Title; Younger.
It wasn't his dashing good looks that attracted customers, that Chokai was sure of. It's the one hundred percent success rate of his products.
Now, when Chokai says "success", he means how often a wish is granted. Not how often a wish STAYS granted. If he were to measure THAT percentage then… well… let's just say he DOESN'T measure that percentage for exactly that reason.
Plus, his rate in which people purchased his products was unusually high with this village. Maybe he'd have to stick around here for longer. He supposed that the people of Konoha just needed a little bit of magic. After all, if that mailman got so excited about getting directions to jump into a bush after leaving a package on the door, then maybe it was for the best that Chokai was there to bring some variety to the lives of these people…
Today was the start of a new day. The sun was shining, the birds were singing and it was just an all around healthy day. We've certainly had a lot of those recently, now haven't we?
As Rock Lee strode down the street on his way to training, he began whistling his favorite tune. Today was going to be a splendiferous day. In fact, today was going to be SUCH a splendiferous day, that he felt as though he'd finally beat Neji! After mastering that technique yesterday, he got the feeling that nothing Neji could dish out would be able to counter it!
"But just to be sure…" Lee said to himself as he spotted Chokai's Spiritual Stand and recognized it as one of those carts with all sorts of overpriced trinkets that no one can go without.
Perhaps a good luck charm was in order.
He ran over and regular human speed, conserving his energy for his big fight.
"Welcome!" Chokai welcomed Lee with open arms. Metaphorically—not literally, of course. Because we all know that if he had actually spread his arms out for Lee, Lee probably would have jumped into them. "Are you looking for something in particular?"
Lee's eyes wandered about the cart. Figuratively—not literally, of course. "I'm looking for something to bring me luck in an upcoming battle!" Lee said.
"I have the PERFECT item for you!" Chokai said, immediately making a grab for the Butterfly Crystal.
"Say, a Lucky Rabbit's Foot!" Lee said, snatching the previously mentioned item off a little hook.
"No, no." said Chokai, taking the Rabbit's Foot away from Lee. The Butterfly Crystal was MUCH more expensive, but Chokai wasn't about to share that. "Take this instead!"
"What is it?" Lee asked, shaking the crystal and then getting disappointed that it wasn't a snow globe.
Chokai frowned when he saw the disappointed expression on Lee's face. "That, my friend, is the Legendary Butterfly Crystal." He started.
"Legendary?" Lee exclaimed, his eyes aglow.
Chokai knew it was already a sale. "Yes!" said Chokai, putting the crystal in Lee's hand. "It will grant you one wish!"
"Any wish!" Lee repeated with great enthusiasm.
"Yes!" said Chokai. "Any wish!" Then he paused and considered his response. "Actually…no. It has to be a certain kind of wish! You can change a single thing about your past to affect your future. The Butterfly Effect at work."
"Ahh…" said Lee. Then he glanced up at a clock and gasped. "I'm late! Gai will be so angry!"
He threw down whatever money he could find on the table, thanked Chokai and then ran off. Chokai counted up the money and was devastated to find that it was not nearly enough.
"Cheapskate!" Chokai yelled but Lee was already long gone.
Lee hadn't meant to rip Chokai off. He was just in such a hurry that he couldn't be kept from training any longer. As he stole a quick look behind him, he was surprised when he crashed into someone.
Lee fell on his arse, the Butterfly Crystal flew up into the air and Lee gasped in horror as he began to fall as well. A hand reached out and caught it.
"Lee, watch where you're going."
Lee stood up to see his rival, Neji, standing in front of him with the crystal in his hand.
"Neji!" said Lee. "Thank you for catching my suspiciously magical crystal!"
"Suspiciously magical?" Neji said with a raised eyebrow.
"Yes!" Lee answered proudly. "I bought it to change one thing about my past by making a wish upon it! Though, I'm not quite sure what I should wish for…"
"Lee, give me a break." Said Neji, tossing the crystal back to Lee who fumbled to catch it.
Lee caught it and gave a sigh as he watched Neji walk in the opposite direction. "Where are you going?" Lee asked finally.
"No training today." Neji answered. "Gai got called on a mission."
"Oh." Said Lee. He had been excited to see Gai. Then again, he's ALWAYS excited to see Gai. He looked at the Butterfly Crystal and then at Neji who was continuing to walk away. "Hey Neji!" he called. Neji stopped and turned around as if it was a painful thing for him to do. "What would you wish for?"
"That orb isn't going to grant you a wish." Neji said crossly, as if the thought of Lee believing in magic offended him. Well, it most likely did.
"Well, if it DID!" Lee pushed.
Neji crossed his arms and shifted his weight, then moved towards Lee so they didn't have to yell back and forth to each other anymore. "I don't know." He replied. "I'd have to think about that for a little while."
"Aren't you going to ask what I would wish for?" Lee asked.
"I don't care what you'd wish for." Neji said frankly.
"I see." Said Lee, lowering his head in shame.
For some reason, Neji had a twinge of guilt when he saw the dejected expression on Lee's face. Maybe it had something to do with the alignment of the planets or whatnot, but Neji couldn't very well leave Lee in this state.
"Fine, Lee," he said. "What would you wish for?"
Lee perked up. "Well, I've been thinking about it for a while." Lee replied. "And I always thought it would be best to be a year younger."
"Why?" said Neji, not entirely expecting such a random response.
"Because!" Lee said. "If I had been born a year later then I would have grown up with Sakura so it would have been easier to win her heart!"
Neji rolled his eyes. He hadn't expected Lee to say that, but now that he had said it, he wondered why he didn't expect it.
"Let me get this straight, Lee." Neji said. "Out of all the wishes you could potentially make, such as having the ability to use ninjutsu and genjutsu, or quite possibly being a better ninja than myself, you would wish to be a year younger?"
"Yes." Said Lee with a nod. "Because I know that if I'm born at a different time then not only is there the chance that I might have the ability to use ninjutsu and genjutsu, but I'd also be a year younger than you so I wouldn't care that you're stronger!"
Well, there was no arguing with that logic.
"Whatever floats your boat, Lee." Neji said, since he didn't really care because, after all, he didn't believe in all that rubbish anyway. "I have to go now."
"Bye!" said Lee.
The two of them parted ways, and Neji had to just so happen walk by that curious little cart that he hadn't noticed a few days earlier.
Meanwhile, with Lee, he sat himself down under a tree with blossoms that, of course, reminded him of Sakura. There are very few things that DON'T remind him of Sakura.
But he couldn't help but think about what Neji had told him. About wishing himself stronger…
Nay, he had already decided upon his wish. All he had to do now was make it official.
"Oh, Magic Butterfly Crystal!" Lee said, waving his hand over it a bit. "I wish for you to make it so that I was born a year later than I was!"
Lee sprung to his feet and looked around, expecting immediate results. And he certainly got them because he looked down to find that he was wearing completely different clothes and, as he turned his head, he noticed that his hair was much longer.
He leapt up into the air and cheered happily. He put the crystal in his pocket and tightened his forehead protector; ready to go off and find somebody he could interact with.
After running around aimlessly for a little while, Lee found himself at the place where his team usually trained. It occurred to him, as he stood there, that if he were a year younger then that would mean that he was no longer on a team with Neji and Tenten… and Gai was not his teacher!
Well, they'd understand. All he'd have to do would be kindly explain it to them.
"—I felt that that was a very beneficial training session for the day—oh."
Lee spun around to see his beloved team standing before him. Gai was standing in front with Neji and Tenten on either side of him. But… who was that strange boy standing next to Tenten? He was replaced already? How did they even know that he was making such a wish?
Lee stood there in a stupefied state and was just about to come to the conclusion that it was because Gai was such a wonderfully intelligent person, but then he remembered that it was simply because he had told Neji that he was going to make the wish! Neji must have told Gai!
"Can we help you?" Gai said after the excruciating pause.
"Oh nothing!" Lee laughed. "I'm sure you already understand the situation!"
Gai eyed Lee and then looked at his students. "You are dismissed for the day!" he announced. "Spend the afternoon doing whatever you please!"
In a split second, Gai was gone in a gust of wind and flying paper.
Lee bounded forward towards Neji who only took a nervous step back. "Neji!" he said. "Look! It worked!"
"What worked?" Neji said, trying to keep some distance between himself and Lee.
"My wish!" Lee said. "It came true!"
"Hey, aren't you one of the Rookie 9 this year?" Tenten said to Lee.
"I am NOW!" Lee said.
"Oh yeah…" Tenten went on as if Lee hadn't said anything as she directed her comments more towards Neji and this mysterious OTHER teammate. "He's the last place kid who's on the same team as that Number 1 Rookie…oh, what's his name?"
"Uchiha Sasuke." Neji said.
"SASUKE!" gasped Lee, slapping his cheeks. "I'm on the same team as Sasuke! That means I'm on the same team as Naruto and Sakura as well!"
"The teams only hold three people." Said the random teammate who will henceforth be called Umidasu.
"That's right!" Lee said. "That means I'm torn between my beloved and such a formidable foe as Naruto!"
"You should consider yourself lucky to be put on the same team as Uchiha Sasuke because otherwise, I doubt you ever would have graduated." Neji said in that 'I-am-the-best' tone that we all know and love. And, unfortunately, recognize all to easily.
"Neji, you didn't have to say that." Tenten said, shaking her head.
"For that, Hyuuga Neji, I demand a one-on-one battle with you!" Lee said, dramatically pointing at Neji.
Umidasu and Tenten both let out sighs and looked around for someplace comfortable to sit. They knew that Neji would either rant to Lee until he became so horrified that he ran off crying, or Neji would beat up to a bloody pulp. Neji's so unpredictable that way.
"You?" Neji said with one of those 'I-am-the-best' smirks. "Don't make me laugh."
"That's impossible!" Lee said.
Neji glared at Lee. "How dare you come to me uninvited, demand a fight with me and then mock me." He said.
"I, Rock Lee, the Green Beast of Konoha, will defeat you!" Lee said as he struck his battle pose.
Tenten sat up straight and gasped. "Neji!" she said. "That's Gai's exact stance!"
"I noticed." Neji said. He wasn't intimidated or anything (Hell will freeze over before someone like Lee or Gai intimidates Neji) but he was awfully confused as to why this random rookie knew Gai's battle pose, seemingly absolutely perfectly.
What followed was the most intense battle of all the ages. It included many giant mushroom clouds, civilian casualties and unnecessarily large explosions that senselessly killed many innocent people. Limbs were flying everywhere and the world was stained with blood.
Yeah, except no.
Lee made a move to attack Neji, Neji dodged and then Gentle Fisted his lights out.
"Drat!" Lee said, pounding the ground in rage.
"Aw…" Umidasu said, sounding disappointed. "I was kinda rooting for the rookie."
"Who wasn't?" Tenten said with a raised eyebrow.
"Shut up you two." Said Neji.
"Neji!" said Lee, standing up. "How's about a rematch!"
"How's about you stop bothering me?" Neji said in a mocking tone.
"NEVER!" Lee yelled. "I shall never leave you alone until I defeat you with my new found strength!"
Neji slapped his forehead and shook his head in disbelief of Lee's stupidity. "You are years away from defeating me." Neji said. "Assuming you train non stop and I stop training all together and lose both my arms, then maybe you have a chance of defeating me."
"HEY!" said Lee angrily.
Lee buried his face in his hands and ran away crying, completely stricken by that insult. How could this be possible! Why couldn't he defeat Neji anymore!
Hold up.
Lee chuckled to himself and wiped away his tears. He couldn't defeat Neji ANYWAY! There was no reason to be upset!
Feeling silly, Lee strutted away, looking for someone else to interact with. Perhaps his brand new team of Uchiha Sasuke and either Sakura or Naruto would like to have a word with him.
He went to the place he happened know that team usually waited when Kakashi decided that he didn't need to show up on time.
Uchiha Sasuke and his beloved Sakura stood before him.
"This is GREAT!" cheered Lee as he jumped up and punched the air.
Sasuke and Sakura both looked at him strangely as he frolicked over, grabbed them both and forced a group hug.
Sasuke pushed him away and backed off.
Sakura screamed and punched him into orbit.
When he returned, Sasuke was standing there looking cool while leaning on the railing of the bridge while Sakura paced and looked around aimlessly, both acting as though Lee's foolish action had never even occurred.
"So…" Lee said as he skipped to where the group was. "We are a great three-man-team, aren't we?"
Sakura and Sasuke just stared at him.
"We ARE a three-man-team, aren't we?" Lee tried first.
"Uh…yeah…" Sakura said.
"Unfortunately." Sasuke added under his breath, but of course loud enough for everyone to hear.
"GREAT!" cheered Lee. "What's everyone up to!"
"Just waiting." Said Sakura. "AS USUAL."
"Oh!" said Lee as he jumped up and sat on the railing.
"Why are you late?" said Sasuke with a glare.
"Well, on the way here, I came across Neji and just HAD to challenge him to a fight!" Lee answered, getting all passionate about it.
"Neji?" said Sasuke.
"Hyuuga Neji." Said Lee in that 'DUH!' tone. "I used to be on the same team—"
He looked at the blank expressions on Sasuke and Sakura's faces.
"Wait…" he said slowly. "You don't know who Neji is?"
"Should I?" Sasuke said as if it was Lee's fault that he didn't know who Neji was.
"Well…no…I guess…" Lee said, lowering his head a little bit. "He's a year older than we are."
There was a long pause in which no one really said anything.
"Did you win?" Sakura said randomly.
"What?" said Lee and Sasuke.
"Did you beat that Neji guy?" Sakura clarified.
"Oh…no." said Lee. "I never have and, at this point, probably never will… I should have taken his advice and wished myself to be stronger than him…"
"That's why you'll always be dead last." Said Sasuke. "WISHING instead of training."
"Hey!" said Lee. "I resent that! I do more training than the rest of the world combined, including YOU Sasuke!"
Sasuke didn't know whether to get offended or feel sorry for Lee for being so incredibly misinformed.
The three of them continued to wait in silence, having already exhausted everything they could potentially talked about. Minutes turned into hours, and Lee was feeling very antsy. Whenever he heard about Kakashi frequently being late, he always thought that he'd be able to handle it if he were in the situation.
But he couldn't.
Gai had SPOILED him by always being perfectly on time!
"I think that the fact that Kakashi is always late is unacceptable!" said Lee. "We should have a talk with him and discuss his inability to use a watch correctly and estimate time accurately!"
Sasuke and Sakura rolled their eyes.
Lee sighed when he noticed he was being ignored. Being on Kakashi's team with Sakura and Sasuke wasn't nearly as interesting as he thought it would be. As a matter of fact, it was far LESS interesting than being on the same team as Neji and Tenten with Gai as the teacher. He wondered if maybe life would be more interesting if Naruto was on the team…
Speaking of Naruto…say, if he had Naruto's spot on this team, then what team was Naruto on?
"Hey," said Lee suddenly. Sasuke and Sakura looked annoyed that Lee was going to try to start conversation ONCE AGAIN. "Where's Naruto?"
Sakura made a face. "I don't know and I don't care." She said.
"So you don't know?" Lee said.
"Hopefully he's at the academy leaning how to be a real ninja." Sasuke said.
"What do you mean?" said Lee.
"The team Naruto was on got sent back to the academy after their teacher failed them in their little preliminary genin test thing…" Sakura rambled.
"WHAT!" Lee demanded, jumping to his feet with such speed and force that both Sakura and Sasuke were taken aback. "Naruto didn't graduate? But he is such a superb ninja!"
"Lee, it's not like this is NEWS." Said Sakura.
"Besides, since when is Naruto a 'superb ninja'?" Sasuke said, doing the little quotey things. "He's the only guy you managed to graduate above, which isn't saying much."
Lee crossed his arms and leaned on the railing. He was such a fool! Because of his desire to have to chance to court Sakura, he doomed Naruto to another year of academy learning, when it was quite apparent to him that Naruto quite the superb ninja, even though Sasuke couldn't see it. Then again, Sasuke couldn't really see much at all… even WITH that Sharingan…
"How much longer until Kakashi comes, do you think?" Lee said.
"I don't know." Sakura answered, because Sasuke was way above talking to Lee anymore. "Probably not for a while."
"Right!" said Lee. "I'll see you in a bit!"
With that, he took off running and he was going pretty gosh-darned fast because of his lack of weights.
Whenever Lee had a problem, he always went and discussed it with his hero and role model, Gai. Gai would understand his motives for wanting to be born a year later! He would also understand the consequences of that wish! In the end, Gai understands EVERYTHING! He's so wise!
The question was…where to find Gai?
Alas…woe is Lee. He knew Gai wasn't training with Neji, Tenten and the replacement that could never replace him, but that was pretty much all he knew about Gai's whereabouts.
"HA!" he heard an overly enthusiastic bellow. "Say that AGAIN!"
Lee spun around to see Gai standing in the distance, looking like he was going to pick a fight with Kakashi, who was reading. And that, at first, annoyed Lee because he knew that Kakashi was supposed to be training his new team…
"Fine." Said Kakashi as Lee crept over. "Please go away because I'm trying to read."
"Is that SO!" said Gai. "Well, then I DEMAND we have a fight!"
"Gai, that doesn't make sense at all." Kakashi said with a heavy sigh.
"SURE it does!" Gai said.
"Now's not the right time." Kakashi tried.
"It's ALWAYS the right time to have a fight with your TRUE RIVAL!" Gai roared as he put his thumb up and a wave crashed behind him. Just as his teeth went PING, Lee was unable to control his excitement any longer at the coolness of his favorite person in the world.
"GAI! YOU ARE AMAZING!" Lee screamed as he jumped out of his hiding place.
Kakashi and Gai stared at Lee.
"Lee, what are you doing here?" said Kakashi. "You're supposed to be at the bridge for training."
Lee frowned and was just about to say, "SO ARE YOU!" but he quickly withdrew that potential comment.
"Do I know you?" Gai said, looking confused at Lee's presence. After all, if a random child jumped out from a bush and screamed that you were incredibly amazing, you would want to know who he is too.
Lee slapped his cheeks and gasped. "NO!" he yelled. "Gai! Don't you remember me?"
Gai put his hands on his hips. "Oh yeah!" he said. "You were that kid who was at my team's training area earlier today!"
"This is Rock Lee." Said Kakashi. "He's on my team. He's the kid who I told you about… you know, the one who frequently and painfully reminds me of you."
"There is a BIT of a resemblance!" said Gai.
"Gai, I am YEARNING for some advice!" Lee exclaimed.
"Well, SURE!" said Gai, never wanting to disappoint the fans.
"Lee, if I'm at the bridge before you, I'm going to make you do a hundred laps around the village." Kakashi warned, turning a page.
"Uh…yessir…" said Lee as he grabbed Gai's arm and lead him off.
"So what is it that you wanted to talk to me about?" said Gai.
"Well…" Lee began. "It's a little complicated so bear with me."
"Will do!" said Gai.
"I knew I could count on you, Gai!" said Lee. Then he cleared his throat. "All right. If I wished for ONE thing to be changed about my past, it would come true so I wished that I had been born a year earlier."
"…Okay…" said Gai.
"Yeah so… it came TRUE!" Lee said bluntly.
"All right…" Gai said.
"My point is…" Lee said, realizing that he was being quite ambiguous. "I used to be on your team before I made the wish! And now that I'm a year younger, I'm not on your team anymore! And that makes me sad!"
"Well, I would be sad if I wasn't on my team as well!" Gai said as if that made any sense whatsoever.
"What's WORSE!" Lee went on. "Naruto didn't graduate because I took his spot on his team!"
"Should I just pretend as though I know who Naruto is?" Gai said, nodding his head.
"And I didn't end up being stronger than Neji like I had hoped." Lee sighed. "And Sakura isn't in love with me, which means I failed at courting her in the first twelve years of my life!"
"Mm…hm…" said Gai, rubbing his chin.
"What I MEAN…" Lee said, realizing he was being JUST as ambiguous as before. "I bought this really weird crystal that granted a wish! That's why my wish came true!"
"I'd like to get my hands on one of those!" said Gai.
"Yeah!" said Lee. "And now I'm twelve instead of thirteen and NOT on your team!"
"I see." Said Gai.
"You believe me?" Lee gasped, his eyes lighting up.
"Of COURSE I do!" said Gai with a warm chuckle. "I always thought Umidasu was rather strange and certainly didn't belong on my team!"
Gai paused.
"I'm getting the STRANGEST déjà vu feeling!" he confessed.
"Here's the crystal." Said Lee as he pulled the Butterfly Crystal out of his pocket and handed it to Gai. "Should I return everything to the way it was? Or should I cope with my new life?"
"Lee, you must do whatever it is you believe to be true in your heart!" said Gai as he dramatically pointed off into the sunset. (Even though there was no sunset) Unfortunately, Gai pointed with the hand he was holding the crystal was and accidentally shot off into oblivion.
"MY CRYSTAL!" screamed Lee like a sissy girl.
"WE MUST RETRIEVE IT!" Gai yelled as he took off sprinting faster than the speed of light.
"WAIT FOR ME, GAI!" Lee yelled as he ran after Gai.
Lee ran as fast as he could, but no matter how fast he ran, he couldn't catch up with Gai. It wasn't long before Gai was lost among the trees as Lee dodged over branches and through bushes. Finally, he tripped over a fallen tree and skidded across the ground until finally coming to a stop at someone's feet.
He looked up to see Neji standing over him.
"Neji?" said Lee, getting to his knees.
"You should be more careful with your things." Said Neji as he kicked something out from behind him to where Lee was sitting. Lee picked up the object to find that it was a shard of glass.
"What is this?" Lee asked.
"Your magic crystal." Neji said with a raised eyebrow.
"It's broken!" Lee gasped.
"Well, naturally if you're going to run around like an idiot, you're going to drop it…" Neji started.
"Wait…" said Lee as he looked at his clothes and touched his hair to find that everything was back to normal. "Neji, how old am I?"
"…Thirteen?" Neji tried.
"Everything changed back…" Lee said, standing up and looking at the ground to see a pile of shards that was once the Butterfly Crystal. "Neji…it worked! My wish came true! I was on the same team as Sasuke and Sakura and you didn't know who I was and you could still beat me!"
"I'll always beat you, no matter how old you are." Neji said, turning his back to Lee.
Lee watched Neji go and then started picking up the shards, not wanting anyone to step on them by accident.
Neji sighed and reached into his pocket, touching the surface of the crystal he had been thinking about returning ever since before he had even bought it. "So…" he thought. "It works…"
Next chapter; Appreciation.
