Right now, Gaara's impression of Soji was that he was a weirdo.
A completely inexplicable guy!
But since Soji did not mention why he had come looking for him, Gaara did not continue asking. His solitary nature meant he was not much of a talker to begin with.
And so, Soji and Gaara each sat atop a rock seven or eight meters apart, looking up at the stars together.
No matter how one looked at it, the scene was bizarre!
Finally, after an unknown amount of time had passed, Soji spoke again.
"I have a story here. I wonder if you'd be willing to listen?" Though Soji said that, he did not even turn his head from the starry sky.
It was true that Soji did not like the desert.
Yet gazing up at the stars at night in the desert made him feel at peace.
Because he could see the brilliant stars filling the sky, an advantage many other places did not have.
"A story?" Gaara froze again when he heard Soji speak.
If he had merely found Soji strange and inexplicable before, now he suspected Soji had some serious illness.
This Konoha ninja had risked coming to meet him in secret just to tell him a story?
At that moment, anyone standing in Gaara's shoes would have found it hard to wrap their head around.
Yet Soji paid no attention to Gaara's wild thoughts and began telling the story on his own.
"Many years ago, there was a powerful female ninja in a certain ninja village. She was kind and gentle, yet immensely strong, with the ability to freely control sand.
"She held a very high status within the village.
"Later, she fell in love with the village's leader.
"Before long, they happily had their eldest daughter, then