Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of it's characters. I'm borrowing them for some fun and amusement.

"Please, be all right. Please be all right. Please be all right!"

Sakura caught herself mumbling those words over and over again as she waited for the smoke to clear down in the arena. Next to her, Hinata was quietly speaking Naruto's name as she continued to look through the smoke with her Byakugan. All the others were watching intensely, hoping to find a glimpse of the blond loudmouth as well, but the smoke was just too thick.

"If that idiot managed to get himself killed with his own attack, I'm going to get seriously pissed off at him!" Kiba yelled concern obvious on his face.

Slowly, the wind was carrying away the smoke as all people in the stadium were quickly focusing on finding the two shinobi.

"Where are they?"

"Do you see him?"

"What happened down there?"

All throughout the stadium varies shouts were coming, most of them exited or concerned.

As the smoke was finally fully cleared, they could all see the huge crater that had suddenly appeared in the centre of the arena, its deepest point right at the point where Shukaku had raised his sand orb.

"Don't tell me they really did die!" This time it was Ino who was shouting in fear and concern as she continued to search through the battlefield below.

"Over there!" Sasuke suddenly pointed at one of the walls that were still standing after the titanic battle that had occurred. At the base, a small crater had been formed with one person sitting in it, the other lying on the ground at his feet, also in a small crater.

Looking closer, they saw Gaara, with a new wound on his head and chest, both bleeding slightly, lying on the floor, while Naruto was the one sitting in the crater. The right arm of his jacket and his shirt were completely destroyed in his attack, causing his jacket to hang limply from one arm as the other one was completely exposed for all to see. As everyone saw the two young shinobi sitting there, silence suddenly returned to the stadium as everyone was tensely waiting for a signal either one of them was still alive.

The judge apparently also considered the arena to be a save place again as he reappeared to check up on both Shinobi. When Genma was still walking towards them, Naruto's voice was the one to break the silence again.

---

"Hey… Gaara…" Naruto started, looking down to see the red-haired shinobi lying at his feet. "Are… you… still… alive?" each word Naruto spoke came out in great difficulty.

"Hgn." Gaara slowly opened both his eyes to reveal they had reverted back to their natural color, indicating that Shukaku had finally been suppressed.

"That's good."

With that, silence reigned once again throughout the stadium as everyone in the stands held their breaths as the judge slowly walked up to the two boys.

"Why?" Gaara's broke the silence after almost half a minute had passed confusion evident in his speech. "I could not… control my body, but I… could see what was going on. You…. you had multiple chances to kill me… why didn't you do it? You would have been rid of all your problems."

Naruto looked at Gaara, as if trying to telepathically send him a message. Following that, he looked up at the sky as he tried to think of the reason.

"I don't really know why." Naruto simply stated after a few seconds as his eyes returned to look Gaara in the face again. "But if I had to say something, it's probably… because you reminded me of my old self."

"What are you talking about, Uzumaki Naruto?"

Naruto took a long deep breath as he looked down at his feet, as if he was embarrassed by what Gaara asked him. In that same pose he suddenly spoke up again.

"For as long as I can remember, people have always looked at me so coldly and they always hated me, though I never knew why. I always thought it was because I was all alone, because I had no parents. That's what I thought when I saw all the other kids play with each other and there parents. When I looked at them, I could see the happiness in the eyes of a father watching his son, a mother walking with her daughter and I could clearly see the cold looks they were giving me when I was near them. Whenever they looked at me with those eyes, I always thought; 'don't look at me like that. Just don't look at me with those cold eyes.'"

As he continued to look downward, diverting his eyes from both Gaara and everyone else in the stadium, Naruto struggled to keep his tears from flowing out as he remembered those times.

"And there was one time, when I was about 8 years old. There was a boy with his father, the father was looking at me with those cold eyes just like everyone else, but I wanted it to stop. I didn't care how, as long as I didn't have to look at those eyes any more. I really thought; 'stop looking at me like that or I'll hurt you. Turn your eyes away before I do something I won't forgive myself for later.' And even for a second, I really though about killing him, just to get his eyes away from me. And when I ran towards him, planning to hurt, maybe even kill him, to get rid of those eyes, I tripped. The man and his son were both laughing at me, but I saw his eyes in that one moment. If even it was for only a second, they didn't look as cold anymore.

I was really happy. Even if he was laughing at me, his eyes didn't look as cold. It was then that I decided that I'd anything to get rid of those eyes, even if it'd mean making a fool out of myself. I became a clown, just so I could stop people looking at me as cold as before. And even after I joined the Ninja academy I continued to be a joker, thinking it was the only way to divert those eyes. And then something else happened."

As Naruto raised his head to the sky, he had completely forgotten where he was right now. He never realized that almost the entire village was hanging onto his every word as he told his tale.

"With the exception of my classmate Sasuke, the entire Uchiha clan was killed in a single night. I never really knew what was going on, and I didn't really care either, but after that I realized something. Sasuke was suddenly alone, just like me. And I thought that, like me, he would be hated as well. One day, I was walking past the Great Konoha Lake, at the east of the village, and I saw him sitting there, on a pier as he was watching over the lake. I wanted to go and speak with him, but as we looked each other in the eye something stopped me. We both gave each other a stupid look, showing that we didn't care at all, and turned our heads away at the same time. But when I looked back at him, he had a smile on his face and I really couldn't help but grin a bit myself. Even so, I never had a chance to talk to him about being alone, so I waited for him to show up in class again, hoping to talk to him and maybe, just maybe, become friends. I never really got the chance too. Everyone accepted him back like nothing happened, some even hailed him as a hero for surviving. But everyone, no exceptions at all, did the one thing I have always tried so hard to get. They all accepted him, even though he was all alone.

It was then that I started to think about being accepted. What was so different from Sasuke and me? Why was it that people would accept him when he was all alone, but they all looked at me like I should just die? I thought about it a lot and in the end I thought that people accepted Sasuke because he was strong. He was from one of the strongest families in the village, even if he was the last remaining one, and he was the one always getting praised by the teachers because he was strong. As I learned more and more, I discovered that there was only one person in the village that everyone respected and accepted without fail. The strongest person in the village. The Hokage. And from that point onward I always started yelling stuff like; 'I'm going to be the Hokage one day' but actually, I was always lying to everyone, even to myself.

My real dream, the real goal I wanted to obtain, was for everyone to accept me, and becoming the Hokage was only my means to an end. And then, when someone finally accepted me, I realized just how good it felt. That feeling I got that everyone else experiences daily, it was definitely the best I ever felt. And I promised to myself that I would never let that feeling of happiness go away, even if it meant I had to die to protect it. Even if I had to die, in order to make sure that the people who accepted me, who gave me that feeling of happiness, would survive."

At the end of Naruto's story, some of the people in the crowd had lowered their heads, not sure where to look out of shame. But Gaara's eyes were still focused completely on Naruto as his mind raged.

'This person, he really lived through the same as me. And when he reached the same question as me, he chose to go down the hard way. I think I'm beginning to understand why he is so strong.'

"I guess," Naruto continued again, "I wanted to save you from Shukaku to tell you that. But also because I thought that I would have turned out like you if I had killed that man that day, instead of falling and making him laugh. As selfish as it is, I wanted to see if I was right that day. And I wanted to see it against Gaara, not Shukaku. To see what was the right choice."

"I think that you were right." Gaara suddenly said, every word said with difficulty. "You reached the same question I did, but you chose the hard way. You chose to try and get the people to accept you, while I killed all who looked at me. Where I tried to scare them away, having them fear me, you went down the harder path. You really are strong. I can't win. I give up."

Flabbergasted by Gaara's sudden surrender and acknowledgment, Naruto couldn't give any reaction other then a stunned look.

Silence reigned throughout the stadium as the judge slowly raised his hands.

"Winner; Uzumaki Naruto!"

Still nothing could be heard in the stadium, everyone needing some time to let the information sink in.

Sakura was the first one to find her voice again.

"He… He…!"

"HE WON!!!" Sakura and Ino suddenly shouted together. The shout sounded through the arena, with other's copying it. Then, as if they arranged it, everyone stood up at once, clapping and shouting for Naruto's victory.

The noise of people clapping and stamping didn't seem to reach Naruto at all. When a shadow suddenly stood over him, blocking all the sunlight, Naruto finally managed to look up and see his sensei standing there.

"Kakashi-sensei?" was all the stunned and hurt blond could utter.

"Yeah. Well fought Naruto. You won." Kakashi complimented him as he gave a smile through his mask.

"You were here?"

'I guess the amount of damage was too high. He most have lost track of his surroundings at some point.' Kakashi thought to himself.

"Yeah I was here Naruto. But look up for now, and see what's happening."

Following Kakashi's advice, Naruto looked up and suddenly saw all the people standing and going wild.

"What?! What's going on?" Naruto asked, still too shocked to realize what exactly was going on.

"All these people are congratulating you. You showed everyone here today just what happens when they mess with Konoha Shinobi. You showed them a fight that they will remember for the rest of their lives."

After looking around for a second and letting Kakashi's words sink in, Naruto suddenly turned his head down, looking at the ground again.

"Sorry," he said, as small drops fell from his face and onto the ground. "Right now I must really look pathetic." His talking and breathing were both staggering, indicating to Kakashi just what those drops really were.

"No Naruto." he answered. "Right now, you're looking stronger then ever before."

Naruto couldn't answer Kakashi's words, he had already passed out.

At the same time, Kankuro and Temari were rushing in to check up on their brother and teammate, concerned for his wellbeing for the first time in their lives.

"Hey Gaara! You ok?" Kankuro asked as he leaned over his brother.

Gaara was still looking at Naruto and Kakashi, who was bending down to pick the blond up now, and waited a second before he answered.

"I'm fine Kankuro. I think that the pain has lifted a little now."

He didn't react to the puzzled look his siblings gave him at his strange answer.

---

"Kakashi-sensei how's Naruto?" Sakura nearly jumped at the silver-haired teacher as he reached them with her teammate in his hands.

"It looks like he'll be fine with some rest. From what I can tell no permanent damage has been done to his body, but I can't say anything about his chakra circulation system or his brains. With the amount of hits that he took, I'll have a medic look at him after this tournament is over. But let him rest for now ok?"

Without anyone saying anything, Chouji and Ino also stood from their seats so that Naruto could be spread out on their positions. As Kakashi placed Naruto on the bench, Kiba suddenly took of his jacket and quickly folded it up before placing it under Naruto's head.

"You'd better recover completely you bastard." Kiba muttered to Naruto, "Because I'm so going to kick your ass for making us all worry like that. You have to stop trying to act cool like that or next time I really won't forgive you anymore."

As Kiba stepped back, everyone could see Naruto's condition after the fight. Kakashi and Gai took a look at Naruto before they both stepped back a little to talk without being interrupted, while everyone around Naruto started to make comments on his condition.

"He's pretty cute as well, not just strong." Sakura heard the comment from the girl that had been sitting behind her all along. The same one that had also said he was pretty strong after Neji's fight.

'Hey, Naruto is getting pretty famous suddenly. At this rate, I'll be the only no-name on the team.' Sakura thought as she gave a small, but slightly sad, smile.

At the same time, Hanabi's confusion only grew when she saw the blonde's current state.

"Why did he do that? There's a limit to how stupid and arrogant you can be about your own abilities. That's meaningless!" before anyone could answer the young girl, she turned around and ran away.

"Wait! Hanabi-sama!" Neji tried to call her back, knowing full well that her father had left the stadium after their meeting.

"Let her go Neji-nii-san." Hinata quietly said. "Hanabi-Chan doesn't really understand Naruto-kun's actions and she's just confused about it. She'll be fine; she only needs some time to think about it."

Meanwhile, Kakashi and Gai were still discussing what they had seen in the fight, talking about the level of Demonic control Naruto had shown, as well as his new techniques.

"True Gai, there is no denying that he has been trained by Jiraiya-sama this last month. It's the only way Naruto could have learned the frog-summoning technique and just about the only explanation I can think of that he can suddenly use Kyuubi's chakra like that." so far Kakashi and Gai had only managed to confirm each other's theories.

"But Kakashi, what about those weird moves he used. I know Jiraiya-sama is one of the legendary Sannin, but even he has limits to the control he has over chakra. Naruto has used nothing but bare chakra to guard Sasuke twice! And when he punched that sand earlier, the chakra wave the followed it were enough to completely dislocate Gaara's arm. You can't just ignore the possibility that the fox has influences on him."

Checking to ensure they wouldn't be overheard, Kakashi took a few seconds to think before answering the green-suited man, his voice no more then a whisper.

"No, I think that Naruto remains in control unless he is in some form of danger, mentally of physically. And when he uses Kyuubi's chakra too much he does loose his control a bit, it was obvious from the way he fought after Shukaku had awakened again. Naruto's normal fight style is to use Kage bunshin a lot to trick the opponent into showing an opening. But after that instant, when Naruto's appearance actually changed, his fight style was completely different too. He attacked continuously, with a fight style that most likely comes from his basic instincts. Listen Gai, Naruto is an idiot and that's the reason he always fails test, but…"

Kakashi turned around so he could look at the sleeping face of his student before continuing.

"When it comes to pure battle instincts or improvising on the battle field, Naruto is nothing short of a genius. His mind is not the sharpest around, but I have never seen anyone with a body that remembers so quickly. After trying a technique just once he can improve considerably. You can say the only thing that prevents him from being a true genius on the level of people like Itachi or Orochimaru is his mind. I think that everything that Naruto did after Shukaku awakened and he got up was because he was acting mostly on instinct, with no thoughts included. Because, if Naruto was being controlled by the Kyuubi, he would have killed Gaara and everyone else as soon as he had the chance. Instead, Naruto fought on and on to prevent anyone from interfering and killing Gaara. So most likely those, moves he did were also pure instinct."

"I see." The black haired, thick browed man answered, lost in thought. "I did notice the large difference between his fighting style against Kiba and now, but I couldn't really judge it all that much on 1 fight. But that still leaves the attack he used at the end, to destroy that orb of sand Gaara was hiding in. There is no doubt he copied it from Sasuke's Chidori. So what is that?"

"Like I said," Kakashi started as he turned his head to the sky, a sign he was thinking everything over some more, "Naruto is a genius in improvising, he created the Naruto Rendan he used against Kiba on the spot based on Sasuke's Lion Combo. He probably did something similar today with that 'Fox Fist' or whatever you want to call it. He saw the Chidori and heard the explanation, so basically he knew all the theory to creating a Chidori like attack. But if you look at all the details, you'll see the huge difference between them. Sasuke's Chidori made a small hole on the sand orb and cut Gaara through it, while Naruto's Fox Fist caused some kind of explosion strong enough to overpower it. And if you look at Naruto's condition, it would seem that the attack is not without danger to him either."

Taking a good long look at the young ninja, Gai suddenly saw what Kakashi meant.

"Of course!" he exclaimed. "The attack destroyed a part of his clothes, which means the feedback he gets from it is strong enough to deal actual damage to him. So if he uses it too much, he may just deal too much damage to himself, like with the Lotus technique."

"Exactly. I have no doubt that Naruto created that attack as a copy of the Chidori, possibly basing it on an attack he had previously used when using Kyuubi's chakra, but if you compare it to the Chidori… it's like comparing a sword and a bomb. The Chidori is a precision attack meant to pierce through anything, instantly killing enemies when I hit their vitals. Since the jutsu itself doesn't deal a lot of damage the feedback I get from it is very small, the power comes from the thrust before it.

But with Naruto's Fox Fist, he doesn't pierce through anything at all. He deals damage by explosion. As a result, it is much more destructive and can kill, or at least severely damage an enemy as soon as it hits, but in return the feedback is much greater and rotationally dangerous to the user. It is both the same and the complete opposite of the Chidori."

Kakashi gave a small laugh as he mentally added something.

'They are kind of like the users in that regard. Naruto and Sasuke are both the same and complete opposites in one.'

Kakashi was stopped from discussing the matter any further, because he suddenly saw a golden feather drop down near him as civilians all around fell asleep without reason.

"It's a Genjutsu! All shinobi, dispel it at once!" he yelled, as he formed his hands in the seal of the tiger and quickly dispelled the jutsu around himself. Just in time too, because no more then a few seconds later, an explosion rang sounded from the Hokage's special box as all hell broke loose around them. Kakashi could only reach one conclusion.

War had broken loose and the battlefield was the village of Konoha.

A/N:

And that ends the Gaara VS Naruto fight (at last) and we continue on into the war. What will happen? Wait for another month to find out.

Anyway, about the reviews I got:

I had multiple reviews asking if Naruto is already at the first-tail level. He is not, he is now at the same level with Kyuubi's chakra as he was during his fight with Sasuke before Sasuke get his Sharingan upgrade (just after Naruto was stabbed with the Chidori).

Another thing in the reviews was the comparison of Naruto's new attack with Tsunade's super-power. I hope that's been cleared up a bit in this chapter, with Kakashi explaining what the attack is.

As always, I would like to thank my 3 beta's; Zephyr-Tai-Ji, IllusionSky and mirrorsofillusions for their work on this chapter. Be sure to check out their stories, especially Zephyr's new story Fuintatsujin (can be found through my favorite stories).

As always, reviews are welcome and wanted.