Temari had return from Ichiraku's the next day in the morning, to face a furious Baki and a cowering Kankuro. She rose a brow at the pair, before finding herself pinned by Baki's glare.
"I had asked the two of you to keep an eye out for Gaara! We don't know what he will do!", Baki scolded the two, before frowning at Temari. "And where are you disappearing everyday day in the morning?", he asked her.
"I went to have some ramen. Those Ichiraku guys serve some good dishes", Temari replied with a shrug. Baki looked at the girl bewildered.
"You have been having ramen for breakfast? For a month?", he asked shock.
"Well, I eat only once a day, and a single bowl. I don't have a diet of ramen like Naruto", Temari responded making Kankuro frown.
"Who is this Naruto?", Kankuro asked narrowing his eyes. Temari facepalmed.
"The boy Baki-sensei asked me to spy on", Temari answered.
"That aside, where is Gaara?", Baki asked angrily. Kankuro and Temari realized that their cold sadistic brother was on the loose, in a foreign village. The two scampered out of the room, hoping that Gaara hadn't lost control of himself.
"You're troublesome, you know that?", Shikamaru asked with a lazy smirk as he spotted Naruto going towards the hospital. The blonde looked at him with a smile, and noticed the basket of fruits in his hand.
"Well, Jiraiya-sensei took me on a training trip. You are on a diet?", he asked pointing to the basket. Shikamaru shrugged.
"Choji. He was admitted here yesterday for indigestion. So, Jiraiya as in one of the Sannin?", he asked as the pair entered the hospital.
"Yeah. Godfather", Naruto replied making the pineapple-haired boy shake his head in exasperation. "In which room is Rock Lee being taken care of?", he asked the receptionist. The woman looked in confusion at the two pineapple-haired kids, one blonde while the other raven. A quick lookover on the blonde one made her realize who the boy was.
"It's great to see you back again, Naruto-kun. Where had you disappeared for a month? And your friend, Lee is in room 324", the receptionist answered with a small smile. Naruto nodded before dragging Shikamaru with him.
"You didn't have to pull away from her like that", Shikamaru reprimanded. Naruto scowled back at him.
"I don't trust her. She has stopped me many times from entering the hospital from getting treated", Naruto retorted making Shikamaru wince knowing exactly why.
They stopped in front of the room, spotting Sakura come with a bunch of flowers. The duo of boys assumed that it was for Lee. Naruto waved his hand to garner Sakura's attention.
"Hey Sakura! Are you here to check on Lee?", Naruto questioned with a smile. The other two noted the omission of the'-chan' honorific. Sakura wasn't sure what to say about Naruto's changed appearance.
She had to admit he looked great in the Konoha standard uniform, burnt orange flak jacket, and his hair tied up like Shikamaru's. "Hi...?", she sounded it like a question, not sure how to greet a boy who had suddenly upped and disappeared for a month. "I am not pulverizing you, because we are in a hospital, baka. Don't make us worry like that again".
Naruto smiled widely at the threat, before pushing open the door. "I was with Jiraiya-sensei", Naruto replied making Sakura exactly wonder who Jiraiya was. Definitely not Jiraiya of the Sannin, because someone like him wouldn't take in an idiot like Naruto, but someone like her Sasuke-kun.
Sakura quickly changed the flowers, and stood opposite to Naruto and Shikamaru across Lee's bed. Shikamaru placed the basket of fruit on Lee's side-table. Sakura looked sadly at Lee. "He hasn't woken up since the fight. The doctors said that his career as a ninja is over. The only one who can heal him is Tsunade of the Sannin, but no one knows where she is", Sakura informed Naruto of the developments.
"Eh? Baa-chan and Jiraiya-sensei should in jii-chan's office. I had some urgent work with Tachibana-san, so I parted ways with them", Naruto commented. "Assuming she hasn't gone to a bar, she should still be in the office".
"Baa-chan?", the other two wondered out in shock. Naruto looked at the pair confused, before rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment.
"I call Tsunade of the Sannin, baa-chan", Naruto clarified making Sakura scowl.
"Show some respect to Tsunade-sama, Naruto!", Sakura screamed furiously.
The previous Naruto wouldn't have done this, but he pinned the pink haired girl with a glare and flared his chakra crushing Shikamaru along with Sakura.
'I knew he had a lot of chakra, but this amount is ridiculous! And I know this is his own chakra and not the Kyubi's! It is troublesome to be a Jinchuriki, but if you get so much chakra, I don't see any problem in becoming one!', Shikamaru thought the last part in envy.
Sakura was paralyzed in fear, the same as against Zabuza and Orochimaru. 'This is same crushing pressure like Zabuza and Orochimaru! Even Kakashi-sensei couldn't match the latter! This is more than Kakashi-sensei pressure', she thought in fear.
"She has no problem if I call her that. And she is my aunt, so it doesn't concern you why I shouldn't call as such", Naruto said in a low voice. 'Boy! I wonder what I ever saw in her! I guess Jiraiya-sensei and baa-chan helped me realize this without saying out aloud'.
"I'm sorry!", she squeaked in fear as Naruto's pressure lifted. Shikamaru whacked the blonde in the head.
"Watch your troublesome chakra you idiot! Even I was getting crushed under it", Shikamaru reprimanded the blonde. Naruto got an embarrassment blush.
"Sorry, sorry", Naruto laughed out while rubbing the back of his head.
Suddenly, Naruto gazed at the window behind Sakura. "You can come out, ya'know. I can sense your bloodlust, Gaara", he said calmly, shocking the duo with him. Soon enough, sand flooded in the room, Gaara standing over Lee beside Sakura. Before the other three could comprehend, Naruto had brought Sakura over to his and Shikamaru's side. "Sakura, bring some Jonin here. Go!", he instructed the pink-haired girl. She instantly bolted out of the room in fear.
Shikamaru instantly paralyzed Gaara in his Shadow Possession jutsu, but wasn't quickly enough to stop his sand from encircling Lee's vital points. "What are you doing here Gaara?", Naruto asked in a threatening voice. "What were you trying to do to Bushy Brows?"
"I was trying to kill him", Gaara replied emotionlessly. Shikamaru looked in shock at the redhead's audacity.
'How can be so calm when saying that? How can he be so calm when paralyzed with Shadow Possession jutsu?', Shikamaru thought between fear and shock. "Why would you try something like that? You beat him in a match, right? Do you some personal grudge against him?"
"Its nothing like that. I just wanted to kill him that's it", Gaara responded.
'I can sense a Bijuu inside him. It's that same kind of hatred which I feel from the Kyubi, but this has glee and deviousness mixed into it. Oi! OI! Why am I able to sense emotions?! I can feel Shikamaru's fear, Gaara's own coldness, as well as Sakura's fear downstairs', Naruto thought in shock. "How can you say something so selfish, you bastard?"
"Why are you so selfish? You... had a lousy upbringing, didn't you?", Shikamaru asked in shock. 'This guy is giving me chills'.
"If you get in my way, I'll kill both too", Gaara threatened emotionlessly. Naruto held his hands up in surrender, shocking Shikamaru.
"You are free to try that, you bastard", he retorted with a wide smirk.
"Oi! Naruto!", Shikamaru exclaimed in shock. 'Let's try with a bluff'. "You may be strong in competition to him, but we can keep with you. We didn't show our true strength in the preliminaries".
"I'll tell you again. I will kill you if you get in my way", Gaara ignored their words
"You are just one, we have three", Shikamaru remarked making Naruto frown.
"We are two Shika", he corrected his friend.
"Plus one fox inside your stomach. That guy should at least pay you rent", Shikamaru replied making Naruto freeze.
"How do you know?", Naruto asked completely forgetting about Gaara.
"If one has enough brains, you can figure it out. Now leave that! We need to deal with this guy here, Naruto", Shikamaru responded.
"The fox, eh? Even I have a monster sealed inside me. The Sand Spirit Shukaku was sealed within me before I was born. I took the life of a woman whom you call mother as soon as I was born. I kill to prove my existence and become the strongest shinobi"
"Well, the Kyubi is said to be strongest one out there. Also, I don't think he messes with Naruto's head like Shukaku", Shikamaru commented.
"You know, Gaara you should really go back. You have the Finals tomorrow. You don't want to be stranded in the middle of nowhere, do you?", Naruto asked calmly. "I don't know my strength right now, but I can tell for sure. You won't kill Bushy Brows under my watch".
"The only one who has been able to subdue me is my father. Even his assassins after me were easily killed", Gaara commented. Naruto let a single chuckle loose.
"Your father is a certified crackhead. Well, both of us had Bijuus sealed inside by our fathers, so we are the same there. But, my father is far different than yours. I don't know much about him, only what Jiraiya-sensei and baa-chan told me. But, even if he isn't there, I know that he loved me till his last breath", Naruto stated before sighing. "Well, you should be going now", he muttered before disappearing in an orange flash.
Gaara stiffened feeling cold steel at his throat. "I don't want to kill you. But I won't hesitate if you threaten my friends", Naruto continued. 'It's a good thing that Shikamaru kept talking to Gaara and distracted him. My seal wouldn't have reached him if he had spotted it'.
Shikamaru narrowed his eyes. 'Right now, it wasn't shunshin! Its like he just teleported there! I didn't see him anywhere in between!', he thought as he watched cautiously on how things would play out.
'What was that speed?! He was standing in front of me and came behind me in an instant! It wasn't speed like that boy's!', Gaara thought in fear, a gulp causing the kunai to almost nick his skin.
"Boys! The Finals are tomorrow! There's no need to be in such a hurry", Gai remarked from the doorway, maintaining a calm face at Naruto's position. 'Lee couldn't get in with his speed, so how is Naruto holding a kunai to his throat?!', Gai thought in shock. Sakura shared the same thought.
Gaara looked at his odds. He could kill the girl, the pineapple-haired raven-head and the boy in coma. He wasn't sure about the sensei, and the boy holding the kunai to his throat. He slowly walked to the doorway, his eyes having a mad glint. "I will kill you all with fail. Just wait", he stated before going out of the room.
Naruto needed to talk with Jiraiya and Hiruzen. The Kazekage was an idiot, and he wanted to knock some sense into that bastard.
Shikamaru and Naruto had walked together all day long. The duo had visited all of the rookie nine as well as Tenten. Shikamaru had explained how he, Choji and Kiba came at the conclusion that Naruto had held the Kyubi, and that they wouldn't treat him any different, especially after seeing Gaara's behavior.
"Why are we here again?", Shikamaru asked with a frown. "You have to be troublesome and buy the weapons at the last moment?"
Naruto scowled at that. "I had given an order for custom kunais, which should be done by now", Naruto commented before entering the shop. The jingle of bells shook Tachibana out of his reverie, before beaming at Naruto.
"Ah! Naruto! Here for your kunais?", the man asked beaming. Naruto nodded back with a smile. "Hey! Aren't you the Nara kid who is going up against the girl who defeated Tenten?".
"Ah! Yes. Temari from Sunagakure", Shikamaru supplied, before peeking at the kunais which Tachibana had brought. "That's... an unusual design", he commented seeing the tri-pronged kunais.
"Because they are special", Naruto replied with a smug smile.
"I know that!", Shikamaru retorted. "So, are this your troublesome secret weapons?"
"Shikamaru-kun, you will know tomorrow. I have packed a camera, and a spare too if something happened to it", Tachibana said making Naruto sweatdrop.
"You are going overboard, Tachibana-san", Naruto murmured in embarrassment.
"I am completely confused", Shikamaru remarked looking between the other two males. The Higurashi laughed heartily.
"All in due time, Shikamaru-kun. But if what Tenten said was right, Neji is digging his own grave right now", Tachibana muttered making Shikamaru raise a brow. "What I mean is, the move Neji is trying is practice, is as good as suicide against Naruto right now".
Shikamaru just nodded before dragging Naruto out. "I know you are hiding something big", Shikamaru hissed. Naruto nodded.
"Well, I didn't want riots in Konoha, so tomorrow I will reveal the secret", Naruto replied. "Now lets get some ramen!", he exclaimed happily.
'Well, he is still the ramen loving idiot', Shikamaru thought with a smile. His brows reached his hairline seeing his opponent at the ramen stand arriving after them. He took a seat far from her, deeming her to be too troublesome.
"Temari! It great to see you!", Naruto greeted his fellow blonde with a smile. Shikamaru rose a brow at the familiarity present between the pair. "You really helped me with tying my hair up!".
Shikamaru spit out his ramen in shock. He coughed a bit before Ayame gave him some water. Alright. He didn't see this coming. Seeing the red tint on Temari's cheeks, Shikamaru had an urge to facepalm. Great, another girl smitten after Naruto, and boy is still as dense as ever.
"So, I never caught why you wanted to tie your hair up", Temari suddenly remarked. Naruto just smiled innocently.
"If I know Jiraiya-sensei, he has already gone and done that. You will come to know tomorrow during the Finals", Naruto replied making Temari frown. She huffed, before eating her freshly served ramen. His face then turned serious. "Temari, you are Gaara's elder sister right?", Naruto asked as Temari nodded, not happy where this was going. "Your father is a crack head nut-job, you know that?"
Shikamaru this time choked on the water at Naruto's audacity, Temari too gaping at the the blonde. "What's that supposed to mean?!", Temari asked in shock.
"Well, Shika and I had a... little altercation with Gaara an-"
"You had a kunai at Gaara's neck", Shikamaru butted in. "And Gaara was about to kill Lee"
Temari felt like smacking her head on the table at her brother's idiocy. "Yeah, as I said a little altercation. Is your father on some high to send assassins after his own son?", Naruto asked with a scowl.
Shikamaru could swear that Naruto would get himself killed because of his audacity. Trash talking is one thing, but insulting on one face, you had to have guts. Temari for the first time, actually pondered on that. Though she had to commend the blonde's audacity to actually tell such about her father in front of her.
"Who knows", Temari replied. Naruto nodded as if it was nothing out of the ordinary. Shikamaru seriously doubted the sanity of the blondes beside him.
"Troublesome blondes", he muttered under his breath, making Ayame snigger from across him. He rose a brow as Naruto laid out a scroll on the table, before unsealing some tags from a storage seal, out of the many seals on that scroll. Shikamaru decided he didn't want to know what they exactly held. Ever.
Naruto handed those tags to Temari, with a smile. "These are chakra suppression tags, meant to work against Bijuu chakra. They can suppress upto four tails of chakra", Naruto remarked. "And can you pass a message to whoever sealed Shukaku into Gaara?", Naruto asked as Temari examined the tags. The kanji of 'suppress' was written in the middle, with symbols all around.
The girl nodded, actually looking forward to the insults her fellow blonde would come up with. "Tell that world renowned idiot, you can't seal a Bijuu inside a freaking extra large storage seal!"
Everybody looked at him in shock at the statement. "What do you mean by that?", Shikamaru asked as Temari nodded in agreement.
"Well, when I had a kunai to Gaara's throat, I actually seeped my chakra around to check what the actual hell was up with the seal", Naruto confessed making Temari send him a comical look. "Don't you act! I know that you know about the fox! I am able to sense emotions, but only a little bit. The ones I can distinguish are fear, bloodlust and hatred", Naruto remarked as Temari nodded.
"Well, the only Jinchuriki I ever knew was Gaara, and you know how he is", Temari said in a sad tone. "I thought that all of the Bijuu made their hosts into bloodthirsty monsters".
Naruto snorted. "That must be Shukaku. The Kyubi, when I talked to it on Jiraiya-sensei's advice, was only rambling about how he would kill me after he breaks out. Well, I know the chances are less, because my Hakke Fuin has a key, and its with the Toads. So, when I check Gaara's seal, it was just a extra large storage seal made by combining three normal storage seals at specific intervals in his chakra system. The seal should only be anchored to one point. Mine in my belly's tenketsu. Gaara's is at a tenketsu of his belly, as well as his heart and below the back of his neck. No wonder Shukaku has been manipulating directly connected to his nerves, and having three anchor points", Naruto explained as everybody dumbly nodded. Teuchi understood the seal part, but not the tenketsu.
"So, in simple words, the one who did the seal was an amateur?", Shikamaru asked as Naruto and Teuchi nodded. Temari rose a brow at the blonde's breakdown of the seal. If it was true, she was going to have some words with Chiyo.
"Thank you", Temari said with a bow, tears visible around the edges of her eyes.
"I did nothing. After tomorrow's Finals, you go to Jiraiya-sensei. He will surely design a seal that will suit Gaara and Shukaku", Naruto replied. Temari gave a small nod.
'Everybody in Konoha is so warm-hearted. The Hokage, a Jinchuriki who has suffered as bad as Gaara, but still haven't lost hope. Would Gaara have turned out different, if Tou-sama was more better of a father to him?', Temari thought distantly. She looked at the blonde, who was waving his hand in front of her face. "What?!", she snapped in a harsh tone, before wincing at how she sounded. "Sorry".
"It's nothing. I asked you three times about what you wanted to become, ya'know. Like some Kazekage, or so", Naruto said cocking his head sideways.
'Cute!', Temari thought absentmindedly. "Well, I have never thought about it, because my father is the Kazekage, and I have been always hailed as a prodigy in battle fan handling", Temari replied, before averting her face and eating her own dish to hide her blush. 'What made me think he was cute?! I mean he did... urgh! Alright, something is definitely wrong with me!'.
"Yeah, you did some number on Tenten in the preliminaries. Well, its a good thing that I have friend in Suna higher circle! After I become the Hokage, I will at least know someone with whom I can trying to bring real peace in the Elemental Nations", Naruto remarked making Temari frown.
"Real peace? What do mean by that?", Temari asked as she pushed back her finish bowl.
"Well, Jiraiya-sensei says that the alliance we have right now, are just for namesake. Every village is itching to declare war on a drop of a hat. Peace cannot be achieved if we just keep doubting each other. I want to become the Hokage to bring peace to the Elemental Nations. I can say that there are selfish intentions behind it, because... I don't want any kid to go through what Gaara and I have experienced. Even for the Bijuus. For years, I had thought of Konoha as a prison until I met Iruka-sensei. I hated being caged. Why can't the Bijuus hate us for imprisoning them? If there is peace, no Jinchurikis will be created, and the Bijuus will be free. It a win-win for everybody", Naruto said passionately.
Temari and Ayame were unsure what to say, while Teuchi gave a proud smile. Shikamaru chuckled before laughing loudly.
"You know Naruto, I have never admitted this to anyone, but for some reason, you make me follow you. Its troublesome to know that I have to work hard in the next few years. I want to be there to help you when the time comes", Shikamaru stated with a wide smile. "Seriously, You are troublesome".
'Who are these people really?! They just want to co-exist in peace! Orochimaru told us that Konoha's shinobi are just a bunch of idiots, and I agree with him. They are idiots who work hard just for the sake of maintain peace!', Temari thought bewildered. 'Will you change your goals tomorrow? Or will you still strive for peace knowing that one of your 'friends' has betrayed you? Just don't die tomorrow, Uzumaki Naruto'.