Thank you everyone for reading this attempt of a story, I hope you are enjoying it.
Special thanks to Guardian's Light, who was kind enough to proofread this chapter, I dare to say that you will enjoy a chapter with less mistakes then usual. So check out his stories sometime, Tsunami and The Guardians: Beginnings, they are worth reading.
Sasha: Thank you for you kind words and yes, the Guardians are not through meeting all the Ninjas I planned to use.
Spiritwolf: I am really happy that you enjoy this story so much, even though there won't be any blood relation of Naruto to the Guardians, but don't worry, Naruto, as soon as he is introduced, will have a rather interesting time.
The Crazy Talk Kid: I'm glad you liked the fight and I hope you will like the ones in this chapter too, as well as the other not-fight related themes. tbc means to be continued and thank you again for your reviews.
Sasuke9031: Thank you very much for your kind words and your tips on Sasuke and Nerissa, I really appreciate help and we will hear a lot more of Kakashi.
Alexis kiah: Yes, learning to never make Tsunade mad is truly an important lesson, it can lead to a lot more then broken bones. With time, we will learn more of the connection of the Guardians to Naruto's world.
Guardian's Light: You can say that again, as it will be seen in this chapter, I am glad you are enjoying this story.
Let's just continue with the next chapter, I do hope you will enjoy it, so bear with me.
Disclaimer: I do not own any original characters/techniques/places/names/objects of Naruto and W.I.T.C.H. and I don't intend to make money with it, not that I could if I tried.
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Everybody reaches a point where he has to decide, whether to stand firm or to run away.
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Rock Lee, hard working hand to hand combat specialist and chunin of Konoha, was in a dilemma; the meeting with Tsunade and his two companions who would accompany him on the following mission was finished half an hour ago.
They got a detailed report over the happenings in the last week and he was happy to hear, that his rival and friend, Neji, and the others were faring well. The Guardians, even though he hadn't met one, seemed rather interesting after having heard stories about them in the ninja academy.
He never spent much thought on them. He was someone who had trouble keeping up with his peers, so he never had the time.
Yet, when he heard that this Matt guy, one of the three Regents of Earth the protectors of the Heart of their world, had fought Uchiha Sasuke, another one of his rivals, on equal ground, that must mean he would be fairly strong.
According to Choji, who had seen more of the fight then he let Matt know, this guy was close to defeating the Uchiha, if Sasuke, for some reason, hadn't pulled himself together which would be thanks to this Nerissa's magic.
So to see that he lost to a guy like Daisuke, Lee didn't dislike Daisuke but having sparred with him once gave him enough insight to say that he was not one of the top chunin. He belonged to a squad not strong enough to engage in combat, thus leaving them missions like really easy reconnaissance or shielding civilians in the less dangerous areas, was more than a shock.
He knew that Matt didn't transform into his other state, but could there be such a big difference? Transformations only enhanced the users' strength; surely they didn't endow the user with that much power.
Lee was curious. He really wanted to see how he faired against this boy, who had fought on several planets and yet seemed far too weak.
The only logical explanation was that he had held back against the older boy, not wanting to embarrass him.
Even though Lee could understand his point of view, he wasn't content with it. Rock Lee didn't believe in holding back, no matter who the opponent was. It was a fighter's duty to go all out and to fight everyone with his best, and to honour the opponent and acknowledge him as an equal.
Holding back meant disrespecting the opponent, and not acknowledging his training and efforts, or more simply thinking you were better than the other.
He couldn't stand that, as a prime example of someone who was in his springtime of youth, it was his duty to teach him the correct way; this was exactly what Gai-sensei would have wanted.
Also he could see how he was compared to Sasuke, who seemed to be on a similar level like this Matt. Yes, this surely seemed like a challenge and a noble task for him.
A smile appeared on his face, when was the last time he had a good fight? Surely it must have been ages, since Neji didn't have the time anymore and Tenten was having missions too, even though they were mostly in the same teams and had the same duties.
Gai-sensei, even though he was not their official teacher anymore, was still treated as such and even Neji and Tenten, who often grew tired and impatient of his "youthful" antics, respected him more than they showed. He was the one who had raised them to be exceptional shinobi after all.
So with a great leap he jumped from the branch and smiled while he was feeling the resistance of the wind before landing on other another tree branch that was roughly twenty meters away from the last one.
He would surely enjoy this little fight…
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"So there are four lunatics with incredible powers out there?" summarized Will weakly, really having enough of the bad news. Right after they returned, Drake and Tyner arrived, with Sandpit and several injured Rebels and brought a depressing mood and even more depressing intelligence.
"Sandpit tried to smash her and she turned into smoke, her body was not the one of a human." Tynar, the first converted guard, was beyond shocked. Never had they seen such a sight.
"At one point She was standing with only half a head and still speaking." Drake, looking more angry then shocked was wondering around restlessly.
"The other three were quite strong as well. There was this annoying guy who was skilled with the sword and talked almost the whole time in the third person and the other one had an even better aim with the bow than Aldarn."
Aldarn, who had won the Meridian marksmanship prize a few times in a row, looked concerned. Not because there was someone better then him, but because he was on the enemies side.
"And the fourth?" asked Will, fearing the response.
"Actually, he didn't do much; at the beginning of the fight he separated into several parrots and was not seen until the end."
"Parrots?" asked Irma, raising an eyebrow. "Bugs? Snakes? What comes next, using frogs and
Slugs?"
"Actually…" started Choji but was stopped by Shikamaru, who was more interested in the fight than explaining ninja tools and animals to the Guardians.
"This was most likely an illusion, a Genjutsu. So there is the possibility that the ability of the woman was part of it too."
Even though he didn't say it, most of the attending people realized he was going to add "even though I doubt it."
"So, we go out and search for them or what?" asked Irma, who was itching to have some action the last few days she had had very little to do and now she wanted to accomplish something.
"Without a plan?" Taranee didn't like this idea. Encountering such enemies was surely not the best way to spend an afternoon.
"We've got a plan," Hay Lin said to back up her best friend up. "We go and give them a good, old trashing."
"That's surprisingly simple." snorted Cornelia." How about a more… appealing… plan?"
"What would you advise?" Will asked Kakashi, even though Will had a certain, and rather recent dislike against the older ninja. She could not shrug off his experience of dealing with ninja.
Yet, his presence was already testing her patience as he didn't seem to listen. He was just reading his funny book.
"Huh?" Kakashi shifted his attention towards Will while looking surprised. "Sorry, did you say something?"
What was wrong with this guy? He should be the more responsible one around here, and not the most idiotic.
"I asked what your advice would be?" repeated Will through her clenched teeth.
Kakashi played with the thought of annoying her even more, but after seeing the disagreeing look on the face of his subordinates. He decided against it.
"We should make several teams and search for them in that village. Once a team has found them, they engage loudly, so shortly after that the others will arrive, and we will have at least the advantage in numbers but I can say that with me there, there will be very little to worry about."
Will and Cornelia snorted at the same time, and even Taranee looked doubtful while Irma displayed her opinion quite often.
"'Cause you will ignore them to death or will you read them out of your book until they run away?"
Most of the listeners laughed, it was not happening often that somebody was attacking Kakashi with wits and sarcasm.
"Well, I can certainly be of some assistance since only the strongest of the Shinobi Orochimaru has are at my level, so I don't think he will send his best troops so early."
He turned to Shikamaru, while sighing in relief that the Water Guardian hadn't leashed out again.
"I guess you already have formed the teams."
Shikamaru nodded in approve and took out a paper and a pen. "Well, basically we will move with four teams, each one searching a specific area in the village. Team One will be formed by Ino, Neji and Shino, with Neji, obviously, as the leader."
Ino groaned slightly but more to make sure nobody would forget the little feud between them, since Neji had beaten her in the third round of the chunin exam.
"Team Two will be Taranee-sama, Hay Lin-sama and Kakashi-sensei, as our strongest squad as I think that Air and Fire will be most effective against smoke, even though this is only a vague theory."
The three nodded and Hay Lin chose not to protest against Shikamaru. He too had not stopped to call her, or anyone of W.I.T.C.H., sama.
"The members of Team Three, our largest team, are Will-sama, Irma-sama, Cornelia-sama and Hinata."
Again the four girls nodded and Shikamaru continued.
"And the last team is formed by the cat, Choji and me."
"The cat has a name, you know." snarled Napoleon angrily.
"Yeah, yeah, alright. While I must say that every team has one to bind the enemy for at least a while. I do want to say that you should first contact the others before engaging. A team of four is unusual for Shinobi and the last team we encountered was the so called "Sound Four" of Orochimaru, each one of them was incredibly strong. Kiba and I would have been dead if it weren't for the sand guys and even though Neji and Choji had won their fights alone, both of them were on the verge of death and only thanks to the Fifth did they manage to recover."
Kakashi continued, this time serious, knowing that the lives of these girls were hanging on the amount of information he had to give them.
"Well, you know that your friend has received a cursed seal and it is safe to assume that those four will have one too. While you have certainly seen one or more of the sound Shinobi to activate one during our last battles. I have to say that those were only inferior seals, the real strong ones are the Seal of Heaven and the Seal of Earth, and I bet that they have some of these."
"So those things give them a huge power boost?" asked Taranee, while listening with an unmatched concentration.
"Yes, there are three steps of a seals: The first one is when they are only partly covered with black dots, the second one is when they are completely covered with black dots, both being referred as level one. More chakra, more speed, more strength but you will lose a bit of your personality each time you activate it.
At level two you change your appearance and you gain an incredible boost of chakra but it strains your endurance, so most likely they won't stay in that form too long, as it also consumes a lot of chakra."
"Quite a lot to deal with." said Irma, who was unsure how to respond to this information. "So the fast and strong enemies with the weird abilities can even become faster, stronger and weirder?"
Kakashi chuckled darkly. "Quite accurate, yes."
"Then, here we go." said Will, standing up and taking the Heart of Kandrakar into her hand. "Guardians Unite!"
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"I found the piecessssss, my liege." Bowed Cedric, while in human once again and was holding out a small, brown sac.
"I see, now we have the remaining shards of my dear sisters' former prison. Are you sure you found all parts?"
"Yessssss, the jewel itself wasn't big and the shards were easy to collect, since nobody had entered that spot after this boy left."
"Well then, we shall go to the next part. Since you've sent your best ninjas on a meaningless hunt. I suggest you go by yourself to collect the needed integrants for my little project."
"I can go your highness." interrupted Kabuto, who feared that Orochimaru might lose control. He was only human after all and not used being treated like this.
"What a wonderful idea." Phobos congratulated the young medic while smiling like a cat who just caught a tasty bird. "It's good to know that at least one ninja is trying to think, don't you agree, Orochimaru?"
Said person struggled very hard not to lash out and eventually succeeded as his only response was a grunt, whatever his meaning was left to the listener.
Phobos interpreted it as "Of course your highness" and turned to Cedric again. "So, please bring me the Star of Threbe, we will need it."
Cedric bowed and walked out of the Throne room alongside Kabuto, who was looking at Cedric with a strange anticipation.
"What do you want?" asked Cedric. He sounded a bit annoyed.
Kabuto laughed in an embarrassed manner. "Sorry, did I startle you, Cedric-kun?"
Cedric's eyes narrowed and turned reptilian again and looked dangerously at the medic nin.
"Don't think you can fool me with your false attitude, human. I have seen the likesssss of you. Be sure that I will keep my eyessss on you."
The hissing made the threat even more dangerous, but Kabuto didn't flinch much to Cedric's dislike. Instead his smile widened even more and he bowed.
"Excuse me, Lord Cedric-kun."
While the Naga appreciated apologies and grovelling, knowing it was done to mock him only angered him.
Ignoring Kabuto he walked off to the deeper parts of the palace, wandering for the secret section with the magical artefacts, objects, and supplies.
Kabuto looked after him, pleased to have disturbed Cedric's mind. He would be cautious from now on and knew that the shape shifter would be trying to get the better of him. He wouldn't have thought it would be so easy to get under his skin, but then again he was extremely talented in the art of messing with other peoples minds and since he was with Orochimaru. He had more than enough experience with snakes.
After a few seconds he reached a window and jumped out, landing smoothly next to a few surprised Lurdens, and started to run towards the main gate. After he passed it he continued on his way until he vanished between the trees of the nearby forest, and thus beginning his journey to an unknown destination.
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Nerissa and Sasuke had arrived near the Heart of Zoan an hour ago and were even successful in locating him, but that was the exact moment where their troubles had begun. It seemed the natives of Zoan, having a pretty developed sense of smell due being more feral, had smelled the two invaders as soon as they set foot in their, some people might call it a village, and were now rather busy with a furious pursuit of the strange intruders.
They never smelled something like that? It was not a smell of this world; it was a smell, more than dangerous for them. Instinctively they could feel that this smell meant a lot of trouble for them and that it would be best to get rid of those foreigners.
Countless, bizarre beings, some of them looking like animals of earth, some resembling cursed seal level two ninjas and others were looking so strange that it was hard to find a common trait to compare them to known things.
Yet, Sasuke was doing his best to keep Nerissa and him safe, having found two flowers who gave a really great odour, enough to cover their smell and since then they were hidden deep in a seven meter bush of those flowers.
While his black eyes zoned from one spot to another, noticing the exploding tags he set up around them, if any of those…things…would get near them, the following explosion would be enough to warn him and hopefully to reduce the number of them by one.
Nerissa, her eyes fixed at the projection of the image of the Heart, wasn't talking. Sasuke could live with that since he was somebody who did appreciate silence, but he would rather know the strategy and the plan that they were following. The only thing he did know was that they, somehow, had to extract the powers of the Heart.
"Mistress" Sasuke's voice was a whisper but if Nerissa heard him, she didn't show it, so the Uchiha stopped trying to know the plan.
He could hear the monstrous creatures stomping and sprinting around them, their voices and growls unnerving him. How could he be sure, that they weren't going to burst through the bush any second?
"Do you realize the weakness of the Heart?" asked Nerissa silently.
Sasuke, after having heard so much about the mystical powers off a heart didn't know they had exploitable weaknesses and shook his head.
"At first I thought the Heart would be their leader but now, looking at them it seems he is more of an outcast, not knowing what to do with his powers. He is there, alone on the outer part of the village. The huts-."
Sasuke could hear some disgust in her voice while regarding the rather poorly built huts with new curiosity.
"-of the others are more then twenty meters away and the Leader's house is always in the centre of the village. Can you guess why, my dear heart?"
Sasuke looked at the house and at the others, then watched the beasts hurrying next to him again and compared them to the image of the Heart in the crystal. Then the realization hit Sasuke like a punch of Tsunade.
"He is smaller."
Nerissa smiled and nodded, pointing at the hut of the Heart.
"The entrance of that house is much smaller, those primitive Neanderthals are not acknowledging him because he is smaller and thus physically weaker then them. Perhaps they are scared of his powers as well and keep him away or he didn't even realize he got mystical abilities. Anyway, this is the weakness to exploit."
Sasuke was impressed. By studying them for about twenty minutes; she already figured out their way of thinking and had come up with a plan.
"I will go to him and…bargain…with him. You lure the others away from that hut, preferably for at least half an hour."
"As you wish, mistress…" Sasuke says, having pulled out two kunai already. Then left the bush and hurled them at the beasts. Right after igniting a few of their huts with a well aimed fireball, before dashing into the depths of the forest, having nearly the whole habitants of the village on his trail.
"My, my, isn't he enthusiastic?"
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Matt had his hands in his pockets, and was wandering aimlessly around the village. He looked at the upcoming moon. It had become night already, the owls were on the hunt and only a few ninja were patrolling in the deserted streets, ignoring him.
Matt was fine with that, he could use the silence to think over the last few days, so much had happened which he didn't comprehend. The Ninjas of the Leaf, the Ninjas of the Sound, Nerissa, Phobos, how much worse could it get?
They had their hands full last time when there was only one of them around. Now they had to fight them both at the same time, while dealing with those freakish ninja, and each one of them, at least the ones he met where able to deal with one Guardian.
To be honest, he didn't know how he would compare against them. Shagon had been able to fight all of them at the same time and managed to get the upper hand, but that was before they were able to control their emotions well enough, still you couldn't really train yourself not to hate, could you.
Perhaps you could pull it off not to show it, perhaps you could convince yourself not to be so full of ire but in the end, deep within you soul, you still hated and that was the power Shagon used to enhance himself.
Everybody hated, all living creatures, whether they were human or not, was capable of hating and had done so at least once. Together with Shagon's ability to manipulate the opponent in a way which lead him no other option to hate him, he became a serious opponent.
Logically, the longer the match continued; the greater the chance to loose yourself in hatred, thus leaving your tired self with a foe who was even more powerful then in the beginning of the fight.
Well, that was how Shagon was able to hold his ground against a Guardian. What could he do? The only thing was to shoot green beams and create glamour zones, Matt refused to believe that this was all the Heart of Earth was capable off. Then again, it was more then Napoleon and Huggles had. He could fly and shoot beams, which they couldn't.
So, he was weaker then the girls and the girls were having a hard time against the ninja, how pathetic could he get?
All the time he was whining that his powers were weaker. Right now, Matt Olsen was disgusted with himself.
"I will become stronger now, no more whining." He told himself silently but then jumped up as he heard an unexpected yell.
"YOSH, that is the right way to think."
He whirled around to see a… well, unusual boy standing on the roof of a house gazing at him with a grim smile. While his appearance didn't bother him at all, Matt was used more bizarre looking people. He did appear strange, with that bowl cut, those really big eyebrows and the green jumpsuit with the dark green vest and the orange leg warmers.
Cornelia would have called this a fashion disaster beyond repair and would still not be too harsh. Ironically the bowl cut reminded Matt at Bruce Lee, the wide known best fighter in Earth's History.
Matt had seen documentation about his life where it was stated that he was able to punch seven times in a second. He hoped that this guy couldn't do that. After seeing the documentary he looked how many punches he could throw in a second and was shocked to see that one of his fists still took longer then a second to hit the target. At that moment he realized for the first time the difference between him and a world class fighter.
Lee, looked down at the dark haired boy, and just to confirm it, he yelled a loud question.
"Are you Matt Olsen?"
Uncertain if confirming that intelligence was a good idea he shrugged it off, I mean how worse could it be?
"Yes and you are?"
Lee smiled in anticipation; a shiver of excitement went through his body, his muscles tensed as he readied himself for a battle and jumped, crossing twenty meters without a run up as if he was simply jumping down a single stair.
He landed smoothly in front of Matt, a wide smile on his face and a strange gleam in his eyes and for a second Matt thought it was fire but realized how silly that sounded.
Then the boy took a strange stance with an arm on his back while the other faced Matt, as he would think Matt would take himself any second, his feet were in a 90 degree angle to each other and the smile vanished, leaving a face full of determination.
"I am Rock Lee, the Hidden Leaf Village's Handsome Devil." The boy introduced himself while Matt was not thinking he was the best looking guy out there. Matt still considered it as a very brave act from this dude to say that he was handsome.
"And I want to fight you!"
Once again he was proven wrong, maybe someone up there really didn't like him, or he was paying for his deeds as Shagon. Nonetheless, he was attracting far too many guys who wanted something from him.
"Right…, and if I won't."
"I am most sorry Matt-san." Began the Shinobi, "But unfortunately I will not give you a choice. I saw your fight against Daisuke-."
"Then you must have seen how bad I was!" protested Matt, really wanting to avoid fighting someone who looked like Bruce Lee, and knowing his luck, could probably fight like him too.
Lee's face darkened when Matt mentioned his performance on the fight.
"You did hold back Matt-san, I do not know if those were your real skills when you are not transformed but you did not use it. I want to fight you, exact the same way Sasuke fought you."
"You a friend of him or something?"
"Sasuke once counted amongst our comrades but by willingly betraying us he lost that status for the most of us, but to honour Naruto-kun's and Sakura-san's wish and friendship. I will try my best to retrieve him. And for that I must know if I can defeat him in combat, so you see by fighting you like the way you fought him. I will be able to measure my capacity."
"How do you know all this about me?" asked Matt, a bit shocked that his transformation seemed to be common knowledge.
"All you questions shall be answered, but after our little spar. Please prepare yourself."
Lee charged suddenly and before Matt could even blink he was right in front of him and Lee's fist flew towards him. Instinctively, Matt dove to the side, for that blink of a second thinking that he could actually avoid being hit. Lee, after being sure that Matt wouldn't be hit, increased the speed of the punch and hit the wall next to Matt with full force thus cracking it, while burying his fist completely in the house wall.
Matt, of course noticed this and realized that if this guy would have been serious with the first punch, his grandchildren would still feel the pain. The force of this punch would no doubt have imprinted itself into his DNA, if he survived that is.
"Please do not underestimate me." Spoke Lee, now completely serious, no trace of a smile left. "Then I will be serious from now on. I do not believe in holding back and I do not wish that my enemy, no matter how powerful, should hold back either."
Matt gulped, but strangely understood him; he would respect this boy's philosophy.
That and the fact that he didn't want to die.
Matt morphed into Shagon again. His body first being engulfed with the silver light of the Shape Shifters and then black wings grew out of his back. He became taller than most men and broader. His form becoming much more muscular, his messy hair now looking like a nest of snakes, a tail emerged from his back, alongside with new clothing and a golden mask that hid his face, until know had never been seen by anyone.
"Now then, let's start." Alongside the intimidating body, came a matching, and as much or maybe even more intimidating voice.
Lee was now smiling again, once again taking his battle stance, and now standing three meters away of the Regent.
"But I must warn you, I am not an easy opponent as I am in the springtime of my youth."
With a yell Lee charged while jumping and whirling around in midair, thus gaining spin for a devastating kick which was blocked by Matt's massive arms yet contained enough force to push him several feet back.
Matt was eternally grateful for the metal plates on is arms, now unsure if he possessed enough endurance to block kicks and punches of that force with only his skin and bones.
So, now defiantly knowing he was outclassed in terms of hand to hand combat he decided to play on the greatest weakness of the ninjas; the lack of the ability to fly.
His mighty wings started to clap, lifting him from the ground and before Lee could attack again, Matt was already hovering at least twenty meters in the sky.
Now having a safe distance, the young earthling started to collect a good deal of energy in his eyes, which started to glow green. Matt didn't realize it before but now he was astonished that he could still see while charging his blast, somehow it seemed important to know right now.
This didn't take longer than a few seconds as a huge bright green beam emerged from his mask and soared with great speed at Lee, who simply jumped a few feet back, while still observing him.
Matt started to generate beam after beam, determined not to give him enough time to think of a counterattack. He was bound to hit sometime, wasn't he?
But Lee dodged the blasts effortlessly, compared to most of Tenten's projectiles they were rather slow and the young chunin had trained with the most intense programs possible. Most of them invented and honed by Gai-sensei, and now the countless hours of practicing were paying off.
Lee jumped back at a house wall, used the motion to repulse himself from it and gained the needed power to jump high enough to hit Matt but even though Lee shot towards him really fast, Matt could avoid it.
He might be inferior in hand to hand combat but if Matt could be proud on one thing. It was his flying. In the air he felt at home. As long as he had his wings, he was able to avoid nearly anything if he saw it in time.
That boy can be as fast as he wanted but in the air, there are no ways to change your path if you couldn't fly and all attacks and assaults are straight forth. Matt, compared to Lee, may be a novice in terms of fighting, but still was experienced enough to avoid such situations.
"As expected." grinned Lee, having no problems to land gracefully after missing Matt in the air.
"You are quite good."
It was tempting but he didn't want to use the Lotus right now. He vowed after all to only to use it in a life or death situation in order to protect someone precious or to defend his very own way of ninja.
"Thanks, but let's bring this on the next level. I am sorry to say this but I do not intend to lose anymore."
Lee nodded, feeling the adrenalin pumping through his body. Yes, this was the fun of fighting, the excitement you felt when you faced a fierce foe, someone whose abilities you didn't know.
Lee pulled out a few shuriken and hurled them at the great figure and was delighted to see that Matt was able to hit all three of them with an amazing aim.
Knowing that this would be a challenge Lee jumped again against a wall, then from there against another, and from there he hurled a few shuriken and kunai before using another roof as a jumping point, leaving Matt to deal with a few projectiles and himself.
Surprisingly Matt reacted rather smooth, instead of blasting the shuriken; he avoided them by flying towards Lee, who had not expected this.
Using the sudden advantage Matt punched Lee hard in the face, sending the boy with the bushy eyebrows flying against the wall he just used.
Unlike before, this time he didn't manage to land safely and crashed hard against the surface and slide down.
With a small groan Lee stood up again, gritting his teeth in pain. That punch really hit him hard; those thick arms of the transformed figure were not only for show.
"You alright?" asked Matt, not wanting to be on the black lists of the friends and superiors of this guy if he should injure him somehow.
"Yeah, you do are a worthy opponent." complimented Lee, smiling again. A challenging opponent was the best way to get strong and if he defeated this guy. He would be a stronger man.
He started to run again, avoided the next beams and jumped again when he was right under Matt. While he shot upwards like an arrow Matt flew to the side and aimed at the boy and shot again, pretty confident that he was going to hit this time, but he should have known that this wouldn't have been too easy.
In midair Lee did some amazing manoeuvres, twisting and bending his body in incredible movements. The young boy wasn't sure that someone could pull it off and before he realized it, Lee was next to him, switching into an Overhead and kicked him hard on the head.
Matt soared towards the ground like a watermelon when it was thrown from a skyscraper, with the only difference that Matt hasn't exploded to pieces at the heavy impact. He felt pain, as a headache he had never experienced and would not experience again as long as Lee and his feet stayed away from his head started to grow.
For a few seconds Matt did not know where he was, that was until he heard Lee landing next to him. The kick he just dealt would have made Tsubasa Ozhora green with envy.
Matt managed to stand up again. The world was still slightly spinning, and after waiting for a few moments he regained his senses completely.
"That was one hell of a kick." muttered the regent, still holding his head, afraid that the bump would never vanish again.
"Please be ready, I am attacking again." Lee warned him and gave him a few seconds to prepare before starting another assault. With unmatched speed the chunin of the Leaf sprinted towards his opponent, diving in front of him and kicking him hard in the chin; sending him upwards this time while shouting "Konoha Shofu" (Leaf rising Wind).
At the same time he used his hands to repulse himself from the ground, and continuing to kick him steadily in the stomach while rising higher and higher until he grabbed Matt's shoulders, now starting to fall towards the ground, while his back faced the earth.
A few meters before the "landing" Lee hurled Matt around and now Matt's back was pointing towards the ground and right at the same time of the impact Lee delivered one last punch at the same spot that he just kicked with both of his legs.
He heard a gurgling sound, and suddenly saw the body of his opponent glowing once more, slowly shifting back to his normal form; lying on the ground, and groaning in pain.
While the transformation absorbed a good deal of the impact, and left Matt without injuries, the agony of the strike combo he just received had left a good imprint.
WHACK
Matt's eyes flared open again, trying to see what had caused this noise, only being surprised to see the girl from earlier, the one with the two buns on her head. What was her name again? Milou?
"What the heck are you doing Lee?" snarled the girl dangerously, having obviously whacked the boy forcefully on the head, shaking him like a snow globe.
"We were only sparring Tenten." protested Lee weakly, although he knew that all his efforts were in vain.
So Tenten was her name, no wonder he had thought of Milou, as Tenten and Milou was one of his favourite comics had had read. For a brief moment, he wanted to tell her that in his world, her name was a boy's name but after seeing the girl treating the guy who had beat him up right now just like a rag doll he decided not to mention it.
Then the information sunk in. He had lost, again. And this guy, Lee didn't even use any kind of techniques like spitting fire or energy balls or anything like the others. He only used his arms and legs.
Matt, not paying attention to them anymore because he was lost in his thoughts, was completely devastated. Here he was, once again defeated like a third class newbie, and proving that his skill was nowhere near that of the others.
Somehow, he was sure that Caleb would have won this fight. He just knew it. Furiously Matt punched the ground, and was starting to hate himself. Inside of him, the true Shagon was delighted. It warmed him that he was associated with this weak worm but those defeats led to self loathing. It is the perfect ground for him to recover enough. It was just a matter of time.
"You are a sore loser, aren't you?" Tenten, who was now looking at the angry Matt, commented dryly
"I am not a sore loser." Answered Matt dully. "I'm a good loser. I am so good I lose all time." He joked weakly, even though his pain could be heard, and both Ninja realized that he meant what he said.
Yet Tenten smiled at the joke, it was not a bad one, it was one of the best she heard recently, proving how boring her last days had been.
"Don't feel bad. Lee is one of the stronger guys around here…"
"I don't need your pity." Matt interrupted her, while standing up and feeling the soreness of his body. He just wanted to sleep, to rest, and to forget that fight.
"It was a good fight." said Lee, bowing at Matt. "I am sure we both learned lots of this spar. Do not despair Matt-kun." Matt was surprised to hear that he was now using a more personal honorific towards him.
"The path to become a great warrior is full with defeats and struggles and we both have a long way to go. Let us train and become better together, starting tomorrow with our mission, as the fires of youth and determination are ignited within us and are burning with passion!"
For a few seconds Matt stared at Lee but strangely he wasn't feeling as bad now.
"Yeah." said Matt hoarsely, he was smiling again. "Maybe you are right."
"It would be an honour for me to have you as a guest at my humble home, so that we can start our bond of comradeship right tonight."
Tenten laughed after seeing Matt's expression as she knew what he was thinking.
"Don't worry, he talks like that all the time. It is his way of making friends."
Relieved that Lee didn't mean what he thought. He laughed as well and extended his hand to Lee, who shook it while beaming widely.
"Well then, I am happy to accept. I do need a good night's rest. I have received enough of a beating for the last twenty four hours to last an eternity."
Tenten, grinning while one of her two best friends was no doubt already planning insane training drills for them to go through, patted Matt's back.
"You have absolutely no idea what is coming at you." She stated merrily while looking extremely happy.
"What did you mean about a mission, by the way?" asked Matt confused, now remembering that Lee just mentioned something about their mission.
"Oh right, Lee and I are two of the three who will accompany you and Queen Elyon-sama to search for Naruto-kun and Jiraya-sama."
Matt nodded and didn't bother to ask who the third person was, not really expecting to know that person.
"One question though." Started Matt, while they began to walk toward the south of the village.
"Shoot."
"Where the hell were all the ninja patrols I saw during the day...?"
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"I have a bad feeling about this." commented Irma in her best Obi Wan voice, as she flew between Cornelia and Will, while Hinata was running below them, the veins visible on her temples, searching the area carefully with her Byakugan.
"I don't sense anything." joked Will, grinning with Irma while remembering the Star Wars week on television. Where every evening one of the movies was shown. Irma, being a Star Wars fan, her little brother Chris, Hay Lin, who was probably a bigger fan than her brunette friend, and Will had watched them together, enjoying a bit of real fantasy for a short time, after having experienced it in real life, movies and films with a similar theme suddenly appeared mundane, but that was not so for Star Wars.
Cornelia on the other hand, in the strong belief that she got more then enough magic in her real life and the fact that Wookies and ugly robed men didn't belong on her list of favourite beings, didn't participate, and sorted loudly glaring at the two girls.
"I'm sorry misses' geeks but could we focus here?"
"The force is week in this one."
"Right you are, my young padawan, a lot to learn she has."
"Shut up, you tw-"
"STOP!" yelled Hinata suddenly. She detected the four figures in the ground to late as they jumped out of the earth, surrounding the four girls.
"How'd this happen, we're smarter than this." mumbled Irma, looking at the four smirking ninjas.
"Cut your Nerd Wars quotes already." Hissed Cornelia, "We are in serious trouble."
"That you are." confirmed the brown haired girl, from her looks she couldn't be older than eighteen, yet even Cornelia had to admit. She was drop dead gorgeous.
"Wow, that girl is a babe." said Irma. "And she is the one with smoke powers, right?"
"You already received information. What good soldiers you have."
The girl turned to the boy with the bow and the boy with the sword. "You two go ahead. We will take care of this. Find someone and get the information."
The two nodded and vanished, leaving them alone, the girl was now smiling and licked her even teeth with her tongue.
"Now we will see the powers of the Guardians, Shinta, go."
The youngest of the Sound Four nodded and after finishing three hand seals. He once again turned into several parrots that started flying around the battlefield.
Cornelia, not wanting to be surprised, landed on the ground and placed her palms on the earth, sending six roots shooting out of the ground, five of them catching the parrots and the last one wrapping around the girl.
"You go and call the others." ordered Will while turning to Hinata, who nodded and dashed of to find the three other teams.
Meanwhile Irma shot a stream of water at the captured kunoichi, and hitting her in her well endowed chest ripping a hole through it. They realized fast enough that she had begun to turn into smoke and Will wasted no time and hurled a few lightning bolts, opening more holes in her body.
After a few seconds of attacking the girl looked now more like a filter but was still standing, the smile never leaving her face.
"Aren't you impatient?" mocked Tomoko before escaping the root by simple walking out of it.
"Was that all you three could do?"
Her right arm turned into smoke and formed into a giant fist before she sent it soaring at the three Guardians, who barely avoided it while looking wide eyed at her.
"Come on, entertain me."
"Be careful with your wishes," spat Irma angrily. She didn't like to be underestimated. "They can become true." With a wink of her arm the water on the ground, the leftovers of her last attack, formed a spear of water and flew fast at Tomoko, and went piercing through her body. Once the water spear was sticking in her body, Irma expanded it to a sphere of water, completely ripping her body apart.
Will and Cornelia looked at Irma, shocked at frightened at the same time that she had come up with such a deadly attack. Nobody would have thought that Irma Lair would invent techniques with that effect but Will realized how foolish that was. They were in a war where it was to kill or to get killed. Irma had just realized this before them.
On the roof of a house the smoke started to gather, slowly forming the marvellous body of the young woman, who was grinning widely?
"That was such a nasty attack, you know. I sure underestimated you guys. Your abilities are frightening."
The captured parrots split in even smaller parrots, now free again and started to dive at the Guardians. Will, reacting faster this time shot a lightning bolt, but the parrot she was aiming at, split itself again. Surprisingly, the moment the bolt was in the middle, is splinted too, hitting both parrots.
Will, not expecting this, smiled. "Cool, this is handy."
Cornelia, not wanting to fall behind, concentrated and ripped a huge boulder from the ground and sent it hurtling it at the girl, who once again created a giant smoke fist before smashing the boulder.
"Ts, ts, ts, what a primitive attack, did you really think you could hit me with a rock?"
"HUMAN BULLET TANK!" they heard a yell and Choji, as a giant human boulder, smashed into her thus causing her to turn into bits of smoke again.
Cornelia grinned weakly. "Well, close enough."
"You guys alright?" asked Shikamaru, now standing next to Cornelia.
Napoleon had transformed and was looking at the parrots.
"Are they an illusion?" he asked tensely.
"Yes."
"Wow, thanks for the explanation, now everything will turn out alright." Said Irma sarcastically.
The parrots gathered again, forming once again into a human, the illusion was dispelled.
"Your cat is quite annoying." said Shinta, glaring slightly at Napoleon
"Sis, this animal can dispel illusions of my level quite easily."
"Don't worry." said Tomoko, now grinning again.
"We have seen enough." With that she let a huge amount of smoke out of her body, covering the whole roof in smoke and the two left, leaving the others with no chance to follow.
That was the exact same moment, Kakashi, Hay Lin and Taranee appeared after letting the Air Guardian blast away the smokescreen.
"Wow, isn't that our saviour." said Irma dryly. "He came just in time. What would we do without him?"
Kakashi rubbed the back of his head, a bit embarrassed. Things didn't go well; he had the bad feeling that the Guardians didn't respect him much.
"How many of them were here?"
"Well, first four, then two of them left, leaving us with Smokey, the babe and parrot freak. Then they left and you arrived, end of story."
"What an astonishing summary." Said Shikamaru dryly, unhappy that they still were very short on information.
"So what now?" asked Taranee.
"Well, I guess it is time for us to go back to Heatherfield. We left rather hastily and I don't think our parents will be happy. I mean, Astral Drops aren't good for a long time."
"Will is right, we should return before my AD signs me up for the cheerleading squad or worse, the football club." Cornelia shuddered at the thought
"Corny," spoke Will carefully, "We don't have astral drops, only Hay Lin has one. We thought we could return soon so we didn't bother to make some."
"So we will have detention for a life time? That is just great!"
Before the others could respond the Heart started to blink like a Beeper, flashing in a dark pink and illuminating Will.
"Well, guess this is our call to Kandrakar. Let's go." Will slashed the air with the Heart and opened a fold, entering it with the other girls after giving their good byes to the ninjas.
They appeared in a different room then usual, which was surprising, at least for the red head, as she certainly didn't aim here and she had gotten a lot better with folding.
"Guys, I didn't want us to come here." She informed her friends, looking around alarmed.
The girls reacted immediately but were still too slow; a circle of green fire burned its way around them leaving them trapped.
Before Irma could put it out, a blond woman who appeared to be in her fifties entered the room, smirking.
"I expected you to be a bit faster, even this old lady here is still faster then you."
Realizing that this was just a fancy and weird welcome from Kandrakar, they relaxed and gave Irma the opportunity to get back with a remark.
"Sorry for not reacting immediately. We didn't know it was a tradition in Kandrakar to attack the Guardians."
"You do now." smiled Halinor, the former Fire Guardian, pointing at the door behind her. "Please follow me, the Oracle awaits you."
Halinor led the girls through the fortress thus letting them fully see the amazing architecture of Kandrakar, some parts, so assumed Taranee, could only be build by magic, like the giant orbs, filled with strange clouds.
They passed a chamber filled with statues, each of them wearing a suit of armour and impressive weapons decorated with jewels, runes and ornaments.
"What's that?" asked Hay Lin, admiring the statue of someone who looked exactly like the earth definition of a dwarf warrior. With a long beard, a bulky from, a grim face and a giant axe in his belt.
"This is the Hall of Warriors, men and women who helped Kandrakar and the Universe with no magical powers are immortalized here as statues to show our respect to them."
"So like Caleb then?" asked Cornelia, liking the idea of huge statue of Caleb, perhaps even with her. A giant statue of her, yes that was something she could get used to.
Halinor nodded, "Yes, people like Caleb. The person here." She pointed at the Dwarf, "I knew personally. He helped us countless times, after we saved his home planet. He swore to help us, to pay back the debt he felt he had.
We tried to convince him otherwise, but as you know from literature. Dwarfs can be extremely stubborn. So he came along and I have to admit he saved us a lot of times." Her expression saddened when she continued.
"He died like a true hero, we had to channel our powers and that always takes some time. He protected us for ten minutes against a horde of attacking Gounters," after seeing that they did not know what Gounters were she added "humanoid ant-like looking creatures, the leading civilisation of the Planet Goura. The wounds were fatal and he died after the battle."
While she explained they had reached the chamber of the Oracle, who stood up before bowing lightly to the Guardians.
"Thank you, my old friend, for doing me this little favour."
Halinor bowed and left the room, winking at the girls before closing the door after her.
"I appreciate your coming, my friends." he spoke, sitting down again on his cushion.
"Not that we had a chance." muttered Cornelia silently, causing Taranee and Irma to grin.
"I saw your fight against the two ninjas…" he began but was rudely interrupted by Irma.
"You mean you saw how we get our asses kicked?"
"I must point out that you were not defeated…" he started again, completely ignoring the terrible assault of the inter-dimensional protocol the Water Guardian had just committed.
"Oh yeah, really. We have the imprints of their sandals as proof, we can show it if you want."
While the other girls had the decency to look partly embarrassed, Irma looked angrily at the Oracle, whose lips twitched suspiciously but he managed to maintain his stoic expression, even though his eyes were showing his amusement.
"Oh, that won't be necessary." He said, not able to banish the amusement in his voice. "What I meant to say was that your defeat, even though it was tie, was expected."
"Hold on here." said Will, her eyes narrowing. "You knew we had no chance against those ninjas and you still sent us there?"
"It is not me who had to realize your weakness; it had to be you girls. If I had simply told you that you were too weak. You would have been angry and insulted and perhaps would have done something to prove me wrong, which would have led to a real defeat."
"We could have been killed." protested Taranee
"That was why the Shinobi of Konoha were there, to prevent this from happening."
"So what now?" asked Cornelia. "Are you giving us some new powers to battle them?"
"You will discover the real strength of the Guardians and your elements. A teacher will train you; she is a being of wisdom and power. She once had been my teacher, as well the teacher of the former Guardians and many Hearts."
"Wow, she must look like a shrivelled raisin." said Irma, earning a soft elbow check from Taranee.
"Where do we find this person? We still have to deal with our parents, as only Hay Lin has an Astral Drop right now, and it is perhaps causing havoc as we speak."
"Do not fear, Guardians. The astral drop of the Air Guardian has vanished a long time ago, all your parents, teachers and school friends are convinced that you, and Matthew Olsen, are right now in a certain school exchange program."
"That was… unexpected nice" started Will, but Taranee was angry.
"And daring, who gave you the right to meddle into our private affairs? So we can't go back for how long?"
"I am most sorry, but it is the best right now. And it will take as long as you need to get ready."
Hay Lin, trying to turn the conversation in a more stress free area, asked. "So how do we get there, is she in the council or something?"
"Unfortunately not, she has always refused to be a member. She also refused to be an Oracle, a terrible loss for the universe, but she takes a genuine joy in teaching others, so she became the cosmic teacher, even on earth her name is well known."
The girls perked up, looking in anticipation at the omnipotent man.
"I assume you have heard of …"
tbc
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I thought I will try a cliff-hanger, maybe some of you can guess the person I mean; it is a woman of one of the legends and/or mythologies.
Hope you enjoyed it.