r18novel Chapter 401 Gaara's Whisper: Your Mother Doesn't Want You Anymore
Chapter 401 Gaara's Whisper: Your Mother Doesn't Want You Anymore
Chapter 401 Gaara's Whisper: Your Mother Doesn't Want You Anymore
When the golden wave surged forth from the ground, Sasuke's first reaction was not fear, but absurdity.
This is Konoha's 44th Training Ground, located deep in the forest, a place known as the "Forest of Death."
Within a radius of twenty kilometers, the training ground is filled with towering trees that have grown for hundreds of years, and outside the training ground is an endless forest.
Beneath the soil lies a complex network of roots, and the rock layer extends at least three meters below the surface.
sand?
Where did all this sand come from?
Rumble—
A deep, rumbling sound, like muffled thunder, came from beneath our feet, and the earth trembled.
The layer of fallen leaves beneath Sasuke's feet collapsed instantly, replaced by a surge of scalding golden sand.
The grains of sand seemed to possess life, devouring everything around them like a hungry herd of beasts.
"Get out of the way!"
Sasuke leaped to the left with all his might, stomping twice on the tree trunk, his body shooting towards the distant treetops like an arrow.
The Sharingan spun rapidly as it sped along, frantically capturing every detail in its field of vision: the speed of the sand waves' advance, their coverage area, and potential safe spots.
Sai and Shigaraki Tanuki, two members of the core group, also reacted quickly.
Sai rolled to the right, and the scroll in his hand unfurled as he rolled, splashing ink, and an ink eagle with a wingspan of two meters instantly took shape, carrying him into the sky.
Shigaraki Tanuki chose to face downwards, slamming his hands together in a hand seal and striking the ground: "Earth Release: Earth Dive!"
Its body sank into the soil layer that was not yet covered by sand, swimming outwards like a fish entering water.
But the speed of the sandstorm exceeded everyone's expectations.
The trees touched by the sand waves, their thick trunks requiring a dozen people to encircle, began to dry and crack within three seconds, their bark peeling off, visibly crumbling and disintegrating, turning into more fine sand to join the waves.
The same was true for the exposed bluish-gray stones on the ground; their surfaces quickly turned to sand, peeled off, and eventually collapsed completely.
"What a joke—" Sasuke landed on top of a 30-meter-tall giant tree, gripping the branches tightly, and looked down at the ground below.
The sight that he saw made him hold his breath.
The forest disappeared within a circular area with a radius of more than 500 meters centered on where Gaara was standing.
Towering trees, bushes, vines, rocks, moss —
Everything turned into a golden desert.
The outlines of trees still remain on the desert surface; they are the remains that have not yet been fully transformed, half-buried in the sand like the skeleton of a giant beast.
Further out, the edge of the desert continues to expand slowly, like ink dripping into water, gradually eroding the green forest.
The entire battlefield, spanning nearly a kilometer in radius, has been transformed into a glaring golden scar in the dense forest.
Sasuke's pupils trembled.
How much chakra does this require?
This kind of change in nature, range control, and continuous output—these multiple abilities have reached an unbelievable level, even a Jonin couldn't do that, right?!
"Separate them."
Gaara's voice came from the heart of the desert.
Kankuro and Temari, who were beside him, quickly moved out.
In the air, Sai, sitting on the black eagle circling about twenty meters above the ground, was looking down at the abrupt desert below.
He glanced again at the boy in the distance standing on the sand dune, whose face was painted with purple lines and who was looking up at him.
"In the air, you're a sitting duck," Kankuro said softly, raising his right hand and making a "hook" motion with his index and middle fingers together.
A whooshing sound came from Sai's left.
He turned his head sharply, his pupils shrinking.
On the ground, a humanoid puppet about 1.6 meters tall is raising its right arm, with a round hole in the center of its palm facing Junzai.
"Chakra Laser".
Kankuro's voice arrived at the same time as his attack.
hum!
A golden beam of light, as thick as a thumb, shot out from the puppet's palm, moving so fast that it left only a blur in the air.
Sai didn't even have time to maneuver the Black Eagle to dodge; he could only tilt his body violently to the right.
laugh!
The beam of light grazed his left shoulder, the intense heat instantly burning through the lining of his vest, causing a searing pain on his skin.
The black eagle's left wing was also affected; the ink-made feathers were evaporated, creating a gap, and its balance was instantly lost.
"Damn it!" Sai gritted his teeth.
The puppets' second wave of attacks has arrived.
Five firing ports pop out from its left wrist, each containing a metal bullet the size of a thumb.
Kankuro tapped his finger five times in the air.
"A swarm of missiles fired!"
With a whoosh, five bullets trailed white contrails, forming a fan shape that covered all of Sai's possible dodge directions.
There is nowhere to escape.
Sai's eyes sharpened.
He abandoned his attempt to dodge, and his brush traced a wild arc across the scroll: "Ink Clone Technique!"
Boom boom boom boom boom!
Five missiles hit almost simultaneously.
The explosion engulfed Sai, and the shockwave created a visible ripple in the air.
The shattered ink droplets fell like rain, mingling with the smell of gunpowder.
"Solved?" Kankuro raised an eyebrow.
But next second.
Roar!
A lion made of ink burst out of the smoke of the explosion; it was three meters long and had its fangs bared.
On the lion's back, Sai knelt on one knee, his right hand already drawing his ninja sword from behind.
The lion was incredibly fast, and it pounced on the puppet in the blink of an eye.
It opened its huge mouth and bit down hard on the puppet's right shoulder.
Click!
The puppet's shoulder armor was bitten through, and the sound of the mechanical structure cracking could be heard from inside.
But the puppet's counterattack came at the same time. Its head turned to face the lion behind it, its mouth opened, and a dazzling golden light shone from deep within its throat.
Chakra Beam Cannon!
boom!
A golden beam of light, ten centimeters in diameter, shot out from the puppet's mouth and struck the ink lion's head at point-blank range.
The lion's head instantly vaporized, followed by its neck and upper body.
The ink evaporates directly into black mist at high temperatures.
But Sai is no longer on the lion's back.
He leaped up just before the lion was struck.
His body flipped in the air, and his ninja sword drew a silver arc, slashing straight at the puppet's back.
He slashed at the chakra threads connecting the puppet.
Puppetry requires the control of chakra threads; this is a basic principle of puppetry and a weakness that no puppeteer can avoid.
The Sand Village was able to establish its prestige through puppetry during the three Shinobi World Wars not because the technique had no weaknesses, but because powerful puppeteers could compensate for these weaknesses with skill and sheer numbers.
But Sai's sword missed its mark.
The blade sliced through the air, creating only a whistling sound.
There was no tactile sensation of broken threads, no fluctuation of dissipated chakra, nothing at all.
Sai landed, knelt on one knee on the sand, and looked up at the puppet's back.
Looking at Kankuro fifty meters away, his ten fingers were indeed moving, making manipulative movements, but no chakra threads extended from his fingertips.
"This is impossible—" Sai murmured in disbelief.
Kankuro smiled.
"Nothing is impossible." Kankuro's voice was filled with pride: "This is the latest achievement of the Star Country Academy of Sciences—wireless chakra transmission technology." It allows for remote control via special frequency chakra waves, unlike the puppet techniques of the Sand Village, which were affected by terrain, obstacles, and even distance. Moreover—"
He clenched his right fist tightly.
The humanoid puppet's movements instantly became several times more ferocious. Ignoring the injury to its right shoulder, it extended two high-speed spinning serrated blades from its left arm and pounced on Sai like a spinning top.
"The reaction speed is more than three times faster than traditional puppetry!"
Sai gritted his teeth and charged forward with his ninja sword.
clang clang clang!
Sparks flew as the blade collided with the serrated edge.
With each exchange of blows, Sai felt his arm go numb; the puppet's strength was astonishing, as if it had inexhaustible power.
Moreover, the absence of chakra threads means that the puppet cannot be paralyzed by severing the threads.
He must defeat the steel body head-on, or defeat the manipulator himself.
Sai's eyes turned cold.
On the other side of the battlefield, Shigaraki Tanuki's situation was even worse.
The principle behind the technique "Earth Release: Submerged in the Earth" is to assimilate the body with the soil, moving like a fish swimming in water.
But when the soil is transformed into sand, the assimilation process is instantly disrupted.
He felt as if he had been thrown into a scorching hot grinding wheel.
"Cough!" Shigaraki Tanuki was forced to jump out of the sand, its body covered in tiny cuts caused by the high-speed rotation of the sand grains during the transformation process.
He staggered to the ground, and his vision went black for a moment.
Then, he heard the sound of the wind.
It's not natural wind.
It's the wind of ninjutsu.
"Wind Release: Kamaitachi!"
Temari's voice came from thirty meters away.
She stood atop a sand dune, holding the enormous three-star fan in her right hand, with only the first star unfolded.
The fan is waved.
The invisible vacuum blade tore through the air, creating three intersecting slashing trajectories that covered a ten-meter radius around Shigaraki Tanuki.
Wherever the blade struck, it plowed out furrows half a meter deep in the sand.
Shigaraki Tanuki rolled to the left while simultaneously forming hand seals: "Earth Release: Earth Flow Wall!"
The sand dunes rose up, forming a two-meter-high sand wall.
But the vacuum blade easily sliced through the sand wall, and the shattered sand slammed into Shinra Tanuki. He groaned and rolled over again, as the second and third blades grazed his back and the sides of his legs.
The clothes were torn, and bloodstains appeared on the skin.
"On sand, your Earth Release techniques are at least halved in effectiveness," Temari said mockingly. "Besides, do you really understand the properties of sand?"
She unfolded the second star on her fan.
"Wind Release: Great Kamaitachi!"
This time, it wasn't three blades.
There are thirty.
The vacuum blades formed a dense mesh, like a bird-catching net, and descended upon Shigaraki Tanuki.
The area was so vast and the speed so fast that there was simply nowhere to escape.
Shigaraki Tanuki gritted her teeth and slammed her hands on the ground: "Earth Release: Earth Rising Spear!"
A dozen sharp earthen spears emerged from the sand, attempting to intercept the vacuum blade.
But it didn't work.
The musket was shredded the moment it came into contact with the blade, turning back into loose sand.
The blade net continued to fall.
Shigaraki Tanuki could only use the Earth Dive technique again, and its body sank into the sand.
"Foolish." Temari sneered, her fan fully unfolded, all three stars lit up: "Wind Release: Sky-Splitting Slash!"
'
She raised the fan above her head and then slammed it down hard.
boom-!
A giant wind blade, five meters wide and visible to the naked eye, shot out from the fan. It flew close to the sand, stirring up waves of sand and carving huge cracks two meters deep into the ground.
The tanuki Shigaraki, lurking beneath the sand, felt as if it had been hit by a train.
"Pfft!" He spat out a mouthful of blood, his body was blasted out of the sand by the wind pressure, rolled seven or eight times in the air, and crashed heavily onto the sand twenty meters away.
Every bone in my body was groaning.
My ears are ringing and my vision is blurry.
In the heart of the desert.
Sasuke coughed, spitting out grains of sand from his mouth, his eyes stinging from the sand.
Footsteps gradually approached.
Rustle, rustle.
It was very light and steady, with each step perfectly spaced, as if measured with a ruler.
Sasuke looked up, and through the dissipating sand and dust, his Sharingan revealed the red-haired boy.
Gaara, carrying a large gourd on his back, stopped five meters in front of Sasuke. His emerald green eyes looked at Sasuke calmly, without any killing intent, hostility, or even excitement for battle.
Only endless pity.
It's like watching a young animal struggling in a trap.
"You bastard!"
Sasuke, feeling so slighted, was instantly enraged.
He leaped up from the sand, reached for his ninja tool pouch at his waist, and six shuriken shot out.
The six shuriken, at different angles and with different rotation speeds, blocked all of Gaara's evasive maneuvers.
At least that's what Sasuke thinks.
Gaara simply tilted his head slightly, without even moving a step.
The first shuriken flew past his ear.
He turned his body slightly, and the second and third shuriken brushed past his chest and back; he raised his left hand, his index and middle fingers catching the fourth shuriken; he raised his right leg, and the instep knocked the fifth shuriken away; finally, he lowered his head slightly, and the sixth shuriken flew over his head, not even taking away a few strands of red hair.
All efforts were in vain.
Sasuke's pupils contracted.
But it's not over yet.
His lips curled up, and he suddenly pulled his hands back.
All six shuriken were bound with almost invisible threads.
Under Sasuke's control, the threads tightened, causing the shuriken to stop abruptly in mid-air, change direction, and shoot back at Gaara's back, back of the head, back of the neck, and side of his waist from six different directions.
Mastering the art of shuriken!
Sasuke had practiced these skills diligently for several years, achieving a level of precision control that even Kakashi praised.
however.
Gaara didn't even turn around. It was as if his eyes had been bulging behind him. The sand beneath his feet seemed to have an independent will, surging up instantly and forming a sand shield behind him.
Ding ding ding ding ding!
With six crisp sounds, all six shuriken were blocked by the sand shield.
Sasuke stood rooted to the spot, his fingers still in the position of pulling on the threads, his expression frozen.
impossible!
This is impossible!
His shuriken technique is so advanced that even a special Jonin-level ninja would have a hard time completely dodging it, let alone blocking it so effortlessly.
This red-haired guy—who exactly is he—?
"Come on, let me see your limits."
Gaara spoke, his tone like that of a ninja academy teacher instructing a student.
"If that's all there is to it, you don't deserve to know the truth."
the truth?
These two words pierced Sasuke's ears like needles.
He suddenly looked up, and the tomoe in his Sharingan began to spin faster, his anger mixed with a certain unease churning in his chest.
Stop pretending!
Sasuke roared, his hands beginning to form hand seals, his fingers moving so fast they left afterimages.
The silk threads wrapped around the fingertips danced with the hand seals, like some kind of eerie dance.
The first day of the month is Si, the second day of the month is Wei, the third day of the month is Shen, the fourth day of the month is Hai, the fifth day of the month is Wu, the sixth day of the month is Yin.
Fire Release: Dragon Fire Technique!
He took a deep breath, his chest bulged, and then exhaled sharply.
Blazing flames erupted from his mouth, spreading along the threads that acted as fuses, precisely directing the flames in six directions to completely encircle Gaara.
The flames burn on the silk thread, but they do not burn through the specially made thread.
Six lines of fire, six angles, like blooming flames, with Gaara at the center.
There is nowhere to run!
"Got it!" Sasuke's eyes flashed with a fierce light.
Gaara raised his right hand.
Spread your five fingers.
"The Hand of Sand"
The sand suddenly exploded, and a giant sand hand with a diameter of three meters emerged from the ground.
The giant hand spread its five fingers and grabbed all the silk threads, along with the flames burning on them.
Then, clench your fist.
laugh-!
The flames were forcibly extinguished, and the threads snapped under the immense force.
Sasuke's lips were trembling.
Is this red-haired guy really a genin?
"Is this all the strength you have?"
Gaara clasped his hands together, forming a simple hand seal.
"Sand Release: Burial of Hell Sand"
Centered on Sasuke's feet, the sandy area with a radius of ten meters began to transform into a trap even more terrifying than quicksand.
The sand grains spun and sank, forming a huge vortex.
Sasuke tried to jump away, but his legs were already sinking to his knees.
He struggled desperately, gathering chakra in the soles of his feet, attempting to use chakra absorption techniques to break free.
But the sand's suction was too strong, and the grains of sand kept climbing up his thighs and waist.
Just then, the sand hand reached out and slapped Sasuke in the chest like swatting a fly.
"Cough!"
Sasuke felt that at least two of his ribs were broken. The intense pain made him lose all strength instantly, and he was slammed into the center of the vortex.
The sand surged in, engulfing my chest.
Then comes the neck.
jaw.
mouth.
nose----
A feeling of suffocation washed over me.
Sand got into my nasal cavity, blocked my trachea, and my vision started to go black.
Sasuke struggled desperately, but his limbs were tightly bound by sand, and he could not move.
"Is this what death feels like?"
"Just like that night six years ago—helpless, desperate—"
No!"
I can't die here.
The man hasn't been killed yet.
I haven't asked clearly yet —
In his blurry vision, the sand shifted, and the restraints loosened slightly, at least allowing his head to emerge.
Sasuke gasped for breath, coughing up sand, his Sharingan fixed on Gaara as he approached.
Gaara stopped in front of him and knelt down.
Then he saw it.
Gaara pulled the green crystal pendant in the shape of a four-leaf clover from his collar and gently dangled it in front of him.
Sunlight shone through the crystal, refracting a gentle halo that also reflected on Sasuke's disheveled face.
"Is it pretty?"
Gaara's voice was very soft, as if he were afraid of disturbing something.
"This is a gift my adoptive mother gave me on my eighth birthday."
Sasuke's breathing stopped.
Foster mother?
"She said," Gaara continued, his emerald eyes softening as he looked at the pendant, "that she originally had two sons. The elder son was very talented, but he went down the wrong path. The younger son—was the same age as me."
Every word felt like a hammer blow to Sasuke's heart.
"She often talked about her youngest son, saying that he cried a lot when he was little, but he would become very serious when practicing shuriken; that he liked to eat tomatoes and hated natto; that he always clung to his older brother, and that his older brother also doted on his younger brother —"
Sasuke's lips were trembling.
Tears welled up without warning, mixing with the sand on my face, leaving dirty tear tracks.
"She—her name is—"
Gaara lowered his head, looked at Sasuke, and said, word by word, "Uchiha Mikoto."
Time stood still.
Sasuke's mind went blank.
My ears were ringing, the world was spinning, all other sounds faded away, and only that one sentence echoed in my mind.
Uchiha Mikoto.
Uchiha Mikoto.
Uchiha Mikoto
"No—it's impossible—" Sasuke's voice was hoarse like a broken bellows: "My mother—died long ago—six years ago on that night—along with my father—and the clansmen—were killed by that beast!"
He spoke louder and louder until he was almost shouting.
Tears flowed uncontrollably.
But there was no pity in Gaara's eyes.
"Is this the truth that those people in Konoha instilled in you?" he asked.
"So, after seeing Captain Shisui, do you still believe that all the Uchiha clan members are dead?"
Sasuke's body trembled violently.
Stop the water!
That day, when he returned to the village, he saw someone at the village entrance wearing a Star Ninja vest and a Star Country headband on their forehead—
Uchiha Shisui!
The living Uchiha.
"Want to know the truth about that night?" Gaara's voice struck Sasuke's shattered worldview: "That night, Itachi Uchiha received the order to exterminate his clan, but the number of people he killed was far less than you imagine."
"Shisui stopped him and led the Star Country's ninja forces to meet the survivors. Most of the Uchiha clan members, including Aunt Mikoto, were taken out of Konoha that night and brought to the Star Country."
Gaara paused, looking at Sasuke's utterly devastated expression, then let out a soft hum and whispered, "Guess who wasn't taken away?"
"Guess who that beast was acting on orders from?"
boom-!!!
Sasuke's mind exploded.
All the fragments of memory were forcibly pieced together at this moment.
That night, he returned home and saw Itachi Uchiha holding a blood-dripping ninja sword—he saw his parents lying in a pool of blood, but upon closer reflection, did he really see the corpses of the other clan members?
The Uchiha clan's territory was vast, housing thousands of people, but when he awoke, he was told that everyone was dead and their bodies had already been buried.
My experiences in the shadows.
Kakashi-sensei and Captain Yamato's training —
The Third Hokage's concern —
Those arrangements made "for your own good".
Those vague "suggestions" that prevented him from conducting a deeper investigation.
And then there's Uchiha Itachi.
The last look that man gave him.
It wasn't just murderous intent.
And—pain?
Cold sweat instantly soaked his back.
"No—no—impossible—"
"Mom—she won't abandon me—"
Sasuke murmured, his whole body trembling uncontrollably. In his Sharingan eyes, a pair of jet-black tomoe were spinning wildly, almost tearing his eye sockets apart.
"You're lying to me—you must be lying to me!"
"You must be lying to me!!!"
Sasuke roared, as if to vent all the anger in his heart.
The third magatama slowly emerged in the scarlet pupils.