Chapter 52 - 47

(Note: I'll just skip the other fights. I don't want to drag this as long as it is.)

After a few moments, Gai, Neji, and Tenten returned to the hall since it was still not over for Team Gai. There's still Lee, who's really eager to fight in the stage.

The next fight was between Gaara and Rock Lee.

At first, you could see Gaara completely dominating the battle. Rock Lee couldn't hit him no matter what he did because of the auto-sand defense mechanism of his.

That is until Lee dropped the weights on his legs, which was restraining his speed this whole time. At first, some people mocked him because of that but when he dropped his weights on the ground, they were shocked. Not only the ground caved in when the weights landed, but it also cause a huge amount of dust to rise up from the ground. To hold that much weight on his legs, even Hikaru was quite impressed by this simple feat... Well, as impressed as a nearly immortal being with almost overpowered strength could.

Truthfully, Hikaru is like a living god in this world right now. He's stronger than Madara and Hashirama combined, can destroy an entire mountain if he wanted to, heck, he could even separate the oceans if he's given the chance. The only thing that poses a threat to him right now are the tailed beasts. But that is until he maximize his stats. He would literally be a living god by then.

That weird disembodied voice said to him that once he passes the limits of his stats, I.e 99, he would transform into a god. He would still be undead but he will have the strengths of a god. No one, absolutely no one would be able to defeat him in the multiverse except the other gods, once he passes the limits of his stats.

He would become a divine being, albeit still capable to be killed but a divine being nonetheless. Though, death was never a problem for him anyway, he could simply die and be back in the next second.

In short, he may be the most overpowered being in the entire multiverse, his potential at least.

All of the things he's doing right now is simply for... Azumi. The Wave, money, to ensure that she won't die in the exams, he joined it. Everything is simply for Azumi to live a better life, though sometimes, some of his emotions gets in the way. He won't deny the fact that he's simply too overprotective over her, I mean, if somebody even tries to touch a piece of her hair, he would literally kill them.

But it doesn't change the fact that she's happy right now. She has everything, all she needs is right there. He simply cares too much about her.

Anyway, back on the fight.

Barrage after barrage, Lee continued assaulting Gaara with his taijutsu and again and again, he was stopped by Gaara's auto-sand defense mechanism. But Gaara could see them, his moves, he can see them. He was trained in taijutsu too, when he was young by Yashamaru. He later killed him when he tried to kill him when he was sitting on top of a building, looking at the moon.

'He's fast, I'll give him that. But since the Hokage put some sort of seal on me, my mind has been clearer and more productive. I'm better than ever. Now, it's time to show him my real strength.' Gaara thought behind his sand defense as Lee continued his assault.

With a thought, Gaara exploded his sands everywhere, some of it got into Lee's eyes, making him blind for a moment.

Taking his time, Gaara removes his sand armor for faster movements.

He took a deep breath as everybody felt the air changed into some kind of pressure. He slowly formed a taijutsu stance, which is kinda mixed between crane and mantis style. The giant gourd behind his back transformed into sand before it slowly crawled towards his arm, slowly forming into some kind of arm guard.

Most of the contestants were surprise to see him form a weird taijutsu stance. But his siblings were not surprised at all because they have already seen how good his taijutsu is.

Rock Lee finally got the sands out of his eyes, and saw his opponent ready to strike him with the two of his hands.

"What!?" Lee dodged his attack, only for it to continue. He couldn't get a breathing space because of how fast Gaara was.

The sheer agility of Gaara's attacks bugged Lee's mind. He tried finding a way out, he even tried moving backward but Gaara's complex foot work always manages to catch him.

'He's fast, the only way to defeat him is by using the inner gates but that would only be my trump card. I'll use the reverse lotus to defeat him.' Lee planned in his thoughts as he continued to dodge Gaara's attacks.

Suddenly, when he stepped onto Gaara's sands on the ground, it suddenly gripped his legs tightly with no chance of breaking it.

"What!?" Lee reacted as he felt the sands below him tightening.

Gaara took this chance to rapidly attack him with short and graceful attacks on his chest, and after Gaara was finished with his assault, he then spread out his arms before he back flipped and kicked Rock Lee on his chin, resulting him being kicked away by Gaara.

The son of the Kazekage landed gracefully on his feet as he saw Lee vomiting blood at a distance.

Gaara looked at him and said coldly, "Give it up, you're clearly no match for me. I have my sands everywhere on the stage, making me able to make traps on a whim. You're strong, that's for sure but you just encountered the wrong opponent."

Rock Lee vomited blood before finally standing up as he wipes his mouth with hsi wrist. He smirked and said, "I will never give up! Because that is my ninja way!"

On top of the stage.

"I can't believe it. He really mastered two styles of the legendary martial arts! The Crane and Mantis Style!' Gai exclaimed in shocked.

Neji looks at his teacher in confusion and asks, "Crane and Mantis Style? What are those?"

"Those two styles were created after observing those two animals for almost a decade. They then turned it into a fighting style. But for a kid no older than 14 to master those two, he must be really talented. Coupled with his ability to control sands, he will become a fearsome monster in the future. But right now, Lee is in a total disadvantage. His opponent knows two special taijutsu and can use chakra, while Lee only has his taijutsu." Gai explained to his student.

Neji turned his head to look at the stage again and muttered, "Lee..."

Back on the stage.

"I have no choice!" Lee roared as he crossed his arm.

"Hachimon Tenkou, Kai! Kaimon! Kyumon! Seimon! Shomon!" With each gate released, the chakra around him slowly formed into an invisible force as it raised the earth below him. The wind spiraled in the stage with him in the center.

In one go, he opened 4 gates!

His hair rose up and his skin turned red while the pupils in his eyes were gone.

"Prepare yourself, Gaara!" Rock Lee suddenly disappeared from Gaara's field of vision.

"What!?" Gaara reacted too late as he was suddenly flung into the air before his sand defense could form around him.

Rock Lee had kicked him into the air!

Lee then kicked him again in mid-air before appearing again behind him in mid-air as he treated Gaara like ping pong ball.

When he kicks him, he would appear where he kicked Gaara and kicks him again in mid-air.

Since he had no sand armor on, he took the damages head on. Thankfully, Gaara's body's quite strong thanks to all the strength training exercises he did back then., so he could tank some of Lee's attacks.

On the stands.

"Go Lee, make your youth shine the brightest!!" Gai yelled to encourage his student.

Kakashi's face grew serious as he said to Gai, "You really taught him that, Gai? You know how dangerous it is. If he pushes his body too far, he might just die, Gai."

Gai then stops his cheering and replied back, "You can't tell me what to do with my student, Kakashi. Lee wanted this, so I taught him all the things I know, resulting him being one of the world's greatest taijutsu users."

"But at what cost, Gai! From what I've seen, he just activated four gates in one go! Do you know how much stress is gonna be put in his body once that the gates dies?" Kakashi berated him angrily.

"You have no right, Kakashi. He's my student, he was prepared to do anything at any cost just to become a great shinobi." Gai said, slightly angry at Kakashi for berating him.

Kakashi just kept silent and did not talk much anymore. He just continued to watch the battle in front of him.

Sakura, meanwhile, is between the two of them. It was too much of a pressure as she felt the anger of these two. She then moved away next to her teammates.

At the fight.

'Am I really going to lose?' Gaara thought as he shielded himself again against Rock Lee's punch, only to be blown away.

His face was filled with blood and his body was full of bruise due to all the hits he's taken from Rock Lee. They were in mid-air, so he couldn't use most of his sands. He needed just one chance, just one chance is enough to beat Lee.

And it came.

Rock Lee wraps him around with the bandages on his hands and he then rotated him fast in mid-air before crashing down towards the ground.

"Reverse Lotus!" Rock Lee yelled his technique.

Boom!

A huge part of the center stage was broken into a thousand pieces as the both of them crashed towards it.

Rock Lee jumps off just a little away from Gaara before his inner gates disappeared, returning him to his normal look.

On the center of the debris made by the Reverse Lotus of Lee, was Gaara who seems to be unconscious.

Everyone on Konoha's side smiled, seeing that the kid won but their joys were short lived when Gaara suddenly opened his eyes widely before slowly standing up on top of a cloud of sands.

"That was dangerous, if I haven't used my sand to form a cushion underneath me I would've broke a lot of bones in my body." Gaara said as stood on top of his sands. He seems to be weaker though, his breathing pattern seems to have hastened a lot. On top of that, his body was filled with injuries.

Meanwhile, Lee was laying on the ground, already nearing unconscious. A lot of his bones were already broken from using too much of his inner gates.

In short, his extremely vulnerable right now.

Gaara looks down at him and said, "But seeing you already so weak and vulnerable, I'll give you a chance to give up. You're already too weak. A simple sand attack could kill you right now."

"Lee, just give up!" Gai shouted from the stands.

Lee slowly stood up and you can clearly hear him chuckling, albeit weakly.

"He...he...he... give up? Those words are not in my dictionary. I'm never giving up, 'cause that is my ninja way!" Lee shouted at the top of his lungs, emmiting an invisible pressure that Gaara could only feel.

Gaara stared at him coldly and said with a freezing voice, "Then so be it. Die."

With one wave of his hand, his sands came rushing towards Rock Lee, ready to crush him into mincemeat.

Whoosh! Boom!

Gai appeared in front of Lee and vanished the sands with a swipe of his hand.

"Stop, he has already loss. There's no need to continue this battle." Gai said to Gaara.

He only snorted and turned his back away before he returned to his team.

Gai then went down at the height of Lee, and was about to speak, when he saw no signs of consciousness in Lee's eyes.

Earlier, when he spoke those words, he was already unconscious. Only with pure will power was he able to speak those words and emit an invisible pressure towards Gaara.

Gai hugged his student and cried, "What have I done?"