I rushed forwards, my form little more than a raging torrent of Darkness, naught but spikes and strings and swords.

Swords that I wanted to bury in Shukaku, strings that I wanted to wrap around him, spikes that I wanted to pierce him with.

And if it wasn't for Gaara, I would have done all three without a second thought. I would have ripped his Soul from his sand, I would have torn his Heart from his chest, if not for Gaara.

I would have happily ripped apart the Shukaku with my bare hands, if not for Gaara.

But Gaara was there, a young boy who had been dealt a bad hand in life, whose idiotic father had attempted to assassinate him, who simply didn't know any better.

Gaara, and Gaara alone, was the sole reason that the Shukaku wouldn't die today.

Spikes and strings and swords became blade and claw.

I slammed into Shukaku, digging dozens of claws into his body, forcefully holding him close, immobile, and unable to dodge.

Two blades sprouted, coming down on its shoulders, cleaving through the hardened sand in an instant.

The Ichibi seemed unbothered, however, by the loss of its arms, quickly spitting an air bullet directly into me, the blast more than able to rip me apart and force me to explode into smoke.

But no more than that.

Acrid smoke swirled back into formless Darkness in an instant, and I began to dig my claws into its body more and more.

Finally, the Ichibi grinned, pushing at me, using its immense weight to its advantage and attempting to crush me.

I let my form burst into smoke, flowing around Shukaku as he promptly began to fall without me there to hold him up.

I made parts of myself take a more solid form, wrapping a band of Darkness around his neck and forcefully burying him into the ground further, tying him down. His legs also received restraints, an attempt to stop him from moving.

I started wrapping around his body, but I didn't get far before his tail slammed down on his back, producing a thunderous boom and dispersing the parts of myself that were spinning over his back.

Again, the tail rose into the air, charging with an immense amount of Chakra.

I launched a blade at the base of its tail, viciously cutting it off his body before he could complete whatever he was thinking of doing.

I brought the blade back, burying it through Shukaku's back, elongating the blade long enough to bury it deep into the ground, before shaping the tip so that it would be even harder to pull out.

It screamed, thrashing, trying and failing to break free.

As if I would let it.

Three more blades appeared, each one being promptly and violently buried into the sand that made up its body, each one quickly shifted to be even harder to pull out, especially in the position that Shukaku was.

"LET GO OF ME SO I CAN KILL YOU!" It shouted, anger in its voice, but not pain.

Its body was sand, and even with what I was doing, it still wasn't feeling pain.

I let a stream of Darkness appear, quickly, violently and forcefully slamming his head further into the ground, only just missing Gaara's body.

I let flames ignite around My Darkness, dangerous, purple flames appearing on Shukaku's body, save only the head, and only because of Gaara's presence there.

"Burn."

The flames spread, burning far too hot and moving far too quickly, Shukaku's sand seemingly instantly turning molten, glowing red and beginning to droop.

A nearby tree burst into flame, and I snuffed it in an instant, redirecting the heat into where I wanted to go, and nowhere else.

Shukaku growled, and I pressed down on its head harder, right before its head promptly dissolved into sand and rushed forwards, carrying Gaara away from the rest of Shukaku's sand-glass body. My hand, now lacking Shukaku's head to press down on, promptly crashed into the ground, startling me just enough that I extinguished the rest of the flames around Shukaku's body.

"Do you think you can get away from me so easily?"

Shukaku was pulling in sand from the environment, churning earth and ripping up the ground, desperately trying to reclaim enough to take on his full size again.

But he was far, far too slow.

I leapt at him, multiple streams of Darkness rushing at him, pulling away from Shukaku's old body as I did.

How annoying.

Even after all that, Shukaku still wasn't in pain.

I merged my multiple streams of Darkness together, forming into a single larger stream, rushing closer to Shukaku.

He tried to block, but there wasn't much he could do at less than half of his normal size, only bringing up a much-smaller-than-normal hand, and attempted to force me away.

I extended only a single blade, preparing to stab him.

Not just though the hand, however.

My vision shifted, dual tones overlapping.

So what if Shukaku didn't experience physical pain?

That wasn't my only option.

Shukaku screamed, a loud, terrible wail, as my blade pierced sand and Soul.

He jumped back, his entire arm dissolving instantly, moving away as fast as it could, the anger and rage in his Heart turning into panic and dread.

He shuddered, looking at me in fear, primal terror in his eyes as he realised that he had encountered a being that could kill him.

It was a small wound, both on sand and Soul, but it was also the very first time that Shukaku had been attacked like that. I could see Shukaku's Soul healing, slowly knitting back together, but Shukaku was terrified still.

Good.

"WAKEY WAKEY GAARA!" Naruto shouted, coming out of fucking nowhere and headbutting Gaara, snapping him out of his sleep.

I couldn't help but notice the surge in relief in Shukaku's Heart, the fear diminishing just a bit, but remaining still.

Shukaku's form began to collapse, the sand falling apart, leaving behind the boy himself. Shukaku, defeated, finally.

Sighing, I stopped pulling in Darkness, almost stumbling from the sudden lack of the flow, but nevertheless recovering quickly, beginning to pull My Darkness back inside myself.

There was a hell of a lot more now than there was before.

Irrelevant.

I looked around, spotting Sasuke's Heart almost instantly.

He was... unharmed, though he was shaken.

Good. If Sasuke was safe, that made all this worth it.

I teleported nearby, mindful of the fact that I was still a hell of a lot larger than normal.

"Are you alright Sasuke?"

He startled, turning around and looking at me, the briefest burst of fear present before it faded away into relief.

"Ye-yeah. I'll be fine." He nodded, shakily.

I was about to say something, but a distant surge of Chakra caught my attention, and I reminded myself that there was still a war going on.

"Be careful, Sasuke. Stick with Naruto." I told him "I'll be back as soon as I can."