Gaara

At the front stood a mushroom-haired brat wrapped in a long scarf and wearing goggles. With his hands on his hips, he looked up at Naruto, his chin practically tilted toward the sky.

Behind him stood two other little kids about the same age: a girl with twin buns and a boy with glasses and two streams of snot hanging from his nose.

"No wonder you're the man I've chosen! No wonder you're destined to become my greatest rival! You saw through my peerless disguise so easily!"

Konohamaru jabbed a thumb at his chest, his face full of pride.

"Anyone could see through that disguise."

Naruto replied without expression.

Konohamaru seemed not to hear the jab at all and continued talking to himself.

"Moegi, Udon, and I have been tracking you for a full half hour. My ninja instincts tell me you must be carrying out some secret mission, the kind that's extremely dangerous and can't be known by outsiders..."

"No. I'm just walking the dog."

"Just as I thought. Your lips are sealed."

"Then let me tell you this: according to the intelligence I gathered, you're now Konoha's super Genin, the one who defeated the rogue Jōnin Zabuza. So I'm challenging you to a decisive battle! The loser has to yield the road to becoming Hokage!"

"Come on, let's have a showdown between real men..."

Naruto was starting to not want to talk anymore.

He finally understood why the Third always wore that expression when facing a mountain of paperwork every day.

He rubbed his temples and decided to get rid of Konohamaru in the easiest way possible.

"Fine, fine, you win. You can take the road to becoming Hokage. I just want to go home and sleep."

"What? Surrendering without a fight? That's not like you!"

Konohamaru shouted as he walked backward down the street. He spun around so much that his scarf nearly tangled around his feet.

"And I overheard a super important piece of news from Ebisu-sensei. I was going to tell you, but you actually refused my challenge, so I..."

Konohamaru was too caught up in walking backward to watch where he was going. Halfway through his sentence, he slammed his back solidly into someone behind him.

"Ah..."

Konohamaru stumbled forward from the impact and nearly fell, but Naruto reached out and caught him by the back of his collar.

Once he regained his footing, he hurriedly turned around to apologize, but the words caught in his throat.

He had hit a wall. No, not a wall—a person.

"That hurt, brat."

The person Konohamaru had bumped into lowered his head, his voice dark.

He wore a gray-white bodysuit, with dark purple stripes of face paint across his face and the symbol of Sunagakure on his forehead protector.

Behind him stood a tall girl with four golden ponytails, a metal fan wider than her whole body strapped at her waist. She looked down at them with an expression somewhere between impatience and amusement.

Naruto's gaze swept over them, and he froze.

Kankuro and Temari.

The children of Sunagakure's Fourth Kazekage, Gaara's older brother and sister.

Their appearance on Konoha's streets meant the Chunin Ninja Exams were about to begin. Sunagakure's people had already arrived, and if these two were here, Gaara had to be nearby.

Without showing anything, Naruto spread his senses outward, precisely controlling his Chakra perception within a spherical area fifty meters around him.

Absolute Control gave Naruto exceptionally fine control over his senses. He did not need to make a show of releasing Chakra fluctuations to probe the area like ordinary ninja did.

Sure enough.

In the tree behind and to Kankuro's right, there was a Chakra source so quiet it was almost eerie.

The texture of that Chakra was peculiar—vast, cold, and violent. Yet it was suppressed to an extremely low level, like a dormant volcano covered by a thin layer of ice.

Through the gaps in the leaves, he could vaguely see a streak of dark red hair and a pair of emotionless eyes.

Gaara.

The Jinchuriki of Shukaku, the One-Tail; Sunagakure's ultimate weapon. At this point, he had yet to experience any warmth or redemption. He was a killing machine that could lose control at any moment.

Naruto calculated the timing in his mind.

Only three days had passed since he returned from the Land of Waves, and Sunagakure's people had already arrived.

That meant representatives from every nation for the Chunin Ninja Exams were beginning to arrive in Konoha one after another.

The official exam notice should arrive within the next couple of days.

Time was tight.

His original plan had been to keep a low profile until Tsunade took office, using this time to train the Flying Raijin Technique and Sealing Technique to a level usable in actual combat. But now, it seemed the window he had was far shorter than he had expected.

The advantage of arriving at this point in time was that he did not have to endure the misery of his childhood. The downside was that time was pressing; before he could prepare anything, he had to face the major event that was the Chunin Ninja Exams.

The Forest of Death, Orochimaru, Gaara's Tailed Beast Transformation, the Konoha Crush Plan.

Then again, there were advantages to the Chunin Ninja Exams coming earlier, too.

The Third's attention would soon be diverted by ninja from other countries, Orochimaru's scheme, and the diplomatic standoff with Sunagakure. Naturally, the Telescope Technique watching him would be used far less often.

While these thoughts turned through Naruto's mind, Kankuro made his move.

He grabbed Konohamaru by the collar and lifted him off the ground like a chick.

Konohamaru's legs kicked wildly in the air. His scarf cinched tightly around his neck, and his little face turned red from lack of breath. He desperately tried to pry apart Kankuro's fingers, but how could a seven-year-old child's strength compare to that of an official Sunagakure ninja?

Kankuro raised Konohamaru to eye level, tilted his head as he inspected the brat who did not know his place, and pulled his lips into a far from friendly curve.

"You bump into someone and don't even know how to apologize?"

"Is this how Konoha teaches its ninja manners?"

Moegi and Udon went pale with fright beside them.

Moegi's lips trembled a few times. Gathering her courage, she rushed forward to kick Kankuro's shin, but Temari gave her a light shove and sent her aside.

Udon simply dropped onto his butt, his glasses crooked and his snot hanging in long strands.

"I suggest you let him go."

At that moment, a hand firmly clasped Kankuro's wrist.

Kankuro looked down and discovered that Naruto had somehow already appeared in front of him.

The grip of Naruto's fingers around his wrist was not particularly strong, but the placement was extremely tricky.

His thumb pressed the ulnar nerve point inside the ulnar styloid process, while his other four fingers rested precisely between the radial artery and palmaris longus tendon. It was a standard wrist-lock hold.

If Naruto added just a little more force, Kankuro's entire forearm would go numb and weak, leaving him unable to exert any strength.

So fast.

That thought flashed through everyone present, as well as the person hidden in the tree.

Temari unconsciously lowered the arms she had lazily crossed over her chest, her fingers quietly settling around the grip of her metal fan.

Gaara, up in the tree, narrowed his eyes slightly as well, his gaze falling on Naruto.