Most of the successful candidates were resting not far from the training grounds. The aura around Gaara was too terrifying for anyone but Temari and Kankuro to timidly remain by his side. Saya's nonconformist squad occupied another corner. Neither Lady Saya nor her younger sister Sana were easy to get along with, and Shira was a newly promoted ninja who'd gotten in through connections, so no one wanted anything to do with the three of them.
Everyone else sat in sullen silence. Some couldn't bear it and had gone outside for fresh air. The heavy atmosphere was only broken when Daigan finally arrived.
"Hey, Temari! What a coincidence!"
"Are you an idiot? Anyone who wins naturally ends up here," Temari replied dismissively, then suddenly realized she had spoken too loudly and might have angered Gaara. She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw Gaara, who was resting with his eyes closed, showed no reaction.
"Stay away from me, unless you have a death wish," Temari hissed in a low voice, telling Daigan to get lost.
"So cold. Can't you be a little nicer to me, for the sake of the dozen or so years we've known each other?"
"If you keep spouting nonsense, I'll— Wait, what's that on your shoulder?"
She hadn't noticed it from a distance, but as Daigan got closer, Temari saw the ridiculously toy-like doll and realized its form and face were unnervingly familiar.
"This? You noticed!" Daigan proudly held up his meticulously crafted puppet and replied with a grin, "My first puppet. What do you think? Beautiful, isn't it?"
"You bastard!" Temari's face flushed red with fury. She fought to control her anger, wanting nothing more than to teach the shameless lout in front of her a harsh lesson, but she was wary of Gaara's reaction.
Kankuro sighed and slapped his forehead in dismay. "You took all those materials from me, and this is what you made? You really are…" He waved his hand, gesturing for Daigan to stay away. "A disgrace to all puppet masters!"
"Hey, Kankuro, we're practically friends. Isn't that a little harsh?" Daigan protested. He'd only made a pretty puppet. How did that earn him the infamous title of "a disgrace to all puppet masters"?
"Look at the figure, the hair, the skin—which part isn't perfect? Even the clothes and the Three-Moon Fan are perfect replicas. Do you have any idea how much effort I put into achieving this?" It wasn't just time and money; it was the search for suitable materials and the patient, meticulous carving. He had poured an immense amount of effort and energy into it.
"I see," Temari seethed, staring at Daigan as if she could kill him with her gaze alone. "So you went to all that trouble observing my body, my hair, and my skin. I must have been such a bother for you."
"Temari, you've misunderstood me…" Daigan seemed to sense her displeasure. "It's not like I went out of my way to look at your figure… No, that's not to say you're not good-looking! I mean, I really wanted to, because you're very beautiful. But I absolutely didn't mean to defile you with lewd gazes…"
Daigan's incoherent explanation did nothing to quell Temari's anger; it only fanned the flames.
"Are you trying to humiliate me?" Temari swung the Three-Moon Fan from her back, aiming to smash the puppet Daigan was relentlessly showing off.
"No!" His painstaking masterpiece couldn't be destroyed like this. Daigan pulled the puppet back to protect it in his arms, but he took the full force of the heavy fan himself.
*Bang!*
Daigan was sent flying, tumbling across the ground a few times before finally coming to a stop.
Her anger not yet subsided, Temari turned to look at Kankuro.
"I seem to recall hearing that you helped that moron out quite a bit. You also wanted to see your big sister publicly humiliated? We need to have a talk, Kankuro…"
"It had nothing to do with me," Kankuro denied at once. "Don't be rash, Temari. I just had some financial dealings with him. He bought some puppet materials from me…"
"Is that so?" Temari's expression was skeptical. She leaned in close, staring at the sweat-drenched Kankuro.
Just then, Gaara, who had been perfectly still, suddenly opened his eyes. "Silence. You're all too loud."
His cold words instantly terrified Kankuro and Temari into submission. They didn't dare act out again.
Across the way, Daigan struggled to his feet. "Good, it's not broken. Otherwise, who knows how long it would take to fix."
"Well, that was quite a show," a familiar, venomous tone reached Daigan's ears. "As if a girl like Temari is someone a guy like you could ever get close to. Face reality, you idiot."
"What's it to you?" Daigan dusted himself off, carefully putting away his well-maintained puppet without looking up. "Lady Saya, if I hadn't introduced a teammate to you, would you even be qualified to stand here and mock me? Is that how you treat your benefactor?"
"Benefactor? As I recall, I already compensated you. It was just a transaction. What gives you the right to call yourself my benefactor?"
"Such a heartless lady, as expected," Daigan muttered.
Looking at her team of three, neither Saya nor Sana had a single hair out of place. They clearly hadn't fought. Shira, on the other hand, was slumped to the side, covered in injuries.
Noticing Daigan's disdainful gaze, Saya defensively explained, "I just wanted to see how strong my new teammate really was. I didn't expect the team I'd carefully selected to be all talk. To think they were beaten by a rookie…"
The first fool to go up hadn't taken Shira—who until recently wasn't even a ninja—seriously. His carelessness earned him an instant concussion. The second opponent was more cautious, but unfortunately lacked the skill and didn't last long before Shira's unreasonable brute force overwhelmed his defenses. The third and final opponent was decent, a fitting leader to go last, and he put up a good fight against Shira.
Unfortunately, the first two had lost too quickly, eliminated before they could show their true strength. Knowing the situation was hopeless, the leader's will to win couldn't match Shira's. In a battle of endurance, Shira proved superior and held out until the end.
"Don't be so smug when you got lucky. You should be thinking about the Chunin Exams. Your opponents then won't be the greenhorns you faced today."
"And you should worry about those two delicate little flowers you're protecting! You're not strong enough to carry two deadweights…"
"I have faith in them. You, on the other hand, had better not bring shame to the village."
"What right do you have to talk? A disgrace to all puppet masters!" Lady Saya's expression began to sour. "A combat puppet, meant to defeat enemies, and you turned it into a toy. Are you a child? Did you make a doll to soothe your pathetic, shallow vanity because you knew you couldn't win Temari's affection?"
***
"A toy? I'd love to show you the power of this 'toy,' but Lord Baki forbids private battles."
No matter how assertive she was, Saya was ultimately just a spoiled girl with a bad temper. If they were to truly fight without holding back, Daigan wasn't afraid of her.