Title: Shi No Hana 死の花

Summary: Death is just getting out of one car and getting into another. My name is Haruno Sakiko, and I shouldn't exist. Rock Lee/OC, AU, Self-Insert.

Disclaimer: Kishimoto owns Naruto, not me.

Chapter Four

"Sakikooo" Lee whined, dismissing honorifics, and wincing when she hissed, pulling a few of her pink curls gently out "We should tell Mizuki-Sensei! And you need to see the school medic!"

After efficiently taking out her rage on Tenten, a very hurt Sakiko had rushed outside, furious, heading to where she spotted her favorite Green Beast to give him her lunch since the contents of his had spilled out onto the floor when she'd been attacked. She was mad that she had to explain herself. She was mad that her head really hurt. It made her feel like she wouldn't be able to take a real hit as a ninja. She was mad that a canon character had been so affected by her mere existence that she became a civilian-like school yard bully. She was mad that she was surrounded by children who thought they were above her, a grown fucking woman.

Basically, Sakiko was pretty frustrated with life.

The two were sat under (ironically) a cherry blossom tree, Lee claiming he picked it because it reminded him of her 'infinite beauty.' Sakiko had unwrapped the ninja wire and band holding up her thick pink locks, allowing them to splay across her back, but a large portion in the middle of the back of her head was mussed and curled around a bloodied indent from where that damn sealed chest stabbed at her. Lee watched with an open mouth, his fists curled at his side, mouth pursed tightly.

"You're sweet" she sighed, like always did, her entire chest expanding and then falling with the exhausted sound "please just help me cover this up until my Kaa-San can heal it."

Lee was right, he knew it, she knew it, but despite his want to argue her on the behalf of her well being, he also wanted to be the perfect friend. At eight years old, he had a small fear of losing her to all the other kids their age, or just plain her being stronger than him and leaving him behind as a hindrance. Lee knew that he could beat her in a spar, after all, he was the one who taught her taijutsu in the first place, but Sakiko was smart. Like, Nara smart. He noticed in the small things, and over time, even observed that if he brought up her intelligence, she would frown. As if to say: You caught that? You weren't supposed to. As if she didn't want people knowing her true IQ.

He had no doubt that with little to no disadvantages as an all around average Kunoichi, Sakiko could and would grow under Konoha's tutelage to become a very powerful Shinobi of The Leaf. She could really specialize in anything she wanted, he believed, which was more than Lee could say for himself.

And so the pair set to work, Lee being her eyes and hands from the back, his face pulled into a very worried expression as he helped Sakiko arrange her wild curls in a way that would mostly shield the wound from onlookers gazes. If the other student's saw it, they may peg her as the weakest link, antagonizing her in the future. If the teachers saw it, they would ask questions, and they were already going to ask questions when Tenten didn't show up after lunch. Sakiko felt only a small sliver of guilt watching the orphan girl with the busted face sprinting off of the Academy property, never to return. But then the wind licked her bloodied head, and the guilt was gone, replaced with further annoyance and pain.

"Open wide" Sakiko commanded gently, using a pair of chopsticks she was (luckily) familiar with to pass a piece of Onigiri over her shoulder, smiling when a mouth clamped down on the end and slowly pulled it off.

And that was how the two spent their first lunch at the Academy. Lee couldn't fight the warmth inside of him as the pinkette casually fed him and he arranged her curls over the gash. Love. Childish love, in its purest. Two beings interested solely in caring for one another, no ulterior motives. An honest bond that would only grow and evolve over time as they matured and trained, he hoped, he suspected. A future with Sakiko was one he'd been able to manage since the day he met her, as friend, or more. Anything she wanted.

In a way, it was hilarious how oblivious she was to his feelings. Puppy love, Sakiko dismissed.

Meanwhile…

Somewhere in hell, the devil himself, Death sat near the pits of tartarus with a clone. His clone however had blue hair, opposed to his own ginger curls, and had skin the color of literal paper. Death wanted him to look at least a little like someone else. He'd needed someone to chit chat over Sakiko's life with when things got especially interesting.

Death's blue haired counterpart was tossing potato chips lazily into tartarus and laughing as it burnt into the screaming faces of tortured souls.

"How can you ignore such a kawaii scene of LotusBlossom?" Ginger-Death questioned in wonder, gazing lovingly at the flatscreen across the ways broadcasting the intimate scene, well placed under a beautiful cherry blossom tree in a way that made him suspect Fate's involvement "aren't you supposed to be me?"

The cerulean curls draped over the clone's blackholes for eyes, Death #02 languidly rolled his eyes and spread out on the fancy bone-tile flooring "personally, I'm hoping Sakiko-Chan is of the lesbian variety, neh?"

"HUH!?" The ginger one was shocked, a devious smile on his face at the idea, quickly growing comfortable with such a thought. "My, my, my" he slapped one hand on his pale clone's shoulder "Maybe you are me after all. That's an enjoyable image" of course he didn't see Sakiko has the pink haired Kunoichi in training, he saw her as the blonde that he'd snatched up, the spirit screaming particularly loudly. .

If only that Neji kid was a girl, he did have luxurious long locks.

Detention dragged through at the end of the day, far worse than it would have been had she not received a head injury, and as heat waves carried through open windows, Sakiko sweated dreadfully on one desk, bent over and taking ragged breath, her hands clammy as they gripped a broom for dear life. Cleaning all the classroom's in the damn building was genuine torture with the thunk, thunk, thunk, radiating waves of pain in her head. She really wanted a nap which made her fear a concussion. Not only that, but Lee was on the verge of collapsing from worry alone.

By the eighth time he begged her to go see a medic, Sakiko had had enough.

If I'm so fucking grown she thought to herself, throwing down her padded butt onto Mizuki's desk I should be able to take care of this. If I were in the field, this would definitely be worse. It's better I learn to deal with it on my own now rather than doing the child-like and lazy thing of waiting for my mommy to fix it.

You wanna talk the talk of a big bad Kunoichi, you better walk the walk. Of course, Sakiko was no-where near good enough to do that. But maybe she could crawl the crawl, or some other lesser version of the saying.

"Lee, I need you to get me some of the rags from the training room, um...and a bucket of water" She commanded, her own slightly rough tone of voice becoming soothing as she pushed away her worries. Reaching her arm backwards behind her head and medically healing it herself had been a very lackluster idea in the beginning, but Sakiko couldn't fucking take it anymore, not with the added pain of detention and Lee's panic-attack nearing anxiety of her health. It was time to come up with a solution.

He didn't question her once, saluting, and disappearing in a whirlwind of green speed, leaving her infinitely appreciative of him. Good ole' Lee. He knew when and when not-to question her, a skill not very many humans that walked the earth possessed when it came to Sakiko.

The day was winding down and she truly hoped her parents weren't worrying about her, having forgotten to ask Mizuki to inform them of her lateness on account of the fact that the little-dicked chunin was working for Orochimaru and she did her best to steer clear of him at all times. To be fair, she had no way of knowing she'd be gifted with nearly three hours of hard work for detention...it was the first day! This was like...a really high paying D-rank, she thought to herself while she waited, wallowing in her anger meaninglessly.

When Lee arrived back in less than five minutes, Sakiko smiled as brightly as she could under duress, and then set to cleaning her wound, hissing with every movement, her face scrunched up in pure anger at her sad pain tolerance. In her old body it had been phenomenally better. She would just have to get this new baby one broken in once she became a ninja. A few good beatings and hopefully the pain would lessen like it once had.

"SURPRISE ATTACK!"

Almost in slow motion, limbs entirely green, wrapped in orange leg warmers, and ninja sandals came twirling torpedo-style straight in through the window as if they'd just normally come flying in. As if they weren't on the fourth floor. Sakiko supposed for a Jonin that was nothing though. She'd seen ninja do way crazier shit before. Even if Maito Gai was in his own league.

Lee deflected the kicks with his forearms, jumping in front of his wounded princess, Sakiko. (If she could hear his thoughts, she would be most certainly perturbed with some of the adjectives he used to describe her.)

Gai landed on the floor looking like one of those Vines where they pretend like they meant to fall smoothly, landing directly on his elbow, propped up holding his head, his body openly displayed with one manly green thumb up. Sakiko frowned, pressing deeper on her wound, and then choosing to close her eyes and focus while the two manly men discussed whatever 'youthful crap' they usually did.

Medical chakra was basically separating the spiritual and physical chakra to promote cell regrowth and essentially, heal. She knew this and with her large reserves and refined control, Sakiko very easily could become a medic. It was one of her many options she'd yet to choose from. However, not really wanting to dislocate her arm in an attempt to reach the gash and heal herself, she began brainstorming.

"Of course!" The pinkette shouted after a few minutes, drawing the eyes of the ever animated Green Beast's of Konoha.

Then, of all the strange things Lee had seen his friend do, her pretty pink hair began glowing with minty green chakra. Gai made an 'ah' noise of understanding, bending over and whispering in the ear of his alarmed mini-me.

"Sakiko-Chan is channeling her spiritual chakra into her hair and manipulating her physical chakra away from the wound in order to directly heal it without applying the chakra with her own hand due to the location of her injury" he explained in a hushed whisper, remembering that one time he had a temporary medic on his team do a similar thing. Her butt had been zapped by a lightning nin.

His soon-to-be student's were remarkably inspiring!

Or at least, he hoped they would be. He had a good idea of who he wanted to be his Genin team, and planned on officially requesting the Hokage choose him to be the sensei of Hyuuga Neji, Rock Lee himself, and the prodigal Haruno Sakiko. His vivacious spirit and raw strength could certainly turn them into some of the finest Shinobi Konoha had seen. A new trio, even! He imagined, delirious images of civilians whispering in awe as he and his all-grown up team returned from a particularly hardy mission. Not that they couldn't handle it. The Heir to the Hyuuga, the Genius Pinkette, and the Youthful Lee!

Yeah, Gai let himself get carried away often. It was only their first day at the academy.

"This reminds me!" He burst up, patting Lee on his shiny head, and grinning when Sakiko's luminescent green eyes popped open, suddenly seeming sleepy now that the blood once seeping out of her scalp had receded and healed over "I have a gift to help your training, Kiko-Chan" he pulled out a storage scroll similar to the ones Kizashi used for his merchandise "since you did not wish to wear our attire, it isn't fair to give cute little Lee leg warmers and weights, and you nothing. Why, it would be positively ghastly of me!"

Gai rushed forward pinching the girl's cheeks fearlessly while low killing intent seeped off her skin. She had a real thing about adults touching her in this world. She'd had one too many close calls with pure evil in her past life to trust everyone, and this was the land of Shinobi. The place were kids killed. She truly expected pedophiles to lurk around every corner, now that she was a kid all over again

"Viola!" he hollered, his lungs vibrating, his chakra pressing into the storage seal which released a pair of nunchucks.

Sakiko's head tilted, as it often did when she saw something she considered interesting. Lee smiled, wrapping an arm around her shoulder as soon as she sucked all of her killing intent back in, undeterred. A common occurrence between the two, Gai knew.

They were like nunchucks, except instead of a couple of inches of chain between the two handles, the chain extended a good amount, drooping and hanging in many layers. It really truly was a 'Naruto' type of weapon and when Sakiko's hands wrapped around the handles of their own accord, she blushed. They were like..really pretty. From the obsidian links holding together the chain to the black and that shade of green ( the one that vaguely reminded her of Lee and Gai's outfits ) on the handle.

Gai's pinching fingers rose to ruffle the curls splayed messily over her forehead and ruffling them fondly, that smile he reserved for Kakashi usually beaming across his features. The little Haruno girl was like a more-human, pink haired, version of him back when he was a genin. It was one of the reasons he truly wanted her on his team.

"Yeah, hiya!" Gai cheered at her expression "A fan of mine crafted it for me from The Land of Waves and after a few training sessions, It was an easy decision that they were not for me! My combat works much better with these" Sakiko frowned at the way short and less extravagant ones that he pulled off his waist-band "and I thought, who better to give it to then one of my youthful students! Inspire the youth of others as you ensnare them in your chain until your opponent can no longer defy the Leaf!"

He has fans…? Worrysome. They need to be mentally evaluated.

With renewed energy Sakiko jumped off the desk, landing a few feet away from her two companions, tossing the baton like handles up in the air and then catching them, enjoying the slinky noise of the chain.

"Oh yeah, Gai-Sensei" he began crying at her first use of the term 'Sensei' with him "these are sick! Hella youthful!" Sakiko winced at her own vocabulary, but didn't correct herself, those were the words she meant to say "Lee!"

She sprang forward in a defensive stance, a wolf-like grin on her impish features.

"You're okay to spar with me when I use these right?"

Lee cheered, clasping her hands.

"I would love it if you were to allow me to assist in your new technique, Sakiko-Chan!"

For once, she truly felt a part of the Universe. And that was when she realized it was because of Gai. She stared up at him with all-seeing green eyes, and then gave him that ray of sunshine, sparkles emanating from her person, the light of a thousand sun's smile that appeared every so often.

AN: Thank you to kfawcett1998 who's review genuinely made me laugh "well shit bye tenten" killed me as soon as I saw it, I for real died laughing like...you right. Thank you to Calcu22, I like Tenten, and see her potential but it just made more sense for her to be gone in Sakiko's arch unfortunately. Thank you to ThePlagueDoctor. Thank you to EmmieSauce and Fwee.

Thank you to all the followers who respect my choices as an author.

Yo people were like...fucking shook that I chose such a terrible path for Tenten. I can see why, as Sakiko was truly vicious in her response, but to be fair, Tenten like...threw her head into the corner of a box! I don't know about you guys but I know that if that happened to me, I'd be pissed. Honestly I don't regret doing that in MY story. I needed Tenten out of the way to put Sakiko on Team Gai, BUT ALSO, I did it because 1) it makes sense that if she and Lee were meant to be friends in the orphanage to solidify her strength of character, that she would blame our girl for her influence 2) it gave me the opportunity to improve on Sakiko's medicinal arsenal, and 3) I HAVE PLANS FOR NEJIIIIII THAT DO NOT INVOLVE HERRRR.

Basically, getting rid of Tenten accomplished multiple of my goals in this fic, and I regret nothing. I'm explaining myself because I received a SCATHING review from someone that I deleted at first sight that literally told me I was a "piece of shit" for doing that that it was "entirely out of character" and they "thought it was an honest and good story but I clearly am just writing another SI piece of garbage" they also included that "Tenten would never do that" and "what a disappointment that I would do such a thing to Tenten just to give SAKIKO HER BOY-TOYS."

So to set a few things straight. I have reasoning behind all my decisions and I request you either accept them or move on to a different author's fic.

Lastly, I could see how some may have been given the wrong idea, but Sakiko and Neji are not a pairing. There will never be a love triangle between her and Lee and Neji. That would be like an ugly Naruto version of Twilight. Like...ugh, no. I try not to do love triangles at ALL. As I said, I have plans for Neji, which include him falling for an OC that will eventually be the differentiating factor that saves his life in that one war (fourth? third you know which one I mean.) I plan on having him and Sakiko begin a rivalry that quickly develops into a kinship separate of the one she shares with Lee. They like sparring and she listens to him bitch about the Clan, K? K.

Sorry for all that, but I was pretty triggered.