Chapter 8: Chunin Exams

Naruto's POV

One Year Later

"It took you long enough!"

"Hehe, sorry Temari."

"Where were you anyway blondie?"

"Kanku! Don't call me that!"

"Don't call me Kanku! Why do you call her by her full name but you call me 'Kanku'! It's Kankuro!"

"Calm down Kankuro."

"O-oh, yes Gaara."

I snickered. Ah, days like this made me smile. Spending time with my close friend Gaara, my secret (emphasis on secret) crush Temari, and teasing Kanku! Oh, it was so much fun, better than being with that… man who I used to call my father.

Temari noticed my mood turned sour all of a sudden.

"What's wrong Naru? Is it him you're thinking about?"

At the mention of 'him' Kankuro stopped and looked at me.

"Look blondie, we're always here for you so forget him. And when we start our plan, you can beat the-"

"Kankuro…" Temari warned

"Uh, right. You can beat the poop out of him, okay?"

I smiled, there were my best friends. They have been and always will be. I remembered when I first met them.

Flashback

I had finally got to Suna. Along the way, Kurama had trained me to use the Iron Sand kekkei genkai. It took a while, but I finally got it. I wandered around the borders for a while, hoping to attract someone's attention. Just then, I saw a red-headed boy my age sitting in the sand all alone. I walked up to him, looking around for any adults.

"Hey, what's your name?"

"Me? I'm… Gaara. Who are you?"

"I'm Naruto, dattebayo. Whattcha doing here by yourself?"

"Everyone thinks I'm a demon. No one wants to play with me because they're scared. They say there's a monster in me."

"Really? They're stupid. I can play with you. If it helps, I have a monster in me too, you're not alone. Why don't we play tag? I'll be your friend."

"Friend?"

He had said the word slowly, thinking over its meaning.

"Okay, we will be friends."

They started chasing each other, me being 'it' and then him and so on. We continued for about an hour before some Sand nin came up to us.

"Gaara-sama!"

One of them whispered to the other.

"Who's that blonde boy?"

"I don't know. What was he doing with Gaara?"

"It looks like he was playing a game."

Gaara turned to look at them.

"What is it?"

"Your father would like to see you, your friend too."

They had escorted us to the Kazekage's office. We sat in the two seats we were told to sit in.

"Gaara, who is this?" the Kazekage asked immediately.

"This is Naruto, my friend."

The Kazekage's eyes widened when Gaara spoke.

"Friend?"

"Yes."

"You, young man. Who are you exactly?"

"I'm Naruto… Uzumaki. I'm the Hokage's son. I'm telling you this because I need you trust, sir. My father has abandoned me an left me to die. I humbly request to stay in the Sand."

"Why should I? You might be a spy for all I know. What use could you be to us? We know you are a jinchuriki but intimidation alone isn't good enough.

"Throw a kunai at me."

"What?"

"You understood me, sir."

The Kazekage waved his hand and a stream of kunais flew towards me.

"Naruto!" Gaara said in a mix of worry and fear.

I just smirked. Suddenly, the kunais stopped in front of me, all of them withering away to sand. Iron Sand. The Kazekage's eyes widened, quickly standing up.

"Kami! You have graced us with an Iron Sand user!" He shouted to no one in particular.

The Kazekage stopped with his praises,

"What would you have that could be of use, to prove you are not a spy?"

"You can have full use over my Kyuubi and my Iron Sand. Also, I will let you scan the Uzumaki seal. It can be used to seal away Konoha's defenses and if something happened, you could invade or send spies."

After thinking it over, the Kazekage decided to let me stay. I would serve as Gaara's guardian and control the Shukkaku if things got messy. In addition, I'd be his adopted son and brother of Kankuro, Temari, and Gaar—

"What are you doing?! You just sighed, looked away, and like had this weird faraway look in your eyes, what gives?" I heard Temari scream at me

"Can't I have a good flashback in peace?"

"Hell no, it's weird."

"She's right blondie."

"Kanku! That's not nice! We guys gotta stick together dattebayo!"

"Don't call me that!"

"Guys, we have to go." Gaara suddenly interrupted

"For what again…? Hehe, I forgot dattebayo… oops?"

"THE CHUNIN EXAMS BAKA! Naruto, you forget everything, seriously."

"Oh yeah. Great, I get to go back to that hell hole. Hey, at least I get to trick that godforsaken father of mine. Ooh, can't wait! Let's got dattebayo."

"THAT'S WHAT WE'RE DOING!"

We had finally reached the Hidden Leaf Village. Ah, this place disgusted me. I haven't been here in what… 4, 5…? Well, for a long long time. At least everything looked the same. Nothing had changed. Surprising, seeing that Minato was usually a man of change.

"The chunin exams start in a week, let's head to our hotel."

We walked towards our hotel. We had one week to train for everything and get ready. And we have time to spy on the Leaf. We continued walking forward until a group of kids had come up to us. The one in the front, who I concluded was the leader, bumped into Kankuro. Kankuro, like the angry person he is, grabbed him. As the kid started yelling insults, Kankuro shot back with the threat of death. Ah, you could always count on Kankuro to go to violence and blood first. I smirked throughout the entire episode.

Just then, some genin came to protect the kid. She had pink, bubblegum hair, oh, it was Sakura. She attacked, tripping on the invisible attack by Kankuro. Just as the puppeteer was about to hit the kid, the onyx eyed and chicken-butt haired ninja came in. Oh, Sasuke. The Sasuke-kun, as his fangirls say. He stopped Kankuro. Oh and his anger was almost at its peak. No one, no one, messes with Kankuro.

"Stop, Kankuro. Don't play with the prey, let's leave."

"Hmph, fine."

Kankuro had stopped. Boy, if all Konoha-nin were like this, this was going to be a LONG week, or maybe weeks. Which in any case, made it all the worst.