Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and I probably never will.
Author's Notes: I've been pretty busy so I wasn't able to shell out a few chapters. Hopefully, this chapter will satisfy what little following I have garnered so far.
Enjoy.
The mayor's burial was surprisingly plain, but many of the city folks have come out to grieve over his ground along with majority of the city officials. Many have made speeches and even Old Man Shinichi took the stand to deliver a eulogy for his dear old friend. Kakashi stood near Rock Lee while they listened to the old man reminisce about his past. The Jounin had other things he needed to attend to, but decided to stay another day or so to provide emotional support to the young ninja.
"Death is a part of life. It's an overused expression, but nonetheless, it's true," he stated, while watching the Old Man make a fool out of himself, totally disregarding all tact.
"I know," answered Rock Lee as he looked at his sandals.
"But some people die from natural causes. I think the mayor deserved the same fate," the young ninja added. Kakashi lifted his right hand and placed it on the azure beast's left shoulder. He gave it a soft squeeze as a gesture of support and comfort.
"Maybe…it was his fate to die in their hands."
The white haired ninja spoke calmly, but audible enough that his voice wasn't drowned away by the sobbing of a group of city people.
"It was a death with no regret. He did everything he can to protect the city and this is their show of gratitude."
Rock Lee understood the words of his superior, but his heart wouldn't allow him the leisure, believing that maybe there was a possibility that the mayor could've been saved.
Sensing that the boy's grief wasn't going to disappear any time soon, Kakashi stooped to the boy's level to let him in on a secret that he stumbled upon. The boy listened to the man whispering into his ear briefly before he shouted at the top of his lungs.
"Are you serious, Kakashi-sensei?" the boy yelled loud enough for the others to glance back at him.
"Not so loud, Lee," Kakashi tried desperately to calm him down, but found it to be futile. The thick browed boy was already on his way, shuffling through the crowd and heading towards the podium standing at the tiny stage set near the mayor's grave. Old Man Shinichi watched the boy approach the stage and was quite annoyed by the way he was disrupting his speech.
"Just what the hell do you think you're doing boy!" the brittle man screamed into the microphone. Rock Lee climbed up on the stage, huffing and puffing, and pointed a finger towards the old man.
"Shinichi of the 1000 Jutsus!" he yelled.
"I challenge you to a fight!"
Everybody gasped at the sudden announcement of the boy. The old man simply slapped his own forehead in disgust.
"What? Like, right now?"
Chapter 6: The Challenge
Everyone kept quiet as the two opposing fighters continued to glare at each other in the middle of the clear town. The Old man was in the process of performing some kinesthetic to warm up his body while Rock Lee unwrapped and tightened the bandages around his arms. Kakashi was in a hurry, but he was dying to watch the match of two generations unfold before him.
The Old Man performed some jumping jacks and cracked his neck, causing the crowd to shudder from the creepy noise equivalent to that of a creaky door.
"I was hoping to hide my true identity, but word gets around, don't it?" he yelled while staring directly at the white haired Jounin responsible for uncovering the truth. Kakashi quickly looked away and began to hum a familiar tune while pretending to read his favorite book.
"Well, I was bound to find out since you promised me to tell me where the Man of 1000 Jutsus resided after this task, am I right?" the young boy spat out while stretching his legs.
"Heh, I was gonna keep it a secret anyways! It's for your own good you know? I did use to be a notorious Anbu leader," Shinichi countered. Rock Lee gritted his teeth upon hearing that remark.
"You were an Anbu leader. But that was ages ago. You probably rusted over already and can't even grasp the full potential of your chakra," Rock Lee stated, smirking afterwards when he caught a glimpse of the old man wincing at his words.
"This coming from a kid who can't even use simple ninjutsus…" the Old Man muttered, finally revealing his valuable hand. This elicited a nice response from Rock Lee.
"You take that back!" he fumed as he pointed his finger defiantly towards his opponent, no longer feeling the need to make a witty remark. The Old Man began to laugh profusely at the boy.
"So it does hurt, don't it?" the older man shouted while pouting his lips as if to feign sympathy.
"Shut up!" the young ninja ordered as he found himself not being able to enforce it in any other way. The Old Man held his sides and continued to laugh himself silly, which only frustrated Lee even further. So the boy stomped the ground and held one arm behind his back. He waved the other hand in front of him in his default battle stance, tempting the old man to come and greet him. This caught Shinichi's attention and his eyes became serious.
"Enough talks, old man. This was my sole intention of having come here in the first place," he began.
"Don't disappoint me."
Shinichi flexed his arms and grinned at the boy's words.
"I'm not gonna go easy on you, kid," the man cautioned. This time, Lee grinned back.
"I don't expect you to…" he said.
A traveler in old raggedy clothes, who seemed to be in poor health, came to a halt when he spotted the city by the port. He gleamed and kissed the ground, thanking the God for his good fortune. He took off his large straw hat and gazed at the magnificent gate when all of a sudden, he heard strange noises emitting from within the city. Puzzled, he walked in and saw the city people lined across the building, while clearing away from the main passage ways. Then in the middle of the streets, he saw two lightning fast individuals who seemed to be involved in a serious combat.
"An old man…and a boy?" the man whispered. Having known for his keen eye sight, he was able to spot the two combatants easily, but he felt doubtful of his vision at the time. He couldn't possibly believe that there was a fight going on between a senior member of society and a young kid. Not only that, but they both fought at a professional level.
"What the hell is going on here?" he wondered out loud. Then without another word, he tried to mangle into the crowd to get a better view of the fight and perhaps, ask someone of the origin of this spectacular event.
Rock Lee landed on his feet and caught the old man's oncoming fist with his own. They both stepped away from each other and performed a spinning back kick each, which slightly grazed against their thighs. Shinichi brought back his feet and kicked back with the other one, hoping to catch the young ninja's face, but Lee dodged underneath and pulled his leg against him. Then he grabbed on to his shirt and threw him towards a shopping district, but he was one step ahead of him. On impact, the old man's body turned into that of a large tree stump and damaged a fruit cart.
"Damn it, enough of that already!" Lee shouted while his eyes darted around the perimeter to see from where Shinichi might approach. On the roof top of a hotel, the old man performed the proper hand seals for his long range attack. The azure beast barely dodged the stream of mud erupting from the senior ninja's mouth. Then the old man began to spit out small amounts of mud periodically to try and hit the ninja who was now moving at a faster rate.
"You're not going to get me with that," Rock Lee stated confidently as he leaped into the air.
"Oh? Then how about this one?" Shinichi crouched and slammed the roof with his palms, turning the surface into that of a mud like state. With the mud he created, he began to sculpt giant soldiers at lightning fast speed. Like that, he built four Mud Golems to do his bidding before the young ninja landed on the same roof top.
"When I was younger, I was able to make 8 of these, but age does take its toll, don't it?" the Old Man commented as he stepped back to admire his creations. Lee stared into the empty faces of these giant mud soldiers and was unable to contain his excitement.
"Ohhh! Neat trick!" he complimented. "Let's see how they do in a real fight!"
The Old Man chuckled and sat cross legged on the roof. Then he began to perform hand seals after hand seals to command his soldiers. Soon, the golems began to move slowly, but their speed steadily increased as they approached their target. Without hesitation, Lee dashed across the tiles and punctured the chest of one of the soldiers with his fist. Then he felt as if his fist was sinking deeper by the second. He tried to pull away, but found it to be useless. The surrounding mud had thickened around his arm and it pulled him even closer to the giant golem.
"Damn," grunted the Genin, lifting both of his feet and placing it across the soldier's chest to help himself pull away from the creature. As he placed effort into this, the three other soldiers surrounded him from all sides. One of them hammer fisted the young boy and he dangled in mid air, with his fist still stuck to the creature's abdomen. Angry, the boy began to peddle his way towards the other soldiers while dragging the one stuck to his fist. He eventually lifted it and carried it on his shoulder while he confronted the golems.
"Die, you bastards!" he hollered while swinging the Golem on his fist towards the other soldiers. He successfully hammered them away and used the same Golem to shield their counter attacks.
"Very resourceful, kid," the old man complimented. He ordered the Golem to let go of the boy's hand with a single hand seal.
"Then let's see how you fight off my Golems after I give them a few upgrade…"
As Shinichi continued to perform his ninjutsus, the creatures' bodies all began to harden into that of metal substances and took shapes of Buddhist statues. Then from the roof top arose four charcoal black swords, which each creature carried in their hands.
"Formation Tiger Junction!" the old man yelled. Confused, Rock Lee carefully observed the Golems spread out in two groups. Then they began to spin like tops while lashing out with their swords. Lee back flipped from his position and leaped over their attacks. He continued to run away from the impending decapitation and tried his best to contain his scream. He came over to the edge of the roof top and jumped over to the next building and turned back to give the old man the raspberry.
"Hah! They're too heavy to jump over, old man!" he yelled out in triumph. Then his smile quickly disappeared from his face when he watched the Golems jump over the ledge and onto the building he currently occupied.
"Formation Blood Rain!" the old man commanded. The Golems all began to jump up and down while crushing the roof with their swords. Lee side stepped from a fatal blow and held onto the closest Golem before he could jump again. Then using the momentum of the creature, he spun him around and sent him flying towards Shinichi on the other building.
But before he could reach him, one of the other Golem intercepted the air borne creature and brought it back down on the rooftop. Lee's face expressed frustration.
"Hey, Shinichi-san! Don't you think it's bad for the people if we kept demolishing their finally liberated city like this?" Lee asked with hopeful look in his eyes.
"Hah! This city needs to be rebuilt again anyways after the one two round it received from the Bloodhounds. So you stop worrying about that! I'm not calling off my creatures any time soon!" he answered.
'Well, how do I fight them now?' Lee wondered as he watched the metallic creatures approach him once again. He bent underneath the slash of the first creature and rolled away through his legs. Then Lee sprung up with his arms and back kicked the creature towards the oncoming second soldier. He sidestepped from the third Golem, coming from the opposite side and unleashed his spinning leaf kick to knock him down. Afterwards, he quickly caught the face of the fourth one sneaking behind him with a round house kick.
Lee back stepped away from the fallen creatures and rubbed his sore feet.
"Damn! My attacks connected well, but I'm also taking damage from having to attack their hard bodies…" he complained. He got up on his feet to observe his situation.
"So far, all I know is that they're being controlled by the Old Man's chakra," Lee thought out loud. He scratched his chin and tried to come up with ways to bring down the soldiers.
"Time to finish this! Formation Iron Giant!" the Old Man yelled, causing Lee to lose his train of thought. The Iron Golems all locked their arms together and began to meld into one giant embodiment of their smaller counterparts. It stood large and brought down the entire building once its shape was completed. Lee jumped onto the next closest building before he was caught in the demolition and gasped in horror.
"Th-That looks like…Shinichi!" he screamed. The iron giant was indeed a larger, metallic version of the person in charge of the creature. The creature looked back at the young ninja and struck a pose, before his hip let out and the creature pretended to moan in pain. The city folks all looked at the creature in utter awe, not paying any attention to the current status of their homes. The Iron Giant stood in triumph and let out a loud roar, similar to that of Godzilla.
"Y-you're kidding me!" Lee shouted.
"Nope, I'm not!"
Lee looked over and saw that the old man was now standing on the head of his own creation.
"Wha-what are you doing on top of that thing!" Lee asked, a bit baffled by the entire affair.
"Heh. A creature of this size requires me to control it from a closer distance. Also my Iron Giant acts as an amplifier of my power…" the old man replied.
"What do you mean?" Lee spat out.
"Oh, you'll see…Starting now."
The old man struck the tiger seal and began to spit out a stream of fire from his mouth. Then the metallic giant did the same and caused a huge wave of flame to fly towards Lee's direction.
"Oh shit," Lee whispered before jumping out of its way. But before he can jump onto another building, he was caught by the large hand of the iron giant. Lee struggled to escape from its grasp, but the creature squeezed him harder every time he tried. The azure beast screamed in pain as he could feel his rib cage being enclosed together.
"I told you I wasn't gonna go easy on you kid," the old man reminded him. Then he threw him up in the air and delivered a huge blow to the boy's body with the metallic fist. Lee was sent flying through several buildings, causing them to fall after another in a domino effect. The creature walked towards the debris and picked up the tiny body from the rummage of the buildings.
"Pathetic. You throw a challenge in my face and expected to get an easy win?"
The boy remained quiet as he was being held up by the giant's fingers.
"You were able to defeat my granddaughters, but it's 100 years too early for you to even try and challenge me kid," he continued to taunt the young boy.
"Face it, you're done."
The boy stirred in the giant's finger.
"Am I…really?" Lee asked himself. Then his face showed a sign of determination.
"I wasn't going to use it, but I see no other way. Prepare yourself, old man!" Lee shouted defiantly and with a glint of hope. This caused the Old Man to scrunch up his nose.
"So you still had a trick up your sleeves, kid?" he inquired. The boy merely smiled and pushed himself away from the creature's hold. As he began to free fall, he summoned all of his chakra and activated as many of the Heavenly Gates as he possibly can. The wave of chakra that he unleashed caused the atmosphere around him to grow thick and caused his body to ablaze with the large flickering shape of chakra flame. The veins on his face all grew thick and visible while all color drained out of it and turned red. The boy yelled out in pain of having to keep the concentrated chakra all in his body. The old man watched in surprise when he recognized the technique.
"Maybe 5? No…he opened 6 Heavenly Gates in his age…" Shinichi muttered.
"This is troublesome."
As soon as Lee landed on the ground, he propelled himself towards the creature's left foot and zoomed across the city passage like a rocket.
"All materials, including this creature, has a breaking point where the supply of chakra is insufficient compared to the other parts!" Lee yelled.
"And I'm going to find it!"
Rock Lee twirled around the creature's foundation and began to pummel every square inch of the metallic surface. He scaled the Iron Giant as he continued to deliver death blows across the creature's body, causing loud hollow noises to emanate rhythmically. The old man panicked and tried to act quick, but the pressure Lee presented caused him to fumble. Lee then drilled into the monster's body with his fist through the left side of its pelvis and watched it slowly crumble. He then entered the hole he created and began to demolish the creature from within.
"Shit!" the Old man yelled. Seeing as there was no hope to save his soldier, he let go of his chakra control over it and quickly escaped. As he began to descend on a nearby building, he felt his body being constricted. Then he noticed the large roll of bandage being wrapped around his body, leaving him in a bondage. Tied to the other end of the bandage was the boy in rampage, determined to bring down Shinichi.
"Final Lotus!" Lee yelled, grabbing hold of the Old Man's body. Then they both began to spin rapidly towards the ground. Shinichi's gritted his teeth as he prepared himself for the impact.
The traveler had been watching the battle unfold for sometime and had been bothered by the anonymity of the young fighter. Then he spotted another individual seeming to follow the fight very closely and decided to approach him.
"Um, excuse me, but…Might I ask who that boy is?" the dirty traveler asked the tranquil white haired ninja. Kakashi gave him a side glance then continued to watch the boy twirl in mid-air.
"A genius of hard work," he replied.
Not quite understanding his words, the traveler decided to watch the finale of this fantastic battle.
As the dust cleared away, Rock Lee found himself still standing on his feet. The color in his face became normal again, but he was extremely exhausted from having used nearly all of his strength.
"Is it…over?" he whispered. Just then from out of the dust, the Old Man leaped and delivered a drop kick to Lee's chest that sent the young ninja flying across the city. He skipped on the ground and slid to a halt near a fountain.
"Damn it Old Man, are you made out of steel?" Lee inquired while spitting blood. Shinichi stood his ground and gasped desperately for air.
"How did you escape my attack?" Lee asked, getting back on his feet. Shinichi continued to gasp as he walked slowly towards the Genin.
"I didn't," the Old Man answered. Upon hearing this, the young ninja smiled weakly.
"You sure are tough for your age."
"So are you…" muttered the Old Man. "Tell me…Why do you always seem to push yourself so hard?"
Rock Lee nursed his left arm and looked up to the sky. Then he bit his lips from the overflowing memory of his favorite instructor.
"My sensei taught me to always wager on my battles, so it would give me an incentive to win," the azure beast answered. Shinichi lifted one eyebrow in thought.
"And what exactly did you wager?" the Old Man continued. Lee paused for a moment, then grinned at the weakened old man before him.
"My current quest to become stronger," he replied. The Old Man nodded his head in understanding. Then he put up his sleeves and cracked his neck.
"I've got about one good punch left in me. How about we cross fist one last time to decide the victor?" Shinichi asked. "I'll even wager something on this fight."
Lee smiled and resumed his battle stance.
"Bring it…"
As soon as Lee agreed to his terms, they both accelerated towards one another. Shinichi threw his last punch towards the boy's tired face, but it didn't connect. Then all of a sudden, the young boy appeared behind the retired ninja.
'A feint?' Shinichi thought, his eyes wide with fear.
"Take this old man! Thousand years of pain!"
Before the attack was completed, the White haired Jounin who was watching from the sideline slapped his forehead in shame and disgust at the finale of the battle.
To be continued…
Author's Notes: Wow. It's been a long time since I released a chapter. And again, I don't have much to say except…I was very delighted to watch episode 124.