Just As You Are
Vyctori
A/N: I really enjoyed writing this one-shot. Lee is such a fun character to play with, and his characterization is surprisingly easy . . . for me, at least. Maybe it's because I'm such a fangirl about him (in the "Isn't he so adorable?" way, naturally).
A big thank you goes to Tetra Seleno, who put up with me pestering him about honorifics for about three nights straight on MSN (go read his fics—they're very enjoyable). Since my brain skips over them when reading the manga, I really had no clue about who called whom what—other than sensei, of course. Actually, after all this bother, I've decided that in future works, the only honorific I'm using is sensei, since it's one of the more difficult ones to get a sufficient translation, and many people who know far more about the language than I have expressed disapproval with the use of "Master" in its place by Viz.
Disclaimer: It shouldn't need to be said, but I do not own Naruto, its characters, etc. They are the property of Masashi Kishimoto.
Warnings: Semi-AU (since I needed a time period where Lee was, er, mobile for this idea to meet the general requirements). Het. Fluff. I also am mocking "makeover" fics with this, so those who actually approve of that sort of story should probably be hitting the Back button right about . . . now.
With that said, enjoy!
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"I mean, really, Lee-san, who does she think she is, climbing all over Sasuke-kun like that?" Sakura complained as the two headed for the training grounds. "That Ino-pig has no pride whatsoever."
Lee kept walking alongside her. "Well, Sakura-san, um . . . look on the bright side! It doesn't look like Sasuke-kun likes her very much. Nope!" He shook his head emphatically, making his short hair flip from side to side.
"Yes, but he doesn't like me. . . ." Sakura sighed as they approached the training ground where Naruto and Sasuke were waiting. As usual, Kakashi was nowhere in sight. "Well, thanks for walking me here, Lee-san—although we could have come a few hours later, because of Kakashi-sensei." She made a face.
Lee beamed. "Anytime, Sakura-san! I was glad for the chance to protect you! You can always count on the Beautiful Green Beast of Konoha!"
As always, Sakura's eyebrows rose somewhat at Lee's nickname, but she smiled, thanked him again, and jogged over to where the boys were waiting.
As soon as she was far enough away, however, Lee's smile faded. No matter how hard he tried, he could never manage to attract Sakura's attention to the realm beyond friendship. It was always Sasuke she sighed over and never him. And while he was certainly grateful that Sakura wasn't calling him "Thick Brows" anymore, he still wished their relationship would develop beyond a "just friends" basis.
My Spirit of Youth just isn't working fast enough, he thought, dejected. I'm going to have to come up with a really good idea to win Sakura-san's heart!
He lay down on the grass and watched as Naruto and Sasuke began their individual training as they waited for their teacher to arrive. Although Lee himself still had much training left to complete for the day, he decided to linger just a little while longer.
In the distance, as she was warming up, Sakura was observing her two teammates and loudly encouraging Sasuke, much to Naruto's disgust. Her laughter at some remark made by Sasuke sounded heavenly to Lee.
She sure likes Sasuke-kun, he thought, almost annoyed. It's too bad I'm not more like Sasuke-kun. I bet she'd like me the way she likes him, then.
Then, inspiration struck. Lee sat bolt upright and fisted one hand. If Sakura-san liked Sasuke-kun so much, then he, Rock Lee, would do his utmost to become just like Sasuke-kun! He'd become so much like Sasuke-kun that he'd be even more like Sasuke-kun than Sasuke-kun was!
Jumping to his feet, Lee grinned and, his Spirit of Youth renewed, raced off home. Training would just have to wait a little bit longer—he had a heart to win!
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At home, in the bathroom with the door shut, Lee leaned forward until his nose was almost touching the mirror above the sink. He shut his eyes tightly for a moment, picturing Sasuke's face, then opened them again.
"All right—I'll go from head to toe," Lee said aloud.
First, the hair. Lee mentally compared his bowl cut to Sasuke's messier style. To Lee, it looked as though Sasuke just got out of bed and left home without bothering to brush his hair.
"Compared to my haircut, I don't think Sasuke's is very good-looking, but if Sakura-san likes it, then that's what I'm going to do!" Lee nodded twice, very seriously.
Decided, Lee pushed both his hands through his hair several times. However, he had a problem—his hair would settle back into place as soon as his hands left his head. All he managed to do was get a few hairs to hover above his head from the slight static electricity he generated.
This won't do! Lee thought. Sakura-san won't like it if I just look like I'm having a bad hair day! Okay, I'll try again!
Grabbing his comb, he ran it under the tap and then started combing his hair every which way. After he was done, he bent over and let his hair hang upside down while he combed at it some more. Then, still doubled over, he waited until most of the water had dried before carefully righting himself.
At first it looked like he was going to be successful, but slowly and gently his hair fell back into place, leaving only a tuft or two upright.
"All right then! If water won't work, I'll just use hair gel!" Decided, Lee started to rummage through his bathroom cupboards. Only problem was. . . . "Oh no! I don't have any? I'll just have to borrow it, then! Now, who uses hair gel . . . ?" Lee thought hard. "Aha! I know exactly who would!"
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"You want to borrow . . . what?" Kakashi's lone eye didn't seem to register any particular emotion, but he certainly sounded puzzled enough.
"Hair gel, please, Kakashi-sensei," Lee repeated. "You do use it, don't you?"
"Yes, now and again, but why . . . ? Never mind," he said before Lee could answer. "You wait here. I'll go get it for you."
While Kakashi was gone, Lee got down on the ground and started doing some push-ups, which he should have been doing earlier that day.
Looking like Sasuke-kun is hard work, Lee thought between counting the push-ups. It's a wonder he has time for anything if he has to go through this sort of thing every day.
In the middle of push-up number one hundred thirty-two, Kakashi returned, a small container filled with green goop in his hand.
"Lee?" Kakashi interrupted him. "I brought the hair gel."
Lee sprang to his feet. "Thank you, Kakashi-sensei! If I can do anything for you, let me know! I promise I will repay you one-hundred-fold for this favour!"
Kakashi just looked at him. "It's only hair gel, Lee." He tossed it to him. "Return it when you can; I'm in no rush to get it back."
"Right!" Lee saluted and ran back home.
Back in the bathroom, Lee opened the container and looked at the green jelly rather apprehensively. It looked rather sticky and he wasn't accustomed to having anything in his hair—besides the sweat and dirt that came from being a genin, that is.
But if it means winning Sakura-san's heart, I'll do anything! he mentally resolved.
Scooping a large amount of gel out of the container, Lee vigorously applied it to his hair and began pulling the strands every which way. Soon his hair was standing on end in many, many different directions.
Lee admired the effect in the mirror. He felt terribly guilty that he was changing his hairstyle to look different from his sensei, but did his best to ignore it. "Perfect! I look like I just got out of bed, which is exactly what Sakura-san likes! Now, onto the next part."
Leaning towards the mirror again, Lee examined his face. Forehead looked good, but. . . .
"My eyebrows need work," he said to his reflection. After all, Sasuke's eyebrows were very thin, and if he was going to look more like Sasuke, he was going to need to pluck them. A lot.
Looking around, once again, Lee discovered he lacked the necessary equipment to carry out his plan—in this case, tweezers. Thinking hard, he figured out who out of his friends would own a pair. Once he had done so, he quickly set off on his latest mission.
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"Lee, why do you want my tweezers? And what on earth did you do to your hair?" Tenten couldn't take her eyes off Lee's hair. She had no idea he had so much of it . . . or that it could go all over the place like that.
"I need the tweezers to make myself more like Sasuke-kun," Lee said reasonably. "And this is what Sasuke-kun's hair looks like, isn't it?"
"Um. . . ." Tenten tried to come up with a response to Lee's question and failed utterly. "Well, come with me and I'll loan you my pair, all right?"
"Thank you, Tenten!" Lee followed her happily. "I shall do my utmost to repay you!"
"It's all right, Lee. Really."
Soon, Lee had his prize and was installed in the bathroom once again. Examining his thick eyebrows thoughtfully, he mentally superimposed what he remembered Sasuke's eyebrows looking like—which was hard, since he didn't spend overly much time looking at them—over his. Then he grabbed the tweezers firmly between his thumb and index finger. Clamping them onto several eyebrow-hairs, he yanked.
"Ouch!" Lee nearly dropped the tweezers. Sure, he hadn't been expecting it to be painless, but he hadn't thought plucking his eyebrows would hurt so much!
"I shall press on for Sakura-san's sake!" Lee promised himself with enthusiasm.
Flicking the detached hairs from the grip of his tweezers into a nearby garbage pail, Lee bit down on his lip and began the process anew, suppressing the occasional yelp of pain as he plucked . . . and plucked . . . and plucked.
Half an hour later, Lee decided his eyebrows looked thin enough. Setting the tweezers on the counter, he took another look at himself in the mirror.
I guess I'm going to have to change my clothes, but. . . . Lee bit his lip. It was bad enough he was changing his sensei's haircut into something else, but to abandon the jumpsuit . . . !
He thought hard for a moment, then smiled. If he wanted to keep his jumpsuit, all he had to do was wear clothes like Sasuke-kun's over the top of it!
"Perfect!" Lee gave himself the Nice Guy Pose in excitement. "I'll go borrow some clothes from Sasuke-kun and then my makeover will be complete! Then Sakura-san won't be able to help but fall madly in love with me!" A somewhat goofy expression settled on his face as he contemplated the thought. Then, giving himself a mental shake, he emerged from the bathroom and dashed off in search of Sasuke.
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"Please, Sasuke-kun?" Lee asked. He didn't like the idea of begging something from his rival for Sakura-san's affections, but desperate times. . . .
Sasuke folded his arms. "I'm not giving you anything of mine until you tell me why you need it."
"I'm not going to hurt your clothes; I'll be very careful!" Lee's glance slanted away from Sasuke's face as he added, "It's for—for Sakura-san."
Sasuke looked at him for several minutes without saying anything. Finally, he sighed. "Fine." He turned and shut the door in Lee's face.
Lee bounced a few times on the balls of his feet, feeling triumph as a warm glow that spread throughout his whole body. Soon his goal would be achieved!
The door opened and Lee just managed to catch the clothes Sasuke dumped in his arms.
"Don't forget to bring them back." Sasuke shut the door again before Lee could reply.
Lee once again ran back home at top speed. Hurriedly, he threw on one of the wide-necked shirts Sasuke was so fond of. He undid the Konoha forehead protector from his waist and instead tied it onto its proper spot, the way Sasuke wore it. Then he yanked on one of Sasuke's pairs of shorts.
Once he was dressed, having barely stopped running since getting the clothes, Lee hurried off in search of Sakura.
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After a decent amount of asking around, Lee found Sakura getting a cup of tea at a restaurant. He slid into the seat across from her, gave her his biggest smile and said, "Hi Sakura-san!" For good measure, he squinted slightly so his eyes would be less round, just like Sasuke's. Then he waited for her to fall into his arms in a swoon.
Sakura stared. She started by looking at his head. Her gaze travelled down to his waist. When the table got in the way, she leaned over and looked beneath it at his legs and feet. Then she straightened and looked at his face again. "Lee-san, what on earth did you do to yourself?"
Lee kept his winning smile firmly in place. "I gave myself a makeover, Sakura-san! What do you think?"
Sakura stared at him again. Her friend's hair was sticking up at odd angles, like he had slept on it strangely and then had forgotten to brush it—several nights in a row. The skin around his eyebrows was puffy and pink and was covered with numerous bright red nicks where he had encountered problems yanking out his eyebrow hair. He was wearing Sasuke's second favourite shirt, yes, but the long green sleeves of Lee's jumpsuit poked out from beneath it. The same went for his shorts. And his squinting looked like it was giving him a headache.
"Lee-san," she said after finishing her thorough perusal. "Why did you do this?"
Lee blinked a few times, his smile shrinking and his eyes opening to their usual round state. "What's wrong, Sakura-san? Don't you like it? I thought that since you used to tease me about how I looked, you'd be happier if I looked more like Sasuke-kun."
Sakura wasn't sure what she felt at that moment. Was she amused by his complete miss in the Sasuke-kun look-alike department? Was she frustrated by his lack of comprehension? Or was she touched . . . and also a little sad?
"Lee-san," she said again. She smiled. "I like Sasuke-kun because of who he is. And I like you, Lee-san, because you're who you are. You don't need to try to change yourself. I" —almost shyly, she placed her hand over his on the table— "like you just as you are, Lee-san."
Lee stared at her, mouth open slightly. Then, he shut it and beamed. He was suddenly a lot happier than he had been all day.
Covering her hand with his other hand, Lee said, "Thank you, Sakura-san. That . . . you. . . ." He blushed and his voice came to a halt. ". . . Would you like me to buy you some more tea?"
Sakura smiled. "No thank you, Lee-san. I was just finishing. But I think Gai-sensei is looking for you—he's been wondering where you've been all morning."
Lee jumped to his feet, banging his knee painfully on the table and nearly overturning it in his excitement. "Oh no! I forgot all about my training! I'm sorry, Sakura-san, but I really must go! Maybe we can come and eat supper here tonight?"
"I'd like that. Sure thing, Lee-san." Still smiling, she watched Lee give her one last sparkly grin and then hurtle off in search of his sensei. She sat at the table for a few moments before rising and heading towards the counter to pay.
Yes, she thought as she dropped the money into the restaurant owner's hand. Lee-san is perfect just the way he is. . . .