Okay, so I kind of totally lost interest in Naruto, but I don't like the idea on giving up on the story, so I will be returning to it… I've pretty much lost all my ideas from the past (pretty much forgotten them) and then there is the part that I feel like my writing style has changed a bit, so I am not sure where I will go with this one and then there are many new stuff going on with Naruto that I am not too certain of (I've been reading the manga from time to time but I've stopped watching the anime since about the 100 episode of Shippuuden), so there is no much I know and I am just entering exams' time in my university, so until the end of June there probably won't be any more chapters of this story, but after it I probably would try to update more often- probably twice a month…

I've gone through the chapters and tried to remove some of the mistakes… but my English isn't perfect, so I am sure I will continue to get complains about mistakes…

This chapter is probably more of a teaser… pretty much my way of stating that this story is soon returning… I really don't have much time to spend into writing, so it's probably going to be short…

By the way I am not sure if I've told you this, but I have always been a Minato – lover and this story used to be a bit hard to not only write an alive Minato but also a bad one… now I probably (and hopefully) have to worry for the first part only…

Chapter 14 – Sealing Shukaku…

Sakura, Shikamaru and Pakkun were quickly trying to catch up to Sasuke, but soon had to part as Shikamaru stayed behind to hold back their persecutors and ended up having a great luck as Asuma appeared right on time to save him from certain death.

"You don't seem to be very worried about your teammate…" Pakkun stated as he looked somewhat suspiciously at the pink haired kunoichi, which smirked at him.

"Sasuke-kun is strong and he isn't exactly alone right now." Sakura said as she jumped from tree branch to another one.

"I don't remember seeing anyone with him!" The dog stated as he moved past Sakura, who just smiled without saying anything anymore.

While Sakura was chasing after them, Sasuke had been able to reach the sand nins, but then Temari made it, so Kankuro could get away with Gaara, while she fought Sasuke. It didn't take long for Sasuke to knock her to the ground and chase after the other two sand nins.

Temari wasn't going to just stay on the ground and too chased after them, showing up right after Sasuke and then taking Gaara away, while this time Kankuro stayed behind to fight Sasuke.

"This is getting irritating… I feel like I am playing tag!" Sasuke growled out and the small red fox that had been with him ever since the stadium sniggered next to his legs.

Sasuke was somewhat lucky as Shino appeared and stated that he would fight Kankuro, who had forfeited their match earlier.

The third time Sasuke caught up to Gaara he had his match, but ended up fighting Gaara who had started to change his body into Shukaku… and he was already on the end of his chakra… all he had left was chakra enough for one chidori and then he would have to start pulling chakra from the seal.

"He has a demon sealed inside him, Sasuke… It's better if I go and handle him." Kyuubi said next to him, but he shook his head at her.

"No. I want to fight him on my own. I will find a way to handle him." Sasuke stated as he remembered his previous meeting with the red headed boy.

Soon after that he formed another chidori and attacked Gaara with it but while he did somewhat hurt him, Gaara ended up creating a tail as well and shot himself at Sasuke. Sasuke moved away the first time and on the second one he tried to use Katon Goukakyuu no jutsu on Gaara, but it had no effect against his sand and as he prepared himself to be hit Kyuubi snatched him away from the hit.

"So the only thing with which I can harm him is Chidori." Sasuke murmured as he glared at Gaara, who was stating that his hatred was weaker than his. 'I am pretty much trying to make all my hate towards Itachi disappear, so yeah I am not that filled with hate anymore… but that doesn't make me weaker… caring for people and wanting to protect them is what makes people grow stronger. I will stop you here, Gaara and I won't let you harm anyone.' Sasuke thought and then looked at Kyuubi. "I know that Kimiko send you with me to help me, but I really feel like I have to try and handle him… I want to prove to him and myself that caring for people, wanting to protect them without centering all my attention on hate and revenge is something that makes me stronger… I lived for years with the idea of killing Itachi and tried to train myself, so I could be prepared when I face him, but then I started to actually become stronger after deciding to let go of this hate and started to spend my time and training with you, Kimiko, Sakura, Jiraiya and Kakashi. I now see that centering my mind on hatred only, isn't something that can make me happy." Sasuke said and then performed another chidori, drowning chakra from the seal and he smiled as he felt the scratches on his body getting healed.

'You've made your chakra heal me, even though it had gotten messed up with mine and I know nothing about healing… I feel like I can do at least two more chidories… Having put this much chakra after fighting Neji and then you went after Yondaime and Orochimaru. Will you be okay, Kimiko?' Sasuke thought and then he attacked Gaara. He successfully destroyed his made up monster hand but then he outgrew his other one and Sasuke glared but then his eyes widen as Sakura showed up right next to him.

"You okay, Sasuke-kun?" She asked gently while looking him over and he nodded.

"I am fine. You shouldn't have came." He scolded but Sakura shook her head. "Are both of my teammate nuts with recklessness?" Sasuke exclaimed and then glared at Gaara, he had to make sure that no harm come to Sakura and he was about to ask Kyuubi to protect her but they got attacked by Gaara and while he moved away from the hit he didn't see Gaara turn around in the last second and force Sakura against a tree with his hand.

"Bastard." Sasuke growled out and then formed another chidori with which he cut the hand that was holding Sakura against the tree. While Sasuke was expecting the sand to crumble to the ground it did not, it tightened more around Sakura and she passed out.

'His story is not much different from Kimiko's, the only difference is that her father didn't try to kill her, but he also didn't even acknowledge her as his child… Yet, she turned out to be such a kind hearted person…' Sasuke thought as he listened to Gaara's story while they were fighting. He had attacked him with chidori once again, but while he had destroyed his arm, again, Gaara ended up turning everything but his legs into a mini version of the monster sealed inside him.

Moving away from Gaara's attacks he formed another chidori, putting as much chakra inside it as he could. 'I can't keep on fighting like this… the only think I can do that harms him is chidori , but my chakra is slowly disappearing…' Sasuke thought and betted everything on his attack…

"Where is his power coming from…? Me… lose to this guy…? There's no way I can lose to this guy!" Gaara yelled as he was hit and then in an explosion showed up the full version of Shukaku, making everyone's eyes widen.

"Shit!" Sasuke cursed as he looked at the giant beast in front of him.

"I didn't expect to show this form to you." Gaara yelled out and then pointed his hand at Sasuke, whose eyes widen when sand started to surround him.

"This is it for you!" Gaara stated but then the sand that had surrounded Sasuke exploded away from him and he fall to his knees panting, having used almost all of his chakra to surround himself with lightening.

"It's better for me to take over from here on, Sasuke." Kyuubi said as she appeared next to Sasuke, looking at him a bit worriedly.

"I don't think I can even try to summon another chidori, so I guess this is the farthest I can go at this moment… at least I kicked his butt until he turned into this." Sasuke stated somewhat proudly, yet hesitantly and Kyuubi smiled at him.

"In a matter of a month you grew probably as strong as some jounins and maybe even stronger than some of them." Kyuubi said proudly and then looked at the one tailed demon.

"Sasuke, you actually forced him into this form all by yourself?" Kimiko exclaimed behind them and everyone looked at her surprised that she had shown up. "Awesome!"

"You okay? What happened with Orochimaru?" Sasuke asked as he looked at her a bit worriedly and then his eyes widen as he noted that she was in her real form… "What happened?"

"Tell you later. Now you better rest, because I can feel just how little chakra you have left…" She said and then looked at the small red fox.

"Let's go." Kyuubi said and then she transformed to her nine-tailed version with Kimiko on her head, making the sand nin's and Pakkun's eyes widen while Sasuke smiled proudly.

At first Kyuubi and Kimiko were handling Gaara pretty easily but then he off and forced himself into sleep and let Shukaku lose.

"I have to wake him up!" Kimiko said as she looked at the sleeping boy.

"I will hold Shukaku for you. Hit him, it will probably wake him up." Kyuubi said and then attacked Shukaku, trying to hold him in one place while Kimiko jumped off her head and hit Gaara in the face, landing on Shukaku's nose.

Kimiko started running at Gaara with the idea of hitting him once again to make the Shukaku's form dispel itself, but Gaara tried to use Dessert Coffin on her and she was forced to surround herself with wind to refrain the sand from reaching her, then she made it explode and remove the sand from around her after which she run to Gaara and hit him.

The hit indeed made Shukaku start turning into sand and the two of them started to fall to the ground.

For a second Kimiko had a hesitant look on her face, but then she put her hand on Gaara's chest and he looked at her surprised and then his eyes widen when he felt her chakra going into his body and he started having this kind of lighter feeling. "What?" He asked stunned.

"I've put another seal on Shukaku. This seal is much stronger than yours ever was and now you should be able to sleep without worrying about Shukaku going on rampage, but you will still have free access to his chakra… Pretty much you have all his chakra without the bad effects it brings you." Kimiko explained as she smiled at him, but then her eyes closed and the two of them started falling backyards to the hard ground, luckily Sasuke showed up and caught her before she could hit the ground, Sakura appearing right behind him and at the same time Temari and Kankuro appeared by Gaara's side, who had fallen to his knees and was looking at the red haired girl with somewhat worried and grateful look on his face.

Sasuke and Sakura tensed up at the appearing of the other two, knowing that they were in no condition to fight if they decided to attack them, but their eyes widen as their Hokage showed up right in front of them.

"Go back to your people and tell them to back off. Your Kazekage might be dead for the Kazekage I fought was Orochimaru. Go back to your village, choose a new Kage and then let us see what we can do about a peace treaty." Minato said and smiled at the grateful look of Temari and Kankurou and the grateful look on Gaara's face too, which was directed at his passed out daughter. They nodded and left and he turned to the ninjas behind him.

Minato looked at Kimiko and moved toward Sasuke to take her from him, but Sasuke moved a step away and looked uncertainly and distrustfully at him.

"It's okay he won't hurt her." Kyuubi said as she came from behind Minato in her small fox form and he smiled, and then he gently took Kimiko in his arms.

"Let's go to the hospital, you all need to be looked at." He suggested and then used a shunshin to transform them to the Hospital's entrance.

They went inside but the lobby was filled with hurt people that waited for medic-nins to look at them, while the medics were running from one corridor to another as they tried to look after everyone, giving priority to those that had gotten hurt more seriously.

"I hadn't thought there would be this many hurt people…" Minato murmured as he sadly looked at them and then he looked at his daughter in his arms, which had shifted slightly in his hold. "Follow me." He said to his companions and then led them to a different part of the hospital, it was more isolated and there were many vacant rooms, so he lead them to a three beds room and gently put Kimiko on one of them. "You better lie on the other beds… You aren't much better than Kimiko. I'll go and find a medic-nin to come and check you up. I am sorry but I can't stay with you right now." Minato said as he firstly looked at Sasuke and Sakura, but as he said the last part he looked at Kimiko and smiled sadly, wanting nothing more than to stay by her side but he was Hokage and had to take care of the village as well.

The next part of the day Minato spent arranging funerals, sending rebuilding teams and meeting the consul. By the time his work ended it was half way through the night and he was starting to dislike his job, especially now when he wanted nothing but to go and see how his daughter was… daughter, that word sounded so strange for him, but lit this warm feeling in his heart. 'I've lost so much of her life and it's obvious that she doesn't trust me… From now on I will make sure that she is safe and I will be there for her. She is all the family I have left and I will protect her no matter what!' Minato thought as he entered the hospital and went to the register, smiling at the tired looking reception clerk.

"Earlier I left three genins, in the east part of the hospital, top floor… can you tell me how they are doing?" He gently asked and the receptionist smiled at him and nodded.

"Uchiha Sasuke is mostly fine. He was only chakra exhausted and is currently resting in order to restore his chakra. Haruno Sakura had minor injuries and is resting as well. Both can leave the hospital tomorrow. Uzumaki Naruto had almost completely used his chakra and was close to dangerous chakra exhaustion, if he had used a bit more, we might have lost him. He also had some slight injuries. Both, Uchiha-san and Haruno-san, had woken up at some time and we were able to make sure that they are healthy and getting better, but Uzumaki-san has still to wake up and we are not sure when he would." She said as she got a bit of a sad look as she said the last part and Minato flinched, his face getting into a worried look on.

"I am guessing they are still in the same room?" Minato asked hastily and when the receptionist nodded, he disappeared down the corridor, quickly making his way to the room.

When he entered the room he looked at all three sleeping kids and his eyes quickly turned to the blond haired boy, getting surprised at first that Kimiko had turned back to looking as a boy. He snatched a chair that was sitting by the door and put it beside Naruto's bed, quickly sitting down and looked worriedly at the boy.

"I put a strong genjutsu, one that you humans can't actually sense, and hid her as Naruto." Kyuubi said as she appeared on Naruto's bed and Minato looked surprised at her.

"She doesn't want people to find out about her, huh?" Minato asked as he looked at the boy.

"She has her own reasons… the reason she didn't want to appear as a girl when she found out she was one was because she wasn't ready to be one openly… then there is the whole underestimating part on girls and she wanted to prove herself to the village, and then there was you and she also found out that there was someone behind my attack all those years back…" Kyuubi said as she too looked at Naruto.

"So Hiruzen-sama was right… the moment we were attacked he thought that that might be the case. But not many believed it and everyone ended up thinking that you were just a natural disaster."

"Disaster, huh? I guess I was one… I am a demon and one that's supposed to be full of anger, but I've actually never wanted to harm anyone… That man ended up destroying all my believes and he is someone I want to hunt down and show him what hell is, but he is also someone capable of controlling me, if I go at him I will end up being forced to do things against my will once again. Only when I am with Kimiko I know he can't control me, she has this vibe that kind of destroys his control… but that's actually far from the reason I stay beside her. When I was sealed I drove myself into sleep, not wanting to witness what I have done, but when I woke up, for the first time since Hagomoro died, I didn't feel alone and I found myself caring for this reckless, self-sacrificing, too kind hearted baka, that I ended up loving as a little sister." Kyuubi said as she lied down next to Kimiko's head.

'To think that this is Kyuubi…' Minato thought as he smiled at the red fox. "She loves you as a sister, too and I am happy she had someone like you by her side. I given her nothing but heartache, until now and it's good to know that someone was there to lessen the pain." Minato said as his smile fell and he looked sadly at the sleeping girl, wanting nothing but to apologize to her until he couldn't talk anymore, because he knew that what he had done, was something that he didn't deserve forgiveness for.

"She always loved you and the only thing she ever let herself hope for was that one day you would see her for whom she was… that you would love her like she loved you. I am very thankful that you finally cleared your head and decided to become the person she needs you to be. No one knows what the future hold, but I have a feeling that things won't be very bright… I feel like I can smell war rising slowly, it will probably be after a couple of years, by that man's hands." Kyuubi stated as she growled out the last part.

"Hopefully we won't reach to that point, but if it comes to that I will do everything in my power to stop it and protect her." Minato declared and then looked at his daughter that shifted slightly and then opened her eyes, smiling when she was him and he smiled too. "Hey, how are you?" Minato asked worriedly as he stood up to get closer to her.

"I feel tired but I am fine. How is everyone? Sasuke and Sakura?" Naruto asked worriedly and Minato shook his head with a smile, leave it to her to worry about other people, before she worried for herself.

"They are fine." Minato said as he nodded at the beds beside Kimiko's. "Chakra exhausted mostly but fine."

"I am glad. How are the people from the village? Did the war end?"

"Baka, worry about yourself a bit! What were you really thinking? You could have waited a bit to regain your chakra, before you up and sealed Shukaku!" Kyuubi growled at Naruto and he laughed awkwardly.

"Go to sleep. It's the middle of the night and you need rest." Minato said as he saw how tired Naruto looked and the boy smiled and listened to his words, falling asleep quickly.

On the other side of the village two black clothed figures with red clouds on their coats looked over the damage that Orochima had created.

"They were able to avoid complete destruction, but it looks like the damage was great" One of them said.

"The village that prospered like no other… has become pitiful." The other one stated.

"That's out of character. So even a person like you has no attachment to his home village?" the one with the big sword attached to his back asked.

"No. I don't." was the answer he got as the other person lifted his face slightly to show deep red eyes with three commas inside.

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Well I told you this was more of a teaser, so sorry it's not very long and it doesn't really show anything interesting…