18

There is never a good day to go to war, Sarutobi mused, but today is as good as any. His aged eyes darted to the heavens, taking in the massive expanse of blue dotted with fluffy white clouds for as far as he could see. It was gorgeous over Konoha on the day of the Third Exam; not too hot, not too cold, with a light breeze that just ruffled his formal, white robes. A fine day to die, he concluded, not satisfied, but content in his musings.

One didn't make it to his advanced age, especially as a shinobi of his caliber, without contemplating death from time to time. Sarutobi had only truly feared for his life three times: the first had been when he had volunteered to sacrifice himself to Kumogakure's Kinkaku Squad for the safety of his team. The second had been near the close of the Second Great War, when he took to the battlefield and dueled Ryōtenbin no Ōnoki to a standstill that turned the tide of war in Konoha's favor. The third had been the moment he felt the malevolent chakra of the Kyuubi no Kitsune materialize on October the Tenth almost thirteen years previous.

And each time, that fear for his life had been tempered by a grim determination to see his course through to the very end. As the Sandaime Hokage sat in his high backed chair overlooking the Grand Fire Arena, with the cold, twisted chakra of his wayward student polluting his senses from nearby, he realized that today was no different. He would see his course through as he always did, for better or worse.

In the meantime, however, he had a job to do. Raising one finger, he nodded his head in the direction of Shiranui Genma, the new proctor in the wake of Gekkou Hayate's death. Gray eyes shifted to the contestants' balcony, where he knew the Sunagakure jonin Baki was standing. ANBU had determined that he was the most likely suspect in the special jonin's murder. He would be forced to pay his due for that slight before the day was over, Sarutobi suspected.

Down below, Genma had introduced the genin. "And now, ladies and gentlemen, honored dignitaries, our first match of the day will be Uzumaki Naruto of Konoha versus Sabaku no Gaara of Suna. If the other genin would please make their way up to the contestants' balcony…"

Sarutobi was pleased that no outright boos had greeted Naruto upon his introduction. The boy would likely never be all that popular with Konoha's general populace, but he had the respect of the shinobi corps. His exploits in both Wave and River Country had reached the ears of many. It was difficult for even his most vehement of detractors in the corps to doubt his results, especially after he had singlehandedly ensured the survival of his own genin team, another genin team, and an injured jonin.

His competence couldn't be questioned, and it was time for the questions surrounding his loyalty to be put to bed. Today, regardless of the impending invasion, would be Naruto's coming out party; Danzo's assignment would see to that.

The two other members of Team Ten had lingered with Naruto after Genma had dismissed them. Inuzuka Kiba clasped the blond on his right shoulder, giving him a sharp nod. Yamanaka Ino wrapped her arms around his shoulders and whispered something in his ear before kissing him on the cheek. Naruto offered the two of them a smile. "Get outta here, guys. I got this," Sarutobi heard the blond say.

"Uzumaki is quite confident, Hokage," Orochimaru noted. His voice was a perfect imitation of the Yondaime Kazekage's; were it not for the distinctive feel of his chakra – muted though it was for reasons unknown – one that Saurtobi knew so well after years of teaching the man personally and that could never fully be masked, the Hokage likely would have been fooled. "I'm afraid that confidence is misplaced."

The Sandaime smiled in spite of himself. "You're very sure of your son, Kazekage."

"Gaara has never lost a battle."

"And since his promotion to genin neither has Naruto," Sarutobi countered. Not even to you, student. "He is full of surprises."

A chuckle escaped Orochimaru's mouth – to his credit it sounded nothing like his own. "Undoubtedly. We will see who is the better soon enough."

"So we shall."

In the arena, Gaara was grinning maniacally. "Mother will be pleased to finally taste your blood, Uzumaki Naruto. She has been impatient."

Naruto, who had been in the middle of a light warmup, paused. "I'm…sorry to hear that," he replied, confusion clear. He, along with the rest of the genin had been witness to Sabaku no Gaara's particular brand of insanity in the preliminaries, but it was unsettling to experience firsthand. "And is…Mother…impatient a lot?"

The manic grin widened. "Only for the blood of the strongest. I will kill you, Uzumaki Naruto, and it will truly validate my existence."

"Heh, not if I kill you first." The blond tightened the black strap of his headband, letting the strands fall to his mid-back. He absently zipped up the front of his flak vest, never taking his eyes off Gaara.

The redheaded jinchuuriki had nothing more to say it seemed, only smiling his unsettling smile. Genma, seeing that the posturing had come to an end, stepped forward. "This match is the same format as the preliminary rounds. Killing is permitted, but the match ends the moment I say so. Any disregard for that will be met with immediate disqualification. Understood?" The special jonin was looking exclusively at Gaara for the duration of his speech; the redhead didn't spare him a glance.

"Understood, Proctor," Naruto said, speaking for both jinchuurikis. Genma gave the blond a considering look – he had been informed of Naruto's assignment – and nodded once.

Stepping back, he said around his fukimi-bari, "In that case, let the match begin!"

To the untrained eye, Naruto was a blur of motion the second the words had left the proctor's mouth, but Sarutobi's sharp gaze caught every detail. The blond leapt back with his hands in a cross shaped seal. An explosion of smoke signaled the arrival of a Kage Bunshin that was already in motion.

A wind sheathed kunai aimed between Gaara's eyes left the clone's hand in less time than it took to blink. It travelled the yards between the jinchuurikis at a speed faster than Sarutobi had thought Naruto was capable of, but the Suna genin's automated defense had already acted. Gaara stood with his arms folded over his chest, a bored look on his face as a wave of sand rose to meet the kunai in midair. The bored look abruptly changed to wide-eyed as Naruto's knife, encased in wind, punched through the defense in an explosion of sand.

The redhead, caught unawares, only had time to let his hands drop to his sides as the clone substituted with the kunai, using the slingshot effect of the Kawarimi to burst through the sand and inside Gaara's guard. A heavy haymaker connected with the underside of the boy's jaw, lifting the Suna genin off his feet and sending him sprawling in the dirt with his sand chasing after him impotently.

From the Kage Box, Sarutobi allowed himself a smile. That maneuver would have immediately landed Naruto a promotion were it not already a foregone conclusion. It was well thought out and executed to perfection, leaving the real blond out of harm's way. Lethal force would be better placed, but I suppose that armor would have rendered it moot. He snuck a glance toward his former student to see his eyes glittering with an unidentifiable emotion.

The clone, who had immediately re-substituted with the thrown kunai to avoid the rush of sand, palmed two more knives and sheathed them in wind. Darting forward, he hurled them at Gaara, who had regained his bearings and was snarling his displeasure, eyes wild. An angry swipe of the redhead's arm sent a burst of sand that smacked one of the kunai to the ground but missed the second.

Sarutobi's ears keyed in on the familiar roar of Naruto's hien a moment before the clone replaced itself with the remaining kunai. Seal-less Kawarimi. You've been working hard, Naruto-kun, he mused as the replication deflected a wave of sand with a thick slice of wind from its left knuckle knife. Not that I would expect anything different. Pressing its advantage, the clone stepped forward and stabbed with its right knife, a spear of wind exploding from the tip aimed at Gaara's neck.

Unused to actively having to dodge, the Suna genin barely avoided the spear, awkwardly shuffling his body with a moment to spare, but stumbled. Naruto's clone capitalized quickly, closing the small gap between the combatants in one jump. A punch was barely redirected by the floundering redhead, and the clone used the sloppy parry to knock the demon container's arms upward before pivoting and driving its twin knives into Gaara's exposed chest.

The extended wind chakra exploded out of the genin's back in twin bursts of sand – not blood – and the clone didn't have time to react as Gaara's body dissolved into a mass of sand that quickly encased it. The doppelganger was crushed an instant later, and the remaining sand fell to the arena floor. Behind it all stood the real Gaara, grinning his manic grin and staring straight at a grimacing Naruto.

From his vantage point in the Kage Box, Sarutobi relaxed back into his chair, thoughts of war and death suspended. How will you handle this, Naruto-kun?

/~/

Naruto had never truly fought an equal before. Sasuke was the closest to it he had trained with, but their spars were just that: spars. Since his graduation, Naruto's missions had seen him pitted against either those he outclassed or those who utterly outclassed him. Being on even footing in so many ways, resiliency being the major one, was unsettling.

Then there was Gaara's insanity.

"Is that your best, Uzumaki?!" the redhead shrieked, his eyes bulging. From his spot across the arena from Gaara, Naruto could clearly make out his fellow demon container's face. He didn't like what he saw. Where in Sasuke's eyes – and even his own when he was being honest with himself – the spark of insanity was just a spark, Sabaku no Gaara's was a raging inferno. Malevolence that would have made seasoned jonin pause shone through clear as day, and there was nothing else. No rationality. No restraint.

It was kill; kill; kill.

Nope, that's not good at all. What is this guy? Naruto wondered, his palms sweating slightly as his heartbeat picked up. His opening salvo had been executed to perfection and, while he hadn't expected to kill the Suna genin, he had expected the boy to be phased by it. There was no wariness in his eyes, no tensing of his body. He actually thinks I'm not a threat, the blond realized.

Without prompting, Gaara's mission history popped into Naruto's head, courtesy of Kabuto all those weeks ago. He's never been touched before… Naruto had known about the automated defense, he had seen it stymie Lee in the preliminaries and it had been a major source of his anxiety before Jiraiya had taken him under his wing.

Subconsciously, the trepidation at going toe-to-toe with an equal, if insane opponent faded to a familiar steely determination. Nervous energy was channeled as he began to bounce lightly on the balls of his feet. Jiraiya had trained him for nearly a month to fight his counterpart. He had the tools, and he would execute. He wasn't about to let his new sensei down.

There was a small part of Naruto, somewhere within the depths of his mind that pitied his insane counterpart. It was the part that felt an inkling of kinship with his fellow jinchuuriki, the part that knew intimately just how hard Gaara's life must have been.

The rest, however, looked at the redhead with nothing but disgust. He looked at Gaara and saw what he might have been had his childhood been different in some unidentifiable way. He saw what could have been if he had allowed himself to hate and rage as much as he had wanted to when a villager spit at him or discreetly tripped him in the street. He had turned his hatred into mostly harmless pranks, and later he had channeled his rage into his training. Sabaku no Gaara was no shinobi. He was a rabid dog that needed to be put down.

"Sabaku no Gaara is the container of the Ichibi no Tanuki…Your mission is to eliminate him." Danzo's order echoed through Naruto's mind. With pleasure, the blond thought with relish, his focus sharpening to a dispassionate, calculating edge.

Even with my speed and substitution I won't be able to get in a good enough hit with the Rasengan to put him down. Gotta bypass the sand… "Not even close," the whiskered genin finally called back. Rolling his shoulders, the blond took a steadying breath and felt himself relax. Unbidden, a grin that matched Gaara's split his lips; and what it lacked in insanity it made up in pure malice. "My best is gonna kill you."

"You think you can kill me?" Gaara shrieked. "My own father cannot kill me!" The redhead cackled, a high pitched screech, and Naruto shivered as a chill crept down his spine. "No, Uzumaki Naruto. You cannot kill me, but you will validate my existence!" The Suna genin slammed both his palms to the ground and a massive application of chakra sent a wave of pure sand summoned from the ether hurtling towards Naruto.

Almost unaware of his own actions, his body acting purely on instinct and awed in spite of himself at the massive attack, Naruto formed a cross shaped seal. A kage bunshin exploded into life as the original leapt backwards on chakra enhanced legs. Landing crouched ten yards back from his clone, Naruto watched as the doppelganger flew through hand seals.

A charged Futon: Daitoppa burst from the clone's throat that plowed a clear path through the ocean of sand. Drawing its knuckle knives, the kage bunshin sent a torrent of wind chakra down them before taking off at a sprint into the newly created path.

Naruto himself watched his clone's progress for a moment with satisfaction. Seeing the monstrous wave of sand bearing down on him even as his clone cut a swath through it, he grimaced. "This is gonna fuckin' hurt," he muttered. Palming a kunai, he encased it in wind chakra and hurled it skyward with all the force he could muster. Blue eyes shifted to the flood of sand and narrowed as he steeled himself.

Years of practice told him exactly when the knife hit the apex of its flight and suddenly he was airborne, sharp focus and a small application of chakra replacing himself with his thrown kunai. The leftover chakra from his replacement was sucked in and slammed back into his coils as he hovered above the arena.

Shit that hurts! he thought as he gritted his teeth. Even with the Kyuubi healing him, he could only execute that maneuver a few times before he all but fried his chakra coils. With the threat of the invasion looming, that wasn't something he was willing to risk.

Blinking to clear his eyes of tears that had formed, he surveyed the battlefield from above. His clone had successfully engaged Gaara. Great sweeping gusts of wind from the knuckle knives blasted sand away from the doppelganger almost as soon as the Suna genin had directed them. The clone, through a series of acrobatics and redirection, was slowly but surely making its way towards its enemy.

Naruto's mind took in the situation in the blink of an eye. Focus settled over him where exhilaration had been before.

He gripped his right wrist as he began his descent. Blue eyes narrowed in concentration and Naruto gritted his teeth as he channeled a ridiculous amount of chakra in the shape of a sphere. It spun around and around his outstretched palm before a grunt heralded the roar of swirling, self-sustaining, compressed chakra. Here we go…

Chakra control working in overdrive, Naruto subtly directed the path of his fall as his clone, far below, leapt backwards and sped through seals. A tightly compressed bulled of wind burst from the clone's lips and careened through the air towards Gaara. The redhead smirked maliciously as his automated defense rushed to block the bullet, and wasn't disappointed. The wind crashed upon the sand like water on rock, sending the grains flying through the air as the defense was dispersed.

Gaara opened his mouth to taunt the clone but was cut off as the real Naruto, falling with the aid of both gravity and chakra, pounded him wordlessly into the ground like an angel from on high.

The Yondaime's signature jutsu drove the unsuspecting Suna genin into the arena floor and ground him down. An explosion of wind, dust, and rock burst from the newly formed crater, causing Naruto to blink reflexively as he let the spiraling sphere of chakra go to work. A determined snarl crossed the blonde's face, unseen by the crowd, as he felt the ball pulverize, rip, and tear its way through Gaara's flesh.

Five long seconds later, he let the jutsu dissipate and stood over Gaara. The redhead was shattered, his left arm and right leg both at awkward angles that left no room for doubt as to their brokenness. Spiral burn marks from Naruto's chakra covered the boy where the Rasengan had impacted, eating through cloth and flesh alike. Heavy bruising accompanied the burns, indicating massive internal bleeding caused by the rupturing of Gaara's internal organs as the Rasengan had spun them round and round like a whirlwind. Sand was everywhere in the crater, remnants, no doubt, from the jinchuuriki's Sand Armor that had given Lee fits in the preliminaries. Nonetheless, the A-ranked ninjutsu had eaten through it like nothing.

What a deadly ninjutsu…No one could survive that, Naruto thought, noting his counterpart's lack of breathing. He shook out his slightly singed hand. "Mission accomplished." Distantly, the blond demon container could hear the roar of the audience's approval over the sound of his own heartbeat and labored breathing. Glancing upward from his position in the five foot deep crater, he could see that the crowd was on its feet and roaring at the display he had just put on. And, by the looks of it, it was a positive roar.

Unbidden, the ghost of a smile crossed Naruto's face as the warm feeling of acceptance washed over him. For all their hatred, animosity, and insults, no one in Konoha, shinobi or civilian, was disrespecting him now. A singular bark of laughter escaped him and he vaulted himself up and out of the crater to the sound of thunderous applause. His eyes rose to the Kage Box, and the warm feeling in his chest turned into pride as the Hokage gave him a single nod.

The proctor strode over to him, grabbed his wrist, and lifted it into the air triumphantly. "Ladies and gentlemen, your winner: Uzumaki Naru-" Genma was cut off abruptly as a loud cough from the crater drew his attention. Both his and Naruto's heads whipped around in abject disbelief.

"Oh no fucking way…" Naruto whispered. He wasn't breathing! There's no way he survived that!

Ignoring the growing confusion of the crowd, unsure why the winner hadn't been fully declared, he hastily palmed a kunai and leapt to the edge of the crater. Gaara laid where he had left him, eyes closed, broken and bleeding, but his chest was clearly moving up and down.

He had been knocked out cold.

Before Naruto could fathom the impossibility of the Suna genin's survival, not to mention his next course of action given his orders, a single, foul pulse of chakra emanated from the downed shinobi that sent Naruto reeling backwards. Gaara's eyes snapped open, but his eyes were no longer his own.

Naruto could only watch with mounting horror as the now yellow eyed Gaara rose like a puppet on strings, purple chakra emanating from his tenketsu cloaking him in a haze of malevolence. A heaviness that Naruto was oh-so-familiar with from his own encounters with the Kyuubi's foul chakra descended upon him a moment later, and the blond recoiled instinctively, fighting a wave of nausea and abject terror.

Before Naruto had time to move to end the now possessed genin's life for good, a cloaked figure blurred into his periphery. Reflexes honed by Jiraiya's training saved his life by making him duck a palm strike that was aimed at his throat. His attacker wasted no time, moving like the wind with hands that were glowing faintly with green chakra. The blond stumbled backwards three steps and dove to his left, out of the way of yet another strike and away from the crater. Rolling into a crouch, Naruto unsheathed his knuckle knives and stared wide eyed at his attacker.

The cloaked figure stood at the edge of the crater, seemingly unaffected by the growing surge of demonic chakra at his back, garbed in a charcoal battle cloak. His face was covered by the mask of one of Konoha's ANBU.

"Heh. Do be careful, Naruto-kun," the enemy said, his voice distantly familiar to the jinchuuriki. "The Shukkaku is set free the moment young Gaara here loses consciousness." The man said nothing else as he disappeared in a haze of flame.

Naruto and the stunned proctor had no time to contemplate the infiltrator's words before the residual sand that had been scattered about the arena suddenly rushed into the crater and began to coalesce, and an inhuman, unearthly howl split the air in and around Konoha.

"I'M FREE!"

/~/

One blink and the slightest flex of his chakra dispelled the feathers falling lazily from the sky. One blink more told him that his students were still under the influence of the illusion but weren't in danger of being killed at that moment. A third blink told him the rest that he needed to know about his current predicament.

There was a biju forming in the arena, and invaders were quickly moving to eliminate any still sleeping Konoha shinobi in the massive crowd.

The faintest swell of nervousness settled in the pit of his stomach. You've prepared for this. What happens, happens. You have a mission, Tenzo; pull yourself together.

In the moment he had taken to gather himself, Ino had shaken off the genjutsu and pushed herself to her feet. "Sensei?" she muttered, clearly confused.

A twinge of annoyance at being delayed further was repressed as he faced his student. "Konoha is under siege from Suna and Oto. Wake Kiba and proceed to the Academy for further orders. Take any Konoha genin you find with you."

The complicated set of emotions that crossed the blonde's face would have been comical had the situation not been so serious. She finally settled on something approaching dumbstruck, which was understandable given the information he had dumped on her. He had no time for that, however.

"Now!" A single burst of concentrated killing intent shattered her stupefied silence and the blonde scrambled to check on her still incapacitated teammate. Bringing his analytical gaze back to the arena, Tenzo put them out of his mind; they were as well trained as any genin. Whatever would happen to them was out of his control, he had far more pressing matters to attend to.

The bijuu was rapidly gaining cohesiveness, sand that hadn't previously been in the arena materializing from nothingness as malevolent chakra called it to bear. Naruto stood next to the similarly stunned proctor, for the first time in Tenzo's memory looking truly lost and out of his depth. He supposed it was natural; the boy had been trained to fight a jinchuriki, not a bijuu.

Tenzo had been positioned in case the mad Suna genin had proven too much for his blond counterpart and released the demon of his own free will.

No one had known that the beast would be unchained the moment Gaara lost consciousness.

Pushing useless thoughts from his mind, Tenzo leapt from his perch on the balcony and powered toward his student. His hands rapidly formed seals that he had drilled to near excess almost thirteen years before. "Hokage-Shiki Jijun Jutsu: Kakuan Nitten Suishu!" he bellowed. Kanji carved from chakra etched itself into his palm as water and earth shaped to his will.

Ten pillars exploded from the depths of the arena around the crater where the Shukaku formed, metal spike protruding from their length that immediately began to absorb the poisonous chakra like leeches on flesh. He landed in a crouch next to Naruto, palm outstretched and sweat beading on his brow.

"Sensei!" Naruto shouted, both shocked and relieved. "What are you-"

"Cover my flanks!" Tenzo bit out, directing it both at his student and the stunned Special Jonin. The technique had been designed by the Shodai in conjunction with other Mokuton techniques that were far beyond his meager, bastardized talents. It required all his concentration to maintain the attack without the supplemental Justus, not to mention the added time.

Naruto, to his credit, didn't question the order. The blond, his eyes bleeding from clear blue to deep purple, bared his teeth in acquiescence and turned his back to Tenzo's left side, searching for threats. To the jonin's right, the proctor did the same.

"NOOOOOO!" In the crater, the bijuu screamed its fury at being halted in its formation. "YOU WILL NOT END MY EXISTENCE!" it howled, but it was powerless to stop its own malevolent essence from being sucked into the pillars wisp by wisp. The spikes were like vacuums, slowly but surely sucking the purple, demonic chakra into the pillars where it dissipated to nothingness. Sand that had been gathering into a monstrous shape now fell back down to earth with nothing to guide it.

Sweat dripping into his eyes, mind solely on maintaining the technique, Tenzo felt, more than saw his personal space invaded by the "ANBU" who had disrupted Naruto just minutes before. The figure blurred into his periphery to his right and the proctor, to his credit, reacted before the masked man had even truly appeared.

Steel glinted in the afternoon sun as the proctor made a lightning quick stab with a kunai that the masked man twisted away from gracefully. The "ANBU" snatched the attacking appendage, hands glowing a faint green, and used it as leverage to pivot inside the proctor's guard and jab two fingers to the man's chest.

The proctor, one Shirianui Genma, stumbled back a single step, clutching a hand to his chest in reflex. He didn't make it a second before he collapsed to the ground bonelessly, his eyes vacant in death.

Tenzo's eyes widened at the lethality of the masked man, preparing to abort his jutsu to save the mission and his life. The false ANBU spun to attack but leapt to the right as Tenzo felt a blast of wind pass him and cleave a four foot deep trench where the masked man had just stood. Thanking whatever deities that existed, he refocused on his jutsu with a desperation born of true fear as his most capable student guarded his back.

"Come now, Naruto-kun. Leave this business to the adults," he heard the masked enemy say, voice dripping with condescension. "Truly, this is no place for genin, even one as talented as you."

His student didn't respond with words, only with an animalistic scream as his elemental chakra roared louder than ever. Tenzo's hair was buffeted and his feet felt the earth shake as aftershocks of Naruto's chakra exploded outward, doubtlessly seeking to drive the enemy further from him.

His focus now solely on his task, Tenzo watched impatiently as his jutsu sapped enough demonic chakra for the bijuu to lose some of its rapidly gained form. It shrank, screaming impotently all the while, as great purple wisps left its mass in greater number as the technique gathered steam. Sand that had once been rushing to the center was now freely carried by the aftershocks of Naruto's Fuuton jutsus, turning the center of the arena into a massive sandstorm that Tenzo squinted his eyes against.

The jonin's breathing began to ease ever so slightly, just before his keen senses flared in warning and Naruto screamed, "Sensei!" from afar. He ducked just in time to save his head from being shorn off by a pure blade of wind, but had no time to avoid a follow up roundhouse kick to his chest that sent him flying.

His concentration evaporated as he righted himself in midair, a spike of pure frustration shattering his composure as his jutsu collapsed. He landed deftly on the balls of his feet, glaring at the Suna jonin who had interrupted his mission so close to completion. Tenzo's mind characterized the man's attire, standard except for the curtain-like mask that covered half the man's face, and identified him as Baki. The jinchuriki's sensei was one of Suna's Elite, not to be taken lightly.

Every second passing, however, was time for the bijuu to form. That was unacceptable, Elite Jonin in his way or not.

His hands blurred through speeds too fast for the untrained eye to catch and he reared back, gathering chakra in his mouth, before spitting a bullet of condensed water at his enemy. Baki gave no ground, blurring through seals of his own and releasing a bullet of wind aimed at his head that shattered his Teppodama in midair.

Tenzo allowed it to pass harmlessly over his head as he completed another set of seals and slammed his palms to the earth. Doton: Doryūkatsu. The ground fractured as he poured his chakra into it, cracking at his enemy's feet before rising and splitting entirely with a resounding Crack!

Baki leapt to his right to avoid the chasm and Tenzo was on him in an instant. The former ANBU chucked a kunai at near point blank range that the Suna jonin avoided with a simple tilt of his head. The distraction served its purpose as Tenzo pivoted inside Baki's guard, kunai in hand aimed at his enemy's neck. The Suna jonin, off balance, was forced to block with his forearm. Blood exploded as weapon met target and Baki snarled.

The jonin used his damaged arm to grab Tenzo's wrist in a vice grip before pulling the Konoha-nin forward and thrusting out with his right hand. The Kaze no Yaiba formed within it struck out like a lance and pierced the Konoha jonin at point blank range, an explosion of wood the only result. Baki leapt back to make space as the wooden shards reformed into kunai that quickly made to skewer him.

Tenzo scowled as he watched his Mokuton Kunai miss their target, quickly forming more handseals and spitting a stream of sticky water towards the now slowly advancing enemy. He was better than the Suna jonin, but then the man's mission wasn't to kill him; only to stall him long enough for the Shukkaku to form and obliterate the village. And with each passing moment he succeeded. Narrowing his eyes in concentration, he pushed his mutated chakra to his left arm and felt the appendage lose cohesiveness before hardening into spear tipped branches.

They lanced out with a grunt of exertion, hurtling through the air faster than thrown kunai. Baki halted his advance, dancing out of the way of the first volley whilst forming rapid handseals. A column of wind exploded from the jonin's mouth, tearing and shredding through the wooden projectiles with impunity.

Taking advantage of the Suna-nin's momentary lack of vision, Tenzo took a page from his student's playbook and Kawarimi'd himself with one of his earlier spears. He was on the move almost before the substitution finished, powering himself in a chakra enhanced sprint towards his enemy. He palmed two kunai as he avoided Baki's desperate defensive swipe by sweeping the man's legs from under him.

Brown eyes watched his enemy's face contort in horror as his balance was usurped and his guard bypassed. Cold satisfaction filled him as he stabbed out with his kunai to end the life of the treacherous Suna jonin.

He had no time to register the slightest rustle of cloth behind him. He had no time to comprehend his own peril as he was lightly tapped on the back of his neck. He had no time to react as he felt something separate in his spine.

He had no time to hear the anguished yell, "Yamato-sensei!" from a fallen Naruto across the arena, for the world had already faded to black.

/~/

Anticipation had changed to apprehension, to exhilaration, to confusion, to terror. Then to rage. And now finally to helplessness. He hadn't felt this way since Itachi's Sharingan had held him captive all those years ago; when he had instinctively known that he was at someone else's mercy, and there was nothing he could do about it.

Naruto was alone in the arena, a muted ache seeming to emanate from everywhere in his body at once, watching seemingly from a distance as his world crashed down around him.

Foul, malevolent chakra assaulted his senses as the Shukaku gained coherence once more, but he felt no fear. The ANBU imposter helped his Suna comrade to his feet with a hand, but he felt no rage. The prone form of his murdered sensei lay where he had been cut down, but he felt no sadness.

Unidentifiable shinobi and kunoichi clashed in the stands, but the majority of the fighting had been taken outside the arena. Once sleeping civilian spectators mobbed the exits in a mad rush to escape the frenzied slaughter, many getting caught in the crossfire. Daimyo's cowered in their seats as their shinobi or samurai escorts shakily held their ground against the disorder. Atop the stands, a purple barrier had been erected around the Kage Skybox, a mini forest within it obscuring all occupants from view.

"Sabaku no Gaara is the container of the Ichibi no Tanuki…he is the linchpin in the enemy's plan…your mission is to eliminate him." Danzo's orders rattled around his psyche for a moment as the blond took stock of the chaos that had enveloped his home, Jiraiya's teaching asserting itself even now.

There was no elite team coming to the rescue. There was no cavalry hidden away in the bowels of the arena. His comrades were dealing with their own enemies. It was just him. He had his mission. And you are FAILING! some distant part of his mind screamed.

Gingerly pushing himself to his feet, Naruto rushed chakra to his left leg, which had been deadened by a glancing brush of the masked enemy's hands. His lip curled as he heard the Shukaku scream, "I'M FINALLY OUT! AND THERE ARE SO MANY PEOPLE I WANNA KILL RIGHT NOW!" That was his assignment. There was no thought about logistics. The "how" didn't matter. He'd find a way. Or die trying, his mind supplied. From the looks of things, I have another minute before it's fully formed…

"But I still got these fuckers to deal with," he grunted, turning his gaze towards the masked man and Suna jonin. The jonin surveyed his student's transformation with a grimace, moving back a leap as more and more sand coalesced into a demonic whole. The imposter was staring right at him, however, the unseeing eyes of the ANBU mask seemingly piercing Naruto to his core.

Naruto glared right back. The man had been the cause of death for at least three Konoha shinobi. The Suna jonin had aided him in the killing of his sensei. And both stood in the way of his mission.

His mind was calm amidst the storm, his purpose was clear, and his rage burned like ice. This wasn't about either of the two treacherous men opposite him; this was about the safety of his home. A snarl split Naruto's lips as he felt the Kyuubi's chakra stir in his gut, still tightly bound by his will until he chose to unleash it. He's already killed two jonin. I'll only get one shot at this…

The ANBU imposter tensed as Naruto holstered his knives, catching the attention of his Suna comrade. Mauve eyes narrowed as the blond prepared to unleash hell as the Shukaku formed to his right.

Without warning, the world kicked into high gear.

Chakra rushed to his left palm where it spun, merging into a tightly spun Rasengan in the blink of an eye before Naruto exploded forward, leaving a shower of dust and cracked earth in his wake. The blond disappeared from sight, blurring in to kill the imposter faster than the eye could track –

And the deadly hammer blow was casually halted by the masked man firmly grabbing Naruto's wrist, stopping his momentum dead. The man rocked back on his heels for an instant, phenomenal chakra control holding him in place against the sheer kinetic force of the attack. "I told, you, Naruto-kun," the man said over the whirring of the Rasengan, a smirk clear in his voice. "This is no place for genin."

The blond let loose a smirk of his own, sparing half a second's thought before violently retracting his left arm. The masked man was good, but the split second when he was off balance was all the time Naruto needed to pivot and unchain the demonic chakra that had been begging for release in a devastating punch. The fist connected with the imposter's chest in a detonation of malicious red chakra, and the man had no time to blink before he was blasted through the arena wall behind him like a bullet.

The demonic chakra bubbled and burst forth from Naruto's tenketsu with a searing heat that pierced him to the bone as he moved to press his advantage. A quick turn squared him up against the stunned Suna jonin, and he lanced out with a spear of pure chakra before the man had time to attack.

The sand ninja tried to spin out of the way at the last moment but couldn't completely avoid Naruto's rapid offensive. Coming out of his rotation, grimacing in agony as now exposed skin on his upper chest sizzled where his flak jacket had melted, the man tucked and rolled to his left to avoid being decapitated by Naruto's attempted clothesline. A kunai found its way to his good hand in time to hastily parry a slash of the blonde's claws.

Inhuman chakra ignited Naruto's muscles as the blond slashed at the defensive jonin where he clashed with the kunai once, twice, three times before swiping it out of the man's hand with a growl. Sliding inside the Suna-nin's guard and jabbing with his right claw, he dug into the already damaged flesh of Baki's upper left chest as the man let loose a shriek of pain; a quick twitch of the man's reflexes prevented him from skewering the heart but Naruto didn't waste time lamenting his missed opportunity.

Even as the corrosive chakra ate away at his enemy's flesh, Naruto reversed his momentum and pulled the Suna-nin into a grapple before torqueing his body and slamming the jonin into the arena floor with a crash and explosion of smoke.

Kawarimi, Naruto's clouded mind supplied, but he was already in motion, rolling out of the way of a Fuuton: Renkudan and squaring himself up for another lethal offensive.

The jonin blurred through hand seals as fast as his injury would allow and swung his head back and forth with two fingers pinched around his lips. Five blades of wind erupted from the man's mouth and screamed towards Naruto, who was forced to strafe to his right to avoid being cleaved to pieces. The blond moved to press forward on the offensive but was halted as three spheres of wind crashed to the arena floor, enhanced reflexes powering him in a tight backwards leap away from the danger.

Red, slitted eyes narrowed in frustration as the jonin launched a massive, compressed sphere of Fuuton chakra before he had even set his feet. Struggling to maintain his coherence against the red haze that had settled over his mind, Naruto acted on instinct alone. Pulling the poisonous chakra of his prisoner to his throat, the now feral blond reared back and screamed.

The burning chakra escaped Naruto's mouth in a wave that crashed against the inclement wind sphere and exploded in a swell of foul, humid air that quickly blanketed the arena as a whole, pushing the enemy jonin back a step.

The Suna-nin's lip curled in response to the counter, teeth grinding against the pain of his wounds, before chancing a tiny glance over his shoulder, where the Shukaku had nearly completed its formation. Naruto, sensing the opportunity, burst forward, striking with his right arm causing a clawed arm of red, bubbling chakra to lance out to crush his enemy. He hit nothing but air, however, as the jonin turned back around and formed a single seal with his good hand, disappearing in a blur of movement.

Naruto skidded to a stop, snarling as he whipped his head back and forth, extending his senses to locate his enemy. He found nothing, his awareness stretched thin, only able to feel the heavy malevolence of the rapidly growing bijuu some fifty yards in front of him. A distant part of his mind reasoned that it was the Kyuubi's own cloak of chakra that kept him from suffocating under the inhuman amount of killing intent being spilled by the Ichibi.

He glanced up, and up, and up to finally regard the cackling visage of the bijuu. The monstrosity was nearly twenty stories tall, far taller than any building in Konoha. A crash nearly made the adrenaline, youkai fueled Naruto jump, the beast's tail casually levelling the arena wall behind it.

"I SEE YOU, LITTLE KYUUBI!" the demon roared, its massive yellow pupils focused on Naruto even from hundreds of feet in the air. A single swipe of its tail leveled the wall to its left, where some Konoha shinobi had begun firing jutsu from. Neither the bijuu nor Naruto spared the destruction a glance. "YOU COULD NOT END MY CONTAINER'S EXISTENCE, AND YOU WILL NOT END MINE!"

Without warning, the demon's body inflated for a moment before a massive Fuuton bullet mixed with purple, demonic chakra burst from the Ichibi's mouth. It was only the Kyuubi's chakra coursing through his coils that gave Naruto the speed to power his body back against and up the arena wall ten meters behind him. As it was, the massive explosion of Fuuton blades that erupted when the bullet impacted still managed to slice through the Kyuubi's cloak and cut Naruto almost to the bone.

The blond hissed as steam rose from the rents in his body, the Kyuubi's chakra knitting the wounds back together before blood could even drip from them. From atop the arena wall, Naruto stared upward with narrowed eyes as the resulting dust and debris from the attack settled slowly. A single tail of boiling, crimson chakra waved slowly behind him of its own accord.

Inwardly, Naruto warred. True to its word, the Kyuubi had not tried to overwhelm his mind when he had called the foul chakra from his prisoner. But the deadly essence was so imbued with the beast's hatred that the blond felt as if his skull was being cloven in two just trying to maintain his equilibrium. Compromised as his mental state was, however, he didn't have time to wrestle his own emotions.

He only had time to act.

Instinct blurred with cognition as Naruto powered himself back down to the arena floor. The half plan formed in his mind carried him towards the Ichibi's legs even as his hands sped through seals. Naruto's ears popped as the air behind him compressed for an instant before a massively overpowered Fuuton: Daitoppa roared its fury and crashed into the sandy bijuu's left leg.

Sand exploded from the appendage and the demon roared as half of its leg was blown clean off, causing it to plummet towards the ruined arena wall. Naruto wasted no time, shooting forward faster than ever before. He screamed as a blood red Rasengan took shape in his hand and turned himself into a missile by launching himself directly at the falling bijuu's face.

He didn't make it more than fifteen meters before a sandy appendage rose to swat him like a fly. Muscles aided by his prisoner, Naruto twisted his body in midair and brought the spiraling sphere to meet the attack. The Rasengan detonated with the force of a small bomb, blowing the hand off the Ichibi and the backlash hurling Naruto through the ruined wall and into the village proper.

He hit the ground and bounced once before rolling to a stop against a building and pushed himself to his feet once more, the cloak taking the brunt of the concussive force. Crimson eyes widened in dismay as sand rapidly reformed the hand and leg he had blown off with his techniques, the massive demon screaming its fury all the while. "YOU CANNOT END ME, LITTLE KYUUBI!"

Naruto was airborne before he knew he had to move, an instinctual chakra enhanced leap carrying him up and over the top of two blocks of buildings to his right. It wasn't a moment too soon as three monstrous Fuuton: Renkudans stole his breath as they passed and obliterated the entire city block he had propped himself up against. The first emotion to pierce the haze of his cloak was shock as the blond watched buildings, and their screaming occupants, crushed, shredded, and torn asunder in a massive shower of debris.

Desperation battled with Naruto's rage anew as he watched the senseless destruction of his home. This was a power he had never dreamt of seeing before. This was a power he had never been trained to counter. This was a power he could not stop.

But it didn't matter.

His home was under siege. He had to stop it!

Reaching deeper within the well of power granted by his prisoner, a crimson corona of power exploded around Naruto as he drew more demonic chakra than ever before. Teeth sharpened to fangs, claws lengthened, whisker marks deepened further, and a second tail of boiling chakra rose from the pit of Naruto's hatred to join the first. Deep within his psyche, the fox's menacing laughter was deafening.

Naruto sprinted forward, bounding over buildings and leaving a cracked earth and an afterimage in his wake as he directed his foul power with a single minded focus: destroy the Ichibi.

He was upon the beast in a second. Instinct directing his intent, Naruto thrust his hands forward as twin arms of pure malevolent chakra extended from shoulders and ripped massive hunks of sand from the Tanuki's torso. Ignoring the bijuu's shriek of fury, the hands grabbed hold of the Ichibi and pulled, launching Naruto like a missile at its face once more. Baring his fangs in concentration, the feral blond called as much of the Kyuubi's power to bear as he could and struck out in a monstrous, youkai augmented haymaker that blasted a third of the demon's face off as he rocketed past.

Heavy sand showered him as he descended, and he hit the ground with enough speed to shatter a boulder. A five foot radial crater erupted from where his feet impacted the ground, now in the center of the Grand Fire Arena once more.

He whipped around to attack once more but stopped in his tracks as a single wave of the Ichibi's tail called up a massive wave of sand that was higher than the arena walls. Disbelief didn't even cross his mind – unbelievable as the battle had already proven to be – as he directed the malevolent cloak to his will once more.

Instead of twin arms, this time there was only a single wave as the twin tails swaying behind Naruto combined. With a snarl of intent, Naruto sent the thin wave crashing into the massive wall of sand just as reached him. The crimson chakra sliced a neat, meter-wide gap that the feral blond stepped through almost casually, his hands a blur in preparation for his next offensive.

The air behind him compressed once more as his Fuuton: Daitoppa built and Naruto jerked his head to the right as his senses alerted him to a new presence next to him. A white cloaked shinobi suddenly stood shoulder to shoulder with him and flew through seals that, even with his enhanced eyes, Naruto could barely track. The formation ended in less than a second, the shinobi holding the Tiger seal just as the building pressure from Naruto's Fuuton jutsu released. Crimson eyes widened in shock as the cloaked shinobi wordlessly reared back expelled a massive burst of pure fire directly into the path of his jutsu.

Before Naruto could blink, the flames had expanded into the maw of a dragon that roared with the wrath of a thousand explosions. The searing heat of the technique was merely a tickle to the blond, given his chakra cloak, but he could feel the new charge in the air as the Daitoppa fanned the flames and erupted into a massive firestorm headed directly for the Ichibi.

The Tanuki shrieked as the combination jutsu impacted its side with enough concussive force to batter it into the remaining arena wall. White hot flames melted sand in an instant, fusing it together and forming glass that shattered with a CRACK that could be heard across the entire village.

Even as great shards began to cascade to the ground, Naruto turned red eyes to meet his unexpected comrade suspiciously. The cloaked shinobi, wearing a Cat mask, wasted no time.

"Uzumaki, command has determined that the most successful course of attack will be a strike to the Ichibi's head, killing the container within," the man said in a rushed voice that somehow lacked inflection. Naruto strained to hear him over the cacophony of laughter and pounding in his skull. "Further damage to village infrastructure has been deemed unacceptable. You have been drafted to aid my squad in eliminating this threat. Do you understand."

The last phrase wasn't a question, and Naruto, even in his warring mind-state, didn't treat it as one. "Understood," he growled, not out of displeasure but because he could do nothing else with the Kyuubi's chakra running rampant through his system.

"Follow," the ANBU ordered, leaping away towards the stands as a second figure cloaked in white dropped to the arena floor and sent a compressed blade of wind toward the rapidly reforming Ichibi's legs; Naruto complied a moment later, appearing beside the Cat masked man in the now deserted stands – the only ones left were corpses.

"On my signal, my squad and I will engage the bijuu in a coordinated attack that will halt its movement long enough for you to attack the target," the man stated, voice calm amidst the destruction. "Position yourself on the roof above us. It will give you the best vantage point to attack from. I will signal you when it is your time."

Naruto nodded curtly, his mind moving a mile a minute to process the surprising turn the battle had taken. He turned and dashed for the exit, crimson chakra still enveloping him, when the ANBU's voice stopped him once more. "Uzumaki!" The circular eyes of the mask bored into Naruto. "We only have one chance at this. Make it count."

This time, the blond didn't even bother with a nod before vaulting himself up and flipping backwards to the roof of the stands. Higher now than even he had been on top of the arena wall, the Shukaku still dominated Naruto's vision. Even at nearly ten stories high, the raging demon loomed higher. Instinct had led him to attacking the head earlier, but he had only barely reached it once before. But, some distant part of him reasoned, his new teammates would likely take care of that minor detail.

Ignoring the sound of his heart pounding like a drum in his ears, the Kyuubi's continued maniacal laughter resonating through his entire body, and the Ichibi's screams of rage, Naruto brought his hands together in front of his face. Baring his teeth, he swirled the corrosive chakra coursing through his coils into a tight sphere that forced his clenched hands apart with a grunt. But he didn't stop there. He had one shot to end this madness, and he was going to make it count. Naruto ground his teeth as he pushed his focus and control to the limit, feeding the already Kyuubi fueled Rasengan even more chakra until the spiraling sphere slowly expanded to the size of his head.

Panting, rivulets of sweat beading at his forehead before evaporating under the heat of the Nine-tails' chakra, Naruto held the monstrous red Rasengan with both hands. "Ready," he grunted, just as an unknown signal compelled Cat's ANBU team into action on the ground.

A white cloaked, Bird-masked ANBU on the arena floor rushed forward, great scythes of wind bursting from his hands that were as wide as the Ichibi's legs. The blades sliced clean through the sand and the Tanuki howled in pain and fury. The ANBU wasn't finished, however, and leapt up and latched onto the disintegrating left leg with chakra enhanced legs, sprinting up the demon's body almost faster than Naruto's shocked eyes could track. Spears of sand formed to skewer the Bird-masked man along the beast's leg but the ANBU darted around them with dexterity and grace. Reaching the demon's hip in less than two full seconds, the ANBU flashed through four seals and slammed his hand against the sand and vaulting himself backwards and away from yet another spear.

Dozens of explosive tags rushed forth from where the ANBU had touched the Ichibi, rapidly encircling the beast's left leg even as it swatted at the airborne man. The tags detonated in a colossal explosion of fire that consumed the bijuu's leg and halted its offensive. With a shriek, the Shukaku tumbled, sand dispersing everywhere as it crushed the last remaining arena wall.

"I'LL SLAUGHTER YOU ALL!" it screamed as it impacted the ground with an almighty crash. Whatever else it might have said was muted as a greenish brown dome of clay shaped like the face of a boar appeared from nowhere and encased it whole.

"It won't hold for long," said the Cat-masked ANBU, who had somehow appeared next to Naruto on the roof unnoticed. "My justu will bind it when it breaks free. Move on my signal…"

Naruto and the ANBU waited two full seconds before a scream of, "Neko!" tore through the air and the clay dome began to shudder.

"Now!" the ANBU ordered, speeding through hand seals, but Naruto was already sprinting for the edge. He launched himself off the roof just as the Shukaku shattered its temporary prison with a roar that shook the very foundations of the village. Four stone pillars burst from the earth just as the dome exploded outward, dozens of bolts of lightning arcing from the stone and striking the Ichibi instantly, immobilizing it as the booming CLAP of thunder stole away Naruto's hearing.

The blond flew faster than ever before, the Kyuubi's cloak pushing him to speeds he'd never dreamt of reaching. Eyes narrowed in intense concentration, Naruto hit his apex and began to fall, his will directing his chakra which carried him on a crash course for the Ichibi's head. He let his will guide him as he fell, instinct having taken over completely, faster and faster as blue lightning and sand encompassed his field of vision.

He didn't notice when the pillars cut off their assault. He only noticed sand and massive, malevolent yellow eyes as he drove his Rasengan into the Shukaku's head like an angel of divine wrath, screaming his feral battle cry for the whole village to hear.

Crimson eyes squinted against the immediate sandstorm, barely glimpsing a shock of red hair amongst the grains before the spiraling sphere detonated with the force of a hundred explosive tags, and he saw only white.

Naruto's eyes went blind, his ears, bled, and he screamed his throat raw as the explosion consumed him. Teeth shattered and skin melted and fused back together as the instantaneous heat pierced the Kyuubi's cloak before the blond was hurled away like a speeding bullet.

Absently, as if from a very great distance, Naruto felt himself crash to the ground and crater. Agonizing heat enshrouded him as the Kyuubi's chakra wasted no time in knitting rent flesh back together, re-growing bone, and remaking hair that had been reduced to ash. Naruto paid it no heed as he used his last ounce of willpower to force his eyes open. Fighting rapidly encroaching darkness at the edges of his vision, he could barely make out the sight of a desert's worth of sand crashing back down to earth from what seemed like a mile away.

"Heh," he exhaled in what could have been a laugh. Paying it, or anything else, no mind, Naruto let darkness claim him.

/~/