Don't Look Directly into an Uchiha's Eyes

The protection of the wall of fire gave Sasuke valuable time to devise a strategy for fighting Little Lee.

Sasuke also used the opportunity to recover as much of the stamina that Little Lee's high-speed taijutsu had depleted.

He watched Little Lee standing atop the statue with his dark eyes, hesitating over whether to use the Sharingan...

In his previous fight with Little Lee, Sasuke's One-Tomoe Sharingan had been unable to see through Little Lee's movements.

Now, because of the Cursed Seal, he had awakened the Two-Tomoe Sharingan. Each additional tomoe strengthened the Sharingan's visual power.

Perhaps the Two-Tomoe Sharingan would allow him to perceive Little Lee's movements.

But... after weighing it again and again, Sasuke still abandoned the idea of using the Sharingan now.

Sasuke could feel the constant, burning pain from the Cursed Seal around his shoulder and neck. He had only used the Great Fireball Technique just now.

Sasuke had already noticed that he was vaguely beginning to lose control over the Cursed Seal.

Using the Sharingan required even more chakra. If he kept his eyes activated for too long, the Cursed Seal would seize his will again.

And besides...

Sasuke looked toward Kakashi in the stands diagonally above him.

Kakashi happened to meet Sasuke's gaze.

Kakashi had made it clear during their earlier conversation that if Sasuke could not control the Cursed Seal, he would step in and stop the match.

At that point, Sasuke's match against Little Lee would end in defeat.

Sasuke shifted his gaze from Kakashi to Naruto and Sakura beside him.

Team 7 had worked so hard to persist until now. How could he fail here so easily?

Think, Sasuke Uchiha!

This was already his second clash with Rock Lee—use the information from both battles to analyze this troublesome guy's weakness!

Then Sasuke really did notice something.

The wall of fire did surround him, forming a defense that could effectively restrain Little Lee's taijutsu.

But the wall of fire could not defend above Sasuke's head.

Sasuke had to leave an opening so that the flames, which consumed oxygen, would not interfere with his breathing.

Little Lee was standing high above, able to take in all of Sasuke's movements at a glance.

All Little Lee had to do was change his method of attack and replace taijutsu with ninjutsu.

The wall of fire protecting Sasuke would instantly become a cage that trapped him!

Yet Little Lee chose to keep observing instead of attacking with ninjutsu...

Why?

Was he worried that I had some contingency prepared?

Sasuke narrowed his eyes as he watched Little Lee's every move, feeling that he was about to figure out why Little Lee insisted on attacking with taijutsu alone...

In the stands, Naruto watched Sasuke's expression and understood that Sasuke had grown suspicious of Little Lee's insistence on using only taijutsu.

So what would Sasuke do next?

Even if Sasuke eventually discovered that Little Lee did not use ninjutsu or genjutsu because he could not use them—

How would he exploit the weakness of Little Lee only knowing taijutsu?

It was like saying, "If people are killed, they die." Even toddlers still learning to speak instinctively understood that truth.

Death by suffocation, death by poison, death by blood loss... there were countless ways to die.

But knowing the weaknesses that could cause death and successfully killing someone—those were completely different matters.

Based on Sasuke's performance in the original story, once the Cursed Seal had eroded him, even dealing with Akato Yoroi's taijutsu had been difficult.

Akato Yoroi had successfully touched Sasuke's body and absorbed his chakra, causing the Cursed Seal to activate once more.

But Little Lee's current strength was enough to let him fight Gaara in his normal state despite having no intelligence on him and only being able to use taijutsu.

Judging from the original story, everything Sasuke did now was merely futile struggling, a laughable persistence that only delayed his inevitable defeat.

But this world had brought Naruto far too many subtle variables.

Naruto was also changing the original story's course through his plan to defect.

The overall direction of events might be similar, but no one could guarantee that their endpoint would remain the same as in the original story.

Naruto was... very interested in Sasuke's next choice.

Would Sasuke lose the match "without suspense"?

Or would he, as the Uchiha genius, "naturally" defeat Little Lee?

Naruto temporarily shifted his gaze away from Sasuke and Little Lee, who were still locked in a standoff.

As though merely glancing around, he cast a sidelong look at Might Guy standing not far away beside Neji and Tenten of Team 3.

"Kakashi, your student really is impressive... In such a short time, he noticed that Little Lee had many opportunities to use ninjutsu, yet he has only been attacking with taijutsu."

The next moment, Might Guy, who looked like an adult version of Little Lee, suddenly appeared before Team 7 in the stands.

Guy praised the excellence of the student trained by Kakashi, his close friend and rival.

But even more than that, he could not wait to show Kakashi that his own student was even more outstanding.

"Little Lee! Take them off!"

Guy, who had been talking to himself in front of Kakashi, suddenly gave Little Lee a thumbs-up. "I permit it!"

"Take off what?"

Sakura did not understand Guy's riddle-like words.

Naruto shifted his gaze to Little Lee's feet.

Little Lee removed the weighted straps from both of his legs.

He threw the weights onto the ground, creating a tremendous impact!

Then Little Lee, who had not attacked since Sasuke used the wall of fire for defense, launched another assault!

Without the restrictions of weight, Little Lee became even faster!

This time, his figure vanished completely. Not even an afterimage could be caught!

Little Lee disappeared from the hall, replaced by a fierce wind capable of extinguishing the wall of fire protecting Sasuke!

It was an extinguishing wind whipped up by Little Lee's astonishing speed!

Wind could fuel fire.

But if the wind was stronger than the fire, extinguishing it was not impossible.

The fierce wind Little Lee created through high-speed movement distorted the flames, turning the wall of fire into a semicircular dome!

The flames around Sasuke instead completely enclosed him within.

No one could see Sasuke's figure inside the flames!

In the blink of an eye, the flames vanished completely, and Sasuke was exposed to everyone's sight once more.

"Leaf Shadow Dance!"

It was the move Little Lee had used during his first clash with Sasuke!

Little Lee used taijutsu to appear behind Sasuke in an instant and kicked him into the air!

As Sasuke flew upward, Little Lee also leaped into the air, maintaining a parallel position beneath Sasuke.

"This time, I won't let you use ninjutsu again!"

The bandages around Little Lee's arms wrapped around Sasuke's entire body!

He grabbed Sasuke and actually spun through the air at high speed with him, then violently smashed him into the ground headfirst!

The taijutsu Little Lee was using now was called—the Primary Lotus!

The tremendous impact changed the hall's floor. Rocks and dust flew everywhere, showing just how powerful the Primary Lotus was!

And Sasuke had taken that attack with his own body!

"How could this happen!"

Sakura had never imagined Sasuke would lose in such a way.

"Guy, you actually taught your student such a reckless technique..."

Kakashi was astonished that Guy had taught Little Lee a taijutsu that injured the enemy by a thousand while damaging himself by eight hundred.

Only Naruto silently stared at Sasuke, who was held by Little Lee and had landed on his neck and back, unconscious.

"I won, Guy-sensei! Did you see that!"

Little Lee excitedly shouted to Guy in the stands.

He had defeated the genius Uchiha—his hard work had not been in vain—and his next target was the opponent he truly wanted to defeat: the Hyuga Clan genius, Neji Hyuga, who was both his companion and rival!

After his excitement faded, Little Lee staggered and nearly fell to the ground.

The Primary Lotus required the Eight Gates to enhance the power of taijutsu, and every gate inflicted damage on the user's body.

It was perfectly normal for Little Lee to nearly trip over himself.

However, for a ninja still in battle, this was the greatest weakness!

The unconscious Sasuke suddenly turned into a cloud of smoke and vanished!

The Sasuke Little Lee had caught with the Primary Lotus was only a Shadow Clone.

With Naruto, whose main combat method was Shadow Clones, as his teammate, it was not strange for Sasuke, who possessed the Sharingan, to have copied the technique at some point.

With the Cursed Seal requiring chakra to suppress it, Sasuke using a Shadow Clone—which evenly divided his own chakra—was an unbelievably bold move.

But that move also brought Sasuke victory!

Across the ruined ground, soil had been thrown up by Little Lee's Primary Lotus.

Sasuke's hands emerged from the dirt and seized the moment when Little Lee's body had yet to recover!

Within the fierce wind Little Lee had used to extinguish the flames, Sasuke had taken the chance when the wall of fire became a fire dome to hide his real body underground, using a Shadow Clone to lure his enemy!

Little Lee immediately tried to break free of Sasuke.

But it was already too late!

Sasuke burst out from the ground and restrained Little Lee.

Because of the Primary Lotus, Little Lee was unable to immediately break free from Sasuke's grasp.

"You've heard this before too, haven't you!"

Black Two-Tomoe patterns appeared within Sasuke's red eyes.

Little Lee met Sasuke's Sharingan gaze!

"In a one-on-one fight, don't look directly into an Uchiha's eyes!"

That was... genjutsu!

Even the most basic genjutsu was difficult for Little Lee to handle.

Not to mention that this basic genjutsu had been empowered by the Sharingan's visual prowess!