Sand, Forehead and Eyebrows…
Lee was hovering around Konoha like a 'nervous bad smell' as Kiba had put it as he wandered past. He thought he was going to die from a nervous break down.
"What's he doing?"
"Ow! Neji that was my foot!" Tenten wailed as Neji stood on her. Gai had begged him to use Byakugan to see what Lee was actually doing. "What do you see!" Gai cried, practically straggling Neji with the rate he was clinging on to him.
"Nothing, He's just stood there, chewing his nails," Neji muttered, trying to ignore his frantic sensei. "Chewing his nails! My poor little Lee! He'll never do his taijutsu properly with nasty nails!" Gai howled.
Neji looked up again, "His heart rate's increased. And ew…he's sweating like Naruto on results day," he muttered disdainfully.
A pink flash danced its way past them. "Duh!" Tenten sighed, who else? Haruno Sakura. Neji and Gai both looked back at her. "I…don't understand…" The Hyuuga 'genius' said distantly. "Aww Neji-kun, you're so dense," she giggled.
"Well let's put it in a language even you can comprehend. 1 Sakura + 1 Lee One totally ridiculous outburst of very fast talking, blushing and eventually another half day stood here chewing his nails…" Tenten explained, watching Gai turning a very peculiar colour.
Still nothing, they both looked at her. For Genii these two really were slow. "He's in love, stupid!" he sighed, whacking Gai on the head for being so dumb.
"My Little Lee's in love! It truly is his spring time of youth!" Their sensei cried and tried to leap out of the bush, until he was dragged back down by Tenten.
"Sakura-san!" Lee cried, leaping off the wall with the utmost awkwardness.
"Hi Lee! I just finished my chores, what are you doing hanging around here?" she smiled, a voice like an angel, according to Lee anyway.
He went a luminous pink colour. "Nothing! I haven't been waiting for you for three hours or anything!" he spluttered realising what he had just said and tuning another shade of red.
She just giggled, "Are you hungry Lee? I fancy something to eat, what about you?" She asked, tugging on her forehead protector.
"Me? Starving!" He cried, leaping to attention again. If truth be told Lee was stuffed to bursting point – he'd just been for Ramen with Naruto and he felt like he was going to die! "Great! There this nice place that sells noodles," she smiled.
The day dragged on as they headed to the noodles shop.
Still being stalked by Gai, and Neji…and Tenten. Both of whom were there to make sure Gai didn't do something stupid like Challenge Lee's Prospective girlfriend to a 500 lap race around Hokage mountain. Though it seemed Neji had been dragged along by Tenten. There was a certain feeling that maybe he was a little bit jealous of his team-mate, which made Tenten equally jealous though Gai couldn't tell because he was too busy making several noises of discomfort every time Sakura got even half a centimetre closer to his student.
"Yay! I'm starving!" Sakura cheered as they jumped onto the stools.
"You again? Weren't you here like an hour ago with your mum?" the cook asked her as he poked the boiling noodles. Sakura felt all the blood run cold. How embarrassing! "That wasn't…me…." She said weakly hoping Lee wouldn't say anything.
It seemed her amazingly foolproof chat up line wasn't so foolproof after all.
Lee perked up, what did that mean?
"It means she wants to go out with you dumbass!" Tenten hissed, now using Gai as a sofa with Neji to stop him running away.
Both of them looked silently into the noodles, both way to full to even consider eating them. "They look really nice," Lee said, hoping to make conversation and failing miserably.
Sakura sighed and looked soulfully into the noodle bowl. "What's wrong Sakura-san?" he asked, noticing her sudden emotional landslide. "I miss Sasuke…" she whispered.
"What! Oh Sakura honey that is the last thing you say on a date with a guy!!" Tenten hissed again, slamming her head into her hands. "You know a curious amount about this you know…" Neji muttered, still with his hand over his sensei's mouth.
Lee's heart did a back flip and slid down into his leg warmers. Sasuke Sasuke Sasuke! Great! And things were going so well!
"Why?" he blurted out, thinking-out-loud. She looked up at him.
"I mean, he left Konoha, to chase some freaky snake guy, he left you behind. Why'd you want to hang around with a guy like that? I mean he's going to completely betray the country that looked after him when his clan were wiped out just so he can chase one guy who's miles stronger than him. He completely walked out on you, and that is way out of order," He ranted and then shut up all of a sudden when she went deadly silent.
There went his chance of ever going out with Haruno Sakura. "Itachi killed his entire family…he should get revenge," She muttered.
"Don't buy into that! He's got friends here! Why does he need to going around fighting everyone and joining lunatics like Orochimaru!" he protested, leaping off his seat, "You saw the state of Naruto after he fought with him! He's his best friend! Anyone who tries to kill their best friend to get one Kekkai Genkai is not worthy to be a ninja!" he continued, getting more and more annoyed much to Sakura's surprise. She had never seen him get so wound up.
She looked up at him. "You're sweet," she said and leaned over. She kissed him gently on the cheek, "But you're wrong," she whispered, walking away.
"I'm no expert, but that looked somewhat like a brush off…" Neji said, leaning across to Tenten. "Lee!!!" she cried and leapt off Gai. She ran across the street and grabbed him into what was supposed to be a hug but turned into a rugby tackle. "You poor thing!" she screamed down his ear.
He looked up at her, "Tenten? What are doing here?" he stammered as he was attacked by Gai "Screaming you're too good for her!" at him. Lee was still trying to find out why his team had just appeared form nowhere and had decided to dog-pile him in the middle of the street. Neji appeared from behind the bush to relieve his team mate of Gai who was still sat on top of him. "There'll be others…" he sighed, heaving their sensei off Lee.
Lee nodded vaguely but looked a street, not like her there wouldn't. Everyone finally left him alone after a few hours so at last he was left to his thoughts. This was stupid – hung up over one girl? Ridiculous.
"Rumour has it you got the brush off!" a voice cried as an orange blur slid next to him. "Now you see my problem. Sasuke Sasuke Sasuke! Terrible isn't it, now you know how I feel" Naruto, who else. Lee looked over and smiled weakly. "I was wondering...well Konohamaru was wondering which got me wondering," Naruto said with a worrying amount of innocence. "Blaming things on little kids Naruto…" Lee teased. Naruto puffed himself up.
"It was his idea! I just gave him a little help with it! I'm not going to tell you now…only that it involves a certain Uchiha and a large amount of sand we borrowed for Gaara without him noticing," Naruto grinned, steeping behind him.
"Oh yeah! Aren't you going out with him? That's what I heard," Naruto giggled, leaning over Lee's shoulder.
"Are you out of your mind? He saved me once! That doesn't mean I'm obviously in love with him! Who've you been talking to?" Lee blasted, almost falling off the roof.
"It was just a rumour which I may have heard Kankuro spreading. So come on! Me, you Konohamaru duping one big load of muddy nasty sand over Sasuke. C'mon you know you want too – he'll blame Gaara because it's sand but he's way too scared of yelling at him!" Naruto cried leaping around practically gleeful at the thought of covering his best friend in sand.
"Fine…I'll help you carry it but you have to dump it," Lee sighed.
"Just the way I like it! Come on!!" Naruto yelled again and leapt off the wall without looking again. Lee sighed, this wasn't going to make him feel any better but he couldn't resist – Naruto had this uncanny habit of cheering him up.
It was getting darker now. They had trekked all the way into the forest outside of Konoha with an enormous barrel of sand. Konohamaru and Naruto were sniggering to themselves at the thought of Sasuke being covering in sand. "He'll never get it out of his pants," Konohamaru chuckled as the sat in tree.
"I know!" Naruto answered with his giant grin. "Here he comes!" he whispered. "Ok...1…2…3 GET 'IM!!" Naruto roared and toppled the barrel over.
Naruto roared with laughter as he ran across the trees.
"Got you got you! You got outsmarted by me and a kid!" he sang as Sasuke screamed at him from below. "Behold the almighty Uzumaki Naruto! The great and all powerful shinobi that made the Uchiha's pants get full of sand!" He cried bouncing around the trees with Konohamaru, tormenting the sandy boy. "Itchy bum itchy bum!" he howled dancing with Konohamaru and hanging upside down from the tree.
"So much for blaming it on Gaara…" Lee sighed, watching Naruto run away. Oh well…it had cheered him up even if he had "Itchy bum! Itchy bum!" running through his head.
He jumped from the trees and headed home until he saw a familiar red dress fluttering from behind a building. "Sakura-san...?" he asked carefully, poking his head around the corner. She looked over but didn't say anything. He felt he guilt trace its way through is body. "I'm sorry…" he began awkwardly, "I lost my temper...it doesn't happen often. I just don't think much of Sasuke at the moment. I thought…maybe we could try again, minus the shouting and Sasuke," he said solemnly, regret pretty much every word that came out of his mouth.
She looked downwards, still not speaking. Had he managed to do it again? Had he upset her again with 12 words? That had to be a record.
He came and sank next to her on the bench. "I'm an idiot right? I mean…I'm possibly the least shinobi-like shinobi in the entire world but you're not. You're clever and really pretty…I just don't think you should stay so hung up on one guy," he said, making an attempt at reasoning.
She glanced to him and turned back again. "Then why did you come back?" she asked, almost inaudibly. He smiled, "Because I'm an idiot," he answered simply.
There was silent again. A faint wind danced across the street as they stared at the lake from behind the willows.
"Look!" he started, getting bored of the silence but he was cut off as the girl dived at him. Her head thudded into his chest but she didn't move. "Your heart is noisy…" she whispered. "What do you expect? You're lying on top of me," he laughed, feeling her shake with laughter.
They lay in silence a little longer. "No kiss…" she muttered firmly.
"That's cool…would've made my night though," he replied with a small smile.
"I could kiss your forehead…hmm...maybe not," she giggled looking at the think mass of fringe. Lee giggled, this was getting silly. "Well…I'll kiss yours and have done," he laughed and kissed her on the forehead.
"You leave my forehead alone you!" she teased and gave him a small shove.
"You can kiss my eyebrows if you like…I've been told they're my sexiest feature!" he joked, leaning over again and pulling a silly face.
"Eww Hairy!" they both said together. They sat there and giggled like kids for a while. This was possibly the weirdest conversation either of them had ever had.
It had gotten incredibly dark and they stumbled home through the darkness trying to find their houses.
"See you tomorrow!" he called as he bounced off the down the street. Today had been good, even if he had a bruise from walking into a lamppost.