Under God King Houka's overwhelming pressure, One-Tail Shukaku was so frightened that he voluntarily retreated into Gaara's body for the first time.
If he couldn't escape, he would hide.
If Gaara was killed too, at worst, he would spend a few years reviving himself.
After all, tailed beasts like him were nothing more than life-forms made of chakra.
Lu Ya had been about to beat the hell out of Shukaku, that sand cat.
But the sand cat suddenly turned back into that red-haired brat.
"Change back right now, you damn sand cat!"
"You think you can hide after locking me up? Not a chance!"
Lu Ya grabbed Gaara and hauled him up, then started slapping him across the face.
Gaara slowly regained consciousness. He had thought that monster Shukaku would have dealt with those bastards.
Instead, he was greeted with slap after slap.
Shukaku had lost!
Shukaku was hiding!
"Get off me!"
Gaara struggled furiously. No one had ever slapped him around like this before.
Didn't he have any dignity?!
"Get that fat cat out here, you sickly little brat!"
Gaara couldn't break free of Lu Ya's huge rubber hand at all. His eyes grew redder and redder as he tried to bring Shukaku out again.
But Shukaku refused to come out.
This had never happened before.
In the past, Shukaku had clamored to come out every single day, making so much noise that Gaara couldn't rest or sleep. That was how he had gotten those dark circles.
Seeing Gaara being beaten, Temari and Kankuro wanted to say something, but in the end, neither dared to speak.
They didn't even know whether their father, Rasa, would survive.
They were even less willing to speak out of turn.
"If a tailed beast is frightened and refuses to come out, its jinchuriki