A/N: So I have decided to post another chapter. Due to the summer holidays here in Russia, I have been able to give some quicker updates but that might change from the next month, since the classes in my university would start, so I am hoping to release two more chapters in August and after that, it'll mostly be monthly updates. Anyways, thanks for all the love and support and wish you all happy reading.

CHAPTER 15: JINCHUURIKI VS JINCHUURIKI

After Yugito left to take care of the giant snake summons, Naruto, Hinata, and Shikamaru continued to trail Gaara and Temari.

As they jumped through the trees, closing the gap between them and their opponents.

"Temari-san has stopped, she's about to attack! Dodge!" Hinata warned as soon as the words had left her mouth, the three genin got hit with a huge gust of wind and were thrown back. This was an attack that Naruto recognized only too well.

"Those weasels again huh!" He commented as he saw two weasels rushing towards them, destroying everything in their path. "She's gotta be really serious about stopping us, going all out like that. It's too bad for her, because I know how to stop that." 'Kurama! Chakra! Quick!'

"You got it kiddo!"

In less than a second, Naruto was in his two-tailed version-one state, he jumped forward and held out his palm as he sped towards the source of the wind, a Rasengan formed in his hand and became larger as the chakra sphere got strengthened by Kurama's chakra.

"Rasengan!" The blond genin yelled, slamming the spiraling chakra ball straight into the attacking weasels and dispelling them. He continued moving forward in no time, he was before Temari who was wide eyed and cursing as she discarded the broken remnants of her fan, which was destroyed due to her overwhelming it with chakra as Temari was not that efficient or experienced in using 'Quick Beheading Dance', and tried to reach into her tool pouch and o-.

"Naruto, dispel the cloak, she might die if you kick her while you're powered up with Kurama's chakra." Minato warned.

"Got it Dad!"

Naruto then dispelled his cloak as he delivered a kick on Temari's face, which threw her on the ground. Hinata and Shikamaru joined him on the branch a moment later.

"She's not down yet. I think I can take care of her, go ahead Naruto, you will be essential in stopping Gaara, considering he is just like you." Shikamaru half suggested half ordered.

Naruto's eyes widened at what the Nara's words implied.

"Y-You knew?" He asked stuttering. (Why the surprise buddy? Did you forget that you used Kurama's chakra during your fight with Gaara, everyone saw you using it and then you used the chakra cloak again to help you destroy Temari's weasels,. It seems you forget that people like Shikamaru wouldn't take much time to connect the dots. Nothing to be surprised about here.)

"Heh! It wasn't that difficult to figure out, now get going, we don't have time to chat here." The lazy genin replied. Naruto and Hinata nodded and rushed ahead.

"To think that I will be having a rematch this soon, troublesome indeed. Even worse, I can't just forfeit now." Shikamaru sighed as brought himself to focus and began closely observing Temari, who was gradually getting to her feet, panting heavily. She looked up and found her opponent from the final rounds staring back at her. She also let out a sigh.

"Who knew we would be having a rematch so soon huh? Lazy?"

For some reason, which he couldn't exactly point out, Shikamaru decided to let Temari get back to her feet and get ready. He even jumped down to give her an even ground. The Suna princess smirked as she unsealed another Battle fan. 'She carried a spare in case something happened to her main fan. Smart.' Shikamaru thought with a degree of begrudging respect.

"This time, there is no outwitting me lazy-ass!" She said with a smirk as she swung her fan with full strength. Showing surprising agility for someone as lazy as him, Shikamaru back flipped and took cover behind a tree. Then shadows rushed at Temari, aiming to capture her.

"You know that I know how your jutsu works, you should have just captured me when I was down." She said as she also back flipped away.

"Troublesome woman, I don't even know myself why I decided to let you recover." 'You have affected me in more ways than I would like to admit.' "But unfortunately for you there are more shadows here than there were in the arena." Shikamaru commented as Temari saw the shadows of various trees and bushes elongate and rush towards her. She inwardly cursed.

"Maybe you should know that I never used my best attack on you during the fight, lazy." She commented as she again bit her thumb and smeared blood on the battle fan.

"Summoning jutsu: Quick Beheading Dance!" She exclaimed swinging her fan, unfortunately for Temari, she was already losing stamina due to not being sufficiently rested after her fight with the same lazy genin she was currently facing, back in the arena and then using the 'Quick Beheading Dance' on the trio pursuing her and Gaara. So the attack didn't have as much force as she would have liked it to have, however that let the fan remain intact much to Temari's relief.

"Not that again" Shikamaru hissed as weasels rushed towards him. However, he had already anticipated this move and had also found a nearby rotten tree. His shadow had already bonded itself with it.

"Shadow Binding jutsu!" The Nara declared with a bit of pain as his forced the tree down. Just in time to cover himself with it. The rotten trunk took the bulk of the attack and was destroyed into shreds. When the attack was over, Shikamaru found Temari panting and, taking the opening, he rushed forward a few meters and then let his shadow chase the blonde girl.

"Looks like even you will be out of breath, pulling such large attacks like that twice in such a quick succession. Looks like you have been pushed to a corner for you to fight so desperately." He said as Temari was forced to dodge his shadow again and again. Shikamaru was quick enough to not let Temari open her fan, let alone swing it at him. Every time she would get out of the shadow's range, he would just rush a few meters forward.

It took some minutes for Temari to recognize the Nara's tactic.

'This damn lazy-ass intends to tire me out. Normally, I would have more stamina than him but pulling off Quick Beheading Dance twice in such quick succession and then getting kicked viciously by that boy Naruto, I am the one who will give out first. Lazy's really clever.' She thought frustrated.

Then Shikamaru, intending to finish the fight faster, began throwing shuriken and kunai at his opponent. Let it be reminded that the Nara heir was by no means a master at shuriken jutsu and kunai throwing. He was just a little above average. But for this fight, he didn't need to hit Temari. If any of his weapons managed to hit her that was just a bonus.

Upon seeing that Shikamaru had settled for throwing kunai and shuriken instead of launching his shadow at her, Temari got an opening to take her fan out and open it.

"You should have stuck to the shadows lazy! Great Sickle Weasel Jutsu!" She exclaimed swinging her fan. What she didn't know that this was exactly what Shikamaru wanted her to do. With his last volley of kunai, the lazy genin had thrown four which had explosive tags attached to them and that volley was about to reach Temari. Even before she could fully swing her fan, the explosive notes went off, and the wind from the incomplete fan attack, only fanned their flames.

"Something I learnt, seeing Naruto's attack on Gaara and improvised it a bit to use a wind user's attack against himself. Turns out that the gamble actually worked." Shikamaru said to himself with a smirk.

As the flames went out, he saw Temari, having some parts of her clothes and hands burnt, and with several cuts and scratches covering her. Shikamaru didn't waste any time and bound her with his shadow before she could make any move.

"It seemed to me that you were in a hurry to finish the fight and rush to Gaara's aid, which clouded your judgement a bit. You could have seen through my plan had you not been so distracted. Despite how he acts, you are quite fond of him aren't you?" Shikamaru asked as he approached the now shadow bound Temari.

"Yes! Why wouldn't I?! H-he's my younger brother after all, even if he's a monster." She blurted out with a lot of difficulty.

"Hmm, that makes sense." Shikamaru replied. "Sorry, I have to knock you out, otherwise once I am exhausted, you can become troublesome for Naruto and Hinata." He declared as he violently bent back, making Temari mirror his action and hitting her head on the trunk of the tree behind her and getting knocked just as Kin was during the preliminaries.

"Thankfully I have a prisoner scroll." The Nara heir whispered to himself as he laid the said scroll over the now unconscious Temari and made the hand sign of sealing.

"Seal!" and with a puff of smoke, Temari was imprisoned within the seal.

"She's a really troublesome woman." Shikamaru commented to himself. "Troublesome and interesting, unlike any girl I've met till now." He muttered as he folded the scroll.

Just then he felt a surge of chakra.

"Troublesome"

*Around the same time, a kilometer away*

Naruto and Hinata jumped through the trees and came upon a clearing. The couple saw the Sand Jinchuriki at the center of the clearing wearing a blank expression on his face.

"You never let up do you Uzumaki?" the redhead asked as he stared down his fellow jinchuriki from Konoha.

"You are not going anywhere from here Gaara. You will be stopped." Naruto replied with a serious expression.

"Says the one who has friendships and relationships holding him back." Gaara calmly replied before raising his hand and making sand rush towards the blond.

Naruto made a motion to Hinata to back off from the fight for now. The Hyuuga obliged and jumped onto a nearby branch. Naruto back flipped away from the sand.

"You know this won't be able to stop me, Dattebayo." Naruto retorted as he was engulfed in red chakra and three tails slowly emerged. The blond then rushed at his red headed opponent. The two engaged each other in taijutsu.

Clearly Gaara was better at taijutsu than Naruto. His hits were precise and accurate, whereas Naruto was only trained at blocking and dodging during his month-long training with Gai. However, his incredible stamina and the speed granted by chakra cloak as well two opened inner gates allowed him to keep up with Gaara.

Once again, just like during the final match, neither could get the upper hand in the taijutsu bout. Then…

"Wind style: Drilling air bullets!"

"Wind style: Great Breakthrough!"

Naruto and Gaara yelled as they launched their elemental attacks on each other at point-blank range. Both boys were violently thrown back by a huge blast of wind. The collision of the jutsu caused several branches of nearby trees to snap.

Suddenly Naruto was engulfed in sand.

"Sand Burial!" Gaara declared as he closed his fist, the sand fully engulfed Naruto then crushed him as he screamed in pain.

Hinata's eyes widened in horror.

"NO!" she screamed. Gaara looked at her with an expressionless face.

"You're next Hyuuga." He declared. Hinata was trembling as tears began dropping from her eyes but before the situation could get any worse.

A red blur shot at Gaara and kicked him viciously on his face, making him breaking his jaw and sending him flying into a nearby tree, which broke upon the force of the impact.

Naruto stood at the spot, covered in his version-1 three tailed chakra cloak and with three of the inner gates opened. Hinata immediately rushed at him.

"Sorry I got you scared, I had to pull off two substitutions at the last minute when the sand rushed at me."

Hinata's breaths calmed as she just ran her hand over her boyfriend's body. However, Gaara returned before she could say anything.

"You are good Uzumaki, but unlike me you have people who will hold you back. People who will become your weakness." He warned as his face took a darker expression. And to validate his point, he made his sand rush towards Hinata this time.

Naruto grabbed his girlfriend's hand and began dodging the sand.

"As long as she is around, you will be focusing on saving her instead of defeating me and that will be your undoing."

This made Naruto angry and a Rasengan formed in his hand and he slammed it into the incoming sand that had almost got to him, dispersing it.

"You're wrong, dumbass. She motivates me to train harder, get stronger. We fight for each other! Dattebayo!" Naruto yelled back as he formed another Rasengan in his hand.

"We'll see about that Uzumaki." Gaara replied as he brought is right hand into a sign. Both Naruto and Hinata felt a huge surge of chakra, emanating from the redhead. He was soon encased in a cocoon of sand.

"He is about to release Shukaku. Be careful." Kurama warned.

Soon, Gaara was engulfed in a huge mountain of sand and then the sand gradually fell to reveal the giant one tailed Tanuki.

"We are monsters Uzumaki. Do you think that this little girl will continue accepting you when she sees the monster inside you? People fear us, they fear our power, our kind will never get any love from those weaklings for who don't even want to understand our burden. Hatred and fear is the only thing we will ever get from them. Yes…hatred and fear." Gaara declared, appearing above Shukaku's head in his now monstrous sounding voice as he recalled his final encounter with the only person who had ever showed anything close to affection to him, Yashamaru. However, on that fateful night, Yashamaru attacked Gaara and upon getting fatally injured, he revealed that he had always despised the redhead and even Gaara's mother never loved him, that he was unwanted, a burden who needed to be destroyed."

Had it not been for the just back in the past Shukaku's resistance, Gaara would have completely lost control and his father would have deemed him worthy of another assassination attempt. But this time, things went differently. No assassination attempt was made afterwards.

But the Gaara that returned from the terrace that day was a very different one from the Gaara that had gone to the terrace. A Gaara devoid of any emotions, love and affection. A Gaara who only knew one thing, 'killing.'

"Oh Yeah?" Naruto asked sarcastically. "You know what, Hinata-chan has already seen the monster inside me and she still accepts me. And NO! Kurama is not a burden, he is a buddy." Naruto yelled back.

"Kurama, you think we can do something like he did, taking a monster form?" Naruto asked his tenant inwardly.

"Sorry kit, your body is not ready yet to use 100% of my power, four tails worth of chakra strains you completely. My power is far greater than Shukaku's. Though it would have been difficult to deal with him had this been a desert." Kurama explained. "Your toad summon might help, but that would consume about one tail worth of chakra."

Just then

"Drilling air bullets!" yelled Gaara in his Shukaku form. The wind bullets turned out to be far more devastating than the ones Gaara used earlier. Courtesy of Naruto's chakra cloak and gates, he and Hinata managed to get away from the center of the attack, however, they did get injured and started bleeding.

Not giving the two any respite, Shukaku's tail smashed into the ground, just where they stood.

"He really wants to kill me now." Naruto said panting as he and Hinata barely dodged the massive tail.

"Sand Shuriken!"

As the sharp projectiles rushed towards Naruto, who again dodged them as he gained an additional burst of speed by opening the third inner gate. He had also put Hinata on his back so as to not let her get hit by any of Gaara's attacks.

Suddenly an idea struck. He put Hinata down and made a hand sign: his signature cross hand-sign.

"Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu!" and about 300 Narutos appeared on the battlefield. 100 of them formed Rasengan on their hands and each jumped onto the hands of 2 clones by their side. A small amount of violently rotating wind began to gather at the hands of the clones who had put the clones with Rasengan on their hands.

"Time to see how good the gale palm works, didn't have the time to practice that move." Naruto mumbled to himself.

"Wind style: Gale palm!" 200 clones yelled simultaneously, launching the clones with Rasengan on their hands towards Shukaku at high speeds.

"Massive Rasengan barrage!" All the attacking clones yelled simultaneously as they struck Shukaku. The barrage caused a blast and knocked the Tanuki off its feet, making him land on his butt and lost a hand. (Need a hand with your sand?)

"Wow! That actually worked!" Naruto complemented himself panting. As a tail from his cloak vanished.

'This was similar to how the brat took me down when he first tried to take my chakra at that turtle island in Kumo.' Kurama mused to himself.

He would have wanted to repeat the attack, but the Shukaku-mode Gaara got to his feet pretty quickly and his arm was also reformed. (Guess you don't need a hand with your sand)

The Biju-mode jinchuriki attacked again.

Now it was Shukaku's foot that was about to crush them. Just as they were engulfed in the shadow of the foot, the foot stopped.

"Just…..get…..out….quickly." Naruto heard Shikamaru struggled to say as he put every ounce of his strength and chakra to paralyze Shukaku for as long as he could and buy his friends time to escape. Unfortunately, Shikamaru's chakra reserves were small. (Don't sweat it kid, it's not about the size of your chakra reserves but how well you use what you have) But the few seconds he could stop Shukaku were enough for Naruto to get Hinata to safety. And then Shikamaru collapsed unconscious.

"GAARAAA!" Naruto yelled as he went through the hand signs of the summoning jutsu.

"Naruto, use the Food Cart Destroyer technique I told you about after you perfected summons." Minato advised from the mindscape.

"Summoning Jutsu: Food-Cart Destroyer!" Naruto yelled as he slammed him bloodied palm on the ground.

A second later, a huge THUDDDD was heard as Gamabunta slammed upon Shukaku's back and slammed the Tanuki on the ground.

"SUMMONING ME AGAIN AND DROPPING ME FROM THE SKY ON ANOTHER BIIJU! WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU JIRAIYA!" Gamabunta yelled in frustration.

"Sorry toad boss, it was actually me who summoned you, I don't really have much time, this overgrown Tanuki got me cornered, please lend your henchman a hand and hold him down." Naruto explained as humbly and quickly as he could.

Gamabunta looked down and spotted his latest summoner.

"Oh, it's you kid. All right, since this is the first time you summoned me in a fight, I will not demand any sake from you and make it quick, I won't be able to hold him for more than 7 minutes."

"Thanks chief."

'But I have no idea, how to undo this Biju transformation. Dad? Mom?'

"I don't know if this will work." Minato cautioned. "Since the chakra Kurama supplies me gets converted into my own, try to draw upon my chakra."

"Ok Dad!" Naruto then tried to draw his father's chakra into his system. For a few minutes he failed and ended up drawing Kurama's chakra only.

"Come on Naruto focus! We have only two minutes." He then looked at Hinata. "Hime, can you identify my Dad's chakra and let me know when I start drawing it."

Hinata nodded and activated her Byakugan. She immediately the two small sources of chakra apart from the huge mass of red chakra that was Kurama. With significant effort, she was able to identify Minato's chakra which had a slight yellow tint, due to his secondary lightning affinity. "I've got Minato-Tou-San's chakra now."

Naruto nodded in acknowledgement and then began trying to pull chakra from his seal.

"That's it, use this exact amount of chakra. This is resonating and latching with Minato-tou-san's chakra." Hinata almost shouted, getting Naruto's attention. And then putting all the chakra control he had mastered; Naruto began pulling Minato's chakra into his system.

It took him considerable effort.

"Now we are connected. Perhaps this will last only for thirty seconds." Minato said to himself. "Son, for a few moments, I will be having control over your body." He added as he got control over his son's body momentarily.

Then Minato-Naruto went through a quick sequence of hand signs and focusing chakra on the five fingers of his right hand, slammed the hand upon Shukaku's head, at the exact spot where Gaara was. Just as Gamabunta vanished in a puff of smoke.

"Five-Point seal!" Minato-Naruto yelled. Then the form of Shukaku began to crumble leaving an exhausted Gaara lying on the ground. Seconds later, the redhead somehow began getting to his feet with considerable difficulty.

"The fight's over Gaara." Naruto stated in a serious voice. The redhead spat blood from his mouth.

Without replying to Naruto's words, Gaara began walking towards the duo.

"I really have to put you down for good. That's what you're gonna make it be, isn't it?" Naruto said as he rushed at the redhead aiming to kick him on the face and knock him out for good. However, a wall of sand formed before Gaara just before the kick could connect.

"He can't access Shukaku's chakra due to the five-point seal, similar to how you were unable to access Kurama's when Orochimaru used it on you. Something other than Shukaku is manipulating the sand for Gaara." Minato explained from the mindscape.

"Really now?" Naruto asked in a deadpan manner.

Seeing that he was still able to manipulate sand, Gaara tried to make it rush at Naruto and Hinata. However, the five-point seal had messed up with his chakra control so his sand manipulation wasn't as accurate as it was before. For the couple it was easier to dodge the attacks now.

"Hinata-chan, only my Rasengan can go through his sand but he will be killed if I attack him with that now. So, I'll make you an opening to knock him out." Naruto planned out and Hinata nodded.

As the duo kept dodging the sand from an increasingly tired Gaara. During that period, Naruto made four clones.

Two clones focused air on their palms as a third clone jumped on their palms.

"Wind Style: Gale Palm!" The clones yelled and the air launched the third clone towards Gaara with binding speeds, with a Rasengan in his hand. The Rasengan was slammed into the sand wall that was erected to defend the redhead. As the sand fell, Gaara only saw a puff of smoke before he was face to face with Hinata, who was being launched in a similar fashion as that of the clone with the Rasengan.

"Eight Trigrams: 32 palms!"

And then Gaara was on the ground groaning in pain.

Naruto walked up to him.

"D-Don't come near me!" Gaara stuttered out as he felt afraid of the blond before him.

"It's really painful, isn't it? Those glares, those hateful whispers of "demon brat" under their breaths, that loneliness. I know it because I had been at the receiving end of all that. I can see that you have had it worse." Naruto said with a look of sympathy, understanding and sadness.

Gaara could only look at him.

"You know, I could have become just like you, had it not been for Hinata-chan, Iruka-sensei, Jiji and the Ichirakus, who were willing to look beyond the overgrown fox inside my gut and accept me. And today, I fight for them, to protect them, make them proud and make sure they always keep smiling. For them, I strive to become stronger. So, they've never held me back."

"I-Is that how y-you are so s-strong?"

"Yeah!" Naruto replied with a small smile as he wrapped his hand around Hinata's waist, making her smile as well.

"B-But I don't have anyone like that. Everybody hates me there in Suna." Gaara replied as his face fell.

"I will be your friend then and I am sure there are people who will accept you, like they accepted me." Naruto reassured as he extended a hand. Gaara hesitated a bit before taking it and getting to his feet.

"Troublesome, but your siblings also care for you a lot." Shikamaru said, intervening at the appropriate moment, having regained consciousness a bit earlier and having listened to the conversation.

"His siblings?" Naruto asked curiously.

"Yeah, Temari and Kankuro are actually his siblings, not just teammates." Shikamaru explained.

"Well then, there you go Gaara, even you have siblings to care for you. And I am sure, if a goofball like me can find a lover, you can as well. (Hinata jokingly pinched Naruto at the goofball comment.)"

Memories of almost sandy brown hair came unbidden to the neutralized Jinchuriki's mind with Naruto's words.

The four genin then stood there in silence, contemplating their next moves.

"Since he won't fight back, we have to hand him over to the Jonin. That's what the protocol is. I also have his sister sealed in here." Shikamaru explained showing the prisoner scroll he had.

"I understand." Gaara replied as he walked up to Shikamaru.

"But Shikamaru he-"

"I understand your concern Naruto. I will hand him over to Asuma-sensei and I can assure you, he will understand." The Naara reassured, Naruto then nodded.

Soon, Gaara and Shikamaru walked off leaving Naruto and Hinata alone.

A couple of minutes passed in silence as Naruto caught his breath.

"I-I am s-sorry." Hinata stuttered out in a low voice and as Naruto looked back at her, he found her face fallen.

"What for? You haven't done anything wrong Hinata-chan."

"I-I wasn't s-strong e-enough, y-you had t-to d-defend m-me while you fought Gaara, I-I w-wasn't much use in the fight." She said in anguish. Naruto knew tears were soon to follow, but he tightly held her shoulders before that.

"Look at me." He ordered and then raised Hinata's chin to match her gaze. "You saved my life from Kabuto, almost dying in the process. Even when you were not at your fullest, you fought well against the enemy back in the stadium, you rendered Kankuro useless and it was you who delivered the final blow on Gaara." He sincerely explained. "As for this fight, it was one between two jinchuriki, because of the Biju in our guts, we have unnatural stamina, so it is natural that a normal person of our age will be outlasted by a jinchuriki, but that can never be your fault. You have only recovered from your injuries in the fight with Neji, in what, like 3 days ago, you again sustained a serious wound from Kabuto to save me but still you fought so well. You have been absolutely awesome till now if you ask me. And I hate it when I see you put yourself down. You never let me do it so I won't let you do it either. Besides, neither of us have reached our full potential yet, so there's still a long way to go and I want you…no I need you to walk beside me on that path. You may or may not know it, but being with you, I feel like a huge hole in my heart has been filled." Naruto explained with utmost sincerity and seriousness, to his delight, Hinata felt relieved and regained her composure.

"I-I am sorry, my self-confidence really needs some work." She said with a smile.

"Maah! You do really have the habit of saying sorry a lot, don't you?" Naruto teased, making Hinata smile embarrassedly.

"Maybe I should apologize for apologizing so much." She said with a smile.

"Oh come on! Give me a hug instead, if you insist on apologizing so much." Naruto chirped with a grin.

His wish was immediately fulfilled.

"Let's head back to the village, okay?" He whispered as Hinata played with his spiky hair.

"Okay"

The two then took to the trees.

A/N: So one of the most serious fights of the Chunin Exams arc is done here, I hope you guys liked it. The next chapter will be having another major fight. Thanks for the love and support again, stay happy, stay safe. See ya all in the next chapter.