"The jutsu…we can't escape from it. Lee, please, this illusion is real. We can't break loose, stop attacking the walls… "
"Then how will we escape?"
"We must wait for backup…"
"How do they plan to get us out of this genjutsu?"
"…I can only imagine."
The area grew black, and his grip on reality was lost. His commander's face was a blur of eyes and nose swirled together. The space around them was creeping in, suffocating their life force. Lee couldn't see anything, but he made up for it with his sense of touch, pressing his fingers against the advancing walls, they were moving in too quickly. In only an hour, their mission would be a failure, and they would lose their lives to this strange kekkei genkai.
A genjutus that could not be broken… how was back up going to fix this mess?
Although the jutsu blinded Lee, he was glad his ears still worked. A pounding headache of footsteps marched his way. A small touch to his cheek, and he knew that his squad was saved.
"Calm your heart Lee. I can't begin the breaking process until you do." The voice was mousy, not at all confident. It sounded as scared as he felt. Lee nodded and inhaled. He was trying to slow his raging pulse, but before he managed to succeed, a powerful warp in the atmosphere made him gasp for air. He could feel everything within him shutting down, his power system was failing. He was dying. He's been far gone before, but never like this. Death's grip was heavy on his shoulders, black inky fingers clawed around his neck… The smell of sharp chakra shrouded him as his heart beat for the last time. The air rippled, spacing a wide expansion in the dimension, and then stillness. Another burst of overwhelming chakra, and he was gone.
Lee Rock was dead.
…
…
…
The window light was pleasant… Through sleep drunken eyes he stared blankly at a fancy ceiling fan. He didn't remember Konoha hospitals being luxurious. He sat up weakly, stretching his arms above his head, yawning silently to himself. Lee blinked.
Then he blinked again.
The walls surrounding him were pink. Baby-blush pink.
"This is not the hospital…" Lee mumbled, but just as the words left him, his eyes widened. His voice was not his own. It was a mousy squeak, a shy tone that didn't carry past his lips. He swallowed hard…
He had the voice of a girl.
He let his fingers press along his jaw line and throat, both seemingly soft. He glanced down hesitantly and found that his sheets were rose red and smelled of strawberries. He noticed his arms. They were bare and milky, a pale shade he had never been his entire life. The lacerations of past scars at his elbow and wrists were gone. Gone. Lee felt a surge of panic raise in his chest. His breath was hot and fast, his pulse bounced around his ribs, sweat beads began to leak out of his pores. He jumped out of his perfumed sheets and raced to the human sized mirror nailed to his door. The instant he came within a yard of his reflection, he was terror stricken. A girl, about 5'3, stared back at him with clear amber eyes, panicked and shifty. Her legs were long and graceful, almost glowing with a pink blush… This girl…wasn't she too old to be in teddy bear underwear? Her shirt wasn't exactly a shirt. It was a canary-yellow tank top. The little lumps protruding from underneath the cloth were no bigger than that of a baby chick egg. She was an A-cup for sure. Pink lips, a finely pointed nose, and nicely arched eyebrows… She was a very cute girl, but…
What was a girl doing in his reflection?
He raised his arm, and the girl in the mirror did the same. He marched his legs in place, and she mimicked. Lee tried to throw sneak moves, bringing one arm up, but then smoothly jutting the opposite hand out, and laying the false one down, but she was not fooled. Her timing was exact, pinpointed and on target. Lee swallowed again, nervous. She wore the same expression.
"Who are you?"
When their lips moved in the same syncopated rhythm of words, he knew this was no trick, and that there was no mimicking girl.
This was his reflection staring back at him, and he, was actually, a she.
The door opened suddenly, and a shocked woman who favored himself, began to smile. Her eyes were tear filled and she called down the hall, "She's awake! Matsuri is awake!" And right then, Lee let the shadowed fingers rip his sight away and eat his senses. A hard crash, a scream from the woman, and he was out. A blackout of pain engulfed him.
…
…
…
He had a killer headache. His brain had its own heartbeat. His ears were humming and his vision was hazy. He licked his lips to find them chapped.
Lee felt like absolute crap.
Big onyx eyes stared into Lee's. He would have jumped if he had the sense to, but he was too sore to be active. Keeping his eyes open was proving to be quite the difficulty.
"After six days, you finally wake up," the girl gasped to add effect, "but not only that, you fainted too!" The girl let her smile fall into a sarcastic smirk and added, "It was awesome."
Lee sat up on his elbows and squinted at the face in front of him. Another girl? A sister perhaps?
"Your mom was needed at the medical center, she told me to watch out for you." She gave a sly smile, "Thanks to you, I didn't have to meet with my team at the training grounds today. Thank god!" The girl rolled her eyes and popped a grape into her mouth. The girl had sleek black hair, all bundled up on one side of her head, braided in one silky ponytail. Her eyes were an electric blue color, and a small studded piercing sat on the tail of her left eyebrow. She was ghostly white, paler than the snow that fell around Lee's house last Christmas.
The girl arched her eyebrows up questioningly, pausing her fingers in mid grab of a grape.
"Matsuri…are you okay?"
Lee sunk back into his perfumed pillow, his eyes still wide and staring at the girl.
"Am I?"
She laughed out loud. Her voice had a deep timbre to it, was she older than him, well, his current body? Instead of being concerned about this female's age, he was curious as to what her name was. But how do you go about asking the name of a friend you were suppose to already know? He was Lee, not this Matsuri girl. What was he suppose to say? Hi, I'm actually a man who woke up this morning in your friend's body? Certainly not that! He looked over at the friend again, this time noticing the glaring headband wrapped around her shoulder. An hourglass was carved right in the middle of that steel plate. The symbol for the village of Sunakagure…
Wait.
Lee threw his covers off and crawled to the window. He peeped past the blinds and let his eyes fall on everything. Sand. Sand houses, sand facilities, sand dunes, sand training grounds. Sand everything. Lee quickly turned around, flattening his back against his window pane. He was at a loss for words. He was three days away from Konoha, in a foreign house, in a girl's body.
If he ever woke up from this dream and told the guys back home about it, they'd never believe him.
"Whoa…." Lee looked up at his grape eating friend, and let out another, "Whoa!" And ran to his walk-in closet, jerked the door open, and waltzed in. He ripped skirts, jackets, tank tops, everything he didn't want to wear, off their hangers. He needed something that would cover him up. It was a long journey home, but it's not like he hasn't made the trip before. Almost immediately, his friend was at his back, yanking at his tiny shoulders.
"Are you nuts! What are you doing?"
Lee ripped his arm out of her hand and continued rummaging around for pants.
"I need to get home."
"You are home! Stop it, Matsuri!"
Lee whirled around, breathing hard, his brown locks all about his face.
"Stop…"
The friend gave Lee a hurt look, spooked, "…?"
"Stop calling me that!"
"It's your name-"
"No!" Lee tried to fight the friend off of him, but his strength was not with him. It was rather absent actually. Matsuri's body was a weak one. He hated it. His seventeen years of training, all gone. The wrist throbbing punches, the grueling finger pushups, the grit bearing duels against Neji, they were all for not. He was Matsuri, a girl that probably hasn't lifted a single weight in the entirety of her life. He felt pathetic.
He stopped struggling with his friend, and gave himself up limply. A jutting pain at his hip and he was down on the carpet flooring, a burn on his chin, and his lip busted. The copper taste in his mouth was familiar and unpleasant. Had he bitten his tongue when he fell? The girl had tackled his waist and flattened him out on the ground. She was currently straddling his shoulders with her knees, and her lips were at his ear. He felt the tail of her braid brush against his nose. He was overwhelmed in strength by a girl who didn't even train today. This was by far the most embarrassing moment of his life. It was even worse than the time he had his pants yanked to his ankles in front of his whole genin class when he was eight.
"Oh…don't cry." The girl rubbed his back soothingly as he hiccupped on the floor, his body bobbing with his loud sobbing. The blood in his mouth, the ache in his hips…this wasn't a dream. This was real. Too real. At the moment, he was thankful that his sensei taught him to cry. He cried when he was happy, angry, sad, whatever the emotion. And here he was, crying out of pure fear, hopelessness, and despair, he was really letting the tears rain out of his sockets.
"You had it coming, you know that right?" Lee let out a tear drowning laugh, and so did the girl. They stayed on the carpet of the closet for nearly half an hour until Lee decided he should wash his face. The girl looped his arm around her neck and helped Lee to his feet, dragging him to the bathroom that was down the hallway to the left. Once there, she sat Lee down on the lid of the toilet, and rampaged the sink drawers. She grabbed a few cotton swabs and gauze tape from the medicine cabinet. Lee winced when he saw her drop the alcohol bottle on the sink counter. That was really going to burn… The girl took a breath and steadied herself. She tucked a loose hair behind her ear before dabbing a cotton swab with alcohol. She smiled teasingly at Lee.
"You used to hate alcohol burn."
Lee swallowed, "I still do."
At least he and Matsuri had that in common, but then again, he couldn't imagine anyone who liked the burn of alcohol…
The girl dabbed the swab on Lee's lip and chin. Lee sucked in a hiss and shut his eyes tight. The girl laughed lightly while adding the finishing touches. She took some gauze tape and lathered it on Lee's chin. She told Lee to suck on his bottom lip when the bust gets dry, that way it will become soft and be easy to peel. Lee nodded and got up from the toilet.
"Dude…I'm starving. Anything to eat, Matsu-…ri?" Lee gave her a look, but then let it fall to the floor.
"Forget what I said in the closet. I was…not myself."
The girl rolled her eyes, "That's for sure."
They slowly walked down the stairs. Every now and then he'd steal a look at her, but then decided to just ask what's been bothering him. It wouldn't hurt. His friend already thought he was nuts.
"What is your name?" Lee asked, his stare blank.
The girl stopped walking. After a slight pause, she laughed disbelievingly, "What?"
"Your name…what is it?" Lee repeated, somewhat weary of the anger in his friends tone.
The girl gave him the most hostile stare he'd ever seen. Those electric blue orbs seemed to pierce right into his chest, and stab him right in the heart. She broke eye contact and shrugged her shoulders coldly.
"It's Amane." She quickly shifted her eyes back to Lee and jabbed his shoulder with a fist. "Did your brain dance when you hit your head?" and instead of waiting for a reply, she marched down the rest of the stairs without him.
Lee spotted Amane in the kitchen putting together a sandwich. Amane glanced up at Lee when he approached the side of her counter.
"You look ridiculous."
"Huh?"
"Hello? Isn't it breezy down there with those on?" Amane pointed the thin knife she was using to cut lettuce up with, at Lee's teddy bear underwear. He blushed darkly and turned around to go upstairs and find some sweats, but Amane pulled him back over to her.
"Wait," Amane unzipped her black jacket and held it out for Lee to take, "put it around your waist. No sense in going all the way back upstairs..." Lee smiled and did so. He decided that Amane wasn't as cruel as she let on.
Lee acted casually as he searched for the knife drawer. Matsuri lived here, so he might as well act like he knew his way around just as well as she…had. He joined Amane with a slightly longer knife, and chopped a tomato up in fine heart shaped circles. Amanes chopping grew slower with each piece of lettuce she finished cutting until she finally stopped. She laid her blade down on the wooden chopping board and glanced down with sad eyes.
"You know…you exhausted so much of your chakra during your last mission, that you passed out, and those Konohan's had to carry you back to your house. You've been out of it for six days since, and when you finally wake up…" Amane silently let her eyes find Lee's amber one's and let out a soft sigh. "You're like a totally different person. Like…you're so serious and so…not…girly." Lee didn't answer her, just kept chopping. He wasn't ignoring her. He just didn't know how to counter. What was there to say? Even so, Amane kept talking, "I've been your friend since the second grade and you didn't even know my name. You didn't even know where you were. Just how sick are you, Matsuri?"
"What if I told you…that I am not exactly Matsuri?" Amane gave him a strange look. Lee continued, bringing his hand up to his chest to squeeze at his heart. He down casted his eyes and mumbled, "I think part of me is lost somewhere… But I do not know where that part of me is. Please, do not be angry with me. I cannot explain to you any better than this, so please… No more questions."
"Why not?" Amane asked, feeling somewhat left out.
Lee smiled and answered simply, "I do not have answers to them."
Amane was silent after that, and went back to chopping up lettuce. After all of the preparations were finished, they put their sandwiches together. A mustard and mayo sandwich for Amane with cheddar, ham, lettuce and tomato, and a avocado and wasabi spread for Lee with pepper jack, turkey, lettuce and tomato.
"I thought you hated spicy foods…"Amane said through a mouthful of sandwich. Lee smiled, finishing his last corner piece, "I told you, I am not the same."
Shortly after eating, they washed the chopping board and plates. Lee went back upstairs to pull on a pair of black jogging pants. The pants were made of jogging material, but they weren't exactly pants. They stopped at the middle of his soft calve muscles and hung low in the crotch area. They were fashionable girl Kapri…things. He sighed, at least the underwear was covered, and with the canary top he was wearing, he looked like a honey bee. Yellow and black. He managed a smile. He waltzed out of the closet and headed for the door, but before he put his hand to the knob, he stared at his reflection. Lee's eyes were puffy, his chin was bandaged up, lip was slightly split, but his eyes were fascinated with this strange picture. Lee brought his eyebrows down, kept his amber stare hard and glassy, made his back straight and slipped his slender hands into his low pockets. He made Matsuri look determined, focused and prepared for anything. However, he didn't feel the way Matsuri looked in his reflection, but he would get to that point. He was going to build this scrawny girl up with training. He was going to have the scars, and he was going to be the man he was six days ago. He was going to transform Matsuri into Lee. Lee Rock.
Lee joined Amane once more down stairs. Amane seemed to be in good spirits. She looked ready to talk…talk about girl stuff. As soon as Lee got comfortable in a cream loveseat, Amane began her gossip.
"So…have you changed so much that Gaara doesn't interest you anymore?" Her smile was testing, but Lee tilted his head, puzzled.
"Is he not the Kazekage? I respect him just like everyone else."
"What? Respect? Oh my god…you must be dying if you're talking like that."
"What do you mean?"
"Hello? He's hot."
"…?"
Amane began to laugh, "Every girl likes him…and you are the envy of every girl in Suna right now. Congrats."
"…?"
Amane jumped out of her seat, her mouth agape, her blue stare disbelieving.
"Matsuri…you like him, and you're his only student."
"Um…I guess that makes him a busy man?"
Amane threw her hands up in surrender and shook her head. She fell back into the cream armchair; the chair seemed to suck her up in its cushions… She glared at Lee, and Lee only rubbed the back of his neck. This girl was quite the annoyance. Did she not understand that he knew nothing of this Matsuri girl? Did she not understand that he did not care? He just wanted to get his body back. That's all he wanted. He remembered Amane saying how Matsuri went on a mission six days ago. Something about over exerting her chakra…
"Did the Kazekage send me off on that mission, the one you told me about?"
Amane twirled her braid and gave Lee a look that said 'Who the hell else?'
"I was sent in as back up… I cannot remember what for though…"
"You suck at combat, that's why you're a medic ninja remember? What else would you be needed for other than to heal people…"
Lee glanced at Amane, but wasn't really seeing her. He was back at the cellar with his foreign squad leader waiting on back up. It was so cold there, and the fear of Death stealing away his final breath never left him. That feeling of suspense…that feeling of waiting for a savior. Back up, they were waiting so desperately for back up…was Matsuri part of their back up team?
"Amane? What would you do if you were trapped in a kekkei genkai, a genjutsu that cannot be shaken? How would you break the illusion?" Amane sat up, not so eaten by the couch anymore, and looked at Lee with serious eyes.
"…There's nothing I would be able to do, I would need someone who isn't trapped in the genjutsu to get me out of it." She looked around, as if checking if the coast was clear. "Remember what the elders taught us? It's a forbidden jutsu, but in impossible situations, we're allowed to use it?"
"Use what?"
"The Mind Swap jutsu. The soul and body are too different mediums, and so separating them is like pulling a magnet apart. A soul cannot bring with it years of learned jutsu, physical form or anything. Just itself and its memories. In other words-"
Lee felt the words escape him as he thought the rest of Amane's senario,"A genjutsu cannot follow a mind into another body…"
Amane nodded, and then sat for a still minute, and jumped up again.
"Matsuri…You didn't!" Yeah, he didn't, but Matsuri did, and if what Amane explained really happened, then that means that Lee's body was currently inhabited with the dumbfounded soul of Matsuri, but he wasn't about to let Amane know that.
Lee shrugged his shoulders, "I passed out remember?"
Amane shook her head, "Well, as long as you remembered to undo it…"
Lee was more than curious, but didn't show it, "What would happen if I didn't?"
"Your soul will get acquainted and adjust to the new body, and after a week of sitting within a stranger, separating the mediums won't be possible, not for another six months, anyway. But you know better than that I'm sure." Amane smiled at Lee, and Lee smiled at her, but he was vexed. Matsuri did not undo the jutsu because if she had, he wouldn't be her. He was passed out for six days…and here he was, on the seventh day of the Swap, cursed to be Matsuri for six more months.
Six.
He couldn't let Amane know who he was. It was none of her business, and anyway, he could wait this out… Maybe he can get clarity off of what Amane said about the Mind Swap Jutsu from an Elder and confirm if there really was no other way to speed up the Swap process. Secondhand ears are never to be trusted.
They sat in heavy silence. Lee was so busy thinking that he missed what Amane said.
"Did you hear me?"
Lee looked at her questioningly.
"I said, what are you going to do tomorrow? You have to go back to the training fields like everyone else. Just because you're the Kazekage's student doesn't mean you can milk your illness forever."
Lee smiled at that, he actually had a real answer to that question, "I plan to train hard. Have you seen my legs? No muscle at all." Amane stared at him, "Um…Are you sure you undid the Swap?" Lee gave a fake laugh, and Amane quirked one eyebrow.
"Wow, you hit your head hard." Lee was about to respond, but the doorbell rang. Lee vaguely wondered how the Suna inhabitants were able to install doorbells in sand structured homes… He got up to answer it, but when he opened the door, he couldn't form words to say. Not even a, 'Hello'. His courtesy left him stranded at the mouth for a moment, and he completely speechless. Narrowed ocean-green eyes stared into his amber ones. The black rings encased around them intensified the boy's gaze. An artful array of ruby locks was his hair… His soap-cleansed complexion was something to marvel at. This boy… Lee knew him. This was Gaara Sabaku. The boy who destroyed him, but turned around and saved his life too... Yes, this was the great Kazekage. His sensei. But Gaara was no longer a boy, he was a man. A very handsome man… And in the instant of thinking this, Lee felt sick. Maybe being a girl increased his hormones? Whatever was causing his attraction to the Kazekage was beyond him. Lee heard Amane gasp behind him. She was suddenly at his back, her breath on his neck. Was Amane being…shy?
"I heard you were well. I came to see for myself."
Lee couldn't bring himself to say anything, so he gave a curt nod at Gaara's words. He couldn't breathe with Gaara standing there in front of him. He even found it difficult to look the man in the eyes. What was wrong with him? Well, whatever his problem was, he was glad when Amane butted in.
"I didn't know the Kazekage made house visits to the sick...in that case, I'm sick too!" Gaara stared down at her and sized her up for good measure.
"You seem well too…if you skip practice again, your sensei will punish you." She scratched the back of her neck and shrunk into the background. Gaara returned his attention to Lee, or rather, his lip and chin. He paid the afflictions a breath of attention and was back to staring in Lee's eyes.
"I will see you tomorrow in the training field."
Lee responded casually, as if a moment ago he hadn't just been tongue tied.
"Tomorrow then."
Gaara nodded at that, and after a pause, quickly shifted his fingers into a blur of hand signs. Sand began to encase his entire being, a swirl of smooth chakra, and he was fading… Lee couldn't let Gaara go yet, he still needed to say something. He didn't want Gaara to think of him as just Matsuri…He would make him see that he would be different, that he wouldn't be like Amane and skip practice, or flirt with him shamelessly like so many others. He wanted to prove to Gaara that he was a warrior, that he would be every bit the man that the redhead was. He would be worthy of the Kazekage's powerful presence, and he would never be tongue tied again.
"Kazekage-sama, I will train hard…I swear." Gaara looked up at him, and the glint that Lee saw in his eyes made him smile. The sand whirled up into the sky, the air rippled, and the chakra flare died. Gaara had transported himself elsewhere, but Lee knew that Gaara heard him, and believed him. Lee shut the door quickly and raced out the back door, Amane struggled to follow behind Lee's quick steps.
"Matsuri? What are you…"
Lee was situated in front of a massive oak tree that was over weight with leaves and acorns. Lee focused all his chakra down into his arms and legs to steady them, he still felt weary from all the bed rest, but he wouldn't let them give out on him, not while he trained. He stretched his palm out in front of his chest, a hand curled at his straight back, and his legs spread slightly apart. The lotus position… He let his fist burst against the bark of the tree. The rawness of the pain, the sharp smell of outside, the power behind his quick jabs…he was Lee. He was himself. The scars would be his to wear once more, and the overwhelming sense of determination would follow him in his wake. He was Lee Rock, not Matsuri of Sunakagure. Amane stared at her friend and knew that who she saw training, was someone else, something else. And she felt empowered…she too wanted to do her best, but couldn't bring herself to join Matsuri. The girl was so focused, determined, and dangerously fascinating, that Amane could only stare. She sat on the patio and watched her friend pound away the ancient oak with all her being, almost until night fall, but Amane had to get sleep. She told Lee she'd see him tomorrow at the practice field. Lee nodded, and continued his training, unaware of the eyes watching him.
Maybe six months of this wouldn't be so bad, but right at the strike of nine o' clock, Lee felt a warm liquid trickle down his leg… It wasn't sweat, and when he lifted his pants leg to see what was dripping, he was glad he wasn't wearing white. He quickly wrapped up for the night and went to the bathroom for obvious reasons, and then fell into a dreamless sleep. Before he proved his worth to Gaara, he'd have to get used to being a girl first… Or really, his Period.