Chapter 48

"What the heck? How can he fly? Could it be a Light-Weight Technique? But how can those rocks fly?" Deidara thought as he looked at Naruto following him.

Naruto swung his hands towards Deidara, and the rocks began to rush towards him.

Deidara was cursing as he fled from the rocks coming towards him.

But as he tried to avoid the rocks, his speed slowed down, which brought Naruto closer to him.

Then, Deidara started to throw the clays formed in his hand at Naruto piece by piece.

Naruto made a shield in front of him by integrating the rocks around him and continued to follow him thanks to that shield.

Some of the rocks were destroyed by the impact of the explosion, but another rock formed in its place soon after.

"What the hell is this? This must be a cheat! How do I report it! Hey, admin! There's a cheater here!" Deidara said.

Naruto started to spin the other rocks around him quickly as he covered himself with a stone.

While the rocks were spinning rapidly, after a while they got hot due to friction and some parts of them turned red due to the heat.

Naruto then began to hurl the rotating rocks at Deidara, using the power of science. Unlike before, this time the rocks were going much faster and stronger.

"Damn it!" Deidara said while trying to get away from the stones. But no matter how hard he tried to escape, he was hit hard in the end.

Deidara was so focused on avoiding the rocks that were coming his way. Naruto took advantage of this situation and replaced himself with the clone. Then secretly attacked Deidara from the front.

Deidara only noticed Naruto when he attacked him.

Naruto quickly grabbed Gaara on the clay bird's head, saying, "I got Gaara, you take care of the other one."

As Deidara fell, he saw Kakashi rushing towards him. Kakashi also had Chidori in his hand.

Deidara knew that if he took this attack, he would die, so he tried to turn his body as he fell from the air to at least not die. What he did worked as well, because that way, Kakashi's Chidori only ripped off his arm instead of piercing his heart. That's why he was able to survive.

Naruto picked up Gaara and began to carry him to a safe place. When he got to the safe zone, he put it on the ground to check his condition.

After a while, Kakashi came to them.

"What is his status?" Kakashi asked as he approached.

"He is unconscious, but his pulse is good. I think he will regain his consciousness after a while." Naruto said.

Then he asked, "Did you catch him?"

"Unfortunately, I couldn't catch it. When he fell, he put a clay clone in his place and ran away without me noticing." Kakashi replied while shaking his head in the negative.

"Anyway, others may need help. Let's go." Naruto said while backing Gaara on his back.

Then they both started to head towards the cave. When they reached the cave, they saw a group of ninjas fighting with Sasori.

"Looks like the support team has arrived. They don't need our help." Naruto said.

Shortly after, Gai, the leader of the support team, shattered Sasori's puppet body with a powerful kick.

Chiyo, on the other hand, captured and destroyed Sasori's living body part in midair with the puppets she controlled.

Then they came out of the cave.

"What is his status?" Chiyo asked as she approached Gaara.

"He's alive, but it's still good for Karin to have a look." Naruto said.

Karin nodded her head in agreement, then went over to Gaara and started checking on him. She said after healing him for a while, "His condition is stable. He may wake up in a short while."

The reason why Gaara didn't die was that Naruto had already taken the high amount of tailed beast chakra inside him. Thus, he did not die because he did not have much difficulty in removing the small amount of TB chakra that remained inside. Of course, Naruto had a hand in this too.

After a while, Gaara regained consciousness and opened his eyes.

"Are you okay? How do you feel?" Karin asked.

"Umm... I feel good. Thank you for your help. What happened?" Gaara said after recovering from the sudden stupor.

After Gaara realized what had happened, he looked at the Konoha ninjas who had come to save him and said, "Thank you for coming to save me. Sunagakure will not forget your help."

Then everyone went back to Suna.

The Konoha ninjas had to stay in Suna for a while because Gai was too tired. Because he had fought Kisame on his way here and then fought Sasori. This had put a lot of strain on him and required some rest.

It was night, and the next day the Konoha ninjas would return.

Temari, on the other hand, wanted to talk to Naruto before he left.

"Thank you again for your help." Temari said while smiling sincerely.

"Sigh* I told you you don't need to thank me. I do what I do because I want it, and I don't expect anything in return." Naruto said after sighing.

"W- Are you still with them?" Temari asked after a moment of hesitation.

"With my girlfriends? Yes, we're still together, and frankly, it's going well." Naruto replied.

"I still can't believe they're willing to share you." Temari said in a quiet voice.

"Well… Sometimes love takes precedence over everything. I also love and give importance to them all." Naruto said.

"You're saying it like there's more than two to you." Temari said with a grin.

But then after looking at Naruto's strange-looking face, she said, "What? Is there more? Sigh... As expected of you though, especially after three years. If I spend too much time with you, even I…" Temari said the last words in a rather low voice.

"What can I do? I am quite attractive. Also, I only treat women with whom I feel special. Like you, for example." Naruto said with a flirtatious grin.

"You! Didn't I tell you that I should think about it?" Temari said while blushing.

"I think I've given it enough time to think." After saying that, Naruto brought his face close to Temari's face and he asked looking into her eyes, "So what's your answer?"