“Commander Gaara, how is it going on the battlefield?” A trembling, worried female voice interrupted Gaara as he was using his remote sand eye technique to observe the battle a few kilometers away.

He turned toward the direction of the voice with a frown, only to see Matsuri. She was a somewhat shy and frightful girl who was assigned to this outpost, and for some reason, she didn’t seem to shy away from him like the rest. She was not cowed at all by his bloody reputation, despite her usual scaredy-cat behavior.

Gaara didn’t know if he liked that or not. It was a… weird feeling.

He honestly didn’t know what to think of the girl. But after being constantly approached by her despite his stoic and stiff attitude, even he, the antisocial ass, as his sister tended to call him, got used to Matsuri’s presence. If it were the old him, she would have been having a funeral twenty times over in just the last week due to a severe case of irritating an angry jinchuuriki. So, lucky her that he was trying to be more tolerant nowadays, he guessed.

“It’s… going.” He awkwardly answered, trying to describe the battle, but found himself lost for words. In the end, he decided to keep it simple. “Neither side is winning or losing for now.” He nodded, satisfied with that description, and turned away from Matsuri, who deflated like a puppy at being dismissed like that.

“Is that so?” Matsuri pitifully asked in a low tone with a ducked head, clutching her hands together.

Gaara glanced at her and inwardly shook his head as he resisted an urge to let out a long sigh. He really didn’t understand what she wanted from him. Women were weird.

The girl was lucky to be assigned to this post. He didn’t think she would last long in the bloody battle that was ensuing on the field several kilometers away.

He and the other three hundred Suna ninjas in this border outpost, alongside the other three hundred-ish ninjas in the other outpost located to the west, had a simple mission.

They were supposed to wait until the main battle ended. No matter how fierce either army was, this was just their first clash, so they would not fight to the death. One side was going to tactically withdraw sooner rather than later after losing the momentum. Then, the Iwa side would naturally have to create a camp.

Gaara’s mission was to attack that camp during the night from the direction they would least expect, from their back.

The village’s higher-ups actually had quite the argument about where to send him during the planning process. Some wanted him to be directly on the battlefield because his sand techniques could be extremely devastating to an army fighting on the sand.

But others argued that Iwa could use their Earth Release to harden the sand underneath them once they realized it was needed against him. Gaara had to admit that might diminish his effectiveness quite a bit. He didn’t even think of that, but Iwa ninjas might really be his counter in an army versus army setting.

One person was not strong enough to do much against his way of fighting, but a hundred Earth specialists? They could harden the sand around them so much that he wouldn’t be able to move it. At least, not easily.

Sure, he could use sand from further away, but doing that would cost more chakra, and he would not, as Ren liked to call it, be allowed to just ‘freecast’ by Iwa Jonin, either.

In the end, as they mulled over it, the Suna higher-ups decided that he could do more damage on this ambush mission. The idea was to have him do one extremely devastating strike before the Iwa side realized they were up against a large-scale sand manipulator and started countering him.

And during the night in their army camp, their guard will be much lower than on the actual battlefield. Hence, this was supposed to be the best shot he would have.

‘Who knows? Maybe we would get lucky, and Gaara could inflict overwhelming casualties in the surprise attack! Enough to cause Iwa to withdraw!’ they said.

Gaara only hoped everything would go as smoothly as the councilmen imagined. To him, it kind of sounded like too much wishful thinking.

After all, before the failed Konoha invasion, they also thought they might get lucky, and he would destroy the majority of Konoha if they unleashed his bijuu in the middle of the village.

‘And we all know how that ended.’ Gaara sourly thought. His faith in the planning capabilities of the esteemed councilmen became quite shaky recently.

Without even realizing it, Gaara sighed, and coincidentally, at the exact same time, resounding explosions started to go off in the distance behind the outpost. Puzzled for a second, he owlishly blinked before furrowing his eyebrows as he turned around and dismissed the sand eye technique above the battlefield. Casting it anew, he sent the new sand eye toward the borders, recognizing that the explosions were from the mines he previously planted.

Suddenly, he got a very bad feeling that this whole operation was not going to go as smoothly as the council wished.

A moment later, his sand eye finally arrived, only to see a small battalion of Iwa ninjas trying to sneakily cross the border, clearly aiming for the outpost that was supposed to be hidden.

Gaara closed his eyes, and his shoulders slumped. If it wasn’t such a monumental waste of time, he would definitely bemoan his luck. He truly felt troubled.

Just from a casual look, he could estimate that the group had maybe five hundred ninja. Give or take. That meant they most likely knew exactly how many Suna nin were stationed in the outpost after its recent manpower increase.

But… Why would they target this outpost specifically? That made no sense, unless they were also targeting the other one. Worse yet, their numbers spoke of a too thorough understanding of the Suna forces’ situation on this station.

‘So, Suna has a traitor or a very good enemy spy somewhere high enough to get this kind of information.’ Gaara wryly concluded, not at all surprised after the whole debacle with the councilman who caused this entire war.

He created a sand clone to inform the commanding officer about this incoming threat. Their forces needed to be rallied and prepared for an attack. The other outpost had to be warned that they might suffer an attack of their own. Fortunately, thanks to the minefield, they still had about five minutes before the Iwa ninjas hit them.

It really slowed them down. One silver lining in this whole situation.

In any case, their original plan was a bust. There would be no hitting the Iwa camp during the night. Not from this compromised position. The incoming Iwa army was not a probing attack. It was meant to wipe this outpost out.

He couldn’t have that.

Gaara created a platform of sand before stepping onto it and had it fly into the air, a trick Ren suggested, and he absolutely loved using. His expression turned grim as he flew toward the borders, intending to deal with the ambush party himself.

He wasn’t really interested in any stupid order the commanding Jonin might come up with for him. Time for plans was over. And… he would be lying if he said he wasn’t curious how effective the other suggestions Ren gave him about using his sand would be in practice.

Behind his stoic expression, a slightly unhinged glint appeared in Gaara’s eyes.

It was time for some creative violence. Even Shukaku eagerly agreed.

—

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