Hey guys, here is the new chapter hope you will liked and read thru everything.
If we hit 100 PW I post a extra chapter.
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Enjoy the chapter!
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The air vibrated with a heat so dense that breathing felt like swallowing burning sand. Through this hostile terrain, Team C of Sunagakure moved forward with a steady pace and a tactical serenity that contrasted sharply with the brutality of the environment.
At the vanguard marched Gaara, suspended over a floating platform of dense sand that responded to the slightest impulse of his chakra. To his right walked Haku Yuki, his robes spotless and possessing a calm that seemed to ignore the extreme temperatures of the wasteland.
To his left advanced Asper Dokuhebi, whose presence was escorted by the constant hissed breathing of a scaly creature patiently crawling among the rocks of the canyon.
However, as the group entered a narrow crevice flanked by massive stone walls, the suffocating silence of the canyon was shattered suddenly.
A sharp, massive whistling cut through the atmosphere. From the top of the walls, dozens of shadows descended at a dizzying speed.
"Iron Rain!" a female voice echoed from above.
Hundreds of heavy steel kunai, shuriken, and senbon fell like a deadly hail upon the three Suna ninja.
Before the weapons could touch any of the three, Haku stepped forward and formed a single-handed seal, acting almost out of pure reflex.
"Hyōton: Hyōryū no Kabe (Ice Release: Ice Dragon Wall)," Haku uttered in a low, measured voice.
A wall of frozen crystal, over four meters thick, erupted from the ground with a dull thud. The metal slammed into the impenetrable ice surface, bouncing off uselessly and raining down onto the sand in a shower of metallic clinks.
Instantly, three figures landed on the canyon floor, blocking the path toward the exit. Neji Hyūga, Rock Lee, and Tenten took up their combat stances, their faces tense with resolve.
"They have the gold and silver keys we need," Neji said, the veins around his eyes bulging as he immediately activated his Byakugan. "We can't afford to lose here, and we know they won't hand them over without a fight."
"And if there is no other choice, we will take what we need by force," Lee declared, adjusting his Taijutsu stance with fierce determination.
Gaara observed them from atop his sand platform. His green eyes showed no emotion at the interruption.
"Interesting," Gaara said, curious about the Konoha genin.
"Haku, Asper. Take care of the flanks. I'll take the one in the green jumpsuit something tells me he's the strongest here."
Haku stepped three paces forward, separating from his teammates. His peaceful gaze stood in sharp contrast to Neji's severe intensity.
With a fluid flick of his fingers, Haku deployed four steel senbon between the joints of his knuckles.
"From what I see, my opponent is a Hyūga," Haku said softly. "The Byakugan might present a problem, but I can overcome it."
"An Ice Release user in the desert..." Neji muttered, analyzing Haku's chakra network through his Byakugan. "It doesn't matter what you use. With the Gentle Fist style of the Hyūga Clan, I can close your sixty-four chakra points before you can even form your next seal."
Without another word, Haku executed a hand seal sequence at a speed that defied visual perception.
"Hyōton: Makyō Hyōshō (Ice Release: Demonic Mirror Ice Crystals!)."
The residual moisture in the air and the desert heat clashed violently as dozens of gigantic ice mirrors rose out of nowhere, surrounding Neji in a perfect dome of icy refractions. In a flash, Haku stepped into one of the ice surfaces, his image multiplying across every single mirror.
"He's everywhere!" Neji thought, spinning his 360-degree vision to track the flow of chakra.
From every mirror, a barrage of senbon shot out with surgical precision toward Neji's vital points.
"Useless!" Neji yelled, expelling a massive amount of chakra from all the pores of his body.
"Hakkeshō Kaiten (Eight Trigrams Palms Revolving Heaven)"
An absolute vortex of blue chakra spun violently, repelling the rain of metal needles and shattering the front row of ice mirrors. The frozen shards flew through the air, but before they hit the ground, Haku had already shifted to the next intact mirror.
Neji didn't wait. Using his Byakugan's vision, he identified the reflection containing Haku's real chakra mass and lunged forward at breathtaking speed.
"Found you!" Neji shouted, striking with a Gentle Fist palm thrust toward Haku's chest.
"Hakke Rokujūyon Shō (Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms)!"
The force of Neji's strike pierced through the reflection's chest, but instead of blood, Haku's body dissolved into a cloud of frost and condensed water.
"A refraction illusion..." Neji thought in horror.
"My technique doesn't just use ice to conceal me," Haku's voice echoed from behind Neji. "It uses sunlight to distort the position of my chakra."
Before Neji could pivot on his heel to execute another Kaiten, Haku emerged from one of his mirrors, his hand ready in a seal.
"Hyōton, Aisueiji (Ice release: Ice Age)," Haku said, touching the sandy ground, which began to freeze at a terrifying pace.
Watching the ice reach his feet in a fraction of a second and encase his legs, Neji could only curse having lost so easily when he was supposed to be the genius of the Hyūga clan.
The extreme cold spread through his chakra circulatory system, freezing his limbs. The Hyūga genius fell onto one knee, breathing heavily as he tried in vain to restart his chakra flow.
"The fight is over for you," Haku said quietly, stepping back to a safe distance.
"You have talent, I can tell, but you are full of arrogance and overvalue your eyes far too much. Perhaps if I took them, you would learn to value everything else."
While Neji was frozen into an ice sculpture by Haku, Tenten and Asper continued their battle.
Tenten leaped backward to create distance from Asper. The Konoha weapons specialist unrolled a long scroll across the canyon floor.
"I won't let you get any closer!" Tenten yelled, forming hand seals over the scroll's markings.
"Sōryū: Tenshō (Twin Dragons: Ascending Heaven!)"
Two scrolls rose into the air, spinning in a spiral as they summoned an uninterrupted cascade of spiked maces, katanas, halberds, and explosive chains that rained directly down on Asper.
Asper didn't panic. He placed two fingers to his mouth and let out a sharp, prolonged whistle.
The sand beneath his feet exploded. From the earth emerged his Komodo dragon, over four meters long, with golden scales as hard as steel and a jaw dripping with viscous, violet saliva.
"Meet my hunting partner," Asper said with a wild grin. "You know what to do, Karos."
The Komodo dragon positioned itself in front of Asper, using its scaly back to take the brunt of Tenten's weapons rain. The katanas and chains bounced off the beast's hardened plates, producing nothing more than sparks.
Immediately after, the dragon opened its jaws and exhaled a dense cloud of violet gas that rapidly spread across the entire width of the canyon.
Tenten covered her mouth with the sleeve of her vest. "It's toxic gas! If I breathe it in, I'll lose..."
"It's not just about breathing it in, if that's what you're thinking," Asper interrupted, joining his hands into a Fire Jutsu seal. "My chakra reacts with the chemical compounds in Karos's venom."
"Katon: Doku Honō (Fire Release: Poison Flame)"
Asper blew a tiny spark of fire into the violet cloud. The instant the spark touched the gas, the entire cloud underwent a violent combustion, erupting into a hell of purple flames that expanded like a shockwave.
The destructive heat of the toxic fire caught Tenten before she could finish her evasive maneuver. The blast destroyed her remaining scrolls and slammed her violently against the stone wall of the canyon.
Tenten crashed to the ground wrapped in smoke, suffering second- and third-degree burns on her arms and torso, on top of having inhaled part of the toxic smoke. She fell weakly, though after a few seconds, she began to force herself back up.
"I won't waste Gai-sensei's training!" she muttered, grabbing one of the weapons off the ground as she braced herself.
Seeing Tenten stand back up, a look of surprised amusement appeared on Asper's face.
"You've surprised me, girl with the strong spirit. But it's a shame your weapons are useless against me or Karos," Asper said, nodding to Karos.
Receiving the command from his master, Karos moved rapidly toward Tenten. She tried to swing the weapon to strike, but Karos whipped around and struck her with his tail, sending her crashing back into the wall—this time knocking her out completely.
Asper walked over to her calmly and retrieved the bronze key from her pouch.
"I thought about it, and honestly, there was no way you could win against us. Gaara is far stronger than everyone, his sand renders your weapons useless, and Haku would crush you in seconds with his ice. So, better luck next time," Asper said, heading toward Haku, who was waiting while observing the final remaining fight.
With the last duel under way, Rock Lee watched Neji frozen and Tenten severely injured. He clenched his fists until his knuckles turned white. Tears of rage and frustration ran down his cheeks, but his eyes burned with unyielding resolve.
"Neji... Tenten..." Lee whispered. Then he looked up at the sky and gritted his teeth.
"Gai-sensei, I think this is the perfect moment to use this!"
Leaping backward, Lee pulled away from Gaara's sand, crouched down, and began removing the weights from both legs.
Watching Lee, Gaara did not move to stop him; he waited for him to be ready to attack.
"Thank you for giving me this time. Though I won't hold back I will defeat the rest of you and get out of here with my team."
Without waiting another second, Lee lunged toward Gaara, who commanded his sand.
Lee's speed without weights was blinding. To an ordinary ninja, he would have simply vanished into thin air. The first wave of Gaara's sand tried to bind his ankles, but Lee cut a direction at an impossible angle, leaving a streak of compressed air behind as he reappeared instantly to Gaara's right.
Lee launched a spinning kick aimed straight at the red-haired boy's face. Yet to Lee's shock, Gaara didn't rely solely on his sand to react automatically.
Gaara tilted his head back just enough to let the sole of Lee's sandal pass by mere millimeters. Immediately after, he blocked Lee's follow-up direct punch using his own forearm, reinforced with a thin film of crystalized sand.
CLANG!
The collision of Lee's knee against Gaara's elbow sounded like two pieces of solid metal striking each other. Lee's eyes widened in shock; Gaara wasn't just reading his trajectories—he was employing a fluid, defensive Taijutsu stance, deflecting the impact force with calculated moves.
"Is his Taijutsu... matching my speed?" Lee thought as he unleashed a rapid barrage of five consecutive punches.
Gaara intercepted three of the strikes with his open palm, deflecting the momentum of Lee's fists with wrist rotations before responding with a direct palm strike to Lee's chest. Although Lee managed to block with crossed arms, the pressure of the sand-reinforced blow pushed him back several meters, his sandals scraping against the dirt.
Lee breathed heavily. "Who is your sensei? Where did you learn that Taijutsu?" he asked, genuinely curious.
"My master is Daigo, the Kazekage the best Taijutsu user in our village. I must say, you're not bad yourself. Who is yours?" Gaara asked with a faint smile.
"The Kazekage is your senseiand he's good at Taijutsu? Wow, I have to tell Guy-sensei, he's going to be so excited!" Lee said, his eyes sparkling with enthusiasm.
"So it's Guy... I think my sensei mentioned something about him. Though as much as I'd like to continue this conversation, I need to finish this test," Gaara said, and both nodded in agreement.
Now aware that Gaara's Taijutsu stemmed from Kazekage Daigo, backed by the sand and crystal shielding his skin, Lee knew simple speed without weights wouldn't break through that flawless defense. If he wanted to shatter that guard and overcome the mineral refraction shielding his opponent, he had to break through all physical limitations.
Lee dropped into a low fighting stance, crossing his arms in an X shape over his chest.
The chakra within his body began to surge out of control, causing the loose pebbles around him to float from the immense pressure.
"First Gate: Gate of Opening... OPEN!" Lee roared.
Lee's skin flushed a deep shade of red, and the veins on his face and neck bulged violently. The brain's natural limits on muscle usage were removed, releasing 100% of his body's raw physical force.
In an explosion of pure speed that broke the sound barrier, the ground beneath Lee shattered, and his figure vanished entirely from human sight.
Gaara didn't even have time to track him visually. Lee's speed was so extreme that the floating mass of sand couldn't move into position in time.
Lee reappeared directly beneath Gaara's chin.
"Omote Renge (Primary Lotus)" Lee yelled, delivering a brutal upward kick that sent Gaara flying several meters into the air.
Taking advantage of the momentum, Lee leaped behind Gaara, binding the sand ninja's body with the long bandages from his arms. Spinning along his axis at a suicidal speed, Lee dragged Gaara into a freefall plummet straight into the canyon rock.
The impact was devastating. An explosion of dust, dirt, and stone fragments erupted more than ten meters into the air, echoing across the entire valley.
Lee landed a few meters away, gasping severely as the First Gate began taking its toll on his muscles.
"I... I did it..." Lee whispered, trying to catch his breath.
However, as the dust cloud cleared, the scene turned Lee's blood cold.
Gaara was neither dismembered nor unconscious. The defense covering his body was not the ordinary layer of earth he had used in the past. Under Daigo's tutelage, Gaara had mastered the Crystal Release element, creating an ultra-dense crystal armor that absorbed nearly all the damage.
The layer of crystal over Gaara's face and body showed tiny cracks, but the structure had not broken. The kinetic force of the Primary Lotus had been almost entirely absorbed by the crystal's density.
"Impressive speed..." Gaara said, his voice echoing from the bottom of the crater. "But crystal doesn't break from simple physical force."
Gaara held out his open hand.
Massive spikes of sand and crystal erupted from the ground, pinning Lee's legs before he could use his speed again.
"Sabaku Sōtaisō (Desert Coffin Seal)," Gaara pronounced.
A heavy tide of sand and crystal shards engulfed Lee's body, crushing him with crushing force. The bones in Lee's arms and ribs creaked under the suffocating pressure. A second later, Gaara relaxed his fist, dropping an unconscious Lee onto the burning sand.
Silence reclaimed the canyon once more.
Team Gai lay completely defeated: Neji frozen and incapacitated by Haku's ice, Tenten burned and poisoned by Asper's flames, and Lee unconscious and bloody following the use of the Inner Gates and Gaara's counterattack.
Haku walked over to Neji's frozen body and calmly retrieved the silver key. Asper secured the gold key.
"Should we finish the job, Gaara?" Asper asked, adjusting his Komodo dragon's harness.
Gaara looked down at Lee's body, whose fingers were still twitching slightly out of pure survival instinct.
"No," Gaara replied, turning around as his sand lifted him into the air once more. "They are no longer a threat to the exam. Even if they survive the poison and the heat, their injuries won't allow them to pass this round."
"If you say so, Gaara. Though you weren't too harsh on that genin, were you?" Haku asked curiously.
"A little, but if I hadn't done that, he wouldn't have given up, and I would have had to break all his bones to stop him," Gaara said, beginning to walk.
"Didn't you do that already?" Asper asked, riding atop Karos.
"No, I held back the crushing pressure and only rendered him unconscious, though the crystal in my sand cut him up a bit."
And so, Sunagakure's Team C resumed their march toward the village's northern entrance, leaving behind their severely injured opponents as the setting sun began to stain the dunes red.
End of Chapter