Tokiwa returned to Temari's residence looking slightly traumatized and described everything she had witnessed.
Naturally, her account came with plenty of personal interpretation.
In Tokiwa's view, Naruto had been the one who aggressively pursued Gaara at first, only to become passive once the conquest was complete.
So although Gaara appeared to be the one taking the initiative this time, the real situation was hard to say.
Obviously, that interpretation fit Temari's perspective perfectly.
Temari did not believe Gaara had been born a bond-type shinobi either.
Forget being a bond-type shinobi—until fairly recently, Gaara had barely shown any affection toward her or Kankurō.
He had been a straight-up homicidal lunatic.
"It must have started back then…"
Temari suddenly remembered Gaara's experience during the Chūnin Exams.
At first, Gaara had believed Sasuke—the one who possessed the Chidori—was the person who inherited Kakashi's One Thousand Years of Death.
As a result, he had lowered his guard around Naruto.
Then, during their battle, Naruto broke straight through his defenses.
Jiraiya's indecent novels had once said that the shortest path to a woman's heart was through…
By the same logic, no matter how cold and aloof a man appeared, his…
Was still warm.
Gaara must have been seduced by the naturally shameless Uzumaki Naruto right then and there!
"What do we do now?" Tokiwa asked.
At this point, she no longer cared about her bet with Naruto.
She had definitely won the wager.
Whether she had won in any meaningful sense, however, was another matter entirely.
Tokiwa finally understood the ancient story that Amegakure had published.
She had thought that, as a middle-aged woman who had lived this long, there was nothing in the world she had not seen.
Then she actually witnessed Gaara's behavior.
The psychological damage was immense.
As for evidence for the bet?
Before leaving, she had forced herself through the pain and taken several photographs.
Perhaps Gaara had been too absorbed in his private world with Naruto to notice what she was doing outside.
Sure enough, love made people stupid.
"Don't rush. Calm down first. Let's focus on training."
Temari said "first" three times in quick succession.
Rather than answering Tokiwa, it sounded more like she was trying to reassure herself.
More importantly, after thinking about it, Gaara was the Kazekage.
Temari had no authority to become the villain who broke up the lovebirds.
She might as well let Gaara eventually realize on his own that he could never compete with Sasuke and give up naturally.
Besides, the threat of the Ōtsutsuki still hung over everyone's heads like a sword.
If she wanted to stop Gaara now, she would need to offer him an alternative training method.
Could she come up with one?
Obviously not.
She barely understood any of this stuff.
What was she supposed to invent a solution with—her forehead?
Inside Temari's house, the three kunoichi whose files she had taken earlier had already gathered in the living room.
Originally, Temari had considered whether having Tokiwa personally spy on Gaara would be too easy to notice, and whether Yome could instead use her special visual technique to observe from farther away.
That idea was immediately discarded.
Admittedly, Yome was three years older than Temari.
But she still looked like a little girl.
Making someone who looked like a child witness something like that felt far too sinful.
More importantly, even Tokiwa—a fully grown middle-aged woman—had come back looking mentally devastated.
If the younger girls witnessed it firsthand, wouldn't that become lifelong trauma?
And what if the experience traumatized them so badly that all three ended up only liking women?
Wouldn't Temari have committed an unforgivable sin?
With that thought, Temari told Tokiwa to stop talking about what she had seen and go teach the three women Sage Mode instead.
Fortunately, Temari and Tokiwa had stepped outside to have their conversation, so none of the three inside had heard anything.
However…
Temari soon discovered a problem.
Since the shortcut version of Sage Mode depended heavily on efficiency, Gaara's method actually seemed like it might work.
And not only for Gaara.
As an example, Naruto personally assisting Gaara might improve Gaara's efficiency by a thousand percent.
But for an ordinary person, as long as someone else helped instead of doing everything alone—even a random stranger—their efficiency would still increase.
Temari stood outside the living room, suddenly afraid to go inside.
She was even more afraid to tell them what she had realized.
She did not want her house turning into some kind of cursed hookup space.
…
Elsewhere, Kakashi finally found Hōichi outside the village.
The information Gaara had given him was extremely thorough, including intelligence that Hōichi had been considering rebellion and assassination.
After all, approaching someone planning to kill the Kazekage might be dangerous, and Gaara had no intention of sending Kakashi in blind.
Kakashi himself did not particularly care about Hōichi's hostility.
What mattered was Gaara's intention.
Gaara was willing to give the man another chance.
Therefore, unless absolutely necessary, Kakashi could not kill him.
That brought him to his current problem.
Kakashi had told Hōichi that Gaara had selected him as one of the first people to train in Sage Mode.
After hearing the news, Hōichi repeatedly confirmed that, aside from Gaara himself, he was the only male shinobi on the training list.
Then he immediately ran off.
Kakashi followed him here.
A desolate rocky cliff stood ahead.
The sound of repeated impacts echoed from beneath it.
Kakashi found the noise strangely familiar.
Someone was practicing taijutsu.
Hōichi glanced back at Kakashi but ignored him and continued forward.
Then he shouted down the cliff.
"Shira! I told you long ago! You're nothing but a taijutsu specialist. You'll never receive any real recognition!
"See? Gaara abandoned you!"
"What did you say?!"
An enraged roar came from below.
A figure shot upward like a cannonball, landing directly in front of Hōichi with a furious expression.
"…"
Kakashi studied Shira.
Aside from the lack of a green jumpsuit, the man reminded him strongly of Guy and Lee.
Kakashi immediately guessed that Hōichi had come here to sow discord.
According to Gaara's intelligence, Hōichi himself had originally been manipulated into considering rebellion by someone else.
Afterward, Hōichi had attempted to recruit additional people into the rebel faction.
Unfortunately for him, the reforms in the Land of Wind had made life far too comfortable.
A mountain that had oppressed everyone for more than a thousand years had finally been lifted from their shoulders.
Outside of ambitious schemers and stubborn old conservatives, almost nobody wanted to join a rebellion.
Shira was one of Hōichi's intended targets.
Shira had a very good relationship with Gaara.
If Hōichi could turn him against the Kazekage, their chances of assassinating Gaara would rise considerably.
Unfortunately, no matter how long Hōichi thought about it, he had never found an opening.
Until today.
Gaara had practically delivered one into his hands.
Something as valuable as Sage Mode training had been offered to others, yet Gaara had completely overlooked Shira—the man who worked harder than almost anyone in the village.
Wasn't that the perfect opportunity?
"Don't get so worked up, Shira. If you don't believe me, ask the man behind me."
Hōichi gestured toward Kakashi.
"He's the famous Hatake Kakashi.
"Kakashi, go ahead. Tell Shira whether his name is on the Sage Mode training list."
"And don't even think about lying."
Hōichi stared directly at him.
"He's right. Your name isn't on the list. However…"
Kakashi did not bother telling some well-intentioned lie.
Judging from Gaara's attitude, his actual mission this time was Hōichi.
Simply stopping his rebellion would accomplish nothing.
Kakashi needed to find a way to make him genuinely return his loyalty to Gaara.
As for this man named Shira…
If he truly was anything like Guy and Lee, then there was absolutely no chance he would betray the village.
There was nothing to worry about.