Lotus
Chapter 4: Lotus
Sabaku Rasa was not the only person that was maimed from the explosion. The only difference is I survived.
Barely.
For a few years I went to school for mechanical engineering on a sports scholarship. My mentor, Maito Guy, always said we could try to work together. He worked more with biology. It was not a rare occasion for me to stop by the KazeLabs to see him. He worked there part time. He was able to teach me things they did in the lab every once in a while.
I ran to KazeLabs like I did every Thursday morning when I looked for him. He was not there. He was missing. I walked around for a while but I could not find him. Before I could leave the building, the explosion happened. I was thankful my sensei was not there to be harmed, but a lot of people were and they were hurt badly. Luckily, no one else died, unfortunately, Rasa did. I had not heard much about him, only that this was his branch of the Kage labs. There were others in different cities, all that studied different things. This one's main purpose was the study of cells and cell regeneration. There was also a small section for me and Guy. We would try to fuse these together with technology. A lot of the time we would see if we could make mechanics work with cells. Sometimes it worked.
I would not be able to finish my schooling. I could not afford it now. And I certainly cannot do sports ever again.
My left side was crushed completely by the fall of the building. I did not think I could survive. I was told all of my plans would be for nothing.
Guy-Sensei didn't give up so easily.
He did a lot of things he shouldn't to ensure I would not die and I would be able to walk again. Most of the left side of my body was useless at this point. He got rid of it.
Instead of bringing me to the hospital when they found me, Guy and a few others brought me to a hidden lab.
I do not know how long I was there. I recognized some people. My friends. Tenten and Neji. They were there too. Neji was a genius with mechanical engineering, he could build almost anything. He graduated early and the top of his class! Tenten, she was following more in Guy-Sensei's footsteps. She was a scientist and she spent most of her time working with cells. She was an intern at KazeLabs.
While I was in and out of consciousness, my sensei kept my body alive with machines. They worked there day and night. I could tell by the exhaustion on their faces. I wanted to tell them it was okay to let me go. I would die, and I would die happily.
I was just in too much pain everyday.
I could not bring myself to say it, Tenten already looked so sad. I did not want to see her that sad.
Eventually I noticed a change. My body kept looking different when I awoke. Looked more like metal than it did like skin. I could see where Neji and Tenten's ideas melded together. The metal clung to the unmarred skin like a second flesh. My left arm and leg were completely made from Inconel. There was more to it than just that though. I felt a thrumming power inside of me. I couldn't figure out what it was. The signature was familiar though. When I looked at Guy-Sensei, he must've known my question.
"We couldn't find a way around it, Lee. I'm sorry." He apologized. What for? I looked at Tenten and Neji, they were all around my bed. I could move my arm and leg without a problem, like it had always been made from Inconel.
"You're being powered by a separate energy source. Don't worry, it's pure, it shouldn't disrupt you in any way."
"What energy source is powerful enough to do this?" I asked and examined my hand, it was strange. I could tell there was cell regeneration in the arm by the way it moved, but it was made from metal.
"CHAKRA. The purest form." Guy-Sensei said and I looked up at him, horrified. "Lee I wouldn't do it if it wasn't imperative. I know you hated that stuff but in this case it was filtered. There is no negative energy and it was the only thing we could find that wouldn't corrode the metal away with time. It had to be CHAKRA."
"Why is my body accepting it?" I asked finally. Last time CHAKRA touched me, my body rejected it violently. Guy-Sensei swore he would never put me in contact with it again.
"Like he said before, Lee. This is a lot different. It emits white energy now instead of yellow. You shouldn't need another energy source ever if our notes are correct. And with all of our work combined, if you hurt yourself, you will be healed. There's a problem though." She bit her lip.
"What is the problem?" I asked, unsure if I wanted to know at all.
"You can't die." My heart dropped. "It was an untested theory, what we did with the cell regeneration. You shouldn't age either. I'm sorry, Lee." I looked down at my hands. I was doomed to look at my hands forever like this. They would always look like this. I would watch them all die. They would grow old and I would never. I would not be able to have a normal life, a family. Nothing.
I ran.
The interesting thing about this was, I was faster. So much faster. I was not sure what made me faster, if it was the metal leg or if it was cell regeneration, but I did not want to find out.
What could I do?
***
"You did what?" Guy looked down at his feet.
"I had to Kakashi-"
"Do you have any idea what the extent it is that you've done?" Kakashi asked, with a slight undertone of hysteria. Kakashi sat back down in his chair and rubbed his temples. "Where is he?"
"He's... around." Kakashi frowned and Guy sighed. "He isn't causing mayhem. He's a good kid. Just help me. Help me give him a purpose."
Kakashi didn't say anything for a while. He just stared at his desk until eventually he nodded slowly.
"Fine. I will be in contact with you if we need anything. Just give me his file and go. Make sure he doesn't accidentally hurt anyone. I can't believe you gave a kid so much power." Guy frowned. He said that like Lee was 6 instead of 20 years old.
"He can handle it, rival." Guy insisted and Kakashi looked up at him with a frown.
"I hope so, Guy." He took the file from Guy's hands and skimmed over it. He was going to have to do a lot to make sure no one found out about this...
***
"I would like to help people. I can do that, right Tenten?" Lee asked randomly while they sat on the roof looking at the sunset. "I can help so many people right now." Tenten looked over at Lee. He had been through a lot. Everything to fix him took a year and now he was slowly warming up to the idea of being like a cyborg after a month.
"You could." Lee looked at her.
"Would you help me? You and Neji?" Tenten smiled.
"I will do everything I can to help you, Lee." She admitted.
"As will I." Neji promised, walking over to them. "You can do great things with your rebirth, Lee. I hope you know that. With your fighting skills, you could really help."
"Thank you, Neji. I would really like that." Lee smiled. "I suppose that will make me like a superhero, right?" Lee smiled wistfully.
"Don't get ahead of yourself." Neji said flatly and Tenten giggled.
"Yeah, Lee. You'd be a superhero." Tenten agreed and Lee looked at the sky with a new sense of determination. "If you're reborn as a superhero now, what's your name?"
"My name?" Lee thought about it. Rebirth, huh? He supposed he was reborn with this. Born to be better despite everything. He would be born to help. "Lotus. I would like my name to be Lotus." Tenten smiled and Lee smiled back.
"Okay Lotus. We're right behind you." Tenten said and Neji nodded curtly, all of them staring at the sky.