Discovering Beauty

Of all the places in the shinobi world. Of all the countries, they had to be sent out to the Snow Country. The one with, well, all that snow. It was cold, led to colds upon returning to Konoha, and it was just unyouthful in general. So Gai thought. It was the one country that he actually detested going to. He hid his dislike of the country from everybody else, but he knew it. He felt it. The urge to never, ever be there again.

There was just too much snow. It was everywhere. On the ground, in the trees, on the roofs, and constantly falling down on them. He'd been sent there only a couple times with his team, or any other team for that matter, and never grew any fonder of the country. The people of the country were nice and all, friendly, courteous, and very respectful, but Gai just didn't like the snow.

He and his team were to steal back a scroll that had been taken from their client. It was supposedly going from one hand to another in the black market. Team Gai had taken the mission without complaint. Meddling in the black market was never fun, but they worked well together, and they knew they would have little difficulty in accomplishing their mission. With two chunnins and two jounnins, they could hardly go amiss.

Even knowing that the mission would be easily beaten, Gai had inner turmoil at the thought of returning to that country. But, he put on a warm cloak, gloves, ear-muffs, boots (Shinobi sandals just would not do), and his 100-watt smile and they were on their way. His students were dressed in similar attire, knowing that they would have to keep warm.

Their journey there did not change his thoughts about snow. He still detested it with the passion that was unique to Gai. But he hid that passion from his students, because it was, in his opinion, unyouthful to detest something. And he could not possibly let anyone know that he had an unyouthful quality about him. And for him to detest something as innocent as snow, was all the more unyouthful. Snow did no harm to anybody, it was just mother nature doing her business.

But Gai still detested it. He refused to allow himself to admit he hated snow because that was just such a terrible emotion to have. Hate does not belong in the human heart. No, he did not hate snow. He just merely detested it with a great passion. They managed to remain warm though, which greatly pleased Gai. The snow was one thing, but to have coldness on top of that was just dreadful.

The mission went very well, just as predicted. The scroll had been in the hands of a mere beggar on the sreet, and with a simple Genjutsu, courtesy of Neji, they got the scroll in their hands and made their way out of the Snow Country. The snow expanded around the country in all directions, for miles and miles. Even upon exiting the country, snow was still before them. Which kept Gai in his bad mood that he kept hidden. He would be glad to see grass once more.

Which was another reason he disliked snow. It hid the beauty that was mother nature's best creations. The grass, the flowers, the trees, it hid it all! Snow was white. But the colours of mother nature were far more glorious. Different hues of blue, green, red, it was all so much more pleasing to the eye than the expanses of white before them! Even the sky had lost its beauty. The blue was hidden by dark clouds, from them drifted down even more snow. The sun was hidden behind them as well.

As they made their way back, Gai began to wonder how his students felt about the snow. That's when he began to take notice of them, instead of wallowing in his inner misery. Tenten and Lee seemed to really love the snow, and Neji, he wasn't too sure about him. Neji didn't seem bothered by it, but since he himself looked untroubled by it and he truly was, it was not an accurate statement.

Deep in thought, looking ahead of him as he walked, he didn't really notice the snowball headed for him until it was too late. It hit him in the center of his chest, and he stopped walking, clearly confused. He hadn't been expecting that. He slowly looked around, Neji was still walking next to him, but Tenten and Lee were missing. A second later, the latter appeared ahead of them.

"Sorry, sensei! I had meant to get Tenten, but she disappeared before it could hit her." Lee apologized sheepishly. A snow ball came flying from the trees surrounding them and hit Lee behind the head. He whirled around, a large smile on his lips, "I'll get you for that, Tenten!" He leapt out into the trees, trying to find his female teammate.

Within seconds dozens of snow balls were flying around the small area. Trees were all around them, and Tenten and Lee were jumping from one to the other, trying to hit each other with the innocent weapons.

"They've been playing for the past half-hour." Neji told Gai, who was watching the snow flying about. The two were standing in one place because it was the only safe place. Both of their teammates were doing a pretty good job at avoiding them, except for Lee's throw that hit Gai earlier. It had been until then small bantering, one throwing snow at the other, but now it looked like a full-out snow war.

"What a joyful way to express one's friendship! A nice game between friends is always a great way to keep the passion alive!" Gai joyfully proclaimed, but still did not dare move. He gently wiped away the snow off his cloak with distaste. Not only was the dreaful thing in his hair, and his boots, it was also now on his clothes.

Suddenly a snow ball flew towards Neji's head, and he ducked to avoid it. He straightened out and glared at where the snow ball had come from, "Yeah, okay." He agreed with Gai, though his voice was obviously dripping with sarcasm. Gai watched his most advanced student kneel down and form a snow ball in his bare hands. Standing up straight, his lilac eyes gazed around the area. Suddenly catching a sight of one of his teammates, threw it. It hit its target straight on, but Tenten continued moving despite the attack.

Neji wiped his hands clean of snow and blew on them gently. The snow had reddened his hands a little, and he was trying to heat them up. Noticing this, something seemed to take over his mind for a second because he took his un-touchable student's hands into his own. Neji frowned a little, confused. And then Gai started to blow on his hands for him, helping warm them. The heat from his gloves was also helping, "Why don't you put gloves on?" Gai asked for the hundredth time since their departure from Konoha.

"I've already told you why. If we get attacked I'm going to need my hands at the ready." Neji tried to pull his hands away from his teacher's, but Gai kept a firm grip, "I'm fine."

That was the first time in years that the two looked at each other so intently and from such a close distance as well. There was only a foot of space separating them, and they were connected to each other physically by their hands. Gai's warm breath slowly warming up Neji's cold fingers. It was the first time Gai took the time to really look at Neji. Or perhaps, it was the first time he truly noticed the little things. Gai blamed it on the snow. It seemed to bring out every feature on the young jounnin.

The dark brown in Neji's hair deeply contrasted the white of the snow. The snow brought out a certain shine to his hair. The white powder also clung to his rather long eyelashes, which brushed his cheeks when he blinked. It matched the lilac colour in his eyes and made the colour more prominent. The cold had made Neji's cheeks rosy, which seemed odd compared to the usual pale that was there. The flawless skin was a bit wet from the snow that had melted there, and the wet trails shone from the sun's few rays. The high cheek bones, the full lips, the perfect nose...

All Gai could really register was that the snow seemed to bring out every beautiful thing in Neji. The snow made him absolutely beautiful, quite picturesque. There was a confused expression on the Hyuuga's face, most likely wondering what Gai was thinking about so thoughtfully and why he was looking at him so intently. When Gai noticed his heart rate accelerating, he quickly let go of Neji's hands, confused by his own heart. He put on a serious face, staring into Neji's now blank expression. He was used to Gai's oddities after all.

"Will you please wear some gloves? I don't want you getting sick again." Gai had a reason to be concerned. Neji always insisted on not wearing gloves, and he always ended up getting a cold upon returning to Konoha.

"But..." Neji started to object.

"Please?"

"Fine." He complied. Gai searched through his backpack and pulled out some gloves and gave them to Neji. He pulled on the gloves wordlessly. Their close proximity had become unnerving for Gai, and he really wished to make some distance between them.

Gai took a quick look around and stared at the snow. He had truly detested it for the main reason being that it took away the beauty of mother nature. But after what he had just experienced with Neji, he realized that maybe it didn't take away all the beauty. Perhaps sometimes it added to it. Snow was maybe able to create beauty too, just like every other of mother nature's creations. Maybe.

"I win!" Lee exclaimed, landing further away from the student and teacher. He had a lot of snow in his hair, and his cheeks were bright red, but a large smile was on his lips. He had clearly enjoyed himself.

"Tch. Did not." Tenten grumbled, landing next to him.

"I have won fair and square Tenten!" Lee took his good guy pose, "For if I have not, I will run five hundred laps around the village!"

Tenten sighed, and rolled her eyes, "Fine, you won. Let's just keep going. This was fun and all, but I miss the warmth of Konoha."

"There is no place quite like home!" Lee agreed. The two continued their way towards Konoha, expecting Neji and Gai to follow.

The two stared at each other a moment, unsure about what had just occured between them. Suddenly Gai rose a hand and brought it to Neji's hair, causing the other's eyes to widen a fraction. But Gai merely passed his fingers in the silky hair, pulling out some snow, and he let it fall to the ground. He did this twice before walking away. For he realized something that confused him greatly. It was the reason behind his accelerated heartbeat and the sudden rush of blood in his body in all directions. The reason behind the sudden desire to be near his student.

For Gai had realized that the snow is not what had made Neji beautiful. It was Neji who had made the snow beautiful.

AN: Well...Hello! This is my first Gai/Neji anything. I really love this pairing, for some odd reason. There are like no fics of them on here, so if anyone feels like doing any...Anyways, this came to me today because there is snow now. I really, really hate snow, and I wanted to put that in a fic. I originally thought about making Neji the anti-snow person, but then I realized, why not do a Gai/Neji fic? And since I wanted the anti-snow person to be the dominant person, it had to be Gai. So yeah...

There's no actual Gai/Neji here, just a kind of fluff. This is the second time I attempt to write Gai, I hope I did him justice! This piece was really vague, though, sorry! I'm gonna try to put out another Gai/Neji piece soon. I love this pairing!

Thank you for reading!
-MewMew