Chapter 73: The Story of Rasa's Family
Temari wanted to see what Shiromo was writing, but he was writing far too fast. As soon as he finished one page, he immediately pulled it out and placed it underneath the stack, making it impossible to read properly.
She even started to wonder whether the paper was specially made. Writing at that speed, wouldn't normal paper just catch fire?
While Shiromo was writing at extreme speed, Naruto and Gaara finally reached the final moment of their battle.
Naruto used his Headbutt of Love, slamming his forehead straight into Gaara's head. The two of them fell from the air together.
Lying on the ground, Naruto crawled toward Gaara while telling him how he had been treated as a monster by the villagers, how he gained Iruka's recognition, and how he would never give up when it came to protecting the people he cared about.
From a distance, they looked like a pair of tragic lovers bound by fate.
"Oh, it's reached this point. I need to go over there."
Noticing the scene in the distance, Shiromo stuffed the half-written pages into Temari's hands. "If you want to read it, go ahead. Help me hold onto it."
After saying that, Shiromo vanished.
"Wait, what are you going to do?!"
Temari didn't look at the manuscript after taking it. Seeing that Shiromo was heading toward Gaara, she hurriedly chased after him.
She was afraid Shiromo was going to hurt her younger brother.
"Naruto, if you knew what Gaara went through in his childhood, you'd understand why he turned out like this."
Seeing Naruto crawling with great effort, Shiromo kindly stepped forward, grabbed him, and placed him directly on top of Gaara.
The two of them were completely exhausted, their chakra depleted, and couldn't resist at all.
Naruto didn't mind. After hearing Shiromo's words, he became curious instead.
"Big Brother Shiromo, I can feel his loneliness, his pain. He's just like how I used to be… Can you tell me about it? His past."
"Of course. He really is very similar to you. From a young age, he had Shukaku, the One-Tail, sealed inside him. He was treated as a monster, hated by the villagers. His father was the Fourth Kazekage, but that didn't help at all."
"Huh? Why not?"
"Because his father, the Fourth Kazekage Rasa, is the real culprit behind all this. That Rasa can be described as an absolute beast of a human being."
Shiromo cursed the son's father right in front of him, yet Gaara didn't refute a single word. Even Temari, who had rushed over worried about Gaara, remained silent at this moment.
"Rasa went crazy trying to find a new container for Shukaku, and kept having children with his wife over and over. Just look at the birthdates and age gaps of the three siblings in Sunagakure."
"His wife would almost get pregnant again right after giving birth to one child."
"Because of this kind of excessive 'labor,' after giving birth to the final child who qualified as a container, Gaara, their mother died."
Temari kept her head lowered, her expression sorrowful.
At fifteen years old, she had already learned some of these things from older female ninja in the village.
What Shiromo said wasn't wrong.
Her mother… might really have died like that.
"After Gaara became Shukaku's container, Rasa constantly tried to stimulate him so he would become a qualified weapon for Sunagakure, hoping he would abandon emotions."
"He sent people to assassinate him multiple times. He even ordered Gaara's uncle, who genuinely cared for him, to try to kill him. Then he told Gaara that his mother never loved him, completely igniting his hatred."
"All that can be said is that Rasa, as Kazekage, was both stupid and cruel."
"What a Jinchūriki needs most is emotional support to fill the emptiness in their heart, yet he did the exact opposite."
"And even by his own twisted logic, if he believed a Jinchūriki should abandon emotions, then what? Love is an emotion, but hatred isn't?"
"Oh, and I also heard that Sunagakure's Hero, Pakura, was betrayed by Rasa as well, and traded away to Kirigakure as a bargaining chip."
"A piece of trash both publicly and privately like that is truly rare in the ninja world."
"What? That's impossible! The hero of Sunagakure was betrayed by Father…?"
Temari stared in disbelief.
"Don't believe it? In the future, you can have Orochimaru resurrect her with Impure World Reincarnation and ask her yourself."
"..."
Temari didn't say anything more.
In truth, she already believed it.
If the other party knew Gaara's situation in such detail, it meant he had thoroughly prepared his intelligence.
There was no need to fabricate anything like this.
Naruto, on the other hand, was completely stunned by the story.
"Dark circles, what Big Brother Shiromo said… Is it all true? Your dad really…"
"Yeah."
Gaara turned his head away and answered quietly.
"My god… I never thought your dad was that kind of person."
"I used to imagine what it would be like if my parents were still alive, but now I feel like, if they were like that, then they might as well have been dead."
"Having Iruka-sensei, Kakashi-sensei, and Grandpa Third is enough for me."
Naruto spoke bluntly, looking relieved.
"Naruto."
"Hm? What is it, Big Brother Shiromo?"
"Can you repeat what you just said?"
Shiromo took out a tape recorder.
"Oh, I said… they might as well have been dead."
"Okay. That's good."
Shiromo finished recording, sincerely hoping Naruto would be able to withstand it in the future.
"As for that lady who lacks something, if you're free, you can read what you're holding to these two. That's my, no, Kakashi's, secondary creation based on Rasa and your family."
"…If you dare call me 'that kind of lady' again, I, I…"
Temari held it in for a long time, unable to come up with a proper threat.
"I'll tell everyone you're obsessed with my butt! And I've got the Tsuchikage as a witness!"
Glancing at Kurotsuchi flying in from the sky, Temari gritted her teeth and went all-in, choosing mutual destruction.
"Huh?"
Gaara, pinned under Naruto, was startled.
So he wasn't the only one being targeted, his sister too…?
"Butt? Big Brother Shiromo, you didn't secretly learn Konoha's taijutsu secret art and use Thousand Years of Death on this violent woman, did you? Nicely done!"
Naruto looked delighted.
"What are you laughing at?! Get lost!"
Temari angrily stomped on Naruto's butt.
But since Naruto was lying on top of Gaara, that stomp caused Gaara to feel the impact as well.
Seeing Gaara's pained expression, Temari immediately realized what she'd done and quickly pulled back her strength.
Good thing, she almost stacked them together.
"Fine, I won't call you that. Hurry up and read it, Miss Temari."
Shiromo waved his hand.
"Tch, you say Kakashi wrote this. If I hadn't seen you writing it with my own eyes, I might've believed it."
Temari pouted and lowered her head to read the manuscript.
"Rasa is the leader of Sunagakure, proficient in Magnet Release, controlling magnetic fields and manipulating gold dust."
"In the eyes of all villagers, he is a beloved leader."
"After Rasa's wife died, he often summoned Gaara to his room for special training."
"One day, Gaara returned home covered in wounds and was seen by his sister Temari."
"Temari, deeply concerned, went up to him and asked who had bullied him, and why he didn't tell their father, the Kazekage, to help him."
"Gaara, filled with hatred, told his sister not to look for that beast, he was the one who had beaten him like this."
"Then he opened his heart to his sister."
At this point, Temari felt something was off.
Wasn't this exactly the same as what Shiromo had just described, what had happened to them?
Aside from the assassination attempts being changed to direct beatings, and the part about Gaara confiding in her being fictional, there wasn't much difference.
She continued reading.
"Temari couldn't understand why her father would treat Gaara this way. Unsure of whom to believe, she went to find Rasa to verify it."
"Temari found Rasa and asked haltingly, F-Father, Gaara said that after Mother died, your personality changed drastically, and you tried many times to 'star-clear' him…"
"Rasa let out a long sigh. Temari, after your mother Karura died, I always thought I had lost her forever. But recently, I realized that wasn't the case. I discovered Gaara, he looks just like your mother."
"This must be your mother's soul descending into him. Your mother has been reborn!"
"Temari tried to refute him, to make her father wake up."
"But Rasa shouted angrily, Do you even understand filial duty?! I gave birth to you so I could enjoy myself, what's wrong with that?! Say another word and I won't spare you either!"
"Temari was terrified. She turned and ran, intending to expose her father's actions to the villagers of Sunagakure, but Rasa pierced her heart with gold dust…"
After reading this section, Temari could honestly say she was deeply shaken.
She was extremely grateful that in this story, she was already dead.
She looked at Shiromo with a gaze full of awe.
Could a man who wrote something like this still be considered human?
On the surface, he looked calm and handsome, but deep down, wasn't he even more unhinged than Gaara?
(End of this chapter)