Yo, Aki here. This particular one-shot was actually a request from a friend on Quizilla :D OMK, you have NO idea how long it had taken to write this thing...Well, not more or less write as it did to even get an IDEA. But, here it is. I wrote it a few months ago and just now recoded it so it may be presented on here!! Thanks in advance for reading, and review it, maybe??

A Daisy in a Field of Roses

Such a curious thing, love is. How you can sometimes think that you love one person, but in reality, love someone else. Or how you can go through life being completely oblivious to the feeling altogether. It‛s curious how something so important, so large in one person‛s life, can be overlooked so easily by someone else, like a daisy in a field of roses.

Many of these concepts had once applied to a kunoichi by the name of Miyu at the age of thirteen. For a long time, she had a crush on one known as Hyuuga Neji, a tiny bud once kept in the shadows and brought to the light, so it grew to a blossomed rose. She had been like many other girls, only looking at the big picture, thinking of his pigheadedness only as confidence and being fascinated by his strength and ability to accurately analyze a person‛s psyche.

Also, she had failed to notice that tiny daisy in her heart for Rock Lee.

Only a tiny flower, kept in the shadows, Miyu would hardly glance at Lee, and when she did, her eyes wouldn‛t see past his bowl cut hair, bug-like eyes, and gigantic fuzz eyebrows. Her ears wouldn‛t listen past his shouts about "the power of youth" or "how youthful" something was.

But soon, she would open up her eyes to all the small things, taking in more details in life. Realization swept her off her feet as she saw how arrogant, childish, and worst of all, self-centered Neji could be. The rose was getting to much light, and it began to die.

In contrast, the daisy began to bloom to the elegance of a lotus flower as Miyu decided to take a closer look at the green jumpsuit-wearing ninja. In that sea of roses, the daisy was finally getting noticed. He was a good friend; loyal, honest, and a hard-worker. Every time he spoke to her now, thoughts of how annoying or not-so-good-looking he was weren‛t crossing her mind. There was always a subtle glow to his cheeks, especially when he realized her presence. She even noticed the softness of his hair as she played with it now, him being asleep, of course. She had assumed it would be almost greasy, from it‛s overly-shiny facade.

But it was not an expression of mirth across Miyu‛s face as she did this for she was actually at Lee‛s bedside as he slept in the hospital.

A few weeks ago, in the preliminaries for the third part of the Chuunin Exams, Lee had fought a Sand Village Shinobi by the name of Subaku no Gaara. He had used sand during battle, and ended up crushing Lee‛s left arm and leg. That, along with the after-effects of Lee‛s own forbidden taijutsu, resulted in muscle and tissue damage of which he was now recovering. Miyu was a frequent visitor.

He sleeps with such serenity, she thought while bringing her hand down from his hair to gently caress one of his eyebrows. His eyebrows are soft, too . . . Like petals, almost. Heh. I can be so corny . . . Many thought came and went, carried away with the wind like leaves and petals. Yet, there is always that stubborn petal that lingers behind. In this case, it was a memory of not long ago.

"Face it, Lee. You‛re never going to beat Neji. He‛s a genius, and you can‛t even use ninjutsu or genjutsu. It‛s not even worth trying." Tenten, the other Kunoichi of Team Gai scolded with hands on her hips as Lee was once again faced with brutal defeat. Determined, he slowly lifted himself up and took a fighting stance in defiance, breathing heavily. Tenten rolled her eyes and crossed her arms, muttering, "He never learns."

"She‛s right, Lee. You are a failure, and that means you cannot ever win. Destiny prohibits it," Neji himself taunted, taking his own fighting stance. "But if you insist . . ."

Neji‛s so cool, Miyu had thought when watching them spar from the rock she sat on. Amber eyes glittered in amazement to be framed by chin-length bangs of the same color. The rest of her hair was held in a single bun at the back of her head. She sat with knees drawn to her chest, resting her chin and hands atop them and a fine shade of pink to her cheeks.

Lee found himself in the dirt once again, shortly with a grunt. At this point, it seemed as if Neji had begun only toying with him, as the Hyuuga was getting annoyed with Lee‛s persistence.

"Nice job, Neji-kun!" Miyu exclaimed as she stood and walked to where the boys had been sparring. She crouched and poked Lee‛s forehead. "Ya mighta overdone it, though. I don‛t think he can move."

He shrugged it off. "He asked for it."

She giggled. "Tenten, can you help me pick him up? Oi! Eyebrows! You still with us?!"

His response couldn‛t be deciphered as both Miyu and Tenten helped him to stand. The former hoisted his arm across her shoulders to help him remain standing.

"I have somewhere I need to be," Neji said and left, in his normal cold fashion. Tenten left as well, using a relative excuse only because she wanted to follow Neji. Miyu made a face, wanting to follow Neji too, but she also didn‛t feel comfortable leaving Lee alone in such a vulnerable state.

"A few moans and groans isn‛t an answer, Eyebrows. Are you okay?" Miyu sighed.

"I lost again . . ." Lee replied distantly.

"Well . . . yeah. There‛s no way you can beat Neji, Lee. Like tenten said, he‛s a genius and you . . . It‛s an impossible match," she replied bluntly. Slowly, as he was stiff, she helped him to walk to the rock she had previously been sitting on. She took the seat next to him.

"But there has to be a way for me to beat him. Just because he is a genius does not mean he is invincible. And I have the power of youth on my side."

Miyu rolled her eyes and thought, Again with the power of youth. "Lee, I don‛t think you‛ll ever be able ot beat Neji, but there are plenty of other ninja to become stronger than. You‛re already stronger than Tenten, but maybe, you can become stronger than me," she giggled, joking." Other ninja . . . If you work hard enough, you can even become and awesome taijutsu specialist. Gai-sensei seems to have a lot of faith in you."

A small smile came to his lips, but not a large enough to the point in which she could consider him cheered up.

"And . . . I have faith in you too, I guess. I believe you can become a strong ninja, just not a stronger one than Neji."

Tears of happiness began to form in his eyes. "Beautifully put, Miyu-chan. Even if the last part kinda ruined it."

"Haha. My point is, I believe in you, Eyebrows. You and your power of youth."

"Really?"

"Yeah. And you can prove yourself in the Chuunin Exams. Gai-sensei‛s going to enter us this year."

Moment of vulnerability over, Lee was overtaken with excitement and jumped up, punching his fist in the air. "Yosh! I‛ll do it! I‛m going to use my power of youth to prove myself in the Chuunin Exams and defeat Neji! One way, or another!"

"Uh, Lee--"

"Thanks, Miyu-chan!" he exclaimed, catching Miyu in a quick embrace before running off. "May the power of youth be with you!"

The color pink came to her cheeks as she was caught in a slight daze. Shaking her head vigorously, she stood and left in the same direction Neji and Tenten had moments before. ". . ."

Annoyed with herself, Miyu‛s present expression became sour, I can be such a jerk.

"I‛m sorry, Lee," She said aloud, still tracing his eyebrows. "This is partially my fault, isn‛t it? Telling you that you could never beat Neji . . . You beat that Naruto kid thirty seconds flat and even took on this year‛s number one rookie, no problem. And from the looks of it, I think that Naruto may beat Neji. Something about that kid . . .If you beat him so easily, and he beats Neji, I think you could win . . ."

Balancing on that thin line between friend and something more. Trying not to act to friendly, but also trying not to make it to obvious or seem as though giving the cold shoulder.Choosing words carefully as not to let him know the truth. Fearing that, at any moment they‛ll wake up and feel your touch, or hear the words leaving your lips.

"I‛m sorry for not fully believing in you. I was far to stupid and blind to realize that I just might like you -- Like you-like you, I mean. But I guess that you like Sakura, more. You asked her to be your girlfriend and even swore to protect her with your life. I don‛t remember you ever asking me . . . Ah! Now I‛m blushing, hehe.

Babbling excessively as you try to dance around the subject, kicking and hitting yourself mentally for how stupid you think you sound. Wanting to get to the point but at the same time, searching for the right words to explain it, and having a difficult time doing so.

Miyu sniffed, wiping her eyes yet chuckling to herself. "And here I am practically talking in circles -- Well, not circles, really but . . . I guess I‛m trying to say that, you‛ve won, Eyebrows. You beat Neji . . .," She managed to say with a silence following. Swallowed up in her thoughts as she continually played with his hair, the slight twitches in Lee‛s face went unnoticed when she realized the time. "Well . . . I have to go now. See ya later, Eyebrows.

And then, as she stood, she froze, hovering over his body as the cheesiest of all her thoughts that day crossed her mind and a blush came to her cheeks. With wide eyes, she thought,No! I can‛t kiss him! What if he woke up, or somebody walked in?! And it‛s so cliche, I couldn‛t possibly . . .Before her mind carried her away, she made herself stand fully and turn her back to him. Okay, that‛s better. And with one last glance back when opening the door, Miyu left, the door closing behind her with an audible click.

Moments later, when Lee could be sure that Miyu had in fact left, he peeked through one eye, checking to see that the coast was clear before opening the other. Bored of laying down and pretending to be asleep, he woke up with a light shade of scarlet flushing his face. Like-like?

"She‛s right, Lee. You are a failure, and that means you cannot ever win," Neji taunted, once again getting into his fighting stance. "But if you insist . . ."

What Miyu had been thinking when watching them, Lee could not know. Not only was he not gifted with the ability to see into the female psyche like his rival, but he should not be distracted by her, now. He knew that her thoughts were most likely not about him, in fact, all of the admiration she gave off seemed to be directed at Neji. She only seemed to have eyes for him.

Well someday, Miyu-chan‛s going to be looking at me like that, he thought before Neji beat him to the dirt once again. But apparently, not today . . . he reminded himself as Miyu cheered on Neji.

Contradictory it was that now she was saying he could do all of the things she previously said he couldn‛t do. And sorry? He never believed it to be her fault in the first place, not that he was in the hospital. That was out of his own desperation.

It bothered him that she was blaming herself. She had done nothing to influence the battle he fought, even when she tried to jump in and stop it she was held back. Her words may have been a driving force, but there were other, smaller things that he liked and may have contributed, too.

Very much so he wanted her admiration to be directed at him, someday. Let those amber eyes be watching as he proved victorious, not as another failure. He would have given anything for her face to turn crimson from looking at him as he would her dozens of times. A degree of desperation that was rare and unusual for him, as he normally concentrated on trying to become stronger, so he could prove that ninja with the inability to use ninjutsu and genjutsu could still become good ninja.

Which was why he couldn‛t just sit around like a lump, here as he only appeared to be doing. If he got behind on his training, then how could he ever reach his goals? Each day, after the nurses checked up on him and before most visitors would visit, he would sneak out of his room and do an impossible number of one-armed push-ups, to keep up his strength for when he would train again. So far, he had only been caught once, and no one had been able to do anything to stop him. Until . . .

"Eyebrows? What the heck are you doing outta bed?!" Miyu exclaimed as she opened the door to Lee‛s hospital room and spotted him getting ready to sneak out. "Get back into bed, now!" She said, disapproving.

"But Miyu, I have to train; I can‛t get rusty. My power of youth depends on it," he complained, spouting what Miyu considered to be nonsense about the youth again.

"What your ‛power of youth‛ depends on, Eyebrows is rest. Aren‛t a few of your injuries spinal? This‛ll only make it worse!"

"But . . . If I don‛t--"

"If you don‛t, then what? You‛re already strong, Eyebrows! You know that Neji wouldn‛t have been able to last that long in a battle against, Gaara-san. Get back to bed!" She wouldn‛t let him trek any longer. Words were being chosen in a less cautious fashion, and when Lee defied her once again, there was only one action coursing through her head -- pinning him down. He seemed more nervous and excited than angry or disappointed as a shade of scarlet came ot both of their faces.

This was it. Time to cross that line and be a little something more than a friend. Showing exactly how much she cared, not caring if it was obvious or not. It was more than one line on his part that had been crossed, and one of the lines "I guess I‛ll just have to make you rest, then," She said as her heart began to race, sending a rush through her body. Thoughts that were racing through her mind had started out mild, nothing to worry about. But with the way her mind was, those thoughts began to take a turn for ‛naughty‛. Her eyes became wide and blush, deepened.

The scenario was having similar effects on Lee, also as he began having his own mental battle with the sexual tension. "Miyu-chan . . . Can I . . . Kiss you?" he asked.

"Um . . .Well, that is . . . I, uh . . .," an even darker blush came to her face than before (if possible) as she stuttered and her brain was failing in processing the request. With a swallow, she nodded and closed her eyes as Lee‛s sweet and soft lips came to hers.

There was nothing small about the feeling coming to her, now. The deeper the kiss was subconsciously deepened, the more the blooming flower in her heart blossomed, becoming larger to the point where she felt as if she would burst. All the small things she liked -- loved? -- about Rock Lee were coming together into that special place, and going into the kiss.

For a brief moment in which they stopped for air, Lee whispered, "I like you too, Miyu-chan."

"You heard?"

"Yeah . . . Will you be my girlfriend? I promise to--"

"Protect me with your life?"

"Yeah."

She kissed him lightly, "Of course. There‛s nothing I‛d want more."

A curious thing, love is. Small things become big, once realized and even a tiny daisy can come to overwhelm a rose. Seeing through it‛s facade to see what it really is; a Lotus flower or simply a weed? Taking a closer look and discovering maybe a new love . . . Or just a daisy in a field of Roses.

End of A Daisy in a Field of Roses

Thanks for reading!! Review??