Hey! I'm back and I want to clear some things hehe.
I know I said before that I would be able to update the story more frequently now that I would have more free time, but I found myself to be really busy last week, so that's why I didn't post any new chapters, hope you understand ^^'. Anyways, I should be able to update the story more frequently now, as I believe I won't be that busy anymore for a couple of months at least.
That said, here's chapter 24! Hope you like it and remember:
I DO NOT OWN DBZ NOR NARUTO!
"Continuing with the exams, we'll proceed to the match between Shikamaru Nara and Temari of the Sand." Hiruzen announced, interrupting the cheering from the crowd. Once he did, he sat back down. "You've been quite silent, Kazekage."
The kazekage turned his glance to the Hokage, noticing how Yuichi was staring straight at him. "Indeed, I have not much to say honestly."
Meanwhile, in the balcony of the participants, Shikamaru's jaw fell down to the floor out of shock. This caused the laughter of the remaining participants, although not much for Kiba, who was getting more nervous as his match got closer. At least Sasuke didn't seem to be arriving soon, so he'd maybe win by default.
Temari, on the other hand, just widened her eyes in surprise, it was quite a coincidence that they were matched up together. She didn't mind as much though, she would still win.
Both of them went down the stairs towards the arena. Temari was quick to reach her position, close to Hayate, but Shikamaru was really slow to do so. He watched the entire arena, just like an old man watching a beautiful landscape. However, he could not spot much more than several trees and vegetation close to the walls as his slowness made the crowd desperate, even to the point of booing him after almost a couple of minutes. The genin of the ponytail figured that he had no other option than to listen his fans and hurry a bit to get where he was supposed to.
Hayate coughed before bending down slightly, raising his hand afterwards. "Alright, ready... Go!" He gave the signal for the genin to start their match. "Please don't be as slow to fight..." He finally murmured, recovering his normal stance.
The blonde kunoichi had the initiative from the start, opening her giant fan slightly and attempting to hit her opponent with it, forcing him to jump back and take distance. Shikamaru's reaction was basic, he threw several shuriken back at her, although they were easily deflected by the giant fan.
So it is made with some sort of metal huh... Shikamaru thought as he got his hands in his pockets. Let's see what else it can do. He remembered the match against Tenten, but he still wanted to be sure about the capacity of the weapon.
Temari opened the fan once again as she saw her opponent running towards her, his speed surprising her. She tried to blow him away with an air current, but he started to run in zigzag, which made it complicated for her to catch him. The blonde kunoichi closed her fan and grabbed it with both hands, blocking the kick her opponent had jumped to aim and then knocking him off with it.
Shikamaru fell to the floor, turning to look at the blonde kunoichi. He carefully stood up, grabbing a couple of kunai and once again charging against the girl. He managed to almost hit her, but her fan was too big to just avoid and too hard to go through. This time he wasn't thrown away as he was the one to jump back. Training with Gohan did improve my taijutsu, but it's not enough.
"Impressive, he has improved a lot in taijutsu." Asuma pointed out, turning to his students in the search for their opinions. "Our training has shown great results, hasn't it?" He continued to smoke after speaking.
"Yeah, but I didn't manage to lose weight." Chouji added before continuing to eat his chips.
Gohan cringed at this. "Well, Shikamaru did improve a lot, I think he can win this without much trouble!"
He put his kunai back in his pocket. His sight was firmly put in the fan. "Alright, enough energy waste."
"Huh?" Temari raised one of her eyebrows as her fan opened once again, revealing a purple circle in it. What are you planning?
Before, Shikamaru had spotted several trees next to the giant walls of the arena, which gave him an idea. He grabbed and threw several kunai and shuriken, as much as he could, and continued his attack with a smoke bomb. This bought him enough time to reach the trees and use the shadows created by the trees on his favor. Seeing that the smoke was still there, he took the chance and attempted to get his opponent caught once and for all. He swiftly gestured several hand signs before raising his voice. "Shadow Imitation Technique!"
The shadows moved out of the spot Shikamaru was in, quickly advancing into the smoke. He'd made a risky move here, not having much more than to guess where his opponent would be, but he needed to win before his chakra ran out. Just as the shadow got to advance a bit into the smoke, it was blown away by a gust of wind created by the kunoichi's fan. Temari spotted the shadow in no time, jumping back quickly in an attempt to avoid the shadow. The genin of the ponytail observed in frustration as his shadow failed to reach the blonde girl in time.
"That was close." She murmured while marking a line in the floor with her fan, it was the limit distance the shadow could reach.
"Ugh." Shikamaru was annoyed that he'd failed, but he still had to win, so he'd think of something else. "Now this is inconvenient."
"So he copied what that girl had done before..." Asuma pointed out, remembering Shiho and her strategy based on the use of smoke bombs.
Shikamaru slowly took a smoke bomb out, throwing it in front of himself before the kunoichi was able to blow it away. He needed to move quickly, and he did so just as the kunoichi waved his fan. The smoke was once again blown away. Temari found the spot empty, wondering where the genin of the ponytail had gone and not being able to find him anywhere. She revealed a second purple circle on her fan as she opened it, still looking everywhere for her opponent. She finally spotted some movement with her peripheral vision, but only finding his grey jacket tied to a kunai slowly falling down.
"Oh!" She exclaimed after figuring out what he was planning.
The genin of the ponytail jumped out of one of the trees, his hands in the position he'd previously been in when he tried to catch her. He landed next to the spot he'd previously been in, then expanding his shadow towards the kunoichi. Temari was too fast, though, once again managing to avoid the shadow, or so she thought. She suddenly felt the inability to move, panicking instantly as she saw that the shadow had caught her from behind.
"Gotcha." Shikamaru grinned confidently.
Temari's eyes widened in shock. "But how...?"
"The hole Naruto dug in his match against Neji, you stood right next to it and I did reach the other end of it." He explained, his body remaining still in the same position.
"Damn it, damn it." Temari murmured as she spotted the hole. "How could I forget that..." She desperately thought of what to do as her opponent raised one of his hands, her body imitating said movement as a result of the jutsu she'd fallen victim of.
"I surrender." He said, the kunoichi's eyes going from desperation to shock.
"WHAAAAAAAAAAT?" Gohan yelled, standing up from his seat. "And he got mad at me for surrendering..." The half-blood saiyan was annoyed by this, but he would settle it with his teammate later.
"He probably ran out of chakra, you didn't even try." Chouji explained calmly.
"I ran out of chakra." Shikamaru explained to the kunoichi. "It just had no sense to keep on trying even though I thought of a thousand ways of winning."
Hayate could do no more than to cringe at the situation, but at least he could be grateful that the fight wasn't as slow as the entrance. "As Shikamaru Nara has surrendered, Temari of the Sand is the winner of the match."
As both genin left the arena, the Hokage stood up once again, taking the scroll up for him to read it. "We are getting closer to finishing the first round of matches! And we shall continue with the match of Rock Lee and Gaara of the Sand."
"Finally! It's my turn!" Lee exclaimed, his excitement being obvious.
Gaara remained silent and just limited himself to go down to the arena. After a couple of minutes, the two of them were already standing in front of each other. The referee was ready to give the signal, but Lee said something before he could do so.
"Good luck, may the best win." He bowed in a sign of respect. He saw no response and decided to take his fighting stance, standing straight and taking one of his open hands in front of his body while the other remained hidden behind his back.
"There's no way he is a genin." Gohan said, earning everyone's attention. "Remember what he did to the guy of the special eyes? There's no way a genin can beat another one in that way..."
"What are you implying?" Asuma raised one of his eyebrows as he let some smoke come out of his mouth.
"Don't worry, there is no way the Hokage let someone who isn't a genin compete in the exams." Kurenai, who was sitting along her student, Hinata, in front of the seats Asuma and his students had.
Just some seats further, Genma and two of his students were sitting. The jounin watched with a serious expression as the redhead stood in the arena.
"I hope Lee doesn't go through the same you did..." Yakumo said, concern being clear in her voice.
Nobuyuki, who had been forced into a wheelchair by the thrash he received from the redhead, had lost any trait of the happiness he'd shown before. His previous smile now turned into no more than a serious face, some could even say there were hints of anger in his eyes.
"Go!" Hayate said as he gave the signal.
Gaara stared coldly at Lee. He felt no more than disgust at the simple view of his opponent. He couldn't look more ridiculous, the bowl hairstyle, the green jumpsuit. He was sure he would win, brutally, so it really wasn't important. Bloodlust was all he had, not minding any confidence his opponent showed.
The redhead made the first move of the match, blocking the hole that had been dug by Naruto just a couple of matches before. He wanted to avoid dealing with it later. And so he proceeded with his defense, seeing his opponent already running towards him. A flying kick was aimed at his head, but he blocked it effortlessly with a wall of sand. Several others were attempted from every possible direction, the speed ever greater, but he didn't even need to turn at the genin of the green jumpsuit to block them with his sand.
Lee just got more excited at the apparent superiority of his opponent. He wanted to impress Guy, so he would do his best. He dashed towards his opponent, his fist rising as he got closer. Another small wall of sand appeared, big enough to block the punch. The genin of the green jumpsuit obviously noticed this, and lowered his arm at the last second, sliding under the sand that attempted to block his attack. A wave of sand suddenly appeared in front of him, but he jumped over it, raising his fist once again, aiming at the redhead's abdomen.
Once again, he ordered his sand to appear in front of him, but the annoying black haired genin evaded the sand, again. He got tired, so this time, as his opponent tried to run behind him, he threw his sand to him. The attack landed successfully in his ribs, pushing the genin of the green jumpsuit back. Lee was quick though, quick enough to jump back and get away from the sand when it tried to get all over him. Gaara remained still, looking at the same direction as the start of the match.
"Maybe Tenten was right when she told me to use the kunai for this match." Lee murmured, taking a couple of kunai from his pocket. "You really are a formidable rival to fight against, your defense truly seems to be perfect." His voice now directed at the redhead.
The kunai were thrown, but neither of them were even close to hitting the apparent objective. But before Tenten was even able to cringe, Lee ran at such a high speed that he jumped and reached the kunai before it went past Gaara. He kicked one towards the redhead, using it as an impulse to reach the second one. As the sand blocked and break the first one, the second one was already close to the redhead's back. Anyways, more sand came out of the pumpkin Gaara was carrying in his back. The black haired genin landed next to some bushes near the spot Shikamaru had used just some minutes prior.
This speed is incredible... Gohan observed from his seat as Lee showed to be faster than any shinobi he'd seen fight before, surpassing the speed he'd expect one of them to have. So maybe they can reach greater strength...
Guy, sitting further away from Asuma and Kurenai, was barely resisting the tears of pride he wanted to release from his eyes. Next to him, Tenten observed how much that weak kid she met more than a year ago had progressed into even possibly surpassing Neji. Both were truly proud of what he had achieved with no more than hard work and determination.
"Alright," Lee said as he bent down to reach his legs, "I know Guy-sensei told me not to do it, but I think I'll need to get this off." He took his orange leg warmers off, revealing some weights attached to his legs. This called the half-blood saiyan's attention, remembering the training his father and Piccolo used to do. Not only his surprise was great, though, but everyone was shocked when he took the weights off and threw them to the floor, creating a little crater. "Now I'll be faster."
That was the last thing Gaara could hear as he noticed a blue sandal approach his left cheek, his sand being barely able to block it. Next was his right arm, still being barely able to block the attack. It started to get annoying for the redhead as an overwhelming amount of attacks were quickly carried out against him. The sand walls started to get smaller as it barely had time to gather enough to be able to block the attacks. The situation was unsustainable, and he realized that when finally a punch was able to break through the sand, it requiring another layer of sand to stop it from reaching the redhead's face.
Lee's excitement did no more than increase when he noticed his progress towards hitting his opponent. He finally reached the limit of his speed, attempting constant kicks and punches against the redhead. After breaking through another sand wall, he noticed the possibility of an opening. He turned to kick Gaara with his heel, being blocked just as he expected. The redhead noticed what his opponent had done, attempting to gather as much sand as possible in front of his face, his pumpkin finally running out of sand as he was currently using every single bit of it. The genin of the green jumpsuit had used the sand wall as a platform to jump on, rolling while still in air to aim his kick right at the face.
He found a thick wall of sand where he'd aimed to kick, concentrating all of his strength in his leg. He was determined to go through. The redhead was sure he was safe. He'd been surprised by the capacity of his opponent, but he was still superior. His eyes widened, though, because the kick managed to leave a hole in the thick wall he thought would protect him with no problem. And as if it wasn't enough already, Lee took advantage of Gaara's shock to land a powerful hit in his nape. He had jumped behind the redhead without him even noticing. Gaara was forced into his knees by the powerful hit. His body wasn't accustomed to actually being hit.
"This guy is a monster..." Nobuyuki said in utter shock as someone was actually able to hit the redhead. "And he was still able to actually hit him."
Yakumo turned to look at both his master and teammate, finding their shocked faces. "So he truly is amazing..." She murmured.
"Well, he was hit in the end, I guess he is a genin, after all." Chouji told his teammate, referring to the redhead.
"His speed is... incredible." Gohan was completely shocked.
"Seems like Guy has done a great job with his students." Asuma said, smoking afterwards.
Lee took some distance before turning to look at his opponent. He wasn't able to see his face as the redhead had lowered it, but he was able to see his nape, the place he'd landed his kick on. There was no blood, it only appeared to be a cracked glass, but it was actually sand. Bits of sand fell from the cracks of the sand cocoon.
"Y-y-yo-you touched me..." Gaara said, his voice was obscure and trembled considerably. "H-how d-did you touch ME?" His voice started to show his anger, which was growing by the second. "I WILL KILL YOU FOR DOING THAT!" The redhead finished with an angry scream, standing up and walking towards his opponent.
Lee remained as excited as he'd been throughout the fight, but he was starting to notice a little bit of fatigue as his adrenaline levels started to go down. Rather than waiting for the attacks to come at him, he dashed at his opponent, wanting to maintain the dominance of the battle. As Lee jumped, what seemed to be an arm made of sand grabbed his right leg and threw him the way he'd come from. He stood up and glanced at his opponent, who was getting slowly closer at him. He loosened the bandages he wore on his forearm and dashed onto his opponent once again. This time he took a turn before facing a giant stream of sand that attempted to hit him. He surrounded the redhead at great speed before suddenly jumping and running directly towards the sand stream that was thrown against him.
Gaara's eyes widened once again as his opponent evaded the sand stream, reaching him in no time. He yelled angrily once again as the genin of the green jumpsuit wrapped him with his bandages. Lee quickly grabbed him by said bandages and jumped up as high as he could. When they stopped ascending, he turned their heads towards the floor, starting a really fast nosedive.
"Front Lotus!" Lee yelled as they started spinning towards the floor. He let the redhead go at the last second before falling, although he had enough time to land on his feet.
A great crater was formed as the redhead finally hit the floor, even creating a cloud of dust. Lee stood on his knees after landing, breathing heavily as fatigue finally started to get him. Once the dust cloud disappeared, the body of Gaara could finally be seen, although it seemed to be no more than an empty sand cocoon. Lee was the first to notice. Gaara appeared from beneath the floor, sand pushing him up. A powerful sand stream caught Lee and threw him all the way to clash against one of the trees close to the walls of the arena. The redhead was taken there by his sand, while the stream continued pounding Lee, who tried to evade the attacks, but failed at times.
Lee received one last hit before finally taking distance from the redhead. He breathed heavily once he found a safer distance. Then, he got ready to attack with everything he had.
"Forgive me, Guy-sensei, but I have to do this!" Lee said as he crossed his arms in front of his face, bending his knees slightly. "I have to win!" A blue aura started to appear all around him. Veins showed up on his forehead while his face turned red and his eyes white. Finally, the aura exploded into a greater one, revealing his now fully red face. "Gate of Pain, opened!" He finally yelled while his aura stabilized.
"K-kaio-ken?" Gohan's eyes widened. "His energy multiplied itself... This can't be..."
"I believe that's the Eight Gates technique." Asuma explained. "It gives you great physical strength but really sucks the energy from you, it even gets to the point in which it can kill you."
So it is like the kaio-ken... Gohan thought, his hands now holding his chin.
Lee was quick to rush towards his opponent. A thick sand wall tried to stop him, but he ran through it without much trouble. Then, a sand stream tried to push him back, but he punched through it. As his opponent's fist was just a few millimeters away, Gaara could swear he felt fear. The redhead was thrown away several meters, but Lee was already waiting for him as he was about to hit the floor. He was kicked up into the sky, only being able to see the silhouette of his opponent before being double kicked down to the floor. Another crater formed, there were three already in the arena. Lee fell down to the floor on his feet, but once he did, his technique wore off.
"NOOO!" Gaara erupted from the floor, the now deformed and unstable shapes his sand adopted working as an indicator of just how angry he was. "HOW DARE YOU MAKE ME BLEED?"
Lee grinned as he saw blood coming down from the redhead's forehead. He was satisfied that he'd been able to hit his opponent. A sand stream tackled him, it was powerful enough to make him land on the walls of the arena. The scenery was familiar to both everyone who had seen the preliminary matches. The sand that had previously been used as a wall turned into another sand stream, joining the constant attacks against the black haired genin.
"Someone do something!" Nobuyuki started to panic. "He's going to kill him!"
"Alright, it's enough." Gohan said as he stood up from his seat. "I won't let anyone die here."
"Gohan, wait!" Asuma tried to stop his student, but in the blink of an eye, the half-blood saiyan was already down there.
With astonishing speed, Gohan landed with his fist in Gaara's face. The redhead's body impacted against an opposing wall, remaining nailed in it just as Nobuyuki resulted after his own battle against him. Gaara fell unconscious almost instantly, so he was unable to feel the impact in the moment. Meanwhile, an injured and totally tired Lee fell down from the wall after the sand also fell down. The half-blood saiyan grabbed him before he touched the floor and then gently put him down. He beckoned the medical ninja to come as he went to also get the genin he had just punched into unconsciousness.
"H-how...?" Lee struggled to even talk.
"W-what did just happen?" Chouji asked. He was as shocked as everyone else was.
"I-I don't know..." Asuma answered as a drop of sweat went down from his forehead.
All the way up to the balcony of the Kages, the Third's interest in Gohan sparked once again. He turned to look at Yuichi, telling him something only with his glance. Yuichi knew what the old man was planning, but he wasn't really for it. They didn't have much time to discuss the matter, though, as the Kazekage suddenly got a kunai out. He grabbed Hiruzen from the neck, menacing Yuichi with killing him.
It's now or never. The Kazekage beckoned something to the shinobi that was guarding him. His guard then gestured several hand signs before a type of red light was thrown from his hands.
"This is an invasion!" Yuichi realized that the red light was a signal, instantly taking out his special kunai, one with three spikes instead of one.
So that was the chapter! I believe this is actually the longest one of all until now, whoops. I just thought that cutting Gaara vs. Lee at the middle would be a bit disappointing, so yep, I decided to go through it up until the end!
Anyways, what did you think about it? Did you like it? Any feedback you want to give me in the reviews? Feel free to do so! I'm a starter at writing and I really appreciate constructive criticism as it helps me improve!
Alright, with nothing more to say (I hope I'm not forgetting anything hehe), see you soon with the invasion of Konoha!