Temari: "Dad!"
Kankuro: "Dad!!"
When Temari and Kankuro of the Sand saw their father—the Fourth Kazekage—appear, both siblings froze in shock.
Only then did they realize it was an image being projected.
"Mm…"
Sasuke let out a low groan from atop the sand.
Gaara immediately withdrew it. Sasuke dropped cleanly to the ground.
He'd been half-awake already, but the pain jolted him the rest of the way. Rubbing the cursed seal wound along his shoulder and neck, he sat up.
"Sasuke!""Sasuke-kun!"
Naruto crouched while Sakura knelt beside him, the two of them flustered as they checked to make sure he was okay.
Gaara kept watching the image—of a future version of himself and his father.
There wasn't even a trace of the familial warmth blood relatives should have shared.
He understood. In his father's eyes, he'd only ever been a tool—nothing more than a vessel to seal Shukaku, the village's strongest weapon.
"So that guy's the Fourth Kazekage, dattebayo?" Naruto asked casually, hands laced behind his head as he glanced at Gaara.
Gaara: "Yeah. My father. The Fourth Kazekage."
[Within the image—]
[Gaara, now the Fifth Kazekage, looked down at Rasa below him. "Something like Shukaku… has been gone for a long time now."]
[When Gaara said this, his gaze toward the Fourth Kazekage—his own biological father—was openly hostile. After all, the jinchuriki identity had brought him nothing but pain and memories straight out of hell.]
Naruto: "Your father… made you a jinchuriki."
By that logic, Naruto himself had been made into a jinchuriki by the Fourth Hokage, right?
The Fourth Hokage…
"I told you before, Naruto," Gaara said quietly, still watching the image. "I was turned into a jinchuriki by my father's own hands—the Fourth Kazekage."
"Fa… father…" Naruto's face twisted. Instinctively, he refused to believe it.
To an orphan like him, the words father and mother had always been sacred—something pure and beautiful.
"Why?! Why would he do that, dattebayo?!!"
Naruto didn't even know who he was yelling at anymore. He could only shout toward Kankuro.
"H-How would I know?!" Kankuro stiffened. He didn't think he had the right to judge his father as Kazekage—but that didn't mean he believed his dad had been right either.
"Naruto…" Sakura and Sasuke looked at him. As teammates, they understood why he was so angry.
He was always like this—too quick to put himself in someone else's shoes, too quick to burn with anger on their behalf.
Especially when it came to pain like Gaara's. Pain he shared.
Sasuke clenched his fists, eyes locked on the image, waiting for it to reveal the truth.
What exactly… is a jinchuriki?!
[Wind and sand swept across the dunes as the Fourth Kazekage demanded, "You're no longer a jinchuriki? Explain yourself. What does that mean?!"]
[Even as one already dead, the Kazekage still worried about the village's safety—its future, its survival. That sense of responsibility, carved into his very soul, was what it meant to be a village leader. A 'Kage.']
[Gaara: "The one who revived you with Edo Tensei and used you to destroy the world stripped Shukaku from my body. He took the One-Tail's power for himself and started this war—the Fourth Great Ninja War."]
["And as a jinchuriki… I died once."]
All the examinees gathered near the central tower instinctively turned to look at Gaara standing at the edge.
Thinking back to the previous image—was that what it had meant?!
Dying… and coming back to life?!
That was unbelievable!
Did the Sand Village really possess a jutsu like that?!
[As if to confirm their thoughts, the image shifted to a pitch-black cavern—]
Konan stared in shock. "That is… the Gedo Statue?!"
Pain (Nagato): "Whoever is behind these images even knows about the Gedo Statue." Such an overwhelming power—and they'd been completely unaware of it?
Konan: "Should we inform Madara?"
"…Wait a little longer."
Konan: "…Nagato." Ever since the last projection, she'd found herself trusting 'Madara' less and less. But she didn't know how to say it. She was afraid—even Nagato might leave her.
The Angel of Akatsuki, bearer of the Ring of the White Tiger… was, in truth, just a gentle girl scarred by endless wars, forced to seal her heart in ice after losing everything she cared about.
["Sealing Technique: Phantom Dragon Nine Consuming Seals."]
This was the Deva Path of Pain's first appearance since the image where he destroyed Konoha.
[Nine massive blue chakra dragons erupted from the Gedo Statue's body! They wrapped around the unconscious Kazekage, greedily draining every last drop of chakra from him!]
["What… am I?"]
[The image revealed Gaara's inner world. With his tailed beast stripped away, his soul was about to return to the Pure Land. His body crumbled into grains of sand, scattered by the wind.]
[His consciousness and memories faded into nothingness—his very existence forgotten.]
[After the last trace of chakra was drained, his body was discarded without a second thought.]
[This… was the end of a village leader.]
Those who had seen the earlier image remembered it clearly—Gaara, Kazekage of the Sand, captured like a trophy and carried away after protecting his village.
One Sand shinobi who'd once been saved by Gaara turned his head sharply away, unable to watch any longer.
Because of these future visions shown during the Chunin Exams…
Something was accelerating.
Something had already begun to change.
Naruto suddenly grabbed Gaara's arm. "Hey! You're not allowed to just go and die like that, dattebayo! You wait there until I—Uzumaki Naruto—come save you, got it?!!"
Gaara: "…"
[The image returned to the two generations of Kazekage standing face to face.]
[Gaara: "Because of the Shukaku you sealed inside me, Father, I died once. But with the power of Granny Chiyo and my friends, I was brought back to life."]
[The Fourth Kazekage reacted as though he'd heard something impossible—]
["What did you say?! Granny Chiyo would do something like that?!" That Granny Chiyo, who never cared about the village's fate? "And you said 'friends'?! You actually made friends?!"]
Gaara: "…Fr… iends?"
Naruto slung an arm around Gaara's neck without hesitation. "Of course! We're friends, aren't we?! And Sasuke and Sakura too—we're all friends, dattebayo!"
Sasuke: "You idiot, don't decide that on your own!"
"C'mon, don't be so stubborn, Sasuke. Aunt Mikoto told me to look after you, remember? Little Sasuke~"
"You—!" Sasuke was so mad he couldn't even find the words. "You're younger than me. Mom said I'm—I'm the older brother…" The last two words were so quiet they almost vanished.
"…Tch." Naruto wasn't happy about it, but it was true—he was younger.
Then he thought about everyone his age that he knew.
And realized something absolutely terrifying.
Born on October tenth—
He was the youngest of them all!!!!!
"N-Naruto-kun…" Hinata stepped forward shyly to greet him. Naruto flashed her a dazzling grin, so bright it nearly made her faint.
No particular reason—he'd just remembered that there was someone younger than him.
By two whole months.
Hinata Hyuga.
Naruto, for his part, was blissfully unaware.
Temari and Kankuro, however, were completely stunned. They stared at Naruto's arm draped around Gaara's neck, carefully choosing their words before speaking.
"Gaara… your Absolute Defense…""It doesn't seem to be reacting to Naruto…"
Normally, anyone getting that close to Gaara would be injured by his defense automatically.
So how was Uzumaki Naruto doing this?!
…