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Rock Lee had long since escaped Neji's line of sight, and with distance came the shedding of his cheerful, honest mask. The warm smile vanished completely, replaced by something cold and calculating that would have shocked anyone who knew him.
Pushing a genius to the edge of a worldview collapse was remarkably effective strategy. The cracks in Neji's philosophy of absolute fate were already forming, exactly as planned.
What Lee wanted had never been approval or recognition from others. What he needed was for everyone to believe his strength came exclusively from life-risking dedication and brutal training regimens that would kill anyone else.
That way, any extreme self-destructive practice he engaged in would appear completely reasonable to outside observers. Just another example of his legendary determination and work ethic.
Arrogance remained a genius's most exploitable weakness, and Lee excelled at identifying and targeting such vulnerabilities with surgical precision.
With him around this time, Neji wouldn't die on some distant battlefield like in the original timeline. After all, they were comrades and teammates.
Lee felt the tremendous power surging through his limbs and allowed himself a satisfied smile that never reached his eyes.
'System, begin tonight's training session.'
His personal gym had just opened for business, and he had performance targets to meet.
Deep within the training grounds, near the edge of the Forest of Death, Lee found the perfect location.
This area was secluded and shadowy, ideal for activities he preferred to keep private from prying eyes and curious observers.
"System, display status."
Lee activated the interface silently in his mind.
A pale blue screen materialized before his eyes, visible only to him, displaying his current statistics in clean, organized rows.
[Adaptive Body System]
[Host: Rock Lee]
[Current Ability Level: Basic Integration]
[Vitality Points: 11,060]
[System Functions: Vitality Points accumulate through sustained damage or extreme training beyond normal limits. 100 points instantly heal all non-fatal injuries. 1000 points repair one fatal injury and negate death.]
His gaze sharpened with focus as he began forcibly mobilizing the chakra reserves throughout his body, pulling them toward his limbs in preparation.
"Time to warm up properly."
Rock Lee planted his feet shoulder-width apart, dropping into the fundamental martial arts stance that had been drilled into him through thousands of repetitions. His eyes narrowed with concentration.
"First Gate, Gate of Opening! Release!"
"Second Gate, Gate of Healing! Release!"
BOOM!
An explosive surge of raw chakra erupted from deep within his core, flooding outward through every pathway and muscle fiber. His skin flushed bright red instantly as blood vessels dilated to accommodate the massive increase in circulation. The veins across his forehead and forearms bulged prominently, writhing like living serpents beneath his skin.
Overwhelming power filled his limbs and bones, threatening to tear him apart from the inside with its sheer intensity and volume.
What ordinary shinobi considered a forbidden technique reserved only for life-or-death situations was, for him, nothing more than flipping the switch to activate his training mode.
"HA!"
He threw a devastating punch at empty air, but the movement created a sharp explosive crack that echoed through the clearing like a gunshot.
What followed was a relentless barrage of the most fundamental techniques: straight punches, roundhouse kicks, elbow strikes, and knee thrusts executed in rapid succession.
But each movement, amplified dramatically by the power of the opened gates, carried absolutely terrifying destructive potential concentrated into precise points of impact.
With every strike he threw, the ground beneath his feet fractured into an intricate spiderweb pattern of cracks that spread outward from where he stood.
[High-intensity physical training detected. Vitality Points +1...]
[Sustained muscular stress detected. Vitality Points +1...]
The system notifications chimed steadily in his consciousness, measuring his progress.
"Too slow."
Lee frowned deeply, dissatisfaction clear on his face.
This level of stress wasn't generating sufficient damage to his body for optimal point accumulation. The rate of gain was pathetically inefficient.
A flash of something wild and almost manic gleamed in his eyes.
The next instant, he launched himself forward like a human missile, deliberately slamming his entire body into a massive tree trunk that would take three people linking hands to encircle.
"Leaf Whirlwind!"
BANG!
A heavy, bone-jarring impact resonated through the forest, sending startled birds erupting from nearby branches in panicked flight.
The enormous tree shook violently from the collision, and a clear depression in the shape of Lee's shoulder and torso appeared in the bark. Wood chips and splinters exploded outward in all directions like shrapnel.
The sickening crunch of his own bones compressing reached his ears, and Lee's smile widened with genuine satisfaction.
Perfect. That was exactly the right level of impact.
He immediately pushed himself back to his feet, glancing at his already swelling, deeply bruised, and clearly deformed shoulder. Rather than stopping or showing any concern, his eyes blazed with even greater intensity and focus.
"Again!"
BANG!
BANG! BANG!
Again and again, he used his own flesh and blood to crash into and kick the unforgiving hardwood trees surrounding him with increasingly reckless abandon.
Each brutal impact generated an increase in system points while simultaneously inflicting excruciating physical pain that pushed his body steadily closer to its absolute breaking point.
But he genuinely didn't care about the agony.
This suffering felt like paradise compared to the soul-crushing despair of his previous life, working endless overtime shifts until he'd literally collapsed and died on his way home from the office.
As Lee lost himself completely in the perverse pleasure of this self-destructive training regimen, he failed to notice a pair of sharp eyes watching him intently from the shadows of a tree roughly fifty meters away.
Anko Mitarashi stood perfectly still, her presence completely concealed.
Tonight happened to be her assigned shift for conducting nighttime surveillance around the outer perimeter of the Forest of Death, monitoring for any unusual activity or unauthorized intrusions.
That first thunderous impact had immediately caught her attention and triggered her professional instincts.
The violent fluctuation of chakra she'd sensed wasn't something any ordinary genin could possibly generate or control.
Her first assumption had been enemy infiltration, so she'd immediately concealed her presence and moved to investigate, preparing for potential combat. What she discovered instead was a scene she would never forget for the rest of her life.
That thick-browed kid, Rock Lee, who according to all reports should have been half-dead and immobilized in a hospital bed, was actively practicing the Eight Gates technique!
Even more shocking, he was doing it in what could only be described as a suicidal training method!
Anko's eyes widened in genuine disbelief, her pupils contracting to pinpoints.
She could observe everything with perfect clarity from her concealed position. With each devastating self-inflicted impact, Lee's muscle tissue tore progressively deeper, and his bones groaned audibly from stress they were never designed to endure.
Any normal person would have been rendered completely incapable of movement long ago after sustaining such catastrophic injuries to their body.
But this kid, rather than stopping or even slowing down, became progressively more energized and excited with each collision. His expression carried something that looked disturbingly close to pure enjoyment.
What truly terrified her, however, was the subtle green glow that would occasionally pulse across Lee's entire body. In those brief moments, his horrific wounds would begin healing at a slow but clearly visible and continuous rate, contradicting everything she knew about normal human physiology.
'Madman.'
That single word dominated Anko's thoughts.
This boy was an absolute madman of the highest order.
He was even more insane than her former master Orochimaru had been during his most obsessive periods of forbidden technique research, and that was saying something truly terrifying.
Finally, after Lee delivered a devastating blow that snapped a tree completely in half at the trunk, he stopped moving and stood there panting heavily, his chest heaving with exertion.
[Current Vitality Points: 11,090]
Lee frowned as he reviewed the numbers critically.
'This training method is still far too inefficient for my needs.'
'Sparring practice generates points much faster. Real combat comes with greater risks, but the rewards justify it. I just need to avoid actually dying, since death costs 1000 Vitality Points. That's too expensive and damages my long-term accumulation rate.'
He was seriously considering whether to attempt opening the Third Gate when a clear, slightly husky female voice suddenly spoke from directly behind him.
"Hey, kid."
Rock Lee froze completely, the manic intensity vanishing from his expression in an instant. When he turned around to face the speaker, his features had already rearranged themselves into his signature honest and passionate smile.
He watched as Anko emerged smoothly from the deep shadows, dressed in her distinctive black mesh bodysuit that left very little to the imagination.
He scratched the back of his head sheepishly, flashing a bright grin that showed all his teeth. "Ah, Examiner Mitarashi! Good evening to you! Are you here for late-night training as well?"
Anko's eyebrow twitched slightly with barely suppressed disbelief.
She looked the boy up and down carefully, taking in his body that was covered entirely in fresh injuries yet showed no signs of pain or distress whatsoever. Her voice came out cold and skeptical when she finally spoke.
"Do you have any idea what you were just doing?"
"Of course I know!" Rock Lee replied immediately, as though the answer were completely obvious. "I was training!"
"Training?" Anko let out a short, incredulous laugh. "You call using the Eight Gates technique to deliberately smash yourself into trees training? Are you actively trying to kill yourself?"
"Guy-sensei always says that only through trials that feel like hell itself can someone gain power that surpasses even natural genius!" Lee's eyes burned with unwavering conviction, as if he were proclaiming some profound universal truth.
"If I want to become strong enough to protect Konohagakure and all my comrades, this level of pain means absolutely nothing!"
His righteous, selfless demeanor and complete willingness to sacrifice his own wellbeing for his ideals left Anko, who'd spent years seeing every dark side of shinobi life imaginable, temporarily speechless.
She'd encountered plenty of shinobi with iron determination before. She'd also seen her share of fearless desperados who didn't value their own lives.
But she had never, in all her years of service, encountered anyone who discussed what amounted to methodical suicide with such genuine enthusiasm and passionate conviction.
'What the hell is wrong with this kid's brain structure?'
"Your body..." Anko's gaze focused intently on his shoulder, which was still visibly red and swollen despite having been shattered just minutes earlier. "That regenerative ability you're displaying. Is that medical ninjutsu?"
"No, I don't know any medical ninjutsu at all." Rock Lee clenched his fist tightly, and his knuckles produced several audible cracking sounds as the joints realigned.
"This is all thanks to dedicated training! I genuinely believe that as long as I push myself relentlessly, my body will naturally become stronger and more resilient, and my recovery speed will increase accordingly!"
'Training?'
Anko's expression became incredibly complex, mixing skepticism with something that might have been reluctant acceptance.
Looking into Lee's clear yet fervent eyes, burning with that innocent intensity, she found herself thinking that perhaps he actually believed what he was saying. Maybe he wasn't lying at all.
Perhaps there really were pure idiots in this world. Or more accurately, pure monsters who would drive themselves to the absolute brink of death in pursuit of what they called hard work and dedication.
This boy's willpower was stronger, or perhaps more accurately described as more fundamentally twisted, than any condemned prisoner she'd ever interrogated or observed.
"I'm going to report everything I witnessed here tonight to the Third Hokage."
Anko gave him one final, penetrating look that seemed to be memorizing every detail of his appearance, then turned sharply and vanished into the darkness without another word.
She needed to file her report about this madman immediately and without delay.
A monster who could casually use the Eight Gates technique as part of his standard daily training routine had already transcended the boundaries of what should be physically possible for any human.
Watching the direction where Anko had disappeared into the shadows, the passionate smile slowly faded from Lee's face, replaced by calm calculation.
'Everything is proceeding exactly according to plan.'
His carefully constructed persona as the insane hard worker had just gained another crucial witness with significant authority and credibility.
Now it would be Konohagakure's leadership's turn to develop serious headaches trying to figure out what to do about his extreme training methods.