Temari's Ambition

Sand Hidden Village ninja.

The Fourth Kazekage, Rasa, was fighting on the front lines. There were faint dark circles beneath his eyes.

He did not seem to be in a good mood.

Over the years, he would occasionally recall how he had tried to assassinate his son, and sometimes he would think of his wife as well.

Perhaps the greatest mistake of his life had been making his son, Gaara, the One-Tailed Shukaku's jinchuriki.

At that moment, he controlled the sand in an unceasing assault, floating in the air as he looked down upon the earth.

Kankuro followed him while protecting his brother, Gaara.

Normally, Gaara would not have needed his protection. But after their trip to Konoha for the Chunin Ninja Exams, Gaara had seemed like a completely different person.

He always seemed to be thinking by himself.

Kankuro was a talented puppeteer. Though he could not compare to Granny Chiyo and was certainly no match for Sasori,

he could still manipulate those emotionless puppets to attack without pause.

War always erupted under unimaginable circumstances.

Kankuro had lived amid war since childhood. To him, fighting was nothing more than an ordinary part of life.

That was even more true for Gaara.

Whether it was the conflicts of the outside world or the assassination attempts within the Sand Hidden Village,

Gaara had learned far too early to endure and adapt.

Today, he encountered the equally cold Shadowkhan. The difference was that his loneliness did not stem from loving solitude, whereas the Shadowkhan were cold Ninja Shadowkhan who obeyed Ye Zhuo's orders.

"They won't die, and once they're bound by my puppets, they'll slip into the shadows."

Kankuro felt a headache coming on. One of his ultimate techniques was trapping enemies inside his puppets before chopping them into pieces.

Yet the