Chapter 448 - 133

Chapter 133: The Blooming of Rock LeeGaara was kicked high into the air by Rock Lee, but unexpectedly, because Gaara had coated his skin with sand at that moment, his body had become quite heavy.Therefore, this kick did not send him flying very high; without sufficient height, the Front Lotuscould not be executed, but Rock Lee had his own way.He appeared to have cast off the shackles of gravity, unleashing a series of flying kicks in mid-air. Gaara was kicked to the height Rock Lee desired, and the sand protecting him still could not keep up with his speed. Afterward, Rock Lee appeared instantly behind him.Subsequently, the bandages that had been fluttering and scattering like wild seemed to receive an order; they rapidly retracted, binding Gaara tightly together.Rock Lee held him and began to rotate at high speed. Guy pressed his palms together, praying that this move would completely finish off the boy from the Hidden Sand Village, because he knew that even an ordinary Front Lotus caused immense damage to the body.However, his impression of Rock Lee was a bit too rigid, for with the appearance of Naruto, the Rock Lee of this moment was much stronger than in the original trajectory.At the very least, he was now fully capable of enduring the tremendous burden that the Front Lotus placed on his body.Precisely because of this, Gaara had no chance to use a Substitution Jutsu. Helpless, he controlled the sand in advance to condense on the ground below, preparing to take this move head-on.Rock Lee naturally noticed this situation. Come to think of it, when he used this move on Dosu, it was precisely because the opponent was prepared that his Front Lotus had returned without success.Yet even so, Rock Lee had no other good options now. The Front Lotus had already formed and was about to land; no matter what, he had to give it a try.He slammed into the ground while holding Gaara, kicking up a massive cloud of dust. Even the competition arena suffered a great degree of damage, leaving a huge crater in the center of the field.Rock Lee was the first to jump out of the smoke. He knelt on one knee, panting heavily, but his gaze remained fixed ahead, as if he wanted to see Gaara's condition.The smoke slowly dissipated, and the crowd was finally able to see the situation inside; Gaaraappeared in their line of sight.He saw that his so-called "Absolute Defense" sand armor had fallen off for the most part. He looked extremely disheveled, with even a trace of blood hanging from the corner of his mouth."As expected of Naruto's underling, your strength is truly impressive to have actually been able to injure me. However, this is where it ends. Naruto, if I defeat him now, you should be satisfied, right!" Gaara thought to himself as he slowly raised his left hand.Under his control, sand like a giant wave began to gather and continuously attacked Rock Lee. Gaarawanted to use this wide-range method to make it impossible for him to dodge.Although Rock Lee was able to endure the pain brought about by the Front Lotus, the exhaustion from executing this technique was unavoidable.Under Gaara's relentless attacks, Rock Lee could only barely cope, and from time to time, he would still be hit. Now, anyone with a discerning eye could see that if things continued like this, Rock Lee's defeat would be unavoidable.As his physical strength declined, the number of times Rock Lee was hit by the sand increased, but every time he fell, he would stubbornly stand up to face the battle again.Although Gaara already had the idea of ending the match, he still remembered Naruto's instructions to him, so his attacks were particularly measured.He hoped that through this method, he would let Rock Lee suffer a bit and then voluntarily concede, but he didn't expect him to be so tenacious, having an attitude of continuing to fight as long as he wasn't dead.While attacking, Gaara also looked toward Naruto, thinking to himself: "Naruto, this underling of yours is unexpectedly tenacious!""What should I do? If I don't kill him, I'm afraid others will soon see through the truth. You really have given me a difficult problem!"Thinking of this, Gaara decided to increase the intensity of his attacks a bit more. He wanted to make Rock Lee lose the ability to resist directly, so that the match could end.But what he didn't notice was that at this moment, Guy, seeing his beloved student constantly being knocked away, did not have a trace of worry on his face; instead, he was staring at Rock Lee with a gaze full of anticipation and encouragement."No, you'll die if you go on like this!" Sakurashouted loudly from the stands toward the field, but in the next second, she was stunned.Gaara's surefire attack had actually been dodged by Rock Lee, and in the subsequent battle, Gaara's sand could not hit him once, only leaving a pile of small pits on the ground.The other people from Konoha in the stands said happily: "Rock Lee's body seems to have recovered! Look, he hasn't been hit even once."Guy said with a smile: "It's not that he's recovered, but rather he's even faster than before. Rock Lee has already forced the opponent into a desperate situation. The Lotus of Konoha will bloom once again!"Hearing this, Kakashi, who had not spoken the whole time, was moved. He turned his head and asked Guy: "Oh? Could it be that you have already...?"Guy closed his eyes, nodded, and said: "It is just as you think.""Then that means that child, who is still a Genin, has already learned the Eight Gates? And can he open the internal gates to execute the Hidden Lotus?""That's right!" Might Guy opened his eyes and said firmly.Kakashi's expression looked somewhat serious. He continued to ask: "How could this be? When you taught this technique to Naruto, I only questioned that he was too young, but I had no other objections.""But you should know that Rock Lee and Narutoare not the same. How could you easily teach this technique to him? Which gate can he open to now?""The Fifth Gate!"As he spoke, Kakashi immediately moved his forehead protector up and began to use his Sharingan to observe the movements of the Chakra and meridians in Rock Lee's body.He discovered that, just as he had thought, Rock Lee indeed appeared to be about to use the Eight Gates.Sakura, who was between Kakashi and Might Guy, was very confused. She asked: "Wait a minute, what exactly are the Eight Gates and the Hidden Lotus you are talking about? Can someone explain it to me!"In fact, Neji on the side was also very curious and wanted to understand, but he just hadn't asked. However, at this moment, Kakashi clearly did not want to pay attention to Sakura. He did not speak, but continued to observe Rock Lee on his own, which made Sakura very embarrassed.Finally, seeing this, Guy had to speak up. Taking advantage of Sakura's question, he began to introduce the Eight Gates technique to everyone.