Chapter 366: Heaven above, I just wanted to look cool...

[Main World – Sunagakure Village – Confinement Room]

"Click—"

Hearing the door open, Gaara—who had been locked up for attempting to leave the village a few days earlier to go find Link—looked up, surprise flickering across his face.

"What are you staring at? Hurry and come with me."

Kankurō lowered his voice.

Gaara hesitated. "What's going on?"

"No time to explain," Kankurō said quickly, yanking his younger brother to his feet and leading him out.

They stepped over the bodies of unconscious Anbu in the hallway and soon emerged outside.

Gaara shielded his eyes from the dazzling sunlight with one hand and followed close behind his brother. "Kankurō, you—"

"Both Sis and I think something's up with Link-sensei," Kankurō rattled off. "But with our abilities, we can't escape the Anbu's pursuit or sneak into the Konoha."

"So Sis is keeping Dad busy. I'm here to get you out—"

"The rest is up to you."

Gaara went quiet for a moment, then asked, "But what about the barrier?"

In truth, he wanted to ask how his brother and sister would fare after helping the jinchūriki escape, but they'd already done so much—knocking out the village Anbu. Worrying about it now was pointless.

Even as the Kazekage's children, they'd essentially be labeled traitors for something like this.

While they might not be executed as rogue ninjas, the outcome they faced certainly wouldn't be good.

That's how it is for ninjas.

Tap!

Kankurō stopped at the edge of the village. An old, hunched figure stood in front of them.

"Granny Chiyo." Gaara felt his mouth go dry like never before.

Was he going to have to fight a senior who'd always been kind to him and his siblings?

But to his surprise, Kankurō smiled.

"Come with me," Chiyo said, her wrinkled face kind. She turned and walked away from the village.

"Huh?" Gaara stood there, stunned.

"Don't just stand there—come on, we're short on time." Kankurō nudged him. "Thanks to your attempt to negotiate with Sasori earlier, Granny Chiyo's willing to help us."

So that's how it was?

Gaara felt a renewed surge of determination. His faith in what he'd been striving for hadn't been in vain—his trust in others had been met with trust in return.

Chiyo was Sunagakure's best puppet master and one of the top sealing jutsu experts. She led them through the village's grand barrier in no time, and they soon arrived in the desert beyond the village walls.

"Thank you," Gaara said solemnly, then added, "I'm going to stop this war."

With that, he took off across the sand.

Kankurō exhaled in relief, about to return to find their sister, but Chiyo grabbed his arm.

"So it was you who's been helping him all along."

The Fourth Kazekage had appeared at some point behind them, gold dust quietly hovering in the air.

Boom!

The legendary "Ten Puppets of Chikamatsu" materialized.

Chiyo gave a wry grin, clutching a smoking scroll in one hand as her raspy voice rang out. "Honestly, Rasa."

"Why can't you just have a little more faith in the younger generation?"

"Helping the jinchūriki defect." The Fourth Kazekage's expression was ice-cold. "You've certainly got some nerve."

The gold dust began to stir.

…

Meanwhile, back with Link…

(Maybe I'll stop losing teeth soon, and my growth spurt will end if I just eat and sleep enough.)

That was Link's hopeful thinking, but unfortunately, his body wasn't cooperating.

One week after his two front teeth fell out, he lost a molar as well—and his new teeth were not growing in quickly.

Not only that, but his formerly childlike body was starting to mature. His Adam's apple and secondary sexual characteristics gradually emerged, forcing him to switch to baggier clothes—otherwise, certain areas would, well, bulge too obviously.

Even more troublesome was his sudden hair loss.

Yes, that's right—he wasn't just losing a few hairs here and there. He was losing body hair. All of it.

Faced with the possibility of going completely bald, Link had no choice but to swallow his pride and consult privately with Tsunade again. But even after testing, his condition was still "perfectly healthy."

It turned out that his Delicate Illness Extraction Technique hadn't completely remade his body in real time. Finishing that "body perfection" required massive amounts of energy. The technique was continuously rewriting his genetic "junk code" without giving his cells or organs time to catch up—so for a long while, he'd looked relatively normal on the outside.

Main-World Sasuke had also gone through a major growth spurt after stopping the Delicate Illness Extraction Technique for a while. His physical abilities soared, and he even got taller than the older Sasuke from the Fourth World—basically a second round of development, as the genetic "upgrades" were finally realized.

So when Link completely stopped using the Delicate Illness Extraction Technique, all his delayed "improvements" kicked in at once. His cells kept regenerating, which naturally affected every part of his body.

He'd lose teeth, only for new ones to grow in. Losing body hair meant new hair would grow later. The problem was that all the built-up changes were happening in one huge wave, from the inside out.

Hence waking up to find his teeth suddenly gone, or after sleeping a few days, discovering large clumps of hair had fallen out.

His body's internal changes were even more drastic—just not visible. But the signs were obvious: he could eat several times his normal portions and still digest everything quickly. He went a whole week without needing the bathroom at all.

In one of Tsunade's tests, she found that even munching on leaves could sustain him. It wasn't so much a matter of digestion efficiency but that his "dietary range" had massively expanded to include things like inorganic matter. If he got hungry enough, even rocks, wood, and steel started looking appetizing.

He could basically eat anything.

(Well, not anything. But almost.)

One morning, Link woke up starving and discovered he'd dreamed about eating his pillow—and woke to find he'd actually taken a few bites out of it.

Besides losing teeth, shedding hair, and sudden hunger pangs, there were other changes: his skin peeled at night, his eyes glowed in the dark, his ever-fluctuating strength caused him to accidentally break furniture, and his senses became so sharp he could hear, smell, and feel things he never noticed before.

In short, life in this so-called "growth period" was a complete mess.

"Crack!"

"Grrr—"

Link was brushing his teeth when the toothbrush, softened by his saliva, snapped in half. Before he could think, he swallowed the front half—bristles, toothpaste foam, and all. He let out a minty-scented burp and felt a wave of sadness wash over him.

He got off his newly customized steel bed, carefully controlling his ever-increasing strength so he wouldn't break anything. Walking over to the mirror in the dimly lit room, he saw his eyes glowing faintly. The white of his scalp showed under a layer of short, downy pale-yellow fuzz, and when he opened his mouth, gaps were visible where teeth should have been. He let out a deep sigh.

(When is this going to end?!)

He had only ten days left before this new Fourth Great Ninja War. Could he possibly finish growing up in time?

He was no longer optimistic at all. The drastic changes in his body had his emotions all over the place, and tears pooled in his eyes.

He just wanted to look cool, dammit. Why was it so hard?

(Heaven above, why have you forsaken me?!)

But the arrow was already on the bowstring; he couldn't exactly stand up the other four Great Ninja Villages now. He'd just have to grit his teeth—those that were left—and power through.

His shadows helped him get dressed in his new attire: a mask and a loose robe with a hood.

He had to admit, it gave him a real "mysterious mastermind" vibe. So long as no one looked under the robe…

(I'll go buy some food, then come back and sleep again. The more I sleep, the faster my body will develop. Maybe by the time I wake up…)

Clinging to that last bit of hope, Link headed out, his silhouette looking rather desolate.

~~~

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