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I arrived outside of lady Hokage’s office to find that Shikamaru and Neji were also waiting there.
“Oh, hey Lee, were you called here too?” Shikamaru asks, “this is an interesting group, I wonder what she wants us to do. Do either of you have any idea?”
“No, none at all,” I say sitting myself on the bench with the other two.
“It probably has to do with the Kazekage visit in a couple of days.” Neji says looking right at me, and I can feel the smile forming on my face. And with that the door swings open and Shizune calls the three of us into Tsunade’s office.
“The three of you are probably wonder why you are here,” She starts and we all nod in agreement, “Well as you may know the Kazekage will be here in two days for his monthly visit and as usual he needs guards. Shikamaru and Neji, that will be your job, to Guard him during his stay. Is that clear?”
“Yes Lady Tsunade” The two say in unison. I just continue to stand there wonder what my assignment will be.
“Now Lee,” Lady Tsunade says looking at me, I stand up straighter to show her that she has my attention, “Lord Kazekage has personally requested you to be his night time guard. This means that you will sit outside of his room and guard him to make sure that one one tries to get in without authorization. Is that clear?”
“Yes Lady Tsunade. But may I ask a question?” I say, a bit confused by the situation.
“Go ahead.”
“What do you mean by personally requested?”
“Look for yourself,” She says and holds out a paper, “We got this two or three days ago.”
I take the paper out of her hand and quickly read it over:
Dear Lady Hokage,
In light of my upcoming visit to Konoha I would like to make a formal request that my over night guard be Rock Lee, as I feel that he is more than capable of performing the task on his own. I have no want or will about who will be my guards during the day, I will leave that up to your own judgement. I look forward to the upcoming visit.
Lord Kazekage, Gaara
I quickly skimmed over the note a few more times making sure that I had read it right and then handed the note back to Lady Hokage. “I Will gladly accept this task lady Hokage,” I say bowing slightly.
“That is no surprise Lee. I expect the three of you to met me at the gate bright and early in two days. You are dismissed.” The three of us turn and leave Tsunade’s office and Shizune closes the door behind us. I can’t wait until the day after tomorrow.
It is the morning of Gaara’s visit to konoha and I could barely sleep last night from excitement. I mean I guess that’s a good thing because I’ll be up all night for the next few days anyways. I am the first person to arrive at the gates of Konoha, It is just after dawn so I’m not surprised that I was the first one here. Not long after Lady Tsunade appears followed closely by Neji.
“Well you’re here early Lee,” Neji says. I just ignore his, I’m too excited to let that affect my mood.
About ten minutes after Tsunade and Neji arrive, Shikamaru finally shows up. We wait another 20- 30 minutes before we see three figure emerge from the trees that border the konoha walls.
“Lord Kazekage, welcome,” Tsunade says with a larger than ordinary smile, “how was your journey here?”
“It went smoothly thank you. Good morning Shikamaru, Neji, Lee,” Gaara says lingering on me for a second before turning his attention back to Lady Tsunade.
“Welcome Lord Kazekage,” The three of us say in unison all quickly bowing. I could see Gaara’s small chuckle as I came back up.
“I’m still not completely used to that,” Gaara says to Lady Tsunade.
“Trust me I’m not either and I’ve been doing this longer than you have. Now why don’t we show you to your rooms so you and your siblings can get some rest before we start our meetings.” Tsunade says as she turns and starts to walk back into the village. The six of us walk in a cluster back to the village with Gaara in the center, when we get to the apartments that Gaara and his siblings will be staying Tsunade says goodbye and leave the three of us with the suna-nin.
“Would you like us to get you anything before you get your rest,” Neji says looking between the three sand siblings.
“I think we will be okay for now, We can get food after we have rested. Thank you.” Gaara says with a polite smile, then he turns to look at me, “Lee, maybe you should get some rest too so that you don’t fall asleep on the job tonight.”
“That is a very good idea Lord kazekage I will definitely do that.” I say
“I’ll have Neji find you when it is time for your shift to start.” He says with a real smile this time. With that Gaara enters his room and Temari and Kankuro enter theirs. I turn to walk back to my own apartment to get some much needed rest before my long night.
I wake up six or seven hours later to the annoying sound of my stomach which won’t stop growling. So I decide to make some quick curry and then do some training until Neji comes to get me later. I make enough food for now and to save some for the long night ahead, I quickly eat the curry, pack the rest and then head out to my normal training spot hoping that Neji come to find him sooner rather than latter.
Just as the sun starts to go down and I start becoming a bit physically tired, Neji jumps down from one of the tall trees into the clearing where I usually do my training.
“I knew I would find you here, I didn’t even feel like wasting energy by looking with my byakugan. Are you ready to go?” Neji says
“Yes I am ready Neji,” I say grabbing the food and water that I packed. I follow Neji back to the apartments that Gaara and his siblings are staying.
“Hey Lee,” Shikamaru says when I jump down from the last tree in front of the building, “I am so glad to see you, all of this has been a real drag.”
“All we did was walk around the village and stand in front of Lady Tsunade’s office, how could you possibly be tired,” Neji says rolling his eyes at Shikamaru. “Do you need anything Lee?”
“No I am all set, thank you Neji. Now go get some rest I will take it from here,” I say with a grin giving them a thumbs up, and with that they took off to their respective homes.
I turn to Kankuro and Temari’s room thinking that I should tell them that I am here now and I knock on the door. I wait a few moments and then knock again, no reply.
“No one is there Lee,” Gaara says behind me startling me half to death.
“I apologize I did not know you were there Lord Kazekage,” I say turning around, now slightly red in the face.
“Lee I told you to stop calling me that a while ago,” He says with a small smile.
“Right, sorry Gaara. So where are they?” I ask pointing to the locked door next to me.
“Kankuro said something about visiting Kiba, and Temari said something about trying to scare someone when they got home. Neither one said when they were gonna be back and Shikamaru looked like he was gonna fall asleep at any moment so I had Neji go get you. So it will be just us for who knows how long.”
“I see, well hopefully they get back soon.” I say. That is when I notice that Gaara had been slowly, inch by inch, moving closer to me and that he was now just about a foot away.
“Would you like to come in for some tea?” Gaara says softly, I nod and he opens the door to his room. Gaara goes into the small kitchen area and grabs the kettle of boiling water from the stove as well as two cups and a teapot. He carefully pours the water into the pot and adds the leaves, then he brings the teapot and the two cups to the table, he pours some into both cups and then sits down, gesturing for me to sit down next to him.
“Thank you Gaara,” I say sitting down and taking a sip from the cup, “What did you do today Gaara?”
“Oh you know, tedious political stuff and then I had Neji and Shikamaru take me to the market area so I could look at some things,” He says looking to his tea cup and then back up at me, “what did you do today? More training I presume from the state of your bandages.”
“Yes, I train everyday for several hours at least. I can not get better if I do not train constantly,” I say and Gaara laughs a little. “What is so funny?”
“Nothing, I just really admire your dedication to becoming the best. You have been the best at what you do in my eyes for a long time Lee,” Gaara says looking at me dead in the eyes causing me to blush a bit.
We talk for a few more hours until we hear a knock on the door. I walk over to open it to be greeted with Kankuro and Temari’s faces.
“I was wondering where you were Lee, I’m not surprised to see you in here though,” Kankuro says with a grin, “Well, we just wanted to let Gaara know that we’re back, Which means that Lee, you need to come out now.”
I turn back to look at Gaara and he smiles, “I should probably be trying to get some sleep now anyways, Thank you for your company Lee,” Gaara says standing up and walks towards the three of us.
“We’ll let you say goodnight, let’s go Kankuro,” Temari says pushing her brother into their large room.
“Thanks for talking Lee,” Gaara says now standing really close to him.
“I was my pleasure Gaara, if you need me I will be right out here,” I say placing my hands on his face. He leans head into my hands closing his eyes, “ Goodnight Gaara,”
“Goodnight Lee,” he says kissing my hand and then taking a step back into the room and closing the door.
I sit outside of Gaara and his siblings’ respective rooms for the next couple of hours occasionally eating some of the food that I brought with me, but mostly I’m just lost in my thoughts. I go back and forth between thinking about Gaara and thinking of new ways to train. I do this until my thoughts get interrupted by the sound of the door to my right opening slightly. Crimson hair and teal eyes peek out from behind the door.
“Gaara? Is something wrong?” I ask standing up from my chair and walking so that I am in front of him.
“I mean kind of, I can’t sleep. I was wondering I could ask you something?” Gaara says turning almost the same shade of red as his hair.
“Yes, of course, you can ask me anything Gaara,” I say.
“I was wondering if you would lay with me,” he says looking right up into my eyes, clearly trying to compensate for his embarrassment with a confident look. “If that is okay with you of course, just until I fall asleep, and then you can come back out here to guard.”
“I would love that Gaara,” I say with a smile and take a step towards Gaara so that he would go back into the room. I close the door behind us and look at Gaara. “So what do you want me to do?”
“Uh just lie on your back on the bed,” Gaara says avoiding my gaze now, I do as he says and then he slowly walks towards the bed, he almost looks afraid to get on.
“If you change your mind I can go if you want,” I say trying to asses the emotions on his face, which still despite the years, is very hard to do.
“No stay,” He says kneeling on the side of the bed opposite to me and he slowly moves so that he is lying down next to me.
“Is this what you want Gaara?” I ask thinking that he is probably too nervous to actually do what he wants. Gaara shakes his head no but doesn’t say or do anything. I pull him towards me so that his chest is mostly on top of mine and that the top of his head rests just under my chin.
“Yes, this is more of what I had in mind,” He says with his face buried into my shirt.
“Goodnight Gaara,” I say giving him a soft kiss on the top of his head. I could feel the heat of his face on my chest as I did that.
“Goodnight Lee,” He says closing his eyes, I could feel his whole body relax as he did.
When Gaara did eventually fall asleep, I didn’t have the heart to disturb him by moving so I just ended up staying there the last few hours of the night. When dawn finally started to break I knew that I had to move to go back outside so that Neji and Shikamaru didn’t think I disappeared in the middle of the night. So I slowly moved Gaara off of me and onto the bed and tip toed out of the room. When I got outside, a face that I wasn’t expecting was waiting for me.
“What were you doing in there Lee?” Shikamaru says with a grin on his face.
“I… Nothing…. He….” I stammer to think of a way for explaining my actions.
“I’m just kidding, Ino told me about you two a few weeks ago. I figure that’s why you were requested by the Kazekage himself,” He says with a laugh and I sigh in relief glad to avoid a harsh questioning.
“Why are you here so early, if anyone I would have expected Neji to be here,” I say just not realising how early it was.
“I wanted to get back at Temari for scaring the shit out of me when I got home last night,” he says holding a water bottle with ice in it. “So you can go if you would like now that I’m here, Neji should be here soon anyways,”
“Thank you Shikamaru, can you please not tell Lady Tsunade about this,” I say bowing slightly hoping that that will help to seal his lips.
“It’s none of my business, I would be more worried about Neji for the next few days though.”
“Right, thank you again Shikamaru, have a wonderful day,” I say as I pick up my things and start to head back to my apartment for some sleep of my own. I wish I could have fallen asleep right there with Gaara in my arms, but alas I had a job to do, one that could not be done if I happened to fall asleep. Maybe another time.