Disclaimer: Chapter 1 still.
AN: Full Chapter Title: A Clash of Speed! Which Is Faster: Sound or Determination?
"Good job, Neji." Gai offered his prodigal student a thumbs up with a proud smile on his face upon his return to the upper area of the arena. "Like I thought you would, you emerged victorious no matter the challenge set before you."
"It was my destiny to win." Neji did not say much more, leaning against the wall behind them and letting his Byakugan fade from his eyes. Gai's smile dimmed slightly as he turned back to the arena, Chunin making it usable for the next match after Yoroi had flooded it. Medics were currently carrying the unmoving Genin from the room. He knew the Genin's condition with a glance and did not envy the medic who would discover it for themselves.
'You still need to learn self-control it seems.' Gai shook his head at his student's still unchecked temper. He had hoped it would have been tempered given time but it seemed Neji's natural skills and talent had made it into a thing unchangeable with nothing short of his own intervention.
"Congratulations on your student's victory, Gai." Megane spoke those words tersely to him before vanishing from his sight. He would no doubt be leaving to meet with the medics about the condition of his student after witnessing one the Hyuga's greatest techniques being used against him. His condition was no doubt something of concern.
'Neji.' Hinata's Byakugan allowed her to see the state of her cousin much more thoroughly than any observer. He was tired, his Chakra was nearly depleted, and he was lucky he hadn't torn the muscles in his arms with his use of the Eight Trigrams One Hundred Twenty-Eight Palms. 'What did you have to prove? You could have defeated Yoroi with the Sixty-Four Palms but you didn't stop there. You kept going and your last blow…' The gentle girl shook as she remembered simply seeing the last blow delivered by Neji. Her eyes had let her see far beyond what anyone else did and it was horrifying. 'Why did you want to hurt him so bad? A fellow Konoha Shinobi and you do that to him?'
The gentleness left her eyes, replaced by something no one would want to see in the eyes of HInata Hyuga.
'You're nothing but a monster.' Hate shined in her eyes but it just as swiftly turned to pity. Her eyes focused on the exhausted form of her cousin and she couldn't deny that she was unable to hate him like she should have. She couldn't even look down on him like all members of the Main Family did to those of the Branch Family. 'The Hyuga made you like that but you don't have to let it consume you.'
'You're a genius who can't reach the heights you should because of your birth. You surpassed those limits with the genius you were born with but you go too far. Anytime you talk about fate and destiny you become brutal like that. You hurt Lee when all he wants to do is be your friend, you hurt me whenever we had to spar against one another, and you even try to hurt your own sensei when he decides to spar against you. You tried to kill another Genin from the village because you felt slighted and you were happy about it.' Her Byakugan had let her see the minute expression he wore with his final strike. It was a smile that vanished as quickly as it had arrived, however slight it was. 'You didn't fully seal the last tenketsu you struck only because you ran out of Chakra using the first half of the Eight Trigrams One Hundred Twenty-Eight Palms. If you had any more you would have sealed it entirely and his heart would have given out from the attack.'
Her Byakugan slowly faded from her eyes. She needed to conserve Chakra for her own match later.
'You have so much hate in you but one day I'll show you why you're way is so wrong Neji.'
"Lee, your match is next." Gai looked to the display that hung above the arena still, five rows darkened and five remaining. Rock Lee vs. Dosu Kinuta was the currently highlighted one. The last Otogakure Genin in the preliminaries after both of his teammates, Rin Tsuchi and Zaku Abumi, had fallen to the two male members of Team Kakashi. Both had been rather one-sided affairs. "I want to know your strategy."
"I expect him to employ similar techniques to his teammates so I am prepared to move faster than any sound he uses can reach me." Lee looked down at the arena, his future battleground, with a fire burning in his eyes. "If I am to fail, if I do not move fast enough, I will make it my mission to become faster than sound and, if my flames of youth prove themselves to burn hot enough, surpass the famed speed of my own sensei, the incredible Taijutsu master Maito Gai!"
"You truly do make me proud Lee!" Gai's eyes shared the passion of his student. "You are truly the finest pupil I could have asked to teach and impart all my wisdom to!"
"I am proud to live up to such high expectations of excellence Gai-sensei! If I am to ever fail them I shall not rest until I have completed five hundred laps around Konoha running!"
"No Lee! If I was to ever fail in teaching you, I shall complete a thousand laps around the village hoping on one foot! Such a fine pupil as yourself could never fail when your flames of youth burn so brightly!"
"Gai-sensei! This pupil of yours could not have asked for a better sensei!"
"It is a pupil like yourself that honors the master Lee!"
Tenten sighed as the two, student and teacher, acted just like each other in their exuberance. She glanced from where she stood to where Neji seemed to have fallen asleep standing up but couldn't blame him. He had faced a difficult opponent and managed to come out on top despite everything being against him with his Gentle Fist rendered useless until the end.
'You really are something else Neji.' Tenten couldn't keep the smile off her face as she looked to the Genin that would certainly make Chunin. His raw skill made the rank of Genin almost an insult. 'I'm not going to sit by and just watch you go far through. I'll take down that Suna kid no problem.' Her eyes looked to where her name rested. 'I don't care about who your dad is, Kazekage or not, you're going down.'
"Rock Lee and Dosu Kinuta are to come to the arena!" Hayate's voice carried up to the onlookers as the water filling the bottom of the arena was removed at last.
"I will not disappoint you Gai-sensei!" Lee threw himself over the railing, striking the ground feet first and rushing to the Tokubetsu Jonin. Dosu followed at a much more sedate pace, his hunched and bandaged form slowly walking down the steps and across the arena floor.
'The mission isn't going to plan.' It was all he could think of. Everything had been ruined since the Forest of Death had been overrun by what had to be a thousand clones of the blonde. They had run rampant over the competition and he was still surprised his team had managed to avoid a fight they couldn't win. He had seen too many teams go down trying to get a hold of one of the hoarded scrolls the Uzumaki left lying around. 'I need to finish this quickly and contact Lord Orochimaru about what to do.' His thoughts turned to Kin and Zaku then and he grimaced. 'I'll also need to report their failures…or pay the cost myself if I try to trick Lord Orochimaru.'
'None of that matters now through.' Dosu came to a stop in front of Rock Lee, the green clad Genin and his single visible eye glanced down to the device that would allow him to quickly claim victory. 'No fancy Hyuga eyes, no bugs, no dogs, no clones, and no Sharingan can stop my attacks. This kid will be begging me to finish him off by the time I'm done. Once I'm done with him, I'll finish the mission in the finals.'
"Alright, you two know the rules by now." Hayate stood with his hands in his pockets, he glanced from one of the Genin to the other before he rose one hand. "Begin." He dropped it and once again vanished to the hands on the other side of the arena.
Lee did not immediately attack Dosu, he kept light on his feet and barely seemed to restrain himself from darting forward but did not press his luck.
'Zaku Abumi used sound and air to his advantage, Kin Tsuchi used sound to employ Genjutsu, his skills may be proficient enough to have already trapped me in a Genjutsu but I can break them. Any air attack I can dodge if I see him aim. If he uses sound I will out run it!' Lee's eyes burned with his determination to win just as Dosu slowly brought his arm out from under his straw raincoat.
"It seems this team was adept with teamwork." Gai's comment drew the attention of all those nearby. "Kin possessed long ranged Genjutsu capabilities that were formidable, Zaku possessed mid to close range combat, forcing opponents to avoid his attacks yet still be debilitated by his sound, and it seems Dosu fulfilled another role. My best guess is that he was the interceptor, preventing opponents from drawing close to his teammates with that strange gauntlet on his arm. It no doubt amplifies sound to leave his opponents defenseless to his teammates."
'Spot on, Maito Gai.' The sensei of the Oto team couldn't help but chuckle as he overheard Gai's assessment of the three Genin. 'You truly are something else but I shouldn't be surprised with that coming from the man who rivals a man like Kakashi Hatake, a Jonin who's copied over a thousand techniques with that Sharingan of his.' His eyes stayed focused on the Jonin who looked down towards the arena. 'You always do play the fool to disguise just how frighteningly intelligent you are.'
The Taijutsu master glanced up suddenly and the Oto Shinob did not look away. The two locked eyes.
"You're not too far off, Maito Gai." The Jonin chuckled as he turned his eyes back down to the two Genin. "My team was trained to work together but you'll find they work just as well apart. Two failures can't bring down an entire team with a boy like Dosu-kun to pick up the slack."
Gai's eyes did not leave the Jonin's face for several more moments. He eventually did turn back to the fight but it was with some hesitance. The Jonin fought down the urge to look at the foreign Jonin in the end. He figured his eyes were playing tricks on him.
The idea that he was looking at a corpse was insane. The man across from him had spoken, breathed, and through his eyes shined with a cruelty, they still held the spark of life. The Jonin probably made use of a technique, however strange it was, to mask his appearance for whatever reason.
"Are you just going to stand there all day?" Dosu did not bother with moving forward. His arm was raised up to his chest and already Chakra was gathering there. "It doesn't matter if you decide to stay where you are or attack me. This match will be over in a single attack."
"Indeed." Lee's eyes narrowed as he crouched down, his hands going to his orange leg warmers and reaching into them. "We are at a stalemate that can be decided only by speed!" He rose back to his full height, drawing the weights kept on his legs up with him. "You are proficient in sound based Ninjutsu while I am a burgeoning master of Taijutsu!" He smiled as he tossed the weights away and crouched, falling into a runner's stance.
"It is time to decide which is faster: Sound or my determination!"
His sentence ended and the weights stuck the ground.
'What the hell?' Most present shared the same thought as they saw the craters formed by the weights on impact and the dust clouds that consumed the arena floor.
'Stay focused.' Dosu was different, his stance immediately shifted as he rose to his full height and prepared to make use of his Resonating Echo Speaker, his augmented arm nearly bursting with Chakra he could release as destructive sonic blasts at the level he had charged it to. 'I just need to glance at him and he's finished.'
"I am in front of you!" Lee's words reached him only after he felt the foot powering him into the ground but as he looked down he heard nothing but the cracking of stone.
'He's using an illusion.' Cracks were spreading everywhere on the arena floor but the sound was delayed too much. He was using his poor Genjutsu skills to confuse him, make him hit the wrong spots and waste all of his Chakra. 'This kid is a better ninja than his outfit gives him credit for. Shouldn't be that surprised with a guy like Maito Gai being his sensei.'
It was easy to break the Genjutsu with a surge of Chakra just as Dosu caught sight of a green blur at last and grinned as he threw his arm forward, unleashing a more focused version of his Resonating Echo Drill without further delay. A lance of sound fired forward, a high pitched ringing erupting from the impact as the ground was pulverized.
"Got you." Dosu grinned at his accomplishment before he noticed something.
He didn't see his target a victim of the attack. There was no broken Konoha Genin lying in the new crater that should be occupied.
He instead found himself kicked towards the wall but turned in the air. He avoided cracking it when he landed feet first, his Chakra letting him stick there in a crouch. He swung his arm out and sound waves lanced out like a scythe blade, striking the wall opposite him and leaving a jagged gash in the stone. Dosu knew he had missed but he never intended to hit in the first place. The attack was a large one but he needed distance and that's what it provided.
'Another Genjutsu.' He took note of the cracking tiles around him and jumped off of the wall as he reached into the pouch hidden by his straw raincoat. He withdrew a black pole from inside and the Oto Jonin chuckled at the sight of it.
"Dosu-kun is quite serious if he's bringing out that." Baki, a Jonin nearby the Oto Shinobi, glanced at him before looking at the black pole in the Genin's hand now.
"It's just a stick." Baki made his observation known. It was nothing but a short black metal rod.
"It's a prelude to disaster in Dosu-kun's hands." The Jonin chuckled once more, drawing Gai's eyes once more. He quickly focused back on the match going on below them all.
Ringing came with each blow Dosu delivered to his Resonating Echo Speaker, his single visible eye roaming the arena in search of his opponent.
'Any second now I'll find him.' Dosu knew exactly what he was doing it seemed. He was making use of the metal rod to produce sound in the gauntlet without having to worry about building it up in another way. Each strike sent out a ringing that could send any person who heard it to their knees when their eardrums burst. He didn't bother shaping the technique in any way.
He became a bit more forceful when he didn't discover his future victim. The ringing became higher and higher as he beat the rod against his arm faster and faster, producing more and more vibrations to send out across the arena.
He still had nothing to show for his effort through.
"Where are you?" Dosu at last shouted his frustrations as he swung his arm in a circle, turning his body with it.
A high pitched scream followed as the released sound ripped up the tiles of the arena floor around him and sent dust spiraling into the air. He at last spotted his opponent once he completed his revolution.
He was directly in front of him and unleashed a spin kick that sent him hurtling through the air and crashing into the tile, sending the loose stone scattering as his impact fractured each individual piece further and sent splinters of stone everywhere.
'Damn Genjutsu!' Dosu cursed as he struggled back to his feet, banging his Resonating Echo Speaker on the ground in his rage. It helped build up the vibrations as he gathered Chakra to it as well. 'Time for the big guns.'
"Resonating Echo Drill!" Dosu threw his arm forward and a trench was ripped through the arena dead in front of him. The sound he released was inaudible at the frequency he put it out at and left nothing but pulverized stone in wake of the attack.
'Dammit.' Hayate observed from high above the two battling Genin, earplugs rendering him completely deaf to the world. 'This place is getting wrecked, so it'll have to be fixed again, and I'm only halfway through the matches. Yugao's going to kill me if I come home late and at this rate I better get my headstone ready.' He felt like banging his head against the wall. 'Why can't one of these kids just pulverize the other in each match? I could get home on time then.'
Dosu was kicked up into the air as the stone beneath him was cratered. The Oto Genin tried to swing his arm but it wasn't fast enough to stop Lee's next attack.
"That will not work!" Lee's voice again came too late, he was already being powered towards the ground and hit it hard, hardly swinging his arm in time to pulverize the stone to something softer with focused sound waves. He hit the ground and sank into it with his single eye searching the arena for Lee but failing to find him even if the ground continued to crack around him.
'This is getting strange.' Dosu had time to think as he hid himself away for now, idly tapping his finger against his Resonating Echo Speaker to build up his next attack. 'That kid's Genjutsu isn't that good to keep me from breaking it. He can't be good enough to keep reapplying it at the same time.'
Dosu took hold of his now aching face, knowing a bruise was forming from where Lee's first blow had struck him.
'Whatever. I've got an idea.' Dosu closed his eyes, an image of the arena coming to his mind. 'I'll burst out of here but I'll make sure he's a goner when I go up. There should be enough sound built up in this thing to let out a massive blast, one that'll shatter the walls and definitely bring this kid down. Once he's down, he'll be easy pickings.' He could already see it happening.
He would emerge, bursting through the earth while the Genin tried to attack him with his Taijutsu. He'll slam his arm down on the ground, sending out a massive sound wave that would catch the kid unaware. He'll try to take a step forward, stumble, and come falling right into his next blow. A second, point blank, sound wave would finish him off and he'll be advancing to the finals without delay.
'Alright, time to put my plan into action.' Dosu banged his arm on the earthen walls of his hideaway just for insurance before he ripped himself through the earth.
The stone in front of him cracked but he was already ripped free of the ground and tossed into the air, bandages wrapped around his waist and his eyes widened at the pain.
'He's not using Genjutsu.' It was this stunned realization that greeted Dosu before a sandal clad foot fell into his chest.
He was powered into the ground and formed his own crater, his Resonating Echo Speaker useless when he realized he was not trapped in any illusion.
He couldn't hit a kid with sound if he was moving faster than the speed of sound.
'What the hell kind of training did this kid do?' The last Sound Genin in the Chunin Exams caught sight of a panting Lee hardly standing across from him, nearly dead on his feet yet he was still ready to throw himself forward into the fight. His single visible eye closed as he fell unconscious with one last thought.
'I wish I fought the fatso.'
"Rock Lee wins his preliminary match."
AN: I feel Rock Lee could move faster than sound. I refuse to change this stance. At the same time, I feel Dosu's greatest weapon would be a stick of some kind to produce sound to attack with stronger techniques.