Beside You in Time

- - Incoming Author's Note - -

Hello once again!

In today's installment, I bring you something quite tasty- A PARTY! I love party fanfics, lol. There's just something about mixing up all of the characters together. It's like a chemical reaction, mixing up different personalities, adding in other elements such as alcohol and whatnot. It's always grand :D.

So yes, sadly I've been getting little to no feedback on this, save for one lovely, lovely review. But you know what? I'm not going to let it stop me, because this fic is just begging to be written. So I'll continue to write, you'll continue to read. World keeps spinnin'.

...But...Some love would be nice. ^_^;;

- - / e n d - -


The next day arrived without hesitance. Drowsily, each team member awoke and dragged themselves to the training grounds to meet for the morning briefing. It had only been 6 a.m., but Gai-sensei had become a bit soft in getting them up earlier than usual. The sun had just begun to rise when everyone had gathered at the training grounds. Ten Ten's brain was already ready and working, having been jolted by her routine dash to her designated tree. With Neji, however, you couldn't tell whether he was attentive, tired, or bored. And as usual with Lee, he was still working hard at rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, yawning every other minute and power napping whenever Gai-sensei wasn't looking.

Eager as always, Gai had met them with a grin on his face and a bounce in his step. He surveyed his team as soon as he arrived and determined that this energy level just wouldn't do for his team morning training.

"Good morning, everyone!" he interjected with gusto. He was met with a cheerful 'Good Morning' from Ten Ten, a responsive wave from Neji, and light snore from Lee. Obviously not content with this, Gai went over to Lee to slap him up a little.

"Lee! Wake up! Training time!" he yelled in his face while shaking his shoulders. Lee opened one round eye lazily, saw his beloved sensei, smiled goofily and fell back asleep. Immediately endeared by the adorable action, Gai contained a laugh, and outwardly frowned. He then went on to successfully wake up Lee with the usual morning punch-in-the-face. Lee jolted awake and was oddly ready for action.

"Alright," Gai said, "This morning I feel that our focus should be a team exercise, meaning no pairings today. You've all shown me significant growth in your individual techniques, and I beleive that, as healthy as our team is, we could still afford to reaffirm some key battle strategies and identification plans in case of certain genjutsus. All in favor?"

Everyone unanimously nodded. Gai grinned. "Good! Now everyone pretend we're back in ninja elementary and sit in a circle for me," he commanded goofily. His team complied immediately, knowing that however strange the task was, there was usually a point to it, however pointless that point may have been.

The four sat in a circle; Gai across from Neji, and Lee across from Ten Ten. Awaiting further instructions, they all sat with their legs crossed.

Gai sensei cleared his throat and began. "So, the point of this first exercise is how to identify one of your team using chakra. Now, everyone hold the other's hand," and hands were connected, "Just like that, thanks. Now, obviously during battle, getting to feel out your enemies identification through their chakra is going to be more demanding, considering you'll be in the midst of battle with every possible distraction occurring at once. It is important to know and become consciously familiar with your teammate's chakra signature. The four of us are probably already conscious of it on a subconscious level," Neji scoffed at Gai's clumsy way of phrasing it," but high-level genjustus can warp your primary responses, leaving you to rely on something that needs a solid focus. So right now, I just want you to exert chakra out of your hands and mingle it with everyone else's, letting them become familiar with it."

All of them began to focus all their chakra into and out of their hands, eyes closed, allowing it to mix with the other's. Lee let his chakra swirl within Neji's, which he found to be a prickly, cool sensation. Neji's aura kind of reminded him of the feeling of the medicine he used on his wounds. Then, as he tightly held onto Gai's hand, unlike how he did with Neji's, their chakra went right into each other. Gai's chakra was warm- the reassuring hug kind of warm. He unconsciously gripped his hand tighter, causing Gai to open an eye to glance at him.

Closing his eye again, Gai focused on his students' chakras. Lee's chakra was vibrant feeling, full of energy and spirit, its energy level going up and down depending on his thoughts or mood. Ten Ten's, on the other hand, was a constant level of humming strength. After feeling the exercise had been enough, Gai withdrew his hands. The rest of the team did the same, and looked to Gai.

"Alright," said Gai. "Neji, describe Ten Ten's and Lee's chakra for me."

Neji closed his eyes and crossed his arms- his usual thinking pose. "Lee's chakra is very powerful, but also very responsive and jumpy. Ten Ten's is quite strong as well, but more even and constant."

Gai nodded. "Precisely. Lee, what about you? What about our chakras, how did they feel?"

"Hmm..." said Lee, looking upwards while pondering. " Well, Neji's felt like icy-hot, kind of like what the injury ointment feels like," Ten Ten giggled, and Gai smiled. Neji's eyebrow twitched at the comment, however. "And..Yours felt like...well, very reassuring and warm. I didn't really focus on how it was flowing like Neji, though..." trailed off Lee.

"And that," said Gai, "is another part of the lesson. It is possible to identify chakra based on the person's feel and measurement of its flow. Neji felt the pressure of the chakra, while Lee felt the temperature and emotion of the chakra. See?" The group nodded.

"Well, we could go through some more exercises, but I think you all have the drift. I'm going to drill you randomly if I see you, though. Maybe I'll even camoflauge myself!" Gai said with a sly smile.

Ten Ten spoke up. "Hey, have you guys heard what's going on tonight?" Everyone turned to her, their expressions stating that no, they didn't. "It's Kiba's birthday, he's having a party," she said vibrantly.

"Ah, Kiba!" exclaimed Lee. "He's fourteen then, right?" Ten Ten nodded.

Neji looked aside in distaste. He wasn't really keen on parties or social gatherings, but he felt a nagging coming in his future if he didn't cooperate. "What time is the party?" he asked.

"Six," stated Ten Ten. "You should go too, Gai-sensei! All of the other sensei's are going..."

Gai chuckled, "Ah...Well, I guess if the others are going. Why not?"

"Yatta!" cheered Ten Ten. "Should we all go together?"

Lee sighed. "Nah, I can't come right away. I have to go home and finish cleaning...My kitchen is a mess, I can't believe it gets so dirty!"

They all laughed. "That's only because you LET it get dirty, baka!" said Ten Ten.

"Alright then," said Gai, "we'll all meet up there. I've got to get going to see the hokage, so I'll be seeing you all at Kiba's. Ja ne!"

As soon as Gai left, Lee flopped backwards onto the grass and moaned "I don't waaaannt to cleeeaaann!" and rolled over. Neji rolled his eyes and left, leaving a whiny Lee behind. Ten Ten giggled and encouraged Lee to get going, which he eventually did.

The kitchen proved itself to be quite the adversary, and Lee had fought valiantly with his sponge and dish soap. Thankfully, Lee had managed to finish around six, after which he immediately ran out the door, leaving the sponge and dish soap in the last spot he had cleaned.

When he approached the street Kiba was on, he could immediately hear the laughter and music coming from his house. Suddenly, there was a bounce in his step and a smile on his face, and that sly feeling of butterflies in his stomach. This was one awesome part about parties, Lee thought, since you get the pre-party jitters. He opened the front gates of Kiba's house, made his way past his dogs by greeting them with pats on the head, and went to open the door.

As soon as he opened it, all the people in the immediate room glanced over, screaming "LEE! Welcome to the bash!!" and other such welcomes. Hinata had been sitting on the couch, sipping innocently on some tea, laughing at all the antics around her, and some antics they were! Kiba had stripped down to his boxers, apparently completely drunk, and was threatening to beat Shino. What was even funnier than Kiba's drunken antics were Shino's, who was just laughing and laughing at the situation. Lee eyed them incredulously. Shino was relaxing on the couch, his overcoat a bit unbuttoned, probably from the resulting heat of the alcohol, and was taunting Kiba who was standing before him in all his glory with a miffed expression.

"Hey guys!" Lee greeted.

"Hi," said Shino between laughs.

"God, what have you guys been drinking already?" said Lee incredulously.

"They're drinking sake," replied Hinata, apparently amused but impatient at the same time. "I wish they weren't so rowdy..."' she muttered under her breath.

Kiba walked over to him, and poked him in the chest. "You're LATE!"

"A-Ah, I'm sorry! I thought Gai-sensei or my teammates would've told you I was busy," said Lee, putting his hands in front of him defensively.

Kiba dropped his hand from Lee and blinked. "Oh. Oh yeah, they did. Hahaha...Whoops!"

Lee laughed. "Alright, alright. I'm going into the back, I'll see you guys later. Happy Birthday, Kiba!" he said, patting Kiba's back.

"You too!" he replied with a goofy grin. Hinata facepalmed.

That's when Lee started looking for the adults. He looked in the corner of the room only to find Kakashi there chatting up Iruka. They obviously weren't paying attention to anyone else, and were drinking alcohol themselves. What were they thinking? The fact that they were being so nonchalant about the alcohol was making Lee more than a little angry. He ignored them and walked past straight into the next room.

He walked into the next room to find Sakura, Ino, Shikamaru, Chouji, and Ten Ten sitting in a circle, slightly inebriated, telling really embarrassing stories that they would definitely regret telling when sobered. When he made his entrance known, everyone blew up into greetings.

"Lee-san!" screamed Sakura, rushing up to hug him. "Where have you been?!"

Lee felt a bit awkward now, his previous crush was pretty much squirming up against him. "Um, I was cleaning. Sorry."

"It's okay!" yelled Ino, who was in a disshevelled heap on the floor. "Come play with us!"

Shikamaru shot Lee a look, one that said "Get out while you can, you idiot!". He appeared the most sober out of all of them, but then again, next to Chouji, who was draped across the sofa giggling in his sleep, anyone could look sober.

"No thanks, guys. I'm going to see who's here first. I'll be back!" he said, leaving as quickly as possible before Ino began talking about her interesting and revealing fantasies, but not before he nodded at Shikamaru in a gesture of thanks. Shikamaru smirked back, urging him to leave while the going was good.

He went back outside the door, catching a glimpse of Kiba and Shino as they were arm in arm, talking about the similarites of dogs and bugs loudly and in monotonous voices. 'Well, it looks like Kiba got over his tirade quickly,' he thought, and headed out the next door that led outside. Jumping over the doorframe, he stepped out onto the grass and headed towards the tables, where he saw Kurenai, Asuma, Neji, and Gai, who all appeared to also be enjoying alcohol- though not as liberally as everyone else. Gai caught sight of Lee first and smiled.

"Hey, Lee," he said, heading over to him. "Done cleaning?"

Lee smiled hesitantly in greeting. "Yeah," he said right before bursting out, "Could you possibly tell me why everyone in here is DRINKING?!" he exploded. Gai started to look a bit guilty. "They're ALL underage!" he threw up his arms, defeated. "What is wrong with you people..."

"Lee..." Gai started. He didn't know what to say though. He knew that Lee was just angry because he couldn't have some himself, but didn't know how to soothe the situation. "The teachers decided that since we were all here, we might as well allow some of the kids to have alcohol. Let them try it on for size, you know?"

Lee huffed. "No, I wouldn't know, actually." Neji sighed from the table.

"Lee, it's okay. They can control them." Lee went to open his mouth, but Neji predicted his words. "But don't expect us to control you..." Lee slumped.

Gai frowned at him, knowing the feeling of exclusion. Lee had always had it hard compared to his peers, facing one handicap after another. "I'm sorry, Lee," he said as he took him under his arm and guided him to the table to sit down. They sat down together, Lee slumping into Gai grumpily. Kurenai and Asuma sat facing them on the parallel table in front of them, while Neji sat on the table facing the other direction.

Kurenai sighed happily. "I can't believe Kiba's fourteen already. I feel like such an old woman," she said, chuckling slightly to herself. Asuma looked to her, smiling.

"You're going to say that every year, aren't you?" he poked at her. "But yeah, I know the feeling. It's hilarious watching them be awkward with each other, especially Ino and Chouji."

Lee's ears perked up. "Ino and Chouji? What about them?"

Asuma grinned. "This is strictly confidential, right Lee?" Lee nodded. Asuma looked behind him and yelled at Neji goofily, "Now Neji, don't you be telling anyone any gossip we talk about, okay, you motormouth?!" Neji grumbled, knowing he was just being taunted.

"Well, they both have a thing for each other," he said, watching Lee's eyes brighten up. Lee secretly loved hearing about these kinds of things, especially when it concerned his own friends. Asuma continued. "But the thing is Ino doesn't think it's cool to be into Chouji, because he's a bit bigger than most guys. But she cares about him a lot, and mothers him incessantly. It's really fun to watch. And of course Chouji has no real clue about her feelings, but he's been into her for forever. So hopefully that will progress nicely."

Suddenly Gai began to laugh. "The Akimichi and Yamanaka dads are going to be thrilled if that happens. They'll be in-laws, as if they're not close enough already."

As he leaned against Gai-sensei with his ear against his side, Lee could hear Gai-sensei's deep voice reverberating within his body, washing a wave of warmth and comfort over him. He snuggled slightly closer to him, which in turn made Gai feel a little warm himself. This was exactly he had been trying to avoid with Lee, but whatever he did to deter Lee only fueled Lee to ignore him and continue. And of course, whenever he opened himself up to Lee, as he was at this moment, Lee always took advantage of it. But Gai wasn't so sure if Lee was totally conscious of it or not. Gai removed his arm from around his student and draped it over the table instead.

The conversation had moved on without Lee, and the teachers were now discussing Kiba's mom, who was away for business and had left instruction to "have a good time by any means necessary", which the teachers had loosely interpreted. Knowing that he should probably leave Gai-sensei alone right now, Lee stood up and announced that he was going back inside to see what everyone else was doing.

Lee stepped onto the platform of the house, opened the door and was immediately aware that something was going on next to him. He turned his head only to find Kakashi-sensei slowly kissing his former teacher, Iruka-sensei, against the wall. He froze, witnessing the intimacy of the act. His eyes bulged, his jaw-dropped, and his heart began beating faster. Kakashi brushed the hair out of Iruka's eyes, who was smiling against the kiss, and soon their hands were entertwined again. But as he continued to watch their hands release themselves to intimately caress each other, his heart began to ache inexplicably.

Iruka then opened his eye, took in the sight of Lee before him, and immediately pushed Kakashi away from him. Blushing immensely, he looked away from Kakashi to the floor, embarassed that a former student had witnessed him in such a situation.

"Lee...I'm sorry...", he said quietly. He looked up only to see Lee smiling sadly at him, looking not at all shocked or appalled, which relieved Iruka- somewhat. Why did he have on that expression? Kakashi on the other hand looked almost disgruntled over the fact that his time with Iruka had been interrupted, and wasn't at all ashamed.

"There's nothing to be sorry about, Iruka-sensei," Lee finally responded smiling. "You two might be better off in a more private area though." He blushed as he grinned widely.

The two of them grinned back at him graciously, knowing that they weren't going to be judged or ridiculed by Lee. Kakashi looked at him directly with a current of understanding. Lee's reaction was only backing up his private conclusions about certain situations all the much more..

"Alright, I think we're going to follow your suggestion, Lee," said Kakashi cheerfully. "Behave yourself!" he said as he grabbed Iruka's hand and dragged him away.

"I should be saying that to you!" Lee screamed after them.

Looking around, Lee saw that Kiba, Shino, and Hinata had abandoned the couch, which was probably why the two teachers had felt that it was their window of opportunity. He then went into the room where he now knew everyone was.

As soon as he entered, his eyes immediately connected with Shikamaru's, who communicated with a shrug that it wasn't as bad as earlier. Everyone seemed to be sitting around, talking and laughing, and exploiting themselves in ways they never would without the help of liquid courage. He took a seat next to Hinata on the floor and began listening to everyone's conversation.

"So what did you do next?" questioned Ten Ten. "Was Asuma-sensei mad at the two of you?"

"Nah," replied Ino, "he's really quite the softy. He walks around all tough and mean with that cigarette hanging out of his mouth, meanwhile he hardly ever yells at us. That is, unless we're fighting. But yeah, wehn we told him we had accidentally received Tsunade-sama's bra along with our report books, he couldn't believe us and just started laughing. That is, until we showed him the bra." She began laughing at the memory.

"Yeah," interrupted Shikamaru between breaths of laughter, "I mean, I don't think any other woman in Konoha has breasts like hers!" And soon everyone was howling with laughter. Even Hinata was laughing, though a ferocious blush graced her features.

"I wonder how it got there?" asked Kiba drunkenly. "I mean, maybe she was just flingin' her panties all over the place in her office?!" Ripples of laughter were heard again.

"Or maybe she was having a 'special meeting' with some guy!" suggested Sakura. Everyone agreed that that suggestion could probably be the case.

"Speaking of sex, has anyone here lost it yet?" asked Ten Ten. Everyone looked around at each other.

"I don't think anyone has," replied Shino, more talkative than usual.

"Well, " began Sakura, and all eyes were on her. "We still don't know about Sasuke or Naruto..." she trailed off.

Kiba laughed. "Naruto?! No way, that guy's definitely a virgin! He couldn't ever get a girl!" However, most of the others had sobered up a bit at the mention of their far-away friends.

"Actually," explained Sakura, "I'm not sure he ever...wanted to get girls." Everyone stopped.

Shikamaru blinked. "What?"

"There was this one time....I got to our meeting place about an hour earlier than planned....And....Sasuke and Naruto were there. Together, " she replied with a bit of defeat in her voice.

Everyone was blown away. This had definitely never crossed any of their minds before. Lee was also blown away. Who'd ever thought that he'd uncover the sexuality of four of his friend's within the same day?

Ino responded. "So... You're telling me that Naruto and Sasuke were together? As in boyfriends?!"

Sakura looked aside. "Well, they weren't talking into each other's lips, I'm sure." Kiba had to sit back in order to regain his bearings.

"So," began Kiba, "They were together during that whole time we had to get back Sasuke?"

Sakura nodded. Shikamaru looked depressed all of a sudden. "That's so horrible," he said.

Lee responded a little too quickly, saying "What's so horrible about it?" Everyone looked to him, then back to Shikamaru.

"Well, imagine how much sufferring Naruto was going through during that whole ordeal. No wonder he's so adamant about getting him back."

Everyone took this in, the whole account of the emotional trauma their loud-mouthed ninja shared with his rival and supposed partner, Sasuke.

"The saddest thing is..." trailed off Sakura, looking away, "..is that Sasuke was still in love with him when he left. They still loved each other, even as they fought to the death, because in Sasuke's mind, the only path he could possibly take in his life was one of vengeance, and Naruto couldn't fit into that path."

"Wow..." trailed of Ten Ten. "That's so sad."

Hinata was more shaken up than anyone else, however. She had always liked Naruto...a lot. And now he was already in love with Sasuke? She looked paler than usual to say the least.

Kiba stood up. "I say we have a toast!" Everyone looked to him smiling slightly and held onto their drinks up high, following suit.

"To Naruto and Sasuke...May they actually find each other and possibly happiness along with it."

Everyone exclaimed, "To Naruto and Sasuke, Kompai!" and drank their drinks.

But Lee didn't have a drink. Looking around himself, Shino saw that Lee hadn't taken a drink, and offered some of his sake to him. Lee looked around to see if Ten Ten was watching in particular, before stupidly downing the gulp of sake.

"Oh," said Kiba before sitting down, "and Happy Birthday to me!!" Shino kicked him.

All of a sudden, the voices of everyone had grown to a more quiet pitch to Lee, and soon they were nothing more than a misty din of noise. His eyesight became blurry, and strangely, the only emotion that existed inside him was anger. He ground his teeth, looking around himself in a desperate frustration. He clumsily stood up, quivering with anger, and punched the wall behind him.

Everyone had stopped what they were doing, wondering what the hell was wrong with Lee. Ten Ten froze, recognizing his glazed stare and behavior from that one day at the restaraunt.

"Oh my god," exclaimed Ten Ten, "Did someone give him any sake?"

Shino raised his eyebrows along with his hand. "I'm guessing it was a bad move?"

"Very!" said Ten Ten in a panic. "Hinata!! Go get Neji and Gai-sensei as quick as possible! GO!" Hinata was out the door within seconds.

Meanwhile, Lee had turned around to face Ten Ten, who had placed herself in front of him since she was the only one most used to his fighting skills. "Ten Ten," he ground out, "get out of my way!!" He gripped onto her shoulders menacingly, and Ten Ten locked her arms on top of his.

"No, Lee, you can't go anywhere!"

He increased the force of his pressure against her shoulders, and Ten Ten knew that if she were anyone else, it'd be a full out brawl right now. She silently struggled with him for a minute, until Gai-sensei came clambering in the door.

"Oh, God," he complained. "Neji, help me get him outside before he destroys the place!"

Gai-sensei approached Lee and Ten Ten, hoping to catch his attention. "Lee, let go of Ten Ten..." he tryed to reason.

"Don't you fucking talk to me, Gai-sensei!" screamed Lee, hurting Gai in the process. Lee let go of Ten Ten and faced his teacher instead. He was breathing erratically and was flushed with rage. "You're a filthy liar," he said without pretext. But it seemed to hit a chord within Gai, and Gai went around Lee and grabbed him from behind.

"Neji! His legs!" He yelled as he struggled with the inhumanly strong boy. Neji quickly grabbed hold of his legs, and they ran with him until they reached outside.

When there, Gai and Neji both stretched across the boy sideways across his stomach, holding him down with everything they had in them. Gai was closest to Lee's head, and was on the receiving end of many punches. It seemed to go on forever until Lee suddenly started crying and sobbing, which caused Gai to just want to hold him instead, but alas, he restrained himself.

Lee soon began to stop fighting against the two, and Gai told Neji to leave. Soon it was just Gai lying across a sobbing Lee, hoping that he would fall asleep or sober up soon.

Suddenly, Lee began to say, "Don't touch me," over and over again to Gai, while looking him in the eyes. Gai was so confused at what his student was feeling. Of course he was drunk, but what kind of drunk was it? Gai finally realised that the reason Lee was so angry and frustrated while drunk was because he never was when he was sober. He was even-tempered, and stored everything away. And Lee definitely had a lot fo be frustrated about. Everything was an obstacle for him, nothing was normal, and nothing made him truly happy. Lee's cries began to eat away at Gai, which left him feeling empty and guilty that he could only try so hard to make his life easier. A drunken Lee was a cathartic Lee.

Lee looked away from Gai, his eyes still watering and his sobs just as painfully cathartic as they had been for the past twenty minutes. Lee had never cried while he was drunk before, and Gai knew this for a fact. Suddenly, a coherent phrase escaped Lee that stuck itself straight into Gai's heart.

"Stop shutting me out," he whispered. Two minutes later, he finished and had cried himself to sleep.

Gai got off of him once he felt his breathing even out and examined his student. His hair was blown backwards, exposing his face to the moonshine and breeze. The teartracks went in all directions on his face, but now he finally looked peaceful. He leaned down and picked him up and carried him in his arms over towards the other teachers.

"Is everything okay?" questioned Iruka, who had come out of 'hiding' once he heard the commotion going on.

"Yeah," replied Gai. "I'm going to take him back to my place tonight. It's better off I leave now. Tell Kiba I said Happy Birthday again, Kurenai."

"Sure thing," she said, nodding.

"Alright then, I'll see you all later. Goodnight," said Gai as he turned around to head for home.

Kakashi watched the tense back of his eternal rival as he left. Obviously, something had deeply irked Gai this evening- no doubt something to do with his student.

But Kakashi wasn't someone to outright question Gai. Afterall, he had once said "I'm not going to be as rude as to question what that boy is to you" only to be answered with a scowl and an injured retort. He knew well enough that their was something between them.

Something was definitely going to happen, even if neither if them knew it yet.