Anime-Titan proudly presents:
The Perfect Lotus
Chapter 2 - …and so everything changed.
Pain, overwhelming pain assaulted Lee's every sense. From Lee's point of view whatever the scroll was trying to, it was destroying his body, his mind and even his very soul. He could scarcely tell that his body was being held up outstretched in midair by the scroll, as if he were on a torture rack. All his senses were being besieged. Lee had images, sounds, smells, even tastes and touch being fed into him at such a high rate and at such high volume that it was beginning to drive him insane. Lee couldn't fight back, he just wanted it all to stop, before he got washed away in a torrent of sensory information.
Gai, Neji and Tenten finally arrived in the glowing dome room, and what they saw made their jaws drop and their blood run cold. On the floor laid a pile of black ash surrounded by the arm guards and forehead protector of the Sound ninja that Lee had pursued. At the center of the room was a glowing white hot ball of radiance, inside of which Lee was suspended, eagled over a large glowing scroll on a pedestal. The scroll itself was hovering slightly, inside the same sun-like orb of energy that held Lee. Tenten and the others called out to Lee but their voices were completely drowned out by the screaming energies that filled the room, and they couldn't advance because the intense heat and light were too much to tolerate even by the entrance several meters away. All they could do is watch Lee's torment and hope he would come out of it alive.
Lee struggled to hold on to his sanity. Every sense he had was being overloaded and he didn't know how much longer he could last. He tried to think of a course of action that might put an end to this nightmare. Lee decided if he couldn't force the images and sounds away, then maybe trying to make sense of them would end it quicker. The sounds were too garbled and the smells, tastes and touches seemed too unfamiliar, so Lee concentrated on the images. He could see many things but none of them were in focus and they were moving so fast that it was an enormous strain just to watch them, but the more he concentrated the more the sensory information deciphered and little by little the pain faded.
Neji could scarcely approach the small sun in the center of the odd room, but thanks to his Byakugan he could see more then the others could. The room was flooded with chakra, as if every bit of stone on the wall and every molecule of air were generating colossal amounts of the spirit energy. All that power was surging into the scroll like matter surges towards a black hole, and the scroll itself was somehow altering the energy and feeding it though billions of threads into Lee. Neji could see the energy tendrils inside every part of Lee's inner coils system, the pathways overflowed with power and seemed to be close to the breaching point. Neji couldn't envision what Lee was going though at that moment, the strain on one's body and mind would have been much too violent and vicious for any normal man, perhaps even a kage.
Lee could feel himself continue to slip. Even if he concentrated on the imagery and sensations as much as he possibly could he was still being overwhelmed. He had lost any sense of the outside world, or even how long he'd been going though this. It felt like this torture was lasting an eternity. No, this wasn't torture, it was something else, and something Lee couldn't yet comprehend. Whoever or whatever was responsible for this didn't have the intention of doing him harm, somehow he knew this. All Lee could do is try, after all, that's what he's known for, and that's why he was known as the genius of hard work. Lee refocused all his faculties once again on the images, sounds and other sensations being force-fed to him, try to decrypt the message or meaning behind this all before it was too late.
Gai and the others were getting desperate. Neji relayed what he was seeing through his Byakugan and it only made Gai and Tenten feel even more lost. They had no idea where all this chakra was coming from and no way of stopping any of it. The light and heat were so terribly intense that none of them save for Neji could even see Lee at all, let alone get close enough to pull him out.
"None of us are fast enough to get in and free Lee before we were incinerated, assuming we could even penetrate that barrier at all," Said Gai, brainstorming out loud. "So what we need is a way to stop all this chakra from feeding the scroll. Tenten, perhaps you could…what are you doing?"
Tenten was kneeling down in a meditative stance with a kunai held outwards tightly to her chest and her eyes closed. "None of us can help Lee right now, so all we can do is pray for him, give him our strength." It took a lot of willpower for Tenten to keep herself from crying. She wanted so badly to help Lee in any way she could but she knew that it was impossible. Gai and Neji looked at each other, both with a sense of hopelessness in their eyes. They too knelt alongside Tenten and prayed for Lee, trying to convey what strength they could to him. They knew Lee was strong, and they knew that he would never give up even after his last breath, he'd shown that on every occasion, however that didn't negate the fact that Lee had never been in as much trouble as he was now, not since his first fight with Gaara of the Desert, and there was nothing they could do to help their precious comrade.
Lee was getting weak. He could fell the endless violent flow of energies eat away at his reserves of strength. Lee wasn't fighting it back anymore but it was still so much for him to bear. The pain wasn't the issue anymore, for that had mostly disappeared, probably because he'd slipped into a coma-like paralysis, but the ceaseless feed of information and raw power was still tearing his mind, body and soul apart, and no matter how much he concentrated on it he couldn't make heads or tails of anything, nor could he slow it down so his mind would have a chance for examination. Was this his end? Was Lee going to be done in by some ancient power for no comprehensible reason? There were still so many things he wanted to do and achieve, so many things he wanted to say. There were still people he wanted to protect, precious people who meant worlds to him. He wanted to do more then shield them though. He wanted to tell all his precious people how truly dear they were to him, he wanted to pour his heart out to every single one of them. Shikamaru, Chouji, Ino, Hinata, Shino, Kiba, Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke, Kakashi, Tsunade, Gai, Neji, Tenten…His mind stopped for a second when he thought of Tenten. He had always felt something more towards her, yet he was never sure if it was just comradeship or something else. Lee wished he could explore life more, he was still young and had a very promising future ahead of him.
Lee's life was slipping away, he could no longer concentrate on the sensations, and he could no longer keep himself afloat on this raging ocean of power. He could feel himself submerge. He'd given it his all, there was nothing to not be proud of when it came to his effort, however it wasn't enough in this case.
The vortex of energy that encapsulated Lee began to drain in towards him, as if the source of the mysterious and immeasurable power was finally drying up. The brilliance that kept the others at bay started to quake and become violent. It was as if they were witnessing the small star going supernova. The ball of fury roared and pulsed, blasting off waves of its energy. When the commotion began Tenten and the others rose to their feet, Neji could no longer view the inside of the storm that held Lee in its clutches, even his Byakugan was blinded by the power and light given off by the forces at work. Suddenly it became clear that the micro-star was going to explode, perhaps taking the entire instillation with it. Gai and the others turned to run but it was too late, the ball detonated, sending them into the wall, stunned and moderately singed.
Gai, Neji and Tenten, woke up to find the walls charred, wisps of smoke trailing from little fires ignited when the ball which once contained Lee and the relic scroll exploded. Now the scroll once again rested on its pedestal while glowing and humming softly, as if echoing the energies that once surged through it. Lee lay on the floor, just in front of the pedestal. Lee's clothes, like everything else, were burned and in tatters. Lee had many cuts and holes all over his body. Blood slowly ran from his mouth, nose, ears and eyes. Tenten was the first to begin running over to Lee, calling out to him with tears flying from her eyes. Gai and Neji snapped out of their stunned state and started running over to Lee when they saw his body begin to move.
Lee felt as if his life was literally hanging on by a thread. It astonished him that he wasn't dead. He commanded his body to get up but he didn't have the strength. All he could do is open his eyes to see Tenten, Gai and Neji running towards him as fast as they could. Gai and Tenten had odd faces on, as if they were worried and relieved at the same time, even Neji showed some emotion. Lee smiled on the inside.
"Thank goodness," Lee thought to himself, "now I'll get another chance to do what I needed to do. Now I'll get the chance to keep protecting those precious to me, and tell those people how precious to me they really are."
…and then, darkness.
The Perfect Lotus
Chapter 2 - …and so everything changed.
Pain, overwhelming pain assaulted Lee's every sense. From Lee's point of view whatever the scroll was trying to, it was destroying his body, his mind and even his very soul. He could scarcely tell that his body was being held up outstretched in midair by the scroll, as if he were on a torture rack. All his senses were being besieged. Lee had images, sounds, smells, even tastes and touch being fed into him at such a high rate and at such high volume that it was beginning to drive him insane. Lee couldn't fight back, he just wanted it all to stop, before he got washed away in a torrent of sensory information.
Gai, Neji and Tenten finally arrived in the glowing dome room, and what they saw made their jaws drop and their blood run cold. On the floor laid a pile of black ash surrounded by the arm guards and forehead protector of the Sound ninja that Lee had pursued. At the center of the room was a glowing white hot ball of radiance, inside of which Lee was suspended, eagled over a large glowing scroll on a pedestal. The scroll itself was hovering slightly, inside the same sun-like orb of energy that held Lee. Tenten and the others called out to Lee but their voices were completely drowned out by the screaming energies that filled the room, and they couldn't advance because the intense heat and light were too much to tolerate even by the entrance several meters away. All they could do is watch Lee's torment and hope he would come out of it alive.
Lee struggled to hold on to his sanity. Every sense he had was being overloaded and he didn't know how much longer he could last. He tried to think of a course of action that might put an end to this nightmare. Lee decided if he couldn't force the images and sounds away, then maybe trying to make sense of them would end it quicker. The sounds were too garbled and the smells, tastes and touches seemed too unfamiliar, so Lee concentrated on the images. He could see many things but none of them were in focus and they were moving so fast that it was an enormous strain just to watch them, but the more he concentrated the more the sensory information deciphered and little by little the pain faded.
Neji could scarcely approach the small sun in the center of the odd room, but thanks to his Byakugan he could see more then the others could. The room was flooded with chakra, as if every bit of stone on the wall and every molecule of air were generating colossal amounts of the spirit energy. All that power was surging into the scroll like matter surges towards a black hole, and the scroll itself was somehow altering the energy and feeding it though billions of threads into Lee. Neji could see the energy tendrils inside every part of Lee's inner coils system, the pathways overflowed with power and seemed to be close to the breaching point. Neji couldn't envision what Lee was going though at that moment, the strain on one's body and mind would have been much too violent and vicious for any normal man, perhaps even a kage.
Lee could feel himself continue to slip. Even if he concentrated on the imagery and sensations as much as he possibly could he was still being overwhelmed. He had lost any sense of the outside world, or even how long he'd been going though this. It felt like this torture was lasting an eternity. No, this wasn't torture, it was something else, and something Lee couldn't yet comprehend. Whoever or whatever was responsible for this didn't have the intention of doing him harm, somehow he knew this. All Lee could do is try, after all, that's what he's known for, and that's why he was known as the genius of hard work. Lee refocused all his faculties once again on the images, sounds and other sensations being force-fed to him, try to decrypt the message or meaning behind this all before it was too late.
Gai and the others were getting desperate. Neji relayed what he was seeing through his Byakugan and it only made Gai and Tenten feel even more lost. They had no idea where all this chakra was coming from and no way of stopping any of it. The light and heat were so terribly intense that none of them save for Neji could even see Lee at all, let alone get close enough to pull him out.
"None of us are fast enough to get in and free Lee before we were incinerated, assuming we could even penetrate that barrier at all," Said Gai, brainstorming out loud. "So what we need is a way to stop all this chakra from feeding the scroll. Tenten, perhaps you could…what are you doing?"
Tenten was kneeling down in a meditative stance with a kunai held outwards tightly to her chest and her eyes closed. "None of us can help Lee right now, so all we can do is pray for him, give him our strength." It took a lot of willpower for Tenten to keep herself from crying. She wanted so badly to help Lee in any way she could but she knew that it was impossible. Gai and Neji looked at each other, both with a sense of hopelessness in their eyes. They too knelt alongside Tenten and prayed for Lee, trying to convey what strength they could to him. They knew Lee was strong, and they knew that he would never give up even after his last breath, he'd shown that on every occasion, however that didn't negate the fact that Lee had never been in as much trouble as he was now, not since his first fight with Gaara of the Desert, and there was nothing they could do to help their precious comrade.
Lee was getting weak. He could fell the endless violent flow of energies eat away at his reserves of strength. Lee wasn't fighting it back anymore but it was still so much for him to bear. The pain wasn't the issue anymore, for that had mostly disappeared, probably because he'd slipped into a coma-like paralysis, but the ceaseless feed of information and raw power was still tearing his mind, body and soul apart, and no matter how much he concentrated on it he couldn't make heads or tails of anything, nor could he slow it down so his mind would have a chance for examination. Was this his end? Was Lee going to be done in by some ancient power for no comprehensible reason? There were still so many things he wanted to do and achieve, so many things he wanted to say. There were still people he wanted to protect, precious people who meant worlds to him. He wanted to do more then shield them though. He wanted to tell all his precious people how truly dear they were to him, he wanted to pour his heart out to every single one of them. Shikamaru, Chouji, Ino, Hinata, Shino, Kiba, Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke, Kakashi, Tsunade, Gai, Neji, Tenten…His mind stopped for a second when he thought of Tenten. He had always felt something more towards her, yet he was never sure if it was just comradeship or something else. Lee wished he could explore life more, he was still young and had a very promising future ahead of him.
Lee's life was slipping away, he could no longer concentrate on the sensations, and he could no longer keep himself afloat on this raging ocean of power. He could feel himself submerge. He'd given it his all, there was nothing to not be proud of when it came to his effort, however it wasn't enough in this case.
The vortex of energy that encapsulated Lee began to drain in towards him, as if the source of the mysterious and immeasurable power was finally drying up. The brilliance that kept the others at bay started to quake and become violent. It was as if they were witnessing the small star going supernova. The ball of fury roared and pulsed, blasting off waves of its energy. When the commotion began Tenten and the others rose to their feet, Neji could no longer view the inside of the storm that held Lee in its clutches, even his Byakugan was blinded by the power and light given off by the forces at work. Suddenly it became clear that the micro-star was going to explode, perhaps taking the entire instillation with it. Gai and the others turned to run but it was too late, the ball detonated, sending them into the wall, stunned and moderately singed.
Gai, Neji and Tenten, woke up to find the walls charred, wisps of smoke trailing from little fires ignited when the ball which once contained Lee and the relic scroll exploded. Now the scroll once again rested on its pedestal while glowing and humming softly, as if echoing the energies that once surged through it. Lee lay on the floor, just in front of the pedestal. Lee's clothes, like everything else, were burned and in tatters. Lee had many cuts and holes all over his body. Blood slowly ran from his mouth, nose, ears and eyes. Tenten was the first to begin running over to Lee, calling out to him with tears flying from her eyes. Gai and Neji snapped out of their stunned state and started running over to Lee when they saw his body begin to move.
Lee felt as if his life was literally hanging on by a thread. It astonished him that he wasn't dead. He commanded his body to get up but he didn't have the strength. All he could do is open his eyes to see Tenten, Gai and Neji running towards him as fast as they could. Gai and Tenten had odd faces on, as if they were worried and relieved at the same time, even Neji showed some emotion. Lee smiled on the inside.
"Thank goodness," Lee thought to himself, "now I'll get another chance to do what I needed to do. Now I'll get the chance to keep protecting those precious to me, and tell those people how precious to me they really are."
…and then, darkness.