Rock Lee; 6 Years Later

Age 19

-Silence-

Garu was coming over today…but I couldn't stop thinking about Tenten. And what had happened two nights ago. I was going to tell Garu that I couldn't see her anymore…I loved Tenten, I knew that now.

I mean…after what happened two nights ago…

I heard a knock at the door. It was probably Garu.

Here goes nothing.

I opened the door. Tenten? "Tenten!" I said.

"Hi Lee." Said Tenten.

I didn't know what to say now. "I—meant to call you…" I said. "Come in."

"Lee, I have to ask you." Tenten said, coming in. "Do you love me? Or is this just a fling?"

"I do love you." I said, grabbing her hands. She wouldn't look me in the eyes.

"Do you love Garu?" she said so that I could hardly hear her.

I wanted to tell her no. I wanted to yell it. But there was a little piece of me that couldn't see Garu leave.

"I have to go." Tenten said as she began to cry. I hated it when I made girls cry. I just hated crying in general.

"Tenten, wait, please." I said, knowing she had been scared away by my silence.

But I was silent once again when I saw that Garu was coming up the front steps. What now? What could I possibly say to Tenten? I would have to tell Garu sooner or later, but I suddenly didn't feel so bold anymore.

"Hi Lee! Hi Tenten!" she hoped up the stairs and came inside. "Oh…" she said. "Am I interrupting something?"

"No." Tenten said. "Nothing at all. I was just leaving."

"Don't you want to stay for a little while?" Garu asked.

"No, that's all right." Tenten said, walking by her and out the door.

"Bye Tenten." I said quietly.

Garu spun around. "So?" she said with a big smile on her face. "You wanted to talk to me?"

Her smile…and her glow…I couldn't tell her.

"Garu…" I said. But I couldn't go on like this. I couldn't love two women at once and I definitely couldn't keep this a secret from her. So what was my solution?

I couldn't love either of them.

"Garu," I repeated.

"Yes?" she said with a laugh.

"I have to focus more on my training if I want to become a jounin." I said, realizing that I had not been called by the Hokage to be promoted. "I… can't see you anymore."

"Oh don't be silly!" giggled Garu. "We'll just cut down on our time together! I can't go an eternity without you!"

"But…" I started.

"So we'll just start seeing each other LESS." She said. "But every minute you're not training, you're going to be making it up to me, got that?"

She meant well.

"I got it." I said, not knowing how else to respond.

"All right!" she said. "Well, I've got things to do! You get to your training!" She spun around and sashayed out the door.

I had too much on my mind to train. I just wanted to get out some aggression. I needed to fight someone.

Who could I fight? Who would WANT to fight me?

What about…? No…he wouldn't…but then again…maybe he would… he was probably a jounin by now…

I hadn't even realized that I had made my way over to Neji's house entirely subconsciously. I had to feed my terrible need for nostalgia as well as my terrible need to exert some force.

I didn't even bother knocking because I knew I'd be turned away at the door.

It didn't take long to find Neji. He was quite the presence.

"Lee, what are you doing here?"

He wasn't wearing a jounin vest. I knew he'd be wearing a jounin vest if he had passed the exam. "So you didn't pass the jounin exam either?" I said.

"So?" Neji said, turning around and looking quite offended. Maybe it wasn't the best way to ask him to fight me.

"So…" I shrugged. Then again, maybe it would be. "Let's train together." Neji looked skeptical. "For old time's sake." I clarified.

"You want to train with me?" Neji said after a long pause of silence.

"Yeah." I said. "It's been too long. Five years."

"You kept track." He said in a very condescending tone. "That's so sad."

It wasn't terribly hard to subtract fourteen from nineteen. "Well…I always thought of you as my friend, Neji." I told him.

Neji looked confused.

"And it made me sad when you didn't train with us anymore." I went on.

"Lee, stop." He said finally.

"But it's been five years!" I said, a little frustrated that he didn't care that we were so far apart after being together for so long. "Didn't you ever think of those times when you, me and Tenten all trained together as a team and we went missions and entered the chuunin exam and—"

Neji put his hand up and I instinctively stopped talking even though I hadn't done that for years.

"Stop talking." He instructed.

"But—" I began.

"I'll train with you…" he said. "If you stop talking."

Sounded like a deal to me.

I was going to take Neji to that spot where Gai always used to have us train. At first, I was going to keep it a secret and a surprise, but I couldn't hold it inside me anymore because I was getting so excited about finally getting to fight him after all these years.

"Neji, let's go where we always used to train back when we were on the same team!" I said.

Neji didn't say anything or react.

He just kept walking.

What an exterior he put out.

We reached the training grounds. I had been there a few times earlier this year so it wasn't very different for me, but I could tell Neji was reminiscing slightly… to an extent… that Neji can reminisce too…

"Those were some good times." I said.

He raised an eyebrow and didn't answer. Big surprise.

"So what should we do first?" I asked. "Let's spar!"

Maybe I should have let him answer first.

"Lee…have you stopped thinking about that at all in the past five years?" Neji said.

Rrrg! He could always read me like a book!

"Well…" I said, trying to think up a good answer so I wouldn't look like an idiot. "You said you'd fight me only when I got stronger. And I think I've gotten stronger…"

"You THINK you've gotten stronger?" Neji said. "Lee, if you only THINK you've gotten stronger—"

Bad choice of words! I probably ruined my chances just then! "I KNOW I've gotten stronger!" I said.

"I don't want to bother unless you KNOW you're stronger." Neji said.

"I am stronger!" I said, getting ready to fight. "I'm stronger than you are!"

"Are you?" Neji said in a cocky fashion. I knew he was going to fight me, especially after my last comment.

"Yes, I am!" I said. "And I'll prove it!"

"Then let's see." Neji said, getting in the familiar stance that I hadn't seen for so long.

I was about to attack him, but I caught sight of someone watching us.

It was Tenten.

"Hi guys…" said Tenten. "Are you fighting again?"

"It's just a spar!" I said, quickly going over to where she was standing. "Nothing serious!"

Uh oh. Another bad choice of words on my part.

"Lee, I think we're done." Neji said.

"What?" I demanded. I needed to fight him! But I also needed to talk to Tenten! "We've hardly started! Strike that, we HAVEN'T started!"

Neji began to walk away, but he stopped.

"Neji!" I pleaded with him.

"Lee, you are no stronger than when I last fought you five years ago." Said Neji, launching into one of his famous degrading speeches. "I cannot believe I even began to think you would be a worthy opponent and that you actually progressed all these years. You're the same as you always were."

"Neji, stop!" said Tenten.

"There is a REASON why you can't use ninjutsu or genjutsu." Neji said. As soon as he said that, I felt like I had been hurt even though he hadn't physically attacked me. "It is not in your fate to be a ninja. If it was your destiny then you would not have been born with that impairment."

Impairment…

Impairment?

Neji then walked away without saying another word.

Neji and his silence.

With his silence, he had grown up to be a very bitter person. I wasn't going to be silent like Neji.

"Tenten." I said. "About earlier."

Tenten forced a laugh. "Isn't it a coincidence that all three of us came here on the same day?" she said.

"Tenten, don't change the subject." I ordered her. I had to get this out. I had to tell her that I had chosen.

"Well, what is it then?" Tenten asked, looking angry.

"This is a very hard time in my life right now." I said. "Everything is very complicated. I can't handle it all."

"I can't handle any of it." Tenten said, looking like she was going to start crying again.

"I'm sorry." I said. "I'm working to become a good ninja."

"What does this mean?" Tenten asked.

"I have to focus on my training." I said. "I've told Garu this." These words killed me to say. I really wanted to be with Tenten, but I couldn't as long as Garu stood in the way.

"Garu, Garu, Garu!" Tenten yelled angrily. "I don't want to hear her name anymore! All I want is a straight answer, Lee! You have to tell me if you love her or me!"

What was I going to say? No matter what I said, I was going to lose.

"I…"

I couldn't go on.

It was that silence.

"It's like…"

"Just…just…" Tenten started. She got up on her feet as tall as she could and placed each of her hands on my cheeks. She brought me down so she could reach me. I was glad that she was going to kiss me. Everything would come out.

She hesitated.

That's when I felt her hand on my chin as she angled my head down. I felt a small, friendly kiss on the forehead. The kind of kiss you give a child when you're leaving him for the weekend.

That's the way I felt.

"So…that's the way it is." I said, realizing that neither of us could go on like this.

"I'll wait for you." She said quietly, though I wasn't expecting her to say it. "So when Garu isn't what you imagined, I'll be here."

She looked better.

That's when she let go of me and walked away.

I didn't do anything to stop her. I was silent. I think I always will be.