The Real Me

45

Sand shinobis.
Lots of them. Not the most skilled but in enough numbers to cause a lot of problem. There was a whole section of the audience unconscious...no, asleep. Naruto spotted Shikamaru and decided to head over there.

There he saw Kakashi and Might Guy fending off the Sand shinobis and protecting the citizens. Naruto went to Shikamaru and realised that he was awake.

"Hey what are you doing?"
No response.
"Shikamaru. Why are you here?"
No response.

Naruto headed to Kakashi. Before he could say anything Kakashi turned to him and said, "The Sand Team has headed out. I don't know where or why, but I'm sure they're up to no good. Take Pakkun and go. Collect some more genins as well."
He summoned Pakkun, and Naruto nodded. He saw Sakura and Sasuke running towards him, and so he knelt and waited beside Shikamaru.

"Hey," he tried again. "Shikamaru wake up."
No response. He sighed and sat there as Sakura came over followed by Sasuke.
"What happened to him?" Sakura asked.
Naruto was about to explain when Pakkun went over and bit Shikamaru.

He didn't respond for a few seconds, making Naruto think that he actually was unconscious, but just them he screamed and got up, shaking his hand wildly trying to get Pakkun off.

"WHAT THE HELL?" he shouted at Pakkun who simply seemed pleased of himself.

"So you were awake?" Sakura asked in disbelief.

Shikamaru, rubbed his head awkwardly, and replied, "They used some smoke bomb, and so I held my breath, but then later everyone fell asleep so thought, why not? Anyways all this fighting is too much of a drag..."

Naruto couldn't...
Sakura stared at him.
Sasuke was, well, he just stood there.

"So, you decided to sleep...in the middle of an invasion?" Naruto said slowly.
Shikamaru thought for a second and then nodded.

Sakura blew out an exasperated breath.

"Okay, that's okay. Right now, we have to go after the Sand Siblings." Naruto informed them. He told them what Kakashi said to him, and then with Pakkun leading, they ran out towards the forest.
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"There!" Sasuke shouted.
Shikamaru decided to split up up and stay hidden, just in case.
"I'll be watching from the shadows." He told them and headed towards the trees.

They neared the three siblings, but just before they could attack Temari turned around and slashed her fan, sending out a strong wind that pushed Team 7 back.

"I'll handle them!" Temari shouted to her brothers, who nodded and kept moving.

We don't have the time to waste on her. Naruto cursed in his breath.

Shikamaru decided to jump out, "And I'll handle her." He grinned.

Sakura was about to protest, but Naruto nodded and kept moving.
Temari tried to stop them but found out that she couldn't move due to Shikamaru's Jutsu.
"I honestly hate fighting girls." Shikamaru told her.
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Team 7 moved forward and caught up with the brothers.
Sasuke attacked them with his Fireball Jutsu, but Gaara's sand blocked it.
This time Kankuro decided to step up.
"Go Gaara!" He shouted to the Redhead, who didn't bother looking behind and continued moving.

Kankuro unleashed his puppet, and the three managed to dodge it.  The puppet wasn't the only trick up his sleeve though. Even as they dodged, the puppet shot out several small needles that managed to get them.

It was pure instinct but Naruto managed to select them all by surrounding himself with a cloak of chakra and exerting wind on them. He glanced at Sasuke who had three needles on him, and he was removing them quickly.
Meanwhile Sakura had managed to get hit by only one needle, in her leg. She also quickly removed them and then got ready with a kunai.
Sasuke stumbled on a branch but caught himself, he fell back and the gripped the branch, swing himself up again and kicked the puppet hard in the face. It cracked.
Kankuro waved his hands around weaving invisible threads that controlled the puppet. Despite being broken the puppet didn't slow down.

Those are some serious skills. Naruto thought.
They needed to take down Kankuro to stop this barrage. He was trying to plan out how they would do this when suddenly a huge ball came out of nowhere, and rammed into Kankuro. He fell down the tree and they realised that it was Choji.

"How...?" Sakura asked him. Choji gave them a big smile and said, "Well I say y'all heading out so I decided to follow! Leave this guy to me!"

With that they headed out again in pursuit of Gaara.

He had had a good headstart so he was pretty far away. This would take some time.
Naruto wished he could summon a fast speedy fox but that was out of the question.

They finally saw him. Gaara stopped. Sakura threw several shurikens at him but each was precisely blocked by his sand. Sasuke tried to hit him with his Phoenix Flower Jutsu but Gaara simply made a wall of sand.

He turned around and glared at Sasuke. "You..."
Then he seemed to notice Naruto and his glare hardened. This was a bad time for Sakura to attack, as just when she jumped in screaming, Gaara slammed her into a tree with a sand hand (lol) .
It was strong move, and the sand stuck to the tree with an unconscious Sakura.

"Leave him to me!" Sasuke shouted. And he ran upto him.
Naruto was planning to attack, but stopped short.

Should I attack? He really wanted to. Gaara seemed like the perfect opponent. But, Sasuke wanted to fight him too.
A part of him wanted to rush in and fight together with Sasuke and against Gaara. This was the part he'd been listening to the most recently. The good part it seemed.
Meanwhile the bad part, the angry and vengeful part wanted to just sit there and watch the fight. He wanted to enjoy it.
And Sasuke didn't want him to interfere. Who was he to deny a dying man his last wish?

Sasuke's not gonna die.
How do you know?

After a lot of internal conflicts Naruto dispersed the Rasengan he was collecting and slowly moved away. He didn't want to just sit down and watch the fight so he went towards Sakura and tried to free her from the sand. But of course, it was impossible. So he just stood there, and watched, occasionally defending against some stray Jutsu that went his way. He came up with different strategies but didn't say a word. Sasuke jumped around and attacked. His fire jutsus seemed to have no effect on  Gaara so finally, Sasuke decided to use Chidori.

This will end now. Naruto thought.

Are you sure?

Sasuke launched at Gaara, but this time Gaara didn't fall for it.
He slammed his hand against Sasuke and threw him. The person who looked up was not Gaara. It was some kind of monster.

"Let mother have your bloood~" he said in a crazed voice.

Sasuke couldn't get up and without meaning to Naruto jumped in.
He couldn't control himself any longer.
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A/N:

Hello minna san!!
Belated Merry Christmas!!✨✨✨

How was your Christmas?🎄🎄

How are you?

New year resolutions?🙃🙃

See y'all soon!
Please vote, comment, share and follow!!

Yours Truly,
23