CHAPTER 165: CHAPTER 165

Gaara’s teal eyes stared coldly at Shikamaru and Naruto. Then, the sand around him suddenly started to move.

What’s going on? I had him pinned!

Shikamaru froze for a second, his eyes locked onto the moving sand.

But even though Gaara was facing him and Naruto, the sand suddenly shot toward Kimimaro, who was holding his bone blade to the side.

Shikamaru quickly ended his Shadow Possession Jutsu, but the moment he did, Gaara leapt backward.

Then Gaara raised a hand toward them too.

Three streams of sand rushed toward them like they were going to crush them to death.

And actually, it wasn’t just "like"—Gaara really was aiming to kill all three of them.

"Damn it."

Shikamaru realized they’d walked right into a trap.

But given how chaotic things were, this kind of mistake wasn’t all that surprising. After all, the three of them weren’t even from the same village.

There wasn’t much real communication between them, and they didn’t really know each other’s abilities. If they tried to work together, it might actually just slow them down.

Gaara saw the opening and took it.

Even though he usually fought alone, he understood the situation clearly.

If he could just get rid of whatever was locking down his feet, he could easily take out those two nobodies nearby.

Konoha’s genin weren’t any better when it came to killing.

Most of them didn’t have the guts to actually go all out, and Gaara didn’t want to waste time fighting them anyway.

The one he really wanted to deal with was Kimimaro.

"No way to dodge this..."

Naruto and Shikamaru stared, wide-eyed, as two waves of sand rushed toward them.

At this point, the exam was the least of their worries—they weren’t even sure they’d make it out of this hospital room alive.

"Wow~ I didn’t expect to come back and see you all brawling like this."

"The exam’s tomorrow, you know. Isn’t it a bit of a waste to burn through your energy fighting now?"

Hatake Satoru’s light voice came from right behind Gaara.

It was like someone snapped everyone out of the tension—

Satoru even followed up with a sharp finger snap, just to break the mood.

"Teacher?!"

Kimimaro blinked in confusion. He’d been locked onto Gaara the entire time.

So how the hell did Hatake Satoru suddenly appear right in front of them?

"Satoru-bro...?! Huh? What?!"

Naruto snapped out of his daze and shook his head, totally lost.

Since when was Hatake Satoru even part of this hospital scene!?

"?!"

"When did you get here?!"

Gaara’s pupils shrank as he turned his head slightly—he couldn’t even hide the shock on his face.

In an instant, sand surged up behind him, pushing him a bit away from Satoru to make some space.

This guy... When did he get behind me!?

Just now, while Gaara was speaking, he hadn’t felt anyone else nearby at all.

The only entrance to the room, besides the window, was the door by Shikamaru and Naruto.

No matter where Satoru had come in from, Gaara should’ve noticed it.

But he hadn’t felt a thing. This guy just appeared behind him like a ghost.

And with how tense he’d been—there was no way he should’ve missed someone sneaking up behind him.

"Hmm? Just now."

Satoru answered smoothly, completely calm.

He casually rested one hand on Gaara’s defensive sand, leaning against it like it was no big deal.

A faint blue mist started to rise from Satoru’s hand—it looked like chakra, which was usually blue anyway.

But this wasn’t normal. The color was very light, almost see-through, and it wasn’t even moving.

It just kept slowly expanding outward.

If you weren’t really looking for it, you wouldn’t even notice it.

Then, suddenly, three streams of sand crashed into each other like they’d lost control—

they smashed into the nearby wall, leaving a dent.

All the sand trickled down along the wall and piled up into a small mound on the floor.

"Not sure what just happened, but I guess we’re safe now."

Shikamaru scratched his head, looking over at Hatake Satoru standing behind Gaara.

It was the same as before, when Kimimaro and Gaara faced off—Satoru had just appeared right between them.

And once again, he’d stopped them before either could go all out in a real fight.

Even though he had the title of written exam proctor, this guy was clearly not that simple.

Shikamaru had a vague feeling since he was a kid that Hatake Satoru was a bit too special for just a normal person...

But Satoru didn’t know any ninjutsu, and he wasn’t a ninja. Everything about him just felt off, like he was full of contradictions.

Then Shikamaru shifted his gaze and noticed the way Hatake Satoru was lying down.

He might be really strong, but lying so casually on the sand like that—does this guy have no fear at all?!

Even regular teachers would at least keep some distance from Gaara.

"Tch."

The sand behind Gaara slowly dropped to the ground, no longer on guard.

Hatake Satoru didn’t show any killing intent. He wasn’t being aggressive—he was just playing around like it was some game with a kid.

But Gaara was still annoyed. It felt like this guy was treating his sand defense like a cushion or something.

The rest of the wild sand returned to the gourd on his back.

He still didn’t understand what this guy’s power really was. Gaara remembered Satoru doing something similar during the written exam—

It looked like he used the same kind of move on the students back then, but Gaara couldn’t figure out how it worked.

Even just now, when Satoru manipulated his sand directly, Gaara had no idea how he did it.

If it were anyone else, Gaara might still consider fighting them. But with this guy? No way.

Everything about him felt unfamiliar.

And Gaara clearly remembered: when he tried to attack him back then, the sand had completely blocked the path around Satoru’s body.

He couldn’t even get close.

That kind of power was terrifying. Gaara might be a bit crazy, but he wasn’t dumb.

Fighting this teacher would be pointless—and just bring trouble on himself.

"Why are you getting in the way here? Aren’t you a teacher from Konohagakure?"

Gaara turned back and looked at Satoru with a bit of annoyance.

This was the second time already. He was clearly a Konoha teacher, but always seemed to be involved with the Kirigakure genin somehow.

It all felt weird.

Hatake Satoru snapped the edge of his blindfold and leaned his head back a little, sounding amused.

"That’s a weird thing to say."

"You were just about to kill three people, weren’t you? Two of them are from Konoha, you know."

"And hey, they’re my students."

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