3 Months later, Uzushiogakure.

''Well, Nii-san, Karin... I'll be going to the Land of Iron, you know... Six Kage's Meeting and all. Can you take care of everything while I'm away, Nii-san?'' Naruto said while looking towards Kakashi.

The white-haired man looked at him by the side of his eyes before saying in his usual indifferent manner: ''Fine. You could leave that to your clones but it's ok, you can leave that to the big bro here.''

''Pffft.''

Karin looked towards Kakashi while giving him a weird stare: ''Since when do you talk so 'big bro here'? Did a bug devour your brain or something?''

''...'' Kakashi felt there was no warmth in this world anymore.

Sighing, he looked at them in an annoyed manner before saying: ''Tch, just go already, brat. I'll be taking good care of Uzushiogakure in the meanwhile.''

Turning to Naruto, Karin said while giving him puppy dog eyes: ''Nee nee, Naruto-kun, don't you want to bring me along to the Six Kage's Meeting as your assistant? I promise to behave!''

'Using these eyes against me? Foolish... But I do need someone to come with me, since Nii-san will be taking care of Uzushiogakure, I'll bring Karin.' Naruto thought, the redhead was the closest person to him besides Kakashi, Sasuke and Hinata.

In the two years that passed, Karin had grown quite a bit from her previous small stature. Now she was around 162 centimeters tall and her good ''parts'' had developed well enough.

Her once child-like face matured very quickly, becoming even more beautiful and delicate compared to before, Karin's hair was long and reached up to her waist. Even Naruto couldn't help but admit that she no longer looked like a brat, patting her head, he said: ''Why not? So, want to go through teleportation or portals?''

Enjoying the warmth of Naruto's hands, Karin said while snuggling close to him: ''Teleportation makes me want to vomit, let's go through portals!''

Naruto didn't reject her approach at all and was given thumbs up by Kakashi. Deadpanning, he opened up a portal as Space started to distort, a black-colored void appeared before their eyes. [A/N: For clearer descriptions, imagine Kaguya's portals.]

''No matter how many times I see this, it's always amazing.'' Karin noted before both of them entered the Portal.

They appeared in a Land full of snow and instantly, Karin felt her body trembling due to the cold. Thinking of this as an opportunity, she quickly hugged Naruto's body and felt his warmness.

Feeling her body on his, Naruto thought while deadpanning: 'I guess that even after these years passed, she's still a huge pervert. Not that I'm complaining, though.'

Naruto got to understand his feelings better than he did before and was conflicted because he liked both Hinata and Karin. He knew that it was selfish but that was just how he is - The blonde youngster had done things much worse than being selfish, after all.

How would he know that Karin and Hinata already had an agreement? The two of them had long understood his conflicting feelings and decided to share their love with him, that way, not only they wouldn't be hurt but Naruto also wouldn't be.

''We're here and you certainly can't be like this inside the Meeting. Take this to warm yourself.'' Naruto said as Karin blushed lightly after being reminded they were going to a serious meeting.

They were about to enter the place where they're supposed to have the meeting when Naruto saw Gaara, Temari and Kankuro walking through the snow. Looking towards them, Naruto said to Karin: ''I have some old friends to talk with, can you go before me?''

Karin noticed his face was serious and nodded, it was probably important. After she entered the building, he stopped on the stairs and sat there.

It didn't take long before Gaara arrived along with Kankuro and Temari, who visibly tensed under his stare. Naruto looked towards Gaara and noticed the red-haired youngster's eyes had changed, they weren't cold anymore.

Rather, they were full of warmth.

Naruto smiled before he said: ''Two years and six months ago, I said that you could still escape the darkness. It was an advice that I gave to you but thinking of now, I think that it was also for me.''

''I guess even a monster like me was able to escape it, eh?'' Naruto said.

Looking towards Naruto, Gaara said under Kankuro and Temari's confused stares: ''That's not true. You're not a monster nor were you a monster, Naruto. Deep inside you were just a kind person, a proof was that you helped me to leave the darkness that was trying to devour me.''

''In my opinion, you're a kind person.'' Gaara said before he extended his fist forward.

Naruto saw it and smirked before extending his fist as they fist-bumped. It was unknown to both of them but an improbable but unbreakable friendship was formed, just like that.

Both of them were similar, both suffered in the hands of the person of their respective villages. Both were considered monsters.

One saved the other from their near-inescapable darkness. They made each other, even if unconsciously, see the light which saved their hearts from rotting deep in the darkness, slowly corroding to nothingness.

''So, you became the Kazekage? This is kinda impressive, I heard that under your leadership, Sunagakure has improved extremely quickly. Did you solve the problem of the natural resources too?'' Naruto asked Gaara, who nodded lightly.

Kankuro and Temari just kept themselves in silence as Gaara replied: ''The problem of natural resources is very hard to solve but I'm slowly solving it. I've been talking with the Fire Daimyo so that the Wind Daimyo can make an alliance but talking with them is hard.''

Naruto couldn't help but nod, the Daimyos were an eyesore in his opinion. However, the Fire Daimyo - Hono Moyasu - was a good one in his view: "The Fire Daimyo owes me some favours after I saved his life and helped him find a traitor. I can ask him to pay my favour by solving your natural resources problems, what do you think?''

''That's fine for me.'' Gaara replied shortly before they kept talking as they went towards the location of the meeting. They were also talking about how life was in the past two and half years that passed.

Despite being fearful of Naruto, both Kankuro and Temari relaxed inwardly. It had some time since they had seen Gaara talking so happy with someone who wasn't them.

They were also happy - Happy for their brother.

=============

Wanna read up to 20 advanced chapters and help me to continue with this fanfic?

Support this humble author and read advanced chapters! Support me on Patre on ---> patre on.com/nyatsui