"Since when did Naruto get that strong?"
Even Sakura was shaken after watching Naruto hold his own against Gaara.
That eyebrow-less Sand ninja was powerful, but Naruto was handling it with room to spare.
Was this really the same dead last from their class?
Sakura could hardly believe it.
"Naruto was already impressive during the second exam."
Ino said.
Every Leaf Genin who'd witnessed Naruto's performance in the second exam had some idea of what he was capable of.
And when they heard that the Rasengan was an original jutsu created by the Fourth Hokage, the shock only multiplied.
The Fourth Hokage was practically a legend to the younger generation—but his story of sealing the Nine-Tails and protecting the village had never stopped being told.
"Yeah, it's hard to imagine." In Sakura's mind, Naruto had always been that sloppy, hopeless dead last.
"He actually looks kinda cool right now, doesn't he?" Sakura noticed that Naruto's skin seemed a shade lighter than before.
Not just that—though he was a bit scuffed up, he was well put-together overall. Nothing like the messy kid he used to be.
"Now that you mention it, yeah. If Naruto cleaned up a little, he'd actually be pretty good-looking." Sakura's remark got Ino curious too.
"Too bad he's still so loud and obnoxious." Sakura tilted her head. "If he toned it down a bit, he might actually be popular with girls."
Come to think of it, the only girl who ever talked to Naruto on her own initiative was Hanabi.
"Hanabi..."
The thought of Hanabi brought the image of her fight with Sasuke rushing back.
A girl—and she'd beaten the top-ranked Sasuke.
Hanabi was really that strong?
"Huh? Is that Hanabi up there?"
As that thought crossed her mind, Sakura's gaze drifted upward on its own.
That was the Hokage and Kazekage's viewing platform.
And there stood Hanabi—right beside Hokage-sama and Kazekage-sama.
"Whoa, she's really there!"
Ino was startled too.
"I guess it's because she's from the Hyuga clan? Apparently a lot of people came specifically to watch her fight Sasuke." Ino said.
"Yeah, that's really—"
"Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
Naruto's shout cut Sakura and Ino's conversation short.
Naruto had deployed Shadow Clones again.
The massive sand sphere was too tough to crack open head-on. Fine—then he'd pile on the numbers.
Countless Rasengan slammed into the sphere.
But spikes of sand erupted from its surface, sweeping away every last clone.
"Oh my, Naruto's been read like a book." Kakashi thought the move was flashy, but unfortunately, it had already been countered.
"Over here—!"
But Naruto had spotted something. A single clone launched itself skyward, and the Rasengan in its hand shattered a floating eye made of sand.
It was Gaara's Third Eye—used to observe the outside world from within his sphere.
"Impressive that he caught that. Naruto's chakra perception really is getting sharper." Kakashi understood.
"This time—it's the real Rasengan Barrage!"
With the Third Eye destroyed, a storm of Rasengan hammered the sand sphere from every direction.
The sphere was massive and thick, but under that relentless barrage of spinning chakra, it was teetering.
"Haaah—!"
Finally, a crater was punched through the wall.
"Go!"
Two clones grabbed the real Naruto—Rasengan still whirling in his palm—and hurled him into the air and through the breach.
A heavy thud echoed from inside.
The walls of compressed sand collapsed in an instant.
Sand cascaded to the ground, revealing both fighters: Naruto and Gaara, panting.
Naruto's hand was planted against Gaara's body.
Blood trickled down from Gaara's shoulder.
But despite being the one who'd landed the hit, Naruto's eyes were wider than Gaara's—as if he'd just seen something terrifying inside that sphere.
"Blood... heheh... blood..."
Gaara's smile was twisting, contorting.
"What was that just now...?"
In the instant he'd burst through the opening, Naruto had sensed something horrifying lurking in there.
But it had been too dark to see clearly.
And now that the sand had all scattered, whatever that thing was had vanished without a trace.
"What else could it be—a monster. The monster inside me!"
Gaara snarled.
"A monster...? Oh—now that you mention it, I've got a monster inside me too."
Naruto withdrew his hand and stepped back two paces.
After burning through that many Rasengan and Shadow Clones, even the "enhanced" Naruto's stamina was running dangerously low.
"That's why you kept coming after me, isn't it?"
Before now, his impression of Gaara had been nothing more than "that annoying eyebrow-less guy."
But in this moment, Naruto felt it—a tremor deep inside the other boy's body. Something he recognized.
"Yeah. That monster and I—we're nothing but a lump of hatred and killing intent, gathered together." Gaara stared at Naruto. "I was created as the village's ultimate weapon, born at the cost of my mother's life."
"A jinchūriki?"
The Third's brow furrowed.
The Kazekage had sent a jinchūriki to compete in the Chūnin Exams?!
"As the child of the Kazekage, I was taught ninjutsu by my father, protected, allowed to do as I pleased. I once believed that was love—until that incident."
"...That incident?"
At Naruto's pressing, Gaara fell silent. The frenzied excitement from seeing his own blood seemed to cool along with his expression.
Everyone within earshot who'd caught this "bombshell" was gaping.
"What happened?!" Naruto shouted again.
Perhaps infected by Gaara's emotions, Naruto felt an inexplicable restlessness rising in his own chest.
"Hm...?!"
Naruto suddenly realized that Gaara's aura—calm just a moment ago—had twisted again.
Then he saw Gaara's eyes go wide, his face contorting into something feral. "For six years—from the time I was six until now—I've lost count of how many times my own father tried to have me assassinated!"
Naruto felt something slam against his chest from the inside.
"..." The Third turned to look at the Kazekage beside him.
But the "Kazekage" showed no reaction to Gaara's words at all—as though Gaara were recounting someone else's story entirely.
Hanabi tilted her head.
This was certainly a public execution of the Kazekage's reputation.
But unfortunately, the real Fourth Kazekage was already dead.
Hard to say whether that was lucky or unlucky.
"I see... so that's how it is." Naruto stood in silence.
His fists clenched.
"Because I was born through that jutsu, my psyche was prone to instability—and the village noticed. To my father, the Kazekage, I was the village's trump card but also a terrifying liability. Apparently, by age six, I'd already been classified as a dangerous entity. To them, I was nothing but a hazard to be eliminated. In this world of fear and hatred, all I could do was survive alongside that monster—but what was I even surviving for?"
So this eyebrow-less guy... was just like him.
Except Gaara seemed to have had it even worse. And without any salvation whatsoever.
For a split second, the image of Kushina Yuki flashed through Naruto's mind.
"I can't find a reason to live. But as long as I'm alive, there has to be one. Uzumaki Naruto—so let you be the one to tell me!"
The chakra around them surged once more.