"I don't expect you to do a complete one-eighty and change the way you think just because you lost once," Naruto tells Sasuke. "But you better start getting it through your thick skull you aren't the only one suffering."
Naruto lets a heaving and bleeding Sasuke go and the raven-haired avenger drops to a knee so near to passing out if not for his sheer will to refuse to. Instead, he vaguely hears Kiba gasp, "I don't believe it," before the proctor calls,
"Winner, Uzumaki Naruto."
NARUTO
As attendants begin rushing to clean the war-ravaged stage of blood and debris, Naruto hops and sticks to the railing in front of a provoked Gaara, eying him sternly as he expresses, "I'm being serious about becoming friends, you know," as his red chakra-tails ebb and flow hypnotically.
Gaara's icy blue eyeseyes of death and hatred that long for absolute strengthglare at the latest and clearest threat to his very existence. If his father ever hired this blond boy to try and kill him, Gaara hates to admit he may succeed and it only makes the redhead want to kill Naruto more.
"I still am," Naruto adds. Looking at the tattoo of love on his forehead, Naruto can't help but explain, "I think we have a lot in common, like, I'm sure we've both had a tough life, but, I know we can get along if we give it a try."
Relishing in the thought of destroying yet another one of life's plans to end his life, Gaara heartlessly shares, "loneliness is the only companionship that exists, so I have no need of yours."
"Are you a fortune-teller," Naruto asks with a smirk. "Can you see the future? If not, I can't imagine how you would know if you don't need a friend."
Like his ultimate defense, Gaara's cold face is impassive as he reveals, "I fight only for my sake and I live to love no one but myself. A soul needs a purpose to live and I've come to learn my purpose is to kill everyone besides myself. It's how I feel alive."
"Well, I don't believe that, like, at all," Naruto emphasizes, a little surprised by the redhead's bitter enmity.
From Naru-nii's stories, Naruto knows they've gone through the same challenges in life, and while one-by-one, Naruto gained Teuchi-jiji, Ayame-neechan, Iruka-sensei, and Ji-chan, followed by Nai-chan, Haku, Ino-chan, Hinata-chan, and his teammates, Gaara only met betrayal after betrayal from his village and even his family.
It took no effort at all for Naruto to imagine that large, dark, chasm of loathing hatred if he didn't have his loved ones.
So with a great longing to help the murderous boy in front of him, Naruto declares, "friends and family are what help you feel alive. You probably just need the right friend and I'm going to show you exactly that."
Assuming his intentions to be threatening, Gaara leans forward, primed to attack as he coldly avows, "I will not cease to exist. Your bitter corpse's crimson tears will flow and mingle with the endless sand, feeding the chaos within me, making me stronger.
Your bloody death, will make me stronger." The cork from the gourd wiggles free, prompting Temari and Kankur to take several steps back from their young brother as they look to Baki.
Overflowing with Kurama's chakra, Naruto isn't worried. What's important to him is that he doesn't blink. He stares down Gaara's icy blue eyes, determined to show his fellow Jinchriki that no matter how much he fights or doubts, someone will stand by his side.
Judging by their glare, the two from Kabuto's team seem to. Looking at the circumspect faces of Shikamaru, Chji, Kiba, Lee, and Tenten, Naruto can't imagine they'd ever want to hang out now.
However, looking at Sakura, Hinata, Ino, and Kurenai's mournful, agitated alarm, he soon realizes there's something more important to worry about.
His relationship with Kurenai has taught him how others might feel if he died or was seriously injured. That night with her made a deep impression on him that cannot be removed, and due to that reflection, he knows Hinata-chan and Kurenai-chan will have been worried about him; possibly even Ino-chan.
Kurenai has grown to be just as irreplaceable as Iruka-sensei, Ji-chan, Naru-nii, and because of the raven-haired jnin, Naruto can imagine they might feel the same about him.
'Another reason to help Gaara,' Naruto thinks as he walks the length of the stage toward the stairs. 'So he can feel that love as well.'
Thinking along those lines, he can't imagine Kurenai, Ino, Hinata, and possibly Sakura felt good about witnessing him be impaled. Walking up the stairs, he wonders if they might've felt like the time when he was helpless to watch Iruka-sensei protect him by taking a Fuma Shuriken to the spine.
Being forced to watch someone he cares about be grievously injured was devastated for Naruto, and even if Kurenai, Ino, and Hinata don't care about him to the same degree, he doesn't want them to worry about him any more than they need to.
Traversing the final step to the walkway, Naruto takes his blood-smeared jacket off and wraps it around his waist knotting it by the sleeves. There's still a reddish hole in the wire-mesh armored shirt but his tan skin is clear and without a mark.
The thoughtful blond reasons, 'if they see I'm not hurt,then that'd obviously make them feel better.'
Nearly to the stunned group, the electric board begins bleeping as it runs through random names, and a widely smiling Naruto calls out to his fellow Konoha ninja, "yo!"
His face was cheerful, his posture was upbeat, and his hand waved to them, but he doesn't receive quite the reception he was hoping for. Shikamaru, Chji, Kiba, Tenten, and Lee were staring at him in disbelief, lost for words. Neji's sharp eyes are practically glaring at him.
Kurenai and the jnin were unreadable, Ino-chan and Sakura were a mix of relief and doubt, and Hinata was blushing, reserved, and eerily still.
Fortunately, the electronic board chooses another pair of names to duel. Kiba and another Konoha shinobi named Yoroi begin their walk to the newly swept stage below. Upon passing the Inuzuka, Naruto notices Kiba's small pupils, made worse by widened eyes, parted mouth, and drawn brows at him.
Rather than force himself within their circle, Naruto simply leans on the railing several paces away as Kiba and Yoroi take their place, however, he's surprised when Ino-chan leans against the railing beside him.
She's so close to him, her shoulder touches his, and while her focus remains on the match below, he notices the red hue on her cheeks as she tells him, "you scared me."
He marvels by her warmth and willingness to be beside him and absentmindedly answers, "I'm sorry."
Giving his shoulder an affectionate shove as her pupil-less blue eyes remain on the stage as she tells him, "don't think you're getting out of making this up to me."