Chapter Text
Lee doesn't realize how garish a color is until someone tells him, he doesn't react when a certain color is presented to him, and he says that everything looks to be a variation of one color: grey. There's nothing wrong with his eyes or the nerves supposed to be receiving information from those eyes, so it was decided that he must be one of those odd people who is colorblind until they touch their soulmate. As a child, this didn't really affect him- but as an adult? On a team of ninja, preparing to fight for his life, yet still getting tripped up by small differentiations of the color he saw most often: grey? That was a hazard.
His teammates knew, of course; he loved them too much to put them in danger like that. And Gai-sensei, who had a similar predicament and understood that he couldn't see to tell if the color of his clothes was giving away his hiding place or not, helped him buy clothes that, while apparently hideous to almost every person in the immediate vicinity, camoflaged his presence in the trees of Konoha. And of course he could he persuaded to change if for some reason they didn't camoflage him.
He trained hard and stayed positive for his family (Neji and TenTen and Gai-sensei) and when the Chuunin Exams came around and they signed up, certain they'd trained and studied enough to be worthy of passing, he didn't feel any different. He befriended Naruto and braved the jealous glares of the young Uchiha and pretended he felt something for the girl with scraggly hair on Naruto's team, Sakura.
As he gathered in the second task's clearing and watched the crowd for entertainment, he brushed many people. He didn't take any notice of it, but after one particular brush, he felt something in his eyes tingle. He rubbed them, fielded Naruto's worried questions on the state of his eyes, and generally felt fine. But when he opened his eyes and looked up, he noticed something odd.
The color of Naruto's tracksuit was very ugly. He didn't know what that color was called, but it did not suit Naruto's figure or face. He wondered if perhaps the boy needed some advice? And then he realizes: when did he gain the ability to see color?
He whirls around, but it's too late: his other half is gone and he's stuck in a clearing full of strangers and the piercing feeling of eyes following his every move.
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