Sunagakure's support for Konoha was hardly surprising.
There was little Gaara could do now, and relying closely on Konoha was their best option.
However, as one of the Five Great Shinobi Villages, Sunagakure had not figured out what was happening in the Land of Rain the way Iwagakure had.
But it had already obtained some general intelligence.
After all, weak as Sunagakure was, it still had its foundations.
So in his reply to Shihōin Naraku, Gaara mentioned one thing: he hoped Amegakure would return the remains of his older brother, Kankuro.
Gaara understood perfectly well that after so much time, his brother should long since have died in Amegakure.
He therefore held no hope that Kankuro was still alive, but recovering his remains would be something, at least.
Unfortunately, Kankuro had fallen into the hands of the Akatsuki, not Amegakure!
Even if Amegakure could not withstand Gaara's pressure, it still could not hand over Kankuro's remains.
"Gaara certainly knows where he stands. Unfortunately, Amegakure can't give him the remains." Shihōin Naraku shook his head as he read the letter.
Naraku guessed that Kankuro's remains might ultimately have ended up in the hands of Sasori of the Red Sands.
The problem was that Sasori was already dead.
Which meant that Kankuro was nowhere to be found, dead or alive.
"No, that's not quite right. If Kabuto can resurrect Sasori, we should be able to find Kankuro's remains, provided Sasori of the Red Sands didn't chop him into pieces during his experiments."
Yet at that thought, an inscrutable look appeared on Naraku's face instead.
If he remembered correctly, in the original story, Kankuro had made the body Sasori of the Red Sands left behind into a puppet, then faced Sasori during the Shinobi World War-or had it been Chiyo?
"Interesting. But Kankuro