Shattering Shukaku's Shield with One Punch! Gaara Transforms!

The second round of the Chunin Exams ended. The surviving teams were all gathered inside the central tower in the Forest of Death, preparing for the brutal one-on-one preliminaries.

Around the spacious indoor arena, the upper stands were packed with jonin team leaders from every village. The numbers on the big screen were rapidly flickering.

"Next is the third match. Rock Lee of the Hidden Leaf Village versus Gaara of the Hidden Sand Village!" The referee, Hayate Gekko, coughed weakly twice and announced the names.

Every gaze in the room instantly focused on the stone stage below.

At that moment, in the shadows at the very top of the stands, Yuan had somehow swaggered up there, a jug of wine in his hand. Ignoring the nearby Hidden Leaf Anbu, who were so tense they were about to draw their blades, he leaned straight against the railing.

Not far away, Tsunade frowned and glanced at Yuan, but in the end, she said nothing and waved for the Anbu to stand down. The Third Hokage sat in the high-backed chair at the center, silently smoking his pipe, pretending not to see this menace who had just killed several of his men and threatened the higher-ups.

Down on the stage, the battle had already reached a fever pitch.

"Front Lotus!" Lee released the weights on his legs, moving so fast he could no longer be caught by the naked eye, and slammed Gaara fiercely toward the ground from midair.

However, when the smoke and dust cleared, all that had shattered was an empty shell of sand. Gaara stood expressionlessly in place, the sand around him protecting him tightly as if it were alive.

"Your taijutsu is decent. But to me, it's meaningless." Gaara's cold voice echoed through the hollow tower. He slowly raised a hand, and a large amount of sand surged from the gourd on his back, pouncing wildly at Lee like living venomous snakes.

Lee had already overdrawn his strength from opening the Eight Gates. The muscles in his legs were torn, and he did not even have the strength to dodge.

"Boom!"

The sand instantly wrapped tightly around Lee's left arm and left leg. A trace of cruel madness flashed through Gaara's eyes, and his palm clenched violently. "Sand Coffin!"

"Stop!" In the stands, Might Guy's eyes nearly split with rage, and he was just about to leap down at all costs to save him. However, Maki, the Hidden Sand jonin team leader beside him, secretly released a burst of Wind Release chakra, blocking Guy for half a second.

At that life-or-death instant.

Half a second was enough to end it for an ordinary person. But for Yuan, it was enough.

"A little tanuki with a gourd on its back dares come to the Hidden Leaf and run wild?"

An arrogant voice suddenly exploded through the air. Immediately afterward, Yuan did not take the stairs at all. He leapt straight down from the top stands more than ten meters high.

He formed no hand signs. As he fell, violent red chakra instantly wrapped around his right foot.

"Rumble—!"

Yuan's entire body was like a heavy meteor, landing precisely on the mass of sand wrapped around Lee.

That high-density chakra sand, which even an iron hammer could not smash apart, was actually shattered under Yuan's kage-level stomp like a thin, brittle sheet of glass. With a bang, it completely exploded into yellow sand powder scattering through the air!

The powerful shock wave sent Hayate Gekko, who was not far away, tumbling head over heels several times. Lee was saved, collapsing weakly to the ground.

The entire place fell deathly silent.

Kakashi, Asuma, Kurenai Yuhi, and all the other jonin had their pupils shrink from that unbelievable physical destructive power. No ninjutsu was needed—he had crushed Gaara's absolute defense underfoot by brute force?

"That's... Uchiha Yuan!" In the stands, Naruto lay over the railing and shouted, waving his arms and legs in excitement. "Big Brother Yuan is so cool!"

On the stage, Gaara stared fixedly at Yuan, who had suddenly barged in. The killing desire that had shrouded his heart for years was completely ignited. That poker face became extremely twisted.

"You... broke my sand. I'll kill you! I'm going to kill you and feed your blood to my sand!"

Gaara let out a hysterical roar and slammed both hands onto the ground. The stone slabs across the entire stage were instantly crushed, turning into massive waves of sand. Not only that, the right half of Gaara's body began to undergo a terrifying change. Brown patterns spread, and a huge, ferocious sand arm—the arm belonging to the One-Tail, Shukaku—directly tore through his clothes and took shape.

"A partial tailed-beast transformation?!" Kakashi's expression changed drastically in the stands. "Evacuate the genin, now!"

But Yuan stood where he was, without the slightest intention of retreating even half a step. He looked at that huge Shukaku arm swatting toward him with an aura of destruction, and the corner of his mouth curled into a disdainful sneer.

"A beast like you really thinks you're somebody!"

The chakra inside Yuan erupted like a volcano, and dark-red light shot into the sky. He did not activate the complete form at all, only using the embryonic form of Susanoo. A red skeletal half-body the size of a truck cab instantly enveloped Yuan, and as Yuan moved, that huge red bone arm abruptly rose and drove a punch straight into Shukaku's arm head-on!

There were no fancy tricks. It was a pure crushing contest of strength.

"Dong—boom!!!"

Two monstrous forces collided violently in midair. A visible ring of white air waves directly flattened the entire stage, and the stone pillars on the surrounding walls snapped apart inch by inch.

Crack!

The sound of bone shattering rang out, but it was not Yuan's. Instead, the Shukaku arm condensed from sand and tailed-beast chakra was crushed by the red Susanoo bone fist, directly beaten until it was covered in cracks, before finally collapsing with a crash and turning back into a pile of useless sand!

"Pfft!"

The backlash of the force made the arrogant Gaara spit a huge mouthful of blood toward the sky. The Sand Armor on his body peeled away like dried, cracked mud, and he flew backward like a broken doll, smashing heavily into the wall behind him.

"That's it? You really can't take a hit."

Yuan withdrew Susanoo and strode to the wall. Under the terrified gazes of a group of Hidden Sand ninja, Yuan lifted his right foot and unceremoniously stepped on the "love" character on Gaara's proud forehead.

He looked down from above at Gaara, whose mouth was bleeding and whose face was full of disbelief, and his voice was loud enough for every Hidden Sand ninja in the stands to hear:

"Go back and tell that bullshit Kazekage of yours. The Hidden Leaf's turf isn't something you sand-playing bumpkins can mess with. If you dare act arrogant in the Hidden Leaf again, I'll go to the Land of Wind and flip every dune in your village."

At this moment, Temari and Kankuro in the audience had already gone deathly pale with fright. Temari clutched the handle of her fan tightly, her palm drenched in sweat. Looking at the man who had pinned her monster-like younger brother beneath his foot, her heart pounded wildly.

"What kind of monster... is this man..." Temari murmured to herself, and in the depths of her fear, a trace of awe actually appeared.

The referee, Hayate Gekko, finally crawled back up and hurriedly announced the suspension of the match. With a dark expression, Maki jumped down and lifted Gaara onto a stretcher.

Just as the Hidden Sand group was about to leave through the passageway.

Gaara, lying on the stretcher, slowly turned that half-bloodied face. In his eyes, ringed by dark circles, aside from instinctive fear, there hid a killing intent ten times crazier than before. Those eyes that belonged to a monster locked firmly onto Yuan's back, as if he wanted to carve the man who had humiliated him into his soul forever.