dopliss: Okay! Here we are, guys; the final chapter of the Chunin Exam arc!

Mizuki: You better make it good.

dopliss: No promises, but I´ll try.

Disclaimer: dopliss no own Naruto. Me caveman. Me talk good.


Gaara glared at Naruto, bemused. "What is this?" he asked. "You come at me, and that´s all you´ve got? All that effort, and you couldn´t even touch me. What a JOKE!" His detached hand squeezed down harder on the captured and unconscious Sakura.

Naruto glared back while he wrapped a paper bomb around a kunai. "I don´t really know how much damage I can do," he said, "but it doesn´t matter. I just have to give it my best shot!"

Naruto then made a hand-seal and summoned four Shadow Clones to aid him. "Clone Body Slam!" they all cried and leapt towards Gaara.

The mutated redhead simply smirked and reached out his right hand to intercept them, catching three of the clones. The last clone and the original landed on the huge arm, and then the former threw the latter towards his opponent like a torpedo. When Gaara attempted to punch Naruto with his left arm when he was close enough, the orange-clad boy created another clone, both to act as a stepping stone and to take the blow. When he was behind the mutated boy, Naruto created another clone to use as a stepping stone and leapt towards Gaara´s backside.

"Take this!" Naruto roared. "Konoha Secret Taijutsu, straight from one of my closest friends! One Thousand Years of Death!"

He actually did the same 'technique' that Torabu had used on him long ago. Except he did not stick his fingers up Gaara´s mutant rectum… but the kunai with the paper bomb wrapped around it! The reactions from the three onlookers – Temari, the orange toad and Pakkun – were different but negative; Temari blushed while closing her eyes, the toad just gave a blank look, and Pakkun commented sarcastically, "An enema… great."

Gaara, obviously annoyed, knocked Naruto away with his right hand (the clones all gone, mind you), leaving the kunai… hanging. That was when the paper bomb ignited and exploded. Naruto´s flying course made him crash into Sasuke, both of them grunting in pain. "Hey, are you okay?" the former asked the latter.

The dog, having shielded himself from the explosion, changed his opinion on the strategy. "That was a nice move the kid pulled," he muttered.

"Uh-huh," the toad agreed whilst shielding itself with its hands on its head. "So, did he get him or not?"

When the smoke from the explosion cleared, Gaara emerged with his backside and right arm gone, dissolved back into sand. "All that work… and you only scored one blow," Sasuke commented to his teammate.

Naruto just huffed and turned his head away from his rival. "Oh, put a sock in it!" he growled, irritated.

Gaara placed his left hand on the tree that he stood on to keep his balance. "He attacked the base of the tail, where the defense is weakest…" he thought aloud. "He didn´t wound me, but the sand couldn´t absorb the impact. Have I underestimated him?"

Sasuke looked at his teammate with total seriousness in his eyes. "Naruto… listen to me," he said. "You have to save Sakura, if it´s the last thing you do. Once you´ve got her, I want you to take her and flee as fast as you can. It´s all up to you…" With a lot of struggling, he managed to stand up. "I can… hold him here… a little longer. If it ends here… it just means this was as far as I was meant to go. I lost everything once… I do never wanna have to see that again… my trusted comrades falling in front of me."

"Your comrades?" Naruto asked, surprised. He remembered how Kakashi had claimed that he would never allow his allies to suffer from death and how Sakura stood up against Gaara. That was when everything made sense to him. "I get it now…" He stood back up. "Of course…" He looked directly at Gaara. "He´s no different than I am; going through life with the exact same sadness and loneliness that I had to carry. He fought only for himself, never relying on anyone, and because of that, I thought that he possessed strength. I really did." He clenched his fists. "I don´t know… I guess I should have known better. That´s not what real strength is – if you never fight for anyone but yourself, you´ll never be strong, no matter what you do!"

Memories of his conversation with Haku in the forest came back to him, especially what he said to the orange-clad boy. "The truth is, when a person has something precious to them they want to protect, it´s only then that they become genuinely strong. You will get strong. Very strong."

Making another hand-seal, Naruto unleashed all of the remaining chakra inside of him. And then, in a massive cloud of smoke, to the surprise of everyone watching, a whopping one thousand Shadow Clones appeared! "Gee, I´m sorry," the orange-clad boy said sarcastically. "I didn´t mean to keep you waiting this long. So get ready for an original Jutsu straight from my Ninja Handbook!"

Gaara looked around in shock. "What the… How could he have summoned so many clones?!" he asked, bewildered.

"Way to go, there, Blondie!" the toad congratulated. "You´re showing off a lot of promise!"

Sasuke looked at the original Naruto with wide eyes. "How did you… do this?" he asked.

Naruto replied without turning to face his rival, "Sasuke… why don´t you take it easy for a while? You´ve deserved it. Just leave the rest to Naruto Uzumaki!"

The clones all leapt to attack at the same time. Every single one of them threw a shuriken at Gaara, whose body of sand was not recovered yet. He blocked the weapons with his left arm, just to be blindsided by the clones and sent into the air. All one thousand of the clones then ruthlessly pummel the redhead, weakening the sand even more, and finished up by kicking him downwards, giving him a very hard landing on the ground.

"This time, I´ll use both legs for a barrage of four thousand kicks!" all of the clones shouted as they advanced on their opponent.

Gaara looked up at the incoming clones, rage clouding his mind even further. Where did this come from… all of a sudden? he asked in thought. Where did that strength come from? There´s no way…! Not to him…! His pupils shrank down in size as he roared, "There´s absolutely no way… I´m gonna lose to a guy like him!"

Suddenly, a gigantic pillar of sand emerged from Gaara, destroying all the clones and sending Naruto crashing into a tree all the while. When the orange-clad boy looked up, the pillar was gone… replaced with something far, far, far worse. It was a raccoon-like beast with its body colored in a sandy-brown and with purple markings all over its body. Its gigantic mouth was jagged and concave, and its eyes had black sclera, yellow irises, and the pupils were in the shape of a black four-pointed star with four black dots around it.

This was the true form of Shukaku.

"So that´s it… the monster inside of him…" Naruto said, stunned.

"Well, what do you know…" Gaara´s voice sounded, despite the Shukaku not moving its lips. "I never thought you would bring this out of me!"

The moster raised its right hand and aimed it at Naruto. Sand coming from absolutely out of nowhere appeared around the orange-clad boy and started to strangle him! Sasuke wanted to help his teammate, but the overuse of his chakra kept him immobilized. Naruto had used up all of his chakra on creating all of the clones, but he would not give up, his mind determined to save his friends. Even as the sand created a miniature prison around him, he took a bit of the blood that ran from his mouth and made hand-seals.

"This is the end for you!" Gaara roared. "Sand Buria– "

"Summoning Jutsu!"

Breaking out of the sand and appearing in a puff of smoke, Gamabunta the Chief Toad made his appearance! Shukaku glared evenly at the toad that was as tall as it, an amused smile crossing its lips. Naruto Uzumaki… Gaara laughed mentally. You really are good at amusing me.

"What the hell?" Gamabunta grumbled, looking up at the orange-clad boy who stood on his head. "Not you again… What is this?" He then looked forward and saw the gigantic monster. "Well, would you look at that… Shukaku the Sand Spirit."

Naruto smirked. "What do you say? Will you fight it alongside me, Chief Toad?" he asked.

The gigantic toad breathed out smoke from his pipe. "Take a hike," he replied, much to the orange-clad boy´s shock and anger. "Why go out of my way to mess with a guy like him? What am I, an idiot?"

"Why, are you kidding me?!" Naruto shouted. "You already told me you would make me your henchman, didn´t you?!" He slammed his left hand down on the toad´s head. "It´s only natural for a boss to help out his henchman, isn´t it?! Don´t you have any sense of duty?!"

Gamabunta sighed. "Yes, sure, I told you I´d make you my henchman… but we haven´t even sealed the deal yet, have we?"

"Come on! Gimme a break!" Naruto shouted louder. "I´m not old enough to make any kind of a deal yet! What´s the matter with you?!"

Suddenly, the orange toad appeared on top of the boy´s head. "Aw, c´mon, Pops, don´t be like that," he said to the Chief Toad. "Why don´t you settle down and hear the kid out?"

"Huh? 'Pops'?" Naruto asked confusedly.

"And just what do you think you´re doing here, Gamakichi?" Gamabunta asked.

"I had nothing else to do," the orange toad shrugged. "I just, uh, came to hang out."

"You´re father and son?" Naruto asked, growing more and more confused by the second.

Gamakichi pointed at Shukaku. "By the way, Pops, that big, ugly lug over there was picking on me before!" he told.

Just like one would expect a father being told that his kid was bullied to feel like, Gamabunta narrowed his eyes in anger. "Come again?" he asked, his voice dripping with wrath.

"Oh yeah, and when he did, our friend here came to my rescue! He went head to head and toe to toe with that monster! I´m tellin´ you, Pops, there´s a heck of a lot more to this kid than meets the eye."

"…Is that right?" the Chief Toad glared directly at the sand spirit and grabbed the handle of his blade. "Okay, kid… you´re hereby accepted as my henchman." He drew his sword out of its sheath and held it in front of him. "Sit tight! I´ll show you what duty is all about! I´ll take him down, but not before he´s paid for what he´s done, that worthless little flunky!"

Moving his mighty frog legs, Gamabunta ran at a great speed towards Shukaku, the two occupants on his head barely able to hang on. The sand monster raised its right arm, ready to strike. Once he was close enough, the Chief Toad swung his sword upwards, the blade getting stuck on the thick sand that the right arm was made of. With a lot more strength put into his attack and with a mighty leap, he managed to cut the limb clean off and landed a few kilometers behind the sand spirit. The sword had fallen out of the toad´s hands during the cut and landed a few miles away from its owner, the impact to the ground creating a short earthquake.

As he saw the detached arm turn back into sand, Gamabunta glared dangerously at his opponent. This guy is no joke, he thought. I barely managed to make that cut. Also, if I don´t end this quick, the landscape´s gonna start changing around here.

"Hey, Chief, hold on a second!" Naruto called. "Don´t go over in that direction – Sakura´s still there! Try to lure him over this way if you can, okay?"

"Sakura?" the Chief Toad asked.

"It´s his little girlfriend, Pops." Gamakichi explained. "Right, kid?"

The orange-clad boy ignored the smaller toad´s teasing. "I have to take him out, otherwise Sakura´s as good as dead."

Gamabunta chuckled at that statement, a smirk crossing his lips.

"Interesting…" Gaara said, Shukaku´s mouth moving this time as he turned to face his opponents. "Interesting! Not bad, Naruto Uzumaki!"

Temari, terrified beyond compassion, realized what her little brother was up to and decided to run away.

On the sand spirit´s forehead, the sand softened and let Gaara´s head and upper body – his human, non-mutated head and upper body – emerge. "What the… what the heck is that?" Naruto asked, confused.

Gamabunta narrowed his eyes. "A spiritualist medium," he answered.

"To thank you for entertaining me here today…" Gaara said, looking at his opponens with iris-less, pupil-less eyes, "…I´ll show you the true power of the manifestation of the sand!"

"The circles under his eyes… they´re signs of insomnia… evidence that the medium has been possessed by Shukaku," the Chief Toad explained.

"Insomnia?" Naruto asked.

"Those possessed by Shukaku the Sand Spirit are no longer able to sleep soundly through the night; the terror is too great. If one does sleep, Shukaku will eat away at your psyche, until the person that you once were ceases to exist. Since he normally doesn´t get much sleep, the medium´s personality tends to become quite unstable."

"Great…"

"But as long as the spiritual medium is awake, Shukaku´s true power is held in check. The only danger… is if the medium finally falls asleep."

While the Chief Toad had been talking, Gaara had cast a Ninjutsu on himself. "Play Possum Jutsu…!" he said and fell unconscious.

Gamabunta´s eyes widened in shock. "He´s done it!" he gasped.

"I don´t like this at all, Chief Toad," Naruto said, anxiety in his voice. "What´s gonna happen?"

"If he set the Play Possum Jutsu in motion, then Shukaku will be unleashed!"

The monstrous being of sand then let out a triumphant laugh. "I´m finally free! Here I come, baby!" it roared in, strangely enough, a very thick southern accent.

"So that´s the… sand spirit?" the orange-clad boy asked, frightened.

"Man, that is one funky demon," Gamakichi commented.

The sand spirit glared at the ones in front of it. "YEEEEEAAAAAH! Here we go!" it shouted. "I hope you´re ready to die! Let´s do this!"

"I´m gonna jump!" Gamabunta quickly warned.

"Wind Style: Air Bullets!" With that roar, Shukaku slammed down hard on its belly and fired a compressed ball of air at its opponents.

Gamabunta jumped into the air in order to avoid the projectile. "Water Style: Liquid Bullets!" he cried and fired a huge ball of water out of his mouth, to which the sand spirit countered with another Air Bullet. The Liquid Bullet collapsed and drenched the bit of forest underneath.

The Chief Toad landed and leapt into the air again. Shukaku fired more Air Bullets and Gamabunta countered with his Liquid Bullets… but the sand spirit fired three, whilst the toad countered with two! The final projectile crashed into its target, creating an explosion in the sky.

"YAAAAAHOOOOOOO!" Shukaku cheered. "I did it! I killed him! I KILLED HIM!"

The gigantic toad landed down on the ground and leapt towards his opponent. "Now, that kinda hurt!" he said. "That was an awful amount of chakra that you just blasted me with, I have to admit. Hit me with a couple more of those and even I wouldn´t last long!"

"Chief, what should we do?!" Naruto frantically asked.

"Well, for starters, you can wake up the spiritualist medium to release that Jutsu!"

"How am I supposed to do that?!"

"Just fire off a few rounds at him!"

The sand spirit fired another Air Bullet at Gamabunta, who dodged it by spinning over it and retaliated with another Liquid Bullet. Shukaku backed away from the attack, but then the Chief Toad landed right in front of it and grabbed its shoulders. "Now´s your chance!" the amphibian roared, but then Shukaku wrestled free of his grasp.

"You´re gonna have to keep a grip on him if you want me to get a shot at him!" Naruto shouted.

"My body doesn´t have any claws or horns to dig into the enemy with!"

"Gah! Then what the hell are we supposed to do?!"

Gamabunta leapt away from his opponent. "Use the Transformation Jutsu to change into something that has what we need!" he shouted back. "Then again, I am not particularly good at transformations."

"Huh?"

"Don´t worry about it! You shall act upon my will and make a hand-seal!"

"WHAT?!"

"We can make a Combined Transformation! Conjure up something with fangs and claws!"

As Naruto made a hand-seal and thought of what to transform into, Gamabunta ran towards Shukaku at an immense speed. Naruto, given the stressful situation that he was in, was having a lot of trouble thinking of something that had both fangs and claws. But then, at the Chief Toad´s signal, he found out what to transform into purely on instinct.

After the huge cloud of smoke dissolved into nothing, there was now in Gamabunta´s and Naruto´s place a very familiar sight: a huge, red-furred, vicious fox with nine tails!

Gamabunta in the Kyubi´s form ran forward and leapt over another Air Bullet. He was then smacked aside by Shukaku´s tail, but that did not stop him. He tried to swipe at the sand spirit, but it dodged and fired another ball of air, which was also jumped over.

"This isn´t gonna work!" the toad-turned-fox shouted. "His power just keeps increasing!"

"Come on!" Naruto groaned from inside of the Chief Toad´s head. "All he need is a good whack on the head!"

"Tell me something I don´t know! Here we go!"

Gamabunta used one of his newly-acquired tails to pick up a tree, before running past Shukaku, turning around and leaping into the air. The sand spirit fired another Air Bullet, only for its target to throw the tree into its course. The Chief Toad then closed in on his opponent and bit down hard and dug his claws into its body.

"Okay, kid, you´re on!" Gamabunta yelled and transformed back to normal.

Naruto leapt up into the air and headed straight towards Gaara. "Rise and shine!" he shouted as he delivered a strong punch across the redhead´s face.

"Good! Not much time has passed since the medium went under," Gamabunta stated. "That one blow should have done the trick!"

Shukaku instantly felt that something was wrong. "Oh, that´s just GREAT!" it roared sarcastically. "Gimme a break! I just got here!" And with that, its consciousness faded.

Gamabunta was then pushed back by Shukaku´s body. "We may have released the Jutsu, but this guy still got some fight left!" he said.

Gaara woke up from his forced slumber, his eyes back to normal, and he spotted Naruto standing on the sand spirit´s face. He disrupted my Jutsu! he thought in rage as the orange-clad boy advanced on him. "SAND COFFIN!" he then shouted, grabbing hold of Naruto´s feet while sending sand to do the rest.

"Help him, Pops!" Gamakichi shouted.

"I´ve got this!" Gamabunta said as he stuck his tongue out and wrapped it around the orange-clad boy, shielding him from the sand.

"You think I´m a fool?!" the redhead screeched.

Naruto noticed that the sand was crawling up on his legs from underneath him. Knowing that there was nothing he could do to protect the boy, Gamabunta reeled in his tongue. How much strength does this guy have left?! he asked in thought. This isn´t good… Naruto and I have barely any chakra left.

The orange-clad boy and the redhead glared daggers at each other. "I´ll wipe you from the face of the earth!" the latter threatened. "I will not cease to exist!"

Fueled by his desire to protect those dear to him no matter the cost, Naruto, in a desperate move, drew chakra from the nine-tailed fox. As a result, a bright red aura of chakra surrounded him, and it was so powerful that his headband flew off and his jacket was torn open.

"I´m going to protect… EVERYONE!" Naruto declared. "Get ready, you crazy monster!"

The orange-clad boy leapt towards Gaara, intending to give him one final punch to the face, but the redhead ordered his sand to protect him, and it did so by restraining his arms and legs just as he was inches away from his target. Naruto, not giving up so easily, reeled back his head. "I… I´ve had it with you!" he shouted and delivered a strong headbutt to Gaara´s forehead. The blow was not only powerful enough to draw blood from the redhead, but also managed to make Shukaku´s body crumble into a huge mound of sand!

"A plain ol´ headbutt, huh?" Gamabunta commented as he saw the two boys slowly falling. "Well, he´s not the most elegant fighter I´ve ever seen. With the desperation to get the chakra he needed, worn out as he was, he might be the biggest knucklehead I´ve ever come across. But, I haven´t seen a kid with this much promise in ages. I wish I could stick around to see how this ends, but I´ve reached my limit too. Gamakichi, it´s time we head back."

"Okay, Pops! Let´s do it!" the smaller toad agreed.

As the two amphibians disappeared, the shockwave from their sudden teleportation knocked Gaara and Naruto into opposing treetops with the Chief Toad´s sword in-between them. The two boys glared at each other while panting, the blade´s position making it possible to see both their opponent and their reflections.

"That´s it… I can´t go any further…" Naruto panted. "I´ve used up all my chakra… and from the look of it… so have you… You and I are a lot alike… more than you know… We shouldn´t be doing this…"

The two of them then stood up on the treetops, ready to deal the final blow of their battle. When the gigantic sword disappeared to return to its master, the two boys leapt at each other and used their final ounces of strength to deliver one last punch.

The one to deliver that punch… was Naruto.

All of their strength and chakra gone, the two landed down on the forest floor, exhausted beyond belief.


dopliss: Okay, this isn´t the final chapter of the story arc… yet! Next chapter will be! I promise!

Mizuki: But when will it come out?

dopliss: I don´t know. The school I´ll be going to is one full of torturing its students with homework. I guess I´ll update when I´ve got the time.