Chapter 10: The Invasion
Dispelling the Genjutsu, I took stock of my surroundings. Temari, Kankuro and Dosu were unaffected by the Genjutsu. Looking around, I realized that no one in the competitor booth fell prey to the Genjutsu, not even Shikamaru who was for all intents purposes using the Genjutsu as an excuse to take a nap and avoid the invasion.
Seeing Dosu take a swing at me with his melody gauntlet, I moved on instinct. Ducking under his arm, a slipped a kunai out of its holster and buried it into the back of his head.
"Oh," I muttered as I saw Dosu's corpse hit the ground. It was the first time in two lifetimes that I had killed someone and I wasn't sure how to feel about that, right now, I just felt a sort of detachment.
"Focus, Naruto. He's not going to be the last person you kill today," Kurama said. "Look at Gaara, he's in the middle of a transformation! You need to stop him."
Looking in the arena, Kurama was right. Gaara was in the middle of a transformation and not the slow one that Sasuke fought. Sand was coating his body, he already looked like a mini Shukaku and he was growing larger by the second as sand was engulfing Neji. Creating a shadow clone to help take care of the invading Shinobi in the stadium, I jumped down into the arena.
Rushing towards Neji and Gaara, I flashed through several hand seals and spat several toad oil bullets at them. It didn't have the desired effect of stopping Gaara's transformation, but it did loosen the sand holding Neji. Creating a pair of clones to grab Neji, I momentarily winced when I saw his arms, they were broken, twisted and covered in blood.
"Get him to the infirmary," I commanded my clones.
"Naruto?" Neji grunted in pain. "What are you doing here?"
"Short answer, we're being invaded. Now go."
Seeing my clones carry Neji off of the field, I let out a relieved sigh. I could beat Gaara, there was no doubt about that, but the more people that were around, the higher the chance that they got in the way and were hurt.
"Oi Gaara, You still in there," I called out to the mini Shukaku.
"N-Naruto… SOmetHINg's wRONG, I can't STOP MYSELF."
"From the flow of Shukaku's chakra and the rate at the sand build up, you have less than a minute before Gaara fully transforms into Shukaku," Kurama explained.
"Crap," I muttered softly. Moving next to Gaara, I Bit my thumb, I flickered through several seals before bringing my hand to the ground. "Kuchiyose no jutsu."
A cloud of smoke engulfed the arena.
"Eh, where am I? Why did you call me here, Jiraiya?" A huge, multi storied sized toad asked.
"Not Jiraiya, I'm Uzumaki Naruto. I need you to take us out of Konoha to a place without people around."
"Uzumaki Naruto, eh? And why would I do that?" The toad asked.
"Because I have a Jinchuriki on your head who's in the middle of transforming into Shukaku and if you don't get us out of here now, another tailed beast is going to attack Konoha," I replied in a rush.
"Shukaku? What the hell is with you blondes? If it isn't bad enough that Minato summoned me on top of the Kyuubi, now you summon me under the Ichibi."
"JUST GET US THE FUCK OUT OF HERE," I yelled, losing my patience. In the time that Gamabunta took to argue with me, Gaara had already grown by half his size. "OR YOU'RE GOING TO HAVE A FULLY REALIZED ICHIBI ON YOUR HEAD."
"Rude brat," Gamabunta grunted. "You better hold on tight."
Creating several clones, I had them secure Gaara as I used chakra stick myself to Gamabunta. Feeling Gamabunta crouch down, it only took a second before he launched himself and us high into the air. Konoha shrank and zoomed by as we drifted through the clouds. Landing in a wooded area, Gamabunta leapt again and we were back in the clouds.
It didn't take long before we were a good few kilometers out of Konoha. Gamabunta stopped and I had my clones take Gaara and jump down into the forest.
"What now, brat?" Gamabunta asked.
"Now Gaara's going to fully transform into Shukaku," I said simply. Orochimaru or Suna had clearly done something to Gaara to force him to transform. "OI GAARA, YOU CAN TAKE A NAP NOW, I'LL DEAL WITH EVERYTHING FROM HERE."
"You're planning on fighting the Shukaku, are you mad?"
"Who said I was planning on fighting?" I asked as an explosion of sand enveloped the area, dispelling the clones that were with Gaara.
"Yahoo, I'm finally free baby," Shukaku cheered in a shrilly tone. "What am I going to do first? Maybe wipe out that nearby village."
"SHUKAKU," I called out loudly.
"Hmmm," Shukaku hummed, looking at Gamabunta and myself. "What do we have here, a frog with an ant on its head?"
"Not exactly, I came to talk to you," I replied.
"Oh you came to talk," Shukaku crooned in a shrilly tone. "Sorry, but I haven't been free in a long time and I'm gonna make the most of it." Shukaku took a deep breath in as he prepared to launch a wind bullet at us.
"Looks like talking to him didn't work," Gamabunta said, getting ready to jump out of the way.
"NINSHU," I yelled, immediately stopping Shukaku.
"W-What did you say to me?" Shukaku asked, letting out the breath he had prepared.
"I said, I want to talk to you through Ninshu," I replied.
"And why would I want to do that?" Shukaku asked, crossing his arms.
"Because you're curious," I said. Jumping off Gamabunta's head, I hopped across several tree's before coming to a stop in front of Shukaku. He was huge, equally as large as Kurama. Raising my hand, I held a fist out to Shukaku. "C'mon, you could always crush me later."
"Gahahaha. You want to connect with me using Ninshu? It's the first time a human has had the balls to suggest that to me. You better know what you're doing or I'll get to crush you sooner," Shukaku said, raising his clawed fist to me.
Raising my own fist, I knocked it against his, merging our chakra together. The connection was established and I was hit with a wave of overflowing emotions. Hate, excitement, giddiness, anger, apprehension, curiosity flowed through me, it wasn't like when I connected with Kurama, instead of seeing each others lives, I merely felt his emotions.
"So you do know Ninshu," Shukaku idle noted. "Not many, if any humans know it, who taught you?"
"If you dig a little deeper, I'm sure you'll find out."
With that, the connection immediately deepened. Several images of Shukaku talking to a monk flashed through my head as the world faded to black and I found myself standing in the seal. In front of me stood Shukaku, standing at his full height, except he was locked in a cage with Gaara wrapped in sand, sleeping at the base of it.
"Yo Shukaku, it's been a while," Kurama greeted, standing behind me.
"KURAMA?! YOU'RE KURAMA'S JINCHURIKI AND HE TAUGHT YOU NINSHU," Shukaku shrieked loudly.
Wincing out Shukaku's shriek, I nodded. "Yeah, he saw that–"
"I WON'T ACCEPT IT. HOW DID MR. I HATE HUMANS SUDDENLY BECOME FRIENDS WITH ONE?!"
"SHUT UP," Kurama roared. "If you can stop flapping your mouth for just one minute, you'll find out."
"I don't have to listen to you, you're not my dad!" Shukaku snapped.
"If you want to survive, then you should," Kurama shot back.
"Nuh-uh."
Although watching Kurama and Shukaku argue like siblings was funny, time was of the essence, especially with the invasion.
"Otsutsuki Kaguya is being resurrected," I announced. The seal quieted down immediately.
"What?" Shukaku hissed. "That's not possible. It would take–"
"A Rinnegan that Uchiha Madara awoke several decades ago and used to summon the Juubi's husk to earth," I interrupted.
"That can't be true. He would have needed our fathers chakra to awaken the Rinnegan" Shukaku argued.
"But it is. When our old man sealed his mother, she created something that would work towards her resurrection, an inky black being known as Zetsu. Over the years he was engineered wars and was successful in goading Uchiha Madara, the transmigrant of Indra into stealing some of Senju Hashirama, the transmigrant of Ashura's flesh."
"Forming our fathers chakra," Shukaku finished, looking horrified. "But Madara is dead, so it shouldn't be an issue, right?"
I shook my head. "He transplanted his eyes into an Uzumaki with a god complex that believes that sealing all the biju into the Juubi's husk, which he calls the gedo mazo, will create a weapon for him to use. Zetsu is a part of the organization that he has created to collect the biju."
"That's… bad," Shukaku said idly. "We need to do something about this."
I smiled at that. It looks like I've gotten Shukaku on my side and with that. More help to stop the Infinite Tsukuyomi was always appreciated.
"We've got a plan and we're working on it," Kurama replied.
"A plan? Can't we just kill them, they're just humans."
"Each member of the organization is an S rank missing nin," I sighed at the blank look on Shukaku's face. "They're all really strong and most of them are capable of fighting Kage on their own."
"Oh… then what's this plan?"
"It mostly boils down to taking out Zetsu and everyone that want to resurrect the Juubi, while removing any chance Madara has at being resurrected and thus Kaguya as well," I explained.
"And how do we go about doing that?" Shukaku asked.
Kurama and I briefly shared a look.
"You can leave that to us," Kurama replied.
"Hold on, the worlds potentially coming to an end and you want me to do nothing?"
"No, not nothing," I interrupted, seeing that a massive argument was about to break out. "You have an incredibly important job. In order for the Jubi to be resurrected, they need to seal you biju in order, starting from one and ending at nine. If you're never sealed, then their plan fails."
"So you want me to what… run away?"
"He wants you to work with your Jinchuriki," Kurama sighed.
"Ideally yes. Gaara's going to be a really powerful Shinobi one day and if you help him, there's very few that would be able to beat the two of you... outside of other fully realized Jinchuriki, that is." I explained. "But if you don't want to do that, running away if a viable tactic. Really, anything that can keep you from being sealed is a win in my books."
"I'm not going to run away," Shukaku growled.
"Great, then you're going to work with Gaara and prevent yourself from being sealed."
"And if I said no?"
"Then you're going to get sealed," I replied evenly. "And when everything is over, it will probably take years to get you out of the Jubi's husk, because I have no clue on how to unseal something from it."
"You're better off working with your Jinchuriki than against him," Kurama argued. "Especially when the world is at stake."
"Fine," Shukaku sighed. "HEY GAARA, WAKE UP."
"Do you always have to be so loud," Kurama groaned.
"Wait, you're doing this now?"
"Why not now?" Shukaku asked, looking at me as if I was dumb.
The sand surrounding Gaara slowly began to retreat back into Shukaku's cage, setting him on the floor. Several seconds passed by as Gaara slowly began to show signs of waking.
"Gaara," Shukaku boomed.
"What…" Gaara sat up and looked at Shukaku. "Oh, I'm here again."
"But not alone," I said, walking over to him.
"Naruto?" Gaara began, but froze when he saw Kurama. "And the Kyuubi. It's not in a cage. Where are we?"
"That's a bit difficult to explain… We're in a shared place between Jinchuriki… Huh, it actually wasn't that hard to explain after all."
"I see," Gaara said simply, accepting everything at face value. Getting up, he looked around the shared mindscape. "But why is the Kyuubi not in a cage, Is it invisible?"
"Oh, that's because we're friends. I don't need a cage to protect myself from him."
"You can be friends with biju?!" Gaara asked, shooting me a look of disbelief.
"Well, yeah, so can–"
"ENOUGH OF THIS," Shukaku shrieked. "Gaara, look at them. They're working together. We're not going to fall behind. From today onward you're going to be my partner."
"What?"
"Idiot," Kurama grumbled.
"I'm pretty sure that he's asking you to be his friend," I explained, holding in my chuckle. Seriously, are all biju tsundere's?
I pulled my fist back from Shukaku's as I found myself back in the real world. Shukaku's body began to crumble as his chakra retreated back into Gaara's body. It had been a long conversation of mostly explaining things to Gaara… not anything about the future, no, that knowledge would remain solely with me, Kurama and Shukaku.
No, I had mostly spent my time explaining that biju aren't just raging chakra monsters, but rather individuals who had their own thoughts, wants and dreams... not that Shukaku helped with his occasional outbursts.
"Heh, you did it, brat," Gamabunta said as Shukaku's body finally collapsed in on itself. "I've never seen someone beat a biju like that though."
"How long were we like that?" I asked. There was a bit of a time distortion between being in the seal mindscape and the real world.
"About a minute."
A minute? I had spent at least half an hour in the seal. I wasn't sure if it could be used for training, but at the very least, it was something I could explore later on. Spotting Gaara standing on a large pile of sand, we gave each other a nod, before he turned and left.
Back in the seal, we had agreed that there was no point in Gaara continuing in this invasion, especially with Kurama's quick thinking in saying that he sensed that Orochimaru was posing as their Kazekage.
"Oi, where do you think you're going, brat?"
"Leave him, he's not going to be participating in this invasion," I said, jumping back onto Gamabunta's head.
"Fine," Gamabunta grumbled.
"Think you could take me back to Konoha?"
"Hm," Gamabunta huffed, before suddenly jumping towards Konoha.
Caught off guard, I almost fell off him, but was able to cling to him with my chakra. Just like before, Gamabunta jumped into the clouds as the forest blurred underneath us. A feeling of weightlessness overtook me. Almost too soon, we found ourselves back in Konoha.
"Alright, where do you want me to set you down, the stadium?"
"No," I shook my head, although he didn't see it. "Jump high towards the center of the village, then dispel in the air, I'll handle the rest."
"You sure about that, brat? I've still got a ton of chakra left, I could help you out."
"Yeah, you're a bit too large to fight inside Konoha without destroying buildings unless…" Looking towards the west wall that protected Konoha, I spotted a giant snake , one of Orochimaru's summons. "There, the snake attacking the west wall, jump there."
"Alright, brat."
Being propelled into the air once more, I brought my hands together in the cross seal and flexed my chakra. "Taju Kage bunshin no jutsu."
Hundreds upon hundreds of clones flowed off of Gamabunta's back, jumping down into Konoha. They didn't have enough chakra to pull off any jutsu, but they were each as fast and as strong as I am.
"Gahaha, damn brat, you've got balls of steel," Gamabunta laughed. "You better have kept some chakra in reserve, we still have that snake and those Shinobi to deal with."
I panted lightly at that before I felt Kurama's chakra restoring my own. "Don't worry, I'm a Jinchuriki, I've got chakra for days."
Coming down fast, just as Gamabunta landed on the snake, so did a second toad with Jiraiya on its back, knocking all of us off balance.
"Damnit Jiraiya, be more aware of your surroundings," Gamabunta grunted.
"Gamabunta?! Naruto?! The hell, you're supposed to be in the stadium," Jiraiya yelled.
"I was, but I had to get Gaara out before he transformed into the Ichibi," I yelled back.
"You should have seen it, it was the weirdest thing. The Ichi–" The snake under Gamabunta shifted, knocking him off balance. "Shaddup," Gamabunta grunted, kicking the snake in its head. "As I was saying, he convinced the Shukaku to let him use some weird jutsu on it and then it dissolved back into sand."
"Really,: Jiraiya goggled. "How the hell'd you do that?"
"I'm the Kyuubi's Jinchuriki," I answered, crossing my arms with a smirk on my face. "Now, shouldn't we do something about this invasion?"
"Like what? No one here is powerful enough to face me and they know it," Jiraiya replied confidently.
Looking around, I realized he was right. The Shinobi that were once advancing through the hole in the wall had stopped… no… that wasn't right, they were out right retreating.
"So there's literally nothing to do here?"
"That's about right. Once you become strong and well known, the number of Shinobi that are willing to fight you drops dramatically. There are probably less than 20 Shinobi alive today that would even think of fighting me," Jiraiya explained smugly.
"I suppose that makes sense," I sighed, just wanting the day to be over. Jiraiya is known as one of the strongest Shinobi alive and I, myself, wouldn't want to have to fight him if he was my enemy. "It looks like we really don't have anything else to do."
"Yeah," Gamabunta grunted.
Looking around at the destruction, I let out a sigh. At this point, the invasion was pretty much over, my clones were successfully fighting off the enemy Shinobi, buying enough time to evacuate civilians and bring in reinforcements. Things had been much more successful than they had originally.
Well, here we have it, Chapter number 10
I honestly feel like this is one of my weakest chapters, but at the same time, I couldn't think of what to do with the invasion arc. Originally it's like 10-20 episodes of Naruto, Shikamaru and Sakura jumping in a forest with cuts to the Sandaime's fight and I really didn't want to have to repeat that.
With the next arc, things are going to take a massive turn. We're reaching the point where Naruto will be making massive changes to the timeline and the effects are going to ripple and be felt throughout the Shinobi world.
I might have cut the chunin exams a bit short, but again, I didn't really want to rehash canon and at the same time, Naruto already beat Gaara, the strongest Genin at the time in canon. I couldn't think of a way to make his fights entertaining. I wouldn't worry too much about the promotion though, with what's to come, Naruto's definitely going to be in the spotlight.
I ran into the same problem with the invasion. The majority of the invading forces are made up of Chunin that were easily beat by the Jonin. I couldn't really think of anything satisfying with those fights.
Not to worry though. There are more interesting fights a bit later on which have stronger opponents that Naruto can't just oneshot. (Cough, Itachi, Cough, Kisame.)
I can't believe how much attention this story has attracted in the 10 days that I've been posting it. As I've said before, I'm going to slow down and start posting once a week. If I could, I would post 1 a day until this story is complete, but I'd quickly run out of chapters and burn myself out in a race to write more. Hope you all understand.
I'm still incredibly blown away with the support this story has managed to gain in such a short amount of time. Seriously, all of you are awesome, I especially love reading your reviews.
The next update for this fic is on friday, the 8th of march.
Alright, one final thing. I'm on the Spooky P word website. I'm 5 chapters ahead on there, up to chapter 15
P
A
T
R
E
O
N
I go by the name of ThatKircguy. Just copy the name and paste it in the Patty Rio On search bar. It'd help me out immensely, but don't worry if that's not your style. I will be uploading weekly, so it's not going to be stuck there permanently.
Also, I post my original stuff there as well. It's nothing much, just two short stories for now, but I'll post more as I write them.
See you all in the next update my dudes and dudettes!