Lee carefully straightened his shirt collar while inspecting himself in the mirror, checking to see if Tenten had missed anything. She had been at his house all morning, rummaging through his single closet (she was shocked at this) for any date-worthy clothes. Eventually, after a long period of soul crushing attempts to work with what Lee already had, Tenten took him to the store and picked out an outfit. It took a bit of debating to convince Lee that what she had in mind was stud material, but eventually Lee gave in to Tenten's judgement and bought the clothes.

Now completely ready for his date, Lee wore a well-fitting white shirt with sleeves that ended at his elbows. It had a small collar, and one single pocket right over his heart. He had wanted to put a Sakura blossom in the shirt pocket, but Tenten had disagreed and replaced it with a small cut rose. His pants were black slacks, simple but not casual. Finally, his shoes (which inspired Tenten's addition of the rose to Lee's shirt) were white with neat red laces folded over them in tidy knots. Lee had to admit, he liked the way Tenten's outfit matched together so well, but he still would have preferred something more breathable like his green spandex suit.

Lee checked his clock, which read 3:32, and he shook a little with excitement. Only twenty eight minutes until I see Sakura-san! Lee looked around his bedroom, wondering what he would do now, since he still had some time to kill before he picked up Sakura. He thought of calling Tenten, but she'd already done so much for him, Lee couldn't possibly bother her. So he sat on his bed and waited, losing himself in his own thoughts and plans for the day. He truly couldn't believe it. Sakura was going out on a date with him! Perhaps she will forget all about Sasuke and ask me to be her boyfriend! Lee smiled at this thought, dreamily mulling over what this day had in store for him. He glanced back at his clock and saw that only a few minutes had passed, so he rose and walked out of his room, humming to himself happily. He found his way to the front door without really thinking about it and stepped outside. The air was a little cool, but there was warm sunshine filtering through this slight chill. Deciding that he could simply arrive at Sakura's house early, Lee set off in her direction while humming happy notes to a song he could not even remember.

Lee knocked on Sakura's door, hoping that he wasn't too early. He could hear a few quick steps towards the front door, then it opened and revealed a rather radiant Sakura. She was beautifully dressed, wearing a red dress with gold colored trim on the bottom edges of it and gold floral designs that patterned the very top of the dress. She smiled at Lee, unable to do anything else but shuffle her feet, which were wearing red slip on shoes. Rock Lee noticed that her hair had a shimmering golden ribbon tied in it, and he could all but keep himself from running his hand through her hair and playing with the silky ribbon.

"Lee?" Sakura said, which snapped the black haired ninja back to attention.

"I apologize, Sakura. Did I arrive too early?" Sakura smiled again and shook her head.

"No, Lee, you're right on time. I was just wondering if you were ready to leave now." Lee nodded his head, excitement welling up inside of him. He took Sakura's arm in his, then realized that he might seem a bit forward, so he let go of her arm and glanced at the sky awkwardly. Sakura giggled and grabbed Lee's hand, which caused him to blush uncontrollably. Sakura is holding my hand! As they walked, Lee sparked small conversations about how Sakura's day had been so far. Sakura told him about how she'd woken up earlier than expected, so she visited the training grounds for a few hours. She talked about her lunch she had spent with Ino, and how it had been interrupted by Choji, who was hungry enough to finish their lunches off for them. Lee listened with unwavering interest to each word Sakura spoke, even though she truly didn't have that much to say. She just didn't want to walk in silence to wherever Lee was taking her. Still, she appreciated Lee's attention.

After a few more minutes of walking, Lee and Sakura arrived at a quiet park that was built around a long trail that wove through the forest. There were few people there, mostly children playing at the small playground and other couples walking along the trail. Lee pointed to the start of the trail and the two of them began walking along it's scenic path. The walk was rather relaxing, with birds singing in the trees that leaned over the path, dropping leaves that swirled in the breeze in beautiful mixtures of green. Once, almost halfway through the trail, Lee stopped and decided to test his skill against the leaves.

"Sakura. If I can pluck every leaf from that tree in one minute," Lee began, motioning towards a tree directly to their right. "Then you will have to go out on another date with me. Do you agree?" Lee asked, grinning at Sakura with his famous thumbs-up. Sakura laughed and nodded her head, curious to see how Lee thought he was going to pull this off. Lee asked Sakura to keep time, and the kunoichi nodded. Preparing himself, Lee half-stood half-crouched in front of the tree and asked Sakura to give him him his que.

"Ready, set...go!" Sakura yelled the words and Lee leapt into the tree, moving with lightning fast speed as he pulled leaf after leaf off of the tree. Sakura excitedly kept the time in her head, trying very carefully not to speed up or slow down.

25, 26, 27, 28...

Sakura watched in awe as Lee cleared almost half of the tree of leaves, and still removing more with the same speed as when he started. She couldn't believe how well he was doing in general! She half-consciously wondered if Lee had been training for this, but the thought was soon sent away. He wouldn't have done that, or at least, she didn't think that he would have done that.

48, 49, 50, 51, 52...

Lee was sure he was going to win this bet. He could only see a few leaves left, and he was sure he still had some time left. Lee leapt into a higher branch and grabbed every leaf he could see with quick, almost snake-like movements. Lee thought that his next date had been secured when slight movement above caught his eye. Far above him, in the highest, thinnest branch there was, waved a single green leaf, fluttering in the breeze. Panicked, Lee raced up the tree, flitting in and out of capable human sight as he made his way to the top. The leaf was close, just a few branches higher than Lee. He reached out in one last attempt, knowing that his time was almost up and grabbed in the direction of the leaf. At this same moment, Sakura called "Time!" and Lee opened his hand to find it empty. The leaf, still waving proudly above him, had just cancelled Lee's second date.

Lee made it back to the ground feeling sad and ashamed of himself, but Sakura welcomed him with a warm and comforting smile that reminded Lee that he still had at least one date. She led him away from the tree and they continued along the trail, but just for a moment Sakura looked back to the bare tree. In that moment, the most spectacular thing happened: the leaf, with no breeze and all of it's own accord, fell. Sakura watched the leaf drift to the ground, and she smiled knowingly at Lee, who smiled back without even knowing why.