Lee's leg muscles coil as he squats low, then he does something unexpected. He jumps straight up at me with way too much momentum.
"This is going to hurt."
...
He plows into me with both his fists raised like he's a flying superhero and I rocket high into the sky.
"Totally right. That hurt." I say to myself as I'm staring up at the sky. Then my body slowly spins around as gravity takes hold and pulls me back down. "Holy crap I'm-"
I'm high up in the air. I'm ridiculously high in the air, way higher than I ever want to be ever again.
Fuck fuck fuck why am I in the air?
I freeze, all of my thought processes are halted as one all encompassing thought resounds through my head.
This is how I died before. This is how I'm going to die again, right here, right now. It's all over.
~Host calm down, you're fine.~
Dead. Dead dead dead. Splat. Again. Nothing more than a red smear on the ground.
~Host, even if you did go splat there wouldn't be any red. I only make blood so you can summon the spiders.~
CRASH
I smash into the unforgiving earth making the biggest crater yet.
"Don't freak out." I mumble to myself. "Don't freak out. If you freak out then everyone here will know I'm terrified of heights. Don't freak out. Just... stay in the crater for a bit and calm down. Yeah. I'm going to do that."
"Green-san?" Lee pokes his head over the lip of the crater. "Are you alright?"
"No I'm not bloody alright!" I rage at the imbecile who thought launching me high in the sky is a good idea.
"Yeah he's totally fine." I can hear Sasuke tell Hiro from deep in my hole. Stupid Jiongu enhanced hearing, sometimes it sucks.
"Do you want to surrender?" Eito's lazy drawl echos in the bowl of earth I'm in.
I clench my left hand into a fist and slam it into the ground. A pillar of earth surges out of the ground off to Lee's left and is headed straight for him.
With a resounding thud, Lee whirls and punches the pillar and with his brute strength alone turned it to dust.
"I'll take that as a no." Eito monotonously says. I bet that asshole is still in the damn chair.
I climb out of the crater and turn to face Lee. There's a tinge of envy in his eyes.
"You're a taijutsu specialist that ties in ninjutsu to your combat style?" He asks as he's hopping from one foot to the other. He's eager to trade blows again, but he wants to ask me that more.
I'm alright with that, my plan to win this isn't knocking him out or tying him up. Hell I never really expect him to surrender despite my earlier words. I'm planning on outlasting him. Even opening the first Gate is harsh on the body, he can only use them for so long and with each additional Gate he opens he shortens his combat stamina. So him wanting to talk is perfectly fine by me.
"See, that's where you're wrong." I dust myself off, again, then smoothly slide into my defensive combat stance. It has the added bonus of bringing my hands close together, which I'm going to capitalize on. "I never said I was a taijutsu specialist, you just assumed that."
Lee quirks an eyebrow at me. "Then what are you?"
"I'm a ninjutsu specialist that ties in taijutsu to my combat style." I bring my hands together as Lee's eyes widen in surprise. "Earth Release: Ten Thousand Fists!"
True to it's namesake, seemingly thousands of pillars with a fist on the end explode out of the earth and all aim at where Lee is.
"Gate of Life: Release! Gate of Pain: Release! Gate of Limit: Release!" A green glow shines brightly around Lee, his skin has turned to a deep red and his eyes have lost all their color, they're completely white.
He bends over and takes a sprinters stance. That idiot is going to try to plow through all of the earth pillars to get to me. He erupts like a raging volcano and does exactly that, plows straight through every last obstacle in his path.
"Fuck me this is going to hurt." That's what I meant to say, all that came out was a short "Fu-" because Lee's foot is firmly lodged in my gut.
The solid hit pushes me off my feet and I rag doll across the ground before smacking into one of the few trees in the field.
"Ow." Damn that kid can hit. Only Tsunade has ever hit me that hard before. "Can I call a timeout?"
Lee materializes above my prone body and rears back for another punch.
"Guess not." I slam the ground with a fist and a pillar shoots out of it. Except this pillar isn't aimed at Lee, it's aimed at me. It slams into my side and pushes me out of the path of Lee's punch. His fist goes straight through the pillar and into the earth itself. "Damn kid, that's one hell of a hit you've got there."
Lee must be done talking because he's lunging at me again with speeds I can no longer hope to match. I raise my arms into a protective X and brace myself.
Two sharp cracks echo throughout the air. There's gasps from the audience and Eito flies up off his ass and is near both of us in an instant. Damn that man can move when he's motivated.
"Green-san I am so sorry!" Lee shouts an apology at me. "I didn't mean to! I swear!"
I look down at my awkwardly dangling arms. Great, he snapped them. The Jiongu mimics what my body should be, that includes my skeletal structure. There's bone-like things in me made of the Jiongu, just like how there's lung-like things, and eye-like things, and so on. And Lee's absurd strength was enough to break it. I'm actually impressed, the only other time this has happened was when I stupidly punched Tsunade in her gut. That was totally worth it by the way.
"The match is over." Eito turns to the crowd. "Green can no longer contin-"
"Like hell!" I roar, inadvertently drawing everyone's attention to me. Whoops. "They're just broken arms. Give me a moment."
Jiongu, if you would be so kind.
~Of course. We can't disappoint the crowd, now can we?~
Two gut-wrenchingly loud snaps cut through all other noise as my arms seemingly straighten themselves out.
"Holy shit." Whispers from the crowd start up as I experimentally move around my 'healed' arms.
"People can do that?"
"I've never seen a medical technique work so quickly, and to do it to ones self is even more difficult."
"What the hell is Otogakure teaching their gennin? Talk about impressive! If you ignore how gross that was."
"You sure you're good to continue?" Eito hesitantly asks. "Because you just had both arms broken. You could surren-"
"Proctor, my gennin know their limits. He has not reached his yet, continue the fight." Orochimaru calls out. I spare him a quick glance, his face is lit in pure elation. Nothing could make the grin on his face more vibrant.
I turn to my current Kage and give him a deep, sweeping bow. "Thank you for your confidence in me, Orochimaru-sama. I will not let you down."
I was wrong, if he was elated before now he's died and gone to heaven. He's beyond ecstatic, beyond joyful. I think I just made his whole month with that one moment.
"Well, if it's alright with him then I suppose... Continue?" It comes out more as a question than an order. I don't really blame Eito for it, it looks like I'm getting the beating of a lifetime.
Lee is idly hopping from foot to foot, still energized from opening the Fifth Gate. "Green-san, tell me. What is your nindo? Your shinobi way? What drives you to get up from my blows? To keep going even when your arms break?"
"My nindo? Never really thought about it before." I lunge at Lee, intent on giving him a good punch of my own. He simply speeds his way out of my reach. "I guess it would be... to survive. My nindo is to survive."
That's what I do, I survive. My first thoughts on coming into this world were 'how am I going to survive?' I've survived fights I had no right to partake it, I've survived facing multiple S-rank shinobi, cruel and opportunistic wannabe dictators, and most importantly of all I've survived Orochimaru and his experiments.
"How... unyouthful." Okay, that's new. I've never heard Lee say that with such sadness before. "You should strive for more than just survival! Rise up and face your challenges with vigor and a fist as hard as steel!"
"Sorry kid, but my fists aren't made of steel." They're made of something better. "Now are we going to fight or do you want to keep talking? How much longer can you keep the Gates open anyways?"
"Not much longer." He says from behind me. Shit he's fast. He chops me where the neck meets the shoulders and the power of the blow forces me to kneel.
In the next instant he's before me with a leg raised at my head level. "You've pushed me far, Green-san. I respect that, and it's out of that respect that you face me at my best! Here I come! I'm holding nothing back!"
His leg blurs.
"LEE NO! YOU'LL KILL HIM!" Gai's booming voice commands his gennin to stop, but it's too late.
Lee's foot soundly connects with my jaw and my vision spins. A sickening crunch quiets the crowd, there's not even whispers or screams or whimpers like the last time. My head keeps moving independent of my body, spinning much farther than should be capable or healthy. My mask goes flying off of my face, ripped off it by the kick.
The gods must be with me right now, because my body is facing the stands but my face is facing the empty field after doing a 540 degree turn.
I fall backwards onto my face with a dull thud.
"Did... did I... did I kill him?" Lee shakily asks himself.
Fuck fuck fuck my mask is off. My mask is off! I have to hide my face! I can't let anyone see me!
Wait, why am I freaking out about that? Hello, shinobi here. They taught me a jutsu in the Academy that's made for disguising yourself, it's one of the basic three. The Henge.
Now the real question is, who should I henge into? Well, might as well keep it simple. Plus... well... I've been told I have the body type for it.
"Green-san?" Lee timidly asks as Eito stands behind him with a ballistically pissed off Gai right next to him. Even Tsunade and Orochimaru are close by, I can sense them.
"Does he need medical attention?" Tsunade asks in concern. "I offer my services."
"I... don't actually know." Orochimaru replies.
"That fucking hurt!" I shout into the dirt with a surprisingly... feminine tone to my voice. "Ow ow ow what the fuck man?"
"Green-san!" Lee exclaims in happiness. "You're okay!"
I awkwardly push myself up. "No I'm not okay you asshole! Do you have any idea how weird it is to try and move like this?!" I whirl around so my face is towards everyone and the rest of my body is facing the empty field.
"YOU!" I angrily point at Lee, or attempt to. "Damn it I can't even reprimand you right! Come here you jerk! I swear when I get my hands on you -" A horrendous amount of insults rolls right off my tongue.
"Well... I've never seen this before." Sasuke idly comments to himself from the sidelines as I awkwardly try to smack Lee.
"Hold up a second." Kiba speaks up. "You mean this entire time Green was... a girl?"
That's right, I used the henge to give myself a younger version of my kaa-san's face with elements of tou-san bleeding through. They're two of the faces I'm most familiar with and I can't help but think this is what I would have looked like if I was their daughter instead of their son. Or just actually theirs really, Orochimaru kinda screwed that one up for everyone.
"Yes." Sasuke blandly says, but I can hear amusement hidden deep in the one word. I'm never going to live this down.
"Well damn." Temari mutters out. "Suddenly I'm a lot less mad that she beat me. Girl power!"
"Sis, that's really petty." Kankuro reprimands her.
"- with a Kami damned rake!" My tirade of insults aimed at Lee peters out. He took all of it without flinching once, he just stared at me with big wide eyes.
"That's not what you're supposed to use a rake for?" Lee shakily replies.
"Oh why the fuck am I even bothering! Hold on." I reach up and grab my head.
"Wait don't do that!" Tsunade calls out.
CRUNCH
"Owowow! That really fucking hurts!" Now my head is on straight, but it still needs to rotate around once more.
"What is wrong with you!" Tsunade reprimands me. "Here let me-"
CRUNCH
"FUCKING HELL!" Now I'm on backwards again. Lee I hate you. It would have been better if you just kicked it right off, but no! This is so much worse.
"Stop that! Let me help you!" Tsunade urges.
"She'll be fine. She's had worse." Orochimaru idly strolls back to the Kage gazebo.
CRUNCH
"FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK!" Alright. There. Head is on straight. "Okay. Okay. I'm back."
Literally everyone is staring at me in horror. It isn't every day you see a young teen girl twist her own head around while yelling obscenities as the world's best medic nin tells her to stop.
"Where the hell is my damn mask at?" I mutter to myself. "YOU! Head spinner! Where did it go?"
Lee nervously points off to his left where, sure enough, my mask is sitting.
"Good boy." I boldly walk right past him and scoop up the mask and refasten it to my face. Crisis averted.
I smoothly twirl around and slide into my combat stance. "Now where were we? I believe I owe you a beating."
"What!" Tsunade rages. "Absolutely not! You need medical attention right now! Get over here!"
"Uh, no." I blandly dismiss Tsunade. She fumes. "You're not my Kage, you don't get to order me around." Her eyebrow twitches in suppressed anger, we both know that she really is my Kage. "Now Eito-san, if you would remove the good Hokage and let Lee and I resume our fight?"
"There is no need for that." Lee says. "I surrender."
My jaw drops. No one sees it. "What?"
"I overused the Gates. I can't open them again so soon, I have to rest and recover." Lee calmly explains.
Bullshit. I sense total bullshit. If he overused the Gates he'd be on the ground right now in agony. "What? Don't want to hit a girl?"
He blushes crimson.
"Oh what the fuck really? See! This shit right here is why I let everyone think I was a guy!" This is utterly ridiculous. Absolutely, mindbogglingly insane. "You mean if I just took my mask off earlier you would have surrendered?"
"NO!" He blushes even more.
Fucking fine. "Guess that beat-down was for nothing then!"
"Winner by forfeit: Green of Otogakure!" Eito calls out to the still stunned crowd.
I angrily stomp over to the contestant gazebo and with a huff I sit down in my chair next to Sasuke.
"Green..." He trails off.
"Not a damn word." I know what he wants to say. "I know where you sleep. I will make your life hell."
"Leader-sama is a lady?" Hiro is looking at me in awe. "Wonderful! Say, want to go get food sometime?"
Sasuke dissolves into a hysterical mess, and that's saying something.
...
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