Akiko said, "Alright Gaara. Bring it!" as she drew two explosive tags from her tool pouch and held one in each hand. Gaara shot towards her. She ducked and spun around Gaara as he rocketed past her, unable to touch her once again, this time though, she stuck an explosive tag on the underside of the sandy tail where it met Gaara's back.

This time, instead of continuing on past Akiko, Gaara planted his sand-arm onto the ground, stopping his flight. Then he whipped Akiko to the side, slamming his tail into her as she was attempting to stand. Akiko slammed into the wall. Gaara shot a ball of sand at her in order to keep her where she was, before she could deal more damage than she already had. Gaara almost screeched, "Stop resisting...I can't...con...trooolll!" grabbing his head from the pain.

Akiko smirked and said, "Haven't you heard? I never give up!" as she brought her hands together in a seal. Two explosions were generated, stunning most of the spectators, with the exception of Genma, Akiko and the Kage's in their observation box.

XXXXX

As she saw the twin explosions on Gaara's back Temari gripped the handrail as she thought, 'Oh no! How did she managed to discover the only weak point of that transformation?!'

Shikamaru, who had returned to the competitor's box, not having acquired a spectator's ticket, saw Temari's reaction and thought, 'Does she know something about this freak? Well, it is her brother after all.' Shikamaru let out a sigh of relief when he saw the sand holding Akiko in place fall to the ground, letting her get away.

XXXXX

Back on the field Akiko wasted no time in getting away from the wall, coming to a stop roughly fifteen metres away from the, in her opinion, freak of nature. Gaara sneered, "You shouldn't have done that! Mother doesn't like it when it's my blood!" as sand seeped from every one of his pores. Soon enough he was covered in sand, but what freaked Akiko, and Genma, out more, was when it kept on pouring out, up until it started to take on a shape. A minute later it had formed into a massive, sandy, raccoon.

Akiko said, "Is this the thing you were talking about?" seeing no point in hiding her conversation with her tenant.

'Yes,' Kyūbi said. 'This is the thing that the Sand Village sealed into the poor boy.'

"Yeah well, this 'poor boy' is going to go berserk, if he hasn't already, destroying most of Konoha along with it,"

Genma said, "Alright, I declare this match over, stand down," looking up at the massive raccoon.

Akiko drily said, "I don't think that he really cares about that right now," looking up at the man that now stood beside her.

Genma started to say, "Maybe not. But your match is ov..." before he felt an area genjutsu being cast on all of those at the stadium. He dispelled it from Akiko as she clearly was unable to do so herself. Akiko snapped out of it. Before she could say anything else though, he said, "I need you to take care of the..."

"No way! This is my match and I'm going to finish it," as she bit on her thumb, letting out the blood necessary for her summoning jutsu. As she did the seals, she heard the Kyūbi try to tell her not to do it, but Akiko ignored her warning, knowing that she would be unable to defeat the Ichibi alone. She slammed her hand on the ground, announcing, "Kuchiyose!" causing a multitude of arcane symbols to extend forth from her hand. Then something happened that no one, except the Kyūbi expected. Akiko disappeared, leaving nothing but a cloud of smoke to tell Genma, and anybody else, what happened.

Genma said, "Typical. The number one unexpected ninja strikes again; and after giving me that line about never giving up too." He thought, 'Well...I guess that I'll have to do something about it after all. It's too bad that Raido and Iwashi aren't here, if they were then we could use the Hiraishin to get this monster out of here...I knew that this was a bad idea, me proctoring this test.'

XXXXX

Meanwhile, Raido and Iwashi were thinking much the same thing as they saw the monster rise up, dwarfing the stadium from their position on top of the walls of Konoha. Iwashi said, "Let's go Raido, Genma will need our help."

Raido replied, "No way. Our mission is to guard these walls. Genma can handle himself, even without the use of Hiraishin." He thought, 'You better not make a liar out of me Genma. If you do I'll bring you back to life so I can kill you myself.'

XXXXX

Genma, looking up at the Ichibi in front of him, said, "Well, you're a big one aren't you?" He received only an inaudible screech as a reply, before the Ichibi's massive arm swiped at him. Genma jumped away from the monster, hoping that fighting from a distance would work against the monster in front of him as it had against Gaara for Akiko. Unfortunately he failed to take into account the full size of the Ichibi and got clipped when he was just about to exit the Ichibi's range. As Genma was about to hit the wall, he found himself in the hands of a brown haired kunoichi that he hadn't seen for over a decade, her hair writhing above and around her head. "You're a sight for sore eyes."

"Yeah, better than being just sore," Rin joked.

"I thought I was meant to make the jokes," Genma said, smirking as he stood up.

"You are aware that nobody finds your jokes funny, right?"

"I seem to remember that I could always get a rise out of you."

Rin smiled and said, "I guess so," as she moved to stand next to him.

"Are you combat ready?"

"Who do you think you're talking to?" Rin demanded, her eyes alone enough to make even the strongest cower in fear. "I'm still the Kurokarei(1)," her shadow disappearing as her clothes turned black, leaving her in tight black pants, black, knee-high, shinobi sandals and a black close-fit yukata-style top with slightly darker black trimming.

"What did you..."

"Quit your chattering Genma," Rin almost ordered, her voice eerily calm given the situation, "or do I need to remind you how to fight?"

"Patience mistress impatience." Rin glared at Genma. "Alright, alright, let's go," giving the cue for them both to start their attacks.

XXXXX

In the stands Kakashi and Gai defended against the multiple Otogakure shinobi, fighting them off until Sakura distracted Kakashi, saying, "Sensei, what's going on," after she released the genjutsu that was used to try to put her to sleep.

Gai stepped in to save Kakashi, belting the shinobi, who had taken advantage of Kakashi's inattention and was trying to skewer Kakashi's face, away from them, and the genin nearby. Gai roughly said, "Watch what you're doing Kakashi! And you, Kakashi's brat, don't distract us!"

Kakashi turned to Gai and said, "Have you got this?" Gai nodded. "Sakura, I want you to release the genjutsu on Shikamaru, and any other shinobi you come across, and get any villagers that are still in their homes and on the streets to safety. After that, join the forces protecting the Hospital and other normally soft targets."

"Right!" Sakura said, eager to do her part(supposedly). She then rushed to Shikamaru and lightly hit him on his shoulder, sending chakra into his system, when she realised that he had already released the genjutsu and was now sleeping normally. Sakura screamed, "Come...ON!" annoyed with the lazy genin.

XXXXX

Meanwhile, in the Kage box, Hiruzen said, "So, this was your scheme, Kazekage?"

"Indeed it was, Sarutobi-sensei, although the battle plan has not gone off quite as I had expected it to." Hiruzen smirked. "But don't think that the cause is anything that you or your shinobi accomplished, although Jiraiya's presence was…unexpected."

Hiruzen thought, Jiraiya? If he's here then we might just stand a chance.' "You are overlooking one other variable, Orochimaru," Hiruzen said, only being called Sarutobi-sensei by the members of the Densetsu no Sannin throughout his career.

"So, you have at least retained some of your faculties in your old age, despite the foolishness you display taking me on directly."

"I once told you to come and challenge me again only once you had raised your own colours and identified your own principles. But I'd never once considered you so foolish as to declare war."

"You are the only fool here Sarutobi. You have only yourself to blame for this."

"Try to understand Orochimaru, there was no way that I could allow you to be Hokage for the same reason that Tobirama-sensei chose me over Danzō as his successor."

"You are comparing me with that old fool? That's it, Kuchiyose: Edo Tensei," Orochimaru announced, slamming his hands on the ground having already discarded his Kazekage disguise, no longer having any use for it. Out of the ground rose two coffins. They were unmarked.

XXXXX

Down on the arena floor things weren't looking good for Rin and Genma. Almost as soon as the transformation had been completed Gaara had used some kind of jutsu that forced him to go to sleep, releasing his tenuous control over the Shukaku, letting it have free reign to do whatever it wanted. Needless to say, things weren't looking too good for the two powerful jōnin. They were attempting to fight the beast while at the same time preventing it from causing any damage to the arena or the surrounding buildings. In order to do so Genma was launching massive fireballs in order to counter the massive blasts of wind that the racoon was shooting in order to sate its destructive impulse, but he was rapidly running out of chakra.

Rin was incapable of attacking the Shukaku as, despite her armours effectiveness in defending against the tailed beast's attacks, she just wasn't big enough to defeat it by herself. She needed something big. Unfortunately the arena that they were in was not big enough to fit two boss-level summons. "Shit!" she spat.

Genma called, "What is it?"

Rin yelled back, "We can't beat this monster by ourselves Genma." Genma started to say something, but Rin cut him off. "Don't try to lie to me, or yourself. You know it's true."

Genma sighed and asked, "What…can we do about it then? If neither of us can there's nobody else here who could."

"I didn't say that it was impossible for us, just we need some outside assistance. Face it, that thing's just too big for humans to fight against."

"Ah," Genma said, understanding where Rin was going with this. "In that case I'll need Raido and Iwashi."

"So stop wasting time and get them."

"Right!" Genma said, rushing off to retrieve his teammates, marking the arena wall with a Hiraishin seal. Rin moved to where Genma had marked the seal and removed her headband and held it by both ends, straightening it, forming the handle of a metallic bow that shot arrows of a black energy. Shukaku sent another massive ball of whirling winds at Rin, who shot an arrow at the ball. The arrow exploded upon contact, countering the wind jutsu with a fire jutsu as she had been taught.

XXXXXXX

A/N

(1) Kurokarei = Black Beauty

Jutsu

Rin

Jin'ei Musha(Man's Shadow Warrior): Rin's jutsu that earned her the title Kurokarei. It causes her shadow to transform whatever she is wearing into a form of dense armour. This has the added effect of increasing her weight by an incredible amount. She overcomes this with the Sōshiken style of taijutsu.

Sogeki'hei(Sniper): Rin creates a bow out of her headband. This can only be used after activating Jin'ei Musha

Yoru'ya(Night Arrow): an arrow with a shaft formed of shadow chakra combined with a fire chakra arrowhead that explodes on impact. This can only be used in conjunction with Sogeki'hei

Genma

Katon: Gōkakyū(Fire Release: Great Fireball): A technique where chakra kneaded inside the body is converted into fire and expelled from the mouth either as a massive orb of roaring flame or as a continuous flame-thrower

Shukaku

Tanuki Neiri(Feigning Sleep): This ninjutsu forces the user to fall asleep. However, if the user suffers a strong direct blow, they subsequently will be awakened

Fūton: Renkūdan(Wind Release: Drilling Air Bullet): To use this technique, Shukaku will first take a deep breath, and then pound its stomach to apply external pressure, the power of which it uses to shoot a highly compressed air ball from its mouth. The expelled air ball is mighty enough to hollow out the ground, and level an entire forest. Because of the large quantity of chakra kneaded into it, it explodes the moment it reaches its target, dealing an enormous amount of damage, as well as levelling anything in its path. Shukaku is able to fire multiple of these in rapid succession, having a certain level of control regarding the size of the bullets.