Disclaimer: This is based on the manga drawn by the very talented Kishimoto-san and company (and while I do love it as if it were my own, I’m told that this, in fact, does not count…:P )

Just a short, lil’ vignette for my heartbreakingly determined Lee. I’m trying this perspective on for size…the opinion of him expressed may not even be my own. -;

Oh, and beware of overuse and equivocation of the word ‘proof’…

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100-Proof

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Lee’s breathing is hard and erratic, but there’s no one here to hear it. There is no one here to worry, and he likes that just fine.

He has to do this - he needs to do this - and he’s getting so much better at it. He really is.

His proof is the perfect glide of an arm as it slices the air, the smooth sweep of his leg as it impacts the tree, and okay, maybe the shaking isn’t good, but it’s nothing the liquid sloshing in his belt won’t help…

He takes a few sips.

Centers himself as the burning subsides. Waits, silent, for his twitching hands to still…

Breathes deeply.

Meditates.

His skill is taijutsu; his realm, the physical, so “Lee” and they think “control of body”, when the thing he’s really mastered is his mind.

Discipline and focus and complete self-control – these are the things Hard Work is made of.

He knows this well; it fits sublimely into how he views the world. Cause and effect. Effort-reward.
Justice and fairness and all of it makes sense.

God-given genius, on the other hand, does not.

This is why he will prove to them - as he must prove to Gai, as he must prove to himself - that hard work and trying can be every bit as effective as their…inheritance.

Because Lee knows he was not born to be useless.
And he will not be left behind.

It’s just that…Naruto and Sasuke are off training right now - becoming even better than they already were.
Lee can almost feel the chasm between they and him, yawning wider every day.

And maybe he’d give up, if he could just remember how…

So when a hairline fracture starts to spider along his shin, when his knuckles are red and swollen and his ribs feel exactly as if they’ve been bruised, Lee just takes another swig of liquid-fire courage, grits his teeth against the pain -

And improves.

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Don’t let yourself down. Don’t let yourself go.

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Note on teh t1tl3:

In case you didn’t know (‘cause God knows I barely did), the proof notation on alcoholic beverages denotes alcoholic concentration. It’s two times the alcohol/volume ratio, to be exact. And yes, while the title is meant to hint at 100 evidence/effort at first glance, it also literally indicates that he’s drinking 50 alcohol by volume. Which is yea, serious liquor, but I figure with his speed and all, his metabolism must be working overtime and he has to stay drunk to perfect his Drunken Master technique and all, right/flimsy excuse Ahem. Right.