The First Gift

"Wow, this hole is even bigger than I imagined! I really have no idea how Lord made it!"

Leaning against the edge of the Aerial Fortress's damaged dome, Karin looked around curiously and exclaimed in amazement.

Gaara, below her, looked helpless. "The instructor said Lord accidentally caused it while training. All right, come down quickly. It's dangerous up there!"

The "instructor" Gaara referred to was the Third Kazekage Human Puppet, who was usually responsible for their daily lives and supervised their training every day.

"Hehe, I haven't gotten a good look yet!" After a pause, Karin waved down at Gaara. "Quick, lift me a little higher. I want to see outside the dome too!"

Gaara could only raise his hands, controlling the sand carpet beneath Karin to move another half meter upward, faintly lifting her through the breach in the dome.

"Who allowed you two to come here?"

Suddenly, a cold voice rang out from within the fortress.

Gaara was immediately startled. He had not sensed anyone approaching at all, so the hand controlling the sand trembled slightly, causing the sand carpet supporting Karin to tilt.

"Ah!"

As the sand carpet tipped, Karin, who had been craning her neck to look outside, immediately cried out and fell.

Gaara's expression tightened. "Oh no!"

Just as Gaara prepared to control the sand carpet to catch the falling Karin, a figure silently flashed past his eyes. Before the sand carpet could arrive, the figure grabbed the falling Karin and held her securely in one hand.

Gaara hurried over and gave the figure a deep bow. "Lord!"

Clearly, the one holding Karin was none other than Hyuga Kagami, who had been preparing to transplant the Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan into Karin.

After setting Karin down, Hyuga Kagami swept his gaze over the two of them.