[Naruto Ficlet] Underneath
I'm sure the title is way overused, but it simply fit. ^^;;
duelist's challenge. No actual p0rn, just implied.
"I dare someone to write serious GaiKaka."
Underneath
Naruto Ficlet
[Hm, one note - the sections are spaced apart in time, not directly consecutive.]
I.
"OHMYGODDDDDD KAKASHI!!!!!!!"
"I'm sorry, did you say something?"
Watching his sensei explode, clutching his hands to his head, Rock Lee wondered why Gai-sensei put up with these slights and insults. He respected the 'elite genius' Hatake Kakashi, of course, who didn't? But while Lee was perfectly certain Maito Gai had something to do with the hanging of the moon in the sky, truth to be told, he sometimes felt the tiniest bit embarrassed for his sensei.
On this occasion, as he watched Gai bluster and predictably, challenge his eternal rival to yet another contest of skills, the embarrassment evaporated in a swell of pride as he watched Gai engage Kakashi in a stone-skipping contest. It could have ended up in a draw because the lake unfortunately didn't have enough surface area to support more than 577 skips even at its widest point, however Gai managed to bank his stone off a shoreline tree trunk and get it to return to the lake's surface for five more skips.
Kakashi's visible eyebrow rose and his eye almost seemed to twinkle for a moment before he cast his next stone. Perhaps it was merely bad luck but the ricocheted missile was intercepted by a leaping fish on its third return skip.
Gai tried to insist on Kakashi getting a re-throw but the Copy Ninja shook his head emphatically. He pointed out that Luck was also a part of ninja skill and Lee's eyes nearly popped, though they couldn't really get much rounder.
Before he could reflect on this at any length, Gai-sensei was suddenly next to him, asking if he didn't have some training to do instead of standing around enjoying the beautiful weather - which was a little odd since Gai-sensei was quite sensitive to nature's wonders and often urged his students to enjoy them while they had the finely tuned senses of their Youth - but Lee was so abashed to be caught slacking off that he never gave it a thought, only saluted smartly enough to stir the air around him and dashed off to practice.
"Maa, maa," Kakashi murmured, rubbing a hand along the back of his neck. "I suppose you were perhaps a little harsh on the boy for a reason?"
Gai walked up close to Kakashi, placed his hands on his hips and looked into Kakashi's single visible eye.
"Blame yourself, Kakashi," he said, his deep voice calm. "For a moment you nearly had him thinking our rivalry was a matter of mutual affection and respect." He dropped his hands from his hips and placed one arm carefully around Kakashi's waist as he stepped closer, closing the gap.
"Ah," Kakashi murmured, neither surprised nor apparently uncomfortable with the gesture. "Sorry. My bad..."
"Forgiven," Gai said, his dark eyes softening. "But as you know, this is the way we've chosen. Tiresome as it might be at times."
Kakashi sighed. "Tiresome but necessary."
"Agreed. However I have no obligations for an hour or two. Neither, I think do you. So..."
"So we'd probably better find a more private spot, don't you think?" Kakashi answered sternly.
A sudden wind whipped up the leaves in a tiny cyclone around the two and the next moment, the clearing was empty.
II.
Kakashi was exhausted when he finally dragged himself home. Though he had done nothing but lay in a hospital bed, and had only just been awakened by the new Fifth Hokage, the cracks in his soul, he thought, had never been more visible.
Not much of a drinker, he nevertheless pulled the slightly dusty bottle of sake out of a cabinet and allowed himself two drinks.
He'd checked on Sasuke before leaving, but he frankly didn't have the energy or the presence of mind to have the conversation with the boy that he worried was probably needed. To see Kakashi in the state he was in now would do nothing to help Sasuke, or take his troubled mind off his outlaw brother, knowing Itachi was the reason Kakashi was less than his usual self.
Part of him wanted to take off, to run through the deep forest as fast as his exhausted limbs could take him, no more than a passing flurry of leaves, until he had outrun his heart-sickness. But, Kakashi thought wryly, he couldn't even outrun a genin as he was now. And his heartache had never yet lost that race.
He looked at the small empty cup in his hand and contemplated a third shot of sake. Then he heard an errant wind tease the kitchen window open. That latch had never been really tight.
Pouring clear liquid into the cup, he turned around as Gai came in from the kitchen.
"Here, you look like you need this," Kakashi said, putting the sake in the other man's hand.
Gai tossed the drink down and placed the cup next to the bottle.
"Thanks, Kakashi," he said. "But I need this more."
Reaching out to ease down Kakashi's mask with blunt but infinitely sensitive fingers, Gai pulled Kakashi against him. However he didn't press his lips to the elite jounin's, not right away. Instead he folded himself around Kakashi and held him tightly, closing his eyes and resting his chin on the other man's shoulder.
Stiff for just a moment, Kakashi relaxed with a sigh and leaned into the steadiest, most solid thing imaginable - Gai. He let Gai's arms support him, for just a few seconds. For that short a time, he could release his burden, knowing strong arms would hold.
"My god, Kakashi," Gai murmured, his deep voice slightly choked. "You gave me a scare."
Kakashi took a deep breath and let a little of the other man's strength - and his care, if the truth were admitted - leak into him, taking his own weight back on slightly renewed limbs.
After a moment he even summoned a soft chuckle.
"You gave me one too - that was quite an entrance. How's Lee?"
Kakashi truly expected Gai to start enthusing about Tsunade's miraculous abilities - steeled himself for it, in fact, since he found her words to him when he woke a tad bitter on his tongue. When Gai was silent, he leaned back deliberately and gave the man a shake.
Gai's head stayed slightly bowed. In fact his jaw was clenched for a moment.
"Ah," Kakashi said, regret and sympathy soft in his voice. "Like that. I'm truly sorry."
Gai took his own deep breath in turn and shook it off, metaphorically. "It wasn't what I'd counted on," he admitted. He lifted his head and met Kakashi's eye. "But I'm grateful to at least have you back."
Kakashi privately had doubts about how much "back" he was, at the moment, but he'd never say that, even to Gai.
He didn't have to. He knew from the acknowledgement in dark eyes that his thoughts were detected.
"I'll make Itachi regret whatever he did to you," the normally peaceful taijutsu master said, a hint of buried fire in his tone.
Kakashi shuddered slightly. "I hope you never have the chance. He's too much even for you, you know."
"Huh. Perhaps if he stayed to fight instead of running."
Kakashi gripped Gai's shoulder with a grip like steel, suddenly losing his exhaustion for a moment. "No," he said, simply and emphatically. "It's not the time for the original 'hot-blooded drop-out' to surface."
Gai's nostrils flared but he shrugged. "Forget Itachi, for now," he said, "He's gone." Gai pulled Kakashi close again and gently nuzzled his cheek. "You're here. I'm glad you liked my entrance. I thought it was an artistic touch, which nevertheless allowed me to be there and see your eyes open finally." He heaved a sigh. "It's been difficult, wandering by only for minutes at a time, between visits to Lee. I didn't know if you'd wake up."
Kakashi allowed his arms to circle Gai's neck, feeling guilty for having caused such worry. It was why he tried to keep from getting close to people. "You shouldn't bother worrying about such things. The strong get back up. The weak are better off asleep, I guess." Of course he didn't mean asleep and he didn't mean anyone except himself.
"Shut up," Gai said. He sought a kiss and found it, letting his worry and relief find an outlet. As usual, Kakashi's passivity evaporated after a few seconds and the kiss reversed and became ferocious as the core of the Copy Ninja responded to yet another brush with death.
Kakashi lasted longer than he expected.
Gai wasn't surprised.
Afterwards they lay together on the rumpled sheets, deadly hands occasionally touching skin, threading through dark hair like heavy silk or silver hair as wiry as a canine's. Black and silver, heavy eyebrows and scarred face - two imperfect people finding wholeness for the briefest of moments.
"At times like these, the masquerade wears thin," Gai muttered.
"I told you this was a bad idea, years ago. You wouldn't listen," Kakashi murmured. Bad idea or not, he thought it was just possible it kept him going.
"You have your mask and hitai-ate," Gai replied. "I have my silly haircut and fool's act. They over-estimate you, and under-estimate me. It's a system - it works." Satisfied with his own logic, Gai ran hands down Kakashi's bare body and sighed.
In spite himself, Kakashi smiled. Mentally, he damned Gai with the faintest of damnings for being able to provoke that expression from him when no one and nothing else could.
III.
Remarkably, the contest was going beyond extra innings. Sweat poured off Gai, soaking his green jumpsuit as he dodged a blow from his rival and parried. He had bruises all over his body - Kakashi wasn't pulling his punches at all - but the Copy ninja would also have his share. Once Gai figured out the level of seriousness, and what he was up against, something inside had sprung to life with a happy yell. It was probably for the best no one was around to see this match, it would have left too many jaws hanging.
Just at the moment where his battle-mind calculated he'd probably have to reach down and open the Gates, Kakashi hit him with a furious series of kicks that brought him down and he found a kunai at his throat.
"Don't even think about the Lotus," Kakashi hissed.
"You win," Gai managed. There was something about the way the Sharingan whirled, about the chilled look in the other, grey eye. For a second he wondered if the kunai was going to be retracted or not.
A shower and change of clothes later, he half expected to find the kitchen window fastened tight.
When it wasn't, he felt a bit of relief, though the absence of lights in the apartment suggested Kakashi might not be home.
"Bring the sake," the voice from the other room came through the shadows.
Gai sighed and secured the bottle and two cups. Kakashi sitting in his living room in the dark wasn't a very good sign.
He poured and handed one cup, and poured and emptied the other, sitting down with a sigh beside the other jounin, but not touching. Kakashi had boundary issues at times and he'd learned when to respect them.
The silence stretched out. Finally Gai broke it. "When did you hear?"
"What were you thinking? What if Lee hadn't survived the operation?" Kakashi asked, his voice icily neutral. "You promise to die with him?"
"You know what I was thinking," Gai said, and sighed.
"You are a complete asshole, you know."
Gai nodded. He accepted this, from one man.
"Don't think you're going to get out of it by agreeing with me."
"I don't." Gai said, in the resigned tones of a doomed man.
Kakashi was silent for a while longer, aware that his rival wasn't as comfortable with it as he pretended.
When he thought he'd punished Gai enough - the man was starting to fidget - he crawled over and straddled Gai's lap.
"Stop pissing me off," Kakashi said, the world-weariness creeping back into his voice finally, signaling that he'd managed to get a handle on his rage.
Gai rested tentative hands on Kakashi's waist. "Kakashi... you know I'm the one who gets pissed off."
Bending down, Kakashi bit Gai's ear. The flinch was satisfying. As was the way Gai's hands tightened.
"Shut up," Kakashi said.
"Yeah."
duelist's challenge. No actual p0rn, just implied.
"I dare someone to write serious GaiKaka."
Underneath
Naruto Ficlet
[Hm, one note - the sections are spaced apart in time, not directly consecutive.]
I.
"OHMYGODDDDDD KAKASHI!!!!!!!"
"I'm sorry, did you say something?"
Watching his sensei explode, clutching his hands to his head, Rock Lee wondered why Gai-sensei put up with these slights and insults. He respected the 'elite genius' Hatake Kakashi, of course, who didn't? But while Lee was perfectly certain Maito Gai had something to do with the hanging of the moon in the sky, truth to be told, he sometimes felt the tiniest bit embarrassed for his sensei.
On this occasion, as he watched Gai bluster and predictably, challenge his eternal rival to yet another contest of skills, the embarrassment evaporated in a swell of pride as he watched Gai engage Kakashi in a stone-skipping contest. It could have ended up in a draw because the lake unfortunately didn't have enough surface area to support more than 577 skips even at its widest point, however Gai managed to bank his stone off a shoreline tree trunk and get it to return to the lake's surface for five more skips.
Kakashi's visible eyebrow rose and his eye almost seemed to twinkle for a moment before he cast his next stone. Perhaps it was merely bad luck but the ricocheted missile was intercepted by a leaping fish on its third return skip.
Gai tried to insist on Kakashi getting a re-throw but the Copy Ninja shook his head emphatically. He pointed out that Luck was also a part of ninja skill and Lee's eyes nearly popped, though they couldn't really get much rounder.
Before he could reflect on this at any length, Gai-sensei was suddenly next to him, asking if he didn't have some training to do instead of standing around enjoying the beautiful weather - which was a little odd since Gai-sensei was quite sensitive to nature's wonders and often urged his students to enjoy them while they had the finely tuned senses of their Youth - but Lee was so abashed to be caught slacking off that he never gave it a thought, only saluted smartly enough to stir the air around him and dashed off to practice.
"Maa, maa," Kakashi murmured, rubbing a hand along the back of his neck. "I suppose you were perhaps a little harsh on the boy for a reason?"
Gai walked up close to Kakashi, placed his hands on his hips and looked into Kakashi's single visible eye.
"Blame yourself, Kakashi," he said, his deep voice calm. "For a moment you nearly had him thinking our rivalry was a matter of mutual affection and respect." He dropped his hands from his hips and placed one arm carefully around Kakashi's waist as he stepped closer, closing the gap.
"Ah," Kakashi murmured, neither surprised nor apparently uncomfortable with the gesture. "Sorry. My bad..."
"Forgiven," Gai said, his dark eyes softening. "But as you know, this is the way we've chosen. Tiresome as it might be at times."
Kakashi sighed. "Tiresome but necessary."
"Agreed. However I have no obligations for an hour or two. Neither, I think do you. So..."
"So we'd probably better find a more private spot, don't you think?" Kakashi answered sternly.
A sudden wind whipped up the leaves in a tiny cyclone around the two and the next moment, the clearing was empty.
II.
Kakashi was exhausted when he finally dragged himself home. Though he had done nothing but lay in a hospital bed, and had only just been awakened by the new Fifth Hokage, the cracks in his soul, he thought, had never been more visible.
Not much of a drinker, he nevertheless pulled the slightly dusty bottle of sake out of a cabinet and allowed himself two drinks.
He'd checked on Sasuke before leaving, but he frankly didn't have the energy or the presence of mind to have the conversation with the boy that he worried was probably needed. To see Kakashi in the state he was in now would do nothing to help Sasuke, or take his troubled mind off his outlaw brother, knowing Itachi was the reason Kakashi was less than his usual self.
Part of him wanted to take off, to run through the deep forest as fast as his exhausted limbs could take him, no more than a passing flurry of leaves, until he had outrun his heart-sickness. But, Kakashi thought wryly, he couldn't even outrun a genin as he was now. And his heartache had never yet lost that race.
He looked at the small empty cup in his hand and contemplated a third shot of sake. Then he heard an errant wind tease the kitchen window open. That latch had never been really tight.
Pouring clear liquid into the cup, he turned around as Gai came in from the kitchen.
"Here, you look like you need this," Kakashi said, putting the sake in the other man's hand.
Gai tossed the drink down and placed the cup next to the bottle.
"Thanks, Kakashi," he said. "But I need this more."
Reaching out to ease down Kakashi's mask with blunt but infinitely sensitive fingers, Gai pulled Kakashi against him. However he didn't press his lips to the elite jounin's, not right away. Instead he folded himself around Kakashi and held him tightly, closing his eyes and resting his chin on the other man's shoulder.
Stiff for just a moment, Kakashi relaxed with a sigh and leaned into the steadiest, most solid thing imaginable - Gai. He let Gai's arms support him, for just a few seconds. For that short a time, he could release his burden, knowing strong arms would hold.
"My god, Kakashi," Gai murmured, his deep voice slightly choked. "You gave me a scare."
Kakashi took a deep breath and let a little of the other man's strength - and his care, if the truth were admitted - leak into him, taking his own weight back on slightly renewed limbs.
After a moment he even summoned a soft chuckle.
"You gave me one too - that was quite an entrance. How's Lee?"
Kakashi truly expected Gai to start enthusing about Tsunade's miraculous abilities - steeled himself for it, in fact, since he found her words to him when he woke a tad bitter on his tongue. When Gai was silent, he leaned back deliberately and gave the man a shake.
Gai's head stayed slightly bowed. In fact his jaw was clenched for a moment.
"Ah," Kakashi said, regret and sympathy soft in his voice. "Like that. I'm truly sorry."
Gai took his own deep breath in turn and shook it off, metaphorically. "It wasn't what I'd counted on," he admitted. He lifted his head and met Kakashi's eye. "But I'm grateful to at least have you back."
Kakashi privately had doubts about how much "back" he was, at the moment, but he'd never say that, even to Gai.
He didn't have to. He knew from the acknowledgement in dark eyes that his thoughts were detected.
"I'll make Itachi regret whatever he did to you," the normally peaceful taijutsu master said, a hint of buried fire in his tone.
Kakashi shuddered slightly. "I hope you never have the chance. He's too much even for you, you know."
"Huh. Perhaps if he stayed to fight instead of running."
Kakashi gripped Gai's shoulder with a grip like steel, suddenly losing his exhaustion for a moment. "No," he said, simply and emphatically. "It's not the time for the original 'hot-blooded drop-out' to surface."
Gai's nostrils flared but he shrugged. "Forget Itachi, for now," he said, "He's gone." Gai pulled Kakashi close again and gently nuzzled his cheek. "You're here. I'm glad you liked my entrance. I thought it was an artistic touch, which nevertheless allowed me to be there and see your eyes open finally." He heaved a sigh. "It's been difficult, wandering by only for minutes at a time, between visits to Lee. I didn't know if you'd wake up."
Kakashi allowed his arms to circle Gai's neck, feeling guilty for having caused such worry. It was why he tried to keep from getting close to people. "You shouldn't bother worrying about such things. The strong get back up. The weak are better off asleep, I guess." Of course he didn't mean asleep and he didn't mean anyone except himself.
"Shut up," Gai said. He sought a kiss and found it, letting his worry and relief find an outlet. As usual, Kakashi's passivity evaporated after a few seconds and the kiss reversed and became ferocious as the core of the Copy Ninja responded to yet another brush with death.
Kakashi lasted longer than he expected.
Gai wasn't surprised.
Afterwards they lay together on the rumpled sheets, deadly hands occasionally touching skin, threading through dark hair like heavy silk or silver hair as wiry as a canine's. Black and silver, heavy eyebrows and scarred face - two imperfect people finding wholeness for the briefest of moments.
"At times like these, the masquerade wears thin," Gai muttered.
"I told you this was a bad idea, years ago. You wouldn't listen," Kakashi murmured. Bad idea or not, he thought it was just possible it kept him going.
"You have your mask and hitai-ate," Gai replied. "I have my silly haircut and fool's act. They over-estimate you, and under-estimate me. It's a system - it works." Satisfied with his own logic, Gai ran hands down Kakashi's bare body and sighed.
In spite himself, Kakashi smiled. Mentally, he damned Gai with the faintest of damnings for being able to provoke that expression from him when no one and nothing else could.
III.
Remarkably, the contest was going beyond extra innings. Sweat poured off Gai, soaking his green jumpsuit as he dodged a blow from his rival and parried. He had bruises all over his body - Kakashi wasn't pulling his punches at all - but the Copy ninja would also have his share. Once Gai figured out the level of seriousness, and what he was up against, something inside had sprung to life with a happy yell. It was probably for the best no one was around to see this match, it would have left too many jaws hanging.
Just at the moment where his battle-mind calculated he'd probably have to reach down and open the Gates, Kakashi hit him with a furious series of kicks that brought him down and he found a kunai at his throat.
"Don't even think about the Lotus," Kakashi hissed.
"You win," Gai managed. There was something about the way the Sharingan whirled, about the chilled look in the other, grey eye. For a second he wondered if the kunai was going to be retracted or not.
A shower and change of clothes later, he half expected to find the kitchen window fastened tight.
When it wasn't, he felt a bit of relief, though the absence of lights in the apartment suggested Kakashi might not be home.
"Bring the sake," the voice from the other room came through the shadows.
Gai sighed and secured the bottle and two cups. Kakashi sitting in his living room in the dark wasn't a very good sign.
He poured and handed one cup, and poured and emptied the other, sitting down with a sigh beside the other jounin, but not touching. Kakashi had boundary issues at times and he'd learned when to respect them.
The silence stretched out. Finally Gai broke it. "When did you hear?"
"What were you thinking? What if Lee hadn't survived the operation?" Kakashi asked, his voice icily neutral. "You promise to die with him?"
"You know what I was thinking," Gai said, and sighed.
"You are a complete asshole, you know."
Gai nodded. He accepted this, from one man.
"Don't think you're going to get out of it by agreeing with me."
"I don't." Gai said, in the resigned tones of a doomed man.
Kakashi was silent for a while longer, aware that his rival wasn't as comfortable with it as he pretended.
When he thought he'd punished Gai enough - the man was starting to fidget - he crawled over and straddled Gai's lap.
"Stop pissing me off," Kakashi said, the world-weariness creeping back into his voice finally, signaling that he'd managed to get a handle on his rage.
Gai rested tentative hands on Kakashi's waist. "Kakashi... you know I'm the one who gets pissed off."
Bending down, Kakashi bit Gai's ear. The flinch was satisfying. As was the way Gai's hands tightened.
"Shut up," Kakashi said.
"Yeah."