Disclaimer: Naruto and Naruto Shippuden, along with all the characters within the works are the intellectual property of Masahi Kishimoto. This is a work of fanfiction based on his work.
Not Dead Yet writing prompt challenge:
Much like the writing prompts threads, this character isn't quite dead yet. Whether triumphantly rising from near-certain death, heroically clinging on to win a fight, or humorously exaggerating their wounds, he or she just hasn't quite given up the ghost. (r/Narutofanfiction writing prompt 67)
Not Dead Yet
"Konoha Senpuu!" Lee cried as he spun like a top with his foot extended and smashed the pasty white creature in the face, sending it careening far away from his Youthful teammate. There were thousands of the white zetsus, outnumbering the shinobi alliance forces by at least two to one.
"I got this, Lee!" Ten-Ten panted, swinging the huge chakra fan, a relic of the Sage of the Six Paths.
"Of course you do, my young Blossoming kunoichi companion! I am just here to support you."
"Right," Ten-ten sighed. It was nice to have someone like Rock Lee have her back, but so long as the exuberant taijutsu master was around, she'd have little chance to use this magnificent, amazing, fantastic weapon which she had just started to get used to wielding. She wished he had remained with his original assignment aiding Kakashi's special forces team rather than joining her at Darui's division. At least, at this particular moment.
"Lee," the bun-haired girl cried, "there's a group of alliance shinobi up on that cliff about to be overwhelmed."
"Yosh! I will go up there and save them all! And if I can't, I will kick a thousand of the creatures into the sea. And if I can't do that, I will punch all of our enemies until I die!"
"Sure, sure," Ten-ten nodded, humoring her old teammate, used to his antics.
Lee sped up to the cliff at blazing speeds, sure to reach the group in time... Until two black masks appeared behind them, one spitting fire and one spitting air, and the Shinobi Alliance ninja were fried to a crisp.
Lee stopped in place, mouth opening despondently. He had failed. He had set himself a goal and failed.
He gripped his hands into a fist, his large bushy eyebrows pursing together. Only one thing to do.
"Leaf hurricane!"
Rock Lee kicked three of the Zetsu creatures off the cliff into the ocean. But the skilled combatant didn't stop there. He danced around the group snapping kick after kick, reversing direction, flipping, spinning, knocking Zetsu into the ocean until there were none left.
And then he sought out more down on the beach.
"A hundred and four!"
"A hundred and six!"
"A hundred and seven!"
The enemy, of course, noticed. Several hundred of the Zetsu charged out of the water, from all directions.
Ten-ten tried to sweep some away with her Bashoshen, the Banana Palm Fan, but even with the power of the artifact young Rock Lee was overwhelmed and hundreds of Zetsu piled on top of him.
"Gate of Opening: Kai!" "Gate of Healing: Kai!"
The center of the mass of Zetsus exploded outward in a spray of body parts and gore. Rock Lee stood there at the center of a hole he had created in their mass, a visible glowing aura surrounding his body, his eyes ablaze with energy.
"Gate of Life: Kai!" "Gate of Pain: Kai!" "Gate of Limit: Kai!"
The aura around the amazing martial artist intensified greatly. And then Rock Lee started punching. And punching. And punching.
Lee was moving so fast it looked as if he were teleporting. Only the most elite fighters in the world had any hope of keeping up with Lee's speed or resisting his power at this point. Only an S-ranked shinobi had any shot.
Zetsu, as many of him as there were, was not even close.
For five solid minutes Rock Lee single-handedly destroyed the gathered Zetsu forces, leaving the rest of the shinobi to focus on the gathered edo tensei, allowing that threat to be neutralized.
Until an orange masked man appeared and summoned a huge monstrous entity. The Gedo Mazu.
"Get your teammate out of here," Darui, commander of the battalion ordered Ten-ten. "We'll need his strength another day."
Ten-ten nodded. Lee was on his knees, the power of the Eight Gates now spent and his body was paying the price. He was immobile, vulnerable.
The Konoha kunoichi dropped down beside her comrade and started to drag him away from the fight.
"I'm not dead yet," Lee protested.
"No more punching, today, Lee. That's an order."
"But I'm not dead yet!" He cried, body unable to resist his teammate's grasp as she dragged him away from the fray. "I'm not dead yet!"
Cover art by: more979