Gaara's sand was ultimately a step too slow. By the time it reached Naruto, he had already fled far away.
Having fully let go and accepted the Nine-Tails' power, Naruto's strength had skyrocketed. Compared to before, he would have had no problem taking on Gaara alone now.
Gaara had wanted to continue the pursuit. Naruto's condition was clearly wrong, and their rescue operation could hardly be called a success.
"Naruto... his relationship with those people seems strange too..."
Gaara could not understand what had happened to Naruto. Those people had likely done something to him, but judging by the attitude Naruto had shown them just now, his relationship with them did not seem very good either.
There was no use thinking too much about it now. A cloud of sand gathered beneath his feet once more. Gaara rode the sand forward, catching Sakura after she had been knocked to the ground. Hinata was not badly hurt, so her condition was somewhat better.
"We..."
Gaara had wanted to continue pursuing them, but the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path, which had been nothing more than background scenery until now, suddenly went berserk. Perhaps because Nagato had left, the disgusting monster with more than a dozen eyes seemed to be showing signs of awakening. Small stones continuously fell from the ceiling of the cave, dust gradually obscured their vision, and intense tremors shook the ground as if the entire place were about to collapse.
Though unwilling, Gaara had to admit that the current situation was not suitable for continuing the pursuit. Rather than risk going deeper, it would be better to leave now.
After taking one last look at the figures retreating into the distance, Gaara controlled the sand and stone to clear a path, finally escaping before the cave completely collapsed.