“It’s time to go~” Naru said to Sasuke.

“Alright, I should be perfectly prepared.” Sasuke said, before grabbing her hand.

Leisurely, they strolled through the bustling village. Many inns and shops were having the time of their lives because so many foreign people had come to the village.

“Can you feel all those presences in the arena?” Sasuke asked Naru as they entered the participants area of the Chunin-Exam-Arena.

Naru nodded and leaned into his ear: “And most of these people are here to watch the last Uchiha fight~”

“Sigh … that’s right. If only they knew that the last Uchiha’s little fox is even more outstanding than him, then they’d probably be here to watch you instead~.” He joked, earning a slight giggle from her.

He was still … slightly … upset about being weaker than her, but he’d handle that, his love for her was stronger than his pride as an Uchiha. That’s something that he understood after nearly losing her after the second round of the exams.

Naru had, in that one month, completely burned away the curse mark on his neck, he could now freely use all of his abilities and Orochimaru would not be able to control him. Even if he gave him a new curse mark … he would just have Naru burn it away again.

The damage to his chakra pathway-system was minimal, it would heal on its own if it did not get worse than it already was.

Soon, they reached the middle of the wide battle area of the arena, where all the other Genin were already waiting for the Hokage to announce the beginning of the third and final round of the exams.

They looked at their fellow Genin and nodded at each other, before turning their gaze to the Hokage.

They noticed that the Kazekage had already arrived. They seemed to be currently talking with each other.

After a while, the Hokage finally stood up and announced the beginning of the finals.

The proctor of the finals, who had changed from Hayate Gekko to Genma Shiranui, announced the fighting order to the Genin standing in the arena.

1. Naruto vs Neji
2. Kankuro vs Shino
3. Temari vs Shikamaru
4. Naru vs Sakura
5. Sasuke vs Gaara

“Alright, Naruto and Neji stay here, the rest of you go to the waiting area.” Genma said.

Naru looked at Naruto with an angry gaze and said: “He hurt Hinata.”

Naruto just nodded and smirked back at her, he was fully confident in beating Neji and showing him that he shouldn’t have hurt Hinata.

Meanwhile, Neji, who had seen Naru’s angry expression, shivered and nearly vomited out his breakfast.

“She … those eyes of hers have been haunting my dreams for days …” Neji thought.

He had some sleepless nights because of her … and he knew that she had become angry because he had hurt Hinata … he would never dare do that again.

But … now … what if he hurt Naruto? Wouldn’t he die instantly? However, he couldn’t not fight now. He needed to fight him … his clan expected him to win. He could only try not injuring Naruto too much, in hopes of not incurring more of her wrath.

Naruto and Neji readied themselves, with Naruto taking out a kunai and Neji activating his Byakugan and getting into a stance for the gentle fist.

“Start!” Genma shouted, before taking some distance.

Naruto looked at Neji in anger, vowing to beat him viciously …

They stared at each other for a few seconds, before Naruto disappeared.

The crowd cheered, with many being surprised at the blonde’s speed.

Naruto appeared behind Neji and stabbed at him with his kunai, intending to give him a severe wound right at the beginning of the fight.

Neji had seen him move with his Byakugan but only barely managed to deflect Naruto’s kunai.

Naruto continued stabbing at Neji in a speed that he was nearly unable to defend against.

Neji was surprised. He never expected Naruto to be this strong. Sure, he had seen him fight against Kiba … but he did not show such strength back then.

“He improved this much in just a month?! Or did he not show his true abilities back then?!” Neji screamed inside of his mind. At this rate, he didn’t need to worry about injuring Naruto, he’d need to worry about himself!

Neji did not have many chances to counterattack, but even when he did, Naruto easily dodged his strikes, not giving him a chance to seal any energy points.

Just when Naruto was seemingly starting another attack with his kunai, his other arm suddenly punched out, hitting Neji’s stomach and making him cough up blood.

Neji feel to the ground, breathing heavily. “How can his punch be this strong?!”

Naruto had infused a bit of Kurama’s chakra into that punch … if he had infused even more, then Neji would probably have a hole in his stomach right now.

Neji never stood any chance against Naruto, he simply had a superior body. It was similar to the situation that Sasuke had with Lee a few weeks ago. Lee’s body was simply faster, there was nothing he could really do against that.

Even with his Byakugan and his gentle fist style, if he couldn’t even get one good hit in, he could do nothing.

However, Neji stood up again, albeit feeling a bit faint already.

Naruto smirked and slowly walked towards him.

That one punch had sapped Neji’s energy, he could barely even keep his eyes open, his Byakugan had long stopped working.

(A/N: Gosh … this fighting scene is trash.)

Naruto soon reached Neji and infused twice the amount of chakra he had used before into his fist.

Naruto stepped back, flexed his arm muscle’s and punched out. He stopped just before the hit connected, not killing Neji, but the air pressure alone made Neji fly through the air and cry out in pain.

Neji painfully hit the wall of the arena, making a bit of debris fall off.

His broken figure left an imprint on the fall before falling down onto the ground.

Genma observed Neji for a while, noticing that he would not stand up again. “Naruto wins!” He shouted.

The spectators cheered, not having expected such a spectacular performance from the blonde boy. They knew that the Hyuga were powerful, but they did not even once expect Neji to be beaten so easily.

Naruto stepped off the arena and walked towards the waiting room, where the rest of the participants were staying.

Upon arriving there, he was instantly embraced by a familiar pair of warm and soft arms.

“You did well, Nii-chan~.” Naru said, burying her face in his shoulder.

“Thank you. Though he never really had a chance anyway … and, honestly, I’m not one to viciously hurt anyone. I think that the fear he holds for you is already enough punishment for him.” Naruto whispered.

Naru nodded and let go of him, returning to Sasuke’s side.

 

…

 

In the next two fights, nothing too surprising happened.

Kankuro gave up for a reason only known to himself.

Shikamaru and Temari fought for a while and it looked like Shikamaru was about to win … but then he suddenly decided that it was too strength-consuming to continue fighting, so he surrendered as well.

This allowed Shino and Temari to advance into the next round.

 

…

 

“Naru-chan, I don’t want to fight you … and I know that you are much stronger than me. I’m happy with having been able to come this far, I was actually quite lucky to have won against Ino, so I’ll stop here. I’ll be watching your fight later~.” Sakura said to Naru before leaving the arena again.

The crowd was slowly getting tired of so many boring fights that ended in surrenders … but … finally there’d be the fight that they were all excited for.

Sasuke vs Gaara.

 

…

 

Sasuke and Gaara looked at each other, both ready and only waiting for Genma to start the fight.

“Start!” Genma shouted, feeling the spectator’s gazes on his back, cursing him to finally start the match.

Sasuke and Gaara just continued staring at each other, waiting for the other to move.

Suddenly, Gaara held his head, seemingly in pain … the sand that he had already gathered around himself fell to the ground … his influence over it seemed to have vanished.

Gaara mumbled to himself: “Yes, Mother …”

Then he looked up, staring at Sasuke with intense bloodlust and anger.

Sasuke just smirked and vanished.

He reappeared behind Gaara and, without Gaara’s sand being able to react, he hit him in his face, making a part of Gaara’s sand armor crumble.

Gaara flew through the air, his fall being cushioned by his loyal sand.

Several spectators exclaimed in awe at Sasuke’s abilities. His speed was even a bit faster than Naruto’s, or so they thought.

A few strikes later, Gaara’s sand armor was breaking apart …

Seemingly in a panic, a sand orb formed around Gaara, firmly protecting him.

Whenever Sasuke got close, spikes of sand shot out, making him stop in his tracks to dodge.

“It’s time …” Sasuke mumbled, gathering chakra in his left arm.

Gradually lightning seemed to be coming from his left hand. Sounds of birds rang through the arena.

“Chidori.” Sasuke said, before appearing right next to the orb of sand and stabbing into it.

“Ah?!” Gaara screamed, not expecting his perfect defense to be penetrated.

“What is this? Blood?!” Gaara screamed.

Soon, a low growl was heard coming from inside of the orb of sand.

A brown arm covered by blue lines shot out, throwing Sasuke back.

A few meters of flying later, Sasuke was able to regain his footing and safely land on the ground.

 

…

 

A few seconds after that, all hell broke loose.

A wide-range Gen-Jutsu affected most of the audience, with only a few shinobi being able to escape its grasp.

Smoke rose around the kages seats.

The Kazekage grabbed the Hokage and jumped onto the arena’s roof.

A few Anbu shot out, trying to help the Hokage, but a wall made of fire enclosed the Hokage and the Kazekage within, preventing them from rescuing the Hokage.

At the same time, around Konoha’s walls, a huge snake crushed the wall, opening the path for hundreds of Suna-nin to storm in.

Soon, fighting began.

 

…

 

“Sasuke, follow them. Do what is best for Konoha … as a clearly Chunin-level ninja.” Genma said, asking Sasuke to follow Gaara and his group that had escaped the arena.

Sasuke nodded, vanishing and following Gaara, Temari and Kankuro.

 

…

 

Sasuke was currently rushing through a forest, following after Gaara, Temari and Kankuro who had had a big head start, when three figures appeared next to him, keeping up with his speed.

“I’m glad you came.” Sasuke said to the rest of his team.

Naru, Naruto and Sakura nodded.

They followed the two Suna-nins that were bringing Gaara to safety because he was of no use to the invasion.

Soon, Sakura started sweating, feeling the fatigue from the prolonged running at full speed overtake her body.

“Sakura, just a bit longer. They are just ahead.” Naru said, seeing her sweat-stained face.

Just then, Naru’s senses took in a bloodthirsty aura: “Kurama-nii … that’s Shukaku.”

“Right … his Jinchuuriki is probably too weak to keep him contained any longer.” Kurama said through Naruto’s mouth, letting the rest of the group know what was happening.

A few seconds later, they finally caught up with the three Suna-Genin.

Knowing that they could not run any further, Temari and Kankuro, who had been helping Gaara, stopped and faced Team 7.

A few seconds of staring at each other later, Gaara started screaming.

A weird, brownish mass covered his right body side.

Gaara growled, or rather, Shukaku did.

He looked at Temari and Kankuro, making them flinch and jump back.

“Shit …“ Kankuro said, knowing that they could not stop Gaara anymore. He would cause a bloodbath here.

“Hey, hey … he’s growing!” Naruto said.

“Yeah. Shukaku, the one-tails, is taking over the body. That’s already not the young boy anymore.” Kurama said through Naruto’s mouth.

“Kurama-nii, do we need to kill him?” Naru asked.

“The boy is asleep. He has given control to our brother. If we can wake him up … then maybe, we won’t need to kill him.” Kurama responded.

“How do we wake him up!?” Naruto shouted, not wanting to kill the boy that endured a similar hatred than he and his sister had.

“I believe just hitting him a few times should do.” Kurama said, earning him a few surprised gazes.

“That’s really all?” Sasuke asked.

“You say that like it’s easy. The boy is hidden deep inside of the big body of sand you see in front of you. We’d need to destroy that body of sand around him first. Only then can we even touch the boy.” Kurama said.

“Alright. I’ll transform and fight him. You three search for the boy in the pieces of sand that drop, okay?” Naru said before jumping into the air, not waiting for them to answer her.

“Transform.” Naru said. Smoke rose around her and when it finally cleared, it revealed a huge golden fox. Its eyes were completely golden in color and seemed to be hiding a deep killing intent, petrifying those that looked into its eyes.

It looked a bit slimmer than the Kyuubi of 12 years ago. It was twice as big as the one-tails standing in front of it though.

In a mere second, it disappeared and appeared behind the one-tails, swiping a claw at it.

The one-tails was not even able to react before its tail was cleanly cut off.

It cried out in pain and started thrashing around, destroying large amounts of the forest around them.

Naru jumped into the air and appeared above the tanuki, pressing it onto the ground.

She moved her huge maw down, completely engulfing its head and tearing it off.

She raised her head again and spat it out towards her three teammates.

A soft voice growled: “Look at it. Tell me if he’s in there.”

Her three teammates nodded and started digging through the sand.

A few minutes of holding down the rest of the sand monster later, Naruto cried out: “Found him!”

Naru nodded and looked back down at the rest of the one-tails.

She opened her maw and fused yin and yang chakra together, forming a purely golden Bijuu-Bomb, it would explode upon contact with the tanuki, erasing it from existence.

Upon finishing the gathering of chakra, she jumped into the air and let the ball go.

It shot towards the ground and exploded upon contact with the beast.

Sand and smoke flew into every direction of the forest.

Once the smoke cleared, it revealed a large hole at the place where the one-tails had been at before. Nothing was left of it.

The huge golden Kyuubi vanished and in its place reappeared Naru in her Kitsune-Form.

“Shunshin no Jutsu.” She mumbled and instantly reappeared at the place where her three teammates were at.

They were huddled around a sleeping Gaara.

“Are we really doing this?” Naruto said, looking at Naru who had appeared next to them.

Naru nodded.

“Alright.” Naruto said, taking a stance and punching out. His fist hit Gaara’s right cheek, making his eyes shoot open.

“What did you?!” Gaara shouted, angry at the fact that they were still alive.

He had just wanted to scream out when he noticed a golden figure in front of him.

Her head held two huge fox ears and from her back extended nine separate golden tails that moved together to appear as one huge tail instead.

He looked into her glowing eyes and froze.

The killing intent and bloodlust hidden in them totally outranked his own or that of his ghost inside of him.

He knew … if he dared to make any wrong move, then he would be totally obliterated. There was no chance for survival at that point.

He instantly quieted down, staring at the fox girl in front of him.

“Gaara.” Naruto said.

Gaara moved his eyes from Naru to Naruto.

“I … know your pain. It’s familiar. I’ve felt connected to you even when I first met you. I’m sure … Naru’s the same. All that hatred you needed to feel in your village, we felt too. We are similar, you, me and Naru. Yet, our experiences and paths are different. We have something precious to us, something to protect.” Naruto said, looking directly into Gaara’s eyes.

Naruto’s formerly blue eyes turned into white slits, making Gaara know that he holds the same type of ghost inside of him.

Gaara’s eyes widened.

“Gaara. There are people around you too. They will help you. They will heal your loneliness.” Naruto said, before looking at Temari and Kankuro.

“You have a family, Gaara. Let them in. Love them, like they love you.” Naruto said, before getting up from the ground.

(A/N: An instance of talk-no-jutsu. Figured, that Gaara really needed that character development too. I just hope … that it was somewhat believable? This chapter is a total mess, but I’m glad that I got it somewhat done by now. The third Hokage will die, without a doubt. The snake will get away.)

Temari and Kankuro appeared behind Gaara.

Gaara turned around and mumbled: “Love, huh.” Before chuckling to himself and slipping into unconsciousness. He had completely overexerted his chakra reserves and needed rest.

Temari and Kankuro caught the falling boy and nodded at Team 7 before jumping away.

 

“Think he got the message?” Naruto asked.

“He did~.” Naru smiled.

Sasuke and Sakura just nodded, agreeing with Naru.

“Shall we go back to the village now?” Naru asked.

Naruto nodded: “Can you see what the current situation is?”

“Yeah.” Naru said and closed her eyes, extending her senses.

…

“Naruto. The Hokage is … dead. Orochimaru is gone and the city is heavily damaged.” Naru said, opening her eyes again.

“What?! The old man is dead?” Naruto asked, two lines of tears forming on his face.

Naru knew that he liked the old man. He was like a real grandfather to him.

Naru also knew that the third Hokage was the beginning of much misery and that he had let Danzo free reign, sometimes causing much more pain that he could have prevented.

She moved to hug her brother, also extending her tails and covering him in fluff, hoping to make his grief lessen even slightly.

She honestly did not feel much for the Hokage’s death. It wasn’t like they were too close, and she knew too much about his hidden dealings right from the beginning, so there was no way for them to become close even if he wanted to.

 

…

 

[A few days later]

Team 7 met, each member wearing purely black clothes.

Naru chose to wear a more formal black dress.

“Ready?” Naru asked Naruto.

Naruto nodded.

A few minutes later, together with several hundred other ninjas, they gathered on the roof of the Hokage building.

Slowly, raindrops fell from the sky, covering the ground and all of the ninja attending the funeral.

All of Konoha was mourning the death of their leader, their protector and the god of ninja, as they called him, the Sandaime, Hiruzen Sarutobi.

One by one, the ninja went up to the funeral site, laying down a white flower.

Most of them laid it down for the Hokage, but there were also some that laid down a flower for the loved ones they had lost in this invasion.

It is important to know that not only the Hokage died. Several other shinobi and civilians lost their lives in the invasion that Orochimaru had caused.

After everyone present had laid down their flower, Sasuke looked into the sky before talking to Naru who stood beside him, holding his hand: “Little fox. The rain stopped.”

“You’re right.” Naru said, smiling up at him.

She then let go of his hand and instead chose to cling to his arm and lay her head on his shoulder.

After closing her eyes, she said: “I’m glad that you are not leaving, Sasuke.”

He looked down at her, before resting his head on hers and saying: “Me too, little fox.”

 

…

 

A/N: What a messy chapter. I hope that some people nonetheless enjoyed it.

And if you didn’t enjoy it, then I hope that it was at least able to somehow hold back your boredom, seeing that you read it completely. :3