Bonds That Bind

"What the hell do you mean he died!? He couldn't have… We were both going to be the kage's for out villages. Matsuri… Please tell me that you're lying." Naruto was in tears; he had dropped down on his knees and joined Matsuri on the dirt road. "Please Matsuri… It, it can't be."

Matsuri looked at the crushed blonde shinobi from Konohagakure; she didn't understand why he would be this upset about her sensei's death. As far as she had known, Naruto only briefly knew Gaara. "Naruto-san… Gaara-sensei did die last year. And the citizens of Sunagakure assisted in his murder." Matsuri turned her gaze away from the aw-struck ninja in front of her and focused on a fixed point on the busy dirt road that they had collapsed in.

"What do you mean?" Naruto couldn't comprehend what he had just been told.

"The people of Sunagakure hated Gaara-sensei; they would compare him to a monster or a demon. At times it seemed as if only Temari-san, Kankuro-san, and I were the only ones who liked him. Gaara-sensei was an outcast of the village. Nobody would go near him, let alone talk with him. The citizens feared him, despised him, and hated him. They wanted him out of their lives… for good. I was in a squad with Gaara-sensei, along with a Chuunin and a Jonin." Matsuri raised her face; it was a face of loss and despair.

Naruto's face also showed despair, as well as anger and hatred. He knew what kind of torment Gaara had gone through. He turned his face towards Matsuri who was, in a sense, 'lost'. "Matsuri, lets continue your story somewhere other than the road" He gave her a weak and very fake smile, in an attempt to somehow make the atmosphere more enjoyable. Naruto helped Matsuri up and they started to walk. Her facial expression had not changed, and Naruto didn't have it in him to try and cheer her up. He too was essentially 'broken' from the tragic news of the death of one of his few precious people. They stopped at a local shop and Naruto ordered a small meal for each of them. Matsuri's face changed into a look of slight surprise and gratefulness when she had realized what Naruto had done.

"Thank you Naruto-san." As they began to eat their meal, she continued the story from where she had left off. "Our squad was on patrol near the border of the Land of Wind, and the Land of Earth. We had only just arrived at our designated area of patrol when we encountered two individuals wearing black cloaks with red clouds."

'Akatsuki.' Naruto knew well of the organization. Whenever he and Jiraiya would have a break in his training routine, Jiraiya would take it upon himself to inform Naruto of Akatsuki and taught him everything that he thought Naruto should know.

Matsuri began her story once more. "The two men we encountered were missing nin, one from Iwagakure and the other from Sunagakure. Gaara-sensei referred to them as 'Akatsuki'. This was the first I had ever heard the name. One of the men reached his hands into pouches worn on his sides and started to walk towards us. When he reached our squad he said, 'Well thank you very much Samoshii-san. You saved us a lot of trouble by bringing the Jinchuuriki to us.' Our squad's Jonin, Samoshii, responded. 'Not at all Deidara-sama, you're the one doing us a favor. Please take him.' Gaara-sensei didn't look surprised that he had been stabbed in the back; he just calmly walked away from our squad into a clearing. As Gaara-sensei left, my two former teammates started to laugh. I broke out in tears and screamed at them. Wanting to know how they could do such a thing. I will remember the reply I received for the rest of my life, 'Just shut up and watch Matsuri-san. Finally as of today, that demon that has plagued our village for over 15 years will die.' I looked over my shoulder and saw that Gaara-sensei had begun fighting the Akatsuki member that had identified himself as Deidara. I started towards the fight, determined that I would kill Deidara myself if Gaara-sensei could not when Samoshii restrained me with a binding jutsu. I continued to beg them to go and assist Gaara-sensei; I told them that he wasn't a monster. But they wouldn't listen, and after numerous pleads, they knocked me out. The last thing I saw was Gaara-sensei fighting Deidara in the skies… When I woke up, I was in the hospital and everyone around me was rejoicing. I began to think that Gaara-sensei had beaten the two men from Akatsuki, my spirits were lifted. I ran out into the hallway and asked what had happened."

Matsuri paused for what seemed like an eternity to Naruto, but the message was clear.

"They said, 'We are free, the demon has finally been slain.' I couldn't believe them, I ran from person to person, left the hospital and asked people everywhere, but the answer was the same. Gaara-sensei had died, and the citizens rejoiced." Matsuri stared down at the wooden table they had been served on, as more tears fell from her glazed eyes and landed on the polished surface.

"Those bastards!" Naruto slammed his fist on the table, sending a crack to run along the length of the wood. "How could anyone be so… so…" Naruto's shoulders shook up and down as he cried once more for his fallen friend. "I'm sorry Matsuri, I'm sorry that I wasn't there to help Gaara." Naruto left Matsuri after paying for the meal and walked down the main strip in the business district.

As he walked past the numerous shops and booths set up for the day, he noticed the stares from the people. 'Again with the damn stares!' Naruto started starring back at them, and in one instance actually yelled at one of them. This in turn caused the store clerk to run to the back of his store and hide. 'I've got to get away from all this; I have to go clear my head.' Naruto jumped to the rooftops of Konoha and made his way out of the city and into the forests. Jumping from branch to branch he eventually came to a small waterfall in the center of a clearing. It was dusk by the time he had arrived; so the sky was an amazing orange and yellow. The sun was slipping under the horizon and the moon was just becoming visible. He leapt to the ground and walked to the base of a tree that overlooked the small paradise and sat against it. Naruto closed his eyes and listened to the steady melody being played by the waterfall and crickets. Slowly, he drifted off into sleep.

'Sand, where am I? I'm in a desert? But how? That's right! Gaara! Where is he, I have to find him. I need to save him!' A dark red cloud appears above Naruto, riding the cloud are two members of Akatsuki and in their hands is Gaara's body. 'You bastards! Let Gaara go! Come down here!' The cloud starts to move away and Naruto gives chase. 'I won't let you get away! Do you hear me? You're not getting away from me. I'll kill you!'

"Gaara!" Naruto awakes to find himself soaking in sweat and lying next to the tree at his little paradise. 'That dream… Gaara. I won't let them get away with it Gaara. I'll make every one of those pieces of trash pay.' The blonde gets up and starts walking back to his village. He had stayed out for the night and is only returning now that the sun is rising to his back and giving light to his path towards home. As he reached the gates that gave entrance to his city he noticed underneath it was a certain red head he had become very familiar with. "Hey Yugito!" Naruto yelled out towards his previous 'mission objective'.

Yugito turned around to see Naruto walking in to town from the forest area. "Oh hey Naruto-kun!" she addressed her former stalker. "Listen Naruto-kun, if you have a moment, I would like to discuss something with you."

"Umm… sure I can talk for a while."

Naruto lead Yugito away from the gate and towards the training areas. They continued walking until they were out of earshot of anyone from the city and then Yugito spoke. "Naruto-kun, how come I get the feeling that you weren't really in the chuunin exams to become a chuunin?"

"Well…" 'The mission is over now, I don't see why I can't tell her.' "I was on a mission to find you in the chuunin exams."

"Me? But why me?"

"We knew of a possible Jinchuuriki participating in the exams, and we had to closely monitor the situation to ensure that the Jinchuuriki's Biju's chakra wouldn't cause a problem to the exams."

Yugito stopped walking, stunned over the information that she had just heard. "But, how did you know that I'm a Jinchuuriki?"

"I had felt your Biju's chakra one night by coincidence and knew that it was from a Jinchuuriki."

"But how could you tell it was me? After all, I never used any of the demon's chakra while I was in the exams until the very end when you showed up."

"I could just tell from when you used your own chakra. After being sealed with a Biju for such a long time, your chakra begins to blend with one another. The times for how long that blend starts to happen depends on how often you use your Biju's chakra and it also depends on the nature of the seal which keeps the Biju locked inside of you."

"Amazing, but how do you know so much about Jinchuuriki?"

"I… studied with the sannin Jiraiya for three years. He knows a lot in regards to Jinchuuriki and Akatsuki." Yugito tensed as Naruto mentioned the name Akatsuki.

"Akatsuki." Yugito paused to organize her thoughts. "The organization comprised of ten missing nin from multiple villages. Each with their own unique and deadly jutsus. They quest to capture the Jinchuuriki and harvest the demons within them for their own use."

"Oh, so you have heard of them." Naruto was impressed that she knew so much, but he supposes that she would have to know at least that much information given the fact that she herself is what they're hunting.

"Yes, they infiltrated Kumogakure not too long ago to capture me. But they never did for some unknown reason. The only way we even knew about the attempt was that they had left a message for us to find, taunting us."

Hinata had been watching Naruto and this mysterious kunoichi for the past half of their conversation. She had been taking shelter in a tree after an embarrassment at the Hyuuga Compound earlier. She was sparring with Hanabi as normal, yet this time when she lost to her little sister. Her father told Hanabi to continue the fight; even though it was clear that Hinata had lost. When Hanabi refused, Hiashi blamed Hinata for making Hanabi weak like herself and slapped her across the face. Hiashi then dragged Hanabi into a separate training dojo and dismissed Hinata telling her that she was 'weak and useless'. Hinata left the compound and headed towards her own 'special place'. This was the training grounds that Naruto had spoken to her before the chuunin exams three years prior and told her that he liked people like her. She had spent much time her during Naruto's three years training, whether it was taking refuge from the Hyuuga Compound and her father, or just to pass the time with daydreams.

"I'm sorry to hear that, I just discovered that I had lost a good friend to them. He was turned in to them by his own village. They're all nothing but a load of trash, they don't have the right to call themselves ninja. It makes me sick."

"You must be lucky that you don't have to deal with all of that Naruto-kun, or does Konohagakure have a Jinchuuriki as well?"

"Well…" 'Should I tell her? She wouldn't run like everyone else would, she would relate to me. It may be good for me to get this off my chest.' "The truth is I haven't been completely honest with you. It is true that I studied with Jiraiya and he did teach me a lot, but I'm actually a Jinchuuriki as well." Naruto analyzed Yugito's face, searching for an expression after he had admitted to her his biggest secret. The expression he found was one of relief.

"Really? You hide it so well, I had no idea. I have to say, it really feels good to talk with another Jinchuuriki."

"Yea, it is a relief."

Naruto and Yugito continued their walk across the numerous training grounds; each telling their stories of grief and sadness that came along with being a Jinchuuriki. Then they discovered through each other's stories, certain things that made them kind of glad that they had what they did inside of them.

Hinata sat in her tree, her escape from the realities that awaite her past it's leaves, shocked by the news that she had learned. 'Naruto-kun has a demon inside of him?!'