serialkeller: I've noticed how he has yet to explain that. Kakashi isn't going blind from it either, is he? (I honestly stopped reading the manga forever ago. It pissed me off too much.) Menma won't go blind from it either, but at least I can blame it on Kurama or something.
Foxstar: Glad you enjoy it and please do. I'm getting lazy at cleaning up my chapters. As for Japanese, my knowledge of the language is pretty limited, and what I do know the site would rate MA, sooo... try an online dictionary, perhaps? It will probably end up as the English-Japanese equivalent of Engrish but it should work. I personally use jisho dot org when I find a word I don't know.
Chapter 13
(Konoha Exam Stadium)
Menma stood on the Kyūbi's head, glaring at the creature made of sand in front of them.
"Ah, my full strength this time. It must be something you can't useless apes can't handle."
"Kill that thing," Menma said angrily.
The Kyūbi turned his gaze to the creature Menma wanted killed. "Shukaku?" He grinned maliciously. "I'm going to enjoy this."
"Kurama?! Wait! We can destr- oghck!" The sand beast tried to reason with him, only to have jaws clamp down on his throat and tear it out. He run around flailing and destroying the arena as sand reformed his throat. "That hurt!"
"I'd prefer you keep the collateral damage to a minimum," Menma said, "If you get him outside of the village, however, you can go wild."
Nine tails shot out, spearing and wrapping around the creature. It was picked up and slammed into the ground before a mighty hurl sent it flying over Konoha and out into the wilderness beyond. The Kyūbi chased after it, Menma on his head glaring death at the sand creature.
As the two ran through Konoha destroying buildings along the way a trio of people appeared on one of the relatively undestroyed sections of the exams arena.
"Whew, that was close," the man looked around at the destroyed arena. "Ah! Where are all the ladies to see the great Jiraiya's heroic rescue?!"
The two others stood up shakily.
"Ugh, how do we fight something like that? How are we going to beat it?" A certain pink-haired girl asked.
"You don't," Jiraiya responded, staring at the Kyūbi as it rushed through Konoha with a frown. "This is bad... an invasion with both of them running loose. You two... do... something. I need to go prepare some things. Avoid those two if you can."
"Why would we avoi-" Sasuke started to reply, only to find the man already gone. He shook his head and turned to Sakura. "Come on, let's go help our teammate."
The two were just about to rush off after him when a grey-haired man wearing glasses appeared in front of them. "I'm afraid I can't let you do that. With both of them running around like that things will go even better than we had planned."
The two members of Team 7 prepared for a fight. "Who are you?" Sasuke demanded.
"My name is Yakushi Kabuto," he replied, dropping into a stance.
(Konoha Outskirts)
The Kyūbi was nearing the walls of the village where several giant snakes could be seen. "That thing. You called it a Shukaku?"
"Ichibi no Shukaku," he replied. "The weakest of the bijū."
"It called you Kurama. Is that your name?" Menma asked, eyeing the giant snakes attacking the village.
The Kyūbi growled. "You don't deserve to know my name, fool."
"No? Then maybe I should desummon you," Menma replied. "I brought you out with your full power and gave you something to play with. I was even going to let you kill those snakes over there and as many ninja with those music notes on their foreheads as you could."
As they approached the snakes the Konoha ninja fell back, terrified at facing the Kyūbi. The enemy ninja and the snakes watched them warily. "See? They're even sitting still for you."
The Kyūbi charged up a relatively small bijūdama and fired, annihilating the Sound ninja and a good portion of the wall. "Summon me for this sort of thing more often and I'll let you use it." He lunged forward at the snakes, biting and tearing into them.
Menma watched on as the snakes were torn apart before they could return to their own realm. He grimaced and dodged to the side as a chunk of snake flew past his head nearly hitting him. "Well, there's not much you can do to stop me from using it now that I know it."
"You won't if you know what's good for you, hairless ape," he growled in reply.
Menma snorted. "You call me whatever you like so why should I do any differently, Kurama?"
He finished tearing the last snake apart and started running through the forest to where Shukaku had landed. "I'll tear you limb from limb, meatbag."
"And kill yourself in the process? I don't think so." Menma smirked, he and Kurama both knew there wasn't a thing he could do about it. "Hey look, there's your little brother."
"Don't ever call that thing my family again!" Kurama roared. "He's pathetic!"
"Just the same, let's finish this." Kurama ground to a halt in front of Shukaku as he struggled to his feet groaning.
(Exams Stadium)
Kabuto had underestimated them. The fight had originally gone in his favor. He had been toying with them and allowed a few minor attacks to hit him. He even allowed a larger attack to hit him so he could heal it and discourage them.
It only made them fight harder.
Now he had taken a couple large attacks and they had been keeping him off balance. He didn't have the time to use his skill to recover from them.
'I thought he had been joking when he said the only reason he won was because he surprised them with the curse seal.'
That moment of distraction was all Team 7 needed. Sakura, who had been using her affinity for earth to strengthen her blows, landed a crippling blow to his back, launching him forward to Sasuke.
Sasuke, who had seen it coming with his Sharingan, had already prepared. "Chidori!" His hand dove right through Kabuto's heart. If they had left it at that he might have been able to survive, but Team 7 wasn't taking any chances. Sakura, who had followed after her kick, grabbed his head and wrenched it violently to the side. With a sickening crunch and a squelch of a hand being removed Kabuto dropped to the ground dead.
The two sat for a moment catching their breath. "We need to get stronger. That guy was tough." Sasuke panted out.
Sakura nodded and then after a few more moments of catching their breath, turned to the path of destruction leading out of Konoha. "Let's go, Menma might need help."
(Konoha)
Jiraiya had gathered the supplies he would need for the sealing. He had passed a barrier earlier behind which he could see Orochimaru and Hiruzen, but the Kyūbi was the greater of the two evils. If it couldn't be stopped then Konoha was doomed.
As he landed on a particularly tall building he looked around the village for the Kyūbi and was surprised to find it outside the village fighting against the Shukaku. "Good. That buys us a little time, at least."
With that huge blast that had destroyed a large portion of the Sound ninja and their snake summons the battle had turned in Konoha's favor. He stopped by the various fights he came across on his way towards the Kyūbi to help finish off whatever Sound or Sand ninja they came across. Taking the Konoha ninja that could still fight along he had amassed a sizeable group by the time they reached the destroyed village wall.
He paused there and turned to face the group he had gathered. "As I'm sure you're all aware, the Kyūbi is back. Right now it's fighting against the Shukaku. If we get there before the two finish their fight, stay back. Konoha couldn't hold back the Kyūbi when he was the only one to attack 12 years ago. An invasion and Shukaku on top of that is suicide. We'll wait for one of them to win, then deal with the remaining one when they're weakened. Let's go." After his small speech the group jumped into the trees.
(Forest Outside Konoha)
Shukaku was confused. He knew the way things were supposed to go. His container would let him out to have some fun crushing a village.
No one said anything about Kurama being there.
He struggled to his feet and groaned. As he shook his head to clear it out he felt a presence behind him. He turned around and growled at Kurama. It was all his fault! He was the one that made everything wrong! He was the one that hurt him and stole his fun! He even made him fly! He's not supposed to fly! Chōmei is!
With a roar he jumped backwards to give himself some space and started charging a bijūdama.
Menma smirked. "Say, Kurama, that little attack you used at the walls wasn't the best you could do, was it?"
"Don't insult me! That wasn't anywhere near my best!"
"I'm not insulting you, Shukaku is." He waved his hand at the beast standing across from them. "Look at that thing. Does he really think he can beat you with that?"
Kurama growled at that and charged his own. Before long it compressed into a small ball and he swallowed it.
Shukaku fired his orb. Kurama opened his mouth and a beam of energy shot forth, tearing apart the land as it streaked towards Shukaku and his orb.
When the two attacks met there was a blinding flash. The earth shook. Massive trees were uprooted and tossed around like matchsticks. Winds tore apart what remained. In the end, there was a massive crater with a quickly dissolving Shukaku on the far side. A red-headed boy could be seen emerging from all the sand.
"Mind dropping me off over there? I want to deal with him personally," Menma said coldly.
Kurama snorted at that but carried him over to the boy anyways.
Gaara was scared. Terrified. He was so far beyond fear that all he could do was stare up at the boy glaring down at him in awe. They had crushed Mother. No, only the beast had, but the boy could control it. How much stronger would he have to be to do that? "How? How are you so strong?"
Menma sneered down at him. "I'm strong because I was fighting for my teammates. Teammates you killed."
"You lie! You're only strong when fighting for yourself!"
"You're an idiot. Can you protect someone else when you're dead?" Menma shook his head. "No. So if you want to protect someone else you have to be strong enough to keep yourself alive, and them as well. What happens when you want to protect two people? Three? A village?"
"But... then who will I kill? How will I prove my existence?"
"You prove your existence by killing other people?" Gaara nodded. "Then what happens when you're the last person alive? How do you prove your existence then?"
Gaara could only stare at him blankly. Menma shook his head and raised a kunai. "It doesn't matter. You die today."
"Stop!" Menma turned to see a familiar pink head of hair panting and trying to talk to him. "I know we killed a lot of people in Wave, but he's unarmed!"
"You're... both alive?" Menma blinked before trying to dispel a genjutsu. "How?"
"That old guy saved us," Sasuke replied.
More ninja showed up. A blonde-haired girl with a fan and a make-up wearing boy in a catsuit. They both wore the Suna symbol. Menma dropped the kunai he had scavenged from a ninja and waved a hand dismissively. The two Suna ninja grabbed Gaara and vanished.
Menma turned to his two teammates to talk when the sounds of countless jutsu and Kurama roaring could be heard. Konoha ninja were attacking Kurama while they dealt with Gaara.
With a sigh Menma dismissed him and turned to the Konoha ninja lead by the white-haired man. "Why are you attacking my summon?" Menma glared at the group.
The Konoha ninja could only stare in shock, all of them thinking the same thing. 'He can summon the Kyūbi?'
(Hidden Location)
Danzō couldn't be happier. Orochimaru had killed Hiruzen but had failed to destroy the village. He had even been forced to flee after suffering a crippling injury from the Hokage.
The jinchūriki had summoned the Kyūbi inside of Konoha to fight against Suna's demon. His poor handling of the beast had caused a lot of destruction and made the villagers terrified of him, yes, but he had proven he could control the beast. Even better, he had admitted to a good portion of the ninja of the village that he could summon the beast at will. Surely the village would demand he be turned into a weapon now.
On top of all of that, there had been very few casualties. Perhaps it was because Tsunade was in the village, but the reason didn't really matter. Buildings could be repaired and rebuilt fairly easily. Ninja took time to grow and train.
Danzō took a sip of his tea. The Uchiha's adoption request hadn't gone through yet. If he played it right, convinced people he was plotting something with the demon's power, he might just be able to get him into ROOT as well.
The position of Hokage, a jinchūriki and his pet bijū, the last Uchiha, and one of Konoha's greatest enemies crippled. Everything he wanted was now almost within his grasp. He allowed himself a rare smile. Today was a good day.
End Chapter 13
A/N:
Another short chapter. I doubt I'll proof or spell check this one either. I'm getting lazy in that department.
This pretty much wraps up the chunin exams/Sand-Sound invasion arc. Since Tsunade is already in Konoha I'll have to think on how I want the next bit to go. That might mean a slowdown in chapter posting, we'll see how it goes.