Adult-FanFiction.org : Naruto

Magic Gone Wrong!	By : LucklessMallory Category: Naruto AU/AR > Yaoi - Male/Male Views: 1592 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, the series, the characters, and I make no profit from this fiction. This fiction is a piece of my own work.

Chapter List
- 7
- 8
- 9
Four days of bedrest and Lee was going crazy.
There was nothing to do in the mansion and Gaara forbade him from even getting off the bed unless he was there to help him-- and make sure he didn’t try to work like the last time he was left alone. He’d memorized the crack lines on the ceiling and the strange, surreal shapes formed by mold and soot on the walls. Spending his time reading in bed as Gaara suggested, just wasn’t something he enjoyed either.

The smith plucked at the covers of his bed, twitching with every creak of the old mansion in hopes that Gaara would be back from town already. “Haaahhh! I am so bored. Can I at least have my hammers to exercise with?” he complained to the gremlin watching over him. The creature shook its head at him resolutely and crossed its arms on top of the pile of socks at his feet- the silver lining in his enforced bed rest. One morning, he’d woken up to find his missing socks given back to him as a ‘get well’ present from the gremlins. A surprising gesture outside of their troublemaking nature.

“My arm feels better already! It is all in believing in the power of youth!” Lee sat up higher, wrinkling his nose at the pillow behind him. He was starting to despise the feeling of soft fluff behind him. “Master Gaara might not be back until later. I do not want to sleep the whole afternoon away.”

“You’re not going to ruin my hard work on you by injuring yourself again.” One of the double doors of the ballroom swung open with Sakura already fixing Lee a stern look. Shutting the door behind her gently, she headed over to the smith’s bed with a bag in tow.

“Miss Sakura!” Lee perked up at her approach, grinning at the healer in surprise. “What are you doing here? I was not expecting a visit from you.”

The healer’s stern expression lost some of its edge at Lee’s enthusiasm and she allowed herself a weary sigh. She sidled up to the smith’s bed and hauled a bag over her shoulder and onto the mattress with a light thump.

“Sorcerer Gaara sent me,” she informed him. “I was planning on coming up to check on your injuries sooner, but I was kept busy at the clinic. I finally took a personal walk, and I bumped into your sorcerer. He asked me to come up and make sure you were in bed like you’re supposed to be. I heard that you’ve been aggravating your wounds.”

Sakura shot Lee a sharp look with that statement and began to rummage through her bag of medical utensils.

“That is not true! I have been in bed all week--” Lee paused, blinking. “Aside from that time I jogged around the room. But that is just to get my blood flowing again.” He watched in interest as Sakura laid out fresh bandages and that nasty, painful poultice she insisted on spreading on his skin. Swallowing to whet his dry throat, he sat up higher. “How are you, Miss Sakura? We have not really talked since the last time I saw you in town.”

Lee wasn’t oblivious to Sakura’s aversion to the demon inside him. It made him all the more grateful that she was still talking to him now and didn’t act any different from before. “And um...about last week. Thank you for tending to my wounds.”

“I’m fine, Lee. Thank you for asking. And you are welcome.” Sakura laid back the blankets that covered Lee’s legs and began to slowly unwind the old bandages that ran up from his ankle to his mid thigh. She shuddered violently as the demonic aura in Lee’s body touched hers, making her stomach churn. It was uncomfortable, to say the least. She swallowed and turned her eyes back up to Lee’s face with a hint of a frown while her hands worked.

“Is there anything you want to talk to me about, Lee? A lot has... happened to you while I was away. And since we bumped into each other at the market, for that matter.”

Holding still as Sakura changed the bandages, Lee shooed away some of the gremlins trying to look at her work. He caught the shudder and the frown as she touched his leg, and it pained him to see a close friend look so uncomfortable around him. Her questioning was understandable, but Lee wished that she would just talk about lighter things with him instead of bringing up his situation.

“I do not really want to talk about what happened to me,” Lee said, scratching at the ends of the bandages on his arm. The newly healed flesh itched whenever the bandages stayed on too long. “I think you know why I live with Master Gaara now and what lives inside me.”
“Don’t scratch. If it iches, it’s because it’s healing.” Sakura moved closer and covered Lee’s fingers with her own. Her tone was stern, but her expression softened somewhat. She sighed and paused her work to lean against the edge of the bed and talk to her friend directly. “I wasn’t going to ask about what hurt you. I could tell that it upset you, and your body is healing. But... I’m worried about you, Lee. Gaara told me a little, but I have the feeling that he left out a lot.”

Lee’s brows furrowed in thought. He was glad that Gaara didn’t go around telling people about what happened to him, but the doubts he’d been having about the sorcerer also spawned questions about how much Gaara really cared to know about his well-being. “What did he say about me?” he asked, curling his fingers around hers and meeting her eyes. One time, long ago, he’d have been ecstatic to have Sakura holding his hand. Now he just valued the feeling of friendship from the gesture, along with thinking that Gaara’s eyes were a much darker shade of green than the woman’s. “There are things...you might not want to know, Miss Sakura. I have had months to adjust to what has happened to me, but it is something that would frighten anyone.”

Sakura nodded slowly, trying to convey that she understood what Lee had gone through, to a point. Lee’s tone sounded weary to her, and disheartened. “I’ve seen a lot since I’ve been traveling, Lee. During my training, I had to deal with a lot of things that made me cry. Doctor Tsunade didn’t spare me anything. I had to face things that are unheard of in this little town, and treat people I knew would be dead the next day anyway. Children, sometimes.”

She slowly rubbed circles across Lee’s knuckles with her thumb, tilting her head as she held his gaze. “All that Gaara told me was that a mistake was made in his home and had led to your possession. He didn’t tell me why you stay here, or why you seem to have accepted your situation. I don’t understand, Lee. Why don’t you talk to the priest? There must be something that can help you, right?”

“Father Genivi has good intentions, but he is more likely to lead a mob against Master Gaara and I than help me. Even Master Gaara cannot do anything about it because it was a deal I made,” Lee said, rubbing the back of his head with his good hand. It was easier to pretend that everything was normal when no one was asking about it. It was even easier when he was enjoying his time with Gaara and learning new things. A frown crossed Lee’s face, the reality of his possession coming to light.

Squeezing Sakura’s hand tighter, Lee sighed heavily. “Okay. I will talk, though I do not believe it will help matters. I...do not know how to explain what happened. I just wanted to be there when Master Gaara summoned his demon. He said it was one of his goals, and I wanted to be there for him when he achieved this feat. Things just went...I do not know. Downhill. Insane.” He averted his eyes and stared down at their hands, forced to look back at that night.

“I saved him. The demon was going to break free and take him instead. It offered me a chance to take Gaara’s place and I took it.”
“You allowed the demon to possess you?” Sakura’s fingers paused briefly in Lee’s, not entirely sure how she should react. Lee had accepted a scary fate into his life so that he could take another person’s place. Somehow... that seemed just like something her friend would do, without even considering that he shouldn’t. Sakura allowed a weak smile to pull at her lips as she shook her head. “You are... so reckless, you know that? You’re lucky you weren’t killed.”

Lee chuckled at that and met Sakura’s gaze again. “It was worth it. I would not have been able to live with myself if I had left Master Gaara to that fate. With the demon inside me, I had to move in to the mansion so it would not be able to go against Master Gaara’s control. But I was able to get to know him well because of it as well. You would be surprised to know how much his untouchable image is false.”

“I... I think I find that very hard to believe.” Sakura’s lighter manner flickered briefly, still uncomfortable with the demon’s aura in the back of her mind, and not appreciating the thought of Sorcerer Gaara as approachable. As long as they were going to be sitting here for a while, Sakura thought she shouldn’t put off her work anymore. Holding Lee’s left hand in one of hers, she extended his arm and began to unravel his bandages with her other hand. “To me... Sorcerer Gaara seems cold. He was tense when I came to help you the other night, and he even hinted that he would curse me if I let you die, but his expression didn’t seem to change the whole time. Sometimes I think he isn’t human.”

Lee winced as the bandages were peeled from his skin. His arm was still red and a little swollen as it healed. The chimera’s poision was weak in his system now, and surviving it would make him stronger in the long run, but for now it was keeping him from healing quickly. “That sounds like something he would say. He does not show his emotions to everyone. Most times, it is easy to miss his expression unless you look out for it.” A small fond smile tugged on Lee’s lips despite the pain of having his arm moved. “He does not always smile when he is happy, but his eyes shine brighter and his lips always twitch when he finds something amusing.”

A real grin finally stretched across Lee’s mouth. “The first month I moved in, he and I got into a lot of fights. You would not want to cross him when he is angry, but it was also fun to see him lose his cool and argue with me.”

Sakura slowly untied the far end of the bandages and pulled off the last strip. Lee’s skin was an unhealthy shade of red from his forming scars and irritation to his wounds, but there was no sign of infection and that was good. Sakura reached for her supply of poultice behind her on the bed and began to gently dab at the problem areas across Lee’s arm.

“I guess you couldn’t help becoming close to him if you live in the same house for long enough. Even if it is a big house.” She glanced around the ballroom at Lee’s workspace and the many gremlins who had taken residence in the rafters or around the smith’s bed. She gave a warning scowl to a gremlin that looked like it wanted to poke its head through her bag, making it scurry away before turning back to Lee and allowing her wearing smile to return. Her eyes still held a note of worry for him, however. “You almost make it sound like you enjoyed being here.”

Lee’s eyes softened at the concern Sakura had. Shrugging and hissing as his arm was moved, he squeezed her hand again. “If you get past how empty and haunted it seems, it is not a bad place to stay at. It has been a long time since I have lived with anyone after Uncle Gai died. And Master Gaara... he is a good friend. Even if he is sometimes insensitive to other people. I think he is too used to having gremlins for company instead of another human being.”

Knowing that didn’t help the unhappiness he still felt about Gaara and his quest for power. Things hadn’t been right between them since that night he came back, at least, not the easy camaraderie they had. Gaara’s dismissal left Lee to deal with his emotions himself. He wanted to talk to someone about it and Sakura was his dear friend. But he knew he still had to be careful about telling her things she might not accept or understand.

“Miss Sakura...Sakura,” he began haltingly, licking his lips with furrowed brows and the smile fading away. “I know what I did was rash, and I am paying the consequences now. Having the demon inside me is easier to accept if I think about what could have happened instead. I just do not know if Master Gaara sees any worth in what I did outside of him having the demon to control.”

The healer’s smile dampened somewhat when she noted the note of doubt in Lee’s voice. She nodded slowly in thought as she began to gently rub more of the poultice across the stretch of Lee’s skin, layering it on thickly and working it into the pores of his wounds. She tried to send a rush of energy through their joined hands to help with some of the pain. “Well... you know him better than I do. But if I were him, I would want to make it up to you in any way possible. You did a big thing for him, you know? You saved his life. You’ve gone through a lot of suffering because of him.”

Sakura reached for the clean bandages she’d laid beside her bag. She wiped the poultice off her hands and let go of Lee’s hand so that she could begin re-wrapping his bandages, starting at the shoulder. “He must be the densest, most selfish person alive if he really doesn’t appreciate you.”

“Master Gaara is not selfish!” Lee protested, offended for Gaara even when Sakura’s words rang true. He lost some of his steam right after, lowering his head and clenching his good hand. “He is just focused on his goals. His ambitions are greater than anyone else’s in the town and he just has little time to think of others. I am sure there is a part of him that...that thinks of me.”

Lee snapped his mouth shut, nearly biting his own tongue as he tensed, staring hard at the bed covers. That wasn’t what he’d wanted to say at all but it was exactly what he’d been stressing over.
Sakura paused and looked at her friend carefully. She could tell that this was eating at him. It made her want to smack the sorcerer across the face or punch him the way Tsunade had taught her. Then maybe he’d get off his high horse and listen. “I can tell that you have mixed feelings about this. You’re right, I’m sure he just isn’t good at... at communicating. Emotions and such especially, like you said.”

She finished wrapping the bandages all the way to Lee’s hand, where she tied them into a neat knot and tucked it under the wrappings across his palm. She slid down from where she’d been sitting on the bed and moved back to where she’d gotten halfway through unwrapping his leg. “Just don’t let yourself get too stressed out about this, Lee. It’s bad for your health, and it makes healing harder. You don’t want to give me more work than I already have, right?” The ghost of a smile returned to show that she was joking.

The attempt to lighten their conversation had Lee exhaling and smiling faintly as well. “No. If I have to spend another week in bed, there will not be enough sanity in me to stress about anything.” The smile widened as he flexed his hand and found the new bandages much more comfortable than the previous soiled wraps. “Thank you for visiting me and talking, Miss Sakura. I am sure I will make a speedy recovery because of your passion for healing and my naturally youthful nature.”

Flashing the woman a thumbs up, Lee thanked whatever gods were listening that he still had a friend like Sakura even when his life was turned upside down by the sorcerer and the demon possessing him.
- 7
- 8
- 9
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

Magic Gone Wrong!