Note: Been a while, I know. Between bouncing ideas, work, and life its going to be like that. I'll try my best but I make no promises.

Her hair slid down her shoulders like crimson waterfall, smooth, silky and never ending. It went well with her eyes, purple and sparkling. Her lean arms crossed her chest as she leaned against the heavy wooden door of the infirmary. Silence hung in the air like vines off a tree- thick, long and annoyingly useless at present. The medics already left after administering a powerful painkiller and resetting his broken bones, so he was bedridden for now and unable to move without the aid of crutches or a wheelchair. He was very much awake and glaring at the girl opposite the room. His good hand clenched tightly on the sheets, so tightly that the veins in his forearm had started to pop out.

Finally unable to bear the silence he broke it. "What more do you want?"

"To kill you," she replied almost instantly. "But I can't. So I'll settle for setting you straight."

The expression of shock and fear initially plastered on his face relaxed. She moved across the room gracefully, planting herself on the chair beside the bed. She leaned back and placed her feet on the side of the bed. He gave her a mean look, and she returned it with interest, and that made him stop.

"I want to understand what is going on in that prickly little head of yours," she declared. "Maybe I can understand why you are such a princess prick."

He glared at her, but she paid it no mind. "Go on. Before I change my mind and break all your bones and leave you a crippled mess for the rest of your life."

He sat there and blinked once. Better get started before I lose all my limbs then, he thought.

"As you know, Hyuuga is divided into the main and branch families." He began. She nodded. "I was born into the branch family."

"And they placed a Caged Bird Seal on your forehead, as per their customs," Naruko interrupted. He nodded. "I know about your father and your uncle. I know what happened with the ambassador and I know he died willingly for your uncle, taking his place."

Neji looked at her shocked. "What did you say?"

Oh hell no, she thought. They kept the information from him?

"Let me explain," a deep voice interrupted. They both turned heads to see the Hyuuga Clan Head, Hyuuga Hiashi standing in the door way. He had entered the room without them knowing.

"Hiashi-san," Naruko greeted.

"Uzumaki Naruko," Hiashi greeted in return. "Congratulations on your victory. How did you know about my brother?"

He had to look dignified. No matter how annoyed he was at the girl for countering the techniques he was so proud of, he was a clan head. He had to be dignified and civilized lest it attracted him trouble. That just wouldn't do.

"You're too kind," she bowed. "I am known for my abilities to dodge ANBU pursuit while wearing an orange jump suit. You would have massive trouble tracking me down without your Byaakugan. Do you want to be alone?" She began to exit the room.

"Stay," Neji blurted. "You already know the story. There isn't a need to leave."

She nodded. "Hiashi-san?"

"What she said was completely true," Hiashi admitted. "As you know, Hinata was kidnapped by the ambassador and I had killed him to save her. Your father died in my place willingly because he didn't want our eyes to fall into enemy hands. Although it was also ordered by the elders of the house, which I was opposed to back then, I didn't have a say as he knocked me out. I failed to stop him, and I failed to take of you, my nephew. I swore to myself I wouldn't let my brother die in vain, but I failed. All that you are now, and all that you suffered, is all due to my weakness. Please find it in yourself to forgive me!"

Hiashi was kneeling down on the ground at this point, head and hands both touching the floor in a show of regret and sincerity. Neji was silent. He did not know what to make of this. One hand, he could be happy if he could find it in himself to forgive his uncle. They would be a family again. What was broken can now be re-forged. On the other hand, he was still angry at his uncle. The redhead stared from the corner of her eye. It looked like she had to chime in.

"Personally," she began, catching both their attentions. "I don't really believe in second chances."

Hiashi looked at her wide eyed.

"However," she continued. "They have every right to try to earn it."

She turned to look at Neji. "It's up to you though."

"I held this grudge for so long I just don't know anything else anymore," Neji said. "Maybe one day, but for now, I need to think about this."

Right then and there, the arena shook. The crowd was cheering, so loudly that even from the infirmary under the stadium, it was clearly heard.

"It would seem that Sasuke is here," Naruko said. "I'm going to watch the match. See you."

With that she disappeared and the two estranged family members were left along to ponder. Neji had a lot of thinking to do.

Back in the arena, the fight had long started. Sasuke was attempting to attack Gaara as he stood there, the automatic sand shield protecting him from harm. Gaara went on the offensive soon however, tendrils of sand coiling around one another, coming from all directions for the black haired boy. Sasuke dodged backwards, always one step faster than the sand strikes lest he be caught by the attacks. He scaled the wall to move out of range, but it seems to make no effect as the sand chased him up all the same. He began to drop explosive charges bound to kunai behind him, watching as it exploded and momentarily slowed down his adversary's offensive. He made a U-turn, coming down amongst the smoke and rubble resulting from the explosions and landed squarely on the ground, kneeling. He had already begun his offensive ninjutsu and the moment he landed, it was raring to go.

"Katon Gokyaakyuu!"

A stream of fire gushed from his mouth, fusing into a giant human sized fireball and flew towards the stoic redhead. Gaara stood there as the sand formed a large blockade in front of him. The fireball crashed into the sand, and the resulting heat could be felt even on the other side of the barricade. Sasuke came crashing through a moment later, midair and had a roundhouse kick ready on the go. Before he could even touch Gaara however, another wave of sand smacked him on the other side, like a giant whip. He was sent flying to the side, spinning like a baseball before halting when he met with the wall.

Sasuke picked himself up, shook off any debris and took a deep breathe. Time to kick it up a notch, he thought. He channeled chakra to his legs, and made his move. To the civilians, he was nothing but a blur. Sand suddenly shot up to Gaara's left, and less than a second later, an audible pop was heard as the sand tendril broke. Gaara looked shocked as he could not see anything happen. Before he had time to register his shock, the same thing happened to his right. The sand tendril moved, intercepted by an audible pop and shattered. He looked to his right, but not a second later the same sound was heard from behind him. The civilians were in awe of what was happening. Sakura squinted her eyes to see the details, she could see small after images of Sasuke the moment he stopped to attack Gaara before being stopped by the tendrils. Naruko looked on with a frown. It was the same tactic Lee used in the fight against Gaara, if she remembered correctly. It was easy to see the difference between a Sharingan copied ability and a genuine one. Unless one really understood the technique copied, the Sharingan user will not be able to fully utilize the technique. Which is why Kakashi was so scary. He understood the techniques he copied. He mastered them. Sasuke on the other hand, copied recklessly. She could see his after images, which was a sign that he wasn't using Lee's technique at 100% efficiency. Lee had no problem disappearing away from view without leaving an afterimage. Regardless, the technique, even with less than 100% efficiency was enough to break through Gaara's sandy defense as the sand had no way to keep up. Sasuke's kick smashed against Gaara's jaw, sending him up into the air and onto the wall behind him. He landed with a thud, scowl appearing across his face, which was cracked. It was the second layer of his armor. A thin, but hardened sand which coated his skin. Shukaku's chakra made it so that the sand blended into Gaara's color.

Gaara was pissed. He couldn't fathom why in two matches, there were two people who managed to get past his ultimate defense and strike him. It was past unimaginable. He began to gather all the sand around him. It spun like a little sandstorm, circling him. The sand began to compress, cutting out any space it had in between each sand particle. Finally Gaara was completely out of sight and in its place, shielding Gaara was a circular sand dome. Residual sand formed a visible eyeball above the dome. Sasuke assumed that it was to give Gaara vision of the things happening.

Sasuke decided to test the dome a little. He took a handful of explosive charges ad attached it to a kunai. He flung the projectile at the dome, which on impact caused a huge explosion that rocked the ground. But when the dust settled, the dome was intact with not even a scratch. That surprised him a little, because a handful of explosive tags was usually enough to bring down a hut completely.

"Okay," he said to himself. "Time to bring out the big gun."

From his position on the wall, he channeled his chakra into his hand, concentrating it into a point. The chakra began to glow visibly, all the while starting to crackle. Progressively it got louder, and by that point Sasuke was holding a bright ball of lightning in his hands. It was very loud – as if a thousand birds where chirping in unison randomly.

Naruko raised her eyebrow.

He taught Sasuke that huh, she thought to herself. Probably to deal with the insane defense that Gaara has. Logical, but stupid.

"Chidori!"

She watched as Sasuke raced down the wall, the ball of lightning sizzling brightly in his hand. The eye focused its attention on Sasuke, and as soon as Sasuke got close enough, long sand spikes protruded from the sand dome, attempting to impale Sasuke. He couldn't stop in time as he had too much torque, so he attempted to side step the spikes, extending his arm to plunge the ball of lightning into the dome. It penetrated easily, and within a second the whole of his forearm and his upper arm was deeply buried within the dome. He felt something sticky but didn't register it at first.

But a voice from within snapped him to reality. "MY BLOOD! IT IS MY BLOOD!"

Sasuke started to hear screams from within and felt something grabbed onto his arm. He repowered the lightning and pulled himself free, putting some distance between himself and the dome. A huge brown appendage came out swinging, which he barely dodged. It slammed onto the ground where he was, briefly shaking it before the appendage slinked back into the hole where he pulled his arm off.

Naruko turned around when she heard the civilians and ninjas alike gasped. She saw feathers fall and immediately cursed. Jumping off the ledge she was leaning against, she effectively escaped the field of the genjutsu. She scanned around for the caster but a blood thirsty scream effectively stole her attention. Standing in place of Gaara, was a massive ten foot monstrosity with arms as long as its body and twice as thick as an average man's body. Short stubby legs followed by a long powerful tail resembling that of a raccoon jutted out from the posterior. Its face was that of a giant raccoon demon, but half of it was distinctively Gaara.

"YOU MADE ME BLEED! I MUST KILL YOU NOW! MOTHER DEMANDS IT!" the creature roared. It jumped into the air, attempting to crush Sasuke and Naruko, who both dodged either side. The crazed monster turned and glared at Sasuke. "Mother will have your blood."

"Sasuke!" she shouted. "He's after you. Lure it away from here! We don't want any unnecessary deaths!"

Sasuke immediately threw a pair of kunai at the monstrous being, the explosive tags attached to it shaking in the wind. They exploded on impact, and Gaara looked more pissed off than ever. The young black haired boy began to run leaving the arena and headed out to the great luscious forests that surrounded Konoha. Gaara, seeing red for Sasuke, followed at full speed. Naruko climbed the arena wall and flipping over to the crowd stands, kicking a Sound ninja square on the nose, breaking it. She followed up with a kick behind the knee; bring the bleeding enemy to a kneeling position, before grabbing his head with both hands, and twisting his head a full 180, completely breaking his neck. Another one jumped towards her, screaming bloody murder. She dodged sideways, spun on her tips of her foot and jammed a kunai into the base of his neck, ending his life instantly.

A third enemy jumped in to the fray, but she had already raised her legs to kick as soon as he landed. It sent him flying across the stands and into a wall. She saw Kakashi giving instructions to Sakura and Shikamaru, to which they nodded and left the arena. Silently she disappeared and followed them.

To say that Sasuke was having a torrid time was a gross understatement. He was not weak- he knew that. But the person, if it could be called that, was something else. Endless stamina, coupled with an undying rage for him, meant that Sasuke had to keep dodging his attacks while expending as little energy as possible. The first Chidori already took a big chunk of his energy, and Kakashi had made it immensely clear he could only do 2 at any given day. A third was virtually impossible. Unless…

No, he thought. It was not the way to go. Maybe if things were desperate enough, but as it stands, things were not. Not to say they were not going to be, just that it has not reached that stage yet. That being said, he was running short on options. Fire didn't work against the beast: its hide was so damn thick the fire didn't even singed Gaara. Taijutsu was totally out of the question. No amount of punches and kicks that he delivered were enough to damage Gaara. He dodged based on the merit of his Sharingan, and the speed that Kakashi had made him learn. That was how the battle was going. He dodged, and Gaara attacked relentlessly while he always dodged at the very last moment. He threw a smoke bomb at the crazed redhead, obscuring his vision. Sasuke took this opportunity to move quickly and hid behind a tree trunk. He needed to buy time to think.

"Come out, Uchiha!" the half transformed demon roared, all the while searching up and down for Sasuke. "Face me! I will prove my existence with your life!"

Sasuke remained firmly behind the tree. He emptied his ninja pouch, which only had a handful of kunai and explosive tags on it, along with a roll of ninja wire. He smirked. He had a plan. He had to be quick or it wouldn't work. He took a deep breath, and a giant leap of faith.

Gaara turned his head as he heard whizzes coming from his left, but could not react as kunai embedded themselves into his torso. He felt nothing, until his vision darkened. Sasuke, using his speed, had slapped all the explosive tags he had onto Gaara's face, and backtracked. He drop kicked Gaara to force him backwards to the truck of the tree that Gaara was standing on, and quickly wrapped the ninja wire around the enlarged demon, before attaching the end of the wire to his last kunai which he then embedded onto the branch he was standing on. Everything happened in a span of a few seconds or less, but Gaara was already starting to struggle. He detonated the tags on Gaara's face, and that seemed to stun the half transformed redhead, because he stopped moving. Not one to waste time, he quickly made the required seals and conjured up the chakra needed.

"Katon! Ryuuka no jutsu!"

Just like that fire travelled along the wire at alarming speeds, hitting the bound Suna shinobi full force. That seemed have an effect on Gaara, because the moment the flames touched him, he starting screaming. The tree behind him was charred and reduced to blackness. Sasuke looked on as the screaming stopped. He could still feel the heat from the fire, even as it died down. A few more seconds passed, and it would seem like it was all over, and Sasuke began to relax. The sound of wires suddenly snapping didn't go unnoticed, but he was unable to react as the sand demon easily three times his size just bulldozed into him. It knocked the wind out of him, and he was sent directly backwards, only stopping when he had hit another tree trunk. He fell helplessly on to the branch, struggling to breathe. Gaara's demonic smile was evident as he leaped onto the tree Sasuke was in.

Naruko was looking on as Asuma tended to Shikamaru. A handful of enemy corpses laid around them, evidently deceased. They had stumbled onto each other and decided that two ninjas was better than one.

"You two could not have cut it any closer," Shikamaru commented. "It was troublesome just holding them there in place."

"Where is Sasuke and Sakura?" Naruko asked, no nonsense evident in her voice. Shikamaru sighed. "Sakura went after Sasuke after we split up."

"She left you here against 5 people?" Asuma asked, eyebrows up as high as his facial muscles would allow it.

"No," Shikamaru began. "We were chasing Sasuke when we detected those five behind us. I recommended that I stay behind as I was best suited to deal with them."

"And nearly got yourself six feet into the ground, and a place on the memorial stone," Naruko sarcastically added.

"Now, now," Asuma said, trying to cut the tension the young woman had somehow made. "Everything worked out for the best."

"One in a billion time chance," the red headed girl answered back. "I am going after them."

"We will reinforce the village," Shikamaru said. They nodded and parted ways.

"She seemed to be quite snide lately," Asuma commented. Shikamaru sighed.

"Don't say troublesome things, Asuma," Shikamaru said. The village was coming into their field of vision. The sounds of battle were already being heard. They needed to buy time for the village to evacuate. A large boom was heard. The earth shook. Out in the distance, a giant figure loomed over the village. It looked like a multi headed serpentine. They frowned. It was not looking particularly good.

Sasuke was panting on the branch, as black marks slowly spread over his body. He was trying hard to keep it under control, but in his state, it was very difficult. He had already used up most of his chakra, and to boot, Sakura had taken a shot to the face meant for him, so she was now down and out. Just to make matters worse, Gaara had her clamped onto a tree and announced that the claw that was on Sakura would slowly constrict until he was defeated.

Gaara landed on the branch he was on. He knew this because his looming figure cut out the light from above him. Gaara picked him up by the neck and stared him down. The giant claw possessed immense strength and Sasuke found himself unable to move the slightest.

"You made me bleed," he growled out, spit falling everywhere from his mal-transformed misshapen mouth. "I will now kill you to prove my existence. Mother demands it."

Gaara began squeezing, all the while smiling demonically. Sasuke gritted his teeth. He would not give the monster the satisfaction of hearing his scream.

They were both distracted, however, when a battle cry from somewhere was heard. It got progressively louder quickly, and in not a second, it sounded like it was headed their way. Truth be had, a red and black blur came into view suddenly. Gaara could only glance at it before he realized what the blur was. It was Naruko, with her right knee held up. It looked like the knee was going to crash square onto his jaw. And it did.

"KINSHASAA!"

The force was so great that Gaara let go of Sasuke. He flew back from the branch he was standing in, into a tree trunk, but didn't stop there. He went through it, before finally stopping at the second tree he hit. The trunk gave way, and fell sideways.

"You look like shit," Naruko stated for a fact. Sasuke looked at this new comer girl.

"Naruto?" Sasuke asked warily. "Is that you?"

She nodded. "I'll explain later."

"What do we do now?" Sasuke asked.

"Where is Sakura?" she asked in return, to which he pointed to the giant claw trapping his unconscious girlfriend.

"WE," Naruko began. "Are not doing anything."

Sasuke looked at her with a surprised expression.

"YOU," she emphasized. "Are resting. I will take it from here."

"Like hell you are," he snapped. She turned her head to look at her tired teammate. She knew he was not going to take no for an answer.

"Wait for a chance to deliver the killing blow," she instructed. "Until then, just watch and rest."

As if on cue, a demonic roar sounded out. Gaara came bursting through the broken trees, rage already evident on his face.

"GO!" she shouted. Sasuke disappeared.

Tanuki no Shukaku, huh, she thought. This was going to be either a fun fight or she would end up dead. She stretched and cracked her joints, and fell into her stance. She stared at Gaara, who was readying himself to launch at her.

She took the preemptive strike and leaped first. Gaara followed suit. Their distance closed, and Gaara took a wild swing at her. She twisted her body midair to avoid the strike, and swung her lower body and delivered a roundhouse kick to Gaara's head. The hardened sand absorbed the impact, but not the momentum. Gaara flew but caught himself at the first branch. He used the momentum to rotate in his branch and relaunch himself at Naruko. She narrowly avoided the incoming bulldozer like launch and landed on another branch near. Her left hand was swiftly going through a set of half seals while her right hand reached into her ninja pouch for a kunai. She threw the kunai at Gaara, aiming square at his forehead. Gaara moved to block the kunai, but Naruko had something else planned. She had Kawarimi-ed herself with the kunai and was now directly infront of Gaara. Her technique was primed and she was at point blank range.

"Endan!"

Fire burst out of her mouth at great speeds, and at point blank range, Gaara's face took the technique full force. He screamed and wildly swatted at her. Unluckily, one of the swipes had managed to clock her and she was forced to cancel her technique and brace herself for impact. It came when she met the trunk of a tree. She landed on the trunk, and grunted in pain from the impact. Something was either cracked, broken or both. She could feel it, but it was not the time to dwell so much on it. The fox will be all over it.

Right now, it was fight time. Do or die. And she was sure that it doesn't just involve her life.

Technique List

Endan – Fireball

Gokyaakyuu – Great Fireball

Kinshashaa – running knee strike used by WWE superstar Shinsuke Nakamura (look it up)

Kawarimi – Replacement

Ryuuka no jutsu – Dragon Fire Technique

Chidori – Thousand Birds