The brothers engaged in a staring contest as neither side refused to back down.

Gaara tried to push the sand coffin upward again, yet Kankuro kept anchoring it down with more chakra. He was getting more and more irritated as time passed on.

"Tch."

In the end, he couldn't care less as long as that annoying person died.

His palm turned to face forward, and then he clenched it into a fist, activating his finisher move.

The sand surrounding the Ame ninja started to move inward, applying pressure from every direction.

At the same time, a surge of thread-like chakra poured out of Kankuro's fingers.

>

The glowing blue threads were transformed into licks of translucent, colorless flame that spread out over the surface of Gaara's sand in the blink of an eye. The temperature rose up rapidly, to the point of instantly melting any sand particle that it touched.

Half of the sand coffin had melted at the point when Gaara's technique applied its full strength. Instead of compressing its victim, it ended up pushing him toward the melted part instead, catapulting him out through the brightly-lit layer.

"U-uwaaah!"

The Ame ninja's right side had broken bones from the sand's pressure, while his left side was suffering from horrifying third-degree burns where the molten sand had stuck on his skin. The heat had even rendered his nerves numb. He quickly passed out after letting out a muffled scream.

Kankuro grimaced at the sight. He had withdrawn his flame immediately after, but he couldn't stop the resulting heat. That guy's left arm might be out of the question from now on.

Nevertheless, he was still alive. That was the most important part, wasn't it?

The black-clothed boy lifted the poor man, and then threw him toward his two companions who had fallen on their knees from pure terror. That part on their pants were already dripping wet.

"Oi, you see how impatient this guy is, right?" Kankuro pointed at Gaara with his thumb. "I suggest that you leave your scroll and scram as fast as you can. If you don't want to die, that is."

"Y-yes! R-right away!"

The shortest kid on the group threw down a scroll. Right as it touched the ground, they quickly leaped away into the branches above while carrying their unconscious leader.

"Well... that's the 'Heaven' one. How lucky," Kankuro whistled as he picked up their spoils. Combined with their 'Earth' scroll, that meant they had earned the ticket to clear the second test.

"Alright, let's head to the tower...! Or maybe not."

Gaara was still standing at the exact same spot from before, still with the same poker face as usual. However, dark aura was coming out of him at the moment, indicating that he was really furious with how the event had turned out. His eyes were filled with genuine killing intent.

"I told you... not to interfere...!" the boy murmured as he glared at his older brother.

Kankuro raised an eyebrow.

"What are you fuming about? How many times do I have to tell you not to kill needlessly?"

"Doesn't matter," Gaara grumbled. "I'll kill everyone that I laid my eyes upon..."

"..."

Damn... this edgy kid... did he steal that line from Villain 101? That was too cliché! He had seen far too many unorthodox sects members spouting those lines only to get beaten up later by the virtuous heroes.

Must not let the kid fall to the same pit!

"Look," he sighed. "If you keep on doing that, you'll meet someone that you can't afford to offend one day, and then you'll be brought down under their feet. What will you do then? Knowing when to hold back is one of the greatest virtues for a martial artist."

Temari winced. What martial artist? Weren't they ninja...?

"You're annoying..."

Gaara lifted his hand. Cloud of sand began to pour out from his gourd.

"You brat, you still want to go?!"

Kankuro readied his stance as well, the blue light of chakra enveloping his body once again.

"You two, enough!"

In a panic, Temari had jumped in between the two. She was clear of Gaara's monstrous power, while the Kankuro of the past six months had also scared her senseless. If the two did fight it out, the result would definitely not be pretty. They might end up disqualified from losing a teammate or two.

"Calm down, alright? There's no point in fighting between ourselves! Let's just go to the tower! Please, listen to your elder sister's request..."

Even though she was reprimanding them, she was actually the one who was most afraid at the moment. Her trembling self looked so pitiful that Kankuro ended up feeling bad.

"Yeah, yeah, sorry," he shrugged.

Gaara had pulled down his hand as well. However, the sand cloud didn't recede back into the gourd just yet. The boy had turned his attention toward a certain bushes no too far from them.

"Gaara...?"

"Hey..." the boy murmured. "I still haven't had enough. It'll be fine if I kill those guys, right?"

Gulp.

'He's onto us!' Kiba silently screamed.

The trio had been rooted on the ground as they watched the fight unfolding between Gaara's team and the Ame ninja's team. The most terrifying one had turned out to be the brow-less kid with the gourd.

"That... if that face-paint guy didn't help him, the Ame dude would've died, right?"

Shino gravely nodded, reaching the same conclusion as Kiba.

Crap.

"Let's get out of here while they're still busy bickering! If they find us, we'll be-"

Dead. Kiba swallowed that word back as he couldn't bring himself to say it.

They were about to leap away when they heard what Gaara had said. If they exit the bushes right now, they would definitely got caught. Staying here forever wouldn't be a good choice either now that their hiding spot had been found.

"Damn it, do we have to fight...?"

At that moment, Kankuro and Temari had finally noticed their presence as well. The black-clothed boy held his hand up toward Gaara, telling him to wait.

"Let's see what they have to say first."

He flared up his chakra, and then rushed toward the bushes. Meanwhile, Gaara's sand cloud followed right behind him.

The bushes shook as something was coming from within. Right as they were about to strike it down, it turned out to be...

Woof!

A tiny, four-legged creature covered in white fur jumped out of the leaves. Its slit-like eyes were locked at the black-clothed boy while its tail was wagging back and forth.

""...""

That... was that a puppy?

'Honored Lady Daji? What are you doing here?!?'

Kankuro was maintaining a cool expression on the outside, but he was actually screaming mentally inside. He grabbed the little pup and then lifted it up so that he could get a closer look at him.

Akamaru had this sly look on his face. His eyes slightly parted open as he stared at the black-clothed boy.

"Damn it, Akamaru! Why did you go out- ugh!"

As expected, Kiba quickly popped out right after. Since they had no other choice, Shino and Hinata followed as well.

Whine.

Both Daji and Ox-Head were long-term acquaintances who had gone way back. As such, they had developed a tactful way of communicating just by eye contact. Of course, it was all just bull crap. They were just mainly guessing what the other party was thinking.

'These kids are under my watch,' the dog's glare seemingly conveyed. 'If you let them get hurt by any means, I'll tear you a new one.'

T-tear where?

He gulped as the puppy looked slightly downward.

'I... I get it. Worry not.'

He winked at the pup, giving an OK sign.

"What, it's those noisy brats from Konoha," Temari clicked her tongue. Sneaking around them, especially with Gaara here... were they idiots?

"I'll kill..."

"Hahaha! What a coincidence to meet you guys here!" Kankuro abruptly cut Gaara's speech while moving closer to the three.

"Shut up! Let Akamaru go, you face-paint freak!"

Face paint freak... Kankuro's lips twitched. It wasn't like he want to wear it, alright? It was his new body's memory's fault!

"Fine, fine, here's your Da- I mean, dog..."

He put down Akamaru on the ground, surprising Kiba with how gentle his movements were.

"Uh, so what are you guys doing here? Don't tell me that you're looking for a fight?" He glanced at Gaara in the back, who was itching to go. It was apparent from the sand's movement.

"No," Shino quickly intervened, trying to keep his voice calm despite his growing anxiety. "We already have two scrolls. Since we have no reason to fight each other, can we pretend that we have never met?"

From what he had seen before, this person seemed a bit more reasonable compared to the rest of his team. He could only hope that they would show mercy and accept his proposal.

"That's good," Kankuro secretly sighed. He wasn't sure if he could protect three kids against Gaara. If they ended up getting hurt, he could really say bye bye to his little Ox.

The prospect was too scary!

"Since we're heading to the tower anyway, why not go together?"

"..."

Everyone was frozen on their spot. Even the stoic Gaara was left wide-eyed upon hearing that stupid suggestion.

Temari's giant paper fan once again crashed onto Kankuro's head.

"Are you an idiot?! Why would we bother doing something so tedious!"

"Well... why not...?"

'If I keep them nearby, I can ensure their safety, thus saving my future descendants from that vixen's wrath!'

But of course, he couldn't say the real reason out loud, so he just left his sentence hanging like that, earning another smack from the paper fan.

"...Do whatever you want..."

Gaara, who had had enough dose of foolishness for the day, decided to just screw it and move on. He leaped away toward the tower without waiting for his siblings.

"Eh, Gaara! Wait up!"

Temari followed right behind him.

"Shouldn't you catch up with them...?" Kiba pointed at the two's disappearing visage.

"Nah," Kankuro snickered. "I'm carrying the scrolls right now. They're the ones who should be waiting for me, heheheh..."

"..."

When they were watching from afar, these guys looked scary as heck. Why did they turn out to be so... well, disappointing up close?

Shino blamed the black-clothed guy for a moment, before realizing that he had also another version of the idiot in his own team. As a result, he gave his Inuzuka teammate a judging stare.

"What? Why are you staring at me like that?!"

Instead of a proper reply, Kiba just got another intense round of judging stare.

"Let's just get this over with. Follow me."

Kankuro jumped off deeper into the forest. Team Kurenai, however, wasn't too keen on coming along with him. They stood rooted on the ground, not sure on how to proceed from there.

"...What to do?" Kiba wondered out loud.

"Definitely not following them," Shino shook his head. "Let's take a different route. Staying with those freaks is bad mojo."

"Agreed, then let's-"

He suddenly froze up, and then started looking all over the place.

"Wait, where's Akamaru?"

Ah. Right. The dog had disappeared...

"Um... A-Akamaru went with the face-paint guy..." Hinata murmured.

Oh for f-

"Why didn't you say it earlier?!" Kiba roared.

"I-I'm s-sorry...!"

"Bah, forget it!"

He quickly leaped away following Kankuro's scent, throwing caution to the wind.

Seeing how messed up the situation had become, Shino had a major migraine banging on his head.

"W-what should we do...?"

"Do we even have a choice...? Follow him."

And that was how team Baki and team Kurenai ended up arriving at the central tower around the same time...