"Well done, Yakumo."
The woman floated back into the area where Team Eight and Team Guy stood. Speaking of, the bushy browed man had made his way back soti while Saul was focused on the match.
"You trained your disciple well, Kurenai."
Guy sensei flashed a grin at the awkwardly smiling woman, then looked back down at the arena. It was sand now covered in swaying flowers that still had not dissipated even after Yakumo had left.
The power of these Genin nowadays... Back in his day, ninja who not only had the strength to fight each other but also the strength to completely alter their environnt were usually among the strongest. Now that those kinds of ninja were just Genin, how was an old man like him supposed to keep up? This... Was the power of youth.
"Lee. Based on the people left, your next opponent is either him..." He pointed to Saul, who currently held a glowing green palm to his head, "Or it's that guy. Do you understand?"
"Who is 'that guy,' Sensei?"
Guy sensei pointed over at the Sand delegation. Temari had woken back up and so had Kankuro. They were both chatting together, while the red haired man stood in the very front. Intense. Silent. Glaring.
"That man... He is strong. The other two Sand ninja cannot compare to him."
Guy lowered his hand, his voice turning solemn, "I forbid you to use the Hidden Lotus or 'that' technique in the coming fights."
"What!?"
Lee's eyes were wide open with shock.
"But Guy sensei! Without the Hidden Lotus, I won't even have a chance at winning!"
"LEE! You idiot! Have you already forgotten what you were told right after you were healed!?"
Unlike Lee, Guy seed to be much more calm, mature. He knew how to motivate his disciple when need be, but the man's experience as a Jonin had llowed his personality to a certain extent. Yes he was loud, ridiculous, and did not get embarrassed from his public antics. But he was also intelligent.
Before he might have disregarded Saul's prior words as a re precautionary asure and not a serious threat. After watching him closely and being there as he saved Neji from the brink of death however, he took Saul's words and opinions a lot more seriously. If he said Lee had poison rely laying dormant within his body that could rise back up and kill him, then there was certainly a threat. The Eight Gates and the Hidden Lotus strained the body more than anything else he knew.
Lee glanced over at Saul, then sighed. "Yes, Guy Sensei."
"Don't worry, Lee. I'm already on my last legs here from healing you guys. If we end up battling... You'll get a fair fight regardless." Saul got up, cracking his knuckles, "I'm pretty confident in my Taijutsu."
Lee's eyes blazed with fire. He looked at the arena and shouted, "Then I hope I won't be paired up with you, Doctor-san!"
A bunch of people glanced over at them from around the stands, wondering why this guy was shouting. Then Hiruzen finally announced the next match.
"Rock Lee vs Saul!!!"
"YES!" Lee pumped his fist, "THAT ALWAYS WORKS!!! LET'S FIGHT LIKE REAL N, SAUL!"
He jumped up into the air, falling straight for the arena. Guy called after him,
"LEE! DON'T FORGET YOUR WEIGHTS!!!"
The man pulled himself into a front facing sorsault. He grabbed at his ankles and pulled off the two strips. They both fell together and landed on the ground at the exact sa ti.
*BOOM!!!*
Two gigantic columns of sand extended upward, reaching as high as the Hokage's podium. Hiruzen couldn't help but chuckle and shake his head. First was Guy, and now his disciple Lee. How were they both so over the top?
The sand fell back down directly on top of the Genin. Saul landed in the arena as he saw Lee escape the gigantic sand dune he accidentally created, coughing and sputtering.
"You alright there, Lee?"
"Yes Doctor!" *Cough cough*
He quickly got into a fighting stance. The man stood with his feet narrow to each other. One bandaged arm was tucked in by his stomach, coiled with strength and ready to strike. The other arm was open as the back of his knuckles faced Saul.
"I'm ready."
Saul analyzed his stance as countless mories of fighting with his clones ca back to him. His three months of experience training with shadow clones were equivalent to much more than the short ti spent would normally suggest. Unlike most, who had to spend a lot of ti training strength, practicing different techniques, and then move into actual battle, Saul's experience was much, much different.
Aside from using the Mind Body Palm, his clones would go all out when facing one another rather than the main body. They used Kunai, physical blows, ninjutsu such as the body flicker Jutsu. All of his fighting experience was not rely just sparring or training, no. They were fighting to the death. He had beco so pain resistant because of these experiences of his clones. If they managed not to avoid or mitigate injury, a trade of blows would result in victory for the one who endured better. They had to handle the pain well in order to avoid being dispelled, after all.
Pain resistance was not even the biggest gain from this training. It was only a side effect. The biggest gains were to his survival instinct, fighting technique and technique recognition. The latter two points stemd from both an intellectual and instinctual approach, grounded and proved by the results of countless fights. And the first one, well... It was needless to say why this was obtained first.
A narrow stance like the one Lee had prioritized mobility above all else. He could quickly move from side to side, or backwards and forwards. His weight would shift with the slightest of movents, allowing him to transition from attack to evasion like lightning.
Saul generally opted for such a narrow stance too. Speed was king after all. With the presence of weapons, even a small attack without force could beco deadly. However, because he practiced constantly with weapons in mind, he did not opt to position his arms in that way.
Rather, he held his Kunai outwards facing Lee. In such a stance, he was prid to move the least amount of distance to deliver a deadly strike.
He nodded respectfully to the man across from him. Shortly after, Hiruzen's voice announced,
"Now, let the match begin!!!"
Both ninja dashed to the side, gauging their opponent. To the current Saul, Lee's speed was no longer the impossibly fast blitzes that could strike before his opponent could react. He was still much faster than him, for sure, but Saul had more than a few tricks up his sleeve.
Saul made two other clones using his regenerated reserve of Chakra who each dashed toward Lee from opposite sides. Even if he was a little faster than him, so what?
The man wearing green kicked out at the clone in front of him. The speed of the kick was extrely fast, but Saul was no slouch either. The wide movent was careless. It indicated Lee still wasn't taking him seriously as a fighter, aiming to simply end the fight in one move. He dropped the Kunai in hand so as to not seriously hurt him, before grabbing onto his thigh tightly as it passed.
Lee's eyes widened. "What!?"
Rock Lee felt the strength behind this grab. Saul was much stronger than he could have ever imagined - he couldn't move his leg at all!
He tried to pull a kunai from his Ninja pouch, but the clone in lee range had already used the advantage to move in closer. Lee's hand now held the Kunai, yes, but his entire arm was already controlled by Saul. He could not move it anywhere to actually hurt the clone.
While Lee had the advantage of speed, Saul had the advantage in strength. His malnourished, thin body could not compete with the thick muscles reforged through dical ninjutsu.
"Damn it!"
Suddenly the length of the bandages around Lee's wrists lengthened, wrapping around and restricting the arm Saul used to bind him. With an explosive burst of chakra and speed, Lee managed to get free! He swung his kunai wide, but the Saul holding him had already dodged out of the way the mont he escaped.
The other two Saul's arrived at that very mont. Lee was forced onto the backfoot as he was forced to take his opponent seriously, using his speed advantage to nimbly evade their precisely positioned combination attacks. A leg sweep unbalanced one clone, while the other nimbly evaded Lee's counter punch.
He backflipped out of the way of the third Saul who had maneuvered to attack him from behind. Unlike Kankuro's tricky chakra threads, Saul's direct, powerful, and explosive movents had led to him being able to react!
He soared through the air, landing quite a few ters away. Then Lee dashed back even further. He only stopped once he was at a safe distance.
"Doctor-san! If I may ask, who did you learn this fighting style from? I haven't ever seen anything like it in Konoha!"
"I'm completely self-taught, Lee. Actually I was wondering, how do you move so fast? That kind of speed should be impossible considering your strength!"
Lee smiled, "This is simple. It's all about the way you circulate your chakra! This was a big part of Guy sensei's training! I thought you were weaker at first because you were so slow, but it turns out you really just don't know sothing so simple!"
Saul pursed his lips. Essentially being called stupid by soone like Lee was not a good feeling. He really needed to receive so of Guy's training soon, otherwise he might really squander the potential of his body without even knowing why!
"Thank you Lee." Taking a puff of his pipe, Saul continued, "Even though I don't have much Chakra left, I'll face you with all I have. Because of the speed you showed just now, I have no choice. If you survive until my Chakra runs out, it's your win."
Saul dispersed his clones. They were beginning to take a toll on his dwindling reserves, and Lee was much faster than him. If he decided to dodge only, Saul wasn't confident he could pin him down even with his clones. Instead he reached into his belt and pulled out two tiny little objects. He strung them to his waist.
"Bells?" Lee glared at him, "Why the heck are you putting bells around your waist?"
Saul grinned. "Why don't you co here and find out? After all, if you don't," He took another puff of his pipe, "I'll just sit here and recover my chakra."
Lee did not need any more bait to co running. "Alright, you're asking for it!"
First he inhaled a hint of the smoke Saul had released from his pipe. With Lee's speed however, that alone would probably not be enough to establish a proper dium. The chakra required ti to infiltrate after all, and his speed ensured he would not be spending much ti getting to Saul.
However, Lee heard the tinkling of a bell as Saul moved. He threw a volley of Shuriken at Lee with the lightning fast movent!
Lee switched from dashing straight towards Saul to a sideways maneuver in an instant. He dodged all the Shuriken.
Then another tinkling of the bell. Saul was rushing toward his position now, spinning with a wide kick to take advantage of his overwhelming strength. Lee had no choice but to dodge!
He ducked under the kick, but in that very instant, the bushy browed man felt the pressure of sothing hard, strong, hitting his jaw. At that mont, Lee was caught completely unprepared. How!?
"Kuh!"
His body was sent flying airborne as his muscles rapidly lost strength. Clearly Saul had just kicked, how could he be in the position to land an uppercut on his jaw!? Lee saw his leg pass - there was no way it was a feint!
The Genin did not receive any answers to his internal questions as he blacked out at that very mont, still flying in mid-air. Saul, breathing hard from exhaustion, caught him just before he hit the ground. Then he laid the unconscious Lee out on the sand gently.
"Winner! Saul, from Team Eight!"
Author's Note: Saul vs Lee was also fairly interesting to write. From canon, it is extrely clear Lee practices a striking martial art. However his habitual stance suggests he clearly prefers to use his fists over any sort of weapon that would multiply his effective killing strength, just like his teacher Might Guy.
Saul is used to fighting with a weapon in comparison. This puts his style at a disadvantage when faced with Lee's in a scenario in which he doesn't want to seriously harm Lee. Thus both the Technique and Speed advantage go to Lee, whereas the Strength and Ninjutsu advantages go to Saul. This is why they were quite even. Even when Saul caught Lee by surprise at the start with a grab, then pressing him with multiple clones, Lee was still able to escape that disadvantageous position.
It was only with a combination of Lee's ignorance of the Frontloading Technique and his lack of resistance to Genjutsu that Saul was able to eke out a win here. Otherwise, Saul probably loses due to his lack of chakra.
How did he use the frontloading technique despite exhausting his chakra earlier? Check a bit earlier. Anyways, I hope you all enjoyed the chapter! This is the third one for today to celebrate my first subscriber! Two chapters coming tomorrow.
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