The Last Chinoike [A NARUTO LOVE STORY]

Pseudo-Jinchūriki pt. II

"Sora, this is serious! WAKE UP!" Naruto tried to call out to him, running forward, but only got smacked away by a now red and static looking tail. The bubbly red chakra that was surrounding Sora was gone. He now had a red, fuzzy appearance that was solely comprised of chakra.

Even though Naruto was fully awake and knew what was going on, the beast inside of him was stirring too much. His skin started to peel away, just as Sora's had a few moments ago. The skin on his face and hands began to peel away first. Yamato, having realized Naruto was beginning to transform tried to restrain him with his wood style. The Captain did this only to notice it was totally ineffective. This chakra was unresponsive to Captain Yamato because it was being triggered by Sora's own chakra, someone who wasn't wearing the First Hokage's necklace. Their only hope was that Naruto's will power would hold off the Nine-Tailed Fox.

Naruto began to panic. The last thing he wanted was to transform into that beast. He hurt Sakura in his four tailed state once before, the thought of potentially hurting another girl that he had even stronger feelings for was too much. He made a snap decision and dug around for something in his weapon's pouch. "I WON'T BACK DOWN, NO MONSTER FOX IS GONNA TAKE OVER ME!"

He plunged a piece of Sora's weapon he had previously picked up into his thigh to snap himself out of it. "COME ON! SORA, COME BACK!" His skin that was previously peeling away turned a dark red instead of the red static of the Nine Tails. Naruto's will power overcame that of the fox in his body. His blue eyes returned and the chakra cloak that was surrounding him dissipated into nothing, everyone let out a premature sigh of relief.

Sora had appeared to calm down, now sitting in a crouched position on the ground. He didn't appear ready to pounce or as aggressive as before. Despite his brief attitude change, he was still adorning the red static cloak of the four tailed version of the fox. Naruto yells out for him to fight it, but Sora disregarded that cry for him and pounced at Naruto. The two began to fight again, Naruto taking many more hits than he was able to dish out.

Multiple smaller balls of white chakra came together in front of Sora's mouth and formed a big, white ball of pulsating chakra. Before Sora could fire it off, a pink-haired ninja leaped her way over to Naruto.

Sakura ran down into the crater to where Naruto was, away from the rest of the group. "Naruto, let me heal you!" She yelled out to her blond teammate. It was unclear to everyone else if she saw the ball of chakra and just didn't care, if she thought she could survive it, or she had no idea it was aimed right at her. Regardless of her reasoning for throwing herself in harm's way, it created even more tension in the air. Naruto whipped his head around and saw the pink-haired girl running toward him. His attention turned back to Sora who was getting ready to throw the ball of chakra right in their direction. Naruto selflessly threw himself over Sakura, shielding her from the blast but suffering a harsh blow to his back in the process.

The rest of the group was protected by Captain Yamato's wood style dome he had created right before the blast hit. Even though the rest of them were safe behind the wood, Naruto was doing everything in his power to hold back a cry of pain. He wanted to stay strong for the girl he was currently hovering over, the people who were protected from the blast. 

Sakura opened her eyes, which had been closed tightly from the brightness of the blast. She looked up into the fluorescent and compassionate eyes of her teammate. Naruto's captivating blue eyes stood out way more than usual due to the peeling and bloodied skin that framed them. His eyes weren't holding contempt for Sakura for rushing in when she shouldn't have, he just protected her on instinct. 

Naruto tried to pull himself up, but after walking a step and a half, he fell flat on his face. The hit he took was so hindering to him at the moment that Naruto could hardly move. It was his will to protect his friends and the village he loved that pushed him on despite the serious injury. "S-Sakura... g-get to safety..."