In any case, when Great Grandfather sealed the Nine-Tails inside Mito Uzumaki's body, he definitely had not intended for it to exist as some terrifying weapon. She had merely been a vessel to hold the Nine-Tails. How could she have become a terrifying weapon?
The Nine-Tails was only a special source of power. It was also a member of Konoha, everyone's companion.
But Tsunade also understood. It was easy to say that, but once people witnessed the horrifying power of a Tailed Beast, a force like a natural disaster, very few could avoid feeling fear.
And as the vessel of a Tailed Beast, a Jinchuriki would naturally become the target of that disgust and fear.
So in that sense, Gaara's childhood had been mostly similar to Naruto's. In fact, his had been even worse. He was hated, feared, and treated as a monster.
Only, under those circumstances, the two of them had walked toward completely different endings. One became bright and cheerful, eventually winning everyone's acknowledgment. The other clumsily learned to follow in his footsteps and reached the same ending, becoming the Fifth Kazekage.
It looked moving, didn't it? But it also felt somewhat unreal. Uzumaki Naruto growing up with such a bright and cheerful personality after being treated that way was strange in itself. Growing into a mentally unstable madman like Gaara would have been the normal outcome.
Even blackening into someone like Uzumaki Menma would not have been surprising.
And the one who changed all of this was none other than the person Kaede Kitahara had mentioned before, Otsutsuki Asura.
Uzumaki Naruto was this generation's Otsutsuki Asura.
Based on Tsunade's current shallow understanding of the Otsutsuki, could it be understood this way? Uzumaki Naruto was the chosen vessel for the Karma of this generation's reincarnated Otsutsuki Asura. Even if the Otsutsuki Clan possessed lifespans beyond what ordinary mortal races could imagine, their method of longevity was reincarnation and Possession / Body Snatching from generation to generation.
They were not relying on their physical bodies to forcibly live until this era.
And corresponding to him was Uchiha Sasuke's Otsutsuki Indra. Right now, these two were still the saviors of the Shinobi World. But one day in the future, they might become a new generation of Otsutsuki who appeared to rule the Shinobi World.
She thought of how Great Grandfather and Uchiha Madara's relationship had originally been perfectly fine. Then one day, Uchiha Madara suddenly betrayed the village and left. After that, he returned with the Nine-Tails and fought Great Grandfather in a battle that defined an era.
In the end, Great Grandfather won, and Uchiha Madara died tragically? Or left?
That battle directly established the current structure of Konoha.
"So Gaara went through that kind of change in thinking back then."
Seventh Hokage Naruto sighed. As children of Fourth Kage, and as weapons used to contain Tailed Beasts, they could almost be said to have had the same tragic childhood. That was why it was so easy for the two of them to sympathize with each other.
For the same reason, if anyone else had said those things to Gaara, Gaara definitely would not have believed them. He might even have felt that there were always wicked subjects trying to harm him.
But because those principles had been shown through Naruto himself, Gaara believed them. Their experiences were almost exactly the same, so it was natural for them to huddle together for warmth. It was natural for them to trust each other. That was why, after Gaara was captured by Deidara, Naruto risked his life to save him.
To be precise, for Uzumaki Naruto, the meaning behind it was not saving Gaara. It was saving another version of himself.
Between them existed a bond ordinary people could not understand. They did not need many words. They could understand each other.
Fortunately, both of their paths of transformation were successful. Naruto became the Seventh Hokage, while Gaara became the Fourth Kazekage.
"Naruto, you did well!"
Namikaze Minato felt deeply proud that his son could influence a Jinchuriki from another village, teach him mutual understanding, and even guide him onto the right path, until both of them became Kage.
Although as fathers, he and the Fourth Kazekage could both be considered complete failures.
Fortunately, they had very successful children. A next generation that did better than their own.
As parents, seeing this scene should have brought them comfort.
Uchiha Itachi was especially silent. This was the plight of Jinchuriki. But viewed from another angle, had it not also been the plight of the Uchiha Clan back then?
How different was the situation the Uchiha Clan had faced from that of those Jinchuriki?
They were both powerful forces the village had no choice but to rely on. But at the same time, for all kinds of reasons, they were constantly in conflict with the villagers and faced similar difficulties. In the end, Gaara chose the path of making the villagers understand him and ultimately became a beloved Kazekage.
By contrast, the Uchiha Clan's final outcome was confrontation with the village higher-ups, ending in the extermination of the clan.
Although the two sides were not completely the same. In fact, the difficulty of the Uchiha Clan gaining complete acceptance from the village as a whole was far greater than the difficulty for a single person like Gaara.
But the Uchiha Clan's unruliness and arrogance had also been one of the reasons.
All kinds of factors led the two sides down completely different paths.
As for Uchiha Sasuke, he also felt a great deal about the experiences of those two. Especially since he had not expected that Gaara, whom he had met during the day, actually had a side like this. Likewise, it was unbelievable that Gaara would completely walk out of it in the future.
"If they can do it, then I can too, right?"
Uchiha Sasuke clenched his fists, feeling that he had gained a goal to chase.
At this moment, Sunagakure in the video had already mobilized.
"Issue an emergency summons to everyone!" Baki ordered, and all of Sunagakure was mobilized.
This massive war machine began to move.
"Support Gaara with everything we have. No, provide full support to Lord Kazekage!"
As his teacher, Baki truly regarded Gaara as Sunagakure's future.
"Getting interrupted from below really ruins the mood. And…" Deidara noticed the movement in Sunagakure below, then looked at Gaara again and said, "I'm getting tired of that blank face of yours too."
As he spoke, he threw out the Explosive Doll in his hand. In an instant, the Explosive Doll grew larger, falling like a true nuclear bomb.
"?"
Gaara's eyes widened. He immediately realized this was bad.
Once that bomb fell, the damage would probably be unimaginable.
"Heh, heh, heh, heh. The clay eaten by the mouths on my hands is mixed with Chakra to create Explosive Clay dolls. Among them, my trump card is C3, made by mixing in the highest level of my Chakra. It's my proudest masterpiece of art with the greatest explosive power!"
As everyone listened to Deidara muttering to himself, they silently recorded Deidara's ultimate move as well, thinking about what they would do if they were the ones facing it.
The answer they got was that there was almost nothing they could do. Unless they could kill him directly before he flew into the sky, before he used this C3 bomb.
Only then could they stop the bomb. Otherwise, there was simply no other possibility. They would be blown to death in an instant.
Especially if the target was a large village like Konoha, there would be no way to handle it.
In the wilderness, casualties could still be reduced to the minimum. But if it exploded inside a village, the result would not be much better than Chibaku Tensei.
"Boom!"
The terrifying explosion erupted in an instant, and the entire ground trembled faintly.
This move was truly too frightening. After constantly fleeing and showing only average explosive power, Deidara, this Kage Level expert, had finally displayed his strength for the first time.
With one move, he could absolutely blow a Kage Level fighter to death.
Only now did they finally understand why Deidara had developed the Clay Bird. It was to stay far away from the center of the explosion. If he were caught in the blast, even as the one who created the explosion, he would die all the same.
The terrifying explosion made everyone's hair stand on end. If it were them, they would have no way to deal with it.
But immediately afterward, they saw a scene that left them stunned. It turned out that the terrifying attack just now had not harmed Sunagakure. At the critical moment, Gaara's Sand Jutsu had spread out into an enormous shield, protecting Sunagakure beneath it.
"An attack like that… he's probably the only one who could defend against it. If it were me, I couldn't do it at all." Jiraiya sighed.
The scene just now had been far too shocking, as if it had recreated Deva Path Pain's terrifying attack from before.
Against an explosion of that scale, Jiraiya would definitely have had no solution. Being able to protect himself with various methods would already be impressive. There would be no way for him to protect the village.
This did not mean Gaara's strength was above his. It was simply that different types of ninjas naturally had different kinds of abilities, and in this regard, it happened to be the perfect display of Gaara's ability.
If Deidara had not also been strange, with extremely special abilities, he probably would not have been Gaara's opponent at all.
If the battlefield had been on the ground, it would have ended long ago.
In other words, if the one who had acted this time had been Sasori, he probably would have already died in Sunagakure, chopped into mincemeat.
His Performance of a Hundred Puppets would only be destroyed sooner or later when facing Sunagakure, which was full of experts and had many Jonin-level fighters. Not to mention, against Gaara's Sand Jutsu, which combined offense and defense as one, Sasori would have had almost no options.
If his Puppet Technique ran into Gaara's fighting style, where sand was everywhere and there was simply no way to get close, he would probably be taught a brutal lesson.
His attacks were basically purely physical attacks, yet their single-point destructive power could not compare to Kimimaro's earlier attack. In a real fight, he would have run straight into his natural counter.
Together with the support of Sunagakure's other ninjas, Sasori truly would not have had a single option. He would simply be chopped into mincemeat.
By contrast, Deidara relied on his ability to fly and successfully lured Gaara out. After all, in all of Sunagakure, only Gaara, like Deidara, could fly with the help of external objects.
Although his speed was far inferior to Deidara's flight speed, at least he was no longer the one passively taking hits. He could also use his giant Sand Jutsu hands to chase down Deidara.