Chain breaker part one

After careful consideration that lasted for a combined couple hours of my life over the last two weeks, I'm going to have it be Rin/Sasuke. I like Shikamaru a lot, but the way I've planned out the story, and how I've written the characters, makes it where the two would work best from a writing perspective. I know many people were hoping for Shikamaru, but in the end, I think what I've chosen is what I should do. It was not an easy decision.

But yeah, the next part of the finals is here and it's a special one.

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Letter from Uzumaki Ashina to Senju Tobirama.

Tobi, and yes, I know you detest that name but I enjoy irritating my apprentice. The idea you had on getting your Hiraishin marker to work with a water affinity was an excellent one. You took the idea I had on the communication rings I was trying to make and mixed the physical portion of a summoning jutsu into the matrix. You're special, kid, and I'm proud to have helped you on your way.

And don't tell Hashirama this next part. He won't appreciate the effort like you would. I made a rudimentary Senjutsu anchor tethered to water especially. I carved it into a crystal ball and used my blood for the prototype. Anything within a mile that has a connection to water, including moisture in the air, is made visible in the ball and refracts the light into a high definition live image.

The hot springs are full of water and mist in the air. Maybe I'll gift a better version to him when he eventually marries.

P.S. Your question about my Bloodline ability is a yes. It can pierce through it. And no, I don't think that part can be inherited. It might be uniquely potent for me from my chakra.

Encoded*. The Flying Thunder God is a potent weapon against those with the Sharingan. I'm sure you had that in mind when you asked for my help on it. Use it for kill shots only, you don't want a possible weakness to be noticed. Perhaps creating a mist cloud while doing it would help distract the Uchiha boy you've been trying to kill. Izuna, wasn't it? Message me for assistance and I shall help you without hesitation. Madara must die, and his brother will not let you and Hashirama work in tandem to kill him. I have traps and seals that I can plant discreetly. My water refraction jutsu makes me practically invisible to even a Hyuga's sight, if you were wondering how I would sneak around.

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"Begin!"

I instantly Shunshined straight at Gaara, stabbing my blade directly towards his chest.

Predicably, sand immediately formed a barrier against my attack to protect him. Gaara didn't move one bit, just looking at me.

I shifted to the side and avoided the sand from grabbing at me as it lashed out at me and I slashed again, my sword clanging against his automatic protection. I kept testing to see if I could outpace the reaction of the sand, slashing at his chest, spinning to stab at his arm, and so on. But it looked like it was just fast enough to stop me.

Right as his sand shot out of his gourd en masse to crush me, I Shunshined away to a safe distance.

Putting my sword back onto my back, I made a cross seal to create a dozen Kage bunshin.

The dozen copies spread out and began working in tandem by 'trying' to attack Gaara by rushing in and retreating before his sand could kill them. They'd obviously get killed eventually, but I needed his focus on them.

Pulsing chakra into the storage seal etched in my bracer, I let the water stored flow out and I made multiple hand seals for a variation of the Falling Rain Needles jutsu, given that it wasn't raining.

Honestly, water was absolutely broken if you had a creative mind. It was naturally malleable compared to the other elements and you could seal it for later use. Granted, earth and wind literally made up the planet and atmosphere, so it might just be me being biased about my own affinity.

The water rose from the ground and formed into over a hundred needles, pointed straight at Gaara. I made one final hand seal and the water responded to my command, shooting straight at Gaara. I didn't see what happened because a column of sand shot forward and reached towards me.

A Shunshin 50 yards away and a quick application of Lightning enhancement fixed it in an instant, giving me another opening. Water Jutsu would make his sand heavier and slower to use, but Lightning would be better to pierce. Unfortunately, I didn't trust myself to not accidentally kill him with the Jutsu I knew that could tear through his sand armour.

Thinking through the next idea out of several to take him down, I shouted at the surviving clones in English.

"Plan 3!"

My clones immediately stopped their hit and run strategy and fired several water jutsu at Gaara, soaking his armour and the ground around him as the boy blocked the attacks.

Rushing forward, I channeled lightning chakra into my hand and smashed it into the ground right where the water was, blue electricity snaking through the water and at Gaara.

It evidently did something because Gaara spasmed and started screaming, his protective sand armour on his skin showing cracks from the lightning.

Shouting in English for them to pop, my clones disappeared and I rushed towards Gaara, planning on breaking his armour down without chakra. I needed to conserve as much as I could.

I reached Gaara, slid on my knees under a blast of sand, and punched at his face. His barrier came up, but it was waterlogged just enough where I was quicker without any chakra assistance. My fist struck his face and a few chips of sand came off, revealing his skin under the cracks.

Gaara's eyes widened and screamed, his Killing Intent spiking higher. He lashed out point blank with his sand, but I avoided it by leaping over him, twisting in midair and driving a kick to his temple, another crack in his armour from my foot striking faster than his defense.

Gaara wised up to what I did and his sand completely covered him, lashing out in spikes similar to a porcupine.

My eyes widened and I flipped backwards, leaning back as I landed to prevent from being turned into a kebab by the one spike. It still wasn't enough and I felt the spike hit me, my armour stopping it from penetrating. Still freaking hurt from blunt impact, but it wasn't bad.

Gaara's cocoon of sand opened up and I saw him giving me a look of hatred.

"How did you know about my sand?" He demanded, his eyes feral.

I scoffed and punched the spike of darkened sand that almost impaled me, shattering it with just my strength.

"A sly fox told me." I smiled tauntingly, staying on the balls of my feet to get ready to move.

Gaara's face twitched and I felt his chakra spasm like before, meaning Shukaku may have been less than pleased.

Gaara's cocoon crumbled and reformed to try and grab me, but I dodged the attack, bolting towards him again.

I decided that a sword would be better to probably hit him without losing a hand and drew it again, swinging it towards his neck.

Gaara's sand went to block it, but I decided to test something. I carefully pulsed some chakra through the blade to lengthen the reach by a few inches, my Bloodline ability acting as the tip of the blade.

What happened next surprised me as much as Gaara. My chakra tore through his sand shield like nothing and my sword slid through his defense, cutting through his armour, and opened up a cut on his cheek.

My sensing was then overloaded by a blast of chakra and bloodlust.

Gaara screamed like he'd been set on fire and his sand moved much faster than it should have and hardened, smashing into my chest and sending me flying back into the wall of the arena on the other side.

I temporarily saw black when my head struck the wall and I fell face first on the ground. Groaning from the impact, I got up and started coughing, the coppery taste of blood on my tongue.

My sword had clattered to the side and I picked it up, looking up at who had just launched me into a wall.

Gaara had his hand on his face and pulled it away, looking at his own blood.

'We're dead. We're so dead.' I thought frantically, realizing that Gaara might be about to flip out.

'I have to find a way to not kill him.'

Gaara slowly looked up to me, his eyes boring into mine.

"You," He began to say, his whole body tensed, "You... Made. Me. Bleed. YOU MADE ME BLEED!" His voice turned into a howl and his sand launched towards me much faster than it should have. Whatever Shukaku was doing, it made Gaara's chakra more potent and made his sand movement more flexible, because no other way was possible.

I Shunshined out of the way, resigned to having to burn a little more chakra than I'd hoped to bring him down.

Not stopping, I slid under the sand reaching for my head and popped back up, still running at him. I shot forward and landed a kick to his face, cracking half his armour off the left side of his head.

I felt his sand brush against my leg as I took off out of the way, but it didn't grab me.

The crowd was cheering as I avoided it, and I'd heard gasps when the sand would try and trap me. They were definitely entertained by me almost getting crushed like a roach.

"That the best you got?!" I shouted, twirling my sword to taunt the other redhead, "I've fought things that would terrify your pet tanuki!"

My opponent still had a malevolent expression and his sand split up into multiple small clouds, darting towards me.

I made a half seal to send water at Gaara to obscure his line of sight.

Suiton: Teppodama.

I spat the ball of water at Gaara, pacing my Shunshin to be right behind it.

The water exploded against the wall of sand he made with the unused sand of his and I punched my way through the mud-like sand without slowing down. I did the same thing when I got within reach of Gaara again, discreetly pulsing some golden chakra into the edge of my blade, and slashed at him. The boy, even if he was physically weak and slow compared to me, somehow managed to avoid most of it, leaving only a massive chunk of armour torn away from his shoulder.

Gaara's armour was self repairing, but I could outpace it if I pushed myself. Several slashes and swings had Gaara's eyes wide in terror, the boy's sand doing everything it could to slow my attacks down enough for him to not get hit. With a shout of exertion, I swung my blade at his shoulder and my right leg lashed out, striking his face when his sand stopped my sword.

Gaara got sent flying, along with his sand. His sand had tried to catch my foot, and the impact of my hit dragged his sand with him, the weak grip it tried to tighten around my foot pulling on my ankle. I staggered forward and spat water on my foot to weaken it, kicking the sand off me irritably.

Pulling himself up, Gaara's Killing Intent spiked again, his eyes flashing a different colour.

"If you let Shukaku out to play," I roared, forming a Chidori in my right hand and channeling it through my sword, "I'll tear your heart out!"

Gaara stared at my hand and the screeching blade held in it, and his expression hardened, his eyes reverting back to their normal green.

"Prove your existence without help!" I shifted the shape of the Chidori running through my blade and I aimed at Gaara.

Chidori Senbon.

Jiraiya had explained how he made his hair senbon jutsu work and I adapted parts of it to properly modify the Chidori. Props to Sasuke for managing it without the insight in Canon.

Several senbon shaped bolts of lightning flew at Gaara, a faint whistle and the scent of ozone present. Gaara's sand rushed towards his front to protect him, but lightning was strong against the sand. The senbon tore through and a few struck Gaara in the chest, shattering his armour.

Seeing an opening, I rushed towards him again, a plan at the forefront of my mind.

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'It's almost like seeing Shisui again.' Itachi thought to himself, seeing the Uzumaki Jinchuriki move across the battlefield using the Shunshin.

Itachi had thought Sasuke was decent with the technique, but Uzumaki Naruto seemed to have taken a leaf out of Shisui's book and took it a step further than most, using it in quick bursts and stringing them together.

'Shisui never said anything about him speaking with either Jinchuriki. I wonder how Naruto thought of it. And how is he able to move at that speed without a Sharingan?'

Itachi started to miss small flashes of movement, so he activated his Sharingan, his face and eyes hidden behind the hood of his jacket. He was instantly able to trace the movements with ease now, no longer needing to focus at all.

The speed. The strength. The diverse Ninjutsu arsenal. Uzumaki Naruto was extremely dangerous, more dangerous than any at that age that wasn't Shisui or himself.

Killing the Ichibi Jinchuriki would simplify things. There would be no reason to capture Jinchuriki if we must wait for it to reform. He would be the easiest to kill. Killing the Nibi would be too risky, the same going for Killer B.

The Raikage would undoubtedly try and kill him if his brother was threatened. Itachi just prayed that Sasuke would never be foolish enough to pick a fight with either in the future.

Refocusing on the fight, Itachi pondered the idea that slowly crept into his thoughts on what to do to protect Sasuke.

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Gaara was wide open. This might be the opening I need to jam the seal over top of his. His stomach was visible and the armour was shattered.

As I shot forward with the Shunshin, I made three hand seals to hit him with more water.

Suiton: Mizurappa.

I blasted water out of my mouth similar to a waterfall and directed it at Gaara, the water sloshing all across the ground as it enveloped him. Darting to the left, I twisted on my leg and shot towards him, my hand glowing purple in preparation for hitting his seal.

I got to him and my fingers jabbed into his water soaked stomach, my eyes widening in shock as my fingers sunk deeper into his flesh. 'Gaara' disintegrated into muddy sand.

Sand clone.

I pulled my arm out as fast as I could, but the sand managed to grip my fingers and squeezed, a loud crack breaking through the quiet.

The pain registered a second later and I bit back a scream, yanking my hand away. I instantly regretted looking down at my hand. Thankfully, my fingers were still attached to my hand. But the first three were stripped of skin and were broken in more than one section, while my pinky was thankfully spared.

I fought back the urge to start retching and ducked under another wave of sand from behind me, Gaara coming out of his sandscreen.

"Yes!" He shouted, his eyes wide and practically shining with glee, "Mother wants your blood!"

Gaara had hidden in the cloud of sand that I mistook for an attack and I got a broken hand for my troubles.

I cradled my damaged hand, being my dominant right hand, and fixed him with a look of hatred.

"There's only one thing your mother is getting, you ginger sand rat!" I was pissed. I couldn't shape the chakra needed to seal his connection with Shukaku until my bones fused back together, and I couldn't use my sword properly to tear through his sand.

Not breaking eye contact, I grabbed my middle finger and forced the broken bones in place, a grinding feeling in my hand followed by crackles and pops were audible.

I lifted up my bloodied right hand, my completely jacked up middle finger raised up in classic 'Fuck you' gesture.

"Suck it!" I shouted, keeping my hand up.

Gaara's eyes narrowed and another column of sand shot towards me. I Shunshined out of the way, glad that I lowered the needed seals to just a half seal from rigorous training, including my off hand for situations like this.

I grabbed one of several dozen exploding tags in my pockets and flung one at Gaara, waiting to trigger it. Once it reached him, I detonated it and his sand stopped the explosion, but the concussive wave still messed with his equilibrium as intended.

Grabbing my sword a little awkwardly, I stuck it to my wrist with chakra, tightening the grip my chakra had on it. I might have less maneuverability in slashing, but stabbing was just fine.

With Gaara distracted for a moment, I grabbed several shuriken and flung them with my left hand, aimed at his face.

Gaara blocked them and I instantly made another half seal as I was running at him full speed, tightening my lips to build pressure.

Suiton: Tenkyu.

I spat several dangerously sharp water senbon out of my mouth, this version a more advanced version of what Ino did.

The senbon pinged against Gaara's armour and obscured where I swung my blade at him, as intended.

The sword came dangerously close to hitting him when his sand kicked in. We were just a few feet away and Gaara's eyes were looking directly at mine.

"Now, you die." He said, sand snaking up my hand.

I ignored the sand in favour of driving my left arm forward, a golden chakra blade forming in it. The blade cut into the armour on his shoulder, a gasp escaping him and his eyes widened.

"No! No! No!" He screamed, clutching at his shoulder, refusing believe he'd been cut.

I pulled my arms back and Shunshined away again, jumping over a crater left by one of Rin's exploding tags.

With Gaara regrouping to find a way to murder me, I glanced down at my hand and noticed the pain had subsided, but my fingers still felt too stiff to flex and the digits were still red and looked awful.

Grabbing ahold of Kurama's chakra, I gritted my teeth as I kept it on an extremely tight leash and pushed a small amount of it into the tenketsu of my fingers to heal it faster. I tried to ignore the sizzling sound of new skin growing, as well as the feeling that made me want to scratch it.

By the time Gaara was seeing straight, I was already mostly healed. I flexed my fingers as a test and there was no issue, causing me to grin.

"It's gonna take more than you using sand to kill me!" I shouted from a safe distance, "I'm not one of those Suna civis you likely killed!"

Gaara actually laughed at what I said.

"They were weak." He said viciously, the gap in his armour I made already covered up,"They were nothing to me."

Honestly, how is he not completely batshit insane from being injured? Does he have more restraint than I thought?

I pulled another kunai with a tag strapped to it from my belt.

"Care to join them, demon?" I grinned toothily, prepared to resume the fight.

Gaara manipulated his sand and I Shunshined once more.

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Hiruzen was fighting the urge to fidget as Naruto kept fighting the Suna Jinchuriki. It almost looked like someone playing chicken with an extremely dangerous tiger that could crush you with sand.

'You are refraining from using the more lethal techniques you have, Naruto. Why?'

The only reason he could think of why is that Naruto didn't want to kill the other boy. But that may need to be the case.

Naruto had fought against Momochi Zabuza and defeated him. He had fought and survived Orochimaru. Even an extremely dangerous Sabaku no Gaara couldn't compare to those two right now.

'Naruto, you had no qualms about killing when you needed to. It pains me, but the time may be now. I cannot lose you like I lost Itachi. Konoha, no matter how much its people may reject you right now, can't lose you.'

Hiruzen prayed that he wasn't about to see a boy he saw as a grandson get killed for his attempt at mercy. He'd lost too much already. A boy with near boundless potential was more valuable than an old man past his prime.

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Ay noticed the concern on the Sandaime's face as the Uzumaki boy had yet another near miss from attacking the Jinchuriki of the Ichibi.

He didn't need to be told that Sabaku no Gaara was a Jinchuriki. The boy was like a far worse version of what Yugito come close to being. He was sadistically violent while being the son of the Kazekage. Those two traits didn't go together well when the child was a Jinchuriki that was scorned by the village.

Watching the boy rant and rave like a rabid beast hit too close to home. It reminded him of what B could have been if his brother hadn't brushed the anger off when he was recently made a Jinchuriki. Yugito had it much worse, but he as the Raikage and a war hero B convinced them of their ridiculous thinking.

Suna evidently didn't do anything remotely similar to what Kumo did to prevent their Jinchuriki from being homicidal. That's not how you made strong Jinchuriki that would tear the world apart to protect their village.

'To be united by hatred is a fragile alliance at best.' Had been something his father had told him the Nidaime Raikage had said leading up to the assault on Uzu. Can't say he could refute it though. War occurred once again between the other villages, regardless of the shared losses at Uzushiogakure.

Ay smirked as Uzumaki Naruto Shunshined once again to avoid the sand trying to crush him and struck at the armour covering the other Jinchuriki.

'He doesn't have a Sharingan, so how is he managing to process the movement with such precision?'

Even if an alliance didn't pan out, Ay would still want to speak with the boy. Speed freaks didn't appear all that often and the last two to come from Konoha were Uchiha Shisui and Namikaze.

The last name he thought of had him glancing at the blonde girl that was also named Uzumaki. The two had similar facial features, looked the same age, and were very close. Twins, undoubtedly. The blonde girl was trained by Hatake and was capable of using the Rasengan. Of course, Hatake may know how to do the Jutsu and taught it to his Jinchuriki student, but it still had him thinking.

He pushed those thoughts aside and refocused on the fight at hand.

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The 13th tag of mine exploded against Gaara's defense and I was growing angry. I'd been conservative in my chakra use, hoping to save it for the invasion, but Gaara wasn't making it easy. The weather was extremely hot and the heat was making the water evaporate quicker and made his sand less waterlogged.

Tossing another one, I shot another ball of water at Gaara's barrier, the soft impact of water hitting sand being heard.

My pre-prepared seals were up next and I decided I'd use one. Pulling out four tags meant for a particular reason, that being a localized gravity one, I made four Kage bunshin and had them Shunshin to the corner, while I used a heftier jutsu to distract Gaara.

Suiton: Water Severing Wave.

The last of the water in my storage seals was used in this jutsu to cut down on the chakra cost, even if I had used comparatively low amounts from what I'd expended against Orochimaru or Jiraiya and Kakashi when I sparred with them.

The blade of water made a distinct sound as it tore through the air and straight at Gaara. The high velocity water actually drilled through the protection and pushed Gaara back several feet onto his back, his armour cracked once more.

Gaara slowly rose back to his feet, looking a little worse for wear, but otherwise fine.

'Honestly, you're damned hard to kill and I almost don't know how not to kill you. Stupid OP jutsu.'

Good news though. The tags were placed and my clones were no longer necessary. I whistled as a signal and they popped, returning their chakra back to me.

I slowly walked towards him and went for a route I doubted would work until I decisively beat him.

"Killing people doesn't fill that emptiness you feel, Gaara," I said gently, ignoring everything else around us, "I know that emptiness. The fear they have in their eyes when they look at us. The hate. The scorn. I know it all. Killing doesn't help."

"I will not listen!" Gaara shouted, sand rising up around him, "I have been lied to and almost killed before! My uncle tried to kill me. I can trust no one!"

I pressed out my sensing further and I winced how much Rin's chakra was spasming in a particular way.

She's terrified.

'Fox, tell her everything's all right. I'm prepared to bug out in a second. Actually, let me talk with her'... No response.

'Fox?'

"I can't connect your minds. I don't know why."

Of course that happens.

'Then tell her I'm fine and I'm not going to get myself killed.'

"I'm moving my consciousness towards her. I'm not getting the sensation of dying because of your stupidity, meatbag.

I felt Kurama's chakra shift a bit, indicating he was in Rin's mindscape now.

"Your uncle tried to kill you?" I raised a brow, putting up my sword as a sign of not wanting to cause anything.

I started hearing booing from the fight coming to a stop, so I flipped the crowd off, causing even louder boos.

I ignored it and fixed my gaze on Gaara, not breaking eye contact.

"I've had people try to kill me. Pierced lung and a Genjutsu to try and drive me insane." I said flatly, walking closer.

Gaara was exactly right where the radius of the gravity seals reached, meaning he was screwed when I knew when to rush towards him.

"You desire killing and violence as your method to rage at a world that hates you. At least that's how you see it, don't you?" I asked.

"I won't let you fill my thoughts with your poison!" He spat, grabbing at his head, "Everyone seeks to kill me. They only respect my power because they fear me. I will not let you kill me by pretending you understand!"

I sighed sadly and said one last thing.

"It takes strength to resist the darkness that's in us, Gaara. Only the weak embrace it." I said firmly, my mind made up on Gaara's lack of caring.

Gaara started laughing at me with a cruel smirk on his face.

"It is more powerful than you could ever know, Uzumaki."

"And those who oppose it are more powerful than you can possibly imagine." My blade was now in my hand, pointed straight at Gaara as I stood defiant against one of many dangers I willingly took to protect this world.

"I will kill you last, Uzumaki! I'll kill your sister to prove my existence again! I'll keep killing your friends so you will know how my existence was before I was strong." His voice deepened to something not human.

I decided to give Gaara the benefit of the doubt and assume that it was Shukaku speaking for a second.

"I'm going to make you bleed, Shukaku!" I snarled, spiking my chakra and planting my legs in a position to sprint.

At this point, I decided politeness was overrated and I gripped my sword tighter and charged up a Chidori to channel through it, launching myself at Gaara.

'I really hope you don't become the next Jinchuriki to get impaled by this, man.'

Gaara's sand broke off into two sections, one twirled around to act like a smokescreen to hide him, while the other shot towards me.

With lightning chakra speeding up my thoughts and my plan made, a half seal with my left hand had a beachball sized water projectile launched at exactly where Gaara's chakra signature was. A small corridor was made for me to run through, making the next part easy.

My charge abruptly stopped as I sensed where the radius of the gravity seals were at and I activated them instantly.

They took effect and Gaara fell to his knees, the sand falling to the ground as he lost concentration.

I ran forward and deactivated the seals right before I crossed the threshold, sword raised.

Gaara was backing away from me, flinging the little sand he had left at the moment. He got out of the range of the gravity seal and his sand from earlier circled back and was coming from behind me.

The moment I reached Gaara and was out of the seal radius, I reactivated it. Almost all of Gaara's sand was trapped temporarily in the trap.

I flung another low level water jutsu at Gaara to distract him and turned 180 degrees, reaching into my pocket reserved for the makeshift shield seals that were the same kind Rin used against Sasuke.

I chucked several up and over the gravity seals, the tags dropping to the ground. I activated them and almost half of Gaara's sand was sealed away by my tags.

Fuinjutsu is OP.

I turned to Gaara and for the first time, I saw genuine fear in his eyes. The pain I caused might have even been welcome by him to some degree. But I had taken his strength from him. His sand protected him and I just sealed half of it away, with the other half barely being moveable from the weight of it.

Gaara's fear was the most primal kind. He knew I was going to kill him. He believed that I was like him and was going to kill him because I could.

But I'm not him.

I raised my sword and ran at him, mindful of the little remaining sand he had.

A whip of sand shot at me, but I slashed it away with my crackling and screeching blade infused with a Chidori. The whip reformed and tried to hit me again, but I still slashed through it.

Gaara growled and threw all the sand he had at me. I jumped in the air and discharged the Chidori in the mass of sand, causing it to explode away. A few trace particles stuck to me and made it look like my clothes and armour was smoking as my feet hit the ground and I swung diagonally at Gaara's shoulder, his sand so diminished that his defense only had the sand armour sticking to his skin.

I slashed and hacked at the armour, chipping it away at the stomach. Gaara tried to cover the weakening area with his arms, but my fist striking his face had him staggering back.

At last, I saw his exposed stomach and I punched his face with my right fist, grabbing his shoulder with my left and pulling him close enough to drive my knee into his unprotected gut.

He gasped as the air was driven out of him and he collapsed in front of me, coughing profusely.

The roar of the crowd had grown to a near deafening wave of sound at me breaking through his defense. I didn't need the Byakugan to tell that the Suna nin were shocked by what just happened.

I kicked Gaara onto his back and grabbed his collar, my blade resting inches from his face.

"Do you understand what your predicament is?" I demanded, forcing enough of Kurama's chakra into my system to change my pupils and eye colour, "I have your life in my hands. I am your god."

I looked up at the proctor in warning.

"He doesn't concede!" I shouted, turning to look back down at my defeated opponent.

"I'm stronger, Gaara," I said quietly, "I'm stronger because I fought for something greater than myself." I kept staring into his green eyes, begging him to understand. "I fought for my sister, my friends, and my village. I know about the plan to attack Konoha. I could have killed you instead of granting you mercy."

Gaara was silent, not saying anything.

"You're wrong that you think you have no one. Your brother and sister love you. When I first met you guys, Temari was worried about you when we were flaring our chakra. She wasn't scared of you, she was scared for you."

I loosened my grip on his collar.

"I'm stronger than you because I have something greater than myself to fight for," I put my sword up, preparing to close his seal, "Please think about that."

Gaara swallowed and he looked down.

"You're right." Was Gaara's reply, barely more than a whisper.

I gasped in shock, my thoughts temporarily blanking out that I actually got through to him.

"You're stronger." His voice was filled with bloodlust.

Before I could weave the signs needed to close his seal off, a small mass of sand from the ground wrapped around my throat, slowly tightening. I clawed at my throat frantically and started choking, my airway cut off. I was panicking from possibly suffocating again that I kept trying to pull at the sand instead of making hand seals.

A small portion of sand darted behind me and I heard one of the seals in the matrix break, releasing a large portion of sand.

I felt it strike me and started wrapping around me, slowly constricting.

'I showed you mercy!' I snarled internally, my rage overwhelming my temporary paralyzing fear.

I could hear several voices shouting, including Rin screaming.

The sand wrapped around my throat loosened and I started shouting at Gaara.

"I showed you mercy!"

I desperately tried to pull my arms out of the cocoon of sand slowly crushing me, but it was too thick even with only half available.

"You should not have shown me mercy," Gaara said coldly, "You will prove my existence, and so will your sister." His hand reached out and the sand constricted more.

I bit back a scream as I felt my armour start to give, my breathing becoming more difficult.

I forced my fingers to move into a certain position to make a hand seal and I spat a water senbon at Gaara, aiming for his face. My aim was off and it tore a chunk of his hair off and he squeezed harder.

I thought I heard a crack and I heard familiar screaming in the background as I kept shooting senbon at Gaara to get him to stop. It didn't work and I felt a rib break, causing me to scream.

'I'm not dying! I refuse! I won't die again!'

The only thing I could do without hand seals that could get me out of this might very well hurt me.

My nervous system could handle lightning speeding it up for a few seconds, but I almost had temporary paralysis when I tried to manifest the armour portion, which was what I needed to break the sand.

Another cracking sound coming from my chest and a spurt of blood coming from my mouth had me deciding to do it. Screw Ay if he bitches about me reverse engineering it. He's a jabroni if he complains or tries to kill me.

"You won't survive what's about to happen." Gaara said, sand forming into the shape of a creature with one tail.

I frantically forced my chakra to adopt a lightning nature to it and started discharging it, trying to push the sand off of my ribs and limbs. An opening occurred and I drew in a deep breath, forcing lightning chakra throughout my tenketsu. I shut my eyes and I heard the crackle of lightning, my entire body feeling like it was burning.

The sand exploded away from me and the entire world was moving at a crawl, Gaara's hand going up to form a ram sign.

My hearing waa overwhelmed by the whine of electricity surrounding me, my vision was wreathed in crackling blue, and everything was moving impossibly slow.

'You're not going to sleep.'

My entire body sped through hand seals and I formed a Chidori, and I shot towards Gaara in a blue flash.

My lightning coated arm was driven elbow deep through Gaara's shoulder, his face just inches from mine. My arm felt warm and wet from my hand being coated in Gaara's blood, a crackling and sizzling sound coming from the lightning coating my fist burning away the blood into a disgusting coppery mist.

To the most of the world, I teleported in a flash and I had just landed a crippling hit on someone who had been about to kill me seconds ago.

Gaara's eyes widened and he fell backwards, clutching at his chest as he let at a blood curdling scream of pain.

My body gave out and the rudimentary Lightning Cloak disappeared, leaving me a mess with limbs that felt like Jell-O. As I hit the ground, I grabbed ahold of Kurama's chakra to force my nerves to stop spasming. The deliciously toxic chakra flowed through my tenketsu and all the nerve pain and broken bones faded, leaving me extremely hyperactive and violent.

I jumped up and walked to the writhing form of Gaara, pulling a blank seal tag out of my pocket. I bit down hard on the pad of my thumb with a sharpened canine and smeared my blood on the paper in a certain pattern, pulsing chakra into it.

I straddled Gaara and punched his face to get him to look at me.

"I should kill you," I growled, my rage at him not even under the surface, "But I'll just make sure you don't bleed out and lose consciousness."

I jammed the intentionally botched exploding tag into his open wound and triggered it with a hand seal. Gaara began howling as the tag sputtered and ignited, cauterizing the potentially lethal wound.

Gaara tried to grab at the wound, but I punched him hard in the face to stop him. I kept punching him, venting my anger at him not listening to me. For not accepting my mercy. After his face was covered in blood from his busted lip and broken nose, I got off him and ripped his shirt off forcefully, revealing his pale and thin chest.

I could hear what sounded like Temari screaming for me to stop, but I ignored it.

I pressed my hand against his chest and pulsed some chakra into it, revealing his seal.

'My God, your village is atrocious at seal work.'

Comparing his seal to mine was like comparing the Mona Lisa to a drunk vomiting on a canvas and calling it abstract art. It's a steaming pile of excrement.

Without an ounce of pity, I made the proper hand seals to start the technique, my fingertips glowing purple.

Once my fingers started glowing, I heard several people start shouting and I felt multiple chakra signatures sharpen like they thought I was going to rip Shukaku out of him or something.

But there were two signatures that practically exploded in reaction, one of them being Yugito.

I jammed my fingers onto his seal without breaking eye contact. Gaara whimpered and he looked ready to cry as the markings appeared over his seal.

"Kaasan," He barely choked out, looking around like he couldn't see anything, "I can't hear you, Kaasan. Give her back." His eyes rolled back into his head and he passed out.

I stood up and looked at the proctor, pointing towards Gaara's unconscious body.

"He concedes." I said flatly, holding onto Kurama's chakra for just a few more seconds.

"Sabaku no Gaara is unable to continue. The winner is Uzumaki Naruto!"

The moment I was announced as the winner, I turned towards the Kage box and made a single hand seal, my eyes fixed on the person right next to Hiruzen.

Raiton: Gian.

I blasted a Bijuu chakra enhanced bolt of lightning straight at Orochimaru without any warning at all, the usually blue bolt of energy a dark purple from Kurama's assistance.

Orochimaru evidently didn't expect it, given that he didn't move.

Whoever the hell his bodyguard was reacted to the high speed jutsu, leaped forward and lifted his left hand up, palm aimed at the Jutsu.

To my shock, the man's hand absorbed the Jutsu in a way almost identical to my seals. The next action taken had me almost paralyzed in shock.

A golden chakra blade, identical to mine, came out of his right hand and he cut off his left arm at the elbow, kicking it away before it hit the ground.

The limb then exploded into a crackling purple blast.

I suddenly felt a Genjutsu start to hit me and I looked up, several glowing feathers raining down on the stadium.

///////////////

Part two is up next. Sorry for the cliffhanger. There wasn't any other scene break to stop near the halfway mark.