Disclaimer: I do not in any way, shape, or form own Naruto or any of the characters. I am not associated with the owners of Naruto nor is this part of the Naruto franchise. This is not meant for sale and I am not making money off of it. If I was I wouldn't get much anyway.

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It had been a normal day in the peaceful land of Konoha. The streets were full of merchants selling their goods, families on trips from various villages, and children playing games with the other children nearby. Naruto, Hinata, Gai, Lee, and Sakura had gone to the Konoha Memorial Monument to honor Kakashi since he had died at the hands of a handful of B-Rank ninja three years ago. They had all come together in front of the tower just as Naruto had finished the dreaded paper work he had begun to hate with a passion so that they could get the flowers and go together at the same time.

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Naruto had become Hokage the year after Kakashi died when Tsunade resigned and chose to lead a more peaceful life in Konoha since she had started to feel her age catching up to her. Jiraiya had given up a few of his more perverted habits, instead choosing to follow after Tsunade and live a more peaceful life since he was feeling age catching up to him, too.

Gai had been training with Lee almost every day of his life, but was slowly getting weaker than Lee until one day he land a hit on his pupil. He had taught Lee everything he knew and had even asked for the both of them to go all out once while training to see how far Lee had truly come. Ever since Neji and Tenten had competed against Gai and Lee for training since sparring alone with Lee had become too much for the Azure Beast, and he officially gave the title to Lee since he could no longer teach the younger man.

Naruto had finally noticed Hinata's affection despite what everybody believed three years ago, and were now a married couple, adding power to both the Hyuga Clan and the position of Hokage. Hinata had become head of the clan, much to the disappointment of the other heads of the main house families, but she quickly showed her ability to lead the clan. Less than a two months after becoming the new leader of the clan, she brought the main and branch families together, despite many efforts from some of the main house to stop her.

Sakura had accepted Lee's request for a date once and eventually Sakura admitted that she had fallen for Lee and married him, even having had a baby girl and were now expecting a boy, too. She had taken after Tsunade very much and had named her daughter, Tsubaki, using the first half of Tsunade's name in honor of her. Lee had said that he would get to pick the next child's name if it was a boy and since it was he chose the name, Burusu.

Naruto along with his friends had dealt with the Akatsuki long ago when they had been attacked in an attempt to end the conflict between them and the blonde. Back the, the Akatsuki had decided to infiltrate Konoha again and aimed to capture, and if not capture assassinate, Naruto so that they could be closer to their target goal. Unfortunately for them Konoha's Council had been expecting this and had set measures to help prepare for this occasion.

Most of the original twelve, sans the traitor Sasuke and the few who were away on missions, helped fight off the group defeating a few of the less skilled fighters among the elite missing ninja. The more evil and powerful members of the nine, Itachi included, had been killed by Naruto when he lost control of the Kyubi and nearly killed one of his most precious people, Hinata.

After recovering from the incident, Naruto had sworn to never again use the Kyubi's power no matter what happened. He was reminded daily by the scar on Hinata's right arm from the Kyubi's claw of just how evil a power he contained and had even gone so far as to place new seals on top of the original to strengthen the seal since it had been loosened with age.

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The four had gone to Ino's flower shop for flowers to place on the Monument while the children were at the Academy. When they arrived, they walked by the familiar posts and walked to the monument looking at all the familiar names they could find until they all came to the same name, Hatake Kakashi.

They had each layed a boquet of flowers on the Monument when a kunai with an explosive tag attached appeared in the ground inches away from the Monument. It exploded but left no damage to the Monument itself, instead leaving paint and burn marks on top of the names. "What the hell!? Who's out there!? Why did you do that to the monument!?"

"Hahahaha, you really think a bunch of dead people are worth honoring? Why not respect somebody else, somebody stronger, more powerful, and most importantly more alive." Came a somehow familiar voice from an undeterminable direction. Everybody instinctively reached for weapons pouches and found none. They had nothing to fight with and were completely unprepared since they had decided not to bring weapons to this place because of the feelings they had attached to it. "How did an idiot like you become Hokage, and who was stupid enough to allow a demon like you to get that far?" The voice said, pure venom in it's voice.

"He is not a demon! Everybody in the village accepted that with time. Whoever you are either show yourself or leave at once!" Hinata said defending her husband. "And who are you? Oh, that's right, you're the one he's screwing around with." The voice said again dripping with loathing.

Naruto growled with anger at the mysterious man's attempt to degrade his wife. "Who are you? Where are you? Reveal yourself at once!" Naruto commanded. "Naruto, I'm offended, how could you forget an old friend." Everybody froze as they realized who it was. "Sasuke, show yourself!" Naruto yelled.

The Sasuke laughed as he enjoyed the furious look on the man's face. "As you command, Lord Hokage." As he finished his mocking of Naruto's title he appeared with his curse seal fully activated almost from out of nowhere and hit Sakura across the back of the neck with the flat of a blade when it was charged with his Thousand Birds Current, easily knocking her out cold.

Naruto, Hinata, and Lee chased him as he made a run for it after asking Gai to take care of Sakura. "He's leading us into a trap Naruto. What should we do?" Hinata asked. "We can't let him get away, we have no choice." Naruto said. "What about the curse seal he is using? Without Kyubi you might not beat him. You may be forced to use the fox." Lee said. Naruto shook his head. "You know I won't, Lee. I may not be a danger to this village, but that thing is." Naruto replied. "We will just have to do the best we can without it."

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When they came to a clearing, each of them faced a Sasuke shadow clone. Each of them drew a fake Kusanagi the original must have been using. "I thought only Orochimaru could use that sword." Naruto stated as he took notice of the sword's design. "For once you're right Naruto, maybe you can teach an idiot new tricks. You know that story about how I killed Orochimaru? Well guess what, they're wrong. I absorbed Orochimaru using his own jutsu when he paniced and tried to use it on me." The clone in the middle explained as if it was the most obvious thing. "Now, back to business." He took a fighter's stance along with the other two.

Naruto ran towards the clone which stood no chance. It's speed and power were laughable at best compared to the Hokage it was forced to fight. The victory was short lived as it was quickly replaced with the real deal outfitted completely with the curse seal's fully activated appearance. "Hmm, all we need is a giant puddle for you to play in and this will look exactly like the time I first betrayed you." He said as he laid a punch to Naruto's stomache. "Bastard! I'll make you pay for that."

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Lee's clone had been toying with him from the very beginning of the fight and was barely even trying. "It's funny, I remember you being a bit faster when we first fought, Lee. What happened to all that speed and skill?" He said as he dodged another punch from Lee. "If this is the best you have, I might as well finish you off right now."

Lee had been using more and more weights as he had gotten older, causing him to speed up less quickly than Sasuke so he wasn't able to counter the first hit. Sasuke's first kick sent Lee to the far side of the clearing and into the trees to the side into another clearing where the clone met him with a Lion's Barrage. Lee took each and every hit, but managed to use a flash bomb to get away from him after he hit the ground.

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Hinata had been using her Byakugan since the beginning of the fight and had constantly dodged the attacks, but was never able to get a hit on the shadow clone because of it's skill and speed. The clone gave up taijutsu tactics and instead charged an unusual Chidori around his blade again and swung it, barely grazing her side but shocking and numbing that side in the process.

She decided it would be okay to keep fighting, but the shadow clone she was facing kept grazing her with electric attacks again and again. Since the electric current kept extending just a bit further than it should have with each strike she couldn't avoid them no matter how hard she tried except by simply minimizing the damage. She knew she was doing the best she could, but the strikes glancing blows and and grazing strikes kept numbing her body more and more until she could barely move.

Once she couldn't move anymore the smirking Uchiha clone smiled, used an earth binding jutsu, and told her he would make Naruto watch as he killed her after he had beaten him into submission before poofing away. Hinata could do nothing but look on as Naruto kept getting back up time and again from being subjected to similar tactics.

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Naruto was no match for this seal empowered Sasuke without the demon fox's power but he still refused the use the kitsune. The only sign of the kitsune presence was the healing speed and how easily he was shrugging off the numbness, but even his healing abilities didn't help turn the tide in his favor.

He could almost hear the fox in his head offering to help the man, but Naruto refused to accept the help. 'I can't accept your help anymore. I became Hokage without your help, and I will win this fight without you.' He said to the voice inside his head, knowing that it couldn't have been the fox itself because of the seals still in place.

Naruto used move after move countering ninjutsu with little effort and recognizing genjutsu easily enough to break it with little trouble. "I don't remember you being able to use any jutsu this well. Guess you couldn't be that lame forever." He said before he used a Katon: Great Fireball Jutsu which Naruto blocked with an Doton: Earth Style Wall Jutsu. "Then again, some things never change." He said as he used a Thousand Birds Current on his sword to break through the wall and sprayed Naruto with the debris from the wall.

"Where's all that demonic energy, Naruto? Can't you show your real face and fight me with everything? It wouldn't be satisfying if I don't even get to fight what killed Itachi." Sasuke said as he swung the blade across the area Naruto's neck had been. "Is that why you are doing this? Because of that Uchiha bastard?" Naruto said from behind Sasuke as he placed a kick on Sasuke's back sending him flying into a boulder.

Naruto watched as the dust from the impact settled to see Sasuke standing there with a demented smile on his face. "Yes! You destroyed my life when you killed him. The only one allowed to kill him was me! And now I will make you, everybody you care about, and even the village pay for it!" He said as he placed another Thousand Birds Current around his body and blade and dashed towards Naruto with his sword ready to slash across the man's body.

A blue orb appeared in Naruto's hand as he became enraged. "Damn you, you bastard!" Naruto yelled as he struck Sasuke's sword with his Spiraling Shuriken technique, the completed version of the Rasengan, sending the legendary blade spiraling off into the distance while slicing up both opponents' arms to a good degree, much to Sasuke's displeasure. The frown quickly changed into a demented grin as he began to reach into his clothing.

"You always were an idiot, Naruto." Sasuke said as he pulled out a dagger hidden in his clothes and thrust it into Naruto's ribs, barely missing his heart. Instead of pulling it out and going for another strike, he smirked and charged it with another Thousand Birds Current he had used to protect his body. Naruto went stiff and his scream pierced the air as he felt the electricity run through his whole body. The current running through his body kept going until Sasuke's attention was removed from the now incapacitated Naruto, and was focused on some unseen force.

"Seems your friend Lee is a bit more special than you give him credit for, let's see how much fun he is." Sasuke said as he used a healing jutsu to repair his arm before disappearing from sight. Naruto lay there unable to move or feel a thing. Hinata began to move as the numbness wore off and struggled over to Naruto's side and did what she could to help him. "Please be careful, Lee."

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On the other side, Lee had disappeared and had taken off his weights while Sasuke's clone was still searching, so it didn't even realize what had happened when it poofed away from a kick to the back and a cry of 'Dynamic Entry'. As the smoke from the shadow clone cleared, the clearing was filled with the sound of Naruto's scream of pain. "Naruto!"

Lee changed his focus from Naruto's predicament to his inner gates as he started to open them one by one as quickly as possible, knowing that it would draw the Sharingan user away from his current victim, maybe long enough for Hinata to take care of him. It would be a devestating blow for Konoha to lose their Hokage.

He had only gotten to the second gate and his wounds had started to heal when a normal looking Sasuke appeared in front of him with a smirk. "So, it's the 'Green Kitten of Konoha', I'm amazed somebody as weak as you could possibly deserve that title, or even have this much chakra." He said trying to get a rise out of Lee. "I have as much strength as I need to help defend my friends." Lee responded as he stood strong before the final Uchiha. "I always expected Sakura to marry somebody strong, not somebody she felt sorry for. I guess she always did seem pretty ditzy."

Lee's look instantly changed, he was no longer angry, he was completely enraged at the insult to his wife. "Take it back now, Uchiha!" He said, angry at the former Konoha Ninja. "No, I don't think I will. And once I finish you off, I'll go back and be sure to kill her like I should have done long ago." He said, trying to mess with the Jounin's head. "But first I think I'll have my fun." He added, purposely enraging the man in front of you.

"You have never seen me fight, Sasuke Uchiha. You do not know what you are facing. Leave here now and never come back." The man in front of him did nothing but stare, then burst out laughing. "You really think you can stop me? First I'll destroy you, your precious Hokage, and then your village and everybody in it!" He said in a sadistic voice. "You are no better than Itachi, Sasuke." Lee said trying to convince him to stop this fight before it started.

"Heh, I guess you're right, and it's funny, because I don't care anymore." He said with a now purely sadistic grin. "Itachi's dead and now I'm here to finish something Orochimaru and Akatsuki should have done. Destroy Konoha and end all of you nuisances once and for all. Once I'm done with that I'll finally gain the power of the Mangekyou Sharingan and be the most powerful ninja in the world!" He said as his hands began to shake with excitement. "It truly is too late for you then. Pity... I shall end you here Sasuke, one way or another."

"I would like to see you try, after that little accident during the chunnin exams I'm suprised you can even be here today. Either way you're going to die with the rest of those insects in the leaf village, nothing can stand in the way of my ambition!" He said, sounding too much like Orochimaru for the green clad man's tastes.

"I cannot let you hurt my precious people, and I will do anything to stop you." Lee said as he glared at the man in front of him. Sasuke just smirked condescendingly until he noticed something. "Hm, you're chakra level is still rising. I'm amazed you even have this much power. Sure you beat me once, but that was a long time ago." Sasuke said as he started creating a Chidori in his left hand.

"Normally, I would stand no chance against you Uchiha, but this time you cannot defeat me no matter how strong you have become." Lee said as he heard the infamous chirping of a thousand birds fill the air. "Oh really? And why is that?" Sasuke said enjoying the look of anger on the green-clad man's face.

Lee looked down and crossed his arms across his face. "Because I am fighting to protect the ones I love," Lee's skin began to turn to a darker red hue, "to protect my village," the ground around his legs began to crumble and rise, "and to protect my way of the ninja!" He looked straight into the eyes of the Uchiha as his pupils seemed to disappear. "Gate of Life: Open!" Everything around him began to shake and crumble away as the power grew more and more intense. Sasuke looked on in slight amazement as he witnessed the transformation, losing concentration on the electricity focused in his hand.

Lee crouched down as his veins began to bulge as he put more chakra pressure on the next gate and he started to inhale deeply to allow the gate to work effectively. "Gate of Pain: Open!" He shouted as the stones and earth floating around him were blown away before he disappeared leaving a small crater and landed a kick that hit Sasuke square on both arms when he tried to defend sending him skyward.

He quickly appeared above Sasuke and sent him flying head first down into a small tree with a mid-air axe kick. As soon as Sasuke hit the tree, which was now nothing but splintered wood and a tree trunk, he righted himself and looked up to find Lee wasn't there and quickly realized where he was when an elbow made an impact with his stomache from in front of him.

Sasuke stopped when the elbow left his stomache and he crashed into the base of a nearby tree. "How did you get so fast? Oh well... It doesn't matter since you aren't the only one who can move faster." Sasuke activated his Sharingan and went to the first stage of the cursed seal, appearing to have tatooed flames flow across his body before settling and turning black.

"Now let's see where you could be coming from... Could it possibly be..." He stuck his arm out just in time to catch Lee's fist before it hit him. "Here? I'm sorry to say that this fight is over, Lee." He said sarcastically as he threw Lee into a nearby half-buried boulder, causing it to crumble from the impact. Lee stood back up, feeling a few aches and pains, knowing exactly what Sasuke had meant. If he wanted to win this fight he would need more speed and power. At his current level he would never be able to beat him.

"Fine, this is your final chance then, give up now before I take this any further, Sasuke." Sasuke knew how sure Lee sounded and knew that he meant what he said since Lee was never known for his deceit. "I don't think so, Lee." He said as he bit his thumb and went through some hand seals. "Ninja Arts: Summoning Jutsu!" He yelled as he summoned Manda the most powerful of the snake summons.

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Sakura finally woke up as she was being carried by Gai to the hospital. "Gai? Where's Lee?" She asked, still in a daze and suffering from a mild headache. "He's fighting Sasuke with Naruto and Hinata." Gai said in a serious tone. Sakura's eyes seemed to bulge as she realized what he said. "WHAT!? We have to go after him! Let go of me!" She said, not caring about the funny feeling in her head.

Gai obediently put her down, having learned better in the past. "We can't go alone, Sakura." Gai said as he handed her the things she had been carrying with her that day. "Well then get Neji and I will get Tenten and we'll go together. Somebody needs to get those marks off of the Monument, too. You can do that while we go help Lee. Okay?" She said. Gai opened his mouth to speak but shut it quickly when she gave him an angry look. "I said, okay!?" Gai gulped and nodded.

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Sasuke jumped onto Manda's head as he stared down at the shocked green wearing man. "You better have some sacrifices ready, or I will kill you." The snake said without even looking towards his summoner. "I have no offer, and if you don't do this I'll add another scar to your face Manda, understand?" Sasuke yelled back. The snake looked up at the Uchiha with a glare, but nodded in understanding. "Good. There's a jade-green spandex wearing insect I need you to take care of. He could be a bit of a problem since he has some unknown ability." He explained to the snake.

Manda looked down and swung at the man in question only to have him dodge. This went on for some time as everytime Lee tried to make a jump for Sasuke, Manda would block with his tail and snap at him. "This is becoming pointless. I cannot catch this boy, what kind of demon is he?" Manda said in frustration.

"He is no demon and if you can't catch him, you had better hope that he does miraculously beat me, because otherwise you will be the one to pay the price." Sasuke said in a threatening tone. Manda simply continued to strike again and again until the man simply disappeared. "Where did he go?" Manda asked until the snake felt a strange presence between his head and tail on the ground.

"Gate of Closing: Open!" They both heard just before Manda screamed in agony and a red and green blur exploded from the back of Manda and started running up the spine to get to Sasuke. "Damn your useless, Manda, Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu!" He blew a giant ball of fire down Manda's back leaving only the air for Lee to use, so Sasuke jumped to the place he thought Lee would go to with no other choice. Instead he heard an explosion from beneath him as Lee ran into the attack and disappeared inside the fireball.

"What an idiot! Who runs into the Great Fireball Jutsu. He's probably been roasted alive." Sasuke said with a smirk until he saw something unbelievable. Lee appeared from inside the fire, his normally green suit charred somewhat on the outside making it look a darker green or black. What suprised him most was that Lee was moving even faster than he was earlier to the point where he was barely able to see him, even as he jumped to meet the sharingan bearing man. He flew right by Sasuke though without even touching him much to his suprise. Sasuke spun himself using the momentum from a swing to see that he hadn't done nothing, Lee had wrapped some bandages around Sasuke's leg.

"You really think this is gonna work?" He said as he pulled out a dagger and tried to cut the bandages. It didn't work and he reached the bandages as quickly as possible in an attempt to remove them. His hand had barely managed to reach it, though, before he was pulled into the air following Lee. A few seconds after he rose, Lee began to spin vertically sending Sasuke up into the air and aroung with the spinning motion before being pulled back down in a large arc at an incredibly high speed. Sasuke flew at such an incredible speed he could even manage to right himself. The view of Lee's red and green form seemed to shrink to the size of an ant before he hit Manda's back leaving the snake writhing in pain from both the new hole and the impact of the Uchiha.

"I cannot fight this demon any longer, Uchiha, goodbye." Manda said as he poofed away from existence leaving Sasuke to fight on his own. He got up and looked in the general direction he had seen Lee land to see him standing there staring at him with pupilless eyes looking angrier than before. "Fine, but you brought this on yourself, Lee." Sasuke said as his looked turned from one of shock to one of pure killing intent.

His tatooes glowed a fiery red as they spread outward until they connected. His hair changed to a lighter hue and grew longer. A four pointed black star appeared on his face and his eyes turned to black except for the red of his sharingan. His back began to twist and bulge as two giant hands pushed their way out through the skin and opened wide before arcing with the flow of the Uchiha's back. "Now where were we." He said as he went through the hand seals for his his Thousand Birds Current, and then the normal Chidori. "Do you think you can take me now?" He said as he threw the arm with the Chidori back as he prepared for to dash.

"If you have any last words, Lee, I suggest you say them now." He said tauntingly. Lee nodded and glared at Sasuke as his focus turned inward towards the inner gates again. "No matter how much natural skill you have, you cannot beat somebody who has devoted themselves to working hard to achieve everything. Now is the time to show you. Gate of Joy: Open!" Sasuke glared at Lee and dashed for him in an attempt to end the fight as soon a possible. Lee dashed backwards and flipped around a tree, using it as a shield. He heard the impact and dodged to the side just in time to avoid the blast from the Chidori as it finished it's path through the tree.

Lee dodged again and again, trying to avoid any contact as much as possible. He was at a severe disadvantage since despite the gates being opened he was still not fast enough to keep up entirely with Sasuke. Sasuke had an extreme amount of speed, strength, and skill when he left, not enough to keep up with Lee but enough to still be formidable enough. Now with the cursed seal though...

Sasuke sent all the electricity surrounding his body to his right leg as it made contact, but instead of hitting it's intended target, it had hit a tree limb Lee had pulled in front of his body from the tree above at the last minute sending a minute amount of electricity into Lee's arms, and the rest of it into the tree, sending the limb bursting into flames. The knee continued through the tree branch and met Lee's stomache, sending him flying up above the tops of the trees.

Lee looked back down and realized that his power now was still not enough to end the fight, and that he only had one more gate he could use and still walk away. "Sakura is going to kill me for this. Last time I ever went this far I was stuck in the hospital for almost a year. But I have no choice, it is now or never. Gate of Shock: Open!" Lee felt like he was going to burst as the new wave of energy began to pump through his body. "Time to end this!"

As soon as Sasuke got to the ground, he jumped up to follow Lee past the tree tops only to receive a kick to the face from a quickly descending Lee sending Sasuke back down with Lee landing on top of him with a downward stomp. Sasuke's ribs could audibly be heard cracking, but he grabbed Lee's legs, and threw him into a nearby tree quickly followed by a Pheonix Fire Jutsu that burnt and cut Lee over most of his arms, legs, and body.

"About time you finally went down, Lee. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to take care of Naruto and the wives." He said even as he was taking care not to injure his body any more than Lee had just done. He smirked and turned to walk away, but just before he could leave the area, he heard some noises come from behind him followed by a voice. "N-not so fast, Uchiha."

Sasuke spun around quickly, eyes wide. Lee was standing amidst the pile of broken, splintered, and burnt wood. There were shuriken stuck in his body, his skin was burnt badly, and he was barely standing, but he did manage to stand and return to his original fighting stance. "Sit back down Lee, you're already defeated. Give up now and maybe a patrol might be able to save you." Sasuke said as he turned back around to walk away.

"No, I refuse to let you harm Sakura, Naruto, Hinata, or any of the other inhabitants of Konoha. Even if I must lay down my life, I will stop you." Lee said. Sasuke kept his usual smirk charged towards the man, a newly formed chidori in hand as he planned to finally finish the man off. Lee looked down and thought one last time of what he was fighting for. Images of his friends smiling, the children in the academy, his sensei and students, and finally... 'Sakura, I'm sorry.' "Final Gate, Gate of Death: Open!" His heart beat faster and faster, he could feel the blood in his body rushing more quickly, and felt his body deteriorate inside as more and more of it was turned into pure energy.

Sasuke barely had time to see the attack before he felt as if his head had been torn off as a kick from below had landed squarely on his chin. Before he could make it ten feet though he felt another hit from the side as he was punched in the ribs. Again and again he was hit from different directions, he felt each hit and each one was replaced on a different side the second the first one had been finished. He could see a blur of dark green and between hits to his face were rare, but still common enough to keep him mostly blinded.

The roaring of wind and impacts flooded his ears as earth could be heard ripping from the ground in the background as Lee used all his surroundings to propel himself for each attack.

The kicks and punches went on for what seemed like forever getting stronger and stronger, breaking bone after bone. Everytime he was hit he could hear a bone cracking or breaking. Even his wings had not been spared, each one being broken in multiple places. He was finally hit from the top straight down, and right before he reached the ground he was hit from the bottom sending straight up through the tree tops.

Lee shot above Sasuke's rising form as if it was moving in slow motion and looked up to see Konoha and the Hokage Monument. "Goodbye, my friends." He looked back down and prepared to put all of his energy and power into his next attck. He wrapped both arms and legs around Sasuke and released as much chakra as he could burning and crushing Sasuke even before they started descending.

They both turned towards the ground as they started spinning, faster and faster as the force seemed to almost tear the two apart until they were nothing but a blur of chakra, green, and gray. "Final Lotus!" Was heard just before the two of them collided with the earth leaving nothing but a crater and one body.

Lee had removed himself from the attack just before he made impact and was now trying to pry himself from the tree he had hit. When he finally did, he moved towards the crater slowly, feeling the burns from releasing so much chakra, and the pain from the muscles in his body being ripped, torn, and burning away.

As soon as he reached the ground in front of the crater, he peered as far into the hole as he could to see Sasuke was laying inside. He didn't move and the cursed seal on Sasuke began to recede back to the mark before burning away taking the shoulder it was attached to with it. Lee just smiled and fell backwards as his heart started to slow down.

He laid there with a smile on his face as all the muscles burned away slowly from the outside in. He smiled as he reached into his jacket and pulled out a picture of Sakura and himself that he had kept on his person. It had been cut across the top corners but he could still see the smiles of Sakura and himself. Tears welled up in his eyes as he heard voices nearby and saw Sakura followed by Neji and Tenten run into the clearing.

Sakura appeared at his side with Tenten as Neji blocked the chakra flow, effectively closing the gates. "It is too late Neji. You have seen them, right?" Lee said. Neji's stoic mask dropped and he nodded. "He opened all eight gates. His muscles are eating away at themselves and soon so will his heart..." Sakura's eyes went wide before she turned back to Lee. She went through the handseals to heal him, but was stopped when Lee's hand landed on hers. "It would not matter."

Tears welled up in her arms before she collapsed on top of his chest crying. "Neji, Tenten, can you please find Hinata and Naruto?" Lee asked. Both stood and nodded in understanding before turning and leaving.

"I apologize, Sakura. I had no choice." Lee said. Sakura kissed him before looking into his eyes. "I understand, Lee." She said as she put her head on his chest. "I wish I could have been there to see our children grow up to become excellent shinobi." Lee said, tears pouring from his eyes as well. "Tell Gai that he was always my greatest teacher. Tell my students that hard work will allow them to always succeed and that I am proud of them. Most of all," His arms managed to wrap themselves slowly around the weeping woman on top of him. "Sakura, I love you." He said as the tears increased. Sakura's tears grew more and more as she looked to his face again. "I love you too, Lee." He smiled again as he closed his eyes, his breathing slowly coming to a stop as his arms continued to hold her tightly until they grew limp and fell to the side.

Sakura became frantic looking towards his face and chest for any signs of life. "Lee? Please keep talking to me! Lee!? Lee!"

She wasn't sure how long it was before the others came back to them, but she knew that Tenten carried her while Neji carried Lee's body. A heavy silence followed the group back to Konoha, broken only by a few sobs of a widowed wife.

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The next day Sakura and her daughter went to the Memorial Stone along with Lee's former team and his present team of genin. Many others from around the village had come as well. They had come at the same time after Lee's funeral to see his name placed on the stone. Sakura's tears that had finally stopped were renewed once more as she gave her part of the speech. Sakura's daughter, Tsubaki, cried at her father's funeral, but had managed to stop crying when they got to the memorial stone.

The original genin teams from thirteen years ago had gathered around the stone as Naruto gave a short speech about the 'Those Who Will Inherit the Will of Fire.' Gai walked up to the stone with a chisel and hammer and started chiseling the name of his student into the stone. When he finished he smiled as he rubbed a tear away and everybody came closer to get a better look at his name.

"Rock Lee: The Noble Green Beast of Konoha"