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Za Kaze Shokkou: A Naruto AU Fanfiction.
Written by: Cloud1239999
Disclaimer: Naruto does not belong to me. It is as simple as that. I'm only writing this story for both my personal and the enjoyment of others. I do not intend to make any form of money off of this story. If however you do see reason to sue you will find no money within my pockets. That's right; I'm a 21 year old with no money and still living with my parents. :P
Rated: M (For Swearing, Gore, and any other mature thing that may show up including a possible future lemon ((Don't know this one for sure)). Reader Discretion is advised.)
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It was mid-afternoon in Sunagakure where two twelve year old ninja could be seen standing in the center of one of Suna's training fields that were a kilometer outside of the city walls.
Gaara and Naruto stood facing each other staring each other down with light smirks covering their faces. Though it wasn't noticed by their spectators, Gaara and Naruto were also standing in the same position with their arms crossed over their chests and heads held high.
Temari and Kankuro were at the edge of the training field gawking at what they were seeing. There was actually a ninja that didn't seem to be intimidated by their youngest brother in the least.
After a few minutes of silently staring of staring at Gaara, Naruto decided to finally break the silence (and the tension at the same time though he didn't realize the second part).
"So Gaara-san, what business do you have that you wished to speak to me out here in the training grounds for?"
Gaara stared at Naruto for another few seconds before he spoke up.
"You don't look crazy."
It was needless to say that the statement confused the three others.
"What do you mean by that?" Naruto asked after a second. Genuinely confused by what Gaara was trying to say.
"You are like me yet you haven't been driven to insanity." Gaara said this with such a perfectly straight face that Naruto couldn't help but wonder if this person didn't belong in an asylum.
Meanwhile a distance behind Naruto, Temari froze in shock. This changed everything again in how she looked at the blonde boy. If Gaara was saying what she thought he was saying then she didn't know what she would do. Kankuro meanwhile was just as confused as Naruto.
"Sorry buddy, but I don't know what you're talking about." Seeing the genuine confusion in Naruto's eyes Gaara couldn't help but smirk upon realizing that he was about to rock the leaf-nin's world.
"Then you do not know of the demon locked within you."
Naruto was shocked to the core hearing that. He suddenly had a feeling of something waking up somewhere in him and that somehow he suddenly felt more aware much to his confusion.
"Say what?" Naruto asked. He was seriously hoping that he didn't hear what he thought he heard and that this new feeling wasn't something to do with that. Naruto also couldn't help but think that the feeling was familiar from not that long ago though he couldn't remember when it was.
"You have a demon within you just like I have one within myself." Gaara said that quite calmly.
Temari was now all but literally frozen. She was having a flashback of what she saw the blonde gennin do in her dream and it scared her to realize that it was real. A part of her mind registered though that the boy, Naruto, seemed to be as awe-stricken as she was. Could it be that he didn't remember that event?
It took a few seconds more for Naruto to recover his countenance from what Gaara was just saying.
"What makes you say that?" Naruto asked with his eyes narrowed at the red head in front of him.
"On your way to this city yesterday the demon within me sensed and recognized bits of another demon's chakra within you. He started advising me to avoid you at all costs, but I am curious about you." At this point Gaara started walking circles around Naruto who stood his ground as he continued listening to Gaara's words. "Now that I'm closer I can sense the demonic chakra within you as well. Do you hear the voices too?"
The question Gaara asked at the end of his explanation caught Naruto off guard. 'He's catching me off guard too often here.' Naruto thought to himself. He was then about to say 'no' to Gaara's question, but for some reason he couldn't find the word.
"So you have heard a voice then." Gaara stopped again where he was before he circled Naruto. "You show uncertainty in whether you should believe what I say." Naruto stayed silent and stared at Gaara. "Then I will make you know."
Suddenly Naruto saw four rope like structures of sand shoot up from the ground in a compass like formation around Gaara before they started circling him up to three feet above his head.
"Let us fight." With that statement one of the strands of sand shot at Naruto.
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'Keep my distance and watch his attack pattern.' That was the first thought to enter Naruto's head as soon as he heard Gaara say that he wanted to fight.
Naruto immediately took action. Starting his Tenkuu Saraida he slid backwards across the training ground at the same speed as Gaara's tendril of sand moved forwards. Needless to say that Kankuro and Temari were surprised to see Naruto moving backwards towards them without moving his body from the position he was in as he continued to stare at Gaara.
After two seconds of gliding he sensed that he was getting close to Kankuro and Temari so he changed directions so that the sand would shoot past him before turning and trying to nail him in the side. Of course Naruto didn't let that happen. Instead he jumped skyward before pulling a scroll from his pocket. Throughout the whole battle so far, Gaara and Naruto's eyes never left each other. The sand changed direction again to shoot up at the airborne Naruto, but there was suddenly a poof of smoke that engulfed Naruto before suddenly there was a shout that really brought Temari's attention back to the battle from yelling at Kankuro to go tell their sensei what was happening.
"Wind: Great Breakthrough!" Temari watched slack jawed as the high ranking wind technique broke its way through the tendril of sand and discharged over half of it before it hit the ground sending even more sand flying into the air.
A few seconds later Temari quit covering her eyes as the wind and sand settled. What she saw greatly surprised her.
There in the center of what was quite noticeably a fairly large crater was the blonde hair genin whose back was to her but she couldn't help but find the find the sight of the boy impressive. Naruto stood straight facing Gaara completely still. He was holding an open battle fan in front of him so that the face of the fan was running up his right arm which was holding the base at waist height. The fan was long enough to go up the distance to his shoulder and she was sure that Gaara was only able to see Naruto's head and legs. After a few seconds of silence she noticed that Naruto's left hand wasn't idle as to her surprise he was doing one handed seals behind the fan where her brother couldn't see them.
'What the hell?' she thought to herself as the boy was suddenly in motion again. 'How does he move without using his legs?'
She watched as Naruto was moving sideways circling Gaara. A few seconds into this he suddenly twisted his body to the right and did a throwing motion with his left hand and spinning before throwing three shuriken at Gaara. As she expected Gaara's sand rose to his defense but what was unexpected was that there seemed to be an impact against the sand before the shuriken reached the shield half a second later.
"Dang." Naruto spoke up for the first time since the start of the battle. He was still moving sideways along the ground slowly circling Gaara who hadn't moved so much as an inch except to slightly turn his head as Naruto circled around him to keep the blonde in sight. "I didn't expect you to realize that I threw a few wind shuriken at you just before the real ones. And that defense of yours is quite interesting too." Naruto let a smirk grace his face as he continued. "I guess since you're using elemental manipulation then I will have to start getting serious."
"That's what I want." Gaara said as a small smirk of his own graced his face.
"Were you trying to kill me, or is this a spar?" Naruto asked to set things straight.
"An all out spar." Was Gaara's response before he launched the other two tendrils of sand at Naruto who was on the move again at the same time.
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The large explosion that happened at the beginning of the fight didn't go unnoticed. Baki who was at the time standing on top of the Kazekage tower saw the large explosion of sand and grimaced when he felt a foreign chakra begin to rise in power shortly afterwards.
Now he was racing towards the training ground to figure out just what was going on. He suddenly became worried when he saw Kankuro fleeing from the training grounds.
"Hey Baki-sensei!" Kankuro yelled as he stopped and waved his hand over his head.
"What is it Kankuro?" Baki asked when he came to a stop in front of Kankuro.
"Something is happening at the training ground."
"Obviously." Came the dry response from the jounin.
"Seriously sensei. Gaara is fighting with the Konoha-nin that Temari and I were to escort today." Baki's eyes narrowed when he heard that.
"And why would that be?" Baki asked as he started rubbing his temples to ward off the pending headache.
"Gaara started spouting off about the boy having a demon inside of him as well. Naruto, I think his name was, didn't seem to know what Gaara was talking about but at the same time he couldn't seem to dispute Gaara's claim." This surprised Baki. "Then a few seconds later Gaara suddenly said that he wanted to fight and attacked the boy."
Baki was now feeling that headache that he was trying to ward off only seconds before.
"Then we better hurry over there. We don't need a war to break out because one of them killed the other."
Kankuro paled hearing his sensei's statement. The two then turned back towards the training ground and ran full speed for it with Baki leaving Kankuro behind.
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Though Gaara wouldn't say it out loud, he was actually having fun with this fight. The boy Naruto was surprisingly keeping up with all of Gaara's techniques and jutsu. Heck, now even Gaara was moving around (this was quite surprising to Temari since it was the first time she'd seen Gaara actively moving in a fight).
"Suna Shuriken!" Gaara called out as he made and launched five of his projectiles at his speedy opponent.
Naruto flipped over the incoming attack before landing in a crouch and throwing his hand toward Gaara.
Both Gaara and Temari were quite surprised as an invisible attack landed on Gaara and threw him backwards as Gaara threw his right arm up in an uppercut resulting in a fist of sand shooting from the ground and knocking Naruto skywards before both fighters landed on their backs a few meters from where they were when they threw there latest attacks.
Suddenly there was laughter in the air as Naruto suddenly jumped up onto his feet. He was rubbing a bruise that was quite visible on his chin.
Gaara also rose up though it was with the aid of his sand. He was surprisingly wearing a small smile of his own, the satisfaction of fighting an opponent for an extended amount of time without the bloodlust of his demon taking control clear on his face.
"Well this is fun." Naruto spoke up as Gaara and Naruto started another staring match.
"Quite." Gaara's response had the effect of surprising Temari. Temari was wondering when all of these surprises would finally mount up and give her a heart attack.
"Shall we continue?" Naruto asked.
"Yes, I haven't seen what I wanted to see yet." The statement had Naruto confused.
"Look, I don't know if what you say is true or not. I'll admit that the people in my village certainly seem to think I'm some demon with the way I am treated by the majority of the older people in my village, but it doesn't mean that I am some demon."
Gaara's eyebrow (if there was one there) rose up and he gave Naruto a questioning look. "I never said that you were a demon. I only said that there is one inside of you." After another few seconds of staring at each other Gaara spoke again.
"Has your chakra ever turned red on you?"
That question struck home on Naruto. Suddenly his head began to hurt as he remembered a time not even a week ago where he was literally seeing everything in a red hue and that he heard a voice talk to him.
Gaara saw Naruto's face suddenly become contemplative for a few seconds before Naruto suddenly refocused and stared back at Gaara.
"And what if I have?" Naruto asked Gaara.
"That is the chakra of the Kyuubi-no-yoko, the lord of demons."
The statement threw Naruto for another loop.
'What if he's right? That would explain the hatred that the villagers show me all the time.' Naruto then looked at Gaara. 'If he's right and he also has a demon, does that also mean that he is feared in this village?"
"If you have a demon inside of you then does that mean that you're feared and hated by this village?" Naruto asked.
"Yes."
That one quick and simple honest answer settled it for him. Naruto now knew for sure that there were things that were being kept from him in his own village.
"I see." As Naruto said that he turned contemplative. After a few seconds Naruto spoke up again.
"I have much to think about. If you'll excuse me?" With that Naruto dashed off back to the city.
As Naruto disappeared Baki finally showed up.
"What is going on here?" He yelled out.
Too bad he was five seconds too late to see Naruto as he disappeared over a dune.
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Hinata was worried. After the meeting where Shikamaru and she were to learn about politics and peace treaties nobody was able to find Naruto. It was now past 10:00pm.
Asuma had gone out to find Naruto outside of the city now and that was over two hours ago. She wanted to go out herself to search for her team mate but her and Shikamaru were commanded by Sarutobi to stay in the hotel in case Naruto came back while their sensei searched and he talked to the Kazekage about what happened to lead to Naruto's disappearance.
They were currently sitting in the hotel's foyer playing a game of Shougi as they waited for word on how the search was going.
Shikamaru was just finishing removing a set of stones off of the board that he'd of just captured when they heard the door leading into the hotel open. Turning from their game they both looked to see who it was and were pleasantly surprised to see Naruto standing there even though his head was down and he was staring at the ground.
"Naruto-kun!" Hinata spoke up as she quickly got up heading for the blonde. She was quickly followed by Shikamaru.
"Where have you been Naruto?" Shikamaru asked as they arrived at their teammate.
Things were silent for a few seconds before Naruto just walked past the two of them in silence and walked across the foyer to head upstairs.
Hinata and Shikamaru glanced at each other questioningly before moving to follow Naruto up the stairs.
"Naruto?" Shikamaru spoke as they reached up the stairs. As they looked around they spotted Naruto as he started to climb another set of stairs that they knew led up to the roof of the hotel.
Quickly following, they silently ran to and up the stairs going through the open door at the top and came out onto the roof. After looking around for a few seconds they spotted Naruto sitting on the edge of the roof staring down into the street below. They moved over to Naruto and sat down next to him before they both watched him worriedly.
"You two are really my friends, right?" The sudden question threw his teammates off guard.
"Of course we are Naruto-kun." Hinata answered after the second it took her to recover from the shock of the unexpected question. The three fell into silence for another few minutes before the silence was broken again.
"Do you still want to be my friends?"
This line of questioning was really worrying Hinata and Shikamaru.
"Yes Naruto and nothing will ever change that." This time it was Shikamaru who answered Naruto's question. The two heard Naruto give an empty chuckle at that.
"Answered my next question already." After saying that Naruto gave another empty sounding chuckle.
"Then I guess you two deserve to know." Hinata and Shikamaru decided to say nothing at this point and just let Naruto talk unless they were asked a question.
"I discovered the reason why all of the grown ups back home hate my guts today." Despite their surprise Naruto's teammates stayed silent and let Naruto continue.
"It has to do with a secret that has been kept from me for all of my life. It turns out that I'm not entirely human." Here Naruto looked up at the stars that hung up in the clear night sky and took a deep breath before he continued. "I have a demon locked up inside of me."
"What?" Shikamaru couldn't help but speak up to hear that last tidbit of information.
"You heard right Shikamaru. It turns out that the Yondaime was never able to kill the Kyuubi and that it is instead locked up in my body somehow." Hinata and Shikamaru now stared amazed at Naruto. "I don't know how it was done yet, but I learned from someone in this village who also has a demon inside of them about the one in me."
"I've been spending the last several hours thinking about what this means and I've come to one definite conclusion." Naruto took a moment here to look off to his sides into each of his teammates' eyes. "I need to get answers."
As Naruto said that he stood up again, an action that was quickly followed by Hinata and Shikamaru.
"Thanks for listening. I'm going to leave again for a bit." With surprise Hinata was about to ask Naruto why he was leaving again when he cut her off.
"Please don't follow me. I just want to go and visit someone for the rest of the night. When you see him please tell the old man that I went to visit Gaara for a while."
Before either one could say anything Naruto was suddenly moving across the rooftops at a speed that Hinata and Shikamaru knew they wouldn't be able to catch Naruto at.
After watching Naruto disappear a few buildings into the distance they both turned around and walked back into the hotel foyer now waiting for a completely different person to arrive.
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"May I help you?" Gaara asked without leaving his meditative stance.
"Yes." Naruto said. "I've come to finish our spar."
Gaara opened his eyes and looked into Naruto's own.
"Then we shall." With that Gaara stood up and started walking towards the training grounds that they were at earlier. "Follow me."
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Sarutobi was tired. With everything that happened that day he was ready to go to sleep.
That was until he stepped into the hotel and saw two young shinobi glaring at him. 'Oh kami, what now?' he thought to himself as he walked towards the two members of team nine that he left at the hotel.
"We saw Naruto." Shikamaru spoke up first in a quiet voice. Sarutobi felt some relief wash over him.
"He left again though after telling us what was wrong." Hinata finished for Shikamaru. She was still glaring at him while Shikamaru seemed calmer about whatever was bothering them.
"It is good to hear that Naruto is alright." Sarutobi said with a warm smile on his face. It started dying down though when he saw that the other two were still upset. "What happened?"
"We know about Naruto's burden now." Those words sent a shiver down the old mans spine. "Naruto discovered it today from a sand ninja who according to Naruto is in the same position as him."
"I must talk to Naruto now then." Sarutobi went to walk towards the stairs but Hinata was now standing in front of him.
"If you would care to tell us why something of this magnitude was never mentioned to anybody before?" Sarutobi was able to tell from the look in Hinata's eyes as she spoke that she wasn't making a request.
Sarutobi sighed.
"Fine, but I will only tell you if Naruto says that he wants you to know as well."
"Alright." Shikamaru spoke up again from where he was sitting previously. "Naruto said that he was going to go talk to someone that he met today for a while and that he would be back afterwards."
"Well at least it seems that Naruto is making at least one friend in this village." Sarutobi mumbled to himself.
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Naruto ducked and spun beneath another suna shuriken as he continued to glide up to Gaara. Gaara seeing Naruto's fist cocked back jumped backwards in the nick of time just before the area of ground just in front of where he previously stood exploded upwards in a plume of sand that was ten feet tall.
Quickly realizing that he could take advantage of all of the sand that was just shot into the air Gaara quickly gathered chakra and as he landed thrust his open hands towards the sand cloud as he said in a calm voice. "Sand Coffin."
Inside the dust cloud Naruto noticed that a lot of sand was starting to gather around him and condense. Cursing his foolishness Naruto wound up his arm that was holding his battle fan and threw it as hard as he could towards where he guessed that Gaara should have landed from his jump. After throwing his weapon Naruto took the startled shout as a successful distraction and as soon as the sand let up from his arms a little more Naruto quickly made a half-seal with one hand and threw the other to the side creating a large gust of wind that blew the sand cloud away from around him.
"Shall we go big?" Naruto asked Gaara without moving from his position.
The small smirk that Gaara wore on his face as he made a large ball of sand float into the air beside him, which was quickly accompanied by two more, was all the answer Naruto needed.
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KAABOOOOOOOM!!!!
Kankuro woke up from his sleep to a loud explosion. Quickly opening the blinds on his window and looking outside he saw a giant cloud of sand beginning to settle over where the training field was.
"Oh kami, not again."
With that said Kankuro quickly threw a set of clothes on and dashed out the door forgoing the face paint that he usually wore.
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"What the hell was that?" This was asked by the Konoha genius as he stared out the hotel window at the large sand cloud that he along with Hinata watched rise into the air from just ouside of the city walls. "Tch, troublesome. I have a feeling that Naruto is at the center of that explosion."
Hearing the second part of what he said Hinata looked out the window again. "I think we should go and check it out just in case it is Naruto then."
"Tch, troublesome guy." Shikamaru frowned in thought for a second before nodding to Hinata and they opened the window before jumping out of it and towards the source of the sand cloud that was now dissipating as if a gust of wind was blowing it away. As they watched the cloud disappear Hinata couldn't help but comment.
"Yeah, must be Naruto."
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It was approximately the same time that both the Suna and Konoha parties arrived at the training field where there was now a twenty foot wide crater that ran ten feet deep. The Konoha group consisted of the whole Konoha delicate that was in Suna excluding Naruto, and the Suna group consisted of eight chuunin, four jounin, the Kazekage, Kankuro, and Temari..
It was a few seconds later as the two Kage's were about to give orders to their subordinates when movement was spotted several feet away from opposing sides of the crater.
As the two bodies began to climb to their feet a voice spoke seeming to come from the one that was now recognizable of having blonde hair that spiked in all directions. His clothing was torn and his shirt lay in taters around his frame as a result of the large explosion.
"You know Gaara? When I said lets go big, I didn't expect you to actually throw out an attack that would cause such a huge explosion." He finished speaking just as he raised his feet. Then he used what was left of his left sleeve and proceeded to wipe a little bit of blood that was on his cheek from a cut that was already heeled.
"You wanted big, so I gave you big." Was Gaara's reply as he also finished rising to his feet and much to the shock of many of the Suna ninja Gaara was wiping some blood off of his face. Gaara then snorted. "Besides if I used any of my attacks with less power that one of yours would've just blown through mine and I'd be in worse condition than this."
"Hehe, sorry bout that. I have a slight problem with putting too much chakra into my jutsu sometimes." Gaara actually sweatdropped hearing that though nobody could see it in the darkness.
"What the hell is going on here?" Gaara and Naruto jumped and turned around hearing the voice that only one of the two was able to recognize as the Kazekage.
"Who's the old fart?" Naruto immediately asked. Of course he didn't know who it was. Naruto never met with the Kazekage before and the old man wasn't wearing the clothing that would mark him as Sunagakure's leader.
There were several chuckles from some of the Konoha-nin that brought the attention of Gaara and Naruto to all of the other people around them.
"This is the Kazekage Naruto." Naruto went from curious to sheepish when he heard the voice of someone he recognized. Naruto turned to face the Hokage.
Sarutobi then turned to the Kazekage and whispered something to him. After a few seconds of thought the Kazekage nodded. "I will trust your judgment for now Sarutobi-dono."
The Kazekage then turned to the chuunin and jounin of his village. "Head back to the barracks and let it be known that the situation is well in hand. There is no attack against the village and I will personally be getting to the bottom of this mess. You may then go back to what you were doing before this started."
Hearing their order they all saluted and with a shout of 'Hai Kazekage-sama', they started running back to the village.
"You may head back to the hotel." Sarutobi spoke up as the Suna shinobi left back towards the village. "Hinata, Shikamaru, you may stay behind if you wish.
"Domo Arigato Hokage-sama." Hinata said with a small bow as Shikamaru bowed with her.
After another few seconds of watching the other shinobi leaving the Kazekage noticed that two of his ninja hadn't have moved from where they were standing.
"Temari, Kankuro, what are you two doing here still?" He asked the two catching their attention. Temari gave a slight bow to her father before standing back up straight and addressing him.
"I wish to stick around and learn what is happening as well. There was another fight between these two during the day that ended with Naruto retreating after Gaara told him something that disturbed him." Kankuro nodded his head in agreement to Temari's statement.
Of course Temari decided to leave a few details out of the previous confrontation when talking to Baki about what had happened and Gaara was tightlipped at the time so nobody other than Gaara, Naruto, and Temari knew what happened during the majority of the first spar between the two vessels.
"Very well Temari. You can stay since I have a feeling that you aren't telling me everything." Temari sweatdropped hearing that. "You however Kankuro can head back home. If there is anything you should know someone will tell you."
Kankuro was about to complain but as he opened his mouth to do so he was elbowed in the gut by his older sister, who then proceeded to whisper something in his ear that made him pale and run back towards the city.
"Thank you Temari." The Kazekage said before turning back to the others. The Kazekage gave a small smirk upon seeing the amused look in the Hokage's eyes as he watched the middle sibling leave. He then turned serious as he turned to the two boys who were fighting not even minutes before.
"Now, the rest of us here will head to my office where I can finally get an answer as to what the hell has been going on."
Gaara was back to looking as stoic as he usually did while Naruto was sheepishly rubbing the back of his head. Nonetheless they both answered the aged leader.
"Hai, Kazekage-sama."
As the group started walking towards the Kazekage tower Naruto's voice could be heard one more time.
"Damn it, now I have to replace my battlefan. Oh yeah, I was going to do that anyways."
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End Chapter.
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End AN: I thank everyone for the excellent reviews again. I'd particularly like to thank Mr. Lee for giving me a lot to think about. Due to his review it has made me look back over the story and make a few changes here and there as to how I want to do things in the future of this story. This will be the last chapter where I don't use the Japanese names for jutsu since one of you friendly reviewers pointed out an excellent site for me to use to get all of the proper translations for what I want.
In the near future I should be receiving the first few of a couple Beta'd versions of chapters I wrote previously for this story. If I like what I read of them I will be reposting the story with the beta'd chapters and keep this one on until my beta reader catches up to where the story is now.
Last but not least. I'd like to apologize to all of you that I'd have promised that this would be the last chapter in Suna, but I just wanted to get this chapter out and I figured that making the Suna Arc (as I'm starting to think of it as) one more chapter longer. I hope you enjoyed the Gaara/Naruto interactions and that it has brought some light as to why Gaara isn't acting as he normally would. (To clear that up for you guys it's that he is curious the other person like him, and that he does not want to alienate someone who might understand what it is he has gone through.)
Thank you all for reading this story and sending in your reviews. Please remember that I love constructive criticism so I would love to hear what everyone thinks that I could do better. The only way I'll be offended by anything you write is if you downright flame my story and only point out the negative points of my work. I would love to hear however what you think I could do better. Thank you again for reading and I'll be trying to have the next chapter out soon.