The morning before the final round of the Chunin Exams began felt so calm, yet an anticipation hung in the Konoha air.
In his small apartment, Naruto was still fast asleep, perhaps dreaming wonderful dreams about becoming Hokage or about a jumbo bowl of ramen.
After breakfast and the usual 'morning drama', Naruto decided to visit Rock Lee, who was still being treated at the Konoha hospital.
He felt a little guilty for not paying much attention to Lee's previous fight due to Hana's 'internal interference'.
On his way to the hospital, he happened to meet Shikamaru Nara, who seemed to be walking alone carrying a basket of fruits.
"Yo, Shikamaru! Where are you going?" Naruto greeted.
Shikamaru turned, his face looking lazy as usual.
"Ah, Naruto. Such a drag. I'm going to visit Choji. He's in the hospital again."
"Eh? What's wrong with Choji again? Is he injured?" Naruto asked worriedly.
Shikamaru sighed.
"Not because he's injured. He... he ate too much barbecue after the exam ended. His stomach couldn't take it. That kid is such a drag."
Naruto could only laugh.
"That's Choji for you! But thank goodness if that's all."
He then looked at the fruit basket Shikamaru was carrying.
"Wow, that's a lot of fruit. Choji can't eat fruit now if his stomach hurts. How about we go to Choji's place first, then we can eat the fruit together there?" Naruto suggested innocently.
Shikamaru shrugged. "Whatever you say. Better eaten than rotten."
"My prince, you are so kind," Hana whispered in Naruto's mind.
"But don't finish all the fruit, okay? Save some for me later."
Naruto just snorted inwardly, ignoring Hana's request, which he found strange.
Unfortunately, when the two of them arrived in front of the ward where Choji was supposed to be treated, the room door was slightly ajar.
And what they saw inside was not Choji moaning in pain from his stomach, but an unexpected figure, standing with his back to the door, looking towards the patient's bed.
Seeing that figure, a faint but meaningful smirk immediately etched itself on Hana's face, who was inside Naruto's seal.
"Hohooo~ This is going to be interesting."
If there was a villain in the early stages of Naruto's story who could leave a deep impression and nightmares on the audience (besides the slippery Orochimaru), it might be the panda-eyed one with a sand gourd on his back… ahem! I mean, Sabaku no Gaara.
The reason why he was so impressive and frightening was not only because of his dark and tragic past, but also because of how he easily 'defeated' Rock Lee, one of the most prominent of the Konoha Twelve Rookies.
It's hard to explain how strong Rock Lee actually was at that time, but if one had to rank the strength among the Konoha Twelve Rookies when the Chunin Exams began, Rock Lee with his ability to open the Hachimon gates would be the undisputed number one.
Once five of those Eight Gates were opened, none of the other Twelve Rookies could match him.
And Gaara, who was able to defeat and even nearly kill Rock Lee without appearing injured in the slightest (although Lee managed to land several solid blows), was the strangest monster of all the strange people in that exam.
Of course, we all know that Rock Lee had kicked and thrashed Gaara like a beach volleyball, cracking his sand defense.
But when Gaara was kicked and hit in such a way, unless the thin protective layer of sand that always floated around his body was damaged, his real body suffered no significant physical injury at all.
A mild concussion perhaps, but that didn't count for a monster like him.
When he almost killed Rock Lee in the arena after their fight ended, he was stopped by Lee's teacher, Might Guy.
Gaara, with his twisted mind, didn't understand and asked Guy why he bothered saving Lee who was already defeated and useless.
Guy simply said, "Because Lee is my student... my most beloved and precious subordinate!"
This simple yet sincere sentence was what, for the first time, made Gaara feel a strong emotion in Guy's words, an emotion he had never felt or understood before.
And this emotion caused a great psychological turmoil within him.
This fluctuation... was perhaps a form of suppressed jealousy.
Without fully realizing it, deep in his heart, he was jealous of Rock Lee for having a teacher who loved and cared for him so much, while he himself had never experienced such a thing.
He didn't understand what love from others was, so he chose the easiest path: to destroy that love so that no one else could feel it either.
And the easiest way to destroy it right now was to kill Rock Lee, the source of the 'love' he saw from Might Guy.
So, here he was now, standing silently beside Rock Lee's still unconscious bed, controlling a clump of dense, blood-reeking yellow sand, ready to end Lee's life, which was already hanging by a thread.
If only Naruto and Shikamaru hadn't arrived at the right moment.
"DAMN YOU! WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO LEE?!"
As Shikamaru quickly used his Kagemane no Jutsu to bind and control Gaara's movements with his reflexes, Naruto's already peaked anger could no longer be contained.
Without thinking, he rushed forward and threw his right fist with all his might at Gaara's face.
"HOW DARE YOU TRY TO KILL HIM HERE!"
THWACK!
The sound of a dull, hard punch echoed in the quiet hospital ward, along with a suppressed groan of pain from... Shikamaru?
Gaara, whose face was hit by Naruto's punch, was only pushed back slightly, but his protective sand quickly absorbed most of the impact.
He didn't look seriously injured at all.
Whereas Shikamaru, still connected to Gaara through his shadow, gently covered his own aching face and complained slightly:
"Hey, hey, Naruto, take it easy a bit! After my shadow technique successfully binds the target, if you hit the target, I'll also feel the impact, you know!"
A target affected by the shadow technique would indeed be forced to make the exact same movements as the user.
And if the target was forced to move or was hit by an external force, while the user couldn't cancel the technique in time, then the user would also be forced to make the same movement or feel part of the impact from the attack.
Meaning, in this case, when Gaara, who was being controlled by Shikamaru, was hit by Naruto's punch, part of the impact of that punch would be felt back by Shikamaru as the jutsu user, and vice versa.
Of course, the strength or intensity of the impact felt would differ, depending on how strong the shadow bond was and how great the force of the external attack was.
"Oh! Ouch, sorry, Shikamaru! I totally forgot about that!"
Naruto touched the back of his head in his typical naive style, feeling a little guilty.
He was too overcome by emotion earlier.
But now was not the time to discuss the technical details of Shikamaru's jutsu.
Naruto turned back and looked at Gaara, who stood silently beside Lee's bed, with an angry and hostile gaze:
"What exactly do you intend to do here, huh?!"
The thin layer of sand armor slowly fell from Gaara's face, which had just been hit by Naruto's fist, enough to show that Naruto had no intention of holding back in his punch earlier.
However, Gaara paid no attention to all this. His facial expression didn't change in the slightest, remaining cold and as calm as a pool of water in the middle of the night.
"I want to kill him." He answered briefly, concisely, and clearly.
"What did you say?!" Naruto unconsciously clenched his fists again, a vein starting to throb on his temple.
Shikamaru, standing behind Naruto, frowned deeply: "..."
'What's wrong with this guy? How can he still be so calm and flat after everything that's happened? He's clearly restrained by my shadow and can't even move his body a bit. But his aura... his killing intent hasn't diminished at all.'
'This person... he's truly different from any other ninja I've ever met. He's not just strong, but also... insane.'
Shikamaru's expression became even more serious, and his chakra unconsciously began to condense, preparing for the worst-case scenario.
"Why do you want to do this? You already won the fight in the arena. Do you have such a great personal grudge against him?"
Gaara's voice remained flat, emotionless, as if he were discussing the weather.
"I just want to kill him, so I came to kill him. There's no other reason."
The sea of sand in his calm eyes seemed to have no ripples at all, and the coldness he emitted seemed to make one forget the scorching sun outside the hospital window.
There was no rise or fall of emotion in his voice, and it didn't fluctuate with Naruto's angry wind.
His voice was as calm and cold as a venomous snake ready to bite its prey without warning.