Chapter 62 Will of fire (Chapter before end)

Near one of the exits of the stadium, Kakashi and Gai were finishing up with their task of clearing out the area of enemy ninja. Gai apparently was keeping sore of how many he was defeating, well Kakashi was too but he was a bit more aloof about it all. It was at that point that Gai noticed one of their ANBU members in an archway.

"Ah, you there what is the status of the battle?" Gai asked the cloaked ninja.

The ANBU slowly came out of the shadows, "Things seem to be going well."

Kakashi came up to the man, he didn't know that voice then again someone new could have been added to the roster. But he usually heard about that kind of stuff, many in ANBU considered him their 'sempai' after all, so he got a lot of inside information. "So how's the weather in Kiriakure, still wet and bloody?"

The ANBU paused for a moment, "Of course, isn't it always?"

Kakashi immediately threw a kunai at the man, he dodged it only by a fraction of a second as he clipped the mask slightly.

"Kakashi, what are you doing?" Gai shouted out surprised the man would attack a fellow Leaf ninja.

"He's not ANBU," Kakashi said evenly as he looked as the man rose up cautiously. "If he was, then he would have known the correct response to that statement."

"Then if he's not ANBU..." Gai left it hanging as it really didn't need to be finished. Both he and Kakashi had similar thoughts on the masked man who was pretending to be an ANBU.

"Most likely he's the little spy we've been watching," Kakashi stated.

The ANBU chuckled as he removed the mask, "So I was found out after all then?" Kabuto asked them. "Well if my cover has been blown, then I suppose that my role here has ended. Just as well I supposed."

"How can a member of the Leaf be a traitor, especially one so young?" Gai demanded to know.

"My reasons are my own," Kabuto stated coldly, in fact he was never really loyal to the Leaf village. After all, they had killed his family. The only reason he felt that the Leaf took him in, was because they felt sorry for him. "But sadly I won't tell you that, and I also can't afford to being caught as well."

With that Kabuto threw the cloak at them, when Kakashi sliced through it, the young man was already gone. Kakashi was quick to give chase with Gai right on his heels. The stadium was in good hands but if they could capture this spy, there was no telling what they could learn.

Team 7 was facing a very tough opponent, Gaara of the desert wasn't the normal kind of enemy. But only Naruto, knew just what Gaara was. Naruto had lived a good life, while he bet Gaara hadn't. They were two sides of the same coin, because Naruto had a loving family and friends, he hadn't been as lonely as he knew he could have been. Looking at Gaara, he wondered if he had no one to look after him, if this was something he would have turned into.

Looking at him now, it was hard to say how to beat him.

"Hey do you have any toads that can be used for this?" Sasuke asked him.

"Not sure, I could try," Naruto said as he bit his thumb again. He quickly made the seals and tried to summon anything he could. What he got was a small orange and very familiar toad. "Gamakichi!?"

"Hey what's up, whoa! What the hell did you bring me into and what is that thing!?" The young toad said hoping on top of Naruto's head. Sakura and Sasuke could only stare at the scene in front of them.

"So much for that idea," Sasuke said as he had to dodge one of Gaara's attacks again. "That skin is too thick for anything normal to get through. I'm not even sure I can use my chidori can get through it. He thought about using that curse seal but honestly given what he was told about it, and who it was from he didn't trust it.

"That's it I'm out of here, and you better not bring me into something like this again blonde boy," Gamakichi told Naruto before dispelling himself. Naruto sighed, he really didn't expect much from Gamakichi, he was still young after all.

"I have an idea," Naruto said as he got up. "Sakura-chan, Sasuke...I need you two to give me some room."

"Naruto what are you going to do?" Sakura asked him being supported by Sasuke at the moment.

"I have to fight him on his own terms," Naruto said as he looked at the boy. He knew that he couldn't keep things from them and he couldn't afford to keep this power locked up. Not when those close to him could die because of it. "Look, I know you'll have questions but trust me, I'll answer them when this is over."

"So there is something you've been keeping from us," Sakura said feeling hurt at it.

Naruto winced at the sound of her voice, "I didn't mean to, I only found out about it recently anyway. It's just not something I'm comfortable talking about. Maybe cause I'm still dealing with it." That was partially true, he was still getting used to the idea that he had the most powerful demon the world has seen, locked up inside of a seal on his stomach. Another was just how they would react to it.

"Just do what you have to already, we'll worry about whatever it is later," Sasuke said not really caring at the moment what was going on. They had more important things to worry about, like not dying for one.

Naruto nodded once and walked towards Gaara, "Gaara!"

"Oh what is it? You finally decided to show me the real you?" Gaara asked him grinning. He was looking forward to fighting him, he had never met another demon host before. Killing him would please 'mother' and also ensure that he existed in the world.

"This is the real me," Naruto declared. "I know you have something inside of you as well, just like me. But that thing inside of me, that isn't the 'real' me, it's just my prisoner."

"How can you call it that?" Gaara asked him, "You speak as though you hate it, you should love it as no one else will love you. Love yourself, because no one else will, that is my way."

Naruto looked at him with pity he couldn't even imagine what Gaara could have gone through to feel like this. How alone in the world must you be to feel that no one would care for you? He must feel like he's always alone, that he walks the world as though nothing else exists but himself.

"You're wrong Gaara," Naruto told him softly. "I don't know what you're life was like, but when I look at you I see what I could have become. I don't know why you're life was so different. Maybe it was because I did find those that would love and care for me."

"Lies," Gaara snarled at him. "Those that tell you that the love you are only lies and illusions."

Gaara could still remember his uncle, the brother to his mother. For the longest time, he was the only one that would talk to him. The only one that seemed to care for him, whenever Gaara had a problem he could always go to him, talk to him. He felt safe with him, he felt the only love in his life from his uncle. But that had all been a lie, the man had tried to kill him as a child. All because the man that Gaara thought loved him, had really hated him all his life. When he looked at Gaara, he didn't see family, only the murderer of his sister.

That was the night everything changed for Gaara that was when he finally saw the truth of life. Life was pain, death and loneliness. It was a dark and desolate world where you had only yourself to count on. It was a world where the strong lived and everyone else died.

"You're wrong," Naruto told him defiantly. "At first I only had my dad, but soon others started to show up in my life. I made friends and even found a girl that I like and she likes me back. There is no way I can believe that they would ever lie to me about how they felt. I would put my life on the line for all of them, and they would do the same."

"That's what it means to have precious people, they give you true strength."

"True strength," Gaara nearly laughed at that idea. "Strength only comes from within, but let's test this out." Gaara fired more sand bullets at Naruto, who tried to dodge them, but there were a lot. But that was only a distraction, one of Gaara's arms launched out as Sakura and Sasuke with blinding speed. The hand expanded as the two tried to get away and then split off, two clawed hands grabbed the two of them and sent them into the wall of the arena.

"Are you guys okay?" Naruto yelled to them.

"It's...hard to breath," Sakura managed to say. She felt the sand crushing her body and from the looks of Sasuke he wasn't in much better shape.

"Leave them out of this Gaara!" Naruto shouted as he tried to attack the boy with his blade. The blade was easily blocked by Gaara's tough skin and was thrown aside with a massive arm. He landed hard against the ground, so hard that he felt dazed from it. Gaara too this chance and encased him inside of a sand coffin. The sand wrapped around him like he was being buried alive above the ground.

Naruto was in the dark of the sand, there was no light and the place was getting smaller. He felt it was hard to breath at this point. 'No, I refuse to die! I won't die like this, my friends need me and Hinata-chan would be sad if I died. I said I would never make her sad and I won't. I won't let my dad lose someone else, I will get out of this. I will fight, I will win!'

Laughter was heard as Naruto felt his body slipping away from him.

"What will you do to win boy?" A familiar voice of the demon fox was heard by him. Naruto noticed he was back in his inner world. It was that same dark and damp area where the fox was imprisoned behind its massive bars. Naruto felt like he was floating on some water, he could feel it but he couldn't move his body.

"What the hell, I didn't call you," Naruto said angrily to the demon. He could see part of its form in the darkness of the cell. The large fox with wild and evil eyes, this was a creature of pure chaos and death. It was a natural disaster given form, like someone put all of the most destructive elements of nature mixed in with hatred for all things in one massive body.

"You're near death brat, that means the walls between us are thinning," The Kyuubi said to him. "I don't want to die just yet so you better use my power."

"I'll use your power when I say I will," Naruto shouted at him. He never liked using this power, it just felt wrong to him. The emotions he felt with it, Jiraiya had said while training that the Kyuubi's powers might be drawn out through emotions. Hate, anger all the negative emotions seemed to draw the power out easily. That unsettled Naruto a bit hearing that.

The fox roared at Naruto's limp form. "Fool, if you die then I die, besides you already use my power. Where do you think your healing abilities come from or your chakra? You drain me of my power every moment you live, what is a little more? Just enough to win, I can sense the power of another, the One Tail if I'm not mistaken."

Although the Kyuubi didn't know much of what went on beyond the bars, a precaution to prevent him from taking over the host's mind, he could still sense things now and then. Mostly it was when the host was injured but with another like Naruto here, he could sense the chakra of a Tailed Beast. After all, they nine of them were kin, they knew each other from anywhere since their birth.

"I refuse to lose to him boy, so you will take my power," the Fox leaned as close as he could to the bars as Naruto stared up into one of the massive red eyes. "Even if I have to force feed you my power. Normally I can't but since we're in this state it will be easy."

Suddenly red chakra started to seep out of the bars and enter Naruto, he cried out as he felt the power fill his body. He felt like his blood was on fire as the power filled him like he hadn't ever felt before.

On the outside Gaara grinned as he was about to crush the boy, he couldn't wait to feel the blood flow onto his sand. Then he would deal with his teammates and then anyone else, he would slaughter this village. He would bath the village in its own blood in honor of his mother. Then the unexpected happened, the sand coffin exploded. Anyone watching was shocked by what they saw.

There stood Naruto, his clothing torn and there was some blood on him but that wasn't what anyone focused on. There was this red chakra surrounding him, his hair seemed wilder and when he looked up, his eyes were red with slits on them.

"What is that?" Sasuke muttered seeing this he could feel the chakra coming off Naruto. It was malevolent and evil, which was something strange as that, was the total opposite of Naruto. Sakura could feel this too and she had a sense of déjà vu from the forest, only this time the power was larger and even scarier.

Up in the stands there were other shocked spectators, Ino and Choji were watching the fight from a safe distance. Temari was awake as was her brother but both were tied up by the two genins. They too saw what it was, but they knew what was going on.

"He's just like Gaara," Temari whispered out at the sight of it all.

"What do you mean by that?" Ino asked not taking her eyes off Naruto, someone she had known for a long time but since when could he do this? Plus what was up with that chakra, she could feel it from here and it just felt wrong to her.

"You really don't know anything do you?" Temari spat still pissed she had been tricked like that by a girl that hadn't even gotten into the finals.

"Spill it or I'll just rip it out of your mind, and I might accidentally erase a few things while in there," Ino said although she was bluffing. She could do that, if she knew more about her family jutsus but honestly she wasn't that advanced in them yet.

"He's a Jinchuriki, like my brother you air head," Temari spelled it out to her. "I'm not sure which tailed beast he has, but Gaara was implanted with the One-Tailed Shukaku."

"What, I don't believe you," Ino said back sharply. "Naruto would have told us something like this and there haven't been any of those things around here since...since..." Ino trailed off as something in her mind clicked. She thought back to one of Naruto's birthdays, they were a lot younger she forgot which one, but she remembered how she had seen his stuffed fox toy in his room.

She commented on how cute it was and he said something about wasn't cute. Ino didn't remember much, she had completely forgotten about that toy, plus Naruto's birthday also rang in her mind. October 10, the day the Kyuubi attacked. She knew that from school and she had thought it odd how Naruto's birthday was on the same day when she learned it. Thinking back to the year, it was the same year that he had been born too.

But it had to all be just coincidence, didn't it?

Meanwhile, Naruto was getting ready to attack Gaara. The chakra cloak around Naruto started to slowly shift and change as it took shape. Slowly a tail started to form as what looked like ears grew around his head. He roared out, a roar so loud that many could swear they heard it that day from blocks away. The roar was so powerful that his mask was shredded by the force of it. His whisker marks were also changed, they were more feral looking, he grew fangs as well. He looked more animal than man at the moment.

From nearby, Hinata felt the power and heard the roar slightly over the battle. She wasn't sure what it was, some distant part of her mind did remember that feeling. She felt it that night of her kidnapping, although she didn't remember it consciously. But that night, when she felt that power, some primal part of her always did remember and that's why she somehow knew it was Naruto and that something was wrong.

"Hinata, what's wrong?" Kurenai asked.

"Something is wrong with Naruto-kun," Hinata said as she looked back at the stadium.

"Hinata I'm sure he'll be fine." Kurenai told her. She knew the girl was worried about her boyfriend but they had a mission to deal with. But then Hinata just took off, running to the stadium. "Hinata, what are you doing?" She called after her.

"Should we go and get her?" Shino asked.

Kurenai shook her head, they still had things to do there was still fighting going on. "No, but I sure hope she knows what the hell she's doing."

Naruto crouched on all fours as the bloodlust of battle was pumping through his veins. Then he charged forward, he moved with such blinding speed that Gaara didn't have a chance to move. Naruto was too fast as he struck Gaara, and the chakra cloak could actually damage the other boy's body as well. The fist that smashed into Gaara, actually managed to knock the boy back.

Naruto didn't give up though, he was attacking like an animal. He would punch and claw at his opponent. Gaara tried to put up a defence but it wasn't easy. Naruto could burn the sand skin away or just tear it to pieces. Never had Gaara ever battled someone like this, he was enjoying it but he was also feeling something else. Something he hadn't felt in years, fear.

Naruto hard large claws of chakra shoot out and attack Gaara, as Gaara tried to use something similar with his sand. But the chakra was just too strong and the sand couldn't stand up to the power of the Nine Tails. Gaara felt the only way to beat Naruto, was to go all out and to even release the demon within. He had only done so twice before but he didn't care all he cared about was to just kill Naruto Hatake.

Naruto however would not let him have the chance to do it. The large red claws came to grip Gaara him on either side. The sand skin was burning from the touch of the violent chakra, then Naruto ripped him apart. Gaara cried out as the sand skin was literally pulled from him. The sand melted away as it no longer could be controlled by Gaara, Gaara himself felt to the ground in slight shock from what had been done to him. He didn't think it was possible to have his sand pulled away in that form. His whole body felt pain as he tried to concentrate.

Then one of the claws captured Gaara, he grunted out as Naruto's large clawed hand was slowly crushing the boy. Gaara looked into his eyes and saw the same kind of eyes he had seen before. He had to grin, now that was the true boy he was seeing, he felt. It was odd, how he felt so much fear. He never felt so much fear in his life, and was shocked to know that despite everything, he didn't want to die. He cried out as the large chakra claw was crushing his body.

Naruto didn't care about anything at the moment he just wanted to stop Gaara. He had to save the others he had to win no matter what. He didn't even really register what he was doing he just felt the need and the urge to kill him. It was like something deep inside of him was yelling out to kill, and he was going to do just that.

"N-Naruto-kun!"

Naruto stopped as a voice called to him through the fog of anger and rage. He looked to see that Hinata was there and she was crying. Her face had tears falling down as she looked at him and it stopped him cold.

Hinata could only cry seeing what Naruto was going through, she didn't understand what was going on but she knew that this wasn't him. This wasn't the Naruto she had been friends with, that she had come to love. She couldn't let him do this to himself, she had to stop him before he did something he would regret.

"Please stop this, this isn't you," Hinata said as she slowly walked towards him.

Naruto could only look into her eyes, she wasn't afraid, in fact she was in pain. She was in pain because of him. The last time he saw her cry like this, it was the night her mother had died. He had held her as she cried her heart out to him. He suddenly felt sick, he caused this new pain in her, he had sworn to protect her to never make her cry. He had broken that promise to himself.

As she came closer Naruto felt the anger and the power with it slowly leaving his body. The chakra slowly receded as his body slowly started to turn back to normal. Gaara fell as the chakra disappeared but he couldn't move. His body was too damaged to do anything other than look. He looked on confused with what he was seeing. She had seen what he was, so why was she crying like that, why was she not running away?

"Hinata-chan?" Naruto said as his mind slowly came back to normal.

She bit her lip as her tears increased, she quickly threw herself into his chest burring herself into the remains of his shirt and jacket. She held him tight as she cried that he was back to normal. "I was so w-worried about you, I-I thought that I was going to lose you or something. Please don't push yourself like this again, I was so worried about you!"

"I-I'm sorry Hinata-chan," He said softly holding her.

Gaara could only watch on in silence as he saw the scene in front of him. He wasn't the only one as Sakura and Sasuke had been freed. They were watching the scene too, Sakura had a small smile on her face seeing the two of them.

The Hokage was having a very troubling time with the two recently revived leaders of the village. It wasn't easy to fight those he had known so well, he had looked up to the brothers when younger and now he was fighting them. Sarutobi had no idea how Orochimaru had done this but this went beyond evil. To disturb the rest of those who had passed on was something that no man should do. It was also during this battle that they all saw what had happened with Naruto.

"This was not what I intended when I gave each nation one of the Tailed Beasts," The First Hokage said grimly.

"Hmmm, I wonder if you can still control them through a host?" Orochimaru thought out loud. "Well, after we deal with the old fool, we can test it out later. But I think it's time we end things quickly." Orochimaru opened his mouth as a snake holding a sword came out. This was the Kusanagi Sword, a weapon of legend that could, among other things, extend the blade to untold of lengths.

It was then that the Hokage had to battle for his life.

A little later, Team 7 with Hinata helping Naruto, made it to the roof in time to see the Hokage battling for his life. There were a lot of trees in the way from the First Hokage but they could still make out the battle within. Naruto saw the seal and knew it was trouble. Mainly because Anko threatened to put him in on, the one time when he was ten and kept bugging her when she was looking after him one day. He saw the ANBU there just sitting there watching.

"What are you guys doing? Can't you do anything? Naruto yelled at them.

One of cloaked figures turned to face him, "I'm sorry but the seal covers the entire area, even under the roof. And the four that are keeping it up, they are just as protected. We can't even touch the field."

"Damn it!" Naruto yelled out getting frustrated. He didn't know much about seals so he looked to Sakura. "Sakura-chan isn't there anything you know that can help? I mean you would know more about this right?"

Sakura blinked in surprise as she thought about it. "I don't think there is anything. The four of them are the anchors for this jutsu. If they were to fall then it will stop working, but they added a secondary layer that is tied in with the first. They're supporting each other right now. As long as their concentration and their chakra last they can keep it up."

Naruto started to think, there had to be a way. He kept thinking back to his dad's words, such as look underneath the underneath. Well he didn't think that would work out, the only thing under him was the damn building. He couldn't stand to just sit here while the Hokage battled for his life. It just wasn't fair the old man had always been there for him growing up. He was like a grandfather figure to him. He stopped his foot hard enough to break the tiles under it.

Suddenly an idea started to form in his head, "Hey what you said about concentration, could they keep it up if the ground wasn't stable?"

"I don't think so, in fact I'm pretty sure they wouldn't," Sakura then noticed that look in his eyes and had a bad feeling coming on. "Naruto, what the hell are you thinking?"

Naruto just grinned as he turned to leave, "Hey everyone, if this works I want you all to get out of here!"

Naruto jumped off as everyone looked at him, wondering just what he was thinking. Sasuke turned to look at the ANBU. "If I were you, I'd do what he says. Knowing him, this isn't going to be pleasant."

Naruto managed to get to the arena again now looking at the giant seal on the top. He had to make sure he had enough room for this, if he wanted to break that seal, he was going to do it, even if it meant bringing down the entire building. Naruto wasn't sure he had enough chakra for this. But he had no other way around this, he had to do something or the Old Man might not make it.

"Are you sure about this?" Hinata asked him.

He nodded, he still hated how he had made her cry like that. He would have to tell her everything after all of this. But first his plan, or what he had hoped would be considered a plan. He gathered as much chakra as he could, anything he could spare. When he was done, he had a few dozen clones.

"Shadow clones?" Hinata said confused.

"Just just regular ones," Naruto grinned at her as he looked to his clones. "You know what to do."

"Hai, taicho!" They rang out as they rushed into the building. The clones quickly found the major structural areas of the building. Or at least what they thought looked important, since Naruto didn't know much about buildings, but he did know how to wreck things. So anything important looking had a clone or two in there. When they were ready, they all started to explode. It was like a chain reaction, at first nothing happened with the explosions but soon the entire structure started to fall down.

The Sound Four who had been keeping the seal intact, soon found the ground beneath them coming apart. The seal did cover the ground, but it needed solid ground to stay anchored. With each member starting to fall in different ways, the seal was no longer equally spaced. It was too hard to keep the seal up and keep themselves from being buried alive. So they had to break the seal.

Naruto could only grin at the sight of the seal disappearing he just hoped that the ANBU were ready to help the Hokage. With that, he started to black out, he had used up all the chakra he could and he started to fall to the ground. He felt Hinata catch him, she was saying something but he couldn't make it out. He was just too tired and couldn't keep away until the world went dark.

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Next up Chapter 63: Aftermath