Crossover Fan Fiction / Crossover With Non-anime Series Fan Fiction / Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ NAvatarUTO ❯ Gaara vs Toph ( Chapter 22 )

Kankuro had dropped out of his match with Shino. Shikamaru had forfeited after catching Temari in his shadow by disguising it as one of Zuko's scorch marks. Suki lost after a drawn out match with her teammate and Sasuke was scheduled to fight Aang last. But that's only after this battle, the moment you've all been waiting for…

Toph versus Gaara!

Toph and Gaara stepped out into the arena. The audience groaned, seeing the pint-sized pair that was up next to fight. “Just skip to the Uchiha already!” someone yelled. Gaara looked his opponent up and down. She was small and blind but she radiated an air of defiance.

Toph glared in the general direction Gaara was standing in and stated, “I don't care about these exams. And I don't think I can beat you. In fact, the only reason I'm here is to make you pay for what you did to Lee.”

Gaara couldn't comprehend the emotion that Toph was showing. Why would she do so much for a failure? The memory of Toph crying floated into his head. His face twitched. He saw images of his uncle. You were never loved echoed through his mind. Gaara clutched at his head as he was overtaken by the floods of anguish that came with the memories of his childhood. Eventually, he calmed himself down by killing the fear inside him. At last he looked up. Next, he would kill this Toph girl.

Toph and Gaara took their starting positions; the boy motionless with his arms crossed and the little earth bender stood still as stone. Toph prepared herself. She waited and listened. “Fight already!” The crowd yelled impatiently.

Genma sniffed. “I told you to start the battle. If you don't begin immediately, I will have to eliminate you both.”

Finally Toph made her first move. Thinking back to her conversation right before the match she muttered, “You want hand signs, Kakashi? Oh I'll give you hand signs.” Anticipation mounted as slowly she raised an arm. The little girl's face was obscured from the crowd by a curtain of hair and they all wondered if she was about to withdraw. The girl's hand clenched into a fist. Then, suddenly, she popped up her middle finger. The crowd gasped. “What the hell?” Someone screamed. “Did she just flip off her opponent?” Another yelled. “Eliminate her!”

Toph swung her arm down and into her first earth-bending stance as she sent a sharp chunk of earth hurling at Gaara's head. Sand sprung up and blocked the attack, morphing into a sand clone that crushed the rock in its hands. “Don't bother.” Gaara said in his gravely voice. “I'll only turn your attacks to more sand.”

“Not if I turn all your sand to stone first!” Toph yelled. In the time before the tournament, Toph had become quite proficient at sand bending, though earth and metal were still her primary elements. It would be best if she could get the sand out of the equation all together. Making sweeping steps, Toph wedged her arms down and in, attempting to solidify the sand in Gaara's gourd. To her surprise, it only compacted but would not fully turn to stone. The two fighters played tug of war over control of the sand for a moment but Gaara inevitably won out. Tendrils of sand shot out from his gourd sending Toph back on the defensive. She ran and ducked and rolled and lifted boulders to block the waves of sand. She could tell that each time she did this however; Gaara's sand would slowly create more sand out of her walls. Whenever she got the chance, Toph turned the converted sand back into stone. It was a surprise that she could manipulate that sand at all, considering that she was barely able to affect Gaara's personal sand. That gave Toph an idea.

Growing tired of the game of cat and mouse, Gaara decided to end it with an attack from behind. But Toph's blindness worked in her favor as a life without sight had honed her other senses. Even among earth benders, Toph's ability to sense the location of earth was incredible. She was able to sense Gaara's every attack, no matter the direction it came from. Gaara frowned when he realized that it seemed the blind girl he fought had no blind spot. Well, if he couldn't take her by surprise, then he would have to attack her from all directions at once. The tiny grains bombarded her, and soon she was surrounded.

“Sand grave.” Gaara muttered with his arm outstreached. Clenching his fist he growled, “Sand burial!” The croud gasped as his sand constricted around his victum. Suddenly, Gaara was taken off guard as a stone pillar erupted from the ground right in front of him, on top of which rode an unscathed Toph. She had escaped underground to avoid his deadly attack. Using the upward direction of the stone to enhance her own trength, Toph knocked Gaara off of his feet with an uppercut to the chin. She then caged him in a layer of rock trying to take a leaf from his book. The sand inevitably came to his aid and made quick work of her stone, pulverizing it to dust. This doubled the amount of sand he had in his arsenal, but also added 100% more sand that Toph could use against him.

Again the two fought over control of the sand, Toph trying to mix hers evenly with his to provide enough resistence to slow down his attacks. This was inevitable to fail however, as she was not as keen in sand manipulation as he. Toph was also beginning to fatigue, as her style of fighting required much more physical movement than his. Gaara hadn't even donned his sand armor, a fact that made Toph furious since it meant that he didn't see her as even the tiniest of threats. Eventually out of options, Toph once again retreated under ground. Gaara leapt to the side as spikes rose up out of the ground he had just been standing on. Toph grinned in the darkness under the arena as finally she managed to send Gaara running instead of her. Every so often, Toph would pop out of the ground to try to land a blow or just to taunt her opponent. “Peekaboo!” She would shout. “Over here raccoon boy!” “Catch me if you can!” She burst out of the ground sticking her toungue out and blowing, only to land on, sand? Since her last trip below the earth, it seemed Gaara had managed to cover the entire stadium with a thin layer of sand causing Toph to slow down just enough for Gaara to wrap his sand around her feet and trap her above ground. She struggled but could not escape his grasp. More sand wrapped around her until both her legs wer completely imobalized. It was Time for Gaara to begin his torment. He would make her pay for resisting death so long. He decided to give her a slow and bloody death.

Toph shrieked as a blade cut deep into her shoulder. Blood poured down her arm as she trembled in fear. She sensed more weapons coming her way and used metal bending to deflect them. Toph was much less adept at controlling metal than earth, and though she could keep them from hitting her organs, she couldn't redirect their trajectory enough to miss her; only to keep them from doing irreparable damage. Toph panted from the pain of the cuts now all over her arms and face. She nedded to do something! Sending them back at Gaara would be pointless since he would be guarded by his ultimate defense. As it was, his sand was retrieving the knives to use again and again. He was having a field day using her as target practice. If Toph were to have any hope of coming out of this alive, she would have to destroy the metal weapons.

Grunting with the effort, Toph finally managed to shatter the last of Gaara's ninja tools. Metal shards sparkled among the pile of sand that imobalized her and it slowly began to swallow her up. “You're mine.” Gaara said greedily.

Is this the end? Toph tought. Am I going to die like this? `No!' Toph raised her head in indignation. `I am the greatest earthbender of all time! I invented metalbending!' With that thought Toph mustered up the last of her strength to force the sand off of her and hid once again underneath the ground.

Up in the daylight, Gaara howled in frustration. “Don't go away!” He roared. Then he whispered, “They all go away.” Gaara shuddered and clutched at his head. “Why do you run away? Why do they all run away?” He began to groan as his fingers tightened in his hair. “I just wanted to play! Don't you want to play with me Toph? Come out and play!”

Meanwhile below the arena, Toph was shaking in fear, but that did not stop her from her task.

Up in the viewing podium, Gaara's siblings watched in horror as their little brother slowly lost control.

Gaara tilted his head to the side, as if listening to something. “What's that Mother?” He asked. “You think she's playing hide and seek? Why do I always have to be the seeker?... You're right mother, I am good at finding people. That's because Shukaku has a very good nose.” Gaara grinned maniacally. “And claws for digging. Allright Shukaku! Let's play hide and seek!” Gaara gathered his sand around him in a defensive ball as he began the jutsu for transformation. Sensing this, Toph hesitantly climbed out of the ground, ready for a trap. Nothing happened, so she began to make her final move. Gaara's third eye watched her, but no outward attack seemed forthcoming. Instead Toph was struggling with all her might to bend the metal dust she had discretely incorporated into Gaara's sand. Sweat dripped down her forehead as she struggled to move the particles of metal through the condensed sand.

Gaara stopped his chanting within the darkness of his shell. He gasped at the sharp sensation he had never felt before. He didn't like it. Gaara's eyes widened as he saw his skin pierced with a hundred metal needles. How? An attack from within his own ultimate defense? “Get them off!” His mind shouted in horror, and like a wild animal, Gaara started ripping the metal out of his flesh, crying out at the unexpected pain. Blood trickled down his arms, his blood.

GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!

Gaara screamed.