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Disclaimer: Is Lee getting chased by Seme's that want him as their Uke? No? Then I don't own Naruto.

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Title: Cherry Lotus

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It was past dark by the time Lee realized the time. He felt bad for keeping Kakashi up with 'meaningless' talk and tried to say his goodbyes. Only, Kakashi told him to stay. Pakkun was the one to say that it'd make him 'feel better' since it was so late and they had foreign shinobi in their village. Lee was hesitant, not wanting to intrude even further in Kakashi's personal space, but Kakashi said that he agreed with Pakkun.

Lee finally accepted but said that he would take the couch.

Kakashi was surprisingly reluctant but soon Lee was bidding him goodnight, smiling helplessly, fondly at the man.

Lee went back to the couch after bidding goodnight to each of Kakashi's ninken as well. He laid down, not actually planning to sleep. He knew he would have a nightmare -there were only two times he didn't. When he was too exhausted to dream, and when someone was holding him. It was almost embarrassing-. So instead, he just stretched out, making it look like he was going to sleep, then slipped into his mind.

Inner was there waiting and not for the first time, he thought that she looked so real though she was supposedly just Sakura's Inner self.

"Now that we have time, I want to go over your life." Inner said, confusing Lee for a moment. She felt the confusion and continued, "I know I've been 'whispering in your ear' but I think it would be better if you knew too. It's a lot of years but I've been going over everything again and again, trying to find all the information to piece together what happened."

"You are amazing." Lee said, smiling softly, unable to help himself. Inner looked surprised before she grinned.

"I am, aren't I? 'Bout time you realized it!" She said but Lee could feel the flare of embarrassed happiness.

"You really are. I am sorry I never said it before." Lee said, "I believe...I believe I would have failed within the first day if it were not for you."

"..." This time Inner was smiling and she put her hand on Lee's shoulder, "Nah, you would have been fine. Don't forget, you're great too Lee."

Lee blinked then his smile widened. Inner sighed then opened her arms, "Come on, bring it in. I know you want to."

Lee immediately hugged Inner, lifting her as he did since she looked like the thirteen year old Sakura and while in their shared head, he looked like his original twenty year old self -bloodstains and all-. He made a happy noise as Inner laughed then set her down when she said to. She shook her head fondly then motioned him to sit. He did and she somehow made a screen appear and previous memories played on it.

"Alright, let's start with what happened during this free mont and the third exam." She began and Lee sat even straighter, determined to remember everything.

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It felt like hours that they were reviewing memories but time passed a lot faster in the mind than it did on the outside. So it was just a couple hours past midnight when Inner and him were inturupted. It started with a tickling sensation Lee felt on his skin even from inside 'his' mind. He stopped debating with Inner and slowly frowned.

"Lee?" inner asked and Lee shook his head.

"I do not feel in danger but there is something trying to get my attention." Lee said, "If possible, I will be back."

"Alright. I'll keep looking over the memories." She said, turning back to the screen Lee had paused. She fast forwarded it to the Fourth Shinobi World War to find out more about Obito.

Lee pulled himself out of their shared mind and opened Sakura's eyes. He glanced down at his ankles then blinked in surprise. It was sand. Gaara was near by and found him.

Lee sat up, feeling the soft tug of the sand. It was like it was trying to pull him somewhere. It was...cute. Gaara was tugging him, trying to get him to come out. It made Lee smile a bit and he slowly got up, being careful not to wake the dogs around him. He looked down at the shirt he was borrowing from Kakashi but decided that it didn't matter, it covered enough. So he quietly opened the door and looked out. He stepped up to the railing then spied red hair and smiled. He raised his arm, waving, and sand came to him. It wrapped around him, lifting him from the walk way and bringing him to where Gaara was.

What he didn't know was that Pakkun was awake. He woke Uhei and got him to go wake Kakashi before following Lee.

Lee giggled as he was floating in front of Gaara, "Hello again, Gaara. It is very nice to see you." he said, settling himself on the sand, "But we are in front of the Jonin apartments. You should be more careful, they will not take kindly to you being right outside, watching. And if you kill them, you will be removed from Konoha and we will not be able to see each other anymore."

Gaara frowned at that, his sand immediately bringing them both far away from the apartments. He would have killed them, should any of the Jonin try to interrupt his time with Lee, but he did not want to be removed from Konoha. Lee was in Konoha and for as long at the exam ran, he would take Lee back with him after.

He settled on top of another home further away then settled Lee in front of him -he wanted to Lee on him again, like those moments when Lee fell asleep on him, showed him 'her' vulnerability, but a part of him said that he shouldn't. It was better when Lee chose for 'herself'-. Gaara watched as Lee came closer, she sat in front of him instead of on him but their knee's were pressed together. The pressure called nearly all of his attention.

Neither of them noticed Pakkun, or Kakashi who just showed up.

Kakashi hid on the building next to the one Lee sat on. There was a blocked off ledge that hid him when he crouched. When Uhei woke him, he didn't even think to dress besides grabbing his weapons pouch. So Kakashi crouched, barefoot, wearing only his modified sleeveless turtleneck and pants. His left eye was revealed but closed to stop the majority of the chakra drain from the Sharingan. His legs tensed, seconds away from bringing him to 'Sakura' to take her far away from the far too dangerous Suna-nin.

Pakkun bit into his pants to stop him, "Boss-"

"Why were you there." Gaara's voice made Pakkun quiet and Kakashi tense. They both turned their attention back onto the two and Kakashi readied himself in case Gaara tried to hurt 'Sakura'.

"I was invited and he did not want me to go home when it was so dark and we had foreign nins around." Lee answered, giving Gaara a little shrug, "But you found me."

"I will always find you."

Lee giggled, feeling a flare of fondness again. It was tainted slightly by despair -gods, the future past Gaara said the same thing once upon a time. But he did not want to think about that day-.

"Lee." Gaara brought him out of his thoughts and he smiled at the boy.

"Sorry, I get lost in thought a lot."

Gaara stared and Lee just continued to smile. A little frown appeared on Gaara's face but he didn't try to pry his way into Lee's mind though he wanted to. Instead, he said, "The tongue?"

Lee couldn't help but to laugh, "My gift from you? It is safely in my weapons pouch. I plan on preserving it in a jar." He noticed the look in Gaara's eyes and huffed another chuckle, "Yes, it was a wonderful gift, Gaara. Thank you."

The almost feral pleasure in Gaara's gaze grew and the sound of shifting sand made itself present. Lee liked it. He looked down at Gaara's hands and his own twitched. He wanted to hold them, he wanted more touch than just their pressed knees. He sighed instead of reaching, closing his eyes for a moment. While they were closed, he felt a slight touch to his hands. He opened his eyes and saw that Gaara was the one reaching for him.

Lee smiled brilliantly, turning his hands over, palms up, offering them. Gaara gripped them both and stared at him with dilated eyes.

"Lee." Gaara rasped and Lee tilted his head in question, his smile growing slightly.

Gaara didn't say anything else. He only repeated his name and Lee grew happier with each utterance. Lee felt that tickling feeling again and the next time Gaara said his real name, he made a happy noise. Something flickered in Gaara's gaze and the boy leaned forward, saying his name in the same tone as before. Lee couldn't help the second happy noise that escaped him and pleasure flared in Gaara's sea-green gaze again.

"Gaara..." Lee murmured, softly, affectionately. It made Gaara pause before trying to say his name in the exact same way. But Gaara's voice was raspy and it made it sound different. Lee shivered and giggled a little nervously. The grip on his hands tightened and Lee looked back up. He swallowed, that tickle feeling settling in his stomach and making him feel like he could cough up butterflies.

"I should be going back." Lee suddenly said and Gaara's grip grew painful. Lee didn't hold it against him. "I am sorry, Gaara, but I left without saying a thing. I do not want to worry Kakashi."

"Kakashi?" Gaara questioned, his eyes narrowing.

"Yes, he is Team Seven's Jonin." Lee answered, then he said, "He is a dear person to me, Gaara. So please do not try to kill him." he squeezed Gaara's hands gently and smiled. It was funny, it kind of looked like Gaara was pouting, though to anyone else, he'd just look angry.

Lee giggled and pulled his hands out of Gaara's grip, leaning forward and hugging the boy instead. He whispered into Gaara's ear, "Do not worry Gaara. You are a precious person to me too."

He pulled back a little and smiled at Gaara, willing him to believe it. Because it was true. He loved Gaara, not like he loved Shikamaru, but like how he loved Kakashi. They were so dear to him, he would be devastated if anything were to happen to them. Lee's gaze gentled and on a whim, he pushed back Gaara's hair and kissed the scar on his forehead.

"Be safe, Gaara." Lee said against the scar then pulled back and stood up, "I will see you later."

Lee jumped from the roof, unaware that with that one action, he once again changed the future. He lightly held onto his borrowed shirt, making sure that it didn't flare up as he roof hopped back to Kakashi's apartment. He landed on the railing then got down and entered the place without making a sound. He looked around and saw that none of the dogs had moved. He smiled, sneaking back to the couch to lay down and wait for the sun to rise.

He closed his eyes and sunk back into his mind to continue going over memories with Inner.

They debated over the things that could happen as Orochimaru never got Sasuke. Would Sasuke still try to leave later? Would Orochimaru try again? They were both sure that Orochimaru would since in the future's past, the reason Orochimaru went after Sasuke was for the Sharingan. Orochimaru wanted to learn every jutsu, he wanted knowledge.

There were many jutsu's in Lee's memories. Inner could pull up each one and have Lee learn them or even use them as bartering tools. Despite the fact that Lee had usable chakra coils now, he didn't feel the most natural with ninjutsu. Medical jutsu's were one thing, they kept close to the body and only enhanced his Taijutsu. But Ninjutsu and Genjutsu were just odd to him though physically, they felt natural. Mentally, it was another matter. He still expected them to fail and nothing to happen.

Lee sighed as he came back out of his shared mind. The sunlight rays hitting him in his stolen eyes. He squinted slightly then slowly sat up, feeling strangely tired. Or maybe it wasn't strange at all. It didn't matter, he'd try to sleep when he got back to Sakura's home. No one should be there, so any nightmares would be hidden. Not that he ever let it be known that he suffered from such things.

He stood from the couch, stepping over the dogs on his way to the kitchen. He searched for an apron and found a plain white one that looked like it had never been used -he knew Kakashi knew how to cook, there was no excuse of not using the apron-. He huffed and put it on anyway, quickly redoing his braid so no pink hair escaped -if he couldn't see it, then he felt like he was almost himself-. Then he got started on breakfast -after quickly putting food in each one of Kakashi's ninken's bowls-.

Soon, the smell of food filled the apartment and Lee could hear the sound of Kakashi's door opening.

"Breakfast is almost done!" Lee called, keeping his voice soft but loud enough to be heard.

"I feel pampered." Kakashi's voice came after a moment and Lee turned his head to smile at the man leaning against the doorway.

"Good." He said, then turned back to the food, "I saw that you had some saury so I boiled it, and I remember how much you liked the miso with eggplant so I made that as well." he checked on the rice and nodded when he saw that it was done. Then he took out the tea bags he found in a cupboard and made two cups.

"Will you get out the plates please?" Lee asked and the only things to tell him that Kakashi was moving was a vague feeling and the sound of the cupboards opening, "Thank you!"

Lee held out his hand and a bowl was placed on it. He ladled in the miso eggplant soup and set it down before holding out his hand again. He kept it up until he'd gotten all of the food onto the offered plates then smiled at Kakashi, holding the two cups of tea. They sat across from each other at the small table and said their customary thanks before starting to eat. Lee glanced up only once to see Kakashi's bare face then went right back to eating, still feeling all tingly and happy that Kakashi decided he was special enough to see his face.

"Are we meeting up with Naruto-kun and Sasuke-kun today?" Lee asked after swallowing a mouthful of food.

"No, I thought about giving them a break. A day to rest since you all just got back from the Forest." Kakashi answered and Lee chuckled slightly.

"I bet you that Naruto will refuse that."

"That's a fools bet. He's going to try to track me down."

Lee's chuckle turned into a giggle, "He'll drag Sasuke-kun into it as well. Sasuke-kun hates being left behind." He shook his head then asked, "What do you plan to do with training? All of us passed, do you have teachers for them or will we be training them together?"

He needed to know, from what Inner put together, this is when Naruto met Jiraiya and started training under the Sannin. Lee had to somehow make that happen again.

"What about your own match? Can you spend the time training the boys?" Kakashi asked, looking up from his food -great as usual and warm, the warmth flooded his insides even with the confusion of last night-.

-It twisted everything inside him. He had to know. He had to know-

"I will win. Akado-san poses no threat, he will be easily defeated." Lee said, "Honestly, I would like to help you train the boys."

A smile pulled at Kakashi's lips and Lee saw it. Lee had to look away. That smile was disarming! He had felt his heart jump in his chest. He cleared his throat, feeling oddly giddy, and opened his mouth to say something when Kakashi spoke first.

"Did you sleep well?" The question was nonchalant and Lee felt a little uncomfortable with it. He shrugged a little.

"It was just as always." Lee said. It was a good answer in his mind. Just as always meant that he didn't sleep but Kakashi didn't know that.

"Lee."

Lee immediately looked back up, a bright smile automatically pulling at his own lips before it really registered what he'd heard. Then his smile fell and he stared a Kakashi, feeling cold inside. Kakashi's mask was back up and Lee distantly knew it was because Kakashi had a surprisingly expressive face and he didn't want it to be seen.

Lee swallowed hard before a polite smile curled his lips instead. He waited.

"I can't help but to wonder just how close you are with that Suna ninja. It seems a lot closer than just a few weeks." Kakashi said

Lee felt everything inside him fade, "What are you saying?" he asked, his voice quiet, almost lofty. Inner had pulled herself out of his memories at the first sign of Lee's distress and tried to send him as much comfort as she could. She was dreading this too, she hadn't been looking. She hadn't kept watch last night. She thought it was okay so she put all of her focus of the memories! this was...this was her fault and she prayed that this wouldn't turn into a disaster.

Please.

Please.

Please.

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