Gaara's face was tense, his brows knitted tight, but his hand moved like lightning. He pressed his palm downward.
Whoosh!
The next instant, countless streams of golden sand surged from the seams between the banquet hall's stone floor tiles. They wrapped around Yeto, swift yet gentle, forming a sturdy stretcher of sand.
Bearing Yeto, the stretcher shot forward under Gaara's precise control. It smashed through a tall glass window at the side of the hall and streaked toward Sunagakure Hospital amid a spray of glittering shards. The whole thing took less than two seconds!
"After her, quick!" Shikadai barked, cold sweat beading on his forehead. He, a grim-faced Shinki, Boruto, and the others who had come to their senses rushed out of the hall and sprinted toward the hospital.
Meanwhile, the strange aftereffects of sleep were rapidly fading from Sunagakure's streets.
Vendors rubbed their eyes and resumed hawking their wares. Passersby shook their heads, muttered about falling asleep on their feet, and continued on their way. Ninja at the training ground swung their arms, assuming they had grown briefly dizzy from overtraining.
It was as though someone had pressed pause on the entire village, then hit play again. Its familiar bustle and vitality returned. No one knew that, during those few minutes of dozing, their minds had been dragged into a distant Warring States Illusion.
Nor did they know how close they had come to death. The relief of survival belonged only to the few who knew what had happened.
On a desert road hundreds of miles from Sunagakure.
Thud!
Jackie Chan's head jerked up from the steering wheel of his off-road vehicle, leaving a red mark on his forehead. He blinked in confusion, glanced at the unchanging yellow sands outside, then looked around the car.
"How did I