readease Chapter 467 Puppet
Chapter 467 Puppet
Inside the storage scroll, quietly placed, is a special product that Kankuro painstakingly completed, using almost all of his connections and resources as a puppeteer, and even swallowing his pride to beg the reclusive and highly skilled Granny Chiyo to come out of seclusion and give him guidance.
It was a puppet.
However, it is quite different from the puppets traditionally used in Sunagakure for combat, assassination, or support.
This puppet abandoned all offensive mechanisms, and Kankuro and Granny Chiyo poured all their energy and precious materials into two other directions.
Its appearance is incredibly realistic, and its controls are smooth and natural. Its purpose is not destruction, but rather... "companionship" or "replacement".
"Temari, you can go out first. Let me and Gaara have a proper talk alone." Kankuro didn't immediately unroll the scroll, but turned to Temari, who was still in shock and worry, and said.
"Huh? But..." Temari looked at the strange sand sculptures all over the room and her younger brother, whose condition was obviously not right, and she really couldn't leave with peace of mind.
"It's alright, leave it to me." Kankuro's eyes held a do-or-die determination. "Trust me, I'll find a way... to help my Ara get back on his feet. There are some things that are best left unsaid between the two of us brothers."
Finally, after Kankuro's repeated assurances and earnest gaze, Temari reluctantly nodded, turning back every few steps as she left the room with a worried expression.
Only Kankuro and Gaara remained in the room, along with the countless silent, sand sculptures of "spectators".
Kankuro sat cross-legged in front of Gaara and placed the storage scroll on the ground between them. He didn't rush to show its contents, but instead looked directly into Gaara's still empty eyes and asked in a deep voice.
"Gaara, tell me, what is it that will make you pull yourself together again? What will make you willing to step out of this room and become the Fifth Kazekage again, the one Sunagakure was proud of and the one everyone trusted?"
"..."
Gaara hugged his knees, resting his chin on them, staring blankly at the ground.
He didn't answer. Or rather, he believed that the answer he longed for deep down was something Kankuro could never provide, and that saying it would only add to his troubles and deepen his despair.
Kankuro waited a moment, and seeing that he didn't respond, he continued on his own, "Alright, let me guess... do you... want Naruto to be by your side forever? No matter what form, no matter how far away, you want him to always be in your sight?"
Upon hearing the words "Naruto will always be by your side," Gaara's curled-up body trembled violently. He suddenly raised his head, his eyes flashing with panic and fear as if his secret had been exposed. But then, that light quickly dimmed, replaced by gloom and self-mockery.
Kankuro was right; he hit the nail on the head.
But what's the use of that? This kind of wish... is nothing but a pipe dream, a delusion that goes against common sense and reality.
Naruto has his own life, his beloved wife, and the responsibilities he bears. How could he possibly stay by his "friend" who is far away in the Land of Wind forever?
Such wishful thinking only made him feel more pathetic and ridiculous.
However, just as Gaara was feeling disheartened and preparing to bury his face in his arms again—
"Bang!"
A soft thud echoed in the quiet room—the sound of the storage scroll being activated by a spirit!
A wisp of white smoke rose from the reel and quickly spread out.
"Come, Gaara," Kankuro spoke again. "Take a look at this."
"...What?" Gaara weakly and instinctively raised his head, his gaze casually drifting towards the direction where the smoke had dissipated.
Then--
His breathing, along with all his thoughts, stopped completely in that instant.
His eyes widened to their limit, and the numbness and dejection on his face crumbled instantly like ice shattered by a heavy hammer, leaving only disbelief and horror.
As the smoke dissipated, a "girl" sat on an open storage roll in the center of the room.
She sat slumped with her eyes closed, her posture listless, leaning against the edge of the reel, as if asleep, devoid of any life, like an exquisite puppet... well, that's exactly what she was.
To be precise, it is a breathtakingly exquisite puppet. However, its "exquisiteness" has reached a terrifying level that is so realistic that it defies perception and challenges our understanding.
Her long, golden hair was carefully styled into two lively and playful pigtails, which fell over her shoulders with slightly curled ends.
Her face is incredibly refined, and her skin uses special biomimetic materials that give it a realistic glow and smoothness even in dim light.
Moreover, three parallel, distinctive whisker lines were clearly defined on both sides of her fair cheeks.
She was wearing a well-fitting tracksuit in bright orange and classic black, a simple style with meticulously designed details.
Whether it's hair color, facial features, beard, or that highly personal style of clothing... all the elements combined create a scene that is both incredibly familiar and extremely unfamiliar.
This is clearly... a female version of Naruto Uzumaki!
Or rather, it is that image that exists only in Gaara's dreams and his deepest, most secret fantasies—Naruko Uzumaki.
Kankuro and Granny Chiyo chose a rare and priceless special flexible composite material from the secret stock of Sunagakure as the main body.
This material is not only strong and lightweight, but it can also simulate the elasticity, temperature and feel of human skin very similarly. It can be said that its cost is so high that even a miser like Kakuzu would be speechless.
The internal drive mechanism is also designed to be exceptionally precise and quiet, aiming to achieve the most natural and unsuspecting movements.
Gaara rubbed his eyes hard, then rubbed them again, wondering if he was experiencing double hallucinations due to excessive mental exhaustion, or if he was still trapped in some absurd dream.
The blurry yet inexplicably warm and stirring figure in his dream... how could it... how could it appear so real, so vividly before his eyes?! How could this be?!
"Kankuro... this, this..." Gaara's voice was dry and trembling, his words incoherent. He pointed at the puppet, his fingertips shaking slightly. "How... how did you know... how could you..."
"Don't worry about this," Kankuro interrupted him, his tone tinged with barely perceptible weariness.
Of course, he wouldn't say that it was on the way back to his residence that Gaara was completely drunk that day, and Gaara, in a daze, mumbled incoherently the whole way.
It describes in detail the appearance of the "girl" who has "golden twin tails, wrinkles on her face, wears an orange dress, and has a warm smile."
Those drunken words were imprinted in Kankuro's heart and became the most direct and accurate blueprint for him to create this puppet.
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(Even I think what I wrote is weird... How did I even write this?)