Chapter 717: Burying Sakura
"Haruno Sakura and Gaara, you two stay here. Rest of you, proceed to the waiting room outside the arena."
Sakura looked at Gaara with seriousness in her eyes. Knowing how difficult her opponent was, Naruto said, "Good luck, Sakura! You can beat him, believe it!"
Sakura nervously nodded as Temari and Kankuro chuckled, thinking, 'You'll be lucky if Gaara even leaves her bones intact.'
Hayate coughed, indicating the Genins to clear up. A minute later, Gaara and Sakura stood face to face in the middle of the arena. A determined expression appeared on Sakura as she assured herself, 'Get a grip, Sakura. Even though he is strong, you have trained hard for a month. You can't get cold feet now.
Not to mention, Sasuke still isn't here. He will be disqualified if he doesn't appear by the time his match begins. So, I have to stretch this battle as long as I can so that Sasuke can reach here. No!'
Sakura decided, 'I can't think that way. If I win this match, I can battle against Sasuke. Only that way I can prove myself to him. I'm no longer someone who has to hide behind the two of them. I'll follow Illumi sensei's plan and defeat Gaara!'
Unlike Sakura, who was going through emotional turmoil, Gaara stood without a single expression on his face. Much like the rest of the audience, he was more interested in fighting Sasuke and had no interest in Sakura. He didn't even consider her as a warm-up.
Even among the audience, there were several wondering whether Sakura was ready for this stage. Their murmurs fell on the ears of Kurama Illumi, who smirked and thought, 'I can't blame them. After all, I underestimated her as well. Who would have thought her talent in Yin Release would have been so outrageous… From everyone I have seen, only Yakumo's talent exceeds her's. Lord Third really knew what he was doing when he created Kakashi's squad.'
Even Fujin was watching intently. However, the reason why he was doing so was quite different from others. Instead, it was because Illumi had visited him the day before to ask for his help. Fujin looked at Sakura thinking, 'I wasn't expecting much from this battle, probably I still am not. However, she might spring some surprises…'