A piercing, prolonged alarm tore the peaceful day apart!
"Woo-woo-woo-"
The alarm signaling the highest level of emergency echoed wildly over Sunagakure, shattering the afternoon stillness.
Every villager and ninja looked up in shock, then their faces changed.
"Oh no! It's a 'black storm,' a sandstorm of the highest level!"
"Hurry! Everyone, get into the underground shelters now! Hurry!"
On the streets, the Chunin on watch shouted themselves hoarse, their voices full of panic.
On the distant horizon, a suffocating, yellow-brown wall connecting heaven and earth was bearing down on the village at a terrifying speed!
This was no ordinary sandstorm, but the desert's most terrifying natural disaster-the "black storm."
Wherever it passed, boulders were swept away and camels were swallowed whole. Visibility dropped to zero in an instant, and the violent winds were strong enough to tear everything apart!
More deadly still, the storm's size and speed far exceeded the warning.
"Quick! Earth Release team! Wind Release team! Form a defensive line now! Buy time for the villagers to evacuate!"
A Jonin shouted commands at the top of his lungs, but his voice was soon swallowed by the howling wind.
Chaos! Utter chaos!
The villagers screamed and cried in terror as they rushed toward the nearest shelter entrance.
The ninja desperately formed Hand Seals, raising Earth Style Walls from the ground to block the wind and sand, only for the raging sandstorm to smash and swallow them in an instant.
The wind was too strong. Ordinary defensive Ninjutsu were completely useless!
Shira had been training alone at the training ground, honing the combination of his breathing method and physical forms. The moment he heard the alarm, he raced toward the nearest shelter, hoping to help his parents and neighbors.
But the sight before him made his heart sink. Wind and sand had already engulfed the entire street, stones were flying everywhere, and people could barely move!
Several ninja were struggling to maintain a massive Earth Style Wall, but it was already covered in cracks and on the verge of collapse!
Behind the wall were dozens of women, children, elderly and frail people who had yet to make it into the shelter!
"Hold on! Earth Release: Added-Weight Rock Technique!"
"Wind Release: Airflow Wall!"
The ninja gave it everything they had, burning through Chakra as their faces gradually turned pale.
But the black storm was more powerful than anyone had imagined. With a thunderous crash, the Earth Style Wall finally gave way and shattered!
The raging wind and sand lunged like a giant beast at the exposed crowd!
"No!!"
"Help!!"
"Oh no, it's a black storm! We're doomed!"
The howling wind tore apart their desperate cries.
At that critical moment.
"Shield of Shukaku!"
A firm, slightly childish voice rang out! Sand surged wildly from the ground and instantly formed a huge, sturdy wall in front of the crowd, forcibly blocking the first and fiercest onslaught of wind and sand!
It was Gaara! He had appeared nearby at some unknown point, both hands stretched forward. His green eyes were full of tension, but even more so of determination. He was using his power to protect the villagers!
The sand wall shuddered violently in the storm, but Gaara gritted his teeth and held on!
"It's Gaara!"
"That monster saved us?"
Cries of disbelief rose from the rescued crowd.
"Don't just stand there! Get into the shelter!" Gaara shouted without looking back, his voice hoarse from the effort.
Shira watched the scene, shaken. Without hesitation, he rushed forward and helped guide the terrified crowd quickly into the underground entrance.
But the disaster was not over. The storm was growing stronger, and cracks had begun to appear in Gaara's sand wall.
Worse still, cries of alarm came from the distance-the fierce wind had ripped a huge hole in the roof of the medical team's temporary shelter! Many injured people with limited mobility and medical staff were still inside!
"What? The medical team's in trouble too!" a ninja cried, but they were all pinned down where they stood and couldn't spare anyone!
The storm poured through the opening, and screams rang out from inside. The injured could not be moved quickly enough.
"I'll go!" Shira had barely thought before his body was already charging out!
Reason told him it was extremely dangerous, but his instincts and the lessons he had been taught deep down told him he couldn't stand by and let them die.
That said, he also had another thought: he wanted to see if he could unlock his body's potential under such extreme danger and force out the Second Activation of his Seven Heavens Breathing Method!
Take a gamble, and a bicycle might become a motorcycle!
Bababoey!
"Shira!" Gaara shouted in alarm when he saw him charging toward the heart of the storm, but he couldn't move. His sand wall was the lifeline for countless people behind him!
Against the fierce wind, every step Shira took was agonizingly difficult. Sand scraped against his face and body like knives.
He burst into the medical station. It was already a mess, with medicines and equipment flying everywhere, severely injured patients groaning in pain on the floor, and medical staff desperately trying to secure the stretchers, but the wind was too strong!
"Help secure the stretchers and move the seriously injured into the corner! Shield them with your bodies!" Shira shouted at a stunned medical worker, his voice too calm for a child.
He was the first to brace his body against a cart full of medical equipment that was about to be blown over. The tremendous wind nearly swept him away!
Crack! The hole overhead widened again, sending more rubble and fierce wind crashing down. At the same time, a little girl with an injured leg rolled off her stretcher and slid screaming toward the opening.
"No!" A pale-faced female medical-nin stared in horror, but a rock had pinned her leg, leaving her unable to get free.
Shira's pupils contracted. The distance was too great, the wind too strong. He couldn't make it in time!
Save her! I have to save her!
The thought ignited every cell in his body like a flame. The breathing method he had painstakingly honed over the years began circulating wildly by instinct!
He had already pushed the power of the First Activation to its limit, but it was nowhere near enough!
He needed more power, faster power, stronger power!
Every inch of muscle and every cell in his body screamed! The pressure of his limits, his determination to protect, and everything he had learned and accumulated in his long exploration of the Second Activation's threshold erupted at that moment!
"Aaaaargh-!!!"
A growl unlike any human sound burst from Shira. It was not a cry of pain, but the roar of power breaking through its shackles!
Boom!!!
Steam far more violent, scorching, and concentrated than that of the First Activation erupted from every pore in his body!
It was no longer pale white, but carried a faint earthy-yellow halo! His speed, strength, and reflexes soared to a whole new level!
Seven Heavens Breathing Method: Second Activation, open!
The ground beneath his feet cracked apart! Shira vanished from the spot, becoming almost a streak of yellow light as he darted through the fierce wind and falling debris at incredible speed. At the very last instant before the girl was swept through the opening, he caught her firmly in his arms!
At the same time, he grabbed a sturdy roof beam with his other hand, steadying himself!
"S-saved?" The female medical-nin stared in disbelief at the figure shrouded in faint yellow-tinged steam.
Shira had no time to appreciate the power of his new realm. He quickly handed the girl to the medical staff, then used his vastly increased speed and strength to help them move the seriously injured into a relatively safe corner. He blocked the opening with every heavy object he could find and used his body as the final barrier against the wind and sand.
The entire process was lightning-fast and astonishingly efficient.
The Second Activation brought not only an enormous surge in strength and speed, but also a tremendous improvement in his control over his body, allowing him to make the most precise judgments and movements in such a chaotic environment.
The storm still raged, but the crisis inside the medical station was temporarily under control.
After an unknown amount of time, the storm's force finally began to weaken.
When the ninja outside finally managed to free themselves and rush over to help, this was what they saw: the medical station was a mess, but casualties had been kept to a minimum, and all the injured had been settled.
Shira was leaning against a wall. The astonishing yellow steam around him had dissipated, his face was pale as paper, and his whole body trembled uncontrollably. He had clearly exhausted himself to the limit.
Gaara also withdrew the sand wall and ran over. Seeing Shira's condition, his green eyes filled with worry.
"Shira! Shira!" Gaara shook Shira's shoulders frantically, his eyes reddening slightly.
Shira struggled to shake his head. He wanted to speak, but he didn't have a shred of strength left.
Shira thought, Damn it, stop shaking me! If you keep going, you'll shake me unconscious!
The medical-nin who had rushed over immediately stepped forward to examine him, her face full of gratitude and shock. "Child! Thank goodness for you! You saved so many people!"
The villagers and ninja around them looked at Shira with deeply complicated expressions.
Fear, gratitude, disbelief, and profound shock mingled together.
Today, they had seen the two people who had once both been shunned by the village step forward in this disaster and become their lifelines.
Gaara, once regarded as a monster, had used a sand wall to shield everyone from the deadly wind and sand;
Shira, meanwhile, had broken through his limits and opened the Second Activation, saving the injured at the medical station.
In the distance, Rasa, who had just returned to the village from deep in the desert, stood atop the Kazekage building, taking in everything that had happened below.
His gaze lingered for a long time on the collapsed, overexerted Shira and the exhausted Gaara. His face was expressionless, and no one could guess what he was thinking.
Yashamaru hurried over and finally breathed a great sigh of relief when he saw that Gaara and Shira were safe, though his eyes showed even greater worry.
Shira was carried to the hospital. Before falling unconscious, he had only one thought:
Finally! I finally broke through! I made a killing this time!
In the desperate situation of protecting others, he had broken through his own limits!