Chapter 56: Gaara
Was it worth it?
Reality... is not a hot-blooded anime, not an inspirational novel. Sometimes, you can work hard, you can give it your all, and still get nothing in return.
Behind every successful person, there are the footprints of their arduous struggle...
And the piles of white bones of the failures who fell on the road to success.
Sometimes these failures are not because they didn't work hard, not because they didn't strive. They were doubly diligent, but sometimes, due to a lack of a little luck, they fell on the path of chasing their dreams.
If it hadn't been against Gaara, with Lee's strength, he would not have been defeated so miserably against anyone else remaining. In fact, apart from Sakura, he could have completely defeated everyone else!
Even against Neji, it would have been the same. After opening the Eight Gates, Neji wouldn't be able to keep up with his movements, and Rotation wouldn't be able to block his attacks. Neji would have been certain to lose! Against Sakura, although he couldn't break the defense of her ultrapure water, Sakura wouldn't have struck such a heavy blow. Lee would have been bedridden for a while, but the side effects of the Eight Gates would have eventually healed. Against Naruto, Naruto could only pray that the sometimes-reliable-sometimes-not Nine-Tails chakra would pop out to help him. Against the others... was there anyone present who could take a punch from Lee after he had opened five gates? Was there anyone who could beat a Lee who had opened five gates?
Not a single one!
Only Gaara.
It had to be Gaara.
The chuunibyou-era Gaara. The Gaara who had only hate and no love in his eyes. The Gaara who struck with ruthless cruelty.
If this was destiny, then destiny was so unjust.
With all his might, the hot-blooded Lee had fearlessly thrown himself against the cold wall of reality, smashing his head until it bled, his body covered in wounds, until he was utterly broken...
Without any regard for himself.
"Sakura-chan, is this the price of chasing a dream?" Hinata asked softly.
Her voice trembled slightly.
It was the sympathy of a fellow dream-chaser for Lee and... an anxiety for the future.
According to the rules of the Hyuga clan, Hinata's status as a main family daughter could only be maintained until the next head of the main family was chosen. After that, she would either be chosen to become the head, or she would be branded with the seal and become a member of the branch family, just like Hiashi's twin brother, Hizashi, decades ago.
And Hinata had been given up on by Hiashi years ago due to her lack of talent. The position of the next head of the main family was almost certainly to be inherited by the more talented Hanabi. As soon as Hanabi officially took over the position of the head of the main family, Hinata would immediately be demoted to the branch family.
If nothing unexpected happened, this was Hinata's future.
Unless... Hinata was strong enough, so strong that even the Hyuga clan, which revered the strong, would not dare to offend her dignity, would not dare to touch her sensitive spot, would not dare to anger her.
This was an unwritten rule. A Kage-level powerhouse could trample on this unreasonable rule. Although strength could not represent everything in this cruel world, it could decide many things.
No one liked having a humiliating curse mark carved on their forehead, their life and death in the hands of others. Hinata was the same. One of her dreams was to become a strong person who could escape this fate.
But she had never thought that a person chasing a dream would sometimes be so thoroughly wounded by reality.
Ino was silent.
"Yes, this... is the price of chasing a dream."
Sakura lowered her eyelids, her voice suppressed.
"The path to realizing a dream is just this complicated, winding, and difficult to walk. Hinata, are you afraid?"
She looked at Hinata quietly.
The road ahead was so bumpy. Perhaps if she shrank back now, resigned herself to her fate, she could still live the rest of her life laughing and playing, relaxed and happy. As for the curse mark, if she were to be an honest and obedient ordinary ninja, the curse mark would not have any effect on her life.
A bird in a cage, as long as it doesn't think about resisting, can also live and die peacefully, without wind or rain.
But Hinata gently shook her head.
"If it were Naruto-kun, he would definitely persevere to the end, right! So, how can I give up so easily! Only by staying in one place can you avoid being tripped by the stones on the road. Besides that, where in this world is there a truly smooth path?"
Hinata suddenly smiled calmly, the smile dispelling the gloom on her face.
"Even if I'm covered in scars along the way, it's better than hesitating and not moving forward, and then regretting in old age that I accomplished nothing. The worst outcome is just being forced to give up the path of a ninja and become an ordinary person. At least then I would have chosen, worked hard, and fought for it. I might be unwilling, but I won't have any regrets."
"Let's not talk about it anymore. Sakura-chan, put your flower in. We shouldn't disturb Lee-san for too long!"
Hinata said as softly as a whisper.
Sakura shrugged. She was, of course, happy that her friend had come to such an understanding.
However, they were all little ninja who had not experienced the storms and setbacks of life. It was easy to talk big, but how much they could actually do when the time came was still an unknown.
Even Sakura herself couldn't guarantee that if what happened to Lee happened to her, she wouldn't lose heart and fall into despair.
Sakura shook her head, shaking off these useless thoughts and worries.
She took two steps forward, just about to place the orchid in her hand into Lee's vase, but she suddenly stopped.
Her gaze turned cold, her face like frost.
"What are you doing here?"
A merciless question. Under the calm and icy tone, her chakra suddenly surged!
A strange figure appeared abruptly at the door. Sensing the hostility from the girl in front of him, he stopped in his tracks.
"I want to kill him."
A flat tone. Under the heavy dark circles were Gaara's bloodshot eyes. His indifferent face was twisted, and a grave killing intent instantly erupted!
Sand quietly leaked out, dancing in the air, stirring restlessly.
Sakura turned around. Gaara's icy gaze swept over the three girls, as if looking at lifeless corpses. Sakura understood that such a gaze indicated that Gaara completely disregarded their lives. If the three of them dared to obstruct what he wanted to do, he would unhesitatingly deliver a killing blow and obliterate everything that stood in his way!
Therefore, he would say his purpose without any concern, admitting in front of the three of them that he was going to kill someone, because he didn't care!
Sakura's expression was grave. She wasn't afraid of fighting Gaara, but right now was not a good place for a conflict. This was a hospital, the heart of Konoha, with thousands of people, and Sasuke and the others were sleeping unconscious in their hospital beds. If it were ravaged by Gaara's high-level ninjutsu and Sakura's Water Gun, the casualties would be immeasurable!
Ino was so scared by Gaara's killing intent that she stood frozen on the side, unable to move.
But Hinata walked up to Sakura's side, braving the killing intent, and stood shoulder to shoulder with her.
"Do you have some personal grudge against Rock Lee? Why do you want to kill him? You've already defeated him in the match!" Hinata asked with a cold expression.
The corner of Gaara's mouth split open, revealing a crazed smile.
"Killing doesn't need a reason... I want to kill him, so I came. Killing Rock Lee allows me to feel that I am still alive. Killing everyone other than myself is the meaning of my existence! If you want to hear a reason, this is my reason!"
The wild laughter made Gaara seem even more ferocious and hateful.
"Stop it, that's enough. You're too crazy, you're a complete madman!"
"Crazy? It's not me who's crazy, but this world! From the moment I was born, the only link between me and the world has been hatred and slaughter. My mother died in childbirth when she gave birth to me. My father, the Fourth Kazekage, in order to make me the strongest, sealed a monster inside my body, and from then on, I became a monster. After I turned six, he finally discovered that I was a dangerous monster to the village. From that time until now, my own father has been constantly trying to assassinate me, nearly killing me several times!"
Hinata was shocked by the cruel facts Gaara recounted.
"Get out of the way, or I'll slaughter you!"
As his words fell, Gaara's killing intent erupted madly! Hinata was actually forced back a step!
And beside her, Sakura still stood proudly in place, her figure not moving an inch, as if she were completely unaffected by Gaara.
"That's enough! I don't care who you are," her clear and cold voice seemed to overwhelm the bloody aura overflowing from Gaara. "If you want a taste of lying in a hospital bed, then just you try taking another step!"
A standoff. Sakura's icy killing intent was quietly released. The girl's bright emerald eyes met Gaara's turbid, blood-red pupils head-on. The former was like a cold, ten-thousand-year-old iceberg, eternally releasing a bone-chilling cold. The latter was like a clamorous storm, roaring madly amidst thunder and lightning!
The air seemed to stir restlessly.
Gaara, who had little patience, finally couldn't hold back.
The sand that filled the air converged into clumps, its imposing aura reminiscent of Gaara's ruthless moves in the match! Amidst Hinata's suppressed gasp, the clumps of sand twisted, trying to entangle the girl's body, but they were firmly blocked by a pale blue water shield.
The water mass and the sand belt intertwined, circled, and wrestled.
The sand, which had been invincible in the past, now seemed to have hit an iron plate. No, even an iron plate would have been creakingly squeezed into scrap metal by the chakra-filled sand. But the transparent water mass in front of her, which looked soft and fragile, remained motionless under the heavy pressure of the sand! Gaara paid no mind, just blindly increasing his chakra output, constantly pushing the power of the sand to crush the water mass!
Splash—
In the end, it was the sand that was mercilessly crushed by the pale blue water mass, scattering and falling to the ground!
Sakura let out a cold laugh, not surprised at all by this outcome. Sand was, after all, sand. It was a loose mass to begin with. No matter how much chakra was infused, it could not pose a threat to ultrapure water!
Gaara, however, let out a pained grunt. He clutched his head with both hands, his trembling body almost kneeling down.
The image of the girl crushing the sand with a wave of her hand made him recall another person who had dispersed his sand, the tall Konoha ninja whose eyes held a chilling anger as he stood in front of Lee, blocking his intention to kill him like a great mountain!
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