Chunin Exams arc
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"You really should not have eaten that much," Kiba scolded Akamaru. Karin had enjoyed feeding the young dog, and the latter had eaten so much Kiba had been forced to carry him on their way back to their rooms.
"Karin knows how much you care about Akamaru," Naruto smirked.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Nothing," Naruto said innocently, smiling at Hinata when Kiba looked away.
Hinata wanted to say something, but suddenly stopped. Knowing that they were in the same building as Gaara, Hinata had picked up the habit of regularly checking the environment with her byakugan. But now she saw something that wasn't right.
"Someone entered our room," she warned, and Naruto vanished.
"Gaara?" the blonde kunoichi asked. "You're not stupid enough to go here, are you?" she sighed.
Temari and her older brother Kankuro had lost sight of him again. Gaara had the annoying habit of vanishing, which she did not particularly mind when being at Sunagakure. Being close to him was rather dangerous after all. But to let him walk around freely here in Konoha..
She knew her younger brother was obsessed with that blond genin, who possessed chakra almost as monstrous as his. She was afraid that Gaara went after him, but their room was empty. "Damned brat," she cursed under her breath. "Where are you.."
With a loud crash, and before she really noticed it, she was forced down on to the ground. A strong hand crushed her throat. Gasping for breath, she looked into the now crimson eyes of the blond boy who had dared to challenge her little brother.
"What are you doing here? Speak," the boy ordered, with a voice that did not belong to him. It was a deep voice, almost more growling than speaking, and his entire presence radiated an inhuman hatred and rage.
Temari could not speak. He really was like her brother, a monster! Her eyes wide open, filled with fear, she desperately tried to get away. But the boy's strength was far beyond her own.
"Why would a little mouse sneak around here? Planting traps?" the boy smirked, "Did you really think you could hurt me?"
"What are you doing?" Naruto demanded.
"Having some fun," the Kyuubi smirked. "And teaching you a little lesson. That stupid woman filling your head with ideas of controlling me."
The Kyuubi laughed. "Just look how I make you choke this girl. How much control do you have now, weakling?"
Naruto's anger grew. "Good, good," the Kyuubi smiled. "Your anger just gives me more strength. Too bad you didn't lose your temper while the white-eyed bitch was around."
"ENOUGH!" Naruto shouted.
Temari stopped her struggling, and looked at the boy's face. His eyes were still crimson, but his voice had gone back to normal. And the malice that leaked from him stopped as well. Still, the hand around her throat did not stop squeezing. And the grip had lost nothing of its strength.
"Naruto!" Hinata, closely followed by Kiba, charged in to the room. The Hyuga heiress flew forward, and using Naruto's distraction she landed a hit on his arm with a single senbon.
One poisoned senbon.
Kiba jumped in to drag Temari away. And though the kunoichi was still frozen in fear, he took care she did not escape. Kiba too, wanted to know what she was doing in their room. But Naruto was their first priority now. Their biggest threat.
"Naruto? Are you.." Hinata saw the two different types of chakra swirl. Her byakugan witnessed the struggle for control. For the first time since she met Naruto she saw his vulnerability.
"You really think a little poison is enough?" Naruto frowned, his crimson eyes showing the amusement the fox felt.
She swallowed her tears, this was not the time to be afraid, Naruto needed something to calm him down. "Naruto.. Please don't give up."
Hinata suppressed her shivering, when Naruto's eyes looked into hers. His gentle blue eyes had been replaced by fiery and bestial crimson eyes, which looked at her without mercy. With his left arm immobilized by the needle with the paralysis poison, he now struggled to lift his right arm.
"No.." Naruto said with an erratic voice. "N.. No.. Don.. Don't…"
Hinata couldn't think. His grimace and despair… his struggle. She stepped forwards, past his partly raised arm, and hugged him. "You never gave up, Naruto-kun. You will never lose. You can't."
When she touched him, Naruto froze. For a moment, his face showed only hatred, revealing how much his fangs had grown.
But this was merely for a moment. And after which his arm fell down, and the crimson colour in his eyes disappeared. As did all the chakra he had amassed. Hinata could feel his muscles relax, and the turmoil of chakra end.
"I told you that you would win," she whispered, smiled despite the tears now flowing from her cheeks.
The fox howled. "Curse you! Next time I will break out!"
Naruto smiled weakly when he saw the fox's rant. For the first in a long time, Naruto felt clear. The continuous tension had left along with the Kyuubi's chakra.
"Thank you, fox," Naruto said to his prisoner. "You only managed to show me how much influence you had on me.. And now I know what to look for."
The fox clawed at the bars of his prison, furious that he made such a mistake. His grand plan of breaking free, now suffered a setback like this because of his own impatience!
Naruto simply looked at the demon's tantrum. Not impressed, knowing that the demon could never get to him while the prison was intact. "Sad… I was almost starting to feel some sympathy for you. Don't look so surprised, just because you only expect the worst of others, doesn't mean I am only capable of hating you."
"We're both prisoners, fox," Naruto sighed, after the demon snarled at him. "Both of us are victims.. Neither of us asked for this."
"Thank you, Hinata," Naruto said with a weak but gentle voice, as she helped him to a nearby chair. "But you should not have taken such risk.."
Hinata looked at him, but shook her head in denial. "No, there was no risk, Naruto-kun."
They heard Kiba grumbled as he restrained the struggling Suna kunoichi. She stopped when Akamaru jumped on top of her and barked. Despite his size, his teeth were too close to her face..
"Sorry about that," Naruto said with a little more resolution, looking at the Suna kunoichi. "But what were you doing here?"
Temari looked up, and Naruto saw the pure fear in her eyes. "There is no reason to be afraid," Hinata said gently. "Naruto-kun had a lot of pressure on him the last few days, but he is not dangerous."
"Not dangerous?" the kunoichi responded with a near hysterical voice. "I saw him. He spoke with its voice! I grew up with such a monster near me. I know when I should be afraid and when not. I know when I am supposed to run for my life and when not!"
"Did your teammates send you here?" Kiba asked.
"No," Temari admitted. "We lost track of him.. Gaara… I was afraid that.. I thought he would be looking for you," she said while looking at Naruto.
"You grew up with him?" Hinata remarked.
Temari laughed softly. "He's my little brother, not that he would care about blood ties. To him I am just another target. Another piece of meat which he can squeeze the life out."
"Is he that bad?" Kiba asked while slowly letting her sit up. Despite her still obvious fear of Naruto, she had relaxed a little.
"He is a monster.. He hates everything that moves."
"He is not. He holds a monster inside him, but Gaara himself is no monster," Naruto said firmly. "What was he like when he was younger? Did he change?"
Temari blinked.
"Hell. That wasn't such a difficult question, was it, girl?" Kiba frowned.
"My name is Temari," the girl said with some annoyance. She sighed. "I don't know what you want to hear.. When Gaara was younger, he already was unusually skilled. Father loved him for it. Until the accidents started to happen… people who got too close to Gaara always ended up getting hurt. Initially, this seemed to bother Gaara, as if it truly was an accident. But after he killed our uncle…"
Temari looked down, but she managed to regain her composure again. "After he killed uncle, Gaara changed. He began to enjoy killing. Right now.. To him, it is as easy as breathing."
"What kind of seal does he have?" Naruto asked. He had already sensed it, but Temari had just confirmed his suspicions. Naruto wondered if he could become like that as well.. What would have happened if he had not managed to push the Kyuubi back just now? How long would it take before his mind would crumble too?
"Naruto is the last descendant of the Uzumaki clan," Hinata explained upon seeing Temari's confusion. "He is very skilled in fuinjutsu."
"If Gaara hunts me as well, it is seems inevitable we will fight. If we do, and I could manage to defeat him without killing him, I might be able to strengthen Gaara's seal. Maybe that could give him a chance to regain his sanity," Naruto said softly. "It was not Gaara, who killed. I was the demon, trying to break free from the seal.."
"Is that… possible?" Temari uttered in disbelief.
"You just saw me," Naruto shrugged. "But seals are not flawless. The demons are far too strong for it. But because of the sealing technique that was used on me, I was able to fight back."
"But why would you.."
"Would you rather have me kill him?" Naruto frowned. "Would you rather have war between our countries?"
"No! No, but.."
"If Gaara dies, Suna weakens. If Suna weakens, there will inevitably be those who will try to exploit that weakness. Beyond that, if the demon got destroyed along with Gaara, it could destabilize the entire balance between the hidden villages, and lead to global warfare," Naruto explained, keeping his voice calm and controlled. "Though, I presume the same could be expected if Gaara would kill me." Hinata and Kiba looked at him.
"Listen, Temari of the sands," Naruto insisted. "This is your choice, either take it, or watch the world fall apart."
"I… I don't know much about his seal. I haven't really seen the seal that was put on Gaara for a long time.." Temari hesitated.
"And it is a secret?" Kiba deduced. "Chunin are supposed to be able to think and act for the good of their village, girl."
Temari grimaced, but managed to ignore the sneer. "Do you really think you could defeat Gaara, without killing him?"
"You just said that I'm a monster like he is, right?" Naruto shrugged. "So why not? Look, I know this is dangerous, but if there is a chance to avoid war, don't you think we should take it? Fuinjutsu is allowed during the exam, like any other jutsu, so technically I would not even break any of the exam's rules. But if any of the jonin are forced to interfere during the exam, we still risk an incident."
"We will not tell anyone about this," Hinata promised. "But please listen to Naruto-kun.."
Temari started to explain what she knew about the seal that Gaara had. Though his teammates did not understand, Naruto nodded a few times while Temari spoke. "I see.. This won't be easy, but with some preparation, it should not be impossible either.." Naruto frowned.
Naruto stood up from his chair, still shaky from the poison which was supposed to completely paralyse him. Naruto frowned, and considered the possibility that his resistance had improved due to Orochimaru's poisoning earlier. "Please do not tell Gaara or anyone else about this, Temari-san."
"Where are you going?" Kiba demanded. "Don't tell me you forgot that that Gaara is looking for you."
"Gaara is not near us, at the moment," Hinata replied, her byakugan activated. "He is at the third floor, talking with a tall man… a one-eyed man."
"That is our jonin-sensei. So Baki-sensei found him.." Temari sighed in relief. "Do you really know what you are doing?"
Naruto frowned a bit. "I have a good guess. Don't worry," he added when Temari opened her mouth to argue. "I will consult Jiraiya-sama first, the one who taught me about fuinjutsu. I do not know what will happen tomorrow, so I need to confirm a few things about the techniques I know." He turned around. "Listen, things will possibly become rather rough once we face each other. But I promise I will do whatever I can to avoid killing your little brother. Well, unless my survival depends on it.."
"Please don't worry too much, Temari-san," Hinata said after Naruto had left the room. "Naruto-kun made a promise, and he always keeps his promises."
"Why does he care so much? Why would he risk himself…" Temari was confused. And it wasn't helping she was now thinking about Gaara as her younger brother against, in contrast with the image of a monster she had of him the last few years.
"Naruto-kun was always alone," Hinata said gently. "Perhaps he sees Gaara as someone similar to himself. I don't think Gaara ever frightened Naruto-kun, but Naruto-kun is just unable not to worry about someone who is so similar to him. Perhaps he pities him, because he too could have become like Gaara.."
"He is too obsessed about this Gaara to joke about it anyway," Kiba added. "But we must thank you.. You gave him a way out, a path where he is not forced to kill Gaara."
Kiba's gratitude was extended by Akamaru, who licked Temari's hand.
A/N: I considered to let Gaara stay as a rather one-dimensional evil being, for Naruto to kill. But I thought the manga did a good job on portraying part 1 Gaara's complexity. The nearly lost struggle for his humanity.. I wonder how hard it must be if you cannot even trust your own sanity.
-Z-
Edited 22/02/15