For a moment, the entire forest fell silent.
A single leaf spiraled through the air where Gaara had been standing, drifting lazily in the sudden stillness.
Even the other Sand siblings froze, struggling to process what they had just seen...
Gaara—their unstoppable monster—had been kicked halfway across the clearing by a blindfolded girl.
"So fast!"
Kankuro blurted out, his voice filled with shock at the speed Hinata Hyuga had just displayed.
"What… what happened just now?"
Temari didn't even react at first, her mind lagging behind reality.
The two of them stood stunned, their expressions slowly changing.
After all, in their understanding, Gaara was invincible.
Throughout all their missions together, they had never once seen him injured—let alone sent flying like this.
"Ahhhhh!"
Gaara's howl echoed from a distance.
A massive tree shattered and collapsed from the impact of his body, but Gaara himself wasn't seriously injured.
The gourd on his back, formed from condensed sand, had softened most of the blow, and the time he spent airborne had allowed him to reinforce himself with sand as a buffer.
However, Hyuga Hinata's kick—despite being partially weakened—had still landed solidly.
That pain was real.
That was why he screamed.
As Gaara roared, the chakra around his body surged violently.
An ominous aura—belonging to the tailed beast—began to leak out.
At this moment, Gaara was in a state eerily similar to what he had been in back in the anime… when Uchiha Sasuke stabbed him with Chidori.
Hinata Hyuga took a gentle step forward.
Her figure vanished once more.
Temari and Kankuro, who had been tense and ready to intervene, immediately lost track of her.
The two instinctively turned their heads—
Toward Gaara.
The very next second, Hinata Hyuga appeared right behind him.
"Heh… heh…"
Gaara let out a low, feral growl. He had already sensed her presence.
The sand around him rose into the air.
As long as you're within my range… die.
Gaara's thoughts twisted maliciously.
"Sandstorm—"
Bang!
With a crisp palm strike, Hinata Hyuga brought her hands together and spoke softly,
"Sage Art Technique · Water Style · Explosive Water Wave!"
The next instant, a terrifying torrent of water erupted from her mouth, slamming directly into Gaara, who had just begun mobilizing the sand beneath him.
Hinata Hyuga wasn't stupid.
She knew very well that physical attacks were heavily weakened against Gaara's sand.
There was no reason to keep forcing taijutsu.
She wasn't Rock Lee—someone who relied solely on physical skills.
As for ninjutsu, she had trained extensively.
The only thing she truly lacked was medical ninjutsu.
But not specializing in it didn't mean she couldn't use ninjutsu at all.
Reading the battlefield, Hinata Hyuga keenly realized that the best way to counter Gaara's sand was Water Release.
So she used it without hesitation.
Empowered by incomplete Sage Art, the explosive waves surged forward, and Gaara—who had just been send dozens of meters away—was swept back by the massive flow in the blink of an eye.
"Gaara!"
Temari cried out, unable to hide her worry as she watched her brother get dragged along by the violent current.
"Damn it… how can she be this strong?"
Kankuro's face darkened completely.
Their trump card was now lying in mud and soaked sand like a discarded sack.
And the opponent wasn't even injured.
This wasn't an ordinary genin—not even close.
What kind of genin had this level of strength?
"Damn it…"
Gaara muttered, his expression growing even more vicious.
In truth, he hadn't suffered much damage.
Aside from some dizziness, he was largely fine.
The real reason he couldn't stand was that his Sand Armor had absorbed too much water, becoming unbearably heavy.
But Gaara didn't care about looking pathetic.
What enraged him was the fact that he hadn't even been able to fight back.
This outcome was the exact opposite of what he wanted.
Before he could recover...
Hinata Hyuga's figure appeared directly above him.
A fist, packed with dense chakra, came crashing down toward his abdomen.
"Gaara, be careful!"
"Watch out!"
Temari and Kankuro shouted at the same time.
But that was all they could do.
The earlier surge of water had forced them back, and Hinata Hyuga's speed was far beyond their reaction time.
Even if they had reacted, they were already too far away.
Poof!
Hinata Hyuga's fist slammed into Gaara's stomach.
"Gaagh—!"
Gaara's body folded unnaturally as the pain exploded through him. His eyes rolled back, turning completely white.
He lost consciousness instantly.
At the same time, deep inside Gaara's body—
The irritable Shukaku had no idea that Hinata Hyuga's punch had been aimed straight at him.
Otherwise, Gaara might have been beaten to death on the spot.
Caught completely off guard, Shukaku—who had been watching the fight with amusement, ready to break the seal at any moment—was struck hard on the cheek and slammed straight into the corner of the seal.
"Gaara!"
"How is that even possible?!"
Temari and Kankuro could no longer accept what they were seeing.
More importantly, they both knew exactly what was inside Gaara's body.
Horror crept into their expressions.
Knocking Gaara unconscious was essentially the same as triggering the technique of faking sleep—
Which meant Shukaku was about to be released.
Just as they were about to flee, they saw Hinata Hyuga leap upward and pull out a small scroll from the ninja tool pouch behind her.
Boom.
The scroll unfurled midair and slapped against Gaara's abdomen.
Hinata Hyuga quickly formed hand seals.
A few seconds later, as she pressed both hands onto the scroll, black sealing runes surfaced across Gaara's body—then slowly faded away.
The violent, ominous chakra leaking from him was instantly suppressed.
"…That should hold it… for the moment."
Hinata Hyuga straightened up, wiping away sweat that didn't actually exist.
Her back faced Gaara's siblings, black hair fluttering in the wind.
The black blindfold over her eyes and her calm words—made the scene feel even more unreal.
She then turned her head slightly toward Temari and Kankuro before jumping several meters away from Gaara.
"What did you do to Gaara?"
After rushing to his side, Temari asked stiffly.
"A temporary seal," Hinata Hyuga replied lightly.
"It'll keep what's inside him quiet for a while."
In truth, this seal hadn't been prepared for Gaara at all.
It was originally meant to seal chakra—her opponent's chakra, to be precise.
The reason she used it now was simple: a tailed beast was essentially a mass of chakra, and letting it rampage would be troublesome.
Even with Sage Art amplification, this seal wouldn't be able to suppress Shukaku for long.
Sooner or later, it would break free.
That was why Hinata Hyuga only said for a while.
As for how long that "while" would last—
She honestly didn't know.
After all, the seal scroll hadn't been made by her.
It was something Karin had practiced with while learning sealing techniques.
"A… seal?"
Temari hadn't expected that answer.
Of course, it wasn't strange for a ninja to carry sealing tools.
The Chunin Exams were dangerous to begin with—bringing something to prevent fatal situations was only normal.
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