Lee struck down enemies without quite being able to see where they were, his bangs and a salty cocktail of blood and sweat half-blinding him. The adrenaline had long ago devoured the pain, but the loss of his senses was numbing, damning, and only the impact of bodies on his knuckles, his shins and feet – only they kept him alive, only they kept him going.

When he was younger, he struck wooden dummies, the embodiment of all his demons. They whispered atrocities of fate in his mind, the only other sound for miles the vibrant background hum of the forest. He trained till his body gave out and he could pass out into the black, the only place his tormentors could not follow.

It was ironic, how such dark thoughts could not hold him in the blackness of his self-induced stupors.

Now, as an adult, as a Tokubetsu jonin, as husband and father, mentor and mentee, friend, they had finally found him in the darkness. They told him he would never be enough, told him he would never be as great or as powerful as he needed to be. They told him he would fail at protecting everything he loved, the life he had erected with the sweat on his brow, the love he had given and received.

Entrapped in his own mind and in the momentum of fists and steel that would not release him, he wanted to scream.

Instead, he whispered names, names of those who had touched his life, had led him to this point: Gai. Neji. Tenten. Naruto. Sakura. Metal.

He whispered one more name and smiled.

He felt rather than saw the kunai come for him, closed his eyes, sank into himself to open that final, innermost gate. It would be over in a moment. He'd be in that black again, the only place he was ever truly safe. Gai-sensei would be waiting for him. His family would be in good hands. His friends would drink to his memory.

"LEE!"

The kunai was whipped out of the air and launched at the assailant in the same smooth flick of the wrist – weapon and wielder met with a sickening groan. Simultaneously, Lee was hooked round the waist and yanked backwards, where he fell to his butt with a rush of air. He wiped at his eyes with shaking forearms, his bangs flying off his face.

Neji was tackling a number of enemies using the Hakke Rokujuyon Sho, the force of which pressed Lee down – or maybe that was the exhaustion and sheer relief. Tenten was in the air slightly behind him, her Soshoryu vomiting what looked to be thousands of chakra needles.

Almost as though it had never happened, the fight was over. Neji struck down his last foe while Tenten landed in a quick roll before Lee.

"Let me see you," she said urgently, helping ease him down onto his back.

"Tenten, I-."

"Shut up, Lee," she snapped, her hands hovering over him, chakra needles clenched white in her knuckles. Her hands were almost shaking as much as his when they met, the needles dissipating immediately.

"Tenten, I'm okay, just exhausted. Thank you."

Lee patted her hand, smiling.

"Neji's eyes are bleeding again," he said, when he spotted Neji swiping at the corners of his eyes with thumb and forefinger. Tenten was up in a moment.

"It's not mine," he replied quickly. "Not my blood."

"Using the Byakugan again, when your doctor strictly forbid it!" Tenten yelled, all up in his face and swatting away his hands whenever he tried to gently push her away. "Dumbass! Get your face down here so I can bind your eyes again."

"Doc, I swear it's not a big deal -."

"Dumbass!"

Lee sat up with a grimace, watching his friends bicker with a smile on his face. It was quiet again.

"Alright, now lug me out of here, you dumbass, I wanna go see baby Metal," he said, holding his arms out when Tenten was done fussing over Neji. Neji helped him onto his back and sighed.

"Sticky."