[Creak... creak...]
The sound seemed to scrape right beside her ear.
The oppressive atmosphere made Sakura want to scream, to clutch onto anything at all. But her body felt like it was pinned down, as if by sleep paralysis, completely unable to move.
She forced her eyes to shift to the side. Just behind her right shoulder, she caught a faint glimpse of the source of the creaking.
A lone, solitary swing.
A child only a few years old sat on it with his head lowered, clutching a teddy bear as the swing rocked back and forth.
[Creak...]
...
This was not something Sakura alone was seeing.
The space they were in felt like a hall of mirrors, or like Haku's Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals. Everyone present could see a child sitting on a swing beside them.
And everyone could hear that creak, right next to their ear.
The terror pressed down on them, pushing the atmosphere toward its breaking point. Some people's teeth chattered. Others screamed outright. Yet none of it affected the space itself.
From far away came the laughter of children. A group of Sunagakure kids were kicking a ball around, shouting joyfully, their voices bright and carefree. The contrast between them and the child sitting on the swing behind everyone was painfully stark.
Temari: "....."
Kankurō: "....."
Fourth Kazekage Rasa: "...."
The three of them recognized it at a glance.
The child sitting on the swing was Gaara.
For them, the eerie terror eased slightly, replaced by a bitter heaviness that settled deep in their hearts.
["Shoot!"]
["Ah! The ball flew up onto the rock wall!"]
["We haven't learned wall-climbing techniques yet. What do we do?"]
As the children fretted, sand flowed upward, dragging the ball down from the height and dropping it into the hands of the child on the swing.
Seeing this, the people from Sunagakure finally understood.
This was merely a record of the past.
"Genjutsu?!"
"It's Gaara! The one on the swing is Gaara!!"
Inside the space, the real Gaara was still sitting on the ground, restrained by the rules of this place and unable to stand.
Beside him was Naruto, watching the scene unfold. Watching the Gaara of the past. He too was unable to move.
"Could this be that child's memories?" a Konoha villager asked someone dressed like a Sunagakure ninja.
The Sunagakure ninja froze, then scoffed. "Ah, that monster!"
Gaara was seated, and with so many colorless figures around him blocking the view, the man felt free to spit out the word "monster" without restraint.
The Konoha villagers who didn't know the truth immediately grew angry.
"He's just a child! Don't you think calling him a monster is going too far? Sunagakure!"
"Hmph! What do you know! Just keep watching! You'll understand soon enough! That thing is a genuine monster!!"
"What?!!! No matter what you say, he just looks like a kid with a bit more talent for ninjutsu, doesn't he?!"
The Konoha villagers were furious.
Right before their eyes, that thin, small child was only trying to return the ball to the older kids.
That timid, fearful gaze was heartbreaking to see.
["It's Gaara... it's Gaara!!!"]
["Run!!!"]
["Wait! Please, don't leave me alone!!"]
In the next instant, sand surged forward, snatching the children who tried to flee and dragging them back one by one, making them scream in terror.
Naruto:!!!!
Gaara, still stuck sitting on the ground, felt his expression twist once more. His eyes grew feral as his emotions spiraled toward uncontrollable violence.
For reasons unknown, Haku had also been drawn into this space.
And standing beside him was Orochimaru's subordinate, Kimimaro.
Haku recognized him immediately. He was the boy Haku had met when he and Zabuza left the Land of Water. Back then, Haku had even seen his own reflection in him.
But the Kimimaro before him now was far colder, far harder, stripped of the clean innocence he once had as a child.
"Long time no see," Haku spoke first, his tone gentle. "That child, Gaara… he reminds me of us back then, doesn't he?"
Kimimaro: "....."
He also recognized the man beside Haku. All these years, the two of them had remained together.
Just as he himself had followed Orochimaru.
"News of your deaths reached the Land of Waves," Kimimaro said calmly. "It seems the accuracy of that information was rather low."
His words were met with Haku's soft, gentle smile.
...
Over there, the Konoha villagers were still trying to morally condemn the Sunagakure ninja, using excuses like children being immature and unable to control their ninja talents.
As they argued, the surrounding scene changed. A gentle man appeared, stopping Gaara's loss of control, though he himself was injured in the process.
"!!!!"
This time, it was Kazekage Gaara who froze.
How many years had it been since he last saw this person?
"Yashamaru..."
Beside him, the genin Gaara was emotionally unstable, and Naruto kept calling out to him, telling him to pull himself together.
Unable to move, they were forced to experience an illusion together, something akin to Tsukuyomi.
The scenery around them shifted in an instant. The horrifying scene from before vanished, replaced by the warm, familiar houses of Sunagakure. Young Gaara tried to hurt himself, yet a layer of sand always formed around him, protecting him from harm.
On the verge of an emotional breakdown, the genin Gaara watched everything unfold, his expression twisted.
"This is Mother's curse on me!!"
"Mother's... curse?" Naruto looked at Gaara's crazed, hatred-filled face, but his thoughts drifted to the night of the Nine-Tails incident, to the warmth of Kushina holding him as she cried.
["Gaara-sama, physical wounds and wounds of the heart are not quite the same," Yashamaru said gently. "Injuries to the body can be healed with time and medicine, but wounds of the heart can only be healed by another person's 'love.' If that 'love' cannot be found, the wound may never heal in a lifetime."]
Watching what was clearly Gaara's memories, hearing the words his uncle Yashamaru once spoke, Temari turned to look at the now-grown Kazekage Gaara with concern.
But Gaara's gaze was fixed on the ragged, dirt-covered Naruto Uzumaki standing there.
As if he knew exactly what Temari and the others were worried about, he spoke calmly.
"That medicine that heals wounds of the heart... I already have it."
Because Naruto helped him understand the world, and because through his mother's love, he found forgiveness and an all-embracing warmth.
["Gaara-sama has surely already received the 'love' that heals wounds of the heart. Shukaku was originally an extremely violent being. The power that has always protected Gaara-sama must be the love of my sister, your mother, for you."]
Like everyone else, Naruto watched Gaara's memories as if he were truly there.
Even though their appearances and personalities were completely different, the moment Naruto looked at the man named Yashamaru, he couldn't help but think of Iruka-sensei.
Because of that, he couldn't help but feel an instinctive fondness for this "Yashamaru" from Gaara's memories.
The people of Konoha didn't understand what "Shukaku" was. The only thing they truly feared was the "Nine-Tails Demon Fox."
Up close, they watched that rather cute little child, timidly going door to door in the middle of the night to deliver medicine to others, only to be turned away again and again.
["This is healing medicine. If you can, please take—"]
["Get lost! Monster!!"]
The Sunagakure ninja showed no reaction, but the Konoha ninja watching these memories exploded in anger.
"Hey! That kid was just delivering medicine!"
"Are you Suna ninja out of your minds?"
"And why are you calling such a small child a monster?"
They had no idea that before long, Konoha itself would be taught the same lesson in the same way. For now, they stood on what they believed was moral high ground, looking down on the Sunagakure ninja with disdain.
Some even said that living too long in the desert had made the people of Sunagakure cold-blooded and heartless.
Rasa and Minato Namikaze remained expressionless. Neither needed to say anything. Both knew exactly who the true culprit behind all of this was.
Just as the Konoha ninja were still immersed in their contemptuous accusations toward Sunagakure...
The scenery shifted once again, returning to Konoha.
Their bodies were still frozen, as if they were trapped inside a Tsukuyomi-like punishment.
It was dusk—
And once again, that eerie sound echoed beside everyone's ears.
["Creak... creak..."]
When they glanced over, the one sitting on the swing this time was not Gaara, but—
"Naruto?!!" Sakura cried out.
Young Naruto sat very differently from how Gaara had as a child. He didn't look obedient at all. Instead, he looked rebellious, yanking on the ropes and riding the swing like a rocking horse.
The genin Gaara, sitting on the ground in a sorry state, could see the scene as well.
He was completely stunned.