Naruto - Part 9

There was a palpable air of anticipation in the Chunin exam stadium. The village, along with many foreign visitors had been eagerly awaiting the tournament, mostly due to there being so many prodigiously skilled Genin participating this time.

Most had come to see what the last Uchiha and Hyuuga Neji, both of whom were said to be enourmously talented. Although word had been going around lately that Uzumaki Naruto was also someone to be watched out for.

There had been no grand announcement, but rumours had been going around that the blond Genin was the son of the Yondaime Hokage. Most people disregarded this as preposterous, but some had taken a good look at him and noticed a disturbing similarity of hair and eye colour. Not to mention that those who had been old enough to take note of it, recalled that Namikaze Minato had often been seen in the company of Uzumaki Kushina.

Naruto's graduating class along with team Gai, being made up mostly of clan heirs, the parents of which had been present when Naruto had revealed his heritage, were now aware of it as well. They'd all been pretty stunned at learning that little bit of information and had wanted to talk to Naruto about it, but the blond had been like a ghost the past month.

Those Konoha Genin who had not made it to the finals were sitting together, joined by their sensei's. Even Jiraiya was there, wanting to see what people thought of his godson and see him fight. Well, Kakashi was missing, but nobody was overly surprised by this, considering his reputation for being late. The Genin were slightly surprised to find the second phase proctor, Mitarashi Anko, sitting next to Kurenai, but reasoned that the two women were friends after seeing them standing together in the preliminaries.

Unknown to all of these people, Xanna was sitting just a couple of rows behind them, curiosity having gotten the better of her. She wouldn't usually bother watching a bunch of human children beat the snot out of each other, but she wanted to see Naruto beat the snot out of them.

Uchiha Sasuke and Kinuta Dosu were missing, but nobody was making a fuss out of it, giving them time to show up until their respective matches begin. Sasuke was on something of a tight schedule for showing up, being in the second match, but Dosu conceivably still had several hours, depending on how long the matches lasted, as he had a freebie for his first match, due to an odd number of contestants.

"This should be good." Kiba said with a grin, eagerly waiting for the first match to start. He hadn't been pleased at the way that Neji had hurt Hinata and was hoping that Naruto would kick his ass. After seeing the blond beat Kurenai-sensei in a spar, he had no doubt that he could do it.

He still felt a bit ashamed about forfeiting without even trying to fight, but the way that even his mother had assured him that he had done the right thing eased his mind on that. Her explanation on what an Ichibi Jinchuuriki was had also left him feeling as if he'd just barely dodged a kunai with that forfeit. He didn't know why she had been so uncomfortable explaining that topic though. A demon being sealed into someone was a damn freaky thing, but he didn't understand her reluctance to explain.

"Hell yeah, I can't wait to see blondie flatten that Hyuuga prick, not to mention that I also bet huge on him." Anko said with a bloodthirsty grin.

"You guys really think that he can win?" Tenten asked, bringing attention to herself. "I mean, I know that he's pretty strong, but Neji is a genius." She continued, with doubt clear in her tone.

Anko just laughed at her before answering. "Girl, that teammate of yours has no idea what he's in for. Naruto is going to eat him alive, even Nai-chan felt confident that betting on him was a sure thing. He's a monster to fight against." She should know, since she'd tried to spar against him. The only reason she'd won that spar was because she'd gotten tricky with her snake summons, but at the rate that Naruto was improving, that was likely going to be the only time that she'd win.

Kurenai was having somewhat different thoughts when Anko mentioned Naruto being a monster.

Impaled from behind, a large hand fisted in her hair, pulling her head back so that his mouth was at her ear.

A voice, heavy with lust, growled out a command through sharp teeth.

"Scream for me."

She shook her head, not truly capable of speech with his large member thrusting into her.

His other hand reached between them and used the same technique that he had used to massage her earlier, now applied to the sensitive bundle of nerves just above her entrance, but at much greater intensity.

A scream ripped itself out of her throat, no matter how much she wanted to contain it.

The Genjutsu mistress blushed and pressed her thighs together. This was so not the time to be thinking of that.

"I second that, the Hyuuga has no chance." Jiraiya confirmed. His godson had made obscene progress in just a month and the toad sage was getting the feeling that Naruto had been doing extra work out of his sight.

His back still stung from his 'date' with Keiko though. Little bastard was just as disrespectful of his sensei as his father. More even.

"How can you be so sure Jiraiya-sama?" Asuma asked.

"Because I've been training him for the past month." He answered, getting surprised looks, as nobody had known who Naruto was training with for the past month. "That kid trains harder than a dozen shinobi put together. If he keeps going at this rate, he'll end up stronger than me within a few years."

"Don't you think that's a bit of a stretch?" Asuma asked scepticaly.

"I didn't expect him to be much either when I first met him, but once you see him train, you'd think he was trying to commit suicide by training himself to death. He wouldn't tell me why he works so hard, but it's gotta be something very important to him." Jiraiya explained what he knew.

"Naruto has always been most youthful in his training, it would not surprise me if he did indeed surpass Jiraiya-sama eventually." Gai added, with Lee nodding his agreement right after.

"What do you think Hinata? You know them both, so you should have a good idea about who's going to win." Ino asked wanting the opinion of someone that she knew better. Both Neji and Naruto had scared the crap out of her when she saw them in the forest.

"Um, I think that Naruto nii-san is going to win." Hinata said with a small blush at being put on the spot.

"I with Hinata on this, you guys still haven't seen everything that Naruto can do." Sakura seconded, thinking of the chakra chain ability that her teammate still hadn't revealed.

Tenten started feeling some worry at hearing how much confidence everyone had in the blond, but still retained some doubts. So far, Neji had easily beaten everyone that he had ever fought and it was hard for her to to think that he could be beaten.

"In any case, looks like it's finaly starting, so you'll be able to see for yourself just how good he is." Jiraiya redirected their attention to the arena.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Will Uzumaki Naruto and Hyuuga Neji please make their way to the arena." Shiranui Genma said loudly. The senbon chewing Jounin had replaced Hayate, who had been found killed earlier in the month.

The two Genin made their way to the arena, both utterly certain in their victory.

As soon as Naruto appeared there, there was a great commotion from one section of the stands, drawing the curiousity of the people and making them look. What they saw was a large group of women, ranging in age from 20 to 40, holding banners.

'Go Naruto, we believe in you!'

'Naruto for Hokage!'

'Uzumaki-sama sex god!' That one was Naruto's personal favorite.

Naruto couldn't help a grin as he turned towards that section of the stands, spreading his arms in a wide, flamboyant gesture and adressed the women sitting there.

"Ladies!...Contain your orgasms."

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Sarutobi palmed his face as the blond's words were met with roaring approval from the women.

"If he keeps this up, the village is going to start getting a really strange reputation." The Hokage muttered to himself. He could already imagine people calling him the Erokage behind his back.

Next to him, Orochimaru, disguised as the Yondaime Kazekage, smirked to himself in a rare moment of true amusement. His old sensei had spent so long inside the village that he had forgotten that Konoha had always had a strange reputation.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

"All those women..." Jiraiya muttered to himself in disbelief. "What does he have that I don't?"

"Unlike you, he knows how to treat a woman." Anko said with a smirk, enjoying the toad sages' jealousy.

"You've slept with him too?" Asuma asked disbelievingly. He hadn't put any stock into the rumours about Naruto, but this was more or less irrefutable proof.

"Oh yeah and I don't regret a second of it." The snake summoner replied with a grin, surreptitiously squeezing Kurenai's thigh, remembering that day.

Anko made her way stealthily towards Kurenai and Naruto. The Genjutsu mistress was sitting in his lap, with her back leaned against his chest, legs spread wide as he thrust himself inside of her. Her hands were raised behind her head and gripping his hair, his hands massaging her breasts and playing with her nipples.

She kneeled between their legs and leaned forwards, intent on adding her tongue to Kurenai's stimulation.

As soon as her tongue flicked over the small nub, Kurenai's eyes shot wide open with a gasp.

"Anko!" She gasped out in shock, trying to bring her legs together and her hands down to push the woman away.

Her arms were caught by Naruto, and her legs kept spread by Anko as the other woman began licking in earnest, quickly pushing the Genjutsu mistress over the edge.

"Fill her up Naruto." Anko said while her closest friend was still in a daze from her powerful orgasm.

The blond complied, eagerly shooting thick ropes of his seed into the woman sitting on his lap.

As soon as he was done, Anko pulled his member out and latched her mouth onto Kurenai's twitching nether lips, which had already begun leaking his seed due to her upright position.

"Anko, stop." The Genjutsu mistress protested weakly, but it was only with words. Her legs weren't trying to close anymore.

"Well at least I know that Kurenai-sensei hasn't slept with him." Kiba grumbled, his jealousy obvious to all the adults present.

Kurenai looked away with a blush, not saying anything.

After several moments of uncomfortable silence, Kiba felt the need to ask. "You didn't, did you sensei?"

Kurenai refused to say anything, but her blush got worse and she shifted uncomfortably.

"Even you?" Jiraiya gaped. Kurenai had over the years developed a reputation as a rather picky woman as far as men were concerned. Not to mention that she was rumoured to despise perverts.

Pride in his godson warred with seething jealousy.

Asuma just sighed silently with disappointment. Beaten to the punch by a teenager over ten years his junior.

Sakura sighed in resignation while Ino and Tenten gaped. Chouji even stopped eating his chips for a moment in his surprise and Hinata just blushed hotly at the thought of her sensei doing...that with her nii-san.

The red eyed Jounin shrugged in a helpless manner and just decided to repeat what Anko said. "Like Anko said, he knows how to treat a woman."

"Gai-sensei, I am confused. Are these these actions of Naruto youthful or unyouthful?" Lee asked with a blush. Gai-sensei had always warned him about the dangers of becoming a pervert like his eternal rival, but many women seemed happy that Naruto was the way that he was.

"That is something that you will only understand when you are older Lee." Gai said sagely, hiding the fact that he was just as confused as his student. This was a moral conundrum that needed more youthful training to solve.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

As the proctor announced the beginning of the fight, Neji immediately opened his mouth and went into his usual rant.

"You should give up Uzumaki, you were fated to lose the moment you drew me as your opponent."

"Uh huh, so you say. If I believed in fate, then I wouldn't have mode it this far." Naruto countered.

"You haven't truly made it anywhere, you are merely deluding yourself into thinking that you've achieved anything at all. You are fated to lose here and no matter what you do or how hard you try, you will progress no further. Failures will always remain failures, despite your heritage. Your womanising behaviour only makes you seem more pathetic." Neji shot back with a smirk.

Naruto narrowed his eyes at the condescending little prick and really wished that he could go there and break his face, but he wasn't going to be controlled by his anger and rise to the obvious bait. No matter how much he didn't like it, engaging a skilled Hyuuga in Taijutsu was pretty stupid, which was why he had some tricks up his sleeve.

"You know, being so long winded will make the ladies...hate your guts."

After saying that, Naruto removed something from inside his coat. He got many confused looks as he unsealed a rebreater made for underwater combat. Neji made no move to interrupt, believing with utter certainty that nothing the blond did was going to help him.

After he placed the rebreather on his face, he unsealed another storage scroll and released it. Water immediately rushed out of the scroll in large quantities.

"Was that supposed to achieve something?" Neji asked mockingly, believing that Naruto had screwed up something with whatever he was trying to achieve.

"Not yet." The blond answered enigmatically, his voice distorted by the rebreather.

Moments after he said this, the water began to act strangely, being pulled towards the blond, climbing up his body and sticking to it. Soon his entire body was covered in a dense layer of water that constantly swirled around him, trying to escape, but kept attached to him by the pull of his chakra.

"Suiton: Mizu no Yoroi(Water Release: Armor of Water)." Naruto called out the name of his technique, voice distorted even further by the water, making him sound distinctly creepy.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"I hate it when he does that." Jiraiya said as Naruto put the rebreather on.

"Why?" Kurenai asked curiously.

"Because even though he's a lot more muscled, with that long blond hair of his he looks way too much like Hanzo the Salamander when he puts that thing on. He even got himself a similar rebreather just because he knows it freaks me out." Jiraiya explained with a grumble.

The Genin looked a bit confused at this explanation, but the Jounin knew of the three on one battle that the Sannin had lost against the leader of Rain country. Hanzo had a well deserved scary reputation.

Everyone leaned forward in interest when they saw him form the armor of water, both impressed and very curious about the technique.

"What's the point of using water as armor? Neji can just attack him right through it." Ino said in confusion. How was water useful as armor?

"It might not look like much, but take note of how much water he's compressed into that armor. Water, wind and fire techniques have serious trouble getting throught it, but Naruto is actually of the opinion that it would even block Juuken strikes. I told him not to try it in combat for the first time, but he's apparently decided to ignore me." The toad sage explained.

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Without saying another word, Naruto charged forward, intent on punching the arrogant Hyuuga right in the face.

Neji quickly activated the Byakugan went into a traditional Gentle Fist stance and met the blond's charge. Naruto's initial punch of the face was deflected and Neji struck at his exposed chest, seeking to end the fight quickly.

Naruto shrugged the attack off like it was nothing and kept coming, simply powering through Neji's defenses and ignoring the Juuken blows as if they were flea bites.

The relentless attack eventually broke through Neji's guard and he took series of hits to the face and chest with a water covered fist. It didn't do as much damage as it would have without the water softening up the blow, but water that dense was still ridiculously hard considering that it was a liquid.

"Why is it that I cannot close your Tenketsu?" Neji asked in confusion. He had been under the impression that the Gentle Fist was unblockable.

"My water armor is charged with my chakra and the water itself is always moving. Your puny chakra pokes are dispersed long before they reach my Tenketsu." Naruto answered smugly, quite proud of his creation.

"If chakra based attacks are of no use, then I will use something else." Neji said and threw several kunai.

Naruto made no move to dodge, allowing the kunai to sink into the water. The covering of water however, proved to be so dense that they didn't penetrate very deeply, leaving them to fall to the floor shortly after.

"Your training didn't give you enough muscle to penetrate my armor. Unless you've got something else up your sleeve, then I am simply going to beat you down while you are helpless to do anything to me." Naruto taunted.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Now that's impressive. Never thought I'd see the day that someone found a way to block the Juuken." Asuma admitted.

"It is a most youthful technique, to defeat the Juuken, but I do not believe Neji is finished quite yet." Gai said.

Some distance away, the observing Hyuuga were stunned to see someone devise a means of blocking their prized fighting style.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Neji knew that he needed to break that water armor or the Uzumaki really was going to just keep hounding him until he was too beaten to fight on. The hits he had taken had been strong despite being sheathed in water.

He hadn't wanted to reveal this particular ability in his first match, but it was the only thing that he could think of to get rid of that armor. He allowed Naruto to get close to him again and began spinning just before he was hit again.

"Hakkeshō Kaiten (Eight Trigrams Revolving Heaven)!"

The perfectly timed spinning chakra dome ground against the dense water armor, steadily shaving away the water and sending Naruto flying away, his water armor stripped away.

"Do you see the futility of your efforts now?" Neji asked tauntingly.

"So you found a way to break my water armor, big deal. I've got plenty of other things that I can use to beat you." Naruto answered with a grin, his rebreather already removed. He wasn't put out at all about losing the water armor, since the test had been successful. He had only wanted to see if it would block the chakra pokes of the Juuken after all.

Neji scowled and charged, intending to end the fight quickly, but was rapidly forced to backpedal as chains burst from the blond and snaked towards him, intending to skewer him.

"What is this?" Neji asked in alarm, as he had nearly been impaled due to his surprise.

"Uzumaki chakra chains. Great for controlling the battlefield, capturing the enemy and kinky sex games." Naruto explained with a grin.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Arms spread wide, bound to the bed with chains. Legs similarly bound but bent at the knees as the maker of those chains thrust himself inside her.

Anko, with her crotch placed over her mouth, moaning in pleasure at having her black haired friend using her tongue on her nether lips. Kurenai had stopped protesting about the purple haired woman joining in several orgasms ago. She could still taste the remnants of Naruto's release inside of her and the taste sent pleasure shuddering through her body, making her feel as if she had taken a soldier pill, but slower acting and without the nasty side effects.

She heard Naruto groaning as he released inside of her again.

It was Anko's turn to be chained now.

"Why are Kurenai-sensei and Anko-san blushing?" Lee asked cluelessly.

All attention went to the two women, who were indeed blushing as they looked at the chakra chains that Naruto had created. The long and severely embarrassing silence was broken by the sound of someone falling to their knees.

"How did it come to this? How did the gallant Jiraiya become a joke, while my student indulges in all manner of perversity as if it was the most natural thing in the world?" Jiraiya despaired, punching the ground a few times just for emphasis.

While everyone was staring at the supposedly respectable toad sage with both pity and confusion and discussing the chakra chains, Xanna was listening in on their conversation and smirking to herself.

She and perhaps that ramen waitress that Naruto was so fond of were the only ones who knew the truth. Naruto would have never even looked at another woman in a sexual manner if she hadn't pushed him to do it. It was a flattering thought , but she was certain that he was better off this way. The immense self confidence that he had now was due to the fact that he was comfortable with who he was and didn't care what anyone thought of him.

Except for her and Ayame. The thought pleased her a great deal. She had nothing against the ramen waitress, but that was only because she knew that Naruto would never see her as anything but a big sister. That weak civilian girl was the only one that might have been able to sway Naruto away from her, but their relationship was purely familial.

Xanna didn't spend too much time thinking about why exactly that was so reassuring. Losing Naruto would have been more painful than just the loss of an interesting human as would have been the case as much as a few months ago. Something had changed when he left Tsunami in Wave for the sake of continuing his journey to win her hand in marriage and there was no point in pretending otherwise.

She had gotten emotionally attached to a mortal, something that she had never expected to happen. Demons were naturally more in tune with the darker emotions, so it spoke much about Naruto that he had invoked this feeling in her. The problem was that she didn't know what to do about it.

Well...she could kill him before it got any worse, that would make it better for her in the long run. Allowing her attachment to progress any further only to lose him because he was a mortal would hurt her worse than anything since the start of her life. Even the descent into madness of her Bijuu siblings hadn't troubled her overmuch, since they hadn't gotten along either way.

But she couldn't bring herself to do that to him. Naruto had thrown everything he was into the task of winning her affection, it would be cruel beyond description to kill him for having some measure of success. Not very long ago, she had resolved that she didn't want him to be immortal because it would change him. She found herself wishing that it was in her power to do something like that now.

It would be a terribly selfish thing to do. Death was something that humans were afraid of, but in truth it was a gift, rest at the end of a road. She wanted to take that away from him, deny him that rest so that she could keep him with her for eternity and she wouldn't be alone anymore or have to face losing him.

Well, she wasn't bothered over how selfish her desires were. Being the only one of her kind made self centered selfishness as a way of life fairly mandatory. What bothered her was that for all of her power, she was as helpless as the mortals around her in this case. She could obliterate this entire village and everything around it with ease, but power was not given her to change the natural order.

And the natural order said that Uzumaki Naruto was going to die, one way or another. For the first time in her existence, she resented the natural order.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Neji batted aside the chains with quick Juuken blows, keeping his eyes sharp for any that might come at him from behind. The chains were chakra constructs and so they lost their cohesion when struck by the disruptive Juuken blows.

The fight was in a stalemate however, as Neji couldn't get close enough and Naruto couldn't get him with his chains.

"Well, I see that this isn't going anywhere, so I might as well end this." Naruto said.

"Oh? Finally decided to accept your fate and forfeit?" Neji asked mockingly.

"Oh no, I'm just tired of playing with you and listening to you bitch about fate just because daddy died." The blond said as he retrieved a piece of seal paper from his coat.

"You don't know anything! My father was fated to die because of the circumstances of his birth, just like I am fated to be caged forever by this cursed seal, just like you are fated to lose." Neji raged and tore his forehead protector off, revealing his caged bird seal, composture lost.

"I think that you're about to eat those words." Naruto said calmly and pressed the seal tag to the ground. Black lines of Fuinjutsu script expanded to cover the entire arena, drawing many curious looks.

Naruto outstreched his hand, with his thumb pointing sideways before speaking.

"Jūryoku-ko (Graviton)!" He said, turning his thumb downwards.

Neji immediately felt his body get incredibly heavy, forcing him down to his hands and knees. The trees in the arena groaned woodenly as their trunks strained to support them, branches pressed down and some even broke off. The grass was flattened against the earth and the rocks sank a few inches deeper into the ground.

"What is this?" Neji ground out through clenched teeth, struggling to force himself back to his feet without much success.

"Gravity seal. I'm increasing the gravity in this arena, making every object several times heavier. I'm the only one who's unaffected because I have a counter seal placed on me." Naruto explained.

"I bet it must really piss you off that you're being forced to bow because of another seal." The blond continued conversationally.

Neji seethed at the words. It seems that he was fated to have his life controlled by seals at every turn and he hated it.

"You've got a choice now Neji. I can increase the gravity even further and squash you like a grape, or you can call me Uzumaki-sama, apologise for your previous words and ask me to spare you. That is your fate now. "Naruto said, completely without mockery, drawing the pale eyed boys attention.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Nii-san, that's so cruel." Hinata said sadly, knowing how much Neji would hate being placed into that position.

Everyone else was looking pretty stunned at how easily Naruto had taken control of the battle. He could have used that at the beginning and shut Neji down at the very start.

The watching Jounin and Hokage realised that the gravity seal was no doubt difficult to prepare and had limited use in a battlefield that wasn't as limited as the arena.

In the enclosed space of the arena, where nobody could leave if they didn't want to forfeit the match however, that seal was pretty much a guaranteed win technique.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Neji looked up at the blond from his kneeling position and silently fumed to himself. It was just like the Hyuuga cursed seal, he could either submit or die.

All his life he'd been forced to present a respectful facade to the main house to prevent having the caged bird seal used on him and now this blond outsider had forced him into the same position.

His cousin was the only one that he had been able to lash out against, the failure of the main house being too meek to retaliate. He turned his head to look at her, seeing her wringing her hands in worry, worry for him

He had always hated it when she looked at him like that, as if he needed the worry of a weakling like her. He had thought that nearly killing her would be enough to snap her out of that stupidity, but she was still the same, still worrying about him and all of the other branch house members, constantly trying to do anything she could to help them. Her father disapproved, but ever since she had started hanging around Uzumaki, she had gotten only more persistent about it.

A look towards his uncle Hiashi revealed nothing but the usual, unreadable blank face of the clan head. His younger cousin Hanabi sat beside him, trying to emulate her fathers unreadable look, but failing at it, she looked worried too. Hanabi was like her father far more than Hinata, but still loved her big sister and took after her in many ways.

Being forced into this position in public, in front of everyone, was more than his pride could take. He didn't care anymore if it killed him, but he wasn't going to bow to someone's whims just because they held his life in their hands anymore.

Grinding his teeth together with effort and sweat pouring down his face, he forced himself to his feet and began to stumble towards the blond.

"I am not going to bow to you!" Neji ground out.

"Are you sure about that?" Naruto asked and turned his thumb just a bit further down, increasing the gravity just a bit more.

Neji stumbled and nearly fell back to his knees, but kept himself upright by forcing all the chakra that he could into his legs, reinforcing them enough that they would support him.

Instead of answering, Neji just kept staggering forward, keeping all of his focus on putting one foot in front of the other. Any second now he was expecting the gravity to increase to fatal levels, crushing his bones and organs and ending his life under the power of another seal. At least it wasn't the caged bird seal and his last act would be in defiance of someone's demands to submit, even if it wasn't the main house.

The gravity lifted with shocking suddenness and Neji was sent rocketing forward from the force with which he was pushing against the ground.

He crashed into a web of chains that instantly bound his limbs, preventing any movement and lifted him up to eye level with Naruto.

"For someone who claims that everything is decided by fate, you've been rather defiant just now. Tell me Neji, was it worth defying fate instead of giving in?" Naruto asked, scrutinising the revealed caged bird seal as he did so. No doubt it was a nasty piece of work, cursed seals always were. He would have a shadow clone transcribe it later, you never know what might come in handy one day.

Neji slammed his forehead into the blonds nose, breaking it in a gush of blood.

"Now it was worth it." The Hyuuga said tiredly. Despite getting his nose broken, Naruto's chains didn't release him and even if he'd been free he wasn't sure if his muscles were in any condition to take down his opponent.

Naruto quickly set his nose and dumped a Jounin's worth of chakra to speed the healing.

"Well I'm glad you think so." Naruto said dryly, face stained with rapidly drying blood.

"Proctor, I cannot continue." Neji said towards the proctor.

"Hyuuga Neji forfeits the match, the winner is Uzumaki Naruto."

The crowd roared it's approval of the match as Naruto released Neji from the chains, making the pale eyed Genin fall on his ass.

The Hyuuga got up to his feet and felt something land on his head. Reaching up to grab it and bring it to his face, he blushed when he discovered that it was a thong, recently removed if the slight stain on it was anything to go by. He strongly suspected that it's owner had been aiming for Naruto.

Naruto was similarly covered with underwear, though he had a bra hanging over his shoulder. There were several other articles of female underwear on the floor around them.

"You see Neji, defying fate does pay off!" The blond grinned at him and laughed at him.

Neji felt the ridiculousness of the situation catch up to him and couldn't prevent a slight chuckle from escaping his lips. Despite his loss, he felt as if he had won something more important than a match. He had defied fate, and it hadn't turned out to be as terrible as he had thought it would. It had actually felt pretty good.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Neji lost...and he's laughing, Neji never laughs." Tenten said to herself in disbelief.

She couldn't believe just how easily Naruto had shut down the genius Hyuuga. She'd thought he was like Lee, another dead last with no talent that had decided to focus on Taijutsu. It was clear now that Naruto's focus had never been on Taijutsu at all.

Nearby, Hinata breathed a sigh of relief that everything had turned out all right. Though she was worried when she saw her father going after the medics that had taken Neji away to be checked. She hoped that her cousin wouldn't get in trouble for using a main house technique.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Will Sabaku no Gaara and Uchiha Sasuke make their way to the arena?" Genma called out.

Garaa instantly appeared in a sand style body flicker, eager for a fight. The only person he had killed since coming out of the Forest of Death had been that idiot sound Genin that had attacked him and he was itching to kill someone.

Uzumaki's words in the tower had gone through his head over and over again, taunting him with the possibility of sleep. It was something he had wanted for a long time, to be able to rest, but he also didn't want to lose mothers voice in his head. She was the only one who would speak to him and he didn't want to be alone.

A minute passed and Sasuke still hadn't showed up. The crowd started grumbling impatiently, irritated at having to wait for the match to start.

"Uchiha Sasuke, make your way to the arena immediately or be disqualified!"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Hokage-dono, I do not believe it would be wise to disqualify Sasuke. Many of the nobles here have come to see the last Uchiha fight and will be displeased if he were to be disqualified." The disguised Orochimaru said.

Sarutobi sighed tiredly and quickly thought about his options. Sasuke really should be disqualified, that was the usual action taken if someone didn't show up to their own fight after all. What the Kazekage said was also true however.

He rolls over for everyone...

Naruto's words from that council meeting a month ago went through his head. Did he really do that? Just cave in to everyone who made requests or demands to him because he didn't want to deal with it?

Thinking about several past council meetings told him that he did indeed cave in to what people asked him more often than not.

"What you say is true Kazekage-dono, but I cannot show favoritism, no matter who it is. If Uchiha Sasuke can't even show up on time for his own match, then he is unfit to be Chunin anyway." Sarutobi said, feeling fairly certain that it was the right choice, despite the likely loss of business that Konoha would suffer due to Sasuke not showing up. That was the Uchiha's fault, or more likely Kakashi's, anyway now that he thought about it.

Orochimaru didn't say anything, but he was quite upset with the decision. He had wanted to see how his future vessel would do against Gaara.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

After the disapproving roars of the crowd stopped and a frustrated looking Gaara made his way back to the contestant box, Genma announced the next match between Aburame Shino and Sabaku no Kankuro.

"Proctor, I forfeit!" Kankuro yelled down to the arena, causing yet more angry yelling from the crowd. They had come to see these young shinobi fight and had gotten all fired up by the first match. To have two of the matches decided without a single punch was severely disappointing to them.

"Very well then. Nara Shikamaru and Sabaku no Temari, make your way to the arena!"

Temari easily glided down to the arena on her fan and waited for her lazy opponent to make it down.

Still up in the contestant box, Shikamaru was contemplating the merits of forfeiting. Everyone seemed to be doing it and the idea held a lot of appeal to him. That blond with the huge fan sure did look troublesome down there.

He was just weighing how troublesome forfeiting would be in comparison to not forfeiting when he was suddenly pushed into the arena. A look upwards revealed that Naruto had been standing behind him.

"Damn troublesome blonds." The lazy Genin muttered to himself, not quite low enough to prevent Temari from hearing him.

"What was that you lazy bastard?" The temperamental wind user yelled at her opponent.

Shikamaru just sighed to himself in resignation. He knew that he was actually going to have to put forward some effort this time. Word of this fight would eventually reach his mother and if he didn't give a good showing of himself...well she would be troublesome.

Not working was pretty bad and many Nara males had mastered the art of pretending to work. Being caught pretending to work was, however the worst case scenario. If his mother heard that he had given a half assed effort in this fight, he would have no peace from her for a troublesome eternity.

"Nara-san, please get up from the floor and get ready." The proctor said, sweat dropping at the Genin who looked to be about ready to fall asleep where he'd fallen.

"Alright already. Troublesome proctor." Shikamaru muttered, followed by a yawn that made Temari's eye twitch in irritation at how lazy the boy was.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Despite the initial booing from the crowd at the slowness of the match, they were eventually drawn in by the clever strategies Shikamaru was using to try and trap Temari. The match dragged on for over two hours as Shikamaru refused to leave the shelter of the trees, where he had taken shelter from her wind attacks.

Temari herself couldn't approach to flush him out, because the shadows there gave Shikamaru too much of an advantage, making the entire match one long stalemate.

Eventually, Shikamaru managed to manouver Temari into a trap. It would have been easy for him to disable her and claim victory.

"Proctor, I forfeit."

"What?! Why? You've won!" Temari asked loudly, shocked and irritated at being handed the win after being defeated.

"Because I've got almost no chakra left and I can't hold this technique any longer anyway." Shikamaru said and released the technique. Truth be told, he still had about half his chakra left, but he really didn't want to continue any further and risk getting promoted.

Surely the fact that he'd given up after winning and his lazy attitude would convince the Hokage and the gathered Jounin that he was unfit to be Chunin?

Unknown to Shikamaru, his explanation of forfeiting because he didn't have enough chakra to continue had impressed quite a few people. His clever strategies had been similarly impressive to the Jounin and Hokage, eventually making them decide that despite his lazy attitude and low combat ability, he deserved the promotion.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Naruto and Gaara were gazing at each other in anticipation. One was eager to see how he measured up against such a powerful opponent and the other wished to prove his existence by killing a powerful fighter.

"Are both contestants ready?" Genma asked and seeing them both nod, continued. "Then be-"

Before he could start the match, he was interrupted by the sudden arrival of Hatake Kakashi and Uchiha Sasuke, long since too late for his match.

"Ah, sorry, are we late?" Kakashi asked with an eye smile.

"Yes you are, in fact you are so late that the Uchiha was disqualified over two hours ago." Genma informed the silver haired Jounin irritably.

"What?!" Sasuke asked angrily, Sharingan activating subconsciously.

"Um, oops?" Kakashi said with a nervous laugh.

Internally he was sighing in relief. He had been hoping to get Sasuke disqualified, because he knew that he didn't stand a chance against Gaara, at least not yet. He had sought out all the information that Konoha had on the Ichibi Jinchuuriki and did not believe that any kind of training that Sasuke could accomplish in a month would get him up to that level. Telling the overly proud Uchiha something like that however, was guaranteed to make him want to fight in order to prove his strength. Kakashi knew that Sasuke was very strong for a Genin, stronger than many Chunin really, but he wasn't ready to fight someone like Gaara. Not to mention that Kakashi didn't really think that Sasuke was Chunin material as far as his mentality was concerned.

"Don't worry Sasuke, women don't like guys that come early." Naruto couldn't resist from commenting.

Sasuke looked about ready to explode, but wasn't sure who he should be angry at, his sensei who had made him so late or the teammate that was turning it into a joke. Kakashi managed to lead Sasuke away, telling him that rank didn't really matter too much anyway and that he would have another chance in 6 months.

"Begin!" Genma called once the two fighters were again alone in the arena.

"Come Uzumaki, show me the power of the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki. Let us see which one of us has the stronger existence." Gaara beckoned, eager for the battle to finally begin.

"I'm not going to be using the Kyuubi's power to fight you Gaara, I'll be using my own strength." Naruto answered, not at all bothered about the fact that Gaara had announced his Jinchuuriki status to everyone. If someone didn't like it then they could kiss his ass.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Kyuubi Jinchuuriki?" Kiba whispered to himself with a sinking feeling. Now that his mother had explained to him what an Ichibi Jinchuuriki was, it didn't take a genius to figure out what, or more accurately who, the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki was.

"What's a Jinchuuriki Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked, confused and curious.

"My mother told me that it's a person with a demon sealed inside them." Kiba answered.

All of the Jounin, along with Jiraiya kept their grimaces to themselves at just how badly that secret had been blown. There was no point in trying to keep a lid on that knowledge anymore.

"But Gaara called Naruto the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki. Didn't the Yondaime kill it?" Ino asked.

"No, The Kyuubi is immortal and can't be killed by any human, so the Yondaime sealed it into Naruto, his own son, to protect the village. You might have noticed how some of the villagers seem to hate Naruto, well that's because they stupidly transferred their hate and fear of the Kyuubi onto Naruto. He's been protecting the village from the Kyuubi ever since he was born and many hate him because of it, even though he's done nothing to deserve that hate. It's also the reason that he hasn't graduated years ago, the academy instructors were sabotaging him. I hope all of you have enough brains to distinguish Naruto from the Kyuubi." Jiraiya explained, hoping to prevent any stupidity on the part of these young brats.

Sasuke was looking pretty stunned at learning that Naruto held a demon inside him and was the son of the Yondaime on top of it. He hadn't been around to hear that piece of information.

The rest of the rookies didn't quite know how to take that bit of information, but their opinion of the people who hated Naruto took a considerable dive. Naruto was definitely many things, but a demon wasn't one of them. They had never realised just how much harder than them the blond had it.

"Naruto is even more youthful than I thought. To be protecting the village just by living, he blazes with youth!" Lee exclaimed.

The very much unsealed Kyuubi sitting behind them smirked at the irony of it.

"But how did Gaara know that Naruto is the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki." Tenten asked

"I overheard Naruto telling Kurenai-sensei just before my match in the preliminaries that he's the Ichibi Jinchuuriki and that he's unstable. Maybe they can recognise each other." Kiba revealed and theorised.

"What do you mean unstable?" Sakura asked.

"the Ichibi is known to be insane and usually drives it's host insane too. It also doesn't help that Jinchuuriki are almost universaly hated by the people around them, while at the same time being considered weapons by their village, which often makes them angry and resentful, in many cases homicidal." Jiraiya explained again.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Naruto rushed at the redhead, aiming a punch at his face. Gaara never saw it coming, but with his automatic sand defense, he didn't need to. He was however, shocked to find that Naruto's hand had penetrated right through his sand shield.

Naruto didn't let up and kept attacking. By the fourth attack, Gaara felt a fist slamming into his jaw, sending him flying.

The Sunagakure Genin got back on his feet with a look of crazed excitement, sand cracking off his face, revealing it to be another layer of defense.

"Your blood will please mother Uzumaki, you will prove my existence!" Gaara said and sent waves of sand towards Naruto, trying to bury him.

"I'm getting the feeling that your mother is the kind of woman that I wouldn't be interested in." Naruto quipped as he dodged the sand. It was moving pretty fast, but not fast enough to keep up with him. He wasn't having any trouble at all dodging it, but he couldn't attack while being hounded by the sand.

Testing out a theory, the blond sent his chakra chains towards Gaara while still evading the sand. The sand defense rose up to defend the redhead in spite of the fact that he was sending sand at Naruto at the same time.

That means that he's either really good at multitasking, or that sand defense is automatic.

There was less sand coming to defend him however, so Naruto sent more chains at him, this time from multiple directions. There wasn't enough sand to form a full spherical shield, forcing Gaara into a hasty dodge to avoid one of the chains. He still got a cut on his arm from where the bladed tip grazed him though.

"Your blood will be delicious, make me feel alive!" Gaara said, more crazed than ever and starting to lose control of himself.

The sand chasing Naruto rapidly retreated, going back to a defensive purpose. Instead of going dormant like before, it formed a full sphere of sand. Naruto observed it suspiciously, not sure what the point was in turtling behind his sand like that. Then he noticed the eye of sand that had formed over the sphere.

I have no idea if he's able to see through that freaky eyeball, but let's assume that he can.

Sending more chains towards the sand barrier, he discovered it to be far too dense for his chains to penetrate. He was going to need something with some more power behind it. He wasn't too keen on allowing Gaara to finish whatever he was doing in there.

Focusing hard, he formed his chakra into the spinning blue orb of the rasengan and moved towards Gaara, intending to drill through the sand. Since Gaara apparently wasn't interested in moving, Naruto didn't make bother running at full speed and instead approached at a fairly leasurely pace. He noticed the sand eye watching him intently as he approached. He was almost in range to start grinding into the sand sphere with his technique when large sand spikes suddenly shot out from the sphere, forcing him to jump back quickly, though he still got a small wound on his stomach. If he hadn't been expecting something fishy from the start, those spikes would have skewered him.

Naruto was not any kind of chakra sensor, but he could definitely feel a buildup of power and killing intent in Gaara and it didn't feel human. Realising that Shukaku must be close to the surface, Naruto knew that he needed to wrap this up really fast or else he was going to have a full demonic posession on his hands and he just wasn't sure if he was strong enough to fight Shukaku head on.

Figuring that the sand eye could only look in one direction at a time, Naruto created four shadow clones, each of which created their own rasengan and spread out to attack the sphere from four directions. 3 clones got hit by the sand spears before reaching the barrier, but the last one avoided them and slammed the technique into the barrier, easily punching through the sand and striking Gaara in the side, making him give out a yell of pain.

"Gaara!" Naruto heard Temari yell in a worried tone of voice from the contestant box.

At that very moment, feathers started falling in the stadium, putting all the civilians and some of the shinobi to sleep. Explosions started sounding immediately after and Naruto saw that there were sound and sand shinobi fighting against leaf shinobi everywhere. It only took him a few moments to deduce that they must have brought Gaara to Konoha in the hope that he would release Shukaku in the middle of the village, while at the same time attacking it with regular shinobi forces.

By this time Gaara had staggered to his feet, holding on to his injury, his brother and sister already at his side, supporting him and trying to pull him away from the man that had injured him.

Naruto knew that he couldn't let them escape with the unstable Jinchuuriki and allow him to fully transform. It wasn't that he was too concerned about the village, but he had a few people that he absolutely couldn't allow to get hurt and several more people that he wouldn't like seeing hurt.

Taking one of the specialised storage scrolls that he had prepared especially for fighting Gaara's sand, he tossed it towards the crazed redhead. A new creation of his. Delayed release storage seals, which released their contents several seconds after the chakra for their release was provided.

About ten feet away from Gaara, the scroll released it's contents, drenching all three Sunagakure Genin in freezing cold water. More importantly, it soaked Gaara's sand, making it much heavier and more cumbersome than normal.

Moving far faster than either Temari or Kankuro were capable of reacting, Naruto slammed his hand into Gaara's stomach, his widely splayed fingers glowing with chakra and a symbol on each finger, the wet sand not fast enough to stop him.

"Gogyō Fūin(Five Elements Seal)!"

The demonic chakra building up in Gaara was instantly cut off, knocking the redhead unconscious due to the backlash.

"Gaara!" Temari yelled out again in worry at seeing her little brother knocked out. "What did you do to him?!" She demanded, readying her fan, Kankuro preparing Karasu on Gaara's other side.

"I blocked off Shukaku and screwed up his ability to use chakra. He won't be doing any demonic transformations as long as he's got that seal on him." Naruto told her. "Now if you'll excuse me, I've got some things to do." He finished and vanished off in a burst of speed.

Up in the stands, Kakashi had seen that Naruto had sealed Gaara, so he didn't send anyone after the Suna Jinchuuriki, believing it to be unnecessary, preferring to keep them nearby where he could keep an eye on his comrades.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Naruto was rushing through the village, occasionally dispatching an enemy shinobi that he came across. He noticed that the ones from sound were incredibly weak, many of them being barely Chunin level, which was definitely not the kind of soldiers you want if you're trying to invade one of the five great villages and win.

That wasn't important right now though, because he absolutely needed to get to Ayame. Teuchi was important too, but not anywhere near as important as Ayame.

He had made utterly certain that his big sister was safe in the village at all times, but that wouldn't hold up to an invasion. The criminals that he had more or less bullied into protecting her wouldn't hold up against even these weak sound shinobi, much less the more competent sand shinobi.

Konoha's criminal underground was definitely no great power, considering that the village was a military dictatorship, it couldn't be.

During the reign of the Shodai Hokage, there had been no criminal underground, aside from the occasional isolated case of crime. With the death of the extremely charismatic Shodai and the rise to power of the Nidaime, some more organised criminal elements began to form, but were quickly suppressed when the Nidaime appointed the Uchiha as the police force.

Senju Tobirama did not have the charisma and presence of his older brother, but he was extremely efficient as a leader, not to mention perceptive and was easily able to keep crime from becoming any kind of serious issue.

It was due to the eruption of the three great shinobi wars during the reign of the Sandaime that kickstarted the creation of the red lights district. War created poverty, and poverty inevitably led to crime and the eventual creation of a 'bad part of town'. Once that had happened it had become enormously difficult to remove the entrenched criminal elements. They had needed to be sneaky enough to operate in a ninja village after all, people like that weren't going to be taken care of easily.

The Yondaime's reign hadn't lasted long enough to truly accomplish anything before he'd gotten himself killed imprisoning Xanna. The short but destructive visit by the nine tailed demoness had only strengthened the red lights district and the aging, tired Sandaime was too old to actively do anything about it. The slaughter of the Uchiha police force had only made it all worse, forcing the ANBU to act in that capacity. The Uchiha had been effective as a police force due to the extreme perception granted to them by the Sharingan. Regular ANBU didn't have that advantage, nor were they used to dealing with sneaky criminals, not to mention that they had many other duties.

Naruto had been able to take control of it all partly because of the fact that he lived in that part of town and knew many things that outsiders didn't and partly because he had been a child at the time. None of the shinobi investigating the criminal activities of the village had suspected a child to be behind it. The fact that the worst of the crimes such as rape and murder had dropped considerably had also made them believe that crime rates were falling.

In a way it was true, but only for those particular crimes. The sneakier and less obviously damaging crimes were as strong as ever, they were just being better hidden.

All of that aside, he really needed to find Ayame and Teuchi and get them to safety somewhere. There was no guarantee that something was going to happen to them if he didn't get to them, but he wasn't willing to take chances.

He had seen the Hokage trapped inside the purple barrier, no doubt a Fuinjutsu, fighting Orochimaru, but that didn't concern him overmuch. Besides, he felt that he'd already done the village a huge favour by disabling Gaara.

He was a bit worried about Hinata, but she had been in the stands, surrounded by the most powerful Jounin that Konoha had, along with Jiraiya, so she should be fine, though Jiraiya had likely gone to take care of the giant snakes he'd seen smashing up the walls.

He even felt a flicker of concern for his two idiot teammates...just for a second or two. At least for Sakura...she had gotten almost bearable lately, not quite as Uchiha obsessed as she used to be.

He finally made it to the Ichiraku ramen stand and just in time too, as the Ichiraku's themselves were just in the process of leaving and getting to a shelter.

"Ayame, Teuchi!" The blond called out to them, making them turn towards him.

"Naruto! What are you doing here, shouldn't you be fighting off the invaders?" Ayame asked in a rush.

"Nevermind that now, I'm here to get you somewhere safe." Naruto said and grabbed the two of them before another word could be said, dragging them off towards his home instead of the shelters made for civilians in case of invasion. He didn't trust those at all. He had a basement fortified with seals that should theoreticaly withstand just about anything.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

On a roof behind the blond, an Oto shinobi with a bow was taking aim at him. There were very few ninja that used bows, thinking them to be too cumbersome and slow to be useful. But a stealth specialist that preffered silent, long range kills could make deadly use of a bow, like this particular shinobi intended to. He had seen the blond easily take down several other Oto shinobi and he wasn't going to risk tangling with him in close quarters.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Nearby, a crimson haired demoness narrowed her burning red eyes at the bow user. He was trying to take Naruto away from her. This insignificant meat sack that didn't even have the courage to face him in combat, but instead wanted to kill him by shooting him in the back with an arrow. Despite her fondness of Naruto, she couldn't have brought herself to intervene in his battles, but this cowardly attempt at assassination made her blood boil.

Naruto was hers and would not be brought down in such a despicable manner. The Oto shinobi felt his blood freeze and his heart fail as the posessive wrath of an ancient demoness focused on him like the gaze of an angry god.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Naruto was glad that his terrible luck for attracting trouble didn't act up for once and he was able to safely bundle the two ramen stand owners into his basement where they would be safe.

As soon as he came out of the building, he saw the towering form of a fully formed Shukaku approaching the village.

Well, shit.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

15 minutes earlier.

The sand siblings were rapidly making their way out of the village, the older two being extremely worried about their younger brother.

After the way that the blond Uzumaki had disabled him and knocked him out, using some kind of seal that prevented Shukaku from emerging, they weren't willing to risk getting involved in the fighting. Gaara was supposed to have been their ace in this invasion, their trump card. To have him taken out like that by a Genin was frightening and all they wanted was to keep their little brother safe. Even if he was a psychopathic killer, he was still their brother and they loved him.

They didn't get very far before the silver haired Yakushi Kabuto appeared in front of them. They knew this man to be a subordinate of Orochimaru and far more dangerous than he made himself out to be.

"I'm afraid I can't let you leave with Gaara-kun, we need him for the invasion after all." He said pleasantly.

"Uzumaki did something to seal his chakra, so he can't do anything anyway. Just get out of the way." Temari snapped, worry for her brother leaving her short tempered.

"I know what he did and I can undo it. Just step away from him." Kabuto informed them

"No way, after the way that Gaara got taken out, we're not letting you put him in danger again." Kankuro said, backing up his sister.

"A pity." Kabuto said with faked disappointment and rushed at them.

Both Temari and Kankuro were more than skilled enough to be Chunin, but Kabuto was on par with a highly skilled Jounin, far above them in other words. They found themselves kicked into a tree before they even properly released Gaara in order to defend themselves.

The silver haired spy knew that this was a crucial part of the plan. The invasion was never truly intended to succeed after all. What it was meant to do was demonstrate to Sasuke that Orochimaru could attack Konoha with impunity, assassinate the Hokage and leave it in ruins, making the revenge obsessed Uchiha greedy to get that power himself when he was approached with the offer at a later point. It wasn't like Orochimaru cared what happened to his former home after all, he had much loftier motivations and those motivations would be made much easier with the Sharingan.

Kabuto turned towards the downed Jinchuuriki and a series of symbols started glowing on his fingers.

"Gogyō Kaiin(Five Elements Unseal)!"

Gaara's eyes flew open, but they weren't the teal green that they usually were, they were the golden irises and black cross pupils of Shukaku. Gaara having been knocked out by the use of the Five Element Seal had allowed the sand demon to take control immediately upon removal.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Naruto intercepted the lumbering form of Shukaku just before the demon reached the village walls. The massive sand demon was apparently having a great deal of fun smashing up the trees, which was really the only reason that it hadn't reached Konoha yet.

He also saw Gaara's brother and sister watching from afar, looking rather terrified.

"Stomp, stomp, stomp, hehehehe!" Shukaku giggled in a disturbing manner as he stomped forward.

Naruto wasted no time in summoning Gamabunta when he reached the demon. He couldn't think of anything else in his arsenal that had enough power to take down the giant dust ball.

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu(Summoning Technique)!"

"What the hell is this brat? Calling me here to fight the sand demon, are you nuts?!" Gamabunta protested as soon as he took stock of the situation.

Make no mistake, he liked Naruto, the blond was a great guy and a good drinking buddy. He was sure that they could have a better time of it than even his overly respectful father did, but he was in no way interested in fighting another demon after the Kyuubi nearly clawed his left eye out.

"Sorry Bunta, but I realy didn't have a choice, but let me get you some backup. Kuchiyose no Jutsu(Summoning Technique)!" A giant magenta colored toad appeared that was every bit as huge as the toad boss. He carried a shield that was shaped like a giant sized sake saucer and a sasumata.

Naruto didn't have enough skill with the summoning technique yet to call multiple summons in one sitting, so he had to perform the technique once for each summon.

"Gamaken! Block and distract Shukaku while Bunta blasts him with water techniques!" Naruto yelled out to make sure both of the summons heard him. He leaped off the newly summoned toads head and sped to the side, intending to attack from the flank.

"I will do what I can Naruto-san, though I am ungraceful." The newly arrived Gamaken rumbled and moved toward Shukaku with his sasumata, intending to use it to grapple with the demon.

"No, no, no! You're not gonna keep me from my fun! NUH UH!" Shukaku protested before launching several compressed blasts of win towards the trio.

"Oi, brat, how about waking up that redheaded kid sticking out of Shukaku's head?" Gamabunta yelled towards Naruto after blocking the wind attacks with his own water ones.

Naruto looked towards the sand demon's head and could just about make out a hint of red and brown swaying like a puppet on top of the sandy head as Gamaken grappled with it.

The sasumata wielding toad was clearly outmatched in the strength department, but he still presented a severe obstruction to the sand demon, slowing it down to a crawl. Naruto took advantage of the demon's impediment and took all of his remaining water sealing scrolls from his coat and grabbed them in his chains. The chains extended until they hovered over Shukaku, at which point he channeled his chakra through them, making the scrolls unseal and dump the water they carried all over the demon.

"GAH! I HATE BEING WET!" Shukaku roared angrily and blew a condensed sandstorm towards the blond that had gotten him soaked. The wet sand was sloughing off his body, forcing Shukaku to exert more force in order to keep it on him.

"shit! Hari Jizō(Needle Jizō)!" His hairband broke and Naruto was completely encased in a cocoon of steel hard, gold colored hair needles, preventing the sandstorm from ripping the flesh off his bones.

He really needed to wake up Gaara and fast. Shukaku was at his absolute most dangerous right now. More dangerous than if he wasn't sealed even, since he could act with some measure of intelligence due to borrowing Gaara's sense of self. At least that's what Naruto assumed based on what Xanna had told him. If Shukaku hadn't been sealed he would have likely acted more like a rabid animal rather than an insane and overpowered human.

He couldn't kill Gaara either, which might have been easier. He knew enough about sealing demons to know that killing the Jinchuuriki during a full possession equated to releasing the demon. He had hoped that the torrent of freezing water would have been enough to wake up Gaara, but apparently he was going to have to do something more drastic.

"AAAAH, I'LL KILL ALL OF YOU BASTARDS!" The sand demon bellowed as a massive ball of condensed water hit him courtesy of Gamabunta, Shukaku being unable to block due to the sasumata pushing into his neck.

Getting an idea, Naruto had his chains wrap 3 times around Shukaku's left front leg at the knee and then focused hard on transforming it. Instead of the usual chain links, he made them vicious and bladed. The demon was too enraged about the sasumata at his throat and all the water that he'd been hit with to notice at first.

He did notice however when Naruto began to swiftly retract the bladed chain, pressing it into his leg as hard as possible at the same time. The chain acted like an improvised chainsaw and began to cut into the sand demon's leg

He didn't manage to get all the way through with the first chain, so he sent another to wrap around the same spot, the Ichibi being too busy reforming his body elsewhere because of all the water that had carried away his sand to focus on the relatively minor injury to his leg.

As soon as Naruto started trying to continue his chainsawing however, the sand slammed down onto the chain, trapping it and Shukaku yanked his leg harsly, pulling Naruto along the ground for nearly 50 feet before he released the chain.

Immediately he felt the severe chakra drain from severing the chain. Normaly he retracted the chain back into his body, preserving the chakra used to create them, but if he severed it then that chakra was lost. It took vast amounts of chakra to form physical matter out of nothing like that, so the drain was considerable even for Naruto's absurd reserves. This combined with summoning two of the most powerful toad summons had made a large dent in his reserves.

Naruto picked himself up, in considerable pain from being dragged across the ground like that and feeling like half a forest worth of twigs was stuck in his now unbound hair. He saw that he had achieved what he wanted to do though, Shukaku was collapsed on his left knee, the two giant toads harassing him now having a much easier time of it.

"Brat, you gotta wake that kid up fast. I'm running out of Chakra and Gamaken isn't going to last much longer either." Gamabunta warned, panting from expending so much chakra for throwing water at the sand demon. Shukaku was capable of leeching the moisture from the air and drying himself off, making it necessary to constantly keep throwing more water at him.

Now that the sand demon had collapsed and with Gamaken having shifted his hold to grapple the giant sandy head downwards instead of up, Gaara was finally in reach. Naruto wasted no time in creating another chain and bringing it around to smack against Gaara's cheek.

The redheaded teen's eyes snapped open from the blow, feeling like his jaw was cracked.

"NOOOoooo, I only just got out!" Shukaku wailed as he was forcibly drawn back into the seal, the giant sandy body already collapsing. Gaara dropped to the ground in a shower of sand.

"Me and Ken are gonna be going now brat. Don't call me for something like that again." Gamabunta grumbled and returned to Myobokuzan.

"Goodbye Naruto-san." Gamaken said politely and vanished as well.

Gaara began to shuffle backwards as fast as he was capable in his exhausted state.

"NO! You won't end my existence!" He yelled at the approaching blond in a panic, ignoring how much it hurt his jaw when he tried to talk.

"Shut up you moron, I'm not going to kill you." Naruto told him just as Temari and Kankuro jumped to Gaara's side, looking both stunned that he'd been beaten and worried for their brother.

The two older sand siblings were just about to demand that he tell them what he intended to do to their little brother when Gaara clutched at his stomach and groaned in pain.

"Gaara, whats wrong?!" Temari asked in a worried rush.

Naruto appeared next to the redhead in a blur of speed and ripped off the clothes on his chest, revealing the seal holding the Shukaku glowing bright red, ominous looking cracks appearing in it.

"His seal is degrading because of the Gogyō Fūin(Five Elements Seal). If this keeps up then Shukaku is going to break out soon." Naruto told them, already unsealing the brush that he used for Fuinjutsu.

The two sand siblings looked alarmed, but didn't have time to ask questions as Naruto spoke first. "Who was sacrificed to seal the Ichibi?"

"What does that have to-" Temari began, but was cut off by the other blond.

"There's no time for stupid questions! Answer me!" Naruto commanded harshly.

"Our mother. Gaara was still in the womb when the demon was sealed into him." Kankuro answered quietly.

Naruto nodded to himself as if something had just been confirmed to him and ripped his left wrist open with his teeth. He didn't have any chakra infused ink with him to use for sealing, so chakra infused blood would have to do.

"Hold him down tightly, if I don't get this right we're all probably going to die." Naruto said grimly. Temari and Kankuro did as they were told and pressed down onto their little brothers chest while sitting on his hands. Naruto set himself on Gaara's feet and had his chains bind him as well.

Swiftly, he began to draw reinforcements and modifications to the seal on the still groaning Gaara's stomach. Modifications that he hoped would work the way that he wanted them to. He hadn't been able to practice this, so it would have to be done right on the first try.

After several minutes of fast but precise seal drawing, it was finished. The seal drawn in his own blood glowed and then shrank down to a smaller size on Gaara's stomach.

Naruto sighed in relief when the redhead stopped trying to move and settled down.

They all got off Gaara and and let him sit up. He was blinking in confusion as if he'd just been told that everything he saw was a Genjutsu before he turned towards the bigger of the two blonds.

"Mother says 'thank you'. Why is she thanking you instead of demanding blood?" Temari and Kankuro's eyes went wide with disbelief and confusion. Anytime that Gaara had spoken about 'mother' before now it had been about feeding her blood.

"When Shukaku got sealed inside you, your mother's soul was taken along with it because you were still in the womb at the time. If I had to guess then I'd say that you were hearing both of their voices in your head for a long time and your mother was probably trying to keep Shukaku from influencing you as much as possible." Naruto explained.

"You mean our mother was stuck inside a seal with a mad, bloodthirsty demon all this time?" Temari asked, her face going pale.

"Yeah, but don't worry about her. Shukaku probably wasn't able to do much more than annoy her with his raving, he was much more dangerous to Gaara."

"Was?" Kankuro asked, picking up on the use of past tense.

"I modified the seal. Shukaku was so weakened by the fight that he didn't put up much of a fight. I buried him deep and placed a lot of restrictions on him. The only voice that you'll be able to hear now will be your mothers, you'll also be able to sleep without fear of the Ichibi taking over." Naruto explained.

"Mother says that you are telling the truth, but I can only remember hearing one voice." Gaara said, looking very confused.

"It's your mind Gaara, so it probably sounded like the same voice but was actually two of them."

"Mother agrees." Gaara said, before going silent for a while. "Temari, Kankuro...I am sorry for the way I treated you, mother tells me that you did your best to take care of me all this time and I haven't appreciated it." Both of the elder sand siblings looked shocked but happy at hearing this and Temari quickly hugged her little brother, while Kankuro put a hand on his shoulder.

"It's ok Gaara, we're just glad to have you back." Gaara managed a strained and unfamiliar smile at being hugged by his sister before he turned towards Naruto.

"Thank you Uzumaki...Naruto, you have given me back my family and made me see that living only for myself is a worthless existence. You told me once that you seek to grow strong for the sake of love and I can see now what strength it gives you, I will seek to do the same."

He wasn't going to make any mention of the fact that the blond had said that he did it out of love for the Kyuubi. Gaara knew that to be dangerous information that had been given to him only because he was a fellow Jinchuuriki. He would take that secret to his grave. He actually felt guilty for revealing Naruto's Jinchuuriki status to everyone as it was.

"And I am sorry that I told everyone that you are the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki."

"Don't worry about it Gaara, I really don' t care whether they know or not." Naruto waved him off. "Now you three should get out of here before some idiot Konoha shinobi get the idea to take you as prisoners of war."

The three siblings gave him a grateful nod and rushed off towards the direction of Sunagakure.

"Well color me impressed, you've defeated Shukaku." Came the voice of Xanna from behind him as her arms reached around him to rest on his chest.

"I had a lot of help though." Naruto said, referring to the two toad summons.

"True, but it was impressive nonetheless. Very few would have been capable of doing so much." The demoness complimented.

"Well, I'm glad you liked the show." Naruto said with a wry grin as he turned around in her embrace, putting his own arms around her.

"I did indeed, in fact I found it quite...exhilirating." She whispered the last word into his ear in a tone that left no doubt as to just how exhilirated she was.

Truth be told she had been worried for him when she'd seen him take on Shukaku, but seeing him take down the sand demon had left her wanting him buried inside her right then and there.

Uncaring of the fact that they were out in the open, Naruto pressed the beautiful demoness up against the closest tree, opening the short silk yukata that she wore most of the time, exposing her lack of underwear, kissing her at the same time. She responded eagerly, hands moving to undo his belt.

He growled lustfully into her mouth as he felt her firm breasts pressing into his chest. Before long she had pushed his pants down, releasing his fully erect member and give it a few swift strokes with her hand. He wasted no time lifting her up against the tree and pushing himself into her.

She let out a moan of pleasure as she felt him entering her, hands clenching into the coat that he still had on as he began to thrust into her. Her legs went around his waist and he moved his left hand to her right breast, simultaneously licking her collar bone. She gave a short gasp at the pleasurable sensations and rapidly felt her orgasm approaching as the blond skillfully worked her body. When it hit her, she buried her fangs into his shoulder hard enough to draw blood, even as her inner walls clenched around him and her legs pulled him closer.

Naruto groaned when he felt her teeth penetrating flesh and buried himself all the way inside her, filling her up with his seed as she tightened around him and drained him dry.

As soon as they caught their breath again, he captured her lips in a kiss, uncaring of the blood staining them.

They spent a little while longer just kissing, with Naruto still buried inside her before she spoke.

"We'll have to continue this later, there are humans approaching." The demoness spoke.

Naruto reluctantly slid out of her and got dressed again, while Xanna simply retied her yukata.

"I'll see you soon." He said to her and stole another quick kiss, making Xanna give him a smile before she vanished.

Less than a minute later, Kiba, Shino, Sasuke and Sakura appeared in front of him, looking a bit confused at all the destroyed trees and sand covering the clearing.

"Uh...Kakashi-sensei sent us to back you up Naruto." Sakura said, noting the distinct lack of enemies. They were more or less supposed to keep other enemies off his back while Naruto dealt with the Ichibi.

"I've already taken care of everything as you can see, so lets just get back to the village." Naruto took note of the fact that Sasuke was just about ready to explode if the look of constipated jealousy was anything to go by. That kid needed to chill out a bit.

"Ummm, Naruto...why do you smell like sex?" Kiba asked with a slight blush.

"Don't worry about it Kiba, I always smell like sex." Naruto dismissed.

"But you didn't smell like that before coming here." Kiba protested.

"I wonder if you really want to know the answer to that." Naruto said airily.

"Naruto, please don't tell me you had sex even while Konoha was being invaded." Sakura pleaded desperately.

"Alright Sakura, since you asked so nicely I won't tell you." Naruto told the pinkette with a smirk.

"This is highly illogical." Shino said with perfect stoicism and pushed his sunglasses up his face.

"I know right, who asks dumb questions like that." Naruto agreed.

"I was referring to you engaging in sexual intercourse while your home is invaded by hostile forces Naruto-san." Shino elaborated.

"I'm deducting 20 man points from you Shino. It's never illogical to engage in sexual intercourse." Naruto said in a scolding tone.

"Man points are also illogical."

"Sometimes I worry about you, it's like we're not even the same species."