When I arrive on the battlefield, Sasuke has already exhausted himself overusing the Chidori. He’s fallen prone while covered in tattoo-like curse markings. I know that’s bad news.

Gaara is half-mutated with a giant sand claw and tail. The bloodthirsty Suna ninja leaps to deal the final blow, and I’m too far away!

“Don’t you dare touch him, dattebayo!” Naruto comes out of nowhere to kick Gaara aside.

Pakkun and I/Ino land beside Sasuke. I begin giving him first aid. I’m glad the ninken was eventually able to get Naruto here. They must have run into trouble, and Shikamaru stayed behind. I hope he’s okay…

“Sakura-chan, he’s too strong!” Naruto says. “Let’s take Sasuke-kun and run!”

Gaara recovers quickly and dashes past Naruto to attack Sasuke again. Ino manifests her hands to do the seals for the Mind Body Switch Technique. It’s a straight shot at the charging monster, and her invisible projection easily connects. I move in to deliver a solid punch.

Unfortunately, she’s used too much chakra on Tayuya’s Doki and Kankuro, so the technique doesn’t last more than half a second. Gaara breaks free and swats us aside. Then he grabs Sasuke and pins the unconscious boy against a tree trunk.

“I said, get your hands off him!!!”

“I thought you were going to run? Ha!” Gaara retracts his sand arm but leaves behind a pulsating claw clutching Sasuke. “Unless you take me down, that sand will slowly crush him to death!” The Suna ninja’s transformation into an inhuman beast continues until no natural skin is left exposed. “The strongest one fights for himself and loves only himself!”

“Y-you’re wrong!”

Ino and I are in bad shape. We’re low on chakra and bruised from hitting a tree. Gaara is too fast and strong for us to fight.

“Sand Shuriken!” Garra blasts Naruto away with multiple projectiles.

The ninja in orange stands. “Shadow Clone Jutsu!”

A dozen Naruto’s attack at once.

“Wind Style: Sandstorm Devastation!”

Gaara inhales through many sand mouths and pops all the clones with a huge gust of wind. Then he pummels Naruto with more sand shuriken.

Yet the ninja in orange stands!

I see Naruo wrap a shuriken with explosive tags behind his back while charging the enemy. “Shadow Clone Jutsu: Body Slam!” He summons clones to block Gaara’s claw as one clone throws another overhead.

Gaara blocks that clone with the other claw, but Naruto summons another clone to jump over the sand monster. That clone summons another as a steppingstone, leaping toward Gaara from behind.

“One Thousand Years of Pleasure!”

“KYAAAH!!!”

“Oops, I did the wrong one,” Naruto realizes he forgot to use the explosive shuriken in the heat of the moment. “I was supposed to use Kakashi-sensei’s technique. One Thousand—”

Gaara smacks Naruto aside with his tail. Thankfully, the orang ninja stabs the tail while being flung away. A massive explosion goes off a second later.

I catch Naruto in my arms before the detonation blasts him into a tree and set him down. Gaara is looking a little melty, but the sand is starting to reconstitute into a monstrous shape.

“Naruto-kun, you’d better rescue Sasuke-kun, no matter what! Get him out of here while I delay that monster.”

“Sakura-chan?”

“Even though I fell in love with someone else, I can’t watch Sasuke-kun die in front of me.”

“You’re absolutely right, dattebayo!” Naruto stands. “It’s like Haku-chan said, ‘When a person has someone important to protect, that’s when they can truly become strong!’ I’ll protect everyone! The strongest ninja loves everyone!!!”

Naruto flares his chakra and summons a hundred shadow clones at once!

“Naruto’s Ninja Handbook! Everywhere Shuriken! Uzumaki 2,000 Blow Barrage!”

The orange ninja covers Gaara head to toe in shuriken thrown from all angles. Then a dozen clones kick the sand ninja into the air as the remaining Naruto clones punch Garra into a crater.

“ENOUGH!”

Gaara transforms into a colossal sand-tanuki monstrosity.

Then, just as a swirling cloud of sand is about to crush Naruto, he summons an equally massive pipe-smoking toad. I see Naruto talking to the toad from where I stand as the amphibian unsheathes its sword.

“Toad Slash!”

The giant toad leaps past Garra and slices off one of the tanuki’s arms. I see Gaara’s true body manifest on the tanuki’s head, then go slack. The monster’s personality changes instantly to something even more bloodthirsty.

“Wind Style: Air Bullets!”

“Water Style: Water Bullets!”

The two titans fire huge elemental balls at one another while the toad hops around. Standing here feels like being in a hurricane! The two of them are rearranging the landscape as trees fall by the hundred.

After receiving a hit from an air bullet, the toad and Naruto regroup. Suddenly, an enormous puff of smoke reveals the toad transformed into a behemoth fox. Naruto jumps from the fox’s head after it pounces on the sand tankuki to deliver a punch to Gaara’s sleeping face.

Awake now, Gaara attacks Naruto with waves of sand. Just when Naruto seems to be at the limit, his body flares with red chakra. The orange ninja charges forward to deliver a headbutt that makes the colossal sand tanuki crumble. The toad disappears a moment later.

Naruto and Gaara face each other on the treetops. They both leap simultaneously.

Naruto finishes the fight with a final punch to Gaara’s face.