Before I deal with anything else, I feel that I should address Sasuke. Yes he is learning sage arts. No he will not be turning against the village. I have better plans for him. I really like the way this chapter turned out, so I hope all of you do too. Feedback please! Author's note at bottom.

Gaara looked down at his new seal. "What does it do?"

"Well first off, it makes you a total badass. I suppose the fact that it allows you to draw on the Shukaku's chakra without it being able to take over would be a close second though." Naruto said playfully.

The normal calm, composed, and cool mannered Gaara lost it at that information. "What?! You mean I can use its power without it taking control?!"

"Not exactly… You see, the more chakra you draw out from it, the more influence it has on you. This was just the first step in getting it under control. Next, we move on to the hard part."

"So how do I take complete control?"

"Well… you have to beat the Shukaku in a tug of war over you life. However, before we do that, we have to do something that may prove even harder."

Gaara's silence was all Naruto needed to know that he wanted him to continue in his explanation. "You see, you have to come to terms with yourself before you can do the same with the One-Tail."

"Why do I have a feeling that I'm about to be set on a reclining bench, and have you be my shrink?"

"You have got to be kidding me. All the way up there?"

"Don't worry about it Sasuke, when you fall, Fukasaku will catch you."

Sasuke looked at the towering cone like mountains in front of him and had to swallow a knot in his throat. He grabbed the stone slate next to him, and began his ascent up to the top.

"So why do I have to be all the way up here for this?" Sasuke asked as he wobbled around on his slate that was poised on the tip of his mountain.

Even as he asked the question, he moved too much, and his slate fell, Sasuke following suite behind it. Fukasaku whipped out his tongue and caught him on his way down. The Uchiha was none to happy about being…frog handled. Sasuke got a new slate, and was back to his sitting position.

Fukasaku answered his previous question in a serious tone. "You have to remain perfectly still to gather natural chakra. Without the aid of the toad oil, it will be much harder for you to do. By brining you up here, we add consequence of the fall, which will be motive to improve. Furthermore, it makes it obvious if you are still or not. The slightest movement will make your slate tremble and soon after fall. You must be one with nature."

"Do you mean to tell me that Naruto completed this portion of the training?!"

"Well of course he did, why is that surprising?"

"Have you seen the kid? He is not exactly the most patient person. His energy is nearly limitless. For him to be able to sit so still seems like an impossible feat."

The end of sasuke's statement was meet with another fall. Again the toad sage caught him.

"Yoew doo hage a hoin ere oy."

Once Sasuke got back into position he asked him to repeat what he had just said.

"I said, you do have a point there boy. Naruto certainly is an… unusual sort of person to be able to compete this."

The rest of the day was filled with a falling Sasuke, shattered slates, and frog tongue.

"Alright Naruto, no holding back!"

The sound of all the Naruto's mumbling among themselves turned into a roar due to the shear volume of clones filling the area.

"What? What are all of you talking about!?"

One clone stepped forward as a representative for the others. "Well you see, the thing is Kiba, we think it would only be fare to hold back."

The color left the dog ninja's face momentarily before it returned bright red with anger. "ARE YOU CALLING ME WEAK!?"

"Ugh… not exactly." The clone thought for a minuet before continuing. "We just mean that you abilities are placed differently then ours. It would be best for your improvement if we fought in a similar style…"

Kiba seemed to be ok with the answer, having not realized what the clone had really just implied. Naruto's combat skills far exceeded his own, and thus the clones' abilities do as well. So by fighting in a similar style, they meant bring down their level to meet Kiba's. Despite not realizing it, it did not stop Kiba from jumping right into combat and Popping the first clone with his all fours jutsu.

'AHH! What was my clone thinking! He could have gotten Kiba really mad at me there!'

Hinata looked at the concerned face Naruto, and became concerned herself. "A-are you alright Naruto?"

Snapping back to attention he waved her off. "Oh its nothing to worry about Hinata. Just had a little conflict of interests with my clones."

'I feel like there might be something more here. I don't want anything bothering my Naruto.' She was about to press the issue more, but then she realized the thought that had just gone through her head, "My Naruto". This caused the girl to blush heavily abandon the idea of questioning him further.

As if sensing the girl's embarrassment, Naruto decided to play with her a little. "Hey Hinata, how about a game?"

"W-what game do you want to play N-Naruto?"

The blonde felt like laughing at his own childishness as he stated his game. "Truth or dare!"

Hinata wanted to crawl into a hole at that moment. The very idea of the game was to reveal things that she felt she might die if she said or did. However, she did not want to forfeit her time with Naruto. Despite the alarm bells going off in her head, she agreed.

"Alright, to be fair, you can ask me first! And I'll do dare!"

Hinata started pushing her fingers together as she was in thought. "You c-can go yell in p-public…"

Naruto frowned. "Hinata, I already do that every day. You can do better then that!"

"Well, y-you could… I mean… you could call Choji f-fat."

Naruto looked shocked. Had this shy girl really just dared him to insult a friend about a sensitive topic? She was braver then he thought. "I've got to hand it to you Hinata, I'm actually nervous about this one."

"Oh, I'm sorry! You don't have to do it!"

"No no, ill be fine. I'll use my shadow clone to be on the safe side."

In a moment that could only be described as evil genius, Hinata said. "No clones. You have to do it yourself!" The girl could hardly believe what she had just said, but seeing Naruto's face go pale made her giggle.

Naruto threw up his hand in mock horror and real astonishment. Then he stammered in a joking tone. "Y-Your horrible Hinata, how could you wish for what w-will be my d-death!"

Hinata nearly doubled over laughing at her Naruto's antics. Then she stopped. She had thought it again. "Her Naruto."

Seeing her face turn red again, Naruto took advantage of her sudden silence to talk. "Alright, alright, I'll do that later today so I can live to play the rest of this game. I want my turn after all. Sooooo, truth or dare Hinata?"

'Surely Naruto would not ask me anything embarrassing right away.' She then found her voice and squeaked out. "T-Truth!"

She would receive no mercy. "Who do you like?"

Naruto's face was that of a tormentor. Hinata's was that of a child who had just been told their dog got ran over.

"YOSH! This will be the perfect place to test the power of our flames of youth!" Lee shouted as they entered a clearing. "There will be no holding back to determine who is the most youthful!"

The multi-terrain area of training ground three offered forested area on all sides but one. That one was a river. In the middle was a clear space. This was the same place that Kakashi sensei had given team seven the bell test.

Naruto formed his ram seal to make one more clone. "You should go stand out of the way. If things get out of hand here, I could get popped. If that happens just make a new one, and then step in."

The second clone did as he was told; all to happy that he would not be the one having to fight the youth obsessed genin. Naruto settled into his fighting stance, as lee settled into his Goken stance. Guy was watching from the sidelines and smiled so wide that the sun reflect off his teeth, and he gave them a thumbs up before saying something about letting their flames burn their brightest.

Lee took his sensei's words to heart the moment they began, and he dropped his weights. "You defeated Neji. He was my eternal rival. Now you will have to take his place as my new eternal rival!" Lee widened his stance. "FIRST GATE: GAGE OF OPENING! OPEN!"

Naruto had no time to react as Lee dispelled him with a punch to his face. Naruto's other clone grunted at his impending doom. He formed the ram seal and told the new clone the same thing that the first one had told him, with a bit of modified instructions.

"Alight Bushy Brows, that last clone was a pushover! You won't even hit me!"

"If that is the case, then you leave me no choice. SECOND GATE: GATE OF REST! OPEN!"

This time Naruto was ready and began going blow for blow with the spandex clad ninja. Lee rushed in behind the clone and dropped to the ground before kicking up at Naruto, burring his foot into his stomach and sending him flying into the air. In his typical style, Lee appeared behind Naruto to kick him back to the ground. Naruto turned and blocked the kick, sending his own counter in the form of a left hook to Lee's face, before being launched back to the ground from the impact of Lee's kick with his guard.

"Sorry Bushy Brows, but if you want to hit me, you have to be faster, or more original."

"Then I will be both! THIRD GATE: GATE OF LIFE! OPEN!"

Lee shot forward with incredible speed, but dropped down to do the same kick to send Naruto into the air.

"I told you that you would have to be more original!" Naruto sidestepped the kick, and stomped down with his own foot… Only to have it go right through Lee. "An after image!"

"Reverse Lotus!" It was to late for the clone as Lee struck him from the back with a punch and a kick at the same time.

The next Naruto stepped out, but did not bother to summon a new one. He figured he should be enough. His eyes were lined in the orange hue that indicated his entrance into sage mode.

"I see that you did not make a replacement for yourself. That must mean your flames of youth burn strongly enough to make you think you can win. Then I must make my fire burn that much more! FOURTH GATE: GATE OF PAIN! OPEN!"

Naruto felt very nervous about Neji brining him to the Hyuga compound for their sparing session. Hiashi and Hinata's little sister, Hanabi, were watching from just outside the dojo. Naruto did not want things to get… out of hand. If this fight was going to be anywhere near what he thought it would be, this place was going to take a beating.

Neji smiled at the blonde's discomfort. "If you do not think you can win this match, you are free to surrender."

"As much as you would like that, my nindo is to never run away! That's my ninja way! Not to mention the chance to kick your butt in your own house was to much to pass up."

Naruto could have sworn Neji was laughing behind his emotionless mask of a face. But the Hyuga settled into his gentle fist stance, so Naruto decided he should cut the chatter and get to work. Devious work.

Neji charged forward to deliver his first set of palm strikes. Matching Neji's expert aim, Naruto executed expert elbow blocks, deflecting the chakra from his hands away. Neji ducked low and into Naruto's guard and sent forward a double palm strike into his abdomen. Before the strike could land, Naruto grabbed both Neji's arms, and flipped over his head. Continuing to hold on, Naruto used Neji's own arms to fling him over his head and towards a nearby tree. Of course the Hyuga quickly regained his balance and landed feet first against it, and used chakra to stick to it. Naruto pulled out a single kunai and threw it at Neji as he sprung of the tree and came in for another series of blows. He dodged the kunai effortlessly, letting it pass just by his head.

Naruto gave his devious grin for his devious work as he formed his hand signs. He vanished in a puff of smoke, and was replaced by the thrown kunai. Naruto reached around and put Neji in a headlock. His momentum still going forward, the Hyuga was dragged of balance and into Naruto. The blonde's fist came down onto his head and ground into it.

"NOOGIE!"

Every Hyuga watching, including Hiashi, let their composure slip and faced-palmed.

Naruto had his arms crossed and his eyes closed as he nodded up and down in agreement. "Yup, your right Gaara. Your life pretty much does suck."

"I thought you were supposed to be helping me through this, not reminding me of the bad things…"

"I'm just messing with you buddy. I just needed to have you speak your mind, and know what it is that you really have to deal with. Basically you know that you have love issues. Your mother died at birth, you were implanted with the One-Tale, and your village hated you for it. So before we move on to let you fight that hate, you must first know that you DO have love."

"What do you mean? Regardless of our current circumstances, my whole village still hates me."

"Not true, your brother and sister have chosen to remain in our village. They refuse to leave without their younger brother."

"It is their duty to our village to protect its secret weapon. They fear me."

"They fear the monster inside sealed inside. They love you. You are their own flesh and blood, the legacy of your mother. What's more, your father and mother both loved you."

"MY FATHER HATED ME! HE TRIED TO KILL ME! MY MOTHER CURSED ME AT MY BIRTH!" Tears were poring down the sand ninja's face.

Naruto reached out and placed his hand on his friends shoulder. "Gaara. I have something to tell you. Something that you told me a long time ago, yet still far in the future."

Gaara wiped his sleeve across his eyes. "You speak in riddles Uzumaki."

"Gaara, three years from now you are captured and killed by a group that withdrew the Shukaku from you. Nearly your entire village came to try and save you. When you were found to be dead, not one person was left with a dry eye. I'm sure you know of Granny Chiyo, she forfeited her life to return yours. You were the Kazekage."

"These things are impossible! You speak of what is to come like it has already passed! How would you know of them?!"

"Gaara I came back in time to save my friends from the coming war. All these things did happen. That is why I know what I'm about to tell you, because you told me it yourself. In the war to control all the tailed beasts, the enemy revived your father and you had to fight him. In that battle he confessed that your mother loved you. He had Yashamaru, your uncle, lie that she did not. Your sand that defends you is not from the Shukaku; it's your mother. She vowed to always protect you! Your uncle my have hated your father, but he never hated you. He followed orders to attack you that night! Your own father told you all of this during your battle with him. He did the one thing he failed to do all his life in that moment. He mended your broken heart, he gave back your family, and he decided to believe in you!" Naruto had tears running down his own face as he embraced a nearly broken Gaara.

Gaara could hardly speak through his tears. "H-he believed in me? My m-mother l-loved me? Even my village a-accepted me?"

Naruto pushed his friend to arms length and looked him in the eyes. "They all loved you Gaara. Show the village who you really are, and because the Kazekage again!"

The tears left Gaara's eyes, and were replaced by a fierce look of determination. "I will be the greatest Kazekage my village has ever known! I will beat the Shukaku's hate. I will do it for my loved ones!"

"Then you're ready."

Author's Note: Well I'll be. This is quite an emotional rollercoaster. Humor, battle, love, hate, bitterness, brokenness, and determination! I put a little bit of everything in here! I hope you all really enjoyed this chapter; next time there will be some awesome Naruto vs. Lee stuff. I'm not going to lie, that will be the best battle. This chapter was huge for Gaara.