Chapter Text
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The jutsu finally connects just in time for Kakashi to get roundhouse kicked in the face by Gai.
Kakashi never, in all his years of life, thought he’d be excited to be round-house kicked in the face by Maito Gai. The blow would absolutely kill a normal person, and it hurt like hell as he flew through the air like a rag doll and smashed through two trees. The only thing he did in response was lift his headband and thank his lucky stars that the sharingan was there.
Gai was in front of him immediately, brows furrowed, but hesitant to move much closer. When Kakashi had the sharingan out, it generally meant that things were about to get serious. He must be wondering if Kakashi’s sympathetic nervous system went into overdrive after being hit so hard, and that he immediately pushed his hitai-ate up as a knee-jerk response. Either way, Gai was unsure if he should approach, or if Kakashi was about to come out with fists flying.
Kakashi didn’t unleash his sharingan for the fight, no, he was doing something completely different. Time slowed down just enough that he could memorize the look of his Eternal Rival, gathering in as much information as he possibly could. Seeing Gai whole like this made his heart clench painfully hard in his chest, and the pain of the bruise blooming across his cheek could hardly compare. For the first time in years, years of suffering where he’d thought tears would have been a welcome relief , he felt like crying.
Kakashi had been in a million fights, had broken almost every bone, been stabbed through, tortured, eviscerated. Nothing in the world ever compared to the pain of watching Gai’s life drain out of his eyes after he opened the Gate of Death. At one point, Kakashi wished he could just go numb, but the sweet relief of nothingness never came. He had to live every day with the anguish knowing that Gai was gone, and he had done nothing to stop it. He tried to tell himself that Gai had made his choice, that he’d died doing what he’d always promised; protecting the people he loved. To Kakashi, it felt hollow and pointless. Even as peace reigned across the land, and his precious students started to carve out a life for themselves, he didn’t feel rest. He felt nothing but pain.
So when they’d uncovered the scroll in one of the many hideouts left scattered across the lands, Kakashi had barely hesitated. Naruto didn’t understand- but Sasuke did. He was probably pissed he hadn’t thought of it himself, but he didn’t dare try to talk Kakashi out of it. After all, it wasn’t his most precious person who had died without ever knowing how he felt.
It was also the fact that they had no idea how far the Jutsu would send them back. It could send Kakashi to any point in his lifetime, which meant he could have gone back to being five, or ten, or even two months before and all of this would have been pointless. Kakashi should have been irritated to see that he hadn’t gone back quite as far as he liked, but Gai was alive, and that was what mattered.
Speaking of Naruto…
“Ne, Kakashi-Sensei?” The kid looked delighted that he’d witnessed his Sensei being kicked through two trees. “You’re not losing your touch, are you?!”
Kakashi ignored the jibe and pulled his hitai-ate back down, casually hauling himself out of the debris and starting to finally remember this particular instance from his past. He looked over to the left and, sure enough, there were Tenten, Lee, and Neji. The pulse of loss was much less when he saw the little Hyuuga, but it was quickly smothered out by the smug look the brat was trying to hide.
“Yosh!” Lee pumped his fist into the air. “Gai-Sensei, that was an amazing show of Youthful Passion!”
Gai wasn’t gloating, or saying anything really, he was still staring at Kakashi like a puzzle he was trying to figure out without alarming any of their students. “Well, Rival, I’d say that’s enough for today!” He clapped Kakashi on the shoulder in camaraderie. Kakashi would feel bad for making him worry if he wasn’t currently delirious in relief that Gai’s hand on his shoulder was real.
“Mah.” Kakashi couldn’t exactly do or say much in front of their kids, so instead he stretched his arms over his head and made a lazy hum. “Where’s all that usual flair, Gai? I got so bored halfway through I almost fell asleep.”
“Kakashi!” Gai was immediately fired up, making Kakashi grit his teeth so he didn’t smile widely and stupidly at the predictable display. “I won’t fall for that cool act, Rival! I will show you the true power of youth next time! You’ll be singing a different tune! I promise!”
Kakashi wanted to point out that Gai was technically falling for his act regardless of what he said on the contrary. If Kakashi remembered correctly, neither of them had put much into this fight, both too distracted by the recent events that shook them to their core even though they had to portray being fine on the outside.
How he wished that was the last time he could say it happened.
Sasuke was gone, and the third Hokage was dead. Lee was still recovering from what may have been the end of his career as a shinobi. The Hokage’s first official recognition of the new Jounin would be tomorrow, and Naruto only accompanied Kakashi to the training grounds because he told him he’d treat him to ramen later. An obvious lie when he’d said it back then, but Kakashi was feeling nostalgic and sentimental.
“Well, I guess ramen is on me, this time.” Kakashi spoke loudly enough for everyone to hear the put-upon reluctance in his voice. “Come on Gai, pups.” He jerked his head towards the village.
Neji scoffed under his breath, crossing his arms across his chest as everyone slowly started to trail along behind a slightly subdued but still excited Naruto. “I’m not a pup.”
“Sure, sure.” Kakashi patted his head, and swiftly avoided the swat that Neji tried to stop him with. “Hey, Naruto, why don’t you go get Sakura and meet us there?”
Kakashi could feel Gai’s gaze on him as he treated the two teams (or what was left, given that Sasuke’s absence was a newly-opened wound. He wished he could tell them it would be temporary, but that would be a lie). Kakashi really did miss these kids, and it was a bit startling to register how much. He even missed Sakura’s forlorn expression, while she picked at her ramen and didn’t say much. He put his hand on her head, which startled her out of her reverie.
“Don’t let Naruto get stronger than you, Sakura-chan.” He warned her, nodding to her ramen. “You need your strength for what’s to come.”
She gave him a strangely searching look, but then picked up her chopsticks and started to eat a little more.
Later into the dinner, Lee started waxing poetic about his hopes and dreams for a rivalry between him and Neji like the one between Kakashi-Sensei and Gai-Sensei. Kakashi nearly lost it right then and there. He wanted to laugh hysterically, but Gai was already suspicious. He’d probably take him to the hospital if he did anything else too out of character.
“Lee-kun,” he caught the kid’s attention, “maybe you should open yourself up to the idea that someone else could end up being your Eternal Rival. You wouldn’t want to miss the opportunity of a lifetime, just because you settle for the first strong shinobi you meet.”
Neji lifted his head and shot Kakashi the biggest most venomous glare of his life, and Kakashi felt vindictively gleeful at the response. If Neji thought of Lee as a nuisance like he always said, then he should have been happy that Kakashi put the seed of doubt in his impressionable teammate's head. It did not pass Neji that Kakashi thought Lee would be ‘settling’ for him, and that would likely stoke the other teen’s competitive spirit.
Gai let out a bellow of joyous laughter. “You know, Lee, My Dearest Rival has a point! You will learn a great many things from different people in your lifetime! You must live your springtime to its fullest!” Gai, for all his pretending to be oblivious, was also noticing that Neji was pissed, and he flashed Kakashi a mischievous smile above his student’s heads.
“But, Gai-Sensei,” Tenten cut in here dryly, “you said you knew Kakashi would be your ‘whatever’-” She waved her hand here vaguely, because she refused to use the flowery words like ‘man of destiny’ or ‘rival’ or ‘eternal-anything’ without throwing up in her mouth a little. “-Since you were kids.”
“Ah, true, Tenten!” He agreed with her, pride in his students saturating every word. “However, Lee should strive to find his own path, not just follow mine! Why, of course I knew Kakashi would be my Eternal Rival, and we have always strived to push each other to the next level! That does not mean Lee has found his!”
“What about that Gaara of the Sand?” Kakashi played along, leaning his elbow on the counter and resting his jaw in it idly. “He’d keep you on your toes, wouldn’t he?”
“Of course, I would be honored to have Gaara-kun as my Eternal Rival!” Lee looked a bit shell-shocked at the possibility, but there was an excited fire in his eyes. This was too easy.
“Gaara is cool.” Naruto was only half-paying attention to the conversation, already on his second bowl of ramen.
Sakura was frowning at the whole thing. “He hurt him.” Her words were soft, like she couldn’t help but protest but she didn’t want everyone to hear.
“Ha!” Gai had amazing hearing. “Do you know how many times your sensei and I injured one another in the heat of battle? Lee has already proved he can withstand anything that comes his way!” He gave Lee’s shoulder a proud shake.
Kakashi’s smile faded a bit while the raucous laughter continued around him. He recalled how devastated Gai had really been when Lee was sent to the hospital after the chunin exams. How he had blamed himself, and how Kakashi had barely managed to make him feel better with a challenge on who could pile more sake cups on top of one another without them falling over. Gai had won that challenge when Kakashi’s toppled over, and he still remembered the whoop of joy fondly.
He looked at Naruto and felt the mood spoil even further. Naruto had a far-off look in his eyes, and Kakashi knew the source of it. It would be there for a long time to come, and Kakashi wouldn’t be able to do anything about it. Not right now.
“Better wrap this up before Naruto drains my bank account.” Kakashi teased, which made the blonde swivel in his chair and point at him indignantly.
“You said you’d treat us!”
“I said I’d treat you to some ramen, not the whole store.” Kakashi poked his nose to push him back, making Naruto almost fall off the stool. Even Neji’s lips quirked up at the side from the disgruntled noise the little jinchuriki made.
After paying and sending the genin off on their merry little way, Kakashi headed off what he was sure was going to be some sort of weird Gai intervention. He had allowed himself this one night to indulge, but after this, he had to start working on what he came to the past for. He commended himself for the fact that he hadn’t just stared at Gai the whole evening, or worse, blubbered out some sort of confession that would ruin everything. No, he was there to fix the whole problem, and that meant making sure that he still had a Gai to confess to in the end.
“Thanks, Gai.” Kakashi put his hands behind his head and stared up at the darkening sky. “For not mentioning my blunder to the kids. They’ve been through enough.”
“What is wrong, Rival?” Gai asked, all pretenses dropped. Kakashi hated that serious look, which was why he didn’t turn to face him completely even though he felt it drilling into the side of his face. He just started walking and knew that Gai would fall in step beside him.
“It’s been a while since I messed up that badly, huh?” Kakashi had spent a long time ruminating over their many challenges in the last month. Somewhere along the way in their childhood, a young Kakashi had started to take them seriously, even the goofy ones.
“The last one was when you’d just come home from a mission.” Gai recalled. “I should have waited a little longer to challenge you.”
“Well, a Rival’s got to be ready for anything, right?” Kakashi recalled the words he’d said to him then, to make Gai stop feeling bad about taking the win.
Gai smiled at him. He didn’t grin, or give one of his nice-guy poses with the glint of teeth and all. The smile spread across his face and made the joy lines more pronounced, especially the crows feet at the corners of his eyes. It was the sort of smile that Kakashi didn’t get to see often, because it meant he’d said something that Gai thought was endearingly sweet. Kakashi swallowed around a dry throat and tried to stomp down on the nearly uncontrollable urge to kiss that mouth.
Kakashi felt his stomach flip and wondered how he managed to control himself for all those years when exposed to Gai’s pure, radiant, warmth. The excuses seemed so small in retrospect. Kakashi had made himself an untouchable shrine because of Minato-sensei, Rin, and even Obito. This was why hindsight was a bitch, and why Kakashi was so glad he got to punch her in the face this time.
“I don’t know what happened, to be honest.” It wasn’t exactly a lie. “I just saw you and I didn’t want to punch you.” He shrugged it off in what he hoped was nonchalance. “Felt a little hollow, doing that after everything that’s happened this summer.”
“Nonsense, Kakashi!” Gai was in front of him in an instant, eyes shining with intent. “That’s the point of a Rival! To push each other past these lulls! How will we ever surpass ourselves if we grow complacent?! I won’t allow it! I have to get stronger to protect my precious people, and you’re coming with me!”
Gods, he’d missed him.
“Right, right.” Kakashi sighed, even though he felt like his insides were squirming in childlike delight. “I guess you’re stuck with me, then.”
Gai’s expression shifted into surprise, but Kakashi walked around him before he could say anything else ridiculously sentimental. “See you later, Gai.”
He had plans to make.