Chapter 36: Battle of the Jinchuuriki!
Naruto woke up in the training grounds he had been in last night. His clothes were ruined from the rigorous use of wind jutsu. He looked up and realised it was morning and his match was today. He rushed towards his house, using both ki and chakra to augment his speed as he sped over the rooftops, landing at his front door and slamming it open, rushing upstairs and grabbing the first thing in his closet, his old orange and blue jumpsuit. He threw it on and sped to the arena, slamming through the doors and rushing to waiting area.
When he broke in he saw Gaara was the only one standing there, and that Sakura was on the ground while Sasuke was standing, ki radiating off of him.
"SASUKE!" The blond jinchuuriki shouted, "I thought we said no ki!"
The Uchiha looked at Naruto, "She used it first, and I'm just making sure I can stand straight, pretty sure she broke a few ribs."
Naruto decided to leave it for later as he saw the medical squad come and get his teammates.
"You're late." Gaara said.
Naruto turned around, Byakugan activated, "And you're a sadistic asshole." Naruto said.
"You are the same as me, we-"
"I… am… NOTHING! Like you." Naruto growled. "I would never do what you did to Hinata! Not to anyone!" Naruto jumped over the rail, floating above the arena floor as an ANBU was using Doton to recreate a flat landscape and another was making trees grow.
'That's Mokuton!' Naruto realised, no wonder the stadium was cleared of all civilians, if word got out that there was a ninja who could use Mokuton, the kekkei genkai of the Shodaime Hokage, then word would spread and the other villages could potentially gather together to rid the world of the only known -living- user of possibly the strongest known kekkei genkai.
Naruto watched as the two ANBU worked in tandem to level the field, then the one in the cat mask clapped his hands together, then onto the ground, sprouting a small forest. After the ANBU left Genma waited three minutes and waved two fingers to a chunin standing near one of the entrances. The chunin opened the door and a bell rang. Soon the seats were filled and Genma stood in the middle of the battlefield.
"It's time for our final match of the day, Naruto Uzumaki!" Naruto dropped from the sky onto the arena, "And Gaara of the Sand!" Gaara floated onto the arena riding a cloud of sand. The two faced each other.
"BEGIN!"
Naruto watched as Gaara raised both hands, he could sense Gaara's energy somehow growing, suddenly the sand under Naruto erupted like a geyser, sending the blond into the ceiling with bone-shattering force.
As the sand continued to push Naruto the blond quarter-Saiyan let loose a yell, a burst of energy flying off of him, "Eight Trigrams Thirty-two Palms!" Naruto shouted as he landed, shooting forwards and slamming his palms into Gaara's chest, again, twice more, four times, then eight, and finishing off with sixteen lightning fast strikes that sent Gaara flying back. Naruto rushed forwards and jabbed a finger into Gaara's shoulder, sending the redhead's arm from a defensive position to a limp hang. Naruto followed up while kicking Gaara in the chin as he landed, sending the Suna genin flying back.
Gaara stood up, "Not many actually manage to hit me." He said, "Mother will feast well today." Gaara was covered by a malicious burgundy aura as he began laughing, "Get ready!" He roared, a blade of sand erupting from under Naruto.
The blond spun around the blade and used chakra to propel himself forwards, a jab heading for Gaara's stomach, where he could see the source of the burgundy chakra.
'So he's a jinchuuriki too' Naruto noted as he aimed to shut off the Biju's chakra, he was caught by surprise by Gaara's left arm -the arm he had immobilized- punching him in the face and sending him off course. 'The biju can counteract the Byakugan's ability to shut down tenketsu points I guess'
Kakashi watched his surrogate brother carefully, he had seen Naruto close Gaara's tenketsu, but the bloodthirsty genin seemed to shake it off as soon as the burgundy aura had came from his body. He turned to Gai, who had the most experience with the Byakugan and it's limitations out of all the jonin sensei, "How is Gaara moving his arm still?"
"I wish I could tell you, even I have to use my Hachimon to overcome a tenketsu being blocked." Gai said.
"So a surge of chakra can break the blockage, like a river bursting through a dam." Kakashi said, "And that aura is almost like Naruto when he uses the Kyuubi chakra, so a jinchuuriki is immune to tenketsu blockage due to their biju."
Naruto was on the run, he couldn't stop anywhere for fear of his head being adorned on a pike of sand. As he ran Naruto began going through a set of hand seals, devising a plan as he went, he stopped and looked to the ground, "Ressenpu!" He created a whirlwind from his mouth, pushing him up out of reach from Gaara's sand.
As he was in the air Naruto created a clone, using it as a springboard he leapt at Gaara, pulling his right hand back and covering it with orange chakra, as Gaara raised a san wall Naruto punched forwards, a kunai made of the same chakra that covered his fist flying forwards, the wall crumpled as the kunai neared it, the orange construct sucking the chakra out of it. Gaara moved out of the way as the blade flew at him, retaliating with a series of shuriken he made from sand. Naruto shot another kunai construct from his hand, once again making the sand useless.
"I don't care if you're a jinchuuriki you know, that's no excuse for your actions." Naruto said as he covered his body in the orange aura, "Hurting people for fun? Because you get some thrill from it? I can't stand it."
"I see. I thought you would be like me, shunned by society, hated for no reason, avoided from fear, but I was wrong. You live on the bright side of being a jinchuuriki don't you? You are looked up to, held as a hero."
"You're wrong." Naruto said, "I was alone, the only people who would even speak to me were the Ichiraku family and Hokage-jiji. Everyone else hated me, feared me. I never knew why until someone told me while involving the entire village in his self adopted mission to kill me. I thought I truly was a demon until then." Naruto said, "But then Kakashi-nii saved me from that, he showed me what it was like to have a family, and Gai-sensei, Asuma-sensei, and even Kurenai-sensei all helped me grow into the person I am today. I forced my way into the light, I fought through the darkness of hosting this demon, I didn't want to dwell in it."
"And you think I do?" Gaara asked, "I've always just wanted to prove my existence to my father, to get him to stop sending assassins after me, for him to let me have fun with my siblings." Gaara's sand armor cracked, "I was forced to kill the first person I cared about to survive. My only bridge to the light burnt on that day, when my uncle revealed that no one ever loved me."
"I'll be your new bridge then Gaara, how's about it?" Naruto walked forwards, his orange aura dissipating, he held his hand out. Reluctantly Gaara took his hand and shook it.
"Friends." Gaara said, a smile on his face.
"Good, so let's end this like friends." Naruto said with a smile.
"Let's." Naruto jumped back as Gaara's sand armor covered him once more. Naruto formed a Rasengan as Gaara raised a wall of sand.
"Sand Tsunami!" Gaara shouted, the wall flying at Naruto like a twenty foot wave.
"RASENGAN!" Naruto screamed, running forwards and slamming the ball into the wall of sand, with a smirk Naruto's Rasengan changed from blue to orange and the sand began to crumble, "Uzumaki Rasengan!" He reiterated, running through the wall with ease and slamming it into Gaara's chest, sending his new friend flying. Gaara hit the far wall unconscious.
"Winner, Naruto Uzumaki!" Genma announced. Naruto appeared next to Gaara and helped him up.
"Nice match."
"You too, Uzumaki." Gaara said.
Naruto laughed as he slurped down some ramen, "So you got a summoning contract to try and one-up me, but you didn't know I have one too."
"Well dobe, if you had told me I would've done it soon. Besides I can still kick your ass." Sasuke said as he ate some ramen.
"Try me Sasuke." Naruto stuck his tongue out at his friend.
Sakura merely sat off to the side with Gohan laughing at the two.
That's that. Next will be the third round where we have a three way match between Gohan, Sasuke, and Naruto. Hope you guys liked it.
THANKS FOR READING :D