Chapter 288: Gaara
After all that, this was what Orochimaru wanted to say? Attempting to drive a wedge using his lineage? If Naruto still wanted to waste words with Orochimaru, he'd probably say something like, "That topic's long past."
Following the same steps used to seal the Impure World Reincarnation bodies, sealing runes completely covered Orochimaru's entire form, ultimately forming an airtight cocoon constructed of chakra that wrapped and sealed him inside.
In the final moment before darkness swallowed his consciousness, genuine disbelief at his plan's complete loss of control finally appeared on Orochimaru's face. He couldn't comprehend why this bombshell had failed to create even the slightest ripple.
But now, forget forming seals to resist—he couldn't even mobilize a trace of chakra.
Let this guy live nicely in this "cocoon" for a while.
Naruto turned around, only to meet the Third Hokage and Jiraiya's gazes filled with astonishment. They were obviously extremely surprised and confused by Naruto's overly calm reaction.
Looks like... I'll have to spend some effort explaining later... Naruto felt a headache coming on. How should he explain this?
Right now, he was more worried about Gaara's condition. Recalling how Gaara's face had been pale earlier, his eyes hollow, as though his soul had been extracted—this concerned Naruto.
"I'm going to check on Gaara," he said casually to the two, attempting to temporarily avoid questioning. "We can talk after returning to Konoha."
"Naruto, wait!"
However, the Flying Thunder God seal had already activated. Golden light flashed as Naruto instantly vanished from his position. The next moment, he'd already appeared before Gaara, who sat leaning against a tree not far away.
Gaara still maintained that worrying state. Unlike the eyes that had reignited with hope after hearing Naruto's encouragement, and no longer carrying that death-like coldness from before, but rather a... fragility like cracks appearing in porcelain.
He wasn't crying, but those jade-green eyes were filled with sorrow nearly overflowing.
Naruto placed his hand on Gaara's shoulder as golden chakra slowly flowed in, healing some minor scrapes and bruises on his body.
"...Orochimaru has already been defeated and sealed by me. Everything's fine now." Naruto slowed his voice. "Let's head back first... Tell me, what exactly did Orochimaru say to you? What did he do?"
"I'm sorry..." Gaara's voice was so weak it was nearly inaudible.
"Now isn't the time for apologies, is it?" Naruto tried using a light tone to interrupt his negativity. "I don't think you did anything requiring an apology to me."
"...But," Gaara's voice carried trembling. "Everything I touch dies because of me... Mother... Yashamaru... Temari... Kankuro... even... you might also die because of me..."
"A monster like me... has no right to be treated that way by you... no right to possess anything...!"
Bang!
Before Gaara's self-deprecating words finished, Naruto suddenly made an unexpected move—he leaned sharply forward, using his own forehead to slam hard against Gaara's forehead!
The sudden impact and pain instantly "knocked" Gaara, who'd been drowning in the abyss of self-loathing, temporarily out of it.
He groaned in pain. His body that had been sitting collapsed backward from the impact. He supported himself with his hands on the ground, raising his eyes to look at Naruto with shock and confusion. What met his gaze was Naruto's face clearly displaying anger.
Connecting this to earlier discovering Temari and Kankuro severely poisoned and near death, combined with Gaara's current broken state, Naruto instantly understood Orochimaru's vicious tactics.
He'd wanted to use the "deaths" of loved ones as the final blow, completely crushing Gaara's will to resist, making him willingly become a test subject!
"I absolutely refuse to accept that kind of mistaken perception!" Naruto's voice rose from anger. "We're merely jinchuriki! We've never been monsters abandoned by the world! We're vessels bearing pain for important people!"
He saw Gaara flinch from his roar, which made his heart tighten, but his words pierced even more directly to the core.
"You claim you don't want anyone's expectations, understanding, or awareness, sealing yourself away... But despite all that, you still feel sorrow for those lives lost to conspiracy and betrayal!"
"You suffer and despair when people important to you are hurt! How could I possibly abandon you when you have such a heart?!"
This shout mixing anger with sincerity—feeling the intense emotions born from himself in Naruto's words, Gaara instinctively wanted to apologize again. He feared hearing disappointment within this anger, feared that this only light would also extinguish because of his "mistakes."
"...But Temari... and Kankuro..." His voice choked, almost unable to form words. That was his deepest self-blame.
"They're alive."
"...A-alive?!" Gaara's head snapped up, jade-green eyes trembling violently from this sudden news.
"Yes." Naruto nodded affirmatively, tone softening. "Before finding you, I discovered them first. I've already neutralized the poison in their bodies—they're no longer in mortal danger. Moreover, they're the ones who told me Orochimaru captured you and begged me to save you."
"...I see... so that's... how it is..." Immense relief and lingering fear surged like a tide. Gaara wanted to take a long breath but found his heart blocked by various complex emotions, even breathing becoming difficult.
Like a child who'd done something wrong, he lowered his head in shame, not daring to look directly at Naruto's eyes anymore.
"Shukaku certainly gave you powerful strength and made many people fear you." Naruto continued speaking. "But its power doesn't include that—the Sand Shield that automatically appears every time you're attacked, your life threatened, protecting you at all costs!"
Watching Gaara completely freeze from this statement, his face showing tremendous shock and confusion, Naruto knew the time had come.
He had to tear apart and completely clean away that bastard father's lie about the "mother's curse" forced upon Gaara right now!
"I won't lie to you." Naruto gazed into his eyes, speaking word by word. "I personally sealed Shukaku, and within your inner world, I sensed the true source of that power that's always protected you..."
"...Where... where did it come from?" Gaara's voice carried uncontrollable trembling, seeking that answer with both longing and fear.
"That power existed deep within your body long ago, even before Shukaku was sealed inside you..."
"If you became a jinchuriki from birth, then this power's birth could only have been at the moment you first came into this world... That power isn't any curse at all!"
He took a deep breath, revealing that long-buried truth.
"That's the obsession left by someone who couldn't let you go! An obsession to continue protecting you that even death couldn't sever!"
"!!"
Gaara's eyes snapped shut as unfamiliar, warm liquid uncontrollably surged from his eye sockets.
If... if it was at his own birth... if someone died because of him yet still couldn't let him go... it could only be her...
That person he'd never met, yet had borne the name of "resentment" for over ten years—his mother.
"...In Konoha, heroes' names are carved on the Memorial Stone." Naruto's voice carried distant memories. "Back then, no one cared about me. I'd occasionally wonder... if someday my name was carved there too, would... someone keep a small place for me in their heart?"
But hearing this hypothesis, Gaara suddenly shook his head, clear rejection in his eyes. He didn't want to see such a scene, even just as a supposition.
Naruto saw his reaction and a warm smile touched his lips as his tone shifted. "But later, I understood. What's important isn't just existing in others' hearts."
He gently pressed his hand to his own chest, feeling that powerful beating. "Inside my own heart, what beats is no longer just one lonely person."
"It holds others' expectations, their cherishing, their caring and entrustment... and," his gaze looked deeply into Gaara's eyes, "the weight of your choice to live."
"...Why..." Gaara's voice choked, words blurring into incoherence. "Why... can you... accept someone like me..."
He couldn't understand why anyone could so unreservedly embrace his heart covered in cracks, viewed as calamity.
"Because we're jinchuriki."
"With another massive being residing inside our bodies, we've been destined from birth to possess double the ability to feel pain compared to ordinary people."
"But this ability conversely also means—we can equally bear double the warmth, double the hope, double the bonds!"
Finally, he stepped forward, firmly grasping Gaara's cold and trembling hand. An indescribable warm current slowly flowed through their joined palms into Gaara's frozen heart.
"...Life is beautiful, isn't it?" Naruto said softly. "Someone sincerely hopes you'll live, wishes you could see tomorrow's sun. Your existence was never a curse, but rather—the miracle that lets important people continue breathing, continue smiling."
His gaze carried disdain for darkness.
"Someone like Orochimaru who forever hides in shadows, not daring to face sunlight directly—how could he possibly understand such feelings? His so-called 'value' is nothing but treating living people as tools that can be arbitrarily dismantled and exploited, cold and pitiful."
"True strength was never about being flawless, much less about cold ruthlessness. It's about being already tortured by fate until riddled with wounds and injuries, yet still choosing to use this broken heart to feel remaining warmth, and moreover... using this hard-won warmth to embrace others equally cold in darkness."
The golden chakra radiance grew increasingly brilliant, like the rising morning sun—warm and full of hope, as though it would drive away all the world's gloom and despair.
"Therefore, from now on, you no longer need to grope alone in endless darkness, no longer need to bear this heavy fate alone. Your pain—I'll share it. Your battles—I'll fight alongside you. Your future—I'll illuminate it!"
"I'll make the entire shinobi world know that in the deepest depths of this seemingly barren, cold sea of sand hides the most gentle, most resilient, most cherished oasis in this world."
"And that is you, Gaara."
"Ngh...!"
Scalding tears finally completely broke through the thick ice layer frozen in Gaara's eyes for over ten years, rolling down uncontrollably in large drops. In this unprecedented warmth of golden light that almost melted him, he tremblingly yet incredibly firmly raised both arms, for the first time actively responding to that long-awaited embrace.
Through blurred tear-filled eyes, he seemed to glimpse within that dazzling radiance behind Naruto a hazy yet infinitely gentle outline—Mother's smile carrying release and blessing.
And at that radiance's center, he seemed to see a brand new reflection—no longer a fierce monster, but someone understood, accepted, deeply loved by the entire world—his own appearance.
"I'm... really so weak..." He pressed his forehead against Naruto's shoulder, voice carrying the hoarseness and vulnerability after crying. "If you do this... I... definitely won't be able to help... completely depending on you... never able to... leave you again..."
"Yeah, that's fine." Naruto gently patted his back. "If moving forward alone is frightening, then advance while sharing the burden with others. Like now—what do you think?"
"...You..." Gaara's voice carried fear born from trauma. "You... won't be like Yashamaru... ultimately telling me... everything was fake... everything was just a mission..."
"No, I won't." Naruto didn't hesitate even slightly, promising resolutely. "I will never become your new nightmare."
He tightened this embrace, making an eternal vow:
"Because I will never leave you."
....
uhh it's giving g vibes.... I mean if someone didn't know Naruto read this chap, they'd think it's a bl novel
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