Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
Bound
Prologue
At first, there was nothing; there wasn't even darkness. No words could ever describe the feeling of being nothing, but when people feel it, they know. This feeling of desolation was how Rock Lee felt. His eyes opened, and he could see darkness. Then moments later of looking for direction, he felt himself going down.
Slam! Sound made its appearance. The ground did as well, giving Lee some well-given pain. Soon afterwards, light entered this void, and Lee found himself on a standing, illuminating platform among the darkness.
Lee scrambled up in response to a booming, familiar voice. Alert as ever, he took precautions he turned to confirm who he originally thought the voice came from.
It was Maito Gai. Lee ran over to his teacher, eager for something familiar, but Gai pushed him off the shining platform. Shocked, Lee drifted below the platform while Gai cheered words of encouragement, telling him to do his best no matter the situation.
It felt like years had passed when Lee finally lost sight of the glowing platform he once was upon. He missed solid land dearly and wished this drifting to stop, because he could not move.
Then, he finally stopped. Everything was dark, but Lee could feel himself breathing again. Then, the light flickered on until it the light shone consistently.
After he took a good survey of his surroundings, Lee inferred that he was in some sort of western-style hallway with rows and rows of doors. Each door was wooden with silver-colored door knobs, but taking a closer look at it, Lee realized that they were gleaming with a hint of red. Lee looked to the left; Lee looked to the right. Besides the dark grey walls, there was nothing else but the doors that he could see. So, he began to search.
Lee did not know what to search for, nor did he make it a priority in his mind. He approached one of the doors that seemed to be standing alone. It was no different from the other door; it had the same type of wood and shine and had the same heart carving on the upper part of it like all the other doors. In fact, the only noticeable difference was that its spacing was farther than all the other doors. Coming closer to it, heart carving seemed to have a name scratched onto it in kanji. It read: Hyuuga Neji.
Curious, Lee reached out towards the knob to open the door, only to be shocked by the intense heat of the door knob. He took a look at the condition of his burnt hand to realize that the hot doorknob burned a hole into the bandages he usually wore. But Lee, being the person he was, became more determined to open that door. With all the endurance he had, he managed to overcome the heat, burn off all thewrapping on his arms, and opened the door where he saw his teammate, Hyuuga Neji.
His great victory did not last, however, because Neji did not look Lee in the eye. Instead, just like Gai, he pushed Lee away with the gentle fist (after an apology) and slammed the door.
The same scenario was the same for all the other doors. After burns and trials, people he knew very well would always appear at the other ends of the door, only to attack him in some way and slam the door. Sakura's door, which grew less painful as he struggled with it, had bumped his forehead as Sakura apologetically slammed the door on him. Tenten had hit him with several of her infamous projectile weapons before the door slammed. Even Naruto appeared, and he left him with more burns that he needed. Door-by-door, more people he remembered or even partially remembered was there.
Finally, he reached the last door. He was tired and hurt all over, but he believed that this was the last one. This will be the one he was searching for, even though he did not know what he was looking for. He was going to open the door when realization hit him. This door was different than the others; it had no heart carving, and the door knob was missing. He could not go in even if he wanted to.
Suddenly, two dark figures out of nowhere grabbed both of his arms. He struggled, but he never managed to get any effective kicks, and the burns and beating he received earlier did not help him. Soon, the other gave the second one full hold of him. While one figure held him, the other took a knife to the door. Scratching and scratching for a long while, the figure finally made a carving of a heart and scribbled some messy kanji into the middle. Lee was only able to make out "love" and "home." He tried to read the rest of the phrase, but the door thrust opened, and an enormous clump of mass covered him, and dragged him inside the door.
The last color he saw was yellow. There was so much yellow, and he might have seen some black and red. Lee felt crammed, but it felt warm and comfortable. He had a feeling that he should be doing something else, but he felt lost in this place of pleasure. Then, it was all a blank.
Lee woke up completely confused and disturbed as though someone had read his mind. Looking around he realized he was in his old hospital room. He saw Tsunade, Gai, his teammate, and someone else that he had not expected.
"Gaara?" he asked questioningly at the boy who had nearly killed him a year ago.
Spoilers for the manga
Author's Notes: Okay, so yeah. Here it is. I've been working on it ever since start the 3-year jump. The jump made it work. Let's hope the story fits in with whatever happens. Either way, it's technically a AU anyway. If you haven't guessed, it's set a year after the chuunin exams. Lastly, this fic is a GaaraLee. This couple needs more attention. Let's hope this fic comes out well!