DISCLAIMER: I OWN WHAT IS MY OWN.

The OtherSide

By Corvus no Genmu the Prince of Slumberland

Leaf on the Wind

She stood tall and proud though she barely topped five feet. Her vibrantly green hair was cut short with a pair of bangs brushed back along her head like the antennae of a small but deadly insect. She was dressed in a tight-fitting leather bodysuit colored in shades of green and brown with a darker cloak wrapped loosely around her shoulders. The lower half of her face was hidden by the cloak but one could still see the ugly scars the fell in an X-shaped pattern between her amber eyes. Like her teammates, she wore no hitai-ate to indentify her village.

Across from her stood Zaku of the the Sound Village, her opponent in this preliminary match.

"Kiri." The kunoichi, Kiri Natchios, turned amber eyes up towards her leader though he was operating in a different team then her own for their mission. Eiji Kusanagi stood with his arms crossed, his eyes serious and his voice stern. "Do what you will so long as it ends quickly."

Beneath the mask of her cloak, Kiri smiled, a hoarse chuckle coming deep from her chest. Slowly, like dust blowing on a gently drifting wind, the kunoichi began to vanish from sight until she was gone from all eyes, even those gifted eyes of the Hyuuga present in the chamber. The youngest gasped in shock, too stunned for words while the elder frowned and believed it to be an advanced form of genjutsu but there was no way to prove it otherwise unless he indirectly interefered with the match.

Zaku looked about wildly, his planned ruse forgotten as he moved his arms about to fire a destructive blast of vacuumed air at any slight sign of his opponent's whereabouts. A sound of tearing stone and a deep gouge appeared on the floor directly beside Zaku who jumped to the side before rolling away just as another tear was made just short of where his head was.

"Total slaughter, total slaughter… I won't leave a single man alive…" Kiri's raspy voice echoed in the enclosed arena. "Ladidadidie… Genocide… Ladidadidud… an ocean of blood!"

"Where are you bitch?! Come out and face me for real!" screamed Zaku, wildly firing blades of air about the battlefield but he received no answer but the final lines of Kiri's song.

"Let's begin… the killing time!" A loud clang and roar of rushing air echoed in the arena before Kiri was suddenly there, a good several meters behind Zaku. She stood balanced over a large battle-scythe which was embedded deep into the floor and though her arms were crossed tight over her chest with her cloak billowing about, one could see the tell-tale signs of a pair of kusarigama held tightly in her hands.

Zaku turned, grinning madly as he prepared to fire a Decapitating Air Wave when he saw the blood pooling at the blade of the battle-scythe. As though aware of his confusion, Kiri turned and shrugged, revealing the blood that dripped from the serrated blades of her kusarigama. Zaku's eyes widened just before they became dull and glasslike. With a wet sounding squelch, the Sound ninja's arms fell from his shoulders just before his torso fell backwards to the floor with his legs still standing. Upon landing on the bloodied floor, Zaku's body split perfectly in half.

A stunned silence overcame the audience at the gruesome outcome, interrupted only by the occasional sounds that came from those not yet prepared for such a bloodied victory. Kiri flicked her wrists, flinging the blood from her scythes and vanishing them back to within the folds of her cloak. With a solitary hand, she pulled her battle-scythe free and with an experience twist and twirl, returned it to its dormant state of a small but seemingly plain steel rod no longer than her forearm.

With her weapons back in their holsters, Kiri made way to join her teammates when she felt more than saw the gaze of Gaara upon her. She turned to meet his stare without fear, merely arcing an eyebrow as though amused by the younger boy's attention. Though unfelt by her, Kiri was aware of the spike of killing intent directed at the Sand jinchuriki if only by his eyes immediately shifting towards Eiji. The staring contest continued until, at last, Gaara backed down and looked away, silently promising the demon within him the glorious blood it desired, though it may well be his own blood that would be paid.

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Ushiwaka Urashima tilted his head, frowning in confusion at his opponent when he suddenly remembered and he grinned with feral amusement. Of his "team", Waka knew this world the best. In point of fact, it was entirely thanks to his knowledge that they were in the midst of their greatest mission yet. His ego was stroked even more so by the opponent selected for him. At first, he had been concerned he'd have to fight one of the pre-destined winners or worse, one of his own comrades, but fate was rewarding him with his opponent.

Yoroi Akado, or as Waka preferred to call him, Sucky McSuck-Suck. The ninja was not only a traitor to his village but a chakra drainer to boot which put him in a serious disadvantage against Waka.

Yoroi stood back a fair distance, his gaze locked on the chakram strapped to the younger ninja's waist. Dressed just as conservatedly as Kiri, minus the cloak and with a more sand-like color scheme, Yoroi wasn't going to be fooled into a quick death like the idiot Zaku.

"Well, are you going to draw your weapons or are you going to make this even easier for me?" he goaded.

Waka smirked, "For you? Spare me your childish tripe! I refuse to sully my weapons with the blood of a traitor and a useless one at that."

"Useless?" growled Yoroi, ignoring the traitor jibe for now. He laughed, playing it off as a joke on Waka's part. "You know nothing of me or my skills and that will be your end!" He charged forward tossing kunai with one hand while the other glowed with odd-colored chakra. Waka met his charge with one of his own, dodging past the blades with grim determination. The two collided against each other, locking hands and pushing against each other like a pair of wrestlers.

'Success!' thought Yoroi, grinning beneath his mask as he felt the increase of his chakra reserves and the drop of Waka's own. His eyes narrowed slowly as he noticed Waka's reaction. The boy did not appear to weaken with increasing fatigue. In fact, Waka was grinning and his eyes… his eyes looked exactly like Orochimaru's own!

Suddenly, it was like fire had replaced the blood in his veins and Yoroi screamed in painfilled agony, breaking Waka's grip and falling back and clawing at his eyes as he felt them burn like coals in his skull, trying to alleviate the pain in any way possible but the damage was already done. Waka was a natural at the poison arts in both the literal and non-literal sense. There wasn't a single poison out there he didn't know about and was, in turn, completely immune to just as there was a weapon he wielded or a drop of blood in his veins that wasn't positively drowning in toxic cocktails.

By absorbing Waka's chakra, that which could be best described as the source of Waka's incredible abilities, Yoroi had signed his death warrant.

By the time the medic-nin's had arrived Yoroi's heart had stopped beating, but it hadn't stopped there. Though the blood had stopped pumping through his veins, the poison was still there, burning within the coils of Yoroi's chakra pathways with increasing temperature until, with a sudden flash, Yoroi's body went up in flames and he screamed his last breath before his body was nothing but a pile of smoking ash on the arena's floor.

Waka shook his head, just as surprised by this as everyone else. It was always his intention to poison Yoroi and killed him with one of his deadly cocktails but the youngest Urashima had underestimated the deadly potential of his chakra.

Oh well, at least he had something to play around with now.

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She stood calmy, without little emotion though she was only marginally taller than her female teammate. Her obsidian locks framed her face and fell to just above the base of her collar. She wasn't too beautiful but she was more than pretty; an average beauty. She wore a form-fitting leather bodysuit colored the same as her hair with lines of yellow marking it like the stripes of a tiger. She had no visible weapon though she wore the holsters common found for senbon needles on her wrists. Her pale purple eyes were hidden behind a pair of white goggles shaped rather like the eyes of a demonic spider.

"You can do it, Espi-chan. I believe in you." Though the words were whispered Espiga Parker heard them easily and she couldn't help the pleased blush on her cheeks nor the soft smile gracing her face. She glanced upwards towards where Morisato sat smiling warmly down at her, giving her a thumbs-up with Takuya and Kiri stood behind him sharing looks of disgust. Though Morisato and Takuya had opted to step out of the finals per Eiji's orders, they refused to leave their remaining teammates behind. Her eyes drifted over to Morisato's scar and she frowned slightly, her hand twitched to a similar scar on her left shoulder but she steeled herself. The past was forgotten and there were more important matters at hand. Her opponent for one thing.

Dosu Kinuta, a ninja from the Sound Village, a very bad person by Waka's accounts made more so by the fact that Kiri went invisible assassin on his teammate. Espiga could give him that small bit of credit for wanting to avenge his teammate's death but she knew it was misplaced in the end. Be it by another's hand, Zaku was destined to die and so to was Zaku. Her eyes narrowed behind her goggles, but in order for that to happen, he would have to win against her, something she couldn't, wouldn't, do. Still…

That didn't mean she'd play the part as his executioner.

Hayate's arm shot down. "Begin!" In an instant, Espiga was backflipping high into the air and landing along the wall of the arena. Dosu shot up after her, his Melody Arm pulled back for a deadly one-hit K.O. but like his teammate before him, he underestimated what her skills were. She shot out her hands in a special handsign and two lines of webbing shot out from her wrists with an audible "thwip!" Before Dosu could even realize it, he was completely wrapped in a tight net of webbing with two thick ropes of the stuff held tightly in her hands. Knowing that he would never believe her explanation of the web's properties, Espiga opted for the quick victory with a silent apology to Dosu.

She leapt forward, rolling tightly and taking Dosu along for the ride and sending him spinning a good three times before she landed and slammed him down on the ground, creating a large human sized crater in the process. She turned and pulled tightly, lifting Dosu out from the crater and spinning him above her head before she let him fly to the wall. Just after impact, she pulled the web tightly once more, pulling Dosu towards her until she delivered a mighty kick to his chin that sent the Sound ninja flying towards the ceiling.

Finally letting go of the web ropes, Espiga leapt up after him, overtaking him and ricocheting off the ceiling and delivering a punch to Dosu's face. The spider-like kunoichi increased her speed and proceeded to bounce about like a made pinball, delivering blow after blow upon Dosu, never once allowing him to fall to the ground until she had delivered over a dozen blows. Finally finishing her "Arachnophobia Assault", Espiga landed lightly on the railing beside her teammates, panting for air as Dosu landed with an audible crunch to the ground, his Melody Arm shattered beyond repair.

Even before the obvious winner was announced, Morisato had his arms wrapped around her waist and was spinning her about with sheer elation. "Ha! I knew you could take him easily! And in thirty seconds no less!" He held her close, hugging her tight and whispering into her hair. "You're amazing, Espi-chan…"

"Mori-kun…" She blushed, pressing her face into his neck and breathing his scent. "Thank you… for believing in me."

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Eiji stood glowering down at the battle taking place beneath him. A month of intense training and his protégé was still getting his ass kicked because of his desire to keep up that ridiculous façade of his. While the village idiot routine served as a good ruse, it would be too damaging to Naruto if he didn't let go of those habits sooner rather than later. He glanced out the corner of his eye and saw that Gaara's usual frown was just a tad deeper. Eiji could sense the irritation the younger boy felt. Of all the opponents he could face, Gaara was looking forward to fighting Naruto at full strength, something that wasn't likely to happen if Naruto didn't his act together.

"UZUMAKI!" Eiji's voice roared like a primordial beast across the large arena as it positively flooded under the oppressive weight of his killing intent. "WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?!"

Below, the fight had skidded to a sharp halt, Neiji too shocked and overwhelmed to move and Naruto… well, used to it though he was, he couldn't understand what his sensei was asking him. Pushing him to say, to do. "I… I'm…"

"You are embarrassing yourself by playing the fool. You are disappointing me, Nartuo." Though he was no longer shouting, Eiji's voice still carried across the vast coliseum. Naruto flinched as though struck by a whip. There were few things that Naruto hated more than disappointing his sensei and his friends.

"What are you doing, Sensei?" whispered words, too quiet for human ears. Eiji spared a momentary glance at Gaara and resumed speaking to Naruto.

"Show them the truth Naruto. Show them the sacrifice you've made for them and the burden you bare for them. Take their anger, take their sorrow, take their hatred. Take it for yourself and use it. Turn it back upon them. If they will not see you for the hero you are, make them see it. Become what your father decreed you as, twelve years ago Naruto Namikaze!"

Amidst the shocked gasps and screams of denial, Naruto frowned and looked down, seemingly at war with himself before he nodded and grasped the device attached to his wrist. "Execute! Kaiju Spirit Evolution!"

"WAKE UP!" A robotic voice roared as Naruto was enveloped in a cocoon of light with branches of crimson lightning circling like sharks around its crystalline surface. While on the outside, one would see a human sized cocoon that concept would be immediately thrown out the window should one actually witness what was occurring within.

It was a void devoid of life, form, or function where only two things stood. One was Naruto Uzumaki, his arms crossed tightly over his chest with his head bowed low as he growled like an angered beast. The towering demon behind him reciprocating the call with a roar that shook the heavens, its nine tails flashing through the air like whips before it burst into beams of light that appeared as pieces of crimson armor that grafted to his form. He fell down through the void and landed on a small pentagon that served as the only means of standing in the dark expanse. He raised his arm upwards and shot forth beams of demonic light that condensed into a singular blast into the sky, tearing a hole large enough for him to burst out into the primary world. The cocoon of light burst and faded from sight as the newly made Kamen Rider stood where once an extraordinary ninja had just moments ago.

His wore a tight leather bodysuit colored like a dark simmering orange with crimson armor over that. The thick combat boots were tipped with deadly claws at their tip, just like the gauntlets that adorned his hands, and seemed as though they were aflame from the way the air wavered around them. Attached to his right wrist was a large cannon-like device shaped like the skull of some kind of canine with the eyeholes aglow with crimson light. His helmet was tipped with what appeared to be a pair of long ears that belied the fierceness of the mask. Shaped like a demonic fox with a glimmering blue visor held tightly within its fanged jaws, it was both terrible and awe-inspiring.

"KAMEN RIDER YOUKO!"

The aptly named Youko cracked his neck. The audience, at least those that knew the full truth, was horrorfied by the transformation Naruto had undergone while those that were not aware of Naruto's prisoner were shocked and awed by the sheer power he seemed to radiate just by standing there. Beneath his helmet, Youko grinned, a bit of his old mischeviousness sneaking through. If they were shocked now, they'd be stunned witless by what he was about to do next.

Youko reached down to the K-Zector at his wrist, now shaped like nine fox tails twirled about in a tight circle, and twisted it halfway around. "Cast-On!"

"CAST-ON!" Intense beams of light burst from Youko before they died down to reveal the hard-light holograms that now adorned him. Translucent and colored the same as his armor were nine fox tails each longer than Youko was tall. "CHANGE DEMON FOX!"

Youko crouched low, aiming his Kyuu-Cannon straight for Neiji as swirling chakra gathered in its bony jaws.

"Believe it."

To Be Continued...

A/N Inspiration:

Truthfully, I used this world as a means to display the prowess of Kamen Riders Kamacuras and Kumonga in their non-armored forms since, personality wise, they're rather like some of the characters of the Naruto-world. Kiri (Kamacuras) is a younger, more blood-thirsty, version of Anko while Espiga (Kumonga) is a confident version of a certain Hyuuga. Though Waka works better with his siblings, any mission run with Kiri and Espiga at his side would be a sure-success as all three have had ninja training in their old world.

Ah but what about the ending you may ask. What happened in the month between the second and third portions of the chunin exam, who did Eiji fight and win against, why is Gaara normal, and how did Naruto end up as a Kamen Rider? All very important questions that will be answered sometime in the near or far future in its own separate story.

Next Reflection...

"Unity"