Heartwarming / Gaara Hiden: A Sandstorm Mirage

• Hakuto had heard about "Gaara of the Desert" and was really worried about what kind of person he would be. But after hearing Gaara excitedly talking about his cacti, she's relieved he turned out to be so kind. Gaara, the former terror child, is stunned someone would use that word to describe him.
• Gaara does something he knows is reckless by rushing to save Shijima instead of escaping the quicksand whirlpool when he had the chance. When she asks he why would he, the Kazekage, whose reputation depended on rescuing Hakuto, choose to save someone as unimportant as her, he gets furious at her words. To him, every life is equally precious and he would do anything to protect those lives. He knows it's irrational, but he just can't act any other way; he notes it's all Naruto's influence.
  • Shijima decides to do something just as reckless and shares with him her past; specifically, the fact that she was once Orochimaru's test subject. In the world of Shinobi, that kind of blind trust is foolish -at best.
• Shikamaru revealing in the very last chapter that he's been there the whole time, keeping an eye on Gaara and saving Temari from collapsing. His comment that Gaara has turned out to be a very troublesome brother is made all the more sweeter when Gaara points out that Shikamaru had been keeping an eye on Gaara's marriage meeting even before he asked him for help.
• Gaara telling Temari that she deserves to find her own happiness after all she's done for Suna.
• The Sand siblings' relationship improvements in general. Long ago, fear and hate was the common factor in their interactions, but now, all thanks to Naruto and the friends they've made, they've turned into a normal, loving family. Kankuro is the laid-back-but-still-reliable-when-it-counts-older-brother, Temari is the equally-doting-and-strict-older-sister and Gaara is the innocently-naive-yet-well-meaning-and-idealistic-younger-brother. At the end of the day, it is their bonds with each other that allow them to successfully resolve the novel's conflicts while granting everyone, even Hakuto and the man she loves, as well as Shijima, her sister, a happy ending.