Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Photograph ❯ Tag ( Chapter 9 )

Theme #9: Dash

 

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The group of genin shifted uneasily in the first light of the rising sun. They were not cowards. They had already gone on missions and faced off with strong enemies in life and death situations. Even when they were still in the academy, they had been taught how to stand strong against impossible odds. The shinobi from Suna were famous for their courage, and this group was an excellent example of this trait. However, no training or experience could prepare them for this.

 

“This is the perfect time for training, my youthful students!” The first rays of the sunrise glinted off an impossible large smile, wide onyx eyes, and insanely shiny black hair.

 

One genin accidentally looked directly into that smile and clamped her hand over her eyes with a quiet whimper, pain shooting through her retinas. They had been told that a well respected and feared taijutsu master was in the village, and he was going to be providing some expert advice in hand to hand combat. They had risen before dawn, carefully outfitting their selves for training, and arrived at the training field in the pre-dawn dark. What they were looking for was a powerful foreign shinobi. But what they had found had at first confused them, then concerned them, and now they felt the first stirrings of fear.

 

“In order to become an expert at taijutsu, one must increase their strength and speed! Our first order of business is to have a quick warm-up, so we will run around Sungakure 25 times. After that, we will come back here to continue with our youthful pursuit of superior strength and reflexes!” Lee struck an inspiring pose, thumb extended, before turning and bolting towards the gates of the hidden village. “Follow me, young genin!”

 

The group looked at each other, visibly bracing themselves before turning to chase their mentally unwell teacher.

 

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“Okay, who's idea was it to give bushy brows a team of genin to abuse?” Kankuro walked into Gaara's office.

 

Temari and Gaara both looked up with matching glares. They had been trying to go over some rather complicated documents before they were disturbed. The Kazekage pushed some of his papers aside and answered his brother. “It was a request from some of the jounin.”

 

The puppet-nin made himself comfortable in a chair, propping his feet up on the desk. “Well, I just saw them running through Sungakure, and the sentries said that they just finished twenty-five laps around the village. Are you trying to thin out the genin ranks or something?”

 

“Hard work is not going to kill them.” Temari kicked her brother's legs, knocking them off of the desk. “Not that you would know.”

 

“That time of the month already?” Kankuro ducked the next blow with ease and put his feet back up on the desk. “Seriously, though, why the hell is busy brows running laps with a group of our genin?”

 

Gaara glared at his brother's feet, and a tendril of sand easily knocked his brother's chair over. He hated it when his brother put his feet up like that. It knocked things out of place. “He is a well respected taijutsu master. We do not have a taijutsu expert of his caliber in Suna at this time, so the jounin requested that he tutor some of the students in hand to hand combat.”

 

Kankuro grumbled as he picked himself back up off of the floor and righted his chair. “So long as he doesn't get them all hooked on his weird little green spandex obsession. That's a sight I sure as hell never want to see.”

 

Ignoring his brother's grumbling, Gaara left his desk and went to his window. The training field was spread out below him, allowing him to watch over the education of the shinobi he was responsible for. On that day, there was only Lee and his students working in the morning sun. The students were in a line and moving through a series of kicks and punches. Lee was moving amongst them, correcting a stance here and giving encouragement there. He slid the window open so that words of `springtime', `youth', and `determination' filtered into his office.

 

Temari moved up to Gaara's right side, staring down at the sight. “He may be a genius of hard work, but he is an oddball.”

 

“Hm.” The Kazekage studied the jounin in question as he demonstrated the sequence he was trying to teach with impossible ease and grace. Beautiful, but so very deadly.

 

“Honestly, I haven't heard the word youthful so much in my life. Or so loudly. Does he have a volume dial somewhere?”

 

Kankuro came up on Gaara's left. “I just keep wondering how he got his hair like that. I mean, how many hours does he spend working on that damn stuff to make it so damn reflective? And where has he been getting his hair cut since he got to Suna? Does he do it himself?”

 

“I'll admit, I want to know how he gets his hair so shiny.” Temari ran and hand over her own rebellious locks. “But the real question is why he's still in that green outfit. It is just about the worst thing for here in the desert, and the legwarmers? Hideous in Konoha, and nearly suicidal here. All of it picks up sand like a magnet. He is not the genius of common sense.”

 

“Common sense? Fuck, he's practically left a trail around Sungakure from all of his laps. According to the sentries, he's out there running at all hours of the day and night. He even runs in the afternoon! Does he sleep?”

 

“He has to at some point. His energy levels are inhuman. And he's a morning person. I can deal with a lot of things, but morning people in green spandex with shining hair and a habit of yelling are not on the list.”

 

“And the huge eyes, with the famous eyebrows overtop, and a jounin with no chakra control to speak of. Damn, what a package. He's just about the weirdest guy we've ever met.”

 

Temari nodded, and looked to her younger brother. “You see him all the time. Anything that we're missing?”

 

Below them, Lee had pulled one of his students over as an example. With absolute patience, the teacher moved through the sequence of kicks and punches. He was generous with praise, loudly proclaiming that his students were making amazing progress and that they would be a source of pride to their villages. The genin moved through the sequence again, this time correctly executing the kick and knocking Lee back by a couple of feet. The student blinked in surprise, and then actually smiled as Lee resumed his vigorous praise on her progress. The next genin eagerly took his place to receive some individual work with the taijutsu master.

 

It was blatantly obvious that Lee believed in each of his students, even when he had only known them for one day. These were genin that showed a distinct lack of skill in taijutsu, and yet Lee handled them as if each and every one was a prodigy just waiting to wake up. Gaara was rather confused by this. These were not prodigies. These were students that had fallen behind. And yet, under his tutelage, they were already making progress.

 

Yes, Lee was loud. He wore odd clothing and ran in the middle of the night. He was too polite and wore his feelings right on his face for anyone to see. He stood out in any crowd despite the fact that he was a shinobi and should know something about stealth and subtlety. But he was also graceful, powerful, and highly skilled. He did not know that the word `quit' existed and had done many things in his life that people said were impossible. He made no sense, and Gaara was frequently frustrated or irritated with him. He made Gaara think things and do things that made no sense and destroyed the rhythms that he had spent years building. But that was what made him Lee. `I would miss all of it, if he were gone.'

 

A hand appeared in his vision, breaking him out of his thoughts. “Hey, kid, you think Lee's weird, right?”

 

Gaara nodded slowly. “Yes.”

 

Kankuro leaned down so he was looking at his brother's face. “Then why the hell are you hanging out with this weirdo all the time?”

 

“Because he's Lee.”

 

The sand whipped up wildly, blocking out the view of the office. When the sand cleared, Gaara was standing right in front of a startled Lee.

 

“Gaa . . . Kazekage-sama, what is wrong? Is there an emer . . . “

 

Lee's words were cut off when Gaara pressed a kiss against his mouth. The Kazekage's arms pulled him close for a second, savoring the feeling of contact, before releasing him and disappearing in another crash of sand.

 

----

 

“Ummm . . . “ Lee stared at his students, who were staring back at him. His brain had not recovered yet from Gaara's little surprise attack.

 

“Was that the Kazekage, Lee-sama?” one of the genin asked.

 

“Well, yes, yes it was.”

 

Another genin worried at the edges of her clothing, looking very much her young age. “What was he doing? We could only see sand. Is he mad at us?”

 

Mentally, Lee heaved a sigh of relief. “No, no, he is quite happy with your progress! He just had a message for me. I'm sorry that your training was disrupted! Now we will learn a signature maneuver that my teacher taught me. Dynamic Entry!”

 

The students scrambled back into a line, watching closely. Lee gathered himself up, but was distracted by a flash of white coming from the Kazekage's tower. He hesitated, watching it.

 

`One purple dot. Two. Three. Oh, boy.'

 

A voice bellowed from the tower. “Run for it, bushy brows!”

 

Lee watched as the fan dropped from the window with a figure on top. “What did I do?!”

 

The voice bellowed back, “I've got no idea, but you might want to get outta her way!”

 

“All right, my students, we are now going to leave the training area with all of our youthful speed!”

 

The genin were watching the fan. “Is that Temari-sama?”

 

“Yes . . . “

 

The three students looked at each other. “Run, Lee-sensei!”

 

“Not without my students! Your safety is my responsibility. We're a team, and we stick together!” Lee tried to strike an inspiring pose, but his genin plowed into him.

 

“Run already, sensei!”

 

The genin took off like little streaks of light, closely followed by a large green blur. They tore through the streets of Sungakure, leaping over carts and dodging pedestrians.

 

“This way!” Lee took the lead as they bounced from the top of a market stand to a window sill and up to the rooftops. They picked up speed now that they no longer had to worry about running over people or animals. From rooftop to rooftop they traveled across the village, keeping a wary eye on the fan that was still following them.

 

The genin called Ami darted ahead to pull up alongside of her instructor. “This way, I know this part of the village better then anyone!” Ami dropped down from the rooftop into a narrow alleyway. Without missing a beat, Lee waved for the other two genin to drop down with her and then followed them.

 

Weaving through the hidden parts of Sungakure, Lee could just barely make out Temari hovering above them. She was tracking them by chakra, he was sure of it, but there was nothing he could do about it.

 

“How do we lose her, Lee-sensei?” The taller of the two boys, Seiji, fell back to run alongside of his teacher. “She's tracking us!”

 

“We need to confuse her. She's tracking us by chakra. Ami-san! We need to go somewhere with a lot of people!”

 

“I've got it, sensei!” The genin in the lead took a hard left, leaving her two teammates skidding out of control and crashing into a laundry line. Lee didn't even miss a step as he grabbed each of them and hauled them around the corner.

 

Seiji yanked a bra off of his head. “Are we going where I think we're going, Ami-chan?”

 

“Do you have any better ideas, Seiji-kun?”

 

Lee didn't even have time to ask. Ami turned onto a busy street and darted right through a gate. The sign read `Suna Ninja Academy'.

 

Ami still hadn't slowed, racing across an open field and heading for the main building with the two boys right on her heels. Lee could see that Temari was losing ground, but she hadn't given up yet. A tingle of danger ran up his spine, and he looked to the right. “Look out! We're on the shuriken range!”

 

Laughing ten year-olds armed with dangerous weapons continued to work on hitting the targets, despite the fact that there were people in the way. Instructors were hollering commands and yelling at the group that was disrupting class.

 

“Get out of the way!”

 

“Sorry! Sorry! We will be out of the way in . . . whoa, that was close!” Lee ducked and dove, picking up speed so that he could catch Seiji and the third genin, Hideaki, and drag them to safety. Ami crossed safely on her own and dashed into the academy. They didn't stop running until they were standing in a classroom with a confused teacher and group of students that were in the middle of learning basic strategy.

 

Lee went to the window, looking for Temari. She was circling over the facility, looking for them, but from the way she was moving about she had lost them in the sea of chakra. The fan finally turned and went back towards home.

 

The genin collapsed to the ground, panting with their instructor.

 

Hideaki picked his head up, grinning madly. “That was fun, Lee-sensei! Can we play tag with Temari-sama again tomorrow?”

 

Lee scratched at the back of his head. “Sure, Hideaki-san. I'll ask Temari-san if she can play again tomorrow.”