A/N: I tried to finish it, but GODDAMN IT I just can't seem to get cracking, so I thought, well, here's the first half, you'll get the second part as soon as it will cooperative with me. :D So the NEXT chapter will be the last one (yes, yes, I can't do that since I said this was the end, but I'm a bad person, you are allowed to beat me with a stick).

Disclaimer:Still not……………………….. But soon!

Warnings: The usual, you know.

Gaara took a breath. And another, and another. The sand around Deidara's work of art slid to the floor. He was so tired. He wasn't going to be able to go on much longer. Yet there was still so much left to do.

The cave walls were still intact, dark and gloomy.

His four-man squad hadn't been separated yet. Lee was not too far away fighting a short, what appeared to be, teenage boy with an orange swirly mask on his face - Tobi? - and was barely able to evade the earth-based attacks, seemingly at a disadvantage of the terrain. It made Gaara worry. It really did, but he could barely keep up with his own enemy, let alone split his concentration in two to protect Lee. It was impossible.

Neji and Tenten were fighting together against a large maroon-haired man that seemed to absorb their every hit without the least bit of effort, spewing their efforts back at them.

Gaara noticed a small clay bird slashing at him from behind and quickly erected a barrier of hardened sand to protect his body from harm, and said clay figure exploded violently, cracking the ground. (1) A fraction of a second later perhaps a dozen of small, almost imperceptible spiders dropped down from above, dropping threads of a hair's bread all around his shield, almost like a Christmas present.

The spiders fell against the sand, made tiny little craters in the sand as they exploded and disappeared into nothingness. It was obvious they were not the real threat.

Gaara sent out a wall of chakra, trying to determine the purpose of the threads. They were thin, but strong he noted as his hands of sand failed to rip one of them into pieces. He made his sand sink like quicksand, shrugging the threads down to the earth where they fluttered down to lie, unmoving and seemingly harmless.

The Kazekage knew better than to think they were just for decoration, but he was reluctant to move from his spot as he had during the battle built up an impenetrable shield of chakra-enhanced sand by the strongest minerals in his artillery under his feet as his opponent,Deidara, was using earth based attacks, just like his goofy partner.

Gaara was an earth user. And he was more skilled than this little blond…rodent.

Kill him. Squeeze his blood out… His spine sticking through his throat and tongue, yes, isn't that a plausible death, Kazekage-sama? We would like that…

Be quiet, he hissed to his head. He didn't need to have his intentions changed too. He was to… what was it? Yes, he was to get as many people in the cave… not killed. But still, even this resolve made him waver somewhat. He was, indeed, trying to kill Deidara. And hopefully, he'd kill even more than one Akatsuki.

Gaara was abruptly thrown out of his thoughts when the ends of each string was grabbed in the beak of small swans that circulated around him, trying desperately to constrict his own layer of sand around him in a choking manner.

He almost felt like laughing. This Deidara must be running out of tricks. Did he seriously believe those fragile little birds could tie him down?

He allowed one string to slip through, and with his bare hand he grabbed it. It was surprisingly sharp, cased almost invisible injuries in his hand. Ignoring the minor pain, he made a whipping motion towards Deidara that made the bird lose hold of it and flap helplessly back to its creator that somewhat sluggishly dodged it.

They were both tired. Everyone was tired.

How could anyone not be tired? Gaara would strangle the person that was not tired. He would claw out the eyes of the person that wasn't sofucking tired that breathing was a chore almost more than possible to keep up with.

Suddenly, he felt something indescribable sneak past him, thickening the air, sinking Gaara into believing he was currently stranded in a pool of syrup or possibly tangy toothpaste. Taking on a guarding stance, he placed a hand over his left eye and immediately he was granted with the view of the entire enormous cave.

Few people were outside, as the second born Uchiha had been kept inside the cave, unguarded and unattended but unconscious. He was at the moment not so unconscious, fighting viciously against his older relative alongside with his lover.

Gaara shifted his weight from the left foot to the right one, feeling anxious. Perhaps seven, eight chuunin and Tokubetsu Jounin stood facing two carrot haired men with peculiar faces. Chouji, Shikamaru and Ino fought The Leader and Blue, each having similar grudges against those two. Gaara was pretty sure those three would not leave this cave until their enemies were dead, to honor their childhood sensei perhaps.

But this was starting to get ridiculous.

This battle, this war, had been going on for more than four hours.

Everyone had to be so tired beyond words. Yet when Gaara gazed around himself, all he could see were determined stares and furious faces.

Suddenly, a raven-haired man with the swirl mask appeared beside Deidara, screaming; "DEIDARA-SEMPAI!"

The blonde went rigid and threw a punch at the younger teen which was dodged easily. "Go away Tobi! Stupid nuisance, un!"

"But Deidara-sempai…!" Tobi said in a pathetic manner, and they both had to put a temporarily end to their conversation as Gaara launched an attack consisting of five sand hands against then, which split into nine arms in midair. After much effort, they managed to land on the ground not captured but not unharmed. Deidara was bleeding heavily from a wound near the left elbow and Tobi's shoes were both drenched in red.

"Go away!"

"Deidara-sempaaaaai!" Tobi whined.

"Get your own opponent, stupid dog, un!" Deidara slugged at him, and this Tobi got the hint and as the good boy he is, he scurried away to find an opponent that wasn't occupied.

Gaara went cold.

Where is Tobi's opponent?

The Kazekage once again gazed through his eye of sand just below the roof of the cave.

Lee was Tobi's opponent, yes, Kazekage-sama?

As the voice in his head, though trying to stay calm, was starting to panic, Gaara struggled to keep his vision from going spotty.

Where is Lee?

He was breathing in shallow breaths, his pulse beat faster than it had done in his entire life, his muscles cramped and relaxed and his eyes stung for some inexplicable reason.

Gaara couldn't see him anywhere in the gigantic cave. Flashes of green turned out to be Chuunin vests and the number of black-haired people were too many to estimate.

WHERE THE FUCK IS HE!

Now he failed the struggle and everything turned red. Mechanically, he turned towards Deidara. This was ending, and it was ending now. Gathering all his strength, he sent an enormous wave of sand towards Deidara, who was just creating two clay creatures in his hand and one in his mouth. Undisturbed about Deidara's coming plans, he pressed on, forcing Deidara to turn and run from the wall of sand.

A few second later the blond appeared above the wave, comfortlessly standing on a large, thick bird with a rather long neck. The bird opened it's mouth and let loose a stream of small pieces of clay, making them rain down all around Gaara who had to threw up an extra thick shield to keep him protected and to keep the ground around him from changing too much.

Deidara fought in the air, Gaara fought on the ground. If the ground terrain was disturbed it would be at Gaara's disadvantage.

The redhead narrowed his eyes as the ground stopped reverberating, signaling the end of the attack.

Now, he was done with this.

Lifting his arms, the wall grew bigger but thinner, going from roof to ground and made it advance towards Deidara who dutifully flew through the air away from it.

Now, Deidara couldn't see him, so Gaara made a run for it, desperate to find where Lee was. This would at least make Deidara somewhat confused, giving Gaara a few more seconds to run on.

Flashes of other battles going on around him distracted him, but he ignored them. Lee wasn't in the cave, therefore he must be outside. But how the fuck was he going to find Lee? The cave was an area which one could not expand and outside the limits didn't exist. Lee could be miles away from here!

Reaching his chakra out ignoring the risks of other people feeling it, he searched intently for anything that at least left a trail of Lee's presence. He was rewarded with nothing.

The panic rose into his throat, making him want to be violently ill. This was not how it was supposed to be. Lee was a jounin of a very high degree, almost an ANBU. He was not supposed to be one of the dead ones in this battle. A Chuunin or Tokubetsu Jounin was much more at risk, they were weaker, and therefore it should be those who died. It wasn't fair!

A loud scream of horror was exhaled, and it bounced around the cave many times before fading. Gaara tuned in on his eye as he ran away from the source of noise. He wanted to know, but he had no business with that right now. Lee was of the utmost importance right now.

But when he received what his floating eye saw, he couldn't do anything but stop right in front of the cave's small opening. He turned around, and knot of panic he had in his stomach doubled.

Naruto was kneeling, bent over a lifeless, pale figure, arms tied around its waist. Thick, dark blood dripped through his hands slowly. Sasuke was white and the mouth was formed in a small 'o', face contorted in a show of surprise.

A few meters away Itachi stood, looking grim and… somewhat put out?

Beside him, at least half a head shorter, Tobi stood sheepishly with his black gloves completely soaked with the youngest Uchiha's blood. You couldn't see it, but you could feel it. The gangly teenager was smiling like he usually did, mischievously.

Oh God…

Red and clumsy chakra fused with Naruto's tears and grew larger, clinging onto his chest until his entire front was covered in it. Few seconds later, nothing of the old Naruto was visible beneath the Kyuubi shield. Sasuke was dropped as his skin sizzled with the heat, and Naruto got up to his feet, swinging uncertainly from side to side, as if unsure who to attack.

Four, five, six tails.

A quick swish and one of the tails had smacked Tobi harshly in the back, making him fall forwards into the ground, steadying himself on all fours.

The entire cave seemed to rumble with force, and every human within it seemed to stop, turn and observe. Different emotions swayed the location.

Naruto let a furious growl rip and dug his left claw into the teens shoulder and said person started resisting vigorously. The fox let go, sniffing in the air for something unknown. Tobi slowly backed away, sensing the danger.

Gaara moved closer. Maybe he could do something.

He knew from experience that it wasn't all that pleasant to wake up from a possessed coma and realized you had killed someone, no matter if friend or foe.

Inched closer.

Another horrible growl, and those red eyes locked onto the cave opening behind him. Gaara glanced back, and his heart jumped.

Lee hung off the wall, hands clutching the stone. His legs seemed to be limp, as his arms looked like they were the only thing keeping him up. Gaara turned, but now that his panic wasn't fueling him, he felt the flood of fatigue crash over him. He could barely move even a step.

Fell to his knees, started crawling towards Lee.

Lee fell down, unconscious, and the crack was like that of a whip to Gaara's ears.

Naruto behind them grew yet another tail.

Blue wriggled lose of Chouji's grip and threw herself at Naruto, starting an attack of tremendous power. Paper butterflies behind her formed a 'V' behind their master.

Naruto moved faster than ever, and before the female had realized it, he had pieced her heart roughly with a paw. She fell to the ground, dead, paper animals littered all over her body.

Another flash, and two chuunin and all five of The Leader's companions dropped down on the floor, only two struck people still breathing.

A third flash. Itachi and Tobi were thrown across the cave, crashing against the wall. The younger one rose a second after, but not Itachi. He sunk down on the floor, spinal cord snapped in two. The white bone was visible through the remains of his Akatsuki cloak. Immediately, Tobi kneeled and forged some chakra through his hands and over Itachi's back, as if healing him.

A fourth flash. The roof above everyone crackled and started to fall down.

People evaded the falling rocks as much as they could in their current situation, but they all were so tired. Too tired.

Soon the roof was no more and the midday sun shone down upon them.

Naruto was crouching next to Sasuke's body that had miraculously not been completely buried under rocks, merely sprinkled with pebbles. Blood tricked out of his mouth.

The stench of his love's blood, Sasuke'sblood drew Naruto over the edge. He shrunk, as if gathering power and the seven tails grew into eight. He stood on his hind legs, raised his paws toward the sun and roared out his pain so loudly that several eardrums must have burst.

A wave of chakra flared out beneath Naruto's feet, and the earth split, creating a large crack.

Gaara turned around at the sound of this deafening roar and saw in fear as Naruto, still completely covered in red chakra, started splitting into two.

Naruto was splitting in half.

Naruto was splitting in half.

After ten seconds, Naruto had two upper bodies, and three legs. Four legs. After a full minute, there were two Kyuubi-possessed Narutos standing next to each other.

The ground started to shake. And then, Gaara thought he had gone insane.

Beside the left Naruto, a second body was starting to take form on the ground. In horror, Gaara watched as a nearby stone morphed into another body of the trashed Sasuke.

This was not making any sense at all. The little circular area in which Naruto and Sasuke resided seemed to double.

Then, a sudden start from the ground and Gaara was thrown forward, face hitting stone in a painful combination.

Gaara couldn't understand anything.

Earth spouted in between the Narutos, sending them further apart. After a minute, a figure appeared on this very gap. A new person. Hinata, and she looked like she had for all intents and purposes just grown out of the air, her petite body shaking in fear.

Gaara looked to the far side of the cave which was now a considerable longer length away since the earth seemed to expand. A Hinata was standing over there too, also shivering with fear like her newborn clone. And one between the Narutos. There now were two Narutos, two Sasukes, two Hinatas and now two dead bodies of Blue. This was too all confusing.

After a few minutes, there were clones of everybody. It was one of the cave walls had turned into a mirror and actually reflected them.

Both of the Narutos's red chakra grew more violent and started twisting and turning, shaping itself larger and larger to that the formerly human sized fox towered with one tails four meters up in the air.

Don't we see what is happening, Kazekage-sama?

Gaara blinked.

Don't we understand what is happening, Gaara-sama!

He exhaled, and listened to his internal voice. Never had he imagined that this voice had a brain of its own.

Naruto is furious. Kyuubi chakra is enhancing this rage. And Naruto is too scared to understand how much power he wields right now, even though Kyuubi is in control, ne, Gaara-san?

That really cleared this up. No, really, he perfectly understood everything right now. And now that he squinted, he could see his own copy looking right back at him, mirroring his moves and facial expression perfectly.

Naruto is creating a rip in the space continuum.

What was that supposed to mean?

He is splitting our universe in two parallel ones.

Gaara had read about parallels. The theory was that there was not one universe, but many with alternative surroundings, and that there was a different version of each human in every one in these parallels, and that not everything happened exactly alike in each of them. If a female survived giving birth in one world, she could die from blood loss in one and kill herself before getting impregnated in another.

And if this was true…

It would seem I am in the parallel to the right, was all he managed to think before he passed out.

The left one.

It felt like an eternity before Gaara opened his eyes again, but he realized it could not have been more than minutes as Naruto was still standing in the center of the cave, tails flashing wildly about and Sasuke lying by his feet getting paler by the second.

The cave was normal again. There wasn't a copy of it just next to the cave wall. The world was normal again.

Gaara was somewhat surprised someone hadn't killed him while he lay there defenseless.

He looked up.

Fuck, DAMN this all to hell, death would be better.

Above him stood Neji Hyuuga in a guarding stance, fending of attacks coming from random enemies. He looked real busy too, and Gaara could barely see his hands which flew through the air shielding from incoming kunai, shuriken and the occasional surprise attack.

This is so humiliating.

Having to be defended by Hyuuga was something Gaara would rather die than have happening. Damn it, why did he have to pass out like that for! Now he would never be able to look the Hyuuga in the eye ever again, it would be too humiliating. Damn it, damn it!

Well, it would seem he was lucky in this parallel. He was alive, at least.

He got to his feet and as Neji noticed, he took off with quick steps towards the cave opening. Lee wasn't there anymore, and the entrance had collapsed, leaving a hole half the starting size. Jumping through it, he quickly spied Lee slumped against a tree, unconscious.

Again, Gaara was surprised he wasn't dead, but unbelievably happy he wasn't. Rushing forward, he searched for a pulse. Faint, but detectable. Lee was pale and his skin was above normal temperature, Gaara would guess he had been poisoned in some way. Even if that was the shinobi way, Gaara always had thought such tactics were somewhat cowardly.

Through his eye of sand, he spotted Sakura not too far away from the entrance tending to a flesh wound in Sai's shoulder.

After a few quick strides, he grabbed her arm, dragged her off without a word and dumped her in front of Lee's still body. She got the point rather quickly. Hands hovering over Lee's body, she started channeling her chakra into a sphere and after a few moments of identification, drew out, as Gaara had suspected, thick, purple poison.

Five minutes passed. She gave Gaara a sad look.

"I'm sorry. There's more poison in his body, but it has already fused with the cells in his muscles and I can't draw it out without giving Lee a lethal injury."

Gaara was silent. How was he supposed to know what that meant? Yes, he knew Lee was poisoned, but what effect did the poison have?

As if reading his mind, Sakura continued. "I don't know what poison this is, and only Tsunade would know. Lee needs to get back to the village, that's all I know."

Gaara nodded grimly, but hesitated. Was he supposed to leave his comrades, his friends and his brother to their own? He felt a twinge in his chest and the blood pulsated so strongly through his body he could almost see the chakra swirling under his skin.

Lee coughed, and stopped breathing for a few seconds before starting again, however very erratically.

And the redhead took a decision. Hoisting the older one, not so gracefully, onto his shoulders, he turned and leapt away from the cave back to Konoha which was perhaps an hour away. Pumping chakra to his feet, the trees shook as he jumped. He needed to run really fast. He needed to at least divide that hour into half an hour, maybe even fifteen minutes.

Hopefully there would be no distractions.

Back in the cave Naruto lashed in rage and pain out as he sensed the vibrations in the ground made by Sasuke's heartbeat died out.

The red paw aimed for the closest target, and Ino screamed as her shoulder was dislocated with the raw force. She screamed again when she popped it back into place again.

When the second attack came, she didn't scream. She wasn't hit even. But Shikamaru who had jumped in front of her had, and he gave a small cough before he fell headfirst onto the ground. His Jounin vest had been thrashed beyond recognition by one mere blow.

Itachi, whose spine had just been healed by Tobi, looked around.

Itachi saw how his brother's lookalike, Sai, dropped everything and rushed towards Naruto, pushing his chest against Naruto's in a vain attempt to calm him down. Naruto tried to shook him off, but found he couldn't. Sai stubbornly clung on even through the front of his shirt was starting to disintegrate by the heat, as his skin soon would.

Itachi saw how his brother's teammate, Sakura, desperately willed a steady stream of blue chakra into Shikamaru's body while the blond female stood guard, tears glittering in her eyes. People didn't seem to fight as ferociously as before. They were scared. Scared of Naruto, scared of what had happened and scared of what would happen.

Itachi saw in front of him how his life and purpose slowly shattered into nothingness.

Itachi stopped looking. Things weren't to his advantage anymore, and he didn't like that.

This is what he told himself.

But no longer could he stand the sight of Sasuke's dead body.

People ran away. The Akatsuki accepted the fact that too many had been lost and that the full power of the Kyuubi demon could not be subdued at this point. They ran away.

Moments later, Naruto's red chakra dripped down on the ground to reveal a burned and scarred body. He was probably in serious pain.

Sakura rushed over, trying desperately to force Naruto's skin to grow back to stop the blood from rushing out. The ground was damp with liquid. People relaxed as the enemy had fled, fell to the floor, exhausted, unconscious.

Flesh, blood and weapons too lay on the ground, to remind.

This battle was over for the moment. It was time to tend to the weak and injured.

The right one.

Lee!

Gaara snapped awake, and quickly realized he must have fainted.

He shot up, thinking he was surrounded with enemies. He was not. He was among friends. He couldn't spot a single Akatsuki cloak anywhere.He couldonlysee his comrades tending to each other.

His breathing started to feel restricted. He couldn't see Lee anywhere.

(1) How many sexual innuendos in that sentence? Enough to make it funny. XP I'm such a loser, but yeah, this is my true humor.

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