Above is Naruto (14). The REAL Naruto, kind of. (Not an ANBU, sorry) this is what he might wear on a mission. What would he wear around the village though?? I'll show you next chapter!

Ohayo, minna! Sorry not sorry about the cliffie! :)

When Our Tails Are Tied- Part Three: Look At Me- Section 2

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"Make me myself again, okay Otouto?"

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Naruto whimpered aloud as the seal on his came back full force, making his body freeze up.

Sasuke looked at him in confusion, before noticing that the three Suna nin were walking away. "Hey, wait!" he said. "What's your name?"

The three stopped, and the blonde girl pointed at herself in disbelief. Sasuke nearly groaned in irritation. Stupid fangirls... "No, the red head."

Gaara raised a nonexistent eyebrow. "Me? I am... Interested in who you are as well." Naruto could distinctly feel a strong bout of jealousy stirring inside him as the Uchiha smirked at that. Who was he to hog the red head to himself?

"I am Uchiha Sasuke." Sasuke told the boy, although said boy seemed to be completely indifferent to meeting the famed 'last Uchiha'.

Gaara glared at the arrogant genin. "My name is Subaku no Gaara (Gaara of the Sand).... I look forward to fighting you in the exams."

Sasuke narrowed his eyes. Exams? As in The Chuunin exams? This just keeps getting better. "Hn. Same." he smirked.

Naruto, seeing the end of this confrontation through his inner struggling, forced his will to battle with that of the seal's. Dammit, GET HIS ATTENTION!!!

As this was a regular sequence that the seal went through (being obnoxious, loud, and attention seeking), the fault allowed Naruto to slip past its control for a mere second, but that was all he needed.

"W-Wait!" his weak voice called out, just before the red haired twelve year old turned away again. "D-Don't you want to know my name?!" Naruto ignored how desperate he must have sounded, because he was that desperate.

Gaara turned to him with a slight frown. "....No."

Naruto fell back a step, control over the seal tightening subconsiously. He... He doesn't... Even remember me?

"Y-You..." Naruto stammered, sounding hurt. But that pain quickly flew to the wind. "You..." he growled, reigning in all of his chakra in anger, snatching back his control over the seal.

"YOU...." he seethed, balling his fists in anger. A sharp cracking sound filled the air, as if some glass was under immense pressure. A red glow flared into existence around the malevolent blonde, whose said hair was burning the bright color away, leaving a shocking red in its wake. His eyes were lowered towards the ground. Black ash floated skyward from his clothing.

All the surrounding genins were frozen in terror, although Gaara was watching the transformation with some sort of awed excitement. Although every last one of them took a few steps back as a wave of heat erupted from the former blonde, his hideous orange jacket going up in flames, slightly longer red hair flickering and writhing like an angry possessed fire.

"Gaara..." Naruto slowly lifted his head as his skin shifted from sunny tan to a soft pale, rage on all of his pointed features. "You.... you... LISTEN WHEN YOUR OLDER BROTHER IS TALKING TO YOU!!!" He growled, launching himself at the fellow jinchuuriki in a blur of red.

There was a sound of smashing glass as the two red- haired teens blurred out of sight, before coming to a halt with an audible screech. Naruto's fist was encased in crystallized sand, which was about an inch away from Gaara's face, which had large cracks in it that were steadily trickling streams of sand.

The other genin gave out cries of shock, but Gaara grinned insanely as his eyes momentarily flashed a pale gold. Gaara's sand held the ex-blonde away, and now he could see the boy's enraged snarl up close, blue eyes flashing icily. Finally, a worthy opponent!

"How dare you..." Naruto snarled.

Gaara grinned in his face. "Gomenosai (I apologize), but I have no idea what you mean."

The two looked at each other for a second longer, then the glass around Naruto's fist exploded as his arm glowed white hot. Naruto pulled his hand away and twisted into a harsh kick aimed for Gaara's head, which was blocked by another wave of sand. Gaara tried to wrap his sand around Naruto's waist, but was stopped as a white hot foot smashed into his stomach, and Naruto was rocketed away from him.

Said boy rolled into a crouch as he came to a stop several feet from his opponent.

Naruto growled quietly as his blue eyes glared angrily from behind his long curtain of bangs.

Gaara was visibly shaking, one hand pressed against his stomach wound.

Sasuke, Kankuro, and Temari watched from where they stood with shock.

"He's never gotten hurt before.." Kankuro muttered. Temari looked on, worried. "Just who the hell is that guy?!"

Sasuke said nothing, but he did turn when three new presences appeared behind them. Kakashi stood behind him looking more alert than the genin had ever seen him, with what appeared to be two more jounin.

The male jounin gaped at the two redheads from where he stood, his lit cigarette tumbling from his mouth. The two charged each other again, going at such high speeds that it was almost hard for them to follow. The female jounin gasped at the sight, her exotic red eyes wide. "Holy..." She breathed.

"Sasuke! What happened here?" Kakashi demanded. Sasuke frowned. "Naruto. That's what." He pointed at the now (finally) red haired Uzumaki, who had just gotten up from being thrown half a yard away from his opponent, who was panting and severely injured in many places.

Kakashi looked confused, but then his eyes found the telltale whisker like marks that marred the person's angry face. In an instant he whirled on his two comrades.

"Asuma!" The now named Asuma straightened, on high alert. "Go alert Hokage-sama that Naruto has been affected. No side stops, and no one is to hear of this along the way!" Kakashi barked. Asuma's eyes widened, before he disappeared in a Body Flicker.

"Kurenai! Alert the ANBU to set up a perimeter, nobody enters or exits this district until Hokage-sama and Asuma returns. All remaining jounin are to help make sure all of this is kept under wraps!"

Kurenai gave a sharp salute. "HAI, Taichou." She Body Flickered away.

Kakashi turned back to Sasuke, who was kind of freaked out to see his deranged teacher acting like a shinobi for once. "Hey! You three will tell me exactly what happened here." He said, gathering the attention of the two Suna genin.

"To be honest... I have no idea." Kankuro said. Temari agreed, and Sasuke merely became entranced in the ongoing fight, which had seemingly escalated while his attention was diverted.

Gaara was not happy. At first he was exhilarated that he had finally found someone to match his power, someone worthy of his full attention.

But now... Now he was pissed. His head had a huge gash in it from a brutal kick that his opponent had landed, and the blood ran into one of his eyes so he couldn't see clearly. His chest and stomach ached, bruises already forming. He had many burns running up down his hands and forearms. His sand swirled erratically, angrily... Frustrated that he couldn't catch the boy. When he did catch him, the boy would superheat his sand into crystals, taking more and more from his defense.

Though what really made him mad was the fact that the boy wasn't even hurt. Those times where Gaara could get the sand to wrap around his chest and/or arms and crush them, the boy would only growl before the limbs and ribs fixed themselves, snapping and crunching as the bones relocated themselves to the proper position.

Gaara seethed in frustration as he lost more of his sand trying to block a kick aimed for his side, yet the impact still made his bones ache. Actual pain really hurt, fuck.

He pushed the boy away again, sending him sliding backwards several feet. This time though, he stayed in his crouched position.

"Do you..." Naruto looked up, breathing heavily as he spoke. "Do you seriously not remember?" He asked.

Gaara glared at him from the safety of where he stood. "No... I told you earlier. I have NO. IDEA. WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT."

Naruto gave an aggravated growl once again, but seemed to have reigned in his anger a bit. He threw his hands into the air and cursed under his breath. Er... almost under his breath.

"GAH! KAMI FUCKING DAMMIT- FUCK!" After his little tantrum, Naruto gave a defeated groan, both hands resting on top of his head before sliding down the length of his face. "All the damn Sandaime's fault..." He muttered to himself.

Naruto's cerulean eyes locked with Gaara's pale teal eyes.

"Do you really not recognise me?" His tone was defeated, sad eyes gazing at the other.

Gaara shook his head, eyes clouded with pain and confusion. "I... I recognize your power... It's...familiar.."

Naruto gave a start as an idea struck him. "So you remember some part of me... How about this, then?"

Gaara stared in shock as his opponent started to change, his red hair shortening and turning into a much lighter shade of glowing red. Red chakra flared around the boy, forming large red visages of tails behind him. As the chakra poured outward, blood poured from the six whisker like scars as they tore open viciously. His eyes flickered visibly as one gained a shattered glass look and the other turned a burning bright red.

Both were slit like a predator's.

Gaara shrunk backwards in fear, a feeling he rarely felt.

Naruto took a step towards the retreating boy, a disappointed look marring his blood covered face.

"Do you not remember me, outoto?" He asked. "It has been a while... eight years, I think. But still..." Naruto's face shadowed. "The least you could have done was recognised me."

Gaara stumbled over his own feet at the harsh, clipped words that had just escaped the boy's lips. Gaara flinched as his eyes made contact with the mismatched colored ones. "I-I'm sorry... I don't-"

"I see."

Gaara felt his new sense of fear grow even further, as the boy whispered that small sentence.

"I understand that it has been quite a while, and I'll even admit that a couple of minutes ago, I had no idea who you were either. But at least I recognised you. I remembered you. Why can't you do the same for me?" Naruto's voice had dissolved into a low murmur, his eyes glazed with unshed tears.

"You promised me...." He stepped closer to Gaara, now just an arm's reach away. "You promised that you would help me.. make me myself again. Do you remember that, outoto?"

Tears fell from the Uzumaki's red framed face. He daringly reached his arm across the small gap between them, to rest gently on the other boy's head. "You did it." He said softly.

"You saved me."