I Mean Everyone Here Is Trash

They knew Gaara's temperament all too well. Normally, anyone who dared glance at him one time too many would end up without even a corpse left behind, let alone openly mocking and humiliating him like this.

Kankuro's fingertips had already hooked into the mechanisms of his puppet, while Temari's iron fan snapped fully open. Every muscle in their bodies was stretched to the limit.

They desperately prepared to stop Gaara from going berserk, terrified that he would start slaughtering people right here in Konoha and ruin Hidden Sand's plan three years in the making.

But no one had expected this.

Gaara merely slowly raised his head. His lifeless sand-colored eyes fixed firmly on Naruto, and the yellow sand around him stirred faintly, yet he did not attack at once.

From Naruto, he sensed the same kind of utter loneliness that existed within himself.

And there was another presence—a monstrous, chilling, crazed hostility even more destructive than Shukaku within him.

Naruto did not care about Gaara's killing intent at all, and naturally, he was not afraid that Gaara might decide to kill him.

At that moment, uncontrollable excitement churned in his heart. He remembered it clearly: the collective arrival of ninjas from the other villages in Konoha meant only one thing!

"So, the Chunin Ninja Exams are finally about to begin?"

Just as the tension reached its peak, Sasuke's cool voice came from behind him. "Naruto, let's go. Kakashi-sensei is looking for us."

Naruto glanced back, then casually waved at Gaara with an infuriating grin. "Kitty, see you at the exams."

With that, he turned and strode away with Sasuke.

Temari and Kankuro watched his retreating figure and both let out a sigh of relief. Their backs were already soaked with cold sweat.

They thought Naruto had narrowly escaped disaster.

Only Gaara continued staring at the alleyway where Naruto had vanished. The sand clenched in his fingertips creaked, while unprecedented madness and excitement surged in his eyes.

He understood better than anyone.

In that instant just now, he had felt a tremor that came from the depths of his soul!

The thing hidden inside that boy named Naruto Uzumaki might have been a hundred times more terrifying than the One-Tail Shukaku inside him.

Three days later, the first examination hall of the Konoha Chunin Ninja Exams.

The dim classroom was packed to the brim.

One hundred and fifty-nine Genin from villages across the Five Great Nations stood shoulder to shoulder. The cramped space was thick with tense vigilance, hidden killing intent, and the explosive air of mutual probing.

The three from Hidden Sound huddled in a shadowed corner. Hidden Sand's people were wound tight as drawn bows, while Konoha's teams gathered in their own groups. Everyone was secretly observing their opponents and calculating the life-or-death battle to come.

Just then.

The classroom door was suddenly kicked open.

Naruto strolled in with a strawberry lollipop in his mouth and his hands in his pockets. Sasuke and Sakura followed behind him, with Kakashi bringing up the rear, looking utterly dead inside and wishing he could disappear on the spot.

The entire classroom instantly fell silent.

Every gaze turned in unison toward the blond boy.

Naruto swept his eyes over the room, a dazzlingly arrogant smile curling across his lips. With a light tap of his toes, he leaped onto the front desk, crossed his arms, and looked down at the room full of people.

Kankuro's expression darkened. Temari immediately tightened her grip on her iron fan, and the yellow sand at Gaara's feet began churning restlessly again.

The three from Hidden Sound in the corner slowly raised their heads as well, their cold gazes coiling around Naruto like venomous snakes.

Just when everyone thought he had merely come to provoke Hidden Sand, Naruto spoke. He dragged out his words. His voice was not loud, yet it clearly pierced through every breath in the room, each word brimming with supreme arrogance:

"Let me introduce myself. I'm Naruto Uzumaki."

"For the selection exam later, I advise all of you to give it everything you have and fight to the death. Maybe then you'll still have a sliver of hope!"

He tilted his head slightly, the arrogance in his tone nearly solidifying into substance.

"Otherwise... I can't guarantee whether you'll walk out of the exam hall alive."

Boom!

Those words exploded through the classroom like a thunderclap!

All the Genin instantly erupted. Curses and shouts rose one after another, while countless pairs of murderous eyes locked firmly onto Naruto atop the desk.

"Who the hell do you think you are?!"

"That Konoha brat is way too arrogant!"

"You're dead! I'll be the first to kill you in the exam!"

Listening to the roars filling the room, Naruto was not angry in the slightest. Instead, he smiled even more brightly.

He was not being arrogant without thinking.

His goal had always been to farm Darkness Value.

The system notifications in his mind were already flooding in like crazy.

[Darkness Value +300!]

[Darkness Value +220!]

[Darkness Value +450!]

4500... 5860... 6210!

The numbers shot upward like a rocket, making every pore on Naruto's body open in delight. He nearly burst out laughing on the spot.

But to everyone in the room, that smile was naked contempt—the ultimate humiliation of everyone present!

Sasuke stood below the platform, the Three-Tomoe Sharingan in his dark eyes slowly turning. Watching the blond boy trample the entire room beneath his feet, the corner of his lips uncontrollably lifted into a faint, indulgent curve.

He knew it. That bastard had never known how to behave himself.

Sakura covered her forehead, despair written all over her face. Yet for some reason, as she watched that figure grinning so boldly despite the entire room glaring at him, her heartbeat skipped. This guy... actually looked kind of handsome?

Kakashi stood at the door, his face twitching nonstop beneath his mask as he screamed inwardly, It's over, it's over! This brat is going to offend every Genin in the entire Ninja World! How is Konoha supposed to survive in the Ninja World after this?!

Iruka sat at the proctor's desk. The pen in his hand fell to the floor with a clatter, and he was completely dumbfounded.

Just as the anger in the room reached its peak and several hot-blooded Genin were already gripping kunai, ready to rush him, Naruto raised a hand and lightly pressed it down.

The noisy classroom instantly fell silent.

Everyone stared at him with red eyes, wanting to see what other shocking words this endlessly arrogant brat could possibly say.

Facing countless gazes sharp enough to kill, Naruto took a step forward. His voice was as calm as though he were stating a fact.

"Everyone, don't be in such a hurry. Actually, I'm not targeting anyone."

He paused, his eyes sweeping over every angry face in the room. Then, word by word, his voice rang out like steel striking the ground:

"I mean everyone here is trash."

The moment those words came out, the entire classroom completely exploded!

The deafening sounds of overturned tables and chairs rang out one after another. Kunai and shuriken were drawn in an instant, and countless waves of chakra erupted!

Almost all 159 Genin rose to their feet at the same time. Their overwhelming killing intent surged toward Naruto like a tsunami, as though they wanted to tear him to pieces on the spot!

The system notifications in his mind exploded like fireworks.

[Darkness Value +1200!]

[Darkness Value +980!]

[Darkness Value +1500!]

The numbers went completely wild, breaking straight past 9000!

Naruto's entire body tingled with pleasure, but that punchable smile remained on his face. Looking at the crowd that had gone utterly insane, he added one final spark to the flames and said, word by word:

"I advise you not to come one at a time and throw your lives away. You're wasting time."

"Once we enter the exam hall, come at me together."

"I'll be merciful and deal with all of you at once. Then they can just declare me a Chunin directly. How about it?"

As soon as he finished speaking.

The entire room went completely insane!

Some people could no longer hold back and were already climbing over tables and chairs to charge at him. Others had drawn Explosive Tags. The entire examination hall had become a powder keg ready to explode at the slightest spark!

Suddenly...

The classroom door opened again.

Morino Ibiki stood at the doorway with a group of proctors. Looking at the overturned desks and chairs, the drawn kunai, and the blond boy standing atop the desk while being firmly locked onto by 159 murderous presences, he froze on the spot.

He had served as the chief examiner of the Chunin Ninja Exams for more than a decade. He had seen troublemakers and madmen, but he had never seen anyone offend every single candidate so thoroughly five minutes before the exam began that they all wanted to die together with him.