Hidden Depths
Trust Arc
The ground disappeared beneath him and he was no longer sure that stepping off the building had been the best idea, foggy mind or not.
He'd bought himself several minutes in his near suicidal dash across the roofs, and it wasn't his injured state that would no doubt worsen dramatically upon contact with the distant ground that was worrying him either. What was making him second guess his decision was a certain sneaky bastard already occupying the alley.
Confusion and disorientation didn't prevent him holding a his finger to his lips as the bastard watched him fall. He was far too used to his unexpected appearances to do less.
He crumpled as gracefully as he could manage with no chakra to soften the impact, and counted it as a success when he only exacerbated his current injuries and didn't add any new ones. The world was contorted wildly around him and he couldn't be bothered to get up. Something about seeing Gai here had taken the urgency out of his escape. It didn't help that he couldn't quite put his finger on why he'd been running in the first place. Nothing was making much sense - it was his instincts that had him running before he'd even seen his pursuers - or that he could remember seeing them. Being right most of the time he hadn't second guessed them in his befuddled state. And yet it almost seemed as if he was running across the roofs of Konoha... somewhere he should've been safe unless he'd forgotten something extremely important. And now he'd also run into someone as distinctive as their village.
But wacky dream or not, he couldn't imagine a would where he couldn't trust Gai. Not even his dreams could warp Gai from his... eccentricities. The implications of his presence on the other hand... there was something... When was the last time he'd spoken to Gai?
"Sorry Gai, but I'll make poor competition right now. Rain check?" Despite his quiet voice, the oddity of his words seemed to ring around his head. Gai hadn't even issued a challenge yet - and his words... why was he so serious? He rubbed clumsily at his eye and tried to focus on the green body suit. But his eye refused to focus, leaving the form much smaller than it should be in his doubled vision.
"Ah," he said, as he recalled his pursuers. "That might be quite some time - so many people don't want to let me rest." He slumped back against the wall. They were what had woken him up, so that made some sort of sense didn't it? That that was what they wanted? His vision was blacking out at the sides, but as long as he had pursuers he couldn't fall into oblivion his body obviously needed. He became vaguely aware of murmuring that might have been someone speaking and he refocused, actually seeing the oddly small green blobs again. "Ne... I'll play you rock-paper-scissors for an undisturbed bed." He couldn't quite help the the smile that quirked the corner of his lips, but his mask would hide it if the darkness wouldn't.
The indistinct murmuring that faded in and out of his faulty hearing cut off abruptly. Ah, he'd surprised him. Again. It always bemused him that Gai would be so surprised when he'd been the one to first to trick him into hiding at Gai's when he was injured and wary of facing the rest of the world. Maybe the 'youthful' bastard wouldn't consider it tricking him, setting it as the condition of one of their competitions if Gai won. A rigged bet if ever there was one with the state Kakashi had been in, but he'd gone along with it. They'd just been chuunin then, but since then they'd repeated the occasion several times.
A hand on his shoulder snapped his attention back to the green again. "Anytime, Kakashi." His pursuers left his mind and he slipped from consciousness with those words. There were many people who would call him crazy for relying on Gai of all people for a task requiring stealth. Some would have thought he hadn't even made it clear enough that he wanted stealth. Even after his stint in ANBU few people realized what he was capable of aside from his overwhelming skills in taijutsu. But Gai had been ambushing him since they first met, stubbornly popping up and preventing the equally stubborn chuunin Kakashi from avoiding him, and carrying the tradition on for as may years as they'd known each other. Most people didn't realize that Gai's sneakiness vs. his own senses was the most consistent part of their 'rivalry.'
No one had ever found him on the multiple occasions that he'd relied on Gai's hospitality. Not even ANBU would be able to bother him.
Note: Not edited. Let me know if I made any mistakes