Disclaimer: I own nothing

Chapter 7: "Reflection"

(Year: X777)

"Is he another mage?"

"He doesn't look all that strong. That means the demon will eat him."

"He's so young too."

'They're not even trying to be quiet.' Naruto noted as he took a bite of his chicken. His enhanced hearing would have picked up the words if they were whispering, but these people weren't even trying to be discrete

Naruto had arrived in a small village at the edge of the desert. Most travelers started from here to cut through a bit of the desert to the next town. Or at least they used to do that. Most people went around the desert now. They were too afraid of the demon. Naruto thought this was wise. If the demon was a jinchūriki or a monster of Zeref, then no civilian would have a prayer of survival.

When he first arrived, Naruto tried to gather some information on the demon. The blonde wanted to learn if anyone knew about its location in the desert. No one really knew anything, though. They didn't even like to talk about the demon, out of fear that it would eventually come and destroy their town. That didn't matter that much, though. Naruto thought that he an idea of what the demon could do.

If this was a jinchūriki, it would probably be the container of the Ichibi. Kurama said that the One Tail had an affiliation with sand and the desert. That would explain the location. Even if it was a different demon from a book of Zeref, then it would probably control sand as well.

Either way, the container of Kurama would be at a disadvantage. He would be surrounded by the enemy's element. The blonde would need something to avoid the sand and slow it down. Luckily, Naruto kept a lot of water in his Requip space and in his seals. If he could use that to slow down the sand and use his magic to spread the sand away, then he might have a chance.

Raising his head, Naruto saw that it was getting dark now. He didn't want to fight in the heat of the day. It would seep away his stamina more than the coldness of desert night. Besides, Naruto preferred the darkness when fighting. The shadows were his element.

Leaving his jewels on the table, Naruto raised from his seat. He then turned and began to walk out of the restaurant he had been resting in.

"Hey, gaki!"

Naruto paused at the door frame. He looked back to see a man behind him. The man was a large and muscular man. In fact, he towered over the teenage boy.

"Yes?"

"I heard from the others that you're looking to fight the desert demon." The restaurant owner raised a hand and rubbed his cloth covered hand. "I can't let you go do that in clean conscious. You'll be killed."

"No I won't." Naruto ignored the man and kept walking. He was quickly stopped when the man put a hand on his shoulder.

"Gaki, that thing has killed hundreds of people. A lot of them were mages twice your age." The man with the hardened face glared down at Naruto.

"So? Age doesn't mean shit." Naruto argued. "I'm stronger than you could ever dream to be, and I'm only a third of your age."

"Cocky little…" The man grumbled.

"Cocky? No. Arrogance is something that was beaten out of me a long time ago." Naruto grabbed the man's wrist. He then began to force the much larger man's off his shoulder. "I assess my own strength and the strength of others accurately. So you can take my word on it when I say that I'm strong enough to take down a crazed demon. Thus…"

The much larger man was looking at his arm in shock. The boy was overpowering him somehow. Not only that, he was doing it with ease. The man was so distracted by this, he never noticed when Naruto put his other hand in front of the man's chest.

"Woah!" The man cried out. The wind around him seemed to compress on his chest and push him back. There wasn't enough force to hurt him, but there was enough to push him back. The man slid all the way from the door to the counter of the restaurant.

"You can let go of me." Naruto finished.

"W-what?" The large man was looking at the teenage boy in fear and awe.

Turning, Naruto raised the headband over his eyes. His red eyes gleamed. He would need his full vision in this fight. "You can stop worrying about the demon, because this demon will take care of it. After today, it won't give anyone trouble anymore."

With that said, Naruto walked out the door, through the small town, and into the desert.


'I spy with my giant eye, something yellowish gold.'

'Sand.'

'Correct. I spy with my giant eye, something loose and runny.'

'Sand.'

'Correct. I spy with my giant eye-'

'Sand. All that around us is sand, Kurama.'

'I know! It's goddam annoying! I hate sand so much!' Kurama shouted in Naruto's mind. 'Will you just find Shukaku's container already so we can leave this hell hole!?'

'I'm trying, you impatient fox.' Naruto sighed mentally. The blonde was slowly trekking through the desert. He used his chakra to stay above the sand and kept his senses aware in case of a sneak attack.

'Well, try harder…' Kurama grumbled and placed his head on his hand shaped paws.

'This would go faster if you gave me some assistance.' Naruto looked up at the clear sky above him. While there were no clouds, the sky's beauty still shined through. Millions of stars shined above him. The moon was full and bright. If this was any other moment, the whiskered teen would spend time admiring the beauty of the night. 'Can't you sense negative emotions?'

'You're the one that said that you didn't want to use any of my powers…' Kurama snorted.

'No, I said that I want to be able to rely on my own strength.' Naruto sighed. 'But in this case, I'm facing a sand demon in the middle of the desert. I'm going to need your help a little bit.'

'Kit, you're forgetting that you have no experience in using my chakra. Not only that, magic and chakra don't mix. You can't use Sky God Slayer Magic and my chakra at the same time. If you try, one of them will be canceled out. Just like when you fought the cultists back home. Your appearance changed because of my influence, but my chakra was forced back because of the magic you were using.' Kurama mentioned.

'I don't want to go full Biju mode, Kurama. I just want your advice. You know your siblings' powers well, and can give me advice as I battle.' Naruto explained.

'I already told you all of Shikaku's abilities and weaknesses. But I guess I can keep an eye out and give you some pointers.' Kurama shrugged. 'Anything to get out of this boring ass desert.'

'Good.' Naruto nodded. 'So, can you tell me where your brother is?'

'Alright. I'm sensing a lot of bloodlust about a kilometer to your left.' Kurama muttered.

'Thank you.' Naruto turned and began to head in the direction that Kurama told him. It took only a few minutes before Naruto saw something different than the miles of sand that spread out around him. Off in the distance, Naruto saw a small oasis.


'…I know that chakra…' The voice of Mother rang through Gaara's mind.

The red haired teen was silent. He had sensed the enemy approaching him. The jinchūriki hid in the sand as he waited for the enemy to arrive. Gaara had learned to do this a long time ago. This way, he could judge the enemy's strength. Most of time, the people were weak, incredibly weak. But sometimes there were monsters. They were people that Gaara felt fear against. Just like that orange haired man that was here a few weeks ago.

'Kurama…' Mother growled. 'That cocky son of a bitch…Why is he here?'

'…So that boy is like me?' Gaara let a large grin appear on his face.

'Don't get too excited! I don't like the feel I get from that boy. His sent is off. Like those other mages, he uses magic, but this one feels…different. More potent.'

'You think he's stronger than me?' Gaara growled in anger.

'Not necessarily, but I don't like the smell.' Shukaku grunted. 'There's something off about that boy. As much as I would like to stick it to Kurama, you should just let him pass. There's too much uncertainty here for my tastes…'

'BUT I MUST PROVE MY EXISTENCE! HIS EXISTENCE CANNOT BE GREATER THAN MINE!'

'I know! I want to watch his blood flow as well, but I'd prefer not to die because you did something stupid!'

The blonde teen stopped at the edge of the oasis where Gaara stayed. His red eyes scanned the area. He took several sniffs as if to find Gaara's scent. Someone definitely lived here, but it was impossible to pinpoint if the demon was here currently.

'He's here.' Kurama mentioned. 'Shukaku's suppressing the bloodlust, but he's still here.'

'Alright…so he's hiding in the sand…' Naruto frowned. There was a lot of sand in the area. It would take a while to search for the other jinchūriki. He could use his magic to spread the sand out, but that might prove counterproductive if the sand in the air was used against Naruto. Not only that, if Naruto attacked, he would be open for attack. The other container might use that chance to kill Naruto or run away so Naruto would never be able to find him. 'Time for the plan, then.'

'Oh, this is going to be fun.' Kurama grinned.

"I know you're there, Number One." Naruto spoke out to the silent dunes of sand. "You can hide all you want, but I won't be leaving."

He was met with silence.

"No comment?" Naruto gave a sarcastic grin. "From what I heard from my demon, Shukaku has a pretty sharp tongue himself."

Nothing.

"Oh, I get it." Naruto let out a soft chuckle. "You're afraid. Let me ask, are you afraid of me or Kurama? Either one is a logical enemy to fear. After all, I'm a better jinchūriki than you could ever be, and Kurama's more powerful than Shukaku could ever dream of being."

The sand around Naruto began to stir.

It was working. He had to keep pressing. "Why hide out in the desert? Are you reliant on sand? Are you reliant on your demon? Can you even fight without him? Because I can. That means I'm better than you in every way, right? Without the Bijū, I'm stronger. And with the Bijū, I'm stronger. Where does that leave you?"

The sand jumped around Naruto in anger.

"You're weaker than me. You're inferior to me in every way." Naruto called out. "You could say that my existence is stronger than yours."

"RAW!" Gaara blasted out of the sand dunes in anger. Extending his arms, Gaara sent a concentrated blast of sand at Naruto.

"Sky God's Sword!" Naruto formed a black whirlwind of wind around his right hand and forearm. He thrusted his arm forward. The black wind drill met the blast of sand and sent the sand flying to the side. Naruto held this for a moment until the blast of sand came to a full stop.

Dropping the magic flowing to his arm, Naruto glared at the redhead with the kanji scar on his forehead. He had no idea why anyone would put 'love' on their forehead. Was this jinchūriki a hippy?

Gaara gasped out and huffed in absolute anger. "You…pant…You dare! Huff…"

"I do dare." Naruto slid into a self-defense stance. "I know of you, Number One. I know of your work. You give us jinchūriki a bad name and will bring negative attention to the rest of us. I cannot allow you to continue this any longer."

"You think you can stop me?" The ring eyed teen glared at the whiskered teen.

"Yes, I can." Naruto responded.

"I'd like to see your try!" Gaara roared. "You forget, you're surrounded by my element!"

The sand around Naruto began to wrap around his legs. Forming hands, the sand began to reach and grab at Naruto in order to surround him and crush him. The hands only got to Naruto's knees before he reacted.

Black wind burst around Naruto. It spread out around his entire body. This caused the sand to spread out away from his body. The force of the wind around his body lifted him slightly into the air in order to avoid having the sand below reach up to him again.

"Not good enough, Number One." Naruto mentioned. "You see, you're surrounded by my element as well, for my element is the sky itself. I am the God Slayer of the Sky. I am the jinchūriki of the Kyūbi. My name is Naruto Uzumaki, and I'm going to kill you."

"Kill me?" Gaara's eyes narrowed. "You wish, Number Nine. I am the jinchūriki of the Ichibi. My name is Sabaku no Gaara, and I will prove my existence by soaking my sand with your blood.


"Sky God's Spear!" Naruto thrusted his hands forward and sent a straight vortex of black wind to his enemy. This proved to be ineffective, though. Sand from the gourd on Gaara's back rushed out and stopped the wind in its track. The wind did manage to spread the sand out a bit, but it wasn't enough to hit the redhead.

Naruto could not stand around and contemplate what to do next. The sand around him was chasing him and trying to trap him. That was why he had to keep moving in an unpredictable way. He used his magic to enhance his speed to keep a head of the tons of sand.

This had continued for a while now. Naruto was trying to use long range attacks to strike the other jinchūriki down. Gaara's defense made it so that this strategy wouldn't work, though. At the same time, Gaara tried to use his sand to either catch or strike the blond. The sand of the desert proved to be too slow to do this, however. Thus, they were at a standstill.

In many ways, it was the unstoppable force fighting against the immovable object.

Realizing that this strategy wasn't working, Naruto began to think about what to do. Long range attacks lost the power needed to get past the sand around Gaara. Based on his observations, the blonde could see that the sand that Gaara kept close to him in the gourd was faster and more durable than the sand of the desert. That meant that it would be dangerous to get close.

Unfortunately, that seemed to be the only option that Naruto had to do damage. Long range and mid-range attacks wouldn't cut it. If he wanted to do damage, the blonde would have to get in closer and deal with the danger.

Running forward, Naruto concentrated wind around his fist and sent it out in a burst right in front of Gaara. "Sky God's Strike!"

Like every other attack, it was stopped by the wall of sand. This time, though, the sand grabbed onto the blonde jinchūriki and began to creep us his arm.

"Sand Coffin…" Gaara spoke out. He reached a hand out and prepared to clench it.

"Sky God's Sword." Another drill of black wind formed around his arm. It instantly caused the sand around Naruto to blast off of him.

It was then that Naruto began to run around the sand user at break neck speeds. He send slashes of black wind in all directions of Gaara to the point that the only thing that could be seen was curved waves of black wind around the sand user. "Sky God's Shower."

"Sand Spikes."

Large spikes of sand jumped up and tried to stab the blonde god slayer. The hundreds of spikes failed to kill Naruto, but they did manage to cut him a bit. The cut on his upper arm didn't last long, though. A surge of sky magic to his arm instantly healed the bleeding wound. That was one Sky God Slayer magic's greatest strengths. Sky magic could heal just as easily as it could harm. Naruto could instantly heal himself of almost all nonfatal wounds as long as he had the energy.

"You are a fool, Uzumaki." Gaara glared. "You cannot defeat me in the desert. No one can defeat me in the desert."

"How arrogant." Naruto shook his head. "It doesn't matter if we are in your element. Not if I use your weaknesses against you."

"I have no weaknesses." Gaara stated.

"Really?" Naruto questioned. "Let's see…"

It was then that Naruto rushed forward again. Spikes of sand rose up once again to try and stop Naruto, but he weaved through them. Gaara scoffed and raised a wall of sand all around him. The blonde's attacks were fearsome, but the still couldn't get through the walls of stand that protected him.

Splash!

Gaara froze as he was completely drenched with cold water. The water all around him softened and sunk as the water seeped into it. Looking up, the red haired teen saw another Naruto Uzumaki above him. Unlike the blonde charging at him, the blond above Gaara was not using any of the strange black wind. Instead, he seemed to be covered in explosive tags.

"Shi-"

Boom!

The wet sand surrounding Gaara was blasted away. It managed to soften the explosion immensely, but it was at a great cost. Gaara did not have his sand to protect him. He was vulnerable.

Fear gripped the red head's heart. He looked up to the charging blond in front of him. Wind wrapped around Naruto's hand like a drill once more. The sand in the environment rushed to try and protect Gaara.

"Sky God's Sword!"

Blood splattered across the sand.


"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" Gaara screamed and fell to the ground. He clutched his wounded and bleeding chest. A deep cut ran down from his right shoulder to his left side.

Pain.

This was pain.

Gaara did not like pain.

"My blood…" Gaara's eyes were wide in terror. He trembled and heaved in anguish. Bile tried to force its way up his throat. "This is…MY BLOOD!"

"Yes…" Naruto stood above the red haired jinchūriki. "It is. Suck it up."

"NO! MY BLOOD! AH!"

Naruto scoffed. This guy considered himself a jinchūriki? The blonde shinobi had gone through worse wounds when he was five. His pain tolerance had been pushed to the point that he barely registered wounds anymore. "What a weakling…"

Raising a kunai, Naruto tried to stab down and kill the other jinchūriki. It was best to put an end to this threat. It would take years before Shukaku reformed, and when that happened, Naruto would handle him as well.

Unfortunately, it wasn't a clean kill. Sand blasted out in a blaze. Naruto was force to jump back and gain some distance. When at a safe distance, Naruto looked to see what really happened. "Damn it."

Sand was beginning to cover the red haired teen. Gaara's torso and right arm was covered in thick demonic sand. His teeth sharpened, and his eyes turned a deep amber. "RAW!"

He was transforming into his demon. Just great. That would make this a lot harder. Naruto hoped that he could kill the tattooed teen without this happening. He would have rushed in to stop it, but the sand was freaking out around him, and the blonde was forced to keep moving.

'Kit, this is bad. You have to stop him from transforming completely. If Shikaku comes out completely, then you'll never beat him on your own power.'

'But I can't get close. How do I-'

"I'll kill you, Uzumaki!" The partially transformed Gaara rushed at Naruto with more speed than Naruto thought he could possibly have. It was clear that Gaara lacked physical endurance. It seemed the Bijū chakra was enough to increase his speed by a large margin.

Raising his arms in defense, Naruto blocked the attack. The clawed arm ripped through the protectors on his forearms and cut up his arms. The cuts were quickly healed, but the force of the blow sent Naruto rolling back.

Quickly jumping to his feet, Naruto saw that Gaara was charging forward again. Not having time to dodge, Naruto decided to counterattack. Forming the attack that took the least amount of time to charge, Naruto met the claw with a burst of black wind from his fist. "Sky God's Strike!"

The attacks met and energy exploded out.


"Wah!" Gaara sobbed loudly. All around him were people that glared at him with hatred and discrimination.

"That's the one."

"The Freak."

"None of us want you here!"

"Die already!"

Naruto sobbed in the corner of his cell. His reward was a smack across the face.

"You have no right to cry." The man with the boar mask stated.

"You are a weapon, not a human."

"Your life is meaningless without this village."

"If you fail us, we will kill you."


"What the hell…" Naruto shook his head as the visions faded. "What was that?"

'What was what?'

'The visions.'

'Visions? Are you going nuts, Naruto?'

"No…" Naruto looked up to Gaara. The red haired boy was screaming and clutching his head. "He saw it too…"

"RAW!" Sand creeped along Gaara once again. The left side of his face transformed like the other half. A tail burst out behind him. All that was left of the human side of Gaara was the 'love' tattoo, the red hair, and his legs. "NO! I WON'T GO BACK TO THAT!"

"…" Naruto frowned. He didn't understand why he saw those things, but they meant something. Long ago, Danzo told him that when two beings of equal power clashed, they could sometimes read each other's emotions and intentions.

But what he saw…It was the same. Their feelings were the same.

'I have to do that again!' Naruto charged forward. He formed two drills of wind around his arms once again.

'No, Naruto! Go for the kill now!'

'No. There's something I have to know first.'

'Moron! If you don't take this chance, you could die! Listen to me, and obey this one order!'

'Kurama, I don't take orders. I do what I want. And I want to find out what this all means!' Naruto swung the blades of wind. "Gaara!"

Hearing his name, Gaara looked up. Seeing the attack, he retaliated. The red haired half demon swung his arms to meet the attack.

Boom! Crash!


"I hate them all."

"I live for myself."

"I need to prove my existence by killing them."

"If I don't prove my existence is superior to theirs…What proof is there that I deserve to exist at all?"

"These people mean nothing to me."

"I don't care if they die."

"All that matters is my dream."

"If I don't obtain freedom…If I don't touch the sky, then what's the point of living?"


'Yes…It's the same.' Naruto pushed himself off the ground. 'He is my reflection. One wrong move, and I would have ended up like him. Without Kaa-chan, I would not have a path to travel down…'

"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Gaara screamed louder than when he was injured by Naruto earlier. He was in anguish at those terrible memories. The pain. The loneliness. The hatred. It was all back! He had to make it stop! "MAKE IT STOP!"

Shukaku obliged.

Sand burst up all around Gaara. The waves of yellow covered him completely and grew to a mountainous size. The sand quickly formed into a giant tanuki with blue seal tattoos covering his entire body. His blue ears twitched as his amber eyes looked around. The single tail behind him waved back and forth and caused the sand to stir and scatter.

Shukaku Gaara looked at Naruto. "Sand Coffin…"

'Damn!' Naruto was forced to retreat. He tried to escape the sand, but it was faster now. The sand caught his left arm and leg before he could escape.

"Sand Burial."

The sand constricted with an absurd amount of force. Naruto's limbs were instantly crushed into a fine pulp. His bones were smashed to dust. The muscle of his limbs were mush now. He was instantly crippled.

"Son of a bitch…" Naruto hissed and fell to the ground. He forced as much Sky magic into his limbs as possible and began their healing process. It would take a while, though.

'Kit! You need to stop the brat! He's about to force himself into sleep and unleash Shukaku!'

'I can't move, Kurama. I need to heal my limbs first. I need to get to the point that I can at least move.'

'Damn it!'

Naruto was fortunate that Gaara wasn't fighting logically. It would be easy to finish Naruto off right now. The other jinchūriki, however, wanted to unleash his full power to kill the blonde. He was so focused on unleashing Shukaku and stopping the mental pain that he didn't go for the finishing blow immediately.

"Forced Sleep Technique." Gaara muttered after his torso popped out of the forehead of the giant tanuki. The teen instantly fell into a deep slumber and allowed his inner demon to take control.

"Yahoo! I'm back, baby!" Shukaku waved his massive arms around in glee. "And look! I found an ant that I want to kill! Yipee!"

'Get up, Naruto!'

'Almost done.'

Shukaku took a deep breath to the point that his stomach extended out like a ball. The demon then brought one of his clawed hands to his stomach and spat out a ball of air that could level a mountain. "Air Bullet!"

The humongous ball of wind was shot at Naruto. It traveled down to Naruto at extreme speeds. It was a critical hit.

"Hahahahahaha! I gotcha…Huh?" Shukaku blinked as the giant ball of air didn't blast out like it normally did. Instead, the air seemed to be funneled to the center like it was being sucked into a vacuum.

Naruto began to swallow the air attack. Despite the massive size, the ball of wind still obeyed his will to flow into his stomach. In a whirlwind, Naruto ate the mountain size attack like it was lunch.

"Itadakimasu." Naruto stated after eating all the wind. "You dumbass."

Unlike most of the air Naruto consumed, he could not reconstruct the attack as magic. This was because the attack was powered by demonic chakra. There was no way to change the energy into magic. Thus, it did not help fill his magic reserves. It did, however, fill Naruto with an excess of chakra. Already full of his own chakra and Kurama's chakra, however, Naruto had not place to naturally put it. Thus, Naruto's body was put into a state that few shinobi had ever experienced.

Chakra overload.

Blue energy poured out of Naruto in waves. The energy restored the little damage that was left in his arm and leg. Now completely mobile, Naruto jumped up and soared through the sky. He formed a familiar cross simple and yelled out, "Tajū Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

Thousands…Hundreds of thousands of clones appeared all around the sand demon. In a swarm similar to killer bees, the numerous clones of Naruto land over every centimeter of Shukaku to the point that the skin of demon was no longer visible. They all quickly began to swarm.

"AH! GET OFF!" Shukaku flailed around desperately. He sent thousands of Naruto's flying, but most of them stayed on. They all charged to the sleeping Gaara, but the sand rose up to protect the red haired teen.

Despite the defending and attacking sand, the thousands of clones continued to charge forward. Waves and waves of powerful punches began to make the defense around Gaara falter and weaken.

"I SAID GET OFF!" Shukaku roared. His skin of sand rippled and blasted out. With thousands of poofs of smoke, all the clones disappeared from the blasts of sand. By focusing on the attack, however, Shikaku let the defense around Gaara falter.

"Sky God's Spear!" The original Naruto, who transferred back to using magic, thrusted his arms out and sent a concentrated tornado at the dome around Gaara. The wind tore through the weakened shield and slammed into the boy that it was protecting.

"No! I just got out!" Shikaku cried as Gaara woke up and took control once more.

"You…" Gaara glared at the blond teen after he opened his eyes. "I'll kill you!"

'You idiot! Why didn't you kill him with that technique! Why are you refusing to kill him!?'

'Not yet. I need to know more. But I'm out of magic and chakra. Kurama, I need some of your chakra.'

'…Are you serious?'

'Yes. Please lend me you strength.'

'…Very well, I can see how much this means to you.'

'Thank you.' Naruto felt as sand wrapped around his body once more. It was ready to crush him into a fine paste. Just before it did, though, Kurama sent a surge of demonic chakra through his body. His hands and teeth changed into claws and fangs respectively. His whisker cheeks darkened. His eyes, however, did not change.

"ROAR!" Naruto glared at Gaara. The force of the chakra pushed the sand away from the blonde and gave him a protective cloak with a single tail.

Gaara's eyes widened in fear. "N-no! M-monster! STAY AWAY FROM ME!"

"GAARA!" Naruto rushed forward. His cloak of demonic chakra blazed around him and stopped all the sand attacks that were sent at him.

"I said stay away!" Arms of sand wrapped protectively around Gaara. Above the massive hands was the face of a woman. Naruto did not recognized the lady, but he did recognize the presence of a mother.

'I see…'

Naruto brought his fist into the shield of sand and everything blew up.


Sand fell to the ground like rain. The body of Shukaku was dissolving and falling to pieces. Below the massive dissolving demon corpse was the two boys that were fighting it out mere moments before. Both of them lie unmoving on the ground.

Groaning, both jinchūriki pushed themselves up off the sandy ground below them. They looked up at each other. Raging red eyes met unfeeling teal eyes. Both boys panted and breathed out heavily as sand rained down around them.

"I see…It only works when we attack at the same time…" Naruto pushed himself to one knee. Gaara did the same. The red haired teen was silent, though.

Looking up, Naruto and Gaara both realized that the massive body was now gone. All that was left in the massive desert was the two of them. Both boys lacked any more energy. Their stamina was at their limit, and their demons could help them no longer.

Naruto thought about eating more air to replenish his magic, but decided against it for two reasons. One, it took a lot more time to eat the air that was lazing in the sky compared to when Naruto ate wind attacks. He would be completely open to Gaara's next attack. Two, if he wanted this to work, Naruto had to have the same strength as Gaara.

"Come." Naruto stood. "One more strike to decide the victory."

Gaara pushed himself up. "Yes…Let's see whose existence is greater."

With one last roar, both jinchūriki rushed forward. Their paces were the same. The looks on their faces were mirrors. The thoughts that ran through their minds were completely the same. Two equal forces charged at each other with the limited energy they had left.

They both sent a right hook at each other's faces. The hits connected and blood spilled out of their mouths.


"Your mother…gave you your name, you know." A man named Yashamaru lie dying on the ground. "'This child's name shall be Gaara. A demon who shall only love himself. Love only yourself and fight only for yourself so by doing that, you will be able to keep existing'."

Hot tears ran down a young Gaara's face. He looked broken and shocked beyond words.

"Those were the things she wished for you. However…Nee-chan did not name you that because she loved you or worried about you…She gave you that name so that you would survive and be a reminder to the world." The bloodied man could barely speak in a whisper at this point. "A reminder of her hatred, of how she went to her death loathing and cursing the world…remind them…and show them all. No, you were never loved."

Gaara clutched his head in agony as the one person who cared for him crushed his very soul.

"Now…Die with me…" Yashamaru opened his jacket to reveal explosive tags.

Boom!

"Don't…call me…that…" April demanded. "Call me, Kaa-san…"

Naruto was shocked into silence.

"Is…that too much to ask…" April cried. "I always wanted to be a mom…Is that such a bad thing?"

"No…I don't believe so…" Naruto shook his head. "You would have made…you are a great mother."

April gave him a smile. "Thank…you…"

They were silent for a moment. Naruto had an emotionless face while April was crying.

"In…my study…is my will." April spoke again. "Follow it…please…"

Naruto was silent.

"And I need to tell you…Why I always…believed you…I know about everything…" April noted. "Azura…She's…She's…"

"She's what?"

"…Nothing." April shook her head. "Look…in the…book."

"The book?"

"Yes. Be…strong, Naruto…find friends…smile more…and remember your dream…Don't forget it…" April pull him close and hugged him. "And…I love you, Naruto."

Her arms went slack.

"April-sensei..."

He sat up and looked at her closed eyes and peaceful expression.

"April?"

April was dead.

"Kaa-san?"


They stood unmoving. Their fists remained where they threw them. Blood dripped out of their mouths as the fists caused their faces to cave inward. Both boys had their eyes closed as they stood in silence. They were like human statues carved from stone. A traveler passing by would assume that the boys were people from a portrait compared to two actual living beings.

Gaara was the one that broke the silence. Tears ran down his face at the memories he saw. He sobbed out, "I see…That's the difference. Why your existence is stronger…You've experienced love…"

With that said, Gaara fell back and crashed into the sand below him. It was like falling into the arms of a loving mother. "I never stood a chance…"

Naruto did not move for a moment. He continued to have his arm extended, but after a few seconds, he slowly relaxed his stance. Red eyes stared down at the unmoving red haired jinchūriki.

"Yes…Kaa-san is the difference. Without her, I would be the same as you." Naruto noted. He let his own tears flow without shame. Naruto pulled out a kunai. He examined it for a moment before he threw it away. "You are the reflection of what I could have been. You are the person that Kaa-san worked desperately to make sure that I didn't become. For her and for myself…I can't kill you, Gaara, because that would be like killing myself."

Light shined from the East as the sun rose on the horizon. Both boys were covered in the light of dawn. Night had ended, and a new day was beginning.


Thank you all for reading and please remember to…

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