Inside Konoha.
While out for a walk, Gaara happened to notice that there seemed to be something extra in the sky.
"Hey, Shukaku, can you sense anything?"
He asked Shukaku, who was lying on a soft, round sofa like a cat bed inside the Sealing Space.
Shukaku, who had been playing on the sofa with a toy Gaara had offered him, temporarily set it down and began sensing Gaara's surroundings.
"What? I don't see anything."
Shukaku curled his lip, but the next instant, his body froze.
"That Byakugan girl's chakra, and that evil White Hair, and... Matatabi?"
That Blondie's face surfaced in his mind again, but Shukaku expanded his sensing range, found no sign of Blondie, and let out a long sigh of relief.
"What's-her-name, Hinata Hyuga, and Karin Uzumaki are at the Fourth Training Ground. The Second Hokage is there too, and so is Matatabi's Jinchūriki."
Because of Yugito Nii's status as a Jinchūriki, Gaara had gone to visit her and Kakashi two days earlier.
So he and Yugito Nii were acquainted.
He nodded, tilted his head up slightly, and continued looking at the sky.
"Hinata and Yugito Nii? And the Second Hokage. Then... what's that in the sky? Naruto?"
Rather than reasoning, Gaara's thought was more like intuition.
"Naruto?!"
Shukaku's body, which had only just relaxed, tensed again. He expanded his sensing range once more, but even after covering the entire training ground, he sensed no Nine-Tails chakra.
"Gaara, don't fool me. There's no trace of that Stinky Fox anywhere in the training ground."
Gaara pointed at the sky and told Shukaku.
"Look up."
Shukaku froze for a moment, then looked, just as a pale green barrier appeared.
"Shukaku?"
Gaara called to Shukaku again.
Naturally, the result was that Shukaku declined his call.
What a joke. Who