Beating The Odds
Chapter 19: White Sound, Red Sand
By: MikeJV37
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----August 21, 8:34 AM, Outdoor Arena, Med Station----
Inside Room 6 stood Naruto, Hinata at his right. Across from him standing next to the bed was Kankurou and Temari, sitting on the side of the bed between them was Gaara, still in shock at what had happened. The sand on the ground in the arena and even on the floor hadn't so much as twitched since Shukaku was forced out by Kyuubi..... who he knew the last few minutes had been in the angry grip of Lady Luck.... literally. From the male screams of pain he'd heard he had a feeling he knew what part, but didn't want to find out for sure, even thinking about that made him flinch and his thighs tense up a little. Naruto sighed. "How are you Gaara?"
Gaara hadn't even blinked in several minutes, he'd seen Shukaku outside his mind, and in human form for the first time. He'd always considered Shukaku like his mother, and treated her as such and fed her people's blood as she demanded of him to make her happy. To find out she was a girl physically and emotionally only a couple years older than he was.... disturbed him in a way he'd never experienced. She'd been talking to him in his mindscape, she'd done as Naruto had asked her, and now he was lost and confused, he didn't know how to handle this Shukaku, she was not only still in human form but she was.... nice to him, no yelling, no threats, she'd even apologized for how she'd treated him his entire life. "What do I do now?" Gaara finally asked blankly.
Temari glanced at Hinata, then did something she'd always been terrified to do.... she stepped close to her baby brother and wrapped her arms around him in a warm, loving, sisterly hug.
Kankurou gasped in shock and took a step back out of reflex.... but what happened isn't what he expected, Gaara raised his right arm like he did for his Sand Coffin jutsu, his left pinned by Temari's hug, paused a moment, then put it around Temari's shoulders, the lower half of his left arm was around her waist. He let out the breath he didn't realize he'd been holding, stepped close to them nervously, and hugged his siblings for the first time. "We'll help you figure that out Gaara.... we're your family, and family always protect each other no matter what."
Gaara thought about that a few moments, that's like what Naruto said, your friends, and especially your family are your precious people, and to protect your precious people from danger is how you find your true strength. Never one to over think anything he made his decision then and there and everything became clearer than it had ever been. "You're our family...." Gaara said as sand seemed to come from everywhere and formed 2 tentacles, that pulled Naruto and Hinata close where he freed his left arm and hugged all 4 of them. "All of you.... we'll protect you."
"We?" Temari asked, confused.
"Shukaku and I, we have decided we want to have a family, we've never had that before. You are our own blood and our most precious people. Naruto is like me and is our friend and brother. Hinata is precious to you Temari, so she is precious to us now, our little sister.... and we will kill anyone that hurts our precious people." Gaara said clamly but seriously.
Everyone flinched slightly at the last statement, Gaara had never failed to follow through on a threat to kill someone.
"You can't just kill people that upset you Gaara, but we'll talk about that later.... this is a good start though." Naruto said, then his head snapped up and he forcibly broke from the group hug, his face serious.
"What is it Naruto-kun?" Hinata asked a little worried, she knew that look, something was wrong.
"Something is happeneing in the arena.... it's started, Sound is attacking sooner than expected!" Naruto said seriously.
Gaara broke away from Kankurou and Temari as his sand flared up around him. "They will not hurt our precious people!" Gaara said in his old, dead voice.
"Kankurou, Temari, stay with Hinata-chan and do what she says.... you know what to do. Gaara come with me.... it's playtime, demon style!" Naruto said with a big grin then put a hand on Gaara's shoulder and they vanished in a swirl of leaves.
Kankurou shivered a moment, he'd swear he saw a smile appear on Gaara's face just before he vanished. The last time he saw him smile like that was in the Forest of Death when he was slaughtering those teams from Mist and Rain.
----The Arena----
Naruto and Gaara appeared in the middle of the arena, Naruto looked around quickly, saw the feathers and knew someone had cast a sleeping Genjutsu on everyone. "I don't have time to free them one at a time,.... sorry folks, I hope this doesn't hurt too much." Naruto said, crouched, leapt high in the air as he summoned Kyuubi's chakra and clapped his hands hard. "KAI!" Naruto yelled as he released a wave of red chakra in all directions, it hit everyone like a quick blast of intense heat, snapping everyone under the Genjutsu out of it with a yell of surprise and/or pain. He landed, looked around quicky and smiled. "It worked! I'll have to remember that trick.... wait here, I'll be right back." Naruto said, then shushined to the Hokage Box where Tsunade and Sarutobi were giving commands to ANBU and a few Jounin.
"Send two squads to the Main Gate to reinforce...." Tsunade commanded then turned suddenly and smiled when Naruto appeared.
"Naruto and Gaara ready to kick ass, where do you want us?" Naruto asked with a big smile.
"Nevermind the Gate, send all availible ANBU to protect the civilians and get them to the shelters, You, help the Genin get all civilians and diplomats out of the arena to the shelters, they can protect them from any small attacks until they're in the shelters, then reinforce them with a squad of ANBU." Tsunade said to the 2 ANBU who both nodded and vanished after getting their orders. "You're just what I needed right now Naruto, I was just informed that an army of at least a thousand shinobi are massed outside the walls about half a mile from the Main Gate, Jiraiya is busy so I want you and Gaara out there.... I'm temporarily recending all previous orders about Kyuubi, and I'm giving Gaara the same rights.... I want you and Gaara to stop them by any means necessary, this is now an S-Rank mission." Tsunade said seriously as she looked into Naruto's eyes, then leaned down and kissed him on the lips, she'd hoped she'd never have to say this to him.. "Unleash Hell Naruto-kun."
Naruto smiled, and shushined back to Gaara, grabbed his shoulder and shushined them to 50 yards outside the Main Gate.
"What did she say?" Gaara asked.
Naruto smiled as his eyes turned blood red and his pupils became vertical slits. "Unleash Hell."
The look of absolute sadistic joy that appeared on Gaara's face would of made even a hardened ANBU shit his pants in fear.
Gaara took a big step back. "I need three minutes.... SAND COCOON!" He exclaimed as he used his ultimate jutsu.... it was because it released Shukaku. A dome of sand quickly rose up around Gaara and started his transformation into his final form.
Naruto started counting down in his head, looked down the road at the massive army approaching, and went into his mindscape.
----Naruto's Mindscape----
Naruto entered the main room where Kyuubi's cage was and saw Lady Luck standing there, looking solemn.
"I can't help directly, you know that Naruto, but I have something for you that will help you more that even your six-tailed form, you know what risk you take by doing that, I can't allow it, just yet. There are more than expected, someone has altered what was to happen, there should only be half as many.... I prepared this for when you were a little older, but I must balance the Scales of Fate again." She said then held out both hands and a 3 foot long scroll appeared. She laid it on the floor and unrolled about a foot of it.
Naruto quickly scanned it then gasped in shock, he couldn't believe what he was seeing. "Is this real?" He asked, when she nodded he started to laugh strangely, like maniacle joy.
"Be warned Naruto, this was intended to be given to you on your thirteenth birthday in just under two months when you'd be more powerful. There are things about my gift you don't know. Once you use this, you will only have five minutes, then it will end and you will be knocked out until morning from chakra exhaustion, so do not waste this. It is a last resort only." She said seriously, took Naruto's right hand, touched her fingernails to his fingertips, then raked them down to his wrist, leaving his hand bloody. She placed his hand on the paper at a certain spot then removed it, rubbed his hand and it was instantly healed except for his index fingertip.
Naruto nodded and signed below his handprint, a moment later it turned into black ink. She rolled it up as he stood. "Thank you, I will not let you down." Naruto said calmly, nodded to Kyuubi and vanished..
----The Real World, 1 Second Later----
Naruto transformed slightly as he summoned almost 1 tail worth of Kyuubi's chakra, but enough to activate his red chakra cloak, then quickly cutting his thumb on a fang flashed through the hand signs and summoned Gamabunta in a huge puff of smoke.
The massive Toad Boss looked around a moment."Did you summon me Jiraiya you pervert?" He bellowed.
"I summoned you Gamabunta-sama, Sound is invading Konoha with an army of at least a thousnd ninja, we have to stop them. I need your help until Shukaku emerges to help me."
Gamabunta looked down at Naruto and cocked his head to the side. "Did you say Shukaku.... is going to help us?"
"I'll tell you everything later, I promise, but we have to move now before they get too close, will you help me?" Naruto said.
"Of course, I can't let Shukaku show me up protecting the home of my Summoner." The Toad Boss said.
Naruto leapt up onto Bunta's head. "I know Shukaku is a girl, I met her about twenty minutes ago.... I'll explain what happened later, but she's reformed now, I promise."
"You never cease to amaze me kid." Gamabunta said, then covered the distance between them and the invading army in a single leap, actually landing on and crushing about 50-60 of them, mostly Sound nin.
"Oil, quick!" Naruto yelled, felt Bunta nod slightly and began the hand signs. "Now...." Naruto yelled, as soon as he saw the oil he blew a stream of fire at it, the huge stream of Toad Oil ignited and incinerated about 140-160 more. "Do what you can here, then go back to Konoha, Jariaya could probably use your help more than me." Naruto said then leapt from Gamabunta's head toward a big group of various ninja, a red chakra tail sprouted from behind him and huge chakra claws formed around his hands. He cut 3 Sound nin into large chunks as he landed
Gamabunta chuckled, sounding like distant thunder, then stepped on about 30-40 more with all 4 feet. He was hit by several fire and lightning jutsu, but the damage and pain were minor for the giant Toad Boss. He was very powerful, but he wasn't stupid, he knew his limits, and against these numbers knew even he could be overpowered eventually. He stepped on and crushed 2 more small groups with his front feet. "You're on your own now kid, I'm going to Konoha." Gamabunta said, then with a mighty leap rose high into the sky.
Naruto quickly glanced over his shoulder toward Konoha with a small smile as kunai bounced off his chakra cloak.'Only two minutes and twelve seconds left.' Naruto thought, then a second chakra tail appeared behind him, both extended and flattened into blades and began cutting ninja behind him into pieces, going through armor as easily as flesh and spraying blood everywhere, only his chakra cloak kept their blood and other severed body parts off him.. He stopped a moment, this was too easy.... they were just pawns, he needed to find the leaders, in an army this size they had to have sommanders to keep everyone organized. Reaching out with his senses he found the nearest powerful chakra signature and ran straight for it, cutting down dozens of enemies with his chakra claws and 2 tails like a sythe through wheat. Naruto stopped when he burst into a small clearing around the commander, he recognized him from the Bingo book and knew even 2 tails might not be enough to beat him.... it was Raiga, an S-Ranked nuke-nin, and 1 of the legendary Seven Swordsmen of the Mist. A third tail formed behind him.
Raiga turned a moment after someone killed the men surrounding him and smiled, he knew from Kabuto's description who his guest had to be and drew both his swords. He gestured to his troops who began moving away from him, they didn't want to get fried by his Lightning attacks.
'One minute and twenty-eight seconds left.... come on Gaara, even I can't handle this many alone, we're too close to Konoha. I won't go all out unless I have to. I can do this at least.' Naruto thought, cancelled his chakra claws and made a modified version of his favorite hand sign, he'd only done this in his mindscape. 'This better work Kyuubi.' Naruto thought as he summoned 2 tails worth of Kyuubi's chakra for the jutsu. "DEMON SHADOW CLONE JUTSU!" Naruto yelled then 100 Naruto's appeared around the battlefield, all of them had slitted red eyes, fangs and claws, but no chakra cloak. "I'll handle him, don't let them reach Konoha!" Naruto said and drew his sword from under his coat in his back. "You'll be the second Swordsmen I kill."
Raiga paused a moment then laughed briefly. "So it is true, you killed Zabuza Momochi.... he was the weakest of us. You won't beat me like you did him, he was a pussy compared to my power." He said as his blades began to crackle with lightning.
'That's what you think.' Naruto thought, with a home and friends Ezara, as he knew the former nuke nin, had greatly increased in skill and power. Sure she was still a lude, short tempered bitch that loved to scare people and party hard, when alone with her other close friends, especially him and Anko-sensei, she was more like Anko, a big goofy kid, and even motherly toward her daughter Sekka, at least officially that was the record. Haku has basically been adopted when she changed her name to Sekka. He hoped they were doing okay, he knew there was no way in Hell Ezara and Sekka were going to sit back and hide while Konoha was being attacked. He almost felt sorry for anyone she met.... almost, but not quite.
----Konoha, Near the Outdoor Stadium----
Her shoulder length black hair in a ponytail, a heavy black vest over a blue shirt, loose black skirt, fingerless black leather gloves and sandles, she swung her 6 foor sword. 5 feet of which was the blade, cutting 3 more enemy shinobi in half at the chest with a huge, happy smile on her face, gave it a quick shake sending most of the blood on it flying off, glanced around then slung 'Man Eater' over her shoulder. "Oh come on yeah buncha pussies.... don't tell me you big, bad shinobi are afraid of lil me?" Ezara said as she put her left hand on her chest and a fake look of questioning shock on her face.
The 23 remaining shinobi a mix of Chuunin and Jounin from various Countries, glanced at each other, they were getting worried now. This huge woman wasn't Tsunade because she didn't use a weapon, and she didn't have a Leaf Hitai-ite on, but she was cutting them down with ease. "Who are you? You aren't a Leaf shinobi because I know them all." The Commander of what remained of this group demanded, one of the few that was still wearing a hitai-ite, Sound in his case.
"Since you huys have been so much fun, I'll tell you.... I'm just a simple Weaponsmith. I have my card here, I can tell you guys need the help, those weapons are pathetic.... I probably couldn't cut butter with those kunai you've been using." Ezara said, then with her left pulled a card from her vest pocket and held it up. "I'd be happy to sell you some quality swor...." Ezara stopped and caught the kunai 1 of them threw with her left hand without dropping her card, but it did punch half the blade through it. She looked at the card and her face slowly changed to an angry frown. "Now I'm all for a good prank, and can trade insults with the best, I even like it when people make lewd sexual comments about me.... I even love getting in a good clothes ripping catfight with a bar full of drunk, jealous bitches because I stole all their action.... but that was my lucky card DAMNIT, it was a gift from a very special friend of mine!" Ezara said angrily flipped the 350 pound sword off her shoulder and drove the point into the ground, then pulled the card off the kunai carefully and put it back in her pocket. 'Naruto gave me that you bastards, now this is personal.' Ezara thought and glanced around and smiled, she knew there was a good-sized strem not 100 yards away in the nearby forest. "And my name...." She said the lifted her sword with her right and began twirling it in a 'butterfly' pattern in front of her, within 20 second it was moving too fast for even the Jounin to see it. She did a lightning quick spin to her right and swung the sword from left to right at waist level."MAELSTROM OF BLOOD!" Ezara yelled with rage and unleashed 1 of her new water Kenjutsu techniques.
Where she'd swung her sword was a curved line of water as long and thick at the blade of her sword. a moment later dozens of huge sharks made of water erupted from the water her slash left in the air and began tearing the enemy shinobi into large bloody chunks. Heads, limbs and gallons of blood started to cover the ground.
She listened to their screams as they were all quickly and brutally torn apart, a big sadistic smile on her face. "Is Ezara." She said then turned and headed back into the stadium at a run, a single tear ran down her right cheek, the first card Naruto had given her he'd hand printed and given to her when he bought her a weapon shop, but unlike her good friend Tenten and her parents, she specialized in swords, and even had a special deal with them to share business. That card was one of her few treasured possesions.
----Half a mile from Konoha's Main Gate----
"Don't make me kill you Raiga.... just.... walk away!" Naruto asked as he crossed swords with Raiga. Naruto leapt back when Raiga tried to seperate his upperbody from his lower body. "You're almost out of time.... my clones are killing your men, you won't reach Konoha!" Naruto exclaimed.
Raiga let out a laugh. "I'm one of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist, I agreed to help level Konoha, and that's what I'm going to do.... I'll either succeed or die.... there are no other options for...." Raiga said then suddenly looked toward Konoha like everyone else when there was a massive explosion near, but not inside Konoha.
Naruto sighed sadly. "I'm sorry Raiga but you and all your men are dead.... time's up."
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End Chapter19
