*Puff*

"Looks like your team had bad luck huh" Naruto looked at Genma who had appeared after he threw down the scrolls, it was a summoning jutsu tied to a person. He didn't bother to answer and just waited. Genma was perplexed when he saw 2 of his teammates unconscious with a couple of shallow cuts but decided to ignore it and congratulate him and explain the point of this exam.

"Congratulations on being the 2nd team to finish the exam, didn't expect for 2 teams to make it this early. This test was to see how you survive in a foreign area while either protecting or retrieving important intel in a mission. "If you lack Heaven, seek wisdom, prepare, if you lack Earth, run in the fields, seek advantages. These rules will guide a persons extremes". The message in the scroll decipheres what a Shinobi will need to make missions easier, in this case Heaven is the mind, Earth is the body and the Person when put together refers to the Chunin, I hope you can remind your teammates about this. You will have these 5 days to rest and prepare for the next stage, so make sure to recover by then. You can't leave the tower or contact anyone who isn't part of the exam administration and you can choose any room you want as long as it's not occupied, good luck"

Genma disappeared after seeing Naruto not asking anything. Naruto picked up both of his teammates and climbed the stairs, he went towards the room at the end of the hall where Gaara was staying on, he placed both of them on a bed and stealthily went to report to Hiruzen.

I was about halfway when my clone appeared carrying a unconcious Anko, he didn't say anything before throwing here at me and dispelling. I recieved the memories showing that Anko didn't want to listen and confront Orochimaru by herself, so she had to be knocked out. I kept going to the tower while carrying Anko.

"Old man, we got problems" I arrived through the window before instantly throwing down a seal for privacy. Hiruzen instantly was alert when he saw Naruto come in with a unconscious Anko on his shoulder so early, he had already recieved a report from the administration about the 3 corpses they found with no faces, he instantly deduced who was responsible and wanted to go there instantly, but was stopped when he heard that Naruto reported and said that he had it handled. He leaned back on his chair and took out his pipe to prepare it.

"Is he here?"

"Yep, I had already felt him since the start of the second test, I wanted to see what his objective was. Anko here wanted to confront him herself so I had to knock her out before she went and killed herself."

"Did you find out what he wanted?" Hiruzen started frowning while lighting up the pipe and taking a puff to relax his nerves.

"I did, he wants the Uchiha brat, oh and dismiss the ANBU, need to do something, Neko can stay"

Hiruzen raised his eyebrows before he nodded and the ANBU left leaving behind Neko who came out and stood behind the Hokage. Naruto had felt another presence from the beginning that was similair to Danzos ROOT so wanted to make sure. He got his answer and immediately threw a lightning enchanced Kunai towards the left corner of the entrance, pinning the ROOT operative by the neck before he could register what had happened. Neko instantly went alert and closed in to secure the ROOT operative, though she found him dead, Hiruzen in the meantime had a ugly look when he saw that.

"I take it that wasn't one of yours, felt him from the start but wasn't sure until you dismissed the rest"

"*Sigh* why did you kill him, atleast keep him for T&I"

Naruto snorted with disdain hearing that, "Old man, don't be delusional, thats a ROOT and you know you won't get anything from them unless you want them to be secretly released by your dear council, Danzo seems to be getting angsty for some reason"

"I had already warned him on multiple occasions, he doesn't listen, but how could Orochimaru get in, with the barrier we have, it shouldn't be hard to detect him-"

"Unless he has inside help, from let's say someone who is aware of the barriers changes and has acess to the team." Naruto cut him off with sarcasm dripping from his voice.

Hiruzen just breathed out when he heard that, he already had an idea who it might've been and with Naruto throwing him under the bus, it wasn't hard to deduce, but he was thinking of what he would gain from this.

"What did he want with young Sasuke"

"Like what he wanted with Itachi, his body and eyes, he had almost perfected the jutsu he was experimenting on when he got caught by you and wants to use it on Sasuke, he already gave him the Cursed Seal of Heaven like Anko. He wouldn't need to work hard to get Sasuke, just tempt him with his revenge and thirst for power like a man giving kid candy"

Hiruzen stood up instantly with wide eyes, he knew what jutsu Naruto meant, it was the one he learned of when he cornered Orochimaru, the night he let him escape instead of killing him because of his hesitation. He was also worried and angry at Naruto, barely restraining his emotions.

"Why didn't you stop him from giving Sasuke the mark?"

"Whoa old man, you need to calm down, severe stress and emotions might give you a heart attack. He wants more than the Uchiha brat, or else he wouldn't bother coming here personally and just have one of his spies contact him. I can't alert him of my presence though he almost detected me due to being a pseudo Sage. I also needed Sasuke to get the mark so that I can see the early stages and remove it from Anko. Your problem now is to see how you'll convince that brat to not defect and see what Orochi is planning, I'm not chummy with him so I can't help you here. Neko help me with Anko please"

Hiruzen was in a thoughful mood, he needed to do something about all these issues. Neko had started undressing Ankos upper half and Hiruzen recovered to see Anko laying on her stomach naked from the top. Naruto started working on the removal, he took out a small scroll before unfurling it and imprinting the exact same curse mark on it with his eyes, when it was done he placed his palm on the scroll and 2 fingers on Ankos cursed mark, his eyes glowed and he transferred Orochimarus conciousness to the scroll.

Anko started screaming while the 3 commas rotated and released markings all over her body, they were slowly being removed from her skin and transferred to the scroll while it was glowing until only the 3 commas remained. Purple smoke soon came out of it and took the shape of Orochimarus face before it was guided into the scroll, closing it in the process. He had a need for the conciousness later on. When it was done, he asked Neko to dress her and take her to the hospital since she'll need medical attention due to overtaxing the chakra coils in her system from the removal of the seal and assimilation of the leftover chakra of Orochimaru. She nodded and disappeared from the window.

"Now that's done she should be recovered and back on duty soon with a stronger physical ability and more chakra as well as free from the snakes influence."

Hiruzen breathed out "Thank you Naruto, I'll be calling back Jiraya and see what he says about this, he might have recieved some information"

Naruto just nooded, removed the privacy seals before saying goodbye to return to the exam while leaving Hiruzen in his office to think with a dead corpse next to him.

Naruto appeared back in the tower before walking towards Gaaras room and knocking on it. It opened to show Temari, she looked at him with curious eyes and raised eyebrows.

"Yes? What the hell do you want?"

Naruto with a relaxed expression while his hands were in his pockets."Yo Temari-san, Can you call Gaara-chan and say his big bro is here"

She just looked at me with a incredulous expression "Gaara....chan?" Seeing me nod in confirmation, she turned around and went inside to call for Gaara while thinking he had a death wish. Gaara soon appeared with his arms crossed and a stoic expression. I didn't say anything before grabbing his arm and dragging him to the roof while he had a perplexed feel to him. We arrived there before I sat at the edge and indicated for him to do the same, while I radiated the same comforting presence from before, he hesitated for a moment before sitting and lowering his head in thought. We just kept it quiet for a bit and enjoyed the view of the forest, though it was broken by Gaara.

"Why are we here?"

I turned to him, "I wanted to learn more about my little bro, why don't you tell me about who you are?"

"I am a monster who only wants to prove I'm the strongest, I came into this world by killing the only woman I would've called mother and as long as there is someone left in this world, I'll continue to kill to prove my existence"

"Is that what you believe? then why do I feel deep loneliness coming off you, why do you have the marking for Love if you're all alone and instead choose to walk such a path." He flinched while looking at me, I could feel sadness before it turned into violent bloodthirst. He stood up with a crazed look and his sand rushed out of its gourd before shooting towards me, though it parted before it could hit me, he kept trying but it ended up with the same result.

"You need help Gaara, even your mother thinks so, not the one in your head but the real one, the one that left behind her spirit in the gourd to protect and love you."

"YOU'RE LYING, WHAT WOULD YOU UNDERSTAND, I'M A BROKEN MONSTER THAT ONLY FIGHTS FOR HIS OWN SAKE AND I LIVE TO LOVE NOONE BUT MYSELF, MOTHER IS THE ONLY ONE THAT CARES ABOUT ME, EVERYONE JUST RUNS AWAY IN FEAR EVEN WHEN I DIDN'T WANT TO HURT THEM, EVERYONE THAT GOT CLOSE TO ME ONLY WANTS MY DEATH, I CAN'T EVEN FEEL PHYSICAL PAIN OR GET DAMAGED BECAUSE I'M THE INCARNATION OF SAND, BUT WHY DOES MY CHEST ALWAYS HURT, EVEN MY UNCLE WHO SAID HE LOVED ME TRIED TO KILL ME, HE SAID MY MOTHER DIDN'T WANT ME, AND THAT MY NAME ONLY MEANS A DEMON THAT LOVES HIMSELF, FIGHTS FOR HIMSELF AND EXISTS ONLY FOR HIMSELF. SHE WANTED MY EXISTENCE TO BE ETERNAL AND BATH THIS WORLD IN BLOOD TO GET HER REVENGE, ONLY THEN CAN I BE THE STRONGEST. SO I FINALLY UNDERSTOOD AND INPRINTED THE WORD LOVE WITH MY SAND TO REMIND ME OF THIS FACT, THAT I AM ALWAYS ALONE, I AM ALWAYS UNLOVED, I WILL NOT BELIEVE ANYONE ANYMORE AND NOONE REALLY CARES ABOUT ME, SO YOU'RE LYING AND I'LL PROVE IT BY SPILLING YOUR BLOOD FOR MOTHER"

I stood there and listened to him with sadness, a pure child tainted by this world to be used and manipulated to this extent, it left me bitter to look at. His sand kept trying to attack me but I could feel the spirit of his mother inside the sand in the gourd unwilling to attack, it felt like she was calling out for me to help her child, he doesn't realize it after all that trauma.

I started walking up to him slowly while sand surrounded me, I instantly set up barrier seals and punched him into the ground cracking it and his armor while he spit out blood. He laid there dazed, he couldn't understand the sensation of pain and the red liquid that came out of him.

"Blood?? m-my blood??? hahahahahaAHAHAHAHA MY BLOOD HAHAHAHA-" He stopped when he felt something warm embrace him, he instinctively looked up and saw it was Naruto. "See, even monsters like us can bleed, I also have one in me, it doesn't define me or control me, you already have people that love you close by, I could feel your siblings worry and the deep love they have for you, but you close yourself off and threaten them with death instead of looking at them properly, so trust your big bro and let me help alright? Sleep and it'll feel better when you wake up" Naruto slowly expanded his presence and wrapped it around Gaara, making him feel warm and safe, he kept looking at Narutos eyes for any deceit, seeing none he nodded and slowly closed his eyes and went to sleep with a peaceful expression.

When Gaara went to sleep Naruto instantly placed a seal on his abondmen to stop Shukaku from emerging, he can only keep him in check for 2 minutes. He unclothed Gaaras top and saw the seal before he started cursing like a sailor, the seal only worked like a storage scroll and didn't even get the aspect for spirituality, which means that Shukaku could influence his host mentally without the seal interferring, slowly driving them crazy to take control. I instantly prepared everything, I only had 30 seconds so I undid the seal with my eyes and I unlocked a scroll from my wrist that I prepared beforehand. I placed my palms over his abondmen and my eyes glowed before transferring the seal from the scroll.

#FUIGAN SEALING ART: EIGHT TRIGRAMS SEALING STYLE: TORRI SEAL#

When it was done, Naruto was blinded by Gaaras whole body glowing a bright brown colour before it settled down and he appeared again but this time Naruto found himself inside Gaaras mindscape, he saw a endless desert and felt the overwheling chakra that was present throughout it. He looked around and found Gaara sitting down on a dune and watching the desert, he walked towards him slowly before placing his hand on his shoulder. Gaara was surprised to feel someone else inside here, he had already felt the changes that were happening, he turned around to see Naruto smiling down at him.

"See, It's fine now, all you had to do was believe that some people can help you and everything will go well, what your uncle told you was also a lie, your mother loved you with all her heart when she gave birth to you, that overwheling love allowed her spirit to stay injected into your sand gourd to let her forever protect you from harm, or else your sand wouldn't move on its own"

He looked down at the sand before answering after a while "Really? then why would they tell me all this" I could feel the desperation and hope from his voice alone.

"It was probably to kill off your emotions. You have to understand that Jinchuuriki like us are treated as human sacrifices, we are a deterent to other villages, and they can't have us not loyal or emotional to a village. Some achieve this by showing love towards their Jinchuuriki while others take the part where they abuse them early to starve them for attention and give them that attention slowly while indoctorating their ideals, though some take the loyalty for granted sometimes, making them escape. That was the way your father wanted you to be, he didn't want a emotionally unstable Jinchuuruki, so he set your uncle up to do that, knowing he will die in the process. I'm not sure if he really loved you, but I'm sure your mother did"

He nodded while I sat beside him to let him lean in my shoulder, ignoring his trembling and the tears that he's releasing, allowing him to let out all the bottled up emotions. We sat there for what felt like hours before I ruffled his hair, letting me see a small genuine smile on his face.

"You need to do one last thing and that is confront your dark self inside here, do you think you're ready? we can always do it later, but you need to understand yourself to not regress back, you can either fuse with it willingly or beat it and absorb it, it's up to you, but you need to know that the more positive and accepting emotions you'll have when fighting it, the weaker it gets."

"I'll confront it nii-san"

I grinned when I heard him call me that and put him in a headlock before grinding my fist on his head. I let go and told him to be careful, and that I'll be waiting for his sucess outside. My eyes glowed before I sent him into his subconscious, the same way the pandas did.

I soon found myself back at the towers roof, I only had to wait and see if it succeeds, hopefully a pure child like him won't get to suffer anymore. I sat and looked out towards the setting sun while letting out a heavy sigh.