"Thunder Python… are you okay?" The female ninja's voice shook as she crouched beside her fallen companion, her face pale with terror. She hadn't expected the ninja they'd targeted to be a monster in disguise.
Her first teammate was weaker, and she could understand how he fell so quickly. But Thunder Python was different—he was strong, wielding the rare "Golden Sand Barrage" technique among Genin. Yet, even his strongest move had been effortlessly dodged, and his life ended with a single, powerful strike.
Staring down at her friend's blood-covered face, the horror and anger inside her boiled over, overpowering her fear. She turned to face Lee, trembling but furious.
"You… you demon!" she cried, her voice shaking. Unable to control herself, she hurled kunai after kunai at him, attacking wildly, with no plan or precision.
Lee didn't even flinch. "You've lost your focus. Someone like you has no place as a ninja," he said calmly.
As her kunai flew toward him, he waited until the last possible moment, then snatched all four out of the air with effortless speed. In a quick, controlled movement, he crushed each kunai in his hand, dropping the broken pieces to the ground.
The female ninja stared, wide-eyed and speechless. The weapon that should've been deadly was reduced to scrap in seconds.
"Your kunai mean nothing to me," Lee said, shaking his head. "If you try to kill Konoha ninja, you must be ready to face the consequences."
"Argh!" With a desperate scream, she threw the remaining kunai in her pouch, each one tossed with anger rather than skill. Lee dodged each projectile effortlessly, moving smoothly, his body shifting like a shadow through the air. In a flash, he closed the distance between them.
Before she could react, Lee's hand swiped lightly across her neck. Her horrified expression froze as her head slipped from her shoulders, and her body crumpled to the ground, blood staining the earth beneath her.
Lee's expression remained calm. His experience as a warrior in Sion Mun's life had forged him into someone who wouldn't hesitate when necessary. In this world, he knew that survival depended on strength. The ninja world was just another jungle with the same rule—only the strong survived.
"War here is only kept at bay by a fragile balance between the major villages. It could break at any time," Lee thought, looking at the blood on his hand. "Konoha needs to be prepared, and if that means taking down a few strong enemies now, so be it."
A sudden chill went through him, breaking his thoughts. He felt an intense presence behind him, cold and unsettling. Instinct took over, and he leaped high into the air, twisting mid-flight. His leg came down in a powerful arc, aiming directly for the figure lurking in his blind spot.
With a slicing motion, his leg moved with the force of an axe—a technique he'd honed through training with Sion Mun's memories and experience.
As he descended, he caught sight of his opponent—a female ninja with flowing hair and a disturbingly long tongue. The sight of her sent a chill down his spine; this was the last person he wanted to face. Something about her felt more dangerous than any opponent he'd encountered in this world so far, even more than elite ninjas like Kakashi or Guy.