Elegy in the wind!

"Gahahahahahaha! Thanks to you two bastards beating this brat, the seal binding me has weakened!!!"

Shukaku of the Sand threw back his head and cackled shrilly as the wind and sand surged!

Boom!

His claw, formed from sand, slammed down at Suigetsu and Jugo!

Boom...!!!

The two desperately dodged the claw, only to be hurled into the distance by the sandstorm it stirred up!

The tailed beast's overwhelming power... left them utterly at a loss!

Suigetsu wailed, "Damn it!!! We never accounted for this in our rehearsals! How the hell are we supposed to fight this? Damn it!!!"

In my previous life, Shukaku hadn't gone berserk after Deidara gravely wounded Gaara. Ultimately, the Gaara I knew three years from now had grown into a beloved Kazekage. Both his body and mind were different from what they were now. Even gravely injured, he could still keep Shukaku in check!

But right now... Gaara was nowhere near that strong, either physically or mentally!

How could he not know... that while he was trapped and helpless, the people he had sworn to protect were secretly gloating and laughing at him?

His body had the sand's absolute defense, but his heart did not!

He had merely grown accustomed to hiding his anguish behind an expressionless face!

The instant he fell... that cheer from the Sunagakure forces pushed his heart to the brink of collapse, giving Shukaku an opening!

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Watching Shukaku rampage, the Sunagakure forces erupted in complaints.

"Damn it... that goddamn brat!!! Of all times, he had to go berserk now!! Couldn't he have held on a little longer and done it outside the village?!!!"

"Lord Rasa's Gold Dust Magnet Release was the only thing that could suppress Shukaku! But Lord Rasa is gone. Who knows how many more casualties we'll suffer fighting Shukaku!!!"

"Gaara!!! We never should have let a demon who brings nothing but misfortune stay in the village!!! Now look!!! He can't keep Shukaku under control, and we're the ones who have to suffer the consequences!!!"

Under Shukaku's relentless attacks, Suigetsu and Jugo could only flee in disarray.

Suigetsu faced reality. "No way around it. This isn't something we can fight right now! As long as we live, we'll have another chance! We've done all we can, Jugo. Get ready to make a run for it!!!"

Jugo said, "Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. Sunagakure probably won't let him off either, so Kimimaro's revenge will still be complete!"

"Heeheehee, hahahahahaha! You two naive idiots!! Don't think you can escape me! You can go to hell with these Sunagakure good-for-nothings and repent for disrespecting me!!"

Amid his shrill howls, Shukaku opened his great maw, lined with Sand Fangs. Whoosh! Pitch-black chakra, punctuated by two points of white light, rapidly gathered into a looming catastrophe!

The Tailed Beast Bomb was an innate ability of every tailed beast, and the One-Tail was no exception!

Suigetsu's Sharingan stayed fixed on the terrifying chakra sphere Shukaku was forming. Cold sweat slid down his face. "Hey! Hey! Hey... that chakra is seriously bad news!!!"

The moment they saw the Tailed Beast Bomb... the Sunagakure forces looked utterly stricken!

That Tailed Beast Bomb would not destroy Sunagakure, but none of them here would survive it!

"We-we're finished..."

"I-I don't want to die!!"

Gripped by the fear of death, quite a few immediately turned and fled!

There were also those who supposedly possessed a higher sense of duty. "Hey, stop right there! Are you just going to walk away and let that monster trample our village into ruins?!!"

"B-but..."

"We have to stop Shukaku's attack at any cost! At least hold out until the village's strongest shinobi arrive to help! Even if we give our lives, we'll be heroes worthy of the name of Sand shinobi!!!"

The fleeing Sunagakure forces returned one after another, their faces filled with a resolve to face death, as though they truly were "heroes" nobly laying down their lives to fight evil!

It was not necessarily that... they were despicable villains or hypocrites.

They had simply ignored the root of the problem, losing themselves in self-satisfaction and heroic fantasies.

Facing the imminent blast of the Tailed Beast Bomb, Sunagakure's "heroes" formed ranks, ready to unleash their best ninjutsu together to intercept it!

Clearly... whether they stopped it or not, rivers of blood would flow through Sunagakure!

But at that critical moment, Shukaku abruptly stopped just as he was poised to strike. Crack! Crack! His sandy body began to crumble!

The Sunagakure forces were shaken and bewildered. "Shukaku stopped attacking? What's going on?!"

On the part of his face that had yet to crumble, Shukaku wore a conflicted, furious expression as he demanded, "Brat, even in that sorry state, you're still trying to protect these people?!"

Gaara's weak yet resolute voice rose from deep within. "Shukaku... I won't let you hurt my family!!!"

Shukaku said, "Family... how ridiculous. Do you really think this place is your home?"

Gaara said, "That guy, N-Naruto... he'd definitely say that, and he'd do it too! I-I look up to Naruto. I want to become someone like him. I-I don't want to go back to that lonely hell ever again!!!"

Crack! Crack!

The crumbling spread to Shukaku's face. Even the Tailed Beast Bomb he had gathered was not spared, turning into a shell of sand along with him!

Every member of the Sunagakure forces was stunned by the sight!

Thud, thud... a whole swath of them dropped to the ground, panting hard with lingering terror and joy at having escaped death.

The few among them with a higher sense of duty still grasped the crucial point!

"What happened? Gaara... could he have controlled Shukaku of the Sand's rampage through his own will? How? The Previous Kazekage already deemed him a failed creation! How could he possibly do something like this?!!!"

"Even if he could, what drove him to do it? He must have known full well that the village wouldn't help him! Letting Shukaku rampage was his only chance of surviving those two! Could it be... could it be that even knowing that, he still refused to hurt the village?!"

Crack! Crack!

Shukaku's crumbling body broke apart along the cracks.

Finally, Shukaku's faintly conflicted voice echoed within.

"You foolish brat. You're going to regret this..."

Boom!

Amid the scattering sand, Gaara fell toward the ground, having spent the last of his strength suppressing Shukaku and lost consciousness completely!

"No idea what happened, but it looks like we're saved!"

Only just recovering from the fright, Suigetsu darted forward and caught Gaara on the shoulder enlarged by his Hydrification Arm, then shouted behind him, "Jugo!!! Now's our chance! Let's go!!!"

After taking a moment to collect himself, Jugo retrieved the longsword Nuibari that Suigetsu had dropped in the sand and followed him.

The still-shaken Sunagakure forces stood rooted to the spot, watching the two intruders carry away the boy who had saved the village at the risk of his life.

Those whose consciences stirred could not help asking themselves, Maybe when he said he wanted to become Kazekage, he didn't mean to rule over this village. Maybe he truly wanted to protect us. But everyone fears him. What can we do...?

They wavered, but could not bring themselves to act.

Amid the windblown sand, atop Sunagakure's tallest building.

Granny Chiyo and Grandpa Ebizo stood side by side as Suigetsu and Jugo passed below with Gaara in their custody.

Chiyo raised her hand, but after a moment's hesitation, she ultimately lowered it...

Grandpa Ebizo's long eyebrows drooped, and he looked forlorn. "Sis... is this really all right?"

Granny Chiyo lowered her deeply wrinkled face. She seemed to truly feel that something was wrong, but... after countless hardships had hardened her heart to stone, she ultimately could not take that first step toward change!

"—What can old folks like us, with one foot in the grave, do? Even if we save him, this shinobi world won't change at all..."

And so, without ever knowing it, Suigetsu and Jugo escaped their final peril and rushed out through Sunagakure's gates!

At that moment, even the wind mourned, playing an elegy!