Hey sorry for the long wait, but the day I wanted to upload this chapter my PC went to shit, so I had to rewrite the entire thing from scratch. However this gave me a lot of new ideas which resulted in this chapter being a lot longer than the original :D Hope you like it and don't forget to review.
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„I'll leave the first attack to you." Lee told the strange warrior.
He was feeling very confident. When it came to Tai-Jutsu the only person who could keep up with him was his Sensei Gai. In addition to that he wasn't wearing his wrist and ankle weights, so he could move faster than a regular human eye could see.
The man in green seemed to consider his possibilities for a few seconds, so Lee was taken by complete surprise at the sudden dash, which the warrior performed towards him.
All he could see was a green blur and then he felt it. An armored fist to his face to be exact. The force behind the punch was so great, that it shoved him right through the tree behind him.
His jaw hurt like almost never before and he was still in shock about the swiftness of that armored 'demon'. He got up, focused on his opponent, who was standing about 10 meters away from him.
"Alright let's see just how fast you can go." Lee mumbled with a smirk.
He dashed towards the Master Chief, but in the last instant before the armored boot could hit him, he made a swift turn and in a matter of milliseconds he was behind the stranger, starting a barrage of punches and kicks to the man's back. However he couldn't seem to cause any real damage, since his limbs were always reflected in a different direction before they could hit him.
'What kind of Jutsu is this?' He thought. Then he decided on a strong roundhouse kick from the side to send his opponent crashing into some trees of his own.
But just as he had his leg stretched for the kick, the warrior had turned towards him and grabbed hold of his leg. Lee couldn't hope to counter the grip; his opponent was simply way out of his league in terms of strength. The stranger pulled Lee towards him and at the same time lifted his own leg for a push kick like Lee had never taken before.
Rock Lee could literally feel some of his ribs breaking under the force of the impact and then felt the familiar sensation of flying backwards. This time however he managed to land on his feet. Now he tasted blood and all things considered it had to be his own. He now knew that he had to get serious. And with that knowledge he opened the first six of the inner gates.
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John, who was still watching his opponent getting up, suddenly felt a very powerful aura emerging from bushy-brow's body and he knew that had to be bad news, since almost all of the other Shinobi started cheering. He considered his fear confirmed when Lee started glowing in a green fashion and instinctively drew his shotgun, aiming at his adversary. But as soon as he was ready to shoot, Lee wasn't in his field of sight anymore.
The first kick came from below and hit his jaw, thrusting John into the air. The second kick hit his stomach. After several more kicks from every possible direction, John was kicked back down into the crater. His shields were far beyond depleted and his entire body hurt like hell, but he could still move.
"Luckiest soldier, my ass." He grumbled.
"Asakujaku!" He heard Lee yell and instantly activated one of his gadgets in response, hoping it was the right one.
Only a split second after that the Master Chief saw what looked like a swarm of glowing fireballs flying directly towards him. None of them actually hit him though. His bubble-shield was deflecting every single one of the fireballs and at the same time covering the clearing in a cloud of dust and smoke. He quickly got up and now felt an enormous amount of adrenalin rush through his veins. The world around John suddenly became a whole lot slower.
John remembered his old SPARTAN II comrades calling this phenomenon 'Spartan time', since the world appeared in slow-motion for anyone experiencing it. Usually this enabled a SPARTAN to catch missiles out of thin air and even dodge automatic gunfire. That was exactly what he needed now.
When the dust settled and he could nearly see a distance of two meters he deactivated the bubble-shield, so none of the Ninjas would see how he survived that onslaught.
Soon the dust was completely settled and every single bystander's jaw dropped to their feet, seeing John standing there almost without a scratch.
Lee seemed to be in shock first too, but then decided on hitting John with another kick to the face. His opponent was still unbelievably fast, but this time John could react.
He moved Lee's leg to the side with his left hand, grabbed hold of Lee's neck with the right hand, pulled his combat knife out, turned around and held his knife at Lee's throat, ready to slice it at any moment and all of that he did in one quick motion.
Silence fell over the clearing.
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'He even overpowered my Hidden Lotus… He really must be a demon; there is no other way…' Lee thought, starting to panic, but he was too exhausted to show it.
"I surrender… You win…" was all he could say before he passed out from shock and exhaustion.
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"Great. Cortana did you come up with an escape plan so far?" John asked the artificial intelligence.
"Well… more or less, yes." Cortana answered "We have two possible choices: Either you take out all of them or we'll have to negotiate with them."
"Do you think I could take all of them? How is the armor doing?" the Chief asked.
"Even if you could beat all of them, which is unlikely, given the state of your armor and body, it would be futile. I've been reading their radio signals and it appears that even more back-up is ready to be called in. I'm afraid negotiations are our only chance in this case."
"You know I'm not that good at negotiating truces… it usually ends in carnage…" John replied, feeling very uncomfortable with this analysis.
"Okay, then I'll do the talking." Cortana said and with that she accessed the helmet's external speakers.
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Shikamaru couldn't believe what he had seen. Lee, the strongest Tai-Jutsu expert of Konoha had been beaten, even after opening 6 inner gates. He was getting anxious; this stranger was unlike any Ninja he had ever met before. Then the armored person spoke. But it was a female voice, much unlike before, thus rendering every single one of the Hidden Leaf Shinobi confused about the warrior's gender.
"We do not wish to fight you!" the voice said "Take us to your leader and there will be a way to solve this peacefully."
Shikamaru gave Yamato a quick sign and they both jumped down into the clearing next to Naruto.
"I'm not the Hokage of our village, but I am leading this Shinobi group for the time being." Shikamaru told the stranger "Please tell me who you are, where you came from and what your business is here."
"My name is Cortana, I am an artificial intelligence operating inside this suit of armor. My partner is John SPARTAN 117 and our duty is to protect mankind from any conceivable threat." The female voice answered in a friendly tone.
"Then why did you severely injure 5 of our people and accept a fight challenge against a 6th one? Doesn't this kind of go against your mission?" Shikamaru interrogated further.
Now the deep male voice of the warrior spoke again: "You people didn't leave me a choice when it came to accepting this one's challenge. As for the other 5, they attacked me first. I only acted out of self-defense."
"BULLSHIT!" Naruto shouted "Why would we believe a stranger that nearly killed our friends?"
Everyone looked at Naruto in surprise, even Shikamaru. It wasn't like him to show such distrust, yes almost hatred towards a person he had just met.
"Calm down Naruto! Don't let your friend's condition destroy your sense of judgment." Shikamaru told his comrade.
"But what if we take him to Konoha and he starts killing people over night?" Naruto retorted.
"Shut up you idiot, John is right!" The voice came from where Ino was treating the wounded. It was Sasuke, who had regained consciousness "I really did attack him first. The whole thing is a big misunderstanding."
Naruto returned his gaze towards the stranger with a sheepish grin: "Sorry, looks like you were innocent after all."
Shikamaru relaxed internally and made a suggestion to John: "How about we bring you to our Hokage? Of course you will have to return Lee to us first and promise not to cause any trouble. Deal?"
"Deal!" the green armored 'demon' answered, putting away his knife and handing Lee over to Naruto "But I'll have to grab all my gear, that's scattered around the clearing first."
"Take your time." Shikamaru replied, now definitely more relaxed about the situation than before.
It didn't take the Master Chief very long to grab all his stuff anyways. Kiba and Neji even offered a helping hand to carry some of it, which after some consideration and removing clips from the bigger constructs, John gladly accepted. Then the group started making their way back to Konoha.
End of Chapter 3
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No real cliffhanger this time, but at least for the next chapter the action will subside a little bit, you know to let the plot develop. Stay tuned for more ;)