Hi all! Well, it's a new year, and with it, a new story! I hope you all like it. There are a few OC's in the story, but they are not paired with any Naruto characters and they're necessary for the story. Hopefully, Matsuhara (the bad guy) isn't too creepy. He's definitely not a likeable character, but I'm hoping I wrote him well.

Now, on with the story!

Actually, there are no pairings between Naruto characters in this story either

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, but if I did, Lee would have kept his cute-as-heck flipped haircut and chinese clothing

"Gai-sensei?" A twelve-year-old Lee started as he leaped through the trees, sensei right beside him. They were taking a day off training today and were just taking a leisurely leap through the trees.

"Yes Lee?" Gai sensei answered, as he landed on a branch, then leaped forward.

"I really like spending time with you. Without Neji and Tenten, I mean." Lee paused for a few seconds and then continued. "Is this selfish of me?"

Gai thought a moment before replying. He knew that unlike Tenten and Neji, Lee had no one. He lived alone with no family to see about his wellbeing. It was really no wonder Lee liked to spend so much time with him."I don't really think so. When I'm not training you three, they always go off on their own anyway, so mostly it's just me and you either way. I don't think it's selfish of you to want to spend time with me."

Lee smiled shyly. He loved Gai-sensei, and if it was up to him, he'd spend all of his time with Gai. But he was realistic too, and knew that that wasn't possible. But still, he could dream. "Thank you, Gai-sensei."

A little while later, when they got close to Konoha again, Lee and Gai stopped and dropped to the ground.

"I'd like to get some yakiniku for lunch," Lee said to Gai. "Would you like to come with me?"

"Sure, Lee," Gai said. "But let me go get some money first. You go on ahead, I'll meet you there."

"Okay, Gai-sensei!" And Lee took off at a slow jog.

Gai turned and headed toward his apartment building.

Lee was jogging along, thinking about the delicious lunch he was about to have, when he heard a noise behind him. Stopping, and whipping out a kunai, he whirled around. He heard a the familiar poof of a ninja jutsuing in behind him, but before he could turn back around however, a hand holding a rag clamped over his mouth. Lee struggled for a few seconds, then everything went black.

Gai was headed toward the yakiniku restaurant, thoughts of a good meal on his mind, when he came across an object on the side of the road. A closer look revealed signs of a struggle and the object to be Lee's discarded weapons pouch. A feeling of dread lanced through his heart as he picked it up. Something had to have happened to Lee for his weapons pouch to just be lying out near the road like this.

He promptly forgot about his stomach, searching the area for Lee. He took the road that Lee would have taken to the restaurant, looking around for clues as to his whereabouts. When a search of the restaurant itself yielded nothing, he quickly headed for Kakashi's, pouch in hand.

The first thing Lee was aware of as he slowly regained consciousness, was that he was in a comfortable bed and that he was restrained. His hands and arms were free, but a peek under the blankets revealed his body to be chained from the waist all the way down to his ankles. Another chain tethered him to the steel foot railing of the bed.

Experimentally, he grabbed the part around his waist with both hands and pushed down to see if he could slip out. The chain didn't budge, too tightly was it locked around the boy's waist, and panic filled Lee's heart. Lee sat up and tugged at the chain tethering him to the bed, desperately trying to free himself.

Hearing a key in the lock of the door, he was instantly lying down again, feigning sleep in the hopes that his captor would go away.

The door creaked open and Lee forced himself to breathe evenly and calmly.

"I know you're awake, Little Teacup."

Lee opened his eyes to see a man with platinum-blonde hair, and grey eyes whom he recognized as Matsuhara-sensei from the academy. At least, he had worked as an instructor from the academy, but then inexplicably disappeared without even the smallest trace a few months before Lee's graduation. His eyes bugged out of their sockets.

"Matsuhara-sensei?..." Lee breathed as he sat up. Fear and wariness filled his heart and he swallowed. "What have... Why have you kidnapped me?"

"I haven't kidnapped you." Matsuhara said sweetly, sitting down on the bed, stroking Lee's flipped hair, letting his hand rest on Lee's shoulder. Lee wanted to shrug it off but was too polite to do so. "I've freed you."

"What do you mean?" Lee asked frowning in confusion.

"Put simply, you work too hard." he said to Lee, stroking the boy's hair again. "I've watched you ever since before you became a Genin. You work hard every day and night, trying to make yourself into the best ninja you can be, despite your disability."

"So? What's wrong with that?" Lee asked, getting annoyed despite his fear.

"With you being as disabled as you are, you'll never be a real ninja." Matsuhara said sympathetically. "All that work is a waste. The only reason you were able to graduate from the academy, was because you got good grades in the non-shinobi subjects."

"That's not true! I can become a good ninja with only taijutsu! Gai-sensei said so!" Lee nearly shouted, anger rising.

"Even so, you have severe limits." Matsuhara said as calmly as ever. "Gai-sensei can only help you so much."

"That's... not true..." Lee repeated, but sadness began to replace the anger.

"Why not make things easier for yourself, and stop trying." He said, more sympathy in his voice. His hand rested once more on Lee's shoulder. "Civilian life would be better for someone like you."

"I'll never stop trying." Lee ground out, and this time he did shrug off the older man's hand. "Let me out of here."

"Oh, I couldn't possibly do that." Matsuhara purred sweetly. "You need rest and relaxation and you need to realize that what you want is unattainable. If I let you go, you'll only work yourself to exhaustion again for an impossible dream."

"It's not an impossible dream. Gai-sensei believes in me." Lee scowled. "Let me go."

"It doesn't matter how much Gai-sensei believes in you. You'll never be a true ninja."

"I will!" Lee shouted, tugging at the unyielding chain once more.

"If you were a real shinobi, you wouldn't have to beg me to free you." Matsuhara taunted. "These are just normal chains, not even the chakra depleting kind, and you still can't free yourself. Make things easier on yourself. Give up and stop trying to be something you'll never be."

Lee wanted to punch the man, tell him to shut up, but something inside of him taunted, You know he's right. No matter how hard you work, no matter how determined you are, you'll never be a true ninja. Tears leaked their way out of Lee's eyes before he could stop them. "Why does it matter to you so much what I do?"

"I'm trying to spare you from being hurt by your own failure." He rested his hand on Lee's. Lee pulled away again. "How would you feel if you put in all that hard work, only to find out years later that it was all for nothing?"

"Can't I learn that on my own?" Lee said sniffing, looking down at his hands. Hands that were strong, but not quite strong enough to snap a chain yet. He looked up with determination. "You can't keep me locked up in here! I'll find some way to get out!"

"You just keep telling yourself that, Little Teacup." Matsuhara said as he patted Lee on the head, then got up off the bed. "I'll be back later with some grub. Think about what I said until then."

Lee narrowed his eyes. "My name is Lee! And I'm not hungry." A loud rumble escaped Lee's belly. Lee looked away with a scowl.

"Whatever you say, Little Teacup." And the door closed behind Matsuhara.

Hearing the sound of the door being locked, Lee finally began to take stock of his surroundings. The room was small and sparsely furnished. Besides the bed, there was a nightstand with a lamp and TV remote on it, a TV stand with a small television on it across from the bed, and a chest of drawers beside the closet. The window was barred, and the outside shutters were closed. From what he could tell by the little bit of light coming through the crack, it was late afternoon, early evening or so.

Lee reached over to the nightstand and pulled open the drawer, looking for something, anything he could pick the locks with. Finding nothing, he then looked for a file or anything to saw through the chains with. Nothing. He held back tears as he tried to squeeze out of the tight chains again.

He was hungry too. Very hungry. He only now realized that he had missed having lunch at the yakiniku place. Lunch with Gai-sensei. Lee wondered would Gai-sensei be able to find him. Then he remembered that Gai had Kakashi and Neji as allies, so it shouldn't take them long to rescue him. Meanwhile though, Lee felt that he should try to do something to help himself. But what? He was chained to this bed, then there was the question of the locked door and barred window. If only he still had his weapons pouch. Something in it could help him with his escape.

The chains binding his legs together were uncomfortable, and it was all he could do to keep holding back his tears at the situation he was in. Now was definitely not the time to cry.

Earlier That Day...

A frantic knock sounded on Kakashi's door, interrupting his reading. Sighing, he put down his book and went to see who was at the door.

As soon as the door opened, a strickened Gai rushed in, and by the look on his face, something must have happened to Lee.

"Kakashi! You have to help me!" Gai shouted, almost hysterically. "Someone's kidnapped Lee!"

"Whoa. Whoa. Calm down, and explain to me what happened." Kakashi told him as he closed the door and led Gai to the sofa.

Gai told Kakashi about the discarded pouch, the signs of a struggle, and the fact that Lee was nowhere to be found. "I even checked the restaurant where we were going to meet. Nothing." Gai tried to remain as calm as Kakashi, but every minute his precious Lee went missing, was another minute that Lee may no longer be alive.

"I would ask if you'd checked his apartment and all his usual hangouts, but you did say there were signs of a struggle around the area." Kakashi said calmly, thinking about how they might best go about finding Lee. "We should go back to that area, and see if we can discover anything that might lead to his whereabouts."

Gai took a few deep breaths to try to calm his frazzled nerves. It helped. A little. "Okay."

"There definitely are signs of a struggle here." Kakashi said as he and Gai examined the ground, some shrubbery, and weeds beside the road. Kakashi then summoned Pakkun. The dog sniffed around the area for a long while and the weapons pouch, trying to pick up a scent, any scent. After several minutes, Pakkun sat, looking up at the two men.

"I can't pick up a human scent at all. Not even Lee's" he said. "If I didn't know better, I would say this is the work of Matsuhara Gorou. But then, he's the only person I know of who's capable of snuffing out his and Lee's scents in this way."

"Matsuhara Gorou..." Gai let the name roll off his tongue with disgust. "He hasn't been heard from since he disappeared nearly a year ago. He never did approve of Lee trying to be a shinobi. Thought that all his hard work was for nothing. But if it is him, why would he abduct Lee? Lee's done nothing to him."

"If we can find him, maybe we can get some answers out of him." Kakashi stated.

Pakkun stood. "Sorry that I couldn't be of much help this time. If you stumble across any more clues, let me know. Well, I'm off." And with that, he disappeared in a poof of smoke.

"Well, they can't have gone far." Kakashi sighed. "We'll just have to form search parties and search the area and further out until they're found."

Gai's heart twisted into knots of worry for Lee's wellbeing, and anger at his kidnapper. He'd find Lee if he had to die trying.

As hungry as Lee was, he was barely able to stomach what passed for dinner in his kidnapper's house. In front of him was a small bowl of beans, quite a bit on the burnt side, and a stale smelling cheese sandwich. The only thing he had to drink was a glass of water.

He tried picking out the burned bits of the beans before eating them, then he took a bite of the cheese sandwich. He grimaced, putting it down, determined not to touch it again. Drinking the water, he then put the bedtable on the floor, and lay down again.

Gai-sensei must be worried sick about him. He wondered whether or not there was a way to let Gai know where he was. Tears leaked unbidden from his eyes as he thought of the worry he must be causing his sensei.

His head whirled around at the sound of the door being unlocked. He quickly dried his eyes on his sleeve as the door opened. Matsuhara looked down at the food still on the tray. He scowled.

"What is this? I thought you were hungry!" he said. Lee's stomach answered him with another loud rumble. "Children should not waste good food." When Lee didn't answer, he shrugged. "It doesn't matter. You can finish it in the morning."

"Can't I have something else?" Lee asked, hoping that the man would agree to it. "The beans were burned and the cheese sandwich was stale."

Matsuhara scowled at Lee for a second, then picked up the tray. "Picky kid. You're lucky I care so much about you. Otherwise you would still have this for breakfast." Then he walked out of the room, locking the door once more behind him.

While he was gone, Lee peered at the chains holding him captive. If he could just break them, or pick the locks somehow, he could be free and out of here faster than he could say his own name. He lay down again, arms stretched out on either side of him.

Gazing up at the ceiling, he thought again about Gai-sensei, and his teammates. He wondered whether Tenten and Neji were worried about him? Then he thought, maybe not Neji, but Tenten definitely.

He was bored, and his legs throbbed with a dull ache from the lack of physical activity. He stretched them, hoping to relieve some of the pain. It helped, a little, but still they longed to jump, run, kick. He sighed, turning onto his side. He knew Gai-sensei would come to his aid, as soon as he found Lee. But chances were, he most likely had no clue as to where Lee was. Lee certainly didn't. And he knew that Matsuhara could eliminate any traces of his and other's scents, so employing dogs would be useless.

His captor had most likely taken him far away from Konoha, so his chances of being found were probably next to none. Lee shook his head. He would be found. It was just a matter of time.

He heard the key in the lock again after a while and he sat up. Matsuhara brought in a tray of fish and some rice, and set it down over Lee's bound legs. "Perhaps this will be more to your liking?" he said mockingly.

Lee tasted the food. At least the fish tasted fresh, and the rice was fluffy and sticky with just the right amount of salt. Lee nodded his approval, tucking into the food with gusto.

"Children should say thank you when given something." Matsuhara said, growing annoyed.

Afraid that the man would take away his food if he didn't say it, Lee quickly gave him a grateful, "Thank you for the food." before resuming eating.

"That's better." He sat and watched Lee as the boy ate, not wanting him to waste anything.

Lee finished his food quietly, trying not to let it outwardly show just how uncomfortable he was.

Matsuhara grabbed the remote, pressed a button, and the TV flickered to life. He turned to a station playing some cartoons. "It's 18:00 hours right now. You can stay up for another hour, then it's bedtime."

Lee gaped at Matsuhara in complete disbelief. He hadn't gone to bed this early since he was at least five or so. When he regained his composure, he asked, "Why so early? Gai-sensei never makes me go to bed that early."

"Gai-sensei is wrong. Children need to sleep to be healthy. Get it early, and lots of it. He doesn't treat you as a normal child. As long as you're here with me, you'll be treated as normal."

Lee moved his bed tray and threw the blankets off of his bound legs, exposing them for Matsuhara to clearly see. "What part of restraining me and chaining me to a bed is normal?"

"That's for your own protection and good." Matsuhara began. "I already explained to you earlier."

In the same tone Matsuhara would have used, Lee said, "Children need freedom to move around and be active."

Matsuhara closed his eyes, frowning, and pinching the bridge of his nose. Lee was right, but unchaining the boy completely would give him a chance to escape. "If you can behave like the good boy I know you can be, I'll consider unchaining you from the bed at least. Not tonight though. You need your sleep. Lie down." He ordered. Lee did as he was told, half-afraid the man would force him down if he didn't. Matsuhara picked up the tray from Lee's bed, covered Lee again with the blankets, then took the tray from the room.

When Lee heard the footsteps recede, he sat up again, ignoring the cartoons, and worked on the chain again trying to get it to break. He kept this up for the next hour until he could hear the footsteps coming back toward the room. He lay back down on his side.

"I know you've been up, trying to figure out a way to escape." Matsuhara said knowingly. "It's not gonna happen."

"Why shouldn't I try to escape?" Lee asked angrily. "You kidnapped me! I'm not here by choice. I want to go home!" Lee tried hard to keep the tears at bay, but one slipped out unbidden. He quickly wiped it away.

"This is your home now." Matsuhara said, near the end of his patience. "Try to understand that."

Lee sighed sadly. There was just no reasoning with this man. The only way he was going to get out of here was if he could somehow escape or someone came and rescued him.

It usually wasn't in Lee to be rude, but right now, he didn't care. He rolled over onto his stomach, turning his face away. "If you're not going to let me go, just go away and leave me alone."

Matsuhara stared at the back of Lee's head for a moment, then he turned off the TV with the remote, walked over to the door, and turning out the light, left the room without a word.

Matsuhara sat at his desk, head down, fingers in his platinum-blonde hair.

Why couldn't Lee see? Why couldn't Lee understand? This was the best way. Lee could never be a proper shinobi, so to work so hard to try to fulfill his impossible dream was useless. Couldn't he see?

He had had to abduct Lee and chain him to the bed. It was really for his own good. Lee may not like it, but it was for his own good, like keeping a cat indoors to keep her from getting hurt or killed. This kept Lee from hurting himself physically and, later down the line, mentally and emotionally.

He had to see about Lee's wellbeing, because no one else was going to. Gai was a terrible sensei, in his eyes, telling Lee he could still pursue his dream despite his severe disability. A child simply couldn't have such a disability and still be a shinobi, and the sooner Lee realized that, the better.