"Even if they're already forever separated from us."
Naruto thought of Kushina. He thought of Karura.
"Even so, she would still protect me with her own power, just like how the sand protects you."
Gaara looked confused.
"Absolute Defense?"
The Gaara of now had no strength left to resist. At this moment, he even felt that if he could just die like this, it might actually be a relief.
His voice was very faint.
"Absolute Defense…"
"The power of Shukaku… and Mother's hatred toward me. She hated me because I took her life the moment I was born."
Naruto Uzumaki hadn't known that Gaara carried such an experience. He himself had grown up without knowing who his parents were, so when it came to this, he couldn't truly empathize with Gaara's pain.
Temari and Kankurō clenched their teeth silently, their hearts aching.
Gaara was their little brother. To say that their mother's death caused them no resentment or complicated feelings toward him would be a lie.
Even knowing that Gaara was also a passive victim in all this, the subconscious blame and bitterness still made them keep their distance from him.
"Seriously… what kind of nonsense are you talking about?"
Naruto, who knew the truth, laughed and scolded him.
"Your mom hated you? Yashamaru hated you? All of that was made-up crap by your lousy old man to mess with you. And you actually believed it?"
"What?!"
Gaara's pupils shook violently as he struggled with all his might to sit up.
On Naruto Uzumaki's side, Sakura was using Medical Ninjutsu to treat his injuries.
"No matter which version of you it is," she said, "you always push yourself this hard. You slack off most of the time, but when it really matters, you're unexpectedly reliable."
"Sakura?"
Naruto Uzumaki was a little flustered. The Sakura healing him still had her long pink hair.
Looking in the direction of Gaara and his other self, Naruto asked if he could hear what they were talking about.
aSasuke Uchiha was just about to bend down and help him over—
when, to everyone's shock, Sakura from the other world suddenly scooped the completely immobile Naruto up in her arms, carrying him bridal-style.
At that moment, Sasuke Uchiha, Sakura Haruno, and everyone else could only stare in stunned, tearful disbelief.
No matter how you looked at it, Sakura was still a girl. How was she this strong?!
And the scene just felt so incredibly wrong!!
"S-Sakura…?"
Naruto Uzumaki's small voice was trembling.
"Don't move. I'm a medic. I know how to avoid your injuries."
Naruto immediately curled up like a little chick and didn't dare move at all.
Sasuke Uchiha's face darkened with black lines as he struggled to maintain his composure and not say anything.
Kakashi felt an urge to pull his forehead protector down even further and cover his right eye too.
Sasuke nearly awakened some Hyūga-level dōjutsu from sheer shock, but as a Uchiha, protecting his eyes was important. Better to look away.
Naruto Uzumaki was carried over to where his other self and Gaara were.
Gaara was struggling to sit up, but his muscles simply refused to respond.
Two figures jumped to his side.
They supported his shoulders and helped him sit up.
It was Temari and Kankurō.
Gaara was slightly surprised.
He had lost, yet the two of them hadn't run away. They stayed by his side.
"You idiot. That's because they're your brother and sister."
Naruto said it with a half-scolding, half-tender tone, his heart aching for Gaara.
In their parallel world, Gaara had already undergone a complete turnaround, and his relationship with his brother and sister had improved dramatically.
Gaara couldn't worry about anything else. He pressed urgently,
"What do you mean everything was Father's lie? Didn't Mother hate me?"
"How many times do I have to say it? If she really hated you, you wouldn't have been born into this world at all."
"What is actually going on?" Naruto Uzumaki was a little stunned by his other self's words.
He had a strong constitution and excellent recovery, and with Sakura's treatment, he was already feeling much better.
Having personally gone through all of this under the guidance of the mission scroll, Naruto explained,
"His mom passed away not long after giving birth to him. She was extremely worried about him, since he was premature, so she used her own power to protect Gaara."
Gaara was completely dumbfounded. Still weak after being beaten so badly, his usual bloodthirsty, frenzied, and cold demeanor was gone. He stared blankly at Naruto, looking dazed and almost innocent.
"But Yashamaru…"
"That was your bastard father," Naruto said bluntly. "He didn't trust that you, as his son, could really suppress Shukaku's power. So he arranged for Yashamaru to test you using your greatest fear. He believed that if you could endure that without losing control, you'd be a successful vessel of power."
Temari grew anxious, afraid Gaara might be deceived again. Her not-so-ordinary younger brother couldn't endure any more lies.
"How do you know all this?" she demanded, needing a reasonable explanation. "Even we didn't know about it. How could you?!"
Naruto said, "That's why I'm telling you. We already went through all of this in our world. Your dad ordered Yashamaru to test Gaara and had him tell Gaara that his mother and his sister, meaning your mom, had always hated him and never loved him."
Sakura nodded vigorously and added,
"After Karura-sama gave birth, the Tailed Beast's power left her body, causing her life force to drain rapidly. Because she couldn't stay by Gaara's side as his mother, her chakra likely turned into a force that kept protecting him in the form of sand."
"You'll understand once you truly suppress Shukaku," Sasuke said, recalling what he'd seen of the Fifth Kazekage's sand defenses. "The true form of your Absolute Defense is your mother protecting you."
"!!!!"
The words from the three of them completely shattered Gaara's emotional defenses.
The explanations were detailed enough that there was no room left for doubt.
The Konoha ninja of this world stood there in stunned silence, never imagining the truth would be like this.
Twelve-year-old Gaara stared with eyes wide and round. Paired with his dark circles, he looked almost like a little panda cub.
The once-gentle image of Yashamaru surfaced in his mind…
…
"Gaara-sama, medicine that heals the heart is very special. It can only be obtained from others."
"But I believe you already have it."
"Because my sister, your mother, Lady Karura, must love you deeply."
…
["Kid."]
Kurama suddenly spoke from within Naruto.
["Let your chakra come into contact with his chakra."]
Naruto was confused.
"What does that mean? How am I supposed to do that?"
["Touch him. Fists, a punch, whatever. As long as you make contact."]
…
Kurama's voice sounded impatient and gruff, but Naruto, who had already interacted with him a lot, could tell this was Kurama trying to help while being too proud to say it outright.
Naruto gave Gaara a quick look, then grabbed his hand. Almost immediately, a crimson chakra began flowing out from his body.
Temari and Kankurō were startled.
They tried to stop it, but Shikamaru Nara held them back.
The Nine-Tails' chakra successfully suppressed the One-Tails. The overwhelming difference made Shukaku curse nonstop.
Gaara heard a voice he had never heard before—
["Kid named Gaara, try using your Sand Defense."]
Right after that, in the mysterious space where he had once seen Shukaku, he saw a Nine-Tails Demon Fox that was far more real, far more massive, and far more imposing than the fox Naruto had just transformed into.
The pressure from such a colossal existence shook Gaara to his core, filling him with awe and a trace of fear.
The chakra he had recovered was just enough for one use of Sand Defense.
Grain by grain, the sand around him began to rise, floating up and assembling piece by piece into the familiar form of the technique.
As always, he was sheltered from the sunlight by layers of sand, existing within the shadow cast by it.
The first thing Gaara noticed was the stunned looks on everyone's faces.
Then he saw the gentle, friendly gaze of Naruto, the one said to have come from another world.
But when he lifted his head—
The sand formed the image of a gentle woman. Her slender shoulders drew inward as her arms wrapped protectively around him. The shadow before his eyes was exactly her hands shielding him with tenderness.
This was a woman he had only ever seen in photographs, yet had seen countless times.
Temari and Kankurō could no longer hold back their emotions either.
Naruto Uzumaki, who had just fought Gaara and developed a sense of empathy toward him, guessed who it was and broke down before Gaara did.
"So you had such an amazing mom! Damn it! I'm so jealous! I've never even seen what my own mom looks like, dattebayo!!"
"I've seen her!" Naruto from the other world raised his hand. "She's a super, super, super beautiful woman!"
"!!!!"
Naruto Uzumaki nearly lunged at his other self, ready to grab his leg and beg him to tell him everything about their mom.
Sasuke spoke up to remind the three Suna siblings,
"This was all Orochimaru's plot. He disguised himself as the Kazekage and deceived you."
After that, he patted the Naruto who had just been telling this world's Naruto about Kushina's story.
"We can talk on the way. Let's head to the Chūnin Exams arena first."
"Right," Naruto said, nodding. "Dad, Obito, the younger version of Kakashi-sensei and Rin should be there. Let's go find them first."
He then looked at Gaara.
"You should come too. Once we get there, you'll understand. Everything was Orochimaru's deception."
"And Sasuke," he added, turning to this world's Sasuke Uchiha, "I'm really worried about your cursed seal. It'd be best to let my dad take a look at it."
Adult Kakashi had been thinking the same thing. That cursed seal had been the first S-rank mission they had ever completed, and earlier, when he observed the seal's rampage through his Sharingan, the flow of chakra had felt anything but normal.
"Alright," Kakashi said. "Let's head over there first."