I have to apolegize, this was ment to be up on monday, but i had problems, but here it is, Shadan, thanks for the comments, fight scene, or writing in general never was my specialty, the reson why Zabuza was decked easily comes into play soon, and for Sageofthe6paths as well, do not give up hope for the femhaku pairing.

Chapter 8

Befriending the Demon

Naruto woke up, face in the pillow. It was an unfamiliar pillow, so he didn't move. Instead he sniffed. 'That's Temari's scent, she's either here or I'm in her room. She doesn't smell like she does when she's around me so I'm probably alone... What do you think Kyube?'

Silence.

'Kyube?'

His head felt empty… lonelier than it had for a long time. He realised that the Kyuubi wasn't in his head. Naruto decided that this could be a perfect chance for some much needed 'Me' time. He was just about to start contemplating the mysteries of the universe when-

"So, you're up…"

Naruto froze. How had he not sensed Temari? The chill moved down to his bones when he realised: 'I've been out for days… so she hasn't been subject to Kyubes Genjutsu… Oh Crap she's realised she's not actually attracted to me and that something's up I'mgonnadieI'mgonnadieI'MGONNADIE!!!'

"Um…Hi, Temari..?"

"Spill it."

This wasn't what Naruto was expecting "Huh?"

"You're a Jinchuriki, Like Gaara. Host of the Nine-Tailed Kyuubi if I'm right."

Naruto paled, a completely different type of fear. This was the first time anyone had him cornered like this.

"You already have a high level of contact with the Kyuubi, judging from the amount of times you zone out for a few seconds. You also know how to use its chakra, if that 'Oni Rasengan' is of any judge. More likely, it's been teaching you things, like that my brothers seal was defective."

Naruto suddenly found an escape rope from this dangerous topic "How is he? Did Jiraiya's-"

Temari spun Naruto round to face her. His right eye was closed: he was in his boxers and a T-shirt, no headband to cover his demonic eye. "He's fine, He should be himself when he wakes up, and I have you to thank for that, but first things first." She glared into his eyes, and Naruto had only one thought.

'Oh Crap.'

Before he could do anything, her hands were on his face, and pushed up his closed eyelid. She didn't even flinch at its demonic appearance.

"Thought so."

Naruto blinked 'Wait, what?'

"You covered your eye, yet had perfect depth perception. Only logical explanation was you were hiding something, no way would anyone copy Hatake's lack of style without a good reason"

"Actually, Kakashi-sensei hides a sharingan under there"

She looked mildly surprised at this, but then nodded "Makes sense, He is called the copy ninja after all. So, how'd you get your eye? What's it do?"

Naruto gulped. He was seriously stuck with no choice, so he told her everything between the first time the Kyuubi spoke to him, through Mizuki's betrayal, and about the Chikara Kioku.

Temari listened through it patiently, and at the end of it, she asked "you mentioned it has other abilities; what like?"

Naruto almost began to sweat at this point. "There's one for making an opponent think they're surrounded called Shinkiro Kakomu, one for night vision that I like to call Yomi Me, and one for telling if a person is lying or concealing emotion called Hikari Hiko." 'And one that can apparently control emotion, but I can't actually use that one myself, nor do I really want to, but she doesn't need to know tha-'

"Do you have one for controlling emotion?"

Naruto actually felt the sweat on the back of his neck at this point. "I take that as a yes then." Temari actually looked disgusted at this. "How could you…"

Naruto turned to face her and decided to come clean at this point, realising that grubby wasn't going to cut it here; "I can't use it, buy the Kyuubi can. I'm sorry, but I had no idea it could do that, and frankly, I'm disgusted with it myself."

'Some friend you are. I was even doing you a favour!"

Naruto sat bolt upright on the bed "WHEN THE HELL DID YOU GET UP!" He noticed the shock on Temari's face, and he realised he just said that out loud. He looked at Temari and said "Sorry…"

'Don't apologise to her! I'm the one who's hurt!'

'It's your fault we're in this mess'

'No, it's your fault! You should have slept with her when you had the chance!'

Naruto brain temporarily shut down at this lack of logic 'How… how would that have worked exactly? Surely I would be worse of for becoming a RAPIST!'

'It's only rape if she says no.'

'You were controlling her! She couldn't say no!'

'Either way, you'd be feeling fairly awesome right now and could probably wing your way out of this mess. '

Naruto got out of the bed clutching his head. As he reached for his clothes he failed to notice Temari blush for a moment then look away. He walked out of the room, tugging on his trousers while muttering "I need a strong drink… Beer, Sake, Paralyzing venom, anything to shut that nutjob up…" He appeared to have forgotten all about Temari at the moment, and she made no attempt to remind him.

It wasn't until a moment after he left that Temari regained her composure and wiped the blood from her nose.

The second thing Naruto didn't notice was that he forgot to shove his business back into his boxers.

Naruto found his way to the kitchen and was rummaging in the fridge when he realised that he wasn't alone. He looked up and saw Gaara. He was eating a bowl of Cereal in his pyjamas, despite the fact that it was at least midnight. Gaara offered Naruto the box, asking "Sugar Puffs?"

Naruto poured himself a bowl, and filled it with milk. Gaara passed him a spoon. "Thanks", Naruto mumbled.

Gaara looked down at his feet. "I ought to be saying that to you. I- I'm Sorry…"

Naruto looked at him, and swallowed his mouthful of sugary honey goodness. At first, Naruto was worried that Gaara would see his right eye, he's left the headband upstairs, but he appeared to have gotten away with it in the darkness. He decided to be of some comfort to him. "Don't be, you had no control over yourself, you can still make up for it."

'There you go again; helping everyone you meet just because they've suffered 'just like you have', Look where that's gotten you in the past! Then again, that's a weak argument, Haku's pretty hot and all over you.'

'I have no idea what you are talking about, Haku's my friend.'

'That's what you think…'

'That's the Truth!'

'Whatever…'

***Meanwhile, In Konoha***

"ACHOO!"

Haku was lying on Naruto's bed, reading his 'Literature'. She rubbed her nose and said to herself "A handsome boy must be talking about me… Hope its Naruto… Or maybe it's just a pretty girl…"

***And Back in Gaara's house***

Gaara smiled at Naruto as he continued his internal argument with Kyube. "At least you two have some sort of decent relationship. Shukaku just tells me to kill and kill and kill… I'm sick of it…"

Naruto broke out of his discussion to comfort the depressed Jinchuriki. "You just need to learn how to control it, put a leash on it, that kind of thing!"

'WHO'S GOT A LEASH ON WHO YOU WORTHLESS DOG!?!?'

Naruto rubbed his headache as he continued; "What I mean is to establish a link with your demon; communicate with it, let it help you, but don't let it control you." His headache worsened as his own monster went ballistic inside his own skull. "I'll even teach you how if you show me the booze"

Gaara was surprised by this offer; as he reached for the Sake "I thought you were training with Temari?"

Naruto shook his head, gratefully accepting "I've pretty much got wind Chakra down, I'm just using the training as an excuse to keep out of Jiraiya's research…" He downed the half-pint bottle with a shudder. "Ah, that's better… Shuts him up like you wouldn't believe…" Gaara was impressed at this.

Naruto looked at Gaara. "Well, I'm off to bed, Night!"

Gaara smiled at him. "Thanks. Goodnight."

Naruto put his empty cereal bowl into the sink and walked towards the stairs. He caught Gaara's eye in the mirror and his right eye suddenly killed. Naruto winced, then paled as he reached realisation.

'K-Kyube? W-What did you just do..?'

'Made your life a living hell…'

'No, you, you didn't…'

'I did…'

'A- A homophobe like you-'

'What do my double standards have to do with my revenge? …Oh, ew, no! NO! Gah! Do Not Want!'

Naruto relaxed, and began to climb back up the stairs to the room he woke up in. It didn't have many personal belongings inside so it was unlikely that it was Temari's. 'So, what did you do?'

The Kyuubi glared'I used Yume Kunren on him, means that he'll be getting eight hours solid of Taijutsu training in his sleep.'

Naruto thought about this. 'You told me about that one; don't you need to know the skills you're teaching?'

'I know Taijutsu.'

Naruto laughed with scorn, getting into bed. 'Yeah, whatever…', and he fell asleep.

The next morning, Naruto woke up with an uncomfortable yet pleasant feeling of warmth on his back. He rolled over and found an unconscious Temari in her pyjamas. 'Does everyone in the sand sleep in pyjamas, or just this family?'

'More importantly, her bra's over there.'

'What? Okay, what the hell happened?

'Well Watson, it appears that she didn't realise that you were sleeping here, and went to bed. She's probably been watching you without sleeping as you healed.'

'Holy crap, this is HER room?

'More importantly, I appear to be able to control your right arm right now…'

Sure enough, Naruto's arm was sliding up Temari's waistline, and there was nothing he could do about it.

'Dammit hands, listen to ME!'

'But they like my idea So Much More

This was getting a bit much for Naruto, whose nose was starting to bleed. He managed to cross his fingers behind Temari's back and release the Kage Bunshin.

'Oh, come on! That's cheating!'

Naruto opened the door and walked into the room, quietly picking up his things 'So is body control.'

'Oh, I was lying'

"WHAT!?"

'That was all you'

Naruto notices that Temari was starting to wake up, so he rushed out of there. However, in his haste, he forgot his Konoha Headband and Longsword.

He got downstairs and found Gaara asleep on the table. Naruto forced his trousers on and positioned his headband over his right eye. He rummaged through the fridge and, after liberating several items from the fridge, he wrote a note for Temari.

Temari, Gone Training, Back later, Naruto. P.S., I stole your brother.

After deciding this was enough, he slung the sleeping Gaara over his left shoulder a bag with several lunches and Despair over his right, he went through the door, and jumped towards the training ground, eating breakfast along the way.

"Alright Gaara, training begins! First things first, let's have a quick sparring match to see how well you fight with Shukaku!"

Naruto was about as energetic as Gaara wasn't. "I lost all my sand jutsu though… I can't fight…"

Naruto sighed "Alright then, strait out Taijutsu. From what I know, you've never needed it before, so now's the perfect chance to learn."

Gaara perked up at this. "Funny you said that. I had a weird dream last night…"

Naruto was surprised "Y-Yeah..?" The Kyuubi grinned.

Gaara began to shift into a stance "Almost a nightmare really. A guy who looked like you, only with red hair, demonic eyes and a psycho grin, put me through hell teaching me Taijutsu… it was insane…"

Naruto began to pale, as the Kyuubi's words last night rang through his head.

'I know Taijutsu.'

Naruto looked at Gaara's stance. His left foot was forward, his right at a ninety-degree angle a double shoulder width behind it. He was hunched over, his weight shifting continuously from his front and back legs. His left arm hung limp between them, while his right arm was in a fist by his waist, ready to strike. 'What is that stance?'

'Not telling. This is my revenge…'

Naruto got into his own fighting stance 'His muscle strength isn't much at all, he's not going to hurt me much'. Naruto's stance was closer to his walking stance, but with his forearms at head height, not unlike a boxer. However, unlike a boxer, Naruto was also shifting balance between his feet, occasionally lifting his front foot off the floor.

'I know, I just want to see you get owned by a total newbie.'

The penny dropped as Gaara charged forwards 'You planned this last night? You couldn't have predicted we'd have a Taijutsu match!'

The Kyuubi grinned as Gaara kicked into Naruto's guard. 'Temari isn't the only one I can give funny ideas to…'

Gaara then span round, sending his other foot towards Naruto's head. Naruto released his elbows grip on Gaara to block the side kick, earning him a swift kick in the chest.

Gaara seemed just as surprised at his skill as Naruto. "…I know Taijutsu…"

Naruto got up and lowered his centre of gravity, putting his left hand forwards, taunting Gaara. "Show me."

'That would have been much more badass if you hadn't stolen it from that movie once'

'SHUT UP!'

Kankuro entered the kitchen, and started to make an omelette. He reached into the fridge to grab a carrot, only to find them all gone. He sighed, and settled for pepper instead. He chopped it up and added it to the pan of eggs, and put it into the oven to cook. While he waited, he poured himself a glass of orange juice and walked over to the table, where he saw the note.

Temari, Gone Training, Back later, Naruto. P.S., i stole your brother.

Kankuro quickly put two and two together. "Idiot! Gaara's barely healed after what you did to him!" He finished his glass and ran out of the door.

The door burst open again as Kankuro rushed to turn off the oven. He was about to leave the omelette, when he saw that it was done. Wrapping it in a napkin, he ran out of the door again to the training grounds.

An hour after they began, the two ninja were still at it. Gaara was keeping up with Naruto, slowly getting more and more used to this new experience. 'Who knew that Taijutsu could be so… fulfilling?' He sent a roundhouse kick to Naruto, who blocked it with his knee, then stepped forward and sent t he same kick back at Gaara. He blocked, only to find out too late that it was a feint, and the real kick was homing in on his head fast. Too late to block, Gaara braced himself, but the kick never came.

"YES! Now that's what I'm talking about!"

Gaara turned to look, and saw that Naruto's shin had been blocked by a pillar of sand, which then fell apart. Naruto fell back onto his backside, panting. Gaara just stood in amazement, trying to catch his breath.

Naruto grinned, covered in sweat. "See? You can still use the beasts power! You just need to remember not to rely on it, or it'll consume you!"

'So that's why you never listen to me!'

'I never listen to you because you're an idiot!'

Gaara sat on the ground, reaching for the bag. He grabbed two bottles of water, just as Naruto got kicked in the head. "Ka-Kankuro!"

Naruto's attacker turned to Gaara; "Are you alright? I came as fast as I could!"

Gaara got up, "Yeah, I'm fine? Why wouldn't I be?"

Kankuro looked confused "Eh? Wasn't Naruto using you as a punchbag or something?"

"It was really a two way thing."

Kankuro looked apologetic "Oh, so it actually was training, sorry about that." He looked down at the person under his feet. "We cool Naruto?"

"…Get…Off…"

"Huh? What was that?"

Naruto disappeared in a puff of smoke, and Kankuro was stood in a shrinking shadow. "Huh?" He looked up to see a falling Naruto, just in time to get a face full of boot.

"HOW DO YOU LIKE IT!? HUH!?"

'You're getting good at that Surprise Kage Bunshin thing you do, I didn't even see you set it up!'

Naruto calmed himself down and stepped off Kankuro. "Well, since you're here, you can help."

Kankuro paled, and then grinned.

The three were sparring until nightfall

Temari woke up around noon. She hadn't slept in a few days, what with Naruto and Gaara recovering in his and her bedrooms. She didn't like the way Jiraiya grinned when she offered her bed for the unconscious Naruto, but she needed it to get the information she wanted. However, she didn't expect him to sleep for 36 strait hours. As she got up, she noticed that a few things were wrong. One of them was that Naruto left his sword, Kitsune. That was only to be expected, since he wouldn't really be facing any enemies while he was here. Another thing that was out of place was the fact that Naruto had left his Konoha headband on the bedside table. Again, that's where she put it when she put him to rest, but no self-respecting ninja would leave home without their headband. Then again, it must be fairly awkward to be the only Leaf in a city of Sand, so that was also reasonable.

However, the fact that there was a warm, Naruto shaped groove in her bed right next to where she was sleeping required a lot more explaining. She was just starting to get angry, whe she noticed the shape and position of the groove relative to her. 'Holy crap, I crawled into the bed HE was already in!' Temari tried to justify herself, saying she was tired, it was dark, she couldn't have known, and that it was her bed and Naruto had no business in it. But considering that she never actually told him that, and the fact that no ninja would actually get that tired, worried her more and more as her face got redder and redder.

She didn't get out of the bed for another few hours.

That night, the three hit the bar. Naruto noticed the glares Gaara was getting. "Heh, Reminds me of home."

Kankuro turned to the other two. "They like this with you back in your village?"

Naruto looked down again. "Sort of, only they don't fear me so much as pity me, but yeah, the hate is just the same."

Gaara sighed "They just can't seem to accept me as human…"

Naruto looked around the bar, then something caught his eye, and his grinned his special grin.

'Awwww Yeeaah…'

Naruto turned and grabbed Gaara by the wrist. "Come on!" he said, dragging the Sand's demon onto the stage. Picking up two microphones, he passed one to Gaara and selected a song on the karaoke machine. The soft music started to play, and Naruto sang a melodic note "Yea-eah…"

At this point the rest of the bar turned in horror, as Naruto continued to sing;

"You are… My Fii-re… The one… De-si-re!"

People were just about to flee when Gaara raised his mic to his lips and sang;

"Believe… when I say… I Want It Tha-at way!"

At this point the drums kicked in, as crowd horror turned into utter disbelief, as Naruto began to dance;

"But we… are two worlds… apart…"

Gaara joined in the rhythmic movements, singing;
"Can't reach to yo-ou-ur heart!

When yooou say!"

Then Naruto stepped in front of his partner, crying out;
"That I Want It That Way! TELL ME WHY?"
"Ain't nothin' but a heartache…"

"Tell me why!?"

"Ain't nothin' but a mistake…"

"Tell me why…"

"I never wanna hear you say!"

And in unison, they both cried out- "I WANT IT THAT WAY!"

***The Next Morning***

Naruto and Gaara were up fairly early, and met each other in town. Temari got stuck looking after the hungover Kankuro, but Gaara suspected that she was just avoiding Naruto. As they walked down the street, they both noted the looks and whispering as Gaara passed Naruto his Headband and sword.

The news of the singing, drunken Gaara had spread fairly quickly, and it's somewhat difficult to fear someone singing requests while wearing a paper crown. After the first song, it was hard to get him off the stage.

'I love a happy ending. Especially the ones with booze.'

I would apreciate good feedback, please, also the singing gaara was my idea, the song was my beta, kill him for it if you wish, actually i let my beta run away with chapter 7 to 10, i wrote the basic plot, he went nuts

A thanks to:-

akatsuki-tenshi-kitsune

JadeStoneTheYounger

nobother

SageOfThe6Paths

shadan

glad you like the story. also check out the stories by samjaz, hes pretty good at the writting thing.