Shock. Horror. Disbelief. Confusion.
A torrent of complex emotions washed over Rock Lee.
He was born in Konoha, and he had longed to become a ninja.
But he lacked talent, and could only make up for it through sheer effort.
During that time, he had endured the malice of his peers.
They looked down on him for being ugly and foolish, and refused to play with him.
He persisted with his physical training, hoping that one day he could prove that hard work could catch up to genius.
Until he met Naruto.
Although Naruto's talent was outstanding, he, like Lee, had endured malice.
In fact, the hostility directed at Naruto was even more intense and direct.
Lee had personally witnessed Naruto change himself through hard work.
He had been a witness to Naruto's warmth all along the way.
He opened his mouth, as if to say something.
But the words caught in his throat, and he couldn't get a single one out.
"Lee," Naruto said softly, sheathing his sword and looking up at the Pure Land's blue sky.
"All this time, my goals and my thoughts have been very simple. I want to create a world of perfect equality. No class system, no great clans, no monopoly on ninjutsu. A world where everyone can enjoy the same treatment."
"Like everyone else, I despise war."
"But I also know that to achieve the world I want to see, I have no choice but to take up my sword."
"Those Hollows were just one of my experiments. And they won't be the last."
Hearing Naruto's words, Lee asked, his voice trembling, "Then why… why did you release those monsters in Konoha?"
He hoped, desperately, that Naruto could give him a reasonable explanation.
Something that would prove…
That he was still the same Naruto he knew.
But Naruto just chuckled, his tone casual and unconcerned. "The location didn't matter. I put the Hollows in Konoha simply to apply a little pressure on them. It was the most direct way to see their potential."
For a reason as simple as that, he could unleash monsters on the village of his birth, and let everyone suffer the consequences.
"I don't understand!!" Lee roared. "The Naruto I know isn't this heartless!"
"Heartless?" Naruto shook his head and laughed softly. "Compared to Konoha's higher-ups, I'd say I'm quite sentimental."
"Do you know why your parents died?"
At those words, Lee's pupils contracted. A dreadful suspicion surfaced in his mind.
He took a step back, as if trying to flee from the thought.
Naruto stated it plainly. "Root ninja are required to sever all emotion, to become unfeeling machines."
"And you, as a special case with a living mother and father, naturally had to receive the proper 'cleanup' treatment. That was the only way for you to truly integrate into Root."
"I didn't expect Root to be quite so ruthless. That was my oversight," Naruto sighed.
"Do you have any idea how terrifying the political struggles in Konoha are? You, me… we are nothing but pawns to them. I have been manipulated by them since the day I was born."
"I don't understand!" Lee yelled, his eyes blazing with fury.
"You've always known the answer in your heart, haven't you?" Naruto's face was calm.
Hearing this, Lee clenched his fists in agony and slammed them into the sand.
It was a desperate release of frustration.
All this time, he had faced the world with a simple, foolish demeanor.
He had hoped to warm everyone with his presence, just like Naruto.
But as Naruto's best friend, someone who had grown up alongside him, he had of course been influenced by him. There was no way he could be a true fool.
He could think. He could reflect.
He just kept everything buried deep inside.
After joining Root, he had been exposed to the darkness of a ninja village.
Root's missions were the ones no other ninja could accept.
Assassinating ninja from other villages. Slandering other villages.
Inciting conflict between them.
Because Lee's level of trust was still low, the missions he was assigned were relatively "tame."
But for Root to kill his parents…
It was exactly the kind of thing they would do.
Lee gritted his teeth, a spark of hatred igniting in his eyes.
Naruto condensed his Reiatsu, forming one image after another in the air.
They all depicted displaced villagers, tragic scenes of people crushed by the oppression of the ninja villages.
"Look closely. These are the evil deeds of the villages."
"Konoha's prosperity is built on a foundation of countless bloody sacrifices. They feed on the blood of the lower classes, growing into a great tree. And now, Konoha has become even more rapacious. Even the young have become their nutrients."
"And your parents… they were just nutrients."
"Dammit! Shut up!" Lee erupted, swinging a fist at Naruto.
Naruto didn't dodge or flinch. He just stood there.
Hiss. The punch stopped less than ten centimeters from Naruto's face. The force of it kicked up a cloud of sand behind him.
Lee panted heavily, as if that single punch had taken all his strength.
"Accept the truth. The Konoha you serve is the very reason your family was destroyed. As long as this class system exists, a commoner ninja will never have a chance to rise."
"To them, you are nothing but a disposable tool. Believe me. If you died, they wouldn't feel regret. Just a bit of disappointment that a useful weapon was lost."
Naruto's words were like sharp blades stabbing into Lee's heart.
"Naruto!!" Lee threw the punch with all his might.
BOOM. The force of the blow stirred the air, but it only struck an afterimage.
Lee's vision blurred. Naruto had appeared at his side, his mocking voice echoing in the air.
"Are you swinging at me because you're angry that I've ripped away the blindfold you placed over your own eyes? If self-deception is a quality you possess, then perhaps I was wrong about you."
"Stop talking, Naruto!" Lee twisted his body, a side kick whistling through the air.
Again, it only hit an afterimage.
"Hado Number 1: Sho."
A flash of white light erupted. The next moment, Lee was sent flying backward like a cannonball. His cloak ripped to shreds, and he spat a mouthful of blood.
Lee collapsed onto the hot sand.
The intense heat baked his body, blurring his vision.
Normally, a wound like this was minor; he should have been able to get up immediately.
But for some reason…
At this moment, his body felt as heavy as lead. He had no strength to move.
He saw his vision distort again, and Naruto was standing over him, looking down from on high.
"Do you see, Lee? You have no will to fight me. Because deep down, you accept all of this. What you can't accept is simply being forced to enter this cruel world."
"If you want to be someone who knows nothing, who works himself to death for his enemies, then I'll let you be. I have ways to make you forget everything that happened today."
Lying in the scorching desert, Lee's gaze grew distant.
He was born into an ordinary ninja family.
His parents were just average chunin.
His own talent was abysmal.
Almost every week, his parents would take turns going on missions.
The missions weren't difficult; there was rarely any mortal danger.
But the pay wasn't much, either. Their life had always been meager, just enough to get by.
After he was born, he began to dream of becoming a ninja.
He dreamed of becoming a great ninja like the Hokage, someone who could stand on his own, respected by all.
For that goal, he trained relentlessly.
But then, he was tested and found to have no talent for ninjutsu.
He could only learn taijutsu.
His parents went from one great clan to another, begging for any simple ninjutsu or secret technique that could help Lee's training.
They always believed.
They believed Lee wasn't mediocre, that he must have some latent talent for ninjutsu.
If only he had a secret technique, perhaps he could awaken that talent.
Unsurprisingly, they were turned away at every door.
No clan gave them the time of day.
Even the other children in the village began to mock Lee, calling him a failure, trash.
In the eyes of those clans, his family was worthless.
"You're just chunin, what are you dreaming of? Your son is a failure." He vaguely remembered the condescending words of an arrogant clan heir from that day.
That night, the atmosphere at home was frozen.
His parents' eyes held an emptiness he couldn't understand.
"Secret techniques are the precious treasures of the great clans. Why would they ever help ninja like us, who have no power and no influence?"
His parents' voices were bitter.
At the time, Lee hadn't understood. He had foolishly tried to comfort them.
"It's okay! Even without ninjutsu or secret techniques, I'll become a great ninja with just taijutsu! I'll prove that hard work can surpass genius!"
Tears streamed down Lee's face now, and he choked out the words to himself.
"With only hard work… it's too hard."
"I shouldn't have become a ninja. Then they wouldn't have died."
Now, he understood. But his parents were gone.
He messily wiped away his tears and thought of Naruto.
It was that afternoon.
The sunlight fell on Naruto's warm, smiling face as he said to him, "Your greatest talent is your hard work. I believe in you."
He had believed that Lee could surpass genius.
And Lee had worked as hard as he had hoped, wanting to stand by his side.
Now, Naruto was walking a path he had never imagined.
And he…
He was facing a choice.
Lee raised his head, his vision blurred by tears. He saw that Naruto's expression was still gentle, but his eyes held a sharpness and indifference that was different from before.
"To overthrow all class and all rules, you must inevitably make an enemy of everything," Naruto's tone was steady.
"As I said, I will stand in the heavens and become the one who writes the new rules."
"This… is the real me!"
Lee looked at Naruto.
After his parents' death, following Naruto had become the source of his inner strength.
He hoped, he yearned, to be of true help to Naruto.
He wanted to be Naruto's most trusted partner.
"Why are you telling me this now?" he asked.
"Because the plan is about to begin. And you… are the person I trust most."
Naruto's words made Lee's eyes well up again. A surge of passion and pride erupted in his chest.
He shot to his feet, slapping the sand from his clothes, and said, word by word:
"Naruto! I'll help you! I'll join you… and together, we will overthrow this world!"
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