One of Many

Authoress: Skitter160

Disclaimer: I don't need to tell you it's not mine. Because if it were I would be making you pay not handing it out for free.

A/N: Updated with minor changes 2/1/13

It was a normal day like any other in the village of Konohagure for most of the occupants but Lee was having an off day. Not only had Neji asked him to lunch after team training again, which he respectfully declined because he had extra training with Guy Sensei once again. But Naruto had come by and it wasn't near any meal times. Smiling nervously he let him in wondering if the blonde had forgotten something important. He rarely ever came over after dinner time. "Is there something you need?" Lee smiled a little brighter happy he had just finished the over due cleaning of his apartment. Ninja never got much time to clean.

"Actually I have a favor to ask." Naruto smiled brightly taking a seat on the couch facing the door waiting for Lee to sit at his desk like he always did when he was over.

"Oh?" Lee raised an eyebrow as he took his customary seat his intrigue written across his face. "What kind of favor?"

"Well as you know me and Hinata's six month anniversary is in two days and we'll be going out with Kiba and Shino." He smiled knowing that everyone in their circle of friends knew of the deal they had made.

"That's right." Lee smiled he still remembered the way Kiba and Shino had looked when Hinata had accepted their offer and Naruto had turned them down. They had offered to take the happy couple out every six months they were together. Of course Hinata would have turned them down too if it weren't for the fact she knew they were testing the blonde. "So what does that have to do with this favor?" Lee gave him a semi puzzled look.

"Well it just turns out that I was assigned to meet Gaara at the gates ten minutes before I'm supposed to pick up Hinata." Naruto paused a moment seeing Lee's even more confused face he went on. "Oh that's right no one was told he's coming yet." Naruto chuckled happy that he knew something about Gaara before Lee. "Well Gaara will be arriving in Konoha for a meeting in two days. Tsunade assigned me to greet him and escort him to his lodging even when I told her that I had plans. She said I'd have to find a suitable replacement for her to allow me to skip out." Naruto was eying Lee curiously as he noticed his smile hesitate"Is something wrong Lee? Do you have plans too?"

"Oh no I don't have plans." Lee gave a him a smaller version of his nice guy pose without standing. He had somewhat mellowed out over the last year. He had even stopped wearing spandex after being convinced by Gai-Sensei that he needed to find his own fashion sense as well. Of course this took much more convincing than Gai had originally thought but he had prevailed in hopes of protecting his growing student's virtue. Lee had then taken to wearing green t-shirts with black netted sleeves that came to his elbow and met with his bandages. He completed his new style with jeans or black slacks. Of course his orange leg warmers were still firmly in place as well as small wrist weights, admittedly they were no where near as heavy. No just enough weight to make Lee remember they were there, though to a normal ninja they were much heavier than Lee made them look. His new look suited his new hairstyle that resembled the hairstyle of his youth only wilder and accompanied by a much longer braid. "I was just surprised to hear that Gaara was returning so soon after I received this letter." He handed it to Naruto who read it quietly to himself.

I'll be there soon

Gaara

Was all that was written on the parchment. Naruto couldn't help being just a little disappointed that Lee once again knew something about Gaara before him. "What did you say to him?" He wondered aloud as he reread it then added another question realizing he had done so. "And when did you get it?"

"I just got it yesterday." Lee thought a moment about what he had written previously while asking Naruto a question as well. "Why does when matter?"

"Well Tsunade just got the letter for the meeting yesterday too. So he must have sent them at the same time." Naruto reasoned trying to hide the fact he was jealous that Gaara had written him sooner than he had replied to the blonde's own letter. Everyone knew that Lee was special to Gaara. After all Lee was the first one to wound him (even minorly), the first one he wanted to kill not just for the sake of killing, the first one he protected, and the first one to forgive him for everything after knowing all of that. But it still made Naruto, Gaara's best friend, jealous that Lee could write Gaara and get a reply more often than him. Once he had asked how often Lee wrote him and how often he replied, since Naruto wrote him too. He was astounded to find that Lee wrote him once a week and received a reply every week. Naruto was disheartened because he also wrote once a week but he only got one reply every month. "So what did you say to him Bushy Brows?"

Lee raised an eyebrow at Naruto knowing he was upset about something because he only called him that when he was upset anymore. "Just the usual really." Lee shrugged he knew that deep down it bothered Naruto that Gaara wrote to him more, not that he could explain why Gaara wrote to him more. Actually when Naruto found out that they were holding a correspondence he seemed a little jealous because he wasn't having as much luck which had also surprised Lee because they were best friends.

"What's the usual?" Naruto persisted not allowing his jealousy out. He was genuinely curious because even though it was usual for Gaara to write very little in reply it was uncommon for him write that little. And his visits these days were very rare in this time of peace, meaning something Lee had written was enough to warrant a personal visit.

"I told him how I'm doing, that I've completed a few missions without giving details about them. How my team is doing and the extra training with Gai-Sensei. How Neji seems to be getting nicer, enough so that he had even asked me to lunch a few times. Though I had to decline because of extra training. Just the normal stuff." Lee shrugged none of it really seemed that out of place to him. He had been telling Gaara all of that for weeks now, though the Neji being nice bit had just started about two weeks ago and it was only the second time he had asked him to lunch. The first being only mentioned in passing in a previous letter. "I can't say much was anything new except maybe about Neji."

'Neji's actually taking our advice?' Naruto thought in disbelief. It had been about a month ago that Hinata had found out about her cousin's crush on his teammate and they had both advised him to be nicer to him and ask him out. And if Lee turned him down because of training it wasn't really a rejection, it was more like Lee not getting the point so to pick it up a bit. Apparently he didn't get that part but had followed the rest. Naruto smirked to himself. 'But then why would Gaara come here after hearing that? Well maybe it was just good timing for the letters to arrive together and Neji's growing a pair to be so close.' Naruto just couldn't wrap his head around the idea of Gaara caring about anyone enough to possibly be jealous, even if it was Lee. "I don't really know if it's related." Naruto smiled with a shrug. "But you greeting him will save us all some trouble. Him the trouble of hunting you down, you the trouble of being hunted down, and I won't have to reschedule or change our reservations." He smiled widely hoping Lee would agree.

"Your right!" Lee smiled widely accepting his friend's logic. And thus they went over the details and Naruto returned to Tsunade to tell her he had found a replacement.