Second Chance

Chapter 29

Chapter 29: Leaving Nothing Behind
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"Will Uzumaki Naruto and Sabaku no Gaara please come down to the arena floor?" Taking a deep calming breath Naruto jumped over the railing and met Genma in the middle of the ring. Gaara followed no to much later in a suna shunshin though it seemed somewhat harder for the boy than normal. Looking at both fighter Genma nodded to himself.
"The final match of the semi-finals may now begin!" He jumped away quickly as Naruto, much like the Uzumaki before him, rocketed forward and sent a punch straight to the face of the Suna genin. Gaara had no time to react but to everyone's surprise, the sand still came to the boy's defense just barely making it to prevent him from receiving any injuries.

"Well would you look at that? I guess it wasn't Shukaku protecting you this whole time, was it?" Naruto chirped. Gaara stared at the sand in confusion before a memory of his uncle flashed to the front of his mind.

"Is this...what Yashamaru meant?"

"Say something?" Naruto replied with an irritating smile.

"My uncle once told me that the sand that protected me was doing so by my mother's will even after her death...Is this what he meant?" Gaara asked quietly. Despite being whispered, the words echoed over the entirety of the stadium and many Suna shinobi winced. Like Gaara they to had believed the defense to be Shukaku's however, Shukaku had been cut off from Gaara. So it was obvious that it wasn't, now they were questioning everything that they knew about him.

"Looks like it. Besides from my understanding a parent's job is to protect their child and a mother tends to do so on a level that a lot of father's can't."

"From your understanding?"

"I'm an orphan. Never knew my parents. So I wouldn't know from experience but I have spent a lot of time watching families trying to picture my parents and me in their places. Trying to imagine what it would have been like if they had survived the Kyubi attack." Naruto confessed fibbing a little about not knowing his parents.

"You...no..you wouldn't understand what it feels like...what I feel! You don't have a monster in you!"

"Yes I do." The stadium went dead silent at the declaration. Gaara staring in confusion.

"Where do you think the Kyubi went after it vanished from the battle field? The Yondaime sealed it inside of the only child born that day, me. I know how it feels to be hated and feared for something beyond my control. I live it everyday here in the leaf. It's human nature to fear what we don't understand and the bijuu are the one thing on the planet that shinobi know next to nothing about. So naturally they fear them. Label them. Label the jinchuriki who have had them forced upon them. Monsters. Demons. Insist that we don't deserve to live or have the same rights that everyone else do." Naruto stated making the genin stare in shock.

"However, while it is in our nature to fear what we don't understand it is also our choice not to. I'm certain that if people had sat down centuries ago and made an effort to try and understand the bijuu we wouldn't be here right now. There wouldn't be any need for jinchuriki and the bijuu and humans could live side by side in peace. Protecting each other. I'm sure you have felt it Gaara. Shukaku's madness grew with each attempt on both of your lives. It's not you they are trying to kill but the tanuki in you. This is how they must have lived for centuries, constantly being attacked for merely existing. It's no wonder they behave the way that they do." Naruto took a breath and tilted his head towards the crowd so he could seem them and Gaara.

"After finding out about my status ten months ago I did a lot of thinking about it and no matter how I try to find a different conclusion I can't. Bijuu just like their jinchuriki are nothing more than a product of their environment and attitudes towards them. Humans may label us but the fact is that they are the reason that jinchuriki exist in the first place. They spent so long hating the bijuu and attacking them that the bijuu have begun to hate them back. They learned from experience to attack before they are attacked. Just as you have."