The young Gaara turned around, his face streaked with tears. Instinctively, he was about to let his sand attack the person who had crashed into his Absolute Defence.
But the blond boy sitting on the ground shouted at him first.
"Who are you supposed to be?! And why was there a wall in front of me just now, dattebayo?!"
Faced with that question…
The pitiful little Gaara looked completely flustered. He twisted his fingers together, his voice soft and trembling, as if he were terrified that people would start hurling cruel words at him again.
"Huh? I can't hear you!" Naruto's voice was naturally loud.
But little Gaara couldn't sense any malice from him.
Seeing how nervous and hesitant he looked, Naruto tilted his head.
"Why do you look just like that girl in our class…" Naruto thought hard for a moment about the girl who always squeaked and pointed her fingers whenever she saw him. "Oh, right! Hinata! Why are you just like Hinata from our Ninja Academy?! You've got way too little presence!"
"...."
Bang—
Watching all of this unfold from the other dimension, Hinata's shoulders slumped.
"L-low… presence…" she repeated softly, echoing Naruto's words as she sank into gloom.
Genin Gaara tried to think it over. Hinata? He had no impression of that name.
What he didn't realize was that Fifth Kazekage Gaara was there as well.
He knew very clearly what kind of relationship Naruto Uzumaki, the Seventh Hokage, and Hinata shared in their parallel world.
What did it feel like to be compared to someone's wife by your most important person, your best friend?
Something felt wrong.
Very wrong.
No wonder Sasuke was always getting angry at Naruto. When they were kids, Naruto really couldn't tell the difference between friends and the person he liked.
Even Rasa could tell that his son from the future had gone pale. Was he… okay?
Over there, little Gaara kept twisting his fingers.
"I… I'm a boy."
"Oh, I know you're a boy." Little Naruto stood up, brushed the sand off himself, and picked up the mask that had fallen to the ground.
Little Gaara was still on guard.
"Who are you? Why are you here?"
Naruto froze.
Wasn't he already known throughout the village as the "monster"? He didn't understand it himself. He hadn't done anything wrong. He wasn't a germ or a plague. So why did everyone look at him like that, avoid him, and call him a monster?
Looking at the small Gaara in front of him, Naruto's mischievous side kicked in.
He put on the fox mask.
"I'm a mighty fox yōkai!"
"....."
It was a bit awkward.
But that wasn't Gaara's fault. With Absolute Defence, no one could hurt him. Not even himself.
Naruto felt both awkward and speechless.
"Hey! At least say something!"
"Uh…" This was the first time little Gaara had met someone who wasn't afraid of him and was even willing to talk to him. He honestly didn't know how to respond. He tiptoed forward a little. "Then… Fox yōkai-sama, can you grant my wish?"
"..."
Naruto thought to himself: Do I look like I can do that? You're really putting the fox in a tough spot.
But still, the few-years-old Naruto puffed out his chest.
"Say your wish!"
Little Gaara pressed his lips together.
"I… I want a friend."
Behind the fox mask, Naruto's clear blue eyes widened.
He's just like me.
The same loneliness. The same look in his eyes. The same pain. And the same wish.
The thought surfaced in Naruto's mind.
Having been alone for as long as he could remember, he pressed his lips together behind the mask and reached out his hand toward little Gaara.
"Then from today on, we're friends!"
Little Gaara's eyes flew open. He stared at the boy in front of him, disbelief filling his gaze.
"My name is Naruto Uzumaki. What's your name?"
"I… Gaara…"
At that very moment—
In this parallel world, the Fourth Kazekage Rasa, Gaara's father, who had been watching little Gaara through his Third Eye, finally ordered Yashamaru to act.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
More than a dozen kunai shot toward the young Naruto Uzumaki and Gaara.
"!!!!"
Forced to watch everything unfold in that parallel world, Minato and the others desperately wished they could rush in and save them.
But they were powerless, like specks of dust in that world, unable to change anything at all.
Fortunately, little Gaara possessed Absolute Defence.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
All of the kunai struck the wall of sand around Gaara.
That sand, which had always only protected Gaara…
This time, it protected Naruto Uzumaki as well?!!
The sand dispersed, and the kunai fell to the ground with sharp clattering sounds.
Naruto's face filled with terror. He had thought those kunai were aimed at him. Just days ago, he had been tricked onto a battlefield by people pretending to befriend him, nearly killed by enemy ninja.
What he hadn't expected was that the friend he had just made, the Gaara who even spoke while twisting his fingers, would block the kunai with sand…
And then step forward, standing right in front of him?!
"Gaara?!"
That finally snapped young Naruto back to his senses. He grabbed Gaara's hand and shouted for him to run.
"We can't possibly beat adult ninja!"
He tried to pull him along, but Gaara, who was even younger than him, didn't move at all.
He glared viciously at the masked Sunagakure ninja in front of them.
"Naruto is my first friend. I won't allow you to hurt him."
Sasuke, watching everything unfold: "...."
Shikamaru Nara, who found the whole thing unbearably troublesome: "...."
Temari, Gaara's older sister: "..."
Little Naruto was someone everyone in Konoha disliked and avoided. When had he ever been protected like this before? He was so touched his nose nearly started running.
What he didn't expect, though, was that Gaara, who looked about the same age as him, actually wrapped the attacking Suna ninja up with sand.
"Sand Coffin—"
Before he could finish saying "Sand Coffin," Naruto saw the killing intent in Gaara's eyes.
Without hesitation, he rushed in to stop him.
"Stop!!"
Maybe because Naruto was his first friend, young Gaara was unusually obedient. He didn't loosen his hold, but he didn't continue attacking the masked Suna ninja either.
"Why?" little Gaara asked, confused. "Why can't we kill him? He's the one attacking us."
Naruto was only a few years old himself. He couldn't really explain complicated things.
"But…" He thought hard about how to put what was in his head into words. "But… dattebayo!"
Little Gaara wasn't impatient at all. He just waited quietly for Naruto to continue.
In truth, the one who was even more anxious than little Gaara was Rasa, who had been watching everything through the Eye of Sand.
He didn't know where that blond kid had come from, but as a father, he didn't want Gaara to fail this test.
According to the elders, if Gaara lost control again, then for the safety of Sunagakure, there were things he would have to do as Kazekage.
After thinking it through, Naruto finally spoke.
"We're just kids, after all. There are lots of things we can't tell right from wrong. I think stuff like this should be left to the adults."
Little Gaara, still confused, asked Naruto what he should do in a situation like this.
Naruto said, "Of course you leave it to Iruka-sensei, dattebayo!"
Listening to this friend he'd only just met talk excitedly about that "Iruka" teacher, Gaara showed the faintest hint of a smile for the first time. Without realizing it, he softly said a name—
Yashamaru.
"The Iruka-sensei you're talking about… he's a lot like Yashamaru."
The two children completely forgot about the Suna ninja who was still trapped but not killed. They chatted back and forth about someone who meant something very special to each of them.
Dragged into this strange place to witness a miracle born from a parallel world, the Konoha chūnin named Iruka Umino was moved to tears. He felt deeply gratified, thinking that this kid really hadn't been raised in vain, and that maybe he could treat him to ramen a few more times.
Meanwhile, inside that parallel world, Yashamaru, trapped within the sand, was overwhelmed with mixed emotions.
His mission had been to tell Young Master Gaara that his mother hated him, to test whether Gaara would lose control under those circumstances.
But…
"I'm sorry, Kazekage-sama."
Yashamaru whispered softly.
"Please consider this mission a failure."
As the right-hand man of the Fourth Kazekage, Yashamaru was no ordinary ninja.
Using his own methods, he escaped from Gaara's sand restraint. Gaara, chatting happily with Naruto, didn't notice at all. It was only when Yashamaru had already reached his back that he realized someone was standing there.
It was the one who had taken off his mask—
"Yashamaru!!"
Gaara's face lit up with joy when he saw him.
Even though Yashamaru was dressed the same as the Suna ninja who had attacked them, the very young Gaara didn't realize it. Instead, he happily told him about making his first friend.
That made Yashamaru feel unbearably guilty. He kept apologizing as he revealed his original plan and purpose for coming here, telling Gaara everything.
Little Gaara was stunned by Yashamaru's words, unable to respond for a long time.
At the same time, the one who was even more confused was the genin Gaara sitting outside this parallel world, the same Gaara who had once fought Naruto during the Chūnin Exams.
Everything Yashamaru said completely overturned what he thought he knew.
"Idiot!"
Beside him, Naruto Uzumaki, his tracksuit just as faded and tattered in this colorless space, calmly watched the young versions of himself and Gaara in that world. As Yashamaru apologized and revealed the Fourth Kazekage's plan, Naruto found himself thinking…
Thinking about the parents he had seen during the night of the Nine-Tails incident.
"Idiot. What kind of mom would ever hate her own child? If that were really the case…"
He remembered his mother, the woman who could pin the Nine-Tails to the ground and beat it into submission, screaming in agony inside the sealing chamber while giving birth.
Naruto spoke quietly.
"If she really hated us, we wouldn't have been born. Idiot."
"!!!!"
In the parallel world, young Naruto learned that Gaara's father had turned him into a monster and repeatedly pushed him past his limits to see whether he would lose control.
Wow.
That made young Naruto completely lose it.
"Is your dad sick or what?! He's seriously messed up, dattebayo!!" Young Naruto flung his arms wide, cursing in fury.
"Even though I don't have a dad either, every other dad I've seen treats their kid really well!! What kind of total jerk seals a monster inside his own son, dattebayo!!!"
Young Naruto's anger spiraled, his dattebayo-filled rant coming out in rapid-fire bursts.
Outside the parallel world, existing like scattered grass and gravel, watching everything unfold—
Minato Namikaze: "....."
Rasa: "...."
Naruto Uzumaki: "..."
And those who already knew that Naruto was the Fourth Hokage's son, the jinchūriki of the Nine-Tails: "....."
Young Naruto continued.
"If—if it were me, okay?! If my dad treated me like that… then if I ever saw him one day, I'd definitely—punch him hard!!!"
After saying that, the young Naruto in the parallel world even clenched his fist and swung it for emphasis.
Minato Namikaze swallowed hard, his face turning pale.
Naruto Uzumaki himself started feeling more and more awkward...
"Ahahaha… good thing my dad isn't here!!"
Sasuke said calmly, "Turn around and look, dead last."
"Of course I can't turn around! None of us can move right now, remember?" Naruto still hadn't caught on.
Sasuke sighed.
"I mean… the guy you want to punch. He's right here."
"......."
Rasa said dryly, "Heaven spares no one, wouldn't you say, Hokage?"
Minato Namikaze: speechless
So this is how it turned out...
Extremely awkward.
Everyone who knew the truth was looking at him with that exact expression.