A/N: Before going to the chapter, I would like to again offer my sincere gratitude to my readers for their love and support, which helps me keep going. GBAboy313 has again been especially helpful with the beta-editing, so special thanks to him. Now without further ado, let's get to the chapter.

CHAPTER 14: THE FINAL MATCH AND THE INVASION BEGINS!

"HAJIME!" Genma's call to start the final match of the Chunin exams was heard all over the arena.

As the proctor jumped back, Naruto and Gaara eyed each other carefully, glaring daggers at each other, trying to stare into the very soul of their opponent. Naruto had already removed his weights, deciding not to take any chances with the cold-blooded redhead.

As Naruto stared into Gaara's eyes, he saw the traces of the same rejection, hatred, scorn, all that he had went through during his own childhood. He had already caught a glimpse of those emotions in the redhead every time he stared at him. It was soon clear to him that Gaara had it far worse than him.

'What happened to him that made him like this? How can I help him?' Naruto thought to himself.

Naruto thought to himself.

He got distracted momentarily.

In a fight.

Sand rushed at the blond at binding speeds. Its target, Naruto's legs.

However, Naruto got his wits back just in time and dodged. He had already opened the first gate and Kurama was already supplying chakra through his chakra coils subtly, enough to fuel and strengthen Naruto but not enough to create a cloak. Naruto back flipped away from the sand.

Gaara then raised his hand and looked at his opponent with a blank face. Sand began rushing at the blond from all directions.

"That's bad. I didn't really want to go for the chakra cloak from the onset, but it seems there's no way around it." Naruto said to himself as he continued to dodge the sand trying to bind him. Naruto jumped into the air, as sand seemed to surround him and made a shadow clone. The clone caught the original's arm, spun around and threw him towards the wall before dispelling. Orange coloured chakra enveloped Naruto as his whisker marks became more feral and vertical slits appeared in his eyes and a tail of chakra grew out of the cloak as well. Naruto had also opened the second gate which had the effect of darkening the orange of the cloak and making it slightly less translucent and far easier to notice. A loud gasp was heard across the arena when the viewers saw Naruto use the chakra cloak. Many even feared that a rampage was soon to follow, but some level headed civilians finally understood that Naruto was not the fox itself, as they saw him totally in control of the Kyuubi's power.

Within less than a second, our blonde hero was before Gaara and he delivered a vicious kick directly to Gaara's stomach, making him skid back and cough slightly from air being forced out but no blood had been drawn from the redhead just yet.

"You are an interesting opponent Uzumaki." Gaara commented with the same expressionless face.

"You and I are more alike than you can ever think Gaara." Naruto replied.

Gaara then rushed at Naruto and engaged him in taijutsu. Every time Naruto jumped back to gain some space from Gaara, the sand would chase him and force him back into the redhead's hand-to-hand range.

'So close quarters it is then.' Deciding that Naruto engaged his fellow jinchuuriki from Suna in close combat once again.

As he tried to deliver an uppercut to Gaara, his blow was blocked and Gaara kneed him viciously in his torso, pushing Naruto back. Naruto immediately formed a shadow clone that pushed him forward, towards Gaara once again and just before the position and clone was engulfed by sand.

Naruto tried to surround Gaara with 10 shadow clones and attack him all at once. However, all the clones were taken out with a single sand attack. Then Naruto tried his luck with kunai, but a wall of sand blocked him from reaching Gaara, each and every time he came close to deliver a blow. The taijutsu bout continued like that for several more minutes and the audience watched breathlessly. Even for the shinobi present, a fight between two jinchuuriki was a very rare spectacle, so they were also watching it with without missing a single detail.

Blow after blow was blocked, each sand attack was deflected and it all went on…again and again and again.

Sadly, Naruto hadn't learnt any fire-style ninjutsu, which was the weakness of the sand. He knew he could summon a toad but smaller toads like Gamakichi were very vulnerable to Gaara's sand and risked being swallowed by it even before becoming of any use and the arena was too small to summon Gamabunta.

"Gaara! Why are you like this? Why are you so cold blooded? You are a jinchuuriki, just like me, we are so similar yet so different. Why? Why don't you have any compassion?" Naruto yelled at the redhead as he continued to dodge the sand.

"Why? Why should I need any compassion? I have found my purpose. My purpose is to be the perfect weapon for my village and ensure its supremacy among the five great nations and among all of the hidden villages. I will crush anyone who comes in the way of my mission, including you Uzumaki." Gaara replied nonchalantly as more sand rushed towards Naruto, making him bring out another tail and dodge the attack.

"A weapon? Are you fucking kidding me?" Naruto screamed as he rushed to Gaara and punched him square on the face. Although the blow was blocked by sand in time, still Gaara was pushed back by a few feet. Naruto didn't let Gaara have any respite as he rushed to him and kicked him in the chest with all his might. Even after the blow's bite being smoothened by the sand, Gaara still had to take the blow and was pushed back even further. However, Naruto decided not to exploit the opening too much, remembering one of his dad's pieces of advice. He unleashed a barrage of shadow clones on Gaara, who was momentarily disoriented due to the kick. The clones engaged the redhead in taijutsu. They managed to overwhelm Gaara for a moment or two but then with one wave of sand, they were all taken out.

"Wind style: Drilling air bullets!" Gaara yelled as he unleashed multiple small wind attacks on Naruto. Naruto made another 40 shadow clones; the forward ones were taken out.

"Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!" Yelled the rest of the clones, releasing a massive blast of wind towards Gaara. The redhead immediately surrounded himself with a sand cocoon.

But that's exactly what Naruto expected. Within the blast of air, multiple kunai attached with explosive tags, travelled at binding speeds towards Gaara. The kunai with explosive tags buried themselves in the sand and exploded. The still blowing air enhanced the effect of the explosions.

'Clever' thought Kakashi, Hiruzen and Ay.

By the time the smoke from the explosion had cleared, the parts of the forward portion of the sand cocoon protecting Gaara had already turned into glass.

As Kurama saw Naruto had focused himself fully onto the fight, he decided to try and contact his sibling again.

"Oi! Damned Tanuki, what's up with you? Your brat hasn't changed much, rather he has become even worse than the maniac he was last time. What were you doing all these years? And why haven't you talked to me yet?" Kurama yelled. Only to see a rather depressed looking Shukaku appear in front of him.

"All this time, you were here, you didn't get enough time to talk to me? You owe me an explanation!" Kurama growled.

"I was helpless, Gaara started to fall into madness after he killed his uncle. Unfortunately, I arrived back at the very moment he had killed his uncle and was starting to lose control. At that point, the only thing I could do to change things was to not go out. The brat's father turned out to be far worse than I ever imagined. That Bastard, and I mean it in every sense, upon deciding that Gaara was able to keep me in control, put him into some sort of 'training' and molded him into this emotionless killing machine he is right now. Your kid is the only hope for him now. He has a way words that I can't ever hope to achieve." Shukaku reasoned.

"Dammit, I thought you could cut the gaki some slack but it seems we have to give you a good beating to bring your brat back to his senses." Kurama pouted "But I won't mind giving you a good beating." The fox stated with a grin.

"Don't think that I will hold back against you…. arrogant fox!" Shukaku said with a groan.

"Tsk!"

Simultaneously back in the real world, Naruto had finally managed to make a breach in Gaara's defenses and he was not about to let the opening go. By the time the smoke from the explosion wasn't even fully cleared, Naruto was right before Gaara, with a Rasengan in hand.

"A human being can't be a weapon!" Naruto yelled. "RASENGAN!" And the deadly spiraling sphere was slammed into Gaara's gut.

Gaara was thrown back and slammed into the wall with a lot of force. But before Genma could go and check on the redhead from Suna, an explosion was heard from the Kage box. At the same time, the viewers saw Sakura petals fall from above. The invasion was on.

Before the genjutsu could affect Naruto, Kurama snapped his fingers (well, claws to be precise….) and the blonde was out of said illusion, before it could even begin to start making him feeling drowsy.

Naruto looked around to find something he had never seen in his life. He saw shinobi from Konoha fighting those from Suna and Oto, some Oto shinobi were trying to attack civilians as well but the Konoha shinobi were trying their best to get the civilians out of harm's way.

'What the hell is going on here?' Naruto thought to himself.

"It's a war son. This is what it looks like, chaos and destruction everywhere." Minato answered from the mindscape. "It seems Suna used the Chunin exams as a cover to invade Konoha, they even allied themselves with Otogakure." The 4th Hokage added.

Before Naruto could think on a course of action, he saw Temari and Kankuro jump into the arena, pull a barely conscious Gaara out of the wall, and rush westwards. (Yeah, Kankuro had recovered from the chakra drain caused by Shino's bugs, he wasn't fully healed though, and he still felt a bit dizzy and disoriented.)

"Hey, where do you think you are going?" Naruto shouted as he tried to follow Sand Siblings. Just then three Suna shinobi jumped in front of him.

"So, this brat is Konoha's jinchuuriki huh?" One of the Suna jonin remarked with a smirk.

"Yeah, if we get this one, Konoha would immediately surrender." Another jonin remarked with a sadistic grin. This pissed off Naruto even more.

"I am not some bargaining chip you bastard!" Naruto hissed as he made a Rasengan in his palm.

Just then Genma and another Jonin who was wearing sunglasses jumped into the fray and engaged the three Suna jonin confronting Naruto.

"Kid, this is a real war this time, try to follow Gaara, he might become a huge threat if not captured immediately." Genma ordered and Naruto nodded, as he jumped towards the viewers' stands.

He saw Choji cornered by two Oto shinobi who were giving the Akimichi scary looks, Naruto saw Choji hesitating to make a move, but he remembered that he still had the first two gates opened. Naruto didn't know many taijutsu moves, so he acted on pure instinct, he jumped up mid-air, violently spun and then brought his foot onto one of the Oto shinobi's head with full force, successfully executing one of Gai-sensei's moves known as the "Tree Leaf Drop". Although the said Shinobi sensed Naruto's attack, he wasn't fast enough to dodge it. The kick connected and shattered his skull, granting the blonde an instant kill for his first kill and a quick and merciful death for the Oto Nin. However, Naruto didn't even have time to register that he had taken a life. The other Oto shinobi had attacked Choji in the meantime, and the Akimichi enlarged his arms and tried to engage him but the Oto chunin swiftly made his way across Choji's attack.

"You are a waste a shinobi, you cowardly brat." The Chunin said as he was quickly upon Choji. "You are such an easy kill." The Oto ninja laughed as he brought his sword down in a diagonal slash, while Choji was frozen.

"DYNAMIC ENTRY!" And the Chunin attacking Choji was sent away viciously kicked on his chest, was sent away flying and was slammed into a wall getting knocked out immediately. Gai had arrived on the scene. The green clad Jonin put his hand on Choji's head. "Don't be hard upon yourself young man, many of us freeze up when faced with a real enemy for the first time." The Green Beast reassured, relaxing the Akimichi a bit.

"You okay Choji?" Naruto shouted, getting a nod from his friend in reply. He then looked around. Kakashi was holding his own against one Oto and one Suna shinobi. He wasn't having a hard time against them. He also saw a deep reddish-purple barrier getting erected above the Kage box.

"Oh No! Jiji! Dammit!" He grumbled as he prepared to make way towards the barrier.

"Naru-chan, Hokage-sama can handle himself, don't you remember that the proctor ordered you to go after Gaara." Kushina reminded from the mindscape.

"Yes Mom, I remember. Sorry, I got distracted a bit." Naruto inwardly replied as he scanned around for Hinata. He found her pitted against an Oto shinobi and rushed towards her.

Meanwhile, had it been in the previous timeline or even a month earlier in the current one, Hinata would have long been frozen up and killed, but this time, she was already Naruto's girlfriend, she had already risked her life for him once, she already knew what it was like facing an enemy shinobi in battle.

The Oto shinobi hissed. All the chakra points on the right half of his body had been closed, courtesy of the Jyuken strikes from the meek looking girl before him. However, he saw that the Hyuuga girl was panting. Hinata couldn't help but mentally sigh, the injury she had sustained defending Naruto from Kabuto's attack, although healed was still taking its toll and it showed as she was getting tired far sooner than she would normally.

"You damn girl, you will pay for this." The Oto shinobi hissed. He went through a series of hand signs, which Hinata recognized were of a fire jutsu, the ninja could still use jutsu due to open chakra points on the left half of his body. However, before he could release his jutsu,

"RASENGAN!" the spiraling chakra sphere was slammed into his back and he was sent away flying.

"Naruto-kun!" Hinata almost shouted in relief and joy, seeing her boyfriend was okay.

"Are you okay Hime?" Naruto asked as he protectively held her shoulders. The Hyuuga nodded with a smile.

"Come with me, I need your help in tracking Gaara. But don't jump into a fight, you look a bit tired." Naruto ordered, getting another nod from his lady love. Hinata then scanned around with her activated Byakugan.

"Gaara is to the Northwest, 1.5 kilometers to be exact, and he is accompanied by Kankuro and Temari. Kankuro is not fully recovered from Shino-kun's beetles." She reported.

"That's great! Let's head straight for them then." Naruto declared.

"Mind if I joined you, Nine?" The young couple saw a beautiful blonde woman wearing a standard Kumo Jonin outfit ask. Hinata flinched seeing a Kumo shinobi. "By the way, the name's Yugito Nii." She said as she showed two fingers to Naruto, who immediately got the meaning.

"She's another jinchuuriki, just like me, don't worry Hinata-chan and besides, she seems strong and we will only waste time if we argue with her." Naruto whispered and Hinata nodded. She knew that she could go to Kumogakure and fight the Raikage (metaphorically. Hinata knew she needed a few years of improvement to pull off a win or at least a draw in that fight) if Naruto was with her. Just then Naruto saw Shikamaru trap a Suna shinobi with his shadow. Before he could react though, Yugito threw a kunai which buried itself into the shinobi's head, killing him instantly.

"I think lazy should join us too. I can sense a little bit of chemistry between him and that Suna girl." Yugito chirped with a suggestive smile. And inside the Kunoichi's mindscape, Matatabi face palmed and sighed at Yugito's match maker antics during an invasion.

"Shikamaru, you're coming with us!" Naruto shouted as a shadow clone of his grabbed the Nara and jumped out of the arena.

Some people did hear "Troublesome" sound out in the arena, those from the Nara clan present there simply shrugged, mentally offering sympathy to their clansman who had the misfortune of being pulled out of his comfort zone.

*A few moments ago*

Some people saw the Kazekage jump into the air with a kunai on the Hokage's throat. The Suna Anbu shed their disguise, revealed themselves to be the Sound Four and rushed to four corners.

The Raikage looked at Yugito.

"We support Konoha." The Kumo leader whispered. Before the Sound Four could erect their barrier, Yugito rushed out, too quickly for any of them to oppose.

"So, finally we meet again, Sarutobi-sensei." The Kazekage whispered the Hokage in a sinister and sadistic voice with a chuckle. It was a voice Hiruzen knew too well. The memories of his greatest failure were still too fresh in his mind, something he had never fully forgiven himself for.

"Orochimaru." The wizened Hokage, replied with disgust. "Just how far have you fallen?" He spat.

"You don't have to worry much about that sensei, for both you and Konoha will soon cease to be." The disguised Sannin replied with a chuckle as he shed his disguise, simultaneously the barrier was erected.

"No Orochimaru, today is the day you will pay for your crimes." Hiruzen replied with confidence, however before the Old Hokage could shed his robes and enter battle mode, Orochimaru was elbowed viciously.

"LARIAT!" Yelled Ay, the 4th Raikage, already clad in his lightning armour. The Snake Sannin was sent flying into the barrier erected by his own subordinates.

Death by instant combustion from contacting the Ninja Art: Four Violet Flames Formation would have been quick and almost painless end for the snake, and a quick end to this.

It would have been preferable for Orochimaru by the time this battle would be over.

But fate was not so kind.

A sound that sounded like the love child of both a crack of thunder and a sonic boom sounded and then Orochimaru felt his skin sear as once again Ay's Lightning Armour reinforced Lariat slammed into him.

The Raikage himself had zipped behind Orochimaru after launching the Rogue Sannin with the opening strike and now had slammed the Snake once more before Orochimaru had even begun to gather his wits and realize that this fight wasn't just between the Old Hokage and himself and his trump cards when he brought them out.

Ay swung his arm in an overhead swing and slammed Orochimaru into the roof that had been chosen as their battleground causing almost enough damage that Orochimaru would be forced to shed his skin soon to ensure his performance didn't fall behind.

Orochimaru climbed out of the crater made from the brutal slam against the roof as both Hiruzen and A settled into their respective battle stances and shed their respective Kage hats and cloaks.

Orochimaru mentally winced he felt ribs and other minor bones popping back into place to heal from the three-hit combo dealt by Ay. He didn't want to bring out his trump cards yet, however with the Raikage joining the fray, things just became much more complicated (understatement).

"Kukuku! I never imagined Kumo would work with Konoha against little old me." Orochimaru replied with a smirk, although he was inwardly cursing the Raikage.

"Tsk! Someone like you is not just trouble for Konoha, but all of the elemental nations seeing as you have taken the Kazekage's position and so easily as it seems, it's only natural to consider you a threat to any of the Kage. Not to mention I have finally uncovered how one of the previous jinchuuriki of the Hachibi died, don't think you can get away with that." Ay spat as he cracked his knuckles.

"Kukuku, so you idiots finally figured it out huh! Well then, I just have to kill one more Kage, not that big of a deal." Orochimaru said chuckling evilly. Mentally though, he was cursing his luck, the hot-headed Raikage just had to intervene in his grand scheme.

"How would you like to meet your old teachers, Sarutobi-sensei?" Orochimaru added with a devilish grin as he started going through hand-signs.

"Kuchiyose: Edo-Tensei!" the Snake Sannin slammed his palm on the ground and three coffins rose from the ground, one after another.

The Old Hokage winced as grief and anger enveloped his mind simultaneously. The covers from the first two coffins slid to reveal the first two Hokage, who were also Hiruzen's teachers.

'Hashirama-Sensei, Tobirama-Sensei to think that I will have to face you in battle at this old age. I now regret letting Orochimaru live even more. To think that he would pit Konoha's founders against the village.' The old Hokage grieved mentally.

The third coffin rose up but before it could open up

"Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Hiruzen launched a barrage of more than hundred shuriken at the third coffin.

"I won't let you desecrate the dead nor disturb the rest of those who have passed from the mortal coil any more Orochimaru. You have crossed all the boundaries of morality and I will make sure you won't remain a threat to Konoha after today, no matter what the cost may be." The old Hokage declared. Orochimaru (of course) paid no heed to his former teacher's words.

Hiruzen's attack on the third coffin began pushing it back into the ground.

*Meanwhile in Naruto's mindscape*

"AAAH!" Minato screamed in pain, clutching his chest and collapsed on the floor.

"Honey! What happened?" Kushina exclaimed worried as she got hold of her husband and pulled him into her lap.

"Must be…. Orochimaru, trying to summon me …. from the dead." The 4th Hokage said in between heavy pants.

"Don't worry Minato, I have strengthened my chakra supply to you, the Snake bastard won't be able to summon your soul out of here." Kurama reassured as Minato began feeling a little bit of relief from extreme and sudden pain, he felt seconds ago.

"I hope the Sandaime doesn't die like he did last time at this point." Minato hoped, Kushina could only nod.

"Someday, we have to tell him…them, the truth. Don't you agree?" Kushina asked with a worried expression.

Minato meanwhile had mostly recovered from the spasms of pain in his chest and was able to sit up, his wife continued holding him with his head pressed against her chest though.

"Yeah, it makes sense. Even if it has just been less than a month, our son has matured a lot more than his counterpart from the previous timeline. But still, I want to let him live his life without any burdens of the previous timeline for as long as possible. Let's wait a year or two at least before telling him about the events leading to this point." The Yellow Flash suggested, his wife and Kurama agreed.

"I am just happy that we can see him grow this time." Kushina said as she wiped a drop of tear.

Naruto, Hinata, Yugito and Shikamaru raced through the forests on Konoha's outskirts.

"I can smell snakes." Yugito suddenly warned as the 4 jumped through trees.

"Snakes? But How?"

"Naruto, she has Matatabi sealed within her and she has achieved perfect synchronization with her Biju years ago, so she has also gained the enhanced smelling ability of a cat. We foxes also have a good sense of smell but you will need perhaps six more months to fully adapt to it, but once you have adapted it will put you on par with an Inuzuka in smelling ability." Kurama explained.

"Understood, you get more and more amazing the more I learn about you. Dattebayo!"

"Hmm, I am just great like that, get ready to bask in my glory." Kurama boasted, earning a sweatdrop from Naruto and his parents.

"Did I forget to mention that you tend to show off a lot and that's annoying?"

Kurama sweatdropped at the comment. Naruto decided to focus back on his mission.

"Gaara, Temari, and Kankuro are 800 meters ahead, though Kankuro has slowed down, and maybe they have sensed our presence and intend to hold us back as long possible. Kankuro's chakra network seems unbalanced." Hinata commented.

"He fought Shino in the finals and Shino's bugs drained his chakra, it seems he is not fully recovered yet." Shikamaru commented.

"And I will enjoy burning his puppets to ashes." Yugito chirped with a smirk.

'Troublesome blonde women' Shikamaru thought with a sweatdrop.

Kankuro had indeed decided to stay back and face the incoming Konoha Nin. He knew he didn't stand a chance against them, not with having his chakra network still messed up, courtesy of the bugs from a certain stoic Aburame. However, he thought he could buy his sister some time. He unsealed both "Crow" and "Black Ant".

"In my chakra drained state, I can hardly last 5-7 minutes, managing 2 puppets simultaneously. I hope that will be enough for sis."

He sent both Crow and Black Ant forward to intercept the incoming Konoha Nin. What he never expected, in his wildest dreams, was a blast of blueish white flames emerging from the cover where the Konoha Nin were approaching behind and incinerating the wooden puppets.

Then a sexy woman with blond hair emerged from the trees, her hands were engulfed in said flames, and her eyes were also burning blue. She had a Kumo Jounin outfit on.

"NOOO MY PUPPETS!" The puppet user screamed in horror (that's rough buddy, should have used Coltan alloy rather than frickin' wood, maybe you might still have useable puppets), and in his horror he totally failed to notice the approaching Hyuuga girl. Poor Kankuro only understood that he was screwed when he heard, "Eight Trigrams: 32 palms" and what followed was several of his chakra points being painfully closed. He didn't even figure out who knocked him out.

"Huh! Too easy." Yugito chirped with a bored expression.

"I wanted to play with the Ichibi a bit, but I need to assist with those huge snakes, that I can smell from even here." The Kumo jinchuuriki continued. "I know you won't have much of a problem with that Tanuki, but if the problem becomes too much send a flare up, I will be back in no time." She assured before tossing a flare, which Shikamaru caught.

"Don't worry Yugito-san, Gaara wouldn't be a problem, see ya back in the village." Naruto declared with a grin. The Kumo woman nodded and then rushed back towards Konoha. Naruto, Hinata and Shikamaru continued trailing Gaara.

A/N: And done, we transitioned from the finals to the invasion, I hope you liked the first Naruto vs Gaara fight, of course there is a second one in the upcoming chapters. Also, some big fights have been set up for the next chapter. Thanks for reading and see ya all in the next chapter.