Underground Arena vs the Hidden Leaf · Superhuman
Jack Hanma vs Gaara
A giant who bites through anything meets a boy whose sand blocks everything.
Tale of the tape
| Baki | Universe | Naruto |
|---|---|---|
| Superhuman | Tier | Superhuman |
| Enormous size, reach and a jaw that bites through anything | Strength | Sand that moves on its own to shield him, and a coffin of sand that crushes |
| Steroids and surgeries have pushed his body past its limits | Weakness | Little strength in his own body once the sand is gone |
| 2–1 | Record on Versus | 1–1 |
The Arena
Jack Hanma, two metres forty of steroid-fuelled muscle and bone extensions, had been searching for the strongest opponent he could find. Someone told him about the Kazekage of a desert village who had once been a living weapon. He walked across the desert for three days and found Gaara standing alone on a dune, arms crossed, a gourd of sand on his back.
Jack looked down at the small, red-haired young man and laughed. “You?” Gaara looked up at the giant with calm, ringed eyes. “You came here looking for a fight,” he said. “I would rather you did not.” Jack bared his enormous teeth. “I came to bite something stronger than me.”
The sand around Gaara’s feet began to move by itself.
Round One
Jack charged, and his punch hit a wall of sand that rose out of the ground in front of Gaara. The wall exploded, but the sand reformed instantly. Jack punched again, and again, each blow shattering the shield and each time the sand reforming, faster than he could break it.
Gaara raised his hand, and sand wrapped around Jack’s legs and lifted him into the air. Jack tore free with raw strength, landed, and lunged at Gaara with his jaws wide open. The sand rose to meet him. He bit into it. It filled his mouth, his throat, his eyes.
Jack spat out a mouthful of sand, coughing, and stared at Gaara. The boy had not moved a single step.
The Turn
Jack changed tactics. He stopped punching the shield and started biting through it, tearing away layers of sand with his enormous teeth faster than Gaara could replace them. He broke through, grabbed Gaara by the arm and bit down on his shoulder.
Gaara’s sand armour, a thin layer that covers his body, cracked under Jack’s jaws. Blood ran down his arm. For the first time in years, someone had made the Kazekage bleed. Gaara stared at the wound. He did not panic. He had been afraid of pain once, long ago, before he learned to protect others instead of himself.
He closed his hand. Sand surged out of the desert around them, an ocean of it, rising into the sky.
The Finish
Sand Coffin. The desert itself rose and wrapped around Jack from his feet to his neck, a cocoon of compressed sand that tightened with every breath he took. Jack strained against it with all his enormous strength, his muscles bulging, his bones creaking. The sand did not give.
Gaara held him there, his hand raised, and could have closed it. That was what he used to do, before. He looked at the giant, at the desperate rage in his eyes, and saw a man who wanted to be strong because he had never felt strong enough. Gaara knew that feeling better than anyone.
He lowered his hand, and the sand fell away. Jack collapsed onto the dune, gasping. Gaara sat down beside him. “Strength is not something you take by biting it,” he said quietly. Jack spat out sand. “Then how do you get it?” Gaara looked out over his village. “You find something worth protecting.”
The verdict
Gaara wins
Jack Hanma is monstrously strong and even bites through Gaara’s sand armour, but in a desert Gaara controls an ocean of sand, and his Sand Coffin holds Jack in place no matter how hard he struggles.
- Endless sandIn the desert, Gaara never runs out of shields or weapons.
- Automatic defenceThe sand blocks attacks without Gaara needing to move.
- Sand CoffinIt immobilises even Jack’s enormous strength.
How the rematch could go differently: In a stone arena with no sand except the gourd on Gaara’s back, Jack could bite his way through and reach him.
Who do you think wins?
Who would win in a fight between Jack Hanma and Gaara?
Gaara wins. Jack Hanma is monstrously strong and even bites through Gaara’s sand armour, but in a desert Gaara controls an ocean of sand, and his Sand Coffin holds Jack in place no matter how hard he struggles.