Hey, I am sorry! This chapter was a long time coming... However, now that all of my exams are over, I have plenty of time to update more frequently. I am actually feeling kind of sorry for my beta ;-) Anyway I can already tell I am going to be absolutely bored for a while, especially since I finished all of my exams earlier than all of my friends. To be honest, it has only been one day, and I am already driving my brother crazy with my boredom!

I hope you enjoy this chapter and please review (it is always good to read them).

Chapter 7

He had found the three Ninja's in the backroom close to the arena. Eri- …Temari and the Doll ninja were whispering quietly to each other whilst the red haired boy leaned on the wall behind the two. Naruto didn't know why but there was something in the red-haired boy's eyes that reminded him so much of himself. Walking further into the room Naruto could see it. The shadows of betrayal and the darkness of giving up.

As he saw that look, Naruto decided that he would drop the mask that he always held while in public, he was going to go in and show Gaara those very same eyes. The light in Naruto's azure blue eyes suddenly went out as he struts into the room.

All three siblings looked up to the new presence in the doorway and the two older sand siblings flinched and tensed away. Naruto's eyes were so cold and...dead. So much like their brothers eyes, yet the darkness seemed older than that. The trio stared at the blond ninja before them. He wore baggy black pants with hems that clung to his upper ankle, making it easier for him to run. A deep, navy blue, long sleeved shirt that was loose enough to be comfortable but tight enough to not get in the way of difficult maneuvers, and a headband tied around his forehead.

"I suggest that whatever you are planning to do should be forgotten. Right now."

Temari crossed her arms defensively over her light purple clad chest, and stuck her chin out in defiance, replied back, "What makes you think we are planning anything?"

Naruto grinned in a way that looked like he was baring his teeth viciously, "Because there is no way you would've thrown a fight. Your actions in the arena immediately told me that you were conserving your energy, which wouldn't make sense unless you were planning something." There was a long pause before Naruto continued. "If you are planning something that would potentially hurt the village, I will have to defeat you."

"You would protect a village that hates you?" Gaara sneered in both disgust and anger. "Your eyes mirror mine, so why should you care what we do to this place?"

"Because I made a deal,." he replied as though he were reciting a fact. "As long as the current Hokage is alive then I will help him." No one, not even the Hokage himself, knew the extent of Naruto's loyalty. He would aid the elderly man that had become so close to family to him, the only one who showed anything but scorn, fear and resentment. More recently he discovered Hinata showed concern for him, so this made two people that Naruto would aid and protect. "I suggest you heed my warning," said lowly Naruto in monotone before turning his back on them and heading towards the door.

Suddenly, the blond turned around once again, staring straight at Temari. His eyes reminded her of someone she used to know, but she could not place him, not in the memories of her present life. Then Naruto shifts gears, putting his mask back up quickly, he stretched dramatically with a wide yawn, "Don't make me have to mar that pretty face."

This cause Temari to stiffen in shock and frowned; she had heard those words before. Yes, she knew those words from far in the past, but who was saying them? When were they said to her? She recalled a blurry faced man wearing blue and white, with a lazy smile gracing his face. 'It also would have been an excellent chance to scorch you to cinders. So you can forgive me if I can't bring myself a mar that pretty face.'

When Temari finally dragged herself out of her mind, Naruto was gone and brothers still planned on attacking the Leaf Village. However something inside Temari told her that if they went through with the plan something bad was going to happen. It was like a small tingle, as if her unconscious was trying to tell her something, remind her of something. Something to do with the blond haired, blue eyed boy whose eyes were so familiar to her. She couldn't stop the attack, it had to be done. Gaara wanted it and Gaara always got what he wanted - if he didn't then there would be unpleasant consequences.

As Naruto walked back to Hinata, he had unconsciously outwardly expressed some of Ryner Lute's habits. He had his hands folded behind the back of his neck and he yawned almost regularly. When he realized he was doing this he got annoyed. Immediately stopping, the blue eyed boy furrowed his brow, it had been a long time since he had dropped his guard like that. He could almost feel his other lives pushing to the surface, so, taking a deep breath, Naruto began to shove them back behind his emotional walls.

It seemed, the blond amused to himself, that with each life he lived the harder it become to hold them back. He was like a box and with every life a new toy, a new person, was stuffed into the box. Eventually the box will over flow and the contents will come spilling out. This made Naruto snort - the contents of his box were already spilling out.

From the outside, the medic tent was an asparagus green. It was held down but four ropes attached to each corner of the material. On the inside there was rows of futons covered in a single sheet and two very uncomfortable looking stalls beside every other one. Clean blankets were folded on a table by the only entrance/exit. To his left Naruto stopped Hinata sitting on a futon, her hands placed gently in her lap, the medic hovering over her disinfecting her wounds.

"Hinata!" he shouted happily as he strode towards her. The black haired girl glanced up and flushed red, giving him a shy smile. Naruto grinned at her coming to a decision, if her father wasn't going to look after her properly then he would. The girl is so gentle that she deserves to be treated well and looked after properly. Even if that meant defending her against Temari/ Eris.

When Naruto returned to the arena with Hinata by his side, the last of the matches had already started and to his surprise Gaara and Sasuke were being called. The blond easily blocked out the crowd as they cheered and quickly zoned in on the Uchiha, grabbing him before he could walked into the battle area.

"Sasuke you can't fight him," The blue eyed boy tried to reason.

However the last Uchiha did not listen to him. "Of course I can, Naruto, and I will." His team mate glared at him with cold black eyes, but Naruto was unfazed.

"You don't understand, Sasuke. He will kill you. He has no morals and doesn't follow any code of the ninja. He has given up on everything: his life, his family, his village, himself... everything."

"And how do you know that?" Sasuke sneered ripping his arm out of the grip. "Every ninja has a code!" Naruto had to bit dawn on his tongue to stop himself from shouting at how idiotically naive that statement was, but, then again, the Uchiha was a child who is so inexperienced in the world when compared to the blond boy.

"You would understand, so stop being a bastard and listen for once." He didn't. So, as the Uchiha walked into the arena, Naruto shouted, "Fine. I suggest if you don't want to die then aim to kill at any means necessary."

"Sasuke, at hearing those words, had to repress a shiver at the cold determination of Naruto's voice. He had never heard the blond speak like that before. Naruto had mostly kept a blank face and a monotone voice and occasionally would plaster on a smile, but never had he been so... inevitable. For some reason, the Uchiha felt the sudden need to run out of arena and when he finally looked into the eyes of his opponent, he saw what Naruto was telling him. The urge to flee grew.

Although the boy was shorter than average males, his pale green-blue eyes were pupil-less with tanuki-like black eye rings. It was in those eyes that Sasuke saw death.

"Back in the stands, Sakura sat beside her Sensei, Kakashi.

"Sensei, do you think Sasuke will win?" the pink haired girl asked chewing nervously on her lip. Although she wasn't a well train ninja, yet she could sense the tension between her team mate and the Sand ninja.

"You have nothing to worry about," he said. Sakura hasn't seen him this serious since their trip to the land of waves. "Sasuke and I haven't been training for nothing you know."

"Yes..." someone suddenly spoke from behind the two ninja, "You didn't abandon the other two members of your team to train only one of them, just so he could lose."

"Naruto-" Kakashi started but gave up when he saw the blonds face blank and impassive. There was nothing he could do now, he would just have to try and make it up to the boy later.

Kakashi couldn't have known that later would never come.

From the corner of his eyes Naruto glanced at a black clad figure in an animal mask just visible inside the vents, 'one', he noted to himself. 'Two', he though as he spotted another three rows in front of him. 'Three, four…five…six, seven, and eight'. There were eight of them, and with a peek at Kakashi, Naruto knew that his Sensei saw them too. What were they thinking? Eight Abu black ops ninja in a stadium this large was not near enough.

As the cheering erupted once more, the Sasuke vs Gaara battle began.

Arms crossed over his chest, Naruto watched the match with a critical eye and found that Sasuke was significantly more trained than he had been, however it just made the blatant favoritism Kakashi showed to one third of the team even more obvious. The blond actually raised his eyebrows in surprise when Sasuke created the blue lightning. A physical manifestation of his chakra.

Naruto barely listened to Guy Sensei's explanation about the chidori or the lightning blade, but instead focused on the intense match. The man was tall and well-built with high cheek-bones, thick eyebrows and black hair cut in a bowl style. Every time Guy was near it took all of the blonde's will power not to cringe and run the other way.

Back in the battle arena there was a short silence after Sasuke had hit the sand ninja, then all hell broke loose.

Gaara's screams echoed through the arena and a giant arm of sand materialized. The dome of sand protecting Gaara cracked and crumbled and the Sand ninja began panting breathlessly, almost as if he was in pain.

As everyone eyes were fixated on the two fighters before them drowsiness began to seep into the audiences senses. Their minds were becoming dizzy and light and it was only when Hinata's head hit Naruto's shoulder did he realize that Genjutsu was being used. Coping Kakashi and Guy, the blond ninja quickly released himself from the droopy-eyed feeling. So, it had begun...

BOOM!

"Naruto, stay here!" Kakashi ordered with caution, making Naruto frown. Then the three ninja were suddenly faced with five enemy ninja.

Staying there wasn't really an option anymore, especially since four of the enemies charged towards Kakashi and Guy and the fifth began running towards him.

As the black figure rushed toward him, Naruto barely dodged as a kunai was thrown at him. The weapon implanted itself into the back of the blonds chair and Naruto watched in horror as the explosive tag went off. No! Hinata was caught in the cross fire!

Naruto's heart beat through his chest and he saw red.