Just as Tsunade had finished handing off all the new envelopes that were ready to mail that afternoon, there was a knock at her door.
"Come in." Tsunade called out casually.
"Hokage-sama!" Gai greeted as he appeared in the doorway.
"Hi, Gai." Tsunade smiled, "Have a seat. Let's see what I can do for you." She gestured to a chair.
Gai flashed a smile and sat down.
Tsunade whipped out one of her big thick medical jutsu books, "Just wait for a minute while I look through here and see if I can't find a Sunburn-Away no Jutsu."
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Chapter 12 – "Meetings…"
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Lee was quietly reading a book in his room when suddenly he heard a thud at his door.
"Oh!" Lee exclaimed at he made his way over to the door, opening it.
He began to smile really big, "I got mail!"
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"I got another letter?" Hinata peeped as she opened it.
"Oh!" She exclaimed sheepishly, "T-this is sudden. O-oh."
She slowly smiled.
"Shino…"
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Sasuke opened his letter.
"Oh, hell."
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Ino opened hers, "OH YES!"
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"Hmmm…" Tenten hummed slyly, smiling slightly.
Her mind formed an idea.
"If Ino can pretend that Shikamaru is Sasuke—"
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Sakura blinked at her note, "Lee?" She said as she read it.
She smiled slightly.
"I guess," Sakura thought, "I do need a little cheering up after last night's failure."
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Meanwhile, Jiraiya was sneaking about outside the Hokage's office. He had followed Gai there because he wanted to make sure that Tsunade wasn't planning on doing anything to him besides curing his sunburn.
Jiraiya ran down the hall and settled himself up against the door and listened. He could just barely hear some voices on the other side.
"I'm sorry Gai, but I couldn't find a jutsu to cure your sunburn completely."
Jiraiya then heard some tearful babbling before Tsunade spoke again.
"But, I have another idea."
Jiraiya blinked as he heard some rustling about. There were a few clanking noises and thudding about. Suddenly everything went silent. Jiraiya raised an eyebrow.
"Oh, your skin is so rough!"
Gaping, Jiraiya's eyes went wide. "Nuh uh!" He yelled in his thoughts.
"Heh, your skin is so soft!"
Jiraiya twitched in aggravation, "Nuh UH!" He thought, "T-they can't be!"
He gasped as he pushed his ear further into the door, trying to listen as several minutes of complete silence seemed to pass on the other side.
Suddenly, the door abruptly opened, sending Jiraiya tumbling into the room.
Tsunade's eyes twitched at the sight of him.
He looked up to see Gai standing over him—apparently on his way out the door. But, something was off.
Jiraiya looked up at Gai and blinked, "Is that…MAKEUP?"
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Lee decided to spend the rest of the afternoon strolling through the forest—he was still carrying his precious note from Sakura. He wanted to prepare for their meeting tonight. Lee had already finished his poem, but now he was out to look for some flowers to give to her.
Lee was walking along when he spotted a small flower at his feet. He walked a little further before he saw another. And another. And another. And another.
Soon, Lee found himself in a large clearing filled with beautiful flowers of many colors. There were so many blossoms that there was no grass in sight.
As Lee drew closer, stepping away from behind the trees, he spotted someone sitting in the middle of the huge clearing of flowers.
"She can't be more than a few years older than me," He thought as he looked at the tall woman with the long, orange hair, who currently had her back to him.
When Lee took a step closer, he stepped on a twig that snapped loudly, causing the woman to spin her head around and look at him through the ANBU mask that she was sporting on her face.
Lee gasped, but it was not because of her ANBU mask, it was because of the person she revealed to be sitting across from her when she moved.
"G—Gaara!"
Interrupted in the middle of picking a flower, Gaara blinked at Lee with an expression of mild surprise—but no where near the level of surprise that Lee felt at finding the fearsome Gaara of the Desert in the middle of a flower bed picking flowers.
Cautiously, Lee took a few steps further into the flower filled clearing. The wind was blowing and petals were flying everywhere.
The ANBU with the raccoon-dog mask looked back over at Gaara. Gaara watched as Lee slowly came closer, studying the crutch that Lee still used to walk. Lee had still not healed completely from the injuries that Gaara had given him during the chuunin exams that occurred not that long ago.
Lee paused and stood only a few feet away from the ANBU and Gaara. The Sand ninja looked up at Lee—his eyes were not as narrowed as they used to be.
Lee blinked.
Gaara slowly picked himself up, causing the flower in his hand to be fully ripped from the ground.
The female ANBU watched as Gaara walked over and held out the flower to Lee.
Lee could only stare.
Gaara just stood there waiting, motionless—an unreadable expression on his face.
Slowly, very slowly, Lee reached out and took the flower from Gaara.
Once Lee was satisfactorily holding the flower, Gaara simply turned around and went back to sit down by the raccoon-dog ANBU and pick some more flowers.
Despite the fact that Lee had no clue what just happened, he stared at the little flower in his hand and smiled.
And so, Lee went and sat by Gaara and the ANBU, and they all picked flowers together.
It was so cute you could just throw up.
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Later that night…
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Hinata put on a friendly smile as she was greeted by Shino at his door.
"Oh!" Hinata peeped sheepishly as she entered and looked around.
In front of her were a little table and two chairs. Lit candles were scattered all about.
Shino greeted her with a bow and led Hinata over to the table. She took a seat as he went over into the kitchen to bring out dinner.
Hinata's eyes lit up as she looked at how fancy he had set up everything. As she adjusted herself into her chair, she noticed several little black dots moving about on the table.
"Oh?" She peeped as she brought her face closer to see.
Hinata watched as five little bugs were struggling to drag her glass to just the right spot on the table. She blinked as she looked over to see ten bugs huffing and puffing to drag the plates to the correct places. And, several little bugs toted a set of chopsticks over to her hand.
Hinata squeaked as she watched one bug fall to his death trying to adjust the table cloth.
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Sakura went over to answer her door to find Lee standing there with a hand full of flowers.
Lee smiled really, really big, "These are for you!"
Sakura's eyes lit up, and she cracked a smile, taking the flowers, "T-thank you!"
Lee grinned even more as he came in the door.
"So…" Sakura began.
"Can-I-read-you-a-poem?" Lee quickly said nervously, "It-took-me-two-whole-days-to-write."
Sakura blinked in surprise and slowly nodded.
Lee paused in thought before beginning to recite, complete with dramatic arm poses and choreography:
"Roses are red…
Violets are blue…
My suit is green…
And your eyes are too!"
Lee smiled really big, his teeth sparkling, giving a thumbs up like Gai.
Sakura raised an eyebrow, laughing nervously, thinking to herself, "It took him two DAYS to write THAT?"
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Hinata and Shino's dinner was going pretty well, except that the room was completely silent.
Hinata was quiet, but Shino was quieter.
She just had to try and start a conversation, "Um, Shino?"
"…Yes?"
"It's s-so quiet…Wanna talk about something?"
"Like what?"
"…" Hinata went quiet again as she tried to think.
Shino adjusted his glasses and waited. When Hinata didn't speak up again, he decided to start.
"I like bugs." He said flatly.
"Oh," Hinata smiled, "I love butterflies and ladybugs and little fuzzy caterpillars and—"
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Sasuke laid out on his bed thinking as he waited for Ino to get there. He thought back to the night with Sakura. He had waited, petrified, for her to make some sort of move—he had figured that she would just pounce on him or something. But still, he had lingering doubts as to the truths of her hair color.
"Ino may be more vicious than Sakura," Sasuke sighed, "But at least she doesn't have pink hair."
Knock…knock…
"Oh hell."
Sasuke went over to the door and opened it. Ino shot him a big smile and quickly bounded into the room with a skip and a jump.
Just as Sasuke opened his mouth to utter some word of a greeting, Ino cut him off.
"Let's make this quick." Ino said, getting up close into his face, "I love you, you are hot, and I want to have your babies."
She tilted her head slightly and grinned at him.
Sasuke suddenly lost all of the color in his face.
"Come on!" she said, throwing herself over onto the bed and laying herself out just so.
Sasuke just kind of stood in the middle of the room with wide-eyes that followed Ino's movements.
"Ravish me!" Ino exclaimed with a sly smile.
Sasuke made the mistake of walking over to go stand at the end of the bed to talk to her.
"Uh…" Sasuke began slowly, a sweat-drop forming on his brow, "I… wouldn't mind you uh…'having my babies' later…but I'm not ready for this right now."
Sasuke shot her a nervous smile.
Ino raised her eyebrow—it began to twitch slightly.
"Ugh." She grunted in frustration, before tilting her head to the side and shooting him a sly glance out of the corner of her eye.
Sasuke could only stare at her as she suddenly began to make some quick movements with her hands.
"Shintenshin no Jutsu! MIND body SWITCH!"
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Tenten entered Shikamaru's room to find him just standing there.
"Hi, Shikamaru!" She called out.
"Hn…" He replied.
Tenten walked up to him and scrutinized him up and down.
"What?" He asked.
Tenten narrowed her eyes in thought, "It'll be hard to pretend he's Neji. If only he had long hair." She pondered to herself.
Shikamaru blinked.
"Can I… take your hair down?" Tenten asked happily.
"Uh," He replied in slight confusion, "…Sure."
Tenten undid his hair—only for it to poof out into an afro.
It didn't fall down long and flat like she wanted. Shikamaru sighed and mumbled something under his breath.
"Hmmm…" Tenten contemplated, trying to figure out how to make his hair more like Neji's, "Wait! I've got it!"
Shikamaru blinked as Tenten ran over and grabbed his arm, dragging him in the direction of the bathroom.
"Let's take a shower together!"
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To Be Continued
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Review Please!
Next chapters: Ino and Sasuke! Oh dear! And the jounins get together and discuss juicy things! Plus, what Naruto's been up to and More! Please Review!
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