On the other side, Gaara followed behind Hiromi.
Originally, Hiromi had wanted to go to the snack street run by those Uchiha uncles and aunts, but halfway there, he couldn't help but stop. He turned around, his gaze passing over Gaara and landing on Temari.
This caused the smile on Temari's face, joyful at Gaara's resurrection, to freeze.
Gaara also looked over, and seeing his sister carrying his own corpse, his expression softened slightly. But on his face, which had been gloomy for years, it looked particularly out of place.
Temari was confused. "What's wrong? Why are you both looking at me?"
In the end, it was Gaara who spoke. "Throw away my corpse."
Temari was stunned.
Corpse? What corpse? Gaara's corpse? Wasn't Gaara standing alive right in front of her...
Suddenly, she realized, feeling the weight of the corpse she had been carrying for who knows how many days. Her face turned bright red, and her ears burned hot.
She hurriedly untied the cloth straps and placed Gaara's corpse on the ground. Then she stood to the side, head bowed, not daring to look at anyone.
At this moment, sand crawled out from under their feet, covering the corpse, dragging it underground until it slowly disappeared from sight.
Hiromi didn't watch Gaara's actions. Instead, he looked at Temari. "Now, will you come to my side?"
Hearing Hiromi invite her again, compared to her previous fear and unease, Temari felt more flattered than anything else.
"Why are you so insistent on me?"
"It's not really insistence." Hiromi revealed a faint smile. "I just don't really want to kill you, that's all."
Temari's pupils constricted, and her heart skipped a beat. In that instant, she clearly felt that the gentle youth standing before her was a tyrant.
The fear and unease in her heart reached an extreme. Her palms clenched, trembling uncontrollably, and sweat broke out.
Beside her, Gaara's expression remained unchanged, but one could see the sand on the ground vibrating violently.
Temari swallowed a mouthful of saliva, suppressing the instinct to flee immediately, and looked at Hiromi with trembling pupils.
"Ca... can I ask why you want to kill me..."
"Ninja villages shouldn't exist."
Hiromi looked at Gaara. "Aren't you going to persuade your sister? I don't want to kill you right after resurrecting you."
Gaara's expression flickered, and a resolve quickly appeared on his cold face.
"Stay here." He said to Temari.
"But Kankuro and Baki-sensei..." Temari struggled greatly.
"It seems there is no possibility of us coexisting peacefully. What a pity." A touch of orange flame emerged on Hiromi's hand.
Just by revealing this sliver of violent aura, it felt like a great mountain was pressing down on Temari's heart, making her afraid, her legs trembling uncontrollably. Yet her instinct made her move. The moment she moved, she fell onto her bottom, terrified to the extreme.
Suddenly, a figure stood in front of her.
Temari looked up, her hair messy, looking very disheveled. What she saw was a back that was both familiar and strange.
"Gaara..."
"What? Do you regret coming here?" Hiromi looked at Gaara, who was blocking Temari.
Gaara shook his head, he did not regret coming here.
"Will you resurrect people in the future?" He asked.
"Yes, but you should know my personality." Hiromi said.
Gaara nodded.
He knew: cut the weeds and dig up the roots.
As long as there was the slightest bit of hatred toward the Uchiha, Hiromi would absolutely not let that person remain in this world.
Therefore, even if Hiromi complied with Gaara's wishes and resurrected Temari later, could Temari not hate Hiromi after he had killed Kankuro and Baki?
Therefore, even if resurrected, the result would still be death.
And Temari had thought of this too.
The Fifth Great Ninja War was about to begin. The war, planned for ten years, was meant to slowly drain resources, making Hiromi watch his friends and family die one by one, forcing him to concede. This was the only chance of victory.
But now, Hiromi had the ability to resurrect the dead. He could leave this place without any scruples and go annihilate the Allied Shinobi Forces.
Even if this place was raided and slaughtered to the last person, he could still resurrect them. In other words, from the very beginning, the Allied Shinobi Forces never had the slightest chance of winning.
And Kankuro and Baki from Sunagakure, who had joined the Allied Shinobi Forces... were doomed to die.
Under these circumstances, did Temari hate Hiromi?
To be honest, if Hiromi hadn't resurrected Gaara, she would have hated him. Because her brother, teacher, and village were all going to be destroyed at the hands of Hiromi.
But now, she didn't. Because this wasn't Hiromi wanting to kill, nor was it Hiromi being cruel. It was simply that the two sides held opposing positions.
What Hiromi did was simply protect the people he wanted to protect. It was they who stood on the opposite side of Hiromi.
He was so overbearing, viewing human life as nothing, frequently wiping out clans and slaughtering villages.
But which ninja village wasn't like that?
If Sunagakure had the power, it would also be this overbearing.
If she wanted to hate, she should hate this world.
She understood everything, but she couldn't endure the sorrow in her heart.
"I... I'm not going back..." She lowered her head, her voice somewhat hoarse.
Gaara's expression remained unchanged, but one could tell he was very happy.
Hiromi gave a hum, his expression calm.
A few seconds later, Temari looked up at Hiromi with tear-blurred eyes, her voice choked with sobs. "When everything is over, can you give me a chance to resurrect my brother and teacher?"
"That depends on your performance, and..."
Hiromi looked at Gaara. "You must be clear about one thing: being resurrected doesn't mean I won't kill again."
"I know. Thank you... Thank you..." Temari knelt on the ground, her head pressed against the floor, her voice choked with sobs.
Hiromi glanced at her, turned around, and left, leaving behind only one sentence.
"Don't tell anyone that I can resurrect people."
"Yes." Temari responded with the salute of a subordinate.
Gaara stood by her side.
Even when Hiromi's back disappeared from view, Temari still hadn't stood up, but the sobbing had ceased.
"He's gone." Gaara said.
"Let me... be alone for a while..." Temari seemed to have silently cried all her tears away, her voice hoarse, speaking with suppressed emotions.
Gaara fell silent.
Ten seconds later, he spoke, "I'll help you."
Temari trembled, her disheveled hair falling over her face as she looked up. The look in her eyes as she gazed at Gaara was one of shock and touched emotion.
"Gaara..."
She hadn't expected Gaara to be willing to help resurrect Kankuro and Baki for her sake.
At this moment, someone hurried past in the corner.
"Who's there!" Temari snapped her head up, her eyes red, her voice cold and piercing.
Gaara's expression was grim, and sand surged around him. Within seconds, the sand dragged a black-haired boy with a pineapple hairstyle out from the nearby alley.
"Don't attack! I have a permit to be here!" Shikamaru raised his hands in surrender, speaking hurriedly, his heart filled with bitterness.
Aside from having him enter the auxiliary camp every day, his father, Shikaku, also sent him into the Imperial Palace. Shikamaru was well aware of the pros and cons of this.
First, his father was optimistic about the future here and wanted him to learn more. If nothing else, this system was far superior to the Hokage having to do everything personally.
Second, to make a statement, ensuring the Uchiha clan could rest easy knowing the Nara Clan was absolutely loyal.
But he hadn't expected to run into Temari and Gaara from Sunagakure.
As for seeing Gaara, he wasn't surprised. It wasn't because he knew Hiromi could resurrect the dead, but because the matter of Gaara's death was known only to Sunagakure. After all, Gaara was a former Jinchuriki, and Sunagakure wouldn't easily let word get out that they had lost a Tailed Beast.
Shikamaru didn't know Gaara had died once, but he understood clearly that the presence of people from Sunagakure in the Imperial Palace was trouble in itself.
So, the moment he saw them, he turned and ran, wanting to get as far away as possible. But he hadn't expected to be discovered and dragged back.
Sigh, why couldn't they just let things be?