No, never saw any indication of that being the reason. [
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When 2 Raiton-based techs clash regardless of what the purpose of the tech is, the stronger one comes out on top. Sasuke aimed right for his heart but all he managed was inflicting a flesh wound, and the fact that there's a close-up of the tech not fully piercing Ay followed up by a 'Tch!', implies it didn't go the way Sasuke wanted it to. I'm pretty sure if it wasn't for the Raiton armour, he would have managed what Kakashi was able to against Kakuzu [
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That isn't pain tolerance, he nigh passed out right after doing so against, not to mention that's more of a stamina issue than it is pain, and its nowhere near the kind of pain that will come to him if Ay Karate Chops him, especially since it was strong enough to break through a Ribcage Susanoo. He's getting some bones broken and smashed.
He definitely dies on impact if he gets hit by
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He'd used the Gates before he used Hirudora and the Gates inflict heavy damage on Gai's muscles. His mouth was also drooping with blood before he used Hirudora [
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], and so he managed to ignore all that pain and pull off Hirudora. Although it's irrelevant now that I've seen the damage Ay caused with his Liger Bomb.
I'm pretty sure he pulled off Hirudora while being in Base, since we see no 7th Gate activation [
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][
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], and Madara's Mokuton was absorbing his chakra at the same time [
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I'd say Ay has a clear advantage when it comes to the speed and reactions department. [
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] [
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] Even in V1 Taka was having some difficulties keeping up with him. He also evaded
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point blank and managed to come back for a
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Gai definitely has better reaction feats than Juugo, especially in Gates, and Juugo was able to block Ay's initial attack. Kakashi with his 3T Sharingan noted Lee was extremely fast in 4th Gate [
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], yet Sasuke's 3T Sharingan was keeping up with V1 Ay [
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]. Base Gai intercepted Edo Haku in Ice Mirrors who's impossibly fast while in that tech, and he did this while Zabuza's Hidden Mist was up [
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][
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][
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].