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depressedkakashihatake-fics · 4 years ago

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Hatake Kakashi/Maito Gai

3351 words

Prompt: Mask

edited by: @mireleth

Another plate of sushi was set down in front of him and Kakashi couldn’t help but question his life choices.

The challenges that Gai could come up with were always unique, and they certainly tested their abilities. He would never forget the time that Gai challenged him to do handstands on a pole to see who could stay up longer, only to have his hand slip. Gai had come crashing down on his pole so hard that he ended up curled into himself clutching his stomach and vomiting all over the grass.

But this challenge was just asking for trouble. One of them was going to end up violently ill if they pushed themselves too far, and that person was likely to be Gai.

The taijutsu master rarely knew when he had reached his limit, and in fact had become the shinobi he was now specifically by pushing those limits. But there was nothing to be gained by stuffing themselves full of sushi until they vomited. No muscle to be gained, or new jutsu to come out of the challenge with. Just a lot of pain and suffering that they would end up complaining about for days.

Unfortunately, he had already accepted the challenge, and Gai wasn’t going to let him back out now. He was just going to have to win and leave a little extra ryo for the owner as an apology for the mess Gai was likely to make.

“This will be a grand challenge!” Gai’s voice boomed, catching the attention of everyone in the small restaurant. In the past Kakashi would have been embarrassed, but he had long since gotten used to Gai’s loud personality.

In fact, it had become a voice Kakashi started to associate with security. Hearing that loud confident voice told him that he was safe, so he couldn’t help but smile a little whenever Gai had something to say.

Still, he wasn’t so sure about this challenge.

“You sure we’re going to be able to eat all of this?” he asked. “It’s a lot of food. We might make ourselves sick.”

“Are you conceding the match, Rival?” Gai gave him an unimpressed look. “That is not like you.”

“I didn’t say anything about giving you the win,” Kakashi huffed. “I just don’t want to say nothing when I know this is going to end with you losing your dinner all over the floor.”

Gai’s hands came down hard on the table, producing a loud ‘smack’ that made at least three nearby patrons jump. “I can eat all of this food on my own, no problem!” he declared with pride. “Just you watch, Rival! I’ll win our challenge and have room left for some dango.”

“Mmm, whatever you say, Gai.” This was going to end in disaster. There was no way around it.

Except.

Seeing a familiar trio in the corner of his right eye, Kakashi turned his attention towards the entrance of the small restaurant where Gai’s students were staring in at their sensei and whispering to each other.

This was the escape he needed from the disaster waiting to happen in front of him. Gai could never ignore his students. He adored them too much.

“Hey,” jabbing Gai in the side with his elbow, Kakashi smiled when his friend glared at him, “I think your hatchlings want to join us.”

A soft look crossed over Gai’s face, his eyes scanning over to the door where Neji, Tenten and Lee were looking in on them.

“Do you think…” There was a worried look in his eyes when he looked back at Kakashi. As if he was afraid that Kakashi would tell him that the kids weren’t allowed to join them, which wasn’t very likely.

What use would it be to turn them away when he needed an excuse to avoid the challenge Gai had chosen for them tonight?

Still, Kakashi couldn’t let Gai in on his plans. It would only make him more determined to go through with the challenge even with his students present, and that would just end in complete embarrassment for one of them. So he had to put on an act.

Leaning back in his seat, he tilted his head up towards the ceiling and sighed, a long dramatic show of mock annoyance. “I guess they can join,” he grumbled under his breath, thankful that his mask was hiding the small upward quirk of his lips. “But you’ll have to feed them. They’re going to be sad if they see all of this food sitting out in front of us and they can’t have any.”

For the first time since they sat down, Gai seemed to actually be thinking through his next course of action. It was a nice change of pace from the excited rival that had declared he would eat more sushi than Kakashi and ordered one of every platter on the menu. Not that Kakashi didn’t love that man just as much. It was just that sometimes Gai could get a little too excited about their challenges, and it usually resulted in awkward situations.

Hopefully his students had come with an appetite.

“Well, call them over,” Kakashi insisted, glancing back over at Gai. “Before they think we don’t want them here and run off.”

With permission given, Gai held up a hand and waved his students over, laughing when Tenten and Lee each grabbed one of Neji’s hands and dragged him behind them towards the table.

Apparently someone was not in agreement with the rest of his team about what they wanted to do. No wonder the three of them had been standing there talking amongst themselves. Neji was probably trying to convince Lee and Tenten to turn around and leave before Gai saw them.

Too bad for him. He was just going to have to get used to being constantly embarrassed and dragged into things he didn’t want to be a part of. It was just something that came with knowing Maito Gai.

“Gai-sensei!” As soon as they were at the table, Lee slammed his hands down on the table and looked directly at his Sensei with excitement in his eyes. “Are you two about to have one of your legendary challenges?”

Legendary? What was Gai teaching this kid?

“We were about to.” Gai nodded his head in agreement. “But since you three are here…”

Kakashi could already see the response building in Lee’s mind. The demand to see his sensei competing against his great rival for another victory in their never ending competition.

If he got those words out, Kakashi was done for. Gai’s drive to go through with the competition would be renewed and there would be no stopping him with Lee cheering him on.

He had to put a stop to this, and fast.

“Tenten and Neji look hungry to me.” He leveled the pair with a look that told them to go along with what he was saying or suffer the consequences. A threat that only seemed to work on Neji, because Tenten just gave him an unimpressed look in return. “I think it would be a better use of our money to feed your hatchlings, don’t you, Gai?”

Tenten’s mouth was open and already starting to form a retort when the nickname that Kakashi had used for her and her teammates hit her, and from the look on her face Kakashi could tell it was like a ton of bricks had just smacked her across the face.

“Dinner would be nice,” Neji interjected just as Lee was about to respond. “We were trying to find a place to eat when you saw Gai-sensei and said we should stop and say hello, is that not correct, Lee?”

“I-it is.” Casting his eyes downwards, Lee began to twiddle his thumbs as he stood there in front of his sensei. “I just thought… if Gai-sensei and Kakashi-sensei were going to have one of their challenges, it would be interesting to see it in action.”

There was a slight ping of guilt deep down inside of his chest when he saw the sad look in Lee’s eyes, but he had made his decision. He was going to convince Gai to postpone their current challenge, no matter what.

“I am actually a little hungry,” Tenten spoke up, beaming when Kakashi, Gai and Lee all looked at her. “I hope you don’t mind, Sensei. You can have another challenge anytime, right?”

“Well,” Gai glanced over his way, a fond smile pulling at his lips when Kakashi gave him a simple nod of his head, “I guess it wouldn’t do any harm to postpone our challenge for tonight. We can even plan for our challenge to take place where my students can watch us, huh Kakashi?”

Not a perfect scenario, but he’d take it.

“That sounds like a good compromise, Turtle.” His eyes twinkled playfully when Gai reached over and poked his cheek. “Perhaps I’ll beat you at a game of Janken.” All three of the kids groaned in unison. Apparently they had already picked up Gai’s hatred of the game. “Fine, fine. If it’s a real challenge you want then…”

Resting his index finger against his chin, Kakashi allowed himself to look as though he was thinking through a variety of options of things that they could do, even though he had already settled on the answer he was going to go with.

It was always more fun to make people wait for whatever answer he was going to give them.

After a few seconds had passed, he closed his eyes and smiled over at the kids standing in front of him. “How about this. Since you won’t get to see us taking part in an eating competition tonight, we’ll have a spar tomorrow. Nothing too strenuous”—they had actually been banned from going all out against each other in spars by Lord Third after they hospitalized each other for a week following the last one—“but you can see us in action. No sharingan, no gates.” He glared over at Gai. “Just two senseis competing to see who’s stronger. Does that sound like a fair trade-off?”

“It would be a grand battle!” Lee threw his arms up into the air, fire burning in his eyes. “Gai-Sensei will no doubt come out on top!”

“I doubt it will be that easy.” There was a reason he liked Tenten. She was level headed and seemed smart enough to see that he could stand his own against Gai in a fight. “I’m sure Kakashi-Sensei will get at least one good hit before Gai-Sensei face plants him in the ground.” Scratch that. She was no longer his favourite.

“They are both elite jonin,” Neji reminded his teammates. “I’m certain that while Gai-Sensei would win in taijutsu hands down, that Kakashi-Sensei has his own skills that would do him well in the spar.”

At least not everyone was against him.

Feeling Gai’s hand on his shoulder, Kakashi tried his best not to look like he was pouting when he glanced over at him. For anyone else it might have worked too, but one kind smile from Gai told him he had been caught in the act.

It was one of the things that made Gai a great teacher and friend. He always seemed to know what was on other people’s minds, even when they tried to hide their emotions from him.

“It will be a great battle for both of us,” he beamed, giving Kakashi’s shoulder a supportive squeeze before turning his attention back to his students. “Sit down, you three. We shouldn’t leave the food sitting for too long.”

With permission to join officially given, Gai’s hatchling’s took their seats across from the pair and picked up the extra chopsticks and plates that the waiter had brought them ‘just in case’, unwilling to believe that Kakashi and Gai would be eating all of that food by themselves.

Kakashi would have to thank him for it later. It was always awkward having to ask for extra plates and chopsticks when they ended up with unexpected guests. Even if Gai’s hatchlings weren’t going to judge them quite as hard as Asuma and Kurenai whenever they interrupted one of their challenges.

“Everyone dig in.” Gai’s voice boomed with pride, his hands already moving to fill his own plate with a selection of sushi. “Make sure you eat enough to last you until tomorrow. After our spar my rival and I will make sure we have a full day of training planned out for you.”

Kakashi couldn’t recall when exactly he had agreed to help Gai train his students, though he guessed it was payback for getting to skip out of this little challenge of theirs. Gai never skipped out on a challenge without something in return, and the morning spar was more for the kids than themselves. They both knew how it would end anyways.

Picking up his own chopsticks, he maneuvered them in his hands so that he could use them and began to fill his own plate of sushi, barely listening to the conversation going on around him between Gai and the kids. He picked up on enough of it to know that they were already discussing tomorrow’s training and he couldn’t help but smile when he heard all of them pitching in ideas.

Most people who looked at the team figured that Gai made all of their training plans with enthusiastic support from Lee and begrudging acceptance from Tenten and Neji. But sitting here listening to all four of them left no question in Kakashi’s mind that Tenten and Neji were just as invested in their training as their teammate. Perhaps a little less enthusiastic about some of it, but no less part of the conversation.

It was a bit difficult to admit, but he had gotten so entangled in the conversation going on around him, that he might have forgotten one important step he needed to take before trying to eat his food.

Which led to his current situation.

Sushi smeared all over his mask, and all of Team Gai looking at him with varying degrees of amusement and disgust.

Disgust was mostly on Neji’s face, and really he couldn’t blame the kid. He knew he must look like a huge idiot right now. One of Konoha’s top shinobi with sushi rice and salmon smashed into his mask.

“Rival, I think you might have—” Gai snickered when Kakashi glared at him. A silent warning not to finish his sentence.

Not wanting to give anyone else the chance to say anything more about his mistake, Kakashi reached up and carefully pulled his mask off of his face with a huff. He didn’t even bother to care that all three of Gai’s students were looking at him. All that mattered at that moment was getting his mask off and eating some sushi.

“Whoa, are those…” It took an incredible amount of restraint to stop himself from biting down on Tenten’s finger when she poked it into his mouth without warning. “You have fangs?”

“Fangs?” Both Lee and Neji appeared at Tenten’s side, peering into his mouth where Tenten’s fingers were currently busy exploring the teeth in question. It was actually starting to get a little awkward, and he was certain that if Gai hadn’t stepped in then and there Tenten would have lost a finger.

He would have felt bad for it, but it would have happened nonetheless when he snapped his mouth shut to hide his teeth from view. It’s what had happened to Obito the one time he dared to stuff his finger into Kakashi’s mouth to get a better look at the pronounced canines in question.

Ok, it might not have been a mistake when he bit Obito’s fingers.

He most definitely did it on purpose that time, but he didn’t want to do the same thing to Tenten. She didn’t deserve that for being curious.

“I think it’s best if you three give my Rival some space.” Gai’s voice broke through the tension, and without a second thought his students did as they were told and backed off. “He’s not that fond of people getting into his personal space.”

“S-sorry,” Tenten lowered her eyes, “I didn’t mean to. I was just… people always talk about your face like it’s some big mystery.”

“It’s just a normal face,” Neji huffed, acting as if he hadn’t just been one of the people standing two inches away from Kakashi five seconds ago. “The fangs must be from a bloodline family. Like the Inuzuka.”

His fingers itched to reach up and return the mask to his face, even if there was sushi smeared on it. It was better than listening to comments about his fangs. The exact thing he always tried to avoid. He didn’t though. Not because he wanted to give the kids another chance to be a bit more respectful.

It was just a bit hard to put his mask back on when Gai had placed a hand over his. His way of telling Kakashi to leave the mask off.

“Perhaps one day he’ll answer your questions about it,” Gai offered, smiling when Kakashi glared over at him. “For today however, how about we ignore it. Hmm? We should all focus on eating our dinner.”

Feeling Gai’s fingers curling around his hand, Kakashi returned the gesture and returned his attention to the food in front of him. He knew that the kids probably had a lot of questions. There wasn’t a lot known about Kakashi by many people and he liked it that way, but it often led to people wanting to fill in the blanks where they could.

He doubted that they would be satisfied with his own Inuzuka blood as an explanation, and it wasn’t like he could tell them much more. He had never met his mom, and no one had ever been willing to talk to him about her no matter how much he asked during the short period of time when he was a teenager that he’d actually wanted to find out more.

He didn’t have the answers that they wanted, so it was best for everyone if they simply didn’t ask.

“Besides” —glancing back over at Gai, Kakashi raised an eyebrow when he saw the other man smiling at him— “there’s nothing normal about that face. I may not remember it tomorrow, but it’s still the most handsome face I’ll ever see.”

Kakashi was known to be a level headed, calm and focused man. There were few things that could get under his skin and get any sort of reaction out of him. Unfortunately for him, one of the few things that did manage to do it was Maito Gai complimenting him in any way.

Maybe it was because Gai’s compliments were genuine and not based on some sort of praise that made Kakashi seem like more than he was. Perhaps it was just because he always had a genuine look of love in his eyes whenever he complimented Kakashi. Whether the compliment was about his skills as a shinobi, his cooking, or even his looks, it always managed to get the same reaction.

And today, that reaction resulted in him burying his face deep into Gai’s shoulder in a poor attempt to hide the blush that was creeping up his face, hoping desperately that he had managed to hide it before Lee, Tenten and Neji saw what Gai’s words had done to him.

Judging by the way Tenten was giggling and Lee was asking his teammates “What’s wrong with Kakashi-Sensei?” he could only assume he had failed.

So much for being one of Konoha’s best shinobi.

He couldn’t even hide his embarrassment from a few genin.

At least he got to feel Gai’s fingers moving up into his hair and settling in the short silver strands, sending shivers down his spine. He’d just have to take that as his ‘win’ for the night, since Gai had successfully made sure he wouldn’t be seen as cool in his students’ eyes ever again.

#Hatake Kakashi #Maito Gai #Hatake Kakashi/Maito Gai #Kakagai #Kkg Week #Kakagai Week #Kakagaiweek #Kakagai week 2020 #Fluff #Team Gai #Rcok Lee #Tenten #Hyuga Neji #Kakashi loves his boyfriends team #Don't ask him why he can't explain #he just does #also #FANGS!!!!

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