He may have been pushing himself a bit in training more than he usually did but he felt it was the only way to distract himself. He shouldn't have been having these problems, he didn't even know how they started, they had been on a mission and she was being her normal hot-headed self, but as always, speaking rationally and morally about the situation. He had not noticed how much they had in common until Tenten commented that it was good Lee hit Karashi, since Naruko had been only seconds from doing it herself.

The look on her face when she heard Ranmaru's story had been heartbreaking. He could see the pain in her eyes and the strong desire to help the little boy, as proven by how she picked him up, carrying him back to Sansho's, declaring she would be his body as long as he needed her. Lee had no doubt in his mind that she was speaking the truth, she always did after all. Even if Naruko did hope to get news about Sasuke from the boy, it was clear that she cared about the little child and was becoming highly protective of him. She had sat beside Ranmaru, trying to get him to eat and when she accepted that he wasn't hungry, she picked him up and carried him into the room that the boy's were staying in, not bothering to knock.

Neji yelped when she flung the door open without warning. He quickly yanked his pyjama pants up, turning bright red. The blonde girl didn't even blink as she walked into the room and lowered Ranmaru onto the futon set out for him.

"You should knock!" Neji scolded, his face slowly turning back to its usual shade.

Naruko rolled her eyes. "Ranmaru is tired, so I brought him in. It's not like I care what colour your knickers are."

Lee grinned as Neji blushed again. He watched as Naruko ran her fingers through Ranmaru's hair, making the little boy look up at her smiling face. The look on the boy's face made Lee wonder if he had ever received such affection, almost motherly affection. He hadn't thought that Naruko, who was always so rash, energetic and, as her sensei said, a knucklehead, could do something so calming and soothing as that.

Her energy, anger and passion had revealed itself in front of Ranmaru when they fought Raiga again. Lee remembered waking up for a moment and seeing many Naruko's blocking Ranmaru from Raiga, whilst Ranmaru stood in front of Lee with his arms open to try and block him from any attacks. His head hurt, making him close his eyes, but Naruko's words still reached him, clearly laced in pain.

"You were planning to kill yourself with him, weren't you, Ranmaru? Well get those ideas out of your head cause you're not dying!"

Lee could almost hear Naruko's heart breaking at the thought of this child that she had grown attached to killing himself. He felt his own heart pound in his ears and his body wished to get up and hug Naruko, take away some of her pain. It was odd; he had never felt the desire to have such personal contact with the rough girl who acted more like a boy.

The next thing he remembered was Naruko and Ranmaru hovering over him, Naruko shaking him to try and wake him up. When he saw her his heart gave another painful thump but he quickly brushed it off.

"Bushy Brow, wake up!" Naruko shook him again until Ranmaru put his hand on hers.

"I think his awake now."

She stopped, dropping Lee back onto the ground, watching as he sat up and rubbed his head where it had hit the ground when Naruko released him. He looked around for Raiga but couldn't find him, so he looked back at the two in front of him and smiled, giving them thumbs up. "Good job, you won."

Naruko was distracted by the arrival of Neji, Tenten, Sansho and Karashi. The moment she saw the last boy, she growled and rose to her feet rushing over to him. One punch to the face and Karashi went flying, landing on his behind with blood pouring from his nose.

"If you ever put Ranmaru's life in danger again I'll kick your butt!" she promised, with a deadly look on her angry face.

The whole way back to the curry shop Karashi stayed away from Naruko as she spoke with Sansho who offered to take Ranmaru in and teach him how to cook curry. Sansho seemed thrilled with the idea of having two sons around the place. When they left later that day it was clear that Ranmaru was happy, especially when Naruko promised to visit.

The blonde didn't seem to notice the way Neji and Tenten kept shooting her looks after Neji and Naruko had stopped dragging Lee away from the curry shop. She could honestly be oblivious at times but at the same time, it showed that she didn't feel the need to scrutinise them, that she trusted them, even with the way Neji had treated her during the Chunin exams. Finally, Tenten lost her patients, which was common.

"Why did you get so emotional about Ranmaru?"

Naruko shot a dark look over her shoulder. "Because unlike you, I was not willing to watch him walk Raiga off the cliff and kill himself."

"She meant when we first heard his story," Neji clarified calmly.

Her shoulders tensed for a moment before she sighed, letting her shoulders sag as she stopped walking, the others halting as well. "He reminds me of someone else, someone I couldn't save."

"Who?"

The moment he asked, Lee regretted it. Pain flashed through Naruko's eyes quick and strong.

"He's name was Haku, he worked with one of the Mist sword guys, named Zabuza. When I first met him, he was just in the woods, gathering herbs so we chatted, and he told me how everyone should have someone to live for, and that he had someone to live for, as long as they needed him. Later, when fighting this ninja who created a mirror ice dome thing, Sasuke got hurt, I thought he was dead and I lost it. I broke the mask hiding the boy's face and saw Haku. I destroyed his attack, something that no one had ever done. I made him think he was of no use to Zabuza anymore and..." she stopped, swallowing thickly as tears slowly dropped from her eyes. "I had told him I was going to kill him for taking Sasuke's life, but I stopped when I saw it was the boy from the woods. He begged me to follow through with it, but I couldn't. He had been hurt, and almost killed by his village because of his kekkei genkai. I tried to tell him that being a weapon for someone was not a life, that he could have a real one, but he didn't listen, and when he saw that Kakashi-sensei was about to get Zabuza with the chadori..." she took a deep breath, choking on the words, "he took the hit. I yelled at Zabuza for Haku's death until he took on the mobsters that were about to attack us, because the leader had beat up Haku's body." Her shoulders shook violently as she dropped her head into her hands, tears seeking out between the fingers.

Lee felt the desire to hug her again, and this time had the strength to follow through, wrapping his arms around her shoulders. She tensed at first, as though she didn't know what was happening to her, making him wonder if Naruko had ever been hugged before. He knew she was an orphan, her parents killed by the nine-tailed fox like many other people, including Lee's own father, but he had not stopped to wonder if anyone had shown her affection. The idea that she had not been shown love and affection made him sick.

"I couldn't let the same thing happen to Ranmaru, not when he could be saved. He's so much younger than Haku." Her words were muffled by her hands but they still all heard it.

Lee noticed Tenten look guilty, especially after how she had treated Ranmaru. She had even told Naruko that he was a lost cause and that the blonde should give up. Neji looked uncomfortable, as though he was torn between being a gentleman and comforting the crying girl like Lee was, and simply walking away from the emotional situation. He had never been good with emotions. Lee felt Naruko start to move out of his embrace, making him realise it was time to let go. He watched as she wiped away the tears and then smiled her wide, cheerful smile that was so large it made her eyes crinkle and turn into slits.

"But I saved him, and now he has a family with a mother and a big brother, and I'll visit as often as I can." She gabbed a thumb at her chest proudly, puffing out her already developing chest, making Neji look away and wipe his nose as Tenten rolled her eyes and Lee smiled at the fact that her mood was back to its chipper self.

"I am glad you succeeded, Naruko, and I am sure that Ranmaru is going to have a great life from now on," Lee assured as they started walking again.

Naruko wiped her wet hands on her orange pants as she nodded in agreement.

That had been over a month ago, yet he could not seem to forget it, especially hugging her, and everything he thought about it, his heart would beat rapidly yet feel extremely light. That was why he felt the need to train, he knew there was something odd about his feelings for Naruko but he couldn't work out what they were, even though they felt familiar in some way.

Just as he reached ten thousand kicks, Tenten appeared, walking out from amongst the trees. She waved at him as she drew near, stopping outside his reach encase he wanted to keep throwing kicks.

"I thought I should tell you that Guy-sensei is challenging Kakashi again, its Guy-sensei's turn to choose the obstacle as well."

"Excellent, I can train on the way by running all the way there." He took off in the direction he knew Guy was planning to meet Kakashi, leaving Tenten in the dust, even with his heavy weighted gear on his wrist and ankles. When he arrived he was out of breath and sweating hard, making him bend over and put his hands on his knees as he panted for breath.

"Oh, hello, Lee."

He looked up at the soft words, finding Sakura standing in front of him, Kakashi and Guy not too far away, with Neji standing off to the side. "Hello, Sakura," he greeted before frowning. Normally he would feel a swirl in his stomach at the sight of her, and his heart would start beating quickly. His heart was beating at a rapid pace, though he could not tell if it was from the run or from Sakura, but there was no swirl in the stomach.

"Are you alright? Sakura asked, noticing the look on his face.

Next moment a drink was shoved under his nose. He followed the hand attached to the drink, taking in the orange sleeve, the long blonde hair falling over the shoulders in a pigtail style and coming to rest on bright blue eyes set with a round face that had whisker marks on either cheek. Suddenly, his stomach felt as though it was filled with flying creatures.

"Here, you could use it, Bushy Brow." Naruko smiled at him as he took the drink, draining every last drop. "Feel better?"

"Yes, thank you, Naruko," Lee assured breathlessly, returning the smile. He looked over at Guy, hoping whatever challenge that he chose didn't take too long to do, since he really needed to speak with his mentor.

As it turned out, Guy challenged Kakashi to a fight... with their eyes closed. The first to be knocked down and have trouble getting up was the loser. It took just over forty minutes, and a lot of walking around with their arms out, looking like zombies, but finally Guy won, since he could fight in his sleep like Lee could.

"Do you think Kakashi-sensei lost on purpose?" Sakura asked as Guy claimed victory.

"Nah," Naruko answered, hands behind her head and her eyes closed. "Kakashi-sensei swung too far away from Guy-sensei to do enough damage and gave away his position so that Guy-sensei was able to move closer and land a hit." The girl's stomach gave a loud grumble, making her pull an uncomfortable face. "I'm starving. That reminds me Iruka-sensei promised me ramen. Bye, guys." With that she ran off at a high speed, not noticing Lee watching her with a slight look of confusion.

"I know she's weird," Sakura stated, drawing Lee's attention. "But her heart is always in the right place. She told me about the little boy and I'm glad you were all able to help him. She had hated not being able to help Haku. Naruko doesn't like to show her pain but I think part of her liked Haku, probably because he was the first guy to show her attention."

"I understand about Haku, but I did not know she was so close with Iruka-sensei." A tight feeling appeared around his heart, reminding him of when Sakura made it clear she liked Sasuke, only this was worse.

"Yeah, he treats her almost like a daughter, or a little sister. He always takes her out for ramen, and scolds her if she does something bad or stupid and although he denies it, he obviously wanted her to win against her fight against Neji. He even brought her flowers when she was in the hospital after the invasion. She seemed to really like them; she had never gotten any before."

"Lee," declared Guy in a booming voice. "How is your training?"

"Very good, Guy-sensei," Lee replied in the same energetic tone, grinning widely. He waved goodbye at Sakura when she mentioned getting back to her own training before looking around, noticing that Tenten, Neji and Kakashi had also left, leaving him alone with Guy, which is what he wanted.

"What's the matter, Lee?"

He gave a start, wondering how Guy knew something was wrong before realising that Guy knew him better than anyone else, even his own mother did not know him as well as Guy when she was alive. "My body seems to be betraying me."

"I thought you were recovering extremely well from surgery and that your strength was already passed where it originally was." Guy scanned him with his eyes, worried he had missed something with one of his students.

"It is not that." Lee sighed and dropped his head. "I have loved Sakura for many years but I have notices that the reaction my body gives, my heart pounding, the odd feeling in my stomach, the clamminess to my hands, they have been going away, even though she is talking to me more."

"Perhaps it was not love," reasoned the jonin. "If it really was love, it would not diminish. Love is always youthful."

"But my body is reacting to someone else, and it seems to be stronger than it was with Sakura. How can this be?"

"It's Naruko, isn't it?"

Lee looked at his mentor with surprise. "How did you know?"

"Since seeing her in the chunin exams I thought you two would be good together, since she's extremely youthful and you two are rather similar." He gave Lee a thumbs up and a blinding smile. "Go for it, Lee!"

"What about if these feelings go away? I do not want to hurt her, she deserves to be cared for." Lee hung his head, thinking of the way Naruko had reacted to the hug he had gave her before thinking of what Sakura had said about Haku. Had he given her a hug, and that was why she tensed up? She wished it was him.

"Lee, Kakashi and I both noticed how you were behaving. It is clear that your feelings for her run deep. I find it funny that you have fallen for the strongest member of my rival's team." Guy laughed before slapping Lee on the back encouragingly. "You won't know what will happen until you go for it."

Guy's words repeated themselves within his mind as he returned to training. He had interacted with Naruko numerous times since the mission, and had heard her be mentioned by other people, mainly in regards to her using her sexy jutsu on the Fifth Hokage, (apparently no one had warned her that Naruko could turn into a half naked, attractive male), and every time, he felt these odd feelings, even if they were only mild. However, when Sakura was mentioned, he often wouldn't notice unless the person was talking to him directly, and whilst his heart did react, it was nothing compared to the reaction it gave when he saw something orange, and thought of Naruko, or heard about one of her latest adventures or pranks. Before he even contemplated talking to the blonde, there was something he felt, as a gentleman, that he had to do.

After putting his weighted gear away and having a shower, he headed towards the Hokage Tower, where he knew Sakura to be. On the way, he stopped at the flower shop, buying a bouquet from Sakura's friend Ino. His mother had always told him that when delivering important news of a romantic nature to a girl a gentleman should always bring flowers, even if the news was bad. He asked the ninja at the front desk where he could find the one he was looking for and was directed to library used for training. He knocked and waited to be invited in. When he heard Sakura's calm voice from the other side, he took a deep breath and slid the door open.

"Hi, Lee, is everything alright?" she asked, before she saw the flowers, making her kind smile drop.

"Sakura, I have to tell you," he started in his strong voice before the pink haired girl started waving her hands frantically.

"No, Lee, please don't..."

"But I have to. Sakura, I can no longer promise to protect you with my life. I will fight beside you and protect you, since you are still a valuable friend but I can no longer give you my heart, since it does not belong to you. I am sorry!" he ended, bowing his head and shoving the flowers towards Sakura with such force that a small number of the white petals fell off and flouted to the ground.

"Um..." Sakura slowly took the flowers from him, looking uncomfortable and confused. "It's alright, Lee."

"I have more bad news," he confessed, staying in a bow, with his hands hanging at his sides. "My heart does not belong to me either. I have fallen in love with someone else and want them to become my girlfriend. I am sorry, but I care for your team mate, Naruko. If you do not want me to ask her out of pain, I will respect your wishes."

When he received no reply he looked up, noticing the humour in Sakura's eyes before she started laughing. "Naruko? Wow. Most boys seem to forget she's a girl. Sasuke used to refer to her as a him on missions, but that may have been to annoy her. I never really thought about a boy liking her, but I'm glad you do, Lee. You're a nice guy but you're to energetic for me but Naruko has more than enough."

"So you do not mind?" When Sakura shook her head, Lee beamed, rushing forward and hugging her, spinning her around in joy until she yelled at him to stop and hit him on the head. "Thank you, Sakura," he said in his boisterous voice, ignoring the pain he felt from the lump on his head. "I must go and find Naruko, I must tell her, for the Sannin who is to train her could return at any day and I will not see her for three years."

"Wait, what?"

"Did she not tell you?" Lee looked at Sakura in surprise before scratching his head, wincing slightly when his nails raked over the bruise Sakura had given him. "She told me when she was in hospital and I visited her. She asked me if I thought she should go."

"She mentioned training, but I guess it escaped her mind that she was leaving the village." Sakura looked sad for a moment before removing the emotion from her face. "She's probably at her apartment. When she's not at the ramen shop or in the training ground she's there... eating ramen or training. Good luck, she only seems to have two things on her mind."

"Thank you, I will look there first!" With that, Lee ran from the room, heading for Naruko's apartment. He stopped to get orange flowers, remembering what his mother told him. He hammered on her door, unable to contain his excitement and nervousness.

"What is it?" she snapped as she flung the door open. "Oh, hey, Bushy Brow, why are you knocking so loudly?"

"Sorry," he blushed before holding the flowers out, right under Naruko's nose.

"...What's going on? Did someone die?" she asked, slightly panicked, looking up and down the hallways as though she expected to see a dead body lying on the floor.

"No, I just wanted to talk to you, and I thought you might like these flowers."

"Okay." Naruko took the flowers and walked deeper into her house, leaving the door open for Lee and allowing him to take in the room and its occupant.

The room was fairly scarce, with only a small, plastic table and four chairs in what must have been the dining room, and a lumpy looking lounge in the living room. There were numerous ninja scrolls on a bookcase and slung over the lounge was a green jumpsuit, just like his own. Naruko was wearing her usual three-quarter orange tracksuit pants and a black top, her jacket discarded and for once her hair was down, cascading down her back as she made a makeshift vase out of a large, plastic cup.

"You have a jumpsuit," Lee stated, wondering why.

"Yeah, Guy-sensei told me that it helps with training, and his right, it stops me from overheating so I can train longer. I've already increased my strength a lot. Believe it!" Naruko grinned at him as she put the flowers on her dining table. "So what's up, Lee? Did you want to train? Cause I don't mind, I'm free tomorrow."

"That sounds good, but it is not why I am here." He stopped something Sakura said coming to mind. "Naruko, what was Haku like?"

The blonde frowned in confusion, tilting her head to the side. "Um... I didn't really know him well, but soft spoke, kind, he didn't like killing and that's why he never killed me and Sasuke, even though he could have, bit messed up... that's all I can think of. Why?"

"Sakura said that you liked him," Lee muttered, not able to meet her eye until he heard barely suppressed giggles that turned into a full laugh.

"When I first met him I thought he was a girl. I did until he told me as he was leaving that he was a boy, cause I kept calling him sister. Plus, someone like him is not my type. Someone who lives for others, or lives for the sake of revenge or hatred, are not really living, and they piss me off, so they definitely aren't my type. Like Neji, or Gaara, or Sasuke. I know the first two have changed, and that's good but it still annoyed me back then."

"I do not live for those things," Lee acknowledged, starting to feel confidence entering his body.

"I know. You live because you love life and you want to prove you are a great ninja, who only needs taijutsu to fight. That's a good nindo."

"Thank you, Naruko." Lee took a deep breath before giving the girl a thumbs up and declaring, "I want to protect you with my life."

Naruko looked at him with her lids covering her blue eyes, making him wonder if she could actually see him. "Well, yeah, ninjas always risk their lives for one another. I'd protect you with my life too, but I'm not in any danger right now." She put her hands behind her head and shrugged. "Thanks though."

"No, I mean..." he faltered, wondering what he should say to make her understand. "I do not like Sakura anymore, I love someone else."

This time she frowned, her eyes still hidden. Lee was starting to think that she did that on purpose so no one could see the emotions within. "Why are you telling me this? Though it's probably good because Sakura is still obsessed with Sasuke, so you were kinda wasting your time."

Lee sighed, realising he wasn't saying it right. "You are right, and Sakura is not the girl for me, she is not energetic enough and she will not fight with her life just to make other's life better and to make them see the errors of their ways. I brought you flowers."

That did not seem to be the right thing either, since Naruko's frown deepened. "And I'm thankful but I'm not in the mood for you to go on about some girl. I have training to do, so get out."

The amount of anger in her voice stunned Lee and made it difficult to interpret the other emotion underneath. However, he had to respect her wishes, so he nodded and walked to the door. "I am sorry, Naruko. I would still like to train with you tomorrow but if you do not want me to, you will just have to tell me, and I will go." With that, he walked out, closing the door gentle behind him and making a slow trek home. He didn't understand what he had done wrong and what he had done to make Naruko angry at him.

Guy was waiting in his apartment when he got home but one look at his student's face, and he knew it didn't go well. "What happened, Lee?"

"She yelled at me to leave when I told her why I liked her more than I had liked Sakura. She told me that she did not feel like hearing about some girl when she had to train."

"Some girl?" Guy rubbed his chin as he looked at the roof and thought. "Kakashi said this was going to happen, that means I lost that challenge. He said that knowing those we work with is a valuable tool and the one to get closest to the right answer about you telling Naruko wins. He obviously knows you both well."

"What did he say?" lee asked desperately, wondering where he had gone wrong.

"Well, I told him that you would tell Sakura, then bring flowers to Naruko and tell her that you wanted to protect her with your life and that you no longer cared for Sakura romantically, then Naruko would be so moved that she would agree to date you." Guy looked down as he remembered that he was wrong and therefore had to complete some self-appointed punishment. "Kakashi said that you would show up with flowers and say what I said you would but you would neglect to say that Naruko was the other girl, figuring she would work it out by the flowers. Naruko would then become hurt and angry that you had came into her home and probably interrupted her training to talk about some girl who was probably, in her mind, everything she wasn't, meaning girly, motherly, doesn't pummel guys until they wake up to themselves and isn't a knucklehead. She would also kick you out so that she could return to training not wanting to feel the pain you had caused. Kakashi believes that deep down, Naruko doesn't believe she deserves affection and love, and that's why she never reaches out to him. He said the only one she seems to reach out to is Jiraiya, since Iruka already does show he cares."

"So, she became angry because she thought I was not talking about her but about another girl? Why would she do such a thing?"

"Because, Lee," Guy started, grinning widely and putting a hand on the boy's shoulder. "She had wished Konoha's Beautiful Green Beast was talking about her."

Lee thought over his sensei's words before grinning too. "Then I will just have to tell her that I was!"

"That's the spirit, Lee!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He found Naruko in her usual training spot, just up the river from his own, but stayed hidden, assessing her mood. He had noticed that Naruko had started training there shortly after she had left the hospital. Figuring it had something to do with having trained with Sasuke in her previous training area; he had not mentioned anything, enjoying the company. Thinking back, he realised that that enjoyment had not came from a purely platonic place but instead it came from the fact that he liked seeing Naruko become stronger, liked knowing she was safe, and mostly liked being able to walk back to the village with her and sometimes buy her lunch, which he had been doing more and more frequently until the mission involving Raiga and Ranmaru. He had since felt uncomfortable; as though there was pressure on him, as though someone was scrutinizing everything he did, making him flustered, even though he knew Naruko would never do that.

She was hard at work, practicing her aim through objects, such as thick foliage, bushes and the waterfall. Most of her targets he could not see but he heard numerous, dull thuds that indicated that she hit them. After she had hit them all a number of times, she closed her eyes, taking aim from memory. A few of them missed by centimetres but when aiming at her fifteenth target, she missed dramatically, the kunai flying at Lee's face. He dodged out of the way, the edge scratching his cheek and drawing blood. It caught him by surprise, making him yelp and fall back, and crash back into the tree behind him. There were sounds of rushing footsteps as he put his hand up to his cheek, pulling it back to find a surprisingly large amount of blood.

"Bushy Brow?!" Naruko yelped, dropping to her knees in front of him. "I'm sorry, I didn't think anyone was around." She pulled out a cloth and a bandaids from one of her pockets before she started to wipe off the blood smearing Lee's cheek. "Are you alright?"

Lee was having trouble hearing, since he had only just noticed that Naruko was closer than she had ever been, allowing him the clearest view of her face he had ever had. "You're whiskers are not scars."

"Um... no, they're not... they're... birthmarks." Naruko focused on Lee's injury, not noticing how Lee's face was slowing turning completely red, starting from the area she was cleaning. "You didn...amm." Her words came out muffled between her lips and Lee's. She pushed him back, slamming him into the tree he had hit moments before. "What the hell, Lee?"

"I am sorry, Naruko." He bowed on his hands and knees, looking at the ground as drops of blood leaked from his cut, splashing down before him. "I should not have done that without your permission but I found that I could not help myself."

Naruko growled, making Lee look up at her, noticing the blood on her cheek, his blood. The blonde slapped a bandaid on his face, making him wince before getting to her feet. "Go away, Lee."

"I wish to protect you with my life!" the bowl-cut ninja announced, looking highly serious instead of his usual enthusiastic self.

"You said that yesterday, Bushy Brow," Naruko reminded him in a distant voice.

He nodded, even though the blonde could not see with her back to him. "Do you remember how we first met?"

Naruko turned back around, crossing her arms and rolling her eyes. "You wanted to fight Sasuke and not me; because you didn't think I was good enough."

"I apologise." He had the decency to look ashamed as he rose to his feet and walked towards her. "Though that was not how we first met. I was trying to get two genins to let us pass whilst hiding my strength."

"That's right," Naruko said, clearly starting to remember. "You ended up blocking Sasuke's kick with just one hand."

"And then I said something to Sakura," prodded Lee, watching to see if Naruko was getting it, which she was not. "About wanting to protect her life... because I cared about her... but I was wrong, my feelings for her were not as strong as I thought."

Apparently he was taking too long, since Naruko sighed and flailed her arms impatiently. "I don't get what you are saying. Why are you telling me about when we met and how you don't like Sakura anymore because of some girl? I'm not in the mood for it."

"It is you, Naruko!"

That seemed to stun her, for she looked at him with surprise, her lips pursed to say words that had now died. She schooled her expression into one of thought before she moved forward quickly, punching him on the head painfully. He could have dodged, but he had chosen not to, knowing that if Naruko's anger was not released in some form it got worse.

"You should have told me." She scratched her cheek, the dry blood making it itchy. "Do I have blood on my face?" she asked, looking at the scarlet under her nails. Walking over to the river, she dropped down, looking at her reflection in the water before scooping up a handful and scrubbing her face.

"Yes, there was... and I tried to tell you but it came out wrong, I should have tried harder and thought through my words." Lee paused, realising that he had not been rejected yet. "Do you... do you like me as well?"

Naruko dropped down onto her backside, crossing her arms and legs and pouting. "Well, obviously! Sasuke and Pervy-Sage picked on me because I started liking you just before the finals of the Chunin exam. Pervy-Sage tried to get me to kiss you to convince him to train me. And people call me clueless."

Lee frowned, remembering when Naruko had come up to him, stammering with a red face, but he had become distracted with the idea of training with Guy-sensei. The memory made a soft smile appear on his face. "I am glad you did not, because I did not know my feelings at that time, and I would feel horrible if I did not do your emotions justice."

Naruko turned around without unfolding her arms or legs, a talent that Lee had never understood, before fixing him with her closed eyed gaze. "Is that your elaborate way of saying you like me?"

"And want to make you my girlfriend," added Lee, pointing at her with a wide, bright smile.

She thought before speaking. "Can we still train?" When Lee nodded, she jumped to her feet. "Okay, I like these!" With that, she started retrieving her kunai, Lee helping her with a grin on his face.

"I am glad I am with someone so youthful," he declared right before Naruko swung a punch at him.

So, this is my... second fic from a completely male pov... I think. It's the second I remember, so I hope you like it and the pairing.