A/N: About the asking for reviews in the last chapter, I like it when my story doesn't need reviewing, as I've been known to do that myself. I just have slight… issues with my writing, as I'm a bit of a perfectionist, and I'm rarely satisfied with my work, so I occasionally check to make sure there are people still enjoying my story. Well, now that that's out of the way, I got a private message commenting that I "apparently did not like Kakashi". I'm not offended by that, as I can see that it might look that way, but my writing kind of takes a life of its own, and Kakashi ended up taking much, much more abuse than I meant for him to take. I personally like Kakashi, and Sakura when she's not being a bitch (rare until part 2 in the manga), and the few moments Sasuke wasn't emo, or just a jackass. I think a good number of people might have thought that, so I decided to include my answer in my notes, too. I'm sorry I haven't updated so well after the previous chapter, but I've been somewhat sick, and after that, I was (and still am) trying to help my girlfriend move. Just so happens I've got some free time (at about three AM), and I feel like writing.

A/N2: I'm putting these here, but I'm leaving the end of the chapter's author's notes short, if there, so don't complain. This may not be an issue right now, but I've, in the past, seen people arguing about shunshin no jutsu being a Yondaime exclusive technique. If I'm not mistaken, his is the "Flying Thunder God" technique, and I'm making shunshin the simple jutsu you see many ninja use. That's just the way it will be in this fic. Also, my take, which will NOT be repeated unless necessary, on the whole Chidori/Raikiri thing: They look slightly different in the manga and anime, and Kakashi's Chidori (from Kakashi Gaiden) looks more like Sasuke's Chidori than the Raikiri Kakashi uses against Zabuza or Kazuzu. Also, they make different sounds in the anime (I only watched up until the preliminaries in the anime, but Raikiri definitely made a crackle), with Raikiri making the crackling noise, and Chidori the chirping we're all so used to. So that's my take, and how it shall be in the story. Chidori: A-rank ninjutsu

Raikiri: S-rank ninjutsu

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, only a few volumes of the English manga, which frustrated me by raping the jutsu translations in the ass repeatedly, so I stopped them and went on ahead to exclusively using scanalations. If I did own it, trust me, Naruto would still be a leaf Nin, but he'd have a few changes, and it would be less child-friendly. Oh, and Kisame would get his own montage, which he would dance to, with scenes of him playing in the background.

Pre-release Edit: Sorry it was so late, I rewrote it several times, because I wasn't satisfied with it, and I'm still not, but I suppose I've got this chapter as good as I'm going to get it… Also, my computer's been really buggy, making both writing this and getting on the internet to post it difficult. AND I've been busy even by my standards.

Special thanks to Reed-sensei.

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When she first woke up, Temari noticed she didn't have a hangover, which was unusual, until she noticed the hangover medicine on the table next to her. The second thing she noticed was that she was in a soft bed. The second thing confused her more than the first, since she vaguely remembered the events of the day before, especially the revelation about Naruto.

Her thinking now a bit clearer, she somewhat understood his reasoning. Thanks to that, her ninja training managed to keep her mixed emotions in check. Barely.

Deciding that laying around in a strange bed would do her no good, no matter how comfortable she was, she got up and walked out of the rather simple bedroom. Noticing the hallway was empty, she walked over to the stairs at the far end, admiring the hall as she went.

It was obviously built by a family that didn't need to worry about money, but didn't go over the top with decorations. A few family photos, forest green walls, and a navy blue carpet all combined to make a beautiful, simple decoration. Walking down the navy-carpeted stairs, she saw a beautifully decorated living room.

The colors were similar, but there was an ornately carved table, antique lamps, two comfortable looking couches, and a rather large television. After admiring it for a minute, she walked out into the back yard, where a slightly frightening sight was taking place.

Naruto was sparring with two S-class criminals she definitely recognized as Akatsuki members. Itachi was firing off long-range fire jutsus, while Kisame was slashing at close range with the Samehada. Naruto dodged the fireballs aimed at him, all the while parrying the Samehada with what looked like an ancient, but exceedingly well-kept tachi.

"Katon: Rekka Nibyoushi!"

Twin tendrils of flame shot out diagonally, causing the air itself to shimmer with heat. Twisting and curving, each went for one of Naruto's sides. Naruto, devoid of concern, knocked Kisame out of his way with the hilt of the tachi, before using chakra to spin in the air, becoming a blur of black and purple in his speed. Temari bit her lip; how was spinning going to stop the flame?

"Hyouton: Hyouki Hiketsu!"

Water drew up from the ground, crystallizing around Naruto's spinning form. Soon, a jagged, spike-filled spire of ice surrounded him. The fire crashed into it, both extinguishing itself and melting the ice. Before the melted water could even fall, however, a voice shouted another jutsu.

"Suiton: Dai-Issui Kasui!"

Out of the falling cascade, a spike of water shot out towards Itachi, who leaped to the side. Just fast enough, as the attack slashed the side of his right arm. Rolling to a neutral position, he held his hand up.

"Match over, I think?"

The purple-haired ninja sat down, laughing.

"Alright! I think we had a spectator!"

Temari took a step back as all three ninja looked over at her. Whoever had taken her weapons had obviously forgotten to check for hidden weapons. She didn't know it, but Naruto, being the gentleman he tried to be, had purposely not checked the more… intimate places for weapons. Even so, she pulled a kunai out of her shirt, crouching into a battle stance. She saw a twitch of motion from the three, and jumped. Right into a net, that is.

"Bastards! Get me out of here right now!"

Naruto chuckled, walking slowly up to the house. A flick of his sword, and she was on the ground. Trying to be dignified whilst brushing the dirt off of herself, she turned her back on him.

"Naruto? I thought you were dead. Everyone thought you were dead. Why are you in the presence of these criminals?"

Naruto sighed. the tone of her voice said it all. She was angry, and that was never a good thing. It was, considering all this, a bad time for Deidara to walk in. The unsuspecting artist didn't stand a chance. Later, he would look back on it in shame.

After they laid the unconscious man on a couch, Naruto sat Temari down at a kitchen table. Itachi left the kitchen to do who knows what, and Kisame walked into the living room and turned on the television. Temari, knowing she couldn't fight all of them, probably not even Naruto, settled for a glare. She wouldn't let anyone know it, but her heart felt as if it was tearing like a sheet in a tornado. Naruto was a traitor, even worse than that Sasuke brat.

How surprised she was when Naruto's eyes glared right back, piercing her gaze, even her spirit. Her spirit, her will, shattered almost visibly under that terrible gaze, and she shivered until the teacup she held in one hand rattled on the table. Such hate, such loathing was in his eyes.

"You call me a traitor, say I'm hanging out with criminals. Well, you know what? I don't give a damn! As many times as the leaf has tried to kill me, as many times as they beat me, even when I saved them! Many of my friends have even tried to kill me at some point or the other. Sasuke, at the valley of the end, and again on the second retrieval mission, Neji, during the chuunin exams, Sakura, once when she thought I was asleep, you could hardly comprehend! Gaara may have been wrong in his reasoning, but I do know that most of my "friends" should die!"

Temari recoiled at this. Gaara had snapped before, but Naruto was the one who got him to wake up! How could the hero of Konoha and Suna do this? Almost as if he could read her thoughts, Naruto instantly answered her unspoken question.

"You're wondering how I could do this, how I could snap. Let me tell you something, lady, I haven't snapped. No one in Konoha began to respect me until they realized I was still me. Many are just hiding that they still hate me. The few that didn't want me dead have died already. I'm going to do what Orochimaru hasn't done yet, and will never succeed in doing. I'm going to annihilate the leaf! First, I'll sever all friendships they have, then I'm going to terrorize and play with them, like they did with me, then I'm going to kill every last one, even the children!"

Naruto stood up, turned around, and picked a leaf off of a potted plant. Turning around, he walked to the window and threw the leaf out. Waiting a moment, he held his hand out. Temari couldn't see what happened, but she felt the wave of cold hit her. Looking outside, she saw gray. The plants had turned gray, the grass had turned gray, all as if the very life had been sucked from it.

"But I couldn't be so cruel to those innocent plants outside, just killing them to demonstrate."

Waving his hand, green chakra burst out, flowing back outside, and the plants all turned back to their original color. He turned to leave the kitchen. Temari started to stand up, her mind beginning to clear.

"How could you just kill all those people?! People who you worked hard to gain the trust of. All those lives, you'd extinguish for revenge?"

Before she could see anything, a sword blade was pressed against her throat, resting so close to the skin that a millisecond was long enough to cut. Naruto turned and looked at her with purple eyes, very different from his usual purple. They weren't visibly different, but as soon as Temari looked into them, she saw the death of a thousand faceless people. Falling back, she hit the ground, shaking worse than before, the wetness on her slightly numb face telling her she was crying.

"Gaara, because of his sand, was always protected from things. That didn't change the emotional hurt, but it did protect him from the scarring of things so humiliating, you would kill yourself from experiencing half of them. You know what I was for a large number of drunken perverts? Do you know what I was?!"

At this point, a trickle of blood was elicited from her neck. Naruto kept his glare for a moment, and then moved as if to sheath his sword. As soon as the sword was in the sheath, he took a step to the side and swung it in a drawing slice. It only looked like once, but the table fell to the floor, in countless pieces. Walking out of the room, Naruto left the stunned kunoichi in the room, alone with her thoughts.

Maybe Naruto did have a right to hate the leaf that much… what he meant by those last words… Temari started to cry anew at the thought of it. Her brother would have been automatically protected from that, plus everyone was afraid of him. A young Naruto with only advanced healing would have never had that protection. She sat back down, covering her face, as she thought about the way she herself had once acted towards him.

The pain in her chest was like nothing she had ever felt before, except for that time she had seen the lifeless body of her brother Gaara. She gasped for breath, wondering what kind of hell Naruto had lived through in life. She felt herself starting to think about the people of Konoha. Never, even in the short Sound-Sand war, had she hated the people of Konoha.

Now she began to picture their corpses, with buildings broken all around them, and a purple haired ninja laughing and spitting on them. Her conscious thought was revulsion, but mostly at the fact that she was beginning to feel delight at that thought. Maybe the boy, no, the man he was now, was right about this… No, she couldn't let herself agree with that! Couldn't let herself let go of the illusion, and think that he was right.

She stumbled into the living room. Hesitantly, she looked up at the shark-like man sitting on one couch, laughing at some fat kid on a cartoon, talking about kicking some other kid in the nuts. She didn't want to talk to him, but it would seem she had to.

"Umm… Hoshigaki-san? Where's Naruto?"

Kisame took his sweet time, chugging a bottle of soda, belching, propping up his feet on the table, before sighing and pointing out the door. Temari started to walk outside, and a smell that reminded her slightly of Shikamaru hit her nose. What was this? At the sight, a bit of the old Temari came back.

"NARUTO! Haven't you ever heard that smoking is bad for you?!"

"You know what Temari? There are about a million things in life that are bad for you. Smoking is one of them. Yes it is stupid. Extremely stupid. But almost everyone does something that kills them, slowly or quickly. I don't intend on dying in a perfect body. You only live once, why live it like a saint? If you don't like it, then just stay away from it. Hell, factories and everything these days, it's not like the air's clean anyway."

She took a step back and thought of that. True that live can end in unexpected ways, and a boring life does suck. Still, there are healthier ways to have fun, and she wasn't going to let the matter go forever.

(A/N: Don't give me crap about smoking, I know its bad for you, but as I've said before, life's too short, with too many things that will kill you a hell of a lot sooner, to worry about that. I don't like country music, but anyone who's heard "concrete angel", that happened to my first childhood friend. It doesn't change me as a person, so don't suddenly dislike me or scorn me. On second thought, go ahead, I don't really care what anyone thinks of me, because I am who I am, what I choose to be, and no one will change that.)

Both stood there for a few hours, just watching the clouds, and, in Temari's case, Naruto. How he'd grown, how he'd changed. Now, no hate was visible on his face, only peace, and sadness so hidden, she barely noticed. Looking at his face, she felt a slight warm feeling inside, and a sudden desire to protect him.

"Naruto… I've been thinking. You might be right, but can I ask one thing? Could you avoid killing anyone who hasn't wronged you, and isn't apologetic for it? I mean, if they honestly repent, shouldn't you forgive them?"

He looked at her with hard eyes. His purple orbs stayed that way for a few seconds, then softened.

"Temari… Contrary to the stupid act I always put on, I never forget a face. Everyone there has, at some point, hit me, tried to kill me, or done something worse. I won't promise anything, but I'll save the young ones and the people who repent for the less serious things. And of course, the innocents like Tsunade if they stand down when I ask them to."

Temari nodded, before a thought hit her.

"Naruto? I'm guessing you're starting a group, with the people inside. Well, guess what? I think you have another comrade.

Right outside of the Fire Country border, a red haired demon was eating a bento box he'd picked up in the last town. He yawned, before standing up and tossing the finished dinner away. Perhaps he should deal with his pursuer now, whoever it was.

"Come out, already. I'm sick of someone trying to catch me unguarded. I really want to take a nap, already."

He was answered, most irritatingly, with a brace of kunai. Dodging, he cursed to himself. Dammit, why were they always difficult? He jumped up, swinging his sword once, using chakra to blast down any nearby trees. Then he saw TenTen jump out from behind what was once a tree.

Dammit all, why her? Why the hell did it have to be her? It could have been that Chouji brat, or that Neji bastard, but no. Fates had to be conspired against him… He really didn't want to hurt her, so he settled on the idea of knocking her out. That, he thought, as he jumped at her, might be a problem.

Back in Konoha, Sasuke was asleep. He squirmed back and forth, the images in his head seeming strangely real. Finally with a jolt, and a burst of hope that brightened up his face and heart for the first time in a long time, he shot up in bed.

"Naruto? Could he really be alive?"

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A/N: Sorry for the tremendous delay and sorry it's a bit short. I promise the next chapter will be out sooner. But first, a vote. Will Sasuke join Naruto, or will he stay in Konoha and die? I promise he won't be emo if he comes, and I'd prefer it that way, since I like the non-emo Sasuke, but I'll leave it up to everyone. Rude people, since I know how some people will get in a request situation, will be discounted. And now for a special (though definitely not original) holiday greeting and next chapter preview thing.

Kisame: Merry Christmas. Happy Hanukkah, even if it is a little late. Merry Yuletide. And happy any other holiday you have currently! Be merry, or I will make your babies into my holiday ham.

Okay, Kisame… little overboard there, but okay. Now take your "Jaws: Special Edition" movie and let me give the preview.

Next Chapter: Kyuubi deals with TenTen, Kabuto escapes from jail, and Kakashi has the first serious scene he's had since this story started.

By the way, thanks for the reviews, everyone, they really make me feel loved. And I might make a little Naruto one-shot on the side, different pairing, but I don't know whether it'll be drama or comedy. So look out for it. Might even be Christmas-themed.