Disclaimer: All characters and places are origionally by Kishimoto. I'm not such a genious! This chapter makes me HAPPEH! (it's the youth, you see)

Warning! This story contains a shitload of yaoi and horrible-ness. Adult themes, yay. GaaLee, NaruSasu, KakaIru. -winkeh-

Note: History-making first Author Note ever. I'm reading another story which has one at the start of every chapter and I figured, hey, why not? You all get to see how my mind works then! I just liked it, and it made me much more attached to their story, too.

Hn.

Anyway, I don't know what it is, but it seems like my style changes slightly every time I do a different character…with Lee, he's such a scatter-brain I seem to go off on weird tangents, to be brought suddenly back to the story by Gai-sensei. It's kind of like first person, written in third person style…if that makes sense? I've been doing it for all of the chapters so far, and thought I'd explain it. –shrug-

I don't know why, but I love Lee's chapters…the way he thinks just makes me happy inside, and I'm having so much fun with this one. Gaara's chapters always seem to come out pointing out what's annoying and describing certain, pointless aspects of the day, like what's for breakfast, whereas, for example, Iruka's chapter was describing routines and worries and things like that. Each character describes different things about the scene…I think, later on, I might do a scene from four or five different characters and see how different it is each time. Hurr.

Rant over.

STORY TIME NOW.

Chapter Seven

"It's all in the Eyebrows"

"Three hundred and one!" Lee exclaimed at the hight of a sit-up. "Three hundred and two! Three hundred and three!" Sweat poured down his childishly round face, and his expression never faltered from pure determination. "Three hundred and-"

"That's enough for today, Lee," Gai-sensei's voice was unexpected, and caused Lee to jump a little in shock. One the tall boy recovered, he registered what his sensei had said and laughed gratefully, jumping to his feet with a triumphant shout.

The joy was soon replaced by a little confusion, as it clicked over in his brain that Gai-sensei, Gai-sensei had called off the end of his daily five-hundred. Yesterday it was five hundred push-ups, and his arms ached a little. He hadn't done push-ups or punches or much like that for a while, so the sudden strain was understandable. Therefore, an exercise which requires no arms at all was far more fitting. Lee's brain often wandered like this, and it took his sensei giving him a thumbs-up to bring him back to what was happening in front of him, rather than yesterday, and training, and school, and…

"Lee-san! It is school holidays tomorrow, are you excited?" Gai grinned, reinforcing his thumbs up by straightening his arm out a little.

Lee pouted a little. Not really, not really, he thought to himself. School was good. People you knew and liked hung around you all day, and everyone was together all the time. He thought it reminded him a little of a family, all living in one big house together. It frightened Lee a little, sometimes, the idea of leaving this behind in just two years. "I am not, Gai-sensei," Lee mumbled respectfully, bowing his head a little. Sadness washed over him, feeling like he'd been laying on a beach of exercise induced bliss to have a wave of thoughts and emotions crash down upon him. It wasn't a nice feeling.

"Oh, Lee, how come!" Gai exclaimed, not so much as a question, really. "Holidays are a good time to train harder, and not have to think about studies for a whole six weeks! Then Christmas, Lee-san! You love Christmas."

Lee hung his head further, hearing that tone come into Gai-sensei's voice. It was a tone that suggested Lee was being foolish, and it also contained that other tone that said Gai-sensei knew what he was talking about. And he did. Lee adored Christmas, and he enjoyed training, too. Why did the holidays suddenly look so grim? "I…think…sir, what I am really worrying about is…it is…it is getting closer to the end of school. This is nearly my last year, and…I will miss…" Lee trailed off, unsure of how to explain all the things he would miss. The family, the togetherness! The having breakfast with your friends in the morning! The dorms, the teachers, the classes, the halls, the familiarity of a place he'd been for so long…it was such an empty feeling, thinking of leaving that behind. He would miss Gai-sensei, too! Of course he would. They could train together sometimes, but…it would be different, entirely, from being in school together. Having his beloved teacher with him all the time.

Then Lee thought of Gaara. How long had it been, now, since he'd wanted to befriend him? They were finally friends, and it would all be coming to an end. He would probably go back to live in Suna, with his brother and sister. Of course, he'd miss Naruto. The two were two of a kind, and the kind of friends you get once in a lifetime, but Gaara…

"Lee-san, thinking so far into the future is wasting the beautiful present! Look what a beautiful day it is today, hm? Can we know it is going to be this beautiful tomorrow? If we did, could we change that?"

Of course he was right. Puffing his chest out and turning his face to the sky, Lee saw that it was a beautiful day. The sky was a frosty grey and white color that reminded Lee of fields of those tiny, delicate white flowers. In fact, on the ground, there were flowers. They were lavender-purple, though, and half-immersed in frost. The ground had a little snow on it today, and so did the trees, but it wasn't nearly as cold as it had been a few days ago, when it had been snowing. The snow stopped last night. The air turned to fog when Lee breathed out through his mouth and hot clashed with cold. He grinned a little and breathed out harder, watching his breath materialise in front of him. "We could not," He decided, turning to the tall, handsome man beside him. They flashed matching grins and knew that the horrible feeling was gone. Gai-sensei could do that, sometimes. Make a bad mood go away.

"Gai-sensei, I want to tell you about someone." Lee said softly, watching a tiny brown bird flit about her nest, chirping happily.

"Someone important?" Gai asked, not looking at Lee. His eyes, too, were watching the bird, glee dancing in his eyes. He stood strong, with his hands on his hips, chin up and face set with a determined grin.

"Yes, sir," Lee wasn't sure how to put it. He wanted to talk about Gaara for some reason, now. A million thoughts and feelings, musings and wonderings, all wanting to spill out at once. "…Gaara. He seems so lonely, sensei, and everyone thinks I should not help," Lee's eyes switched from the bird to the sky, watching the grey-white clouds lazily float across the bright, grey-white sky, mingling and passing over and through all at once. "He did something horrible, but I do not think that I mind. He went wrong, but when he was better it did not matter what happened before. Is that weird, sensei?" Lee's focus shifted again, to Gai-sensei. The man had his head tilted slightly upwards, and was smiling mysteriously at the sky.

"Is that all you feel?" Gai-sensei asked wisely, not turning to look at Lee.

Lee fidgeted a little, looking nervous, now. "No, sensei," He whispered. "Yesterday…when…when that thing happened…when he went wrong," Lee paused, to think about how best to word it. It had been such an overwhelming feeling. "I felt like I was…I felt like he belonged to me in a way, but not really. I do not want to own someone. But, it felt like I have known some side of him that is mine now, and he knows it too, but he never said that. Sensei, I am not making any sense, am I?"

Gai had his eyes closed now, and seemed to be enjoying the cold breeze that rushed across his face and through his shimmering, raven-black hair. "You are making sense, Lee-san. More sense than you know,"

Lee looked over to his sensei, biting his own bottom lip. His mouth stretched and quivered as he felt the tears welling up. It was those overwhelmingly happy tears that his sensei could always make Lee cry, when he needed to. "S-sensei…" Lee whimpered, eyes shimmering with admiration and gratefulness.

Gai-sensei grinned and clapped a hand on Lee's shoulder, chortling in that overly-manly way of his.

Nothing more had to be said, so nothing more was.


(My god I love those two. NO GAILEE FOR YOU, THOUGH. I just can't bring myself to do it. Sure, it could be a good couple (...err) but I don't think I have the capacity to make it work. They're just youthful and awesome. AWESOME. Next chapter should be relatively soon, and it's the last day of the term! That means Christmas Holidays! YAY! (no, I don't live in some freaky place where it's December right now...I'm talking about the AU! Roar.)

Reveiwers- part two of the double-chapter make-up. I LUB YOU ALL.

Shino collects reveiws and glues them into a tiny little notebook with a picture of a butterfly on it. Don't you wanna give Shino more pages to fill? Hurr.)