Hundreds of meters away from Shukaku, atop a small, freshly formed hill.
Naruto, now in a four-tailed state and glowing blood-red, faced Shukaku. Seeing the Tailed Beast charging its ultimate attack, he was just about to condense all the chakra within his body into his sword.
"I'll take over!" Kurama instantly seized control of his consciousness. "Remember, I'm only demonstrating this once!"
"Yin-Yang Chakra, a two-to-eight ratio!"
Before the words had even faded, under Kurama's control, a perfectly round, black sphere of chakra gradually condensed in front of him.
Naruto observed all of this from a third-person perspective within his mind, his eyelids twitching uncontrollably. "How do you even unleash such heavy chakra?"
"Watch closely!"
As he spoke, Kurama (in Naruto's body) swallowed the Tailed Beast Bomb whole.
Naruto: "Damn it!" What is this, self-destruct if you can't win?
At the same time, the opposing Shukaku fired the Tailed Beast Bomb it had finished accumulating towards them. The Tailed Beast Bomb that Kurama had just swallowed seemed to find its target, transforming into a dazzling beam of light that shot towards the incoming Tailed Beast Bomb.
BOOM!
Where the two collided, a hemispherical dome instantly formed and rapidly expanded! The surrounding light seemed to be drawn into the two clashing forces, plunging the world into dim chaos. Anything touched by the hemisphere was utterly vaporized into flying ash amidst infinite light and heat.
Following this, a powerful shockwave spread out in all directions!
"H-Holy sh—!" Kiba didn't even finish his exclamation before he was knocked unconscious to the ground by the immense shockwave.
A long while later.
A hand, covered in wounds, pushed its way out from beneath the soil.
"Kurama, that was pure recklessness!" Naruto spat out the dirt in his mouth and complained.
"Tch! This is nothing," Kurama scoffed disdainfully.
"Where's Shukaku? Don't tell me you actually blew it up?" Naruto asked in surprise, looking around and seeing no trace of Shukaku's figure.
"How is that possible? It ran out of chakra and retreated back into its jinchuriki," Kurama stated.
"Ran out of chakra?" Naruto said, astonished, as if he had discovered a new world.
"Its main body is still sealed. Having just been released, how much chakra could it possibly gather?" Kurama said scornfully, as if to imply that no other Tailed Beast could compare to him.
"…I see." Naruto dug Kusabimaru out of the earth and headed in the direction he remembered Shukaku last standing.
"Am I… dead?" Gaara lay helplessly on the ground. Each time he used the Feigning Sleep Technique, he would enter a period of profound exhaustion. The reason he felt as if he had returned to his mother's embrace was because the surrounding landscape now strongly resembled that of the Land of Wind. He clearly remembered being in the Land of Fire before losing consciousness, a veritable world away from the Land of Wind.
"Mother, I've come to find you…" Gaara slowly closed his eyes. For him, there was no difference between life and death. Or perhaps, he thought, he might even find more peace in the world after death.
Suddenly, a shadow fell over his body.
"Looks like you're not dead yet," a calm voice sounded.
Gaara struggled to open his eyes. Their gazes met. He saw a pair of eyes remarkably similar to his own—indifferent, tranquil, and beneath that veneer, a hidden madness.
"Let's talk." Naruto sat down cross-legged, placing Kusabimaru horizontally across his knees. "You and I are both jinchuriki. We should have some common topics."
"…" Gaara once again forced his body, squeezing out another sliver of chakra, using the sand to slowly lift himself up.
"Have you ever thought about changing your situation?" Naruto asked softly, looking up at the vast blue sky above.
"Change?" Gaara seemed not to understand his meaning.
"Indifference, discrimination, ostracism…" Although Naruto didn't know the specifics of Gaara's situation in Sunagakure, he could see glimpses of Gaara's past reflected in his eyes.
"Have you ever hated?" Gaara didn't answer, looking directly into Naruto's eyes as he posed the question.
"Hate?" Naruto understood what he was asking and shook his head slightly. "I wouldn't call it hate. Just as they have the right not to like me, I also have the right not to like them. Everyone has their own subjective consciousness; to dislike or like someone is their prerogative. Just like you—don't you also dislike those who inflict negative emotions upon you? You don't need to think of yourself as so grand. Besides, we don't rely on them to live."
"Furthermore, when it comes down to it, the reason they hate us… isn't it because we, or rather, the entities inside us, brought them harm and fear? There is no love without reason, and even less so, hate without reason. If you want to win the affection and respect of others, perhaps you should reflect on what you've done in the past, what you've brought to other people."
"'He who loves others is consistently loved by them.' Although," Naruto added, "this saying doesn't quite fit our circumstances."
"Is that so…" Gaara looked back on his past, his expression dazed.
Naruto watched this, inwardly shaking his head. This was merely his own way of navigating the world; it wasn't necessarily correct, but it was undeniably his own hard-won insight. In this life, one needn't be overly concerned with how others perceive them. If others dislike you, that's their right. If you insist on making those who dislike you like you, then is the problem with them, or with you? Just like his own years of ostracism, indifference, and discriminatory treatment… he hadn't lost any flesh over it. Just live your own life well. If you're ostracized to the point where you can't stay in one place, then simply find another. The world is vast; there's always a place that's right for you. No one is so indispensable that others can't live without them.
"If it were you, how would you change things?" Gaara asked again.
"Just follow your heart, that's all." Naruto shook his head. He could see it clearly now; the young man likely already had an answer in his heart. Asking for his advice was merely because he was still in a phase of confusion, not yet fully understanding his own inner feelings. Ultimately, one had to walk their own path in life. His methods for change were his, not the young man's. The choices one makes, one must bear the bitterness and tears that come with them.
"…I want to change their opinion of me. I want to interact with them normally. I am not a monster," Gaara said after a long silence, whether to the person beside him or as a vow to himself, it was unclear.
"Then do it." Naruto nodded slightly. The pursuit of an ideal allows no room for negation by others. "Want to join my organization? The road to pursuing one's ideals is inevitably arduous. If there are more like-minded people helping each other, it would surely be much easier…"
Naruto stated his purpose. Just as he had said earlier, there is no love without reason; he hadn't counseled Gaara out of an overwhelming burst of kindness. Before one's individual strength reaches a certain height, the power of a group is not to be ignored.
Actually, at first, Naruto's idea of establishing his own organization was just that—an idea. But after witnessing Gaara's, or rather, the One-Tail's, power, this idea truly began to take root and sprout. He wanted to create an organization composed entirely of jinchuriki, a group dedicated to mutual support. The inherent ostracism faced by jinchuriki, coupled with their immense power, formed the very foundation for such an organization.
After hearing Naruto's description of the organization, Gaara remained silent for a long time.
[Like-minded people, huh…]
"What's the name of the organization?" Gaara asked softly.
Hearing this, an almost imperceptible arc quirked the corners of Naruto's lips.
"Dragon Heritage!"
+50 chapters on: patreon.com/Shinobi_Scrolls