AN: I know. You're all so tired of my Naruto crap by now. Shut it and read. xD

Disclaimer: Damn, I'm too poor to own Naruto. TT

Chapter One :: Lovesick

His eyes were starting to hurt. Burn, to be more precise. For no particular reason that he could think of. Tears were no foreign concept to him—rare as they'd become these past few years—but they had never hurt like this.

He did not remember them stabbing his heart.

However, on this night, the tears were doing quite strange things to him. Or maybe it wasn't the tears. Maybe it was this odd, unnatural feeling that he felt, squeezing his chest as though out to kill him. He felt as though a long, thick silk string was constricting his heart, connecting to who knew what. Every tear that now fell left a sore feeling in that area of his chest, as though the tears turned to acid when they landed on it.

As much as they hurt, he could not stop them falling.

He sat on his bed, watching the brilliant orange and scarlet colors painted in the sky with absolute despair. He felt as though he could just go kill himself right now. He glanced at his dresser, where he knew a kunai was kept, and saw instead two photographs, sitting side by side.

One of them was of Haruno Sakura, smiling brilliantly for the camera. Lee had loved that picture. With all his heart, or so he thought, he'd loved that girl. Next to that, there was a picture of the Sand ninja—Gaara, Temari, and Kankuro. The blonde was in the middle, smirking seductively at the camera, the puppet master looking very intimidating with his purple face paint next to her. And standing to the left, a very bored-looking insomniac staring absently at the lense.

At this sight, Lee's tears almost ceased. He almost laughed at the trouble he'd gone through to get the three together like that before they left. But then, at the memory of Gaara's leaving, he began crying once more. Getting up, he walked over to the dresser, picking up his friend's picture gingerly. He moved it instead to the stand beside his bed.

Pink clashed with red.

Lee somberly sought for the reason he was thinking about Gaara to begin with. Well, he'd been scheming about new ways to possibly beat Neji. Yes. Then he'd thought about fights Neji had lost, and the Chunin exam's fight between Neji and Naruto came to mind. Then he'd remembered his own fight in the Chunin exam…..

Against Gaara….

And that had led him here. Because he hadn't seen Gaara in far too long. And he didn't think he was coming back for quite a long time. And as soon as Lee realized this, violent tremors had gone off in his heart, and he had unconsciously started crying.

Now he was moving Gaara away from Sakura because he didn't look right next to her. His spot in Lee's heart wasn't next to Sakura's. It just wasn't correct.

Now he was almost certain there was something wrong with him. Every time he caught sight of Gaara's picture, or thought about him, every time his voice even grazed Lee's thoughts, he would feel horrid pains like needles in his heart, sending a shudder through his spine and more tears to his eyes.

Lee sighed. This was so unlike him. He'd been repeatedly warned against the evils of alcohol, but people always said it drowned out your emotions, and maybe if he watered it down a lot….?

That's how it was when Lee got up off his bed to go into his kitchen, open the pantry, and began consuming sake. It started with one glass, which tasted putrid to his untrained tongue despite the water. Then another, to wash down the first aftertaste, and then another, because by then couldn't remember why he'd even started, and another for the heck of it all.

Before too long, he was wandering around drunkenly outside in the wavering sunset, a bottle of sake in one hand. He staggered around like this, alert for any enemy, until after the sun had said its goodbyes to the world, and then, finally, passed out in the forest long after the moon had risen. It was lucky for him—any anyone else—that he didn't meet anyone on his journey through the forest. No damage was caused, for once, by this drunken, lovesick Lee.

AN: HOSHIZ that's a short chapter. xD Shortest I've ever written, shortest I'll ever write. I PROMISE I'll make the next ones longer, okay? This was like….almost a prologue, y'know? Oh well. Anyway, be on the lookout for more, I'll update soon.

EDIT:: Sorry if this shows up twice, I had to edit it a little after finally watching the 'Drunken Fist' episode. Enjoy.