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Chapter 53 - Extricate

The forest was unnaturally still.

Not quite dead yet

The trees around him stood as they should, unmoved by breeze or bird.

But it wasn't the silence that made Gaara's skin crawl.

It was the taste of the air.

Bland.

Like fruit grown too fast, too falsely.

Lacking in depth.

Nature didn't just fall quiet, it had recoiled.

And for someone in tune with natural energy, that silence was deafening.

The clone of Gaara stood rooted.

Still.

A state he had learned to master while drawing in senjutsu in the faraway dunes.

But this was not meditation.

This was more like an intrusion.

He didn't blink or breathe.

Just ahead, standing and watching was the shinobi who had effortlessly cut through his chakra clone: Shisui Uchiha.

And just behind, flanking from a higher elevation, was another. Broad-shouldered.

Cigarette between lips.

"He's caught, right?" Asuma asked casually, keeping his posture loose but observant.

"The Hokage said bring him in alive. This one's not resisting, looks like your eyes worked."

Shisui didn't move, nor blink.

His voice came soft, polite. Measured.

"Please wait, Asuma-san."

"He's not in the genjutsu yet."

Asuma raised a brow but didn't question him.

It was not frequent for these situations to happen, but they did happen.

'Kids these days' Asuma thought staring at Gaara and his thoughts ran amok

But then he trailed off, watching Shisui's fingers tense slightly at his side.

...

Inside, Gaara's mind sharpened.

Something was wrong.

Not around him, but within him.

The sage chakra in his body, still immature and wild was restless.

At first, it resisted the shift.

Then it churned, trying to escape and implode on him

He wasn't under the illusion, not yet but the subtle pull of the Sharingan was enough to disrupt his balance.

And when you channel natural energy improperly?

There were consequences

Suddenly, his skin hardened and cracked.

Flecks of red sand peeled from his arms like dried bark.

His limbs stiffened.

His vision shook.

The natural energy untamed was starting to solidify inside him.

'Not yet... !!' Gaara forced his thoughts.

He could've easily given up without a fight, which was annoying.

The senjutsu clone's body started hardening rapidly, chakra spiraling out of sync.

But then, just as it reached critical collapse

He acted knowingly in sacrifice

In a pulse of will, Gaara split.

The clone shed its outer layer, a husk of hardened sand, and broke free as a lean form slipped backwards.

The empty shell stood for a heartbeat longer...

Then crumbled into a brittle statue of red sandstone, falling in chunks to the forest floor.

A new Gaara stood about two meters away from the now crumbled Sand as he panted heavily while looking at Shisui now with heavy eyes, and Shisui stared right back at him with calm eyes.

The wary on Gaara's face was without explanation and known only to himself.

He could already tell that just that genjutsu attack hadn't been fatal to him; however, what had been fatal was his losing control over the senjutsu chakra.

He knew the consequences and was prepared, but alas, no matter how prepared one was, it was still dreadful, and the stint he had just pulled by turning himself into a sand clone and timely extricating from the chaotic chakra had undoubtedly cost him about ten percent of his total 40 percent reserves, leaving him with only thirty percent.

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