Author's Notes: I am terribly sorry to the few readers I have for taking so long to come up with this chapter. I've been meaning to write sooner, but I was switching out of jobs and everything, plus college, and I had to set my priorities. So...with that, I hope you enjoy this chapter.
Rock Lee didn't like being sick. The splitting headache, the sore throat, the lack of appetite, the runny nose...There weren't any particular part of the common cold that Rock Lee enjoyed.
Not that most others do.
In his entire life, at least, the part where he trained under Matou Gai, he learned to boost his immune system through intensive training. Maybe it was all the splashing in the water he did in his last match that got him a little under the weather, but that couldn't possibly explain how he could've made it through all those rigorous training in major thunderstorms with his unreasonable instructor, Gai.
"Achoo!"
Lee wrapped himself even tighter with the thick blanket that his promoter provided for him. Hozaku fed more wood into the fire that burned in the middle of their camp.
"I can't believe that we got kicked out of our room," Lee whispered, wiping his nose with the back of his hand.
Hozaku sat silently, mildly entertained by the burning fire.
"How much did that room cost us anyway, that fragile looking thing? It couldn't possibly have costed more than a few yen...And we don't even have that anymore."
Hozaku became uneasy, sitting there while listening to Lee's complaints.
"Not only that, but I'm sick now, so I can't even properly train myself until my next match, so I have to–"
"Shut up!" Hozaku shouted.
"I will not pay another yen for that god forsaken room ever again! I already told you before, that room should be free! Hell, we should be paid to stay in such a place! Now, I do not want to discuss this matter any further, so you keep quiet and try to get better real quick!" he added.
Lee began to cough feverishly. When he thought it was over, he sneezed a giant sneeze and blew out their camp fire. That caught Hozaku off guard.
"What the hell?" he remarked. Lee sniffled a bit.
"You didn't have to be so cheap to try and get the room free of charge, Hozaku-san," he said.
"No, wait...How did you do that?" his promoter asked. Lee was puzzled.
"Do what now?"
"The thing you did now, the...How did you blow out the damn fire?" questioned the frustrated adult. Lee looked towards the burnt out woods, smoke still rising out from within.
"Oh, sorry about that. I tried to keep it down, but it still seems to give me trouble," Lee sincerely apologized.
Hozaku stared in disbelief at what once provided them with their only source of warmth. Then he snapped his finger to display his epiphany.
"Lee, we now have a sure way of winning our next match!" he yelled.
Rock Lee didn't know how to respond to that.
"Really? Then can we find another hotel and discuss this?" he asked in hopes of sleeping on a mattress that night.
"No," his partner replied.
Chapter 11: Cough Relief
The night was wet. A passing storm cloud generated enough rain water to flood Lee and Hozaku's temporary camp. But they weren't trying to keep the water out of their resting place. In fact, Hozaku seemed to welcome the nice surprise and tied up Lee in a puddle of mud, outside in the rain.
"Why are we doing this, Hozaku san!" Lee hollered, rolling back and forth to keep the rain water out of his eyes. This proved to be difficult since he laid inside a patch of mud water that got into his eyes when rain failed to get inside it first.
"Yes, keep rolling Lee! Worsen your condition! And when you're at the peak of your cold, we'll have the next match in a bag!" His promoter cackled like a mad man in the middle of the night.
"What? When is our next match anyways?" asked Lee.
"It's tomorrow!" Hozaku replied, now dancing beside his partner.
"What! Then shouldn't we be training or something instead of...well, this?" he further inquired.
"Shut up! This is more than enough for now! Don't question my method, just do as I say!"
Lee stopped struggling. He just laid there, staring up into the night sky. Drops of water began to blur his vision, but he kept on staring anyways.
"I miss you, Gai sensei," he whispered. He then began to tear up and curl into a ball like a baby.
Meanwhile, somewhere in the Hidden Village of Konoha...
"I miss you, too, Rock Lee..."
Maitou Gai curled into a ball in his green pajamas as he subconsciously yearned for his favorite student.
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Time passes slowly when you're trying to get some sleep in a pool of mud. Rock Lee managed to untie the soggy ropes that placed him in bondage, but continued to lay there, staring into the cloudless sky.
Then something appeared in his vision.
"Eat this," the figure seemed to say, as he threw him an onigiri. Lee picked up his food and tossed it up, which then descended into his hungry mouth. His cheeks puffed up as he started to chew his food, saddened and homesick. Then as he about to digest his onigiri, he felt himself being picked up by his partner. No, he felt someone trying to pick him up.
"What in the world? How much does someone like you weigh anyways?" asked the man, huffing after all his effort has gone to waste.
"Hozaku-san. I don't feel so good..." Lee admitted. Hozaku continued to try and pick up his fighter, but it proved to be an impossible task, seeing as how Lee always wore his weights underneath his orange leg warmers. Not only that, but he recently increased it to 1.5 times its previous amount.
Lee picked himself up and wiped his nose with the back of his hand. Then suddenly, he let out a giant sneeze and felt himself being blown away into the air. Hozaku stood still, watching Lee carry himself all the way to their next fight.
"He's gotta be ready by now," he whispered, admiring the arch his fighter was making across the sky.
"I don't feel so well..." Lee repeated, now descending into the arena.
---------------------------------
"For our next fight, would contestants Rock Lee and Ikamaru Chou please come to the arena!" requested the announcer through the loud speaker phones. In the aftermath of an unscheduled storm, shallow puddle of water were visible across the field, and even the large sum of people gathered in the audience seemed to be having problem sitting in their wet concrete seats.
Ikamaru fixed his village head band that rested over his mouth and calmly waited for his opponent to show up. It wasn't too long before something shiny fell out from the sky and demolished half the arena upon impact. Out from the ashes stood a sickly looking child in a silly green uniform. Lee coughed violently as he stumbled out of from the dust and onto the remaining platform that wasn't destroyed by him.
Unfazed by his opponent's flashy entrance, the angry Ikamaru had only one thing to say to him.
"Do you think you're tough?"
Lee looked up, his eyes glazed with tear from having to choke down all the dust around him.
"I'm sorry?" Lee asked politely. Sighing, his opponent opened his mouth to once again, grace him with his voice.
"You're nothing special. I'll kill you if you think you are," he said.
"Yeah, kill him!" Ikamaru's promoter yelled from behind him, supporting his fighter with a thumbs down to signify Rock Lee's fate.
"What in the world are you talking about?" the groggy little ninja murmured, sniffling as he swayed back and forth, causing a worried stir in the audience.
"I am from the Hidden Light village. If you think you're tough shit just because you're from..."
Ikamaru studied Lee's village head protector.
"From the Hidden Village of...Swirly ice cream shit, then you're dead wrong. Because I'll kill you before you can do anything to me," he warned him. Lee took this time to consider his words.
"Killing your opponent gets you disqualified though, doesn't it?" the thick brow ninja innocently asked. Ikamaru remained silent.
"Are you saying that you're better than me?" the hidden light shinobi spat, not having much to say to Lee's previous words.
"Well, no, I think that–"
"Shut up," the light ninja ordered. "Cuz you're not. I am the best ninja there is, so there cannot possibly be another ninja who is better than me. That's like saying that an egg could break a stone, when the stone can obviously break the egg before that egg thinks it's some tough shit and tries to mess with the rock. But no, a rock will defeat the egg all the time, no matter what. And your existence is like an egg to me, who is a rock."
Lee didn't quite follow, but he was sure that it was supposed to intimidate him.However, he was feeling too sick to feel anything but his increasing headache.
"Why aren't they starting the match yet?" Lee wondered, as Hozaku finally arrived at his sideline.
"A little chit-chat between two fighters in the beginning of a fight is good publicity. Apparently, this Ikamaru kid is well-known for it. The crowd eats up his nonsense because it's so stupid that they actually think it's deep or something," Hozaku explained. Lee didn't understand what was so deep about his little soliloquies, but he heard the crowd mumble above him. They were dissecting his comment and analyzing his speech pattern as if they were scholars deciphering an ancient philosophy.
"Why am I continually being matched up against such oddballs?" Lee thought out loud. His partner snickered as he made himself comfortable at the other end.
"That guy won't be talking for too long if you do what your instinct tells you to do today..." he said. Lee didn't quite understand it, but he wanted to get today's match done and over with as quickly as possible. Normally, he'd be excited to fight another opponent, but the common cold had sucked out his enthusiasm and any hopes for an easy win.
"Well, now we'll proceed with the fight!"
As soon as the large boom of the announcer's voice had died down, a large electronic clock began to count down to the start of their match. Once it hit zero, Ikamaru speed walked towards Lee in a ridiculously fast pace, and looking pretty much ridiculous in general, with the back of his hand drawn across his face, ready to bitch slap the leaf village Genin.
"What?" Lee had no time to respond, because he had to sneeze.
And once he did, his opponent disappeared. Rather, Ikamaru ducked at the last second as a violent hurricane of some kind had erupted from Lee's mouth.
Even Lee was surprised by that one, though he should've had somewhat of an idea, since it wasn't the first time he had sneezed that day.
"What the hell just happened?" he asked himself, looking back with a puzzled expression, seeking some sort of an answer from his promoter. Hozaku was smirking, his arms crossed over his chest.
"The ultimate remedy to annoying ninjas, the common cold." He laughed out loud at his own one-liner.
Lee didn't like the mischievous look on his face.
"So you think you've got me now, huh!"
The leaf ninja turned around and caught glimpse of his opponent approaching him once more.
'Well, now or never,' Lee thought and let out another sneeze that he's been holding back for some time. A gust of wind lashed out towards Ikamaru, lifting him up high and letting him go at a high altitude. The conceited ninja collapsed against the arena floor and felt a rush of pain through his body.
"That didn't hurt at all!" he screamed back. But he took his time to recover and get back up again. Lee, being a true martial artist, didn't seek the opportunity and waited for him to proceed with the fight.
"Take this!" the light ninja hollered, throwing a number of shurikens toward Lee. The leaf Genin used his nimble body to dodge the projectiles and drew out a kunai, excited that he had somehow gained an edge in a situation he seemed hopeless at first.
Then suddenly, a sharp pain rang inside his head. He dropped to his knees, nursing his forehead as he felt his headache pounding against his skull.
"Damn..." he moaned weakly, his hand still clutching the kunai. His opponent was now right in front of him. He drew back his leg and punted the crouching ninja across the field. Lee rolled on his back and skid to a nearby puddle.
"Crap, I was betting on this fight to be over quickly, so his headache wouldn't kick in soon," Hozaku revealed. "Just hold on a little longer..."
Lee splashed some water on his face to cool himself, but his forehead was now searing hot. He practically caused the puddle to be evaporated in seconds.
"I appeal to you, Spring time of youth...Give me the strength to kick this guy's ass!"
Lee snapped. He ran towards his opponent, but he went flying back down on the floor again, as Ikamaru had a head start.
"Told you I was better," the light ninja boasted. He gathered his hands and performed a complicated set of seals. Suddenly, a burst of light blinded the young leaf Genin. In his temporary condition, he felt his own ribs being pounded in by a figure he can sort of grasp from the corner of his eyes.
"I've been through this before...Come one, Lee...Let's get it together..."
Rock Lee tried to remember his training with Gai. During their times together, they would practice combat without the aid of their vision. In Gai's words it was, "Essential for any warm blooded, pure hearted, justice loving ninja to be able to combat evil in the most darkest times." Literally.
"Then how come Neji doesn't need to join in on our practice?" his younger former self had asked on countless occasions. And Gai would always pat him on the head and say,
"Cuz he's got a pair of eyes on the back of his head."
Neji didn't like his crude description of his Byakugen ability, but he continued to ignore him as always. He admired the man for his strength and determination, but Neji can never get over his silly outfit. And for one of his teammate to have become almost exactly like his team leader was just as annoying.
"Neji...always disrespecting Gai-sensei..." Lee spat venom, still closing his eyes.
"What are you talking about?"
When he heard his enemy's voice in front of him, Lee lifted his fist purely by coincidence and delivered an effective uppercut against his chin. Soon, his light effect wore off and Lee was faced with the scene of Ikamaru twitching over the floor.
"Pure luck!" he managed to shout. He then rolled away to a safe distance and flipped him off.
"That wasn't luck at all. It was just pure clumsiness on your part," Lee retorted, shaking his head disapprovingly at his rude gesture.
"You still claim to be the best–"
"I never did!" Lee defended.
"–but you aren't! I am! And I will prove it to you now!"
Ikamaru crouched and performed a single hand seal. Soon, Lee felt as if the entire world has gone mad. In his eyes, he saw his opponent, but his body seemed to have become longer, his face contorted like a work of Picasso.
"Wh-What's going on?"
Lee tried to spot his promoter from a distance, but he looked so tiny. He turned back and saw the form of Ikamaru, now as thin as paper, strutting around like a work of origami.
"What did you do? I want an answer," Lee demanded, his physique already weak from his condition. Yet he was able to keep his composure, looking for any signs of a surprise attack.
"Stupid people like you wouldn't understand the genius of my technique!" the boy roared.
"Yeah? Well...Try me," Lee replied, his eyes becoming weary from looking at all these strange images.
'A genjutsu? What exactly is going on?' he thought. He looked on and recognized a smirk on his strange looking opponent's face.
"I have the ability to bend light reflections at my disposal," he briefly explained. Outside the illusion, Ikamaru cracked his knuckles as he approached the delirious ninja.
"I think I sort of get what you're saying but...This is just another trick of the eye, isn't it? Just like the explosion of light earlier on!"
His opponent formed a knowing smile.
"Yes, this is another trick, but I can do several things with this that I couldn't with the other technique," he added. "Allow me to demonstrate it for you, you stupid twerp."
Suddenly, Lee felt thirsty. Almost like somebody was choking him mercilessly.
"Wha-What's going on?" he managed to say.
"I can make the particles of light to intensify and cause a heat wave of immeasurable...well, you get the idea."
Lee grasped his own neck, the thirst growing stronger within him. "Too damn hot," he whispered.
"And for my second trick..."
Alert, Lee spotted Ikamaru multiplying in numbers, all of the mirror images flipping him off with smug expressions on each of their distorted faces.
And shortly afterwards, he felt himself being pummeled once again by the enemy. He was now completely at his mercy, with his throat going completely dry, and his cold symptom growing stronger. He felt a sense of betrayal towards his promoter for aiding his illness, depending on his sickness to win over this fight. He looked back at him, but Hozaku seemed to be waiting for something.
Then Lee realized that he's been holding back his sneezes subconsciously for some time.
"I am really not used to this at all!" he shouted, sneezing against all of the figures before him. He was able to distract his opponent long enough to escape his genjutsu. Then he sniffled and let another unrestrained sneeze explode.
"Who is at...achoo! Who's mercy...achoo! Now?"
Ikamaru ran around the arena, dodging each sneezes miraculously, captivating the audience with his near fatal escape each time.
"I've been...achoo! Holding back my sneezes, cuz I have been always trying to hold 'em back...achoo! I mean...achoo! You learn to hold back your sneezes since you're...achoo...little, just so you wouldn't distract others...achoo! So I'm not really used to this sort of fighting...achoo!"
"Who taught you to hold it back!" Hozaku shouted angrily. "What kind of an environment did you grow up in where they tell you to hold back your sneezes?"
"Well, I grew up in a...achoo! Ninja village! Silence is a virtue amongst our kind!" Lee replied, in between firing his arsenal.
'Well, that explains it...' Hozaku thought, finally being able to let out a sigh of relief.
"You rely too much on your only trump card!" screamed Ikamaru, taunting Lee while inwardly panicking at his sneezes becoming more accurate with each successive shots.
"Stop his movements at all cost, Lee!" Hozaku ordered. Lee gathered his hands around his mouth to adjust his aim and sneezed again, the explosive wind being shot out of his mouth like a cannon ball. This time, Ikamaru didn't come out of it unscathed. Half of his body felt the impact and went spiraling in mid-air. Lee took that chance to land his favorite, Konoha Whirlwind technique, as soon as his body descended to a favorable height. Lee laid still after landing the attack, his body now succumbing to the sickness.
"Damn...Just a little more..."
He saw Ikamaru still twitching, trying to get back on his feet after that devastating blow.
"Un-believable...This isn't acceptable!" he muttered over and over again.
Lee felt kind of sorry for him, but it wasn't the time to pity others, especially one's own foe. He fought hard to get to this point. He had to snatch his opportunity right then and there, or he will have to face defeat.
"What a day..." Lee groaned.
"Don't you talk like you've won this already!" Ikamaru screamed, the resentment clearly present in his voice. He struggled to crawl towards Lee's direction, with a kunai held tightly in his raised fist.
"I'll cut off your arms and toss you like a rag doll off this arena!" he shouted confidently.
"Th-That won't do, because I need my arms..." Lee responded seriously to his threat. Then he managed to get off his back and crawl towards his opponent as well, to meet him half-way.
Then as soon as they were at a point where they could reach out and grab the other, they got back up on their feet and clashed in the middle of the arena.
Lee jumped up and struck Ikamaru's shoulder with the heel of his leg, causing him to bend at his knees. Then Lee stuck out his right fist to hammer his face, but the light ninja head butted him squarely in the stomach, causing the young azure beast to reel back in pain. Grabbing his right leg, Ikamaru knocked him down and twisted around to fling him over his shoulder, but Lee grabbed onto his enemy's neck and pulled him backwards, creating a sort of human pulley in a stalemate.
"Let go!" ordered the annoyed light shinobi.
"You do it first!" Lee shouted, matching his opponents venomous undertone, word for word.
"Ahhh!"
"Ahhhh!"
"Grrrr!"
"Ahhh!"
"Oww...ow, ow, ow...!"
"Ah crap, ouch!"
Eventually, they both let go of each other. They both gasped for air, staring intently at one another.
"Why do you look at me in such way? Are you in love with me?" Ikamaru teased. Lee had no clue what he was getting at, since he was never exposed to the idea that there were other types of love, aside from those shared between a man and a woman.
"I don't know what you're talking about, but I think being in love is beside the point, don't you think so?" said Lee.
"Man, you are just too dense for me!"
Pissed off, Ikamaru got up first and jumped on top of Rock Lee. But the azure beast pulled his legs to his chest and kicked up towards his foe's stomach, launching him back towards his own side.
"Don't be so hasty," he warned him. Huffing desperately like a fish out of water, Ikamaru glared at his opponent, his eyes like that of a cornered tiger.
"Why do you continue to say that you are the best when you...clearly...are not!"
This time, both Lee and Ikamaru got up at the same time. They raised their fists at each other, but at the last second, Ikamaru snuck underneath him and tied him up using his hidden fishing wires.
"There we go!" he shouted happily.
He then raised his hands once again and performed two different set of hand seals.
"Mind control technique!" he yelled. And as it would have it, Lee felt his own body beginning to move on its own.
"Wh-what's going on?"
He stepped closer to the edge of the arena.
"Sto-Stop this! This isn't fair at all!" Lee shouted, fearing what would happen if he stepped out of the ring.
"Please...Don't do this! This is cowardly, Ikamaru-kun!"
But it was too late. Lee felt himself hop down and heard the abrupt announcement of a ring out TKO. In the midst of the cheering of excited crowd above him, Lee felt his own hot tears streaming down his face uncontrollably. He turned back and faced Ikamaru, who now beamed down at him triumphantly.
"The best ninja always hide his trump card until the end, you stupid asshole. While you were off sneezing everywhere and shit, I hid my final technique until it was dire for me to use it. Of course, my Mind Control Technique comes with a hefty price of...at least half of my chakra," he explained, ever so enthusiastically. Then he collapsed on his knees pathetically.
"So I made my sacrifice and went for the TKO. I'm not proud of it, but a win is a win..." he said.
Lee fought back his tears, engraving Ikamaru's words in his mind so he would never forget it.
To be continued...
Author's Notes: So that's Lee's first loss in the tournament. But not to worry, he still has two points in reserve, if you remember the previous chapters. Anyways, please read and review my work, so I can get better at this whole writing business. Thanks in advance.