Chap.28 Love, sand and sugar

"How about this, if you declare your surrender I'll give you a coupon to get a free meal at my store." Deal? Tony asked tentatively.

They were both standing on the stage and Gaara gave him a very unfriendly look.

"Your blood will satisfy mother's hunger," she replied with her arms crossed as she narrowed her eyes.

Tony sighed acting defeated. He was actually just teasing Gaara as she refreshed the idea of ​​visiting her business to the onlookers.

"Let's do it then." He put on a serious stance as he drew his two knives and partially removed the restraint he usually had on them.

Since he would have to put on a good show, let it be unforgettable!

The civilians didn't notice a thing, but many faces in the audience changed their expressions as they felt the brutal presence of a beast coming from the knives in Tony's hands.

The veteran jonin as well as the sensor ninjas flinched for a moment and Anko couldn't help but lift her lips in a smile that reflected interest and a hint of pride.

"Heh, the boy really knows how to hide well," she thought.

Meanwhile, some clans such as the Inuzuka and the Aburame had the most intense reactions and unconsciously entered a combat-ready state as sweat broke out on their foreheads.

-What the hell is that? They thought as they tried to calm down.

Even the Kage present raised an eyebrow of interest at the sudden display of aura.

"This kid seems more interesting than he thought," the Kazekage mentioned when his eyes lit up.

"It's always been a box of surprises," the Third Hokage replied with a satisfied expression, although inside he was also somewhat surprised. "In fact, he's the one who prepared the food for today." If he hadn't become a ninja, he would have hired him as my personal cook.

Tony usually didn't use the knives to their full capacity because he preferred to use the power of the devil fruit. Also, Kiba and Akamaru were on his team and it was clear to her how intense his reaction to the traces left by the Derous could be with his animal instincts.

Gaara on the other hand, was actually excited. He just wanted to get his blood out of spite after what happened in the woods, but now he thought it could be exciting.

Noticing that both contestants were ready, the referee gave the start signal and jumped out of the way.

Tony was waiting for Gaara to take the initiative and so it happened.

He sent out a stream of sand to try to catch it and Tony only sprung into action when the sand was within range of him.

"Gluttony: purification of the desert!" he yelled.

He spun at high speeds and sliced ​​through the sand that was about to hit him.

Gaara had a teasing expression.

What was the point of cutting sand from him?

But his expression quickly changed when he noticed something strange.

Because he couldn't feel more control in the arena that Tony hit?

And the next scene left him speechless. He could see the sand he had sent change color to a pure, pristine white and surround Tony just as he himself had sand around him.

"What have you done?" Gaara was upset and didn't understand what happened.

Tony just smiled at her in response. That same smile seemed much more mocking in Gaara's eyes, so he sent out more streams of sand and the strange transformation happened again. This was repeated a few times until he gave up when he realized that he was only acting as his opponent wanted, which made him more furious.

Gaara wasn't worried about running out of sand, he could get more by drilling underground. But whatever Tony was doing, he was irritating him.

And his irritation changed to a very interesting expression when he noticed Tony's next move.

"My turn," he said as he sent the strange white sand at Gaara.

The next thing viewers saw for the next few minutes was a constant clash between arenas of two different colors. And they were tied!

Hiashi Hyuga watched as her daughter Hinata tried to contain her laughter at the stage show. She was paying attention to Tony because he was friends with his daughter and also because of Neji's recent scandal with mayonnaise.

"Hinata, do you know what your teammate is doing?" She — she asked him — what is that white sand?

"Dad," Hinata replied to her father's question, "Tony-kun is imitating his rival's style but instead of using sand, I think he's using sugar or salt, but knowing his personality, I'm sure it's what he is." first.

"Sugar versus sand?" Hiashi's jaw dropped at the revelation of his daughter.

Not only him, everyone who was around and heard the explanation of the Hyuga heiress reacted in a similar way.

The Akimichi clan on the other hand, were the only ones who were cheering Tony on strongly. After all, whatever glory he might win in the exam reflected back to his clan.

-Ha ha! —Choza and his wife laughed without holding back in the least— That boy and his jutsu are the best!

Gaara for his part, was getting more and more angry. Even when he tried to use some waves of sand, his opponent did the same with that strange white sand. Although he managed to destroy part of it, for some reason his sand was getting slower and harder to handle, as if sticky.

"I think that should be enough," Tony mused.

He was mixing the sugar into Gaara's sand and dissolving it to slow down his reaction times. But if he continued like this, he might start taking more drastic action.

During the next clash between the sand and the sugar, one of his knives shot out from inside the wave as Gaara couldn't see it and rushed towards the sand ninja.

Gaara noticed the incoming attack but didn't move as usual and hoped the sand would protect him.

Two seconds later, blood stained the stage for the first time since the confrontation began.

"I think I underestimated the sharpness of the knife." Tony grimaced as he saw that the knife instead of making a small gash on his shoulder as intended, went cleanly through Gaara's arm and came out without a single drop of blood on its surface. The arm was still in place, but the wound was not pretty to look at.

-Blood? Pain and reality took a while to hit Gaara. "It's my blood!"

Well, it seems that it was the hour of the crazy raccoon.