Gaara’s Wariness

"You... do you want to die?" Furen's voice was chillingly cold.

Gaara, who had remained expressionless, looked over at Furen with his dark-ringed eyes after hearing the icy tone. He glanced at Hinata, who had fallen to the ground, but said nothing.

Furen didn't pay attention to Gaara at first. Instead, he quickly walked over to help Hinata up.

"Are you alright?" Furen asked, concerned as he looked at Hinata's hand, which had been scraped badly when she fell.

"N-No, it's fine, Furen," Hinata stammered, her face flushing as she noticed Furen holding her injured hands. Her voice grew softer until it was barely audible.

"Don't move. I'll heal you."

After cleaning the sand from Hinata's hand with ice-cold water, Furen's hands began to emit a soft green glow as he gently healed her wounds.

Medical Ninjutsu: Mystical Palm Technique.

Under Furen's care, Hinata's injury healed at a speed visible to the naked eye.

"Furen is amazing, he even knows medical ninjutsu..." Hinata blushed as she watched him intently focus on healing her.

Hyuuga Hinata's favorability towards you: 10%

Once Hinata's hand was completely healed, looking as good as new, Furen patted her hand and said, "All done. No scars left."

Hinata shyly pulled her hand back and quickly bowed, "Thank you, Furen..."

"It's no problem. But this matter isn't over yet," Furen smiled at Hinata before turning to Gaara, who had descended from the tree and was now standing beside Temari and Kankuro.

Temari, who had been silently jealous of how Furen treated Hinata, sensed the coldness in his tone. She quickly spoke up, "Furen, Gaara didn't do it on purpose. The sand was—"

Furen waved a hand to stop her from speaking. He continued to stare at Gaara. "I need you to apologize to Hinata."

Gaara looked back at Furen. There was no anger in his eyes. He knew what had happened was indeed his fault.

But before Gaara could respond, Kankuro, who had been carrying his puppet on his back, suddenly placed it on the ground with a loud thud.

Temari saw what Kankuro was about to do and immediately scolded, "Stop, Kankuro! Are you really planning to use the Crow Puppet?!"

"So what if I am?" Kankuro retorted, glaring at his sister. Normally, she wouldn't interfere like this, so he didn't understand why she was acting differently today.

"That's Furen..." Temari was about to say that Kankuro shouldn't act against Furen but quickly caught herself and changed her words, "We're in Konoha, not Sunagakure! If you disrupt the exam, will you take responsibility?!"

Kankuro thought for a moment about what Temari had said, then reluctantly stopped releasing the puppet.

The tension in the air grew thick.

"I'm sorry," Gaara said, his raspy voice directed at Hinata.

"Oh... I-It's okay..." Hinata, gentle as always, quietly replied to Gaara's unexpected apology.

Temari and Kankuro exchanged bewildered glances. Just now... did Gaara apologize?

As Gaara's older siblings, they had never heard him utter a word of apology to anyone in all these years.

"Since Hinata has forgiven you, I'll let this matter slide," Furen, who had been observing the situation, finally spoke.

"You're strong. I hope to fight you during the exam," Gaara said hoarsely to Furen before turning to leave.

Kankuro hoisted his puppet back onto his back and followed behind, while Temari gave Furen a shy smile, full of apology, before catching up with her brothers.

"Fight me? Unless you use the power of the One-Tail, you won't even stand a chance," Furen thought as he watched Gaara walk away.

After the Sand trio left, Sakura let out a sigh of relief and then led Furen and the others to submit their exam applications.

Ding...!

Hyuuga Hinata's favorability has reached 59%. You have one remaining draw available. Would you like to start?

The system's voice echoed in Furen's mind.

Furen glanced at Hinata's 50% favorability prize pool, somewhat disappointed that there were no rewards related to the Byakugan's bloodline limit or anything concerning its ultimate form... the Tenseigan.

"Begin the draw," Furen commanded while considering that to unlock the Byakugan's higher-tiered dojutsu like the Tenseigan, her favorability would probably need to reach 75%.

As Gaara and his siblings walked away, Kankuro hesitated but eventually asked, "Gaara, why did you apologize earlier? That's not like you."

Gaara didn't reply. Instead, he opened the lid of the large gourd on his back.

A fine layer of sand floated out of the gourd, and Kankuro was shocked to see that the once grainy sand had now frozen into solid chunks.

"This is... ice? How did your sand get frozen?" Kankuro asked, holding a fist-sized piece of frozen sand.

"It was that guy's jutsu," Gaara explained, his eyes reflecting a deep sense of wariness.

Temari and Kankuro were stunned, then quickly realized the significance of what had just happened.

Furen had made someone as terrifying as Gaara wary of him! Furen's strength must be incredibly frightening!

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A/N:

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