Welcome back for another slice of my fic

In this chapter we find out why Lee is being such an ass. I just hope my reason doesn't suck too badly :P

Disclaimer. I don't own Naruto. I wrote this for fun. Characters may be OOC.

Thanks once again to TDotShia for giving me the encouragement to finish!

Once again, the editor has been taking spaces out. I've checked through but apologies if I missed any!

On with the show. :-)

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Chapter 6

A certain green clad Chuunin was heading towards the entrance of Sakura's apartment, intending to see his one true love, having come as soon as he was able to after returning from his training trip with Gai. Of course, just by being there he had made himself fairly easy to find, and he jumped despite himself when a couple of ANBU suddenly appeared next to him.

The first ANBU, who had a cat mask on, spoke, "Rock Lee, Tsunade-Sama wishes to see you in her office."

"Can't it wait?" he asked, "I am doing something of the greatest importance." He REALLY wanted to see Sakura, and if he went to Tsunade now he might miss her.

"The matter won't wait, Tsunade-Sama was quite insistent." The second, bird masked ANBU said. Lee hesitated a moment longer. He knew that if he didn't agree to go, then they would force him.

He sighed and turned to go reluctantly. As they started towards the Hokage's office, Lee looked back one last time and he saw something that made him stop. Out of the apartment block came Sakura, but with her, was the masked ninja, Hatake Kakashi.

He felt in the pit of his stomach that this was not good, but he had no choice but to go with the ANBU for the moment, as they were prodding him on. But he would be back to investigate further later.

He would make sure of it.

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Kakashi and Sakura walked down the road, not long having left Sakura's apartment. She was surprised when he put his arm around her. She looked up at him, wondering why he would do such a thing as she thought that he would not show any kind of attachment in public, especially with Lee still being on the loose.

"Ah, it's OK," He picked up on her concerns, "I just saw Lee being escorted away by a couple of ANBU so he won't be any trouble for a while."

"Oh, that's good then." Sakura relaxed.

Suddenly there was a shout of, "Oi! Ero-Sensei," from behind them. Sakura stiffened. Kakashi removed his arm from her shoulders and turned around.

"Naruto, Sasuke, what can I do for you." The masked man asked coolly.

"We just want to make sure that you aren't doing anything perverted to Sakura-Chan!" Naruto shouted. Sasuke just stood there silently, eyes flashing in annoyance. It wasn't clear whether he was annoyed with Naruto or Kakashi, but knowing Sasuke it was probably both.

Naruto was oblivious as Sakura calmly walked up to him and walloped him on the head. "Baka! Couldn't you have said it any louder? I'm sure that they didn't quite hear you on the other side of the village!"

"But, Sakura-Chan…" She eyed him dangerously and amazingly he got a clue and shut up. He was suddenly sure that there was no way she would defend Kakashi if he had done anything remotely perverted.

Kakashi stood to one side amused. Sakura did have a knack for dealing with the hyperactive young man.

"So, just what is going on here?" Sasuke asked in a more reasonable tone. "Why did you have your arm around Sakura like that?"

"Is there something wrong with that?" Kakashi asked. He moved over to Sakura and put his arm around her again, Sakura accepting the embrace. The couple looked on with amusement as they could almost see things falling into place in the minds of the other half of Team Seven.

Naruto, looking like a fish out of water, stammered out, "You… Him… What? Eww, Sakura, but he's OLD"

Cue Sakura stepping forward and giving Naruto another whap on the head. "Kakashi is NOT old!"

"Naruto does have a point though," Sasuke interjected, "You are 19 and he is… what? 33? That's a 14 year gap. It could never work out."

Sakura and Kakashi looked at each other and he shrugged. "You can't be sure of that," Was the reply from the masked man.

Sakura continued, "I know you are only concerned about me, but it's not really any of your business who I decide to see. Or is this just about bruised pride because I turned both of you down?"

The two young men were silent at that. She probably had a point.

"Well, we can't stand around here all day, got things to do you know." Sakura waved her hand dismissively as she turned away.

"Hey, Sakura?" Naruto called her back.

"Yes?"

Naruto whispered into her ear. Sakura went red, then stuck her tongue out. "That would be telling!" she said, laughing.

"Ja ne," Kakashi said in amusement as he put his arm around her once again and they left.

"So what did you ask her, moron?" Sasuke was feeling a bit put out.

"Only what he looked like under the mask. I should have known she wouldn't tell. And don't call me a moron, asshole!"

Sasuke just rolled his eyes. That was typical Naruto.

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At the Hokage's office, Tsunade was waiting with Gai for the arrival of Lee. Gai was pacing worriedly, much to Tsunade's annoyance.

"Gai, sit down before you wear a hole in the floor!"

"Yes, Tsunade-Sama," but he didn't get a chance. The door opened and Lee entered, flanked by the two ANBU who had found him.

"Thank you," Tsunade said. The ANBU bowed and left the room.

Lee wondered what Gai-Sensei was doing here. "You wanted to see me Tsunade-Sama?" he asked.

"Yes Lee-San." She steepled her fingers, "It has come to my attention that you are giving one of my students a little… trouble." She looked at him. There was something stranger than usual about him, but she could not put her finger on it.

"Err, I have, Tsunade-Sama?" He seemed to have no idea what she was on about.

"Yes," She decided to get to the point, "I have had several reports that you have been harassing one Haruno Sakura. Now Lee, I don't know what you think you are hoping to achieve, but this has to stop. As from now I'm putting a restraining order on you, and you are not to go anywhere near Sakura or her apartment."

"Gai-Sensei?" Lee looked toward his mentor, hoping for some support.

Gai looked apologetically at Lee, "I'm sorry Lee, but you just can't seem to see that she does not like you in that way. It's the only way…"

Lee burst out in indignant anger, "You betrayed me Gai-Sensei!"

"Lee, I…"

"No, you betrayed me and now she is off with Kakashi-Sensei somewhere and who knows what he might do to her…" With that the obsessed young man jumped out of the window and took off across the town.

Gai raced to the window, "LEE!" he shouted after the boy.

Tsunade sat in her chair, completely shocked. She had known that Lee might be a problem, but placing the restraining order was only intended to help her gauge the level of his obsession and there was always the chance that it may have cleared things up without the need for further intervention. She had not expected him to snap so easily despite what she had said to Kakashi earlier that day.

Having totally underestimated the situation, things had turned out spectacularly badly, and now she needed to get ahold of him to discover what the real problem was.

"Gai!" she said urgently, standing up. "We need to stop him or there could be trouble!"

Gai nodded and jumped out of the window, followed closely by Tsunade. They needed to find the boy now, before things got any worse.

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Lee raced across town, looking for Sakura. He knew that she was with Kakashi, and he needed to rescue her from his clutches. He paused as he saw Naruto and Sasuke.

"Naruto-san, Sasuke-san," he called to them trying to present a calm exterior, "Have you seen Sakura-san? I need to find her."

The two young men looked at each other, then Naruto shrugged and pointed behind him. "She went that way with Kakashi-Sensei a few minutes ago…"

"Thank you Naruto-San." And with that he was gone,

The boys looked at each other once again. That was strange. However, it was about to get even stranger as the two young men almost jumped a mile when Gai landed in front of them.

"Geez, Gai-Sensei, way to give a guy a heart attack!" Naruto shouted.

"No time for that, Naruto-Kun," Gai said as Tsunade landed beside him, making them jump again, "Have you seen Lee? It is extremely urgent that we find him."

Sasuke and Naruto looked at each other once again. What was going on here?

This time Sasuke spoke, "He's just gone that way looking for Sakura. She's with Kakashi-Sensei…"

"No time to lose!" Gai exclaimed and took off.

"How was Lee when you saw him?" Tsunade asked.

"Ehh?" Naruto spoke, "Well, he seemed to be calm, but there was something off about him …"

"In what way?"

"It seemed as if he was really upset about something and he was trying to hide it," Sasuke interjected.

"Thank you Naruto, Sasuke," Tsunade said as she took off after Gai.

Once again, the two young men looked at each other and this time they seemed to come to some sort of consensus. They took off in pursuit of Tsunade. There was something weird going on that possibly involved Sakura and they wanted to know what it was.

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Sakura and Kakashi walked along the street, Kakashi carrying a large bag of groceries. They were still amused by the antics of their team-mates, and talking about it as they went.

Suddenly, almost too late, Kakashi caught the murderous intent falling upon him. Hardly having time to react, he pushed Sakura out of the way and took the blow. He moved himself to lessen the impact, but he had noticed too late and, after pushing Sakura out of the way, could not completely avoid it.

The bag of groceries split and scattered across the ground.

There was silence for a moment as the dust settled. Sakura sat up, confused as to what had just happened. She saw Kakashi getting up a few yards away from her, and Lee coming in, screaming obscenities, obviously intending to give the killer blow.

Suddenly Sakura was mad. This thing, (she refused to call Lee a person at this point in time,) had been harassing her for ages, he was out to ruin her life and he was trying to kill Kakashi.

Momentarily forgetting that the Jounin would be able to look after himself, she got up, and launched herself in front of Kakashi, intent on stopping Lee.

The masked man moved in alarm, "Sakura, NO!" he shouted.

Through his delusion, Lee heard that cry and noticed Sakura was in front of him instead of his intended target, but he had already thrown his punch. Desperately he tried to pull it, but it was not enough. He hit Sakura in the stomach. She crashed into a nearby wall and slumped to the floor.

That was when Gai and Tsunade arrived on the scene, closely followed by Sasuke and Naruto.

"Holy crap! What did that bastard just do?" Naruto exclaimed. He made to launch himself at Lee, but he was held back by Sasuke as Tsunade went to see to Sakura.

"I think we'd better stay out of this," Sasuke said. "Kakashi can handle it."

"Fine, but if Lee tries to go anywhere near Sakura again…" Naruto tailed off.

Kakashi and Lee had stood silent for a moment, totally stunned by what had just happened. Lee took a step toward Sakura and Kakashi moved to stop him. There was no way he was going to let the obsessed young man anywhere near her.

Suddenly Kakashi sprang forward and knocked Lee out. He had taken advantage of Lee's distraction over Sakura and the young man had not put up any resistance. Seeing that the boy was no longer a threat, he moved his attention to Sakura who was now being seen to by Tsunade. He hurried over to check on her condition.

"How is she?" he said as Tsunade finished checking her over.

"She's lucky. From what I saw, Lee pulled most of that last blow. There's nothing broken, but I want her up at the hospital for observation, at the very least until she wakes up."

"Shit, I should have been more careful." Kakashi was disgusted with himself.

"Don't blame yourself, I think we all underestimated the problem." Tsunade said, "At least he won't be any more trouble now, but I'll have to take a close look into what the problem is once I get him to the hospital."

Kakashi nodded and picked Sakura up. "I'll take her," he said. Tsunade watched him go as she moved over toward Lee and Gai, wondering if there wasn't something going on there despite what she had told herself earlier.

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It was not too much later that Kakashi found himself standing in the corridor of the hospital. Upon arriving with Sakura and telling Shizune what had happened, he had been shooed out of the room he had placed Sakura in so that Shizune could examine Sakura's injuries in private.

He was leaning on the wall and reading one of his books to try and distract himself. He couldn't help but feel that he had almost lost Sakura today only just after they had found each other, and that scared him. If it hadn't been for her words about running away the previous night he might have closed himself off again, but he knew that he would not get another chance if he left her now, and the last thing he wanted to do was hurt her any more. He stiffened and closed the book as he noticed Gai approaching him.

"Kakashi," Gai greeted his rival.

"Gai," Kakashi replied coolly as he put the book away.

"How is she?"

"I'm not sure yet, but I do know that her injuries aren't life threatening."

"Shit, I'm sorry. I never thought things could get this bad," Gai was so upset that he had forgone the flowery mode of speech that he usually favoured.

"I think we all underestimated the problem, Gai," Tsunade said as she approached the two men. "I've got Lee sedated for now. It's probably going to take a while to make him stable, but I'll make sure that he won't be obsessing over Sakura anymore."

"That's good," Kakashi said, then before he could say anything else, Shizune appeared out of Sakura's room.

"She's awake now. Although she was knocked out she doesn't appear to have a concussion. She's still a bit tender and a little shaken up. She's got a few scrapes and she'll also have quite a bruise, but other than that she's fine" Shizune smiled, "you can go in now."

"Thank you, Shizune," Tsunade said as she led the two men into the room. Shizune bowed and left to do some other work.

"Kakashi?" Sakura said as he entered the room. He was over by her side in a moment.

"Sakura, How do you feel?"

"As if I've been run over by Chouji's Meat Tank no Jutsu." She winced.

"You really had me worried back there you know. I never expected you to jump in front of him like that."

"I'm sorry, I just got so mad at him all of a sudden…"

"It's Ok," he said as she leaned into him. "You weren't badly hurt and that's all that matters."

Tsunade and Gai looked at each other. When had those two become an item? They had both seen the signs, but they were still surprised to see it happen. They were brought back by Sakura's next question.

"So what happened after that?"

"I took advantage of Lee's distraction and knocked him out, then brought you to the hospital. I don't know what his problem is yet though."

That was Tsunade's cue to speak, "It would seem that Lee is suffering the after effects of some kind of Jutsu, and his mental rhythms are way out of whack," she said, "I couldn't find anything about what might have caused it in either Gai's or Lee's recent mission reports, or it would probably have been picked up on before now."

Tsunade looked pointedly at Gai, who stood deep in thought, "The only thing I can think of was a few months ago. We were on a mission out of the country and a young woman took quite a shine to Lee. He turned her down saying that he was interested in someone else and she took it quite badly. I suppose that she might have seduced him using some kind of Jutsu, or done something else to him as he did seem a little strange when we left, but as he seemed to recover after a day or so I never thought any more of it."

Tsunade sighed, "I'll have to try and get what happened out of Lee later, when he's a little more stable," she said. "I want Sakura to stay here for a little while longer, but as long as everything's OK she'll be able to go home soon."

Tsunade looked pointedly at Kakashi, who nodded to her. He would make sure that she was alright.

"Right then Gai, time for us to go and check on Lee, then we can talk more about what caused this mess." Tsunade grabbed the Green clad man and dragged him from the room, intending to give him a dressing down about not including his observations in his mission report. She was also sure that Gai would have stopped in Sakura's room all day if she hadn't dragged him off, and she got a feeling that it would be best to leave Kakashi and Sakura alone for a while.

Still, who would ever have expected that those two would get together. Sometimes the world worked in mysterious ways.

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This was the last of the really difficult chapters to (re)write. I'm glad it's out of the way :-P And if you think that Lee's problem is a bit of a cop out then you should see the way I originally wrote it. XD At least this way I think there is something at least a little believable about it. (plus it gives him the chance for a happy ending in the future - I don't hate him that much!)

And It could end there right? Well, I suppose it could but the bet has still got to come back to bite Kakashi in the ass. (At least a little bit.) So where did he "put it for safekeeping," and how is Sakura going to find it? Well, that would be telling You'll have to read and find out :-P

Thanks to -

Ruka-Kun - I also like long chapters. It's rare that i'll read any fic that has less than 1000 words, or has really short chapters. I like something I can get my teeth into. I've been (very) vaguely setting a target of about 2500 words a chapter for this fic, and it's worked for me, even though most of the chapters have been longer than that! XD

Zezura - I'm not deleting your reviews (I know it was a joke :P) Must be FF Net being screwy. Actually, I havent had cause to delete any reviews, which has surprised me somewhat. One of my biggest fears about posting this story was the fact that it was for the Naruto fandom, which even though Naruto hasn't reached American shores yet is a HUGE fandom already, but it's been OK so far. :-D

Also thanks to - Aredhl, LovelyCloud, Neko Celes, Freakenout, Yohko, DecemberJewel, Senx2. Every positive review makes it worthwhile.

Side note - I know I said it was ep 21 I watched to last time, but in reality it was ep 22 - See - I was so traumatised by Lee blowing hearts at Sakura that I couldn't even remember the correct ep number XD - then I watched ep 23 and laughed myself silly cos a lot of the scenes reminded me of some Flash Videos that had been doing the rounds a while back- the "Naruto Dreams" and "True Naruto Style" ones XD. I had to stop again after that - I'm not going to get very far at this rate.

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