Chapter 810

As Hokage, Senju Tobirama felt it was his duty to inform the Uchiha clan of the benefits they could currently receive.

The clan massacre of those years could no longer be undone; a few had now returned, but that was that.

From now on there was no need to worry about the Uchiha clan causing trouble again — after all, for a village, these four people were nothing more than a name hanging over them.

"I'm not so useless that in the future I'd let my wife go out and earn money to support the family."

Lin Cheng cut off Gaara's wild imagining short — he was genuinely afraid that in a moment this guy would start thinking in some bizarre direction again.

Sure enough, people who don't usually like to talk always have a heavy inner drama — like that classmate in Konoha who plays with bugs. When he keeps his mouth shut he barely has any presence, but once he opens it, it's as if he wants to spit out everything he's been holding in for days.

"Fine, looks like you're quite the responsible type. Too bad Temari already has a boyfriend. You should be able to take it easy — after all, even the housework is shared, you don't have to go out and earn money, and there's someone at home to chat with."

His previous train of thought was cut off, but Gaara still didn't stop his wild imagining.

Only this time, his direction had shifted to Temari — what kind of life would it be if she married Lin Cheng.

As luck would have it, Temari, Shikamaru, Kankuro, and Kakashi, who had just arrived at the door, happened to overhear it.

The four of them stood at the doorway, suddenly uncertain whether they should step inside.

"Gaara, many children who have older brothers or sisters get beaten up by them a few times when they're little. Have you ever been hit by your older brother or sister?"

Lin Cheng looked at Gaara, who still had expectant eyes fixed on him, and had no choice but to give the kid a heads-up — if this kept going, it really would scare the people at the door.

"They didn't dare hit me. Actually, it's not quite right to say they didn't dare — they simply wouldn't come near me."

Speaking of other people's younger siblings and what they're like in front of their older brothers and sisters, Gaara's train of thought finally readjusted. But as he recalled some things from his childhood, he was gradually shrouded by a spreading melancholy.

This thing called familial affection — apart from his mother, he had never experienced it.

His father treated him as a fighting machine; his older brother and sister feared him as a monster; the uncle who had once given him warmth also wanted to kill him. Only his mother, whom he had never seen in his memories, had always been there protecting him together with Shukaku.

"What if right now, they wanted to beat you up to show some affection?"

Looking at the pitiful kid before him, Lin Cheng thought back to how Naruto had looked the very first time he met him.......

It was just a pity that the seal on Naruto was too good, so the one who got bullied was only Naruto — when others hit him, he had no way to fight back.

Comparing the two, it was really hard to say which one was more miserable.

"I'm someone Mom and Shukaku protect together, so how could I let anyone hurt me? If I let someone hit me on purpose, Mom and Shukaku would both be sad, right?"

Gaara could now choose not to let the sand come out to defend him, but this kind of thing he definitely wouldn't do. Even his older sister and older brother wouldn't be allowed to touch him.

If as a child he had no choice, but during his time in Konoha before, after he was able to interact with people, it seemed he still hadn't received much care.

Apart from some self-appointed, self-righteous concern, it was all less warming than the daily glares that guy Naruto gave.

At least that guy Naruto would care about whether he was getting along well with Shukaku, whether he still couldn't sleep, and other very practical things.

"Be happy — a lot of things don't need to be thought through so thoroughly. But Shukaku is well-behaved now, so you should work even harder to get stronger, because now it's time for you to be the one protecting Shukaku."

Lin Cheng saw Gaara's gaze drift upstairs for a moment and knew this guy probably hadn't interacted with Naruto at all.

Although he knew this was some kind of exchange between jinchūriki, he just felt his own wife had been remembered.

So he'd better give Gaara a sense of crisis — practice ninjutsu when he's free, and not have time to come bother his family's Naruto.

"Protect Shukaku? Mm, I'll definitely work hard!"