The sight on the top of the Hokage tower caused all the pieces of the puzzle to click together in Naruto's head. The kybuki's warning about the boy from the sand village. Shizune working for someone else. The last name on Sakura's list that he hadn't run into yet. As dawn rose above Kohona, everything clicked in Naruto's brain.

Yup, I found the killer alright, Naruto thought. Now all I have to do is find a way to keep him from killing me.

Gaara, for his part, seemed relatively unconcerned with the fact that the whole of the village could see him, or that Naruto was being carried by what appeared to be his sister after an incredible growth spurt. The only sounds that escaped his lips were moans of hunger.

"So, you and Shizune..."

"Shizune?" Gaara asked. "She was an appetizer, nothing more. You..." he hissed, "you're the main course. "I've waited far too long for your taste. All those others, they tried to take you...to bring you to me, but they failed. You will be eaten Naruto."

"OK, you've lost it," was all Naruto could say in reply. A dark chuckle escaped Gaara's lips as his attention turned to Kameko.

"You have done well bringing him here. Now give him to me, and I will not hurt you."

"As if," the blond huffed at the tiny form on top of the tower. "I'm not your stupid sister, and I'm not taking orders from you."

"GIVE HIM TO ME," Gaara roared, "or else I will rip your body limb from limb and then take Naruto's body to consume."

Kameko had heard enough. Raising her enormous hand, she moved it to slap Gaara, taking the top of the tower along with it. "You've got some nerve insulting a goddess little brat!" she angrily added as the slap hit full force.

When her hand cleared, both Kameko and Naruto were shocked by the sight. Gaara, or rather half of a Gaara that appeared to be formed from sand, looked on from the crumpled roof of the Hokage tower.

"A sand clone?" Naruto asked.

"No...I am the sand. The sand and I are one...and we both hunger..."

If Naruto understood what the hell Gaara's cryptic words meant, he did nothing to show it. Staring at the Kazekage, he quickly turned to Kameko, who had assumed a pose Naruto recognized.

"You've gotta be kidding."

With a fan similar to the one Temari wielded, only equal to her enormous scale, Kameko assumed the stance of Kamaitachi no Jutsu, a favorite technique of Temari's which caused a powerful whirlwind to form. At Kameko's scale, and with a level of chakra more than likely thousands of times that of Temari's, such an attack would more than likely level the entirety of Kohona.

"Wait a sec!" Naruto shouted. "Isn't that a bit much?"

"He's like, not human," Kameko replied. "If he's sand, this should make sure that he doesn't reform or anything gnarly like that."

"But the village!" he protested.

"It'll be fine," the giant blond assured him. "Don't you trust me?"

Naruto didn't answer.
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June 2
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