Naruto - Run with the Wind 1 Series: Naruto Characters: Sandsibs, Lee, Naruto Pairing: none yet, possible Gaara/Lee if I write more Type: highschool AU Warnings: Gaara wears eyeliner Spoilers: canon is very vaguely mirrored Word Count: 680 Etc: This came out of nowhere, and it's late enough I may decide this is absolutely atrocious later. It's even in present tense, which is weird. There should be a second part eventually.
Temari comes home from her track meet ranting about how horribly annoying Leaf school kids are. She’s angry the boys’ team lost to a kid wearing legwarmers with bad hair. “Sand is an elite private school, why the hell is a nobody from the public schools showing us up?”
Kankurou ignores her and continues memorizing his lines for Hamlet, not wanting to screw up his first time performing on the stage instead of behind it. Gaara ignores her and flips through his Art textbook, lingering over pictures of Dale Chihuly’s work. Once she’s done ranting, Kankurou mollifies her by saying they’ll attend the next meet so they can all make fun of the weird-looking kid. Gaara shrugs, which is as close to agreement as he gets.
Kankurou has to admit the guy is weird, with the legwarmers and bowl cut hair and massive eyebrows. What’s scarier is he looks suspiciously like the track coach. Curious, he slides up beside a dumb-looking blond kid from Leaf.
“That guy in legwarmers your friend?” “Yeah, that’s Lee! He was on my soccer team, but he kinda sucks at team sports, so they put him on track. He’s really good at running. Oh, I’m Naruto! Hey, you’re from Sand, right? What’s it like? Is it fun there?” Does he know how to shut up? Ignoring the previous barrage of questions, Kankurou fires back his own. “Is he related to the coach?” “Nope, but he was a latchkey kid and spent a lot of time with some of the teachers after school, and he and Guy-sensei get along really well. Oh, Sasuke and Sakura-chan are here. Gotta go!” The kid runs off like a rabbit on speed. No tact whatsoever. Typical public school garbage. Thinks Kankurou as he walks back to sit beside his brother. Informative, though.
Gaara sits on the sidelines under an umbrella despite the clear weather and reads House of Leaves, ignoring his brother’s attempts at conversation.
“Come on, Gaara. At least look at the guy Temari kept going on about!” Eyes darkened heavily with liner flick up to the figure in green shorts and orange legwarmers at the starting line.
The gun goes off. Lee doesn’t run, but flies and Gaara’s eyes follow. He wins the 500-meter dash with a good 3 meters on second place. He runs and jumps around, whooping excitedly until his track coach punches him in the shoulder.
“He may be a nutcase, but he’s damn fast,” Kankurou grudgingly admits and wanders off to wish Temari luck. Gaara looks away from that smiling face and decides he doesn’t like Lee on principal. He goes back to reading, ignoring the girls’ relay races. When somebody sits down beside him, Gaara assumes it’s Kankurou and keeps on reading. “Hi,” says an unfamiliar voice. The redhead starts and looks up to find the runner sitting beside him, grinning. “I’m Rock Lee.” Not sure how best to make him go away, Gaara answers, “Sabakuno Gaara,” before going back to his book. “You looked rather lonely, sitting up here by yourself. Are you with anyone?” “My brother and sister.” He doesn’t look up from his book. “Oh, are they in the race?” “She is,” replies Gaara, growing agitated. “Why are you talking to me?” Lee blinks. “I already told you—you looked lonely.” “I’m not. Go away.” He ignores Lee’s hurt face. “There’s plenty of people in the stands on the other side, but you’re over here and reading all by yourself. That sounds lonely to me!” Gaara just glares this time. It doesn’t work. “It won’t kill you to talk to somebody, you know.” He shoots upright and begins stomping down the bleachers, but a hand stops him from going too far. “Hey, that’s not very nice!” The younger boy snarls, jerks his hand away and pushes Lee, not caring that the track star tumbles down the remaining benches ‘til he hits the ground, not caring that people shout as he walks away.
Several hours later, grounded and still shaking from his father’s angry tirade, Gaara realizes he forgot his book.