Sasuke's fight with Gaara played out the same way it had the first time they participated in the chuunin exams in order to stick to their plan. He had been worried that it might not work like they wanted it to because of Naruto's interference until this point, but the whole battle remained the same.

He got so caught up in sticking to exactly what had happened the first time that he almost chased after Gaara when he and his siblings ran into the forest, but before he could Sakura ran past him and said in his mind, "Stick to the plan." Sasuke nodded even though he knew that Sakura could no longer see him and turned to run to where the hokage and the fake kazekage sat. He had to run at his top speed to make it onto the roof and into the area of the hokage's battle before Orochimaru's subordinates were able to put up the barrier. He saw as the ANBUs who were just behind him stopped because they didn't make it in time to go inside.

"I never thought I'd get to face you in battle again," smirked Orochimaru.

No one noticed Sasuke inside the barrier so he took the chance to turn and take down one of the people keeping the barrier up, but before he could attack they had already placed an inner barrier so that no one could reach them. Sasuke growled quietly to himself.

"It doesn't look like I'll be able to get out of this easily," said the Hokage.

"Of course it won't be easy," said Orochimaru. "I know you. It would be a bother if someone got in here and got in our way. Wouldn't it?"

"You're a little late," said Sasuke. "I've already gotten in."

"Sasuke!" gasped the Hokage. "What are you doing here?"

"Sasuke," Orochimaru smirked. "I always welcome you. Have you come to regain the present that I gave you? The one that the jinchuuriki stole from you."

"Never," answered Sasuke.

Sakura followed closely behind Naruto as the two of them chased Gaara and his siblings. She was thankful that they were able to beat the ambush and were now gaining on the sand children. Naruto was running before her rather quickly. She knew he was trying to be slow for her sake, but his worry for Gaara was making him speed up slowly and she was having a hard time keeping up with him.

"We've almost caught up," said Naruto.

"I'm glad," said Sakura a little breathlessly. She cursed herself. She didn't want Naruto to realize that he was pushing her too hard because he would be worried about her and he didn't have the time to do that. Thankfully, Naruto didn't notice her little slip up.

Instead Naruto quickened his speed. Sakura didn't even try to keep up with him. She knew that she wasn't really needed anyway. She was really a just in case measure during this part of the plan.

Naruto landed right in front of the siblings of sand making them stop in their tracks. Before either of them could do anything about it Naruto lunged forward and yelled, "Possum jutsu!" as he touched Gaara making them both fall asleep.

Sakura was barely able to catch him before he went plummeting to the ground. She carried his surprisingly light body to a branch nearby to watch what was going on.

"This isn't good," said Temari cautiously as she lowered Gaara to the branch.

"The idiot is going to wake up Shukaku," growled Kankurou.

"Don't worry," said Sakura. "Naruto's going to stop all of Shukaku's rampages right now."

"How do you know?" hissed Temari.

"Because I've seen him do it before."

"What do you mean?" asked Kankurou.

"He has two other jinchuuriki living at his house," answered Sakura. "Trust me. Naruto will help your brother get through this without a rampaging Shukaku.

Gaara awoke in the middle of the desert to find Naruto looking at him carefully.

"Is this another walk through memories? What memories do you have to show me now?" he asked.

Naruto laughed. "No. If you want to find memories here you'll have to find them on your own. I've come here to show you something else entirely."

"What is it?" asked Gaara.

"Shuka-chan," Naruto answered.

"How do you know about Shuka-chan?" gasped Gaara.

Naruto just smiled and began to walk towards a forming sand cloud. "Don't go that way!" gasped Gaara.

"Don't worry," Naruto smiled as he took Gaara's hand and pulled him forward. "We're going to the eye of the storm." They battled their way through the storm until they came upon a thick forest that they couldn't even get into because the trees were too close together. "Here we are."

"Why were we trying to get here?"

"Shuka-chan is behind those trees," said Naruto.

"Really!" gasped Gaara. "How will we get in though?"

"You just have to want to go in," said Naruto.

"What do you mean?" asked Gaara.

"Do you want to go in there and see Shuka-chan?"

"Of course I do." As Gaara said this the sand below the trees began to shift and pulled the trees along with it. A path was made just big enough for a human to walk through. They walked through the trees for so long that they couldn't even see the sand anymore. "What is this place?"

"This place is your happiness," answered Naruto.

"My happiness?" asked Gaara.

"It used to be a lot bigger, but as you had to suffer through more and more pain the bleak sand took over much of the life of your happiness."

"Why was it blocked before?"

"Your fear of the demon prompted you to seal off your emotions and live as though you didn't have any of them."

"How do you know all these things?"

"I've done my research," said Naruto. "I'm trying to bring all the jinchuuriki together before the akatsuki can get a hold of them. To do so I have to know as much as I can about them."

"The Akatsuki?" asked Gaara.

"A group of people trying to gain control of all the 'demons' so that they can use them to control the world."

Finally they came upon an opening in the trees and Gaara froze when he saw Shukaku pacing around the area cursing and swearing to kill the man who made Gaara bleed.

"That man happens to be the love of my life," said Naruto as he walked forward and stepped right in front of Shukaku, "and I'd rather you didn't kill him."

"But he hurt Gaara," grumbled Shukaku.

"Be careful. You don't want your anger to control you. That's the reason Gaara won't talk to you anymore," Naruto smiled.

"That wasn't my fault," growled Shukaku. "That man, who claims to be his uncle, tried to kill my Gaara."

"You frightened him," said Naruto. "He can't even sleep anymore for fear that you will come out and kill him or anyone else that he loves."

"I didn't mean to," mumbled Shukaku.

"He doesn't know that," said Naruto, "but you can always apologize and explain yourself to him."

"But he won't even speak to me," said Shukaku.

"No," answered Naruto, "but he'll speak to Shuka-chan."

Shukaku seemed to think for a moment before nodding and beginning to shrink. Shukaku morphed until she turned into a beautiful young woman with a black kimono that hung off her shoulders. Gaara gasped at the sight of the young woman that he had known as his motherly figure when he was young. The woman who would play with him when he was lonely, calm him when he was upset, and took care of him when no one else would. The woman that he had known as Shuka-chan all his life and who he had trusted with all his heart. The woman who was the demon that he feared so badly that he wouldn't even allow himself to fall asleep. "Shuka-chan?" he asked as he stepped forward to see her better.

"Gaara!" she gasped. She hadn't wanted him to see her in her spiritual form. It was an ugly form and she hated it, but she always used it when she was angry and she had a pretty severe anger problem. The only thing that had ever been able to calm her before was the presence of Gaara, but then when his own uncle attacked him she couldn't control her anger and scared Gaara away. From then on she had nothing more to control her anger because she had never seen him again. "You didn't tell me he was already here," she accused Naruto as she started trying to smooth out her kimono which had absolutely no wrinkles to begin with.

"He was going to figure it out sooner or later," shrugged Naruto.

Shukaku stepped towards Gaara with her hand outstretched cautiously towards him. He tried to step away, but, as he turned to see Naruto nodding at him, he walked forward to meet her. "Are you really Shuka-chan?" he asked.

She bit her lip. "Of course I am."

With that Gaara did something completely surprising: he jumped forward and wrapped his arms around her waist as a child would his mother and said, "I missed you so much."

Shukaku didn't know what to do. She had been ignored for many years and now he was hugging her as though nothing had happened. "I'm sorry," she said as tears came to her eyes. "I'm so sorry."

"It's okay," said Gaara as he backed away from her. He still showed no emotion on his face, but something about his demeanor showed that he was happy to have her back. She had been the first family that he had ever truly known and he had always regretting losing her.

"I promise you," she said, "I will never do anything to make you fear me ever again."

"You'll just have to get used to her quirks," said Naruto, "and then you can both be together forever."

"How did you know about this?" Gaara asked again.

"I told you," said Naruto. "I did my research."

"You can't learn something like that through research," growled Gaara. "So how did you know about us?"

Naruto paused. He couldn't tell them the truth, they wouldn't even believe him if he did, but he couldn't think of any way to explain his knowledge any better than what he had already said.

"Kyuubi-sama?" asked Shukaku.

"I can't say anything else," said Naruto. "I did my research, but not like a normal person does. I just did my research."

"You will have to tell me one of these days," growled Gaara.

"I will if I have time," said Naruto. He couldn't promise anything because he really didn't know how the future was going to go. He really just needed Gaara and Shukaku to stop asking him questions. "We should probably go now."

Gaara tensed. He had just now got to see Shuka-chan again and now they were going to have to go. He didn't want to leave so soon.

Naruto seemed to realize what he was thinking because he smiled and said, "It's okay. You can always see her in your dreams." Gaara nodded and Naruto turned to Shukaku. "I just want to tell you something before we go. It really hurts when a spirit tries to take over our body without our consent, but if we ask for help it doesn't hurt at all." Shukaku nodded. She understood what Naruto meant and she swore silently to herself that she would never try to forcefully take over Gaara's body again. Besides, now that she had the boy that she had thought of as her son back, she would be able to control her anger much better.

alright i have a couple of apologies to make

1. sorry about taking a little while to write this one. i kind of got stuck on it.

2. sorry i didn't write Sasuke's fight scene. i couldn't think of a way to write the scene without making it sound a lot like the actual battle and i didn't want to write it if you all could just watch it. however, i will make it up to you with the next chapter against orochimaru.

and also i wanted to say that i know that Shukaku is normally portrayed as a guy, but i thought that since he always called his sand his mother i would just make Shukaku a girl.

i hope you enjoyed this chapter as well.