Hello everyone! :D

I'm extremely happy today because I finally finished this chapter! God knows I had no intention of making it this long, but it just kept going and in all honesty I can't say I would like to cut some parts ^^ I really love how it turned out.
I know I haven't touched this story in a long while, but I kept thinking about it all along and I had a lot of different ideas for this chapter that just didn't seem quite good enough, until I started writing this - although it took its sweet time to take some solid form and then I admit I took my sweet time in getting my ass to sit still enough to press the keys on the keyboard :P

Now, the next one I still haven't a clue on what is going to be about... but I have another 'problem': should I put Sasuke in here too (as the picture shows) or should I just leave him and not bother?

Words: 6933

Enjoy!

Ja ne,
Temari 88 XD

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

(Gaara and Inari [and Tazuna])

"What did you say…?" I was staring at Baki, who was seated two feet across from me, behind a wooden desk and on a high-back leather chair – it was admittedly a dramatic but positive change: now it resembled an actual 'Kage office (granted, the only other office I had been inside had been the Hokage's, after the failed 'rescue Uchiha' mission) instead of the main room of an harem or whatever could be found in places such as the palace of Kaze no Kuni's Damiyo (not that I ever went there, what with my psychotic behaviour of a couple years ago and whatnot, but I'd heard rumours). My former sensei stared back at me, his usually half-covered face completely exposed as the cloth that would hang over the right part of his face was pinned to the turban to keep it away; he sighed imperceptibly, if in exasperation or surrender I really didn't know nor cared to find out.

"You heard me, Gaara…" he said, fixing my eyes dead on, so I could understand he was serious, and propped his elbows on the desk entwining his fingers in front of himself. "your proposition has been accepted." I didn't answer. I was seriously considering asking him he was kidding but knew better than that – Baki was too dedicated to his role (and to his life) to try and pull my leg on this matter – so I just blinked and stayed silent; he seemed to sense I wasn't quite convinced because he let a side of his mouth quirk up before speaking again. "Yes, the Council agreed on appointing you as Godaime Kazekage, in a relatively short while and after a bit more of experience, of course."

At that, I let myself relax and smile ever-so-slightly. Sabaku no Gaara, Godaime Kazekage… it sounded strage, but a good kind of strange and a sudden warmth started at the pit of my stomach as a very familiar voice sprung up in my mind "The name's Uzumaki Naruto and I'll become Hokage, dattebayo!" and my smile widened on its own – it seemed I had reached that dream before him, which saddened me a bit because I hoped he wouldn't feel offended at me surpassing him, but also proud and grateful because it was thanks to him that I could achieve this. "Experience?" I questioned, leaning my head to the side.

"Yes, you see," started Baki. "while I believe you know enough of what being a 'Kage means, as you've watched your father – however unwillingly – do his work… the Council, as well as myself, thinks you might need to…" he stopped, coughing twice as though he was thinking of an appropriate word. "… uh, hone your diplomatic skills a bit more." I nodded to let him know I understood his point and I truly did: I didn't have much problems with the whole paperwork issue – they actually would provide me with something to do during my sleepless nights – I already had a pretty effective way of dealing with the Council when they tried to play tough because I was just tougher then them all and I was learning quickly how to write diplomatic letters to dignitaries or other important people – not other 'Kages or Damiyos yet though. In short, the only area where I was actually lacking was interacting with people diplomatically… that had never been my forte… I was never one to talk a lot and, even if my vocabulary has always been far larger than that of most people my age, I rarely said things that did not somehow revolve around 'die', 'I'll prove my existence' or 'get out of my way'—and variation of those.

"What do you have in mind, then?" I snapped out of my thoughts, uncrossed my arms from in front of my chest to bring them behind my back, standing up a bit straighter and clenching my right wrist with the left hand. At the point I was, I would have done my outmost to prove I had matured enough that I had control over both my demon and my temper and that I was a good choice to lead the village – and hopefully to bring it back to its old glory, to the days when my father, although cruel to me, used to be a real leader and not a man whose mind was but a reflection of a power greater than his… it was kind of ironic really, the one who had ended up completely loosing his will had been him rather me, who had a real demon inside my mind…

Baki waved a hand at me. "Oh, we'll start off easy: we need to make sure you can deal with potentially annoying people first…" I felt compelled to point out I hadn't even maimed Kankurou after some decidedly inappropriate comments about me and Matsuri he had sprouted after we came back from rescuing her. The 'substitute Kazekage' let out a bark out laughter at that. "I guess you have a point. Yet Kankurou is your brother: even if you were to hit him once in a while for some good reason, it wouldn't cause a diplomatic incident; thing that would happen were you to lose your cool with someone important. I'm sure you see what I mean." I nodded and he went on. "Alright, I'm going to assign you an escort mission. The client is Tazuna-san, he is currently in Konohagakure because the Hokage had requested for his services; your assignment is to escort him and his young nephew back to Kirigakure safely."

"May I ask a question?" I interrupted Baki with a small frown, he nodded. "If Hokage-sama asked for Tazuna-san's services, why does Suna need to escort him home? Can't a Leaf team do it instead…? They're much closer to Wave Country than we are…"

"Konoha has a bit of a shortage in her ranks at the moment and giving this mission to genin teams wasn't apparently the best course of action, so the Hokage has kindly asked us to handle the journey back as a favour – and with an extra fee for the trouble." Baki paused before relaxing against the backrest of his chair; he picked up a piece of paper which most probably contained the details of the mission. "This man has become rather famous in his country… the bridge he built some years ago, connecting Kiri to the rest of the continent, has proven a great help in getting the Country's economy back up… I wouldn't be surprised if people tried to attack him, so that's probably why ninja of higher rank than genin are best to escort him."

I silently agreed with the reasoning. Although genin teams were supervised by a jounin sensei, if the need arose to fight potentially dangerous ninja, one jounin-level shinobi alone might be not enough if the attackers were more than one or two… "Agreed. I'll take the mission." Baki nodded. "In short, all I have to do is go over to Konoha, escort Tazuna-san and the kid back home and return, is that it?"

"Basically, yes." said Baki, watching me with what interpreted as slight amusement. "You're not going alone though; Temari and Kankurou are coming too. The mission will take at least two weeks, maybe more considering you'll have to travel as civilians…" I grimaced at that – the journey will be long. "but there's no need to hurry, so you can take it easy." I nodded once and turned to walk out when Baki spoke one last time. "Good luck, Gaara. I'll be waiting for your return... with the hat in hand, maybe."

-x-

Two and a half days later, Temari, Kankurou and I arrived at Konoha. We went straight to the Hokage to take over the mission officially, see who this Tazuna-man was - not that it would have made a difference: it wasn't like one of us had ever seen him anyway - and, hopefully, get out of the village soon: the sooner we started, the sooner we could head back home... I really didn't have much of a reason to stay in Konoha more than was strictly necessary... Uzumaki had left for a long training journey and wasn't coming back any time soon. Deep down I felt somewhat sad at the thought I wouldn't get to see him for a long while; I had felt the need to tell him how I had decided to change, to try to be a better person and that I was aiming at the position of Kazekage... I could just hope the loud-mouth would be glad to hear the news, whenever he did, anyway.

"Who the hell are these kids?" the loud voice cut through my thoughts and I berated myself for getting distracted; I turned my head to look at whom had used such rude words: it was a tall, aged man (around fifty or sixty years old) with short white hair, broad shoulders and strong-looking arms—all in all it was the body of a constructor, a bridge builder, in his case. I felt my right eye spasm a little, who was that man calling 'kids'? "I'm going to be escorted by this group of kids...? Where's the adult that's supposed to be with them?" continued the man. Again with calling us kids... then it hit me, he thought we were genin—my eye twitched again; I was starting to understand why Baki had mentioned this was going to be an exercise to test my patience with 'potentially annoying people'... that person had yet to even indroduce himself and I already wanted to punch him... fortunately, the Hokage decided to speak up and explain the situation.

"Tazuna-san," she began, and I inwardly sighned: I had hoped the man wasn't our client, but it seemed it was a foolish hope. "I believe you have misunderstood the situation; these three young shinobi are not genin: Temari-chan and Kankurou-kun are both jonin and Gaara-kun is a very skilled chunnin, therefore they are considered a team and will escort you back home." I saw Temari clearly biting her tongue at the '-chan' part, she was trying to hold off any remarks (and she was doing a great job, considering her temper) while Kankurou snickered at her expance; as for me, I didn't mind that Tsunade-sama had not mentioned my 'Kage-in-training-hood and had only mentioned my chunnin status—I was still only that, after all.

Tazuna looked skeptical as he continued to look at us... or more specifically, he was pointedly looking at me. "That midget is a chunnin? Doesn't look very strong to me..."

There was a long, heavy silence following those words.

I distantly registered my right eye twitch for the third time, two rapid spasms, while I was THIS close to yell in my head. What the fuck? Did I really hear that old man calling me midget and implying I was weak...? I was both angry and surprised; that had to have been the first time someone had thought such a thing about me because I was so used to people knowing what I was and fearing me for it, that the issue of my (rather short) height had never been brought up by anyone. Suddenly, all my previous annoyance was gone and I was regarding the man across the hall with a slightly different light in my eyes—he was a rather interesting subject, the likes of which I hadn't seen in a while actually... maybe this mission wouldn't be that much a bother. Maybe. There were still some factors to take into consideration: Tazuna-san had better stop calling me kid or midget, we had not met the man's nephew yet so we didn't know how he was and I was hoping - again; and finally, to arrive in Kirigakure there was the at-least-a-week-long journey...

"Gaara?" Temari interrupted my thoughts and I turned my head towards her: she had a drop of sweat slowly making its way down her brow and a hint of worry shining through her dark green eyes... her shoulders had tensed infinitesimally while I was lost in my own mind, she was ready to jump into action if I lost my temper... old habits died hard, I realized, and most she hadn't even realized her defensive stance herself. I sighed minutely and turned my attention to Tsunade-sama.

"Alright," I started quietly, "if this is everything, then we'd better get going... it's a long way to Kirigakure if we have to go there as civilians." I noticed Temari relax considerably as I spoke and Tazuna-san looking at me with something akin to confusion, but he said nothing and I dismissed it, only waiting for the permission to leave. Hokage-sama stared at me for some time, a slow smile stretching her red-painted lips upwards in an amused way.

"Yes, you may go, Gaara." The four of us went to exit the office when the blonde Hokage caught my attention. "It's a pity he's not here, eh?"

I watched her out of the corner of my eyes, that smile was still in place but I could see her gaze had softed a little. "Yes, it is..." I agreed before letting my own lips curve upward an inch and finishing my sentence, "but I'm certain he'll come back much stronger; that's how he is, isn't it?" My question was met with a pleased laughter that meant the older woman thought the same thing. I tipped my head politely and closed the door behind me.

-x-

We escorted out client to a nearby inn, where we caught a glimpse of the man's grandchild - a short kid around ten years old, with black hair and a white hat shadowing most of his face and a frowning mouth as he scolded his grandfather about being late. I told Tazuna-san we would have met him and his companion at the Eastern Gates an hour later and, for the second time, the old man stared at me, apparently confused by the authoritative way I spoke when the Hokage had told him I technically had the lowerst rank in our three-man team. I smirked in my mind: never judge based only on appearance—Naruto had taught me that.

After an early lunch at Ichiraku Ramen and after a solid punch at Kankurou's stomach for his stupid assumptions and sneaky comments about my choice of eating place, the three of us found ourselves in front of the Gates. As I stood there waiting, I let my eyes travel upwards to the top of the defensive wall encircling the village... suddenly I remembered of the time when, soon after the 'Rescue Uchiha Mission', the still-wonded knuckle-headed had shown me one of the best views of Konoha, exactly from the top of the walls... that had been the last time I'd seen him, more than a year ago now. It was strange to realize for myself how much I had changed - more internally than externally, to tell the truth - in the space of twelve months: Shukaku had been real quiet, not yelling bloody murder in my head anymore or trying to overtake me, the relationships I had had improved exponentially and I was steadily starting to form more. Of course it'll take time, but things were finally beginning to look up.

"What? We're going away already...?"

"Yes, Inari. I'm afraid our stay here is over." Recognizing the second voice, Kankurou and Temari turned their attention to Tazuna-san and his grandson, who were coming our way. The kid had a frown on his face, clearly displeased at the thought of leaving, and his voice had the whiny quality of someone who was trying to make a point of annoying others into complying to his wishes. Before the boy could open his mouth to retort, the man spoke again in an understanding tone. "I know you wanted to see him, but apparently he's out of the village. We'll just have to wait for another occasion." The boy finally seemed to give up on arguing, his shoulders deflating just as the two stopped in front of us.

"Who were you talking about?" Asked my brother, unable to keep his mouth shut - he was so nosy, sometimes.

The ten year-old kid looked up at him, narrowing his dark brown eyes. "That's none of your business!" He shouted, glad to have an excuse to yell at someone, it seemed. Tazuna-san threw him a reprimanding look that apparently went unnoticed, while Kankurou was ready to curse the boy off before Temari intervened cuffing him on the back of his head, hard. Despite her apologetic smile on Kankurou's behalf, my sister's eyes were glowering at the rude answer Inari had given—she would have loved to hit him too.

I stared at the glaring trio and sighed a little then, unfolding my arms, I brought them out of their contest. "If we're all set, I believe we should be going." Without waiting, I turned around and started walking towards the forest; less than a minute later, the sound of other four pairs of feet followed me.

At sunset, I could say we had made a fairly good progress, all things considered. We set up camp and I found Inari's eyes following my every move... no, he was following my sand's every move, with a mildly awed expression that shone through the deep frown on his young face; he was still sour that he had to leave Konoha without getting to see whoever he wanted to (I had to force out of my mind the 'like me' that sprung up at the thought) but seeing my sand float in the air seemingly on its own, the tense traits eased with amazement. Kids, I thought, always getting excited over nothing. Of course, it was impossible to see such an expression on children in Suna: they were raised to fear me, whenever they saw my sand they backed away scared - when they didn't outright run for their lives, that is. Even with that constant gaze on me, I didn't acknowledge the kid with more than a expressionless glance back.

At one point, after Tazuna-san's nephew started to whine again about missing this person, Kankurou's infamous curiosity came back again; I was beginning to wonder as well about this guy the kid ahd been so eager to meet in Konoha, so I didn't reprimand my nosy brother for once. "Who is this guy you've been whining about, eh gaki?"

"It's none of your—"

"Inari." Interrupted the old man in a scolding tone, before turning to us. "Please don't mind him, he lacks manners sometimes." He shot another look at the kid, "The fact is that when he heard I was coming over here, he begged me to come so he could see an old friend of ours... well, he's not actually old, he's around your age..." Tazuna-san stopped to glance at me briefly, then he continued, "we met him and his team two years ago and they escorted me home like you're doing now. The first time I saw him, I thought he was a stupid, loud mouthed kid... annoying as hell, and pretty much useless as a shinobi—he even got a hand stabbed with a poison-infused blade during an attack not too long after we had left the village." He laughed a little and I could see Temari and Kankurou sweat drop at that; I frowned minutely: somehow the description sounded familiar... "It wasn't until we got ambushed by that scary ninja with bandages over his face and a giant sword, that I started to see him in a different light... he preferred getting beat up rather than letting the enemy stomp on his hitai-ate and he defiantly challanged an obviously stronger opponent without a second thought..."

Ah... now I know who he's talking about... I thought with a smile; from the side of my field of vision, I saw my sister smirk and shake her head as she too understood the reference. Kankurou had a blissfully ignorant look on his face as he waited for a name to be spoken. "If your village is allied to Konoha, you might have heard of this kid..." Continued Tazuna-san, "His name is—"

"Uzumaki Naruto... correct?" It wasn't even really a question, because I was sure he was the person they were referring to. My sudden partecipation to the conversation caught everyone's attention and I noticed Inari's piercing scrutiny x-raying me like he thought I was planning somethng unpleasant, which actually managed to elicit an amused snort from Shukaku who had remained dormant for more than two weeks. The boy found it suspicious that I knew Naruto... and I was quite curious to hear what his relationship with my blond-haired friend was, but I wasn't one for sticking my nose into other's business (that was Kankurou's area of expertize) so asked nothing and did not offer an explenation on why I knew Naruto. Thankfully, both of my siblings knew to keep those kind of 'tails' to themselves: it was, after all, an important part of my life and I was the only one who could decide whom I'd confide it to - the list was restriced, for obvious reasons, to a few individuals (a list where, besides Temari and Kankurou, were Baki, Matsuri, Hinata-san, Lee-san, Tsunade-sama and two or three others... sure, most people in Konoha knew on varous degrees what happened between him and Naruto, but the full version wasn't so freely spoken of).

For the time being, I was content to let them wonder.

Inari, though, didn't seem to think it was worth pondering over what I had said.

In the following week of our journey, he tried to convince me to tell him how I knew his friend, constantly sticking to my side like he got glued to it; his tactics and approaches were different and somewhat ingenious, I'll give him that, but still it was starting to get hard for me to repress the twitch of my eyes eveytime I so much as heard the kid open his mouth to repeat one of the fifteen variations of the "How did you meet Naruto-nii?" question. Once or twice I actually had to slower my pace, take a couple of calming breaths and clench my hands less I wound them around the pale thin neck to squeeze—luckily Temari and Kankurou were there too to distract Inari and keep him away from me long enough, so that my instincs cooled down again and I was good to go for another day. I think Tazuna-san was really beginning to second-guess all the rude remarks he had thrown my way the first time we met... he realized I was a generally quiet and collected person, but taht I could get very unpleasant if I was bothered enough.

"Do you mind if I ask you something, Gaara-san?" told me the old man during a pause in our travelling - we were less than a day away from the bridge connecting the border of Fire Country to that of Wave, from there there was only a three/four hour walk to reach our destination. I nodded once and he continued. "You aren't a simple chunnin, are you? Somehow, the way the Hokage introduced you... well, it seemed like there was more to it..."

That earned two smirks coming from my siblings. "... Yes, I am slightly stronger that most normal chunnin." was my quiet answer. I saw that confusion in Tazuna's eyes return but, before the man could ask anything else, my brother decided to play 'nosy idiot' again: he laughed obnoxiously and crashed his hand on my shoulder heavily - a rather stupid gesture, as my sand still acted out on its own sometimes and it could have interpteted that as an attack and easily squished Kankurou's hand in a second - as the bridge builder and his grandson watched him with a small frown.

"C'mon Gaara, there's no need to be so modest on something like this!" He started, waving the hand that wasn't on my left shoulder; he threw a grin in the direction of our clients and proceeded to sprout my business. "Our small red-haired, here, is going to become the next Kazekage after we return from this mission!" he finished with a slight tint of pride in his voice... thing that, while it made a warmth spread in my chest, did nothing to lessen the glare I shot his way at the 'small red-haired' bit—so what if I was a little short for my age? When you're the most feared human in the village, people tend not to care if you have a healthy diet or not... and just because I was nicier, didn't mean I liked to be made fun of.

Tazuna kept looking at me all day after he heard about my current position, I guess he finally put all the pieces together and he understood just how much Tsunade's presentation of me had really left out. Being only a chunnin, officially, and yet I was going to be one of the youngest 'Kage ever at age fourteen... all in all, I think our client might have cursed Tsunade if he hadn't realized just how safe it made him, being escorted by two jonin and the Godaime Kazekage-to-be. As I saw the old man glance at me with a new light in his dark eyes, I confess I might have felt a little smug about it. Inari had a similar reaction but for a relatively short peroid of time: no more than two hours after the 'revelation', the kid had grown out of his awed silence and returned full force with his barrage of questions, only now they were more centered on "How comes such an important person like you knows Naruto-nii?"—to tell the truth, being considedred an important person pleased me... it felt like a confirmation of the road I had decided to take.

"Why are you eager to know about Naruto and me?" I asked the boy, deciding at least to try and satisfy some of my own curiosity. Sometime during the journey, after I heard that these two strangers from another country knew the person who had saved my life, a thought had struck me... previously, I confess, I kind of thought I was a special case... the only one who got to see that light guiding me toward the right path, but now I understood that was a selfish train of thought: Naruto had helped not only his own fellow shinobi friends but also people like that boy and Tazuna-san and I found myself wondering just how many others had been saved by those blue eyes that hid nothing of what passed in them. Maybe listening to the tail of someone who, to some extent, had my same experience might have helped me grow more into what my future as Kazekage would require...

Inari stayed silent for a moment, then, "I haven't seen him and the others in a long time, I'm curious to hear how his life's going... if he's making good on his promise!" he said, all serious, before shooting me a small grin. "We wouldn't want a bad reputation to stick to our Country, you know." I tilted my head to the side, not understanding and Inari, seeming catching my confusion, explained. "Is this your first time travelling to Wave since the bridge was built, Gaara-san?" I nodded and to my slight irritation, the kid only barked a laugh. "Then I won't say anything more: you'll like the surprise." He supplied, very unhelpfully. I generally hated surprises.

The next day, around ten in the morning, we reached the end of the forest and with it, we entered in Wave. There was a thin layer of mist, not to thick to cause problems though, so we noticed the bridge when we were pratically under it. I casually raised my head and caught sight of the large metal label over the arch: 'THE GREAT UZUMAKI BRIDGE', it said. I stopped dead in my tracks, eyes wide and mouth willing to drop to the gound—to say I was shocked was an understatement. Never in my dreams would I have expected to see Naruto's name on a bridge... My siblings weren't reacting any better, on the contrary: Temari's mouth was hanging open in an unelegant 'o', while Kankurou had his eyes almost falling out of their sockets and his hands were twitching. And the laughter coming from Inari coupled with the chuckling curtsey of Tazuna-san weren't helping us at all.

"Told you you'd have liked the surprise!" came the kid's voice, still heavily laced with merriment.

"Let's hurry, shinobi-san, we're almost home and I'd like to be there for dinner." added Tazuna as he and his grandson began walking. "My daughter is a great cook." he informed us without turning back to look at us.

-x-

The house we stopped in front of was especially simple, if well preserved, considering it was property of possibly the most important person of the island besides the Mizukage herself. We were greeted by Tazuna's daughter - a young looking woman around Temari's height, with long black hair reaching past her hips and light brown eyes that sparkled in joy at seeing her father and son back at last; she turned to us, then, smiling widely and thanking us warmly for having escorted 'her men' home safely. Tsunami-san, as she introduced herself, invited us to stay over the night and eat with them and before I could decline saying I wanted to start the travel back, Temari shoved me to the side and accepted the offer without a second thought, Kankurou fervently nodding his assent as well... I was outnumbered, so I had no other choice but to go with their decision.—Not that I minded.

Dinner, like Tazuna-san had anticipated, was rather good and filled with idle chat all the way through. After a dessert made of ice cream, Tsunami-san prepared our sleeping mats and then took out a deck of cards. Most of the present were playing when Inari, who had gone to shower a little while before, came back and sat next to me... I wanted to shift away but decided against it and stayed where I was, letting my eyes wander over the living-room until they rested on a photo on the other side of the room - it seemed a not-too-old family portrait, with Tazuna-san, his daughter, a five or six year-old Inari and a man with black hair; all were smiling happily and the man had a hand on top of the boy's head and the other arm around Tsunami-san's shoulders. Inari's father, maybe? A little to the left of that photo, there was another one, decidedly more recent and looking at it I was drawn to it... I made my way over and stood there gazing at the group portrayed: Tazuna and Kakashi in the back with Tsunami-san a little to the right but still in the back and, in front of the three adults, Naruto with a grin splitting his face and his hand behind his head, Sakura with a shy smile, Sasuke with his usual scowling mouth (thought it looked less pronunced than the last time I'd seen him) and lastly, standing right in front of the blond ninja, Inari with a huge smile and teary eyes mirroring Naruto's pose.

"That was the last time I saw them." I turned and Inari was standing beside me, watching the picture with a slightly glazed look. He was most likely remembering that time.

I was considering something in my mind... I was curious and wondered if the boy would have told me about when he met Team 7 - from the photo, it should have happened shortly before the start of the chunnin exams, two years before. "Inari..." I said quietly, comforted by the fact that everyone else was busy and not paying attention to us, "would you... tell me about then?"

"Well okay," he said looking at me and raising a finger, "but only if you tell me too." I nodded hesitantly - I'm sure my story was a little more personal then his, but I couldn't very much leave the kid with nothing - and walked out of the front door, Inari following me, and sat down at the edge of the platform sustaining the house. The silence was, surprisingly, companionable as we both watched the moon reflecting in the waters. "So, Naruto-nii... you might find it strange, but the first time I saw him I got a very bad first impression." he laughed, unaware of the fact I didn't find that the least bit strange, "His easy-going attitude, his always smiling face... they were so annoying!... You see, I was passing a difficult period... the man I thought of as a father had been killed a year before, in front of my eyes, on a bastard's orders... Gato, that was his name, had taken control of the island and when my father tried to oppose him, he took him and made his execution an example for everyone who wanted to go against him. I changed after that: I started thinking that heroes didn't exist and that hoping to change our situation was useless... I tried to act tough, but I couldn't help crying every time I was in my room with my father's photo in hand." Inari shook his head with a self-pitying smile.

"When my granpa came back with Kakashi-san and the others, and heard they wanted to help us taking care of Gato, I told them it was wishful thinking... that it was useless, that they were all gonna die... they stayed here for some time waiting for Kakashi-san to get better and all the while Naruto-nii, Sakura-san and Sasuke-san trained hard. I didn't understand why they tried so much fully knowing their enemy was stronger..." Inari didn't notice my almost invisible flinch at the mention of the Uchiha runaway, "One night Sasuke and Naruto-nii came home exhausted, saying the had competed their task... during dinner I continued to stare at Naruto, while I though of my father, and suddenly my sadness became so difficult to contain that I started yelling, giving voice to my questions... Naruto-nii answered 'Whatever kid, I'm not like you.' and I told him I'd hate being like him, that he knew nothing about me, that he was always joking around happily... I told him he didn't know how hard life was..." the last part was barely whispered - both of us knew how untrue that statement was - but then the boy surprisingly started laughing. "I still remember how angry Naruto-nii became hearing that - his eyes burned a hole through me - he asked me if I was fine just staying here and cry all day... he yelled back at me: 'Jut keep on crying forever, idiot!'; he even called me a sissy!"

I let a smile pass briefly on my lips—it sounded like the Uzumaki Naruto I saw at the exams, brash and blunt. "I can imagine that."

Inari nodded in acknowledgement, then he continued. "It was Kakashi-san who made me see the real message under Naruto-nii's words: he couldn't stand whiny people like I was because he'd had a life way harder than I had, yet he learned to use the pain as a way to become stronger... he understood that there was no use crying, because if you won't always have someone caring about you—if worse comes to worse, you have to take care of yourself, despite the harshness of life. To Naruto, seeing me crying like that, was probably an irritating thing 'cause he had stopped with self-pitying for a long time already." I was about to retort, for I was quite certain that was not what had passed through the blond's mind at the time... he had tried to shook Inari out of his depression by raising his voice to be heard loud and clear, to not be ignored in his attempt at reaching out to a kid that was obviously suffering... "But you know what?" Inari said before I could speak, "After Kakashi-san and the others defeated the ninja and Gatou was killed... right before going back to Konoha, he also told me that it was fine to cry when you're happy." he finished with a big grin and eyes alight with sheer happiness.

The two of us stayed there on the dock-like structure sustaining Tazuna-san's house for a while, silence stretching as both myself and Inari thought back to our lives before meeting the blond-haired ball of energy. After almost two years of asking myself just what had really pushed me into changing... driven me through the most intense clashing of wills with Shukaku I'd ever had and coming out victorious - at last deciding for myself in complete freedom... I finally had a confirmation: Uzumaki Naruto had a special power—not one related to brute strength or genius... it was a power that only partly reflected his Jinchuuriki status, because I'm certain he would have had that kind of empathy even without the difficult childhood he had due to Kyuubi. The warmth and the light radiating off of him was something he was born with.

And I could finally see that it was a gift affecting those he came in contact with.

Yet, it wasn't a blessing everyone would understand... someone would reject it, not understanding.

... Once again, I found I was grateful I'd fought with Naruto.

"Oh, yeah!" Inari woke me up from the thoughts, tuning to me and raising a finger. "You still have to tell me how you knew Naruto-nii!" I smiled at him and prepared to share the entire encounter for the first time since the fight - not even my siblings knew what had happened exactly back then, but Inari would see.

-x-

"What did you say...?" I was staring at Baki, sitting in his leather chair with a satisfied smile on his lips. The mission to Kirigakure had finished and we were able to return home in five days; the whole ordeal had turned out a far more relevant happening than what I would have imagined when we set out for Konoha. "I'm not sure I got that right..." I whispered, mildly shocked.

The smile on my former sensei's mouth turned into an amused smirk at my incredulity. "You heard me well, Gaara." he said and threw a knowing look behind me, where Temari and Kankurou were standing, no doubt having the time of their lives at seeing me so taken aback. "Really, Gaara, I thought I'd told you before you went on that mission... you knew it would have happened soon." I said nothing in return—yes, I had known the Council had finally taken into consideration my proposition and had agreed in naming me Godaime... but I wasn't expecting it quite so soon.

Baki stood up from the chair, walked the short distance separating us and stopped in front of me, looking me in the eyes with contempt before sighing. "... I thought you would have been happy, but maybe you changed idea—"

"No!" I was shocked at my own outburst, but apparently Baki and my siblings were not because the man's face morphed immediately back to a small smile and I could hear the muffled chuckles coming from Kankurou and Temari. "I... I want the post. I really do." I bowed slightly lower than usual and exhaled a barely heard 'Thank you' through a closed up throat, a faint sting at the corners of my eyes that I tried to hide staying in that position of a moment longer then, I tuned my back to the three in the office and shunshin-ed on top of the walls enclosing Suna.

"He told me it was fine to cry when you're happy."

As I watched the sun shining on my village, I smiled and let those tears run down my cheeks, the salty taste of true happiness slipping on my tongue for the first time in too long.