Hello everyone! :D

It's been awhile, but my finals are finally over (with a score of 72/100) and I'll be able to concentrate on the things I've left unfinished! Yahoo!

This story will be composed of 4-5 un-related chapters; the link to all the characters is the influence (direct or un-direct) Naruto has had on them... the idea came from a picture I've got saved in my computer since forever, that shows some of those who got they're views changed by the blond :D
Starting from this info the characters will be (not necessarily in this order): Konohamaru, Inari, Neji, Tsunade and - maybe, not sure yet, I'll see if I can get around with that - Sasuke...

The fiction is told from Gaara's POV for two simple reasons: I like him (;P) and because he's without a doubt the one who changed the most after his encounter with Naruto so I think interesting the possibility of seeing him interact with people who got the same experience. Presumptuous? Maybe, but oh well XP

Words: 4200 more or less

Disclamer: I don't own Naruto or its characters

Read&Review!

Ja ne,
Temari 88 XD

Gaara and the 'We-Got-Some-Sense-Beaten-Into-Us-By-Naruto' club

(Gaara and Konohamaru)

After the usual three-days journey from Sunagakure to Konohagakure, we had finally walked through the gates of the Leaf Village. Temari and Kankurou had bid me goodbye two minutes before and walked in opposite directions to mind their business: we had agreed to have some free time until the time for the meeting with the Hokage arrived – there were still a couple of hours to go. I was left on my own (without taking into account the two ANBU shinobi standing a little ways behind me) to decide how to pass the remaining time.

I could just have paced calmly around the village, but I really didn't feel like it – not on my own, at least. As much as I wouldn't want to admit it, I've become fond of having people around me… certain people, the right ones. For this reason I made up my mind and started walking at a lazy pace toward a place where I hoped to find one of those people: it had been a while since the last time we had seen each other, and the occasion hadn't been one of the best… I felt the desire to talk to him, I wanted to… how does he call it?… Catch up? That's it. I wanted to catch up with him. I wanted to know about his trainings, because I was sure he had improved… that's what friends do, right?

… I looked around and while responding politely to the greetings reaching my ears, I couldn't help but wonder: I was still not so used to that kind of reaction from people outside of my village but I was happy and it showed in the way I held myself – shoulders relaxed, absence of a frown on my face and hands folded behind my back.

As I approached my destination, I saw a young boy – around twelve or thirteen years of age – wearing an impossibly long scarf flowing behind him, rushing past me and directed ahead. Right after the boy other two kids of the same age came up at a slower pace and involuntarily I heard them mumble, a name in particular making me focus on them instead of tune them out like I would have usually done.

"… Uff… what's the deal with Konohamaru-kun running away like that? It's like he's chased by a group of rabid dogs…!" I heard one of the kids say; she was a little girl with a weird hairstyle and by the looks of it, she was quite annoyed.

"You don't know it, Moegi-chan?" the other kid answered; he was wearing very large, round glasses that were threatening to fall off his nose. "Konohamaru is rushing to Ichiraku Ramen because Naruto-nii-san has just come back from his latest mission."

"Wha? Naruto-nii-san's back? Why didn't you tell me before Udon? Come on, let's go greet him!"

Then I saw the girl running off as well with her companion jogging behind, both directed to the ramen stand at the end of the street. It was strange to hear someone call Naruto 'nii-san' yet it was a good kind of strange because it showed the respect and the devotion the new generation had for a great shinobi like he is. I found a small smile beginning to make its way to my mouth when I arrived at hearing distance from the food stand; I stopped a couple of meters away to quietly observe the scene.

It came to my mind that I'd never had the chance of seeing Naruto interact with his fellow villagers before, only with some of his companions during missions and it really was a different situation: when in a mission you can never let your guard slip, even when you joke around, but now… Naruto and his team were enjoying their spare time together and I was suddenly curious.

As I watched, my blond friend, Sakura, Kakashi and a raven-haired shinobi I had never met before exited from Ichiraku to be greeted by the shouting kid with the scarf, who was pointing a finger at Naruto in what I believe was a challenge, as he completed the justu that had a bunshin appearing. As soon as Naruto saw the two identical kids, he smirked and took a few steps ahead – I noticed then that he had a bandaged arm held to his neck by a sling and wondered if it was anything serious – and yelled right back.

"Let's see how good you've become, Konohamaru! C'mon!" the others standing behind Naruto were confused (even though the pale guy had no expression whatsoever), while the kids seemed both expectant and bored. I continued to look on quietly, only to find my breath cut abruptly and my eyes bulging out of their sockets when the boy with the scarf used the Henge no Jutsu to transform into…

"Oiroke: Onna no ko Doushi no Jutsu!"

Oh. My. God. The bunshins turned into girls…! Naked girls! In the middle of a street! Is that kid crazy? What is he thinking?… Surely Naruto won't— I can't believe it! that's what I thought when I saw the blond ninja who had his eyes wide open for a whole different reason than me and let everyone know he approved the 'show'… somehow, I think I should have predicted this as Kankurou had labelled Naruto a 'pervert' more than once before, but I didn't really understand what he meant until now… I didn't know how to react to that – should I have been embarrassed? Disbelieving? Disgusted? – I resolved it by coughing and shaking my head.

I did feel bad for Konohamaru, though, when Sakura punched him – to his credit, he stood his ground well – the kunoichi was mad, that much was clear, and kept sending daggers with her eyes to my friend.

"Is this what you two do, when you meet up, uh?" she yelled at Naruto, who waved his uninjured arm to tell her she was misunderstanding.

"No, no… you see, this jutsu can work as a diversion… let's say you could call it a battle between two people who like the challenge…" he explained but Sakura didn't seem to buy it.

"Diversion? Who do you think you're kidding? That would work only on you two pervy ninja!"

As soon as those words left her mouth, the scarf-kid performed another justu… or better, a new version of the previous one, as he transformed into – I can't say it… well, the situation was made uselessly clear when Naruto's raven-haired companion spoke.

"Oh… it's Sakuke-kun and me…"

What shocked me more was – besides seeing a naked Uchiha, whom I really don't like in the slightest, and that guy equally naked… still in the middle of a street – Sakura's face: a perfect mirror of Naruto's one of just a minute before… and Naruto had the same disgusted face Sakura had before… they're team mates all right…

At that point I really started thinking that maybe my idea of watching how my blond shinobi friend acted around his precious people on his free time was not as good as it had seemed at the beginning. I found myself realizing that it had probably been Naruto to teach that technique to Konohamaru in the first place - or something of that kind – and wondered how a female version of Naruto would look, only to push that rather disturbing thought out of my mind right away.

I decided against going up to the group of ninja (the Suna delegation was meant to stay in Konoha all week, so I had all the time to talk to Naruto), turned left down a secondary street and began wandering about without a destination. I walked leisurely for maybe half an hour, when I came across the training grounds of the village; at first I didn't hear anything but after listening more carefully, I heard voices and curiosity got the better of me – I headed to where the noise seemed to come from and was faced with the same boy from the ramen stand, Konohamaru, training under the eye of a man with sunglasses and dressed in the typical chunnin/jounin attire Konoha shinobi wore.

The sensei didn't look like he was very strong, but with the way his shoulders tensed I realized he had sensed me approaching but he also understood I was not an enemy and didn't mean to do nothing more than watch. The kid was so focused on his training – he was practising his katas and some justus – he didn't see nor hear me, in fact he wasn't even listening to anything his sensei said to him: the boy was muttering something under his breath that was most definitely starting to annoy the man standing behind him.

"Konohamaru-kun! Would you stop for a minute! I want to know where you went before, you and the other two as well…!"

"I went" came the answer from the young genin as he did a half turn kicking his right leg out "seeing Naruto-nii-san and" an uppercut "I showed him my improvements." the boy jumped up and threw two more kicks in the air before landing near his sensei and continuing to practise in taijutsu.

"What improvements? You shouldn't waste time with that kind of techniques; you shouldn't follow your whim, Konohamaru-kun, I already told you that if you do as I say, you'll get stronger faster…" said the man in a reprimanding voice that, to me, didn't seem entirely truthful – it was like he said that on purpose – but the boy didn't catch it because when he stopped to finally face his master with a scowl on his face, the man had taken on a full lecturing stance.

"I already told you, Ebisu-sensei, that I intend to follow the tips I choose." the genin had his arms crossed and a determined expression that rang a bell of familiarity in my mind. "And I decided to train hard because, as Naruto-nii told me, 'If you want a great title like Hokage, which everyone will acknowledge, there ain't going to be any shortcuts!' and I want to be prepared for when I'll fight him for that title!"

The boy turned around and resumed his hard work; with his back to the sensei, Konohamaru failed to notice the small smile tugging at the man's lips. For my part, I felt a swell of pride towards both Naruto and the boy.

One of my ANBU guards then informed me it was almost time for my meeting with Tsunade-sama, so I turned my back to the training grounds to head to the Hokage Tower.

On my way there, I thought back on that kid: I had been very surprised by both his words and attitude. At Ichiraku Ramen I had detected the signs of respect coming from Konohamaru, but now I realized there was something more to that… it was a kind of admiration similar to the one I myself felt towards the blond ninja and suddenly I felt a tad closer to the boy: we shared the same kind of feelings for Naruto.

Yet Konohamaru and me were also very different in that because I have the same age as Naruto so, even if I took at heart his words, I used them to carry on with my own idea of changing my life – they helped me to remain on the right path - whereas the genin is more or less four years younger, he met Naruto before starting the academy: he took the words said to him and became a sort of smaller, scarf-wearing version of the ex troublemaker – he made Naruto his role model, the back to follow to become strong, an older brother figure… nii-san, indeed…

While thinking over all this, I arrived to my destination; I knocked at the Hokage's door and was granted permission to enter, leaving the guards outside. As Tsunade-sama saw me, she raised a slender eyebrow over her shining hazel eyes with a look of surprise and curiosity.

"Something happened, Gaara-kun?"

"No, nothing really…"

"Is that so?" she asked, now smiling lightly. "If nothing makes you smile like that, than it should happen more often."

My smile widened faintly, I'm sure she noticed but didn't comment, saying instead: "Let's get down to business, what you think?"

-x-

The meeting went smooth for the most part; the members of both Konoha's and Suna's council didn't put up much of a fuss, with the exception of the last point of the discussion, which was about Akatsuki and the recent events that had concerned the Fire Country's village: the fact that those two members – Hidan and Kakuzu, were the names - of the organisation managed to sneak inside and kill the son of the Sandaime Hokage had been taken rather badly by 'my' council.

Tsunade, who knew far better than me the situation concerning the attack, had sprung up immediately to defend her men. All throughout the exposition of the facts – from the failed subdue of the enemy right after the invasion, to the reckless chase of Nara's team – the woman had repressed her urge to throttle all the dimwits (I personally agreed with the Hokage) but when they said that, being a Jinchuuriki, it was all Naruto's fault, I became so furious I almost lost my control… only a hand on my arm refrained me.

Surprisingly, it had been Tsunade to stop me; her look told me to leave everything in her hands – it wouldn't be a good thing if I ended up killing Suna's council; at least Tsunade could be trusted to not cause fatal wounds – so I tried to calm and sit down once again, to enjoy the show.

And what a show it had been. One day, I will tell Naruto of the time I understood just how much 'Tsunade-baa-chan' really cares for him… I'll have to make sure she won't be within hearing distance.

After a quick goodbye, I parted ways from the Hokage to enjoy the evening in Konoha and hopefully get a chance to talk to Naruto.

-x-

My search was unfruitful but, even if I was a little disappointed that I didn't find my friend, I thought: Oh, well, I have all week…

I had just stripped off my formal clothing, in favour of a more comfortable pair of plain black pants and a long sleeved dark green shirt, and taken a seat on the windowsill from where a light breeze ruffled my hair when glancing out through the streetlamps still glowed yellow my eyes were captured in their wandering by a figure on top of the Hokage Tower… for what few things I knew of the villagers' habits, I could think of only one person who would be there in the middle of the night and for that, I hopped outside the room and jumped onto the rooftops separating me from the Tower.

I landed quietly on the railing delimiting the platform at the top of the building that faced the mountain where the faces of Hokages were carved; looking round, I found that I had been mistaking: it was not Naruto, the one sitting there… still I wasn't overly disappointed to see Konohamaru. I approached him calmly and spoke only when I was in his range of sight.

"Isn't it a bit late to be up?"

He startled even if my voice had been quiet. "Who're— oh… oh! You're the Kazekage, right?"

"Yes, yes I am." I took a seat on the bench near the boy, while his eyes seemed glued to me, and went on. "What are you doing up here?"

He looked away to refrain from letting me see that he didn't like my enquiring. "I… could ask you the same thing, you know?" he said defiantly.

"I have some trouble sleeping." I answered truthfully and he turned to stare at me surprised that I didn't reprimand him for his rudeness. Konohamaru stayed silent for some time, thinking over my reaction – or lack there of.

"… I was… thinking, that's all… I always come here when something bothers me…" he confessed mumbling.

"Ah… I know of someone that does the same exact thing…"

"Really? Who…?"

"I believe you know him too: I'm talking about Naruto Uzumaki." I said.

"Naruto-nii-san?" he turned toward the village sleeping behind us, eyes focused on the direction where my friend's house was. "You know him, Kazekage-san?" I scrunched up my nose at the 'Kazegage-san' bit.

"Gaara."

"Huh?" the genin was looking at me again.

"You can call me Gaara: I get enough of that 'Kazekage here, Kazekage there' stuff in the daylight…" I elaborated. "And, to answer your question, yeah I know Naruto quite well…"

"Wow! Nii-san is friends with the leader of a foreign country! That's so cool!" Konohamaru's eyes were shining with admiration and I had to withhold a chuckle. "How long did you two know each other?"

"Uhm… four years, I think. Yes, how could I forget the head-to-head during that fight…?" I replied with a smirk as my forehead throbbed with the ghost of the pain I had felt back then. "Naruto is really stubborn; he wouldn't let me be even after I threatened to kill him…" I look at Konohamaru. "I'm serious. We were enemies. I tried with all my power to annihilate him…"

The boy didn't know how to take what I had just said. "Gaara-san… do you still want to hurt Nii-san?" I raised an eyebrow, taken aback by the hint of a dark aura arising around the genin. He went on without waiting for an answer. "Cause if you do, I'll kick your ass!"

I stared at the expression on his face for a second, before laughing out loud. "Aren't you underestimating me a little, there?" I said. "In any case, I have no intention of killing Naruto: he is a very important friend… in fact, if I'm where I am right now, he is the person I have to thank."

Silence stretched between us, but it was the same kind of quiet companionship I felt with my siblings or the blond shinobi and it hit me as strange that I would feel that way with a twelve-year old kid I'd just knew… I believe it was because we both held Naruto high on our list of precious people – which, for my part, is still rather short. I felt at ease with this genin (thinking that, I realized that Naruto was technically still a genin himself) and found I didn't mind telling him things I would normally keep to myself or sharing only with Naruto.

"He saved my life, you know. Not just once, but twice." I whispered looking down at the empty streets bathed in the stillness of the night – it must have been two of three in the morning. "Something no one had ever done before."

"Why is that?" said Konohamaru, genuinely curious with his brows furrowed. "You're nice, Gaara-san! Naruto-nii always speaks great about you!"

I was rather pleased to hear that last bit, but didn't comment on it. "Thank you, but when I was your age… everyone hated me; they saw me merely as a weapon." I said. "I'm sure you remember Suna's attack four years ago?"

The boy tensed up visibly but nodded. "Yeah… it was when Grandpa Hokage died…"

"Yes… I'm sorry for your loss…" I remembered those orders like just a day had passed. "During that invasion… it should have been my mission to destroy the village using my Bijuu… but I ended up fighting against Naruto. You know, I think he was afraid of me at first…"

A snort came from my side. "Afraid? Naruto-nii?"

"Yes. Because he saw what his life could have been, hadn't Umino-san and the others started caring for him… Naruto and I had very difficult lives; we where hated for what we carried – being a Jinchuuriki is an awful burden for a small child… more so if he's alone… When I first met him, I thought Naruto was… thrash. I didn't spare him a second glance: all I was interested in was Sasuke Uchiha; but when I saw his reaction after Hinata-san had been gravely injured and his threat at Neji-san… I understood he was like me; I thought he was a person worthy of being killed by my sand." I stopped to shake my head at my own stupidity back then.

"Then? what happened…?" I turned and saw Konohamaru staring at me, impatient to hear the rest of the story. I looked up, at the mountain from where the fathers of Konoha continued to look after their children.

"Then… well, I next saw Naruto at the hospital. I was about to… dispose of Rock Lee – don't get me wrong, I don't feel that way towards none of them now – when he and Nara stopped me. I remember Naruto saying he had a 'bakemono' inside himself too."

"Bakemono? You mean… the Kyuubi?" I was slightly surprised that Konohamaru knew about the Nine-Tailed Kitsune being inside his 'nii-san' but I thought that by then everyone in the village knew, even the youngest generation, so I shrugged it off and continued – it was one of the longest speeches I had ever done.

"Yeah. That's why he could… empathise with what I was going through. When the attack began, I was fighting Uchiha and we took our 'match' outside the village walls; I managed to weaken him somehow and when I was about to finish him off, Naruto and Sakura-san arrived to stop me. Naruto… he was tougher than I first thought; I had a lot of fun beating him up but he responded with a determination I had never faced before." I said, smirking at the memory of those blue eyes alight with sheer will power. Konohamaru was smiling as well.

"When he hit me with that head-butt I felt my world shatter. It was quite scary, not knowing what to do anymore… I continued to ask myself how a loudmouth, obnoxious and graceless guy could be such a powerful shinobi; I didn't understand it. Then: 'I have friends that care for me. They saved me from the hell that was my existence and that acknowledge me. To save them, I'll stop you. Even it I have to kill you.'…"

"What's that?" the boy beside me was confused.

"The words Naruto told me. From that moment onward, everything changed. I have to thank him if now I'm here sharing this with you." I finished.

"… Wow…! Naruto-nii and Gaara-san… you're awesome!" Konohamaru had a huge grin splitting his face; he reminded me of Naruto once again. I chuckled at his enthusiasm.

"Aren't you exaggerating?" I asked. The boy shook his head vigorously. "If that's the case, thank you; I'm sure Naruto would be happy to hear it too."

I stood up then and walked towards the railing at the edge of the flat roof, preparing to jump down. "It has been a most pleasant talk. I look forward to seeing you again and I'm sure next time you'll be stronger: you're just like Naruto, after all. Good night, Konohamaru."

It was almost four in the morning when I got back to my room – a couple of hours' sleep was more than enough for me. I hope to see him tomorrow… was my last thought of the night.