If Gaara hadn't had the Armor of Sand, he would've been in real trouble this round.
But now Gaara wasn't hurt—he was just even more furious with Hanabi.
Sand on the ground surged skyward again.
A massive wave of sand poured down like a waterfall.
"In that case—"
Hanabi made quick hand seals.
"Fire Style: Great Fire Annihilation!"
A tremendous pillar of flame shot up, actually overpowering the sand.
A lot of it, superheated into molten liquid, dripped down to the ground and solidified into crystal.
[Grass (a type of exclamation), she made glass]
[What's going on, why did it turn into crystal?]
[That's glass. It's the classic sand-turning-into-glass moment]
[Holy crap, my first time seeing sand turned to glass was in an anime]
[Grass (a type of exclamation), suddenly thinking about Sasuke's Grand Fireball—the gap is insane]
[Sasuke is a normal guy, about average even among Genin... yeah, average Genin]
[When you put it that way, I'm starting to feel really bad for Sasuke]
"Gaara, that woman's only here to rescue people, we—"
"Shut up!"
Gaara went completely feral, couldn't stand hearing another word from Kankuro.
"You're so persistent. Even though your actual base level is only around Genin."
That wasn't Hanabi talking nonsense.
The standard Gaara at his debut really was around Genin level. That wasn't her making things up—it was written into the Naruto databooks.
After his training arc, Sasuke was on roughly even terms with Gaara.
But if you factored in the Tailed Beast's power, that was a different story.
Having a Tailed Beast versus not having one—two totally different concepts.
"You have a mother who loved you so much. Why would you—treat yourself like this?"
Hanabi tilted her head, as if genuinely not understanding this kind of thing.
"Shut up shut up shut up!"
Gaara's whole head was about to boil over.
"What on earth is that woman talking about!" Kankuro had no idea what to say anymore.
This was not the first time she'd been courting death.
Saying those things in front of Gaara was basically dancing on a grave.
"He isn't going to actually use Shukaku's power, is he..."
Temari was getting tense too.
This wasn't just dancing on a grave anymore, this was practically tap-dancing on a grave!
Even more sand surged toward Hanabi.
"Ah well, clearly reason isn't getting through here."
Hanabi spun, her shinobi outfit vanishing, her weapon shifting into twin swords.
"Then let's go!"
Hanabi disappeared into the distance—and in the next instant, she was right beside Gaara.
Her twin swords were wreathed in flame.
[Grass (a type of exclamation), OVA moves]
[Last time it was black flames, this time she's alone so it's regular fire]
[You guys still have time to pause and comment right now?]
[Like you weren't just cracking up a second ago]
Hanabi was fast. Gaara didn't have time to react, but the sand around him was already moving to defend.
"Hanabi Style: Dragon Flame Airflow Slash!"
A twin-sword technique—something she had to invent herself.
A chained flaming strike.
First blow: horizontal slash, single-sword thrust.
No question, the attack was blocked by the sand, but the surface of the blocking sand crystallized.
Second blow: lunge. The second blade slipped through the gap and stabbed straight into the Armor of Sand.
Gaara pulled back immediately, but Hanabi had already shifted into the next motion—pivoting for her attack.
Third blow: spinning slash. Gaara's movements were instantly locked down.
Then the twin blades came from the other side, one high, one low, pinning him down.
One relentless attack after another pierced forward like a cutting current.
Gaara couldn't go fully defensive.
Because the moment he did, Hanabi would throw that doubled-up senbon.
Countless high-temperature metal jets, even just coating the surface, were enough to sear flesh.
No—in that situation, it'd only take a moment to sear the surface of the sand ball into glass, seal everything inside, and suffocate Gaara completely.
A sixteen-hit combo shattered Gaara's defense outright. Under Hanabi's offensive, Gaara couldn't hold her back.
In the end, the twin blades thrust into Gaara's chest.
But Gaara reached up and grabbed the searing blades in return.
"Hmm? Using rapid sand flow to accelerate heat dissipation and prevent it from turning into glass?"
Hanabi was a little surprised.
"Hmph, there's no way you could break Gaara's absolute defense!" Kankuro said that, but he'd genuinely been spooked a moment ago.
Gaara had been almost completely unable to block Hanabi's attacks.
"Got you!"
Gaara's sand climbed up the twin blades and wrapped around Hanabi's hands.
"No—I've got you."
Suddenly, a pair of hands emerged from behind Hanabi, reaching around to grab Gaara in turn.
"She's got four hands?!"
Kankuro lost it.
"Hey hey hey, I knew that person was strong, but your little sister has somehow gotten strong enough to grow an extra pair of hands?!" Kiba Inuzuka's eyes went wide.
"That's... a puppet?" Hinata was the one to spot what was really going on.
"All together, Kankuro!" Temari saw Gaara being grabbed by the enemy and lost her composure too. She whipped out her battle fan and charged in.
"Mm, those must be puppet arms!" Kankuro was a puppeteer, after all—he'd instantly figured out what those arms were.
"Sorry, but you two don't have a part in this scene."
Another pair of puppet arms emerged behind Hanabi and began forming seals.
"Fire Style: Phoenix Flower Jutsu!"
Kankuro and Temari, who'd just been rushing in, were immediately suppressed by Hanabi's jutsu.
[Grass (a type of exclamation), six hands]
[Should have figured it out earlier when Hanabi could manipulate steel wire]
[Wait, bro, puppet arms can do hand seals too? Then could you use someone else's hands to form seals too?]
[Kushina Yuki does that, right? She can form seals with her feet—it feels like forming seals is basically reciting incantations, anyone doing it is more or less the same]
[Didn't some forum expert explain it earlier? It's like coding—as long as you can produce the result, that's enough. Go check the forums and you'll see]
[How many techniques does Hanabi still have that she hasn't shown yet?]
[Six hands! That's six hands! Triple the fun!]
[??? You up front, what are you talking about?]
[You're not right in the head!]
Prosthetics could form seals, and could also be controlled to work as arms.
When Hanabi was in [Crimson Gear] mode, she couldn't really use ninjutsu freely—first because her hands were busy holding the twin blades, and second because setting them down to form seals would ruin the visual.
It'd hurt the visual impact!
But with prosthetics, there was no such worry.
Plus, taking into account the fact that some pe
ople didn't like four arms or six arms, Hanabi had deliberately made the puppet arms look more mechanical, and even added some visual flourish.
Based on the current reaction, the effect was working.
"Your mother's power is protecting you very well."
Hanabi had Gaara pinned, but didn't deliver the final, fatal blow.
"—From that monster's hands."
"Hm?!"
Gaara's pupils went wide.
But the audience didn't get to see what came next—because at that moment, the view cut back to the actual protagonists, Naruto and Sasuke...