I was reading Down Every Road because of that recent prompt and I have GOT to see more of this line: "(The Lee swap out evasion technique stopped working after the fourth time, which is unfortunate because he was just getting good at his pregnant waddling. He was going to try to incorporate it into a new taijutsu style.)" Like. I need to see this new taijutsu style? Do the Police Moms use it? Actually, in Road One, does the police/education reform happen? But Mostly I'm interested in LEE.
The fake pregnancy taijutsu form wasn’t exactly a joke—because Lee is sincere in everything he does—but he never thought he’d actually have to use it.
It started of course, as many things do, with Shikako. Both the swap out evasion technique and the pregnant waddling: being able to trick people with a henge--even a borrowed one—is still one of his greatest memories, and being asked to trick, specifically, Sasuke Uchiha with a henge is an even greater honor! Yes, of course, Neji is his Eternal Rival but, like friendships, one can never have too many rivalries.
At first his gait wasn’t quite correct; his center of balance was still too high, he didn’t account for a shift in abdomen and hips even in a woman who was only a few months in, so he endeavored to fix his mistakes. Unfortunately, the further along his progress was so too was Shikako’s pregnancy. No worries, Lee is always eager for learning opportunities.
By the time he masters the pregnant waddle, Sasuke has already caught wise to the trick, but Lee in addition to being sincere also does not believe in waste. Lee himself is not pregnant and, as far as he knows, will never be pregnant but the concept of having to keep something precious so close to one’s body while fighting isn’t an entirely useless. After all Team Gai specialized in protection and security and while that usually meant escorting a caravan or body-guarding a high profile client, it wouldn’t be out of line to extend that to a smaller, less mobile target.
So a new taijutsu style it is.
Whatever acts as the pregnant belly can be used as a counterweight, but not a weapon. Lee is accustomed to leg and arms weights, after all, so why not one for his core?
And then there was That Mission.
Which, let’s just say, being able to fake a pregnancy waddle and his exercise his minute acting skills really did help in getting everyone back to the Land of Fire safely. After all, no one wants to look too closely beneath the veil of a sobbing, pregnant, left at the altar bride certainly not enough to notice that said bride had bushier eyebrows than before and a skin tight green jumpsuit beneath her dress. And none of the attacking bandits would admit to being beaten up by a heavily pregnant woman in a wedding dress.
But That Mission is S-rank clearance only so everything else is classified.
~
A/N: Just a short one, lionhead, because tbh that was just a throw away line, but you did get me thinking on... hey... what would Lee do with a mastered fake pregnancy waddle?
