32 Chapter 31: One-Sided Beat Down III

"This is going to be an interesting one." Asuma commented.

"Indeed, the Suna boy is not one to be taken lightly. Then again, young Naruto-kun has shown us how dangerous he can be as well when he defeated my student.

Considering the skill set he has shown so far, along with what he probably didn't reveal ... coupled with the one dimensional offence/defence of the Suna boy ... I think Naruto-kun has a good chance to win this." Gai remarked, with a rare moment of lucidity.

Lee, who was watching from beside his sensei, gripped his cane in anticipation. He watched Naruto-kun, who was labelled a dead-last like himself, defeat his greatest rival easily. And now he was up against the guy who basically crippled him.

He remembered Naruto-kun's words of praise for him, and he vowed to himself to find a way to get better to not only live up to the expectations of a man he was coming to respect as much as Gai-sensei, but to also to one day give him a fight he can remember.

"Damn right Gai! I got a lot of money on that sexy gaki down there! He's gonna be helping momma rake in a fuck load of cash!" Anko declared with her eyes turning into Ryo symbols at the thought of all the dango she could buy with the money she was going to win.

The other rookies were silently watching, still trying to fully comprehend the fact that Naruto has become such a powerhouse. It was still surreal to see how much he's changed in the last few months.

...

"The first match of the second round, Uzumaki Naruto Vs Sabaku no Gaara" Genma announced, looking to each participant, who nodded in confirmation, before bringing his hand down, "Begi-"

He was stopped mind sentence as a swirl of leaves erupted in the middle of the two fighters, revealing a nonchalant Kakashi and a haughty looking Uchiha Sasuke.

Naruto just sweat-droppped at these two idiots, trying to look cool. He honestly had to question the system in Konoha if these two morons got as far as they did without a psyche evaluation followed by being confined in a white padded room.

"Sorry, are we late?" Kakashi questioned casually, without taking his eyes off his little orange book.

Genma had to bite down on his senbon to stop from lashing out at the Jounin for his behaviour, along with the fact that he and his student have caused some embarrassment for Konoha with their tardy behaviour.

"As a matter of fact, yes you are. The first round of matches have already concluded. Your charge was disqualified after failing to show up, even after being granted a five minute extension.

I would kindly ask you to evacuate the field so we can get on with the next match, which you just interrupted." Genma pointed out, watching with a small sense of satisfaction, the growing horror on Kakashi's face as well as the infuriated look on the face of the Uchiha.

"Bu…but…" Kakashi spluttered. He thought they would postpone the match to accommodate Sasuke, seeing as most people came to watch him. They were forced to arrive later due to the fact that Sasuke finally managed to get a good grasp on the jutsu that Kakashi taught him, to a level that was deemed acceptable.

He never imagined that his student would be disqualified, making all the work that they put in amount to basically a waste of time as his student wouldn't be able to show the fruits of his labour. He looked across the field and was shocked to see his other student, standing there nonchalantly, without so much as a scratch on him or a hair out of place.

Naruto fighting in this match could only mean that he defeated Hyuuga Neji, something that Kakashi didn't really think he would be able to pull off. The fact that he doesn't even look like he was in a fight could only mean that he won with relative ease.

A small part of him wondered if he made a mistake in focusing mainly on Sasuke's training, but he decided that there was no point in dwelling on his choices.

Sasuke, for his part was infuriated. He expected them to hold out till he got there. He was the last Uchicha after all. His importance to the village was parroted to him so often that is almost became a rule of thumb in this village to cater to his whims.

Being denied the chance to fight a powerful opponent was galling, and more proof in his delusional mind that this village was holding him back. In his mind, that old fossil should have had the balls to delay his match till he got there.

He looked behind him, prepared to intimidate whichever loser took his place in the match to hand their place over to him…when he froze in place. He looked directly into Naruto's playful eyes.

He spent enough time around the blonde these last few months, enduring casual remarks about his masculinity and humiliating pranks which he knew his teammate was behind although he had no proof, for his body to develop a natural response to Naruto's presence.

He didn't really care about the blonde, but he was smart enough to know when to be afraid…and every fibre of his being was telling him to get the fuck out of the blonde's line of sight immediately.

Even though he still looked as calm and casual as he always did ... There was something different about his teammate right now, and he knew instinctively that if he made a scene right now…it would not end well for him.

So, although he hated it, he swallowed his pride, which was no small feat, and consoled himself that he would put the blonde in his place in the future.

After the two interlopers evacuated the arena and took their place with the rest of the Jounin and the rookies, Genma once again took his place to call the beginning of the match.

"Uzumaki Naruto Vs Sabaku no Gaara….Begin!" He declared, before using the Shunshin no Jutsu to get the fuck out the way of the two titans that were about to clash.

There was an eerie silence that descended upon the arena. The tension was rising exponentially, even though neither of the competitors so much as twitched. Some of the more squeamish members of the audience started to squirm uncomfortably.

The killer intent from Gaara started to flood the stadium, taking many off guard by the sheer quantity and potency of it. Naruto on the other hand, didn't even look fazed by the intimidation tactics from his opponent. He still looked as tranquil as ever.

He smiled at Gaara…almost mockingly…with a single raised eyebrow, like a parent looking at a petulant child throwing a tantrum. It only served to upset Gaara even more…making him even more unstable than usual.

"Uzumaki…mother will have your blood! You will prove my existence!" Gaara declared, with a sick smile on his face directed at Naruto.

Naruto just raised a single eyebrow in amusement at the clearly unstable boy. It was almost cute how he tried to intimidate Naruto.

"Tell your mother that I'm flattered by her interest, but blood-play is a bit too far outside my comfort zone. Perhaps some old school BDSM first then we can work our way up to it." He said gently, causing many women in the audience blush fiercely, conjuring up images of themselves in compromising situations with the yummy blonde.

His reputation actually helping him in this situation. Considering that he is the village pariah…coupled with him blooming into his new looks…it gave him a bit of a bad-boy reputation among the civilian girls as well as some kunoichi.

He heard a loud cheer from the audience that sounded suspiciously like Anko. He decided not to dwell too long on that thought, for the sake of whatever little sanity that he still has left.

What he didn't realise was that his tenant also had an atomic blush on her face at the imagery that she was thinking up. As he focused his attention back on his opponent, he couldn't help but sweat drop at the clueless expression on the boy's face.

For a genocidal maniac, he sure seemed to be innocent of the more depraved side of society.

Seeing Naruto chuckling to himself, Gaara took it as an insult and directed a wave of sand at the blonde, causing him skip backwards to avoid the attack. The sand persisted though, with Gaara being the conductor of the show.

Naruto skilfully and gracefully avoided the rush of sand constantly directed at him, frustrating Gaara, making him feel his prey was looking down at him. What he didn't realise, was that Naruto was taking the time during the usual 'friendly' opening salvo to take measure of Gaara's sand, its reaction time and speed of attack for later use.

Naruto dodged another wave of sand that came his way. But this time he did a little something different. As he back flipped out of the way, he planted a kunai directly into the ground.

It was an ordinary kunai, with the exception of the tag that was attached to the ring. Most that saw the tag assumed that it was an explosive tag.

Naruto quickly vacated the area before running perpendicular to the kunai that he planted. Gaara's sand followed after him once again but Naruto skilfully dodged before repeating his actions in planting a kunai.

He repeated his actions twice more, to the frustration of Gaara and the confusion of the audience.

After a short game of cat and mouse, Naruto decided that he gathered enough data on the offensive capabilities of the sand and decided to test its defences.

All Gaara managed to see was a blur of Naruto, before a concussive force battered his sand shield, forcing him to take a step back.

It was a similar feeling for the redhead as compared to when the one with the large eyebrows forced something similar.

Naruto continued to use his superior speed to take pot shots at the shield, continuously upping his speed to match and then finally break through the shield enough to land a solid hit on Gaara's jaw.

As he was carrying out this sequence, it looked to the audience that he was simply getting faster and faster, which was true for the most part. What they didn't see, was that Naruto was constantly lowering the levels of the Gravity and Resistance seals covering his body, allowing him to move faster, till he got to the point that he could outmanoeuvre Gaara's automatic defence.

He still had a few more levels that he could have dropped the seals, but settled for the point that he was currently at. He didn't plan on using brute force to defeat Gaara, but the ability to overcome his defences was essential to his plan.

Gaara stumbled backward after eating a fist from Naruto, bewildered that once again, someone had managed to overcome his defence.

Naruto, for his part, long realised that Gaara was completely helpless without the aid of his automatic defence. He did not train himself in Taijutsu, Kenjutsu or Genjutsu.

His overreliance on his defensive technique made him arrogant, and he neglected the other shinobi disciplines which in turn led him to the belief that he was invincible. If you take away his defence, he's just a poorly trained academy student with no idea how to properly fight.

Lee proved this in the match during the preliminaries. If Lee had the ability to use Ninjutsu or had a weapon to use against Gaara, he could have won that match.

Unfortunately for Gaara, Naruto not only had exponentially more chakra and stamina then he did, but his brutal training regime made it so that he could hold himself in almost every shinobi discipline.

Naruto had no intention of going easy on his opponent. Even though they were fellow Jinchuuriki, he knew from his intelligence network what Gaara was really meant to do during these exams.

He also knew that the Hokage was aware of what was to come as well thanks to the quick work of his shadow clone as well as his familiar, Saya, that saved the life of the Tokubetsu Jounin, Gekkou Hayate. Naruto therefore took it upon himself to defang the weapon of the enemy. He knew that Gaara wouldn't even pose much of a threat to him now.

He was far too reliant on his abilities as a Jinchuuriki for him to have any chance against Naruto.

He knew he had to get Gaara to a point where he could nullify him in the way he intended, and to do that, he would do what he did best…Prod away at him till he ran out of whatever little patience he had left and abandon his defence and go full frontal in terms of his Jinchuuriki abilities.

He created a single shadow clone, before flinging out a handful of shuriken at Gaara. The original and the shadow clone started going through different sets of hand-seals respectively, before calling out.

"Shuriken Kage Bunshin No Jutsu"

"Fuuton: Kaiten Shuriken"

The five shuriken that Naruto threw multiplied into 50, before each of them were coated with razor sharp wind chakra, further accelerating their rotation and cutting abilities. The speed of the throw as well as the nature of the chakra meant that quite a few of them got through the sand shield, even if their momentum was somewhat slowed, to inflict numerous lacerations on Gaara's body.

A piercing scream echoed throughout the arena as Gaara caught sight of his freshly flowing blood, a sight that he never though he would ever see.

A few members of the Suna party shifted uncomfortably at the sight of the most dangerous person in their village, behind the Kazekage, being wounded for the first time. Many looked towards the Kage box for some sort of signal, but were surprised when none came. Most were positive the Kazekage would have given the signal by know.

Seeing no choice in the matter, less they attract even more suspicion upon themselves, they decided to settle down for now, uneasily, and hope the match plays out in their favour.

While Gaara was in the middle of his panic attack at the sight of his blood, Naruto pounced on the opening and blurred to the space in front of him before delivering a solid palm right to the chest, causing Gaara to stagger backwards and cough at the unexpected hit.

Most didn't notice the slight glow coming from Gaara's chest after the hit.

He followed that up with a backhanded fist to the side of the head before ducking low to sweep him off his feet before delivering a thrust kick to the ribs as he was falling, causing Gaara to rocket across the stadium before crashing into the wall on the far end, his sand trailing behind him impotently.

The exchange lasted only a few seconds, as the sheer speed of Naruto was too much for even some of the Jounin to follow. Most were shocked the boy could even move like that, none more so that Kakashi and Sasuke.

Sasuke was silently seething to himself once again at the blonde's skill. He found himself doing that a lot in these past few months.

Just when he thought he put the blonde behind him, the insufferable dead-last would unveil more of his talents that left Sasuke in the lurch. He needed that power, power to kill Itachi and power to put the dobe in his place. His neck started to pulse uncomfortably at that thought, luckily for him though, everyone was glued to the match and nobody paid any attention to him.

Naruto stood back and took stock of the situation as he watched Gaara try to pull himself out of the wall Naruto lodged him in. His primary objective was complete with that last combination and this match was as good as his. He could easily end it right now, but in the end he decided against it.

It came down to a combination of two factors. One, he wanted to see the capabilities and strength of his fellow Jinchuuriki and two, he wanted to send a message. Gaara, even before the start of the exams, was regarded as the most dangerous opponent.

Naruto wanted to send a message, not just to the other competitors, but also the council idiots and the other idiots that populate this village. He was done being their scape goat. For most of his life, he's had to endure their taunts and cruel words. The attempts to ostracise him and make his life miserable.

He endured it all, being forged in the fires of loneliness and despair, and came out a stronger more driven person. This was his coming out party, so to speak. He didn't want to show his whole hand, but he would do enough to foster a healthy dose of fear in those who sought to ruin him.

Naruto lifted held his hand up in the Ram seal, catching the attention of those around him. He closed his eyes before channelling his chakra just the way he wanted it.

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AN:

Wow ... Gaara is actually one of my favourite characters ... but I really messed him up badly here. Poor guy got tortured.

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read ahead of the public release in p@treon :

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