Chapter 327: The Two Who Fell Unconscious
"What are you doing?!"
When Gaara saw the Naruto he cared about being "sealed" in three places, anger instantly flared up inside him. He glared at Killer Bee.
He came here to help. Wasn't that obvious?
Why was he being guarded against as well?
This lack of trust irritated Gaara. He raised his hand slightly, and a stream of sand formed into two hands, grabbing the octopus tentacles that were blocking Naruto and starting to pull them out.
"One, two, three… pull."
"One, two, three… pull!"
To Gaara's surprise, the tentacles were incredibly hard to remove.
"The Eight-Tails' tentacles have suction cups. Don't pull them forcefully, or you'll hurt the Nine-Tails' jinchūriki."
A Kumogakure Village ninja dressed like a medical ninja rushed out and hurriedly stopped Gaara.
Gaara awkwardly stopped, his hand frozen midair. Unsure what to do, he turned his head toward where Shiromo and the others were standing.
The Second Hokage appeared and used Flying Thunder God to take both Sasuke and Naruto away.
Then he returned, looked at Gaara standing there in a daze, and asked, "Do you want to come along and take a look?"
"Yes! Please, senior."
Snapping back to his senses, Gaara quickly agreed.
Then he was taken away as well.
Only Killer Bee and the rest of the Kumogakure Village ninja were left staring at each other.
After confirming that the Second Hokage had taken everyone away and wouldn't be coming back, Killer Bee didn't feel abandoned.
The mission his brother gave him was complete. Didn't that mean it was now free time?
Meanwhile…
The unconscious Sasuke and Naruto were taken to a medical branch of a laboratory outside Amegakure.
They were placed in a facility outside the village to minimize damage in case either of them woke up and went berserk.
"Let's go in and hear what Orochimaru has to say."
After bringing everyone to the door, Tobirama stepped forward and pushed it open.
"Wait, where's Shikamaru?"
Gaara looked around and noticed someone was missing.
"That Nara kid does care about Uzumaki Naruto, but their whole family hates trouble. Once he knew Naruto wasn't in danger, he said he wouldn't come. I sent him back to the Kumogakure Village to watch the matches."
Tobirama explained briefly.
After all, Gaara was the Kazekage, so Tobirama showed him some respect, maintaining relations between Konoha and Sunagakure Village.
In Tobirama's view, despite Naruto's many flaws as the future Seventh Hokage, his relationship with Gaara was handled quite well.
Unfortunately, that was about it.
Based on Shiromo's description of the future, the other villages' relationships with Konoha were still lukewarm, just as they had been in Hashirama's era, held together by fear of power.
What was even more frustrating was that Sasuke, originally such a hardliner, had been softened by Naruto's "talk-no-jutsu" and now spent most of his time traveling outside, investigating Ōtsutsuki ruins and the like.
Back in Hashirama's time, there had been Uchiha Madara showing strength up front, and Tobirama himself strategizing behind the scenes.
But in Naruto's era, things were different.
Naruto was as naive as Hashirama, yet lacked someone like Madara or Tobirama to play the "dark role."
Even with a Nara strategist assisting him, it was nowhere near enough.
Neither Madara nor Tobirama had been mere advisors, they spoke to Hashirama as equals.
But the Nara clan could only act as strategists. And given their personality, there were things they wouldn't say, or didn't dare to say.
That was why, in the future, Kirigakure and Iwagakure would join forces to pressure Konoha, and the Nara strategist still wouldn't be able to offer a proper solution.
If you wanted to rely entirely on "love" to maintain relationships, then after all that effort, you'd only managed to win over the Kazekage of Sunagakure.
After thinking it over, especially when comparing Naruto to Shiromo, Tobirama felt Naruto came off much worse.
Even if Shiromo abandoned strategy and development like Naruto and relied purely on "love" to stabilize relations between nations and villages, he would still do better.
In Tobirama's view, Shiromo already had good relations with at least the Kazekage's sister, the Mizukage of Kirigakure, and the Tsuchikage of Iwagakure.
And even his troublesome grandniece Tsunade, who originally didn't get along with him, had been "corrected."
Overall, even if Shiromo followed Naruto's approach, only Kumogakure would remain outside his reach.
In Tobirama's mind, it would be better to properly train Uchiha Sarada instead, after all, her goal was to become Hokage.
"You all really went all out."
As soon as they entered, Orochimaru, wearing a mask, had just finished examining Naruto and was covering him with a blanket.
Even Orochimaru, of all people, seemed somewhat taken aback by the condition of Sasuke and Naruto.
"Sorry, I'll have Shukaku undo the seal."
Gaara squeezed to the front and waved his hand, controlling sand to extract the sand inside Sasuke's body and toss it out the window.
Even while unconscious, Sasuke twitched slightly as the sand was pulled out.
As for the other sealed area, that would have to be handled by Shukaku.
Now that Gaara and Shukaku had reconciled, there was no need for the Feigning Sleep Technique.
One of Gaara's eyes turned into Shukaku's coin-like eye.
Shukaku released the seal in front of Sasuke, then obediently withdrew.
"What about Naruto? Should we have the Second Hokage bring Killer Bee from the Kumogakure Village to help remove this?"
After helping Sasuke, Gaara hurried to Naruto's bedside.
"No need."
Orochimaru waved his hand.
"Octopus limbs don't remain under the main body's control after being severed. The Eight-Tails' jinchūriki didn't use any sealing techniques, he's just relying on suction."
As someone who had once drugged a previous Eight-Tails jinchūriki and obtained part of its power for experimentation, Orochimaru knew quite a bit about the Eight-Tails.
"Then what should we do now?"
Gaara looked anxious.
Sakura stood to the side, expressionless.
She knew it, her earlier thoughts were right.
Even as a teammate of Team 7, she wouldn't even qualify as the "third person in line."
"Don't pull them forcefully. You can try using your sand to carefully separate each suction cup, isolate them completely, and then remove the tentacles."
Orochimaru instructed.
"Ah?"
Gaara suddenly blushed, "Do I really have to do that?"
Why are you blushing?!
Sakura was speechless.
They were trying to save someone, and he was overthinking it?
"Wait, there's an easier way. And it won't harm Naruto."
Tobirama interjected, drawing everyone's attention.
"Have Nagato come. The Rinnegan's ability to absorb chakra should be able to directly absorb the Eight-Tails' tentacles, right?"
Tobirama's logic was simple.
Tailed beasts are masses of chakra. Their severed limbs are the same.
Just absorb them.
"Oh? Wait, look!"
Just as everyone was about to agree and go find Nagato, Sakura suddenly pointed at Naruto and cried out.
Everyone looked over.
The octopus tentacles on Naruto's body were shrinking… and then, they disappeared completely.
(End of this chapter)