Ichirin no Hana:

A Single Flower

If the world would laugh once more, then perhaps, dying wouldn't be so bad. If I could go back and choose again, my life would be sad. Perhaps, what we see is not what is meant. A flower for love could also mean death.

Hinata couldn't help but fidget. She didn't want to be there! How did Hanabi escape this torture?! She fidgets again and refused to meet her father stern eyes or her cousin mocking ones; opting instead to look down at her normal ninja clothes.

The long, sable table was quiet as they waited for their guests to arrive. She didn't want to meet Neji's new Genin team. It was just something that her father would want to talk (read: mock) to her about later.

All eyes turned to the door when it opened, revealing a branch member with three others behind him.

"Hiashi-sama," the branch said in a low bow. "Your guests have arrived."

"Hai." The Hyuuga head replied, and waved his hand dismissing the branch Hyuuga.

The guests bowed as well, and one of them immediately caught Hiashi's eye, and he was not pleased to see who it was; his eye twitched very, very subtly. 'This fool,' Hiashi thought gravely.

"Introducing, Konoha's very own SEXY, GREEN BEAST, MAITO GAI!!!" The tallest person from the group said, striking a rather… unique pose: right hand on his hip, left hand shaped into an 'OK' sign and is placed over his left eye; before dropping it and gave them a thumbs up with his left hand, a wink with his eye and a smile. What was worse was the 'ping' of light Gai gave off when he smiled.

Hinata thought that she was going to faint; she felt embarrassed for him. What kind of self-respecting Jounin would do that? Not only was his introduction weird, but his clothes were even worse: tight, green spandex under a Jounin vest, with bright orange leg warmers, and bowl-shaped haircut—not to mention, his eyebrows. They weren't even the normal length or width! She squirmed just looking at them.

"Rock Lee," the other male student said. Hinata felt relieved that he at least didn't wear the spandex, but he did sport his sensei's hair style and, she noted with a hint of despair, his eyebrows, and a less luminous 'ping'. She glanced between student and teacher and wonder if Lee how he and his sensei was connected, they looked too much alike! That hair, those eyebrows, that ping, those eyebrows, eye shape, those eyebrows!

"Hoshi Tenten," the girl with her hair in two buns said. At least someone on the team looked normal.

"Hyuuga Hiashi. Neji's uncle." Hiashi said indifferently and turned to his sharp gaze to his daughter; disregarding Neji's sudden stiffness and slight narrowing of the eye.

"Hyuuga Hinata... cousin." Hinata said, silently pleased that she hadn't manage to shutter, especially with her father around. That was probably the reason why.

"Why, Hiashi!" Gai said, "I didn't know that you had a daughter who is so close to becoming a ninja. Is that why you arranged for this meeting? So that she may look upon my youthful students and be renewed with the strength of a tiger lily? The flames of youth shall carry on another generation!" He finished dramatically with a steady steam of tears and a sun setting over the water back round appeared behind him. Was it a Genjutsu?

Hiashi appeared to be repairing his cold, collective front up; a bulging vein on the left side of his head was ruining it. Out of all the Jounin available, why did his nephew get this one? Not to say that Gai isn't a good shinobi, he is. But after several missions with him, Hiashi would rather not interact with the vacuous Jounin. At least he knew that Gai wont plant any ideas of rebellion, which was the point of the dinner.

The dinner was mostly quiet (read: exaggerate) Gai was telling stories of one of the missions he went with Hiashi; they had to protect a princess and she was bathing behind a rock when Hiashi suddenly fell (Gai forgot to say that he was the one that pushed him) and saw her. The princess turned red, started throwing things at him, screamed bloody murder calling him a pervert. It was funny for Gai and the others, but the two Hyuuga kids dare not laugh – not aloud, at least – they didn't want to face the consequences afterwards. The way Hiashi held the knife in his hands, the frown on his face, and the intense stare he gave them spoke volumes of his displeasure.

"Hyuuga-san, are you alright?" It took several seconds for Hinata to realize that the question was directed towards her. And it took several more for her to recall the person name and respond.

"I-I'm a-alright, R-Rock-san. You can-n call me H-Hinata if you l-like."

"Oh. Well, please call me Lee then, Hinata-san."

"E-Eto, Lee-san, earlier you asked i-if I was a-alright..." Hinata let the sentence drag on, she'd lost her confidence to finish. And seeing Lee's curiosity made her embarrassed.

"Gomen, Hinata-san, its just that you don't seem to be a typical Hyuuga." Lee stopped when he saw the girl eyes widen. "From your cousin, I was sure that all Hyuugas were cold and distant... but you're not."

Hinata blinked, and out of instinct cringed back slightly; a habit that formed from the sharp reprimands by her father. Coercing herself to calm down, she was sure Lee hadn't meant it the way her father did; the apologetic look he gave her contrasted to Hiashi's menacing glare.

The dinner was over, and all the guests had gone home. While at the dinner, she had learned that Lee was a nice, caring person, and surprisingly, had a thing for gardening -- despite how he looks. Hinata wouldn't mind if they had another dinner with them, and she wondered who will she end up having on her Genin team.

'Naruto...' She thought and blushed. But the blush wasn't as red and her heart didn't speed up as much as it did before when she usually thought of him.

So she would could only look in amazement two weeks later when a green blur ran by her and a package was left at her feet. Despite the need to open it, she didn't want a Hyuuga member to come upon her looking at a package on the ground. Hastily picking up the package, she made it to her room in record time.

Chewing on her lip, Hinata watched the package apprehensively. No one would try to murder her in her own home, right? Especially with a package! Taking a deep breath, she walked towards it and slowly opened it up with her eyes shut. After a few minutes of nothing happening did she open her eyes to see hydrangeas.

Hinata was confused, hydrangeas meant cruel, heartless. Who would send her that? But upon further oberservation it wasn't whole hydrangeas. It was small part of the flower, its heart, and she smiled at the new meaning.

Thank you for understanding.

Taking the hydrangeas out, she'd noticed a picture underneath it. Hinata smiled softly when she saw it was a Genin picture of Neji's team: Gai in the back with a 'thumbs-up' and a ping; Tenten in the middle, bent forward with hands on her knees; Neji on the right of her, hands on his chest and scowling to the side; on left of Tenten was Lee. Hinata twitched in horror and dropped the picture when she realized that Lee was exactly like Gai, minus the chunnin vest and a brighter ping.

What she missed on the back of the picture was Lee little speech about youth.

Author Notes:

Usual, I want to know what the readers think, but since this was a challenge from MINUS-7, his opinion is most important. But still review. In case you want to know here is the challenge:

Okay, finally got myself an idea.
I'm a fan of Naruhina but I can read accept fav mostly everything.
So I thought of launching you a challenge. LeexHinata with any other
pairings other than HinataxAnyone LeexAnyone. The plot is a team dinner at the
Hyuugas. And no Naruto rejects Hinata and she goes crying into Lee's arms. Must
be immediately after team Gai's graduation.
Can you do it?

Well did I do it? Please, I don't want reviews that say, 'Why isn't Lee wearing the ugly jumpsuit?!'. Remember this is like the week of them becoming Genins, Gai won't be able to convert him so quickly.

Should I make a one-shot for the Princess Story? Or does someone else want to do it?

Sorry if Lee and Gai aren't in character!

Disclaimer: Don't own it.