Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

Chapter 18

Here is the next chapter! Itachi will be coming VERY soon :D

The wind has been blowing in the wrong way for the past few days, and Gaara was starting to get a very bad feeling. He normally wasn't a man to believe such nonsense but this time he just couldn't shake off the feeling. Kankuro was currently patrolling the edges of the village with a good portion of the jounin squad, and Temari was in Konoha acting as an ambassador for the next chuunin exam.

Sighing Gaara stared out the large window of his office. The tiny sand particles blew in all directions as the looming sun was just raising above the horizon. An orangey glow was casted onto the village.

Something was off.

"So and then I learned this awesome technique…" Naruto blathered on about all the new techniques he learnt with Jiraiya, while Sasuke tried his best to ignore the blond's loud voice. Not even an hour and he was already annoyed.

They were currently heading towards the Hokage tower to report in and Naruto was eagerly chatting away with his two teammates.

"It's called the rasengan and it's far stronger than your stupid chidori." Naruto continued to brag, his cerulean eyes filled with happiness. "And I can do futon attacks." He made a wild exaggerated gesture with his hands as he blew air from his mouth. "Oh and I finally got control over the kurama."

"The what?" Sakura gave Naruto a confused look.

Stopping his movements Naruto turned his whole attention towards Sakura, and pointed at his stomach. "The kyuubi."

"How?"

Naruto shrugged. "He was just a grumpy fox and I talked to him." He spoke as if he was taming a puppy.

"…" Sakura almost sweat dropped. It was so like Naruto to talk to a freaking bijuu and convince him to suddenly turn good.

"Never mind that Sakura-chan I've gotten so much stronger!" As if to prove his point he flexed his arm in front of the girl's face.

Laughing Sakura pushed the arm away. "Yes, yes you've gotten stronger."

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After an arduously long ten minutes for Sasuke, they finally reached the hokage office. He wasn't sure he could take another minute longer of the blond's incessant chattering. He was almost as bad as Ino. Almost.

"Come in." A loud voice rang out from behind the oak door.

Not bothering to have any sense of mannerism Naruto burst through the door and ran straight up to the busty hokage. "BAA-CHAN, YOU GOT OLD!"

He was greeted with a punch in the face courtesy of the hokage.

"Dobe." Sasuke half scoffed and half smirked, while Sakura shook her head in a disapproving manner. Rubbing his cheek, Naruto picked himself up from the ground the smile never disappearing from his face.

"Welcome back." Tsunade said as she re took her spot on the chair. "I see you've grown quite a bit."

"YEAH!"

Naruto's cheery attitude never fails to amuse her. Chuckling she pulled out a clip board from her desk. "Now that you're back, I'm reinstating team 7." If it were possible Naruto's grin grew. "Now why don't you walk around the village. I'm sure there's lots of people that's eager to see you."

Without another word, he gave the hokage his good guy pose before dragged both his teammates out the door.

Today felt different. It felt like something big was going to happen. Not being a man to dwell over such trivial matters, he returned to his seat and peered at the numerous documents on his desk.

Somedays he really regret listening to his siblings and accepting this hokage job. Signing papers and documents day in and day out was seriously far more tiring then is he were to be sent on a S-rank mission.

Heaving another sigh, he picked up his inky brush and began writing his diplomatic request to the Mist village.

Dear Esteemed Mizukage.

I hate my job…

Green eyes stared down at the paper, before crumpling it up and taking a new sheet. Holding his brush above the white material he watched tiny ink droplets fall onto the sheet. He was stuck. He had no idea what to write. It was usually Temari who did all of his diplomatic writing, but since she was all the way in Konoha he was stuck with this unpleasant duty. Damn that girl for leaving.

"Are we nearing the village. Yeah?" One of the cloaked man asked his partner.

"…" Not bothering to respond the hunched over man continued to trek through the sweltering desert.

Mumble curses at his companions lack of answer he wiped the sweat from his forehead. His blond hair was damp. He hated this mission. Hated the heat and sand.

"Naruto?"

The blond stopped his chatting to his teammates and turned towards the new voice. Before him stood two ninjas. A male with spiky brown hair and a girl with blond hair neatly tied up into four pigtails. Naruto squinted his eyes in a thoughtful manner. "Uh...Shikamaru? Tema-Temari?"

"YOU TWO ARE DATING?" Naruto shouted after he recovered from his earlier confusion.

A small blush crossed the blond's face as she sputtered. "W-what no"

"Of course not, she's here as the Sand ambassador for the upcoming chuunin exam." Shikamaru replied in a bored tone.

A shocked expression crossed Naruto's face. "What?! You're a chuunin!" He pointed a finger at the brunette.

"We're the jounin proctors for the exam." Shikamaru drawled out in a bored tone.

Naruto's eyes grew larger. "Did you guys know about this?" He turned toward his two teammates.

"We're all jounins dobe." Sasuke smirked. "You're the only one who's still a genin."

"WHAT?!" Naruto shouted as he childishly stomped his feet.

Three laughters and one mocking scoff rang around him. "Don't worry you can always take the upcoming chuunin exam." Sakura gave the pouting boy an encouraging pat on the back.

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"Well, look who's back." Five heads turned looked up to a nearby rooftop.

A smiling silver haired jounin jumped down from the building and landed behind his team. Pocketing his favorite book inside his ninja pouch, he placed a hand on top of the blond's spiky hair and lightly ruffled it. "You're almost taller than me."

"Of course I am." Naruto grinned at his sensei. "I also have a gift for you." Reaching behind him, and into his ninja pouch, he pulled out a familiar orange book. Handing it over to his sensei he watched the silver haired man's expression change to one of shock. "I honesty don't understand why you like it. I mean I read it and it was borrrringgggg…"

Ignoring the blond, Kakashi continued to stare at the small booklet in his hand. It was a limit edition one and it was all his. Carefully he lifted the cover of the book to read it's prologue. His expression grew even more shocked. This book was just too good. Even the prologue was amazing. He could practically hear the angels singing in the background. Everything vanished from his sight and instead the only thing in his view with this precious book. He must know what happens. Not bothering to say another word he disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"Guess he likes the book…" Naruto stared at the place Kakashi was just was.

The two figures dressed in black cloaks with red clouds approached the two sand trenches.

"Who are you…"

"Alert officials…"

The startled chunin patrols at the gate yelled orders at each other.

"So noisy." A low grunt escaped the hunched over shinobi. Barely raising his cloak, a rain of senbons and kunais escape from under the black clothe and embedded themselves into the sand shinobis. The two Akatsuki's watched as the numerous shinobis fall to the ground in consecutive thuds. "Signal now."

"Tch." Deidara half glared at his partner. There are times when he really hated his conceded attitude. Opening his cloak he took out his hand and opened his palm. A small clay bird flew out from the small mouth in his palm and fluttering away into the village.

"I hate waiting." The low grunt from the hunched over man was heard.

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After ten minutes of waiting a tall jounin sand shinobi ran out from the village. "You're here." He panted as he greeted the two Akatsuki members. "Everything's ready."

"Good." The bottom of his cloak lifted as a wooden scorpion tail emerged. With a small swing the hunched over man launched a poison senbon at the sand ninja. His emotionless eyes watched at the ninja gasp for breath before falling on the ground dead. "Don't keep me waiting." He cut a glance at the blond man beside him."

"Yeah."

Pulling out his hand a large clay bird was spit out from it. Hopping onto the bird's back, they took off and head into the village.

After chatting with Shikamaru and Temari for a bit, Naruto and his two teammates continued to walk aimlessly around the village. Occasionally stopping so Naruto can catch up with the fellow rookies.

"Are we going to chaperon the dobe the whole day?" Sasuke asked as he stared blankly at the flustered blond who was trying to apologize to Shino for not recognizing him.

"He hasn't been home in almost three years." Sakura whispered to Sasuke. "If you leave he'll be sad."

Sasuke sighed as he continued to stand beside Sakura waiting for Naruto to finish talking to team Kurenai. He wanted to go home.

The sounds of bombs and screaming alerted Gaara. Standing up in such a haste his chair flew against the back wall.

"KAZEKAGE-SAMA, WE'RE UNDER ATTACK!" A scared chuunin burst through his office door. The sound of the alarm blaring in the hall behind him. "AKATSUKI, HE'S ATTACKING THE VILLAGE."

Not saying a word Gaara ran out from his office and headed for the roof. His village was not going to get destroyed under his watch.

Once he got to the top of the kazekage tower. He stared up at the man perched on the large clay bird dropping small clay bombs down on his village. Narrowing his eyes in anger, he let the sand surround his body. Using both hands he controlled the movements of the sand. With one swipe of his hand he send continuous large masses of sand hurling towards the Akatsuki. Watching as the blond enemy dodged all his sand attacks. At least he stopped the man's bombing attempts on his village.

"Send an urgent message to konoha." Gaara ordered to the chunin behind him. The ninja immediately scurried away.

Letting the sand congregate under his feet, he was lifted up from the roof.

"Not bad, Yeah." Deidara smirked as he threw several clay bombs towards the red head who was chasing after him. The bombs exploded against the protective sand wall that Gaara put up. Gathering speed he send a giant sand hand towards the akatsuki in an attempt to grab him… or at least his clay bird.

Dodging yet again, Deidara continued to send waves upon waves of bombs at Gaara who could do nothing but defend.

"Why are you doing this?" Gaara shouted as he send another wave of crushing sand towards the man.

"Because we want you, yeah."

It was twilight by the time Naruto had finished greeting everyone. With a cheery face he dragged a reluctant Sasuke and a tired Sakura towards Ichiraku.

Sitting down beside Sakura, he placed his order, while his teammates did the same.

"So what else have changed while I was away?" Naruto asked as they waited for their meal.

Pouring water from the water pitcher into her cup Sakura replied. "Sasuke-kun is thinking of joining ANBU, and I'm the head doctor at the hospital."

"ANBU?!" Naruto's jaw dropped as he stared at his rival from behind Sakura. "YOU CAN'T...NOT AT LEAST UNTIL I MAKE JOUNIN."

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "And when's that? Next millennium?"

"ARE YOU CALLING ME WEAK. I'M NOT WEAK, TEME." Naruto shouted again as he saw the disbelieving look on Sasuke's face. "YOU DON'T BELIEVE ME. FINE...RIGHT NOW YOU ME TRAINING GROUND." Slamming down his chopsticks he got up from his seat, Sasuke did the same. Sakura sighed. They couldn't even have a dinner as a team without these two idiots picking a fight. Placing down her own chopsticks, she grabbed both her teammates around the arm and yanked them back down to their seats.

"Sasuke-kun stop being mean to Naruto." She gave the Uchiha a glare before turning towards Naruto. "And Naruto stop shouting...now lets just enjoy a calm dinner as a team."

"Teme."

"Dobe."

Sakura pinched the bridge of her nose.

Panting Gaara evaded another one of those clay bombs. He wasn't doing so good, but neither was his opponent.

"GAARA-SAMA!"

"KAZEKAGE-SAMA"

Gaara stared down at the villagers and shinobi's that cheered him on. Never in his life did he think that he would be on the receiving end of his village's cheers. With a newly found energy he send a ginormous wave of sand at the enemy. Smirking when his attack snagged around one of the akatsuki's arm.

Clenching his hand into a fist, he watched with satisfaction as the sand around Deidara's arm tore the appendage off. While Deidara was preoccupied with his lost arm, Gaara launched another wave of sand at the man.

Still fussing over his lost arm. Deidara barely managed to dodge the second wave of attack. He was going to pay for destroying his arm. Completely opening his cloak he let thousands of tiny clay bombs fall onto the village.

Gaara's green eyes widened, as he saw the tiny bombs descend on his village. This attack was going to bury his village. With the last ounce of his chakra he sent a large tidal wave of sand to act as a form of barrier over his village.

The villagers below watched in awe as the large mass of sand protect them from the thousands of tiny bombs. However once the sand dissipated horror fell onto the mass, as they watched their esteemed Kazekage fall rapidly from the sky.

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While Gaara had focus all his energy on protecting his village he barely caught sight of the tiny bombs Deidara aimed at him. Failing to produce a proper defense against the attack, the tiny clay spider bombs crawled through the cracks of his defensive sand. Not able to evade the attack, he watched at the white bombs turn into an angry red before exploding all around him.

Every last drop of chakra was gone from his body, and unconsciousness was taking over. But to Gaara this wasn't a loss. He warned Konoha and he protected his village. He had full-filled his duty as Sunakagure's Kazekage.

Closing his eyes and his sand fluttered around him, he fell.

The esteemed kazekage was gone.

Honey colored eyes scanned the document in her shaking hand. Sunagakure was under attack by Akatsuki, and their Kazekage was taken.

"SENT IN TEAM SEVEN"

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"So any other changes?" Naruto asked again after he drank the remainder of the soup. "Like, how is Gaara doing."

"He's the kazekage." Sasuke answered the blond as he took out his wallet to pay.

Another hand stopped him before he could take out any cash. A confused look crossed his face as he stared at the pink haired girl.

"Before Naruto left with Jiraiya, you paid." Sakura gave him a smile as she pulled out a couple of crumpled bills from her pocket and placed it on the table. "I'm paying this time."

Smirking Sasuke re-pocketed his wallet.

Naruto stared curiously between his two teammates. Did something happen during his leave?

Before the team could leave the stand. Two ANBU's stood in their way.

"Hokage-sama requests your immediately presence." One of the masked man spoke.

"May I ask why?" Sakura asked the man. It was fairly unusual for Tsunade to send ANBUs to gather jounins, usually it would be a messenger bird.

"The kazekage was taken and you three are the scouting team."

Sakura and Sasuke shared a knowing look. A similar thought crossed their mind. 'Itachi.'

Naruto stood beside Sakura, his fists clenched tightly by his sides.

'Gaara.'

So like it? Next chapter is going to be Narusasu bonding! which will lead to itachi-kunnnnn.

anyways please review!