Suna
This has been beta’d by Ankaa Sage! Thank-you so much!
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The trip to Sunagakure ended up being only three minutes as Naruto used her hirashin to take them all there. What she had planned might take a few days so it was best to use as much time as was available. She teleported the four of them just outside the wall of the village and as they walked in the gate guards asked for identification. Once that had been done they made their way inside.
Sakura looked at her surroundings. It was very different to Konohagakure. Where in Konoha there were a lot of trees, here there was mostly only sand and buildings. However, as she looked she noticed the people looked just as happy as her owns villages people and decided, No matter the outward appearance, people love their home for the way it is.
They continued to walk and as they did so, many people paused what they were doing and started to whisper. She tried to pay no heed to them, which was very easy since she used to and still does whisper and gossip. Being close friends with Ino Yamanaka has that effect.
She asked the team to stop at a shop, however, because of something that caught her eye. It was a fruit that was pink in color with the shape of a large egg and had what looked like green flame like sticks protruding from it. She was so engrossed that she jumped slightly when she heard a voice behind her, "Ah. That's a dragon fruit. They have a lot of trees here in Suna that grow them. These ones are all hot pink but in Kiri, you get maroon ones and in Kumo they're yellow. This one is white on the inside and has black seeds in it. Sorta like a combo of kiwi and watermelon." Spoke Naruto as he smiled at her. "Can we have five of these please?" he asked and Sakura started to say it wasn't necessary to get any, yet he insisted. (A/N I'm saying he because this is sakuras pov and she thinks Naruto is a boy)
Once Naruto bought them they made their way to wherever Kakashi sensei was taking them, "Um sensei? Where are we going?" she asked when she realized they didn't know.
"Maa… well uh… Naruto?" he said as he scratched the back of his head, a sheepish look on his face.
In return, Naruto sighed and muttered something under his breath that she couldn't hear, "We're going to the Kazekage tower. We have a meeting with him in a short while. You guys don't have to stay during the meeting since it'll be boring with nothing for you to do. But I have to stay."
"Um, Naruto? Why do you have to stay? Can't you join us if we left the meeting that is?" Sakura asked with her head slightly tilted.
Naruto signaled for them to carry on walking as he spoke up, "Well we're here so that I can fix the seal that's on Sunagakures jinchuriki. The host of the one tail; Shukaku. I already have a seal planned but it needs to be approved. That's what this meeting is for."
Sasuke and Sakura both stopped but when they saw their teammates carry one they quickly followed. "Wait. Naruto. Why are they getting you to do a sealing? Hasn't the one tail already got a host?" asked Sasuke.
"Shukaku does have a host. But the lady who did the sealing wasn't a fuinjutsu master and ended up using a faulty seal on him. Causing the Kazekages wife, who was pregnant with the next host, to die shortly after giving birth. That same seal is allowing Shukaku to drive Gaara insane."
"Gaara?" asked Sakura, Sasuke and Kakashi at the same time.
"Look. We're here." They never received their reply as Naruto hastily made his way in the tower and up the stairs, not allowing any time for them to allow it to stay in their heads.
They all stopped at a door that had two guards' outsides of it in masks. Sakura guessed that it must be the Kazekage's office and the men outside must be Sunas version of the ANBU.
Naruto whispered something into one of their ears and the other opened the door for them and they entered. They stopped a few feet from the desk and bowed as Kakashi sensei spoke, "It's a pleasure to see you in person, Lord Kazekage."
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Naruto had never met the yondaime Kazekage before, but she knew she wouldn't like him. He had, after all, ordered several assassination attempts on his own son who he made a jinchuriki. However, that was not why she had never met him. No, the reason was he had already been dead when the sand siblings came to Konoha.
"It's a pleasure to see you in person, Lord Kazekage. We are team 7 of Konohagakure." They all stopped bowing and stood straight, "I am Kakashi Hatake, sensei to team 7. The blonde one is Naruto Uzumaki the jinchuriki of the nine tailed fox, the dark haired one is Sasuke Uchiha rookie of the year and the pink haired girl in Sakura Haruno who was kunoichi of the year. Thank-you for allowing is in your village."
The kage had yet to turn and face them which irked Naruto to the bone, not that she showed it. Once he did turn around he could instantly see the resemblance between him and Gaara. The eye bags and the red hair, although Gaara's red was more to the shade of an Uzumakis hair. Gaara apparently got his mother's eyes since they were blue but this man had yellow-gold eyes. His attire was the official Kage white robe with the hat as well, but with Sunas kanji on and not Konoha's.
"You are most welcome." His eyes swept across the four of them as he analyzed them. None of them looked dangerous but looks can be deceiving. His eyes lingered on Naruto longer than the others, the girl who had made clones who came to this village and spoke to his son often. "I am told you have a seal for my son, Uzumaki-san."
"I do. The seal lady Chiyo placed on your late wife was the reason she passed away in the first place. Had you come to Konoha and spoke to our yondaime, his wife, the sandaime or lord Jiraiya she would be alive right now. I'm curious as to why you didn't do so in the first place?"
The kazekage's outward appearance gave no indication of annoyance but she could sense it. "It was just after the war and-"
"A war in which you remained neutral. Had you asked, one of the four I mentioned earlier would have come to your aid."
Internally Sasuke, Sakura, and Kakashi were wondering if they could get some popcorn just to watch the two of them go at it, also the ANBU (A/N I don't know what sunagakure's black ops is called so I'll call them ANBU) in the room wondered the same thing.
"You mentioned the yondaime's wife I was unaware he had one." Asked the kazekage, clearly trying to change the subject slightly. However Sasuke and Sakura had to agree with him, they too were unaware that the yondaime had a wife.
"Minato Namizake married Kushina Uzumaki, the previous jinchuriki of the nine tails. She was summoned to Konoha sometime before the destruction of the Uzumaki and Uzushiogakure." She replied and pointed to the chairs across the desk for guests, "May we take a seat? This meeting will take a while." The kazekage gave a sharp nod and they all took a seat each.
Rasa allowed the information to sink in. Minato married an Uzumaki. There was an Uzumaki in front of him that shared a remarkable resemblance to the yondaime. He (A/N he doesn't know she's a girl) was the jinchuriki of the nine tails, which apparently the last mans' wife was. Perhaps this Naruto Uzumaki is the man's own child. The yondaime did have morals, like me, neither of us could make someone that was not our blood a vessel to a demon.
"Naruto has a seal to be placed on your son but I don't see him anywhere," said Kakashi, not finishing his sentence making Sasuke and Sakura shake their heads and Naruto to close her eyes and let out a low sigh.
"Could you please summon Gaara? I need him here so I can put Shukaku to sleep. The sealing won't work properly with him whispering in his head." Rasa gestured for one of his guards to do that as he sat down and changed the subject temporarily.
"Whilst we wait for him. The four of you will be escorted around the village by some of our jonin and chunin. You can do your training here in the village, however, I will allocate one of the training grounds to you. Also, refrain from destroying any trees. We do not have what is needed to grow as many plants as the other nations do, as you can see."
"Of course. Thank-you for allowing us to train here and for your hospitality. If you have any questions, we will be willing to answer those which we can." Replied Kakashi.
"You have offered to fix our jinchuriki yet have not labeled a price. May I know what you wish for in exchange?"
Rasa was no fool, though many thought he was. He did not believe a hidden village would help another without something in exchange.
Kakashi looked at Naruto, Can you tell him? I don't know what you want in exchange after-all.
"Once the seal has been placed I would like you to consider making Gaara the godaime Kazekage, and I wish to help control Shukaku. As well as making the status between our two homelands from neutral to allies. Both of us have something to gain from the other. We have people in our village who would gladly teach here in Sunagakure, but if not we could do something like a student exchange programme. I believe it would be quite beneficial."
Naruto hoped he would agree. Of course, she would help Gaara no matter what, but if she could get something out of it, why not right?
Rasa thought over what the blonde child said. It was very true that Suna could use the help of Konoha. After all, they have connections everywhere, even in the villages that despise them. "I will have to speak with my council before I decide on this treaty. As for Gaara… if he changes after having a new seal I will considermaking him the godaime. Only consider. I will not choose him yet if at all." His eyes showed the hate he held for his son. The son whose birth caused the death of his wonderful wife. But this child says that her death was on Lady Chiyo.
The Kazekage remained silent after that as he imagined a life where his wife was alive and his youngest son was happy and not a bloodthirsty monster. A monster he created.
As he did so team 7 were talking amongst themselves, "Why don't we go out and eat something after the meeting?" asked Sakura.
"I sure could go for some food right about now. What about you, Sasuke?" asked Naruto as she fiddled with one of her pouches she kept some of her scrolls in.
The action did not go unnoticed by her teammates and they all made a mental note to ask the blonde about it later. She was not one to fidget if she did so it was cause for alarm.
"Hn. No sweets." He gave a small glare but the team could see the humor in his eyes.
"So… how about a curry place? Or a sushi place?" offered Kakashi as he took out his book. The first book of the Icha Icha series. It took a lot of self-restraint for team 7 not to grab the book and hide it. This was not the time nor the pace for him to be reading his hentai.
Do you think this is really the time to be reading that?
"I'm bored. And it is always time for Icha Icha."
Suuuuure.
It was that moment that the messenger that was sent to fetch Gaara came in with the latter not far behind.
Gaara looked no different to the first time she had seen him. The scowl, the large gourd, and that white cloth.
"You called?" he spoke in a gravelly voice. Everyone in the room could feel the venom leaking as if it were there and crawling over their skins. The Kazekage, Kakashi, and Naruto were the only ones unaffected which Rasa saw and made a note on.
Kakashi not reacting was understandable as he was once ANBU, however, the child was another matter.
"Konoha has sent an envoy willing to fix your seal. He will explain further." Replied the Kazekage.
"Hey, Gaara." Said Naruto in a cheerful voice as she waved as the redhead. She always envied that part of him. He had the same shade of red hair that her mother had had, yet she loved her hair non-the-less.
She received no reply from the other jinchuriki besides a blank stare, yet she knew him well enough to know that was a form of greeting for the young sociopath.
After a minute of silence, Gaara gave in, "What is it you wish to help with? Mother is telling me to have blood. I will have your-" he was cut off as Naruto had flashed in front of him and placed her hand on his stomach, making his lurch backwards.
His body felt hot. Hotter than the heat that the sun in Sunagakure ever produced upon them. Yet the heat did not bother him because there was an agitating feeling. A feel of insects crawling over his skin. His eyes were crazed as he looked at his body, but found nothing out of the ordinary.
He glared at the blonde whose eyes held pain from hurting her friend. He raised a hand to do his mothers' bidding and became further crazed when he could not hear her. Before he could question what she had done to his mother, she spoke, "Shukaku has been the one whispering to you all these years, Gaara. Not you're mother. The sand does not protect you because of him, it protects you because of your mother. Right now, I have blocked Shukaku from talking to you, you should be able to sleep in peace now. Within the next two days, I will have to place a new seal on you. This new seal will give you the ability to block out Shukaku but it will also allow you to go into your mindscape and meet him, as my seal also does.
"The seal is an eight trigram seal, based on the Hyuuga clan's eight trigrams." Kakashi stiffened when he heard this but she didn't allow that to stop her explanation, "There will not be a gate or anything like that to lock him up, but as it is your mindscape it will allow you to lock him up yourself. I would advise against that. A jinchuriki is more powerful and less catatonic when they work alongside their demon and not against them. Any questions?"
As everyone in the room was professional shinobi and kunoichi none showed how they were feeling at that very moment. Each person was amazed by the words of the blonde in front of them. It was not as if she had said anything notably remarkable but the simple fact that, despite the five nations being in the middle of somewhat peace, she was acting like an adult, similar to those of Kakashi's generation who had been forced into this dangerous life as such a young age, had such high burdens on their shoulders.
When no one said a word, team 7 bid their farewells and made their way out to go find somewhere to eat.
After a half hour of browsing, they settled for a restaurant that made a bit of everything. Their conversations were very lively, and the beginning parts were full of Sasuke and Sakura asking questions about her seal and plans for Gaara. Kakashi asked one question if they eight trigrams would cause her death to which she replied it would not as the fourth Hokage had died due to using the reaper death seal.
Half an hour into eating, Naruto grew silent as she felt the presence of someone who she knew was long since dead, even at this time.
Her teammates were startled by her sudden change and questioned her about it, yet she lazily replied a Kakashi excuse. They let her be, it wasn't often Naruto was like this, only in a serious situation, so they went with it, asking her the occasional question to which she would give a half-hearted reply to.
When they finished eating lunch they asked to go to their residence and then to the training grounds.
Naruto was still silent. The presence was dark yet very warm. It was similar yet different to her own, bright and warm or dark and cold. Never had she felt a persons' chakra similar to this. Yet it could not be who she thought it was. So instead she smelt around her but could not find the smell she was looking for.
It was maddening and she made a note to apologize to Kakashi, Kurama, and Sasuke for ignoring them like this but she was antsy. When they reached the training field she activated her senjutsu and felt the presence again. There was no doubt about it. It was him.
He's… alive.
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