The following story is brought to you by Jill's strange and slightly demented mind. The ideas within are all her own, though the characters are owned by Masashi Kishimoto.
Sorry it took so long to upload this! I actually had it done on Friday last week (I know!), but stupid EeBee wouldn't read it so it took a little while to get it on here. It's a little longer than the previous chapters but I don't think that will kill anyone.
Need-to-know Basis
Lee blinked, unsure anymore if he was dreaming, delusional, or really seeing…the sight before him.
The bright light shone down upon the room and lit the man and the entire area before Lee.
Lee pinched his arm, but he felt the pain. He dismissed that. He never really knew what arm-pinching proved when a person wanted to find out if they were dreaming or not.
He looked back up. The terrible sight was still there.
"Gai-sensei?" he asked, hoping it was not true.
His teacher looked up, and went bright pink with embarrassment, shame, and sheepishness. He had not noticed Lee standing at the doorway, watching him.
There was no denying it. Gai-sensei was the man in this room and the sight before him was definitely real.
Lee blinked again but did not step forward into the room. He was too shocked.
"Lee!" his teacher said guiltily. "It's not how it looks!"
Lee looked around the room, then at his teacher. He was shocked. He couldn't believe his teacher, his beloved Gai-sensei, was doing this.
Gai stared at him beseechingly, asking with his eyes and facial expression for Lee to understand.
Lee stared back at his teacher, trying to understand why, oh why, it had come to this.
Around them, the music continued blaring, and the screen flashed with arrows. Numbers appeared on the screen, but Lee remained still.
It felt as though time slowed down for this moment, so that it would ingrain itself in Lee's memory forever, despite how much he really didn't want it there.
He looked away from his teacher, his expression confused, sad, and a little frightened all at once.
He took a breath, particular attention to how it felt in his windpipe and then circling through his lungs.
He released it and noted that his head felt funny because he kept the air in his lungs too long. He breathed more normally, though he had to forcibly do so.
Finally, Lee looked back at his teacher and spoke, keeping his eyes on his teacher's face the whole time.
"Gai-sensei, why are you playing Dance Dance Revolution?"
Gai fainted.
Somewhere else, with Ino, Kiba, Shino, Shizune, and Tonton, and the still unconscious Hinata, Chouji and Asuma
"Well, I would love to help you out with this, but I better go back to the Tower before Tsunade-sama goes berserk," Shizune said, glancing fearfully at the building as she mentioned it. "If Tsunade-sama catches me participating in this, she'll have my head. Especially since you guys got everything on video."
Ino, Kiba, and Shino nodded seriously.
"May I offer you some advice?" Shizune asked.
They nodded again.
"I would only tell people about this on a need-to-know basis. Tsunade might go on the rampage and from the looks of everyone around here, Lee's been hugging and mentally scarring people all day. They may want to hurt him."
Picking up Tonton, Shizune waved as she walked away. They watched her leave, each praying silently that she made it out alive again, then turned back to the matter at hand: Wake up the teammates.
Gai-sensei's home, with Lee and the just-now-waking-up Gai
"Gai-sensei, are you alright?" Lee asked his teacher, a worried look on his face.
Gai blinked slowly, the world appearing fuzzy at first, then gaining clarity as he came to. Lee hovered over him nervously and Gai would have jumped if not for the fact that it would make him bash his Most Youthful Student. Instead, he eeped like a frightened mouse.
"'Eeep'?" Lee repeated.
Gai nodded lamely, then said, "Lee, I can explain everything you saw earlier." He spoke quickly, "You see, Sakura-san came by and told me I had to exercise my foot so that my toe would get better and it would improve my chances of living and remaining youthful, despite the actions of that tree branch. So I thought playing DDR would be the best way to do this…" Gai was making up lame excuses.
"Oh, I see," Lee said, nodding wisely. "That makes perfect sense."
"It does?" Gai asked. "Oh, yes, of course it does. Springtime of Youth and all that!" he chuckled nervously.
"Yes, I can even see how playing DDR would improve your taijutsu. You have to have quick reflexes and must execute perfectly coordinated moves to achieve the perfect score," Lee said.
Gai sweatdropped.
"Though I do not understand why you were playing in your pajamas," Lee stated, remembering what he had walked in on: Gai-sensei, standing on the DDR platform, in his long-johns, dancing to Katie Perry's Hot n' Cold. It was traumatizing, and Lee was sure he would never be able to get the image out of his head. He wondered if he would ever be able to look at Gai-sensei the same again.
"I will have to play with you sometime, when I finish this mission," Lee continued aloud, hoping Gai-sensei would not catch on to his train of thought.
"Who have you hugged so far?" Gai asked, distracted from his nerves by this statement.
"Most of the town," Lee replied. He pulled out his list. "I got Shino, Hinata, and Kiba and Team Ten earlier; you last evening; Ichiraku this morning; almost all the civilians throughout the day; the Hokage, Shizune, Tonton, and Temari about twenty minutes ago; Iruka-sensei, the students in the academy just before I came here; some people in the road…" he trailed off, skimming through his list.
"Have you hugged my Eternal Rival yet?" Gai asked.
Lee shook his head. "Not yet, Gai-sensei. I must hug him and the other jounins, the genins, and the ANBU. I also have the Akatsuki, Orochimaru, Kabuto, and Sasuke left, and the people of Suna. I also have to hug Sakura-san," Lee said, his eyes shining with Youthful Love. "I only returned here and saw you in your long-johns playing DDR to a Katie Perry song because I needed to get some more pins." Lee looked at his teacher. "I will hug Kakashi-sensei next, for you, Gai-sensei!" he declared. "So that you may be youthful again and have your sense in music return!" Lee finished, assuming the song he had heard earlier was a mistake because Gai-sensei was dying and did not have all his sensibilities about him.
Gai-sensei's sweatdrop returned. "Um, yes, Lee, very good." Then he thought of something. "Why the people of Suna? What about the other villages?"
Lee's expression was solemn. "Gaara-sama has had an unhappy life. And I cannot neglect a whole city once I am there! As for the other villages, I do not think even I can make it there in a day. I will have to make that another Mission of Youth!"
Gai nodded slowly.
"Well, now I know you are better, Gai-sensei, I must be leaving to find Kakashi-sensei." Lee stood from the chair. "Youth does not wait, you know!"
Gai watched his student leave, sincerely hoping his student would use his knowledge of Gai's recent activities on a need-to-know basis—meaning no one else finds out!
Lee was out in the street now, and he called back through Gai's open window, "Have fun playing DDR, Gai-sensei! Be sure you do not damage your toe further!" His student waved cheerfully.
Gai cringed.
Still outside the Hokage Tower, with all those people
"Finally! You two woke up!" Ino said. "Now go home immediately because you guys keep fainting and its getting annoying." She paused. "And you're in severe medical conditions," she added authoritatively.
Asuma and Chouji looked at her fearfully, and she sighed, wondering if she maybe over did the medic-nin thing. "You'll live. Go away."
Asuma didn't need second telling and ran quickly away, presumably to find Kurenai.
Chouji ran off, too, because his chips had all exploded when he fainted and fell on them, and he was hungry.
"Good!" Ino said. "Now, let's wake Hinata up."
"I'll do that!" Kiba said, worried Ino would use the same method on his teammate that she had used on her own teammates. She narrowed her eyes at him but didn't stop him from gently shaking Hinata awake. Kiba was relieved; Hinata probably would not survive one of Ino's rough "shake-their-organs-out-their-orifices-until-they-regain-consciousness" techniques to waking people.
Hinata's eyes fluttered open, and she looked up at Kiba. "I-I fainted?" she asked. He nodded. "When?"
"Lee asked what we were doing."
Hinata nodded. "I remember that. What are we doing now?"
"Ino is going to help us out," Shino stated.
Ino grinned evilly. "Yeah, I need to get vengeance."
"Vengeance?" Hinata echoed. An image of Sasuke flashed through her head.
Ino nodded.
"What for?" Kiba asked curiously.
"Lee barged into the hospital yesterday and demanded Sakura and I stop what we were doing to examine Gai-sensei, who'd just had 'a terrible Accident of Youth!'," Ino said, mimicking Lee's voice.
"Is that connected to Lee's current actions?" Shino asked curiously.
Ino shrugged. "It might be. All I know is, I was busy trying to make an antidote one minute, and then being called 'unyouthful' the next." She glared at an imaginary Lee. "So Sakura and I went and examined him and all he had done was stubbed his damn toe!"
Kiba, Hinata, and Shino blinked. "Wow, Gai-sensei is lame," Kiba said, not even knowing about the DDR.
The others, including Hinata, nodded.
"So, what's next, partners?" she asked Kiba and Shino.
"First, you need to henge yourself," Kiba stated.
"Then, it is time we head to the village market again," Shino added.
They both looked in the direction of the market, and Ino and Hinata followed their gaze.
"Oh," Hinata said. "He's got to hug the jounins."