192. The One-Tailed Beast

On the top of Gamabunta's head.

"Wohooo, it's so high."

"Who are you brat? How dare you climb on my head without permission!!" Gamabunta yelled angrily. Apart from Naruto and everyone who summoned him, no one had ever dared to step foot on his head.

Luffy put his hands on his hips while showing his wide smile.

"Hihihi, don't mind, don't mind!"

"Don't mind your head!!!" Gamabunta shouted.

"Eh, Luffy. What are you doing?"

Because of Gamabunta's loud voice, Naruto looked back. His expression was so surprised to see Luffy behind him, but he was also a little afraid that Gamabunta would get angrier.

"Yo, durian head!"

Naruto approached him and whispered.

"What are you doing? What you did will make this toad boss angry, you know! It's because you step on its head, you know."

"Aren't you stepping on his head too?" Luffy tilted his head in confusion. He didn't understand. If Naruto was allowed, why not him?

"What are you brat whispering!!?? You brat, are you gonna step down or not???" Gamabunta was getting angrier because they were whispering to themselves.

"Calm down, boss. This is not the time to debate this matter. More importantly, let's defeat him! Please!" Naruto pleaded while pointing at Gaara who had transformed into Shukaku.

Gamabunta also started to think, Shukaku hadn't fully awakened. If he did, Gamabunta wasn't sure he could handle him. Gamabunta finally tolerated Luffy's rudeness, though he thought he would teach him a lesson later.

All of a sudden…

"Hahahaha, finally I'm free, hahahaha. It's been a long time since I haven't seen the outside world. You bastard, come here! I'm gonna kill you all."

Gaara's voice changed. No, it didn't change, but because of a certain Jutsu, Shukaku took over Gaara's body and transformed into a one-tailed beast. And the one laughing was Shukaku himself who had been in Gaara's body all the time.

"Damn it, the brat's consciousness sank, and with that Jutsu, Shukaku took over his body."

Gamabunta frowned at Gaara's change. Naruto was confused because he didn't know what to do.

"What should we do, boss?" Naruto asked worriedly.

"There's one thing you need to do. Wake that brat up! If you can wake him up, it will stop the Jutsu."

"Then, how to wake him up?"

"Hit him as hard as you can! What else?"

"But it's difficult to reach him, you know."

"Then we need to get closer."

Gamabunta jumped forward and got closer to Shukaku. However, as he got closer, some wind-release Ninjutsus were unleashed toward Gamabunta.

Gamabunta dodged and jumped back to avoid the attack. Gamabunta also use some Jutsus to counter, but Shukaku countered those with his Jutsus. After some time, a huge amount of chakra concentrated on Shukaku's mouth. It was a Tailed-Beast Ball.

"Shit! Get a grip, brat!!" Gamabunta felt a tremendous power, he immediately told Naruto to hold on to him tightly. Swiftly, Gamabunta jumped to the side. Luffy, who was forgotten by Gamabunta, was surprised because he suddenly jumped to the side. Since Luffy didn't hold Gamabunta tightly, he was left on the spot just like he was thrown into the air. Luffy responded quickly, his arm extended and wrapped around Gamabunta's giant katana.

The tailed-beast ball unleashed toward Gamabunta. However, at that moment, Izumi appeared in between the tailed-beast ball and Gamabunta.

Gamabunta was surprised that someone suddenly appeared in front of him while floating in the mid-air. Not just that, Izumi seemed to want to confront the tailed-beast ball head-on.

"Brat, what are you doing here? Get away!" Gamabunta warned Izumi. But Izumi paid no heed to his words.

Instead, he began to form five hand seals. The first four were Snake, Horse, Rat, and Ram hand seals. And lastly, he formed a certain hand seal by spreading his hands in front, with the thumb and index finger of the left and right hands touching each other.

"Hiraishin: Dōrai."

Formula jutsu appeared in front of him. And once the tailed-beast ball came into contact, it warped the tailed-beast ball away by swallowing it into the space barrier.

Shortly after.

*Boom*

The tailed-beast ball hit the hill behind Gamabunta and destroyed the whole of it.

Everyone was dumbfounded. Especially Gamabunta, who understood how much power the tailed-beast ball was. And it seemed, the brat in front of him could teleport it away at ease with such a familiar technique.

"Gulp, that's freaking deadly. But, how did it explode that way?" Naruto swallowed his saliva. He didn't think the tailed-beast ball was so strong. However, he was confused about what Izumi did earlier.

"Hop."

Luffy landed after jumping off Gamabunta's katana in front of Naruto. Then he asked Naruto.

"What are you daydreaming about?"

"Ah, no. It's just, Izumi-san is so strong. Anyway, I need to wake him up! But I can't get closer because of that monster." Naruto said while pointing at Gaara who was seen with just his upper body and sleeping on top of Shukaku's.

"Oh. Need my help? I can bring you there."

Unexpectedly, Luffy said something surprising. Naruto thought that Luffy had gone crazy after seeing how powerful the one-tailed beast was.

"Eh, are you sure? How? Even getting closer to him is so hard. Are you sure your head is fine?"

"My head, what happened to my head?" Luffy answered while touching his head repeatedly.

Seeing Luffy's behavior, Naruto wanted to slap him so badly.

All of sudden, Luffy ran and then jumped toward the giant pipe in Gamabunta's mouth. He stretched out both of his hands, grabbed the pipe, and before he pulled it back, his feet wrapped around Naruto's body, then projected himself high into the air at top speed.

"Aaaaaahhhhhhh."

Naruto was so shocked that Luffy suddenly caught him.

And when Shukaku noticed Luffy who launched himself along with Naruto. However, Shukaku was too late to react since it was too sudden.

And whether it was a coincidence or not, Naruto and Gaara's heads bumped into each other.

"Auch, it hurts."

Naruto rubbed his head in pain. The severity of their head collision wasn't too bad as it only made Naruto's head hurt, and the good thing was that Gaara woke up. With Gaara awoken from his sleep, the Jutsu that summoned Shukaku stopped.

"How dare you! How dare you stop my Jutsu!"

Gaara was so angry, he couldn't believe that Naruto could wake him up even after using the Jutsu earlier. He also saw Luffy on the other side. Gaara realized that Luffy was the one who made Naruto able to approach him.

"I will kill you both!!"

Before Gaara could take action, someone interrupted him.

*slap*

"What the heck are you doing!!"

It was Izumi who slapped Luffy's head. He was flying in midair using his Devil Fruit power. His face looked annoyed. Then he grabbed and dragged Luffy off. Izumi turned his head to Gaara and said,

"Ah sorry, you can continue!" Then, he flew away while lifting Luffy with him.

Izumi's words seemed to ignite Gaara's emotions as if Izumi didn't care about him. It could be said that Izumi was looking down on him. Gaara clenched his fists in anger, then started to move against him.

The sand condensed and formed like a spear that was about to stab Izumi. Unfortunately, that spear only passed through his body without hurting him.

"Fuck off!!" Izumi suddenly appeared in front of Gaara and punch him.

"Gaahhh..."

Gaara groaned in pain from the punch.

Izumi grabbed his collar, his gaze turned sharp while saying.

"Do you think I can't kill you, brat? Wanna try if I lie or not?"

Gaara tried to manipulate the sand and attacked Izumi over and over. However, because Izumi's body was intangible, whatever Gaara did was never successful.

Izumi looked at Naruto.

"Naruto, if you want me to take care of him, I can do it in an instant. What do you think?"

Naruto pondered for a moment while looking at Gaara. Then, he replied.

"Let me do it! I feel like I can't lose to him or I might regret it."

As soon as Naruto said that, Izumi immediately disappeared with Luffy. According to Izumi, Naruto's decision was right. If Naruto had said otherwise, Izumi might have actually beaten Naruto.

Not long after, the two of them fought. Naruto couldn't defeat Gaara with his remaining chakra, so he was forced to use the nine-tailed fox's chakra. And as a result, Gaara was defeated. In truth, both of them were battered.

Naruto tried to approach Gaara with his remaining strength and then used his iconic move, Talk no Jutsu, against Gaara.