Naruto stood atop Gamabunta’s head and was looking at Gaara, who seemed to be growing out of Shukaku’s head.
“How weird, is Gaara in control, or is it Shukaku?”
Gamabunta jumped sideways with insane speed to dodge another massive wave of sand. Despite the high movement speed, Naruto stood firmly on Gamabunta’s head.
“Damn brat, stop spouting nonsense and help me out, will ya?”
“Hehe, sorry, Boss, but there isn’t much I can do against those insane amounts of sand.”
“Don’t you have massive chakra reserves? Just shoot a bunch of jutsu and try to hit the kid standing on top of Shukaku.”
“Haha, sorry Boss, but I am pretty much out of steam.”
“THEN WHY THE HELL DID YOU SUMMON ME!?”
“Haha…”
“DON’T LAUGH!!!”
Another wave of sand approached them, which was yet again dodged by Gamabunta.
“Isn’t it fine? You are dodging these pretty easily.”
“Shit, just you wait until this fight is over I will…”
“Okay, okay, calm down, Boss. I am just kidding. How about you keeping dodging a little longer, while I put some wind chakra into your blade to make it sharper. Then you can just cut through this guy.”
Gamabunta clicked his tongue in annoyance but still agreed.
The next few minutes, Gamabunta spent dodging around the arena, while Naruto tried to somehow get a proper wind chakra coating on Gamabunta’s blade, which considering its size wasn’t easy at all.
“Got it, Boss!”
Without another word, Gamabunta evaded another sand wave, gripped the hilt of his sword, and lunged towards Shukaku’s form. His sword cut upwards in one swift motion and easily cut off one of Shukaku’s arms.
Gamabunta couldn’t help but be surprised by the sharpness of the sword.
“Not bad, kid, not bad at all. I pretty much felt no resistance while cutting off that arm.”
“No prob…”
Naruto’s words were interrupted when an earth-shaking roar echoed through the arena.
“…KILL YOU!!! I WILL DEFINITELY KILL YOU!!! I WILL SHOW IT TO YOU!!! I WILL SHOW YOU IT’S TRUE POWER!!!”
“[FEIGNING SLEEP TECHNIQUE]”
After he said that, he simply fell forward and stopped moving. Naruto could only look at that in confusion.
“Did he just fall asleep? What the hell?”
Gamabunta, however, lowered his stance and prepared for battle.
“Be careful. Now that the host is asleep, Shukaku will be able to take control. This will make things much harder for us.”
Naruto widened his eyes and quickly got ready for battle as well. For now, he didn’t use any of Kurama’s chakra, since using it right now would put quite the burden on his body due to his already exhausted state. And moments later…
[HAHAHA I AM FINALLY OUT!!! AND THERE ARE EVEN A LOT OF PEOPLE FOR ME TO KILL!!!]
[Wind Style: Drilling Air Bullet]
Seeing the massive air bullet flying towards him, Gamabunta clicked his tongue and quickly jumped upwards to dodge it. It smashed into the barrier that was created by the Uzumaki clan members and caused ripples to appear on the barrier for a few moments before it calmed down again.
Shukaku, however, ignored that and instead focused on Gamabunta who was in midair. He used the same jutsu for another three times, resulting in three very chakra-dense air bullets flying at the still airborne Gamabunta.
“[Water Style: Liquid Bullets]”
Gamabunta quickly gathered chakra of his own and fired two huge water bullets at the three incoming projectiles, causing them to detonate in midair. Naruto noticed earlier, that Gamabunta wouldn’t have enough time to block the third one so he started gathering chakra as well. A huge ball of swirling chakra appeared in his right hand while he jumped towards the third wind bullet.
“[Giant Rasengan]”
The third wind bullet detonated as well and sent Naruto flying, but he was quickly caught by Gamabunta’s tongue and placed back on the giant toad’s head.
“Good job, kid. That could have been dangerous.”
“No problem, Boss. I assume we have to wake up the sleeping princess to win this?”
“Probably. If I grab onto him, you should be able to jump on his head and wake him up. What do you think?”
“Should work, but toads aren’t exactly made to hold something, will you be fine?”
“Just help me transform into something with claws and it should work out.”
Naruto thought about it for a moment and then a mischievous smile appeared on his face.
“Hehe, I have just the right transformation for that.”
Gamabunta swiftly dodged sideways, evading another wind bullet and then charged at Shukaku.
“”[Henge]””
A massive smoke cloud appeared and moments later an equally massive fox with 9 tails jumped out of it and sank its claws into Shukaku, giving Naruto a chance to jump on his head.
As soon as he landed, he could feel that his feet were sinking into Shukaku’s body, so Naruto quickly applied some Chakra to them to prevent himself from sinking any further.
As soon as he had stabilized himself, he jumped towards Gaara, to punch I’m in the face. Just before the punch could land, his hand was blocked by a wall of sand.
[GIHAHAHAH, YOU DIDN’T THINK IT WOULD BE THAT EASY, DID YOU?!]
A sneer appeared on Naruto’s face.
“Of course, I didn’t.”
Red bubbling chakra started to envelop Naruto. His fist, which was previously stuck into a wall of sand, easily pierced through it and smashed straight into Gaara’s face, waking him up in the process.
[NO! IMPOSSIBLE! I JUST GOT OUT!!! SHIT!!!]
Gaara looked around with bewilderment in his eyes. He looked around and saw Naruto standing very close to him with red chakra cloaking his whole body.
“Impossible! You defeated it!?”
A vicious smirk appeared on Naruto’s face.
“That’s right, and now it’s time for you to be defeated as well.”
Gaara seemed to genuinely panic at that.
“NOOO!!! I CAN’T BE DEFEATED!!! I NEED TO WIN TO PROVE MY EXISTENCE!!!”
Unfortunately for him, the moment he finished that sentence, Naruto appeared in front of him, with three tails furiously flailing behind him. Naruto’s fist pierced through Gaara’s sand barrier like it was made of paper and punched him in the face, causing the giant Shukaku underneath Gaara to shatter into pieces.
“And I need to defeat you to protect my loved ones and secure the future of my clan.”
Gaara barely managed to shield himself with his sand before landing on the ground, but that was all he was currently capable of. After landing, he could no longer move and could only look at Naruto with hatred.
“How could you be this strong!? This is impossible! Protecting people!? Why would you do that!? Others are only there to be killed, to prove how strong you are!”
Seeing the mix of hatred and desperation inside Gaara’s eyes, Naruto had a pretty good idea of what Gaara was going through.
‘I see, so this is what I would have become if nee-san wasn’t there.’
[That is probably the case. Unlike you, who always had an unshakeable pillar to rely on, he never had anything like that.]
‘Alone and hated for all his life, huh? Nee-san will probably make fun of me if I try to help him.’
[I don’t think she will.]
‘Now that I think about it, she probably won’t, huh.’
“That is easy to answer, Gaara. Only by protecting something can you show your true strength and only by training with someone else can you reach your true potential.”
For a moment, Gaara simply looked at Naruto in disbelief. Moments later, however, he regathered his wits and started speaking again.
“Aren’t you like me!? We both have a demon inside us, don’t we!? Friends!? Family!? Loved ones!? How could they be important to you!? Shouldn’t everyone hate you!? Just like me, you are a monster, after all!!!”
Seeing the hatred in Gaara’s eyes shift to pure desperation, Naruto could only shake his head.
“It seems like you have a little misunderstanding there. I don’t have a demon sealed inside me.”
Gaara’s eyes widened and he was just about to speak when Naruto cut him off.
“The only thing I have inside me, is a friend.”
Gaara’s eyes widened even further when he heard that.
“You…befriended… it?”
“Yes! I befriended HIM!”
Naruto and Gaara kept eye contact for a long time and the longer Gaara looked Naruto in the eyes, the more confused he became. Just when he was about to speak, however, Temari and Kankuro landed between him and Naruto. Temari had her fan in her hand, while Kakuro’s puppet stood in front of him. They both looked at Naruto and the giant toad still standing behind him and couldn’t help but shudder in pure terror, but still stood their ground.
Seeing this, Naruto could only chuckle.
“See, Gaara? Aren’t there already two people you can call family? They are terrified out of their minds and yet they still want to protect you.”
Gaara looked at his two siblings with an intense gaze. This might have been the first time he has actually looked at them properly in a long time. Seeing how they desperately tried to protect him, Gaara’s whole body instantly relaxed. For some reason, he felt much lighter than before. Even Shukaku’s voice that would occasionally speak to him seemed to be much more endurable now.
“Temari, Kankuro this is our loss. Lay down your weapons…And… thank you for trying to protect me.”
The two siblings looked at Gaara in total bewilderment, while Naruto couldn’t help but laugh a little.
“Haha, now that you have a small family, how about we add a friend as well? Wanna become friends?”
Gaara, yet again, met eyes with Naruto, and after a short while, a calm smile appeared on his face.
“That would be nice.”
