Chapter 12

"If you are cold, you hurt people. If you are sensitive, they hurt you."

Chapter 12The Chunin exam and a new Jinjuriki

No one's pov:

Naruto didn't go out for two days. Although Kurama doesn't approve of Naruto skipping his training, he still let him stay indoors and had him practice chakra control.

During these two days, his teammates tried to get him out in hopes of talking to him but Naruto wouldn't come out.

On the third day, he decided to leave his safe space. He took a bath and changed into his outfit.

"Naruto, are you going to skip breakfast again?" Kurama asked.

"Not hungry" was Naruto's short reply.

Kurama sighed. His kit hasn't eaten anything since the wave mission. He seem almost unrecognisable with exhausted composure and dark eyebags from lack of sleep.

Naruto locked his apartment and head out to the bridge where they usually meet.

When he reached there, he saw Sakura and Sakura already there waiting for Obito.

"Hn, dobe. You finally decided to show up." Sasuke said in a serious tone.

"Quit it, Sasuke-kun." Sakura interjected remembering what happened last time before Naruto isolated himself.

Sasuke also remembered how Naruto flinched last time when they tried to comfort him. He sighed and looked at Naruto.

Naruto is looking down not facing the two. He decided to ignore them and walked to the other side of the bridge and sat down.

A few moments later, Obito appeared with three paper slips. Upon seeing Naruto, he grinned.

"Glad to have you back Naruto. How are you feeling?"

Naruto looked up for three to five seconds before looking down again."I'm fine."

Obito sighed.

"Alright, I'm here to give you these slips for Chunin exam. If you wanna participate, fill this form and hand it over to me by tomorrow noon. Oh..one more thing. You can only participate as a team." He said and gave them the forms.

"Naruto, are you free today? Wanna grab some ramen?" Obito asked.

"Not hungry." Naruto said coldly as he walked away with the form. The other three looked at each other with worry.

As he walked away, his tears started to flow down. It took a lot of courage for Naruto to just be around his teammates. And it's only been a few minutes, but he still feel threatened when he was there.

As he entered the main road, he felt the stares and mumbles of the villagers. His tears kept flowing as he ran away from them.

He wasn't looking where he was going and bumped into someone. He fell on his butt a looked up to see a teenage boy. He isvery tall, has light fair skin, dark brown hair, black eyes, and two thick eyebrows. He wore a black, baggy, full body suit with a red and yellow circle on the front. He also wears a black hood which covered his head completely, and had cat-like ears and his forehead protector on his forehead.

Behind him was a girl. She has dark green eyes and sandy blonde hair, which is gathered into four consecutive pigtails. Her outfit consists of a single light purple-coloured, off-the-shoulders garment that extended to halfway down her thighs, with a scarlet sash tied around her waist. In addition to incorporating fishnet worn over her shoulders and legs, specifically on her right calf and her left thigh, she also wore her black forehead protector around her neck.

The boy he ran into turned towards Naruto. He grabbed him by his throat and lifted up as Naruto struggled to free himself. He saw the tears running down the blonde's face and decided to mock him.

"Oh Temari, look at this. The kid is bawling his eyes like there's no tomorrow."

The girl, now identified as Temari, tried to calm the teenage boy.

"Kankuro, calm down. We're not in our village. Behave yourself."

Before Kankuro could say anything, Naruto's body covered in red chakra. Kurama sensed the seal of despair activating, and took matters into his hands.

Kurama's red chakra burned Kankuro's hands and he let go of Naruto. Naruto's appearance changed. His whiskers now darkened and his baby blue eyes turned into red with slits.

Kurama took over Naruto.

"Just what do you think you are doing brat? I assume that you're shinobi from the sand village, here to take Chunin exam. What are you doing here harassing a leaf shinobi? Do you have any idea how the third hokage would react if you harm Konoha ninja? Especially if the ninja is the jinjuriki?" Kurama snarled at the boy through Naruto.

"Kankuro, you are a disgrace to our village." A red head boy came from behind Kankuro.

"G-gaara!" The girl and the boy trembled at the presence of the red head.

The said boy, Gaara has fair skin, green eyes, and short auburn hair; for most of his life his hair is spiky. He lacks distinctive pupils or eyebrows, the latter of which others sometimes make fun of. He's had tanuki-like black rings around his eyes his whole life, which might be a sign he has insomnia. As a child, he carved the kanji for "love" (愛, ai) on the left side of his forehead, which his hair is parted in order for it to be kept visible.

Gaara isn't necessarily terrifying, but rather very strict and very loyal to the village. So whenever someone misbehave, let's just say it doesn't end well for that person.

"Apologize to him this instant." Gaara ordered Kankuro.

"Y-yes" Kankuro stuttered and started to apologise vigorously. But Kurama wasn't paying attention to them. His attention solely was on Gaara.

"Shukaku." Kurama growled. "I see you are the jinjuriki of the one tails."

"That would be correct. I assume you're the same as me."

"He's Naruto. The jinjuriki of the nine tails."

"May I speak with Naruto?" Gaara asked.

Kurama looked at him skeptically for few moments and then nodded slowly.

"You may! But be careful. He's not the friendly type, so approach him gently, unlike your friend there." Kurama glared at Kankuro.

Gaara nodded.

(Oh before continuing, there are a few changes from the actual anime plot. In my story, Gaara is the only child of the Kazekage. He's not shunned by his village nor treated as the apple of the eye. He's always in the castle away from the villagers. He only goes out for training and missions. Temari and Kankuro are the children of the elders and not Gaara's siblings.)

Kurama switched back to Naruto. Naruto swayed a bit but caught himself. He held his head and looked at the three people infront of him.

Gaara smiled gently as he slowly approached him. Naruto's eyes widen with fear as he takes steps back. Gaara saw this and immediately stopped. He got an idea what is going on, as he is a jinjuriki himself. He knows jinjurikis aren't treated well, infact treated worse.

"It's okay...we won't harm you. We just wanted to be friends."

Behind Naruto, Gaara saw a pink haired girl and a raven haired boy running towards them.

"Naruto!" They shouted. Naruto flinched badly and turned around. His clothes moved from the shoulder and Gaara saw the seal of despair. He knew about this seal from one of the classified scrolls he read in the archive. His eyes widened and everything clicked.

With how jinjurikis are treated plus the seal of despair, Gaara now understand fully why Kurama asked him to approach Naruto with gentleness. It's to not provoke or trigger him. And from the way Naruto is acting, Gaara is sure that Naruto's life has been hell.

"Tch.. Gaara. You choose this scaredy cat as your friend? You are the son of Kazekage, have some standards." Kankuro yelled, clearly ignoring Kurama's warning.

Sakura and Sasuke glared at him, while Temari had a 'I'm tired' look.

Gaara swiftly turned around and glared at Kankuro. "Be quite!" Gaara said seriously.

With all the commotion Kankuro caused, no one noticed Naruto's change of composure. Kurama literally facepalmed and tried to distract Naruto but it was too late.

The seal on Naruto's shoulder glowed bright blue as markings started appear on his face and body. Purple, black and red chakra started emitting from Naruto like a thick smock.

Naruto started to laugh. Everyone turned around and their eyes widen at the amount of KI. Gaara, Sasuke and Sakura immediately realised that something triggered Naruto.

"What should we do?" Gaara asked.

"Only Sasuke can calm him down." Sakura said.

Sasuke nodded and tried to approach Naruto but Naruto was faster.

Naruto lunged forward and kicked Kankuro. He flew back and hit a tree, coughing blood.

Sasuke immediately hugged him not letting him see the blood. The last thing they want is his bloodthirst taking over.

Naruto calmed down, thanks to Sasuke holding him firmly without giving in to the struggles. As the markings disappeared, Naruto fell unconscious on Sasuke.

To be continued...