99 Poor Shukaku

The Raikage, Hokage, and Orochimaru shifted their positions slightly after seeing me straighten up and furrow my brow. Perhaps for them, it gives the impression that I think sending the jinchuriki to compete isn't fair.

They have no idea that my concern is that Tsunade wins a bet.

In fact, after counting the bills, it seems that she also realizes what just happened, and her expression is no longer so joyful. She looks around cautiously, not forgetting to tuck the money into her... pockets.

—Ready?

Haku nods, while Gaara continues with his constipated expression, and the fight officially begins.

Haku intends to repeat his performance by throwing a scroll with sealed water, but Gaara sends the sand fast enough to prevent it from opening in the air. This makes many furrow their brows, thinking that since the sand has no moisture to exploit, Haku, as a member of the Yuki clan, will be at a disadvantage.

The truth is, Haku never needed the water from the scroll to use his techniques; he simply gives an illusion of dependence and makes people believe that it's an exploitable weakness.

In other words, it's a performance to create a nonexistent weak point.

He also knows some water techniques (courtesy of Ameyuri) that could play the same role, generating moisture in case of fighting in an extremely dry environment.

Seeing that the "trick" can't be used, Haku tries to use his senbons to swiftly attack Gaara, but the sand automatically blocks the needles whose target is parts of the human body that would cause paralysis upon hitting.

Gaara sends more and more sand to try to catch Haku, but he can't match his speed of movement and resorts to more extreme measures, literally sending waves of sand to cover Haku from three different directions.

Haku has no choice but to jump, and that's where things turn against him because at the moment the sand waves collide, they generate an eruption that propels the sand upward, managing to trap Haku's legs.

—I got you —Gaara puts on his crazy expression and extends his hand open like a claw while starting to manipulate the sand to form a cocoon around Haku, who tries to free himself without success.

The Raikage looks at me, and even Sarutobi can't help but divert his gaze for a moment to see my expression, both puzzled because I don't seem worried about Haku's imminent and brutal death.

I shake an apple in front of the Raikage, and he seems to understand something, returning his gaze to the sand with interest. Sarutobi, on the other hand, is even more confused by our interaction.

Is it some kind of secret fruit-based code?

—Desert Funeral! —Gaara tightens his outstretched hand, and everyone inhales horrified as they see how the sand cocoon compresses forcefully, clearly shrinking in size and imagining Haku's tragic fate.

But the ninjas present quickly realize that the scene is off.

—There's no blood! —someone shouts, followed by exclamations of amazement when more people realize that and what it means.

Gaara is clearly confused; he must have felt familiarly that what he crushed was a real body, so he doesn't understand why not only is there no blood, but when he opens the sand cocoon, not even a single hair is left!

—Interesting —Orochimaru comments as he and everyone watch how Haku reappears in the sand when particles of light begin to gather to form his perfectly healthy, unblemished, beautiful figure without the slightest discomfort.

And so, the Logia fruits give their first demonstration to the ninja world.

At the same time, I also hope that Haku's slip-up is the "accident" of Tsunade's bet, which fortunately seems to have had only some minor, insignificant gains.

—Did he combine the substitution technique with some kind of light clone?

Sarutobi pondered aloud but loud enough for all of us to hear. As expected from the one with the title of Professor, he already theorized a possible way to explain what happened in front of him.

If there's a shadow clone, what's stopping there from being one of light? Logical.

But Orochimaru doesn't seem to agree with his former teacher, not with the way he's looking at Haku, as if he sees something extremely interesting. Perhaps feeling my gaze, he laughs and holds back his interest to continue acting as Rasa, prioritizing dealing with the Third Hokage.

It's better not to have weird ideas; I wouldn't mind a bit of intimidation.

—Give me your blood! —Gaara shouted as if he were a vampire, and his body began to change— I need your blood!

Wow! I knew Gaara's partial transformation was ugly, but seeing it up close is really something else. That look, the drool falling from his mouth, and the tremors only add more disgust to the matter.

This unconsciously makes me think of something.

Why is Shukaku's jinchuriki the only one who looks ugly halfway transformed?

No, seriously, I don't remember the other jinchurikis having that issue. They had the initially semitransparent chakra cloak that bubbled, the wilder version with red streaks, and the full transformation if they were perfect, but nothing halfway done like Gaara.

Okay, Fu can use Chomei's wings, but she's adorable!

Even Naruto only shows things like eye color changes, nail growth, and teeth sharpening at most before moving on to the chakra cloak phase.

Did the Sage of the Six Paths use Shukaku's creation for practice?

Like making a sandcastle. He sculpts it and then shakes his head to rebuild it again until he gets what he's looking for.

Then he saw he did it wrong and knew how to do the rest correctly, but he forgot to correct his first attempt.

Does the theory seem quite possible?