The Lives We Live
Rating: T
Warnings: Character Death, InoShikaCho threesome
Genre: Angst
Timeline: Future
Characters: Rookie 9, Team Gai
Spoilers: None
Disclaimer: I still don't own Naruto
1. Rock Lee knows he'll be the one left behind. He knows he'll be the one who grows old and grey. He knows he will be the one to bring flowers to the ever lengthening list of names on the memorial plaque.
2. He feels silly when he thinks this because he was never one to believe in destiny.
3. He was sure Neji would go first for the longest time. Neji, who joined the ANBU at such a young age and is sent on the most missions of any of them. He is ANBU Bird and people tell horror stories about his prowess.
4. Then Sasuke dies.
5. Lee attends the service and does his best to comfort Sakura and Naruto, who both cry tears in equal measures. Neji leaves the ANBU shortly thereafter and starts pursuing a family of all things.
6. He marries Tenten less then a year later. They have their first child, a young girl, and Lee becomes her godfather.
7. Naruto marries Sakura fairly shortly afterward. Lee attends the wedding as the best man. He knows they would have rather had Sasuke, but he smiles and does his best not to remind them of their fallen comrade.
8. The biggest scandal of their generation is revealed when Ino, Chouji and Shikamaru have their first child and declare that they are living together, the three of them, happily. Lee's first mission in a long, long time is to try and convince them to stop 'this charade and settle down with a normal family.' He doesn't put a lot of effort into it, and the mission is a complete failure.
9. Somehow, he doesn't feel like he's failed the village though, when he sees the four of them at the park, playing like any normal family.
10. Chouji dies of concussive heart failure three months later. His name is carved into the memorial plaque by his family because no one else will do it.
11. Hinata, to everyone's surprise and the Hyuuga Council's chagrin, settles down with Kiba. The bulge of her eight month belly is obvious even under the flowing wedding robes. Tenten and Neji have another child, this time a boy, at the end of the year during one of the worst winters Konoha has ever seen.
12. On New Years Day, Kakashi, Kurenai and Gai are found in the snow having been sent on an assassination mission almost a month earlier. Their wounds have been cauterized in the heat of the cold and their bodies are covered in sheets during their funeral because they are so badly mutilated.
13. Lee takes Gai's death better then most people expected, but he still locks himself away for days. He doesn't tell anyone but he considered ending his life then and there because he wasn't sure he'd be able to handle being the last one left.
14. He's still not sure.
15. Tsunade and Jiraiya die of simple old age within a few days of each other. Their funeral is grand and their praises are sung to the high heavens for most of the week.
16. Sakura dies in childbirth the same day Naruto is made Rokudaime Hokage. Lee can see the hollowness of the victory in Naruto's dulled and empty eyes.
17. After Ino hangs herself in their closet, Shikamaru asks Lee whether he is ever going to marry. He thinks and finally says probably not. He walks away from the genius pondering the question.
18. Life is happy for a long time after that. Like he said, he never marries. That isn't to say he has no children though. Everyone in their generation calls him the communal babysitter and he has no problem taking care of all the little children they've managed to accumulate over the years (particularly Hinata, who surprised them all by having her seventh earlier in the year).
19. The happiness ends when, on a mission to Suna, Neji is murdered. Shino is found dead in the forest a week later. Kiba and Hinata are both slaughtered along with a third of the Hyuuga clan less then 24 hours later. They find the insane Mist-nin cutting and defiling a sobbing Tenten. He is ripped apart on the spot. Tenten dies in the emergency room along with her unborn child.
20. Lee stands and overlooks Konoha with Naruto and Shikamaru, the only three left of their generation. Shikamaru reminds them that they are soon to be the only two when he coughs up blood and his hands shake violently. None of the medic-nin know what he has. They only know that it is terminal.
I... don't know where this came from. I guess all my angst bunnies are going crazy.