บท 80: Stop Calling me a Genius!

"I believe it is my turn now," came Lee's voice behind her.

'Watch out!' Inner Sakura screamed.

Sakura spun on the spot and raised her guard, just in time to block a punch so powerful that it sent a shock through her bones. But before she could gather chakra to her forearms to make Lee's fist stick to them, he withdrew his arm and flickered away.

To the outside eye, what happened next appeared like brutal, one-sided beatdown. Lee kept flickering around Sakura, striking at her blind spots; each one of his kicks sending her stumbling and reeling; each one of his punches penetrating her guard without fail and drawing blood. As a result, Sakura was beginning to look rather like a victim of domestic abuse, but in actuality, she was much better off than she looked; the bruises were only skin deep.

"I may not come close to my rival Neji's abilities yet," Lee declared, before unleashing a fierce flurry of blows, which Sakura parried with difficulty, "but in the world of martial arts, hard work will always triumph over talent!!"

The instant that Lee's fists and feet would make contact with her, Sakura would immediately feel them on her skin and react, recoiling away before he could inflict any real damage. She couldn't mobilize her chakra fast enough to make him stick to her yet, but soon, she would have a read on his rhythm…

"Your natural aptitude for Taijutsu is impressive, Sakura-chan," Lee praised her. "No wonder they call you a genius!"

Sakura could hear Lee's voice originating from all around her, as he kept flickering here and there, raining strikes on her almost faster than her eyes could see.

'You did not just say that!' Inner Sakura cried indignantly. 'I'll have you know that I worked very hard to get this good, despite this dog of a system!'

Suddenly, Sakura doubled over in pain, wheezing. She had just received a blow to her solar plexus so powerful that it had sent ripples through her breast flesh— somehow, she had taken the full brunt of an attack that she thought she had blocked, which had slipped right between her breasts and right through her guard…

"Has Kakashi-sensei never warned you not to rely too much on your reflexes?" Lee taunted her. "Guy-sensei taught me that there are some moves that can hit you even if you can see them coming, but if you had trained even a little in Taijutsu, that punch would have never reached you!"

Lee flickered to Sakura's side and delivered a liver blow, causing her to spit out blood. But to his astonishment, he found that he couldn't flicker away from her again. Try as he might, he could not withdraw his fist from her sides; it was like he was glued to her!

"SHANNARO!" Sakura screamed.

"Chakra Enhanced Strength!"

The instant that Sakura's fist made contact with Lee, she cancelled her stickiness to avoid having a large chunk of her skin torn away, when her punch would inevitably send Lee flying. Unfortunately, this also allowed him to jump away the instant that she made contact with him, causing a lot of the power behind the blow to go to waste.

Nevertheless, Rock Lee did not escape unscathed; he was sent flying, one of his arms trailing uselessly behind him. But even though Lee's left arm, the one he had blocked with, was definitely broken and unusable, he still stood back up, a look of pure determination on his face.

"I am sorry, Guy-sensei," he mumbled. "To protect my ninja way, I will have to use that! I will have to use… the Primary Lotus!"

Rock Lee's participation in the Chūnin exams was his way of proving that it was possible to become a splendid ninja by using nothing but Taijutsu! And who better to prove his point against than Sakura, a woman he considered to be a genius, but who squandered her talent by dabbling in Ninjutsu, Taijutsu and Genjutsu; making her a jack of all trades, but a master of none!

"The first gate, the Gate of Opening… Open!"

Outwardly, nothing about the green-suited boy appeared to have changed, but on the inside, his chakra was going wild! Faster than even Sakura could react, Rock Lee flickered in front of her without warning and delivered a powerful kick into her abdomen, sending her rocketing straight up into the air, her immense breasts bobbing uselessly in front of her!

'Gotta… defend!' Inner Sakura groaned. 'Just need to send chakra… to my stomach!'

Rock Lee jumped into the air after her, delivering a second kick into her belly which drove her even higher, but to his surprise, he found that he was once again sticking to her! Undeterred, Lee kicked her with his other foot, but that one got stuck as well!

That is when Lee finally understood what Sakura was doing; somehow, she was able to emit chakra from anywhere on her body, just like his teammate Neji. She was actually reverse wall-walking on him!

But now that Lee had figured out the secret sauce, the trick would no longer work on him. As long as he was the one hitting her, and not the other way around (because unlike her, he could only reinforce his fists and his feet), he would be able to detach himself from her by simply coating his extremities with his own chakra!

Lee began gathering chakra under the soles of his feet, just like he would whenever he wanted to walk on walls.

Pop!

As a result, the two fighters were forced apart by their respective chakra repelling each other, and they both plummeted back down to the ground, exhausted.

Since she had unlocked all 361 of her Tenketsu, Sakura had managed to shield her stomach area with chakra, mitigating some of the damage. Even so, she had still been kicked very hard in a vulnerable area by a Rock Lee who had opened the first gate; she was badly hurt, but she could still fight, since she had plenty of chakra to spare.

As for Rock Lee, apart from his left arm's bones being shattered, his situation was the exact opposite from hers. Physically speaking, he was still pretty much unharmed, but he was running out of chakra. His ultimate move had been interrupted halfway, which meant that all of the chakra that had rushed uncontrollably through his system to fuel the Primary Lotus had gone to waste.

Furthermore, even though Lee had been forced to cancel the Lotus halfway through, he still had to suffer the consequences from opening one of the Eight Gates! His muscles were shaking from exhaustion, leaving him open to counterattacks… unless he opened more gates and finished this right here and now!

"I am sorry, Guy-sensei," Lee gasped. "The Primary Lotus has failed, so I am afraid that I must resort to the Hidden Lotus… to protect my Ninja Way!"

"The second gate, Gate of Healing… Open!"

"The third gate, Gate of Life… Open!"

Limitless chakra roared through Rock Lee's chakra pathway system, activating all of his bodily functions past their safe limits. His body screamed in agony, as his muscles began tearing themselves apart from the extreme stress imposed on them, as his blood vessels began bursting one by one, hot blood circulating through his system so fast that it tinged his skin crimson!

"The fourth gate, Gate of Pain… Open!"

The chakra escaping from Lee's body was so dense that it was actually visible, like that of the Rasengan!

"Here I come, Sakura-chan!" Rock Lee yelled almost deliriously, and his figure disappeared from her sightline.

A blue aura began covering Sakura, as chakra started seeping out of every single one of her 361 Tenketsu…

"The fifth gate, Gate of Closing… Open!"

"Rotation! / Hidden Lotus!"

Sakura spun on herself, enclosing herself in a protective spiralling bubble of chakra— and a fraction of a second later, she felt a force stronger than any she had ever felt before slamming into her...

BANG!