Ino's POV (Audience Section - Iron Arena)
Ino felt terrible as she sat next to Sakura. Truthfully, she had been elated to see Naruto win incredibly convincingly. But she felt panic at meeting him face to face. She felt too ashamed of her words. She would fix things but insisted upon doing so after proving herself. Naruto was the guy who valued action over words.
At the very least, Sakura seemed to appreciate it, seemingly terrified for her teammate. Ino understood it; she feared Naruto facing Gaara, let alone doing so blindly. Kiba was making quite the showing, smashing into the sand at blinding speed and with jarring impact. Yet Ino could not help but notice Gaara had yet to be hit even after thirty seconds of this.
"Kiba's almost as fast as Lee without the weights!" Sakura remarked. "Why can't he hit this guy?!"
"He's not strong enough…" Ino said softly, predicting it would trigger Sakura's temper. Sure enough, the pinkette sent a glare at her. But Ino pushed forward anyway. "This Gaara guy seems to be on a different level."
"I know…" Sakura said sadly. "But surely Kiba can do something with this new method of attack. He's easily twice as fast." She had helped him train and would feel guilty if it amounted to nothing.
"Doesn't he seem too calm, though?" Ino posed. She saw Sakura's eyes narrow, and she focused intently on Gaara. She was going into her more analytical mode.
"He does seem calm yet tense; he might be channeling chakra? But what for…"
X-X
Gaara's POV
Gaara used a meager amount of chakra to create the technique. His control was surgical, doing so as efficiently as possible. While the dog boy had been flailing around, unable to graze the redhead, he had been grinding minerals and stone beneath the arena into the sand. It was best to prepare for the more entertaining bouts later, and besides, he felt the need for an example.
Naruto and his connection had undoubtedly been a surprise, yet he could not say he had hated it. Yet it had only steeled his resolve. Naruto may have understood his pain, but he had yet to truly experience it. He could not allow such to affect him. He would show Naruto what his attachment to humanity could cost. With any luck, this dog boy was a friend.
"Stop your infernal squirming," Gaara said darkly, finally locking eyes with Kiba.
The dog boy and his mutt attempted to hit him from behind and the front, a wise move if a simplistic one. His eyes slid to the fast-moving dog boy. A hand of sand formed and surged forward with a speed it had not shown so far. It was as if a giant made of sand had decided to slap Kiba. He slammed into his dog, both forming a mass of tangled limbs. Both scrambled to get to their feet, realizing the danger.
"Too little too late," Gaara responded. With a mere thought, streams of sand burst through the stony ground. It flew into the air until billowing to the ground. It formed a quickly growing pile behind Gaara. Kiba and Akamaru managed to crawl to their feet, but it had little effect. Gaara had already finished his hand seals. "Sand Tsunami," Gaara muttered. The pile behind him had formed into a towering pile of sand. It surged to life at his words, parting around him and creating a hill-sized wave. Kiba and Akamaru didn't seem to wish to try to counter him as the foolish swordsman had earlier. Instead, they both took off as the wave came close. They had wasted precious seconds being shocked; it cost them dearly.
As they both ran to opposite sides of the wave to avoid it, they were shocked when hands formed from the wave and grabbed both, throwing them back into the path of the absurd surge. Gaara watched with bored focus as the two were buried utterly in the sand. The massive attack had turned one-half of the arena into a desert.
Gaara chuckled as he willed the sand to raise Dog Boy and the Mutt to the surface. Both were covered in cuts and bruises. Akamaru had transformed and seemed to be unconscious. Kiba was conscious and swearing wildly; unfortunately, it was clear that he could barely move.
He locked eyes with Naruto once again. 'I will show you, ' he thought. No link formed this time, yet he was sure the blonde understood. He responded dully with a grim shake of his head.
Gaara formed an idea to make a point.
"Time to finish, you dog boy," Gaara said with malice as he raised a hand.
He could see the defiance in the boy's eyes. He seemed defiant as if he was willing to die instead of surrender. There was fear, but the boy seemed to think his pride was more than his life. Yet his gaze landed on his dog. He shook his head sadly before yelling out:
"I surrender!"
Gaara shook his head, this was no game the boy could hope to win. If it was, it wouldn't change anything. Gaara played for keeps. He slowly closed his palm to kill the annoying boy, who swore angrily as the sand tightened. Before the actual fun could begin, Gaara felt a presence fly by him, stopping to glare at him and tap his shoulder. With a silent warning, Gaara attempted to speed up his execution, but the presence quickly jumped to both strands, holding his victim. His hand became a ball of lightning, used with expert precision to cut his two victims free. He easily carried both to the other side of the field while avoiding the sand that attempted to teach them. Gaara felt a ping of annoyance. Who was this man to stop him? He was undoubtedly powerful, too powerful? Before he could decide, an equally powerful presence formed behind him. Gaara saw an odd man with a bowl cut before him.
"You lack youth," Gai said darkly as he glared at Gaara. Should you ever attempt to harm one of my wonderful pupils again, I'll crush you."
Gaara raised a brow but realized he was outgunned for now. Besides, the dog boy was hardly worth the trouble.
Rasa's POV (Kage Box - Iron Arena)
Rasa watched with glee as Gaara easily smashed the competition. He wasn't often thankful for failure, but he was glad the assassins hired in the past had failed. Gaara ensures that Sand's recent problems are solved. It wasn't often a Genin so easily bested another. Though he would have to speak with his son about stirring unnecessary trouble. One would think children would be obedient, yet they often were poor tools.
"Another one of us." Yagura stated with interest. "He was holding back considerably as well."
"It's unlikely my son will be pushed much during these exams." Rasa answered back.
"Ha! He'll be unlucky if he runs into one of mine!" A roared.
"We shall see just how good your men are." Yagura inserted. "They have the pleasure of combating one of my heroes eventually."
"We'll see then waterboy." A muttered.
"It seems my daughter is up to bat next." Onoki comments as he reads the next match.
Kankuro of the Sand VS Kurotsuchi of the Stone