Windblown sand surged up, raging across the sky!
Having entered the possessed form of Partial Tailed Beast Transformation, bolstered by Shukaku's powerful chakra, Gaara now seemed to embody the desert's brutality.
He drove Shukaku's Spear into the ground, sending an invisible ripple pulsing outward from him!
Boom!
Every grain of sand in the courtyard and for dozens of yards around it seemed to answer his call, surging madly toward the center of the battlefield, swirling and rising.
Within a few breaths, a roaring sandstorm had formed, blotting out the sky.
Yellow sand filled the air, reducing visibility until it was almost impossible to see a hand held before one's face. The acrid smell of dust and violent chakra turbulence saturated the air.
Yet at the heart of that chaotic storm, a small stream of sand began to flow with unusual gentleness. Like a docile sand snake, it quietly coiled around Temari, who lay bound on the ground, too stunned to speak. It lifted her securely, carried her through the raging sand, and delivered her to a distant rooftop beside Kankuro, who was watching everything with his jaw hanging open.
Kankuro looked at his older sister, tightly bound with rope at his feet, then raised his gaze toward the savage, half-human, half-beast silhouette flickering in the heart of the storm. Shock and fear gripped him, and his lips trembled. "Gaara..."
He thought he saw Gaara glance his way from the center of the raging sandstorm. Gaara had entered his possessed form; the left half of his face had become completely bestial, and his right eye had turned a beastlike yellow.
That gaze was as cold as ever, yet it seemed to hold... an almost imperceptible resolve, as though he were casting off a burden.
Kankuro wasn't sure whether he had imagined