As I walked the streets, after skipping breakfast, I hoped to find Lee, but at the same time, I felt frightened to.
I still had no idea what would've been going through that boy's mind, last night, or even now. Would he think different of me? Would he think I'm some sort of weirdo?
"SETSUKI-SAAAAAAN!" The familiar, warming voice made me feel at ease. I turn to greet the green beast running up to me. I force on a smile, my heartbeat sped up.
"Hi Lee-san!"
He seemed out of breath. "You missed our morning training!"
"Oh! Right, yeah I didn't get up till late and uh-"
"WHAT?! YOU STAYED IN BED!? You must be sick Setsuki-san!"
I giggle quietly, amused. "No no I'm fine really!" It seemed Lee had either completely forgotten about last night.. or he'd definitely completely forgotten about last night.. thank goodness.
The two of us went to see Tsunade who was in a foul mood. When I asked about any missions she had none. Then Lee suggested working for some people in the village, they might repay us.
So it was. The first half of the day I spend working hard alongside Lee, helping people around the village, helping with gardening, babysitting, grocery shopping, and chasing after lost pets. It was hard work, but it paid for almost half of the money I needed to fix the window! Lee got a fair amount too!
We decided to take a break and rest in the meadows, far outside of the village. There we laid in the knee-high grass which tickled our noses as it danced with the wind, facing up at the dark sky which continuously loomed from day to day.
"Hey, Setsuki-san." He waitined for my response, which I gave. "You have half the money for your window right?"
"That's right."
It went quiet for a moment, the only sound was the blades of grass attacking each other, and the wind flying past us. Lee sat up, and seconds later, so did I.
"I want you to have this!" Lee spoke, handing out a lot of change in his hand.
"What..? No, Lee I can't take your money, I mean.. you worked so hard, it's yours!"
Lee shook his head furiously, grabbed my wrist and placed the money in my palm, then closed my fingers over it. "No no I insist! You have it Setsuki-san! With that you can afford it!"
"But.. Lee.." I didn't know what to say. My stomach hurt again, but I tried to ignore it.
"I refuse to take it back! It's yours now! Go get that new window Setsuki-san! After all, the nights are getting colder, and... I wouldn't want you getting cold every night! It is not good to be sick on Christmas!" He began ranting on about the things we could do over winter. I stopped listening after a while, I was too boiled up in happiness. It was so good to have such nice friends. I interrupted Lee's rant by tackling him into a hug, a tight one. I didn't say anything, nor did I feel that I had to. He rubbed my back, and told me not to faint again, I knew then, what had happened last night. I fainted. But why?
Two weeks passed, and it was deep within winter. Snow covered the village, draining all of the colours out and replacing it with white, even the decorations were invisible.
I liked the sight of kids playing in the snow, and snow ball fights and skiing! It was all so much fun! Of course, it'd be fun if I actually stopped standing around and did something.
I felt something hard pelt my arm, and it caused me to whine. It was a snowball. A harshly thrown snowball. I turn to the direction in which it came, and saw Gai-sensei hiding behind a wall of snow, giggling away to himself. As soon as I saw a bruise coming out of my arm where it hit, I knew he wasn't gonna play nicely.
I roll up my own snowball, jump onto the closes building and run along the slippery roof towards Gai-sensei, preparing for a headshot. But of course, as I got to a perfect distance, my foot slipped on the snow, and I tumbled off the roof and head first into the ground, then a barrel-full of snow fell on top of me. Might I say it was a tad cold?
"WAAH LEMME OUT ITS COLD! HELP!" I try to escape the grasp of the evil snow, but I was only burying myself in further. I felt something grab my foot, and it pulled me out, Gai-sensei. He held me up in the air, as if taunting me.
"GAI-SENSEI! PUT HER DOWN! SETSUKI-SAAAAAN! ARE YOU HURT?!" Lee came crying, shoving his sensei aside, allowing me to fall, again, face first into the cold snow. I only groan in pain.
"Yeaah.. I'm fine.. I think." Lee grabbed my brown wooly coat and stood me up straight and brushed the snow off it.
"Bahaha! How am I meant to have a good snowball fight when my opponent buries herself in the snow?!" Gai-sensei questions, playfully. I grinned and leaned on Lee, shivering from the cold. Lee answered by putting his arm around me to keep me warm. Neither of us thought any thing of it.
Gai-sensei gave us a strange expression, like a smug grin. Lee and I face each other and shrug.
"Come on Setsuki-san, lets go get a hot chocolate!"
"Okay!" I reply eagerly.
We head to the cafe, his arm still around me as I lean against him the entire time. Sakura was on her way out of the cafe when she spotted us.
"Oh hey you two~" She chimed, a smirk across her face.
"Sakura-chan!" I grin.
"S-SAKURA-CHWAAAN!" Lee leaped forward, kneeled on one knee and held out a small note to her. Sakura curiously blinked a few times before taking it.
"What's this?" She turned it and scrutinised it front to back.
"I-it's my wish for you Sakura-chan! Heh...heh.. M-merry Christmas!" Lee stuttered nervously.
Sakura smiled sweetly and tucked it in her pocket, obviously she was going to open it later. "Thank you Lee, but Christmas isn't until next week you know."
Lee almost burst out into tears as she turned and walked away, giving him the cold shoulder. I felt sad for him, so I picked him up off the ground and hugged him.
"Does she always do this?" I ask.
Lee hugged back. "Almost every time..." He sighed deeply.
I just had to cheer him up! "Lets go get our hot chocolates!" I take his hand and lead him inside.
I drank mine within 2 minutes, but Lee only sat there staring sadly at his, he hadn't even touched it!
It wasn't like Lee to be down like this.. it made me feel eager to cheer him up! But how? Perhaps doing something he liked would cheer him up!
"Hey Lee-san! Wanna go run a few laps of the village to warm up?" I ask, enthusiastically.
He didn't even raise his eyes from the cup when he answered in a low tone. "No thank you.."
Now I knew this was serious. I wanted to see him laugh.
I pulled a stupid face, hoping he'd look at me. He did, he glimpsed up at me, then became confused. I grin, pulling an even stupider face. I saw the tiniest little bit of movement on his mouth. It was working. I snort like a pig (unintentionally) which caused him to make a brief laugh. I started to laugh, and the more I laughed, the more he laughed. We laughed until our ribs started to hurt.
"S-Setsuki-san! What areyou doing?" He asked between laughs as he calmed down.
"I dunno! But it worked! You're smiling!" I grin. "You look much better when you smile!"
His eyes opened, his cheeks flashed red as he averted his eyes temporarily. After that he gazed into my eyes, I only shined a bigger smile, causing him to do the same.
"Setsuki! Lee! There you guys are!" Tenten called as she came running over.
"Oh, Tenten! What brings you here?" Lee asked.
"Look!" Tenten pulled out a flier with a picture of two people in a ballroom dance. "Konohas having a ball on Christmas Eve! Doesn't that sound romantic!" Tenten sighed dreamily, her cheeks went pink. "Setsuki, Lee you both need to find partners to go with!" She said.
"THEN I WILL NO DOUBT MAKE SAKURA-CHAN MY PARTNER!" Lee stood up, slamming his hands on the table, his fierce eyes burned with flames of love.
I didn't know who I wanted to go with, so I smiled at Lee, admiring his determination. If I could help Lee have Sakura-chan as a partner, then he might become really happy!
Two days of failure passed rather quickly. Sakura kept turning Lee down every time! It was beginnning to go to Lee's head that perhaps he wasn't good enough for Sakura... Except this time, I couldn't make him smile, he was just too upset..
The third day I waited for Lee at the lamppost at the end of Sakura's street. I waited. And waited. An hour passed. I sat down beside it. "Lee.. Where are you? You said we'd meet here an hour ago.." i rested my head against the ice cold pole, and watched as the light snow fell. I didn't understand, what is Sakura's problem with Lee? Why was she making him so upset?
I just sat there and kept waiting. Hoping Lee would arrive with some excuse, any excuse would be fine, just as long as he turned up.. Then I heard footsteps approaching me. I look up excitedly, but immediately became disappointed at the sight of Gai-sensei.
"Setsuki, have you seen Lee?"
I shook my head, frowning as I return my eyes to the ground. "No.."
"Odd.. that boy didn't turn up to our morning training!"
I look up again, in surprise. Lee alwaysturns up to training. Gai-sensei and I stare each other down curiously.
Upon arriving at Lee's apartment, Gai-sensei pounds on the door. "Lee! If you're in there, open up!"
Silence.
I clear my throat. "Lee-san! Please open the door!"
Again, silence.
"Alright, this calls for.." Gai-sensei builds up his breath, and points at the door. "SUDDEN-DOOR-BURSTING-ENTRY!" I tilt my head as he took a step back.
"Sudden-"
"HYAAAAAA!" Gai-sensei kicks down the door with a huge force, causing the door to fly into the room and smash into pieces against the wall inside. I sweatdrop. "Alright Lee! Where are you!?" Gai-sensei began roaming the apartment, I followed.