I don't own Naruto in any shape or form. I'm just a fan of the series.

Hope you enjoy my next chapter.

The wind rushed through Gaara's ears, or sand more like. 'Is Naruto scared and dead, or alive and well?'

Temari and Kankuro looked at each other. The separate regiments had met up near the end of the battle, and fought until Madara's defeat. Then Inochi said the hokage had requested them to her meeting place a mile off from the main battleground. Was the hokage's summon troubling Gaara, or was it his meeting with his father. After Gaara's fight with Naruto when the Chunnin Exam had been interrupted, Kankuro had become very close to Gaara and would risk his life for his wellbeing. He knew instinctively that his brother needed time to think his worries out.

Kankuro shrugged at Temari, and continued to look forward. His second in command came to his shoulder and whispered, "Where do we bring the men now Kankuro? Most of them are in bad shape. Tired and wounded both."

"Take a stop and heal the wounded as best you can, we have a summon from Tsunade."

The man nodded, "Hai!" And fell back, shouting orders.

XXX

A couple hours later Naruto awoke. Tsunade standing over him. "Welcome back Naruto, how do you feel?"

"Do you really think I can answer that," Naruto groaned and shook his head.

"He's awake, is he okay? Naruto you really had me worried." Standing over Naruto was Gaara, face full of relief and caring all shown with a slight smile.

"You worry too much. I told you before I'm not dying before I become hokage. Believe it!" Shining a cheesy smile, everyone there started to laugh. Even Kakashi.

"Hey guys! We made it." Kiba shouted. Shino and Hinata following close behind.

"Naruto-kun are you okay?" Hinata said looking at the ground. A wide blush spread across her face along with a smile. "I was worried about you and the others."

"Thanks Hinata I'm recovering. You look cold, do you want my jacket?" He said picking up the orange and black coat.

"T-thank you Naruto-kun that is very kind of you." 'He is still thinking of others before himself even in his current state.'

She handled it with care, putting it athwart on her shoulders. Goosebumps then appeared there. Kakashi was surprised, 'So Naruto has an admirer. Why didn't I notice before? Cute, but not as romantic a start as an Icha Icha book. They would make a great couple though.'

Kiba audibly smirked. Which received a harsh look from Sakura. Apparently they had been planning to set them up. Kakashi thought, 'Smart bastards, of course these kids would come up with those two for a couple. Hinata's shy and Naruto's gregarious. They would be a good influence on each other.'

Bee satisfied, looked at Yamato rapping, "Shouldn't you be hackin' clickity clackin' to make a house for our little mouses!"

Yamato became angry, "That's even worse than the last rhyme you came up with!"

Gaara showed no expression replying, "Despite that indisputable fact, Yamato I suggest you get started. Since I'm also an earth element user I could help you out if you want."

"It's fine Kazekage I'll handle this myself." With a couple hand signs a gaint house appeared. Finished with doors windows and even a porch. The Allied Shinobi Nations symbol on their headbands was carved on the front door. Quiet and slow like a funeral prosession they walked in the house. Kakashi was carrying Naruto on his shoulders.

XXX

A few days later most everyone had finally arrived and the meeting began. The five kages were seated at a table Yamato had crafted from the finest oak. The 8 kage gaurds were standing on each side of their respected leader. The only one who didn't have gaurds was Tsunade. And as everyone else who was staying at the house was filing out of the room (What they were talking about is classified, of course) the hokage paused thinking.

The Raikage smirked and eyed Tsunade curiously. "Tsunade I know you well enough now that I now when something's on your mind."

The kages all looked at her with interest. She replied, "I want Naruto to enter the meeting. He knows more about what happened in the war than we do. And…" A bad bitch smirk came on her face, the one she always made when remembering Jiraya or Naruto as a kid, "I wish him to be my predecessor one day soon."

Gaara looked up, "And to all of you who don't believe he is a great ninja. I should tell you the story of when he changed me."

Kankuro added, "They didn't hear you speech before we declared war. You should probably tell them the whole story, for the sake of understanding. Even I haven't heard the whole thing."

Gaara nodded, "Very well. It started at the chunin exams. After we sided with the Sound and betrayed the Leaf. I didn't know much about Naruto at the time except he was hyper, annoying, and very cocky. But no one seemed to notice his dark depressed past except me."

"Ha ha Naruto a dark side, that kid is the happiest person on the planet!" Raikage laughed unwisely.

"You don't understand what jinchuriki go through as children!" Gaara yelled, his eyes filling with soon to be shed tears. "We were beaten by villagers, treated as scum, and repeatedly tried to be executed. We were lonely and unloved." He stopped for a moment letting the information sink in. "You are all fools," he spat bitterly, "You can never fully comprehend."

After a few minutes silence the Raikage looking shocked mumbled an apology.

"Now as you were saying..." Temari urged.

"Yeah," Gaara continued. "Kankuro, Temari, and I were running back to the sand, for I was of no use since Shikaku was taking over. But Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura were pursuing us. They soon caught up. "I partially turned into Shikaku and took Sakura hostage. Naruto was enraged using Kakashi's thousand years of death move on me with a paper bomb kunai. He blew off my whole left side."

Tsunade laughed hysterically, "He did that!.. ha, ha he used that is battle? Kakashi made that jutsu as a joke."

"Yes, but it was very effective. The base of the tail is that Shikaku's weakest point. The sand couldn't regenerate itself fast enough for me to retatliate for a few minutes"

(Flashback)

"You fought all that time and you only scored one blow," Sasuke smirked.

"Shut up," Naruto replied flatly.

"Hey Naruto. You have to save Sakura. I can't stand to see my comrades, falling, right in front of me again. I can hold him off for-"

"S-Sasuke! I realize now this guy is exactly like me. Going through the same sadness and lonliness that I had to carry."

"N-Naruto?"

"He needs to learn a lesson, one I learned a long time ago. Sasuke leave it to me. Naruto Uzumaki!"

(End Flashback)

Gaara continued, "After the conversation between the two, Naruto exploded, a sphere of blue chakra around him. Then I heard Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu! I swear there were at least 200 clones filling the forest."

Gaara continued animatedly receiving shocked faces, smiles and nods from the story. Near the end he said, "When we fell we landed in on an open section of the forest, a few meters apart from each other. He tried to come near me even though I warned him not to. And said he had been through the same suffering I had. He started crying all over his bloody and bruised face."

(Flashback)

"Why would you fight for anyone but yourself?"

Naruto cringed, "Because they're my friends, they saved me form myself. I love them more than I do myself. And I would gladly give my life to save them."

(End Flashback)

"That's pretty much it," Gaara finalized.

Tsunade caught Gaara's gaze and said sternly, "Thanks to you, now I know why Jiraya intrusted Naruto with finding the answer for peace. I'm in your debt."

"No," Gaara said, "We're in Naruto's debt." Everyone nodded. "I agree with Tsunade we should get Naruto here to help us."

The Tsuchikage said, "Chojiro why don't you get him."

XXX

Chojiro went up to the room where 10 of the 11 guardians of Kohona were sitting. "Hey, do you guys know where Naruto is?"

Shikamaru replied, "It's such a drag, we wanted him to talk about his fight with Madara. He went outside."

Sakura gave a pleading look at Shikamaru. "I hate when he gets like this, it means he is troubled about something. All I want to do is help him." Her hands clenched into fists, and she gritted her teeth. Ino went over to Sakura trying to console her.

"I thought he was severely injured. He can't walk for days right?" Chojiro inquired.

"Well I moved him outside," Choji munched He was eating his usual bag of BBQ chips. After losing all that weight he couldn't stop eating. "On the big pine over there," Choji pointed to the left out the window.

"Thanks." Chojiro lept a good 50 meters or so and saw Naruto leaning against a huge tree. His thoughtful expression made him have the look of an old man smoking a cigar.

A minute later Naruto adknowledged his presence. "Hey what's up? Wait, you look familiar."

"Yeah. So you're the great Naruto Uzumaki who defeated Pain, Madara and changed many peoples lives?"

"That makes me sound a lot better than I am," Naruto smirked. "Most of it is true, but one correction, I convinced Pain to give his life to raise those who recently died at his hand for peace. I didn't kill him. I remember you, what happened to you calling me a underling shinobi huh?"

'Man this guy is really something. He seems like 100 years older than me in battle experience, but acts pretty stupid. Geez! Plus he is a sucker for compliments.'

"Hey Naruto."

"What? Get to the point already! What do you want!"

"I wanted to apologize for being a jerk before, not knowing who you were. Also the 5 kages want you at their meeting. The Kazekage and Hokage convinced the others by telling an interesting story."

"I can't hold a grudge for long," he flashed a cheesy smile and held out his hand to shake. They shook hands. "Lemme guess Gaara told the story."

"How did you know?"

"Him, Sakura, Sasuke, Jiraya, Kakashi-sensei, and Tsunade-baa-chan are the ones that know me the best."

"Wait Sasuke is one of the missing-nin of the Leaf Village, right? How do you know him that well?"

"He was part of my team of genin ninja when we were younger. He was like a brother to me. We shared a similar past." Naruto downcast his eyes as he said this, feeling like a part of him had left his life probably for good.

A minute passed between the two until Chojiro broke the silence saying, "Well are you coming?"

XXX

They entered the room and Naruto could be seen now in a better light source. Bandages were thick across his back. His blond spiky hair was crossing his face in bangs, making him look even more like Minato, his dad.

"Well Naruto and Chojiro," Tsunade stated, "You finally decided to show up."

"Sorry ma'am, took me a while to find him," Chojiro said head down eyes averted. He looked like a child guilty of a misdemenor.

Tsunade gave an expecting look that told Naruto, "Tell me what's on your mind later. He nodded and they sat down." Naruto sat on the left side of the Hokage.

"Uum before you guys start the meeting or whatever summit. Why did you call me here?"

The Tsuchikage smiled. "I knew you were a knucklehead but you mean you seriously don't know why we called you here?"

Naruto shook his head with a confused expression. "I though only the 5 kage's and their guards were allowed in these meetings."

"Well Naruto you are my guard now since you qualify for sanin status, and the other one, well you'll see."