章 852: 29
Chapter 28: Showdown in the Sand Dunes
Naruto's eye twitched as he grabbed his head and lost his balance, forcing himself to catch himself on Tsunade's chair, "Ow." He said while rubbing his temple.
Tsunade looked at Naruto with a little anger in her eyes, "Stop training brat. I'm not going to tell you again, that's an order."
Naruto sighed in a downtrodden fashion, "Okay fine… It was for a good reason though." He said as he simply stood in place before cringing and falling against Tsunade's chair again, "Ow damn it!"
Tsunade got a tick mark on her head, "I told you to stop!"
Naruto pulled himself back together, "I did stop! I dispelled all the rest of the clones I made. The first headache was a ton of my clones annihilating themselves trying one of my jutsu. The second one was me dispelling the rest of them, I can't do it in waves from this far away, it has to happen all at once."
Temari looked over at him clutching his head, "You make your clones train? Where?"
Naruto growled in annoyance at the pain on his skull, "I sent them into the desert two days ago and told them to get lost and work until they dispelled and nothing else. Well they worked alright."
Below on the chunin exam battlefield, Ino had forced her opponent to surrender after taking control of their body with Shinranshin no Jutsu (Mind Body Disturbance Jutsu) and forced them to hold themselves at knife point. It was evident that everyone was much better than previously indicated from their last encounter with him, something that actually brought a smile to his face. Chouji and Sakura were to fight next round after Chouji had almost crushed the Iwa genin representative, Kiba was to take on one of the Suna ninja that had survived his first round bout, and Ino was getting a bye straight to the finals after her victory.
As he watched with a semblance of pride at his classmates actions a piece of information he had previously overlooked passed through his head, forcing a scowl onto his face, "Oh stupid fucking clones." He whispered.
Shizune turned to him, "What's the matter Naruto-kun?"
Naruto kept his voice low, "While they were making their way out into the desert to train they saw something, but they didn't dispel because I had given them strict parameters on what they could and couldn't do, and they didn't engage for the same reason."
Tsunade narrowed her eyes at the word 'engage', "What did you see brat?"
Naruto looked at her seriously, "Black robes with red clouds." Tsunade returned her gaze down to the arena as Baki announced a short recess before the next round of fights, "Whatever you're willing to do about this you know I'm game."
Chatter from the entire arena went up, covering up their words even further from being heard by those surrounding them.
Tsunade took in her immediate options. She could let be known to the others that Akatsuki was en route for either Naruto or Gaara; probably the best option possible as that would let Gaara mobilize the village's forces in an effort to rebuke them. The downside to that was the fact that saying anything here would cause mass hysteria, which would make it easier for Akatsuki to manage a quiet capture and slip away if either Naruto or Gaara were caught off-guard. In addition to that, a group of S-rank missing ninja were heavy hitters and would take out a mass amount of Gaara's forces even if they were able to put them down in the end. With the two nations being in an alliance and the Tsuchikage sitting right there, having him witness the toll that would be taken on Suna might not be the best option in view of possible future events.
The second option would be to send Naruto and Shizune out to engage them head on before they made it to the village; a heavy gamble as chances are, Naruto was the one they were after. She might have been able to excuse herself so that she could head out with them, but that would raise far too much suspicion. The downside to this was that Naruto was the only one she was certain of that had the capabilities to go up against these people, she didn't want Shizune caught in the ruckus. She was good but was definitely not a combat type.
Then there was the third option, probably the worst option of all. She could send Naruto out alone. She would keep a slug on the kid and one on herself so that she could be kept up to date with what was happening, but it was still long odds that this would work. The upside was that Naruto would be fighting in the desert which would allow him to cut loose with the Kyuubi's chakra, and from the reports on Naruto's attacks on a few of Orochimaru's bases when he cut loose it was a sight to behold. He already beat the Akatsuki in a two on one situation didn't he? He killed one and made the other retreat, and this time if he was in over his head he could get immediate backup.
Tsunade motioned Naruto near her, "You're going to be going on your own brat. I'm sticking you with a slug so I can keep track of you and you can keep me informed, but you need to cut those two off, handle this, and hustle back here as fast as you can okay?" Naruto nodded, "You also need a way out of here, fast, because I'm racking my brain to come up with an excuse to get you to leave." She took the time to summon two hand sized slugs under her robe and send one into Naruto's hood.
Naruto locked eyes with her and sighed, "You know how the best stories are things that are based on real life?" Tsunade gave him a confused look, forcing him to further elaborate, "You're going to have to sock me one baa-chan. A good one too to make it seem realistic, just make sure you send me north by northeast. Aim good too, because you've got to get me over that clifftop."
Tsunade frowned, "You're sure you'll survive it?" She got a nod in response, "Alright then brat. Good luck." She channeled the chakra to her hand and hit the boy square in the chest, taking care to hit him in an area that would equally distribute the damage she dealt as well as make it look like she whiffed him on the chin, opening her fist right upon contact to hit him with her palm and send him flying.
To the shock and surprise of everyone not in the know about what had just transpired, Tsunade just turned back towards the other two kage and shrugged, "Ill-mannered brats. The next generation has no respect for their elders."
The Tsuchikage snorted in humor, "You've got that right. My own granddaughter Kurotsuchi treats me like a fragile old man. Me! Ryotenbin no Onoki."
"That's because you are a fragile old man gramps." Kurotsuchi pointed at the sparkle in the sky representing Naruto's body, "Is he going to be alright after that?"
Tsunade nodded, "Oh yeah. I hit him harder than that all the time. He'll hop right back up wherever he lands… for his sake somewhere soft."
XxX
"Damn Tsunade-baachan, that was further than a kilometer I swear." After Naruto landed in the Sunagakure Scrap Heap he swiftly stood up and dusted himself off, "Man hitting the tightly packed earth around here sure would have sucked. I'm glad this pile of rusty kunai and shuriken were here to break my fall." Naruto looked around at the people staring at him strangely, "You didn't see anything." He then took off towards the northeast.
"What's the matter with you boy?" Naruto heard in his head as he was en route to a confrontation with whoever Akatsuki had sent for him this time.
'What in the world are you babbling about now? You've been really pissy lately and I'm getting kind of tired of your crap. The last few times I went into the mindscape you didn't even wake up to talk to me.' Naruto thought rather testily.
Naruto went into auto-pilot mode as he felt a little pull, sending him thoughts on what the Kyuubi was currently doing. Apparently it was bored enough that it had taken to chewing on some guy with long spiky black hair and strange red old style armor. Kyuubi spit him out and huffed, "What I mean is what the hell do you think you've been doing lately? What happened to the little blonde killing machine you used to be, the runt of a human that earned my respect? What happened to the brat that cut down an entire room of Kumo ninja without batting an eye? Does that son of a bitch still breathe?"
Naruto didn't have the time to even start thinking about what he meant by that, 'I don't know what you're talking about. This is who I am, and I'm still that damn good. Just because I can be normal after I'm done with the fight doesn't mean anything.'
"You lie!" He felt the Kyuubi roar to him, "You're lying to me and to yourself. This isn't you. When you first unlocked your sealed memories once more I took the way you were acting with a grain of salt. I figured that when you got a few kills under your belt and had gotten back into some wetwork you would go back to the way you were. Rehabilitation if you will. Instead, you got worse. And now look at you; you're some guard dog for a bunch of withered old crones more often then you're in battle. You joke around and fall in line behind crones that couldn't strap on your sandals… Kami boy, you were starting to consider those Konoha weaklings in the stadium as your peers, as if they were on your level."
'They are my peers. Come the end of this exam they're going to be my fellow chunin. What do you want from me? Do you want me to just shut myself in like when I was a kid? To just train and go on missions? To be like I was in Root? News flash furball; that's why I'm not there anymore! At this point Danzo-jiji can't turn me back, he couldn't even make me a mindless drone when I was five, how in the blue hell is he going to do anything with me now?' Naruto raged at the demon in his mind.
For over a year now, the Kyuubi had been angry at something. It couldn't have just been because Jiraiya loosened the seal, that would only be enough reasoning for why Naruto was feeling it more often these days, the times where the Kyuubi was actually pleasant were becoming few and far between. This was why it was angry, because Naruto wasn't dark enough for it. He had taken the example of his sealed state and had opened up to people. He had those that he actually considered friends. He spent a lot of his time with these people instead of fighting like he used to.
As he tore through the sand dunes he decided to put this on the backburner for the time being, 'Alright listen up. We don't have time to be fighting and bitching at each other right now. After we handle this we can gripe at each other to your heart's delight, if we survive, but for the moment we need to focus. You're getting sick of me? That's fine, we were never friends, but like it or not I need you and you need me.'
There was silence before a low growl, "As loathe as I am to admit it you are right. Right before a battle is not the time to go over this, but rest assured, this is not over. You are a mere shell of what you used to be, and at this rate you always will be." With that, the connection between the two was cut off.
Naruto pulled up his hood as he kept up the frantic pace through the desert, 'I'm not a shell of anything you stupid fox. I'm more than I ever have been before. Why would I ever want to go back to the way things used to be? Fighting just for the sake of being a ninja is no way to live.'
XxX
As Kiba's opponent finally dropped from blood loss, giving the wild looking teen the victory in his bout, Shizune looked over at Tsunade and whispered through her applause, "Do you think Naruto-kun will be alright?"
Tsunade kept her eyes ahead of her, 'If he gets overwhelmed we'll know about it immediately and courtesy be damned, I'm going out there and cracking some skulls myself. I can't even enjoy the tournament anymore, and Sakura is in the next fight. All of my genin are the last three remaining and I can't even enjoy the show.'
Kurotsuchi looked around, "Where is that Naruto kid that Hokage-sama sent flying? She said he would be alright and that was 45 minutes ago, he still isn't back yet."
Shizune laughed nervously, "Oh, Naruto-kun has a terrible sense of direction. He probably got lost somewhere in the village on his way back. He's fine."
Naruto didn't get lost, ever. Even Gaara and his siblings knew that. From back when Naruto stayed in Suna during the treaty analysis after the failed Oto-Suna invasion it was clear that it didn't take much for the boy to find his way around. Even the way he ran through the desert straight to Konoha after his mission was complete proved that if he saw something once he didn't ever get lost. Keeping this in mind, Gaara turned his attention back to the proceedings, while Kankuro and Temari were more on edge, doing their best not to let it show.
XxX
"Are we fucking there yet?" Hidan shouted, "I hate the desert! There isn't even anyone or anything out here to sacrifice to Jashin-sama except for you!"
Kakuzu glared out of the corner of his eye, "You try it and I'll shove that scythe so far up your ass you'll be spitting chunks of metal. Now shut up and come on, we're almost there if the dome-like structure in the distance isn't an indicator to you moron."
"Raiton: Denkai (Lightning Release: Electric Field)."
Hidan and Kakuzu found themselves surrounded in a restrictive field of electricity. Hidan looked around him testily, "Now what the fuck is the problem?"
Kakuzu growled, "Shut the hell up Hidan! It's obvious someone got the drop on us. It won't be enough to win, but I suppose congratulations are in order for pulling that off. It's a pretty decent trap to say the least."
Hidan looked at his partner angrily, "Stop complementing the bastard and find a way to get us out of here. I want to catch the target and be done with this."
Naruto's voice projected itself across the desert, "Now's the time that most people would offer you the chance to simply leave and save your lives, but I'm not really most people. Sorry about that."
A sizzling noise came from within the electric field. Underneath the top layer of sand was a small cluster of explosive tags burning through, "Fuck." Hidan summed up perfectly.
BOOM
The explosion negated the electric field, allowing the force of the blast to push Naruto out of his hiding spot underneath the sand. He stood back up and looked at the smoke generated from the attack, "That was way too easy. It can't be over yet."
He was then forced to dodge a scythe came sweeping out under him from the sand. Hidan revealed himself after his failed attack, with half of his cloak singed off in the explosion, revealing deep burns on his body, "You little shit! That hurt!"
Naruto got a good look at his body, 'That should have killed him. It's clear that he didn't dodge it from the way he looks so why is he still here?' While he was keeping track of Hidan a pair of arms reached up from the sand and pulled him under before pulling him out a distance away and slamming him into the ground harshly.
Due to the ground being sand Naruto stood up rather quickly, head swimming, but then he had just gotten dragged through the earth and slammed from ten feet in the air so being a little disoriented was par the course. He stood up fast enough to see Kakuzu's arms return to his body, connected by black threads that seemed to comprise his innards.
Naruto frowned to himself, 'Interesting technique.' After getting slammed into the ground, his hood had come off, revealing his face to the two nuke-nin.
Kakuzu stared at him for a second before laughing, "Well would you look at that Hidan? The Kyuubi jinchuuriki came right to us, no searching necessary. We didn't even have to smoke him out. That certainly saves us some time doesn't it?"
Hidan joined his partner in laughing at Naruto, "What kind of idiot walks right into a two on one situation? What did you think you were going to do like this?"
Naruto narrowed his eyes as a bubbling cloak of the Kyuubi's chakra covered his body, "Let me show you." The cloak took on the shape of a fox and one tail sprouted from the back as his canines grew, his eyes turned red, and his nails turned into claws. After thinking about it for a moment he concentrated further and manifested a second tail of chakra, giving him a black outline on his lips. He crouched down in the more comfortable position of being on all fours, "On second thought, I might as well start trying to go all out right now."
XxX
Gaara's eyes turned towards the northeast as he stayed seated in the stadium. The intermission was close to being complete and Naruto had still yet to return to the kage box.
He wasn't the only one to feel the influx of dark power from the distance away. Tsunade felt it but futilely tried to hide feeling the energy. Onoki felt it as well, but seeing as how no one else was speaking up about it he wasn't about to.
Gaara finally turned his head towards his siblings, "I think I would like to stretch my legs for a moment. Kankuro, Temari, please remain here if you would." He stood up and placed his hat and kage robes on his chair, "Hokage-dono, Tsuchikage-dono, I will return in just a moment, I apologize for departing so abruptly." With that, Gaara disappeared in a wave of sand.
Tsunade felt herself release a breath when Gaara left. At the very least now the kid would have more than adequate backup from the Kazekage himself.
Onoki let out a short chuckle, "That new Kazekage is a real hands-on kind of guy it seems, eh Tsunade?"
His larger bodyguard looked down at him, "What are you referring to Tsuchikage-sama?"
Onoki looked back down into the arena, "Nothing you need to concern yourself with Akatsuchi."
XxX
Hidan took a swing at Naruto with his scythe only for Naruto to blur out of his sight in a burst of speed. He was then thrown back through the sand from a single punch to the jaw from the target jinchuuriki.
Hidan stood back up with his jaw hanging loosely before cracking it back into place. He angrily turned to Kakuzu, "You can help me out with this punk at any time you know?"
Kakuzu rolled his eyes, "Aren't you the one that always says that you don't want or need my help? Well prove it this time."
Growling at the challenge, Hidan turned back towards Naruto, "Fine then. It's no skin off of my nose." He ran back in swinging only to get cracked again even harder this time, getting sent headfirst into a sand dune.
Kakuzu looked at the scene in amusement, "Actually, it just might be. Heads up."
Hidan was about to ask what he meant by heads up when a red claw of chakra wrapped around his body tightly, "Gah! What the hell is this? Kakuzu get me out of this!"
Kakuzu elaborated, "It's the toxic chakra of the Kyuubi no Yoko. You should be fatally burned if you were normal… but the way you are you'll be fine."
"Fuck you Kakuzu! After this punk, you're next!" Hidan yelled as he was reeled in by Naruto's chakra arm. Naruto drew his arm back in a knife-handed strike and forcefully shoved his sharpened claws through Hidan's chest, sending his arm in wrist deep. Naruto then bonelessly cast him away back towards Kakuzu's side.
Naruto turned his red eyes to Kakuzu and crouched back down on all fours, "Next?"
Kakuzu shook his head and walked over to Hidan before kicking him in the head, "Wake your ass up you pathetic bastard."
After a second, Hidan stirred and stood up, holding his head, instead of his chest where there was a gaping hole, "What did you kick me for you godless teme? That actually hurt."
A mass of black threads came from Kakuzu's body, "Oh shut up already, you were careless and the kid kicked your ass. Be sure not to let it happen again."
Naruto growled, "Like hell I'm going to let you heal him!" He tensed his muscles to spring to attack once again.
A mass of the threads came from Kakuzu's body, and instead of sealing Hidan's wounds shut made a strange four legged body with thin wings and a blue eagle mask at the head, "Mind your own business boy, I'll deal with you in just a moment. Play with my wind element for the time being. Fuuton: Atsugai (Wind Release: Pressure Damage)."
The mask quickly dashed off towards Naruto before swirling around and making a whirlwind that it seemed to be compressing in place before finally letting the glowing pressurized wind go. The force of the released attack sent Naruto flying off rapidly through the arid landscape.
Naruto exploded out of the sand that buried him and glared at the mask that was coming his way once again. He pulled the sword from his back and leapt forward, his tails of chakra propelling him forward. The wind mask attempted to meet him head on but with a simple shift of movement with his chakra tails, he barrel rolled aside and kept blasting through the sand to head back towards Hidan and Kakuzu.
Kakuzu had just finished sewing the gaping wound on Hidan's chest shut, amid much swearing and death threats. As a dust cloud rushed towards the two men, Kakuzu's eyes widened , "Uh oh, you're going to want to move." With that he jumped out of the way.
"Damn it you know I'm slower than you Kakuzu-." And once again Hidan ended up taking the brunt of Naruto's wrath, this time getting his head cleaved clean off. Not stopping to check over his handiwork, he moved on to the deceptively fast Kakuzu.
As Kakuzu backpedaled through the sands he made a snake hand seal that turned his visible skin darker, near black, "Doton: Domu (Earth Release: Earth Spear)" Naruto went to swing his blade at Kakuzu and watched in shock as he simply blocked with his forearm. He then barreled at punch and drilled Naruto in the face that sent him flying back once again. Kakuzu went back over to Hidan while Naruto was still reeling. He picked Hidan's head off of the ground, "And that's why you need to actually train to be faster instead of praying to your 'God'. Maybe then you wouldn't suck so badly."
The disembodied head of Hidan held a shocked lifeless face… for about three seconds before it snarled and tried to bite at Kakuzu, "Shut the hell up you heathen! With a gift like this from Jashin-sama why would I possibly need to be fast? I can survive anything."
Kakuzu walked back over to where Hidan's body had dropped, "I don't know, maybe because sewing your pathetic ass back together is getting repetitive. Untalented ninja should just die and yet you keep sticking around."
"Just shut up and put me back together already so I can tear that kid open!" Hidan snapped.
"It looks like he's the one tearing you open from what I've been watching." Kakuzu quipped.
From where he landed, Naruto picked himself up once more, 'That felt like getting hit with one of Tsunade-baachan's love taps. I really hope that he can't hit any harder than that or I'm in some trouble here.' He powered down and tried to keep a low profile as he crept around the battlefield to attempt some kind of tactic on them seeing as how brute force just wasn't working. At least he took out one of them.
Naruto formed over twenty Kage Bunshin and sent them out and around the perimeter of where he had been knocked away by Kakuzu. Naruto kept himself as concealed as he could as he peeked over a dune and almost bugged out at what he saw, Hidan was getting his head reattached to his body, and it was speaking the entire time.
Naruto dropped down back out of sight and had to slap himself to see if he was hallucinating, a genjutsu maybe? No. Maybe that last shot concussed him? No, he'd be over it by now as long as he had been generating two tails of the Kyuubi's chakra. Putting aside the thought of how the man could still be alive after being beheaded, how in the world was he still speaking? Didn't he sever some important cords in his throat when he CUT HIS HEAD OFF!
Cutting off someone's head is checkmate, period. Naruto had fought like this, had been trained like this since day one. It was the single most definite way he knew of to finish his opponents off. Now that he seemingly couldn't kill this guy even after shoving his entire arm through his chest, even after severing his head from his shoulders, what could he possibly do to stop this guy?
The answer was simple, he would just have to cut and rend him into itty-bitty pieces. Let's see him sew the silver-haired bastard back together after that, but he still needed to get close for long enough to actually do it. That masked guy was no joke. To be able to hit him hard enough to actually harm him and hold him off when he was using the Kyuubi's chakra was a big deal. Naruto made a Kage Bunshin and dispelled it to send a message of his next move to the rest of them.
Kakuzu finished sewing Hidan's head back on, "There. It will be easier to decapitate you, but seeing as how the kid uses a sword if he cut through your neck with it you would be losing that empty skull of yours again anyway so I guess it doesn't matter."
From all around them a mass of shuriken flew into the air above them.
A slew of similar voices shouted, "Shuriken Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu)!" The amount of shuriken flying above their heads multiplied enough to partially shade the sun from view.
Kakuzu pulled Hidan back to his feet, "Hidan get moving now!"
"Raiton: Kaminari Shuriken (Lightning Release: Lightning Shuriken)!" The voices yelled out.
Every shuriken hanging in the air rained down electricity onto the two men. Kakuzu was able to dodge all of the strikes and get himself out of the area of fire as the false shuriken dispelled and the real ones fell back down to the ground. Hidan ended up getting hit a few times due to the lightning rod he called a scythe in his hand, but aside from cursing about being hit he was no worse for wear.
Naruto's clones dispelled after using all of their chakra to power both of the ninjutsu they had just utilized, leaving Naruto alone on the battlefield once more, "All right then." Naruto moved from his hiding place at top speed in an effort to blindside Kakuzu or Hidan while they were still on edge from his last attack. However he had forgotten about something that he had left in the dust that came back with a vengeance when Kakuzu's wind mask burst from the ground nearby and smashed into him sending him flying into the air.
Both nuke-nin heard and saw the attack. Hidan licked his lips as he leapt into the air to meet Naruto on the way down with his scythe, "Here we go brat! I've been waiting to get my hands on you!"
Naruto saw him rising into the air as he descended, "Well keep on waiting, Fuuton: Kaze Wakiokoru (Wind Release: Wind Burst)." Naruto stepped on an invisible bubble of air that burst under him and launched him higher into the air, forcing Hidan's attack with his scythe to miss. Naruto used the extra space provided by his jutsu to go through a few hand-seals and link his fists together, "Fuuton: Fuujin Seiken (Wind Release: Divine Fist of the Wind God)!"
The force of the wind jutsu from Naruto forced Hidan back to the ground violently, kicking up a huge cloud of sand from the impact. Naruto however once again got slammed into by the wind mask, knocking him away harshly as it followed up by releasing a powerful gust to push Naruto towards the ground even harder and keeping him from turning himself upright.
"Not really the best plan to come out here alone was it?" Kakuzu taunted as he rushed in towards the falling blonde. He launched a punch that extended due to his special technique with the black threads in his body. In mid-flight of the punch, his fist turned dark colored as he hardened it with Doton: Domu and nailed Naruto right in the body.
Letting blood and spittle spew from his mouth, he was sent flying once more, getting knocked around like a ping-pong ball. Naruto hadn't even touched the ground for thirty seconds and had switched direction and altitude at least three times. Before he could impact with the ground and slide along the sand, he found himself caught by the very thing he could see for miles and miles. Naruto then found himself turned around and came face to face with a familiar pair of seafoam green eyes with black rings outlining them with a messy mop of red hair adorning his head.
XxX
Back in the arena, attention had been grabbed for a moment as a loud lightning storm had kicked up out across the outskirts of the village.
"Man the desert has some weird weather…" Kurotsuchi chimed, "Makes me glad we live in the mountains."
Akatsuchi spoke up next trying to interject helpfully, "We have lightning storms in the mountains too Kurotsuchi."
The girl blushed in embarrassment and pouted, "S-Shut up Akatsuchi!"
Kankuro looked around, "Where the hell is Gaara? It's time for the finals and he still isn't here. And for that matter where is Naruto? Did he seriously get lost?"
Shizune waved off his concern, "Oh you know Naruto-kun."
Kankuro rubbed his chin, "Yeah, I think I do, because the last time he was here and he pissed off Temari he ran away, lost her, and hid for the entire day afterwards. He didn't come back to the house until Gaara headed out and dragged him back. There's no way that guy got lost in our village."
Gaara didn't tell them where he had gone, so Tsunade figured that when he left he came to the same realization that she did. Any talk about there being an attack would put the city in a panic, especially the currently jam-packed stadium so Gaara decided to -kage up and go defend his village himself. She had to respect that. And clearly Onoki did too since he hadn't breathed a word of the situation that she was very certain he was also privy to.
The old man currently in her thoughts put a smirk on his face, proving her right, "Wild exams this year huh?"
Tsunade laughed humorlessly, "You said it."
XxX
Naruto couldn't help but place a smile on his face as blood trailed down his lip, "Gaara I have never been so happy to be caught in your sand." He then put a dry look on your face, "You have cleaned this stuff since the last time I've been in it, haven't you?"
Gaara raised a non-existant eyebrow, "How does one clean sand?"
Naruto sighed, "Nevermind, just let me down." Gaara proceeded to do so by dropping Naruto abruptly on his back, "I meant gently."
"I don't do gentle." Gaara deadpanned as he looked out at the two opponents Naruto had been fighting coming back together, "So these are Akatsuki members?"
Naruto nodded as he stood back up, "Yep. I hope you got the memo about what these guys are after. Jinchuuriki like you and me. So if we lose, prepare to get your soul and your biju sucked out in a painful manner. How did you even find me anyway?"
"Besides the massive bloodlust you were letting off when you accessed the Kyuubi's chakra and the random lightning storm that hit from the middle of nowhere in my desert?" Gaara answered sarcastically, "And there's no way we're losing here Uzumaki."
Naruto drew his sword from his back once more, debating on whether or not it would be prudent to use the Sen'nen Kougake in this situation since he couldn't guarantee a swift kill even if he was able to dice them up. Kakuzu could apparently sew himself back together with his black thread innards and if he cut off Hidan's head and he still got up to fight he wasn't sure anything else would put him down, "And why is that? Because you're the Kazekage? There goes that S-rank superiority complex I keep talking about."
Gaara let his lips quirk, faintly displaying his amusement, "Tell me Uzumaki… What is the one thing that I have complete control over?"
Naruto rolled his eyes, "Sand. Duh Gaara, I knew that. Stop rubbing in the fact that your primary jinchuuriki form is always on and I have to trigger my own manually to get any perks, I've been bitching to you about that for the last few years." Naruto then ended up with a mouthful of sand courtesy of Gaara, "Bleh! Gross! Once again I feel I have to mention the fact that you crush people with that shit!"
"I know Uzumaki. Now please tell me what kind of landscape we currently inhabit." Gaara requested with his arms crossed.
Naruto's eyes widened as he looked around and a manic grin slowly spread across his face, "At your cue Kazekage-sama."
Gaara's face mirrored Naruto's own on a smaller scale while Kakuzu and Hidan were sizing up the new situation. Kakuzu frowned, though it was unnoticeable through his mask, 'We may have quipped about coming for the Ichibi jinchuuriki, but we're at an ungodly disadvantage against him here in his own environment. And with the Kyuubi jinchuuriki running circles around Hidan and cleaving his body parts off at will there's no way we're going to get him now with the Kazekage fighting at his side. We're outmatched.'
Hidan gripped his scythe tightly, his desire to spill blood temporarily overruled by his common sense actually making an appearance, "What's your call Kakuzu? This was actually a good idea at first but with this guy here now we can't take them both."
Kakuzu nodded, "Agreed. But maybe we can get some updated intel on these targets for a bit. Our information has been rather lax since the blonde brat took out Sasori."
Hidan chuckled, "Whatever you say." Hidan rushed from his spot with an intense shriek and swung his scythe at Naruto and Gaara, the latter blocked the attack with his automatic sand defense and started creeping his sand up the arm of Hidan.
Gaara stuck his hand out and turned it to the side before closing it, "Sabaku Sousou (Sand Burial)."
Hidan's arm was crushed, producing a sizeable burst of blood and getting a yell of pain from the silver-haired berserker. He pulled his crushed limb from the sand and ended up getting it severed by Naruto's sword before he could return to Kakuzu's side.
Kakuzu rushed to the unprotected side of Gaara and attempted to deliver a heavy kick to the unmoving Kazekage that was blocked again by Gaara's sand. Kakuzu was still fast enough however to remove his foot before Gaara could pull a repeat performance of Sabaku Sousou on him. He jumped back, "That's a nice defense. It really is something worth mentioning when one speaks of you."
"I'm forgetting something." Naruto mentioned as he saw Gaara easily defending him from both of the Akatsuki members. Seriously, he wasn't ever looking forward to fighting Gaara ever again, even if it was just a spar.
As he said this, Kakuzu's mask came at them both from a blindspot. It started making its movements to attempt Fuuton: Atsugai once again, but Naruto was damned if he was going to let that thing go off near Gaara without a fight. Naruto formed a Kage Bunshin and formed a Rasengan, "I'll show you a real wind jutsu." The Kage Bunshin put its hands around the Rasengan Naruto had formed and pumped wind chakra into it while Naruto maintained the original shape and form of the Rasengan giving it the appearance of a Rasengan with sharp spikes circulating outside of it, "Come on you ugly, ugly son of a bitch! Fuuton: Rasengan (Wind Release: Spiraling Sphere)!"
Naruto met the mask head on as it was forming the pressurized dome of air and collided the new Rasengan directly with its mask, destabilizing the mask's jutsu. The resulting clash of wind element ninjutsu caused a major outflow of force from the point of impact as a massive tornado engulfed both Naruto and the embodiment of Kakuzu's wind element. The force of the jutsu finally began tearing the black thread body apart and ended up shredding the mask itself into pieces.
Naruto stood with his hand outstretched, cuts on his own palm and insides of his fingers healing from the powerful wind technique, "Baa-chan telling me not to train… How else would I have gotten this down?"
Hidan clutched at his missing arm as Kakuzu retreated back to his side. The masked man watched with interest, "I think we've got enough for the time being. We need to report how dangerous the Kyuubi jinchuuriki is to Leader-sama." He raised his voice so Naruto and Gaara could hear him, "This was an enlightening little skirmish. We'll definitely be seeing one of you two sooner rather than later, but for now we'll just let you be. A fight between us now would only be something akin to the unstoppable force against the unmovable object." He and Hidan both made half-tiger seals, "Until next time."
Gaara raised his hand at both men, "Not so fast. Sabaku Kyuu (Sand Coffin)." Gaara covered their bodies in his sand, but before he fully covered their faces he caught a smirk on the face of Hidan.
"So sorry boys, but rest assured Kyuubi kid. I'll be seeing you again real soon." The sand covered his face entirely with his dark grin being the last thing seen.
Gaara clinched his fist, "Sabaku Sousou (Sand Burial)." The sand imploded and gushed blood everywhere before receding back into Gaara's gourd, "What a disappointment of a battle. Those were S-ranked missing ninja?"
Naruto walked over to the corpses and frowned, "These aren't the same guys Gaara."
Gaara let slight surprise show on his face as he walked over and realized Naruto was correct. The crushed, unidentified, unmarked men were not the same people that they had been fighting, "What kind of Henge could do this?"
XxX
A distance away, Hidan and Kakuzu came out of their meditative seated positions and stood back up to return to a base. Hidan dusted himself off, "That was actually a solid idea to send in those sacrifices. A damn shame it didn't work eh?"
Kakuzu cracked his neck, "It couldn't be helped. My own was almost out of chakra and without me, your copy would have just been diced up. Let's report back to Leader-sama."
"Feh." Hidan scoffed, "Shut up. All of this wasted time sitting on my ass doing nothing. We'd better slaughter a random village or two on our way back."
XxX
As Naruto and Gaara picked up the remains of the two men who had just been killed in Gaara's jutsu and prepared to return to Sunagakure a man clinched his fists and glared with his familiar spinning red eyes.
"Kukukuku… What do you think Sasuke-kun? Didn't we come all the way out here for you to fight Naruto-kun? Or is the Kazekage too imposing a figure to make a move on him. I am here with you as well you know?"
"Hn." Sasuke stated simply as he turned around and began to walk away, "He wasn't even good enough to beat those two on his own."
"I truly doubt you could do better if you had actually been in there." Kabuto sniped while adjusting his glasses only to get a full powered glare from Sasuke, "Ooh, such a scary face."
"That's enough Kabuto." Orochimaru reprimanded his right-hand man, "He is correct though. Kakuzu and Hidan are nigh impossible to outright kill. I wonder how you would have handled them if it had been you fighting instead Sasuke-kun."
Sasuke stopped glaring at Kabuto and turned his head towards Orochimaru before turning around and walking away, "Whatever… I'm wasting my time out here."
Kabuto looked at his master, "Why didn't we attack them after all Orochimaru-sama?"
Orochimaru grinned predatorily, "Akatsuki is just as much a pain in my side as it is a threat to Naruto-kun. If he can run their numbers down then I see no reason to take the boy's life yet. Let them continue to pick away at one another for as long as the other can stand it."
Kabuto nodded in agreement, "And about Sasuke?"
Orochimaru began walking along the direction that Sasuke had just taken, "You and I both know that he is still no match for the boy, however in a few months that will no longer be much of an issue Kabuto, but I'll give him the satisfaction of knowing that his body destroyed Naruto-kun… it just won't be him doing it in the end."
As the group walked away, a scorpion that had been crawling nearby disappeared in a puff of smoke.
XxX
Gaara walked next to Naruto back towards Suna with two sand clouds carrying the carcasses of their kills, "Are we both in agreement that engaging them all now would not be practical for us?"
Naruto nodded, "Oh yeah. But it doesn't matter, we have more important things to worry about than the body-snatching teme. They'll come knocking at some point… and we'll be waiting."
"We?" Gaara questioned.
Naruto shrugged, "What? You act like you aren't going to get all over this after today. He did manipulate your country into a war with mine, and he is trespassing in your country as we speak. Who knows what else they did while they were here? I'm certain you aren't going to just let that slide when the time comes Kazekage-sama."
"Don't call me that Uzumaki." Gaara insisted, "It feels odd hearing that from you."
"Fair enough." Naruto accepted, "I guess it would seem strange for the guy whose house you crashed over at for almost two weeks to call you by your title, especially when I'm your age and everything. Hey I wonder who won the exams."
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