(A/N) Lee! Sorry kit. Had to keep reminding myself he's too smol to be yelling about youth just yet. Ah, excitable five year olds. So cute.

It had started with the coughing. Lee had figured it was a cold or something, and as such had gone about his days doing his best to help his mother around the house. He even, upon his mother beginning to have longer coughing fits that left her breathless, cut back on his playing time to help her. His mother was more important.

His dad cut back on missions somewhat as well, preferring short C-ranks and the occasional D-rank if there was nothing else to do. As a chuunin, it was a bit under his level, but Lee knew his mother appreciated it, and he did too! It meant his dad was home more than he had been!

Lee was also working on learning to cook! To help his mom and dad, and it was really fun beside that. He could make curry, and rice, and chicken, and soup, and another kind of soup, and bread!

"Lee, do you want to pour in the rice?" His mother called from the kitchen.

Lee lit up. Yes! Yes he did want to pour in the rice! He liked having that job! He ran into the kitchen, abandoning his coloring. He could do it later! Now he had to pour the rice in the pot!

He skidding into the kitchen, happily taking the measuring cup from his mom's hands, and pouring it carefully into the pot. He didn't spill anything this time! Not even splashes of water!

"Good job Lee," his mother said, smiling at him and patting his head before breaking off into a coughing fit.

Lee sat patiently next to his mother, swinging his short legs and patting her back. It would pass. It always did.

It hadn't. It hadn't passed, and now she was in the hospital, and Lee was wondering in equal measure if it was his fault, and if they had to leave the rice to burn. His dad would be coming soon, so Lee sat there, swinging his short legs and waiting for news.

His dad got there a few minutes later, shunshining straight into the hospital and rushing to Lee's side, picking him up and holding him against his chest.

Lee, not one to argue with physical contact, snuggled into the hold, pressing his face into his dad's flack jacket. It was warm from the sun, and Lee soaked it up best he could. His dad was still here, still alive, still warm.

They got to go into his mom a long while later, while she lay, still unconscious, not even breathing on her own.

Lee hid his face in his dad's flack jacket again.

His dad's energy had started going down badly, he couldn't take him to the park, or take many missions, or sometimes cook. So Lee put his cooking ability to good use to make what meals he could. He had to help his dad with mom in the hospital still!

He started doing what cleaning he could, mopping floors, and climbing on top of counters to wash them and the cupboards.

Two weeks after his mother went to the hospital, his dad was also admitted, and Lee was left alone in a big house with too many echoes. He didn't like it, but didn't have anyone to help fill the emptiness. So he went out, wandering around town, catching glimpses of cherry blossom colored hair he thought was so pretty, but could never catch to talk to. She had friends too, so he couldn't just go up and say hi. He'd long since learned that you didn't interfere with an already formed friendship group.

So he found fun in the little things, pouring rice into the pot, coloring pictures, bringing flowers to his parents in the hospital.

With most of his age group either people with only civilians for parents, clan heirs, or in the big friend group with the pretty pink girl, he didn't exactly have many friends. He did know the blacksmith's daughter, but she had other things to do, so they didn't see each other much.

So he stopped talking as much, finding no point to fill endless empty space with idle chatter when he had no one to talk to.

He got a book on sign language, and took to signing random things at random objects, setting up stuffed animals around the house to watch it and so he could feel better at signing to inanimate objects.

It made him feel less lonely too. He knew he'd have to take them all down and out of their hiding places once his parents came home, but he didn't mind as long as they came home.

It'd been a fairly normal day, he'd been learning the sign for tiger, and was signing at all of his tiger stuffies, just to make sure he'd remember it, when a person knocked on his door.

"Yes?" Lee asked, blinking up at the person.

"Are you Rock Lee?" She asked kindly.

Lee nodded. "That's me!" He half letter signed his name, quickly stopping it when he realized he was doing it.

She smiled sadly. "I'm afraid I must inform you that your mother has passed away. You can come see her before they take her to the morgue, if you wish. If not I understand."

Lee shook his head mutely, signing a quick 'no thank you'.

She nodded, seeming to understand. "I hope not to bring such news again." She left after a moment, and Lee closed the door quietly.

He stared blankly at the house, before entering the living room, and collapsing.

His dad died two days later, of chakra poisoning they said, and Lee didn't know how to feel. He was told to pack only a few things he would need, and was delivered to an orphanage. He barely registered that the pink haired girl was at the orphanage, and he was rooming with a quiet slightly older kid and a Hyuuga. He didn't want to think, didn't want to feel, didn't want to remember that he wasn't going to go home and find his parents in the front room waiting for him.

(A/N) For the record, I do actually feel bad about this one. He's just too cute. I'm torturing myself over here. Cause like, everyone else's parents died fast, in different attacks n stuff. As fast as it might seem, this took place over several months. This was not a fast death.

I should probably explain my headcanon that will be in effect here and will come into play later. Essentially, Lee's dad died of chakra poisoning, and Lee's subconscious took that to basically mean chakra was bad, chakra meant death, and shut down his coils. In Canon, that meant they were extremely stunted when he did enter the academy, hence his issue with chakra.