The Alliance:
"NARUTO!" the wail came out of Sakura before she realized or thought of what she was doing, it was instinctive. At the moment Kakashi, and Chiyo were also feeling the same way as they saw their comrade sacrifice his life for Gaara. As Chiyo thought of Gaara, her head snapped towards the ground where the prone body of the young Kazekage was laid, forgotten at the moment because of the recent tragic events. Chiyo recovered quickly and knelt down next to the body, placing her hands over his heart in an attempt to heal the Kazekage, only to realize that he was not breathing. Chiyo looked at the pink haired medic nin and put her hand on her forearm, letting her know that her priority was saving the life of the man her friend died for. Sakura nodded and knelt down next to the sand user's body, and run a quick diagnostic.
"Chiyo-sama he is alive and his breathing is extremely shallow, if we don't get him to a hospital immediately, he will not survive. I am afraid I cannot do anything by myself to help him recover; I need at least another experienced medic to help me in this task. Chiyo nodded before smiling and looking up from Gaara's body.
"Who do you think taught the slug-princess some of the advanced medical nin-jutsu that she knows?" asked the puppet user with a look of grim amusement on her face. Sakura pushed her sudden flare of anger at the insult of her master down because right now she needed the assistance of the puppet-user to save Gaara's life.
"How do we propose we do this?" asked Sakura, not knowing the best course to save Gaara's failing life.
"I want you to keep his heart from failing while I apply my jutsu, once my jutsu is complete, Kazekage-sama will not need medical assistance anymore," replied Chiyo, which made Sakura wonder what type of technique Chiyo-sama was talking about that will not only bring him back from the jaws of death but will also make him well enough to not need any more medical help! Sakura nodded her head and placed her hands on Gaara's heart as she applied her jutsu to keep the heart moving, albeit really weakly.
Kakashi looked in the horizon and could make out four silhouettes, now without the Sharingan, team Gai was finally here, what the hell kept them so long? Kakashi was brought out of thoughts as Pakkun ran up to him. "Well my job here is done Kakashi, I have lead Team Gai to you. I will now take my leave," replied the dog summon, with his ever present gloomy expression pasted to his face. Kakashi nodded and the summon disappeared in a puff of white smoke. By now Team Gai was close enough for Kakashi to make out the trademark green colored spandex suits that Might Gai and his clone of a student, Rock Lee, always wore. Behind them ran the Hyuuga prodigy Neji and the weapon's mistress Tenten. "I am finally here my eternal rival!" came a scream as Gai and his team reached the little group in front of what looked like a collapsed cave.
"Kakashi-sensei, um…where is Uzumaki-san?" asked Tenten as she peered at all the people present there. Kakashi sighed and looked down, and a strangled sob broke through Sakura's composure.
"I see," said Neji as he sat down on one of the boulders that had come free as the cave had collapsed. "Are you absolutely sure that he is dead?" asked Neji as he looked at the cave with his Byakugan, as if expecting Naruto to shoot out of the cave any moment.
"I do not believe that he is dead," came the unexpected reply from the man who was almost dead a few moments ago. Gaara sat up with Sakura's help as Chiyo's frame sank to the ground. As if on cue there was a sudden trembling that everybody felt coming from the cave. Then the collapsed entrance exploded out and there stood Naruto, panting like he was about to collapse, but instead he came out and dragged the remains of Sasori with him. With the help of Neji and Lee he dragged the body all the way to the form of Chiyo and laid her grandson in front of her. She croaked out her gratitude as she laid her hand on her grandson's forehead with a content smile as the last breath left her body. Gaara stood up, with the help of Sakura and walked towards Naruto.
"Thank you Naruto," said Gaara, and to every-one's utter shock the young Kazekage's lips parted as he smiled. It was the first time the Konoha ninjas had seen the container of the Shukaku give a genuine smile.
Naruto gave his signature smile and rubbed the back of his head. "No problem dude, by the way this is the second time I had to save your sorry ass now." A cold silence descended as everyone was shocked at the insult that Naruto had thrown on the Kazekage.
"The second time? I do not recall you having to save me before at all!" said Gaara; it was his own way of joking as he knew full well what Naruto meant by having to save him the first time.
"Whatever, how's the sand-ball doing?" asked Naruto, he and Gaara both knew the nick-name that Naruto had given to one-tailed beast and he was keeping the secret that Gaara was a jinchuuriki from the people who did not know the secret.
Gaara eyes blanked out as he went into his mindscape to have a conversation with his maniacal prisoner and an unwanted ally the Shukaku of the Sand. Yet when he reached the sealing inside his mindscape, it was empty, blank like that part had never existed in his mind ever before. "I cannot sense him!" said Gaara in a dazed voice, almost unable to believe that the Shukaku was gone.
"They completed the extraction then," concluded Kakashi. Now the Akatsuki had two tailed beasts in their possession. The rumors that they had already gotten the Niibi was confirmed when Kumogakure held a memorial day for the sacrifice of Yugito Nii in the service of the village. If Naruto remembered correctly, she was taken out by the second most fearsome duo in the Akatsuki organization also referred to as the Zombie Combo because apparently they were 'not killable'.
"I think we should be heading back, Suna must be awaiting their Kazekage's return," said Gai as he brought the main issue back to everyone's attention.
"Yes, but as you can see Naruto is in no condition to travel," said Sakura. She had already run a preliminary diagnostic of Naruto's condition he was suffering from several small wounds and a few broken ribs due to the collapse of the cave. If Sakura's chakra reserves were not as low after treating Gaara, she would have no problem treating Naruto.
"That should be no problem," Gaara's gourd disappeared as the sand inside the gourd and of the gourd formed a very comfortable looking cushion. "Naruto, I believe this is the second time I am helping you too," said Gaara, never breaking his monotonous voice but there was twinkle of amusement in his eyes.
"Yosh, let us return to Suna and show just how bright our flames of youth truly are!" cried Lee as he and his similarly clad sensei started marching back towards the village hidden in the leaves.
"I do not understand why the Konoha ninjas were so adamant about me not killing him during the Chuunin exams," muttered Gaara much to Naruto's chagrin.
Two Days Later
The trip back to Suna was quite uneventful, and a little frustrating due to so much talk about 'Flames of Youth'. Kakashi got so irritated that he told Gai to a Tai Jutsu rematch once they returned back in Konoha if Gai could keep his mouth shut for the rest of the way to Suna. Gai had no choice but to do so because he had been waiting for such an opportunity for nearly nine years since Kakashi had beaten him in their Chuunin finals. Naruto and Gaara were immediately hospitalized and it was now Kankuro's turn to pester them for being bed ridden.
"Naruto, we have gathered new intelligence on the Akatsuki members," said Gaara once he was alone in their shared hospital room. Naruto's face instantly lost its amusement and became steely. Gaara knew full well of Naruto's past experience with the Akatsuki.
"The only information that Ero-sannin's spy network was able to gather is that the Zombie combo was unleashed a few months ago and they are the ones that are primarily on the hunt for the stronger bijuus," said Naruto as a thoughtful expression crossed his face and he tapped his chin with his right index finger. Gaara frowned thinking that the new information that Suna had gathered could prove useful if Konoha decided to take an active step against the criminal organization.
"According to our new Intel, the Akatsuki have placed their sights on the Yonbi (four-tails) and the Rokubi (six-tails). Both the jinchuurikis reside outside the protection of their own villages; these two will not stand much chance if they were attacked by Hidan and Kakuzu. I think that they will be sending their strongest after the Rokubi because it seems that he has been casing some major problems for the Akatsuki." Gaara's Intel as usual was thorough and had proof to prove his points, Gaara never did something that was incomplete. Naruto's interest, though, was piqued by Gaara's last statement.
"Hold on Gaara, what kind of problems is the Rokubi making for the Akatsuki?" asked Naruto in an excited voice, someone else had joined the resistance against the Akatsuki, and the six-tailed beast's jinchuuriki no less!
"Well as per our information, two of Akatsuki hide-outs were destroyed with threatening notes burned inside the collapsed caves. One of them clearly said that if they tried to hunt anymore bijuus, the Rokubi will personally come to destroy Akatsuki and all its members," replied Gaara. If his research was anything to go by, the Raijuu was a power-house. A god of thunder, he was best known for his devastating attacks and his capabilities for destruction rivaled that of the Kyuubi itself, although the Raijuu was known to dislike violence and only resorted to it if it was absolutely necessary.
"Have you made any attempts to find him? Ero-sannin had personally tried to find him a few years back but he could find no trail of the Rokubi," said Naruto. It was the ten-year-old Naruto's brilliant theory that if the Akatsuki had formed an organization to find and kill all the jinchuurikis, then the hosts' of the Bijuus should band together to fight the Akatsuki. It was a very straight-forward thinking of a kid, but the idea was a sound one and it had given Jiraiya a pause. What the ten-year-old had said made very much sense, why had none of the other 'older' and 'more experienced' shinobis had not thought of this. Sure the Akatsuki was a fearsomely strong and dangerous criminal organization, but if all the jinchuurikis banded together to fight the threat, Jiraiya doubted that Akatsuki could do much to stop them.
So to give Naruto's brilliant theory a try, Jiraiya had taken Naruto to meet the only other Jinchuuriki that was his own age, Gaara. His plan worked and Naruto was able to turn the Kazekage's youngest psychopathic boy into a friend and pull him out of his depression. Seeing this Jiraiya had sneaked himself and Naruto into Kumogakure to see if Naruto could form a positive bond with the high-nosed jinchuuriki of the Niibi. It took some time but Naruto and Yugito had formed a sibling-like relationship in a matter of few weeks, and after Yugito met Gaara, their bond only strengthened. Seeing his plan coming along quite well, the white haired Sannin had tried to have the Hachibi (eight-tails) join the trio, but the Raikage was completely against the idea and would not have his adopted brother mix with shady people Jiraiya of the Sannin. Realizing that arguing with the thick-skulled Raikage would only be a waste of his time Jiraiya had set out to find the other Jinchuurikis and ask them if they wanted to fight the group that was after their lives.
He had gone after the Gobi (five-tails) first seeing that the Sanbi (three-tails) was out of its dead jinchuuriki, and there was no way he was getting inside Iwagakure where the Yonbi resided five years ago, Gobi was the logical choice, but the man was completely against the idea. He was so full of his own power and control over the beast within him that he thought that if anybody dared to come after him, the hunters will be the ones that will get hunted. For the love of god there was no way of finding the Rokubi, so the Sannin decided to go to Takigakure and see if the Nanabi's (seven-tails) host had the brains to see that this was for their own good. Sadly this jinchuuriki was a patriot with a stick-up his ass for rules, he absolutely had to follow the rules to the T when it came to being a Shinobi, so he had declined the toad hermit's offer.
So after the alliance was made between the three jinchuurikis Naruto, Gaara, and Yugito; Jiraiya realized just how far behind Naruto was in controlling his bijuu in comparison to most of the other jinchuurikis. Many of the jinchuurikis could fully control their bijuus with Killer Bee being the most advanced among all the others. Therefore Jiraiya decided to train Naruto in using the fox chakra. For the next five years, Naruto didn't only train with the sages for normal Shinobi techniques and jutsus, he also started working on missions that Jiraiya, or his spy network assigned Naruto; he also started to train with the fox's chakra and its uses mostly under the toad hermit, and sometimes under Pa Fukasaku.
"I wish I could have, but the Rokubi is as elusive as ever," Gaara was now looking at some kind of chart, with many different colored lines and places with markings and arrows.
"Damn, he is good! What are you looking at?"
"This is the demographic chart of the Rokubi that Suna has made of his travels in the last seven years since he set out from his village. I have studied this map for a long time but I can find no definitive pattern to his movements and therefore I cannot predict where he might be in the future so that we can talk to him and make him realize the gravity of the situation that the Akatsuki has presented against him and others like him," replied Gaara as his eye brows rose as he noticed something. "The chart does show that he does not go more than a certain radius in any direction from one point, the cliffs just south of Kiri, I think he is overlooking the protection of his village away from the villagers and their constant badgering."
"Yeah," said Naruto as a sad look came over his face when he remembered how Gaara was treated when he was younger by the same people who now bow to him in respect. "I guess I am lucky in a way that none of the people in my village knows that I am a jinchuuriki, I don't know if I am strong enough to endure that kind of treatment and not lash out against the villagers." A small smile tugged at Gaara's smile and a mischievous gleam came to his eyes.
"I am sure you would have killed a few villagers just to keep them from bothering you again," said Gaara with an air of nonchalance that infuriated the blonde to no end.
"WHY YOU, I WILL GET YOU FOR THAT!" shouted Naruto as he jumped out of his bed ready to strangle the smiling Gaara instantly. Alas that was not to happen as just then the door to their room was flung open and in ran Temari as she took a good look at Gaara before scooping him in a motherly hug. Naruto stopped bawling immediately, he had learned long ago not to interfere with Temari when she was in an emotional state-of-mind or someone was going to get a big war-fan broken on top of their head. Not a pleasant feeling in the least. Gaara tapped Temari's shoulder, letting her know that he needed to breath and she let him go before kissing him on his bandaged the forehead.
"Gaara, how many times do I have to tell you that you have to use your ninjas when fighting. You know you are not responsible for each and every villager's life when you are there is a conflict going on," sighed Temari as she sat down next to Gaara and looked at their feet.
"I know, but this time they were here for me so it was only logical that they fight me," countered Gaara with his ever present monotone. Temari shook her head in denial but a small smile crept in her to her lips.
"You and your sentiments, sometimes I wonder why I let you hang out with Uzumaki in the first place!" she said as both siblings started smiling. Naruto also smiled, he had gotten used to the creepy humor that the siblings sometimes shared, and mostly in privacy because it unnerved any stranger and quite frankly Gaara's smile even freaked Baki (their genin instructor, and now their trusted advisor) out sometimes.
"Hey do you know when they are going to let us out, I am sure our wounds have already healed?" asked Naruto to Temari and her lips twisted in contemplation.
"Don't know, your teammate is in charge of your treatment, so you ask her when she gets here," said Temari. She looked at the clock mounted on their room and sighed. "I have to go for a meeting with the elders, so I will see you guys later." Temari got up, as did Naruto and Gaara. Temari stepped closer to Naruto and grabbed his shoulders. "Thank you Naruto, we owe you again," she said sincerely and kissed him on the cheek. BAM! Naruto and Temari jumped apart. Somebody had closed the door to their room quite forcefully for some reason. When Naruto looked at Gaara with a questioning look, he shrugged. Temari shook her head, whenever Naruto was in town nothing normality seemed to disappear in fear. "See ya later," she said and walked off the room. As soon as Temari left, their door opened again and a very red-faced Sakura came in carrying a tray of what appeared to be dressing.
"Sakura, how are you doing?" asked Naruto with a cheerful smile.
"Fine!" she answered angrily and pointedly turned away from him to check on Gaara's bandages. Naruto was confused, what happened to Sakura? Why was she so angry at him or was it that she was angry at something else.
"So how is everything going? You know I want to get out of the hospital," said Naruto trying to make conversation so that he could figure out what had the pink haired kunoichi so riled up.
"Ya you two will be discharged from here today evening, I think I forgot to bring something, I will send in another nurse to do the dressing," the kunoichi said before hurrying out of the room.
"Hmm, wonder what has got on her nerves today?" though Naruto until his thoughts were interrupted by the light chuckling coming from across the room. "What?" asked Naruto when he saw the Kazekage giving him a furtive look.
"It seems the medic-nin from Konoha has taken a liking to you Uzumaki," said Gaara before resuming his chuckling.
"How can you tell?" asked Naruto quite bewildered. The last thing he needed was girl advice from Gaara! No, even from a young age the redhead was a perceptive person, maybe he could tell what was going on inside a person's head by their actions and expressions.
"Well my first hint was the way she was distraught after your supposed death in the cavern, and then how she started to behave with you after she saw Temari kissing you, she thinks that there is something going on between you and my sister," said Gaara, and there was no deception or trickery involved in his voice. He was completely serious in his judgment.
"Oh great," huffed Naruto. "Now the girl I like thinks that I like someone else, it's over even before I could tell her how I feel about her!"
"So you like her too, now that is unexpected," said Gaara with in a delightful tone or as delightful as his monotonic voice could get. Naruto blushed a little realizing that he had just spilt beans about his feelings for Sakura; at least it was not to a total stranger. It was in front of one of his closest and best friends.
"So what do I do now? How do I clear this mess up without letting her know how I feel about her?" asked Naruto, if Gaara knew already might as well talk to him rather than willow in his own misery or worse mess it up by thinking up something stupid.
"Why not just tell her how you feel? That way you can clear away the misunderstanding and get the girl you like," said Gaara looking a little confused as to why his friend would want to hide his feelings.
"Look Gaara, I can understand why you are thinking that way. You are the youngest Kazekage this village has plus the people here respect you and worship the ground you walk on. No doubt you are also quite popular with the ladies due to your reputation and the legendary greatness of your power. On the other hand there is my situation. Neither am I a Kage nor am I popular in the village of Konoha, in other words there is nothing to go by when I am asking out a girl. Plus my year's teens are half clan heirs and half of them are extra ordinary due to their specialty in one Shinobi field or another. It will take me years to build a reputation for myself and a girl like Sakura is not just going to sit by, I bet there are guys who already want to marry her. Therefore I just want to be a good friend so that if I do find the courage to ask her out or something it wouldn't be awkward or embarrassing for her. Get it?" Naruto was so engrossed in his moment that he hadn't even realized that there was nurse standing by the door of their room, she probably he had his whole story and he had just made a fool of himself in front of a total stranger. Oh, why did this always happen to him? Kami had a personal vendetta to settle with Naruto Uzumaki!
"Ahem-ahem!" the nurse cleared her throat in the most clichéd manner ever, before walking farther inside the room. "I am here to check up on and change the dressing for Kazekage-sama (she gave a full-on sweeping bow to Gaara) and Uzumaki san?" here sentence ended in a question and she looked a little uncertainly towards Naruto, so the blonde haired jinchuuriki nodded saying that he was the other said person. She expertly changed the dressing on Naruto and Gaara's wounds but frowned as only minor scratches and in some cases little scars remained, in Naruto's case. It seemed Gaara's wounds were healing at a normal rate as his wounds were in almost the exact same state as they were the previous couple of days. After she was done, she looked satisfactorily at her work, nodded to Gaara and walked off with the tray that Sakura had brought in.
"Hey Gaara, how come your wounds have not healed already?" asked Naruto a little concerned for his friend's health.
"I believe you already know the answer to that question Uzumaki," replied Gaara, but when the blank look on Naruto's face remained, he sighed and continued. "I have not been able to communicate with the Shukaku, and last night I think I slept after a long time with no dreams or disturbance. So the only conclusion is that the Akatsuki were able to extract the Shukaku from me and even though I retained my abilities of the sand-armor and my control over sand, the accelerated healing abilities that comes with a bijuu's chakra is gone. I can also feel the lightness of my chakra; it is not as dense as it used to be when the Shukaku's chakra was constantly there along with my own."
Clarity dawned in the eyes of the toad hermit's apprentice as his mouth formed a little 'ahh'. "So how do you feel with the bijuu gone?" asked Naruto, he had wondered a lot how his life would have been different if the Fourth Hokage had not sealed the Kyuubi into him. What it would have been like to grow up in Konoha with the others? What kind of relations he would have formed with the people he grew up with? Gaara himself understood his friend's dilemma quite well; he himself had wondered more than few times what his life would have been like without the Shukaku. So he tried to be as indifferent as he could be without outright lying to his oldest friend.
"It feels, lighter, as if a big responsibility was taken away from me, a responsibility that people like us knows all too well. But there is also a hollow feeling, like something is missing from us, something that was a big part of us, that is just not there anymore," before Gaara could go any farther Naruto held his hand up.
"Alright, alright I get the picture, but now that you are not a jinchuuriki, what about the alliance? What about the things that we vowed to do together once we were strong enough to take on the Akatsuki ourselves? You know before what happened to you, it was just me and you, Yugito was killed. Now, I am alone against the Akatsuki," said the blonde teen much to the red-headed ex-jinchuuriki's dismay.
"Naruto, you are not alone in your fight against the Akatsuki, I am still there with you even though I am a jinchuuriki no more. But do not forget, I am still the Kazekage of Suna and my position grants me power over all the forces of Suna. If Konoha will have it, I would like to make an alliance between our villages, not just the friendly trade business but an actual alliance between the two Shinobi nations and their forces," the young Kazekage reprimanded his friend for thinking that Gaara had abandoned him just because the Shukaku was inside him no more.
"How can you decide, no wait how can I decide for the village of Konoha, you have to meet with the Hokage to finalize the deals, the treaties, the conditions and all that kind of stuff, I just can't do that for the whole village hidden in the leaves!" shouted Naruto, he was bewildered at Gaara's childish thinking that he alone could do everything needed to form an alliance between two Shinobi nations.
Gaara looked towards the window to the rest of Suna. "Uzumaki, do you really believe that I am as stupid as to suggest that you alone seal an alliance between two Shinobi nations? I am just offering the option to the village of Konohagakure. Tomorrow before your departure collect the necessary papers and one you reach Konoha hand them over to your Hokage. We will request the answer the next time our ambassador visits or your Hokage could send their ambassador here to inform us of the decision that Konoha finally makes, understand?" Gaara looked away from the window only to see his blonde friend already asleep.
One Day Later
The three Shinobis from Konoha was standing at the entrance of Suna along with their escort party that considered the Kazekage, his siblings, their trusted advisor Baki, and various Suna citizens and residents.
"Well Kazekage-sama it was a pleasure that we were able to enjoy your hospitality for so long, but now it is time for us to return since the task we were here for is finished," said Kazekage bowing respectfully to Gaara. The young Kazekage nodded at this and Temari came forward and handed him the documents that Gaara had mentioned to the sleeping Naruto a day earlier. After discussing the same things with Kakashi, who had promptly agreed to carry out the task, Gaara was comfortable enough handing the confidential papers to Team seven. If not for the whole team, Gaara completely trusted his friend in being able to protect such crucial information from unwanted hands, and Kakashi's fame and previous accomplishments more than compensated for any weakness he might have displayed in the mission. Sakura also said her farewell and hugged Temari before stepping back as Naruto stepped forward. At first he clapped Kankuro in the shoulders and nodded at him before moving to Temari and giving her a quick hug and then finally stepped in front of Gaara.
"Ya know, I have half the mind of dragging you with me back to Konoha, but I guess these guys wouldn't stand much chance without their Kazekage," Naruto said as he smirked at the horrified expressions that formed on the faces of the people of Suna.
"Well I wish to do the same but I have a village to protect, and you are quite right, maybe they wouldn't stand much chance without me," said Gaara, quietly enjoying the many whisperings that broke out among the people of his village.
"Well I don't know whether this alliance that you want to form will happen or not but the alliance we formed will never break right?" asked Naruto as he extended his hand towards Gaara. The young Kazekage took and shook it.
"Never," he said almost symbolizing the long-standing pact that the two nations will form in the coming days.
Whew! Took me a while but got it down. Now I was disappointed with the low number of reviews that I have been getting from the last few chapters, I think I scared my readers off taking such a long break! Anyhow, please keep the reviews coming; they are the only motivation I have to keep writing this story. Now, some people are starting to think that I have made an over-strong Naruto who can just stroll through any kind of obstacle. Well they are in for a surprise as they are going to see just where Naruto stands when he is compared to the Gods (and some unnaturally over powered ninjas) of Naruto-verse. Yes I have made a strong Naruto, guess why? Because he freaking grew up with the sages of Mount Myoboku, and trained under Jiraiya practically all his life! Who the hell wouldn't get strong after growing up in an environment where everybody that trained him is legendarily strong? Second, Naruto was never in Konoha, so he didn't put up a façade of happiness to cover up the sorrow and loneliness the canon Naruto felt while growing up, in my story he was never hated or ignored. He was treated like a normal person his whole life and was actually given the attention he deserved to come up to his full potential. Therefore neither is this Naruto weak, or excessively dumb like he was in Part 1 of Naruto plus we all know the amount of potential Naruto has as a ninja, I am just showing what Naruto would be like had he been given the same treatment as the other teens in Konoha his age. Maybe then it wouldn't come as a surprise that Naruto is the Namikaze/Uzumaki heir and the legacy of the Yondaime, his skills/accomplishments would speak for themselves. Now I am not saying this to drill the people who think I have made an over-powered Naruto, I am just saying what this story represents. Anyway, if you want to give me suggestions or wanna discuss the story in farther details, just shoot me a P.M. otherwise keep the reviews coming. Good day and HAPPY HALLOWEEN!