Tsk, it could have been a good fight

Meanwhile.

The first disciple of Hayato, Naruto, was on his way to Gaara.

With him were both Kakashi and Sakura.

And someone else.

This girl has teal eyes and sandy blonde hair, which is gathered into four consecutive pigtails. Her outfit consisted of a black kimono that reaches down to her legs, with slits along the side and a revealing neckline. She has a red sash tied around her waist and is sporting fingerless black gloves. Meanwhile, her forehead protector was on her forehead, unlike some who would wear it on their necks or the like.

This was Temari from Sunagakure.

She was on her way back as the representative from Sunagakure for the Chunin exams.

She was briefed on what was happening, and she hurried on her way to help her brother Gaara.

Meanwhile, as they drew closer to Sunagakure, Naruto who had been keeping a serious look on his face since he heard about the Akatsuki trying to kidnap Gaara, finally explained to them why they were after him.

"These guys, Akatsuki… they're after the demon inside Gaara!"

Naruto spoke with a heavy tone.

None of them there was ignorant so of course they knew what he was speaking of.

"How can you be so sure?"

Only Sakura didn't understand how Naruto knew.

Apart from Kakashi who was briefed about the Akatsuki from Jiraiya.

As such he left them to speak and stayed silent at this time.

"Trust me, Sakura I know,"

"Because they were after me too at one point,"

Naruto didn't turn his head to look back and said casually.

"If they're after the tailed demons like you said, why would they be after you, Naruto?"

Sakura was perplexed at this moment.

Naruto gave her a sidelong glance before he sighed once he saw that she was truthful.

Still, he didn't care about that so much anymore so with ease he spoke up.

"Because I have Kura- Uhm, the nine-tailed demon fox inside of me!"

He cursed his stupid mouth internally and was thankful both girls didn't notice. He did notice Kakashi looking at him quietly, but he ignored him.

Temari had a look of empathy on her face as she understood what he had gone through since her own brother had gone through the same. but considering how Sakura was shocked by her side, she thought that maybe Naruto had it worse.

Meanwhile, Sakura was shocked, to say the least.

'But now everything makes sense…'

One can't be a ninja yet fail to recognize how Naruto was treated in the village.

'So that's why…'

She felt sad for Naruto.

What he must have gone through…

However, now wasn't the time to sulk and talk about feelings.

A sharp steely glint fixed itself on her eyes and she spoke up.

"I will not let Akatsuki do any more harm…" 'Not to you, Naruto…'

And at that, Naruto smiled.

While he would say he didn't care if she hated him or the opposite, he nonetheless appreciated the gesture since deep inside, he would always search for acceptance.

'After all, the Hokage is the most respected person in the whole village…'

**********

A short time skip later, and they had reached Sunagakure. 

They were told about what happened to Kankuro, and Sakura proceeded to heal him, despite how the Suna medical-nins failed to do so.

Even more than that, she managed to make portable antidotes to be taken if they were poisoned since they now were against Sasori.

Kankuro also proved to be helpful as he gave them a piece of clothing, which Kakashi used with his dog summons to track Sasori. Which would lead them to Gaara.

Even more good news for the Suna people was that Konoha had sent team Guy to help.

Chiyo substituted Temari on the team with the reason that she was Sasori's grandmother.

And thus, the team embarked on their new journey.

But of course, it wouldn't be easy.

And they met the first obstacle once they were inside a forest.

And that leads us to the current time.

Sakura, Chiyo, Kakashi, and Naruto stood against Itachi. Itachi Uchiha.

And Sharingan was in full effect before he even started speaking.

Kakashi lowered his headband as his fellow team members all got ready to deal with such a fearsome Genjutsu user.

Chiyo started to warn them about the Sharingan and how to counter it speaking for quite a while Kakashi backed her too.

Sakura listened attentively, and it seemed like Itachi just let them stand there without attacking. As if he had another reason besides attacking them…

But suddenly Naruto spoke.

"No negative emotions…" He didn't feel any bad intentions from Itachi which made him wonder if this guy was bad at all.

Nonetheless, he was excited to fight Itachi who was famous all around the world, for bad reasons of course, but foremost for strength.

His voice was faint but they all heard it all the same and were perplexed.

Except Itachi who managed to understand Naruto was referring to him.

'How?'

'Is it the Nine-tails?' It didn't take Itachi too long to figure out all the possible reasons and narrow them down.

But he didn't get any more time to think as just when Itachi was about to speak Naruto appeared near him in an instant.

"Naruto stop!" Kakashi hurried to make some seals to use a jutsu and save Naruto.

But Naruto appeared near Itachi with his leg about to kick him.

Itachi's eyes widened a bit and he used them.

'Demonic Illusion: Shackling Stakes Technique'

But to his surprise, Naruto was not caught in his Genjutsu nor did he stop his attack.

As such his kick connected with Itachi with so much force it sent him into trees breaking countless ones until he finally stopped on the ground his body in a weird shape as if every part was broken.

Then when Kakashi and co went to check on him they found out his body had changed and there was a new man in his place.

"I knew I felt something weird about this Itachi…" Naruto murmured to himself.

'If only it were the real deal, I could have had some fun!'

There was just no way Itachi was so weak. Even though Naruto was quite strong himself he still wouldn't say Itachi was this weak.

Chiyo again took this chance to explain to them something.

It was most likely that they were extracting the bijuu from Gaara.

And that if they were to succeed Gaara would die. So was the fate of every Jinchuriki.

Which made Sakura glance at Naruto sadly.

Then the team continued on their journey tracking Sasori.

Finally, their long journey led them far from home, until they reached a cave.

This cave was where Sasori was, and where Gaara was kept captive.

______________________________

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