Naruto getting ready to attack, Sakura was stuck to the wall and Sasuke was still down. Aceso still found herself sitting right below a transformed Gaara, why he hasn't killed her yet, she doesn't know.

" Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Naruto shouted. " Here goes!" He leaped toward Gaara. " Get ready for the ultimate secret taijutsu! Naruto Uzumaki. Clone Body slam!" Aceso laid back, she did not want to be the reason Naruto misses. Gaara shot his hand up, he grabbed three of the Narutos. " Okay! Let's do this!" One Naruto stood up holding a Naruto while standing on the other. He flung Naruto at Gaara. " Shadow Clone Jutsu!" More Narutos popped up, and Gaara swung his other hand. Narutos went around it. " And another! Shadow Clone Jutsu!" He lept off the falling Naruto. " Take this! Leaf Village secret taijutsu! Straight from the teachings of Kakashi-sensei! Thousand years of death!" He stuck his fingers up Gaara's butt.

" An enema," Pakkun groaned.

" Great," Aceso huffed.

" Huh?" Gaara asked as he looked back. He flung him back with his tail.

" Boom!" An explosion went off, all that Aceso saw was everything got bright, and a wall of sand. The smoke cleared and the sand wall fell. He was groaning. Aceso saw that his right arm and tail were gone, Aceso coughed out some smoke as Gaara put his left arm on the tree. It was noticeable, that they were in a hole in a tree. Gaara protected her from the blast, she smiled lightly. Deep down inside him, she knew he loved more than himself, it was just so small that it was barely felt or noticed.

" He attacked at the base of the tail where the defense is weakest," Gaara noted. " He didn't wound me, but the sand couldn't absorb the impact. Have I underestimated him?" Then she heard Naruto yelling, Gaara turned, and there was a bright chakra filling the air. Gaara moved and Aceso could see a ball of chakra was around Naruto, he was lightning up. Smoke puffed and when it cleared, there were more Narutos.

" Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Naruto shouted, there was more of him than Aceso could see.

" Nice, kid," the frog complimented. " Not too shabby."

" Gee, I'm sorry," Naruto apologized. " I didn't mean to keep you waiting so long. So get ready for an original jutsu straight from my ninja handbook!"

" What the?" Gaara asked as he looked around. " How could he have summoned so many clones?"

" You've got be kidding," Temari gasped.

" This is amazing," Pakkun said. " I don't believe with my eyes."

" Fantastic," Aceso breathed.

" Way to go there, blonde," the frog said. " You show a lot of promise."

" How did you do this?" Sasuke asked. Aceso's eyes widened, she didn't notice Sasuke was by Naruto at first, he was starting to get back his strength, and her ointment took a little longer to work.

" Sasuke, why don't you take it easy for a while?" Naruto suggested. " You deserve it. Just leave the rest to Naruto Uzumaki." Aceso was really proud of Naruto. " All, right everyone. Lookout. Here I go! Let's do this!"

" Direct from Naruto's ninja handbook!" the clones said. " Everywhere! Shuriken!"

" Ahh!" Aceso squeaked as she curled up and covered her head. They never hit, she looked over to see the shuriken go into Gaara's arm and a ton of Narutos appeared all over. They shoot up and all kicking Gaara up, Aceso felt herself be pulled back and placed on another branching.

" Uzumaki Barrage!" Narutos shouted. All of them landed punches on Naruto, sand flew everywhere. Gaara's sand was disintegrating off of him. " From Naruto's handbook!" Two clones punched Gaara and he flew back and crashed into the ground, making it shake. Aceso looked down to see Gaara was deep in the ground, then looked up to see more Narutos. " This time I'll use both legs for a barrage of 4000 kicks!

" Unbelievable," Temari breathed. " Taking on Gaara in his current form."

" There's absolutely no way, I'm going to lose to a guy like him!" Gaara yelled as he got back onto his feet.

" Huh?" the Naruto's asked, large amount of sand shot up and the Naruto clones disappeared. Smoke blew everywhere, and it started to clear, something big was standing in the forest.

" What the?" Aceso asked. " What is that?"

" Huh?" Pakkun and the frog asked. There was a stomping sound, yellow eyes glowed through the smoke. When it cleared, Aceso gasped. It was the demon himself, Shukaku.

" So that's it," Naruto breathed, Aceso looked over to see he was in a tree away from her. " The monster inside of him."

" Well, what do you know, I never thought you bring this out of me," Gaara admitted. He raised a hand and Naruto started screaming, sand was wrapping around him.

" Naruto!" Aceso cried out.

" No," Sasuke breathed as Naruto raised a hand.

" This is the end for you," Gaara confirmed. " Sand Bur-"

" Summoning Jutsu!" Naruto shouted as he was covered by sand. Smoke puffed out and when it cleared, a giant frog, the size of Shukaku was in sight. He had a smoke pipe on the side of his mouth. Naruto stood on top of him.

" Hm," the small toad breathed.

" It's amazing that he could summon in that state," Pakkun said.

' Jiarya must have been working him very hard,' Aceso thought to herself.

" Naruto Uzumaki," Gaara laughed. " You really are good at amusing me."

" What the?" Gamabunta the giant frog demanded. " Not you again. What is this?" He then looked forward to the sand demon. " Well, will you look at that. Shukaku the Sand Spirit."

" What do you say?" Naruto asked. " Will you fight alongside, Chief Toad?"

" Take a hike," Chief Toad demanded after blowing out smoke.

" What!?" Naruto yelled.

" Why go out of my way to mess with a guy like him?" Chief Toad asked. " What am I? An idiot?"

" Why, are you kidding me?" Naruto asked. " You already told me you would make me your henchman, didn't you?" He started to smack the top of the toad's head. " It's only natural a boss would want to help out his henchman, isn't it? Don't you have a sense of duty?"

" Yeah, sure," Chief Toad recalled as he closed his eyes. " I told you I'd make you my henchman, but we haven't even sealed the deal over a cup of sake yet." He opened his eyes again.

" Give me a freaking break!" Naruto exploded. " I'm not even 21 years old yet! I can't have any alcohol!"

" Ah, come on, pops," the small toad pleaded as he jumped on Naruto's head. " Don't be like that. Why don't you just settle down and hear the kid out?"

" Huh? Pops?" Naruto asked.

" And just what do you think you're doing here, Gamakichi?" Chief Toad asked.

" I had nothing else to do," Gamakichi answered. " I just came to hang out."

" Huh? You're father and son?" Naruto asked.

" By the way, pops, that big ugly lug over there was picking me earlier," Gamakichi said as he pointed at the sand spirit.

" Come again?" Chief Toad asked as he squinted his eyes.

" Oh, yeah," Gamakichi confirmed. " And when he did, our friend here came to my rescue. He went head to head and toe to toe with that monster. I'm telling you, pops. There's a heck of a lot more to this kid than meets the eye."

" Is that right?" Chief Toad asked. " Okay, kid." He grabbed his sword. " You're hereby accepted as my henchman. Sit tight. I'll show you what duty is all about. I'll take him down, but not before he's paid for what he's done. That worthless little flunky!" He readied his sword and jumped up.

" Whoa!" Naruto exclaimed.

" Hang on tight, small fry!" Chief Toad suggested as he ran, Gaara prepared to attack. He flung his sword into Gaar's arm, he flipped Chief Toad back and an arm went flying off. Both of the things land, and then the sword came down as well. Aceso felt herself starting to fly off the branch she held her head down as the wind-blasted over everyone.

" Hey, Chief, hold a second," Naruto said as Gaara turned to look back at him. " Don't go over in that direction. Sakura's still there. Try and lure him over this way if you can, okay?"

" Sakura?" Chief Toad asked.

" It's his little girlfriend, pop," Gamakichi teased as he held up a pinkie finger. " Right, kid?"

" I have to take him down," Naruto insisted. " Otherwise, Sakura's as good as dead." Chief Toad chuckled as Gaara faced them fully.

" Interesting," Gaara commented. " Interesting! Not bad, Naruto Uzumaki!" Aceso watched as Gaara appeared on the top of Shukaku's nose, hunched over.

" What the heck is that?" Aceso asked.

" A spiritualist medium," Chief Toad answered.

" To thank you for entertaining me here today," Gaara began. " I'll show you the true power of the manifestation of the sand." He looked up, only white and red veins showed in his eyes.

" The circles under his eyes, they're signs of insomnia," Gamabunta explained. " Evidence that the medium's been possessed by the Shukaku."

" Huh? Insomnia?" Naruto asked as Gaara raised his hands up.

" Those possessed by the Shukaku the Sand Spirit are no longer able to sleep soundly through the night," Chief Toad explained. " The terror is too great. If one does sleep, the Shukaku will eat away at your psyche, until the person that you once were ceases to exist. Since he normally doesn't get much sleep, the medium's personality tends to become quite unstable."

" Great," Naruto breathed.

" But as long as the spiritualist medium is awake, the Shukaku's true power is held in check," Chief Toad added. " The only danger...is if the medium finally falls asleep."

" Play Possum Jutsu," Gaara said as he closed his eyes. He then slumped over asleep.

"He's done it," Chief Toad confirmed.

" I don't like this at all, Chief Toad," Naruto admitted. " What's going to happen?"

" If he's set the Play Possum Jutsu in motion, then the Shukaku will be unleashed," Chief Toad explained.

" I'm finally free!" Shukaku cheered as he looked up at the sky. " Here I come, baby!"

" Two completely different personalities," Aceso commented.

" So that's the Sand Spirit?" Naruto asked.

" Man, that is one funky demon," Gamakichi commented.

" Yeah!" Shukaku laughed as pointed at the others. " Here we go! I hope you're ready to die. Let's do this."

" I'm going to jump," Chief Toad said as he took the pipe out of his mouth.

" Huh?" Naruto asked.

" Wind Style! Air bullet!" Shukaku shouted. His stomach puffed out, he stabbed hit, opened his mouth, and an intense air swirled out.

" Water Style! Liquid Bullet!" Chief Toad shouted as he jumped up. He shot out water, Shukaku shot out wind, and they collided. It got cloudy, and the water came down like rain, drenching everyone.

" Well, this is nice," Pakkun commented. " I didn't know it was going to rain

" Weather is unpredictable," Aceso said as she saw the blood splashing off over her.

" What kind of a battle is this turning into?" Sasuke asked.

" Remember Chief," Naruto began as the rain cleared up. " Not in that direction!"

" Will you shut up already?" Chief Toad asked. " I know already!" He landed and jumped back up.

" Air bullet!" Shukaku shouted as he shot out more wind.

" Liquid Bullet!" Chief Toad shouted as he turned and shot out more water.

" Too bad," Shukaku smiled.

" This bad, Chief," Naruto noted. " There's one more coming."

" Yeah!" Shukaku cheered as the air bullet hit them and smoke blew up. " I did it. I killed him! I killed him!" The ground shook.

" Now that kind of hurt," Chief Toad admitted as he jumped through the smoke at the sand spirit. " That was an awful lot of chakra that you blasted me with. I have to admit. Hit me with a couple more of those, even I won't last much longer."

" Chief, what should we do?" Naruto asked.

" Well, for starters, you could wake up to spiritualist medium to release that jutsu," Chief Toad explained.

" How am I supposed to do that?" Naruto asked as Shukaku readied to attack.

" Just fire off a few rounds at him," Chief Toad answered. " Liquid bullets!" Air came towards them as Cheif Toad shot out more water.

" You missed!" Shukaku shouted as Chief Toad grabbed onto his shoulders and landed.

" Now's your chance!" Chief Toad insisted. Shukkaku moved and they lost grip, they jumped away.

" Hey, Chief, you're going to have to keep a grip on him if you want me to get a shot in," Naruto said.

" My body doesn't have any claws or horns," Chief groaned. " To dig into the enemy with."

" Ah! Then what the heck are we supposed to do?" Naruto asked.

" Use the transformation jutsu to change into something that has what we need!" Chief explained as he turned as they landed " Then again, I'm not particularly good at transformation."

" Huh?" Naruto asked.

" Don't worry about it," Chief assured. " You shall act upon my will and make a hand sign."

" What?" Naruto demanded.

" A combined transformation!" Chief revealed.

" Oh...okay," Naruto said.

" Conjure up something with fangs and claws!" Chief suggested.

" Let's see...huh," Naruto began to think.

" Here we go," Chief said as he took off.

" Hey! Hey, hey, hey! Wait, a second!" Naruto protested.

" Use what's inside you, Naruto!" Aceso shouted.

" What!?" Naruto asked.

" You know who you have to bring out!" Aceso shouted. " You know who you have to bring out as well! Fangs and claws!"

" Transform!" Chief yelled as Shukaku got ready to attack.

" Transformation Jutsu!" Naruto shouted. Smoke puffed everywhere, and out of the smoke, flew out the nine-tailed fox.

" Yes!" Aceso cheered, she then groaned and put her hand on her wound.

" That's the-" Sasuke gasped.

" You did it Naruto! You too, Chief Toad!" Aceso cheered as the fox swiped his hand.