The moment Temari recognized who it was, the caution on her face instantly gave way to shock. "Akira? What are you doing here?"
She genuinely hadn't expected him to appear out of nowhere like some kind of ghost. Then again, after a second thought, it made sense. Tsunade had probably sent this walking disaster weapon over to help save Gaara.
Akira looked at Temari in full field gear and asked with a smile, "That's quite the setup. Where are you headed?"
Once Temari had confirmed his identity, she gestured for her men to lower their weapons and quickly walked over.
The subordinates behind her were all die-hard Gaara supporters.
Even though Gaara had become Kazekage, plenty of the village's old hardliners still refused to accept him.
Especially the senior shinobi. In their eyes, Gaara was still a time bomb. By contrast, the younger generation who hadn't lived through the terror of Gaara's rampages practically worshipped him.
After all, Gaara had the power, the looks, and the pedigree as the former Kazekage's son. To them, he was the perfect leader.
In their minds, Gaara was the ideal Kazekage.
And the real reason the higher-ups had sent Temari to guard the border this time was to get one of Gaara's closest allies out of the way.
Back during the Third Great Shinobi War, it had all started with the disappearance of the Third Kazekage. Sunagakure's desperate search had left its borders exposed, and Kumogakure had taken advantage of that opening to strike.
If the Fourth Kazekage, Rasa, hadn't barely held the line with his gold dust against Kumogakure's forces, Sunagakure might well have been erased from the map.
So officially, sending Temari to secure the border did make sense.
The problem was, the Kazekage had just been kidnapped, and they were sending his own sister away to the frontier. No matter how you looked at it, it felt a lot more like sidelining her than genuine defense planning.
Temari looked at Akira and said helplessly, "I got my orders. I'm to reinforce the border. With Gaara captured, the village's worried some other country will try to exploit the chaos. They don't want anyone taking a shot at the Land of Wind."
She spoke bluntly, without treating Akira as an outsider.
Akira nodded. "Makes sense. By the way, where are Kakashi-sensei and the others? How far have they gotten?"
Temari's eyes lit up. "So you really are here as reinforcements? That's great. If you're here, then the odds of bringing Gaara back just shot way up."
Temari's faith in Akira's strength was almost blind at this point. She honestly felt that even if all five Kage stood together, they still might not beat this man.
Granted, she'd never actually seen the other Kage at full power, and Tsunade was the only one she had any real point of reference for, but that didn't stop her from idolizing Akira a little too much.
Akira smiled. "Yeah. The Fifth Hokage wasn't entirely comfortable with the situation, so she sent me to take a look. Have they already left in pursuit?"
Temari shook her head. "Not yet. They're still in Sunagakure getting ready. Want me to take you there?"
Akira nodded.
Technically, Temari still had a border mission to carry out, but a short delay wasn't going to matter.
This assignment had always been more political theater than anything else.
After all, even though Gaara had become Kazekage over the last two years, the true levers of power were still largely in the elders' hands.
But among the younger generation in the village, his support kept growing.
And with both Kankuro's and Temari's standing rising along with his, those old men were already getting nervous.
They had sent Temari to guard the border with only three chunin under her command. That wasn't serious defense, it was practically an insult. If an actual invasion came, what exactly were four people supposed to do?
Temari understood all of that perfectly well.
But a shinobi obeyed village orders, and that was that.
Still, hearing that Konoha had sent elite reinforcements to rescue Gaara genuinely moved her.
Now that Akira himself had arrived, the stone in her chest finally lifted. This time, Gaara would definitely come back alive.
The three chunin trailing behind her watched their usually sharp-tongued, intimidating commander chatting and smiling with this man, and every one of them was stunned. They started whispering among themselves.
"Who is that guy? Why is Temari-hime being so nice to him?"
Temari was famous in the village for being an icy beauty. This was the first time any of them had ever seen her smile this brightly.
At that moment, the female chunin named Matsuri turned out to know a little more than the others.
She had been one of the candidates in that Chunin Exam and had seen Akira before. On top of that, she had heard Gaara mention him in private.
Lowering her voice, she said mysteriously, "If I'm not mistaken, that man's Akira. He's one of Konoha's absolute monsters. I heard he can suppress a rampaging tailed beast with one hand. Even Gaara-sensei isn't his match."
The other two chunin nearly laughed at that and looked at Matsuri with disbelief. "Come on. Gaara-sama's unbeatable. There's no way he'd lose to that pretty-boy. Matsuri, don't tell me you actually believe that. And you're supposed to be Gaara-sama's student."
Matsuri immediately bristled and frowned at them. "I'm not making it up. Gaara-sensei said it himself. I didn't believe it either when I first heard it, but those were his exact words."
"And he also said that, in the entire ninja world... this man might be the strongest one standing at the very top."
The other two chunin were Gaara loyalists through and through, but even after hearing that, they still didn't quite know what to believe.