Chapter Text
Visits to the Leaf Village were always eventful.
Temari spent most of her time pretending not to flirt with Shikamaru or being dragged into stupid girls' nights that she pretended not to love.
Kankuro had officially started dating Kiba, which was a big surprise to everyone except every single person who had seen them kissing on the training grounds multiple times. The two spent most of their time together, either lying around in their hotel room or doing God knows what.
And then there was Gaara.
Gaara honestly didn't have a clear reason to be in the Leaf Village besides seeing Naruto. Of course, sometimes he would take long walks around the city, have random hookups with guys, or spend hours listening to Naruto talk nonsense.
He would also end up watching his siblings be all lovey-dovey with their partners, which wasn't a problem most of the time. Gaara was just happy that all the people he cared about were having a great time and getting the rest they needed.
But for some reason, Temari was not okay with that.
She absolutely hated seeing Gaara spend most of his time doing nothing around the city or simply waiting for Naruto to show up and take him to some ramen stand or drag the poor guy into long training sessions in the Forest of Death.
One night, she simply had enough.
"Gaara, I swear, if you don't get up right this second and go get rea—"
She was abruptly interrupted when Gaara opened the door to his hotel room and looked at her with a completely blank stare.
"I don't see a reason for my presence at an event designated specifically for girls," said Gaara with an unreadable expression.
"Besides, I don't want to listen to Sakura and Ino gossip nonstop and get completely drunk on cheap fruity cocktails."
Before he could close the door again, Temari entered his room.
"Do you realize this is the only time we have to get some type of entertainment? Are you really going to spend every single visit talking only to Naruto and staring at the walls of this hotel?"
She looked pissed, and who could blame her? This was the fifth time she had tried to get him out of the hotel and do something that didn't involve Naruto or spending the night with some random person.
"And for your information, there are going to be a lot more people besides Sakura and Ino, so you'll have plenty of people to talk to."
Gaara tried to oppose the idea, but he knew how persistent Temari could be, so he simply accepted the fact that the next six to eight hours would consist of loud music and drunk shinobi.
Rock Lee knew he wasn't supposed to pregame this early, considering how problematic his drunk personality could be, but what the heck? He deserved some encouragement considering that Tenten was dragging him to a girls' night just so he could meet a guy she swore was exactly his type.
He brought the bottle to his lips and enjoyed the burning sensation of alcohol in his throat.
He knew he wasn't supposed to. He had promised Neji he wouldn't repeat the drunken fiasco that happened last time, but he felt too nervous about meeting this guy.
The moment was abruptly interrupted by a knock on the door.
He quickly tried to hide the bottle before anyone could see it.
The knocking became faster and was followed by Tenten's voice.
"Lee, open the door now."
His heart raced as he tried to find a place to hide the vodka before she broke the door down and started lecturing him about his problem again.
He shoved it inside the dresser and prayed she wouldn't get too close. If she smelled the alcohol on his breath, this was going to turn into a lecture about how he promised not to drink before the party.
"C-coming!" he called as he made his way to the door.
Tenten wasn't stupid.
She knew Lee, and she knew he got anxious about going out. He probably thought he was being clever trying to hide the bottle of vodka she had seen him bring into the room only minutes ago.
"There are better ways to calm yourself down."
She pushed Lee aside and entered the room.
Then she looked directly into his eyes as she stepped closer.
"If you're not ready, just tell me and we'll reschedule the whole thing."
Lee swallowed hard and broke eye contact.
"N-no, it's okay! I can totally go! I was just—"
She cut him off before he could finish.
Giving him a stern look, she said,
"I know it's been hard recently with the whole coming-out thing, and you've really been trying to go out and experience things, but this can't become a habit."
Her voice softened.
"And you don't need alcohol to talk to guys."
"I know I don't!" Lee replied louder than expected.
"I was just preparing myself."
"Just try not to drink too much, okay? Please. I really want to see you have fun and actually talk to this guy without flipping one of the tables or taking your shirt off in the middle of the bar."
Lee tried very hard not to revisit the memories of his last birthday.
His mind was flooded with them despite his efforts.
Not only had he flipped one of the tables at the bar, but he had taken off his shirt because the guy sitting next to him had mentioned feeling cold.
That night was a disaster in every possible way.
Tenten had tried to stop Lee from embarrassing himself on the dance floor and ended up ripping her very expensive skirt.
Sakura got so drunk that she started throwing money at Lee's bare chest and asking him for a lap dance.
Ino got mad because Sakura had drunkenly kissed her in front of the whole club and smudged her lipstick.
Naruto and Sasuke were outside "smoking," even though everyone knew neither of them had ever smoked a cigarette in their lives.
Shikamaru couldn't, for the life of him, put down the cigarettes and didn't even bother going outside to smoke.
The whole thing had been one giant mess, and Lee prayed none of it would happen again.
Lee sighed and turned to face Tenten.
"C'mon, are you really never going to stop mentioning it? It's been a year. I promise it's never going to happen again.You don't have to worry about me tonight."
Tenten nodded and turned to leave the room.
Before closing the door, she said,
"And go put the vodka in the fridge before you end up drinking the whole thing."
Lee turned red and started to say something, but Tenten simply closed the door.
The night was going to go smoothly.