Archive of Our Own ^beta

The exact second Itachi opened his red eyes, it was over.

This fight was already decided long before it began.

Kakashi knew it. The two shinobi behind him didn't know it, but will soon realize it. This battle wasn't looking good for them at all, the power of the Uchiha's Genjutsu way too strong, too intense when they're one-on-one.

There was no way they could fight the Akatsuki like this - With Asuma and Kurenai essentially blinded, and no reinforcements coming their way - they were done for.

Unless Kakashi could somehow handle this alone, their chances of survival were slim.

One look at Itachi confirms it. Both of them knew how this is gonna end. When those red eyes focus, zeroing the Sharingan straight on the copy ninja, Tomoe flashing and spinning, the snare has already sprung.

It's too late. The Kekken Genkai will always beat a bonafide-Sharingan user.

As the sky turns bloody, and the river flows with tar, Kakashi stills. Every strike, every stab wound that comes - it becomes blurry, too much pain coming too fast. It only gets worse, every second, every breath - which is how he finds himself here, once more.

Three days in that world. Barely a moment has passed in this one.

" Kakashi? "

" Kakashi?! What just happened? "

A splash of water, and their teammate goes down like a tree cut for lumber. His hands weakly support him on the surface, chakra fading fast. Mind screaming to collapse.

Kurenai and Asuma don't know what to do, struck motionless on water, while Kakashi can't move at all. The phantom pain of three days of torture shackles him down, and returns with a vengeance, like a physical blow.

He winces around his middle with a gasp, curling up, a full-body shudder running through him. He's fine, he knows, logically, but it doesn't take the knowledge of death away.

It feels real - way more real than the world he returned to. Fresh. Raw.

"Kakashi! Can we open our eyes now?!"

Shouted words blur above him, yet he doesn't register their meaning.

"What's up with you?! One second the guy's talking and the next you hit the ground!"

His breathing stutters as things come back into focus. The water flickers below, and in it, he sees his enemies reflected. Kakashi feels his eyes slowly closing, and shakes his head.

He fights the fatigue with all he has left - Spouting his own words and insults at the enemy, just to stall, just to do something.

Then, just as he hits his limit, just as he feels he's about to collapse...

He hears it.

" --SEVERE LEAF HURRICANEEEE!!! "

Gai descends like a godsend.

He's swift, cutting the fight short at the last second with sheer power alone. Gai's here - He's here, ready, his familiar green suit and orange leg-warmers and weights in tow. The other shinobi gasp in shock at his arrival, but Kakashi can only sigh out in pure relief.

Everything will be fine now...

Kisame is thrown back harshly by the force of Gai's kick, far away from the group. His own attack fails as water rips beneath his feet in a stagger, an angry frown on his fish face.

He snarls, "Well, who do we have here?!"

Itachi meanwhile squints, still recovering, but his eyes are locked firmly onto the new threat.

Gai simply smiles. He faces the two Akatsuki with confidence. "Me? The leaf-village's fiercest beast of battle. I am... Might Gai!"

The blue beast grins wide. He barely spares the water-ninja any attention, eyes all on the rouge Konoha Uchiha, or more accurately, his feet. Ready to strike him down.

Itachi merely twitches before the Blue Beast, irritated.

Before Gai has the chance to fight, however, there's a splash behind him. He whips around, and reacts just as fast.

Kakashi's eyes have closed against his will. He loses his spirit too fast to recover, giving up his body into water. Not long after, darkness consumes him.

The Tsukuyomi's toll claims him entirely.

All sensations blur together into a nauseating mixture.

- Warm hands catch him, and he knows nothing more.

When the Akatsuki flee the scene, venomous threats leaving their lips, the Konoha shinobi find themselves on edge.

It doesn't make any sense - and like abandoned prey, it takes them a second to calm back down.

Asuma bites down his cigarette in an aggressive growl. Kurenai looks up at him, thoughtful expression on her face, and tries to support Kakashi's limp body, currently hanging off of her shoulder. Gai remains tense in an defensive position, fists ready, confused about what just happened.

By all accounts, they're lucky to be alive...

Still poised to fight, none of them relax for a long moment to come. Gai looks at the spot the Akatsuki occupied a second ago, remaining protective even after the enemy retreated. His stance doesn't change, and his eyes seek threats, finding none.

Only after he's absolutely sure no further attack is coming, does he look back, worried.

"We must report this right away, no?" Kurenai frowns, a puzzled expression on her face. "They're after the 'fourth's legacy'. That's what Itachi said to Kakashi, before--"

"How is he?" Seeing her struggle with Kakashi, Gai comes up to her, taking the other side. The woman nods in thanks.

"...He's alive. Shaking, and unconscious, but alive... Just what have they done to him..?"

Asuma scoffs. "The Uchiha staple. A Genjutsu, I bet."

"I've never seen a Genjutsu like this before..."

Gai takes the first step off the water, shaking his head. "It's not just any Genjutsu. It's the Uchiha's Sharingan - a strong one, too, if it managed to beat Kakashi's."

Asuma turns to them, wary. "Should we get him to the hospital? Or do we report this, first?"

Gai knows they should follow the Akatsuki. The three shinobi all know the proper procedure for such situations - especially since these criminals could still be nearby, in the leaf village, wrecking havoc.

Trying to trace their chakra signature immediately would help them find out what the Akatsuki are really doing here. Gai was no sensory type, but the ANBU he summoned would typically have one on hand.

Besides recognizing Itachi, he hasn't even identified the other criminal yet, his face fleeting his mind. There were too many unknowns to leave unsolved, or to push for later.

And yet...

Gai knows there's only a slim chance they will find Itachi and whatever-his-face, anyway.

He's too worried to leave his rival alone - and he won't. They all know it, even before he says it aloud.

"No." Gai affirms, deciding. "Kakashi hates hospitals... Besides, once he wakes up, we might get more intel on these guys. We stay with him. Who were they targeting again?"

"That's the thing--" Asuma starts, and as they move, they try not to think about how Kakashi is still out cold.

Gai prided himself in his ability to heal fast. Getting back up after being struck down became easy once he's done it again and again and again.

He rarely got sick, too, and usually recovered within a day.

Injuries were nothing new, his skin covered in enough scars from training to never scar again. Bruises were a dear friend, at this point.

His perfected Taijutsu prevented most wounds from occurring in the first place, and his body dealt with the rest.

His tiredness disappeared after a few hours of sleep - and good sleep, especially after opening the chakra gates - returned him to full strength at lightning speeds.

He excelled at bouncing back quickly.

It was his creed, his burning youth, and his essence.

Gai healed fast, true - It was one of the things he prided himself in, something in which he had his rival beat. His recovery was exceptional on all fronts, indeed.

It typically was a point of triumph.

A victory.

Yet, as Gai stares down at Kakashi, passed out on his futon, hours after the fight, he doesn't feel so proud anymore. Wherein Gai healed fast, Kakashi was the complete opposite.

Asuma and Kurenai have long left them, chasing after Sasuke and mobilizing the ANBU, but Gai couldn't bring himself to leave. He swore to watch over his rival, and he doesn't break his promises that easily.

Besides - He's too worried to leave him alone. 

First Lee, now Kakashi... all people dear to him kept getting hurt. What kind of sensei and rival was he, to allow such things to happen?!

What was he missing?

What else did he have to endure..?

"...If i don't fix this, I'll have to run 300 laps around the village! No, 500 LAPS!!!"

Determined, Gai brings a cold cloth to Kakashi's forehead. The man is twitching in his sleep, feverish, whimpering occasionally - it breaks Gai's heart every time he hears it.

Despite being out of the Genjutsu, the copy-nin was still struck deep in a nightmare. His silver hair was tousled with sweat, glistening in the moonlight. A quiet tension keeps his entire body taut, refusing to relax.

His eyebags were so dark, they almost looked like bruises - and Gai still didn't understand exactly why.

"Rival - please, snap out of it! It's no time for sleeping!!!" The taijutsu master pleads again, shaking his shoulder. He's used to Kakashi looking tired, but this was beyond concerning.

The unconscious man only breathes, low, eye squeezed shut.

He doesn't wake.

Gai has tried many things already. Release signs, channeling chakra, shaking Kakashi, hitting Kakashi, water, and the sharp scents of ginger. Typical Genjutsu would have been long broken by now - which meant this one was something else.

Something else entirely.

The cold compress slipped off Kakashi's forehead. Gai corrected it with a frown.

Then - just a twitch of lashes, an uncertain movement. As if Kakashi tried to blink with hie eyes closed.

Another flutter, this time longer. One eyelid cracks open after it, lashes parting.

A dark iris finds Gai, slowly. The two Jonin lock eyes briefly before Kakashi loses focus, but nonetheless, Gai is overjoyed.

"Rival!!! Are you feeling any better?!" His louvoice makes Kakashi flinch, and wince right after.

"G..ai..." The copy-nin shakes his head side to side, sight lost and fuzzy. He was becoming agitated, arms moving to prop him up to sit, but lacking the strength to do so.

The second his muscles tense, Kakashi gasps, and goes back down.

"Rival?! What's wrong?! You're not injured - are you???" The Taijutsu master frets over him, reaching to support him. A medical scan earlier showed nothing wrong, yet his friend looked to be in too much pain for it to be nothing.

The silver-haired man curled up, shaking. "H-Hurts... Stop..." He said in whispers, but his vulnerability showed loudly with every movement he made. Typically, only Gai could see him like this, and it made the man's frown deepen.

Kakashi was a picture of exhaustion. He shook, body wound so tight to protect himself, yet pained in a way a wounded animal would be. Defeated - and weak.

Trying to set a hand on his back only earned Gai a violent flinch, and a choked whimper so heartbreaking, the dark-haired man couldn't believe his ears.

In all their years together, it has never been quite this bad...

"Rival, I... don't understand... - what has happened to you? Why are you--"

A dark eye cracks open. It looks at Gai with such defeat and anguish it shuts him right up.

Still, while Kakashi looks at him, and sees his best friend hovering in concern, he most notice the hand, too. The Taijutsu master moves it slowly, setting it on Kakashi's back - carefully, this time.

The other man shudders, but doesn't flinch. His eyes close as Gai strokes his spine gently, and rubs circles into his shoulders.

The shaking slowly stops as Gai pets Kakashi, correcting the blanket as he goes. The man seems to relax, body no longer tense with pain, but also no longer awake.

"Kakashi..?"

Only heavy breathing answers him.

His friend has went back into an unresponsive sleep, which was bordering on a coma at this point.

...Maybe a hospital was necessary, after all.

After Tsunade has healed Kakashi a few days later, and removed her palm from his forehead, the man looked no healthier than before.

Despite his coma, tiredness clung to his features like a disease, a haunted look still in his eyes. He barely sat up - with Gai's help this time, leaning into his rival a lot more than usual.

To think the mental damage was so severe that they needed a legendary med-nin Sannin to heal him was worrying, to say the least.

"Sorry..." Even the way Kakashi spoke sounded so broken, and Gai winced just by hearing it. "It won't happen again, Lady Tsunade..."

After they exited the room to attend to Sasuke and Lee, Gai had a brief moment to look at his rival. He was so deep in the pillows they nearly swallowed him - and his features were more pale than usual, sickly blending with the white sheets.

The copy-nin could feel the heavy stare on himself. He noticed the unusual gloom around the other, and tried to give his rival a reassuring eye-smile, but Gai could tell right away that it was forced.

"I'm okay, Gai. Go tend to your student - I'm sure he needs you more right now."

"That's not--"

Kakashi gave him a chuckle. His hands were shaking, but he saluted, hoping that his friend would return the goodbye.

Gai did no such thing.

While, yes, he was torn on leaving his best friend here alone and running anxiously to check up on Lee, he could see through the thin facade his rival put up. His thick eyebrows furrowed, and his arms crossed, determined.

"I don't appreciate being lied to, rival! Where is the spirit of youthful passion, one that values honor and honesty!!! I know that something still bothers you, and--!!!"

"Maaa, why are you so dramatic..."

Gai almost stumbled away, a wave of cool indifference hitting him so swiftly, it left him gaping.

Kakashi has already procured Icha-Icha from somewhere, eye behind the text, and that cemented the Blue Beast's decision. If Kakashi was fine enough to give him sass, maybe he wasn't so troubled after all.

"This topic is NOT over, eternal rival!!! I will be back to challenge you head-on LATER!!! Don't you forget that!"

"Say hi to Lee for me, would you?"

As Gai saluted back, heading for the hallway and to his student, Kakashi let out a sigh.

Behind closed eyes, he could still see those three days of torture. That crimson red world, spinning around him... Itachi's red reflection on the blade of a sword, bringing him back from death only to kill him again and again. The pain he endured only in his mind.

His hand wanders to his torso, free of stab wounds and spilling guts. Completely clean and unmarred. Just sore.

A mere memory of it remains. One he doesn't think he will ever forget.

And yet...

He sighs, and looks fondly out the hospital window.

When his mind was healed just now, and everyone was in his room, he felt... warmer. Safer. Not at all thinking of what he had endured.

He had good people around him to support him. He had students that needed him - just as much as he needed them. A rival that he wouldn't trade for anything in this world - A best friend that knew him better than he knew himself.

Maybe he wasn't recovered fully just yet, but with time and people by his side - he was sure he would be.