"My precious people prove my existence by respecting me, acknowledging me, and loving me." ~Naruto
As Hinata walked silently back into the competitor's box, she took her place beside Naruto, her hand twitching as it lightly rubbed against Naruto's. Without looking, he held her hand although if one looked, they would notice the dusting of red on his face. She sighed in contentment, her mind recalling the conversation she'd just had with the twins.
"So, how'd they take it?" Naruto whispered, Hinata answering by squeezing his hand.
"I'm sorry." He replied softly.
"The first match of the second round is about to begin! Will the next two combatants, Naruto Uzumaki and Gaara no Suna, please come down to the field!" Genma announced, the crowd chattering excitedly at the next match-up.
Gaara simply appeared with his arms crossed in a flurry of sand looking the picture of nonchalance, if one ignored the bloodthirsty grin on his face. Genma glanced at the sand-wielding Genin with some trepidation, wanting to start the match so he could evacuate the immediate area.
Naruto released Hinata's hand as he headed for the stairs, only for her to catch his hand as both blushed red. The fact that the remaining combatants, minus Shino who was till out cold, were watching the pair.
"Umm, be safe Naruto-kun. I-I-I-" Hinata started, only for her infamous stuttering to take over as Naruto smiled softly at his girlfriend.
"Me too, Hina-chan. Don't worry, I've got a plan, and it'll take more than Sandy to beat me. Besides, it took this long for me to get you, you ain't getting rid of me that easily!" Naruto said; his usually sunshine grin present. Before he gave himself time to consider his actions, he bent down and kissed Hinata's forehead. The young couple went atomic red at the moment, thankfully broken up by Sakura interjecting herself beside Naruto and pushing him towards the stairs.
"Gone on Goldie, bashfulness doesn't suit you." She called after him, barely nudging Hinata as the pinkette looked longingly at Sasuke, who frowned and shrugged off her looks. Sakura sighed, "Why did I choose the one that likes to play hard-to-get?" She asked rhetorically and dejectedly.
Meanwhile, down on the field, Naruto walked up to Gaara and Genma, who sighed in relief as he backed up, preparing to leap away.
"Okay now, I want a good clean fight, no cheap shots below the belt, and the face is off-limits." Genma said, and despite the animosity, or rather due to it, both jinchuurikis turned to look at Genma like he was crazy. "Disregard that. HAJIME!" Genma yelled, leaping away to the safety of his little alcove, watching over the fight, breathing relieved at having escaped without any personal maiming. The kunai that imbedded itself into the wall next to him erased any thoughts of such things.
Now that the match had begun, the crowd had expected either shinobi to immediately leap into action. They were sadly disappointed as Naruto reached down to his waist, flipping open a box as he removed a cylinder of paper that he stuck into his mouth.
"I didn't know that Naruto smoked?" Kiba said, far above the arena floor next to his sensei Kurenai. It minorly upset him that he was the only one on his team who hadn't made it to the Finals, but seeing that his opponent was Naruto, the feeling was resting on the backburner.
"I didn't either." Kurenai responded, glancing to the side at Asuma who was, you guessed it, smoking a cigarette. The Sarutobi noticed, and exhaled a small cloud of smoke.
"Yes, a Genin is smoking so it must be my fault for looking so cool while doing it." He responded despairingly. "Come on, the kid isn't even on my squad. If it was Shikamaru, or even Choji, then you might be able to blame me!" He said. "Personally, I blame Kakashi for it." Asuma said, turning the disapproving female glare on his fellow Jounin.
Said Jounin didn't even look up from his book, "Don't blame me. If he got a filthy habit from me, he would have a book out right now." Kakashi responded levelly.
"He does." Kiba said, the entire box of Jounin-sensei's and fellow teammates looking at the silver-haired Jounin, who began sweating. Feeling the pressure building, he turned to his last-resort as he began to mentally cry at his coming actions.
"Come on Naruto; let your Flames of Passion burn brightly!" He yelled at the top of his lungs as the box went silent as all eyes went to Gai and Lee who were wide-eyed. Without warning, the pair clutched each other tightly, blinding all present as Kakashi managed to blindly Shushin away to safety.
Taking a deep breath, Naruto flew through hand seals as he sent a giant ball of flame at Gaara, who unflinchingly swatted the attack away with his sand, retaliating as he sent a small tendril at Naruto to try and catch the blonde, who dodged to the side with the help of a Shadow Clone that took the attack in his place.
"Well, I believe that counts as our opening moves. How about you actually try, Ichi?" Naruto hissed smugly, as Gaara showed no outward signs that the taunt had been heard. Then suddenly, the sand shot out over his head as it began to come down like a scorpion's tail, trying vainly to hit Naruto, who weaved around the attacks, although they did keep him back and unable to pause lest he become trapped and crushed.
Back flipping away, the blonde landed atop a large stone that was jutting out of the ground. He had just long enough to take a deep breath ad exhale before diving to the side as one of the sand strikes hit the stone, almost instantly reducing it to rubble.
Gaara silently glared at Naruto who, with a single seal, produced upwards of thirty clones that all charged at the red-haired Suna-nin from different angles. However, it appeared the jinchuuriki hadn't slacked off during the month-long training as he recalled the sand within seconds and ran through a quick set of hand seals just as the Shadow Clones began to dog pile on him, finishing with a loud growl as sand burst out from the center of the pile, instantly dispelling almost all the clones, and the ones that miraculously survived the outburst were quickly captured and subsequently crushed as a giant dome of sand surrounded Gaara. Hovering almost a foot above it was small sand construct that Naruto realized was an eye before more sand began to take shape around it, a small tendril rising from the dome to connect as more sand began to heap on.
Overhead, in the Kage's box, the Kazekage-disguised Orochimaru jumped to his feet, his hand twitching as he started to signal the start of the invasion, only for his former sensei to place a genial hand on his arm.
"Do not worry, Kazekage, things are under control." He said calmly, without as much as a hint of fear that a jinchuuriki was releasing his bijuu in the middle of their village.
Orochimaru told him this.
"Oh, you know how our Fourth Hokage was regarded for his seals, and if you don't, just ask any Iwa-nin. He also retrofitted our arena before he passed on. The boy's bijuu can't escape the seal until it runs out of chakra or I use the seal to release it." Hiruzen said evenly as he crossed his arms, content to watch the match.
Orochimaru cursed under his breath, sitting back down to bide his time until he could start the invasion. "Really, with this in your village, one has to wonder how the Kyuubi caused such trouble for you. Forgive me, I did not mean to offend." The Kazekage retorted, closely watching the fight building up down below.
"It's fine, after all, we are allies, and I'm not one to be so easily insulted. But you would be right; you personally know the power of the bijuu. This seal couldn't hold one using more than four tails worth of power, however, if my memory serves, you only sent the Ichibi." Sarutobi responded, watching Naruto dodge a particularly nasty sand spike.
"But you also mentioned that the seal could run out of chakra, wouldn't this seal have to have a source somewhere?" Orochimaru asked, trying to find some way to redeem his plan.
"You're looking at it. Any chakra-based attacks that hit the sides are drawn into the seal's reserves fueling. While it could theoretically run out of chakra, thereby releasing the bijuu, that theory is totally dependent on the bijuu sitting still long enough for it to happen. Are you telling me that Suna has a totally domesticated bijuu?" The Hokage asked rhetorically.
Orochimaru resisted the urge to stick his tongue out and hiss, instead he growled at being outwitted by a dead Hokage. Especially the one that took his rightfully position.
Back on the field, Naruto watched as the sand finished heaping upon the eye, now a fully constructed Gaara as it hopped off and ran at Naruto full tilt as the blonde rolled to the side, pulling out a kunai, digging it into Gaara's calf, applying as much pressure as he could to get through the sand armor that Gaara had worn during the Preliminaries.
However, his kunai went straight through the leg, a sandy wound where the wound should be as Naruto tumbled over from the power behind his own strike as the Sand Gaara looked at him angrily as it immediately tried to stomp on his head, only for Naruto barrel roll to the side, avoiding the crushing blow as Sand Gaara gave chase.
As Naruto managed to flip himself to his feet, dodging nicely as Sand Gaara swung out at him, his hand flying at Naruto with a small spray of sand behind it as Naruto ducked under it, sending his leg through the connection as the hand dissolved in a small pile of sand. Glancing at the Sand Clone, it looked unperturbed as it looked at its hand before it reformed.
While it tested it with a test grip, Naruto got to see behind the clone as a thin line of sand was connected to the beck of its neck to the dome of sand in the center of the field. Before Naruto could see anything else, the Sand Clone charged at him again.
Rolling to the side, Naruto threw several kunai at the Sand Clone, hoping to distract it as it appeared to be unable to move while repairing any damage it had taken. However, the kunai merely stuck in the Clone's body, sinking in before the Sand Clone raised his arm and fired them back as crumpled hunk of iron.
Naruto frowned as he jumped over the attack, only for the Sand Clone to appear out of nowhere, and grab his ankle. Reacting quickly, Naruto firmly kicked the Sand Clone in its face, causing it to disperse and freeze up while it rebuilt itself, still tightly holding Naruto's ankle which he hadn't counted on as he fell upside down, smacking his head on the ground.
As the Clone finished rebuilding, rather than try and crush him, it slung him to the side and into the stone wall as he bit back and cry of pain as his head rang. From the corner of his eyes, he saw the clone toss its arm out as sand coated the ground, and the clone raced across it like a skater on ice, using the momentum to kick Naruto as it went up, only to be pinned to the wall by a sandy hand around his neck.
As the Sand Clone began to squeeze, Naruto managed to pull off one of his patented escape measures, a smokeless Kawarimi with a Shadow Clone, that he'd managed to produce when the Sand Clone was rebuild its face, just in time as the clone dispelled, Gaara's clone looking confusedly at the smoke.
Pushing himself to his feet, Naruto put his plan into action as he threw two kunai at the Sand Clone which, just as the first three collided, and sunk into the Clone, although the Clone stayed stationary while they did so. However, once they had sunk in, Naruto had a single hand seal, and shouted a pithy "Crush this!"
The Sand Clone looked down, only to see two explosive tags sticking out of its chest. Rather than make any attempt to eject the volatile objects, it responded with a soft, "Mother." Before exploding in a shower of sand as Naruto didn't waste a second, turning tail and charging at the dome of sand that held the real Gaara, who appeared to be chanting inside his cover.
"First I have to cut off that clone's connection to him." Naruto thought as he used his Flame dance to chop the line of sand floating in the air, dividing it in two. That done, Naruto moved to Step Two.
Running through quick seals, Naruto inhaled before breathing out, "Fire Style: Grand Fireball Jutsu." as the massive fireball hit the dome of sand, obscuring it from Naruto's vision as he didn't slow down, knowing that he wouldn't have a very large hole.
Naruto realized his mistake seconds too late as he leapt at the smoldering remains of his attack, only to find the dome untouched by the fire, leaving him with no time to react as a large strand of sand grew from the dome, smacking him away like a fly as he bounced on the ground, barely managing to crawl backwards as it struck down at him once again like a scorpion's tail.
Finally, he managed to get enough to time to roll backwards to his feet, trying to leap away only for Gaara's clone to have made a reappearance as it grabbed him in a chokehold , keeping his hands away from each other. Looking to the side, what little he could, he saw that while he had suspected this to be the original clone, it was actually a newly created one.
"You can't control the clone and your dome at the same time, huh?" Naruto observed, causing the clone to half-heartedly glare at the blonde as he began to expand, taking in more of Naruto with each passing second until he was fully enveloped in the Sand Clone, which looked hilariously bloated now, or at least it would've been hilarious had the spectators not known that a living human being was inside there.
"You talk too much, Naruto Uzumaki." The clone said, as it made a singular hand seal.
"Sand Coffin." And then the Sand Clone instantly shrank back too its original size, accompanied by a sickening crunching sound that no one dwelt on too quickly.
As silence fell over the arena, the silence was shattered like glass by the heartbroken scream of Hinata, "NARUTO-KUN!" How Sakura managed to hold back the wailing girl was a miracle all in itself as Genma looked sadly at the girl as he jumped to the ground to call the match.
"By manner of execution, the winner is-" His words were cut off as the clone suddenly grabbed its mouth, tightly clenching its hand over its mouth before a loud burp was heard, making the moment even sicker until it happened again and flames leapt from the clone's mouth, before it doubled over holding its stomach before it exploded, hitting the ground and wall with a loud crunch of smashing glass.
Not that this helped anyone's nerves, except Hinata, who managed to finally break free of Sakura and run to the railing, as Naruto was covered head-to-toe in a angry red aura. Genma wisely leapt away, this time heading from the Kage's box, high above.
"You tried to kill me, that I can forgive. You got me and my new clothes all dirty, it's harder, but I can forgive that. What I can't forgive is you making HINATA-CHAN CRY!" Naruto roared, charging at the dome as all the sand seemed to condense into a thick spike that hurtled at Naruto only for the boy soar through hand seals as he blew out, "Fire Style: Fire Dragon Flame Bullet!" as the stream of sand was met by a equally powerful stream of yellow-blue flames that turned it into glass as Naruto leapt on top of the sand, using it to take him straight to Gaara, whose chanting was louder than ever.
As Naruto neared the dome of dense sand, he turned his flames on it, turning the section directly in front of him to glass as he crashed through, vanishing from everyone's sight for a moment until a body was sent rocketing out of the dome like a volcanic eruption, a second body following seconds later as a stream of fire came from below him as Naruto reached the floating Gaara, who was stunned by the impact of Naruto's foot to his chin.
"You want my blood? Well you got it, SCORCHING HOT!" Naruto yelled as he wrapped his arms around Gaara, flipping them over. Once they were pointing down, Naruto began to spin, the fire erupting from his feet as they hurtled to the ground.
Meanwhile, Kiba was wincing as he recalled his personal experience with the move. Beside him, he heard Lee gasped excitedly.
"Gai-sensei, that's-" Lee started only for Kiba to cut him off.
"Yeah, I guess you didn't get to see him use it in the Preliminaries. No one told you about it?" Kiba asked, Lee looking at the junior Genin, and nodding in the negative. "Huh, well, needless to say, Naruto apologized for stealing your move, but if you ask me; his version is scarier than yours, no offense." Kiba said worriedly as Lee looked at him questioningly as Kiba nodded towards the pair as the plummeted towards the ground.
As the pair neared the ground, Naruto barely managed to finish off the move by substituting with a Shadow Clone as Gaara and company were buried into the ground, the sand that he'd tried to cushion the blow with turned into glass from the intense heat of the move. The look was completed by Naruto's cloak billowing as the explosion went off behind him, the Shadow Clone having covered itself in explosive tags.
"Flare Bomb."
Naruto had the smuggest look possible on his face, despite the probable concussion he had from the rapid change in air pressure due to falling so quickly and standing within ten feet of a massive explosion. Closing his eyes as he sighed in relief, leaning against the large piece of glass that was once Gaara's sand dome; it was possibly the only thing that saved his life as he sensed the attack as he put as much power into his legs before leaping away as not one but two large bulky, sand arms with blue veins crashed to the ground as Gaara lifted himself out of the crater, glass shards sticking out of his body, before screaming bloody murder, "MY BLOOD! YOU'LL PAY FOR THIS UZUMAKI!" and when he looked up, his eyes met Naruto's, and the blonde jinchuuriki stared into the eyes of Shukaku.
(Omake #1)
Naruto lifted the small cylinder of paper to his lips, only for sand to suddenly snatch it for his lips, crushing it as Gaara, possibly, glared at him.
"Those things will kill you, you know?" His monotone voice said, and Naruto sweat dropped.
(Omake #2)
Naruto bent down to kiss Hinata's forehead as the couple went atomic red before the blonde turned to leave. Only for Hinata to grab his hand tightly, pulling him back.
"Screw this." She said confidently as he leapt up, wrapping her legs around his waist as she pulled him into a deep kiss, capturing his tongue as she sucked on it. This continued for several minutes as they made out, before falling to the box floor, Naruto's lips trailing down Hinata's collarbone.
"If you don't come down right now, Uzumaki, I'll have to disqualify you. Do you forfeit?" Genma questioned, the stadium looking at the box in interest. Moments of silence passed before a loud, throaty moan was the only answer that came.
A/N: So, I divided this chapter into two to keep with the custom of divided Naruto's 'big' fights into two sections. So on that note, I ask, should I divide the final fight in two or keep it as one long chapter. If I keep it all together, it'll take longer to upload, but hey, I'm here for you guys pleasure. Also, because of circumstances, let me apologize for taking so long to get back to you guys. Now then, have a nice day.