But the sand began to continuously attach itself onto Gaara.
Fugaku slightly furrowed his brows, Susanoo extended its fist, once again scattering the sand that had condensed into the form of Shukaku.
"BASTARD! This lord will kill you!"
Gaara had blood trailing from the corner of his mouth, letting out a sharp sound, his face filled with madness.
Then, in the next second.
A pair of huge blood-colored eyes reflected into his eyes.
Gaara instantly froze, and then closed his eyes and passed out.
The sand on his body also continued to scatter and fall to the ground.
Fugaku reached out and lifted Gaara up.
He made a hand signal, and all the Uchiha followed him and slowly retreated.
The people of Sunagakure just watched them leave with wide eyes.
Shosei used his eyes to signal Pakura, meaning, 'Should we kill Gaara?'
Pakura didn't say a word. Indeed, her Scorch Release ninjutsu was on Gaara's body.
It would only take a moment to evaporate Gaara into a dried corpse.
However, she didn't do it.
Pakura snapped her fingers, and a flame spot on Gaara's head floated out and dissipated into the air.
Fugaku turned his head to glance over and realized he had underestimated this Pakura a little.
He turned around and left a sentence to Pakura, "I advise you all not to rush back to Sunagakure."
Pakura nodded, indicating she understood.
On this side, Fugaku quickly disappeared with his people.
After the Uchiha left, the people of Sunagakure all looked at Pakura. They were all from the elder faction.
They didn't place that much importance on Rasa's mission.
Whether the jinchūriki was lost or not, at least their own lives weren't lost.
Now they were all looking at Pakura, preparing to ask for her opinion.
Pakura's expression was serious. On Rasa's side, it was still unknown whether there was a backup plan. Inside Sunagakure, it was also extremely dangerous.
"Contact Elder Chiyo first. We won't return to the village for now."
"Yes!"
———
[Land of Water]
Rengoku's clone, after searching along Zabuza's retreat route for two days, finally found his target.
Although the temperature over in the Land of Fire was still quite decent, over here it was already snowing.
Rengoku hadn't expected that instead of finding Haku, he first found Kimimaro.
At this moment, Kimimaro was surrounded by eight street thugs in a small alley.
"Hey! Brat, hand over all the money on you!"
Rengoku stood in the shadows, his presence faint, watching this group of ordinary people recklessly robbing Kimimaro.
Kimimaro's face had no expression, he simply pulled out a few large bills from his clothes and waved them.
"Are you talking about this?"
Greedy light flashed in the eyes of the eight street thugs.
"Hehe, brat, you're sensible."
Saying that, the eight of them moved toward Kimimaro.
Just as the first one reached out to grab the money, a bone sword appeared in Kimimaro's palm.
Puchi!
In an instant, Kimimaro stabbed through the opponent's throat.
Blood spurted out violently.
"Ah! Brat, you're asking for death!", The other seven thugs were enraged and all pounced on Kimimaro.
Who could have thought, they were actually tricked by a brat.
But the gap between ordinary people and ninjas was insurmountable, even though they were all burly and brutish-looking.
Even though they had sticks and other weapons in their hands.
They didn't last even a few rounds in Kimimaro's hands.
All lay on the ground, and the ground quickly soaked in a large pool of blood.
Under Rengoku's observation, every one of them was killed in a single strike, either the throat or the heart.
But Kimimaro only had a scratch on his forehead from a wooden stick, and now his skin was already contracting, healing rapidly.
He skillfully squatted down and searched through the bodies of several thieves.
Then, with a somewhat unhappy expression, he stood up.
Because the combined total on these eight thugs was less than eighty yen.
Kimimaro looked at the money in his hand, revealing a troubled expression.
"Seems like it's not enough."
He saw Kimimaro leave the alley and head into a clothing store.
Not long after, Kimimaro came out holding a thick coat.
But he didn't put it on himself, instead carefully carried it in his hands and walked in a certain direction.
Rengoku was a bit curious what Kimimaro was doing, so he didn't show himself yet, just quietly tailed him from afar.
And back in the alley where eight people had just died, two Kirigakure ninjas dropped in.
"Investigate. This kind of clean and decisive technique, not like something an ordinary person could do."
———
Along the coastline near the Land of Water, a tall and sturdy figure was advancing swiftly across the sea surface.
Looking carefully, it turned out he wasn't stepping on the sea, but on the back of a shark.
Seeing the shoreline getting closer, Kisame leapt from the shark's back, with a few bounds, reached the shore.
The shark also disappeared with a bang, turning into smoke.
Hoshigaki Kisame was visibly exhausted.
The Land of Water had already been sealed off. He had taken a large detour to find this landing spot.
Kisame was still a rogue ninja right now. In this state, it was very easy to encounter danger.
Although Uchiha Rengoku had said Yagura would help him, he still had to safely reach Kirigakure.
Since he was already in the Land of Water, a little more time didn't matter.
Hoshigaki Kisame found a reef on the shore and leaned against it.
Took out some portable food and began replenishing energy.
Kisame had lived in this country for over twenty years, but half of that time was full of bad memories.
Upon graduation from the ninja academy, one had to kill the companions they lived and trained with daily, just to graduate.
After joining the Kirigakure ANBU under Mangetsu, he was long engaged in dark missions.
Kisame had always obediently followed orders from above.
Surveilling Kirigakure ninja, hunting Kirigakure ninja, in order to not leak secrets, or to eliminate dissent, even killing his own comrades.
His soul had long since been exhausted.
Felt hollow, unable to find where he belonged.
Until Kisame's final mission.
He met her.
The one he promised to have a meal with after the mission was done.
But to avoid leaking information, Kisame could only kill her in the end.
Yet, she did not blame Kisame before dying.
Instead, she saw through the exhaustion and emptiness in Kisame's soul.
Her dying words were simply, ["Your life... must have been very hard."]
Kisame went against his heart and killed the only person who had been gentle to him.
Those words became the last straw that broke the camel's back.
Kisame began to deny his own existence and unleashed murderous intent toward Mangetsu.
When he returned to report to Mangetsu, he suddenly attacked, killed him in a surprise strike, and seized Samehada.
But Obito, who had already made preparations, used the name of Uchiha Madara.
To the Hoshigaki Kisame who had already lost all sense of purpose, extended an olive branch.
With the "Eye of the Moon" plan and its perfect world, he attracted Kisame to serve him.
However, this entire illusion, was broken by Rengoku.
Madara was fake, the Infinite Tsukuyomi world was fake too.
After the collapse of his only belief, Hoshigaki Kisame only wanted to find proof of his own existence.
When he learned he could see her once more.
Kisame didn't want to think about anything else, he just desperately, wanted to see her one more time.
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