章 58: Strong Fist VS Soft Fist

The lights on the LCD screen flickered, and two new names appeared on the display:

ROCK LEE V.S. HYŪGA HINATA

'Is this really all right with you, Naruto?' said Inner Sakura, as she watched Kariki get carried away by the Iryō-nin. 'Your future wife is going to get her ass pulverized, ya know?'

The fact that Rock Lee wouldn't be facing Gaara after all was incredibly worrisome; it meant that the madman could very well be Sakura's opponent!

"Will the next combatants please step into the arena!" Gekko Hayate called out, before exploding in a fit of coughs, since he had raised his voice.

Rock Lee jumped off the balcony, executing a 10/10 flip on his way down, while Hinata apprehensively shuffled down the stairs, passing by Shino as he was making his way back up to the balcony.

"C-congratulations," she told him nervously. "Shino-kun…"

"Thanks," he said impassively. "Good luck…"

"Please take your positions," said Gekko Hayate with a hint of impatience in his voice. "The second match is about to begin."

Rock Lee grinned confidently at Sakura, flashing her a thumbs up, but Sakura looked away, pretending not to have noticed.

"I am looking forward to face someone from the same distinguished clan as my rival, Neji!" he said, finally turning his attention toward his opponent. "Let us have a great fight!"

Hinata could only muster a slight nod in response, before assuming a defensive stance, with her two palms facing her opponent, ready to deflect any attack coming their way.

"Begin!"

The instant the proctor declared that the bout had started, Rock Lee's form flickered, leaving only an afterimage behind him, and a fraction of a second later, he reappeared right in front of Hinata. Unable to react to his speed, Hinata could do nothing but widen her eyes in shock.

But much to Sakura's surprise, instead of taking advantage of the fact that Hinata had frozen up, which should have been a perfect opportunity to strike at her through her guard, Lee disappeared once more, only to reappear a short distance away without having launched a single attack.

"Why are you not using your Byakugan?" he asked her bluntly, his bushy eyebrows wriggling as he frowned. "Neji is a true genius, and even he would not look down on me to the extent of refusing to use his powers!"

"N-not enough time," Hinata mumbled pitifully. "I didn't have time to weave the hand seals…"

"But Neji does not need to use hand signs to activate his Byakugan," said Lee, tilting his head in confusion.

"B-brother Neji is special…" said Hinata in a small voice.

"In that case, I will wait," said Lee, gesturing for her to proceed. "Please, go ahead and activate your Byakugan; I would like to fight you at your strongest."

Rock Lee snuck a look at Sakura, wanting her to see just how much of a gentleman he was, but she just stuck out her tongue at him. How dare he bully Hinata-tan like this!

And meanwhile, Hinata was busy weaving enough hand seals to use the Water Dragon Jutsu…

Horse! Tiger! Boar! Rat! Dog! Horse! Dog! Hare! Tiger! Rat! Boar! Dog! Dragon!

"Byakugan!"

'How many hand seals was that!?' said Inner Sakura, as she goggled at the Hyūga princess. 'I forgot just how weak she was when she first appeared…'

Bulging veins spider-webbed across Hinata's face, as her eyes drew in additional blood and chakra to power her supernaturally enhanced visual acuity. But Sakura wasn't looking at her, but rather at her cousin Neji, who was standing a short distance away from Sakura on the balcony. For someone who resented the main branch as much as he did, he didn't seem as bothered by Hinata as he ought to be…

"Come!" Rock Lee shouted.

Once again, Rock Lee's figure turned into a blur, and Hinata tightened her guard, remaining as still as a rock; Lee was still moving faster than Hinata's eyes could capture his figure, but the truth was that he couldn't see much of anything, either. Lee was going so fast that the tunnel vision was reducing his field of vision to the size of a pinprick!

Even so, as long as Hinata remained still like this, he would still be able to keep her within his sights!

"MOVE, HINATA!" Sakura shouted at her. "HE CAN'T CHANGE DIRECTIONS AS EASILY WHEN HE'S GOING THIS FAST!"

Sakura didn't know if it had been her unsolicited kibitzing that had done it, or if Hinata had realized something on her own in the heat of battle, but at that moment, something about Hinata's aura seemed to change.

The instant Rock Lee would have made contact with her, Hinata stepped forward into the attack with her right foot, pivoting her entire body anticlockwise around the point where she had planted that foot, while her left foot traced a perfect semicircle on the ground; effectively sidestepping out of the way of Lee's charge.

And in that instant, Hinata vanished from Rock Lee's field of view.

'SHANNARO!' Inner Sakura cheered, throwing her fist in the air. 'That was a good move!'

Instead of striking Hinata's soft body, Rock Lee's fists met nothing but the void; for a fraction of a second, he had lost track of Hinata, causing him to shoot past her! Upon realizing what had happened, Rock Lee collected chakra to the bottom of his feet to stop his forward momentum and he immediately spun around to face her again, ready to strike at her from the back.

All in all, it had taken him less than a second to stop and turn on his heel, but in doing so, Lee had slowed down long enough for Hinata to lock on to him. Even if Lee was now behind Hinata, he wasn't in her blind spot!

Hinata whirled around on the spot and counterattacked with her chakra-covered fingertips. While Lee didn't possess any Ninjutsu or Genjutsu that Hinata could disable, sending her own chakra through her opponent's chakra pathway network would still hurt his internal organs, since they were all connected together.

"Gentle Fist: 8 Trigrams, 32 Palms!"

Hinata rained down a storm of blows on Lee, her feet dancing across the stone floor as she advanced and Lee retreated.

"Two palms! Four palms! Eight palms! Sixteen palms!"

Rock Lee suddenly attacked, disrupting her rhythm, and then Hinata was on the back foot once again, trying desperately to deflect his attacks and regain her tempo. Apart from striking at the chakra pathway system and the tenketsu, the essence of the Gentle Fist lied in its circular footwork and its trigrams, but Lee's ferocious strikes were too fast for her; Hinata was too slow to be capable of turning her opponent's strength against him!

While this wasn't a bad matchup for her, Hinata had never stood a chance of winning from the very beginning. Rock Lee wasn't even going all out yet, and despite deflecting his blows to the best of her ability, Hinata's forearms were already turning black and blue, even though she wasn't actively blocking. At this rate, Lee's strong fist would overcome Hinata's outer defences before what little chakra she could inject into his arms would affect his internal organs…

And then…

"I've seen enough," Lee announced loudly. "You have fought well, and this will serve well as reference for my duel with Neji in the finals, but it is high time that I ended this."

His figure disappeared, but this time, Hinata could not lock onto him in time; he reappeared once more behind her, delivering a single chop to the back of her neck and instantly knocking her out. Rock Lee caught her in his arms before she could crumple to the ground, and he carried her over to the Iryō-nin.

"Rock Lee is victorious," said Gekko Hayate with a cough. "He'll be moving on to the next round."

"Wow," Naruto commented. "That guy was really strong, ya know? He's got some really freaky eyebrows, though… You okay there, Sasuke?"

Sasuke was clenching the balcony's railing so tightly that his knuckles had turned white, and his jaw was clenched. In all likelihood, he had also been shocked by Lee's true speed; and he hadn't even seen the Eight Gates released yet!