Uchiha's forgotten Ember

The stadium roared.

Dust settled after Sasuke's high-speed attack, a faint ring of displaced wind spiraling where he once stood. The Chidori had carved deep into the wall of Gaara's defense—an achievement few had ever matched.

Above, spectators leaned forward. Below, Kankurō narrowed his eyes. Temari's fan tensed slightly in her hand.

And Gaara...

...smiled.

"My blood… it's mine…" he murmured, caressing the injury on his arm. "It proves I exist. That I'm still becoming something more…"

Sasuke stepped back, breathing hard. "You're insane."

"Not insane… awakened."

Sand exploded around Gaara, forming a protective sphere as the Shukaku's influence stirred. His breathing turned ragged, chakra swelling unnaturally.

Suddenly—a shrill sound rang through the arena.

Genjutsu.

The invasion had begun.

---

Narration – Uchiha Kaizen

The world split at that moment—between test and war. As the leaf fell, so did the veil of peace.

I leapt from the stands, landing in formation with Naruto and Sakura. The Third still stood atop the arena, back straight, as if daring the chaos to strike him first.

"Gaara's chakra is spiraling out of control," I muttered, activating the Ketsugan-Sharingan fusion in both eyes. Even without the entity, the sight these eyes gave me was clear—dark, spiraling taint threading through Gaara's core.

The beast's influence was awakening faster than expected.

Naruto shouted, "Where's Sasuke?!"

"He's engaging him—above the trees."

Without hesitation, all three of us took off.

---

Soundtrack: "Loneliness" – Naruto OST

Sasuke's Chidori clashed with Gaara's hardened sand armor, sending shards spiraling through the air. Blood trickled from Gaara's shoulder, his wide eyes twitching at the sight—real pain. Not just imagined.

"You made me bleed…" Gaara whispered, tone cracking with unstable glee.

The massive sand shell behind him roared as he began his partial transformation. One side of his body distorted into a monstrous arm of the One-Tailed Shukaku, jagged and snarling. Trees trembled. The ground cracked.

Sasuke stepped back, panting, chakra nearly spent.

"Damn it," he muttered. "That wasn't enough."

Suddenly, Kankuro and Temari appeared from the treeline, Gaara in tow as he bolted deeper into the forest, bleeding and unstable.

Boom!

Explosions echoed from the arena above. The invasion had begun—Sound and Sand had betrayed the Leaf.

---

Narration – Kaizen Uchiha

I stood at the edge of the arena, watching it all collapse into chaos. I could feel it even through the trembling ground and the screams of civilians—

Gaara was losing control.

That wasn't just the Shukaku trying to come out… that was him. A boy desperate to prove that he existed through violence. I felt that before. Too many times.

And then… Naruto shouted.

"We're going after them!"

He didn't even wait. He jumped into the forest. Sakura hesitated, then followed. I adjusted my headband.

The entity—the thing they once feared—was long dead, frozen and entombed in a cocoon of reinforced chakra and ice beneath the forest's oldest roots.

It would never rise again.

But this?

This was the kind of monster I could fight.

I took off after them.

---

Forest Pursuit

Wind cut across Kaizen's face as he soared from branch to branch. Naruto was ahead, yelling Gaara's name. Sakura was focused but guarded. Kaizen scanned the area.

"His chakra's erratic," Kaizen noted aloud, "he's close to a psychotic break."

"Then we end this before he fully transforms!" Naruto shouted.

Up ahead, a clearing exploded with sand and force. Gaara stood in a crater, holding his head, struggling.

"Why… does it hurt?! Why am I not enough!?"

Kaizen stepped forward.

"You're not a monster," Kaizen said calmly, "you're a kid who never got a chance to be anything else."

"SHUT UP!" Gaara screeched, the monstrous arm lashing out.

Kaizen's fused Ketsugan and Sharingan glowed in both eyes, tracking every grain of sand. He sidestepped, chakra threads extending from his fingertips as he channeled his refined control to slice into the arm mid-motion.

Crack!

The chakra-laced sand severed and fell like crumbling stone.

Naruto launched forward next with a barrage of shadow clones. Sakura supported with a smokescreen tag, giving Kaizen a clean opening.