"Hmph."
Temari let out a sharp snort. At this point, there was no reason to keep anything hidden.
Her mission, together with Kankurō, was to ensure Gaara could perform the Feigning Sleep Technique, release the Tailed Beast, and then use that power to crush the Leaf Village.
"Isn't the answer obvious?"
Her lips curled into a smirk as she slid the giant fan from her back, signaling to Kankurō with a quick gesture—they would deal with Sasuke together.
This, too, was part of the Kazekage's orders: seize Sasuke in the chaos and deliver him alive.
Meanwhile, because both Temari and Kankurō's attention was fixed entirely on Sasuke, they failed to notice Shikamaru lurking in the shadows. His hands moved quickly through a familiar chain of seals, and in the next instant, the Nara clan's secret art—Shadow Possession Jutsu—extended across the ground, reaching for the siblings.
But Temari and Kankurō reacted with trained precision. Just as the shadows were about to latch onto them, both leapt back at the same time.
"Sasuke!"
Shikamaru barked, his voice tight as he pushed his shadow further, herding Temari and Kankurō directly into Sasuke's range.
Sasuke's Sharingan spun to life in an instant. He remembered well from the preliminaries: once Shikamaru's shadow touched you, you were trapped—completely immobilized.
"Trying to run now? Isn't it a little late for that?"
With a faint, confident smile, Sasuke flickered forward with a Body Flicker, appearing right before Kankurō. His kick slammed into Kankurō's stomach—yet instead of the Sand shinobi being hurled back, his body sank inward like rotting wood.
Four wooden arms suddenly burst from the puppet's sides, snapping shut around Sasuke like a cage.
"A puppet?"
Sasuke's eyes narrowed, though his calm never faltered. He didn't need to understand the mechanics of puppetry to know one thing: without his tools, Kankurō was no threat. Destroy the puppet, and the fight was over.
Temari started forward to aid her brother, but froze as she noticed Shikamaru's shadow split into two strands—one still pressing Kankurō, the other creeping toward her own feet. She clicked her tongue and leapt back quickly, retreating from Sasuke and Kankurō's clash.
"You brat from the Leaf…"
Her eyes glinted as she raised her massive fan and swung hard. A gale like a hurricane howled forth, forcing Shikamaru to dive and roll across the floor.
BOOM!
He scrambled up again, only to glance back and see that the wall behind him had been blasted open, rubble scattered across the stands.
If that hit had landed on him…
Just picturing it made his head ache.
"Man… women really are terrifying…"
He muttered under his breath, though his hands never stopped forming seals. This wasn't the time to retreat.
Sasuke might be a genius, but he was still a Genin, same as Shikamaru. Same year, same class.
"A comrade, huh…"
Shikamaru let out a self-deprecating laugh, shaking his head. "Never thought I'd see the day I'd actually call someone that… whatever."
Even as he grumbled, he sent his shadows stretching once again, chasing Temari relentlessly.
On the other side, Sasuke's approach was far less subtle. With Temari distracted, the pressure of facing two enemies at once lifted. Lightning flickered across his body—Chidori Current flaring as he drove his fist straight into the puppet before him.
Kankurō seized the moment to tighten the puppet's grasp, but his wooden arms were blown apart instantly, sparking and splintering as Sasuke's chakra burned through them. A hand-knife of lightning slashed forward, carving straight through the puppet's chest.
The force flushed Kankurō himself from hiding, forcing him into the open.
"Damn it—!"
He hit the ground, teeth gritted as he rolled and barely managed to land on his feet. Even so, a streak of blood seeped across his chest where Sasuke's attack had grazed him. His prized puppet, Crow, lay in shattered fragments across the arena floor.
In desperation, he summoned another—Black Ant—but before it could even spread its limbs, Sasuke was already moving.
"You really are persistent." Kankurō spat bitterly.
"You, on the other hand, are weaker than I thought," Sasuke retorted coldly, lips twisting into a mocking smirk. "Is this really all you've got?"
To Sasuke, this battle was already decided. If not for the need to wring information out of the Sand siblings, he could have ended it in less than three seconds.
"Heh."
Kankurō gave a humorless chuckle, eyes flicking briefly toward the monstrous form of Shukaku outside. "You won't be smirking for long. Gaara has already unleashed the Feigning Sleep Technique. You Leaf brats can't possibly stand against the might of Shukaku."
"That pink-haired girl… that blond loudmouth…"
But Sasuke's voice cut him off sharply.
"Do you know something, Kankurō?"
His Sharingan glimmered with cold amusement. "For this Chūnin Exam, to keep things fair, a rule was added: Naruto isn't allowed to use Sage Mode or his Golden Cloak."
In a blur, Sasuke's hand slashed out, his lightning-coated strike shearing Kankurō's Black Ant clean in half.
"Naruto is a lot stronger than you think."
Meanwhile, down in the arena, Naruto stood protectively in front of Sakura. Based on what he knew of Gaara, that monstrous sand beast looming before them could only be one thing—the creature sealed inside him.
Just like the Nine-Tails was sealed inside Naruto himself.
"No way… Gaara's a Jinchūriki too?"
"Jinchūriki?" Sakura tilted her head, unfamiliar with the term.
But there was no time for explanations. The stadium was already in chaos: Sand and Sound shinobi appearing en masse, spectators collapsing unconscious as if struck by genjutsu.
Even if Sakura didn't understand the full picture, she refused to back down. Naruto, meanwhile, was already speaking with the beast sealed within him.
Kurama… is there any way to stop Gaara from losing control?
The Nine-Tails' answer was a derisive snarl.
"Hah! That creature? He's nothing but the weakest of us all."
"The weakest…?"
Naruto stared at Shukaku's hulking form in disbelief. Weakest or not, the sheer size of the beast was overwhelming. And with so many people still nearby, letting it rampage here was unthinkable.
He bit into his thumb without hesitation.
"Better to move this fight somewhere else first… Summoning Jutsu!"
BOOM!
A massive plume of smoke swallowed half the battlefield, the earth trembling beneath their feet.
When the haze cleared, Sakura's eyes went wide in shock.
Right beneath them stood a toad—colossal, towering, every bit as enormous as Shukaku itself.
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