Naruto: Sasuke Uchiha Returns from Soul Society

Those ninjas, who were originally considered elite, all looked away at this moment, not daring to meet her gaze.

This reprimand seemed so pale and powerless.

"companion?"

Orochimaru laughed so hard he almost fell over, as if he'd heard a joke. "Elder Chiyo, you don't even believe what you're saying yourself, do you?"

Chiyo ignored him and turned around again, gripping the cane knife hidden in her sleeve tightly with a resolute expression.

"I don't care what your motives are, Orochimaru." Her voice was icy. "I will never hand that child over to you!"

"is it?"

A cold snort came from behind Orochimaru.

Chiyo's pupils contracted sharply as her gaze fell on the black-haired boy who had remained silent throughout.

Sasuke raised his head and sneered. He had promised the First Hokage that he would not harm innocent civilians, but if the people in front of him did not know how to be virtuous, then they could not be considered innocent.

With this thought in mind, he gripped the long, black sword at his waist and slowly drew it out half an inch.

"Om-"

An immense pressure, invisible to the naked eye, suddenly erupted from him.

The sand beneath their feet seemed to be crushed by an invisible giant hand, instantly collapsing in all directions.

A sudden gust of wind arose, whipping up a cloud of yellow sand that turned the entire sky a hazy yellow.

The Sand Ninja behind Chiyo, who had previously considered themselves elites, found it incredibly difficult to even stand in the face of this oppressive aura.

They stared in horror at the boy's calm face, cold sweat instantly soaking their backs.

Monster...

This brat is even more terrifying than a tailed beast!

"Elder Chiyo..." a voice trembled, "Hand him over!"

"That's right! That monster doesn't feel any sense of belonging to the village at all!"

"For the sake of the village... he has no choice but to be sacrificed..."

Words of pleas for mercy and betrayal rose and fell.

Chiyo listened blankly to the vile words behind her, then looked at the young man in front of her who could change the world simply by drawing his sword. A deep sense of powerlessness gripped her heart.

Is this reality?

Is this what Sunagakure calls the will?

She slowly closed her eyes, her wrinkled face filled with unyielding sorrow, and her face was completely devoid of color.

She opened her mouth, the words that symbolized her final resistance already brewing in her throat.

But she ultimately couldn't say those words.

"...Stop talking."

A hoarse voice rang out.

The Sand Ninja who had been shouting "Sacrifice Gaara!" froze instantly, fell silent, and instinctively stepped back to make way for him.

In the elongated shadow, a red-haired boy carrying a giant gourd on his back slowly walked out step by step.

It's Gaara.

His pale blue eyes, surrounded by heavy dark circles, revealed no trace of human emotion, only a desolate stillness.

Sasuke met that gaze, sensing the alienation from the world within it, and a cold smile crept onto his lips.

Just as Gaara was about to pass Chiyo by, Chiyo finally snapped out of her daze.

She suddenly reached out and grabbed Gaara's arm, her voice trembling.

"Gaara, you..."

She wanted to say something, to tell him to run away quickly, to tell him not to come out.

But all the words stuck in his throat.

Gaara did not struggle, but calmly turned his face to the side.

"Let go. I have no intention of being sacrificed by anyone."

After saying that, he stopped looking at Chiyo, and with a slight shake of his arm, he broke free from the powerless restraint and continued walking forward.

Finally, it stopped less than ten meters away from Sasuke.

"Your target is me, isn't it?" Gaara's voice was flat.

"Oh."

A soft hum escaped from Sasuke's nose.

"I'm just here to take away the power that doesn't belong to you."

The moment he finished speaking, Sasuke left a blurry afterimage in place, and in the next instant he appeared in front of Gaara.

It was so fast that even Chiyo, a Kage-level powerhouse, couldn't detect any trajectory.

"what?!"

Gaara's pupils contracted sharply, and the gourd behind him instantly collapsed, with the surging sand quickly condensing into a thick sand shield in front of him.

However, it had no effect.

A slender hand pierced through the sand shield in an instant, precisely covering his face.

"Let's go somewhere else."

As Sasuke spoke, he suddenly exerted force on Gaara's face.

The sand beneath their feet exploded with a deafening roar, and Sasuke's figure, already enveloping Gaara, transformed into a streak of black light and soared into the sky, flying towards the edge of the village.

The powerful impact even sent the already disoriented Sand Ninja below flying, knocking them to the ground.

Chapter 180 What a tragic couple (6k)

"Gaara!!!"

Chiyo gasped in surprise and almost instinctively tried to chase after him.

But Orochimaru and Kabuto silently appeared in front of her, their hoarse voices like the spitting of venomous snakes.

"Elder Chiyo, we're still here. It would be very impolite of you to leave so soon."

High in the sky, the wind howled.

Gaara's consciousness was thrown into chaos the instant he was lifted off the ground by that immense force.

He wanted to resist, to push the sand to crush this damn guy completely.

But he found he couldn't do it.

The hand pressed against his face restricted all his movements.

What horrified him even more was that the sand that should have surged out of the gourd and tore the guy to pieces was completely shattered by an invisible pressure the moment it approached within half a meter of Sasuke.

"Damn it... let me go!!!"

Gaara let out a roar of resentment, and the chakra within his body began to surge wildly.

Upon hearing this, Sasuke felt a little impatient, and beneath his bangs that were fluttering in the wind, his scarlet Sharingan slowly emerged.

"You talk too much nonsense."

It was just one sentence.

Gaara then felt three jet-black tomoe suddenly magnify in his field of vision.

In an instant, he completely lost consciousness, his body hanging limply in the air.

"..."

Sasuke pinched Gaara's face with one hand, glanced indifferently at the desert below, and finally let go.

Gaara's small, thin body began to fall towards the desert below, pulled by gravity.

Sasuke then used Shunpo to land on the ground, looked at the figure that was accelerating downwards in the air, and spoke softly.

"Stop cowering in that fragile shell, or perhaps..."

"Do I need to drag you out of there myself?"

Sasuke had just finished speaking.

Suddenly, a powerful force surged forth from the red-haired boy.

A crimson chakra cloak, like boiling magma, surged forth from his body, enveloping Gaara's frail frame layer by layer.

Immediately afterwards, the outer garment began to expand and deform, with sand and chakra intertwining to outline an even larger silhouette.

A massive sand arm covered in eerie blue runes took shape first, followed by a huge, raccoon-like head and body covered in the same runes.

"Chirp, chirp, chirp—!!!"

A shrill, neurotic laugh rang out, piercing and manic.

"Finally out! I can finally get some fresh air! I was suffocating!!"

Its massive body crashed heavily to the ground, causing the entire desert to tremble violently and creating a sandstorm powerful enough to blot out the sun.

As the smoke and dust slowly dissipated, a gigantic, awe-inspiring raccoon monster slowly straightened up, revealing itself completely.

It was a giant raccoon cat, its size comparable to a mountain, covered in hard, sandy-yellow skin, with a huge single tail swaying arrogantly behind it.

It is Shukaku, in its fully liberated state.

Its pupils were adorned with golden crosses, and it was staring intently at Sasuke with a cruel gaze.

It moved its still somewhat uncomfortable neck, then its huge sand claw pressed down hard on its abdomen, pushing it inwards forcefully.

"Hehehe! Kid! To thank you for letting me out..."

Shukaku's entire upper body leaned back, its ferocious maw suddenly opened, and a massive wind pressure began to gather wildly within it.