Naruto: The Secret Songs of the Ninja

by Arcane Azmadi

In the wake of the battle in the Land of the Waves, Uchiha Sasuke never opened his eyes. Devastated by the death of their teammate and friend, Uzumaki Naruto and Haruno Sakura are forced to begin again with a new teammate, a new mission and a new destiny. But even a small rock thrown into a still pool creates ripples- and ripples may become waves that can drown the unwary...

10. Chapter 10

NARUTO: THE SECRET SONGS OF THE NINJA.

Disclaimer: He who smelt it, dealt it.

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Chapter 10- The Song of Clashing Demons.

Naruto shook his head muzzily, trying to clear the clouds that were fogging his thoughts and blurring his vision. For some reason, he seemed to be flying along at a high speed, even though he couldn't recall telling his feet to do any such thing. He could not, in fact, remember anything that had happened since Hinata had pulled him off the ground and slung his arm across her shoulder, when his grasp on consciousness had finally slipped at the same time as the last traces of the Kyuubi's power had fully ebbed away. His head swam and he groaned as a bolt of pain shot through his skull.

"Are you alright, Naruto-kun?"

Turning his head to the right, he found Hinata's face mere inches from his own, looking at him with concern in her white eyes. As the grogginess began to clear, he realised the girl still had his arm slung across her shoulder and her own around his back, carrying him along as they flew from branch to branch. He forced a smile to his aching face. "Oh... Hinata. Yeah, I'm fine, thanks." The pretty young kunoichi returned his smile shyly, her cheeks tinged with red.

But if Hinata had his left arm, who was supporting his right? Turning his head, his breath caught in his throat as he saw who was helping her carry him. Sakura.

"Sakura-chan..." he whispered and his teammate glanced in his direction at the sound of his voice. "You... you came back for me too? Even..." Even after you found out the truth about me?

"Of course I did, Naruto." Sakura initially looked away from him as she spoke, but she took a deep breath and steadfastly met his gaze. "We're teammates." The smile on her face was rather wan, but Naruto could sense the sincerity behind it and he felt warmth spread through his chest.

Looking past her head of pink hair, Naruto spotted Keiji and Kakashi-sensei flying along on their right. Their teacher had his own arm slung across Keiji's shoulder and looked as worn-out as he had after their first encounter with Momochi Zabuza, but was still able to keep himself conscious this time at least. Naruto's grin nearly split his face open. "Kakashi-sensei! You made it as well!"

His teacher's voice matched his tired appearance, but his uncovered eye sparkled. "I sure did, Naruto. That was a crazy thing you did back there, trying to take on Orochimaru like that, but-" He shrugged wearily. "-I'm hardly in a position to talk. And once again, somehow, we all made it out in one piece."

"I lost my Deathwind, though," Keiji grumbled. "I know we had to get out while the getting was good, but I only needed a minute or so to recover it."

"We'll get you another one, Keiji," Kakashi assured him soothingly. "We'd all already pushed our luck far enough for one day without pushing it any further."

Keiji was about to reply, when he pointed ahead of them instead. "Hey look, there's the others!"

oooOOOooo

Once they reunited with Tetsuro, Mika, Hanabi, and the Sand girl, Kakashi gave a series of short, terse orders before finally succumbing to the strain of chakra exhaustion and passing out. Tetsuro took up his other arm to help Keiji carry the unconscious man and the group moved on as quickly as they could under the circumstances.

The sun had already been dropping towards the horizon when Naruto and his friends had first emerged from the underground fortress and by now it was almost night. Kakashi had ordered them not to stop for anything, but with Tetsuro sharing the duty of carrying their unconscious teacher and helping to guide him, Keiji was able to grimly press on through the fading light that limited his visibility. There was a bit of trouble leaping the gap across the waterfall above the Valley of the End, but they were almost back to the Fortress of the Senju by the time the sun vanished completely.

In accordance with Kakashi's orders, the group stopped some way out from their base to blindfold Temari before leading her in, for security reasons. The kunoichi made a token protest but acceded with bad grace, unable to argue with the reasoning. It was while Sakura was tying the girl's own Suna forehead protector over her eyes that Temari spoke to her directly for the first time since they'd met. "So, uh, that demon boy on your team... is he, uh... stable?"

Sakura's hands froze in the process of tightening the knot at the back of the older girl's head. "'Demon'... you mean Naruto?" She sucked in a breath. "What do you mean 'stable'?!"

Temari shifted uncomfortably. "You know... has he ever... killed anyone?"

The cherry-haired girl's eyes went wide and her arms dropped to her sides. Killed anyone? Naruto?! Her hands balled into fists as she felt her temper starting to flare. "What? No! Naruto's never-" She stumbled over her words briefly. "OK, maybe he might have killed people during the fight back there, I don't know, but he's a ninja. I might have killed people back there, it was chaos! But no, he's never 'killed anyone', not the way that you seem to be implying! What do you think he is, some kind of monster?!"

Too late, Sakura realised that she'd raised her voice. Looking nervously around her, she saw most of their party staring at her with a mix of expressions on their faces. Tetsuro raised an inquisitive eyebrow, Mika was giving her a look of solid disapproval, Hinata just looked startled and Hanabi was keeping her expression carefully even. Keiji looked utterly confused and Sakura silently cursed herself. Their teammate was the only one who didn't know the truth about Naruto -because there was no possible way that Kakashi-sensei hadn't been aware- and if he was going to find out then how he did so was up to Naruto himself.

It was the last stare that she felt the most acutely. From his position resting with his back to a tree, Naruto's expression was strangely blank, his mouth set in a straight line and his eyes unblinking, but Sakura thought she saw the glistening of moisture in their corners. Her stomach lurched at the thought of how her words might have upset him- but as he quickly turned his head away, she saw the corners of his mouth curling upwards.

Blushing awkwardly as she turned her attention back to Temari, Sakura lowered her voice. "Why are you so afraid of Naruto anyway?" She hesitated for a moment. "I mean, yeah, that was a pretty scary display he put on back there, but he saved our lives."

"You don't know how terrifying they can really be," the Suna kunoichi muttered to her. "The demon-possessed. You should count your lucky stars that your boyfriend there hasn't tried to eat you alive."

The girl flinched as Sakura vindictively jerked the knot tight. "He's not my boyfriend!" she hissed. "And how many people with terrifyingly powerful demons in their body have you even met, huh?"

As she released the ties of the forehead protector, Temari turned her head to face the younger girl and Sakura could feel the Sand-nin's eyes boring into her even through the metal plate. "One more than I'd like."

oooOOOooo

With a phenomenal effort, Naruto managed to stifle a yawn as their bedraggled-but-triumphant party staggered into the subterranean entrance hall of the Fortress of the Senju. It had been a hell of a long day and now it was just past midnight. He and his comrades had spent over half the day running and most of the rest fighting, and even with Sakura and Hinata still helping to support him, he still didn't even have the strength to stand. Most of the others were hardly in better shape and Kakashi-sensei was still unconscious.

Sakura left Hinata to hold up Naruto on her own and knocked on the huge double door. After a brief whispered conversation through the hatch that snapped open at eye level, the doors slowly groaned open and their group surged through into the fortress with renewed enthusiasm at finally reaching the security of home ground. A few minutes later, the nine of them had made their way down the winding steps leading from the entrance passage to the grounds of the fortress.

"So, uh, now what do we do?" Keiji wondered out loud to no-one in particular. He prodded Kakashi-sensei gently in the ribs and observed the lack of any kind of reaction. "Looks like Kakashi-sensei is still out, so I guess we need to take him to the hospital. What about the rest of us?"

Tetsuro gave Mika a meaningful look and the petite kunoichi shrugged resignedly. "Mika still needs someone to have a look at her head wound, at least," he stated. "And Uzumaki-kun should get himself some treatment as well. Hell, I've got a few cuts that could do with a bandage myself."

"Hey, shouldn't we go tell Iruka-sensei that we're back first?" Naruto protested. "I'm fine now! You don't need to worry about me!" To illustrate his point he gently disengaged himself from Hinata's supporting arm, forced himself to stand upright on his own two feet, and tumbled to the ground in a boneless heap.

Tetsuro looked on bemusedly as Hinata worriedly dropped to her knees beside Naruto and helped him sit up again, while Mika suppressed a giggle. "You're not looking so fine to me, Uzumaki-kun," the older teen observed. "No need to be stoic, just come along to the hospital with the rest of us. It's OK for us to take it easy now we're home free."

"I'll go report to Iruka-sensei for everyone," Sakura offered. "I'm sure he'll come to meet you there. Hinata and Hanabi-chan should probably come with me-" She stopped as she saw the way Hinata's face fell and hastily backpedalled. "...or they could go with you too just in case, get themselves looked at as well. They've been through a lot, after all."

"OK, that's all well and good for you guys," a tired voice broke in. "But what about me?" Temari tapped the metal plate over her eyes meaningfully. "Can I take this stupid thing off yet? Today hasn't exactly been a barrel of laughs for me either and I need a break."

The assembled Konoha genin looked at each other. Sakura shrugged and put a guiding hand on the blindfolded Suna-nin's shoulder, steering her towards the headquarters entrance. "Just a bit longer. I'll take you to Iruka-sensei and see what he has to say." She looked back over her shoulder at the others. "I'll sign everyone in at the registration board while I'm there." A grin crept onto her face. "It's going to be real satisfying to change Hinata's status from 'killed in action' to 'home and safe'."

The grin was infectious; it spread around the entire group (apart from Temari) until even the stoic Hanabi had a shy smile on her face. The one that split Naruto's face as Hinata helped pull him up to his feet again was downright ferocious. "We really did it, didn't we? We took on Sound and kicked their asses!"

oooOOOooo

Umino Iruka barely managed to catch himself before his chin slipped off his hand and banged against the tabletop and shook his head to clear the cotton wool from it. He realised he'd been staring at the same piece of paperwork for the last three hours, ever since Inuzuka Hana had returned and delivered her report on the last known status of Team 7. While Iruka had been encouraged to hear that the team had, against all odds, completed their primary goal of rescuing the captured civilians, the fact that the last thing Hana knew was that Sakura was still waiting for the others who were fighting an indeterminate number of enemies within the Sound base was far from reassuring, and Iruka had been sitting up all night, waiting for the wayward team to return. Despite drinking his way through several cups of coffee, fatigue was starting to get the better of him, but even if it would be better for him to turn in for the night he didn't think he could bear going to sleep without finding out what had happened to them first. On the other side of the room, Shikamaru was stretched out over the small desk he'd been working at, snoring his head off, but Iruka was pretty certain he'd dozed off hours ago. He didn't have the heart to chastise him, though, no matter how much the boy's slackness had frustrated him during his time at the academy- they were all being run ragged by recent events and Shikamaru and his team had come back late from escorting a group of civilian refugees to Otafuku Gai, only for the young man to immediately be drafted into helping Iruka with the almost overwhelming task of planning the next day's evacuations as well.

"Iruka-sensei!"

The voice made Iruka jolt upright in his chair like he'd been jabbed with a pin. He recognised that voice, knew it from years of calling out the correct answers to his questions at the academy. That was Sakura, which meant that Team 7 was back! His pulse quickened. Team 7... or at least what was left of it.

To Iruka's surprise, the girl who appeared at the door of the room was not Haruno Sakura. The surprise lasted only a second though, as the pink-haired kunoichi appeared right behind the first girl, steering her by the shoulder to compensate for the improvised blindfold she was wearing. The chuunin's eyes widened as he recognised the symbol on the forehead protector. "Sakura, who is...?" he started, confused. "Wait... she looks kind of-"

"Oh for crying out loud!" the Suna kunoichi groused loudly, reaching up and tearing her forehead protector up off her eyes. "I can't stand this any longer!" Completely ignoring the flabbergasted Iruka, the girl dexterously undid the knot that had been holding the headband tight to her face and retied it loosely around her neck.

Iruka's expression darkened. "Sakura, who is this? A prisoner?"

Sakura rubbed the back of her head awkwardly. "Eh heh, well, uh, I didn't get the entire story, but I think Naruto rescued her from the Sound base along with Hinata and her little sister. So I think Kakashi-sensei said she's sort of... in protective custody, or something?" She glanced helplessly across at the other girl, who rolled her teal-coloured eyes.

"Yeah, whatever, I'll take what I can get," she sighed resignedly. "I know we were fighting each other only a few days ago, but I'd still prefer to be your prisoner of war than stuck with that sick, backstabbing freak Orochimaru."

Iruka frowned. "Oh, now I remember you," he said. "You were on the Sand team during the Chuunin exams."

The blonde girl nodded reluctantly. "Yeah. I'm Temari of Suna, the Kazekage's daughter. And if you're thinking of using me as a hostage against my father, I should let you know that he's not known to be overly sentimental, even with family." She thought for a moment. "Especially not with family, actually."

Iruka gave her a cool stare. "Alright then, I'll deal with you in a minute." He turned back to the other girl. "Sakura, give me the short version. Did you say Naruto rescued Hinata and her sister?"

Sakura nodded enthusiastically. "The short version? Absolute success! Everyone got out alive- as well as the civilians that Hana-san brought back earlier we freed Hinata, Hanabi-chan, Temari-san, two other captured genin of ours and a bunch of foreign ninja. We delayed any pursuit by collapsing the entrance of the Sound base behind us. And according to Keiji-kun, he and Kakashi-sensei were almost able to kill Orochimaru!"

Iruka's jaw dropped. Orochimaru?! He'd assumed the team had simply managed to avoid the renegade master of Oto altogether, but to not only take him on and survive but beat him?! That was almost inconceivable. Despite pulling himself back together, he could barely keep a goofy grin off his face as he finished the debriefing. "Were there any injuries?"

"Well..." The young kunoichi squirmed uncomfortably for a moment. "Mika-san -ah, she's one of the genin we freed, sensei- Mika-san has a mild head wound, but she's more or less fine. Kakashi-sensei is down and out with severe chakra exhaustion, I'm afraid." Iruka cursed under his breath; if Kakashi was unconscious then he wouldn't be able to relinquish command of the Fortress until he woke up, unless Jiraiya-sama returned first. After a momentary hesitation, Sakura continued. "And Naruto got pretty badly beaten up by Orochimaru-" The chuunin's breath caught in his throat and she hurriedly carried on, "-but he's fine, he'll be fine, he's awake and mostly OK already, probably because of..." Her voice trailed off.

Iruka waited to see if she was going to continue, but the girl had fallen silent. He nodded and turned back to their new captive. "Alright then. Temari-san, for the time being we'll be keeping you here until we can clarify the situation with your village. We won't harm you or allow you to come to harm, on the understanding that you don't try to escape. So unless you can help us simplify the process by explaining why Suna turned on Oto and what their plans for us are now, we'll have to keep you confined until the envoy we sent to your village returns."

From the blonde girl's baffled expression, Iruka could immediately tell that she wouldn't be much help. "Wait... we turned on Oto? I thought that bastard Orochimaru was the one who betrayed us! We didn't have any plans to fight with Sound, at least not as far as I knew."

Staring intently into the girl's face, Iruka got the feeling that either she was telling the truth or she was a much better liar than he was able to detect. Shrugging he turned and walked over to the desk placed against the far wall and its slumbering occupant. "Alright then. For now I'll have Shikamaru here take you to a room and arrange for a guard." Shaking the sleeping boy by the shoulder, he called out to him in a low voice. "Shikamaru. Shikamaru, wake up."

Behind him, the Sand-nin's eyes narrowed and she scowled. "Oh. Him."

Stirring reluctantly back to wakefulness, the spiky-haired genin stretched and blinked. "Eh? Wh-ahhhhhh..." A yawn stretched his mouth wide. "...aaah. What's up, Iruka-sensei?"

The older man pointed back towards their captive. "I need you to take this girl and find a secure room to keep her in. For the time being she's provisionally a prisoner, so we need to keep her under guard, but she's to be treated well, understand?"

Rising from his chair, Shikamaru looked back at where his old teacher was indicating. "A prisoner? Who could that-?" His brown eyes widened in surprise then, like Temari's had a moment earlier, narrowed again. "Oh. Her."

oooOOOooo

To Iruka's vast relief, with the aid of the medic-nin it only took until the next morning for Hatake Kakashi to wake from his coma. Even though he had to use a crutch to get around the grounds of the Fortress, the jounin relieved Iruka of the burden of command and took over the position again himself. But Kakashi always felt uncomfortable in the leadership role for anything larger than a single combat team, and quietly prayed for Jiraiya to return, with or without Tsunade, a soon as possible.

So it was to Kakashi's even vaster relief, not to mention astonishment, that the Toad Sage returned after lunchtime that same day, barely a day and a half after he'd departed. With, to his even greater surprise, the renegade Slug Princess of Konoha in tow.

The silver-haired jounin hurried out of the office, where he'd been eating a late lunch, as soon as the news arrived. Moving as fast as he could on his crutch, he spotted the two legendary shinobi just as they reached the bottom of the steps. There were actually three of them; four if you counted the pig. Kakashi vaguely remembered Shizune - the girl was only about half a year older than him and had been in the class above him at the academy during his first year, but had left Konoha with Tsunade when she'd 'resigned' near the end of the Second Great Shinobi War. He didn't recognise the pig. Jiraiya looked relieved but still had a vaguely harried look about him, while the enormously busty woman beside him was looking around herself with studied disinterest, like a bored tourist. As he limped over to meet them, Jiraiya's cheerful wave faltered and Tsunade raised an eyebrow at the sight of the Copy-Ninja hobbling across the fortress grounds like a cripple. Kakashi was painfully aware that he had a lot of explaining to do- after all, he shouldn't even have left the Fortress after Jiraiya had placed him in command, let alone got himself caught in a fight to the finish against the third member of the Legendary Sannin.

"Ah, Kakashi!" the Toad Sage greeted him, a note of unease in his otherwise cheerful tone. "Is everything all right here? You're not looking too good at the moment." Aside from the prop the Copy-Ninja needed to keep himself upright and moving, his right forearm and the fingers of his left hand were wrapped in bandages where he'd been cut by the Sword of Kusanagi and there were even more injuries concealed beneath his clothes.

Kakashi shrugged dismissively. "Oh, everything's fine, Jiraiya-sama. I'll fill you in on what happened later, but everything's hunky-dory here at the moment." He raised his single uncovered eyebrow. "I should be asking you what happened. You said you were expecting it to take weeks to find Tsunade and return with her, if not over a month. Were you just being melodramatic, or did you encounter a helpful fortune teller on your way?"

Jiraiya grinned broadly. "Well, it was the most amazing luck, but believe it or not I actually ran into Tsunade and Shizune here right at the first place I looked! I wasn't even searching for her at Sumigawa at the time; I'd only stopped there for dinner last night when the two of them walked right into the same bar behind me." He winked slyly at Kakashi. "Turns out that word of what had happened to Konoha had spread rapidly and our dear princess here had been gripped by a desperate urge to find out if anyone needed-"

"Don't make things up, Jiraiya," a husky female voice cut in sharply. Tsunade was glaring at the two men, her brow furrowed in annoyance. "I just happened to be passing through the area when I had the misfortune of running into you, and I let you browbeat me into coming with you for a while. And don't expect me to hang around for long. I still don't care about Konoha in the least." Behind the busty woman, Kakashi could see a red-faced Shizune bowing repeatedly in silent apology for her master's rudeness and suppressed a smile.

Jiraiya wasn't the least put off by his former teammate's abrasiveness. "Now now, Tsunade, don't be like that," he chuckled, draping a companionable arm across her slender shoulders. "We're all very grateful that you agreed to at least come and have a look at our situation. Would you care to have a drink first before we-ARGH...!"

Kakashi winced in sympathy and Jiraiya's face went pale as Tsunade's hand clamped around his forearm, lifting it forcefully off her. Even though her slender fingers couldn't wrap completely around the big man's thick wrist, Kakashi could almost swear he could hear the bones grinding against each other. "Thank you, Jiraiya," the former princess of Konoha gritted in a voice that could cut glass. "A drink would be lovely after I came all this way." Shizune's frantic bowing increased in speed, her cheeks now positively crimson.

Gingerly massaging his throbbing wrist, Jiraiya managed another weak, rueful smile. "Well... OK then, follow me. There should be a lovely bottle of sake that I left up in the office, unless Kakashi here has already drunk it all." As he walked past Kakashi back towards the headquarters, the Toad Sage shot him a unexpected sharp glance. "And while we're taking a load off our feet, he can explain what he's been getting up to when he shouldn't have been involved in anything more strenuous than some light paperwork while I was away."

Well, this should be interesting, the Copy-nin thought to himself as he fell in behind the two older ninjas next to Shizune and the pig, who respectively gave him a small, sympathetic smile and a reassuring "oink". He didn't know whether Jiraiya would be appalled, impressed, or just plain incredulous when he heard the story of what Team 7 had accomplished in the short period of his absence, but hopefully Tsunade at least would enjoy the tale enough to loosen up a bit, before Jiraiya talked himself into an early grave.

oooOOOooo

Naruto was bored. Bored, bored, bored, bored, bored! He was so bored that he'd been reduced to poking his teeth with his tongue, just counting them to make sure they were all still there. One of them wasn't, and he spent several fruitful hours probing gingerly at the gap it had left behind.

He'd fallen asleep as soon as they'd gotten him into a hospital bed and applied some basic medical ninjutsu to numb the pain from the beating Orochimaru had given him, and hadn't woken up again until the next afternoon, a day and a half later. Although he felt he was strong enough to at least get around unaided again, the medic-nin attending to him had scolded him into staying in bed. None of the other three ninja in the small, windowless stone room they were using as a ward were inclined to talk to him, which was fair enough considering their injuries (one of them even appeared to be in an induced coma), so after a rather dull dinner he'd eventually gone back to sleep again. The next day had been more of the same- although his body still ached, he knew he was in good enough condition to be up and about again, but thanks to the overly-fussy ninja nurses he'd remained confined to his bed. Sakura and Keiji had dropped in to see him at lunchtime and, to his surprise, Hinata had also come to visit (although they'd only made a few minutes of awkward small talk before she'd made her apologies and left), but apart from that nothing had happened at all.

Ugh, he was so BOOOOOOOOORED!

On the morning of the third day, as he was playing Cat's Cradle with a spare length of IV piping he'd tied into a loop, he had a new visitor. A tall, blonde woman with the largest chest he'd ever seen strode into the ward like she owned the place and marched imperiously over to his bedside. Without so much as an introduction, she placed a glowing green hand on his chest and Naruto felt the familiar tingle of a diagnosis jutsu as the woman scanned him for injuries. Lifting her hand from his body, she fixed him with a glare. "How are you feeling?"

Naruto blinked, feeling a little left behind. "Huh? Uh, I'm fine, absolutely fine! I could go a dozen rounds with a-"

"Good, then get out," the woman cut him off sharply. "I don't have any more time to waste on people who feel fine." Turning on her heel, she strode over to the comatose ninja without another word. Naruto stared at her back, slack-jawed. He was about to throw out a biting comeback when it sank in that this was what he'd been waiting two days for. In less than five seconds he'd leaped out of the bed, pulled on his tattered jacket, shoved his feet into his sandals and rushed out of the ward.

The instant he pushed through the obscuring curtain that covered the doorway, he smacked face-first into an unexpected solid object and almost fell flat on his butt as he bounced off it. Rubbing his sore nose, he looked up and saw the pervert hermit staring down at him with bemusement; the man had abs of solid rock. "What are you doing here, per-Jiraiya-sama?" he asked, barely catching himself short of another gaffe.

The big man grinned. "Just coming to pick you up, m'boy. I had a feeling you'd be discharged today, one way or another." He turned and marched off down the stone corridor, the young genin hurrying to keep up. "So, what did you think of her?"

The boy's forehead furrowed in confusion at the sight of Jiraiya's grin. Her? "What, the new doctor? Well she doesn't have much of a bedside manner..." Why would the pervert hermit care what he thought of the... oh. The memory of the woman's intimidating rack loomed in his mind and Naruto rolled his eyes. He should have known. "You really are a pervert aren't you, Jiraiya-sama." He couldn't keep the sarcasm out of the honorific, but to hell with the niceties.

If anything, the sage's grin only widened and he gave Naruto a sly wink. "Oh yes, they are very nice aren't they? I'm sure Tsunade will be happy to know you think so, she puts a lot of effort into maintaining her appearance."

Naruto blinked several times before the penny dropped along with his jaw. "Wait... that was... Tsunade...?" The old sage's teammate, student of the Third Hokage? "But... but... she can't be more than thirty!"

"As a shinobi, you should know better than put stock in a person's appearance, boy," the older man snorted. "Tsunade uses a powerful, permanent genjutsu to appear twenty years younger than her actual age. I could probably do the same if I wanted to, but-" He flashed another cocky grin. "-I know I'm still just as attractive as ever. Ladies love the silver foxes, don't you know?" Ignoring Naruto's baffled expression, he continued talking as the two of them exited the hospital complex through the cave mouth, Naruto blinking as he stepped back out into the sunshine for the first time in days. "You shouldn't judge people by what they look like. What impression did you get when you saw Orochimaru, for example?"

Naruto shuddered. "Pure evil."

There was a long, heavy break in the conversation as the two crossed the basin of the caldera. Eventually Jiraiya broke the silence. "Well... I wish I could say you were wrong again, boy, but honestly..." His voice trailed off sadly and Naruto couldn't help but notice a certain note of longing wistfulness in the old man's words. Collecting himself, the toad sage shook his head, as if trying to dislodge a fly that had perched on his nose. "Anyway, I still have to ask you, what the hell were you thinking when you took him on like that?"

Naruto winced at the scolding. He should have seen this coming. "Well... what was I thinking? I just..." He spent a few seconds looking for an explanation that might let him avoid the oncoming lecture, but then just gave up and answered honestly. "I just wanted to protect the others. Any way I could, for as long as possible. That's all."

Jiraiya stopped still and Naruto looked at him curiously. Suddenly he spun to face the boy, that brilliant smile split the famous shinobi's face again and he gave Naruto an enthusiastic thumbs-up. "Right! And since it all worked out for the best, I'm allowed to say that what you did was really cool!" He patted Naruto on the shoulder and resumed walking, almost leaving the flabbergasted genin behind. "Just try not to make a habit of challenging S-ranked ranked missing-nin until you've gotten a few more years experience under your belt. I think you and I are going to get along a lot better than I first thought, m'boy!"

Dumbfounded, Naruto could only nod in mute agreement.

oooOOOooo

Might Guy and his two remaining students returned late in the afternoon that same day. They'd clearly been moving flat out with minimal rest, as even the eternally energetic Guy and Rock Lee were both dripping sweat and completely out of breath, while a near-unconscious Tenten was being carried on Lee's back like a sack of potatoes. Amazingly, they'd made the six-day round trip to Suna and back in barely four and a half days.

While Lee took Tenten somewhere they could both rest, Guy insisted on staggering up to the headquarters to deliver his report immediately. Jiraiya and Kakashi met him in the room they'd dubbed 'Central Command' and helped the sweating jounin into a chair in front of the commander's desk. "Sit down and relax for a bit, Guy," Jiraiya advised him. "We're all glad to see you made it back so quickly, but I'd like to wait a few minutes before you deliver your report anyway, there's someone else I want present to hear it." The mighty green beast of Konoha wiped his brow and gratefully accepted the steaming cup of green tea Kakashi offered him, sipping from it steadily as Jiraiya continued. "By the way, I do have some good news for you, Guy. As a result of some rather interesting events that I'll fill you in on in more detail later, we recovered several prisoners from Orochimaru's forces. Kakashi and I have decided, with your agreement, to assign one of them to fill the empty spot on your team- Hyuuga Hinata." Guy raised an impressively thick eyebrow in surprise. "Her former sensei -you know Kurenai-chan, of course- has given us her approval since the girl's team is effectively defunct."

Guy swallowed a mouthful of tea and nodded thoughtfully. "Yes, I know the girl. Unfortunately she was matched against my poor Neji during the Chuunin Exam preliminaries and chose to yield rather than fight him. A somewhat sad child, I must say." He sniffed and his voice began to choke up. "While she could never replace Neji in the hearts of his teammates, the similarity between their abilities means she should hopefully be able to integrate well with them. I hope I can help her stoke the fires of her youth to become as strong as he was." Shaking his head as if trying to dislodge his funk, the jounin finished draining his cup and smacked his lips appreciatively. "Phew! Thanks, Kakashi, I needed that!" He set the cup down on the table beside him and leaned forward. "Anyway, since you're back already, Jiraiya-sama, should I assume that it's Tsunade-sama you're waiting for?"

Jiraiya sighed. "Sadly, no. I mean yes, I did return because I found her a lot quicker than expected, but she's refusing to have anything to do with our problems beyond lending her medical talents to the hospital- at least for now." He scratched the back of his head ruefully. "She's still the best medical ninja in the world and we need her help too much right now. If I badger her into trying to help out with our other problems, she'll probably just leave. She still hasn't gotten over the losses that drove her to leave Konoha in the first place and it's only thanks to Shizune that she's even agreed to do as much as she has."

"So who is it you're waiting for?" Guy asked curiously. Jiraiya simply held up a hand as the sound of two pairs of sandals echoed into Central Command from outside the room.

"Nara Shikamaru reporting, bringing the prisoner Temari of Suna as requested," the young man said as he pushed the curtain over the doorway aside and entered the chamber, the blonde-haired girl a step behind him. Guy glanced with Kakashi, raising a thick eyebrow inquisitively, but his rival just shrugged his shoulders and shook his head slightly. I'll tell you later. Jiraiya gestured to another chair next to the one Guy was seated in and the kunoichi walked stiffly over to take it, sitting with her back ramrod straight and staring directly ahead, as if bracing herself for her overdue interrogation.

"Thank you Shikamaru," the sage said, "you can go now. Or stay if you like, we don't mind either way." The spiky-haired genin shrugged and moved over to stand off to the side, leaning against the wall with his hands folded behind his head. Jiraiya sat down behind the desk and, lacing his fingers together, peered over the top of them at Guy, who had by now fully recovered his breath. "Very well then, Guy, if you could deliver your report. How do we stand with Suna? Did you manage to speak to the Kazekage"

Temari cast a sharp glance sideways at the jounin at the mention of her home, as well as her leader and father. Guy shook his head. "Actually, Jiraiya-sama, that wasn't possible. As it turned out, the Kazekage is dead, you see."

All three of the other Konoha shinobi sucked in sharp breaths of shock and a stifled shriek slipped past Temari's lips and she clapped her hands over her mouth, her eyes widening in horror. Guy gave her a brief surprised look. "Oh... I'm sorry to spring that on you so suddenly, since he would have been your-"

"He was her father, Guy," Jiraiya cut him off tiredly. "Just carry on. Did they tell you how he died?"

Guy nodded. "They're quite certain Orochimaru murdered him, and it happened before the attack on Konoha. There seems to be a bit of confusion as to whether the Kazekage ever actually approved of the attack on Konoha in the first place or whether it was Orochimaru all along-"

"It wasn't." All four of the Konoha ninja turned to look at Temari as she interrupted, her voice shaky but measured. "Orochimaru was in Konoha during the second exam, which is when our sensei told us about the plan. There's no way he could have been impersonating my father at that time."

Kakashi raised a questioning eyebrow. "Really? Are you sure you should be telling us that, Temari-san? Might it not have been in your village's best interests for us to go on believing there was at least a possibility that you were all tricked into betraying us from the start?"

"I don't care," the girl answered wearily. "I'm sick of the lies, the deceit, the treachery. It was because my father stupidly agreed to this conspiracy with Orochimaru that he's dead now." She shrugged. "Besides, cooperating with Orochimaru was his decision and he paid for it. The rest of us were just obeying our orders. And anyway, I owe you people my life for saving me from that snake-bastard."

Jiraiya nodded thoughtfully for a second before turning back to Guy. "Continue please, Guy."

The jounin nodded as well. "The Kazekage's body was discovered by chance outside the village, around about the time the attack began. Once they realised Orochimaru had betrayed them, Suna sent an urgent message to their forces at Konoha warning them of his treachery, which arrived part-way through the battle. The jounin Baki, in command of Suna's forces, ordered them to immediately turn on the Sound, as we observed."

"I didn't get to hear about that," Temari put in. "It would've been filtering through our ranks by word of mouth and the Sound-nin around me must have heard about our ninja turning on them before I did. It was a real mess."

"In any event," Guy continued, "the Sand forces drove the Sound off, although their casualties were a lot worse than they'd planned. They returned to Suna in relatively good order once their sand-monster had calmed down and returned to his normal form. Suna doesn't have any more hostile intentions towards us at the moment- if anything, they're somewhat embarrassed by the whole affair and would sooner just sweep it under the carpet. Unfortunately for them, they have a new problem now." Jiraiya and Kakashi leaned closer, Temari lifted her head to stare intently at Guy, and even Shikamaru pushed himself upright from his position lounging against the wall. "Their sand-monster shinobi -Gaara of the Sand- has slipped beyond their control in the wake of the destruction of Konoha. Previously it was only the Kazekage who was able to keep him in check and direct him, but since the discovery that the Kazekage is dead he's been uncontrollable. Now he's demanding that Suna begin a new campaign against another village -any village, he doesn't care which- so he can continue to sate his bloodlust. If they don't, he's threatening to take it out on them instead." Guy shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "The day before my team arrived, he told them he'd give them one week before he ran out of patience. Suna's council of jounin were willing to admit to me that they think Suna's remaining forces might be able to defeat him if it came to that, but not only are they not entirely sure, doing so would effectively destroy the village."

A shocked silence fell across the room as everyone digested Guy's words. Shikamaru visibly shuddered at the memory of the terrifying sand-demon and the thought of what it might do, and Jiraiya looked deeply concerned. Temari's face was a mask of horror.

Eventually, Guy broke the silence again. "Regarding where they stand with us, we aren't really in a position to demand reparations from Suna since, even with the losses they took, they're still far more powerful than us. We are technically a defeated enemy. However, Baki did make a suggestion to me as we were about to leave. He said that if we could find any way for them to deal with Gaara, they'd be extremely grateful to us."

Jiraiya sat back in his chair and stroked his chin. "'Deal with Gaara', huh? I wonder what he might have been thinking? I'd probably be able to take him myself, if I summoned 'Bunta to help me out if he goes big, but..."

"The village wouldn't like that," Temari put in. "I mean yeah, Gaara is a big problem, but he's still our ultimate weapon. If one of the Legendary Sannin rocked up and killed him? No matter what Baki-sensei said, that'd be seen as an act of war, even in these circumstances. With our father dead, it might even be considered an attempt to conquer Suna, regardless of what you say."

"Yes," Jiraiya sighed, "there is that. But there should be something we can do."

There was a long period of silence before Temari spoke again, audible reluctance in her voice. "Well... I do have an idea," she said. "I know Gaara better than anyone- he is my youngest brother, after all." She shifted uncomfortably in her chair. "Because of the monster inside him, as well as... how he grew up, Gaara believes that power, particularly the power to kill, is the only thing that matters in the world. He thinks that the Shukaku of the Sand sealed within him makes him the strongest, even though he knows he's still only growing into his power. Consequently, he doesn't just think that he can kill whenever he wants, he feels he has to. But while Gaara's crazy, he's no fool. Even if he was defeated by a veteran ninja like Jiraiya, that wouldn't stop him, not unless you killed him. He'd just swear to come back and kill you when he was older and stronger." She took a deep breath. "But what if he was matched by something like him, an equal, someone with a reason to want to fight him? Jiraiya-sama, I would like to request you to dispatch Konoha's demon weapon to challenge Gaara."

The air in the room froze. No-one moved. Suddenly Kakashi spun sharply around. "Shikamaru!" he snapped. "You're dismissed! Now!" The boy jumped in shock and rushed out of the room, vanishing down the stairs. Once his footsteps had died away, the jounin turned back to Temari. "Temari-san, Naruto's identity is not a matter of open discussion among us. Please don't mention it so freely in front of other Konoha ninja again."

Jiraiya tapped his finger thoughtfully against his chin, while the girl just looked bewildered. "Hmm... Naruto, huh? I suppose it's true that the Kyuubi at least would easily be a match for the Shukaku. But I don't like it, the boy isn't a 'weapon'. And anyway, it's not Kyuubi versus Shukaku we need to worry about, it's Naruto versus Gaara. To be honest, I don't know if his control over the fox is good enough to let him match your brother."

The kunoichi's face fell. "You're right, I guess. I saw the state he was in after he fought Orochimaru, it was naive of me to think he'd be in any condition to fight Gaara after what he went though."

"Well that's not a problem, anyway," Kakashi corrected her. "Naruto's up on his feet and nearly as good as new already." As she blinked in surprise, he turned to Jiraiya. "I don't like the idea of Naruto fighting the thing that destroyed Konoha any more than you do, Jiraiya-sama- but he already fought with Orochimaru and came out alive." He nodded in Temari's direction. "I think she may be right, and if we can get Suna in debt to us, it'd go a long way towards helping secure our position. Rather than theorising about what Naruto can and can't do, I think we need to ask him what he thinks."

The two men's gazes locked for several tense moments before Jiraiya finally gave a short nod. "Very well then. I'll leave that to you, Kakashi."

oooOOOooo

"So you have an incredibly powerful demon sealed inside of yourself, Naruto-kun?!" Keiji's already oversized eyes were as big as saucers and his ramen was going cold on the bench beside him as he stared at his teammate in amazement. Naruto found himself surprised at Keiji's reaction to his confession, almost unnerved. He'd been expecting shock, horror, maybe even disgust (although he knew Keiji well enough by now that he'd have been terribly disappointed if the boy turned on him so suddenly after all they'd been through together) but the older genin seemed almost impressed to hear that his teammate had the most notorious and terrifying monster in recorded history sealed inside his stomach.

"Um, yeah..." he admitted. "The 4th Hokage sealed it inside me just after I was born because he couldn't destroy it." Naruto shifted uncomfortably on the bench. "Nobody in our generation knew because the 3rd Hokage ordered that it be kept a secret, but since Sakura-chan found out I thought it was only fair to tell you as well." He picked up his own mostly-finished bowl and fished around the bottom with his chopsticks for a stray bamboo shoot. "Um... did your parents-" He barely caught himself in time, remembering that Keiji's mother had died when he'd been a baby. "I mean, did your father ever tell you to stay away from me? A lot of kids' parents apparently did, even though they couldn't say why."

Keiji shook his head with a rueful smile. "He wouldn't have known, not if the 3rd Hokage forbade discussing it. I thought I told you, Naruto-kun, I wasn't born in Konoha. My father and I moved there when I was five."

Naruto blinked in surprise. "Huh? Uh, no, you'd never mentioned that before." He racked his brains for a moment, remembering a variety of past conversations the two of them had shared before. "Well, I'm pretty sure you didn't anyway." That certainly explained why his new teammate had never shown any antipathy towards him from the moment they'd met, and a faint smile crept across his face.

Keiji picked up his bowl again and scooped up some noodles. "So, that's how you were able to hold off Orochimaru, huh?" He chewed and swallowed before continuing. "And is that what I caught a glimpse of in Hosokusa as well?" Naruto nodded silently as he picked out the last scrap of shiitake and popped it into his mouth. "Wow, that's... amazing!"

"You... think so?" Naruto's mouth dropped open in surprise. Keiji's eyes were shining with excitement.

"I know so! You've already saved our lives twice thanks to it, haven't you?" Naruto nodded and his teammate grinned. "So I don't see the problem. Why would I hate you for having the power to save my life?"

Naruto bit his lip. "Well, if your family didn't live in Konoha when the Kyuubi attacked then obviously you wouldn't." Just because it was a rhetorical question didn't mean there wasn't an answer. "But until Orochimaru destroyed it, the Kyuubi attack was the worst thing ever to happen to the village. Hundreds of people died, including the 4th Hokage when he sealed the fox in me. A lot of people couldn't forget that and that made them afraid of me, or hate me."

The other boy snorted. "Well that was stupid of them!" He put a comforting hand on his teammate's shoulder. "Thanks for telling me about this, Naruto-kun. I can tell this means a lot to you and it's better now I know about it too."

Naruto smiled warmly. Terrified as he'd been of how his peers would react if they ever found out his secret, Keiji hadn't let him down. "Thanks, Keiji." Picking up his bowl, he drained the broth from it in one long swig and gave a satisfied sigh. "Man, nothing tastes as good as Ichiraku ramen shared with friends, huh?"

His teammate nodded, but before he could say anything his eyes widened as he saw something over Naruto's shoulder. "Oh, Kakashi-sensei! What's up?"

The two genin rose to their feet as their teacher strolled up behind them and he flapped his hand dismissively at them. "It's OK boys, stay seated. Naruto, I need to talk to you for a minute." Keiji hesitated and Kakashi shook his head. "No, it's OK Keiji, you don't have to go this time. In fact, this concerns you as well." The boys resumed their seat on the bench and Kakashi lowered himself down beside Naruto. There was a short moment of silence before the jounin took a deep breath. "Naruto... we might have a mission for you."

oooOOOooo

Jiraiya sat behind the desk in Central Command, brooding. After Kakashi had informed Naruto of Suna's offer and Temari's suggestion, the boy had -not unreasonably but, he had to admit, quite surprisingly- asked for some time to think about it, so his teacher had told him to make up his mind by the next morning and come to Central Command to tell Jiraiya his decision then. The sun had fallen and risen again since then and Jiraiya was contemplating the brown ring around the bottom of his coffee mug, trying to work out what answer he was hoping for.

Dammit, he wished Tsunade would stop being so standoffish and take over this damn leadership role already. She was always better suited to it than him anyway.

Still, for the time being the responsibility had fallen on him, and he wasn't about to buckle under the weight. He, Kakashi and Guy had already discussed what the plan would be if Naruto agreed to meet with Gaara before the ever-youthful but still dog-tired jounin had retired for some well-earned sleep- sleep he would desperately need if their plans went into effect. Despite having run his team ragged for four days almost without pause, Guy had still volunteered them to accompany Jiraiya and Team 7 to Suna again. While Jiraiya had no doubt Guy and his enthusiastic young protégé would be up to it after a good night's rest, and his newest student would still be fresh enough to handle the trip with no problems, he privately worried that Tenten would try to strangle her teacher with a coil of piano wire when she heard the news. They didn't have a piano anywhere in the fortress, but knowing the plucky young girl she'd probably put in the extra effort to find one.

Ashamed as he was to admit it, he couldn't help being intrigued by the possibilities of this mission. He'd seen the Shukaku of the Sand in action when he'd arrived to relieve the hard-pressed defenders during the fall of Konoha and, despite everything, he'd been impressed. He'd managed to keep it contained while he faced Orochimaru by sending Gamahiro to fight it and summoning Gamaken to back him up, preferring to keep 'Bunta in reserve in case Orochimaru had in turn called on Manda, but the two giant toads had faced a very stiff fight which had still been going on when the withdrawal to the fortress had begun. While he had been far way from Konoha at the time that the Nine-Tailed Fox had attacked it nearly thirteen years ago -still his second-greatest regret after his failure to stop Orochimaru's original betrayal- he was also fully aware of the extent of its power as well. The thought of seeing the two demon-beasts facing each other was exciting and if it wasn't for the fact that one of them was occupying the body of his own dear protégé's son, he'd be looking forward to witnessing it.

Jiraiya sighed and picked up his mug, wondering if he should have another coffee. No, irrespective of his interest in seeing the two powers clash, he knew he didn't want to see Naruto risk his life in a needless battle. But to be honest, their need was greater than he'd initially thought. While they'd managed to evacuate most of the excess civilian survivors of Konoha to the surrounding villages and get the population of the Fortress of the Senju down to a comfortable and sustainable number, they still needed to bring in more food and supplies to sustain those who remained. And unless they started raiding the very towns they'd been evacuating their people to for food, that would cost money. Almost everything had been lost in the destruction of Konoha, and until the survivors could fully reestablish themselves, resuming business as the foremost shinobi village in the Land of Fire was an impossibility. Putting Suna in their debt, possibly even getting them to pay compensation for their actions, would go a long way towards securing their position.

The Toad Sage's thoughts were interrupted as his finely-trained ears detected the sound of sandals on the stone beyond the curtain hanging across the doorway of Central Command- one adult and one child. He rose from his chair as Kakashi entered with Naruto right behind him and walked around the desk to meet them.

As soon as Naruto stopped next to his teacher and lifted his head to meet Jiraiya's face, the Sage knew what was coming. The boy's face was pale, but his expression was fixed in one of firm resolve.

Jiraiya sighed inwardly and begged Minato to forgive him yet again.

oooOOOooo

As expected, Tenten nearly flipped her lid when informed her team was being sent right back to Suna again less than a day after she'd just returned from it. Unfortunately her furious arguments that she was far too tired to make the trip for a third time in a row were fatally undermined by the far-too-energetic way she grabbed Lee by the collar and shook him like a rag doll when he had made the mistake of being too cheerful while delivering their orders, and she submitted sulkily when she was assured that they would absolutely not be going at the same flat-out pace that Guy had driven them at for the first two trips.

So Kakashi and Guy, their six genin and Temari waited at the entrance to the fortress for Jiraiya as soon as they were ready. Jiraiya had decided that, although she could possibly be kept as a hostage to help ensure their peoples' safety while in the Wind Country, it would be wiser for them to repatriate the late Kazekage's daughter back to her village, as a sign of good faith. Hinata looked nervous but quietly excited standing beside her new teammates. Lee looked eager to depart, as always, and even Tenten merely looked a bit sour. Guy had, with Naruto's agreement, officially informed them of the reason for this mission, although Hinata had already been aware of it, but fortunately neither of his two original students had expressed any doubts on hearing that one of their companions was carrying a powerful demon within him. In fact, Tenten had seemed to relish the idea of unleashing such a monster on the enemy who had destroyed their home, regardless of the reason.

However, before the two teams could leave they had to wait for Jiraiya, who was currently involved in some dangerous business on the other side of the Fortress.

"You cannot be serious!" Tsunade shouted, her face red with fury as she advanced threateningly on her old teammate. "There's no way you can leave Shizune in charge here while you go gallivanting off again for who knows how long! I won't stand for it!"

The big man took a half-step backwards as the angry blonde approached, but managed to keep his expression calm and his voice level. "And why can't I? I already asked her if she'd be willing to do so and she agreed." Tsunade turned and glared at her protégé and the younger woman winced apologetically. "Her abilities are easily equivalent to those of a jounin. Don't you think she's capable of looking after things here for a few days?" Jiraiya continued.

Tsunade momentarily bit her lip, but then her scowl returned. "But she's not one of you, you blathering fool!" she snapped. "Or have you forgotten that her and I both left Konoha back when she was still a child? I'm only here under sufferance. If Shizune hadn't asked to see if we could lend you a hand, I wouldn't be here right now!"

The scowl was wiped off her face as Jiraiya unexpectedly narrowed his eyes and nailed her with the hardest glare she could ever remember seeing on his amiable face. "Tsunade," he asked bitingly, "let me ask you something. Shizune has been following you faithfully around for more than twenty years now. Twenty years during which you traded your reputation as the world's greatest medic-nin for one as the world's greatest sucker. The two of you even sat out the entire Third Shinobi War together. Now, how many times in all that time have you done what she wanted to do, hmm?"

The blonde shrank back before the cutting accusation, averting her eyes from her old teammate's face. "That's not fair, Jiraiya," she said softly, staring at the floor. "Using Shizune against me like that. Using her to bring me here, using her to keep me here." Well she wasn't wrong there. Jiraiya knew full well that Tsunade's protégé, the niece of her long-dead fiancé, was her greatest weak point, even more than the gambling addiction and the haemophilia. "That's... almost cruel of you."

Jiraiya's expression softened. "Look, Tsunade," he started gently. "Can't you just think of this as a chance for Shizune to see what she's capable of? I'm sure you've taught her almost everything you know, but what's she doing with all that potential she has, other than babysitting you and Tonton as you wander the earth? I know you don't want to lead Konoha, that's why I didn't even ask you to do this." Not yet anyway. "But enough people know Shizune as your apprentice, she's already done enough good work in the medical wing, that they'll listen to her if I leave her in charge, and I trust her to be able to keep things steady here for the week or so I'll be gone." He smiled slightly. "Come on, don't you at least want to see if she can manage things better than Kakashi-kun? He couldn't even keep charge of things here for two days without running off and getting into a scrap with Orochimaru!"

Shizune giggled and Tsunade rolled her eyes, but the corner of her mouth crooked up almost imperceptibly. "I'll still get you for this, Jiraiya," she threatened him, but there was no malice left in her voice. "Just you see if I don't."

The Toad Sage winked at her. "I'll take my chances."

oooOOOooo

The ten of them stopped at dusk, in the thick woodlands near the border of the Fire Country. While Sakura, Keiji and Guy's team set up camp and Temari stood around awkwardly, uncertain of what she should be doing, Jiraiya, Kakashi and Guy took Naruto aside to try and prepare him for the oncoming battle.

"Gnnnnngh!" Jiraiya ground his teeth in frustration. "Look, brat, it's not THAT difficult! I already showed you how to do it twice." He jerked his thumb backwards over his shoulder at the two brightly-coloured toads, each the size of a bull, lounging idly a short way away from the group, then pointed a condemning finger at the tiny tadpole wriggling helplessly on the ground. "THAT is not going to do you any good in battle against an opponent like the Sand's demon kid!

Naruto scowled. "Look, I did exactly what you said to do! Here, watch again!" He pulled open the small wound he'd bitten on his right thumb to make the blood well up again and smeared it across his fingertips. Boar, dog, bird, monkey, ram. "Kuchiyose no jutsu!" He slammed his bloodied fingers on the ground and there was a small burst of smoke, but when it cleared there was only another tadpole wiggling beside the first.

Jiraiya groaned in irritation. They'd already had to send back a dozen tadpoles already- in fact, this latest one looked kind of familiar. "Look, kid, you don't seem to be getting the point here: to use Kuchiyose to summon anything worthwhile, you need more chakra than your puny body has available on its own. The whole idea of this training is that you need to tap into the Kyuubi's chakra reserve at will to do it."

"I'm trying!" Naruto flared angrily. "But I can't just take the chakra from it as easily as that! I need to open the link to access it freely, and I don't like doing that."

The three jounin exchanged uneasy looks. "Yes, well I guess we can agree with that, Naruto," Kakashi admitted. "It's not safe to have any more dealings with the Kyuubi than strictly necessary."

Jiraiya frowned. "It shouldn't be like that. Once you made contact with the Kyuubi, you should have access to its chakra whenever you call for it without needing to let it into your consciousness." He sighed. "It's probably because of those changes the fox forced you to make to the seal. I guess we'll have to work on it later. At least for now you have the basic technique down."

"Don't worry, Naruto-kun!" Guy reassured him. "I'm sure there are other things we can teach you before we reach Suna!" He gave the boy a brilliant smile and an enthusiastic thumbs-up. "By the time we arrive, we'll have stoked the flames of your youth high enough to take on and defeat any foe!"

With a considerable amount of effort, the other three managed to keep a straight face. "Well then," Jiraiya said, turning back to his new pupil. "If the toads aren't going to work out for now, let's try this." He grinned and held his hand out in front of him, palm upwards and fingers curled slightly inwards. "Watch this boy! I'm going to show you something the 4th Hokage himself came up with!"

oooOOOooo

By the next afternoon, the party had reached the end of the forest and were walking down the long unpaved road that crossed the narrowest part of the Land of Rivers that lay between the lands of Fire and Wind. Although they had run for several miles once the trees had ended, after they'd stopped for a quick lunch they slowed to a walk when Tenten reminded them of Guy's promise that they would not be running all the way to Suna this time. Jiraiya, mindful of what awaited them (or at least Naruto) at the end, was inclined to agree, at least until they had finished digesting their midday meal.

The slower pace gave everyone a chance to relax a little and talk amongst themselves. Lee and Tenten took the opportunity to get to know Hinata, with the more temperate Tenten keeping the enthusiastic Lee from overwhelming their shy new teammate. Naruto enthusiastically filled Sakura and Keiji in about the jutsu the jounin had shown him the night before, jubilantly expounding on what he'd be able do once he'd mastered them himself. Temari walked slightly behind them, apparently keeping to herself but listening in with detached interest.

Bringing up the rear of the party, however, the adults were involved in a much more serious discussion.

"I guess it was foolish to expect him to be able to master it in time," Jiraiya admitted with a shake of his head, keeping his voice low so none of the genin would overhear him. "Only two or three days to master Rasengan? I must have been mad! It took Naruto's father years to develop the technique as far as he did, and he still didn't manage to complete it!" He sighed. "Normally I'd just give him a few hints and let him work the technique out one step at a time, but that would take weeks, at least. Still, even with me directly telling him what he has to do, he's not going to make it before we reach Suna. He barely managed to grasp that he needed to spin the chakra against the direction of his natural flow."

Guy disagreed. "Don't be so down, Jiraiya-sama. I was impressed at his determination to master techniques that are far beyond his level, and I believe that with time he will be able to perfect them! The power of youth courses strongly through him, much as it does through my own student Lee."

Kakashi nodded absently. "Naruto's never been a very good student, but he's always been excellent at improvisation. If you show him a goal, sooner or later he'll find his own way to it somehow. If we had more time, I'm sure he'd be able to make something of Rasengan, even if he doesn't master the technique the same way you have, Jiraiya-sama." He sighed. "But we don't have much more time. We'll be at Suna tomorrow, so tonight is probably our last chance to prepare him to fight Gaara."

"Are you sure you can't teach him to use Raikiri instead?" Guy asked his rival. "Surely he has the chakra for it."

"Absolutely not." Kakashi shook his head regretfully. "Chakra isn't the issue. Raikiri is a completely linear attack, so no-one can use it without a Sharingan to enhance their vision, otherwise they won't be able to see incoming counterattacks. My own master drummed that into my head when I first developed it, and if I hadn't received Obito's Sharingan I would never have completed the jutsu at all." He looked down at the dirt road beneath his sandalled feet. "I'd been... planning on passing it down to Sasuke once I thought he was ready for it, but now I guess that won't ever be happening."

There was a long, heavy silence between the three men, which was finally broken by Jiraiya. "Tell me, Kakashi," he said. "Do you really think Naruto can win?"

The masked jounin cocked his head to the side and gave his superior a funny look. "Of course I think he can win. If I didn't, I wouldn't be allowing this. Is he likely to win?" He tapped one finger thoughtfully against the side of his jaw. "Unlike the two of you, I never got the chance to see Gaara in action. But I have seen Naruto. And if a way to win exists -and I'm convinced it does- then he won't give up until he finds it." He shrugged. "Besides which, he does have the Kyuubi on his side. That has to count for something."

Jiraiya nodded. "OK then. When we stop for the night, we'll see if there's anything else we can teach him to improve his odds. After that, we just have to put our faith in him."

oooOOOooo

"Most of all, watch out when Gaara starts to summon his Shukaku armour. Once it's complete, he can blow it up to the same enormous size he used to destroy Konoha, and then you're just dead. You have to finish him before he pulls it all together." Temari shifted uncomfortably where she sat, uncrossing her legs and recrossing them the other way around. She and Naruto were perched on a low, flat-topped bench-like stone, part way down the side of the rock formation their group had set up camp on for the night, looking out over the night desert.

The group had travelled most of the way into Wind Country that day, leaving the green plains of the Land of Rivers behind for the arid desert. By the time dusk fell Temari estimated they had only about another six hours to go to Suna, so Jiraiya called a halt, planning to finish the journey in the light of the next day. The landscape was dotted with thick, towering platforms of stone, dozens of feet high, many of which had broad, flat tops big enough for all ten of them to camp on and, on Temari's advice, they did so. The elevation would keep them above most of the sand that was carried on the ever-present winds of the night desert, hopefully letting them wake up the next morning without grit in every crevice, as well as protect them from any roaming dangers. Once again the jounin took Naruto aside from the rest of the group for private tuition, but summoning still couldn't produce more than tadpoles (although this time at least one of them had a tiny pair of hind legs), Naruto couldn't stabilise the rotation of his chakra in the palm of his hand enough to form a proper sphere, and Guy's attempt to teach him how to open the first of the Eight Gates went nowhere. As the moon rose higher in the desert sky and Jiraiya reluctantly called a halt to the training session so Naruto could get enough rest, Temari had cautiously approached them and offered to tell Naruto as much as she could about Gaara and how to fight him, so the jounin had left them to it. The two of them had found a place to sit on a small ledge that stuck out of the side of the huge stone pillar just below the top of the platform while Temari talked Naruto through Gaara's abilities.

It had been a harrowing briefing session. Unnerved as he already was by the prospect of fighting Gaara and the stories he had already heard about the destruction of Konoha, hearing Temari describe the flawlessness of her brother's defences and the bloodthirsty remorselessness of his attacks gave Naruto the willies. He'd faced the ice-cold assassin Momochi Zabuza, the mad torturer Wabisuke Ryota and the monstrous, sadistic Orochimaru, but the idea of a boy his own age who lived for nothing but killing chilled him to the bone. Temari was clinical and methodical in her description of Gaara's abilities, but the was an unmissable undercurrent to her words- thought she tried to hide it, she was utterly terrified of her own little brother. She'd talked for almost an hour until the others had all retired to their tents, leaving the two of them as the only ones still awake.

"Anyway, I think that's about all I can tell you," the kunoichi finished. She rose from her seat and stretched, gazing aimlessly up at the moon for a moment, lost in thought. "You know," she said vacantly, "I can't pinpoint why exactly, but I think you really might have a chance of beating Gaara. I've lived in fear of him for half of my life, ever since he first started to kill, but... you rescued me from the deepest dungeon of Orochimaru's base. You even took on Orochimaru and lived, after he'd killed both my father and your Hokage. So, for what it's worth, I think you have a chance. And I'm hoping you win. But..." She hesitated and fidgeted awkwardly for a moment. "I can't help but worry... about Gaara."

Naruto blinked in surprise as she continued. "Gaara... doesn't love me. I can't really say I love him either. He's never thought of me as his sister and I know he'd kill me without a second thought if he had any reason to. But... he's still my little brother. And..." she hesitated again, "...I don't want him to die." She sighed and looked back at Naruto, then hastily backtracked when she saw the expression on his face. "Oh, no, you can't hold anything back against him, anything at all! If you don't give the fight everything you've got, you'll definitely die! I just meant..." She struggled to find the right words for a few awkward moments then gave up with a groan. "Ugh, never mind. Just... just forget I said anything. Do your best, Uzumaki." She turned away, jumped back up onto the top of the stone pillar that was their campsite and vanished from sight, heading back to the two-person tent she was sharing with Sakura for the duration of the trip.

After the Suna kunoichi had departed, Naruto remained seated on his rocky perch, staring out into the moonlit gloom of the desert night. He knew he should join the others in getting some rest in preparation for the next day's trials, but he had a twisting knot writhing in his gut which he doubted would let him sleep. The night breeze blowing across the sands was cold enough to make him shiver, but he still made no move to return to his sleeping bag.

The sound of sandals crunching on stone behind him alerted him to the approach of one of his travelling companions and he looked around, blinking in surprise as Hinata dropped down from the upper platform onto his ledge, the moonlight reflecting from her pale, pupil-less eyes. "Hinata?" he asked. "What are you doing still awake?"

The Hyuuga girl gave him a wan smile. "Oh... hello Naruto-kun. I couldn't sleep, so I thought I'd just look at the stars for a few minutes. Do you mind if I...?"

The boy smiled at her reassuringly. "No, not at all, Hinata. Go ahead." He patted the rock next to him where Temari had been resting, and Hinata lowered herself down to sit beside him, her hands folded demurely on her lap.

For a moment the two young genin just stayed like that, looking out across the barren landscape without either saying a word. After a few moments, Hinata took a deep breath and broke the awkward silence. "Um, Naruto-kun?" He looked at her questioningly. "I... suppose under the circumstances it would be silly to ask if something was bothering you, but... are you alright?"

Naruto tried to smile again, but this time it didn't reach his eyes. "Oh, yeah, I'm fine Hinata, but thanks for asking. I'm... fine..." As his words trailed off, his face fell and Naruto spontaneously pulled his legs up and hugged them against his chest. "Okay, I'm worried. I'm..." He choked on the word for a moment before finally spitting it out. "...scared."

Hinata stared at him with wide eyes as the concerns he'd been bottling up for the past few days came spilling out at once. "I... I didn't see Gaara when he destroyed Konoha... but I saw what was left. Temari just finished telling me all about what a monster he is, and how many things I have to watch out for if I don't want to die. The amount of power he has frightens me. But... I think what frightens me more is the thought that the pervert hermit and Kakashi-sensei believe I can take him on."

The girl gave him a confused look. "But Naruto-kun, what's so strange about that? I... I believe in you too, you know. W-we all do!"

Naruto shook his head violently. "No, no, that's not it, you don't get it! They think I can fight Gaara as an equal, that I can be as powerful as him. Everyone has been telling me about what a monster he is and..." His voice started to tremble. "...if they think I can beat him, then... what does that make me? I-I'm not a monster! I'm not! So... so how can I beat him? I'm..." He trailed off into an inaudible whisper and he buried his face in his knees.

The silence stretched out for long, agonising seconds before Hinata finally spoke. "Naruto-kun... you should know better than anyone that you don't have to be a monster to win against Gaara." The blond-haired boy lifted his head and stared at her as she continued. "After all, how did you end up with the Kyuubi sealed inside you in the first place? It was beaten by the 4th Hokage when he imprisoned it inside you. And you, Naruto-kun- you're going to become Hokage someday aren't you?" She smiled at him. "Jiraiya-sama, Kakashi-sensei and Temari-san got one thing wrong, Naruto-kun. It's not a monster who defeats a monster. It's a hero."

Naruto put his legs back down. "You think... I can be a hero?" he asked in a voice filled with doubt.

"You already are, Naruto-kun," she said, unquestionable conviction in her voice. "You saved me and Hanabi-chan from Orochimaru's dungeon, didn't you? And you stayed behind to fight Orochimaru to let us escape." She edged closer to him on their improvised stone bench. "I watched you fight Orochimaru, Naruto-kun. I know you have the courage and the determination. And I believe it's you, not the Kyuubi, who has what it takes to win against Gaara."

The boy blushed slightly at her words, but he couldn't quite manage to force a smile. "Um... I lost to Orochimaru, in case you forgot, Hinata. He almost killed me." He heaved a sigh. "And yeah, I know I always said I was going to be Hokage someday... but even the Old Man died when Konoha fell. And the 4th died as well when he sealed the Fox inside me. I... don't know if even being Hokage would be enough against Gaara." He stared out across the vast desert vista as the night wind skipped across the dunes below them.

Beside him he heard Hinata take a deep breath. She was silent for several seconds, until she finally spoke, so quietly she was almost whispering. "Well then, Naruto-kun... all I can do is... give you a good luck charm."

Perplexed, he furrowed his brow. "A 'good luck charm'? What kind-"

A butterfly landed delicately on his cheek.

Uzumaki Naruto froze. Indescribably soft and warm, but so light it was almost imperceptible, the touch brushing against the side of his face tingled like the brush of an angel's wing feather. For seconds that stretched like eternity he sat unmoving, his breath stopped in his chest, unable even to move his eyes. Then the butterfly flapped its wings and took off, the tiniest breath of warm air caressing his skin as it went.

With an almighty effort, Naruto managed to slowly turn his head. Hinata was still facing him, her head slightly down and her face shadowed by the moon at her back, but he could tell she was blushing furiously. She jumped up and backed away step by step, pressing her fingers together in front of her nervously. "Um, so... I believe in you, Naruto-kun. I know you can win tomorrow, so.. um..." Her voice trailed off awkwardly. "Um... good night!" Without another word she turned, leaped back up onto the top of their elevated campsite and practically fled to her tent.

Naruto was left sitting there unmoving, staring blankly after the girl long after she was gone. Slowly, he lifted his right hand and hesitantly touched his fingers to the side of his face where the butterfly had landed.

oooOOOooo

Setting out at the crack of dawn, the group arrived at the gates of the Hidden Village of Sand shortly before lunch the next morning, just as Temari had predicted. Naruto was surprised at how much the village, in its basic design at least, resembled their own Hidden Fortress- a huge enclave nestled within a giant stone caldera that surrounded it on all sides with thick, natural walls of red sandstone. But unlike the Fortress, Suna was a 'hidden village' in name only- a wide passage had been cut clean through the walls to provide access to the outside world. Which is not to say that it was undefended, as a dozen cloaked Sand-nin were stationed all along the walls on either side of the gap, ready to descend upon any unwelcome intruders, turning the entrance path into a deadly gauntlet for any enemy who tried to force their way through it.

To simplify matters, Temari went forward with Guy and Jiraiya to meet the guards. Naruto did his best to look relaxed while remaining alert. Both jounin leaders had impressed upon their teams that, just because they were returning Temari to her home and offering to assist with Gaara, that didn't necessarily mean the shinobi of Suna were trustworthy. Being a shinobi required more pragmatism than honour, and thanks to the harsh nature of their desert homeland Suna was known for being more pragmatic than most.

After a few terse words with the guards at the entrance, a runner was despatched to inform Suna's council of their arrival and the Leaf group was escorted through the pass into the village. Team 7 and Hinata couldn't help but stare at the village they were approaching as they walked, flanked by Sand shinobi in front of and behind them. This was the first time they'd seen another one of the great shinobi villages and it was startling how different it was from Konoha- or, in fact, any other town they'd ever visited. There was almost no colour anywhere, with almost everything made of the same bare orange stone. The buildings all shared a similar minimalist design, cylindrical or bulbous in shape, mostly undecorated, with flat, untiled roofs and dozens of small windows running all around their walls. Together with the total lack of any form of greenery, it felt more like visiting another planet than another village.

The group finally passed the inner edge of the massively-thick stone walls and reached the start of the village proper. A small delegation was waiting for them, mostly tall, serious-looking men in long white robes with cloths wrapped around their heads. Standing with them, though, was the figure of a stocky young man in a shapeless black suit, with a hair-covering hood and odd purple face paint. As soon as he saw the Konoha group, he broke ranks and ran to meet them, shouting at the top of his lungs. "TEMARI!"

To the surprise of the Konoha delegation, the stoic girl's face split in a smile. "Kankurō!" The young man ploughed into his sister, hugging her so fiercely that he lifted her briefly off her feet and Temari wrapped her arms around him and returned the hug fiercely. "I'm so glad to see you again!" The two siblings held each other for several moments, until Temari suddenly stiffened and pushed her brother away awkwardly. "Uh, save it in front of the Leaf-nin, though."

"OK, sorry, Temari." Kankurō was visibly holding back tears, although his painted face was beaming with delight. "During the battle we lost track of you- all we found was your fan! Even though we recovered all our dead when we fell back, there was no sign of you, so we thought you must have been either totally annihilated or captured by Orochimaru." His expression soured. "I tried to convince Baki to lead a party to look for you, but we had to fall back to the village and Oto is on the opposite side of the Country of Fire from us. And afterwards, what with our new problems, the Council were planning on writing you off as part of our 'acceptable losses'."

There was an attention-getting cough from behind Kankurō and the genin's expression turned guilty, like a child caught with his hand in the cookie jar, as the rest of the Sand delegation came forward to meet their visitors. As the envoy who had made the first overture to Suna, Guy went forward first to do the introductions, with Jiraiya and Kakashi following just behind him. At the forefront of the Suna group was the jounin Baki. "You've returned much more quickly than we anticipated, Guy-san," he greeted Guy, "and I see you've brought company. Who might your..." For the briefest moment he looked uneasy as he glanced at the unmistakeable and imposing figure of Jiraiya standing next to Guy but, for protocol's sake, kept his hesitation to a minimum. "...companions be?"

The bowl-haired jounin was as serious and straight-faced as Naruto had ever seen him as he gestured to the men standing on either side of him. "Baki-san, may I present Jiraiya-sama of Konoha's Legendary Sannin, and my good friend and eternal rival Hatake Kakashi, the Copy Ninja. As you can see, we recovered one of your lost ninja from the clutches of Sound, and while she was in our care she made a suggestion to us about how we could help you with the issue you'd mentioned to me on my last visit." Naruto swallowed nervously and his heart started to beat faster. It looked like the conversation was steering away from pleasantries and towards the business end even quicker than he'd expected.

The Sand ninja raised the single eyebrow not covered by the cloth mask that obscured the left side of his face and looked at Temari enquiringly. His student met his eye unflinchingly and gave him a single nod. Looking back to the leaders of the Konoha group, Baki bowed politely to them. "Well then, for now I welcome you to Sunagakure, Jiraiya-san, Kakashi-san. We are apparently already in your debt for returning one of our most promising genin to us." He turned and beckoned for them to follow him as the rest of the Suna delegation walked ahead of them. "Follow us to the council chamber and we can discuss matters, including how you may be able to help us further, in more detail."

oooOOOooo

"Hmmmm..." The white-haired Suna councillor stroked his chin contemplatively. "So you really think this... boy can face and defeat Gaara?"

"I do, councillor." It was Temari who answered. The council chamber was crowded- although Kankurō had taken the Konoha genin, including Naruto, to have some refreshments in a waiting room down the hall, the chamber still contained a dozen members of Suna's council of jounin, Jiraiya, Kakashi and Guy, and Temari, who was presenting her case to her superiors. "I felt the power of the demon within him when he faced down Orochimaru himself, and I've spent most of my life with Gaara. While I didn't see him fight in person, I could feel that the raw power of the Nine-Tailed Fox within Uzumaki Naruto is even greater than that of the Shukaku of Sand."

Baki leaned forward in his chair, resting his elbows on the large round table that occupied the centre of the room and lacing his fingers together. "That's all very well, Temari- but didn't you say Orochimari defeated the boy, even with the aid of his demon?"

Jiraiya and Kakashi exchanged glances, but Temari only shrugged. "You know that our father, the Kazekage, was the only one who could keep Gaara in check when the Shukaku's bloodlust was stirring in him. It's because Father is dead now that we can't control him any more. And he died because Orochimaru killed him. I wouldn't say being unable to beat Orochimaru is much of a black mark against Uzumaki." She folded her hands on the table in front of her. "At the very least, I think we should let him try himself against Gaara."

"Yes, there is no harm in letting him try," a third member of the council put in, smiling craftily. "If the fox boy can defeat Gaara then perhaps we can use the opportunity to regain control of him again, maybe even use the experience of defeat to mold him into the kind of weapon he should have been all along. Or failing that, we can at least take the opportunity to dispose of him. And if Gaara kills the boy then-" The man shrugged. "-at least we can disassociate ourselves from the challenge and Gaara won't immediately destroy the village, like he would if we tried and failed to kill him ourselves. We'll still have the chance to find another way to deal with his demands."

Temari flushed angrily at the man's words and the faces of the three Konoha jounin darkened. "That's not what I was-!"

"Koushiro!" Baki barked, cutting the girl off. The councillor who had spoken jumped in his seat as the other man glared at him. "That was uncalled for, crass and rude." Jiraiya noticed that he avoided using the word 'untrue', but elected to maintain a tactful silence. "Despite all that has transpired between our villages, these people have still come to offer us their assistance, even though we already owe them for returning Temari to us. Some basic courtesy would be a good start."

Jiraiya nodded. "Indeed. While you may think it strange that we'd be so quick to 'forgive and forget', as it were, for such a sudden and unprovoked betrayal-" His tone was genial, but his words landed like blows and several of the Sand-nin flinched. "-we are ninja, and we have to see beyond the surface. Sand was the Great Village we had the closest bond with before the incident, and we can accept that our ally was manipulated into betraying us if it means we can reestablish at least a working relationship. We don't have any more reason to fight, but we do need each other."

Baki returned his nod. "Agreed. So, Jiraiya-san, if I could hear your opinion. This boy of yours, Uzumaki Naruto. You support Temari's assertion that he is as strong as Gaara?"

The old shinobi sat back and cupped his chin in his hand. "Well, if I'm going to be completely honest with you -and I should, it's not like I'm trying to sell you the boy- it could actually be a rather close thing, but yes, he's strong enough to beat Gaara. From what your girl has told me, Naruto isn't nearly as experienced as Gaara and he's certainly not a cold-blooded killer like him, but in just the last two weeks alone he's survived several ordeals that would test even veteran shinobi, in no small part thanks to the power of the Kyuubi. And I definitely agree with the girl's assessment that the Kyuubi is much stronger than the Shukaku, at least in terms of raw power. My only concern is..." He trailed off into brief silence, then shook his head and smiled. "No, never mind, that's not a problem. We believe in Naruto."

The Sand jounin pondered silently for a moment, then looked around the chamber at the other councillors. "Very well then. Are there any opposed to this plan?" He was met with silence and several of the councillors shook their heads- there was no protest. Baki smiled grimly. "Well then, I suggest we begin immediately. Gaara demanded our answer by tomorrow morning, so let's not keep him waiting any longer than necessary."

oooOOOooo

Thirsty... so thirsty...

The boy sat alone in the darkness at the back of the cavern, resting on a low altar of flat stone. No, not alone.

There there, Mother. It is almost time.

Thirsty!

You will have the blood you crave, mother, I promise. Just a little longer.

For all the contempt he held them in, Gaara had always been a loyal shinobi of Suna. Not because he cared about the village of course, but because his father the Kazekage had dismissed him as a failure, a flawed experiment and had even tried to have him assassinated. Because of this, Gaara strove to prove himself to be as powerful a tool to Suna as possible, just to spite him, while at the same time killing all who were sent against him, finding his reason for living in every death. And as much as he hated his father, he had to acknowledge he had been powerful. Gaara knew he'd be more powerful when he was older, but for the time being he'd had to submit, as the weak always had to submit to those stronger than them.

But apparently his father hadn't been strong enough. Now, with the Kazekage dead, there was no-one left who could prevent him from doing what he wanted and no reason for him to restrain himself any longer. After delivering his ultimatum to the confused and disorganised leadership of the village via Baki, Gaara had retired to this old shrine, carved deep into the stone of Suna, to wait. It was the place where the kettle that had been the prison of the Shukaku had been enshrined for centuries before the 4th Kazekage had ordered it removed and its contents sealed within his unborn son. Food was brought to him daily by a terrified genin, solely to give him one less reason to leave, and Gaara was willing to play along. He'd given them a week to find a new enemy for him to battle, because he was not ignorant of the technicalities involved with waging war -and no matter how impatient he became, he would at least keep his word- but their time was almost up. Suna would provide him with the blood he craved, one way or another.

The young Suna shinobi lifted his head as a creaking groan echoed through the chamber of the temple, the sound of the heavy, rusted iron doors being forced open. His food had already been delivered today, a tray placed on the floor far away from him by a ninja who had cowered and fled before Gaara could even rise from his seat and turn to see them. He'd eaten the simple repast and drank the cup of water provided, although it had done nothing to sate the thirst of his Mother, howling for blood inside him. So who could this unexpected visitor be?

Far away at the other end of the chamber, silhouetted by the light shining in through the open doorway, stood Baki. His face expressionless, Gaara rose from his place on the altar and strode to meet him. The jounin did not flinch and Gaara inwardly congratulated the man on concealing his fear. For the last two years that he had served on Baki's genin team with his two siblings, Baki had managed to project the impression that he was not afraid of Gaara, that he was the one in control. When they had returned to Suna after the bloodbath at Konoha and Gaara had made his new position clear, that pretence had evaporated, and Gaara had relished the dread he finally got to see in his former teacher's eyes. Now that dread was gone and Baki was once again wearing a facade of calm. Was it because he had come to bring Gaara news of their plans for war, to turn his bloodlust away from them for at least a while longer?

"Gaara." The jounin's voice was as flat and toneless as if he was reading out an inventory list. "You have a challenger. A genin from Konoha, one who was absent during our attack, has come to seek vengeance against you. He-" Baki hesitated for a moment and Gaara detected a note of uncertainty. "He claims to be your equal and challenges you, as one... monster to another."

Gaara's black-ringed eyes opened wide in shock. A monster from Konoha? Someone like himself? None of the opponents he had faced during the Chuunin exams in Konoha had offered him even the slightest challenge- not even the Hyuuga who was supposed to be the strongest genin they had. He had slain hundreds during the battle, Leaf and Sound alike, but none had given him the satisfaction he sought, the thrill of killing those who strove to kill you to ensure your own life would continue. He had never faced an opponent like himself before.

What would it feel like to kill such an enemy?

The Sand genin's lips pulled back to reveal a smile that was all teeth.

THIRSTY!

oooOOOooo

Naruto palms were sweating. He had never been so nervous in his life, not even the time he'd been up on an execution platform in the middle of an angry crowd, waiting to have his head removed.

The shinobi of Sand had arranged for him to meet Gaara in a wide, boxed-in canyon near the back of Suna, supposedly used for duels just like this, albeit usually on a much smaller scale. Naruto stood at one end, his back to the sheer stone wall, waiting for his opponent to arrive. His friends, teammates, teachers and companions stood at the top of the canyon above his head, while dozens of spectators from Suna ringed the canyon walls, looking down at him with anticipation. In a way, this almost felt like Hosokusa all over again- a horde of strangers all around him, waiting to see him die.

Angrily, Naruto slapped his hands against his cheeks to snap himself out of his brooding. This wasn't like Hosokusa at all! Everyone here, even the Sand-nin, was on his side, hoping he would be able to defeat Gaara. He wasn't here as a helpless prisoner awaiting execution, he stood here by his own choice, ready to fight for his life. And Jiraiya and Kakashi had reassured him that, if it looked like things would get really bad, they would step in to rescue him, no matter what.

However, the Sand jounin Baki had warned them that, regardless of what the Leaf-nin did, Suna would not interfere. He had been clear that he was portraying Naruto's challenge to Gaara as a personal matter and Suna would deny involvement in this if Naruto lost. If the rest of the Konoha shinobi attacked Gaara and were unable to defeat him, even with the best that Jiraiya could do, they would all die.

Naruto wondered whether he himself wouldn't simply die before he'd allow that to happen.

A gust of wind billowed into the canyon from the open passage at the other end, kicking up a small whirlwind of sand and forcing Naruto to cover his face. When he was able to lower his hand, the sand had dissipated, leaving a lone figure standing opposite him, arms folded. About his own height, spiky red hair, a huge gourd strapped to his back. The kanji for 'love' branded just above his left eye. Gaara of the Sand, host of the demon Shukaku.

At his first sight of the boy responsible for devastating Konoha, Naruto had expected to feel anger, even hatred. He'd felt such emotions when he'd faced Orochimaru, once he'd managed to overcome the crushing fear the man had projected. But to his surprise, the rage just wasn't there. Locking his blue eyes with his opponent's dark-ringed, pale green ones, Naruto felt -of all things- an unexpected pang of pity. Temari had told him about the life Gaara had led growing up, feared by everyone, subject to attempts on his life since he was six years of age. The more Naruto had thought about it, the more he'd realised how alike he and Gaara were- and at the same time, how unalike. Both of them had had terrifying demons sealed inside them at birth. But while the 4th Hokage had imprisoned the Kyuubi inside him as an act of desperation to protect the village, the Kazekage had voluntarily made his son into a weapon, sacrificing his own wife to do so. Both of them had grown up effectively alone, feared and hated by almost everyone. But while Naruto had no family, he'd still had a few people who'd looked out for him -Iruka, the 3rd Hokage, Teuchi and Ayame, the friends he'd made on Team 7- and as lonely as he was, no-one had ever tried to hurt him directly. Gaara had grown up with a family, apart from the mother who'd died giving birth to him, but even they had feared and rejected him, with his own father even trying to have him killed.

No matter which way he looked at the situation, when Naruto looked at Gaara, he saw what he could have been.

"So, you are the one who challenged me?" Gaara did not raise his voice, but his flat, emotionless tones carried clear across the space between the two boys.

Naruto swallowed, then took a deep breath. "I am," he called back, struggling to keep his voice from shaking. "I'm Uzumaki Naruto, from Konoha."

Not a flicker of emotion showed on Gaara's face. "I see. You're here to kill me in revenge for what happened at Konoha. Or you just want to prove your power by killing me. I invite you to try." The cork flew out of the mouth of the oversized gourd and a tendril of sand slowly began to drift out, like a snake crawling from the eye socket of a skull.

Naruto was startled. "What? No! I don't want to kill you!" he blurted out.

Gaara frowned as if perplexed, and the sand stopped moving, hovering motionless in the air behind him. "But aren't you like me, a living weapon made to wield the power of a demon?"

"No... I mean..." Naruto hesitated. "Well, yes, I do have a demon sealed in me. But I'm not a weapon! I'm here to fight you, but I don't want to kill you if I don't have to."

His opponent's confused frown became a glare. "But the only way you and I can have meaning in our existence is to kill. We are weapons, made for the purpose of killing everything other than ourselves. To deny that is to deny your reason to live!"

The blond genin violently shook his head. "No, no! That's wrong!" He pointed an accusing finger at his Sand counterpart. "That's why I'm here to fight you! I'm going to beat you and prove you're wrong! I am not a weapon- and neither are you! We can fight for reasons -for people- other than ourselves!"

Gaara's lip twisted into something half-way between a snarl and a sneer. "I am not wrong. I am alone; I always have been and I always will be. I live for myself and love only myself, and that's fine with me. I will kill you, and in doing so I will validate my existence by denying yours!" Agitated, the rest of the sand rushed from the gourd and swirled around Gaara like some kind of monstrous familiar spirit. "But apparently your death will not satisfy me as much as I had hoped it would. You and I are not alike."

At this, Naruto couldn't help but smile. "No. No, I guess we're really not." Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes...

...and opened them inside the dank, gloomy halls of the Kyuubi's prison.

The stagnant water that filled the halls of the complex had risen since the last time he'd been here. Previously it had splashed around his ankles, but now it was up to his knees. Frowning, Naruto turned to face the enormous barred door of the demon fox's cell. "Kyuubi! Can you hear me?" he called out boldly.

The huge eyes snapped open in the darkness and the colossal fox prowled forward into view. "So, you've returned, boy. Come to beg for my help again?"

The young man scoffed. "Who's going to beg? It's time for you to put up or shut up, fox. We're facing a fight with the Shukaku of Sand, one demon to another, so I hope you're ready to prove your worth."

The Kyuubi paced back and forth in the limited space it had in front of the bars. "The Shukaku of Sand...? Oh yes, I know of it. You love to get yourself into trouble, boy- are you always planning on being so quick to call on me to bail you out? You let me down when you faced the White Snake, why should I indulge you in this little folly of yours?"

Naruto winced at the reminder of his failure against Orochimaru, but rallied. "Because we'll die if you don't! I did my best against Orochimaru, okay? If you don't want this to be a repeat performance, you need to give me more power!"

There was a long, heavy silence as the great demon fox glared down at its jailer, who glared defiantly back. Then the Kyuubi barked out a laugh. "Very well then, boy. I'll give you access to everything I have. But let me just tell you something: if you want to win, you need to stop being so timid! My power is there, you just need to open yourself to me, let me give it to you, take it and use it!" It brought its head down to near the floor and stared out directly into Naruto's eyes on his own level. "Because if you don't want to squander my power, you need to be willing to go all-out!"

Naruto swallowed, and hesitantly nodded. "...alright then. I'm ready if you are. Let's do this!"

The Kyuubi straightened up again, closed its eyes and its body began to glow with a corona of power. Instantly, Naruto felt the seal on his stomach begin to burn, similar to how it had in Hosokusa when he'd first made his contract with the demon, but less painful, more warm. Raw chakra began to surge through him and he felt strength coursing through every inch of his body. Taking one more deep breath he closed his eyes again.

When he opened them, he stared out at Gaara of the Sand through the red haze of the Kyuubi's chakra shroud. The power he'd felt moments ago inside his soulspace was still there in his physical body, stronger than ever. Gaara's black-ringed eyes had narrowed as he glared at Naruto, reassessing his opponent as the flickering, flame-like chakra danced around his body. The rear end of the shroud warped and stretched out into the same prehensile tail that had appeared during his fight with Orochimaru, and a moment later it was joined by a second one that waved and swayed in the air behind Naruto's head like a living thing.

Uzumaki Naruto/the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox pulled its lips back from its fangs in a fierce grin, and charged.

oooOOOooo

The spectators flinched back from the edge of the canyon as a huge cloud of sand was blown up towards them. Peering past the arm he'd thrown up to shield his face from the gritty spray, Jiraiya watched the clash playing out below them intently. Naruto's blindingly-fast charge had crashed straight into a huge wall of sand Gaara had thrown in front of himself with enough force to send a shockwave blasting across the canyon floor. Gaara had been forced to use every grain of the special sand from his gourd to stop Naruto's movement, but the boy had still ploughed halfway through the thick barrier until his head and hands had emerged from the other side, barely a foot from Gaara's shocked face, like a spear hurled half-way through a wall.

Jiraiya's heart leaped into his mouth as the sand began to wrap around Naruto's ensnared body, but with a violent surge, Naruto twisted and found purchase against it as it tried to lift him off the ground. His pair of chakra tails lashed out on either side of his body and tore just enough of the chakra-laced substance away for him to pull himself free and leap away as the sand came crashing in to crush him. Sweat began to bead on the older man's forehead. Gaara hadn't even begun to fight yet and Naruto was already living dangerously.

Naruto dashed away from Gaara again, cutting a wide circle around the outside of the canyon arena, building up speed and momentum as he looked for an opening before charging in against his opponent again, leaving a trail of kicked-up sand and dust behind him. Perhaps shaken by the brutal force of the Leaf boy's first assault, Gaara had already abandoned his usual apathetic, motionless, cross-armed posture and turned warily to keep his face towards the fox-boy, his hands raised protectively in front of his body to control the Shield of Sand directly. As Naruto curved back in towards him to launch another attack, Gaara whipped his hands back then drove them forward to meet him, fingers extended. The sand swirled in front of Suna's champion and took shape- not a wall like last time, but a field of jagged spikes thrusting forward to impale Naruto by his own momentum.

Startled cries and shouts of warning arose from the Konoha group on the cliff top above the battleground and Naruto desperately twisted himself to the side to avoid a gruesome death. The calf of his right leg brushed against one of the spikes, ripping the leg of his pants open down to the cuff and just barely scratching the skin, but as he spun away from Gaara again he barely managed to escape unharmed. Gaara turned to keep Naruto in his sights, aiming his hands towards him and sending the sand swooping after the blond-haired boy again, but Naruto sprang back twenty feet in a single bound, coming to a halt just out of Gaara's immediate reach.

Beside Jiraiya, Guy's eyes were gleaming under his mighty brows. "This is looking pretty good, Jiraiya-sama. Naruto-kun is already pushing Gaara harder than even my poor Neji managed to and he's only getting warmed up!"

"Yes! Go, Naruto-san!" Lee cheered from his position at his teacher's side, punching the air with excitement. "The power of youth surges through you! You can beat him!"

Tenten chewed her lip, a worried expression on her face. "Um, I hate to be negative," she put in nervously, "but while he's hitting hard, he isn't even moving as fast as Lee can when he removes his weights. The sand is going to catch him eventually at this rate, and then..." She broke off, her face falling as she remembered what had happened to her late teammate once he'd fallen into Gaara's clutches.

"Don't worry about that, Tenten-san," a quiet voice said. Hinata was staring at the battle without blinking, her white eyes taking in every move Naruto made. "Guy-sensei is right about Naruto warming up. He can move much faster than this, I've seen him do it. Just watch."

At the other end of the group, Keiji was staring in speechless, wide-eyed awe at the sight his friend, wrapped in a burning shroud of chakra, that he'd only caught the briefest glimpse of back in Hosokusa. Sakura, on the other hand, was cheering her head off, almost jumping up and down as she urged Naruto on with none of her usual composure. "Go on, Naruto! Kick his ass! Yeah! Get him! You can do-"

Naruto raised his head and howled.

The cheers were choked off in an instant, along with all other noise as the bestial cry echoed through the canyon. The pair of waving tails floating behind Naruto throbbed, writhed, stretched, and split. As the echoes of the scream died away, the demon-possessed boy lowered himself onto all fours, the four tails lashing at the air in intense agitation as he glared at Gaara with glowing red eyes. The shroud of chakra was now visibly bubbling and the air around it shimmered like it was enveloped in a heat haze. Gaara took a hesitant pace backwards, raising his hands again, but Naruto's body tensed and he simply vanished.

Almost nobody saw the blow land. The Shield of Sand reacted in time, but it only managed to get a thin layer between Naruto's fist and the back of Gaara's skull before the host of the Kyuubi smashed Gaara to the ground so hard that he dug a long furrow across the canyon floor as he slid over a dozen feet. Gaara barely managed to roll to his feet, wobbling, the shattered Armour of Sand crumbling away from the back of his head where it had barely managed to absorb the force of the blow, but Naruto was already bounding on all fours forward like an enraged wolf, tails lashing behind him. His opponent managed to bring his protective sand up in front of him, but Naruto blurred once again and dove at Gaara's apparently unprotected back. Gaara barely had time to even widen his eyes in shock as Naruto's fist smashed into him again...

...and Gaara came apart in a cloud of sand.

Naruto snarled in fury as the remnants of the sand clone wrapped itself around his body, smothering his chakra cloak against his limbs, the rest of the decoy sand shield flying back in to engulf him as well. A dozen feet away, Gaara rose slowly from the ground, glaring hatefully at his enemy. The fox-boy glared back as he began to tear himself free of the smothering sand, but Gaara make a single, sharp slashing motion with his hand. The sand reacted by hurling Naruto away with incredible force, sending him smashing into the nearby canyon wall so hard that part of the cliff face cracked and collapsed on top of him, burying him in a pile of shattered stone.

It was only four seconds until the heap exploded as the Leaf's champion burst up out of it again, roaring in rage, but it was enough. Rather than follow up the attack, Gaara made a single Tiger seal and the sand began to rise up- not around Naruto, but himself. Within seconds it had coalesced into a solid sphere of hard-compacted sand that completely hid him from view.

Seconds later, Naruto smashed into the sphere, but while his furious blow smashed a large crater in its surface, it wasn't enough to penetrate through to Gaara on the inside. Vicious spikes grew out from the side, forcing him to leap back to avoid impalement, and the mark left by his blow sealed over like it had never been there.

"Damnation!" Kakashi stared at Guy in astonishment. In the roughly two decades he'd known the man, he'd never heard Might Guy curse before. The bowl-haired jounin was staring at the orb of sand, his face grim as Naruto prowled around it, looking for a way in. "That's what Gaara did just before the attack on Konoha began, before he called upon the Shukaku in the middle of the stadium and killed Neji. That ball is the strongest form of his absolute defence and he prepares his transformation inside it." He looked Kakashi and Jiraiya directly in the face, and both men were shocked to see absolute dread there. "He's trying to do to Naruto-kun what he did to Konoha."

Keiji and Sakura stared in mute horror and the blood drained from Kakashi's face. He turned to the Toad Sage. "Jiraiya-sama, there has to be something Naruto can do!"

Jiraiya's face was as grim as everyone else's. "I don't know. I don't think he's drawing on the full power of the Kyuubi yet, but I don't know how much more he can access safely." He gestured at the boy in the canyon below, who seemed nonplussed by the impenetrable sphere, his tails waving from side to side impatiently. "The Fox has nine tails, as everyone knows, and I think the more power Naruto uses, the more tails he'll grow. You can feel that the Kyuubi's chakra isn't leaking uncontrollably from the seal, but what's worrying me -and I didn't share this with Suna- is how much influence Naruto chooses to give the Fox over his mind. I don't think more power is what he needs here anyway- if only we'd been able to teach him something like Rasengan or even Chidori! But I'm worried he may see overwhelming force as his only solution anyway. And if that happens, well..."

He turned and stared down at the battlefield below. "...we may find ourselves with more than one monster to deal with."

oooOOOooo

Naruto glared at the impenetrable orb of sand in front of him in frustration, as if trying to cut his way though it with his gaze alone. A small cluster of sand had coalesced into a disembodied human eye that hovered in the air above the sphere and was staring at him unblinkingly. He could tell Gaara was watching him through it and snarled back at it angrily.

The sphere was enormously tough; he'd delivered a double-fisted blow with his entire body behind it that should have sent it flying against the wall of the canyon, but it had been rooted to the ground and hadn't even budged. He glanced down angrily at his throbbing, bloodied knuckles- even though the sand had still given way under his fists, he'd almost broken his fingers against the hard-packed surface.

Growling, he summoned the Fox's Claws and lunged back against the sphere again. The surface rippled and lunged towards him, but he slashed at the spikes as he charged, the long chakra blades on his fingers slicing through them like they were made of... well, normal, non-chakra-imbued sand. Detached from the main mass of Gaara's shelter, the severed spikes disintegrated against Naruto's chakra shroud and the fox-boy hurled himself against the orb again, ripping and gouging at the surface with his talons, tearing up any attempt by Gaara to drive him back.

For a moment he seemed to be making headway, but the deep rents his claws made were healing as fast as he could make them, and the sphere seemed incredibly thick. Gaara must have been nestled right in at the centre- Naruto would need to practically tunnel through it to reach him at this rate, with the sand both regenerating and fighting back against him as he went.

He pulled back, tearing away from the sand that clutched at his limbs and leaping away to the other side of the arena as he reconsidered his approach. That unnerving eye followed his every movement as he prowled back and forth, racking his brains for a solution. It was getting harder and harder to think, the bubbling shroud of chakra was becoming so hot that his skin was beginning to burn and a constant whispering was scratching away at the corner of his mind.

More power. Tear it open and rip him apart! We just need more power!

Naruto growled and shook his head. Where had that thought come from? His muscles were already starting to tingle uncomfortably from the chakra surging through them and if the chakra shroud got much hotter his skin would start to sear off- he didn't know how much more power he could stand at this stage. Surely there had to be some kind of technique he could use? He thought of all the jutsu he knew, but it turned out to be a depressingly short list. Glumly he stared at his hand right as he flexed his taloned fingers. The Rasengan would probably be able to drill through Gaara's protective cocoon -the pervert hermit had demonstrated its power by punching his hand clean through the trunk of a tree- but he was nowhere near mastering it yet. He'd barely managed to grasp the technique of getting the concentrated chakra to spin in his hand, shaping it precisely and keeping it under control was way beyond him at the moment.

Wait a second...

He stared at his hand harder, curling his fingers inward until they were almost touching the centre of his palm, the blades harmlessly flattening themselves against his flesh as always. Taking a deep breath, the air burning in his lungs, he began to spin the chakra in his palm the way Jiraiya had showed him. The shroud began to boil around him as more and more power flowed down his arm and into the claws, but he ignored it, concentrating all his will on the vortex of chakra in his fist. Slowly straightening his fingers out again, he watched in fascination as the talons twisted together like a great drill, extending half a foot out from his palm. Slowly, carefully, he looked back towards Gaara's shelter of sand, raised his hand and began to charge.

Slowly at first, barely a jog, he quickly picked up speed as he crossed the canyon floor, arm held out beside him as the chakra drill spun. Was it his imagination or did he see a glimpse of fear in the hovering eye as he approached? As he reached the sphere, running full pelt, the sand lunged out to meet him, a field of razor-tipped spikes, but his tails lashed out ahead of him, forcing a path through as he ducked low to minimise his profile and thrust his hand forward, hurling himself blindly at his target. "Uzumaki Technique: Drilling Claw!"

He felt his hand tearing through the wall of sand, the claws slicing through Gaara's chakra-infused defence and the spinning motion ripping open a wide passage. He drove forward into the cloud of sand bursting in front of him, ignoring the few spikes that tore at his limbs and squeezing his eyes shut against the blinding spray, until he felt his hand reach the open space in the sphere's centre and thrust forward toward his target. There was a terrible scream of agony -almost a roar- and the entire orb spasmed and exploded as Gaara burst out of the back side, desperately hurling himself away from Naruto, stumbling and falling to the ground with one hand pressed against a savage wound in his stomach that was rapidly soaking his entire lower body in red.

The sand that made up the shattered sphere blasted past Naruto to return Gaara's side, like a worried mother rushing to pick up a child that had tripped and fallen. Naruto's red eyes widened as the sand lifted his opponent back up to his feet. Regardless of the injuries he'd taken in the attack himself, bloodlust urged him to attack, to finish his weakened opponent off and tear him limb from limb, but the sight of the other boy made him hesitate in shock. Gaara's body looked alien and deformed, half-covered by a thick layer of sand that made the right side of his body look like some kind of monster, and as he watched more of the sand began to attach itself to his swelling form. This was what Temari had warned him about the night before, the Shukaku's armour that would engulf Gaara when he unleashed the demon's full power, until it was complete and he was able to transform it into its full, titanic form. His right arm was an enormous, twisted claw, that side of his face a bloated snout with a fanged maw and a mad, staring eye with a black sclera surrounding a star-shaped iris. It was only the thick layer of sand already built up over his torso that had prevented Naruto's attack from tearing his guts out, but the wound was still deep.

Gaara's face, or at least the half of it that could be seen, was twisted in an expression of shock, pain, fury, and pure, unbridled hatred. Killing intent surged out of him like a wave, strong enough for Naruto to feel even through his own chakra armour. As he forced himself upright, Naruto saw the sand sealing over the gaping hole in his belly, crudely stopping the bleeding. Gaara snarled back at Naruto with the same bestial ferocity the Kyuubi gave him. "You.. hurt me!" Naruto recalled Temari telling him that Gaara had never been injured, or even felt pain before. The Sand genin held his bloodied and still-human left hand shakily up in front of his face and stared it in fascination. "So this is... my blood? So... I do bleed the same as everyone else. Heh. Heheh. HehehahahHAHAHAHAHAHA!" He threw back his head and laughed, a horrible, alien sound that grated on Naruto's ears, forcing him to look away in revulsion.

He didn't see the blow coming. Unused to Gaara even being willing to move, Naruto was completely blindsided by the speed with which Suna's demon-weapon crossed the space between them, the giant paw smashing him so hard he flew all the way across the canyon, flying a good seventy feet. This time he hit the stone hard enough to bury himself within the cliff wall, causing the entire side of the canyon to collapse on top of him with an ear-splitting crash, burying him alive. Even through his chakra shroud the impact crushed the breath from Naruto's body and his lungs spasmed, blood spraying from his lips as he coughed and gasped for breath. As he sucked in what little air could reach him within his rocky prison, his rage reignited. So that's how he wants to play it? We'll rip him to pieces!

Stone exploded across the canyon as five huge tails of solid chakra lashed out from the rock pile. Finding purchase on the edges, they propelled Naruto out of the cliff face to land on all fours on the hard ground, the Kyuubi's crimson shroud now bubbling furiously like a boiling pool of magma. His skin felt like it was searing off his body, but he didn't care any more. His eyes met Gaara's, and the boy wearing the cloak of the fox and the boy wearing the armour of the tanuki stared each other down, as blood began to seep out from Naruto's blistering skin, staining the shroud deep red, and the thick layers of sand crept across to cover Gaara's entire face before moving down his remaining arm. It felt like the world was holding its breath. Then Uzumaki Naruto, host of the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox, threw back his head, howled with fury, and leaped forward to attack. Gaara of the Sand, host of the Shukaku, bared his jagged fangs and launched himself to meet him.

oooOOOooo

Temari shuddered. She had thought she'd known fear before. She'd grown up with Gaara, living with the knowledge that she was constantly balanced on a knife's edge and that at any time he might snap and kill her. She'd been witness to the time he had completely lost control after killing their uncle Yashamaru and the Shukaku had been unleashed on Suna. Now it was looking increasingly like that might happen again as the Shukaku's sand form continued to engulf her brother's body- but that wasn't even the most terrifying thing about the situation.

Gaara was on the defensive. The shroud surrounding Uzumaki Naruto had become almost completely opaque, turned a deep red by the blood seeping from the boy's disintegrating skin. The flickering aura had condensed itself further, the shroud wrapping itself more tightly around the boy, giving him the appearance of a blood-red fox with a human head. Only his glowing red eyes could be seen through the bloody field of chakra. Naruto and Gaara clashed repeatedly, the Fox throwing himself at the Tanuki and rending at its sandy pseudoflesh with its vicious talons, only to be repeatedly smashed away by the massive paws. Gaara's transformation was approaching completion -the left side of the body and arm were complete, only his legs and the beast's tail remained- but Temari could see that her brother was playing for time. He hurled a wide spray of his Sand Shuriken at his opponent, peppering half the canyon with bullets strong enough to rip flesh from bone and forcing the unlucky spectators standing on the cliff top behind Naruto to desperately flee the indiscriminate attack, but the scarlet fox-demon shinobi simply shielded himself with his tails, shrugging the shots off like rain as they smashed into the rocks behind him. He lunged back towards Gaara again, charging on all fours with blinding speed, his talons tearing up the ground as he ran so fast he was just a blur. Gaara's own speed had increased enough to at least follow Naruto's movements and he brought both of his claws smashing in to catch his enemy with a clapping motion, like a man trying to catch a buzzing fly, but Naruto thrust both his arms out to either side and caught Gaara's massively thick wrists, locking the two fighters together. They stood braced together like that, matching strength against strength, and for a moment Temari saw Naruto's arms begin to bend inward as Gaara brought his greater strength and leverage to bear, but then Naruto's five tails lashed forward, punching Gaara in his barrel chest and sending him tumbling backwards across the sand.

Gaara rolled up to his feet, surprisingly agile despite his bulky form and both he and Naruto paused for a moment, as if to catch their breath. Gaara's animalistic sand-mask of a face was twisted in -of all things- a warped smile. "So," he hissed, "this is what it means to really fight. So this is life. I like it! You are strong, Uzumaki Naruto! Come, let me kill you and feel even more of this pleasure, let me validate my existence!"

Naruto pushed himself up from all fours to stand upright, swaying slightly. His face was also impossible to make out through the deep red bloodstained shroud of power, only his glowing, fiery eyes showed where his features were. "No," he growled. His voice was guttural, distorted, far deeper than it normally was, deeper than any boy his age should be able to produce, overlaid with discordant harmonics that grated on the eardrums. Despite the intimidating effect, he seemed to be struggling to get the words out, his talons twitching spasmodically. "It... doesn't ha- have to be th-this way, Gaara. You and us... you and I don't have to take this to th-the death. We want to... I don't want to k-kill you."

If Gaara noticed the irregularities in his opponent's speech, he didn't react to them. "But I want to kill you!" he snarled. The sand continued to creep down his legs- within moments the Shukaku's armour would be complete and Gaara could unleash the full power of the sand demon in all its massive, terrifying, unstoppable glory. He spread his arms wide, as if inviting his opponent in, his arm span almost a dozen feet across. "Come, offer me your blood!" Perhaps realising that further talk was pointless and his time was running out, Naruto charged again, the Kyuubi's shroud leaving crimson afterimages behind him as he ran. Gaara brought his right arm swinging around with deceptive speed, smashing it into his attacker's side just as Naruto was about to reach him, but rather than being sent flying the Konoha genin wrapped one of his prehensile chakra tails around the limb and used it as an anchor to ride the momentum of the blow, swinging up and around, climbing Gaara's left shoulder and leaping onto his broad back.

Baki had strictly forbidden any shinobi of Suna who had come to witness the battle from cheering for either combatant. While the Konoha contingent had cheered on Uzumaki Naruto, at least at the start of the fight, the Suna attendees had mostly been silent, apart from some panicked yells as the cliff had collapsed under their feet when Gaara had smashed Naruto through it, forcing the unfortunate spectators to leap to safety. At this stage, Temari didn't even know who she would cheer for even if she were allowed (and if she were the kind of girl who would cheer at a fight). She knew Gaara had to be stopped before he either drove Suna to its destruction or destroyed it himself, and in the short time that she'd known him she'd begun to realise that Uzumaki Naruto wasn't like her brother at all- he was goofy, friendly, cheerful (if a bit dim) and surprisingly human. But as she watched him leap onto Gaara's back, wrapping two of his tails around each of Gaara's arms in an attempt to restrain him, coiling the fifth around his neck, and tearing wildly at his exposed head with those vicious talons, she remembered the awkward exchange she'd had with Naruto the night before and couldn't help but fear for her little brother's life.

Almost unconsciously she reached up and stroked the handle of the war fan that protruded over her right shoulder, as if to reassure herself that it was still there. She'd lost it when the Sound had knocked her out and taken her prisoner at Konoha, but her own people had recovered it and Kankurō had given it back to her first thing after her return to the village. It was comforting for her to feel its weight on her back again, but she knew it was no use here. If she interfered in this duel, on either side, one combatant or the other would tear her apart, possibly even both.

"Oh no..." Kankurō muttered beside her as Gaara finally tore Naruto off his back and smashed him against the ground hard enough to leave a crater. "Gaara's almost completed the Shukaku's transformation." Even as he spoke, the sand slid across Gaara's sandals, replacing them with the thick, stubby paws of the sand demon. "He's about to go full size, I can tell. If the Leaf kid has any tricks left to play, this is his last chance."

The Sand siblings held their breath as Gaara began to bellow with triumphant laughter and Naruto slowly and deliberately rose to his feet in front of him.

oooOOOooo

Naruto's head was ringing, his flesh was screaming as his blood boiled from his body and every bone in his body ached. He'd taken even more of a pounding than he had from Orochimaru, but the raw power of the Kyuubi surging through him had given him just enough protection to hold his body together- for now.

Gaara was standing in front of him, laughing in triumph, no longer a genin Naruto's own age, but fully transformed into a vicious sand demon. Remembering Temari's warning, Naruto knew he had mere seconds before Gaara crushed him like an ant, regardless of the Kyuubi's protection. He'd given it his best shot and it hadn't been enough. He couldn't think of anything any more, not with that damnable whispering still echoing in his head, scraping the inside of his skull raw.

No. Not everything. We still have more, if we dare. And if we don't dare, we die. Everyone dies.

Well it looked like, here at the end of his rope, there was nothing else for it. Naruto sucked in a deep breath, the air tasting of his own blood and the acidic tang of the Kyuubi's chakra and opened the connection between himself and the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox as far as he could.

oooOOOooo

Deep in the gloomy recesses of the Kyuubi's prison within Naruto's soulspace, the blond boy's avatar stood motionless and unaware in front of the beast's cage, his consciousness elsewhere. Over the course of the battle, the water that flooded the corridors had risen from knee-height to lap at his shoulders. Now it surged higher, splashing against his chin, then his eyes, and finally engulfing him completely. Naruto sank beneath the murky waters as a void opened up beneath him, pulling him down into blackness.

The bestial laughter of the Kyuubi echoed through the flooded complex, howling with vicious glee. "Now is the time, brat! You are MINE!"

oooOOOooo

The wave of power knocked everyone flat, even Jiraiya. A killing intent so intense it could be tasted on the air pressed down on everyone present and even Gaara cowered back from its source. There wasn't a single trace of Naruto's voice left in the howl that echoed out across the desert landscape- it sounded like the roar of some devil-possessed engine.

Shakily, unable or possibly even unwilling even to stand up again, Sakura crawled to the edge of the canyon and looked back down. The burning crimson beast that was Naruto had almost doubled in size since the massive burst of chakra had thrown her to the ground. Before her eyes, his five tails twisted together, throbbed, then burst apart again into a whirling web of scarlet. One, two, three... nine tails tore at the air behind Naruto like the heads of a hydra.

Before anyone could do more than blink, before Gaara could even raise a paw to defend himself, the fox-monster had pounced. If he'd been fast before, now he was living lightning. Gaara's bulky Shukaku form was lifted off the ground like it weighed nothing as Naruto crashed into him, driving him backwards across the canyon floor to smash brutally against the cliff wall, sending rocks raining down on the pair again, only for the fox's tails to bat them away like falling leaves. As the Sand-nin lay stunned, Naruto reared back above his prone form. The ends of each tail morphed themselves into bestial claws, tipped with the same long talons as Naruto's hands, and the Kyuubi-Naruto tore into Gaara with a rabid fury, eleven separate limbs rending and tearing at the helpless Shukaku in a whirlwind of violence. Huge chunks of sand armour were gouged out or ripped off and flung away as the Fox shredded Gaara's protection like it was made of paper, the sand collapsing into lifeless, inanimate heaps where it landed.

"Naruto...?" Sakura whispered in shock as she watched the gruesome spectacle, barely able to see Naruto's victim beneath the blur of chakra limbs. Gaara screamed in agony as one of the talons penetrated through his mangled armour and tore into his flesh. She turned to Kakashi beseechingly. "Kakashi-sensei, what's happened to Naruto?! This isn't like him! Something's wrong!" Beside her, Keiji could only stare in silent horror as his teammate and friend ripped his opponent apart like a savage animal.

"Is the Kyuubi about to escape, Jiraiya-sama?" Guy asked anxiously, his usually cheerful face pale and drawn. His own team looked at him in horror, except for Hinata who kept her white eyes locked on the brutal, one-sided battle.

Kakashi shook his head. "That's... not it, I don't think. This isn't like what I felt on the bridge when Sasuke died." Sakura started in shock as she recalled the horrific sensation she'd felt that day as well. She'd all but forgotten about it by now, the weight of Sasuke's death having driven it from her mind, but now the feeling came back to her. That had been Naruto all along?

"You're right," Jiraiya said grimly. "It's as I feared. The Kyuubi isn't trying to escape from Naruto. It's trying to take him over."

As Gaara screamed again, the Konoha group stared at Jiraiya in speechless shock. Finally, Kakashi spoke. "You... you have a plan to deal with this... don't you Jiraiya-sama?" He sounded almost like he was pleading.

The older ninja squirmed. "Well... yes, sort of. If someone can get close enough to Naruto to activate the delayed Five Elements seal I placed on him back when I first examined his own seal, that should cut off the Kyuubi's access to him. But..." As he paused, the Kyuubi wrapped several of its claws around Gaara's exposed limbs and pulled, tearing his bloodied body out of the remnants of his sand armour, suspending him limply in the air like a rag doll. "...in that state, it won't be easy, because he certainly won't be willing to let us. Someone will have to reach right through the shroud to strike him directly on the seal."

With an almost casual flick, the Kyuubi-Naruto tossed Gaara's limp form away, sending him tumbling across the sand. Kakashi audibly gulped behind his mask and nodded. "...we're with you, Jiraiya-sama." Guy nodded as well, his face ashen but resolved.

Jiraiya returned the nod as the fox stalked slowly towards his fallen foe with sadistic deliberation. "OK then. We'll wait until the last moment. Just pray we don't die."

oooOOOooo

Pain.

Until this battle, Gaara had never known pain before. Now it felt as if he'd never known anything else.

Terror.

Gaara had never feared anything before except for the demon inside of him. He'd spent countless nights lying awake, too afraid to sleep in case the Shukaku devoured his soul, until he'd developed black rings around his eyes so thick they looked like makeup, but he feared no other being. There was never anything more fearsome than himself. Now terror consumed his mind until he couldn't even think.

Too weak even to lift his head, he could only stare blankly at the cloudless desert sky through blurry eyes as he listened to the crunching sound of his opponent's feet approaching across the sand. The monster was still over fifty feet away from where he lay helpless, but it seemed in no hurry to finish him off. Uzumaki Naruto, host of the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox. Gaara had underestimated him, his power, his determination to triumph. He'd thought that by killing Uzumaki Naruto he would validate his own existence. Instead, the Leaf-nin was going to kill him.

That was how he'd always understood it. That was what Gaara had believed ever since the night Yashamaru had blown himself up in a futile attempt to kill him. He'd killed countless foes in the years since then, confident in his belief that, by doing so, he proved his right to live. Now he had met someone more powerful than himself. It was time for him to die.

To his shock, Gaara noticed his blurry vision wasn't just due to his dizziness. Tears were starting to fill his eyes, something that hadn't happened in six years. As they spilled over onto his cheeks, he was struck by a realisation that shook him to the core: I don't want to die!

Was this how everyone he'd killed over the years had felt before he'd crushed the life from them and offered their blood to Mother?

Somewhere far away, Gaara thought he heard a girl's voice scream something. It sounded strangely familiar. Was that his name? Straining his ears, he heard men's voices shouting, then the same girl, closer this time, yelling more words he recognised: "Ninpo: Kamaitachi!"

He heard the roar of a howling gale, followed by the even loader roar of the demon fox, filled with fury. The girl screamed again, a wordless cry of pain this time, and something hit the ground nearby, sliding across the sand to come to a halt beside him. With a monumental effort, he managed to turn his head to look at it.

Temari. Blood trickled from his sister's mouth and her right arm was bent at a horrific angle. Gaara stared in uncomprehending shock as her teal-coloured eyes slowly fluttered open and met his own. Straining to move, Temari rolled over, whimpering in pain as her shattered arm was bent beneath her body, and dragged herself over to him. She reached across Gaara's chest and pulled herself across his battered body, as if trying to shield him. "It's.. alright, Gaara," she whispered, her voice choking and tears streaming down her cheeks. "It's alright. Just..." Her eyes rolled back in their sockets and she went limp, her head falling onto her little brother's shoulder.

There was more yelling and a brutal splintering sound. Something else landed a few feet away from Gaara's head, throwing up a spray of sand. Struggling to fight off his dizziness, Gaara looked over at it. The ugly wooden head of Karasu stared back, all three eyes glaring from above the shattered upper jaw. Straining to lift his head, Gaara looked over Temari's shoulder in the direction it had come from.

The black-clad form of Kankurō stood between the terrifying burning figure of the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox and his two helpless siblings. The rest of Karasu's body was strewn across the sand, nothing more than shattered limbs and splintered shards of wood, and in a detached manner Gaara realised his brother was helpless. Kankurō completely neglected taijutsu training and carried no weapons or tools other than his puppet- not even so much as a kunai. The monster that was Uzumaki Naruto snarled at him in a manner that seemed almost affronted at his temerity in daring to stand between it and its prey. Kankurō cast a single, agonised glance backwards at where his older sister and younger brother lay helpless, turned back to the Fox, and slowly raised his clenched fists in front of him.

There was more shouting coming from all around the arena, but all Gaara could see was his brother, as the monster that had so utterly defeated him rushed towards Kankurō. All he could feel was Temari's arm, still clutching him protectively, even as she lay unconscious. All he could hear was the roar of the demon fox.

A split second before the Kyuubi could strike his brother down, a scream cut across the battlefield.

"NARUTO-KUN!"

oooOOOooo

Darkness.

He couldn't move. His entire body felt like it was immersed in a vat of warm gelatine, he couldn't feel his limbs, and his brain was numb. All around him was blackness- he couldn't even tell whether or not his eyes were open or closed. He could see nothing, hear nothing, feel nothing. The world no longer existed.

He absently tried to remember something. Anything. What was his name? What did he look like? Where was he from? But his thoughts refused to focus, continually slipping away from him.

He felt tired. So very, very tired.

"NARUTO-KUN!"

In the world of absolute silence, the distant cry echoed through his head like the chime of a bell. 'Naruto'...? Is that... my name...?

For the first time in what seemed like an eternity, he felt something. Emanating from a single, tiny point on his right cheek, a gentle warmth began to spread through his numbed body, firing sleeping neurons and waking frozen muscles. Somewhere through the fog in his head he snatched at a vague memory, of someone touching him at that place on his cheek. Touching...? He remembered... warmth. Breath. The gentle brush of lips. A good luck charm.

Hinata?

Reality crashed back over him like a tidal wave. Naruto's eyes snapped open and he thrashed about in confused panic as he found himself adrift in an endless abyss of icy water. From far above his head he caught a faint glimpse of light and desperately struck out for it, fighting off the darkness that seemed to be trying to drag him back down into oblivion.

His muscles burned and his lungs screamed to take a breath, but he struggled on as the light got closer and closer. With a final surge, he burst out of the surface, coughing and sucking in deep breaths of stagnant air. Looking wildly around himself, a shock ran through him as he realised where he was. This was the main chamber of the Kyuubi's prison, but something had caused it to flood until he was floating up near a ceiling that had previously been so high up he'd been unable to even see it before. What the hell happened here?!

Suddenly something clutched him by the ankle and, with a single panicked yelp, he was dragged back under the water. Whatever force had grabbed him dragged him down until he was in front of the massive bars of the Kyuubi's cage. Through the murky gloom he could see the colossal beast, a fiery corona glowing around its body. Bizarrely, the fox wasn't swimming, but looked to be sitting normally like it usually did, as if the bottomless watery abyss had a solid but invisible floor.

The demon fox chuckled mockingly. "Look at you, boy. Holding your breath like you actually need to breathe. Stupid little fool, you never did grasp how this placed worked, did you?"

Naruto blinked in confusion. His lungs felt like they were going to burst and instinct told him that if he tried to breathe down here, he'd drown, but judging from both the Kyuubi's words and behavior... Bracing himself, he opened him mouth, releasing a burst of bubbles that raced back up to the distant surface, and forced himself to take a breath. The water rushed into his lungs, but there was no pain, no shock, no sensation of imminent death. With an internal shrug, Naruto just accepted that he could breathe underwater here and turned to the greater issue, glaring daggers at the fox. "OK then, what the hell is going on here? What happened to Gaara? What have you done?!"

This time his prisoner laughed in his face. "Don't you get it yet, brat? You're mine now! You wanted everything I had, so I gave it to you, but in exchange your body belongs to me!"

Naruto snarled. "Oh yeah? We'll see about that!" He tried to turn his mind outwards, as he had before whenever he wanted to leave the soulspace, but for the first time nothing happened. He shook his head angrily and tried again. "Why isn't it working?! How can you have control? The 4th Hokage's seal is still there!"

The giant beast sneered at him. "Oh the damnable seal is still in position, brat, but you let my consciousness get beyond it when you took my power. Now I've inverted it- I'm still on this side of the bars and you're on that one, but you're the one trapped here now!" The Kyuubi lashed its tails excitedly. "For the time being you'll be stuck here with me, but don't worry, it won't be a permanent thing. Now I have control it'll just be a short while until I'm able to simply open the seal and leave you forever!"It chuckled again. "Oh, I'm afraid that doing so will kill you but, well, that's not my problem."

Naruto stared at his prisoner-turned-captor in horror as it started to laugh again. What would the monster do with his body? What would it do once it had discarded him like a cast-off cicada shell and regained its true, unstoppable form? There was no Hokage left to stop it this time. Panic began to set in. How many would die because of his failure?

What could a puny child like him do against the power of a monster like the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox?

It's not a monster who defeats a monster. It's a hero.

You think... I can be a hero?

You already are, Naruto-kun.

Gritting his teeth, Naruto reached into the pouch on his thigh, pulled out a kunai, and placed the edge against his throat. "I won't let you do what you like, fox!" he shouted defiantly. "You give me back control and let me out of here, or I swear I'll kill us both, right here and now!"

For a heavy moment the demon fox stared at the boy... then it collapsed in hysterical laughter. "HAAAHAHAHAHAhahahaaah! Your ignorance is an endless source of hilarity, brat!" it guffawed. "Oh isn't that a bold little gesture! I believe you're not bluffing either! But before you do anything, let me share with you another little thing you never understood about this place: if you perish in here, the only thing that will die is your own consciousness." Horrified, Naruto lowered the kunai as he recalled how the Kyuubi had attempted to crush him during their first encounter. "Normally that would just leave your body as a human vegetable, but since I already have control, the only thing you'll accomplish is to remove yourself from my presence and give me complete mastery of your empty shell forever. So please, go right ahead! Put yourself out of your misery if it'll make you feel better. Or if you feel you need to atone for your failure, why not cut open your belly like the samurai do, hmm? That might be amusing to see!"

Naruto's face froze, even as the Kyuubi continued to laugh. Just before he had succumbed to despair, the demon fox's last words had struck a chord in his memory. "Cut open my belly?" His eyes widened. "My belly...?" Dropping the kunai, he yanked down the zipper on his front, tore his jacket open and pulled up his shirt, staring down at the exposed flesh beneath it.

The Kyuubi's laughter abruptly halted as it noticed Naruto's actions. "Wh-what are you doing, boy?" it demanded.

Ignoring it, Naruto tried to channel chakra through the Hokage's seal. Would it still work from this side...? To his great relief, the familiar pattern appeared as always, the spiral design contained within the two Four Symbols Seals. Looking carefully, he saw five faint red marks between the tines of the seals- the same places the pervert hermit had struck him when he'd examined the seal back at the Fortress.

"What are you doing, boy?!" the fox roared, alarm audible in its guttural voice.

Naruto grinned as he stared the monster straight in it's fiery eyes. "What am I doing?" He raised one hand, fingers spread, and concentrated. If this didn't work... "Stupid fox, I'm showing you who's the one who's really in command of my body! I'm Uzumaki Naruto, the one who's going to become the Hokage and I..."

"NO!"

"...will not lose to you!" With one swift motion he drove his hand home, striking the marks Jiraiya had prepared for him. "FIVE ELEMENTS RESTRAINED SEAL- ACTIVATE!"

The world shattered around him.

oooOOOooo

The four jounin -Jiraiya, Kakashi, Guy and Baki- were halfway across the canyon floor when the blazing form of the fox froze in mid-attack, as if caught in a game of 'Red Light, Green Light'. The rending claws were mere feet from Kankurō's face when it stopped, causing the young man's clumsy preemptive counterpunch to strike harmlessly at the empty air in front of it. Jiraiya skidded to a halt and held up a hand. "Wait! Stop! Hold on! Something's happening!" The other three men hesitated and stopped in their tracks as the seconds stretched out and the Kyuubi didn't move.

Then, without any warning, the burning red shroud throbbed, convulsed, blew up like an over-inflated balloon and burst, blasting outwards in a shockwave of chakra that knocked Kankurō to the ground and forced the men to stagger backwards. Where the manifestation of the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox had been only a second before stood Uzumaki Naruto, swaying unsteadily on his feet. His entire body was soaked in his own blood, his body stripped of almost the entire top layer of skin. Suddenly he stumbled forward as if some supporting scaffolding had been yanked away, dropped to his knees and fell face first onto the sand.

"Naruto!"

"Naruto!"

"Naruto-kun!"

"Naruto-san!"

"Uzumaki-kun!"

The other Konoha genin leapt off the cliff to the canyon floor, rushing towards their fallen comrade as the adults reached him first. But as Jiraiya and Kakashi kneeled down beside Naruto's prone form, he stirred and, to everyone's astonishment, put his hands against the ground and pushed himself upright. Forcing himself to his feet, he waved aside the others and staggered forward, past Kankurō, who stared at him warily, and Baki, who briefly hesitated before stepping aside.

Gaara stared up at Naruto's bloodied face in awe as his opponent stopped in front of him. Summoning every last drop of energy he had left, ignoring the pain that screamed through his body with every movement, he tried to force himself to at least sit upright and not face the Leaf ninja while lying helplessly on his back like an overturned turtle. The movement dislodged Temari, still unconscious as she lay draped across his chest and she rolled off his body, but he barely managed to catch her and laid her down gently on the sand, being careful not to jar her arm. For some reason, it was important to him that she wasn't hurt any more.

There was a long, heavy pause before Naruto spoke. "So... I'm still ready to fight if you are, Gaara. What do you say? Do you want to continue, or are you done?" There was a chorus of hushed gasps, indrawn breaths and low mutters from the onlookers, and Kankurō hurriedly rushed past Naruto, putting himself between the bloodstained Leaf-nin and his two siblings again.

"Kankurō..." Gaara called out to him. Startled, the puppeteer looked back at his brother and Gaara shook his head. Hesitantly, Kankurō stood aside. Slowly, painfully, Gaara stood up, his head swimming. Naruto stood impassively, watching him. When he was on his feet again, his pale green eyes met Naruto's bright blue ones... and he lowered his head. "No. The fight is over. You won. I'm finished."

This time no attempts were made to conceal the gasps of shock and wide eyes of the onlookers. Gaara suddenly felt unbelievably tired. He swayed, staggered and would have fallen on his butt if Kankurō hadn't jumped in and caught him around the shoulders, lowering him gently back to the ground beside their sister. For the first time in a long time, the incessant whispering of the Shukaku in his head had fallen silent.

"Hey." Gaara looked up again and saw Uzumaki Naruto smiling down on him through the blood staining his face. "I thought you said you were alone, that you always have been and always will be?" He nodded at Kankurō, supporting his little brother, and Temari, who had risked death trying to protect him. "You don't look so alone from where I'm standing."

Gaara blinked in confusion, then looked down at his unconscious sister, just as she started to stir. Then he turned to the other side to look at Kankurō. His brother looked away awkwardly, but... were his cheeks red beneath his purple facepaint? He turned back to Naruto and, for the first time in six years, felt his lips starting to curve upwards in the small but genuine smile that he thought had died with Yashamaru. "I guess... you could be right..."

TO BE CONTINUED...

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AUTHOR'S NOTES:

Phew, what an epic undertaking! This is easily my longest chapter yet, about twice as long as the average and more than 6000 words longer than chapter 7, the previous longest. But there's more to it than just its length, a lot of things happened between the release of chapter 9 and the completion of this one. If you don't mind me indulging in a little personal anecdote, I lost my brand-new job under incredibly shady circumstances (my employer trumped up an excuse to throw me out on my ass without warning as part of their little scheme to rort the system) and the ensuing fit of depression completely crushed any faith I had in other people. Resolving myself to never working for another employer again (unless they were someone I knew personally and am sure I can trust, which hasn't happened so far and isn't likely to) I decided to make an attempt to become a professional writer, based largely on the reception I seem to have garnered with Secret Songs (possibly a bit optimistic as the fic doesn't even have a hundred reviews yet). I've been trying to work on both a novel and a couple of short stories in the time since then, with not much success, but I'm still committed to writing Secret Songs even though I could never make a living from it- it's important to me that I get this story done, it's the only thing that keeps me believing that I actually can write. Now this chapter is finally out I'm hoping I'll get the boost I need to thrash out some professional work.

A lot else has happened since my last release, the most notable thing being the end of the actual Naruto manga. Now that it's finally complete I can give my ultimate verdict on it and... oh my god did the mighty fall a long way! I still remember how much the series thrilled me back when I first watched/read it, back before the timeskip. The first 235 chapters of the manga/135 episodes of the anime are possibly the greatest shounen series of all time, with only Groove Adventure RAVE and Claymore contesting it in my (admittedly very unusual) personal opinion. After the timeskip it sustained its quality for the first few arcs (the 'Rescue Gaara' arc was a classic, with characters like Chiyo and Sasori as well as Sakura getting her all-time greatest material, and the 'Grass Country' arc got off to a great start with that awesome battle between 4-Tails Naruto and Orochimaru) but the cracks were already starting to show, with Kishimoto retconning Naruto and Gaara into part a series of nine "jinchuuriki" just to give Akatsuki something to do and Sasuke being derailed into a complete Marty Stu douchebag. While it had some good points (Shikamaru's character development in the Asuma/Hidan/Kakuzu arc) and dabbled with greatness in the Pain Invasion arc (until Kishimoto completely dropped the ball right at the finish line), I think the series finally lost it once and for all when Tobi "revealed" himself to be Uchiha Madara, Itachi was retconned into being a good guy all along (and immediately went from complete monster to the single most-shilled character of all time), Sasuke lost almost every trace of sympathetic characterisation he had left (while we were still expected to be sympathetic towards him because... just because) and the Uchiha Plot Stranglehold began to choke the life from the story. By the climax of the series the entire thing had gone completely snooker-loopy, with the cosmic chronology being completely rewritten on the fly (wasn't chakra supposed to be the natural life force that exists in all things, not a magic power-up a woman stole from a god-tree and shared with all mankind?), the real Madara turning into the ultimate God-Mode Villain Sue and Black Zetsu coming out of nowhere to reveal that literally the entire plot of the story had happened because Dead Goddess Mama wasn't happy. It was sickening how bad the manga had become by the end, literally painful to read when you recalled how great it was back in the days of the Wave Country arc, the Chuunin Exam arc and the Sasuke Retrieval Mission. Literally the only thing I liked about the ending was that Naruto did eventually end up with Hinata, and The Last: Naruto the Movie was an absolute godsend for giving us the proper canon resolution of their relationship that Kishimoto never found the time to write himself. I haven't started reading the new gaiden manga yet (too afraid to, I think) but from what spoilers I've heard, Boruto is an irritating little git and Kishimoto has somehow managed to make Sasuke an even bigger asshole than he already was (and let me remind you that at the end of the manga he decided to murder his best friend and all 5 Kages and become the hated ruler of the world "for it's own good"). I guess I'll try and read it some time after posting this.

This might actually make this a good point to discuss my long-term goals for this fanfic, especially as this chapter will have brought some of them to the forefront. For starters, those of you wondering why at no point in this chapter did anyone refer to either Naruto or Gaara as "jinchuuriki" should go back and count the number of times they were referred to as such during the original Chuunin Exam/Sand & Sound Invasion arc (to save you some time, the answer is "none"). What I've decided to do with this fic is simply disregard the manga beyond a certain point; that point being where Kishimoto started arbitrarily rewriting canon at the drop of a hat. To put it bluntly, Naruto and Gaara are not jinchuuriki because there's no such thing in this continuity- no "Tailed Beasts", no "Ten Tails", and certainly no friggin' Kaguya. Does this mean that absolutely nothing from after the timeskip is canon? No, it just means that I'm cherry-picking what I do and don't want to acknowledge as canon. After all, if I didn't then the world would technically be doomed because Sasuke (the "reincarnation of Indra") is already dead (and I killed him off in this story WAY before this was revealed in the manga) so technically nobody can stop Madara's stupid plan. Except I'm not messing with that nonsense. Of course Akatsuki still exists (they were introduced before the timeskip, with Itachi making a hell of a first villainous impression that made his later "he was a good guy all along" schtick ring incredibly hollow) but don't expect everything else to play out as it did in the manga. I'll be keeping some plot aspects and characters and discarding others, so you need to keep an open mind- but I WILL promise that I'll at least keep my story more consistent than Kishimoto did. I'm committed to keeping the story in the same groove as the pre-timeskip manga, back when everything was awesome. I know this little confession may alienate some readers who actually liked the way the manga developed and ended (you strange, strange people you) but there's nothing to be gained from hiding my intentions until you're all going "wait, what the hell...?", so I might as well just come clean and wish anyone who decides to stop reading goodbye and good luck.

There's one more chapter left in this "superarc" of the fic, wrapping up not only the loose ends from this chapter, but the entire post-Konoha-destruction story (from chapter 7 on). As a result, chapter 11 will be a lot shorter than this (and hopefully out a LOT quicker) and then chapter 12 will mark the real beginning of the "main story" (yes, there is going to be a main story). Unfortunately I can't make any kind of prediction of when I'll have chapter 11 out by, because I must get on with my professional writing now, as a matter of urgency.

Seriously though, could even just one of you please put in an entry on TV Tropes' Naruto Fanfic Recommendations page ('For Want of a Nail' subpage)? As a long-time troper it'd mean a lot to me (and would also go a long way towards getting my story more exposure even when it's fallen off the front page here) but writers are strictly prohibited from recommending my own work. Please. At least ONE of you has to be a Troper. EDIT: This has now been done. THANK YOU MrBright01.

NEXT TIME:

With all threats answered, the time for healing has come. Healing bodies, healing alliances, healing hearts. Naruto's power has been tested in battle time and time again; now it is his compassion that will be put to the test. And as the journey home begins, it is his heart that will face a new challenge, in Naruto: The Secret Songs of the Ninja chapter 11 - The Song of the Desert Winds.

- Arcane Azmadi