I. Love. Gai. (and Lee... ^^)
I'm always hesitant to write about a character I haven't written before, but now I had to try this. Concentrating on such an overly positive character seems to help me forget my own worries. Being so eccentric he's difficult to write, though, so I hope this is good enough.
I don't own Gai or any other Naruto characters.
No matter how well she thought she had braced herself, Rena felt her heart starting to beat faster as she approached the training grounds. It was early morning, too early for most people, but not for the one she was looking for.
The distant sound of strained grunts made Rena slow her pace. He was there training as expected. Usually they would've both been there, but she knew Lee was away on a mission. It was the perfect chance to talk to Gai alone.
Soon she spotted the usual green jumpsuit and the orange leg warmers that right then were pointing up towards the clear sky. Rena stopped to watch in fascination. Gai didn't seem to have noticed her, being completely absorbed in balancing on one hand and doing push-ups. Judging by the sweat streaming down his face he had been at it for a while already. She couldn't quite hear the numbers he was counting, but knowing how overboard the strong shinobi always went with his training, it could've been several hundreds or even thousands already.
Rena smiled warmly, briefly forgetting her nervousness. The focused look on the scrunched up face was as familiar to her as the nice guy poses and the goofy expressions whenever Gai was giving one of his passionate speeches about youth. She loved all of of them. The only problem was how to tell him that.
The thought made her remember why she had come there in the first place and she got more nervous than before. She hated feeling so insecure. Lately, her feelings had given her no peace, even invading her dreams, so finally she had forced herself to make a move to get out of the friend zone. She had thought long and hard about what to say, and...
"Huh? Rena?"
Gai had turned his head and was looking at her with a confused expression. Rena froze, having her thoughts cut off so abruptly that for a moment she couldn't find any words. The dexterous jounin pushed himself back to his feet and wiped the sweat from his face on his sleeve.
"What brings you here?"
"Umm..." Every carefully thought phrase Rena had come up with vanished along with her ability to form proper sentences. "I was... uhh... just..."
Just say you like him! Ask him out! Just...
"...wondering if you could help me train..."
Dammit!
Gai still looked just as confused and Rena averted her eyes, feeling almost painfully embarrassed. She had just failed miserably in what she had come to do. How could she even ask a stupid question like that, knowing how busy the experienced shinobi was. If it hadn't been too awkward to explain, she would've slapped herself right then for being so...
A faint gust of air was the only warning she got before a pair of strong hands grabbed hers. Her eyes widened in surprise as she found Gai suddenly standing in front of her, looking at her with sparkling eyes.
"So you yearn to reach your full potential", the thick-browed man stated, flashing a bright grin. "Well, you've come to the right man. I'll help you to tap into that spring of youthful energy that will make your skills blossom in no time."
"R-right..." Rena blinked a few times dumbfounded, trying hard to regain her composure, while at the same time enjoying the warmth that enveloped her hands. "Thank you..."
Gai released her hand to give an encouraging thumbs up. "Don't mention it. I can see from your face that you're already getting excited, so let's get to it."
Rena, who hadn't even been aware of blushing, suddenly felt her face flaring redder and yanked her other hand free guiltily. "Y-yes!"
"That's the spirit!" Gai thankfully noticed nothing wrong with her behaviour. "Let's get you warmed up first and then see your taijutsu."
It was a warm up Gai-style, and Rena was panting heavily at the end of it. The seemingly limitless stamina the energetic jounin possessed never seized to amaze her.
"That's enough of that", Gai stretched his arms and took a deep breath, clearly enjoying himself. "Now..."
Rena watched with butterflies in her stomach as the green-clothed man returned his attention to her, placing one hand behind his back and raising the other in front of him, prompting her to attack.
"Show me the youthful passion that drove you to seek me out!"
The butterflies multiplied by a hundred. Rena had to stifle a nervous smirk. Her reason for coming to Gai definitely wasn't what he was thinking, though it did involve a passion of a sort. She was still berating herself for missing her opportunity, but it was too late now. She couldn't just blurt out her feelings in the middle of sparring.
A welcome, cooling wind rushed through the woods, awakening Rena to the fact that she was taking noticeably long to response. She took a stance of her own, knowing very well she couldn't hold a candle to the physical prowess of the skilled jounin. Still, the dark eyes watching her expectantly held no smugness, only delighted curiousity. He was genuine in his want to help her, as he was with everything else he did, and it sent a warm ripple of affection through Rena's heart.
As expected from Maito Gai, the man she had fallen in love with.
She didn't hold back, starting with what was meant to seem like a direct attack, but dancing to the side at the last moment and going for a quick leg sweep. Gai dodged swiftly, leaping a short distance away and Rena followed, determined to keep the pressure on the agile shinobi.
She was by no means slow herself, she could keep up with Gai, at least as long as he didn't open any chakra gates. What she was worried, though, was their difference in power. She would have to be careful while attacking to not get caught. She kept avoiding simple, straightforward attacks and used all kinds of gimmicks from her repertoire to throw her opponent off balance. She had little success, but Gai was grinning excitedly nevertheless.
"That's it! The radiant power of youth! Don't stop now, give it everything you got!"
That was exactly what Rena intended, the rushing adrenaline making her body move in a purely instinctive flow. Soon the black-haired jounin switched from defensive to offensive, countering her attacks and forcing her to get some distance between them. Their fight came to a stop and though Rena didn't let her guard down for a second, she sighed in relief for getting a short breather.
"You're moving nicely", Gai analyzed, placing his hands on his hips with an appreciative smile. "But you're overly careful. You won't get a hit in without taking risks."
"Yeah, I know..." Rena admitted nonchalantly, trying to hide how pleased the compliment had made her. "I'm just more used to mid-ranged fighting and ninjutsu. This isn't exactly my forte."
Gai chuckled and took another battle stance, making Rena tense in anticipation. "No excuses. You can do it. You just need a little push in the right direction."
Rena's eyes widened in surprise as the green figure vanished from her sight. She began moving immediately to avoid the oncoming attack, her only choice to try and guess where it would come from. She dodged to her left.
And she guessed wrong.
She collided with an unyielding obstacle and would've stumbled and fallen backwards without quick arms wrapping around her to catch her. As soon as her eyes focused on the green fabric in front of her face, her gaze darted upwards in shock.
She couldn't think, but her brain registered various things simultaneously. The warm hands pressed against her back, her own hands clinging to the broad shoulders, the still smiling face just above hers saying something, though she couldn't follow what...
Focusing on the training had helped Rena forget her nervousness around the eccentric man, but now it returned with full force. Blood rushed to her face and in a surge of panic her battle-ready body reacted the way it was meant to when taken by surprise in a fight.
She punched him square in the jaw.
Apparently that wasn't the reaction Gai had expected and Rena was able to push the surprised shinobi easily back while swiftly bringing her foot behind his to take him down. It was over in a couple of seconds, leaving Rena gawking at what she had done with a dumbfounded expression.
Seeing Gai on his back with an equally surprised look was a comical sight, but unexpectedly it was him who burst into laughter.
"Uh, s-sorry..." Rena began apologizing automatically as she got over the initial shock, but Gai stopped her with a wave of his hand, still laughing.
"What are you apologizing for? That was a nice punch."
The thick-browed jounin sat up, leaning one arm on his propped up knee and studied her with a confident smirk that made Rena's pulse quicken uncontrollably. "I'd say we're on the right track here."
Rena wasn't sure if she liked the sound of that. "Meaning?"
Gai stood up, sporting an unbearably self-satisfied expression as if he'd just come up with the greatest idea in the world. Now Rena was certain without a doubt she wasn't going to like what was coming.
"I've been giving you too much room."
This time Rena barely managed to react in time to turn and raise her arms to block the attack from the lighting fast shinobi. Her flustered state had allowed him to slip behind her in an instant and almost land a free blow. The force of it pushed her back and nearly knocked her down, but she dug her heels to the ground and regained her balance quickly.
"You'll get over your cautiosness..." Gai took the opportunity to grab her raised arm by the wrist, keeping her from backing away. "...when you have no other choice."
A forceful tug caused Rena to lose her footing again, making her tumble forward. Gai spun around with her, catching her other arm in the process too. Rena had seen the large tree behind her she was no doubt being guided towards and realized in a flash that if she didn't do something, she would get pinned against it.
It was as horrifying as it was an alluring thought and she absolutely needed to keep it from happening if she wanted to avoid causing an embarrassing scene.
Utilizing the momentum of being pushed backwards, Rena flung herself back. She took the larger man down with her and used her foot as leverage to throw him over her head. As soon as she heard the soft thud, she rolled over and jumped to her feet, eyes frantically searching for the green figure that should've been there.
She jumped up just as a powerful kick flew by, barely missing her and instead shattering the tree trunk next to her her. Sharp pieces of wood exploded all around them and Rena shielded her eyes while retreating in shock. That kick would've been devastating had it hit her! This wasn't just some light sparring anymore, Gai was getting a little too excited.
The change in the pace was apparent. There was not one, single spare second to plan ahead, all of Rena's focus went on reacting to the continuous attacks. She took the fight up to the trees, desperately hoping it would give her even a slight edge with her lighter form.
It mainly left a lot of damaged trees after their wake.
Gai seemed dead set on tiring her out and cornering her, and soon Rena began to feel the effects on her heavily strained body. She took a wrong step and fell to her knees on the branch she had jumped on. Only the smoke bomb she had been carrying with her saved her from getting caught.
She dropped down and disappeared before the smoke had time to dissipate, hiding in another tree as far away as she could get in the short time she had to move without being seen. There she finally had time to stop and contemplate the situation while doing her best to slow down her labored breathing.
She knew what Gai was aiming for by pushing her so much. Her small, careful attacks hadn't accomplished much so far and he was trying to force her to go all out with some high-risk maneuver before she would run out of stamina.
"You can't keep that up for long, Rena!" Gai's deep voice called cheerfully from somewhere on the ground. "Let go of whatever is holding you back and unleash your true potential!"
Rena would've very much liked to do so, but unfortunately Gai's presence being what was holding her back made it exceedingly difficult. It was an odd situation really. She was desperately running away from the man she had fallen in love with, while he was completely cluelessly chasing after her. The comical mental image her thoughts conjured of their ridiculous pursuit almost made her break into hysterical laughter.
Oh great, she was so exhausted she was starting to loose it.
There was no helping it. She needed to end things quickly. Somehow she got the feeling Gai wouldn't listen if she called for a break and there was no way she'd let him catch her. She would no doubt lose all common sense and the ability to speak again if she was forced to stay close to him and that wasn't the impression she wanted to give to someone she was still hoping to ask out.
She even had a brief idea of pretending to faint, but it was a thought she discarded right away. With her luck, the stubborn jounin would insist on carrying her home. Besides, he was someone she didn't want to trick like that.
A little cheating on the other hand...
She was supposed to practice her taijutsu, but adding a little ninjutsu in her situation didn't seem that unreasonable. She needed something that would give her the upper hand just for a couple of seconds and she already had the right technique in mind.
Too bad she didn't have the time to form a solid plan.
A wild battlecry rang out, startling her out of her thoughts and signaling that Gai had found her and was launching another attack. With no time to think further, Rena had to let her instincts guide her again. Having given herself the permission to use ninjutsu, performing a substitution jutsu to escape the coming attack came naturally. The short break hadn't been enough though, and still badly winded, Rena could feel her strength waning with every move. It was now or never.
Gai was coming at her again before she could start, forcing her to keep moving from tree to tree while focusing her chakra to form strings from her index and middle fingers. She wasn't a puppeteer and wouldn't have been able to fight with a puppet, but she had at one point recognized the technique's usefulness and had gone through the effort of learning at least a little.
Right then it was good for tripping a certain unrelenting jounin.
Rena sent the thin chakra threads out, attaching them to the backs of Gai's legs as he was leaping towards her. She could see from the wary look on the experienced shinobi's face that he had noticed she was up to something, but not what it was yet. Having no time to waste, she manipulated the strings to pull the legs from under the thick-browed man, causing him to careen uncontrollably forward.
There was her chance. Now if she only could get him before he had time to recover...
Rena readied herself to leap back from the next branch and send her unbalanced opponent down to the ground with a hard kick. Or so it was supposed to happen. In the shinobi world, however, luck sometimes played a very hefty role in the outcome of a battle.
The tree she landed on had already suffered from their little game of tag and with an unpleasant crack the branch buckled and broke off under Rena's weight. With nothing to support her, she was unable to move out of the way as Gai crashed straight into her.
The impact left her too dazed to do anything as they fell fast. A blur of green leaves flashed by as the ground rushed inevitably closer. Rena felt something grabbing her and turning her around just before the abrupt end of their fall.
Her first thought as her head started to clear from the crash was that it hadn't been as bad as she would've expected. Right after that, she started to wonder why. She didn't feel nearly as much pain as she should've. Only a strange pressure around her that kept her from moving.
Suddenly it dawned on her.
"Gai!"
Her head snapped up to look at the immobile jounin lying under her. "Oh... oh no, a-are you okay?"
The arms around her eased their hold as Gai brought his hand into view for a reassuring thumbs up. Rena wasn't sure whether the look on his face was meant to be a smile or a pained grimace.
"Of course I'm fine, what are you talking about...?"
Rena propped herself up on her hands, not convinced. No matter how amazing the taijutsu expert was, that must've hurt. Right then she was too worried to even be embarrassed about lying on top of him. "Don't say that just to act tough, you..."
"Are you alright?"
The concerned, yet calm question stopped Rena midsentence. She stayed silent for a few seconds, allowing herself to longingly study the strongly defined facial features in front of her before shaking her head in disbelief. "Why wouldn't I be fine? You cushioned my fall after all. So, uh... thank you for that."
The familiar wide grin returned to Gai's face. "Anytime. You know, I didn't even know you have been learning puppeteering. It's not a common skill around here."
The change in topic threw Rena off. "Oh? No, I don't really know that much..."
"It would've worked great without the branch snapping", Gai shifted to get up, clearly getting excited again. "We can continue after a little break and you can try..."
Hearing the word 'continue', Rena immediately slammed her hands on the tireless shinobi's shoulders to keep him down. "No!"
Gai froze, confusion evident on his face. Rena regretted her unintentional outburst, but knew this was the moment to put a stop to her suffering. "I mean... I... I actually had something else to ask you..."
At that point, she could feel her cheeks burning. She was growing more and more aware of their awkward position, the twigs stuck in her hair and the fact that Gai obviously had no clue of any of the things that were bothering her. She had to force herself to keep eye contact.
"Do you want to go out sometime?"
Her blunt request probably surprised her as much as it did Gai. It wasn't at all how she had envisioned voicing her feelings. She bit her lower lip and looked away, mumbling a quick continuation. "If... if you have the time... maybe we could go get some curry or something..."
It was a gut-wrenchingly agonizing moment.
"Sure."
Rena stopped breathing for a second before daring to look back. There was nothing out of the ordinary in the black-haired jounin's carefree smile. She moved back, releasing his shoulders and sat on her knees next to him, too dumbfounded to do anything but stare in disbelief.
"Today I got some paperwork to be done, but how about tomorrow after I finish my morning training?" Gai suggested, standing up and brushing the excess dirt off his clothes. "I know a place that serves downright heavenly curry that will revitalise you entirely, body and spirit."
"Yeah... okay..." Rena somehow managed to reply, taking Gai's hand as he extended it to help her up. Her legs were shaking, which she wasn't the only one to notice.
"Oh?" Gai's cheerful expression quickly turned into worry. "Was it too much? You should probably get some rest. We can continue another time."
Rena eyed the tall man, who, despite their sparring and his earlier training session, looked ready to keep going and gave a short laugh. "You really are something else, you know that? Another time then."
"You did well", Gai assured her as she turned to leave. "You're light on your moves and quick to analyze the situation. You just need to hone your attacks so you can inflict more damage."
"I'll work on that", Rena promised, waving her hand. "See you tomorrow!"
"I'll be here."
"Of course you will..." Rena muttered to herself with a smirk. What else would the passionate jounin be doing when he wasn't on a mission?
All in all, things had gone pretty well after all. Surprisingly well considering her failed attempt at the start. Rena's mind felt a lot lighter, unlike her aching and exhausted body. Finally she was getting somewhere.
Or was she? A sudden doubt shadowed her happy thoughts. Had she really made her intentions clear enough? She knew Gai could be a bit... dense about some things. What if he still had no clue and thought of it just as friends eating together? What if he brought Lee with him?
Rena let out a heavy sigh, turning her gaze up to the empty sky.
Konoha's clueless green beast... he would no doubt end up causing her a lot more work in the future than he had with that training session.