AN: I want to thank Keplo for making a point about the Kyuubi chakra and how the Sharingan can't predetermine where it will attack. I had missed that fact and I appreciate him mentioning it. That fact won't affect future events, so I ask for a bit of leniencey for the sake of plot in that area.

On another note, dear readers, please remember my stories are NOT canon and the only parts that do reflect canon is just enough to give a foundation to the story. I try to reply to my reviewers if they bother to log in if they have a question that needs answered. On the other hand, it only makes me laugh when someone has a problem with my story or tries to make a point and hide in the shadows.

Seriously, grow up.

Last, but not least, to the reviewer talking about Gin in my Get What You Wanted series, my answer is quite simple: Is the story over? Your point is not made.

Your Mistress.

XXX

For The Good Of The Village: Hyuuga Arc

Ch 13 Chuunin Arena Pt 4

"Hinata-chan? Hinata-chan?" Encased in the Kyuubi's red chakra cloak, Naruto was afraid to touch her. Hunched by her side, he nudge her elbow with the back of his knuckles to try and rouse her. "Please, wake up, Hinata-chan. Please?"

He could see she was still breathing, but when she did it came out pained, shuddering and broken. Her fingers started to claw at the ground, shivering with an unimaginable agony.

Red, thick blood diluted with clear, viscous fluid seeped from blackened eyelids. Around the inner seam of her pants, a dark burgundy stain spread to the arena floor, eventually seeping out of her pant legs. It had a smell, something akin to something very feminine and...wrong. This was a different type of hurt, a different type of pain. Instinctively, Naruto knew she was damaged on a level that was...beyond immoral, beyond penance.

The chakra cloak shifted around him, sprouting a single plume of fire behind him.

"I'm going to make him pay...Hinata-chan," Naruto screwed his eyes towards Neji surrounded by several Jounin. "I don't understand why he treats you like garbage or why your family can get away with those looks. I'm tired of people like him hurting others because they can. Everyone thinks they can just do what they want, hurt the weak, the different...Hurt me, hurt you...well...I'm going to hurt them. First, I'll start with Neji," Naruto's chakra flared to life, feeding him vitality and expanding his senses. Through the bodies of Jounin, Neji was looking back with defiant recognition. "and anyone that gets in my way."

Sakura blossoms fell in delicate spirals, fluttering with feather fall sways and drifts. Behind the sheet of pink, petal soft leaves cascaded around him.

"Your anger is justified, Naruto-kun." Kurenai's deep, womanly voice reached through the genjutsu. "We all feel like you do, but you can't change people like this. Not this way."

A large, over-sized bonsai tree sprouted next to him, with leaves growing from twisting limbs.

Naruto turned back towards Hinata, trying to get the lump in his throat to go away. "Hinata-chan...please, wake up?"

Shouts grew louder, in warning and consequence, but the person who landed on the other side of him ignored their calls.

"She's trying to trick you, Naruto," Sasuke growled with his three tomoe Sharinan activated, pointing a kunai at Kurenai accusingly. "She's just like them, all of them. They're trying to keep you from feeling what's right in your heart. Revenge." Sasuke growled the word out, tasting it and savoring it. "You deserve it, just like I do with my family. Back at Wave, that was you, wasn't it? Kakashi didn't maul Gato, you did."

Naruto turned away from Hinata, looking at Sasuke's sandals in guilt.

"How did it feel, Naruto, when you ripped Gato apart? How did he look when he cried for mercy or help? That man abused his power and thought nothing of everyone else he destroyed for his own needs. Who knows what the Hyuuga are going to do, but will it be enough? Ever? A quick, seemingly painless death? This isn't a time for their justice, but for enforcing the needs of an Avenger. Tell me," Sasuke stepped closer to him, urging him. "Was it worth it? I need to know."

Hunger, want, need and urgent gratification lit Sasuke's eyes.

Kurenai hovered between Naruto to look directly at Sasuke, "You're suggesting he seek out mortal revenge on a fellow shinobi, Sasuke. You two are not protected under the laws of the Chuunin exam and will be punished if you seek out any further retribution from this point on out." Carefully, gently, Kurenai turned to Naruto and tugged at his shoulder for him to look at her. "Hinata wouldn't want this for you, Naruto. Let's take her to the hospital and get her treated, alright?"

Naruto saw the white coated medic nins toeing the perimeter around Naruto, trying to reach Hinata.

"I know she would want me to forgive Neji," Naruto wiped at his eyes. Looking up, he turned to Sasuke and then Kurenai, "but who says I have to? Tell her, I love her."

"No, Naruto!" Kurenai didn't even have time to reach for him.

The ground broke and shifted under his feet. With a pull of his hands and a kick, he was gone.

xxx

"He's coming," Neji spoke out loud, gauging where Naruto zigged and zagged across the open area, then along the side walls only to stop at the apex of the roof above.

"You need to get out of here, Hyuuga." Anko bit her thumb and smeared it over the bricks in front of her. "Kuchiyose no Jutsu."

Several very large snakes appeared, coiling and hissing into the air.

"What is he?" Neji sent chakra to his hands, allowing them to glow with his power.

"Your fate," Anko sneered, then shoved him roughly towards the exit. "Move!"

"No," Neji grit his teeth, Byuakugan and focus etched in his handsome features. "Let him come. I'll not fear my destiny."

"Idiot," Anko turned her head towards the snakes near her and jerked her chin at Neji.

Snakes as large as boughs hissed at him, revealing fangs the size of kunai and a forked tongue longer than his arm. Turning on his heel to spin, he felt a needle like pinch on his ankle.

A little blue and green snake was wrapped around his sandals.

Just as vertigo began to settle, the largest of the snakes unhinged his jaw and swallowed him whole.

"RRRAAAWWWWWWWRRGH!"

"Get him out of here." Three snakes sped off in a writhing sprint of tails towards the exit. Anko twirled her kunai but kept her eyes at the ceiling where Naruto's red chakra writhed with life. "This is going to get ugly."

xxx

Claws built of solidified rock tore at the ground. Gaara's lithe form bulked into something grotesque, something twisted: Half human, half demon tanuki. Lips parted wide, Gaara chuckled manically.

"Do you think he can make me feel alive, Ka-san? I do. The prey always need to fear a predator...we're a predator, aren't we, Ka-san? Yes, we are. Yes, yes, yes, we are..."

Not too far away, Anko subdued Neji and had him removed from the field with her summoned snakes. A booming caterwaul echoed off the walls, pushing all but the strongest Jounin to their knees.

His prey was enraged.

Good, he thought to himself. Now we need to strike. A predator always shows his claws while the prey runs.

Curling the gargantuan limb back, he threw it towards the roof where Naruto stared back at them. A flurry of rock hard molten sand blobs arched towards the red glowing Jinchuuriki.

Thunderous echoes charged the air, proving the projectiles impacted against something solid.

"Come!" Gaara's claw stretched impossibly far, impossibly fast towards Naruto. The Kyuubi Jinchuuriki dodged it, zipping past the claw, past Gaara, and towards the Snakes trying to crawl out of the arena.

He didn't even give Gaara a single glance.

"Don't ignore me!" Gaara's tail shot out, equally fast and whipped at Naruto, slapping him in mid air into the opposite side of the arena. Gaara salivated with his rival Jinchuuriki's cloak feel so pliable and soft under the unforgiving weight of his hardened flesh.

Swirling red chakra coiled around his tail, pulling his immeasurable weight off the ground till it pushed him several feet into the arena floor, gouging out a channel as deep and wide as Gaara, up into the arena walls and into the stands.

When the smoke cleared, Gaara's full body became the shell of the Shukaku beast. Still connected through the crimson chakra, Naruto's body was shrouded by an even thicker coat...and two tails.

xxx

The situation was unprecedented.

Sarutobi Hiruzen could remember few battles where two Jinchuuriki or tailed beasts were set against each other and the repercussions were minimal. What was worse was the secret of the Kyuubi was now unveiled and seen by eyes of different countries: Sound and Sand. Any kind of silencing would constitute an act of war or create ripples of immeasurable damage. The only thing he could think of was containing the event. For now, he had to protect those that need protecting and get this situated resolved with as little collateral damage as possible.

Other than Hinata, Kakashi as well several other Chuunin were already injured between the half demons' fray. The two demon containers were throwing each other around, bashing through walls, through the floor and even through the roof. Naruto launched Gaara into the air far enough to let moonlight in on one side of the ceiling only for Gaara to bounce right back in through another part.

The two beasts howling at each other pierced eardrums and souls alike.

On a side note, what disappointed him above all was Uchiha Sasuke. The young man was actually interfering, egging Naruto to enact his whim of revenge in Hinata's name. There would be consequences for that later, but in the mean time, the young man was still a Genin that needed to be protected. He was also sure if the Elders got word of the young heir not being protected in this situation the amount of scolding and lecturing would be worst than a year's worth of paperwork.

The mild slip of focus was enough to earn a mighty shove from an ANBU guard and off his feet. The red chakra and silicon sand colored limbs smashed into the ANBU, knocking him off the balcony and onto the rubble stacked floor. The ceiling had more holes in it and the walls keeping what was left of the roof didn't exactly look structurally sound.

In fact...

Like falling confetti, very large confetti made of tons of rock and rebar, chunks of wall and other overhanging support beams revealed tale tell signs of imminent doom. Even as everyone departed, the two beasts tore at the other, raking claws and rock, insanity versus rage.

Then it happened.

"Ka-san! Protect me!" Gaara was wounded. What had once been the darkened husk of sand and blue veined mar over the Shukaku mini-form, Now was the ripped pieces and flecks of sand armor and chakra burns.

Something akin to a wounded shriek befell everyone's ears.

He was trying to get away.

Mercilessly, behind him, Naruto wouldn't let him go. Even as the sand pulled at the tearing chakra arms and attempted to reach Naruto to smother him, crush him, kill him, there was just not enough sand, enough strength, or enough hope to keep Naruto from pulling off Gaara's sand armor, Shukaku gauntlet shaped limbs, and tail like a psychotic child dismembering an insect. The bestial roar echoed over the collapsing debris. Even through the curtain of falling death, three whipping tails sprouted behind Naruto.

xxx

Though it pained him Sarutobi understood what needed to be done. His duty as Hokage was to protect the village, and there could be no greater threat than a reawakened Nine Tails. "Ibiki, Issue a code Black."

Morino Ibiki paused to respond to his Leader's demand, to ensure that he had heard him correctly. With a confirming nod, he answered. "Yes, Hokage-sama."

Sarutobi raised his voice so all of his nin could hear him clearly, despite the fall of the Chuunin Arena. "Stop Naruto. Do anything required." Closing his hands into tight, gnarled fists, "Anything."

xxx

A thousand birds swarmed into the skies from one Konoha post to anywhere Leaf shinobi could be reached to head back home.