The Hidden Heart

The two captured jinchūriki keep fighting the chains binding them, and Naruto tries to pull back his Tailed Beast Mode only to find Kurama's chakra impossible to rein in, exactly as Madara predicted. When a White Zetsu clone wonders aloud why he skipped Shukaku, Madara reconsiders and redirects his attack toward the One-Tail. Gaara throws himself in the way, conjuring a pair of huge sand hands to keep the chain from hauling the beast into the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path.

Stunned that the Kazekage would defend it, Shukaku flashes back to its years sealed inside the boy and its old threat to devour his mind should he ever sleep deeply. As those memories surge up, the beast also recalls its earliest host, a priest who once foretold that someone would arrive who could make Shukaku grasp the words etched into its own hands, heart and acceptance. From this the beast realises that the kanji for love once carved on Gaara's brow was itself a fusing of acceptance and heart.

The Zetsu clone jeers that Gaara guards the very creature that made him suffer, and that he will survive even if Shukaku is sealed away. Madara summons his Susanoo and hurls one of its blades at Gaara, but Shukaku knocks it aside, boasting of the Absolute Defence it takes such pride in. Madara steers the weapon into a boomerang arc, snaps the length of chain Gaara was holding, links it back to the beast, and drives the sword at Gaara once more. His automatic sand defence saves his life, though the blow still floors him. Gaara tells the beast not to strain itself and remarks that, freed from being a jinchūriki, he can now stay awake as long as he likes, standing as Shukaku's equal. As the beasts are dragged inward, B cuts away one of his own tentacles, and Kurama calls out to Gaara with a request just as Naruto is thrown clear of his Tailed Beast Mode cloak and begins to plummet toward the ground.

Naruto cannot suppress Kurama's chakra, and Madara shifts his focus to capturing Shukaku. Gaara protects the One-Tail with massive sand hands, prompting the beast to recall its history as his sealed tenant. Shukaku deciphers that the love on Gaara's forehead combines the concepts of heart and acceptance foretold by its first host.

Shukaku deflects Madara's Susanoo sword with its Absolute Defence, and though Madara maneuvers the blade to strike Gaara down, his automatic defence spares him. Kurama makes a request of Gaara as Naruto is ejected from his cloak and starts to fall.

This chapter belongs to the Birth of the Ten-Tails' Jinchūriki arc and was collected in volume 69. Viz Media titled it One's True Heart. It ran in the combined issue 6-7 of 2014.