Reforging Alliances
A red headed man walked up to the Western Gate of Konoha. The guards all took a defensive stance.
The man spoke, "Send for your Hokage. I am here to see both him and Uzumaki Naruto."
One of the younger guards spoke in a nervous voice, "Who may I tell him is here?"
The cold eyes glared at the young chunin. "Tell him it is Subaku no Gaara, the Godaime Kazekage. I wish to discuss business."
Gaara stood waiting just outside of the gate. His arms were folded across his chest. His hair and long coat moved slightly under the gentle breeze. He had been waiting for nearly a half hour and his patience was wearing thin.
He glared at the chunin on guard duty. "There has been a message sent out, correct?"
The sixteen yr. old chunin nearly wet himself under the glare, "Yes Kazekage-sama. Would you care to come into the guardhouse to sit?"
"No, thank you. I have said I will never set foot into Konoha until after my friend Uzumaki Naruto is recovered."
The chunin nodded and backed off. One of the ANBU who had revealed himself chuckled lightly.
The minutes crept by until the silver haired leader of Konoha appeared. "Maa, maa, I had not heard you were coming here for a visit Gaara-dono or I would have had someone here to meet you."
"This trip was unplanned. Where is Naruto?" Gaara grumbled with little kindness in his voice.
"I have already sent for him. He was out training as he is badly out of shape," Kakashi said with a slight smile.
"You have 2 eyes again. I gather that your damaged Sharingan one is not salvageable any longer?"
Kakashi almost kept his shocked look from his face, "Yes, but I would hope you continue to keep that news it was ever that way to yourself. I can explain more later if needed."
Gaara just nodded and then stood silently.
More minutes crept by until the scarred form of Naruto appeared in the distance and running toward the gate. Gaara raised a non existent eyebrow at his friend's appearance. The scarred face and shaved head look Naruto had was unfamiliar to him but those eyes and smile remained.
"Gaara," Naruto said with a smile, "I got here as fast as I could. I was out training with Guy and Lee."
Gaara just nodded. "Are you well, Naruto? I felt your return three days ago."
Kakashi noticed a crowd of onlookers forming. "Perhaps this is not the place to talk. Would you care to come to the Tower, Gaara?"
"As long as Naruto is present, I accept," Gaara replied before stepping through the gate.
"So, the Uchiha and his minions are behind your disappearance then?" Gaara inquired.
"Yes," Naruto said in a cold voice, "He took me away from my life and my family."
"And what do you intend to do about that?"
Naruto looked down at the table he was sitting at with Kakashi and Gaara. When he looked back up, his eyes were no longer kind or gentle.
"When I get my hands on him, I am going to end him. No talking, no regrets, no remorse. He is beyond saving after all that he has done."
Gaara nodded before looking at Kakashi. "If Konoha policy matches this desire of Naruto's, then I will offer my aid and that of my village to help Naruto accomplish it."
Kakashi frowned under his mask "Not Konoha itself but Naruto specifically?"
Gaara turned his cold gaze back to Kakashi. "For now, yes. Konoha has a long way to go to get back the respect it once had. Naruto however is my personal friend and is considered a hero by Suna. If he wished to relocate there, his acceptance would be granted before the request could even be completed. This place did not realize the gem it had with Naruto. He personally earned the goodwill of many countries. Wind, Spring, Bear, Moon, Demon, Tea, Wave, Bird, and many others. His actions were all that kept Konoha as the supreme power in this part of the world. You know how things went after he was gone."
Kakashi just nodded as he knew what Gaara was referring to.
Gaara continued, "The Sound village controls the Rice Field country and is a threat to everyone. Uchiha will not stop once his fixation on Konoha is past. He has grown to like the taste of power and one country will not sate his desire. His ninja cause trouble for other countries. That will lead to new wars once his vendetta is gone. Without Naruto, there is no unifying force amid the smaller nations to get them to stand together. With him, they could raise an army to destroy Sound."
"Uchiha made one critical mistake in his plan. He did not kill Naruto when he had him at his mercy. His own vanity and desire to humble his rival by showing him the ruins of the very place that Naruto had sworn to protect before killing him will be his undoing."
Kakashi was shocked to hear the very assumptions his intelligence people had made coming from the mouth of the Kazekage.
"You … you knew that Sound had taken away Naruto?" Kakashi sputtered out.
"We have for over three years now. We captured a Sound jonin spying on Suna and his interrogation revealed much information on Uchiha's plans. As we were no longer allied with Konoha, we felt no need to share this information. Unfortunately, he was not knowledgeable on Naruto's location so we could do nothing in that regard except leave standing orders to keep an eye out for people fitting his description."
Gaara looked at Naruto now, "The place you tell me you were found is on the far side of several enemies for Suna. None of our ninja go to that area or we would have rescued you sooner my friend."
"Don't worry about that Gaara. Hinata and the Toads … OH CRAP!" Naruto exclaimed, "THE TOADS!"
"What's wrong?"
"It's been a few days since I was unsealed and I haven't summoned a toad yet! They must be furious at me. Kakashi, may I be excused?" Naruto asked.
"Maa, maa, want to go with him, Gaara? I have not seen a good beatdown by a toad on their summoner since before Jiraiya-sama died."
Gaara smirked slightly and nodded, "I might want to see this as well."
The trio had moved out into a nearby training field. Naruto cut his finger, smeared some blood across his palm and went through the hand signs before slamming his hand into the dirt.
A cloud of smoke billowed up in front of Naruto. It continued to grow until it filled the training field.
"Wow, how much chakra did you uses, Naruto?" Kakashi asked.
"Barely any, Kakashi. They must have pushed from their side," Naruto slowly replied.
"Oi, gaki. It's about time you remembered us," a voice boomed from inside the chakra smoke. The smoke dispersed quickly to reveal several large toads arrayed around the Tower sized Toad Boss, Gamabunta. An unscarred house sized version of him stood next to him who Naruto recognized as Gamakichi. Another house sized yellow colored toad with large cheeks and 2 huge battle axes on his back was Gamatatsu. A pair of very old child sized toads stood before the rest.
Naruto went down to one knee before the assembled toads. "Forgive my thoughtlessness, Gama-samas. I should have summoned you sooner to let you know I am myself once more."
The toad called Pa hopped up to Naruto, "No need to kneel, Naruto. We understand. We have missed you. We all came when we felt the tug of summoning."
Naruto smiled at Pa, "Thank you for watching out for Hinata and for looking for me."
"You were worth the effort," Pa smiled in his reply.
"As worthy as you own father was in his time, Naruto," Gamabunta said in his huge rumbling voice. "When the time comes, your tadpoles are welcome to try to see if they can summon us."
"Thank you Gamabunta-sama. I don't know how Hizashi would react to that offer but I think Kushina would be happy to."
"Good, we will not keep you from things you need to do, Naruto. You are a fine subordinate. Do not forget to call upon us when the time comes to squash that Uchiha and his snakes. I'll have to polish up on my size reduction jutsu so we can have a few drinks together without causing too many problems," the Toad Boss boomed out.
The toads all vanished in bursts of smoke to return to their home.
Gaara looked at Naruto with a grin, "I was at the wedding but children?"
Naruto grinned and rubbed the back of his shaven head, "Yeah, apparently Hinata was pregnant when I got stolen away."
"I should like to meet them at some point," Gaara stated.
"How about coming over for dinner? I bet the kids would love to meet you. It might weird out Hinata for a bit but I don't think she will kill me over it."
A snake sidled up to the leader of the Sound. "There has been a disturbance. Someone has summoned toads."
Uchiha Sasuke growled, "So he is regaining his strength faster than I had hoped. If he can summon that means they managed to free his mind. This is a complication. Send word to Root in Konoha. Destroy him."
Naruto and Gaara entered into the Uzumaki compound and Gaara nodded his approval of the house. Once the pair were inside, they heard a girl's voice cry out, "DADDY!" as the blonde streak of Kushina ran into Naruto.
"Running hugs, gotta love 'em," he commented to Gaara.
Kushina pulled herself out of the hug and turned to Gaara before bowing, "Good Evening Sir. Welcome to the Uzumaki household. I am Uzumaki Kushina."
Gaara looked impressed before returning her bow, "I thank you for your kind welcome. I am Subaku no Gaara."
Kushina broke out into a big grin that reminded Gaara of Naruto's as the child looked to her father, "See Daddy? He knows how to do it."
Naruto shook his head slightly, "And she is never going to forget that either. Kushina sweetie, where is Mommy?"
"Right over here," Hinata called out from the door Kushina had come through earlier. "Welcome, Gaara-sama. I didn't know you were in town."
"Few would know as I came in secret. In fact I think I might be staying here for a time if my wife and sister are both mad at me when I get back to Suna."
Back in Suna, Matsuri and Temari both sneezed before going back to plotting Gaara's death.
Soon, the group sat down to dinner along with Hizashi and Tsunade. Once the meal was finished, Kushina and Hizashi were shooed off to bed while the four adults sat to talk.
"It is strange, Naruto. You are a lot taller than I remember you being," Gaara said.
"Yeah, a lot taller than some of my memories remember being too. I do know I grew a good six inches in the first 2 years of my life as Ken before stopping. I had not really put much thought into it."
Tsunade spoke up, "Likely it was something to do with the Kyuubi's chakra in your system stunting your growth. A lot of the new height is in your legs. In the past they had seemed stunted. Maybe without the demon's chakra preventing it, they grew to a normal length."
Naruto thought about it and nodded, "I did have a tendency to end up moving on all fours with I tree ran as a teenager. It seemed natural to move like that. I don't think I could do it like that any longer."
Tsunade smirked, "Most normal adults can't move on all fours easily, Naruto. The normal adult leg length prevents it."
"Kiba did comment on your height we found you Naruto. He also said your scent was different then. It almost caused us to leave without checking further," Hinata said quietly from her snuggle with her husband. "If I hadn't looked with my Byakugan and noticed your chakra coils network was advanced, we would have."
Naruto hugged Hinata tighter, "Then I should be glad for my beautiful wife and her amazing eyes."
Tsunade cleared her throat and looked back to Gaara, "So what is the plan for the near future? I know Kakashi will go for a renewed alliance but the problems we have with local dissent are still an issue. Sound still has spies in place within Konoha and they will be passing on information. I figure Uchiha knows about Naruto by now if you do."
"Wait a second, you got here at close to the minimum time for a trip from Suna to Konoha after Naruto's chakra got unsealed. How did you know so fast?" Tsunade asked.
Gaara point to Naruto, "His chakra. The wave he sent out after suppressing the Kyuubi resonated with mine. I am sensitive to demonic chakra. One perk of being a former jinchuuriki I guess. Not only was I able to sense the chakra of the demon, I was able to sense his mixed in with it. He added his own chakra to bolster Elder Chiyo's when she revived me. It left me sensitive to his energy. I can sense him at a long distance because of that resonance."
"I should keep you in mind in case this man of mine ever gets lost again, Gaara-sama," Hinata teased.
Naruto and Hinata found their own way to bed soon afterwards and left Gaara and Tsunade to talk between themselves.
The following morning Gaara accompanied Naruto to his morning workout. Guy and Lee were waiting at their usual spot when the pair arrived. Lee smiled slightly at seeing Naruto and bowed respectfully to Gaara. He had not gone back to his old spandex unitard but to help himself to not forget his 'renewed fires' he wore a spandex t-shirt under his jonin vest. Guy agreed and took up the same idea. Neither man shouted about youth but Lee was slowly starting to open back up from his pain.
The taijutsu pair soon had Naruto working out at a moderate pace with calisthenics and flexibility training to warm up with. This was followed by training forms for the new style Guy was teaching Naruto. His old knowledge helped as many common motions existed between styles but Naruto's muscle memory was gone after 8 years of non use. This led to sparring in the new style with Lee. The final stage of the day's training was done by Guy alone. He would give Naruto a rubdown to soothe his abused muscles while having Naruto guide chakra to the various muscle groups.
During this, Gaara sat off to one side and just soaked his feet in a stream. There was so little freely running water in Suna that he would take advantage of that for one morning and relax. He was glad for that as he had so little time to just be Gaara instead of 'Kazekage-sama'.
Once the workout was completed, Naruto led Gaara to the Tower for a meeting with Kakashi before Kakashi called together the elders and clans. There was some noticeable balking at the idea that the renewed alliance was with Naruto, not with Konoha specifically. Kakashi silenced that quickly telling them that aid was aid, not matter how it was received.
The only other item of business that needed attending was several reports of minor oni fleeing the Land of Fire. This brought several guarded looks toward Naruto. Oni fleeing was a relatively good thing because they were mischievous and caused problems that kept demon hunters in business. The elders were not sure if the oni leaving really was a good thing as professionals capable of dealing with demons would follow and leave as well. Some elders liked the idea of people able to subdue demons being near Konoha just in case.
Gaara prepared to head back to Suna after the meeting but left Naruto with one last invitation.
"If it should come down to a civil war in Konoha, Suna would be willing to take in your family and friends along with their families. I realized early on that the bulk of Kakashi's current support comes from clans and families associated with your 'Konoha 11'. Better to retreat than watch more die needlessly that way with the snake Uchiha waiting in the grass to devour the winner. I will also have my agents keeping a more careful eye out for your pink haired friend."
Naruto and Gaara shared a brief hug before Gaara left along with a small team of ANBU that Kakashi hand picked.
The two weeks following Gaara's visit were almost idyllic for Naruto. His mornings were spent with Guy and Lee on his physical training routine. Lunch with Hinata and the children. A few hours of instruction to Neji at the forge. The evenings before dinner was for meditation and chakra training with the leaf exercise. Dinner with family or friends and playing with the children after dinner. Nights with Hinata were better than anything he could have hoped for as Ken and the maturity both had gained over 8 years apart made their bond grow closer. Too bad it could not last.
Guy looked at Naruto with a stern gaze. "Naruto, today is our last day of training for at least a month to possibly two months. My team is scheduled to return to the border region to allow another to return to Konoha. However, they should be just as good for you. You know most of the team we are replacing. They go by the call sign, Team Kitsune."
Naruto was shocked by the name. Few in Konoha to this day cared much for foxes of any type. "Who are they?"
Guy paused before answering and looked at Lee who smiled slightly. "The team consists of Ebisu, Konohamaru, Moegi, and is led by your old teacher, Iruka."
"Wait, doesn't Ebisu outrank Iruka as a jonin?"
"As a jonin; yes. But he willingly had Iruka lead the squad because both realized that Iruka is the better field leader. One thing they do is they all wear fox masks and harass the Sound's supply lines and rear areas. That team has accounted for more nearly 10 percent of Sound casualties since fighting broke out. They bring back the sealed heads of any Konoha traitors fighting for Sound as well."
Naruto nodded at that. Bounties were offered for any Konoha ninja that had turned traitor.
"What about Moegi? I thought Kakashi was not allowing women up at fighting against the Sound?"
"The four of them wear masks and go by code names, Fire Kitsune, Earth Kitsune, Water Kitsune and Wind Kitsune (Hi no Kitsune, Tsuchi no Kitsune, Mizu no Kitsune, Kaze no Kitsune). No one in Konoha knows which is which so her secret is safe. Clothing helps disguise who is who as well."
Naruto nodded and stood to stretch as Guy finished his rubdown. His muscles were coming back nicely. Manipulating chakra during the rubdowns was speeding things along by helping the muscles to recover faster after a workout
"Do you mind if I walk with you as you go home?" Guy asked. "I need to pick up a few things I ordered from Neji. It seems he has become quite the smith in the past few weeks. His kunai and shuriken are of good quality and balance."
Naruto shuddered without realizing it. A part of his price for getting TenTen into the spandex outfit had been him being her target for an afternoon. He was required to stand there while she threw all manner of things sharp and pointy in his direction. Granted she was aiming only inches from his body but he knew if he flinched, he would have gotten cut. He had chosen that from the other option she offered him; pulling her once around Konoha in a rickshaw while wearing an orange Speedo thong. Hinata later reminded him he made the right choice.
The act of being a human target for an afternoon had also given Naruto an idea on how to solve his metal supply problem. He hired several teams of Academy students to wander the training fields for an afternoon picking up all the lost and broken weaponry there. The students got to keep all the items that were usable. Even so, Neji had enough broken kunai and shuriken to melt down and make new weapons from for months. Naruto had shown his skill and repaired several other more difficult weapons the students had discovered. TenTen had begun to carry Neji's weapons in her shop and demand for them was rising. Hiashi was pleased with the cash flow and with a smile pronounced that running the forge would be Neji's only clan duty.
Naruto and Guy walked through the streets of Konoha side by side. It seems Naruto's schedule had become well known by his daily walk across town. Civilians greeted the pair as they moved while a rare few would cross the street until the pair had passed. Naruto was about to turn a corner when Guy stopped him.
"Naruto, there is something wrong here," the older man said. "There are no birds chirping anymore."
Naruto was about to respond when a bomb went off just around the corner.
Next Chapter: Blows and Counterblows
Review Notes:
The owner of the hand will be seen in time.
Naruto will remain mostly scarred and shaved bald for the near future. He is 'healed' as far as his body is concerned and as stated in the story the only thing that will change it is some serious treatment.
To QnP, as I said in the private reply, the kids were not harmed for 2 reasons. One - There was no trace of demon in them and Two – Hiashi would destroy to the last distant family member of anyone who touched his grandchildren. To your chapter 8 question, No relationship between Shikamaru and Temari. He found someone slightly more average and they will appear soon.
InARealPickle, I had written the chapters separately over the month without updates and did final edits to them the weekend prior to posting. I am not a writing machine but I can get a couple thousand words on a good day. And trash a couple thousand on a crappy day. That is how writing goes.