On the Uchiha clan grounds side, the many top experts with terrifying strength never stepped out of the clan area at all.
After all, in the entire Hidden Leaf Village, this place could be called the most secure.
Even those Uchiha clansmen with no ninja abilities did not feel much unease facing this fierce battle.
Right as Gaara and his father Rasa were fighting intensely, inside a quiet courtyard, the sand that had originally been still around a woman suddenly began to slowly move.
And this woman was none other than Gaara's mother, Karura.
Karura slightly raised her head and looked past the courtyard wall toward the battlefield in the village where the fierce clash was happening. Her eyes were filled with relief.
Right after that, she gently lifted one arm, stretched out a finger, casually pointed forward, and softly said, "Go."
The moment her voice fell, the sand around her instantly seemed to gain life. It quickly gathered into a flowing golden ribbon.
The beautiful ribbon wrapped around Karura twice before shooting straight toward Gaara's direction like an arrow released from a bow.
As prisoners, Temari and Kankuro did not go out and cause trouble. They honestly stayed in the courtyard protecting their mother.
Even though the Uchiha clan grounds could already be considered perfectly safe, when they saw such an enormous amount of sand rushing out like a tide, confusion still appeared on their faces.
Unable to hold back her curiosity, Temari asked her mother, "Mother, what's going on?"
Hearing her daughter's question, Karura slightly lifted the corners of her lips into a gentle smile and slowly answered, "Gaara has grown up..."
———
Gaara, who was fiercely clashing with Rasa, felt the chakra inside his body becoming more and more violent and active like burning flames.
At that moment, he suddenly caught sight of a stream of fine sand in the distant sky, moving toward him at shocking speed like a living dragon.
However, what truly shook Gaara was not the sand itself, but the power carried with it.
'This is... Mom...'
Light instantly burst from Gaara's eyes like lightning cutting through the sky.
The sand piled around him, originally quiet, suddenly seemed to come alive and began making loud rustling sounds.
Like raging waves, it wildly surged upward and swept toward the incoming sand with unstoppable force.
Facing Gaara's sudden and overwhelming counterattack, Rasa revealed a shocked expression and cried out, "How is this possible?"
Gaara's chakra becoming this active was already shocking enough, but even harder to believe was that his control over sand had improved in an instant.
The current Gaara could now use fewer chakra reserves to control far more sand with much finer precision.
In an instant, the endless yellow sand in the sky surged like a massive flood, forcefully pushing back the gold dust Rasa had unleashed.
Facing this unstoppable attack, Rasa gritted his teeth and cursed, "Damn it!"
Immediately after, chakra burst from his entire body like a volcanic eruption and continuously poured into the surrounding gold dust, trying to forcefully block Gaara's fierce attack with brute strength.
Looking at Gaara, who was only sixteen years old yet displayed such terrifying strength and suppressive power, deep regret rose inside Rasa.
He thought to himself that if he had not made Gaara into Shukaku's jinchuriki back then, perhaps everything afterward would never have developed into today's hopeless situation.
Rasa was currently trapped in an extremely awkward and difficult situation.
Not long ago, he had finally managed to seal Shukaku's consciousness back inside.
But the vicious tailed beast was still staring at him fiercely.
As long as Rasa made the slightest mistake, got injured, or used too much chakra, it would immediately break free and fight him for control of the body again.
What made Rasa feel even more pressure was that he was now being suppressed by his own son, Gaara.
He was already clearly at a disadvantage. Continuing to fight head-on was obviously not a wise choice.
So Rasa changed his tactics.
He suddenly clapped his hands together. The gold dust wave in front of him that had been forced back step by step instantly shrank at incredible speed as if receiving an order.
Right after that, with an earth-shaking explosion—
BOOM!
A huge amount of gold dust mixed together with the flying sand and exploded into the sky like a roaring golden flood.
Using the chaotic sandstorm as cover, Rasa swiftly jumped upward, firmly landing on a gold dust platform before shooting into the sky.
He thought to himself, 'I have to find flaws or gaps in the ice mirror encirclement and look for a chance to escape.'
But just as he approached those ice mirrors, white figures suddenly appeared inside them. In nearly the blink of an eye, the figures rushed out from the mirrors.
At the same time, they raised their arms, and countless sharp ice spikes shot toward Rasa like a storm.
Facing this sudden attack, Rasa did not even have time to think about counterattacking. He could only make the gold dust platform under his feet rapidly dodge.
After all, at this moment, Gaara was already chasing after him from behind on a sand platform.
Rasa and Gaara chased each other through the air like two bolts of lightning, moving back and forth at astonishing speed.
At such extreme flying speeds, neither Rasa nor Gaara could freely control large amounts of sand and gold dust to attack.
Because of that, the amount of sand and gold dust both sides could control became very limited, but even so, the battle remained extremely fierce.
Gaara hated Rasa to the bone. Every attack he launched used his full strength without holding back.
Even though Rasa was already defending with everything he had, he still looked extremely miserable, as if Gaara would break through his defenses at any moment.