Chapter 72: I Didn't Force You to Save Me!
"I didn't expect you to be this kind of person."
A voice came from above.
It was Kurotsuchi, who had followed Shiromo over to watch the excitement.
She had arrived just in time to hear Temari's shrill cry for mercy.
Now, the way she looked at Shiromo was clearly… off.
"This kind of person?"
Temari's expression stiffened.
What did that mean?
Why was it that every time she had just relaxed, thinking she was safe, fate would ruthlessly tear that brief moment of peace apart?
"Didn't you tell me before that if you became a daimyo, you'd make all the major ninja villages offer up young and beautiful female kunoichi?"
Facing Shiromo's cold stare, Kurotsuchi floated down to his side and explained innocently.
"That was to provoke you, you idiot."
Shiromo was speechless.
"Oh, and you even called me 'Leg Kage' and said you wanted to take a look…"
Kurotsuchi seemed to remember something and floated behind Temari.
Like a startled bird, Temari immediately reacted. Seeing Kurotsuchi's movement, she hurriedly raised her three-star fan to block her back, full of vigilance.
"What are you trying to do?!"
"I just want to see if your butt is perky or not. Otherwise, why would he be thinking about it?"
Stretching her neck, Kurotsuchi used the Light-weight Rock Technique to circle around Temari. Temari couldn't block in time, and Kurotsuchi barely caught a glimpse of a spot the fan didn't cover.
"It doesn't look very special. Maybe it'll develop more in the future?"
Kurotsuchi looked puzzled.
"You people…"
Temari took a few steps back, pressing herself against the tree trunk.
This was terrifying.
Was there any hope left for this ninja world?
The world outside Sunagakure was actually this perverted?!
"It looks like your sibling bond isn't that great, if you're still thinking about nonsense like this at a time like now."
Shiromo's calm remark snapped Temari back to reality.
Right!
Wasn't the one in the most dangerous situation right now, Gaara, who had just been attacked?
Crackle!
"Gaara!"
Temari leapt to another position and looked toward the center of the explosion.
At this moment, half of Shukaku's body around Gaara had already turned into flowing sand, slipping away uncontrollably.
With Shukaku's defense, Gaara wasn't injured.
But the icy chill of the kunai, the scorching heat of the explosion, the swelling sensation from the shockwave, and the gritty feeling of sand carried by the blast…
All of it left a deep psychological scar on young Gaara.
"Thank goodness."
Seeing that Gaara hadn't gone completely berserk, Temari finally let out a breath.
Then she remembered that Shiromo had seemed to be taking photos earlier and muttering some strange things.
Thinking about it now, maybe she really had misunderstood him.
But with countless precedents behind her, Temari was extremely cautious.
She carefully approached Shiromo, who was writing something on a photograph, and sneakily glanced at the contents.
"There must always be something to fill a Jinchūriki's heart. Before Naruto's friendship fills Gaara's heart, other places got filled first."
"..."
What the hell is this even supposed to mean?!
"Everyone move, it's going to blow!"
A voice came from the sky.
Deidara, riding a giant clay bird, was dropping clay bombs downward like a bomber plane.
Kurotsuchi immediately moved, floating diagonally upward to escape the blast radius.
As Shiromo withdrew, he casually pulled Temari along with him.
"So this is the One-Tail Jinchūriki? I don't need to capture you right now. Instead, let you experience the ultimate joint technique between me and Big Brother Sasori, hmm!"
With a wave of his hand, a new clay giant dragon appeared beside Deidara.
"Boring."
Also seated on the giant bird, Sasori manipulated the Third Kazekage puppet, black iron sand spreading over it.
The black iron-sand clay dragon dove toward Gaara below.
This was the first countermeasure Deidara had come up with to deal with Lightning Release.
By coating the explosive clay with a layer of iron sand.
Although iron sand was also countered by Lightning Release, that weakness conveniently became the trigger for detonation.
The iron sand didn't need to deal damage. Even if its structure was destroyed by Lightning Release, it didn't matter, as long as it bought time for the explosive clay to get close.
Then, once the iron sand outside collapsed, signaling that the Lightning Release attack was about to reach the inside, it would immediately detonate.
The massive blast would turn the shattered iron sand into countless tiny particles, striking the enemy.
This was a purely physical attack.
All of these experiments had been tested on Kakuzu.
There was actually no need to use this against a One-Tail Jinchūriki, after all, Gaara and Shukaku didn't use Lightning Release.
"Let go of me!"
Temari struggled as Shiromo dragged her away from the bombing zone.
"This is how you treat your lifesaver?"
Shiromo flung Temari onto a nearby tree branch.
"I didn't force you to save me…"
Temari muttered softly.
"What?"
Shiromo had only said that casually and wasn't paying much attention to her reaction. He was busy watching Deidara's attack.
"I said, I didn't force…"
"Hah!"
BOOOOOOM!
A deafening explosion shook the sky.
When the smoke cleared, what remained was a gigantic Shukaku. On its head, Gaara had fallen into a deep sleep.
Gaara had clearly mastered the essence of Future Sasuke, when faced with an explosion, immediately summoned something to tank it.
"Don't joke like that."
Shiromo patted Temari on the shoulder, then flew into the air and shouted at the wildly gesturing Deidara.
"That's about enough! Go help somewhere else, leave this place to someone else!"
Explosions couldn't blow open someone's heart. That job still belonged to Naruto talking Gaara down.
"Tch, fine. Then I'll go bomb Konoha Village, uh, I mean, help Konoha bomb those invaders."
Deidara almost let something slip. His eyes darted around as he covered his mouth, then he controlled the giant bird and flew away.
Down below.
Temari sat on the tree branch, clutching her head, her expression completely broken.
Shiromo's words, "Don't joke like that", made her freeze for a moment.
What joke?
Did he seriously think she was joking?
But she quickly realized what had happened.
Her sentence earlier had been cut off halfway by the explosion.
So what he heard was…
Temari collapsed internally.
What kind of outrageous, scandalous words did half a sentence turn into?!
"Um, listen to me, you misunderstood just now…"
Seeing Shiromo float back down after finishing with Deidara, Temari hurriedly tried to explain.
"So you were joking, right? I know. I believe you."
Shiromo nodded, signaling that he understood.
"I wasn't joking!"
Temari blurted out instinctively.
"..."
"No, no, I was joking… I, I, I'll kill you!!!"
Unable to explain herself any further, Temari flew into a rage out of sheer embarrassment, spreading open her three-star fan and preparing to attack.
"Don't interrupt your brother and Uzumaki Naruto's love–hate bonding moment."
Shiromo suddenly appeared in front of her, pressing a hand down on hers. The fan that had just opened was snapped shut again.
"And I already said I believe you. There's no need for you to prove anything. Why are you so anxious?"
"…Who wants to prove anything to you?!"
Temari gritted her teeth. Prove what?! How was she supposed to prove that?!
She wanted to resist, but she could clearly feel the gap in strength between them.
Her pinned hand wouldn't budge at all.
Huh?
Temari noticed that while one of Shiromo's hands was holding her down, the other was holding a pen, rapidly writing something on a sheet of paper floating in midair.
She could vaguely see her name and Gaara's name appearing on it.
Was he collecting some kind of intelligence?
Temari stared at it warily…
(End of this chapter)