By the park, he sat. Hiding behind a slide, he placed the two torn part pieces of his masterpiece on the Bermuda grassed ground. The sun is not yet setting but it already made the air turn into a mesmerizing shade of red, yellow and orange.
He had already stopped crying. He concluded he was already big enough for crying, for adults makes haste to do actions to solve a problem, not waste time crying over them. He placed the two pieces closely apart and sighed over its ravaged beauty.
"Don't sigh. It doesn't mean you can't do anything to it now or something."
"Naruto, please leave me alone."
"Naruto? It's better for you to look to whoever talking to you, that way you won't end calling them wrong names."
A roll of adhesive tape bumped in to Lee's head.
"Ouch." He scratched his head and reached for the adhesive tape that rolled somewhere behind his toe.
"There, it wont repair your piece magically, but at least the adhesive could bring it back together… and hey, that guy patting you in that drawing? But oh, is that you by the way? if it was not just because of that green suit I wont recognize it is you. But that guy beside you, who is that? He looks so handsome."
Lee looked back only to see his favorite sensei smiling at him.
"May I have a closer look, lookie here, I had never mistaken, this guy over here is truly perfect. He must have been really protective and kind to you." Lee felt his sensei's hands pat his head and gave it a shake. It was like exactly it was in his drawing.
"I could sense this man really cares for you and wishes you not to be sad, to be always strong and brave."
Tears are again about to stream down Lee's eyes, but he just swallowed to keep it from pouring. He was already touched only by Gai's presence alone.
It's like the weather is in one with Lee's feelings as it started to rain.
"My, oh, my, Lee, stand up now the rain looks likely to get worse. It is weird, the sun was setting nicely a while ago."
"Sir Gai! My painting!"
Lee looked more and more frustrated as the raindrops drain the colors of his sketch. It became wet, and he cannot take hold of it anymore. It is just so soft this time, any touch form it would just make it torn it to soft small pieces.
"Come on Lee, let's find some shelter." Sir Gai looked at his drawing, he knew it was hopeless. Needless to say, the drawing now is totally ruined. He picked up his adhesive tape, oh man, bringing this is useless now anyway. Poor boy. He has to think of something to cheer up Lee. Being the fast thinker he was, he thought of something to say.
"You know what Lee, I know of a place where colors are made of. It's the most magical place I had ever known, that place has the most vibrant and astonishing colors in this world. I'll tell you more about the place, and maybe sometime you can visit there and use all those colors there for your next masterpiece."
Lee was holding his drawing in his hands now, it is soft and it was close to nothing. Lee wanted to cry but he made a pact to himself that he mustn't. So he just diverted his sadness on his sensei's words. A world of colors? That is more than amazing. More than what he could imagine. The rain continued slipping here and there to his skin. It is now raining hard.
A puff of smoke appeared from Gai's hands as an umbrella appeared on their sight. Gai thought for a while, opened the umbrella and spoke.
"And this. This is the tool for getting the colors at that place. You see, there, it also rains. But not this usual colorless rain, usually their drops are magical, shimmering of sparkling different colors. You need this umbrella, the magic color protector and absorber in one to get colors our eyes have never seen."
Lee's eyes suddenly turned wider. He wanted to visit that place. It was more than his imagination can take.
"Now, come here, get out of the rain kid." He signaled his student to come with him under the umbrella. Lee looked atop to see the umbrella's magnificence. It was red. Nothing else, but due to his sensei's words of knowledge, that umbrella gain an air of mystery! Lee had decided. He would go that place and bring that umbrella with him!!! He'll get the most colors he could get!
They walked slowly towards a waiting shed. They had left his original painting on the ground. Lee loosed his interest over it. He had now the interest over that place his sensei is talking about. Gai surely knows how to cheer his student up, letting Lee forget his painting just like that.
"Gai-sensei, about this place, where it is?" It was because Lee thought of going to that place this time, and make another art much more beautiful than his now damaged and abandoned first.
The sensei though for a while, "Hmmm, let me think of it I had already forgotten, let me gather it somewhere in the corner of my mind, oh there, there it is, I remember!" They had successfully reached the waiting shed. Gai-sensei closed the umbrella and sat on the bench under the shed.
"Listen to me kid, I would tell you this. Just this once. So listen carefully. Only few people know it, so you should pay extreme attention. This is allowed to be explained only once."
Lee nodded fervently. He didn't help himself to sit beside his sensei. He was too excited to sit. Instead he stood in front of his sensei readying himself to digest everything Gai would say. I would go to that place and get all the magnificent colors and make sensei the most beautiful portrait ever. I could not think of anything to thank him other than this. Then I'll make a portrait of us all! He was sure of his words.
The rain suddenly stopped. The weather sure is weird that day.
"ok, here we go. See that thing over there?" Gai used his umbrella to point an amazing scene- a rainbow. Lee looked at the rainbow's direction.
"HAI! I could see it! Sensei, that is the rainbow right!" Lee's innocence mad him cute and yet fragile.
"Find it's end and you'll get to that place. But make sure to make it there before the rainbow fades. It's really a magical place so only very very few people had gone there. Few lucky, persistent people."
"Huwaaaaaaw!" Lee looked at the rainbow and was really astonished by the fact that a place like that existed. I must keep this first a secret to sir Gai, I would find that place and do my masterpiece with that place's colors. His eyes glistened.
"But what is this umbrella for sensei?"
"Oh.." Gai thought longer this time. "It is for, uhm, like what I had said. It is for you to catch the colors. Colors there came in forms of raindrops. Be sure to catch them by this umbrella. Once it touches the umbrella's roof, it absorbs the color every side. Let me count, one, two, three…… 15! 15 sides. Means you could get as much as 15 colors. But just make it sure you'll avoid getting wet by those rain drops, or else you'll turn into that color."
Lee still looked astonished in spite the warning.
But it was also turning dark, so the rainbow slowly fades.
"Oh, too bad, the rainbows gone. There's always next time anyway, right Lee?" Gai smiled. Trully Lee is still an innocent kid.
But Lee wasn't listening. He knows he can't make it to that place this time, but yes. There is surely a next time. Behind his innocent little head he plans for the next rainbow appearance, go there and search for that magical place.
"Now Lee, the rain's gone. I'll accompany you home. So? Let's go?"
Lee snapped out from his planning, and nodded.
"Just practice some more of your drawing at your house today. By the way, it was naruto who told me about what had happened."
Lee didn't care anymore about being mad at Naruto's deed, for now, he intend to invite him for his plan.
"Aye sensei? Speaking of Naruto, before going home, would you please accompany me to Naruto's place? This would be just short, ill just tell him sorry for being to rude, and to tell him I had forgiven him." It was a small lie.
"ok. No problemo kid." Gai did the Goodman OK POSE, and as soon as they walk towards Naruto's house, both of them enjoyed every minute of that moment. Lee like a son to him. And Him like a true father to him.