1366/The Ultimate In Hot-Blooded Battles

The Ultimate In Hot-Blooded Battles
Date of Scene:	19 January 2015
Location:	The Magma Zone
Synopsis:	Madara Uchiha and Rock Lee fight while volcanoes explode.
Cast of Characters:	513, 596, 651, 678

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Madara Uchiha (651) has posed:
The Magma Zone, in general, does not appear to be very hospitable for most human-like lifeforms. It would be easy for normal people to simply die here. Really, remarkably, distressingly easy. Of course, Rock Lee is not a normal person. And neither is the man he has come here hoping to meet! The voice on the radio sounded just like Might Guy's! ...If not perhaps just slightly, barely-imperceptibly different. But that could be chalked up to radio interference, or the sound of ERUPTIONS in the background when he spoke. Yes, that must be it. Because who could fake such HOT-BLOOD and DETERMINATION, right?

The ground regularly explodes into geyers of lava, or simply crumbles away. Jets of toxic volcanic gasses spray out of crevices. The heat is well beyond even a trainer human's tolerance for extended periods of time. Human bodies SHUT DOWN just with relatively minor fluctuations in temperature. 98.6 degrees Farenheit is normal. Go up a couple degrees, and you start feeling crappy. Go up a bit more and you start to lose your balance, become nauseous, and hallucinate.

Seas of molten rock glow on the horizon, and almost inconceivably tall, scorched mountains and actively-erupting volcanos reach up like a mythological titans towards a toxic-choked sky of black and red clouds. Heat lightning keeps crackling through the air, adding thunder to the boom of planetary forces exhibiting one of the most violent of natural disasters.

There are strange natural lifeforms around here, but none of them seem to be people, at least in Lee's vicinity. Where around here is his teacher?

Rock Lee (678) has posed:
The Magma Zone is not the best place to be when one wears shoes with exposed toes. But it is the perfect place for hot blooded ninjas to reunite! So when Lee exits the highly secure area that houses the gate to this place, he's running across the Magma Zone, dodging jets of lava.

Of course, as a properly prepared ninja, he's taking regular drinks from a canteen housed in the mysterious ninja pockets of his vest. Then slides it right back in.

Once he's actually at the location, though, he's crossed his arms, looking around, scratching his head. "Guy Sensei!" he calls out, holding his hands up to his mouth.

Madara Uchiha (651) has posed:
There is a sudden GLARE of red illumination as a solid-looking obsidian plate perhaps a hundred yards away EXPLODES into a towering geyser of angry red, nearly-gelatinous stone. It's loud and distracting. But when the geyser finally dumping its payload onto the surrounding stone, there's a voice behind Rock Lee. "Hello, Lee!" That's Might Guy! When Lee turns around, that's even Guy standing there! But his facial features aren't quite right. He looks slightly younger than he should be. And that might also be what was different about his voice too. It sounded younger. Or maybe like someone had tried to recreate it by extrapolating from what they knew of his appearance and voice when he was younger. To guess how he would look and sound when he was older.

'Guy' starts to smolder, and then catches fire. Even as he continues to grin, his hands propped on his hips heroically, his back straight with confidence, his eyebrows as bushy as ever, his skin blackened and peels. When next he speaks, flames can be seen visibly jetting up out of his throat from inside of himself with every word. Like he's burning to death from the inside out!

"What's wrong, Lee? You look like you were expecting-" and the voice changes at that point, becoming deeper, and of a completely different tone. "-someone else."

The voice that finishes those words isn't coming from Guy. Guy is now completely ablaze, and staggers towards Lee, his eyes bleaching white as the moisture within his eyeballs boils. He reaches out a hand, and he is no longer smiling. He looks blank, emotionless. And though he mouths words 'help me', no sound emerges.

And then the wooden constuct topples to the ground and begins the process of burning to ash.

Out of the ground, a spikey-haired head emerges, and then a face with skin bearing cracks and seams. And then a single visible Sharingan floating in an eye that is otherwise pure black. The other is covered up by a mass of hair hanging over the right side of his face. The rest of Madara Uchiha rises up out of the volatile earth until he stands before Lee, after being him witness the horrific 'death' of his teacher, role-model, and father figure. Even if he was just a Wood Clone, it looked real enough up to the end.

"I'd apologize for the deception, but it was intentional," Madara offers coldly. "I doubt you'd have come to meet me otherwise, and you certainly wouldn't have done so alone."

Rock Lee (678) has posed:
"Guy Sensei!" Lee looks excited at first, turning around to face him. He notices that something is off, but before he can really put his finger on it, 'Guy' begins to smolder.

Lee's eyes widen, and he reaches out as if to try and help, even as the form of his sensei blackens and burns.

But then that face makes its presence known. He may not have known Madara's voice, but any ninja from Konoha would recognize the face of Madara, one solidified in their minds since childhood by the massive statue.

"Madara!"

There's a horrified look as he backflips a bit to make some distance, about ten feet of distance. "I cannot escape this proximity... I know how powerful you are. But if I cannot escape, then I will have no choice..."

He suddenly stands, one hand behind his back, one held out in front of him as he straightens. "Whatever you want, I cannot allow you to live, even if it costs me my life!"

Madara Uchiha (651) has posed:
Madara looks non-entirely impressed with Lee's declaration. "I was hoping you'd make this interesting, though I didn't expect you to make it easy in either case." He lowers his arms to his sides, and says, "All I want from you is to know all that you know about the current state of Konohgakure no Sato. I haven't been able to locate it yet, you see. I'm not even sure how many years this is after I was last in touch with the world. Of course..." He takes a step forward, planting sandle on sizzling terrain. "Knowing the leadership, the organization of your forces, the quality of your shinobi, the location of the Nine-Tails, and all the rest..." He takes another step, and then starts walking towards Lee. "...All of that would be nice to know as well." He switches from a walk to a jog. "And you will tell me, one way or another."

His arms hang loose at his sides as they do for most ninja, leaving them available for use for attack or defense as-needed.

His jog becomes a run, as he dashes straight for the Prodigy of Hard Work. When he attacks with a simple palm strike, if it hits Lee or not, it's going to be forceful enough to shatter the landscape around them and send dust and fire everywhere.

Rock Lee (678) has posed:
"I will not tell you anything, I do not care what you do or say! I will die before I allow you to find the world again simply so you can perform your genjutsu on it!" Lee declares, his eyes widening at the sudden speed. Then before he can quite move, the palm impacts with his chest and sends him tumbling clear across the ground like a skipping rock.

He very quickly pushes himself up when he realizes how hot the ground is with his face against it, then holds his chest and pounds against it a few times, almost like he's trying to get his heart to beat regularly again.

"I may not have any jutsu, but I do not care who you are... I will show you that the spirit of Konoha cannot be wiped from the Earth that easily. They might not be here, but within these fists..."

He stands up straight, balling a single, solid fist. "The spirit of my friends are strengthening the force of my punches!"

He darts forward at an incredible speed, then suddenly jumps into a spinning flip, and tries to slam his fist down into the -top- of Madara's head.

Madara Uchiha (651) has posed:
Lee is skilled. Fast. Strong. He even gets into proper position to strike. He even delivers the blow.

But there's that Sharingan of Madara's, watching and seeing everything, predicting movement before it even occurs, and he raises an arm over his head to catch the fist on his forearm guard. The armor cracks from the impact. And then Madara extends two knuckles on his other hand, and tries to drive them into Lee's throat. "You don't need to speak to tell me what I wish to know," Madara says.

Madara's ability with Genjutsu is great enough that people automatically assumed upon the capture of Yamato in Lee's time that if he was subjected to Madara's Genjutsu, there would be no chance whatsoever of resistance. Of course, it wasn't Madara who captured him. But that assumption and belief holds some truth to it.

Lee probably can not afford to be defeated here, not just because of his determination to save the world, but becaue if he falls... He might be forced to reveal all he knows even if he doesn't want to.

Rock Lee (678) has posed:
Lee suddenly holds his throat and slams with his back into the ground, trying to breathe. When he forces his throat open again, his outclassed he is becomes incredibly apparent. "I will not allow you to break into my mind!"

First Gate. A gate so subtle that it is not readily apparent that he's even opened it. But with the Sharingan one can easily see the increase in speed when he thrusts his legs up, using the force to send himself into the air from the ground.

His body spins, and he thrusts his hands out, trying an alternate variation on his usual technique. "I will remove your ability to do so!"

The bandages extend from his arms, attempting to wrap them both around Madara's head. Then he tries to -tug- and pull both of his feet down into Madara's head at full force, about a hundred times worse than a curb stomp.

Madara Uchiha (651) has posed:
The bandages come from just below his field of vision, but Madara definitely saw Chakra starting to work its way through Lee's Chakra Network, starting in his left eye. He paused, not recognizing what he was seeing, and that's when his head wrapped up and Lee quickly makes use of this momentary vulnerability to stomp into Madara's head with both feet. There are signs of cracks spreading outwards across his flesh from underneath the bandages, but his hands quickly come up and try to grab Lee's legs. If he succeeds, he then tries to whip him around at high speed before slamming him into the scorching terrain enough to shatter it and leave the other shinobi AND Madara on a small 'island' of jagged obsidian, floating in the middle of a small lake of lava.

The environment seems to be having little to no impact on Madara, but to be extremely ill-suited to Lee's physiology. The benefits of being dead, apparently? Probably why this place was selected. To give Madara the advantage.

"Your level of skill for your age is interesting, at least. But you need a few more years to hone your technique." Madara offers, whether the bandages came undone or not. "You should probably surrender before you take lethal damage. You might yet make it out of here able to fight another day if you do."

Then he chuckles briefly. "Though I expect you'll refuse."

Rock Lee (678) has posed:
Lee's eyes are wide, the bandages quickly unwrapping once his legs are grabbed. He holds his mouth when he's spun around, easily feeling a severe amount of nausea from the sheer force.

He shouts in pain when he slams into the jagged obsidian of the blazing hot ground, laying there in intense pain. "I have never felt this kind of power before... but I will never surrender to you. I will never allow you to have what you want. I will sacrifice everything. My body, my soul, I will give it all to keep you from gaining what you want..."

He stares up at Madara, suddenly taking a deep, calm breath, momentarily closing his eyes.

Then, just, BOOM.

A shockwave of the sheer force of -something- extends out from him as mutliple gates are blown open all at once. He skips directly to the sixth gate, surrounded by a wild green aura of what can only be identified, by the trained eye, as sweat rapidly evaporating from his body.

His skin is a completely dark red, veins bulging, hair blowing upward, eyes completely white. "I will punch you nine-hundred-ninety-nine times, and once my technique is honed enough, I will punch you a thousandth time, and you will die!"

He declares while speaking in multiple tones. He suddenly bursts from the ground, dragging obsidian up with him, stopping ten feet away again, waiting for Madara to face him.

Madara Uchiha (651) has posed:
Madara only as an instant to react. Thanks not just to his Sharingan but also due to an intuition honed over decades of continuous life-or-death combat, he does. When that shockwave erupts from Lee, sending a wave of lava flying outwards in every direction, it would appear to an observer as though Madara had been at point-blank range. But even as Lee puts distance between himself and his opponent, and prepares himself for the next clash between himself and Madara, Madara is falling from high above and landing on both feet a considerable distance away himself. He leapt away.

He's looking at Lee intently, reading the flow of Chakra, and eventually says, "So... Is this the vaunted 'Eight Gates' technique? I've heard of it, but never before have I seen it." He actually smiles eagerly, manically, as he lowers himself down into a fighting stance, and says, "This may yet prove to be entertaining after all. My only regret is I lack a living body to experience this battle with. Come, Rock Lee, of the Hidden Leaf! Show me how much greater your Taijutsu has become with this technique of yours! Show me how well you can dance!"

Madara doesn't attack first this time. He leaves that honor to his opponent.

Rock Lee (678) has posed:
Lee's fists are clenched tightly, whirlpools of lava swirling around the island from the sheer energy of the opened gates. "Lack of a..." His brows furrow, taking a closer look. "Of course... I see now! Fine, I will punch your body until there is nothing left!"

He bursts forward, digging up and dragging obsidian behind him again. But when it seems as if he's going to make a direct attack, he vanishes, and while one would generally expect someone to appear behind, he just re-appears in front of the Uchiha, trying to slam a fist into Madara's face with such force that a nearby volcano can't help but erupt as if not wanting to be shown up by a mere mortal.

Madara Uchiha (651) has posed:
There is a crunching sound as Lee's fist impacts Madara's face, sending cracks radiating outwards, and revealing quite clearly his skin is more like pottery or some caked-on grime than true flesh. His head whips backwards and he flies for several feet before coming to a stop. His right eye is missing, leaving only a gaping, ugly, empty hole. "Fantastic!" he offers in joy, oddly enough. "You're fast enough that even though I could predict your movement, I couldn't react in time. Truly amazing!" Then he stomps on the volcanic soil with one foot, breaking it, and kicks a chunk of lava-dripping stone at Lee forcefully. Then he uses some of his own speed to chase after the improvised projectile and actually outpace it by the barest of margins so that he can come along the side and try to strike the shinobi in the side with a kick.

The hellish glare of the erupting volcano paints the scene in hues of violent red and black, both for Lee's strike, and Madara's. Each time they clash, it seems, the eruption becomes more violent.

This IS pretty unstable terrain is all the force they're releasing doing something to the environment beyond just their local area?

Rock Lee (678) has posed:
Blood flies from Lee's mouth when the boiling hot rock collides with his face, then when the kick slams into his gut he doubles over. His body is both more solid than normal, but also made more fragile by just how much it pushes well beyond the natural limits of even a ninja's body.

"This... this is what one of the most powerful ninjas of all time is like... but now you see what we are like, here, in this generation, even without ninjutsu or genjutsu! What I am, who I am... none of it would be possible if we were all stuck in a mindless illusion! There is no true passion in an illusion!"

"I was saving this for Lute, but I have no choice!" He starts front flipping forward at an incredible speed, then stops, reaching forward to try and wrap his arms around Madara's waist. "The Suplex of the Dancing Leaf!"

He suddenly tries to lift the legendary ninja, with the intent of lifting him into the air, spinning with a mindbendingly disorienting speed, then tries to slam the ninja into the ground with body-breaking force.

Madara Uchiha (651) has posed:
Madara is seized before he can act to defend himself or move out of Lee's reach, and then slammed into the ground after being carried into the air. There are lava flows everywhere, but some of the terrain is more solid than otherwise. Some of it has been hardened and re-hardened, layered over and over in the same process by which the very continents were formed, as well as islands. Lee manages to avoid a grisly fate slamming Madara into a sea of lava and getting caught in as well, by instead making a huge crater in that densely-layered terrain. A dust cloud still erupts upwards, then erupts from that eruption upwards, and then up a THIRD time, leaving a pillar of ash, dirt, and rock reaching up towards the sky.

Madara comes out of the top of that pillar, dust trailing from his body - and not all of his volcanic. He is missing significant portions of his body. He's even missing an arm. But as he arcs up and backwards through the air, his long mane flying out before him, there are bits of ash and dust flowing towards his body from the air around him to try to repair the damage that was just inflicted. Even so, however, he isn't looking to be in good shape. That self-reconstruction may be a problem, however, if it doesn't have some kind of limit to it...

Madara begins his descent towards the ground eventually, keeping his still-working Sharingan on that dust cloud where his enemy may yet be lurking, but also sensing around for some indication of if he may be planning to attack from another angle. Lee doesn't seem to have much in the way of Chakra... That steam was his sweat evaporating, for instance. But there's still a great deal of Chakra flowing THROUGH the Taijutsu-specialist.

Madara finally lands on both feet, and waits for his opponent to come at him. Hopefully he can buy some time for his body to repair itself a bit more.

He is definitely enjoying this.

He hasn't faced off against a Taijutsu user of this skill in a long time. Not on the level of Hashirama, of course, but then only Madara was. It's not a fair comparison to make. Rock Lee is pretty darn good.

He holds up the one arm he has remaining, ready to use it to defend, and waits.

Rock Lee (678) has posed:
Lee starts to breath heavily, then takes one long, deep breath, regaining his composure after he rolls back and up to his feet again, standing across from Madara. "This is it! No matter how much you regenerate, I will not leave even a piece of you left behind!"

He jumps slightly, then kicks the air behind him, actually pushing off of it with enough force to launch him at Madara like a bullet. He angles his body upside down and tries to slam a kick directly into Madara's chin, something that would be a killing blow to a normal ninja, but for Madara, it's just supposed to knock him high into the air.

"I will show you what it means to dishonor Guy Sensei. I will show you the height of what he has taught me. I will spread the feathers of my youth, and the final sight that you see will be the Morning Peacock. This ends here, Madara!" He jumps into the air right after him, his leg muscles beginning to tear from sustaining this for so long.

"I will use it to hone my technique!" he shouts, then begins trying to launch a rapid series of punches, punches so fast that his fists actually ignite into flames, sending fire flying everywhere, bright just like the feathers of a peacock. He punches, and punches, with superhuman force and speed. "Nine-hundred-ninety-nine!!!" he shouts. "IS THIS ENOUGH TRAINING FOR YOU?!" he asks, pure white eyes blazing with a fiery passion. "ONE THOUSAND!!!" he shouts, with one last flaming punch aimed for Madara's chest.

Madara Uchiha (651) has posed:
Lee attacks. And Madara's right eye has just finished regenerating. He is struck in the chin with a crack in his face at the impact point from the strike. It sends him up into the air, where he is then pummeled repeatedly, struck over and over and over. All attempts to block just result in more damage being put into him as fists blazing from air friction scour and tear away at the Reanimated body the Uchiha has been granted. Then that final blow lands, and-blows a hole clear through Madara's torso and out the other side.

He goes flying, and lands in a sea of lava somewhere in the distance with enough force to create the biggest geyser of molten rock yet. He doesn't skip across it quite as well, since it's not the same consistentency as water, but where he strikes isn't where he stops moving.

His left hand, missing two fingers, remains above the layer of rock for a short time, before catching fire and sinking below the surface, consumed in flaming, near-liquid rock. Is that the end? Has Lee won?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJfNz8csSTk

There is a sudden shattering sound, as Madara tears out of the ground right behind Lee. He steps up out of the lava, sparks blazing up all around him illuminating his features. His body appears to be fully intact. And instead of Sharingan in his face... There are Rinnegan. "Excellent work. You utterly destroyed that Wood Clone. I had quite a bit of my power invested into it. Enough to give it the full breadth of my strength. Its elimination has left my original body weakened." He tilts his head to the side, causing his hair to fall away from his right eye. "Ah, well. It will recover eventually."

Then he charges Lee in his weakened state, attempting to grab him with his left hand, and then cause his right hand to produce an odd, sharp, black metal rod from his palm. Which he then attempts to impale into Lee's body. Any contact with the rod causes a terrible, invasive sensation like someone else's presence crawling through Lee's own body, as Madara's cold, dark, awful Chakra attempts to flood into the Uchiha's victim through the bizarre weapon.

He's smiling regardless of his attack's success, as he says, "You are the closest thing to a capable opponent in Taijutsu since Hashirama Senu, the First Hokage. Perhaps if you could achieve the full Eight Gates Released Formation you could match him. But you need... More... Training." Then he attempts to slam Lee into the ground, kick him in the face while he's down, and start planting more of those Chakra Receiver Rods into hands, feet, shoulders, knees, and back to attempt to pin his opponent down on the scalding soil like a bug.

Given Lee's strength and speed, he might be able to avoid some or all of these attacks. But the state of his body...

Rock Lee (678) has posed:
Rock Lee is suffering. He's breathing heavily, his skin no longer red. His arms are incredibly limp, one of his eyes half-closed. All of the damage, both done by Madara and his body to itself, it's all coming back to him. Muscles are torn, and he barely has any stamina left. He has to save that last bit, there is still a way out...

But then Madara grabs him by the hand. "I... will still not give you what you want... no matter what..." he closes his eyes shut, yelling out in horrible pain each time one of those rods enters his body. Then, once the last enters him and he's pinned to the ground, his eyes widen and he yells enough for the lifeforms to hear for miles. "AAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!"

Madara Uchiha (651) has posed:
Madara snaps off the last of those black metal rod from his own body, leaving it in place. Then he walks all the way around, in a slow half-circle, until he arrives in front of Lee. Then he crouches down and looks him in the face. One hand even goes down to cup the young shinobi's chin and lift it so he can't turn his head away. Then he says, "Yours is a skill developed through tireless dedication. But that dedication came from something, didn't it? It came from suffering. Emptiness. Loss. Pain is what gives us a reason to seek strength. But in seeking strength, we trample upon others along the way. Trying to become strong, so that you can fight... People seek peace, but they accomplish it through war. What is wrong with not needing to suffer or hate or destroy? What's wrong with ending war and just having peace? For those within the Infinite Tsukuyomi, there is no difference between this world and theirs, except that the World of Dreams doesn't produce death or pain... They don't have to fight to protect or struggle for the strength to do so. You can be whatever you want to be."

Madara looks at where a huge chunk of his hypothetically infinite Chakra is still dissolving and melting away in lava, tied to wood that is turning to ash. Until it finishes being destroyed, that Chakra isn't returning to him. And the Chakra infused into it, is actually making it tough enough to not burn away as quickly as wood would otherwise. "You think you know the difference between reality and dream. That you can say, 'what I am experiencing now is more valid or desirable than what I would experience some other time'." Madara looks down at Lee, and his eyes bear the Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan. "But who told you any of THIS was real?"

It's at about that time that Lee may 'wake up', with his body free of any of those metal rods, though the wounds remain, and a perfunctory effort at binding them with vines appears to have been made. Madara appears to already be gone. Long gone. Some of his foul Chakra still clings to the place, but the source doesn't appear to be anywhere nearby.

How much of that was real? How much was illusion?

...Is even this real, or is this more illusion?

...Is there ever, truly... Any way to know for certain that he's awake and not asleep? And if not... What is it, exactly, that seperates the World of Dreams that Madara spoke of from Lee's every day life, outside of an absence of all the worst things of life?

As well...

...How much did Madara find out from Lee?

Rock Lee (678) has posed:
Lee lays there, his eyes glazed over a bit, body worn out and sore. The heat of the ground is nothing to the burning of his muscles. All he can do right now is wait to be picked up, and hope this little island of obsidian holds out. He heard and remembers all of that, but he's still reeling from, well... everything.

Finna (513) has posed:
    As soon as Madara has left Lee's vicinity... a little winged lizard that's been zipping all over the place acting scared and spastic suddenly ceases acting on FLEE INSTINCTS.... or the seeming of them... and instead changes. It becomes a young woman with fox features, who's crouched down low and frowning intensely. "Well, THAt guy's the real deal." Was she watching the whole time?

    Finna flips over the lava and down onto outcropping, grabs Lee... and VAULTS with all her strength and speed back onto more solid ground. Where there isn't a lot of lava to worry about.

    "Sheesh... sorry, warrior. I'm no medic, you're gonna be hurting for a while. But I'll get you to a healer. You have my word!" And she doesn't give that lightly.

Zwei (596) has posed:
    As personally requested in private, Zwei has been watching the whole thing. Through the camera, microphone, and rudimentary scanner built into the ear/eyepiece it had given Lee not that long ago, it has recorded, analyzed and documented everything that had transpired between the two ninja; condensing it down to a form that would be useful for Rock Lee's allies should he die and Zwei be required to pass the information along. Of course, that doesn't mean it's been sitting 'at home' the entire time. Lee is a valuable research subject, and still owes Zwei a favour, and so it wouldn't do to actually let the young shinobi drop dead.

    Shortly after Finna has extricted him, the reverberating roar of thrusters reaches the ground an instant before the black hulk of Asche does; slamming into the volcanic rock hard enough to kick up a geyser of shattered stone and dust. Placed on sight, Zwei teleports Weiss in with Asche's beacon; the human-sized Armiger simply popping into existence a short distance away from the Lunar Exalted. "Hi there! I think I can take care of that, if you don't mind. I have a transport ship not that far from here, and I can provide some limited first aid on the way there."

Rock Lee (678) has posed:
"Ah... Miss Fox..." Lee struggles as she lifts him up. He's a weak mess right now. He's quiet for a bit, then his head slowly rises with the sound of the ship. There's a slight smile when he sees Weiss, nodding his head. "I... I hope you liked my taijutsu... I need to lay down..."

Finna (513) has posed:
    "Liked? For a show like that, I oughtta give you a reward or something." Finna declares after gently laying Lee down, nodding her head rapidly and making an impish sort of grin, arms folded. But she whirls about at the sight of Weiss. And SOMEHOW Finna manages to actually make the air whistle when she draws a knife from nowhere.... just long enough to identify Weiss. She twirls the knife and tucks it away behind.. her back? Well, wherever it went it's gone.

    "Definitely called for! I could fly him away but all the ups and downs would probably hurt."

Zwei (596) has posed:
    "It was very impressive!" Weiss intones, kneeling down to Lee with a pre-prepared auto-injector of painkillers, sedatives, and medical nanomachines to contain internal bleeding and help restore some muscle function, pressing it to the side of his neck with a sharp hiss and a sudden, cold prick. "I've met Madara before, though I didn't know his name at the time. I was mostly able to follow what was going on, aside from your frankly impossible proficiency at unarmed combat." She hands him off to Asche, who warms up his boosters to lift Lee up into the air where the ship is. "What does Konohagakure mean though? And why did he ask where he could find yours?"

    Weiss makes the effort to politely wave to Finna, easily able to hide any trace of surprise at seeing her pull the knife. "And hello to you too, 'miss fox'~"

Finna (513) has posed:
    "Heeeeello!~" Finna awkwardly rubs the back of her head, now a bit sheepish about pulling the weapon out. But hey, startled people do startling things!

    "... That guy'll be trouble later... but I think a team could take him down if he does. I didn't pop out because I didn't feel any real murderous intent from him... didn't smell it either." that's a thing you can smell? Well, maybe if you're a Lunar.

    Or maybe she's speaking figuratively. But either way, Finna gives Lee an apologetic glance. "... that technique of yours did more harm to you than your opponent did, didn't it?"

Rock Lee (678) has posed:
Lee allows himself to be lifted, relaxing a bit with the injection of painkillers and nanomachines. "That was just hard work and effort. But Madara... defeating him will be very difficult if we cannot figure out how to break the summoning jutsu."

He sounds tired, but he still answers their questions and such. "Konohagakure, Konoha, it is the Hidden Village of the Leaf, my home. I do not believe Madara knew the location of our world, but... if he has been in my mind, it means he does not, and who knows what else. But I will need to have my mind checked by experts, to make sure that it has not been altered. I cannot risk being a danger, or an unwitting spy..."

He looks to Finna, slowly nodding. "I opened six of the eight gates, it was my only choice, the only chance I would have against a ninja like that. I opened the natural limiters of the human body, the things that keep the body from destroying itself..."

Finna (513) has posed:
    "Magic... Chakra... Essence.. whatever you wanna call it, I'm not too good at how that stuff works past my natural powers. We'll need someone else's help if we need to break a spell or something. ... But you pushed him pretty hard, I think...." she winks down at Rock Lee, and procceeds to quietly singsong, "Hard enough that he won't see me coming next time."

    The playful attitude is quickl dropped in favor of a serious staring. "...That's a thing he can do? Long-term mind-twisting? I saw the trickery... oh, I know a few tricks like that myself. But long-term? He can do that? Plant a deep compulsion...?"

    She now looks at Zwei for a moment, then back down to Lee. "Ugh, that explains the big anima-like lightshow. Hope you won't be doing THAT again any time soon..."