A/N: Two of the other interns that I'm sharing a house with at the moment have been bitten by the competitive bug, so I have been getting some good ideas for this story from them. Though thankfully neither of them shouts about youth constantly.

Disclaimer: Don't sue me because I don't own and never will own Naruto. I just borrow the characters and use them to (hopefully) entertain people (I don't make any money off of these stories).

"So it's my turn to choose a competition, right?" Kakashi asked.

Gai looked at his rival with an expression that reminded Kakashi of a dog that's just desperately waiting for you to throw that stick. Or, in this case, desperately waiting for Kakashi to issue a challenge.

"How about this," Kakashi paused just to torture his rival.

"How about what? What is your youthful challenge?"

"How about whoever can build the biggest house of cards without knocking it down?"

"What a youthful idea! I will go find some cards to use!"

"Just don't get any from Naruto." Kakashi warned, remebering the 'spoon incident.'".

Gai returned soon, balancing teetering stacks of boxes full of cards in his arms. "Do you think these will be enough?"

"I'm sure that will be plenty."

Four hours, the two "houses" of cards were bordering on being bustling metropolises, complete with skyscrapers, and the once-massive pile of unused cards was almost used up. Just as they were beginning to wonder what they would do when they ran out of cards, Naruto showed up.

"Hey, Kaka-sensei! Whatcha doin'?"

"What does it look like we are doing?" Kakashi inquired mildly.

Naruto opened his mouth to answer, but Gai beat him to it. "We are engaging in the most youthful completion of building a house cards! The first person to knock theirs over loses!"

Naruto scrunched up his face in puzzlement. "I dunno. They look kinda big for just houses. Maybe you should say 'mansion' of cards or something." He watched them build for a few moments until they ran out of cards. "Whatcha going to –" he suddenly stopped talking. "Ah-ah-achoo!" he was bent double with the force of his sneeze, and the cards flew everywhere and it almost looked like it was snowing.

"NOOOO!" Gai howled.

Naruto scratched the back of his head in embarrassment. "Sorry about that. I haven't quite gotten over my cold, I guess."

"I guess it's a tie, then." Kakashi remarked. "It didn't look like it was going to end any time soon, anyways." He turned to the sheepish blonde. "Shall we see your teammates are around to train?"

Gai mournfully watched the last cards slowly float to the ground as the pair walked off. Then he seemed to snap out of his reverie. "We may have tied this time, but I will win next time, my most youthful eternal rival!" he howled.

Kakashi sighed.

"Kaka-sensei, do you want to hide from him tomorrow at my house again?" Naruto asked.

"Yes."

"Awesome! We can have a ramen party!"

"Actually, I just remembered, I have some reports I have to deliver tomorrow."

"Aww, Kaka-sensei." Naruto whined. "You never eat ramen with me."

"Sorry. Duty calls."

"You always say that!" Naruto pouted.

"That doesn't mean it's not true."

The blonde pouted for a moment before he suddenly perked up. "Hey, maybe Sakura could come to my ramen party!"

"Maybe." Kakashi didn't think the boy had as much of a chance as a snowball in an Uchiha's fireball jutsu, but how could he tell the excited boy that?

"I'm going to go ask her right now!" He dashed off, grinning wide enough to split his face in half.

Kakashi just shook his head. Where did that boy get his eternal optimism?