Ten days after the conclusion of the Forest of Death segment, Dosu Kinuta stalked the forests west of Konoha in the dead of night. He moved noiselessly through the trees, his movements muted by sound style ninjutsu, shadowing his target from a distance. Dosu followed Gaara, the Sunagakure boy that had showcased incredible powers in the preliminaries. He would be facing Sasuke Uchiha in the finals, but Dosu had taken it upon himself to eliminate Sasuke with his own hands, and he refused to risk Sasuke's premature death by sand.
Gaara stood unmoving in a moonlit clearing. "What do you want?"
Dosu crouched in the brush. How did he…? This one is quite perceptive.
"You're the sound ninja, from the preliminary round," said Gaara. "Are you here to kill me?"
Dosu quietly circled around Gaara from behind the trees as he cast a subtle ninjutsu to conceal the origin of his voice. "It's nothing personal, but I must be the one to kill Sasuke Uchiha. After observing the bloodlust that you exhibited during your last match, I cannot allow you to face Sasuke and kill him first. I don't trust that you'll leave him alive." Dosu darted out from his hiding place behind Gaara, aiming to deliver a lethal sneak attack, but he was rebuffed by a fast-forming barrier of sand.
"That won't work," said Gaara. He remained icily composed in the moonlight. "And nobody tells me who I can and cannot kill."
Dosu dodged a blast of sand bullets, rolling to the side and hurling a volley of throwing knives at Gaara. A wall of sand shot up from the ground around Gaara to block the knives as Dosu leapt away from slithering arms of sand. Dosu weaved a quick sequence of seals. "Kyomeisen: Resonating Frequency." The porous metal gauntlet on his right arm produced a low frequency tone that reverberated through the clearing. My technique will only be able to disorient him from this range—if I could get within three meters of him, it should be enough to induce paralysis. If I was within one meter I could scramble his brain. "Your sand can't defend against my sound."
Dosu darted forward, jumping between lashing tendrils of sand. Gaara flinched from Dosu's low frequency technique as the gap between them closed, his ears ached from the sound. Gaara summoned a violent gale of sand that blasted Dosu back to the edge of the clearing. Blood ran down the side of his face.
Gaara's unceasingly stoic expression cracked into a raving grin. "Be careful, or I might lose control. Or do you want to see the monster?"
Monster?! Is he really holding back? Dosu was still partially stunned from the last attack when Gaara unleashed a barrage of sand from all directions, trapping Dosu in what felt like a whirlwind of flying blades. Sand enveloped Dosu's gauntlet before he could escape the storm, crushing his arm into a bloody pulp intertwined with shredded metal. He staggered away in agony as another wave of sand sent him crashing the thick trunk of a tree.
"You're one of the more feeble assassins that I've had to deal with," said Gaara. "You see, my own father has sent several professional assassins after me since I was a young child. At first he was simply trying to test my abilities, but now he truly fears me."
"Please, w-wait," said Dosu, barely conscious. "Don't kill me…"
"I already told you, nobody tells me who I cannot kill," said Gaara. He tore Dosu's body apart with a powerful maelstrom of sand before regaining his quiet composure.
Gaara looked down with twisted satisfaction at Dosu's mutilated corpse in the moonlight. Several minutes passed, and his two Sunagakure teammates, Temari and Kankuro, joined him in the clearing. They had been following Gaara from afar, keeping an eye on the comings and goings of their volatile younger brother.
"Gaara, what happened?" said Temari. "Are you ok?"
Gaara was silent. He continued studying the corpse sprawled before him.
"You shouldn't make so much noise, Gaara," said Kankuro. "Someone could find you out here if you act reckless. That's the sound ninja from the exam… why did you kill him? And you've been killing those missing travelers too, haven't you?"
"Are you trying to tell me who I can and cannot kill?" said Gaara.
"No, of course not," said Kankuro.
"Sometimes I wonder if the two of you are assassins as well," said Gaara. "You shadow me more and more each year. Do you want to kill me?"
"Gaara, I would never!" said Kankuro. Sand slithered around his feet ominously.
"Please, Gaara, let's go back to the village," said Temari. "We're just trying to protect the mission."
"Yes, you would never kill me," said Gaara. "You could never kill me." He walked between Temari and Kankuro, back toward the village. His bloodlust had been sated for the night.