At home, Kakashi immediately started to pack like he would for a normal S-rank mission. It kept him from thinking about what he was doing and more importantly about what he was going to do.

The idea had blossomed in a corner of his mind like an ominous flower before he had really noticed, anyway. Unaware of it, he had opened his mouth and it had poured out of him. It was dangerous and wrong, but inexplicably it was right, too.

He needed to do it. That he knew.

In front of him, Kakashi had spread out an assortment of weapons. Kunai and shuriken, all of them clean and recently sharpened, gleaming and deadly.

Kakashi picked out what he needed − a fairly standard collection of kunai and shuriken − and put it into his backpack.

He would leave the next morning, taking his time to get to the meeting point and spending the night in the woods to be rested. He hoped Gai would do the same.

He hoped Gai wouldn't ask any more questions.

Kakashi had – much to his own surprise – slept well both nights. He felt that he shouldn't have under the circumstances; he should have been restless and doubting himself. He should have been worrying, wondering if he had lost his mind, and if Gai in this endless pursuit he called a rivalry had thrown his away, too.

And yet, for whatever reason, he woke up rested and calm, blinking into the rays of sunlight filtering through the leaves above him. Just to make sure that he wouldn't run into Gai, he had crossed the clearing the previous day and had kept moving further away from Konoha for an additional half hour. He had even gone so far to leave his tent in his backpack, not really setting up camp to avoid drawing attention. Thankfully, it had been mild enough to sleep without a tent or a fire, and now he had the additional benefit of not having to do much in terms of breaking up camp.

Kakashi turned the trip to the meeting point into a leisurely stroll; hiding from the deep brooding thoughts that hovered at the edge of his awareness behind his worn copy of Icha Icha.

When he arrived at the place – only two minutes late − Gai was there, right in the middle of the clearing with his hands on his hips and his head cocked, the sun hitting is teeth just so, producing an audible ping. His usual pose, like on any other day, any other challenge.

"Hey." Kakashi dropped his pack casually, pushing it out of the way into the thicket, and made a show of taking in his surroundings. The place was fairly isolated – about twelve hours on foot from the village, it was just out of range of the surveillance towers, and although it was one of the few more open places in the otherwise thick forest, it wasn't really frequented by anyone. Travelers usually stayed closer to the roads and Ninja would avoid a location with as little cover as clearing was only remarkable as a landmark because it occasionally served as a destination for the annual Academy camping trip.

Basically, it was just a meadow framed by trees and shrubs. A pretty little place, healthy green grass - just a little more than ankle high - sprinkled with flowers even, all of that under the vast blue sky. Peaceful.

Treacherous.

And Gai fit right into the picture. In his stupid green spandex suit that would actually have made great camouflage - being the same vivid shade of green as the grass and the leaves – if it weren't for his hideous orange legwarmers. Gai never really blended in.

Bright grin, confident stance and a cheeriness that was neither entirely genuine, nor entirely false, but always a slightly disturbing. From the way he was tracking every one of Kakashi's movements and from the fact that his smile didn't really reach his eyes, Kakashi could tell that Gai was waiting, calculating, maybe regretting that he had come already.

"Kakashi," Gai said, the uncharacteristically curt greeting confirming Kakashi's suspicion. Gai was tense, Kakashi could sympathize.

He wanted to do this before Gai had time to really think it over.

"You ready?" Kakashi asked, pulling up his headband. Gai's chakra circuit unfolded inside of him like a piece of paper being folded into a complex origami figure, making him look half-transparent.

Fragile.

Gai seemed at a loss, reaching for words – or for reason.

"Do you want to default already?" Just a hint of mockery there. Maybe he had pushed Gai too far, maybe – for the first time ever he would give up – and then what?

Would he go back to his useless training sessions? Would he eventually give up? Perhaps all of this was pointless anyway, perhaps at some point his eye would evolve on its own in time. But time was of the essence, time was slithering away like a snake. Further and further away from him with every step Sasuke took towards his brother, led by Orochimaru's hand.

Well, if he had time to wait, he wouldn't be doing this.

"Hah, I would never give up!" The answer was automatic – it was heartfelt nonetheless. Kakashi cocked his head in response and said "I guess that makes two of us then."

And that won Gai over – he could tell. Because for all their differences, they were still two Konoha jounin. Believing in the same things and fighting for them. They had been doing this for more than a decade, through the war, as well as what passed for peace in the world they lived in.

In retrospect, they had been through a lot together.

He shifted his weight − feet shoulder width apart − and pulled a kunai out of his pocket. When the sunlight hit the blade, it out-gleamed even Gai's teeth. Slowly, Kakashi inhaled, tasting the fresh forest air, listening to the sounds of nature around them. In a second they would tear through the harmonious atmosphere, replacing birdsong with the scrape and clang of metal, the rustle of leaves in the wind with the dull sounds of fists hitting flesh and grunts of pain.

He could see Gai's Adam's apple bob as he swallowed. His eyes were already carefully averted from Kakashi's face, one hand came up tentatively, while he tucked the other behind his back. Gai was getting ready, too. Kakashi hadn't known that it was possible to be disappointed and relieved at the same time.

"So," Kakashi said. The word, small as it was, seemed to fit just barely into the space already bursting with unsaid things between them. There was no room for anything more. All he could do was wait for Gai – if there were second thoughts, this was his chance to say so. To stop this.

"On three?" Gai sounded normal, smiling boyishly, meeting Kakashi's eyes for the last time before the fight started. His face was open, his eyes warm with unbreakable trust. Kakashi wanted to call the whole thing off right then.

"Yeah." It took a lot of effort to say that one word.

"One," Gai said, eyes firmly below Kakashi's neck.

"Two." Kakashi's nails dug into the bandages wrapped around the hilt of his kunai.

"Three." Gai was gone, leaving only the blurry electric blue afterimage of his chakra behind. Even with his Sharingan activated it was hard to keep up with Gai's speed. He caught the flashes of chakra, but Gai was always one step ahead before he could focus.

Suddenly, Gai was in front of him, his foot slicing through the air. Kakashi jumped back too late. With a wet thudding sound, Gai's foot connected; a true whirlwind of a roundhouse kick. And then, the clone exploded in a cloud of innocent white smoke.

Kakashi had planned to use this short moment of confusion to attack from behind. Physically, he had a hard time keeping up with Gai, but intellectually Kakashi had the upper hand. In a normal fight he would probably have tried to end the thing with a Raikiri at this point.

This was Gai, however. And despite what he had said, there were still limits to how far he was willing to go. He hesitated. The whole purpose of this fight was to break through his boundaries and yet attacking Gai from behind with the Raikiri…

Even if he only graced him, he could wound Gai severely. On the hospital roof he had told Sasuke and Naruto that they should never use certain techniques against a comrade. So, would he ignore his own advice now?

Gai had not only amazing strength, speed and stamina, he also knew Kakashi's attack patterns and strategies better than anyone else. This early in the fight, he should be able to dodge anything Kakashi threw at him. But there were no guarantees in any fight, slip ups happened, people got hurt.

In a decade of challenges they had injured each other before, of course, mostly bruises, but there had been the occasional fractured bone or torn muscle. Nothing that had required more than an hour of healing and a day of rest tops. And now Kakashi had the unsettling premonition that they were about to break that record.

He had waited too long. Gai had spotted him − crouching behind a bush at the edge of the clearing − and was charging at him with the determination of a raging bull. Leaves were torn away violently as Gai's fist reduced Kakashi's flimsy cover to tiny shreds. Like all-natural confetti it rained down on him. Kakashi leapt back, startled. Gai had caught him off guard, but the punch hadn't connected. It had just been a warning, aimed more at the space in front of him than Kakashi himself.

For the moment Kakashi had no choice but to keep evading him, letting Gai chase him back and forth across the clearing, sometimes diving into the surrounding forest for more cover when he came too close for comfort. As far as strategies went, this one was horribly inappropriate for fighting someone like Gai.

Kakashi knew he could never outlast the other jounin. When it came to stamina, Gai was definitely in the lead. He was tireless. And Gai knew it, too. A much more impulsive fighter than Kakashi, he only slowed down to devise a plan if he had no other choice. His first instinct was always the all-out attack. Hunting his target down and pressing them with a non-stop taijutsu onslaught until he finally – almost inevitably – overpowered them.

Right now, Kakashi was wasting his energy. He needed to get past his reservations and do what he had set out to do. However, Gai was nowhere near fighting seriously either. Someone had to up the ante, and Kakashi had the feeling that it would have to be him.