Summary – It turns out that the Third Hokage could not protect the child of the Fourth Hokage who sacrificed himself by sealing the Kyuubi inside of his own child. The advisors did not want the abomination in their country, leading him to decide on meeting with the Fourth Kazekage to talk about the matter—only for it to be solved. The Wind Country took the boy when he was four years old and brought him to the Fourth Kazekage's son who was the same age, and manages them to manage a bond between the two children containing beasts within them. Now the boy from the Fire Country believes that he has been disowned from the previous country, and does any that he is told to do—not by the Fourth Kazekage, but by the redheaded boy he has grown attached to.

What will happen when they go to the Chuunin Exams? Will old bonds thin and new bonds grow? One child does not agree with it.

Story & Plot: © Emo-Shukun
Naruto: © Masashi Kishimoto

Chapter 01 – (Prologue)

Our Empty Bond

- Now –

"I have no choice but to send Uzumaki Naruto elsewhere," the elder Hokage sighed with frustration while rubbing his brows as he held a conversation with a few ninjas of the Jounin level. "If I can't find someone to take the boy in, he would have to be killed."

The Third Hokage was pressured into making a decision of having an innocent child being cast out of the village and country or be forced to destroy the life of a little toddler that has not done harm to anyone, yet. However, everyone feared of what the boy would become in the future because of the evil lurking deep inside him, waiting to be released. Five ninjas ranked as Jounin were standing around the desk in the office where they were summoned to discuss the pros and cons of the situation: if the boy left the country, he could live a normal life, but if the boy stayed, he could release that dangerous nine-tailed fox demon inside him. There was a knock on the door before it opened on the person's own account to reveal colors of white and blue; a sign that the Fourth Kazekage had finally arrived as requested, and so the five ninjas bowed in respect and the Hokage stood with a smile as a warm welcoming to the ally. All Jounin left the room so that the two could speak in private about the matter that they were discussing before he had entered the office, causing an irritating silence between two until the host walked around the desk properly welcome the guest with a respectful hug between them.

"Forgive me for calling you on short notice." The elder, Sarutobi Hiruzen, spoke apologetically while patting the other's arm lightly.

"Let's just say your request rather intrigued me." Arms crossed and a dull expression never left the guests face. "Where's the boy?"
"He is being kept in another room down the hallway, would you like to see him?" The answer was obvious, and they left the office.
A question appeared in the Kazekage's mind. "It sounds like suicide to have two Jinchuuriki in one Country, let alone one village."
"But if you think about it—that would give enemies a reason to stay clear from the Country, let alone the village." He laughed lightly.
For not having thought about it in that way, he chuckled mildly. "I suppose that is true, huh?" Finally, they reached a door and opened it.

A small boy with three thin stripes on each cheek turned to the two whom came to greet him, and he stared at the new person he had never met with his big blue liquid pools and a tilted head in confusion, but it all immediately changed when the boy closed his eyes and gave a wide smile. The Fourth Kazekage had expected nothing less from the Fire Country of happy villagers and ninjas where supplies were large, but there was a tint of misunderstanding—that misunderstanding that even his youngest son had; it was obvious that neither of them were aware of what they were. More thoughts began to fill his mind when coming towards agreeing with the old man, leading him to actually come into agreement towards the voices in his mind to take the child back to the Wind Country where he could be raised to become something dangerous towards the enemies around them. Despite how he was almost too unwilling to pick up the child, he picked him up anyway, and cradled him in his arms before turning towards the Third Hokage with expressions still dull, though it seemed a little obvious that his decision was to take the child and raised him as asked of him.

"I suppose he will make a good ninja, after all, his father was the Fourth Hokage." The Kazekage stated firmly.

Hiruzen bowed thankfully to him.

"When he's old enough, please teach him how to use the summoning jutsu." The elder added quietly.
With a nod of his head, he looked to the boy in his arms, "are you ready to go, Uzumaki Naruto?"
"Where are we going?" Naruto asked in a small little tone filled with curiosity. "Why are we going?"

"We are going home."

Paperwork and information was gathered up in order to take the little one to his new home where he would possibly be more useful sometime in the near future by scaring off the enemy and keeping everyone under the Kazekage's watch would be safe from the harm of intruders. Soon the Hokage and many others had come to the gates to bid the two a farewell with some hoping never to see the life of the little blond-haired boy ever again, and the rest of them hoped that he would get strong enough to protect the village that he would now live in. Despite how it was a three day run or a one-week walk, the Kazekage had eventually returned home with the child in arms and several ninja to guide the pathway back to the Wind Country so that ill-mannered bandits would be kept at bay or else suffer a pain much worse than death itself.

Before anything else when he arrived, he went to bring the child to his son.

"Boy," the Kazekage called out to his youngest son that was isolated from everyone, and placed the blond-haired child inside the room with him, "this boy will be living with you. He is exactly like you; therefore, you best play nicely with him, understood?"

The small red-haired boy with black rings around his pale green eyes nodded softly to his father's stern request before looking over to the blond-haired one with whiskered cheeks beneath his blue eyes who smiled brightly at him, and with the man left once he received acknowledgment. Naruto looked around the large room to see many toys and stuffed animals that filled the walls to no end that allowed him to feel a little excited if this was the 'home' that he was told about, and yet the first thing he did was stumble over towards the redhead and fell on his butt in front of him. In front of the blond-haired child where the redhead sat, he began to have a little fit of giggles because of how the other boy had fallen so carelessly on the floor whom now pouted at the humiliation he was receiving, but had also began to have a fit of some cute giggles on his own carelessness. Now that he had a child his age to play with—someone to play with at all, the black ringed toddler motioned his hand to a stuffed animal to summon his sand forth and bring it to his first playmate, stunning the other instantly when the sand had appeared so suddenly in front of him.

"You're… Gaara…" the blond-haired boy started slowly as he now held a little stuffed animal, "…right?"
Now smiling, the other nodded his head; happy to be known already. "So… who are you?"
"Uzumaki Naruto." He grinned widely at him for asking, and they heard someone knocking at the door.
"Gaara-sama, you're dinner is ready—" it was a woman, and she froze when seeing the other boy.
Knowing that she was about to becoming overprotective, Gaara announced. "He was brought here."

'Gaara…-sama…?' Naruto thought curiously and looked at the lady curiously. 'Sama?' It meant showing high respect, did it not? So why not try it, huh? "Kazekage-sama brought me here from Hokage-sama… Lady-sama?" He did not know her name to say it.

Gaara looked at his newly accompanied playmate curiously, but then thought about throwing a stuffed animal at the blond-haired boy's head, so he grabbed the nearest one that he could and chucked it at the back of his head since the woman had stolen his attention right then. It plopped over the other boy's head who jumped in surprise before laughing for being startled, and then took a hold of the stuffed animal's limb to throw it back at him—but his sand had decided that it was going to attack him, forcing the sand to raise up immediately to defend the redhead from the toy. Now the woman that had entered moments ago was infuriated by the boy attacking the Kazekage's son like that with one of the many toys in the room and grabbed his wrist to throw the boy on his feet with a large leap away from the now upset little redhead who wanted to play. Gaara stated that the boy had done nothing wrong and that he wanted him to stay with him, but the woman seemed to be bruising the playmate's wrist as he whimpered, whined, and begged to be released by the woman, so Gaara motioned his hand out as if to grab the boy—which he did. Sand had wrapped around the lower body of the one with whiskers in order to remove him from the woman's grasp and keep him in the same room; the action of the sand moving by command of the redheaded child had terrified the woman who hurriedly stood and left the room in a flash.

Naruto turned to look at the boy as the sand slowly vanished, "thank you," he tried to think of what the woman said, "Gaara-sama."
"Do you… want to play?" The red-haired boy asked quietly, not knowing if the boy would reject his asking of fooling around.
"That sounds fun!" A toothy grin flashed in the asker's direction until he paused to look around. "Uh… what can we play?"
"Oh…" Unfortunately, he had not thought that far because he had thought that he was going to be rejected from the idea.

Watching the black ringed boy for an answer seemed hopeless after silence filled the air for an entire minute, "hey, Gaara-sama," Naruto called out, earning the boy's attention before pouncing him playful. "If you can't think of one, I'm going to be making one up!" Pale green orbs stared at him in disbelief for what just happened; did the boy just try to attack him—harm him—hurt him? A blast of sand then struck the whiskered other and smashed him into the wall on the opposite side of the room, only to hear laughter. "Wow! That was cool! How did you do that?" The boy scratched his head to feel grains of sand. "Aw, I got sand in my hair now…"

"You… didn't try to hurt me?" Gaara asked confusedly while trying to figure out what was going on.

"Eh… hurt you—why would I do that, you wanted to play, right?" Naruto squinted childishly at him, he too trying to figure out was happening. "I pounced you, is that bad?" Getting up on wobbly legs, he came over and sat right in front of the other with his curious expression. "Do you play differently in this country? How do you play then, Gaara-sama? Sand-ball fights or something like that?"

Not understanding what he meant about 'sand-ball fights' had thrown his attention off easily and had his pale green eyes to gaze at the six thin stripes on the playmate's face, causing his hand to subconscious raise up to touch them with gentle fingertips to figure out whether or not. In return for touching his face so casually, the blond-haired little child rose one of his own hands to the other's face to trace the thick black rings surrounding his light colored eyes with two soft finger tips to also see if that were actually real or just some makeup an adult would wear. Both of them continued to examine each other's marks that showed how both of them were hosts to tailed beasts though they were unaware of the information about them, and once they confirmed their curiosity of each other's marking were real, they both smiled about it before giving a light laughter.

"Hey Gaara-sama," Naruto grabbed the other's little hands in his own, smiling brightly, "let's be best of friends, okay?"

Hearing the words he had wanted to hear for as long as he could remember, he nodded happily before giving a return pounce.

(A/N: Chapter will be longer in the future.)