Naruto of the Homunculus

Chapter 13

Now comes the battle between Naruto, the Alchemist Ninja, and Gaara, the Jinchuuriki of the Ichibi, Shukaku. Expect this to be a heated fight as Alchemy and Homunculus abilities clash with the powers of the One-Tailed Raccoon.

Disclaimer: I own nothing. As usual.

The audience watched as Naruto leapt from the stands and landed nimbly in the arena center. Gaara then entered the arena with an emotionless look on his face.

"You," said Gaara, "perhaps killing you will allow me to prove my existence."

"You can try," said Naruto, "but I'm going to be the one to win this battle. Believe it."

"Match: START!" said Hayate.

Naruto blinked and the pupil and iris in his right eye was replaced by an ouroboros symbol. He then shot at Gaara with such speed that any normal ninja would have trouble reacting in time and threw a punch toward his opponent's face.

Unfortunately, Gaara was not a normal ninja and as the punch neared his face, it was caught by a cloud of sand that flowed from the large gourd on Gaara's back.

"What the?" exclaimed Naruto, "Sand?"

Naruto managed to flip back and away from the sand cloud and watched it flow back into the gourd.

"So that's what you keep in that gourd," said Naruto.

"Yes," said Gaara, "it is my ultimate defense. Now die!"

Suddenly sand shot out of the ground around Naruto and began to cocoon him.

'Damnit, he was feeding sand into the ground!' thought Naruto.

"Sand Coffin!" said Gaara as he raised his hand. He then clenched his hand into a fist, "Sand Burial!"

The cocoon of sand compressed with the sound of crunching bones, causing some blood to leak from the sand. The sand fell away to reveal Naruto's broken and bloody body.

Hayate sighed, "Winner…"

"Wait," croaked Naruto, causing Hayate to turn to him in surprise, "not yet. I'm not done!"

Everyone was shocked as Naruto pulled himself off the ground. His mutilated body had red energy arcing over it and it was rapidly healing itself. Soon Naruto was completely healed and had a smirk on his face.

"What are you?" asked Gaara calmly.

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze," said Naruto, "and I'm the Alchemist-Ninja of the Hidden Leaf."

"You are an interesting one, Naruto Namikaze," said Gaara, "mother is crying out for your blood."

"Well," said Naruto, "I'm afraid she won't get any. You have your ultimate defense. Well, I have one of my own."

Naruto's skin turned black and his hair disappeared as he covered his body with his ultimate shield. Those who hadn't seen it before were startled at the demonic appearance that he had. Naruto charged at Gaara, his clawed hand clenched in a fist ready to punch him out. Once again, a cloud of sand caught his fist, but this time, Gaara tried to use the sand to break Naruto's arm…but nothing happened.

"Sorry," said Naruto, his voice sounding distorted, "but my skin is harder then diamonds right now. You won't break it. Your sand is a different story."

Naruto clapped his hands and touched the sand, transmuting it to solid glass, which he shattered using his strength. Naruto then used Gaara's surprise to slug him in the face, sending him flying into the wall of the arena.

xXsceneXx

"That kid," said Kankuro as he watched the match, "if this keeps up then…"

"Yeah," said Temari, "Gaara might lose it and blow the whole plan."

"To think someone could fight Gaara like that," said Kankuro with a bit of fear in his voice, "I don't want to be the guy that faces him in battle."

"I'd rather face Gaara," agreed Temari.

Both Sand siblings agreed that this Genin was definitely a worse enemy to have than their insade brother that always threatens to kill them.

xXsceneXx

When the dust settled, Gaara was seen climbing out of the crater in the wall. His sand had softened the impact, but his skin had numerous cracks on it and bits of it were breaking away, revealing themselves to be a shell of hardened sand.

"So you have a secondary defense," said Naruto, "I'll still kick your butt."

Naruto then charged at Gaara and attacked him with a barrage of punches and kicks that were blocked by Gaara's sand. Naruto then charged at Gaara again, but this time, he clapped his hands and, when the sand moved to block his path, he transmuted it into glass again and shattered it. Naruto then clapped his hands and transmuted the sand armor on Gaara's body into iron powder, causing the armor to fall away from his body.

"So much for your ultimate defense," said Naruto, "try this."

Naruto slugged Gaara in the gut, causing part of the wall to cave in. Gaara coughed up a bit of blood.

"You," gasped Gaara, "MOTHER SHALL HAVE YOUR BLOOD!"

xXsceneXx

"Crap," said Temari with a pale face.

"He made Gaara bleed," said Kankuro in terror, "he's a goner."

"Let's hope we don't get caught in the crossfire," said Temari as she watched the battle.

xXsceneXx

Meanwhile, Gaara let out a roar and Naruto was blown back by a blast of force. Gaara's remaining sand then shot into the ground, pulverizing the stone floor into more sand that flowed around Gaara and began to take on a monstrous shape that resembled a large tanuki with blue marks on its body.

"Craaaap," groaned Naruto as he saw the monster that his opponent had become.

Naruto had to dodge out of the way as a claw of sand shot at him and nearly impaled him. Just because he could heal from any injury, didn't mean that it didn't hurt.

"So you can get bigger," said Naruto, "I've still got some tricks."

Red energy arced over Naruto's body and he transformed his arms into large blades and grew in size until he matched the size of Gaara's new form. With a powerful swing, Naruto sliced off one of the arms of the sand beast. Unfortunately, the arm transformed into sand and reformed.

"Oh come on!" groaned Naruto, "What does it take to beat this guy?"

Tendrils of sand sharpened into hard spears and shot at Naruto, but he clapped his hands and transmuted them to solid iron.

"You are an interesting one," said Gaara as he emerged from the beast's head, "but you will die here. Playing Possum Jutsu!"

Gaara made a hand sign and suddenly the large tanuki let out a savage roar before laughing manically.

"I'M FINALLY FREE!" roared the beast, "NOW I THINK I'LL HAVE SOME FUN!"

The sand beast roared and spears of sand shot at Naruto, slamming against his ultimate shield and sending Naruto flying into the far wall and causing him to shrink back to normal size.

"Damn," groaned Naruto, "you hit harder than bushy brow."

Suddenly tendrils of sand shot out and pinned him to the ground. The beast then opened its mouth and a black sphere began to form.

"Crap."

xXsceneXx

Meanwhile, Jonin and Anbu were evacuating everyone from the stands as the battle was getting more and more intense. The only people that remained were the Hokage and his Anbu bodyguards.

"This battle is insane!" said one of the Anbu, "To think that the One Tails' Jinchuuriki and Uzumaki would take things to this level."

"Indeed," said Hiruzen, "I knew Naruto was powerful with his new abilities, but to think he could fight against one of the Tailed Beasts."

"He is indeed full of surprises," said an Anbu, "should we end this fight Lord Hokage?"

"No," said Hiruzen, "I have faith that Naruto will be fine. Nonetheless, set up a layered barrier around the arena. Let's try to contain the damage."

xXsceneXx

Naruto watched as the giant tanuki finished forming the black sphere and proceeded to swallow it whole. Naruto had a feeling that that attack was meant to be destructive, so to minimize the damage to the rest of the arena, he used his shapeshifting powers to grow to the size of the beast and covered his body in his ultimate shield, while tensing his already superhumanly durable muscles as he rushed in to muffle the attack.

"This is going to hurt," said Naruto as the beast's mouth bulged and it fired a powerful beam that slammed into Naruto.

Naruto cried out in pain as he felt the blast tearing through his ultimate shield bit by bit before burning away his muscles and flesh. The blast then detonated causing a massive explosion that Naruto managed to muffle with his body. When the dust settled, Naruto's regenerating body was seen standing there.

"You're really getting on my nerves," said Naruto, "just. Stay. Down!"

Naruto punctuated each word with an armored punch to the beasts body, causing it to spit up blood from the force of the blows. The blows had the added effect of jarring Gaara's sleeping form awake, ending the manifestation of the sand spirit and allowing Naruto to shrink down to normal size and knock him out with a punch to the face.

"Winner: Naruto Uzumaki," said Hiruzen, "now, the others have been told this, but the next round will take place in one months time, so be ready."