The Abyss That Devours Monsters

Orochimaru's flesh beneath his veil twitched uncontrollably. The Third Hokage Hokage, sitting beside him, tapped his pipe imperceptibly. The air between them was incredibly tense.

Naruto looked away, put his hands in the pockets of his black combat suit, and Earth Flow the sand in the center of the field.

The huge stands were first deathly silent, then erupted into a roar of cheers that seemed to lift the roof off.

"Naruto! He's the coolest!!!"

The heart-wrenching scream pierced the entire stadium. Karin leaned half her body over the railing of the stands, her fair cheeks flushed red, and she waved her hands frantically in the air.

Kiba Inuzuka, standing nearby, was so frightened that he took two steps back. Where did this crazy girl come from? This is the Chunin Ninja Exams an extremely high mortality rate, and this is being conducted like a cult leader's sermon.

Referee Genma Shiranui spat out the Senbon he was eating and raised his right hand.

"The first match: Gaara Naruto Uzumaki versus Gaara of the Sand."

On the other side of the contestants' tunnel, a cloud of yellow sand churned out, carrying a boy carrying a huge gourd as he landed in the arena.

The temperature around Gaara plummeted. A thick, pungent smell of blood wafted on the breeze. The dark circles under his eyes were terrifyingly heavy, and sand crawled slowly down his ankles, carrying the sticky feel of some living creature.

High up in the stands, Temari's clothes were instantly soaked with cold sweat.

She clung tightly to the railing. As her older sister, no one knew better than her what was inside that gourd. Even their father, Rasa, would give way to a berserk Gaara. That guy Naruto, though arrogant and having just kicked down the gate, had virtually no chance of survival under Shukaku's brutal onslaught. This was a battle no Genin could possibly participate in.

"Monster..." Gaara's neck twisted erratically, spitting out broken syllables, "Kill you... As long as I kill valuable prey... that will prove my existence..."

These extremely bizarre remarks sent chills down the spines of many candidates present.

Naruto stood ten steps away, impatiently picking at his ear.

"Hey, panda eyes." He casually flicked the earwax off his little finger. "Stop being so self-righteous. You keep repeating the same two lines over and over. I'm tired of hearing them, even if you don't. If you want to prove your existence, go find your mom somewhere else. Don't act like this in front of me."

Sasuke, standing in the stands, leaned forward abruptly, his Three-Tomoe Sharingan wildly, locking onto every muscle point on Naruto's body. This was the perfect learning material for dealing with Absolute Defense. His older brother would never do anything without being sure of success; how would he break this deadlock?

Naruto raised his chin and beckoned to Gaara with a finger. "Today I 'Big Win Casino show you what a real monster is."

Provocation at its peak.

Genma Shiranui raised his sword and shouted, "The match begins!"

The moment Genma made his move, he retreated rapidly. He sensed an extremely dangerous aura.

Bang!

The gourd on Gaara's back exploded. A cloud of yellow sand rose from the ground and swept towards Naruto, instantly sealing off all escape routes.

"Die!" Gaara pressed his five fingers down sharply.

"Sand Burial!"

With a deafening roar, yellow sand converged from all directions, completely enveloping the spot where Naruto stood, forming a massive, high-density sand sphere. Extreme compression raged within, even squeezing out the air with ear-piercing pops. The immense pressure of Chakra even caused the barrier in the stands to tremble.

Sakura covered her mouth, shrinking back in terror. She'd just made a grand entrance, and then been instantly killed in less than a second? The sand was so thick, even Explosive Tag couldn't break through it!

Orochimaru gripped the armrest of his VIP seat tightly. This level of physical compression would instantly shatter even a Jonin's bones into a pulp. Even if that kid had incredible vitality, could he still be jumping around alive after his bones were ground to dust?

The high-density sand balls in the center of the field suddenly stopped shrinking.

Naruto inside the sand sphere felt no suffocating pressure whatsoever. He even leisurely stretched his shoulders. For the past thirty days and nights, he had been using Yang Release to nurture Hinata's Byakugan, making the blood and energy of his Perfect Sage Body even more refined. This level of physical compression was at most a basic resistance training for his muscles. He didn't even need to open the Eight Gates; the instinctive rebound of his Sage Body was enough to shatter it.

A deep, muffled thud came from inside the sand sphere.

Thump!

A half-meter-long crack suddenly appeared on the surface of the sand sphere. Golden life energy overflowed from the crack, directly scalding the surrounding sand into dark red, glassy crystals.

Gaara was stunned. The sand he controlled was actually retreating. This was the first time in the history of Absolute Defense that it had disobeyed his orders.

The next second.

Boom!

The seemingly indestructible Sand Burial was blasted apart from the inside by an extremely tyrannical force!

Amidst the swirling yellow sand and shattered crystals, Naruto Earth Flow.

He didn't even wrinkle his clothes, casually brushing the dust off his shoulders. Just as the sand sphere closed, the Perfect Sage Body's qi and blood directly formed an impregnable defensive membrane on his skin. The sand's pressure didn't even scratch his skin.

"That's it?" Naruto cracked his neck, his knuckles popping like beans. "Are you giving me a full-body massage? The pressure is too weak. Is this all the pride of Sunagakure is capable of?"

Temari's legs went weak, and she slumped into her chair. This was Sand Burial infused with high-density Chakra; even steel would be crushed. That arrogant brat actually withstood it with his bare hands? The thug who had spoken frivolously to her in the corridor thirty days ago now possessed the confidence to rival, or even surpass, Gaara. This was beyond the realm of common Ninjutsu knowledge. What taboo had Sunagakure provoked this time?

Sasuke's breathing became extremely rapid, his fingers digging deeply into the wooden railing. It was pure flesh. His Sharingan clearly. His older brother hadn't even released his Chakra; he had simply used the force of his muscles to forcefully push the sand apart. This was the ultimate power he had been desperately seeking.

Shikamaru stood in the corner, a fine layer of sweat beading on his forehead. "This is troublesome. This isn't the Chunin Ninja Exams at all. That Sand shinobi is a monster, Naruto... he's an abyss that devours monsters. This arena is going to be torn down sooner or later."

Orochimaru licked his dry lips beneath his veil. Thirty days ago in the Forest of Death, this kid had to open the Gate of Limit to suppress him. Now, he doesn't even release his Chakra, relying solely on the life force on his body surface to withstand the pressure? What an illogical rate of growth! The perfect vessel. This is the ultimate body Orochimaru has always dreamed of.

The veins on Gaara's face bulged, his killing intent surged wildly, and his rationality snapped completely.

"Impossible! Kill them all! Kill them all!"

The sand on the ground transformed into dozens of sharp spears, piercing towards Naruto with a shrill whistling sound that tore through the air. Each sand spear was as dense as rock, enough to easily pierce through thick city walls.

Naruto didn't dodge at all.

There's absolutely no need to hide. It's a good opportunity for the old guys on the platform to properly assess the difference in strength.

He slightly bent his right leg and then suddenly pushed off.

Bang!

The steel ground beneath Naruto's feet caved in, creating a crater half a meter deep. He transformed into a green afterimage, charging forward despite the sand spear's piercing attack. The first gate of the Eight Gates — Opening Gate —activated instantly.

Those sand spears capable of piercing steel plates shattered into pieces when they struck Naruto. The density of the Perfect Uzumaki Sage Body had long surpassed the world's definition of the limits of human physics. Ordinary blunt weapons and piercings couldn't even break through the defenses of his epidermal cells.

Naruto instantly appeared less than half a meter in front of Gaara.

Gaara shocked. The sand instinctively rose instantly, solidifying into the strongest, Absolute Defense sand shield, blocking the two of them. The sand wall was a meter thick, with a high concentration of Chakra flowing on its surface.

Naruto had no intention of forming Hand Seals. He clenched his right fist with his five fingers together, forming an extremely ordinary fist, and then, with explosive muscular power, he slammed it down directly.

The instant the fist made contact with the sand shield.

There was no earth-shattering explosion, only an extremely eerie dissolving sound.

Naruto's fist was enveloped in a faint golden aura. That was the most yang and powerful life energy.

The sand shield crumbled the moment it came into contact with the golden light. The previously turbulent sand, as if encountering its natural enemy, uncontrollably scattered to the ground. The cold and violent Shukaku Chakra was utterly vulnerable in the face of this Yang Release energy.

The fist pierced through the defense without any resistance, creating a strong gust of wind, and stopped precisely one centimeter from Gaara's nose.

The force of the punch tore through Gaara's Sand Armor, revealing his bloodless skin underneath.

This violent fist wind, carrying the supreme life energy of Yang Release, fiercely penetrated Gaara's meridians through the shattered armor.

The One-Tail Shukaku within him, which was always roaring, tyrannical, and arrogant, suddenly let out a mournful howl like a wild dog whose spine had been broken, and frantically retreated into the deepest part of the seal.

Gaara's knees buckled, and he collapsed heavily to his knees on the sand, staring in utter terror at the fist that was hovering at the tip of his nose.