Lee was broken. It looked as if his heart was as cracked and scarred as the porcelain skin of his hands. His pale face was drowned in tears and it felt as if they would never stop flowing. Perhaps the most tormenting thing to me was the fact that the boy just stood there, unmoving, rigid as tears freely fell. Perhaps I can understand what the boy if feeling, Gai was like a father to him, the only one he ever had, and I know how it feels to... Neji and Tenten still don't know. Lee was the first one, and will be the hardest one, for me to tell that Gai is dead.

"Lee..." I can't take the silence anymore.

The boy still doesn't move.

"Lee, I-I tried, we all did… Gai was close to me too. I'm sure that this would be the way that he would have wanted it….. In a mission……"

I…… I can't believe it…. Kakashi can't be telling the truth… That's not possible… This could not happen! Gai can't be… No! Don't think it! Don't say it! Don't make it true! It can't be true!

"Lee!"

In a blind flash, the boy bolts out of the room. Until the very last second, his face was expressionless, yet at the last moment… I've never seen such torment.

I take a step forward, but stop. There's no use in chasing after him. I'm not Gai, I can't console him. No one will ever replace him in that boy's life… no one.

I don't know what he'll do, but I have a feeling that it is not what Gai would have wanted…