Guess who's back uh? Yeah that's right. After a whole year of hiatus, the great Kris is back with her crazed crew. I had started to write a chapter in my old PC but now that went to waste (along with the PC... if you get my drift), and now I have a Mac (yupi.) and I don't get anything about this machine. Anywho;
This chapter is: "This velvet glove" (Red hot chilly peppers)
Disclaimer: If the characters were mine, I wouldn't be writing on fanfiction.
She was dead glad she had decided to cross those few dessert miles in the morning. When she had left the airport it had been freezing, now it was starting to heat up as she speed through the asphalt. The enormous villa was already coming in view, the wind darted what little of her hair wasn't pushed back in a neat bun. She pulled up near the tall metal grids of the front gate and killed the rumbling engine before climbing down from the bike, eager to get inside and out of the sun.
The intercom chimed. "Please identify yourself, Miss."
She pulled the prised goggles out of her eyes, a present from a dear friend. "Haruno Sakura desu."
Great stomping crossed the near corridor and the door was knocked down with a war cry. "GAARA!"
Lee instantly woke up, scrambling to the head of the bed and pulling the sheets with him in search of some kind of protection. To his side, Gaara remained head first in a pillow, not moving an inch. Not sleeping, of course, but Lee wondered why he wasn't running from this wild beast that had stormed in their room! Wait, what? Wild beast? This is a house filled with guards! He inspected the beast. Nearly six feet tall, wild sandy mane spiking in every direction and angry, blood lusting, green eyes. Oh... now I get it. Still, it's a monster. "Please don't kill me!" He squeaked weakly.
Temari pointed a finger at Lee and seamed to get angrier. "WHY NOT? IT'S PROBABLY BECAUSE OF YOU THAT IT HAPPENED!"
A "What happened?" came muffled from the mass of red hair stuffed between the pillows.
"WHAT? YOU ASK? WHY HOW NICE OF YOU TO ASK WHY I WAS WOKEN UP AT EIGHT AM IN THE FUCKING DAWN BECAUSE SOME GEST OF YOURS HAS ARRIVED!" She shrieked hysterically. Lee pressed himself closer to the bed's headboard, cowering under the sheets.
Gaara sat up, completely not giving a crap about the fact that he was in his birthday suit. "Guest? Hum..." He collapsed back in the pillows. "Lee, you get it. My head doesn't feel so good today."
Lee seamed to forget instantly about his nudity and the fact there was a blonde woman with a killing intent in the room, flying to Gaara's side in two seconds flat. "Really, does it hurt, are you feeling so bad? Is it my fault?" He flayed around.
Temari stared heavy lidded at the interaction, blood lust lost for drowsiness. Gaara rolled his eyes and sighed. "No Lee, it is not your fault. Although you really should get that. I have a god idea that it could be from your agency."
Lee stopped his worry frenzy to think about that perspective. "Back up, you mean? That could be possible." He looked back at Temari, looking a totally different man from five minutes ago. "Thank you Temari-san, I'll be there in ten minutes."
She tsked and turned around, stomping loudly back to her monster den.
Lee turned to Gaara again after watching her flee the room. "Maybe I should get some medicine for you or something. Do you keep painkillers anywhere in here?"
Gaara rubbed his head, readjusting himself on the covers. "I think Kankuro forgot some on my bathroom drawer."
Lee quickly got up and looked for his boxers before entering the bathroom to look for the pills. He opened the drawer to see three vials. "Gaara..."
"Yeah?"
"There' three bottles, which one is it?"
After a pause Gaara finally answered. "The pink one... I think."
Lee took it and verified that it had nothing written on it. Still he shrugged and returned to Gaara with a couple of pills and the teeth cup filled with water. "Here, take these. I've got to go down. Will you join me later if you feel better?"
Gaara sat up slowly and took the items into his bony elegant hands. "Yeah, sure."
Lee smiled lovingly, not that Gaara saw it, and leaned down to peck his lips before quickly getting up and looking for clothes to throw on. The teen blushed for a fraction of a second, staring at the cup of water, the pill resting on his tongue. Like he suddenly truly realised what happened between them. When he finally lifted his eyes to say something, Lee was gone. He shrugged, he could say it later.
He chugged down the pills.
When Lee found his way into the tea room (after getting lost a couple of times and asking the way to a servant a couple more) he was greeted with a pink bun sticking out from the top on one of the high back armchairs. On the table in front of the chair rested a pair of green googles, sun washed red velvet gloves and a small tea cup.
"Sakura-san?" Lee asked tentatively.
A green eyed smile stared at him around the side of the chair. "Lee-kun! How's it going?"
There was joy running through both as Lee sat down and they began to catch up, so much had happened since he last saw her when visiting Naruto at the hospital. Remembering the wild blonde he felt his heart clench. That could happen to Gaara, but he wouldn't permit it. "So, Sakura-san, as much as I love chatting with you, I'm sure it's safe to assume that, since you are here, there must be important information you have to relay to me." He sipped his tea that a servant had brought at some point. And what good tea it was.
Her façade dropped to an all business one, much like Lee's own. "You assume correctly. The Akatsuki knows you are here. But more importantly, our sources stumbled upon the fact that there is already someone assigned to reap the Shukaku stone from Sabaku-san."
Lee swallowed dry. Damn it. He nodded. "What else, Sakura?"
"You won't like it when you know who it is." She grimaced. "I didn't like it either, worse even, they're already on the move to reach Sabaku-san here."
Took some restraint from the male agent not to readjust himself on his chair before asking: "Who is it Sakura-san?" He already had a suspicion, he just wished really hard he was wrong.
"Sasuke." She deadpanned. Lee's heart sank. Sasuke, the runaway agent. He had been trained an year after him, along with Sakura and Naruto. He hadn't heard of Uchiha Sasuke for years.
"Uchiha is with the Akatsuki?" He asked lowly, only for himself, letting it sink in.
"And he's not as weak has he was either, I know we have yet to cross paths after so long, but I've heard rumours, he's gotten extremely strong, Lee."
Lee rubbed his temples with both hands, took a deep breath and a sip of his tea, before looking the pinkette in the eye. "We are not kids anymore either, Sakura. We can handle him, and if I have to, I'll bring him down to protect the client."
Her eyes widened. "Lee-"
"I'm ready to take risks for this one."
"But Lee you've never!" She winced before continuing, very strained. "Killed... on the job."
"I know, I have to get over it sooner or later don't I?" He hissed between his teeth.
"It's not that important! Look at me! I've only done it twice! It's not standard issue for an agent you know?" She hushed, trying to tone down a conversation that was escalating.
Lee planted his hands on the table and borderline growled. "I don't quite care about standard issue right now. The Uchiha plants one finger on Gaara and I'll slit his throat." Sakura jumped on her seat, getting on edge at the threatening tone in Lee's voice that made fear crawl under her clothes. (A/N: I think it was straight down hot. But that's just me.)
She did a double take. "Wait right there. Since when did Sabaku, THE CLIENT, became 'Gaara'?"
He deflated.
"Last night." Came the whispered reply, a few seconds later.
She slapped her own face, leaving her forehead where it landed. "Oh Lee... What the hell was that about?"
"I'm still not sure myself." Lee suddenly found his shoes VERY interesting.
"He better be worth it." She ground out. Silence stretched for a few moments.
"I'm watching you Amy!" A voice husked into Sakura's ear, she squealed like a little girl, jumping from the chair. Facing a red head that had thrown himself into the ground with booming laughter.
"WHAT THE HELL?" She pointed to him, thoroughly miffed. "Who's this guy?"
Lee was to mortified to speak. The red head stopped laughing for a couple of seconds to ask Lee, "What are you looking at, hone?"
"My name is not hone." Lee said in monotone, his mind still too somber to react normally.
"You're right. You are Pablo Francisco!" He spit the line and cracked up again, like it was someone else's joke.
Lee couldn't help but stifling a bubble of snickers that wanted to escape.
The only female on the room couldn't help but disguise a smile of her own. "This guy's insane... or really high!" Sakura held up the teen's chin, forcing his laughter to die down a bit. "I want what you're having!"
With that the red head doubled his outbursts.
Lee sweat-dropped. "Sakura... that's the client you've got there."
"WHEEEEEE?" She yelled, on that way only she can. Then shoving a finger on the hysterical boy's chest. "THIS NUTJOB?"
Lee nodded slowly.
"YOU SLEPT WITH A TRIGGER-HAPPY NUTTLESS KID?" Suddenly she didn't seam as unbelieving as she seamed scary.
Lee bolted to take Gaara in his arms. "Something is off with him. He's not like this!" He tried to explain as he examined the teen closer.
"What is he? Drunk then?" She demanded as he started to shake Gaara.
"Gaara-san, are you ok? Was it those pills?" The hysterical laughter rolled on.
"I don't think you'll get anything out of him. And what do you mean, pills?"
A wave of dread spread through Lee as he worried further. "I we thought they were pain killers! He had a head ache this morning!"
"What? Who gave him those pills?"
Lee pipped up. "Kankuro! That incestuous bastard!" He was furious, and began to bolt out of the room.
"WHEE? Who's that? Where are you going? Lee!" She ran after him through the mansion, redhead forgotten on the tee-room's floor. It was half comical the way Lee couldn't orient himself inside that place to save his life, and yet managed to still be enraged when they broke into Kankuro's room, about ten minutes later. Not that during that time she had gotten Lee to tell her who this Kankuro person was, he wasn't even coherent.
"You! Wake up!" Lee yelled, went up to the bed and kicked the sleeping brunette into the wall. Kankuro yelped (in a very manly way), the air within his lungs rushing out as he hit the wall. Sakura flinched on her place just outside the door.
"What the fuck?" Was the breathless question in a small scared voice, as he sat up and rubbed his head where it hit the concrete.
"What kind of pills did you leave on your brother's room?" Lee seethed.
Kankuro raised a brow that was lost in the wild bed-head and shrugged. "Hell if I know."
Sakura covered her eyes when Lee approached the other male in a blur, but peaked between her fingers when she only herd a rustle of clothes and no impact. Lee was holding Kankuro against the wall by scruff of his sleeping shirt. "WHAT. WERE. THEY?" He growled. And Sakura was vividly reminded of when she read Tenten's reports on a mission she and Lee had gone on to prepare for a related one. Lee could turn pretty vile when provoked. He looked pant-pissing scary.
"ORANGE VIAL - ANTI-SEPTIC; BLUE VIAL - PAIN KILLER; PINK VIAL - LSD!" Kankuro talked very fast and fluent when properly coerced.
"LSD?" Echoed Lee with a maddened look on his face. "You left hallucinogenics in your little brother's room?"
"Well, I did tell him what they were!" He squealed in his defence.
"And when was this?"
"Dunno, before he went to Rome. Four months ago I guess." He seamed truly pensive as he said it, looking up to the celling. Lee growled ferociously before letting go, frustration taking over his face.
"This is ridiculous!" He wailed upwards, to no one in particular.
Thank you for such a long wait! It has been two years now since I started this Fic with my Twin and my Outouto, but life has been so chaotic that we just abandoned the project. Which is truly sad, I love LTB, and I'm seriously thinking of starting to write this like a mad woman until I finish this Fic, so I can move on to finish my other Naruto stories and start publishing my already written Bleach Fics. :P I haven't published any of them because I thought it was unfair to the people who did't get to see the ending of LTB, Camping means getting lost and the other one... can't remember the name. xD
