Author's Note: hello everyone and welcome to my Naruto fanfiction. I will warn you right away at the start that this fanfic will be very long and will contain canonretelling at the start (from the Gaara fight up until the Valley of the End fight). I have made adjustments in the canon so I could use my story, so it will have some changes.
Also, secondly I try to update this story once a month. That way I can keep working on this story as well as my Dragonball Z and Star Ocean: Till the End of Time fanfictions.
Disclaimer: I do not own the anime/manga series Naruto or it's characters in anyway. I am simply borrowing the characters, without permission from the author, to write my own little story.
Naruto Arashiodori
Uzumaki Naruto couldn't believe it. Down there in the pit, where he had fought and defeated Hyuuga Neji no 2 hours ago, Uchiha Sasuke was fighting Naruto's worst nightmare. Sasuke, Naruto's rival, was fighting against the one person that Naruto was actually openly afraid of facing.
Gaara of the desert.
After the talk Naruto had with the red haired sand-shinobi yesterday, he discovered two things. They had been living a similar life and for a similar reason. Both had been hated and feared by their village because they had a demon sealed inside of them. But Naruto was scared of Gaara because, unlike Naruto, Gaara did not get out of the loneliness. Instead he stayed in it and killed anyone that came close to him. It was the thought that anyone could stay in the darkness of being alone so long and willingly stay there that had Naruto scared.
And now Uchiha Sasuke, Naruto's rival and teammate, was down there fighting him. After asking, almost begging even, Kakashi-sensei to interfere with the fight because Sasuke would lose, he pulls of a trick like that. With his new Jutsu, Chidori, Sasuke had easily pierced Gaara's sand orb that was protecting him. But afterwards the orb had cracked, revealing Gaara holding a bloody shoulder, a look of total madness in his eyes. And that strange, different arm that had been attached to Sasuke as he jumped back from the hole was also worrying Naruto. He knew what that arm was, just by looking at it. He just felt it. The combination of the Chakra and the appearance left nothing to his imagination. That arm was from Gaara's inner demon, Shukaku.
"What is that?" his teacher, a tall man with silver hair and his forehead protector covering his left eye, said.
Before he even realized it, Naruto answered the question.
"Shukaku."
---
'This fight is truly becoming interesting. Show me you power Sasuke-kun. You have already become this powerful without using my seal. But this is an opponent that you can not defeat on your own. Seek out my power.' Orochimaru thought to himself as he watched the fight between the Sand's most powerful shinobi and the boy he had chosen to become his next container. Involuntarily he gave a small chuckle.
"What's the matter Kazekage-dono?" the old Hokage asked. "It's rare to hear you amuse yourself like that."
"It is nothing Hokage-sama." He answered, assuming his role again. 'It's still too early. I want to see Sasuke-kun's potential.' He didn't voice his thought though. Instead he smoothly told his old teacher a lie. "But it has been the first time that I have actually seen Gaara wounded. As should be expected from the famous Uchiha-clan. But I fear that he has passed the border with Gaara. When Gaara become enraged, he stops at nothing but complete murder. If a shinobi of the Sand completely dominates against even one of the Uchiha-clan it will improve our mission rate even more then I dared dream when I came here."
"…" the old man didn't answer, instead focusing his attention at the fight in the pit.
---
"UCHIHA SASUKE!!!"
'What's with this guy?" Sasuke thought. 'I've hit him with Chidori but afterwards he nearly crushes my arm. And now that he's finally out of that cocoon of his, he looks totally different. What was he trying to do in there?"
"I'LL KILL YOU!" the Gaara-sand monster shouted. Almost instantly he launched himself at Sasuke.
'What the?' Sasuke acted quickly, dodging Gaara's attack and made some distance between the two of them.
'Before he only fought from a distance, not even moving. And now all of a sudden he starts using taijutsu? What's going on here? If it wasn't for my Sharingan I would have hardly be able to dodge it.'
"DIE!" again Gaara launched himself at Sasuke. This time he was prepared though.
"Come!" Sasuke yelled. Using his Sharingan to the fullest Sasuke focused a high amount of Chakra into his legs and sidestepped, dodging Gaara's attack. In the same motion he quickly kicked the sand shinobi, sending him of balance for a second. Never one to waste an opening, Sasuke quickly continued his attack.
Making sure his attacks were as fast as possible, he quickly punched Gaara in the guy, followed by an elbow to the face. 'Now!' he thought, going for a neck-chop, to deal heavy damage.
"Aargh!" in his moment of attack, aiming for a critical area, Sasuke had opened his guard and Gaara instantly used it. With the giant arm of sand he slammed Sasuke away, into a wall.
A wall on the other side of the stadium.
Sasuke's vision was swimming. He couldn't see straight right now. The punch Gaara had given him had hurt unlike anything he ever got hit by. Even trying to stand up straight was a difficult task right now. Realizing he needed a few seconds to recover, Sasuke looked up. Gaara was not going to let him recover; he was already running towards him, probably intending to deal the finishing blow.
Suddenly, Sasuke thought back to everything that happened years ago. The night his brother killed everyone in the clan. Remembering that his brother said that he should become the avenger, destined to fight Itachi to the death, he felt hatred flowing over him again. And with the hatred came power. Performing the seals for Chidori, he shouted his thought, not even realizing it.
"Itachi! I will become an avenger! I will kill you!" as he shouted the last word, he charged Gaara. He didn't realize it, but suddenly the curse seal that Orochimaru had given him activated. It was the source of his new power and speed.
---
While the two boys were racing towards each other determined to have only one survivor, in the stand a few of the leaf shinobi were scarred. Ino, Sakura, Shikamaru, Chouji, Tenten and Neji (who had recovered a little during the fight between Shikamaru and Temari and was now watching the other matches) all remembered that instance in the Forest of Death when Sasuke had gained the markings on his body and crushed an entire team of shinobi single-handedly. Even Kakashi was getting worried, seeing how his seal was not helping contain the curse. It meant that Sasuke was experiencing great hatred and anger.
"What happened with Sasuke?" Naruto asked. He, along with Kiba and Hinata, didn't have a clue about what was going on. None of the three had been present or awake last time Sasuke went berserk.
"CHIDORI!"
"DIE!"
With those yells the teenage boys clashed.
Sasuke, using the Chidori, cutter Gaara's sand arm of at the shoulder but Gaara himself was left unhurt. Meanwhile, Gaara, using his arm of sand before it was cut of, had managed to scratch Sasuke's arm, causing it to bleed just below the shoulder.
Before either of the boys moved again, Gaara let out an eerie laugh, enough to scare the entire stadium. And even while laughing, the sand from his gourd reformed a new monster-arm. But this time around, it was on his other arm. His dominant arm.
Suddenly, so fast none of the ordinary villagers, lord and other non-shinobi could see, Gaara turned around and slammed Sasuke with his monster arm again. Not being able to react in time, Sasuke again went flying across the entire arena.
"DIE! UCHIHA SASUKE!" Gaara shouted, jumping after Sasuke to go in for the kill. Literally
---
Up in the stands, Naruto was very close to actually wetting himself. Down there, in the ring, he saw his teammate and rival Uchiha Sasuke getting beaten up. The genius, last of the Uchiha was getting torn apart.
'And that's they guy I have to fight next! There's no way I can win against someone like him!' Naruto's thoughts were racing.
"AARGH!" a cry of pain suddenly sounded throughout the entire arena, drawing back Naruto's attention to the fight. 'Sasuke's still getting his ass kicked down there. Isn't there something we can do?'
As he looked again, he saw Gaara go in for a simple kick.
"Alright!" he shouted out, surprising everyone around him. Seeing there surprised looks he continued. "If Gaara starts throwing such pathetically slow kicks, Sasuke can easily see them and counter with the Sharingan. And at that range, Gaara's huge arm is probably useless!"
He had regained hope, now. An arm that size can't be swung as quickly as would be needed in close combat. With his Sharingan Sasuke would get the advantage back. They'd meet in the next round after all!
"No." Kakashi said. "Sasuke's already used the Chidori twice and that's his limit. He hardly has any chakra left and added to that, with that curse seal activated, he probably has a lot of difficulty even breathing. He has no chance of winning this fight now."
"What?"
"The Chidori is a high level assignation technique. It's not meant to be used more then once in short succession. The amount of chakra it uses to perform is extremely large. I can only pull of about 4 a day, in combination with the Sharingan. Sasuke is nowhere near that amount yet and he still hasn't completely mastered the Sharingan."
"But, that would mean that…" Naruto couldn't get him to finish the sentence.
"Yeah, that's right." Kakashi said, almost reading his thoughts. "The strategy against Gaara was to win in 1 hit, using the Chidori. But Gaara's defenses were even better then I thought they would be."
"DIE!" again Gaara's insane voice sounded through the stadium. Sasuke's body was send flying by the force of his last blow. Even with the body still in mid-air, Gaara raised his hand, as if trying to grab him from a distance.
"Oh shit." Kiba exclaimed, having rushed over with Hinata when they saw the fuss that Naruto had been making. "That's the movement for his killing attack. We have to move now!" he yelled.
Before he even said the last line, Naruto had already rushed down the steps, as low as the stands went. He could almost see Sasuke on eye level, still flying from the hit Gaara gave him. The sand was rapidly closing in on him now and Naruto recognized it from the fight with Lee. Without really thinking over what he was doing, he threw his right hand forward, moving it like he was throwing a ball. While doing so, he released the Kyuubi's chakra, sending it towards Sasuke.
The Chakra of the great demon fox, the strongest of the known demons, left from all five fingers of Naruto's hand, quickly moving towards Sasuke. In the mean time the sand of Gaara, using the power of Shukaku was also trying to wrap itself around the Uchiha. It would all come down to which of the two would be faster now.
"Sabaku Sõsõ!" Gaara yelled as he closed his fist, trying to crush the Uchiha to death.
"Sasuke!"
A.N.: and that concludes chapter 1. if you have read this story, please leave a review telling me what you thought of it. I accept all critics that I can work with, because I want to improve my writing abilities. And of course, compliments are always welcome too.
I would also like to thank Illusion-sky, Zephyr-Tai-Ji and Mirrorsofillusion for helping me with this story. All three of these authors have read the storyboard for Naruto: Arashiodori as well as Dragonball Z fanfiction Triple Identity. They have been a huge help in making adjustment to the storylines and discussing some of the details.
Also, Zephyr-Tai-Ji has beta-read this chapter (as well as the other Naruto chapters I will publish) so I would like to thank him for that as well.