Lee stayed in that position until he got feeling back in his body. He just couldn't believe it. Kuri had never kissed him like that before. He didn't even comprehend that she had apologized and run away, he was too stunned. Lee stumbled off to his room where he slumped on the bed to figure out exactly what he was going to do, the kiss felt wonderful, but he didn't know how to react.
Down the hall Kuri was silently crying, thinking that Lee was going to reject her. "No, that won't happen, I'll leave instead, it's obvious what we have is nothing serious." Kuri grabbed her jacket and jumped out the open window. She walked along the streets until she came to the forest, shadowy from the setting sun, and beautiful with what light reached it. 'What a wonderful place' Kuri thought as she stepped into the trees. For a while she just walked along aimlessly, trying to forget the events of that day. When Kuri stepped into a clearing, she found a large herd of deer, all staring at her. Not a single one of them moved, they didn't seem frightened in the least. "Well hello there." She said calmly. A young doe, still bearing the spots that told everyone she was a baby, walked up. The doe placed her head in Kuri's hands and sighed as Kuri, scratched her chin. Seeing this, the other deer put their heads back down to graze.
"Never thought I'd see the day that the deer took to someone other than me." Kuri whipped around to see a man between two of the trees, "You must have a gentle touch."
Kuri eyed the man warily, "Who are you?"
"Shikamaru, the keeper of this heard, and you would be?"
"Kuri."
Shikamaru's eyes widened a bit, "So, you're the girl that Lee took under his wing, I thought I'd have to wait a long time to meet you."
Kuri was still way, but went back to scratching the doe's chin, "And why is that?"
"Because Lee never stops talking about you, he's highly protective of what's his."
"I don't belong to anybody, especially Lee." Kuri turned with a huff so that she wasn't looking at Shikamaru.
Now his curiosity was peaked, "Oh, I got the impression that you and Lee were a thing."
Kuri choked on a sob, "N-not anymore." Tears began to leak from her eyes and she buried her head in the doe's soft fur.
Shikamaru sighed, "Troublesome." He walked over and placed a comforting hand on Kuri's back, "Do you want to talk about it, I may not be able to help but I'm a good listener."
The sobbing woman nodded, "I guess." Kuri went through the whole story of how she and Lee had been secretly dating and what had happened earlier.
"Hmm, sounds like you're overreacting."
Kuri was taken aback at this, "What do you mean?"
Shikamaru moved so he was sitting right in front of Kuri, "You never gave Lee a chance, he's never had a real relationship before, Sakura and he tried it but she was too fixated on Sasuke. He probably didn't know what to do."
She thought about this, perhaps she hadn't given him enough time, it was definitely a possibility, "Well, either way, I'm not going back tonight."
Shikamaru nodded, "Where will you stay?"
"I think that I'll stay with this herd tonight, they're oddly calming and obviously like me." Kuri, sat for a minute, expecting a scolding from Shikamaru, it never came.
"Do whatever you want, but just so you know I'm not gonna leave you out here by yourself." Shikamaru situated himself in a tree and closed his eyes
Kuri cuddled up with the little doe. When the other deer saw that they were going to sleep they huddled around, keeping Kuri warm and safe.
The next morning Kuri woke to the deer grazing again and the sun high in the sky, "Holy shit!" she called out. She had been so tired from crying that she had slept well into the morning, everyone was probably worried sick. This was true of course, at that very moment Lee was trying to convince Neji that they needed to look for her, needless to say it wasn't working.
"Lee, she's a big girl, she can take care of herself." Neji watched his teammate as he walked around, close to hyperventilating.
"I know she can, but for her to disappear like that is so not like her!"
Tenten and Gai-sensei were watching the two silently, neither had been worried when Lee had got there an hour ago by himself, but after all this time they were beginning to side with Lee. Tenten looked towards the road and jumped up at what she saw.
"Kuri!" Neji and Lee both felt their teammate zoom past them before they even knew what was going on.
Lee turned and saw Kuri being strangled by Tenten.
"Where on earth have you been!?"
Kuri didn't quite know what to do, she knew that it was wrong to leave without telling anyone, but she still felt like it was the right thing to do. "Tenten, calm down, I've been out with Shikamaru."
Lee walked up behind the two girls and cleared his throat. Tenten released Kuri and stepped back, knowing that the two of them would need to talk.
"Why don't we go and discuss this" Kuri and Lee walked away.
When they were a decent distance away from the others, Kuri sat down and motioned for Lee to do the same, "Lee, I know you must have been worried but I needed to get some things straight in my mind."
Lee nodded and waited for her to continue.
"When I kissed you like that and you didn't kiss back I was afraid you were going to reject me. I realize now that I didn't give you sufficient time to react and I'm willing to take whatever answer you give me."
Lee's face wrinkled with hurt, "You thought I was going to reject you?" He pulled Kuri into a hug, "I would never."
Kuri smiled and wrapped her arms around the handsome green beast known as Lee, "Thank you."
Suddenly, Lee pulled back, "Kuri, where did you sleep last night?"
"I, uh, I slept with one of the Nara's deer herds, they're quite friendly."
Lee's face crumpled and he started to laugh, "Well, that explains the smell!"
Kuri slapped Lee lightly on the arm and laughed as well, "Then I guess you'll just have to take me home so I can shower."
He smiled, "Ok." Lee lifted her up in to his arms and carried her bridal style, all the way home.
