Chapter 41: Konoha Crush (1): The Fox and the Tanuki.
Disclaimer: I do NOT own Naruto. Naruto is the work of Masashi Kishimoto.
End Banner has something to say: Sorry about the lack of update. I changed the upload schedule to every Saturday, and I plan on uploading 2-3 chapters every Saturday.
SHINE…
Beams of golden yellow cascaded down from the heavens like the clouds were draped in a golden silk fabric as the gods lay peacefully in the tranquil pure world, watching over the mortals below the clouds.
The bright, yellow star that gave life to the world radiated in a brilliant show of life as it slowly reached its peak in the middle of the blue sky while the fluffy cotton-like white clouds slid around the blue atmosphere, blocking the fiery enthusiasm of the hot sun.
BOOM!
Suddenly, a loud thundering roar bellowed from the high, untouchable Kage Observation Box and a thick cloud of grey smoke rose into the blue skies. From the arena, ninjas looked up to see the commotion, only for their hearts to drop as they saw with their chakra-infused eyes the Kazekage holding the Hokage hostage with a kunai on the latter's neck. Meanwhile, the Shadow Hokage was idly watching the situation with his hands on his back.
At the same time, in the arena, Naruto lifted his hand and let the white, outwardly holy feathers float behind his back to maintain the angelic feather wings.
"This is a neat Genjutsu," Naruto muttered as he picked a feather that was floating in front of him. Behind the feather was the blurred figure of a partially-transformed Gaara, growling uncontrollably with saliva running down his mouth like a mad wolf restless to devour his prey.
"Unfortunately," Naruto said as he opened his hand to let the feather land on his palm.
CRUNCH—
"It will never work on me," Naruto smirked as he watched Gaara behind his clenched fist. When he saw Gaara gradually stabilizing his mind, he opened his hand and let the white, glowing dust float around where he crushed the feather. Behind him, the white feathers he controlled using chakra strings crumbled as they turn into white dust.
"So holy yet unholy at the same time," Naruto muttered when a concentrated beam of sunlight landed on Gaara's appearance. Except for his legs, he was covered in a thick layer of sand with dark blue symbols strewn across his body.
"Go on, finish your transformation. The way you are now, you have no chance against me," Naruto said while waving his hand to disperse the white dust obstructing his vision.
Gaara narrowed his eyes and frowned. "You are very arrogant, Uchiyama…"
"No, my name is not Hiroko Uchiyama," Naruto shook his head after interrupting the boy with auburn hair. "Today, I, Naruto Uzumaki, will show you the strength of the deviant. Remember my name, Gaara."
Hearing Naruto's proclamation, Gaara cackled wildly. "The strength of a deviant? That's one way to call it. Well then, Uzumaki, I like your style. Because of that, I'll show you my true strength!"
When Gaara's words fell, the sand and dust on the ground floated upward and rushed toward Gaara as if the latter had turned into a magnet.
"What a unique technique. I really want to study it," Naruto murmured and after ten seconds, he saw Gaara's fully transformed body. 'He looks like the miniature One-Tailed Beast,' inside his mind, the fox commented.
'Kurama, I don't want your help in this battle,' I reminded my tailed friend. 'Sure thing,' the fox chuckled and I couldn't hear his words anymore.
This battle is important to me. It proves that everything I did was not for naught. That I took a valid path.
Sure, I can defeat a bunch of Jonin ninjas if need be, but what about Kage ninjas?
Mind you, having Kage level chakra and Kage level skill are two different things. Having the former but not the latter was like giving a kunai to a child. Having the latter but not the former was like breaking both arms of a veteran.
Currently, he has the chakra, but does he have the skill? That's what Naruto wanted to find out.
"Come, Gaara. Let us have a proper battle," I say and watched as Gaara laughed.
"Well then, I'll take you up on that offer. Giant Sand Burial!" Gaara said and lifted his hands as if commanding the sand on the ground to rise up.
SHHAAAA—
As his hand lifted higher and higher, a great deal of sand rose up like a tsunami in the middle of the sea.
"Impressive control," I mutter. Even if he has magnet release, controlling enough sand to form a tsunami is not a walk in the park.
"But it's not enough," I said and took out a blank scroll. None of my current Seal Formulas are enough to deal with the sand tsunami.
SHH—SHHHH!
As I wrote a Seal Formula, Gaara watched with narrowed eyes while maintaining control over his sand.
"Watch, this is my power! Fuinjutsu: Endless Binding Chains!" I yell and pour my chakra into the scroll.
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
Seeing thick, crimson chains come out of the tiny scroll that Naruto was holding, Gaara subconsciously took a step back and tried to back out.
BANG! SHRRR…
When Gaara saw the chains completely stop his sand from advancing, he turned away and tried to run.
"It's no use," Naruto said and shook his head. The chains had already caught Gaara's ankle.
"ARGH! Let me go! What is this?!"
The moment the chains touched him, the sand covering his body started to fall off, and even his sand armor started cracking. "These accursed chains!"
Seeing his helpless appearance, I inwardly scratched my head. 'This was supposed to be a hard-earned victory… it looks like I underestimated the Adamantine Sealing Chains.'
"Well, I guess I should let you know," I smirked, "My Chakra Chains are perfect for the likes of us."
Gaara glared at me and asked, "Us?"
"Yes. You see," I pointed at Gaara and then to myself, "We are the same. You hold One, and I hold Nine. Do you get it?"
Gaara's eyes widened. "Do you mean…"
"Now, before we get side-tracked. I'll have to first repay you, and then we'll talk," I said with a hardened face and unsealed my Chokuto.
VRRRRR…
The sword shook as I add wind nature chakra into the blade and gently pressed the blade on Gaara's stomach.
As Jiraiya followed the three leaders, he felt a gaze land on his back. Turning back, he saw a crimson-haired kid staring at him from the arena, making him smirk and think, 'Good luck, Naruto. I hope you're ready to face the consequences of your actions,' Jiraiya thought and landed on the rooftop, staring at Orochimaru who was holding the third Hokage hostage.
When he looked to his left, he saw Danzo stoically watching the missing-nin hold the Hokage hostage with his arms behind his back. Seeing that, Jiraiya frowned. 'Sure enough, this guy is an opportunistic bastard.'
"Orochimaru, what is the meaning of this?" Jiraiya yelled and watched as Orochimaru smirked.
"To tell you the truth, I didn't expect to see you here, Jiraiya. And I also didn't expect that you'd take Naruto as your student. Did you feel too much guilt from Minato's death?" Orochimaru chuckled, but his playful expression suddenly ceased.
BANG!
Orochimaru turned to his right and saw a cloud of smoke rising up in the distance. Jiraiya smirked when Orochimaru's eyes widened. "Do you sense her? Well, I'll be generous and give you some time to think," Jiraiya shrugged his shoulders.
"To answer your question, I am indeed feeling guilty for my student's death, but the dead can't wake up so I've long moved on. Instead, I decided to nurture the only person left in my life," Jiraiya smirked. Meanwhile, Danzo and Hiruzen were staring at him silently.
'So that's why he taught the Rasengan to Hiroko. As it turns out, he already knew that he was Naruto, but why didn't he tell me…' Hiruzen frowned and glanced at the kunai at his neck.
Meanwhile, Danzo already had an entire scheme in mind. 'Since the Nine Tails' Jinchuriki is here, I can get my hands on the Kyuubi. This kid had been running around like a wild horse for too long, it was time we put a leash around his neck. The Kyuubi doesn't belong to him, it belongs to Konoha,' Danzo thought as his face turned rigid like an ice block.
"Jiraiya…" Suddenly, Hiruzen snapped his head toward the right to where Orochimaru was staring, not minding that the upper skin of his neck was cut. 'They sensed her from so far away? I guess my sensory skills are failing me at my age,' Hiruzen sighed sadly.
He'd been alive for too long, it's time to pass on the will of fire.
"Here she is," Jiraiya grinned as Orochimaru frowned.
BAM!
Suddenly, a figure landed on the rooftop, destroying a good half of it in the process.
"Are you sober?" Naruto asked while sitting atop a boulder. Below him was a bleeding boy with auburn hair. Blood was gushing out of his wide-open abdomen, though the strange thing was that he wasn't dying from blood loss.
The caveat is that the pain he felt was multiplied, as if a touch was a sword piercing him, and a pinch was like being crushed by two boulders.
"Uzumaki… tell me, why do you care about her so much? With your strength, I doubt you need someone by your side," Gaara asked even though he could barely breathe, let alone speak.
Naruto smiled, but his eyes were too cold to warm his lips. "Because she cared for me, before and after she knew what I was keeping inside of me," hearing that, Gaara's eyes widened.
"She accepted you?" He asked.
"Yes, she did. She was the only human who accepted me, not counting my parents of course," Naruto smiled again, but this time, the warmth of his heart reached his dull eyes and his dry lips.
"…You are lucky, Uzumaki."
"Perhaps, but what about you? Don't you want to be accepted too? Aren't you tired of living the way others expect you to? I changed my fate by living the way I wanted to. I even escaped my home village to do so," Naruto said, "So why can't you?"
"That's impossible for me, Uzumaki," Gaara closed his eyes, "I don't have anywhere to go if I leave the village. And unlike you, who is strong enough, I am too weak and too valuable to freely roam the world."
Naruto nodded in understanding. He knew that Gaara was not weak, but Gaara lacked the ability to hide, unlike him who can freely change his appearance. Furthermore, a rouge Jinchuriki was like a bargain on the market, everyone would be swarming to "buy" him.
"But what if I gave you a place to go to?"
Gaara widened his eyes.
"Won't you join me, Gaara? As another Jinchuriki, I understand your pain, and although we started on a bad note, it doesn't mean we have to stay hostile to each other. My goal is to create a place for outcasts like us, a place where we can rest undisturbed by the dark schemes of the world. That place may exist only in my dreams, but I wish to make it a reality," Naruto said and reached out to Gaara using his hand.
"Will you help me realize my dream? Not as Gaara of the Sand but Gaara of the One Tails?"
Gaara stared at his hand and asked. "Why should I join you? From what I saw, you can easily extract the One Tails from my body. Why should I trust you?" Gaara asked, though his eyes were already showing signs of agreeing.
"Trust?" Naruto scoffed. "That is earned, not given. You can raise your guard against me all you want, that's fine with me. All I need from you is your help and cooperation, so that the tragedy of the past won't repeat itself," Naruto said, leaving some ambiguous words.
"Tragedy of the past?"
"Don't think about it for now. So, will you join me or not? Don't worry, whatever your answer is, I won't kill you," Naruto said and stood up in front of Gaara.
"Uzumaki… will you really accept me?" Gaara asked.
"Yes. I, and the people under me, will accept you. For we are all outcasts," Naruto said and watched as Gaara slowly reached out to take his hand.
"GAARA!"
Suddenly, two simultaneous shouts made Gaara turn his head to the left to see three people running toward them. One was his sensei, Baki, and the other two were his siblings.
"We won't let you near Gaara!" Temari yelled as she and Kankuro got into a defensive stance. They'd protect their brother 'till their last breath!
When his siblings stood in front of him to drive Naruto away, Gaara's mind blanked.
'Why are you stopping me?'
Gaara's heart stopped as he looked at the backs of his siblings with disbelief in his eyes. Inside his mind, he recalled the smiles his siblings would get from the villagers and their father.
"What are you doing?"
Gaara asked as the wound on his abdomen got covered by sand in an instant.
'You already have love. You are already loved.'
Gaara remembered the love he thought he had. Yashamaru, that was his name, right? He let him taste what love tasted like, but then he revealed that the sweet love he was feeding me hid a poisonous core.
"Gaara?" Kankuro turned back to look at his sibling.
'So why can't you let me get the love I want? Why can't you let me gain the acceptance I desire!?'
I don't understand it. You all have everything, and I have nothing. You call me your sibling, your brother, yet you fear me and try to stay far away from me whenever you can. You avoid me like the others, so why?
"Why? WHY?! Why do you always take things away from me?! ENOUGH!"
Gaara glared at the three and formed a hand seal, "Feigning Sleep Jutsu", after which he fell unconscious.
ROAAAR!
Then, all the sand in the arena rose up to form a towering beast with one tail behind him. It was a giant tanuki, and he had star-like pupils with four black dots around it.
"YEAAAH! I'm finally free! Hey, you damned fox, how does it feel like being locked up, eh? Look at me, I'm free! FREEEEE!"
The One Tails cackled. Inside Naruto's mind, Kurama burst into a peal of laughter, his voice ethereal and echoed out into the real world from Naruto's mind.
"You crazy tanuki, I really pity you. You don't have a partner like Father wanted us to have, but I already have one. And he can kick your dusty ass! HAHAHA!"
End Banner has something to say: Well, that's started off as serious but ended on a… not so serious note, sort of. Did you like it?
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