"I told you, I was doing something important! And what are you even talking about? Taking everyone where? Speak sense, Gejimayu!"
As the echoes of their shouting died down, a heavy, suffocating silence filled the pavilion.
No one spoke, but their minds were racing in the dim, clouded light of the morning sun.
Karin stood frozen with a stack of futons in her arms, her glasses slipping down her nose. She was completely lost.
'Taking us where? Does he know something we don't? His chakra is spiked like he has witnessed something horrible.'
Ino stared at the balcony doors, her hands trembling slightly. She tried to make sense of the panic in Lee's eyes, but it didn't fit.
'Taking everyone... where? But we just got here. What is he so afraid of? It is so unlike of Lee- san's usual behaviour.'
Sakura stood with her fists clenched at her sides, her green eyes flashing with a mix of annoyance and genuine fury.
'We finally had a moment to plan our next move but he ruined. He better have a good reason for this.'
Hinata stayed sitting on the floor, her pale eyes wide and distant. She ignored the shouting, her mind stuck on a single phrase Lee had used.
'I thought you would have taken everyone else by now.'
The words felt cold, like the ice forming on the balcony railing.
'What did Lee- san expected Naruto-kun to do? Were we supposed to be somewhere else?'
The clouds above finally shifted, casting a pale, ghostly light over the group as they waited for an answer that felt like it might break their world apart.
The grey, clouded sky seemed to vibrate with the sheer volume of their shouting as the two of them stood face-to-face on the high balcony.
"Naruto-kun!" Lee yelled, his voice cracking with desperation.
"Gejimayu!" Naruto shouted back, his face turning a deeper shade of red.
"Naruto-kun!"
"Gejimayu!"
The names flew back and forth like physical blows, getting louder and faster until they blurred together.
"NARUTO-KUN!" Lee shrieked one last time. Before the echo could even leave his lips, he lunged forward.
With a burst of great speed, Lee grabbed Naruto's wrist and threw himself over the railing, pulling the Naruto with him. The sudden drop took everyone by surprise.
Below the balcony, the local market was just beginning its day. A vegetable vendor, an elderly man with a thick wool hat and a face lined by the cold, was carefully arranging his freshest cabbages.
Lee, ever the master of movement, descended through the cold air and crashed down from the sky.
With a deafening CRUNCH, Lee landed with a loud crunch directly onto a wooden vegetable stall below. Cabbages and radishes flew into the air, rolling across the snow-dusted street.
"MY CABBAGES! MY PRECIOUS CROPS!" the vendor screamed, his voice cracking as he watched weeks of hard work turn into a green mess under Lee's feet.
He grabbed a wooden crate, waving his arms wildly. "You hooligan! You menace! Do you have any idea how hard it is to grow anything in this frost?"
Other nearby sellers stopped and stared, their faces turning red with anger as they started shouting and pointing their fingers at the intruder who had ruined the morning's business.
Up above, Naruto had managed to dig his fingers into the cold stone of the railing. His body jerked as he caught his weight, leaving him dangling halfway off the edge, his legs kicking at the empty air.
"Naruto!" Sakura screamed, leaning over the edge with her heart in her throat.
"GEJIMAYU, WHAT THE HELL?!" Naruto yelled down, his face a mix of shock and pure annoyance as he struggled to maintain his grip.
"WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?"
Lee looked up from the pile of smashed vegetables, ignoring the angry vendor who was now poking him with a broom.
"Naruto-kun!" he shouted, his voice filled with a strange, fierce loyalty. "I will distract everyone here for as long as I can! Just take the chance and go!"
The chaos in the street below continued to echo upward, but on the balcony, the focus shifted instantly to Naruto who was dangling from the stone railing.
Hinata, Ino, and Karin rushed toward the edge, their footsteps heavy and frantic against the wooden floorboards.
Sakura was already there, leaning far over the side with her hand outstretched. Her face was a mix of worry and sharp frustration.
"Take my hand Naruto!" Sakura said.
Naruto grunted, his fingers slipping slightly on the cold stone, before he reached up and firmly grabbed her hand.
With a strong pull, Sakura hauled him back over the railing. He landed on the balcony with a heavy thud, gasping for air as he tried to wrap his head around the madness that had just happened.
Before he could even stand up properly, the girls surrounded him. The quiet morning was gone, replaced by a circle of demanding faces.
"Naruto, what on earth was that?" Ino asked, her hands on her hips and her eyes narrowed. "What did he mean by 'distraction?' Distraction from what?"
Karin stepped forward, adjusting her glasses with a sharp flick of her finger. She looked down at the market where Lee was still being scolded by the cabbage vendor.
"He's acting like we're being hunted," she muttered, her voice low and suspicious. "What exactly did he say to you before he jumped?"
Hinata didn't shout. She stood at the edge of the group, her fingers twisting nervously at her jacket. Her pale eyes were fixed on Naruto's face, searching for any sign of a secret she might have missed.
"Naruto-kun," she whispered, her voice trembling slightly. "He said... he said he thought you would have taken us all by now. Where did he think we were going?"
Naruto looked from face to face, feeling the weight of their questions pressing down on him. He ran a hand through his messy blonde hair, his brow furrowed in deep thought as he looked back at the clouded sun.
"I don't know," Naruto finally admitted, his voice unusually quiet. "He's talking like the world is ending, but he won't give me a straight answer."
The golden morning light was still muffled by the thick, grey clouds as Tenten finally blinked her eyes open. She sat up slowly, rubbing the sleep from her face, expecting to see the bustle of the group which broke her sleep earlier.
Instead, the inner room was strangely empty. The only person left was Mini-Sasuke, who stood perfectly still, his small frame silhouetted against the light as he stared intently toward the balcony.
Tenten frowned, her open styled hair slightly messy from her nap. She walked over, her footsteps soft on the wood, and looked out toward the balcony, then down at the boy.
She knelt beside him, resting a hand on her knee.
"Hey," Tenten asked softly. "What's the matter? And where's Lee? I thought I heard him yelling earlier."
Mini-Sasuke didn't move his gaze from the balcony. "He came in like a whirlwind," the boy explained, his voice calm but serious.
"After you yelled at him to let you sleep, he charged onto the balcony. He grabbed Usurantokachi in a weird way, and after they argued for a bit... he just jumped."
Tenten's eyes went wide. She blinked, shaking her head as if she had misheard him.
"Jumped? Jumped where?"
"Down into the market," Mini-Sasuke said, finally looking at her. "He tried to take the idiot with him, but Naruto managed to balance himself on the railing and didn't fall all the way down. He's back up there now."
Tenten stood up, her confusion deepening. "That moron Lee... what is he thinking?"
Just then, the sliding doors creaked as the rest of the group—Naruto, Sakura, Ino, Karin, and Hinata—filed back into the room.
Their faces were pale, etched with a mix of worry and frustration. The cold air from the balcony seemed to follow them in, chilling the warm interior.
Tenten stepped toward them, her eyes searching Ino's face. "Ino, what's going on? Why is Lee acting like a madman in the street?"
Ino sighed, crossing her arms as she leaned against a wooden pillar.
"We don't know, Tenten. It's... it's weird." She lowered her voice, repeating the words that were now haunting all of them.
"He looked at Naruto and said, 'I thought you would have taken them all by now.' And then..
Then Sakura continued the other part of the story and said, " When he jumped, he shouted that he would 'distract everyone here' for as long as he could so Naruto could 'take the chance and go.'"
The room went silent. The words felt heavy, like stones dropped into a quiet pool. Tenten looked from Naruto to the floor, her mind trying to piece together why Lee—the most honest person they knew—was acting like they were runaways in the middle of a war zone.
The stillness of the room was suddenly shattered by a sound that made everyone freeze
It was the rhythmic, frantic thud-thud-thud of feet hitting the wooden floor. It was a light, slapping sound of bare feet running at full speed.
The sound echoed through the hallway outside, getting closer and closer, accompanied by a muffled, angry argument between two voices that seemed to be moving while running.
No one moved. No one spoke. The air in the pavilion felt thick, like water, as the group communicated in a silent language of glances and shifted brows.
Ino and Karin exchanged a look of pure confusion. Their eyes darted toward the door, their brows furrowing as they tried to recognize the chakra or the rhythm of the footsteps.
Hinata pulled her shoulders in, her expression turning scared. Her pale eyes moved quickly around the room, looking for a place to hide or a weapon to grab, her breath hitching in her throat.
Tenten stood her ground, her gaze calculative. She tilted her head, counting the seconds between the footsteps, her mind already weighing the distance between the door and the balcony.
In the center of it all, the world seemed to slow down for Naruto and Sakura. Their eyes locked onto each other in a long, heavy gaze.
In that one look, they shared a thousand thoughts.
Naruto's eyes were questioning, asking if she was ready, while Sakura's green eyes held a sharp, steady flash of resolve. They didn't need words to know that the peace of the morning was officially over.
The heavy silence was sliced thin by the sound of wood sliding against wood. The traditional shoji door—the delicate paper-and-wood frame—was thrown OPEN with a sharp, violent snap.
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📊 BATTLE REPORT: 64-IRON 📊
LOSER: Rock Lee 🪨🟢
SNEAK PEAK LINES 💬
'Who opened it?'
'A ghost'
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—With love, one forehead poke away from collapse,
Sakura Shinomiya 💫
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