136: Gaara VS Rock Lee

Gaara stood with his arms crossed, a picture of leisure. 

He didn't consider the thick-browed Lee to be much of a challenge. The only opponent he deemed worthy was Natsuki.

Suddenly, Genma announced the start of the match. Gaara remained motionless as the stopper from his gourd shot out like a bullet.

Bang!

Lee, with his bandaged hands, caught the wooden stopper with ease. It was a display of power, like catching a bullet barehanded. 

Now in battle mode, he lost his usual awkwardness and exuded the air of a true expert.

In a flash, he stomped the ground and charged at Gaara with incredible speed. 

He launched a spinning heel kick aimed at Gaara's face. But it was abruptly blocked by a surge of sand.

Gaara's expression remained unchanged. 

He hadn't moved a muscle.

A massive amount of sand had materialized around him, seemingly with a mind of its own, automatically defending and absorbing all of Lee's attacks.

'A frontal assault is useless; I'll attack from the rear,' Lee thought as he backflipped, evading the grasping sand.

Without pause, he lunged again, unleashing a series of powerful punches and kicks. 

Predictably, the sand blocked every strike. But in the next moment, Lee used the momentum to leap behind Gaara, throwing several deadly kunai as he went. 

Gaara, with his back to Lee, didn't even glance back. 

He remained in his initial posture, arms crossed, his expression indifferent. The sand, once again, roared to life, forming a wall behind him that intercepted all the incoming kunai.

"What kind of jutsu is this? Why are Lee's swift attacks having no effect?" Sakura voiced the question on everyone's mind from the spectator stands. 

The sand moved as if alive, not only defending impeccably but also counter-attacking. If Lee wasn't so agile, he would have been caught in the quicksand several times. 

Meanwhile, Gaara hadn't moved an inch.

"Heh, such ordinary physical attacks are useless against Gaara.

"The sand in the gourd isn't controlled by Gaara's will. It automatically forms a shield to protect him," Kankuro explained with pride. "That's why, for a long time, almost no one has been able to injure Gaara. That bowl-cut kid's attacks are simply not interesting to Gaara."

As he spoke, Lee's ankle was ensnared by the sand. 

He was dragged across the ground for several meters before being flung away.

"Close-range attacks are useless. Why doesn't he use ninjutsu and attack from a distance?" Sakura asked anxiously. After all, Lee had helped her team in the Forest of Death.

Might Guy solemnly replied, "It's not that Lee doesn't want to, but that he can't."

Lee couldn't use any genjutsu or ninjutsu, as if he were naturally immune to them. 

He could only rely on the most basic and unrefined taijutsu to fight. As a child, he was even declared incapable of becoming a ninja. 

This meant he had to work a hundred times harder just to keep up with others.

Seeing Lee dodging left and right, constantly in danger and almost engulfed by the sand, Might Guy finally signaled to Lee that he could remove his weights.

"Teacher, didn't you say I could only remove them when protecting someone important?" Lee asked after executing another several-meter-high backflip to avoid the grasping sand.

"These are exceptional circumstances. I'll allow it this time," Might Guy shouted, giving a thumbs-up.

"Yes, sir!" Lee excitedly saluted and began to unfasten the weights strapped to his body.

"Tch, you're just taking off some weights. Don't think that'll make you faster than Gaara's sand," Temari scoffed, one hand on her hip.

However, when Lee removed the weighted pouches and dropped them to the ground... 

BOOM!

The arena floor cracked and crumbled under the sheer weight.

"What?! Guy Sensei, you've been having Lee train with that much weight?!" Sakura exclaimed, her face contorted in shock, eyes nearly bulging out of their sockets.

The crowd erupted in cheers. 

Good heavens, that weight was enough to crush an ordinary person! And yet, Lee had worn those weights while defeating his opponent in the preliminaries with just a few Leaf Whirlwinds. 

No one had expected him to only now be fighting at full strength.

Sure enough, without the weights, Lee's speed reached terrifying levels. 

Gaara's sand couldn't keep up with his attacks. 

He moved so fast that many spectators couldn't even follow him with their eyes. 

After a flurry of afterimages, Gaara's protective sand shield was rendered useless.

"Precisely because he can't use genjutsu or ninjutsu, he focuses all his energy on training his taijutsu," Might Guy declared confidently. 

"Even without other techniques, his physical strength alone surpasses all other examinees. Lee is a taijutsu specialist! " He was truly happy for his student, who could dazzle everyone on the battlefield with taijutsu alone.

"Leaf Great Whirlwind!" This time, Lee's attack connected. 

A high-speed spinning heel kick completely shattered Gaara's defense and even grazed his cheek.

"Someone actually injured Gaara?!" The Sand ninjas were utterly shocked. 

Both their team leader, Baki, and Temari, who had just mocked Lee's speed, were stunned into silence.

"How can Konoha have so many monsters?" Kankuro muttered worriedly, sweat beading on his forehead.

"Leaf Whirlwind!"

"Leaf Rising Wind!"

"Leaf Hurricane!"

Lee maintained his relentless assault, raining down powerful blows on Gaara. Finally, he knocked him to the ground. 

When Gaara stood up again, cracks appeared on his face, though they were quickly repaired by the sand.

"Is that all you've got?" Gaara sneered, his body seemingly unharmed.

"Such strong defense!" Everyone marveled at his resilience. 

With the layered protection of the Sand Shield and Sand Armor, not just taijutsu, but even ordinary ninjutsu would likely be ineffective against him.

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