A/N: Heeelllloooooooooo everyone! I apologize for the late update. School has realy been getting tougher and tougher, as a result requiring more of my attention. Also, I have been having more of that damned writers block. Help me out people! Hahaha…anyways, enjoy this next chapter! A little short I know, but better having a shorter chapter than waiting another week, right?

Enjoy!

Also, really quick, do you all want to see Naruto as more of a ninja/warrior from now on, or do you want to see him tap into that necroplasmic power of Hell as Spawn? Right now, I have him going back and forth for the most part. Is there a side you want to see him more in? Or maybe something else? Let me know what you think!

A Lost Soul

Chapter 26

Gratitude

Shukaku looked at Naruto and bowed to him and said, "You have my eternal gratitude for freeing me. Thank you, Naruto Uzumaki."

The dark brown cloaked figure stood up straight and Naruto could see that thin streams of sand floated around the figure, and the facial area was completely black, save for two perfectly round, golden eyes.

"Answer me this, Shukaku," Naruto began, "Were the Suna shinobi innocent of all of this? Were they deceived into this invasion? Or were they willingly coming here for blood? And what of the young man over there, the redhead?"

"Orochimaru had indeed isolated the Kazekage, eliminated him, then impersonated him," the sand spirit said to him. "The Sunagakure shinobi were reluctant, but had followed their leader's orders. They came here against their will. As for the young one, his name is Gaara. He was my container."

"Whats his story?" Naruto asked the sand spirit.

"The seal used to contain me was imperfect," Shukaku said to the blonde. "Because of this, his abilities were erratic and almost uncontrollable for a long time. Because of this fact, along with the knowledge that he was a jinchurriki, his life was a very harsh one. One much like yours, I assume."

Naruto looked down at the slowly dying redhead. He couldn't have been older than himself, around twenty years old or so. He looked closely, and he thought that he saw relief written all over the man's face.

Naruto kneeled down in front of Gaara and asked him, "Are you Gaara?"

Gaara weakly looked up, and seeing his enemy, nodded slightly.

"I hear that you had a rough one, much like myself. That's not fair. I know your pain. If your life was anything like mine, you don't deserve to go out this way. Shukaku, come here really quick."

Shukaku glided over to the blonde man and Naruto said to him, "I'm going to take half of your chakra and put it back within Gaara. Your chakra will soon return, and Gaara's chakra from you will never run out, much like Kurama did with me. That, and I'll alter his seal so that it continues to generate your chakra within him. You're going to be free, and Gaara will be alright. Give me your hands."

The sand spirit held out his hands. Naruto looked at the tan, cracked, and dried up appendages and placed a seal on each one and said to him, "Now, channel your chakra into it until I say stop."

The sand spirit nodded and clapped his hands together and channeled chakra. The two seals between his hands glowed brightly as he channeled more and more chakra. The glow became brighter and brighter until it turned a golden color and Naruto said, "Alright, that's enough."

Shukaku stopped channeling his chakra and watched as Naruto knelt and retrieved a separate piece of paper and drew a quick seal on it. He then removed the two seals on Shukaku's hands and placed them side by side on the piece of paper he just laid out. Naruto made the ram seal and said, "Uzumaki Style Sealing Arts: Chakra Conversion!"

The seals on the two pieces of paper glowed a bright golden color and seemed to sink through the two smaller pieces of paper onto the one Naruto had laid out. Once they were transferred, the sealing arrays morphed and combined into another sealing array entirely. After a couple of more moments, the glowing faded, and Naruto picked up the new seal of stored Biju chakra from the One Tails.

"Hold Gaara up so I can access his stomach," Naruto instructed to no one in particular.

Shukaku and Kurama were the ones to hold up the nearly dead redhead. Shukaku lifted up Gaara's shirt, revealing the seal.

Naruto was stunned at the terrible sealing job on Gaara and said vehemently, "Who the hell did his seal?! No wonder why it drove him crazy, the chakra flow is completely backwards! That, and the seal was not even very tight! Whoever sealed the One Tails inside of you Gaara clearly had no fucking clue what he was doing. I'm about to fix that, just hang on."

Naruto placed his hand over the seal on Gaara's stomach and said, "Uzumaki Style: Fuuin Kai!"

The seal on Gaara's stomach began turning in a counter clockwise direction, and Gaara began screaming in pain. Soon, the seal was completely gone. Working quickly, Naruto brought out an ink brush and ink and quickly drew a new, improved seal on Gaara's stomach and then placed his hand on the piece of paper that held the Biju chakra. The seal slowly shrunk and was gone from sight. He lifted his hand back up, and the sealing array had gone from the paper to the palm of his hand.

Naruto went through several hand signs and said, "Uzumaki Sealing Arts: Chakra Generation!"

He placed the hand with the new seal on the newly made seal on Gaara's stomach and then yelled out, "Fuuin!"

With a hard twist clockwise, Naruto had locked the new seal, as well as transferring the stored Biju chakra over to the new seal as well. Now, the seal on Gaara's stomach acted more as a battery that was constantly recharging itself. The Biju chakra within him would never diminish nor increase.

Almost immediately, Gaara felt better in every sense. He knelt in the ground, trying to catch his breath and get used to the new feeling of…peace. Peace within himself, and within his seal. There was no longer this evil sensation at the back of his mind trying to get out, it was more of a…sunny day with a cool breeze that he could meditate in without being disturbed. It was a perfect atmosphere within his mindscape instead of an area that housed a monster. He did something that he thought he hadn't done in a long, long, long time.

He smiled.

Naruto stood up again and looked towards the two groups of the small army that came to his home, the members of the Suna army and the members of the Oto army.

"Members of Sunagakure, you are hereby pardoned for your mistake, under the condition that you leave immediately without incident."

The Sunagakure shinobi immediately began walking back slowly. The only ones who stayed closer to them was a man in a full black body suit with ears on the top and what looked like face paint and a large bundle on his back that was wrapped up. The other was a gorgeous woman, with four large pigtails and a white kimono with mesh underneath. There was a huge fan on her back. They stood there, as if waiting for something.

Before Naruto addressed them, he turned slightly and addressed the Oto army and said, "You all, however, are done for. You willingly follow that damn snake. You came here both by orders and of your own free will to attack and destroy. Never again. Shukaku, if you would please."

Shukaku understood the unspoken request and complied. He floated in the air and stopped in front of Naruto and held up his hands. Large pillars of sand exploded from the ground like geysers from within the ranks of the Oto army. Random shinobi flew up in the air while others last arms and legs from the blasts of sand rising up from below them. They began to disperse in all directions, but Shukaku had other ideas.

He opened up his arms as if he was about to embrace someone. Huge curved walls of sand rose up and began to form a dome around the entirety of the Oto army. Shukaku, meanwhile, began to slowly close his arms closer and closer together. At the same time, the dome of sand surrounding the enemy was closing in as well. Within the sandy walls of the dome, the entire Oto army was literally being crushed. After a few moments, the huge sand dome had compressed to the size of a beach ball, blood pouring from the bottom of it. The compressed ball of sand, flesh and blood dissipated and fell to the ground. Shukaku turned to naruto and said, "It is done."

Naruto nodded at the Sand Biju. "Thank you. Now, lets take Gaara back to my house so he can recover."

….

About an hour later, Gaara sat up in an unfamiliar area. He didn't remember falling asleep. The last thing he remembered clearly was that a man named Naruto had basically ripped out his Biju, replaced his seal, and that was it. Somewhere down the road, he had fallen asleep.

"Gaara!"

He turned his head slightly and saw his brother, Kankuro, sitting in a chair close by. He got up immediately and kneeled next to the bed that his older brother lay in. "Hey Gaara, how are you feeling?"

"I feel…refreshed…" Gaara said in a monotone voice. "What…what happened?"

"Some guy named Naruto pulled out the sand spirit, Gaara," Kankuro said to him. "Pulled him out, replaced your seal with some sort of self generating chakra seal or something like that. The seal has some Biju chakra in it and it, like, holds it there or something like that, I don't really know all the details, but its something like that. This Naruto guy really helped you out man."

"Where is this Naruto?" Gaara asked.

Then, there was a knock on the door, and Tsunade Senju walked in with a clipboard.

"I see you're awake, that's good," Tsunade said to him. "How do you feel, Gaara?"

"Who are you?" Gaara asked.

"I am Tsunade Senju," She answered. Gaara's eyes widened slightly.

"The Godaime Hokage and one of the Legendary Sannin…forgive my rudeness," Gaara said with a slight bow, more out of going through the motions than real emotion.

"Don't worry about it," Tsunade told him. "I'm just here to check up on you. If you feel alright, and everything checks out, you'll be free to leave."

Gaara nodded as Tsunade did a thorough medical exam on him with her medical ninjitsu. After about five minutes or so of her examination, the green chakra faded and she told him, "Ok, you're good to go. However, your body is still pretty weak from the Biju extraction, so make sure that you take it easy for at least the next few days, ok?"

Gaara nodded and said, "Thank you, Tsunade sama."

Tsunade stood up and said to him, "Ill go get your older sister and Naruto." She turned and left the room. Gaara sat there for a few minutes, staring off into space. Kankuro was used to this, Gaara would sometimes do this to think. It was like Gaara's thinking stage where he could sort through and deal with various amounts of information.

About ten minutes later, Temari and Naruto walked through the door. Temari smiled a little and said, "Glad to see you're awake little brother."

Gaara looked at his older sister, then to the man with the long, spiky blonde hair that was slicked back. He looked at the red kimono and black chainmail and black armor. He also noted the two blades on his back. Everything about this man told him that he knew pain too. That he knew battle. That he knew everything that he himself knew as well.

"Why did you save me?" Gaara asked Naruto directly. He was never one to beat around the bush.

"Honestly," Naruto began, "You can thank the biju that you used to contain for that. He told me about your life. Well, in a nutshell, anyway. Your life was very similar to mine. And I think that someone with that sort of life should not die like that. you need to live life a little first. Being a jinchurriki is a heavy burden for anyone. For some is harder than others. Like you and me."

"So…you spared me because of the life that I've lived?" Gaara asked Naruto.

"More or less," Naruto said to him. "You had a shitty life for reasons that were out of your control completely. I thought you should get a second chance at life, to live life the way you want."

Gaara slightly nodded and said, "Thank you. If possible, I would like to speak with Shukaku."

Naruto nodded and said, "Sure thing. How about we get out of here and go look for him."

Gaara nodded and tried to stand up. It took him a couple of minutes, but he finally mustered up enough strength to stand up and walk on his own. Naruto, Temari, Kankuro, and Gaara walked through the main streets of Uzu, and the Sand siblings looked at everything with amazement. Slowly, the village of Uzu had been getting more and more people, and more and more merchants had come within the walls for business, and business was good. People from all over the elemental nations had heard that the village had resurfaced and had come to investigate. Sure enough, with the more attention, came more people who permanently relocated. They looked at all of the businesses, markets, children running around…the entire village, after a few months of its revival, had become a full blown village full of life.

"I had heard that the nine tails jinchurriki had died long ago," Gaara said as he walked alongside his two siblings.

"Yes," Naruto said, "But then he was revived ten years later."

"Revived?" Temari asked.

"By the Shinigami," Naruto answered. "The Death God made a bargain with the jinchurriki after he died. As a result, he was revived."

"How do you even know this?" Kankuro asked. "Were these rumors or legends or what?"

"Because," Naruto responded, "I was that person."

"It is impossible," Gaara said to him. "It is impossible for one to return to life after death."

"Tell that to the Shinigami. Either way, believe what you will."

"If that really was you, then how did you die?" Temari asked him.

"The villagers of Konoha was the ones who dealt the killing blow," Naruto said. "Most of the higher ups that planned my death are now dead and gone, but one still remains. One that I still need to kill."

"And who would that be?" Kankuro asked.

"The Fire Daimyo," Naruto answered. "He was the one who ordered it all. Al of his goons that carried out the act. Now, only he remains."

"I still find it hard to believe that you were the one who supposedly 'died' and returned to life," Kankuro said to Naruto.

He shrugged and said to the suit wearing man, "Like I said earlier, believe what you will, it wont change anything. We are coming up on Shukaku's location now."

They walked out of the village walls to a somewhat isolated location in the forest. Shukaku the sand spirit sat on the ground, the dark brown robes and cloak he wore were pooled around the ground as he meditated. He noticed Naruto and the sand siblings walk towards him and he greeted them with, "Good afternoon, Namikaze. What can I do for you?"

"Gaara wants to speak with you, Shukaku," Naruto said to the cloaked figure. The blackness within the hood was lit up by the two golden orbs as he stood up. Gaara slowly walked up to the cloaked figure and bowed slightly, saying, "I wish to thank you for providing me with your chakra so that I may live. I owe you my life."

"No, you owe this man here, Naruto," Shukaku said to him. "If it weren't for Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze, you would have died with or without me. It is because of his seal that I was able to give you my chakra in the first place."

Gaara once again turned to Naruto and said, "Thank you again, Naruto."

"Don't worry about it," Naruto said to the sand user. "However, I would appreciate it if you could help me out with something."

"I will do what I can," Gaara said with a nod.

"Do you now where the Six and Seven Tailed jinchurriki are?" Naruto asked him.

Temari was the first to answer. "The Seven tails is I believe in Takigakure, but she likes to try to escape a lot. And I believe the Six tails is actually rogue."

"Alright. Then, if you guys don't mind, I would like for you to retrieve them for me. I want to extract their tailed beasts from them and free them. Much like I did with Gaara."

"What about the other Tailed beasts? What happened to their jinchurriki?" Kankuro asked Naruto.

"They are dead," Naruto said simply. "Before you ask, they all attempted to attack and destroy my village, like they did all those years ago. Feel no sympathy for them. They got what was coming to them."

The sand siblings nodded their understanding.

"I will lure the Seven and six tails to you for extraction," Gaara said to him.

"Excellent!" Naruto said. "I would prefer it be nonviolent if you can help it."

"Understood," Gaara said as he began to walk away.

"Where are you going?" Kankuro asked him.

"This man saved my life," Gaara told his younger brother. "In doing so, I am in his debt. I do not like owing anyone anything. I shall repay my debt to him as soon as possible."

"Well not by yourself you're not," Temari said as she began following him. "Lets go Kankuro!"

"Aww man," Kankuro said, "I was just about to relax!"

…

The Fire Daimyo handed a large sum of money over to a man with a strange mask on and said, "Remember, I want the Namikaze boy alive," the ruler said. "Do that, and I shall grant you an additional ten percent."

"Two million ryo? For a kid? You got yourself a deal," the strange man said. "When you're done doing whatever it is you're gonna do, I want his heart."

"Why the hell would you want a dead man's heart?" The Fire Daimyo asked the strange man.

The strange man shrugged and said, "Lets just say that I've been meaning to increase my number of hearts from five to six," the strange man answered.

"Suit yourself," the Fire Daimyo said. "Just bring me the boy alive."

"Understood," the strange man said before he vanished in a swirl of leaves. He turned to another person who had a ridiculous looking haircut, almost feminine looking and said to him, "And you, I need you to destroy his village. Everything, it needs to go. I don't care how you do it, it just needs to get done!"

"Hmph," the feminine looking man said with a bored look. "Don't worry old man, MY art will take care of everything!"

That was the last thing the man said before he too vanished.

The Fire Daimyo shook his head exasperatingly and said to himself, "Damn mercenaries. No respect!"

Naruto's life was about to get a little more complicated.

….

A/N: hey everyone, again, sorry for the late update. Finals are really killin me over here. Anyways, who do you all think are the two mercenaries? Until next time, Roku out.