Chapter 5: Of Pissing Contests and Secret Missions.
Gaara slowly moved through the kata, alternating his punches between his hands while his legs stayed planted. His green eyes glared through the vacant air before him, focused on something only he could see while the rest of the world was blocked out while he trained. Eventually, Gaara stopped punching and switched to another stance, arms held at the ready with his left leg before him. Slowly, with as much focus as he had shown with his punches, Gaara started kicking into the air with his leg. For nearly ten minutes, Gaara practiced his kicking before Naruto interrupted him mid kick.
"Hey Gaara, why the very basics today?"
Gaara slowly lowered his leg to the ground before turning to study Naruto. The blond haired boy had spent several days recovering from his training mishap. He had been able to move two days after the rock had blown up in his face, but Gama-Bunta had forbidden training for at least three days. Now, Naruto stood ten feet away from Gaara, barefoot, and without the top of his orange jumpsuit. Naruto still stood somewhat gingerly, his hands tucked into his pants pockets, but it was a vast improvement from earlier.
Gaara didn't answer immediately, instead merely standing and looking at Naruto.
"I've noticed some problems developing in my kata practices."
Naruto nodded at Gaara's answer before replying, with a small grin on his face.
"Well, how about a sparring partner for today?"
Gaara quirked an eyebrow, so Naruto continued.
"Other problems will develop if you only train on your own, and besides, I've been lazing about for too long."
Gaara gave a mental snort at Naruto's last statement before falling into a taijutsu stance facing Naruto. The blond haired boy grinned before removing his hands from his pockets and falling into his own stance, a mirror of Gaara's. Before they attacked, Naruto spoke.
"Oh, and Gaara? Two rules; taijutsu only, and no killing."
Gaara blinked slowly before nodding and the two rushed each other.
They met and Gaara was surprised at Naruto's sudden increase in speed and strength.
Gaara's first attack, a punch aimed at Naruto's chest, missed as the other boy twisted to the side, striking out with his own punch as he did so that caught Gaara smartly on the side of the head. The red haired demon's vessel stumbled slightly before spinning, showing his back to Naruto for an instant, while he struck out with his leg. Naruto ducked under the heal kick, and was forced to roll to the side when Gaara's fist came in low, aiming for Naruto's chin.
Gaara stepped back while Naruto did the same, the two of them falling into their stances once again before leaping forward.
This time Naruto struck first, kicking at Gaara's chin while the target leaned back, letting the kick pass harmlessly in front of him. While Naruto's leg was still in the air, Gaara reached out and caught the limb with both hands, before striking out with a sweep in an attempt to kick Naruto's other leg out from under him. It worked, to a degree. Naruto's leg was struck firmly, but he twisted at the waist, bringing his foot up in an attempt to strike Gaara's head. Gaara was forced to release Naruto's leg and duck, off balance. The two hit the ground and rolled, coming back to their feet.
Naruto attacked while Gaara retreated, giving ground while he dodged what blows he could, and blocked those he couldn't. Gaara's eyes suddenly widened when he saw an opening in Naruto's guard, and he struck, giving Naruto a light and fast punch to the face. The punch wasn't strong enough to do any damage, but it had the desired affect of distracting Naruto.
While the other boy stopped his attack in surprise, Gaara struck, giving Naruto a quick knee to the gut followed by an uppercut when the blond haired boy doubled over slightly. Naruto stumbled back, and blinked in surprise when Gaara struck again, aiming a roundhouse kick at Naruto's head.
Naruto's arms came up automatically in a guard and he grunted as Gaara's leg collided with his arms with enough force to shove Naruto somewhat. Naruto found himself struggling to keep his balance as he leaned back slightly involuntarily, his bare feet skidding in the grass.
Before Naruto or Gaara could recover and plan their next moves, a giant tongue suddenly wound around Naruto, lifting him effortlessly into the air.
"AND WHAT, EXACTLY, ARE YOU DOING, IDIOT?"
Naruto grinned sheepishly before replying.
"Just a little workout. Resting is alright I suppose, but I don't want to get too rusty."
Gama-Bunta merely grunted before lowering Naruto back to the ground, releasing the boy gently. Naruto grinned and stretched, reaching over his head with his arms while standing up on tiptoe. Naruto dropped out of his stretch, falling back onto his feet and winced as the sudden action sent a slight jolt of pain through his sore muscles.
Gama-Bunta, seeing the wince, commented on it.
"SEE? YOU'RE STILL RECOVERING YOU TWIT. TAKE IT EASY FOR A WHILE."
Naruto scowled slightly before his face lit up. Both Gama-Bunta and Gaara could practically see a light bulb appear over his head and turn on. Naruto looked up at Gama-Bunta and waved his arms excitedly while he shouted so he could be heard.
"Hey, Gama-Bunta, teach me some water jutsus!"
Gaara sighed and started to walk to the cave for a bit of rest while Gama-Bunta glared down at Naruto. As the cool dampness of the cave enveloped him Gaara tensed slightly as he felt Shukaku shift. The tanuki demon had been denied the bloodletting he so craved for some time now, and Gaara knew he was about to pay for it. With a determined step, Gaara picked up his pace and walked deeper into the cave, the voices of Naruto and Gama-Bunta fading behind him.
Eventually, Gaara came to a point in the cave where it was totally dark except for a pinprick of light that was admitted by the entrance of the cave, and even Gama-Bunta's voice was dropped to a low, unintelligible rumble. Here, Gaara stopped and allowed Shukaku's voice to wash over him, battling against the rush of rage and bloodlust that was the demon's madness, and, Gaara feared, his own.
Gama-Bunta stared down at Naruto as the yellow haired boy stared back at him defiantly.
"FOR THE LAST TIME, NO. THERE WILL BE NO MORE TRAINING FOR YOU TODAY."
Naruto scowled as he shouted back.
"I'm not going to actually try the spells today; I just want the hand seals! I'll perfect them later!"
Gama-Bunta shook his head and opened his mouth to reply when both he and Naruto felt an explosion of chakra from nearby. As one, they turned to face the cave near the waterfall. Naruto felt the hair on the back of his neck stand on end as he unconsciously fell into a fighting stance facing the cave.
For a moment, confusion ruled as Naruto vainly tried to figure out if someone had found them or if it was something else. All confusion vanished, however, when a familiar sense of mindless bloodlust washed over him and Naruto took off in a sprint for the cave, ignoring Gama-Bunta's cries to stop.
Surprisingly, the toad boss didn't use his tongue to stop Naruto and as the blond shinobi passed out of range and into the cave, he made a mental note to bug Gama-Bunta about it later. Naruto thought, If I survive, that is, as the feeling of impending bloodshed increased.
Naruto's pace slowed so his eyes could adjust to the scant light in the cave, and he stretched an arm out to the side so he could follow the wall and continue moving forward. Soon he gave a shiver, from both the coolness of the cave as well as the feeling in the air.
Then came the noise.
It was a mix between a strangled groan and a moan. Naruto felt a shiver run down his spine as he could hear emotions in the sound, so strong he felt he could have cut them with a knife. The sound came again and Naruto almost flinched as the sound once again gave voice to madness, hate, and desperation. Naruto stopped walking when he could see Gaara. The other boy was on his knees, his left arm clutching at his head, while his right looked...different.
Normally, Gaara's arms were average sized, with smooth, pale skin, a rarity for someone from the desert. Now, Gaara's right arm was as big around as a tree trunk, with spines shooting out at various points, and his skin would've become a dark, sandy brown. Naruto couldn't see the color of the skin in the darkness of the cave, but having faced Gaara in a partially transformed state before, Naruto knew what to expect.
And as Gaara looked up, revealing a face that was half Gaara and half tanuki, Naruto knew that things had just become very, very bad.
"Get oUT!"
The voice was strangled and warped, as if Gaara was battling with some unseen foe for control. As the boy uncoiled from his curled position and lashed out with the transformed arm, Naruto realized that that was exactly what was happening.
Quickly stepping back, out of range of the large limb, Naruto watched as Gaara quickly gathered his legs to leap at Naruto. However, just as Gaara started to push against the ground, he fell over, as if the movement had been aborted halfway through.
Naruto, realizing he was far out of his depth on how to help Gaara, closed his eyes and, as he had done on a few rare occasions when under pressure, entered his mindscape.
When his eyes opened again, Naruto found himself in a hallway, standing in ankle deep water. Pipes lined the ceiling, and water dripped down occasionally with a small splash. Without a glance around in curiosity, as he usually would have done, Naruto took off running, homing in on the familiar feeling of nearly palpable malice.
After rounding a corner, Naruto found himself before the expected large gates, with a piece of paper affixed on them with the kanji for 'sealed'.
"Oi, damn fox, I need to talk to you!"
Something shifted in the darkness behind the gates, and Naruto could make out a large form moving about. Soon, two red eyes appeared, nearly twenty feet off the ground, looking down at Naruto with unconcealed rage and hate.
"AND WHAT DO YOU WANT, BOY?"
"Nothing but a little help, fur-ball."
The Kyubi's laughter rang out through the chamber, echoing off the walls.
Naruto scowled as he spoke again, quietly, with an edge of steel to his voice.
"Laugh all you want, ugly, it won't change the fact that you're gonna help me, and soon, unless you want to die at another demons hands."
Kyubi's laughter died, but there was still mirth in his voice as he responded.
"AND WHY SHOULD I HELP YOU? I GIVE YOU CHAKRA WHEN YOU REQUIRE IT, I SEE NO REASON I SHOULD GIVE YOU ANYTHING ELSE. AND AS FOR THAT FOOLISH RACOON, EVEN YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO HANDLE HIS PARTIALLY TRANSFORMED STATE."
"That's not good enough."
The Kyubi glared down at him as Naruto continued.
"I have a feeling this won't be the last time this happens, and I want to stop it. Permanently. Now, all you demons seem to recognize is strength. So, either help me out here, or forever become the under-fox to a wimpy tanuki."
Kyubi's growl was strong enough to shake the floor Naruto was standing on as a red aura appeared around the eyes, and the Kyubi's lips pulled away from his fangs in a snarl.
"KNOW THIS, BRAT, NO TANUKI WILL EVER RULE ME. I MAY NOT BE THE STRONGEST OF THE DEMONS, BUT THAT SAND RAT IS NOTHING WHEN COMPARED TO ME."
"Really? Then help me prove it. Tell me how to put such a bad scare into Shukaku that he'll never so much as whisper when I'm around. Otherwise there'll be three people who'll know that you couldn't stand up to a simple raccoon."
Kyubi once again growled, vibrating the floor as he glared at Naruto.
"VERY WELL. I SHALL GIVE YOU SOME CHAKRA, BUT IT IS YOU WHO MUST SHOW THE SAND RAT THAT YOU ARE SUPERIOR. ACCEPT HIS CHALLENGE AND BEAT HIM, AND HE SHALL NEVER CHALLENGE YOU AGAIN."
Tendrils of red chakra flowed from the gate, moving toward Naruto and wrapping around him. Naruto closed his eyes again.
When he opened them, he was back in the cave, and everything was exactly the same as if had been when Naruto had first entered his mindscape.
Gaara was struggling to rise, his transformed arm gripping the wall, leaving deep gouges in it, while his left had gone back to clutching his head, and he was once again on his knees. His entire body was shaking, as if under some exertion.
"Gaara."
The Shukaku vessel looked up at Naruto, the eye on the human half of his face squinted so much it almost appeared closed. Naruto was standing perfectly relaxed, arms at his sides, gazing back at Gaara
"Let Shukaku loose."
For a moment, Gaara stopped shaking and stared at Naruto incredulously. Then the Shukaku rose up in a wave of madness, and once again struck at Gaara in an attempt to take control. Gaara, distracted with Naruto's request, gave little resistance.
To Naruto, it looked like Gaara simply surged to his feet and leapt at him, transformed arm crooked back to give a single, crushing blow. However, as the Shukaku-possessed-Gaara flew through the air, releasing so much chakra that a wind was kicked up in the cave, something about Naruto triggered every single internal warning that the demon possessed.
But the bloodlust rose up once again, overriding every warning in the Shukaku's head as it drew back the transformed limb and prepared to crush Naruto and feast on the blood that would flow. Then the Shukaku landed on the ground and started to swing the arm forward.
Only to have Naruto step forward, right hand coming up with a rasengan moving toward the transformed half of Gaara's face.
The mass of swirling energy stopped less than an inch from Gaara's transformed eye, which was glowing a faint yellow to show the Shukaku's awareness.
Instantly, Gaara felt the raging Shukaku freeze as a technique that rivaled the only spell to ever do significant damage to his partially transformed body was less than an inch from taking Gaara's head off. Then Naruto started to speak.
"Apparently you didn't get the message the last time I fought you, Shukaku, so allow me to put it in words so there's no confusion: Never try to fight me again. You don't have the power."
His voice changed, becoming deeper, more guttural even as his eyes became darker and the rasengan started to change color.
"I'm a demon vessel as well, only my furry tenant could've kicked your ass any time he wished too before he was sealed."
Red swirls became evident in the rasengan, turning it into a light violet.
"Now, he's my own furry chakra power plant, meaning I've got all of his power, and none of his patience. Attempt to take over Gaara again, and I'll rip you apart, piece by transformed piece."
Now Naruto's eyes had become a dark, blood red with slitted pupils. Gaara, shocked to his very core, could feel the Shukaku's near absolute terror as it turned and fled deeper into the recesses of Gaara's mind. Gaara's knees buckled as he suddenly found himself back in control, and weighed down by the transformed arm, which was crumbling back into mere sand now that the chakra had left it.
Naruto yanked his rasengan away from Gaara as the other boy fell to his knees, panting. Naruto's first impulse was to check Gaara and make sure he was alright, but the rasengan caught his attention as Naruto realized what he had done.
And promptly started to jump around like the over energetic kid he was.
"Ha HA, who's the badass ninja now! Perfect rasengan baby! Faced down TWO demons in one day!"
Naruto placed one fist on his hip and held the rasengan above his head, like a hero would his sword.
"Just another story to add to the legend of Uzumaki Naruto!"
Then Naruto became aware of the shaking and burning of his right arm.
"Uh oh..."
Gaara, his entire body shaking with the aftershock of Shukaku's partial possession, forced himself to look up at those particularly foreboding words. If there had been any blood in his face, making it possibly for Gaara to actually go any paler, he would have paled at what he saw. Naruto's right arm was visibly shaking and he had grasped his arm by the wrist with the opposite hand in an attempt to maintain his control.
It wasn't working.
Slowly, swirls of pale violet chakra escaped the rasengan, gouging deep furrows into the cave walls where they struck the stone as they escaped Naruto's tenuous control. Gaara, remembering what the damage caused by an ordinary out of control rasengan, forced his shaking legs to propel him forward. Grabbing Naruto around the waist, Gaara sprinted as best he could toward the mouth of the cave, hoping to avoid a potentially lethal cave in.
The whoosh of air leaving Naruto's lungs from Gaara accidentally placing his shoulder rather forcibly in the other demon vessel's stomach heralded a stronger whoosh as energy began to escape the rasengan at an even greater rate. Muscles burning, air coming in short pants, Gaara forced his body to move faster. He was less than twenty feet from the cave opening when Naruto lost complete control over the rasengan and a swirling wall of pure chakra slammed into Gaara's back.
Oddly enough, the last thing Gaara saw before unconsciousness claimed him was the lake waters rushing up to meet him and Gama-Bunta's surprised face.
Gama-Bunta, who had been eyeing the cave warily ever since Naruto had disappeared into its depths, drew back in shock when there was an explosion within the cave and the two demon vessels suddenly flew into the air like a cork shot from a champagne bottle. Automatically turning to follow their trajectories, Gama-Bunta quickly swam out into the middle of the lake and fished them out before the two drowned. After depositing the two onto the bank, the giant frog tentatively extended his senses, and was greatly relieved to find a complete absence of demonic chakra or killing intent in the immediate area.
Breathing out a sight of relief, which created a gust of wind to bring slight whitecaps to the surface of the lake and make the leaves of all the trees in the area sway, Gama-Bunta settled in, trying to conserve both his stamina and chakra while he waited for the two to regain consciousness.
Wake up soon, brat. I can't hold this genjutsu and keep myself anchored to this world forever.
:Author's Note:
I apologize profusely for the exceedingly long time since my last update. I'm working on correcting the little flaw in my character that makes these long periods between updates, and hope you all will bear with me for the time being without getting to mad or upset with me. On other important stuff, here are three chapters with the next one close to being done. Later.