The Legend of Konoha's Shooting Star

Condition of Usage!!

"...!" Sakura was relieved that they had been saved, but she was also confused. "W... Why are you here?" she asked Lee.

"I will... always appear when you are in trouble," Lee replied, keeping his eyes on the enemy while scratching his furry little friend's chin.

"!" Sakura said, surprised again. Did that mean he came there specifically to save her?

'Hehe... It's actually thanks to you. Now, go...' Lee thought as he let the squirrel down from his shoulder, encouraging it to find somewhere safer before the battle began. If he hadn't found that poor thing with the explosive tag stuck on its back, he wouldn't have followed its tracks back to find the culprits in time.

The four sound ninjas glared at him and adjusted their stances to be more suitable for fighting.

"..." Sakura looked from them to her unconscious teammates. The squirrel had taken up a position by their heads. She wiped the tear from her eye, so glad that Lee had gotten there before anything happened to them. "Well... thank you," she told him, truly grateful. "You saved me." She didn't know why he was helping his competition, but she really appreciated it.

"I said it before," Lee told her.

"... Huh?" Sakura asked. Said what before?

"That I will protect you until I die..." Lee reminded her as a gentle breeze blew.

"...!" Sakura gasped, suddenly remembering that he had told her those exact words when he tried to ask her out before. "..." Sakura stared up at his back, feeling terrible for how she had treated him now.

'Yes!! Awesome!!' Lee thought gleefully, clenching his fist while he blushed and struggled to suppress a grin. 'I am awesome!! Guy-sensei!!'

"And with that, I'm out," Biki said, abruptly turning on his heel to walk away. It was too early for this shit.

"The hell?!!" his female teammate shouted incredulously. What was this pretty boy thinking!? "You can't be serious!?"

"Are you betraying Orochimaru-sama?" Zaku asked dangerously, narrowing his eyes at him.

"This has nothing to do with that. Everything about this bushy-browed loser goes against my aesthetics. I can't find any motivation to continue. Just looking at him makes me want to gouge my eyes out," Biki said stubbornly without a care, hopping up to rest in a tree while he waited for them to finish. "Besides, it's not like you guys really need me for this, right? Or are the three of you so weak that you can't even take out these two stragglers on your own?" Those geniuses were the ones who decided to seal his ninjutsu. If not for that, this fight would be over with a couple of words. But, no, they had to go and volunteer him to have a stupid handicap. A little suffering would be good for them.

"!!?" their female teammate and Zaku bristled at the accusation.

Dosu sighed and took out their Earth Scroll. This was another decision of Orochimaru's that he didn't understand. None of them were really cut out for teamwork, but Biki was a temperamental psychopath with a big mouth who moved at his own pace and could never resist pouring more fuel on the fire. He wasn't without talent. His main ninjutsu was powerful and impossible to resist, but it had the downside of affecting everyone within hearing range, including allies. They probably would have been better off without him. "Oh, well..." he sighed again, tossing the scroll to Biki. "Take care of that instead."

"Ok," Biki agreed, catching it with ease. "But if you touch my target, I'll destroy this thing without a second thought."

Their female teammate frowned at him. She wished Dosu hadn't given him the scroll. She had been planning to pay Biki back for his insult by killing the purple-haired girl in a way that would be sure to spoil her for him.