Along Came A Symbiote
Author's Note: As some could see from the last chapter, Naruto and Anko are getting close, but don't think they're going to be dating or anything like that yet. Right now they are becoming friends and I don't plan on them becoming anything more than really close friends till after Shippuden, Which isn't as far away as some would think.
Hope you enjoy the early update and thanks for the reviews, felt you guys deserved it considering how long my last update took.
Chapter 7: Just between us psychopaths
Tearing his kunai free from a sound nin, Kakashi couldn't help but worry about what had been said to him not too long ago. Before the invasion began, both Anko and Naruto tore into him about how careless it was to teach Sasuke the chidori.
Twenty –three minutes ago
"YOU DUMBASS!"
Kakashi turned to see his male student, the one currently not fighting for his life, stand up and begin marching towards him.
"We warned you about Gaara's status as a jinchuuriki so you could train him to survive the match. Not so he could kill him!"
Before Kakashi could begin to defend his action, Anko began yelling at him once more. "The punk has just gotten the curse mark and what do you do? You give him an assassination jutsu! What were you thinking?"
"I-"
"Have you thought about what could happen if Sasuke actually kills Gaara? We don't even know if Gaara's seal would hold up after death. The last thing we need within this arena is a four story tall demon playing GODZILLA WITH US!" Naruto yelled adding more volume to his last three words.
"BLOOD! IT'S MY BLOOOODD!"
Everyone's attention snapped towards the center of the arena and watched as Sasuke forcefully pulled his arm from the sphere of sand Gaara had created around himself. Sasuke's arm wasn't the only thing to be pulled form the orb as what could only have been described as a bestial sand arm was dragged out as well.
With one last tug, Sasuke freed himself from the sands grip and watched along with the audience as it slithered back into the hole he created.
While the last loyal Uchiha was recovering from his attack, Naruto and the others in the stand began to feel the effects of a genjutsu cast on them. Several of the ninja in the stand formed a quick hand sign and dispelled the sleep inducing jutsu while Naruto simply ignored it, his symbiote already dispelling it.
"Looks like things are going to get hectic." Naruto stated
Present Time
Outside the Walls of Konoha
Naruto swung through the forest he was in, giving up stealth so he could web swing at greater speeds. He had already passed by Sasuke who had been given a head start against him. Luckily Temari had set up traps and was acting as a deterrent so her brother could gain more distance from pusuers.
The symbiote bonded boy would admit to being impressed by Temari. From what he could see, Temari was tired from her previous fight. And instead of wasting what little chakra she had, she set up traps forcing Sasuke to watch his steps. As impressed as Naruto was, he had to acknowledge that right now Temari was an enemy. While this was a fact that didn't mean that Naruto couldn't do the female sand nin a favor and not join the fight. So out of respect he continued onto his main goal and chased after Gaara once more.
The next interference came in the form of Kankuro. A quick fight with him showed that the puppet nin was more trouble than he was worth. Unfortunately Naruto couldn't simply attempt to turn his back on the cat dressed nin or else the puppet would cut into him with their poison coated blades and leave him in no shape to face Gaara. As it was, he was still recovering from his fight with Lee and having something else slow him down was the last thing he needed.
Luckily Shino showed up and decided to take Kankuro off his hands. Something that Naruto was grateful for.
A patch of red caught Naruto's attention mid swing and a closer observation showed a large sand gourd. Having finally found his target, Naruto let go of the web he was swing from and allowed himself to fly forward. Thrusting his arms forward, two small tendrils of symbiote shot forward and landed onto a tree branch in front of Gaara.
Gaara became aware of the new presence behind him when the two black lines came from behind and went around him, but wasn't able to act on it as both of Naruto's feet slammed fiercely into his back and sent them free falling over the large branch.
Naruto had easily shot another web like tendril and guided himself to safety. Gaara on the other hand had only broken his fall by crashing onto one of the other large branches from the overgrown trees.
Naruto stiffened when he felt demonic energy burst from Gaara. He watched morbidly as the sand gourd on Gaara's back morphed and began to favor his left side. The claw that had been dragged from the sand orb back in the Chunin exams arena began to show once more as it covered Gaara's left arm. The sand didn't stop there as it began to crawl up the left side of his face until it had covered half of his face. When the metamorphosis was complete, Gaara's face was a split between that of his human face and that of the demon inside of him, a glowing yellow eye with a pointed cross like iris and sharpened teeth filling a malicious grin. But the key feature of Gaara was the blue tribal designs spread across the sand.
"Yes. I and mother have been waiting for you. Let's see which of us can truly proof our EXESTINCE!"
A swing of the sand covered arm released several sand shurikens. Naruto had little trouble jumping over these as he charged towards Gaara, but had received four long gashes across his abdomen from the sand ninja's claw.
Ignoring the wound, Naruto laid a powerful hook across Gaara's face. Hitting the exposed side of Gaara's face had caused Gaara recoiled. Unfortunately Naruto had to jump back as his opponent's claw began flailing at odd and unpredictable motions. Naruto noted how the trees that were hit by Gaara's claw were broken with such little resistance.
Ducking under one of the wild swings, Naruto launched a series of punches and kicks while he was within range. A few attacks that had hit the sand covering Gaara left Naruto's right arms and legs aching. He ignored the pain however as he was forced once more to dodge.
'That sand is too dense. Attacking it does little damage to him and leaves us open when recovering.'
Tired of being stationary, Gaara leapt after Naruto. The blonde for his part changed tactics and used his symbiote tendrils to swing him to a safer spot. Looking back however showed that Gaara was using a similar tactic to chase after him. The odd way the sand claw morphed and grabbed onto tree branches before swinging or pulling Gaara closer to Naruto, thus forcing him to use an evasive maneuver.
Having adjusted to the sand claws attack pattern, Naruto made another attempt to get close and personal. Just as he was with range to land a powerful kick to Gaara's face, he was forced once again to leap to the left as a new sand appendage came from behind Gaara.
After having put a safe distance between himself and Gaara, Naruto looked back to find that the sand had now given Gaara a grotesque sand tail similar to the claw he'd been attacking with.
"Dammit just as we were getting used to the first one." Naruto whispered.
Gaara having seen the agitation on Naruto's face began laughing. "What's wrong Uzumaki? You angry that you and your other aren't capable of beating me!"
Having no choice, Naruto jumped back into the offensive. Flipping, blocking, and attacking whenever he could, Naruto found himself hard pressed. The new sand appendage had given Naruto little chance to attack, but another problem was arising. Naruto was tiring.
The symbiote had taken care of his bruises and had dulled the pain of his body to a small sting. But it could do nothing about his fatigue, and the small rest he had been given had restored little of his stamina.
Right now he still had plenty of chakra, but his stamina was slowly depleting. The idea to use his snakes against Gaara had crossed his mind, but he was unsure if they would be able to wrap around Gaara without them being torn apart. Unlike Orochimaru, he wouldn't carelessly send his summons to their death.
A whistling sound caught both Gaara's and Naruto's ear and both looked towards Gaara's blind side to see Sasuke throwing several kunai and shuriken flying towards the redhead. Gaara simply grunted before raising the sand arm and expanding it to catch the metal projectiles.
Gaara looked between the two leaf nin and contemplated on who to attack first. After a moment, Gaara turned his back on Naruto and laughed as he referred to Sasuke as fresh meat. Naruto for his was thankful for the chance to rest.
"Naruto!"
He spun in response to his name and saw Sakura make her way towards him with a small mutt following behind her.
"Naruto what are you doing fighting against that monster so soon after your fight with Lee?" Sakura asked with clear concern.
Naruto shook his head. "Don't worry about us Sakura; Sasuke is the one you should be worried about."
He was given a confused look. "What do you mean?" Sakura asked. "I'm worried about him, but he hadn't fought as long or nearly as hard as you."
Naruto didn't respond and merely thought over what his response would have been.
'He can't beat him, even if he is more rested. Only reason we felt we could stop him was because we know what he is, understand what he is capable of.'
They watched as Sasuke tried several methods to fight Gaara all of which failed except one move, his chidori. But even that apparently wasn't enough as all he had done to Gaara was cut through the sand claw, only for it to reform seconds later.
'He doesn't have our natural speed or reflexes. His jutsu may harm the parts that Gaara has shielded but he can't get close enough and truly hurt him.'
Naruto stopped his thoughts as he noticed Temari hiding in another tree some ways off. Suddenly getting up Naruto gave a command.
"Stay here Sakura, we'll be right back."
Said girl only nodded as she watched Naruto disappear around the corner of the tree.
She didn't like hiding in fear. But during times like this, where Gaara had lost himself to his demon's bloodlust, she didn't have any choice but to hide from him. Temari focused fully on the fight between her brother and Sasuke, amazed that Sasuke had managed to wound Gaara twice by now.
She would have been surprised even more had she shown up before Sasuke, but instead she had been given the pleasure of being captured by Naruto instead of watching him fight.
Six black balls flew at her, pushed her back against the tree, and glued her in place. If it were not for the black substance that had covered her mouth she would have screamed, believing that Gaara had noticed her and decided to finally end her life.
Odd how the sight of Naruto made her feel relieved despite the look on his face projecting that this wasn't a joke.
He reached up and ripped the black substance from her mouth. "We're going to ask you only once. Do you know a way to knock Gaara out?"
Temari scrunched her face. She wasn't expecting someone to believe such a thing was possible. "Shouldn't you be asking if there's a way to kill him?"
Her question was instantly rewarded with a hand around her throat. "We could have killed him five times by now." Her eyes widened as his voice carried a tone implicating that he wasn't lying. "Killing him could release the demon inside of him and that's something we want to avoid. So answer the question."
Naruto tightened his grip around Temari before releasing so she could speak.
It took her a second to cough and regain her breathe, but Temari eventually began speaking.
"I don't know. This is the first time I've seen him actually hurt."
Naruto cursed. He didn't detect any lies and seeing as Gaara was a jinchuuriki, he didn't doubt that Gaara was rarely hurt.
He was about to question her further, but the same dark energy he felt back in the forest of death appeared and he turned to see Sasuke and Gaara standing onto two tree branches parallel to each other and facing the opposite direction.
It was obvious that the two had performed some do or die moment and were simply waiting to feel the damage, if any, that were done to them. Gaara's sand arm fell off and Sasuke fell to his knees, covered in the strange flame markings as before.
Gaara was the first to recover and had even replaced his claw though it was now on the opposite arm. He turned around and without hesitating, leapt towards Sasuke in another attempt to end the Uchiha's life.
Naruto would have left Sasuke to his fate, but out of the corner of his eyes he noticed Sakura running in to save Sasuke. While he did not like everything Sakura did he couldn't simply watch her be torn apart either.
The breather he had gotten thanks to Sasuke's interference had helped somewhat and given him some strength back. With a burst of speed he was able to meet Gaara half way and kick him across the face. The demon bond ninja was forced to use his tail to redirect his fall and land upon one of the branches.
"You again!" he snarled, saliva dripping from his lips.
"Us again." Naruto merely stated as he reached over and tore a branch from the tree.
It was a rather large piece of wood easily as thick as his arm and twice as long. At this point Naruto didn't care what it took to take down Gaara, even if that meant beating the boy into a coma.
Gaara used his two sand appendages to hold onto the branch he stood on and pulled himself back in order to launch himself towards Naruto.
The blonde simply waited at the last second before ducking to the side and slamming his wooden club into the back of Gaara's skull. He didn't let it end there either as he leapt after Gaara and proceeded to hit him across the head again and again, causing him to fall back with each fierce blow.
Gaara had finally had enough and morphed once more. Now the sand that covered half of him began to devour the rest and replaced what was left of Gaara's humanity with his demons bloodlust.
Naruto had attempted to club Gaara over the head once more, but the branch in his hands broke, obviously having passed it's limits. Before he could respond to his "weapons" destruction, Naruto found himself grabbed by both of Gaara's claws and felt himself being crushed.
"Mother shall enjoy your death. Now give us your BLOOD!" Gaara yelled.
Naruto struggled to break free from the grip he was ensnared in and only managed to pull one of his arms freed. He didn't know what he could accomplish with his next move, but the thought of being crushed to death without resisting in some form or other wasn't an option. So instead he thrust his balled fist forward and shot of glob of his symbiote at Gaara's face.
The black clad blonde was more than surprised when Gaara released him in favor of trying to rid his face of the black gunk. His shock didn't last long and he leapt back while performing a few hand seals and thrust both fist forward this time.
Just like his fight with Lee, Naruto's sleeves bulged before releasing a torrent of snakes. The black snakes flew towards Gaara and quickly wrapped themselves around the red head, allowing Naruto to swing under the branch his opponent stood on and land upside down.
Once secured and safely planted, Naruto pulled as hard as he could, grunting as he forced more and more of his strength onto his snakes. The symbiote covered snakes hiss as they felt the strain on them increase but didn't break. With the symbiote covering them, they, just as Naruto was, were strengthened by the alien suit.
Gaara finally relented to Naruto's pull and found himself being rocketed down to the forest floor.
Naruto watched Gaara break nearly every branch he came in contact with before finally hitting the forest floor. Once the sand covered nin had finally hit the ground and didn't seem like he was able to get up Naruto let out a tired sigh and prepared to head back to Konoha.
He was quickly stopped however when a scream filled the air.
"THERE'S NO WAY I COULD LOSE, NOT LIKE THIS."
A large tower of sand quickly crawled towards the sky, destroying much in its way. A dust cloud had formed and blocked what the sand had formed.
Landing onto one of the few remaining trees that were closest to him, Naruto laid Temari onto the branch. During his moment of fleeing from the large quantity of sand he noticed Temari still bond to a tree. Some form of guilt rose in him and he raced to free her from her bonds. His kind act had cost him though and part of the sand wave had caught him, leaving several bloodied skid marks all over his body.
Temari was too shocked by his chivalrous act and couldn't offer the thanks he deserved.
His voice broke her out of her stupor and reminded her of the situation they were in. "Any chance you can offer any suggestions, cause this is the worst possible outcome."
Temari shaking followed Naruto's sight and found what she prayed she wouldn't.
The dust cloud had dissipated and in its place was the one tailed sand demon in all its glory.
"You best get out of here. We can't protect you and ourselves." Naruto mentioned before jumping from the tree he was on and ricocheting off various trees as a flood of sand began to give chase to him.
Naruto wasn't stupid, he knew he couldn't outrun the sand forever and decided to send a mental command to his symbiote. The right sleeve of his shirt rippled before crawling up his arm and exposing his skin. On his forearm were various seals, all meant for one thing, summoning.
A digit of his left hand began to bleed thanks to the symbiote cutting him and Naruto proceeded to wipe the blood down his arm and along the tattoo like seal.
Afterwards all he had to do was pump the necessary chakra and a plum of smoke similar to the dust cloud Gaara had created minutes earlier appeared. Gaara had ceased his attack on Naruto, curious in what the blonde had brought forth to even the playing field.
The cloud of smoke dissipated and revealed Naruto standing atop a large sapphire snake. The snake stared at the evenly sized one tailed demon before hissing its protest.
"It's been ages since I've been summoned. And the first thing I find myself fighting is one of the tailed beast!"
"Just shut it! You think we want to fight this thing anymore than you do." Naruto bellowed back.
Once more the richly blue snake hissed. "I had heard we had a new summoner, but I hadn't realized he was one so young."
"As if our age has anything to do with our current predicament. Now are you going to help us out here or not?" Naruto responded.
The snake shook its head, forcing Naruto to cling to it with his chakra. "There is no reason to respond so negatively, I was merely stating an observation of your age. As far as helping you…. I see no problem with it, might as well seeing as I've been summoned."
"Interesting." Gaara spoke from within his demon. "Maybe for once, I can unleash my full power."
Both the snake and his summoner quit there talk and looked towards the giant sand demon. A small spot in particular gathered their attention as they saw Gaara raising half of his body from it and began forming hand signs.
Naruto stood on edge prepared for an attack to come forth while his summon merely flicked his forked tongue out. Gaara falling asleep wasn't what Naruto expected but he instantly became aware of just how bad that was when the demon's true voice came out.
Naruto's eyes opened slowly. The visage of a white ceiling confused him and the repetitive beeping off to his side annoyed him. He attempted to sit up but immediately abandoned the idea for the moment when pain wracked his body.
It was then that he remembered the end result from fighting Gaara. Remembered how his summon had helped him fight the giant sand demon Gaara had become and how he finally succeeded in waking Gaara only to knock him to a near unconscious state. Afterwards his summon returned to its home and he proceeded to move towards Gaara.
He could still clearly recall Gaara fearfully screaming about his existence being destroyed along with the fact that Naruto's strength had to come from fighting for himself and the words of advice Naruto had given before passing out. He still didn't understand what had caused him to begin speaking.
'Do you really think we could have fought you if we were only fighting for ourselves? Gaara it's only because we're fighting for those dear to us that we were able to drag ourselves out here and fight you to this point. We're exhausted and have been since the start of this fight. Anyone fighting for themselves would have passed out long ago in our condition.'
With his thoughts ending he tried once more to get up. Halfway succeeding before something pushed him back done.
"Geez stay down already. You've been knocked out for the last two days."
Naruto snapped his head towards Anko. Bewildered by both the fact that he hadn't even sensed her and also that she was taking the time to visit him in the hospital.
"A-Anko, what are you doing here?" Naruto asked.
Anko seemed to take his question as an insult. "What! I can't visit a friend?"
Naruto quickly shook his head and corrected his mistake. "No… of course you can visit us." he replied feeling odd to be referred to as a friend.
Anko chuckled. "Well I guess I have ulterior motives seeing as I don't want to help clean up the mess that invasion caused onto the village."
Naruto began chuckling with her. "Oh man, how much damage was caused?"
"A few buildings flattened, part of the main gate walls knocked down, oh and debris littering the streets." she stated nonchalantly.
Naruto's laugh got even louder. "Oh god! The old man must be buried in paper work!"
Suddenly he found himself laughing alone and the fact wasn't missed on him.
"Anko?"
She didn't say anything and her silence only caused him to panic. "Anko…. what has happened?"
She still didn't answer him. Jumping up and out of his bed as if he wasn't critically injured, Naruto grabbed Anko by her trench coat and lifted her from her seat to bring her face to face.
"Anko tell me now! What the hell has happened!" he screamed to her face.
Part of him knew the answer though the rest of him refused to believe it. Not until he heard it from someone's lips.
Two days later
The weather seemed to reflect the mood cast upon the village and released several droplet of water from it's darkened clouds. The funeral held for Sarutobi Hiruzen was visited by all except for Naruto. No Naruto stayed as far away from the gathering as long as the numerous people were gathered around the grave. He refused to let anyone see him grieve.
He was back in his leather jacket and pants and had several bandages wrapped around his face to cover his still recovering injuries.
Once he was sure that all the villagers and ninja alike had left, he made his way towards the grave of one of the few people he had ever truly liked. Once he had arrived there however, Naruto noticed that someone else had shared his plan.
He did nothing to hide his presence and Anko heard him approaching, quickly wiping her tears away before facing him.
Naruto turned around once more respecting her right to grieve alone as much as he did and began to leave.
"Naruto. Thanks but I'm done. You can stay now."
He didn't say a word and merely nodded. He made his way closer and closer to the center of where the funeral was held, trembling being the only sign of his true feelings. Anko watched him for a few minutes before leaving in a gust of leaves.
The second she left, Naruto fell to his knees. His trembling turning into a trimmer and the tears in his eyes began flowing freely down his face. A small book fell from the pocket of his jacket and landed against the muddy ground.
The splash caused by the diary Sarutobi had left him in his will reminded Naruto of the real reason one of his closest and only friends had been taken from him and the world. Naruto shook once more except this time it was out of hate and anger.
The dairy Sarutobi had left him was full of secrets about Konoha and his decisions he made in life. Sarutobi's gift to Naruto was all of Konoha and his secrets, it was easy for Naruto to see the trust he was given in recieving this gift.
Naruto had spent the last two days reading over the book, as it was the only thing he could do to take his mind off of his despair. But now his despair was being replaced by rage. Rage at the fact that Sarutobi's decision to spare Orochimaru had been repaid by the very student to return and cause his demise.
He picked up the book with shaking fingers and pocketed it back into his jacket before walking closer to the grave. Looking at the picture of the person he had so fondly called old man didn't help quail his rage.
A metaphoric string in Naruto seemed to snap and he released his rage in the form of a roar only stopping once he no longer had air to use.
"Orochimaru we will make you pay…. no not just you! All missing nin! We shall become the poison to your traitorous ways! We will become VENOM!"
Author's note: Ok before anyone get angry. Sorry for cutting out the giant monster fight, but I didn't want to type out a fight that would basically be the same as cannon. That aside I hoped you enjoyed the chapter.