"Huh?"
Naruto froze, not understanding why Temari and Kankuro were staring at him in shock.
And Gaara was completely dumbfounded.
Absolute Defense…
His Absolute Defense had actually failed?!!!!
Their conversation was overheard by a nearby team of Hidden Mist genin.
The three Mist ninja were much older than Naruto and the others—already adults—but they were still only genin.
The moment they learned that Gaara's Absolute Defense had failed, it was like money falling from the sky. Without hesitation, they hurled the giant umbrellas on their backs toward Gaara—
"Blame your bad luck, brat! Ninja Art: Needle Shower Rain!"
Several huge umbrellas snapped open midair, and tens of thousands of senbon rained down like spring drizzle, assaulting Gaara and the others!
Gaara flinched in shock. He had never experienced what it meant to lose his Absolute Defense.
"Sand Bind—"
Too late.
The flow of sand was slower than the senbon, and the angles were far too tricky!
His Sand Coffin couldn't possibly destroy all of them in such a short time!!
Only Absolute Defense could—
As the storm of senbon closed in from all directions, an emotion Gaara had never felt before surged violently in his chest…
I don't want… my friends to get hurt.
"I want to protect him. I want to protect my friends!"
The voice from the previous vision echoed in his mind—his future self, the future Kazekage Gaara, speaking before the Allied Shinobi Forces.
"I want to protect… my friends."
Gaara whispered.
Then, like a miracle, an enormous amount of sand burst out from his gourd!
It mobilized sand from the surroundings—even from underground—and at an astonishing speed, completely enveloped all six of them!!
"It's Absolute Defense!" Kankuro exclaimed.
"Whew." Temari let out a breath, pressing a hand to her chest. She had almost opened her fan just now.
"Looks like you didn't lose Absolute Defense after all. But then why didn't it activate when Naruto had you in a chokehold earlier?" Temari rested her chin on her hand, analyzing the situation, but she couldn't make sense of it.
The only explanation she could think of was that Absolute Defense somehow trusted Uzumaki Naruto and believed he wouldn't hurt Gaara.
But how was that possible? Absolute Defense was just a power—how could it have its own will?!
At this moment, they were protected inside a massive dome of sand. Their view was completely blocked; they couldn't see what was happening outside, only hear gasps and shocked cries from beyond the barrier.
"Hey, let the sand go already, y'know? It's way too dark—I can't see the anything!" Naruto complained.
Gaara obediently dispersed the sand, letting the light stream back in.
The image before the Central Tower continued.
The three Kirigakure(Hidden Mist) ninja who had attacked them were still riding their triumph. The instant Gaara opened his defensive barrier, they were struck by Kankuro's puppet under the control of the Sand Secret Technique: Puppet Art. In the blink of an eye, their entire bodies turned purple—clearly poisoned beyond saving.
"Lucky. We got the Earth Scroll," Kankuro said, taking the scroll handed over by the puppet.
[In the vision, Chiyo's confession was nearing its end.]
[Chiyo: "In the end, I finally did one thing right—that is… entrusting the future to you."]
[She looked down at Gaara beneath her hand. "The Sand… and…" Her gaze shifted to Naruto. "The Leaf…" In her eyes, these two boys seemed to represent their villages.]
["If it's the two of you, then maybe this shinobi world can have a future different from ours."]
["Gaara… Gaara…"]
"Gaara… Gaara…"
Outside the vision, twelve-year-old Naruto overlapped with the seventeen-year-old Naruto inside it. Unlike the older Naruto's calm satisfaction, the younger one's face was full of disbelief!
He hopped excitedly and waved Gaara over. "Gaara! Your sand turned into a person, y'know!!"
"A person?" Gaara asked blankly.
Temari and Kankuro stepped out of the sand's protective circle—and what they saw made their eyes widen in shock!!
[Gaara: "This is…?" Why is everyone from the Sand here?]
[Naruto: "They're all here to save you." Naruto helped Gaara sit up. The entire area was packed with Sunagakure(Hidden Sand) ninja, all worried about the Fifth Kazekage, Gaara.]
"Mom…" Temari covered her mouth in disbelief, tears welling in her teal eyes.
Kankuro stood frozen, unsure what expression to wear, his heart undoubtedly a tangled mess.
Nearby exam genin came running over to check things out—the commotion from Gaara's sand defense had been far too massive.
Amid the whispers, Gaara heard them say—
"A woman?"
"Why did the sand turn into a woman?"
"Looks like that woman is protecting him!"
"A woman?" Gaara echoed.
He lifted his head—and saw the woman from the photograph.
The woman he should call… Mother.
The sand-formed woman was as tall as the highest building in Sunagakure. She held her arms around them, cradling the six of them tightly against her chest. Countless senbon were embedded in "her" body, sparing Gaara from even the slightest pain.
"What is going on?!" Gaara's mental state began to waver. His pale green eyes trembled violently, veins bursting in the whites. "Why protect me?! You clearly… clearly hated me so much…!"
His voice was hoarse, and tears were unmistakably pooling in his eyes.
["Father, I was nearly killed by your assassins six times," the Fifth Kazekage Gaara stated calmly in the vision. "My fear and hatred toward you kept growing. But… the me now no longer hates you."]
Across the world, everyone watching the vision reacted differently, their expressions complex.
"Assassinated… by his own father?" Naruto muttered.
The Fourth Kazekage was absolutely destroying Naruto's beautiful image of what a father should be! It made him so angry he wanted to jump into the vision and yell at Gaara's dad himself!!
The Hidden Sand—
After seeing these visions again and again, they began reflecting on their own actions. The sheer disbelief the Kazekage showed upon learning that Gaara had friends deeply shook them.
They had lived in the same village as him, yet no one had ever thought of becoming his friend. And yet… it was a ninja from the Leaf.
The other villages—
Ōnoki: "This is the pain and responsibility a jinchūriki must bear."
Mei Terumi: "The Fourth Mizukage himself was a jinchūriki… Was it the emptiness in a jinchūriki's heart that allowed evil to take advantage?"
A: "Assassinating your own son?! What kind of bastard father does that?!"
Civilians, daimyō—
"…"
"Thank goodness we're not ninja."
"I heard ninja strip away their emotions when they go on missions."
"Huh? Then how are they any different from tools? That's just too cruel!"
The daimyō's small fan fluttered rapidly. "Compared to those ninja, I truly am blessed."
[They saw the commander of the Allied Shinobi Forces in the vision say to his father, "Now, I can understand the things you did back then…"]
Forgave him?
Are you kidding me?! A bastard like that deserves forgiveness?!
[Yes—what Gaara said next shocked the Edo Tensei Fourth Kazekage—]
…