Discouragement
Yugao
Summary: "You'll never beat Neji. He's a genius, you aren't." Lee finally took those words as a challenge.
Author's Note: It's a NejiTentenLee triangle, but mostly LeeTenten for some reasons. It's one of the most popular among my friends at school, so I decided to write one for them. A big fat thank you goes out to my classmate Earvin, who is… sort of, but not really, like Lee.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
"You'll never defeat Neji."
Those four words never bothered Lee so much. He knew that with hard work, perseverance, and youthful determination, he could overcome anything and anyone, even his esteemed teammate Hyuuga Neji. He never told anyone that though, not even Tenten. He wasn't afraid it would come out as arrogance; it was because he always assumed that those four words were meant to encourage him to try harder.
One day, he learned that assumptions were almost always wrong.
That day the sun was shining cheerfully bright even at dawn, and he had decided to get up extra early and run several hundred more laps around the village (with a proper set of weights attached to his arms and legs, of course). A few glazed clouds over the rising sun dulled, but not blocked, the glimmer of sunshine over a small pond.
On his two hundred and thirty-second lap, he spied his teammates Neji and Tenten approaching, and he slowed his pace purposefully to talk to them. "Neji, rival!" he called out to his friend cheerily, "Let's have a spar after I finish running!"
Tenten flicked a kunai up to her hand and twirled it on her palm as if it was nothing more than a plastic plaything. "Don't be silly, Lee. You can't beat Neji!" she said with an amused smile. "Besides, Neji and I are training together today."
Those four robotic, almost mechanical, words made him grin. "Ah, Tenten, you are always encouraging me to try harder, to be the very best I can be," he said with a chuckle. "Thank you so much!" He was about to turn around to leave when his teammate spoke up.
"How so?" Neji, who had been silent before, mumbled. The Hyuuga looked as quizzical as his stoic features would allow; perhaps it was because he had perceived that Lee had insinuated that he could beat Neji, which was, in his point of view, nigh impossible. "It sounded like demoralization to me."
Confusion clouded Lee's face. "Demoralization? Tenten, do you mean to say you really believe that I can't defeat Neji?"
Maybe it was the crestfallen look in Lee's eyes. Or maybe it was the dejected tone his voice had taken – demoralization, he thought to himself, wasn't the kind of word people of such youth were supposed to use, after all. Words like, say, truth, hope, and love, where twenty times more decent, especially when accompanied by several exclamation points and a lively yet sentimental tone.
Maybe those things were why Tenten drew back slightly from her once confident air. In the stead of her self-confident manner was a more sheepish, meeker Tenten, and for Lee, that didn't suit her at all. "I didn't mean… Lee, what I meant to say was…" she groped for the right words to say, her expressions taking slight, almost indiscernible twinges as her tone of voice changed. "What I mean is…"
Much to the chagrin of Konoha's self-proclaimed handsome green beast, Neji cut her off. "Come on, Tenten. We're just wasting time."
"… Right," she mumbled back, sounding somewhat glad that she was spared from having to answer such a question, "Right. See you later, Lee."
But Lee wouldn't let them off that easily.
"Neji! Fight me!" he called out, pointing a threatening finger at the Hyuuga.
And Neji, known to never dismiss a challenge, turned around and faced Lee.
"I'm sorry. It was all my fault."
Those were the first words Lee woke up to. As he came to consciousness, several things struck him all at once. Like, for example, the blank white wall beyond the white curtains that surrounded his white-sheeted bed; or, perhaps, the soft fragrance of flowers, bright yellow ones that greeted his eyes as he turned around slightly. He took notice, also, of the stiff and numb sensations coursing through several parts of his body.
… And, of course, he noticed that it was Tenten who sat by his bedside.
"Good morning, Tenten," he greeted cheerily, albeit a little sleepily.
Her brow knitted in concern. "Lee… I'm sorry that you got hurt. It was my fault. Because of what I said, you sort of felt like you had to prove yourself, and…" her voice trailed off slightly.
He raised a hand, the one that wasn't damaged by the Hyuuga's massacre, to silence her. He gave a light laugh. "Tenten, it's not a problem."
She sighed with relief. "Thank goodness. I thought you were mad at me," she replied with a laugh. Her tone of voice changed a little, and a smile spread out on her face. "Now that that's over and done with… up for a round of 'I told you so's?"
"I don't know," Lee answered, "Neji didn't really beat me, the way I see it."
Her laugh was cut short, and she turned to him confusedly. "And how do you see it, Lee?" she asked curiously.
"You did come to visit me, after all."
Author's Note: And so ends Discouragement. I hope you liked it, no matter how short or how pointless it was. Thanks for reading, can you spare a bit more time to review?