. Thanksgiving fic with Team Guy! They're so much fun.
What are we thankful for?" Guy asked his team as they sat around the table, staring at the turkey that Lee had managed to burn with the "Flames of Youth."
"I'm thankful for being a team!" Lee shouted exuberantly. Neji and Tenten stared at him in shock.
"Did you just not say 'Youth!.'" Tenten asked, asthough barely able to comprehend the idea.
"Yes!" Lee shouted. "But I am also thankful for the fires of youth!" Neji sighed.
"Nope. I haven't died and gone to heaven." He muttered sarcastically.
Guy frowned at him.
"Neji! That is not youthful!" He wailed. Neji gave him a raised eyebrow.
"And I care?" He said. Lee and Guy instantly burst into a flood of tears.
"Ok." The girl shouted. "Guy-sensei, what are you thankful for?" The tears stopped. Guy stood up. He was wearing the customary green jumpsuit. Neji twitched slightly.
"I am thankful for youth! And jumpsuits of youth!" He shouted. Neji groaned.
"Nope. It's hell." Tenten frowned at him.
"What are you thankful for, Neji?" She suggested archly.
"Nothing." He said, in a calm and emotionless tone.
"Nothing?" Guy wailed. "How unyouthful!" Lee joined his tear in sobbing. Neji raised a hand to massage his temples.
"How can you be thankful for nothing?" Lee yelled, pointing a finger at his stoic teammate.
"Easily." Came the rejoinder.
"What about for youth?" He asked. Neji twitched.
"Not at all." He shuddered again.
"For training?" Lee suggested.
"For all the times where I had to hear about youth while doing it." This was greeted with an anguished wail.
"You aren't youthful!" Neji nodded as if talking to a small child.
"Thankfully, no." Lee pounced on it.
"You said 'Thankfully'!" He grinned. Tenten grimaced as the light from his teeth blinded her momentarily.
"So?" Neji said. "There's more that I'm not thankful for. There's so much to be not thankful for in the world. Much more than there is to be thankful for."
Lee fell to the floor sobbing in despair. Tenten hit herself on the forehead and then glared at Neji momentarily.
"I just mopped the floor." She groaned. "Now I've got to do it again."
Lee popped up like a jack-in-the-box.
"Tenten! Oh youthful one!" She stared at him.
"…"
"You are youthful!"
"Yeah… I guess." She murmured. Neji's shoulders shook with slight laughter.
"Then what are you thankful for?" Lee screamed. Tenten shrugged.
"Let me see." She glanced around the small room that they sat in. It was Guy's apartment and was filled with a detritus of training supplies and tests that he had given them. It had their first team photo that was taken the day they became a team. Guy was giving the camera a thumbs up. Lee was grinning. Tenten was standing behind Neji pulling the corners of his mouth up into a smile and laughing. Neji grimaced at the camera.
"I guess I'm thankful for family." She said while staring at the picture.
"But Tenten!" Lee shouted. "You said you didn't really like your family!" She shook her head quickly.
"Not that family." She said.
Lee cocked his head.
"I think she means the youthful family of the heart!" Guy yelled.
"Yes!" Lee responded. "Yosh!" Neji twitched.
"Not again."
"Lee!"
"Guy-sensei!"
"Lee!"
"Guy-sensei!"
Neji made a ripping motion as if contemplating suicide. Tenten frowned at him.
"Lee!"
"Guy-sensei!"
Tenten made an identical ripping motion at this point.
Lee and Guy embraced. Neji closed his eyes in horror.
"It would destroy my Byakugan." He muttered. "The horror."
"I agree." Tenten said.
"So, Tenten, oh youthful one!" Lee shouted again.
"Here it goes." Neji muttered.
"What did you mean by family? Yosh!"
She shrugged.
"I think she means that family that you pick for yourself." Neji interrupted suddenly. "Like the expression that close friends are like family."
Tenten nodded.
"Yeah. That's what I mean."
"Then who would your family be?" Lee shouted.
"You three." She indicated Lee, Neji and Guy. "And all the rookies and the teachers. You guys are my family." Lee suddenly hugged Tenten in a giant hug. Her eyes met Neji's and he stifled a laugh.
"Help me." She mouthed.
He shook his head.
"You brought it on yourself." He replied. Tenten glowered at him. She tapped Lee's shoulder with an evil look in her eyes.
"Lee. Neji needs a youthful hug." Neji's eyes filled with panic.
Seconds later, he was embroiled in a big Thanksgiving hug.
This is my family. Tenten thought, watching Lee and Neji yell at each other. My brothers.
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