Chapter Text
Rock Lee’s psyche felt as if it were suspended by viscous fluid, his thoughts floating in a warm honey. Deep down he could feel an echo of pain, a dull discomfort he knew intimately but wasn’t experiencing first hand anymore. His breaths felt wet and weighted and his skin itched. There was the garbled murmur of a voice somewhere nearby, but he didn’t recognize it, could hardly discern if it was really a voice at all. It was as if he were listening from another room, his focus somewhere else entirely. Everything was dark.
Lee searched for the half smothered sound, following it through the obscured maze of his own mind as he struggled towards consciousness. The further he followed, the clearer the sound became. It was definitely a voice, though not one he recognized. The tone was stoic but not unenthused; someone struggling to infuse their words with adequate emotion. The Leaf nin couldn’t open his eyes.
" ... The way of the martial artist is the way of enduring, surviving and prevailing over all that would destroy him .”
Lee recognized The Way of the Ninja. Someone was reading it aloud to him. The taijutsu specialist’s lids slowly released their weights, his eyes fluttering open, and he blinked up into a bright white light. He was tucked tightly into what was obviously a med bed, the smell of antiseptic just beginning to register as he came fully awake. Lee had gotten extremely familiar with waking up in the hospital over the last few weeks, but the intravenous line running into his arm and the catheter he could feel between his legs were discomforts he’d thought he’d left behind some time ago. Someone was still reading to him.
“ More than delivering strikes and slashes, and deeper in significance than the simple outwitting of an enemy, Ninpô is the way of attaining that which we need while making the world a better place. The skill of the Ninja is the art of winning .”
Lee’s still extremely heavy head lulled to the side and he observed the only other person in the room with him. A young man, the owner of the monotone voice, sat at his bedside, a thick book held under his nose. His azure eyes were heavy lidded and muted with exhaustion, but he drawled on regardless, unconcerned that no one had been listening until just a moment ago. He was handsome and sad looking and very, very familiar the longer Lee stared at him.
The Leaf shinobi blinked over and over as his brain worked sluggishly to make sense of what he was seeing. Far off, still stuck in the honey, a creeping panic was beginning to build in his chest and his leg and arm started to flare with not-so-distant memories of pain. The itch all across his skin intensified and his breath caught in his throat as those horrifying eyes found his.
“Lee, you’re awake.”
The voice was familiar now, but it had changed; grown steady and mature with age. Not unlike the boy looking at him who was no longer a boy which was beyond strange. Lee inhaled slow and deep through his nose as the man stood from his seat, book forgotten and expression oddly open. He almost looked hopeful and dread gripped Rock Lee’s throat tight so that he couldn’t speak or scream. His mind blanked out in hysterical fright as the Sand shinobi came to lean over him, never breaking eye contact until his desert dry lips brushed the crown of the bedridden boy’s head.
Gaara of the Sand had kissed him.
Lee couldn’t breathe.
“I’ll be right back.”
In a rush of sand and chakra he was gone and Lee was left alone to fall into the crushing throws of panic. Pulse positively thundering away, the taijutsu specialist struggled into a sitting position, body buzzing with a somehow stinging numbness. His limbs were gangly and awkward and felt too long for his body. His arms shook where they propped him up. Everything was heavy and his breaths came in quick, shallow pants through his teeth. The sound screamed through the room like a quiet alarm and the genin wasted precious time trying to spot a heart monitor that wasn’t present. His vision was tunneling, sweat sliding down his spine as he dragged his legs across the bed; they were even heavier than they had been after the exams.
Looking down at himself, Lee could feel his chest getting tight as he blinked bemusedly at what could only be some sort of sick illusion. He was taller, he could tell that even while sprawled out, but more than that he was bigger. The wiry muscles he'd struggled to build in his youth were fuller and more defined and his hands splayed wide when he held them up to his eyes to observe. His fingers were trembling but they were also knobby and chorded like they’d been broken and repaired several times over. Across his left arm and leg where there should have been battered flesh and thick stitches were only scars that looked years old, white and puffy all along his skin which was dry and sun tanned.
He was healed.
Deciding to stop and get his bearings before he shook to pieces, Rock Lee took a moment to really study his surroundings because it was only just then becoming obvious that he wasn’t in Konoha any longer. He was instead in a hospital somewhere in Suna if the foreign design of the room and dry quality of the air was any indication. When he strained to look out the window on the far wall, he didn’t see the lush greenery of his home but instead a vast wasteland of sand and dust no less than three days run from where he had been when he fell asleep the night before. Which was also strange, but not so critical that Lee would let it distract him from what was most important; escape.
He had to focus. Gaara had clearly kidnapped him, taken him prisoner while he was still vulnerable and recovering after his surgery. The Leaf nin didn’t remember an altercation, but that by no means meant there hadn’t been one. He could be suffering from the after-effects of a powerful jutsu, his mind and memories obviously scrambled to throw him off which, shamefully enough, it had up to this point. Even buckled down mentally to assess his situation, Lee couldn’t suppress the trembling that had begun in his hands. His teeth were chattering.
Before he could formulate a plan to escape, naked, far from home, and with no clue as to the full extent of his injuries, a mini sandstorm blew through the room, hot air cracking his lips and the soft skin of his inner ear. Lee gasped, blinking grit from his lashes as Gaara reappeared in front of him, standing nearly a foot taller than he had been the last time Lee saw him. His chakra signature crushed through the room, a physical weight the taijutsu specialist could feel in his chest cavity. His own chakra supply felt empty and distant. He scrambled backwards on the med bed, back hitting a wall near immediately in his attempt to cower away.
“Stay away from me!”
Gaara, who had been moving to come closer, froze, face impassive. He looked like a statue, features smoothed under what Lee knew to be a solid layer of sandstone. His eyes sparkled like sapphire and trailed the Leaf shinobi’s form slowly, a caress that Rock Lee swore he could feel bumping along the ridges of his very brain. A smothering tightness gripped all around him and he felt himself being slowly dragged back down into a horizontal position. His heart was pumping like it meant to burst and humiliatingly enough he could feel water beginning to gather in his eyes as he was resituated on the bed. He was surrounded by sand.
When he was on his back again, Gaara completed his approach and looked down at him curiously, a predator assessing his prey. Tears spilled over the sides of Lee’s face and the Beast of Suna eyed them with interest. His chakra pushed and pulled at the genin’s very essence and the invasive feeling made his skin crawl. The monster asked, “Lee, are you alright?”
Before the taijutsu specialist could respond, the door was pushed open and two medical ninjas strolled in. Both women, there was a taller, older looking one with dark hair and a serious countenance followed closely by one so young she must have only been in training. Her yellow hair bounced all around her face and she looked far too happy to be there. They both wore Sand hitai-ate on their upper arms. Lee’s mind raced with what sort of sick torture they had in store for him and the tears fell silently faster. The older one spoke first, eyes fixed on a chart in her hands and completely unconcerned with the creature looming over his bed.
“Ah, Lee-sama, you’re awake,” she mused, only glancing up when she did not receive a response. Finally seeming to take note of the tension in the room, she observed the two shinobi closely, dark eyes narrowed, before she hugged the chart to her chest. “Lord Fifth?”
“He seemed…agitated,” Gaara informed, leaning away from the bed, his eyes never leaving his prisoner. Lee let a shaky breath collapse his chest as he felt the sand that had been pressing him down ease its pressure. It was still there though, he could recognize it now; the itchiness. His eyes fluttered rapidly. He felt faint.
“He’s probably just a bit confused from the anesthesia,” the medi-nin assured, tone light. Stepping forward, she leaned over Lee’s bed as well and smiled at him. It was benign, professional. “Hello, Lee-sama, it’s good to see you awake. Do you remember what happened?”
Without waiting for an answer, the woman reached out a glowing palm towards his face and the ninja snatched her wrist out of the air on instinct. Careful not to crush the delicate bones there, Rock Lee yanked her down to him, wide eyes noting the way her face went sharp and assessing. The other two startled but didn’t make any move to step in and Lee brought up his other hand to grab at the woman’s throat. Tension as thick as the mist in Kirigakure filled the room and the Leaf nin pressed his thumb meaningfully against the kunoichi’s windpipe.
“Do not touch me,” he said, voice trembling as he tensed his core to allow him to sit up without releasing her. His back screamed in protest and a cold sweat broke out all along his hairline. Once he was sitting up, Lee looked at Gaara and the other medi-nin warningly, flexing his grip so that they could see the way his new muscles bulged threateningly. “Release me or I’ll break her neck.”
“Ameno-san!”
“Lee, please,” Gaara intoned, ignoring the younger woman’s outburst. The word sounded foreign on his tongue and Lee felt his lip curling with distaste. “You need to calm down. You’re just confused-”
“Do not test me!” the Leaf nin insisted, dragging himself towards the edge of the bed. It was a struggle with his hands occupied, his muscles seizing, and his eyes trained on Gaara, but eventually his feet brushed the cool stone floor. “I will fight my way out of here!”
He struggled to stand, his hold on the kunoichi becoming more supportive than restrictive and he could feel the energy in the room shift as the Beast of Suna appeared to grow agitated. His eyes, still sunken into deep holes in his face, narrowed as they looked Lee up and down quickly, his lizard-like focus unnerving. He was annoyed, which was a far cry from the blistering rage he had displayed at the exams, but no less terrifying. Lee made sure to maneuver the medi-nin in front of him. As he shakily moved them away from the bed, he winced when the intravenous needle snapped out of his arm and the catheter began a slow, painful drag from his body.
“You need to rest,” the redhead intoned, moving slowly in the opposite direction of Lee, the two beginning to circle each other as the shinobi from Konahagakure tried to navigate towards the door. “You’re not well.”
“Because of you!”
The comment, meant to be a snide way to pull focus, appeared to catch the Sand shinobi up short, his face cracking open for a moment on an expression that seemed entirely too vulnerable for him. Lee blinked forcibly, his face scrunching as he tried to see what was really there. There was no way Gaara of the Sand actually looked guilty. There was also no way he had aged a handful of years since their fight. His appearance, as well as Lee's, had to be some sort of trick.
“Is this a genjutsu?”
“Lee-sama, take nice slow breaths for me,” the woman in his hold coached evenly, completely ignoring his question. She had her free hand hovering out at her side, palm up and fingers wide to show she was unarmed. “I think you may be having a panic attack.”
“I said do not test me !” the genin fumed, yanking the woman closer so they were nose to nose. He had to drag her near to the tips of her toes to do so, he was that tall. She looked unconcerned with his ire and he felt uncertainty start to spill in to fill the areas of his mind not already crowded by fear.
“Just relax,” she insisted, tone placating, “Try to calm down and remember what happened.”
“You kidnapped me,” Lee informed, turning his eyes back to Gaara who had somehow crept closer while he was distracted. The Leaf nin flinched away, tremors racking his whole body. He didn’t feel like himself. “You took me from Konoha hospital after my surgery.”
Gaara, just on the other side of the bed now, looked puzzled by this, his pale brow pinching. It was another shocking display of emotion that made the taijutsu specialist reel with confusion. The man was speaking low and slow as if to a wounded animal but his voice was bone dry and not comforting in the least. “Lee, you’ve been recovering from a fight here in Suna. We haven’t been to Konohagakure in a few months.”
“No, no, you are lying,” the Leaf shinobi insisted, his grip starting to loosen as his muscles grew taut and tired. He shot a glance at the other medi-nin, not wanting her to think he had forgotten her presence. She looked petrified. “You all are trying to trick me!”
“Lee-sama, what’s the date?”
“What?”
Ameno raised her brows, her expression open and understanding even as the ninja applied more pressure to her wrist.Her fingers were turning pink. If he opened even just the first Gate holding her like this it would kill her. “It’s just a question. If you were in Konoha hospital yesterday, what date is it today?”
They were lying to him, tricking him, trying to use him to acquire secrets about the village hidden in the Leaves, but Rock Lee could not see how answering a simple question about the day could be a means to those ends. He recited the last date he remembered, which seemed like it might be a few days ago. Tucked safely away in his familiar hospital room and recovering from his surgery with Lady Tsunade. First only knew how long he’d been imprisoned and kept unconscious; he refused to believe it had been long enough for Gaara to look the way he did, but it mattered little. He would escape.
His answer to Ameno’s seemingly simple question brought a hush over the room and Lee watched in horrid fascination as the Beast of Suna’s eyes widened. Not overly so, not in a way where any regular person could be assumed to be surprised, but enough for him to make him look positively astonished. He did not step away from the Leaf nin so much as he staggered back and Rock Lee breathed easier the further away he got. He kept hold of Ameno just to be safe though; the kunoichi was still talking for some reason.
“-you’ve experienced a lot of trauma,” she noted, pulling Lee’s focus once more, “Rest is the best thing for you right now. This will all make sense in the morning.”
“I won’t be here in the morning,” the taijutsu specialist promised even as he felt himself struggling to stay standing. He was practically leaning on his hostage now, the weight of his body increasing every moment he had to carry it on his own. “I will escape and if I do not my team will come for me!”
“They’re already on their way,” Gaara noted, absently, eyes cast off somewhere in the distance, no longer looking directly at Lee. He looked sad. “They’ll be here within a day or so and then Maito Gai can explain everything to you-”
“Do not dare touch my sensei!” Lee seethed, shoving Ameno away as rage sparked up his spine like a match. He could handle being captured, but he would not stand to have his team lured into a trap to save him. He lurched toward Gaara of the Sand, fear momentarily forgotten, only to feel a light tap to the side of his head the moment he was distracted.
“What did you do?” Gaara demanded, moving around the bed as Lee felt a horrifyingly quick exhaustion overtake him. Feeling like all his ligament had been snipped at once, he slumped down towards the ground, only being saved from slamming his head to the stone by the firm hold of Gaara’s sand returning. It had been there all along and the other shinobi had simply chosen not to use it.
“A creeping sedative,” Ameno informed, the glow from her palm fading away as Gaara eased Lee back onto the bed. She had a ring of bruising around her neck like jewelry. “He was becoming aggressive.”
“Becoming!?”
Lee heard the other kunoichi’s incredulous voice as if from several leagues under the sea. His head and limbs dragged uselessly as the redheaded man rearranged him on the bed. The feeling was returning, the viscous fluid that would trap his mind and he moaned despairingly. The others in the room ignored him, instead gathering all around his bed to talk as if he weren’t even there.
“What’s wrong with him?” the Beast of Suna wanted to know.
A sort of worried franticness had entered his voice and it sounded so odd coming from him. Again, his face was showing clear signs of distress; his mouth turned down at the corner and his slender brow furrowed. Lee blinked slowly at him, feeling like he could recognize his chunin exams opponent in this man and yet also like he’d never seen him before a day in his life. When he moaned again a dry hand slid over his and his stomach roiled. He couldn’t pull away.
“He may have some brain damage we missed during initial scans,” Ameno admitted, a hand reaching up to rub along her neck gingerly. Lee would have felt bad if she wasn’t an accomplice to his imprisonment. And if he could actually access the emotion outright. “Memory loss is likely just a temporary side effect.”
“He’s erratic,” Gaara deadpanned, the hand he had placed over Lee’s squeezing slightly. It felt large and calloused, but so did Lee’s. “You know he would never threaten anyone.”
“Perhaps until Lee-sama is feeling better it would be best for you to go home, Lord Fifth,” the younger medi-nin piped up, shrinking back behind her mentor when the redhead leveled her with a cool stare.
“I’m not leaving him.”
“He’s scared of you,” Ameno reasoned, her voice floating further and further away even as she stayed within grabbing distance of Lee. She seemed unconcerned about him being able to try again. His vision was clouding at the edges and he fought to keep his eyes open. “And you heard what he said about the date, Kazekage-sama.”
“Why are you calling him that?”
Three pairs of eyes turned to him before the taijutsu specialist realized he had asked his question out loud. Gaara leaned closer, his pale face taking up the entire field of Lee’s vision as a rough hand smoothed over his cheek. The redhead pressed, “Lee, do you know what's happening?”
“Lord Fifth, please, do not push him,” Ameno insisted, though she did nothing to pull the monster away from Lee’s face. “If he gets too agitated he’ll need to be restrained.”
“You aren’t restraining him,” the young man hissed, turning his dead eyes on the kunoichi. The room felt colder. “He’s the husband of the Kazekage.”
Whatever the women said in response to that was lost as Lee felt the world drop out from beneath him, his vision tunneling and his ears growing clogged as he tried to process what the other shinobi had just said. The creeping sedative was stealing his distress away as quickly as he could produce it, tiny flashes of fright flitting into his mind before being swallowed up by a darkness that was looming closer and closer. He tried to move but he was weighed down by the sand and the sedative and he couldn’t even lift his hand to shake Gaara’s off. His breathing was slow and relaxed but only because he couldn’t muster the strength to gasp.
A bright set of green eyes caught his attention and Lee watched them approach dazedly as the younger medi-nin leaned right down into his face. Her voice echoed when she asked, “Are you alright, Lee-sama?“
“Please help me,” he beseeched, one eye drooping closed before pushing open again. His voice sounded strange and garbled to his own ears. “I cannot fight like this.”
“Just try to relax,” the woman, more a girl really, said, a tiny hand brushing over Lee’s shoulder. Ameno and Gaara were still arguing somewhere far, far away. “Ameno-san and your husband will sort everything out soon.”
The use of that word again started a whine low in the shinobi’s chest and it ripped through his throat like glass as he tried to roll away from her. Several sets of hands were on him then, pushing and pulling him back down and smoothing over his face and hair and he couldn’t breathe and Gaara was right there promising to be there when he woke up. Lee felt the tears coming again, and the panic and the tightness in his chest, but then the sedative caught him and he drifted and felt nothing.