Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. It belongs to Shonen Jump and their artist. I do own the plot though, but only of this fan fiction.

Mates: The Tanuki and the Kitsune

"Why are we fighting?!" Naruto yelled as his opponent sent a wave of Clones after him. "We're fighting because you are strong, I live to kill, this is the reason to my existance, it gives my life meaning!" A Girl with long red hair and what seemed to be mutated sand on the left side of her body, yelled to Naruto.

The girl's name was Gaara, A Sand village nin and daughter of the Kazekage. She was a small girl, with green eyes and the Kanji for love covered the right side of her forehead. She was dressed in a gray garb that was baggy against her shapely body, a gourd made of sand adorned her back and was the source of her sand attacks. Her face was pale and she had black circles around her eyes, The mark of the Tanuki(1). She held a near unstoppable bloodlust in her eyes. She suffered from Insomnia, The demon in her would take control if she ever slept. But it seemed that in order to defeat the other demon vessel she had to use her inner demon's power.

"Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Announced Naruto as he used his favorite technique, but the clones were quickly destroyed by Gaara's ultimate defense. 'How am I supposed to beat her?' Naruto thought and an Idea came to him, 'I'll bet If I can summon Gamabunta, I'll be able to beat her!' he exclaimed in his mind and started attacking her relentlessly. Most of his attacks connnected with sand and did no damage, but a handful actually connected with her body angering her futher into madness.

"I'll-I'LL KILL YOU!" she yelled as sand begane to engulf her and grew into the shape of a giant raccoon, she then appeared in its forehead and growled. "Now to finish this! Forced Sleep Jutsu!" she yelled as her body went limp and Shukaku took over.

(I'm assuming that everyone saw what happened when they fought against Shukaku, so its just like the canon battle)

She lay in a grassy patch of land after she fell from the sand, Naruto looked on with a grin and dismissed Gamabunta. With that done Naruto started to walk toward her. "N-NO! STAY BACK!" she yelled as he got closer. He finally reached her and smirked.

"Now do you see it? The power of hate and pain may be strong," he said as he pulled her into his lap, "But the power of protecting those dear to you, is even stronger." He finished with tears in his eyes which turned red for a second and slumped over, his head now on her stomuch lightly snoring. She blushed at the contact and thought about his words, 'Maybe just maybe, I've found people that I feel are dear to me. Arigato(2) Naruto-kun.' was her last thought as she fell asleep Shukaku now letting her rest do to the mental commands of the Kyuubi. And this is how Sasuke and Sakura found them.

Author's notes

I thought this up while my electricty was out yesterday though I could have included the Canon battle I just didn't feel like it.

Oh! The words that have number's next to them are translated here.

1. Tanuki Racoon

2. Arigato Thank you.