Chapter 64 A New adventure ( start of part 2)

Recap for those that might need it:

Naruto Hatake: Adopted by Kakashi Hatake at birth so his family name is Hatake in this universe. He's starting on his wind chakra but only has two partially perfected techniques, wind armour and wind blade. Also carries the white chakra sword of his adopted grandfather. Currently dating Hinata, and wears a mask and black and orange clothing. And told his friends about the Kyuubi and true parentage.

Kakashi: Pretty much the same only learned a few things by being a parent and is currently dating Anko

Sakura: carries around tonfas and learned a few water jutsus and genjutsu from training with Anko/Kurenai/Hinata for the third part of the Chunin Exams for a month.

Sasuke: Carries a sword but even though he's been given the curse seal, he is not letting it get to him in his world.

Third Hokage still alive but very injured in his battle with Orochimaru who still has the use of his arms.

Return of Naruto Hatake

Chapter 1: A New Adventure

If there was one thing that Naruto hated about being in the hospital it was how boring it was, no wait, second thing. The first thing was that they didn't serve ramen that was the worst thing. He was still being held for the injuries and chakra exhaustion from the Sound/Sand invasion, although personally he felt fine. At least his dad managed to get him a replacement mask; it felt weird not having one.

Plus he got a feeling the nurses were giggling at how 'cute' the whisker marks on his face were. He felt a bit embarrassed about that, only Hinata could say that to him. He sighed as she went back to staring at the ceiling. Hinata wouldn't come in with his daily ramen that he asked to bring for another few hours. He loved that she came every day and that she brought ramen with her as well. It was the most he had to look forward to, sure his dad visited, Anko, Gai, his friends and others but Hinata made him feel a lot better.

But there was one thing that was nagging him and that was Gaara. He had been placed here under guard while he healed up with his brother and sister. When Gaara was ready to be released they would let the Suna team go. After it was known that Orochimaru killed Suna's Kage and impersonated him, Suna was pretty outraged that they had been played for fools. It helped to solidify their alliance again, although there were still some hard feelings on both sides, as Kakashi had told Naruto. But it looked like Suna was an ally again with stronger ties, nothing like a mutual enemy to bring people together.

But Naruto really wanted to talk with Gaara, this was the first time that Naruto had met someone like himself. He had only learned of the truth this year, about the demon inside of him, about him being adopted and who his birth parents had been. That was still something to get used to, they might have given birth to him, but Kakashi would always be his dad. He had been there for him growing up, teaching him, helping him, and playing with him as a kid and all sorts of things.

But Gaara was different, the boy seemed to be filled with so much anger and hate and Naruto wanted to know why. He also wanted to show that there was more to life, Naruto might have been luckier than Gaara but he refused to believe that Gaara was lost to his darkness. Naruto wanted to help because if things had only been a bit different, he could have ended up just like Gaara. Helping Gaara was just something Naruto felt he had to, because if anyone was going to help a jinchuriki then it should be another jinchuriki.

'Well if I stay here then I might miss the chance to really talk with him,' Naruto thought to himself. The room was empty and he had an idea where Gaara's room might be. He grinned under his mask as he slipped out of bed. He quietly opened the window and looked outside. He didn't think that there would be anyone watching the hospital but you could never know. With what happened there might be some patrols out and seeing someone on the side of a building in the dead of night was suspicious no matter how you looked at it.

Well it wasn't like he didn't have any experience with this, he was the one that painted the Hokage mountain without anyone seeing him until the morning. With a quick scan he was already out the window and using chakra to stick to the side of the wall he starting looking through all the windows. He started with his floor and so far there wasn't any sign of Gaara. There were plenty of others though. He moved to the next floor, it wasn't until he got to the fifth room that he saw Gaara in his bed looking up at the ceiling.

'Man doesn't this guy ever sleep? Might explain why his eyes are so dark around the skin.' He mused as he figured he might as well go in.

Gaara had was used to staying up, it helped to prevent the voice in his head. Although for the moment the demon within was a bit more silent than usual. It might be due to the fact that he was totally drained after that fight. His demon was most likely 'sleeping it off' and would return eventually. But he had another reason for keeping awake. That fight with the boy, Naruto, he kept going through it in his mind. He had thought the boy had shown his true self in their fight, having drawing on his true power of the demon.

During that fight Gaara had lost, he should have died as well. Naruto had him in his hands, literally, but then something changed. It was that girl, the small one with the short hair. She had done something, something he couldn't fathom and somehow Naruto had forced the demon back inside. But that wasn't the end to it all, the girl had shown genuine feelings for Naruto. Despite showing what he was to the world, even the boy's teammates had even shown to be happy about him.

All that caring for Naruto and Gaara just couldn't wrap his mind on why they seemed to care so much for that boy. A jinchuriki was a lonely life, filled with pain and suffering and yet Naruto seemed to have more than that. For the first time as far back as he could remember, Gaara felt doubt about his way of life. People had been trying to kill him or were afraid of him for so long he couldn't remember a life without any of that in there.

He wanted to talk to the boy and to understand why they were so different.

Apparently the boy also felt the same as he noticed Naruto looking in through the window. For a brief moment he thought that Naruto was here to finish him off, after all, that was something Gaara would have done. But he sensed no killing intent from the other boy so he relaxed but kept his guard up. Although it wasn't like he had much chance of doing much, Gaara could hardly move his body at the moment anyway.

Naruto slowly came into the room and looked around, they were alone which was nice he really didn't want anyone interrupting them. Besides this was something for just them, looking at the boy he could see all the bandages covering Gaara's body. Although from experience it most likely looked worse than it was at least he hoped so.

"So...how are you doing?" Naruto really wasn't good with opening lines and he kind of wished that he could have at least came up with something while on his search.

Gaara just stared at Naruto and it really wasn't helping Naruto try to think of what to say next.

"So...uh...I guess we have some things to talk about?" Naruto asked hopefully.

Gaara only blinked at him and Naruto was starting to think this might have been a bad idea after all.

"Why?" Gaara asked simply.

"Oh well you know we're kind of the same and all." Naruto shrugged thankful that Gaara was starting this off with something simple.

"We are not, you are different than me." Gaara looked at the blonde boy, he just couldn't get why the other boy was trying to be friendly. "Why are you not hated? Why do you have others in your life that don't fear you and what was that girl's power?"

"What girl?" Naruto asked as he wasn't sure what he was getting at with that question.

"The one with short dark hair, the one that made you control the demon. What did she do to be able to control it? I can't figure out what she did." Gaara explained to him.

It took a moment before Naruto got what he was talking about. He grinned as he scratched the back of his head. "Ah, that's Hinata-chan and well she doesn't have any special powers like that, but she is special. She's always been special to me but lately she's a bit more special." He chuckled.

"I don't understand."

Naruto didn't really need to think about it much when it came to Hinata. "Well she's by very first friend, she's my best friend and lately she's my girlfriend. We've been together for years and we've always been there for the other." Naruto frowned a bit when he remember her calling out to him that day. Seeing the tears in her eyes at what he was doing made him feel horrible. He could still remember the day her mother had died and her crying out her pain filled heart that day he found her.

"Something...bad happened to her once. She lost her mother and she was crying and I found her. I never wanted to see her cry again to see her in pain like that again but I caused her pain in our fight. I made her cry and I don't want to do that again."

"How could you have caused her pain? You never attacked her," Gaara asked as he didn't remember Naruto harming her.

"She was in pain because of what I was doing to myself," Naruto said mournfully. "She doesn't want to see me in pain either."

Gaara tried to comprehend what that had to be like, to have someone care for you so much that they hurt when you hurt. He had been so very alone his entire life, he had filled that hole in his heart by trying to love only himself. Because for someone like him, there was no one else that would love him, that would care if he lived or died. To kill to prove his own existence even if it was just for himself was the only life he knew.

But here before him, this idiotic boy was just like him and yet he had found a way to have so much more in life. For the first time in his life, Gaara felt envious of someone else.

"Why do you have so many that care for you?" Gaara asked as the question was burning him up inside to know the answer.

"Well it wasn't easy," Naruto told him. "I didn't have any friends until Hinata-chan, and then I met others and became friends with them. My dad helped out a lot too since I can remember a lot of adults looking after me when he was away."

"I don't have anyone." Gaara told him and he was surprised by the aching pain he felt in his chest at saying the words.

"What about your brother and sister?" Naruto asked.

"What about them?"

Naruto couldn't believe that he had said that. "Oh come on! I would love to have siblings, I'm an only child but I would have loved to have had an older brother or sister growing up. Hell, I'd like to have a younger one too like Hinata-chan has with Hanabi. You got two older siblings and don't you think they feel anything towards you?"

Gaara hadn't really felt much of anything to his two siblings for a very long time. He had been kept separate from them for a very long time and by the time they were put on a team together, they weren't much better than strangers. Plus they were always afraid of him, he could see it in their eyes their fear of him killing them one day.

Gaara looked at Naruto. "They fear me."

"Well duh, you're all killing people all the time for anything, crushing them with sand and all that. When was the last time you were nice to them?" Naruto folded his arms over his chest. "I mean come on, did you ever give them a reason not to be afraid of you? From what my friends told me, they were actually a bit worried for you in our fight."

Gaara looked a little surprised by that.

"What? Family is important and they are your family. Look, just give them a chance okay? If you don't be nice to others then no one will be nice to you and if that doesn't work than just try harder! You can't give up because I don't give up on anything. If you want others to like you than all you got to do is make them see that you're not scary." Although he said it Naruto couldn't help but wonder how Gaara would pull that off. Even now he felt a little uncomfortable with the boy and how he didn't seem to blink all that much. It was kind of creepy but he pressed on.

"I know I got luckier with a cool dad and friends," Naruto looked him in the eye now. "But you're the only other person like me that I know about. You're the only one that I can see that could even understand what it's like having the responsibility of holding one of the tailed beasts. In a way that makes us 'brothers' and I don't want to see my only brother in this world be lonely."

He smiled at Gaara then, "So tell you what, I'll be your first friend if you'll let me."

"You'll...what?" Gaara wasn't sure to believe his words or not but something long and buried deep inside of him was stirring and it wasn't the demon.

"You heard me," Naruto put out his hand to Gaara. "I'll be your friend so you're not alone in this world. Others were there for me so I want to be there for you. I want to show you that there is more to the world than just loneliness. So what do you say, friends?"

Gaara stared at the hand, he couldn't believe this was happening. He had tried to kill this boy and yet he wanted to be...friends? The word felt so alien to Gaara and yet something inside of him wanted to reach out to finally reach out a hand in friendship and have it actually accepted for once. He could remember being so small and alone, crying himself to sleep at nights from the pain in his heart. The loneliness had been consuming, like he was living in eternal darkness even when the sun was out. To feel so alone even in a room full of people with their cold or fearful eyes looking at him.

He had been alone for so long he couldn't remember what it felt like to not be alone. Yet, even now his hand was slowly moving forward. His hand lightly placed itself into Naruto's, for a moment Gaara thought that this was all a trick to lower his guard that Naruto would attack in that moment of weakness.

It never came, Naruto only smiled and shook his hand.

"There, we're friends now." Naruto said happily.

"Friends..." Gaara felt the words slid out of his mouth, he wasn't sure if he had ever call anyone that or how long he had said that word. But if felt strangely good to say it and deep in the darkness of his own heart for the first time a small ray of light was slowly coming into being. A light made of hope and of friendship.

-Hatake Home-

Kakashi shifted a little as he woke up with the dawn, the first thing he noticed was purple hair in his face. He smiled as he felt his body pressed up against Anko's back, one arm wrapped around her waist. She had been staying with him ever since the end of the invasion. Apparently her place had been hit in the invasion, nothing major but it would be without power and water for awhile. So she had started to make herself at home, not that Kakashi minded.

With Naruto still recovering it was just too quiet without his adopted son around. Plus it was easier with Naruto out of the house for him and Anko to have some more private time together. He could feel Anko's soft breathing as she was still asleep. It had been a long day yesterday, with all the rebuilding that was going on. It didn't help that the Hokage was still in his hospital bed. He would make it through but his battle with Orochimaru had pushed his old body beyond its limits.

Professionals said that it was a marvel that he was still alive but they were in doubt if he could ever be a ninja again. His old body had just warn itself out, there were rumours flying around that a new Hokage would have to be made soon and he would go back into retirement.

But that was only one of the worries and at the moment Kakashi didn't want to think on that. He just wanted to snuggle his girlfriend in peace, which he did. He felt her warm body against his through the clothing they had on, well at least the amount they did wear to bed. Kakashi was just in boxers while she settled for panties and a dark black shirt. They had been so busy lately with the rebuilding that last night they only had the energy to change and go to sleep. But it was still nice, having her here in his bed felt perfect. She even seemed to fit well like this in this position.

He took a small sniff of her hair, getting her scent, the smell of her favourite tea, dongo and a hint of snake. He once made a small joke about that, she came back saying he smelt like dog.

She shifted a bit as she groaned, "What time is it?"

"Looks like seven in the morning," He told her gently.

She grumbled something as she turned around and snuggled into his chest, "Too early…"

His hands slowly ran up her bare skin of her back making her sigh in contentment. She really did have very nice skin something he liked very much. It wasn't until he saw all the extra products in the bathroom that he knew just how much work she much put into certain things. Not that he was complaining of course. He could feel her bare legs against his, her warm body against his, the scene was just too perfect.

"That feels nice," Anko muttered feeling his nice strong hands running up her back and spine. She loved how he would trail his fingers along her spine making the cluster of nerves there fire off in pleasure. She had been surprised to find out that their love life wasn't all just down and dirty, which was great. But the gentler side to things like this she found herself liking as well.

She started to run her hands over his chest feeling the hard body under her fingers. She was slowly starting to get more and more awake and was liking where this was going. She decided to up the stakes as her own arm wrapped around his own torso. She started to place light kisses of his neck, she heard him groan slightly and his hand trailing ever so slowly down lower on her body. She felt his hand caress her firm ass and suddenly staying in bed felt like a good idea only she didn't want to sleep at the moment.

After their little 'wake up session' Anko was feeling more energized as she took first shot at the bathroom. Kakashi didn't mind, plus if they tried to shower together they might stay in there until noon anyway, plus using that much hot water wouldn't be good. So he put on a pair of sweat pants and a shirt as he went to get some breakfast ready for them. Pulling on his mask he entered the kitchen to see that already someone had made himself at home.

"Jiraiya," Kakashi nodded to him. "When did you get here?"

"Somewhere around," his voice pitched up slightly. "Oh kami yes, right there yes, do it harder, oh you are-"

"Okay I get it!" Kakashi cut him off. "If she knows you were here for that she'll castrate you."

"Duly noted," Jiraiya smirked at the blush he could see around the mask. Although he had to admit, the young had it good sometimes. If only he and Tsunade could have gotten together in their youth, or ever…well that was a heartbreak that he didn't want to revisit again so he quickly got to business.

"I'm going to find my old teammate Tsunade, the council feel it's time for a new Hokage and she's been nominated."

'So the rumours were true,' Kakashi mused as he started on some breakfast.

"I want to bring Naruto along with me," Jiraiya told him.

"Oh really?" Kakashi looked interested in this. "Why is that?"

"I want to see how far he's come along, plus I want to teach him a few things," The old sage told him. He had to admit the kid was slow to start but he always finished things off. Plus it might do to use all that energy and focus it into some training that he felt the boy might be ready for.

Kakashi thought about it, he knew that Jiraiya was the godfather for Naruto, even if the boy didn't know it, and he guessed the old man just wanted to spend some time. After all he had only seen Naruto a few times when he was really young, Naruto didn't even remember those times when they had met again and Jiraiya had trained him for the chunin exams.

"Well I don't have an issue with that, but you'll have to ask him yourself," Kakashi simply told the old man. "Besides with everything going on we'll be busy here."

Jiraiya nodded, one of the reasons he needed to get Tsunade was because without a leader the village would suffer for it. They needed solidarity plus she was the best choice, he sure as hell wouldn't want Danzo to get in charge. That old war monger never did sit right with Jiraiya, the man's philosophy on how to run things was all too apparent and left a bad taste in Jiraiya's mouth.

Before anything else could be said a new feminine voice called out into the room.

"Oh Kakashi, looks like we're out of towels." Anko's teasing voice was heard.

Kakashi swore that they had plenty of towels that is until he had a sudden realization of what she was thinking about. He quickly turned around in his chair to give out a warning that they had company, all to find out that he was a little too late. Anko came into the doorway looking slightly wet and without a single thing on other than a smile. Which that too soon quickly went away as she saw that Jiraiya was looking at her in his seat that just had to be facing her direction.

Actually looking might have been a bit too kind, he was grinned like a perverted young boy, a small bit of blood coming out of his nose as he was trying to burn the mental image into his mind.

Anko yelled out as she quickly went around the corner so that she was no longer visible in the room. "Kakashi, what the hell!"

Kakashi sighed knowing she was going to be pissed and whatever she had planned he wasn't going to find out what it would be now. "I was going to warn you that we had company. I didn't know you were going to do that."

"No excuse!" Was her only reply as her footsteps were heard and a door slamming shut. She was going to get dressed and Kakashi knew that if Jiraiya was still in the room, she was going to kill the old pervert.

"How I envy the young some days, you got a real woman there," Jiraiya smiled at the young man across from him.

Kakashi just sighed, "I think you should go once she comes out dressed she'll be coming out armed."

That got the old hermit's attention, "Well I better go and look in on Naruto then. Good luck with your woman I think you're going to need it." With that the man despite his age, was very quickly and nimbly got out of the room and out the open window.

"Where the hell is that guy and why didn't you warn me we had company while I was in the shower?" A very irritated Anko stormed into the room. She had only her skirt and one of Kakashi's shirts on with a kunai in hand and murder in her eyes.

He had to admit she did look somewhat fearsome and even a bit erotic like that, all furious with her slightly wet hair all loose and the fact he could just make out that she wasn't wearing anything else under his shirt. She even hadn't buttoned it up all the way, but any dirty thoughts were quickly gone when she turned her eyes to him. He knew that without a target she would shift all that anger on to the next available one, his rotten luck was that was going to be him.

'This, is going to be a long day,' Kakashi thought to himself.

Next up Chapter 2: Jiraiya's Mission