"You are not drying them fully," Lee accused.

Guy chuckled and snapped the dish towel at him. He teased, "Maybe you're not washing them well enough."

The younger man rolled his eyes, the corners of his lips twitching. Guy snapped at him again. A dish clattered into the sink as Lee jumped away.

"Too slow," he quipped, "I think you might be getting old."

The resulting laugh erupted straight from Guy's gut. He feinted left before lunging right. Lee didn't move as Guy wrapped him up in his arms, most likely crushing him against his kitchen counter.

"Does it seem like I'm getting old?" he murmured. He ran his nose back and forth along Lee's jaw. The younger man turned his face to smile into Guy's hair. They remained like that for several long moments, simply enjoying one another's embrace. Eventually, Lee pulled away and caressed Guy's cheek.

"You are certainly not getting old," he assured him.

Guy kissed his palm before beaming. "Good, I wouldn't want to burden my young husband."

Lee groaned and rolled his eyes, turning back to the dishes in the sink. "Not this again."

Guy wasn't put out by his reaction. Instead, he grinned wider and wrapped his arm around his petulant lover's waist. He practically purred, "Soon? I want you to be mine. I want to be yours, Lee."

Lee sulked. Guy fought hard against a good chuckle at the sight of Lee's bottom lip sticking out. "That is not fair," he pouted, "I want to marry you too, but Sakura and Tenten are not due back in Konoha for several months."

"I know, I know," Guy acquiesced as he took the dripping dish offered to him. "But they could always come back for a single day."

"Guy," Lee sighed. "It takes them both nearly a week to travel here. We would disrupt two weeks of their training for two hours. We can wait. We have waited this long already."

"As always, you're right - my darling lotus," he slyly added and watched Lee's cheeks redden.

"Can we talk about something else?" he muttered. His brows shot up, and he asked, "Has anyone heard from Master Jiraiya lately?"

Guy had been waiting for this question. Nearly every other day or so, it would come up – like clockwork. And the answer was always the same, much to Lee's disappointment and Guy's continuous chagrin.

"Lady Tsunade hasn't mentioned anything," Guy said apologetically. "And Kakashi hasn't told me if Jiraiya has been around."

Lee sighed and sank into the chair nearest to him. He complained, "It has been so long, though. We have not been told anything new in months."

Months wasn't an overestimation, sadly, and Guy knew how it ate at Lee. He sat the dish towel aside and stood behind the chair. Kneading Lee's now-tense shoulders, he hummed softly. Lee leaned into the touch.

"They have had the altar for three years. Surely, we would have heard if they had gotten through, right?"

He looked up to Guy for reassurance. While Guy did not know for certain whether the lack of news was good or bad, he reached down to take Lee's hand.

"Jiraiya will find it."

Lee sighed and kissed Guy's hand. He was obviously still worried, but he said no more about the matter. Guy admired his strength and the resolve that he displayed while facing the situation with the altar. Before, Guy would have chased Lee across the world as he hunted down the altar himself, but he had grown, really matured (despite the maturing he had done in the other dimension). Lee was trusting Jiraiya to carry out this leg of the mission. And that was all they could do: trust and wait.

"Will you help me with some indoor training?" Guy asked suddenly, hoping to distract Lee from his heartache for a bit.

As expected, Lee perked right up. He declared, "Yes! We can train together!"

"Yes! I love that youthful fire of yours!"

The couple left the rest of the dishes undone as they moved into the other end of the house to train. Guy had chosen the right way to distract the younger man. He easily goaded Lee into some light competition. It amused them both to see who could do more one-handed handstand push-ups versus who could do chin-ups with the other person clinging to them for added weight. In the end, they decided there was no real winner (mainly because Guy had slightly cheated with their sit-ups and Lee had had to retaliate), and so they retired to the couch to cool down.

It was then that a knock at the door surprised them. Both heads turned toward the sound. Lee stood when Guy made no move to move. He pulled the door open. Shikaku Nara had his hand raised to knock again, but he quickly lowered it.

"Rock Lee," he said formally, "The Hokage requests your presence at once."

Lee didn't hesitate to pull on his shoes and start for the door. Guy stood, wondering if he ought to follow, but the Hokage's advisor saved him the trouble of deliberating.

"And Guy?" Shikaku called past Lee, "You should probably come too."

They followed the man back to Hokage Tower where he led them directly to Lady Tsunade's office. He knocked twice, and the door opened. Tsunade and Shizune stood with a young purple-haired woman wearing foreign, yet familiar armor. Guy stepped through the door but felt Lee falter beside him. He looked back to see a look of utter disbelief on his Most Important Person's face.

"Aya?"

Guy's heart dropped into the pit of his stomach for Lee. She couldn't be here. That couldn't be the famous Mirror shinobi. But there she was. Guy recognized the armor now as the same strange uniform that Lee had worn when he first reappeared in the Leaf. There was no doubt that this girl was from the Mirror.

Neither the girl nor the other two women gave any indication that they had heard Lee's shocked whisper. He winced in sympathy for his love and held out his hand to him. A small part of him feared that if this was not the right woman, Lee might break. But if it was the right woman, then it could signal bad news for both villages.

"Lee," he murmured, gently urging the dumbfounded shinobi through the door. The younger man stumbled in behind him, and a shadow pushed the door closed.

"We do have a shinobi who has spent time in your village," Tsunade assured the girl, continuing the conversation that had been interrupted. She swept a hand toward the two men that had entered the office to punctuate her statement. Guy and Lee inclined their heads respectfully.

"Uncle," the girl, Lien, said stiffly as she bowed deeply to Guy.

Lee glanced at the others in the room. They also seemed confused by the familial term that the stranger used to address Guy. He wondered if she was in the habit of calling all older, higher-ranked men from her village 'Uncle'. Maybe it was a current trend in the Mirror. Lingo picked up in other villages did not always translate well to new ones. It had taken him over a year to stop saying 'Mirror' in place of 'Kami'. Though, if it was just a shift in language, it was an odd one. However, Guy seemed only a little disarmed by the girl.

The older shinobi chuckled nervously and motioned toward Lee. He offered, "I think you mean him."

Lee stepped forward and offered her his hand. Despite the awkwardly familiar form of address, Lee intended to show her the respect she deserved. She gripped his forearm as he did hers too. Two shinobi once from the Mirror, sharing this moment in the Hokage's office. Lee was uncertain how many miles, how many traumas she had traversed to be there with him. But judging from the blood smeared on the corner of her mouth, and the obvious signs of blast fallout on her clothing, she had been through much to come to the Leaf.

The villains must have managed to activate the altar.

His knees buckled under him. He grabbed for the nearest chair once she released his hand and gave her a wan smile.

"What brings a Mirror shinobi to Konoha?"

Her jaw jumped as she stiffened. Her shoulders drew back, her back straightened ramrod. Her voice threatened to shake. Lee could nearly hear the waver when she explained, "Rogue nin came through the Mirror. They attacked our village and took the Mishūkage."

The old man? Lee thought, picturing the Mishūkage being dragged from his office by ruffians, his HoShann guards incapacitated all around him. He swallowed hard.

"Do, uh, do you know where they might have taken him?"

Her mouth puckered. "Him? My mother is our Mishūkage. Aya Kato."

He twisted the chair around and promptly sank into it. Guy appeared behind him, gripping his shoulders, grounding him. Tsunade and Shizune looked at him with a knowing mixture of concern and sympathy.

"Aya?" he repeated, his mouth twisting around the words. "You are Aya's daughter?"

"You know my mother?" she demanded.

Guy murmured, "Uncle is more apt than she knows."

The girl shot him a sharp look, to which he offered an apologetic smile. She shook her head and repeated her question to Lee.

"Yes, I know your mother. She was my," he struggled to find the word that best fit their relationship. "I was on her team under Daichi Hachiro when I was in the Mirror. She was my best friend. My sister. We lived together, trained together. Our lives were the same."

Guy's thumbs made gentle circles on the backs of Lee's shoulders, reminding him that he was in the Leaf, that Aya had always been far away. The distance between them was immeasurable; he should not be so worked up. But here before him was this girl, a girl his own age. Older than her mother had been the last time that he had seen her.

"How can that be? I bet you are no older than I am," she challenged. "Daichi-sensei hasn't had students since my mother was young."

"Your mother never explained any of this to you," Tsunade interrupted. "The other dimensions? How time moves between them?" The girl shook her head, causing the Hokage to make a disgusted noise in the back of her throat.

The girl's face twisted like she might make an ugly retort, but Guy intervened with an explanation: "Time passes differently here. When Lee went to the Mirror, he was gone from the Leaf for six months. When he returned though, he told us he had been living in your village for four years."

"That's impossible."

Guy raised a brow. "You say that with such certainty for someone who has just travelled between dimensions."

Lee held up a hand. He did not want to hear them argue. Gently he asked, "What is your name?"

"Lien. Lien Kato."

"Lien, how did you know to come to the Leaf if you had never heard about me?"

She crossed her arms and rocked back on her heels. "Mother," she said as if that explained everything. At the blank looks on everyone's faces, she sighed. "My mother told me, the whole village really, that if we were ever in the other dimension, we would find allies in the Village Hidden in the Leaf."

Lee tried not to feel hurt that Aya had not talked about him. She surely had her reasons, whatever they may be. Part of him wanted to know more, though; he wanted to know why Daichi-sensei had not taken more teams after them, what Tsung-sensei was doing, what happened to the old Mishūkage. But he knew that Aya's abduction was eminently important and they should not waste any more time.

"I need help rescuing my mother," she said as though she had read Lee's mind.

Lee looked hopefully to Tsunade, who nodded. "I will not sit idly by while another village's Kage is in danger, and the Village Hidden Behind the Mirror has been good to one of our own. I consider it an ally as well."

"Then you'll lend me a shinobi?" Lien asked hopefully, nodding toward Lee.

"I'll do something even better. I'll assign an ANBU team to this mission," she promised.

Lee opened his mouth to protest, but Lien spoke first, "No, that won't do. I can't work with an entire other team. Too many people. We can move faster and strike better with less people."

"Then I'll lend you a couple of ANBU."

The girl scowled. "I don't want ANBU. If they're like HoShann, they're too hard to get along with. They want to lead and refuse to listen. I want to lead a team with one of your shinobi."

"A team here is three to four, Lien," Lee said patiently. "It is different than in the Mirror."

"You obviously want to take Lee," Tsunade surmised. "But if we were going to give you a team to lead, then I would be required to send at least one other shinobi with you."

"What about him?" she nodded toward Guy.

Tsunade hesitated, considering the man in question. "I can't assign him to your team. He is considered an essential member of the village. He isn't on the list of active duty shinobi anymore," she explained.

Guy looked between the two women before finally offering, "I could become active again. If the Hokage allows."

"Guy, you might not be there when the school year resumes," Lee reminded the older man. He didn't want Guy to miss out, but Guy resolutely looked to Tsunade for an answer. She returned his gaze, her brows drawn.

"I know your position at the academy means a lot to you, Guy. Are you sure you want to give that up? This could be a long mission," she warned. When he nodded, she sighed.

"Very well. You have your team. Might Guy and Rock Lee have been assigned to this mission."

Lee reached up and squeezed the hand on his shoulder. Guy was giving up his own life again for the Mirror, for Lee again. But this time they had concrete evidence, solid leads to go on. At least, he felt certain they must have something with Lien standing before them.

"Do you know where Aya is?" he asked.

"No," she answered steadily, "But I know where the enemy was encamped when I came through the Doorway."

The altar. It was not Aya, but it was a start. He nodded, his voice thick but determined, "Then we will begin there."

a.n./ happy holidays, y'all! I hope this sequel hooks you :)