A.N. HOLY MOLY! I'm so sorry I'm so late with this chapter. I ended up graduating from a master's program and working. I also got involved in some research and similar other things, so life's been busy. I work at a hospital, so the COVID pandemic has not really eased up my schedule at all though. This chapter is fairly long, so hopefully it makes it up for some of my tardiness with the post. I owe you guys an apology, so I worked extra hard at making this chapter good. I'm going to try to have the next chapter out ASAP to make up for the delay, but it's been really busy, so I won't promise anything. I hope you guys enjoy the chapter.

As a side note, I also hope you guys are doing a good job social distancing, washing your hands, and staying home if you can. Hopefully, you guys are healthy and safe.

Disclaimer: I can only wish I owned Naruto, but sadly it belongs to Kishimoto.

"Hey" – Normal People Talking

'Hey' – Normal People Thinking

"Hey" – Demons / Large Monsters Talking (summons)

"Hey" – Inner Sakura Talking

Tale of Namikaze Naruto

Chapter 23

*Last Time on Tale of Namikaze Naruto: *

Sasuke finished charging the jutsu and then at the high speeds he'd used earlier while fighting Gaara, began racing down the wall using gravity to complement his speed. The ground behind him, under his lightning jutsu, created a ditch of sorts as Sasuke raced at the sand sphere. As Sasuke rushed in, he used the jutsu in a piercing motion which easily broke past the hard shell and Sasuke felt his hand pierce into Gaara.

From inside the sand orb, Gaara let out another massive scream. Sasuke looked into the sphere and suddenly felt a wave of terrible chakra hit him. As he did, he felt something grab his arm and slowly begin to crush. Sasuke reactivated the Chidori, using the electricity to cut his way out and jumped away as a strange sandy and blue arm erupted from the sphere chasing Sasuke.

After moving about twenty feet out though, the arm retreated into the sphere. Sasuke stood slowly. 'What the hell was that?' He thought as he watched the sand crumble away, leaving just a hurt Gaara in its place. Gaara collapsed and as he did, Sasuke noted the other sand genin jump beside the boy. They quickly grabbed him and jumped away. 'What?'

As he thought that, he noticed a genjutsu fall over the arena as feathers descended from the sky.

Sasuke's eyes quickly recognized the genjutsu and he formed a ram seal and dispelled the genjutsu just in time to hear Genma jump in front of him and deflect two shuriken. Sasuke watched as the Jonin faced off against the Sand team's sensei, who'd stepped in front of a collapsed Gaara. Gaara's team jumped down quickly, picking the red-haired boy up, and jumped away.

"What's going on?" Sasuke asked, irritated that his match was being interrupted.

"We're under attack." Genma said as he threw a kunai at Baki, the sand Jonin. "Listen up kid. We're officially at war. This is an A rank mission. I want you to pursue and neutralize those three genin. Get going."

Sasuke's eyes narrowed as he watched the three genin hop away over the wall. "Alright." The boy took off to chase them down as Genma engaged the sand Jonin to keep him from interfering.

In the stands, Naruto's eyes narrowed as felt the grogginess take over and the feathers begin falling. The blond-haired boy quickly formed the ram-seal that Jiraiya taught him and dispelled the genjutsu. He dispelled the genjutsu and immediately sprang into action drawing a kunai to take on the sound and sand ninja that were clearly attacking.

Naruto ducked a swipe from a sand ninja that tried to cut the blond down with a kunai. Drawing his own kunai, Naruto turned and threw the sharp projectile with pinpoint accuracy into the ninja's throat. Reaching up, Naruto quickly grabbed the kunai and tore it out of the man and then swiftly threw it into another man nearby, catching the man as he went to attack a nearby Sakura in the shoulder, throwing the man off just in time for Sakura to slit his throat.

Naruto took a moment to take a quick stock of which genin were available to fight. 'Alright. We have Sakura-chan who should be recovered from the prelims. Ino, Choji, Kiba, Hinata, Shikamaru (though he's pretending to sleep), and Tenten are definitely good to go.'

"Sakura get the genin together. I'll clear an area to quickly discuss and then we need to move closer to Kakashi or Gai and get orders. Get Shikamaru up too. He's awake. We need to help secure the stadium."

The pinkette nodded at Naruto's orders, internally reflecting about how much her teammate changed.

Naruto formed his favorite hand-seal and quickly sent thirty clones out to storm the area around him and to begin attacking the enemy ninja around. As soon as Sakura had managed to get the genin closer to him (and force Shikamaru to move), the real Naruto began talking, never stopping fighting and moving though.

"We're under attack. We need to find our sensei and get orders." Naruto said as he tossed a sound ninja towards an Earth Bullet Jutsu that Sakura fired.

"No need for that."

Naruto flinched, almost throwing a kunai at the voice behind him. "Sensei. You scared me."

Kakashi gave his student the familiar eye-smile as he wiped a few drops of blood away from his headband. "Sorry about that. But I have some orders for all of you after checking with the others too. This is to be considered an A rank mission for both teams. Ino, Choji, Hinata, and Tenten are going to be Team 1. I want the four of you to move towards the academy and then to the safehouses to help the chunin secure those. Naruto, Sakura, Shikamaru, and Kiba are Team 2. Team 2 is to find Sasuke and provide backup. He's chasing after Gaara and his team, but he took off alone. Tenten, you're in-charge of Team 1. Naruto, I'll leave Team 2 to you."

The genin all nodded. Naruto took a moment to take in some information as one of his clones popped. "Sensei, it looks like there's a barrier up in the Kage Booth. One of my clones noticed Anbu heading that way."

Kakashi nodded as he effortlessly and smoothly used two kunai to kill seven sound ninjas. "We thought that Orochimaru might go after the Hokage. That's probably what the attack there is. With that kind of barrier up, it's hard to help though. We'll have to minimize losses outside and crush this attack out here. Anyway, I'm going to rejoin the other Jonin in fight. Get moving."

The genin all gave an affirmative and then quickly took off.

Naruto and his team quickly got out of the coliseum. Naruto turned to his team and quickly took note of their abilities. "Alright. Kiba, can you pick up Sasuke's sent? I know the Inuzuka have very strong scent tracking skills."

Kiba shook his head. "I didn't memorize his scent. I need something that would have his scent on it."

Naruto gave a look to Sakura suddenly. "Please tell me you have something."

Sakura turned a bright red and then reaching into her pouch and pulled out a kunai. "This is one of Sasuke-kun's that I… um… borrowed."

Kiba quickly gave it a sniff. "Yeah. I can get his scent from this. Let's go."

Naruto nodded. "Alright. Let's do it. We need to catch up."

The four genin took off and began making their way towards Sasuke and the sand ninja.

As the four ninjas ran though, Kiba frowned. "Hey. We're being followed by some ninja. I think there are eight or nine of them."

Naruto nodded. "You three keep going. I can stop them."

Shikamaru shook his head. "That's pointless. You're the best combat ninja here from the Chunin exams, but these are probably chunin. But the mission is to chase and provide back up to Sasuke. Let Kiba and I lead them off."

"No. I'd rather arrive on site with more people. I'll lead them astray with clones." With those words, Naruto quickly made five sets of four clones, which he had transform to look like his current team and then sent them scattering in a variety of different directions. "Let's keep going."

As the genin resumed their pursuit of Sasuke, Shikamaru spoke up. "Don't tire yourself out Naruto. We don't know what we have to fight yet. You saw what came out of that sphere during Sasuke's match."

Naruto nodded. "Don't worry. I'm fine. Did the ninja that were following us take the bait Kiba?"

"Yeah. Their scent spread out. I don't know how many they split into though." Kiba responded as the genin kept going.

Sasuke continued his chase of the sand genin, pushing his body to move faster and faster to intercept the genin. Defeating enemy ninja in combat during an invasion would definitely boost his chances for a promotion.

Sasuke quickly caught up to the sand ninja and pulled a kunai and threw it at the trio, aiming for Gaara's head, as they ran, Kankuro and Temari carrying their red-haired brother. Not surprisingly, the boy's sand rose and blocked the kunai but the three stopped on a branch and turned.

"Damn it. He followed us." Temari said as she pulled her fan.

"Temari take Gaara and go. I'll hold him off. Once Gaara is fine, we win this." Kankuro said pulling the strange object from his back and stared at Sasuke.

"Alright." Temari picked up the youngest sand sibling and with a final glance to Kankuro took off.

'Shit. I'll have to end this fast before I chase her down.' Sasuke thought as he pulled another kunai.

"Sasuke-san. Chase after the girl. I'll be this one's opponent." A voice said from behind Sasuke, making the Uchiha flinch.

Sasuke turned to see Shino standing on a branch slightly behind him. "What are you doing here?"

"I saw you chase the three of them. I thought you may need back-up and clearly, I was correct. I can handle this while you pursue your mission." Shino said in his characteristic matter-of-fact voice.

"Are you sure you can handle him alone?" Sasuke asked.

"I am positive. This was supposed to be our chunin exam match anyway." Shino said. "I will be his opponent. I will hold him off for at least 10 minutes."

"Hn. I'll have wrapped things up there by then." Sasuke said before taking off.

Shino turned to face Kankuro who was grinning at the boy. "Well. You guys are kinda dumb. You don't understand the terror Gaara is about to show you."

"It will not matter. As a ninja of the leaf, I will stop you here and we will stop him as well."

Kankuro formed a hand-seal and then revealed his puppet from inside the bindings. "We'll see about that."

Sasuke continued to chase the two remaining sand ninja and quickly caught up to the pair. He found the pair, moving slower than he could because the girl had to carry Gaara. But, when he caught up, he noticed that Gaara was standing alone, looking clearly pained. Sasuke glanced around quickly and noticed that the girl, Temari, had been knocked away and was leaning against a tree bleeding a little.

'Did he knock her away? Why? What are they trying here?' Sasuke thought as he pulled one of his flashbang kunai.

"Hey. Our match isn't over. You showed me something scary earlier. I want to see that again." Sasuke said pulling a kunai.

Sasuke watched though as Gaara instead of responding collapsed to his knees, blue veins grow all over the redhaired boy's face. The boy let out a blood curling scream and then rose, causing Sasuke's eyes to widen. Sasuke stared in a mix of confusion and surprise as the right side of Gaara's face had mutated into a sandy creature and the right side Gaara's body similarly was covered in sand and blue veins. Gaara's right arm was modified into an enormous, thick sandy claw. The boy's irises were mutated into strange colors and shapes as well.

'What the hell is he? That's the same eye he had from before. This is dangerous. He's throwing off a huge amount of chakra too. It's foul.' Sasuke thought as he prepared to fight.

"Come Uchiha. Let me give your blood to mother." Gaara said, his voice deeper and more psychotic. "I'll kill you."

Sasuke prepared to fight but before he could really move, Gaara sprung suddenly at him and threw a punch at Sasuke with the enormous, strangely clawed sand arm.

Sasuke dropped the kunai and quickly sprung away from the punch. He wasn't quite fast enough and felt a little big graze him, cutting his arm slightly. Sasuke ducked behind a tree and peeked around activating his sharingan and observed as the immediate area where he'd been before and noticed that the trees had enormous chunks torn from the trunks and some of the trees were ripped nearly in half.

'That's some monstrous strength. I meant to throw the kunai but he's faster than he was before.'

"What's wrong Uchiha? Are you scared? Are you afraid of my existence? Is this all your life is worth?!"

Sasuke sat behind the tree and slowly stood. 'I have to defeat him. I can't catch up to Itachi unless I do. I have to crush him. I have to catch up to Itachi.' Sasuke formed the familiar hand seal's he'd used just prior in the stadium against the same opponent. Sasuke activated his Chidori and sprung at Gaara who noticing him also jumped at the Uchiha with the strange clawed hand extended to match the lightning jutsu.

Sasuke grinned as he felt his strongest jutsu easily cleave through the sand arm and landed on a branch, turning to watch Gaara collapse on another branch, his right arm cleaved into two.

Unfortunately for the Uchiha, he didn't have much time to celebrate as he watched Gaara begin to laugh maniacally as the sand ninja's arm simply repaired itself.

"This is what I felt in the stadium! Someone who can hurt me. It will be even better when I kill you now. You will give me more purpose now Uchiha. You will justify my existence with your blood!"

Sasuke watched, his horror growing, as Gaara again crumbled for a moment and then rose, an enormous sand tail rising behind him, it too made of sand and blue veiny lines with hooked claws to match the right arm. 'That's insane.'

Sasuke's sharingan prompted the raven-haired boy to jump, just narrowly evading the sand ninja again who completely tore away the branch from below Sasuke. Sasuke used a branch above to latch onto and turned to watch Gaara's tail extend and catch various other branches and using the tail slingshot towards the boy. Sasuke formed a series of hand-seals and quickly fired another jutsu. "Fire Style! Grand Fireball!"

The fireball collided with Gaara, but Sasuke frowned as he watched the fire dissipate without hurting the boy who continued to hurl towards Sasuke. The Uchiha quickly formed a cross block to at least mitigate some of the damage. 'Fire isn't effective and the jutsu is too low level. I can't use the Chidori anymore today. What do I do?'

"Die!" Gaara yelled as he smashed his fist into Sasuke, sending the boy flying away crashing entirely through one tree trunk and into another trunk, creating a small crater in the wood as Sasuke hit it, coughing up some blood as he hit it.

'Dammit. That hurt.' Sasuke thought as he slowly stood and looked at Gaara, who stood menacingly on a nearby branch. 'I don't have a lot of chakra left and I won't be able to use the Chidori. What do I do?'

**FLASHBACK**

Sasuke stood panting facing an enormous boulder which had two chunks torn from it.

"Well Sasuke. It looks like two shots is your limit. Not bad." Kakashi said, standing beside the boy. "At your current chakra levels, you can't use it more than twice, especially because the sharingan and Chidori draw so much together anyway. You want to avoid using it too much in a real fight."

"I need to improve my chakra levels." Sasuke said, still breathing heavily from the exertion of the two jutsu."

"Yes. But, that's still impressive. Even if I use all of my chakra to do the jutsu, I can only ever use it four times. You have essentially half of my reserves. That's not bad."

"What if I tried to use the jutsu a third time?" Sasuke said standing a little and drawing a bottle to sip on a little water.

Kakashi stayed quiet for a moment before responding. "There would be no third time. The jutsu will fail without the adequate chakra, you'll run out of chakra and suffer chakra exhaustion, and in the worst-case scenarios you'll die. Even if you survive, you won't be a position to do much else. You can forget about taking down Itachi after that."

Sasuke frowned. 'I really need to work on my chakra stores.'

"You're weak Uchiha." Gaara said, his strange face grinning. "Your hatred isn't enough. Your hatred is weaker than mine. I will kill you here and your death will only make me stronger."

Sasuke sighed. 'Damn. I can't lose. I have to catch up to Itachi.'

Sasuke drew another set of kunai and quickly threw them at Gaara and then sprung away. He began forming another set of seals for a simple water jutsu, "Water Style: Water Bullet Jutsu". The boy fired the ball of water flew at Gaara who simply knocked it away with his arm.

"Weak!" The boy flew at Sasuke again, who narrowly dodged the attack again by jumping back and down from the tree branch. The Uchiha drew a kunai with some wire and threw it at a branch above and used the wire as a swing to propel himself to another tree.

Before he could turn to dodge again though, Gaara was on top of him again and landed a hard hit to Sasuke's side with the huge arm knocking him through another tree and creating a "Sasuke crater" in another tree.

'Shit. That one broke a few ribs. I won't be able to respond to this next one. I'm done for.' Sasuke thought as he looked up to see Gaara coming down to finish him.

Luckily though, Sasuke got a chance to sigh with relief as he noticed something coming from the side.

"Die Uchiha!" Gaara yelled as he flew towards the currently down Uchiha, finally hoping to kill the ninja. Unfortunately, he didn't get the chance to make contact as a hard sidekick from connected with his face sending him sideways away from Sasuke into another tree.

"Damn Teme. He got you good." Naruto said as he landed on the branch by Sasuke, flanked by Sakura and Shikamaru.

"Yeah. He's stronger than he looks, I guess. How did you three find me?" Sasuke asked wincing as he tried to sit up more, feeling his ribs creak.

"Kiba was with us helping us track your scent. We found Shino fighting the other sand ninja and Kiba stopped to back him up. He noticed you'd stopped and were fighting something. He told us which direction to run and we just went that way. Is that thing Gaara?" Sakura said as she stared towards Gaara who was still slowly standing. 'Naruto hits hard.'

"Yeah. I'm not sure what he is, but he's strong."

"I understand." Naruto said staring at Gaara too. "Sakura. Take Sasuke and get him somewhere safer. Give him some basic first aid and get him to the village. He's a liability in that condition and Orochimaru's already shown an interest in him. We don't know if he sent any sound ninja after him. Shikamaru and I'll hold off Gaara and try to beat him."

Sakura nodded and moved to help Sasuke.

"Hang on. I can still fight." Sasuke said, wincing, and tried to stand only to collapse again and be caught by Sakura.

"Like hell you can. Get out of here. We got this." Naruto said turning a strict glare at his teammate.

"Fine. Let's go Sakura. Be careful Naruto. He's strong. You too, Shikamaru."

The two male genin nodded as Sakura helped Sasuke to his feet, supporting him and then jumped away with the hurt boy.

Naruto and Shikamaru turned to face Gaara who'd finally stood completely and growled at the two.

"That's my prey that you're sending away. I don't have time for you!" Gaara said before springing after Sakura and Sasuke. As he did though, he suddenly turned and fired a dense wave of sand at Naruto, surprising the blond boy.

Before the sand could connect though, Naruto felt something shove him out of the way and turned just in time to see the sand hit Shikamaru, sending him flying into a tree where the sand pinned a now unconscious Shikamaru to the tree. Gaara tried to take the distraction as a chance to chase Sasuke and Sakura, but Naruto was faster. The blonde moved in front of Gaara and landed three hard punches to the ninja's face in a burst of speed reminiscent to the sand ninja of Lee or Sasuke.

"Let him go you ass. I won't let you hurt anyone here."

Gaara growled at Naruto and then suddenly grabbed his head. 'Why is it that they always help each other? I'll kill them all!'

**FLASHBACK**

A small Gaara sat on a swing in the playground in the Village Hidden in the Sand, clutching a small teddy bear watching with lonely eyes as the other children his age played kicking a ball nearby. The boy watched as they laughed and joked, playing together and felt another pang of loneliness.

The children continued playing and Gaara continued watching, wishing he could be one of them, till one of the kids tried to do a trick, kicking the ball too high sending it into a nearby wall, where it got stuck in a large crack in the wall, a commonality in the sand-made buildings of Suna.

"Aw crap! How're we going to get that down?" One of the kids asked as he stared up.

"I don't know! That's the fifth ball this month. My parents are going to kill me if we don't get it down." Another kid responded, starting to freak out thinking about his parents' response.

Suddenly, the kids watched as sand pulled the ball from the crack in the wall and then slowly lowered it to Gaara, who held the ball out to the kids.

"Y... You're Gaara! Gaara of the Sand! Run for it!" One of the kids called out and began running. The other children quickly followed suit, running.

"No! Don't run!" Gaara called. "Stop!" The boy started to chase the kids desperately reaching out to the kids. "Don't leave me alone!"

The boy frantically reached for one of the kids, the slowest who was lagging behind the others and instinctively, the sand reached forward and pulled the child down.

"Stop! Help! Let me go you monster!" The kid yelled as Gaara's sand rose, wrapping the boy and a wave of the sand rose, hardening into a series of razor-sharp spikes and then crashed forward.

Just in time someone jumped in front of the child, blocking the sand with their body.

"Lord Gaara! Stop! Calm down!" The familiar voice of Gaara's caretaker came.

Gaara flinched, suddenly realizing that he'd almost killed the other kid and hurt his caretaker. He glanced down and released the sand holding the boy down who quickly ran away.

Gaara stood in front of a picture of his departed mother and stared at the image. He was a monster. He'd nearly killed someone he wanted to be friends with. He hurt his caretaker, the only person who was nice to him.

The boy took a knife and tried to cut his wrist, only for the sand to block the blade from even reaching his skin. 'It won't even cut through. It's no use.'

"Lord Gaara. Your father has assigned me to your medical team. Please do not make me get fired by something like that. Though I know your sand won't let anything happen regardless."

"Yashamaru. I'm sorry. Are you hurt?"

The older man, a spitting image of Gaara's own mother, just gave Gaara a smile. "Nothing serious. Just a few scrapes."

"Hey Yashamaru, can I ask you a question?" Gaara said looking up.

"You just did, but what is your next question?"

"What is pain? I never get hurt so I wonder what it's like."

Yashamaru gave an awkward laugh. "Well, that's a little bit of a tough question. It's unbearable sometimes. It happens when you're hurt by a cut or a burn. Sometimes it's hard to stay yourself. Unpleasant is definitely a word for it."

Gaara stared at the bandages on his caretaker's face and arm. "Then… Do you hate me?"

Yashamaru sighed at the sad child in front of him and kneeled in front of him, taking the knife from his hands. He made a small cut on his own finger.

"Lord Gaara, physical injuries like this are easy to heal. They may cause pain, but they go away. Emotional injuries, on the other hand, are much harder to treat and take longer to heal. Unlike physical injuries, there's only one real treatment for emotional scars."

"There is? What is it?" Gaara asked.

"Well. It's only something you can receive from someone else. Love."

"How can I get that?"

"You're already receiving it. Love is the care and devotion you feel for the precious ones around you. Like sister had for you. She loved you so much that your automatic defense was born from your mother's will to protect you."

Gaara's face softened and the boy smiled. "Thank you for stopping me today."

Yashamaru gave his ward a warm smile in return. "You're very welcome. After all, you are my precious person Lord Gaara."

"Can I have some ointments?"

Gaara ran with a large paper bag nearly the size of his torso. He reached the house of the boy whom he'd previously nearly killed and knocked on the door and then waited politely for someone to answer. The door slowly opened and Gaara saw the boy from before inside.

"I'm sorry about earlier. Please use this ointment." Gaara said, timidly holding out the bag.

"Go away you monster. I hate you." The boy yelled and then slammed the door.

Gaara slowly trudged away, again lost in his mind about the hatred he faced in the village. As he walked, staring at his own feet, Gaara felt someone bump into him.

"Hey, watch it you stupid… Oh. It's the monster." The man said as Gaara looked up to see a drunken man giving him the same look, the familiar look of disdain that everyone in the village gave.

'Why is it always me? Why does everyone look at me with those eyes.' Gaara thought as he felt his anger bubble again.

As the small child got angry, the sand swirled around him and rose to slowly surround the man in front of him. Then, the sand crumbled in crushing the man who screamed as sand smothered and then crushed him.

Gaara sat alone on the roof of his building, thinking again about the eyes. As he sat pondering why he was the only person so deeply hated in the village. Suddenly, the boy's danger sense began screaming as sand rose behind him as five or six kunai contacted the sand.

Gaara turned and sent the kunai to hit the man. As he did, he used the sand to take down the chunin attacker, pinning him to the wall and knocking him down to a point where he couldn't stand again, crushing the man's ribs, legs, and arms.

'Who is this person?' Gaara stepped forward, shaking to remove the face covering from his opponent. Gaara stumbled away as the man under the cover was revealed to bee Yashamaru.

"Impressive, Lord Gaara." Yashamaru said, coughing up some blood.

Gaara screamed and began to cry. "Why?! Why you? You were the only person who cared and then you tried to kill me?"

Yashamaru cough again. "It was an order."

Gaara turned, tears still flowing to look at the man. "An order?"

"I was ordered by the Kazekage to assassinate you."

Gaara turned and threw up. 'Father ordered it? Why?'

"Why would father want me dead?"

"You were born to be a vessel for Shukaku of the Sand, the One-tailed Demon Beast. Till today, you have been raised as an experimental weapon for the village. But you haven't been able to contain the beast or to control its powers. More than that, you've become a threat to the lives of the villagers. We can't let that happen."

Gaara sat quietly for a moment processing the information. "So… you didn't have any choice. Father ordered this." With those words, the red-haired child gave a chuckle of relief.

"No. You're wrong." Yashamaru said. "I could have refused the order, but deep down I must have always hated you. I tried my best to love you, and to think of you as a memento of my sister. But you stole my sister from me. She never wanted you. She was sacrificed for the village and died cursing it. Maybe from then on till today, I've had the never-healing emotional scars off hatred."

The man stopped speaking for a moment to cough up more blood and watched the small kid's horrified expression.

"Your mother gave you your name, Gaara. It means "a demon that loves only himself". Love only yourself and only fight for yourself. She wished and believed that your existence is forever only if you hold to that truth. But the name isn't because she loves you. The name is so the world knows her grudge and her hatred."

As Gaara stared at his feet, Yashamaru slowly pulled open his vest revealing many explosive tags. "Now. Please die Lord Gaara."

A massive explosion rocked the building, caving parts of it and leaving fire and shrapnel and smoke in its wake. When the explosion disappeared, only an unhurt Gaara, surrounded by a shell of sand, remained.

Gaara screamed again, this time a scream of rage and hurt, the emotions and the betrayal consuming him. The boy summoned his sand to carve the kanji for "love" above his left eye. "I final understand. I am alone."

Naruto watched the red-haired ninja flinching and clutching his own head before the boy rose to give Naruto a death glare.

'Damn. That's a crazy look in his eyes.' Naruto thought as he pulled a kunai from his pouch.

"What does he mean to you?" Gaara asked as he made the sand tighten slightly over Shikamaru making the boy's body flinch slightly from the pain.

"He's my friend and a comrade. You need to let him go before I have to kill you." Naruto said, his face hardening.

"Friends. Comrades. Don't make me laugh. The strong only fight for themselves." The Suna ninja said as he pulled his tail forward.

Naruto immediately moved as his opponent sent a volley of nearly thirty speeding sand shuriken at Naruto. The blond quickly fell backward, dropping away from the branch, as the projectiles completely destroyed the branch he was on.

'That's blunt force as a projectile. Not a fun way to die.' Naruto thought as he landed below and threw the kunai at Gaara. He quickly shot forward, moving from branch to branch and quickly fired a series of other projectiles at Gaara, these with explosive tags.

Gaara blocked the first kunai with his sand arm, and the subsequent ones in a similar fashion. As the explosions took place, Naruto watched hoping that the five explosions would take down his opponent. Unfortunately, it wasn't to be.

'Never that simple. I was really hoping it would be.' Naruto thought as he watched the boy simply shrug off the explosion. 'I need to have more firepower. I know Sasuke's lightning jutsu tore through the sand before. I don't have a piercing earth jutsu counter. I'll have to use the jutsu that Jiraiya taught me.'

Naruto dodged another volley of sand shuriken and tried to find a place to buy enough time to gather chakra and cast his jutsu. He formed a series of hand seals as he ran and quickly flipped to fire three wind bullets at Gaara and then ducked behind a low trunk.

**Flashback**

Naruto stood with Jiraiya at a pond where the two had been working on Naruto's chakra control and sparring while water walking.

"You said we were going to learn a new jutsu today, Ero-Sennin. What are you going to teach me?" Naruto asked as he stretched off the beating, he'd just taken.

"Don't call me that. I think it's time you sign the Toad Contract and learn the Summoning Jutsu."

Naruto's face shot up at his newest teacher. "You're going to let me sign it already?"

Jiraiya laughed. "Of course! You're my apprentice, aren't you? So, let's get started."

Jiraiya removed the large scroll that was tied to his back and unfurled it to reveal a series of names and signatures under each name as well as a handprint.

"Alright kid, you're going to need your own blood for this one. Sign your name in blood and get your handprint down." Jiraiya said pointing to an empty spot on the scroll.

Naruto nodded and quickly took a look at the name beside his own as he cut his thumb and started to sign. 'Minato Namikaze. The Fourth Hokage was the last person before me to sign this. Wow.'

Naruto finished signing the scroll and then placed his palm print into the scroll under his name. "Alright. What now?"

Jiraiya stood. "Alright. Watch the hand seals and copy them. You need blood for the jutsu. So, you form the seals after you draw blood and get it on your palm. Then just place your hand on the ground. You want to use a pretty hefty amount of chakra for the jutsu."

Jiraiya slowly moved through each phase of the process, cutting his thumb, smearing the blood on his right palm, slowly forming the hand seals for Naruto to see, and then placed his hand on the ground and summoned a bright red skinned toad which was nearly as tall as Jiraiya with blue lines on its skin and a beaded necklace around its neck.

"Give it a shot. The toad requires a lot chakra to move from its home here. Channel plenty." Jiraiya said.

Naruto gave a nod to his teacher and then followed the steps to cast the summoning. He placed his hand on the ground and declared the Jutsu. "Summoning Jutsu!"

A puff of smoke enveloped Naruto and he found a small orange toad with blue lines and a blue vest standing in front of him.

"Hiya! Got any snacks?" The small toad said staring up at Naruto.

"Hi. No. I didn't know I was going to be summoning you today. Next time, I will." Naruto said to the small toad, surprised that it talked to him.

"Gamakichi! How are you?" Jiraiya said, smiling.

"Jiraiya? I'm great. Is this a new summoner?" The toad revealed to be Gamakichi said.

"Yes. This is my apprentice, Naruto."

Gamakichi turned to Naruto and held out a hand. "Nice to meet ya!"

Naruto squatted to match the small toad's size and shook its hand. "You too!"

"I'll tell pops that he should expect a new summoner to get him soon. You might wanna wait till after lunch today though."

"We will." Jiraiya said.

"By the way, Ma and Pa probably want you to come for dinner sometime."

Jiraiya paled. "I'm… busy right now. I'll be by sometime for sure."

"Alright. Well. I'm going to head back." And with those words, the small toad poofed away in another tiny cloud of smoke.

"Who was the pops that he was talking about?" Naruto asked.

"Gamakichi is the son of the Boss Toad, Gamabunta. To finalize the contract, you'll have to summon and talk to Gamabunta. But, to do that with your control means that you'll need to harness the Kyuubi's chakra."

"I can do that." Naruto said, quietly.

"Yeah. So, you'll need to channel some of the Kyuubi's chakra and use that for the summoning jutsu."

Naruto took a moment to focus, going deep into his mind. 'Hey. Stupid fox. It's time to pay rent.'

"Hmph. Where would you be without my help?"

Naruto felt the surge of the demonic energy into his chakra coils and then formed the hand seals to cast the summoning spell.

The spell caused an enormous puff of smoke to appear and the boy found himself standing on the head of an enormous toad.

Naruto sighed as another barrage of Gaara's sand missiles tore through another cluster of trees. The sand ninja's attacks were closing in. 'I don't have time to summon a large toad.' The boy thought as he pulled a kunai from his pouch and wrapped an explosive tag around the handle.

Naruto sprung from his hiding place and threw the kunai. As the weapon sailed through the air, Naruto quickly began channeling chakra and forming the hand seals for the summoning jutsu. Before he could finish though, another set of sand shuriken closed in on the boy forcing him to spring away without finishing the jutsu.

'Fuck! I can't even get the jutsu done. I'll have to use another method to take down this asshole.'

Naruto quickly back tracked, taking just a moment to check on Shikamaru's unconscious form and the slowly tightening sand around him.

'Okay. This isn't the time to play around. I'll throw everything I have at him.' Naruto thought. The boy steeled himself and then stepped out onto a branch to stare down Gaara. "Hey asshole. It's my turn."

The boy formed the hand seal for his favorite jutsu and quickly filled the entire area with clones. "Ready or not. Here we come." The clones shouted before taking off.

Gaara had not expected the massive numbers of enemies, but they did not faze him. "This is nothing. Now die!" The half-transformed genin took a deep breath and unleashed a massive gust of wind that slammed into a set of clones, dispelling them.

Naruto's clones continued undeterred. Quickly, Gaara found himself under assault from every angle by wind chakra enhanced kunai, explosions, and taijutsu. As the sand ninja tried to defend himself against the clone onslaught, the real Naruto quickly took time to position himself, tying thirty exploding tags onto a kunai. The boy moved quickly, hoping to catch his opponent off guard and quickly threw the kunai at the point where he thought Kakashi would aim, for a special thousand years of pain jutsu.

Gaara destroyed another dozen clones with shuriken when he felt the kunai pierce into his body. Then he heard the sizzling of the explosive tags, much louder than anything he normally heard. Then, the explosion rocked his body blasting off the sandy left arm that he'd had.

Naruto landed again on a branch and watched carefully, with another set of kunai pulled to attack the boy if he survived. As the smoke cleared, Naruto was not surprised to find the boy recovering, while the rest of the boy slowly become further consumed by sand. 'Not enough. I need more. I have to rescue Shikamaru. I have to take him down and get back to the village. Konoha is still under attack.'

Naruto made a ton more clones and quickly began another attack, firing away blades of wind and more kunai.

As the attacks rained down, Gaara stared up at the descending clones and glared. 'Why does he fight so hard for others? I won't lose to him. I can't lose to him!'

Naruto watched as a massive explosion of sand erupted from Gaara, blowing away his clones and their attacks. 'What the hell?'

The boy watched as the sand gathered quickly forming a massive, sand raccoon, with blue patters on its body, a single tail swirling around behind it. 'Ah. Shit.'

Naruto stared up at the creature as it glared down at him, trying to think of a way to deal with the massive beast. 'I have to match it fast, otherwise I'm screwed. He's too huge for me to keep up with.'

Suddenly, Naruto felt sand wrap around his ankles, holding him in place, and then began wrapping around his body forming a cocoon. He'd seen this type of move from Gaara before and knew what would happen if he didn't respond quickly. The blond quickly flew through a series of hand seals while reaching out to the tenant inside of him. 'Help me out here!'

"Don't you dare lose to the one tails. I'll be a laughingstock forever."The Kyuubi's voice echoed in his head as the demonic chakra flooded his coils.

"Summoning Jutsu!" Naruto called out, and a huge field was covered in a massive cloud of smoke as an enormous toad appeared. This toad was different from the previous ones Naruto had summoned while training with Jiraiya. Instead, this toad was a brick color and wore a navy blue Haori. At its waist, the toad had a katana.

"Jiraiya! Why the hell did you summon me here?!" The large creature said.

"Sorry!" Naruto called down. "I'm the one that summoned you today, though I'm not sure exactly who you are. I'm in a bit of a pickle. I'm Naruto."

The toad stopped momentarily to look up at the tiny boy on its head. "Naruto, huh? I'm Gamabunta, the boss toad. What mess did you get yourself into?"

Naruto simply pointed. "It's going to destroy the village. He's trapped Shikamaru already too. We can't let him kill any leaf ninja. Especially not with the Sand and Sound invading."

Gamabunta stared at the large demon that had turned its attention towards Naruto and himself. 'Why is it that this fucking family only summons me to fight the tailed-beasts?'

"Fine, kid. But, after this, you owe me a drink." Gamabunta said, drawing the katana.

"Get real. I'm a genin. I don't have the money to buy a mountain of sake." Naruto said, chuckling a bit. "Let's save the village."

The massive toad gave a similar chuckle. "Hold on tight!"

With those words, the toad sprang forward at a massive speed catching the wary sand Jinchuriki by surprise and used the sword to deal a deep cut to the front leg of the sand monster. Before he could cut completely through, though, Gaara jumped away, and the dense leg with the powerful jump knocked the katana from Gamabunta's hand.

'Damn. What a dense body. I couldn't even get a clean cut.' Gamabunta thought as he took the chance to collect himself, watching the Ichibi land and face him.

As Naruto and Gamabunta considered their next move, they were surprised when the redhaired genin emerged from the head of the Ichibi.

"Uzumaki. You've really entertained me lots. Thank you." The boy said with a sinister smile while forming the rat seal. "As a reward, let me show you the true power of Shukaku of the Sands. Fake Sleep Jutsu!"

"Damn it." Gamabunta said. "This is where it gets hard kid. The host of the Ichibi can't sleep because it frees the demon inside. It's partially what makes these kids so unstable. If he comes out, we're in serious danger."

As the words left the toad, Naruto noticed that the eyes of the large sand creature had changed, and the previously somewhat sandy texture of its skin hardened slightly.

"FINALLY! I'M FREE!" Shukaku yelled. "BEST OF ALL, I HAVE THINGS TO KILL RIIGHT AWAY!"

Naruto suddenly felt Gamabunta tense under him and quickly grabbed the blue haori to prevent himself from being thrown off the large toad as the boss toad jumped high into the air, just in time to dodge an enormous bullet of air. As the toad flew over the bullet, he quickly fired two enormous water bullets to match the further air bullets that Shukaku shot towards them.

Naruto watched as the two water bullets collided with the air bullets sending a torrent of water down all over the forest beneath. "Look out boss! There's still one more!" He yelled as he noticed another air bullet coming towards them.

'Can't dodge!' The toad thought, and Naruto was nearly thrown off the toad from the impact of the powerful bullet.

"ALRIGHT! ONE DEAD! JUST A TON MORE TO GO!" The Ichibi cheered as he turned towards the nearby village.

Before he could get too far though, he heard a few coughs behind him and turned to see Gamabunta still standing, though the toad looked severely hurt.

"You put way too much chakra into that, you freak! It hurt." The massive toad said, jumping forward towards the Ichibi. "Alright kid! You have to wake up the Ichibi's host! Just rough him up a bit, and he should wake up."

"How're we going to get me close enough for that?" Naruto asked holding on again as the pair hurtled towards the One-Tail.

"We'll combo a transformation. Think up something with fangs or claws so that I can hold the Ichibi while you go wallop the Jinchuriki."

Naruto nodded and quickly formed the hand seals needed for the technique, thinking of the first thing that came to his mind.

'Well. It's been with me all of my life. Might as well use it.' Naruto thought as he transformed himself and his summon.

The Ichibi prepared to attack only to be surprised by an enormous cloud of smoke that obscured his view. Then, he saw something emerge from the smoke that scared him to his core for an instant, the Kyuubi. The Nine-Tails emerged from the smoke and quickly grabbed the sand demon and bit into his shoulder. Then, he was surprised again when the Nine-Tails transformed into the toad and the blond kid again.

Naruto immediately jumped from Gamabunta, and hurtling towards Gaara, the boy landed a hard punch into Gaara's face, sending the boy tumbling a bit.

"NO! NOT THIS FAST! I JUST CAME OUT!" The Ichibi yelled as Naruto stood on its head looking at the now conscious Gaara.

"Let's end this." Naruto said as he began trudging his way towards the fallen Suna genin.

Gaara was now scared. In his thirteen years of life, he'd never been hurt. Since coming to the leaf, he'd been scratched for the first time and bled for the first time. Now, in the same day, he'd been forced by a single genin to transform and to unleash Shukaku. Even with all of this, he was losing to the same genin.

"I won't let you beat me. I will prove my existence!" Gaara said as he sent a small wave of sand to attack Naruto while also making the sand at Naruto's feet wrap around the blond's ankles to hold him in place.

Naruto just growled. He had to end the fight quickly. He had an obligation to return to the leaf and assist in the fighting and to save Shikamaru. He reached in towards his tenant again. 'Just give me a little more.'

Gaara watched again as a massive burst of orange chakra flared from Naruto, knocking his sand aside. He started to summon another wave to attack but didn't have much time to move as Naruto used his superior speed, now enhanced by the Kyuubi, to close the distance rapidly and deliver two more hard punches to Gaara's gut, as well as a spinning hook kick to the boy's face.

These three hits proved too much for the sand ninja, causing his concentration to drop and the form of the Ichibi to dissipate.

Naruto and Gaara both plummeted downwards without the large creature to stand on. Naruto quickly formed the seals for a basic wind bullet and fired it at Gaara, knocking the sand ninja into a tree and propelling Naruto into another tree.

Nearby, Gamabunta tiredly watched the two boys as they landed, taking just enough time to ensure that his summoner would be okay. After seeing his safe landing, the toad called out. "That's it for me, kid. I'm going home."

Naruto glanced at the toad. "Thanks boss. I'll be sure to repay the favor sometime."

As the toad vanished, Naruto stood on his branch and watched as Gaara struggled to his feet, his control of the sand seemed to diminish significantly after the exertion of the fight. The blond formed a single shadow clone. "Make sure Shikamaru doesn't fall out of the tree if the sand holding him wears off. I'll wrap things up here."

The clone nodded and it jumped away towards the Nara as the original remained facing Gaara.

"Listen. I don't think you have a lot left in the tank, and I'm pretty tired too. But I have a village to save. Let's end this now. You can't win against me." Naruto said, glaring his opponent down. "Do you want to give up or are you going to have me beat you down to end the fight?"

Gaara just frowned before preparing to spring at Naruto one more time.

Naruto watched as his opponent postured to attack. 'Fine. One last beat down it is.'

As Gaara jumped towards him, Naruto jumped forward as well, flashing through a series of hand seals as he did. As Gaara got closer, Naruto suddenly unleashed an enormous gust of wind at Gaara, the wind release: Breakthrough technique.

Gaara tried to summon his sand to protect him but was too spent from the entire fight to adequately prevent the jutsu from hitting him. The blast of wind sent him crashing into a tree, and the boy let out a gasp as the rough impact with the bark knocked the wind from his lungs. Before he could react though, he felt Naruto's hard fists connect twice with his face before the blond grabbed his lapel and threw him off the tree towards the ground.

Gaara landed, with a thud on his back, softened this time by the sand which could at least dull the impact slightly. Regardless, his leg was definitely broken. The red-haired boy looked up from his position as the blond leaf ninja landed in front of him. For the first time in his life, Gaara felt a chill run down as his spine as fear gripped him as his eyes met the blue eyes of his opponent.

"Get away from me! I'm not going to have my existence erased here!" Gaara said, struggling from his lying position to have his sand attack Naruto.

Naruto watched Gaara quietly, remembering encounters from his past. 'Being alone is lonely. It's miserable. I was like that once. I had so many people help me, but this guy's spent his whole life alone. If the Hokage didn't take care of me, if I hadn't met the old man at the Ramen Stand or Ayame nee-chan, or if Iruka sensei didn't acknowledge me, would I have ended up like this?'

Naruto stepped closer to Gaara only for the sand ninja to struggle harder. Naruto watched as a little sand attempted to rise before collapsing uselessly. Ignoring the struggling boy, Naruto kneeled in front of Gaara.

"Relax. I'm not going to kill you." Naruto said, and watched as Gaara relaxed slightly, though the redhead remained wary. "I understand your pain. I was alone for years too. It eats away at you."

Naruto took a moment to push away memories of his bleak childhood that sometimes threatened to overwhelm him.

"But it doesn't matter. For me, this village is full of precious friends and comrades. It's full of the people who've become my family. It doesn't matter if a threat to that is someone like me. If you ever try to hurt those I care about, I'll destroy you."

Gaara stared at the other boy for a moment quietly, before speaking in a quiet voice. "People give you strength?"

Naruto gave a curt nod. "They saved me from the hell of being alone, without an existence. They acknowledged me. I won't lose to someone who doesn't get that."

Gaara stared quietly at the sky remembering Yashamaru. 'Love. He loves people and they give him strength.'

Naruto suddenly heard the familiar whistle of a kunai behind him, and jumped sideways, avoiding the sharp weapon. As he looked back up, he noticed the other two sand genin standing in front of Gaara with their weapons drawn. The irony of the situation gave him a chuckle.

"Ironic that the guy who called Lee a pathetic guardian is being protected by other people now." Naruto said as he relaxed, though the blond still drew a kunai.

As the sand ninja faced Naruto, Temari took a moment to glance at her brother. 'I've never seen Gaara this hurt before. He's out of chakra and can't even move. His leg's definitely broken and he's bleeding. Craziest of all, the leaf ninja is still standing and looks like he has more to dish out. This is dangerous.'

Kankuro tensed as he watched Naruto twirl the kunai, not confident enough to take the time to look at Gaara.

Naruto just sighed. "Relax. I'm not going to fight anymore if you three won't."

Temari glanced at Naruto, with a single eyebrow raised. "You're just going to let enemy ninja walk away?"

"I can always say that it was a three on one, plus I'm already tired from my fight with Gaara. It would be unwise of me to pursue further, especially given that our village is still under attack."

Temari and Kankuro glanced at each other, thinking similar thoughts. It wouldn't be that unusual for a ninja to lie just to have them lower their guards.

Gaara, for his part, lay still and continued to stare at the sky above. 'Whomever thought Maelstrom was a good name for this guy was right. It fits.'

"Kankuro. Temari. That's enough. We've lost." Gaara said quietly. "He's too strong."

Kankuro and Temari both glanced at Gaara again before finally relaxing and reaching down to pick up their brother and supporting him as they faced Naruto one last time.

Naruto raised a hand in goodbye and gave the three a smile. "Have a safe journey back to Suna. I'm going to find Shikamaru again and head back too."

The three sand ninja left with a nod of their own, heading back through the trees. Naruto watched them for a little while before sighing and turning to find the Nara genin he had fought to free.

As the three sand ninja jumped away towards Suna, Gaara spoke.

"Temari. Kankuro. I am sorry."

The two sand ninja nearly dropped their brother. It'd been a weird day. First, they saw their invincible brother get hurt, bleed, and lose for the first time. Then, he apologized.

"Don't worry about it, kid." Kankuro said gruffly. "I'm a bit mad you though Temari and I'd lose to that guy in a two on one, but he beat you, so I guess it's to be expected."

Gaara nodded. "He is stronger than me, and he is like me. I do not think you could have won."

The two sand siblings became quiet. Another Jinchuriki in the leaf was not something that the village had considered before beginning the invasion.

"Which one?"

"The ninth."

A.N: Alright! I think that's where I will end this chapter. It took a lot to write, and I'm so sorry it's incredibly late. The past year has been hectic, but I'll try to do a better job of updating. I work in a hospital though, and the current situation means that I'm incredibly busy, so no promises.

I do have a quick request from you guys as I wrap up this chapter though. I actually got back into writing this after I found it on , got really into it while reading it, realized it was mine, and then realized that you guys must be super frustrated that it randomly went on hiatus. As I read through, I noticed a bunch of mistakes and inconsistencies in the story. If you notice any, please message me or leave a review pointing them out. Over the next few weeks/months, I'll be taking time to make corrections so that the story will be better for it.

Thanks in advance for your help and thank you guys for reading. I'm going to try to have the next chapter out by June, where I'll also take some time to flesh out the direction this story is going. I hope you all stay safe, and please for the love of all that is holy, wash your hands.