Chapter 8: The Beginning

Konoha truly was a beautiful village, for the past month I had been pushing myself so hard, that I hadn't really had time to admire it. Sure I had Naruto's memories, but remembering something and seeing it for yourself were two different things.

The village was full of life and it wasn't just the villagers. Trees, ranging from small to large covered the village with an assortment of birds chirping away. An influx of people that were here for the chunin exam finals walked through the streets while Shinobi hopped across the rooftops. Konoha was almost like a living breathing organism.

"Getting sentimental?"

'Not really,' I thought back. 'I've just never really looked at Konoha. The invasion's in what… three days and if we don't do anything, this village will be destroyed by Shukaku. I thought that I may as well have a look at what I'm defending.'

"Oh, having second thoughts about saving Konoha?"

'No, just some people in it… like the elders and Danzo.'

"And the Sandaime?"

That… was a bit of a delicate topic. Naruto did care about the Sandaime and that meant that I also cared about him, but I also have knowledge of all the shit that he let happen under his command. The Hyuga incident, the Uchiha massacre, Orochimaru's defection, Danzo's root, Hiruzen might not be directly involved in them, but he was definitely connected to them in some way.

'Hiruzen too,' I sighed. At the very least, with Hiruzen's death, the rest of the Hokage become sealed and can no longer be summoned with edo tensei… and Orochimaru becomes less of a threat.

"Narutooo," A feminine voice called out.

"Huh," I jumped. Looking back I was greeted with a familiar pink haired girl running down the street towards me. "Sakura?"

Sakura came skidding to a stop, her hands on her legs as she caught her breath. "Naruto… Hospital… Gaara and Lee," She huffed.

My eyes widened. "Crap." I had forgotten that Gaara tried to kill Lee in the hospital. "Which hospital?" Konoha had several, some catering to civilians while others were for Shinobi.

"Not there… any… more," Sakura panted. "They… headed to… training ground 13."

"Right," I nodded. "You stay here and I'll deal with this."

"No," Sakura replied stubbornly, grabbing my arm. "Not alone. We need to get a Jonin. Make a clone and send it to get one."

"I would if I could," I ground out. Right now, I was pretty much running on empty… not counting the several clones I left at the training ground that were currently practicing elemental jutsu. "You go get a Jonin and I'll deal with Gaara and Lee."

"Not alone," Sakura repeated, her grip tightening. "If you're low on chakra, you won't be much help."

"Damnit, we don't have time for this." Shaking Sakura loose, I turned to run toward training ground 13, pausing when I felt her latch onto my back.

"You're not going alone," Sakura hissed.

"Fine. Hold on tight if you don't want to fall off." Forming a hand sign, I released the earth technique that was weighing me down and took to the rooftops with blinding speed. Under other circumstances, I might have found Sakura's stubbornness funny and even slightly endearing, but right now I was annoyed with it.

It didn't take long to get the training ground at all, but I wasn't quick enough to stop the fight. The training ground was littered with sand and shattered trees, at the center of it all stood Gaara with a sadistic grin on his face, his hand raised, slowly squeezing shut while Lee was suspended in a cocoon of sand.

"LEE," Sakura screamed, finally loosening her hold on me.

'Kurama,' I thought, shrugging Sakura off my back.

"On it!"

Feeling Kurama's chakra flood through my body, I kicked off the ground, bypassing Gaara's sand shield, I punched him as hard as I could, sending him flying through several trees.

With Gaara's momentary absence, the sand holding Lee fell lifelessly to the ground.

"Sakura, get Lee out of here!" I commanded. "I'll deal with this."

"R-right," Sakura rushed to pick Lee up.

"No," Lee said, pushing Sakura off him as he stood up. "I can still fight."

"LEE, get out of here you're-" I rushed towards Lee and Sakura, grabbing them I jumped out of the way of a blast of sand. "In the way," I finished, setting them down.

"I appreciate your help, Naruto-kun, but this is my fight. Please do not interfere again."

"Interfere… Are you fucking kidding me," I asked quietly.

"Naruto, Gaara's-"

"I know," I said, seeing Gaara walk into the clearing, sand dripping off his grinning face. "Gaara, wait there for a second, I'll deal with you in a moment. First I want to talk to Lee."

"Uzumaki," Gaara growled excitedly, sending a wave of sand towards us.

"NARUTO," Sakura screamed.

Waiting for the sand to come within reach, I swung my arm with as much force as I could, dispersing it. In a blur of speed, I rushed towards Gaara, punching him in the face again, but this time, instead of letting him fly off into the distance, I followed and punched him again, mimicking Lee's gated fight against him, but instead of doing random body blows, each strike was aimed at his head.

The fight barely lasted ten seconds. Each blow shaved off a portion of Gaara's sand armor, until I finally struck his unprotected head, knocking him out.

'Will Shukaku take over?' I asked, feeling a little worried that I might have made things worse.

"No. Shukaku could only take over when Gaara is asleep, not unconscious."

I let out a relieved sigh as I felt Kurama's chakra fade from my body.

"Y-you did it!?" Sakura said in amazement.

"Yeah, Gaara's strong, but compared to Jiraiya-sensei, he's like an ant," I replied, before glaring at Lee. "What the hell were you thinking, Lee?"

"I…I wanted to prove my Shinobi way," Lee replied.

"By getting yourself killed," I shot back. "You were in the hospital when Gaara confronted you, right? That means that you were still healing from your last failed fight against Gaara. How the hell were you expecting to beat him now… while you're still recovering? You couldn't even wound him when you were at your best!"

"I… I would have found a way!"

"No you fucking wouldn't have," I snapped. "Gaara's a Jinchuriki, if you had actually pushed him hard enough, you would have died and potentially been the catalyst for a war to start."

"Jinchuriki… What's that?" Sakura asked.

I sighed as I could hear Kurama chuckle in my mind. Damnit, I shouldn't have said that. "It's someone with a tailed beast sealed inside of them… like the Kyuubi," I explained. "If Gaara was pushed enough and was given the opportunity, he might have started the process of releasing his beast, which wouldn't just be bad for Lee, but for the rest of Konoha as well."

"That's…" Lee began, glancing back at Gaara's unconscious body. "That cannot be true."

"Naruto… how do you know all this?" Sakura asked softly.

Looking at Sakura, I could tell she was beginning to figure it out.

"You're smart, Sakura. I'm sure that you've already caught on."

"Your bloodline…" Sakura began.

"Isn't actually a bloodline," I finished.

"I am not sure I understand what you are saying," Lee said quietly.

"I'm saying that I'm the Kyuubi's Jinchuriki," I said, ripping the plaster off. "And that you were about to throw your life away to satisfy your ego, Lee."

At Sakura's gasp, I winced. These past few weeks, I had grown to enjoy her company and now our friendship was potentially ruined. Stepping towards Gaara, I made sure that I didn't see the look on Sakura and Lee's faces.

"You two should leave. Maybe go to the hospital to get yourselves checked out. I will deal with Gaara."

"W-what are you going to do to him?" Sakura stuttered slightly.

"I'm going to talk to him… I am after all, one of the eight other people in this world that can truly understand him," I explained.

"You're not joking about this," Sakura murmured loud enough for me to hear.

I shook my head. "Please just go… take Lee to the hospital."

Hearing Sakura and Lee leave the field, I let out a tired sigh.

"You didn't need to tell them the truth."

'No, but I wanted to. Sakura would have figured it out eventually and more than that… I'm not going to treat you as my dirty little secret. You're my friend and deserve to be treated with respect… Besides, Sakura will eventually come around.'

"Friend huh?" Kurama mused, before going silent.

Looking down at Gaara, I winced when I saw the blood soaking his hair. I had been fast and brutal when handling him.

"Oi… Gaara… wake up," I said, tapping his face lightly.

"Ngh," Gaara groaned as he brought his hand to his head. "What's…"

"Good morning sleepy head."

"Whats…" Gaara brought his now blood covered fingers in front of his blurry eyes. "Blood? BLOOD, MY BLOOD."

Jumping out of the way of a blast of sand, I scowled. "Enough of this." I was saving this for the chunin exams, but it seemed I needed it for Gaara. Calling on Kurama's chakra, I flashing through several hand seals, my mouth bulged and I spat out a wave of toad oil. Coating Gaara's sand, the oil weighed it down, dropping it to the ground.

"NO, NO. I WON'T BE ERASED HERE," Gaara screamed as he scrambled backwards, his sand now useless.

"SHUT UP," I roared, stepping in front of him. "I'm not going to kill you."

"N-not going to kill… me?" Gaara asked, looking terrified.

"No," I shook my head. "I want to talk to you… Gaara. But it's a bit difficult when you're constantly trying to kill me, so I had to neutralize you first."

"Talk? Not kill? Talk?" Gaara asked disbelievingly.

"Hm, maybe I punched you a bit too hard," I muttered. "We're the same, Gaara. Well… not exactly the same. We're similar. We both have a biju sealed inside of us, we both have led a… less than stellar life and we've both felt that hell known as solitude."

"You're… like me? You have something like Shukaku sealed in you?"

"The Kyuubi that attacked Konoha 13 years ago," I replied.

"Then why… why stop me?"

"Because you're killing pointlessly," I sighed, sitting down in front of him. "You want to be seen and have people acknowledge your existence. Let's say that killing proves your existence… what will happen once you've killed everyone? If everyone is dead you won't have anyone to prove your existence."

"But if I don't kill… then It will be like I don't exist."

"There are better ways to get people to acknowledge you, Gaara," I replied. "Developing lasting friendships being one."

"Friendship will only make you weak," Gaara shook his head. "The only true way to exist is to rely on and care only for yourself."

"Humans are social creatures and regardless as much as others would deny it, we are still human. It's the bonds we have and develop that help push us to grow stronger, to keep going, to give just a little bit more when we feel that we have nothing left."

"If that is true, then it's too late for me."

"It's not too late so long as someone is holding their hand out to you," I said, offering Gaara my hand.

"Y-You… Why?"

"Because when I look at you I see what I could have been. Someone lonely who just needs a single person to believe that they're more than what they currently are. We're both Jinchuriki, but that isn't the only thing that defines us… We are who we choose to be, so will you remain as Gaara the demon who loves only himself, or will you become Gaara, the friend of Uzumaki Naruto?"

Gaara's eyes widened, his hand cautiously reaching for mine as if it was a dangerous creature that would bite him. Reaching forward, I grabbed his hand and smiled. 'Kurama, I think that I successfully pulled off my first 'talk no jutsu.''

"It would actually be your second or third one by now."

'Really?'

"Karin, myself and now Gaara."

'Right… then again, there wasn't much talking when I first met you, only flashes of each others lives.'

"What happens now?" Gaara asked stoically.

"Now? We're friends," I replied.

"I know, but what does it mean to be friends?"

That… was a bit of an open ended question. "Friends… hang out and have fun together. They share in the good times and they're there for the bad times… A friend is someone who accepts you… I suppose," I explained, awkwardly rubbing my chin with my free hand, seeing as Gaara had yet to release my other hand.

It was a bit difficult explaining what a friend is to someone who has never had one and until recently was obsessed with killing others to prove his existence.

"That sounds nice," Gaara whispered lightly.

"Yep, having friends is nice," I said. Standing up, I pulled Gaara along with me and released his hand. "So… wanna get some fo-" looking at the blood on his face and hair, his clothes soaked in toad oil and the blood on my knuckles, I changed my mind. "You know what, we should probably get cleaned up first."

"I won't be able to go with you. My… team is likely looking for me right now."

Right, Suna is planning on using Gaara as their main weapon when the invasion begins, so it makes sense that they want to keep him in their sights.

"If you're sure," I shrugged. "But just know you're welcome to come with me."

"Thank you," Gaara nodded.

'Well, that went better than I thought it would… and we're ahead of schedule,' I thought as I watched Gaara leave the clearing.

"Yes, but you still had to use my chakra."

'Thanks for that by the way. Without your help, Lee would have been dead and with most of my chakra spread between clones, all I would have been able to do would be to retreat with Sakura.'

"Hm, you're welcome," Kurama replied.

I couldn't help but smile. Minato was right, Kurama was a tsundere.

"I can still hear you and I am not. I am just unused to humans acknowledging me as anything but a weapon to be used, that is all."

"That doesn't really disprove it," I chuckled, walking back to Konoha. Part of me was worried. I had just altered something major… I had beaten Gaara and talked him into becoming my friend. Sure it's something that would have happened later, but now that it's happened before the chunin exams, I wasn't sure what would happen.

"So, you told pinkie about what you are and you fought off the ichibi Jinchuriki," Jiraiya said as I walked into the training ground.

"Hello to you too," I replied, holding up a plastic bag. "I brought lunch, takeout from Ichiraku Ramen."

Jiraiya observed me for a moment, before sighing and rubbing his temples. "Damnit kid. You said that you were taking a break and then you get involved in all of this."

"It's not my fault," I shrugged. "Gaara was insisting that he and Lee fight and then Lee was an idiot who was going to throw his life away for nothing. I said a few things that I shouldn't have and then Sakura was beginning to figure things out, so I just decided to tell her instead."

"So you decided to handle everything on your own?"

"There wasn't any time and I had to make a decision," I explained. "I've seen how Gaara initially fought Lee and I was confident that I could beat him. As it turns out, I was right, he's not that tough if you can get around his sand."

"And after you had beaten him, instead of reporting him to a Chunin or Jonin, you decided to sit down and have a little chat with him," Jiraiya prodded.

"What, were you spying on me," I joked. "Yeah. Gaara's… he's a lot like me, he's a Jinchuriki and he's suffered hate and loneliness. He had gotten it in his head that he had to kill others to validate his existence, so I beat him up and gave him what he needed to change for the better."

"Oh, and that would be?"

"Friendship. Now if you're done grilling me on this, why don't we sit down and eat this Ramen before it gets cold."

"One more thing," Jiraiya held up his hand. "You could have lied to Sakura about being a Jinchuriki. Why'd you tell her the truth?"

"For the love of… Because I'm not ashamed of who I am. The Yondaime sealed the Kyuubi in me… I am the kyuubi's Jinchuriki, why should I be upset or ashamed of that, it's just a part of me after all," I shot back.

"you're an odd one," Jiraiya hummed. "But that's not necessarily a bad thing. In all my years as a Shinobi, I've fought many people and even some Jinchuriki. The one defining trait that I've found most common among Jinchuriki is that they generally hate what they are and if they have the chance, they hide it from the world."

"If you can't accept yourself, how can you expect others to accept you," I shrugged. "Plus, can you imagine what it's like from a Biju's point of view. Imagine being stuck in someone who is ashamed of themselves all because you were forcefully sealed inside them. I don't know about you, but if that had to happen to me, I wouldn't be very happy with my container."

"Oh, is this from one of your talks with the Kyuubi?" Jiraiya asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Kind of," I replied. "For a while now, I've been thinking about myself… more specifically, how I view myself and I've come to realize that thinking bad of myself is going to get me nowhere. The only way forward is to think positively."

"And where's the Kyuubi in all of this?"

"He's part of me, so I think of him positively as well. Him and I… we're stuck together, so we might as well make the best of our situation together. Now please… I've had a long day and all I want is to have some ramen," I said tiredly.

"Your day's not over yet," Jiraiya pointed to something behind me.

"What," I asked, turning around only to be greeted to Sakura. "Sakura, I…" I began awkwardly. 'How long has she been standing there?'

"She arrived just after you did."

'What… a little warning would have been nice.'

"Naruto… she's standing behind you," Kurama deadpanned.

"Smart ass," I mumbled under my breath.

"Naruto I wan… wait, what did you just call me," Sakura began softly, but ended up yelling.

"Ah, sorry. That wasn't for you," I apologized. "The Kyuubi was just being a bit of a dick."

Jiraiya shot me an odd look, before rubbing his chin in thought.

"Hmmm?" Kurama hummed. "Naruto-"

'One second, I want to try and explain this to Sakura.'

"There's a problem. Jiraiya's catching onto the altered seal."

'Crap… I'll deal with that after Sakura and I talk.'

"I-it talks to you?" Sakura stuttered nervously.

"Well… yeah. Biju are conscious beings that are capable of thought just like us. It's not like they're some unthinking vicious animal."

"But it attacked Konoha, so why… why are you not more concerned about this, why are treating the Kyuubi like a… like a-"

"Like a friend," I finished her sentence. At Sakura's nod, I continued. "That would be because he is my friend."

"But that's not right. I… Everyone lost family when it attacked. If it wasn't for the Kyuubi, my grandparents would still be alive."

Ah, so that's what this is about.

"So did I... The Yondaime Hokage sealed the Kyuubi in me in the hopes that one day, the two of us would be able to work together and protect Konoha. My friendship with the Kyuubi falls in line with that hope."

"I… This is all too much," Sakura lamented.

"Maybe," I said. Reaching into my packet, I handed her a bowl of ramen. "But at least we have ramen."

Sakura snorted as she took the bowl. "So every time we sparred and your eyes were red…"

"That was the Kyuubi's chakra," I replied, sitting down as I took my own bowl of ramen out. "It strengthens my body and makes me heal faster, it's the reason why I've been able to progress so far with my physical conditioning."

"That's handy." Sakura sat alongside me. "But… it's probably dangerous having the Kyuubi in your body. Is there no way to remove it?"

"A Jinchuriki without their biju dies, Sakura," I explained

"What, but…" Sakura turned to Jiraiya. "Is that true?"

"Yes," Jiraiya nodded solemnly. "When the biju is extracted, it wrecks havoc on the Jinchuriki's body that has come to rely on its chakra and they die. I'm assuming the Kyuubi told you about that as well?"

"Among other things, yeah," I nodded, swallowing a mouth full of noodles. "But I'm guessing what you really want to know is how the Kyuubi's capable of communicating with me while I'm outside of the seal?!"

"Yes," Jiraiya answered stiffly.

"Well… Did you know that the Yondaime built a failsafe into the seal?" I asked calmly.

"I know that he did, but the seal was too complex and I didn't know what it would do," Jiraiya replied.

"Ah…" Well, at least I didn't have to convince Jiraiya of the failsafe. "Well, a few weeks ago, the failsafe triggered and I found myself standing face to face with the Yondaime Hokage… or at least a clone of him."

"Minato… he left a clone in you?" Jiraiya asked softly.

"To rebuild the seal if it was ever damaged," I continued. "But then he, the Kyuubi and I got to talking about..." I briefly glanced at Sakura. "Well, about that thing I mentioned to you when I started training."

Letting Sakura know that Kurama was initially forced to attack Konoha would be problematic to say the least. It offers very few benefits if any and adds to the risk of Obito being aware that we know of his existence, which might just spark off the 4th Shinobi war early… something that I was definitely not ready for.

"Anyway. After a long chat with him on a few topics," I gave Jiraiya a pointed look that he caught on to, "Minato decided to trust us," I finished. Pulling my shirt up, I revealed the unlocked seal.

"Y-you…" Jiraiya stuttered when he saw the seal. "Minato unlocked the seal."

"What does that mean?" Sakura asked, not really understanding what was going on.

"Well… It gives me more access to both my own and the Kyuubi's chakra, but it's not something that can be done if the Biju and Jinchuriki hate each other."

"That's an understatement," Jiraiya snorted. "But this… it's something else entirely. The seal's been unlocked for so long and yet you've remained entirely stable. With some training, it won't be long until you become a perfect Jinchuriki."

At seeing Sakura's confused look, I decided to explain. "It means that I'll be able to use all of the power and abilities of the Kyuubi."

"Oh," Sakura muttered. "But if you have all this power that's available to you now, why go through with all of this training?"

"To realize my potential," I replied. "I mean, the Kyuubi's strong, but I've also got a lot of potential. The stronger I get, the stronger I'll be when I use the Kyuubi's chakra."

"But that doesn't make sense," Sakura argued. "The Kyuubi's already really strong. It fought our whole village and the only one that was strong enough to beat it was the Yondaime."

"True, but can you imagine how strong the Yondaime would have been if he had the full power of the Kyuubi along with his own," I shot back, silencing Sakura. "Just because you're strong, doesn't mean that you're done growing stronger."

I meant it too. Instead of being dependant on Kurama's chakra and only using the Rasengan and it's variants, I planned on being able to do a lot more… That's not to say I wasn't going to learn the Rasengan, it was still an incredibly powerful Jutsu, just not one that I was going to be overly reliant on.

Should the worst comes true and Uchiha Madara be resurrected, I'll definitely need a lot more power to be able to be able to beat him… Luckily, all I needed to do was prevent his resurrection, not him, which made things both easier and more complicated.

"Did Minato mention anything else?" Jiraiya asked.

"Did he mention anything else," I tapped my chin in false thought. "Well, let's just say that I know who I am."

"So he even told you about that," Jiraiya hummed. "Anything else?"

'Kurama, anything you think we should mention?'

"You could mention Obito's abilities, but not with your teammate here."

'I'll just hint at it then.'

"Well, we did talk a bit about the night the Kyuubi attacked… and my mother. Other than that, no, not much. Once the seal was unlocked, Minato wasn't able to hold form for much longer and he faded from the seal."

"Your mother?" Sakura asked.

"That's a whole other story… one I'm really not in the mood to talk about right now," I replied. I was really reaching my limit for the day, training, beating up Gaara, explaining the whole situation with Kurama and the unlocked seal… it was really starting to tire me out. At least a few good things came of today, like my talk with Gaara and Sakura actually being understanding of me being a Jinchuriki.

Chapter number 8 is complete

The more that I write for this fic, the more I realize just how strong Naruto could have become if he had been taught properly. Even without Kurama's cooperation, he could have easily gotten to Jonin level if anyone had taken the time to train him properly from the beginning.

I love reading through all of your comments and some of you have even given me some interesting ideas to use later on in this fic. Thank you dudes and dudettes for the awesome comments.

The part I'm actually most excited for you guys to read comes after the chunin exams and invasion. The next arc of this story where the truly major changes start coming in to play.

As for the pairing being Naruto with an older woman. It might seem odd, but I've done my best to make it seem realistic and interesting. While it is a pairing, it doesn't take up the whole story. There are still missions and fight scenes to be had outside of the pairing. Although I do hope you'll all enjoy it.

Anyways. I'm up to chapter 13 on the spooky p word website. I'm always 5 chapters ahead on there.

P

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I go by the name of ThatKircguy. Just copy the name and paste it in the Patty Rio On search bar. It'd help me out immensely, but don't worry if that's not your style. I will be uploading weekly, so it's not going to be stuck there permanently.

Also, I post my original stuff there as well. It's nothing much, just two short stories for now, but I'll post more as I write them.

See everyone tomorrow, have a good day.