Disclaimer: That's it – I disclaim!

NOTE: Couples in this first few chapters are not presice.


Chapter 7 – Konoha's Green Beast Rock Lee VS Kimiko of Amaterasu

"What!" Lee exclaimed.

"You heard me." Said Kimiko coolly.

Why is she challenging him of all people? She could have challenged Neji or Naruto or Shino or Shikamaru, but instead she chooses him. What was it? What was the reason? Did she think that she was weak? Did he look that weak? But wait… she knew he was the best Taijutsu master in Konoha (next to Gai), then why? If it was a challenge she wants it's a challenge she gets. He won't hold back even if she was a girl. He'll show her the real power and skill of Rock Lee. Yosh, the flames of youth are burning. Lee's eyes were burning flames in determination. Watch me Gai-sensei, I'll show you what my real talent is.

"Okay, I accept your challenge." Said the calm but yet determined Lee.

Kimiko smirked at his determination, "I knew you wouldn't oblige."


They left the bridge and went towards the battered training grounds. It was damaged a bit but at least there was wide space in which you can have a spar on. Nearby trees were full of scars from kunais used for their training. Everyone came to watch the spar between Lee and Kimiko. The Konoha shinobis were curious on what Sakura's associates could do; therefore, they came to watch. They were still weren't sure if they were a foe or a comrade.

Even Naruto was curious of what Sakura's friends could do, or what their abilities are. He didn't get a chance to fight them, and he would want to see what kinds of fighting techniques they use. He'll never know if he might have to fight them one day. A good ninja should analyze his or her opponent very carefully.

"I just want to tell you that no matter what happens never go easy on me. Give me all you've got, or you'll regret it." Kimiko warned.

"Don't worry, I'll be happy to give you everything I've got." Lee gave his usual pose encouraging his opponent to attack first.

Kimiko ignored him and just stood there waiting for him instead to attack. Lee getting impatient started to run towards her getting ready to do his first attack. When he was about two feet near her he suddenly disappeared. Kimiko loosing her composure became a bit startled of her unsighted opponent. Instead of looking around for him, she crouched down evading the kick that was supposed to hit her head. While crouching, she tried to kick him, but Lee stopped her kick by holding onto her foot. He lifted her up from the ground and swung, throwing her away from him. Before Kimiko's head could hit the ground, she did a somersault and landed in a crouching position sliding on the ground away from Lee getting some dirt and grass on her fingers.

Before Kimiko could stand up Lee disappeared yet again, which startled her. Suddenly, she felt pain on her jaw, which caused her to fly upwards. She wasn't expecting Lee to kick her on the jaw of all places. Blood started to drip from the corner of her mouth. He kicked her quite hard.

Good thing he isn't taking me easily. Kimiko thought gladly.

Was I a bit too hard on her? Lee thought getting a little concerned of the girl.

Still, even though he got concerned of her, it didn't stop him from taking her seriously. He wanted to do his special Jutsu called 'Lotus' on her, but he wasn't allowed to use it in case of protecting a precious person to him. He didn't need to protect someone right now, so there was no need to use it. Gai-sensei is also watching him right now, so he would definitely NOT be allowed.

Lee tried kicking Kimiko in midair, but she was able to kick him first, making him land on the ground again. Wow, she's actually good.

Kimiko landed softly on the ground afterwards. She wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth with the back of her wrist, which smudged blood on her clean sky blue colored gloves. She smirked. Suddenly, she disappeared in sight.

Lee looked around, but he couldn't find her anywhere until he felt pain and force on his cheekbone sending him flying towards the side. Still, Lee wasn't an ordinary person. With his shinobi skills he was able to land on the ground safely with his feet getting all the force of the fall. The hit was quite hard seeing that the pain on his cheekbone didn't go away yet. Lee felt himself bleeding when he felt liquid coming out of his lips. It started dripping on the green colored grass staining it with thick red blood.

Lee spit the remaining blood trying that was trying to flow out of his mouth to the side. "We're even now." He heard his opponent say contently.

"Then again, this fight should be a challenge after all."

"What's that suppose to mean?" Kimiko asked incredulously.

It seems like Kimiko get an answer because when she asked or rather when she replied with her question, Lee disappeared from her view. It seems like he likes getting things over with huh.

Lee tried punching and kicking her onto the places where she would be most vulnerable, but to his disappointment and disbelief, she managed to block and dodge all of them. He started to pick up his pace and tried punching and kicking her even faster than before, but somehow she still managed to dodge his attacks. How can she match his speed?

After blocking and dodging Lee's attacks, Kimiko managed to get a chance to attack Lee. She started to attack him, but Lee also managed to block all her attacks. Wow, he's good.

Somehow Lee managed to punch Kimiko on the face when she was too busy attacking him. She slid back a few feet from him from the force of the punch. "Ow," Kimiko groaned in pain, rubbing her cheek. "You really aren't going easy on me anymore, are you."

"You told me not too." He replied this time. Last time he couldn't hear what she was trying to say because he didn't give her a chance to speak. Well, now… he did.

She smirked, but it was near to a smile. "Then you won't be disappointed when you lose, right."

Lee gaped in disbelief. "Remember that you hit me onceI hit you twice." He couldn't believe that this girl still has the guts to taunt him knowing that he, Rock Lee is currently winning.

Her smirk became even more visible, "We'll see."

Instead of listening to Kimiko's bragging, Lee decided to use his kunai. He grabbed a kunai from his pouch and threw it at Kimiko. She ducked, dodging the kunai attempted to hit her by inches. Close. Lee cursed mentally.

The smirk from Kimiko's face disappeared and turned into a scowl. Seems like she's also becoming serious about their match, which made Lee even delighted. At least he knew that they were both fighting each other with their best abilities.

Throwing more kunais and shurikens at her; she hastily dodged it with ease. He didn't notice that she was gone until he felt a surge of pain running on his lower back. He cursed at his carelessness. He must admit that this girl could really do a hit. When she hits, the pain's extreme. He can't let himself be hit again. Too late.

When he was busy with his thoughts and precautions, Kimiko managed to penetrate through his defenses and was able to hit him more. Sure he was able to dodge at least 7 out of 10 of her hits but that wasn't enough.

He started to wheeze and pant in exhaustion and from the pain he was feeling. If he takes any more hits from this girl then he would surely lose. It wasn't that she was fast; Lee was quite a bit faster than her. It was the force of her punches and kicks that makes him weaker. When you get hit, the pain's only felt for about at least a minute or two, but the pain from all the hits that Kimiko managed to inflict on him still hasn't subsided.

"Give up yet?" Kimiko asked, but it was more like a statement.

"No way." Lee managed to say in-between his panting. He refused to give up, until the very end. That was his ninja way.


"I told you this would be entertaining." Yuki smirked triumphantly while leaning on a nearby tree bark.

Yuki, Tsubasa and Yukino were quite a distance from the Konoha shinobis. It seems like they weren't quite unto interacting much. With the distance they had, it was clear that the Konoha shinobis didn't hear them because he only received glares and fierce looks from Tsubasa and Yukino.

When none of the two girls decided to answer him, he continued his eyes looking at the wrong direction. "And its fun to watch too." He added.

"You can people hurting each other fun!" Tsubasa said, stressing on the word 'fun'. She didn't even bother to look at him; she just continued to watch their friend Kimiko and that Konoha shinobi Rock Lee fight.

Yuki looking at Tsubasa with a blank expression on his face, "Like you don't do it."

This statement rewarded Yuki a cold and piercing glare from Tsubasa who for the very first time looked somewhere else besides the battle.

His twin sister Yukino who watching her twin brother the whole time, "When you say fun, you mean watching women with a perverted look on your face, am I right?" She pointed out. She noticed very well that her sadly perverted twin brother was watching the women of Konoha. She didn't want to know more than that because she knew very well what he was looking at.

"Che," Yuki sounded, getting annoyed at her comment.


Lee saw Kimiko running towards him full throat. When she was about a few feet from him, he was expecting her to disappear to attack him from behind. He didn't get enough time to block her attack on his face. He was expecting her to disappear and punch him from behind, but instead she punched him head on.

Suddenly he felt a tight grip on his neck. She pinned him to the ground, slamming him unto it hard. He closed his eyes on the impact. This girl could be pretty violent. When he opened his eyes he saw Kimiko with a blank expression on her face and her other hand ready to punch him.

When Lee was getting ready for the impact he heard her say, "I win." She released her hold on him and started walking away.

Lee perplexed, stood up and stared at his opponents retreating figure. "What are you talking about you win! I'm not done with you yet!" He called out to Kimiko's retreating figure.

She swiftly turned around and looked at him straight in the eyes. He wanted to break eye contact because of the intense look she was giving him, but his pride was stronger, making him keep his cool. "Fine, we'll call it a draw."

Seeing the bewildered look he was giving her she continued. "It's quite fair, you know. You didn't use all your Jutsus against me and I didn't use all my techniques against you."

She turned around and walked towards Yuki, Tsubasa and Yukino's direction. "Guess we'll be leaving then. We'll meet you at your house, Sakura."

The three just followed her, walking away without a word. Suddenly, Kimiko stopped with the three still walking away. "It's been nice getting to fight you," with that, she walked away in silence.

Sakura noticed that Lee had been quite silent since his fight with Kimiko ended. Sakura feeling guilt struck her heart, walked towards him. She knew something was wrong, "Lee…" she called out to him in a comforting and soothing voice.

She saw Lee changed to his usual enthusiastic self. "Don't worry about me Sakura-san. Next time I would surely beat her. But first, I would have to do some training. Ja, mina." He said enthusiastically, running towards the direction of his team's usual training spot.

Lee, she thought mentally, getting worried about the Taijutsu master. She kept looking at the spot were he was once before.


Silence engulfed the Konoha shinobis for quite some time until the hyper blonde spiky haired called Naruto was again… being his normal self. "That was one cool match! I would definitely want a chance to fight one of your friends, Sakura-chan. I assure you I would definitely win." Naruto grinned.

Sakura was struck out of her thoughts and sweat dropped at Naruto's statement. Naruto… you are so carefree.

"Well, that was amusing." Said Kakashi.

Neji started to walk away. Kiba, Shikamaru, Shino and Chouji seeing this, started to follow him.

"Where are you guys going?" Kurenai asked.

The five stopped walking. Kiba turned around with his hands on his pockets. "The training's done right. There's nothing else to do here so we would like to go." With that, they started to walk away like nothing happened.

"Now that that's done. Let's go Ino, Hinata." Tenten hand gestured to make them come with her.

"No way!" Naruto said.

"What now Naruto?" Ino asked, annoyed.

Naruto came up to Hinata and wrapped a hand on her shoulders, which cause the Hyuuga heiress cheeks to turn crimson red. "Me and Hinata-chan have plans."

Tenten and Ino gaped in surprise, thinking the same thing; Are they a couple! Sakura who was watching them in the background just giggled silently at Naruto way of showing affection.

"Ate you seducing Hinata-chan?" Ino asked in a dead cold voice.

"Better speak up Naruto." Tenten threatened him, cracking her knuckles.

"M-mina, N-naruto-kun's only taking me to eat ramen, r-really." Hinata rest assured.

"Naruto, you better not do anything to Hinata-chan." Ino warned.

"Okay then, let's go Hinata-chan." Naruto said letting go of Hinata's shoulders. He replaced it with his hand, holding hers in place. They definitely looked like newly weds, which wasn't even close.

Hinata's cheeks didn't just turn red; her whole body was reddening. Oh my gosh, is Naruto-kun really holding my hand. Hinata thought blinking. She was trying to see if her eyes were playing tricks on her.

The two lovebirds started walking away from them.

Looks like I'll be getting my real life version of Icha Icha Paradise. Kakashi thought grinning inwardly.

"Well then, I guess we'll be going too then. Let's go Ino… Sakura." Tenten said.

Sakura who blinked in surprise that she was also invited.

Tenten who saw Sakura just standing there called out to her. "Come on, what are you waiting for."

"Uh… okay." Sakura said, running towards their direction.

When they were nowhere in sight, Asuma spoke. "I can't help it but we can't be too comfortable with those four."

The three other Jounins looked at him. "That girl, Kimiko beat him a little too easily." Gai added.

"From what I recall, she also said that she wasn't even using her techniques yet." Kurenai said.

"We need to be very cautious about those people. We might have to fight them in the near future." Asuma said.

"How about Sakura?" Kurenai asked.

Kakashi remained silent. Those people were different. They dress different. Their fighting techniques are different. But the most baffling thing of all is that… she was with them. The Haruno Sakura that has been living with them since forever is with these people.

"If she is with them…"

The three Jounins turned towards Kakashi's direction. He hadn't spoken since their conversation started.

"… then we also have to fight her."

When no one talked, Kakashi continued.

"Or maybe by any chance we even have to kill her."


Silence engulfed Neji, Shikamaru, Kiba, Shino and Chouji. When they were quite a distance from the others they decided to start a little conversation about the match.

"I don't trust those people." Shikamaru said with hands on his pockets.

"They look pretty suspicious." Kiba added.

"That girl was able to beat Lee with just Taijutsu. She also said that she didn't even use her techniques yet." Chouji said munching his chips.

"No. By the looks of it she seems to hit really hard." Neji said speaking his mind.

Shikamaru turned to face Neji. "So that explains Lee not able to hit her back. He was quite in extreme pain. The pain from all of her hits didn't go away for him to block and hit her properly." He informed.

No one said anything after Shikamaru made his comment. They continued to walk in silence until Shikamaru asked. "Neji, did you feel any chakra from any of those four?"

Neji remained silent for a while. He was hesitant or maybe befuddled to answer. "Their chakra wasn't strong. Not at all. It was very faint."

"Then there must be something about them." Shino said, talking to them for the very first time.

"Or do you mean they might be hiding something." Neji said with hints of suspicion in his voice.


After going to Ichiraku for some ramen, Naruto decided to take Hinata to the place he showed her yesterday, which Hinata agreed. It didn't take them long to go there because they knew the place quite well even though Hinata just went there yesterday.

"N-naruto-kun, t-thank you for the ramen today." Hinata stammered, blushing. They just arrived at their destination.

"No problem Hinata-chan. It is nice to have some company sometime you know." Naruto grinned. He just came to sit at his usual spot. "Come and sit beside me Hinata-chan." Naruto said, taping the ground beside him.

When she did so Naruto decided to speak again. "Hinata-chan, do you like anybody?" He asked.

Hinata flustered at his question. Does he know? Does he know that she actually likes him? It can't possibly be true, can it? "W-w-why d-do y-you ask N-naruto-kun?" Oh great, she just had to stammer. Now he'll definitely know she's nervous.

Naruto being as dense as he could be didn't notice Hinata's uneasiness. "Nothing really. I just wanted to know because if you do then I say that person is very lucky to have someone like you to being fond of that person." Naruto said, explaining his question.

Hinata looked at him with admiration. Naruto can be sweet sometimes. She continued to stare at him. Pearl colored orbs stared into cerulean blue orbs. They just continued to stare at each other until someone chuckled behind them.

Both turned to see a long lost missing nin from Konoha. "Well, well we meet again, Naruto." He said.

"Sasuke…"


A/N: Okay, let me leave it there. Hope you liked this chapter. A little rushed so forgive me for the mistakes.

Response:

Shinobi Darkbeak – Truth is, I thought that chappie was kinda crappy. Thank goodness you liked it.

krista – I updated before my two weeks of deadline is up. Here is your update. I'm really glad at the reaction I'm getting from you with this fic.

Hao'sAnjul – Thank you so much.

Kayla – Really now, and I thought nobody would like the last chappie. If you wanna know what Sasuke's up to, you'll find out next chappie. Sasuke will definitely see Sakura in this fic, trust me. :cackle:cackle: Now you might think something bad will happen. About Yuki and Sakura, uh it was more like Yuki loves Sakura because of some reasons that I won't tell you because it'll spoil the story. You really like my fic that much to review 2 times in the last chappie. How touching:sniff:sniff:

Jazzy Uchiha – Thank you!

TearsofDagmar – At least you've reviewed. You love it, I'm so happy! (tears streaming)