Following Naruto's gaze, they saw a pink-haired girl standing on a civilian house about five or six meters away, watching them.
And on a large tree not far from the girl, a handsome man was vigilantly watching the nearby shadows.
Just then, a person carrying a gourd and bearing the character for 'love' tattooed on his forehead emerged from the shadows.
"Gaara!"
Kankuro and Temari were shocked.
They were shocked that the girl had been watching them without them noticing.
They were also shocked that Gaara, who was usually lawless, was being held in check by that handsome man.
That's right, they assumed Gaara was being restrained, otherwise, given his personality, he surely would have attacked already.
"Interesting. The Ninja of Konoha are truly interesting."
"Tell me your names."
Gaara looked calm yet slightly maniacal. For some reason, seeing Gaara like this gave Naruto the impulse to try and befriend him.
"My name is Uzumaki Naruto."
"Uchiha Sasuke."
"Sakura Haruno."
After The Rookie Three introduced themselves, Temari immediately reacted and quickly said, "My name is Temari."
Kankuro also followed suit, saying, "Kankuro."
"Gaara."
After exchanging names, Team 7's trio was about to leave with the Konohamaru Corps, and it was at this moment... "Since you are so interesting, then all of you shall die here."
"Sand shuriken."
Gaara attacked without any warning.
The Rookie Three reacted quickly. Naruto immediately carried the Konohamaru Corps away from the spot, and Sakura instantly appeared in front of Kankuro and Temari, restraining the two of them.
And Sasuke directly launched a Ninjutsu toward Gaara.
"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique."
Chakra was channeled, and from his mouth, a massive fireball, three or four meters in diameter, instantly formed and blasted toward Gaara.
Facing the fireball attack, Gaara stood his ground without moving, and his sand immediately blocked it.
Sasuke, however, was forced to leap away from the large tree by Gaara's Sand shuriken.
"Run quickly! If you don't run, Gaara will kill you!"
Temari and Kankuro knew how terrifying Gaara was. Since childhood, whenever Gaara showed killing intent toward someone, that person could immediately start preparing their funeral.
To avoid causing trouble for their own Village, Temari quickly urged the Konoha people to run.
"It's fine. My two teammates are very strong."
Sakura Haruno fully acknowledged the strength of Sasuke and Naruto. Not to mention the martial arts they gained in the game, their inherent strength alone was far beyond what an average Genin could compare to.
"Gaara is different from ordinary Ninja... In short, run quickly... Ah, it's too late."
Sakura didn't know that a monster was sealed inside Gaara's body, but Temari did! Seeing Sakura remain unmoved, Temari was frantic, urging them repeatedly to run. Just then, out of the corner of her eye, she saw Gaara erupt a massive amount of sand, which began to envelop Naruto, who was preparing to step onto the battlefield.
"Sand, huh?"
Seeing the sand about to completely envelop him, Naruto remained calm and showed no sign of panic.
"Originally, I wanted to be friends with you, but since you're so arrogant, I have no choice but to..."
"Damn it."
'Kurama, lend me some Chakra.'
'No problem, kid.'
For some reason, Naruto detected a hint of schadenfreude in that sentence.
But the current situation didn't allow Naruto to analyze the sentence; he only had one thought: to beat Gaara soundly.
'Swish~'
The instant the Nine-Tails Chakra surged into his body, a powerful and malevolent orange-red Chakra suddenly erupted around Naruto's body.
The moment this Chakra appeared, the sand still clinging to Naruto's body was immediately blasted away.
Gaara wanted to control the sand to continue clinging to Naruto, but he found that no matter how hard he tried to drive the sand, it couldn't attach itself to Naruto.
The orange-red Chakra acted like Naruto's protective outer garment, shielding him from the sand's harm.
"Well~ Are you ready to take a beating?"
"Whoosh~"
With a light push of his feet, Naruto rushed toward Gaara like a streak of orange light, and the stone bricks beneath his feet cracked in all directions from the force of his momentum.
This situation was as terrifying as Rock Lee opening the Third Gate.
"Take this punch!"
Facing Naruto's attack, Gaara seemed very confident, still standing still as always. He knew his sand would protect him.
However, this time Gaara miscalculated. Although the sand did protect him, when faced with Naruto's terrifying punch, it was immediately scattered.
"Bang!"
With a single punch, Gaara was sent flying.
Faced with this scene, everyone present was stunned.
Kankuro and Temari were stunned because Gaara had actually been punched and sent flying by someone.
Sasuke and Sakura were stunned because this was the first time they had seen Naruto unleash such powerful and malevolent Chakra, which seemed slightly different from the Naruto they knew.
The Konohamaru Corps, however, didn't have any complex feelings, they just kept cheering Naruto on.
"Bastard, Uzumaki Naruto, I'm going to kill you, I absolutely must kill you."
Naruto was slightly surprised. Although he hadn't used his full strength in that punch, it should have been enough to knock out a Genin.
Taking a closer look, Gaara hadn't been knocked unconscious; instead, he seemed even more enraged.
"Is the surface of your body protected by sand too? No wonder you weren't knocked unconscious."
"But it doesn't matter. It just means I need to land a few more punches."
Just as Naruto was about to take a few steps forward and punch Gaara a few more times, Kurama suddenly withdrew his Chakra.
'What's wrong, Kurama? I was just getting into the swing of things.'
Naruto was showing off here, so what did you mean by suddenly withdrawing the Chakra?
You're not trying to mess with me, are you?
'Someone is coming.'
Kurama didn't mean to mess with Naruto; he had sensed someone quickly approaching nearby.
"What happened here?"
A few seconds later, three Anbu wearing masks appeared.
Seeing the messy scene, they naturally knew something had happened.
However, they still had to ask, as per procedure.
"Nothing, nothing. We were just sparring."
"Yes, yes. It's our first time seeing Genin from another Village, so we couldn't help but spar a bit."
Seeing the Konoha Anbu arrive, and fearing Gaara's identity would be exposed, Temari and Kankuro quickly spoke up, saying that everyone was just sparring and it was nothing serious.