Five minutes later from the 10-nen chest being opened…
Gaara took stock of his surroundings and decided that he was in the rain country once more. The grass beneath him was soggy and he could hear Neji's constant muttering and Naruto's sobbing babbling.
He supposed that, when he had gone ten years into the future, the Gaara he would be ten years from where he now was had taken his place in the present. The question was what had the later Gaara done to upset his allies so much?
He opened his eyes as he sat up, looking from a faint Tenten to a blankly staring, mouth gaping Sakura to Neji turned away from the group and rubbing his temples to Naruto scratching at his eyes and muttering about something not being possible to Lee.
Lee had fallen to his knees and his face was as red as Gaara's hair. He had one hand on the back of his head and his other fingered his swollen lips with awe and reverence. His eyes were dazed and he didn't look up at Gaara, caught in his own world.
Gaara stood to his feet and crossed his arms over his chest. "We have a mission to complete. Pull yourselves together." Everyone's attention snapped to him except for Tenten.
Lee looked up at him from his fallen position and seemed to snap out of his reverie, leaping to his feet and bowing deeply, hiding his face beneath a curtain of black hair. "Yosh, Gaara-sama!" His voice cracked over his name. He coughed before grabbing the 10-nen chest and running off into the woods onto their designated path.
Neji swung Tenten onto his back on the run, not looking at Gaara as he sprinted to catch up to Lee. Sakura was only inches behind them, flushed nearly as dark as Lee.
Gaara grabbed Naruto by his shoulder before the blonde could retreat as well. "Naruto." He made it a demand for the blonde to look at him.
Naruto gulped and shook slightly under his grasp before turning towards him. "No hard feelings, right?" He laughed nervously. "Of course you're not, you said thanks-"
He wrapped Naruto up in a three feet thick web of sand. "If you ever do something so stupid again, I will kill you without hesitation."
Naruto wheezed before nodding. "S-sure!" Gaara released him to drop to the ground, clutching at his body and coughing.
Gaara walked on, ignoring him. His mind was elsewhere, thinking over what he had seen and deciding whether it was something he wanted or something that would be profitable for his country.
He thought of Lee's fierce loyalty and his kiss. He thought of his odd shyness and his body resting on Gaara's.
He looked ahead of him and watched Lee now, calculating the chuunin and his ways and his fancies.
Lee- 10 years from now- loved him enough to kill for him. Lee would kill for his country, but for Gaara alone, he would murder. That was something so fierce, it was rare.
He nodded once to himself as he came to a conclusion. He wanted that loyalty. After witnessing it, he would not go without it.
Lee was now his new goal in life.