Naruto: Let the glory of the giants spread throughout the ninja world!

[4,000 words in two parts]

Upon hearing about this seemingly coincidental first-round match arrangement, Akira Ryukura scratched his head in frustration.

"There's a big problem." His tone was tinged with helplessness. "At this stage, Gaara is completely ruthless and a total problem child. He's not easy to beat."

As the announcement ended, Gaara, who had been staring intently at Ryukura Akira and the other two, paused slightly, his eyes then turned bloodshot, and his mouth stretched to his ears in a wide grin.

In the center of the arena, the two stood facing each other.

The sand from the gourd's mouth had already leaked out, flowing slowly around Gaara's feet. He tilted his head, looking Ryukura Akira up and down, his gaze like that of someone examining a gift waiting to be unwrapped.

"Where's your companion?" he suddenly asked, a hint of disappointment in his voice. "Why didn't you let him come?"

Ryukura Akira looked surprised: "You wouldn't happen to have a crush on Shiro, would you?"

"...?" Gaara paused for a moment, then unusually spoke up to explain, "I just wanted to twist that troublesome guy into pieces."

The four students and teachers from Class 7, along with the other two members of Akira Ryukura's group, stood in the stands, watching the two facing off in the arena. Sakura looked worried.

"I remember Akira Ryukura wasn't good at fighting, and Gaara said he wanted to kill him, is that really okay?"

Naruto clung to the fence, his eyes wide, staring at the lazy, scratching figure. He couldn't help but complain, "Seriously? You're letting big brother face that monster? He'll die!"

Moonlight Gale took two steps back, raised his hand to signal the two to take their positions, and said in a deep voice, "Both sides prepare—the match begins!"

The sand moved.

Without any warning, the sand beneath Gaara's feet suddenly exploded, transforming into countless streams that surged towards Ryukura Akira from all directions. Each stream carried a force powerful enough to pierce flesh, so dense that there were almost no gaps between them.

Ryukura Akira's body bent backward like a bamboo stalk in the wind, while his right leg kicked upward at an unnatural angle, his toes grazing the edge of the sand flow. Using the force of the kick, he spun and sprang into the air.

The sand flowed and collided beneath his feet, splashing up a cloud of debris.

"It's alright," Haku said with a smile after explaining his experiences in the forest to Zabuza. "Xiaoming wasn't good at fighting, but that was a long time ago. Just watch~"

Upon arriving at the Tower of the End, Ryukura Akira had already explained his current physical condition to Haku in detail. At this moment, Haku had a clear understanding of Ryukura Akira's strength.

A murmur rippled through the crowd—the way that person dodged was something no normal person would do.

Ryukura Akira landed on the ground three meters away. His training in Konoha and the battles in the consciousness space had given him extremely strong control over all his muscles. Combined with his already enhanced body, those extraordinary movements were now nothing more than a matter of course for him.

Gaara tilted his head, his interest growing even stronger.

"Good job hiding." His tone was as if he were commenting on a dancing insect. "You weren't this nimble when you ran away before."

"Eh..." Ryukura Akira landed on the ground, straightening his slightly disheveled clothes. "I've changed my mind. You really have a sharp tongue these days."

"Oh."

The sand beneath Gaara's feet suddenly expanded, transforming into a gigantic sand hand with its five fingers spread wide, slamming down on Ryukura Akira's head!

A shadow fell.

Seeing what was happening on the field, Tian Tian asked curiously, "Li, you don't seem worried at all that the tall boy will lose?"

"Of course!" Before Lee could answer, Might Guy instantly appeared beside the three of them. "This kid is only using about a third of his strength right now! He's a formidable opponent for you in this match, Neji. Such youthful energy!"

boom!

Sand rained down. Ryukura Akira remained in the Rising Dragon Fist stance, his right sleeve ripped open by the impact, revealing his well-defined muscles.

"You're more annoying than I thought." Ryukura Akira stared straight at Gaara.

Sensing the sudden change in the other person's aura, Gaara didn't press his advantage: "Everyone thinks that way, but only you dare to say it out loud. What's wrong?"

Ryukura Akira lowered his hand, and blood vessels began to appear in the whites of his eyes.

"call--"

He took off his coat, and with that exhale, the veins on his otherwise somewhat robust body instantly bulged.

Crackling sounds followed. Ryukura Akira clasped his hands in a fist salute and twisted his neck, producing a series of crisp cracking sounds. He grinned, revealing sixteen teeth.

"For those brats, you'll have to taste the power of love!"

His figure vanished instantly, reappearing three meters in front of Gaara.

"Sand shuriken!"

Gaara waved his hand, and dozens of shuriken formed from sand shot out, blocking all of Ryukura Akira's paths of advance.

This time, Ryukura Akira did not dodge.

His arms were crossed in front of him, and his muscles suddenly tensed.

"Clang clang clang clang—!"

The sand shuriken struck his arm, producing a metallic clang. His arms instantly hardened like steel. The shuriken shattered and scattered upon impact, while his arm only suffered a minor scrape.

Ryukura Akira didn't even frown.

His body twisted suddenly as he moved at high speed, his waist muscles tightening like a wrung towel, and then suddenly released—his whole body was like a cannonball, passing through the gap in the sand shuriken, and punching Gaara in the face!

"Bang!"

The Sand Shield rose in time.

Ryukura Akira's fist slammed into the sand wall, sending sand flying and creating a large crater in the wall, but it did not shatter.

Gaara stood still, without taking a single step back.

But his expression changed.

The Sand Shield's automatic defense strength adjusts automatically based on the power of the attack. The fact that it could create such a deep dent indicates that the force of this punch was enough to threaten its main body.

The sand suddenly exploded!

Ryukura Akira was thrown away by a violent shockwave, tumbling twice in mid-air before landing on one knee and sliding several meters before coming to a stop.

Blood was dripping from his right fist. But upon closer inspection, one would see that the cut on his arm was already healing.

Ryukura Akira shook the blood off his hands, stood up, and still had that smug smile on his face.

"It's alright, it hurts quite a bit."

Ryukura Akira looked down at his healing wound, and the smile on his lips deepened.

"Interesting." He stretched his shoulders, his bones cracking a few times. "Let's do it again."

Before he finished speaking, his figure disappeared again.

This time, it wasn't a straight-line advance.

His footsteps tapped across the ground repeatedly, each landing point completely unpredictable, left, right, left-left, right, his body constantly changing direction with each step, leaving a trail of blurry afterimages.

Gaara's sands chased after him, but were always a beat too late.

"Wow, so fast!" Naruto exclaimed in the stands, his eyes wide. "When did big brother become so amazing?"

Sakura was equally surprised and speechless. Wasn't she supposed to be a support staff member without chakra?

"He's accelerating," Sasuke whispered, his Sharingan involuntarily activating, the black pupils reflecting the increasingly fast-moving figure in the arena. "And his muscles are working in tandem with this speed?"

Sasuke is right.

Every change of direction by Ryukura Akira was accompanied by the precise coordination of all his muscles. His thigh muscles tightened to absorb the force the moment he landed, while his calf muscles then contracted explosively, propelling his body in another direction. His core muscles in his waist and abdomen stabilized his center of gravity like the axis of a spinning top, allowing him to maintain perfect balance even at high speeds.

Ryukura Akira suddenly appeared to Gaara's left, sweeping out with his right leg, creating a whistling sound.

The sand beneath Gaara's feet rose up automatically, forming a thick sand wall beside him.

"Bang!"

The back of his leg slammed against the sand wall, sending sand and gravel flying.

The sand wall developed cracks, but did not break.

Ryukura Akira did not retract his leg. Instead, he used the recoil to leap into the air, his body flipping half a circle in the air, and his left leg slashed down at a tricky angle.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

Three hits in a row.

Each blow landed precisely on the same spot on the sand wall. The first kick loosened the structure of the sand, the second kick widened the cracks, and the third kick shattered the sand wall into pieces.

Gravel flew everywhere.

A hint of surprise flashed in Gaara's eyes, but the sand beneath his feet surged again, rebuilding a new defensive line before Ryukura Akira could land.

"What a nuisance." Ryukura Akira landed without pausing, his whole body compressing and springing up like a spring, his fists striking out alternately.

Each punch carries a different force.

The left fist was light and quick, like a woodpecker's beak, probing the weak points on the surface of the sand shield; the right fist was heavy and deep, like the hammer of a pile driver, each strike causing the sand shield to tremble violently.

Ten punches transmit power from the heels to the waist, from the waist to the shoulders, and from the shoulders to the fists—the muscles of the whole body are like a precise transmission chain, converging every bit of power to that one point.

For the tenth punch, begin to control the timing of muscle contraction, maximizing the hardness of the fist at the moment of contact, and then immediately relaxing it to build up power for the next punch.

Gaara was pinned behind the sand shield, the sand beneath his feet constantly replenishing his shattered defenses, but his expression grew increasingly grim.

That's enough.

The sand suddenly exploded!

This eruption was even more violent than before, with countless grains of sand flying in all directions like shrapnel.

Liu Cangming had no time to dodge and could only cross his arms to protect his head and face, his muscles instantly hardening.

"Clang clang clang clang—"

The sand and gravel hit him, making a series of metallic clanging sounds.

His arms, shoulders, chest, thighs—everywhere he was hit, the muscles automatically tensed up the moment before the impact, dispersing the force of the impact to the surrounding muscle groups.

Tian Tian in the stands gasped, "How did he do that? From such close range..."

"It's not reaction speed." Neji's Byakugan stared intently at the arena, his brows furrowing deeper and deeper. "It's anticipation. His muscles had already begun to contract before the sand was even launched."

The barrage of sand finally stopped.

He took a breath and looked up at Gaara.

"Your shell is really hard."

"However..." Ryukura Akira turned and jumped onto the massive sand pile formed by Gaara's sand, "Let's begin round two!"

He raised his hand and pounded his chest.

"Thump!"

The blood vessels in Ryukura's eyes instantly increased dramatically, and scarlet lines crawled around his pupils. Then, thick white steam gushed out from the pores of his entire body.

His muscles began to move in an unsettling rhythm—expanding, contracting, expanding, and contracting again.

The blood vessels under the skin bulged out, like bluish-purple vines climbing on the surface of the muscles, and the whole body quickly turned a hot, bright red.

"Bang bang bang bang bang——"

The sound of my heart pounding came from my chest, heavy, rapid, and rapid, like someone desperately beating a giant cowhide drum.

Each heartbeat pumps hot blood throughout the body, and the accelerated blood circulation, in turn, gives the heart even stronger power, creating a continuous and ever-increasing cycle.

The steam grew thicker and thicker.

The sand beneath Ryukura Akira's feet was shaken and slid off in a rustling sound.

"Advance loan".

Matt Kai's voice came from the stands, his tone unusually somber.

"This is an ability that Ryukura Akira discovered by chance during our training." His gaze was fixed on the figure enveloped in steam in the arena.

"Thanks to his terrifying control over his body, he was able to forcibly stimulate his heart to beat at its maximum speed, thereby gaining power beyond his own limits in a short period of time."

The people in the stands reacted differently upon hearing this.

Lee's eyes blazed with even stronger fighting spirit, Neji's Byakugan narrowed slightly, and Naruto's mouth was agape, unable to utter a word.

In the field.

The steam suddenly exploded!

Ryukura Akira's figure burst out of the white mist, moving so fast that only a blur remained.

His pace was completely different from before. There were no more delicate changes of direction or feints. Instead, he walked straight, ruthlessly, like a wild beast that had broken free, and charged towards Gaara!

With each step, the ground beneath our feet cracks.

"Sand shuriken!"

Gaara waved his hand, and dozens of sand shuriken shot out.

Ryukura Akira didn't dodge, he didn't even bother to block.

He crashed straight into it.

"Clang clang clang clang—!"

The sand shuriken struck him, but bounced off as if hitting a moving steel ingot.

His speed did not decrease at all.

In the blink of an eye, he had rushed in front of Gaara.

He threw a punch.

This punch was faster, harder, and more powerful than any before. The moment he threw it, the muscles in his arm contracted violently, causing the veins throughout his arm to bulge, and steam billowed out from between his fists—

"Bang!"

The Sand Shield rose up, blocking the punch.

But this time, a deep fist-shaped mark appeared on the sand wall, with cracks spreading outwards like a spider web.

Ryukura Akira did not retract his fist.

His other fist followed.

"Bang! Bang! Bang bang bang bang bang!"

Punches rained down on the sand shield like a storm, without any pattern or probing, just pure, irrational violence.

With each punch, the sand shield trembled violently.

With each punch, the crack widened.

With each punch, Ryukura Akira would spew out a stream of scalding steam, like a tireless, ferocious beast.

Gaara's expression finally changed.

His sand was desperately trying to repair the sand shield, but the rate of repair was gradually falling behind the rate of destruction.

Ryukura Akira's punches grew faster and stronger, and the sound of his heartbeat echoed throughout the arena.

"Bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang!"

Each sound was more urgent and heavier than the last.

The sand shield began to disintegrate.

Ryukura Akira caught sight of that tiny gap.

His right fist muscles suddenly tensed to their limit, the veins on his entire arm looked like they were about to burst, and steam burst out from every pore.

A punch was thrown!

The punch pierced through the collapsing sand shield and headed straight for Gaara's face.

Gaara's eyes widened.

The sand's automatic defense surged onto his cheeks at the last moment, creating a thin layer of sand between his fist and face.

"Snapped!"

The fist scraped across the sand, sending up a spray of gravel.

A large chunk of sand was knocked off Gaara's cheek, revealing the pale skin underneath.

Gaara was sent flying by the force of the punch, his expression frozen between shock and anger.

The sand surged wildly beneath his feet, as if sensing its master's emotions.

Ryukura Akira stood three meters behind Gaara and slowly straightened up.

He was surrounded by steam, his skin was flushed, his veins were bulging, and his chest was heaving violently, but his bloodshot eyes reflected a smile.

"This is my iron fist filled with love, you can't stop it~"

Gaara slowly raised his hand and touched the exposed skin on his cheek.

There was no sand to protect it, only a thin layer of human skin.

He touched his mouth and nose, then raised his hand to his eyes.

"Blood!"