Chapter 61 Konoha battlefield

Temari was not having a good day. First was her so called 'win' earlier, she had lost, everyone had known it but that boy had just given her the win. Her pride was hurt from that, she would be feeling the sting of that for awhile. But that paled in comparison to what was happening now. Gaara had started to release his inner demon sooner than planed, the invasion had to be started earlier and now she had even more trouble on her hands. She had gone down to get him out of the area, if he fully released here it would be very troubling. Too many of their own people were in the area.

Gaara was supposed to release in the population center of the village, not here. Also a part of her was worried. It was that small part of her that would always be his sister, some bonds like that you couldn't get rid of completely. She had never seen him bleed before, he had never been hurt like that before. She had tried to get him to go with her, she pleaded with him to listen to her. But he didn't, he shoved her away and the look she saw in his eyes told her that if she tried to move him, he would kill her.

She cast a look at her other brother at the problem they now faced. Not only was the Uchiha's teammates were here but a few others as well. Temari pulled her fan as her brother unleashed his newly repaired puppet. Kankuro didn't like the looks of things, with the boy and his dog, the blonde girl, and the fat boy with the others. Plus Gaara was a wild card at the moment too.

"Alright I have no idea what's really going on," Naruto said to the Suna team. "But whatever you're planning you can forget it."

Having hearing that voice caused Gaara to focus a bit. The voice in his head was screaming at him now, it was so loud and commanding. It was calling for blood, for death, to be let out among the world. A voice that never ended, never gave him peace. To Gaara, the days and night blured together, only in death, only in the blood he spilled did he find focus. Only then when he finally felt like he existed in the world. Now a new voice called to him, one from the outside, one that he marked for death. He looked at the blonde masked boy and grinned a savage grin.

"Naruto Hatake," Gaara rasped out as half his face was hidden behind a hand. "I wanted to give your blood to mother for so long now. We've had to wait for so long as well, tell me do you hear it as well? Do you hear the voice calling for blood like I do?"

Naruto was very uncomfortable about this, he had a feeling that Gaara was referring to the Fox. Although he did have a talk with it, while training with Jiraiya, it sounded like Gaara talked to his the entire time. He couldn't image what that was like, he had only met the Fox for a short bit and already he hated it. It was an evil force of nature, uncaring for humanity, only caring for chaos and destruction.

"No I don't, it's sealed up nice and tight with a gag." Naruto said noticing the questioning looks he got form his teammates who were close enough to hear his answer. He really was going to have to explain everything to them after this. He could tell they were already wondering about a few things lately, he had evaded it for now but he couldn't keep it up forever.

"Pity," Gaara said as he pulled his hand away from his face. They were shocked to see the skin under the palm had changed. No, in fact it was still changing as they watched it. The skin turned a light shade of brown, as it pulsed and grew out. The eye had changed from green to yellow and looked inhuman. Now veins on the left side of his face, neck and arm were growing as the skin there also started to change.

"Oh no," Temari said seeing what was going on. There was no way to stop things now. "Kankuro, we need to move!"

He didn't need to be told twice, staying anywhere near Gaara in that state he was releasing was suicide. He and Temari left for the stands to gain the high ground. Ino and Choji went after Temari as Kiba and Akamaru went after Kankuro. Leaving Team 7 alone with a transforming Gaara.

-In the Konoha Streets-

Even before the invasion, ANBU had been clearing the streets of enemies while helping chunins evacuate the civilians. But when the battle signal had started, ANBU could no longer act in secret, they had to attack out in the open. Luckily the enemy were confused by their lack of numbers and lack of people. They never suspected that the Leaf Village had been preparing all this time. Even now a team would be evacuating people at the stadium to an underground bunker quickly created under the stadium.

Although from the scattered reports, it was slow going. Apparently the non-ninja were put to sleep. So they had to carry them all down while fighting off enemy forces. Thankfully it seemed that Gai and Kakashi were helping them out.

Gai was a good person to have, but for ANBU Yugao Uzuki she was more thankful for Kakashi being there. She had only worked with him a few times before he quit ANBU but everyone knew him and respected his skills. The man was a legend like Itachi had been in the special services, that is before Itachi's downfall, now no one spoke that name.

She was currently leading her three members through a clean up sweep of an area. So far things had gone mostly in their favour. She could hear battle all around her, she knew that many would be injured and some would die. She knew all too well how swiftly death could come. All this month she had tried to focus on her work, because when she returned home she just broke down and cried her heart out. She had never cried so hard in her life since Hayate's death. Sure the man looked constantly sickly and coughed all the time, but he made her feel loved in ways no one else had.

A hole had been torn into her life, and she was going to fill that with as much blood as possible to those that had taken his life.

"We should have come into more resistance than this in this area, don't you think?" An ANBU with a Hawk masked asked her. The other two wore a Rat and Turtle mask.

Yugao thought about it, it was odd that they hadn't run into anyone yet. This was still a heavy fighting area so where were the enemy? They could be hiding but then where, inside the homes? She stopped as her team did, she did a slow scan of the area, looking for anything out of place. The place seemed quiet, in fact she noticed that the sounds of battle were more distance now then they had been. That meant there was a sound distortion but that only happened with something like a…

"Genjutsu!" She yelled out to released herself out of it. One of her teammates wasn't fast enough as he screamed as blood came gushing out of wounds that suddenly appeared. Rat cried out as he dodged but a slash on his arm was suddenly there. As the genjutsu dispelled from her forcing her chakra to release her senses she saw the enemy slowly start to appear. Sound ninja, all of them and they had them encircled. With one member out and another wounded she was outnumbered. Still she would give them one hell of a fight as she pulled her sword from it's holder behind her back.

Then she saw a shadow cross her vision, someone was jumping down from behind her. She quickly turned to parry with her sword, but nothing came. A figure in a cloak with two swords attacked two of the Sound ninja behind her. She didn't have enough time to think as the battle started. It was over in a few minutes but to her the battle seemed a lot longer than that. She managed to cut down three of her opponents before she noticed that all the enemy had either been killed or fled. She saw the rest of her team was unhurt, and the other member was tending to their wounded comrade.

She turned to face the cloaked man, "Who are you?"

"Jeez forgot me already huh?" A man said with a cough as he pulled down the hood.

For Yugao time just stopped, as the hood was pulled down she saw the face of her lover Hayate. She stood there unable to even think as she saw the impossible. She saw the body, she had buried him, and she had cried and mourned for him. And there he was, alive again. Hayate walked over to her his face serious.

Finally she managed to say something, her shaky voice managed to get out only one word. "H-How?" Her voice seemed so small in that moment, her eyes stinging with tears and she was thankful for the mask she was wearing.

She felt him hold her, and it was in that moment she knew it was him. It was really him, she broke as she hugged him tightly afraid to let him go. Afraid that if she did, he would be gone again.

"I'm sorry," He whispered into her ear. He felt her shake knowing she was trying not to cry.

Suddenly she pushed him back and slapped him, hard. "You bastard! You made me think you were dead!"

"Okay I deserved that one," He muttered feeling the sting on his face coughing again. "Look, I was brought in nearly dead, hell they told me I was lucky to be alive. They used a cadaver and made it look like me so that I would be considered dead. I didn't even wake up until a few days after they did it and I had to stay in one of Ibiki's cells for a whole month. I wanted to give you a message telling you I was alive but they were afraid of a security risk."

Yugao was furious, happy, and had so many emotions running through her it felt like a maelstrom inside of her. But she would have to deal with this later, they had a mission to take care of first plus she needed some time to come to terms with this. And the enemy would be a great way to work out her anger about all of this. "We're not done talking."

"Yeah *cough*, I had a feeling about that." He said although he said it with a smile. After a month away from her, even an angry Yugao would be nice to see again.

-Under the Stadium-

Over the month a steel bunker had been built in secret, first earth users had hollowed out while other ninja secretly constructed the area. It was a lot of hard work and it wasn't a palace but it would work. The only door was a thick steel one that matched the wall it was connected too. Gas laps were overhead to make light and there were many beds already set up.

Chunin guards were posted on either side of the door in case the enemy made its way down here.

Neji, Tenten and Lee were placing more bodies into prepared beds. So far Gai had told them to help with the removal of all the civilians still asleep in the stands. Thankfully there wasn't too much. Most of the stadium had been either ANBU, or other Konoha ninja prepared or enemies in disguise. Plus with the help of other ninja assigned to the duty it was going well. Those that had been in the medical room from injures from the matches were already here. Although they would prefer fighting, this was important too. They couldn't have any of the VIPs from the Fire country or other nations getting hurt or killed.

"Neji," a voice called out and said boy turned to see his father running carrying Hanabi.

"Father, is she okay?" Neji asked looking at his youngest cousin.

His father smiled as he gently laid her down on a bed, "Yes, just asleep. Can you take care of her, I'm needed to ensure that the last of the civilians is brought down."

Neji wanted to go with him, but it was his duty to look out for the Main branch, plus this was his cousin as well. He nodded his head not voicing his disappointment in not going out with him. He felt his father's hand on his shoulder as he looked up at the man.

"You made me very proud out there today son," He said simply with a smile and Neji could see the pride in his father's eyes. In that moment, despite everything that was going on, he felt his spirit fly as free as s bird on the wind.

Elsewhere in the upper levels four chunins were carrying the last two from the medical wing on a pair of combat stretchers. Mainly they were just a piece of cloth with two poles in them. The two were the Mist genins that had been in the first round eliminations.

"Man you think they would wake up with all this going on," One of the chunin said.

"Maybe the medics gave them something," The other said as they made their way as fast as they could with the wounded ninja. "Although I'm wondering if it also has to do with how they got their butts kicked. Our genins sure did a number on them."

"Yeah no kidding," His partner grinned. "Hey how's that girl back there you two?"

"Better," A female voice said as the two chunin looked to see the girl was back on her feet and the two chunins dead. Their throats looked to have been cut and there was fresh blood on those bandages she had on her arms.

"What the hell are you doing!?" One of the chunins said then heard a gurgling sound as the stretcher fell on the other end. He quickly turned to see his friend dying there holding his throat as blood came down. The last image he saw was the genin up and stabbing him in the head with a kunai. As the ninja lay dead at their feet the two Mist ninja looked at each other.

"Well this isn't what the plan said to do, I still can't believe we were beaten," Ami scowled clearing pissed at the whole affair.

Gendo only grunted, he felt the same way. But still their mission wasn't a complete loss. Although they would have to go back and get his sword from the medical room before leaving, they were done here. They came to accomplish what they needed to do. Although they had lost a teammate, that had been unforeseen and regrettable but he should have been stronger. In fact they both needed to be stronger, they thought they were better and they paid for their hubris.

"We need to leave and meet up with sensei and fill him in on what happened." Gendo said to Ami as they started to walk down the hallways. Both were feeling their injuries but they could still battle if needed. "With all of this going on it should be simple to slip out. They're worried about people coming in after all and as Mist ninja, whoever is battling out there shouldn't attack us."

"What will the Leaf think once we turn up missing or some see us leaving?" Ami asked.

Gendo only smiled coldly. "Then I guess we just have to kill them all so they can't talk. They'll think we were killed or something in the battle. Come on, we've wasted enough time in this village. We need to report back to the Mizukage with what we learned."

-Arena-

Temari couldn't believe she had to fight two people who didn't even make it into the finals. She had seen the fight they had and they wouldn't be much of an issue. Although by the looks of things she wouldn't be getting any help anyway. The few Sound ninja that were left were having a hard time with Konoha forces. Not only that but Konoha's people were taking the sleeping forms and taking them away. They must have had a safe place to place them all, something she would make note of for later.

Looking at the long haired blonde in purple and her fat teammate she didn't exactly feel threatened. "So this is the best that they can send against me? A pretty girl and a overweight genin? I think I'm insulted."

"What did you say!?" Ino yelled out a vein being shown on her head. Sure she had been taken out but she had trained herself over this month. Seeing how far she was behind the others, she felt she had to increase her abilities. Even Choji had been working with his father learning more family jutsus.

Ino grinned at the older girl, "Besides it was our teammate, the most lazy ninja in the world that managed to beat you. He played you the entire time and you only won because he felt sorry for you." Ino smirked seeing how much that angered the other girl.

"But Ino, weren't you yelling at him for-" Choji was cut off as Ino gave him a death glare. He knew enough not to say anything more.

"I was going to be easy on you two but for saying that, you can forget it." Temari said as she opened her fan. She used it to make a hug gust of wind knocking the two Konoha genin onto their backs. Temari smirked this time as she saw what happened. "Well. So you wear purple panties as well I see."

Ino sat up and looked to see that her skirt had been blown up, exposing her underwear. She got really red as she realized what happened.

"KYYYAAA!" Ino screamed out as she pulled her skirt down. She heard a noise and saw Choji with a hand over his nose and mouth. His face was all red and there was a little blood coming out between his fingers. "Choji!"

"I-I didn't see anything!" The big boy said quickly trying to save himself. Although to be perfectly honest he had seen everything.

Temari could only laugh at it, but she saw the battle Gaara was having and she stopped. She had to end this quickly before it was too late. Gaara was already starting to change, if he went full out she didn't want to be anywhere near this area. She heard someone coming at her and saw it was the two of them. She mentally cursed as she got distracted. Temari put a lot more power into her wind. Choji ballooned up, his increased size and weight helped to keep him from blowing away.

Ino wasn't so lucky. She was blown into a few stands laying there in a heap not moving.

"Ino!" Choji yelled out and Temari couldn't tell from the way the boy was in the way but she bet that girl wouldn't get up soon. If she was getting up, Temari was sure she would have heard her by now. Choji looked back to Temari with an angry glare as she pulled his arms into his body. Temari knew this attack, she had a good wind attack but she wasn't certain about this guy. With the girl out of the way she could easily deal with him, but she would have to keep from being in front of him.

He started to roll towards her, destroying the stands as he went, making a large groove as he went. Temari jumped onto a chair and kicked off to get out of the way. Only that Choji didn't stop, he actually managed to make a tight turn and was heading back towards her. Temari growled at this. She had to keep her chakra in check given they were in the middle of a war zone and she might need all she could to get away. She pulled back her fan ready to attack the ground under him.

Maybe if she cut out a trench he might get stuck or something. She was just about to launch an attack when she jerked suddenly. Then she smiled for no apparently reason.

"Hell yeah, take that you stupid blonde fan girl," Temari said suddenly as noticed Choji coming at her. "Choji stop it already! I'm in control now, it's me Ino!"

Ino (in Temari's body) had to jump down a few seats to avoid him. "Choji you bastard!"

Choji managed to stop himself and return to normal looking at the girl. "Ino, is that really you in there?"

"Here's a hint!" She said going up to him and pulling on his scarf to pulled him up a little to her eye level. "If you ever mention what I know you really saw earlier, I'll put you on a diet."

"Yeah it's you." Choji said as Ino released her hold. "It was a good thing she couldn't see you when she blasted you." He thought back to seeing her laying there between seats. At first he thought she was seriously hurt. But she had quickly spelled out what she wanted with hand signs, after quickly getting an idea of what she wanted, he went to work to distract the older girl. So then it was easy for Ino to use her mental jutsu on her, from when Temari wasn't looking.

With Kankuro things weren't going as he expected. He had to admit that his fight was about even so far. The other boy and his dog were a good match against him. Although Kankuro could use his puppet, only master puppet users could fight with their puppet while using it. He was still too young and inexperienced to try that, but this wasn't the first time he fought more than one opponent at once. But the boy and his dog had near perfect teamwork. When he went after one, the other would attack instantly.

In fact he was getting a bit annoyed at all of this.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Yelled out Temari as Kankuro paused to look at his older sister.

"What, I'm busy here." Kankuro said while keeping his puppet from being smashed, again.

Temari jumped down behind him, "Can't I leave you to do anything?"

Kankuro wasn't sure but his sister seemed a bit more bitchy at the moment. Then again it was hard to tell at times. Maybe she was having her period, she usually did get irritated on those days. Plus with everything going on he was getting very frustrated as well.

"Look just give me some wind and I'll finish them off." He said to her.

"Sure." He heard her say. What he didn't see was her lifting her fan and slamming it on top of his head, hard. Kankuro fell face first onto the ground leaving a very confused Kiba there.

"What the hell is going on?" Kiba demanded.

"It's me Ino," Temari told him. "I took over the girl's body. Now pick that guy up and help carry him somewhere safe. Choji is looking after my body and I want to make sure this girl is tied up before I release her."

Kiba wasn't sure at first, but for some reason he could tell that it was Ino. The way the girl talked and moved was definitely like her.

"Well hurry up dog boy!" Temari/Ino snapped at him.

"Yeah, it's her alright," Kiba sighed.

Team 7 wasn't doing much better, Gaara was proving to be a major force to be reckoned with. The new skin growing over him was harder than stone. They could stick things like kunai into it but they couldn't get any real penetration. Then the skin would just seem to eject the weapons a moment later. Also the other more dangerous part of him was that large arm of his. That arm could shift and change like the sand that Gaara normally used.

The large demonic looking arm flew out, extending impossibly long at Sakura. She only just managed to dodge it. She really didn't want to know how hard that thing would hit her. "Do we have any kind of plan? I mean I don't know if I have anything that can work?"

"What about that water thing I saw you use earlier?" Naruto asked as he tried to attack Gaara with his sword. The Suna ninja swatted the boy away like an insect. Naruto hit the ground but rolled, one of the many things Kakashi taught him growing up was not to stay in place in a battle.

"I could try but I need a distraction." Sakura said back as she used her tonfa to deflect an oncoming storm of sand bullets from Gaara. The small projectiles may not be sharp but they hurt like hell when they hit. She only managed to get most of them, a few hit her body and she knew that despite the light armour she had on, she would be getting bruised up from that. Plus her hands were going numb from the impact they made on her weapons.

Sasuke ran forward, "I'll try something I've been working on. It's not perfected but I managed to get the chidori down I had a thought from seeing that Suna girl." Sasuke jumped up as Gaara's massive arm went to attack him. Only this time he came down and stabbed his sword into the sand. He started to gather up the lightning charka like he had been taught, but this time he didn't form it all the way. He kept it loose and then sent it through his hand, the same one holding his sword.

It wasn't perfected by a long shot. In fact it would take him most likely a year to get it right at this rate. It was too uncontrollable and dangerous to both himself and to others, but for this moment it might work. The lightning went through the sword, well most of it, parts of it shot off in various directions. One arc of electricity nearly hit his own face. But the majority of the power went through the sword and into Gaara. Gaara cried out in pain as the electrical power sent through his body.

Although the sand helped to take most of it, he still felt the terrible pain. He was about to attack when a small tower of water hit him. The force of it knocked him back as Sasuke jumped off the arm. Gaara was not going to let himself be beaten by something like this. With a savage cry he swept his arm across the field. He managed to catch the pink haired girl, she cried out in pain as the two others went over to check on her.

"You okay Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked helping her up.

"I think so," She winced, she had caught most of it with her arm but she was still feeling some pain. Although she didn't feel anything break, she could barely move her left arm at the moment. Plus she must have bruised her ribs slightly too from how they were hurting.

"We have more trouble," Sasuke said as they both looked to see that Gaara's transformation was continuing. When they went to check on her, his body had started up the change again. Now most of his body was covered in that new skin, his face looked like that of a monster and a single tail was growing out of the back. Only his legs which were hardly even seen, were the only human things remaining.

"I'm going to enjoy killing you all!" Gaara screamed out at them, almost happy by the sound of it.

"I think we're in trouble," Sakura said seeing the boy. "Just what the hell is he?"

Naruto didn't say anything as he already knew what the boy was. A part of him was wondering if this is the kind of thing he could expect. He never really had drawn on the Fox's power all that much. If he did, would something like this happen to him? The thought scared him, of him turning into a monster. Looking at Gaara now, he had to wonder just how lonely the boy had to be. How afraid Suna had to be of him, when they saw him like this. Looking at Gaara's eyes earlier he had felt something in them.

That there had to be a spark left in them, a sense of loneliness behind all that anger and rage. The only question was, could that small part of him actually be reached?

Naruto didn't know, all he knew was that his team was in trouble and he could fight and die to protect them.

-Kage Section of Konoha Stadium-

Hiruzen Sarutobi was having his own difficulties. Even though he was the Third Hokage, he wasn't the young man that he used to be. His body wasn't as fast or as strong as it had been in his prime when he became the first non-Senju member to take up the mantel. Also his stamina was even in worse shape. Age was the deadliest thing to a ninja's career. No matter how strong you were, eventually age took everything from you. It was a patient beast that slowly gnawed away at you.

'Or at least it was supposed to,' The Third Hokage thought to himself as his fight with his one time student went. Orochimaru however didn't seem at all effected and he was in his fifties. Even Tsunade and Jiraiya slowed down a little bit. But thanks to him using forbidden knowledge, Orochimaru wasn't slowed down at all. In fact the man had seemed to have gotten stronger.

"What's the matter, feeling time catching up to you old man?" Orochimaru grinned during a small pause in the battle. "Perhaps I should show you something that I've saved for just this moment."

"You know I've went through a lot of trouble for this moment, I've thought about all the ways to deal with you. But you know what, I found the perfect way to ensure that you're end is poetic. Given that you passed me over for Hokage, what better way to thank you then to use them."

"What are you talking about?" The Third demanded although he had a very bad feeling. He knew of the kinds of things that Orochimaru researched, but he couldn't possibly have done what he was thinking of doing. But then again, his student had fallen so far into darkness that Sarutobi didn't know just how far he had gone.

"Let's make this reunion of ours more complete, shall we?" Orochimaru said as he started to create several hand seals. It looked like some kind of summoning but it was one that the Hokage had never seen before. Then suddenly out of the ground a wooden coffin started to rise. It bore the number one on it.

The Hokage's eyes widened as his deepest fears were starting to be realised. If those contained what he thought, then Orochimaru had stepped into the realm that no mortal should have ever stepped into. Then a second coffin rose up, by the time the third one was rising he knew that he had little time. He couldn't let all three rise up, especially if that third one held who he thought it might hold. He used a cancellation jutsu, he wasn't sure if it would work but he had to try.

Pouring as much chakra as he could, it was only a matter of putting in as much chakra as Orochimaru had put in to the jutsu. He could feel a tug and pull sensation and knew that he had a chance. He put everything he had into it and saw the third coffin slowly sink back down.

He released it when he saw that the coffin was no longer there. He felt the sweat on his skin from the toll it took on him. It took a lot of chakra and stamina to pull that off but he needed to be done.

"Oh well, I supposed two out of three isn't bad. I was looking forward to seeing the full reunion. But these two familiar faces should do just as well. I think it's time for them to come out." Orochimaru said grinning at the Hokage. The lids of the two wooden caskets fell forward as the pale figures of the First and Second Hokage were seen.

Next up Chapter 62: Will of Fire