AN: My most sincerest apologies for taking to long to release an update. No excuse is legit.

After completing Wave I decided to take a bit of a break from writing, which expanded out for a couple of weeks, until I got back into the mood again and reread unborn genius (Discovering load of errors, including one that I just know somebody noticed but didn't say anything :P).

I am back now, so hopefully I will be able to get more updates out sooner.

Moving on.


Chapter 10 The Bushy Browed Monk


Not far away from where the Konoha group and crew were situated, the leader of the Oto-nin was impatiently sitting on a great rock in the middle of a clear field awaiting the return of the others. His ever calm face eyed the black smoke rising in the sky.

'So they have engaged the Konoha forces, Hmm.' Detecting several people approaching, the leader stood up to address his new visitors.

Only four of the Oto-nin members remained, 'The Konoha group defeated over half of them? Oh well, I guess I should be thankful they weeded out the weak. It saves me half the trouble.'

One of the Oto-nin who was dressed in armour stepped forward as the leader spoke to him, "Well 'Taicho'?"

The armour wearing man held up the enclosed scroll and presented it in response, "We apprehended Michi."

"Hmm." Taking the scroll from the shinobi, the man then flung the scroll wide open, causing it to glow as he threw it to the floor. Upon it touching the ground, a loud 'poof' was heard as a tremendous puff of smoke blinded everybody's vision.

Once the dust had settled, the group of Oto-nin gasped at the creature before them. The beast was roughly twenty feet tall, with a thick grey scaled hide enwrapping around its amphibian like body. It had a long swirly tail swishing behind itself, as it stood on all fours. It was noted the beast had no visible eyes anywhere on its huge head.

'W-What kind of summon is that?' The Oto-nin in armour mused in horror.

The leader with his bored icy blue eyes approached the summon and placed a hand on its belly, while closing his eyes. Within a minute, they snapped open and turned to the proposed captain of the team.

The way those chilly eyes held not even an ounce of emotion to them shook the man down to his core, "W-well what is your verdict? Did we succe-!"

The Shinobi's eyes went bulging wide as he suddenly stopped talking and choked. The other three gasped when their comrade all of a sudden fell straight over, lying lifelessly on the grass with a stream of red liquid running down his hung open jaw. Neither saw how he was killed, but they knew who did it.

It was the still emotionless leader, who was looking down at the dead shinobi, "As I said, you would be held responsible both for the success or failure of this mission…consider this a suitable reward for your incompetence."

"W-What the hell are you doing? We captured Michi-"

"Oh? Tell me-"

The leader snapped his fingers, as the great beast opened its wide mouth, revealing a small outer layer of teeth to an otherwise very gummy and squishy red inside. A figure was then spat across the field from out of the creature's mouth, which soon crashed into the grass not far away. The beast dispersed soon after in a loud 'poof'.

The figure appeared to be Lee, who was covered in a thick sticky layer of saliva, and was borderline unconscious, "-Does that look like Michi to you, fools?"

Parts of Lee's bald cap had broken, revealing to the group some loose strands of black hair sticking out of an otherwise bald head.

"H-He has hair?" One of the Oto-nin's blankly blurted out, while the cold leaders nearby presence made the nin focus.

One of the shinobi fearing for his life, stuttered out a defence, "B-But you said this was a test didn't you? There is no need to ki-"

"I think you misunderstood me before. This was a test, a test to see if you all were skilled enough for assisting Orochimaru-sama. So far, none of you have shown anything for me to even perk an eyebrow at. More importantly, this mission still was vital to Oto's goal. Our intention is to interfere with Konoha's missions so that they are met with failure. Failure is not something taken lightly in the business of shinobi, not when clients always look at a village's record to know their task can be ensured a success. A daimyo's tolerance can only go so far until they will seek out an alternative nation to assign missions to. Not to mention the obvious point that a celebrity taken captive is practically a blank cheque waiting to be written up."

Pointing a finger at the starting to recover Lee, the leaders scowl never changed, "This is your last chance. Dispose of that fake. Do not fail with doing that."

Lee at this time violently shook his head, trying to rid himself of the grogginess he felt from where ever he was earlier, 'What on earth happened?'

The last thing Lee could remember was Sakura calling out his name, when all of a sudden this slimly thing grabbed him and pulled him into darkness. Trying to push himself back onto his feet, Lee nearly slipped against the somehow unsteady grass, soon becoming aware of the disgusting secreted like goo that was all over himself.

Once he stood up, he tried to rub the junk off of his hands on his now discoloured and in similar conditioned kimono.

"How unhip." He murmured, soon realising he was not alone.

'Oto-nin? They must have mistaken me for Michi-dono. In that case…' Ignoring his icky condition, Lee raised his hand to form his stance.

He couldn't muster a word however, for he also spotted the dead shinobi lying on the ground behind the group soon after, 'W-What happened? He's…dead?'

"Hmmph. That is a type of taijutsu stance. So I see…he is one of the Konoha ninja. Perhaps it was their plan to switch places with Michi, at least your humiliating failure isn't too shameful knowing that fact…now destroy him." The leader coolly announced, as he sat back down on the rock as if he had nothing to worry about in the world.

Lee wasn't given much time to think about that man's odd actions when the trio of Oto-nin rushed for him. Forming a firm unified brow line in concentration, Lee evaluated his odds, 'I don't know where I am, so retreating is not a good solution, especially in this hindrance of a state. I do not possess my weapon pouch, and I am outnumbered…'

Reaching into his kimono, Lee pulled out his nun-chucks he carried within it. With a furious swing around, the goo that covered the weapon flickered wildly off, as he held a new stance, 'The only option I have is to fight.'

As the trio closed the distance, the one in the middle wielding a kunai dashed in first for the kill. Lee avoided the slash with a side step, however he inwardly cursed as the goo still all over his body cause him to slip, leaving him wide open for a blow to the cheek from another Oto-nin's fist. While Lee was trying to regain his balance, he yet again slipped his footing with the sandals he was wearing, making him fall to his the grass hard on his back.

Wide eyed as the kunai wielder tried to impale his head, Lee quickly reacted by a precise kick in to the Oto-nin's leg, making the stab just miss his face as the sound nin fell back with a pained grunt. Rolling to the side to avoid another attempted stabbing from one of the other two, Lee desperately tried to gain some ground as he continued to roll away, not even attempting to recollect his nun-chucks while doing so .

Seeing however he wasn't going to get that distance this way, Lee pushed himself up mid roll to go airborne, surprising the closest assailant chasing him with a round house kick straight across the jaw knocking the grown man off his feet with a spit full of blood flying across his mouth from the powerful hit.

Lee landed on his mostly dried hands now in an attempt to avoid slipping yet again, as the final shinobi made a beeline towards him. Standing in time, Lee kept his feet glued to the spot as he used his upper body to dodge hit after hit, before countering with a blazing fast palm thrust into the opponent's chest, effectively knocking the wind out of the man as he flew a good few feet back.

Breathing in a fresh lung full of air at last from the pause in the assault, Lee looked down at his sandals, 'I cannot move or fight in this condition. Yosh.'

Taking advantage that the three shinobi were disabled for the moment, Lee knelt down to get to work on removing his sandals. He kept a cautious eye on the other person that he guessed was the Oto-nin's leader in case he took advantage of Lee's state. To Lee's surprise, he only met a bored pair of irises staring right back at him.

'So he isn't going to get involved…'

Putting that mystery behind him, Lee, now bare foot stood on the moist grass, testing his balance with a quick jog on the spot. Satisfied he was now balanced, Lee formed a smirk as he fell back into his stance, "It would appear fighting in my current state is too large of a handicap for me. My apologies for such an untrained means of fighting, allow me to redeem myself."

Finally recovered from Lee's initial counter, the three shinobi blinked.

Did Lee just apologise to them for fighting without style?

"You little shit, do not underestimate us!" One of the Oto-nin growled, dashing forward only to be caught completely off guard when Lee in a blur shot right towards him. The shinobi couldn't even react in time to the solid combination of punches and kicks as Lee finished him off with a lightning fast elbow to the nose.

The other two didn't have time to gawk as Lee was already upon them before the first Oto-nin had hit the ground. While they emitted their cries of pain, the still watching leader's right eye twitched a fraction in disgust, "Hopeless…"

"So I see you all lack discipline, you need to train harder if you are to truly shine I'm afraid." Lee stated with that grin still present, but suddenly bolted back to the first Oto-nin he defeated when he sensed movement from the person he was cautious of.

Lee only just made it in time standing over the person as he grabbed the offending kunai baring hand from digging into the man's skull by the wrist. Lee held a firm glare into those heartless blue eyes, "Interesting, That is quite some impressive speed."

"What is it you were intending to do?" Lee demanded, as the man's face finally changed from neutral to a sadistic smirk.

"I'm disposing of the trash of course."

Lee's wide eyes amused the person, "Y-You would kill your own comrade!"

"These piles of filth are nothing but a hindrance, it is best to just remove them before they become the death of you."

Risking for one fraction of a second to break eye contact, Lee stared at the armour wearing Oto-nin he discovered dead when he came out of the darkness.

The chilling realisation finally sunk in, as Lee glared in outrage, "I will not allow such an unforgivable act of betrayal!"

"Heh, you talk big now don't you?"

Lee ended the discussion with a swift kick into the person's abdomen, which on impulse made Lee smirk at the sound of a grunt, 'Yosh, this will be-'

Lee's cocky thoughts were ever harshly cut off when the person before him 'poofed' out of existence, soon being replaced by one of the Oto-nin Lee previously defeated.

'Kawarimi!'

"Your pride has led you to believe I am of the same calibre of the trash here."

Lee span around to see the completion of a seal chain, "Katon, hosenka no jutsu!" Seeing the glowing waves of small fireballs flying towards him, Lee zigzagged in between them, scooping up his nun-chucks on the way. Lee ducked under the last fireball, as he was face to face with the strange shinobi again.

Not allowing his opponent a chance to counter, Lee executed an entire combo with his nun-chucks against the stunned target. After the fifth blow, Lee questioned why his hits felt so awkward.

His eyes yet again shot wide in seeing the figure of the man he thought he was bashing morphed into a human sized amphibious creature of the beast earlier, 'W-What is this?'

Lee back flipped away from the creature, as his eyes saw a great long tongue shoot towards him like how he was captured before. This time however, Lee was ready for it. With a graceful jump to the side, Lee watched as the elastic like tongue flung back into the creatures mouth, leading to the man standing next to the beast with a held seal.

"The salamander. Such a brilliant summon."

Lee blinked in bafflement, while recovering back into his stance, "You were correct earlier, my pride led to me becoming cocky. What a childish and careless mistake to overcome me."

"How interesting." The man replied back at Lee's self-criticism.

Rubbing the sweat off his head from the intense heat, Lee spared a glance around him. Small parts of the area were set alight in flames from the jutsu earlier. Hopefully the smoke rising would get the others attention, at least if they were close by.

Before Lee returned his focus, he mouthed out a curse, 'The people!' The man with a sickening smirk watched as Lee shot across the field towards the downed Oto-nin.

"It appears you indeed are right, Orochimaru-sama…"

Lee was only mere feet away from one of the Oto-nin, before his shocked eyes saw the sizzling smoke trail emit from the man's chest, 'W-When did he? EXPLOSIVE NOTES!'

Three simultaneous explosions echoed throughout the field, as Lee covered his still wide eyes in shock to the roaring flames now before him. The man's sickening laugh didn't shake him from his pure disbelief.

"-Konoha ninjas are so soft hearted it makes me sick!"

The constant thrilled and sadistic laughter of the man behind Lee only made his eyes twitch, as his still stunned eyes met those satisfied blue eyes, "I like that expression you are giving me."

Lee's shock finally faded away, as he harshly tore off the bald cap to fully reveal his black hair, "What is your name?"

Still chuckling, the man responded, "I'm Taiga Kano, subordinate and loyal servant to Orochimaru-sama."

"I see…"

Lee then formed a face full of determination and anger, "I'm Rock Lee, and I shall come at you with the full force of my strength so you will never do something so heartless ever again."

"HAHA! Still talking such meaningless words over nothing. They were your enemies in case you forgot in that thick skull of yours."

"It does not matter! They were your comrades! People that trusted you with their lives in a life or death situation! When they were defeated, instead of aiding them as any comrade should, you killed them!"

"Hehehe- Konoha-nin are such amusing people…they are also so pitiful."

'Gai-sensei, please approve that I must use that jutsu…the renge!' As Lee was preparing himself, it started to rain, making the wild fire around them hiss in defiance.

Kano raised both his hands as if to embrace the rainfall as he gleamed wide at how it went from a light shower to soon a heavy downpour, "How intriguing. This is quite unfortunate for you…you cannot defeat me in the rain."

Lee shook off his bafflement to the comment, as he shot across the distance in a second and tried to kick Kano up into the air. He gasped though when his foot met nothing but air. Kano had disappeared completely, along with the creature too.

"H-How-"

"Do you do anything else but taijutsu?" The voice from behind him made Lee turn to only be met with a whiplash of the beast's tail, the force sending him flying. Lee quickly recovered mid-air and gracefully landed on his feet, ignoring the scaled bleeding outline of the tail still marked on his face.

A smug Kano was now standing atop of the salamander, which had tripled in size. 'H-How was he able to move so fast to avoid renge? W-Was that shunshin no jutsu? This guy…He's strong…'

Rifling through seals, Kano snickered, "I tire of you already, I must report this failure to Orochimaru-sam-"

"DYNAMIC ENTRY!"

Came a voice from behind Kano, who turned to show surprise to seeing a spandex wearing jounin about to collide with him. Lee gaped when both the salamander and Kano disappeared, leaving nothing but an extra heavy downpour of rain as Gai flew right through it.

Unfazed by the bizarre jutsu, Gai landed and span around at attention, "That was the hidden rain villages shunshin no jutsu, and that summon…"

"Gai-sensei!"

"It is relieving to my spirits to see I had made it in time. Tenten and Sakura are protecting the crew while I investigated the smoke we saw." Kano reappeared before both Gai and Lee, still proudly standing atop of his summon almost as if he was a great king.

Gai still held no such shock as his student did, "How do you possess 'his' summon?"

Kano's smirk perked, "I do not know what you are talking about-"

"Do not lie! I may never have witnessed it with my own eyes, but even I recognise that creature."

Gai then pointed his finger accusingly at Kano, "Why do you have Hanzo of the salamanders' summon? Hanzo is not a man to share his abilities with anyone, how is this possible?" Kano merely laughed as he ran through seals, but paused as his eyes looked up in interest that the rain was beginning to settle.

After his brief pause, he ran through another set of seals, "I shall take my leave, jounin, Rock Lee. I'm sure we will meet again."

Soon after Kano had stopped speaking, both himself and the Salamander 'poofed' out of existence, leaving Lee and Gai standing in the empty field alone. By now the rains intensity had reduced to that of a light shower. Lee's eyes hung to the soot and ash all around them, as he clenched his fists tightly.

'Enemies or not, they were defenceless, I couldn't save them from Kano…Damn it!' Gai dropped his posture once he had confirmed Kano truly was gone, and turned to see his student's deflated state.

If it were not for the rain, Gai could have sworn his student had tears running down his face, "What happened, Lee?"


Lee's downed attitude appeared contagious to everybody for the remainder of the mission. There was little enthusiasm present when the shinobi had begun their journey home. The group were taking their time back, as they were walking down a stray road along the countryside. Gai was leading them, with Lee just behind him walking at firm attention, while Sakura and Tenten were tailing further in the back.

Sakura's concern still was present since Lee had returned, "Not that I wish to sound terrible Tenten, but why is Lee-san so effected by this? They were enemies."

"That's just how Lee always has been, even on missions he was the same. To him those people were already defeated. There could have been any more of a better fate to them than death. It really is Lee's honour that is making him feel this way."

Sakura rubbed her neck blankly, "Shouldn't one of us try and cheer him up? I mean he has been quite down ever since."

Tenten perked an eyebrow while grinning, "Who says he is down?"

"Huh?"

Sakura looked to the spandex wearer in bafflement, trying to see if there was something she missed. Lee was standing firmly upright as he marched, with his tight fists by his side.

Now seeing it, Tenten's grin widened, "Lee is more strong-minded than ever right now."

Even if Tenten couldn't see her teammates face, she knew that Lee had a fire burning in his strong onyx eyes, 'Taiga Kano…'


"WHAT?" Shouted Tsunade in bafflement.

The team had now returned to Konoha, and Gai had just filled her in on what they had witnessed.

Shaking her head clear from a sudden memory, she asked yet again, "Are you certain it was the Salamander?"

"Without even a moment of hesitation Hokage-sama." Gai responded.

Leaning back in her chair, Tsunade's eyes found the ceiling, "That is most certainly something I cannot believe. Hanzo never is one to share anything, especially his own summoning contract. Hell, that guy doesn't even trust his own family. To think this man is with Orochimaru as well…"

"Begging your pardon Hokage-sama, but who is Hanzo?" Lee asked, as the hokage found his eyes.

"Hanzo is the leader of Amegakure, and a very powerful ninja at that. He was a major factor during the second great shinobi war against Konoha…he also was the man responsible for awarding my team the title of the legendary sannin. Other than that the man literally is paranoid to the extreme. He trusts nobody, and is a man that lusts for power and control of his country. The creature you encountered was a part of the Salamander contract…his salamander contract."

"Couldn't we communicate with Amegakure to clarify about this person, Shisho?"

"If I told you just how hard that simple task is you would not believe me, Sakura."

Tsunade answered, feeling she should add, "As I said, Hanzo is so paranoid, that unless you have an official reason for even stepping into his village, you will be apprehended. Their village is near impenetrable with some of the most over the top defences in place I have ever heard of. Even a simple messenger bird will be targeted if they are suspicious of it. However more relevant as to why that won't be possible is because there is no way in hell they would share information of one of their own going rogue unless it was something very important."

Sitting up straight now, Tsunade decided to move on, "We will have to investigate into this matter ourselves, Oto and this Taiga Kano cannot be ignored. Not when it's my shinobi that are being put at risk."

For the first time in the debriefing, Tsunade formed a grin, "Putting that behind us though, your mission was a success. Excellent work, all of you."

With the meeting ended, the temporary team exited the Hokage's office. Gai abruptly dropped his official status and already was beaming at a stunned Sakura, "So now it is time for you to quiz our buzzing minds about what we feel in regards to my glorious and spunk filled student!"

Tenten for some reason welcomed Gai's exaggerated enthusiasm since despite how ridiculous sounded, it sure did brighten the mood.

Recovering at last, Sakura nodded, "Y-Yes that is correct, I will need to speak to both you and Tenten for your evaluation."

Lee brought himself into the conversation, "I shall be at the training field if you need me."

Gai clenched his fist with a sparkly teeth revealing grin, "Such dedication Lee! This shall most certainly be mentioned in your outstanding evaluation!"


AN:Again sorry for the huge delay (I think I have written that with every single chapter update).

Please read and review, feedback certainly motivates me to write much more often.