Jinchūriki...
The word instantly flashed through Sasuke's mind!
He recalled the First meeting with Gaara, and the Fourth Hokage's special treatment of him. Minato Namikaze had even actively encouraged Gaara to keep in touch with Naruto.
Sasuke suddenly sensed a faint smell of political intrigue in the air!
After all, at only twelve years old, Sasuke couldn't fully understand that Minato was simply looking out for the two children on behalf of this world's Fourth Hokage and Fourth Kazekage.
He mistakenly thought the Fourth Hokage was using Naruto and Gaara as pawns in future ninja village competitions, and that thought nearly ignited his rage!!
"What the hell are you?!!" Sasuke demanded, glaring at Gaara.
He vaguely remembered hearing something during the —wasn't there talk that tailed beasts like the Nine-Tails weren't the only ones?!!
Just then, Naruto, having retrieved the Earth Scroll and eager to claim credit, arrived with Sakura, who had just defeated the Sound ninja.
"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura called out, though she looked a bit disheveled, her energy unwavering.
"Sasuke! Sakura! I got the scroll!!" Naruto yelled, his enthusiasm practically oozing out of him.
"Idiot! Don't come over!!!" Sasuke snapped, his words aimed directly at Naruto.
He was starting to suspect that Gaara had entered the Chūnin Exams specifically because of Naruto, the Jinchūriki of the Nine-Tails!
What's the saying—Like putting a warm face on a cold shoulder?
Naruto, all excited, ran over to boast, but Sasuke's sharp shout—"Idiot! Don't come any closer!"—froze him in his tracks.
"What the hell are you saying?! You bastard, Sasuke!" Naruto yelled in frustration.
"I told you not—"
Before Sasuke could finish, Gaara snapped.
"!!!!" The Fifth Kazekage, Gaara, watching everything through his Sand Eyes, suddenly paled. "Why am I erupting during the second Chūnin Exams in this timeline?!"
He remembered it clearly.
Shukaku's rampage was supposed to happen after the third exam, following his battle with Rock Lee. After fighting Sasuke again, he would lose control of Shukaku's power, rampaging through Konoha Forest before finally being defeated by Naruto. That was when he would understand that there was another way to prove he was alive in this world.
Without a second thought, Gaara retracted his visual nerve from his third eye and jumped off the guesthouse balcony!
"Gaara!"
The Fourth Kazekage, Rasa, who lived nearby, saw him and immediately gave chase!
--In the Forest of Death.
Twelve-year-old Gaara was already halfway into the transformation into Shukaku.
Sasuke desperately tried to shout for Naruto to leave!
"Sakura! You have to find a way to contact... "No—since Minato Namikaze sealed the Nine-Tails within Naruto, he quickly corrected himself, "No, go find Kakashi!"
Gaara, filled with rage, struck out, sending Sasuke flying into a nearby tree trunk!
Sakura screamed in shock: "Sasuke-kun!"
"Sasuke!!" Naruto froze, completely confused about why Sasuke was telling him to leave and, even more so, why Gaara had turned into this monster!
But Naruto wasn't the kind of person to just follow orders without understanding.
Seeing Sasuke get hit, his rage exploded!
Fueled by anger, Naruto charged forward without hesitation and threw a punch at the rampaging Gaara!
"Calm down, Gaara!!"
Sasuke's Sharingan clearly saw that Naruto's punch, delivered with full force, was laced with the power of the Nine-Tails! Naruto's eyes had transformed into the beastly pupils of the Nine-Tails!!
Had it become easier for him to tap into the Nine-Tails' power now?!!
Sasuke stared at Naruto in shock, then turned to look at Gaara, who now looked like a half-human, half-monster...
If Naruto continues using the Nine-Tails' power like this, could he end up like Gaara? Losing control of his power and emotions, becoming a rampaging monster at the slightest trigger?!!!
A whirlwind of thoughts raced through Sasuke's mind.
Finally, his thoughts condensed into one command: "Stay away from him!! Stay away from Gaara! Idiot!!"
"Explain what's going on, damn it!!" Naruto turned to Sasuke, still thinking about the time he shared ramen with Gaara. Back then, Gaara had been quiet, showing no murderous intent, and had even seemed shy.
They weren't exactly strangers, were they? How could Gaara have completely lost it like this?!
Naruto didn't understand why Gaara had changed so drastically, and Sasuke, who knew what was happening, wasn't telling them anything!
In the midst of their exchange, Sasuke's words—"Stay away from Gaara!"—plunged Gaara back into the abyss of childhood trauma, isolation, rejection, and fear!!
This pushed him further into madness, consumed by Shukaku's rage!
"No one gets away!!" Gaara's roar now sounded even more like the growl of a wild beast!
Naruto and Sakura narrowly avoided Gaara's attack. Sand wrapped around his right arm, transforming it into a giant, beast-like claw! A single strike could snap multiple trees in half!
"Gaara! Snap out of it!! What happened to you?!" Naruto shouted in frustration.
Sakura, however, had noticed something different in Gaara's condition!
"Na... Naruto..." She gathered her thoughts. "Don't you think Gaara's state is...?"
"Extremely strange! It's like he's been possessed by some kind of monster!!" Naruto exclaimed.
Sasuke couldn't take Naruto's slowness anymore. "Idiot! Haven't you figured it out?! That's why the Fourth Hokage had you meet him!!"
Sasuke usually addressed Minato Namikaze as "Minato-sama," but this time he referred to him as "Fourth Hokage." It was technically accurate, but it felt off to Naruto.
"Figure out what?! Can't you just say it straight?!" Naruto, being straightforward, hated it when people didn't speak clearly or left things unsaid.
"Tch!" Sasuke dodged another attack from Gaara, jumping next to Naruto. "That Gaara... he's probably a Jinchūriki too!"
Naruto: "!!!"
He stared in shock at Gaara, now fully in the grip of madness. Naruto and Sasuke muttered, "Was I... like that back then too...?"
"A bit better," Sasuke said. "But I suspect the more he uses that power..."
The rest of the sentence hung in the air. Sakura and Naruto's faces grew even paler as they started to understand the situation.
"So, did you even hear me?! You super idiot!!" Sasuke, struggling to keep Gaara's attention with taijutsu and Fire Release, yelled at Naruto: "You and Sakura get out of here now! Call Kakashi and the others!!"
Naruto didn't move, his eyes locked on Gaara, still in a frenzy.
This was the first time he'd realized that, besides his own mother, someone else in the world was also a Jinchūriki like him.
A deep instinctive empathy made Naruto desperate to understand what had happened to Gaara.
"Hurry up!!" Sasuke urged impatiently.
Just then, two figures rapidly approached from the distance!
One of them reached out, and golden sand spread across the ground, preparing to attack the enraged Gaara!
But the other figure, who was with him, stopped him!
The golden sand collided with the brown sand, creating a deafening noise that drew the attention of everyone nearby!
Naruto and the others turned to look at the two men who had suddenly appeared.
"Father..." Genin Gaara slurred, his partial Tailed Beast transformation making him look completely unhinged!
Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura were all startled!
That man just tried to attack Gaara with the Sand Storm, right?!!
He's Gaara's father?!!!
Naruto stared at the man standing next to Gaara—strikingly similar in appearance, with the same "Love" tattooed on his forehead—and gasped, "That man is Gaara's father? Then the one stopping him from attacking his son..."
"Could it be Gaara's older brother?!!"
Fifth Kazekage Gaara: ...
You're something else, Naruto.
Rasa, Gaara's father, couldn't understand why this future version of his son would try to stop him. If he didn't control the rampaging Gaara now, things would go horribly wrong once Shukaku emerged!
The Fifth Kazekage shook his head at this era's father, then turned his gaze toward Naruto.
"Naruto."
Naruto froze. "Huh? You know me?"
"And who are you?!" Sasuke shot back, glaring at him.
Sending his village's Jinchūriki to participate in a mere genin exam? Sasuke couldn't help but question the Land of the Wind ninja's motives and ambitions!
Choosing to ignore the fact that Konoha also sent their own Jinchūriki to the Chūnin exams, Sasuke felt his suspicions were well-founded!
The Fifth Kazekage glanced briefly at Sasuke Uchiha, feeling nostalgic for this time in their lives.
To prevent a tragedy from repeating itself, to spare the snow-covered fields of the Land of Iron from witnessing that same look of pain and helplessness on Naruto's face, the Fifth Kazekage revealed a fragment of future information to Sasuke Uchiha:
"Sasuke Uchiha."
"Before seeking vengeance, see the truth clearly. Don't wait until it's too late to pour your hatred and guilt onto those who truly understand you. At least 'he' never wronged you."
"!!!" Sasuke instinctively knew the Fifth was referring to him and Itachi. But what did 'he' mean by 'never wronged you'? When had Sasuke ever poured his hatred and guilt onto others?!!
"What the hell are you talking about?!! Who the hell are you?!!"
The Fifth Kazekage Gaara didn't respond to Sasuke's words.
But just as he was about to speak with Naruto, he was attacked by his childhood self!
A claw, strikingly similar to Shukaku's, lashed out at the Fifth Kazekage. In an instant, a sand wall appeared before the claw, blocking the attack in Gaara's place!
"!!!"
A sand defense identical to his own?!
Half-possessed by Shukaku, Gaara's eyes, clouded by madness, widened in shock!!
He stared at the sudden blocker and demanded, "Who are you?!!" Though he already suspected the answer, before the other could speak, Genin Gaara pressed, "Why are you here?!!"
Following protocol, the Fifth Kazekage answered the first question.
"As you see, I am your future self."
Gaara: "!!!"
Naruto/Sasuke/Sakura: "!!!!"
"Future... Gaara...?!"
The three exclaimed in unison, their gazes darting between Genin Gaara and Kazekage Gaara.
Sakura gasped, "It's true! They really do look like the same person!"
"Hey! You, dead last!" Sasuke suddenly remembered, "Did you get paid for that C-rank mission you did earlier?!"
"Huh? Which one?"
"The one where you treated Gaara to ramen!"
Naruto suddenly recalled, "Ahhh! Right! That mission's done too! We still have to collect the mission reward!!"
"Just like that Kawaki guy!" Sasuke added. "His mission reward is also someone from the future!"
Clueless about how he'd become a walking mission reward, the Fifth Kazekage was utterly baffled by their conversation. Yet, as the Kazekage, he quickly deduced from their exchange—
The very reason he appeared in this era, the catalyst that would drastically alter the entire Chūnin Exams!!
'Boom--!'
Genin Gaara, having seen his future self, became even more lost, questioning his own value and purpose.
More sand poured out of the gourd on his back!
Bloodshot veins burst from the whites of his eyes!! His entire state grew increasingly unstable!!
The knuckles of his fingers, clutching his head, turned pale from the intense pain.
Naruto felt that, at the very least, he and Gaara shared a bond from eating ramen together. He urgently turned to the future Gaara: "What's wrong with him?! He's acting really strange, dattebayo!!"
The Fifth Kazekage Gaara, of course, knew what was wrong with his younger self: delusions, schizophrenia, Shukaku screaming in his head, chronic sleep deprivation...
Put simply, his younger self was severely mentally ill.
Seeing the future Gaara remain silent, Naruto grew even more anxious.
"Whatever it takes, just save him first! He looks like he's in agony and acting bizarre, don't you think?!!"
While they spoke, the Genin Gaara muttered to himself, "Mom... I'm sorry... Don't be so angry... Soon, very soon, I'll make you taste their blood... Heh..."
Hearing his son—half-possessed by Shukaku and clearly mentally unstable—say such things, the Fourth Kazekage lowered his gaze. His eyes were filled with conflict, pain, and self-reproach.
And the Fifth Kazekage, seeing his younger self like this...
How to describe it?
Pitiful, yet tinged with a touch of adolescent delusion. Mad, yet still holding a trace of innocence.
In essence, it was a—
Who am I? Where am I? What am I doing?
Oh, so this is social death.
...a subtle sensation.
Yet, Gaara, the Genin, hesitated again to attack, slowly shifting back into Shukaku's form! Though his size didn't match the true Shukaku's colossal stature, his entire body was now covered in sand, resembling a humanoid Shukaku!
This terrifying, grotesque form was even more horrifying than Naruto's fox-like transformation in the Land of Waves!!
Even Naruto felt a twinge of fear.
"Please."
A hand suddenly appeared on his shoulder—was it future Gaara?!
"Please save this era's me..." The Fifth Kazekage spoke softly. "Just as Naruto saved me time and time again in the world I come from."
"What?!!!"
Naruto froze, Sasuke and Sakura froze too.
Clearly, the "Naruto" mentioned by future Gaara referred to the Naruto from their world.
"You mean the me from another world saved you?" Naruto asked, his voice trembling.
Future Gaara, however, spoke with unwavering confidence, "Yes. You are the only one in this world who can save me..."
Save Sasuke Uchiha, Pain, Obito Uchiha, and countless others—even the tailed beasts...
"...from their fates."