Here's a little oneshot, just to keep my hand in. It takes place just after the Sound/Sand invasion, and for the purposes of this story, Naruto was briefly hospitalised following his fight with Gaara.

I own nothing except the clothes I stand up in.

Kakashi knocked at the door of his student's hospital room, firmly pushing away the guilt that still nagged him. He never should have sent them on so difficult a mission…

Hearing no answer, Kakashi entered to find Naruto asleep on the bed. He moved silently to the table beside the bed and put down the fruit basket he had brought, then looking around furtively for nurses, checked that the instant ramen he had hidden beneath the central watermelon was still there.

"Ka… kashi-sensei?" said a weak voice.

Startled, Kakashi spun around and was fixed with a bleary blue-eyed gaze. "Ah, Naruto," he said, regaining his composure. "How are you feeling?"

"Sensei… can I ask you something?" Naruto asked, turning his head away and gazing out the window.

Struck by the unusually serious tone of his hyperactive student, Kakashi said nothing, but sat down next to the bed.

"The day before the exam, I was in Lee's room when Gaara tried to kill him," Naruto began. "He said some things… about being hated, and feared, and all alone. He said that because of that, he decided that his only purpose in life was to kill others."

"When he was talking about his childhood, it sounded exactly the same as me. Nobody cared about him; they all hated him and he didn't know why. Kakashi-sensei," and here, he turned to look at his teacher, "if I had had no-one, like Gaara… if it hadn't been for Iruka-sensei and you and Sakura-chan and even Sasuke… would I have become like that?"

Kakashi took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Gaara is very different to you."

"But we are so alike!" Naruto protested, sitting up. "People see us as nothing more than the demons inside us!"

Kakashi's eyes closed briefly at the pain in Naruto's voice when he said this, and continued. "Gaara was designed to be a weapon for his village, and was raised accordingly. You, however, were the saviour of your village in a very different way. By containing the Kyuubi, you saved the lives of everyone in the village, even if people can't or choose not to see it. The Fourth Hokage is remembered as a hero for the sealing, but he himself said that you were the true hero, for keeping it safely locked away."

Naruto sank back into his pillow, stunned. The Fourth… had said that? About him?

"You said that people only see the demon inside you. Well, people are wrong, Naruto. You are both so much more, though Gaara doesn't know it yet. But you have always known. You are the number one, hyperactive, knuckle-headed ninja: champion ramen eater, friend to all, member of Team 7, student of Jiraiya and future Hokage. None of your friends see you as a demon; only fools who can't see past the fear they felt so long ago."

"I guess you're right," Naruto mumbled. He turned on his side, away from Kakashi, and started staring out the window again.

Kakashi got to his feet and headed for the door, but paused as Naruto spoke again. "Sensei… thanks."

Kakashi smiled. "You're welcome."

As he left, he heard Naruto start speaking to himself. "One day, I'll show them all I'm not the Kyuubi. I'm Uzumaki Naruto, and I'll be the Hokage!"

Thanks for reading.