The Clash of Ultimate Abilities
The stadium was no longer a battlefield.
It had become a storm.
Sand and wind clashed violently, twisting through the air in chaotic spirals. The very ground trembled beneath the weight of Gaara's awakening power, the air thick with the suffocating pressure of Shukaku's influence.
And yet—
Lee still walked forward.
Unhurried. Unbothered. Unshaken.
He moved as if none of this mattered. As if the chaos surrounding him was nothing more than a passing breeze.
Gaara could not comprehend it.
The sand trembled at his feet, waiting for his command, but he could feel it now.
The hesitation.
The creeping sense of inevitability.
His sand had never questioned him before.
But now—
Now it feared.
Lee exhaled.
And Gaara saw it.
A single breath.
A faint ripple in the air.
And then—
He was gone.
No flicker. No blur.
Just… vanished.
Gaara's sand reacted instantly.
It had no choice.
It moved with perfect instinct, forming a wall of absolute defense around him, a dome so dense that not even the fastest shinobi could—
A shockwave tore through the battlefield.
Gaara barely had time to process it before—
Impact.
The sand shattered.
A single strike.
A fist, moving faster than sound, igniting the air itself as it collided with his shield.
The force did not just break the dome—
It erased it.
A pulse of energy exploded outward, dispersing the sand at a molecular level, disrupting its cohesion, negating its very existence.
Gaara staggered back.
His absolute defense had failed.
And Lee—
Lee had already moved again.
Another impact.
Gaara's breath caught in his throat as Lee's knee slammed into his stomach, lifting him off the ground.
The air left his lungs.
His sand struggled to catch up—but it was too slow.
Another impact.
Lee's foot connected with his ribs.
Gaara's body blurred—sent flying across the battlefield.
But before he could crash—
Lee was already there.
Waiting.
Not chasing.
Waiting.
A third impact.
Lee's elbow struck mid-air, redirecting Gaara's body back toward the earth.
A meteor.
Plummeting.
Fast.
Too fast.
His sand could not keep up.
His body was moving beyond his control.
And then—
He hit the ground.
A massive crater erupted from the impact.
The stadium shook.
Dust. Rubble. Silence.
Gaara did not move.
Did not breathe.
The world stood still.
And then—
The sand twitched.
Slowly. Weakly.
Gaara pushed himself up, his breathing ragged, his body screaming in protest.
And yet—
He was smiling.
Not in arrogance.
Not in amusement.
But in something… else.
Something that no one had ever seen on Gaara's face before.
Acceptance.
Lee landed softly a few feet away, untouched.
His amber Kūhikaigan eyes burned.
Still watching.
Still waiting.
Gaara lifted his shaking hand.
His sand moved sluggishly.
Not because it was damaged.
Not because he was out of chakra.
But because it did not want to fight anymore.
Gaara felt it.
The same way he had felt it since the beginning.
Since that first step Lee had taken into the arena.
Since the moment his sand had hesitated.
He had already lost.
The moment Lee had arrived, the outcome had already been decided.
Gaara exhaled, his vision blurring.
His sand fell limp.
His body collapsed forward.
And the match was over.