Chapter 5 - Maroon


On the outskirts of the Land of Wind under the scorching hot sun, space and time ripped itself apart as a window of darkness blinked into existence. The air shimmered around it, pushing back against the foreign chakra as if it was fighting to reclaim its position. Casually, as if walking through a doorway, a young blonde boy exited the portal and dismissed the alien technique.

Taking a deep breath, the boy blinked away the sunlight that furiously assaulted his eyes and looked around at the landscape he had arrived in. A dry, sandy desert that barely supported the patches of green where the border of the Land of River ended. It was as if the life had been drained away and ground into sand. There were no trees in sight which would facilitate faster movement meaning to get to Sunagakure, he would have to hike across the desert.

As with the topography, there were no fauna or flora to bring colour to the dusty orange of the sand. No birds singing; no horses grazing; not even insects crawling. The only sound that could be heard was the faint trickling of water from the river far into the country behind him, and the flapping of his cloak in the harsh wind.

'Clearly they didn't have such a hot climate in mind when designing the uniform,' the boy thought, dusting the small particles of sand off of him. Rolling his sky-blue eyes, he grabbed a flask from his seal and drank some water, before willing his chakra to begin regulating his temperature.

An almost imperceptible movement of something drew his eye to the horizon; a bone white small falcon flew slowly towards him. For a country so lifeless, it seemed suspicious to say the least.

His blue eyes spun and twisted, rippling outwards, gaining their golden glow.

Studying the odd avian, he noticed it was full of chakra- far more chakra than any regular bird should have. There was no chakra network of course, but it looked like it had been pumped full of power.

Seconds later it had reached him and landed just a few feet away from him. Having a closer view, it seemed to be made out of clay or some sort of dough.

'An interesting piece of ninjutsu,' he admitted, before his eyes widened and his arms shot forward to save himself from the bomb he had unknowingly let get close to him.

"ART IS AN EXPLOSION!"

BOOOM

The falcon detonated into a large ball of super condensed chakra, blasting outwards and tearing the ground apart. The bright white light filled his eyes as he channelled the Preta Path and absorbed the mini time bomb until it vanished as if it had never exploded in the first place. A trickle of sweat slipped from his hairline.

Rinnegan scoured the cloudless sky, searching for the voice that had screamed before he had blown up, it didn't take long to lock onto the far larger and far denser falcon that soared through the air. On its back he spied a blonde ninja with a crimson and black cloak.

Deidara.

Slowly lifting his palm skyward, he focused on the giant winged creature and wrenched control of gravity from the universe, "Universal Pull," he toned. Instantly, the flight path of the bird spiralled out of control as it was sucked towards the ground by an invisible force as if being yanked down by gravity itself. The Akatsuki member could do nothing but attempt to keep his balance as his creation dive bombed into the dunes below them.

Comedically, a short boy roughly the same age- or slightly older- than him popped out of the dune and climbed out of the sand that he was now covered in. His partner's face showed complete and utter seriousness as he marched over towards him, leaving the falcon to shake itself free. Deidara did not look quite the part of an international criminal but looks weren't everything he supposed.

It seemed Deidara took some pride in his youthful appearance. His blonde hair poured over his marred Iwa headband and fell just over his left eye, while the back was tied tightly and in a neat pony tail that sprouted from his head. His defining feature was that of the mysterious silver device that covered his eye and seemed to be some sort of mechanical telescope- probably due to the heights he was used to working at if his bird was any indication.

"HEY, how did you do that!?" his loud obnoxious teammate shouted as he continued to storm towards him.

"A shinobi should keep their jutsu concealed until the last second or else your opponent can quickly plan around your techniques," Naruto replied.

"What's that supposed to mean, huh?"

"It means I'm not telling," Naruto smiled sweetly, aware that it would annoy the Akatsuki member before him, "It also means that I now have seen what kind of abilities you possess just from trying to catch me off guard."

"Oh yeah?" Deidara challenged.

"You infuse your chakra into clay which gives you control over your creations. It also allows you to remotely detonate the clay from a considerable distance, which would suggest to me that if you were my opponent, I would stay as close to you as possible and take my chances with your taijutsu and being too close range to set off an explosion without hurting yourself. Am I right?"

"Tch," Deidara said, gritting his teeth as some of his strengths and weaknesses were laid out in front of him, "And I see you have the same eyes as our leaders'."

"Yes."

"All of you with your dojutsu thinking you're all high and mighty, first Itachi, then leader, now you," his partner listed.

Naruto supressed a sigh as he realised what had turned into a challenge between partners had grown into an argument and Deidara was starting to despise him. If he allowed this to continue it would impede their teamwork and put the mission at risk.

"Look... Deidara, I apologise for pulling you from the sky however you did start it, I was just attempting to spar with you. We got off on the wrong foot, I'm Naruto," he said attempting to extend an olive branch so they could get on with their job.

His reply seemingly confused Deidara for a second before the boy blew out a breath and calmed down, "Deidara," the blonde introduced, "Naruto? I thought leader called you 'Justice'?"

"Justice is just a moniker to stop certain people recognising me, my real name is Naruto," he told his partner.

"I see," Deidara nodded, "Well... Naruto, looks like we'll be taking on Sunagakure together."

"Seems that way," Naruto said, looking in the general direction of their goal, "The sooner we can get this done the better."

"Right," his partner agreed, "We should travel by air, we can get to the village quicker and come up with a strategy on the way?"

Nodding, Deidara called over his bird that had managed to shake itself clean of sand and clambered atop its wing, "You're not scared of heights, are you?"

"Of course not," he scoffed, and climbed aboard the clay entity. It was pudgy and the material sunk slightly under his weight. The chakra within this creation compared to the smaller bird was a world of difference. Naruto wondered just how devastating such an explosion would be.

Having already devised a relatively simple plan, Naruto decided to voice his ideas as they took to the sky, "As Orochimaru said during the meeting, the Sand's jinchuriki is locked up in a prison underneath the desert. I suggest you siege the village as your ninjutsu is uniquely suited to long range bombing attacks; and keep the Kazekage- Rasa- distracted while I infiltrate the prison to take on the one tail."

"Can you take the jinchuriki by yourself?" Deidara asked, mentally commanding the falcon in a westward direction.

"Can you take the Kazekage by yourself," Naruto countered, grinning, "While he may be considered the weakest of the Kage, he still has a strong magnet release that allows him to control gold dust within the sand."

Deidara grinned back at him, "He'll give me no trouble at all, my art will beat him in the end."

"Art?"

"Yeah, my clay- the explosions- is my art. To me art is fleeting and beautiful," Deidara replied passionately.

"I see," Naruto nodded, respecting his partners interesting opinion.

High in the sky, the desert quickly blended into a static orange ocean that resembled waves. It was sand for as far as the eye could see and Naruto estimated it would take them at least two hours to reach the village. Even though the wind was rushing past him like it was trying to give him whiplash, he admitted it was far quicker than hiking. He could have opened up another portal but he couldn't risk Suna sensing the chakra build up and the desert was too vague of a landscape to successfully teleport anywhere close.

"Seriously though, will you be able to defeat the one tail yourself?" Deidara asked again, checking over his shoulder, an eyebrow raised.

"My abilities are well tailored to fight tailed beasts, as long as I'm not buried under a mile of sand, I'll be fine," Naruto joked.

"No wonder the jinchuriki is insane, having been locked up by its own village and being constantly surrounded by tons of sand," Deidara said after a silence, "Makes you want to feel bad for them."

"Yea," Naruto whispered, looking down, "The bijuu has taken away any chance of a normal life for its host and the village has vilified its supposed 'weapon', These people will receive their Justice."

They locked eyes, each acknowledging one another before they picked up the pace towards the village.

For the remainder of the flight, neither blonde had said much else to each other, but both perked up as they spotted the village hidden in the sand over the horizon. To Naruto, the differences between Suna and Ame were night and day. From their vantage point, a couple miles in the sky, the village was quite large.

It seemed that every building in the city was carved from sandstone of some sort given it was practically in endless supply; the largest of which was a big dome-like structure, similar to that of an igloo, that Naruto assumed was the Kazekage's offices. From the central dome sprouted eight paths that led to a certain section of the city, like a star reaching across the ground. Buildings were tightly packed and uniform to the point where Naruto couldn't remember the last time he saw another colour besides sandy orange. 'I would never be able to settle in such a place,' he thought.

Surrounding the hidden village was a formation of huge rocks that reached almost a hundred meters high and sheltered the city from the weather and external attacks. Climbing the outside would be pointless as the chakra would be detected half way up the wall and you would be quickly dealt with. The only way in or out was an opening at the north side of the wall where a natural gap formed and allowed for access into Sunagakure- most likely extremely well monitored and guarded.

"This canvas will be great to practice my art," Deidara grinned, as he seemingly zoomed in with his telescopic eye.

"Any sign of a prison?" he asked, after finding no discernible chakra in the immediate area, "I assume it would be at a distance from the village just in case of a prison escape."

"There's some sort of monastery on the south side of the village, I'll drop you off there," Deidara informed him, "No doubt we've already been sighted."

"It wouldn't be much of a great nation if they hadn't, I suppose," he replied as they soared around the outskirts of Sunagakure.

It didn't take long to spot the temple that Deidara had mentioned. The stark white marble structure jutted out from the desert almost as if it was a mirage. Thick pillars surrounded the monument as it held up the large dome roof. The kanji for 'Sand' was written across the entrance.

"Keep the Kazekage distracted, we'll rendezvous at this location when I'm done," Naruto relayed, silently wishing Deidara luck and before leaping from the flying construct without looking back.

The wind around him picked up in anticipation of his first true test.

Naruto quickly and effortlessly sprinted up the marble staircase and passed through the archway into the monastery, allowing his eyesight a second to adjust to the relative darkness now that he had come accustomed to the sunlight.

His first opponents took their time to spot him but his echoing footsteps eventually alerted the two shinobi to his arrival.

They both wore the standard flak jacket with a dusty sheet covering half their faces.

"Hey you! You can't be in here, this is a restricted area!" one of them shouted, before his life was cut short by a black rod to the chest. Blood poured from the man's mouth as it stained the sandy brick floor crimson.

The second ninja's eyes popped out of his head, oblivious to how their regular shift had gone to hell so suddenly. He'd watched as his comrade had gone from alive to dead within the blink of an eye.

That's when Naruto heard the first of many explosions shake the very earth.

Deidara had started his assault.

"Fuuton: Wind Scythes!" the guard shouted over the explosion, clocking that his village was being attacked by these mysterious men in black robes of red clouds.

Wind style was to be expected in a country named for its relentless wind, and Naruto had planned for such.

He swiftly dodged the incoming threat and focused on the ninja in front of him, "Universal Pull."

Gravity bent to his will yet again as he used the Deva paths gravity manipulation to pull the Sand shinobi towards his person. Slowly, the man lifted from the ground and hovered over to Naruto, deseperately trying to gain control of his own limbs, stopping in place where he received a sucker punch to the gut causing him to double over, gasping for breath and wheezing uncontrollably.

Not allowing the enemy any time to recover, Naruto kicked the man in his face making him sprawl all over the floor in pain. He then grabbed the man's hair, not caring to be gentle, and forced him to his knees, his palm on the ninja's head.

Channelling the Human path despite the savagery of such a technique, Naruto sifted through the man's thoughts and memories.

He had gotten lucky- the monastery was the holding place for the jinchuriki. The boy was held on the lower levels inside a cage constantly guarded around the clock.

"You keep an innocent boy locked up just because you're afraid," Naruto spat, and the man's eyes widened, but before he could stop Naruto reading his mind his soul was wrenched from his mortal body and he dropped to the dirt- lifeless.

To hold a human soul within the palm of your hand was a frightening thing. Every second of every day since the birth of said human, his to do with as we wished- he flexed his hand and allowed the soul to fade into nothingness. It wasn't worth absorbing.

Another explosion rang in his ears from the village behind him and Naruto wondered how Deidara was getting on. From the shinobi's memories, Naruto had learned that the current Kazekage was actually the father of the Sands jinchuriki and it had been on his orders that the boy was jailed. He was infuriated. How could someone call themselves a father when they tried to assassinate their own son?

He hoped Deidara would be able to deal with such a man.

With renewed vigour, Naruto travelled through the main hall that towered high above him. More pillars stood within the structure to help keep it from collapsing, and small particles of dust and sand floated down from the ceiling at every one of his partners bombs. He passed the first ninja he killed watching as the rod wilted away without his chakra feeding it; and entered a smaller hallway. Luckily, the memories of the second man knew the way to the one tail or he could end up wandering around for hours.

Coming to a seemingly dead end, Naruto held up the rat hand seal, copying the secret code to enter the underbelly of the prison. At his command, the wall grinded against stone as it slipped away into the floor, opening the secret passageway.

Fire consumed his vision as it blasted up the winding staircase, and Naruto jumped to the side to avoid being burnt. Clearly, he had been discovered, though he knew not how. It was no matter, "Suiton: Cascade of Water," he said and spat out gallons of water that filled the staircase and provided a barrier for him to follow behind. He raced down the brick stairs behind his wave and heard cries of alarm from his jutsu that had probably just flooded the prison with water.

It didn't take long to reach the lower floor of the monastery as it opened up into an even bigger chamber than the hall that had greeted him upstairs. In front of him stood four guards that were protecting an extra guard who seemed to have conjured a protective barrier between him and the cage he could see behind them. He narrowed his eyes.

His jutsu soaked into the ground.

At the vanguard stood a regular Sand shinobi who wore the traditional attire, though he had red markings on his visible cheek. Three monks brought up the flank and they wore white robes with a green sash signalling their allegiance to the Land of Wind. Their heads were shaved bold and they each held long staffs of wood.

"Who are you!?" the shinobi demanded, "What do you think you're doing?"

Naruto's Rinnegan bored into the man and his visage reeked of contempt, "I am Justice," he responded, "I have come for the One Tail."

"The Ichibi is the property of the village Hidden in the Sand," the man replied angrily, "I am Baki of the Sand and on my honour, you may go no further, I will kill you where you stand!"

"You may try."

Another explosion shook the room and Baki grew even angrier at the assault of his village. The shinobi raised his arms and pooled his chakra into his hand as he created a blade of wind from thin air. A chakra rod slipped from his palm and he ran towards the man. Bringing his arm up he made to bat away the blade but froze when the wind passed straight through his weapon and sliced his upper arm, drawing blood and tearing a small portion of his cloak. Naruto grit his teeth and jumped back.

"My wind blades are undefendable, you cannot win," Baki shouted, and threw the ninjutsu at Naruto like a shuriken attempting to cut him to pieces.

"Doton: Earth Wall," he said, blocking the incoming attack, frustrated at having been caught off guard, "Katon: Majestic Destroyer Flame."

Naruto's fire filled the entire room as it rushed towards his opponents. He heard the sounds of screams and watched as the fire slammed into the barrier but didn't break it. As the fire cleared, he saw that he had set one of the monks on fire and his charred skin was melting through to the bone- his screams wouldn't stop as his fellow brothers attempted, to no avail, to put the fire out. Within seconds, he was dead.

Unfortunately, Baki still stood, though his head sheet had burned slightly. His eyes could see the hatred that was directed towards him. Naruto held up a seal and formed two wood clones which he sent to attack the man as he called his chakra to him, "Suiton: Water Well," he toned and reached deep within the ground beneath him to summon non-purified water to the cavern. It started off as a millimetre of water rising through the natural cracks under the brick but continued to deepen as he funnelled more chakra into the jutsu, leaving just a small foothold of dry ground below him.

He watched as his wood clones closed in on Baki, and his gaze shifted slightly to the left as the previous fire was put out on the monk and the two remaining monks looked confused at the water that had materialised from the floor. His clones split up and preformed a pincer attack with them being on both his sides. They lashed out with their legs and slammed into Baki's arms that he had used to defend the blow.

The real Naruto pushed his chakra into his foot as it built up an electrical charge, crackling with electricity, "Raiton: Stampede Shockwave," he spoke and slammed his foot into the floor firing the lightning into the water that surrounded him, immediately sending an electrical charge into the bodies of the guards before him. The shockwave slammed into the barrier but again broke upon contact. A noise of a tree branch snapping signalled him to his wood clones being dispelled.

More screams.

The two remaning monks were dead, floating atop the water that had begun to drain back into the ground- their staves charred and rendered unusable. He huffed as he watched Baki on his knees spasming as the electricity coursed through his veins.

"Y-you... won't get... away with this," the shinobi said through grit teeth and pain.

Naruto walked up to the man, dodging his last-ditch effort kunai he hurled at him and said, "Justice has caught up with you," creating a rod and throwing it into Baki's erratic heart. He threw two more at the monks just to make sure they weren't going to get back up, and locked eyes with the last Sand shinobi standing in his way.

The guard seemed young and unfamiliar in his position if his wide scared eyes and shaking was any indication, "Lower the barrier."

At his order, the man closed his eyes and shook his head, "N-no, I won't let you past," he stuttered, his hands vibrating as if he was freezing cold. Naruto let out a breath- he had already spent far too long wasting time.

Attempting to create a spike of wood to pierce the guard and have him drop the shield proved pointless, 'It seems the barrier stops ninjutsu. How about this?' he theorised, and placed a hand upon the barrier. Calling upon his Rinnegan once again, he started to absorb the barrier replenishing his spent chakra and watched as it cracked like a sheet of glass being broken in slow motion. The young Sand ninja's eyes widened even more at seeing his jutsu collapse in front of his eyes, before rolling to the back of his head with his throat slashed open.

"Mother recognises your eyes!" a crazed voice echoed towards him, and Naruto laid eyes on Suna's jinchuriki. It was a boy his age with cropped crimson red hair and the kanji for 'love' etched onto his forehead. He wore a burgandy coloured cloak with a grey flak jacket over the top. A large gourd lay on the floor. So, this was Gaara of the Sand? Naruto couldn't identify a single coherent thought behind the boy's insane green eyes. It seemed Orochimaru's intel was true about the lack of sanity in the jinchuriki.

"Mother?" he questioned.

"The beast. The beast," Gaara whispered as if trying to avoid waking something up.

Father had told him that the Sage of Six Paths was the one who had created the Bijuu so it made sense that it would recognise its own creator's eyes in Naruto. It also showed that the boy was in some sort of contact with his tailed beast to be able to hear its voice.

"I have come for the Ichibi," he said, approaching the cage of darkness.

"You can't have him. You can't have him. You can't have him," the insane boy repeated again and again. Anger flared in Naruto at the tailed beast. It had broken Gaara's mind and shattered it into a million pieces, he couldn't even make out any humanity left.

'This only furthers my belief that the Bijuu are a scourge among the nations and need to be stopped,' he thought angrily.

"I'm sorry for the pain you have lived with," Naruto said sincerely, "I will set you free."

"I'LL KILL YOU!" he roared back, and Naruto was hit with a wave of disgusting, muddy chakra that he could physically see pouring off the boy in waves. His eyes could see the maroon-coloured chakra that made up the flame inside the boy's body instead of the usual blue.

In the blink of an eye the one tailed junchuriki flashed towards the cell door and smashed into the bars with overwhelming strength causing the metal to screech under the intense pressure it was enduring.

"Almighty Push," he muttered, pouring a great deal of chakra into the path.

The cell door along with Gaara were blasted back with such a force that it launched him to the other side of the vast prison where he smashed into the bars driving the air out of his lungs. Naruto stepped into the cell and prepared himself for his first true fight, trusting in his Rinnegan.

Gaara quickly got back to his feet and Naruto fired a few rods at him hoping to supress his chakra. Sand flew from the gourd beside him and almost instinctively stopped the incoming projectiles from hitting their target.

'So, he can protect himself with sand?' Naruto told himself, adjusting his strategy, 'Is it automatic or controlled?'

"Raiton: Blinding Light," he tried, and released a ball of light from his sleeve that hovered above his shoulder and shone with such intensity that it mimicked the sun. For someone who had grew up in the darkness of his jail cell it caused the boy to scream in pain as he shielded his eyes from the light.

Creating a quick wood clone, Naruto mentally commanded it to jump behind the boy as he himself raced towards Gaara throwing his fist forward with such force that it should've flattened him, instead, a wall of sand met his fist with equal force and he narrowly dodged the giant arm that slammed into the ground where he had occupied.

His clone was destroyed and its memories showed a similar ending, 'The sand seems to be unconsciously moving to protect him. Is this the power of the one tail?'

He dispelled the jutsu, clearing his vision to watch as the boy growled in rage.

Slamming his hand into the ground he channelled the Animal path and called forth a dog summon that both he and Nagato shared. It was a giant dog that would split every time it was hit, making it a good distraction. Instantly, it popped into reality as the Rinnegan took control of the summon and his sight was enhanced by the dogs own Rinnegan. He mentally commanded it to keep Gaara occupied and watched through the animal's eyes as it raced towards the crimson headed boy.

Gaara- though there was nothing left of the boy's mind at this point- called on his sand and formed it into a large golden sword that sliced the summon from head to toe, causing it to half and continue its assault. His sand rushed up to save him from the paw that was dangerously close to his head. Naruto needed to find a way to get rid of his sand, else he wouldn't be able to even attack him head on.

"Katon: Great Fireball Jutsu," he shouted, and spat a ball of super-heated fire at Gaara attempting to turn his sand into glass. His gourd sent more sand towards the boy that was trying to pummel the summon, and blocked the intense heat. Though a few shards started to form, it wasn't nearly hot enough to hit the sand boiling point.

Suddenly, a number of sand shuriken flew towards him and he jumped to the side. His eyes widened as he watched the weapons turn and follow him, seeking him out to rip him apart. Naruto didn't trust his Rinnegan to absorb the jutsu as it wasn't pure chakra but sand imbued with it, so he slapped his palms together and summoned a giant bipedal panda that tanked the bullets for him. The summon then vanished in a puff of smoke leaving Naruto free to watch as a pyramid of sand formed around the three-dog summons and sealed them away- he felt them soon after vanish from the mortal plane.

He could resummon them but now that Gaara knew what to do, he deemed the summons pointless in a fight where his opponent could naturally seal things away with their sand.

'Brute force it is,' he nodded.

Naruto cringed to himself as he focused his Rinnegan on his arm; slowly turning the veins and bones into metal and wires. It was an odd sensation knowing that your own body went from natural to mechanical, like his arm had been chopped off and replaced with cold hard steel. He watched as his skin cracked and broke into small plates, sliding up and back over his arm to reveal several small projectile bombs inside of him.

The mini missiles locked on to the Ichibi host who was snarling at him, and blasted off, fire shooting out of the rear propelling them forward as a trail of smoke followed behind. Naruto created a second set and sent them off in the same direction, as he watched the sand desperately try to protect its master. The missiles reminded Naruto of Deidara's bombs and he briefly wondered how his partner was doing.

The projectiles met with the sand and blew the particles away sprinkling the battlefield with charred pieces of dust, and Naruto watched as the second set overwhelmed Gaara's defence and detonated in the boy's face shaking the entire chamber.

'Let's see how you like that,' he smirked, allowing his arm to become flesh and blood again.

Nevertheless, Naruto's eyes narrowed when from within the cloud of smoke, Gaara emerged near unscathed from his attack. Chunks of his body where missing like he was made up of puzzle pieces, and sand and blood trickled from the holes. His forehead, chest and arms were all pale skin surrounded by sand and Naruto realised that the sand protecting the jinchuriki was just the first defence- it seemed Gaara's body was shrouded in an armour and underneath was his real body.

Then the boy screamed.

A scream that would send most men running, terrified of whatever followed.

"MY BLOOD!" he exclaimed, staring at himself in terror, watching as his blood seeped from his wounds.

His blood curdled screams turned to a laugh of pure insanity and Naruto readied himself as he watched the floor begin to move and coalesce into the crimson haired boy, adding to his body and forming huge arms of muddy brown sand with black sealing formula imprinted on them. The one tail was coming out.

'Finally,' he thought.

Eventually all the sand had drained from the cell and the young boy had changed into a what could only be described as a monster. It stood eight feet tall- though Naruto knew it could get a lot bigger if it had more access to sand- and took on the appearance of a maroon tanuki with black eyes and a cursed seal covering its body. His first time seeing a tailed beast, Naruto's eyes filled with hate as the demon overtook the boy and turned into a weapon of pure destruction.

"You truly are an affront to nature," he spat.

This turned out to be the wrong thing to say as a wave of super dense chakra fanned out blasting Naruto against the cell wall. He coughed violently as he staggered to his feet and watched as chakra melded together in the maw of the beast, building into a spherical ball of so much chakra it almost rivalled his own reserves.

His Rinnegan burned with fury as the ball blasted towards him with all the hate of the one tail and Naruto called upon his unique ability: Takamimusubinokami. In the space between one heartbeat and the next, the tailed beast bomb crashed into his palm and began to be absorbed into his own body, and Naruto felt his chakra reserves fill almost back to a full tank, like he had gotten a second lease of life. In the next second the sphere had vanished, sucked into the blonde and the one tail roared, attempting to create another one.

Before he could finish the orb of chakra, Naruto recreated it with his opposite palm and doubled it in size so that it towered over him, "Have this back you filthy beast!" he called and fired the technique back at the Ichibi.

The explosion struck the demon head on and Naruto instantly created a dome of hardened wood around him as the room filled with fire and power that would rival that of a volcano. That was when Naruto knew he had been too hasty.

The monastery began to shake violently and he heard metal grind away and stone crack apart. The desert was coming down atop them...


Deidara, from the safety of his clay creation, watched wide-eyed as the very landscape tore itself apart and exploded with the force of a thousand of his own bombs. Sand shot into the troposphere, raining down like shards of gold onto the now glass desert. Where the monastery had once resided, it now resembled that of a giant crater made from glass as if it was a giant window into hell.

It was art.

His eyes sparkled in fascination.

Then his mind turned to the mission.

'Has Naruto failed?' he thought, dropping several more bombs into the village below him, screams ringing in his ears, 'If that's the case then I need to finish this.'

The blonde Akatsuki member funnelled more and more chakra into his hands as he stuffed them into his clay storage bags on his hips. Naruto hadn't been wrong when he had explained what he thought Deidara's jutsu entailed, however he didn't know how Deidara preformed such jutsu.

It was the forbidden Iwagakure ninjutsu that he had stolen and preformed upon himself when he had deserted the Hidden Stone. The jutsu granted him mouths on his hands and heart that he could use to mould his clay into creatures where he could then imbue them with chakra and using his explosion release ability, turn them into bombs of increasing size and power.

His palms devoured the clay and soon spat out a torpedo of clay which he then filled to the brim with almost half of his entire chakra reserves. Dodging a stray arc of golden dust, he launched the bomb at the city below him and laughed gleefully as he performed a ninjutsu to make it even larger. The clay dropped like a boulder that had been thrown into the ocean and he watched as the Fourth Kazekage raced to protect the village beneath them.

Clay met Gold and Deidara smirked, "Art is an explosion!"

BOOOM

An explosion far larger than any he had used thus far filled the sky with fire and he flew away to avoid being hit.

Out of the corner of his eye he spotted a black tear in the fabric of space open upon above the crater that had been formed over the monastery, and observed as his partner materialised from nowhere, panting and out of breath, though still looking relatively normal to how they had last seen each other.

"Son of a bitch is still alive," he chuckled, "Did he manage to defeat the one tail?"

His chuckle turned to a mirthless breath as he saw and felt masses upon masses of chakra laden sand get pulled towards the centre of the desert and Deidara knew that the fight wasn't over. The Ichibi's body was made from the very ground they stood on and could reform his body a countess number of times.

"Damn him, I knew he wouldn't be able to take it on himself!" he growled.

It didn't matter. He had to defeat the Kazekage first before he could turn his focus to helping his partner. Forming a second bomb he began to formulate a plan to catch the red-haired man off guard and blow him to smithereens.


Naruto grinned as he watched layers of sand cross over each other and stitch together, growing taller and taller. He channelled chakra to his feet to avoid being pulled in himself. It was truly a marvel of nature that the Ichibi could endlessly reform itself so long as it had sand around it. Nonetheless, Naruto was happy. He had finally pushed the jinchuriki into such anger it had taken over Gaara and turned into its true form.

The shinobi world had marvelled at Hashirama's use of Wood style to defeat every single tailed beast, and Naruto would show them why.

Sand melded together and formed a towering monstrosity of a beast. It stood before him, tail whipping through the air as it roared with vengeance at having been destroyed by its own technique.

Naruto poured extreme amounts of chakra in his arms as he slapped his palms together generating a static charge. Electricity shot from his fingertips, desperate to claw its way out from his hands but Naruto forced it into submission and slowly dragged his arms apart, elongating and refining the lightning rod into a searing spear of lightning. His hair stood up from the intense build-up of ions and his cornea burned with intensity.

With that he grabbed the middle of held it over his shoulder, like a javelin ready to be thrown.

"Heavenly Lightning Spear!" he roared and propelled his most powerful technique in his current arsenal at the maroon one tail where it shot through the beast's eye and super-heated its head to glass. The sound of thunder clapped across the battlefield as the target screamed in pain, collapsing into the sand at their feet, desperate to rekindle its tanuki form.

Not letting up now that its form was temporarily damaged, Naruto forced his chakra into the ground and lifted ten pillars of wood from the desert that surrounded the tailed beast in a circular formation.

Mokuton was beyond helpful in the fight for the Bijuu as it naturally supressed their chakra and forced them into submission- it literally removed their power- and Naruto grinned with determination.

"Ten Pillar Suppression Seal," he spoke, as kanji lit up on each of the pillars and began emitting powerful chakra waves that he imagined even the village could feel.

Ever so slowly, he surveyed the Ichibi collapse in on itself and turn to sludge as if the sand had been soaked in water causing it to crumble away. Its screams rang in Naruto's ears as the last vestiges of the one-tails power was sucked away leaving a frightened, crimson haired boy in its wake.

The boy was dumbstruck. Clearly he wasn't used to being beaten.

"How could I be defeated?" Gaara stuttered, disbelief written across his face.

Naruto walked towards the boy, who started to back away from the Golden eyed boy that had soundly defeated him until more branches tore from the ground and bound the boy so he couldn't move and further drained his chakra.

"No no no no no!"

Naruto's fist transformed as pale skin turned to chakra imbued hardened steel.

"Justice will prevail," he spoke in an authoritative tone, "You will no longer have to suffer the hatred of this world, I'm sorry for the pain you have had to live with. I promise to fix this world."

His fist pummelled into Gaara's face and rendered the Ichibi jinchuriki unconscious and all but empty of his chakra.

"The capture of the One Tail is complete."

Another explosion assaulted his hearing and he looked over the Hidden Sand village in the distance, catching Deidara completing his own mission if the red-headed figure falling from the sky was any indication. Golden particles of dust hung in the air like stars in the sky before gravity retook control of them and they dropped into the village below just as their master was. A fall from such a height, especially after getting hit point blank by a bomb, was enough to kill any shinobi- Kage or not- and Naruto flared his remaining chakra to catch the eye of his blonde accomplice.

His wooden pillars dropped back into the desert dunes without Naruto's focus to keep them up and he hauled Gaara over his shoulder. He winced at the sharp pain on his upper arm where the prison guard Baki had cut him.

Deidara swiftly covered the distance from the village to his location and landed the giant bird on the sand, "So you did it?" he questioned, his eyebrow raised.

"I told you I would," he replied, placing the unconscious boy into the falcon's rear wing and hopping onto their transport.

"I thought you were a goner after that explosion; shit was powerful, but it made for a beautiful art piece," Deidara joked, taking off to the sky leaving behind a broken and unstable village behind them.

"It was a close one," he agreed, "How fared the Kazekage?"

"Pff he was easy," Deidara said, shrugging it off like he hadn't just beaten a villages leader without any injuries, "Thing is with these Kage is that they will protect their village no matter what- so I just distracted him with that and managed to get in close to him detonating one of my more powerful bombs in his face!"

Naruto hummed, looking back at the smoke rising from Suna. Would this really end the cycle of hatred?

Those citizens had been attacked in their own home and would undoubtably want revenge for the death of their Kage and their own honour. This was where Naruto's philosophies, he believed, differed with the Akatsuki, however the defeat and sealing of the tailed beasts was something he whole heartedly agreed with.

"We need to head back towards the Land of Rivers, leader will be waiting for us to arrive so we can begin sealing the Ichibi," he informed Deidara.

"Yeah yeah, I know."

"From here on out, the Akatsuki will be known far and wide across every single nation," he warned.

"Good," Deidara said simply.

Naruto cut the chakra that fuelled his eyes and colour returned to the world once again. His fight against the tailed beast had been difficult but not overly so- although the one tail was said to be the weakest of them all- and he had pulled it off with relative ease. His blue eyes browsed over the red-haired boy and he couldn't help but picture himself wrapped up within the clutches of the Akatsuki. The two of them had shared eerily similar lives; both shunned for being jinchuriki and forced away from society since the moment of their birth.

He was glad that he had someone like his father to have helped him turn that pain and suffering into hope. Gaara had not been so lucky.

The beaming sun was beginning to set below the horizon, painting the sky in reds, oranges and yellows. It was almost as if the desert was being reflected in the heavens.

Several hours later, the two Akatsuki members entered the large cavern within the hideout located in the Land of Rivers. The darkness matched that of the midnight sky outside. Deidara was uninterestingly carrying Gaara over his shoulder until they reached the centre of the room where he unceremoniously dropped him to the floor like a sack of potatoes.

Naruto stood ramrod still as he closed his eyes, collecting the necessary chakra that had begun to replenish itself from his earlier battle.

His eyes parted slowly, glowing golden.

Deidara watched closely as Naruto used the Outer Path for the first time and drew a blood offering from his thumb before slamming his hand into the cave floor and toned, "Summoning: Demonic Statue of the Outer Path."

Within the blink of an eye, what was once an empty cavernous room, was suddenly filled with the husk of the ten-tails: the Gedo statue. Its head, which seemed to be a blend between wood and inorganic materials, tore through the ground where its two spindly arms followed settling into its previous position that Naruto required it to be in. One of the statues eyes snapped open, staring into the void of nothingness sending a shiver down his spine at the alien looking creature.

Naruto quickly sent a buzz of chakra through his ring to alert Nagato of their situation and not a minute later the static image of their leader zapped into place upon the Gedo statue's thumb. The two shinobi jumped up onto their own respective fingers and bowed respectfully to the orange haired man who called himself God.

"Deidara. Justice," Pain began, his purple eyes looking down at the form of the one tails jinchuriki, "I see you were successful. Good work."

"It was no problem, right Naruto?" Deidara scoffed, puffing his chest.

"It gave you no trouble?"

"It was fine," Naruto said, his golden eyes, meeting violet.

Pain's eyes drifted to his partner, "And the Kazekage?"

"He got taken down by my art!" Deidara grinned.

"Excellent," the leader spoke, "With the death of the Sand's Kage and the loss of their Bijuu, the world will acknowledge the Akatsuki and begin steps to combat our organisation- after all the defeat of a tailed beast was deemed near impossible. Unfortunately, this will no doubt drive the other villages to keep a closer eye on their own jinchuriki."

"All the reason to not let up on the advantage we have," Naruto replied.

"Yes," Pain nodded, "I will summon the others and we can begin the sealing. With any luck we will not be disturbed."

With the conclusion of their conversation, Naruto felt a small tingle from his ring and assumed that Nagato had called the Akatsuki. Sure enough, their fellow members started to pop up one at a time.

"So, you did it hmm?" Orochimaru hissed, smiling from his podium.

"That was fast," White Zetsu whispered.

"I can't wait for my turn!" Kisame grinned maniacally.

Pain cleared his throat, gathering their attention, "As you can all see, the capture of the Ichibi has been successful."

"Congratulations newbie," Sasori of the Sand piped up, "Defeating the one tail on its home turf is quite impressive."

He nodded in response.

"Indeed," Pain cut back in, "Though now is the time for it to be sealed away so we can focus on the next bijuu."

"How do you intend to do that?" Kakazu asked.

Pain directed his attention to the immortal man, "The Gedo Mazo will provide the seal that will extract the tailed beast. All of our respective chakra's will be needed to provide the power."

"Each of you will need to hold the ram hand seal," Pain continued, hearing no further questions, "From there, your chakra will slowly be used to fuel the sealing technique."

After acknowledging a nod from each of them he began the jutsu.

Naruto watched as each Akatsuki member slowly mirrored Pain's stance, and Naruto eventually held the ram sign up. From there he felt a forceful tugging on his chakra through his ring where he assumed Nagato was siphoning his chakra to use.

"Sealing technique: Phantom Dragon Nine Consuming Seals," leader muttered.

A creaking noise filled the cavern and Naruto observed as the Gedo statue's mouth parted, going slack jawed like a puppet whose strings had been cut. Its mouth glowed blue while the finger he was stood on started to light up with a bright green hue.

Then a screech pierced his ears as nine chakra dragons spilled from the statues throat, flying through the air before they locked onto Gaara who lay in the dirt still unconscious.

Naruto squeezed his Rinnegan shut as heard the Ichibi jinchuriki scream in pure unfiltered agony.

'This is for the greater good,' he told himself, unsure if he believed his own words...


Thanks for reading. To address a couple points, yes rasa died in the original timeline however i wanted a kazekage that wasn't just some random oc, yes gaara has basically succombed to shukaku's insanity, and yes orochimaru is still in the akatsuki despite the fact he had abandoned the organisation in naruto but this was done on purpose. he will most likely be in the next chapter.