You're This Run-Down-Do You Have a Death Wish?

A few days later.

Konoha had become extraordinarily lively.

Ninjas wearing different forehead protectors could be seen everywhere in the streets.

With the Chunin Ninja Exams approaching, candidates from every nation had gathered, and the air was thick with tension and the aroma of grilled squid.

Son Goten strolled leisurely down the street, holding three skewers of three-color dango.

Although Kakashi had repeatedly urged him to prepare, for a Saiyan, a full stomach was the best preparation.

"Goten!"

A young voice rang out.

Moegi, a little girl with two pigtails sticking straight up, was looking at Son Goten with adoration.

Beside her were Udon, with snot hanging from his nose, and a disgruntled Konohamaru.

"Hey, isn't this the Konohamaru Corps?"

Son Goten crouched down with a smile and pulled a handful of candy from inside his clothes-he had swiped it from Anko yesterday.

"Here, Moegi. This is premium stuff. It'll make you prettier."

Son Goten pressed the candy into Moegi's hands and casually ruffled the little girl's hair.

"Thank you, Goten! You're the handsomest!" Moegi's cheeks flushed, her eyes full of stars.

"Tch! Pervert!" Konohamaru kicked a pebble beside them. "Boss said you're a huge creep."

"That's universal love," Son Goten corrected him. "You'll understand when you're older. Cute girls are the treasures of this world."

As they spoke, Konohamaru failed to watch where he was going and ran headfirst into a passerby's legs.

"Ow!"

Konohamaru landed on his backside.

"That hurt... Hey! Watch where you're going!" Konohamaru shouted, clutching his head.

"Brat, you're the one who bumped into me, aren't you?"

A cold, sinister voice rang out.

Standing before Konohamaru was a boy dressed in black, purple markings painted on his face and a mummy-like object strapped to his back.

Kankuro of Sunagakure.

He looked down at Konohamaru, a flicker of brutality passing through his eyes.

"I hate loudmouthed brats like you most of all."

Kankuro reached out, grabbed Konohamaru's long scarf, and hoisted him straight into the air.

"Let go of me! You bastard!" Konohamaru kicked wildly in midair, his face turning crimson.

"Put that child down!"

Sakura Haruno and Naruto happened to be passing by. Seeing this, they immediately rushed over.

"He's the Third Hokage's grandson! Are you crazy?" Sakura shouted.

"The Hokage's grandson?" Kankuro sneered. "Perfect. I'd like to see whether Konoha's Hokage will cry over some brat."

"You bastard! Let Konohamaru go!"

Naruto roared, drew a kunai, and charged.

"You have a death wish."

Kankuro twitched his fingers.

Several chakra threads, barely visible to the naked eye, instantly pulled taut in the air.

Smack!

As Naruto charged, he felt something trip his feet. He lost his balance and fell flat on his face, sliding several meters along the ground.

"Naruto!" Sakura cried.

"A genin this weak is just embarrassing." Kankuro curled his lip disdainfully and raised his other fist, aiming at Konohamaru's face. "First, let me teach you a little lesson."

Just as his fist was about to fall.

Whoosh-

A gust of wind swept past.

There was no sound of hand seals, nor any surge of chakra.

Only an afterimage blurred by its speed.

Kankuro saw a blur flash before his eyes.

The next second, he discovered that his fist had stopped in midair.

No, more precisely, the "thing" on his back had been caught.

At some point, Son Goten had appeared behind Kankuro.

He held his unfinished dango in one hand, while the other casually gripped an exposed finger of Crow, the bandage-wrapped puppet on Kankuro's back.

"Hey, painted face."

Son Goten spoke indistinctly around his mouthful of dango.

"What's so impressive about bullying kids? If you've got the guts, go bully that old Hokage."

Kankuro was shocked.

When did this brat get here?

I didn't notice him at all!

"Let go!" Kankuro bellowed, sharply curling his fingers to make his puppet counterattack.

It did not budge.

The puppet finger in Son Goten's grasp might as well have been welded inside an iron clamp.

"So this is Sunagakure's specialty? Toy dolls?"

Son Goten curiously squeezed the wooden finger.

"The workmanship looks pretty rough. The wood's no good either. It's not even as sturdy as Teuchi's rolling pin."

"What did you say?! Crow is the strongest..."

Crack!

A crisp snapping sound cut off Kankuro's roar.

Son Goten had merely bent it gently.

It was as easy as snapping a biscuit stick.

The specially treated puppet finger, harder than steel, snapped cleanly in two.

"See? I told you the quality was no good."

Son Goten tossed the broken finger onto the ground disdainfully and brushed the wood chips from his hands.

"A shoddy toy like this would just take up space even if you sold it for scrap."

Everyone fell deathly silent.

Kankuro stared wide-eyed at his puppet, his heart bleeding.

That was Crow! That was the fruit of all his hard work in the Puppet Technique!

And this brat had actually... snapped it with his bare hands?

Without even using chakra?

What kind of monstrous strength was that?

"You bastard..." Kankuro trembled with fury and was about to undo the bandages on his back and fight to the death.

"Stop, Kankuro."

An indifferent voice washed over everyone's heads like ice water.

A red-haired boy carrying an enormous gourd hung upside down from a nearby tree branch.

Gaara.

His arms folded across his chest, he stared fixedly at Son Goten through eyes ringed with heavy dark circles.

There was no emotion in them, only endless repression and madness.

But deep within that madness lurked a trace of... wariness.

"Gaara..." Kankuro froze, cold sweat instantly running down his skin.

"You'll disgrace our village." Gaara turned into a mass of sand and instantly appeared on the ground.

He looked at Son Goten, an inscrutable light flickering in his pale green eyes.

The monster inside him... was screaming.

From the moment this crab-haired brat appeared, Shukaku, the One-Tail sealed within him, had suddenly grown restless.

What... is that?

That presence... a predator?

Stay away from him! I don't like this brat! Kill him! No! Don't provoke him!

Shukaku's chaotic howls exploded inside Gaara's mind.

This had never happened before.

That arrogant, savage tailed beast was actually afraid?

Afraid of a brat who looked barely ten and was still eating dango?

"What's your name?" Gaara asked hoarsely.

The atmosphere around them instantly froze.

Sasuke arrived then as well, standing on a tree branch and watching the scene with a grave expression. He could sense that the guy carrying the gourd was an extremely dangerous monster.

Yet Son Goten, at the center of the storm, looked perfectly calm.

He swallowed his last mouthful of dango and tilted his head as he looked at Gaara.

His gaze settled on Gaara's signature dark circles.

"Son Goten."

Son Goten pointed at his own eyes, then at Gaara.

"Hey, you with the gourd."

"Do you often stay up late playing games? Or reading some unhealthy books?"

Gaara froze. "What?"

"Dark circles that heavy really hurt your looks."

Son Goten offered his advice in complete earnest, his tone as sincere as an old practitioner of traditional Chinese medicine.

"Take my advice. Drink a glass of warm milk and soak your feet before bed."

"You look like a panda, which is pretty distinctive, but girls generally don't like that worn-out look."

"If you want to find a wife, quality sleep is important."