On the screen, a massive amount of sand rose from the ground, coalescing into a gigantic sand beast. The sand beast then spread its arms and lunged toward Deidara.
Riding his white clay bird, Deidara spun continuously in the air, nimbly dodging the pursuit, while occasionally tossing small clay bombs at the sand beast to probe the patterns of Gaara's Jutsu.
"I've pretty much got it now, yosh." Deidara muttered to himself, pulling out two lumps of clay and quickly molding them into the shape of two small birds.
"They're fast, this time." As Deidara finished speaking, the two clay birds flapped their wings rapidly, turning into two white blurs that shot toward Gaara.
Their speed was so fast that even Gaara was caught off guard. In his urgency, the sand around him instantly condensed into a spherical barrier, encasing him completely.
When the birds finally struck the barrier, a series of violent explosions echoed immediately.
"It's just like an eggshell protecting the yolk. Still, being able to block that is pretty impressive."
Just as Deidara was marveling at this, he suddenly felt darkness above him. He looked up sharply and saw countless grains of sand cascading down from above, forming an immense sand curtain that blotted out the moonlight.
"Sand Prison!" Gaara's voice rang out.
Deidara was instantly enveloped in a sphere of sand, suspended mid-air.
On the ground, the Suna shinobis who had rushed to reinforce the area saw this and broke into cheers. But before their joy could last, a violent explosion sounded from within the sand sphere.
BOOM!!
The sand sphere burst apart, and Deidara flew out from the fragments atop his white bird, barely even dusted with sand.
Just then, the scene shifted to the ground. Baki and other elite Suna shinobis had also arrived at the battlefield. They landed on a rooftop, observing the aerial combat from below.
Baki's voice sounded: "Kankurō, Gaara has already reached the point where he's using his 'Absolute Defense' sand to fight. It seems the enemy is indeed quite formidable."
He paused, but his next words left people across all timelines of the Shinobi World utterly stunned.
"…It would be better to prepare in advance for the possibility of Gaara losing control. Precautions against Shukaku's emergence are also necessary—because it would be too dangerous for the village."
Across the Shinobi World, discussions erupted instantly.
"Wait, who is this thick-browed guy? The Kazekage is defending against an enemy, and the Sand Village higher-ups are thinking about defending against the Kazekage?" someone said in disbelief, shaking their head.
"It's truly ridiculous. Even after becoming Kazekage, a Jinchūriki still can't earn their trust?" someone else said indignantly.
Of course, there were also voices of support.
"Though this guy is a bit cold-blooded, his thinking isn't wrong. Later on, this Kazekage was indeed defeated. It's just that the One-Tail didn't go berserk. If it had, then his approach would've been justified."
"That's true, but these kinds of statements are still quite demoralizing."
---
[Sunagakure, Kazekage's Office]
Rasa looked at Baki on the screen and profoundly agreed with his approach.
That's right. Gaara—that kid's willpower was simply too weak, making him prone to losing control. If only he could stabilize and control the One-Tail like Bunpuku had, then Rasa wouldn't have to constantly arrange for people to provoke him.
Even now, Rasa still found it hard to imagine that his cold-blooded, murderous son would actually become the next Kazekage.
It was pathetic to think about; the once-great Sand Village now had no one to succeed its leadership. Back in the Third Kazekage's era—with the Third, himself, Pakura, Chiyo, Ebizō, Sasori, and Sasori's parents—Sunagakure's strength, aside from Konoha, had definitely ranked among the top.
Unlike now, when they couldn't even find a successor!
---
[Kumogakure, Raikage's Office]
Killer Bee shifted restlessly. For once, he didn't break into rap, but instead analyzed seriously: "Oh, too bad Gaara-kun isn't a perfect Jinchūriki, or else this problem wouldn't exist."
The Fourth Raikage nodded in rare approval. That's right—if the Fifth Kazekage were a perfect Jinchūriki, Sunagakure wouldn't have to worry about the Tailed Beast going berserk, and perhaps they would be able to provide more support.
But on the screen, Kankurō firmly refuted Baki's words. His mind flashed back to a previous conversation he'd had with Gaara.
The sun was setting, and the two stood at the edge of a rocky outcrop.
"Gaara… I don't want to say this, but to the village, you're a terrifying weapon."
"It'll just be a struggle for you to join a regular unit at this point."
"The superiors don't thing well of you. And a majority of the village is scared of you." Kankurō said these words hesitantly.
"I know."
"I know that… but I will be overcome with an even greater suffering if I just wait around… I just have to work hard and crave out a future for myself. And I must not run away from my path of solitude."
"If I do that, someday… I can be like him…"
[There's no helping it. Naruto's "Talk-no-Jutsu" is just that ridiculous. Even a cold-blooded guy like Gaara, after being talked to by him a few times, wanted to be a good person and became Kazekage.]
[Naruto and Gaara were the same—both had a tailed beast sealed inside them since childhood, and both were treated as monsters and shunned by others since they were kids.]
[So what was the difference in the end? Gaara became a cold-blooded lone wolf, while Naruto became a hot-blooded chatterbox. Where did the gap lie? Aside from Asura's chakra giving him natural mental fortitude, Naruto had people like Iruka and Teuchi who were willing to reach out to him, and the Third Hokage would occasionally offer him some warmth.]
[But look at Gaara—his own father wished him dead, and there wasn't a single person around him who would even look him in the eye. And his uncle, who seemed to care about him, specifically set up a fatal betrayal.]
[Precisely because Naruto had experienced warmth himself, seeing Gaara still drowning in darkness, he desperately tried to pull him out of that abyss. After all, having been there himself, he knew just how cold it was down there.]
[And if it weren't for Naruto, Gaara would most likely have remained trapped in boundless darkness, never becoming Kazekage, and would have died quietly at the hands of the Akatsuki, just like the other Jinchūriki.]
[So it was because of this that Gaara came to see Naruto as "the only person who truly understood him." Even when Naruto was downcast over Sasuke's departure, Gaara took the initiative to comfort and encourage him to continue pursuing the path to becoming Hokage. A full-circle cause and effect, really.]
---
[Land of Wind, Sunagakure]
Young Gaara, accompanied—or rather monitored—by Kankurō and Temari, watched the screen with cold eyes.
Uzumaki Naruto… the savior of the Shinobi World, the Seventh Hokage of Konoha… was supposedly someone like him, and wanted to help him?
Having initially treated it all as just a story, he now found himself intensely curious about Naruto.
Kankurō stood to the side, watching his future self on the screen, and couldn't help but swallow nervously. He whispered to Temari: "Temari… in the future, I actually dared to talk to Gaara like that? And I trusted him that much?"
Temari shot him a glance: "What's wrong? Scared?"
Kankurō gulped. He then glanced at Gaara in the corner, and only after confirming that Gaara wasn't paying them any attention did he breathe a sigh of relief: "It's not fear… it's just that I think future me is pretty bold."
Temari said nothing, but as she watched the desert-covered battlefield on the screen, a flicker of concern passed through her eyes.
---
[Land of Waves, Tazuna's House]
Hearing what the screen said, Naruto immediately put his hands on his hips, brimming with pride.
"Hahaha… See? I knew it. I'm just that amazing."
Sasuke was leaning against the wall, hands in his pockets, watching Gaara on the screen, and for some reason, he felt a bit displeased.
---
[Sunagakure, Kazekage's Office]
Rasa was silent for a long time.
He hadn't expected that the Nine-Tails Jinchūriki of Konoha would someday be able to influence Gaara like that.
And as a father… what had he done?
*****
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