Naruto Gojo

Chunin Preliminaries

Iruka-sensei what are you doing here?' Asked Naruto.

'I'm here to welcome you back and congratulate you on passing the second phase of the Chunin exams.' Said Iruka smiling.

Iruka told them about the purpose of the second exam which in addition to survival, was to test the integrity of the ninja to not read classified documents or in this case the scrolls. After that he bid them farewell and they went into the tower's inner area.

Naruto found out that Kiba's team had already arrived as well as Gaara's team. Since there were still two days until the exams were over Naruto decided to spar with his clones. After placing Sakura in the designated medical ward so they could look her over , he looked around for a place where he could be alone and found that the arena which depicted a gigantic set of hands making a seal with a viewing platform was completely empty. He then created clones and started thr spar..

Timeskip

After two hours Naruto had decided he had enough practice. He was about to leave the area when Gaara approached him.

'Naruto Uzumaki.' He said in that same monotonous tone he always used.

'Gaara.' Replied Naruto inclining his head slightly to see Gaara as he was sitting on the floor. 'Would you like to sit down?' Offered Naruto gesturing to the floor next to him.

Gaara politely declined but went on to speak 'When you mentioned that word to me, friends, I could not understand you. I thought you were someone who could understand my pain.'

'Why does me having friends make you think I don't understand your pain?' Inquired Naruto.

'Those with friends cannot understand me as I live only for myself and to prove my existence. It is because of my loneliness that I am, as I am. I was born in the loneliness.
I came into this world by taking the life of what I would have called my mother at which point I was constantly feared for what I contained. I thought I could trust people in my naivety but my father disproved this with his constant assassination attempts on my life, the life of his own flesh and blood.' He paused before continuing.
'I realised that I couldn't trust my father and he realised that he couldn't kill me so he sent me to my uncle. I thought it was then that I had someone I could trust but this was a lie as one day he was ordered to kill me by my father. However despite this order he told me, after I had almost killed him, that he could have declined.
It was then that I realised I had no one which was further punctuated by the fact that he told me he hated me and in a last ditch effort gave up his life in an attempt to kill me.' Finished Gaara.
Naruto looked into his eyes and thought he saw anguish in them.

'Tell me why is it that you fight Uzumaki?' Asked Gaara.

'I fight to protect those important to me. My girlfriend told me that if you have someone to fight for, you become truly strong.' Said Naruto.

'I don't understand, others make you weak and can cause you to die if you rely on them.' Said Gaara confused.

'Gaara I make you this promise, I will make you understand because even though you don't believe it I have suffered just as you have, but I found a way to achieve true strength and it is this, that I shall show you.' Said Naruto.

'I think you are a fool Uzumaki but if you can prove that my way is wrong and your way is better I will try to change, however if you cannot prove your way is better than mine I will crush you, drench my sand in your blood and prove my existence.' Stated Gaara before walking off.

Kabuto and his team meet with Orochimaru before the next stage of the exams start and Kabuto gives him the intel he's gathered on Sasuke.

Two days later