Is he even human?

Not too far away from where Choji had his battle, Kidomaru hid behind dense shrubbery, avoiding Neji's detection. Smirking, he licked his lips.

"I see… He's dodging just a hair's width away from the critical organs… He won't die from daggers shot at a fifty-meter range…"

'Hehehe… I've had enough of this game. Consider this as a token of my thanks!'

Suddenly, Kidomaru's curse mark became more prominent, as big changes occurred in his body. Entering stage two, he secreted a golded fluid from his moth, shaping it into a bow and arrow.

'One-hundred percent accuracy… Maximum damage levels… Die!'

Pulling the arrow, he let it go as it sped towards an unsuspecting Neji's back.

*BOOM!*

With a loud bang, the arrow produced a massive crater in the ground. Seeing the dust rise up, Kidomaru smiled.

'It's over… Wait, what?'

Looking closely, it had missed Neji and hit the ground instead. The young Hyuuga had blood dripping out of his back and mouth as he struggled to stay upright.

'That was too close… I only narrowly managed to deflect it!'

'I'm sure of it now… He must've uncovered the Byakugan's secret!'

Looking down, Neji noticed the gaping hole in his shoulder. It was so big one could even see through it.

Shocked, Kidomaru had a look of confusion.

"How did I miss the target by fifteen centimeters upward?!" (7-8 inches)

Looking even more closely, Kidomaru noticed a massive amount of chakra covering Neji's body as he fell on the ground, exhausted.

"I see... So he spread his chakra over a large space… No wonder he could detect the arrow and deflect its trajectory…"

Grinning, Kidomaru readied another arrow.

'Heh, constantly emitting that much chakra must be killing him. He has no other way to dodge...His eyes didn't even catch a glimpse of that arrow!"

Neji stood back up, bleeding everywhere. In his mind, deep respect for his opponent's strength was taking root.

"He does not wast any attacks… And if he does, he accurately collects information from their results… Through this, he must've discovered my eyes' weakness… Incredible. Out of all the opponents I've faced so far, he's… The strongest!"

Back in hiding, Kidomaru licked his lips one more time.

"It's all clear now… Behind his Thoracic vertebrate, there is a minuscule blindspot."

As he analyzed the situation, Neji started running around, shifting his gaze multiple times.

'Moving your head will constantly change the blindspot's position, but it's useless!'

Hiding behind a tree, Neji gathered his breath. In his mind, his father's figure appeared.

'Neji… Live on!'

Not too far away from the battle scene, the sand trio stopped moving. Sitting down, Gaara closed his eyes and activated his curse-mark. Red, flame-like patterns spread across his skin.

"What are you doing, Gaara? And what's with those markings…"

Kankuro looked at his little brother with confusion. Since when did he get a tattoo?

"It's called a curse-mark… I'll explain when we get back to the village."

Gathering all of the natural energy around the area, Gaara transformed all of the minerals underground into sand, making it all rise up from the ground.n Spreading it around, he spoke a few words.

"Sand-Sensing!"

Suddenly, he found the locations of everybody in the area. He could now feel individual chakra signatures that were kilometers away, even.

Getting back up and de-activating the curse-mark, he crossed his arms and spoke up with authority.

"Alright, this is what we're going to do. Since I know the locations of all the Konoha-nin, I'll send a sand clone along with you to lead the way. We'll each help out one of them, ok?"

"Sounds good."

"Whatever you think is better, Gaara."

With their approval, Gaara nodded and formed four sand clones. Two of them accompanied both Kankuro and Temari, whilst the other two made their way over to Neji and Choji, who were in desperate need of help.

Smiling, Gaara sped towards Lee and Kimimaro's position. Just now, he had gotten a great idea.

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A while later, he finally reached them. Seeing Lee about to get stabbed by one of Kimimaro's bones, Gaara raised his hand and some sand got in between them before pulling Lee by his side.

"You…! Why are you here?!"

Lee couldn't believe his eyes as he rejoiced. Help had arrived!

"Rock Lee… I advise you to stay back, for your own good. Let me handle this."

Before the Konoha genin could retort, Gaara locked him down with some sand making him unable to move.

"Release me! I want to help!"

"Just watch… I'll handle this."

Seeing Gaara's figure, Kimimaro frowned slightly. He could feel the enormous amount of chakra that Gaara was exuding.

"Gaara of the desert… I've heard about you."

"Have you now…? I'm flattered."

"Careful! He uses his bones as a weapon! He's super-strong!"

Ignoring Lee, the lid on Gaara's gourd popped out as massive amounts of Iron and normal sand leaked out, hovering around the place.

"I'll finish this quickly… Jiton: Tessha-Sekai Ho!" (Magnet-Release: Iron-sand world method!)

Kimimaro watched confusedly as two oppositely magnetized spheres of iron sand hovered above them, merging together slowly.

Noticing the disturbance they caused, Kimimaro's eyes opened widely as he immediately activated the second stage of his curse-mark, turning his skin grey and eyes black.

Suddenly, the two balls fused as a metallic screech resounded throughout the area. Lee covered his ears, unable to take the sound level.

Following the screech, spikes of Iron sand extended from the origin, creating a black forest of sharp needles. When Kimimaro saw this, he tried to run but was unable to.

The spikes dug into his body, making him cough huge amounts of blood.

"What?! My bones should be harder than steel!"

"But your chakra is weaker than mine…"

"Impossible!"

Kimimaro was unable to move, with the spikes continuously poking holes into his body. Seeing this, Gaara raised his hands and crushed the minerals in the ground underneath him, making him fall into quick-sand.

"Orochimaru… Sama… I'm sorry..."

Just to make sure, Gaara placed his hands on the ground and permeated his chakra across it.

"Sabaku Taisou!"

The ground trembled as Gaara caused an earthquake. Inside the quicksand, Kimimaro had been completely killed.

Dusting his hands, Gaara smiled. Raising his arms, he watched as Kimimaro's corpse emerged from the ground.

Walking up to it, he placed a hand on him and engraved a few seals on his body before wrapping him up in golden sand, making him hover next to him.

'One down…'

As Gaara rejoiced, Lee stared in disbelief. The fight had taken less than two minutes! Was Gaara even human?