Chapter 18 of SMILES
Title: SMILES
Disclaimer: Naruto and its characters are copyright of Masashi Kishimoto-sensei.
Pairings: Lee/Gaara, Shikamaru/Kiba, Naruto/???
Rating: PG to NC17
Summary: After loosing Shukaku and the immense power it represented for Gaara, the said Kazekage started to train to compensate that loose. He just has one hanging subject: Taijutsu.
CHAPTER 18:
At Suna, Gaara stood alone on the training grounds, facing the Mook Jang Chong. He lifted his stare to the still dark skies. The days now were slightly shorter, but the heat hadn’t diminished. Winter was approaching, so... how long had it been since Lee left Sunagakure?
. . .
She had spent the last two hours looking at the clock on the wall. Naruto realized that Hinata was nervous about something, and the nervousness seemed to appear shortly after Shizune had left the Hokage’s office. Shizune had to leave early due to her youngest son’s sudden fever, her husband already with him at home. Now it was time for Naruto and Hinata to go home too, but since the paperwork of three people had been distributed between the two of them, it had taken them longer than expected. Hinata looked for the last time at the clock and Naruto did the same. It was almost 9 PM.
“Do you need to go?” Asked Naruto suddenly, startling Hinata and making her drop a few papers to the floor.
“No... It’s just that...” She began, while at the same time picking up the papers from the floor. Naruto stared at her intensly, waiting patiently. “Neji... must be worried...”
The Hokage arched a brow. Since when was Neji worried about Hinata? She dared to lift her sight from the papers and looked back at Naruto. This was the time to tell him, she knew it. “We... we are going to get married.” The blond haired man stood a few seconds looking at her, not registering her words at all.
“What..?” He finally asked, his voice almost trembling.
“Yes, I need to go.” She stood up and with her chin lowered, tried to organize the papers on her table, her cheeks a bit flushed. “We are going to discuss the last preparations for the wedding.” Gazing up again, she saw Naruto’s disoriented stare. “Of course, you are invited.”
. . .
Like in the old days... Ramen has always been good, and it could be good now. Naruto walked the whole way to Ichiraku’s with his lost stare, not knowing why the news about Hinata and Neji’s marriage affected him this much.
“Am I that afraid..?” Naruto stopped abruptly in the center of the street, getting confused and surprised stares from the people who passed by. He was the Hokage of the village, after all. ‘Afraid of being alone when everybody else has someone special...’
Again, with a blank and lost expression, he sat at Ichiraku’s in a chair at the farthest right, asking simply for a bowl of Ramen, not minding the variety at all. In the left part there was someone with an already empty bowl, slurping sonorously at his Sake’s glass and mumbling nonsense to himself. Taking notice of him, but not looking at his left, Naruto shook his head in disapproval. Konoha had too many drunkards.
“A broken heart, Naruto-kun,” whispered the owner of Ichiraku’s, already with a Ramen’s bowl on his hand. “Believe me. I’ve seen this face too many times... They all think that Sake can heal them.” Naruto looked up at him, accepting the bowl and thanking the old man. Did he had a similar face?
“Soooooooo... Hokage-sama...” The said drunkard turned on his chair, now facing Naruto. A defiant smirk on his lips. The Kage, instead, didn’t turn; he already knew who it was from his voice. “Having a good time?” Naruto’s blood iced in that moment.
“Lee..?” He turned slowly towards the one once known as the ‘Green Wild Beast’, now dressed in black with his open Jounin’s vest, his black hair hanging long past his ears.
Naruto saw the move coming and already knew something wasn’t right at all. Acting on reflex, he stood up rapidly from his chair and jumped a pair of meters away from the Ramen’s stand. Just at the same moment, his chair disappeared in a shower of splinters. Something flew directly at his face and Naruto blocked it with his forearm. There was a crashing sound and the feeling of the burning soup on his arm and face.
“How are ya doin’? Oh! What am I asking!? You are the Hokage, you must be doing quite... FINE!!” The last word had been yelled just as at the same time Lee lanched a high kick directed again to Naruto’s face. Naruto dodged it in time but then had to block a pair of fast punches and a low round kick at his feet. Jumping up to elude the low kick he found himself being kicked in the stomach, flying away until he slammed against a nearby tree.
“Lee... What’s this...” Naruto tried to ignore the pain on his stomach and the lingering burning sensation on his face’s skin. “What’s this all about?” Looking up, he saw the said Jounin approaching him with clumsy steps. “Oh, yes... You really are drunk... Hell!!” He knew that a drunk Rock Lee wasn’t something good.
“I’m not drunk.” Then Naruto saw that Lee was holding something: it was a bag. Lee opened it and threw its contents at his feet. “My missions, Hokage-sama. All accomplished.” There was a rather big amount of papers and scrolls on the floor.
The people that occupied the zone were looking curiously at the pair, their Hokage with his knees on the ground. “I’m sorry, Lee... I didn’t...” Not speaking a word, Lee closed the few steps that separated them and grabbed Naruto by the hair. At the gasp of the people looking at them and the few that took a step foward ready to ‘help’ their Hokage, Naruto lifted a hand in their direction. “Stay away.”
“Violence...” Lee was whispering in Naruto’s ear. “... takes you nowhere.” With that said, Lee yanked at Naruto’s hair, forcing him to stand, but before he was completely standing up, Lee punched him in the stomach again.
“Enough!!” Naruto screamed, freeing himself from the Jounin’s grip, losing a few hairs in the motion. He threw a few punches of his own at Lee’s face, missing it every time. Lee was too fast for Naruto...
People around them were looking petrified, horrified: their Hokage was losing in hand to hand combat. There were screams, unintelligible, but the clear ones were supporting ones for Naruto.
“This is all your fault!!” Lee screamed, and time seemed to stop for Naruto: Lee was crying. Naruto stood there, hypnotized, looking at a very fast punch as if it were coming at a very slow motion towards his neck. That was a fatal attack, he knew he would die if he didn’t defend himself.
“STOP YOU TWO, NOW!!” Jiraiya appeared from the bunch of people, grabbing Lee from behind.
“Let me go!!” Lee thrusted and kicked him, his feet on the air since Jiraiya was much taller than him. “LET ME GO!!” He aimed his elbow at Jiraiya’s ribs, making the Sannin wince in pain.
“Lee, please! Stop this nonsense, you are drunk!” Lee gritted his teeth together almost painfully and more fresh tears rolled down his cheeks.
“Bastard!!” Lee spat at Naruto’s face, making a Bull’s eye. “How can someone like you be Hokage!? HOW!?”
Now facing Lee and just a few inches from his face, Naruto slapped him. The Jounin’s face was now dead serious.
“Naruto! Cut it!” That was Jiraiya being ignored by the two younger men.
“You are disgusting...” Lee said with his chin high and looking at Naruto under his nose. “Like a spoiled, jealous brat that wants what he can’t have...”
“NARUTO!!” Jiraiya tried to avoid the upcoming attack, but didn’t want to release an enraged, drunk and dangerous Rock Lee; and that was what made Naruto’s punch, charged with red chakra, to hit Lee in the chest and leave him unconcious. “Stupid!!” Jiraiya fell to the ground, still holding the unmoving young man in his arms. “What was this all about!? Speak!!”
“It’s none of your business...” Naruto turned around and walked away. People around him stepped away, making an exaggerated amount of room for him to pass by. No one dared to open their mouths.
Once the Hokage disappeared and people started to whisper, Jiraiya finally stood up, with Lee in his arms and walked away in a different direction.
. . .
“Nnngh...” His head hurt like hell, that was the first think he realized at opening his eyes, and then, a person at his right. “Gai-sensei..?”
“How are you feeling, Lee?” Gai was holding a small glass bottle under Lee’s nose. He looked at it for a moment (it had a very strong smell), and then looked up at his sensei who was supporting his upper body up from the bed. At his left, he spotted Jiraiya-sama.
“Well, now that the kid is conscious, I can go,” the taller man said, grabbing his gigantic scroll and knotting it at his back. “Does your chest hurt, kid?”
“Uh..?” Lee tried to sit up on his own and realized that, indeed, his chest hurt a little. “It hurts a bit, yes...”
“Hm... That’s the best I could do. You may have minor damage on your chakra system, nothing important.”
The younger man looked at him open mouthed. What had happened? Jiraiya-sama had healed him but... Why? What had he done!? “I’m sorry, Jiraiya-sama!!”
Gai stared at Lee with sad eyes, knowing that his disciple had finally realized he’d done something wrong.
Jiraiya, in turn, just stared at him seriously. He was angry, tired. “Goodbye.” And he left. Lee looked down at his trembling hands on his lap as they heard the door being closed after Jiraiya’s departure.
“Lee.” Gai caressed his disciple’s hair, tucking too-long black strands behind an ear. “What have you done?”
“I’m sorry, Gai-sensei!!” Not now, not now, he already felt so miserable! He didn’t want to disappoint his sensei now. Lee couldn’t supress the tears anymore.
“Shh... Lee, it’s okay now.” Gai hugged the other young man as if he were the lost boy he once met.
“No, sensei... It’s not okay...” He said, voice trembling, against the older man’s chest. “I got drunk intentionally... How could I think that Sake would get rid of my problems!?”
“What problems?” Grabbing Lee by the shoulders, Gai broke free of their embrace to look at his disciple in the eyes. This one blushed slightly and made his sensei stare at him, surprised.
“I... fell in love with someone...” Lee got an ‘Oh’ from his sensei. “This time it’s for real, sensei!”
“Okay, okay! But what does Naruto have to do with all of this?” Gai saw the change of expression on Lee’s face, now dead serious.
“It’s like... It’s always hard for me to achieve something... Even ‘love’ seems to be something impossible for me. I’m so stupid...” Lee smiled sadly. “I was focusing all of my frustation on Naruto... But I know it’s not his fault.” He paused, looking at his trembling hands again. Gai, on the other side, stared into his eyes, confused. “I can’t make someone love me... I just can wait, this happens! But what I can’t help is falling in love! And with someone that will probably be better off with a Hokage and... Maybe he can’t even love...”
‘He’? Gai continued to look at him with a confused face, trying to not miss a word and to just make out a few things from what Lee was saying. “I... I fell in love with the wrong person again, right..?”
“Are we talking about Sakabu no Gaara?” Lee’s face fell.
“Yes...” He tried to hide his face behind his long bangs of black hair, lowering his chin. Gai, instead, reached out to gently lift Lee’s face with his right hand.
“So... You are going to back down like a coward? I shouldn’t expect this from my youthful disciple.” Gai smiled at him.
“Gai-sensei...” Lee smiled back, but his smile was a sad one. “I can’t force someone to love me... And besides... Gaara and I… We are so different.” They held their stares for a few long seconds until Gai broke the silence.
“Different personalities complement each other very well.”
“Alike ones... are easier to understand...” Lee closed the small space between them, closing his eyes and pressing his lips softly against those of his sensei.
“Lee...” Gai said between their still pressed lips, staring at Lee’s closed eyes.
“Sensei... I’m sorry.” He broke the kiss and stared back up at his sensei with a sad smile on his lips.
“Oh, Lee..!” Gai embraced Lee once again, this time with force. “How did you become this lost, my boy?” A sob escaped Lee’s lips, as he tried his best to not cry out and bury his face in the older man’s chest. “You must fight for this case because you now know that what you feel is real. You can’t force someone to love you but you can make that someone see the good in you... And it won’t be hard to fall in love with someone as goodhearted as you!”
“You are too nice, Gai-sensei..! I’m not...”
“We need to get back that confidence of yours.” Caressing the young man’s hair, he let Lee cry openly against his chest.
. . .
Disclaimer: Naruto and its characters are copyright of Masashi Kishimoto-sensei.
Pairings: Lee/Gaara, Shikamaru/Kiba, Naruto/???
Rating: PG to NC17
Summary: After loosing Shukaku and the immense power it represented for Gaara, the said Kazekage started to train to compensate that loose. He just has one hanging subject: Taijutsu.
CHAPTER 18:
At Suna, Gaara stood alone on the training grounds, facing the Mook Jang Chong. He lifted his stare to the still dark skies. The days now were slightly shorter, but the heat hadn’t diminished. Winter was approaching, so... how long had it been since Lee left Sunagakure?
. . .
She had spent the last two hours looking at the clock on the wall. Naruto realized that Hinata was nervous about something, and the nervousness seemed to appear shortly after Shizune had left the Hokage’s office. Shizune had to leave early due to her youngest son’s sudden fever, her husband already with him at home. Now it was time for Naruto and Hinata to go home too, but since the paperwork of three people had been distributed between the two of them, it had taken them longer than expected. Hinata looked for the last time at the clock and Naruto did the same. It was almost 9 PM.
“Do you need to go?” Asked Naruto suddenly, startling Hinata and making her drop a few papers to the floor.
“No... It’s just that...” She began, while at the same time picking up the papers from the floor. Naruto stared at her intensly, waiting patiently. “Neji... must be worried...”
The Hokage arched a brow. Since when was Neji worried about Hinata? She dared to lift her sight from the papers and looked back at Naruto. This was the time to tell him, she knew it. “We... we are going to get married.” The blond haired man stood a few seconds looking at her, not registering her words at all.
“What..?” He finally asked, his voice almost trembling.
“Yes, I need to go.” She stood up and with her chin lowered, tried to organize the papers on her table, her cheeks a bit flushed. “We are going to discuss the last preparations for the wedding.” Gazing up again, she saw Naruto’s disoriented stare. “Of course, you are invited.”
. . .
Like in the old days... Ramen has always been good, and it could be good now. Naruto walked the whole way to Ichiraku’s with his lost stare, not knowing why the news about Hinata and Neji’s marriage affected him this much.
“Am I that afraid..?” Naruto stopped abruptly in the center of the street, getting confused and surprised stares from the people who passed by. He was the Hokage of the village, after all. ‘Afraid of being alone when everybody else has someone special...’
Again, with a blank and lost expression, he sat at Ichiraku’s in a chair at the farthest right, asking simply for a bowl of Ramen, not minding the variety at all. In the left part there was someone with an already empty bowl, slurping sonorously at his Sake’s glass and mumbling nonsense to himself. Taking notice of him, but not looking at his left, Naruto shook his head in disapproval. Konoha had too many drunkards.
“A broken heart, Naruto-kun,” whispered the owner of Ichiraku’s, already with a Ramen’s bowl on his hand. “Believe me. I’ve seen this face too many times... They all think that Sake can heal them.” Naruto looked up at him, accepting the bowl and thanking the old man. Did he had a similar face?
“Soooooooo... Hokage-sama...” The said drunkard turned on his chair, now facing Naruto. A defiant smirk on his lips. The Kage, instead, didn’t turn; he already knew who it was from his voice. “Having a good time?” Naruto’s blood iced in that moment.
“Lee..?” He turned slowly towards the one once known as the ‘Green Wild Beast’, now dressed in black with his open Jounin’s vest, his black hair hanging long past his ears.
Naruto saw the move coming and already knew something wasn’t right at all. Acting on reflex, he stood up rapidly from his chair and jumped a pair of meters away from the Ramen’s stand. Just at the same moment, his chair disappeared in a shower of splinters. Something flew directly at his face and Naruto blocked it with his forearm. There was a crashing sound and the feeling of the burning soup on his arm and face.
“How are ya doin’? Oh! What am I asking!? You are the Hokage, you must be doing quite... FINE!!” The last word had been yelled just as at the same time Lee lanched a high kick directed again to Naruto’s face. Naruto dodged it in time but then had to block a pair of fast punches and a low round kick at his feet. Jumping up to elude the low kick he found himself being kicked in the stomach, flying away until he slammed against a nearby tree.
“Lee... What’s this...” Naruto tried to ignore the pain on his stomach and the lingering burning sensation on his face’s skin. “What’s this all about?” Looking up, he saw the said Jounin approaching him with clumsy steps. “Oh, yes... You really are drunk... Hell!!” He knew that a drunk Rock Lee wasn’t something good.
“I’m not drunk.” Then Naruto saw that Lee was holding something: it was a bag. Lee opened it and threw its contents at his feet. “My missions, Hokage-sama. All accomplished.” There was a rather big amount of papers and scrolls on the floor.
The people that occupied the zone were looking curiously at the pair, their Hokage with his knees on the ground. “I’m sorry, Lee... I didn’t...” Not speaking a word, Lee closed the few steps that separated them and grabbed Naruto by the hair. At the gasp of the people looking at them and the few that took a step foward ready to ‘help’ their Hokage, Naruto lifted a hand in their direction. “Stay away.”
“Violence...” Lee was whispering in Naruto’s ear. “... takes you nowhere.” With that said, Lee yanked at Naruto’s hair, forcing him to stand, but before he was completely standing up, Lee punched him in the stomach again.
“Enough!!” Naruto screamed, freeing himself from the Jounin’s grip, losing a few hairs in the motion. He threw a few punches of his own at Lee’s face, missing it every time. Lee was too fast for Naruto...
People around them were looking petrified, horrified: their Hokage was losing in hand to hand combat. There were screams, unintelligible, but the clear ones were supporting ones for Naruto.
“This is all your fault!!” Lee screamed, and time seemed to stop for Naruto: Lee was crying. Naruto stood there, hypnotized, looking at a very fast punch as if it were coming at a very slow motion towards his neck. That was a fatal attack, he knew he would die if he didn’t defend himself.
“STOP YOU TWO, NOW!!” Jiraiya appeared from the bunch of people, grabbing Lee from behind.
“Let me go!!” Lee thrusted and kicked him, his feet on the air since Jiraiya was much taller than him. “LET ME GO!!” He aimed his elbow at Jiraiya’s ribs, making the Sannin wince in pain.
“Lee, please! Stop this nonsense, you are drunk!” Lee gritted his teeth together almost painfully and more fresh tears rolled down his cheeks.
“Bastard!!” Lee spat at Naruto’s face, making a Bull’s eye. “How can someone like you be Hokage!? HOW!?”
Now facing Lee and just a few inches from his face, Naruto slapped him. The Jounin’s face was now dead serious.
“Naruto! Cut it!” That was Jiraiya being ignored by the two younger men.
“You are disgusting...” Lee said with his chin high and looking at Naruto under his nose. “Like a spoiled, jealous brat that wants what he can’t have...”
“NARUTO!!” Jiraiya tried to avoid the upcoming attack, but didn’t want to release an enraged, drunk and dangerous Rock Lee; and that was what made Naruto’s punch, charged with red chakra, to hit Lee in the chest and leave him unconcious. “Stupid!!” Jiraiya fell to the ground, still holding the unmoving young man in his arms. “What was this all about!? Speak!!”
“It’s none of your business...” Naruto turned around and walked away. People around him stepped away, making an exaggerated amount of room for him to pass by. No one dared to open their mouths.
Once the Hokage disappeared and people started to whisper, Jiraiya finally stood up, with Lee in his arms and walked away in a different direction.
. . .
“Nnngh...” His head hurt like hell, that was the first think he realized at opening his eyes, and then, a person at his right. “Gai-sensei..?”
“How are you feeling, Lee?” Gai was holding a small glass bottle under Lee’s nose. He looked at it for a moment (it had a very strong smell), and then looked up at his sensei who was supporting his upper body up from the bed. At his left, he spotted Jiraiya-sama.
“Well, now that the kid is conscious, I can go,” the taller man said, grabbing his gigantic scroll and knotting it at his back. “Does your chest hurt, kid?”
“Uh..?” Lee tried to sit up on his own and realized that, indeed, his chest hurt a little. “It hurts a bit, yes...”
“Hm... That’s the best I could do. You may have minor damage on your chakra system, nothing important.”
The younger man looked at him open mouthed. What had happened? Jiraiya-sama had healed him but... Why? What had he done!? “I’m sorry, Jiraiya-sama!!”
Gai stared at Lee with sad eyes, knowing that his disciple had finally realized he’d done something wrong.
Jiraiya, in turn, just stared at him seriously. He was angry, tired. “Goodbye.” And he left. Lee looked down at his trembling hands on his lap as they heard the door being closed after Jiraiya’s departure.
“Lee.” Gai caressed his disciple’s hair, tucking too-long black strands behind an ear. “What have you done?”
“I’m sorry, Gai-sensei!!” Not now, not now, he already felt so miserable! He didn’t want to disappoint his sensei now. Lee couldn’t supress the tears anymore.
“Shh... Lee, it’s okay now.” Gai hugged the other young man as if he were the lost boy he once met.
“No, sensei... It’s not okay...” He said, voice trembling, against the older man’s chest. “I got drunk intentionally... How could I think that Sake would get rid of my problems!?”
“What problems?” Grabbing Lee by the shoulders, Gai broke free of their embrace to look at his disciple in the eyes. This one blushed slightly and made his sensei stare at him, surprised.
“I... fell in love with someone...” Lee got an ‘Oh’ from his sensei. “This time it’s for real, sensei!”
“Okay, okay! But what does Naruto have to do with all of this?” Gai saw the change of expression on Lee’s face, now dead serious.
“It’s like... It’s always hard for me to achieve something... Even ‘love’ seems to be something impossible for me. I’m so stupid...” Lee smiled sadly. “I was focusing all of my frustation on Naruto... But I know it’s not his fault.” He paused, looking at his trembling hands again. Gai, on the other side, stared into his eyes, confused. “I can’t make someone love me... I just can wait, this happens! But what I can’t help is falling in love! And with someone that will probably be better off with a Hokage and... Maybe he can’t even love...”
‘He’? Gai continued to look at him with a confused face, trying to not miss a word and to just make out a few things from what Lee was saying. “I... I fell in love with the wrong person again, right..?”
“Are we talking about Sakabu no Gaara?” Lee’s face fell.
“Yes...” He tried to hide his face behind his long bangs of black hair, lowering his chin. Gai, instead, reached out to gently lift Lee’s face with his right hand.
“So... You are going to back down like a coward? I shouldn’t expect this from my youthful disciple.” Gai smiled at him.
“Gai-sensei...” Lee smiled back, but his smile was a sad one. “I can’t force someone to love me... And besides... Gaara and I… We are so different.” They held their stares for a few long seconds until Gai broke the silence.
“Different personalities complement each other very well.”
“Alike ones... are easier to understand...” Lee closed the small space between them, closing his eyes and pressing his lips softly against those of his sensei.
“Lee...” Gai said between their still pressed lips, staring at Lee’s closed eyes.
“Sensei... I’m sorry.” He broke the kiss and stared back up at his sensei with a sad smile on his lips.
“Oh, Lee..!” Gai embraced Lee once again, this time with force. “How did you become this lost, my boy?” A sob escaped Lee’s lips, as he tried his best to not cry out and bury his face in the older man’s chest. “You must fight for this case because you now know that what you feel is real. You can’t force someone to love you but you can make that someone see the good in you... And it won’t be hard to fall in love with someone as goodhearted as you!”
“You are too nice, Gai-sensei..! I’m not...”
“We need to get back that confidence of yours.” Caressing the young man’s hair, he let Lee cry openly against his chest.
. . .