The Hidden Truths of the Village Hidden in the Leaves
Summary: Starting after the trip to the Land of the Waves, Sasuke has developed a sense of overprotectivness a shinobi feels towards their partner and Naruto has to deal with new surprises every day. The secret behind the Uchiha clan massacre is revealed and Orochimaru is scared of one man. ANBU and foxes flock towards Naruto as much as danger does. A whole new take on the life of Team 7 and co.
Naruto blinked slowly as he woke up in the late morning, lying on a far too uncomfortable bed for the liking of his sore body and with too white a ceiling overhead for it to be a welcome wake up call. The only good thing about it was Shikamaru's voice from his left and he realized that the lazy genius was reading something to him. Blue eyes blinked blearily at his childhood friend and Shikamaru stopped reading when he noticed the younger boy was awake.
"I see you've decided to join the conscious world." The lazy drawl filled out the silent room and Naruto furrowed his brow a little. What was Shikamaru doing here? "Asuma-sensei sent me here to get my ears treated last week. Today is my final check up."
"Oh, from your fight against that Sound chick."
"Yeah." The genius said and yawned. "Then I overheard some nurses talking about you being brought in last night and decided to check on you. I was surprised you were even sent here. Doesn't Sasuke watch you like a hawk?"
The blond fidgeted and couldn't fight down the blush. "Actually, I haven't seen Sasuke since his fight in the preliminaries." Shikamaru looked genuinely surprised by this before his eyes narrowed. He had actually been confident that the Uchiha would have attached the blond to his hip and drag him around so he could always protect him after the Forest of Death incidence. But then again, Sasuke had to train for his fight against Gaara while Naruto had to train for his fight against Neji. Both have very different fighting styles, so it was only logical that the two don't train together. But wait, didn't Naruto say that he hadn't seen Sasuke since the preliminaries? It's been over a week since then! ''I tried looking for him yesterday, but no one seems to know where he is. I asked Kiba, Chouji, Ino, Sakura-chan, Hinata-chan, Tenten and even Shino. No one's seen the teme since then, too. I was getting really worried, but Kakashi-sensei at least told me he was fine and training hard for his match, so I guess maybe it's best if I don't bother him?''
''I don't think so.'' Shikamaru instantly replied and Naruto blinked at him a few times in surprise. ''I think Sasuke would actually be very happy to see you. He'll at least get the chance to see if you've recovered from the Forest of Death and all that jazz.''
The blond smiled at his lazy friend. ''Yeah, he'd probably relax after that, but I still don't want to interrupt his training and I don't even know where he is.''
''Then I guess it can't be helped. Man, how troublesome.'' Naruto laughed, completely relaxing in his childhood friend's presence. It seems to really have only been the stress from the Exams. When he had seen the others yesterday, they had seemed like their old selves. Well, Shino was always Shino, so he didn't count, but Kiba and Chouji were once again acting as his friends. They even apologized for some of their actions and while Kurama wanted Naruto to hold a grudge, the vessel knew it would be pointless. After all, they were only human. They were bound to act differently under stress and pressure. They weren't like Sasuke, who could stay as cold as a cube of ice, nor did they have a demon fox to keep them calm and sane during those times and Sakura was just plain used to the stress Naruto's, Sasuke's and Kakashi's shenanigans brought on a daily basis. He guessed it was only fair for them to went some pent up frustration in the way they had been doing. They couldn't exactly go find a target and spend the next few hours hitting it with all they've got.
''I agree. So, how are the others. How's your training going?''
Shikamaru shrugged. ''Ino seems to have forced herself to focus on her family's flower shop and Sakura's been spending every day training. I actually have no idea what she does but she looks exhausted by the end of the day, so I guess she's working hard. Chouji took up training a lot more seriously this time around, saying he wants to do better on the next mission that comes his way and that he wants to be prepared for the next Chuunin Exams. Kiba and Hinata have been helping Shino train and both seem to have made a full recovery, even if Kiba says that Hinata needs to take more breaks than usual. I haven't seen Neji around but Tenten tells me he's been training with her. I have no idea where Sasuke is but Lee is here, at the hospital. He still hasn't woken up after what happened with Gaara.'' The last was said in a tentative manner and both boys frowned at the thought of the redhead. Kurama even steered when Gaara was mentioned, that old sensation he has been giving off when the redhead was around emerging again. ''As for myself, I guess it's going fine. It's still so tiresome, though.''
''What about the guys from the other villages?''
''Haven't seen them and I'm thanking lady luck that that's the case.'' The Nara shrugged before he tugged something up on Naruto's bed. ''Sakura was here earlier and she left you this.'' Naruto stared in wonder at the fruit basket before diving for a shiny red apple and munching away happily. ''She and Ino had visited Chouji and Lee, since Chouji had overdone with eating this morning and got sent here.''
''Oh. Is he okay?'' Naruto asked after swallowing a big bite, half of the apple already gone. The other half quickly joined it in Naruto's stomach and the blond grabbed another one, a green apple tis time and quickly proceeded in devouring it. He thrust the casket towards Shikamaru and the genus took out one of the three banana and pealed it while he answered that Chouji was just fine and that he needed to regulate his meals for the next two days. Naruto couldn't help but snicker at that. ''Man, that must be like torture for him.''
''Yeah. Troublesome.'' Shikmaru said after a bit of his banana and the blond laughed openly this time. It felt great talking with someone his age again, since in the past week the only people he talked to were Kurama and Jiraiya. He didn't mind either but he kind of wanted to talk to his friends. He really wanted to talk with Sasuke soon, but he knew that until the month was up, chances of that were slim to none at best.
''Say, Shika, maybe we could check on Bushy Eyebrows a little later, ne?''
Shikamaru blinked at the request but nodded anyway. ''Yeah, sure. I guess it wouldn't be too troublesome.''
''Alright!'' The blond cheered and the Nara shook his head, but Naruto suddenly fell silent when a bad feeling washed over the bond from Kurama's side to his before he was bombarded with the fox's yelling in his head.
Kit, if you want that guy alive, you'll go to him now! I can sense that Suna brat near his chakra signature!
'What!?' Without further ado, Naruto jumped out of his bed, not even bothering with any footwear or his clothes, running out of the hospital room in only his boxers and the hospital gown. He ignored Shikamaru's cries and raced towards Lee's room, as Kurama directed him, but he was none the less glad when he heard the black haired boy taking off after him. It took them about a minute to get there and when they did, it really was a good thing Shikamaru had taken off after him, because he had only barely managed to restrain Gaara from killing Lee with his Sand Coffin. Had Shikanaru not used his Kage Mane, Gaara would have curled his fist all the way and with the sand already all over the still sleeping Lee, Gaara would have easily crushed him.
"Hey, bastard! What do you think you're doing to Bushy Eyebrows!?" Naruto demanded and Gaara turned to face them, startling Shikamaru that he could move in the bind he had over the redheads shadow. The Nara quickly tightened the bing, immobilizing Gaara with him facing them from his right side, his head turned towards them. It was only now both Konoha genin noticed that his right hand was fisting his hair and almost covering his eye, as well as the fact that enormous tremors seem to be traveling through Gaara's body. He even looked paler than normal and his eyes held this crazed look in them.
Naruto froze up when he saw what was behind that look. Loneliness. How hadn't he seen that before? How hadn't hee seen Gaara's as lonely as he'd been before being assigned to Team 7 with Sasuke and Sakura under Kakashi-sensei? Before the Land of the Waves and everything that happened there. Before everything that followed. Before Sasuke ... before the teme all but demanded he be let into Naruto's life by exchanging secrets between them. Before Naruto and Kurama became so close that Naruto swore the bars of Kurama's cage looked older and weaker every time he visited his inhabitant, these days especially. How hadn't he noticed his past suffering in someone else's eyes?
"Oi, Naruto! Snap out of it!" Shikamaru's yell made the blond realize he had stretched his hand out towards Gaara and that those teal eyes were trained on him, now confusion coloring them as the redhead stared at the Kyuubi vessel.
Gaara didn't understand any of this. He didn't understand the urge, the need to come here and stare at the boy he had almost killed a week ago. He had just ... stared doen at Rock Lee as he remembered the way his teacher had stood before Gaara's sand, ready to face death if it meant his student might have a chance to survive. The way he had proclaimed that he would protect the boy so similar to him in appearance and attitude with his life. They reminded Gaara of what a real father and son might look like.
They reminded Gaara just how utterly and completely alone he was.
Gaara did not have a happy childhood. He was shunned by his village, by his father, by his brother and sister and then even by the one person Gaara had actually thought loved him, his uncle. His uncle, who was ordered by his father to kill Gaara when he was only a toddler still. His uncle, who had accepted not because he had to, because it was an order from his Kazekage, but because he wanted to. Because Gaara's birth killed his beloved sister and it was all Gaara's fault. The loving uncle that had taught him so much was also the first person to teach Gaara what hatred was, how it felt to kill, what true and absolute loneliness was.
Gaara had been standing on the threshold of madness for his whole young life and his uncle had been the one to open the door and welcome Gaara in.
And that had awakened the beast.
The beast, the monster that insisted it was a biju, the Ichibi, called Shukaku, that made Gaara what he was today. He was feared and hated. People stayed away from him all the time. No one wanted to play with him or to talk with him. They looked the other way if his gaze was to accidentally brush him. When he was six, he had made one girl cry just by looking in her direction, despite not looking at her but something behind her. His brother and sister thought he was a freak, the monster he housed; he could see it oh so clearly in their eyes. Their eyes that didn't yet hold hatred but held fear. And fear breeds hatred, which in turn breeds even more hatred. The cycle is never ending and every time Gaara sees those looks in people's eyes, a little more of his control on Shukaku dies.
Shukaku is constantly whispering in his ear. The demon never sleeps, never rests, waiting for the first slip in control Gaara might have that he could exploit. The raccoon like beast wanted out, but the only way it could get out would be if Gaara lost control. That could only happen if he fell asleep or had an emotional breakdown. So Gaara put himself under a jutsu that allowed his brain not to completely die after the first five years without sleep. Then he put a sort of seal on his mind and heart, to restrain his emotions. Since this seal was supposed to regenerate itself during sleep, it was considerably weaker, but it still mostly did its job. Mostly, because if allowed Shukaku's emotions out in the form of a craving for death and pain.
It became the bane of his existence, but the seal couldn't be removed. He, under Shukaku's constant influence of bloodlust, started acting the same. The only way he could feel alive, the only time he could confirm his existence was when he killed. The biju would talk to him for hours on end of different way they could kill the people they saw pass by them and the worst part? He was the only thing Gaara could talk to. There was no one and nothing else. He was Gaara's only companion and wasn't that just pathetic.
Gaara always thought he was one of a kind. Not because he had a monster sealed away inside his body but because of this strange feeling he always felt. He felt ... strange. He saw everyone have someone and he wanted that,.but he knew he couldn't get that and it left a bitter taste in his mouth. But that aside, he knew he felt like an isolated island of sand in an ocean of beautiful water. He felt left out, cheated of those beautiful moments everyone else seemed to have. He felt ... alone, even when he was in a room full of people. He didn't understand that, but he felt he was the only one who felt like this. Him and only him. This rage, this sensation of always being alone, the need to prove his existence ... no one but him felt like this, he was sure.
Until he laid eyes on Uchiha Sasuke for the first time.
The raven haired genius had the same eyes as him, desiring power and recognition and revenge, an underlining anger always present there, no matter what other emotion might flash through his eyes. Those black eyes were the eyes of someone so utterly betrayed and alone that they matched Gaara's. Gaara eould know; he had spent hours studying his eyes to memorize the look in them and measure everyone else by it. And Uchiha Sasuke had been an exact copy in a different color. That cold fire burned and froze his blood and Gaara knew, should he ever fight Sasuke, he would kill him and the Uchiha's death would be the ultimate test and proof of his existence. Gaara knew that Uchiha Sasuke's death was sure to keep Shukaku's and his own bloodlust at bay for a month, if not longer.
But then he had noticed all those emotions that made them similar slowly but surely slipping away from those dark eyes, a lot more quickly when they landed on a certain blue eyed individual. This blond idiot that was the loudest in the room and that always made a scene. The boy before him now, staring at him with something akin to horrified recognition in his startlingly cerulean eyes. The eyes that drew Uchiha Sasuke in and away from those feelings that Gaara lived with. Uzumaki Naruto.
Gaara definitely wasn't going to let Uchiha Sasuke go just like that. His blood would sooth Shukaku for quite some time and as a little treat until the day of the Finals in three weeks, Gaara guessed the blood of Uzumaki Naruto would do. That Sound ninja two nights ago wasn't enough at all.
"I'm cutting the loose end I made the mistake of leaving." Gaara replied in his cold voice and watched the two boys react.
"W-what?"
"I tried to kill him. And you'rd in my way."
"Why do you need to do that? You won the match." Shikamaru asked, not daring to look away from Gaara, despite him being caught in his technique. He didn't feel safe in a room with this guy and he had an unconscious Lee to worry about and Naruto, for whom he had to look after as both his friend and to avoid a painful death by Sasuke's hand. As scary as Gaara might be, Shikamaru didn't doubt that Sasuke would be scarier if something were to happen to Naruto and it was all Shikamaru's fault. "Do you have some sort of personal grudge against him?"
"No." Gaara replied calmly and the two leaf genin felt unease in their hearts. "I'm going to kill him because I want him dead."
"That's the most selfish thing I've ever heard!" Naruto accused, glaring at Gaara.
"You grew up in a weird environment, didn't you?" Gaara's brow twitched unseeingly. "You're really eccentric, you know." Shikamaru said, trying to think of a way the get them out of this situation without having to tell Naruto to go near Gaara to retrieve Lee. The guy was too freaky and unpredictable. Shikamaru knew if he did something that just he and Naruto wouldn't be enough.
"If you bother me, I will kill you two, too." He said casually and chills ran up and down Shikamaru's side, but Naruto suddenly felt Kurama lunging forth in his cage. 'Kurama?'
Let me at him, Naruto. I'll teach that little piece of shit some manners! The fox raged but Naruto didn't listen to him. Unleashing Kurama here would only cause a lot more problems. Well, if you're not going to let me bite, at least bare your teeth, brat! You're killing me here.
'Fine, fine.' Naruto grumbled at the fox before gritting his teeth and intensifying his glare at Gaara. "Just try it, then." He ignored Shika's panic at attempts at getting him to shut up, instead studying the way those black rimmed eyes widened at his lack of fear.
Gaara actually glared at the blond. Was this kid provoking him? Well, at least he'll have an excuse when he kills him. "I'll say this one more time. If you bother me, I will kill you."
Naruto scoffed. "You can't kill me."
"Oi, Naruto, are you crazy?! You can't beat him! He's as strong as a monster! You know that, right?!" Shikamaru yelled at the shorter of the two leaf shinobi and both blond and redhead twitched at the word 'monster'. Well, Naruto flinched, but Gaara didn't show enough emotion for that.
Go for it, Kit.
'Sasuke's going to kill me for this later, isn't he?'
At least you'll live to see that later, and I'm sure Uchiha will be appeased if you tell him another little secret. Like how you and I can talk and are an awesome but-kicking team. The Kyuubi casually said and Naruto felt like smirking. And he figured, why the hell not? So he smirked at Gaara and relished in the feeling of Kurama's chakra overlapping with his own. Ever since the summoning of Gamabunta, Naruto had felt that using Kurama's chakra was easier. The demon fox explained that it was because Naruto finally started learning how to use his powers as a Jinchuuriki. While Kurama could always give him power, Naruto needs to know how to take it, too. Or in the case of their teamwork as it was, how to receive and embrace it. The perverted hermit had at least done them one good. But the toad summoner was now hiding from them and Naruto wondered who would supervise his training now.
But he can deal with that later. He has to deal with Gaara now.
"I have a real monster inside of me. I won't lose to him." Gaara's eyes actually widened and he clutched his head, as if he was in pain when Shukaku suddenly started trashing around in his mind, very, very negatively reacting to this piece of news. He was now glaring at the two Konoha genin through Gaara's eyes and Naruto suddenly realized something. No wonder his and Gaara's eyes seemed so alike. "But you have one, too... Don't you?" Gaara's grip on his head tightened. "You're a Jinchuuriki, just like me. You have a biju like I have Kurama."
Gaara screamed in pain as Shukaku howled in rage and lunged for Naruto, breaking Shikamaru's hold, ready to kill Naruto and the fox he hosted. Blue eyes turned red as teal eyes transformed into feverish gold, sand moving to its master's will and a strange red chakra seeping out of Naruto's body, engulfing his form as Shikamaru watched in terror and shock as his friend engaged such a dangerous person and he could do nothing but watch-
And suddenly the room seemed to freeze as a figure appeared between the two Jinchuuriki, his back to Naruto and his front to Gaara. Gaara's eyes widened when he felt Shukaku suddenly shrink into the back of his mind in fear as red seemed to flash through the two eye holes on a white and red Kitsune ANBU mask of Uchitachi. The Ichibi's power retreated so much that, for a moment, Gaara swore the raccoon was gone from his body. He barely landed on his feet as his sand fell to the ground.
Gaara looked up at the teamless ANBU captain and for the first time felt fear.
Uchitachi's voice broke no compromise as he uttered one order.
"That's enough."
