Chapter 7- Final Round of Death

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, I only own Fei and her dogs.

I would also like to thank Marie Yoshina, for the idea of putting a little Gaara and Fei interaction.

I had awoken to the sound of Naruto screeching about the chunin exams. We had slept through the night and they would begin in under an hour. Hearing that I had sprung from the bed and screeched along with Naruto before running out of the room intending to go to my apartment and get ready for the exam.

Yes, yes alright I was actually planning on staying locked up but I ran into Gai and his students sans Lee who was still in the infirmary.

Gai was very insistent grabbing my arm and pulling me towards the arena even though I was stuttering out a wait no trying to get away. My actions were fruitless as I was dragged right down to the waiting area for the participants. I was left standing with Neji as Tenten and Gai made for the stands to watch Neji who had been chosen to go first.

I had heard a commotion from behind me turning to see Naruto and Shikamaru make their way in. Well Naruto was sprinting towards the center of the arena as his and Neij's fight was about to be underway. I looked at Shikamaru momentarily before I shoved my way through to the front of the group to watch Naruto and Neji.

I have to say even after seeing Naruto's training I was still skeptical about the thought that Naruto had more than a sliver of a chance. But he was my teammate and I knew Sakura had faith in him as I heard her shouting from the stands. I was proven that I should always believe in my teammates as Naruto eventually gained the upper hand in his fight and Neji fell for his trick.

Naruto was declared the winner only moments later and I couldn't help the whoop of joy that escaped my mouth grabbing Naruto in a hug as he walked by on his way to the med ninja that was there to fix wounds from the fights.

Eventually it was Shikamaru turn with Temari, the blonde sand ninja that had managed to thoroughly beat Tenten in the preliminaries. The fight was utterly boring though as Shikamaru forfeited and then it was supposed to be Sasuke and Gaara's turn but they had yet to arrive so they immediately skipped to mine a Shino's fight.

I had been pretty scared but when there was a sudden swirl of leaves and a tall silver haired jounin and a longer haired Sasuke showed up I felt relieved thinking I would have one more match to watch before my turn.

My hope was shattered as they decided to just go on with mine and Shino's match but man I was ready to forfeit before Sasuke told me I had better win cause he was not going to be on a team with a loser who won preliminaries but not the final match.

That definitely lit the fire in my heart and I decided I wasn't going to drop out of this fight so with Kakashi and Sasuke up in the stands I was left to fight.

'This was it' I had thought 'this is what I've been training for'. And with that the fight began. Shino had an odd jutsu his bugs. They seemed to live inside his body and they stole the chakra of whatever they latched on to.

I knew this would be a long distance fight it, had to be. So I decided I would try summons. Perhaps they would be able to fight his bugs and I could just send them back before the dogs were completely out of chakra.

Yes, I know that it was cruel to use my summons that way but I was still afraid and I lacked the momentary better judgement and with that I summoned Kura, Kuroki's mother and Hanno a larger wolf hound that held a scar from his temple to his snout.

I whispered to Hanno to try and distract the bugs while Kura and I ran from the side, having Kura distract Shino as I got closer. I knew without a doubt that I shouldn't use the wood jutsu so I went for the better alternative Earth jutsu. I decided I would try out a new jutsu that I was learning before shouting "Earth style jutsu earth destruction" and the earth under Shino's feet disappeared and he fell down into the hole I had created, dust flying up.

Shino's bugs had immediately went to swarm me but Kura fought them off. His bugs were draining Kura's chakra so I had to send her back and the bugs went for me.

In that moment I was beyond scared, bugs weren't my favorite and I had a storm race towards me. Using substitution was my only option but I had yet to work out the right chakra distribution so when I used it I collapsed to my knees, exhausted.

My new jutsu combined with summons, a substitution and my chakra reserves low after training the day before had drained me of chakra and I was feeling pretty lousy so I yelled "I forfeit" watching as Shino stood out of the hole I create. I knew he must have been angry but after I collapsed into darkness I couldn't really care.

When I awoke I was laying next to some medical ninja who immediately stated I was fine, just low on chakra. I had thanked them before staggering up the stairs to meet with Sakura, Naruto, and Kakashi.

I reached the section they were sitting in and stood next to Kakashi who had turned to me questioning "I didn't know you had dog summons."

But before I could answer Sakura stated "Yea Fei, I've never seen you summon before. I was worried because Shino has those chakra draining beetles and no offence Fei but you don't seem to have a high chakra reserve."

I sighed before I replied "I had a little help with summoning from Naruto's temporary sensei, to be honest I was scared because I thought I was going to run out of chakra way before I did. That's why I forfeited I would have passed out and been helpless if Shino decided to keep attacking." I waited a moment before asking "Hey, where's Naruto, I thought he was up here?"

A few seconds ticked by and before anyone could answer Naruto came bolting into the room with Shikamaru stating that something was wrong with Gaara and that was when screams were heard from the arena. We all watched in shock as Gaara screamed from his cocoon of sand. 'Oh shit' I had thought before things got crazy.

A smoke bomb had gone off near the Kage area and seconds passed and the majority of the spectators had fallen asleep. I had looked around seeing Sakura the only one sitting down awake. "Genjutsu" I stated watching as feathers flew down from the ceiling, Sakura shouted "Kai" and the genjutsu began to dissipate.

I had yelled Kai as well but it did not necessarily work and I had started to feel sleepy when Sakura grabbed my arm stating "Kai" once more and with her chakra bringing a shock to my chakra network the genjutsu was stopped.

I had looked around wondering what the hell was happening. There were crashing sounds from outside the arena and shouts of anger. I had watched as a large wall of chakra was brought up around the Kage area and half jounin that managed to repel the genjutsu begin to run towards it in hopes of saving all the village leaders inside.

While the other half began to fight the ninja that began spilling into the stands. A ninja from the sound village attacked me and despite my lack of chakra I snapped a piece of rock at his face and he was knocked unconscious.

I looked behind me to see Kakashi watching what seemed to be Sasuke run up the wall of the arena and chase after Gaara and his siblings in an attempt to stop them.

I watched as Kakashi spoke to Sakura about waking Naruto and Shikamaru and go after Sasuke and the sand siblings. Smashing his fist into the stomach of a sound ninja that tried to take him by surprise Kakashi turned to me and told me to go with them.

Sakura had walked over to Shikamaru and Naruto and I noticed something peculiar.

Shikamaru wasn't sleeping, his chakra signature wasn't calm like Naruto's.

He was faking it and I had felt a flash of rage before realizing this was Shikamaru we were talking about, he was so lazy he probably wanted to be left out of the fight.

Shaking my head I had walked towards them and Kakashi as he began to summon his ninja hounds. Pakkun appeared slightly sleepy looking and Kakashi told him to track Sasuke's scent. I remember looking at Kakashi in awe as he had the same type of Summons I used and when Pakkun turned to me in surprise stating "You're a Yamasaki?" I had nodded slightly in shock at him knowing my last name before I realized he said "a Yamasaki"

"Wait, how do you know my name? What do you mean by a Yamasaki?" but I was ignored as Pakkun grabbed onto Sakura's leg and stated for us to get a move on. I was still slightly in shock and I looked at Kakashi a moment before jumping after Sakura, Naruto, Shikamaru, and Pakkun.

We hadn't been in pursuit long when Pakkun stated "Someone is following us, I daresay it's a group of sound ninja."

We all had a look of irritation when Shikamaru stated "I'll stay behind and hold them back, buy you guys a little time."

Naruto without a thought nodded and he took off once more with Pakkun leaving me and Sakura to look at Shikamaru and say "Good luck" before following the knucklehead and Pakkun.

Naruto had sped up and was far ahead Sakura and I and caught up with Sasuke and Gaara moments before we did. Sasuke was laying on the ground seemingly in pain.

There were marks from the cursed seal given to him by Orochimaru that were causing him pain and Sakura had knelt by his side to perhaps take away his pain.

Naruto was nearby yelling at Gaara "Who are you? What do you want with the leaf village?" Naruto was obviously getting angry and his face was changing to something truly terrifying.

Gaara's face and his body had changed to that of a sand colored beast that held a scary look in his eyes. I remember it feeling like the battle of two monsters over good and evil.

Gaara had turned his attention back to Sasuke even though Naruto was yelling at him and advanced on him, and unintentionally Sakura and I as we were sitting close to Sasuke.

Naruto had yelled "Run, get away!" before Gaara charged but upon reaching us Sakura stood up and yelled "Stop!" with a fierce look in her eyes.

Gaara had halted slightly upon the look on Sakura's face and rather than impale her with his tail made of sand grabbed her and smacked her into the tree right above us with his arm.

"NO!" I had shouted and the rage I had been feeling the whole time I stood there watching what was happening began to grow and I felt the feeling of not being in charge of my body.

That strange out of body experience had come about once more and I watched as my arm was held out and the trees near by shot up to hit Gaara in the face sending him back a few steps.

I watched as Naruto feeling the same rage charged at Gaara only to be swatted into a tree and slumped down seemingly unconscious. I had been so incredibly angry I had sent a wall of wood right at the unsuspecting Gaara who had turned to fight Naruto, forgetting about me.

The wall had hit him and sent him even farther away and Naruto managed to stand up.

He must have had a plan as he stepped back quickly from the approaching Gaara who had an even angrier face on him and my body was returned to my control.

I wavered a bit after leaving the out of body experience, watching as Naruto summoned Gamakichi, the small toad from the summoning exercise just one day before.

By the look on Naruto's face that was obviously not what he expected to summon and gave a cry of frustration.

Despite the situation I couldn't help but chuckle at the look on his face before watching Gaara, who had an angry look on his face yell at Naruto "You either truly fight me or your pink haired friend will be squished to death"

My face had paled watching Sand shuriken fly at Naruto who shielded Gamakichi.

Seeing as Naruto was momentarily distracted Gaara used that moment to further his transformation.

For a while I had thought that maybe it was some sort of shapeshifting jutsu formed with his sand but later on I realized that there were things in this world, demons who were sealed in poor little children in an attempt to stop their rampaging.

I watched as his whole body was growing and he stood taller than before. I ran at Naruto yelling "Shadow clones, hurry!" and with a flurry of movement just about a hundred Naruto's and fifty clones of my own swarmed up at Gaara who just like before swatted them away and with a ton of poofs they were gone.

But Naruto had apparently planned this as an explosive Shuriken hit Gaara's tail and before he could swat it away it exploded. Naruto was thrown towards Sasuke who had come out of his unconsciousness and caught Naruto but I on the other hand flew towards a rock that was jutting out of the ground.

The rock had been quite sharp and before I realized what I was doing I had summoned Sina who stopped my decent towards the ragged rock. I smiled yelling a quick thank you to Sina as she caught my shirt with her teeth and set me on the ground.

I watched as Sina looked around asking "What is going on Fei? Is, is that what I think it is?" she looked at Gaara with a slight look of fear "Fei, you should stay away from him. That child is a monster like no other."

I had tilted my head slightly in question before Gaara roared in anger at hearing her words. I quickly unsummoned Sina and ran off towards Naruto and Sasuke who was yelling at Naruto "Dammit Naruto let me handle it! Go help Sakura."

Naruto shook his head stating "No, I'm gonna be the hero this time! We have more in common than you would think." and ran off towards Gaara once more.

I had been confused for a moment before remembering Sasuke had saved Naruto back during the fight against Haku in the Land of Waves.

I watched as Naruto shouted "I'm going to save those that are precious to me!" and with that a weird chakra shape surrounded Naruto, it felt the same as the strange chakra that appeared during the Wave mission and I knew that the same thing was happening to Naruto, happened to Gaara.

Those two seemed to have a weird connection. Gaara had said while talking to Gaara at the beginning of this fight that he was always so alone and that he was jealous of those that surrounded Naruto.

I held an arm in front of Sasuke stating "Let them fight Sasuke. Naruto needs to do this." Sasuke huffed and walked towards Sakura, attempting to release her from Gaara's sand.

Whatever chakra Naruto was exuding gave him a high jump in the amount of Shadow clones he could create and there were near 2,000 clones jumping in waves at Gaara, and it looked like Naruto was on the edge of winning the battle.

But Gaara's anger at the thought of losing caused him to really complete his transformation this time around. He grew much larger than the surrounding trees and stood creating a menacing shadow over the four of us.

He roared louder than ever causing birds to flock in large numbers from the trees. His roar was a warning as he sent a wave of sand at Naruto and attempted to encase him in it. I watched in horror as this looked like what Naruto had explained to be the cause of Lees injuries.

But before Gaara could completely enclose Naruto, the strange orange chakra reared up again and Naruto managed to summon Gamabunta, the toad that had saved him from falling to his death when Jiraiya had thrown us over the cliff.

Naruto yelled down to me, "Fei, think you have enough chakra to summon that giant dog?" I grinned and once again despite the lack of chakra I felt I summoned Hotara and stood on his back.

"Hey, who the fuck decided to summon me?" he turned his head to me who had been standing on his back before huffing angrily

"Who the fuck do you think you are child? You are certainly not worthy of summoning me!" he growled before turning to Gamabunta who was having a similar conversation with Naruto.

Gamakichi, who I had forgotten was still summoned yelled to Gamabunta "Hey, Dad! He's a pretty okay guy! Saved me when that creep tried to kill me!" he pointed at Gaara who was quickly approaching.

My mind was stumped 'That tiny toad is his son?' I had thought before watching as Gamabunta agreed to help Naruto turning to Hotara "Mind helping out old friend?"

Hotara grunted a little before nodding "Fine, but only for you Bunta." He growled once more "You so owe me" Gamabunta nodded before pulling a giant sword out told Naruto to hold on as he ran towards Gaara's giant Tanuki form and cut of his right arm as Hotara didn't even bother telling me to hold on ran for Gaara's left arm and swiftly bit it off.

Gamabunta, slightly winded from the strength it took to cut off Gaara's arm jumped back with Hotara away from Gaara.

He obviously thought Naruto was really trying this time and slightly pulled himself out of the sand Tanuki's forehead.

I had watched in silence as Gamabunta and Hotara explained they had seen this technique before, but only those who had an extra soul could even try to attempt it.

That was when it hit me. Naruto and Gaara both had a strange extra chakra they could use.

I had learned about tailed beast from a book I had read during those few months in the academy.

Gaara only had one tail so he was the one tailed beast. I still didn't quite know what was held within Naruto but I had been glad to finally know what was going on with them and why Naruto felt such a strong connection to him.

'If Gaara was still technically in control did this technique mean the true beast was about to revealed' I had thought to myself.

That was exactly what had happened as Gaara fell forward and a new more sinister roar came from deep within the sand Tanuki.

He swiped his tail at Gamabunta and Naruto and they flew back and the tailed beast turned his attention to Hotara and me. He slashed his claws at Hotara who used his fangs to stop the attack.

With no time to prepare for a second attack The one tailed beast smacked me off of Hotara's back and I was once again sent flying. Though this time a lacked the chakra to summon Sina.

I accepted my fate as the tree I was on path to hit came closer, I however was pleasantly surprised as Hotara flashed his paw out and caught me in his grip seconds before I would have collided painfully with the hard wood.

Gamabunta and Naruto showed up next to Hotara "Fei, are you okay?" Naruto shouted from Gamabunta's back

"Yea, I'm fine Naruto. What do we do next?" I questioned Gamabunta stated "I'm afraid being a toad I lack the right offensive parts" at our questioning glance Hotara decided to pipe in "He lacks the claws and fangs that beast and I have"

Naruto and I nodded a little embarrassed that we handed realized that. Gamabunta nodded to Naruto "If you could use that orange chakra you have to create a beast to match that Tanuki that would be very helpful"

Naruto nodded and yelled "You go it! Hey Fei, why don't you hop on!" He held his arm out for me to take and Hotara nodded stating "Go on, I want to leave anyway" he huffed out before popping away at my command.

I had grabbed Naruto's arm and heaved myself up onto Gamabunta's back and Naruto Channeled his chakra and a warm feeling spread as the orange chakra spread out in the shape of a large fox with nine tails.

I had stared in awe as I realized this must be the beast residing in Naruto. Gamabunta charged and he engaged the large Tanuki in a fight while Naruto leaped off of his back into the Tanuki's head.

I leaped off after him and watched him punch Gaara, waking him up and sending the tailed beast back into his body. Gaara looked frightened as he realized Naruto was standing just one foot in front of him and attempted to encase Naruto once more.

Naruto flared his orange chakra once more, and I began to wonder how much chakra he had. But as Naruto could only keep the chakra for a moment before Gaara used sand to hold his arms and legs down, I realized he was just about out of chakra.

I managed to get closer but sand wrapped around my legs and I couldn't move. I cursed Gaara and watched as he made the mistake of walking closer to Naruto. I watched as Naruto waited for Gaara to come closer and then head-butted him right in the face.

Yea, you heard that right Naruto's final move was a head-butt. But amazing enough it had the desired effect and Gaara's sand was losing height and we were all falling to the ground.

Gamabunta not bothering to help yelled at Naruto "I'll be going Naruto, I'm tired. You did a great job kid" and he was gone with Gamakichi. Somehow instead of landing on the hard ground we all managed to land on the tree tops and I watched as Gaara and Naruto looked at each other, and then leapt.

It was pretty comical as the two didn't manage a hit on each other instead landed on the ground about a foot away. I had leapt down to them as they collapsed in exhaustion.

Naruto, not having the energy to actually stand up, drags himself closer to Gaara who had begun to waiver and whimper at the thought of Naruto coming to hurt him.

I walked slowly over to the two and sat down right next to the defeated Gaara, and listened to Naruto speak "I understand your pain Gaara. The pain of being alone and outcaste from everyone. I was alone for so long, but I found people that accepted me. My teammates"

he nodded to me "People like Fei bring me hope. And if you ever try to hurt one of those people again I'll be forced to fight you again. I don't want to do that because you're the first person who has known this type of pain"

I nodded and spoke up "You were so alone, but you're not anymore" I nodded to Naruto "We will be your friends" and Naruto nodded as well and Gaara held a look of disbelief.

I stood up quickly drawing a kunai at the sound of people behind me but settled back down when I realized it was only Kankuro and Temari there to retrieve Gaara.

I smiled as Gaara apologized to them and began their trek back to the village. I had looked over at Naruto sighing before I realized I would have to be the one to carry him back to the village as Sasuke was picking up Sakura who had woken from her unconscious state.

I leaned down feeling slightly dizzy to pick up Naruto and with that we walked back to the village. Naruto had regained enough energy to walk about halfway through our walk and we had reached Konoha in a few minutes.

The air was somber and we had all been confused as to what had happened while we were out fighting Gaara. But when we spotted Kakashi and a group of jounin standing near someone's body Naruto took off in a run followed shortly by me.

I remember gasping in shock as we found Old man Sarutobi was dead. We had learned that Orochimaru, his old student was the one to kill him.

His funeral was held only a few days later and even the sky was weeping in sadness in the wake of his death.

Tears had stung my eyes as I stood next to Kashi and Naruto, who also happened to be holding back his tears. We walked by his coffin leaving flowers of respect and I was upset, he had accepted me into this village, not knowing where I was from and gave me a place to stay.

But now he was gone and I vowed revenge, deep in my mind I told myself I would kill Orochimaru one way or another, he caused everyone so much trouble. I had overheard Naruto asking Iruka why people sacrifice themselves and he had responded with "People sacrifice themselves to leave behind a legacy."

I had scoffed in anger before I walked away from the funeral with a determined ball of hatred pooling in my heart.