" Gaara! Gaara! Gate of Opening!"
Sand Village, Kazekage's residence. The usually quiet corridor was broken by urgent knocking and anxious calls.
Kankuro frowned, pounding heavily on the wooden door. Temari crossed, her face equally worried.
After returning from Uzumaki Naruto's wedding in Konoha and enjoying a period of peace, Gaara suddenly announced that he needed to take a few days off due to "illness."
Fortunately, the Ninja World has enjoyed unprecedented peace in recent years. Sand Village has also become increasingly prosperous due to its deep cooperation with Konoha, the promotion of new crops, and a stable trade environment. As the village's Kage, a short rest for a few days is not enough to affect the operation of the village affairs - most matters can be temporarily handled by the elders and elite Jonin.
However, Kankuro and Temari could not simply regard their younger brother's sudden "seclusion" as a normal period of rest and recuperation.
Something's not right, something's really not right.
Two days! Two whole days, Gaara has completely locked himself in this bedroom, not leaving the room at all, and even leaving his daily meals untouched outside the door.
Behind that tightly closed door, there was only a chilling silence, as if it had created a small world completely cut off from the outside world.
What worried them even more were the several extremely unusual and absurd events that almost came to fruition before Gaara announced his leave of absence.
First came a series of diplomatic moves directed at Konoha that could be described as "confusing".
Gaara, in the name of the Kazekage, frequently dispatched delegations of varying ranks to Konoha for several consecutive days, citing a variety of Eight Gates. Initially, the reason was "to have in-depth discussions on the details of the border trade agreement and the framework for future cooperation."
Then it changed to "dispatching an agricultural research team to study Konoha's advanced vegetation maintenance and soil and water conservation techniques," and finally it even evolved into "dispatching a horticultural envoy to specifically inquire about how to make the cactus, a specialty of Sand Village but extremely difficult to flower, bloom under unnatural conditions"...
These reasons all seem to barely qualify as "official business," but their frequency and the triviality and strangeness of the reasons make it clear to anyone that something is amiss.
Based on what Kankuro overheard in the Konoha tavern that night, he could conclude that Gaara's deep-seated urge to see Uzumaki Naruto was probably becoming uncontrollable.
However, he struggled to find a reasonable, natural, and unobtrusive excuse, and could only try to use all sorts of lame reasons to get to Konoha, like an awkward child.
The second thing was even more outrageous and dangerous—it was a formal challenge letter bearing the personal seal of the Fifth Kazekage that was almost sent out.
The challenge was clear and concise, issued in the name of the Kazekage, specifically challenging Uchiha Satsuki of Hidden Leaf Village to a one-on-one, formal, and unrestricted Ninja duel.
Without explaining the reasons or specifying the venue, the wording was cold and harsh, full of a resolute tone.
When Kankuro found the crumpled and slightly trembling draft of the challenge letter in Gaara's study wastebasket, he was terrified.
He immediately rushed to Gaara, using every trick in the book to argue his case from various angles, including village stability, diplomatic impact, personal reputation, and even the possibility of " Naruto completely losing faith in you"...
After a barrage of persuasion and intimidation, nearly exhausting himself and working through the entire night, Gaara finally regained a sense of rational struggle in his eyes. In the end, with extreme reluctance, he burned the challenge letter that was enough to cause a diplomatic earthquake to ashes.
Even so, the suppressed resentment, jealousy, and a sense of powerlessness emanating from Gaara kept Kankuro and Temari's hearts hanging in suspense.
At that moment, Gaara's voice, clearly weak, nasal, and deeply weary, came from inside the door.
"I'm fine... don't worry about me..."
Kankuro and Temari's hearts sank even further. This voice hardly sounded like "everything's alright."
This will definitely lead to disaster! Not just physically, but also mentally!
They exchanged a glance. Without a word, they understood each other's thoughts—they couldn't let things continue like this!
Kankuro took a deep breath, nodded to Temari, and the two of them slowly took two steps back, creating some distance between themselves and adjusting their stances.
The next second--
"Bang!!!"
"Bang--!!!"
Kankuro slammed his shoulder down and slammed into the door with all his might! At the same time, Temari, perfectly in sync, kicked the weak spot under the door lock!
The two bolts groaned under the strain, the hinges snapped, and the heavy wooden door slammed open with a deafening crash against the wall!
" Gaara! You're alright..."
Kankuro rushed into the room, but his anxious words were cut short as if by an invisible hand, choking him in his throat.
His eyes widened in disbelief, his face filled with horrified disbelief.
Temari, who followed closely behind, was also completely stunned by what she saw the moment she stepped across the threshold, and even subconsciously held her breath.
Her gaze swept blankly across the room. "What... what is this...?"
Gaara's room... is crammed full.
Literally, completely and thoroughly, filling without leaving any gaps.
In the dim light, the once spacious and tidy Kazekage bedroom was now unrecognizable. As far as the eye could see, none of the original furniture or decorations could maintain their normal function and form—they were all covered by layers upon layers of sand, piled up, hung, or tightly arranged.
Gaara himself sat in the center of this "ocean" of sand, leaning against the edge of the bed on the carpet.
Behind him, a huge sand gourd continuously gushed out fine yellow sand.
His hands, with utmost focus and devout tenderness, were cradling a clump of newly emerged sand.
Chakra flowed from his fingertips, meticulously manipulating the aggregation and shaping of sand grains. The sand clump slowly wriggled in his palm... and finally solidified into a lifelike human-shaped sand sculpture, about the size of a palm.
The sand sculpture has the iconic hairstyle outline and a deliberately sculpted, sunny grin on its face—it's a sand model of Uzumaki Naruto.
However, this is by no means a solitary work.
When Kankuro and Temari looked away from Gaara's new work and scanned the entire room, they didn't know what expression to wear.
On the bed, the original pillows and blankets were gone, replaced by a dense array of Naruto sand sculptures in various poses.
Some sat cross-legged, some pretended to run, some made hand Hand Seals, some had bright smiles... They were piled up together so crowded that they almost overflowed onto the ground.
The ground, from the doorway to the bedside, was covered with a thick layer of sand, and on this sandy ground, more sand sculptures were "growing" like bamboo shoots after a spring rain.
They varied in size, some only the size of a fist, others nearly half a person's height, but without exception, they all depicted Naruto.
They stood, crouched, or lay down, filling every inch of space where one could stand. Kankuro and Temari's intrusion even caused them to accidentally crush a few small statues on the edge, producing a faint cracking sound.
The cabinets, bookshelves, windowsills—all horizontal surfaces were covered by these sand sculptures. They were arranged somewhat haphazardly, yet followed a logic that only Gaara could understand.
Because all these sand sculptures are "looking" at Gaara in the center of the room.
The entire room has been transformed into a space composed of countless " Naruto " sand sculptures.
Gaara seemed oblivious to the commotion and horrified looks his siblings had caused when they burst through the door. His entire focus was on the sand sculpture that had just taken shape in his palm.
He stared at the indistinct face of the sand sculpture, then picked up a pen from the scattered debris beside him.
Then, with utmost gentleness, three short, parallel whisker lines were drawn on either side of the sand-sculpted Naruto's cheeks.
After finishing the last stroke, he stopped and held the sand sculpture up to his eyes, carefully examining it.
After a long while, his chapped lips moved slightly, uttering a few words in a hoarse voice.
"This makes it... even more like it..."