AN: Note that I do not own Naruto, Naruto Shippuden, or any of the characters from either Anime. This work is a fanfiction written out of my love for the series and not in any attempt to make a profit.

Proofread by: Author

And so continues the heavily canon-like fight. Fortunately, I don't have to keep it going the same way for much longer, I don't think. A lot more range of change this time as I use the other characters a bit more. Sadly, Sakura doesn't seem to get a lot of a spotlight here for the time being.

Chapter 97: Secret of the fox, one big transformation!


Wary of what Sukaku would do next, the Chief Toad jumped backward out of close range.

"Chief, we can't hit him unless you hold him down!" Naruto complained, looking back at Shukaku.

The Chief Toad huffed, annoyed, before responding. "This toad doesn't have any fangs or claws to hold that guy down with." Chief Toad explained the issue to them while landing.

"Then what do we do?!" Kiba demanded to know, a little bit annoyed as he had nearly jumped onto Shukaku, only to find himself about to fall to his death. Hinata and Asuma were the only reason he hadn't fallen off, as they had managed to grab him in time.

"Well use a transformation Jutsu to change into something that has those!" Chief Toad told them, confidently.

"Wait, how? Such a big transformation?" Sakura demanded to know. She was certain that Naruto could offer the chakra, but what would they transform into? Adjusting the size of an existing transformation one was familiar with, was a lot harder than adjusting minor details, as simply making things bigger didn't translate or interact correctly with the surroundings, putting an incredible strain on the transformation, requiring more chakra.

Although, Sakura then realized she was being silly, as Chief Toad would be the one to perform the transformation.

"That being said, I'm not particularly good at transformations." Chief Toad admitted surprising and annoying Sakura.

"What the hell? The only one of us who'd be able to use that much chakra then is Naruto!" Sakura exclaimed, agitated.

"Calm down girl, I'll still provide the chakra. You just act as my will and perform the sign as we perform a combined transformation!" Chief Toad assured them.

"What?" Naruto exclaimed dramatically, feeling slightly overwhelmed with the idea.

"But what do we transform into? I'd help if I can, but we need to decide on a transformation. I'm not sure Naruto can convey his will using his chakra during transformation as I would." Sakura pointed out, making Naruto frown for a bit while trying to think of a transformation.

"We'll just transform into a large Akamaru then!" Kiba decided, only for Asuma to sigh and shake his head.

"That won't work. Scaling a transformation like that would be too much of a strain." He explained, trying to think of a transformation himself.

However, the conversation didn't last much longer, as the Chief Toad decided to remind them of the condition for the transformation, before charging forward. "We got to have fangs and claws!" He announced as Naruto brought his hands together in a ram seal.

"Wait… Say, w-wait a second!" Naruto complained while he wracked his brain. Sakura and Heikō doing the same, deciding it was a better choice than trying to argue, wasting time.

"Fangs and claws, fangs and claws…" Naruto began muttering to himself as they got closer and closer to Shukaku who seemed unconcerned with their advance towards him until he roared in defiance.

"Transform!" Chief Toad demanded, and the next moment, Sakura felt a huge amount of chakra flood towards Naruto from the Chief Toad. Taking a moment, Naruto then seemed to activate the Jutsu, and she felt the transformation envelop them. Unable to tell what they were transforming into, or what her place in the transformation was meant to be, Sakura rejected the invitation and excluded herself from it.

Instead, she felt the dry toad skin beneath her replaced with fur, making her wall walking technique fail, and forcing her to instead grab onto the hair covering the transformation.

At first, Sakura couldn't tell what the transformation was, but a gasp from Asuma and a look behind her made her realize that she was now holding onto the nine-tailed fox. Evident by the nine orange fox-tails behind them.

Despite the unfamiliar form, the Chief Toad seemed to be quick to adapt, managing to dodge the following air bullets and tail swipes coming their way. Reapplying the wall walking technique, adjusting it to the nine-tails fur, Sakura took a moment to marvel at what she was seeing.

"T-this is…?" Hinata asked confused, looking around nervously, making Asuma suck in a breath through his teeth, before looking at the people present at the moment, worry evident in his gaze.

Sakura and Sasuke, picking up on what he was thinking, simply gave him a nod, letting him know they already knew about Naruto's secret, before glancing at the unconscious Kankuro and the astonished Temari.

With a sigh, Asuma nodded. "It's the nine-tailed fox." He confirmed regretfully.

"How does Naruto know how the nine-tailed fox looks?" Kiba demanded to know, thinking it cool as hell, as well as unfair that Naruto of all people could do something like that. "It looks better than any depictions I've ever seen!"

"H-he must have seen it for real!" Hinata suddenly exclaimed in alarm, before her expression instead became one of anger and then determination, while Asuma groaned. Kiba turned to look at Hinata in confusion, taking a moment to figure out what she meant, before going wide-eyed.

"You mean, Naruto is like Gaara?" He exclaimed in surprise. Making Sakura hiss in annoyance.

"Naruto is nothing like Gaara!" She shouted, defending Naruto. For a moment, Kiba looked insulted, as if he was going to protest, before his expression instead turned sad, before agreeing with Sakura with a nod.

"Yeah, you're right. Naruto is nothing like that guy." Kiba confirmed, and Sakura noticed how Asuma, Hinata, Sasuke, and herself all let out a slight sigh of relief, making her realize they had all feared Kiba's reaction. Hinata's concern letting them know what she thought as well.

"I was afraid you would figure it out, but it seems some of you already knew." Asuma began, nodding at Sakura and Sasuke. "I'm glad you don't think less of Naruto for his secret. It is true, Naruto is the nine-tails Jinchuriki," Asuma confirmed, making Temari gasp at the revelation, which prompted Sakura to glare at her to shut her up. Thankfully, Temari shied away from her and seemed to understand her warning.

"Not everyone sees Naruto for what he is. A hero. It is because of him that we can live easy, without the fox running around. But most of the village doesn't see it that way. You heard what the Chief Toad told us about Shukaku. There is a lot of hate and stigma surrounding the tailed beasts. Many believe Naruto to be the fox himself. Ideally, no one was supposed to know that Naruto is the nine-tails Jinchuriki, but somehow, the information spread anyways. In an attempt to spare Naruto a life of complete isolation, the Third Hokage made it a crime to share the information about Naruto being a Jinchuriki with anyone else. While it was too late for the information to spread between adults, at the very least, he hoped that this way, Naruto would be able to make friends amongst his peers, who wouldn't know anything about his status." Asuma explained.

"Darn it! His power is increasing more and more!" The Chief Toad complained, surveying the damage by the wind bullets he had avoided. Pausing for a moment, he then spoke up again. "I know that!" He responded to a conversation the rest of them couldn't hear before he addressed them instead.

"Hey, you guys. Since Naruto is keeping the transformation going, you will have to wake that medium up in his place." Chief Toad told them while using one of the tails to pick up a bundle of intact trees, before rushing at Shukaku again, only to run past him, as both of them moved out of the way to avoid each other.

Stopping, they both turned around to face their opponent again, the nine-tailed fox initiating another charge, jumping up into the air, while Shukaku braced himself, and struck his own belly to shoot more air bullets up at them. Swinging the tail holding the trees forward, Chief Toad let them go, intercepting the air bullet, before landing right in front of Shukaku. Taking the opportunity, Chief Toad used the fangs and claws he had for the moment to his advantage, and bit onto Shukaku's shoulder, while grabbing hold of his right leg and left, upper arm with his claws.

"Now!" He announced, growling through the mouthful of sand. Faster than any of the Genin could react, Asuma shot forward, punching Gaara in the face, hard enough for blood to come out. Making Temari gasp, before shouting, her voice full of worry.

"Gaara!" Her voice rang out, making Sakura feel slightly guilty about their situation. She knew that Naruto likely felt the same way. As a fellow Jinchuriki, Naruto probably felt like he could sympathize with Gaara to some extent. One of the things Sakura felt admirable about Naruto, was how good-hearted he was. Despite how he had been treated all his life by the village, he was still able to smile and love the village all the same. It was scary how much more sense it made that Naruto would have turned out like Gaara did instead. The fact was, that Naruto was the odd one for not letting it get to him, and the fact that Gaara had turned out as he did, it made Sakura pity him. Had things been different, Gaara might have been like Naruto instead.

"Darn!" Shukaku roared, rearing up while screaming into the sky. "It hasn't been long since I emerged!" He complained before the vibrant yellow in his eyes reverted back to the dirty yellow of the sand it was made out of as the jutsu keeping Gaara asleep, and Shukaku in control, dispelled. However, even so, the giant Sand beast was pushing the transformed Chief Toad back.

As Gaara suddenly woke up, Asuma took the opportunity to use his trench knives, putting them up to Gaara's throat. "Give up now, or you'll be hurt, kid." He threatened, trying to force Gaara to surrender. Instead, Gaara simply grit his teeth in anger, and the sand below Asuma's feet softened, pulling him down.

Startled, Asuma tried to fight it, before focusing back on Gaara but was too late to make good on his earlier threat, as Gaara forced him away with his sand.

"Asuma Sensei!" Naruto exclaimed as he released the transformation, and the Chief Toad's tongue shot out, wrapping around Asuma, before pulling him out of the sand and depositing him back on the toad's head.

Tendrils of sand shot out, trying to grab Asuma as he was carried away, only for the Chief Toads tongue to protect Asuma, annoying Gaara.

"You will all be killed by me! I will not cease to exist!" Gaara insisted, fortunately looking less deranged and crazy, yet unfortunately resolved to make his stated intentions come true.

"G-Gaara, wait! Y-you don't have to do this! I'm sorry, w-we'll figure this out, make things better!" Temari tried, seemingly having changed her understanding of Gaara somewhere along during the fight. The Chief Toads explain what exactly Shukaku did to Gaara seemingly making her feel remorse for Gaara's situation, wishing to make it right.

"Shut up! I'll kill you as well!" Gaara shouted back, startling Temari, while Naruto gaped at Gaara's blatant disregard for someone who cared for him.

"Hey! She cares about you, how can you say that to her?!" Naruto demanded to know, drawing Gaara's attention to himself, before landing right in front of Gaara, unafraid as he felt his anger spike.

"Shut up! You know nothing! I thought you were like me, but it seems you don't understand. Die!" Gaara shouted back, striking out towards Naruto with tendrils of sand, while Sakura and Hinata cried out in worry, Asuma jumped over to try and help Naruto, only to miss his mark and was then batted away by another tendril of sand.

Naruto, however, managed to avoid the sand launching at him by jumping forward, bringing himself closer to Gaara, only to be stopped by another set of sand tendrils shooting out from the sand below him, keeping Naruto from hitting Gaara.

For a moment, Sakura feared the worst, before Naruto shouted in frustration. "Darn it!" And managed to headbutt Gaara.


AN: I originally had another idea for how things would end up going in this fight. I really wanted to find a way for Sakura to rejoin the fight, getting a chakra boost from Naruto, by using his excess chakra, when they did a combined transformation, while she used her superior chakra control to adjust the chakra used, taking the excess for herself. Unfortunately, that's not really how things work out. Sakura could still have accepted to be part of the transformation, like how Gamakichi did, but she opted not to, as it would be more chakra draining for Chief Toad (Gamabunta) to do so. And as a Summon, the amount of chakra he has is directly linked to how long he can remain summoned. Sakura was not willing to waste his chakra, or become part of a transformation where she likely wouldn't be able to do anything anyways, even if it would allow her to save chakra without needing to use the wall walking technique to stay anchored to the transformation.

Also, the reason Gamabunta is continuously referred to as Chief Toad, it's because Sakura has not heard Naruto refer to him as Gamabunta yet. And since the story is written from Sakura's perspective (most of the time), it is her perception of the world that affects the narrative the most.