Just as Minato Namikaze was drowning in awkwardness, his expression suddenly changed.
"The activity of space-time chakra has increased!!"
No sooner had he finished speaking than Yomotsu Hirasaka appeared behind the young Naruto of that parallel world.
Little Gaara reached out to grab him, but an invisible force blocked his Sand.
"My dream is to become Hokage!" young Naruto waved as he called out in farewell. "You have to hold on to your dreams too, dattebayo! Gaara!"
Turning around, he faced the pitch-black Yomotsu Hirasaka. He had a clear feeling that stepping through it would take him back to Konoha.
"Naruto..."
The others watched the two children act out a painfully earnest farewell. Beyond the cuteness and the humor, there was also an inescapable sense of helplessness that came with parting.
"You know," young Naruto said as he stood before Yomotsu Hirasaka, his back to little Gaara and Yashamaru, "actually, you're my first friend too!"
As if he had finally gathered his courage, Naruto Uzumaki stepped straight into the black void after saying those words.
Little Gaara looked devastated. At that moment, Yashamaru shared something with him.
To become Hokage meant that Naruto Uzumaki must have been born in Konoha.
"Gaara-sama, grow strong. When you become a genin, and when either Sunagakure or Konohagakure holds the Chūnin Exams, you'll be able to see your friend again."
"Yashamaru, what title corresponds to 'Hokage'?" little Gaara asked.
"That would be Rasa-sama's title, Kazekage, Gaara-sama."
"Kazekage… Chūnin Exams…"
In that parallel world, a Gaara who was still only a few years old repeated those words softly, carving them deep into his heart.
Uzumaki Naruto.
The dream of becoming Hokage.
His first friend.
The Chūnin Exams.
...
"Everyone, be on guard! The space-time chakra here is far too active!! Something is definitely going to happen next!!" Minato Namikaze warned.
Hearing the blond ANBU's words, the others tried to circulate chakra or move their bodies, only to realize they were still completely unable to do anything.
"Even if you say that, there's nothing we can do!"
As soon as the words left their mouths, they noticed the surroundings beginning to shift rapidly once again.
"Are we under a genjutsu?!"
"Who could possibly trap two entire ninja villages in a genjutsu at the same time?!"
"Quiet!" Rasa commanded.
At his order, the Sunagakure ninja at least managed to calm down.
Not long after, Minato sensed that the flow of space-time chakra was gradually stabilizing.
"This is…"
"…Sunagakure!!"
It was indeed Sunagakure, but the time had shifted to some distant dusk.
The village was eerily quiet, though this was likely normal for Sunagakure of the Land of Wind. As far as the eye could see, yellow sand filled the sky. In weather like this, hardly anyone would go out without a mission.
"Wait… I think… I hear something!!"
At those words, the ninja from both villages, forcibly dragged through space and time to witness parallel worlds, fell silent.
Sure enough, once everything went quiet, they heard a woman's faint, pained moans.
This is—!!
Naruto, who had experienced the night of the Nine-Tails' rampage, froze instantly. So did Sasuke, young Kakashi, Obito, Rin, Sakura, and the others.
Minato Namikaze too.
The sound wasn't as fierce or piercing as Kushina's cries had been, but if they weren't mistaken…
It was the painful endurance of a woman in labor.
Standing beside Minato, Rasa looked even more shocked when he recognized the voice.
That faint sound, painful enough to wrench his heart—
…was Karura.
"This woman's condition is extremely poor. It's very likely premature labor, or a difficult delivery," said a clear female voice, tinged with a hint of drunkenness.
Naruto didn't think twice. He spun around, furious, and snapped back, "Who are you?! No matter what's going on, I won't let you say something that unlucky!!"
"Naruto!" Minato reached out to stop him. "That person is the legendary—"
Before he could finish, Naruto was flicked on the forehead and sent flying.
A stunningly beautiful woman held the pose with one hand while gripping a flask of sake in the other.
Beside her stood a woman dressed in black, holding a small pig. She was pretty enough, but so plainly dressed that she hadn't even bothered with the most basic lipstick.
"Tsunade-sama!"
They had no idea why the two of them had suddenly appeared here.
But compared to them, the people who had already been present since the previous parallel world were even more shocked.
"Hey! Why can they move?!!"
Someone immediately tried to struggle free.
"No way! I still can't move at all!!"
It seemed that aside from Tsunade and Shizune, only Minato's team, Kakashi's team, the Fourth Kazekage and his three children, the future Fifth Kazekage, and a handful of others were able to move.
Even though he knew he could move now, the Fourth Kazekage, Rasa, remained deeply despondent.
He couldn't change his wife's fate.
Giving birth to Gaara had already consumed all of her remaining life force.
Beside Naruto, Gaara still hadn't fully recovered from the shock of the previous parallel world. But the moment he heard that woman's agonized voice, some instinct deep inside him kicked in, leaving his mind completely blank.
Not even the huge commotion of Naruto being flicked away by Tsunade managed to pull his attention away.
["Chiyo-sama, do we really have to continue?" The medical-nin assisting with the delivery sounded conflicted.]
[An elderly woman's voice came from inside the room. "Leave it to fate. Giving birth to a Jinchūriki of a is an extremely dangerous act."]
[Fourth Kazekage Rasa: "Is there really… truly no other way?! If we could invite a more skilled medical-nin—"]
[The old woman cut him off. "Don't forget, you are the Fourth Kazekage." Her voice was equally weary. "Besides, with Karura's current condition, even Princess Tsunade, known as the strongest medical-nin, would likely be powerless."]
"!!!!"
Gaara: "Jinchūriki… Karura?!!"
Fifth Kazekage: This is the day I was born?!!
"So it really is that damn old hag Chiyo!" Tsunade took another swig of sake, let out a belch, and staggered forward hazily. "I'll make her see for herself!!"
Just moments ago, it had been her who declared Karura beyond saving. Now, provoked by Chiyo's words and fueled by alcohol, Tsunade's competitive streak flared up instead.
"Tsunade-sama!!"
Shizune hurried after her in panic. Tsunade might have forgotten about her hemophobia while drunk, but Shizune certainly hadn't.
If they were mistaken for intruders, and Tsunade-sama froze at the sight of blood…
"Sis! Do you really have a way?!"
Naruto Uzumaki, who had just been sent flying, bounded back over full of energy. "Can you really save the person inside?!"
"Kid, who are you?" Tsunade asked.
"I'm Naruto Uzumaki," he said, recalling what had happened in the previous world. "Gaara's friend!"
Gaara: "...Friend..."
Before anyone could react, Tsunade, Naruto, and Shizune seemed to pass straight through an invisible membrane.
Chiyo, the Fourth Kazekage, and the others—who shouldn't have been able to see them—suddenly saw several completely unrelated people burst into Karura's delivery room?!
The moment Chiyo saw Tsunade, her fighting spirit surged.
"Princess Tsunade?! Why are you here?!!"
"Move aside, I'll save—"
Before she could finish speaking, the sight of blood inside the delivery room instantly sobered Tsunade up.
She dropped into a crouch, curling in on herself, trembling and unable to move.
They were immediately surrounded by Sunagakure ninja.
"That idiot!" Sasuke cursed under his breath as he charged into the parallel world together with Sakura, Obito, young Kakashi, and Rin.
"Hey!" Shikamaru and the others, stuck in the space-time rift, couldn't move at all and had no way to stop them.
Inside the delivery room, the sudden intrusion startled Karura in the middle of labor. Shockingly, she gave birth at that very moment.
["P-protect…" Her voice was weak, her exhalations longer than her breaths. "Protect… my Love…"]
"!!!!!"
Genin Gaara felt as if lightning had struck his entire body.
He already knew from the previous parallel world that Yashamaru's claim about his mother hating him had been a lie, all arranged by the Fourth Kazekage to test his capacity as a vessel.
But hearing Karura's words here, in this entirely new parallel world, still left him shaken.
At that moment, his mother was asking others to protect the newborn him?
Did she really… not hate him?
Naruto Uzumaki's words suddenly echoed in his mind.
"If our mothers really hated us, we wouldn't have been born into this world."
Right now, Gaara's injuries were even more severe than Naruto's, and Shukaku's chakra didn't have the Nine-Tails' powerful self-healing ability.
While Naruto could still bounce around, Gaara struggled just to stand.
As he braced his hands on his knees and tried to push himself up, attempting to pass through the barrier between parallel worlds with sluggish movements—
A hand caught his arm.
Gaara turned his head and saw Kankurō supporting him.
In name, this person was supposed to be his older brother. Yet, like everyone else, he had always feared him.
When Temari lifted his other arm, the two of them helped guide him toward the parallel world.
It was Kankurō who broke the silence first.
"Um…" Kankurō spoke very softly. "About when we were kids… I'm sorry." Gaara heard him.
After watching the past of that parallel world together, Kankurō and Temari now looked back on their childhood selves from their current perspective. It was their rejection of their own biological brother that had ultimately shaped the hatred Gaara once held toward the world.
Gaara didn't say anything. He wasn't sure if it was because he hadn't slept properly in so long, but his eyes felt strangely sore. And in his chest, right where his heart was, there was a sensation he couldn't quite explain. If he had to describe it, it felt a lot like what Yashamaru once said, like medicine being gently applied to a wounded heart.
The sudden appearance of Gaara, Kankurō, and Temari once again shocked the Suna ninja, the Kazekage, and Grandma Chiyo in that parallel world.
Even the Fifth Kazekage couldn't restrain himself. This might be the only chance in his entire life to see his mother while she was still alive.
Even though… at this moment, Karura was already on the brink of death.
Following Kazekage Gaara were the Fourth Kazekage Rasa and Minato Namikaze, who was worried about Naruto and the others.
Everyone else was still unable to move, forced to watch helplessly as events unfolded in yet another parallel world.
The situation on the scene was incredibly bizarre.
Just moments ago, the Fourth Kazekage had been consumed with worry over his wife's safety. The instant he saw so many unfamiliar people suddenly appear, his body snapped into a battle-ready stance.
"You—"
Before he could finish, Karura's faint voice stopped him cold.
The woman gathered all her strength and whispered,
"Let me see… let me see Gaara's face…"
The Fourth Kazekage of this world, heart aching, was about to place the baby, no bigger than the palm of his hand, beside his wife's bed.
Unexpectedly, two faces had already leaned in close to Karura.
…
Parallel World: Naruto and Gaara Becoming Friends as Children
Naruto Uzumaki never forgot what happened back then, but he always treated that strange experience as a dream. Whenever he couldn't sleep, he would think about it and imagine that somewhere, in a mysterious place, he might have a friend named Gaara.
Not long after the mission in the Land of Waves, Kakashi Hatake handed the Chūnin Exam qualification forms to the three of them.
Naruto was so excited he nearly jumped through the roof, never imagining that…
He was about to meet the first friend he'd only ever known from a "dream."
Konohamaru got into trouble after pulling a prank on Sakura Haruno. While being chased, he crashed straight into Kankurō.
Just as Kankurō was about to lash out, Sasuke, standing on a tree branch, flicked a pebble that struck Kankurō's wrist. He then crushed another stone in his fingers as a warning. Kankurō reached for the puppet on his back, while Temari's hand moved toward her fan…
"Stop, Kankurō. Temari."
"!!!!"
Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, and the others spun around at the same time.
Naruto stared in shock and blurted out the name,
"Gaara?!!!"
"Long time no see, Naruto."
Temari, Kankurō: "!!!!"
What the hell?! That Gaara, practically decided as the next Kazekage, quiet and terrifyingly strong… actually smiled?!
"It really is you?! I thought what happened back then was just a dream!"
"It wasn't a dream. And… thank you for that time."
If it hadn't been for Naruto, he might have truly killed Yashamaru and carried the mistaken belief that his mother hated him for the rest of his life, living in loneliness and pain until the very end.
Naruto: "Is Yashamaru doing okay?"
"He's doing very well. He's leading the team this time."
"That's awesome! I really want him to meet Iruka-sensei!" Naruto suddenly brightened. "Oh, right! Let's go eat at Ichiraku Ramen together! I really, really want you and Yashamaru to try it! It's my favorite, dattebayo!"
"…Sure. Anytime."
The two of them walked off chatting and laughing, leaving behind completely stunned Temari, Kankurō, Sakura, and Sasuke.
Temari: "What… just happened?!"
Kankurō: "H-Hey, that blond kid… don't tell me he's the legendary Naruto Uzumaki?!"
"Legendary?" Sasuke was dumbfounded. "That dead-last? Since when did he become 'legendary'?!"
Besides, Sasuke had clearly sensed the aura of a powerful shinobi from that Suna ninja called Gaara. How could Naruto possibly know someone like him?
Sakura: "But he's from Sunagakure. Naruto getting that close to them…"
"We're allies," Temari said, taking out her exam slip. "We're here to participate in the Chūnin Exams."
So that's why Gaara was looking forward to the exams so much, she thought. Naruto really exists. And he's actually in Konoha.
In this parallel world, Orochimaru still tried to manipulate Sunagakure and planned to cooperate with the Otogakure ninja to carry out the Konoha Crush. However, Yashamaru saw through his scheme early on. Gaara never truly became enemies with Naruto, and in the end, Sunagakure and Konoha joined forces to defeat the Otogakure ninja.
Because the plot was exposed early, Konoha's losses were far smaller than in the original timeline.
In the third round of the exams, it was still Gaara versus Sasuke.
Gaara's declaration of "I was Naruto's first friend" left Sasuke utterly stunned. But as Gaara fought while recounting their past, Sasuke gradually realized that because they were so young back then, there were many things they'd likely been kept in the dark about.
All in all, although their reunion lasted only a few dozen minutes, it gave rise to an entirely new parallel world.
Truly something to celebrate.
[Side Story END]