Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

It was a peaceful day in Konohagakure. The sun was shining, the birds were chirping, and everywhere you looked, you could see both adults and children enjoying themselves as the festival went on through the day. It was the day everyone celebrated the death of the 9-Tailed Fox that attacked Konoha eight years ago. Now, normally, more than a few of the villagers would think about this day in anger and then get drunk and slum around town, trying to find the demon incarnate, a young Naruto Uzumaki, as it now came to be known.

However, today, they would all be disappointed to know that their intended target was nowhere near Konoha, in fact, he wasn't even in Fire Country.

No, Naruto had accompanied the 3rd Hokage on a three-week mission that just so happened to overlap with the week-long celebration, and also Naruto's birthday. Never had Naruto been so happy than he was when the Old Man told him that for his birthday present this year, he would be going to Sunagakure on a relations mission.

Naruto had been walking through one of the busy streets of Suna. The old man had a meeting today, just like everyday, so he let Naruto roam around the village after promising that he wouldn't prank anybody. He looked around at where he was. It was the market area, so someone was almost always here either trying to sell you something, or trying to buy something in a hurry, like a last minute anniversary or Christmas gift. Hey, just because they were shinobi, doesn't mean they didn't fall victim to their own memory from time to time.

Today was just like any other day, which meant that the area was packed with vendors and shoppers. Naruto was happy that he had been here for three days, and not once did he get a glare of hatred or get beaten to a pulp. He was just about to leave and go see the old man, when he heard the all-too-familiar sound of crying, although it was faint, his great hearing picked it up. Naruto followed the sound through a crowd of shoppers, he pushed his way through with a series of "Excuse me" and "Pardon me."

When he finally got through the huge crowd, he noticed that he was now on a street that was completely deserted, there was no vendors, no shoppers, hell, there weren't even any bums, drunken or not, hanging around the area. It was just empty, except for that crying sound. Naruto decided to continue to find whoever was crying. He was a little scared, because whenever this happened in Konoha, he was always given a beating from the villagers, but then again, he got a beating from the villagers just for being alive.

Naruto went about halfway down the street when he heard the crying get louder, he then knew that it was coming from an alleyway to the left, so he cautiously walked further into the alley. Naruto couldn't help but think this was a trap, because he had been subject to something like this back home, and got one of the worst beatings of his life, only for trying to stop someone from crying. But this time, he knew it wasn't a trap when he came upon a little boy that looked his age. He had dark red, almost maroon hair that was spiky like his, but not as gravity resistant. He was crying so Naruto couldn't see what color his eyes were, but he could tell that these tears were not the first to be shed by the boy.

"Hey, are you alright man?" Naruto asked, as he slowly walked to the boy.

"Why can't you all just leave me alone?" the other boy screamed out.

"Whoa there, I'm not trying to hurt you, I'm trying to help. Trust me, I know what it's like to be in your position."

"Oh really? How would you know? There's no way you could know how I feel!"

Naruto just sighed, "You're feeling left out, abandoned, excluded from everyone and everything. You've probably been beaten, or at least came close to it, since I don't see any scars. You look like you haven't slept for days, probably too scared to sleep, because you're afraid of what the villagers might do if they find you asleep and defenseless. Look kid, I may not know you, but I do know how you feel, because it's the same way for me in Konoha!" he said, a little angry at the end, not at the boy though, at the fucking residents of Konohagakure.

The redheaded boy had stopped crying, and just looked shocked. He didn't know what it was, but he just lunged forward and hugged the new boy. He started crying again.

"Why? Why do they hate us? What did we do to deserve lives like this?"

"I don't know, but I intend to find out." Naruto said with a determined look in his eyes. Suddenly, both boys felt a strange stirring in their stomachs. They broke apart and lifted their shirts, only to see what looked like auras coming out of these weird seals on them. The auras enveloped them and they felt themselves being sucked into a spinning vortex.

When they opened their eyes again, they were both on the ground, but not of the hard, hot stone of Suna, but rather on a cold, damp floor of a sewer. Naruto stood up first, and then helped Gaara.

"Do you know where we are?" Gaara asked, a little scared.

"No, I don't, I've never been here before. Do they even have sewers like this in Suna?" Naruto asked, a little confused.

"No, we don't, all of our sewage is pumped into a special machine that completely incinerates the bacteria and feces, but leaves the water clean, which is then pumped back to the toilets and sinks, so as to save water." Gaara answered.

Naruto was kind of impressed, that actually sounded like a really cool idea, even in places where water was abundant, like Kiri or Konoha. When he became Hokage, he might look into putting a system in like that. But before he could think anymore, they both heard a voice calling to them.

"Come, come this way, all the answers you seek are here."

Now normally, if they were to hear this, they would turn right around and run away, but, being in a sewer that they couldn't run away from, since there was a wall and no ladder leading up for them, they decided to follow the voice's instructions. Naruto lead the way, and made sure that Gaara was safely behind him.

What they saw was a huge cage. Inside of which, were two beautiful women. They had sad faces on, and Naruto, being as noble and kind as he was, ran forward to see what was wrong.

"Excuse me, but is something wrong? If so, can I help?" he asked softly.

"I'll help as well, if I can..." Gaara added. Even though he was hated and feared, he still was kind at heart, and couldn't stand to see anyone else sad, especially women.

This however made the two women burst out in tears, which in turn worried the two young boys. Without even thinking, they both ran through the bars of the cage and embraced each of the women. Naruto had went to hold the redheaded woman, while Gaara went to the dirty blonde.

When the women felt themselves being embraced, they looked up and latched onto their respective holders.

"Oh Naruto-kun!/Gaara-kun!" the girls both said to the boys.

"We're so sorry, we've put you through so much, and we just couldn't stand it anymore!" the redhead said.

"Gaara-kun, I'm so sorry, I never meant for this to happen!" the dirty blonde said, crying into the young boy's shoulder.

Both boys were unable to do anything else but look at each other in confusion and try to comfort the crying women.

"Please, try to calm down and please stop crying, I can't stand to see such a beautiful woman crying." Naruto said to the woman in his arms.

"Yes, what he said." Gaara said.

This made the two women calm down. They started giggling and wiped their tears away.

"You are so kind Naruto-kun, don't ever change."

"You are too Gaara-kun, and so sweet." the blonde said while holding said boy's cheek in her hand. This brought a blush to both of the boys' faces.

"I'm sorry, we never got the chance to introduce ourselves, even though you seem to know who we are. I'm Naruto Uzumaki."

"And I'm Gaara of the Desert."

"We know silly. I'm Kyuubi, and this is Ichibi, we're the demons sealed inside of both of you." the redhead, now known as Kyuubi said.

"Gaara-kun, I know that you never knew about me, but I'm why the villagers in Suna treat you like that." Ichibi said with tears in her eyes again.

"Yes, Naruto-kun, and I'm the reason that the villagers in Konoha treat you like a demon..." Kyuubi said, tears now rolling down her cheek.

Naruto was stunned, as was Gaara. They now knew why they were treated as such. They started connecting the dots. For Gaara, the assassination attempts, the looks of fear and hatred, and the way everyone tried to give him a wide berth no matter where he went. For Naruto, the beatings, the names, and the looks of pure unadulterated hatred.

"So, we really are demons..." Naruto said, letting his arms fall to his sides as he fell to his knees beside Kyuubi, Gaara did the same thing by Ichibi.

Smack! Smack!

"Don't you ever say that again!" came from both the demons' mouths as fresh tears fell.

"Neither of you are demons, you are both the furthest thing from a demon!" Kyuubi said.

"Yeah, you two are two of the sweetest, nicest boys on the planet. Those idiot villagers just don't know the difference between the kunai and the scroll it's sealed in." Ichibi added.

Their words, and their not-so-gentile bitch slap across the face, brought both boys out of their stupors. They both looked at each other, and nodded. They now knew that they had someone who understood each others' pain. They stood up and embraced each other in a brotherly hug. Even though less than an hour ago, they had never even known the other existed, now they felt like they had known each other since birth. They then turned to their respective tenants.

"Alright girls, we're sorry for instantly thinking the worse about us, and we thank you for bringing us back to reality." Naruto said.

"Yeah, thank you for everything, not just the reality check, but also for protecting us when we were growing up, we both know that if it wasn't for you two, we would both be dead. Ichibi, if it wasn't for your sand, I would've been dead too many times to count." Gaara said, smiling at the woman.

"And Kyuubi, if it wasn't for you healing me every time I was beaten, I would have died the day after I was born." Naruto added, smiling at Kyuubi as well.

"You don't hate us?" they both said softly, not believing their ears.

"No, of course not, how can we hate someone who saved our lives not once, but many times?" Naruto said with a grin.

"Yeah, I mean, it's actually quite the opposite." Gaara said with a blush. He never really knew about love, but he felt some sort of strong feeling toward Ichibi, it would still be a few years before he would be ready for that kind of feeling, and h knew the same was going through Naruto's mind.

The women looked relieved beyond comparison.

"Thank you two so much, we wanted never more than to have you guys not hate us, but before this, we thought it would be a long shot." Ichibi said.

"Yeah, and we're sorry, but we are running low on power keeping this dual mindscape going, so you two have to leave for now. But, if you want to talk to us, just think it, and we'll hear it if you mean for us to." Kyuubi said.

Just as she said, both Naruto and Gaara felt a pull on their stomachs as they felt themselves going back through the vortex. They woke up on the ground in the alley they were in before.

"Um... Naruto? Did that really happen?" Gaara asked, hoping that it had and wasn't just a dream.

"I think so, if you remember it, and I remember it, it must have happened." Naruto concluded.

"Um... I'm kinda new at this, but would you like to play with me at the playground?" Gaara asked nervously.

"Of course, we're brothers now, just lead the way." Naruto said with a smile.

Gaara grinned bigger than he ever had before. "Okay, it's this way..." He said, but as he put his hand on the wall next to him, a trapdoor opened up beneath them. They both let out a scream as they fell, but because they were alone in an alleyway, and no one was near them, their yells went on deaf ears.

After they hit the ground, they looked around to see that they were in some sort of bunker. They saw that the trapdoor had closed up and a set of lights turned on to reveal the rest of the room. There was a workbench that had every kind of tool imaginable, and even some that left one to imagine what they could possibly do. To the side there was a stack of scrolls, and upon further examination, they were listed to contain many different types of woods. Beside the stack of wood scrolls, there was another pile of scrolls simply listed "Building Materials" above the stack. Naruto was confused to no end at the weird assortment of items, he just figured this was an old workshop for a craftsmen who dealt with wooden contraptions. It wasn't until Gaara pulled on his sleeve to turn him around that he found out what kind of wooden contraptions exactly the former owner made.

After he turned around, Naruto saw that the entire back wall was filled with puppets of every shape and size. There were some that resembled both animals and humans, but there were also ones that didn't resemble anything other than shapes. Naruto had heard the old man talking about Suna having a Puppet Corps during the last war, so this must have been one of their old workshops.

"Wow, this stuff is pretty cool, huh?" Naruto said, going over to look at the puppets, he knew that a lot of Suna shinobi liked to use poison on their weapons, so he didn't touch anything.

"Um...Naruto, I don't think we are supposed to be here..." Gaara said, sounding somewhat scared.

Naruto picked up on this, "What are you talking about? What's wrong?"

Gaara didn't say anything, but just pointed to a huge symbol painted on the wall. Naruto looked at the symbol, and couldn't see what scared Gaara so much. It was just a big red scorpion.

"What's so bad about that?"

"Naruto, that's the symbol of Sasori. He is a missing-nin who used to use human bodies to make puppets." Gaara said, "This must have been his secret hideout."

Naruto walked up to the symbol and, on instinct, ran his hand over it. Suddenly, a scroll popped open on the wall. Naruto and Gaara read it.

"Greetings. To whoever found my secret hideout, I congratulate you. Many have tried to find this place, but none have succeeded until now. I am currently not a ninja of Suna anymore, due to my, shall we say, morbid obsession of making human puppets. As such, I have no use for this workshop anymore, so instead of it just going to waste, I am now giving everything in here to you. Do with it whatever you want. I would be more than happy for my teachings to help another shinobi rise up as a fellow puppet user and hope that one day, if the fates allow, we get to face off in a spar. After you finish this message, just swipe some blood on the seal on the bottom of the paper. It will then open a vault behind this wall that contains scrolls and other various items that will help anyone become a decent puppet user. After that, you are on your own. Good luck. Signed, Sasori." Naruto read out loud.

"Hey Naruto, maybe we should let someone know about this..." Gaara said.

Naruto thought about it, "Well, do you think that I might be able to have this stuff, you can give some of the already made puppets to the village, but can I have some to practice with until I can make my own?"

It was Gaara's time to think, "Why not? Besides, there aren't many puppet users left here, so you might as well take it, I'll let you have three of the puppets, and I'll take the rest of them back to the Kazekage so he can deal with them. Maybe Kankuro will finally be able to use an actual puppet."

"Who's Kankuro?" Naruto asked.

"It's my older brother, he's been trying to make puppets to use, but he keeps stealing my sister's dolls to make them. All he ends up doing is destroy them, which makes Temari, my sister, pissed off and she hits him over the head with her fan." Gaara said with a snicker.

Naruto laughed with the redhead, it was nice to know that Gaara would have siblings to help him out when he had to leave in two weeks. Naruto sobered up when he thought about it, he finally had a brother, and he only had two more weeks to spend with him.

Gaara noticed Naruto's expression and said, "What's up Naruto? Why do you look so sad all of a sudden?"

"Well, it's just that, I only get to stay here with the old man for another two weeks..."

"Wait, by old man, do you mean the Hokage?"

"Yeah, I came with him, we're here for some diplomatic mission or something, he just asked if I'd like to come with him, so I did. I'm glad I did though, because now I have a brother, right?" Naruto said with a smile.

"Right, of course, we'll be brothers forever, no matter where we live, deal?" Gaara said, returning the smile. He was sad that Naruto had to leave so soon, but he knew that neither of them would forget about each other.

1111111111111111111111111111111111111

-Two Weeks Later-

The two weeks had gone by so fast. Naruto had spent the whole time either playing with Gaara, Kankuro, and Temari, who he had met the day he met Gaara, or he had been practicing doing the chakra strings needed for using puppets. He had gotten to being able to use two strings, but he still had some troubles using the puppets with them. He found out that it was because he didn't make the puppets, so he either had to practice with them for years to master them, or make his own. Naruto had elected to do both, but only start the latter when he got back to Konoha, so he had more privacy.

Today was the day that Naruto and the Hokage were scheduled to leave for Konoha, so they were at the gate about to leave when they heard a shout.

"Wait! Naruto, wait up!"

Both of them turned around to see Gaara, his siblings and the Kazekage walking to them. Well, the Kazekage was walking, the kids were running as fast as they could to Naruto.

"You didn't think you could leave without saying good-bye, did you?" Gaara said, pulling his brother into a hug.

"Of course not, I just didn't know how to get a hold of you." Naruto said. At this time, the Kazekage got to the group.

"Sorry about this Hokage-sama, but my children wanted to say their farewells to young Naruto here." he said.

"Oh, no problem at all Kazekage-sama." the old man said with a grin.

Naruto, however, was stunned, "You're the Kazekage's kids?"

Said kids just grinned, "Yeah, sorry about not telling you, it just didn't come up." Gaara said with an embarrassed grin.

"Yeah, we were having so much fun just playing like normal kids that it just slipped our minds." Kankuro said, "Sorry Naruto."

"Yeah, sorry Naruto-kun." Temari said, with a blush. Over the last two weeks, she had grown to have a crush on her blonde friend. Unbeknownst to her, Naruto had one on her as well, but he, being Naruto, had no idea how to talk to girls, or know that she liked him back.

"No worries Gaara, Kankuro, Temari-chan. I'll see you guys later, okay? Be sure to keep in touch, alright?" Naruto said after hugging each of the kids, Temari's hug was a little longer than the others, which brought a smile to both of the Kages.

Naruto said good-bye once more as he and the Hokage turned and started walking out of the front gate of the village.

"Good-bye my brother." Gaara whispered out just as Naruto's image dropped out of his vision on the horizon.

Well, here is another story I've been thinking about lately. I kinda like the use of puppets in battle. I have a lot of ideas on how Naruto could use them, but I will only continue this if people actually like it. I'm not going to force you to read this, but I might put out a few more chapters if my muse stays with me. So, don't judge it completely bad just from this chapter.

Now, when it comes to the Bijuu, I needed a reason for Gaara and Naruto to bond, and what better way to bond than finding out that you are both jinchuriki? Plus I think that Gaara would be even greater if he wasn't completely insane for most of his life. That's why I had the Ichibi become a woman, which would make more sense if he called her "Mother", wouldn't it?

As for Naruto's skills, it will be a powerful Naruto, but he will have to become powerful, as he won't be able to take out the Kages and the Sannin right off the bat. He will have to work for it, but him having his puppets as his main skill, plus some other jutsu to make sure he won't be completely helpless if they are destroyed or his chakra strings are broken.

So, as always, let me know how you feel about this. This is just an intro chapter, so the next one will be longer if I continue. Please, no flames, just constructive criticism.

Also, I'd like to just point out, I've started using a new dividing system when it comes to my stories, because the lines I've been using haven't been uploading. Just wanted to make sure everyone knew so they didn't think it was someone else writing it or something.

Until next time,

This is LordDimir, saying Good Night and Good Luck.