From the night of genocide, marching towards the strongest.

Gaara?

Is he a demon who only loves himself?

Sakura's emerald green eyes shimmered, and her clear, cold voice rang out: "Even if you kill countless people, you must not abandon the last vestige of compassion! Unbridled killing is meaningless; a ninja's killing should be based on protection. If only killing and destruction can prove your magnanimity, then what is left of your life besides this so-called magnanimity?"

Because of a mistake she made years ago, her teacher, Kosuke Maruboshi, has been teaching Sakura not only ninjutsu but also principles of life over the years.

While the nature of a ninja's profession inevitably involves killing, every act of killing must be based on protection, not indiscriminate slaughter!

If Sakura wanted to become better a few years ago because of Sasuke, then now Sakura's motivation to become stronger is more about protecting her comrades!

"Because this is all that's left of my life, Sakura Haruno!"

Gaara grinned, his bloodthirsty, crazed gaze fixed on the girl: "From the moment I was born, my world has consisted only of hatred and slaughter. I was born to bear hatred and slaughter, hehehehe..."

As he spoke, the sand around Gaara rose up on its own, drifting and swirling in the air, as if it were about to stir.

"No! At least one person still loves you, the mother who named you." The girl shook her head, her thin lips moving slightly.

"Your mother named you this because she hoped you would become someone who could protect yourself. Even if you are a demon, you will be a demon who is deeply loved by your mother."

Upon hearing this, Gaara was stunned for a moment, his fierce killing intent instantly subsided, and an indescribable emotion welled up in his heart.

After a moment of silence, Gaara spoke calmly: "Sakura Haruno, you are an interesting person, but in any case, let's let strength speak for itself."

"Heh," Sakura chuckled softly, and also assumed a fighting stance.

"That's what I think too. No matter what I say, I won't let someone like you, who almost killed my friend, off so easily!"

After the two finished their verbal sparring, Genma Shiranui quietly announced, "Now that both of you are ready, the third match—begins!"

Whoosh whoosh!

As soon as she finished speaking, Sakura instantly threw more than a dozen kunai shuriken from her hand, because Gaara had almost instantly defeated Ino in the preliminaries!

Aside from knowing that Gaara could manipulate sand and had a strong defense, Sakura knew nothing else. Therefore, she did not choose to launch a direct attack immediately, but instead chose to probe.

Swish!

Gaara remained indifferent, raising his hand to create a sand wall that blocked his path. However, just as the kunai shuriken were about to hit Gaara's sand wall, Sakura formed several hand seals.

The ninja tools are unpredictable; a dozen kunai and shuriken instantly transformed into hundreds of hidden weapons that filled the sky!

From the stands, Orochimaru, watching the battle below, took a sip of tea, turned to the Third Hokage beside him, and chuckled, "The newcomers of Konoha are quite strong. Hokage, you're getting on in years, it's time to choose a new Hokage successor."

Orochimaru said in a double entendre.

As Orochimaru spoke, a gasp suddenly erupted from the audience as a giant water dragon burst forth from the arena and lunged toward Gaara.

"You flatter me, Lord Kazekage!" The Third Hokage looked at the lifelike water dragon, nodded in satisfaction, smiled and replied, "My old bones can still hold on for a few more years. It's not too late to wait until the younger generation grows up."

"Hehe..." Orochimaru chuckled lightly and teased, "Then you'd better take good care of your health, Hokage. Don't collapse before a successor is chosen."

The Third Hokage frowned and said in a deep voice, "There's no need for the Kazekage to worry about that."

On the field, Sakura's battle with Gaara continues.

On the other side, at Konoha East Street.

At the flower shop in the mountains, Shan Zhongfeng was deep in thought when he suddenly heard footsteps.

"Welcome..." Yamanaka Kaze looked up at the person who had come in, but was speechless when he saw the person's face.

The newcomer was Sasuke. He calmly looked around the flower shop before fixing his gaze on Yamanaka Fu's face.

"Young Master Sasuke?" Yamanaka Fu was taken aback, but quickly recovered and said gently, "Weren't you taking the Chunin Exams today?"

"I just finished training in the clan's territory and came to take a look," Sasuke replied casually.

Yamanaka Kaze frowned very slightly, thinking to himself.

You've finished your training, so be it. Shouldn't you be heading to the Chunin Exams venue after you've finished training?

What are you doing here?

Buying flowers isn't the right thing to do right now; there are still twenty days until the Obon festival.

Yamanaka Fu was puzzled, wondering why Sasuke would suddenly visit at this time.

"Isn't it strange that I'm here?"

While thinking quickly, Yamanaka Fu heard Sasuke's calm words and was immediately taken aback, looking at the boy.

"Because I came here to..."

As he spoke, Sasuke revealed his gleaming white teeth, and Yamanaka Fu's eyes narrowed, a huge sense of crisis rising in his heart!

I'll kill you!

not good!

Yamanaka Kaze was startled and was about to do something, but in the next moment, his entire field of vision was filled with a pair of cold, indifferent scarlet eyes.

puff!

His heart was pierced, and blood gushed out.

"Ugh..."

Yamanaka Kaze let out a painful groan, staring blankly at the eerie patterns in the boy's Sharingan eyes.

"Why...."

Sasuke looked at Yamanaka Fu with an indifferent expression and said calmly, "There's no reason why. The strange thing is that I recognized you."

"What's the meaning..."

Sasuke shook his head and didn't answer his question. He drew his sword and burned Yamanaka Fu to ashes in the black flames.

"The first one..."

Sasuke murmured something to himself and continued on his way to the next location.

Chapter 147 Fierce Battle

The final venue.

With a deafening roar, the water dragon crashed into a giant sand hand formed by a pile of sand. A shockwave erupted from the collision, accompanied by a tearing gale that surged outwards in all directions.

The water dragon and the giant hand collapsed simultaneously. The giant hand turned into sand that filled the sky and scattered on the ground, while the water dragon turned into raindrops that fell from the sky and dripped onto the two of them.

'This guy's sand is definitely something else.'

Sakura frowned slightly after seeing their ninjutsu collapse at the same time.

Sakura had already noticed that Gaara's sand contained Earth Release techniques, but what she used wasn't an ordinary Water Dragon Bullet; it was a modified version used by the Second Hokage.

Her master, Maruboshi Kosuke, once proudly told her that during the last Shinobi World War, he used this move to instantly defeat the Earth Dragon Bullet released by the Iwagakure Jonin.

As we all know, Earth Release is effective against Water Release. To achieve such a result despite the weakness of this technique demonstrates the mastery of this skill.

'Besides manipulating sand, this guy also possesses a sand shield that automatically activates in case of attack, and it's quite fast. You have to attack him before his automatic defenses can react.'

While the girl was silently analyzing her opponent's situation.

"what?"

Gaara let out a soft "hmm," a hint of surprise on his face.

Although Water Release is somewhat effective against Sand Release, Gaara's Sand Release is not ordinary Sand Release, so the relationship is not a simple one of control.

Moreover, after realizing that the girl in front of him was skilled in Water Release, Gaara also mixed Earth Release chakra and rocks from the ground into the sand.

Logically, he should have instantly defeated Sakura's Water Release technique with his sand, but the result was beyond his expectations.

With a hint of doubt in his mind, Gaara frowned, waved his hand, and a circular shield of yellow sand emerged from the gourd behind him, blocking the raindrops from falling.

"Is there something wrong with that rainwater?"

Seeing this, Kurenai Yuhi frowned, her face showing confusion, and said strangely, "Wasn't she using a water dragon bullet?"

As a Jonin of Konoha, Kurenai Yuhi naturally possessed extraordinary insight, and she had already discerned that Gaara had infiltrated Earth Release techniques into the sand.

Unexpectedly, Sakura's water dragon bullets were evenly matched with her opponent's, and the raindrops even seemed to have some kind of effect.

"This isn't your average water cannon, Red."

Sitting next to Kurenai Yuhi, Asuma Sarutobi chuckled softly upon hearing his lover's words. As the son of the third generation, he knew more secrets than his colleagues.

He took a deep breath, exhaled a smoke ring, and said, "This is the Second Hokage's Water Dragon Bullet!"

"Second generation sir!?"

Kurenai was startled, but quickly realized what was going on and murmured, "No wonder. If it's the Second Hokage's technique, then it makes sense."

"No wonder the students in Class 7 are so strong."

Kurenai Yuhi gave a wry smile and shook her head.

Having watched Class 7 in the preliminary rounds, she realized that Class 7's strength was on a completely different level from the other students in the same year.

Kurenai was initially puzzled, but now she understood.

One is Sasuke Uchiha, the last surviving member of the Uchiha clan, who was renowned in Konoha as a genius from a young age.

Moreover, his teacher was Kakashi, who was the most talented and strongest among his classmates.

One is Naruto Uzumaki, who received guidance from Chen Baojun, the former number one taijutsu ninja in Konoha, and possesses the super-strong physique of the Uzumaki clan.

Even Sakura Haruno, who was born into a commoner family, has mastered the ninjutsu of the Second Hokage, a master of Water Release. It's just unknown which Jonin senior from the village was her teacher.

With such a vast difference in their heritage, how can they be compared?

“That’s not quite right, Kurenai.” Sarutobi Asuma shook his head and smiled. “Actually, the lineages of our students are not bad either. Don’t forget that our students all come from families.”

"Besides the fact that it was passed down, the most important reason is that the kids in Class 7 worked really hard."

Sarutobi Asuma sighed.

His three students were all quite talented, but one was too lazy and found things troublesome, another always talked about Sasuke and spent far more time dressing up than training, and the third was similar.

"I think the kids will grow stronger after seeing the gap in strength between us and Class 7 this time, right?"

"Hmm." Kurenai nodded, about to say something, when she suddenly exclaimed.

"What is this!?"