"Speaking of which, Kakashi-sensei, you guys came to the rescue much faster than I thought."
Naruto remarked casually while subtly tucking the Kusanagi Sword he had picked up into his waistband.
"The proctors only sent out the distress signal a short while ago, and you guys showed up almost immediately."
Though his battle against Kisame and Itachi had felt lengthy, in reality, it hadn't taken much time at all.
Given the distance between the Forest of Death and Konoha's residential area, Kakashi and the others had arrived surprisingly quickly.
But unexpectedly, Kakashi blinked in confusion at Naruto's words.
"What distress signal? We came under direct orders from the Hokage after receiving intel about intruders in the second exam area."
Naruto frowned at this.
'Something wasn't right.'
'Orochimaru's target is not us.'
In just a few seconds, Naruto pieced together the anomaly and realized that Kakashi and the others had likely been lured away as part of a diversion.
While Naruto was confirming the situation with Kakashi, on the other side of the battlefield, Temari's expression grew increasingly frantic as she watched her comrades being subdued one after another.
She and Kankuro were barely holding their own against the Anbu's assault.
However, since the two siblings are just Genin, they are still a little immature in front of the Anbu.
If not for the Anbu's orders to capture them alive, she and Kankuro would have been killed already.
Temari turned her gaze to Gaara, whose body was already half-covered in sand, and without waiting for the reinforcements of Sunagakure's Ninjas that were supposed to arrive as part of their plan, she shouted desperately.
"Gaara, now!"
Gaara's sand was more than enough to deal with ordinary examinees, but against the coordinated and disciplined Anbu's members, it was proving ineffective.
Several attacks from the Jonin had already cut through his defenses, leaving shallow wounds on his skin… and this only enraged the already unstable boy further.
"Damn it! Die… all of you!"
With Gaara's furious roar, an even greater surge of sand enveloped his body, morphing into a monstrous form.
Blue-purple stripes flickered across the surface of the sand, radiating an ominous aura.
The Chakra of the One-Tail, Shukaku, erupted violently from his body, and in the blink of an eye, his figure swelled grotesquely.
"Hm? What's that?!"
Kakashi and Naruto also heard the commotion coming from this direction. When they turned to look, they saw Gaara, who had gone berserk, already in a half-Tailed Beast state.
With the massive boost in Chakra, the surrounding Anbu couldn't get close to him in a short time… in fact, several had already been severely injured by his clawed strikes.
"So this is the Jinchuriki from Sunagakure?"
Kakashi knew some of the information about Sunagakure, so he quickly realized the boy's true identity.
And these words were also heard by Naruto.
'This state... is what a Jinchuriki is?'
Looking at the monstrous appearance of the figure before him, Naruto thought that, at least from the looks of it, calling a Jinchuriki a monster wasn't an exaggeration.
'But… why don't I have this kind of state?'
Naruto was puzzled, and Kurama, who is in his consciousness space, felt even more wronged.
Was it that Kurama didn't want to influence Naruto?
No… it was that he couldn't!
Back when Naruto was still weak, Kurama was locked up in a small dark room by an invisible force and could do nothing except serve as a power bank.
By the time he was finally 'released from prison', his Jinchuriki had somehow mutated, with his spirit becoming incredibly dense.
Forget making him go berserk, even forcibly dragging him into a conversation required a tremendous effort.
Kurama was finding it harder and harder to understand his Jinchuriki.
Although he was confused, Naruto didn't plan to just stand by and watch after seeing the rampaging Gaara easily toss aside the Anbu's suppression and prepare to attack indiscriminately.
At this point, he knew their group wasn't the enemy's main target, so he didn't have time to waste here.
Without caring about anything else, Naruto stomped hard on the ground, his figure vanishing instantly before reappearing above Gaara.
His iron fist slammed straight into Gaara's monstrous head, shattering the sand armor and revealing Gaara's real body beneath.
The change happened too fast. Before anyone could react, the monster that had just been wreaking havoc was suddenly punched into the ground by Naruto.
The Anbu and Jonin, who had come to assist, stared at Naruto in shock. Some of them recognized him and some were not very familiar with him, but all of them were stunned.
In contrast, the other examinees who had witnessed Naruto single-handedly fighting two powerful invaders earlier weren't nearly as surprised.
"Gaara!"
The only ones present who cared about Gaara's life were his siblings, Temari and Kankuro.
They didn't care about the fact that Gaara, who had just gone berserk, almost attacked them as well, and they didn't even care about the terrifying Naruto in front of them, and rushed over directly.
As the older sister, Temari knew she was no match for Naruto, but she still raised her fan to shield her brother.
Meanwhile, Kankuro carefully checked Gaara's injuries.
Naruto had no intention of stopping them. He just clenched his fists lightly with a hint of confusion on his face.
'This feeling… why does it feel so natural?'
'It's as if I was born to beat this guy up.'
Suddenly, Naruto's expression changed. Before he could even speak, he dashed toward Gaara at full speed.
With his speed, Temari and Kankuro couldn't react at all.
By the time they realized what was happening and tried to resist, Naruto had already grabbed them by the collars and yanked them aside.
"Everyone, get away from here!"
Hearing Naruto's shout, the other examinees reacted faster than their minds could process, almost instinctively obeying his command.
While the Anbu and Jonin were a beat slower, their speed made up for it.
Therefore, by the time Naruto's warning echoed, everyone had already distanced themselves from Gaara's fallen body.
Suddenly, a sinister Chakra erupted from Gaara's body, rapidly spreading outward.
Countless grains of sand gathered under the influence of this Chakra, swiftly forming a colossal, mountain-like figure.
Thankfully, the crowd had already scattered, otherwise, the sheer force of its emergence alone might have caused casualties.
"What kind of monster is that?!"
"It's... it's the Tailed Beast!"
"Everyone, form up! Now! Restrict it with Ninjutsu!"
…
Some lost their will to fight the moment they saw the overwhelming presence of the One-Tail, Shukaku, while the professionally trained Jonin immediately moved to restrict the beast's movements with Ninjutsu.
"Roar!!!"
Though Gaara hadn't used the Feigning Sleep Technique, his loss of consciousness allowed Shukaku to temporarily take full control of the body.
Shukaku let out a deafening roar, as if venting years of pent-up frustration from his imprisonment.
But Shukaku's moment of glory lasted only a few seconds before a tiny figure abruptly appeared right on the tip of his nose.
"Huh?"
Before Shukaku could even process it, Naruto, who had been standing there, vanished mid-air with a single step.
"I don't have time to waste on you!"
Those were the last words Shukaku heard clearly after years of imprisonment and his brief moment of freedom.
Since he already knew that he might be being plotted against, Naruto naturally had no intention of playing along with the enemy's plans.
An huge amount of Chakra gathered in Naruto's palm, forming a Rasengan larger than a human.
Then, with brutal efficiency, he slammed it straight into Shukaku's face.
The spiraling force rapidly ground away the sand armor protecting Shukaku's head.
After releasing the Rasengan, Naruto let the out-of-control Rasengan explode on its own, blowing Shukaku to pieces.
Honestly, this kind of gigantic enemy suited him far better than slippery opponents like Itachi.
Then, Naruto's sharp eyes then locked onto the exposed Gaara's real body.
His fist clenched.
Originally, Naruto wanted to just punch the other person to show his 'love'.
However, at the critical moment, looking at Gaara's young face, which seemed to have calmed down after being unconscious, he thought of his own past.
Then he remembered Temari and Kankuro standing protectively in front of their brother.
'Tsk, you're lucky.'
Grabbing Gaara by the head, Naruto forcibly yanked him out of Shukaku's body and tossed him toward Temari and Kankuro.
He had no intention of saying anything to the two siblings. After all, strictly speaking, they were still enemies who had invaded Konoha Village.
"I'll leave these people to you. I've got other places to be."
Naruto didn't intend to explain too much, and immediately left quickly amid Kakashi's puzzled question "Where are you going?", leaving only chaos behind.