Bonus chapter 🌟
Jokichi snapped his neck under everyone's watchful eyes, then casually twisted it back as if nothing had happened.
Ignoring Naruto, Sakura, Konohamaru, and the others who were scared pale, he walked straight towards Kankuro.
"Acting so arrogantly in someone else's village, didn't you ever think about the consequences?"
Jokichi walked unhurriedly, a cold smile on his face.
"Although we're allied with Sunagakure, the injury you caused me was enough to be fatal. Which means..."
Jokichi vanished from his spot.
The rest of his sentence came from behind the two Sand siblings.
"...It would be fine for me to kill you, right!"
His voice was clearly very plain, but to everyone's ears, it sounded extremely chilling.
Kankuro and Temari's hearts leaped. Without a shred of hesitation, they turned and jumped backward.
Their slightly trembling pupils reflected Jokichi's figure, bearing a faint smile.
Opening a distance of five or six meters, Kankuro and Temari stopped.
The two looked at Jokichi warily, drawing the iron fan and the bandage-wrapped unknown object from their backs into their hands.
Kankuro originally just wanted to test the weight of the Konoha ninjas before the Chunin Exams.
His earlier threat to snap the arm was just provocation and intimidation.
After all, they were in another village. He wasn't stupid or arrogant enough to completely disregard everyone else.
But now, the opponent seemed intent on provoking a fight, and his own actions had given them the perfect excuse.
For the opponent to say such words meant they were being treated as enemies.
They could no longer treat this lightly like before.
"Be careful, this guy is too bizarre."
Temari stared warily at Jokichi, not forgetting to remind Kankuro beside her.
"That much is obvious just by looking, right!"
Kankuro's forehead dripped with sweat.
Arms and legs broken, yet regenerating in less than a second.
Neck snapped, yet able to reattach it himself.
Such things were simply unheard of before this.
Moreover, the speed the opponent displayed earlier was astonishingly fast.
In just a moment of inattention, they had lost sight of his figure.
This speed was already on par with their Jonin instructor, Baki.
This guy is no Genin!
The two couldn't help but think inwardly.
However, facing the two whose hearts were taut as bowstrings, Jokichi looked toward the large tree beside them.
"How long are you going to keep watching from the sidelines?"
Jokichi chuckled softly.
"Do you think if those two fight me, you still want to sacrifice your teammates to test my ninjutsu?"
As soon as these words came out, everyone was shocked.
Their gazes involuntarily drifted toward the large tree.
A boy with no eyebrows, a bright red character for "Love" written on his forehead, heavy dark circles under his eyes, and a sand gourd on his back was standing upside down on a branch.
When did this guy get here!?
Naruto and Sakura were both shocked.
Jokichi had been looking at the large tree from the moment he arrived.
In other words, this guy had been hiding to the side watching the show since that time.
But at such a close distance, they hadn't noticed him at all.
Damn it, is the gap in strength that huge?
Naruto suffered a deep blow internally.
However, Naruto's strong point was that he wasn't afraid of setbacks.
No matter what kind of frustration he suffered, no matter how difficult the path ahead was, he would never give up.
"Ga—Gaara!"
Looking at the boy standing upside down on the tree, both Kankuro and Temari became a bit nervous, cold sweat dripping down their foreheads.
Gaara casually shot them a glance, then let his gaze fall on Jokichi.
"Whoosh!"
A gentle breeze blew by.
Gaara moved from the tree and appeared in front of Jokichi, his emotionless eyes looking at him calmly.
"These two guys are your comrades, right?"
Jokichi rolled his neck, cracking his joints, and chuckled softly.
"You stood aside watching the battle, making no move to stop your teammate's murderous actions. Can I assume that you were manipulating things behind the scenes?"
Gaara crossed his arms over his chest, his face indifferent.
"...Do you want to fight me?"
"Eh?"
Jokichi tilted his head slightly, then laughed softly.
"What a smart guy. That's right, I was aiming for you from the very beginning."
"You bastard!"
Kankuro and Temari instantly blocked in front of Gaara, the iron fan and the bandage-wrapped object held horizontally before them.
The two showed concern for Gaara, but Gaara didn't appreciate it at all.
He spoke in a voice completely devoid of emotion.
"Move."
"Gaara..."
The two looked back at the boy, hesitation on their faces.
"...Gaara, don't forget our objective for coming to Konoha," Temari reminded him hesitantly after a moment.
"Move."
Gaara repeated his previous words, a trace of impatience added to his tone.
The two hurriedly stepped aside, looking at him with worried eyes.
But Gaara didn't fly into a violent rage to hurt people as they imagined.
Instead, he looked at Jokichi very calmly.
"There are many people who want to kill me, but they have all been killed by me."
A short sentence spoken in an extremely calm tone.
Yet somehow, it made a chill spread all over one's body. Konohamaru and the others even broke out in goosebumps.
"Is that so?"
Jokichi rubbed his neck and stretched, speaking nonchalantly.
"I have suffered fatal injuries tens, hundreds, thousands of times, yet I have never once been in mortal danger. I also really want to experience the feeling of death."
"Is that so?"
The two stood facing each other, their indifferent eyes locked onto one another.
The summer breeze blew, rustling their sleeves.
The shadows of the trees swayed, enveloping the two, as if isolating them from the rest of the world.
This was, of course, an illusion.
Their auras were too intense, causing the onlookers to hallucinate that they were no longer in the same world.
They stared intently at the two, their nerves not daring to relax in the slightest.
After a long while, Gaara raised his head slightly.
"I still have a mission in Konoha. Let's do it next time."
"You don't hold the initiative here, right!"
Jokichi chuckled.
"Even if you don't want to fight me, I can still eliminate you guys under the pretext of legitimate self-defense."
"He's the only one who laid a hand on you."
Gaara pointed at Kankuro.
"If you want to kill someone, kill him."
"Gaara..."
Kankuro's face looked somewhat embarrassed.
Temari anxiously tried to explain to Gaara.
"Gaara, this matter..."
"Shut up."
Gaara glared at them fiercely.
"Haven't you disgraced the village enough?"
"Bastard, aren't you comrades from the same village and the same team?"
Naruto spoke with righteous indignation.
"How can a comrade sell out their own teammate!"
Gaara cast a faint glance at him and ignored him.
Kankuro and Temari, on the other hand, had complicated expressions when looking at Naruto.
"It is true that Kankuro initiated the attack and threats, but your injuries were all self-inflicted. Although he is also at fault..."
Gaara looked up at Jokichi.
"But looking at the results, you didn't suffer the slightest harm. If you insist on killing him over this level of an incident, then the alliance between Sunagakure and Konoha might fracture because of it. As the main culprit causing this incident, you would also be punished by the Hokage, right?"
As soon as these words came out, the scene quieted down.
Kankuro and Temari looked at Gaara in disbelief, as if they were getting to know this person all over again.
And Naruto, who had just been clamoring to teach Gaara a lesson, was full of awkwardness.
How was this selling out a teammate? He was clearly trying to protect his teammate.
Tch! As expected of someone who could become Kazekage. Even if his mind isn't right right now, he's very calm and sees things much more thoroughly than his older brother and sister.
However—
"I have no intention of taking your lives. If it's just a normal fight between Genin, even if we suffer some injuries, it shouldn't affect anything, right!"