The world was silent and desolate, the sky the color of blood.
"No, no, no! Impossible!"
Looking at the familiar monument, Rasa's throat bobbed. His dry, cracked lips opened, but only fragmented, hoarse sounds could escape from deep within his throat.
The sight before him had utterly shattered his composure and logic as the Kazekage.
Is this a Genjutsu?
This must be a Genjutsu!
"Release!"
He violently raised his hands, using all his strength to force himself to perform the hand seals to break a Genjutsu.
He stared wide-eyed, holding his breath, expecting the scene to twist, shatter, and vanish, revealing the familiar outlines of Sunagakure.
However, nothing happened.
Only the wind continued to howl tirelessly, whipping up fine grains of sand that stung his face. The tiny pricks felt like countless ants biting him.
It was clear and real.
This is not a Genjutsu.
A chilling coldness, uncontrollable, shot up from his feet, crawling inch by inch along Rasa's spine, causing his sealed hands to tremble uncontrollably.
Terror! Panic! Disbelief!
How, how could this be?
I was only gone for a few days. What on earth happened? How did Sunagakure turn into this?!
Just as he was lost in shock and panic.
Puff! Puff, puff, puff!!
Several shriveled, charred, and twisted arms, like old tree roots, suddenly burst out of the seemingly calm sand beneath him!
These arms were so withered that only a layer of skin covered the bone. They were pitch black or ashen like charcoal, with sharp, curved fingernails, resembling bird claws—nothing like the limbs of a living person.
Their movements were stiff, yet they desperately grabbed Rasa's legs and hands!
"Wh—"
Rasa hadn't even had time to react to the sudden attack when an irresistible pulling force came from the arms!
They were like ghouls from hell, frantically dragging him downward, trying to pull him into this bottomless sea of sand!
The sand beneath him seemed to have turned into a quicksand swamp, and his body began to sink at an alarming rate.
"What in the world are these things?!"
Rasa's Chakra instinctively erupted as he struggled to break free.
But the strength of these withered arms was far greater than imagined, and their numbers were rapidly increasing, continuously emerging from the sand, locking his hands and body so he couldn't perform hand seals!
Yet, he struggled madly, manipulating a small amount of Gold Dust to slash and block, constantly cutting and shredding the withered arms reaching out from all directions!
Puff! Puff, puff!
The severed arms did not bleed; they merely crumbled into handfuls of lifeless, ordinary sand, which rustled down and merged back into the surrounding sea of sand.
All his effort was futile.
No matter how many he shredded, even more withered arms immediately reached out from the sea of sand, desperately gripping his ankles, arms, and waist, dragging him toward the abyss.
It was like fighting the entire vast, malicious desert single-handedly—the power of an individual was laughably tiny.
"No..."
Rasa's final roar was filled with despair and anger, yet it was instantly swallowed by the endless, cold quicksand, like a pebble dropped into the deep sea.
The countless arms dragged him down beneath the soft, cold quicksand.
Yellow sand violently squeezed him from all directions. The tremendous pressure instantly bore down on his entire body, threatening to crush him, and sand surged into his mouth and nose, suffocating him.
Rasa suppressed the panic in his heart, struggling to manipulate the little remaining Chakra in his body. Golden sand quickly condensed around his head, forcibly opening a small space just large enough to breathe.
"Cough! Cough, cough!"
Fresh air rushed into his lungs, slightly relieving his chest, which felt like it was about to explode.
But he was still encased by the endless sea of sand, with heavy pressure coming from all sides, continuously draining his already dwindling Chakra.
The abdominal injury he sustained from Mōryō in the Land of Demons, though treated and saved by medical ninja there, had not fully healed.
He tried to struggle upward, manipulating the Gold Dust to break through, but the surrounding sand layer was unimaginably thick, like being trapped in the most viscous swamp.
Every attempt to move only caused the surrounding quicksand to compress more tightly around him, sinking him deeper. The more he struggled, the faster he sank.
Am I going to die?
Despair, like the sand around him, coldly enveloped him.
He didn't know how long he endured this slow, agonizing descent.
Thump!
The ground suddenly disappeared beneath his feet, and a feeling of weightlessness abruptly seized him.
He broke free from the constraints of the thick, heavy sea of sand and fell downward!
Thud!
His feet hit a solid, familiar surface. The feeling made him stumble a few steps, but he quickly regained his balance.
"Where is this place?"
Rasa suddenly raised his head, instinctively scanning his surroundings.
However, as his vision adjusted to the dim light and he saw the sight before him, his body, and his mind, completely froze, turning him into a statue.
Sparse, bleak light filtered in from an unknown source, barely illuminating this gigantic, bizarre space.
What lay before him was a grotesque, strange scene, like some cruel work of performance art.
There was only an boundless expanse of yellow-brown. The countless piles of sand were not loosely stacked but seemed to be shaped by some invisible force, gathering into massive, towering sand pillars.
These 'trees' forcibly supported a 'sky' also composed of sand, from which fine sand continually poured down like a slow waterfall, burying the structures below.
It was these strange 'trees' that were laboriously holding up this vast, empty underground space beneath the sea of sand.
Within this space beneath the sand, Rasa looked around in panic and saw the familiar outlines of buildings.
Sunagakure, already built within a large basin, had an architectural structure resembling an ant hill. Now, it truly looked like a colossal ant hill completely buried underground.
If Sunagakure was the ant hill, then the small ants who once lived within it were now engulfed and solidified within this massive, underground cavity.
Rasa's gaze trembled as it swept across the familiar streets, squares, and houses...
What he saw were dense, countless human figures, all shriveled, cracked, and completely devoid of moisture and life.
They were frozen in their final positions: some were prostrate on the ground, some were struggling to reach upward, and some had their mouths wide open, seemingly screaming in silent anguish...
There was no sign of living flesh or blood, no trace of struggle, only this overwhelming tableau of despair!
The silence of death blanketed everything.
Rasa's heart felt like it was being fiercely squeezed by a hand. His breathing became incredibly difficult. Every inhale brought the stench of sand and the odor of death.
His gaze searched toward the center of the village, where the Kazekage Tower, the symbol of Sunagakure's power and order, should have stood.
However, what stood there now was not the building he knew, but a colossal pyramid constructed entirely of sand.
"How is this possible..."
Rasa's throat moved up and down; his mind was blank.
This absolutely could not be the work of a Tailed Beast like Shukaku!
Shukaku's power, while destructive and violent, could never bury an entire village, along with all its inhabitants, in such a twisted, ritualistic manner!
And this certainly couldn't be done by a human.
What is it?!
What kind of unimaginable, terrifying 'thing' could turn the entirety of Sunagakure, along with all life, into one massive 'ant hill' specimen?
What kind of monster could possess the power to accomplish something like this?!
Seeing such a bizarre scene, cold sweat instantly soaked Rasa's back. His Chakra instinctively surged, and the Gold Dust gushed out, swirling around his body.
Just then.
Swoosh!
An extremely subtle sound of air being cut suddenly appeared behind him!
Rasa reacted with an almost reflexive instinct, without time to think. The Gold Dust suspended around him condensed into a blade, which he swept backward with a sharp, cutting sound!
The figure dodged the fierce slash by a fraction of an inch.
"It's me."
A deliberately lowered, yet intensely familiar voice, carrying undeniable exhaustion, spoke up.
Rasa's hand seals stalled, and he abruptly spun around to face the newcomer.
Standing behind him was a female ninja wearing a torn Sunagakure flak jacket. Her face was covered in sand and dried blood, and her expression was exhausted and tense.
Her bloodshot eyes constantly scanned the surroundings.
"Pakura?" Rasa blurted out, stunned in disbelief. "How are you..."
"This is no place to talk!"
Before he could finish, Pakura's gaze suddenly sharpened, fixing on a spot in the 'sky' to Rasa's side and rear. Her expression grew even more grim.
"Hurry, run!"
Before her words were finished, her figure vanished from the spot, speeding toward a particular direction!
Rasa's pupils constricted as he followed her gaze.
He saw a gigantic eyeball made of condensed sand silently floating in the corner of the sandy, leaking 'sky' not far away, flying toward their position!
A Sand Eye?!
Without hesitation, Rasa's Chakra instantly exploded. He raised his hand, performed the seal for the Body Flicker Technique, and vanished from the spot.
Following Pakura closely, the two sped through the half-buried ruins. Soon, they reached an extremely concealed entrance, buried under the sand.
Outside the entrance, a pile of desiccated corpses stood, looking terrifying and bizarre.
Rasa finally realized why the corpses looked familiar to him.
Scorch Release, a Kekkei Genkai formed by the simultaneous manipulation of Fire and Wind Chakra Natures, could instantly evaporate the moisture from a target upon contact, turning them into a state resembling a mummy.
"Did you kill these people?" Rasa asked Pakura, who was ahead of him.
Pakura had her back to him and didn't answer. She only walked toward the heavy metal door of the entrance.
The metal door was sealed, wrapped with several white cloth strips that emanated Chakra. The character "Forbidden" (Kin) was written on the surface of the strips.
Pakura quickly performed a few complex hand seals and shouted: "Release!"
The white cloth strips on the door quickly retracted and came undone. The heavy metal door made a slight noise as she pushed it open, creating a gap just wide enough for one person to pass through.
"Get in!" Pakura flashed inside first.
Rasa followed closely, stepping inside.
Inside the door was a dim space, not particularly wide, clearly a converted emergency shelter.
The air was murky, filled with the scent of medical ointments, sweat, and blood. The only light source was a few flickering emergency lamps.
When Rasa's gaze swept across the shelter's interior, his heart sank heavily.
Hundreds of figures were sitting or lying in the space. They were all ragged, sickly, and their faces were etched with undisguised exhaustion and terror.
Hearing the door open, everyone snapped their heads up like startled birds, looking over nervously.
When their eyes saw Pakura, and the Rasa who followed, a faint light instantly burst forth in their deadened eyes.
"Pakura-sama!"
"It's, it's the Kazekage-sama!"
"Pakura brought the Kazekage-sama back!"
"Are we, are we saved now?!"
Hoarse cries, mixed with sobs, rose and fell—like a lifeline thrown into a sea of desperate death. Young Kankurō and Temari ran toward him, weeping.
However, Pakura paid no attention to these cries of hope.
She walked straight to a corner of the shelter, where an old man with white hair and a wrinkled, exhausted face leaned against the wall.
"I brought him back to you," Pakura's voice was utterly spent, even carrying a hint of imperceptible numbness.
The old man slowly raised his head. It was Sunagakure's Advisor Elder, Ebizo—Chiyo's younger brother.
His cloudy eyes looked at Pakura, then at Rasa walking toward him, and he slowly nodded: "Thank you, Pakura."
"It's just a matter of dying sooner or later."
Pakura muttered a self-mocking remark, walked to the side, leaned against the wall, and closed her eyes, as if she didn't want to deal with anything anymore.
"Ebizo? You're here too. What exactly happened?"
Rasa, his arms tightly clutched by Temari and Kankurō, approached Ebizo, his expression solemn. "How did the village turn into this? Where are the others?"
"The others?"
The answer came not from Ebizo, but from the resting Pakura.
She didn't open her eyes, her voice cold and piercing: "They're gone. Only these people remain."
"What you see is the last of the living people in Sunagakure."
"...What?"
Although he had prepared for the worst, hearing the brutal truth directly from Pakura's mouth still made Rasa feel dizzy. His body swayed, and he could barely stand steady.
The entire village, reduced to less than a thousand people?!
"And all of this, we owe to you, Fourth Kazekage-sama."
Pakura finally opened her eyes. Her bloodshot gaze was filled with complex emotions: anger, grief, and a deep sense of powerlessness and mockery.
She stared at Rasa, saying slowly, word for word: "All of this was done by your good son."
Pakura and Rasa had a very poor relationship, not just because of the conflict over who would be the Fourth Kazekage, but also because Rasa had continuously targeted her since becoming the Kazekage.
This included, but was not limited to, rejecting her applications to go to the battlefield and refusing to let her join the Sunagakure high command, citing her lack of experience. Naturally, she held no respect or awe for Rasa.
"...Who?" Rasa's pupils trembled, his voice hoarse with shock. "Gaara?"
How is that possible?
How could Gaara possess this kind of power?!
Even if Shukaku went berserk and broke free from its seal, with the power of a Tailed Beast, there was no way Gaara could turn the entire village into this!
After all, Shukaku specializes in Barrier and Wind Release techniques, not Sand Manipulation.
"It is indeed Gaara."
Ebizo sighed. "Three intruders wearing black cloaks with red clouds broke into the village and extracted Shukaku from Gaara's body. After Gaara died, he transformed into a monster called a 'Hollow'."
"If I'm not mistaken, he is on the same level as those beings in Konoha called the 'Espada'."
Pausing here, as if recalling a terrifying scene, Ebizo's face twitched slightly before he continued:
"That incredibly terrifying sand manipulation ability allows him to wield power comparable to a sandstorm in this desert environment."
"Aside from those who died at the very beginning, many others were controlled by him using the 'Subconscious Sand Manipulation Technique,' turning them into his puppets."
"Those dry corpses you saw were controlled by him to attack others, and they were people whom Pakura and the rest of us were forced to kill with our own hands."
"That monster could have killed us directly, but he didn't," Pakura interjected. "He's playing a game. A game of hide-and-seek!"
Her breathing became heavy. Clearly, being the 'hero' of Sunagakure and now being forced to kill her comrades was a tremendous psychological burden for her.
This was exactly what the monster wanted to see: their fear, pain, struggle, and despair...
"I knew it!"
"That monster should have died long ago!"
"The Kazekage-sama should have killed him sooner!"
"If, if he had been killed earlier, we..."
Driven by fear and resentment, civilians constantly roared and murmured.
In their ignorance, they didn't understand why Gaara had become this way, nor did they understand what it meant to be a Jinchūriki.
They only knew that the boy was a monster when he was alive, causing hundreds of deaths through repeated berserk episodes, and now he was still a monster after death.
Hearing Ebizo and Pakura's account, Rasa finally realized just how terrifying his youngest son, whom he had always viewed as a mere tool and weapon, had become.
Moreover, unlike Konoha's 'Wicked Eye,' the 'Hollow' that Gaara had become possessed reason. His personality was like that of a mischievous child.
The reason he didn't personally kill everyone, but instead chose to manipulate Sunagakure's people to kill other Sunagakure people, was akin to a child crushing ants.
It was the purest form of innocence and cruelty.
"How could this be..."
"Didn't the Third Hokage say that only those with powerful souls, after death, and after consuming enough souls, could transform into a 'Hollow' of the Espada level?"
Rasa's voice was dry and hoarse. "Even with Gaara's resentment and pain before death, his strength before he became a 'Hollow' shouldn't have been enough to transform into this..."
He suddenly paused here, realizing something. His breathing grew abruptly shallow.
Could it be...
No!
Impossible!
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