disclaimer: i don't own any part of naruto

The Chain of Change

Chapter Four

The great chakra beast lashed its single tail violently back and forth as it rose to its full height. Sand billowed in thick streams, obscuring all but the tanuki's massive form. Shukaku's twisted voice sounded in an insane laugh as it leveled the village with lazy sweeps of its paws, shaking the earth with every step.

A godzilla formed from sand had arrived to raze Suna to the ground, and so far the only person not fleeing before it was Naruto, although he was very seriously considering the option.

Wind-blown sand lashed at the blond as he ran towards the colossus. The few villagers not wholly consumed by fear shouted after him as he passed them by; through the strength of his resolve Naruto managed to ignore them and the screaming voice of his own sense of self-preservation. "It's okay," the blond said out loud in an attempt to reassure himself, but his voice was lost a whirl of destructive noise. "I just have to wake him up, that's all. Piece of cake."

The tanuki continued to laugh as it batted down a few more buildings for good measure. Like a toddler presented with blocks, it seemed to be rather focused on knocking down anything before it that was taller than some set threshold. Fortunately, this meant that it was too occupied to go after the villagers, but Naruto had a feeling that, once it ran out of things to smash, Shukaku would be perfectly happy to start ripping people into shreds.

When he finally got within reach, the Konoha-nin stopped and stood his ground. He closed his eyes and forcibly slowed his breathing. Concentrated, tried to drown out the chaotic sounds that surrounded him. He was horribly out of practice, and it took a while for the calming feeling of natural energy to wash over him.

Shukaku paused in mid-strike as a great screech cut through the air. Seconds later it received a nasty surprise as its left arm was completely sheared off at the shoulder. The sand demon roared in anger, swiveling its great head back and forth in order to locate the one who had dared injured it. Finally, its gaze found the lone Konoha-nin. The blond's eyes were still rimmed red with sage chakra. A shadow clone stood next to him, helping to support a newly-formed Rasenshruiken.

With a wild yell, Naruto and the clone hurled the second Rasenshruiken towards Shukaku. The sand beast reacted instantly, but it was too bulky to move away fast enough, and the jutsu impacted directly with its torso.

The resulting vortex of wind eroded a great hole in the demon's middle, but unfortunately Shukaku was simply too large to be blown apart. Though the Rasenshruiken usually had no trouble shredding people into tiny bits, the tanuki was probably taller than the hokage's tower and also made of sand. Naruto was well aware of the futility of attacking Shukaku's body. They were surrounded by the desert. There was simply no way for him to completely wear away the demon's massive form faster than it restored itself.

But at least Shukaku had noticed him. He could bank on the tanuki's bloodlust to lure it out of the village. If he lived that long.

Of all the stupid shit he'd gotten himself into through the years, this had to top the list.

One day prior:

No one was in a good mood by the time they reached Suna's impressively tiered gates; the combination of desert heat with relentless travel had all of Team Seven on edge. Even the normally unflappable Kakashi seemed impatient as he negotiated with the guards for their admittance. Fortunately, it only took a few minutes for the Suna-nin to go over their documents and assign one of their own to lead them into the village's interior.

Their guide, a brown-haired ninja who had been henged into inconspicuousness but retained an annoyingly noticeable manner of ending his sentences, showed them to a modest apartment near the center of the village and then (thankfully) left to their own devices. Wisely, Kakashi gave his team the rest of the day to relax and promptly fell asleep.

Sakura looked at their unconscious sensei in disgust, then said to her teammates, "You guys want to go explore the village a bit?"

"We should probably stay put," Sasuke pointed out. "There might be enemies of Konoha who know we're here."

"You," Naruto said, "Are waaay too paranoid." And then he dropped his gear and left.

He didn't have far to go, but apparently the Suna-nin shadowing him was not very good at his job, as Naruto managed to lose him within a few blocks. The typically cramped and maze-like streets grew wider as the blond neared his destination. Even the houses began to look nicer in general. Being the former Kazekage's son, Gaara had always lived in an upscale part of town.

Every hidden village had its own unique architectural style, usually at least partially dictated by its natural surroundings. That being said, it was never obvious to Naruto why Suna preferred domes instead of flat roofs. Maybe it had something to do with staving off the heat. The building where Gaara lived was always cool. It was also basically just a giant hemisphere of sandstone, the same drab, dusty color as the desert.

Naruto raised a fist to knock, but the door opened before he could complete the action, and he found himself staring at Temari.

"I saw you on your way here," She said. "Come in."

The house Gaara shared with his siblings had changed drastically since Naruto had last visited. Before, it had seemed that the building's occupants held no particular attachment to the place, but now it looked like they had actually bothered to try and furnish the place, making it seem a great deal more... homey. Nice.

Temari led him into the kitchen and poured him a tall glass of iced tea. "Gaara's not home," She said.

He took a sip. It was cold and minty, delightfully refreshing. "Is he out on a mission?"

"You could say that," the kunoichi smiled. "Are you here with the diplomatic team Konoha sent?"

"Yeah, I'm sort of... on that team."

Temari glanced sharply at him. "You said you had no intentions of returning to duty."

"No intentions, but --" Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly -- "I guess Konoha didn't like having its loose cannon unaccounted for. When's your brother coming back?"

"Any minute now, probably."

And with impeccable coincidence, the front door opened again and Gaara of the Sand stepped inside. He wore a white robe over his dark clothes, and in his hand was a wide-brimmed hat emblazoned with the symbol of wind. Black-rimmed eyes peered impassively at his blond guest.

"Long time no see, Naruto."

Gaara had perfect comedic timing, even if it was unintentional. The relaxed atmosphere rapidly dissipated as Naruto erupted.

"Gaara! You fucking son of a bitch! Why didn't you tell me that you're the goddamn Kazekage?"

The redhead smiled faintly. "I wanted it to be a surprise."

"Good job," Naruto groused. "I'm surprised. Now can we go and get wasted already?"

There was a knock on the door. Kakashi answered it, only to find himself staring into the face of an unfamiliar ninja: Tall, with pale skin and red hair. There were thick black markings around his eyes and a curious tattoo on the left side of his forehead. He wore no hitai-ite, but had strapped onto his back an enormous, battered-looking gourd.

"I've brought Naruto back," the stranger said, stepping to the side. Kakashi tried to appear unfazed as his wayward blond student appeared, supported by a pillow of floating sand.

"Hi Kakashi-sensei," Naruto slurred weakly before trailing off into incomprehensibility. He was obviously very drunk.

"Er," the jounin said, blinking. He opened the door wide to let Naruto stumble inside and onto a couch. The strange ninja guided the sand in a thin, rope-like stream back into his gourd with a closed fist.

"I am Gaara," he said simply. "Sorry for the trouble. Naruto always thinks that he can outdrink me."

Gaara of the Sand, Kakashi recalled. Son of the former Kazekage. A particularly powerful ninja who was host to the One-Tailed Shukaku, and as such, held power over the flow of sand. There had also been rumors amongst the ANBU that the jinchuuriki of Suna was a completely sadistic psycho. Fortunately, Gaara seemed to be in reasonable control of his faculties. He didn't even look tipsy, the jounin marveled.

"No trouble. Thanks for bringing him back. I was starting to get worried."

"You needn't be," the redhead replied. "I will personally guarantee your team's safety during your stay here." He turned to leave. "I look forward to seeing you tomorrow, Hatake-san."

Kakashi watched as the Suna-nin left, his visible eye narrowed. Then he closed the door and directed his attention to Naruto, who was draped bonelessly over the couch, looking a little sick.

"If you're gonna puke, go do it in the bathroom," Kakashi told him heartlessly.

"Is he gone?" The blond asked, groaning.

"Yes, he's gone. Care to tell me how you came to know the Kazekage?"

Naruto giggled. "Hah, Kakashi-sensei, you're pretty smart!" Then he frowned and said, "I'm going out for a smoke."

Kakashi frowned. Coming out of Naruto's mouth, that could mean anything from "I am going to go outside and smoke a cigarette" to "I am going to find a brothel and fuck my brains out and show up tomorrow three hours late to a one-hour meeting with a giant hangover." But he was beginning to understand that self-destructive behavior was the way the blond had learned to avoid the larger issues in his life. Including, apparently, his inability to open up in any way to anyone.

"Naruto, you're not going anywhere," the jounin said, making his voice as flat as possible. "And don't dodge my question."

Naruto peered cynically up at him. "Is that an order, Hatake-san?"

The jounin sucked in a breath, then let it out in a sigh. "No," he said finally.

For a minute, he thought the blond was going to high-tail it out of the apartment. Then Naruto sagged back against the couch, his eyes clouded with unspoken thoughts.

"Of all the people I could be talking to. You must be taking advantage of my drunk state," he said quietly, not sounding drunk at all. A slow smile warmed his expression.

Awkwardly, Kakashi began, "You don't --"

"I wish I could tell you that I wrecked havoc everywhere when I left Konoha, but that would be a lie."

The jounin blinked at his student, who was suddenly grinning at him, although it looked more like a grimace.

"In my desire to get as far as humanly possible from Konoha, I got lost and somehow ended up in the middle of the fucking desert. In retrospect, it may have worked out better if I had attempted to navigate while sober. Anyway. I stumbled into Team Baki -- er, that's Gaara and his two older siblings, Temari and Kankuro. They had just returned from a mission and their jounin-sensei had been killed. Obviously, I caught them at a bad time."

"Baki... That's right, this would be right about when Orochimaru did a number on Suna," Kakashi mused.

"Yeah, well. Gaara tried to kill me, pretty much immediately. He was, uh, kinda crazy back then."

Kakashi, recalling the lacerated body in the morgue, and then the easy, almost unconscious way Gaara had nudged sand into life, wondered at the battle that must have been.

"Anyway, eventually Temari recognized me and told Gaara to stop, because I was the hokage's son." Naruto chuckled a little. "Gaara went fucking apeshit. He went into this half-Gaara, half-Shukaku mode, almost killed me. Even his siblings couldn't stop him."

"But you did."

"Yeah. It wasn't easy, but I managed to incapacitate him. In their gratitude, Temari and Kankuro tied me up and carried us both back to Suna. But since Suna and Konoha were ostensibly allies back then, they treated me pretty well. Took me to their house. I asked them not to tell anyone that I was there... surprisingly, they didn't. Suna was mourning the Yondaime, so no one really noticed me anyway.

"Except Gaara. He would come visit me every day. The first time, I thought he was going to finish me off, but it turns out he just wanted to talk. Apparently, I was the first person who'd ever beaten him. And we had something in common."

Kakashi had heard of the Yondaime Kazekage's treatment of his youngest son. "Father issues," he guessed dryly.

"Yeah. It was the start of a beautiful friendship. Anyway, eventually I managed to talk Gaara out of the whole crazy thing. He's kind of a pacifist now, actually."

There was certainly more to the story than that, but Kakashi didn't press him. Instead he said, "Mind telling me why you didn't say something sooner?"

"Hey, I didn't know he was the fucking Kazekage until this afternoon!" Naruto protested. "I haven't seen the guy in awhile, alright?"

Kakashi snorted softly, but believed him.

"Well, that's it. Can I have my smoke now?"

"Go to sleep. You need to quit -- and that's an order." Seeing Naruto bristle, the jounin added, this time in a softer tone, "We're going to have to talk about Danzo sometime. For both our sakes."

"Yeah, probably," Naruto muttered, sounding less than enthusiastic. Then he closed his eyes and fell asleep on the couch.

In the end, no one had seen it coming, but several people really should have.

The meeting had been brief. All the details of the upcoming Chuunin Exams had been hammered out with surprising ease. Gaara made an intelligent and straightforward Kazekage, so it didn't surprise anyone when he bluntly informed them of Suna's stance towards Konoha.

It did seem to displease a few of his advisors, however, when Gaara stated his intention to honor the alliance between the two countries. They looked on the conversation with narrowed eyes, but did not say anything.

There were some in Suna who still blamed Konoha for the loss of their previous Kazekage. Although Orochimaru had been operating under someone else's banner by then, he was still a Konoha missing-nin. Furthermore, the past few years had surfaced a handful of ugly rumors concerning Konoha's direct involvement in the situation.

Once, Kakashi might have put those rumors out of mind, but given his recent encounters with the length of Danzo's reach, he was no longer so sure that the theories were unfounded.

Afterwards, they decided to meet up with Gaara's siblings and get lunch. Team Seven had been allowed to choose the place, but ultimately Kakashi had been forced to step in between their bickering and decide, settling on okonomiyaki.

Unfortunately, they had barely stepped out into the street when it happened. A large, odd-looking white bird flitted down from somewhere. It moved in a strangely mechanical way, peering at them with hollow eyes. Then the creature exploded.

Immediately a wave of sand blanketed them. It absorbed most of the impact, but they were all blown back in separate directions.

Kakashi managed to find his students, who were fortuitously still together, in the midst of the confusion. Sasuke, eyes whirling, shouted and pointed to where Gaara lay on the ground. Apparently, in his rush in directing his sand to protect everyone else, the jinchuuriki had paid too little attention to covering himself. Standing beside his prone body was the henged guard who'd escorted them to their apartment the previous day.

"You!" Naruto snarled, preparing to charge rashly at him. Sasuke was barely able to pull him back as two more explosions, smaller this time but no less dangerous, went off before them, creating a large plume of dust that further obscured the Kazekage from view.

"Let me go!" Naruto snarled. When Sasuke didn't, he expounded, "Gaara's unconscious! At this rate, fucking Shukaku will --"

He didn't have a chance to continue. The sand that lay dormant on the ground began to tremble, then exploded into the air, streaming around them in a frenetic dance. They turned to see Gaara, standing, his eyes closed and arms outstretched in a parody of supplication. A voice that was not his poured from his mouth, terrible and utterly insane.

"Free! Free at last!"

Naruto swore, loudly. "That's Shukaku," he told his teammates, who were watching in shock as sand enveloped the Kazekage's body, forming a monstrous-looking shell.

"Right," Kakashi said. "Let's --"

Before he could finish his sentence, a white shape came flying towards them. Team Seven scattered before it exploded, creating a crater in the street where they had once been.

"Fuck! Who the fuck is that guy?!" Naruto exclaimed.

"Sakura. Sasuke. You two go after him," Kakashi told them calmly. "Be careful: he seems like a long-range fighter. Naruto and I will take down Shukaku."

By the time he'd said this, the demon tanuki had grown several feet taller and had whipped up a full-blown sandstorm. People ran screaming from the scene in a panic, but at least they had the sense to flee.

"You've dealt with this before, right?" Kakashi asked Naruto as Team Seven split up.

"Not like this. When Gaara's knocked out, Shukaku comes out. That's why he never sleeps."

"So we need to wake him up."

Naruto groaned. "It's not that easy, Kakashi-sensei. You've seen Gaara's sand. It's an absolute defense. It's hard enough when he's awake, but the demon has a lot more power. And we're in the middle of the fucking desert!"

As if to emphasize his words, Shukaku rose to its fully-formed height and casually batted down someone's house. It tilted its head back to give a howl of violent elation, then began to make its way towards the center of Suna.

"We have to get it out of the village," Kakashi said grimly. "Before there is no village."

Meanwhile, explosion-nin was keeping Sakura and Sasuke at bay with well-placed explosives. Then, unexpectedly, Sakura punched into the ground, knocking up several large chunks of rubble skyward and forcing the enemy ninja to scramble away from the shower of rocks that resulted. He managed to avoid being hit, but in that moment of distraction Sasuke had closed the distance between them. The sound of chirping birds filled the air.

When the chaos cleared, Sasuke's raikiri had gone clean through explosion-nin's right shoulder. He had dropped his henge, revealing himself to be a young man with pale blond hair, most of it pulled back in a ponytail, leaving the rest to curtain over his left eye. He wore an Iwagakure hitai-ite with a deep scratch going horizontally through the hidden village symbol and a curious robe, black and emblazoned with red clouds.

The only curious thing Sasuke wore was an expression of shock on his face, which quickly bled into one of pure hatred.

"That robe!" He snarled. "Where is Itachi?!"

Despite the situation he was in, explosion-nin smirked. "Itachi? No, I'm Deidara. I thought you looked like him... yeah..."

His anger completely blanketing good sense, Sasuke wrapped his free hand around the other ninja's neck. "Where. Is. He."

Deidara's smirk widened. "I'll tell you, if you beat me... yeah... For now, have a taste of my art!"

"Sasuke!" It was Sakura, screaming as she ran toward him. "On your arm!"

Sasuke looked down just in time to see a small white spider scuttling along his elbow. As Deidara raised his hand to form the seal that would make it detonate, the Uchiha jerked his arm, throwing the spider up in the air.

Sakura shrieked as the resulting explosion blew both of them back, but Sasuke had it worse. The kunoichi rushed to his side as he staggered to his feet.

"I'm fine," he told her, but his left side was bruised and bloody. "Go after him!"

"Sasuke," she began to say, then stopped, her attention suddenly diverted.

A large, round white bird was rising into the air, Deidara standing on its back.

"Fuck! He's going to get away!" Sasuke raged. Totally lost to anger, he clapped one hand over his left eye.

"No, Sasuke! You can't use that jutsu here --" Sakura began, but before anything could happen, the space around Deidara began to warp and distort. Startled, the missing-nin twisted around as the warping centered around his left arm and focused until, with an indescribable noise, the arm vanished with a spray of blood.

"Damn it," Kakashi swore to himself, his own hand covering his original eye, the other displaying a fully-formed Mangekyo Sharingan. Already he was feeling the incredible strain.

"Sorry, Naruto," he panted. "Sasuke is on the verge of doing something incredibly stupid."

The blond nodded sharply. "I'll lead Shukaku out of the village."

"We'll catch up to you as soon as we can," his jounin-sensei said. Then he added, a bit awkwardly, "I believe in you, Naruto."

The present:

It was nice, Naruto thought, to have someone believe in you.

It would have been nicer if that belief had been placed in a situation like winning a shogi match, or beating someone in a spar. Instead, for some demented reason Kakashi had to believe in his ability to save an entire village from certain destruction by a rampaging four-story tall monster.

At least he still had Shukaku on his tail. They were more or less at the outskirts of the village now, where the great wall divided Suna from endless desert.

With a few chakra-enhanced leaps, Naruto summited the wall and faced the enormous beast.

"Pathetic maggot," the creature spat. "I will crush you!"

"No doubt," Naruto agreed. "But you'll have to catch me first, shithead!" And with that, he dove off the wall and into the desert.

Shukaku followed, plowing through the enormous structure as if it were made of cardboard. The amount of sand in the air was amazing. It was only Naruto's own skillful manipulation of the wind around him that kept his skin from being eroded away.

For a brief moment the two opponents stood motionless, one dwarfing the other, while the desert wailed around them.

Then the blond bit his thumb and slammed his hand into the ground, hoping desperately that he had enough chakra left for what he was about to do.

When the coils of smoke cleared, the great scarred toad Gamabunta stared coldly down at his summoner.

"Brat," he said in his deep, rumbling voice, "I haven't forgiven you yet."

"That's fine," Naruto replied, as if they were having a conversation over coffee. "D'you think you can forgive me enough though, to stop this sand demon from killing me?"

The great toad locked eyes with Shukaku. "A frog!" the tanuki screamed in its twisted voice. "I'll rend your flesh and dance on your bones!"

Gamabunta gave a long-suffering sigh. "Kid, I don't know how you manage to get yourself in these kinds of situations. But for the sake of your old man, climb on."

"What about for my own sake?" Naruto muttered as he alighted on top Gamabunta's head. "We've got to get close enough so I can jump over and smack Gaara until he wakes up."

With a degree of swiftness surprising for his size, Gamabunta surged forward, brandishing his great knife. Shukaku leapt back to avoid the blow, but the knife caught him in side and he screeched with pain. Immediately sand snaked from the ground to fill in the wound. Recovering, the sand demon sucked in a vast amount of air and pounded hard on his hugely distended belly.

The resulting bullets of wind rent air and sand alike. Gamabunta managed to avoid the first barrage, but the second caught him by surprise, connecting with his shoulder and knocking him back several hundred meters. The toad regained his feet with a groan.

"Can't take too many more of those, kid. You got a light?"

The toad boss jumped forward once more, this time spewing a large stream of oil from his mouth, which Naruto promptly set on fire with a quick katon jutsu. The impromptu flamethrower enveloped the lower part of Shukaku's body with a heat so fierce that it temporarily immobilized the tanuki's legs.

Gamabunta charged at the demon once more, intending to take Naruto close enough to jump over, but Shukaku flailed madly, one of its paws clipping the air inches above the blond's head. The accompanying wind nearly knocked Naruto off the toad boss, but he hung on gamely.

"No good," Gamabunta panted. "Again!"

He inhaled and spat, but this time Naruto waited until Shukaku's arm had been drenched in oil before loosing his fire jutsu. The tanuki's limb lit up violently, and as it patted the flames out, Gamabunta was able to bear Naruto close enough to where Gaara's body lay, embedded in Shukaku's great head.

"Good luck, brat," Naruto heard the toad boss say as he dashed forward and leapt for all he was worth. "I'm at my limit, so I'll see you later."

He did not land prettily, but the blond was able to hold on and regain his feet. He scrambled for Gaara, but before he could get to him, a massive paw of sand enveloped him, plucking him off as if he were a fly. The ground and sky whirled into one around him as he was lifted away.

Shukaku's massive face leered at him psychotically as it screeched, "Suffer! I will make your death slow!" And the demon began to squeeze.

The pressure was overwhelming. It didn't take long before Naruto felt his ribs crack and his vision begin to blur. As he felt himself slip into unconsciousness, something seemed crawl up from deep within him -- something that burned and roiled with ancient anger. It was a part of himself that he had felt before, always familiar, sometimes closer to the surface than others. It had always been there to feed his deep-seated rage against Konoha and against his father, but now it was stirring into a different action.

Shukaku screamed in agony as the paw holding the Konoha-nin suddenly became enveloped in a dense mass of red chakra. The sand itself began to dissolve from the sheer heat, reforming as glass. An overwhelming presence blanketed the tanuki's small mind with a feeling of sheer terror.

"You!" the tanuki howled. "I know you!"

But it was Naruto's voice that answered him, although it was tinged with something deep and terrible.

"What the fuck are you talking about? Fucking burn, shithead!" And the blond wrenched free of its grasp, landing lightly on the lump of glass that used to be Shukaku's paw. Flaming chakra surrounded him and enveloped the whole of the demon's arm. Sand melted red-hot and dripped viscously onto the ground.

"You're fucking dead!" Naruto screamed, and in that moment he sounded rather psychotic himself. Waves of heat exploded from as the tide of red climbed higher and higher, licking the edge of Shukaku's head and growing dangerously close to Gaara's prone body. The air around the tanuki's body shimmered, mirage-like.

Then someone was screaming at him, "Naruto! Stop!"

It was Sasuke, bleeding and limping toward him. Sakura followed, supporting their jounin-sensei. All three were battered-looking and covered with dust.

The Uchiha's voice brought Naruto back to sanity, and suddenly he realized what he was doing, causing his rage to dissipate instantly. Slowly, the red chakra faded out like a dying flame.

Naruto scrambled along the curve of Shukaku's head, knelt by Gaara's exposed face, and gave it a good smack. The redhead's eyes snapped awake, and what remained of Shukaku's body also began to dissipate, leaving behind a platform of sand that bore Naruto and Gaara gently back down to earth.

"Ugh," the Kazekage winced, rubbing his head. "Fuck." He looked around. The wind was already gently redistributing the giant pile of sand Shukaku had left behind, but in addition there were large lumps of wickedly-edged glass everywhere. "What happened?"

Adrenaline was quickly leaving Naruto's body and being replaced by a feeling of heavy exhaustion. Still, he managed to grin at his friend.

"I'll tell you all about it later, but it's good to have you back," he said to Gaara. Then he closed his eyes. Gaara managed to catch him in a cushion of sand before he hit the ground.

Sasori watched from the distance, frowning. So Deidara had been killed. That was a great loss, as their organization numbered so few, but in return they had discovered the whereabouts of the Kyuubi at last. The leader's plan could finally be set into motion.

With a whirl of sand, the Suna missing-nin vanished from sight to report his findings.

Revised 8/9/09