A/N: This one's gonna be long again, and it's going to be violent as hell. There will be blood, injuries, and even a death.

Time for chapter 48

Enjoy!


"Wind Style: Great Breach!"

These were the words that drilled themselves into Naruto's eardrums as he was taken off his feet by a condensed blast of wind. The impact of the jutsu sent him flying backwards at blistering speed across the desert, with his body periodically bouncing off the ground like a skipping stone over a river. Before he could fly more than one hundred feet, however, his momentum was brought to a brutal, swift halt by a grip on his neck.

The seizing of his throat froze him mid air, but his lower half still tried to follow his lost kinetic energy, causing his neck and head to be used as an anchor of sorts. Once the wind had died down, Naruto's body hung limp. Despite struggling against the vice on his windpipe, the blonde could not free himself. Upon further inspection by the Konoha Jinchuuriki, the thing holding his neck was a limb of Gaara's sand that extended from his perpetually floating defensive cloud.

'Figures…' he thought to himself as he was slowly reeled in towards the redhead. After a painful journey through the air, he dangled before Gaara with a look of strained defiance on his face. The sand shinobi, who looked quite pleased with himself, chuckled a bit at the sight.

"You looked a tad surprised when I began making signs. Did you think I had no other jutsu?" he jeered. As Naruto opened his mouth to snap back at him, Gaara slammed a fist into his liver, causing the blonde to tense up and grimace.

"Well, you're almost right if that's what you think. 'Great Breach' isn't even my Jutsu. It belongs to my Tailed-Beast, Shukaku. But then, your selection of Jutsu isn't all that varied either" he said mockingly. Naruto growled and speared his left knee upwards. The point of his kneecap slammed into the bottom of Gaara's chin, snapping his head upwards. Much to his chagrin, his foe did not step back or release his neck.

"Cute, but not recommendable" the redhead said with a smirk. He then cracked his fellow Jinchuuriki across the left side of his jaw. The punch split Naruto's bottom lip and loosened one of his teeth, causing blood to leak down his chin. The sight of the plasma drew a mirthless laugh from Gaara.

"We're less than twenty minutes into this and you're already looking like you were put through a woodchipper. Am I really having that much of an effect on you?" he asked. Naruto began to speak, but found himself only able to croak. The slow constriction of his oxygen supply had taken its toll. The redhead gave his opponent a bored look.

"Are you really beginning to die?" he asked. When he was given no response, he sighed and tapped the sandy ground with his foot. Much of the foundation on which the ninja had fought on then melted away, leaving a massive, deep hole in the desert. Gaara himself still stood on a platform of his own sand, allowing him to float over the crater.

"If you're going to be overcome by nothing but a stranglehold, then perhaps this wasn't worth the trouble. You can fight harder than this" Gaara growled as Naruto twitched. The redhead then dangled him out further.

"Fine. If you can't bring yourself to put in some effort, then I'll force you" he said. Gaara promptly released his grip on the konoha genin's neck, allowing him to fall into the depths below.

"Don't let yourself be felled by nothing more than gravity. I'll drag you back from the depths of hell just to kill you again if you do"


Naruto inhaled desperately as oxygen became available to him once again. After a moment of rapid air intake, his muscles began to respond to his commands. The blonde flipped mid-air and faced the ground below him, which was roughly fifty feet away by this point. Naruto braced for the impact and rolled forward upon contact with the ground, decreasing the force of his fall significantly. Slowly but surely, Naruto forced himself to his feet, turning his attention to the sun above.

'He's still stronger than me. Even after all that preparation, he's still too much' he thought to himself, frustration dominating his emotions. He glanced down at his hands, which were still glowing with red chakra.

'I could try using the higher stage of the fox, but can't maintain it for very long, and Gaara is barely trying as is. He can match me for strength' he pondered.

'Keep in mind, he draws his power from the same place you do. He likely can't sustain his maximum for very long either, and in a battle of cardiovascular endurance, there are very few humans who I'd genuinely favor over you' the fox pointed out. The blonde nodded.

'Yeah, that's true, but I think your chakra damages my body more than his does for him' he countered. The demon shook his head at the reply.

'The way he approaches combat suggests the opposite. He only fights in bursts. That sand of his isn't entwined with chakra. It literally is a separate entity that acts on his behalf. He willingly allows his opponents to break themselves on his defenses and durability while he searches for one perfect opportunity' he explained. Naruto considered the information for a moment.

'I'm not sure how I'm supposed to approach this. I can't kill him with one shot, and the longer I smash myself against him, the more likely it is that he skewers me or rips my head off with his sand' he said. The fox sighed and began to retreat back into his mind.

'I've given you what advice I can, and I'm giving you access to my chakra. The rest is up to you. Figure it out' he said before fading away completely. The moment the demon's presence was entirely gone, Naruto suddenly felt very small. The sun beat above beat into his eyes, and the shadows of the crater around him gave him a sense of claustrophobia. Then, as discomfort a twinge of fear began to set in, a cold voice cut through the silence.

"Not too long ago, I was in the same position you're in right now. Unsure, in search of an answer that refuses to present itself. I'll admit it, I even wanted to hide like you're doing now. But, I can feel that you're still alive down there, Naruto. I know that you fear me, but face that fear. Hate me, despise me if you must" Gaara called from above. Despite the distance between them, his words felt as though they had been whispered directly into his ear. A cold shiver traveled down his spine.

'If that's how you want it, then fine' he thought to himself, coming to a silent decision. He then took a deep breath and closed his eyes. His body was slowly encased in demonic chakra in the shape of a pair of tails. The blonde then leapt up into the air. With his renewed dynamism, the force of his jump sent him sailing upward. After roughly ten seconds of vertical travel, Naruto emerged from the massive sinkhole. As he momentarily floated in the air, he locked eyes with Gaara, who wore a dark smile.

The blonde then redirected his momentum to make himself fall far left towards the opposite edge of the chasm. He landed mere feet from the dropoff, but despite his position, Naruto rose to his feet without scurrying backwards. After dusting himself off a bit, he turned his glare across the massive sinkhole to the opposite edge, where Gaara stood.

"So this is the power you used to stand against Orochimaru. The more power you draw from the fox, the more you resemble it. How fascinating" the sadistic Jinchuuriki commented from across the chasm.

"And it'll be the last thing you see" Naruto growled, dropping to a quadrupedal stance as he spoke. Gaara's posture remained unchanged as his foe prepared to attack, a silent challenge that Naruto gladly accepted. He immediately vanished from sight, reappearing behind Gaara a fraction of a second later. Before the redhead could react, Naruto severed his head with a swipe of his serrated claws. The instant his head was removed from his shoulders, Gaara's body dispersed into a cloud of sand.

'Sand clone' Naruto growled in his mind. He was then tapped on the shoulder, prompting his reflexes to kick in. The blonde swatted aside the entity behind him with one of his chakra tails, who also dissipated into sand.

"Come out and fight, you wretch" he growled as he scanned the area around him. After a moment, Gaara's cold chuckle became audible to his left. Naruto turned his attention to the sound and rotated to face it. Rising from the ground like an ethereal spirit was Gaara, who, despite his apparent residence beneath the sand, was perfectly clean save for the blood crusting on his face.

"I'm relieved you were able to find within yourself to come back to the surface. This would have been such an edging experience if you hadn't" he said mockingly. The remark drew a tilt of Naruto's head.

"Oh yeah? If that's the case, then why don't you quit keeping me waiting? Show me what you were hiding last time. I showed you my hand, now show me yours" he said. The redhead smirked.

"Well, if you insist…" he said smoothly. Gaara's sand then froze in the air around him. A low humming sound then began to reverberate through the environment. Suna's Jinchuuriki then began to change physically. His canines lengthened into fangs, his muscle mass increased subtly, and strange black markings appeared on his body all at once. Unlike the tattoos of the curse mark, which spread at random across its host's body, Gaara's new markings were very much organized.

They began underneath his eyes and cascaded down his face in a symmetrical pattern that held true down to his wrists. Alongside those changes, his body was now outlined with a red glow that periodically flickered. Naruto felt a bead of sweat trickle down his face. The chakra emanating from Gaara was cripplingly dense, and seemed to thin the oxygen in the air. Sensing his discomfort like a shark smelling blood, the Demon of the Desert spoke.

"So, what do you think of it? You're only the third person to have laid eyes on me in this state. Am I everything you expected?" he asked, his voice an octave deeper than it had been previously. The blonde forced a smile onto his face.

"Everything and more" he said. The moment the sentence had left his mouth, he burst forward with a punch aimed for the center of Gaara's forehead. Much to his shock and dismay, his foe did not move from his spot. Instead, he simply caught Naruto's wrist six inches from his face. The blonde growled and tried to force his fist forward despite the grip to no avail.

"Perhaps I should have warned you. My physicality is no longer an issue" Gaara said with a grin. He then tightened his hold on Naruto's wrist and yanked him off balance. As he stumbled forward, Gaara kicked out his legs and tossed him to the ground. Naruto rolled to his knees to moment his back touched the ground. As he tried to rise to his feet, Gaara viciously kicked him across the face with his right foot.

The strike momentarily separated Naruto from consciousness, causing his legs to fold in on themselves. Gaara's sand caught his briefly-limp body before it could fully crumple and lifted him off the ground by his wrists.

"I'm a monster the likes of which you were not and never could have been ready to face alone. I'm no Orochimaru, but I'm much stronger than you are" the redhead said bluntly as Naruto dangled before him with his eyes cloudy from the concussion he had been dealt. Gaara then proceeded to throw him high into the air before picking him out of the sky with another limb of sand that batted him down towards the earth. Naruto crashed into the sand with a painful 'thud', crying out in pain upon landing.

With his vision darkening and his body aching, he once again forced himself to stand and face Gaara. The redhead was casually strolling towards him, seemingly without a care in the world.

'I can't beat him like this. He's tougher, stronger, and maybe even faster. I need more power, and I need it quickly' he thought to himself raggedly. An obvious plan then hatched in his mind.

'What are the chances that three tails will kill me?' he asked the demon in his mind. After a moment's consideration, the fox gave his grim estimation.

'Sixty, maybe seventy percent. But, weighed against the chances of this Gaara killing you as you are now, I'd say that those odds are favorable' he responded flatly. Naruto sighed and widened his stance.

"Let's roll the dice" he muttered to himself. Naruto then forced a massive quantity of demonic chakra into his body from the depths of the fox. Sand at his feet began to melt as another tail-esque structure manifested itself behind him. Much to Naruto's surprise, the pain he experienced was brief as he transformed further.

'I guess my nerve endings finally died' he joked to himself. He then returned his attention to Gaara, who had stopped advancing on him. The redhead was now watching him intently, a look of morbid curiosity on his face.

"A stage beyond, hm? I'll take that as a sign of respect" he said in an anticipatory tone. At this, Naruto charged forward and attacked Gaara. His leading strike was a straight punch targeting the redhead's jaw, the left side specifically. Gaara's metallic sand deflected the punch just enough to make it miss by inches. As he surged past the redhead, Gaara attempted to counter his entry into range with a wide right-handed punch, but Naruto ducked under the return fire and planted his feet to stop his momentum.

The boys were now positioned two feet from one another, well within Gaara's defenses. Taking advantage of the opportunity, and the fact that he had just made his foe miss, Naruto snapped off two hard punches, the first merely flashed in Gaara's face to draw a reaction, and the second, a fully extended overhand, capitalizing on the redhead's instinctual flinch. The punch slammed into Gaara's cheek hard, bruising it and forcing a backwards step out of him.

Naruto attempted to build on the success with a wide, hooking left-handed punch, but he was met down the centerline by a clean punch that clipped off his chin and momentarily dropped him to one knee. Gaara smartly took the opportunity to retreat a few steps and send his sand into action. The blonde was able to flip backwards to avoid being crushed by the particles of earth, but was still grazed by a small horde of sand that cut open his forehead.

'It's like a bunch of microscopic razor blades' he thought to himself in frustration. He wiped blood from his face and flicked it onto the sand.

'He hits hard. Way harder than he did before. He grazed me and my legs just gave out. I have to play this carefully. I'm faster now, and it seems like I can sting him with shots, but I can't exchange with him. I have to get in and get out without being hit' he thought to himself.

With a plan in mind, Naruto leapt forward.


Neji wrung his hands nervously as Naruto and Gaara played a game of immensely high-stakes chess. The dynamic of their fight at its current stage had been set by Naruto almost immediately. He would enter into range, using sheer speed to bypass Gaara's sand, potshot, and move out of range again. For the most part, it had worked out well for the blonde, as he hadn't been touched in the last five minutes.

'He's chosen the right tact for this scenario, but it also puts him on a hamster wheel. He can't afford to fully commit to his strikes, so he isn't really damaging Gaara. He can't kill him this way' Neji lamented as Naruto snapped Gaara's head back with a sharp punch and angled out. Despite the desperate circumstances, the Hyuga couldn't help but marvel at the brilliance of his comrade's prowess.

'His form is a bit odd on most of his strikes, but he's a truly protean striker. He can move, he's a perfectly competent pocket operator, and he builds off of his pre-established threats organically. More than that, if he finds something that works, he beats that drum till it breaks' he thought to himself. As the thought crossed his mind, Naruto was swatted sideways by a wave of sand. Fortunately, he was able to evade the enormous spike of sediment that followed afterwards, if only by a hair.

'Uzumaki-san is walking such a fine line. If he screws up once, this fight may be over' Neji noted. Over the next five minutes, Gaara's bursts of offense became more and more sparse while Naruto's output only increased. One specific sequence repeated itself time and time again. The blonde would enter range, suggest a strike to draw a reaction from Gaara, and then throw a flurry of everything but the feinted strike.

'He's piling up so much attritional damage. He's rendering Gaara inert with nothing but sheer offensive volume and distance control. Brilliant' Neji observed in awe. Further enforcing the new narrative, Naruto laced Gaara with a four-strike combination consisting of a kick to the redhead's calf, two touching punches to either side of his face, and a fully-committed uppercut into his solar plexus.

"What vicious body punching" Neji muttered as Gaara struggled to hide his discomfort brought about by the strike to his midsection. Despite the massive success of his comrade, however, one aspect of the battle was nagging at his mind.

'Why has Gaara stopped using his sand? His chakra supply is still relatively full, and he hasn't been badly hurt' he pondered.

A moment later, he was given an answer.


Naruto took a deep breath and stepped forward to blitz, gaining speed and vanishing from sight in an instant. Upon returning to the visual plain, he launched the same straight, right-handed punch that he had landed a dozen times previously to disguise his movements and tag his foe. His streak of accuracy had met its end. Gaara, for the first time, moved his head to his left and allowed Naruto to drift forward six inches or so by his own momentum.

A fraction of a second later, Gaara jacked the blonde's jaw with a right-hand counter that froze him in his tracks. It was the strike that followed, however, that did the real damage. As Naruto stumbled back, Gaara caught the point of his chin with a left-handed punch that floored him. Naruto's back hit the desert ground forcefully, knocking the wind out of him and eliciting a painful cough from his lips.

When his vision cleared enough to make out the world around him again, he saw that Gaara was still standing in the same spot he had been.

"You know, I may not be the most polished of taijutsu practitioners, but if you show me the same thing quite literally twelve times, I'll find a way to punish you for that predictability" he said raggedly. Naruto grunted and climbed to his feet, ignoring the wobble in his knees and the general feeling of fuzziness he was experiencing. Gaara himself seemed to be no better off, with a litany of small cuts and bruises on his face from the extended onslaught he had endured.

Beyond the aesthetic damage, he appeared to be quite winded, as much of Naruto's output had been focused on the redhead's midsection and legs. The boys stared at each other silently for nearly a full minute, finding something resembling solace in the damage their opponent had endured. The silence was eventually broken by Gaara.

"You know, I don't think I've ever simultaneously loved and hated something as much as I do you. I despise everything you stand for, but nobody has ever pushed me to ask myself these kinds of questions before. Win, lose, or draw, you have my undying gratitude" he said. He then rushed forward at Naruto as his gourd dissipated into sand, prompting the blonde to follow suit.

The Jinchuuriki clashed together by the fronts of their foreheads. They then began to battle for control of their foe's wrists, a battle that was quickly one by Gaara. The sadistic demon container used his grip on Naruto's left wrist to ruin his posture and drive a hard knee into his ribs. The blonde grimaced at the impact, but rebounded and elbowed Gaara in the temple. The boys then separated from the tie-up and began to circle one another.

Naruto held up a hand and focused a mixture of his human and demonic chakra into a spiralling sphere. Once the jutsu was complete, he charged forward and attempted to slam it into Gaara's chest. Before it could connect, the sand that had once comprised the sand shinobi's gourd flew into action and intercepted the Rasengan.

"You aren't getting any more easy entries" Gaara growled, weaving hand seals as he spoke. A moment later, he unleashed his retaliatory jutsu.

"Wind Style: Great Breach!" he yelled. A blast of wind then flew forth from his mouth and knocked Naruto backwards. Realizing that his spiralling sphere was no longer a viable offensive option, the konoha Jinchuuriki turned to defense and used the Rasengan to deflect the wind away from himself. Once the onslaught of oxygen subsided, Naruto allowed the jutsu to fade away. Unfortunately, his body had reached its limit for tolerance of the fox's chakra, causing his red cloak and tails of energy to fade away.

Luckily, Great Breach appeared to have emptied the remainder of Gaara's reserves as well, as he dropped to one knee immediately after Great Breach had concluded. Through the blood and sweat, they could both see opportunity ripe for the taking. They also faced the same predicament. Exhaustion.

As it turned out, however, Gaara's issues ran far deeper than simple tiredness. This became evident roughly thirty seconds after he had been forced to take a knee. He began to writhe in pain, clutching his head and clenching his jaw as an unseen force tore into him.

"W-what are you…" Naruto began, looking on in a mixture of horror and relief as his adversary twitched and grunted from the pain he was experiencing. His list of questions only grew longer when Gaara screamed out in pain in a tone that repeatedly swapped between his normal voice and that of another creature. Struggling to process, Naruto turned to the only other being present.

'What the hell is happening to him?' he asked the fox. Without a moment's hesitation, the demon revealed the morbid answer to the equally morbid question.

'That final expenditure of chakra broke the barrier he had built up to keep Shukaku at bay. He's been suppressing his tailed-beast for the entirety of this battle. I initially thought his conservative approach was linked to stamina issues, but no. He simply couldn't afford to exert himself too much' he explained. Naruto felt his blood run cold as he watched Gaara fight for control of his own body. The redhead was then swarmed by his own sand, which formed a miniature storm of sediment around him as he struggled.

'Fight him. Come on, Gaara. Fight him' Naruto thought, surprising even himself. Despite his deep and irreversible hatred of his fellow Jinchuuriki, he couldn't help but feel a twinge of sympathy as Gaara was worn down by the demon within his body. Slowly but surely, sand formed a shell around Gaara. Once the structure was done building itself, there was a stretch of uncomfortable silence.

Just as Naruto began to open his mouth to speak, Gaara's voice came tearing through air in the form of a roar of defiance. The sand shell then shattered into an uncountable number of shimmering grains of sediment. Standing in the center of the remnants of the structure was the redhead, who no longer bore any markings on his body. His eyes were downcast initially, but once he raised his gaze from the ground, Naruto noticed that they had returned to their natural blue color.

'Absolutely incredible. He overpowered his own tailed-beast with nothing but sheer willpower. Weak as you may be, human beings never cease to amaze me' the fox commended breathlessly. Gaara then bared his teeth and rubbed the side of his head.

"I will not be robbed of this. Not even by you" he hissed to the beast he harbored. He then locked eyes with Naruto and called up his remaining strength to raise up a cloud of sand to hover around him. The blonde took a deep breath and assumed a taijutsu stance.

'If you beat me, change your title…'

'...to Gaara the Unbreakable'


A/N: I know, I know. I left y'all hanging. Don't worry. Next chapter comes out tomorrow, and we'll wrap up this fight and Hinata vs Temari. Tell me what you thought in a review :)

See you next chapter! Read and Review!