Hey there guys! First of all, sorry for the late update. The reason? Well I was sick 'cough' 'cough' and typing this on my cell really took me for a ride this time though. But other than that, thanks for the reviews and suggestions (and special thanks to those who have been constantly reviewing...even when the fic had gotten a little boring).
POLL: Also, I'm setting up a poll for which element (Earth and Fire)should be unlocked for second level of Rinnegan cause it might be used in pseudo one too. Depending on the basic element, sub-elements & tertiary elements (and remember that the sub-elements & tertiary elements specified in ch 3 aren't the only ones that exist as stated in the scroll in ch 3) elements would be further unlocked. So yeah, choose carefully because the third level wouldn't be activating for a long time. And everyone please vote ^_^
Chapter-24-Clash of the Scorned Hosts
"Because….to forgive someone….t-that's something Naruto-kun taught me", she said, hugging him tightly to her as few tears glided down her cheeks. Meanwhile, seeing this strange scene, Genma walked to the standing pair and checked to see if Neji was unconscious now before announcing the match's results.
"WINNER: HYUUGA HINATA"
There was an eerie silence for a few seconds before the crowd lifted into loud cheers and applause, blowed away by the skills these young genins possessed.
"YEAH….GREAT MATCH!"
"AWESOME!"
"HINATA-SAMA, WILL YOU MARRY ME?"
"YOU ARE AMAZING HINATA!"
Random shouts came from stands making Hinata blush in embarrassment, her heart filling with pride and happiness due to the fact that they were cheering for her, recognizing her efforts and applauding for her. Putting Neji onto the stretcher which the medics had come with, she bowed to the crowd with a smile on her face as all of them stood up, their clapping getting louder for the Hyuuga heiress.
"HINATA-CHAN….YOU WERE FUCKING AWESOME!", shouted Naruto while Kin & Temari too cheered for her, they had become good friends with her over the month after all while Kiba, Sakura, Ino & Shino too applauded.
"THAT'S MY STUDENT….I'M PROUD OF YOU HINATA-CHAN!", yelled Kurenai while Kushina had a smile on her face. Meanwhile the people surrounding the ice queens backed away from Kurenai fearfully. Over the month, Kurenai and the other ice queens had started acting less coldly with each passing day and usually treated or greeted people with warm smiles on their faces, though the perverts still got their nuts cracked if they even dared look at them in a lecherous way. But, the bottom line was that some people were still not used to the warm ice queens, making them creep out every time they saw the four laugh or smile, and because of their changed behavior….their group had got the new name: the fire queens with Hiruzen stating that the will of fire burned brightly in them.
Meanwhile, blushing up a storm, Hinata quickly dashed to the balcony where all of the contestants were standing, wanting the undivided embarrassing attention she was getting to end soon.
"Hinata-chan!", said Naruto with a smile as he hugged her tightly, his eyes showing happiness and love for her, of how much he was proud of her while Hinata blushed darkly as she hugged him back, the brightest of the bright smiles on her face.
"That was like….awesome Hinata-chan….I never knew you could do the one twenty eight palms technique…I thought Hiashi oji only taught you the sixty four palms one", said Naruto with a smile, hint of curiosity licking his voice.
"Well…father did taught me sixty four palms….but after my second level was unlocked, I was seeing more chakra points than before and found that my speed and accuracy had improved tremendously, so I gave that technique a try which I found in the forbidden section of the Hyuuga library…..it was like it came to me naturally", she said with a smile after he released her from the hug.
"See….I told you that you were a genius Hinata-chan", he said with a smirk as she blushed at the compliment.
"It was only thanks to you Naruto-kun", she whispered back while it looked like she was debating with herself over something.
"Um Hinata-chan….is something wrong?", whispered Naruto in concern as he noticed that the other contestants too were looking at them and that Kiba & Gaara were already going down for their match after the proctor had called them. Meanwhile Hinata's cheeks were flaming red as she fidgeted in her spot.
"Hinata…?", he again asked, getting concerned while her head was down and thus couldn't see her blushing face.
"Um….Naruto-kun….g-good luck", she said while stuttering a bit making Naruto look at her dumbly.
"Huh?...That's why you are so nervous?", he deadpanned before his eyes widened when he found himself in a passionate lip lock with her, her eyes closed while her cheeks were tomato red. Releasing him…she looked at him shyly with a smile while he just blinked before a grin stretched over his face.
"Wow….Hinata…I never thought tha-"
"Just go Naruto-kun!", exclaiming with dark blush, she started to push him as the proctor was waiting for him.
"H-Hey….alright, alright I'm going….geez!", he exclaimed before shunshining out of the balcony. Appearing in front of Genma, he noticed that Gaara & Kiba were already standing there with serious faces.
"So….I've already explained the rules, breaking of which will result in immediate disqualification", said Genma as Naruto & Kiba nodded while Gaara just kept a passive face.
"Get ready now you three…..and remember, try not to kill each other as civilians and merchants are here too, hence it will not be a good display for them….but other than that, much of everything is allowed", explained Genma as the three stood apart several meters away from each other.
"Alright….finally it's time for showdown Ayumi-chan", he said inwardly while noticing that Kiba & Gaara had dead serious faces this time and knew that they had improved tremendously and would give a much better fight than they gave in preliminaries.
"Yeah…but don't go showing off like before….this time act like a shinobi and keep MOST of your abilities hidden…make them think that you haven't improved much. Remember Naruto….deception is the biggest weapon of a shinobi. You're a jinchuriki…there would be many people sitting in those stands who are here only for the sole purpose of seeing of what you're capable of and devising strategies against you….heck, there might be a member of Akatsuki among those civilians. So yeah….don't show off too much and use your powerful techniques ONLY when they are necessary", said Ayumi in a serious but soft tone while Naruto nodded with her, he had already discussed this with Kushina, Jiraiya, Kakashi and Ayumi before and knew that he had to follow the plan here.
He had already given the message in the preliminaries and this time, he would be subtle and fight like a shinobi….just like Jiraiya and Kakashi had asked him to.
"Hai Ayumi-chan….you just watch me…I'll make you proud", he said with a confident smirk, his body flowing with determination while she smiled at him.
'I'm already proud of you Naruto-kun', she thought with a fond smile.
'Watch me ero-sennin, Kakashi-sensei, Kaa-san and…..Itachi-nii….I'll make you guys proud', he thought with a smile, getting ready for the match, connecting which were the events which would have a huge impact on Konoha in the upcoming hours.
'Make your mother and your lover proud Naru-kun', thought Kushina with a loving smile while the ex-ice queens too were wishing him best of luck.
'Are you watching him sensei? He has grown so much….you would be so proud of him', thought Kakashi with a sad smile while among the stands, sat one civilian who was having similar thoughts.
'Let's see how much you have improved gaki….I've abandoned by research to come here, so don't you dare disappoint me kid', thought the one & only Jiraya, who sat there transformed into a civilian. If Kushina knew that he had actually come to see Naruto fight on the cost of his quality research…..he had never hear the end of it. He didn't want to admit to anyone that there was someone more important to him than his books for once…..but the boy was really making him soft.
"So…are you guys ready?", said the proctor while he continued to chew on his senbon, before he saw the three contestants nod ever so slightly.
"Alright….HAJIME!"
And with the familiar shout of the proctor…..nobody moved? The three contestants just stood there, tension in the arena flowing in waves as they waited for someone to make a move…or even just a signal. Kiba was standing, his legs stretched while Akamaru was on his head…both of them ready to jump at the first signs of any motion.
Gaara was as calm as ever, just standing there with his arms folded over his chest while his eyes were closed whereas the trained eyes of a shinobi could see fine sand particles rotating around him, ready to attack or defend at any second. And lastly was Naruto…..who was standing there while scratching his head, a confused expression on his face.
"Um…psst….Ayumi-chan….why are they just standing?", asked Naruto inwardly making her sweatdrop.
"Ahehe….oh I don't know….maybe they are waiting FOR YOU TO MAKE YOUR MOVE!", she screamed inside his head making him flinch as he outwardly started rotating his pinky in his ear.
"Geez! I was only joking Ayumi-chan….why do you always get so hyper?", he said making a vein pop on her forehead.
'Rely on my foxy-kun to joke with a demon sealed inside of him amidst a match', she thought with a chuckle before deciding to keep quiet and let him concentrate.
'Oh well….I had guessed that Kiba would immediately attack straight forward….but I guess Ino wasn't joking that day….these guys really have improved', he thought as the wind rustled their clothes and hair, while it looked to the observers like a Mexican stand off.
'Alright….I have to target Naruto first since he's easily above us all…and as much as I hate to say this…but I have to team up with Gaara this time', thought Kiba, observing Naruto who was looking like his mind was occupied elsewhere while Gaara just stood there with his eyes closed. Beads of sweat rolled down the Inuzuka's face, as the tension grew denser between the contestants.
'Aaahhh! Look at them….they are just standing there….their faces so calm like nothing is going on', he thought in frustration before taking few breaths, trying to calm himself down while Akamaru's growling too died down, both of them sort of meditating whereas the crowd was getting anxious as well as frustrated that none of them was moving even a muscle!
'Okay…calm down Kiba…remember all that torturous training you went through…..an Inuzuka should be calm as well as fierce during a battle….take deep breaths', he thought while Naruto himself had a blank expression on his face, just standing there. Though you could identify a slight bit of change in his expression when Gaara opened his eyes, which were calm but on the inside Naruto knew that there was a raging volcano waiting to be erupted.
"Uzumaki Naruto…", came the calm but emotionless voice of Gaara, as he now moved his hands down to his sides while Kiba slowly slipped into the typical Inuzuka clan's taijutsu whereas the blonde jinchuriki raised his eyebrows.
"I will prove my existence", came the slightly demonic voice of Gaara whose chakra flared while Naruto just blinked in confusion.
"Whatever that means…..", he muttered to himself when he noticed Kiba running towards him, his eyes widening at the speed at which the Inuzuka genin was closing the distance between them.
"Here I come Naruto…", said Kiba with a feral smirk as he watched the momentary surprised expression on Naruto's face before it turned into a grin, just standing there. Dust picking up wildly behind the blurry dashing form of Kiba, he reared his fist before going for the punch while Naruto noticed that it was chakra coated. Much to Kiba's surprise though, his fist just phased through Naruto's face before he skidded a long way due to his tremendous momentum.
'A bunshin? Since when can he create a bunshin?', thought Kiba before he suddenly turned around and with amazing precision and speed caught Naruto's foot which was going to collide with his head. Meanwhile Naruto had a surprised expression on his face…..just for a moment though before it turned into a smirk.
"I can smell ya Naruto", said Kiba with a smirk while Naruto's smirk turned into a grin whereas Gaara was just standing there…..strangely not taking part in the fight, his eyes calm & calculated.
'What's he doing? In the preliminaries, he was so eager to fight and kill someone…..but now….he's just standing there. What did they teach him in Oto anyway?', thought Temari with a shocked expression as she gazed worriedly upon her brother. Though most of the time, Gaara was a bloodthirsty monster and wanted nothing more than to kill someone….and though he scared her very much, he was still her brother and she cared for him. She could tell that Kankurou cared for him too….but didn't show it.
"Wow Kiba…..I gotta admit….you've improved drastically, much beyond my expectations", said Naruto with a smile, his leg still in the grip of the Inuzuka before he puffed into a smoke making Kiba curse inwardly.
'Damn him! His shadow clones really are a nuisance…', turning his head he saw Naruto standing, several meters behind Gaara who was still facing forward….as if not affected by anything.
'Hm...not bad...that Inuzuka sure has talent', thought A as he watched the match with a keen eye while Mei was wondering what Naruto was really capable of.
'I can tell that he's clearly holding back...looks like he's saving the fireworks for later', she thought while the Kazekage was frowning at Naruto.
'That brat...I bet that it was Kushina who had removed the curse seal from him...only she's the one who can possibly break that seal. She has always been a thorn in my side', he thought while gripping the furniture he was sitting on tightly. Orochimaru had come to know a few weeks ago that Naruto no longer possessed the curse seal had made him angry, but the fact that Anko no longer had the seal had made him downright furious for the had plans for his ex pupil in the future.
'Though Sasuke-kun has shown himself to be a promising candidate too...guess we'll reserve Naruto-kun and that Hyuuga hieress for later', he further thought.
Meanwhile Naruto was inwardly frowning at Gaara's unmoved form, he was watching him since the match had started and wasn't able to decipher what the sand jinchuriki was upto.
"His chakra levels have been rising ever since the match has started...what is he planning anyway", said Naruto inwardly when he heard Ayumi speak.
"And what's more...that shukaku's chakra has been growing steadily too",, making Naruto's eyes widen a bit before he made a dash towards Gaara, intent on stopping him from doing whatever the guy had in mind.
'I definitely didn't know he could harness his bijuu's chakra like that', he thought as he had vanished from the civilian's sight, following the zig zag path making dust trail behind him while Gaara still hadn't moved whereas Kiba was standing back, watching as Naruto moved to attack Gaara.
'Heh...his speed is the same as a month ago...what was he upto anyway, eating ramen?', thought Kiba amusedly, matching the thoughts of jounins, genins and kages who had seen him fight a month ago, thought they had an almost confirmed suspicion that he was holding back, or rather was wearing training weights.
Naruto, rearing his leg back went for a kick at Gaara's back before much...MUCH to the surprise of almost everyone there who had seen Gaara fight a month ago, his kick was blocked when a wall of slightly red glowing sand shot up and easily absorbed the impact.
"W-What...", trailed Naruto before he blurred back and barely dodged a hand made up of that same reddish sand and appeared several meters behind the STILL standing one-tailed jinchuriki.
"What the fuck was that?", muttered Kiba as he watched wide eyed, the sand rolling around Gaara in tendrils. The speed with which his sand had moved...scratch that, he hadn't even seen the sand move! It was ridiculous! How Naruto was able to dodge that blow...he had no idea.
'Gaara...what's happening here? And why does that sand looks reddish..', thought Temari before she gasped in realisation.
'Could it be the work of his inner demon',her thoughts continued while most of the people in the arena had amazed expressions on their faces.
"Ayumi-chan...what was that? His defense...not only has it gotten faster...but stronger too", he said inwardly.
"I can feel that his sand is youki enhanced...this time he's not using his normal chakra to merge with the sand...it's definitely Shukaku's chakra that has enhanced his defence tremendously", she said making him eyes become wide before he nodded while Kiba just stood there, trying to take in this new development.
Meanwhile Kushina already had her Sharingan activated and had a shocked expression on her face. The reason? Because she could see red chakra flowing through the sand.
'But...how can this kid harness his bijuu's chakra...and not only is he harnessing it, but to incorporate it into his sand, he's controlling it pretty effectively too', she thought while Kakashi was thinking the same thing.
'Kukuku...looks like training the Suna's jinchuriki was a good idea after all...let's see how you handle him now Naruto-kun. I'm glad though that I didn't kill the Kazekage earlier...for without him, this wouldn't have been possible', thought Orochimaru with a smirk while the other three kages were stupified at the strange events that were taking place.
'But...a month ago, he couldn't even control Shukaku's bloodlust and it's chakra, his youki was wild before...and now, it's tamed and he's controlling it to his will", said Naruto as he racked his brain for any possible explanation.
"Look Naruto-kun...something really suspicious is going on here. For that kid to control youki like that...he must have trained himself very harshly...no, someone taught him. And not just anyone...it has to be someone special to be able to acquire such a feat in just a month", she explained to him while he nodded with her...a bit nervous since he knew what a jinchuriki could be capable of. And if Gaara could fully control Shukaku...then he was in for one hell of a ride.
"Heh...this match has just gone up a notch", thought Naruto with a smirk before he heard the hollow, but calm voice of Gaara.
"Are you done talking with it...Uzumaki Naruto?", said Gaara, still facing forward, his eyes closed while Naruto narrowed his eyes.
'This guy...'
"Is it telling you to fear me? Is it telling you to run for your life?", he again spoke while Kiba just looked at him in confusion.
'I think this guy hit his head pretty hard over the month', he thought with a sigh while Akamaru growled besides him.
"Naah...actually she's saying to kick your ass", said Naruto with a smirk before he started going through a couple of handseals.
'Let's see if some ninjutsu is effective against your special sand...I don't have water anywhere here and neither can I create it like Kaa-san, lightning would just lead to earthing since sand is an insulator...wind, it might work', he thought with a serious expression. Ending with the rooster handsign, he muttered.
"Futon: Kami Oroshi (Wind Release: Godly Wind from the Mountains)", putting his hands in position (just like in Kamehameha of DBZ), he released swirling horizontal vortex of wind from the core of his both hands, which flew towards Gaara at blinding speeds as dust picked up and revolved around the jet-like attack before it hit the same sand wall, creating explosive gusts of wind. Shielding their eyes, both Naruto & Kiba looked intently, trying to peirce through the dust cloud that was created around Gaara. Naruto exhaled small amounts of wind chakra from his mouth resulting in the dust screen blowing away to reveal a reddish sand dome, in which Gaara must've been standing, Naruto deduced.
'Looks like his sand is way too condensed to disintegrate it into individual particles...damn, I guess I have to use sub elemental techniques to get through that irritating defense of his. Though I can't say I donot enjoy challenging fights for once...from guys around my age especially', he thought with a smirk before a surprised expression took birth on his face when he saw Kiba attack Gaara.
"GATSUUGA! (Fang Over Fang)", the Inuzuka yelled before the combined rotating form of Kiba and Akamaru hit the sand dome dead on. Dust again flew off, obstructing their forms from the civilians sight while Naruto waited to see if it had worked, though he was mostly sure that it wouldn't have. Everyone saw two shadowy blurs jump out of the smoke, the two figures skidding across the dirt before it revealed two Kibas standing there, with no injuries but sand over them as they dusted themselves off.
"Damn! It almost worked!", one of them yelled making Naruto's eyes widen in shock.
'What!', he exclaimed in his mind before he again blurred out to appear several meters to the right of the Inuzuka duo (in front of Gaara). The dust blew off because of the light breeze for it to reveal a hole in the dome, a small spiralling one which was being restored at astounding rates by the reddish sand.
'But...', Naruto's shocked face turned into a smirking one before he spoke to Kiba.
"Kiba my man...you are a genius!", he exclaimed enthusiastically.
"Huh? What ar-",
"You had your shots...now it's my turn", the perplexed Inuzuka was interrupted by a hollow demonic voice sending chills down the Inuzuka's spine. Both of them turned their heads to see the dome dissipating for it to reveal Gaara, completely unharmed who had this blood thirsty gleam in his eyes making Kiba nervous while Naruto just looked at the sand jinchuriki calmly.
Gaara just stood there, his gaze never leaving Naruto before, slowly large sand hands formed behind the still jinchuriki. Both Naruto's and Kiba's eyes widened when the hands started to rotate around Gaara, their speeds increasing before it was nothing but a blur to even Naruto's eyes as wind started to pick up and started to flow outwards making both of them shield their eyes from the dust particles.
Meanwhile, almost everyone had their jaws on the ground as they gazed at the sand jinchuriki perform such feats which no genin couldn't even imagine to do.
'This kid...having such control over his bijuu at such young age...he's the only one besides Haku that can even compare to Naruto in talent I guess. Let's see how you handle this one Naruto', thought Kakashi while the ex-ice queens were looking mesmerised at the battle that was taking place whereas Kushina had a smirk on her face.
'It would be interesting to see how sochi counters this'
"Sand Shuriken", whispered Gaara as the wildly rotating hands started to throw sand shuriken projectiles at speeds which could be described as mind boggling.
'No Kiba!', thought Hana in worry as Kiba was only standing there, it seemed like he couldn't even see the attack that was coming towards him. Just as Kiba was about to be hit, Naruto suddenly appeared before he pushed the Inuzuka to the side with him falling too because of the momentum leading to both of them barely dodging the wave of sand shuriken which had passed from above them. Akamaru puffed back while he skidded with Kiba whereas Naruto had flipped over, his shadow falling on Kiba's body who looked up to see the blonde facing forwards with a frown on his face.
'Guess crippling him once in a week was an excellent idea indeed...what the boy was capable of seeing earlier only through Rinnegan, now he can do that with his normal eyes...Kushi-chan is really something', thought Jiraiya with a smirk before he watched Gaara with a frown.
'The Suna's jinchuriki...the way he's controlling the sand, an ability granted by Shukaku...I'm sure that someone has either tampered with the seal which is holding the bijuu in...or it could be that the seal has weakened. The kid should've become more bloodthirsty than before...but he's as calm as a cucumber', the toad sanin thought before he left his thoughts to concentrate on the match.
"N-Naruto...why did you...", the Inuzuka trailed with surprise in his voice before Naruto answered.
"That attack could've killed you...or crippled you for life", making Kiba's eyes widen while Akamaru was on his chest whimpering.
"But I couldn't even see them!", he exclaimed in shock making Naruto sigh.
"Use your enhanced ability to smell you idiot...you're letting the pressure get to you", he replied making Kiba scoff.
"All I can smell on that guy is sand...nothing else", he said before standing up.
"Smell harder...do you smell any foul odour coming from his chakra"
Putting chakra in his nose, extending his senses to the max...Kiba's face turned into that of an expression of realisation.
"Yeah...it's faint...but there is that foul odour. I guess that's why Akamaru was growling", muttered Kiba as Naruto nodded with him.
"You're really something Uzumaki...let's see you dodge it this time", growled Gaara as the hands which were now moving slowly again sped up making Naruto and Kiba's eyes widen as they readied themselves.
"Naruto-kun...release the first level", came the calm voice of Ayumi making Naruto's eyes widen.
"So early?", he asked making her sigh.
"Listen here...that kid over there is channeling much larger amounts of youki than before and you should do something unless you want your friend here to die", she said to him making him nod as he formed one handed ram seal, closing his eyes to concentrate.
"Release: Tier 1!", he exclaimed, passing chakra through the gravity seal on his chest as suddenly he could feel the effects.
"Aahh...that feels good...light as a feather!", he said while stretching his arms and shoulders, cracking his muscles whereas Kiba just looked at him like he was crazy.
"Sand Shuriken Barrage", the Inuzuka heard before he felt himself being grabbed along with Akamaru. The next thing Kiba knew was that his head was spinning when he was dropped to the ground along with Akamaru.
"W-What...h-happened?", he asked while grabbing his head.
"I saved your ass...that's what happened", he heard the familiar voice of Naruto. Opening his eyes, his jaw dropped as he gazed upon the destruction that had followed Gaara's attack.
"Holy...shit...", he mutteredbefore standing up, a bit shakily while noticing that Akamaru too had recovered from the aftermath of the attack. In front of them, the whole ground was covered with reddish sand while there were several deep craters, formed due to the blast caused by hundreds of sand coated shuriken that Gaara had unleashed upon them.
Meanwhile, almost everyone was stunned into silence...their brains taking time to process what they had seen had really happened.
'H-He dodged everyone of them...every single of them while carrying the other contestant and his partner. Normally I wouldn't be surprised if it was a Sharingan user who did this...but Naruto-san, the whole time he didn't even had his Rinnegan activated', thought Yugito with an astonished face, possibly matching the thoughts of almost everyone out there.
'You know you want him kitten', Nibi purred in her head making her blush who this time, decided to stay quiet and concentrate on what was going on.
'Nicely done Naruto', thought Kakashi with his U-shape eye smile while Hana sighed in relief.
'Thank Kami Kiba's okay...thanks Naruto-kun', thought the Inuzuka fire queen with a grateful smile.
"Oh...now this is what you call a fight", said Anko as she ate chips frantically, her eyes glued to the fight that was going down there making Kurenai and Yugao sweatdrop at her antics. Kushina though had a frown etched on her face as she stared intently at Gaara with her Sharingan having two tomoes.
'Something is wrong here...no child of his age should be capable of performing such feats with Naruto being the exception because of Ayumi cooperating with him. Someone strong...really strong must have taught him...he's not using his normal chakra at all, all I can see is red chakra in that defense of his', thought Kushina while Jiraiya & Hiruzen too were looking at Gaara solemnly. Meanwhile, Gaara had an astonished look on his face.
'So he was holding back on me all the time...he was toying with me!', thought Gaara as he clenched his fists, his chakra rising through the roofs making Naruto's & everyone else's eyes widen as they could feel the foul effects of a bijuu's chakra.
"Uzumaki Naruto...", came the partial demonic voice of Gaara, his hair defying gravity as they started to lift upwards before he put his hands in a snake handseal.
"Kiba! Stay close...that guy's upto something insane!", said Naruto with the uttermost seriousness in his voice while Kiba nodded with him...his facial expression that of a lost puppy who clearly had no idea of what was going on. Well, he was caught up into a jinchuriki duel after all...no matter how much he may have had trained, but the amount of that foul smelling chakra Gaara was emitting was suffocating.
"SAND TSUNAMI!", the Suna jinchuriki yelled before much to everybody's mind boggling surprise, a huge...HUGE wall of sand erupted behind Gaara, shadowing more than half of the stadium while it's hieght reached to the top of the stands. The spectators had their heads lifted as they gazed at the humongous sand structure, their eyes as wide as they could get.
'This gaki...just how much strong is he?', thought Mei with a stunned expression while the other shinobi except a few ones were wondering the same thing. Kurenai was clenching the garment of her top as she gazed worriedly at Naruto and Kiba...she certainly wasn't expecting for them to go against this much skill. Kushina though, had a serious expression on her face.
"This is getting out of control...there's definitely something wrong with that guy", muttered Kakashi making Kushina nod with him.
"Hai...but I trust Naru-kun...I've trained him to atleast stand against S-class shinobi...I know he'll keep himself and Kiba out of harm. But I have this bad feeling that something's about to happen ...be on your toes", she said quietly to him making him nod lightly, their sitting forms being shadowed by the sand wall.
"Naruto-kun...", trailed Hinata in worry for her object of affection while Kin, Temari, Ino, Mei and Sakura were worried for him too.
'Gaara...just what did you went through in Oto to gain such power', thought Temari as she put her hand over her chest, not only worried for Naruto...but also for her little brother.
Meanwhile Kiba was frozen in fear and awe of the sight in front of him with Akamaru hiding in his coat, his hands trembling with fear and anxiety.
'Kami...just what are we facing here? This is no ordinary shinobi...I'm completely out of his league...fuck this! No amount of training in one month would've prepared me for this...not even Garouga would be effective against this...but Naruto might...', his thoughtsthough trailed after he had turned to look at the blond, only to see his face sporting equal stunned expression.
'Great! If Naruto is intimidated by this...then we're truly done for...though I don't blame the guy...any genin would soil his pants in front of this maniac'.
"Ayumi-chan...where is all that sand coming from anyway, surely all of this wasn't stored in that gourd of his", he inwardly consulted her.
"That gaki...he had been still ever since the match started...my guess is that he was digging his chakra deep into the ground, moulding it into the minerals. Sand is something which can be created on almost any land...he was actually preparing for this from the start...clever one indeed", spoke Ayumi in his mindscape making his eyes widen in amazement. Though the guy had serious mental problems, his strategy for this match had to be appreciated.
'Damn...I really underrestimated you Gaara...oh well, guess I'll become a little bit serious here', thought Naruto as he smirked while Kiba had just given up hope.
Gaara though had a maniacal smile on his face, his hands still in the snake handsign to maintain the technique while you could see red tendrils of chakra swirling around him, the wall behind him looking like a hungry predator waiting to be unleashed on it's prey.
"Let's see where you run this time...Mother says goodbye Uzumaki", said Gaara, his voice demonic as his grin became more maniacal before he pointed his right fist outwards. Much to the crowd's increasing state of awe and amazement, the huge sunray obstructor made up of sand slowly began to fall forward while Gaara's youkified defense surrounded him. Meanwhile Genma had shunshined out of the area to appear on the opposite side of the sand wall. It's shadow elongating, the mind numbing structure began to descend faster due to gravitation while Kiba began to step backwards in paralysed fear as beads of sweat rolled down his face, the natural sound of sand particles rubbing against each other sounding like his funeral melody before he snapped out of his trance when felt his shoulder being grabbed.
"WHY IS HE JUST STANDING THERE?", yelled Ino as she stood up from her seat after witnessing that Naruto was standing still like a statue while Sakura too had a wide eyed expression on her face, her eyes filled with immense fear.
BOOM!
The Suna jinchuriki's creation finally collided with the solid ground, it's impact thunderous, shaking the arena to it's cores while it felt like an earthquake had struck the stadium. The contestants struggled to maintain their footing as the spectators too grabbed their seats tightly.
'You are indeed something Naruto-kun', thought Orochimaru, barely restraining himself from cackling like a mad man while Hiruzen had a relieved expression on his face, matching Mei's one whereas A too had an approving smile on his face.
Ino, Sakura, Kin and Temari had completely torn looks on their faces as they watched the desert formed by Gaara's attack, where Naruto & Kiba were previously standing, now acting like a coffin for them.
'Is he...dead?', they thought simultaneously, as if the word 'dead' itself was tearing their heart apart, though Gaara left no room for any further thoughts.
"Sand Burial!", came the demonic voice of Gaara who slammed his hands on the sand coated area he had created while the crowd could see the vast amounts of sand hardening immediately, contracting around itself giving them an idea of what would've happened if they were trapped in there. The ones who had seen Gaara fight in the preliminaries knew that it was over...heck, they were sure that the duo was dead.
Tears started to glide down Ino's, Kin's, Temari's & Sakura's cheeks as they slowly came to a bitter realisation that Naruto & Kiba, both were dead. No matter how strong Naruto may have been, there was no way he could've even survived such wide-scale technique.
"Naruto-kun and Kiba-kun...both are fine", came the soft but stern voice of Hinata making Temari & Kin turn their heads to see the Hyuuga hieress, her Toyotama Byakugan activated making them wide eyed while Shino had informed Sakura and Ino too.
"B-But how...?", asked Kin as Hinata continued to watch a specific spot of the sand-filled area.
"Just watch...", she said with a smirk while up there, Kushina too sighed in relief with the fire queens matching her expression of relief.
'That baka...he almost gave me a heart attack', thought the Uzumaki while Kakashi had a hand on his heart as he gazed at the sky.
'Minato-sensei...he truly enjoys giving us heart attacks...just like you'.
Down at battlefield, Genma coughed because of the sand particles flying here and there. Since he was behind Gaara he jumped towards where Naruto and Kiba were previously standing. The spectators though, some were happy that the demon was killed while some of them were enraged...angered that this outsider had killed their hero. And just as supporters of Naruto were going to go berserk in protest and anger, they suddenly noticed that the spot near which Genma was standing, especially the sand started to rotate. The rotation of sand started from a spot of small area before the circular area increased, particles of sand shifting as a conical vortex was slowly becoming larger while Gaara's eyes widened. Trying to control the sand, he found that it was getting wild...out of his control before wind started picking up around the area.
'What's happening?', thought Genma before he jumped back while shielding his eyes. He was going to announce Gaara as the winner when this had happened.
BHHOOOMM!
The sand exploded upwards as an extremely strong wave of what could be called as a raging whirlwind ascended from the sand's grasp. It's flow wild, suddenly three shadows came out flying out of the hole the tornado had created. Everyone's jaws dropped when it revealed for them to see a completey unharmed Naruto & Kiba fly high in the air because of the whirlwind.
"KIBA...LET'S DO IT!", shouted Naruto while in mid air making one of the Kiba smirk back at him.
Both Kiba and Akamaru(Henged) started to rotate together around each other, forming the shape of a rotating corkscrew as they headed towards an astonished form of Gaara with amazing speeds.
"Kage Bunshin No Jutsu!", exclaimed Naruto, his eyes still normal before two clones popped besides him in mid air. Grabbing both of them by their arms, he started rotating them with high speeds before releasing the doppelgangers, targetting them at Gaara who now had his amplified defense in front of him.
"Gatsuuga! (Fang Over Fang)", yelled Kiba before their rotating forms crashed into Gaara's sand defense leading to dust again covering them.
"Alright...let's do this", said a clone in his mid flight, both of them using gravity impulses at the sole of their feet to amplify their speeds before one of them extended his hand (open palm)towards the other who started to gather up chakra in the hand.
'No...how could he have...', trailed almost every jounin & chunin there who were bug eyed as they had immediately recognised the technique. White chakra started to rotate in the clone's hands before it formed a perfect white glowing sphere of rotating chakra, completely engulfing his palm. His work done, the clone who had gathered the chakra puffed out while the other continued at blurry speeds towards where dust had picked up around Gaara.
"KIBA...OUT OF THE WAY!", the clone yelled before Kiba with Akamaru jumped out of the dust cloud, making it blow away to reveal the same corckscrew dent in the youkified sand wall just like before.
"RASENGAN!(Spiralling Sphere)", the clone yelled, the white glowing orb hitting the cavity in his defense dead on while the original Naruto landed on the ground with a smirk. The yondaime's technique easily penetrating the already weak spot of the defense, collided with the stomach of a wide eyed Gaara. The white glow of an explosion expanded outwards while Gaara flew backwards at blurry velocity, his body rotating in midair due to the Rasengan before he slammed into the stadium wall with a voilent crashing sound. Debris flew everywhere as dust covered his form which was embedded in a crater formed in the concrete. Everyone was slack-jawed as they had just witnessed the Yondaime's technique being performed by a genin...evens jounins couldn't do this technique!
"Hokage-dono...if I'm not mistaken, that's Yondaime's technique right?", asked A making Hiruzen nod who knew that Naruto had learned the Rasengan.
"But it took him three years to master that technique! How can Naruto have learned it in just one month?", asked Mei with surprise practically dripping from her voice making the Sarutobi smirk.
"Let's just say Uzumaki are good ay breaking records", he replied with sarcasm.
'Hmm...good presence of mind...Naruto had seen what Kiba's technique had done to his defence earlier...he had understood that blind direct attacks wouldn't work and that he needed attacks which composed of rotation and raw power...and using Rasengan, which was the perfect technique for the work here, to amplify the damage caused by Gatsuuga was an ingenius idea indeed', thought Kakashi with a smile before he took out a familiar orange book. Just as he opened the first page, it turned wet completely like it was soaked in water. A look of horror came across his face when he heard a sweet voice.
"How many times have I told you not to read this smut Kakashi-kun", he turned his head to see the dark face of Kushina making him sweat nervously as he nodded to her meekly before she smiled and turned back to the match.
'Why do you hate me Kami?', he thought while quietly sobbing to himself making Yugao sigh at his antics.
'That's his book no. 53 which has been soaked this month', she thought while the other three were snickering to themselves in amusement of Kakashi's plight.
Meanwhile Hinata, who had her Toyotama Byakugan activated had noticed something ...something minute on Naruto's hair which not even Sharingan was capable of seeing.
'Those particles...their crystals? I get it now...he must have used crystal release that not even Gaara's best technique could penetrate', she thought with amazement...stunned that he was able to form such a strong defense in just a manner of seconds.
"Did it work?", asked Kiba after landing besides the original Naruto who had a victorious smirk on his face.
"Look for yourself"
Turning his head, Kiba's lips tugged up when he saw the unconscious form of Gaara embedded into the wall whose clothes were torn, especially where the Rasengan had impacted.
Though they lost their smiles when the seemingly injured Gaara slowly turned into sand which fell to the ground.
Nothing...
'A sand clone? Or was it...a substitution?', thought Naruto before he felt something move beneath his feet making his eyes widen. Tendrils of that same youkified sand were wrapped around his legs and were making their way upwards.
"AAHHH!", he turned his head to see Kiba flying back at tremendous speeds, courtesy of a fist made up of reddish sand.
"You thought you could erase my existence Uzumaki? I'll never vanish as long as there are people like you for me to kill", turning his head, Naruto saw Gaara emerging several meters in front of him with a dead-cold expression, his eyes showing the amount of bloodlust he was having.
"I should've asked you this earlier...but why are you doing this Gaara? Are you too weak to let the Shukaku control you like that?", said the blond jinchuriki with a serious face while the sand had now completely covered his lower body.
"Sand Coffin!", exclaimed the Suna jinchuriki, ignoring Naruto's question before Naruto now became completely covered by the red sand making Gaara's wicked grin become wider. Outstretching his palm with his fingers crunched, he spoke.
"Sand Buri-"
"Shinra Tensei! (Divine Judgement)", came the muffled shout of Naruto before the sand coating around him disintegrated into small sand particles making Gaara's eyes widen in shock.
'He broke my sand coffin! It's that same gravitational technique of his', he thought before he saw Naruto doing three handseals.
Lightning started to crack in Naruto's right hand, before it was completely engulfed by it, the lightning producing sounds as if thousands of birds were chirping in chorus.
"Chidori!(Thousand Birds)"
And cut! Well...I tried to make action in this chapter good but it might be lacking a , the things about Gaara being too powerful and other things which you can't understand at the moment, so don't go flaming on me saying that I'm making other characters godlike too...the reason they're strong is because of Naruto gaining the Rinnegan in Forest of Death which had life changing effects on everybody and hence the summary I gave is being justified. BUT, it's not like they would be super strong (with the exception of Gaara but he wouldn't compare to Naruto and maybe even Hinata because of her secondary Byakugan...the rest like Neji & Kiba, I made reasonably powerful because of Gai's & Inuzuka clan's training respectively and other things), they are just stronger than they were in the canon due to some extra motivation (Naruto)...nothing more, nothing less(I addressed this issue because people somehow misunderstood what I said here and complained about it in the reviews for this chapter). This is a NARUTO CENTRIC fic and often Naruto will get the chance to shine (hope this pleases you guys). The fact about Gaara being trained in Oto...if you think it's a stretch, then I have reasons and anyone of the likes of Orochimaru(extremely manipulative) could've given Gaara the option of gaining more power to erase Naruto's existence, for he had seen how powerful Naruto was in prelims. Not sure if many of you guys would like Chidori, but considering that Kakashi was also his teacher during the month and that Naruto showed his control over lightning element in preliminaries, it was like...COMPLETELY logical for the guy to teach his sensei's son that move (and considering that pseudo second level Rinnegan eliminates the defect of tunnel vision ^_^).
The start of invasion is just two or three paragraphs away (which I was lazy to write ^_^), so don't sweat about this chapter being wasted on one fight alone...
Oh well...but please for god's sake, REVIEW! The last chapter which was action packed got even lesser reviews than the flashback chapter (this is absurd really)...I know you guys hate Hinata but c'mon. These chapters are like golden...with the invasion and all and I'm really expecting reviews like you gave me in the preliminaries. Through this, I'm atleast able to know what your current views are for the fic and the chapter...it's not like I can read your thoughts sitting hundreds of miles away...if I'm putting my part of the dedication for this fic, then I can atleast expect some dedication in feedbacks from you guys right? I know some of you are lazy, well I'm too...but I always give review to the updated chapters of the fics that I read because I know just what a single review can do to an author (it can lift his spirits tremendously or discourage him, if flamed unecessarily/harsh criticism). So please, let your thoughts about the chapters (especially like these where the plot twists and action takes place) fly to me.
Ahem, sorry if that rant frustrated you or anything...but sometimes frustration goes to my head too (in this case, it might be sickness though ^_^). Also, please vote for the POLL and I hope next chapter would come out sooner than this. Adios my friends and take care!
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