Chapter 12
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto
IMPORTANT! I've decided to change the shape of Naruto's mangekyo sharingan into something simpler and more easer to picture. I will make the final changes to all the previous chapters later on.
And now, without further ado, here's that long overdue chapter.
xxxxx Preview xxxxx
The entire stadium was dead silent as everyone watched with rapt eyes and attention, after what seemed like an eternity, Yugito moved. She stood up from the small crater she was in and to the amazement of everyone, was without any injuries on her form. The small bruises on her face instantly healed right before everyone's eyes.
"Yes...don't hold back..." A small hue of red chakra started seeping from Yugito's skin.
The wind suddenly picked up, as she started releasing more and more of the strange, yet powerful chakra. Naruto, and many of the spectators, were forced to cover their eyes from the blast of dust and wind that was created when Yugito let out a loud roar.
When the dust cleared and wind calmed down, Yugito could be seen crouching on all fours with a red bubbling chakra cloak covering her entire body and a tail swaying behind her. She looked right into Naruto's eyes, showing him her now mismatched eyes. One being green and the other brown with small black slit in it.
xxxx end of preview xxxx
Yugito stood on all fours, a sinister red chakra cloak surrounding her form. She gave Naruto a small smirk, bearing her sharp canines. The tail waving behind suddenly enlarged, and was soon speeding towards Naruto.
Naruto dodged the giant tail by running out of its path as fast as his legs could carry him. However the tail only continued to peruse him, striking him at every given opportunity. So focused was he on dodging the chakra construct, Naruto never saw Yugito until she was right behind him
"You should pay more attention to your opponent" Yugito whispered behind Naruto, whose eyes could only widen in surprise and soon, pain.
Yugito, in a display of speed, appeared in front of Naruto with a fist buried deep into his gut. Naruto hunched over in pain, coughing a glob of blood as he did so, and fell to his knees holding his stomach.
'Damn it, I was so focused on avoiding that claw I forgot to pay more attention to Yugito' Naruto mentally berated himself for making such a costly mistake.
"Come on, I know you can take more damage than that...or maybe I was wrong and over estimated your strength?" Yugito taunted.
Naruto slowly stood up and rubbed the small trail of blood on his mouth.
"No...this is just the beginning...I hope you're ready because from now on...I'm going all out" Naruto said just loud enough for Yugito to hear.
"Bring it" Yugito whispered back in preparation.
They both attacked.
Yugito's speed seemed to almost double as she attacked, so was fast was she that managed to cut the distance between the two of them, and appeared in front of Naruto hand-claw raised in a striking position.
Thinking quickly, Naruto raised both his hands to block the attack. But it was all for naught however as Yugito disappeared once again and reappeared behind his unprotected back, claws raised to attack once more.
"Shi-"
xxx-at the exact moment-xxx
"-Like I said before, your son, good as he is, is no match against Yugito" A commented.
No sooner had A finished his statement did Yugito hit Naruto in the back sending him flying straight for the stadium wall. A sight that made him smirk in triumph
Seeing this, Minato couldn't hold back a small wince as Naruto impacted the arena wall with a resulting 'BOOM'
"I wouldn't count my son out just yet, keep on watching, I promise you, you won't be disappointed" The Fourth Hokage, Minato, responded back with absolution in his voice. He knew his son well, this was his way of fighting, hold back until your enemy reveals their trump card then he would strike.
A just laughed in response "And what about you Onoiki, you've been oddly silent since you arrived. Do you think the kid's got a chance?"
"Mah the fight's just getting good, let's wait and see how it turns out" Onoki responded, rubbing his beard in wonder. He doubted the Namikaze was out for the count as of yet, something told him this battle had barely begun.
"Well what do you know, the kid actually got up"
xxx-back to the fight-xxx
'Damn, she hits harder than my Kaa-chan' Naruto inwardly groaned. 'At least she didn't break anything'
Pushing himself up, he quickly assessed his opponent as best he could. 'Her reflexes are fast, so fast that I don't think a surprise attack will work on her' he took a few steps forward 'and it seems that that cloak is doing just more than boosting her strength and speed it's also healing her of every damage I inflict! Damnit at this rate I'm not going to last any much longer'
"You got up..." Yugito growled out, halting him dead in his tracks. "...Allow me to rectify that!"
" Fire style; Fire ball Jutsu!"
Seeing the attack coming, Naruto knew there was no way in hell he could avoid it. 'Damn it I can't dodge that...my body's still recovering from that last hit, his eyes glowed red 'I have no choice, I have to use it'
For a second, there was a blinding light and then the explosion followed.
"BOOOOM!" A massive explosion of fire so strong and powerful that it shook the entire arena, sending the majority of the gathered occupants into a screaming and panicked frenzy, set off.
When the explosion died down and the crowds quieted down, down below on the arena flow, a slightly panting and smirking Yugito could be seen standing proudly alone as the red chakra cloak around her slowly faded away.
"There, that'll do it. You were good Namikaze but just not good enough to-"Yugito was abruptly cut off from herself monologue by the sound of footsteps coming right from within the smoke of the explosion. 'It can't be...I put all my chakra into it! No one could've survived that type of jutsu!'
Soon the silhouette of a person could be made out from the thick smoke as the person continued to approach and with each step his form became more visible.
"I was hoping I'd get to save this for a later battle, but I guess I really had no choice in the matter now did I? " Naruto said out loud "No, not against an attack like that"
Yugito paused for a second, something about his voice, his whole demeanour seemed...off. She couldn't quite tell just what it was that was 'off' but just that her instincts were warning her about him.
Yugito's eyes widened when Naruto fully stepped out into the open, the smoke no longer obscuring him from view. The cause of her surprise? Not a hint of damage or scorch marks on his form, only a few torn marks could be seen on his clothing. Otherwise, every wound on his body that she had previously inflicted was all healed.
"H-How did you-"
"-Survive?" Naruto cut her off, stopping when he was finally clear to view.
Yugito unconsciously took a step back "Yeah...that...I gave everything I had into that attack, you couldn't possibly have survived!"
Naruto's lips thinned into a small frown, "By all accounts you did get me...at least you should've gotten me had it not been for this"
All eyes were on Naruto as his sharingan glowed a sinister red and then something weird and odd started happening. The three tomoes of his sharingan fused together, becoming a five pointed star with a single black pupil in the middle.
'His sharingan suddenly changed...what the hack is going on? A-sama never mentioned anything about there being a fourth stage of the sharingan. Regardless of this turn of events, it doesn't change anything' she took on a defensive stance 'Matabi? Are you ready for one final round?'
"I'm always ready kitten, however take heed, something about that boy feels very similar and deadly...I can't say what for now, just be cautious"
'I will...thanks, ready?'
'Give em hell!'
Yugito's entire body exploded in a burst of red chakra, and soon her entire form was surrounded by a chakra cloak once more.
"So what? You got new make up in your eyes. Is that supposed to scare me?!" Yugito shouted, disappearing in a burst of speed reappearing moments later mid air, in front of Naruto, with a clawed hand ready to attack.
"DODGE THIS!" she thrust her claws forward and hit the frozen, to her, Naruto right in this chest.
Much to her growing surprise, she phased right through him as though he was a ghost.
'What?!'
"Surprising isn't it? I call it Kamui, an ability that makes me impervious to any sort of attack. It takes a good amount of my charka but I'm sure you can agree with me that, for such an ability, that is but a little price to pay" Naruto boosted, feeling proud of his recently acquired power. Of cause he didn't tell about the little fact that he couldn't stay intangible for a prolonged period of time, no need to give away such an important weakness to an enemy.
Yugito snarled her digging her claws into the ground; she rocketed towards her opponent with a raised fist. Naruto made no attempt to dodge the attacking girl and to Yugito's growing frustration, she phased right through him again.
"It doesn't matter how you attack me...as long as Kamui is active, you can't touch me" Naruto said sounding almost bored. "The same can't be said for me however"
'Fire style, Dragon fire technique'
Yugito was about to dodge about the attack but found herself unable to move. Looking down to her feet her eyes widened when she see both her legs wrapped and bound by roots, she struggled to brake free but found her strength slowly seeping away. Naruto's jutsu struck her, enveloping her in both fire and smoke.
When the smoke cleared, a clearly pissed off jinchuriki could be seen. Nearly every part of her body had turned pink from the server heat of the blast.
Yugito glared heatedly at Naruto, "You bastard, THAT HURT!" she opened her mouth and breathed out a large ball of fire.
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Kiba let out a whistle in apprehension at the intense battle below "I'm glad I'm not down there fighting that chick, she looks like she could whoop my ass any day...I don't think your brother can win against this one"
"Naruto-san will win, I have doubt in that" Shino responded back, pushing his glasses up with a single finger.
Kiba let out a startled scream "Don't creep up on people like that Shino! You almost gave me a heart attack!" He held his chest, right where his heart is, and breathed out deeply to calm it down.
"I don't care what you say man, but it doesn't look to me like he will win this one. Don't get me wrong I know Naruto is strong but against that girl...she even got that red chakra thing going for her" He turned around to look at his sensei, who wasn't paying much attention to anything other than the book he was reading.
"What do you think sensei? Who do you think will win?"
Kakashi looked up from his book and a bid sweat dropped down his face when he saw nearly all the genins looking at him expectedly, even Kushina was staring at him. He had to be careful with his answer, should he say the wrong thing Kushina was surely going to open up him a new one. Her and that short temper of hers.
He gave them all, his famous eye smile "Meh, why don't we wait and see what happens?" He mentally pet himself on the back for such perfect response.
It was the perfect answer...
"Tsk, lazy bustard" A random person said loudly for everyone around to hear.
...close enough
xxxBack at the fightxxxx
The two opponents ran across the arena to each other, becoming blurs in their movements. They met in middle, sparks and 'clangs' of metal could be seen and heard as kunai met claw.
Naruto could easily see and predict Yugito's movements and attacks', avoiding them; however was a whole different story entirely. It seemed that the chakra cloak gave Yugito more than just a boost in strength but also a tremendous boost in her speed.
Naruto moved his head to the side just in time to avoid a claw to his face; a strait cut appeared on his cheek showing how close the attack had been to taking his head off.
Now weary of his opponent, Naruto opted for different approach. 'This isn't working...close combat with her is pure suicide. Even if I can predict her attack her, she's simply too fast for me to react to in time...'
Taking a small calming breath, Naruto eased his stance a bit and gathered chakra into his lungs.
"Fire style: Fire Ball Jutsu" Naruto exclaimed, spewing from his mouth a giant ball of fire.
Yugito easily avoided the attack by vanishing in a bust of speed and reappearing across the arena, with her own jutsu already in motion.
"You wanna play? Ok then...let's play...FIRE STYLE: FIRE DRAGON!" Yugito declared loudly. From her mouth, she breathed what could only be considered the biggest dragon made purely out of fire that Naruto had ever seen before. Not even he, at his best, could create such a thing.
Naruto stared at the giant dragon heading towards with an unblinking eye. Even from his position from across the arena, he could feel the heat of the dragon as it flew towards him.
Much to the gathered occupant's shock, Naruto started sprinting the income jutsu with a determined look in his eyes. Blind sighted by the fire jutsu, they all missed seeing him disappearing in a black swirl and repapering behind Yugito.
"Water style, water cannon!" Naruto's declaration was all the warning Yugito got before she was suddenly hit in the back by the powerful water jutsu.
She let out a loud screech of pain as the jutsu hit her with such a mighty force that it swept her off her feet and dragged her across the arena before settling down near the wall.
"There...(pant) that's all (pant) the (pant) chakra I had left..." He almost fell over in exhaustion but managed to catch himself on his knees.
Before the proctor to announce him the winner two an explosion appeared in the Kage both, two people appeared in the arena flow near Yugito.
"You managed to take down Yugito" Samui said coldly, grabbing her unconscious teammate "I hope that one day we can fight...it will be a cool battle" She gave him a small glare and the three vanished.
Naruto never saw the lighting jutsu that hit him.
A few minutes earlier
"Hmp like father like son I guess" A said with a hint of distaste in his voice. "But now I've held my end of the deal the real battle can finally begin!" Lighting covered A him whole and without hesitating, he attacked Minato.
It was only thanks to years of honed instincts, that Minato was able to shunshin out the seat before it exploded from the hit.
"What is the meaning of this A!?" Minato asked angrily, a safe distance from the, now enemy a Kage.
"You managed to dodge that...good to see your skills haven't dulled all these years Yellow Flash!" A exclaimed as blue lighting covered him whole again.
Turning to the other Kage, who too seemed surprised with the attack, the Raikage asked "What do you say Onoki? Want to help us destroy the Hidden Leaf village once and for all?" His lightning armour flared
However Onoki did not respond, opting instead to stare silently at the Raikage with a contemplative look on his face. After a few tense seconds, the short, old-aged Kage sighed.
"This is foolish; we've seen too many wars as it is. Lost countless men and women over arrogance and this unwillingness to let of the past" Onoki turned to Minato "This men single handily ended the last war by wiping out over half of my shinobi with a single jutsu...a war with Konoha will spark the start of another war. A! Are you really so foolish that you would want to start another war?"
"But don't you see Onoki? Now is the perfect time to rid of Konoha once and for all, now when she is at her weakest. With three villages attacking it there is no way they can defeat us!"
"Three villages? Then there is second party involved in this?" Minato narrowed his eyes.
"Nothing escapes you Minato does it?" A smirked "Seeing as it makes no difference whether I tell you or not I'll just tell you. The person responsible for coming up with this ingenious plan is none other than the leaf's very own traitor-"
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"-It is done Orochimaru-sama"
"Kukuku good work Kabuto, and now it's time for the third and most crucial phase...tell me, is Kimimaro ready?"
The now named Kabuto nodded his head "Hai, he's been informed of his mission and is moving into position as we speak" Kabuto informed his master.
"Good good, and now I suppose it's about time I make my appearance" Orochimaru said with a pleased smile on his face.
"But-...master" Kabuto said hesitantly.
"Yes?"
"Is it really a good idea to take her out of the picture? Wont that just make them angry?"
Orochimaru only smiled "I suppose it will get in their plans, kukuku but in order for progress to occur one must be willing to take risks"
"Even if those risks involve the Akastuki?" Kabuto questioned.
"For such prize as him...yes" And with that said, Orochimaru vanished.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
All around the stadium white feathers appeared out of nowhere, knocking out every civilian and a few ninja gathered. A few of the genins, mainly teams 7, 8, 9, 10 and those from Suna and Kumo managed to notice the obvious genjutsu and quickly dispelled before it could take effect.
"S-Sensei w-what's going on" Sakura asked trembling, as she saw many Kumo nin attacking her village and being engaged by leaf shinobi.
"Kumo is attacking the village!" Kakashi responded back, avoiding being stabbed by a Kumo ninja and kicking said ninja in the head, sending him flying away.
"B-But they can't do that!" Hikari exclaimed.
"They can and they are" Kurenai said seriously as she too blocked an attack from a Kumo ninja.
"Hikari, Kiba and Sakura I want you to listen to me carefully ok?" Kakashi said seriously, getting three nods and a small bark in return. "Go to the academy and help evacuate the academy students and protect any civilians you meet along the way" the three genins, plus dog, nodded their heads wordlessly
"Shikamaru, Ino and Choji you guys also help team seven, Shikamaru you're in charge" Asuma ordered his team
"Troublesome" Shikamaru muttered with a sigh. Only to receive a quick, hard, nudge to his ribs, curtsey of an annoyed Ino.
"Wait, what about Naruto!" Hitomi suddenly shouted, bringing everyone's attention to the red-haired boy at the bottom of the arena.
When they saw Yugito's teammates joining in the fight, the genins gasped.
"They are cheating! We have to help him!" Both Hikari and Hitomi shouted at once, already at the railing and about to jump down.
Kakashi moved swiftly and stopped the two sisters from joining in on the fight below.
"Now hold on just a minute" he said lightly, holding both girls by their shoulders " I know you two want to help your brother but-" whatever Kakashi was going to say was cut off by the sound of very loud and ferocious roar.
"NARUTO!" The two sisters shouted worriedly upon seeing him get struck by a lightning jutsu.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
If there was one word to describe how he felt, it would be pain. Blinding pain, excruciating pain, mind crippling, scream inducing pain...to put it simply, pain. In all honesty even he wasn't sure how he had gotten himself in this situation, buried deep into the arena walls, for the second time again no less.
His mind briefly wondered who or what had hit him, in his exhausted state he had dropped his guard down and that had cost him seriously.
Shaking himself out of his daze, he stood up and realised that only a few of his bones were broken. That was good. He had, in all honesty, been expecting worse, a lot worse
Pushing his already exhausted reserves to their limit, Naruto forced a small amount of chakra out until small thin layer of chakra was covering his whole body, fixing and repairing all the damages to it. During his training with his grandmother he had learned that because of his Senju and Uzumaki DNA, his body's recovery rate was beyond that of a normal person.
And as another added bonus his injuries healed themselves, provided, he had enough chakra. So right now he was pushing charka out of his coils, it would heal the injuries for him.
The pain slowly started receding until he could move his limps without any hindrance, without any pain. He pushed himself up, removing some rocks and rubble that had fallen on top of him, and made his way out of the man-made hole he was in.
To say Naruto was surprised at what he saw would be an understatement. All around the arena people where fighting, sparks and the sounds of metal clashing could be seen and heard.
'What the heck is going on?!'
Closing his eyes for moment, Naruto stretching his senses as far as he possibly could, in an attempt to find any of his teammates or family. He could feel multiple chakra signatures clashing and engaging with one another and some he could feel fading and eventually disappearing as a whole. Amongst the multitude of chakra signatures Naruto finally found someone familiar, not exactly who he was looking for but close enough.
Not wasting a breath, Naruto took to his feet and was soon running and evading the many ninja fighting all around him.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"-45!" Gai announced loudly
"52" Kakashi, his self proclaimed rival responded back after killing a Kumo nin courtesy of a kunai to the head.
"I will not lose to you once more my youthful rival! Reverse Lotus!" Gai announced loudly, giving a hard round kick to two unsuspecting enemy ninja sending them crushing into the wall.
This was the site that Naruto was greeted to when he arrived, two elite shinobi fighting against countless enemy nin and actually making a game out of it. Before he could utter a single word to get the two jonin attention, he needed to know what was going on; Kakashi suddenly appeared behind him with his hand on his shoulder. Naruto felt the all-too familiar pulling sensation of a shunshin and soon found himself standing atop the roof of the arena stands.
His eyes were immediately drawn to the village bellow them. All around them, he could see many buildings burning, people wearing clothing unlike that he had ever seen before fighting against Leaf Shinobi. His eyes widened in realisation, they were being attacked!
"Naruto" Kakashi said suddenly, drawing Naruto's attention to him.
"Kakashi-sensei...what is going on? Why are there people attacking the village?" Naruto questioned, turning around to face the masked jonin.
Kakashi gave a weary sigh "The village is under attack, as of right now we are at war with both Kumo and the recently founded Hidden sound village" Naruto looked as though he was about to ask another question "Look I don't know why they are attacking and frankly that is not important right now, for now we have to make sure we defend the village and stop the enemy" Kakashi finished, blinking slightly when he saw a huge explosion of thick white smoke appear not too far off from the village wall.
"Great...like we need any more surprises..." Kakashi cursed.
From the smoke a giant brown snake that easily towered over the village walls appeared. Another explosion of smoke appeared not too far from where the first one had originated, and soon another giant snake-almost an exact replica of the first one-appeared. The two giant snakes turned their attention towards the village and were soon speeding towards it, towards them.
"If those snakes reach the village walls..." Naruto trailed off. His mind racing through ways in which he could stop them from getting inside. Should the against snakes brake through the village walls, they would easily lay waste to the village and its occupants, and as it stood, everybody was too preoccupied with stopping enemy ninja entering the village to do anything to stop them.
He himself hadn't fully recuperated from his fight with Yugito, he had spent a good portion of his chakra already and wasn't in any condition to fight. 'I know Baa-san said I should avoid using them as much as I can but...' His fist clenched in anger, he would be damned before he let those things destroy his homes.
Slowly his hand reached into his pouch and from it, he drew two small yellow pills.
"Sensei, where are my teammates? And team seven as well...are they ok?"
Kakashi tore his gaze away from the approaching snakes and looked at Naruto, narrowing his eyes when he saw him place something in his mouth. 'Food pills? I guess it makes sense, that battle must've taken a load out of him...But still though, were did he get those. Genins are not permitted to carry food pills with them...of cause! Tsunade-sama must've given them to him'
"Your teammates and the rest of the genins are helping out in the evacuation of the civilians and academy students. I suggest you-what are you doing?" Kakashi questioned, seeing Naruto go through several hand seals that he instantly recognised as a summoning jutsu.
"Stopping that" Naruto responded back, pressing his hands on the ground as he did so.
"Summoning Jutsu!" White smoke enveloped the both of them but was quickly cleared away by a strong gasp of wind that came from the summoned creature.
"Naruto!" Kakashi shouted worriedly when he saw Naruto speeding towards the two monstrous snakes on the back a giant bird. Too late, he realised, the kid was already a good distance away from him and there was very little he could do to stop him.
' Dang it! How did I let him get away' Taking was last glance at the retreating form of is sensei's only son, Kakashi shook his head '...He may look and act like you sensei but he still got his mothers brashness..' a small shiver ran down his spine 'I just hope he come back in one peace otherwise, how am I going to explain to both Kushina-sama and Tsunade-sama how he got away from me'
xxxWith Narutoxxx
A kunai whistling past in front of him, missing him by a few inches, alerted Naruto of an enemy pursuing him. Looking down below him, Naruto was pleasantly surprised to see his sister trailing after him. Giving a silent command to his summon, he whisked down and caught her as she jumped atop the back of the summon eagle he was ridding.
"Aren't you supposed to be helping out at the academy?" Naruto questioned his sister, who was tightly holding onto his back.
In response she gave him a small grin "Yeah well we finished helping out a little while ago, besides I was coming to check up on you before I saw you taking off and decided to tag along" she took a moment to look at his intended destination "and seeing where you are going, I'm glad I did"
Naruto just gave a small grunt of agreement, nothing he could do about it now. "And Hikari? Where is she?"
"Ummm I last saw her heading towards the hospital with Shino, Hinata and Kiba, they said they were going to help out there"
Naruto gave a small nod at that, at least Hitomi and his teammates were safe, as well as Kiba too.
"LOOK OUT!" Hikari's warned, however it came a little too late. For no sooner had she screamed out said warning did something hit his summon, sending them hurling towards the ground at an alarming pace with the now injured bird struggling to regain flight.
"AHHHHH!" Brother and sister creamed out in unison as they plummeted to their impending doom. The duo had been thrown off the summon and were now heading towards the grounds in free fall.
Luckily for the two, the summon bird they riding managed to manoeuvre under them in such a way that it was now falling upright with the two of them now ridding on its chest and its wings covering them. Soon reached the trees, branches broke under the heavy weight of the three-bird and humans-and soon they hit the ground.
The two teens simultaneously groaned as they both slowly fell off the animal that had, undoubtedly, saved their lives.
"Well that could've gone better" Hitomi groaned out, rubbing her bruised leg. Hearing no response from her brother, she worriedly looked around the now destroyed ground, searching for him.
"Hey Naru-oh no" She gasped out at what she saw; the bird they had been ridding was lying on the ground with brunches sticking through its wings. It was badly injured, that much was evident. Not too far off she saw her brother, Naruto, kneeling in front of the injured bird.
She slowly walked towards him, taking great care to not make any sudden movements that might startle the bird.
"Is it ok?" Hitomi asked when she was standing directly behind Naruto, only to feel like slapping herself at the rather stupid question. Of course it was not ok, it had just fallen from Kami knows how high and landed threw dozens of braches-breaking many bones in the process-before crash landing to the ground.
Naruto stood up and let out a sad sigh "No, he's severely injured and there's nothing I can do to help out..." He gave the summon a small pat on the head "...thank you for protecting us from that fall, you risked your life to save ours and for that I am forever grateful"
The summon let out a silent screech, letting him know it was glad to help them out, before vanishing in an explosion of smoke.
"Poor fella, I hope he gets better" Hitomi said sadly, after the summon had disappeared. A small pout suddenly made its way across her face as she recalled a particular detail.
"What?" Naruto asked with raised eyebrow
"...should I be worried that you were quick to check up on your summon that you own sister?" Hitomi responded back, with mild but serious glare.
"..."
"Well?" She asked expectantly
Naruto ran a hand through his hair with a sigh "I saw you roll off him and you appeared to be fine in my standards" he responded back with a small shrug. One of the many advantages of having a doujutsu like the sharingan, with it he had quickly checked up on her before moving to his summon after seeing that she wasn't hurt in any way.
Before Hitomi could retort Naruto's eyes suddenly widened and, faster than she had ever seen him move, he grabbed her by her waist and jumped up a good distance away from where they had been standing. No sooner had he done that did the ground suddenly explode upwards, as something with great force impacted it.
A strong gust of wind cleared the dust away and revealing behind it their attacker.
"W-what i-i-s that?!"Hitomi asked stammering, her entire body shacking from fear at the amount of bloodlust that the person-no monster, in front of them was letting out.
"You...you're the one..." A partially transformed Gaara growled out. His entire upper body had turned was covered sand and looked as though it was forming the body of a different kind of creature. Half his face was had also been covered by sand, with the transformed half having sharp enlarged teeth and a star-like yellow eye. To finish off the transformation, both his hands had also transformed into large claws and a giant tail could be seen behind him, the only part that had transformed were his legs which were still that of a human. "Mother demands your blood! I will have your blood! Now...make me feel alive!" Gaara sent a wave of sand ball towards the two.
Acting quickly, Naruto hands could be seen flashing through hand seals for a justu that would stop the incoming attack.
"Water style; Water Dragon!"
Sand and water collided and water proved dominant, this was evident as the water dragon easily made quick work of the sand attack and collided with the murderous Gaara.
Grabbing his frozen sister, Naruto jumped onto one of the many branches of the trees surrounded them and was soon speeding away. After a little while he slowed down to a stop and placed Hitomi gently on the branch, she looked at little better off than when he had first carried her but still, he could clearly seen the fear in her eyes.
"How are you holding up?" Naruto asked gently, pushing her chin up with his hand so she could look at him.
She slowly nodded her head "Y-Yeah, it's just that he kinda surprised me is all...and the feeling he was giving off...I-I've never felt anything like it before. It felt so twisted and foul...I didn't know what to do" by then, tears were already threatening to fall out from her eyes.
Naruto gave her a comforting smile "It's ok, just sit back and let your little brother take care of that freak..." he gave her a thumbs up as he stood up and faced towards where he could feel Gaara approaching "...after all, what are little brothers for"
Hitomi couldn't hold back the small laugh that escaped her mouth "Idiot, it's supposed to be the other way around"
Naruto smiled at seeing that she was at least getting back to herself. His eyes narrowed when he felt Gaara getting closer to them with each passing second.
"For now though, can you stay here? I gotta take care of our friend...just make sure to join in when you are ready, I don't think I'll be able to take him on alone, not without your help" With that said, Naruto disappeared from Hitomi's sight. 'Hm if that doesn't get her out then nothing will...now to deal with Gaara' A silver glint could be seen trailing behind him as he jumped from tree to tree.
"hehehehe I've been waiting for this moment for so long that for a while, I was starting to believe it was just a dream" Garaa's voice rang out from all around him "Hehehehe but now, hehehehe now that I see you with my own eyes that dream has finally come true. You're the one I've been waiting for! The ultimate prey! Your blood will be mine!"
It was only thanks to his instincts warning him that Naruto was able to bring his hands forward to block the hit from Gaara. A good thing too, for the force behind the hit was so strong that it sent him flying a good distance away.
'Just my luck, all my opponents today seem to have a knack for super strength' Naruto inwardly groaned, channelling a small amount of medical chakra to his bruised hands. Throwing several smoke bombs around, to both mask him and to at least give him some extra time to prep up for his plan.
"Do you really think a little smoke will stop me?!" Gaara shouted out, and with a swing of his tail the smoke was cleared.
"No, I was hoping it would stall you...and by the looks of things, it worked"
Gaara actually tilted his head in confusion, all around him, he could see multiple ninja wire tired around everywhere. Raising his clawed hand towards a single thread, Gaara looked directly at Naruto with a murderous glint in his mismatched eyes.
"...such parlour tricks won't work on me" That said, he cut the thread of ninja wire with his sand claw, an action he would soon come to regret. The moment the thread was cut a series of events followed.
For one an explosive tag set off, multiple explosive to the exact. Secondly, Gaara found himself bound with by multiple nin threads, each with an explosive tag strung to it. The explosive tags all lit up and with a mighty explosion that sent the bound Gaara flying towards the hard earth.
' and now to slow him down' Naruto thought as he gathered chakra for his next attack. 'Water style, water cannon'
The jutsu struck and for a moment, a very brief moment, it seemed as though he had actually done, he had actually won.
Then...all hell broke loose.
Chapter end
A/N: Ah it's been a while hasn't it...something that I'm really sorry for. This year has been hectic for me, too too hectic. Sorry guys I haven't posted a new chapter in a long while now and this will probably the last chapter in long while too, at least until December when I'm fully done with my final exam and high school as a whole.