Chapter 32: Chapter 32 Rematch with Lee
It had been a couple of weeks and from the new training and D-Rank missions things were going well for Team 7. Although the new training on top of any old training was going well they all felt like they were getting much stronger now as well. They were even increasing how heavy the weights were at the moment, Sakura still had the lightest set but she was starting to catch up a bit more all the time. Right now they had just finished another mission, mainly walking some lady's dogs.
Although after the last big mission the team was glad to relax a bit, they were starting to feel like they needed a bit more of a challenge. At the moment they were just hanging out in a small alley wondering what to do next. Of course now all the genins were had weapon holsters, Naruto's was on his back, while Sasuke's was behind his lower back. Sakura had used the holders for her tonfas behind her back as well as it was the easiest place to keep them.
"Oh man I'm so bored," Naruto whined, "Why couldn't we have trained or done more missions? Plus Teams 8 and 10 are busy with their own missions. This just sucks."
"Well why didn't Kakashi-sensei wanted to continue with training Naruto?" Sakura asked him feeling just as bored. Although the training she was getting made her feel stronger, the fact that Anko was helping her with the weapons was something that she looked forward to and dreaded. The woman was good there was no question about that but the woman also was scary.
"I don't know," Naruto shrugged. Maybe his dad just needed some time but the only thing he said was that there was someone he needed to see and just disappeared.
"This is pointless," Sasuke said pushing himself off the wall. "We should train or something if not then I can go home and work on my fire jutsus."
Naruto felt like he needed to train too but he felt like he needed something different. They had been training together for two weeks now and it was kind of getting predictable. Maybe something new and unexpected was in order the only problem was that who would be up for some training/sparring? The others in their age group were all busy and it wasn't like any of the adults could spare anything.
Then it hit Naruto just who might be up for just that, if there was one teacher and student that would be up for something they would be.
"Oh hey I know just who to train with!" Naruto said excitedly. "I think they might still be in the village too and I know where they train!"
"Naruto slow down," Sakura yelled at him, "Who are you talking about?"
"Oh right sorry," Naruto scratched the back of his head slightly embarrassed. "Well you know Hinata-chan's cousin?"
Sakura nodded, she and the others had met the boy at Naruto's sometimes. He was kind of cold although Ino loved the boy's hair and was even a bit jealous of it as well. She remembered how the cool Hyuga boy had been surprised when Ino ran up to him begging for his secrets of his hair care.
"Yeah well Neji's team is a year ahead of us and he's been trained by Uncle Gai. Trust me he'd love to have his team go up against ours just because he's my dad's rival." There was another reason and that was because Naruto wanted another sparring match against Lee. With his new moves and skills he was now ready to take on the older boy.
Sasuke gave a small grunt, "What's so special about this group besides that you know them?"
Sasuke didn't really see anything important about this team, besides how could they challenge them? Although he wouldn't admit it out loud they were most likely the best team in their class. Sakura was proving to be better than he had originally thought and liked that she took her training seriously. Although he wished she would stop acting like a fan girl whenever he gave her attention it was seriously annoying. Plus Naruto had always been someone he had to push himself to stay ahead of as well.
Naruto knew what would sell Sasuke as a grin slowly spread behind his mask. "Oh they just have the Neji Hyuga who was last year's rookie of the year and is said to be a Hyuga prodigy. But I guess that's not going to interests you in the least. After all just because the guy might be even better than you-"
"What did you say?" Sasuke said coldly.
"What? He's a year older and after all the Hyuga are the most powerful clan now."
Sasuke grounded his teeth at that last comment, the only reason the Hyuga were so powerful was because Itachi killed off his clan. Plus he had to admit his ego was telling him that there was no way some Hyuga boy could be better than he was. Perhaps if Naruto wanted to train with this team he could also prove just who was the real prodigy in this village as well.
Naruto smirked seeing Sasuke thinking about it, he knew that he would never be able to pass up the chance to go at it with Neji if he found out about him. Plus that whole Hyuga/Uchiha rivalry was a sure fire way to get him to go. It was just like with his dad and Gai, if you knew what buttons to push then all you had to do was sit back and let nature take its course. After years of doing it with those two adults, doing this to Sasuke was just so much simpler.
"So," Naruto grinned at him, "what do you say? Wanna go and see for yourself how the great Hyuga fights? If he feels honoured he might let you watch."
Sasuke glared at Naruto and the masked boy knew he had him there.
"Just shut up and lead the way," Sasuke snapped.
So the young team were on their way to meet up with Team Gai and Naruto couldn't wait. Plus while walking he gave them a few heads up. They were kind of confused on why they weren't supposed to 'look directly at the green' whatever that meant. And also when he yelled out to turn away to do so if they didn't want more mental scarring over something that Naruto just kept saying was 'the most sickening and scary genjutsu in the world'. He didn't elaborate, he only shivered as he thought about it. Sakura was wondering what type of genjutsu could have that kind of effect? Well whatever it was she wanted to see what the big deal is and maybe she could learn a new one out of this.
-Team Gai Training Grounds-
Neji sighed as he was waiting with Tenten for Lee and Gai to get through another round of them yelling each other's name and hoping he didn't do the whole slow motion, running into the sun set thing. Although he and Tenten had long ago figured out how to tune them out when they got like this, they had to pay attention or get accidentally caught seeing that horrible display of theirs. He sighed in annoyance wondering how long this would take, he was getting bored.
He cast a look to see Tenten just as bored, but then again the girl was already ready for action. She was twirling a kunai around on the ring with a finger not even looking at it. Most would be nervous about that but he knew that her skills were better than most ninja with weapons, in fact they were amazing. Every weapon she picked up, it was like she had been training with it for years a true gift. Plus unlike most young Kunoichi she was actually focused on her skills and training. It was nice to have that for a change instead of the fan girls from his days at school. Like with the Uchiha he too had to have dealt with that for pretty much the same reasons he did.
Neji couldn't stand that kind of false worship and praise. So when Tenten was on the team he sighed a breath of release. He hadn't been sure of Lee since he was only able to pass the exam because he was handicapped so he had to take a special test. He passed at the bottom because of his inability to use ninjustu or genjutsu but the boy's determination was making up for it. He never admitted it but Lee was getting close to his own skills. Even with his 'handicap' Lee was proving a true challenge.
"How much longer?" Tenten whined.
"Don't know, they're very enthusiastic this morning." Neji sighed thinking that the two should switch to decaf if they got like this. It was then that his ears picked up on something coming up on them. He silently activated his eyes and focused on the sound. He was surprised by what he saw and he gave a slow sadistic smile on his face.
"Tenten, pervert at four o'clock. Angle it at twenty degrees." He grinned seeing her eyes widen and then get very furious. If there was one thing he found out it was that Tenten hated perverts, he wasn't sure why but apparently it had something to do with an incident where she had been at the woman's hot spring with her mother once. Then some kind of large white haired pervert had been caught peeping on them. Tenten never got a good look at the pervert as he was quickly chased off by the angry women but she had never been so embarrassed or humiliated in her life.
Tenten hefted the kunai a couple of times and then quickly turned and threw it.
"Hey!" a familiar voice yelled out as Naruto came out of the forest holding her kunai. "What the hell!? Are you two trying to kill me!?"
Tenten's eyes widen at that as she ran over trying to apologies. "Neji! Why did you tell me that there was a pervert in the forest?" She yelled at him.
"What he isn't? I remember you calling him that a few times while trying to kill him," Neji said as if it was nothing new. Tenten blushed remember how she had gone after Naruto after he showed off that forbidden jutsu in front of them. She had forgiven him of course but she did warn him if she ever saw him use that move she would kick his ass again.
Naruto hadn't thought that Neji had it him for something like this, maybe he was starting to rub off on the older boy. Well one good turn deserves another in his mind. He gently gave Tenten back her kunai and his hands rested on hers a little longer than normal.
"Well it's okay, I know that Tenten-chan wouldn't hurt me for real. Besides she one of best female ninja around and her skills with weapons are amazing. Plus she's one of the cutest girls too," with that he gave her a wink making the slightly older girl blush a bit before pulling her hand back.
This had several effects as Team 7 had come out in time to see this. First was Sasuke raising an eyebrow wondering what the hell was going on. Sakura instantly became jealous of how Naruto was flirting with this girl, and older girl at that. But the effect that it had on Neji was just the reaction he was hoping for. Neji's hands clenched so hard he could see them going white and the look in his eyes showed the he wanted to kill the masked boy.
Naruto knew that Neji had a crush on the girl and this was perfect evidence for it, sure Tenten was cute but he had other things in mind for a possible girlfriend. Although he did like using those lines he got from his dad on how to compliment a girl. She looked so cute blushing like that, anyway if this didn't get Neji off his butt and do something then someone else would ask out Tenten and then he'd be out of luck.
"Naruto-kun!" Came the voice of Gai as he walked up to them smiling. "I'm glad for a visit from you my most youthful friend, and I see you brought the rest of the team of my eternal rival as well."
"Naruto!" Lee said jumped over to the other boy, "I'm glad you came, I am eager for our rematch and I will not lose again to you as I've found a way around...that...move."
Lee gave a slight shuddered from it, although it was most unyougthful move it had been very effective. Plus he tried not to think on the image of that beautiful girl either. But then his eyes drifted over and they widened. Before Naruto could say a word Lee had just moved quickly to be in front of Sakura. He knelt down in front of her taking one of her hands.
"And this must be Sakura," Lee said with stars in his eyes. "You are just as beautiful as Naruto has claimed, no you are even more beautiful than that. Please go out with me! I will protect you with my life!"
Sakura was shocked by all of this, he was coming on pretty strong for her. He might have been cute if it wasn't for the hideous green suit he was wearing and she couldn't stop staring at those huge eyebrows. They looked like caterpillars on his face or something. She knew that she had to do something, she didn't want to break his heart or anything after all, Naruto was always nice to people even letting them down. She remembered how he let down several of the fan girls back at school and that was one of the reasons the girls liked him. Unlike Sasuke who had just ignored them, at least Naruto had been nice about it.
It was just one of the things that kind of rubbed off her over the years being friends with Naruto. She quickly looked around and he was too far away but Sasuke was right next to her. She quickly grabbed his arm in hers. "Sorry but I'm dating someone already."
Lee's mouth hung open as did Naruto.
'When did that happen!?' Naruto thought about seeing his crush locking arms with Sasuke. He knew that Sakura was a bit confused on who she liked more but when did she chose Sasuke? He felt a little depressed at losing to him in this and although he just wanted Sakura to be happy he had wished she had chosen him instead.
Sasuke wasn't sure what she was playing on but when he was about to object he felt her nails suddenly dig into his skin. He stopped himself from yelling and gave her a glare, she quickly leaned in and whispered something to him.
"Please just go with it, I don't want him to think he has a chance. I'll owe you one and you just have to name it Sasuke-kun." She quietly said.
He thought about it, normally he wouldn't even think about it but she was a teammate and lately he had been thinking on what that meant. All those stories that Kakashi told him of Obito (who by now Sasuke was sure that Obito was the most original Uchiha of all time) he had been thinking about what his team meant to him. Now Sakura was asking for help, although posing as her boyfriend wasn't something he would have liked to have done she did say anything.
He would have to think about it as he would ensure that he got something really good back in return. "Yeah, we're dating." He simply said as Lee hung in head in depression.
"Ah the power of youth is in you two, and fear not Lee there will be other opportunities for you to share your own youth with some lucky girl!" Gai proclaimed making Lee perk up a bit at that. Then he turned to Naruto who was glad he had on a mask at that point so no one could see his face.
"So Naruto why have you visited us this fine day?"
Naruto was brought out of his slight depression at the reason they were even there. "Oh yeah, well it was just that we were kind of bored and we were hoping that we could spar against your team. I know that I want to show off some new moves against Lee here. And don't worry I won't use that jutsu against you."
He quickly cast a nervous look to Tenten before looking back.
"Gai-sensei, please let us spar together. I to wish to test myself against Naruto again and I want to see how well we both have improved." Lee pleaded with Gai.
Gai thought about it and it wasn't a bad idea actually. It would help both teams improve and also could help them to become stronger for it.
So it was agreed that the teams would pair off for the sparing matches. Sakura against Tenten, Sasuke against Neji and Naruto and Lee were eager to go at it. Gai would oversee everything and his word was final, when he said to stop they were to stop. So with a raised hand he looked at all three ready to go and then he dropped his hand. The three sparring matches started off right away.
Sakura and Tenten were sizing each other up, Sakura pulled out her tonfas ready to give the girl a fight. Tenten smirked and from a scroll pulled out a set of her own, the older girl twirled them around with more confidence and speed then Sakura knew she had ever done.
"I hope you don't mind I never get to use these much and I'd love to spar against someone who is training to use them. When most ninja just use kunai and shurikens things get so boring, it's nice to meet another ninja that likes to fight with something more unique." Tenten smiled as she got ready.
Sakura struck out with her tonfa and wasn't surprised the girl was able to block and counter attack. Before the match Naruto gave her a warning that Tenten was a master of weapons, it was her specialty. This made Sakura realise that she had no chance against a weapons master but she wanted to improve herself and Anko always said to fight those stronger than you to improve.
So she fought back as both girls fought with the weapons, the clacking they made as the weapons hit was nearly a constant beat. Both girls twirling them, throwing out strikes and trying to go for any grapple moves with the weapons. Tenten was scoring more hits and was a bit disappointed, she had been hoping for more. Sakura knew that she wasn't fast enough and jumped away to give her some space.
"Giving up already?" Tenten asked.
"No I just need to take these off," and with that Sakura hit a simple latch on the new weights that let them dropped off easily. First her writs and then the ones at her ankles, now Sakura felt a lot more mobile, now she felt better. She came back at Tenten with a lot more speed and aggression now and the older girl was surprised. The blows were a lot harder now and she was surprised the younger girl had that kind of power to her hits.
The battle only intensified as the girls were moving all over the place trading blows, although Tenten did get in the most shots it wasn't as many now and Sakura's blows were getting better too. Tenten wasn't sure who taught the young girl to fight but it was a vicious style. There was some agility to it but the strikes were to do maximum damage with little effort. She would have to ask who taught her by the end of this.
With Neji and Sasuke, the two boys were already in a staring match, neither one wanted to be the one to make the first move until they felt they had an opening. Each of them were child prodigies of their clan, and their own clans had been rivals ever since the day the Hyuga came to Konoha. As the only two clans with powerful eye bloodlines of course rivalries would spring up, and of course many debated which was better, the Sharingan or the Byakugan.
"You will learn that there is reason that the Hyuga clan is the strongest in the village," Neji said to the dark haired boy.
"Hn, talk is cheap and I'll show you just why my clan was so feared and respected," Sasuke said back and started his charge. Neji and Sasuke stared off with taijutsu skills, Sasuke's Intercepting Fist styles against the Gentle Fist style of the Hyuga clan. Neji stayed where he was defending or deflecting the blows, while Sasuke's movements were more pronounced. The Hyuga style didn't have many kicks as it relied mostly on the hands and arms. The Intercepting Fist was a bit more open than that and allowed Sasuke more types of attacks.
He jumped up for a kick and wasn't surprised the other boy blocked it, but Sasuke spun and the heel of his foot made an arc in the air sweeping downward into a modified axe kick to Neji's head. But Neji saw this coming and threw his other forearm forward to block the downward kick. Both boys moved back after the attack and after a second of studying the other went back at it again.
Neji was striking out with lightning speeds with his fist trying to hit the Uchiha boy. Sasuke just focused on dodging the blows and it was working as Neji was getting a little frustrated.
Sasuke smirked at the boy, "You're eyes are said to see everything but that's not true. There is one thing that they can't see."
"And what is that?" Neji asked as they didn't stop the fighting.
"They can't see the future and with my eyes I can see every move you make before you do it," Sasuke smirked.
With his eyes he could see the subtle movements in his body telling him what his opponent was thinking of doing. He could see where the chakra was going into his body and it was like the other boy was moving slower. But Kakashi had explained that it was how his brain was interpreting the new information of his eyes. They were moving at the same speed only his perception of it was different, his mind was actually moving slightly faster than normal.
So with this he could 'see' where Neji wanted to strike and he made sure he wasn't anywhere in that area. The only problem for him though, was that he couldn't get past the boy's defence. Neji's eyes would see in a 360 degree arc, meaning that there was no angle that he could get through. There had to be a way through the defence but Sasuke couldn't see it.
There was another problem and that was he had to be careful of his attacks, any attack that he put in he had to be careful that Neji couldn't hit him back with his hands because he would shut them down, by attacking his chakra pathways. So if Taijutsu was out there was the other ways of fighting.
He jumped back throwing several kunai, Neji was surprised by the sudden change in tactics but took out two kunai of his own and easily blocked them. After all the practice with Tenten it would take a lot more than that to get through his defence. Sasuke yelled out as he charged with his sword in hand now, it would give him the reach while kept Neji away at a distance. Neji jumped back, he had seen the sword but hadn't thought the boy would be forced to bring it out, but it did make Neji smirk as he had forced him to use it.
Although with the sword Sasuke knew he couldn't use any hand seals for jutsus but with this he was keeping the Hyuga boy on his toes as all he had was kunai to block the blows of his sword. Although he was reluctant to admit it, the Hyuga was good. Neji was now seeing first hand why the Uchiha clan had gained its reputation but he refused to give up fighting.
Lee and Naruto were after each other as soon as Gai told them to start. Neither one was wasting any time already charging against each other. Both of them started off with just taijutsu like Sasuke and Neji had. Both boys were fast and furious as they're styles were designed to be that way. For Lee his Strong Fist style was used to create a lot of external damage to his opponent. Naruto's style was something more original as he had been working on it all his life. It was a mesh of several styles, things he learned from his dad, Anko and even Gai. It was powerful moves but it was also unpredictable as for Naruto he kept making things up on the fly all the time. Speed and manoeuvrability were key to it, as it made him hard to hit while on defence but when he switched to offence he had little in the way of defending.
It was complex but for Naruto it just fit him, he had yet to give it a name as he wanted something really cool for it.
Now both boys were eagerly going at it, trading blows with reckless abandon but both loving it. Naruto knew that he was no match for Lee with just limiting himself to taijutsu but he wanted to see how far he had come against someone like him. But Lee was just too fast and what bothered Naruto was that he knew the green clothed boy had on weights on his legs that were much heavier then his.
"Yosh, Naruto-kun you're abilities have gotten a lot better!" Lee proclaimed.
"Yeah but I'm still not a match for you," Naruto said back.
"Then please don't hold back I want you at your best," Lee told him.
"Okay it's your funeral," her smirked making over a dozen shadow clones. They all charged Lee, but he simply destroyed them one at a time. As Lee was doing this Naruto was thinking of his next move and called up one of his special shadow clones. This single clone jumped out in front of Lee and just stopped.
Lee was a little confused at the clone as it winked at him, and then suddenly exploded. The force was enough to send up dirt everywhere blinding the boy for the moment. Then he felt a kick to his front as Naruto had used that distraction to get in a flying kick on Lee.
"That was a most excellent move Naruto-kun, but I will not fall for it a second time!" Lee said charging Naruto again.
Naruto went into a set of hand seals before crying out his next jutsu, "Wind Style: Air armor!"
There was a green molding of air around his body, Lee's fist came flying and Naruto tried to dodge it. Lee had thought he would get a glancing blow until he felt that there was wind around Naruto. It seemed to deflect his fist even more and he saw the bandages on his arms starting to rip up. He jumped back avoiding a kick by Naruto.
Naruto smirked under his mask, "Like it? I just learned it. It's call air armor and it covers my body with wind. It's supposed to shred anything that comes in contact with it, but I'm still working on it. For now unless you hit me directly, you'll just slide off and you'll get damaged because of it."
Naruto was proud that he had managed to get some headway in the jutsu, although it was far from perfect. He was more ahead with the air blade but he didn't want to end up killing Lee by accident. His dad forbad him from using it in sparring until he had more control. But this would help even things out as Lee would be forced to aim for more direct hits and by the smiling form of Lee he was all up for the challenge.
Gai was proud of how well the genins were doing, he had been thinking that now was the time for them to take the chunin exams but seeing them against Kakashi's team it was obvious that his team was quickly catching up and would be ready for the chunin exams themselves at this rate. He smiled at the thought of his team and his rival's team both competing in the exams. If this was any indication Kakashi's team would be a tough one to beat this year. Both teams had a similar setup as he watched them. There were the two prodigies, two very determined Kunoichi and two boys who were geniuses of hard work.
The girls were running out of energy first it seemed, Tenten didn't have the chakra or stamina that Neji or Lee had. The two geniuses were refusing to give the other any slack, it was almost a grudge match and he was a bit worried because of how intense it was getting. Lee and Naruto were having fun with the spar, although both looked a little worse for wear as they were both the type to charge in first no matter what kind of damage they gained. After fifteen minutes both Tenten and Sakura had stopped panting and sweating, and so Gai called their match to an end. Both girls nodded to each other a little respect showing as they went to get something to drink.
But the boys kept on fighting and when thirty minutes had come and gone Gai felt they were getting pretty close to ending things. He decided that they had enough and raised an arm.
"That's enough, the rest of you stop!" Gai bellowed out.
The four stopped but they didn't look happy at it.
"Oh come on we're just getting started, right Lee?" Naruto asked his partner.
"Yes Gai-sensei please let us continue!" Lee asked.
Neji and Sasuke although looked nearly exhausted were still giving each other determined looks. Neither of them wanted to back down either as there was still no clear winner.
Gai shook his head, "I think you all have done enough, in fact I'm proud of my rival's team to have lasted as long as they could against a more seasoned team. This means that we'll have to increase our training to become even stronger when you next meet!"
"Yes Gai-sensei!" Lee said with tears running down his face.
"Oh god no," Naruto muttered quickly turning away. Sakura and Sasuke were wondering why when they noticed Neji and Tenten quickly doing the same thing. Then that's when it started, first with Lee and Gai calling out to each other over and over and then they started running towards the other. It was then that suddenly a sun set came out of nowhere and the two were at a beach of all things. They ran into each other hugging as a giant wave crashed against the rocks.
Sasuke looked sickened at the image but unfortunately he hadn't turned off his sharingan, the image was burned into his mind for all time and for years this image would haunt his dreams like it had so many others in the village. Sakura now understood what Naruto meant, she tried to cancel the genjustu but to her horror she couldn't. She tried to figure out how he even made it, if she could copy this it would be something that could really throw her enemies off. That is if she could ever get over the image herself.
Next up chapter 33: Mission Team Up
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