Disclaimer: First Chapter
Story Start!i
Sasuke Uchiha was pissed off.
At Kakashi Hatake.
Kakashi wanted him to get some extra practice on his new jutsu in, and that last minute practice had made him late for his match by a large amount of time. Sasuke wasn't pissed at anyone other than Kakashi for the fact that he was late for his match, and he understood the fact that he had been disqualified from a rules standpoint. Still, that didn't mean he was any less pissed off that he wasn't going to get to fight the few people he wanted to fight the most.
Sasuke smirked.
"So the dope did it... he beat Neji." Sasuke would have enjoyed fighting Naruto at the end of the tournament and seeing how strong Naruto had become for himself. Obviously Naruto would lose, but it would be fun to see how strong the two of them had become over the course of their month of training. "He might have just gotten a little stronger then."
Kakashi looked at Sasuke as they stood side by side, leaning over the rails to watch the match that was about to happen.
Naruto was standing in front of Gaara.
'Naruto... are Kushina's latent genetics coming out now?' Kakashi could see that some of Naruto's hair was turning red and straightening out. What was more was that one of Naruto's eyes had turned brown, his right eye had been replaced by a new eye. Kushina had grey eyes, so that was not her genetics since neither of his parents had those eye colors. That wasn't even mentioning the slight difference the hand that he was covering up in the sleeve of his jacket. "Watch him Sasuke, he calls you his rival, it will be good for you to see how far he's come as well." Kakashi didn't expect Naruto to defeat Neji in the month of training he had.
He hoped Naruto could win, but he knew that unless Naruto put in some serious training to learn how to access some of his own special powers, that it was a fight he didn't have too much hope of winning at this point in time.
"Hmph."
'Sasuke learned the Chidori and increased his speed, chakra reserves, and power over the training months. I guess in his eyes, he grew in strength much more than Naruto could have... Sasuke has both a Superiority and Inferiority complex with it comes to Naruto.' Kakashi could see how dismissive AND interested in Naruto that Sasuke was.
It was self-destructive, but it was just the nature of their relationship at this point.
-With Naruto and Gaara-
"Gaara..."
Naruto extended his hand to Gaara to shake, something that Gaara just looked at since the match had yet to start.
"Lets shake hands, from one human to another." Naruto stated as he extended his hand further. Gaara stared at Naruto with a confused look visible, as if he had not been expecting that statement from anyone towards him. Gaara didn't shake his hand though. "Don't start the match until he shakes my hand." Naruto looked towards the proctor.
He was going to shake Gaara's hand.
"Why?"
"Because I view you as an equal, so shake my hand. From one human to another, or you can shake my hand because we both grew up knowing the same lonely darkness... or you could shake my hand to humor me... but shake my hand Gaara, because I want to be your friend." Naruto stated as he walked a few steps closer to Gaara.
Gaara's neutral look switched to a glare.
Gaara decided to start the match right then and there as sand burst from the gourd on his back, rushing towards Naruto. Naruto jumped backwards, but sand still got him and started to wrap around his chest.
"I don't need that, I just need you to make me feel alive."
The match started.
"You're going to shake my hand by the end of this, and call me your friend Gaara! I promised myself that I was going to save you." Naruto didn't stop staring at Gaara as sand continued to cover his entire body.
"You're going to start off with that Armor?" Erza asked Naruto, not worried about what Naruto was going to do to get out of the sand wrapping around his body currently. The fact that Naruto was so determined and calm meant that he had a plan.
When the sand completely surrounded Naruto, it exploded.
Dozens of Narutos came out of the sand and jumped in different directions, with the real Naruto standing right in the center of it all.
-Audience-
"What is that?" Sasuke whispered, and he wasn't the only one.
Everyone was shocked.
Naruto's entire body was covered in pitch black armor, with demented horn spikes coming from random spots of the armor. Naruto's hair had become even more spiky and half of his face was covered in shadows, the only part of Naruto's body not covered by armor was his head, and Naruto was holding a massive mace of a sword with spikes coming from it. The sword twice as large as Naruto's own body.
-In the Arena-
"I'm going to rescue you from that dark and lonely place, even if I have to beat the absolute shit out of you to get through that thick skull of yours! So get the sand out of your ears and shake my hand... PURGATORY ARMOR!" Naruto shouted out as he rushed towards Gaara with enhanced speed. He swung the sword that he had summoned and even though it was stopped by the sand, one of the spikes of the sword burst through the sand and nearly stabbed Gaara in the shoulder.
Naruto's clone grabbed him by the arm and pulled him out of the way when sand tried to grab him, so Naruto stayed close range and swung his sword once more. It crashed into the sand again and nearly broke through it.
"Long distance isn't your specialty, and close range he has you beat with that defense... so your only chance is to force his sand defense into a situation where it can't defend him completely."
"Come on Gaara, shake my hand already!" Naruto let go of his weapon and crossed his fingers.
*POOF*
A shadow clone of Naruto, wearing the same armor, appeared INSIDE of the sand barrier between them, and grabbed Gaara's shoulders. Naruto grabbed his clone's shoulders and threw the clone outside of the sand barrier, and the clone threw Gaara even further away from the sand. Naruto crossed his fingers around.
The SAND was surrounded by shadow clones moments later that formed a tight barrier slowing down the speed the sand could escape and go back to Gaara. Naruto turned and rushed at Gaara with a fury in his eyes.
'My sand.' Gaara had a fist slam into his forehead and knock him into the arena wall.
"Shake my hand already Gaara!" Naruto slammed both of his knees into Gaara's belly, putting a crater in the wall.
"He's put up his sand armor already." Erza noticed the area around his stomach cracking, turning to sand. There were poofs behind them as the sand escaped from the barrier of clones, quickly rushing back to Gaara's side. It grabbed Gaara and yanked him out of Naruto's reach, but Naruto grabbed Gaara's ankle and yanked him back out of the sand.
"No you're not getting away that easily!"
Naruto slammed Gaara back into the crater, his eyes burning red as he did so, slit pupils instead of his regular round. The whisker marks on his face much thicker than before.
"I'm going to save you from that darkness you're in Gaara, even if I have to beat my friendship into that skull of yours!" Naruto slugged Gaara dead center in the chest, pushing him deeper into the crater. Gaara only grunted as his sand armor took another heavy hit, but sand grabbed onto Naruto and flung him far away from him.
A sword stabbed into the sand barrier, and another 3 swords slammed into it.
Naruto's clones started to summon regular swords and throw them at Gaara. They didn't do any damage at all or even come close to breaking through the sand barrier, but they blocked Gaara's vision for several moments.
"I can't stay close, that sand really is an awesome defense..." Naruto whispered to himself.
"Using the Kyuubi's chakra and the Purgatory armor is a dangerous combo, that armor brings out anger, and so does the Kyuubi's chakra. You've got to try and keep a level head right now." Erza could sense just how much raw, primal fury was in Naruto's heart right now. None of it directed at Gaara at all, and all of it focused heavily on Gaara and his own past.
Naruto vanished from view.
He kicked Gaara in the back of the head less than a second later, and when sand tried to wrap around his foot he started to run up the side of the arena walls. Sand crashed into the wall and destroyed entire sections of it, while Gaara recovered from the kick. The sand wasn't fast enough to keep up with Naruto at the moment.
"You and I are the same Gaara, we're the same! If you're a demon, then I'm a demon! If you're a human, then I'm a human too! So decide what you are, because I'm deciding to be a human! I don't care what anyone calls me, I'm Naruto! Konoha shinobi, and future Hokage of this village!" Naruto jumped off of the wall and landed on the other side of the arena.
*BOOM*
The explosive tag that Naruto placed on the back of Gaara's head exploded and destroyed the sand armor while sending Gaara towards the center of the arena.
"Naruto, cancel the Purgatory armor!"
Naruto took some calming breaths as he cancelled the Purgatory armor, putting back on his regular clothes in an instant. He was panting heavily as he pushed back down all of the anger and rage that the armor made him feel, and he stopped using the Kyuubi's chakra as well.
"Thanks Erza... I was going to lose myself." Naruto whispered, because his killing intent had been rising the entire time he had been comboing those two things together. Gaara got up off of his back and glared towards Naruto.
Naruto's words had hit a sore spot apparently.
"You... blood?"
"Made you bleed, and you're bleeding red Gaara... just like the human you are." Naruto grinned when he saw blood dripping off of Gaara's forehead.
Gaara's eyes widened as he reached up and touched the blood on his head, staring down into his hands at it.
"MY BLOOD!"
"Oh shit, he's gone nuts!" Naruto saw sand rush to Gaara as part of the gourd on his back started to transform into sand and cover his armor, and part of his face. Gaara started to physically transform his body in response to his pain and blood, with a demented smile appearing on his face. A single large tail appeared out of the back of the gourd, and half of his face became that of a demented sand tanuki, his covered eye turning bright yellow with a strange shape to it. "... This is his..." Naruto felt afraid of this.
He gripped his fists tight.
Naruto clapped his hands together.
"You're my PREY UZUMAKI NARUTO!"
"I'm your friend Gaara! HAAAAAH!" Naruto started to unleash his chakra with a loud roar. Not the Kyuubi's chakra, but his own powerful chakra.
Naruto's chakra was so strong that it was visible to everyone in the audience, and it rolled off of him in waves. People in the front rows of the audience could feel it rush by them.
"SHADOW CLONE JUTSU!"
-Audience-
"Holy... he has THIS much chakra?" Tenten asked, shocked as he looked as Naruto summoned a 1000 shadow clones of himself all across the arena. She knew that he was a stamina freak and had a lot of chakra, but she could hardely imagine a normal person having a body possible of containing this much raw chakra at any one time.
'This isn't the Kyuubi's chakra... this is Naruto's own chakra.' Guy thought behind her as he looked at the sheer amount of clones with some shock as well.
Lee just watched Gaara and Naruto fight with the same awe he felt when he heard about how Naruto defeated Neji.
They weren't the only ones in the audience who were shocked.
"The... the brat... why didn't he do this against me in the prelims?" Kiba asked with shock when he saw just how many clones Naruto summoned. Naruto had only summoned a handful of clones against him when they fought, but this amount of clones would have been too much for him to handle if Naruto had summoned them back then in that closed space they fought in.
"Didn't you know, Naruto was part of the last team that got out of the forest, he was exhausted when he fought you. You shouldn't underestimate him Kiba."
"Of course he's this strong, he defeated me after all... I'm just going to get stronger." Kiba grinned at the challenge.
Those who knew Naruto, many of them, were now seeing something they had never seen from him before.
-With Naruto (Music Play: Naruto the Movie 2 OST - Temujin)-
"Bring out the demon all you want Gaara, but as long as you do, I'm going to defeat you as a human! Now get ready, because I said I would save you from that darkness, and you've picked the hard way!" Naruto grinned as he and all of his clones pointed their fingers at Gaara. "That's right, I need to get some payback for Bushy Brows too right now, since you hurt him really bad." Naruto said as he pounded his hand to his fist.
Hands came out of the ground and grabbed Gaara's ankles.
"Wha-"
An entire CHAIN of clones started to rush out of a hole in the ground as they spun each other around like a tornado. Gaara was at the end of the long stream of clones holding each other by the ankles, and he was slammed into the arena walls time and time again. He tried to get a jutsu ready to fight Naruto with, but 2 Naruto clones grabbed his arms and held them back.
He was slammed into the walls time after time.
Then he was flung up into the air high above the stadium itself, where he found himself surrounded by all 1000 clones.
Gaara was being overwhelmed.
The clones started to each take turns beating him, sending him flying around the sky in an uncontrolled fall that just never seemed to touch the ground.
'Where... why am I losing... where is he getting this strength?'
"Take my hand already Gaara, let me save you from that place you're in, just like how my friends saved me! You don't have to be alone anymore! Just hold your hand out to me!"
Gaara transformed.
More than half of the arena was filled, and panicked screams could be heard. All of Naruto's clones were destroyed when Gaara transformed.
The Ichibi, Shukaku, appeared in the middle of the stadium with Gaara coming out of his head, with Naruto standing in front of Gaara. Naruto was just standing there in front of Gaara.
"Keep using this demon's power, use it all you want, but I'm going to stay right here and hold this hand out to you until you take it."
People started to flee the stadium in a panic, but the giant sand tanuki wasn't moving. Gaara was on top of it staring down Naruto, with Naruto staring right back into his eyes. Naruto summoned a sword and pointed it at Gaara's forehead.
His Love tattoo.
"I'll kill everyone here!"
"I won't let you kill even a single person, everyone in this village is important to me, and I won't let you hurt another person." Naruto spoke sternly to Gaara. Erza floated out of the inside of the sand Tanuki, and she went right next to Naruto.
"It's ready."
"SUMMONING JUTSU!"
The sand Tanuki was sent flying out of the arena as a massive toad came out from under it, grabbing it and jumping clear out of the leaf village with Naruto riding on top of the sand tanuki. A clone of Naruto with some of the original Naruto's blood on his hand where they had been, having performed the summoning jutsu with his eyes a burning red color. He popped as he used up all of the chakra that formed his body.
-With Naruto and Gaara-
"Now, lets keep the fight going, or do you want to give up already and let me be your friend?" Naruto jumped off of Gaara's head.
He landed on top of the giant toad.
"So you're our new summoner, I apologize, I'm quite clumsy... and is our opponent... Shukaku?"
"Sorry to call you out here, but I really need some help right now... I meant to summon... are you the Boss toad?"
"That would be Gamabunta, I'm Gamaken."
"You mind helping me out then Gamaken?" Naruto asked as he clapped his hands together, asking for help. Gaara went to sleep on Shukaku, and color came to life in the Tailed Beast's eyes. Naruto clicked his teeth in annoyance at that.
"I'm free!"
"I'll do my best."
Gamaken jumped with a large blast of wind chakra destroyed the forest where he had been, and he hit Shukaku with his sasumata weapon. Despite how 'clumsy' he stated he was, he attacked Shukaku several times in quick order without missing a single beat. He knocked the Tailed Beast around, and would jump out of the way or block attacks with his shield, taking no damage.
"He's not taking any damage!" Naruto called out to Gamaken.
"He's very durable, since this is Shukaku, you'll need to wake the host up. I can get you close, if you can handle the rest." Gamaken politely stated as he blocked Shukaku's claw with his shield, and cut the arm off with his weapon.
Naruto nodded.
Naruto jumped on top of Gamaken's weapon when he swung it over the top of Gaara's head, with Naruto dropping down back on top of Shukaku and landing in front of Gaara. Naruto grabbed Gaara's headband, that he kept tied to his clothes, and ripped it off. Naruto even took his own headband off of his forehead.
Then he slugged Gaara in the cheek.
"Noooooo! I JUST WOKE UP-"
"Sorry Shukaku, but this is between humans, you need to stay out of it." Naruto grabbed Gaara as the tanuki started to fall apart into sand. Loading the awake Gaara on his back, Naruto jumped back to the ground with Gaara safe and sound.
There was silence.
"... You're... helping me?"
"I'm helping you, I hit you really hard just now, and you're nearly out of chakra. You're not able to fight back anymore, so I'm going to carry you back to the village... and we can keep fighting there if you want." Naruto stated as he looked at the high walls of the village. He sighed to himself, since he was exhausted from all of this as well. "This is going to be a long walk... I'm the Jinchuriki of the Kyuubi, if you hadn't figured that out." Naruto stated to Gaara.
Green eyes widened.
"We're..."
"The same, the only difference is that I found my friends... my friends found me and saved me. I know the kind of hell you're in, and I can't let somebody like me suffer through that all alone. So I want to save you, I want to be your friend and take you out of that hell... and I'll fight you as many times as it takes." Naruto grinned as he got a firmer hold on the unmoving Gaara. Gaara just rested his head against Naruto's shoulder in response, unable to think up a single thing he could say to that.
Naruto just said something very strange.
"I'm a demon who can love only-"
"Yourself... you're an idiot, but you're human just like me... but that's fine, I'm stupid too. We can be idiots together. You sound like you want me to knock more sense into you?" Naruto asked Gaara with a grin stretching across his face.
Gaara's eyes softened.
"Idiots together... that sounds..."
Nice.
That sounded nice.
-At the Stadium (Later)-
"Sorry for the long wait, me and Gaara had some business to settle, but we're back now." Naruto walked back into the arena with a massive grin on his face, still carrying Gaara on his back. Gaara was fast asleep and snoring lightly, an extremely content look on his face. Mental exhaustion had completely set in for him.
"You came back to the arena... you want to be declared the winner, don't you?" Erza spoke up next to Naruto.
He grinned at her.
"The winner is Naruto! This ends the Chunin Exams!"
"Oh thank god... it's all over now." Naruto NOW allowed exhaustion to take over as he slumped to the ground face first, not even caring as he just decided he was going to nap a nap then and there. That last fight had been emotionally draining for him. "Night night, somebody wake me up... later... much later... Erza, take me home."
With that Naruto went to sleep.
Seconds later, Naruto's body got back up with Erza controlling it.
"Gotcha." She said as she started to walk out of the arena, with the intent of getting them to their apartment, so that he could get some real rest in his bed. Erza pulled out Naruto's wallet and she saw that it was empty. "... well... there goes victory cake." Erza was going to use her control of Naruto's body to go and eat some cake.
There goes that plan.
Chapter End!
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