Chapter 94: Rock Lee
Chapter 94: Rock Lee
Most genin could only watch the high-speed-battle unfolding in front of them with awe, without properly understanding what was actually happening.
Yuna and Lee were constantly appearing and disappearing inside the arena, while loud booms echoed out every time they clashed.
“HAHAHA, very good, Lee. But that still isn’t everything, right? You still have more to show.”
Yuna’s joyous laugher echoed through the arena, unnerving quite a few people who were watching the fight.
The most affected by the spectacle unfolding in front of the crowd was definitely Guy, Lee’s sensei. Not in a hundred years had he thought that someone would appear that could match Lee in pure Taijutsu despite being a year younger.
After another clash, Yuna and Lee took some distance from each other and stopped fighting for a moment. Although Yuna was enjoying herself, she felt like something was off.
‘I am certain that he is still hiding a trump card, but that isn’t the problem. Something feels… off… about him. A ridiculous amount of training and a powerful will. These criteria certainly fit him, but something is missing.’
A frown appeared on Yuna’s face as she crosses her eyes with Lee’s.
“What is your dream, Lee. What kind of place do you want to reach?”
Lee was slightly taken aback by that sudden question but answered anyway.
“It is my dream to prove that I can become a good shinobi even without being able to use Ninjutsu or Genj…”
“Pathetic.”
Yuna’s disdain-filled voice echoed through the arena, shocking the few people that knew her.
“Are you saying that my dream is pathetic!?”
“I am not saying your dream is pathetic, I am saying that you having that dream is pathetic.”
Lee clenched his fist in anger when he heard Yuna mock him.
“Is that really what you think? That I am not fit for that dream?”
“Yeah…”
Lee was about to argue back, but Yuna interrupted him.
“… how could you aim this low? Why are you putting your body through all this insane training if you have such an easily achievable dream? There is no way that is all there is to it. You are lying to yourself!”
Lee was completely dumbfounded but what Yuna just said.
‘I am lying to myself? Do I really have a different dream?’
Lee shook his head to get rid of the idle thoughts.
“How can it be that easy? I can neither use Genjutsu nor Ninjutsu, it is not ea…”
“I don’t give a shit about the nonsense you are telling yourselves. Fine then, if you don’t realize it yourselves then let me put it into perspective for you: You win this fight, reach the third round and at the end of it you become a chunin. Doesn’t that mean you have achieved your goal? A chunin can already be considered a good shinobi, right? You have achieved what you wanted, and only need to train at an adequate level to keep your rank. Will you do it?”
Lee didn’t say anything, but he knew exactly what he would do. He would celebrate his promotion by training even harder. A wide smile appeared on Yuna’s face when she saw the uncertainty in Lee’s face.
“That’s right, you would keep pushing yourself. What about after reaching special jonin? Jonin? You get an S-rank bingo book entry? You become a Kage-level powerhouse?”
Seeing Lee becoming more and more rattled, she laughed out loud.
“You are afraid, right?”
Lee’s body visibly shivered when he heard that.
“Afraid that people will mock you for it… No! You are afraid that those you consider your comrades will mock you for it. Do you really think a true friend would do that? Would your sensei do that? Have you this little trust in him?”
Yet again Lee shook when he heard that.
‘Would Guy sensei mock me for it? Laughable. He would support me with everything he has. But what actually is my dream? What exactly am I aiming for? No, I have a pretty good idea of what it is.’
Seeing that Lee started to collect himself, Yuna nodded in acknowledgment.
“Well, I have been egging you on for long enough. Guess I should make the first step, then.”
Yuna spread her arms wide as she flared her chakra and cracked the floor underneath her. The weaker genin in the spectator stands staggered when Yuna’s chakra washed over them. An overbearing pressure radiated out of her that even a few jonin couldn’t completely ignore as her presence seemed to be getting bigger and bigger.
“…I want to surpass everyone who stands in my way and eclipse this world’s most powerful being! Those that stand in my way, will be crushed. Those that follow me, will be protected and those that mock me from the sideline without doing anything…?”
A sneer of disdain spread on Yuna’s face.
“…are nothing but worthless insects to me!”
An oppressive silence descended on the whole room as everyone was looking at Yuna with a plethora of emotions ranging from fear to …lust? Yuna glanced at the source of the lust and could see Hinata and Anko looking at her like they would pounce on her at any moment.
The silence was broken when loud laughter echoes through the arena.
“Haha, what a youthful dream! I will not fall behind. I will become this world’s strongest Taijutsu master. I will show you my resolve.”
As soon as he finished saying that, he vanished and appeared in front of Yuna, his foot already heading for her chin. Yuna managed to bring her arms in front of the foot before it hit her, but she was still shot into the air.
Just when she was about to right herself in midair, the bandages Lee wore around his hands snaked around her and bound her. Yuna, however, wasn’t flustered in the slightest.
“Haha very good, what insane speed.”
As they spun around in midair, Lee grabbed Yuna and began his descend while spinning around his own axis.
“[Primary Lotus]”
With a loud boom, Yuna crashed headfirst into the ground, generating huge amounts of dust.
A few moments later, Lee jumped out of the dust cloud while staggering a little.
No one made any noise, as they were waiting for the dust cloud to settle. Moments later, excited laughter was heard as the dust settled and revealed Yuna doing a one-handed handstand.
Instead of her head crashing into the ground, she managed to free one of her arms to catch the impact. Although her hand was buried quite deep into the ground, she didn’t receive any dangerous wounds from the impact.
“Hehe, that was pretty crazy, but not enough.”
Yuna jumped out of the impact crater and stopped a few meters away from Lee. Despite the battle going on for quite a while, she wasn’t even breathing heavy, while Lee seemed to have lost all his strength after using that technique.
“That technique was a double-edged sword, huh? But you still have more to show me, don’t you?”
Lee hesitated for a moment and glanced at Guy. How could Guy not understand what he wanted? He was quite surprised by Lee’s dream. Even he hasn’t heard about it before, but it seemed like even Lee himself didn’t really know about it until just moments ago. What Yuna said was exactly right. He would never abandon Lee or make fun of his dream. He made a “nice guy” pose towards Lee and started speaking.
“SHOW IT TO THE WORLD, LEE!!! LET YOUR YOUTH EXPLODE!!!”
“YES GUY-SENSEI!!! [THE THIRD GATE: GATE OF LIFE: OPEN]!!!”
A powerful explosion echoed out as Lee’s whole body turned red. A split second later, the ground under Lee cracked and he appeared in front of Yuna, his fist already punching towards her stomach. Yuna barely managed to cross her arms in front of the punch before she was hit and flung into the wall behind her.
Not even half a second later, Yuna had already propelled herself out of the wall, with a red chakra cloak coating her and a crazy smile on her face.
“HAHAHA, MORE!!!”
This time it was her turn to punch Lee’s guard and consequently smashing him into the wall.
“[THE FOURTH GATE: GATE OF HARM: OPEN]!!!”
Lee shot at Yuna like a bullet and punched forward. Yuna met his fist with one of her own, causing another powerful explosion and destroying the ground underneath them.
Both of them slid back a few meters, but quickly caught themselves and charged again. The two clashed again and again, as more and more of the floor was destroyed, while Yuna’s mad laughter was still ringing in everyone’s ears.
“MORE!!!”
[THE FIFTH GATE: GATE OF LIMIT: OPEN]!!!”
Lee’s attacks grew even more powerful, as every single one of them sent Yuna crashing into a wall, despite that, she attacked relentlessly, fully lost in the joy of battle.
Moments later, Yuna noticed Lee staggering, but he righted himself instantly. Determination was still burning brightly in his eyes as he staggered yet again.
“BREAK THROUGH IT, LEE!!! Shatter that puny limiter you put on yourself!”
“MY YOUTH WILL BURN BRIGHTLY!!! I WILL BECOME THE STRONGEST!!! [THE SIXTH GATE: GATE OF VIEW: OPEN]!!!”
“HAHA, YES!!! THAT’S IT!!!”
Yuna grew a second and then a third tail made out of chakra and prepared herself for the final clash.
“COME, LEE!!!”
As soon as Yuna’s and Lee’s fists clashed, an earth-shaking explosion occurred. The arena floor was obliterated and even the spectator floors received some damage.
Yuna and Lee were both flung away from the force of the clash and smashed into opposing walls, causing even more of the arena to be destroyed.
A heavy silence descended onto the arena as everyone was dumbfounded by the spectacle they just witnessed.
“Hahaha…”
Joyful laughter came out of the hole Yuna was flung into.
“…Fun, so much fun~”
Yuna staggered out of the wall. She no longer had chakra cloaking her. Additionally, she had quite a few bloody gashes all over her body and her right arm was dislocated.
“HAHAHA, THAT WAS SO MUCH FUN!!! DON’T YOU AGREE, LEE?!”
Moments later, Lee also came out of his hole and he was visibly worse for wear than Yuna. Rather than dislocated, his arm was clearly broken, while there seemed to be quite a few broken or almost broken bones all over his body.
Lee didn’t say anything, as he fainted the moment he got out of the hole.
“Fainted while standing, huh? Truly exceptional. I acknowledge you as a rival with the same dream, be honored.”
*Author Note*
I finished editing all the old chapters, fixing quite a few grammatical and writing errors in the process.