Fire and Ice ~ Naruto Fanfiction ~ Book One

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Seventeen: Battle of the Beast

Today was finally the long awaited day. The final round of the Chūnin exams. Uzumaki had arrived late, but Uchiha had yet to show, the last member of the sound had disappeared, and our proctor had also been replaced.

Ren and I now stood before each other as the first round. The rounds had all been flipped around due to having to give Uchiha more time, spoiled bastard. He should just be fourfited, who cares if his battle is the most anticipated by the crowd, late is late. The village head back home would have had his head for wasting his time.

"Are you ready, brother?" I asked in a calm voice as I crouched down to pounce. "I will not be holding back."

"I hope you don't, it'll be an insult if you did." He grinned. "Let's give them a show only the Subete Clan can." We looked up to uncle Zabu for permission, which he granted with a simple nod.

When we were given the start we both threw off our coats. Mine fluttered down as I leaped high up into the air like a bird, Ren had burned his off in a dramatic effect while standing with a calm stance, letting the fangirls scream for him and his 'cool and distant' personality.

A podium of ice formed as I flipped down to land on top of it. Standing eight feet from the ground. "From the yin of the soul!" I shouted, my giant wolf summons appearing next to me.

"To the yang of the heart." Ren shouted back, his summoning circle forming underneath his feet as large panther twice the size of him appeared.

"We battle for the honor of the fallen!" We both shouted and shot out at each other, our battle had begun and no one would come between us. "May we raise from the ranks and may we conquer over the nations that robbed us of freedom and name!"

Ren's panther was busy with my wolf as we crossed weapons; my chain pushed up against his staff to block him. We pushed off of each other and I did a row of backflips and landed in a cat like stance.

My head flicked up, my bangs flaring from the sudden, and abrupt, movement to see Ren had landed in his crouching tiger stance. Mother did teach us mainly martial arts since the land she was from practiced it to impossible levels.

Ren started to form the seal for the ram, tiger and Hare with only one hand. This caught everyone's eyes and gasps of shock erupted from the crowd, even from the great kages. "Ren Style: Shatered Phoenix!" Little fires gather around him in two circles and shoot out like little phoenix bullets towards me.

The image of a seal came to mind and the phoenix bullets lodged into a wall made of a thick sheet of ice. I leaped over and did a flip in the air over the wall of ice I made and imagined the seals I needed for my next jutsu. "Ice Release: Earthen Consecutive Chains of Ice!"

Our fight raged on till the both of us were out of breath and it was called a tie. The arena was in shambles by this time, along with even more damage when Haku finish as the winner against the rock-paper-scissors camp. We had to have this 'challenge' between me and Ren to decide Haku's opponent since we ended as a tie instead of a clear winner. I lost, damn my crappy hands for not being able to form anything other than 'paper' or 'rock' let alone jutsu seals.

Anyways the battles raged on with Nara fourfitting since he ran out of chakra, Uzumaki winning against the Hyūga protégé, and of course Uchiha arriving with Hatake's horrible sense of time.

The battle between Uchiha Sasuke and Gaara erupted into a full on invasion attempt from Sunagakure and Otogakure. Orochimaru himself had made an appearance as Shukaku went on a full on rampage.

A flash of violet streaked through the roughed up streets of Konoha as the invasion raged on. Xiao was racing towards the direction Shukaku had gone. Worry had filled her mismatched eyes as she forced her burning legs to carry her faster. Please be safe... Ga-kun!

Once she had reached her destination she arrived with the horrific sight of a battle of beasts. Uzumaki had gone into jinchūriki mode as his whiskers became more jagged and defined, his eyes those of a red eyed fox beast, and his canines now fangs.

Haruno pinned to a tree by sand and Uchiha readying another lightning style jutsu. Xiao's eyes widened in fear when she saw that Uchiha's jutsu would not only stop Gaara, but quite possibly kill him. "Stop!" She screamed and just as Uchiha was to hit Gaara with his Chidori Xiao appeared and was hit instead.

Blood spat out from Xiao's mouth as her eyes were wide in shock. Uchiha froze and so did Uzumaki. Her blood splattered onto Gaara's face and time seemed to have stopped when his vision cleared to see the sight before him. "XIAO!!!" His scream shook the trees and his shock was so great that Shukaku had backed down and sunk back into his seal.

The raven haired girl slipped backwards and Uchiha's hand was released from her body as Gaara caught her body clumsily. The redhead shook her body as his sand tried it's best to place pressure on the wound; trying to stop the bleeding. "G-Ga-kun..." the young girl managed to utter out weakly. "Y-you're.... s-safe?" She breathed out.

"Save your breath." He demanded her, his body shaking with fear of her death. "You're such a fool! You saved a monster that knows only to take lives!" He scolded her as he fought back tears. His very first true friend was now dying in his arms so soon after then had become close.

Xiao managed to shake her head slightly and slowly. "I saved the person I love... not a monster... my best friend... and forever... lo..v.." her words faded as her mind shut down.

Gaara shook her body. "Xiao?... Xiao!" He screamed. "Open your eyes! Don't go!" As he screamed a memory clicked into his mind.

A small bottle that contained a purple-red liquid was handed to a young Gaara from his uncle. "Here Gaara, I want you to keep this."

"What is it?"

"Something that can save a person's life, your mother and I had been working on it for years. It pains me that it was completed so long after her death, but I'm sure she'd want it for you to hold instead of be used on herself." Gaara's sand swirled around the bottle and pulled it into the bottom of his gourd. "Use it when someone you love is about to die."

"Uncle... what's love?"

Gaara's sand brought out the small bottle, that held the purple-red liquid, from the bottom of the gourd and he popped the cap off of it. He brought to bottle to his lips and tipped the entire content into his mouth before bending down and forcing Xiao's unconscious body to drink the liquid--feeding her mouth to mouth.

The moment the liquid had finally gone down her throat, Xiao's wound began to close with a sizzling sound. The colour returned to her face almost immediately and her heartbeat was me prominent. She was going to survive.

His sand swirled around him as if to say 'see? You can save life too, taking it isn't the only thing you're capable of doing'. His siblings soon arrived and the found of them fleed, Xiao protectively in Gaara's arms as they did so.

You will live, dieing on me is not an option, Xiao.

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Song: Sango's Theme
Song's Origin: Inuyasha
Piano Cover Artist: MusicMike512