["Konoha trash!" "What, you wanna fight, Cloud scum?!"]
["Like hell you won't betray everyone sooner or later—you Stone nin!" "Mist nin only know how to flap their mouths? Come on, settle it with your fists!"]
["Watch your mouth!" "What did you say?! Wanna go?!" "Oh, you bet I do! My old man was killed by you Sand nin—since you're looking to die, I'll grant your wish!"]
Faced with this scene, the Third Division's captain on the high platform, Kakashi Hatake, let out a deep sigh.
At that moment, a small Sand Release technique erupted between the arguing ninja. The exploding grains of sand forced them apart without injuring anyone.
Then another Sand Release—then another. Across the entire Allied Shinobi Forces, every quarrel was forcibly broken up.
The one using Sand Release could be none other than the commander-in-chief of the Allied Shinobi Forces—
The Kazekage, Gaara.
Confronted with the mutual suspicion tearing through the alliance, Gaara finally spoke.
"For the sake of our nations' interests, for the sake of our villages, through the long wars of the First, Second, and Third Great Ninja Wars… ninja have hurt one another, hated one another…"
Not a single word was wrong.
The people watching the footage didn't have time to wonder how words like these could possibly come from that Gaara. Every one of them was thinking of the same word—
"War."
"For the sake of the village. For the sake of the country."
Someone sighed. The faces of fallen comrades had never been forgotten. Each name carved into the memorial stone represented a life that burned brightly—brief, but real.
"A solid opening," Tobirama Senju remarked, never stingy with praise for capable successors.
Gaara stared at the image, unsure what the version of himself on screen was about to say. War and slaughter—that was their fate.
Kill the enemy and survive, and your existence had meaning. Fail, and it meant nothing.
"Gaara…"
Temari glanced at her younger brother with concern. Kankuro was far more awkward—he wanted to show some care too, but couldn't help feeling irritated that his brat of a brother had never respected him as an older sibling.
[The Gaara from roughly three years in the future continued, "It was precisely because of that hatred—because of the craving for power—that I was born!"]
He closed his eyes. The normally cold, even stiff-looking young Kazekage now looked unbearably sorrowful, weighed down by grief. His emotions spread through the ranks of the alliance. Countless ninja stared at the young man on the platform, waiting for what he would say next.
[Those who knew Gaara well had already cast him looks filled with worry and pain.]
"Born from hatred…?"
Naruto clutched the fabric over his chest. A sudden fear gripped him—an instinct, like an animal sensing a natural disaster. He felt a resonance with Gaara, as if they were the same kind of existence, and he was terrified that the Gaara in the image would peel open the darkness buried deep inside them both.
But the Gaara in the image, of course, couldn't sense his fear. The next words spilled from his mouth without pause.
["I was hatred itself! I was power! A weapon of the village! A Jinchuriki—power offered up as a sacrifice!!"]
The moment those words were spoken, many ninja who understood what Jinchuriki meant instinctively backed away from Gaara, casting him looks of fear and disgust. With those gazes alone, they drew a line—human on one side, monster on the other.
Gaara's eyes reddened slightly, the curl of his lips sharp with killing intent.
["That's right! I was once the Jinchuriki of the One-Tail, Shukaku! I wielded power I couldn't even control myself! Whether I was seen as a weapon or treated as a monster—it didn't matter!!"
Yes. A monster.
A living weapon that killed its own mother at birth.]
"Naruto?"
Sasuke and Iruka immediately noticed something was wrong. Naruto was shaking—violently.
The stares.
Sasuke suddenly realized that the gazes around them—once only vaguely hostile toward him and Kakashi—had all locked onto Naruto and Gaara. The malice was ten times stronger than before. No—dozens of times. Hundreds. As if Naruto and Gaara themselves were the embodiment of war.
Village weapons.
Jinchuriki.
What did those words even mean?!
Naruto didn't have power like Gaara's—so why?!
Naruto didn't answer Sasuke. Instead, his voice trembled as he asked the Third Hokage's back, "Grandpa… what does 'power of sacrifice'… what does 'Jinchuriki' mean?"
The only response he received was the Third's pained gaze—and the Second's quiet sigh.
["I'm sorry, Naruto…"
"I hate this world! I hate humanity!!"
Gaara's words struck straight at the heart.
"I once sought to destroy everything!!"
"Just like what Akatsuki is trying to do now!!"]
"Gaara…"
Temari's expression twisted in pain. Fear aside, she was one of the very few who had never truly wanted to completely cut him off.
[Standing before the Allied Shinobi Forces, Gaara cast his pain, his sorrow, his hatred outward.]
["Let the world feel pain. Let the world understand pain. Let the world accept pain! Then… we can become one. Just as only Jinchuriki can understand the pain of Jinchuriki, the entire world can become a whole—mutual understanding, hearts connected!!"]
It hurt.
So much.
Naruto collapsed to his knees, his slender body curling in on itself.
"Naruto!"
Seeing him like this, Sasuke felt as if he were looking at himself on the night of the massacre. For the first time, he truly understood—pain wasn't something you could compare.
There was no such thing as "you can't understand because you haven't experienced it."
What had Naruto gone through?!
Why did even the Third Hokage have to apologize to him?!
What were Jinchuriki?!
Sasuke dimly realized that the power that had helped Naruto defeat Haku in the Land of Waves—saving both their lives—came from something far deeper.
Sensing Naruto's chakra growing unstable under the surge of emotion, Tobirama Senju immediately knelt down and used Wood Release's Yang chakra to soothe the Nine-Tails' cold, turbulent chakra inside him.
[In the image, Gaara's words had drawn in the entire alliance. No one was thinking about their own suffering anymore. Emotional bonds elevated their perspective—what they contemplated now was the pain of the whole world. The pain of being human, of being a ninja, yet treated as tools, as weapons.]
"However!!"
That however was the most forceful word Gaara had spoken—a clear turning point.
"However, a ninja from Konoha stopped me!!"
"Huh?"