Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ The Irony of it All ❯ Lee to the rescue!!…. er, maybe… ( Chapter 23 )

Alright! I finally got this chapter up!! Soooooooooo sorry it took so long for the people waiting or just wanting to read this!! I was a little down and not really encourage to do this chapter, actually to even continue the story. But!! After watching the Naruto Hundou thing where I got to watch all the 100 naruto episodes in three days i suddenly got encourage to do this chapter!! so it's not as long and stuff but i hope it's okay! On with the chapter! I didn't know what to call it though... so it's a lame title, mk? thanks everyone for reading!!

 

 

 

Chapter 22: Lee to the rescue!!…. er, maybe…

 

Rayne kneeled in front of Orochimaru, his blows shooting pain throughout her body.

"You are my victory,.," Orochimaru bent down, licking his lips and caressing her check. She shuddered under his touch as mocking laughs came from the side of her.

"Rayne!!" She quickly turned around to see Mitsu looking at her with wide eyes.

“Mitsu! Get out of here!” Rayne shouted. Orochimaru laughed.

“He's mine now, Rayne-chan.”

“No, never!” Rayne shotued before another wave of pain shot though her body.

“Rayne!” She looked behind her to see Sasuke standing behind her.

Rayne bit her lower lip.

"Sasuke!" Orochimaru let out a chuckle. "Sasuke-kun, I'm glad you've arrived..." Suddenly, Orochimaru's neck stretched out past her, biting Sasuke's neck.

"SASUKE!"

Rayne woke up, gasping for air. Sweat ran down the side of her face as she looked next to her. Sasuke lay there, silently, sweat streaking down his face every few minutes or so. She let out a sigh of relief. Looking over Sasuke, she found Sakura still sitting and sleeping. Getting to her knees, she leaned over Naruto to grab a fresh wash cloth and a canteen of water. Wetting the cloth, she took off the old one on Sasuke's head and folded the new, cool one on his head. She then replaced Naruto's and sighed. Looking out, she found that it was dawn.

“I can't believe I fell asleep...” She heard a soft murmur and looked over to Sakura, who was slowly opening her eyes.

"Sakura?" she whispered. Sakura blinked and fully opened her eyes.

"Rayne?" She nodded, sitting on her butt again.

Sakura sighed. "I fell asleep....sorry."

Rayne shook her head. "It's okay..." Suddenly they heard a rustle on the other side of the clearing. Quickly getting to her knees again, Rayne pulled out a shuriken and peered outside. Sakura took out a kunai, holding it in front of her. Rayne watched as a bush shook. Slowly Sakura turned around too. Rayne sweatdropped.

"A squirrel?" Sakura asked, disbelievingly. Rayne sighed as the small brown creature munched on a seed.

"Man, don't scare me like that..." she murmured, more to the unhearing squirrel as it started to run towards them. Sakura suddenly gasped and threw a kunai right in front of the squirrel's path. The squirrel stopped, the kunai nearly hitting it and in fear, ran off. Sakura sighed. Rayne watched the kunai. “Sakura must have a trap there...”

"Did she figure out that there was an exploding tag on the squirrel?" one of the male sound ninjas asked.

"No, there's no way," the other sound ninja said, the one with the fuzz on its back. They continued to watch the team.

"Let's get going soon," the fuzzy-backed ninja said, pulling back some of the leaves of the bush.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lee hopped from tree branch to tree branch after splitting up from his team. He stopped on a tree branch and watched as a bunch of leaves started to flutter towards the ground. Lee got a glint in his eye.

“If I can catch all twenty leaves before they hit the ground, Sakura will fall madly in love with me!” A blush appeared on Lee's cheeks as an image of Sakura appeared in his mind.

“But if I miss even one, this will end as a one-sided love” Fire sparked in Lee's eyes. He dove down, fingers grasping at the leaves. "One, two three, four...five, six, seven..." He snatched them quickly. "Fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen...."

Lee hit a branch. His eyes went white and his back hunched over the branch. "Nineteen..." Lee quickly got up as the last leaf fluttered towards the ground. Lee dove down and just as he grasped the last leaf, he looked to his left to see a brown squirrel on it's back, on fire. Lee quickly landed and scooped up the squirrel, taking the exploding tag and crushing it before it could explode.

"That was a close one little guy. A little bit more time and you would have exploded with it," Lee informed as the little squirrel rubbed it's black eye. Lee stared at the smoldering bomb in his hand with a serious face. "Who would do such a horrible thing?"


~~~~~

"Stop hiding and come out," Neji spoke in the middle of the clearing. Shikamaru, Ino and Chouji all sat, hiding behind the bush, they're eyes wide.

“How could he know!? He's so fast!” Ino thought desperately.

"I can't believe such a troublesome guy found us," Shikamaru muttered.

"Plan number one- hide and avoid trouble, failed," Ino spoke. "Time for plan two."

"What's plan two?" Chouji asked quietly.

"Distract target with my beauty," Ino whispered.

Shikamaru sighed. "Oh geeze...whatever, let's just go." Team ten scrambled to their feet and ran into the clearing.

"Oh boy! How lucky of us to get to meet last ear's number one rookie, Hyuuga Neji!" Ino exclaimed.

"Can I have your autograph!?" Shikamaru asked excitedly, scary actually with it being the complete opposite of his normal attitude and all. You could almost tell it was fake. Ino reached up to untie the ribbon keeping her hair in a high ponytail.

“Now, time for you to fall head over heels with my sexiness!” Ino undid the ribbon and her hair fell down, blowing in the breeze slightly. She winked.

"I've always wanted to cross paths with you, Neji." Neji simply turned around and started walking. "Be gone." An anger mark appeared on Ino's forehead. “What!? Wh-why didn't my charm work on him!? Now I'm pissed dammit!” Ino yelled in her mind, punching her fists outward. Neji stopped but did not turn around.

"You're raising your fists towards me...does that men you want a fight?" Ino immediately stood in attention, her blonde hair falling flat at her thighs. She smiled innocently. "N-no, not at all!" Neji looked over his shoulder with a scowl. "Then be gone. I have no use for your scroll. If I take it from the likes of you I'll just be a laughingstock."

"Okay!" And Shikamaru, Ino and Chouji ran and hid behind the bush once more.

"They're like cockroaches..." Neji muttered before walking off. Team ten panted.

"Man that was close," Shikamaru commented. Ino stood up, tieing her hair back up. "Alright, let's go find us some weak people!" She laughed maniacally, her eyes white and her mouth opened wide.

"There is no one weaker than us..." Shikamaru sweatdropped.

~~~~~~

Rayne watched from behind Sakura as Sakura fought sleep. However, she was losing the battle as her eyes became heavy and her head started to nod.

"Some look-out you are," a voice spoke.

"Yeah, she's half asleep." Rayne immediately sat up, pulling a shuriken from its holster. It was brighter out now as she looked outside. There stood the three sound ninja from the first exam, the one with the girl she had pinned from the wall. She scowled as Sakura drew a kunai and snapped to it.

"Can you wake Sasuke for us?" the fuzzy-backed ninja asked. "We'd like to fight him."

"What relation do you have with Sasuke?" Rayne asked, taking one step outside the den and Sakura stood up.

"We know Orochimaru is behind all of this," Sakura spoke from behind her. Rayne glanced back at her teammate as the sound ninjas seemed taken aback.

"What's that weird bruise on Sasuke's neck?" Sakura asked.

Rayne winced before she looked back at her. "Be quiet, Sakura."

Sakura stared at her. "Wha-"

"Just let me handle this," Rayne spoke roughly. As she turned to face the sound nins again, she could feel a light glare bore into her back.

"I think it'd pretty cowardly to fight a man when's he's defenseless," Rayne spoke, voice ringing through the clearing. The sound ninja with spiky hair smirked.

"Hm, interesting. I guess I'll have to kill this girl first. Then Sasuke." As he stood up from his sitting position on a rock, Rayne held hrt shuriken closer to her body, her eyes quivering. Her body was still slightly rattled from yesterday but if it was a fight they wanted, then it was a fight they'd be getting.

"Wait, Zaku," the fuzzy-backed ninja spoke.

“What?" the spiky haired ninja, Zaku, looked down to his teammate. Rayne watched carefully as the fuzzy-backed ninja walked forward, his legs moving somewhat like a crab.

"The color of the dirt here indicates that it's just been dug up," the ninja put his hand to the ground. "This grass doesn't grow here." Sakura's eyes hardened.

"There's no meaning for a trap if it isn't made well," the ninja spoke, lifting up a patch of grass.

"Ah, I see," the ninja spoke as he stared at the now revealed dirt. "That's why she threw the kunai earlier, so it wouldn't set off the trap." Rayne glanced back at Sakura who had sweat running down her face. She quickly looked back to the ninja again as he began to stand up, his body hunched over.

"Let's just kill her right away," he spoke.

"Oh no you don't!" Rayne scowled, getting in a defense position as Sakura winced from behind you. Zaku smirked and stepped forward before he was stopped by an outstretched arm. The arm belonged to his female partner. The girl stared at Rayne, a lethal smirk set upon her lips. "No, the one with the black hair is mine." The two blinked.

“Black?” The two girls looked down at Rayne's hair and realized that the red streaks seemed to be disappearing along the months, leaving your hair an aburn color. You quickly snapped to it again though, realizing that this really wasn't the time.

"It's payback time," the female sound ninja spoke, her eyes on Rayne. Rayne glared.

"Fine, but make it quick Kin," Zaku spoke, slight annoyance in his voice.

Kin smirked and took a step forward. "Don't worry, I'll finish her quickly." A bead of sweat rolled down Rayne's face as the girl stepped forward. Then as Kin stood there, she didn't.

"What!?" Rayne cried out. “My senses are down by a lot from yesterday..!” She turned your head slightly to see Kin had appeared behind her. She tried to turn her body but it was too late. With a punch of force she didn't think possible from this girl, she was sent flying to her left. She skidded along the dirt, small cuts appearing on her arms. Kin smirked as she walked towards Rayne, grabbing for a weapon.

"Rayne!" Sakura cried out. Rayne scowl as she saw that Kin took out some needles. She quickly rolled to your right as the needles flew from Kin's hand, embedding into the ground in a straight line. She got to her feet and dodged a blow from Kin.

"Quick on your feet I see," Kin commented.

"You should see me at the top of my game."

"I should have figured. Obviously having a recent run in with Orochimaru-sama, you'd be pretty worn out."

"Sama?" Rayne questioned but she was forced to a do a backflip to dodge another attack. Kin whipped out another batch of tracker needles. As they came flying towards her, she moved to the left only to get three tracker needles stuck in her left arm.

"What!?" But she had no time to question how they pierced her as more were sent at her. Her eyes widened as she moved to the right, just evading a batch to her head and getting two needles stuck in her right shoulder. Rayne grimaced as blood began to leak down her arm.

Kin smirked. "It's a special little ability of mine. But no use of explaining when you're just going to die." A few more tracker needles were sent at her but she couldn't even see where they were coming from. Rayne quickly protected her head with your arms as tracker needles seemed to be coming from everywhere, ripping at her clothing and tearing at her flesh. Rayne's eyes squinted shut as she was reminded of Haku's ability back in the land of waves. She dared a peek through her arms at the girl. There was no way this girl had the same ability, but what was it then. Just then she was sent flying to her right, body smashing into a tree. Rayne let out a cry of pain as Kin turned to her right.

"What the hell!?"

Zaku stood straight, looking over at Kin. "You were taking too long."

Kin glared. "I was beating her just fine."

"And I sped up the process," Zaku said as you slowly got to your knees, a bit of blood trickling down your face. Zaku looked over to Rayne.

"Is this all the princess has?" Zaku smirked. "Or has Orochimaru sent a little too much pain through you." Rayne glared and scowled as she used the tree to slowly help herself up. Sakura cried out her name as Rayne began to cough, blood splattering to the ground.

"Aw, poor girl," Kin smirked, mockingly. Rayne glared at her before starting to put her hands together for handsigns. Rayne cried out in pain as Zaku plowed her into a tree, again, his fist in her stomach causing her hands to drop at your sides.

"We don't want that," Zaku said in a teasing voice.

Rayne spat out some blood and she glared. "Got to hell.." This only earned her a slap across the face. Her head now bent down as Zaku leaned closer to her, his hot breath hitting her neck.

"Be careful what you say, princess." Rayne weakly looked up at him. Kin stepped up to Zaku, watching her with a glint in her eyes. "Zaku, you're stealing all the fun."

"You guys are taking too long," the fuzzy-backed ninja said calmly, glancing over at Rayne and the ninjas. "Our mission is not her."

"You said kill those who interfere," Zaku pointed out.

"You have her down enough," the fuzzy-back ninja said. Zaku frowned but pushed Rayne down to the ground, holding her hands behind her back. He sat on her back, pushing she face into the dirt. The fuzzy-backed ninja looked towards Sakura.

"Time to get this over with." The fuzzy-backed ninja jumped up, going down towards Sakura. Sakura looked at the ninja shaking.

“S-Sakura!” Rayne shouted with blood running down her mouth, earning the attention of Sakura. “Y-You better protect Naruto and Sasuke!”

“Shut up!” Zaku pushed her head into the ground making her cough dirt with blood. Sakura whipped out a kunai, cutting a string that was attached to a kunai in the ground. A giant log came crashing towards the sound ninja.

"So there was a trap above as well," the ninja mused. The sound ninja put his right hand on the log. Holding a handsign to his face and the log shattered into small splinters of wood and Sakura screamed in terror as the ninja neared.

"To be blunt, you have no talent at all," the ninja said as he flew towards Sakura.

“S-Sakura!" Rayne cried. Tears started to whell in Sakura's eyes as the ninja neared.

"Konoha Whirlwind!" Both Rayne and Sakura gasped as Lee appeared in a green haze, kicking the sound ninja, sending him flying backwards. The sound ninja did a backflip and skidded on the ground. Lee landed in front of Sakura who covered her head. Lee smirked, holding out his arms in a "come" motion. The squirrel sat on Lee's shoulder.

The ninja stared. "Who are you?"

"Konoha's beautiful green beast, Rock Lee!"

Sakura stared at Lee's back. "Wh-why are you here?

"When you are in danger Sakura, I will appear anytime," Lee spoke, facing the sound ninjas. Sakura's eyes widened slightly and Lee lifted the squirrel from his shoulder, placing him on the ground. "It was all thanks to you little guy." The small squirrel stared at Lee for a moment before running off.

"But right now, I am your enemy too, Lee," Sakura spoke. Rayne stared at Sakura. Even in her current condition, she couldn't help but thinking and twitch. “Lord, Sakura, you're just begging for Lee to leave us and get us killed!”

"I told you before Sakura, that I will protect you to the death," Lee spoke, his hair blowing across his face slightly. Sakura's eyes widened, thinking back to before the first exam.

Lee walked over, standing in front of Sakura. "My name is Rock Lee. Your's is Sakura...let's go out!" Lee put up a thumbs up and blushed. Rayne cracked up laughing. Leaning against the wall, she held your sides. Sakura's face turned blue.

"I'll protect you until I die!" Lee promised.

"Thank you...Lee," Sakura spoke quietly. Lee began crying tears of joy, which Sakura couldn't see of course. “How was that Gai-sensei?” Lee then saw Rayne under Zaku's body. “I would also help Rayne from these sound ninjas.”

"We have no other choice," the fuzzy-backed ninja spoke, holding up an earth scroll. "Zaku, I'll leave Sasuke to you." The ninja tossed Zaku the scroll which he caught, now only holding Rayne's wrists with one hand. The fuzzy-backed ninja looked at Lee and Sakura, bending his knees like he was ready to leap. "I'll handle these two."

"Okay Dosu," Zaku said. Dosu pulled back the long sleeve on his right arm, showing a grey contraption on his forearm and hand that had seven holes in it. "The one with the big eyebrows is quite efficient in hand-to-hand combat. Looks like I can have some fun." Dosu leaped forward, his arm behind him. Lee bent, ready for combat. Lee dug his hand into the dirt bringing out a huge root. Dosu hit the root and jumped back.

"Your attack has a trick to it, does it not?" Lee spoke. Rayne and Sakura watched as pieces of bark flew past Lee and Dosu.

~~~~~

Chouji sat in a tree, munching on a riceball as Ino and Shikamaru stood on the round.

"So far we can't find any weak looking people at all," Shikamaru complained. "Only Naruto's team is weak than us." An anger mark appeared on Ino's forehead as she glared at Shikamaru, raising a fist. "What!? You don't know what you're saying!"

"What?"

"Naruto, Rayne and Sakura may be weak but they have the strong genius, Sasuke!" Ino scolded.

"I don't know about that, geniuses can be quite fragile in real combat," Shikamaru said, folding his arms across his chest.

Ino's eye twitched as Shikamaru sweatdropped. "Okay okay, I'm sorry." Shikamaru glared at Ino slightly. “Man, you say one thing about her precious Sasuke and she gets all angry, troublesome”

"There's no way Sasuke could be defeated!" Ino yelled. She turned away from Shikamaru, her arms crossed. "Although Sakura can be, easily."

"Well, it looks like Sasuke's out cold and Sakura's fighting," Chouji said from up on the branch. "It looks like Naruto's out too...and Rayne pretty beat up."

"What?" Ino and Shikamaru hopped onto the branch. They followed Chouji's gaze to find they were overlooking the clearing that team seven was fighting in.

~~~~~

"He's late. That's not like Lee," Tenten commented as her and Neji stood in the spot they had promised to meet up in.

"Something must be wrong..." Neji mused.

"You don't suppose he got into a fight do you?" Tenten asked, eyes widening. Neji closed his eyes, a slight smirk set upon his lips. "It may be..."

"Let's go look for him," Tenten said.

The two hopped through the forest. Neji frowned as a memory dawned on him.

Lee cut the log in half and started to jump up and down with happy tears streaming down his face. "I did it! I finally mastered it!" Neji and Tenten panted as they watched Lee cheer. Gai watched Lee and smiled. “So in the end, only Lee was able to master the technique”

"I did it! I did it!" Lee danced around in a circle.

"Lee!"

"I did it! I did it!"

"Lee!" Gai called again.

"I did it! I-"

"Lee!" Gai punched Lee across the face, sending him flying backwards. "Lee, listen to your teacher's burning message."

Lee immediately got up and stared at his sensei. "Yes sensei?" Tenten and Neji watched the pair, jaws wide open.

"This move, the Lotus, is now to be treated as a forbidden technique," Gai said.

Lee's eyes widened. "Why?"

"This technique is a last resort move that places a heavy burden on your muscle cells. Normally, people only use 20 percent of the power that the muscles possess. If you try to extract 100 percent of the power, your muscles will break down. That's why your brain limits your power. However, Chakra removes this limit and enables you to produce large quantities of power to highten your ability of hand-to-hand combat."

Gai stared at Lee. "That's why you must use this technique on one condition..."

Lee saluted. "What is the condtion sir?"

"The condition is..."

Neji's eyes hardened. “The condition is....”

~~~~

Lee began to unwrap the bandages on his arm. “Gai-sensei...I will have to use that technique....” Rayne watched, blood trickling down her chin. It was getting harder for her to breath now because Zaku was block much of her circulations.

“Because now is the time....” Dosu ran forward. Lee held a handsign to his face. “To protect an important person to me!” He glance at Sakura behind him.

Dosu ran forward and suddenly stopped. "He disappeared!" Suddenly, Lee appeared under Dosu, kicking his jaw and sending him flying.

"I'm not done yet!" Lee yelled, jumping up behind Dosu. The bandages around Lee's arm began to unwrap and they began wrapping themselves around Dosu's body. Lee embraced Dosu and the two of them went sailing towards the ground.

"He can't break a fall like that!" Zaku realized. "Kin!" Kin nodded and as Zaku stood up, Kin picked Rayne up by the throat. She smirked. "You're my bitch now." Kin began bashing her head into the tree, making her cry out in pain and blood fly from her mouth while getting scratches on other places on her bodies, mostly her arms and legs.. Sakura did not turn her attention to Rayne however, for she had her full attention on Lee as he and Dosu neared the ground. Zaku began doing handseals.

"Take this! Secondary Lotus!" Lee yelled as he and Dosu spun. As Lee pulverised Dosu into the ground and Lee jumped away, Zaku stuck his hands into the dirt. The smoke cleared and Dosu's legs stuck out of the mound of dirt around him. Lee landed on the ground, watching Dosu's legs. Dosu's legs started to twitch and Dosu pushed himself up, shakily getting to his feet.

Lee's eyes widened. "This cannot be!"

"Wow, if Zaku hadn't softened the dirt, I could have been killed..." Dosu spoke. Lee stood, panting.

"Now it's my turn," Dosu said, pulling back his sleeve again.

“This isn't good, I'm still weak from my last move!” Lee thought, panting. Dosu ran at Lee, taking a swipe at him. Lee dodged but suddenly a sensation of light-headedness took over him. Lee watched Dosu with myopia.

"You move fast, I'll give you that much," Dosu spoke, his voice echoing in Lee's head. "But my sound moves faster." Lee's eyes shook and he fell, closing one eye.

“Lee.....” Sakura and Rayne thought. Kin threw Rayne onto the ground and stepped onto her back.

“Tell me, who do you hold close to you?”

“W-why do you want to know?” Rayne asked weakly. Kin smirk.

“So I can kill them in front of your eyes. Make you suffer.” Kin kicked her onto her back and Rayne glared at her. Kin was going to step on her stomach but Rayne grabbed onto her foot before pushing her off.

“I won't let you kill them.” Rayne said before Kin kicking her again. Rayne stared at Lee, then Sakura and then the two teamates in the tree and closed her eyes, trying to keep the pain away.

"And my dream is to be the greatest hokage! That way people will stop disrespecting me and treating me like a somebody, somebody important!"

 

"NARUTO! GET OFF MY NEE-CHAN!"

 

“You look sick.” “Are you okay?”

 

“Loser. You're so slow.” “YOU STUPID GIRL!” “You damn stupid girl…”

 

"Hey hey, mistress of beauty. Please, I need you to make Sakura fall in love with me”

 

"I'm proud of you. You're my team. Good luck."

 

"SHIKA!!!"

 

"Chouji!"

 

"Oh Sasuke! I have eagerly been awaiting your return ever since I heard you'd be entering!"

 

"Alright everyone! Follow me!" Anko pumped her fist into the air.

 

"Can we quit in-between?" "Just as I thought," Shikamaru complained, arms crossed. "How troublesome." "Something wrong with you?" Shikamaru stopped. "What are you talking about?"

 

“Itachi? Itachi-sensei?” “Having Itachi-sensei as a brother would be great…”

 

 

Images of Naruto, Mitsu, Sakura, Sasuke, Lee, Kakashi-sensei, Chouji, Shikamaru and Itachi-sensei along with other people she knows flash inside Rayne's head. She opens her eyes with new determination. She glared and pushed off Kin's foot before rolling over to dodge a kick and glared at her again.

 

“They're all too important to me.”