The world before them seemed to open up all at once.
The dense trees fell away to either side, revealing a relatively open clearing.
More sunlight spilled through, illuminating the scene at its center.
The three members of Gaara's team seemed to have just finished a brief fight as well.
Kankuro was looting the enemy corpses, while Temari sat on a branch, watching their surroundings.
Beneath Gaara's feet, the sand stirred faintly, silently burying and devouring the traces of battle.
A faint smell of blood lingered in the air, along with the remnants of surging chakra.
Just then, frantic footsteps and terrified cries drew closer, shattering the clearing's silence.
Several ninjas wearing Sunagakure forehead protectors burst out of the depths of the forest, stumbling and scrambling straight toward the clearing like beaten dogs, their disheveled bodies covered in wounds and dirt.
The lead Sand Ninja's face was filled with the wild joy of finding salvation in a hopeless situation, mixed with desperation. He spotted the three "important figures" in the clearing at once, as though he had found his saviors, and screamed with every ounce of strength he had:
"Lady Temari! Lord Kankuro! Lord Gaara! Save us! Konoha ninjas are chasing us! They've gone mad! They've killed so many of us!"
Both Temari up on the branch and Kankuro looting the bodies below felt their hearts lurch. This was bad!
That idiot!
Temari's expression instantly darkened.
Kankuro stopped what he was doing, his brow tightly furrowed.
They knew Gaara all too well.
Their father considered their younger brother a "failure." With Shukaku the One-Tail sealed inside him and his personality horribly twisted, any words or actions that might "belittle" or "overlook" him could strike a dangerous, sensitive nerve.
Calling out "Lady Temari" and "Lord Kankuro" before "Lord Gaara"... to Gaara,