Author's Note: GRAH! I had to go to Florida again for a week, while my mom went to some missions retreat or what not.
I wrote this before I left, so I had to wait to post this. Sorry for making you guys wait..
BUT! I got to see the Naruto Cosplayer Cousins. I mentioned them a few chapters ago, remember?
And, they are now both obsessed with Rock Lee. Benjamin was talking about him all week. He's such a sweet boy. He gave me a card with my lucky Pokemon on it, but first, he tried to give me his only Rock Lee trading card. Isn't he such a sweet lil' guy? He just loves Cousin Emily, for some reason. His mom says a week before we come, they'll both come up and ask her about three times a day when Emily and Auntie SuSu are coming. And when we get there, it's, "Emily! Come on! We gotta go on a ninja mission! Look, I've been training! Wanna see?" and, "Emily, can we play Oh Man's Pack? Look! I found a card!". They're just the sweetest kids, and they think of me like their best friend. So, we wrestled, played in the "Mummy Box", and they discovered the amazing fun potential in piggy-back rides. (Read: I need a chiropractor. Now.)
And, (tearjerker coming. Ready your buckets and Kleenex.)
After my mom and me left their house to drive back to North Carolina, he went into the room where we had stayed, and crawled up on the bed my mom had slept on, and just lied there, curled up in a ball on the Pooh sheet with a sad look on his face. After about five minutes, his mom came in and asked him what he was doing.
He sat up, looked at her, and said, "I'm just smelling Auntie SuSu."
And, as if that wasn't sweet enough to give you a cavity, he saw the blanket I'd used the night before (I slept on the floor right beside my mom's bed.), and wrapped himself all up in it, and pulled the pillow I slept on over his head. You couldn't even see him under all of the blankets.
But, here's the sad part.
He sat up all of the sudden, crammed his face into my pillow, looked up and yelled:
"IT STILL SMELLS LIKE EMILY'S HEAD!"
Yeah. I have a fanclub. They both got up at 8 a.m to say goodbye to me, and when they were watching our car pull out, Benjamin said, "Maybe if they love us, they'll get to the corner and turn around."
GUILT TRIP! I miss them so much... They both greeted me when we got there with the Good Guy pose. THEY PRACTICE THEIR GAI IMPRESSIONS EVERY DAY, THEY TOLD ME!
I cried half the way home... They just love me to death, for some strange reason. I'm going to start crying again..
There will be monstrous FLUFF in this chapter. As in "First Kiss-eh" fluff. Yes, a snuggly, fluffy, sugary sweet, kiss scene. And there will be more in the next chapter. The fluff bunnies have lain siege on this and the next chapter, leaving teenage lovey dovey-ness in their wake. Don't kill me, please...
Oh, yeah! Neko-Chan got it's first flame last week! Now it's official! We're a real fanfic now. I have to say thank you to everyone who reviewed, Story Alerted, and even stood up to the flamer. You guys are too great for words. You have my eternal gratitude and appreciation. I'd hug you all, but, that might frighten a few of you away. So, eh, just know I love you all! .. In a totally non-sick, review-crazy little freak way. Ah, you know. Thanks so much, everyone!-makesLee plushie kiss computer screen-
-ahem- This chapter dedicated to EnduranceInTribulation.Mostly because he's just a really sweet guy, who cheered me up about my kitten dying, and is pretty much one of the greatest reviewers I've ever had the pleasure of knowing reads my fics. And a part because I called him a girl in his first dedication. Sorry..
In the following days, Lee's recovery left the physicians astounded at his bounds and leaps in the field of recuperation. His body was convalescing at a previously unheard of speed, quite literally healing itself.
All the medics could do was shake their heads and keep him full of medicine, which he was a little more than reluctant to take. Begrudgingly, Lee swallowed the massive pills four times a day, glugging down as much water as possible to wash away the awful wheat-germ taste, shaking his head and sticking his tongue out as he did.
Gai would laugh, and ruffle his student's hair once the awful regime of three or four pills and a spoonful or two of ghastly pain medication was finished, and Lee had returned to scowling at his knees through the blankets. His sensei would smile, and promise Lee he'd be out of this hospital before he knew it, for he was now full of Youth and Analgesics. A thumbs up always brought a positively buoyant grin to the pale face, and Lee would be up as soon as he could, tacking around the hospital halls on his crutches.
Somehow, his substitute son's smile seemed a little brighter, even in the face of an agonizing hospital stay that would try even a saint. Between the constant pain he knew was there but masked continually and the complete lack of ability to do anything besides walk the seemingly endless repetitive hallways, he wondered how Lee endured it all.
And Gai wondered about himself. He wondered how he kept waking up every day with the shame staring back at him in the mirror, and he wondered how he kept walking and fighting with the burden of guilt.
It was his fault.
And he almost gave in to the seduction and smiled along with him.
Lee was cleared to discharge to his own home after a week and two, three, four days after his injuries had occurred. Gai thanked God and prayed for leniency.
Lee tapped his fingers nervously on the flecked colors of the Formica countertop, counting detachedly every time his fingernails echoed across the empty bar. His eyes were locked to his knee, and he was trying sooo hard not to jump up on his bar stool and whoop right out loud to all the customers of the Ichiraku of his good fortune.
He, Rock Lee, of the mutated caterpillar eye brows, handsome, but slightly geekish Lotus of Konohagakure,
-Had a date.
With Haruno Sakura.
His eyes instantly became little hearts as he clasped his right hand girlishly, imagining his fair Sakura-Chan.
He was so excited! He just about thought his eyes were going to pop out when he asked her for the umpteenth time if he could be allowed to take her out to Ichiraku tonight, and she had finally, finally accepted. He'd promised himself that if she said yes, he would even alter his youthful appearance if she wished. So, he hobbled to the bridge she and her team crossed each and every day early that morning and waited. And waited. And waited, leaning against the chipped and flaking red paint. Naruto went hopping by excitedly after about an hour, followed a little while later by Uchiha Sasuke, who apparently still had some mussed feelings about his defeat before the Chuunin exams. Or he was just being Sasuke. It was very hard to tell.
It seemed he had waited and eternity, watching the fallen leaves ripple the glassy surface of the river before he heard the noises of two stomping pairs of feet.
Then, he sighed emphatically, his sweet Sakura-Chan had come strolling down the road, having an argument with Ino, who was running right alongside her.
He had mustered up every millimeter of courage he had, squared his chest, and put a pleasant smile on his face, just for her, trying desperately not to lean against his crutch, even if it meant going down on his youthful face. She came clopping up to the bridge, an angered frown marring her fine features, as Ino screamed from farther down the road, shaking her fist angrily before retreating, blonde pony tail swinging to the overplayed stomp of her feet.
This was it, Lee, he narrowed his eyes at the challenge, shifting in place to mask the excitement. Today was the day. She would say yes. He just knew it!
Sakura was approaching. Nine steps. Eight. Seven. He could practically hear "Eye of the Tiger" playing in his head.
Don't screw it up, don't screw it up, you big nut.
He'd squared his shoulders, built up a massive amount of Youthful Suaveness, looked her straight in the beautiful green eyes-
And melted.
"Sakura-Chan,Allowmetotakeyouonadatetonight?" he said, wincing at how dumb he sounded. Great.
There went that hope.
"Yes."
Oh, well. He'd tried. Maybe if he'd shaved his eye-eye-eye-eye-eye-bro-brows… What?
He peeked one eye open to look at his cherry blossom. The picture of dejection. Slumped over at the waist, wearing a stressed, very long frown on her pretty little face. She looked tired, and worn out.
"Did-did you say yes?" he asked stupidly, barely being able to spit out the question again as the realization set in. Sakura began walking towards her team's training area, still looking utterly rejected.
"Mm-hm." was her reply.
Lee blinked, wondering he was being fooled around with.
"7 at Ichiraku?" he'd called after her.
"Whatever." she'd said, not even waving over her shoulder at him.
Lee had stood completely still for two whole minutes, before he whooped loud enough to be heard all the way in Sunagakure, and doing his trademark Happy Lee Dance.
"Ow, ow, ow, ow."
And so, he'd spent the rest of the day preparing. He would make this worth it for her! Yosh!
He'd spent the day, after training, of course, at a book store, reading up on how to be a lady's man before the clerk had crabbed at him to buy a book or hit the road.
He'd dug through his closet and found a (rather wrinkled, but) clean, black checked shirt he'd worn to his grandmother's funeral, once. The sleeves were a little short, coming only about halfway to his wrists once he managed to get his arms (one in plaster casting) into the damn sleeves. He had to keep the top unbuttoned so his neck wasn't being pinched the hell out of, giving anybody a pretty good look down his shirt even if they weren't trying to. But that was alright, it was OK. It wasn't green. Sakura probably wouldn't mind as long as it wasn't green.
He'd brushed his teeth extra-hard, drowned himself in mouthwash (you never know..), and cleaned himself so that anywhere you ran a finger up him, he'd squeak like a new car.
At 6:45, he'd burst out his front door, absolutely on Cloud 9, dressed like a normal human being, and so happy he would skipped to the Ramen stand, were it not for his mending arm and leg.
Never mind that he'd locked his keys in his house.
And so, here he'd sat for, he checked the clock on the wall. 7:36. A half an hour. Sakura was late.
He propped his head up on the counter. Maybe he should go see if she was at her house- No, that might make him seem pushy. He'd just let it be. People could be late, of course, he smiled, optimistically sitting up straighter. Lee's thoughts were spinning half a trillion miles a minute.
Ayame, the shop owner's pretty, young daughter smiled at him from behind the counter as she made her way past with another customer's order. Ayame knew Lee by his actual, real name. Not just "The polite little freak that comes with his look-alike sensei".
"Ohayo, Lee-kun." she said, stopping in front of him. Lee smiled happily, not even using his freakishly bright teeth. He was so proud of himself.
"Good evening, Ayame-Chan! I am waiting for my date to show up." he said, looking down the road once more to see if Sakura was coming. Ayame smiled back at him, closing her amethyst eyes.
"Well, good for you. I see Sakura's finally seen the light." She knew all-too well of the plights of the bowl-cut boy's love life. Or lack thereof. He'd poured out his heart once over a bowl of Miso ramen, while Ayame sat across the counter like a concerned therapist. Since then, she'd grown rather fond of young Lee, seeing his smiling face when he came with Gai or the rest of his team. He was so much politer then that obnoxious Naruto kid that dragged Iruka in every other night.
Lee nodded, looking anxiously down the road once more as Ayame returned to her various duties.
.. He didn't see Sakura anywhere.
That was alright! He would wait as long as it took!
…
…
Forty five minutes later, Lee was slumped over the counter, his face portraying utter heartbreak.
The majority of the other customers, (painfully) some of the rookie genin themselves with their various dates, had eaten and left. Random villagers and Asuma, who'd practically inhaled the entire bowl and spit it back out. Kakashi had come, captivating Ayame's attention when he took off his mask to eat.
Even Genma, a random filler sort of nin, had made a cameo appearance, rolling his senbon thoughtfully as he scarfed down a fish cake and paid Ayame generously.
But no Sakura.
Lee felt like going home, putting Lucinda Williams on the radio, crawling into bed, and having a good cry.
He covered his face with his hands, feeling the too-short sleeves yank back at the skin of his arms.
What had he done wrong? Lee racked his brain to try and discover what he had done to offend his flower so painfully.
"Well, here's a familiar face."
Lee lifted his head and turned around to see a familiar brown-clad girl hop up onto the barstool beside him, flopping her head into her hands and staring at him.
He sighed. "Hello, Rian-San."
Rian cocked her head at him, like a dog. What was with the long face?
Rian traced her eyes up Lee's lanky body. Shined, scuffed with use loafer over his good foot. Dress shirt with black and orange squares in a non-overwhelming design , clean black pants. Wow. When did Lee get over his spandex obsession? He actually looked.. Pretty good. Especially when your attention wasn't immediately drawn to his lower torso area.
"You didn't happen to see Sakura-Chan on the way here, did you?" he asked, knowing it was fruitless.
Rian shook her head. Lee slumped even more dejectedly over the countertop, his cheek to the cool Formica as he sighed loudly. Rian looked at him, headband loosely falling down into her eyes before she hurried to retie the knot.
"So." Rian said, pushing her barstool back so that it rested only on it's back legs. "What's with the new clothes? Found a new idol in Don Knotts?"
Lee glanced down at his shirt. Did he really look like Don Knotts? Did Don Knotts ever wear- Oh. Wait. Yes.
"I was supposed to meet Sakura-Chan for some ramen, but.. She hasn't shown up yet." he lied through his teeth. Something told him she wasn't coming at all.
"Ah." Rian said sympathetically. "But why would you two just meet here at the same time? What's so great about that?"
Lee looked at her. Her piercing olive-colored eyes stared straight back at him, making him almost jump.
Those eyes of hers were just downright scary, sometimes. And right now they were boring into his with another question about social skills.
"No." he explained. "See, she would come here at the same time as me, and I'd pay for whatever she ate."
"THAT sounds dumb." she said blankly, taking her menu and pretending to look like she was busily staring at the Daily Special. "She's not poor. She could pay for her own food. Why would you do that?"
Lee sighed. Actually, Rian was beginning to make some sense. He didn't know whether to be frightened of this realization or just take her advice and run with it.
"Well, you do it to show a girl how much you like them." he said carefully, avenging his belief. "It's something guys do when they have Youthful Feelings for a girl."
Rian bit at the corner of her menu as though it were a breadstick. "Well, that still sounds dumb. And Sakura just stiffed you."
Lee nodded, before whirling to face her.
"What? I was not stood up!" he cried desperately, clenching a fist over his heart. "She's just- late."
Geez. That sounded pitiful, even when he cried it with all the belief in his body.
His short-lived resistance crumbled, and he dropped his head to the counter, incurring a hollow noise as his skull collided with the cheap Formica.
"She WILL come!" he corrected himself, feeling his heart drop into his shoes as his eyes closed against the countertop, the cold playing butterfly kisses on his neck.
Rian poked a bug crawling across the counter, eyes sparkling as the bug squeaked in protest to having himself shoved around by a finger.
"OK. You hungry? 'Cause I'm gonna keel over if I don't eat something soon." she said, waiting for Ayame to work her way down to their end of the counter, gripping the barstool and leaning it back as far as she could on it's back legs without sending herself on a direct collision course for the ground.
Lee gave her a miffed glance . He looked anxiously over at the door. Sakura might still show up, he promised himself.
He folded his hands in front of him, eyes still squinted at the door, hoping to catch a glance of an approaching Haruno girl. He tapped his fingers to the counter in quick succession as he waited, analyzing a critical decision mulling in the back of his head.
Rian pushed herself backwards as far as the barstool could possibly go without being horizontal. Gripping the counter with her fingernails, she smiled triumphantly, stupidly, at said achievement.
Ayame set a bowl of ramen in front of a hollow-eyed chuunin, who bit his lower lip as he stared down into his reflection in the steaming broth.
Remembering an afterthought, she turned around and glanced down the left side of the front bar. Wonder if Lee's little date had showed up yet? She couldn't help but have a soft spot in her heart for the little bug-eyed boy. He was so cute, after all! And by the change of his usual attire, she could tell how important this one tryst was to him.
She glanced over the heads of a few customers she'd already served, expecting to see that the kid still sitting there. She sure hoped he hadn't been shown up by this Sakura girl. Every intention she could see he had for her where honest and pure, so far. Maito Gai had obviously taught him about being a gentleman. She cocked an eyebrow and squinted, light lavender eyes furrowed in concentration. Lee was still sitting there, all alone. Aw, poor guy-
Oh no, wait. Aw. There was a girl sitting next to him. She smiled sweetly. How adorable was that? She clasped a hand over her chest as fuzzy thoughts flashed through the female part of her mind.
She walked over towards the two, remembering her duty halfway through a squeal. Lee didn't seem to notice her, since he was engrossed in a menu card, determinedly eying his next meal. His date seemed to be tilting her chair as far back as it would go, grinning stupidly. Playing hard to get, was she now? Was that a nervous look on Lee's face!
They were so cute!
"OK, you two. Can I take your order?" she said, pulling a pen and paper from the black belt fastened around her white skirt.
Rian's barstool promptly shot out from underneath her.
A small pile of sand had begun amassing itself as Ayame took a final sweep at the floor with the wirehaired broom. The floor gritted underneath her shoes as she brushed the heap out the back door, swirling into the darkness of the back alleyway, making metallic pingings as the debris hit the garbage cans.
She tossed the broom into the back corner and checked the ancient clock on the upper wall. 10:48. Almost closing time.
She flipped her coppery hair over her shoulder, and set to cleaning the stuck-on ramen off the counters from careless customers. The place was pretty much devoid of patrons of because of the hour.
"This means war."
Ah, yes. Almost devoid of all it's customers. Ayame began scrubbing a tomato stain off the wall, wondering how it had gotten there.
Rian bit the end of her chopstick repeatedly, teething on the wooden stick's blunt end hungrily as she leaned over the counter, her head resting in her hands as she eyed the charcoal drawings on the countertop.
Lee had sat for three hours waiting for Sakura to show up. Rian had spent the time sitting next to him, watching him look sad and listening to his stomach gurgle as he stirred his ramen unappetizingly.
Naturally, she'd kept her mouth shut, downing her ramen so fast she looked like a wolf going after a penguin, and immediately asked for a refill. She wondered why Ayame had looked at her so strangely when Rian had looked at Lee thoughtfully, before reaching over and poking him in the head.
She, eventually, had been unable to take the silence, and Lee's pious stare at the door, and uncharacteristically opened conversation, asking him how his training was doing.
Lee had absently answered. "Fine." before realizing he was being spoken to and launching into a god-awful boring discussion about tree-kicking and push-ups. Rian didn't seem to mind. Somehow, it was better then seeing him frowning and being silent, out of characterly dressed in something besides green. He almost didn't even look like himself, save for the bowl cut and the sling on his arm.
The conversation had evolved quickly, Lee also finding it better then sitting in silence, waiting for his date. Rian had told him all about how in some country she'd read about, people put bowls in their bottom lips and chains around their necks until they looked like giraffes. That had earned a smile.
The talk shifted from completely random subjects, from training, to the Sand's new treaty with the Leaf, to if Gai-sensei wore tube socks, to the dead deer Rian had found outside their team's training ground a few days ago. Rian had a grand old time poking fun at Neji, making both of them laugh at the analyzations of the Hyuuga's stoic nature, and the times Lee would turn and check the doorway to see if his Sakura-Chan was there gradually became fewer and far between.
Currently, after a few hours of poking each other with their chopsticks and laughing out loud at the random facilitations of their combined minds, they were discussing the familiar subject of Shinobi training.
Lee had found a piece of burned wood, and was busily drawing on the countertop with it, diagramming the pros and cons of various ninja traps. Rian had scooted as close as possible to him to see exactly what he was lecturing, their knees crushed together underneath the table.
Lee was in the habit of occasionally putting his hand on Rian's shoulder, almost as if to keep her attention, in a teacherly kind of way as he pointed out the advantages of Dropping Objects on One's Enemies Heads.
Rian just chewed at her chopsticks until they were toothpick sized, ignoring the electrical sensations that tingled up her spine whenever he touched her shoulder and suggesting variations of situation and how they would trap an enemy in say, the desert, or in a corn field, or in an open meadow. When he would sit back up from leaning over his drawing, Rian would have to sit back to keep from snuffing in strands of his lustrous raven-colored hair that smelt of a strange, clean scent Rian had never before identified.
Lee pointed purposely at the sketchy sign for a canister on his poorly drawn chart. "-And that's where you drop the water directly on top of their heads." he finished, setting the nub of charbroiled wood onto the counter, studying the scratched marks that would indicate an elaborate, yet quickly executed trap.
Rian looked scathed. "Water might be kind of hard to come across in the desert." she said, suggesting a deviation due to lack of supply. Lee scratched under his chin thoughtfully, thinking this over.
"We could always use boiling oil." Rian added, a bright smile gracing her face.
"Boiling oil." Lee grinned, before rubbing out the H2o sign on the poorly drawn canisters with his thumb, changing them to an extremely small "O".
His bandaged, slung elbow awkwardly popped up as he leaned back from his diagram. Rian threw her hand up just in time to catch the limb before the cumbersome plaster would probably have whacked her right in the face. Lee winced at the sudden slap of the hand against the aching, swollen limb, and Rian released his elbow almost as soon as she had snatched it out of her face.
"Sorry." he said, sounding truly apologetic. "It's the plaster. I can't move my arm worth a plug nickel."
Rian tilted her head back to watch a fly buzz it's way across the ramen shop, glad for relief from the fuzzy black hair that had been tickling her nose to the point of making her want to sneeze.
"S'kay. I personally don't know how you stand your arm being wrapped up and all. I'd have torn the damn thing off after about, eh, three milliseconds."
Lee smiled, even as a stab of pain shot up his arm. It was alright as long as nobody touched it. He gripped his shoulder with the opposite hand, shifting softly and rocking back and forth wistfully as he tried to think of other things, besides the ache of his healing arm. It hadn't been bothering him lately.. Since he'd gotten to the ramen stand.
"How was your match with Shikamaru?" he asked, feeling the veil of silence once more transcending as he looked one last time at the doorway.
Rian sat up straight, locking her arms over her head and stretching, her back arching as it cracked loudly.
"Fine. You know, he used his Kagemane jutsu. Took me a couple of minutes to get anywhere near him. I kicked at him, and caught his legs. He went down, but his shadow got me before I could get out of the way."
Lee's eyes widened as he listened, propping his head against his wrist and grubbing his nose against the flat of his hand. Rian had lost?
"And you wouldn't believe it, but the lazy bum just forfeited! Right when he caught me!" she said, as though she still couldn't believe it. "He could have killed me right then, and he just up and quits."
Lee shrugged. "Shikamaru is a strange person." he declared, twiddling a chopstick against his finger. A small frown spread across his face as he put down the wooden stick.
"I'm sorry I missed it."
Rian looked over at him, feeling him scratch at his knee underneath the table, his fingers brushing her knee. She wondered how a small, inadvertent contact like that could make her entire body twitch, of it's own accord, so incalculably.
"You didn't miss anything." she said, studying the counter tiredly. "Technically, we both lost. So, that's the last you'll see me fighting in the exams. Until next year, a' course."
The clock ticked monotonously on the wall, it's hands advertising the late hour to the fleeting number of customers who remained in the small store. Rian absently considered scooching away from Lee, since they were practically jammed beside each other, shoulders touching, elbows conjoined, legs crushed together underneath the table. Funny, Neko-Chan wasn't having a fit about how close they were. The feline despised her to have physical contact with other humans. She figured he must be asleep, napping, curled in a ball.
"I should probably be getting home." Lee said, interrupting the silence and tapping his finger to his chin.
"Me too." Rian added, tossing a handful of change onto the counter and hopping down from the stool onto the patched linoleum floor.
"See you tomorrow, Lee." she called over her shoulder as she pushed the door open, the bell clanging noisily against the glass pane.
"Thanks, Rian." he said, raising a hand to wave feebly. For some reason, the cloud of sadness that seemed to being hanging over him lately had descended on him again, leaving him quiet and sullen as his body began to ache once more. Lee rubbed his painful shoulder wistfully, looking down at the counter.
He was just glad he'd been able to forget his pain for a few hours, and actually have a good time, even if Sakura never did show.
He licked his hand, and began scrubbing away the diagram they'd both pored over, knocking his makeshift pencil to the floor, to be trampled in the early morning rush the next day.
The lines dissipated underneath the heel of his hand, leaving streaks of black saliva across the once-clean Formica. He untucked his shirt, and used the bottom to wipe the wet spit off. Not that it mattered.
He dug into his pocket lethargically as he dropped the damp fabric back against his torso, until his fingers touched the wallet Gai-sensei had given him for Christmas one year, pulling it from his pants compartment and yanking the Velcro apart.
He dropped a couple of ryou on the countertop, the coins clattering as they fell from his hand. He'd had a copious amount of money in his pocket, not knowing what his date would have preferred. Oh well. He had more than enough to pay for one.
Almost instantly, a white hand swept underneath his still-extended fingers and snatched up the money, before holding it back in front of Lee's face.
"Here. You and your girlfriend's are on the house." Ayame said, a graceful smile spreading warmly across her face.
Lee blinked, before gulping loudly and smiling.
"No, no. She's not my girlfriend." he corrected. "She's just my teammate." he said, his voice hiding the smallest plea.
Ayame stared at him with one eye, as though she were reading a subliminal message, or a code beneath the words.
"I don't know. You two were just soooo cute together." she said, resisting the urge to pinch Lee's cheek, like a small child, and clasping her hands in front of her chest, a chibi look in her eye.
A drop of sweat ran down Lee's forehead as he clenched his good hand.
"She was just cheering me up because Sakura-Chan stood me up!" he blurted, anger making him hot under the collar at Ayame's blatant speculation.
"She's just my friend!" he pointed, huffing at the very idea. He loved Sakura. Couldn't she see that? Why, the very idea that he'd cheated on his Sakura-Chan! How preposterous! What an insinuation!
Ayame looked surprised, opening her heliotrope eyes wide as Lee snorted like an angry bull.
"OK. Don't get your boxers in a bunch." she scolded, making Lee immediately drop his head in submission.
"Sorry, Ayame-Chan." he apologized instantaneously, folding his hands in his lap.
She smiled at his dark head once more, before reaching out and ruffling the coal-black locks with her pale, delicate hand.
"It's OK. And this one is still on the house." she said, before walking boldly back to the back room to go about the rest of the closing up of the ramen stand.
Lee looked after her, until she disappeared into the back room, leaving him completely alone in the front room of empty booths and bar stools.
How could anybody mistake Rian for that? She was, after all, only his teammate.
Nooo. He loved Sakura! It was probably just an oversight on Ayame's part. No problem.
… Or was there?
He turned around to look at the closed door, even though he knew nobody was there.
All she did was make him feel better. It was like it was a date or anything. Just, a chance meeting of two teammates. Yes. Teammates. Comrades. Un.
Rian had just happened to show up, and sat in the seat beside him. They'd talked about training while he waited for Sakura. That was not a date. Despite all appearances.
But Ayame's alleged thoughts somewhat made him nervous. He tapped his fingertips together, curling his feet up to touch the underside of the orange vinyl of the barstool and slouching his shoulders up to his temples.
What about Sakura-Chan? Had she thought he would really give up his precious Sakura blossom?
No. Never. He smiled at the backing up of his own thoughts. It was just an assumption, based on the fact that it really had, once he thought about it, looked as though he was on a date with his teammate, to the common person who didn't know of Lee's infatuation with Sakura. It was just a faulty theory.
Rian was just a friend. Nothing more, nothing less. And Sakura was still Sakura-Chan, the best sweetheart, and the prettiest girl in all of Konohagakure. Heck with that, the entire Shinobi nations!
He cautiously got down from his chair, groping for his crutch, which he tucked into his over-deodorized underarm for support. He reeked of cheap cologne, aftershave he'd borrowed (found in a drawer and taken) from Gai-sensei, and slapped over his neck generously, screaming right out loud when it hit the little kunai cut underneath his chin. Closing his fingers around the handle piece, he swung himself forward towards the door, cautiously catching himself on his healthy foot.
Lee reached out, grasping the handle of the door to push open into the cool night air, and paused in mid-shove.
If it was just a faulty assumption, why did it suddenly hurt so much to admit it was one?
He swung out into the late night, a puddle of light guiding from a streetlight as he began the walk home.
A few days later, everyone's senses of security were shattered as Orochimaru's attack rumbled the very foundations of the village. The snake summons battered down the high gates and defensive walls that surrounded Konohagakure as though it were made of string cheese, collapsing the aged brick and creating openings from which Sound nin used as entrances into the now-venerable state of the once-proud town.
They fanned out, spreading like the plague into the stunned providence as the bravest jounin rushed out to face them and the Sannin's snakes. Luckily for the embers of the smoldering municipal, Shukaku's attack had been halted, shaving Orochimaru's half baked plan of grandeur to his monstrous pets and sheer army.
Fortunately as well, the pasty white man had greatly underestimated the sheer mass of Konoha's shinobi forces, and his few hundred loyal Sound nin were quickly met with an overwhelming wall of thousands of Leaf jounin and chuunin. Sharingan and Byakugan against the unholy abilities of scruffy reject nins with Rajput attitudes of their duty there. The grown-ups against the thrown-ups.
Naturally, Konohagakure also was, although shocked by the suddenness of the attack, relatively prepared, shepherding it's non-nin masses to safe grounds, so that the proud and the brave could protect their village with the ferocity of bulldog ants, swarming to the front lines of the fight.
The battle had been waging well for the first few hours of the camisado, the Leaf forces propelling the Sound back out of the wounds in it's country's barriers. The snakes were fighting a losing battle against the village's most powerful jounin outside the crumbled gates. The tide had turned, and the element of surprise was rooting for the Leaf, now.
Sound casualties littered the ground, being stepped on and splattered as the brave chuunin and jounin rushed out to defend the city, shruiken flying, katana and senbon flinging, hands and feet and eyes and ears trained to the towering and diminishing serpent.
Inside the crumbled walls of Konohagakure, medics buzzed hurriedly around the expanse of hospital, tending to the wounded masses, from concussions to utterly destroyed bodies, chakra blazing and feet stomping, yells of commands and screams of pain as stretcher after stretcher of pale, gasping bodies were carted in on makeshift pallets. Gurneys wheeled, bodies seized against cold plastic beds, and blood spilled to the floor in entire basinfuls, diluting clean water for washing the wounds with to buckets of dark, watery swirling containers of frothed shit.
Konoha was winning, it's forces overwhelming the over-estimating small group of the Sound military. It seemed, as the huge snake finally fell, a long filament of solid muscle and vertebrae, that the Leaf had won the surprise attack with minimal damage, as a sword impaled itself into a grey-clothed abdomen of an Otonin. The casualties of the opposing forces far outweighed those of the greater country, equaling complete victory for Konohagakure's already celebrating troops as they rushed onto the battle field to finish off anything left alive.
Funny, nobody noticed the starter of the miniature war himself slip quietly away from the battle, until it was far too late for anyone to possibly alter the inevitable course their slip up of attention conceived.
Otogakure had it's advantage.
Orochimaru kidnapped Sandaime, right out from under Konoha's nose.
The recovery team siphoned to that area found the elder of Konohagakure, Hokage twice over, beloved grandfather, and mentor unmoving on the cold forest ground just a few hours after the last Sound force had been defeated, a sweet smile tugging at his liver spotted cheeks.
The chuunin and jounin recognized the Fuinjutsu remnants, and pieced from that what must have occurred.
Sandaime had sacrificed his body in a contract to the god of death, to seal the Sannin to the afterlife along with him.
There was a breath of relief, like a soft gust of wind across a hot training field when one has collapsed to the cool green grass in exhaustion, temporary reprieve from the warm, suffocating breaths that lay bated in thirsty throats, The Sannin was dead. The threat to the village from the snake-summoning man was no more.
Unfortunately, sentries soon brought word by poofing jutsu, parched lips forming the words over panting gasps of air.
Orochimaru had been seen, fleeing with what of his army was still standing, his arms flopping uselessly at his sides, black and lifeless.
The Third had used the sealing technique to void Orochimaru's arms, making them unresponsive, chained to his body by radiation sign emblazoned seal marks.
The snake man was still a threat to Konohagakure, but with him retreating, ANBU operatives snapping at his heels, there didn't seem to be much they could do.
They gathered the armor-clad body gently, and carried him reverently back to the loving arms of his country, who accepted their loss with tear-filled eyes and steely, sad frowns.
They lovingly prepared the body for burial, washing the lacerated limbs with cold camphor water, and wrapped their beloved Hokage in white coverlets, and displayed him on a rainy day for the entire village to mourn. The grey storm clouds cried the tears the jounin wished they could down to the thirsty ground, patting down lightly and speckling the concrete like freckles on a fair face as they stood in straight rows to view their Village leader one more time, before his body was finally committed to the earth.
Every shinobi villager, dressed in black, moth-eaten mourning clothes from the backs of closets, was given a single, snow white carnation, to place beside their beloved leader, and the greatest of their kind ever known in the small world enclosed between the walls that protected their village once more, even as work on the reconstruction ground to a halt in reverence to the deceased Hokage, as per tradition.
Rian twiddled the bony stem of the carnation in her fingers as she waited her turn to place the meaningless gesture into the growing pile of flowers.
Lee hobbled forward, placing his plant into the mound of white-lace petals. His downcast eyes took in the grim spectacle of the dead Hokage, his eyes closed gently, pale, molded hands folded to his unmoving chest. He looked the way Lee would forever picture him. Peaceful, patient, the smallest pinch of a smile at the corners of his mouth- he might as well have been sleeping.
Lee sighed, the exhaled air warming the cold skin that had eventually numbed by the cold drizzle from the skies above as they opened, and mourned for the shinobi who could not.
He blinked at the carcass of the beloved Third Hokage one more time. Lee had not had a personal relationship with the man, but as Hokage, he demanded respect, even in the stillness of death.
And respect he would receive.
One blue sandal found it's way forward. Then another, bound to a splint. An illustration of hard work. Determination.
Lee had always had something to continue for. Gai-sensei. His dream. Sakura-Chan.
Rian-San.
The word stuck in his mind for a second, before it disintegrated back into the thoughts implaced by the ceremony. A plink of rain dashed to his nose, a prickle of cold to his already frozen face.
And now, there was another someone to continue for. A Hokage who, even if he had never shown Lee a lot of attention, would be happy to hear that someone thought him inspiring enough to count him as a person to strive to be excellent for.
Yeah. Be excellent for.
Lee's heart lightened as he tacked forward, feeling a familiar presence slip up behind him, quiet as a shadow, her breathing setting the pulse for then entire moment.
Another pair of footprints found their way down the walk of Lee's life, as he stepped valiantly with his crippled leg, scuffled noises echoing across the emptiness that seemed to surround you, even when everywhere you looked, here was a person dressed in black, contrasted with a virgin white carnation clasped in a tanned, calloused hand.
Rian stepped after Lee's retreating back, raising her hand to toss her flower onto the pile the rest of the Rookie Nine had already created, along with various other genin ranked children and teenagers.
She paused as the stem fell between her outstretched fingers, her eyes sliding over to the wise face of the elder man known as Sandaime as he lay in is opened coffin.
A thought detachedly crossed her head, but she quickly tossed it aside, tapping her fingers together, the carnation bobbing, backrounded by the marbled grey swirls of clouds hanging low in the firmament above.
"It's a shame." she said, her voice heavy with recollection she was searching for somewhere.
What's a shame is that you're here instead of at training. Sympathy will not make you any better a shinobi.
Rian released her fingers, allowing the carnation to drop from her fingers, tapping inaudibly as it landed in the monstrous mound of the sentimentally traditional flowers. A gust of wind blew past, ruffling the ocean of white filigree petals against the abraded calluses of Rian's fingers.
Her eyes slit half shut, she cocked her head at the Hokage's remains, at the peaceful expression on his face.
Her eyes widened in curiosity, her mouth set in a firm line as she ran her tongue along her bottom lip.
"They must have loved him." she whispered, imagining the affection the people gathered on this Golgotha of concrete, an aura of grief suffocating in it's intensity, the tension of pressed nerves and held-back tears creating an atmosphere of heartache that could not be expressed, for various reasons.
Her hand found it's way back to her side, eyes cast downwards with the closest to sympathy she'd ever felt for anybody.
"You can taste their hurt." she said, the poison of the words bitter on her lips, which she licked, enjoying the slight pressure to them. She had the sudden urge to bite and suck passionately at something. Because she was nervous, because she felt insecure, turning to walk away from the man who had meant the world to Konohagakure.
Lee's shoulder blades poked, bird thin, through his black shirt as he hunched forward, straining his muscles to tack forward across the ground, back to stand to watch the burial with the rest of the gathered shinobi.
He had never felt more stupid, or cumbersome or embarrassed as he swung himself forward on crutches.
He was a taijutsu master, one of the strongest of Konoha's genin. The only 14 year old that could open six of the Inner Gates. A genius of hard work.
He tipped his head up. No more. The training, the back-breaking routines, the late nights practicing mechanical katas, the promises. All gone. Washed away in a blurred, bloody conflict, torrentially swirling in the depths of his memory like the ominous skies above.
His begging eyes pleaded at the falling skies for a reason, or a purpose, or a promise that all would turn out well. To quell the fears gestating in his every waking thought. The fears that he would never recover, that he would have to tack around on crutches for the rest of his life, forced to drink bottles of vile pain medication, while watching the other genin marching off to their missions through his hollow eyes, one hand gripping the buttress of his discontent as he leaned every inch of his paper-thin body against the wooden poles.
Gai-sensei had promised him that he would heal. He was just weak now. Once the bones knit, and his body strengthened, he would be up and bounding around the village once again. And this would all seem like a bad dream.
He closed his eyes. A nightmare.
But, until then, it was all in the waiting. Waiting for his bones to heal, waiting for the muscles to knit, waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting for the day to end, lying in bed and waiting for the daylight to reach from the window and touch his numb, broken body so he could rise and promise himself another day had passed.
That was it. The waiting was killing him.
Being useless and awkward, cumbersome and obsolete, worthless and antediluvian. He couldn't even walk on his own. How could he be a shinobi tool of war when he needed a support system just to walk?
Waiting. Sitting. And waiting.
In time, it would all be over. The nightmare would pass, and he could once again sleep peacefully.
Healing. Waiting. Why was waiting so impossible?
Neko-Chan let a low growl rumble in the back of his throat as his yellow eyes restricted to mere slits.
Lee could have jumped as a breath registered on his neck, his skin trembling as the snuffle of warm exhale stroked the sensitive spot at the base of his neck. He almost drew a hand up to soothingly fondle the twin scars that had never gone away since the Forest Of Death, but kept his shaking hand at his side, displaying his surprise only in his widening inky irises.
"You OK?" came a strangely comforting voice, tone lowered, almost like a growl coming from Rian's lips.
Neko-Chan's ears flattened against the walnut colored fur of his skull, his eyes slashed with anger. Why the hell was Rian spending any of her attentions on this un needing, worthless, boy? He was constantly all over her about the fraction of attention she spent on Lee. Acknowledging this boy as an ally was being wisely controlled by the neko himself, of course. But Rian's choice for a confederate made him ill.
The boy was weak, repulsive. Beneath her.
He just thought that way. Rian, his Rian, was above this Geyi Mayo guttersnipe. And naturally, he was above this freaky little creep as well. Weak. Easily seduced by his emotions. Lee was puny compared to most of the alliances they could have wormed their way into. He was disgusted by her.
But at the same time, he was confused by her motives. Why would a girl, an upcoming shinobi with the potential for greatness, choose to associate herself with such a lowly, undertaking boy with only one clear choice for his future, who constantly fought against the impenetrable walls that would someday collapse on him for his destiny?
It made no sense.
"Yeah." Lee whispered hoarsely, placing his crutch forward for another step, drawing away from the warm exhalation that had suddenly seemed so soothing, as to comfort the chaos in his tumulting mind for a second. The black sleeve of his good funeral shirt chafed at the swollen shoulder of his broken arm.
And he shoved any burst of happiness he was feeling under a mask of a long face.
Even the one that silently wished for a comforting metronome of breath on his neck.
"LEE!"
Rian sprinted down the hospital hallway, swerving to avoid a collision with a patient wheeling himself gleefully down the halls in his obviously new wheelchair, laughing stridently as the chrome spokes spun, gleaming in the dirty lights that lined the hallways in an autistic fashion.
Rian ducked beneath a cart wheeling into the intersection of halls that led down the cheerily-lit Outpatient Wing of Konoha Hospital. Patients milled about, in wheelchairs and doing caricatures of walking while leaning their bodies heavily against walkers and canes. Jovially fat faced counselors bustled about, replacing clip boards, chatting with official-looking bespectacled specialists about a patient's particular needs. But Rian's bright eyes swept over the crowds in the sunny, well-lit halls of the Physical Therapy sanatorium. She rocketed down the main hall, chakra buzzing as it propelled her down the halls at a speed that suggested she had opened seven of the Inner Gates.
Where was that troublesome Lee? she wondered, as a medic jumped to the side to avoid her by a mile, spilling a stack of papers through the slits between his arms that rained down like a white rain storm, floating teasingly down to scatter their paper selves across the floor as the medic stomped and cursed at Rian's rapidly retreating back.
Didn't he know she had the best news in the world to tell him? Wait, no. Then she wouldn't be looking for him so that she could tell him. And of course he didn't know already. Otherwise, she wouldn't be hunting him down.
But still, did he have to be unconsciously evading her? Especially when she had important information that could perhaps alter his life in ways she couldn't even imagine?
She grinned, imagining the look on her teammate's face when she'd tell him the wonderful news she'd been dying to scream at him since she had first heard Naruto blabbering about it.
She could see it now. That familiar, idiotic smile that burst like an unfolding morning glory across his face as realization began to seep in. He'd probably whoop, and jump up into the air, twirling happily on his crutches in circles. He might even hug her, or Gai. Most likely Gai. The both of them would act like joyful small children, yelling and being generally hysterical, lambent with exultation. Lee would do his famous Happy Dance, wincing and muttering "Ow" repeatedly once he was exhausted by the endeavor.
But, there was a catch. She'd have to find him first.
Rian thundered towards the end of the hall, where the lights were dimmer, because visitors never came to this part of the wing, before turning sharply to the left and continuing to run.
The lights were dark in this area of the sprawling clinic, the mimicked halls coated with paint the color of vomit or really nasty boogers, a sickly green that made you ill enough just looking at it, let alone surrounded by it, in these apparently deserted halls.
The hallway connected dozens of examining rooms were infrequently used, called upon at completely unsystematic slots. Usually only when there were too many patients in the rest of the hospital for the recently-rebuilt wing to hold. Why Lee would have been dispatched here should have struck some sort of chord, but the least she could salvage of it was a hopeless sense of foreboding she just couldn't make go away.
Rian exploded down the hallway, whipping her head from side to side.
Lee was probably in Physical Therapy, retraining his broken limbs to move as freely as they had the liberty to before his fight with the Sand's new Kazekage. Yes, Gaara had been made Kazekage of the Sunagakure shortly after his father was killed, so that Orochimaru might play the entire exam like a flute to gain and test his "new pawn" against the correct forces to "test" Uchiha Sasuke to the now-disabled Sannin's twisted pleasure.
She skidded to the side, facing another seemingly endless wing in a maze of sterile-smelling, overpowering bottle green walls and white doorframes with long forgotten doors hanging from rusty hinges.
This part of the hospital was foreign to her, black and obscure with neglect and obvious lack of care for these examining rooms. They looked weathered without use.
The psychological effects of the repetitive caricatures of hall after hall blurred before Rian's eyes as she rushed, skidded, hop danced and whirled from repetitive hall to repetitive hall, kicking up clouds of dust on the grimy, unscrubbed floor.
It seemed like she traversed miles of dingy, dark hallways, for decades, lost in a sterile, sickening labyrinth. But in reality, it must have been only minutes before she located the light shining from behind the closed door in the unfamiliar hall.
She rushed forward, feeling a wave of eagerness flow through her. Yes! Finally. Lee was gonna be so happy!
She grinned evilly, for reasons she can't describe as she snatched the doorknob and threw the ingress forward. She hopped directly into the light of the room, waving her free arm dramatically as she released all of her pent up vivacity into one huge explosion of her news to the gathered mass multitude.
"Lee! There's this amazing woman named Tsunade coming to Konohagakure! She's gonna be the next Hokage- But, that's, she's like, this AMAZING medic nin -Wrote the book on how to be a doctor and she can probably fix almost any injury, and- and she's like, legendary! And I'll bet my ass that she could fix your- "
Rian was cut off by the utter silence that seemed to slice her right in half as three pairs of eyes gazed sympathetically at her.
A pair of almond eyes slid out angrily from a curtain of flaxen hair, the weight of her judgmental glance directed at the small interruption standing silent in the open doorway. Her lip in a tight line, she pulsed her fingers gently against the soft, scarred skin beneath her outstretched palm, retracting the chakra flow back into her fingertips. She felt the skin shiver beneath her reddened fingertips as the last of her healing energy siphoned back into her body, but she continued to hold her hand to the young boy's back, feeling the taut muscles relax over the bony shoulder blades, once the pain of the chakra flow had been cut off.
A brace of deep brown orbs locked onto Rian next, beseeching with the intensity of the sympathy displayed in them. A kind, bleak smile teased the corners of Shizune's lips as she hugged the pig in her arms securely to the folds of her plain purple kimono. She snuggled her face into the smooth skin of the dwarf sow, looking ashamedly away from the girl in the doorway and hunching her shoulders up as though she could disappear from the stuffy room, and the tension she could feel cutting through her like a knife.
Rian breathed in, feeling her chest heave and her fingers tighten around the rusted door knob as she took in the spectacle before her. Her thoughts reeled with confusion for a second, before she ascertained what must have occurred. A smile suddenly darted across her lips, thick with ignorance.
"Gai-sensei!" she exclaimed, addressing the man standing limply to the side of the blonde haired lady, his expression absolutely unreadable.
Rian bounded over to her teammate, who was currently staring at the ground with wide, shocked eyes, his hands locked to his knees as he slumped forward. His bare back trembled, muscle spasms racking him as he detachedly acknowledged Rian's existence.
"Rian-San…" he began, trying to slip the words between his lips, even though they were stuck in his mind, filling his every conscious thought.
Rian, eyes sparkling, ignored him, before turning to the lady Sannin as her hand fell authoritatively to her side, rumpling the sage green, loosely sashed shirt.
"Hai, Tsunade-Sama! I see Gai-sensei got to you before I could. I just knew you could help Lee-"
"Rian!"
The angry voice sliced like sharpened shruiken through Rian's words. She turned, puzzled, to face the source of the reproachful scold.
Lee's fingers dug heinously into his kneecaps, his arms trembling as he ducked his head towards his exposed chest, his chin pressing into the space over his heart as though he could fill the rapidly emptying hole that was ravaging a flaming path of destruction in his rib cage.
Rian blinked, looking down at Lee as his body trembled wildly. Gai covered his face with his hand, looking completely lost.
Lee's body continued to shake, as he shriveled his body inwards, shielding his head with his arms, elbows over the top of his black head. He was wrestling inside his mind with the words he was trying so desperately to believe he had not heard. Desperate thought synopses fired like a barrage of military fusillade inside his crumbling, broken conscious.
As though outside his body, Lee commanded his numb arm to grasp the green spandex rumpled at his bony, thin hips. His abdomen quivered against the flat of his hand as it brushed the taut muscles, feeling the elaborate tendons flex underneath the thin layer of skin, prickled with goose bumps and dotted with Caucasian colored scars against the light caramel, sun tanned skin.
His dry lips mimicked the arid, sinful, Rajput desert substance that had killed him a million times in the past weeks, slowly torturing him each time his hollow eyes darted over an expanse of the constituent. His tongue, slippery with tasteless moisture slid ineffectually over the spongy sense of give that was what he figured must be his the cracked skin of his lips.
The fabric slid effortlessly over his hyper-sensitive shoulders, warming the shivering sheets of cold, pale skin. The clinging textile formed to the pointed curves of his cloyed body, around the horrendous jabs of bird-like bones over taut skin, weakly insulating Lee's trembling form. One bandaged hand reached out, groping air until his fingers closed around the familiar permeability of the crutch's arm rest.
Pulling himself to a stand, he brushed off the lofty, sentimental glances, and began tacking forward on his broken, and what he now knew to be unfixable body. He lightly opened the door, side-stepping cordially around a stunned, stock-still Rian, feeling discordant avocado acerbing into his shaking back.
No one could fix what had happened. Not Gai-sensei, not Rian-San, not Sakura-Chan. Not anybody near or dear to him could change this horrible misguidance of fate, or what results this gambling dance with death with scalpels might entail.
The door clicked shut behind him, and silence once again filled the room like a cloud of suffocating poison.
"If I knew this was what you diagnosis would be, I would never have taken him to you." Gai's voice quivered angrily, but to a trained ear, the sorrow being masked with a fragile shield of confidence was palpable.
Shizune's beautiful chocolate eyes widened with the boldness of his statement, before the girl realized the evident boast in the words, her fine eyebrows narrowing to a terrifying glower.
"How dare you-" she began, ready to tear this bastard apart. How abominable for him to insult Tsunade, who had kindly agreed to even see his student, with the trillions of other things that had to be done-
"No." Tsunade cut her off, waving her hand to silence her apprentice. Her warm, pecan colored eyes reopened as she placed a comforting hand on the green-swathed shoulder.
"I comprehend exactly how you feel. And believe it, I want so badly to help your student. But, the odds are against him. That is the extent of even my skills, Gai."
"Tsunade-Sama." Rian questioned, looking at her with deep request and a knot of foreboding curdling in the girl's already stress-ravaged stomach. "Can-can.. You can, help Lee.. Can't you?"
Tsunade straightened her back, her hand returning to her side as she gathered the words to explain to the innocent eyes half-hidden underneath a coming-undone hiate ate.
"I don't know." she answered honestly, comprehending the seemingly hopeless state of affairs in her already activity-buzzed mind.
"Lee's injury would be extremely hard to repair, even without the one major problem. You see, fragments of bone are impacted along his spinal cavity, embedded between vital arteries and veins. To begin the repairs, I would need to remove the bits, but one slip, and he would bleed to death right there on the operating table. If that part of the procedure succeeds, and that is a rather large 'if', then I would have to regenerate the cells in his crushed arm and leg. That requires a massive outpouring of chakra, one of which I'm sure I have. And also, I would likely have to use a highly unstable method of cell regeneration to repair the limbs. The stress on his entire system would be extreme, and his body, given his inability to naturally mould chakra, probably won't be able to handle the amount required. It's an uncertain high stake. I would give the surgery about a 50 percent chance of success."
Tsunade finished her candid speech, standing authoritatively to face Lee's teammate, who was standing in front of the now closed doorway, a shocked look across her bleach colored face.
50 percent chance of survival? What- no. That couldn't be. Lee could- how.. But, fifty percent of death? Chakra moulding- spinal cavity, ce-ce-cell regener- regeneration? High stakes operation that Lee would, would survive. There was no time to grapple with denial.
Lee would survive it! No matter what!
He'd survived his battle with Gaara, he'd survived those first harrowing days of recovery, catatonic and barely hanging on to life- was it really not so long ago? It seemed like eternity.
Lee would make it. No matter what. A stuffy doctor with a chest that could swallow a Buick may know about repairing wounds and performing surgeries, but she knew nothing, absolutely nothing, about a boy named Rock Lee.
Rian squared her shoulders, standing up straight, feet shifting beneath her as she stood haughtily, strong in her opinion. She smiled, and titled her head up to look her straight in the knife-like eyes.
"Well. Alright, then." she said, a hint of arrogance pepping her tone, before a sudden thought struck her by surprise.
"You will do it, won't you?" she asked, her eyes welling up at the thought of this chance slipping right through their fingers. She eyed Tsunade desperately, hurriedly calculating how to convince the woman that Lee was worth the effort of this timely surgery- Wait, was Lee worth the effort?
"If I receive permission from the patient." she turned to Gai, who was standing defeatedly, slumped like a man who had lost everything he knew and held close.
"-And his guardian."
With that, the woman dismissed herself, waving over her shoulder for Shizune, carrying their pet pig, to follow after. The door closed, clicking shut. Suddenly, it was only Gai and Rian in the small, stale room, the metal examining table gleaming unpromisingly in the bright hospital regulation light bulb above.
Gai's shoulders shook as he fought not to crumble under the weight now pressing on him.
Rian turned to face the faded white paint of the door, as Gai's trembling shook the very foundations of the silence. She felt herself like just dropping to the floor in a convulsing fit. But she kept backing up the belief that had sustained her in the first seconds as the atomic explosion had sent shock waves shuddering through her.
Her fist clenched at her side, as she was once again rocked by a tremor of doubt. Her lungs burned with the miasma of the toxic fears worming their way slowly into her very subconscious thoughts. Gestating to feed on the worry and bitterly sweet anxiety curdling in her.
"I'm going to go talk to Lee." Gai said, shattering the silence, releasing his scattered birds and empty thoughts seeming to pour from his heart, gingering his voice. He gripped his left shoulder in his cupped right hand, swinging back and forth slightly, facing away from Rian.
He knew if he turned to her, he wouldn't be able to keep it in any more.
Rian blinked a few times, letting his words seep in, before they sedimented in her conscious.
"Alright." she said, opening the door, and beginning to exit the small room. Gai-sensei would take care of him. Whatever nervousness he had, Gai, his near father, could probably quell.
Rian suddenly paused, halfway out the door. She laid one hand on the door frame, and stood for a moment, before turning around.
Her sensei's back met her with a wall of stony, hidden emotion. Gai's arms were crossed over his chest as he rocked back and forth on his heels. He seemed to be studying the wall with a copious amount of energy, standing stiff at his full height, elbows held in cupped hands.
"He's going to be OK, you know." Rian said, hoping her teacher would pick up her poise, and bound off with his usual Gai-ness to cheer his favorite student.
No response came from the man in spandex, who simply kept his back to his young, innocent pupil, a wall of resilience and knowledge separating the two by a distance comparable to oceans, even if they were only a tiny hospital room away from one another.
Gai wished he had half her confidence.
After some convincing on Gai's part, a heartfelt discussion on Lee's, and tears on both of their behalves, Lee marched up to Tsunade as best he could on his crutch, and forcefully agreed to the procedure.
The surgery was scheduled in just a few days. Lee wanted a chance to live for a while, if this operation did in fact prove to be his final stay in a hospital.
He woke up the day before the procedure with a light, cloudy feeling of paranoid dread, but otherwise had never felt more alive in his life.
He talked to Sakura-Chan that day, walking with her down the path as she went to train with her teammates.
Sakura seemed sympathetic to Lee's dilemma, but merely batted her eyes when Lee suggested her visiting him when the surgery was over. She immediately mumbled something, before beginning to flirt voraciously with Uchiha Sasuke as soon as the Uchiha showed up on the field, Naruto bopping around happily, talking to Lee for a while before Kakashi showed up, and Lee was obliged to leave them.
He never had such a day as that last one. He walked around Konoha, taking in all the places he had never had time to go to, talking to people he hadn't seen in forever, and just generally making it a good day.
He followed Gai around, wanting to spend the remainder of his apparent lifespan with the man he looked up to most. The jounin was more then happy to have his student spending even more time with him then he already did, and savored the day as special, because it may very well have been their last one.
Neither of them wanted to outright admit it, so they kept up a façade of cheery smiles and brainwashed themselves against the exceedingly upcoming gamble that awaited.
Rian had been following him for a few hours. Actually, half the day had passed before he first realized the girl was nervously following him. It first came as a schizophrenic sensation that someone was eyeing him. He turned around in just enough time to see Rian fall flat on her face out of a tree she'd been hanging in.
Lee, although slightly confused as to why his teammate would stalk him so, spent a while with her, the both of them cheerfully poking fun at various people, and doing all around strange things that Lee would never have though to do in his entire life.
It was then that his suspicion was confirmed. He'd been mulling over it since his and "Sakura's" date, but had carefully avoided the subject, until a few hours with her made his concern absolute.
Rian was weird.
It wasn't just in the way she would talk to herself occasionally, or the way her green eyes sparkled when she smiled, or when she'd yelp out loud when something surprised her. It was in the way she made candid, casual, and absolutely hilarious observations of everyday life.
Years of listening to Neko-Chan's bad jokes had prepared her with a comeback to almost anything. And taught her how to poke fun at almost anything. Heck, even if it wasn't funny, Lee still laughed. Rian wondered if there was a caterpillar crawling up his back or something. She'd never heard Lee be so hysterical over a dumb joke before. Maybe humor really was the best medicine. Or Lee had slept to near some cleaning solvents the night before.
Lee didn't think he could have had more fun with a barrel of monkeys then he had just sitting on the ground and chattering with his teammate and friend. He would have never expected Rian, the quiet little throw-over in almost anything, to have such a random and candid way of wheedling a laugh out of him.
Rian was dilutive, and small, rarely noticed, and mostly kept to herself. He didn't know if it was him that made this wild side of her come out of her, or maybe something else. But, there was even a drop of honesty in her that refused to let him believe she was putting on a mask of humor. A sense of humor like hers had to be cultivated. It didn't just suddenly happen to you.
And that sent him a strange message. Before, he had always thought Rian a little... well, bland. She didn't seem to have anything to her, like she was just an emotionless, unthinking, unfeeling tool.
But, that last day showed him that there was more to his teammate then he could have ever imagined. He slyly realized he had always known there was something behind those olive green eyes. Something about the twinkle in the corner that appeared when he erupted in all-out laughter, something about the way he knew she casually side-stepped around discussing his injury in any way besides poking fun at it.
Lee never laughed harder than he did on that late summer day, when the sun baked down on two tossled haircuts as they both fought valiantly to keep straight faces in the midst of insurmountable, childhood innocence that could only be obtained through crystalline laughter.
Lee got a part of himself back then, tilting his head to a sinking orange sun, feeling the warmth radiate through his crushed limbs and over every inch of his usually frozen face.
It seemed, that for all his talk of youth, he really didn't know what it was like to be a real kid. Until a random flapdoodle of fate showed up in a package known as Rian and showed him a whole new realm called Laughing Your Ass Off.
When the hour had become late, much too soon, in Lee's opinion, they both said their good-byes, promising they'd see each other tomorrow. A few waves, a snippet of an inside joke, and they both went their separate ways. Rian slammed up the steps of her apartment building, irritating her neighbors infinitely, before unlocking her door, falling flat on her stomach on her mattress, and bursting into tearless sobs in the fabric of the worn pillow.
Lee tacked home, still joyful about his wonderful last day. He whistled, feeling a new sort of joy he had never felt before. He repeated over and over those magic words that had made him forget his pain for the entire day. It seemed like forever since he had had an entire day to himself. Not thinking about pain, not thinking about his surgery, no thinking about.. Anything.
He smiled deeper, and limped his way to Gai-sensei's home. He wanted to get a final visit in with the big man before night beckoned him home.
A half-moon shown down, illuminating the entire city in a beautiful, iridescent blanket, like a thin layer of snow. June bugs fluttered in the foreign fields, not so long ago, singing and hopping amongst themselves in the muggy July air.
Lee paused, just before he began hopping limply up the four or five stairs to Gai-sensei's door.
He stood, his loose shirt billowing at his waist, feeling his skin soak in every bit of the warm night atmosphere, watching the paper lanterns swing at the street corners in fond remembrance, beacons of something nobody could place.
He tilted his head to the sky and smiled. That summer afternoon would continue to capture him years from then, he knew.
Lee ended up falling asleep on Gai's couch, his head pillowed on his mentor's chest as Gai snored, the both of them having nodded off when the satellite signal went out, leaving a snowy screen humming angrily for the entire night.
Gai eventually roused himself at the hour he had appointed so that he might get up and be at the Hospital before his student's surgery, lest it be the last chance he have to see him, before shaking Lee awake and reminding him what day it was. Lee had grimly sat on the couch while Gai made himself halfway presentable, staring at his knees and trying to fully wake up, yesterday the farthest thing from his mind.
Eventually, the pair had made it across the unawakened city in the blue light of twilight.
Lee gripped his crutch tighter, and walked closer to Gai. This time when the city sleeps, and they were the only ones, and they walked alone, was utterly foreign and lonely to an extent he had never before realized.
The hospital had never looked so welcome to him, as he hurriedly hobbled up the front steps and through the automatic doors, back to the sterile white prison he hated so much.
Surprisingly, there was already somebody waiting for them in the lobby. Rian's green eyes shone as she spotted Lee and Gai hobbling and plodding respectably into the Bentadine scented building.
Tsunade, bright and cheerful for even an hour so early, had beckoned her patient back, giving him a quick examination while Shizune chased Tonton up and down the halls.
Tsunade had given what part of Team Gai was present a few minutes to each other while she went to go see about the anesthesia- mainly, the wayward pig that was tangled in the wiring.
Gai, still not completely awake, gave Lee a fatherly hug before sitting down to chug-a-lug a cup of coffee, staring hollowly at the moldings of the room as the caffeine worked it's way through his system.
Lee and Rian had sat awkwardly beside each other. Rian awkward, because she had stolen away from her apartment before Neko-Chan was awake. She was afraid of what the cat might say if he found her waiting to show her teammate off to his surgery. It was rebellion, somewhat, and she wasn't entirely too comfortable with that.
Lee was a nervous wreck. Not because the time of the operation had come, but another reason.
Lee constantly forgot things. When he packed for missions, pencils at the Academy, extra bandages and weapons, things on shopping lists, errands. So, it seemed rather fitting that he had also forgotten this yesterday, when he actually had the chance to fulfill his list of things he had always wanted to do before he died.
He twiddled his fingers nervously, slouching inside his oversized borrowed hospital pajamas. His feet curled together, savoring their combined warmth as he nervously mulled over the dilemma currently facing him.
This was something no boy should die without experiencing. But, wasn't it supposed to be someone you had Youthful Feelings of Love for?
Wasn't it fine and dandy that he'd forgotten to request this from Sakura yesterday? That was the only girl he would ever want to do this with. But, at 6 a.m, and being prepped for surgery, it didn't seem like too excellent a time to rush over to his Sakura-Chan's house and request this of her.
And, that was where his problem was.
Rock Lee was not gay. And the only female present was- he swallowed nervously. Rian.
He wiped a line of sweat from his forehead as he considered the weight of what he was about to do.
Rian would never trust him again! Or, she might. But, would this damage their fragile, nascent friendship in any way? He knew Rian didn't trust people easily. How would he bear it if he lost his good friend, over something so silly as a young boy's fancy?
On the other hand, he could just die and never know what this was like. But, no. He had to! It was not only Youthful, but to him, it was a Rite of Passage, right up there with your first chest hair and your first shave.
He clenched his fists on the armrests of the chair. This was vital to his upcoming growth as a man!
He brought a fist at his head and frowned determinedly.
If I do not got through with this, I will not survive my surgery!
There! Now he had to do this! His confidence rising, he turned to his side to face the girl sitting beside him-
And crumbled.
Great! He thought, cradling his head in his hands. How was he ever going to do this?
He drew his head up once more, steeling himself more then the time he had to put a cough strip on his tongue. He had to do this! As a man, and a Green Beast of Konohagakure, it was his duty!
Lee poked his head up, refusing to chicken out as his eyes lay on Rian, who was lazily reading a used magazine from the table full of outdated reading material.
Do it! If you do not, Sakura-Chan will never love you! Your teeth will never become as shiny as Gai-sensei's, and you will never become a great shinobi! he lectured himself inside his head. His fists clenched until they trembled on the wooden arm rests. His left eye twitched as he stared at Rian's head, as she lethargically flapped to the next page of the seemingly archaic digest.
"Rian-San." Ouch. Saying her name so formally, with what he was about to do? Shame, shame!
"Rian? C-C-Could I have a word with you?" he tried, slapping himself mentally for sounding so.. dorky.
Rian's head popped up, her eyes questioning with a look that read "Um, yes. I'm sitting right in front of you.".
Lee began beating himself up inside for his stupidity, before pointing dumbly at the partition between this waiting room and the one beside it. For some reason, there was a half way built wall separating them. Budget cuts, Rian would suggest, had she been asked.
"Over there."
Rian's eyebrow tilted up in confusion, but she said, "Alright." and started to get to her feet.
Alright. So innocent. HOW could he do this? Selfish, selfish, Lee!
But all his scoldings did nothing, as another part of him repeated the promises he had made before. He gripped his crutch, and hobbled over behind the wall. Gai didn't seem to take notice, or see Lee's motive, much to his relief. Looking back from over his shoulder, he rounded the corner to see Rian staring at him with a look of concern.
He stood before her, suddenly feeling like he was standing there in his underwear. Imagine, stage fright in front of one person. He couldn't even crack a smile at that.
He cleared his throat into his hand, glad to take his eyes off her for a second to berate himself some more for even asking this question. Maybe she would say no..
"R-R-Ri-Rian.. I- I need to ask you.. A-a favor…" he managed to choke out, unable to look her in the face.
Rian was beginning to get concerned, even though she fiercely fought the bubble of compassion growing in her throat. She just blanched at him with wide, slightly sleepy eyes.
"Sure. What do you need?"
Lee looked at her through one eye, before turning bright red and looking down at the floor. Behind his back, he toyed nervously with his fingers, rubbing his feet together.
"Well.. Well, you see, Rian.. As a boy of my age, it's my- I mean, see.. There's a.. um.."
Damn! He was screwing this up so bad! He flinched as he gathered himself and stood up, tall and straight to his full height.
It was then he realized how short Rian was. The top of her head just reached the bottom of his chin. And right now, she was tilting her head backwards to look completely at him, her eyebrows skewered up and down with confusion.
Lee glared down at her, before slapping himself for looking that way and returning to his normal, human looking expression.
"Rian. I'm not going to sugarcoat it." Wow. When did he get so authorative? His voice was that of a drill sergeant, rather then a crippled fourteen year old.
"I may die during this surgery."
Rian blinked. Was that it?
"Yes, Lee. I know." she replied calmly, half wanting to make a comment about his deep voice.
Lee looked at her for a second, before he felt his old nervousness creeping back over him.
No, no, no! He yelled at himself, biting his lip and suddenly gaining chibi eyes. He nearly sobbed into his shoulder.
NO! Even worse! He stood tall once again, wiping his nose on his arm.
Good lord. What was Lee doing? His expressions were cycling faster then two sets of tandem bikers with rockets on their butts. And why did he look so nervous? Rian wished Neko-Chan were awake to tell her.
Lee cleared his throat, even more determined this go around. He kept a regular expression painted on his face, a mask to hide the abounding uneasiness that was eating him inside.
"See, Rian. There's something I've always wanted to do before I die. And, it has to be done with a girl."
Rian cocked her head sideways, one eyebrow inching up in confusion. Damn! Why did she have to look so cute and innocent when she did that?
"S-S-see.. You, um.." Lee scolded himself again, feeling his face flush a shade akin to a tomato. Why couldn't he do this?
"I, I forgot to ask Sakura-Chan for this, yesterday. I would have much preferred it to be her, I assure you! But, I really can't find another girl anywhere, so-"
"Lee, what is this?" Rian interjected, her voice like a hissing cobra's.
Lee's eyes widened again, and he hurriedly grubbed his nose on the heel of his hand.
"Rian-San.. I need you to give me.. Um.."
Her green eyes narrowed, boring into him with annoyance and curiosity.
"It won't hurt, I swear!" Lee said, snapping to a salute, backing up his statement. "I just… don't want to die and not know what this feels like."
Rian cocked her head father to the side, her angry look softening.
"Look, whatever it is, just do it. I honestly don't care. If it's that important to you-"
"But you don't understand!" Lee exclaimed, grabbing her by the shoulders and shaking her back and forth as the stress of the moment overtook him. "This is something you're supposed to do to a person you love with all of your heart and soul!"
Rian flopped her head up to look at him, ignoring the bandaged hands gripping her by the arms.
"What's so important about this that you have to think that highly of the recipient?"
Lee looked at her, biting his lip and trying to find the word.
"Well.. Nothing, really. But, it's just special when it's your first one, and should not be enterprised wantonly.."
Rian's confused face stared up at him as he released her shoulders. She looked as though she was thinking very hard on the subject, before she finally spoke, breaking Lee's nervous wait.
"It's OK. If you think it's that important, go ahead." she said.
Lee looked at her with wide eyes. "You don't mind?" Was she joking with him?
Rian shrugged. "You seem pretty damned keen to do whatever it is you're planning, and you said it wasn't important, so.. Yeah."
It took Lee a second to realize she wasn't kidding, and to turn so red he looked to the passer-by that he was going to explode. Sweat began pouring down his neck, soaking the collar of his off-white shirt.
"Um, O-O-O-Okay…" he said, unhooking his arm from around the crutch. He wanted to be standing on his own for this. No artificial support was going to ruin this moment. He took a tentative step forward, closer to his teammate. Rian's eyebrow jumped up as she watched him do this. What kind of mind game was this-
He stopped when he was just about a few inches in front of her, and just stared nervously down at her, his arm swinging like a metronome in the sling hanging from his neck.
"I-I've never done this before.. So, just, just, I may not do it ri-"
"Lee! For god's sake, just do whatever it is you're thinking about doing!" Rian interrupted, her tone sharp as she scowled up at him. She was really getting tired of this!
Before he could chicken out, Lee swept one hand behind Rian's back, and yanked her towards him. Rian didn't even have time to react before his other hand caught the side of her face, and turned it to look straight at him.
Lee didn't even breathe, for fear he wasn't supposed to. He just closed his eyes, leaned forward, and prayed Rian wouldn't kill him or something.
Rian opened her mouth to let loose a string of curse words at Lee, who had closed his eyes and was swallowing hard. She went to jerk at the arm around the small of her back, but before she could even utter the first syllable of a "shit", she found she couldn't.
Rian's eyes bugged wide open as Lee pressed his lips to hers. She just stopped fighting against the arm locked like a vice around her back, and stopped trying to reach up and knock his hand away from her face.
She couldn't breathe. Oh my god, she couldn't breathe! What the fuck was he doing? WHAT THE FUCK WAS HE DOING?
After what seemed like decades, or to average children what might have been a few sunny moments, Lee pulled back, and let his arms drop back to his side.
He gasped for air as he stood before her, hugging his arm to his chest and panting like a dog.
His first thought was, Wow! Let's do that again!
Somebody get the number of the truck that just hit him! What had- He then winced, and cowered, remembering Rian was likely to slap him or hit him with a rolled up magazine, even as euphoria coursed through his veins. The feeling of happiness popped like a balloon right then, as cold fear began running through him.
What had he done? This was awful! Rian would never look at him the same way again. Not only had he stolen his teammate's first kiss, but in some awful way he felt like he'd cheated on Sakura. For a moment, everything was great, fine and dandy and oh my god, let's do it again. But now, reality stepped in, and broadsided Lee like an open door on a parked car door to a skateboarder going downhill.
And, Rian was going to whack him. Hard. Really hard. His head was going to bounce off, and roll across the floor, and probably get stuck between some little old lady's feet.
She's going to hit me, she's going to hit me, he repeated to himself, blocking his face with his arms and gritting his teeth, waiting for the force of the blow to knock him to the ground.
Lee felt like a very selfish bastard right then.
But, no blow knocked his head off. Nothing even touched him.
Finally, he gathered what courage he had left to peek up over his arm, opening one eye. The sight he saw definitely surprised him.
Rian was standing with her hands at her side, looking down at the ground. Her face was furrowed with concentration, and she was sucking at her lips dedicatedly, as though checking to see if they were still the same lips before Lee's mouth had gotten on them.
Lee lowered his hands, looking confusedly down at her. What was she doing? Why wasn't she slapping the hell out of him for being so bold?
"That was for Sakura?" she said, sounding dazed, and brought one hand up to her lips as she stopped sucking at them, almost like she was making sure Lee hadn't done something awful to her.
Lee gulped, waiting for the slap. "Yes."
She looked at her hand, cocking her head to the side, before gritting her fingers together confusedly.
"OK."
Okay? Okay? Just 'Okay'? No yelling? No smacking? No pistols or flame throwers? Just, 'OK'?
Lee felt the last of the adrenaline rush dying down inside him as Rian poked her head back up to look him right in the eye.
"So why did you give it to me?" she asked, sounding like a four year old asking her daddy a question.
He coughed into his hand, beginning to feel as though there was filth crawling up his body. He was tainted, now. His first kiss, and he didn't even love the recipient of it. This should have been something special. Mainly, for Sakura.
"Because Sakura-Chan wasn't here." He felt like a two-timing, unfaithful husband. What kind of excuse was that? This was definitely not worth it.
Rian nodded, as though comprehending a great truth, before looking away.
"You have anything else for Sakura?" she asked innocently, wondering where on earth he came up with such a.. was it repulsive? Thing.
Hell yes! Lee's brain screamed, as he licked his lips hungrily, before startling, and slapping himself inside for such thoughts. What possibly could make him ever want to do that again? What about Sakura-Chan?
Rian suddenly laughed, frightening Lee out of his mind. What was she laughing at? Him?
"Hee-heh. I get it, Lee." she said happily. "Good one!"
Joke? Did she think this was a joke? He felt slightly miffed that she could take something this important and put it out of context so. He was freaking out, and she was laughing?
"It's not a joke, Ri-" he started to reprimand, ready to lecture her on the importance of one's first kiss and all it entails.
"Lee, Tsunade-Sama says to go ahead back." Gai interrupted, leaning around the partition.
Lee was eternally grateful that Gai hadn't popped in during his and Rian's little.. Ahem, 'incident'.
"Still friends?" he asked, speaking the words before he even realized they'd slipped from his mouth.
"Of course." Rian answered, looking at Lee as though he were crazy to insinuate otherwise. She gave him a winning smile, and strode casually out from behind the wall, to where Gai stood.
It took Lee a few moments to think this over, before he reached for his crutch once more and tacked along the partition and towards the OR.
He'd done it. He'd gone and gotten his first kiss in a hospital waiting room. From his teammate.
Well, maybe it didn't matter. Suddenly, the whole issue of 'who' didn't seem as big as 'when'.
He'd done something he'd always wanted to do. In a way, this was a rite of passage. He was now officially a.. what was he? He was too young to be a real man, and fourteen was stuck right there, too close to pimples, and too far from facial hair.
So, in answer, Lee wasn't anything.
He sighed. He was just a teenager who had osculated his teammate in a hospital room what he was sure was against her will, had she known his intention.
Nothing had changed. He was just Rock Lee.
But, he still had a friend named Rian. He smiled. And he still loved Sakura-Chan.
It was like the whole ramen thing. It had made him nervous, because he was toying closely with his feelings about Sakura. Because he was close to another girl. The contact with Rian made him nervous, but, in the end, it only made his love for Sakura stronger, because he learned to resist temptation! Even if the tempter knew almost nothing about social skills.
Yosh! Another victory for youth, he thought as he hobbled into the small room and pulled himself awkwardly up onto the table, dropping his crutch against the wall and laying on his back on the cold, metal table. He hadn't even flinched this time, when his body contacted with the freezing stainless steel of the operating table.
Operating table. It sounded eerie, even in his head.
"I'll take care of your crutch for you." Gai teased from the doorway, now in much better spirits and much more conscious after a nice cup a' Joe. The elder Green Beast flashed Lee a thumbs up from the doorway, his teeth pinging as he grinned at him. Lee returned the pose with a shaky smile, and a weak thumbs-up back.
Now, he was just nervous because he was going under the knife.
Rian's head popped up from under Gai's arm as she tried to squeeze past him to get into the doorway for a good bye. She apparently gave up, just her head sticking from Gai's underarm.
"Good luck, Lee." she said simply, smiling brightly at him. Her headband suddenly came undone, loosing and falling over her eyes, resting on the bridge of her nose. Lee enjoyed watching her face slip from the smile into a comical frown.
Tsunade bustled in, larger then life, with Shizune and a leashed and protesting Tonton, whom Shizune tied to a nearby ground light.
The female Sannin shoved both Gai and Rian out of the doorway, while Shizune made herself useful by doing various things with the scalpel-like instruments on a tray nearby.
Lee clacked his feet together, his hands folded on his stomach as he stared directly up at the white, Stuccoed ceiling above him, listening to Tsunade chatter from behind a clipboard to Shizune, as the younger began scrubbing her hands up to her elbows with sterile-smelling soap in the wide sink in the corner of the OR.
"Okay!" Tsunade announced joyfully, putting the clipboard down on a nearby table and smiling down at him. It occurred to Lee that while Tsunade was an excellent medic, he had no doubt, she wasn't one to follow the usually strict rules about order in an OR.
He nodded. "I have complete confidence in you." he said, pinching his face into a challenging frown, before saluting her with one bandaged hand.
Tsunade laughed, before brushing the black hair away from Lee's forehead, tracing the pale skin with one long fingernail.
"I wish had half your self-assurance." she said, before reaching over and taking an opaque plastic mask from a nearby table. Lee allowed her to slip it around the back of his head and reposition the mask over his nose and mouth. This being his first time having surgery, Lee was completely inexperienced in the field of what to do.
"You ready?" she asked, surprisingly gentle, her almond eyes narrowed softly. Lee thought absently that they reminded him of his mother's eyes, before she'd died, that is. Kind. Warm. They almost looked like Sakura's..
Green was prettier.
"Mm-hm." he nodded. Tsunade leaned back over, pulling the oxygen mask back into the correct position over his nose and mouth. Lee glanced out at the tiny, distorted view of the room through the plastic just below his eyes.
Shizune gave the knob on the gas tank a twist with her hand as she yanked a glove onto the other. There was a metallic hiss, and suddenly, suddenly, Lee couldn't breathe.
He flinched, and tried to sit back up, commanding his arms to push him back up, albeit a bit shakily. Tsunade took notice, and hurriedly placed a hand on the center of his chest, halting him from moving.
"Shh. Shh. Lee, don't move. Just breathe, OK?" she said, her voice tender as Lee's panicked eyes beseeched her for help.
Suddenly, He felt.. Tired. Really, just.. Tired. The room began to turn black as his eyelids slid shut. He frowned worriedly as his body ceased to move, as his mind started holing up for a temporary hibernation.
He suddenly found that the only thing he could concentrate on was the soothing feeling of Tsunade's hand as it stroked his forehead in a maternal gesture. His mom used to do that, too. Right before she went on the mission.. The one they never came back from.
She'd do that when he had a nightmare, and couldn't sleep. She'd wipe his tears, and let him snuggle up to her stomach, while she'd caress circles in his little forehead, quietly singing a lullaby Lee could only make out snippets of in his dreams.
Maybe he would dream, during this surgery, he thought. Maybe he could finally remember the words to that soothing lilt he would hum when he woke up at night, feeling alone. He outright smiled as the entire world went dark behind his closed eyelids.
And his last conscious thought was, that Rian had tasted like a chocolate Pop Tart.
A/N: Oh, Lee, you dumbell! CHOCLATE POP TART SMOOCHYS! -having fit-
... I just received the word that my fanclub in Florida is pretending to be me. (Victoria is sitting cross legged and typing in her lap, and Benjamin is still acting de-pwessed.)
Review, please. I'm so scared about this chapter..
