thefictionvixens Chapter 465 Friendship in Sunagakure
Chapter 465 Friendship in Sunagakure
"Gaara! Gaara! Open the door!"
Sunagakure Village, the Kazekage's residence. The usually quiet corridor was broken by urgent knocking and anxious calls.
Kankuro frowned and pounded heavily on the wooden door. Temari stood beside him with her arms crossed, looking equally worried.
After returning from attending Naruto's wedding in Konoha and having a period of peace, Gaara suddenly announced that he needed to take a few days off due to "illness".
Fortunately, the ninja world has enjoyed unprecedented peace in recent years. Sunagakure has also become increasingly prosperous due to its deep cooperation with Konoha, the promotion of new crops, and a stable trade environment. As the village's Kage, a short rest for a few days is not enough to affect the operation of the village affairs - most matters can be temporarily handled by the elders and elite Jonin.
However, Kankuro and Temari could not simply regard their younger brother's sudden "seclusion" as a normal period of rest.
Something's not right, something's really not right.
Two days! For two whole days, Gaara has completely locked himself in this bedroom, not leaving the room at all, and even leaving his daily meals untouched outside the door.
Behind that tightly closed door, there was only a chilling silence, as if it had created a small world completely cut off from the outside world.
What worried them even more were the several extremely absurd and unusual events that almost came to fruition before Gaara announced his leave of absence.
First came a series of diplomatic moves directed at Konoha that could be described as "confusing".
Gaara, in the name of the Kazekage, frequently dispatched delegations of varying statuses to Konoha for several consecutive days, citing a variety of reasons. Initially, the reason given was "to discuss in depth the details of the border trade agreement and the framework for future cooperation."
It then turned into "sending an agricultural research team to learn and study Konoha's advanced vegetation maintenance and soil and water conservation techniques," and finally even evolved into "sending a horticultural envoy to specifically inquire about how to make the cactus, a specialty of Sunagakure but extremely difficult to bloom, bloom under non-natural conditions"...
These reasons all seem to barely qualify as "official business," but their frequency and the triviality and strangeness of the reasons make it clear to anyone that something is amiss.
Based on what Kankuro overheard in the Konoha tavern that night, he could conclude that Gaara's deep-seated urge to see Naruto was probably becoming uncontrollable.
However, he struggled to find a reasonable, natural, and unobtrusive excuse, and could only try to use various lame reasons to get to Konoha, like an awkward child.
The second thing was even more outrageous and dangerous—it was a formal challenge letter bearing the personal seal of the Fifth Kazekage that was almost sent out.
The challenge was clear and concise, issued in the name of the Kazekage, specifically challenging Uchiha Satsuki of Konoha to a one-on-one, formal, and unrestricted ninja duel.
Without explaining the reasons or specifying the venue, the wording was cold and harsh, full of a resolute tone.
When Kankuro found the crumpled and slightly trembling draft of the challenge letter in Gaara's study wastebasket, he was terrified.
He immediately rushed to Gaara, using every trick in the book to argue from various angles, including village stability, diplomatic impact, personal reputation, and even the possibility of "Making Naruto completely disappointed in you"...
After a barrage of persuasion and intimidation, nearly exhausting himself and working through the entire night, Gaara finally regained a sense of rational struggle in his eyes. In the end, with extreme reluctance, he burned the challenge letter that was enough to cause a diplomatic earthquake to ashes.
Even so, the suppressed resentment, jealousy, and a sense of powerlessness emanating from Gaara kept Kankuro and Temari's hearts hanging in suspense.
At that moment, Gaara's voice, clearly weak, nasal, and deeply weary, came from inside the door.
"I'm fine... don't worry about me..."
Kankuro and Temari's hearts sank even further. This voice hardly sounded like "everything's alright."
This will definitely lead to disaster! Not just physically, but mentally too!
They exchanged a glance. Without a word, they understood each other's thoughts—they couldn't let things continue like this!
Kankuro took a deep breath, nodded to Temari, and the two of them slowly took two steps back, creating some distance between them, and adjusted their stances to generate force.
The next second—
"Bang!!!"
"Bang—!!!"
Kankuro slammed his shoulder down and slammed into the door with all his might! At the same time, Temari kicked the door lock from below, a weak spot!
The two bolts groaned under the strain, the hinges snapped, and the heavy wooden door sprang open with a loud crash, slamming against the wall with a deafening bang!
"Gaara! You're alright..."
Kankuro rushed into the room, but his anxious words were cut short as if by an invisible hand, choking him in his throat.
His eyes widened in disbelief, his face filled with horrified disbelief.
Temari, who was right behind her, was also completely stunned by what she saw the moment she stepped over the threshold, and even subconsciously held her breath.
Her gaze swept blankly across the room. "What...what is this...?"
Gaara's room... was crammed full.
Literally, completely and thoroughly, filling without leaving any gaps.
In the dim light, the once spacious and tidy Fengying bedroom was now unrecognizable. As far as the eye could see, none of the original furniture or decorations could maintain their normal function and form—they were all covered by layers upon layers of sand, piled up, hung, or tightly arranged.
Gaara himself sat in the center of this "ocean" of sand, leaning against the edge of the bed on the carpet.
Behind him, a huge sand gourd continuously gushed out fine yellow sand.
His hands, with utmost focus and devout tenderness, were cradling a clump of newly emerged sand.
Chakra flowed from his fingertips, meticulously manipulating the aggregation and shaping of the sand grains. The sand clump slowly wriggled in his palm... and finally, solidified into a lifelike sand sculpture, about the size of a palm.
The sand sculpture has a distinctive hairstyle and a deliberately sculpted, sunny grin on its face—it's a sand model of Naruto Uzumaki.
However, this is by no means a solitary work.
When Kankuro and Temari looked away from Gaara's new work and scanned the entire room, they didn't know what expression to wear.
On the bed, the original pillows and blankets were gone, replaced by a dense array of Naruto sand sculptures in various poses.
Some sat cross-legged, some were running, some were making hand seals, some had bright smiles... They were piled up together so crowded that they almost overflowed onto the ground.
The ground, from the doorway to the bedside, was covered with a thick layer of sand, and on this sandy ground, more sand sculptures were "growing" like bamboo shoots after a spring rain.
They vary in size, some only the size of a fist, others nearly half a person's height, but without exception, they all depict Naruto.
They stood, crouched, or lay down, filling every inch of space where one could stand. Kankuro and Temari's intrusion even caused them to accidentally crush a few small statues on the edge, producing a faint cracking sound of sand.
The cabinets, bookshelves, windowsills—all horizontal surfaces were covered by these sand sculptures. They were arranged somewhat haphazardly, yet they followed a logic that only Gaara could understand.
Because all these sand sculptures are "looking" at Gaara in the center of the room.
The entire room has been transformed into a space composed of countless "Naruto" sand sculptures.
Gaara seemed oblivious to the commotion and horrified looks his siblings had caused when they burst through the door. His entire focus was on the sand sculpture that had just taken shape in his palm.
He stared at the indistinct face of the sand sculpture, then picked up a pen from the scattered debris beside him.
Then, with utmost gentleness, three short, parallel whisker lines were drawn on each side of the sand-sculpted Naruto's cheeks.
After finishing the last stroke, he stopped and held the sand sculpture up to his eyes, carefully "examining" it.
After a long while, his chapped lips moved slightly, uttering a few words with a hoarse, breathy tone.
"That makes it... even more like it..."