As a Hokage candidate, Namikaze Minato's political instincts were not poor. Otherwise, he would not have been chosen by the Third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen. What, did people think it was enough just to be strong, handsome, gentle, decorated in battle, astonishingly prestigious, filled with the Will of Fire, fully supported by Jiraiya of the Sannin, and a member of the Hokage's own faction?
With only one simple sentence, he had already judged most of the situation. With Konoha's strength, unless they encountered a ninja on Nagato's level, the idea that Sunagakure alone could defeat Konoha was far too much of a joke.
Even though Konoha had declined a great deal, it was still the number one shinobi village in the Shinobi World. Its overall strength remained unmatched.
Even if Sunagakure joined forces with Otogakure, there was no way they could succeed.
Even so, he could imagine it. Since the battlefield had been Konoha itself, they must have paid an extremely painful price.
The death of the Third Hokage was an even heavier blow. So in order to prevent the other three shinobi villages from entering the field, Konoha had most likely chosen compromise in the end. After accepting some compensation from Sunagakure, they had probably let Sunagakure go.
He sighed. If it had been him, he would most likely have made the same judgment.
Teach Sunagakure a harsh lesson?
With Konoha's strength at the time, it would not have been impossible. But again, it depended on how the other three great shinobi villages reacted.
If Konoha and Sunagakure fought each other to the death and ended up benefiting the other three great shinobi villages instead, those villages would probably wake up laughing from their dreams.
"Gaara becoming an ally? This feels way too strange."
Uchiha Sasuke murmured to himself.
The feeling was simply too bizarre for him.
"So that was what happened back then."
Seventh Hokage Naruto looked at the video and spoke.
So after he left back then, a battle like this had happened too.
In the video, on a boundless stretch of grass.
While Rock Lee was still wondering whether he had not woken up from his hangover, Gaara had already arrived in front of him, arms crossed over his chest.
"Gaara of the Sand Waterfall."
Rock Lee felt certain he still had not sobered up.
"Gaara? So you're the one!"
Across from them, Kimimaro spoke. Clearly, he had heard of Gaara's reputation.
Although Gaara was only a Genin, he had clearly made a name for himself. His strength was not something that could be limited by rank.
Kimimaro directly fired his finger bones like bullets.
"Teshi Sendan!"
In an instant, ten finger bones shot out, moving with incredible speed.
The finger bones struck the Sand Shield in front of Gaara one after another, then finally lost momentum and dropped down.
Such a bizarre method of attack was something even the experienced top-tier experts had never seen before.
Or rather, because the Kaguya Clan had been wiped out early, many people had never truly seen it.
Even clans with thousand-year inheritances like the Senju Clan and the Uchiha Clan had only recorded intelligence from fighting the Kaguya Clan. They knew some basic information.
But knowing basic information and actually seeing this kind of battle were two completely different things.
"You're impatient."
Gaara spoke.
Only now did everyone understand why Kaede Kitahara had said the current Gaara already had the bearing of a General. Everyone remembered some scenes from his earlier fight with Uchiha Sasuke.
During that battle, Gaara had obviously spoken very little, and his mental state had seemed abnormal. How could he be like he was now, a young but steady ninja with the presence of a General?
"Is his sand Shukaku's special ability?"
Jiraiya murmured to himself.
When he had seen Gaara use Sand Jutsu earlier, he had not felt much about it. Was it not perfectly reasonable for Sunagakure in the Land of Wind to use Sand Jutsu?
But now that he knew Gaara was the Jinchuriki of the One-Tail Shukaku of the Sand, many things could no longer be understood the same way when he looked at him. This sand ability was very likely an ability that came with being a Jinchuriki.
Strongest Spear VS Strongest Shield?
He thought back to the title of Kaede Kitahara's video. Now, looking at the two people facing off in the footage, the meaning was already beginning to show.
"When you fought me, weren't your speed and strength better?"
Gaara turned his head and glanced at Rock Lee as he spoke.
Hearing this, Rock Lee barely managed to stand and complain, "You've really got some nerve saying that. I don't mean to hate you, but thanks to you, I went through hell."
Only then did everyone finally react. Now everything matched up, including Rock Lee saying he had undergone surgery and still needed medicine, as well as Uzumaki Naruto's concern for his body. There had been a reason for all of it.
And the source of it all was Gaara.
Clearly, Rock Lee had fought Gaara earlier and suffered a huge loss.
That was why both his speed and strength were far from his peak.
Looking at it that way, there was a good chance the two sides had fought during the earlier Konoha Crush Plan battle.
"No, was it the Chunin Exams even before that?"
Hatake Kakashi remembered. In the earlier video of Uchiha Sasuke's battle with Gaara, Rock Lee had already been badly injured and walking with crutches, while the Konoha Crush Plan had not yet begun.
Then the most likely possibility was that the two of them had fought during the second stage of the Chunin Exams.
Rock Lee had been gravely wounded in that battle. Clearly, it had been even more serious than what was shown in that previous video. Even after surgery, he had still been unable to return to his peak.
"Is that so?"
Gaara spoke calmly.
"But why did you all appear again?" Rock Lee asked.
Only then did Gaara explain. It turned out Konoha and Sunagakure had signed their alliance treaty again, and they had accepted a commission from the Fifth Hokage to come help them.
"You can't deal with him as you are now. I'll handle him!"
Gaara looked at the bleeding Rock Lee and remembered how he had crippled Rock Lee's arms and legs in their previous battle.
His mental state back then had clearly been different from now. At that time, he would not have thought there was anything wrong with doing that.
So he directly stopped Rock Lee. Clearly, Rock Lee's current condition was not suited for battle.
"Please be careful. That person attacks with bones. Like just now, he can shoot his bones out, or make them stab out from his body. He can freely control his bones," Rock Lee said. Seeing the situation, he did not force himself. He only gave a reminder.
Gaara slowly walked ahead of Rock Lee and finally stopped.
"Gaara of the Sand Waterfall. Just as your name suggests, you attack with sand?"
Kimimaro asked.
Gaara clearly had no intention of answering. Sand continued to churn from the gourd on his back.
"He uses sand for a sturdy defense. This guy isn't the close-combat type. In other words, getting close to him won't be easy." Kimimaro clearly had abundant combat experience. A ninja who was not the close-combat type meant one thing. Trying to approach him would be extremely difficult.
The other party had definitely taken precautions against Taijutsu-type ninja. Otherwise, he would not have lived this long. He would have been killed by a Taijutsu-type ninja long ago.
Thinking this, Kimimaro once again fired Teshi Sendan from his finger bones toward Gaara.
At the same time, Gaara also sent his sand directly toward Kimimaro.
The two sides immediately began a long-range exchange. Kimimaro specialized in Taijutsu, so when it came to Ninjutsu attacks, there was little worth mentioning.
He was only a little better than someone like Rock Lee, who knew only Taijutsu.
However, his Shikotsumyaku / Dead Bone Pulse could continuously split off finger bones for attacks.
Meanwhile, Gaara used sand to defend while constantly sending sand to grab at Kimimaro.
As long as he caught Kimimaro even once, he could immediately repeat what he had done back then when he crippled Rock Lee.
"His movements don't have a single bit of waste. As expected, he's an expert who specializes in Taijutsu."
Rock Lee watched closely. As a fellow Taijutsu-type ninja, he could feel Kimimaro's strength even more clearly. It could be said that his strength was far beyond the standard.
At the very least, among Taijutsu-type ninja of the same generation, Rock Lee had not encountered anyone stronger than Kimimaro.
At that moment, Kimimaro also noticed how troublesome Gaara was. His sand could be described as extremely annoying. It combined offense and defense, allowing him to attack with sand and defend with it as well.
There was almost no good opening to strike.
Kimimaro's Teshi Sendan could not break through Gaara's defense at all. Gaara did not even need to move. The sand around him defended almost instinctively and automatically. In contrast, Kimimaro himself had to keep jumping and dodging the attacks from Sand Binding.
"But the amount of sand he can control is probably limited to the sand inside that gourd."
Kimimaro immediately made his own guess.
"Gaara of the Sand Waterfall? What a stupid alias. Without sand, you can't do anything." Kimimaro kept dodging while trying to extract information from Gaara. "The proof is that you have to carry around such heavy sand."
As he watched the video, Uchiha Sasuke silently recorded these analyses too. Intelligence gathering was also an extremely important part of being a ninja. Many people slipped up simply because they did not understand enough about their opponent's information.
In the future, Uchiha Sasuke still had to fight Gaara, so naturally he needed to gather relevant intelligence about him.
"Suna Shigure!"
Facing Kimimaro, who seemed to have guessed his weakness, Gaara calmly dropped sand from the air.
"How boring!"
Kimimaro only found it dull. Yet when he wanted to jump away, he discovered that his feet had already been bound.
Uchiha Sasuke was far too familiar with this move. He had suffered greatly under it. It could even be said that if Kaede Kitahara had not suddenly interfered, this move would probably have crippled both of his feet and left him disabled.
Battles between ninja were that cruel. Severed hands and broken legs happened constantly, and once a ninja lost their hands or feet, the only thing waiting for them was retirement.
"As long as there's sand, I can do anything. You're the stupid one."
Gaara calmly stretched out his hand and said, "Creating sand inside the earth is child's play for me."
At that moment, Rock Lee cleared up everyone's confusion. It turned out Gaara used his own sand to crush the rocks and minerals in the soil, thereby creating more sand.
By sending his own sand underground, he could increase the amount of new sand.