In the Arena

Sakura looked up to see Kakashi standing over her with a kunai in the neck of a Sand ninja. "Sakura, Sasuke has gone to chase after Gaara. I want you wake Shikamaru and….who should I send?...and Neji. Neji missed his match and I am sure he is itching for a good fight. Take those two and bring Sasuke back. This is an A ranked mission, you are not to engage Gaara or anyone else if it can be helped. Take Pakkun here with you as well."

A puff of smoke appeared before Kakashi and both Pakkun and Sakura crawled their way over to Shikamaru and Neji. After she briefed the others on their mission they all jumped out a whole in the wall that Maito Gai made with a Sound ninja.

Forest Outside of Konoha

Naruto was jumping through the trees as the sounds of war disappeared in the background. Inside his head he was mentally cursing all of those people of Konoha who had done him wrong, and that was a very long list. Naruto's teammates despised him, the other rookies despised him, in fact only a select few were ever genuinely kind to him. There was Iruka-sensei, Ayame, old man Teuchi, Ero-sennin, and the old man Hokage. But that last person was so confusing right now. Why would he disqualify Naruto and simply delay Sasuke's match? The old man was never one for favoritism.

Thinking on the betrayal was causing Naruto to feel pain in his chest as he wiped away a lone tear. "It doesn't matter any more, I'll never see anyone from Konoha ever again. I'll start a new life where no one knows of the damn fox. Maybe I'll become a traveling ninja out for hire or even join a new village!" Naruto exclaimed picking up his mood.

Now Naruto was jumping through the forest with a smile on his face and thinking of which village he should join, "Maybe after I get rid of my trail I can head North to Kumo, or West to Iwa. Ya Iwa sounds good, I mean who wouldn't love my blonde hair and piercing blue eyes. I bet people of Iwa would love me! Guess I wont be needing this." Naruto reached up and undid his headband and simply dropped it on the forest floor and continued on his way.

All the way in Iwa the Tsuchikage was throwing spare three-pronged kunai from the last Great War at a picture of the Yondaime Hokage, Minato Namikaze. When suddenly he felt a wave of anger and used his famous Dust Release technique on the picture. "Strange, I usually destroy the picture of the late Hokage at the end of the day. I wonder what came over me."

As Naruto was traveling he heard a great roar. Followed by what sounded like birds chirping. He was going to ignore it until he heard the familiar voice of Gaara yelling, "What's the matter Sasuke Uchiha! Are you scared of my true form? Or have you come to realize that my hate is simply stronger than yours?!"

"Well that cant be good, maybe I should make a detour and check it out. Plus I might be able to see Sasuke get his ass kicked." That thought alone brightened Naruto's even more so as he had a fox like grin and skipped along the sounds of destruction and mayhem.

When Naruto reached the battlefield he made sure to remain hidden, but something surprised him. Sasuke was on the ground with what looked like black flame tattoos covering his face with Sakura standing over him as if she was guarding him. Twenty feet in front of her was Neji trying to catch his breath. Another twenty feet from Neji was a monster that looked strangely like Gaara, except half of his body was covered in sand making him look like a wild beast.

Naruto was drawn out of his observations when the creature suddenly yelled, "YOU ARE ALL WEAK! THE ONLY WAY TO BE STRONG IS TO FIGHT FOR YOURSELF, AND THE ONLY WAY TO DO THAT IS TO BE TRULY ALONE. FORSAKE YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILIES AND YOU MAY HAVE A CHANCE IN SURVIVING! HAHAH!"

With his speech given Gaara flung himself past Neji at incredible speed and headed straight towards Sakura and Sasuke. Without even thinking Naruto leapt from his hiding spot and kicked Gaara in head sending him flying towards a tree making a crunching sound.

Shocked by the new arrival Sakura quickly regained her senses, "Naruto! Thank y.."

"Don't thank me Sakura, I was merely repaying Sasuke for saving my life in Wave. When he wakes up tell him we are even." Sakura was on the verge of tears, Naruto's voice was so cold and she had noticed the lack of the honorific chan at the end of her name. "Neji, take Sasuke and get the hell out of here."

Neji did as he was told but before he left Sakura yelled, "I am not leaving you here to fight that thing. We are teammates and I won't abandon you."

Naruto's reply was a cross seal and "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu." A single clone appeared behind Sakura and chopped her in the neck, knocking her out. With that done Naruto turned to Neji, "Do you have a problem with leaving me behind?"

"No, our mission was to retrieve Sasuke and avoid a confrontation with Gaara. With you here we can succeed. Goodbye." Neji turned and left with Sasuke flung over his shoulder followed by Naruto's clone with Sakura.

It was at this time Gaara appeared again only he now was completely covered in sand and had a tale swinging wildly behind him. "Naruto Uzumaki. You are either very brave or very stupid to face me alone. Maybe it is a bit of both. It does not matter because I really want to fight a fellow jinchūriki." At that word Naruto showed squinted his eyes in confusion. Gaara quickly picked up on this. "Do you not know what you are called? We are simply weapons that our villages have created. But those fools cannot control us or the raw power we posses. I heard your little speech at the arena; you are the jinchuriki of the Kyuubi. Let us see who is stronger."

The blonde shinobi got into his fighting stance but with a look of understanding. "Tell me Uzumaki, what do you fight for? I would like to know before I crush you."

Naruto showed a puzzled look but could not answer. After a minute had passed he still had not answered Gaara's question. "HAHAHAHA. You don't even know. How can you possibly defeat me if you don't even know what you are fighting for? You are truly pathetic. I will teach you how to exist before you die. Fight for yourself and you will know true power, fight like that and your existence will be proven to the whole world."

"I'll tell you what I fight for, I fight for you and all those who have experienced loneliness like I have. I will end it and then you will see that your way of life only causes yourself pain! I will save you from yourself!"

After saying his piece Naruto flew through hand signs, bit his finger, and slammed his hand on the tree branch he was on. "Kuchiyose no Jutsu." A puff of smoke appeared and a small orange toad appeared before Naruto. "Hiya, names Gamakichi. Got any sna..ahhhh! Whose the freak with the tail?" It was at this time that Gaara started flinging sand shuriken at Naruto. The blonde quickly grabbed Gamakichi and jumped out of the way.

"Screw summoning, looks like I'll have to get my hands dirty." Jumping into the air summoned twenty clones and descended upon Gaara. Seeing this the red head took a deep breath as mouths with teeth opened throughout his body.

"Fūton: Mugen Sajin." Wind and sand shot through Naruto and clones, dispersing them and sending the real Naruto flying. Without waiting for the blonde to recover and counter Gaara shot several volleys of sand shuriken at him, all of them connecting and sending Naruto into a tree.

Naruto slowly got up and put an explosive tag on a kunai. "Prepare yourself for a move straight from Kakashi-sensei! Kage Bunshin no Jutsu." Four clones appeared alongside him and they charged forward. Gaara then caught three of the clones in one of claws allowing two to land on it. The last clone took the original and threw him above Gaara. Naruto then created another clone and used it as a spring to jump behind and below Gaara. After that he created one last clone to jump off of plunging his kunai into Gaara below the tail. "One Thousand Years of Death!" Gaara recovered as if nothing happened and used his tail to knock Naruto away. As the blonde genin was flying through the air one word escaped his lips in a whisper, "Boom."

Naruto slowly got up and put his hands into the ram seal to gather chakra. Once he had gathered his remaining chakra Naruto formed the cross seal, "Tajū Kage Bunshin no Jutsu." Two-hundred clones were spread throughout the forest and then charged the sand jinchuriki. Gaara was simply shocked someone could create such a vast amount of clones and was soon overwhelmed by them.

Gaara was being beaten to a pulp until Naruto sent him crashing into the forest floor forming a small crater. "I will not loose to A WEAKLING LIKE YOU!" with a wave of anger Gaara fully transformed into Shukaku, the one tailed sand demon.

Back in the Arena

Neji dropped Sasuke on the ground while Naruto's clone laid her down gently. They had managed to make it back and were hiding in the arena contestant box. The cloned quickly turned to the Hyuuga, "I got a bone to pick with you! Who the hell do you think you are almost killing Hinata and treating people like shit? You have no right!"

"Don't preach to me about what I can and can't do. You have no idea what the main branch has put me through. She was merely to weak, she doesn't deserve to live amongst the Hyuuga, let alone the main branch of the family."

"You prick! She is stronger than you think, it took strength to keep fighting you even when she was getting the shit beat out of her. And she did it all to impress you! You tell me I don't know your life story, so then tell me. Tell me why you have a stick up your ass."

Neji stood there as if pondering something until he finally spoke, "The Hyuuga clan consists of two "families", the main family and the branch family. Only the eldest child may be apart of the main branch. My father was born to the clan head, but he was apart of a set of twins and had the unfortunate luck of being the younger sibling. The branch family lives to protect and serve the main household, so at the age of four a seal is placed upon branch family members that make them completely subservient. Not only that, but my father was unjustly killed so that my Uncle, the clan head, could live after he killed a Cloud ninja for a failed abduction. That is why I hate the main family. But it was all destined to happen, just like you were fated to suffer with your burden."

"Throughout that whole story I could not find one reason why you treat Hinata the way you do. If you want to be pissed at someone, be pissed at your Uncle or the Cloud ninja for whatever the hell he did. And don't give me that destiny crap! I am making a difference with my life, after I finish with Gaara I am leaving Konoha for good. No longer will I have to suffer but I will live my life without being judged. You on the other hand have people who care for you, hell the whole village praises you as a genius. So why don't you suck it up and be happy for a change."

During Naruto's lecturing of Neji a pink haired kunoichi began to drift back to consciousness. She was very groggy until she heard Naruto say he was going to leave the village. "What do you mean you plan on leaving?" Tears started to fill her eyes as Naruto slowly turned to her.

"I mean I can't take the treatment anymore. I…I…I just want to be treated like a normal person and be happy for a change." With this statement Sakura's tears started to fall freely, "Please don't go I am so sorry for how I treated you, if I would have known I would have been nicer I swear."

"It means a lot to me that you would say that, it really does. But there is no turning back now. I already knocked out Ero-sennin just to get out, there is no place left for me here. Please don't tell anyone, with this invasion it will be awhile before they notice I am gone." Sakura jumped up and hugged the clone while sniffling, "Goodbye Naruto, and please be safe."

"Goodbye, Sakura-chan."

With that the clone poofed out of existence.

Forest (after canon fight)

Gaara lay on the ground, his body ached all over. The only thing he could move was his head as he looked to his left. What he saw was Naruto slowly standing up, shaking as did up and slowly walking over to him. "I don't want to fight you. I am leaving Konoha were the villagers constanly disrespect me. Come with me and together we can become friends and look out for each other. I see the loneliness in your eyes and the pain you have experienced."

The sand genin was contemplating the offer when two other people jumped down. Kankuro had crow out and chattering while staring Naruto down, while Temari was looking at Gaara with obvious concern. Seeing this Naruto chuckled softly, "On second thought Gaara I resend my offer. You obviously have those who care about you even if you don't know it. Hopefully in the future we meet again, except as friends instead of enemies. Hell I might even come visit in Suna. Take care." And with that he turned and stumbled away, exhausted from the fight he just had.

Once he was gone Temari turned to her youngest brother and had him lean on her for support, "Gaara are you alright? What the hell was he talking about?" Gaara heard the worry in her voice and the love in her eyes, "Maybe Naruto Uzumaki was right." "I am fine, no, better than fine. Kankuro…Temari…Thank you, and I am sorry."

The two older sand siblings exchanged "What the fuck just happened?" glances and Kankuro answered, "No problem Gaara, lets get you home."

Sound Rendezvous Point in Forest

"Damn that Sarutobi, victory over the Leaf Village would have been guaranteed if he hadn't taken my arms with that cursed jutsu." Orochimaru was beyond furious. His loyal followers of the Sound Four were scared shitless that he would take his anger out on them.

"Maybe all was not lost Orochimaru-sama," a cool and calmed voice entered the clearing, "now I may have jumped the gun a bit but I made a last minute order to not harm Naruto Uzumaki after that outburst." Orochimaru turned to Kabuto with a quirked eyebrow. Taking it as his cue to continue, "It would appear that he was spotted exiting the village with a traveling pack. I believe he used the invasion as a cover to become a missing nin."

Orochimaru's eyes lit up at this new information as he licked his lips, "Kukukuku. The Sound Four will return to base number two and await my arrival. Meanwhile, Kabuto and I must meat a potential…comrade. Oh this will be so delicious if he joins, Sarutobi-sensei will be turning over in his un-dug grave."

"Hai Orochimaru-sama." And with that the Sound Four headed off to Tea Country.

"Come Kabuto, lets go find Naruto-kun, and be on your best manners. We want to be welcoming."