Chapter 106 - Chapter 106: I’ll Take You as My Younger Brother!

With a heavy slap from Uzumaki Naruto, Gaara instantly snapped out of his dazed state.The previously savage and brutal expression in his eyes had softened, becoming clearer. He stared blankly at Naruto, who stood before him cloaked in a golden Chakra coat, his face filled with confusion."What are you staring at? If it weren't for your good sister, I would've killed you already. Now I'm reluctantly letting you be my younger brother. Consider it a bargain!"Without waiting for a response, Naruto turned and leaped away, not even bothering to look back.As he departed, the massive form of Shukaku—the One-Tail—began to dissolve into quicksand, disappearing with Gaara's awakening."No… I don't want to… return to that cold, dark, sealed world…"But Shukaku had no choice. It was swiftly drawn back into Gaara's body.With the sand beneath him vanishing, Gaara began to fall from the sky.He didn't struggle. He didn't move.Instead, he simply stared at Naruto's retreating figure, growing smaller in the distance.> "That guy... He's a Jinchūriki too… But why doesn't he seem to feel any pain?"> "Why didn't he kill me? I was going to kill him…"Gaara couldn't understand. From the sky, he could see Konoha—its streets in ruins. He realized he was the cause of the destruction.> "Maybe this is who I am… a harbinger of misfortune to villagers… and everyone…"---"Gaara!!"Temari shouted as she spotted Gaara falling. Without hesitation, she rushed toward him.But the distance was too great, and the Konoha ninja still stood in the way."I'll hold them off!"Kankuro stepped forward, summoning his puppet Crow to block the advancing Konoha Shinobi."Kankuro..."Temari was surprised. She didn't expect Kankuro, who usually feared and disliked Gaara, to make the same choice she had.She nodded and kept running toward her brother.Gaara, still falling, witnessed this scene.> "Why… why would they come to save me?"> "Aren't you afraid of me?"> "Aren't I just a monster? I'm not even accepted by the Hidden Sand Village…"> "Maybe dying like this is for the best…"Gaara closed his eyes, accepting his fate. From a height of nearly 100 meters, even a ninja would be unlikely to survive the impact.---"Gaara!!"Temari cried out, still trying to reach him, but her Chakra was mostly depleted from the earlier battle. She wasn't fast enough—she wasn't Naruto.Just as Gaara was about to crash into the ground headfirst, the sand left by Shukaku suddenly rose again, forming two giant hands beneath him.Like a mother's arms, they gently caught Gaara, holding him as delicately as petals.He wasn't dead.> "It's… so warm."Gaara slowly opened his eyes. Standing before him was a beautiful woman.She had shoulder-length sandy brown hair, much like Temari's, and her indigo eyes were filled with boundless tenderness.> "You… you are…"Though he had never seen her before, a name echoed in his heart.Karura.His mother.Tears streamed uncontrollably from Gaara's eyes. Beneath his terrifying exterior, he had always longed for family warmth.It was this absence of love that had led him to carve the word "love" onto his forehead—his only connection to that elusive emotion.Gaara stood shakily and reached toward Karura.But as he neared, she dissolved into sand, carried off by the breeze.> "Mother…!"He grasped at the air, but only brown sand flowed through his fingers—soft, gentle, like a mother's touch.And in that moment, Gaara understood.The sand that always protected him—it wasn't Shukaku's doing.It was his mother's love.She had never left him.The petal-like sand hands vanished, and Gaara landed gently on the ground.Temari finally arrived, breathless.Without a word, she threw her arms around him.And for the first time, Gaara understood what family meant.> "I'm glad you're alive.""Yeah… In the end, it was Naruto who chose not to kill me.""Eh?"Temari's eyes widened. Gaara had attacked Konoha, unleashed the power of the tailed beast, and even tried to kill Naruto himself. That Naruto would spare him was unimaginable.If Gaara had been killed on the spot, no one would have blamed Naruto.But Gaara saw her confusion and remembered Naruto's words. He repeated them calmly.> "He said he wanted me to be his younger brother.""???"Temari's face, pale with exhaustion, suddenly turned a bright shade of red.She knew exactly what those words implied.If Naruto wanted Gaara to be his younger brother, wouldn't that make him her… partner?---Kankuro: "What?! Naruto's going to be my brother-in-law?!"Temari: "What's wrong with that? With his strength, the Sand Village won't have to rely on selling gold anymore! Not that I care or anything… I'm just thinking about the village!"Kankuro: "You expect me to believe that?"Granny Chiyo: "I envy you youngsters… Back in my day…"---Gaara: "So, in that parallel world, Naruto and I might really become brothers? That sounds… interesting."Naruto (main world): "Wait—what are you all talking about? Why would I recognize Gaara as my brother?"Jiraiya: "Naruto, you idiot. Because Temari and Gaara are siblings!"Naruto: "Oh… Is that so?"Sakura: "Idiot Naruto, you'll never catch up with that version of you when it comes to emotional maturity!"---Ohnoki: "So that version of Naruto is really building his own Uzumaki nation?"Deidara: "Obviously. Your back may be bad, old man, but that Naruto's full of energy. Hey Kurotsuchi, no point in sticking with the old geezer—why not move to the Land of Whirlpools?"Kurotsuchi: "How do you know me—bah! I'm not leaving the Land of Earth!"Ohnoki: "…"---Shikamaru: "I don't know why… but something strange is happening inside me. It's like… something is sprouting from my head."Chōji: "Are you evolving into a genius again, Shikamaru?"Shikamaru: "Idiot. Intelligence doesn't sprout like vegetables! In that regard, you and our Naruto really are alike…"---Tenten: "What about me? Why hasn't that Naruto made a move on me yet?! I'm older than Sakura, right?"Sakura: "???"Ino: "It's your fault for always wrapping yourself up like a mummy. That Naruto won't go for a frying pan look. Oh, Sakura, no offense."Sakura: "You pig-head Ino! Just wait, I won't lose to you!"Ino: "You cheat with chakra-enhanced growth! That doesn't count!"---Naruto may not have realized it, but his words and actions were changing people.And for Gaara, who once believed he was destined to live as a monster, this moment meant everything.He finally found warmth.He finally found family.And maybe, just maybe… he finally found hope.