Gaara stood dazed after the akatsuki duo's vanishing act feeling like a virgin teasing his girlfriend's only for his mother to knock on the door he looked around and sighed helplessly thinking that on the positive note, he is at least able to stand toe to toe against Kakuzo who is a very strong ninja.
The rain continued to fall on the lush green crown of the trees in the gloomy forest and the sun showed no signs of peeking through the thick clouds of a forming thunderstorm.
A group of cloaked figures all of which are wearing a skull half mask with gas filters can be seen leisurely jumping from one tree branch to another.
The leader of the group with brick-red hair and turquoise eyes suddenly stopped with raised right fist and the others stood behind him. This is undoubtedly Gaara's group who are heading back to sunagakure to report their successful mission.
"What is it."
A group member asked in a low voice fearing that whatever it is that made Gaara stop might hear them. Gaara however did not answer and only pointed with his index finger towards a tree not far from where they are standing. The group immediately focused on the tree but saw nothing strange and so as if in doubt of their own ability looked at the area around the tree still finding nothing but small animals hiding from the rain.
"Umm what exactly~"
"Shh... nevermind."
Gaara flashed and appeared on the branch he first pointed to, a startled shriek of what sounded like a small animal could be heard and a shadow figure flashed. Anticipating such a response, Gaara's iron sand flew from the gourd on his waist and formed a cage to trap the figure.
Seing that Gaara actually caught a small animal made his group members question the reality of the events that transpired.
'Is... is this a dream or is he really looking to adopt it as a pet?'
They thought inwardly as they examined the small animal. From what they could see, it should be a kind of ferret but unlike the common ones in the forest this one has red eyes.
"And here I thought you are going to leave us behind again hehe my bad. You should have said so earlier if you are looking for a pet, I knew someone who sells rare animals back in Suna."
One of the masked figures offered to help Gaara look for a better pet. Honestly, a cat or a dog would be tens of times better than this wild animal if he is concerned. Gaara paid him no heed, if he wasn't wearing a mask then a smile can be seen decorating his face.
'Narugui...'
This naturally meant that the nomadic caravan is camped or traveling nearby, both of which did not matter to him. His mind spun and the the cage shrunk restricting any form of movement from the trapped Narugui. Gaara touched it and a fuin seal formed beneath its fur onto the skin, afterwards the restrictions vanished and the iron sand returned to Gaara's black gourd.
"Let's move." Gaara jumped and is quickly disappearing from their view.
The group was once again bewildered by his actions of catch and release something a fishing hobbyist would do back on Earth but in the shinobi world, this behavior or action is very rare. They soon followed the willful guy with a head-shake.
Gaara and his group arrived a day later. His members are all very tired because Gaara didn't let them rest even for a little the dark bags below their eyes and the cold sweat in their spine is a testament to the torturous journey they have had.
"You guys report, I've got something up. Give my regards to the old man. Tell him not to disturb me for another dumb mission... no scratch that, maybe I'll agree to a mission if I liked it. Bye~."
Gaara's form broke down into sand and fell on the desert floor. He appeared in his man cave with a big grin thinking about his horror story type exit and how to improve it in the future.
'Maybe some blood thingy along with the sand...'
As for Narugui, he will check from time to time. What he needed is the location of the old ruins of the Gelel people and only the old man of the nomadic tribe whose name he can't recall knows where it is. Aside from that, Haido-Temujin duo is a no show and is perhaps still in the warring continent. A place that is still out of his reach.
'I'm not in a huge rush anyway...'
"Adam, how goes the analysis of the fuin seal for the creation of the Ryumyako source?"
[Scanning, storage is 100% analysis is 96% complete. Estimated completion in 02:03:02:05:03:07:21(2y3m2w5d3h7min21sec)]
"So what do we know right now?"
[Ryumyako source is not natural. The fuin seal somehow harnesses the thermal energy from the miles of sand around and converts it to chakra as to how, we are still unable to have definitive answers please wait for the completion of analysis.]
Gaara stood dumbfounded, he had somehow expected to be surprised but not this pleasantly surprised .
'Holy craaap!'
"How about an upgrade?"
"Right now."
"Let's do it!"
Another long bout of testing ensued and Gaara even forgot about many of his other projects which would have stagnated if not for Adam's supervision.
One of them is the mass recruitment of scientists for the technological advancement of the shinobi world or more likely Takamagahara.
Trains, Cars, Guns, etc already exists in this world, heck the Raikage has a railgun for crying out loud, what is left is to adopt, improve, innovate upon these existing ones, all the while funding the more promising ones. With Takamagahara's almost infinite funds and energy, mad scientists will scramble to line up to get a chance to be hired in this wonderland of science and technology.