When dusk fell, the lingering fury of the sandstorm had yet to subside.
The village's buildings were nestled among jagged rock faces, their ochre trapezoidal houses stacked in layers.
Outside a somewhat ornate house stood two children who looked no more than six or seven, seemingly conversing in low voices.
"I'm telling you, this is the last time. Even if you beg me in the future, I won't agree!"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, don't worry! Thanks, Temari. Here!"
As soon as the black-haired boy finished speaking, he handed the cloth-wrapped object in his hands to the doll-like girl opposite him.
"At least you're sincere. I'll help you this once!"
Temari opened one corner of the bundle, revealing several objects that looked like flies, along with a monocle.
She put the monocle over her left eye, then used Chakra to activate the flies.
Judging by how deftly she handled them, this was clearly not her first time dealing with something like this.
In the blink of an eye, the flies rose into the sky and, under Temari's control, sped off in every direction.
Gradually, a smile spread across Temari's face.
Through the monocle, which shared the flies' field of vision, she saw her father busy in the Kazekage building and her younger brother repairing a puppet.
Neither of them noticed a thing.
Once the flies had returned to her palm, Temari put them away with great care.
"Hoshino, I really don't understand you. You're so capable, so why don't you tell Father?"
Hoshino scratched his head. "Grandma Chiyo told me not to. She said it wasn't time yet. And about what you promised..."
Temari rolled her eyes. "I know, I know. Come with me. But you can't stay too long. Father doesn't let anyone go near Gaara!"
Hoshino nodded decisively and followed Temari into the house.
The two then made their way down a narrow passage to a dimly lit room.
"The door's locked, but you can talk to Gaara through the screen window!"
Temari gently opened the screen window beside the door and beckoned to Hoshino.
Hoshino hurried over and looked through the window at the scene inside.
In the room, a small, red-haired figure was curled up in a corner, an icy aura emanating from his entire body.
"Gaara, Gaara, I'm here!"
Hoshino greeted the pitiful little fellow inside, his face full of excitement as he tried to get his attention.
Gaara had a huge supply of Chakra, and he was the future Kazekage to boot. Hoshino had to get on good terms with him.
Back then, thanks to a fateful encounter with a dump truck, he had been reborn as a baby in the world of Hokage, starting out in Sunagakure of all places. It had felt as though the sky was falling.
Who didn't know that Sunagakure was poor and easily bullied among the Five Great Shinobi Villages?
During the Third Shinobi World War in particular, it had attacked Konoha twice, only for both attempts to end in failure.
The village's economy had taken a devastating blow.
Fourth Kazekage Rasa had even been driven to mining gold, only to die in the early stages of the Konoha Crush Plan.
Sunagakure was a tragedy from beginning to end.
As Hoshino saw it, the only advantage to being born here was that Sunagakure was a perfect match for the golden finger he had been born with.
Divine Machine Hundred Refinements, one of the Eight Extraordinary Skills from The Outcast.
Using Qi as a guide and the spirit as a furnace, it transformed the rotten into the miraculous and bestowed spirituality upon lifeless things.
Ordinary implements could become spirit artifacts, and ordinary iron could be transformed into divine weapons.
And the Qi in question... was Innate Qi, the source of life bestowed during gestation in the womb, and it could not be replenished.
Thus, the first step was to look inward and observe one's own Innate Qi.
According to the information provided by Divine Machine Hundred Refinements...
A Qi refiner must first understand the foundation of nature and life. Innate Qi permeates the limbs and bones, like fire hidden within a furnace.
Hoshino sat cross-legged with his eyes closed, circulating his energy through a complete cycle as described in the formula.
But when he sensed his Innate Qi, the Chakra in his body went mad.
Life energy and physical energy automatically fused to form Chakra, which clashed with the Innate Qi.
The two energies fought each other within his meridians. Spiderweb-like cracks began to appear in his twelve primary meridians, and the sea of Qi in his dantian was on the verge of collapse.
Just when Hoshino thought he was about to die there,
A mighty force seemed to descend from the void, as though heaven and earth themselves had become an invisible palm, forcibly gathering the rampaging energies together.
Hoshino could feel it clearly.
Chakra and Innate Qi no longer rejected each other, instead forming a delicate balance.
As for that mighty force, it was most likely the planetary will of the Shinobi World, and it had sought him out of its own accord.
It seemed to want something, yet it conveyed nothing.
Hoshino could only put the matter aside and begin a journey of Qi refinement that lasted two and a half years.
Only recently had he achieved a modest measure of success.
The little gadget he had given Temari was a mobile surveillance device he had made by combining Divine Machine Hundred Refinements with the Ninjutsu Eye of Sand.
It was simple, nothing difficult, just a matter of one plus one equaling two.
He layered Qi and Chakra together to form a dual energy circuit, allowing the fly puppets to blend almost seamlessly into their surroundings in flight.
As for approaching Gaara,
Besides the fact that Gaara was the future Kazekage, there was another reason: the One-Tail, or rather, the One-Tail's enormous supply of Chakra.
Hoshino remembered that Ma Xianhong possessed a magical artifact called the Thieving Swallowing Beast.
It absorbed the Qi in an opponent's body, gathered it, and fed it back to its user, enhancing his physical abilities and giving him stamina for prolonged combat.
It was a bit too technically complex for him to make at the moment, but that didn't stop him from getting on good terms with Gaara in advance and making plans for the future.
Just then, Gaara, curled up in the corner, heard the commotion and looked up toward the window.
Two children were standing there.
One was his foolish older sister, and the other was the "sworn" older brother who had no sense of boundaries and was always coming to see him.
He had given himself that title!
"What are you here for? Aren't you afraid I'll kill you?"
A trace of a chill that didn't befit his age showed in Gaara's eyes. The sand beneath his feet trembled slightly, as if it might turn into sharp blades and strike through the window at any moment.
Temari instinctively took half a step back.
But Hoshino acted as though he hadn't heard the threat. Instead, he leaned closer, his face almost pressed against the screen.
"Kill me? Could you bear to?" He grinned, revealing two pointed canines. "I brought you a present!"
With that, he pulled a palm-sized metal box from inside his clothes and tossed it into the room.
Gaara looked at the metal box, which had landed precisely at his feet.
After hesitating for a moment, he picked it up and opened it. Inside was a small doll that looked a lot like him.
Suddenly, the doll blinked and gave him a brilliant smile.
It was just like Hoshino's, carrying a touch of both slyness and warmth.
Only then did Gaara notice.
The doll's hair was red, and its clothes were the style he usually wore, but the expression on its face was one he had never seen on his own...
That unburdened, pure happiness.
"This is... me?"
He had never imagined he could have such a side to him.
"Yeah! It won't talk on its own, but you can control it and make it talk to you! Do you like it?"
Hoshino lay against the windowsill, his eyes shining.