Seeing Kankurō controlling Karasu and Sanshōuo with an air of absolute arrogance, Kimimaro and Shin exchanged a glance and gently shook their heads, reaching the same conclusion:
This kid doesn't seem very bright.
"I'll handle this one,"
Shin said to Kimimaro before vanishing on the spot.
Kankurō and Temari's expressions changed instantly. Just as they hurriedly assumed defensive stances in surprise, Shin had already appeared silently right in front of Kankurō.
Kankurō didn't even have time to activate his two puppets before Shin knocked him flat with a single punch.
Looking at Kankurō lying on the ground retching, Shin shook his head in mild exasperation:
"So tell me—how can you be so ordinary, yet so confident at the same time?"
Seeing this, Temari's expression shifted. She was just about to swing her fan to blow Shin away when she realized she couldn't pull it free at all—Shin's other hand had somehow already pressed down on the edge of her fan.
"If I were you, I wouldn't act rashly," Shin said calmly. "Isn't it better to just watch the show?"
...
"Three Thousand Naruto Barrage!"
Faced with the overwhelming wave of Narutos charging at him, even Gaara froze for a moment—but only for a moment.
Recovering instantly, Gaara coldly commanded the massive sand wave he controlled:
"Sand Hail."
As soon as the words left his mouth, the enormous sand wave looked as though it had been smashed apart by an invisible fist, breaking into countless smaller clumps of sand.
However, instead of falling to the ground under gravity, the sand clumps compressed midair against gravity itself, forming bullet-like pellets of sand that shot toward the airborne Narutos.
Like machine-gun fire, the sand bullets tore through the clones, turning them into puffs of smoke one after another. Though thousands of Narutos looked terrifying at first, they were completely wiped out after a single volley of Sand Hail.
Watching the Narutos disappear into smoke, Gaara let out a cold snort.
"So they were all fakes? The real one shouldn't be far away—he must still be nearby."
But just as Gaara finished speaking, Sasuke's voice sounded from another direction:
"Naruto really is nearby—but that's not what you should be worrying about right now."
Gaara was momentarily startled upon hearing Sasuke's voice, but quickly regained his composure.
"Even if you used shadow clones as a distraction to get close, it won't make a difference."
As he spoke, a dense layer of sand rose up around Gaara's body, instantly forming a shell-like shell that completely protected him.
It turned out he hadn't sent all of his sand out in one attack—he had deliberately kept some behind to defend himself.
Sasuke suddenly appeared behind Gaara and said calmly:
"Whether it makes a difference or not—you'll find out soon enough."
As he spoke, Sasuke sharply pulled both hands back. With his movement came the harsh zzzt zzzt sound of wires retracting. Gaara's pupils shrank in shock as he saw that the ninja tools previously swallowed by the sand wave were now flying back toward him.
Earlier, when the weapons had been engulfed by the sand wave, Sasuke hadn't been able to retrieve them. But because Gaara had dispersed the sand wave himself with Sand Hail, there was now no resistance at all to pulling them back.
With Sasuke's motion, the large number of ninja tools were all reeled back in at once. Since Sasuke was positioned behind Gaara—and Gaara was immobilized by the sand shell—there was nowhere for him to dodge.
As a result, every single one of the ninja tools became wrapped around Gaara's body.
Once the sand shell restraining Gaara was bound by the wires, even if he dispelled the shell, there would be no way for him to escape. Sasuke rapidly formed hand seals, then took a deep breath and blew forcefully along the steel wires in his hand.
""Fire Release: Dragon Fire Technique!"
Boom!
Violent flames instantly surged along the wires toward Gaara. Because of the sand shell, Gaara had nowhere to run. Gritting his teeth, he could only continuously draw in sand from his surroundings to reinforce the shell again and again, trying to insulate himself from the heat.
Seeing this, both Temari and Kankurō felt their hearts jump. No matter how they struggled, however, they were unable to break free from Shin's restraint and could only watch helplessly.
At last, Sasuke's Dragon Fire Technique died down.
Under the scorching heat of the jutsu, the surface of the sand shell had nearly become ceramicized. It stood there completely motionless—no one knew whether Gaara inside was alive or dead.
With Shin's foot pressing him to the ground, Kankurō spoke in a trembling voice:
"Gaara will be fine. That guy is so strong—there's no way something like this could take him down… right, Temari?"
Temari swallowed hard and replied with difficulty:
"Yeah… Gaara won't be hurt."
At that moment, Naruto's voice suddenly rang out:
"Whether he's fine or not—we'll know once we smash it open!"
As he spoke, several Narutos emerged from the forest. One after another, they raised their fists and smashed them down onto the nearly ceramicized sand shell.
With Gaara completely sealed inside, Naruto didn't worry about being injured by the sand at all. His punches came down with fierce momentum.
Although the ceramicized sand shell had greatly increased its defense, it had lost the sand's natural fluidity, greatly reducing its ability to absorb impact. Even before Naruto's real body threw a punch, cracks had already appeared across the shell's face.
By the time Naruto's main body struck, the face of the sand shell shattered completely, revealing Gaara's face as he gasped for air.
Gaara had barely taken two breaths of fresh air when his vision went black—Naruto's real punch had arrived.
Unable to resist while bound inside the shell, Gaara could only watch as the fist rapidly enlarged before his eyes!
Bang!
Under Temari and Kankurō's gaze—mixed with both relief and dread—Naruto's fist made intimate contact with Gaara's nose.
This Naruto was no longer the dead-last from the original story. The power behind this punch was no joke.
Naruto's fist pressed into Gaara's face, and Naruto's own expression instantly turned extremely strange.
Because he realized that this punch seemed to have… cracked Gaara open?
Gaara's face developed fissures like freshly shattered ceramic, followed by the rustle, rustle sound of sand falling away.
Hearing that sound, Kankurō and Temari both let out a sigh of relief.
"I almost forgot, Gaara has a layer of Sand Armor covering his skin."
But in the very next second, the relief froze on their faces.
Because when the Sand Armor on Gaara's face shattered, it revealed Gaara underneath—his nose bleeding profusely.
Gaara stared blankly at Naruto, as if the punch had completely stunned him.
Then, after a moment of confusion, he heard the drip, drip of blood falling onto the ground. He looked down in shock and saw his own blood dripping steadily.
That is… my blood.
...
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