Heya, I'm back. Between regular updates, work picking up, and just a lot of stressful stuff at home, the burnout hit me all at once and I needed some time to take it slow. I'm back though, and I'm happy to be here.

Now a quick thing to address before we start, and I'll make it quick:

I received a good handful of comments telling me the ANs were too long. I agree; the last chapter was kind've wacky. I tend to use the AN as a chance to warm up with my writing, and I often don't think much about it and just leave them in. Looking back though, yeah… That's a lot of text. So I'm gonna be keeping any lengthy comments for post-chapter analysis. If you like reading long walls of text where I ramble and slowly go insane, that'll be the place for it. Up here I'll try to keep it to around a paragraph or so in the future.

Enjoy:

Hiruzen watched Shikamaru leave the arena with a glint in his eye. "Not a bad performance from Shikaku's boy," he remarked under his breath. Truly, all previous reports, both from the academy and even from Asuma, suggested that young Shikamaru was rather difficult to motivate. Oh, the boy was extremely intelligent, just like his father. But he was immature, and that immaturity simply heightened the typical laziness found in Nara clan members.

Shikaku had been the same way back in his youth. To his son's credit, he seemed to be well on his way to growing up far quicker than his father had, if his performance was any indicator of what could be expected of him within the near future.

The Hokage peered to his right, where an intently staring Rasa sat; the intensity of his focus on young Shikamaru was a vague cause for concern. Was he simply interested in the budding potential of a young ninja, or perhaps angry at the boy for his brutality with the man's daughter?

"Your thoughts, Kazekage?"

The younger Kage side-eyed him. "An impressive performance from the Nara boy. I found myself particularly impressed by his sharp intellect."

"Indeed," Hiruzen agreed. He took a deep puff of his pipe while he collected his thoughts. "His physical performance wasn't anything particularly noteworthy… However, his strategic mind seemed to more than make up for any deficiencies on the former end."

"That, of course, is no excuse for the boy to be slacking off," the Kazekage shot back, his tone leading.

"Certainly a fair point. However, I feel confident that young Shikamaru will be able to make up for lost time, now that he seems to have gotten his head on straight."

Rasa nodded. "I share your optimism, Hokage. If that boy can truly apply himself to honing his strength, I see no limit to what he can achieve." After a moment, he added, "Does this mean you plan to promote him to Chūnin?"

"I feel confident that he will do well as a Chūnin, yes. I would like to see more before I make a decision; how will he fare against young Naruto and young Sasuke, I wonder?" The Hokage let his pipe hang loose, chewing the tip in thought.

"About that," Rasa started, his eyes gleaming with interest. "I would like your opinion on the Uchiha. He also competed with one of my children; how do you think his performance measures up, compared to your other favorites?"

"I hesitate to call any of the competitors my favorites, Kazekage." Hiruzen chuckled humorlessly, but pushed on regardless. "I would like to see more of young Sasuke before I truly decide. He has demonstrated great proficiency with shuriken-jutsu and a surprising increase in his overall combat abilities, at least compared to his earlier showing during the prelims. However, as you know, being a Chūnin is not all about combat. There are a great many nuances to a Chūnin's skill-set that cannot be replicated with mere power alone. I wonder if young Sasuke has the mentality needed to grasp those nuances…"

Rasa nodded, but remained silent. Hiruzen noted that the man had not directly spoken about either of his competing children, the entire time. Was he simply disappointed in their performance, or was there another reason for the man's special interest in Konoha ninja?


Naruto had waited for Shikamaru at the waiting terminal, content to watch his friend's performance from within.

"Shikamaru moves surprisingly well," he noted, watching the boy dash about to avoid Temari's wind-based attacks.

"His moveset seems to be somewhat limited though," Kushina commented. She winced as Temari finally made enough space to send a brutal torrent of wind that sent the Nara boy flying, practically in pieces. "Nice replacement."

"He needs a way to extend his shadow…" Naruto frowned, considering Shikamaru's options. "Couldn't he extend by connecting to the shadows from his shuriken and kunai?"

"He could, but perhaps he wants to be more unpredictable? That Sand girl seems pretty intelligent, herself."

She was right, of course. Naruto hummed in thought as Temari dove to the side, avoiding a flanking attack from Shikamaru's shadow.

"Shikamaru's shadow manipulation is super useful, but he's not particularly quick with it." Naruto noted that it only seemed to be getting slower as the fight went on. "His reserves are nothing to write home about either. He's already flagging." Was the shadow possession jutsu really such a chakra intensive jutsu, or was Shikamaru just that out of shape?

Naruto raised an eyebrow as Shikamaru huddled tight, weathering repeated gusts of wind, courtesy of Temari's fan. "What is he- oooh".

The resulting explosion as Shikamaru's paper bomb mixed with Temari's wind nearly reached his position, all the way over in the waiting terminal. Shikamaru was sent rolling, several meters away. Temari- Naruto winced as Temari slammed into the wall, leaving an imprint with her body; she slumped bonelessly to the ground, and Naruto briefly wondered if she was dead. Then she shifted.

"She's tough as nails," Naruto remarked as the girl roused herself, slowly dragging herself back to her feet. She was clearly concussed, if her unfocused eyes were any reliable indicator. "The fight's over, though." He winced as Shikamaru broke her feet, leaving the unconscious girl to be wheeled away by Konoha medics.

As the winner of the battle followed them off the arena, they locked eyes with one another.

"Not a bad performance," Naruto praised him, smiling. "Never thought I'd see the day that you ran after someone else."

"Yeah well, it was either that or let her slap me around with that wind of hers until she tired out. Hard pass on that one." Shikamaru yawned, loudly. "You didn't have to wait for me. I'm sure Hinata's missing you already."

Naruto ignored the obvious bait. "You should get those cuts checked out. You won't get far fighting like that."

"I'd rather not be fighting at all," Shikamaru growled back. "Honestly, is it really so much to ask to just live a boring, uncomplicated life?"

Rolling his eyes, the blonde simply shrugged. "You shouldn't have become a ninja if you didn't want to deal with the consequences of it. You like sweets right? Why not become a baker or something?"

Shikamaru paused, suddenly looking embarrassed. "I guess I never really thought to be anything else. My mom and dad are both ninjas; my grandparents were too. I grew up in an entirely ninja household with ninja values…"

It was likely that most if not all clans worked similarly. Naruto wondered to himself if he'd have been the same, had his mother and father survived on the day of his birth.

'More than likely,' Kushina answered. 'I'd like to tell you that we'd have supported you in whatever it was you chose to do with yourself; I believe that with my whole heart… But I'd be lying if I said that we wouldn't have ended up influencing you toward ninjutsu in some way or another.'

So the ninja system was designed to indoctrinate its participants into churning out the next generation of ninja killers, huh? Naruto wasn't surprised; Zabuza and Haku immediately came to mind. Ninja were tools who existed for the purpose of fulfilling the wishes of their lords and people. They gave everything to their cause; their dreams, their lives -hell, even their own children, it seemed.

"That's rough." Kushina chuckled, sardonically. "Uzu did it better; while we had a dedicated system for developing our warriors, we also built a foundation of programs to help promote interest in other fields. It's why our clan became so well known as craftsmen and revolutionaries with so many different arts."

Huh… It sounded like Konoha and the other among the big five ninja villages oughta take a page out from Uzu's book "The ninja world is honestly pretty stagnant when it comes to anything not relating to ninjutsu ya know."

"-ruto?" Naruto blinked rapidly, refocusing onto Shikamaru who had begun waving a hand in front of his face. "Hey, you okay?"

"Yeah, sorry. I zoned out. What were you saying?"

Shikamaru frowned, concern etched onto his face. "I was asking: If you'd never become a ninja, what do you think you would have done?"

A pause. "Uhh- unfortunately, I'm realizing now that I never really had a choice," Naruto replied after a moment, laughing. Shikamaru's concern only seemed to magnify at that, so he added, "I guess I could see myself growing flowers?" He began steering Shikamaru toward the infirmary. "Not that anybody would wanna buy a bouquet from me, ya know?"

"I don't…" Shikamaru got a weird look in his eye and slowed yet again to a halt. Naruto knew it was the very same he tended to wear whenever he saw a puzzle in front of him. "You've always gotten weird treatment from the rest of the village. Your own team didn't come to see you in the hospital. Now you're saying you never had a choice other than to be a ninja… What aren't you telling me?"

Naruto sighed. "If I told you, I'd have to kill you." Shikamaru snorted, and Naruto gave him a sharp look. "That wasn't a joke."

"Ah," Shikamaru suddenly looked nervous. "That bad, huh?"

Naruto didn't answer, instead turning his head upwards as Genma's voice sounded out from a nearby intercom.

"Attention everyone. Due to the odd number of leftover competitors, it has been decided that the next match will be a three-way deadlock between our three fighters. That will ensue in half an hour. Please offer us your patience while we prepare the arena once again. Competitors, please make any preparations that you need, with this time."

A lone purple eye rolled over to regard Shikamaru, glinting with amusement. "So it'll be all three of us against one another; isn't that exciting?"

"Yeah, I'm just surrendering," Shikamaru growled back. "The two of you can kick each others' asses all you want without involving me, thanks."

"No balls," Naruto sang back.

"Wha-" Shikamaru stared at him in disbelief. "Did you honestly expect that to work?"

"Did it?"

"...Fine, I'll compete, on one condition… I have another question." Naruto hesitated for a moment. Shikamaru's curiosity could land him in trouble if he kept pursuing his current line of questioning. Ultimately though, he trusted his friend to respect his privacy. Thus, he offered an encouraging nod, prompting Shikamaru to level a serious glare at him. "Are you and Hinata a thing?"

Naruto blinked, slowly. "Wait, that's your question? Wha- I thought you were going to ask me what happened in the cocoon; why my hair is so long; what happened to my eye… You get a free question and this is your priority?"

Naruto's questions went completely unacknowledged. "You at least understand that she likes you, right?" Not letting Naruto get a word in, Shikamaru threw his arms up, exasperatedly. "Please tell me that you do know that much- look, man. She's been crushing on you since we were little kids in the academy; practically everyone has been rooting for her for years. Now today I caught you two having a complete conversation without her fainting. You held her hand! I don't give a damn about your cocoon-induced shenanigans or whatever; this is monumental." Once again he glared at the blonde. "So I will Ask. You. Again. Are you two a thing or not?"

Shikamaru's tirade had left Naruto completely speechless. "I mean I don't- we haven't talked about it or gone on a date or anything so… no?"

"Fuck!" Shikamaru punched the wall, immediately shaking off his aching hand. "You suck! I hate you!"

"I'm sorry, ok!?" Naruto threw his arms out to defend himself from the irate Nara. "This isn't something I can just say 'yeah brother, I'm in there like swimwear' to. I just woke up like last night!"

"Do you like her?" Shikamaru grabbed Naruto by the collar of his vest and began shaking him violently. "Well, do you?"

"Why are you getting so worked up!?" Naruto yelled back, confused. "This is so out of character for you; I'd expect this from Ino or Sakura, hell, Shino before you!"

"I may be a lazy shit, but even I have a heart beating in my chest, you dumb, blonde, himbo!" Once again, Shikamaru shook his friend like a baby rattle. "Now answer my question! This is a threat!"

"Yes, damnit yes! Stop shaking me!" Naruto finally pried himself from Shikamaru's surprisingly strong grip. He stumbled dizzily for a moment, trying to collect his bearings. Eventually, Naruto settled against the wall. "Good god where is this passion for literally anything else!?" Shikamaru's silence caused him to properly look at the boy. "Alright, why in the nine hells are you crying?"

"God does exist," Shikamaru sniffed. "You're going to ask her out after all of this, or I'm going to- okay, I don't know what I'm going to do yet but it'll probably be at least mildly inconvenient for you. Do you understand me?"

"You shake me like that again and I'm going to ask your mom out, you ass." Standing up from the wall, Naruto then rolled his eyes. "I'll talk to her about it."

"You two are loud." Shikamaru didn't get a chance to respond as Sasuke's voice sounded not too far off, the Uchiha descending from the stairs leading to the competitor's booth. "If you have time to be talking about girls or whatever other nonsense, you should be preparing for-" Sasuke stopped abruptly as he finally laid eyes on Naruto. "You grew."

"You shrunk," Naruto fired back, just as quickly. "Aaand now he's checking me out."

Sasuke glared at him. "I'm just surprised. You actually don't look like a short, orange eyesore, for once."

"Yeah, the tiny blonde gremlin swaddled in orange' look was so last month. Maybe I'll revisit it later." Naruto made a show of looking Sasuke up and down as well. "I like the fit. It really screams 'I'm a tormented soul who drowns my ceaseless woes in heavy metal and thoughts of revenge. Very on point."

Shikamaru snickered, causing Sasuke to glare his way. "Get lost. I need a moment with Naruto."

"You're gonna have a moment with my foot in your ass if you don't watch your tongue," Shikamaru retorted with a roll of his eyes. "I'm heading up. Don't spend too much time making out with each other."

"We'll make out for as long as we want," Naruto huffed, causing Sasuke to sneer between them both. As Shikamaru disappeared up the stairs, he turned to match his glare. "For future reference, it doesn't cost much to not be a dick. A simple 'I need a moment' would've been quicker and less rude."

Sasuke didn't acknowledge his words, instead continuing to glare at him for a moment.

"Okay, you're not actually about to start kissing me are you? Because I need dinner and a few drinks at least before-"

"I heard you were hurt," Sasuke cut him off, a vein throbbing lightly in his temple. "But you seem well enough to make jokes."

Snorting, Naruto simply shrugged. "I got better. Not that you would've known. Too focused on those gains to make sure your buddy isn't dead or dying, huh?"

"Kakashi said you'd be fine." A moment passed, then, "Was it bad?"

Naruto raised an eyebrow. "'Close' is an understatement. I needed to be revived"

"Oh…" Sasuke looked down, his usual stoicism giving way to the slightest touch of guilt. "If I'd known, I-"

"That's a surprise." At Sasuke's confusion, Naruto simply sighed. "Sakura knew and never showed. Kakashi knew and didn't show. Honestly, I just figured you were the same and didn't care."

"Of course I care!" Sasuke snarled, his skin immediately taking on a shade of pink as he caught his own outburst. "I just- look, you know what I'm about. I've got better things to do than to be playing around and being buddy-buddy with everyone… But I don't not care. I just-" He went silent for a long, awkward couple of moments. The wall was still up, but Naruto saw the cracks. Sasuke was far too prideful to straight up admit that they were friends; part of Naruto wanted to push him, to make the boy say it. It was the ugly side of him; the pettiness and the ego that wanted to see his usual stoic teammate sweat.

But that wouldn't get them anywhere.

"I get it, Sasuke." Naruto smirked. "I get it. It's fine." Wanting to break the tension, he added, "I'm still gonna dive in your ass when we fight, though."

Sensing the olive branch, Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Don't go getting a big head just because you beat that Neji guy. He couldn't have been that tough if you made it past him."

"My guy was some elite turbo prodigy with magic eyeballs and lethal tippy-taps. Your opponent was sand's court jester, rocking some dude's sloppy seconds for a puppet. Sorry to say but you're the challenger here, bucko." Accentuating this, Naruto thumped Sasuke's shoulder, sending the boy stumbling. He glared at the blonde in response.

"With how confident you seem, you'd better not disappoint me."


"We were able to mend the bones but they're still weak; you're going to want to stay off your feet for some time while they settle. I'll come check with you in about an hour to make sure they're healing right."

Temari only half listened to the medic's instructions as she allowed the young man to help her into an infirmary bed, not far from Kankuro's grinning form. Close by was their sensei Baki, who had intercepted them on their way to the infirmary. He was terribly silent, which Temari took to mean the man was disappointed with her.

Understandable. She was pretty disappointed with herself, too.

"Also, try not to move around too suddenly or you'll agitate your head wound," the medic added.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm not a toddler; I know how this goes!" She growled, prompting the medic to scurry off.

Kankuro began to laugh. "See, this is why you're gonna die alone, sis. You scare away every man that even looks your way!" He only laughed harder as Temari's nostrils flared, the girl barely withholding the urge to snarl at him.

Baki remained silent, waiting for the medics to fully clear out. Once they were the only three in the room, their sensei took a deep breath, resulting in the longest sigh the two had ever heard from him. "First Gaara and now you two… This isn't good."

Oh right. They were probably in trouble, huh…

"Baki-sensei I-" Temari started, hesitantly.

"Not now," he cut in with a grimace. "The signal could go off at any moment. I need to figure out what can be done about this. I just came to tell you two this:" The harshness in Baki's features softened a touch as the man looked between them both. "Be safe. Take care of each other, and don't take any unnecessary risks." A pause, then, "For the sake of your own survival, do what you feel is best; I trust your judgment."

Not waiting for a response from his students, Baki exited the room, leaving them alone.

A tension had built up in the room, in the wake of their sensei's departure. Seeking to cut it, Kankuro spoke up first. "So, what was that about 'I'm going to tear that lazy bastard apart'?" His mocking grin did little to soothe the frustration Temari felt with herself.

"Shut up," she snapped. "At least I managed to hurt my guy!"

"Fair," Kankuro conceded with a shameful smile. "But I think those crooked-ass toes of yours aren't going to really care about semantics." He chuckled for a moment under Temari's withering glare before sobering up. "You looked like you hit your head pretty bad. How're you feeling?"

"... Like shit," Temari admitted. "I talked a big game and now I'm in here with you, laughing at me. Plus, Baki-sensei's pissed!"

"Baki-sensei is always pissed, to be fair. There's not much that can be done at this point but observe and wait. Look, I convinced one of the medics to wheel a screen in for me." Kankuro pointed to the wall across from them, where a decently sized box television had been set up. "If you're lucky, you'll get to see the guy that beat you get eliminated first."

Temari frowned. "How can you be so easygoing at a time like this?" she asked, her tone anxious. "The signal can go off at any time and we're both out of commission."

Kankuro shrugged. "I guess we'll just have to make do with what we've got."

Truthfully, he wasn't so sure he wanted to make do at all, at the rate things seemed to be going. For all of his bluster, Kankuro wasn't worth much without Karasu; at best, he was a decent genin with some well-rounded skills. Temari was much better off, seeing as she still had her fan, but her two broken feet would make it hard for her to do much more than blow wind at people from afar.

In essence, the two had just become liabilities on the field. All the more reason to stay out of the active conflict. They could prioritize securing Gaara and sneak out in all of the confusion. But how to convince Temari of that? Between the two of them, she was especially eager to pay Uzumaki back in blood for what he'd done to Gaara. Kankuro certainly wouldn't mind getting his own pound of flesh, but he knew he had to be realistic. Anyone who could do what he had done to Gaara was too dangerous to fight; the boy's fight with the Hyuga had only confirmed that fact for him. Kankuro's short bout against Sasuke Uchiha had driven the final nail into that coffin.

No, if he wanted to get his family out of this alive, he would need to set his priorities straight. Uzumaki could wait…

But how to get Temari on the same page as him? Would she be more open, now that she was also out of commission?

"Kankuro, I think you were right." Temari's voice suddenly broke him from his thoughts.

"What was that?" He gaped as his sister repeated her words. Rare was it that his sister conceded on anything.

Surely it couldn't be that easy, right?

"Before long, it's going to be a hot mess and this here is going to be ground zero. If we want to help Gaara we're going to need to prioritize that; I think that's what Baki-sensei was trying to tell us. That blonde shit stain can wait for a different time-" Temari stopped, now aware of Kankuro's stunned expression. "What? Don't tell me you changed your mind?"

"N-no!" Kankuro shouted, startling her. "That's good. That's great! As soon as we're able, we'll head over and-" Kankuro suddenly stopped, now looking past Temari. "Ah shit."

Temari' inner dread peaked to match what was currently frozen on Kankuro's face. Robotically, she turned her head, bearing the glare of the Sannin, Jiraiya. He was leaning on the wall just by the door; their sensei Baki was limp over the man's shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

"I'm gonna need a word with you two," he said, lightly. Reaching behind him, Jiraiya snapped the lock shut. "Should only take a moment, if you know what's good for you."


Naruto's fresh new appearance had been quite a shock to Kakashi. Doubly so had been the news that he'd succeeded against Neji. Truthfully speaking, the cycloptic jonin hadn't quite expected his loudmouthed student to put a dent in the Hyuga, let alone pull a victory. Call it his own biases; something about raw talent versus hard work… Whatever. He'd clearly failed to see the potential in his student.

That was on him.

Kakashi had assumed that Naruto couldn't go far without first closing many of the holes in his ninja skills. Enter Ebisu, a competent tutor who was known for being ludicrously efficient at refining the basics in his students. His own issues with Naruto aside, Kakashi had trusted the man to teach him well.

Thus, even when Naruto failed against Neji, he'd still be much better off than before, with a much greater proficiency and well-roundedness when it came to the areas that he was lacking. After all, Naruto held a great deal of power within him, but little of the finesse needed to use it well. Many of Kakashi's teachings would be wasted on him if Naruto wasn't up to snuff enough to make use of them.

That had been his reasoning when he blew the boy off; the thought process was sound, as far as he was concerned. He could begin teaching Naruto more advanced ninja techniques once he was good enough. Sure his student would fail against Neji, but failure wasn't all that bad; it was a great teacher and a phenomenal motivator. Naruto would be grumpy for a time, but he rarely held a grudge; once he came to understand the thought process that went into Kakashi's decision, he would laugh it off and they'd get along again.

But that wasn't how it had gone at all. Ebisu reported that he'd only worked with the boy for not even two full days before they'd parted ways. What's more, Naruto had been seriously injured while Kakashi and Sasuke had been out of the village.

No matter. The Kyuubi's chakra would patch him up before long, leaving him right as rain. He might even come away from the experience much stronger.

Somehow, Kakashi had managed to miss the mark with that particular calculation,

"Go fuck yourself."

The words had been said lightly, as if discussing the weather. But that was the issue, in and of itself. Naruto was the passionate sort; he said and did everything with his whole heart. Such words wouldn't be uttered by the kid unless he truly meant it. Moreover, if he wasn't being loud or jokey, then that was all the more reason to take what he said all the more seriously.

Kakashi should have just apologized, asked to talk about it later and explained his reasoning to the kid. He'd seemed in a reasonable enough mood to talk things out, at least.

But instead, he did what he always did. He deflected; he made excuses; he downplayed things to keep the tone light, and that backfired, leaving the jonin three-for-three in 'bad decision bingo'.

Kakashi sighed. He really couldn't do anything right, could he? Well, anything other than stabbing people, he supposed. Sakura's anxious glance toward the man caused him to offer her an easy smile; it was reflex, and also clearly not the right call, as she only seemed to grow even more uncomfortable at the lackadaisical energy he was trying to put forth.

Make that four-for-four, then.

Leaning closer to the girl, he whispered, "It'll be okay, Sakura. We'll all talk as a team when this is over; clear the air and all of that, okay?"

She nodded, her expression still uncertain. Her eyes followed the path of Shikamaru as he reentered the competitor's booth and was set upon by Ino, the blonde girl surprisingly hugging and loudly congratulating him.

"You're just doing this because you heard me put you on blast earlier, aren't you?" Shikamaru accused her, rolling his eyes.

Ino's smile melted into an indignant scowl. "Maybe I'm just legitimately proud of you, did you ever think of that!?"

"If you're so proud then why aren't you repping me like Hinata did for Naruto?" Shikamaru pointed at the blue-haired girl, who yelped at suddenly being made the center of attention. "The only thing she's missing is pom-poms or a foam finger. You couldn't even rock my ponytail for a day?"

Ino shoved Shikamaru into an empty seat next to Choji, immediately undoing the bun in her hair. "You want me to rep you, is that it? Fine, I'll wear your dumb, ugly ponytail. But if you lose the three-way I'm going to give you so much crap about it!"

"Heh, three-way," Kiba snickered. Kurenai palmed his face in response, shoving him away from her with a sigh. Immediately after, she ripped her hand away in disgust, her hand covered in the boy's saliva.

Sakura looked down, her own shame building. "It's just, all of them get along so well," she whispered. Kakashi's impressive hearing was just barely able to catch her words over the steady cacophony of the going-ons within the booth. "But Sasuke-kun doesn't even seem to like me and Naruto-" Sakura sniffed, looking miserable. "Kakashi-sensei, I messed up."

Her sensei smiled, sadly. "Well that makes two of us, Sakura. But it'll be okay; we'll make it okay, alright?"

She nodded, still looking sullen. Choji had now mirrored Ino's actions, taking his headband off and wrapping his hair into a sloppy, spiky ponytail.

"No, no Choji. That looks awful," Ino whined. "Here, I'll do it for you!" Choji allowed the girl to groom him, sharing an easy smile with Shikamaru over a bag of chips. "By the way, where's Sasuke-kun and Naruto?" Ino asked Shikamaru.

Shikamaru made an attempt to speak around a mouthful of chips, but aborted quickly at his teammate's glare. Swallowing, he said, "Last I checked they were making out under the bleachers or something. Very hot; real shame I had to miss it."

"Absolutely. You totally missed out, Shikamaru; we even held hands after you left." Naruto cut in, ascending the stairs followed closely by a growling Sasuke.

"Out of wedlock? Very scandalous," Shikamaru quipped.

"Stop agreeing with him. You're going to start giving them ideas." Sasuke's words went largely ignored as Naruto gravitated away from him, leaving him to brood comfortably over the railing. The blonde rejoined Hinata, dropping down to lounge in the chair beside her where they immediately began whispering to one another. His hand reached out, rubbing Hanabi's head, who tolerated it for the briefest of moments before shaking him off.

Neither of her two teammates had even looked her way.

From below, Genma's voice called up to the remaining competitors. "Fifteen minutes until the final match takes place. Competitors please be ready to go as soon as I call for you."


The Konohagakure holding cells were actually part of a series of underground networks, connecting to a multitude of different facilities within the village; they mainly encompassed the resources used by the ANBU and, to a smaller degree, the interrogation facilities headed by head interrogator Ibiki Morino.

The dozens of intertwining, winding tunnels that made up this series of facilities was regarded as the 'Konoha Mousetrap', named as such for its tendency to leave the unacquainted terribly lost -a function of its design, of course; those who entered the tunneling network, whether by choice or otherwise, were meant to be so confused by the system that they were left trapped and unable to escape without aid.

Only those who were authorized for the use of the various facilities within were taught how to navigate the layout, and often only insofar as their maximum clearance required.

An excellent deterrent to keep the wrong kind of folk from entering or escaping that which they had no business entering or escaping. But right now, he desperately wished that was not the case.

Takehada Kagoyama was just a Chūnin guard. His life was simple, if a bit bland; he guarded things. Sometimes walls, sometimes people… Whatever it was that he was guarding, there came a persistent expectation that things could go wrong; however, rarely was it that such a thing occurred. Certainly not in a way that he or any of his fellow Chūnin had not been able to clean up without much issue. Runaway fugitive? Call the hunter nins and wait for their return. Bad guys lurking too close to one of the walls? Call a squad and point them in the right direction. Oh sure, he'd seen action from time-to-time; you didn't get to be a ninja without experiencing at least a little conflict, and that went double for a middle-level ninja, such as himself. But there was a world of difference between the roadside nuisances or even the occasional ninja and whatever this was.

The prison had been reduced to ruins, painted superfluously in the carnage left behind by the Kazekage's rampaging son. There had been no build up; no warning that he could speak of. One moment, he'd been enjoying a game of cards with the other interrogators down below the facility; the next, things had started breaking; people had started breaking.

Next was an ocean of sand, hungrily consuming any and all that it touched as it tore through the tunnels of the Mousetrap. Alarms had sounded, and the tunnels had been sealed to prevent the little bastard from doing even more damage up on the surface.

He was sorely regretting that that particular order had been given. Takehada had watched ten-too-many of his own comrades be swallowed beneath the sand, only to be crushed to death or ripped limb from limb. Any who stood still for too long was found and destroyed. Any who fled too recklessly followed the same formula, all trampled to death by the wrecking ball given sapience that they had been sealed inside with.

Each notch of devastation left in the kid's belt was broken down and rendered to fine, granular sand; every grain of sand simply added to the repertoire of the little monster currently wreaking havoc on the people down within the facility with him.

Takehada flinched, instinctively hugging the ceiling as a heart wrenching scream echoed, just a few ticks down from where he was. A crack sounded in the air, followed closely by a strangled sob. Another crack went off, not terribly unlike a firecracker. This time Takehada could've sworn he heard something like a giggle.

Several more cracks went off, then a wet thud against the ground.

Then another, this time flying past the intersection just short of his own position.

An arm. Small, and bent and twisted like a derelict pipe of ruined flesh and splintered bone.

"Help me," a small voice whimpered. "Please help me."

They sounded young, and Takehada couldn't help the urge to chance a peak around the corner.

She was young, no older than a teen. Takehada recognized her from the morning; a new hire, recently promoted. It was her first job outside of her four-man cell. Her eyes, so wide with excitement earlier, were now glassy, but not quite empty with death. Her face was twisted in agony, and Takehada didn't need to look long to see why.

Her right arm had been torn off at the elbow. The left was hanging on by a thread, little more than a pulverized mass of gore. Something was bent over her, grime-covered, shaggy red hair concealing a face that was currently buried in the crook of the girl's neck, whispering its mad ravings into her ear.

"So ugly; so, so very ugly. But don't you worry…" It giggled, the pitch of its voice rising to something shrill and grating. "I'll make you pretty; I'll make you beautiful!" Its two hands, thick and encased with sand, wrapped themselves tightly around her neck. She choked desperately as the creature's grip tightened. Takehada could see the girl's tongue loll out, her mouth ajar and gasping as it tried to find even the tiniest amount of air to satisfy her asphyxiating lungs.

All at once the creeping sand around them rushed the girl, a massive deluge of the granular material forcing its way into her open mouth. She let out a muffled scream as it continued to force its way into her body through her now unable to close lips.

Her body swelled painfully as the sand continued its hunt, searching for any other way to find its way inside of her. Her torso bulged and twisted as her body was torn apart from within, making more room for the incoming sand.

Too weak to do anything else but spasm weakly, she searched desperately for any relief, her eyes finally catching his shape on the ceiling. The girl's shell shocked eyes caught his own, hers silently pleading for his intervention. A bead of sweat began to trail down from his temple.

What in the hell was he supposed to do for her? That monster had torn through dozens of high-level ninja far greater than him, up to this point. The carnage he'd left in his wake was so potent that Takehada could taste its stench like it was on his tongue.

Even if he could save her, she'd die of what had already been done to her. Even if she didn't, where would they go? 'I'm sorry,' he mouthed back. A moment later, her eyes were crushed as sand began to fill the sockets. Takehada heard the cartilage in her ear canals pop and snap as the sand found yet another opening to fill; her nostrils followed shortly, until she was little more than a swollen, purpling corpse.

Takehada saw the exact moment that she passed, her body going limp as her hope for survival finally bottomed out.

Whatever depths of hell this demon crawled out of, he hoped he wouldn't find himself in as well for leaving that poor girl to such a horrific fate.

A drop of sweat dropped from his face, careening toward the sand-covered ground before Takehada could think to catch it. It hit the sand, its sound almost entirely inaudible.

The creature's head snapped up in an instant, its sickly yellow irises stretching and widening over black sclera. Its head tilted jerkily, then he died.


"Thank you everyone for your patience," Hiruzen's voice called out from above to the newly reseated crowd. "Preparations have been completed, and we will begin our final event of the day very shortly. Before we do so though, I would like to offer my words of respect to our competitors who have fought hard to get to this point; not just today, but through all of their trials and tribulations set for them to overcome by this event's proctors. The young ninja who stand before you have proven themselves to be among the best within their rank. A round of applause for them, please."

A roar of approval followed the old Kage's words, leaving the three Genin below to gape at the attention.

"That's a lot of people," Shikamaru muttered, his own anxiety creeping through his usual lackadaisical mask. "Too, too many people."

"Wonderful, they're going to get to watch me clown on the both of you." Following his statement, Naruto dropped down to stretch.

Sasuke snorted, disbelieving. "Don't get ahead of yourself, loser. I'm going to win here." Sending a glare Shikamaru's way, he added, "If you don't want to get hurt, you should probably surrender now."

A tempting suggestion, really. But Shikamaru had swore to Naruto that he would see this through, and he planned to keep his word.

He was lazy, not a liar.

So he ignored Sasuke, instead dropping down to do his own stretches, trying and failing to approximate Naruto's own motions. Good god, that guy was flexible.

Their applause died down, and with that, Hiruzen spoke again. "I look forward to seeing what all three of you are truly capable of. I leave the floor to Genma Shiranui, once more."

"Alright runts, listen up. The rules are the same as before, with one major difference. There's three of you, which for those of you who can't count, is more than two. This changes things a teensy bit. The last one standing out of the three of you wins. How you get to that point is entirely up to you, so long as you do not leave this arena or endanger any of the audience. Yes, Uzumaki?"

"Are noogies allowed?" Naruto asked, a grin on his face.

"Shut up… Also, yes. You three may begin on my say so." Tilting his head up to regard his audience, his voice was projected for all of them to hear. "The final match of Konoha's Chūnin exams tourney begins now. START!"

Shikamaru immediately ducked low, manifesting his shadow possession jutsu to lash out at his two opponents. It slunk around in a wide arc, seemingly trying to capture Naruto and Sasuke at once. Both leaped away from the boy, not at all keen on seeing it happen.

Sasuke procured a fistful of shuriken, each one rushing forward to ward off Shikamaru, who was forced to abort his own offensive to evade the hail of metal. Two more of the metal stars tried to harass Naruto, but were intercepted immediately, nearly stabbing them right out of Sasuke's hand.

"Tsk." Sasuke turned fully to meet an approaching Naruto, his sharingan blaring to life to counterattack the blonde's straightforward rush. He was shocked as Naruto suddenly blurred forward, his speed well over tripling on the spot. "Wha-" He wasn't able to say much more as the blonde's palm collided with his own forearm. Sasuke winced and planted his feet to keep stable, but found himself skidding back.

"Hi, it's me, your good pal Naruto. Wanna know something cool?" Naruto lashed out with blinding speed, snagging a struggling Sasuke by the scruff of his neck along with his wrist. "I am very fast."

Naruto ripped a flailing Sasuke off his feet, then twirled to meet Shikamaru's fast approaching shadow. Sasuke's body was hurled toward the offending manifestation, with him quickly scrambling to his feet to avoid it.

Sasuke tried to rush to the side to make space from Shikamaru's attack but was forced yet again to block as a heavy kick slammed into his left side, the force ripping through his own guard and bruising the Uchiha's ribs. Naruto followed his attack with a high kick from the same leg, which collided with his teammate's shoulder, then another that smashed into Sasuke's temple and left him reeling. Hooking his risen leg into a wide arc, Naruto drove his heel into Sasuke's inner thigh, then kicked off with a leap; he then whipped around to crash a back kick toward Sasuke's face.

Sasuke hastily guarded, and Naruto took the chance to kick off from him, sending them both flying away from one another; Sasuke's back hit the ground while Naruto flew through the air, twisting to hurl a single kunai at Shikamaru like a speeding missile. Their third opponent was once more forced to abort from his shadow manipulation in order to evade.

Even from his position on the ground, Sasuke refused to lay idle, immediately blurring through several hand seals. Rat, Tiger, Dog, Ox, Rabbit, Tiger. "Fire Style: Phoenix Flower Jutsu!" Sasuke bellowed, firing six small but speedy fire balls which careened toward Shikamaru, seeking to cut off his escape routes.

"Fuck you guys, seriously!" Shikamaru snarled, diving at a wide angle to avoid the initial kunai. He scrambled to dodge Sasuke's own attack, but found himself forced to guard as one fireball grazed him, leaving a nasty burn on his shoulder. Rolling to his feet, he then jumped further back to make additional space.

Sasuke rolled backwards, throwing himself to a standing position and glaring between his two opponents.

Naruto landed gracefully, his feet digging into the ground to stop his own trajectory. He began to dust himself off, a grin threatening to bloom across his whole face. "Cute warmup, guys, but I wish you'd take this seriously."

A vein throbbed in Sasuke's temple.

He wanted serious? Fine, he'd get serious.

Brushing the dirt off his own clothes, he took a familiar pose.


"Why is everyone copying Lee today?" Kiba laughed. "First Neji, now Sasuke. Can these guys do anything original?"

"Oh but there is a difference, Kiba," Shino corrected, his tone a touch mirthful. "What? Well, one did so with white eyes, and the other, red. It's completely different."

Kiba and Akamaru both let out a bark of laughter. "Oh absolutely." He nudged Hinata with his elbow, startling the girl. "So, you think your boyfriend can handle Lee two, electric boogaloo, for the second time today?"

Hinata smiled, playfully. "I-it'll be fine. Without the green spandex they c-can't use his full power." From the corner of her eye, she spotted Lee and Gai both nodding, appreciably.

Kakashi listened in, curiously. "So that's how it played out, then?" He looked down to Sakura for confirmation.

"Yeah… That Neji guy opened the gates and Naruto still beat him just fine. Um-" Sakura stammered for a moment, trying to find her words. "Kakashi-sensei? They're both out there fighting… Who do I root for?"

A tough question. The suddenly interested looks of his eavesdropping peers told Kakashi that there really was no right answer here, for him. He sighed. "I suppose in a case like this, you just hope that they both do their best, huh?" He scratched his neck. "As their teammates we oughta support them both, I would think."

Sakura shifted uncomfortably, but nodded. "Yeah."

Kakashi smiled her way, then turned back to the proceedings below. The battle had begun anew. Naruto and Sasuke were a blur, the pair engaging in a blinding exchange of taijutsu. Shikamaru was smartly staying out of their way, instead focused on conserving his energy and occasionally taking shots at their blind spots; he had completely forwent the use of his shadow, instead seeking to conserve his stamina for later.

A smart call. There was no way he was going to catch either of them now, at the speed they were going. Certainly not without some proper planning; Kakashi could see in the boy's face that that was exactly what he was working on.

Naruto's hand-to-hand had dramatically jumped, from what he could see. He effortlessly weaved around Sasuke's attacks, allowing his foe to lead the fight and simply responding to the boy. Aside from a handful of glancing attacks, he hadn't bothered to do much more than that.

"Why isn't he attacking back?" Hanabi asked, confused. "He's definitely stronger than the other guy; he should be beating him up!"

"If I may," Gai piped up, his teeth glinting as he smiled at her. Hanabi looked his way, blinking rapidly as the shine of his teeth temporarily blinded her. "Young Sasuke may have gone and copied my pupil's movements, but it is clear as a beautiful summer day that he hasn't mastered them!" Gai laughed, patting a slumping Lee's back. The boy seemed to straighten up a bit as he did so. "Lee forged his strength through an endless stream of hard work and guts! No matter how talented you are, you simply can't steal that all in a month. Neji couldn't do it, and that young man definitely couldn't." Lee shared his smile, reassured by his sensei's words.

"U-um S-Sasuke-san is using c-chakra en-enhancements to boost himself," Hinata added. She took a breath, steadying her tone. "His speed isn't natural to his bo-ody and it's putting a lot of strain on him. Na-Naruto-kun definitely recognizes this and is letting him tire himself out." She paused, her throat feeling terribly dry all of a sudden. "I think it's be-because Naruto-kun sees Shikamaru-kun as the bigger threat and wants to conserve stamina for him."

Ino and Sakura both frowned, with the latter questioning that idea out loud. "Why Shikamaru? I mean I'm rooting for him and all, but between the three of them he's definitely getting outclassed here!"

"Not entirely true, actually." This time it was Asuma who spoke up. "While he may be lagging behind in terms of direct, hand-to-hand confrontations, Shikamaru is a highly competent strategist, and every second that he gets to plan is one that hurts both of the other two's odds against him. If he captures them with his shadow, he more than likely wins. Naruto knows that, and realizes that Sasuke won't just wait around for him to do that. He needs to beat Sasuke first or he might just end up getting pinned between the two…" He shifted scratching roughly at his goatee. "Which means that Naruto needs to conserve as much of his stamina as he can and keep his options open, and the best way to do that is to simply let Sasuke tire himself out trying to keep up with him.

Kiba frowned, shifting with growing discomfort. "So Naruto's clearest path to winning is to tire out Sasuke then take him down while keeping his resources up. Sounds like there's a lot of- okay I swear it can't just be me. Is anyone else getting itchy as all hell?"

Kurenai pursed her lips. "Maybe you need better skincare?"

"Woman, you're scratching yourself too!" He retorted, glaring at her. Someone tell me I'm not cra-" He stopped, suddenly pale, much to the alarm of everyone else. "Why is there sand everywhere?"

Hinata's byakugan flared to life immediately. "Oh dear…"


Sasuke's fist crashed directly into Naruto's palm, the latter shifting to turn the Uchiha's weight against him. Pulling him close, he jabbed Sasuke in the armpit, then gripped his elbow and twisted to throw him completely off balance. Sasuke snarled like an angry cat as he was turned upside down, rolling onto the ground. He didn't waste a second, pulling his knees under him and coming in for a series of punches and kicks that all hit the air and little else. Naruto spun behind him and slammed an elbow into the back of his head, stunning Sasuke. Then he followed up by tilting forward, throwing his full weight into another back kick which sent Sasuke stumbling forward.

Sasuke caught himself and had to abort their clash as another shuriken came his way, courtesy of Shikamaru.

Still no shadow. What was he planning?

Moreover, how the hell was Naruto handling him so well? He knew his teammate had been able to defeat Neji, and he'd even inferred the boy hadn't had much trouble, judging by his lack of battle damage. But to make this big of a jump in such a short time was ludicrous! Everything he tried fell flat; he was just burning himself out! At this rate, he'd need to use the jutsu Kakashi had taught him…

No, Kakashi had explicitly told him not to use it on a comrade, and Sasuke agreed with him. He'd just need to be craftier, was all. Slow down and analyze the situation.

Shikamaru was playing keep away, using his ninja tools to keep them at bay while they seemingly tired themselves out fighting each other; no doubt that lazy-ass was measuring his options and planning out the best way to take them down.

Naruto was the real shark in the water here though. He'd been one step ahead of Sasuke since the battle had started; his mere presence was keeping Shikamaru from employing his shadow jutsu, since it had become clear to both of them that there was no chance of tagging him at the current stalemate they had all come to.

No, Naruto's earlier words had been right on the money. As much as he hated to admit it, Naruto had quickly become the favorite to win this battle; Sasuke and Shikamaru were both the challengers here, and unless Sasuke could find some way to turn the tides then he and the Nara were both fighting for second place!

Unacceptable. Sasuke's blood began to rush as the thrill of their fight continued to build. The cursed mark on his neck began to thrum, inviting -no, nearly begging Sasuke to use its power; all he had to do was let go.

He couldn't see its spread, but judging by the heat on his neck and face and Naruto's suddenly concerned expression, Orochimaru's seal must have started to creep out from his binds.

'Piss off. I don't need your power,' he snarled. Reluctantly, the heat began to ebb, taking with it the power it had offered.

Naruto grinned. "Good call, man. If you'd whipped out Orochimaru's love bite I might've started worrying you were cheating on me."

"Oh shut up with that, already!" Sasuke dropped low, rushing forward in a vague approximation of Naruto's own movements."

"Monkey see, monkey do, huh!?" Naruto rushed forward to match his charge with a laugh.

So caught up in the thrill of their fight, Naruto had nearly gone blind to everything beyond the limits of the arena.

Almost.

Naruto sensed the attack just before it was fired; even preoccupied as he was, it was hard to miss such a massive buildup of chakra. There was no time to even speak. Both of his opponents were still terribly oblivious, up until the exact moment that the arena wall exploded outward, a shower of debris being closely followed by a fist-sized bead of black chakra. It was so dense that it gave the blonde a headache just trying to track its trajectory. Luckily, he had eyes, and his eyes were more than happy to tell him they were all going to die if he didn't do something fast.

"Ah fuck," Naruto whined, continuing his charge forward. Sasuke had halted his charge but was still far too slow to react; Shikamaru was even worse off, nearly paralyzed as his brain worked to identify the incoming threat.

Naruto closed the remaining distance between himself and Sasuke, slamming his heel into the boy's chest and pushing off while leaning back. The bead careened right past them, straight toward a Shikamaru who was just now understanding what was going on. Body near-parallel to the ground, Naruto twisted, and a dozen of his chains burst from his back, contorting themselves together into something reminiscent of an oversized pitcher's glove. It snapped out with speed, closing around the bead; immediately, a multitude of molten seals began to spread across the structure, the hand snapping off from the rest of the chains and disappearing in a puff of smoke.

Naruto landed on his side, suddenly feeling lightheaded by the sudden and very sizable expenditure of chakra. He scrambled to get to his feet, aided by a still-dazed Sasuke.

"What the hell was that?" He demanded.

"Not now! Above!" Sasuke's head snapped up at Naruto's words, his two sharingan nearly bugging out of his head at the cloud of sand that had accumulated above them. From it, a storm of bullets began to rain down.

Both ninja split off from one another, Sasuke's sharingan spinning at a blinding pace to track the trajectory of the onslaught and stay out of its path; Naruto made heavy use of his chakra sensitivity to flip and weave away from the hail of deadly projectiles. His maneuvers were calculated to get him close to a panicking Shikamaru, who closed the last of the distance between them.

"What's going on!?"

"Who the fuck in this entire village commands magic murder sand!?"

"I really don't want to answer that!" Shikamaru groaned. "Why can nothing ever just be simple?"

"I'll make it simple, then. A gorey death is as simple as it gets!" A high pitched cackle sent an arc of terror up Shikamaru's spine; he looked back just enough to catch sight of a wicked looking clawed hand before he was tackled out of the way by Naruto. "Hello, my lovely! Did you miss me?"

"I need an adult." Naruto threw up a hasty guard as their foe swung out, a backhand crashing into his forearms hard enough to send him skipping across the ground. His body threw up debris as it carved a trench through the earth before smashing into the arena wall.

"Naruto!" Shikamaru had little time to worry any further about his friend as a sandal-clad foot tried to smash down on his head. "Time out, time out!" he hollered, just barely managing to roll out of the way. Throwing himself to his feet, he began to rapidly backpedal as the sand-clad menace before him advanced against him. The sand-clad limb was sluggish, and Shikamaru managed two sloppy evasions before a much quicker kick bludgeoned his gut; he was sent careening away several meters. Rolling to his knees, Shikamaru tried to stand, but found no strength in his legs. It was all he could do to stop himself from vomiting all over himself.

"Don't tell me my toys are all broken already?" A grotesque shadow loomed over Shikamaru, and he rolled onto his back to look at their attacker for the first time.

Gaara was covered liberally in sand, from head to toe. His torso was where it had accumulated the most, coating his entire left side in a dense, tan shell casing with dark blue accents. His arm had been morphed, taking the shape of a massive, clawed arm that was far too long. His legs were mostly untouched, barring his left hip and thigh. Shikamaru glanced at his face and gasped. The sand had accumulated to form a grinning jaw across the boy's nose and mouth, its visage akin to that of a tanuki. Two golden eyes with diamond patterns stared through him, accented by a black sclera. A single sandy tail waved lazily above him, streams of sand falling freely from its brush-like tip.

"Uh… A little help? Anyone?" Shikamaru began to panic as Gaara's long, sand-clad arm coiled around his leg, hefting him into the air, upside down. "Any help at all? ANYONE!?" He cried out as he was swung upward; Shikamaru screamed as his body recoiled against the sudden force, Gaara clearly intending to smash him into the ground with lethal force.

"Chidori!" Sasuke's voice roared from behind, suddenly accompanied with the loud shriek of electricity. The limb that had gripped him went slack, leaving Shikamaru to roll painfully against the ground. He scrambled to get away from the still writhing sand, tracing the now severed mass back to a screaming with rage Gaara.

"You asshole! That was my favorite arm!" Enraged, Gaara whipped around with his now sole arm, his massive claws carving trenches into the earth as he picked up momentum. The wind howled as his whiplike arm snapped out, cracking like its namesake as it attempted to collide with Sasuke. He dropped down low, avoiding the initial sweep; however, he was unable to respond to the vortex of wind that ripped him off his feet and sent him sky-bound.

"Wind Style: Air Bullet!" Gaara slammed his remaining arm into his bloated, sand-clad belly, then belched forth a spherical mass of transparent death. Its speed was such that Sasuke had no time to even form his first seal for any realistic counter; he could only watch as his death approached.

Sasuke yelped with shock as he was suddenly enveloped by ghostly chains, the mass squeezing tightly around him and weathering the full brunt of Gaara's killing move. He was swiftly pulled to the ground, next to a frowning Naruto.

"Nice bruise," Sasuke snarked, referring to the rapidly swelling discoloration on his teammate's temple.

"That's an interesting way to say 'wowzas, Naruto. You're so cool and hip; thanks for saving my life' ya know."

Shikamaru dropped down beside them, clearly favoring one of his legs over the other. "Why are we not getting any backup?"

"Look up."

Shikamaru did so and his mouth went dry. The stands had been completely blown apart at Gaara's point of entry. Civilian bodies littered the arena floor, partially buried in rubble and sand. Their peers were trained well, having begun the process of extracting the wounded for medical attention. But it would be some time before they could join them.

As for their senseis, they were currently in open conflict with a swarm of enemy ninja, sporting primarily sand and sound garb.

"So it's an invasion, after all," Shikamaru groaned. "And we're stuck defusing the fucking bomb."

"A bomb, eh? That's cute," Gaara cackled. He lowered his massive body, sand creeping toward them all as he did so. "I'm something a bit more exciting than that."

"You're not Gaara." Naruto's words left Shikamaru and Sasuke both puzzled. "Your chakra is all wrong." With a sigh, he began to stretch. "So that little twerp couldn't take a loss with grace and told his mom on me, then. No, that's not right either." Fixing a severe look at the boy, Naruto bared his teeth in a threatening grin. "What exactly have you gone and done to him, Shukaku?"

"Who the hell is Shukaku?" Sasuke demanded, his tone wary.

"I hope to every god that's listening you're not talking about my dad," Shikamaru added.

"Unless your dad is secretly a mega sand demon then no, your pops is in the clear." Naruto began to pace, watching the creeping sand carefully. "The short version is: Shukaku is the sand village's resident tailed beast, and it's sealed inside of Gaara. I will be taking no further questions unless it relates directly to how we can avoid getting turned into a nice, fleshy pulp."

"Okay then," Shikamaru started, watching like a hawk for any sudden movements from the now-named Shukaku. The creature seemed content to just let them have their little dialogue. Why? "Then how can we avoid getting turned into a nice, fleshy pulp?"

A good question, and one that Naruto didn't have much of an answer for. Shukaku's chakra was a horrifying mass of chaotic malice; at the core of it all was Gaara's own chakra signature; it was faint, and Naruto knew immediately that the boy wouldn't last long.

"That disgusting rat is feeding on his chakra to sustain itself," Kushina observed. "The damage you did to it the other day… It still hasn't fully recovered.."

So it was using Gaara's chakra as a battery then, feeding off his spiritual energy to manifest its psyche. If that was the case, then, "It's cannibalizing Gaara's essence to give itself strength. If it manages to complete that process, we're fucked."

Which explained why the beast was content to stall. "As of right now, we're working on a timer. We've gotta-" Naruto cut off as Shukaku flew into action, hurling a salvo of sand projectiles.

"Times up!" It snarled, rushing forward to intercept the trio as they made to dodge.

"We've gotta disrupt the metamorphosis or things will get so much worse!" Naruto yelled above the roar of the wind. His chains bloomed outward from his back, reconstituting themselves into the rough shape of a shield as he reached into his utility pouch. It wasn't at all his best work, but he was a bit strapped for time as Shukaku blurred above him, one of its arms pulled back for a devastating haymaker. It collided dead on with Naruto's shield and spiked him down into the ground; Naruto's body bounced painfully as he failed to absorb the impact, but his focus remained. Contorting his fingers together into a 'tiger' seal, Naruto grinned. "Boom"

"Wha-" Shukaku's eyes widened as it noticed the duo of explosive tags stuck to its chest. "Oh that's adorable." Its body was enveloped in the explosion that followed, its raw kinetic force drawing the attention of everyone in the arena.

Shikamaru whistled as he watched the aftermath, rushing to pull Naruto to his feet. "Do you think that got-"

"Don't finish that sentence!" Naruto snapped, causing Shikamaru to fall silent.

From the billowing smoke, Shukaku's voice whined, "Aw! It's so much more fun when I let them guess!" A massive deluge of sand exploded outward, threatening to crush them all underneath its weight.

Naruto gripped Shikamaru by his collar, hissing a hasty apology to the boy as he began to move. Hauling his friend over his shoulder, he turned and ran away from the veritable tsunami of sand. A shallow leap threw them over a particularly fast strand of sand, which cracked out like a whip. A forward lunge barely took them out of the path of three lightning fast tendrils, contorting together in the shape of a beast's maw.

"Shikamaru, use your shadow to hold it still!" Naruto hollered over the roar of the encroaching sand.

"I've barely got the chakra to hold him when he isn't possessed by a freaking demon, what makes you think I can hold that thing down now!?" His objection made Naruto groan.

"Quit sassing me and fucking do it!"

Sensing the steel in the blonde's tone, the Nara heir activated his family jutsu, allowing his comrade to carry him along while he focused on suppressing the rampaging Shukaku. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught Sasuke sharing a silent nod with Naruto, the former flanking while forming hand seals.

Naruto was damn fast; Shikamaru gaped as the boy continued to ramp up the speed, the pair becoming little more than a formless streak as he wove around the ceaseless stream of sand-based attacks. Naruto ducked low and tilted his torso, evading a spear-like strand without even looking. Jumping, he planted his foot against the shifting sands, using the principles of water walking to find a foothold in the unstable surface. Naruto leaped off from it, twisting while airborne to evade a handful of bullets that attempted to catch his back. Leaning into his own momentum, he spun several times with elegance, ultimately landing on his heel and digging into the ground to slow himself. Just in time too, as a wall of sand rose right in their path, intending to swallow them up. Above them as well, the sky began to darken; Shikamaru looked up and paled.

"Above!"

"You think I don't see the fucking sky disappearing!?" Naruto roared, whipping around and loosing a wall of chains from his spine. "Adamantine Formation: Cleave!" They coiled together with finesse, forming a shape reminiscent of a large butcher's knife. It lashed out in a wide arc to disperse the two approaching walls of sand. As the masses were cleaved apart, Naruto leaped upwards, twisting in the air and redirecting the formation of chains to swipe at Shukaku.

Shukaku met the attack head on, interposing his massive sand arm in the path of the attack; the sand morphed to grip the mass of chains before heaving, swinging Naruto and a screaming Shikamaru through the air. It cackled loudly, the tailed beasts' aim clear as it swung the pair toward the ground at a killer speed; suddenly, it froze, leaving the two to collide onto the ground in a groaning, but ultimately intact heap.

"Hah… Shadow Possession Jutsu: Success," Shikamaru announced, weakly.

"Finally!" Naruto twisted his fingers together, his chains blooming outward and contorting into the shape of a rose. "Adamantine Formation: Thorn!" From the mass, several thick needles, really more akin to small javelins, were fired, each carrying with them a streak of purple flame.

Shukaku strained to intercept the wave, breaking free of Shikamaru's shadow almost immediately. However, even the tiny delay provided by Shikamaru's binding proved impactful.

The projectiles embedded themselves painfully into its torso, refusing to budge even as he tried to shift his sand to dislodge them.

"I'll make you bleed for that, you little monkey!" Shukaku roared, its eyes contracting into little more than yellow dots in a sea of black. Drool rained from its mouth, building up into a thick froth. "You're going to die screaming, I promise you!"

"Kiss my ass and suck my dick," Naruto snarled back. "What the hell is even your problem? You attacked me first. You don't get to bitch and moan when I defend myself, you self-entitled piss-baby."

"Naruto, please don't enrage the evil sand monster," Shikamaru pleaded.

"You think it isn't already pissed?" Naruto rolled his eyes and began weaving seals. Horse, boar, bird, dragon, ram. "Adamantine Formation: Parasitic Bloom." Instantly, the needles' exposed ends burst open, twisting into the shape of spider lilies, which began to light up with a flagging Shukaku's vile red chakra. "Any time now, Sasuke!"

As if on queue, the roar of a thousand birds sounded for the second time that day. "Chidori!" It came from above, and Shukaku and Shikamaru both looked up in shock. Sasuke hung in the air for just a moment before careening downward, his lightning clad fist intending to punch clean through Shukaku's head.

Shukaku raised its sand to defend, but it was sluggish and frail, allowing Sasuke to easily punch through it on his path straight toward the now panicking tailed beast. "Don't you dare!" It threatened, swinging its arm out to intercept the Uchiha's attack. Sasuke twisted in the air and threw out his free arm, copying Naruto's earlier maneuver and using a pulse of chakra to springboard off from the encroaching sand-clad limb. "Please?" Sasuke ignored it, landing right behind Shukaku in a roll, spun on his heel, and lunged forward, intent on ending things. His fingers were just inches away from the creature's widened eyes before it suddenly grinned.

"I warned you," Shukaku sang, just before it exploded in a shower of sand. Sasuke was thrown back with extreme force, crying out as he smashed bodily against the ground and skipped like a stone across a lake. He collided with the arena wall, much like Naruto had mere moments earlier.

Shikamaru gaped. "What the fuck was that?"

"Bad news," Naruto piped up; his dread was clear as day. "We've been fighting a clone."

"Bingo, monkeys!" Shukaku's voice sounded from all around, completely formless. "Do you think I'm some brainless little neanderthal that doesn't know how to plan ahead!?"

"Well, I'd kinda hoped so, yeah," Naruto admitted.

Yeah, that was on him.

"Didn't I teach you to never underestimate your opponents?" Kushina chastised, exasperatedly.

'In my defense, you thought so too.'

"In my defense, I'm not the one about to get my ass kicked by the One Tails." She shot back.

Yeah, okay. A fair point.

All around them, the leftover sand began to shift, then rumble. The arena began to shake in its entirety as the granular mass shot up, forming several pillars which amassed together to form the grinning face of the one tailed beast.

"None of you are leaving here alive, little monkeys. You're not fighting some feeble little ninja, boy. I've seen and killed people far smarter and far stronger than you could ever hope to be."

Naruto snorted, at least partially to hide his own dread. "If that's the case, then why are you getting so damn worked up?"

"Because you ruined everything!" Shukaku roared. "You burned me; scarred me! But that wasn't enough for you; you turned him away from me! You stole him from me!"

"What the hell are you even talking about!?" Naruto groaned back. He received no answer, as Shukaku was clearly done talking. Its massive visage exploded into a shower of sand, which began clumping together into a mass composed of dozens of small, tan beads with red markings; wide, sharp-toothed grins stretched across the spheres, cackling with malicious intent. All at once, they split off from one another, blitzing through the air at increasing speed. Their trajectory was erratic, the projectiles dancing around Naruto in search of an opening to press.

His chains blew outward to meet them, intercepting their rush with great effort.

They were getting faster though; the spheres seemed almost sentient in their machinations, growing harder and faster with every pass at their target. They adapted, attempting different trajectories, and following each others' rushes to press even the tiniest weaknesses in his guard.

Naruto dove fully into the chakra sensitivity afforded by the Mind's Eye of the Divine Entertainment technique, using its precognitive sensing to adapt, himself.

But he wouldn't last. There were far too many variables to account for:

Shikamaru, who was still close by and far too slow to avoid their attackers; the spheres had begun harassing him as well, forcing Naruto to divert his attention to protect his friend.

Sasuke's chakra levels had taken a massive hit, leaving him unable to maintain the impressive speed that he had copied from Lee. Several more chains needed to be allocated to protect him.

Their other peers, still working in tandem with one another to escort the wounded civilians to safety; yet again, another chunk of his focus had to be diverted.

All at once, his focus failed him. One of the spheres finally slipped through, curving around a hastily procured shield and ripping through his torso with eager teeth.

Naruto staggered, trying to keep his footing, but several more of the spheres sensed his weakness and pushed the advantage; two more of them slipped through the cracks in his armor, one carving a bloody gouge through the flesh of his back while the other tore partially through his calf.

"Well, that's not good," Naruto gasped, falling to one knee. 'I need to find an out before I get myself killed.'

"You can't fight it properly while trying to protect everyone, X'omaa. You need to isolate how many people the One Tails can target." Kushina's advice was sound. But how to do it?

Well first, he needed Shukaku to manifest itself again. The ground beneath them was suffused with its chakra, breaking down the minerals within the earth and forming an increasing repository of sand. It would be only moments before the arena was swept under, leaving everyone to the beast's nonexistent mercy. The spheres had settled just above, once again judging the distance and hunting for their perfect opening.

"Shikamaru, I have another plan," Naruto announced, lowly.

Shikamaru nodded without hesitation. "Let's hear it."

"We need to force it to the surface or we're all fucked. I can provide the conditions for that but after that, I need to get it out of the arena so I can fight uninhibited. You're gonna need to hold it still again, and for a bit longer than last time."

Shikamaru winced. He hadn't even managed a full second last time. "How much longer."

"At least two seconds."

"Shit, I don't know if that's gonna be possible, Naruto."

Naruto glared at the boy, his lone visible eye going frigid in its intensity. "Make it possible, or we're all dead."

Well shit… "I'll make it happen," Shikamaru finally conceded, groaning. "You owe me after this, I hope you know."

"Hey, I'm doing all the heavy lifting, here ya know!" Naruto jeered, clapping his hands together. His chakra roared to the surface, forming a thick purple flame. Digging even deeper, Naruto gritted his teeth as his aura began to grow, now adorned with golden sparks. "Since you keep calling us monkeys, I hope you don't mind if I go ahead and copy your whole fit, asshole! Adamantine Formation: School of Steel!" His chakra blared out, wrapping around his chains and wreathing them in its ominous, purple flame. Then they began to break off at the links, twisting into dozens of small shapes, reminiscent of a school of piranhas that were seemingly all teeth.

They gnashed their teeth together in sync, tiny golden sparks flying off with the gesture, then they went on the attack, bombarding Shukaku's sand projectiles with terrifying efficiency. In terms of speed, Naruto's adamantine fish seemed to have the edge, easily outmaneuvering Shukaku's own sand beads and tearing them apart with their superior numbers. It took only seconds for them all to be done away with, and Naruto slumped as the last of them were destroyed.

He wasn't done yet though. Horse, boar, bird, dragon, ram. "Adamantine Formation: Parasitic Bloom!" Another dozen chains burst from Naruto's back, twisting into thick pillars and planting themselves into the surrounding earth. Their exposed surfaces twisted once again into spider lilies, the structures heating up and turning a molten red as Shukaku's corrosive chakra was siphoned away.

"Gahh!" The sand began to thrash, jumping away from the pillars and amassing itself in the center of the arena, once more taking on Gaara's vague silhouette. However, this time, there was far more sand covering his form. "I'll wrap those blasted chains around your damned neck!" Not wasting any more time on banter, it blitzed forward, its clawed arm reared back and poised to strike.

Naruto pushed forward to meet it, putting on just enough speed to enter the beast's space before it could finish winding up its attack. He leaped forward the rest of the distance, planting his heel into Shukaku's shoulder and vaulting directly upward just as its arm came crashing down on the space he had just vacated. Twisting in the air, Naruto thrust his palm downward, calling forth his chains yet again; this time, they manifested in the shape of a thin, sharp-edged rod, which shot out and pierced Shukaku's exposed foot. Gripping his end of the weapon, Naruto shifted his center of gravity while upside down and slammed a brutal kick into the soft tissue of Shukaku's now barely exposed neck. Its roar of pain from the stabbed foot cut off as it gagged. Looking to push the advantage, Naruto swung himself to the ground and once more entered Shukaku's space, slamming a palm into its sternum and driving the air out of its lungs. Next came a blinding fast right jab, followed by an equally quick left cross. Naruto hung back, turning on the balls of his feet and tilting just as Shukaku found its footing and whipped around, intent on taking his head off with its clawed arm. Then, Naruto rocked back, smashing his elbow into the creature's eye.

Shukaku howled with pain as the pointed end of Naruto's elbow gouged into the exposed tissue, causing it to stumble back and clutch its face. Tears in its eyes, it was unable to properly react as Naruto whipped around and buried the front of his foot into its cheek; Shukaku was sent skidding into the dirt, dazed, leaving it open for yet another follow up. Leaping up, Naruto flipped once before crashing a knee into the back of Shukaku's neck, then followed up with a haymaker to the back of its head, which buried its whole skull into the ground.

'So if it's a battle of hand to hand, I've got the advantage," Naruto observed, planting an open palm directly into his foe's lower neck. Ink began to stretch across the surface, twisting and shaping itself in accordance to his whims. He was unable to see its completion as sand came forth, attempting to ward him off. Naruto ducked, then vaulted over the growing mass and attempted to once again close the distance, but was stopped as Shukaku's tail slammed into his head, sending him rolling backwards. He handed on his back, arms and legs splayed out as if making an angel in snow.

Head still ringing, Naruto smirked, all the same. 'That oughta slow him down.'

"A contract seal, huh?" Kushina grinned back from within. "Looking to take a page out of Auntie Mito's book, then?"

'It's not perfect, but it'll do the job fine enough.' With a pained groan, Naruto rocked forward into an upright position, watching as Shukaku dragged itself to its feet, its head in its now two oversized hands. Despite the direct hits he'd been able to land, he'd seemingly done very little lasting damage. Shukaku's eye had already healed just fine, leaving the organ bloodshot, but otherwise unwounded. The rest of his blows had seemingly been soaked up for the most part by the entity's sand armor.

Yeah, he was going to really have his work cut out for him, here. Where the hell were their jonin sensei? He could really use a jonin or twenty on this guy's ass, right about now.

Two sets of arms pulled him to his feet, and Naruto shot a tired grin, Hinata's way. "Heya hot stuff. You come here often?"

Hinata barely even blushed, looking over the faint bruising on his skin with concern. "A-are you okay?" Behind them, several more of their peers had approached. Kiba and Akamaru both were practically itching to jump into the fight, despite their obvious fear.

With a nod, Naruto gently divested himself of her grip, shooting a thankful look Shikamaru's way as well. "Are you all done with the civilians then?" At her nod, he looked around, concerned. "Where's Hanabi?"

"Father came to collect her; he's taking her to the academy bunker."

Naruto nodded. "Good. Can we expect any backup from our senseis here?"

"Um, I'm really not sure." Hinata pointed and Naruto's eyes followed, catching Kakashi and Gai both in combat with a white-haired young man with twin red dots on his forehead. His body was entirely clad in the pitch black script, indicative of Orochimaru's cursed seal. Several thick bony protrusions were sticking out from his chest, shoulders and forearm, allowing him to easily ward off Kakashi and Gai's attempts at getting past him; thus, they were at a stalemate.

"A fucking Kaguya… Of course," Naruto hissed. Deep within, he could feel Kushina urging him to stay away from the young man who was currently handling both Kakashi and Gai at once. She needn't have said a damned word; Naruto rather liked living, as a matter of fact. "That's gonna be a dead end then. We shouldn't expect any help from those two."

Feeling out for Kurenai and Asuma's chakra, he could see that the pair still had their hands full with a seemingly endless hoard of enemy ninja. Thankfully though, they seemed to have at least found some backup from ninja on their own side.

Where the hell was the old man? Naruto didn't have to look far to answer that question for himself; the Hokage had seemingly been sequestered off to the rooftop, where his chakra was doing battle with three other massive signatures.

Which meant the task of subduing Shukaku was left to a bunch of genin. Well, a select few of them, actually.

"I swear to god, if at least some of us don't end up getting promoted after this, I'm leading a revolt." Naruto saw Sasuke nod out of the corner of his eye. "Nice bruise," he snarked back to the boy, eliciting a glare from his friend.

"Your plan sucked."

"Your mom s- actually, nevermind." Naruto winced, feeling the heat of Sasuke's glare on the back of his head. "Hey, I didn't actually say it!"

"Shut up!" Sasuke snapped, now taking his spot directly at the Uzumaki's side. "How are we going to take that guy down?"

"I'm working on it!" Naruto snarled. Shukaku had gone nearly immobile, still clutching its head. It was almost like the beast was arguing with itself. Despite its own distraction, Naruto could sense its chakra, still fighting against the effects of his contract seal.

Not ideal.

"No, no! You're not seeing the big picture, boy! I'm doing this for you; for us! Just shut up and let me handle it!"

"Hey, what's he doing?" Kiba questioned.

"Gaara's chakra is being swallowed up, but he's fighting back… and losing. We've gotta use this moment well," Naruto ordered with a huff. "Hinata, if Shika and I buy you an opening, do you think you can paralyze it with your gentle fist?"

Hinata's byakugan flared to life, taking measure of Shukaku's dense, crimson chakra. "I-I'm not-" She cut herself off, sensing the need in Naruto's stare. "I'll make it happen."

"Good. Shino, get your bugs into position to weaken its chakra runoff so she can get close."

Shino nodded, silently mourning what would likely become of the rest of his still recovering hive.

"Sasuke, hang back for now and get your chakra levels up. I'll need you shortly, and when I do, it's gonna be super important, believe it." Naruto shared a look with the Uchiha, willing his friend to sense the importance behind his words. To his credit, Sasuke simply sighed. He didn't at all like playing second fiddle to anybody, but he knew well enough that they couldn't afford to cater to his ego, at that moment. Instead of responding, he simply stepped back, clasping his palms together and molding his chakra into readiness.

"Shikamaru, Shino, we're gonna get Hinata her opening; after that, I won't need you two anymore. Once we're set, you guys are joining the rest and heading to the academy to help back up the teachers.

"Hey," Kiba growled, Akamaru mirroring the gesture. "Who went and put you in charge, man? I can help."

"You backtalk me again in such a crucial moment and I'm gonna slap the shit out of you, understand?" Naruto snarled at the boy, the heaviness of his presence forcing Kiba to reluctantly duck his head. "Get your ego out of the picture. Our home is under attack and people are dying. We need to do this right or many more are gonna kick the bucket." A calming breath, then, "Look, I'm not looking down on you, alright? But regular taijutsu is just short of useless against this guy; keeping you here would be wasting your abilities, and the more cooks we have in the kitchen that aren't doing anything notable, the less shit we're getting done. Got it?"

"Got it," Kiba muttered, looking as if he'd smelled something foul. "So who's staying and who's going?"

Naruto frowned, thoughtfully. "Once Shikamaru and Shino have done their parts, I only need Hinata and Sasuke. Hinata you'll paralyze its chakra network so my jutsu can take effect, then back me up in close quarters while Sasuke prepares that lightning jutsu of his." His mind made up, Naruto crossed his fingers together in a familiar 'plus' sign, forming a single shadow clone. "Once we've done that, we need to get it somewhere remote where it doesn't have as much sand. That's where I come in." Sharing a nod with it, he watched it dash off at top speed. "All of you stay together and focus on the recovery effort. Protect any hot spots you can on your way to the academy; once you're there, report to the Chūnin present for orders and back them up against invading forces."

"Look at you, being a leader!" Kushina cooed at her son. He tried to ignore her, but couldn't quite stymie the swell of pride he felt as his comrades rushed to meet his demands. At his side, Hinata, Shikamaru, Shino, and Sasuke all awaited further instruction.

"Stay safe, everyone… Please."

Just a few meters away, Shukaku seemed to have finally gotten a hold of itself. Its piercing eyes swirled around, analyzing its surroundings before inevitably settling once again on Naruto. "Well look at that, you lot went and brought a friend." It leered at a paling Hinata, and Naruto stepped between the two with a dark glare spread across his features. "Good to know… I'll kill her first."

Naruto took a deep breath, forcing himself not to respond to the sand demon's threats. Instead, he dropped low, spreading his legs in a wide stance. "Let's just get this over with ya know."


And that's the chapter!

I know it's a bit of a cliffhanger, but honestly this chapter was hard as hell for me to write, as it was. Between real life stuff being difficult to navigate and all of the moving pieces I'm going to need to handle, it's been hard for me to actually sit down and get this out. That said, the last chapter was nearly a full month ago and seeing as I planned for this series to come out weekly, I'm sure you can recognize how not great that is.

If I kept going until all of this was done, we'd probably be looking at a 40-50k word chapter and that's just not reasonable haha.

A couple of things to note for my post-chapter analysis before I move on for now:

I wanted Shukaku to feel a lot more threatening than I feel like it was in part 1, ESPECIALLY since this is the actual Shukaku right out the gate and not just Gaara using its power. To do that, I focused more on the finesse behind its sand techniques and tried to make it feel more intelligent, rather than just making it have bigger attacks. I'm looking to keep on that train as the fight progresses, but we'll see how this goes.

Secondly, I want the fight to feel more like there's a lot of moving pieces beyond just Naruto throwing hands. Hell, I want this part of the story to feel a lot more chaotic and like there's a lot more going on than just Naruto fighting. So expect next chapter to spend a good chunk focusing on that stuff. I hope you don't mind if I take the Konoha crush a bit slow, in favor of a quality reading experience.

Regardless, thanks so much to all of you for your patience in waiting for it to come out. I hope it met your expectations and continues to do so. Let me know your thoughts in the comments. If you have any suggestions that you feel would help improve the story, let me know and I'll be sure to consider them, moving forward. If there are any things that you didn't like or felt were handled poorly, also let me know so that I know what to work on... You know, regular review stuff.

Alright I'm done writing for a day or two; I'm gonna go to sleep.