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Temari snorted. "Tch. That speed won't help him. He can't even land a hit."
Kankuro, silent beside her, was watching more closely now. The flow of sand, the rhythm of Lee's assault, wasn't ordinary.
There was something strange about how Gaara's sand moved.Ā
Back on the floor, Lee launched a powerful kick, only for the sand to rise again, slamming against his foot with the force of a hammer.
Lee jumped back just in time, but not far enough.
A mass of sand split from the defense, lashing out like a wave.
Lee rolled, narrowly avoiding the assault, kunai flashing from his hand as he tried to tear through the attack. He leapt again, flipped, and kicked, trying to find any opening.
But it was futile asĀ Gaara didn't move even once.
The eerie silence was broken as Gaara finally spoke.
His voice was hollow, flat, and cold. "Entertain me a bit moreā¦"
His eyes glinted faintly with bloodlust. "ā¦There's not enough blood."
In that moment, the sand roared to life.
It surged with fury, its movement no longer defensive. It became violent and aggressive.
It struck toward Lee with killing intent, spinning tendrils of grit that could crush stone.
Lee jumped to the side, but the sand rose beneath his feet.
"Guhā!"
It caught his ankle and yanked him into the air like a puppet. In a blur of motion, it swung him with brutal force.
CRACK!
Lee smashed into the wall with bone-shaking impact.
The audience gasped as debris cracked and fell.
Up in the viewing deck, Tenten's hands clenched against the railing.
"Leeā¦!"
Gai's fists were trembling, but his face remained stoic and proud.Ā
On the ground, Lee gritted his teeth. His body screamed, but his will refused to falter.
As the sand surged toward him again, he reacted and backflipped again to dodge.Ā
He danced away, but a shard of sand slipped underneath and tripped him.
"Tch!"
He hit the ground, but as the sand dove downward to crush him, he exploded upward in a massive back-jump, landing lightly on the topmost edge of the giant stone Tiger Seal that decorated the battle floor.
The two locked eyes across the distance.
"LEE!" Gai's voice boomed across the arena like a gong.
He raised a hand, a shining thumbs-up. "Take them off!"
Lee blinked. He knew exactly what his sensei meant.
"B-But Gai-sensei!" He called back. "You said I should only do that when it was to protect someone preciousā!"
Gai smiled with a wide and proud smile.
"That's all right!" He roared and gave a thumbs up.Ā "I give you permission!"
At that moment, Lee's heart surged, like a cork pulled from a pressurized bottle, joy and gratitude burst free.
His face lit up with a blinding smile and he shouted.
"YES!"
Everyone turned as they saw him bend down. His fingers grasped the thick bands at his ankles. He undid the locks and removed them.
Two large, wraps consisting of multiple weights, no longer bound to his body, were held up for all to see.
Temari blinked and muttered.Ā "Are thoseā¦ weights?"
Ino, wide-eyed, leaned forward. "He was wearing thoseā¦ this entire time?"
Lee didn't speak and simply dropped them.
BOOOOOM!
The moment the weights hit the stone floor, the hall seemed to explode.
The dust and debris shot upward like a geyser. The tatami floor cracked, shattering into pieces as the smoke and splinters scattered across the room.
The force of the drop left a crater several feet deep.
Shikamaru's jaw dropped, even Neji's eyes blinked in disbelief.
Kankuro stepped back andĀ Temari's mouth was slightly open now, the smirk long gone.
Sasuke stared at the crater. His eyes darted briefly to Naruto, who stood calmly watching, arms folded.
'Just how strong are these guysā¦?'
Naruto seized the moment while everyone's attention was glued to the shock of Lee dropping his weights. Amidst the collective gasp and the ground-shaking impact, he subtly activated his control over the metal particles concealed within his clothing.
With a flicker of intent and barely a movement, the particles slipped free and slithered across the arena like fine dust, vanishing seamlessly into Gaara's sand.
It was a flawless execution. The timing was impeccable. No one, not even the the sharp-eyed Jonin like Kakashi noticed the maneuver.
Even Gaara, cloaked within his sand's protection, remained oblivious.
Naruto smirked inwardly.
Now let's see how well that sand protects youā¦ when it's laced with my metal.
Just then, Gai's voice rang out like thunder.
"GO, LEE!"
Lee didn't wait and vanished from his spot. One moment he was on the tiger statue and the next moment he was gone in aĀ blur.
And Gaara, for the first time since stepping into the arena, blinked with confusion.
That was all he caught before the wind shifted too fast.
CRACK!
A blow landed. Not on the sand, not on a clone, but on Gaara himself. A punch, so clean and precise, it bypassed the sand shield by exploiting a millisecond opening.
The shock reverberated in Gaara's skull.
'He's too fastā¦' Gaara's thoughts trembled. 'Faster than the sand.'
But before Gaara could recover, Lee followed by second kick.
WHAM!Ā
BOOM!Ā
Lee moved like a green bullet, his feet never still, never predictable. Each strike faster than the last. His form was razor-sharp with no wasted movement.
He was the embodiment of Taijutsu perfection.
Sasuke's eyes widened. 'So this is Bushy Brow when he's serious...'
The silence that settled across the hall was unnatural with tension, as all eyes followed the movements of one green-clad figure standing against a wall of sand.
He had actually struck Gaara and not just once. His fists, honed by discipline and tempered by his own blood, had found their mark through the armor of sand that no one else had even come close to breaching.
The audience gasped as Gaara reeled back, a visible crack forming across his gourd and cheek, red smearing across pale skin.
From the railings above, Temari and Kankuro froze.
"He... he injured Gaara?" Temari said in disbelief, her voice barely above a whisper.
Kankuro clenched the rail, jaw tight. "This kid... what is he?"
Even the Jonin were shaken.
Kakashi narrowed his eyes, not just surprised, but was clearly impressed. "So this is Lee, huh?"
Sasuke watched the match with rigid focus. "That speed... it's faster than when he came at me before. He's leveled up again."
But Lee was far from done. He blurred forward, again and again, each strike hammering the barrier of sand like relentless thunder against a crumbling cliff.
Boom... Boom... Boom...
Gaara's sand struggled to keep up, swirling around him in ragged trails, like an entity fighting for its master's survival.
"YOUTH IS... EX-PLOSION!!" Gai roared from above, his voice thundering across the coliseum with uncontained pride.
The words struck Lee like lightning as his eyes sparked, his aura surged.
--- ā¦ ā¦ ā¦ ---
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