CHAPTER 3: NARUTO VS GAARA!
Everyone wondered what was happening as feathers were gently floating from the sky. Everyone except the Jonin and Goku, who was using his Fiery Golden Eyes to see through the illusion. Those that were awake heard a loud explosion come from the top of the Kage's spectator box. Soon after ninja from all around started attacking. Gaara ran off somewhere in the forest and Wukong turned to Naruto. "Alright Naruto, you go after Gaara. I have to go help Hiruzen. He's an honorary monkey so it's kinda my job to help him." With a leap he was gone.
Naruto turned to Kakashi. "Well, guess I'm off! Later Kakashi-sensei!" Kakashi was going to ask who that person was and why Naruto was listening to him so easily, he never listens to anyone, but decided he could ask later and to focus on the attack for now. Although he was worried about whether or not Sasuke and Naruto could beat him. He turned towards Sakura while summoning Pakkun. "Go wake up Shikamaru. Tell him to find Sasuke and Naruto and help as much as you can." With a nod she walked over to break him out of the genjutsu only to find that he wasn't even in it he was just sleeping.
She got mad and yelled at him to wake up. "Shikamaru, you lazy bum! Get up and start helping!" He sat up and yawned. "Alright, alright. I'm up." Kakashi turned to Pakkun. "I need you to sniff out Sasuke and Naruto. Lead Sakura and Shikamaru to them so they have backup." Pakkun saluted and began to track the two of them, leading Shikamaru and Sakura along.
TOP OF HOKAGE TOWER: INSIDE THE BARRIER
Orochimaru stood in front of the Hokage. "I never thought I'd get to face you in battle again." After a moment of silence Sarutobi began to chuckle. He burst forward running through handsigns. "Ninja Art: Tile Shuriken!" The tiles began to rise at his command and flew towards the sprinting Orochimaru. "This is too easy!" He dodged them in a blur of speed. When he landed, the Hokage went through handsigns again. "Far from it! Earth Style: Great Mud River!" The portion of the roof Orochimaru was standing on turned into a mud slide. While he was sliding down Sarutobi went through handsigns again. "Earth Style: Earth Dragon Bomb!" A dragon formed from the mud opened it's mouth and shot multiple balls of hardened mud. As this was happening he went through handsigns yet again and yelled. "Fire Dragon Bomb!" Shooting a wave of fire from his mouth, igniting the balls of mud.
They all landed on the immobile Orochimaru, bombarding him and setting him on fire at the same time. He was screaming in pain but when the screaming stopped Hiruzen spoke. "You can stop your little act Orochimaru." There was a chuckle from Orochimaru as he rose from the ground in a creepy wriggling way. "Alright then. Did you seriously think that you could kill me with such a pitiful jutsu?" His voice sounded mocking. "Ah don't be angry with me. Difficult students are all the more rewarding to teach right? Sarutobi sensei. Isn't it about time we stopped playing around here? Afterall this isn't an Academy class." Sarutobi threw off his Hokage robes and hat, revealing him to be in his battle armor. Getting into the Monkey Taijutsu Style he was most familiar with, he was ready for battle.
Orochimaru threw off his fake Kazekage robes, revealing his Snake Sage robes. They both built up their power as Orochimaru taunted. "At least try to make this entertaining for me sensei." Sarutobi began dashing at him while throwing a shuriken from his pouch. Going through handsigns, he said to himself. "Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Causing them to multiply. Orochimaru blocked them by summoning the coffins labeled 1 and 2. A third was starting to come out of the ground but Hiruzen reversed the summon.
The coffins opened. "What are you going to do now? What can you do Lord Third Hokage?" It was revealed to be the First and Second Hokages. Before the battle could continue, a man with an iron cudgel came literally crashing through the barrier, breaking it apart...somehow. The barrier luckily for Orochimaru (or unluckily depending on how you look at it) reformed once again trapping them inside. "Hey Hiruzen-chan! It's been a while hasn't it?!" Hiruzen's eye twitched at the childish honorific he was given. 'Who is this person?' Was the thought going through both Orochimaru's and Hiruzen's heads right now.
Hiruzen decided to voice his question. "I'm sorry but, who are you?" 'Goku' looked a little confused that Hiruzen didn't know him for a moment. After all, it was tradition that when a Sarutobi came of age to sign a contract with the Monkey Summons, they go to their land and meet both the leader of the Monkey Summons and the Sage of the Monkey Summons. The leader being Enma and the Sage of course being himself. He remembers every monkey and that includes every Sarutobi as well. Then he remembered he was currently transformed and responded. "Oh, right." He released his transformation revealing his true form to them.
Hiruzen's eyes widened in pleasant shock. "Wukong-sama?" He grinned widely at Hiruzen. Hiruzen while happy to see him again after all this time was also really confused as to why he was here. "Uhm, Wukong-sama, I'm glad to see you here but, why are you here?" Before he could answer, Orochimaru got fed up with being ignored and attacked the strange monkey-man creature. "Your new Monkey Summons won't be able to stop me sensei!"
The Kusanagi blade extended from his mouth and attempted to run Wukong through. The blade was inches from his heart when Wukong, without even turning to face him, spun his cudgel in his hand and struck down on the 'unbreakable' blade so hard it shattered Orochimaru's sword. This stopped him in his tracks as he spat out the weapon and examined it in his hands with a horrified look on his face. Wukong looked at him with an amused expression. "Well, what'd you expect? You came at me with a sword, I have an Iron cudgel. Hehehehe."
Orochimaru spoke with a fearful awe in his voice. "That's...that's not possible. It was an Adamantine sword." Wukong had a curious look for a moment, then exploded into uproarious laughter. "HAHAHAHA, oh man! I bet that sword was so hard to get too! HAHAHAHA! Oh that's just so unlucky! HAHAHAHA!" He was laughing so hard he was crying while Orochimaru was steaming and fuming in anger. "Well, hehe, you gotta remember, the weapon doesn't make the warrior, hehe. Here, to make it fair, I'll stop using any weapons and I'll power my self down a lot."
Orochimaru's eye was twitching because when this monkey transformed, he transformed into him. The Orochimaru look-alike began laughing once more at his expense.
WITH NARUTO AND SASUKE
Naruto had quickly caught up to Sasuke chasing Gaara. "Hey Teme! Got a plan?!" Sasuke looked over to Naruto and smirked in a friendly way. "I was thinking on something. Though it was going to be quite a bit more difficult until you showed up. I say we overwhelm him until he makes a mistake and leaves an opening. With that new sand armor we don't have to worry about his automatic defense anymore." Naruto chuckled a little. "Why would he downgrade like that? I mean, I get that he's a lot stronger now on paper but that automatic defense thing was just unfair. Losing it like that was just- WHOO!" Gaara had thrown a Sand Shuriken at Naruto and had to dodge or get torn apart.
Gaara had stopped running and was now facing them in his Half Tail form. "COME FACE ME UCHIHA! MOTHER NEEDS TO TASTE YOUR BLOOD!" While Sasuke was thinking, Naruto was having the strangest sense of kinship? The demonic chakra he was sensing was certainly familiar to him. While Naruto was thinking, Sasuke began by leaping onto the vertical part of a tree and launched as many kunai as he could. Naruto took that as his que and went straight for him. The kunai landed and one of them exploded, leaving a part of him vulnerable. Naruto struck that part as hard as he could. The impact from that hit alone caused a shockwave so strong that it caused some of the nearby trees to fall over, and caused Sasuke to almost lose his footing.
When Sasuke saw the sheer force of Naruto's punch, deep down a seed of jealousy formed. Gaara stood up and reformed that part of him. Screaming, he gained more sand armor, completely covering him in his One Tail Form. He grabbed Sasuke and tried to grab Naruto. Naruto was too fast and dodged, Sasuke felt the sand around him harden and begin to compress. "AAHHRRR!" Naruto cut the arm holding him in place but couldn't get Sasuke out without hurting him. Standing between the trapped Sasuke and the One Tail Gaara Naruto realized something.
'He's just like me.' He thought back to the moment when he fought Neji, and talked to his dark self. 'Maybe I can talk him down.' Naruto to them looked like he was distracted for a moment. Sasuke yelled, "Naruto MOVE!" At the same time Gaara was throwing wind enhanced sand shuriken at them. Naruto quickly looked back to Sasuke who was stuck at the moment, realizing that if he moved Sasuke would die. Thinking fast he busted out a move that Sasuke had only seen a mythical creature do in the bedtime story his mother read him at night.
Naruto did a mid-air twist kick that sent two, huge lashes of fire at the sand shurikens. He managed to burn the air around them slowing them down a bit, and also turning the sand into glass. Completely stopping them in their tracks. Sasuke was finding himself growing a bit more jealous. Naruto, meanwhile, cupped his hands together and blew fire in between his palms. He shot the ball of fire at Gaara who moved out of the way. It was a good idea to move because the trail of incendiary destruction left in the wake of the fire ball was frightening even for him.
He didn't hit Gaara but the good news was he maneuvered Gaara out of the direct path to Sasuke. Seeing he had a bit more breathing room now, he made 100 clones of himself. Naruto was starting to feel the exhaustion on his chi but he pushed on through. Him and the 100 clones began to assault Gaara, swarming him. Some were using just their fists and kicks, others were using their weapons. Even with his sand armor he was quickly getting overwhelmed. He only managed to pop 10, he was losing. Using his last form he cast the Play Possum Jutsu. While he was asleep, The One Tails came out and slowly began to form.
It was calling the sand encasing Sasuke, allowing him to finally be free. Once Sasuke got his footing, Naruto landed by him. "Hey, are you okay?" Sasuke was starting to get pissed off. 'How can one person get so strong in a month?' He barely contributed anything in that fight. He looked up at the howling Bijuu, he wouldn't be able to do anything now. For the moment at least he swallowed his pride and answered. "Yeah, what are we going to do?" Naruto looked down, thinking. "I have an idea." He called over one of his clones. "Hey can you throw me and then I throw you?" He got the idea and nodded. The Naruto clone grabbed him by the arm and threw him full force.
Using the momentum of the clone Naruto threw the clone full force. Due to both of their immense strength they quickly reached Mach 20. However this still wasn't enough, so they both transformed into falcons, increasing their speed to Mach 30. The One Tails was so busy with destruction he didn't notice the two small falcons quickly approaching him. The first one transformed back into a Naruto when he was in front of the sleeping Gaara and struck him. The second one flew forward behind Gaara, transforming into another Naruto and bonking him in the back of the head.
Gaara was officially awake, causing the Bijuu to disappear while screaming. They both landed in the forest away from everyone. Neither could get up when Gaara asked a question. "H-How...why are you...so strong. I don't...I don't understand." Naruto started crying and told him. "The burden of loneliness is not an easy one to bear. I got strong from a need to protect those I care for. That's why you lost. Find a few people. It doesn't have to be very many, just a few genuine friends. People you can fight for. That's the only way to become...strong." He finally passed out from exhaustion when Kakashi, Sasuke, Sakura and Shikamaru arrived.
Gaara was taken away by his sister and brother. He quietly said to them, "Temari, Kankuro...I'm sorry." This surprised them. He had never apologized before he fell into a peaceful sleep.