Spirit of Youth
Gai and Lee were the closest I've ever seen a teacher and student.
No-one ever dared to suggest that the two were sane. They wouldn't even call them eccentric. Gai and Lee were outright insane.
But they didn't care, they kinda knew it already, and took comfort in the fact that they had each other, if no-one else.
Gai had always had problems remembering things. Old enemies would return for revenge on the Green Beast of Konoha and he would ask them, "Do I know you?" But after his Eternal Rival died, Gai began to forget a lot more.
He forgot what his summon was, he forgot he was a jounin. He forgot what his mission was (but Lee was there to remind him) and he forgot Neji's twentieth birthday (something Neji was eternally grateful for). On a solo mission not ten miles from Konoha, he forgot his way home; in fact, he forgot what home was.
Lee patiently reminded his sensei and things went on as always.
Lee never thought it was strange that his sensei was forgetting things. He just laughed, striking a Nice Guy pose, proclaiming that it was nothing to worry about.
Lee and Gai kept score of how many push-ups they had each done since they began training together. I always thought that was pretty stupid, since both of their numbers skyrocketed past the millions.
Gai forgot his number, then he forgot Lee's. Gai called Lee Kakashi and his Eternal Rival while sparring.
After that, he went to Tsunade and requested one last mission.
Lee came to me crying. He didn't understand what was- had- been happening to Gai-sensei.
Gai never came back from his mission, and I heard his dieing words were, "I will defeat you, Kakashi, my Eternal Rival!"
Lee had always trained insanely hard, pushed himself harder than anyone else I knew (except maybe Gai), but after his sensei died, he trained even harder. Even his teammates couldn't get him to stop.
I'd never figured him for it, but everyone else'd figured Lee insane for his training schedule, but after Gai died I began to agree with them. Lee spent all ungodly hours of the day training, until the dojo he'd built reeked of sweat and tears. Kiba once sniffed as Lee passed by and hissed to me that Lee smelled like blood, under all the sweat and tears.
Lee was training, and his mind was becoming a blank slate, kinda like Gai's. He thought of nothing but training.
After Gai's death, it wasn't unusual not to see Lee for two or three days consecutively, but when we didn't see him for almost a week and a half, we knew something was up.
Neji took it upon himself to check up on the youth down at his dojo, and Neji came back with nothing. No expression, no explanation, no Lee.
There's nothing but charred ground where Lee's dojo used to be.
There's nothing but ashes left of Lee, who killed himself training.