Bear Hugs ⟩⟨ Naruto & Lee
A walk in the park. The breeze shifted through the leaves and already autumn was hitting the Konoha in a wave of peace and brilliance. Faded colors of gold and red clashed together to form the colors of flames. A sweat was already forming on Naruto’s brow. It was just a walk! Never before had he started to gain body heat from just a slow walk. He was getting used to the lazy life instead of the work out life. He didn’t mind the walk as it was good for his mind to calm. That afternoon was already busy enough as it was.
The walk was doing him some good after all. A beam of light cascaded down onto his face as he closed his eyes to block out the light. He paused for a second as he let the tingling feeling run down his spine. Even now he felt an immaculate sense of happiness. The world had stopped. An idea suddenly sprung into his head. He hadn’t meditated in a while.
Dashing off the path he went towards the newly built lake. Shimmering waves of blue and green lapped at the edge. Crossing his legs he let his mind wander. Eyes darted around as the chakra began to fold into shapes. Each shape a creature that lived on the earth. He could sense the fish more but as soon as he expanded he could even sense the chakra of humans. A large mass of chakra guided him closer to a familiar chakra. The faint splashes of green criss crossed his eyes. Rock Lee.
"I haven’t seen that sucker in a while ‘ttbayo." Naruto left his meditating stance and started walking in the direction of where he had sensed his chakra. "Maybe he can help me train. I’m getting bored with the replays of Top Chef. Those shows always make me drool ‘ttbayo."
Returning to his daily training routine had been a welcome relief for Lee. A month ago he was forced to break his dogma of exercising in favour of staying with his teacher, which he accepted gladly. As tribute to Gai's sacrifice and his now fragile body, Lee put off training and instead decided to assist his sensei and anyone else he could find. This proved to be almost equally taxing some days. With Gai fed and sleeping, Lee had offered to do any number of tasks: delivering groceries, offering emotional support, helping rebuild a caved in roof. Many were injured in the war and it seemed there weren't enough genin to help them all.
After a while the village began to relax into a semblance of what it was before, and Gai began to push Lee to fully return to his training. It was very strange to train every day by himself, and very sad knowing he would be doing it for a long time.Tsunade promised prosthetics, he told himself. At the very least he should walk again. Right?
He often pushed those thoughts away, replacing them with gratefulness and plans for a wonderful future for Konoha. Lee smiled now as he imagined a happy life, filled with happy friends. Sakura was improving so greatly. Tenten was considering settling down, though she seemed to train just as hard. Lee had seen little of Naruto, however, and was wondering how he was adjusting. It was the man himself that caused Lee to start in surprise and tumble to the ground with a yelp. He had been so caught up in his own thoughts and the rhythm of running on his hands that he’d forgotten to check the path in front of him, nearing knocking over them both over. Lee quickly recovered and sprung from the ground, throwing himself with open arms at his old friend. "Naruto-kun!"