Since a couple of people asked for this...
I mentioned at one point that the chapter 23 which I posted last weekend had two majorly different versions. I posted the more straightforward one, the one which makes the most sense and worked best. But a couple of people said they'd love to see the other version, just out of curiosity. So here it is! You do NOT have to read this to follow DR; in fact, keep in mind it got removed from DR for a reason. This is not so much a director's cut or alternate ending, as an idea that just didn't develop properly.
Sorry for being so slow in answering reviews, incidentally. And I have tons of things to read/review in my 'To Do' list which I haven't had time to get to ;_; On the positive side, I should have that sidestory out on the weekend, if all goes well.
I won't post the whole thing, because a lot of it was repeated in sections in the posted chapter 23. The setup is as follows. Orochimaru was a bit better at spreading rumours in this version, and some rivals of Tsunade forced her to call Lee back to Konoha to explain himself. They accused Gaara of having seduced him and turned him against Konoha. Tsunade doesn't believe it, but because of the delicate political climate, she puts Lee under arrest as soon as he arrives, just so she has time to sort things out.
This was the original concept of the chapter, and I wrote 7000 words of it before realizing it just didn't work. Too far-fetched, too dramatic, too much all around. So I rewrote it, and I like the other version much better. But here's a little snippet that I found the hardest to drop, because, well...I like it when Gaara goes scaries and throws his weight around ^_^ Enjoy! (But don't take this too seriously, and keep in mind it's not very polished).
Lee didn't sleep that night. He remembered that look, and stared at the ceiling illuminated by the electric lamp outside, and wondered if he would, in fact, ever see Gaara again.
Then his cell door slammed open.
Lee had heard their footsteps for the last few minutes, so he didn't start. He continued to stare at the ceiling until one of his guards kicked the steel-framed bed.
"Get up."
Lee got up without a word. He'd tried talking to the Chuunin before, particularly when he'd recognized one of them as an acquaintance who'd been in the class before his at the academy, but the man had only ever answered with dark glares and insults.
He assumed Ibiki wanted him again, and was faintly surprised at that, since he'd seen the interrogator only three hours ago. Maybe they wanted him to add something to that letter before they sent it.
"The Hokage ordered you brought before her," the Chuunin said nastily - Rasagi, his name was, though he didn't answer to it when Lee used it.
Lee felt little at the news. Two days of worrying, of trying to guess what would happen, of wondering how Gaara was doing and how he was going to take all this, had worn Lee out in a way that had nothing to do with physical. His optimism tried to whisper to him that maybe Tsunade wanted to see him because she had good news, or was trying to expedite things, but Lee knew that hope could be a dangerous two-edged weapon at this point, so he refused to pick it up.
"It's midnight," Rasagi stated, stepping aside to let Lee move past him. "Do you know what it means, to be called before the Hokage at midnight? Traitor?"
Lee didn't bother to answer. He doubted it would be tea and sandwiches, whatever else happened.
Rasagi pushed him forward, out of the cell.
"It means the death sentence. It means they've decided you've given them all the information they need and they're now going to drag you to the limits of our territory, cut your throat and make the body disappear."
It occurred to Lee, distantly and with some wonder, that Rasagi was enjoying this.
He didn't feel any particular fear, though. For one, he believed Ibiki when the man had told him that Lee was not actually under any real suspicion. Even if he had been...If Rasagi thought Tsunade-sama would execute even a traitor without a thorough investigation and a very good reason, then Rasagi was not working for the same village Lee was.
His calm appeared to annoy Rasagi in some way. The Chuunin grabbed his arm and jerked him back just as he was about to leave the cell row.
"Hold it. Tetsuyo, get a pair of manacles and a blindfold."
The second jailor, Tetsuyo, made a slight 'huh' noise; the most Lee had ever heard him speak.
"If we're bringing him in front of the Hokage, we don't want to take chances. He knows he's going to die; he might try something desperate."
If Lee tried something desperate, the two ANBU who had materialized at the end of the row of cells would have a much better chance of stopping him than manacles and a blindfold. Lee felt a flash of annoyance, but didn't say anything or react. It didn't matter. He had a role to play, might as well play it.
Rasagi still had him by the shoulder. When Testuyo went to get the stuff from a nearby cupboard, he muttered into Lee's ear: "How a talentless loser like you could ever make Jounin rank is just fucking unbelievable. They should have known that was a mistake. You could never have earned that rank. Is that why you went over to Suna? They have room for hopeless cases like you?"
Lee looked around slowly.
In his calm gaze, Rasagi must have read all the effort, sweat, blood and pain it had cost Lee to obtain his rank of Jounin, and become Envoy to Sunagakure. Or maybe he couldn’t see further than the fact that Lee had gotten that far while Rasagi was still nothing but a Chuunin jailor.
Rasagi's fist swung up- Lee didn't even blink, there was actually very little the man could do to him that would injure him without using a weapon or ninjutsu. But the blow didn't land. One of the ANBU had materialized next to him and grabbed his wrist.
"He was mouthing off," Rasagi muttered, trying to free himself, to no avail. The ANBU, a slight woman, who reached Rasagi's chin, held onto his wrist until she'd made her point and he'd dropped his gaze, and then she released him.
She didn't object, however, when a muttering Rasagi fitted the manacles and blindfold onto Lee, who took it with resignation. Rasagi had cuffed his hands behind his back, just to make things interesting. Lee knew there would be quite a lot of stairs to climb to reach the Hokage's office, and he knew Rasagi would try to trip him up regularly by shoving him on ahead, but it would do the Chuunin little good. It was more an annoyance and an unpleasantness than anything else.
He was still wondering why someone he'd barely known back in the academy, and who'd teased him a few times for being a loser, could bear such ill-will towards him now, when somebody up ahead, presumably the silent Tetsuyo, knocked on an unseen door. A woman's voice, distant through the wood, shouted 'Enter'. The Hokage, and she sounded very annoyed. Rasagi snickered and shoved Lee forward suddenly.
Lee stumbled into the room, as his sixth sense picked up the door's jamb just before it tripped him. He could feel Rasagi behind him, ready to shove him again so he'd land on his knees-
There was a smooth deadly hiss that sounded very, very familiar. Something shot past either side of Lee with lethal speed.
Lee's manacles snapped with a sharp report as he ripped his hands free and tore off his blindfold, the words tumbling out in blind panic. "Gaara don't kill them!"
He took in the entire scene at once. Shizune and Ibiki standing on either side of Tsunade who'd just shot to her feet behind her desk- her chair was still rolling backwards and was about to hit the wall. An ANBU in one corner, sword drawn. And a few feet in front of them all was Gaara, his face perfectly neutral, eyes unblinking and deadly, and his right hand extended.
Lee turned to look, almost afraid of what he might see. But the Sand had only pinned Rasagi and Tetsuyo to the wall on either side of the door. Their eyes were wide in white, shocked faces, but they were still alive. Though for how long- the desert Coffin was a two-part attack.
The Sand creaked. The two escorting ANBU were standing in the doorway, swords half drawn and looking warily at the Kazekage, but nobody dared to move.
"What the hell- Gaara, put them down!" Tsunade suddenly bellowed. "What is the meaning of this?! I asked you to bring Lee up here, not hogtie him- Gaara, put them down now!"
There was absolutely no change in Gaara's expression. His fingers tightened a fraction and one of the jailors behind Lee groaned.
"Gaara?" Lee walked up, speaking softly. "I'm fine, I wasn't hurt. They were just doing their-um-their job." He reached out and gently touched Gaara's extended arm. "Put them down? Please?"
Slowly, Gaara turned his head away from the captives and looked at Lee. The green eyes assessed him, still cold and distant in that far away place where there was no such thing as mercy. Lee tried to smile reassuringly, though it wasn't easy when he was acutely aware that Gaara was one second and a clenched fist away from a double homicide in the Hokage's office and then all hell would break loose.
But Gaara let Lee's gentle pressure lower his arm. Behind Lee, there was a slither and a rasping sound followed by a couple of thumps and some groans.
"Thanks," Lee whispered, with a quick glance back to make sure. One of the ANBU had grabbed the freed Rasagi and Tetsuyo and was hauling them out of danger and into the hallway beyond; the other had stationed herself in the corner, eyes behind the mask fixed on Gaara.
Gaara's gaze had flickered towards the jailers as they were evacuated, and the Sand on the floor rustled, but then it crept back towards him as the white-faced men staggered out after one more frightened glance at the Kazekage. Lee wondered if the two Chuunin realized just how very, very rare it was to walk away from that attack.
Then Gaara's attention was once more on Lee.
"I'm fine," Lee said, as if Gaara had asked him a question - in a way he had, when you knew him. The Jounin's smile was authentic now, though completely baffled. "It's just- things are complicated- what on earth are you doing here?!"
Gaara stared at him still, unblinking. When he finally spoke, his voice was the same uncaring, unhurried tone he'd used most of his life, the kind that made people around him very nervous.
"Premonition."
"...huh?" Lee realized suddenly that he was still holding Gaara's wrist and let go- to find his arm captured in a steely grip.
"We got the letter that said you'd arrived safely. But you didn't write it yourself. It was wrong."
Lee winced and glanced guiltily at Ibiki. Damn it, he should have realized...it would take hell and high water- or being locked in a dungeon - to stop him writing to his lover the instant he arrived. He tended to write to Gai-sensei as soon as he finished the smallest mission and made it back to Suna, after all, and Gaara knew it.
"So I told my siblings I was coming to get you, then I used the sand to barricade them into Kankuro's living room," Gaara said as if this made perfect sense. To Lee it did, since the siblings would not have left their Kazekage come alone, while Gaara would have wanted them both to stay in Sunagakure, to watch over it in his stead. He'd have told them his intentions, then locked them in tight knowing it would take them a few hours to break free and raise the alarm, and by then they would realize they would do better to stay in Suna and let Sand's ANBU go after their brother. Though even they wouldn't have a chance of catching him, since he'd made the trip in little over two days, almost as fast as Lee could, the latter reflected proudly.
"So he got here, marched right into Admin at eleven o'clock at night, pinned a few of my ANBU to the wall - oh, and one to the ceiling - until I showed up and then he demanded to know where you were," Tsunade concluded acidly. Shizune had fetched her chair and the Hokage was slumped in it in a posture that spoke of dwindling patience with overpowered hotheads who threw wrenches into her plans. "Well, as you can see, Kazekage, Lee is just fine. So-"
"He's coming with me," Gaara said, finally turning towards Tsunade, stranglehold still on Lee's arm. "After what I've seen, I'm not leaving him here."
"I take personal responsibility for this incident, Kazekage-sama," Ibiki said softly, before Tsunade could explode. "I will speak to those men, and this will not reoccur. Apart from this, Lee has not been mistreated, and he will not be in the future either."
"He's right, Gaara, I'm fine, really, and it's my fault I didn't-"
"As for you not leaving without him, Kazekage-sama, there seems to be some misunderstanding. We've put Lee under arrest for the sake of appearances, but in reality, we've asked Lee to stay, and he's agreed for the sake of our current plans," Ibiki concluded.
There was a moment of silence. Lee licked his lips. "Um, Gaara, I don't know if they've told you, but there's been a bit of a mess in-"
"Tsunade explained," his lover answered shortly. His fingers had released Lee and he'd crossed his arms over his chest. He hadn't glanced at Ibiki, he was staring at the Hokage.
***
(I wrote more, but it ends up in negotiations a bit like the ones in the final version, though a bit harsher. I won't put that down, but the end deal is the same, if a bit more stringent.)
Sorry for being so slow in answering reviews, incidentally. And I have tons of things to read/review in my 'To Do' list which I haven't had time to get to ;_; On the positive side, I should have that sidestory out on the weekend, if all goes well.
I won't post the whole thing, because a lot of it was repeated in sections in the posted chapter 23. The setup is as follows. Orochimaru was a bit better at spreading rumours in this version, and some rivals of Tsunade forced her to call Lee back to Konoha to explain himself. They accused Gaara of having seduced him and turned him against Konoha. Tsunade doesn't believe it, but because of the delicate political climate, she puts Lee under arrest as soon as he arrives, just so she has time to sort things out.
This was the original concept of the chapter, and I wrote 7000 words of it before realizing it just didn't work. Too far-fetched, too dramatic, too much all around. So I rewrote it, and I like the other version much better. But here's a little snippet that I found the hardest to drop, because, well...I like it when Gaara goes scaries and throws his weight around ^_^ Enjoy! (But don't take this too seriously, and keep in mind it's not very polished).
Lee didn't sleep that night. He remembered that look, and stared at the ceiling illuminated by the electric lamp outside, and wondered if he would, in fact, ever see Gaara again.
Then his cell door slammed open.
Lee had heard their footsteps for the last few minutes, so he didn't start. He continued to stare at the ceiling until one of his guards kicked the steel-framed bed.
"Get up."
Lee got up without a word. He'd tried talking to the Chuunin before, particularly when he'd recognized one of them as an acquaintance who'd been in the class before his at the academy, but the man had only ever answered with dark glares and insults.
He assumed Ibiki wanted him again, and was faintly surprised at that, since he'd seen the interrogator only three hours ago. Maybe they wanted him to add something to that letter before they sent it.
"The Hokage ordered you brought before her," the Chuunin said nastily - Rasagi, his name was, though he didn't answer to it when Lee used it.
Lee felt little at the news. Two days of worrying, of trying to guess what would happen, of wondering how Gaara was doing and how he was going to take all this, had worn Lee out in a way that had nothing to do with physical. His optimism tried to whisper to him that maybe Tsunade wanted to see him because she had good news, or was trying to expedite things, but Lee knew that hope could be a dangerous two-edged weapon at this point, so he refused to pick it up.
"It's midnight," Rasagi stated, stepping aside to let Lee move past him. "Do you know what it means, to be called before the Hokage at midnight? Traitor?"
Lee didn't bother to answer. He doubted it would be tea and sandwiches, whatever else happened.
Rasagi pushed him forward, out of the cell.
"It means the death sentence. It means they've decided you've given them all the information they need and they're now going to drag you to the limits of our territory, cut your throat and make the body disappear."
It occurred to Lee, distantly and with some wonder, that Rasagi was enjoying this.
He didn't feel any particular fear, though. For one, he believed Ibiki when the man had told him that Lee was not actually under any real suspicion. Even if he had been...If Rasagi thought Tsunade-sama would execute even a traitor without a thorough investigation and a very good reason, then Rasagi was not working for the same village Lee was.
His calm appeared to annoy Rasagi in some way. The Chuunin grabbed his arm and jerked him back just as he was about to leave the cell row.
"Hold it. Tetsuyo, get a pair of manacles and a blindfold."
The second jailor, Tetsuyo, made a slight 'huh' noise; the most Lee had ever heard him speak.
"If we're bringing him in front of the Hokage, we don't want to take chances. He knows he's going to die; he might try something desperate."
If Lee tried something desperate, the two ANBU who had materialized at the end of the row of cells would have a much better chance of stopping him than manacles and a blindfold. Lee felt a flash of annoyance, but didn't say anything or react. It didn't matter. He had a role to play, might as well play it.
Rasagi still had him by the shoulder. When Testuyo went to get the stuff from a nearby cupboard, he muttered into Lee's ear: "How a talentless loser like you could ever make Jounin rank is just fucking unbelievable. They should have known that was a mistake. You could never have earned that rank. Is that why you went over to Suna? They have room for hopeless cases like you?"
Lee looked around slowly.
In his calm gaze, Rasagi must have read all the effort, sweat, blood and pain it had cost Lee to obtain his rank of Jounin, and become Envoy to Sunagakure. Or maybe he couldn’t see further than the fact that Lee had gotten that far while Rasagi was still nothing but a Chuunin jailor.
Rasagi's fist swung up- Lee didn't even blink, there was actually very little the man could do to him that would injure him without using a weapon or ninjutsu. But the blow didn't land. One of the ANBU had materialized next to him and grabbed his wrist.
"He was mouthing off," Rasagi muttered, trying to free himself, to no avail. The ANBU, a slight woman, who reached Rasagi's chin, held onto his wrist until she'd made her point and he'd dropped his gaze, and then she released him.
She didn't object, however, when a muttering Rasagi fitted the manacles and blindfold onto Lee, who took it with resignation. Rasagi had cuffed his hands behind his back, just to make things interesting. Lee knew there would be quite a lot of stairs to climb to reach the Hokage's office, and he knew Rasagi would try to trip him up regularly by shoving him on ahead, but it would do the Chuunin little good. It was more an annoyance and an unpleasantness than anything else.
He was still wondering why someone he'd barely known back in the academy, and who'd teased him a few times for being a loser, could bear such ill-will towards him now, when somebody up ahead, presumably the silent Tetsuyo, knocked on an unseen door. A woman's voice, distant through the wood, shouted 'Enter'. The Hokage, and she sounded very annoyed. Rasagi snickered and shoved Lee forward suddenly.
Lee stumbled into the room, as his sixth sense picked up the door's jamb just before it tripped him. He could feel Rasagi behind him, ready to shove him again so he'd land on his knees-
There was a smooth deadly hiss that sounded very, very familiar. Something shot past either side of Lee with lethal speed.
Lee's manacles snapped with a sharp report as he ripped his hands free and tore off his blindfold, the words tumbling out in blind panic. "Gaara don't kill them!"
He took in the entire scene at once. Shizune and Ibiki standing on either side of Tsunade who'd just shot to her feet behind her desk- her chair was still rolling backwards and was about to hit the wall. An ANBU in one corner, sword drawn. And a few feet in front of them all was Gaara, his face perfectly neutral, eyes unblinking and deadly, and his right hand extended.
Lee turned to look, almost afraid of what he might see. But the Sand had only pinned Rasagi and Tetsuyo to the wall on either side of the door. Their eyes were wide in white, shocked faces, but they were still alive. Though for how long- the desert Coffin was a two-part attack.
The Sand creaked. The two escorting ANBU were standing in the doorway, swords half drawn and looking warily at the Kazekage, but nobody dared to move.
"What the hell- Gaara, put them down!" Tsunade suddenly bellowed. "What is the meaning of this?! I asked you to bring Lee up here, not hogtie him- Gaara, put them down now!"
There was absolutely no change in Gaara's expression. His fingers tightened a fraction and one of the jailors behind Lee groaned.
"Gaara?" Lee walked up, speaking softly. "I'm fine, I wasn't hurt. They were just doing their-um-their job." He reached out and gently touched Gaara's extended arm. "Put them down? Please?"
Slowly, Gaara turned his head away from the captives and looked at Lee. The green eyes assessed him, still cold and distant in that far away place where there was no such thing as mercy. Lee tried to smile reassuringly, though it wasn't easy when he was acutely aware that Gaara was one second and a clenched fist away from a double homicide in the Hokage's office and then all hell would break loose.
But Gaara let Lee's gentle pressure lower his arm. Behind Lee, there was a slither and a rasping sound followed by a couple of thumps and some groans.
"Thanks," Lee whispered, with a quick glance back to make sure. One of the ANBU had grabbed the freed Rasagi and Tetsuyo and was hauling them out of danger and into the hallway beyond; the other had stationed herself in the corner, eyes behind the mask fixed on Gaara.
Gaara's gaze had flickered towards the jailers as they were evacuated, and the Sand on the floor rustled, but then it crept back towards him as the white-faced men staggered out after one more frightened glance at the Kazekage. Lee wondered if the two Chuunin realized just how very, very rare it was to walk away from that attack.
Then Gaara's attention was once more on Lee.
"I'm fine," Lee said, as if Gaara had asked him a question - in a way he had, when you knew him. The Jounin's smile was authentic now, though completely baffled. "It's just- things are complicated- what on earth are you doing here?!"
Gaara stared at him still, unblinking. When he finally spoke, his voice was the same uncaring, unhurried tone he'd used most of his life, the kind that made people around him very nervous.
"Premonition."
"...huh?" Lee realized suddenly that he was still holding Gaara's wrist and let go- to find his arm captured in a steely grip.
"We got the letter that said you'd arrived safely. But you didn't write it yourself. It was wrong."
Lee winced and glanced guiltily at Ibiki. Damn it, he should have realized...it would take hell and high water- or being locked in a dungeon - to stop him writing to his lover the instant he arrived. He tended to write to Gai-sensei as soon as he finished the smallest mission and made it back to Suna, after all, and Gaara knew it.
"So I told my siblings I was coming to get you, then I used the sand to barricade them into Kankuro's living room," Gaara said as if this made perfect sense. To Lee it did, since the siblings would not have left their Kazekage come alone, while Gaara would have wanted them both to stay in Sunagakure, to watch over it in his stead. He'd have told them his intentions, then locked them in tight knowing it would take them a few hours to break free and raise the alarm, and by then they would realize they would do better to stay in Suna and let Sand's ANBU go after their brother. Though even they wouldn't have a chance of catching him, since he'd made the trip in little over two days, almost as fast as Lee could, the latter reflected proudly.
"So he got here, marched right into Admin at eleven o'clock at night, pinned a few of my ANBU to the wall - oh, and one to the ceiling - until I showed up and then he demanded to know where you were," Tsunade concluded acidly. Shizune had fetched her chair and the Hokage was slumped in it in a posture that spoke of dwindling patience with overpowered hotheads who threw wrenches into her plans. "Well, as you can see, Kazekage, Lee is just fine. So-"
"He's coming with me," Gaara said, finally turning towards Tsunade, stranglehold still on Lee's arm. "After what I've seen, I'm not leaving him here."
"I take personal responsibility for this incident, Kazekage-sama," Ibiki said softly, before Tsunade could explode. "I will speak to those men, and this will not reoccur. Apart from this, Lee has not been mistreated, and he will not be in the future either."
"He's right, Gaara, I'm fine, really, and it's my fault I didn't-"
"As for you not leaving without him, Kazekage-sama, there seems to be some misunderstanding. We've put Lee under arrest for the sake of appearances, but in reality, we've asked Lee to stay, and he's agreed for the sake of our current plans," Ibiki concluded.
There was a moment of silence. Lee licked his lips. "Um, Gaara, I don't know if they've told you, but there's been a bit of a mess in-"
"Tsunade explained," his lover answered shortly. His fingers had released Lee and he'd crossed his arms over his chest. He hadn't glanced at Ibiki, he was staring at the Hokage.
***
(I wrote more, but it ends up in negotiations a bit like the ones in the final version, though a bit harsher. I won't put that down, but the end deal is the same, if a bit more stringent.)