A/N I don't own Naruto...
Konoha has been relatively peaceful everyone went about their daily lives. Naruto had relinquished his title as hokage to join Sasuke and his newly formed syndicate Kuro Kurosu. Since then the former leaders of Kohona have fallen, and the elected guardians have also been vanquished. Of the leaders, made up of former sensei's, Hatake Kakashi, Maito Guy, Asuma Sarutobi, Iruka Umino, and Jiraya. Of the elected guardians, Neji Hyuga, Shikimaru Nara, Choji Akimiji, Kiba Inuzuka, and Shino Aburame, rounded out the fallen. They all had continued peace within the village for the past seven years, during the wars with the Kuro Kurosu, a combination of the broken Akatsuki and Taka. The Uchiha's were steadily being eliminated and the followers were following suit, until the betrayal of Uzumaki.
Then there was Lee... When the guardians and advisors were chosen he was excluded from the hearings, banned from nomination much to the chagrin of Maito Guy. The last time anyone saw Lee, he was on trial for treason to the, at the time Hokage, Naruto during an intelligence exchange. The story relayed was far different from the one Lee was giving, which was that Naruto had Mitarashi Anko, Yuki Kurenai, and Tsunade forcefully bound in cells having their chakra harvested against their will, giving Naruto even more power added to his already immense amount.
The hearing was held in front of all mentioned in both cases, and was overlooked by the other leaders and guardians. It only took ten minutes to reach a verdict. Lee was found guilty and exiled from the village. As he took the long walk to the village gates he looked back at his former fellow shinobi, he met eyes with Tsunade, Anko, and Kurenai, their gazes of sadness toward him were enough to relay the messages they wanted to voice. He just looked back with a sorrowful look, telling them he was sorry there was nothing he could do.
Lee was the only one of the original rookies to leave Kohona and never be seen from again, we start our story on the third anniversary of Maito Guy's death. The village was paying their respects at the grave, there was a city wide celebration of the Taijutsu master, Tenten, Sakura, and Ino were observing the proceedings. They noticed a tall man standing at Maito Guy's grave. He walked over to the inner setting where Maito Guy was laid to rest. He was reading the inscription "I will continue to fight for this village, until the son I never had returns. May he come and continue the work I could not finish... May we always strive for the skies, and live in peace..." He placed a flower down on the started towards him.
"...Sensei..." the man uttered. Tenten approached the man.
"!. Did you know Guy sensei?" she asked the man.
"...No I'm just reading the inscription. How about you?" the man asked as he turned toward Tenten.
She eyed the mysterious man, his body was well built, he wore a black hoody, torn sleeves, and a forest green long sleeved shirt. He rounded off his look with some dirty camouflage cargo jeans and orange tennis shoes. He had brilliant obsidian hair that flowed like a stream over his leaf village headband. He had slightly thicker brows than most people, and perfectly round eyes. He reminded her of Lee. Sakura approached.
"Sir, I don't want to be rude, but you have to move on to the festivities, or I'll have to ask you to leave." she said politely. The man nodded and started off toward the slums away from the festival.
"Who was that?" Ino asked the two.
"I don't know, have any idea Tenten?" Sakura asked.
"Lee...?" Tenten whispered. Sakura turned towards her.
"What did you say?" inquisitively looking at Tenten.
"I...I think that man, was... Lee..." she said in a slight trance, facing the direction the man was walking.
"...Lee? You think that guy was Lee?" they said simultaneously .Tenten watched the mans figure fade into the horizon of the slums.
"You two stay here I have something I need to do." she said heading in the direction the man just went. They knew she was just going to see if it really was Lee.
"Hey!" Tenten turned around.
"If it is fuzzy brow drag his ass back here!" Sakura yelled playfully.
"Didn't know that …" Ino said shifting her hair to the side.
Sakura blushed a bit at the jab. Ino giggled at the reaction, and then she turned her face to romantic expression.
"For all the faults he had, love and compassion that he had for all of us was real as a storm..." she said taking in the wind. Sakura giggled at the sentiment. Much to the chagrin of Ino.
"What?" Ino fired back. Sakura waved it off, she made her way over to her one time rival and gave her a hug.
"Nothing, I feel the same way, but that guy looked way different then the Lee we knew." she said as matter of fact.
"Yeah... That guy's actually cute!" Ino declared. They shared a nice laugh at the idea.
They then wondered what would happen if the mystery man was Lee. Where has he been, what has he been doing, would he come back to the village? They had all the questions in the world, but no answers.
With that Tenten set off To the slums. Ino looked over at the tombstone. She eyed it intently to make sure there was nothing wrong with it. She noticed a flower sitting at the edge of the grave, a Lotus. Her eyes widened at the site.
"Sakura! Check this out!" She motioned her over towards the grave.
Once there she now understood the significance of Ino's observation. The flower on the grave was a lone lotus. All signs pointed to the conclusion that the man they just met was Rock Lee: The exiled Green Beast of Kohona...
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In the slums
Tenten followed the man to a music shop. He entered, greeted the clerk, sat down at the Yamaha MotifX7 and began playing, 'at the bottom of the night.' She heard the sadness in the melody he played, she didn't know if it was Lee, and she entered the shop.