to think that bringing them here would be a bit too troublesome for you."
A vein popped in Ino's forehead as she yelled at her pineapple friend, "Maybe if you TOLD me what the heck was going on, then MAYBE I could have gotten here sooner! I thought you abandoned me you jerk!"
Shikamaru let out a sigh, showing that he was finding this all too troublesome, "Just take care of these guys so we can meet up with the rest." Ino reluctantly agreed, and one by one dealt with the frozen sound ninja.
Kankuro was about to move his finger to shove the sword into Kuroari, which still possessed Sakura inside, when came Chichi making a full assault on him. The puppet master had to hold the execution off for awhile longer as he shoved his hand in front of himself, making Karasu swing into Chichi's way. The puppet opened its mouth and shot out several kunai. Chichi quickly jumped in the air and performed a corkscrew manuever, with two kunai in hand. As he spun, Chichi's kunai hit away the oncoming ones, and as he neared Karasu, he landed a double kick on the puppet's torso. The impact sent the puppet flying back into its controller and Chichi onto a far off branch.
Karasu had almost knocked Kankuro off from his own branch, but the master was able to keep his footing.
"Heh," Kankuro chuckled, "Enough stalling." moving his index finger downward, Karasu's arm sword plunged down into Kuroari, making a small stabbing noise. But Kankuro wasn't finished. He pulled out the blade and went to another hole in Kuroari as quickly as possible. The arm sword plunged into Kuroari again making the same stabbing noise. "One down." Kuroari opened up and dumped out the dead body of Sakura, "Two to go."
However, the second after Kankuro had finished his sentence, his opponents had disappeared. Kankuro knew he was now in a bad position, if you didn't see your opponent, then you're pretty much done for. He started to look around frantically, reacting to every small noise that the leaves made by jerking his head in that direction.
Just then, "Wi." Kankuro swung himself to the left just in time to see a white dot disappear into the trees. He sent over Karasu, but when the puppet shot over in that direction, nothing was there.
"Wi." The noise came from Kankuro's right now, and he sent Kuroari over to where he saw a black dot appear then leave. When the puppet went to the location, there was nothing there.
"Wi." It came from behind and to the right, "Wi." it came from in front of him, "Wi." above and two the left, "Wi. Wi. Wi. Wi." the wi's began to increase in number, sounding out all around Kankuro. He looked in every direction he heard the noise, but only to find dots of all colors disappearing from sight. The puppet master was to say the least confused. The sounds came closer and closer, making the puppet ninja even more nervous. Until finally...
"Wi." Kankuro looked straight up to see a foot getting bigger and bigger. Kankuro laid on the branch almost knocked out, but still conscious. He opened his eyes to see Chichi standing in front of him, and with a strange creature on his shoulder.
"Wha-What the heck was that? Genjutsu?" Kankuro asked, with a much energy as he could.
"Heh, far from it." the sky ninja replied. Petting the thing on his shoulder, he explained, "Meet the Wipon, the peek-a-boo, as I like to call them. They travel in packs of twenty to two hundred. What you had just witnessed was the Wipon's primary defense. When a predator appears, they scatter around said predator and pop out in different places, catching the attention of the predator. But then, another pops out to allow the others to move to another place so they remain safe. The predator becomes so confused or fearful that there may be more than one, that they run off. Or in this case, allow you to look about while I move in for the attack."
After the explanation, his partner, Hinata, landed down next to him. Then a few seconds later, so did Sakura.
Kankuro was about to go into unconsciousness until he saw the pink haired kunoichi, his eyes became saucers as he shouted, "This can't be! You're dead! I saw you fall out of Kuroari."
"She was dead." Chichi plainly said. Kankuro had a confused look, while at the same time Sakura was feeling the areas where the arm sword had stabbed into her. Chichi continued, "Well, she was almost dead. My brothers and I have in our possession a medical jutsu that can practically perform miracles. The downside of this justu is that it takes away a whole lot of out chakra, but since I hardly use my chakra in fights, the jutsu was easy to perform."
"Then there was me." Hinata stepped forward, "The Wipon wouldn't have gotten here as quickly as they did, as they live in the jungles. Therefore, I went and retrieved them while you were busy with Chichi here."
"So..." Kankuro spoke quietly, "All this was planned?"
"Nope," the sky ninja answered, "Not one thing about it was. Planning takes too long." and with that, Sakura did a small blow to the puppeteer's neck, and his world went black.
Chichi lifted the shinobi over his shoulder, and signalled to the two females of the group to follow. He jumped from tree to tree, and so did the other two. They were on their way back to Konoha.
On their way back, it was quiet for most of the journey, until Chichi had broken the silence, "Hinata." said kunoichi turned to him in reaction, "You used the second gate, didn't you?" wide eyed, Hinata was shocked that he found out. In reaction, she lowered her head in shame, "Hey," the Hyuuga looked back at Chichi, "It's okay. I just wanted you not to go to far, that's all." he gave her a smile to try to comfort her.
She cracked a smile herself, and said, "You were afraid that I'd go to that, didn't you?"
Chichi looked forward, but Hinata could see in his eyes that he was looking into his past, "I just don't want you to go through what I did." Just then, Hinata made an abrupt stop, making the Chichi and Sakura both stop as well. Hinata walked to Chichi to where she was only a few inches away from him. Then, standing on her toes, she gave him a small kiss on the cheek.
"As long as I have this," she pulled out the diamond tear necklace that Chichi had given her, "I will be with you always. And as long as that's so, I'll never do anything that you don't want me to." A smile grew on the grey haired ninja's face, and he pulled Hinata into an embrace with his free arm.
"Thanks." Hinata smiled as well and made herself comfortable in the hug.
Until, "Eh hem." Sakura interrupted their little moment and quickly the two broke apart with blushes on their cheeks.
Chichi spoke up, scratching the back of his head, "We should probably be going now." Hinata nodded, and the two went off, with Sakura following close behind.
'What the heck is going on around here?' Sakura thought to herself, 'Everything has gone topsy-turvy ever since these Sky Ninja had arrived. Hinata, she no longer stutters. Naruto, he...he's different. Sasuke, he has become more detatched from us since the forest.' she paused for a moment, 'Then...then there's me. I have become stronger ever since that night Musuko knocked some sense into me. He showed me that I wanted to get stronger, he showed me that I had to get stronger, in order to win Sasuke over.' she shooked her head violently, seeming to get rid of some thought, 'No, that's not the reason why he did it. But why then? Why would he help someone like me who was weak to start with?' Thought after thought after thought had ran through her mind, trying to come up with a reason. She could only find one, and that was when she remembered Musuko kissing her on the forehead, 'Could it be?'
Musuko let out a sneeze as he waited up in the trees for Naruto to give the signal.
At the moment, he had no idea what his student was thinking about, or how he was going to penetrate Gaara's sand body. All Naruto said to him was, "It's something I've had a personal experience with." What that meant to the sky ninja was a mystery to the ninja himself. However, he trusted his student, and followed his orders. All of a sudden, he saw a light coming from a reflective surface. The sign.
The next moment, Musuko jumped down in front of Gaara, who was somewhat caught by surprise, but not entirely. His arm crashed into the ground, missing Musuko.
"So, you finally come out of hiding. I was getting lonely." the sand beast said with a sickening grin. He shot his fist again at Musuko, but Musuko did as he was told to do; keep Gaara busy.
Naruto was waiting behind Gaara up in a tree, trying to find an opening so he could strike. The blonde noticed that Gaara's tail was a perfect shield if anything came near it, as well as a third arm. What he came to was that he needed Musuko to take him up to the trees, so he could get a better aim. Naruto then created a shadow clone, and had it run over to his sensei.
Back with Musuko, he was still dodging all the attacks with some ease to it. However, it was getting harder with each dodge, he could tell somehow. Gaara this time, instead of throwing a punch, opened up his arms and sent out a barrage of suna shuriken. Musuko survived the attack without even getting a scratch. Then without warning, he began to bleed from his left arm.
"What?" the white haired shinobi was baffled by the cut on his arm. He thought for sure he had dodged all the shuriken.
"Heh heh heh." Gaara made a low chuckling noise, "Still don't get it do you? You may have dodged my attacks, but they always leave something behind. When I hit something, small grains of sand fly out. You don't notice them, so then a send them to attach to you. Bit by bit you get heavier, and eventually, you are unable to dodge any of my moves." Gaara pulled back his arm, "Like this one!" he shot his arm straight at Musuko. Musuko jumped, but realized that he was not moving fast enough to dodge the attack.
"Oh crap." the sky ninja said as he was tackled to the ground. Naruto's shadow clone had just got Musuko out of the way before the attack could make a fatal hit. Looking up at his student, he said, "Thanks man, I owe you one."
The clone smiled and replied, "Go up." That was all he could say as another strike came from Gaara and poofed him out of existance. Taking in what the clone said, Musuko looked up into the trees, and jumped up. Gaara followed him up into the branches, pulling himself up with his tail. Now was the time to strike.
Naruto jumped out of his hiding spot and headed towards the left of Gaara. But as Gaara was attacking Musuko for another time, he sensed Naruto coming from behind.
"You think you can sneak up on me?" the sand beast shot his left arm at Naruto. But the leaf ninja quickly created a shadow clone in midair and jumped off of it into another direction. The clone took the blow, but that didn't stop Gaara. He turned around towards Naruto and shot his other arm at his prey, but yet again, Naruto made another clone and leapt off of it down towards Gaara's branch. Naruto was not but seven feet away from the sand beast as he made another shadow clone and jump kick underneath the branch before Gaara could get a hit on him. Once more, Naruto made a final clone which he jumped off and drew out a kunai from his pouch. On the kunai was an explosion note.
With the kunai and a few choice words, "Sennen Goroshi! (Thousand Years of Death)", Naruto plunged the kunai into the base of the tail, around the buttox region. As soon as he placed the kunai however, he was struck by Gaara's tail and sent flying backwards. Faintly, the blonde said with a smile, "Boom."
Seirei was now by himself. He had dropped off Temari in a secluded area where she can rest, but not escape. The sky ninja found his way to a giant purple barrier on top of the roof where the Hokage was last seen. He found a good place to watch what seemed to be a fight going on inside of the barrier. As he knelt down to watch, he took out his book and began to read while at the same time watching, and waiting.
"Yet again, I am doomed to watch."
Chichi, Hinata, and Sakura all arrived in the city of Konoha, where they came to see an enourmous toad in the center of the city. On top of this massive amphibian's head, was an old man with a headband that had the 'oil' symbol written on it. They could see him smiling as he was wiping out a majority of the invading shinobi.
Just then, Kakashi landed down infront of them, and stared the three down with his one eye, "I thought I gave you an order to go after Gaara." Sakura lowered her head, realizing that she had just disobeyed her sensei's orders.
"My apologies Kakashi-san," replied Chichi, "but we had a run-in with his other sibling, Kankuro, and as you can see," he displayed the knocked out puppeteer to Kakashi, "we needed to drop him off."
"That's very good, but my orders were specifically-"
"Don't worry," Chichi interrupted, "My brother, Musuko, and Naruto are dealing with him right now. We were just gonna drop Kankuro off to you guys, then head back to help them out." and with that, Chichi handed Kankuro over to Kakashi, who took him and gave to them a satisfying look.
"OK, you guys take care. It looks like we will win this battle, but we won't know for sure until Gaara is defeated, he seems to be their secret weapon." The three genin nodded and jumped back into the woods to go after Gaara.
Kakashi turned around and was about to head to the holding facility, when he stopped to think, 'When did Hinata get a diamond necklace?' the cyclop ninja merely shook it off for the moment, and went on with his business.
BANG!!!
A huge explosion could be heard a mile away, as the kunai explosion note, that was conviently placed in Gaara's rearend, exploded.
Naruto landed on a branch, but with his back hitting the tree trunk hard. Musuko quickly ran over to his student to see if he was alright. Luckily enough, he was. The two of them looked to see what kind of effect Naruto's little stunt had on Gaara's sand body. With astonishment, it did do something. Not alot damage, but from the looks of it, Gaara's entire left side including the tail was nothing but blobs of sand hanging off of his sides. What made it even better, was that Gaara was wheezing.
'*breathe breathe* Curses. He hit where my armor was weakest. I shouldn't handle these two lightly anymore, I gotta-What's this?' Gaara gave an inward smile, 'Heh heh. I guess there will be no need to now.'
The three genin were about two thirds of the way to where Musuko and Naruto were. Chichi had activated his Mitarigan to locate his brother, and with the given information, they headed out in that direction.
"Chichi." Sakura called out to said ninja.
"Yeah?"
"What are we up against if Gaara is the invasion's 'secret weapon'? If he sent all three of us against one genin, then he must be strong or something."
"Well, from what I got out of the Musuko's Mitarigan, we're dealing with a monster. A big sand monster."
Sakura, a bit shocked, "What? What do you mean by a monster?"
"Like I said Sakura, Gaara is covered in his sand and has changed his form into that of a monster. This new form is probably stronger, faster, and more deadly from the looks of it." Sakura made a gulping noise, "Our best bet for survival is to evade his attacks until we can find an opening to strike. Hinata." the Hyuuga turned her head, "We don't open any unless absolutely necessary." Hinata nodded, and the three continued on their trek to the battle.
'Open what?' another question was added to Sakura's mind.
Gaara right now was at even ground with the two genin. With his left arm and tail gone, he needed to buy time to regain the sand into the form he wanted. To buy that time, he kept the two at a distance by shooting suna shuriken at a higher rate than before. They were able to make some shots with their kunai, but luckily enough, the sand skin was too thick to make actual damage to him. However, he was not just buying time to regain his form, but so that the others he sensed would come. Yes there was a strong chakra level with them, but there was also a weak one, he could use them as a hostage. Then finish them all off once and for all.
Finally that time had come to pass. Out of nowhere, a kunai landed into Gaara's back, not harming him though. He turned while at the same time forming a smile, "I was wondering when you would get here." he gave them no time to comment as he shot out a barrage of suna shuriken at the three genin. The three reacted by splitting up into different directions. "Heh heh, got you." his left arm had reformed just in time. With it, the sand beast shot a barrage at Naruto and Musuko to keep them busy, while at the same time, using his right arm to fire right at Sakura.
The kunoichi was still in midair about to land when she saw the hand already halfway to its target. She had no way of dodging it.
Hinata noticed it, and dashed to Sakura's rescue. 'I'm not going to make it in time.' for a split second she turned and looked at Chichi, 'Forgive me.' just then she was surrounded by blue chakra and advanced at greater speeds. Chichi noticed this, and instantly jumped off into her direction, trying to stop her.
But it was too late, Hinata got to Sakura in time and pushed her out of the way, but at a price. The sand arm struck her instead, slamming her up against a nearby tree. The hand didn't let go of the Hyuuga, as Gaara spoke in his bestial tone, "You weren't the one I was aiming for," he smiled, "But you will still do." just then, he detached his right arm from his hand, leaving Hinata pinned to the tree where she was. Looking back at the others, still with his smile, Gaara said, "That will grow tighter and tighter until she is crushed to death." Chichi ran over to the hand and began to pry away at it, Gaara chuckled, "No good, the hand will only go away if you defeat me. Until then, she begins to die now." after he finished his statement, the hand squeezed just a bit tighter, making Hinata gasp out.
Chichi moved away from the hand and stood up erect. "I must defeat you right?"
"Heh heh," Gaara got into a ready position, "That's right."
"Fine." the area around his eyes began to shadow, "I'll kill you." his skin began to turn into a slight shade of grey.
"Oh crap!" Musuko shouted out, "Sakura, Punch him out."
"Who? Gaara?" Sakura asked.
"No, Chichi."
"What?! Why?"
"Punch Chichi out now!" the kunoichi was utterly confused, but when he looked back up at Chichi, he felt an astonishing amount of killer intent coming from the gray haired ninja's location. "It's too late for that now." Musuko extended his arm towards his fellow comrade and in the next second shot Chichi with a senbon needle in the neck. When Chichi was struck, his skin turned back to normal, and the killer intent faded away as he fell on the branch.
"You killed him!" Naruto bursted out.
"No I didn't," Musuko retorted, "I put him in a near death state, like that hunter-nin did on your mission to the Wave Country. If I hadn't done that, we'd be in deep trouble."
Naruto gave a look of understanding, until, "Wait...how did you know a had a mission in-"
"No time for that now." Musuko interrupted, "Right now, we're down two men." He turned to Sakura, "Are you okay Sakura?"
Sakura did not respond. For in fact, she wasn't okay. 'Hinata.' she looked at the struggling kunoichi, 'You saved me. How did you? You moved so fast. Did you really improve that much? And me, why me? Ever since the beginning, I've been nothing but a liability to others, just getting in the way. Even now, I've put Hinata and the others in danger.' she clenched her fists, 'But no more,' Sakura leapt from her branch and flew straight at Gaara with a clenched fist following behind her, 'Now, I am no longer just someone who drags down others!' she saw Gaara smile, which quickly knocked Sakura out of her revelation and back into her original self. 'What was I thinking?!'
Quickly, she was caught by Musuko and thrown away from Gaara's flying arm. The two landed at a safe distance. The white haired shinobi placed down his rescuee and looked at her with angered eyes, "I've told you, not to attack in anger."
"I'm sorry." Sakura replied weakly, "It's just that, Hinata, and Chichi..." she paused, brushing back her hair, "I just...I just don't want to be a liability anymore, to anyone."
Sakura felt so pathetic telling Musuko this, but when she felt a hand on her shoulder, she looked up to see kindness in his eyes.
"You really want to stop getting in others' way? You really want to help?" Sakura slowly nodded. Musuko neared her and whispered into her ear, "Find love." Right after he said that, he grabbed onto Sakura, "But not right now." he leapt into the air with Sakura in hand, and the two just dodged another one of Gaara's attacks.
'Find love?' Was all that was going through Sakura's head for the moment she was in the air. She had not even noticed the giant arm of sand striking right where they had been standing. 'Love?' Musuko let go of Sakura, and that got her back into the world of reality.
The three were now together. They knew that they had not much time to beat Gaara, but they had to, to save Hinata.
"Okay, anyone got any plans?" Sakura asked, getting into a fighting stance like the other two.
Gaara was the first to respond, with a sinister smile that just said that he was going to kill. "Now you all die." the fiend let out a meniacal laughter as sand spewed out of his gourd, surrounding him. Slowly the blob of sand grew larger and larger, and had started taking form. At last it became a giant tanuki with black streaks all across its sand skin. On top of this monster's head, was Gaara half buried in the sand.
Needless to say, the three genin were far from shocked, they were absolutely frightened. Musuko said, "Oh crap. Anyone have any plans now?"
"Unless, you know something that is that big." Sakura responded first, "I suggest we run."
Just then, Naruto had another idea, "Wait! I do know something that big!"
"Sabaku Kyu!" Gaara shouted out. Sand floated around all three of them, but Gaara had only one target in mind as of now, Musuko.
The sand closed in on the white haired shinobi as he tried his best to evade it, but the sand continued to get closer and closer. After multiple attempts to remove the problem with his senbon needles, the sand finally caught up to him and took hold of his left foot, making him trip to the ground.
Both Naruto and Sakura looked on in shock as the sand slowly crawled up their teammates leg, almost to his hip.
"What are we going to do?" Sakura said in both anger and worry. She was about to run over to Musuko to try to save him, but Naruto stopped her before she could get any further.
"I'll deal with this." with that, he sped across the gap between his sensei and himself. The sand came closer to the sky ninja, and he knew he had no way of escaping it, not this time. But then, Naruto shouted out, "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" the blond leapt into the midst of the sand and slammed down his hand into the ground, right in front of Musuko.
The sand was about to fully consume them, guaranteeing their deaths. However, a large burst of smoke enveloped the small area that the shinobi had been recently fighting in. And when the smoke cleared, both Musuko and Naruto were standing upon the head of a massive toad whom was smoking a pipe.
Naruto was kind of surprised that he had summoned Gamabunta once again, but not as surprised as Sakura and Musuko. But Musuko, he was even more surprised, as he had no memory of teaching Naruto one bit about summons, or even saying the word 'toad'. Something was up with Naruto, Musuko could feel it in his toes. But that would have to be dealt with some other time. Right now, they were in the middle of an intense fight; a fight of the giants, and Naruto supplied them with something that made the grounds even again.
"Where am I?" Gamabunta spoke, with an irritated tone, "Who has summoned me? I was in the middle of a drink!"
"That would be me, Toad Boss." the large toad turned his eyes up to see, the blonde who had summoned him the last time.
"Ah yes, you. I thought I told you not to summon us unless it was absolutely necessary." Gamabunta was about to shake both ninja off his head, when Naruto interrupted.
"Wait! If you just look right in front of you, you will see that it is absolutely necessary." the Toad Boss looked forward a bit annoyed, but when he saw the giant sand beast, his attitude changed to one of a serious fighter.
"Mmm, Shukaku." Gamabunta mumbled.
"You know him?" Naruto asked. The toad replied, "Yes. He is the one-tailed demon. Very powerful, but he takes pleasure in death and chaos. From what I have heard recently, he was sealed into a child many years ago." he took a puff from his pipe and continued, "Seems that the boy on his head is that child. But it seems that the seal was not done well."
"What makes you say that?" Musuko questioned.
"Look at his eyes. He shows obvious signs that he has not slept for months, maybe even years. The seal put on his was so poorly done, that when he went to sleep, Shukaku would try to take over. By doing this, Shukaku would have slowly destroyed Gaara's person until he had full control of it."
"So what are you saying, toad?" Gamabunta glared at the white haired ninja, "I mean, Toad Boss."
"That's better. It means that when the boy went to sleep, Shukaku took over. So to prevent that, he stayed awake, for years, thus gaining insomnia."
Musuko and Naruto looked back to Gaara and Shukaku, who were still standing there. Musuko spoke up, "He must not have full control of the body, Shukaku is not moving at all."
A faint chuckle could be heard from across the massive gap between the giants, as it came from Gaara. "So you were able to stay alive. But not for long," Gaara clapped his hands together, "Now see the true power, and how you will all die."
Sakura, not really being apart of any of this, was completely shocked at the sight she had just seen. A giant sand tanuki, a giant toad, a tailed demon, and that Naruto has come this far since she last saw him. Musuko was right, Naruto had gotten stronger. She looked at everyone. Musuko, a mystery still to her, but was incredibly skilled and for some reason wants to help her. Hinata, seeing her wince in pain as the sand gripped tighter around her, even she had improved. She was stronger, faster, and even her fighting style had changed drastically since her fight against Neji. Everyone that she looked at, including Gaara, had been able to grow this strong at such a young age, was by far amazing. And yet, she felt down inside, that she wasn't, no, she knew that she wasn't even half as strong as anyone here. So...why was she even here, in this fight at all? All she has done was to get in the way, twice! Lowering her head in shame, Sakura started beating herself up inside.
Until, "Tanuki Neiri no Jutsu!" Gaara shouted out, and then became a lifeless shell of himself directly after.
The eyes of the sand beast the Gaara was upon changed from all black, to having a brown and tan iris with shuriken pupils. The beast sat up, looking more and more intimidating.
"What just happened?" Naruto asked a bit worried now that the beast began to move.
"Gaara forced himself into a deep sleep." the Toad Boss responded, "Now with Gaara out of the picture, Shukaku has full power over the body."
"He he he he!" Shukaku released a maniacal laughter, "I'm finally out!" Looking over at Gamabunta, he smiled, "Look! Something to kill!"
"He's coming at us now." Musuko said calmly, yet still tense.
The battle of the giants had begun with Shukaku running on all fours after his toady prey. When he reached his target, Shukaku swung his left claw at Gamabunta. The Toad Boss quickly leapt up with his amphibian feet and flew high into the air, dodging the attack. While he was in the air, Gamabunta moved his hand to his back, where he took hold of a dagger hanging from his back. The small weapon may have appeared to be small for Gamabunta, but for anyone else it was a giant weapon the size of a great tree. As Gamabunta descended, Shukaku took notice of his prey above him. The sand beast opened his mouth and out of it flew out two balls of air. Gamabunta noticed this as well and shot his own attack. The Toad Boss spat out from his mouth two waterballs which collided with the air attacks.
When the two elements struck each other, it became a typhoon for those who were on the ground. Those being Sakura, Hinata, and the unconscious Chichi. Hinata was safe from being blown away, but Chichi on the other hand, was slowly being picked up by the wind. Sakura saw the sky ninja rolling off the branch he was lying on and was about to fall to his death. The pink haired kunoichi rushed over to where Chichi was to land, opened up her arms and caught Chichi. However, the wind speed made Chichi seem a whole lot heavier than he really was, and so Sakura fell down onto the ground with Chichi lying on top of her. With the dead weight on top of her and the wind beating down on them, Sakura could not lift him off of her. So instead, she held on to him tightly so that neither one of them would be blown away.
After the attacks had been countered, Gamabunta raised his dagger above his head, and just before landing, swung it downward and cutting off one of Shukaku's arms. When the Toad Boss landed, he immediately jumped to the side just in case Shukaku tried to make an attack on him. Landing a far distance from any quick attack, Gamabunta gave a big heave as he pulled back his dagger.
"His arm is made of pure sand. It's harder to cut through than an actual arm." Once Gamabunta said this, Shukaku's arm deteriorated and flowed back into his body. When all of the arm was gone, another arm grew in it's place. Gamabunta gave a small snuff of displeasure, "As long as there is sand around, even if it's his own arm, he can regenerate from any attack. What ever we do to him will be of no use."
"Then what do you suggest we do?" Naruto asked. Both him and Musuko have been holding on for dear life onto the toad's skin as he was jumping around.
"We have to wake up the boy on his head." Gamabunta directed their attention to Gaara, still sleeping. "If he is awaken, then Shukaku will return into the boy and he will become weaker."
"How do we wake him up?" Naruto asked his toad summon.
"For how long it has been since he used the jutsu, the boy would need just to be struck by your fist. But there's just one problem."
"And what's that?" Musuko asked.
"To wake up the boy, we need to get close, and that means we have to hold down Shukaku for awhile. I can't do that because I have nothing to hold him down with. We something with claws or teeth." looking up to his summoner, "You know anything that can hold him down?"
Naruto pondered over what he knew of anything that could hold Skukaku down, but nothing could come to his mind. "Sorry, Toad Boss, I can't think of anything at all. Nothing that can be brought here in time."
Musuko went absolutely silent. He started looking at his right hand, then looking at Naruto, and back at his hand. In his eyes, you could tell he was trying to make a decision of magnitude. Finally, Musuko spoke, "I know of something." Naruto turned quickly over to his sensei with a smile on his face.
"Really? What? What is it? A summon?" the blonde was asking questions, over excited of course. However, Musuko was far from having an excited expression.
The white haired shinobi walked up to Naruto and said, "Forgive me." Naruto gave a confused look and was about to ask Musuko why he said that, but Musuko didn't give him enough time as he punched Naruto out.
The blonde landed on his back on top of Gamabunta's head. The toad looked up, "What are you doing?"
Musuko knelt down next to Naruto and lifted his orange shirt to show his belly, "I'm getting you something with claws and teeth." 'I just hope this works. I don't think I have enough chakra left.' he raised his hand into a claw. The tips of his fingers glowing with blue chakra. "'Gyakufuin Jutsu!" the white haired ninja slammed his hand into Naruto's stomach.
Like the time before, Naruto clenched his stomach in pain after Musuko turned the seal upside down. Soon, the blonde's body was growing red fur, and his teeth grew sharper. Before anymore of Naruto changed, Musuko shoved his student off of Gamabunta's head. The toad thought that Musuko had gone mad and had just killed his own ally, but after seeing Naruto land on the ground three times his normal size and still growing, Gamabunta knew that something was happening to his summoner.
In only a few more seconds, Kyuubi stood erect next to Gamabunta and made a spine-chilling roar. The Toad Boss stepped away from the nine-tailed fox, as he knew just what this demon was capable of.
Kyuubi took in his surroundings. He saw in front of him Shukaku with a human stuck on his forehead. To his left, Gamabunta, who looked like he did not know from friend or foe. On top of Gamabunta's head, he saw Musuko laying on his back breathing heavily.
"I am free once again." looking over, Kyuubi snarled at Shukaku. Shukaku did the same in return. "What is wrong with you boy?" Kyuubi directed his question to Musuko, "You have released me, but I have a feeling not for long."
Musuko slowly sat up and looked at the giant fox before him. "You're right." Breathing harder now, "Naruto's seal... is rejecting me now... I only gave you... two minutes..."
Gamabunta continued with the debriefing, though not entirely sure that he could trust the fox demon, "You need to hold down Shukaku so that Musuko can deliver a punch to the boy on top of Shukaku's head. That should diminish his power and then be easily defeated." His eyes moved up to look at the white haired ninja on his head, "You think you have enough strength left."
Slowly, Musuko stood up, "Yeah." taking in one last big breath, "That justu took alot of my chakra, but I still have enough strength."
"Good." Gamabunta said. Looking at Kyuubi, "Think you can handle him, foxy?" adding a hint of insult to the 'foxy'.
Kyuubi snarled, not answering. He turned to Shukaku, who had been idle for the moment, and was now taking action. The one-tailed demon shot out more airballs at his new fox opponent. Kyuubi dodged and deflected the balls with his tails. With each air attack, Kyuubi got closer and closer, until finally. *SNAP! CLUNCH!* The nine-tailed fox grabbed hold of the tanuki with his tails, claws, and fangs, making the demon completely immobilized.
"How's that for handling him, wart?" Kyuubi retorted with his mouth full of Shukaku's shoulder.
Gamabunta wasted no time, he leapt right over in front of Shukaku and lowered his head so that Musuko could get a clear shot. "Now!" cried the Toad Boss.
The sky ninja jumped off the toad's head and headed straight for the sleeping Gaara. He landed on Shukaku's head, and ran over to where Gaara was. Suddenly, his feet stopped moving, the sand around his feet had latched onto him. Musuko was only two feet away from Gaara, so he took his arm back to deliver the punch. But then his arm was entangled in a sand tentacle from behind. His other arm was taken too by the sand, and the sand began to cover Musuko. Gamabunta tried to remove some of the sand by use of his tongue, but the sand just kept coming.
"Kid!" Gamabunta called out to Musuko, "You gotta wake him up! It doesn't matter how, just do it!"
And so, in a last ditch effort, Musuko threw in his head, which had not yet been taken by the sand. His headband bashed into Gaara's forehead, making a gash where the impact was made. Slowly Gaara's eyes opened up; he was awake.
"Nooo!" Shukaku cried out, as his eyes changed to their normal form, "I just got out!"
The sand around Musuko receeded away, leaving him out of harm's way, for now. When Gaara gained full consciousness of where he was, and that Musuko was standing right in front of him, he became angered. "You!" the sand shot out around Musuko, "You will die for what you did!" the sand closed in on the sky ninja. Gamabunta was able to intervene with his tongue as he wrapped it around Musuko's area. The sand could not get through, but it didn't stop it from coming from the bottom of the tongue shield.
"Toad Boss!" Musuko shouted in the tongue shield, "When I say now, remove your tongue." Gamabunta did a slight nod and waited for the command.
"Now!" with that, the tongue was taken away, revealing a white haired shinobi jutting at Gaara's body. Musuko made contact and tackled Gaara. With the force of the tackle, Gaara was pulled out of Shukaku's head and flew in the air with Musuko as well.
Since Gaara no longer was attached to the sand tanuki, the sand dispersed into a large pile on the forest floor. Gamabunta saw that the fight was officially over, and so disperrsed to his world, and with the two minutes up, Kyuubi fell onto his side, and slowly transformed into his blonde host's form. Both Musuko and Gaara landed in the treetops, softening their descent to the ground...slightly. Gaara was the first to hit the ground. Landing on his back, Gaara's sand gourd broke into pieces. With the impact, Musuko rolled off of the sand ninja and landed a few feet away from his opponent. Neither one had any energy left to even stand and face each other let alone continue on fighting. All that they did was breath and talk.
"Why?" Gaara uttered. Musuko replied, "Why what?"
"You. Why do you fight for a village that you don't live in? This is not your fight."
"That's where you're wrong, Gaara." Musuko smiled, "As long as any village shares the sky, it is our villages duty to protect it." he gave what he had to turn his head to look at Gaara, "That means even your village too."
Gaara didn't move his head, but his eyes looked over to the sky ninja. "You weren't the one who defeated me." Musuko was too weak to make a reaction, "It was that leaf shinobi wasn't it?" Gaara looked back up to the sky, "He weakened my sand body, he summoned that toad to save you, he held me down in a beast form for you to make the final blow. It wasn't you who beat me... it was him."
Musuko turned his head back to the sky like Gaara, still smiling, "Yep. I guess you're right. He really has gone far. Further than what I thought he'd do.' He whispered the last part to himself.
The two just laid there, not speaking for awhile. And then, Gaara spoke, "There's really no one coming to get us, is there."
The sky ninja smiled, "Nope." and he started laughing. And if he wasn't mistaken, Musuko thought he heard a chuckle or two coming from Gaara.
Time had passed and some chuunins had come to retrieve the ninjas. Chichi and Naruto were found unconscious, Hinata as well. She had been freed from the sand's clutches, but passed out from the pressure. Musuko and Gaara were still too weak to stand and so were carried off back to Konoha. Left behind was Gaara's broken gourd and the pile of sand where Shukaku once was.
On their way back to the village, Naruto had awakened, and was debriefed on everyone's status that came along with him on the fight by the ninja carrying him.
Then at last, they had reached the Hokage's tower. Multiple buildings had been demolished, as well as some of the village's walls, but Konoha was able to hold their ground and the sand and sound ninjas all retreated. Everything was alright, very few casualties, minimal damage, and Musuko, Hinata, and Chichi had gained back most of their strength. That is, until...
"What? Where? How?" Naruto shouted out his questions as he had heard the bad news. Being told where, the blonde had bolted off to the chunin exams arena. Landing on the roof where the Hokage sat to watch the matches, the blonde saw a forest had grown from beneath the tiles. And in the middle of this forest, was a white blanket, covering a body.
Can anyone guess whose body it is? I'll give you a hint, it's- oh who am I kidding! It's Sarutobi! There, everyone knows now!
Egad! What's this, a review?! That's hard to come by for me. Hope others review. And to my latest reviewer, Judah, Chichi was a weird name to give him, but after awhile, you kinda get used to it.
Anyways, review, and until then, I'm out like about minus ab.
Hope you all enjoyed it.