Hello, I'm still alive! Sorry I haven't been updating this story much. Just thought I'd give you guys a quick heads-up: since this story is mostly told from Gelato's perspective, I'm not going to cover the battle between Orochimaru and the Third Hokage nor the one between Sasuke and Gaara. My apologies.

Chapter 42: The Monster Within

"Wake up, Gelato!" a voice cried, echoing on the edge of Gelato's conscious as he was dreaming about lying on a patch of white fluffy clouds surrounded by robed figures playing a variety of harps.

Rosa? Gelato thought, realizing who it was.

There was a pause, and then Rosa said, "Release!"

The dream Gelato was having suddenly vanished, and he found himself blinking up at Rosa's concerned face. She smiled when she realized he was awake, but before he could enjoy the view, a small brown pug wearing a black suit suddenly appeared and started licking his face. Startled, Gelato jerked up and pushed the dog aside, but instead of barking, it talked.

"Hey, what was that for?" It said while landing on its feet.

"You can talk?" Gelato asked, wiping the slobber from his face.

"Of course I can, you moron! I'm an Actaeon Hound (Ninja Dog). We're a special bread of dogs that are designed for tracking, and extremely intelligent. My name is Piranha (Pakkun), and Spauracchio summoned me to help you guys track Tony down."

"Tony? What's going on?"

Rosa sighed and explained. "After Tony injured Tarma someone flooded the arena with an Illusion (Genjutsu) called Palace of Morpheus (Temple of Nirvana) which put everyone to sleep, including yourself. But some of us, like Spauracchio, Scar Face, and me, we recognized it so it didn't affect us. However, an explosion occurred on the balcony where the Godfather (Hokage) sat and then a bunch of Suono and Rena Soldiers (Sound and Sand ninja) appeared everywhere. While this was going on, Pallamano and Oscuro took Tarma away, and Tony went after them. We now have to go after Tony, because the Cappo says it's important!"

"Did you really have to tell him the whole story right here? We could be on our way by now."

Gelato looked to his right, and saw Capriolo getting up off the floor.

"Capriolo! I thought you were asleep!" Rosa exclaimed.

Capriolo looked away and said, "I was only pretending to be asleep."

"All right, now that the kids are awake, let's get out of here!" Piranha said, running over Capriolo's shoulder and down the stairs. Gelato and the others followed, though Rosa was worried.

"Um, Piranha, shouldn't we be heading away from the stairs? That's where the Suono Soldiers emerged from!"

"Don't worry, toots, we're not going to run into any of those guys as long as I'm around," Piranha replied, and suddenly darted to the left underneath the bleachers.

They narrowly avoided a whole group of Suono Soldiers coming from the other direction, and preceded to run underneath the bleachers until they got to an empty hallway that led them straight into the locker-room. Surprisingly, neither the Rena Siblings (Sand Siblings) nor Tony was there. Piranha then sniffed around for a bit, until he came to one locker that had various signs carved into it. Confused, Gelato pulled it open, and couldn't believe his eyes.

"Guys, there's a whole tunnel behind this locker!" he said, unable to suppress his surprise.

"But where does it lead?" Rosa asked.

"To the surface, of course, in case the main entrance was blocked for some reason," Capriolo said casually. Then when everybody looked at him in surprise, he shrugged, "I looked at a diagram of the arena before we went into the locker-room."

"Wow, Capriolo, you have really good memory," Rosa replied.

Piranha made a coughing sound and said, "If you kids are done staring, we should get moving."

Then without hesitation, Piranha entered the tunnel first, followed by Gelato, then Rosa, and then Capriolo took up the rear. It wasn't long before the tunnel made a steep but smooth inclination upwards, with moist dirt walls. There were no lanterns, so the team slowed down to make sure they didn't bump into anything, until they saw a bright light up ahead. They sprinted towards it, and emerged into a rotting ticket booth outside the old football stadium. But before they could adjust their eyes to the sunlight, a large creature suddenly appeared. It didn't see them, but made loud hissing sounds as it passed the booth.

"It's a snake, and a big one at that," Capriolo said, eyes widened. "It must've been summoned by the Suono and Rena Soldiers before they attacked the arena, to break down the Foglia (Konoha) family's main defenses."

"And what are those?" Rosa asked.

As they ran away from the football stadium, Capriolo pointed to a set of tall gray buildings and said, "You can't see them, but on every building that lies at the edge of our territory there are a series of protection spells etched into the bricks, which go off when something unwanted passes through them."

Soon after he spoke, two other giant snakes appeared before the tall buildings, and slithered through them despite the sudden energy network that appeared, flashing blue and white like lightning, but with no thunder afterwards. They winced in pain, but they continued and eventually got pass the buildings. Frowning, Piranha led the group through a series of streets, which were starting to empty as people ran for cover either in their cars or in the nearest building. Then suddenly, Piranha led them down a back-alley and up a fire escape unto the roof of the apartment next to the alley. The dog then turned and said, "We're being followed."

Gelato, Rosa, and Capriolo looked behind them at the roof of the parallel apartment, and saw nine Suono Soldiers wearing gray suits and purple ties while their eyes were covered by dark shades. Upon seeing the four, they quickly drew their guns out and waited for them to move. Immediately, Capriolo performed the Hand-Signs (Hand-Seals) for the Mocking of the Shade spell (Shadow Possession Technique) and sent his shadow down into the alley and onto the other roof, freezing the Soldiers before they could fire.

"What are you standing there for? Find Tony!" Capriolo shouted.

Without saying a word, Gelato, Rosa, and Piranha ran away from Capriolo, and resorted to jumping from building to building. Luckily, none of the giant snakes came near them, so they went almost unseen, except for the occasional street bystander who briefly looked up at them before ducking for cover. Eventually, their trail took them to the junkyard by the railroad tracks where Mezzaluna (Mizuki) confronted Gelato a few months back. There, they saw a scene that made them shudder. On one of the automobile piles lay Tony, who was covered in those strange black marks that appeared when he went berserk in the Dead Man's Sewers and looked to be in pain, while on the other across from him stood a monster that was partially human, but with a gross feline face, a long tan paw covered in scars, and a similar-colored tail that was puffed up.

"What's the matter?" it said in a deep, raspy voice. "Had enough already? You're not as fun as I had hoped. Might as well save you the misery and kill you now!"

Rosa was too scared to scream, but Gelato gritted his teeth, leaped into the air, and kicked the monster in the face before it could attack Tony. While Gelato landed unevenly on a smaller pile below the monster, Rosa and Piranha went to attend Tony, who was twitching with pain. But the monster wasn't through, and immediately jumped towards them. While Gelato got out of the way, Rosa quickly drew out her gun and pointed it at the monster.

"If you lay a finger on my Tony, I won't hesitate to shoot!" she shouted, though her face was contorted with fear.

For a second, the monster paused, and gripped his head in agony. This made Gelato and Rosa stare at him in confusion, but before either of them could react, the monster's tan paw suddenly extended, and grabbed Rosa. She cried out in surprise, then the wind got knocked out of her when the monster pinned her to a nearby telephone post.

"Rosa!" Gelato cried, and then he glared at the monster as he got up.

"Willing to…sacrifice your life for another? Sounds interesting," the monster said, grinning. "I wonder if that holds true for you, Gelato."

"It knows my name," Gelato said to himself.

"That's because it's Tarma," Tony replied, trying to sit up, though with much difficulty. The dog Piranha had jumped away when the hand went for Rosa, and was nowhere to be seen. "He…told his siblings to go ahead of him, so he could fight me. But while we were fighting, he started transforming, and the result of it is what you're seeing. I couldn't beat him, even when I used more than one Mille Aquile (Chidori)."

At that moment, there came a cry of pain from Rosa. Gelato and Tony turned to see the paw that was keeping Rosa pinned to the post was squeezing tighter. The monster, Tarma, looked irritated.

"Stop ignoring me! If you want to free the girl, you have to defeat me!" he said, using his human hand to point at Gelato.

Gelato gritted his teeth, and then answered, "If that's the way you want it, then you're gonna get it!"

Without hesitation, he quickly pricked his finger with his teeth, performed the right hand signs, and slammed his fist down onto the lid of the rusted car roof below him.

"I summon thee, Aquila-Jovis (Gamabunta)!" he shouted, pouring all his Nature Energy (Chakra) into the Summoning.

There was a puff of smoke, and then what emerged was a bald eagle of normal size. This surprised everyone, especially Gelato, who stared at it in confusion. The bald eagle, being oblivious to what was going on, turned to Gelato and spoke in a young male voice, "You called?"

"You're not Aquila-Jovis!" Gelato pointed, and then started shaking his head. "All those weeks of hard training just went down the crapper because of you!"

Offended, the bald eagle lifted its head. "You're very rude. I happen to be Aquila-Jovis' son, Potenza-Aquila (Gamakichi)."

Then suddenly, Tarma covered his paw in sand, which migrated up to where he was holding Rosa captive. The sands wrapped around Rosa, acting as a substitute while Tarma let his paw shrink back. Next, he stretched the paw out, and said, "Sand Knives (Sand Shuriken)!"

Gelato quickly got in front of Potenza-Aquila, allowing him to fly away, and shot each of the Sand Knives with his gun. When the bullets lodged in, the Sand Knives immediately disintegrated, causing Tarma to grit his teeth. Afterwards, he cried out in pain as the sand from his paw covered the rest of his face and upper body. While his legs were still human, Tarma now resembled the upper part of a menacing lion with a human face, grinning as long black wings popped out of his back.

"I see your hands are shaking," Tarma said, looking down at Gelato. "Are you afraid of me?"

To hide his fear, Gelato put away his gun, and said, "Homunculi (Shadow Clones) arise!"

Using the same hand he cut to summon Potenza-Aquila, he made one drop of blood fall onto the car-hood, which followed by red mist, and then several Homunculi of Gelato appeared. They leaped towards Tarma from several angles, but he only regarded them as a spider regards a bunch of flies. After inhaling deeply, Tarma then exhaled a giant cloud of sand shouting, "Sylph* Cast**: Sands of the Sphinx (Wind Release: Infinite Sand Cloud Great Breakthrough)!"

The sand cloud hit the Homunculi first, who quickly dissolved into blood due to the force of the impact. Gelato cursed himself, and made more Homunculi as soon as the sand cloud settled, who formed a human ladder. Then as they leaped off one another towards Tarma, they shouted, "Homunculi Blind Storm (Clone Body Blow)!"

While Tarma was busy blowing the Homunculi that came near him away, Gelato made his way below Tarma, and discovered that underneath his tail, there was less bristly fur around the rectal area. Remembering what Spuaracchio did to his own buttocks, Gelato took out a Throwing Knife, and attached a Hand Grenade (Fire-Bomb) to it using a handkerchief he got from Aurora (Hinata) right before the Gladiator Finals (Chunin Finals) started. He quickly popped the cap off the grenade, and drove the knife right up Tarma's anus.

A sudden flinch came from Tarma, but before he could react, Gelato quickly jumped further down, and covered his ears. The grenade exploded, causing some of the trash to fall and anything within the blast to be severely burned. Luckily, Tony managed to roll off and land on another car below him. Gelato quickly ran around the main pile to join him, and saw that the only thing he had managed to destroy was one of Tarma's arms, which was dissolving into a mix of fur and sand. Though he seemed in pain, Tarma found himself laughing.

"Really? That's the best you can do? First, you summon a worthless bird, and now had the audacity to shove a knife up my rear end? You're even weaker than Tony!"

"He's bluffing," Tony said, weakly standing up. "Listen, Gelato, I want you to free Rosa, and get as far away from here as possible."

"But why? You're in no condition to fight him," Gelato said, looking at the black marks with concern.

"I know, but the least I can do is stall him. You and Rosa…are very important to me."

Gelato was shocked.

"You're not joking, are you?"

Tony shook his head. "No, I'm not. I don't want to lose you like the way I lost my family to-

"I'm staying," Gelato replied with determination. "Tarma and I…are alike in many ways. He's been alone for most of his life, because everyone hates and fears him, including his own siblings. Because of this, he only thinks of himself, and hurting others gives him a sense of purpose. I was the same way, but then I met Delfino, you, Rosa, and Spauracchio. You guys really cared about me, and made me realize that I wasn't alone. So that is why I should fight Tarma, I must fight him!"

Without saying a word, Tony nodded, and lay back down. Gelato then pricked his hand a second time and said, "Centurion of Homunculi (One Thousand Shadow Clone Jutsu)!"

Then shortly after the dozens of Homunculi appeared, they all drew out their guns, and shot at Tarma from difficult angles, crying out, "Multi-Directional Bullets (All Directions Shuriken)!"

While the tough fur protected Tarma, the bullets weren't kind to his legs, which got grazed, causing him to cry out and collapse to his knees. But Gelato wasn't through with him yet. He immediately gathered the clones together, and they kicked and punched at Tarma from all sides in fashion of the Vortice Combo (Uzumaki Combo) Gelato used against Zanna (Kiba), but with more Homunculi. So at that moment, Gelato decided to call it the Gelato Vortice Two Thousand Combo (Naruto Uzumaki Two Thousand Combo)

End of Chapter

*Sylph: one of the four elementals in nature described by Paracelsus, a mystic philosopher, who reigns over wind

**Cast: Reference to Circle-Casting, which is typically done before a witch casts a spell.