Gaara pressed himself into the corner, his legs trembling like rusty bearings, yet he could not take a single step.
In his dark-ringed eyes, fear and murderous intent were fighting furiously.
The monster inside him was screaming, urging him to run, but his body's instincts kept him rooted to the spot, afraid to move, like a rabbit caught in an apex predator's sights.
Son Goten looked at the fellow still dragging his feet, and his patience ran out completely.
"Looks like your ears don't work too well."
Son Goten sighed, stepped forward, and moved right up to Gaara.
Less than ten centimeters separated them, close enough to see the pores on each other's faces.
Shikamaru watched from the side with his heart in his throat, terrified that the gourd-carrying lunatic would suddenly lash out and bite someone.
Strangely, however, Gaara did not attack. Instead, he made meaningless clucking sounds in his throat like a chicken being strangled.
Son Goten did not open his mouth.
But a thread of his consciousness, carrying overbearing Ki, brutally crashed straight into Gaara's sealed space.
It was a barren desert.
A gigantic, fat tanuki covered in violet markings lay on a dune, baring his teeth at the intruder.
"Get out, human brat!"
Shukaku roared, the sound whipping yellow sand into the sky.
Son Goten's consciousness stood in midair, arms folded, sizing up the enormous monster with a look of distaste.
"You certainly look distinctive."
"Looks like you've got plenty of meat. I wonder how it tastes."
Shukaku froze for a moment. In all his long life, this was the first time he had heard someone discuss how he tasted.
"What are you going to do? I am the great-"
"Shut up, little tanuki."
Son Goten's voice was not loud, yet it drowned out the wind