A/N: Time for the beginning of the big one. Just so you know, Gaara vs Naruto is going to be dialogue heavy.
Chunin Exams, FInal Round, Part 3
Enjoy!
Temari groaned and rubbed her head as she sat up in bed. Her head was pounding, her ribs were sore, and the cuts on her face burned. Slowly but surely, the memories of where and how she had been injured came trickling back into her mind, with each memory serving to fuel the fire of her frustration. Once she had recalled the entirety of the match, Temari curled her hands into fists and clamped them tightly. The sheer force with which she squeezed caused her nails to cut into her palms, drawing blood in the process.
'First, you outsmart me with a half-baked, almost suicidal strategy, then you spare me for god knows what reason, and then you strangle me into unconsciousness in front of a huge crowd. If just one of those things had happened, I'd be able to let this go, but all three? You're going to wish you were never born, Shikamaru' she silently swore to both herself and the shadow user. Despite her indignation at the result of the match and the events that transpired within it, one key aspect stuck in her mind.
'How did you figure it out? What gave it all away? There's no way you've met the Kazekage, he just got here. The only time you possibly could have even seen him was during the formal speech the Hokage gave, and none of the competitors were in the crowd at that point. Then again, I didn't see you warming up anywhere, so maybe you were' she wondered to herself. As she pondered the situation at hand, a knock came at her door.
"Come in" she called. The door was then slowly opened, revealing Kankuro. The puppeteer made his way into the room and closed the door behind him.
"Looks like we both got our asses handed to us" he said humorlessly. Temari prickled at his words and scoffed at her brother.
"Unlike you, I put up a fight, and may have been winning up to the point that I was finished. You got flattened" she retorted. Kankuro sighed and sat down in a chair in the corner of the room.
"Yeah, but the guy I fought was stronger than both you and the guy you were fighting put together. Neji, or whatever his name is, is probably the third strongest person participating in the finals" he countered tiredly. The fan wielder opened her mouth to argue, but shut it again.
"Good point. If he weren't competing against two Jinchuuriki, he'd likely be favored to win this whole thing. Not that this little tournament matters at all. It won't reach a conclusion" she said after a moment. Her brother nodded in agreement.
"Before you ask, you're still in the stadium. They have an infirmary built into this place. Gaara is set to fight in about ten minutes" he said. The sand kunoichi sighed and swung her legs over the side of the bed.
"I'm almost disappointed that I'm in good enough condition to watch. Gaara's fights are a little much, even for me" she said as she carefully stood to her feet and tested her balance. Kankuro then reached into his pocket and produced a small pill.
"Take this. You'll need to be fresh for the chaos" he said as he tossed the pill to his sister. Temari caught the item and studied it.
"A food pill? Where did you even get this?" she asked skeptically. Kankuro shrugged and stepped out into the hallway.
"Doesn't matter. Now eat it. I already took mine after getting my stomach mended by the medics. They probably won't get to you in time, so take that and get ready" he said as he walked away. Temari scowled down at the food pill, strongly disliking the idea of being artificially replenished, but eventually relented and popped it in her mouth. The moment she swallowed it, the sand kunoichi could feel her reserves restore themselves and her pains numb.
"Man, I don't know what those things are made of, but they work like a charm" she muttered as she glanced at herself in the small mirror hanging on the wall of her room.
'He really busted me up. Eh, oh well. I look better with a bit of blood on my face anyways' she thought to herself as she prepared to make her way back to the seating area. She then exited the room and began making her way down the hall.
'This is going to be a long day'
Naruto took a deep breath to calm his nerves as he paced in front of the staircase that would lead him down into the arena. Five minutes remained before his encounter with Gaara, and the pressure of the situation at hand was beginning to wear on the blonde. As he struggled to leash his fear, Hinata, who had opted to follow him upon his departure from the seating area, gazed at him sympathetically.
"You need to calm yourself. Tenseness will do you no good" she gently chided. Naruto glanced over his shoulder at her and nodded.
"Yeah, I know. The guy feeds on fear. It fuels him. I just...can't shake this awful feeling I have. Like something is going to go horribly wrong. I'm well prepared, I have his habits memorized and tactics ready to exploit them, but I can't calm down. I'm terrified" he said as he tried to steady his shaking hands. The heiress sighed and made her way in front of him, taking hold of his tremorous hands with her own.
"Why are you afraid, Naruto-kun? I know that the opinion of the crowd means nothing to you, and that feeling of stress is natural. What has you so terrified?" she asked softly. The Jinchuuriki lowered his eyes to the floor.
"Because, for the first time, I'm not sure I can win. I knew in the back of my mind that I could kill Haku if he pushed me far enough, and I knew that I was strong enough to stop you when we fought. Gaara mauled Sasuke, survived the eight gates, and was about to kill Lee. He was holding back against both of them, too. He also has a tailed beast, meaning that he can probably match pace with me too" he said nervously. Hinata squeezed his hands and smiled.
"As both your harshest critic and most passionate supporter, I want you to know that I have absolute confidence in you. You've risen from the dead, saved me from my own arrogance, and stood guard at the gates of my home like the steadfast guardian you are. If you can't bring that monster to his knees, then nobody can. Now go and make me proud" she said strongly, releasing his hands and gently directing him towards the stairs. The Jinchuuriki followed her instructions and began to descend the steps.
After four steps, he looked back up at her and smiled. What he said next both greatly flattered and shocked Hinata simultaneously.
"You're a great poet, you know that?"
Naruto whistled as he made his way across the arena towards the center. Despite having been within it no less than ten minutes previously, the sheer size of the crowd that had arrived to watch the final round was a shock to the blonde. The excitable genin quickly shook himself of the awe and returned his gaze to the path in front of him. Awaiting him in the center of the arena was Genma, and Gaara was approaching from the opposite side of the arena. The two Jinchuuriki reached the proctor at the same time, both stopping roughly five feet from one another.
Gaara wore a look of complete and total calm, with a subtle hint of cruel amusement highlighting his pale features. Genma eyed them both momentarily before clearing his throat.
"Alright, boys. You know exactly what I expect. You are to fight until one of you is unable to continue, to the death if necessary. No outside help of any kind is permitted. Am I understood?" he asked. Both Gaara and Naruto nodded, neither one of them breaking eye contact with the other.
"In that case, take ten steps back" the proctor ordered, a command that was quickly followed by the genin. Once they had created the appropriate amount of distance between one another, Genma raised a hand over his head.
"You may begin" he announced as he dropped his hand back towards the ground symbolically. The moment the metaphorical greenlight was given, Gaara was surrounded by a haze of shimmering sand that absorbed the impact of Naruto's oncoming fist. The force of the strike sent a shockwave through the cloud of sand, but the floating mass did not budge.
"Like a house on fire. Just as advertised" the redhead said as his sand closed around Naruto's arm. The blonde growled and yanked his arm back freeing half of his trapped arm. Gaara then made a clamping motion with his hand. The sand enveloping Naruto's right wrist then crushed down on the limb, eliciting a grunt of pain from the genin.
"It seems your bones are a bit harder to break than Lee's. Not surprising, or unwelcome for that matter. That means I can drag this out" Gaara said darkly. He then flung Naruto backwards with the tendril of sand, sending the blonde tumbling to the ground roughly thirty feet away. Naruto jumped to his feet and blitzed forward again. Just as he was about to come into contact with his fellow Jinchuuriki's wall of sand, he veered off to his left, narrowly evading the carnivorous sediment,
Due to his change in trajectory, the sand was forced adjustment as well. This forced adjustment left an apparent opening to Gaara's right, an opening that Naruto immediately attempted to exploit. As he extended his arm to strike the redhead, he spotted a wry smirk on his face. Just as the punch was about to touch Gaara's face, a row of earthen spikes shot up from the ground, knocking the blonde's arm off course and slicing open the right side of his face. As his punch missed, Naruto regained his footing and pivoted around the sandy serrations. Once he was momentarily out of danger, he leapt backwards and landed on his feet exactly where he had launched himself from to begin his assault.
'He laid some of his sand on the ground around his feet. It blends in perfectly, and he can use it as a second line of defense. I almost feel like he let me get close to him' he thought to himself as blood dripped down his face. The blonde focused his vision and observed the defensive shell Gaara had built for himself closely.
'A layer of fast-moving dust that can both block strikes and condense itself into a solid limb, and a row of rock-solid sand spikes that can cut skin. There's a good chance he has another layer beyond that. I can get around the first layer, and the second shouldn't be that hard to figure out. My worry is that it'll require me to be close to him for longer than I can afford' he pondered. Gaara, who had been watching him think, then spoke up.
"Come on, attack me once more. We don't have all day, despite what you may have been told" he jeered. The blonde scowled at his statement and assumed a taijutsu stance.
"The hell is that supposed to mean?" he demanded as he charged forward again. The redhead shrugged and grinned with amusement as Naruto weaved his way around the storm of sand, only to be repelled by the spikes once more.
"I figured you'd have noticed by now. Your teammate, Shikamaru, figured it out quite some time ago" he said vaguely as he was shielded from another barrage from Naruto. The excitable genin then came within inches of connecting flush with a right-handed punch after adjusting his timing and trajectory to nearly evade the spikes, which still managed to stop the strike before it could find its target.
"Quit talking and do something already! I'm sick of just attacking you!" Naruto yelled as he yanked his arm out from between the spikes. Gaara chuckled and tapped his foot on the ground. A small tendril of sand then flew out and seized Naruto by the ankle, tripping him to the ground as he attempted to exit Gaara's metaphorical stronghold of sandy defenses.
"It isn't my fault that you can't seem to touch me, but if you insist that I stretch my legs a bit...don't say I didn't warn you" the redhead said menacingly. He then lifted Naruto high into the air by his ankle and whipped him hard at the stoney wall of the arena.
The blonde smashed into the wall with a sickening 'thud', causing the stone to crack a bit. Naruto slowly slid down the wall until his rear end touched the ground again. Naruto growled and struggled to his feet, coughing up a bit of blood on his way up.
'I can't play my trump cards yet. He'd definitely survive either one, and he would find a way around them given a few minutes to observe. So, in that case…' he thought to himself as he gave Gaara a hard, assessing stare. Naruto then turned a palm towards the sky and smirked.
"Rasengan"
The Hyuga family all stared down at the arena with wide, active byakugan as they marvelled at the sphere of spiralling chakra sitting in Naruto's palm. Hiashi in particular wore a look of absolute shock as he watched Naruto break into a run towards Gaara with the sphere outstretched in front of him.
"I knew he was talented, but the Rasengan? Even I couldn't have predicted this" he said with a shake of his head. Before either of his daughters could respond, Naruto's jutsu ripped through Gaara's first line of defense, and then his second. A moment later, the redhead was launched backwards by the Rasengan. As he flew back, his sand rushed to his aid and caught him before he could slam into the wall.
"He finally hit him!" Hanabi cheered as Naruto rushed forward to capitalize on his first moment of legitimate success. The young Hyuga's celebration was quickly cut short as Naruto was repelled by a wave of sand. By the time the blonde had regained his footing, Gaara had made it to his feet and was dusting himself off, the only visible injury on his body being a burn mark on his left arm, which he had used to block the chakra sphere. The Jinchuuriki then began to circle one another.
"What unbelievable tension" Hinata breathed as her teammate engaged in a silent-but-intense staring contest with Gaara. Hiashi pursed his lips and narrowed his eyes.
"Gaara's durability is nonsensical. That jutsu should have at least damaged him moderately, and yet there he stands, completely unfazed. I forget from time to time just how terrifying Jinchuuriki truly are" he said. The heiress nodded in agreement despite disliking the idea of Naruto being referred to as 'terrifying'.
"I have a strong feeling that things are about to become perilous for both of them" she said nervously.
The heiress' comment would end up being quite prescient, as the sequence they had just witnessed was tame compared to what was to come.
A/N: That was a fun one to write. I like writing fight scenes, although Gaara is a bit tough due to his strange abilities. Hope you all enjoyed regardless! Tell me what you thought of the chapter!
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