"He’s using *Quicksand Waterfall Flow* in here!? The whole place is gonna collapse!"
Even if it hits someone, it’s not supposed to tear apart the entire arena, right!?
Temari and Kankuro gritted their teeth and held tightly onto the railing. They could barely keep their footing—everything under them was shifting.
Gaara could crush rocks and reshape the terrain, turning the whole area into a giant pit of quicksand.
The ground around Gaara’s feet had already broken apart, and it was starting to churn like flowing sand.
And the ground near Gaara—where they were standing—was getting crushed too. The entire viewing area was shaking and falling apart.
This move was usually used outdoors to cause massive damage. In a closed space , it could bury everyone alive in sand!
"He can still cause this much destruction even when he’s hurt!?"
Kimimaro was half-kneeling on the ground. His bones could barely support his body anymore.
Even though he claimed his bones were endless and would never run out—
Of course that wasn’t true. That was just tough talk to scare his opponents.
His bones were different from Gaara’s sand, which came from the outside. Kimimaro’s were formed by breaking down and converting parts of his own body.
But Kimimaro knew clearly—*Dance of the Seedling Fern* was the only way to stop Gaara from turning everything around them into sand. Gaara could crush stone and turn it into sand.
But if the ground was covered with thick, dense bones, then that would probably stop him, right?
The more sand there was, the stronger Gaara became. There’s no way Kimimaro would just stand there and let him take over.
So Kimimaro had no choice but to use the *Dance of the Seedling Fern*.
Pale white bones kept bursting out of the ground, clashing with Gaara’s golden sand in an instant.
"Damn, what is this? One’s sand, the other’s bones."
"Are these two trying to take everyone down with them in the prelims?"
"He’s actually using the Seedling Fern move in here? There are still other people around besides them!"
Hozuki Suigetsu frowned and complained, but before he could finish—
A sharp white bone suddenly shot out of the ground in front of him, and he quickly backed away.
Then another small spike popped out of the ground right next to him, aiming straight for the bottom of his foot.
Suigetsu quickly turned that part of his body into water to avoid being stabbed.
He still had his Hydration Jutsu, and since he often spent time with Kimimaro, he knew how to deal with these bone attacks pretty well.
But if it had been another Genin, that one bone would’ve skewered them like a kebab. What’s the point of the Chunin Exams if everyone’s getting killed!?
Kimimaro and Gaara went all out so suddenly that most of the teachers had no time to react. They had to protect their own students and couldn’t stop the two in time.
As the ground started shaking, Naruto nearly flipped over the railing.
Sasuke barely managed to grab Naruto by the leg and yank him back. Just as Naruto pulled his head in, a sharp white bone suddenly shot up from under the railing.
If Sasuke had been even a second late, Naruto’s head would’ve been pierced right through.
Naruto turned pale from fright, gripping the railing in front of him, not knowing what to do.
Even though Hatake Satoru was impressive, they really didn’t expect his student to be this terrifying.
And that bone almost stabbed them too!?
No matter how you look at it, this is the moment where he should step in and stop things.
Sasuke quickly turned his head to look at Hatake Satoru beside him, but before he could say anything—
He realized that Hatake Satoru had already disappeared.
Well, that guy might like to mess around, but when things get serious, he never slacks off.
Sasuke gripped the railing in his hand a little tighter.
"What are you two thinking?"
Kakashi grabbed Sasuke and Naruto by the collar, one in each hand, and pulled them back toward the wall. He originally planned to just give Hozuki Mangetsu a warning.
But it looked like Mangetsu was actually having fun using his Water Body Technique to play around with the bones that kept popping up.
Kakashi was momentarily speechless—was this the gap between someone at Kage level and the rest of them?
While they had to dodge and avoid, he was over there having a good time like it was nothing.
His older brother and these two students were really starting to seem too ridiculous.
"If you make this much of a mess, even I’m going to get annoyed, you know~"
The roaring sound of sand and the dull thuds of bones breaking through the ground all fell silent in an instant, like someone had pressed a pause button.
The sand and the bones that were just about to crash into each other froze in midair.
Even the swaying audience seats, which had been shaking wildly, came to a sudden stop. Everyone instinctively backed away from the nearby bones and looked down.
Some bones too close to the center of the fight were suddenly stopped by a strange force, and the surrounding bones shattered with a loud *crack*.
Gaara and Kimimaro, who had both been charging toward the center from opposite sides, were also blocked and pushed back by this sudden force.
Hatake Satoru now stood between the two of them, and the only space left between the sand and the bones was barely enough for one foot to stand on.
He grabbed Kimimaro, who had nearly fallen into the forest of bone spikes.
Gaara, unable to move forward because Satoru was in the way, landed on the sand behind.
His sand still tried to wrap around Satoru’s ankle, clearly unwilling to stop, but it was as if some invisible wall blocked it.
No matter how hard it tried, the sand couldn’t get any closer to Hatake Satoru.
What the hell... every one of them is just weird.
Gaara bit his lip, clearly frustrated, frowning as he stared at Hatake Satoru and Kimimaro in front of him.
Hatake Satoru casually glanced his way. He had seen this kind of frustrated stare plenty of times before.
Kids who were young and almost never lost always looked at him like that.
Blood kept oozing from the wound on Gaara’s stomach. He was half-kneeling, and the sand beneath him quickly darkened with a big patch of blood.
"If you don’t stop the bleeding soon, something bad might really happen."
Hatake Satoru pointed at Gaara’s wound with a grin.
"Even if this was supposed to be a life-or-death match between the two of you, you’re both going way too far~ It’s like you’re dragging everyone else down with you."
Then he lowered his voice slightly, speaking just loud enough for the two of them to hear.
"This is only the prelims. Plenty of people are here gathering intel on you. Showing your full hand this early... how naive can you be?"
Gaara was caught off guard and froze for a moment, while Kimimaro, still hanging limply in Satoru’s hand, didn’t move at all—like he had passed out.
"Hey— which one’s the judge? They’ve both stopped already!"
"Go announce the result~!" said the spoon.
Read 30 advanced Chapters on my