All sorts of memories flashed through Gaara's mind. He suddenly realized that in his short life, the only person he could truly trust and rely on seemed to be the Mr. Shopkeeper standing before him.
At this moment, Gaara could no longer hold it back. Tears flowed from his eyes like a collapsing levee.
Simu reached out and rubbed his head, gently comforting him.
"Rest easy. I have already removed that monster from your body. How do you feel now?"
Hearing this, Gaara immediately stopped crying. He looked at his own hands with tearful eyes, then lifted his clothes in disbelief to check his abdomen.
Sure enough, the nightmare-like sealing formula that had followed him since birth had vanished. This meant the monster inside his body was gone!
Furthermore, Gaara felt that his body was much lighter. The usual sense of fatigue had completely dissipated. It felt as if he had swapped into a brand-new body!
"I feel great, but I always feel like I've lost something. I'm not quite used to it."
Gaara couldn't accurately describe what he had lost, but he was certain it wasn't that monster.
Simu gave a light smile and pulled out a scroll to release its seal. As the smoke from the unsealing billowed out, a man-sized gourd appeared in front of Gaara.
Simu tapped the sand gourd. In the next second, the sand stored inside flowed out, gathering around Gaara. It moved gently across the surface of his skin as if it possessed a life of its own.
"This is..."
Gaara reached out and gently touched the sand. That familiar, intimate feeling resurfaced in his heart.
This was the feeling...
What made him feel a sense of loss was not the monster in his body, but this sand that had protected him since he was small.
Without the protection of this sand, Gaara would have died long ago in the endless assassinations.
However, Gaara had always believed the monster inside him was controlling the sand. Why was it still present on his body, and why did it feel so... close?
"Mr. Shopkeeper, why?"
Hearing Gaara's question, Simu explained, "This is not the power of Shukaku. It is the power of your mother, Karura."
His answer left Gaara frozen in place.
He never expected to hear his mother's name at a time like this.
Seeing Gaara's bewildered state, Simu continued to explain, "There is something I need to tell you. Your previous body was damaged during the extraction of the monster. This current body is one I just crafted, and I transplanted your soul into it."
"While processing your original body, I discovered a strand of chakra stored within you that did not belong to you. The nature of that chakra is very similar to yours; it must have been left behind by your mother, Karura."
"It is that very chakra that has been controlling the sand, constantly protecting you since you were a child."
"Your mother never left you."
Hearing Simu's final sentence, Gaara felt as if he had been struck by lightning.
He looked at the sand swirling around him in disbelief. Then, his mind replayed the assassinations he had faced time and time again since childhood.
No matter the time or place, this sand would always appear before him to protect him.
Originally, Gaara had always thought this was Shukaku's power. He had even resented and wanted to discard it because the sand had hurt others.
But regardless of his feelings, this sand had always protected him.
"So you were left behind by mother to protect me..."
Tears welled up in Gaara's eyes once more. He tightly gripped the sand in his hands, as if he were holding his mother's palm.
Just as Simu said, Karura had never truly left Gaara.
Even at the final moment of her life, this great mother had found a way to stay by her son's side in another form.
Simu couldn't help but have a wicked thought: I wonder how she would react if she knew what happened to her son later? How would she treat her husband, the great Fourth Kazekage Rasa?
Unexpectedly, Gaara did not remain immersed in that sudden surge of motherly love. After only ten minutes, he controlled the sand to return to the gourd and asked Simu, "Mr. Shopkeeper, what about my uncle, Yashamaru?"
When he spoke, his gaze had shifted from the gentleness of motherly love to a look of determination and... rage.
Clearly his mother loved him so much, yet his father...
Gaara clenched his tiny fists. The love from his mother only magnified his hatred for that man.
He urgently needed the truth now—the truth about his uncle Yashamaru.
Simu adjusted his glasses slightly. "Your uncle Yashamaru's assassination attempt, including those words he said before dying, were all arranged by your father, Rasa. It was to test your capacity as a Jinchuriki."
Simu found it difficult to understand Rasa's behavior, but reality was like that. Even if it was incomprehensible, it had truly happened.
"..."
Gaara lowered his head. The shadow from his hair made it impossible to see his expression.
"I understand."
After a long silence, he finally uttered those words.
Simu patted his shoulder. "Gaara, no matter what, I will support your choice."
Just as Simu turned to leave, wanting to give Gaara some space for independent thought, Gaara called out to him.
"Mr. Shopkeeper, I want you to help me."
With half his body shrouded in darkness, the corner of Simu's mouth curled up slightly at those words.
He turned around and asked Gaara, "How do you want me to help you?"
"I want to become strong."
Gaara's young eyes looked straight into Simu's eyes behind those cold lenses.
Simu could see the determination, the thirst for revenge, and the... anger toward this world through those eyes.
"I want to be strong enough to destroy the Hidden Sand Village. I want to destroy everything that man protects—everything!"
It was hard to imagine such words coming from a six or seven-year-old child.
Yet Gaara did not waver when he said them.
Since that man was determined to destroy everything he loved and cared about to prove some ridiculous "capacity" as a monster...
Then he would personally destroy everything that man protected, bit by bit!
At this moment, Gaara was like a tiny beast ready to devour anyone. He roared, wanting to destroy everything.
Simu was quite satisfied with this.
"Leave that to me."