23 The Curse Mark's Influence
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Author Note:
Everything that happened in cannon happens minus some big/small tweaks. Gaara shows up a bit later due to his elimination. He just holed up on the outside of Konoha for a bit with Sunagakure forces before joining the invasion. Sasuke with his current scaling would manage to damage Gaara with a chidori which he would still be limited to two shots forcing Shukaku out sooner then originally planned. This means the fight between Naruto and Gaara would have been much closer to Konoha causing some damage in the outer regions of it. Nonetheless, the civilians would see the Nine tails Hinge Transformation of Chief toad.....
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(Lee pov)
Images are all I can see. The spray of blood from auntie on a constant loop. My blurry vision at the time driving me insane with doubts. Did it really happen? Was it another civilian? No, it had to have been her. My being rejects it, but my logic haunts me with the reality.
But along with her death comes the images of those I've killed in this world. A part of me didn't really grasp it at the time. But now a cold truth has seeped into my bones that wasn't there before. I'm not in a simulation or a free ride from the god that had brought me here. This truly is my reality now, and I have experienced my first real loss. I can see it now.... yet, it also aggravates me so very so.
I can feel the medical equipment and healers working to patch up the hole in my side. But once again, this suffocating feeling from my past existence holds me. The suffocating feeling of being imprisoned; the weakness that I thought I had lost strangling me and binding me to this medical bed I find myself on. I can barely make out sounds, just white noise as what I assume voices yelling for me to come too or fight for survival.
The image of her death... it feeds a burning sensation on my neck. The burning pain stings and imprints it into my mind... it imprints the reality that I have failed. This same burn spreads to the rest of my body, I can feel it. With that burn, my mind is slowly slipping... yet I feel better.... better that I don't have to think.
.......
(3rd person)
In one of Konoha hospitals wards, medical ninja frantically running around treating the injured. The stench of blood and that certain medicinal smell brings a very contradicting feel. Injured ninja missing limbs and some even sight scream out for help. With one these beds holding Lee with three medical ninja focusing on the hole in his side. Their eyes every now and then going to the mark found on his neck.
"This is strange. The mark on his neck is beginning to grow." A medical nin said to his colleagues as he observed the mark on his neck. It had began to glow and spread during the treatment. But what happened next had made him freak out and bring his hands back and step back in shock. Observing the phenomena, he began to stutter to his still focused medical nin.
"T-The w-wound." He managed to stutter out catching his fellows attention. "I-It's c-closing on it's own." Hearing his words, the others broke concentration and jutsu's backing up to observe it heal completely. The youngest in the job turned towards the oldest and asked a question.
"Does that happen often?" She asked only to get her answer from the look in his eyes. "I-I s-see." She stuttered out before a twitch of movement was seen by their patient. Tattoos had appeared covering his bare skin. His shirt had long been done away with revealing scars. "I-Is I-It just me or I-is he--"
But before she could finish, a hand grabbed her by the throat before abruptly a snap was heard making the whole room silent minus some now whimpers of pain. With a collapse her body limply fell to the floor as a hazy eye Lee slowly got off the bed. The two medical ninja in shock stared as the life left her body along with a singular tear from her eye. Immediately the oldest out of the two began to scream for help.
"We need help in this room immediately! All ninja available come to ward 27!" As he screamed he kept his eyes on Lee. Lee's figure began to vibrate a bit before suddenly he was gone from his point of view. In confusion he tried to move his head only to realize that he was suddenly falling. Confusion set in before he moved his eyes to realize a horrifying fact. 'That's my body right?' With that final thought, he like the youngest had died.
When the ninja who were already on edge had heard his scream, they had immediately rushed to the ward only to find all the injured and medical ninja in the room dead. Their blood and mutilated bodies turning the once white room into a crimson red. In the middle of it stood a bloodied Lee with his body fully covered in Tattoos. One of the older ninja familiar with a certain kunoichi quickly yelled to his comrades in frustration.
"It's a curse mark! That damned Orocihimaru gave it to this boy!" He yelled immediately causing the ninja to flinch in mention of that name. "Not only did he kill Lord Third, he also infected one of our ninja!" With frustration, the ninja went to unsheathe his weapon and adopt a serious look. "Those unfamiliar with this boy from the Chunin exam... heed my warning take this seriously or we'll all die. Orders to kill if he cannot be captured alive."
Hearing this, the ninja next to him all adopted serious questions, they all being Chunin couldn't afford to be reckless. Some had families and were frustrated with the raid on their village along with the Third's funeral to partake in. With the Third being dead, responses or ability to get help in this situation would be close to nil, everyone was already too spread out around the village. Some where even searching for stragglers of leaf and sound ninja maybe hiding in the depths of the village.
Weapons unsheathed, the Chunin began to slowly approach Lee. Sweat dropped from their foreheads with stress and nervousness. A vibration was seen from Lee's leg causing the oldest of the group to rush forward and swing his chakra enhanced blade down. But to his horror, the blade snapped yet weakened the attack sent his direction causing a deep gash on his chest yet not cutting him directly in half.
His lungs cut, he gasped for air before sending a hand signal towards the group. The signal was clearance to use Jutsu regardless of whoever was in the wards next to them. The Chunnin receiving the command with hard looks began to weave signs fast before bring their hands to their mouths. Fire and wind Jutsu combined to create a giant force of flames covering the whole room and breaking through the hospital walls creating a giant light in the darkness outside.
But to the Chunin's horror, a figure walked out of the flames covered and impaled one of their men while still burning. The smell of burnt flesh filled the room yet he was moving completely fine. Lee had seemed to vibrate a bit to get the flames off revealing a burnt human form. The burnt flesh seemed to flak off of him as new flesh sprouted before their very eyes.
"He can regenerate!" One of the ninja screamed before deciding to attack him with his sword as he was the closest. "Try delimbing him! He'll just regenerate through our current limits of Jutsu!" Following suit the ninja yelled and went to attack as well. But as the beginning slash hit, it just went straight through his body revealing it to be an afterimage. All the ninja who were running split into different parts and died immediately spraying more blood in the room.
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(Lee pov)
It's so noisy. That damned white noise keeps screaming out towards me. My mind feels numb. This numbness is weird, unnatural, yet pleasant. The white noise seems to be coming every now and then. But it's kind strange, I can feel my body moving... doing something.. but my mind doesn't allow me to identify the actions it's committing. Ironic? Maybe my body is in autopilot and I'm yet again a prisoner to it. Who knows what I'm doing right now, could be a form of sleep paralysis sleep walking. I doubt it, I never had that issue. I'm still probably in a coma.
Oh now that burning sensation is gone. Almost like I was being burned alive... glad I don't have to feel that anymore though. Then the sounds of something breaking seemed to be identified by my ears. It's slowly becoming clearer. The white noise screaming seems to get more audible as time passes. I still can't make out words but I can only hope it's my team wishing me to recover... I do want to see them again.
For now though, I suppose all I can do is think. Oh yeah! How about addressing how I failed? It would have started with getting injured by that Uchiha brat right? Clearly the world set Naruto and Sasuke as the two most important people; Two people of destiny if I had to be exact. I could see it when training with Naruto, he grew at a much quicker place then anyone I knew. And with Sasuke learning seven heavens to such a degree and even managing to learn some of my special taijutsu in what? two weeks? Yeah, that progress almost feels unreal to me.
"What up Lee!" I suddenly heard Might Guy say.
Woah, that's strange... Guy sensei must really want me to be awake. Anyway, back to the subject at hand. Clearly, I underestimated this world. I underestimated just how far it would go to keep Indra's reincarnations ahead of me. Well that's strange I just felt someone kick me really hard.
"Wake up you fool!" Once again his voice cut into my mind. Just what is going on out there?
.......
(3rd person)
It didn't long for Lee's body to quickly dispatch anyone that came to mess with it. At some point it had been knocked into other rooms of the hospital by dispatched ninja causing more chaos and death to arrive. Rooms filled with red made the smell of death waft itself into the hallways. Jutsu blasting the windows and walls of the hospital making it extremely obvious a problem was going down made civilians nervous and ninja on edge.
To everyone's luck, a dispatch squad had knocked Lee out one of the hospitals rooms into the street below. This led to the streets of Konoha slowly beginning to fill with blood. With the civilian deaths, the body in autopilot slowly began to make it's way towards one of the walls of Konoha. All the ninja in Konoha now knew something was terribly wrong. Calls for aid echoed out in Konoha's walls and brought them together.
Information that Lee's state held a certain degree of range led to his body to then get littered with jutsu and kunai only for him then to regenerate it. Even a few shots to his head seemed to slow the rate of regeneration a bit but never totally stop it. The marks on his body just kept spreading until it was fully covered. As they grew, the range of the body's auto kill function also increased. This led to some unfortunate ninja getting decapitated thus starting a brutal chain reaction to move in position.
This led to multiple Nara clan members to hold him place until a certain person could arrive to hopefully put him down. But all the shadow's holding him down would not last; they could feel it. As they eventually reached their limits, they very swiftly met their end. More and more causalities appeared with even some of the weaker Jonin losing their lives. Civilian casualties went down as a Deadzone was put around wherever Lee was. The problem was that his kill range seemed to keep growing as time passed. Soon they would have to evacuate the village to escape this indestructible thing.
Well at least they thought until they heard a roar as a streak of green went directly into the dead zone and a sonic boom accompanied by a giant dust cloud in one of Konoha's walls. When it cleared a giant hole was shown in their once untouched walls. This accompanied by a consistent sounds of booms outside their walls made them breathe a sigh of relief. It seemed that the man they were waiting for had finally took action.
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(Might Guy)
"Guy! Wake up!" I heard as I was shaken awake by what looked to be an Anbu of our village. Rubbing my eyes I yawned a bit before adopting a serious expression.
"What is it friend?" I asked seeing his serious and injured appearance. His panic stricken appearance was uncommon. His next words shocked me to my youthful core.
"It's your student! He's on a rampage. You have to put him down!" With shock I couldn't believe it, I thought he was in a coma.
"What! Lee's awake!" I asked before realizing something else he said. "What's this about a rampage? My student would never do that?"
The Anbu then took time to fill me in on the actions of my student and his situation. Hearing this.... it made me sad.... that my student was showing such unyouthfully sad behavior. I'll have to beat him...
"I'll take care of it." I said slowly getting up with a serious expression. Sadness and duty filled my being. "I'll take care of my... student."
Making my way out of the home my father has left me. I looked at it a bit as a tear ran down my face. He had died to keep me safe.... But could I die trying to kill my own student? That was my greatest fear as of now. Looking to the Anbu to the left of me I collected myself.
"What direction is he." I said seriously as he weakly pointed towards a location in the village. Nodding, I began to run at my top speed soon arriving to see just how much chaos my student had caused in his particular condition. Bodies of children, elderly, and ninja littered the streets of Konoha. "Lee...." I said with my voice cracking and tears escaping my ducts. Anger soon overtook... "Orochimaru.... you demon..."
Wiping my tears and looked inwards towards my chakra pathways. Mustering up strength, I broke through the first gate clearing my mind a bit but not forgetting my goal... to stop my student. "Lee!" I yelled out as I opened the gate sixth gate. "You damn fool!" I screamed as I streaked through the village into the deadzone as they call it and in front of my studnet. "You should know better Lee! Wake up!" And with a kick I launched his body into the air and chased after him and once again kicking him into wall of Konoha.
"Wake up! You damn fool!" Entering the gate of shock. I launched into the wall and kicked him breaking through the wall of our village. While mid air I sent a flurry of punches launching him directly into the trees and hills. Landing I panted a bit feeling the strain on my muscles.
When the dust cleared I could only swallow the pain and mutter softly. "Lee, you damn fool. Just look at what's become of you because of that man." His body to my sight clearly disfigured and broken stood up despite his broken spine, his deformed skull, and multiple fractures in his body. And with snaps and creaks, it all set itself straight as those hazy eyes stared into what feels my youthful soul. But something caught my eye. "Are you bigger Lee?"
He seemed to be taller then before, almost like a old teen on the brisk of adulthood. That was when it struck me... all that regeneration had a cost.... "Lee.... your becoming older..." With tears in my eyes I wiped my eyes with sleeve only to see him suddenly appear in front of me in gates. widening my eyes I soon found myself stuck inside of a hill with him now dropping on top of me with his seven heavens now activated. "Gate of Wonder" I screamed before sending a kick directly to his chin feeling his spine snap once again to my horror.
Immediately it snapped back into place as he in that same hazy state send a punch to my midsection but noticeably faster then he had yet been capable of. Spinning off the ground to avoid it and reclaim my balance, sweat drenched my body due to the gate of wonder. A crater formed where he had punched showing that I would have probably been out of the fight. "You're out to kill me Lee." I said with hurt and sorrow. He was aging and getting stronger due to all the damage that was dished out to him. Every time their justu hit him, he would regenerate with stronger muscles and bones. If I didn't end it quick... he would probably reach the same age as me. I need to wake him up now.
"Lee forgive me." I mumbled before adopting a serious face. Appearing in front of my student I kicked him into the air before jumping and sending him into the ground with another kick. "Your sensei will have to discipline you just this once."
Putting my hands together I prepared what would hopefully be the last attack. With pain, I closed my eyes. "Daytime Tiger." With that, the daytime tiger flew out the muscles in my arms causing. My left arm was for sure out of the fight now. "I can only hope that was what would let you rest Lee."
That was what I had hoped before a flash of blue and red arrived went through my move causing it to explode before it hit the ground. Lee with half of his face torn off impaled me with his arm. He had achieved the gate of wonder along with a new level of seven heavens while in that state. But to my horror, he seemed to be a young adult now causing tears to run through my eyes.
With his arm in my chest I grabbed it and pulled him into a hug as we fell. "Lee... you damn fool.... you damn fool!" With the last bit of final might, I threw a punch I had thrown countless times to my student. A single direct hit to the head. "If this can't even wake you up! I'll run one million laps around the Konoha!"
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(Lee Pov)
"You damn fool!"
With a hard hit to my head my eyes snapped open and to my horror I saw my arm directly in my sensei's torso. The fact that I was I had clearly progressed in the gates and seven heavens didn't even cross my mind for a minute.
"Guy sensei!" I screamed causing him to chuckle despite our situation while falling. "Finally awake aye Lee? I guess I won't have to run those laps now!" He said while laughing with blood flowing out of his mouth. Holding him carefully, I landed on the ground with him and laid him down desperately trying to cover the hole that I had made.
"I don't understand!" I screamed while trying my best to piece him together. "This isn't right! Why are you like this! What did I do!" While screaming and trying my best to keep him alive, his singular hand grabbed my hand softly.
"Don't Lee." He said solemnly with tears in his eyes, "It won't work, I'm going to die soon. So listen to me." Still panic stricken, he brought his hand once again down on my head like he did so many times. However, the weakness in it just brought me tears.
"Orochimaru gave you a curse mark." He said causing me to freeze before continuing. "That curse mark activated while you were unconscious and led you to kill countless villagers and ninja." My brain went blank. Those screams? That white noise? That was all me? Turning to the side I began to throw up fluids, I hadn't eaten in a while apparently.
"Lee!" He yelled softly causing me to stop and turn towards him again, his strength to move was now gone. "Come here, I have more to tell you." He coughed blood up.
Going up to his side, I sat down and took his hand. "Good, now listen since this will be my final request and words." He said while staring into the sky his eyes beginning to glaze. "Leave the village, the council will kill you if you do no matter the reason." Coughing he continued. "Remember those you killed today. Help others like your aunt would have wanted."
Turning towards my direction his eyes completely glazed now, he let out his signature smile. That smile however missed the glint it always had. "And remember this Lee, You are my son, And I would lay down my life for you again if I could!" Closing his eyes, he moved his head towards the sky before opening them once again.
"You still have a lot of youth to burn... despite unfortunately... being an adult now....." He muttered softly with labored breaths. "So burn it.... burn it to make up for the atrocities committed today..... destroy Orochimaru.... Then... only then.... would I allow you to come see me again....."
Throwing my head towards the sky, I screamed out something inhumane. Sadness, sorrow, rage, unfairness, so many inexplicable emotions I hadn't felt in a lifetime seeped into my being and settled there permanently. All these emotions I knew I couldn't sort out for now. But I knew one thing... I couldn't commit suicide.... Guy said so... I'll respect it...
So picking up my sensei's still warm body, his blood running down my back I began to madly run toward a direction I knew I would get a lead to fulfill his promise.... The valley of the end. Sadly... it would be where I bury the end of my master's relationship with myself as well....
Orochimaru, I will kill you.... I'll find repentance.... then I shall die.... and meet my sensei once more...
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Author note:
Lee needed this, his body holds the same potential Lee did in the original. He would at most reach the 7th gate by the time the end fight came. He just wouldn't be able to grow as quickly as Naruto and Sasuke... so he needed something to even the gap. That thing unfortunately would be time.... and connections as a price of that.
