Title: Snapshots from a Rivalry

Notes: promptfic for the three times meme at naruto_meme, prompt: Three times Kakashi can't ignore Gai.

Warning: character death

Disclaimer: The characters belong to Masashi Kishimoto. I make no money.

Springtime of youth

"If you need anything…"

Kakashi can feel the new Hokage hover in the doorway behind him. Minato-sensei is torn between his duties, his concern for his now last student battling with his responsibilities as village leader. Kakashi doesn't turn around. "It's okay. I'm fine."

And he is. He will keep walking, out of the Hokage tower, down the street to his building, up the stairs into his apartment and into his bedroom. There he will take off his armor and lie down on his bed.

He will close his eyes and his mind will be blank. He won't wonder what Rin's last moments were like. Whether she cursed him for choosing ANBU over her, whether she blamed him, whether she should have. And what Obito would say if he knew that Kakashi has broken his promise.

He has to keep moving.

As soon as he steps out of the Hokage mansion, the little hairs on the back of his neck stand up. Somebody is watching him.

Without slowing down or turning his head, Kakashi slides one hand into his pocket, feeling for his kunai. It's early evening and the street is filled with the usual commotion of late shoppers and store personnel closing up. Some ninja returning from missions are heading to the mansion via shortcuts over the rooftops, but that isn't anything suspicious.

Then, out of the corner of his eye, Kakashi catches a glimpse of something green behind a stack of crates. Gai. Of course.

If he tried to make a break for it, Gai would only interpret it as Kakashi accepting his stupid challenge and chase him. As little as Kakashi likes to admit it, outrunning Gai is getting harder every day.

He cannot deal with this now, though, because Gai doesn't know yet, and there is no way Kakashi can tell Gai and have him cry here in the middle of the street in front of him, when Kakashi himself couldn't even—

Gai chooses this moment for what is, at least in theory, his big entrance scene. In practice, he runs up the wall of a house, runs along its roof at full tilt, jumps off at the edge and lands on a tree branch, which snaps like a twig under his weight. Flailing uselessly, Gai falls and hits the ground with a dull thud.

Kakashi walks past the other boy without sparing him a second glance. A second later he hears a cry of outrage, then the unmistakable sound of someone being swatted with a broom. Apparently, the tree has an owner and he is not happy about seeing it mutilated by Konoha's over-energetic youth.

Of course, none of this is enough to discourage Gai. Moments later he has caught up to Kakashi and planted himself in his path, striking one of his more obnoxious poses.

"Eternal rival!" He shouts, pointing at Kakashi, presumably so that the people who have stopped to stare and giggle know exactly whom he is addressing. "It's your turn to choose our next challenge! And let me tell you that absolutely nothing will—"

"Taijutsu," Kakashi says, surprising himself. Only now he notices that, all this time, he has been clutching the hilt of the kunai in his pocket. His hand hurts.

Outraged, Gai starts shouting again. "Kakashi! This is the Springtime of our Youth! We have to make the most of it, while we still can! I won't give up until you—" Gai stops mid-rant, his brain finally catching up.

"OH MY GOD! I knew one day, you would see the wondrous beauty of our eternal rivalry!" Gai is positively glowing, his eyes brimming with tears of joy. Kakashi just looks at him blankly. "Are we going to the training grounds, or what?"

Gai nods vigorously. All the way, he keeps running ahead a little, then comes back to make sure that Kakashi is still following him. Like a puppy.

In the end, Gai lasts longer than Kakashi had thought he would. Black and blue with blood trickling from his nose, Gai sets out to run two hundred laps around the village. And Kakashi finally heads home. He doesn't feel any better, but when he crawls into bed he is exhausted enough to fall asleep almost instantly.

Hot blood

Kakashi is floating away from the pain. He didn't think anything could be this wonderful.

So relaxing, so peaceful. A feeling as soft and fuzzy as eiderdown. He wants nothing more than to sink into it, be absorbed by it.

"KAKASHI!"

Slap.

Like a bloated body surfacing in a picturesque lake, the sudden return of awareness shatters the illusion of peace. His eye snaps open against his will. Such offensive, bright green. He squeezes it shut against the unexpected visual onslaught and wishes he could shut out that loud clanging and the sweet, cloying smell that hangs in the air as well. His efforts are immediately rewarded with a second slap.

It fucking stings.

"RIVAL! Stay awake!" Apparently, Gai – and who else could be this annoying? −has decided that slapping him is not enough, now he is shaking him and shouting into his ear, too. Great.

Reluctantly, Kakashi cracks his eye open again. Up close Gai's eyebrows look big and furry enough to count as pets. "Go 'way," he mumbles. His breath rattles in his chest like wind through an old, abandoned house.

Gai is frowning at him without his usual glow of self-satisfaction. Something isn't right here, but somehow Kakashi is too tired to care. His eye is drifting shut again. His thoughts spiral away from him. Slowly, he comes to the conclusion that there must have been a battle; there always is one after all. He is injured, then. Well, that would certainly explain the numbness spreading through his body.

With blood- and chakra loss-induced detachment he realizes that, if he goes to sleep now, he might never wake up again. It takes a lot of effort just to keep his eye open, to focus on Gai, who has turned away from him to bellow for the medic. For a moment Kakashi is mesmerized by a small trickle of blood running down the back of Gai's neck.

Gai whips back around, all his attention on Kakashi again. Oh, joy. "Never fear, rival, the medic will be here in a second! I promise!" A blinding grin and thumbs-up accompany the statement that −Kakashi suspects – is based more on wishful thinking than a realistic analysis of the situation.

In his head Kakashi is counting his own rasping breaths. Each one hurts more than the last. He wonders if he should inform Gai of this fact, but the other jounin is currently busy, applying bandages to various parts of Kakashi's body. Occasionally, he looks up briefly to tell Kakashi just how soon the medic will be there and that everything is perfectly fine.

Kakashi would like to roll his eye and tell Gai that he is a terrible liar, but he doesn't have the energy. Slowly but steadily everything around him seems to be sucked into the black hole that his mind has inexplicably turned into.

A sudden movement pulls him back to the surface; Gai is sitting on his heels now. There is a look of grim determination on his face that Kakashi knows doesn't bode well for him.

"A change of plans, my rival!" Gai declares with forced cheerfulness. "If the monk doesn't come to the temple, the temple will just have to go to the monk," he adds, shaking his fist at his imaginary, mulish monk.

"What," Kakashi croaks, wishing himself back to a time when his future only held a slow, though not terribly painful death.

"Don't worry, I will carry you to safety! No one can outrun Konoha's Noble Green Beast!" Before Kakashi has time to protest, Gai has grabbed him. A sharp pain cuts through his whole body, then the world goes topsy-turvy, as Gai lifts him up a little too energetically and he falls forward, folding over Gai's back.

Mercifully, he blacks out just before his face slams into Gai's spandex-clad butt.

Two days later Kakashi wakes up in a hospital bed. When Gai comes to visit, Kakashi never thanks him for saving his life, and despite how much he usually enjoys gloating, Gai never mentions it either.

Eternity

As it happens, the ambush at their destination is just a prelude. They manage to fight through wave after wave of guards, hired ninja, a few "surprise guests" straight from the bingo book, and they more or less successfully acquire their mission objective – a tiny scroll, bearing the kind of information people seemed to be more than willing to kill for.

It's in the pocket of Kakashi's vest now; it hardly weighs anything. Who'd have thought it would be heavy enough to drag them both down?

Gai is panting; opening seven gates was the only way to get through the last attack. It isn't over, though, there was backup. A fresh group of enemies, who are now hot on their trail. Kakashi can almost feel them breathing down his neck already. It's about the only thing he really feels at this point; his body is numb from chakra-loss.

Then Gai stumbles for the second time in five minutes, and Kakashi decides that they might as well stop running. He turns around. Gai is doubled over, barely able to hold himself up.

The rustle of leaves. A shiver runs down Kakashi's spine. It's just the wind. For now.

Gai straightens, looks at him questioningly. His spandex suit is more brown than green, most of the blood isn't his, but too much of it is. There is no way they'll make it back to Konoha, he must know that too. Gai speaks before Kakashi has found a way to casually mention that they're going to make their last stand here. "What are you standing around for? You should leave!"

Kakahsi rolls his eye. "It's too late for the noble sacrifice, Gai. I'm staying with you." If he had any energy left at all, Gai would do his falling over with incredulity shtick now, Kakashi is sure of it. As it is he only manages a weak "What?"

"Even if I left you here – which I'm not going to do – they'd still catch up with me. I used up too much chakra; I'm too tired." Gai is already shaking his head defiantly before Kakashi has finished his sentence. "They won't get past me," he insists.

Gai's utter conviction makes Kakashi smile fondly. "You're practically falling over," he points out. "The only way you'll slow them down is if they happen to trip over you."

Gai folds his arms and tosses his head back proudly –proving Kakashi's point by almost falling over from that movement alone, but recovering quickly. "Ha, by now you should know better than to underestimate Konoha's Green Beast, rival! Seven is not my limit."

Kakashi feels his smile freeze into something grotesque. The eight gates. It hadn't even occurred to him. All of a sudden, he wishes – more than anything – that he could just ignore what Gai said and grab him, drag him out of here somehow, everything to avoid the future he can already see unfolding in front of him.

"You already opened the gates once today, and you're barely standing…" Kakashi has to stop; he is running out of arguments fast.

"I can do it, besides once the gates are open I will be stronger than ever. It's the only way."

Kakashi can't really argue with this. He has always been the realistic type. He knows he can't fight anymore, certainly not against multiple enemies. Gai's plan, however, might work; it's certainly the only plan they have, the only way to finish the mission. And the mission is supposed to come first. But he can't do it.

those who abandon their comrades are worse than scum

Gai walks up to him, puts a hand on his shoulder and looks him in the eye. "Go, eternal rival. I've got your back." There is no drama, no tears, no sunset, only assurance. Gai has made up his mid. It is out of Kakashi's hands.

They've already wasted a lot of time. Their pursuers are probably closing in. Kakashi isn't sure whether Gai pulled him, or if he started moving towards Gai of his own accord. Either way, they're embracing each other for the last and first time.

Kakashi's hands slide over the back of Gai's vest. They're trembling too much (from fatigue and chakra depletion) to hold on to Gai properly. It's too late for that anyway.

"Don't worry, I know you'll make it back," Gai murmurs into his ear, "I chose you to be my rival for a reason."

There is nothing Kakashi can say to that, so he says the one thing he could have said a million times before. "Thank you, Gai."

Something rustles in the forest. It's not the wind.

They let go of each other.

Gai gets in position. Kakashi runs.

He won't turn around to see Gai burn; his vision is blurry anyway.

There must be something in his eye.