Sky Curtain: Short Video Commentary on Konoha Villagers

The evil Gaara encountered when he was young was utterly absurd.

[Besides Rasa's harassment, Gaara accidentally injured a child his own age when they were young, and that child ran away in fear whenever he saw him.]

Sunagakure Village, on the street.

A middle-aged villager witnessed this scene, his expression complex.

He looked down at his hands, as if he could still recall the fear he felt for that red-haired child back then.

"That kid is really scary. Once he was walking down the street, and my son just glanced at him, and he rolled the guy up in sand..."

The older woman next to him sighed, "That's right, back then, which child wouldn't run away when they saw him?"

"But then again, that child is also pitiful..."

"What's there to pity? He's a monster!"

Konoha Training Ground.

Naruto stared blankly at Gaara's predicament.

He recalled the way the villagers looked at him when he was a child, and how the other children wouldn't play with him.

"Gaara is pretty much the same as I used to be."

At first, he felt guilty, but after being encouraged by Yashamaru, he mustered the courage to deliver the medicine.

[As soon as I knocked on the door, the other person immediately said:]

"Get lost, monster."

Sunagakure Village.

Gaara had his eyes closed, and his face was expressionless.

He hadn't thought about those memories for a long time.

Delivering medicine, being scolded, standing at the door at a loss.

That was the first time he tried to be kind, and the first time he realized that kindness was useless in that village.

Konoha Year 48, Hokage's office.

When Kushina Uzumaki saw this scene, she was completely distraught.

"That child! How could that child do this!"

"Gaara went to deliver medicine to him! What right does he have to swear at him!"

Minato Namikaze gently took his wife's hand, signaling her to calm down.

"Kushina, that child must be scared too."

"Does being afraid give you the right to hurl insults?!"

Kushina's eyes reddened; her anger stemmed entirely from seeing Naruto's shadow in Gaara.

As fellow Jinchuriki, did Naruto encounter the same challenges as Gaara?

Minato opened his mouth as if to say something, but in the end he simply pulled his wife into his arms.

One second she was so scared of Gaara that her legs went weak and she wanted to run away, the next second she dared to curse him to his face.

This is typical Teddy Bear behavior: he runs away when you chase him, but barks incessantly at you the moment you show the slightest weakness.

Under the sky, after a brief silence, the expressions of people from different timelines became subtle.

Kumogakure, Raikage's office.

The Fourth Raikage, A, looked up at the sky, his eyebrows raised high.

"Teddy? What's that? It sounds like a ninja from some village?"

Mabui adjusted her glasses, recalling the dog she had seen when she last met the Daimyo of the Land of Lightning.

"Lord Raikage, Teddy seems to be... some kind of small dog that has been groomed into a toy shape?"

"Huh?" Ai paused for a moment, then burst into laughter.

"Hahaha! What a metaphor! Interesting! That kid really does look like a dog!"

Killer Bee wriggled around, "Oh my~ You're scared to death but still dare to curse~ That's what you call bullying the weak and fearing the strong~"

"Hey, can you please stop rapping at a time like this?!"

"Brother, he was just expressing his feelings."

Iwagakure Village, Tsuchikage's Office.

Onoki stroked his beard, his expression complex.

"Bullying the weak and fearing the strong..."

"This isn't a phenomenon unique to Sunagakure. Every village has people like this; they avoid you when you're strong, but they dare to step on you when you show weakness."

"It's just that Gaara encountered a particularly extreme situation."

Hei Tu scoffed, "That kid's only a few years old and he's already so snobbish. What will he be like when he grows up?"

On the streets of Konoha.

A young ninja wearing glasses pushed up his glasses, his tone serious.

"This phenomenon can actually be explained in psychology. When a person faces fear that is beyond their ability to cope, they will rebuild their sense of psychological security by downplaying the source of the fear."

"Gaara's act of delivering the medicine was seen by the child as a monster showing him kindness. This shattered the child's psychological defenses; monsters shouldn't show kindness, monsters should be vicious. So he had to resort to insults to reaffirm that Gaara was a monster."

Only in this way could he convince himself: I am not afraid of Gaara, but I hate him.

The people around were stunned.

"...Which school did you go to?"

"Graduated from the Konoha Ninja Academy, with a minor in psychology."

"Ninjas learn this too?!"

"...Brother, are you Orochimaru's spy in Konoha?"

"...? You... no, I'm a good citizen of Konoha, how could I be an undercover agent, haha."

"Hesitate, give me fifty taels and I won't report you."

"...Okay, I'm giving you fifty taels just because I feel a connection with you, that's all."

"I understand."

[But it is precisely this absurdity that exposes the deepest pathology of Sunagakure.]

It's not that they're not afraid of Gaara; rather, they need to bully him to confirm that they're still normal.

A monster lives in a village that could go berserk at any moment; the villagers are powerless to resist or escape.

The only way they could alleviate their fear was to collectively define Gaara as a monster and then gain a fleeting sense of psychological superiority by insulting him.

Konoha Year 48, Hokage's office.

Kushina Uzumaki leaned against Minato Namikaze, her voice muffled.

"Minato, is this how those villagers treated Naruto?"

Minato was silent for a moment. "They might be slightly different, but they're essentially the same."

Kushina clenched her fists, feeling utterly powerless yet also filled with rage.

"Then why isn't anyone standing up...?"

"Because those who stand up will be criticized along with everyone else."

Minato's voice was very soft, as if he were saying something he himself was unwilling to admit.

"The fate of a Jinchūriki is never just a matter for one person."

This kind of self-deceptive bullying is even more terrifying than the pervasive bullying in Konoha, because it has no reason.

Konoha Village, on the street.

The villagers were all stunned for a moment.

"What do you mean by 'bullying on a per capita level' compared to Konoha?"

"Is this a compliment or an insult?"

"Is this implying we have more reason to bully?"

"Wait a minute? Why does it sound like you're saying we've made a habit of bullying?"

[Can you imagine a village where even vegetables are a rare commodity, where the villagers actually throw fresh vegetables and specially prepared rotten eggs at Gaara?]

Even villagers who can't afford to eat will still pick up discarded trash and throw it at Gaara.