BANG—!
A flash of golden light streaked downward, followed by a sharp screech from the Rift Beak. A few clean basic attacks later, Hayashi Ren finished it off.
At this point, Ren had already reached level 4, just about to hit level 5.
Top lane.
Naruko was struggling in a tough lane matchup against Gaara.
Even though Gaara had been recently nerfed, and Naruko's base stats slightly buffed, it didn't seem to matter. Gaara's endless experience with both killing and surviving made it nearly impossible for Naruko to get the upper hand.
"Damn it!"
Another kunai throw missed its mark, and Naruko's frustration boiled over. With a curse under her breath, she summoned a Shadow Clone to launch a surprise attack on Gaara.
POOF!
The clone hit first with Leaf Shadow Dance, lifting Gaara into the air. But even though it connected, it barely shaved off a sliver of his HP—it was practically meaningless. Even Naruko's main body followed up with her own Leaf Shadow Dance, landing a solid kick...
Yet it still did nothing.
"Damn! It's like this guy's covered in a turtle shell!"
Naruko tried a few more basic attacks against Gaara, but none of them did real damage. And now that Gaara's airborne state was nearly over, she had no choice but to retreat.
But she had only taken a couple of steps back when she heard Gaara's icy voice behind her.
"Hmph. Pathetic."
He let out a cold sneer as a torrent of sand spilled from the gourd on his back, clicking and clacking as it formed into sand bullets.
"Not good!"
Naruko's heart clenched in alarm.
Then she heard Gaara growl out a single word:
"Sand Drizzle."
WHISH WHISH WHISH—
A storm of sand bullets rained down toward her, leaving no room to dodge.
Naruko couldn't escape in time. The full force of Gaara's Sand Drizzle slammed into her.
THUMP! THUMP!
Multiple impacts landed hard. Naruko took the full brunt of the combo, her HP bar immediately plunging by a third.
"This guy...!"
Naruko fell back under the protection of her turret, eyes burning with frustration as she glared at Gaara.
"So this is a Leaf ninja? You look more like a turtle."
Gaara's voice was laced with disdain.
Because Gaara had used the public voice chat, everyone in the match could hear his taunt.
Instantly, the entire battlefield erupted in anger from the Leaf Village players.
Especially those on Naruko's Blue Team—they were furious.
Sako glanced coldly at the top lane icon of Gaara on the mini-map and etched the word "death" into her heart with fierce determination.
"Youthful passion doesn't tolerate insults!"
Rock Lee shouted through public chat.
"Top lane, huh? I'll remember you."
Tenten followed with a steely voice.
"Oh? So the little turtles of Leaf Village want to take on our Sand Village prodigy, Gaara? Must have a death wish."
Kankuro mocked through the chat, his tone dripping with sarcasm.
"Hahaha… What adorable little juniors."
Temari's voice rang out in the open channel too.
She didn't sound angry—more amused. To her, these Konoha kids were just naive and cute. After all, they were facing Sand's strongest prodigy, a terrifying powerhouse.
How could a bunch of rookies who probably hadn't even graduated from ninja academy hope to win?
"Shut up."
"Shut up, or I'll kill you."
Two voices cut through the noise like blades.
One was from Neji.
The other—from Gaara.