So you don't HAVE to read Kakashi and Hanare (My other fic) to get this one at all. But it sure would help understand parts of this. Enjoy!
She's not quite sure when she fell for him.
Shizune had known Mito Gai since childhood. If only due to Gai's constant presence at Hatake Kakashi's side, and even back then EVERYONE knew kakashi. Maybe it was because Gai and her elder cousin, Asuma, were academy friends; she, herself would stick to her cousin's side like glue.
She had graduated the academy a year early and Gai had taken two tries at the Genin exams before he passed, setting them two years apart in age. Shizune knew that she would have been assigned to be the Konoichi on Gai's team, along with Genma Shiranui. If she had not left with Tsunade-sama shortly after, Ebisu, her classmate who had graduated early along with her, would not have had to take the spot.
Those were her few memories of Gai during her childhood.
Over a decade later, on her return to the village, not many people had remembered her.
Gai, though, he remembered.
He had singled her out on the busy streets and captured her in the most aggressive bear hug of her life. She hadn't really changed that dramatically when it came to her appearance, and obviously neither did Gai. He still wore the same ridiculous clothes and the same stupid expressions. Even his attitude seemed to have become more insane. What did change, and this went for the pair of them, were their abilities.
Perhaps that was why she developed feelings for him.
She was second only to Tsunade-sama in medical ninjutsu, and wasn't a half bad solider either. Gai had procured the title of "Konoha's Green Beast." A name that had been given to him due to his skill and power. Surely, if he had had a hand in his own legendary title, it would have been exceedingly more theatrical.
He had proved himself. He was no longer the wistful loser that hounded Kakashi and claimed that he would surpass his "eternal rival." Gai was feared and respected. The only ones who dared to mock him these days were either his close friends, or those who had a death wish.
Not that Maito Gai would ever even contemplate harming anyone who didn't threaten him or his village. He was too whole-heartedly righteous to go after anyone who simply made fun of him. That was an attractive quality he possessed. He could take alot. Physically and emotionally.
They had seen each other often enough through the recent years. She would always be by her master's side and he, a prevailing Jonin, was called to the Hokage's office regularly.
Shizune speculated that his big heart had attracted her to him.
The first thing she saw of him was his love for his student that been injured during that year's Chunin exam. He deeply cared for "His Lee" and would do anything to help him. He seemed to have so much eccentric love pouring out of his heart, that he had to blast others with it at every possible situation that did and did NOT call for it. Shizune was at the receiving end of this kindness frequently.
Maybe that was it.
It could have also been his incredible determination. He had the most ambition of any shinobi she had ever seen. Gai pushed his team to their absolute limits; but he was never cruel. He was understanding and patient with them. If all in his own obnoxious way.
He would train himself to near death daily.
Shizune would have to revive him from these bouts if he didn't recover with mere will power alone. Though, she never complained too ardently. She would scold him and send him on his way, but each time gave her the opportunity to glimpse Gai's perfectly muscled physique. The bulging muscles, the hills and valleys of his back, his tight sculpted stomach. Even unconscious, Gai had an understated beauty to his face, his hair would be slightly raffled and his prominent features, softened. She realised she liked looking at him like that.
Maybe that was why she fell for this man.
After years of being in the shadow of Tsunade-sama, always serving those above her. It would be nice to be with someone who gave their all into everything they did. She imagined, if Gai were in a relationship, he would go all out every second of the day for her. He would make her feel special and important and cherished. She would always be there to take care of him and give him all the love she possessed.
She had only become conscious of her feelings after the war. When everything had settled and her master stepped down. In all honesty, she had this affection for the green beast, now the mythical Red beast, for a long time. When it had started she could only guess. And she tried very, very hard to guess. Shizune didn't know how it happened, it just seemed to happen. By the time she only just started to realise her feelings, said feelings were on the road of no return. The tiny twinges of euphoria that would spark up like pinpricks on a blank background, only intensified every time she saw him, growing to their current state of magnificent, bursting fireworks that would make her legs go weak.
Gai was a constant visitor of his Eternal Rival, the new Hokage. He was second in command, serving as Kakashi's chief advisor and military strategist. The sixth had, in addition, appointed Gai to oversee the Genin and Chunin examinations indefinitely. Something about Gai being the only one able to stand all that youthful potential and optimism year after year.
Every morning Konoha's legendary beast would escort Kakashi-sama to his office. (If Gai didn't then kakashi would show up around sunset). He would make tea for them and then, if he was not needed in the office he would either supervise Lee on his daily training or try to train himself to walk again. Over the Hokage's lunch break he would reappear to challenge his rival to some competition or the other and then finally leave till he hauled Kakashi back in the morning.
It was heart breaking for Shizune to see Gai, a taijutsu master, wheeling himself around the village. She was a medic, she wanted to heal him, see him walking and running and going on the missions he so loved again. But what could she do? Find a transplant to replace the sensory tracts in his spinal cord; that would only bring him the sensation of pain and then what? This wasn't like Naruto and Sasuke where a simple limb could make them whole again. Gai needed a completely new body. And even then, she, as she had come to realise, loved him just as he was, broken and all. To everyone's amazement Gai had actually succeeded in standing on his own, it was anatomically and physiologically impossible, she knew he was doing it on mere will power alone. Everything this man did amazed her.
He was like a drug. His presence alone would flood her systems with dopamine. No matter how many times she saw him and no matter the lengths of time she stayed by his side the effects never wore off, never desensitized. She mused at his behaviour sometimes, they things he would say and do. She found herself giggling at his little quirks. He was rather endearing.
The day she finally understood what her feelings were, she denied them to the ends of the earth. It just could not be possible. Not him. He was Gai. He had about the sex appeal of a turtle...well until you saw what was beneath the spandex. He was loud and in your face, she was timid and shy.
She knew better than anyone that when it came right down to the facts, this whole love nonsense was pure biochemistry. Not even just biology or chemistry, like the ill-informed love songs and bad pickup lines went on and on about.
It was probably the tea.
That was it.
No one ever made Shizune's tea perfectly. Not even Tsunade-sama, who she had spent half her life with. Then, one morning, she found herself drinking the perfect cup. Gai had brewed it for the three of them and while kakashi would modify his in every possible way, Gai and Shizune drank it straight out of the kettle. It was perfect. Sweet enough, bitter enough, the strength of the tea came through just right. That was the day she really owned up to her feelings.
She fought with herself for weeks on the issue until it sunk in and she realised she really was absolutely smitten with this, boisterous, insane, outlandish man. This was around the time Kakashi's wife asked Shizune to give her a pregnancy test. The next day Kakashi announced that they would be having their second child.
Maybe it was all the hormones in the air.
Shizune was pretty sure she was buzzed with the excitement of the baby when she started to look for any indication that Gai might view her as more than just a friend. The way he watched her, or handed her a tea cup, any changes in his behaviour around her.
She even tried to subtly give Gai a hint to her feelings. An unintentional bump that could have easily been avoided, a lingering smile, a brush of hands when giving him a scroll. She made the tea for an entire week, hoping Gai might catch on the way she did.
He didn't.
Aside from his usual good-natured, yet, over the top compliments, he showed no sign of reciprocating her love. He just accepted the cup and guzzled its contents down while giving a "youthful speech filled with all the springtime energy of Maito Gai" to his Hokage.
She tried even more direct methods after that. She asked Gai out for drinks after an especially hectic day, as platonic friends of course. He declined as he had made arrangements to have dinner with his remaining two students. Shizune didn't have the gall to ask him out a second time. She even threw in a few ''I love you-s" when Gai would help her carry a heavy stack of papers in his lap or get his eternal rival to put down his porn novels.
…..Nothing.
Five weeks of fawning over the man, she finally broke down to her master. Unfortunately, Tsunade spent most of that conversation wondering what kind of drug Shizune had injected herself with. Then, as Shizune was forced to live a life of horrible coincidences, TenTen of all the Konoichi in the village, walked in on their conversation.
The weapons specialist was too ecstatic on the possibility that a female could actually want a relationship with her sensei that she didn't bother to be shocked, or question Shizune's sobriety for that matter.
That conversation did nothing to help Shizune's nerves or dwindling blood supply as her face was a constant shade of deep scarlet. Both her master and Gai's student spoke as if she could have Gai wrapped around her scalpel in no time. They didn't understand what Shizune had taken possibly years to see. Gai was amazing. He was strong and skilled. He was sweet, passionate and indulgent. He definitely was intelligent after she had witnessed all those rare but intricate conversations he had with Kakashi.
If anything Gai had her swooning. All he needed to do was hold his perfect pinky out and she would wrap herself around it.
"You need to tell him, Shizune-neechan!" TenTen concluded, "Gai-sensei needs to be told things like this, he would never figure it out himself."
"Just fess up, it's not like he could reject you." Tsunade urged on, pointing with her sake bottle, "You're my apprentice, have confidence!"
"Tsunade-sama!" Shizune snatched the bottle of alcohol, "You can NOT drink in a hospital!"
She just waved her off and continued, "Tell the man you like him, if that brat could get a girl and get her knocked up twice, you can tell Gai you have a little crush on him."
"That's not a bad idea." TenTen spoke up excitedly, "We were all a bit surprised when Kakashi-sensei got married, Gai-sensei didn't take it as a challenge to dive into a marriage himself and have an army of kids to out do him."
"Because things like that aren't supposed to be a challenge. Gai is too thoughtful to just get involved with someone for a stupid challenge." Shizune rightfully defended her crush.
"You are in love."
TenTen and Shizune turned towards the Head medic in the Leaf village, taken aback at her serious tone. Whether the twinkle in her eye was from the alcohol or not, Shizune didn't know, but thought it was quite probable.
"Alright, Shizune." Tsunade spoke as if she were giving a battle plan, "You have to tell him how you feel, don't let it become some regret of your life."
"...Tsunade-sama..."
"She's right. If you love him, don't wait till it's too late." TenTen added.
Shizune shook her blushing face and nodded to both of them. She was going to tell him.
How was she going to tell him?
She couldn't just say it infront of everybody. She would have to get them alone. And he was usually alone when he trained… well meditated. Just to be safe she sent Lee on a long term mission that day. Maybe she should borrow some make-up from Tsunade-sama?
Shizune waited a full twelve minutes after Gai had left that morning to follow him to his usual training ground. She had barely choked down Gai's superb tea and her throat still felt constricted from her anxiety. Gai raised his head in her direction as she approached with light pink glossy lips and too dark and too long eyelashes.
"Ah, Shizune-chan!"
He sat up straight giving her his nice-guy smile. Hearing his deep voice say her name caused impulses from her autonomic nervous system make her heart rate to sporadically increase. Even though she knew that the feeling in her stomach was just the blood that usually accumulated in her abdomen, being redirected to her limbs in her fight or flight response to being in a compromising situation, those damn metaphorical butterflies were persistent.
Today Gai was dressed in his soft green yukata that made him all the more handsome, the angles of his masculine face stood out more and the cloth of his shirt hooked just right on his still muscular shoulders. Gai had lost considerable muscle mass due to his inability to move freely but he had somehow still maintained his fit physique.
"Hello, Gai." She forced her voice not to shake, not that it actually worked.
"Are you here to witness my marvellous training regime?!" He punched the air. "I will be more than happy to share some fiery pieces of advice!"
"Um, not right now-" She began, and mentally diagnosed herself with tachycardia.
"Oh! Then is my eternal rival not doing his work? Do you need me talk to him on the important responsibilities he now has to fulfil!?"
"Well...yes, but that's not what I wanted to talk to you about." Shizune said shyly.
"So, do I have a mission then? Does Lee need my help?!" Gai's lip wobbled and he looked as if he would burst into tears.
"No, everything's fine with Lee. And you don't have a mission." She corrected him immediately. Gai's recent 'missions' consisted of him yelling at the new Jonin and on the rare occasion Hanare's ANBU for not having the proper form or tactical skills.
"Are you all right? You're face is all red." He pushed himself right up to her, his knees hitting her legs and craned himself miles closer to her face.
"I, um." Shizune took a deep breath, "Would you-"
"You should go lay down, you don't look so well." Gai interrupted.
"Gai-"
"Now your lip is shaking, if you didn't notice maybe Lady Tsunade can give you a check up."
"GAI. Will you shut up! I'm trying to tell you…I REALLY LIKE YOU AND I'M HERE TO ASK YOU ON A DATE-"
….
There was a poof and Gai was gone.
He had shouted something to Shizune but she didn't hear. All she could focus on was the retched emptiness she felt. The ringing in her ears.
She dropped to the ground, her eyes glassing over.
He ran.
He didn't want her. He was so repulsed by the offer of a date with her that he teleported away. She had made a fool of herself. She had ruined her friendship with Gai. They had settled into a comfortable rhythm with each other over the last year and now she had put a Kunai through their familiar clockwork. How was she supposed to get through the day now? Seeing him. Her place was at the Hokage's Tower, and Gai would always be there now because of Kakashi.
Oh right, Kakashi-sama. She needed to get back or the Hokage would take the rest of the day off and disappear. More slowly than she had ever walked in her life, she made her way back to the office. Up the many flights of stairs, every corner reminded her of a moment with Gai.
She spent hours just mindlessly going through the motions of directing her Hokage. She didn't even bother to tell Kakashi off for reading porn while he signed a stack of trading documents.
Was she really that horrible? Her master and Gai's own student didn't think so. What had she really expected to happen? Definitely not for him to run away, well teleport away, saying he ran made her sink deeper into her depression, he should be able to run, even if it was away. Maybe in her dreams, he would have burst into happy tears and pulled her into his lap, wrap his strong arms around her, all while telling her how much he loved her. Then if she was lucky, he might have cradled her face in the hands that had seen too many and too often scars and gently kiss her. Then take her out on a romantic date and they could have lived happily ever after.
"Shizune?"
Kakashi called from behind his book. "Are you alright?"
Snapping back to reality, she answered, "Fine, Kakashi-sama."
"Don't call me 'Sama', and are you sure everything's ok?" he actually wiggled his book around in the air.
"Yes," She said belatedly. "I just have something on my mind."
The Hokage shrugged and continued with his reading. Kakashi had been banned from bringing those books into his house after his wife had their first son. He was lucky they were a memento from Jiraiya or he would have been banned from them completely.
Shizune lost track of time sitting there lost in her thoughts. Some indiscernible length of time later an enormous, pink, frilly mass, coated in glitter burst through the door.
"Shizune? Are you there?" A voice called from the centre of the thing.
"Gai?" She answered uncertainly, her pulse already having shot up and her cheeks flushing.
Sure enough his head popped out next to a stuffed gold fish. It was amazing that one man could hold so many stuffed animals, roses, red and white cards, heart shaped balloons and boxes of chocolates.
"Shizune! What is the matter my loveliest?!" he dropped said pink and red pile to the floor and grabbed Shizune by the hand, pulling her towards him.
She wiped her free hand across her watering eyes to see an ugly black smudge appear on the back of her hand. Oh wonderful, now she probably looked like a raccoon.
"You ran away." Her small voice told him. Shizune's legs finally gave out and her knees dropped to the floor. She looked up at Gai through her dark hair, their hands still connected.
"I told you to wait right there, I wanted to shower my affections onto you! I noticed you before, in the springtime of our youth, but I knew you didn't like me and now, after you said that, I had to make up for those lost times!"
There was a thump as Kakashi's book fell to the floor, or maybe it was Shizune's heart. This was a whole lot more interesting than the book he was re-reading for the 43rd time. When he saw Gai tumble into the office like that, he thought Gai had finally realised he could challenge him for title of Hokage and had brought all that crap for Kakashi to give him when he won.
This. This he was not expecting.
"You...want me?" Shizune's voice was dripping with hopeful coyness.
"Yes I do! I really, really want you! I like you to...to the heavens and back my Dear Shizune!" Gai proclaimed loud enough for the village to hear. "With all the hot-blooded, youthful love I possess!"
His 'Dear Shizune' then slapped him right across his cheek.
"Don't you ever run away from me when I tell you something important!"
Kakashi knew Shizune could have the same insane strength as her master when she chose to. He thought Gai got off with a diminutive warning.
"I apologise for the misunderstanding, my Shizune." Gai had gone completely serious, "I don't want to ever hurt you, If I ever do, I will...I will..."
"Do twenty consecutive S-rank missions...and make ten thousand laps around the village?" Kakashi recommended from his desk.
They whipped their heads in the direction of their Hokage. Apparently, both had forgotten they weren't alone.
"Yes! I swear it! I will do that if I ever make Shizune sad!" Gai proclaimed. "I swear on the Hokage's life!"
Kakashi was wondering why the hell did Gai have to swear on his life. Especially when Shizune was giving him a death stare at the very moment.
"You could have suggested something less dangerous, Kakashi." Shizune broke out of Gai's iron grip to fold her arms disapprovingly at the silver haired man. "You know that Gai can't…can't…." Her voice trailing off, a new wave of sorrow submerging her newly found happiness.
"Hanare always acts like she wants me dead when I upset her, you'll see." Kakashi shrugged, "Plus, Gai can take you out somewhere nice after you forgive him with all the money he'll make from the missions."
"Take you out." Gai said like he just remembered something, "Shizune, my loveliest, beautifulest, smartest, most magnificent Shizune, will you accept a date with me?"
A small smile touched the medic's lips. "Yes."
Shizune uttered one word but Gai exploded like a firecracker the moment it hit against his eardrum.
After he calmed down, Gai said, still shaking, "Where should we go? A picnic on top the Hokage monument? Or we can go to the new Konoha museum? I can take you for dinner at the fancy sushi restaurant in the capital? Or there is a place in the lightening country that is supposed to have the best food of anywhere. We can go to the LOK waterfall, that's where Kakashi and Han-AOUCH!"
Kakashi threw a stapler at Gai's head to shut him up. Now was not the place to speak of certain things.
Shizune healed the gash on Gai's skull before slipping her hand in his.
"Gai, let's go for a walk." She pushed Gai's wheelchair gracefully to the door, "Then, maybe some tea?" Kakashi couldn't help but smile noticing that Gai had one hand tenderly over Shizune's as she pushed him.
Kakashi watched them go. Now he was left without his blushing and possibly fearless assistant and no idea what had to be done. Oh, well. He might as well leave early and enjoy some time with his wife before she got into that crazy pregnancy mode.
"What did you do at the waterfall?" the ANBU that materialised at the corner of the room asked threateningly.
"Oh, nothing." The Hokage answered, "Hmmm. Dai-su-ke...Ha-na-re...Shi-zu-ne. They all rhyme."
"Kakashi, I may be in charge of keeping you alive, but I can still murder you myself and blame it someone else." The ANBU glared down at him.
"You're still mad at me for last week aren't you?" The sixth Hokage stated.
The ANBU's ears turned red, possibly along with the rest of his concealed face, "We are to NEVER speak of that again."
It was hilarious how similar those two could be.
"Oh relax; I'm married to your sister aren't I? How do you think little Sakumo got here?" Kakashi bent and picked up his book, and then a forgotten rose laying next to it. "Anyway, time to close up shop. I'm sure there are a few hundred people who didn't hear Gai shouting just now. We should go and catch them up."