"I'VE GOT YOU!"
Shukaku's roar of triumph echoed in Naruto's skull. Dozens of sand arms, each tipped with sharp claws, lunged at him from every direction. He was trapped, frozen in that instant of empathy that had cost him everything. The world seemed to slow down, each second stretching into an eternity.
"He stopped!" Sakura screamed, her voice torn with panic. "Why did he stop?! That thing is going to kill him!"
Damn it, I'm not going to stand here and watch my teammate get killed. I won't allow it!
Time seemed to stand still. Sakura's doubt evaporated, replaced by a certainty in her own power.
"Hinata!" she yelled, a command born of pure desperation.
Hinata needed nothing more. She understood instantly.
The moment the sand claws were inches from impaling Naruto, two figures moved.
Hinata launched herself to the left with swift, fluid motion. Her hands, wrapped in the soft blue glow of her chakra, struck the base of three of the largest sand arms. Jūken! It didn't damage the sand, but her Gentle Fist injected her chakra directly into Shukaku's own that controlled it, disrupting the flow for a split second. The three appendages twitched, their speed decreasing almost imperceptibly.
But it was enough.
Because in that same split second, Sakura arrived.
She slammed into Naruto with tremendous force. There was no finesse. It was a brutal tackle, an act of calculated desperation. "Naruto, you idiot!" she yelled, wrapping her arms around him.
The impact shoved both her and Naruto out of the kill zone an instant before the remaining claws smashed into the spot where he had been standing. The concrete ground pulverized under the force of dozens of impacts.
They landed in a messy heap twenty yards away, rolling through the debris. Sakura absorbed most of the fall's impact, a groan of pain escaping her lips as her back slammed against a piece of a broken wall.
Naruto, snapped out of his trance by the collision, blinked. The red aura around him flickered, receding slightly. The first thing he saw was Sakura's face, inches from his own, contorted in pain and terrifying fury.
"Naruto, you idiot!" she repeated, her voice trembling. "What happened to you?! You almost got killed! What the hell were you thinking?!"
"I…," he began, his mind still hazy. "I saw Gaara, I think… I think he was crying. I'm sorry Sakura, it was my fault, I got distracted."
The confession, so unexpected and so loaded with a child's sadness, completely disarmed Sakura's fury. She looked at him, seeing not the Kyubi's Jinchūriki, but her teammate, the boy who always saw the pain in others because he knew it so well himself.
Hinata landed softly beside them, her face pale but resolute. "Gaara-san's chakra…," she said, her voice breathy. "For an instant, when you got close, it fought back as if he wanted to retake control."
Shukaku roared, a sound of pure frustration at having missed the final blow. It turned slowly, its yellow eyes fixing on the group huddled behind the rubble.
"We can't keep this up," Sakura said, pushing herself to her feet with effort and helping Naruto do the same. "That power of yours is incredible, Naruto, but it's consuming you. And brute force isn't working. That thing just regenerates."
Hitting it doesn't work, Naruto thought, staring at the beast. The Kyubi's rage was still boiling under his skin, urging him to attack. The monster isn't the problem. The monster is just a cage. The problem is the prisoner inside. I have to… I have to reach him.
"Hinata's right," Naruto said, his voice regaining its calm. "My chakra affects him. When I got close, I could feel it. I don't have to beat the beast. I have to wake up Gaara."
Sakura looked at him, and her mind connected the pieces. Naruto's vulnerability hadn't been a weakness. It had been the key.
So it's not about destroying the monster, she realized. It's about creating an opening.
"Alright," Sakura said, her voice firm now. "I have a plan. But it's insane and we'll only get one shot."
"I like insane," Naruto replied, his old grin appearing on his face.
"Hinata," Sakura continued. "I need you to do what you do best. Find Gaara's exact position."
Hinata nodded, closing her eyes for a moment to concentrate. "Understood."
"Naruto, you'll need all the speed that red chakra can give you. When we give you the signal, you can't hesitate. Not for a second. Got it?"
"Got it," he said, the red aura swirling back around him, but this time, his eyes remained his own.
"And you, Sakura-chan?" he asked.
Sakura cracked her knuckles, her green eyes shining with a dangerous light. "Me… I'm going to be the biggest distraction this monster has ever seen."
They split up. It was a plan born of desperation, built on mutual trust, but it was the only plan they had.
Shukaku watched them move and laughed. "You have a plan, insects? Adorable! Let's see how it works against absolute power!"
It launched a dozen sand arms, but this time, the team didn't stay on the defensive.
"Now, Hinata!" Naruto yelled.
Hinata, protected by two of Naruto's clones, focused completely, her Byakugan glowing with a blinding intensity. The veins around her temples bulged prominently.
"I have him!" she announced. "He's in the center of the torso, two meters below the surface!"
Meanwhile, Naruto and his remaining clones engaged in a deadly dance with the beast to draw its attention. It was an elaborate feint, a large scale sleight of hand, forcing Shukaku to focus its massive attacks on a single point of the battlefield.
And that gave Sakura the space she needed.
She ran along the flank, unnoticed, her small body a pink blur against the gray devastation. She planted herself fifty yards from the beast's side, her feet sinking into the cracked concrete.
For Hinata, who taught me what it is to be weak, she thought, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. For Naruto, who taught me what it is to be strong. For my team! I won't fail them again!
She opened her eyes. And she screamed.
"SHANNAROOO!!"
The scream was a catalyst. She channeled every ounce of chakra she had, every bit of power the Falna had granted her, into a single point: her right fist.
She punched the ground.
The Konoha stadium split apart.
A visible shockwave spread from the point of impact, peeling the ground up like a carpet. A wide fissure opened, racing directly toward the sand beast. The ground under Shukaku's feet shattered.
The monstrosity, whose foundation had been immovable, stumbled. It lost its balance, its immense body tipping to one side with a roar of surprise and rage. For one glorious, chaotic second, it was completely vulnerable.
"NARUTO, NOW!!" Sakura screamed, her arm trembling from the effort.
It was the only signal he needed.
Wrapped in his red chakra, Naruto moved. He crossed the distance in an instant, his target clear thanks to Hinata's guidance.
The sand, recovering from the shock, tried to reform around him, creating a wall to stop him. But he was too fast.
He reached the beast's torso just as it began to right itself.
With a yell that was a mix of his own voice and the fox's roar, he drove his head forward.
It was a headbutt.
A simple, brutal, desperate, and fundamentally Naruto act.
His forehead, shielded by the Kyubi's chakra, slammed into the creature's sand chest, right on the spot Hinata had pinpointed.
And the world dissolved into white light.
When the light faded, Naruto wasn't in the stadium. He was in darkness. An infinite, cold, and silent space, under a starless sky. The ground beneath his feet was still, black water that stretched as far as the eye could see.
In front of him, a few yards away, sat a small boy. He was hugging his knees, his face hidden. His body trembled with silent sobs. It was Gaara.
And behind him, in the darkness, something moved. An immense presence, made of sand and hatred. Naruto couldn't see all of it, but he saw its eyes.
"Gaara," Naruto said. His voice sounded strangely clear in the silence. "I found you."
The boy didn't look up. His voice, when he spoke, was a broken whisper. "What do you want? Did you come to kill me? Everyone wants to kill me. My father. My uncle. Everyone."
"No," Naruto answered, taking a slow step toward him through the water. "I didn't come to kill you. I came to get you out of here."
Gaara finally lifted his head. His face was streaked with tears, his green, pupilless eyes filled with a confusion and pain so deep it made Naruto's heart ache. "Get me out? Why?"
"Because I know what it's like," Naruto said, stopping a couple of yards from him. "The pain. The loneliness. Having everyone look at you with those eyes. Like you're not a person. Like you're… a weapon. Or a monster. Let me help you, Gaara."
A harsh, grating laugh filled the void, emanating from the darkness behind Gaara.
"DON'T LISTEN TO HIM, BOY!" Shukaku's voice boomed, so powerful it made the water at their feet vibrate. "PAIN IS THE ONLY THING THAT'S REAL! LONELINESS MAKES YOU STRONG! HATRED IS YOUR ONLY STRENGTH! DEATH IS YOUR ONLY FRIEND! HE LIES, LIKE THEY ALL LIE!"
Naruto ignored the voice. His eyes never left Gaara.
"I'm not lying," he said with a calm he didn't know he possessed. "My friends taught me there's something stronger than hate."
"Friends?" Gaara scoffed, a bitter, broken smile on his face. "I killed the ones who tried to be my friends. I killed them to feel like I was alive."
"Then fight me!" Naruto exclaimed. "If you beat me, you'll prove you're right! But if I win, you have to admit that I'm right! And you'll have to start seeing the people around you not as enemies, but as comrades!"
The giant eye in the darkness narrowed. "INSOLENT BRAT! I'LL DEVOUR YOUR SOUL!"
Naruto smirked. "You're gonna have to get in line."
He crouched, taking a fighting stance in Gaara's mindscape. Outside, in the real world, their bodies were motionless, Naruto's forehead pressed against the sand monster's chest.
******
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