Chapter 94: Naruto Confronts Gaara

Disclaimer: Naruto and all of its characters belong to Shueisha and Masashi Kishimoto. I own nothing but the original characters I create.

"Dialogue"

'Thoughts'

-Author notes-

Chapter 94: Naruto Confronts Gaara

Moments earlier, in the stands

Sakura gasped in horror when she saw the mass of sand crushing Ino's feet.

"You have to do something!" she glared at her Sensei.

Kakashi made a troubled face. This was against the rules, especially during the final test.

If a jonin jumps in to help one of their genin against a foreign ninja when things get bad, it would set a dangerous precedent.

This is why only the referee is allowed to act. He is the neutral figure in the arena.

During his moment of hesitation, he saw that someone was already about to jump in.

Inoichi Yamanaka was not willing to let his only daughter die just like that.

Naruto grasped onto the low wall. His chakra burst out with violence as he broke through the restraints placed upon him by Neji just mere minutes ago.

The baleful aura of the demonic fox was mixed in also, making the reaction more spectacular.

The wall in front of Naruto broke into pieces and began to fall down.

Everyone around him was forced to turn their eyes to him.

"Naruto… you…" Kakashi was about to ask 'what the hell are you doing,' but he was cut off by Naruto's next words.

"A drop of water shall be returned with a burst of spring."

After saying that, Naruto used a powerful movement technique to close the gap between him and Ino in a mere fraction of a second.

Red Lotus Shift was a top-rank technique for core formation cultivators.

However, the boundless energy from the Kyubi allowed him to make limited use of this move, even though he was still at the beginning of the Qi Refining realm.

Naruto was almost there. He could get in between the girl and the approaching mass of sand.

He did not have many options to use against this kind of attack.

But there was something he had learned recently that should be sufficient for the task.

A jutsu passed down by his father.

Naruto focused a large amount of chakra on the palm of his right hand and made it spin.

This was just the second time he tried this move, but he was confident in his own skills.

The violent sphere of chakra came out flawlessly and he directed it towards the sand.

"Rasengan!"

As he expected, the sand could not make it through… much to Gaara's frustration.

With one last twist, Naruto released his control over the sphere and allowed it to move forward, sending the mass of sand away from him.

"Naruto?!" Ino exclaimed. She was so surprised to see him here that she almost forgot her blinding pain.

"Ino!" Her father was already at her side and wasted no time in picking her up in his arms.

"Papa!" she cried.

"Take her away… I'll deal with this boy." Naruto turned to face Gaara.

"Ahhh!" Gaara screamed. "You again?!" He had once more denied the death he so much needed.

"Noo!" Ino shouted. "Dad, we can't leave him with that monster!"

Naruto glanced back at her for a moment.

"It's fine… you see…" His eyes changed color towards a deep orange, and his pupils morphed into vertical slits.

"I'm also a bit of a monster myself."

The marks on his cheeks became more prominent, and he allowed the demon's chakra to flow more freely through his body. He was going to need it for this opponent.

Naruto had already guessed why Gaara's chakra felt so familiar. After hearing the story from Jiraiya about the other demons, he finally understood it.

Gaara was just like him… a Jinchuriki.

"Wait, Nar—" Ino could not finish what she was going to say before her father took her away. It was too dangerous to stay in the arena while Gaara was going berserk.

Blasts of sand began to land near Naruto, but he could easily avoid them so far.

He was now realizing that Gaara was not really in complete control of his demonic chakra, but it appeared that instead of damaging his body, his Bijuu was affecting his mind, making him progressively more deranged.

"Stop this!" Genma came running back to the center of the arena.

"The match is over!" He glared at Gaara. "You have already won, but if you two continue this… I will have to disqualify you both!"

"Get out of my way!" Gaara's response was transforming his left arm and extending it with his sand to reach the referee.

Genma was forced to jump away to avoid being caught.

"There is no stopping him now." Naruto disappeared from his previous spot and was now right in front of Gaara.

"But I will try." He threw a direct punch aimed at the face.

Gaara's automatic defenses covered him and stopped most of the impact.

Naruto had to now keep track of all the sand that was moving around him.

The one from the previous attack on the referee was now coming back to him, while at the same time, there was a lot of sand moving beneath him.

'I'm about to be attacked from all sides.' He jumped directly upwards just a moment before spikes made of sand filled the spot he had just been in.

On his way down, Naruto formed another Rasengan, and this time, he was going for the main body.

"Let's see if you can shield from this."

Gaara formed a protective spherical cocoon around himself in preparation for the attack.

"Rasengan!" This one was twice as big as the one he used before. He had now mixed a lot of the demon's chakra to increase its potency.

The sphere of energy collided with the one made of sand and immediately began to bury itself inside as it destroyed one layer of protection after another.

Gaara screamed when Naruto's attack finally reached his flesh.

In his panic, he made hundreds of sand spikes to get Naruto away from him, but this did not stop the assault of the blue sphere of chakra as it continued to rotate and destroy everything in its path.

"Ahhhh!" Gaara let out an animalistic roar, and for a moment, it looked like he exploded into a mass of sand that traveled everywhere.

Everything remained quiet for several seconds after that.

"Did that do it?..." Naruto looked around. He could feel some traces of chakra but was still unable to perceive a more clear reading to find the boy's exact location if he was alive.

But then…the sand began to move again.

In the stands, everyone was watching this improvised event with rapt attention.

"This is very bad…." Kankuro looked both scared and worried. He had only seen his brother go fully berserk once… and he knew there was no stopping him then.

"This is going to ruin our plans."

"Shh, shut up." Temari hit his shoulder. "We will have to improvise a bit… just wait for the signal. It will come soon."

At that moment, from the large pool of sand in the middle of the arena… a colossal claw emerged from within.

"ARRGGGG!!"

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