Lionheart: before we get to the chapter, I'd like to thank everyone who's taking the time to critique and praise my story. This will be the last "filler" chapter before the Chuunin Exams.
Sand in the Leaf! Gaara's New Technique!
On the training grounds, Naruto and Gaara squared off. Both hand their hands formed in a hand sign, and both looked ready to go.
Off to the side, in the trees, the others watched with some anxiety. "That shrimp is going to get slaughtered," said Kankuro, "Gaara hasn't been defeated yet."
"Hah," countered Sakura, "don't count that "shrimp" out just yet. He might just surprise you a little bit."
Kankuro snorted, "A guy like him? I don't know. He doesn't look like much."
"You shouldn't judge a book by its cover," spouted out Sakura, "Naruto is one of the strongest Genin in Leaf Village. Even Gaara knows that. You'll see."
On the field, the cork covering Gaara's gourd popped out. "Are you prepared Uzumaki," asked Gaara?
Naruto grinned, "You bet, oh Kazekage sir. Show me what you've learned then."
Gaara's eyes narrowed. "You haven't changed one bit, Lord Hokage. Let's see what 'you've' learned."
Gaara waved his hand, and a stream of sand attacked rapidly flying towards Naruto. "Hn," grunted the blonde, before forming a familiar hand sign. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
One clone popped into existence before leaping forward and knocking the sand away. While the clone Naruto blocked the sand with its share of chakra, Naruto leapt high and, spinning like a drill, dive-bombed towards Gaara.
Just as Naruto made contact, Gaara's body turned to sand and collapsed into a sandy pile on the grass. As Naruto stopped spinning, Gaara's head appeared from the sand and spit out three sand shuriken. Naruto, with inhumane speed, ducked at the last moment, narrowly dodging all three. Flipping forward, he regained his distance and threw a shuriken towards Gaara, who had fully materialized.
"Shadow Shuriken Jutsu! Shuriken From All Directions," shouted Naruto.
His shuriken multiplied and attacked Gaara from different angles and in different arcs. Gaara allowed his sand to rise up and block each one. Naruto smiled, "Nice, I almost forgot about your ultimate defense. You didn't have that the last time we fought."
"Last time I didn't have Shukaku either," replied Gaara.
Naruto nodded, "Good point. Fine, I'll just have to smash my way through. Here, let's try some good old fashion Taijutsu."
Vanishing, Naruto appeared in Gaara's face, "Bursting Machine Gun Punch!" His hands flying, Naruto sent out an amazing seven hundred punches in ten seconds. Putting his chakra into speed, Naruto's punches lacked brute force, but the repeated pounding managed to break through Gaara's sand wall. Twenty hits landed on Gaara, making the future Kazekage look like a beat up doll.
In the trees, Kankuro's mouth dropped, "Insane! He broke Gaara's sand defense. That's supposed to be impossible. What was that attack?"
"That was a series of fast punches that are shot in quick bursts," explained Sasuke. "His punches are so fast, even my advanced Sharingan cannot keep up with it."
Leaping back to avoid the rest of Naruto devastating attack, Gaara tapped his arm. It instantly transformed into a smaller version of the Shukaku's arm. "Arm of the Shukaku! Extend!"
The arm quickly shot out, extending to a length of over twenty feet. Wrapping his new hand around Naruto, who was resting after his attack, Gaara lifted him into the air. Turning him in midair, Gaara dropped him onto his head.
As a crater formed, Naruto's body turned into a log.
"Incredible," said Kakashi, "he did a replacement technique in that split second before he was grabbed."
"He's good," said Kankuro, impressed.
Meanwhile, Gaara placed a hand near his floating ribs to block Naruto's kick. He ducked to avoid a right hook, and then threw out an elbow to Naruto's chin. At the same time, Naruto elbowed downwards on Gaara's exposed back. Both hits landed simultaneously. Naruto was sent flying upwards, while the force of Naruto's elbow sent Gaara face-first into the ground.
After a moment, Gaara used his sand to help him stand. Already blood was coming out of his mouth. Meanwhile, with the Kyuubi's chakra, Naruto's lips were already healing. "That actually hurt," complained Naruto, rubbing his jaw, "can't believe you caught me in the chin."
Gaara chuckled, "If we here ordinary people, we'd probably be hurting a lot right now."
Naruto nodded, "Yeah," he agreed.
"Say, how about we step this up a notch," said Gaara seriously, "I really wanted to show you my new abilities."
"Anytime, Sand Boy," retorted Naruto. Gaara smiled, before placing his hands together. "Secret Sand Technique: Quicksand in the Style of a Waterfall!"
Naruto's eyes shot open and he quickly jumped up. As soon as his feet left the ground and enormous tidal wave of sand materialized and covered the entire training ground, save for the spot Gaara was standing in.
'Damn, it looks like he wants to go all out,' thought Naruto, 'I'd better get serious or he might actually hurt me.'
Naruto landed promptly on the sand, using his chakra to stay above it, while Gaara rose up from the ground. Naruto figured there was at least ten feet of sand underneath him. He would have to be careful or he would be crushed.
Gaara formed another hand sign, resulting in large bits of sand to rise from the ground. Each formed into sharp needles that could easily puncture steel. "Sand Drizzle," muttered Gaara, brining his hand down.
As the needles of sand began to fall, Naruto quickly used his own technique, "Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!" The gust of wind that Naruto blew out was so strong; even Gaara's sand needles were blown away. Before his jutsu quite died out, Naruto aimed his attack towards Gaara.
Gaara placed his hands into the ground and immediately an extra thick coating of sand rose up, successfully deflecting Naruto's attack. As a follow up of his wind attack, Naruto shouted, "Fire and Wind Style: Tornado Shower of Flames: Rotating quickly, Naruto created a small typhoon. Inside the typhoon, fireballs rapidly circled, creating a devastating elemental combination.
On the sides, Kakashi couldn't help but point out how incredible the technique was. "He just mixed two elemental jutsus. The wind spreads the fire, powering up the fire elemental attack, but at the same time the speed of the whirlwind is so great that it doesn't lose any of its original strength."
"Um, thanks for pointing out the obvious, Sensei," said Sakura.
Back on the field, Gaara was forced to retreat into his sand coffin to diminish the effects of Naruto's attack. The force of the wind probably equaled to one of a small tornado. Combined with the power and heat of the fire, anything that was sucked in disintegrated immediately. Luckily, Gaara's sand, fed with his chakra, was able t hold out. Still, some amount of wind managed to penetrate his shield, cutting him quite badly on the arms and legs.
As Naruto's attacked died, down, Gaara had to steady himself to prevent from tumbling to the ground. "Y-you haven't lost your skill I see," said Gaara, slowly.
Naruto crossed his arms, "Looks like you underestimated me again, Gaara."
Gaara smiled, "maybe not." At that moment, a small piece of Gaara's cheek turned to sand and peeled off. Naruto's eyes shot open as the rest of the body followed.
'Damn, so it 'was' a sand clone after all. He's managed to change the appearance of the sand to make it look human. That blood that came out was undoubtedly blood from the sand's previous victims. Pretty smart.'
Naruto leapt away as a claw of sand shot up from the ground. He needed to continually flip around, avoiding Gaara's strikes, which could come from anywhere from the sand, thanks to Gaara's sand abilities. Unfortunately for Naruto, Gaara managed to predict one jump and managed to graze his arm.
Blood flowing freely, Naruto jumped up and, twisting, flew down like a drill again. Plunging into the sand, Naruto sent up huge amounts of sand, creating a crater-like hole. In the middle, Gaara stood clutching his chest, where Naruto's attack nailed him.
"Ugh…how did you know where I was?"
"Art of Tracking," answered Naruto, tapping his ears, "it took me awhile to trace the distinct vibration of your arms over the other noises, but eventually I got it after your last attack scraped me. You were doing the same, using my flips to predict my movements."
Gaara chuckled, "pretty good, Uzumaki."
"Now, you won't trick me again," said Naruto, "Hiding Mist Technique!" A thick mist quickly covered the battlefield. Gaara braced himself as his vision slowly faded away. 'Even if my eyes fail me, I still have my ears. He won't be able to get close to me without me knowing. Still, I can't underestimate him of all people. He has a nasty habit of surprising people.'
A moment later, Gaara felt a slight vibration in the sand. Leaping backwards he heard a thud in front of him. 'Probably a kunai knife,' he thought, 'have to be careful.'
Three more times, Gaara dodged, until finally, he felt a different vibration. This time, judging from the feel, Naruto had jumped of used the body flicker technique. Reacting quickly, Gaara leapt backwards…right into a kunai knife.
The small blade punctured his lower back in the right lumbar region. His sand had been helpless because he himself had walked right into the kunai. How, he had no idea. A Body-Flicker Technique would have been too slow to get him behind him that quickly, and if Naruto had charged, then he would have been in front of him.
Again, Gaara felt the same vibration. This time, a punch followed it. And this time, it was a punch strong enough to entirely break his defense and knock him away. Back flipping back onto his feet, Gaara felt another punch on his back, sending him shooting in an arc. He finally realized what was happening.
'Clever bastard,' thought Gaara, 'in the mist, he strategically planted his kunai knives for his Flying Thunder God Technique. When he vanishes it seems like he jumps or uses body-flicker, but at a much higher speed. In the mist, I couldn't see that.'
Landing on his feet, Gaara quickly slammed his hands into the dirt, raising a sand storm. With strong winds, the mist soon vanished. Naruto stood in front, just about ready to do another Flying Thunder God Technique. He was smiling, "Oh, I haven't seen that technique before," said Naruto, brushing sand from his black jacket, "looks like you've figured me out."
"Hn, it was easy," said, Gaara looking away. Already, his wounds were beginning to heal. Naruto smiled, "Looks like we haven't made an impression on each other yet."
Naruto quickly picked up all his kunai, storing them into a scroll. When, he was done a huge amount of blue chakra suddenly swirled around him. He looked at Gaara, suddenly serious.
"How about we cut the boring stuff and really get it on," said Naruto, suddenly, "as much as I'd love to spar all day, I want to put an end to this."
Gaara's eyes narrowed. "You're not really the type for fun fighting, are you? Whatever, Shukaku just granted me the use of this ability. I didn't want to use it against you, but since you're so serious, why not?" He quickly turned towards Sakura. "Sakura," he yelled, "you might recognize this one."
"Secret Art: Iron Sand!"
Sakura's jaw dropped, "But that's the secret technique that the third Kazekage developed. I thought it was a bloodline technique."
"It is," said Sasuke, "in a sense. The abilities of the iron sand were developed by the third based on attacks by Shukaku when he was still a priest in the ancient days. Theoretically, since Gaara has the Shukaku inside, it is possible to recreate the technique. With Gaara's intelligence and with the clone training Naruto developed, I think it's very likely he's mastered it.
Sakura gulped, remembering how she had fought Sasori, who had utilized the Third Kazekage as a human puppet, able to use the Iron Sand. It had been a desperate fight, and she had only succeeded with the aid of Chiyo. There was also the factor that Sasori underestimated them. But now, Naruto was facing Gaara, someone who had skills and intelligence even greater than Sasori, and would not underestimate Naruto.
"He's done for," cheered Kankuro, "no one can defeat the Iron Sand. When Gaara learned it, Baki was scared shitless."
"I wouldn't count him out yet," said Kakashi, "you're talking about Konoha's Number One Hyper-Active Knuckle Head Ninja."
Kankuro stared at him, "What?"
Kakashi smiled, "Never mind."
Back on the sand, Naruto watched interestingly as silver sand began to come from Gaara's mouth. He had heard of this ability, but had never seen it, due to fighting Deidara on the Retrieve Gaara Mission.
"Wow, that looks pretty lethal," said Naruto, "I better be careful."
A moment later, the metallic sand hovered around Gaara, almost moving on its own. "You beat my Sand Drizzle earlier," said Gaara, "how about we try that again? Iron Sand Technique: Sand Drizzle!"
The sand formed into sharp needles in the air, before free-falling towards Naruto's position.
'Damn,' thought Naruto, 'I won't be able to beat that with my wind techniques. Looks like I'll have to match it blow for blow.
"Fire Style: Fists of Fury!" Naruto's hands briefly glowed red, before fire suddenly shot out of them. "Now," said Naruto, pulling an arm back. "Bursting…Machine Gun…Fiery Assault!"
Kakashi sweat dropped, "Bursting Machine Gun Fiery Assault…"
"Yeah, Naruto comes up with some weird names for his attacks," said Sasuke.
"At least it works," said Temari. And it was working. Naruto hands were on fire, matching each sand needle strike. Each punch sent out a small amount of flames which countered the iron needles. At the speed of Naruto's strikes, he was able to counter each needle.
After the last one, Naruto aimed towards Gaara, and threw a punch out, sending out a tremendous blast of fire. Before it quite reached Gaara, the iron sand rose up and negated the attack.
"Take this Uzumaki. Iron Sand World Order!" Sharp spikes made up of the iron sand shot up from the ground, all over the training field, forcing Naruto to jump around for his life. As one shot up from beneath him, Naruto swung his flaming fist again shooting out a fireball at the tip of the sand. As expected the spike easily broke through it.
Gaara prepared to stop his attack if necessary, when Naruto suddenly dived towards the spike. 'What's he doing?'
When the spike was mere inches from Naruto's body, Naruto curved his hands into a triangle and thrust them towards the spike. Perfectly aimed, tip of the spike went into the palms, but because of the angle of his hands, did not pierce him. At the same time, using the spike, Naruto pushed to the side, and landed on the ground. Before Gaara could use another spike, he yelled, "Wind Style: Drilling Air Bullet!"
Abandoning his assault, Gaara was forced to maneuver to avoid getting hit. The drilling air bullet acted very similar to the Rasengan. If he got hit, he would be pretty messed up. Gaara first used his regular sand to hit the bullets incoming like baseballs, while he formed his iron sand into a giant sphere.
"Amazing," commented Sasuke, "he needs a lot of control to manipulate both of the sands at once."
"Yeah, he's been practicing ever since he learned the iron sand technique," said Temari, "he's gotten almost no sleep at all."
"Tch, what's your move now, Naruto," asked Kakashi?
Once Naruto stopped his attack, Gaara used his. Using his regular sand to attack from the left, he used his giant sphere of iron sand to attack from the right. As Naruto jumped away, Gaara manipulated the sand to follow, trapping Naruto in a pincer-like trap.
As the sphere of iron sand rolled in, Naruto focused chakra to his feet, and leapt up high. It was too late, as another layer of sand blocked his exit. To those watching, Naruto hit the new layer of sand and then fell back and was crushed by both the iron sand and the normal sand.
"Game over," said Gaara, "sorry, Naruto."
"Hey, where are you looking Lord Kazekage?"
Gaara swiftly turned only to feel the hat of Naruto's fire punch to the face. "Ughwahh!" Stumbling back, Gaara fell to the ground rubbing his cheek.
In the trees, Kankuro, Temari, Sakura, Sasuke, and Kakashi watched in awe. "Amazing, how did he do it," asked Kakashi?
"I don't know," said Sasuke, "I didn't see what happened after we thought he got crushed by that pincer-like trap."
Down below, Gaara quickly twisted his hands, sending iron sand up Naruto's body, "Sand Coffin!"
Naruto, groaning, struggled against the technique. "You're trapped," said Gaara, "and now…"
'POOF!'
The Naruto trapped in the sand coffin vanished, revealing it was a shadow clone. Turning, Gaara looked behind him, where Naruto crouched. His hands were formed into the tiger seal. "Konoha's Most Sacred Taijutsu Technique," said Naruto, mischievously. "One Thousand Years of Death!"
Poking Gaara in the butt, he sent him flying across the field.
"Eww," said Sakura.
"Eww two," added Temari. Both of them had disgusted faces.
"I can't believe he would do that," said Kankuro, "what an amateur."
"Hey, that's my technique," said Kakashi. Temari and Kankuro glanced at him, at each other, and then rolled their eyes.
Meanwhile, Naruto began to rotate his arms. Eventually it reached such a speed, it was almost impossible to see. The wind around Naruto's arms began to pick up until his arm was surrounded by a spiraling wind.
Gaara slowly sat up, still feeling the effects of getting his ass poked. It left a really funny feeling inside the stomach, and not to mention pain in the behind. Standing, he twisted his arm. The iron sand from the sphere attack rose and formed into various three dimensional shapes. Swinging his arms, these shapes flew towards Naruto.
Naruto groaned as he formed a Rasengan in both hands. Leaping up, he destroyed the first shape that came at him. Using the momentum from the explosion, he dodged the second shape, a large cube. The next seemed to be some kind of triangular prism. Using his other Rasengan he destroyed this. As iron sand floated around, Gaara smiled. "Iron Sand Technique: Iron Sandstorm!"
Slowly, wind began to pick up, and the iron sand began to swirl and move fiercely. The first effects Naruto felt was his arm getting cut up. "What the…"
Looking ahead, he was fit by the full force of the sandstorm. Except now, instead of regular sand, it was iron sand. With a cutting ability far superior to regular sand, Naruto found he had to block every vital point he had in fear of getting hit. Unfortunately, because of this, he did not see the fourth sphere of iron sand rolling towards him.
Hit in the front, Naruto was pushed backwards, and onto the ground. "Iron Sand Drizzle," he heard over the noise.
The next thing he felt was something very similar to dumbbell weights dropping down upon him. Coughing up blood, he pounded the ground until a small dome of solid earth covered him. Even so, some of the sand broke through, and each one forced Naruto to give out a cry of pain.
Once the technique stopped, Naruto stopped his own technique. Slowly, Gaara approached him. "Ready to give up, Naruto?"
From the ground, Naruto turned towards Gaara, "you wish. I didn't think I had to go this far to beat you. But, here goes."
Hopping up with a speed unexpected from one who had just gotten shelled, Naruto raised his right arm. Blue chakra began to swirl around him, until it all went into his right arm. Gaara knew what was coming next.
Inside his hand, a Rasengan formed. "Wind Style: Spiral RasenFist!" While Naruto thrust out his hand, Gaara, summoned all available sand to him, and formed his ultimate defense Shukaku technique.
Naruto hit the Shukaku like figure right in the stomach, breaking through it after a moment of emitting off an insane amount of chakra. On the other side, Gaara raised his arms to summon the rest of the sand in his gourd. It proved futile as Naruto's attack penetrated both his automatic sand defense and the sand that he gathered. At contact, Naruto's arm emitted huge amounts of wind, sending Gaara spinning away. Landing, Gaara collapsed, coughing up blood. Slowly, the sand, regular and iron, began to fade away.
"Now it's game over," said Naruto, smiling, "and I win!" He then collapsed to the ground, his chakra depleted.
The watchers landed. Kankuro and Temari picked up Gaara's bloodied body. "Oh man, Baki is not going to like this," said Kankuro, worried, "I can't believe Gaara lost. I never thought anybody could beat him."
Kakashi stared down at Naruto unconscious body. "It's okay. They both have tailed beasts inside of them, which speed of their healing. They'll be fine. Gaara may have some marks there in the morning, but at least he was able to defend himself with that figure. If it hadn't been for that," said Kakashi, darkly, "even he would have been severely injured. That was an amazing Rasengan though. He didn't quite mix the two elements together; more like he used two attacks at once."
"Yeah, wait till you see the RasenShuriken," said Sasuke, shuddering, "if you get that hit by that, you're dead, unless you have some special ability."
Kakashi sighed, "Anyway, I've wasted enough time here. Sakura, heal Naruto. And be careful tomorrow guys," said Kakashi, "try NOT to hurt anybody," he said, before vanishing.
Kankuro stared at the empty space, "Your Sensei likes to talk a lot," he said.
Temari slapped him behind the head, "C'mon Kankuro, we need to get Gaara back and fix him up. Sakura showed me some medical skills so I think I can help out."
Kankuro's face darkened, "oh yeah, I forgot you were with them in the future too. Does that mean you have insane abilities too?"
Temari smiled, "Oh, you'll find out all about my abilities later. Anyway, Sasuke…Sakura, see you two later." With that, she lifted Gaara up and vanished with Kankuro.
At the same time, the third Hokage, along with a number of ANBU and Jounin arrived. "What happened," demanded the Third, "and what's with all the sand?"
Sasuke sighed. He had a lot of explaining to do. He motioned to Sakura to take Naruto away, before turning towards the Third Hokage. "So," he began, "this is what happened."
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Lionheart: And that's that! Next time: Start of the Chuunin Exams! Thanks for Reading!