Naruto Hikikaeru

Naruto stared at Temari as he waited for her reply, but he was beginning to grow impatient with her. If possibly, he didn't really want to fight her so he hoped she would just surrender, saving him the trouble of dealing with her. But if she didn't give him an answer soon, he worried about what might happen with Gaara, he could already sense the change in Gaara's chakra that was happening, so he couldn't waste any more time.

He also wondered where the hell Jiraiya had gone, despite sensing around, he couldn't pick up Jiraiya's chakra at all. When you get back Pervy-sage, I'm going to put you through hell, Naruto thought as he continued looking at Temari.

"I won't wait for an answer forever, so if your plan is to try and stall, then it's not going to work." Naruto called out.

Temari grit her teeth upon hearing his words as she had already thought about doing just that. Because she knew there was no way she could defeat Naruto, so at the very least, she could distract and stall him for the others to take care of things on their end.

"I'll give you ten seconds to decide, and if you don't make a decision, I'll knock you out right here just like I did with your brother." Naruto called out.

"Eh?" Temari uttered in shock. So little time? She wondered.

"Ten." Naruto began counting down.

"Wait…." Temari called out.

"Nine, I'm done waiting, decide!" Naruto retorted.

"Eight."

Temari stared at Naruto in disbelief as she hadn't thought he would be this decisive, for some reason, she pegged him as someone less cunning than he was acting.

"Seven." Naruto continued counting down.

Temari thought frantically about any way she could get out of her situation, but nothing came to mind as Naruto kept going on his count down.

"Six."

As Naruto got closer to the end of the count, Temari found herself already admitting defeat as she couldn't find a way out of her predicament.

"Five-"

"WAIT!" Temari shouted, interrupting Naruto's count.

"Have you decided." Naruto asked.

"Yes.... I give up... " Temari answered as she fell to her knees.

"Good, now you can look after your brother, my clone will be keeping an eye on you two." Naruto replied.

Then he looked over to his remaining clone. "Go to Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto instructed.

The clone nodded and rushed off. Then Naruto turned to face Gaara's direction and started running. Please let me make it in time, Naruto thought as he hurried.

...

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...

Sakura frantically dodged while throwing shurikens and kunai with explosive tags tied to them trying desperately to fight against Gaara. At this point, she already realized that Gaara was just playing with her, and had yet to actually seriously try to kill her.

Gaara just laughed as he slowly fell deeper and deeper into his own madness. Sakura jumped and rolled onto the ground as she dodged another blast of sand that Gaara sent toward her. She clenched her teeth in frustration, she hated the feeling of being toyed with by her opponent. It only made her feel helplessly weak, and worthless. Yet despite her best effort, she couldn't cause any damage on Gaara.

"Good! Good! Make me feel alive!" Gaara yelled as he began increasing his attack pace.

...

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...

Kakashi g.r.o.a.n.e.d as he finished tending to his wound, and he slowly got to his feet. Time to go help out Sakura and Lee, that ominous chakra can't be anything good, Kakashi thought. Just as he was about to head over there, he noticed movement appear behind him. Kakashi quickly turn around with a kunai in his hand but then stopped when he saw that it was Naruto.

"Naruto!" Kakashi exclaimed upon seeing him.

"Kakashi-sensei! Are you alright?" Naruto asked as he rushed over toward Kakashi.

"I've seen better days, but I'm fine. What about you? Where's Sasuke and what happened to those two sand genin?" Kakashi replied.

"One of my clones is with Sasuke, but he's fine, the two sand genin have been dealt with and the real me is heading toward Sakura and Lee to help them deal with Gaara." Naruto explained.

Kakashi's eyes widened when he heard Naruto. "The real you, so this you is only a clone?" Kakashi asked.

Naruto nodded his head in response to Kakashi's words.

"I see…." Kakashi spoke, then he sat down onto the ground suddenly as his vision began growing increasingly blurry.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto shouted as he crouched down beside Kakashi to help stabilize him.

"I'm fine, just lost quite a bit of blood. I'll recover..." Kakashi g.r.o.a.n.e.d.

Naruto looked down toward Kakashi's gut, and saw the bandages wrapped around it and the blood that was staining them.

"You shouldn't be moving around Kakashi-sensei, you need to rest!" Naruto said after looking at Kakashi's wounds.

Kakashi shook his head as he struggled to get back on his feet.

"No, Sakura and Lee are in trouble, even with you going there yourself, I need to be there too." Kakashi replied.

Naruto placed his hand onto Kakashi's shoulders and kept him from getting up. "You'll only become dead weight with your current injuries, you lost too much blood, you can hardly stand!"

Kakashi looked at Naruto as he stopped struggling.

"Don't worry! I didn't just sit around doing nothing on Mount Myōboku!" Naruto said with confidence.

Kakashi stared at Naruto for a moment before his eyes widened as a thought crossed his mind.

"Naruto…... don't tell me, you-!" Kakashi began.

Naruto nodded his head toward Kakashi.

"Yeah, I've been training in sage jutsu, and I've mastered sage mode." Naruto replied.

Kakashi's eyes widened as he looked at Naruto in a new look. He could hardly believe it, but looking at Naruto and the confident look in his eyes, he found himself believing it.

"I see, I guess you're right." Kakashi said as he finally stopped resisting and sat down onto the ground to rest.

"Then I'll leave the rest to you Naruto!" Kakashi said.

"Right! Leave it to me!" Naruto grinned.

...

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...

Sakura was covered in scratches and bruises, she had done her best to avoid Gaara's attacks, but she knew that he had yet to actually try and kill her.

Gaara stared at Sakura who was out of breath and barely standing.

"I've grown bored toying with you, it's time for you to die!" Gaara said as he raised his hand.

Sakura stared at Gaara as she found she no longer had the strength to try and dodge, she was out of kunais and shurikens, and she had used the last of her explosive tags. She knew that there was nothing she could do against Gaara right now. But she refused to give him the satisfaction of seeing her despair as she glared at Gaara.

Seeing Sakura's expression caused Gaara to hesitate his hand.

"Why do you look at me like that?!" Gaara asked.

"Eh?" Sakura muttered.

"Don't look at me like that!!" Gaara suddenly shouted.

"Don't look at me with that expression!!" Gaara yelled as he forced the sand to quickly surround Sakura.

"DIE!!" Gaara shouted as he clenched his fist tightly together.

"RASENGAN!!"

Suddenly, Naruto came flying from the sky as he sent his hand holding the Rasengan down onto Gaara's head. The sand blocked it, but a blast came about as the Rasengan caused the sand to explode, forcing Gaara back and making him lose concentration of the sand surrounding Sakura, making it fall away from around her. Naruto them jumped over and caught Sakura, then he brought her to Lee's side who was unconscious.

Naruto looked at Sakura's and Lee's injuries. He frowned as he then glanced back toward Gaara. Looks like I'm going to have to beat the lesson into you once again! Naruto thought as he gently placed Sakura onto the ground beside Lee.

Sakura blinked her eyes, she had expected to be crushed to death by the sand, but when she opened her eyes, she had found Naruto holding her in his arms.

"N-Naruto?" Sakura called out, causing him to look down at her.

"Sakura, are you alright?" Naruto asked.

"I'm fine, Sakura said as she slowly struggled to sit up.

Naruto placed his hands on her shoulders and held her on the ground. "Don't force yourself, I'll handle this." Naruto said.

"But!" Sakura tried to resist.

"Sakura, you've done enough, take it easy for now. Let me take care of the rest!" Naruto said.

Sakura stared at Naruto, and tears began filling her eyes.

"Naruto…. I tried…... I tried so hard to be strong like you... But I couldn't do anything against him..." Sakura cried.

Naruto looked down at Sakura as tears filled her eyes.

"Why does all my effort not matter at all?" Sakura cried.

Naruto frowned as he watched Sakura cry her heart out.

"Why can't I be strong like you and be able to protect others!" Sakura asked.

"Sakura... You protected Lee." Naruto said.

Sakura suddenly blinked her tear-filled eyes as she looked up at Naruto. Then she looked over at Lee who was unconscious beside her.

"If you hadn't been here, Lee would have died, but because you were here, Lee is still alive!" Naruto said.

"You are strong, you just have to keep going!" Naruto said.

Sakura covered her eyes as she cried harder.

"Now rest, leave the rest to me, I'll take care of this." Naruto said as he stood up and started walking toward Gaara.

Gaara gazed at Naruto with a crazed expression.

"Uzumaki Naruto!!!" Gaara called out.

"Gaara…." Naruto mumbled as he looked at him.

"It's time for me to prove my existence against you!" Gaara yelled as he raised his hand causing the sand to move in accordance with his will.

Naruto crouched down then rushed toward Gaara. Dodging his sand attacks as he slowly got closer to Gaara. Seeing that his attacks weren't reaching Naruto at all, Gaara began attacking more frantically.

"Sorry, but you've hurt my friends, so I have to pay you back for that!" Naruto called out as he closed the distance between him and Gaara.

"Clench your teeth!" Naruto yelled.

Then he brought his fist forward and slammed it into Gaara's face, launching him backward, causing the sand armor surrounding his face to shatter.

Gaara's eyes widened in shock as he couldn't understand how he couldn't touch Naruto at all, despite his speed being significantly slower than Lee's from before.

"Gaara! I'm going to kick your ass!" Naruto yelled as he held up his fist toward Gaara.

Gaara fell onto the ground and rolled before he stopped. Then he slowly got up and glared at Naruto.

The he grimaced in pain and held his head. "Don't … be upset … mother. I'll feed you some delicious blood soon!" Gaara said through clenched teeth.

Naruto stared at Gaara. Soon, Gaara suppressed the pain and looked at Naruto once again with a calm expression.

"Let's begin, Uzumaki Naruto!" Gaara said.

Naruto looked at Gaara before rushing toward him. He pulled out two kunais and threw them at Gaara. Gaara's sand erupted in front of him creating a wall that blocked the kunai.

"Useless!" Gaara said.

Suddenly, the two kunais exploded, creating a large smoke screen in front of Gaara. Naruto then appeared behind Gaara and kicked Gaara's back.

Fast! Gaara thought as he was barely able to react in time to the attack. The sand blocked Naruto's kick and then began wrapping itself around Naruto's leg.

"Sorry, but I'm just a clone!" Naruto said as he smiled.

Then his form began growing faint before he exploded outward as a burst of wind.

What?! Gaara exclaimed inwardly.

Suddenly Naruto appeared above him as he held two Rasengans in each hand.

"Rasenrengan!" Naruto shouted.

Then he launched the two Rasengans toward Gaara one after the other. Forcing Gaara backwards as he then got sent flying back. Gaara then used the sand to catch himself and he stood back up.

Gaara stared at Naruto before bringing his hands together as he began mumbling to himself. The sand then began surrounding Gaara's body forming a sphere in shape. Naruto then remembered this from Sasuke's fight with Gaara back during the chunin exams. Looks like he's finally going to bring out Shukaku! Naruto thought.

-End of Chapter 44-

Author's Notes: This chapter took me a bit longer than the some of the others, since I had to go back to the fight between Gaara and Sasuke during the chunin exams in the original story. Just wanted to make sure I got the start of the transformation as accurate as possible. Well, I've decided to post these first five earlier than the last one since I'm currently still working on it, I'll try to have it out within the next few hours or so. Anyways, here's the fifth chapter out of the promised six, enjoy! Peace!