Wedding presents, full throttle!
If you asked people about ‘the hidden villages of s.h.i.+n.o.bi’, then you’d find a large number of citizens –the kind with no love for s.h.i.+n.o.bi or their homes– who imagined those hidden villages as small towns enclosed by mountains on all sides.
Surely, those citizens would say, hidden villages are completely cut off from the outside world, isolated completely from everyone else. A sort of ‘floating island in the sea’, backwards and underdeveloped.
Definitely, they’d say, a hidden village is a place that normal people would be idiots to want to visit, and on top of that, somewhere you could only find with great difficulty. A ‘hidden s.h.i.+n.o.bi village’ absolutely had to be that kind of place.
That was what a lot of people thought.
However, the reality was very different.
Konoha had a very well-known monument at its entrance, the *“AUN Gate”.
If any normal person entered Konoha for the first time, they’d be dumbfounded by the sight that greeted them past the gate: a giant, sprawling village that was overflowing with activity and populous.
The village was constantly maintained and developing, and it was in no way limited to just the residential areas of the villagers. There were schools, hospitals, various shopping centres, and even recreational areas. There was everything a person needed to live their life to the fullest.
Absolutely every possible establishment could be found in the village centre alone. Konoha’s sheer size was to the point that if you called it a ‘city-state’, you wouldn’t be far off.
You could live your whole life never taking one step outside Konoha’s borders, and never want for anything, never lack any sort of comfort. And this very metropolis was nestled within the depths of a forest.
That was what the village of Konohagakure really was: a huge city that suddenly materialised within a forest.
There wasn’t a single s.h.i.+n.o.bi who felt the slightest bit dissatisfied with a village like that.
Konoha had originally been a gathering of several s.h.i.+n.o.bi and their clans, but when a group of people lived somewhere, they naturally end up wanting places that would make them food. And of course, after that there was the demand for stores that would sell daily necessities too. Following that logic, it was natural that another group of people would come into the equation: merchants with an eye on the village full of customers.
So it came to pa.s.s that a group of non-s.h.i.+n.o.bi –of sellers and crafters who wanted to take the s.h.i.+n.o.bi on as customers– would end up moving to live close to the s.h.i.+n.o.bi’s settlements.
And in the same way that s.h.i.+n.o.bi had clans and families, the sellers and workers didn’t just come to the village all by themselves either. They brought along their clans and families too.
There were a lot of normal people who moved to the village along with their family for the sake of trade, as well as people who were originally s.h.i.+n.o.bi but were now taking up different professions. There were also those who thought to themselves, ‘I don’t come from a clan of s.h.i.+n.o.bi, but I want to send my child to the Ninja Academy’ and moved to the village with that intent.
s.h.i.+n.o.bi households, merchant households, crafters households…many, many different people from varying backgrounds and professions all came to live together in the village.
And as the moon waned, and the months and years pa.s.sed, it was with those people that the settlement became the large metropolis that it was today.
And that huge village, even now, was still continuing to grow and advance.
Konoha’s great size made it so that circling around the entire village even once would be a tremendous effort. Going that kind of distance could even end up breaking your bones.
And yet, for a while now, someone had been running round and round the village of Konoha.
That someone was Rock Lee.
Dawn hadn’t even broken yet, and he was staggering as he ran around the village, with a face that looked like he could die any moment.
Why, exactly, was he running around by himself at this hour of night, when all the villagers and s.h.i.+n.o.bi without missions were soundly asleep?
It wasn’t for any particular secret training. As a matter of fact, Lee wasn’t even running because he felt like he wanted to run. If he could, then Lee would have dearly liked to go back home and sleep. However, he had a certain circ.u.mstance that meant he couldn’t do that.
Everything had started about half a day earlier…
On that day, the Sixth Hokage Hatake Kakas.h.i.+ proclaimed a certain, special mission to those within Konoha.
It was a secret operation that Uzumaki Naruto and his fiancée Hyuuga Hinata absolutely could not find about. Cleary stated:
“All those who will attend Naruto and Hinata’s upcoming wedding must bring wedding gifts.”
A ridiculous mission, isn’t it? It was something that everyone would likely have ended up doing anyway.
You’d rightly a.s.sume that among the wedding guests there were people who had already bought wedding presents, or made preparations for them.
However, most of Naruto and Hinata’s friends were as young as they were. Most of them either hadn’t ever attended a wedding before, or were attending a close friend’s wedding for the first time.
It was likely for the sake of that majority of inexperienced wedding guests, that Kakas.h.i.+ had given this task a mission status.
After all, while he looked quiet and calm on the surface, Kakas.h.i.+ was a man with a sense of humour. This ‘top secret mission’ of his was something that fit his style.
That being said, there was someone among the wedding guests who had taken the words ‘top secret mission’ completely at face value. Someone who had received the mission proclamation with far more pa.s.sion than anyone else.
That someone was, of course, Konoha’s self-proclaimed Beautiful Green Wild Beast: Rock Lee.
“I will repay Naruto-kun’s friends.h.i.+p by putting my whole body and mind into finding the best wedding gift!” Lee had declared to Kakas.h.i.+, and then taken off running into the distance.
Lee was someone who firmly believed that you could come up with a lot of ideas during training. His personality wasn’t that of someone who would think while sitting still. ‘Moving my body will help me think better’ was what he had thought.
However…
Le had run and run around the huge village countless times, but he hadn’t been able to think up any ideas.
Well, to be more accurate, he had thought of one thing.
Somewhere around his second run around the village, the word ‘dumbbell’ had popped into Lee’s mind
But, that was ridiculous. Even Lee knew that n.o.body would ever bring dumbbells as a congratulatory gift to a wedding. Thus, his only idea had been rejected immediately.
And although he’d kept running and running, since then, Lee hadn’t thought of any other ideas, let alone a good one.
It had to be a present that n.o.body else would bring, something that spoke of his own character as well… a gift that expressed his heart…a gift that would be received with pleasure, the best gift ever…
But no matter how much he thought and thought, the right answer just wouldn’t come.
“The bonds between myself and Naruto should be better than this…!” Lee had muttered to himself as he ran.
He came to a resolution:
Until he thought of a gift, he wasn’t going to stop running!
His heart was set on it. Lee’s “Personal Rule” was in motion.
That ‘Personal Rule’ of Lee’s had been brought into existence for the sake of bettering his mind and body through training. The rule was this: once Lee decided he was going to do something, then even if it looked like the world was going to crumble and disappear tomorrow, he would still see it through to the end. It was a principle he stuck to with overwhelming devotion.
Until he could think of a nice present besides dumbbells, Lee would run endlessly if he had to.
By the way, Lee wasn’t counting just running around the village border as ‘one run’.
The same way one goes back and forth around a room when they’re wiping its floors- with such an example, it’s easy to imagine the scene, isn’t it? For Lee, ‘one run’ around the village meant running through the entire village, every nook and cranny and road that the village had. It was a very simple-minded way of counting.
Of course, that meant that Lee’s path also included jumping over fences, hopping from tree to tree, and running over the roofs of closely packed houses. It wasn’t anything out of the ordinary, for a s.h.i.+n.o.bi to take unusual paths like this through the hidden village. In fact, it was incredibly common, so much that the normal citizens no longer took notice of it.
So there wouldn’t be any landlords complaining about Lee running over the roofs. At most, one person would maybe send one complaint in the morning: “Some man with thick eyebrows was yelling ‘KUUAAA’ as he ran across our roof at dawn, he was really very noisy.”
And so, under the watchful eyes of the previous Hokage’s faces all carved into the mountain overlooking Konoha, Lee jumped and ran and leaped all across the village.
He kept that up the whole night without a single new idea occurring to him.
And that is how Lee found himself greeting a new day’s dawn without a single wink of sleep.
At this time, the light of sunrise was now reaching out to touch the carved stone faces on the Hokage Monument that stood in the city centre of Konoha.
“Eight…hundred…and sixty…four…”
Lee’s breathing was coming out in hoa.r.s.e wheezes and puffs as he gasped out that number.
His running had deteriorated to a delirious staggering, to the point where anyone walking would be faster than him.
He had finally reached his limit.
Lee’s legs buckled from underneath him, as he helplessly pitched forward and collapsed. He didn’t even have the strength to try and soften his landing, falling straight onto the ground with a sudden thud.
Lee lay unmoving on the ground, face down in the dirt, and wondered where he had gone wrong.
First, there was the idea that his mind would clear if he moved his body. Had he been wrong about that? No, that wasn’t possible. It wasn’t wrong. Lee quickly rejected that thought.
Then, was it that idea to do a handstand run in the middle of his run around? He had thought it would help give him a different perspective to think from, but had that been a bad idea? No, sometimes you needed to do audacious things to produce new ideas. Not to mention doing one handstand run around the village was part of his normal training schedule. That couldn’t have been where he went wrong either.
Could it have been that uncommon method he’d tried of running backwards? No, that was a perfectly fine method of exercise.
He had done absolutely nothing wrong.
But then, in that case, why had he been unable to think of anything…?
Lee gazed numbly at the ground in front of him. His body had been burning hot just a while ago, but it was now getting cold in the chilly morning air. The sweat covering his body turned freezing cold, and Lee’s body started s.h.i.+vering. But he’d exerted every single muscle in his body past the point of caution, and no longer had the energy to get up.
Even though it’s for a dear friend, even though I said I’d put my heart into getting a wedding present. To think that I haven’t been able to come up with one good idea. Why am I so incompetent…?
Lee squeezed his eyes tightly shut, angry with himself for being such a disappointment.
However, he couldn’t just let things end by saying he was incompetent and useless. He had decided to find a worthy gift even if he had to put his life at stake, so he couldn’t possibly just stop and give up here.
The fatigued and exhausted Lee let his eyes snap open again, flames of determination burning within them once more.
However, once he opened his eyes, Lee came to realise something:
Someone was standing in front of him.
When had that happened? There was a pair of legs in Lee’s vision, with a familiar looking uniform. Lee was surprised that he hadn’t noticed the person until now. They seemed to be watching him.
Lee slowly raised himself off the ground, and looked up. To see. That person.
“Neji…” Lee quietly murmured.
Maybe he was an illusion or maybe he was a ghost, but there he stood: his deceased friend, Hyuuga Neji.
“Running without a break until you collapse.” Neji said, watching him with his usual calm gaze. “You’re still the same as ever, Lee.”
Lee had no words.
There were hundreds upon hundreds of things Lee wanted to tell Neji the next time they met. But with Neji in front of him, he found himself miserably unable to make a single sound.
But even if he didn’t say anything, Neji understood it all.
For some reason or another, that was the thought that entered Lee’s mind as he looked up at Neji’s always all-knowing eyes.
Neji crouched down next to Lee.
“There’s something that I really have to tell you…” Neji said, putting a kind hand on Lee’s shoulder.
Neji’s hand felt warm and encouraging. Lee suddenly thought it was likely that Neji had appeared because he was concerned over how much Lee had been pus.h.i.+ng himself.
“Neji…I…”
“I know. No need to say it.” Neji smiled, his long hair swaying slightly. “Lee, remember this well. More than stamina… physical strength. And, the Hyuuga…”
Neji paused. It was unclear whether he was finished with what he was saying or not. His figure got wrapped up in the morning mist, and disappeared.
“….eh?”
The wind was blowing swiftly, rustling the nearby trees and pulling away the morning mist.
“Eh– wait– Neji…? Neji?!”
Lee looked left and right, desperately searching his surroundings, but the only thing that met Lee’s bewildered voice was the morning silence.
“EEH?! We-weren’t you going to give me some advice about the wedding presents I’ve been so frantic about…? Isn’t that why you appeared? NEJIIIIIII?!”
“NEJIIIIIII?!” Lee got up with a start as he shouted for his friend.
It was now morning. Pretty early on, but late enough that the majority of people had already woken up and started preparing to greet the new day.
Lee dazedly looked around, trying to take stock of his current situation. Somehow, it looked like he’d fallen asleep right in the middle of a road. It was a good thing that he hadn’t pa.s.sed out on the village boarder.
“So it was…a dream…” Lee murmured to himself, his mouth dry and parched for water.
A short, fleeting dream.
Lee sat numbly on the road, and hung his head.
Neji’s death had been a long time ago. A handful of years had already pa.s.sed.
But even now, Lee still occasionally saw Neji in his dreams. They usually came in those hastily taken naps in the middle of an extremely difficult mission, or when Lee was having a hard time thinking over something.
But only occasionally. Most of the time, no matter how much Lee wanted to see him, Neji wouldn’t appear.
When Neji did appear, Lee’s dreams were usually about going through vigorous training with Neji, or heading out on a dangerous mission with Neji, the two of them together against harsh odds.
There had been very few dreams were Lee could actually face Neji and talk to him.
Most of his dreams were about things that had already happened. Training, or fighting against an enemy, or strategizing on a mission. It would be Neji calmly talking about ond strategy or another, and Lee standing next to him, listening intently.
Whenever Lee woke up from those dreams, phrases would spill out of his lips.
‘Let’s make a more dynamic frontal a.s.sault!’ or ‘I’ll go out in the front, so please watch out for our surroundings!’.
All things he couldn’t say to Neji inside his dreams.
If I said this to Neji, what sort of a face would he make? How would he reply?
Lately, it was getting harder and harder to imagine how Neji would have reacted.
Lee was terribly, keenly aware of that fact.
A strong voice suddenly rushed out at Lee’s slumped back.
“Lee, that’s some nice youth you’ve got this early in the morning!”
Lee looked over his shoulder to see a man behind him, smiling widely so the white of his teeth showed, his hand raised in a thumbs up.
It was his teacher of spirit, Might Guy.
However…
“Ga-Gai sensei…”
Lee found himself at a loss for words. The reason was that Gai, who had been restricted to living his life in a wheelchair, had somehow gotten himself and his wheelchair onto the roof of a nearby toolshed.
During the Fourth s.h.i.+n.o.bi World War, Gai had put his life at stake during his battle with Uchiha Madara, and opened the Eight Gates. His life at least had been saved thanks to Naruto, however his right leg had lost its ability to function.
From that day onwards, Gai had lived his life in a wheelchair. However, he hadn’t changed his hot-blooded ways, carving the word ‘youth’ onto the cast on his right leg, and still encouraging and guiding Lee as he always did.
Lee had been stunned speechless because he couldn’t fathom how his teacher had possibly managed to get onto the toolshed’s roof with his wheelchair.
Suddenly-
“TOU!” Gai gave a great battle cry, launching himself and the wheelchair off the shed’s roof.
He somehow managed to angle the wheelchair for a smooth landing, if with a very loud BANG.
Lee rushed over to his sensei, fl.u.s.tered and worried.
“Sensei, that was very dangerous! Why would you want to do something like that…”
“There has to be a great number of people in the world who think you can’t fly in a wheelchair! So I’ve decided to prove them wrong with my own body.” Gai spoke of such a terrifying notion with incredible ease and calm.
Such a feat would’ve been absolutely impossible for anyone else, anyone who didn’t have Gai’s exceptional control over his body and fit physical state.
“Everyone in the village, Kakas.h.i.+ and Ebisu and Genma too, they still treat me like a s.h.i.+n.o.bi. That makes me happy. Even though I should’ve retired long ago… So, because of that, I’ve decided to keep on proving the impossible to be possible, and show my usual self to you guys!” Gai said, giving his Nice Guy Pose. “That’s my youth, after all!”
Gai’s words deeply touched Lee’s heart. They had always been like that. When Lee was suffering, when he was in pain, when his heart felt like it was going to break into pieces, every single one of Gai’s words had saved him, time and time again.
Even now, Lee took courage from hearing Gai’s words.
He wanted to someday become a magnificent man like Gai. He wanted to become a man who would warmly encourage another lost and confused soul like himself.
That was a dream Lee held onto even when he was awake.
“By the way, Gai-sensei, what are you doing here?” The question suddenly occurred to Lee, and Gai replied with light chatter.
“My morning training of course. I thought that I’d spend today travelling back and forth all around the village. How about it Lee, would you like to join me?”
“Thank you, I’ve already done such training.”
“Impressive. However, the matter that’s bothering you still hasn’t been settled, has it?”
Lee’s eyes opened wide in surprise at Gai’s sharp observation.
“Ho- How did you know?!”
“It only took one glance at you to realise you’d spent all night training and worrying about something. How many years do you think I’ve been spending youthful time with you? That’s why from the very start I said to you ‘nice youth this early in the morning’.”
It was only after Gai said that that Lee realised how awful he looked. He was covered in mud, and absolutely unsightly in appearance. He had stumbled a few times in his fatigue, falling and rolling on the ground. It was all the dirt left over from those runarounds.
“And it’s very likely that you’re concerned over the matter of wedding gifts, isn’t that right?”
Lee got panicked by Gai’s even shrewder question.
“Gai-sensei, can you read my mind?!”
“No, it’s because I’m invited to the wedding as well…”
Gai was concerned over the wedding gifts too.
All would be well as long as the wedding present wasn’t ordinary.
However, the problem lay in making sure the present wasn’t too strange, either.
Wasn’t there a wedding present that combined the feelings he wanted to convey, something that radiated the feelings of victory, friends.h.i.+p and hard work?
Lee and Gai were both racking their brains for an answer.
What kind of a present would embody the pa.s.sion of youth?
Was there really any such present in this world?
Well if anything represented youth, it would be how they both wore their smart looking tight green jumpsuits.
When you said ‘burning youth’ the first things to come to mind would be sweat and tears, right?
Could sweat and tears be turned into a gift somehow? No?
To begin with, people were living off nothing but will power, weren’t they?
What kind of curry was better, bland or extra spicy?
Their conversation reached its climax.
“No, after all,” Lee heatedly said, “The me of today definitely thinks that Curry Pilaf is better-“
“Wait, hold on Lee.” Gai held out a hand and interrupted him. “We’ve gone off subject too much. In matters like this, one must concentrate. We should retrace our steps back to the root of this conversation.”
“So we should return, to the root…?”
“Yeah, originally, this problem of a wedding presents is all about the wedding itself, right?”
Somehow their conversation had turned too philosophical.
When Lee failed to contribute more to the talk, Gai asked another question.
“Let’s think about it like this: what is the one thing that you absolutely must bring to a wedding?”
Lee’s gaze focused as he thought seriously about it.
What was a wedding? Something necessary for a wedding…
A wedding was a ceremony where two people who loved each other became husband and wife. In that case, something absolutely essential to that ceremony would be-
“It’s…love…” Lee said, looking straight at Gai despite being somewhat embarra.s.sed at the subject. “That’s what’s necessary isn’t it?”
“That’s very poetic. But Lee, wouldn’t the answer be the bride and groom?”
Lee felt like lightning had hit him along with Gai’s words. His entire body stiffened like he’d just been hit with a lightning release jutsu. Unconsciously, a loud “AHH!” leaked out of his mouth.
“Th- that’s right…!” Lee said, “If the bride and groom aren’t there, there can be no wedding ceremony…!”
“Right? A wedding ceremony without the bride and groom would just be a plain ceremony, not a wedding. A useless ceremony without any meaning!”
Lee had been blind.
Gai may have seemed like an impulsive and clumsy person, but he really was a thoughtful person. He had the ability to see beyond the surface and into the root of the matter. For Lee, that had always been something about Gai that he looked up to and aspired to also do.
“In that case, we need to think about this from the perspective of the bride and groom, and bring gifts that they would be happy to receive. That would be best, wouldn’t it?”
“Exactly.” Gai said. “Yosh, then I’ll think up a present for the groom! Lee, you think up one for the bride!”
“Roger, Gai-sensei!”
“Let’s think about this not from our perspective as the givers, but from their perspective as the receivers…!”
The two men faced each other with their bowl cut hair and bushy eyebrows, and clasped each other’s hands, thinking seriously about the matter. It was quite a spectacle in the early morning.
Lee was desperately trying to think from the bride’s point of view.
If I was a bride, then…I’d be dressed up in the bridal clothes and going to my wedding… And after that…
Wedding, childbirth, housework, nursing…
Words and images flashed across Lee’s mind in successive order.
Going s.h.i.+pping with the baby in my arms.
Keeping an eye on the baby as I clean its room.
Carrying the baby on my back as I open the Seventh of the Eight Gates…the Gate of Shock!
Having a baby is a surprisingly serious matter.
To raise and look after a child, then undoubtedly, you need both physical and economical strength, right?
In that instance, an image entered Lee’s mind. He could imagine Hinata tenderly holding a child, and Naruto gazing at the both of them.
And suddenly Lee realised that this whole time he had been thinking only of what to give Naruto as a wedding gift. It was only deliberately trying to think of the bride’s feelings that let him realise that. A wedding wasn’t something you did by yourself.
That said, the best gift for someone who would eventually be a mother–
Lee, remember this well. More than stamina… physical strength…
Neji’s words from that dream came to mind.
I finally understand Neji. You were worried about Hinata, weren’t you?
Lee nodded to himself, and then…
“I know what it is…!” Lee peacefully said. “To protect one’s house and family, physical strength is needed…And on top of that, the highest possible level!”
Gai nodded, answered as well. “Right now, I thought all the work that goes into fixing up faults around the house. Pest control and plumbing and carrying groceries. One must skilfully develop their arm muscles for such tasks…In that case, the answer we both came up with must be the same. The gifts that we should bestow are…” Gai grinned at Lee with delight.
“…Dumbbells!”
Lee became aware of a tear leaking out his eye.
“I too…” Lee sniffed. “Right from the start…from my second round across the village…I thought of that as well…!”
Tears were rolling uncontrollably down Lee’s face now.
“Gai sensei! Gai senseeeeeeeeiii!” Lee sobbed, and threw himself to embrace his teacher.
Lee was ecstatic. His thoughts had not been wrong. His sensei had approved his idea. His joy was pure and simple.
Gai was crying too. As tears leaked out his cheeks, he tightened the hug. “Lee! You get the dumbbell for the right arm, and I’ll get the dumbbell for the leeeeeeeeeeeft!”
Gai yelled the up towards the heavens. “UOOOO! I’LL GET THE LEFT DUMBBEEEEEEEELLLLLLL!!”
For a long time, the two clung to each other and cried.
Thanks to Gai, Lee had finally found a wedding present that suited his feelings for the couple. His heart felt light and clear.
Very soon after their revelation, the two had gone to buy dumb bells straight away. The merchant was very surprised to sell two dumb bells so early in the morning.
Please have a look at this, Neji. I’ll show you the wedding present I got. These dumbbells…!
Gai grinned at the strong look in Lee’s eyes.
“Lee, with this our preparations for the wedding are fully complete!”
“Yes! These weights we carry…they will definitely be the best wedding presents!”
“Yosh, let’s have a race while holding onto them then! Here we goooooooooo!”
The minute those words left Gai’s mouth, he started fervently turning the tyres on his wheelchair, zooming ahead of Lee in a sudden gust of dirt and wind.
Lee was left staring at the slowly disappearing sight of his Sensei’s back in the wheelchair.
“Wait for me please, sensei!!”
Today as well, Konohagakure was full of a very youthful sort of weather.
On that note…
Afterwards, Kakas.h.i.+ did in fact receive several complaints, all along the same lines:
“Early in the morning, two strange men were crying and screaming about something behind my house. So noisy!”
* No, that’s not a typo. The A-N written on Konoha’s gates does sound like aun, which is, not-coincidently, the sound you make when you open your mouth to eat or yawn. Besides that awesome punnage, in j.a.panese culture, ‘a’ and ‘n’ are the first and last sounds of the Universe, so the gates also carry the symbolism of marking Konoha as a sort of sanctuary.