Chapter 11

"S-S-Sakura-san!" shouted Lee, his voice filled with joy. A single tear appeared in his left eye. He rushed over to hug her, little hearts appeared in his eyes and all around his head.

"Lee!" shouted Sakura, batting away the hearts. "Stop and listen!" Lee stopped. "Tsunade was worried about you and Gai so she sent me here to help."

"Well then I thank you Sakura-san, but it is taken care ooohh!" Lee fell to the ground in pain. All the adrenaline that had kept him going was gone now, and pain had replaced.

"Here let me heal you." Sakura said, moving quickly over to him. A faint green glow eminated from her hands as she placed them on Lee. After she had done all she could Lee could still only barely move, and him body still felt as if it were on fire. But he could move now and the pain wasn't near as bad as before.

"Thank you Sakura-san!" said Lee entergentically. "Now we can go home."

"Didn't you hear what I said a couple minutes ago!? He's not dead yet, I can still feel a trifle of his chakra down there. I don't know why you can't feel it."

"Well," started Lee rubbing his fingers together like Hinata when she's around Naruto. "Gai-sensei was so busy teaching me taijutsu that he forgot to teach me how to do things like that."

"Oh!" shouted Sakura, "I forgot to wake up Gai!"

"Oh yes! And Chouji and Ino too."

"Of course, I'll wake up Chouji right after I wake up Gai." She looked over at Ino. "She can stay like that for a while."

Lee was about to reply when suddenly, the earth around them shook violently.

"Oh no!" cried out Sakura, "Here he comes! His chakra is incredible! I'd better hurry with Gai!" and with that she rushed over to Gai's side and started the healing process.

Lee opened the Fifth Gate, and a sudden pain over came him. It felt as if someone very strong were trying to pull apart his arms and legs. He found that with this distraction he couldn't maintain the Gate's power and was forced to release it.

He stood there panting as a huge figure burst out of the ground. A figure that looked nothing like the stanine. For this figure had no skin! Lee could clearly see the inside of its body, the muscles, bones, organs, veins, all clearly visible. The eyes were still in his skull but the eyelids were gone. All clothing and hair seemed to have vanished. Lee swallowed hard and didn't utter a word for fear he would throw up.

"SO LEE!" shouted the figure. "DO YOU LIKE THIS, DO YOU LIKE WHAT YOU'VE DONE?!"

"Wh- Who are you?"

"WHAT YOU DON'T RECOGNIZE ME? OH, OF COURSE YOU DON'T! I AM JURIOH! THE STANINE WARRIOR! THE ONE WHO WILL BRING YOU TO YOUR KNEES!"

"Ju- Jurioh!" Lee's eyes widened! "You can't be alive! It's impossible!"

"HAHAHAHA!" Jurioh laughed loudly, and evil sound that filled the forest, his vocal cords vibrated furiously just below his skull.

"NOW YOU WILL FINALLY DIE!" said Jurioh as he charged forward.

Everything seemed to happen in slow motion. Sakura yelled at him, no at, Gai-sensei? The stanine Jurioh drew up a great fist and his muscles tightened. Then Gai-sensei stepped in the way of the blow shouting his name.

"LEE!"

Jurioh made contact with Gai, who coughed up blood and flew backward taking Lee with him. They slide across the dirt for a while and finally stopped. Gai never got back off.

"Gai- Gai- GAI-SENSEI!" shouted Lee at the top of his lungs. He wept openly, kneeling over Gai's unmoving form.

Jurioh just stood there rolling his eyes, literally! "YOU SHOULD BE THANKING ME LEE! THAT GOOD FOR NOTHING 'TEACHER', AND I USE TEACHER VERY LIGHTLY, WAS ONLY HOLDING YOU BACK!"

Lee stopped crying, he stopped looking at Gai, he almost stopped breathing. "What did you say?" he said shaking with rage.

"HE WAS A LOSER! LOSER! LOSER! LOSER!"

"SHUT UP!" shouted Lee, "SHUT THE HELL UP!!" Lee's pupils were gone in a sea of white, his teeth were gritted so tightly that they might crack at any time. "GAI-SENSEI WAS THE GREATEST MENTOR I EVER HAD AND EVER WILL HAVE! WHAT THE HELL WOULD YOU KNOW ABOUT ANYTHING!"

"HE MUST HAVE BEEN THE ONLY MENTOR YOU HAD, THEN!" shouted Jurioh right back.

"THAT'S IIIIITTTT!!!!" suddenly a green glow surrounded Lee. It was chakra, and a lot of it.

"WHAT! BUT YOU HAVE NO CHAKRA LEFT!" shouted Jurioh in disbelief. "I FELT IT, I FEEL IT RIGHT NOW!"

"This is no ordinary charka. THIS IS THE CHAKRA OF MY SOUL! OF MY YOUTH! OF MY UNDYING LOVE FOR GAI-SENSEI!" the green chakra seemed alive with power as flooded from Lee's body.

"NOW I WILL SHOW YOU TRUE POWER! TRUE LOVE!" Lee disappeared, and reappeared right in front of Jurioh, giving him a huge punch in the chest breaking the chest bone cleanly in two, and exposing the heart.

"GAI-SENSEI!" Lee shouted at the sky. "THIS IS FOR YOU!" suddenly all of the green chakra around Lee moved to his right hand. Now only his hand radiated the bright green glow.

"Gai-sensei," Lee said, almost whispering, "thank you." Then he ran forward straight at the stanine.

"MEMORIAL OF GAI-SENSEI!" he shouted, forcing his right fist straight into Jurioh's heart.

Jurioh's eyes widened, even someone who couldn't feel pain would feel that attack. Lee took one final step and pushed harder. Jurioh's heart exploded into hundreds of pieces. Blood was sprayed all over Lee's body.

Sakura closed her eyes feeling faint at watching this, wishing she could vomit.

Lee hopped back, the green chakra completely gone now. Jurioh took a couple of steps forward and then fell down, dead at last. Lee smiled to himself. Suddenly, the green chakra filled Jurioh with its radiance, lifting him up off of the ground.

An explosion sounded that would be heard for miles. Lee flew back into a tree. Watching through fuzzy eyes the body parts of Jurioh falling toward the earth. Through dimmed ears he heard the sound of someone vomiting up their stomach. The last thing he remembered was a strange green chakra washing over him, then all went dark.

Lee was in the hospital when he woke up. His head felt stuffed with cotton. Only his eyes were able to move. He looked around but couldn't see much. Practically the only thing he was aware of was a hot, searing pain all over his body, yet it felt dimmed, as if it were happening to someone else, but through his body.

He heard a door open and shut.

"Oh good, he's finally awake!" said a female's voice. A voice he knew somehow, as if from a dream.

"Su- Tsunade-sama?" Lee quietly voiced out.

"Yes," said the voice happily. "Are you okay Lee?"

'Lee? Wait that was his name. Yes, of course, Rock Lee, Konoha's handsome green beast!' He memory was starting to return to him.

"Yeah, I think so," he replied in a hushed voice. He managed to turn his head a little. Right in front of him was Tsunade in full Hokage garb, with a boquet of flowers in her hands. And behind her was countless flowers, get well soon cards, and presents.

"How," he swallowed, "How long have I been out?"

Tsunade looked thoughtful for a moment. "About three months."

Lee's eyes widened. If he could feel any part of his legs he would've jumped straight out of bed.

"Don't worry Lee," Tsunade said gently, "You'll have plenty of time to train. You'll make a full recovery."

Lee smiled, or made as close to a smile as he could.

"But first I must know who exactly you were fighting. Sakura thought she knew, but only you know for sure. I only hope she was wrong."

"His name…Jurioh."

Tsunade looked as if she were hit with a sledgehammer. "That's what I was afraid of. You see Lee, Jurioh was hear to make peace between the stanine and Konoha, and when the rest of the stanine find out he's dead, well, it won't be pretty."

Lee looked horror stricken, tears came into his eyes. "I-I'm so sorry Hokage-sama."

"Shh, it's alright," said Tsunade comfortingly, knowing perfectly well that it was most certainly not alright. In fact this boy may have just destroyed Konoha.

Suddenly a thought came to Lee. "Gai-sensei?" he asked.

Tsunade's face was suddenly wiped of all emotion. "He is still in the intensive care room. Don't worry he's still alive, but he may not recover fully from this, ever.

THE END