Written for KakaGai Week, Day 6: [free day]/Feral.
Free days have traditionally not gone well for me (heck knows why, I certainly write fine without prompts generally) so when I picked up doing more Fandom Events I decided 'free day' means 'feral' for Kalira. :P It's one of my favourite tropes, and this is almost more of a tease at it, but today was a lazy day and thus a simple story day as well. (In theory.)
"Kakashi-sensei! Aah!"
Gai startled, then stopped in his tracks, frowning and listening to the crashing sounds that followed the shouting that had recognisably been Naruto. Not that Naruto yelling at Kakashi was all that unusual, but the tones seemed more strident than Gai would have expected.
A high-pitched screech reached his ears, and then the crashing sound of a tree trunk splintering and collapsing somewhere off to the right.
". . .that doesn't sound good." Tenten said, fingering a scroll in her pouch.
Gai didn't want to agree, much less to worry his student, but it did not. They were within Konoha territory now, and that sounded more like an attack than a Youthful display, however boisterous.
Coming in from scouting, Lee skidded to a halt at Gai's left side. "Gai-sensei? Is that Team Seven?" he asked after a moment.
An answer was unnecessary, the very recognisable voices making it clear before Gai could. And just as he signalled his students to follow him, Neji darted out of the woods in the direction of the sound.
"Gai-sensei, perhaps you had better come and . . . help Team Seven." Neji said, panting quietly and looking slightly ruffled.
Gai nodded and took off running the way his student had just come.
His students were at his heels, but he outpaced them - more concerned with intervening with whatever was troubling Team Seven that his Rival had yet to address than being sure his own students could stay at his side. They would catch up.
Gai barrelled into a relatively small clearing - made somewhat larger by several trees that had been uprooted or broken, two of which were slightly smouldering - just in time to see Sasuke snatch Naruto by the collar and haul him up into a tree, out of the path of-
The dark blur slowed and turned, revealing one almost black eye and a fiercely twisted expression. Gai's eyes widened as Kakashi spun, launching himself up and slamming a chakra-backed kick into the tree Sasuke and Naruto had taken shelter in, shaking the thick trunk and knocking both genin down.
"Sasuke! Naruto!" Sakura cried, flinging a handful of shuriken down into Kakashi's path.
They didn't have a hope of striking him, of course, but it gave her teammates a stolen moment to flee again as he recoiled. Kakashi snarled, rolling forward onto one knee and stretching out a hand.
"Kakashi!" Gai darted forwards and yanked Sasuke out of Kakashi's path as he lunged for the boy again. Gai arrested his movement easily, pushing Sasuke away, and he staggered a bit but ran straight up the trunk of the nearest tree, wobbling only slightly as he fled. Kakashi threw himself against Gai's hold, fighting with all his strength, and Gai jerked, muscles tightening against the strain.
He had guessed Kakashi - clearly not himself - would hold nothing back, but a part of him had not quite been prepared for it. This, he thought, was worse than being forced to fight an illusion of himself.
"Gai-sensei!" Sakura leaned a little further from her place high in the tree without leaving it.
Gai caught one of Kakashi's wrists, stopping a punch a few inches from his face. "What happened?" he asked, kicking one of Kakashi's ankles out from under him, though it didn't so much as slow him as he thrashed, growling steadily, like a wild animal in a trap.
Gai's own students hovered uncertainly at the edge of the clearing as he fought to contain his Rival and Kakashi's students relayed a jumbled tale about an ambush. Some sort of unknown jutsu which they had thought had only discorporated Kakashi's ninken, but had clearly affected Kakashi's mind. The dog had disappeared on impact, but the secondary effect had not been immediate - they had finished the battle, their opponents disposed of, and begun to return home, and everything had seemed fine.
Gai yelped as Kakashi twisted towards him and sank sharp teeth into his forearm through two layers of fabric. He winced and wrestled Kakashi off again. Fine until he had suddenly lashed out with an animalistic sound and sent his own students fleeing from him, Gai thought regretfully.
"Oh no! Are you all right?" Sakura asked, peering down at them.
"Ah, it is of no concern!" Gai said, far more brightly than he felt, with his Rival struggling against his grip and snarling, beyond words and so far gone as to attack his own genin team. "It is not even the first time my Rival has bitten me!"
"Uh, it's not?" Naruto asked, peeking out warily.
Gai waved it off and then promptly had to catch hold of Kakashi's foot before it hit him in the face. "Do not worry!" he assured the children. "We will return to Konoha and the medic nin will see to my Rival; all will be well! Come along." he encouraged, watching Kakashi's students slowly and warily approach.
None of them, Gai noted, were actually injured beyond scuffles and bruises. Catching Kakashi's wrist in one hand and dragging his Rival against his chest, bony spine pressing into him, Gai questioned them and was told that the enemy nin had been not too troublesome to defeat . . . and they had been able to completely evade injury from their sensei, though obviously no more than that. They could hardly have been expected to subdue him Gai assured them, though he frowned thoughtfully.
There was no way Kakashi's students could have escaped unharmed if he had actually been going all out - even if he did not retain his knowledge of jutsu, even only as harshly as he was fighting Gai now. The genin were simply not strong enough, or fast enough. They lacked experience.
Kakashi slipped his hold with a crunch of rearranging wrist bones - Kakashi's, not his own - and Gai lunged to tackle his Rival to the ground before he could reach anyone else.
Kakashi let out a rough, grating sound Gai recognised as a laugh, if a warped one, and stilled, staring at his Rival. Kakashi grinned behind his mask, which was beginning to look rather the worse for wear, meeting Gai's gaze with a sharp look in his dark eye.
"What has happened to you?" Gai asked softly, shifting his grip in preparation to drag both Kakashi and himself to their feet.
Kakashi bit him playfully along the jaw, and Gai jumped, flushing. It was hardly the first time Kakashi had bitten him like that, either, but that was usually . . . in a more private setting.
"Kakashi." Gai scolded sharply without thinking, and Kakashi released his hold, tipping his head back with a laugh, wriggling under Gai's weight. His blush deepened and he grabbed for Kakashi's hip to still him. Kakashi was a little too flexible to make it so easy, and Gai pulled back and put a knee on his hip instead, pinning his shoulders down to keep him from following.
"How are you going to get Kakashi-sensei back to Konoha?" Naruto asked. "Are you going to have to knock him out?" he sounded a little too gleeful at the thought, really.
"No." Gai said firmly, although it was going to be a difficult trip if Kakashi would not cooperate. "Kakashi, we are going to take our students home." he said cheerfully, pulling Kakashi up with him as he stood. "The mission is over."
He wasn't sure if Kakashi would understand but embarked blindly with the hope that he could. Gai stepped back a little without releasing Kakashi's arm, in case he lunged for one of the genin again.
He didn't.
He twisted his arm, locking it alongside Gai's and pouncing, throwing him backwards before he could brace himself. He laughed, startled, and twisted as he fell, kicking Kakashi over his head as he hit the ground on his back.
He had let go as they tumbled down, though he had worried Kakashi would slip him, not wanting to break Kakashi's wrist if they landed badly. Kakashi, however, grabbed onto his arm, and Gai had to fight against the hold as he bounded to his feet again.
He needn't have worried about losing Kakashi - the moment Gai was on his feet Kakashi was in his face again, pushy and growling quietly. His mask was pulled halfway down - more on one side than the other, almost to the line of his jaw.
"Rival." Gai said, concerned, reaching instinctively for Kakashi's face and glancing around to find they had tumbled out of the immediate range of their students.
Growling low in his throat, Kakashi took a slinking step towards him, and Gai stiffened, watching him carefully. He dodged sideways as Kakashi pounced, and spun, knocking Kakashi's legs from under him. Kakashi rolled easily and bounced up again, leaping higher than Gai's shoulder, but didn't ascend any further, only used a tree to rebound back down and-
He let out a sharp yip as Gai ducked, and he huffed, surprised.
Kakashi landed feet first against his shoulders only a moment after he'd straightened, and Gai stumbled, nearly going down to one knee before he reached up and yanked at Kakashi's leg, dragging him down. He earned himself a knee to the back along the way and narrowly avoided being punched in the side of the head, but he got Kakashi on the ground and moved to pin him there.
Kakashi bucked against him with a high, reedy sound and Gai froze, briefly concerned he had hurt his Rival in some way.
Kakashi slipped out of his hold when he inadvertently loosened it, and Gai scowled at himself as he scrambled to his feet, chasing Kakashi again. He needn't have bothered, as Kakashi slammed into him, pointy elbow first, as soon as he started moving.
Gai fetched up against a tree, its branches shaking above them as Kakashi followed, slamming bodily into him. Then Kakashi was surging against him and Gai's breath caught as Kakashi's mouth met his in a hot, hard kiss, his jaw aching from the pressure.
The edge of Kakashi's mask was caught between their lips at one side, and Kakashi was half-panting, still growling, and there was a broken branch digging into Gai's back, just above one kidney. He groaned, and Kakashi's growl softened as he nipped, then bit - much harder than he normally would, and Gai had to strangle back a yelp as he remembered their students not so far away.
Gai tried to protest, pulling one of Kakashi's hands away from his shoulders and pushing him away, but Kakashi twisted in his grip and bit down on his lip again, tugging it briefly between his teeth before pressing himself close against Gai again and deepening the kiss with a rough slide.
Gai groaned, hands tightening on Kakashi's shoulder and hip automatically, pulling him in. Kakashi moaned, arching against him, and then the sound of a branch cracking snapped Gai to attention again. He shoved at Kakashi instead, tipping his head to try and break away.
"Kakashi-" Gai got out, mouth stinging, and then suddenly he wasn't pushing Kakashi away any more, he had ducked away on his own, though only barely far enough to break contact between them. "Kakashi?" Gai said again, tentatively.
Kakashi's eye widened, meeting his gaze. "Gai?" he said blankly, then shook his head, closing his eye. "What are you doing here? What's going- The kids!" he stiffened, and Gai caught his shoulder.
"Your Precious Students are fine, Kakashi." Gai assured him, letting out a breath of relief that Kakashi was back to himself. He leaned sideways to look towards where it seemed both Kakashi's and his own students were a little too cautious of the way Kakashi had been acting to follow just yet. Perhaps fortunately.
". . .your mouth." Kakashi said softly, coming closer, raising one hand to Gai's face.
He nudged it away lightly. "You have done worse to it." Gai said, grinning, then winced as the expression increased the sting at one side.
"I'm not sure that makes me feel better." Kakashi said dryly, his own mouth quirking into a crooked not-quite-smile. His fingertips brushed just beneath Gai's lip. "I'm sorry."
Gai shrugged, squeezing Kakashi's shoulders, and Kakashi's fingers wiped across his mouth gently. He scrubbed his now-bloody fingers off against his pants. "Have fun explaining that one to the kids." Kakashi said dryly, and Gai felt himself blushing again.
Kakashi licked his lips, which were still slightly pinked from Gai's own blood, and then smoothed his mask back up over his face, sliding away just as Naruto and Sakura half crashed through the underbrush towards them.
"Kakashi-sensei!" They skidded to a halt, Sakura holding a kunai at the ready near one shoulder. "Gekimayu-sensei?" Naruto added almost tentatively.
"Everything is fine!" Gai assured them, ignoring his bloodied lip to grin at them.
"Kakashi-sensei?"
Kakashi smiled at Sakura and flapped one hand, shooing them both back towards the clearing where the others-
Then, before they could move, all the rest of the genin appeared around them, eyeing both Kakashi and Gai warily.
"It's fine." Kakashi assured them, and his team relaxed visibly. "Maa. . . I'm sorry if I worried you." he told them in a softer tone, resting a hand on his nearest student's shoulder. Sasuke looked mulish, but he didn't pull away, and Kakashi squeezed reassuringly before releasing him with a pat.
"Are you okay, Gai-sensei?" Lee asked, frowning.
"Did Kakashi-sensei punch you in the face?" Naruto asked, punching the air. Sakura shot him a glare and he coughed, dropping his hands and shoving them in his pockets in an almost Kakashi-like posture.
Gai raised a hand to his slightly sore mouth without thinking as the question registered.
Lee tilted his head. "It doesn't look like-"
"Yes!" Gai said quickly. "I dropped my guard and my Rival punched me!"
Kakashi snickered quietly and Gai shot him a look that did nothing to quell his amusement, not that Gai had really expected it. He grinned wryly himself.
"However! I am unharmed, I assure you!" Gai grinned brightly and felt the tear in his lip split a little wider again with the movement. "To the village!"
"That's going to take a while to heal." Kakashi observed quietly, slipping past him with a look that was half apologetic, half something else Gai couldn't place.
Gai shrugged and headed off towards the village, his students falling in behind him in their familiar places. Kakashi dropped into place beside him and Gai smiled, even as there was a bit of a scuffle of genin scrambling around each other to reshuffle their formations. Lee courteously made way for Sakura, but Tenten only bounded a little faster to get ahead of Naruto, and Neji merely met Sasuke with a flat glare and didn't budge.
"They get along so well, our kids." Kakashi said dryly, and Gai nearly stumbled, then burst into a quick, startled laugh.
Gai was, of course, correct - Kakashi was not going all-out against the kids. Kakashi wasn't completely 'round the twist anyway; his attacking his students was less an attack and more him going 'Oh look at these puppies of mine, they're making such an amount of noise, really they're kind of a mess. Lesson time!'