As Gaara moves out of the smoke, three rouge ninja stare at him with a look of surprise. "So this is the true look of your precious Gaara-kun?" Dokuyuku asks aloud. "I think the other version was much cuter."
The Kazekage's body has undergone a half transformation. The left side of his body is still the calm and prestigious look of old, but the right side has become covered in sand. It is almost as if a demon has awoken partially.
Gaara lowers his head and begins to give a low laugh. "Well I am not here to be part of your eye-candy Dokuyuku," the Kazekage bellows. He quickly raises his head, the gold and black eyes glaring at the woman. "I am here to end this."
The poisonous purple ninja closes her eyes, flips her hair back and gives a small grin. "Oh you really think so? Well I believe two people have different thoughts on that." As she opens her eyes to stare back at Gaara, Sakura gasps.
On each side of the half-demonic Gaara is Suto-ma and Sune-ku with the swords drawn. "Strong words, young one," comments Sune-ku. "Yes, shame you can't back them up," adds Suto-ma as their blade swing to slice Gaara in three.
Gaara gives a little smile as the blades draw ever nearer to him. At the instant before the blades make their mark, the Kazekage vanishes in thin air. The two rogue ninja's blade stick in the ground as they stare at each other in shock.
"Where… where did the brat go?" ask Sune-ku. Suddenly, the black ninja feels a chill go down his spine as a voice whispers to him. "I just went to see your grave site, I hope you like it." In a flash, Gaara appears behind the black ninja.
As Sune-ku is only able to turn his head, his whole body is hit by a massive blast of sand from Gaara's right arm that drives him against a nearby tree. The sand continues to wrap around the tree in a full circle. The black ninja's eyes grow blank.
Gaara raises his left arm up and utters two words – "Sand Coffin." With a clench of his left fist the sand squeezes the rogue ninja into the tree with so much force that it not only crushes every bone in Sune-ku's body, but brings the tree down as well.
"One down," Gaara says as the sand draws back from his arm and returns to somewhat normal. The leader of the Sand Village looks for the other ninja while the wind around him begins to pick up, blowing the leaves around him.
"Impressive tactic," the voice of Suto-ma says. "Although I don't think you will have as easy a time with me." The wind around Gaara begins to pick up and the leaves multiply in quantity and circle around him even more.
Gaara looks up to see the white ninja standing on a branch; his hands show a special signal. "Katon – Leaf blade sphere," yells Suto-ma. The leaves around Gaara become razor sharp and form a ball trapping him inside.
Suddenly, all the blades compact into a tiny sphere on Gaara. Gaara gives a blood curdling scream and then all is silent. "Like I said, not so easy," the man in white says as he drops next to the green ball of blades.
The storm ninja admires his work and checks for any signs of movement. "Well, that was rather uneventful from the so-called Kazekage. I was hoping for more of a challenge. Hmph, I guess I will just have to take his girlfriend as my prize."
Suto-ma's eyes grow large as he sees the sphere cracking and sand pouring out the small holes. A dark voice emanates from the sphere, "You…will not…LAY A HAND ON HER!!" The sphere's cracks become larger and larger.
"What the hell?!" the white ninja exclaims as he jumps away just before the whole sphere explodes in a cloud of sand. The sand slowly returns to Gaara's body, but wraps around his left arm and shoulder.
Sakura stares at Gaara. Her eye growing wide at the site of her beloved's transformation and rage. "This is not good," the paralyzed medical ninja says to herself. "Gaara-kun's rage is tearing the seal apart. If this continues, he will be come full demon."
"Naruto! Naruto! Wake up! This is important!" Sakura yells at her fallen comrade against the tree. The blonde ninja begins to stir and come to. "Oh man, what happened…and what is with Gaara?"
"Listen to me very carefully, Naruto," the strawberry ninja says with a serious look in her eyes. "Gaara's rage is slowly taking over and breaking the demon seal the 5th Hokage put on him. You need to finish this before the rage fully takes over."
Naruto looks at Sakura with a quizzical look. "What will happen if we don't stop this in time?" Sakura's eyes show a look of despair just thinking about it. "Well, if the seal is fully broken, Gaara will become a sand demon…"
"The normal side of Gaara will be buried by the rage and the sand demon will become irrational. The demon will not be able to tell the difference between friend or foe and just try to destroy everything in his path, I assume."
Naruto's ocean blue eyes grow hard as he grasps at his own seal-marked stomach. "I understand Sakura, but even if I am too late I am sure I can get him back to normal." Naruto now stands up, "I will do this for my friend and your beloved."
As Naruto disappears into the forest, Sakura takes a deep breath. "Naruto, do your best. Now I need to focus all my chakra so I can end this paralysis and do my part." The strawberry girl closes her eyes to concentrate.
Meanwhile, Gaara is staring at the white ninja with only death on his mind. The red-haired ninja fires pellets of sand at Suto-ma who leaps in the air to dodge them. "Hmph, looks like you just got uglier, not smarter," the cocky white ninja says.
Suto-ma looks down to see both of Gaara's arms extended - sand shooting out of them into the forest. "Who is the dumb one now?" Gaara asks as from opposite directions, two giant hands made of sand engulf the white ninja.
"DOUBLE SAND COFFIN!!" Gaara screams, and with that the white ninja is turned to a mound of white dust. The sand once again returns to Gaara's body, but some of it moves so that his whole upper body and left leg are covered in sand.
"Oh my, my," the purple ninja says as she appears before Gaara. "I must say that you are quite an impressive specimen, but now let's see just how you match up against a truly skilled ninja…"
Stay tuned for the next chapter