When Naruto brought news that Orochimaru had killed Rasa, Gaara fell silent.
He stood at the window of Sunagakure's Kazekage's Office, his back to everyone else in the room, facing the boundless desert.
Sunlight fell through the gaps in the venetian blinds onto his short, dark red hair, slicing his thin silhouette into alternating bands of light and shadow.
His expression was impossible to make out, but the fingertips of the hand hanging at his side twitched slightly, then went still again.
Kankuro shot to his feet.
His chair tipped backward with the movement and hit the floor with a clatter that sounded especially harsh in the quiet room.
His face flushed scarlet, his eyes widened, and he clenched his fists until his knuckles turned white. His entire body was like a bow drawn to its limit, ready to snap at any moment.
"That Orochimaru came here with you, didn't he? Naruto Uzumaki, you deserve to die!"
His voice exploded through the office, carrying the impulsiveness and anger of youth, along with deeper, tangled emotions that even he might not have recognized.
Rasa was his father. However cold, however calculating, however little he acted like a father, he was still Kankuro's father.
And now, one of his father's killers stood right before him: that blond, blue-eyed young man, Naruto Uzumaki, who had come from the future.
Temari hurriedly grabbed her younger brother.
She clamped one hand around Kankuro's wrist and pressed the other against his shoulder, pinning him firmly in place.
She was not as strong as Kankuro, but she had seized his joint, a node in his chakra flow, a weakness Kankuro knew all too well.
Kankuro struggled twice, but her hold was firm. He could not move.
"Calm down," Temari said, her voice so low that only Kankuro