Chapter 52 - 47 (1/2)

(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.