Hello, all. Here is update. Please enjoy.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto
Lee was finally finished.
Sakura watched him, swelling with pride. He had completed his rehab course in record speed, even going so far as to do some of the exercises multiple times more than necessary. When every task had been completed, Lee had looked up at Sakura with expectant eyes.
"Sakura-chan…? What am I to do now?"
"Uh… do some squats?" she improvised. Doing some light squatting had been included in the rehab process, so it couldn't hurt to do more.
Lee stated that his weights were in his room, and that he'd like to go pick them up before starting his squats.
Sakura acquiesced, knowing that he wouldn't be at his best unless he was pushing himself to his absolute limit.
The month-long rehabilitation course had been condensed by Tsunade, once she understood Lee's desperation to recover within a week. Lee, however, was nothing if not unpredictable, and he pushed himself hard enough to complete it in two days.
The two Genin walked up a flight of stairs to Lee's hospital room. Lee's legs really were getting better, and he could walk short distances without much pain.
Still, something was limiting him from recovery. Sakura had seen somewhat similar trends with patients who were in with depression or post-traumatic stress. They simply wouldn't recover if they had some type of mental blockade, caused by some sort of trauma.
Lee didn't show any of the other symptoms of having a mental block, and even if he had one, Sakura doubted that it would limit his healing to this extent.
Something else… Who knew? Tsunade had been in to look for shrapnel, anything embedded in the leg that might prevent his wounds from sealing. There was none.
Sealing… Could there be a sealing jutsu preventing Lee from healing!? While the body had its own system of recovery, a ninja's chakra increased healing speeds. Naruto was a prime example of that; his wounds would fade within hours, no matter how severe.
Lee had chakra, but he couldn't knead it, couldn't manipulate it to preform jutsu or apply any to his fists the way Sakura did.
Thankfully, it didn't take any amount of Chakra control to increase healing time; it worked on its own.
This led to Sakura's next hypothesis. If Lee was sealed, what exactly did the seal do? Did it halt the natural flow of chakra? Did it shut off the chakra pathways? Or… did it remove chakra entirely?
Sakura shuddered at the thought of Lee being limited by something other than his incapability to preform ninjutsu and genjutsu. If he had no chakra, then his taijutsu would slowly trickle down, and become worse.
The more the pink-haired girl considered it, the more likely it seemed. Why hadn't Tsunade, arguably the greatest mind where medical ninjutsu was concerned, thought of it?
Sakura blushed as she watched Lee pull the weights from under his hospital bed.
Maybe Tsunade just didn't feel for Lee the way she did…
Sakura was startled when a sharp knocking came from the door behind her. Lee was obviously startled too, because he banged his head on the bottom of the bedframe.
The pink-haired girl swivelled around and peered through the small glass pane in the door to see ocean-blue eyes.
Ino.
Sakura let the blonde in, almost begrudgingly. The two females exchanged both glances and greetings.
When Ino had declared that she would bring Lee along to the clan gala, Sakura had stayed silent, as had Hinata.
Before too long, the ladies had split for the night. Things were just a little too awkward; both Sakura and Hinata knew that they had been thinking of Lee more than they would admit to.
Ino had apparently been thinking of Lee as well; and she had the cojones to admit it.
Lee had pulled himself out from under her bed, weights forgotten for now. "Hello, Ino-san!" he smiled up at the girl from where he sat.
"Lee. How are your poor legs?"
Her voice was low, seductive, and predatory. Lee hadn't yet noticed, but Sakura most certainly did.
"They're getting better, thanks to all of Sakura-chan's efforts."
The pink-haired kunoichi felt the tips of her ears heat up. "That's not true, Lee. You really did help yourself."
Lee just smiled at Sakura, and then back at Ino, who had approached and was now bent slightly to examine Lee's legs.
His upper thighs were burn free, and that's all that Ino cared.
"Lee, I want to ask you something." She pushed his knees together, and straddled his lap.
Lee's gaze switched frantically from Ino's half-lidded eyes, to Sakura's bemused ones. "W-wh-what is it, Ino-cha—I mean Ino-san?"
Sakura decided she had had enough, watching Lee blush crimson. She wasn't going to let Ino win.
The pink-haired girl knew that she didn't have to be so brazen to get Lee's attention. She simply sat down next to him on the bed, leaned into him, and began to caress his back. Lee's already red face became a few shades darker.
The blonde raked ten carefully manicured fingernails down Lee's hospital gown, feeling the hard muscle underneath the fabric. She leaned in until her lips hovered inches from Lee's ear, and felt him shiver when he felt her breath.
It was at that moment that Tsunade burst through the door, interrupting Ino before she could ask Lee anything.
"I've found the problem!" the Hokage exclaimed, excited at overcoming such a tough case. In her joy, she hadn't quite registered the goings-on in the room, but soon realised that her patient was being molested.
Tsunade smirked as the teens pulled away from each other. "Maybe Lee doesn't want to be fixed. It seems he's getting more attention this way."
"N-no! I want to b-b-be healed!" Lee declared, still flustered and speaking like Hinata might. The two bombshells clinging to him were equally embarrassed to be caught like this… and with Lee!
Ino recovered first, always one to keep face. She swiveled on Lee's lap, coming to face the Hokage.
"What've you discovered, Hokage-sama? We had better get Lee back on his feet quickly, or he won't be able to take me to the Clan Gala." Ino was being bolder than usual; asking Lee out through such a powerful proxy.
Lee began to blabber incomprehensibly, mostly about youth, overcome with emotions. "…youthful Ino-san wants me to youthful youthful youthfully take her to the youthful dance youthful…"
Sakura asked her master the same question. "What's wrong with Lee?"
"He's not used to being surrounded by three pretty girls."
Tsunade wouldn't miss any opportunity to tease her student, and compliment herself at the same time.
Her face grew serious after a brief laugh. "Lee-san is most likely being affected by some sort of seal. It took me long enough to realise it, but he is healing normally. Normally… for a villager. Ninja are the abnormal ones.
Sakura glowed with pride. She had come to the same conclusion. The teacher and student left the room to discuss their options in private, away from sensitive ears.
Sakura whispered some sort of death threat in Ino's ears, and she left as well… though not before blowing a kiss to Lee.
A moment later, Tsunade poked her head into the room: "Lee, try to find a strange mark on your skin somewhere."
The taijutsu specialist nodded.
"When did you come back, Tenten?" Lee was bewildered. He had been doing the prescribed squats, and had turned to gather heavier weights to put on his bar, when he spotted her in the doorway.
She wasn't wearing her standard uniform. It had been replaced by… some sort of… belly-dancing outfit? It looked like it belonged closer to Sunakagure than Konoha.
"I came back for youuuu, Lee-chan." Tenten said, dragging out the 'you' much longer than necessary.
"Tenten? Tenten!?" Lee wavered as the girl began approaching with hunger in her eyes. He just barely escaped a pair of fuzzy handcuffs, and took off as fast as he could…
His legs were healed!?
Nothing to complain about, Lee shrugged.
Despite Lee's near-inhuman speeds, he wasn't fast enough to outrun Sakura and Ino, who were chasing him down… dressed in the same skimpy belly-dancer threads as his teammate.
Lee dove into a bush, and waited until the girls had passed before taking off in the opposite direction. The coast was clear… but then Lee spotted Tenten from the corner of his eye, and took off in a dead sprint.
Hinata was standing in the middle of the street, dressed in an apron. Lee sighed in relief—no belly dancing outfit.
"Lee-san! I was hoping to see a familiar face!"
No stutter. That was alarming.
"I just baked a cake, and I was hoping…" Hinata leaned forward with outstretched hands "…that you'd lick the icing off my fingers."
The dark-haired girl tore her apron off to reveal… a belly-dancing outfit.
Lee groaned. This was too much.
He groaned again and again as a familiar voice wafted through the air, not quite articulated properly.
"Lee. Wake up, Lee. Lee!"
The boy shot up to see Tsunade and Sakura standing over him, dressed in their regular uniforms. They quickly informed him that he had been knocked out; a weight had hit him when he tried to retrieve it from the top shelf.
Oh. It was all a dream.
Lee laughed at his own foolishness, but then remembered something. "Oh! Sakura-chan! Hokage-sama! I found that marking that you were talking about!"
Both medi-nin eyed him, and Tsunade asked him to continue.
"It's on top of my head! I couldn't see it through all my hair." Lee smiled; it was a strategic place to set a seal.
His smile faded when he saw the look of horror that the two ladies shared.
"D-did you say… atop your head?" Tsunade asked, and Lee nodded.
"Lee…" Sakura had to break it to the boy gently. "The standard procedure for removing seals…" "The only thing we can do…" after a series of false starts, the pink-haired girl decided to be blunt.
"Lee, you're going to have to… shave your head."
Too much comedy in this chapter, amirite? Oh well.
Review please!
[Raistlin99- I agree with you. Lee wouldn't know what to do with a harem, and I say that with love. Hypothetically speaking, though, what makes Ino the ultimate reward for a guy like Lee?
Just playing devil's advocate! You know I luv ya.]
Keep voting, everybody! :)
AAAAALSO! Who's read Naruto 631!? It's fuckign aweseom. I won't spoil it, but I honestly think it's the best chapter of the year.