53

Standing calmly in the middle of the ring was Naruto wearing a tight-fitting black shirt, covered with a loose blue hoodie pulled up to the middle of his forearms and a pair of wristbands with a multitude of micro symbols, hiding numerous sealing formulas.

His wild hair was flowing in the wind as he calmly looked at the opponent Jinchuriki, who looked at him hungrily.

Gaara's eyes were trained on Naruto like a hawk eyeing its prey. His eyes were bloodshot from the lack of sleep and the black shadow accentuated it even more.

His short stature contrasted with Naruto's, forming a tense scene in the audience.

"BEGIN" The proctor yelled, and jumped back, rightly so, as he knows what the sand of the redhead can do.

As soon as the match began, Gaara trembled and held the right side of his face. The huge sand jar on his back opened up and sand started to float out.

"I have heard a lot about you Gaara. I hope to have a good and fair match with you today." Naruto crossed his arms and spoke with a confident smile on his face.

"I don't care if you have a good match. Mother will have your blood today." Gaara mumbled as the sand rushed towards Naruto at a fast pace.

"So, no talking? Got it." Naruto nodded as golden chains rushed out of his back and countered the sand from Gaara.

GASP.

"What are those?"

"Impossible!!"

"What has the monster done this time?"

"No. No!! The Kyuubi is attacking."

As soon as Naruto revealed his chains, the audience members went apeshit. Many recognized the chains from the day of the Kyuubi attack, but in the chaos of the night, most thought it was a technique of the fox demon.

Meanwhile, those in the know were surprised.

"So, you decided to reveal it to the world, Naruto?" Kakashi muttered as he heard the comments around him in the audience seats.

"That boy is a very pure Uzumaki. Not a lot of them are left in the world nowadays." The 'kazekage' commented as he licked his lips and looked at the two boys dueling it out without moving from the spot.

Sand and chains clashed all over the air, one attacking, the other defending, before switching roles. Gaara was initially surprised to see the technique, but the ringing in his head got louder and louder, prompting him to push more effort into trying to give his mother a taste of Naruto's blood.

"Is that all you got?" Naruto taunted Gaara as his chains moved almost independently to his mind and smacked around the sand, as the sharp kunai-shaped ends tried to stab Gaara.

"Not at all!!! I will kill you!!" Gaara screamed as his chakra pulsed, his hand raised in front of him, as the sand coalesced into a wall, and from it emerged a second Gaara.

"I guess warm-up is over." Naruto shrugged as he now consciously controlled the chains to attack the sand clone as he used two chains to lift himself up into the air and walk towards the redhead.

"Kill the Kyuubi."

"End him Gaara." "Bury him."

"Get revenge on that demon brat for us." The audience became restless seeing Naruto's arrogant display and began throwing cans and bottles of refreshments at the arena, distracting Gaara from trying to kill his opponent.

"Shut up. Shut up. SHUT UP." Annoyed by the familiar sounding words and threats, Gaara waved his arm out and the sand followed, aiming towards the ones that threw the trash.

"Can't have you do that, now, can I?" Naruto acted quickly as his chains extended and blocked the sand going towards the audience members, who were stiff with fear.

"Why?" Gaara turned toward Naruto with a hateful glare and questioned angrily.

"Why, what?" Naruto questioned back as he continued his assault with wind-style jutsus and kunai toward the boy. Most of them were however blocked by the auto-defense sand.

"Why protect those trash when they want to kill you?" To Gaara, this was a very unfamiliar concept of helping others. Much less those that are actively trying to kill you.

"It is because they are trash that I don't let you kill them. If I killed every single one that insulted me and/or tried to kill me, who would there be left in the village?" Naruto retorted as he got a quick stab in with his chains to the boy's arm.

"They try to kill you. You kill them." Gaara's eyes went wide at the new sensation, but that was not even shocking enough compared to the new logic he was exposed to.

To Gaara, those that try to kill you, you kill them back. There is no love. And you only live for yourself.

"That's where you are wrong buddy. If I kill them, I become the monster they think I am. Why would I lower myself to fit the role these trash think of me as?

If I wanted, I could have ended their pathetic lives the moment they opened their mouths. My chains work a lot like your sand. They can work on their own when I'm in danger. But if I choose to do that, I would be letting down those that I consider my friends and family."

Naruto played with his mind as he increased the pace of his attacks more and more, as Gaara's body was riddled with small cuts and scrapes, his sand armor slowly crumbling around his body.

"A monster? I WAS BORN A MONSTER!!!!" Finally, the pain of being injured for the first time registered slowly, the sticky feeling of blood on his skin felt weird, and adding to the new thought process he witnessed, Gaara began his transformation.

"This is bad. He wasn't supposed to transform yet." Temari panicked as she saw her brother's eyes turn yellow with a cross-hatch and the whites replaced with black. Sand formed around his body, fusing with his skin as his appearance began to turn into a half-demonic raccoon.

"You say I turn into a monster when I kill? I was always a monster that even his father tried to kill!!! My own uncle that raised me had a choice not to kill me. But he still tried and died trying. Everywhere I go, I can feel the hate and killing intent they have.

Tell me. If that's not the existence of a monster, then tell me what is?" Gaara partially transformed screamed out, before swinging his gigantic sand arm towards Naruto, throwing out dozens of sand shuriken.

"That, my friend, is the curse that we Jinchuriki have to live with." Naruto smiled sadly as he dodged the shuriken with speed fast enough to not even leave an afterimage and appeared behind Gaara.

"But that life gets better. You have to let people in, people that care for you. And I know for a fact that your siblings care for you." Naruto grabbed Gaara in a hold from behind, his chains wrapping around his half-transformed body, and squeezing to knock him out without many incidences.

"No one loves me. I only live for myself. Only then can I live. Only then will I be FREE!!!!" as he struggled against the chains, Gaara's voice switched from his low pitch to the one tail's high pitch. A huge amount of chakra was released from Gaara's body as more and more features of Shukaku appeared on his body.

"Ugh. Go. To. Sleep. You. Stupid. Dummy." Naruto struggled to keep the boy contained with his chains, while his hands were locked against the boy's neck, trying to choke him unconscious.

"I. Live. Only. For. Myself." Gaara struggled out the words, before his eyes went completely black, a result of limited oxygen getting to his brain, and slumping forward.

"Oh no!!" Temari and Kankuro yelled in shock, while their jonin commander Baki, gave out a command.

"It's time."

Numerous people in the audience seats weaved hand signs in sync, resulting in a widespread genjutsu to be cast.

As soon as Gaara fell unconscious, Shukaku got full reigns on his body, effectively starting his full transformation.

Over on the VIP seats, the Kazekage's bodyguards pulled away their cloaks to reveal purple uniforms with masks covering their faces.

Smoke filled the VIP box, as the Kazekage turned to attack Hiruzen, while one of the bodyguards, a white-haired man with a red jacket over his purple uniform attacked Tsunade.

Both Konoha ninjas dodged the attack, but a bomb going off under their seats pushed them onto the roofs, splitting the two Hokages apart and having to face their opponents separately.

"That's the signal." Seeing the huge sand beast making its appearance in the middle of the village, hundreds of metal gliders swarmed towards the village from the air and dropped football-sized metal balls, which landed on the various buildings and houses of the village.

"I shouldn't have done that." As panic spread throughout that village, Naruto looked at the One-Tails fully displaying itself and roaring into the air, as he sat back on his butt. "Shouldn't have done that."

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I'm not a hundred percent back. I'm slowly recovering, my symptoms were really bad over the first few days of the week. Now, they have started to settle down. Now, I just have a constant headache and mild flu-like symptoms, so, I thought I might as well write a chapter. I'll start regular chapters in a little while, but only after I fully recover and catch up on all the Uni work that I had to miss.

Anyway. Enjoy the Chapter.

Let me know if there are any mistakes like usual, and thanks for the good wishes from everyone.