Many thanks to Amatyultare for the beta-ing!
Naruto and all characters therein are copyright Masashi Kishimoto.
Saturday, October 28
Lee had learned he could exercise for more time and finish more repetitions if he simply forgot what he was doing. The technique helped him when he was younger—having been smaller and weaker than many of his peers, it was hard for him to keep up. Even once he trained his body to be a weapon and accept his honing without complaint, Lee didn't change the way he worked out.
That was why, as his push-up count approached two hundred, Lee barely felt the burning in his shoulders. Although his mouth was murmuring numbers sequentially, his mind was far, far away from the sweat-splattered mat he was staring at in the school gym.
Lee had never made any secret of the fact that he liked Tenten. He simply wasn't a secretive person, and that was that. Most people seemed to get embarrassed if the rest of the world discovered their desires, but those people also seemed less likely to achieve those desires. Lee just didn't see the point. None of his goals were nefarious or involved harm to anyone, so why hide what was in his heart?
The only concession he'd made to propriety at Konoha had been forced by the circumstances, and involved the conflict of two threads of his personality. On one hand, Lee was open about his feelings and didn't bother dancing around the subject. On the other hand . . . he was a loyal friend, and wouldn't ever dream of hurting someone he cared about. When the two tendencies had collided, the natural inclination to protect his friends won out, and Lee swore to let Neji have Tenten. He didn't regret picking a budding friendship over a pretty girl, but he did wish the choice had been more voluntary.
After Itachi and his friends were elected as Martial Arts Club officers in the spring semester, they'd issued an ultimatum to the club and its advisors: change the way things were done, or else the officers and most of the membership would walk. Specifically, Itachi wanted real fighting and training in more dangerous techniques. Kakashi-sensei had said nothing in response, although it was obvious to anyone who knew him that he would leave before advising such a bloodthirsty group. The younger members had been paralyzed with indecision—there had been no guidance from their advisors, and even though none of them had felt comfortable with the idea, pressure from the upperclassmen would have made them agree out of fear.
Looking back, forming a united front early on against Itachi's faction might have changed the way things worked out, but such a thing had seemed impossible at the time. Lee and Neji had said barely two words to each other since returning from winter break, and were not inclined to work together on anything without turning it into a brawl.
In the end, it was Gai-sensei's impassioned speech on the dangers of fighting for the sake of power and destruction that roused Lee from his intimidated silence and made him step forward to call Itachi out. Lee still believed in the principles of martial arts he'd articulated then: fighting for justice, fighting to protect the weak, fighting to preserve or recover honor. In fact, it was precisely because the defense of those principles earned him two torn shoulder ligaments courtesy of a smug Itachi that he believed so strongly in them today.
The revived club Lee and Neji created was based on those principles. Lee always found it secretly amusing that his own purity of spirit and Neji's refined dignity both led them to honorable combat. Although it hadn't been expressly discussed as Lee and Neji had meeting after meeting with Kakashi and Gai to plan for the club, it was obvious that the only way to make sure the two boys continued to focus on their similarities was for them to stop fighting over the strongest similarity of all: Tenten.
Honor was a funny thing, Lee mused as he neared two hundred-fifty push-ups. Honor demanded that he continue his fight to preserve the integrity of Martial Arts Club. Honor demanded that Lee set a good example for his residents and be the best RA they could ever have. Honor most certainly demanded Lee not chase his best friend's woman, especially when that failure would violate his other two duties.
And, yet, what was he doing?
Lee sighed as he hit two-fifty and mechanically rolled over to start his sit-ups. It caused him all sorts of shame to still like Tenten, but he couldn't figure out how to make it go away. He'd tried not seeing her for a week, he'd tried spending extra time around her and Neji, he'd tried developing crushes on other girls—nothing worked. He felt his friendship with Neji was dishonest because of it, although Neji knew damn well how Lee felt.
What was he supposed to do, though? The only girl Lee found half as pretty as Tenten was Sakura, and not only was she his resident, she had just started dating Sasuke! Lee thought it was adorable that two of his residents were dating, and he wouldn't have wanted to break that up any more than he wanted Tenten and Neji to break up. Still, it would be nice if he could like a single girl for once.
He caught a glimpse of Temari across the room, bench-pressing the same weight that Lee had benched about fifteen minutes ago, and grimaced to himself. Temari was a nice girl, really, but Lee had no problem admitting she'd walk right over him. He certainly wasn't confrontational enough to date her, that's for sure.
But just maybe the smirking freshman spotting her was. Lee found the idea of his resident dating one of his closest friends a little disturbing. Although his residents were off-limits to him, other sophomores could consider them free game. Lee hardly thought Temari was trolling for freshmen, but he felt a little overprotective of his freshmen nonetheless.
"Lee. Ready to spar?" Although Lee hadn't been aware of Neji's approach, he didn't jump at his friend's crisp words. He was a hard boy to surprise.
"One sec. Two hundred more." Neji shook his head and walked over to Temari and Shikamaru as they took the weights off the bar Temari had finished with.
Lee had spent most of his life content with not having a girlfriend. He'd worked so long and hard to prove himself that girls hadn't been high on his list of priorities. The girls at school and his dojo had seemed to see him as a cute little brother, which was fine with Lee. He could concentrate on his training with no distractions. Then came Tenten, and all of a sudden everything changed. For the first time in his life, Lee was jealous. Before, if he'd wanted to be as good as someone else at fighting, he would just train until, well, he was. You couldn't train for dating, though.
It would be easy sit around and be depressed about being alone, but there was no point in that. When his time came, he'd end up with whomever fell in love with him, and that would be that. Worrying was only a distraction.
"Alright, time to spar!" he called out enthusiastically, rolling his legs into the air and flipping up onto his feet. Big smile. Thumbs-up sign. Innocent head-tilt. If only Lee were as confident in the future as he wanted the world to think, maybe everything would be fine.
BREAK
"We actually have time for this?" Temari asked doubtfully as she flipped the light switch in the martial arts practice room. Neji followed her into the room and shrugged, setting his bag on a chair.
"MMA isn't in here for three hours. We can be in and out by then," he told her. She looked up at the clock and pursed her lips, but didn't say anything in response.
"Come on, it'll be fine. There's no where else you can throw pointy things at walls without Campus Safety arresting you," Lee pointed out, tossing his gear on the floor by the chair.
"That's true," Temari mused. She sighed and carried her own equipment to the other side of the room. Shikamaru, kneeling beside his bag next to the far wall, looked up as she approached.
"Scared?" he asked with a smirk, zipping his bag closed. Temari snorted as she took her pack of throwing knives from her own bag and tossed it on the floor beside Shikamaru's.
"Hardly. I just have better things to do with my Saturday than have a showdown with Itachi and his flunkies."
"Could take out some of that latent anger, you know."
"I'm not angry." Shikamaru raised an eyebrow at her terse answer.
"That would be a first." Temari shot him a glare, and he laughed, ambling behind her as she walked out into the room to face the wall.
Sometime before any of the current students arrived at Konoha, the Martial Arts Club had convinced the school to put several layers of plywood over the entire far wall of its practice room. They'd painted outlines of people in a row on the wall so club members could practice with thrown weapons; wooden knives and shuriken simply weren't as helpful as the real things.
The bigger the weapon, the happier Temari was with it—but she'd been intrigued last year when she'd seen Tenten casually outline one of the painted targets with shuriken. Tenten taught her basic technique and Temari had been practicing ever since. She'd still rather have a naginata, but it was a neat skill to have.
As Temari and Shikamaru began to throw knives at two of the targets, Lee and Neji were contemplating one of the weapon storage closets, already wearing their padding.
"How about you come after me with a staff?" Lee suggested after a moment. Neji shrugged.
"Or how about you try to hit me and I'll defend with the staff?"
"That works, too. We'll combine them, and I'll just beat you either way." Lee smiled broadly as Neji took a short staff from the closet. Neji rolled his eyes.
"You haven't managed to do it yet when I have a weapon and you don't."
"Which is why I'm going to do it over and over again until I do."
"Figures." Neji rolled his eyes and took up a position in the middle of the room well away from the flying knives. Lee stood opposite him, raising both hands and bouncing a little on his toes. His eyes were concentrated on Neji with an intensity uncharacteristic even for Lee, and Neji reminded himself to take whatever was driving Lee into account when he defended.
Something had been bugging his friend for a week or two now, but Neji wasn't the type to have deep heart-to-heart conversations. He had briefly considering sending Tenten to talk to Lee, but that solution was quickly discarded. Neji never pretended not to be jealous, and he thought it was pretty reasonable in this situation, given their history. There was no point in tempting fate. Lee would talk when and if he wanted to—Neji couldn't shut him up any other time.
Lee brought his right leg up in a roundhouse, pulling the kick when Neji moved the staff to block. Lee spun on his left foot, planted his right, and aimed a low side kick at Neji's knees. Neji blocked, and continued to do so rather nonchalantly as Lee sent different types of kicks at different parts of his body. Lee had a tendency to rely on kicks when faced with an armed opponent; it meant the opponent had to be fast to catch them all, but it was predictable.
Deciding it was time to use Lee's pattern against him by changing it, Neji waited for another right leg roundhouse, blocked it with his left forearm against Lee's ankle, and lunged forward with the staff toward Lee's chest. There was a moment when they were both in transition, and then Lee reversed direction, pivoting on his left foot and bringing his right foot around to drop it heel-first on Neji's staff. Lee only pinned the staff to the ground for a second, but it was enough to draw Neji forward and keep him suspended there. Neji winced, knowing he couldn't twist far enough away as Lee hopped to his right and bent low to snap a quick uppercut into Neji's gut.
"I hate it when you mix kung fu and boxing," Neji muttered, dropping to a knee and ninja-rolling backwards to put space between then. Lee chuckled.
"It's boring to just use one art. Besides, an uppercut was easier there when you were so low."
"Sure it was." Neji knew he was just bitter at having fallen into what had obviously been a trap, but he pursed his lips and settled into a stance with his staff. Now he had to get Lee back, which would be hard with Lee's mood. He couldn't let Lee finally win one over him with a weapon—
"Decide to join Konoha's real martial arts club?" The voice pierced the tension between Neji and Lee and made Temari and Shikmaru, busy plucking their knives from the plywood, spin in surprise. Itachi stood in the doorway, one hand on the doorknob. He had a duffel bag slung over one shoulder, and several other MMA club members stood behind him.
"Hardly. Your meeting isn't until four." Neji straightened to stand somewhat casually, loosening his grip on the staff. "What are you doing here?"
"Our meeting time is one-thirty now; we changed it last month," Itachi explained, pushing the door all the way open and walking into the room. Kisame followed behind him, shooting a glare at Neji and Lee.
"Well, sorry we got in your way. We'll leave now," Lee told Itachi, trying to sound polite. Kisame smiled cruelly, sitting down in the chair by their bags.
"What, don't want to mess with us? Figures. You know you couldn't handle us."
"What? What kind of stupid idea is that?" Neji cringed when he heard Temari's voice. Trust her to get riled up by Itachi and his friends.
"It's not stupid, it's true. None of you have even tried to take us on since Itachi broke Lee's arm."
"He didn't break anything. It was just torn ligaments," Lee interjected in a tight voice. "Listen, let's just get our stuff and get out of here, alright?"
"Of course, run away. It's what you Martial Arts Club people do best." Kisame linked his hands behind his head, leaning back in the chair. He smirked at Lee, the smile getting wider when Lee took a step forward.
"Lee! Relax! This isn't the time!" Neji snapped.
"Then when is? Dammit Neji, we've tried to be nice to them, but look! I just can't take them talking about the club that way!"
"There's nothing we can do right now—"
"We can prove to them that we're stronger and that their dirty tricks won't work on us," Lee spat. "This is going too far."
As Neji and Lee argued for what appeared to be Kisame's amusement and the other MMA Club members began to get their gear out of the closets, Itachi walked slowly across the room toward the plywood wall. He shot a pleased look at the Martial Arts Club co-presidents, then turned his head to smirk at Temari.
"Just because you have the strength to match us, it doesn't mean your friends do. You're too good for them," he said evenly, hands in the pockets of his workout pants. He flicked his head to move a strand of hair from his face. Temari sneered.
"Actually, I think you're jealous of them. You know they're damn good, and you know they have friends that care about them instead of friends who're scared of them."
"You think my friends are scared of me?" Itachi turned to look over his shoulder at Kisame, and shrugged. "Maybe. I've never asked them. I don't really care, though. I'm not out for warm fuzzies. I only want people around me who aren't scared to use the power they've been given."
"Yeah, that sounds like you."
"I thought you were that kind of person, you know. You have so much skill, passion, intelligence—"
"And desire to kick your ass. Give up, Uchiha. That won't work on me." Temari purposely turned her back to him as she reached to pull another knife out of the plywood. She stiffened when she felt him step up behind her, close enough that she could feel the heat from his body. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Shikamaru shift, and shook her head slightly.
"It won't work? But it worked before," Itachi said in a low voice. "Don't you remember? We spent that spring afternoon training in this very room, and afterwards—"
"Afterwards nothing," Temari hissed. "Afterwards you stabbed the entire club in the back. You hurt Lee and dumped everything on his and Neji's shoulders. You terrified a bunch of naïve freshmen into following you."
"You said you'd come with me too—" Itachi went silent and froze as Temari spun around, pressing the knife she'd pulled from the wall against his throat.
"You are a lying, manipulative bastard. Once I saw that, I wasn't going anywhere with you unless the only way to send you to hell was to drag you there myself. Now, back the fuck OFF!" Itachi blinked at the intensity in her voice, then a slow smile spread across his face. He reached up to grip Temari's wrist and hold her hand still as he stepped backwards.
"You're shaking," he told her unperturbedly, using his other hand to wipe away the small line of blood from where the wavering knife had cut him.
Temari sucked in a breath. She wanted to hit him so badly, the emotions of last year and this moment blending together inside her to form a bitter rage. It wouldn't help anything if she started a fight with Itachi now, though. She'd worked out for a couple hours already, and she was tired. She doubted she could beat him on a good day, so taking him on now would be disastrous. Besides, Neji would kill her even if Itachi didn't.
"Fuck off," she finally muttered, turning back around to yank the remaining knives from the wall. She bent over to shove them into their case, careful to wipe Itachi's blood off, as she heard him laughing behind her. She told herself firmly to ignore him, and, still seething, grabbed her bag and stomped out of the room. Lee and Neji, who had given up on arguing and just stared at each other in anger, were broken out of their trance by her departure. Pointedly ignoring Kisame's snide comments, they hurried to pack up their things.
Shikamaru watched Itachi stretch out of the corner of his eye as he finished stowing his knives and followed Temari outside. She was leaning against the wall halfway down the stairwell to the main floor, her head back and eyes closed.
"You and him good buddies?" he asked mildly, leaning one shoulder against the wall next to her. Temari opened her eyes and rolled her head to look at him.
"Yeah, he's my best friend. Go lingerie shopping together all the time." Shikamaru snorted.
"Figured that." He paused. "Listen. Uh, is he really bothering you?"
"Like, should you go kick his ass for me? Thanks, but no, he's not bothering me. I'm letting him bother me. There's a difference."
"Well, I wasn't exactly planning on any ass-kicking, but I thought maybe a stern lecture would do the trick." Shikamaru purposely ignored the last part of her comment, storing it away for future contemplation. Temari had a weak spot? Somehow the possibility bothered him. A lot.
"Yeah, you go give him a stern lecture. Lee tried that once. Itachi put him on the ground with two torn ligaments in his shoulder. He was out for the first two months that the club existed like this," Temari was telling him bitterly when he tuned back in. He sighed.
"You know, if that's your attitude, none of you will ever beat any of those guys."
"That doesn't matter. We stay out of their way, they mostly stay out of ours. It's as peaceful as the coexistence is gonna get without one of the clubs being wiped out." Temari stopped speaking as Neji and Lee walked grimly out of the practice room and started down the steps. "Just forget about MMA Club."
Shikamaru stared after Temari as she turned and walked down the stairs, shaking his head. Forget about them? Impossible. He was intrigued, and that meant he'd be thinking about them quite a lot from here on out. If you thought about something hard enough, eventually the solution would come to you.
The fact that someone could effect the fearless Temari like that made the world feel crooked. There had to be a way to take Uchiha Itachi down.