Here is the next chapter. I hope you all like it. Disclaimer: I don't own the characters Masashi Kishimoto does.

Naruto had just took off at a fast pace to try to get where they had to go faster. The ones behind him could tell he used too much chakra to his feet, because he left imprints in the tree bark. They could tell that he was impatient.

"Naruto, you need to calm down," Kakashi said to him as he caught up to him.

"I told you, I have to save Gaara, the Akatuski are going to use him, like they want to use me," Naruto replied.

Ino watched her teammate and thought back on her time with him, she recently found out why the villagers hated him before. She felt ashamed that she had treated him just like that only not as bad as the villagers.

She was snapped out of her thoughts when Naruto asked, "You know too, right Ino and Sakura?"

Ino and Sakura averted their gazes but they nodded their heads.

"I thought you two would find out eventually, but we have an unexpected ally on our side. Someone who knows what it's like to be hated just like Gaara and myself. He really is a good guy once you get to know him." Naruto replied.

"What ally, Naruto?" Ino asked confused.

"A friend of mine, his name is Kurama," Naruto answered with a slight smile.

He looked over his shoulder and laughed at their confused faces, so he continued, "It's better if I let him introduce himself."

This just confused them even more as they wondered what Naruto was getting at until they heard him again or rather someone else entirely.

"He means me," a gruff voice coming from Naruto answered.

They watched as Naruto stopped on one tree branch and they stopped as well then Naruto turned around to face them. Only, he didn't look like himself, his whisker marks are more defined, his teeth grew into fangs and his eyes are red with slit pupils.

"I'm Kurama, but you all know me as the Kyuubi," "Naruto" explained.

Then suddenly, he was met with flying kunais aiming for his head and Kakashi had one to his throat before he could even blink.

"What is your reason for taking over Naruto's body? Are you trying to use him?" Kakashi asked accusingly.

Ino and Sakura were surprised that a tailed beast was talking through their friend, but they had to be cautious of his intentions.

"Easy Kakashi, you realize that if you try to hurt me, you injure Naruto, right?" Kurama said pointing to the kunai.

Kakashi lowered his kunai away from Naruto's throat and put it back in the holster.

"Kit just wanted me to introduce myself to you and to tell you that I want to help him and everyone against the Akatsuki," Kurama explained.

"How do we know you're not lying and don't want to get out of Naruto?" Ino asked skeptically.

"You can use your Mind Transfer justu on him and you'll see that I'm telling the truth, Ino," Kurama explained.

Ino then came over to where he is and then she said, "Shitenshin no Jutsu!"

Kakashi held up her limp body as Ino was inside Naruto's subconscious mind, she was in a sewer type environment and she saw Naruto there with Kurama himself, out of his cage.

"Hey Ino, I told you he'll help us. He could have taken being let out of the cage to take over me completely but he didn't," Naruto explained with a smile.

Ino looked up in amazement as she had never seen the Nine-Tailed Fox Spirit up close before and she never knew how someone as big as Kurama could be sealed in Naruto. She watched as Kurama smirked at her but that was his way of smiling.

Then he said to her, "See? I was telling the truth, I'd rather help you guys fight the Akatsuki than to be someone's puppet."

"Okay, if Naruto thinks that you're an ally then, it's nice to meet you, Kurama," Ino accepted his friendship.

Then she exclaimed, "Kai!"

Then she found herself outside of Naruto's mind and in her own body again.

She straightened herself up and confirmed, "Kurama is telling the truth, he will help Naruto and all of us."

"Seems that I have misjudged you, Kyuu… no, Kurama. It seems that we have an ally that not even the Akatsuki could suspect," Kakashi said.

Kurama smirked and replied, "Now that you know about me, I'll let you continue on, you all are in a hurry to rescue Gaara right?"

Then Naruto's eyes returned to their blue color and the whisker marks have become less defined and then Naruto exclaimed, "Alright! Let's go!"

Then they took off again at top speed, while in Suna there was a sense of urgency and tension.

In Suna,

Kankurou was in the medical ward, breathing heavily but each breath had been painful to bear for him. The medics had tried all they could to find an antidote for Kankurou but they couldn't identify the poison used to cause so much damage to him.

"Who could have done this to him? Damage all of his puppets and poison him with an unknown poison?" Baki asked in thought.

The medics murmured amongst themselves, confused on how to cure him from an unknown poison. Until they all heard a groan from Kankurou.

"Kankurou, what is it?" Baki bent down to hear him better as Kankurou whispered to him who did it.

Softly, he whispered, "It was Sasori of The Red Sand."

Baki was shocked; Sasori was a dangerous criminal from their own village, no one has seen him in years.

Baki let out a stressed sigh and thought to himself, "Well, I guess I should ask her for help."

Back with Kakashi's team…

They had just covered a few more miles until Ino had spotted Temari heading back to Suna. Then they filled her in that Gaara was captured by Akatsuki and they were sent to rescue him from them.

"Alright, let's go," Temari said after they filled her in.

As they were stepping from tree to tree, they each noticed that Naruto had accelerated himself further away.

Ino who caught up with him, had tried to console him not to try too hard, he only replied, "It's always Gaara. He has suffered just as much as me only that he suffered alone the whole time. I need to help him because I can understand that pain he went through, so he won't be alone again."

Temari, who was listening, had a sad look in her eyes as she reflected on her behavior with Gaara before.

"Before, I never treated Gaara like a little brother; I never even noticed his pain and I'm supposed to be his older sister. But this guy, Naruto went through the same thing and he doesn't even have siblings. His friends accepted him and his life was a little better. Gaara became a better person because of him and now he is trying to save him. Naruto Uzumaki, thank you." Temari thought as they kept traveling.

After reaching the desert, they let Temari lead as she knows the path to Suna better than all of them. After an hour of running, they came across a sandstorm so they had to take shelter in a cave near them.

Temari explained, "It is best not to travel during a sandstorm so we have to wait it out."

So as they waited, Naruto was watching impatiently and Ino brought out her lunch that Shikamaru made her. She couldn't help but smile widely at this as she opened the box and found her favorite dish. She noticed that he even included her favorite, cherry tomatoes.

She popped some food in her mouth and she thought, "This is delicious; I never knew he was a good cook."

Naruto looked at Ino smiling and being curious he asked, "Did Shikamaru make that lunch for you?"

Ino had her mouth full, so she nodded as a reply while Naruto chuckled.

"He really does care about you a lot doesn't he? Remember we had that mission in the Grass village and he was leading us?" Naruto asked to at least pass the time for the storm to subside.

Ino swallowed her food and replied, "Vaguely, I had a fever but I didn't tell either of you as we were going home. I passed out while we were walking, then after that I don't remember much."

Naruto smiled and answered, "Your fever had gotten worse after you fainted and you looked like you couldn't breathe well. It was going to rain so we had to find shelter in a cave in the forest and we camped in there after we got the fire going. I offered to watch over you for a little bit but he said to me, "Just go to sleep, it's troublesome but I'll be fine." I pretended to go to sleep but I watched as he stayed up the whole night taking care of you."

Ino, Sakura and Temari listened intently, as well as Kakashi as he was watching the storm.

"Was that why he looked so tired the next morning? He stayed up to look after me?" Ino asked herself in awe. She continued, "Oh Shika, he really is a big softie, isn't he?"

Still smiling, she finished her lunch and they had camped in there for the night. After the storm had passed it was still dark but it was close to dawn, so they traveled again through the desert running as fast as they can.

Meanwhile in Suna…

"Her", turned out to be the village elder, Elder Chiyo, she was persuaded to help because the infamous Sasori is her grandson. She was in the medical ward, trying to figure out the poison that has Kankurou in so much pain, so far she was unsuccessful.

"If you need to find an antidote, you should ask The Slug Princess, Tsunade to help. During the Third Shinobi World War, she figured out the antidotes for most of my poisons without even batting an eyelash." Chiyo suggested.

Baki replied, "She is Hokage now, she can't step out at the moment. We received word from her that she sent a team to help rescue Gaara."

As they were worrying over Kankurou, Temari and Kakashi's team had shown up just outside of Suna's border and the guards had informed Temari about both her brothers.

"What?! They got Kankurou too?" Temari asked anxiously as she and the team was running to the Medical Ward.

The guard told her, "He went after Gaara and when we found him he had been poisoned. Elder Chiyo was trying to figure out an antidote but so far we can't find one."

Then Sakura spoke up, "Lead us to him, Ino and I'll look over him."

Ino then said to agree, "Don't worry; I'm sure we can figure it out."

They got to the ward where they were greeted by an old woman attacking Kakashi and she was shouting, "You'll pay for your crime, White Fang!"

Then suddenly an old man stopped her before she could attack more and said to her, "Look closely at him, he looks like the White Fang but he isn't."

When Chiyo settled down, Kankurou started writhing in pain and Sakura shouted, "Let us see him!"

Then they got to work, Sakura and Ino extracted the poison out of Kankurou's body while Temari and other medics held him down. After the last of poison was extracted, Ino took some samples of the poison for Sakura to examine.

"We extracted most of the poison; his life is not in danger. But we better find an antidote for the rest of it. Bring the poison, Ino," Sakura instructed.

Ino nodded as they were led to the green houses to look for medicinal herbs. Ino had admitted to herself that Sakura was the better medic but she liked to help whenever she could. So she followed Sakura's instructions and prepared the herbs for the antidote she managed to create. Ino prepared the antidote into a tea and gave it to Kankurou.

"That's good, now you just have to rest, Kankurou-san," Ino told him.

Then Naruto came up behind her and said, "Ino, you and Sakura were awesome, you learned all that when I was away?"

Ino smiled brightly and replied, "We weren't just slacking these past few years, you know."

Naruto smiled back and handed her back her pouch and said, "Alright, now we have to recue Gaara."

"You're right but I doubt that we can track them well, especially after that sandstorm." Kakashi said.

"I managed to get a piece of his mask, you can track him with this," Kankurou said weakly as he took the ripped cloth from his puppet's hand and handed it to Kakashi.

Kakashi then summoned Pakkun to sniff out the Akatsuki's trail and he said to them, "Well we better get going now while I have got a scent."

"All right! Let's go!" Naruto exclaimed.

Then they heard Kankurou say wearily, "Naruto Uzumaki, please save my brother."

Naruto smiled and replied, "Don't worry, I'll save Gaara, he is my friend after all."

Ino smiled at him and she followed Naruto out with Sakura and Kakashi they were supposed to wait for someone to come along with them. Who they got was someone unexpected; to say the least.

"I suppose I'll have to come along with all of you," a voice said from above them.

They all looked up to see Elder Chiyo on a building railing and she added, "It's been a while since I've seen my cute little grandson."

Well, that is the chapter. I tried to tweak it from the canon storyline a little bit, but you can tell me what you think. Feel free to review. I hope you liked it.