A/N: This fic has a lot of reviews, so maybe I have no right to ask, but could a few more of you leave some reviews? It really helps me fix my mistakes and gives me future references. It would be nice :)
Chunin Exams, Final Round, Part 4
Enjoy!
Naruto clenched and unclenched his fists as he stared into Gaara's cold, remorseless irises. The blonde had tried a variety of creative entries to get through the redhead's defenses, but none of them had even come remotely close to working. Time and time again, Naruto had been repelled by the sand. Often times taking damage in the process.
'He isn't even breathing heavy. He's just waiting for me to attack him again. He doesn't need to lead. It's not like he couldn't do it. He slammed me into the wall the one time he got impatient' he thought to himself frustratedly. The more and more he weighed his options, the clearer it became that his current approach was never going to work to any extent whatsoever.
'I have to try it. It'll guarantee me one huge shot, but it probably won't get me much more success than that' he thought to himself before crossing his arms in front of himself and breathing deeply. Gaara raised an eyebrow as Naruto smirked and threw his arms back, sending a shockwave in all directions around him.
"First gate: Gate of Opening!" he yelled, vanishing from sight a moment later. Before Gaara could react, Naruto reappeared in front of him, completely bypassing the redhead's sand. Gaara's eyes widened as a gust of wind caught up with Naruto.
"Let's play by my rules now, why don't we?" the blonde said before burying his fist in his fellow Jinchuuriki's gut and doubling him over. As Gaara tried to catch his wind, Naruto seized him by the back of his head and slammed a knee into his forehead. The strike opened a large gash, which immediately began to leak blood. As the redhead staggered backwards, Naruto formed another Rasengan in his left hand. He then charged forward to pursue the reeling Jinchuuriki before him. Before his Jutsu could touch Gaara's face, a sand spike emerged from the ground and extended towards Naruto's throat, forcing him to stop dead in his tracks. The point at which he halted his forward momentum left the spike an inch from his throat.
"Much better, Naruto. I expected a valiant effort from you, but I never expected you to actually draw my blood. How wonderful…" Gaara said, his voice dripping with sick anticipation. The position the Jinchuuriki were standing in was a perilous one, to say the least. While Gaara's spike had stopped an inch from Naruto's jugular, the blonde's Rasengan was hovering half that distance from Gaara's face.
"Like two swordsman of equal skill and identically murderous intentions, we stand before one another, a hair's breadth away from the bloody, visceral end. What beautiful poetry" the redhead said eloquently, his eyes gleaming with yet-unconquered madness. Before Naruto could respond a metaphorical ocean of sand crashed towards him from all directions, forcing him to leap up into the air and direct himself back to his previous position twenty feet from the unhinged jinchuuriki.
"I must say, the gates are something of a shock on your end. It's clear to me that you aren't anywhere near as skilled with them as Lee, but your ability to use them at all is impressive" Gaara complimented as he marvelled at the blood that was dripping down his nose from the wound on his forehead. The blonde allowed his body to relax and slowly re-closed the gate he had forcibly opened.
"There'll be more where that came from, trust me. Now let's keep going" he said as he stepped in his taijutsu stance. The redhead responded by outstretching his right arm towards Naruto and opening his palm.
"Let me ask you a question. Have you ever found yourself completely unable to move? Frozen in time? Confused and afraid?" he asked darkly as the sand floating around him spread into a shimmering veil. Naruto shuddered at his words. The sand seemed to make a humming sound as it spread throughout the arena.
"Given your silence, I'm going to assume the answer is a resounding 'yes'. Let's add to that collection of memories, shall we?" Gaara said. The redhead then faded from view, becoming indistinguishable from his sand. After a moment, Gaara seemed to reappear in front of Naruto, prompting the blonde to swing a hard punch at the left side of his head. When the strike reached its target, however, it simply passed right through the redhead.
"What…?" he began as the mirage of his foe faded away. Before he could finish his befuddled sentence, a sharp pain erupted in his back. The blonde froze in place as Gaara, who's true physical form had made its way behind him, twisted a kunai into his lower back. A small trail of blood then began to leak from the corner of the excitable genin's mouth.
"I've always thought that Genjutsu is a waste of chakra. It's a pointlessly draining tactic. During my time as a genin, however, I have come to realize how useful visual and auditory diversions are. And so, in line with my philosophy regarding Genjutsu, I made my own illusions. My sand requires no chakra to use under most circumstances, and it bends to my will unconditionally" Gaara said, allowing Naruto to piece together the rest of the vague explanation on his own. The blonde grunted and stumbled forward, dislodging the kunai from his back and allowing him to turn to face Gaara.
"So you use your sand to mess with people" he concluded as he heaved deep breaths. The redhead nodded and gestured to the swirling storm of sand around them.
"Indeed. As you found out the hard way, I'm more than capable of hindering my victim's hearing and vision simultaneously with nothing more than a veil of mobile dust. Your vision was obscured by the sand itself, and the sounds of my leisurely stroll that lead me to your back were concealed by the grinding sound of the storm" he explained as the veil of sand returned to its previous form as a floating mass that surrounded the redhead.
A collective gasp could be heard as the crowd to Naruto's back caught sight of the stab wound. The Konoha genin then clenched his fists and forced his chakra to flare, opening his only accessible gate in the process.
"Let's try this again" he growled before blitzing forward at Gaara once more. As had happened during the blonde's previous rush, he completely bypassed his foe's defenses with little effort. Once he was in range to strike, Naruto forcibly shut the gate he had opened. He then set his feet in front of Gaara and laced him with three hard punches, with the first landing to his solar plexus, the second crashing into his temple, and the third and final connecting square on Gaara's forehead wound.
The flurry sent the redhead staggering backwards, prompting Naruto to charge after him to attack again. The blonde then forced the first gate open again, sending a shockwave from his body and repelling the sand that was pursuing him. A second later, Naruto was in front of Gaara once more.
'What a brilliant tactic' the redhead thought to himself as the left side of his jaw was clattered by a sharp right handed punch from his opponent. The strike buckled his knees and afforded Naruto time to line of his next attack, which ended up being a hard kick to Gaara's chest. The redhead was launched into the arena wall with a 'thud'.
"Without your sand, you're kind of a sitting duck" Naruto said as he tore into Gaara with a furious combination of punches against the wall. Gaara chuckled and shook his head as the blonde struck him repeatedly.
"You really are fascinating. You hit upon an excellent tactic, and then you abandon it mere moments after it nets you your greatest success. You're far too eager" he said vaguely. It took only a split second for Naruto to realize his critical mistake. Unfortunately, it was too late. Tendrils of sand seized Naruto by his ankles and wrists and heaved him off the ground. Gaara then reversed their positions, with Naruto now being pinned to the wall and Gaara standing before him with a variety of ways to inflict damage.
"Using the pulse of the first gate to both cross distance and repel my sand was ingenious, and closing the gate the moment you entered striking distance to better control your own speed was a nice touch. The fact that you stopped doing it tells me that either you can't do it more than a few times without rest, or that you simply forgot. Both possibilities are damning for you" the redhead said as his sand tightened around Naruto's limbs.
"You're still way behind, Gaara. Unlike me, you haven't inflicted any damage" the blonde snapped as he struggled against the sand. Gaara raised an eyebrow and slammed his fist into Naruto's solar plexus, knocking the wind out of him and eliciting a groan of pain.
"These matches aren't being scored, my friend. Me being 'behind' doesn't matter in the end. Besides, I have a litany of options when it comes to hurting you" he said darkly. Naruto then strained even harder against the tendrils, nearly freeing himself before running out of energy.
Gaara frowned at the Konoha genin and flung him back towards the center of the arena with his sand, releasing him from the tendrils as he fell towards the earth. After a nasty landing, Naruto staggered to his feet and coughed up blood.
"Why aren't you tapping into the fox's power, Naruto?" the redhead asked suddenly as he slowly made his way towards the blonde. Naruto clenched his jaw and charged forward, only to be knocked backwards by the sand.
"Do you fear what this massive crowd of people will think of you? Are you afraid of being shunned for your status as a Jinchuuriki even more than you already are?" Gaara asked while forcing Naruto to evade a limb of sand.
"Shut up!" the Konoha genin yelled as he ducked and dodged to stay alive. Gaara's eye twitched irritably as the obvious answer to his question dawned on him.
"The fact that you bend to the wishes of such weaklings disgusts me more than I could ever express: he growled before launching a massive pillar of tightly condensed sand at his foe. The enormous cylinder crashed into the ground, nearly crushing Naruto as it missed by mere feet. The pillar then dissipated into a cloud of sand that returned to Gaara's side. Naruto heaved a deep breath as he rose to his feet and assessed his options.
"I don't care what they think of me. You're wrong. The only people whose opinions I care about already accept me for what I am" he retorted as he assumed a taijutsu stance. Gaara narrowed his eyes and opened his mouth to reprimand his fellow Jinchuuriki, but calmed once he hit upon something.
"Even if you're telling me the truth, there is still plenty wrong with your line of thinking. The only people who genuinely don't care about your inner demon are a pompous clan head who simply wishes to weaponize your power, his whore of a daughter, and two small children. Beyond that, Shikamaru and your sensei have no choice but to put up with you. You have nobody of value" he said with a goading sneer. Naruto tensed instantly, particularly needled by one specific part of the cruel remark.
"Watch your mouth. You don't know a damn thing about her" he snapped angrily. Gaara smirked and folded his arms across his chest.
'Hook, line, and sinker' he thought to himself as he glanced up at Hinata, who was watching from the stands alongside her family. The moment the redhead made eye contact with her, the heiress face contorted into unease. Gaara then returned his icy gaze to Naruto.
"You're right. My knowledge regarding Hinata Hyuga is indeed limited. What I do know, however, is quite disturbing" he said. Naruto scowled at the redhead and took a step forward.
"If you're talking about her habit of stalking me, then you're beating a dead horse. I already know about that. It isn't even disturbing either. She does it because she cares" he said confidently. Gaara tilted his head to one side.
"Are you sure about that?" he asked. Naruto stared at him silently for a moment before relenting and motioning for his foe to continue speaking.
"I'll hear what you have to say, but there isn't a thing you can tell me about her that I don't already know" he said.
"Are you aware of the fact that your oh-so-innocent teammate intended to force herself on you in your sleep?" Gaara asked bluntly. His words garnered reaction instantly. Naruto froze in place, his eyes wide and his mouth slightly open. When he didn't speak, the redhead continued to hammer nails into the coffin of Naruto's stability.
"I first began to suspect that she could be capable of such a heinous act halfway through her match with you. She had just tapped into the second phase of that marking on her neck, and the entire arena had become a sea of palpable emotion. One emotion in particular stood out to me as I sifted through it all" he began, reveling in the look of shock on Naruto's face as he spoke. The blonde attempted to speak, but found himself mute.
"I think you remember the moment. The words she imparted to you as you struggled to your feet" Gaara continued coldly. Naruto turned his shocked stare to Hinata as the sentence his foe was referencing came crashing into his mind.
"Feeling tired? Good, just wonderful. I find you to be positively adorable when your face is a mask of blood and bruises. It just feels so...right to watch you break before me"
"That emotion...was powerful, insatiable lust. The type that doesn't just disappear. It builds, it eats away at a person's self control. When that control finally bends, people tend to do some detestable things. I happened upon her one night outside your apartment complex. The moment her presence became detectable, I knew her intentions. Due to the fact that I wanted you to be completely mentally present for our match, I prevented her from entering your dwelling. She never denied my accusations. If anything, her behavior supported my hypothesis" Gaara finished, pleased with the look of betrayed fear that was plastered on Naruto's face as he stared at Hinata.
The cruel genin then looked back to Hinata, who wore a look of horror and regret as she locked eyes with her teammate.
"It seems that she's pieced together the topic of our conversation. Clever girl" he said with a chuckle. Naruto slowly turned away from Hinata and lowered his eyes to the ground.
"I know this must be difficult for you. To find out that you affiliate so closely with a potential rapist" Gaara mocked sadistically. Naruto sighed heavily and raised his eyes up from the ground, revealing two red irises with slitted pupils.
"Why? Why would you tell me that? What's in it for you?" he asked quietly. Gaara laughed out loud.
"Come now. I had plenty of incentive to tell you. In fact, my reward for revealing that information has already presented itself if those eyes are any indication. Now wipe that pathetic look off your face. Now isn't the time for an existential crisis" he said. Naruto looked to Hinata, who was covering her mouth and visibly straining herself to prevent tears from falling, one final time before assuming a shaky taijutsu stance.
"I'm going to enjoy killing you" he hissed as he did his best to bandage his badly broken composure. The redhead grinned and called his sand to action.
"And I'll enjoy watching you fail"
A/N: I know that the final scene may be a bit upsetting to many of you, and believe me, I get it. This fic will likely end up being M-Rated by its conclusion (No lemons, just very, very dark subject matter). Hope you all enjoyed regardless.
See you next chapter! Read and Review!
