Chapter 308: Seals vs Youth!
Chapter 308: Seals vs Youth!
Lee spun around in midair, sending a powerful roundhouse kick towards Karin, whose chains started moving instantly and blocked the mighty blow. Usually, such a strong strike would have sent her sliding backward, but she firmly anchored her feet to the ground with chakra and stood her ground. One of her hands grabbed the leg her chains just caught, causing the seals on her arm to glow, while the other one, shot towards Lee’s stomach with its five fingers pointing forward.
Lee’s eyes widened in surprise when he realized that Karin wanted to seal off his chakra center and quickly slapped away the hand that was aiming for his stomach with his own while his other leg descended on Karin’s other hand forcing her to break the hold on Lee’s leg.
The duo jumped away from each other, and as soon as Lee landed, he staggered a little due to one of his legs feeling much heavier than before. A satisfied smile appeared on Karin’s face when she saw the frown on Lee’s face.
“The one on your arm is for paralysis, and the one on your leg increases its weight. Have fun dealing with your whole body being off balance.”
The frown on Lee’s face became more pronounced, but after moving his arm and leg a little, his confident smile reappeared.
“THIS IS NOT ENOUGH TO STIFLE MY YOUTH!!!”
Like he wasn’t bothered by the handicap he just received at all, Lee continued attacking with fierce fist strikes that were too fast for Karin to capture. She could block them, but those short moments of contact were not enough to apply any seals to Lee, and if she had to do so with her chains, then there was nothing she could apply in the first place. Unlike most Uzumaki, her chains could not carry seals.
They kept going back and forth for quite some time due to both of them being confident in their stamina, but at the end of the day, Karin was an Uzumaki. Not only that, Lee’s fighting style consumed massive amounts of stamina, and he had to compensate for his heavy leg and slightly paralyzed arm, causing Karin to gain the upper hand slowly.
So, Lee decided to power up. He shot towards Karin far faster than he previously did, effortlessly weaved through her chains, and arrived in front of her, kicking her towards the sky. Lee noticed that Karin barely managed to block his kick by crossing her hands, the brunt of the attack still made her groan in pain.
Just like he previously did with Shira, he appeared behind Karin, and the bandages around his wrist started binding Karin, causing her to click her tongue in annoyance.
“*Tsk* only Yuna-sama is allowed to tie me up. Besides, are you sure you want to come this close to me?”
Before Lee could understand what Karin meant, his whole body stiffened. Not only did his body suddenly feel much heavier, he realized that all of his muscles appeared to be incredibly stiff as well, while he barely could use his chakra.
“Wha…?”
Since Lee couldn’t move his body anymore, the bandages binding Karin loosened, which allowed her to free herself from them and right herself in midair. The spectators immediately noticed that most seals that were drawn on Karin’s skin had vanished, except for the complex-looking Uzumaki clan symbol on her stomach. She safely landed on the ground, while Lee crashed into it without being able to land correctly due to the stiffness of his body.
“Tricked ya, you know. You probably thought that I could only transmit the seals through my hands, which was a feint. I can easily do it through my whole body, even if there are some clothes in the way.”
Lee shakily stood up, which was already ridiculous enough considering he had seals that were restricting him all over the body. One might think that Lee would give up now because he was incapable of moving his body, but that was not something Rock Lee would ever do. The determination in his eyes was burning as brightly as ever.
“Hahaha, amazing. To think there would be even more people in my generation that could push me this far. HOWEVER, MY YOUTH WON’T BE EXTINGUISHED SO EASILY!!! [GATE OF LIFE: OPEN]!!!”
Lee’s power exploded as he opened the third gate, causing the rampaging chakra in his body to wash away the seals Karin put on him. The next moment, Lee vanished, and before Karin could react, Lee’s fist smashed into her side, blasting her away and crashing her into the arena wall.
The audience was silenced instantly as the person who was winning the match a few seconds ago was suddenly blasted into a wall before she could react.
A short moment later, Karin stepped out of the dust cloud, with a trail of blood flowing down the corner of her lips and a slight limp in her steps. Except for that, she was seemingly unhurt and ready to continue. Lee’s eyes widened in surprise when he saw that Karin was mostly fine after his attack, causing Karin to grin at him ferociously.
“I might not be as sturdy as Yuna-sama, but I am still an Uzumaki. A little tap like that is not enough to knock me out. Especially not when I still haven’t used my trump card.”
The fingertips on Karin’s right hand started glowing with chakra again, causing Lee to get cautious of her next move. However, to everyone’s surprise, the four chakra chains coming out of Karin’s back vanished as she put her fingers on the seal on her stomach and spun her hand counter-clockwise.
“Let me show you the true power of seals. UNSEAL!”
The moment her hand finished doing a half-circle, the seal on Karin’s body exploded into thousands of seals that covered her whole body in an instant. As soon as her entire body was covered in seals, black markings appeared around her eyes, while a dense, almost bijuu-like cloak of blue chakra started covering her whole body.
Lee’s eyes widened in surprise when he felt the dense power radiating off of Karin, and just like it previously happened to Lee, Karin vanished from Lee’s sight and moments later smashed her fist into Lee’s side just like he did earlier.
Lee was sent flying as well, but unlike Karin, he managed to right himself in midair and safely landed on his feet.
“[Gate of Pain: Open]”
Without another word, he opened the next gate, and the two people charged at each other, causing their fists to clash, producing a massive explosion. However, yet again Lee was the one getting pushed back simply due to Karin being protected by an incredibly dense chakra cloak.
“[Gate of Limit: Open]”
Another gate was opened, and yet again, the duo clashed, obliterating the arena floor and causing those in the front rows of the spectator stands to duck their heads in fear of getting hit by a stay projectile.
Dozens of earth-shaking clashes shock the arena every few seconds, and while Lee could feel his stamina slowly reaching zero, Karin could feel the same happening to her chakra, while the seals on her body slowly stopped working as well. After another clash, both of them came to the same conclusion.
‘ ‘This is the final move.’ ‘
“[GATE OF VIEW: OPEN]”
A green aura erupted out of Lee’s body as he opened the sixth gate, increasing his power even further. The first time he opened the sixth gate was against Yuna during the last chunin exam, and he was never able to open it again since then. However, now it felt natural, just like breathing, to him. In her fight with Yuna, he opened it almost out of instinct, but now he knew exactly what he was doing.
Karin saw Lee getting yet enough absurd boost in power, and a frown appeared on her face. Somehow, she doubted that she could match the current Lee. Or that was at least her first thought which was quickly pushed aside when she heard a yell from the Kage’s VIP box.
“IF YOU WIN, I FULFILL ONE OF YOUR REQUESTS, EVEN IF IT IS A PERVERTED ONE!!!”
The moment Karin heard Yuna’s words, unprecedented clarity washed over her whole being. The audience expected a perverted smile to appear on Karin’s face or for her to laugh like a degenerate, but nothing of that happened.
Karin’s face was marred with indifference, and she looked at the approaching Lee with cold and calculating eyes. She saw Lee running towards her, but unlike his usual high-speed movement, she could see every single twitch of his muscles.
She calmly reeled back her fist and concentrated every single fiber of her being into one strike. First, her feet started moving, then her legs, torso, upper arm, forearm, and finally her fist. Her whole body moved to get the maximum amount of strength out of this one punch, and moments later, the two fists collided.
*BOOOOOM*
A massive explosion shredded the arena to pieces, and the only reason no civilians were hurt was that a few shinobi were quick-witted enough to raise some earth walls before the final clash.
Deafening silence reigned the whole arena as everyone waited for the dust to settle so they could see who came out victorious, and only a few seconds later, two figures, who were still standing upright, were revealed.
Both of them were still in their respective combat stance, but the fight was over despite that.
Lee was still trying to stand upright but was occasionally swaying left and right, indicating that he was relatively close to fainting.
Meanwhile, Karin had a perverted smile on her face and was still standing upright without the slightest movement. Unfortunately, she had lost consciousness while standing, making Lee the winner of the match.
After the winner of the match was declared, deafening cheers echoed through the whole arena. The spectators expected a good show, but they didn’t think it would be this dramatic. Instead of a bunch of low-ranking chunin fighting each other, they got to witness the fight between two people who could clearly give a jonin a run for his money. How could they not be excited?
Lee, who was bordering between being conscious and being unconscious, wanted to raise his fist to acknowledge the cheering audience, but unfortunately, as soon as he tried to move his hand, he entirely lost consciousness as well and fell to the ground as well, resulting in the audience cheering even harder.