Underground Arena vs the Hidden Leaf · Superhuman
Baki Hanma vs Rock Lee
The champion of the underground arena meets the ninja who cannot use ninjutsu. No chakra tricks, just fists.
Tale of the tape
| Baki | Universe | Naruto |
|---|---|---|
| Superhuman | Tier | Superhuman |
| A martial genius who copies techniques after seeing them once | Strength | Taijutsu and the Eight Gates |
| Lighter than the monsters he fights | Weakness | The gates tear his body apart |
| 3–1 | Record on Versus | 2–1 |
The Arena
Rock Lee came through a summoning gone wrong and landed in the middle of the underground arena beneath the Tokyo Dome, in front of a roaring crowd of thousands. He had no idea where he was. He only knew that the young man across the sand from him, shirtless and covered in scars, was standing the way only true martial artists stand.
Baki Hanma looked at the boy in the green jumpsuit, at the bandages on his hands and the calluses beneath them, and smiled. “You train hard,” he said. Lee bowed deeply. “Every day of my life! I cannot use ninjutsu, so I made my body my only weapon.” Baki’s smile grew. “So did I.”
Tokugawa, the old man who runs the arena, leaned forward in his seat, delighted. He had not seen a match like this coming in fifty years.
Round One
Lee attacked with Leaf Hurricane, a spinning kick so fast the sand rose in a spiral around him. Baki read it, ducked and countered with a punch to the ribs. Lee rolled with it, flipped back to his feet and laughed with pure joy. “Splendid! Your reflexes are incredible!”
They fought at a pace the crowd could barely follow. Lee was faster than anyone Baki had faced in years, a blur of kicks and strikes from impossible angles. Baki was the more complete fighter, mixing karate, Chinese kenpo, wrestling and street brawling into a style that had no pattern at all.
And with every exchange, Baki watched and learned. By the end of the round, he was throwing Leaf Hurricanes of his own.
The Turn
Lee unstrapped the weights from his legs, and they cratered the sand like falling bombs. The crowd went silent. Then he opened the Eight Gates one by one, his skin turning red, his body steaming, until at the Sixth Gate he was moving so fast the sound of his punches arrived after the punches themselves.
Baki took a storm of blows that would have killed an ordinary fighter: the Morning Peacock, a hundred strikes wrapped in flame. He was driven across the arena and slammed into the wall, and for the first time in a long time, the champion did not get up immediately.
Then he rose, bleeding and grinning, and his back muscles began to twist into a shape the crowd had seen only once before, on his father. The demon face.
The Finish
The Gates burn the body from the inside, and Lee was already beginning to tear. He came in for one last Primary Lotus, and Baki, who had watched the technique once in the first round, met it with the perfect counter: he let Lee’s spin carry them both into the air and reversed it, driving Lee into the sand instead of himself.
Lee lay in the crater, his gates closing one by one, his muscles torn, too exhausted to rise. He was smiling. Baki knelt beside him, breathing hard, his own body covered in bruises from a hundred strikes. “You’re the hardest worker I ever fought,” Baki said. Lee laughed weakly. “And you are the most youthful opponent I have ever faced!”
Baki did not understand what that meant, but he decided it was a compliment. The crowd rose and roared for both of them. Tokugawa wept with happiness in the stands. It was, he told everyone later, the best fight the underground arena had ever seen.
The verdict
Baki Hanma wins
Rock Lee is faster and the Eight Gates give him enormous bursts of power, but the Gates destroy his body as he uses them, and Baki is a more complete fighter who copies techniques after seeing them once.
- AdaptationBaki learns Lee’s Primary Lotus and counters it.
- DurabilityHe survives the Morning Peacock.
- The cost of the GatesLee’s body breaks down as he opens them.
How the rematch could go differently: A Lee who opened the Seventh Gate early, before Baki could study his style, could end it in a single Evening Elephant.
Who do you think wins?
Who would win in a fight between Baki Hanma and Rock Lee?
Baki Hanma wins. Rock Lee is faster and the Eight Gates give him enormous bursts of power, but the Gates destroy his body as he uses them, and Baki is a more complete fighter who copies techniques after seeing them once.