There's a four in the MORNING?!?
When thinking of observant shinobi, Lee was likely one of the last that would come to mind. Well, he would probably be dead last, if his esteemed teacher hadn't already had that slot firmly filled.
Even with his admittedly dulled observational skills, Lee knew his team, and that something was wrong between Neji and Tenten had been obvious. The tension was thick in their crowded room when the two had finally come to bed, and Lee remembered Tenten’s complaint about Neji’s attitude, and how Neji had seemed uncomfortable with, well, everything.
Team Gai was a delicate balance. From the outside it was easy to point to Tenten as the critical point that they all revolved around. She was a mix of those surrounding her- enthusiastic enough to go along with Gai and Lee’s plans, chipper enough to get Neji out of a funk, but sane enough to keep the green-clad duo from their worst ideas.
Seeing his team-mates now, though, Lee knew that it wasn’t that simple. Team Gai would fall apart without Tenten, but, he thought, every member was important. Without Neji’s cool nature, they’d sway too far into insane challenges and overtraining. They’d never stop to think, and would always rush into battle. But without Lee, they became too taciturn, missing the vibrant energy necessary for the balance that wasn’t Team Seven or Eight or Nine but uniquely Team Gai.
But being Team Gai without Gai-sensei… Lee carefully avoided that thought. He wasn’t ready to deal with it yet- not with Sakura’s recent revelation before he’d been transported here, not with a strange new world and an odd tension between his best friends. He’d handle it later, but not yet. If Gai wasn’t there, Lee would just have to work twice as hard on cheering his team-mates up to make up for it.
It was with that in mind that Lee woke Neji and Tenten up at the unholy hour of four in the morning. For Lee, it was when his routine normally began- his body was programmed to wake before dawn. The best way he knew of to relieve tension was through training, and in Lee’s mind, dragging Neji and Tenten out into the cold morning air for some serious exercising and sparring was the perfect way to set things right between them.