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The battlefield was a scene of utter devastation, a testament to the fierce battle between Sasuke and Rock Lee.
The ground was littered with craters of all sizes, surrounded by a network of cracks spreading in every direction.
Several nearby trees had been snapped in half, lying on the ground at odd angles. The splintered trunks and scattered leaves all spoke of the battle's intensity.
On the field, two figures blurred past each other at a speed difficult for the naked eye to follow, leaving Naruto, who was watching from the sidelines, completely dazzled.
"Damn it! That thick-eyebrowed guy is crazy strong, too!" Naruto gritted his teeth as he watched.
He had thought he was only losing to Sasuke. Now, it turned out this thick-eyebrowed guy who had come out of nowhere was also far stronger than him.
At this moment, he suddenly hated himself, hated that he still hadn't mastered the ability to power up.
If he had, he could be swaggering onto the field right now, declaring that he would take them both on at once!
Beside him, Goku's smile had vanished at some point, replaced by a solemn expression as he watched the two fighters.
On the field, having each made their decision, the two of them came to a mutual stop after one final clash.
"Hah! Hah! Hah!"
Both were panting heavily, looking as if their stamina was completely depleted.
"I admit, I underestimated you before. You are one of the strongest opponents of my age that I have ever faced," Sasuke said, his gaze locked on Rock Lee, his expression one of genuine acknowledgement
. The reason he said "one of" was because he still remembered his crushing defeat at Haku's hands a month ago.
"You as well. Apart from one other person, you are the most skilled fighter I have ever met," Lee replied, affirming Sasuke's strength in turn.
"Then let's settle this with the next blow," Sasuke proposed.
"That was my thought exactly," Lee agreed.
Since opening the fourth gate would cause damage to his body, he had decided to defeat his opponent in the shortest time possible to minimise the harm.
With their agreement, the atmosphere on the battlefield suddenly became heavy with killing intent.
After a moment, both of them clenched their fists, crouched low, and let out a roar.
"HAAAAAH—!!"
"The Eight Inner Gates! Fourth Gate, the Gate of Pain, OPEN!!"
BOOM!!!
On one side, a white aura of ki flared even higher; on the other, a green energy surged even more violently. They looked like two fiercely burning flames.
Then, in a flash!
The two flames shot forward, hurtling towards each other with the speed of a lightning bolt!
'I will be the one to win!' Sasuke thought, thrusting out his fist, which held every last bit of ki he could unleash.
'I must win this fight!' Lee thought, launching a flying kick, pouring the entirety of his strength into the blow.
In that instant, both fighters had only one goal in their minds—
I must win!
Just as the two were about to collide with devastating force.
SWOOSH!!
A tall figure suddenly and silently appeared between them. He grabbed Sasuke's arm with one hand and Lee's ankle with the other.
Then, as if using a tiny force to deflect a massive one, he spun them around in a circle, skillfully neutralising the power in their attacks.
With another swoosh, he tossed them both back in the direction they had come from.
This sudden turn of events left both fighters momentarily stunned. They scrambled to adjust their posture and land on their feet.
When they looked up, they saw that the person who had thrown them was none other than Goku, who had been acting as the referee!
"This match ends here," Goku said to them.
"Goku-sensei, why?" Sasuke asked, a hint of unwillingness in his voice.
That last attack had contained every ounce of power he could muster; it was the strongest blow he had ever delivered.
With it, he was absolutely confident he could have defeated Rock Lee!
Although Lee didn't speak, a look of confusion was also clear on his face. He had a real chance to defeat Sasuke with that last attack!
Seeing their confusion, Goku spoke to them in a serious tone. "Your attacks just now were clearly beyond your own limits."
"An attack like that would not only have severely injured your opponent, but you yourselves would have suffered a huge backlash."
The moment they had launched those final attacks, they had already lost control of their own bodies. In other words, they could no longer command their attacks and could only let them fly towards their target.
This was an extremely dangerous situation. Being unable to control one's own attack also meant being unable to maintain its power.
If they had realised that their opponent—or themselves—couldn't withstand the blow, they would have failed to pull back.
At that point, a moment of carelessness could have resulted in severe injury, or even permanent disability!
This was also why Goku hadn't blocked their attacks directly, but had instead used a skill to deflect them.
If he had blocked them head-on, he would have been fine, but the two of them would have likely suffered from the backlash of their own power.
Hearing Goku's serious words, both of them fell silent. After a moment of reflection, they realised he was right.
They had been too caught up in the heat of the battle to notice.
"Hey, how about we call this one a draw? When I get stronger, we'll settle the score!"
After a moment, Sasuke said, looking at Lee.
"No problem! It's a promise!" Lee flashed a brilliant white smile and gave him a thumbs-up.
Seeing that the two had agreed, Naruto became annoyed. He yelled at them, "Hey, Sasuke, thick-eyebrows! Next time, your opponent is me!"
To this declaration, Sasuke just rolled his eyes dismissively. "Talk to me when you've mastered powering up, Naruto." His contemptuous look nearly made Naruto sick with anger.
Just then, Rock Lee walked over and looked at Sasuke curiously. "What is 'powering up'? Is it that technique where the white aura flared up around you?"
During their match, the white aura around Sasuke had puzzled him.
At first, he had thought it was chakra, but as they exchanged more blows at close range, he had realised it was somehow different from chakra, though he couldn't put his finger on how.
In the end, he had concluded that it must be chakra, since that was the only energy the human body could produce.
He figured that the chakra around Sasuke was different because the technique he was using had altered it in some way.
"Yes," Sasuke replied. Then, out of respect for his opponent, he gave him a simple explanation of what "powering up" was.
After hearing the explanation, not only was Lee's confusion not cleared up, but he became even more bewildered.
"And what is 'ki'...??" So his initial assumption had been wrong. That stuff really wasn't chakra?
"Ki is..."
After hearing Sasuke's full explanation, he looked amazed. "Incredible! To think the human body holds another power like this."
He had never imagined that the white energy around Sasuke was a completely different energy source within the body. It completely contradicted everything he knew.
Just then, a silver-haired figure approached them from a distance.
"Yo. It's been a few days," the newcomer said, leaping into the field and greeting Goku and the others. It was Kakashi, who had been absent until now.
He had been busy with a mission for the past few days and hadn't been able to attend their training. The mission had just ended, and he had rushed right over.
After greeting Goku and the others, he looked at the familiarly dressed Rock Lee. "Lee, what are you doing here?"
(T/N: Please give me some power stone, I hope it can at least reach the top 100)
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