The Wanderers
Chapter 53 – The Promise to Avenge
A/N: There is no word to describe the smile that came over my face when I saw that 500th review. I said to myself near the beginning that I would love to get just 100, but when that passed I looked at 500 and thought that could be the new threshold, but that has also been passed. I love every single time I get an email telling me there is another review for my story. I'm happy that you guys follow my story, and it makes me proud that I am able to improve my writing skills from your feedback. The more you guys tell me, the better I can make this story.
A/N2: Another point of interest. This is now Chapter 53, but there is still a long ways to go. I aim to have the story finished by the end of the year, but I won't end it until it's actually done, since I am someone who prefers to have things done. So there is still plenty more to come, and my dedication to finishing the story is real, don't worry about that.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. If I did, revenge wouldn't be an excuse to do idiotic stuff.
***Previously-On***
Sensou arrived on the battlefield at the head of a converted shinobi army numbering in the hundreds. As she easily throws off an attack from the Raikage, Neji leaps forward and occupies her throughout the battle with a pair of gauntlets made for him by Tenten back in the village. The individual Kage and bodyguards fought off the converted shinobi the best they could, with few hesitating to kill their previous friends, knowing that they were too far gone for redemption. The Tsuchikage suffered several wounds to his shoulder and arm, while Roshi didn't get a scratch. However Kurotsuchi had her eye destroyed by an earth attack, with a long cut from her dead eye to her ear. The Raikage suffered a deep cut to his chest, but neither of his bodyguards suffered anything significant. Gaara used his sand to great effect, with Shikamaru taking no damage while orchestrating his own role in the battle, and Kankuro lost several of his puppets in the process. While the Otokage occupied the Quiraji leader, Kidomaru departed the battlefield to bring the Otogakure army and Dosu personally disposed of the Otogakure converted shinobi. While her bodyguards fought the good fight, the Mizukage was seemingly unable to render much assistance to the battle. As the battle turned in their favour, Sensou decided to quit playing around with Neji and severed one of his hands before recognising that the battle was lost. Before she could properly retreat however, she was attacked by a green blur that she recognised and despised. Unable to leave, Sensou confronted her new foe, who clearly presented a more obvious threat than anyone else on the battlefield.
***End Summary***
Sensou spat on the ground angrily as she regarded her hopping opponent, "You think that was clever, huh? I've been killing scum like you since before you were born."
"You don't seem to be very good at it, considering I'm still around."
The Quiraji leader snarled and put up a hand towards the green-clad shinobi, "Not for long."
Quicker than any normal person could follow, Sensou created a metal spike and shot it out of her palm, sending it straight at her opponents face while still attached to her hand.
Lee merely cocked his head so that the attack missed him by an inch. "You'll need to do better than that, Sensou."
He reached up and grasped the metal spike with a bandaged hand, crushing the metal into tiny bits. It was clear by her expression that Sensou hadn't been expecting him to be able to do that.
"Don't think you will be able to defeat me with such a weak attack, Sensou," said Lee confidently.
From his position outside the fight, Neji could hardly believe this was the same Rock Lee that had disappeared with the rest of the others over two years ago.
"Lee, what the hell are you doing here? I didn't even know you were alive you beautiful bastard," he demanded loudly, as the battle between the converted shinobi and his army reached its conclusion.
The afro-wearing shinobi didn't move, but a slight smile came across his angry visage. "Nice to see you too, Neji. Moved up in the world I see."
Neji grinned slowly and held the front of his tattered Kage hat proudly as the Kazekage and his two bodyguards jumped in to stand beside him. Shikamaru groaned loudly when he saw who was confronting their enemy. "Is he seriously wearing an afro?"
Lee's teammate nodded grimly, taking a moment to think about it before groaning louder than Shikamaru did, planting his remaining hand into his face. "He couldn't be…for the love of…"
"What is it?"
Rock Lee stamped his back foot onto the ground before pointing a clenched fist up to the sky.
"I have come to end the injustices done to us, the wrongs that you have brought forth into this world…"
Neji groaned and started shaking his head in despair, "He's doing the speech and everything…"
Lee continued his monologue while Sensou simply watched with a confused look on her face.
"I have gathered my strength and trained many years for this moment…"
"What the hell is he doing now?" asked Shikamaru, noticing that the other Kage were making their way towards the centre battlefield.
"He's doing a speech that Gai once did after seeing a TV special on heroes. I can't believe he actually found an afro, this is just sad."
It appeared that Sensou had the same feeling as Neji did, as she slowly created a circle of metal in her hand before flicking it at the monologing shinobi.
Just before the metal projectile could strike Lee in the face, he brought up a hand to catch the disk, dropping it to the ground and pointing to his opponent with his clenched fist.
"…by the afro on my head, the blood in my veins and the strength in my fists, I will defeat you!"
"Are you done?" she asked sarcastically.
Lee nodded in response, "Yes, thank you for waiting."
The shinobi that had just arrived made a circle around the two opponents, each of them recognising that the strange shinobi in the afro was on their side, and it wouldn't be wise to attack the red-clad Quiraji leader considering her one-sided fight with the Otokage.
"Should we attack?" asked a confused Chojuro, as Ao stood with the Mizukage away from the battle.
While a pair of medical shinobi healed his stump, Neji turned his head to regard Kidomaru who had just arrived, "Tell everyone to give them as much room as possible. Sensou could attack any of us at any point, but Lee should be able to occupy her."
The spider-like shinobi nodded and began yelling orders to the shinobi around them, with the other Kage understanding that this was not a battle they should get in the way of.
"You think we'll just stand by?" demanded the Raikage, wiping blood from his hands. "That bitch has a lot to pay for."
"With respect, sir, she is my opponent and mine alone," said Rock Lee as he began to stretch his legs, watching as Sensou was clearly unable to process that someone as ridiculous as him was able to prevent her from leaving.
"Why you little…"
"Raikage-sama, leave this to Lee," said Neji, standing back several feet to give Lee as much room as possible. "He's the only one here who can defeat her."
"Defeat me?" Sensou laughed manically, creating two double-bladed axes that she twirled dangerously in her hands. "He couldn't even make me fight seriously."
Having finished his stretching, Lee popped back up and put up his left hand in an offensive stance.
"This is for Asuma and Kurenai. For Shino and all the people you've killed."
His eyes darkened as he focused completely on his opponent.
"But most of all, this is for Sakura."
Sensou laughed again and lent one of her axes on her plated shoulder, "Oh, how is my dear Iceheart? I was always curious as to how you broke the control without killing her. Has she gotten over the fact that she killed some of her closest friends?"
Lee crossed the distance between the two of them in an instant, driving his fist straight into her face and sending her flying backwards, though he sped behind her and kicked her back into the ring.
The audience around the fight didn't understand most of what she was talking about, but both Neji and the Sunagakure shinobi all froze.
Sakura used to be Iceheart? Shikamaru could hardly believe it, though it made a scary amount of sense when he thought about it. She went through so much therapy and can't use chakra anymore…she always said that was because of the torture…but Lee said Iceheart was the one who killed Asuma…
Gaara didn't give away anything from his facial expression, but he found himself highly concerned that the head doctor of his village had once been the head commander of the Quiraji during the time when shinobi villages were falling left and right.
Lee cracked his knuckles loudly as Sensou slowly picked herself up off the ground and picked up her axes again.
"Don't speak about Sakura with that filthy mouth of yours. She has suffered enough at your hands."
Sensou groaned and rubbed at her neck, "You want to fight that way? Fine."
She tapped her foot on the ground, causing dozens of thin metal spikes to rise out of the ground. With a quick tap of the nearby spike a flower of metal appeared at the top, blossoming out to reveal hundreds of tiny needles inside.
"I will fight seriously."
Lee grinned, indicating for her to come at him with a flick of his hand.
While she was patient by nature, everything about Lee's presence on the battlefield ate at Sensou's patience. No longer willing to wait to observe her opponent, she wrenched out one of the spikes she had created and twirled it in her hands expertly, having abandoned her axes.
"You think you can outmatch me?"
Lee frowned for a moment before cracking his neck on both sides and reaching behind his back, "I'll only say this once, Sensou. You shouldn't underestimate my abilities."
He pulled out a red short stick from his back pocket, shaking it slightly to extend it out into a long pole taller than he was. He spun it in his hands and tapped it on the ground before placing it on his shoulder.
"If you do, I'll crush you."
Sensou scoffed and charged towards him, aiming her spike to spear him through the chest.
Lee simply sidestepped the blow and moved his staff across the line to slam into her face. Changing her grip, Sensou pulled up her spike to block his strike. This, however, left her vulnerable as Lee drove his foot into her chest.
The Quiraji leader dropped to her knees in pain, but Lee refused to let her recover as he spun his staff to collect her metal spike and send it flying into the air.
"Don't think your metal trickery will work on me," he said, watching as the shinobi standing around them took several further steps backwards.
Neji'll look after them. I have to concentrate on her.
"What…makes you think….it's trickery?" panted Sensou, clutching at her ribs tenderly. His blow hadn't pierced through her enhanced red armour, but it had knocked her around, wounding her pride more than anything.
Lee walked over to one of the spikes she had created, clutching his fist for a moment before slamming the back of it into the metal spike, shattering it into thousands of little pieces.
"This is hardly your best metal, is it? You need to be touching the metal, even on the slightest level, to create and control it, don't you?"
He grinned and tapped his nose with his thumb, which only caused his opponent's face to tighten up in fury.
She put up her hands facing towards him, angling her fingers as if to jab him despite the wide distance between the two of them. "Enough talk, pathetic shinobi. I've had enough crap standing in my way for one day."
Lee focused his eyes, watching as she slowly created dark metal needles from the tips of her fingers.
It's almost as if…
Only his instincts bred from years of harsh training allowed Lee to dodge Sensou's attack as she shot the needles from her fingertips straight at his face, though he found it strange that she thought that would take him out.
As he ducked and weaved under the attacks, Lee pretended that he failed to notice her rapid approach towards him with a short sword in her hand. He loosened his grip on his staff, letting it hang on the palm of his bandaged hand.
She's still underestimating me.
Her short sword came up to his face, aiming to cleave through his head at his nose. With the speed he had become known for, Lee merely reached up and caught the blade before it could strike him, holding the sword tightly between his fingers.
As he had expected, her face broke out into a sadistic smile. Before he could react, the end of her short sword past his fingers burst out into half a dozen spikes, shaving the sides of Lee's face.
"Your arrogance got you killed, boy," she said confidently, standing up to look at her victim.
"Who'd get killed by a weak attack like that?"
Lee looked down on his red haired opponent, letting the metal spikes that had barely grazed his cheeks sit against his skin. With his other hand he dropped his staff to the ground and reached up to grab into her armour through the gap underneath her neck, pulling her up from the ground.
"You…how are you alive? That should have pierced through your head in an instant."
Lee didn't respond to her confusion, merely staring into her bright red eyes with pure hatred.
Sensou's frown deepened even as she twisted in his grip and kicked herself away from him, landing between two metal spikes. She watched as he slowly removed the sword from his hand, letting the metal drop to the ground as he swiped at his face to remove the slight mark her attack had left.
"You can utilise physical energy? You shinobi seem content to trample all over our pride."
Lee cocked his head slightly as he kicked his staff up to his hand, watching his opponent take a long breath before readjusting her armour at her neck in an oddly ladylike fashion.
"It would appear I cannot end this quickly…"
She sighed loudly and stared up at the slowly setting sun in the cloudy sky, "I'm no good at these prolonged fights. That's how the last Sensou died, and she was a cranky old bitch."
"What are you talking about?" asked a confused Lee.
Sensou slowly brought her gaze back to her opponent, "Nothing you need to concern yourself with."
She slowly twisted her hands, creating a pair of multi-bladed shurikens with wicked edges as wide as she was. Even from the distance between the two of them, Lee could tell the difference in the quality of the metal in her blades compared to the ones she had been using previously.
So she's finally taking me seriously? I guess I can actually fight her properly now.
For a several moments they simply stared at each other, the two of them assessing their surroundings as if for the first time. It had been difficult at first, but Neji had cleared a more than reasonable sized battlefield for the two of them, though while the injured were being treated he had his whole army surrounding the battlefield, ready to jump in just in case Lee were to fall.
His severed wrist hung limply within his shredded robe, it had been healed as much it could without a proper medical facility, but he still wore his Kage hat proudly on his head, even if it was just the symbol and the rim remaining.
"Will he be able to win?" asked Kidomaru, his six arms crossed over his chest.
Neji grinned, he'd spent most of his Genin days underestimating his old teammate, but he still bore the scars of such hubris. Lee practised more than what would be considered sane by shinobi standards, and it was clear by how ineffective Sensou's previous attack had been that he had learnt how to counter some of her techniques.
However it was clear that the biggest change was the one in his eyes. Lee had a look in his black eyes that went in the complete opposite direction to his absurd-looking hairdo.
It was the same look he had given Neji before he nearly killed him in the Second Exam in Suna.
"I guess there really is no limit to hard-work, eh Lee?" he muttered quietly to himself.
"What was that?" asked his bodyguard curiously.
The Otokage shook his head slightly, his white eyes keeping a keen eye on the battlefield in front of him. "It was nothing, Kidomaru."
Behind the spider-like shinobi, Dosu chuckled quietly to himself; he knew his leader knew he'd heard him. He had replaced his poncho and had another shinobi recover his cannons, though it felt strange not carrying them around.
"Are you done staring at me?" asked Lee, wondering what she was waiting for.
Sensou snarled and the large shurikens in her hands begun to spin rapidly like buzz saws. "I'm a scientist, Green Beast. That's what they call you, yes?"
Lee nodded; he'd heard the name several times from Quiraji as they had been fleeing from his guerrilla style attacks on their positions. He was proud that he'd been given the name, since his teacher was once called the same.
"I am Sensou of the Quiraji Empire. While I prefer fighting a different style of battle, you will not find me an easy foe."
With that she shot straight forward, surprising most of the crowd with the speed she hadn't been utilising earlier. "And you will stop looking down on me!"
The afro-wearing shinobi leaned forward slightly and moved his staff to both of his hands. "I am Rock Lee of Konoha, also known as the Beautiful Green Beast of Konoha. There is no more room for talk. We fight until one of us is dead."
Sensou appeared to agree with him, even as she attempted to cleave his head off with her blades. Lee blocked the strike and grinned, he could already see her counterattack, and it was clear she was no longer underestimating him.
Lee jumped back from a sweeping strike at his legs and slammed his staff towards his opponent's weapon, sending sparks flying as they chipped away at his weapon.
"Your speed is decreasing," said Sensou, straightening herself up and staring at him with a cocky grin.
Her green-clad opponent rolled his eyes and stared at the partially destroyed end of his staff, "No, you've slowly been getting faster. I'm beginning to think you are a better fighter than your younger brother was."
Sensou frowned and pulled back her left shuriken, hurling it at him with great speed. Lee was able to parry the strike with his staff, though it cleaved through the hard material it was made out of without too much resistance.
"Shouri was a general, nothing more. He fought from a distance because he was no good at fighting in close quarters. That's why the stupid man keeps dying, he forgets his place."
Sensou pulled back her other shuriken, spinning it so fast that it sounded like it was cutting the air itself. "I am War. Why wouldn't I be one of our best fighters?"
Lee found himself agreeing with her, as he discarded his damaged staff and reached behind his back. A woman who called herself War would be expected to be a good fighter, though it is surprising that she considered herself a scientist before a fighter.
Despite this fact, he couldn't help but grin like the first time he had mastered the Omote Renge.
His opponent reached out to grab one of her earlier long spikes, holding it tightly for a few moments to change the colour from bright silver to a dark grey. "What are you grinning about?"
Lee pulled out a small bag and untied the knot at the top slowly, "If you are the strongest, then when I defeat you the Quiraji threat will be significantly decreased."
For several moments the red armoured warrior just stared at him with a blank look on her face, before breaking out into twisted laughter. She found herself wavering on her feet as she held her sides during her fit of laughter, having to lean on the spike buried in the ground.
"You have no idea what fear is, Green Beast. I never said I was the strongest. Compared to the two that came before me I might be, but that is how I was made. You don't even know what strength is."
After recovering from her uncharacteristic bout of laughter, Sensou wrenched the spike out of the ground and twirled it in her hands, "There are scarier things in the world than battlefields like this. You won't survive to see them, but you should know they are out there."
"Duly noted," said Lee with a nod, pulling out two short sticks attached together with a chain.
Gai-Sensei, please watch over me.
Flipping the nunchaku in his hands rapidly, Lee felt the heavy weight of the weapon in hands with a satisfying nod. He hadn't brought out his old teacher's weapon in a long time, but as he practised with them in front of the Quiraji leader they felt right in his hands.
"Nunchaku? This isn't a game, Green Beast. I'm striking to kill."
She's very chatty today, noted Lee cautiously. She must be stalling for time, trying to suck me into her pace. Remember Lee, she's a crafty opponent. There are no second chances here.
Lee decided not to respond, spinning his nunchaku in front of himself defensively. He knew that she had changed the composition of the metal spike in her hand to be a denser metal, but that didn't change the fact that her speed was something he had to look out for.
There were still a few more things he needed to confirm before he fought at his full strength.
Pushing from his legs with a burst of physical energy, Lee shot towards her quicker than he had fought before, collecting her in the side of the head with Gai's nunchaku.
Sensou snarled as the attack sent her towards the ground, but she used the momentum to spin her metal spike and collect him through his legs, though Lee was able to jump over the strike with a backflip.
Picking herself up from the ground, Sensou felt at her face for a moment before smiling wickedly and turning to face her opponent as he twirled his nunchaku. "Your attack has no power, Green Beast."
Lee watched her carefully, increasing the rate of which he spun his old teacher's weapon. It was true; his attack had failed to penetrate her physical energy armour, but that wasn't what Lee was testing.
Seeing that she wasn't going to get a response to her taunt, Sensou aimed her spike to spear him through the chest. Lee was able to deflect the blow with his nunchaku, but Sensou didn't let up, unleashing a rapid-fire barrage of attacks.
Lee stood his ground, however, parrying over a dozen blows before taking a step to the side and twisting his weapon around her spear, locking it in place with the chain of his nunchaku.
His opponent tried to pull her weapon out of his grip, but Lee held both parts of his nunchaku tightly. Seeing that she wasn't going to be able to retrieve her weapon, Sensou instead decided to take a quick step forward and create a quick metal ring in her hand and aimed to slice through one of his hands in the same manner that she removed the Otokage's.
Unfortunately for her, Lee had anticipated the move, hardening his wrist so that her attack was unable to pierce through his skin. Still holding onto the nunchaku with the hand she attacked, Lee pulled back his other hand and clenched it into a fist.
"Your metal is weak when you make it quickly, Sensou."
The Quiraji leader's eyes widened as Lee punched at her face with incredible speed, though his fist barely stopped in front of her face by a few centimetres.
For a split second she thought he had misjudged the distance and began to move to counterattack him, but the air that had been between the two of them compressed in an instant and slammed into her face, sending her flying backwards.
"And I know the secret to the physical armour that you Quiraji use," said Lee, as Sensou skidded to a halt and snarled again, spitting blood onto the ground beneath her.
Lee threw away the metal spike he had trapped and held his nunchaku on his off hand, holding the hand he had punched with up near his face, "It protects you against both slashing and blunt attacks, but it doesn't stop the elements or someone who has the strength to push through the barrier."
"For example…"
Lee pulled back his fist and punched straight towards her, his strike so fast that it sent a shockwave of air that slammed into her chest, knocking the wind out of her.
"…someone like me."
His opponent grimaced for a moment before taking a long breath and standing up straight, "This armour is more than able to handle such weak punches. Don't think you can defeat me with strength alone."
Lee cracked his neck and begun swinging his nunchaku again, "We shall see."
With a flick of the hand she had been hiding behind her back, Sensou sent a group of hardened needles straight at Lee's face. With his speed he was able to dodge most of the needles, but one managed to graze the side of his face, tracing a path along one of the scars he had been given by her torturer.
Sensou stood with a cocky smile at seeing her drawing blood from her opponent, "You can also pierce physical energy armour with spiritual energy."
Lee flicked the blood off his face, taking a moment before disappearing in a flash.
His opponent wasn't expecting that, turning around instinctively to see Lee slam his nunchaku stick straight into her forehead. As she fell to the ground he brought up his knee to combo his attack, but Sensou was able to block his knee with a gauntlet, flipping in the air to drive her boot into Lee's face.
The scythed boot skimmed the side of Lee's face, forcing him to move backwards as he saw her creating blades from her legs. He knew he could defend himself against those, but it drained him to maintain the physical energy armour for long periods of time.
"Well I can't use spiritual energy."
Lee noted that his nunchaku didn't appear to be doing much damage, though as she steadied herself there was a slight change in her breathing patterns. It was strange to see her now calm as opposed to her furious demeanour earlier.
Her instincts are dead on, and she is very adaptive. But she doesn't look like she is used to long battles. I can use that.
He collected the two sticks of his nunchaku and checked his target for a moment before tossing his old teacher's weapon towards the crowd.
Neji frowned in confusion as he caught the pair of nunchaku skilfully, his white eyes concentrating on his old companion carefully. "What is he planning?" he asked quietly.
Sensou was just as confused, but she wasn't going to let him pull out a new trick in time. She ran forward while creating a short sword and moving to drive the sword into his unprotected chest. Lee put up a hand to stop her attack, allowing it to move past his wrist before twisted it around so that her blow barely missed him.
Having drawn her in, Lee pulled back an arm and opened up his palm. "Konoha Taijutsu Ougi…"
Sensou tried to move out of the way, but Lee held onto her arm tightly before slamming his palm into the centre of her chest.
"…Shinkuu Hira!" (Konoha Secret Taijutsu Technique: Empty Palm)
After hitting her he let her go and jumped back several steps.
Sensou had braced herself for a devastating blow, but nothing appeared to have happened. She looked down at her chest suspiciously, wondering if it had just been a bluff.
"Did you…miss?" she asked, looking back up to question her opponent.
Lee redid the strap on his bag and placed it back on his hip, handling the large bottle he had removed from it with care. It had an odd set of symbols on the front of it, but Sensou couldn't work out what he could possibly do with such a thing.
Neji, on the other hand, knew exactly what it was, and the fear of what Lee was about to do made his blood run cold in his body. He turned to his commanders around him with sweat dripping down his face.
"What's wrong?" asked Jin, he'd never seen the normally calm and composed Neji in such a panicked state. "You look like someone just told you that your son has been learning swearing from Tayuya."
"Don't even joke about that, Jin. I told Tayuya to keep her mouth clean around the twins, and she has kept that for the most part. If I hear anything about the twins swearing I told her I would pull out her tongue."
Jin nodded quickly; it was clear from his leader's stare that he would absolutely follow through with his threat if he caught her swearing around his children.
Neji kept his stare going for a few moments before shaking his head and coming back to reality. He began motioning with his arms quickly, "We need to get everyone out of here, right now!"
He began yelling orders at his Sound shinobi, who scrambled as they fell back as far back as they could while still maintaining a vigil on the battle.
"What the hell are you doing, Otokage?" demanded the Raikage, watching the green-clad down the contents of the bottle with a pained look on his face.
As he fell back with the other Kages and his army, Neji tried to frantically wave the Raikage over to them. "Something that you don't want to be anywhere near! Hurry up or you'll get caught in the crossfire!"
The Raikage was suspicious, but by now he recognised that this was a battle that he didn't want to get in the middle of, which wasn't the easiest thing for him to admit.
That boy's physical skills are remarkable, particularly since he isn't using chakra. This battle is getting stranger and stranger.
Nevertheless he fell back with the rest of the shinobi surrounding the two combatants, giving them a battlefield of nearly one hundred metres around to fight in.
"What has gotten them so fearful?" asked Sensou quietly, looking around with a confused look. She knew that if Lee wasn't there she could do some serious damage to the shinobi leadership, which was the original reason for her attacking the summit, but with him there she couldn't even retreat from the battlefield.
Lee finished draining the bottle and dropped it on the ground, causing it to break into several pieces beside his feet. He looked down at his hands, finding his feet strangely unsteady and heavy through his outfit and sandals.
It became difficult for him to focus on his bandaged fingers, even when he tried to pull them back and forward to bring them back into focus.
Wondering what was going on, Lee pulled his hands down and nearly collapsed as a rush of strange feelings struck him in the head, forcing him to wobble slightly.
"What the hell is wrong with him now?"
The female voice cut straight through Lee's haze, causing him to leer forward to find the speaker, barely able to see a red blur in front of him.
What the…who…that isn't Sakura…but…that means…unfriendly…ENEMY!
He didn't have to think about it any further, bringing up his hands in what felt right to him, even though everything felt heavy around him and he couldn't quite stay steady on his feet, but he felt absolutely determined to punish this person for not being his pink-haired lover.
"Hey…you! I don't…hic…shut up!"
Sensou shook her head slowly as she realised what had happened. Pulling out one of the remaining metal spikes near her position, she slowly changed it into a massive battleaxe, placing it on her shoulder as if it weighed nothing despite its composition.
"What kind of tactic is this? Does he really expect to fight like that?"
Lee stumbled for a few steps before setting his gaze on his opponent, his face now flush red as he surrendered completely to his new state of being.
"Stay…there. I'm…gonna…thump…hic…GAI-SENSEI!"
He dropped to his knees and threw up his arms dramatically, imagining an aircraft flying overhead as years of warfare weighed down on his soul.
"Enough of this stalling," said Sensou, running towards her opponent with her battleaxe ready to cleave him in two like the primitive scum she thought he was.
Lee looked down at her, his arms suddenly feeling heavier than anything he had carried in his life. Dragging himself up from the ground, Lee wavered on his feet as he saw the Quiraji leader charging towards him. He wasn't sure what her problem was, but he found himself strangely intrigued by her oversized weapon.
Lee waited until the blade was moving towards his face before twisted his body so that the blade barely missed him by a hair. He hit the ground hard, but pushed off with his hands and drove both his feet into his attacker's chest, using his momentum to twirl his hands around her weapon to hold onto it as she was sent flying backwards.
As Sensou swore and created another weapon to use a short distance away, he went to pick up her battleaxe, anticipating that it would be extremely heavy and that caused him to collapse backwards and the battleaxe was sent flying as it was too light for his grip.
Staring through the gap in his legs, Lee couldn't understand how she was standing on the ceiling of the world. He could see her walking on the ceiling, and that brought up a terrible anger within him.
He flipped onto his feet, struggling to understand how everything had suddenly turned on its head, but he didn't care anymore as he was already moving towards his opponent.
"Youth…POWER!"
oOoOoOo
"Drunken Boxing? I didn't know Lee had such an ability," said Gaara, having moved to stand beside the Otokage to get the best perspective on the battle.
"It's innate," said Neji in response. "That's why I got everyone to stand back. He doesn't discern between friend and foe when he's drunk."
He turned to Gaara with a serious look on his face, "You've been working with Lee, haven't you?"
"Many of your old companions are working for me now." Gaara crossed his arms over his chest, watching as Lee dominated his opponent with the strangest movements and break-neck speed.
Neji nodded, he already knew that. "Well you've been protecting them, so I have no issue. But you should have known he'd do this."
On the battlefield, Lee moved his head to dodge away from a sword strike, taking a moment to watch it fall with a dumb expression on his face before lashing out with the back of his hand.
Sensou reeled backwards from the strike, but kept a firm grip on her weapons even as Lee spun a leg around her arm and collected her in the side of the head, sending her skidding down into the grass.
Lee put up his hands and roared like a lion at her, "Youth! Rragh!"
He slammed his feet into the ground and waved his arms up in the air, making it seem like he was destroying a city of people underneath his feet.
"This is absurd…" panted Sensou, watching Lee stamp around like he was just ignoring her. "Maybe if he's in a state like this, I can get away…"
With a wave of one of her hands, she created a tear in the air behind her. It ate at her pride to flee from such a battle, but she wasn't prepared to fight Lee on a battlefield that wasn't her choosing, and if nothing else she tended towards caution.
With Lee parading around it appeared like he wasn't paying attention to his opponent whatsoever, which caused Gaara and many of the observers thought that she would get away from him.
Before the Kazekage could move onto the battlefield however, Neji put up an arm to stop him.
"What are you doing? She's going to get away." Having seen his subordinates used as cannon fodder by the Quiraji leader, Gaara was struggling to keep his stoic visage maintained, particularly with Shukaku's voice thundering in his head to attack her with all his might before she slipped away from him.
"Lee might be stupid, but he knew she might do this before he consumed the alcohol. Have faith in him. We would only be walking into a slaughter."
Gaara was suspicious, but as Sensou stepped into the tear and worked on closing it, Lee disappeared from his spot.
As if anticipating what was about to happen, Sensou braced her body and shut her eyes.
Right on cue, Lee appeared behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. Pushing from his legs strongly, the green-clad shinobi broke through the tear and flew high up into the air, with Sensou held tightly against his chest.
Before she was able to counterattack, Lee began to spin rapidly in the air as the two of them started to fall towards the ground.
"Corkscrew!"
The pair of them spun so quickly that it appeared to be just a blur of red and green to the observers of the battle, until they slammed into the ground with a loud thud, causing a large cloud of dust to appear around them.
For a few moments none of the observers could see the damage of the attack because of the cloud of dust, but the shockwave just reached them despite the large distance between the fighters and the circle of shinobi around them.
Neji wanted to use his Byakugan to see the aftermath, but he knew that if Sensou was there then it would only cause damage to his eyes.
Luckily for them, the dust cloud cleared quickly, though judging by the fact that both Sensou and Lee were both lying on the ground holding their heads painfully, they had both suffered the damage of the over-the-top attack.
Neji just groaned. It was just like Lee to take just as much damage as his opponent, though he was grateful to see the afro-wearing shinobi pick himself up from the ground. Judging by the unsteadiness of Lee's movements though, it was clear he was still drunk.
Sensou groaned loudly as she struggled to stand up from the ground, holding her head as she could hear a loud buzzing in her ears. If she hadn't hardened her body completely, the blow would have crushed her skull.
Seeing his opponent stand up after his attack, Lee started to make loud chapping sounds with his mouth. "The air…hic…tastes…awful!" He dry-heaved slightly into his hands, before looking back at his opponent and finding his rage rising to extreme levels.
Sensou was barely able to bring up a gauntlet to block his attack as Lee vanished on the spot and slammed his foot towards her shoulder. Using his rapid speed, the drunken Lee unleashed a barrage of uneven hand and foot attacks, driving blow after blow into his opponent's armour, with Sensou only able to block every third or fourth strike.
His speed was overwhelming to the Quiraji leader, but it was his unpredictable attacks that was throwing off Sensou's defence. Eventually she had had enough and exploded outwards with as many metal spikes off her body as she could muster, though Lee was able to dodge most of the spikes and jumped back a short distance, banging his head on the ground and rolling around with loud groans.
"So even like this, I can't leave, huh?" said Sensou, going to hold her side until she realised that his blows hadn't been doing as much damage as before.
Lee struggled to pick himself up from the ground, holding his head as he stared at his opponent in a blurry haze. "That's…weird…everything…is so…wooooow…"
"Enough fun and games. Are you going to fight with your proper strength or what?"
Her opponent looked like he was concentrating deeply for a moment before he stood in a particularly strange pose, one leg in front of the other with his hands up in a morris dancing pose. He began to move his hips from one side to the other in circular motions, while moving his hands as if picking fruit off a tree.
"Drunken maid…flirting with the master…"
Having lost what little patience she had left, Sensou put out her hands and drew all of the remaining metal spikes she had created earlier to her hands, swirling them around into a fluid metal ball around her hands.
In a single motion she flung a part of the metallic liquid at her opponent, but Lee moved with the strange grace of an exotic dancer, though he didn't appear to have any intention of attacking her. With the metal attached to her hands she moved it like a liquid whip, flying a part of it at the afro-wearing shinobi's head, causing him to drop to the ground and roll away.
"Young child…can't handle…his father's beer…"
Lee continued to roll around on the ground, Sensou's attacks just barely missing him. Eventually Lee picked himself up from the ground, though he found himself moving closer and closer to the edges of the battlefield.
He stood and stared at one of the Otogakure shinobi near him, cocking his head in curiosity as if it was the first time he had seen the Sound symbol on a forehead protector. He took a moment before sensing the metallic fluid moving closer towards him, disappearing in a flash once again.
Everyone looked around quickly to see where the drunken fighter had reappeared, but no-one could see him anywhere on the battlefield.
His opponent drew her metallic liquid close to her, taking the time to add more to it and darken its colour. "Where has he gone now?"
Unlike the rest of the crowd, Neji and Gaara knew exactly where to look, though neither wanted to give anything away to Lee's opponent.
High up in the air, Lee kept himself steady with hundreds of kicks in mid-air, something that only someone who'd had his level of physical ability and training could maintain.
Unfortunately his cognition in his drunken state where not the greatest, and as such he could already feel himself falling back down to the ground. Using that momentum, he began to spin downwards like a ball rolling down a hill, his feet out in front of him and aiming above his red-clad opponent.
"Waterfall!"
Sensou was barely able to notice his rapid descent in time, and there was nothing she was able to do to stop his legs coming crashing down onto her shoulders. She fell to her knees and released her grip onto her fluid metal, while Lee laughed manically for a few seconds before staring up at the sky with drool running down his face.
His opponent took a moment before groaning and picking herself up from the ground, seemingly surprised that she was able to get back up so quickly. With a shrug, she pulled up her metallic liquid and slammed it into Lee's chest, sending him flying backwards while she gripped his body and held onto it tight, hurling him high up in the air before slamming him back down onto the hard ground.
"How could she just get back up like that?" asked an amazed Jin. "That was a heavy blow."
"Back when we were travelling together, I heard Lee speak about a problem he had with his only taijutsu approach to fighting." Neji watched the battle carefully as the still-drunken Lee suffered blow after blow like a ragdoll. "When he is fighting as fast as he is now, his strength is far lower than it normally would be, since his muscles are focused on keeping his body intact."
"So he's fast enough, but he can't break through her defences?"
Neji nodded grimly, "Against most opponents that would be enough." He glared at the red-armoured Quiraji leader, noting that while she was faster than most shinobi were normally anyway, her strength didn't depreciate one bit. "But she is something else."
Sensou pulled Lee towards her, having held him within her metallic liquid attack tightly. He attempted to struggle, but her grip was far too tight for him to break.
"I'll commend you for making me fight so hard. But now that you are in my grasp, you won't escape."
She held him a short distance away, while putting up her other hand to create a large shuriken that darkened to black and begun to spin rapidly in her hand.
"This is the end."
The drunken Lee stared at her for a moment before looking down at one of his bandaged hands, flexing it as much as he could within her metallic liquid. It felt strange to him, and it took a moment for him to realise why it felt that way.
He turned his drunken gaze to his opponent as she brought back her arm to throw the black shuriken to decapitate him.
"Um…hic…First…something…uh…KAI!"
A large burst of chakra exploded out from Lee's body, forcing the metallic liquid that was holding him to dissipate. As the shuriken she had thrown at him came close to his face he flipped around by kicking at the air and caught the shuriken by its handle.
In a single movement he dropped to the ground and hurled the weapon at his opponent, before losing his footing and hitting his head on the ground.
"Ow…"
The shuriken slammed into the unsuspecting Sensou's chest, causing her to go flying backwards as the black metal bit into her armour by several centimetres. She gritted her teeth as she frantically tried to get rid of the metal of the shuriken attacking her, though it was difficult because of how dense she'd made the attack in the first place.
Holding his head painfully, Lee looked up to find his vision had returned to normal, though it felt like he had been hit in the head by something akin to a giant boulder. It took him a few moments to find his feet, and while his headache refused to go away he was able to stand up straight again.
I guess I'm not drunk anymore. Each time seems to go quicker and quicker. I'll need to get Sakura to give me a stronger bottle to carry around next time.
He looked over at his opponent, who had finally gotten rid of his shuriken attack; though it was clear it had surprised her. It was her mistake to hold him just out of her chakra-cancelling circle, though he could already feel the effects of opening the first Gate disappearing from his body. Every muscle in his body ached, but that wasn't anything he wasn't used to.
That long without opening a Gate must have shortened the effect. It doesn't matter, chakra is useless against her anyway, and I can only use Hirudora once, which I doubt she'll let me power up for it.
"Clever trick, shinobi…" said Sensou, holding her side as she brought in her metallic liquid towards herself. "But it won't save you again."
Lee rubbed at the back of his neck sorely, looking around at the battlefield, "Yeah, I know. I shouldn't need it though."
"Sobered up, have we?"
Her opponent shrugged, "It tends to only last for a while, and I wasn't doing much damage."
Sensou didn't say a word as the metallic liquid collected around her arm, forming into a dense black metal spear that was attached to her hand. She didn't need to test its weight as she planted it into the ground next to her.
Lee looked at her weapon carefully, realising that he wasn't going to be able to disarm her as easily as he had before. As his sight focused he could see the crack in her armour that had been created when he'd thrown her own shuriken back at her.
Speed doesn't work, since the attacks aren't strong enough. Technique doesn't work, since her metal creation is perfect for this type of combat.
He let out a long sigh and looked down at his bandaged hands; there was only one avenue of attack left to him.
I'm sorry, Sakura. But I have no other option.
He stamped his legs and placed one of his fists onto the ground, as Sensou began her charge towards him.
***Flashback*** - 2 Months Ago
"You know, if you keep going like this, I'm not going to be able to keep bandaging you."
Lee smiled for a moment before grimacing as she tapped at the hand she had finished bandaging.
"I know you'll always heal me up, Sakura. That's why I can train so hard."
Rolling her eyes at his affectionate statement, Sakura reached into her doctor's coat and produced a small bottle of pills. She pulled out a pill and indicated for him to open his mouth, which he did willingly.
"Do you really have to go back out there Lee? You know I don't want you to do this."
The green-clad shinobi shook his head as he swallowed the pill she gave him, "I'm the only one that can take her down. That's my mission. I made a promise, remember?"
"You men and your promises…" Sakura leaned down and kissed him lightly on the forehead. "You know I want her punished as much as anyone, but not if it means losing you."
Lee grinned as he stood up from the table he'd been sitting on and pecked the pink-haired doctor on the cheek, "I'm not going anywhere just yet. I can spend a few more days here before I have to go."
"Only a few days?" pouted Sakura, unwilling to see him disappear again so soon.
"Yep. So…"
In a single motion he swept her up onto his shoulder with his arm, causing her to giggle like a teenager and he spun around and laid her onto the bench.
"Right here? This place isn't really sanitary."
"All the better then," said Lee with a cocky smirk. "You know Sakura…"
She put up her hand to cover his mouth quickly, "I know what you are going to say. I thought we agreed that we'd talk about it after this thing is over."
Lee slowly reached up and pulled her hand away, holding it down without much pressure. He took a moment to stare into her eyes before leaning down to kiss her.
I might not get an opportunity to do this again…
***End Flashback***
"What the hell is he doing now?"
On the sidelines, Neji was just as confounded as his subordinates, though he hid his surprise better than they did.
Sensou didn't break her stride, even as she saw Lee's skin turn red and small bits of smoke came from his body. She pulled back her spear and thrust it into his face, but Lee pulled up one of his hands and grabbed at the metal spear, his pupils having dilated with red lines covering his retina.
"What the hell did you do?" she asked, unable to wrench the spear from his single-handed grip.
Lee didn't waste a moment, pulling back his other hand and formed a spear, driving it straight into her shoulder. His fingers pierced straight through her armour as if it wasn't there, and he quickly removed them and let go of her spear, jumping backwards to see the damage he had done.
Sensou dropped to the ground and clutched her shoulder with her free hand, pulling it back to see blood on her red gauntlet. "What the hell did you do?!"
Her opponent took several laboured breaths, it was clear to everyone watching that being in such a state was wearing him out physically.
"When I rescued Sakura, I knew that there had to be other ways to combat people with those kinds of abilities. When I worked out how to use physical energy, I had to figure out how to break through that tough armour of yours."
Sensou snarled as she stood up and retook her stance, "So she remembers? How fascinating. Perhaps there is value in reclaiming Iceheart after all."
In a flash Lee appeared before her, driving his foot straight into her armoured chest. Sensou coughed blood into the air as she was sent flying, but Lee grabbed onto her spear and wrenched her back towards him, slamming his fist into the centre of her chest.
The Quiraji leader screamed out in pain as large cracks appeared in her red chestplate. She found herself looking up to a furious-looking Lee, his face a dark red from his strange technique as plumes of smoke rose out of the corners of his mouth.
"You won't touch her ever again. I swore that I would hunt you down and kill you." He brought up a red fist, the bandages having been burnt off when his body had begun to smoke. "This is why I achieved this power."
Sensou spat a globe of blood into the shinobi's face, feeling that many of her ribs were broken within her chest, "I guess you also worked out how to block our communication, right? So I can't call for back up?"
Lee cocked his head for a few moments before pulling back a leg and kicking her hard in the side, sending her skidding across the battlefield with a loud cry of pain.
"I did no such thing. I don't fight using tricks."
His opponent's eyes widened when she heard that, and even though it clearly pained her she picked herself up and placed a finger to her temple. Before Lee could move against her she created a metal shell around herself, encasing her body in a similar manner to how Shikamaru had earlier in the battle.
Lee straightened himself up, he felt his chest tighten but he knew he still had time.
"Well it's about time; I've been trying to reach you for ages!"
Her voice was being distorted by the metal shell, but everyone could tell how much panic was in the normally calm and arrogant Quiraji leader's voice.
"I need reinforces immediately! Send Kyoukou, send Shikyo, send someone! I'm in serious trouble here!"
Lee twitched his eyebrows for a moment; if she was getting through to their leader then they could easily bring such dangerous people to the battlefield in an instant. It was surprising to him that they hadn't come earlier; they'd been fighting for a significant period of time.
"What are you talking about? Of course I set those protocols in motion; I'm not an amateur…wait, why are you asking that…"
Outside her shell, Lee pulled back his arm and readied himself to attack her shell.
"…damnit I'm your daughter! You can't do this to me…"
Lee slammed his red fist into the metal shell, shattering it into thousands of tiny pieces as Sensou took her fingers off her temple and looked at her opponent for the first time with fear in her eyes.
"I'm all alone…"
Her opponent pulled back both his hands with a furious look on his face, "Not for long."
In a burst of strength that nearly knocked the crowd around the two of them down, Lee shot forward and slammed both of his hands into her chest, causing the red plated armour to shatter just as easily as her metal shell had.
Surprisingly Sensou didn't move from her spot, the shock of his attack appeared to have paralysed her in place. Underneath her red armour all she had on was a red t-shirt, while was drenched in blood from the many blows she had suffered throughout the battle.
Lee took a step towards her and pulled back his fist again, "This is it."
Sensou's eyes stared at him lifelessly for a moment before she opened her mouth and unleashed an inhumane screech. In an instant her body exploded outwards into hundreds of long metal spikes, with many piercing through Lee's chest and shoulders.
The red-skinned shinobi gritted his teeth as he jumped back and felt the spikes slide out of his body, clutching at his stomach in a vain attempt to plug one of the bleeding holes.
Within the spikes it appeared that Sensou had sacrificed herself for the last ditch attack as all that remained was a metal image of herself being pierced by the same metal spikes.
Damn…I can't harden my body in this state…I didn't come this far just to fall now…
Ignoring the pain in his body and the damage that his own technique was doing to him, Lee took a jump back and kicked at the air to propel himself forward, using the momentum to spin forward.
Extending a foot outwards he slammed through the metal spikes and straight into Sensou's body, shattering it in a similar manner to her armour previously, though Lee could feel his strength already leaving him from the spike he had been forced to attack through to get to her.
As metal shards showered down around him, Lee could see a stumbling figure attempting to run away from the battlefield, towards a waiting party of Otogakure Jounin and the already moving into position Kages.
Lee bit at his lip and powered himself forward, kicking at the air to disappear and reappear in front of her to block her escape. Sensou jumped in surprise and tried to run to a different part of the circle, but he moved again to block her.
She tried to thrust her spear into his face, but Lee barely moved his head to dodge the attack and lashed out with a stamp of his foot, sending her sprawling onto her back.
The ex-Konoha shinobi stepped over her defeated body and pulled back his fist for the final strike.
Through bleeding gums, Sensou managed to smile one last time, "You shinobi have no idea what you are in for. This has only just begun…"
Lee didn't allow her another word as he slammed his fist with all his strength into her chest, piercing through her skin and ribs and obliterating her internal organs.
He took a moment before slowly removing his fist, his skin slowly changing back to its original colour, even as his breathing became more and more laboured. He clutched at his chest, but he didn't care about the pain anymore.
The weight on his heart had finally been lifted.
With his task done, Lee collapsed onto the ground beside the dead Quiraji leader.
Author's Note:
So this was an experiment to see if I could do a whole chapter on a single fight. At the beginning it was tough to write, but the more I wrote the easier it felt. Do you guys think it worked? I'm curious to see how it fit together as a whole. I know the ending was a bit gruesome, but a battle like that should end fairly brutally, I feel. I hope it wasn't excessive though.
I know I said I wouldn't do more flashbacks, but I wanted to do just a short one here.
Anyone who gets the reference at the start of Lee's drunken rampage is awesome. I wanted to make that section as ridiculous as possible, and that felt appropriate. Also if you've seen the movie where some of his move names while drunk came from, you are doubly awesome.
I might have drawn some inspiration from One Piece near the end there. Let's just say that some of the moves in that series make more sense for Lee than the Naruto ones do, particularly the CP9 moves. There will be an explanation of the move in the next chapter.
Please review and tell me what you think. I try to take each review into account, and believe me I read them all. Tell me what can be improved, what you liked, what you didn't, everything. I'm a writer so I'm always open to criticism.