Chapter Text
If Neji and Tenten were to sit down together and really, really think through all of the embarrassing moments they’ve witnessed over the years, they probably wouldn’t be able to remember them all. Being on a team with both Might Guy and Rock Lee, you get tangled up in too much absurdity to keep track of, from loud, gushing speeches to publicly issued challenges with cringe-worthy consequences. For the most part, though, neither of them mind. They’ve long since been desensitized to it.
This, though. This is just sad.
Tenten and Neji stand at the top of a large hill, watching Lee roll and tumble his way to the bottom. The three of them had just made it back into the village after a long mission when Lee spotted Sakura’s pink hair on the busy street below. With a wink, a thumbs up, and a “Wish me luck!” he’d started picking his way down the hill only to slip on a muddy spot four steps in.
Lee pops to his feet the second he’s stopped rolling and brushes himself off, turning back to give Neji and Tenten another thumbs up before continuing on like barrel-rolling fifty feet downhill had been his plan all along.
“It can’t get worse after that, at least,” Tenten says. She finds a spot on the grassy hill and sits, patting the ground next to her. This could take a while. She knows it, and Neji knows it. That’s why, with a sigh that comes all the way from the tips of his toes, Neji drops onto the grass and brings his knees up to his chest.
“I think you underestimate Lee.”
In silence, they watch Lee run after Sakura, yelling her name and waving his arms to get her attention. She can’t be more than twenty feet away from him but she pretends not to hear, instead pushing her way through the crowded street as quickly as she can without breaking into a sprint. Sakura, poor thing, is no match for Rock Lee, who manages to maneuver his way in front of her to cut her off. Neji and Tenten sit too far away to hear what he says, but it involves several thumbs up and a lot of enthusiastic arm waving.
“Sakura-san,” Tenten guesses, lowering her voice to mimic Lee’s, “You will not believe the mission we have just returned from! I believe you would be most impressed with how well I fought.”
Neji snorts. When Tenten looks over at him, he’s smiling. “You sound too stiff.”
“I do not! Lee sounds stiff; I sound just like him,” Tenten huffs, crossing her arms.
“You also sound too braggy for Lee,” Neji says.
“Alright, I’ll give you that one.” A few seconds pass, and Tenten continues, “I wish to impart on you my most ardent admiration and adoration, Sakura! Please go on a date with me! I’ll— Neji, aren’t you going to join in?”
“Not this time.”
“Fine,” Tenten says. She kicks at a patch of grass. When Lee just keeps talking, she continues, adopting her Lee-voice again, “Guy-sensei says that romance is one of the many wonders of youth!” Tenten pitches her voice back up, mimicking Sakura now. “How many times do I have to tell you, Lee, I’m a good friend of Tenten’s and she would never really make fun of me, but I have terrible taste in men and just can’t appreciate your charms.”
Tenten steals another glance at Neji. He’s almost smiling, now, which Tenten counts as a win. Neji gets pouty when Lee, Sakura, and flirting all run together. He’s still sitting stiffly, arms crossed and gaze fixed unblinkingly down on the street, but the smile is something.
It isn’t long before Sakura’s apparently had enough. She cuts Lee off and says something that involves even more hand-waving than Lee had been doing, and probably a fair amount of yelling as well. Then she storms off. Lee, apparently genuinely surprised by this development, stares after her before looking helplessly up at Tenten and Neji, who, using their shinobi reflexes, quickly pretend they hadn’t seen it all go down.
“Poor Lee,” Tenten says, suddenly very fascinated with the clover patch on the grass next to her. Neji harrumphs and lays back on the grass.
Lee climbs up the hill back to them, careful not to slip.
“Lee?” Tenten asks when he gets close enough. “Are you okay?”
Lee doesn’t answer, just works his way into the small space between them and lies face-first in the grass. His jumpsuit is covered in mud and grass stains, and Neji plucks a blade of grass out of his hair, his focus intense and his expression murderous. Tenten sighs. Now she has two grumpy teenage boys to deal with.
Neji might just kill her if she hurts Lee further, but she’s seen Lee get rejected too many times not to be a little frustrated. “Why don’t you just give it up, Lee?” she asks. “Sometimes people just don’t like people back,” Tenten says, biting her tongue when she sees Neji flinch.
Lee mumbles something into the dirt.
“Huh?”
Neji sighs. He translates for Tenten, “Love never gives up.”
Lee tries to give Neji a thumbs up, but because of the angle he’s laying at, it looks like a thumbs down. Lee drops his hand and mumbles something else into the mud. Whatever he says makes Neji sit up and turn to face Lee.
“What do you mean, you ‘don’t blame her?’” Neji snaps, his scowl several shades darker than it had been just moments ago. “Sakura would be lucky to date you.”
Lee mumbles something else, and Neji’s expression softens. “What’s gotten into you?”
“There you three are!” a new voice says, loud enough to startle away the birds that had settled near the trio. Neji’s head snaps up and Tenten breaths a sigh of relief. If anyone can fix this, get Lee back in high spirits, it’s him . She looks over her shoulder to find Might Guy standing on the path, hands on his hips and a bright smile on his face.
“I’m glad I caught you before you—,” Guy breaks off with a laugh when he sees Lee. “Lee, don’t tell me you tried training more? Ah, the ardor of youth. I remember when I—,”
“No, Sakura rejected him again and he’s moping,” Tenten interrupts before Guy can launch into a speech about youth and rivalry.
Lee mumbles something.
“You are too moping,” Neji says. His hand hovers near Lee’s back, like he wants to comfort but doesn’t know how.
“I see.” Guy stares at Lee’s back, his eyes uncharacteristically serious. When his gaze drifts from Lee to Neji, Neji yanks his hand back. He’s still looking at Neji when he says, “The sting of young love.”
Neji blushes and opens his mouth to protest, but Guy cuts him off with a shout of, “Lee! Come with me! I want to talk to you.”
Even in his current state, Lee can’t resist a direct request from Might Guy. With a long, wistful sigh, he pushes himself to his feet and follows Guy back the way they came, leaving a concerned Neji and Tenten behind.
Guy walks silently down the path, Lee trailing behind him. It’s early spring, the time of life, of love, of youth. All around them, trees are budding, flowers are blooming. A couple of children play in the street and somewhere nearby, hidden from their sight, a bird whistles a merry tune.
Guy takes a deep breath, basking in the cool evening air, then looks back at his dejected pupil. These should be the best days of Lee’s young life, but instead, he looks miserable. Figuring this is as good a place as any, Guy whirls around to face Lee and puts up a fighting stance. He’s outlined against the brilliant pinks, oranges, and yellows of a magnificent sunset, a sunset that casts its warm glow across his shoulders, his hair, and all the world around them.
“So you’re having problems with love, hm?” he asks, pouring all the reassurance, confidence, and understanding he can into his voice. This dramatic start to Guy’s speech has Lee perking up slightly. Still, Guy hasn’t seen him this bad since the first chuunin exams. This situation will require a gentle hand.
Lee’s eyes widen and he nods vigorously. “Yes, Guy-sensei!” he says with breathless awe.
Guy nods once, more to himself than to Lee. Then, he whacks Lee across the head with all the strength he can muster, which ends up being strong enough to knock Lee to his knees. “Pull yourself together, Lee!”
Lee looks up at Guy, tears welling in his eyes. “Guy-sensei?” he asks.
Guy crouches in front of Lee and grabs him by the shoulders, blinking back the tears that threaten his own vision. He can’t start crying, too; Lee needs him to be strong right now. “I know love is hard, Lee. Believe me, I know. But you can’t lose hope like this!”
“It’s just so hard, sensei!” Glistening tears stream freely down Lee’s face now. “I know Sakura would love me if she just gave me a chance!”
“Listen to me, Lee,” Guy begins, shaking Lee once for emphasis. He needn’t have bothered; Lee is hanging on his every word. “Love is a dangerous thing, which I suspect you’ve begun to discover. When your love is returned, it’s...Lee, there isn’t anything quite like it. But on the other hand, unrequited love is one of the acutest pains this world has to offer. Love is a coin with two sides. A knife that cuts both ways. A...a…” Guy trails off. He’d run out of metaphors.
He’s not entirely sure where he’s going with any of this, but he can’t stop now because Lee is enraptured by what he’s saying, feeling more and more uplifted the more Guy says. His tears have stopped flowing, and he’s even doing that thing where he repeats some of Guy’s more impactful words to himself in a whisper, like “unrequited love” and “acute pain” and even “coin with two sides.”
“Uh..right. As I was saying, Lee, it’s a shinobi’s responsibility not to get too caught up in the emotion of it all and to see things as they are. Sometimes, people just aren’t compatible with the people they want to be compatible with. And that’s okay. In fact, sometimes , you can find what you’re looking for if you recognize that and turn to someone else. Have you ever considered anyone else, Lee?”
Lee blinks. “Considered anyone else? What do you mean, Guy-sensei?”
“I mentioned the pain of unrequited love, earlier,” Guy begins slowly. Lee nods. “There are lots of people who feel that pain every day, and—,”
“That is terrible,” Lee interrupts. “I wish no one ever had to feel this way.”
“Right.” Guy fixes Lee with a stern stare. “ As I was saying , there are lots of people who feel that pain every day, and sometimes they do it without anyone knowing. Not everyone’s as upfront about their feelings as you or I, Lee, so you never know who’s feeling the sting of unrequited love. It can be the people you care about, the people closest to you. And sometimes, those people are exactly who you need…”
Considering Lee’s blank expression, Guy realizes this approach might not get him anywhere. Tact has never been his specialty, and understanding tact has never been Lee’s. He huffs and drops from his squat to sit on the ground in front of Lee, his joints thanking him for this new position. He decides to tackle this from another angle.
“You can’t force love, Lee. You have to let it catch you by surprise, when you’re least expecting it and only when you’re ready for it. Sometimes, those other people who are hurting—,”
Lee jumps to his feet and pumps a fist into the air. “I understand what you’re saying now, Guy-sensei!”
“You do?!”
“Yes! You’re saying that in order to find love, I must help someone else find it first!”
“Yes!” Guy jumps to his feet as well, mirroring Lee’s position. A second later, he drops his arm. “Wait, no—,”
“You’re so smart, Guy-sensei! Only by doing something as selfless as helping another fall in love will I be ready for it myself! I will not fail you! I will find the people close to me that are hurting and help them on their quest to find love!”
“No, Lee, that’s not what I…” Guy trails off. Lee is back to his usual enthusiastic self, thoughts on the goal ahead and far from Sakura’s rejection. That’s what Guy had wanted, after all. He gives Lee a thumbs up and his widest smile. “I know you can do it, Lee!”
For a second, it looks like Lee is going to cry again, but he just wipes his sleeve across his face and bows before running off to rejoin Neji and Tenten.
On Lee’s way back to his teammates, he thinks on what Guy-sensei said to him. Who can he help? Of the people close to him, who deserves to find love? No, that’s an easy question. All of them. They all deserve to find love. But who needs Lee’s help the most?
Neji, of course. It takes Lee about two seconds to decide that it has to be Neji. Neji’s the greatest person Lee knows, including Guy-sensei, but as far as Lee knows, he’s never dated anyone. In fact, as far as Lee knows, he’s never even shown interest in anyone, which is especially ridiculous considering half the people their age—guys and girls—have been interested in Neji at some point. In Lee’s humble opinion, it should be more than half. Everyone should be interested in Neji.
And come to think of it, Neji’s been down recently. Lee had been so busy courting Sakura that he hadn’t even noticed! He stops running and makes a fist to himself. This is exactly what Guy-sensei was talking about. Lee has been so caught up in his own quest for love that he’s been neglecting the happiness of his best friend and rival.
Yes, Neji could benefit greatly from having someone special in his life, having someone that makes him happy. Lee feels a little strange, thinking about Neji dating someone, but that’s probably just because he and Neji are close enough to be brothers. Of course it feels strange. Neji probably feels the same way about him and Sakura.
But who to set Neji up with?
Lee finally finds his friends, slowing before they notice him. Lee watches as Tenten says something and laughs, whatever she said managing to pull a small smile out of Neji. Lee’s heart swells with fondness at the sight and he knows what he needs to do.
Lee will set Neji up with Tenten! If he fails, then… then he will do five hundred pushups!