"HOW DARE YOU!" Kazama yells, pulling on Jiraiya's ear. "HOW F###ING DARE YOU! WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU WERE DOING, THROWING MY GRANDBABY OFF A CLIFF?!"
"IT WAS NECESSARY!" yells back Jiraiya. "OW! OW! OW!"
"HE IS 12!"
"WHEN I WAS 12, I KILLED A MAN!"
"I DON'T CARE IF YOU MURDERED YOUR OWN MOTHER! NEVER THROW NARUTO OFF A CLIFF AGAIN OR I WILL RIP OUT YOUR INSIDES AND USE THEM TO PAINT YOUR TOMBSTONE!"
"Out!" Snaps the nurse in charge of Naruto, shooing Jiraiya and Kazama out of the room. "You are too noisy!"
Jiraiya and Kazama take their loud argument elsewhere.
"I'm so sorry for their behaviour!" apologies Arashi, bowing apologetically to the nurse. He holds out a bag. "I brought Naruto's pyjamas. Please give me a call when he wakes up!"
The nurse smiles and takes the bag. "Of course."
"And his favourite plushie is in there too," says Arashi. "He winds up on the floor after a couple of hours if he does not have it to hang on to in his sleep!"
The nurse's smile widens. "Of course, sir. Now please: I have a patient to take care of."
Naruto opens his eyes slowly. There is a strange smell in the air. Where is he? Unfamiliar bed. Familiar pyjamas and panda hat. Gamabunta plushie pressed up against his chest. White walls. Shikamaru staring at him in amusement.
"Shikamaru…?" mumbles Naruto, blearily. "Where am I?"
"Oh hey, you're finally awake," drones Shikamaru. "It's really troublesome, but you passed out after your training the other day and now you are in hospital."
"A few days….?" Naruto's eyes widen. He sits up and demands, "Did I miss the Chunin Exams?"
"No, they aren't here yet," says Shikamaru. "You've only been out for three days. I heard your Grandma threatened to kill your teacher and paint his tombstone with his own blood."
Naruto's mouth falls open. "She did?"
"Yep," Shikamaru grins and holds up a basket of apples and oranges. "Here, I brought you a fruit basket. I figured you'd be hungry after sleeping so long."
"You're the best!" Naruto grins, and starts shovelling down food at a fruit a second. Then Naruto pauses. "Did you come all the way to the hospital just to visit me, or did you have another reason, lazy bum?"
"Ah, you got me," says Shikamaru, scratching the back of his head. "I also came to see Choji. He ate too much and hurt his stomach."
Naruto can feel his eyebrow twitching. Then he starts laughing, holding his sides.
"I brought him this fruit basket," adds Shikamaru, holding up another basket full of apples. "But he isn't allowed to eat at the moment."
Naruto has a cunning idea. "Hey Shikamaru, let's go to Choji's room and eat all this fruit in front of him. That'll drive him nuts!"
"That is so mean," grins Shikamaru. "I love it."
Naruto feels something dark and angry nearby. He sniffs the air. Blood. "Can you feel that?" he asks.
"Yeah," says Shikamaru. "Whatever it is, I bet it has something to do with the fact that the sand in that hourglass stopped moving."
"Follow me!" Naruto leaps off the bed, skids out into the corridor and runs down the hall, Shikamaru hot on his heels.
They arrive in Rock Lee's room a few seconds later.
Gaara of the Sand is standing over Lee, wrapping sand around the unconscious eyebrow boy.
Shikamaru stops Gaara with a Shadow Possession Jutsu. Naruto follows up by punching Gaara in the face. "What do you think you're doing?" Naruto demands, angry beyond reason. Something about this guy annoys him.
"Hey, watch it!" snaps Shikamaru, rubbing his cheek. "If you hit him, I take some damage too!"
"Oh! Sorry, Shikamaru," apologises Naruto.
Some sand falls off Gaara's cheek were Naruto hit him.
Naruto glares hard at Gaara. "What are you trying to pull?" he demands, crossing his arms.
"Yeah, you already beat up Lee," says Shikamaru. "Wasn't once enough for you? You got something against him?"
The two Leaf genin stare down the Sand genin for a few tense seconds.
"I have nothing against him," says Gaara evenly. "I simply wish to kill him."
"YOU'RE SICK IN THE HEAD!" Naruto yells, pointing at Gaara in disgust. This guy is something else.
"What makes you think we will let you kill Lee?" demands Shikamaru.
"If you don't get out of my way, I will kill you two as well," says Gaara, reasonably.
"LET'S SEE YOU TRY IT!" Naruto yells.
"NARUTO!" scolds Shikamaru. "Back off." Shikamaru turns back to Gaara. "Look, it's two against one, and we have some tricks up our sleeves you haven't seen yet. How about you walk away quietly, right now, and we won't beat you into next week."
Gaara just stands there with his arms crossed. "If you get in my way, I will kill you. I mean it."
"Oh yeah?" Naruto growls. "Like I said: I'd like to see you try!" Naruto can summon giant toads, shinigami, all five elements AND fly. He's GOT THIS.
"Naruto! BACK OFF!" Shikamaru repeats. "This guy is insane! He fights like a demon, or something!"
A demon…?
Naruto grins. "He can act like a demon all he wants, but I've got a freaking bijuu on my side!" He crosses his arms and grins.
A rumbling growl sounds throughout Naruto's mind. "Who says I'm on your side, brat?!" Mr. Nine Tails Sir demands.
Naruto grins wider.
"Stupid!" growls Shikamaru, jabbing Naruto with his elbow. "Stop trying to make him mad."
"A bijuu, huh?" says Gaara. "I also have a bijuu living inside me."
Naruto senses a tragic backstory brewing and relaxes, knowing Gaara won't do anything until he has finished spouting some or all of his life's story.
"Before I was even born, Shukaku, the One Tailed Bijuu, was sealed inside my body," monologues Gaara. "My own father did this. I was born for the sole purpose of becoming the jinchuuriki of the One Tails. When I was born, I killed my mother. I was born a monster."
Naruto stares at Gaara in horror. He killed his mother? His father sealed a bijuu into him? Gaara is like Naruto. Except that Naruto does not enjoy killing people.
"Wow, your Dad must've been a swell guy," says Shikamaru sarcastically. "I bet he really loved you."
"Love?" says Gaara. "Do not speak to me of love. The only emotion I feel towards anyone is the desire to kill them."
Naruto stares at Gaara in horror.
"Given life by the death of my mother, I was born to be the salvation of the Hidden Sand," continues Gaara. "For the first six years of my life, my father, the Kazekage, pampered and protected me. For a time I thought that was love. But then IT started."
"What?" asks Naruto. "What started?"
A strange, insane smile spreads across Gaara's face. "In the last six years since my sixth birthday, my father has tried to kill me more times than I can count!"
"What?" Naruto asks, horrified. "He tried to kill you? But WHY?"
"I was born to protect and serve the Hidden Sand," says Gaara. "But I became too powerful. I could not control the power I was given, and it took over, lashing out at those around me. And so I became a threat to the very people I was meant to protect. I was a failed weapon, so my father tried to destroy me. I am simply a relic of the past they all wish would disappear."
Naruto stares at Gaara in horror. It's just like Iruka sensei said. For some jinchuuriki, controlling the tailed beast inside them is a matter of life and death! Naruto feels sick inside.
"So you see, I failed at the very thing I was given life for," Gaara continues. "What is left when the very purpose you exist to serve is gone? For a long time I couldn't find an answer. But in order to live you need a purpose. To exist for no reason is the same as being dead."
"What is this guy talking about?" mutters Shikamaru.
Naruto stares, remembering a time when all he did was sit in a lonely room, shut off from the world while his foster parents pretended he did not exist. A time when the world ignored him. He had no purpose. Nothing at all but an emptiness inside that eventually drove him to find his own way - drove him to Iruka. What did Gaara find? Naruto is afraid to know.
They were both little kids when their worlds changed forever.
"And then it came to me:" continues Gaara. "For years I lived in fear or the would be assassins. But I killed every one. But then I came to enjoy it. My purpose is to kill others. The death of my mother gave me life: now the death of others sustains me, and makes me almost happy to be alive. I exist only for myself. I love only myself. So long as there are people in the world, I will kill them and go on living."
Naruto is shaking now. He sees the kanji for 'love', carved in blood on Gaara's forehead. Is that really what it means?
I was just like him, Naruto realizes. I had no purpose. I wondered what I was even alive for. Both of us were made jinchuuriki, and both of us had no one. But then Iruka-nii found me, and believed in me, and gave me a purpose. But this guy had no one. He had to figure it all out on his own, and THIS is what he came up with? If Iruka-nii hadn't found me, would I have turned out just like Gaara? We are so different, but so close to being EXACTLY THE SAME. If I didn't have people looking out for me, all the glares and hatred would get to me, and maybe I'd be like Gaara! Naruto takes a step back, shaking like a leaf.
"Naruto, what are you doing?" demands Shikamaru. "What's wrong?"
Gaara's sand starts to move again, even though Shikamaru's jutsu is still active. It is headed straight for Naruto and Shikamaru in the form of two deadly spikes.
"NARUTO!" Shikamaru is yelling.
Naruto stares up at the sand, shaking. He knew. He know about his bijuu. But I didn't know about mine!
"Alright, that's enough!" All three genin turn towards the door to see Gai sensei standing there. "Save it for tomorrow, that's when the final competition begins. Fighting now is just a waste of energy."
Gaara groans in agony, and bends over, holding his head as if he is in pain. Then he shuffles to the door, his sand leaving Lee and sliding back into that giant gourd. At the door, Gaara turns and says, "All the same, I will kill you all. Just you wait."
Naruto just stares after Gaara in horror.