Especially now, looking at Lee's typical training partners. Besides actual Tailed Beasts, there were people comparable to Tailed Beasts, and sometimes even their Jinchuriki.
But Lee acted as if he hadn't heard Guy's refusal, continuing on his own. "With Guy-sensei's ability, I have to go all out to keep up. Good thing I've prepared this."
As he spoke, Lee pulled a small white bottle filled with a liquid from his ninja tool pouch.
"Lee, this wouldn't be-" Guy felt uneasy looking at the bottle. Uncertainly, he asked, "That stuff?"
"That's right, just that." Lee nodded without hesitation.
Guy hastily shook his head. "No way, Lee. You haven't come of age yet. You can't drink that."
He reached out to grab the bottle from Lee's hand, but Lee nimbly dodged.
The mysterious liquid was alcohol, specifically, high-proof shochu.
"Naruto-sensei said this was my unique talent, and I need to become proficient in it. Gaara and Fu absolutely refuse to spar with me after I use this, but if the opponent is Guy-sensei, it should be fine."
Lee had a unique talent, the Drunken Fist prodigy.
As the name implied, Lee's abilities would greatly increase when drunk, and he would use a special combat style, the Drunken Fist.
But this guy had terrible drinking habits. When drunk, he would attack indiscriminately.
In the original story, there was an incident where Lee accidentally drank alcohol. Even with the combined restraint of Guy and Neji, he still instantly demolished an entire shop.
Just thinking about it perfectly explained why Gaara and Fu wouldn't train with Lee after he'd been drinking.
The kid's drinking habits were simply too terrible!
"Please guide me, Guy-sensei." Lee bowed to Guy, then opened the bottle and took a small sip.
*Burp.*
The moment that small sip went down, Lee's face instantly turned bright red. Then his whole body began to heavily sway.
Just how powerful was Lee using the Drunken Fist while drunk? Guy's immediate reaction gave the answer.
"Gate of View: Open!"
Green chakra aggressively coated Guy's entire body. His expression grave, he watched Lee's aura steadily grow stronger.
'Looks like I'll have to fight with everything I've got today.'
'It's all your fault, Kakashi!'
Several months passed. It had been a full year since Isshiki Otsutsuki was killed.
At midnight, the full moon hung high among the branches.
In the Land of Fire stood an opulent palace. To its left rose a massive clock tower identical to Big Ben. Logically, a Western structure would feel jarring amid the traditional Japanese architecture surrounding it, but the Daimyo of the Land of Fire had a fierce passion for collecting such oddities.
Indeed, this palace was the former Daimyo's Residence.
*Clang! Clang! Clang!*
When the clock's hands struck twelve, the mournful bells rang out, reverberating through the empty palace in an almost eerie manner.
As the heavy bells faded, ten distinct figures had already gathered inside the grand hall.
"Looks like everyone's on time this time," Hidan said with an arrogant smirk. Anyone watching might have genuinely thought he was the leader.
"The meeting spot this time isn't bad."
No sooner had he spoken than Deidara chimed in. "If this were a few years ago, gathering here would've been unthinkable. After all, this is where the most powerful person in the Land of Fire lived."
At Naruto's explicit request, the Akatsuki had changed their primary gathering spot to the former Daimyo's Residence.
"Too bad there aren't any good spots to hang upside down now."
"Deidara, if you really want to hang upside down somewhere, you could always try the palace ceiling." Sasori, usually the silent type, rarely chimed in with such banter.
Deidara glanced up at the high ceiling several meters above and compared the heights. "Too high to hang from? That takes all the fun out of it, my best buddy Scorpy." (Sasori means Scorpion.)
"If you use that nickname again, I'll definitely turn you into a puppet."
"I promise."
Sasori's sharp threat carried something new in his usual monotone voice, an edge that hadn't been there before.
Ever since acquiring Isshiki Otsutsuki's legacy, he had extensively modified himself once again. This time, he was no longer a simple wooden puppet, but an advanced artificial human puppet.
Faced with the threat, Deidara simply put on an exaggerated expression of fear.
"Naruto." Nagato slowly spoke up, cutting between the bickering duo. "You specifically summoned us here. There must be something urgent, right?"
"Yeah, yeah, why'd you activate the ring to call us over?" Deidara and Hidan chimed in along with Nagato.
"We're busy Ambassadors of Peace, you know."
"Hahahaha..." Kisame couldn't hold it in and burst out laughing. "Busy? Of course you're busy! Everyone knows about the Akatsuki's Explosion Genius. Not long ago you blew up two whole mountains. Even I heard about it all the way in the Land of Water."
Deidara swelled with pride at hearing this. "Hahaha! Didn't expect my brilliant reputation to spread that far, yeah!"
Hidan thought for a moment, then said uncertainly, "Deidara, is there a chance he's not complimenting you?"
"Shut up, or I'll let you try my new bombs." Deidara shot back at Hidan, stuffing both hands into his clay pouches to fish around.
"Tch, a technique that becomes a complete dud the moment it meets Lightning Release, what's there to show off about?" Hidan scoffed with his hands behind his head, completely unconcerned.
Recently, Hidan had begun training in Yang Release. On one hand, he wanted to seriously improve his taijutsu. During the brutal fight with Isshiki, he had realized just how pathetic he truly was, no ninjutsu, weak taijutsu. If it weren't for his immortality and the Curse Jutsu, he would've been one-shotted for sure. He desperately needed to strengthen his physique.
On the other hand, he also wanted to push his body's natural recovery speed to the absolute limit. That way, whenever someone dared to provoke him, he could use the Curse Jutsu to repeatedly stab his own heart without dropping from exhaustion.
Even if one stab to the heart meant instant death for the opponent, he'd stab himself dozens of times just to be absolutely safe.
Just here to mess around.
"Nononono." Deidara wagged a finger at Hidan, humming a gloating tune, a smug grin spreading across his face. "My clay bombs aren't afraid of Lightning Release anymore."
Deidara's explosive techniques were fiercely powerful, but they weren't invincible. Lightning Release had always been his fatal weakness. Even if the opponent's Lightning Release jutsu was mediocre, it could easily defuse his clay bombs, rendering them useless.
That had always been the one flaw in Deidara's heart. His art was perfect, how could it have such a glaring defect?
But things were different now.
It wasn't just Sasori who had inherited Isshiki's legacy. Deidara had gained quite a bit of technological insight as well.
Now, his explosive 'art' had been elevated by more than one rank.
"Sasori, is it true?" Konan asked calmly.
Everyone already knew Deidara's clay bombs were notoriously weak against electricity.
If they weren't afraid of electricity now, Deidara would immediately become an extremely dangerous, unstoppable destructive force.
A walking arsenal.
"That's right, the kid found a way to counter Lightning Release." Sasori's words confirmed Deidara's boastful claim.
He added quietly at the end, "And the explosive power is pretty good now."
Deidara tilted his head back, his arrogant face clearly screaming, 'Aren't I amazing? Hurry up and praise me.'
Sasori then seemed to think of something. He pulled out a scroll and flicked his right hand. With a puff of smoke, a brand-new puppet materialized before everyone.
This puppet looked remarkably like the old Hiruko shell, but its structure and materials were completely different. Its thick body gleamed with an impenetrable metallic sheen under the moonlight.
Sasori called it Hiruko II.
"So this is the new puppet Sasori-danna's been working on lately? Were you being secretive this whole time just to make this?"
Deidara, looking like an overly curious kid, circled the new puppet. He reached out to touch the puppet's heavy armor, but Sasori slapped his hand away without mercy.
It was like someone trying to touch a fancy car, only to have the owner violently smack their hand away.
"That really hurts, Sasori-danna," Deidara complained, clutching his slightly swollen right hand and looking aggrieved.
Sasori had clearly modified himself again, that was a powerful slap.
"Idiot, don't touch another puppet master's tools without permission." Sasori pointed to the brightly colored spots detailing Hiruko II's chassis. "If you don't want to die, keep your hands to yourself."
With that, he climbed inside Hiruko II himself, resuming his old appearance.
Deidara subtly shifted a few steps back, smartly putting distance between himself and Hiruko II. He then turned to the large swordsman. "Hey, hey, Shark Face, Shark Face, what improvements did you make this past year?"
Kisame scratched his spiky hair. "I just trained my physical body and learned a few new taijutsu moves."
"That's so lame."
"What about Uncle Kakuzu?"
Before Kakuzu could speak, Hidan aggressively raised his hand high. "I know! I know!"
"Kakuzu shared some medical experiences with a guy named Shinno and learned a forbidden technique to forcefully fuse Kekkei Genkai. Now, as long as he successfully extracts the heart, he can permanently use the opponent's Kekkei Genkai!"
Deidara looked on enviously, praising him. "Wow, that's cool!"
"Brat, next time I'll definitely dig out your heart to test it," Kakuzu growled at Hidan.
"Then Kakuzu, which heart do you want from me?" Hidan grinned wickedly. "My heart totally devoted to Lord Jashin? My pure heart that saves all beings? Or my unwaveringly loyal heart?"
Naruto quietly watched the Akatsuki members chatting away happily, looking exactly like coworkers excitedly sharing vacation stories on their first day back to the office.
It seemed like absolutely no one remembered the main topic anymore.
===============
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