I haven't invited any one from the cast because...because...(sob)...wahhhh!!!! Ruby-kun you tell them!!!! (runs off crying)

Ruby: (sighs)Mendokuse...her cat got run over today...in front of her house.

Naruto: don't cry Hakuo-chan!! NIISAN!!

Kyuubi: (sighs) fine you can hug me...

(latches herself to Kyuubi's neck, and sobs uncontrollably)

Ruby: you BETTER not go all emo and stop writing stories baka!

(incoherent mumbling from the back of Kyuubi)

Kyuubi:she says she will write even more because of her depression...WTF!!

Ruby: she's weird like that...(sweatdrops)

disclaimer: no and no (sob)

To unite or divide ch. 4
Naruto ran all the way down the sand dune, Sakura and Sasuke behind him taking their time.

'Where does the dobe get so much energy from?' Sasuke thought.

Naruto then proceeded to trip and roll down the rest of the way.

'This is fun!' kyuubi said from the back of his head.

Naruto spit out sand as he kept rolling down. Until he abruptly stopped as he hit something solid.

"oww… my head…" the blond clutched his head, mind spinning.

A pale hand offered leverage so Naruto looked up; blue eyes watery from the pain.

"Naruto-kun" said a soft voice, "are you unharmed?"

"Gaara-kun!" 'Shukaku-chan!'

Both Kyuubi and Naruto shouted out loud. The blond took the hand and rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment. "that was fun. Next time we can ride on your sand sled, ne?"

Gaara tilted his head and smiled a tiny bit. "you can let go of my hand now."

Sasuke and Sakura were alert, now that they had reached the gates.

'who knows? Gaara might still revenge' Sakura though furrowing her brows.

"oh yeah! Sorry Gaara, my heads all spinny!" Naruto shouted, waving his arms around for effect.

Sasuke eyed Gaara's movement wearily,' I don't care what the Hokage said. The freak might not kill him but he will hurt the dobe for--' Sasuke stopped mid thought (you can do that?)

Naruto had glomped the Kazekage, showing him what a hug felt like. Sakura tensed, as did Sasuke. Gaara stayed the same arms crossed on his chest, unsure of what to do.

"dobe… get off the Kazekage!" Sasuke told him, grabbing him by the collar and pulling him back.

"NOO! Teme, let go! Panda-man, save me!" Naruto yelled, death grip around the red head's shoulders. He hooked his ankles around Gaara's waist, officially clinging onto said sand user.

Sasuke was having some difficulties but he was removing Naruto's grip in by inch.

That is, until another force interrupted and immobilized the blonde. Looking over his shoulder the Uchiha saw the Kazekage giving him an ice cold glare, practically screaming "keep holding him and your head is mine"

The Uchiha backed down as Naruto cheered "kyu-onii-chan says hi to Shukaku-san" Naruto told the red head, who was holding him so he wouldn't fall (or be taken away by Sasuke)

"how was your trip?" he asked.

"huh? Oh yeah…well teme and Haruno-san did okay. I was just thinking how to do my new trick for Shu-chan"

Gaara listened absorbing every word before nodding and gently letting the blonde down from his arms.

He looked at the others and tilted his head towards the entrance," the meeting will be held in 3 hours, I will accompany you to your rooms in my own home. Come."

Sasuke and Sakura bowed politely (he was still the Kazekage) and followed the red head and their blond teamate.

XxXxXxX near Kazekage's estate xXxXxXxX

'that dobe… he'll pay for this!' Sasuke thought evilly.

'I can't believe that baka! Does he have NO respect for any Kage?" Sakura thought silently fuming.

While his teammates kept on raging, they were nearing the front door inside the Kazekage's massive estate. Naruto was talking in a low voice about his plan.

"…they said they won't wreak havoc and terrorize innocent citizens. All you need to do is a bunshin clone… and make it fall asleep to release Shukaku in him. Niisan agrees with the idea as well…" Naruto trailed off thinking.

Gaara calmly regarded his friend.

"I think it's a great idea, Naruto-kun" he said simply. Naruto

looked up from his musing.

"..you think it's good? REALLY?!" he shouted at the red head, and then shrank form the killer intent the two leaf ninja were giving him.

"BAKA! DON'T SHOUT AT THE KAZEKAGE!" Sakura

screeched at him before hitting him on the head, making him crouch down and hold his head in pain.

Sasuke put a foot on Naruto's back, sighing in frustration," Dobe, learn some respect…"

"teme… get your foot OFF my 'fox' kanji!" Naruto shouted, still crouched. Suddenly, the weight was taken off of him and Naruto finally turned around.

Both of the leaf ninja were being held in a prison made of sand. Gaara had his hand held out, threatening to perform Sabaku kyu (?)

"hurt him and I will not be responsible for your deaths. Okaasan and Shukaku don't like to see Naruto in pain" Gaara said deceivingly calm, eyes cold and unforgiving.

"what's going on here? Came a voice from the doorway. They all turned around and Temari.

She had here still spiky ponytails and the same outfit fit, but her features were that of a matured woman. She looked questioningly at Gaara.

"otouto…what were you going to do?" she asked nervously at the old glint on bloodlust in his eyes.

"kill them" he answered calmly.

"KILL THEM?! But--but you can't! they're our ambassadors!" she yelled pointing at the prison.

Said ambassadors let out a breath they didn't know they were holding.

"they hurt Naruto-kun"

Temari stopped instantly. "oh...okay then, go ahead." she said carelessly, without noticing the complete 360 on her attitude.

"NANI?!" Sakura shouted Sasuke settled for glaring. Then a small voice spoke:

"please don't kill teme and Haruno-san…Tsunade wouldn't like the paperwork involved.

Temari turned around and her eyes went all sparkly.

Kyuubi sensed danger.

"KYAAAAA!!!! Naru-chan! You're so…so …KAWAII!!" She squealed in a startling resemblance to a rabid fan girl.

Now there is something you need to know about contained demons:

It is unbecoming of a contained demon to:

1) get glomped by a probably sugar high blond fan girl

2) being squished against said fan girl's breasts (not that it isn't nice…)

3) your container reacting to this by purring while being petted….PETTED FOR GOD'S SAKE!!!

But defying all demon laws (that she didn't know about) Temari did exactly all three shown above.

Gaara looked back at the two 'prisoners' and let them go, reluctantly. He went over to where his sister proceeded to keep petting Naruto until he made a steady rumbling sound in the back of his throat.

Kyuubi started to bash his head against the walls of his prison.

Repeatedly.

"Temari...please don't kill him." Gaara said, while Shukaku laughed his head off at his fellow demon's embarrassment.

"but...but Gaara!" Temari pleaded still holding Naruto to her chest (niceeee….can't breath!!) "just look at him! He's like a cute, vagabond, huggable, bloodthirsty demon vessel!!"

Gaara stared at her then calmly replied "your words are total opposites… and you are suffocating my friend"

When Temari finally let go of Naruto, he coughed and took a big gulp of air," It's…nice…to see…you too…temari-neechan…" he coughed out.

The blond kunoichi grinned sheepishly. Naruto hugged Gaara again and dragged him to the house, chatting about nonsense.

Temari smiled at seeing her brother so accepted by someone outside his family; then she looked disdainfully at the two left and nodded to the door.

"c'mon. Your rooms are this way." she said curtly. The two followed nervously.

XxXxXxX dining table xXxXxXx

"…the rules. And so the loser brought a real sword!" Kankuro said before bursting into laughter along with Naruto and Temari.

Temari, being polite (she hasn't forgotten earlier 'incident') turned to Sakura.

"do you have anything to share, Sakura-san?" she asked. Sakura swallowed her food, and thought a while.

"There was a mission that kept getting as chunnin, remember Naruto?" she said smiling slightly.

Naruto shivered.

"That damn cat…he's got it out for me. I know it!" he said shaking at the mere memory. Sasuke smirked.

"The cat always chose Naruto to attack!" She gave a giggle.

"Yeah…even thought dobe kept promising over and over again that he would find the cat first. I always managed to save his ass. Some ninja." Sasuke said.

'Kit, keep your cool…' kyuubi warned.

'Don't worry, I've got my mask!'

"Please, parakeet-head-san. It's not my fault cats plot my downfall." Naruto said with an utmost calm to rival Gaara's (who sat at the end of the table, silently watching).

Temari respected his patience, if it would have been her, Uchiha

Would be dead already.

Sasuke faltered, then frowned slightly 'the dobe's been getting patient…let's fix that.'

"Your outfit is stupid and your bunshins suck" Sasuke dared.

Naruto twitched.

Kyuubi bristled.

Sasuke smirked wider. The room deathly silent.

'Kit, even though he's a TOTAL JACKASS!! Don't do anything stu--"

"Bastard! Your fireballs only work to make s'mores!" Naruto

shouted pointing across the table.

'--stupid. :sigh: never mind, continue. And get that BASTARD back for insulting your clothes!!'

"dobe."

"teme."

"baka."

"parakeet-head!!"

"dead-last."

"FREAKY EYED CREEP!!"

'that's it! NO ONE insults my eyes!' Sasuke fumed. He was about to retort when Sakura, who the author thinks hasn't been bashed enough yet, (on with the reasons to bash her!) beat him to it.

"NARUTO NO BAKA! DON'T START UP FIGHTS WITH SASUKE-KUN AND THEN INSULT HIM!" she shouted and

whapped him hard upside the head.

At that, Sasuke sneered and excused himself Sakura following him like a shadow. The door shut with a final 'click'.

Naruto kept looking at the door, sighed and spoke out loud to kyuubi:

"kyu, is murdering you teammate still illegal?"

'yes, I've been trying to find a loophole for the past…oh yeah! FOUR YEARS! The best I've come up with is poisoning..'

Naruto shook his head and turned around laughing weakly.

"sorry about that. I'll clean up their plates…"

The blonde said apologetically. He was about to get up when Tamari's voice stopped him.

"Naruto… what was that?" she asked in deadly calm. Kankuro's cheeriness was long gone and Gaara seemed to clutching his chopsticks a little too tightly.

"oh, that? Don't worry about it that always happens!" Naruto said waving it aside.

CRACK!

Naruto jumped ,slightly. Three resounding cracks lined the table where the siblings gripped it in anger.

"always happens? You mean the Uchiha, the BASTARD that you risked your LIFE for; starts a fight with you, beats you up and pinkie blames you?!" Kankuro said, his voice rising.

Naruto looked down and nodded slightly. Temari sighed as Gaara tried to burn through the wall and kill the Uchiha with his glare .

"naru-chan… you repeatedly risked your life for those people, almost died for one actually. And all you get is this? No respect, no gratitude; there's something off here," Temari continued, " in Suna, we respect each other and their techniques. Making fun of your best jutsu isn't right . You know that."

Naruto stared at the ground, he felt the cold sensation when he did something wrong.

Kankuro continued with the lecture "what I want to know is what happened earlier, where you got hit by pinkie"

Naruto sighed and said, "I raised my voice at Gaara and Sakura thought it was disrespectful"

Temari raised her eyebrow, "what did you yell?"

" 'really'…" Naruto quoted, remembering.

"why'd you yell that?" Kankuro asked, confused.

Before Naruto could answer Gaara said, " I told him his idea was good"

"A compliment? You overreacted for a compliment? Why?"

The blonde shuffled his feet and whispered something. But everyone heard it.

The siblings felt sickened (Kankuro), sympathetic (Temari) and furious (Gaara).

"Naruto" said blond raised his head," you're our family too. Remember that."

Naruto did a double take 'family…?'

Temari continued, "and for the rest of your stay, I want you to take off the mask."

"but...but.." Naruto protested weakly.

"Drop. The. Mask. And. Go. To. Bed." Temari said in her non-arguable sister voice.

He sighed in defeat, waved goodbye and went to his room.

The dining room stayed silent until they heard…

"I HAVE A FAMILY!"

… being shouted from Naruto's room. Then followed by a:

"NARUTO! SHUT UP AND GO TO SLEEP!"

…Sakura stopped shouting when she heard a warning kunai embed itself into her door.

The three siblings resolved to get their kunai back in the morning. They were too tired to deal with it at the moment. The words Naruto mumbled, echoed around their heads:

"It was the first time someone else noticed what I did…"

-owari-

Ruby:send her gifts to make her feel better and write even faster.

And now for shameless advertisement...Naruto?

Naruto: hey, Ruby-kun, what's GaaXNaru?

Ruby: I'll tell you when you're older... if you DO know what it means and you like to read it check out HakuoBlake's Help me to cope!!!!

Review!!! for the sake of the author getting over her sadness!!!!