Gai excitedly leapt from roof to roof in pursuit of his Eternal Rival, Kakashi. He'd been recently assigned a genin team (again), but despite how much Kakashi hated children, Gai really felt like this would be the one.
It would be great for both him and Kakashi to have a team! There were so many things they could do together, and he could even impart some advice to his rival as well!
Besides, Naruto-chan had been assigned to Kakashi. With her Youthfulness, he had full confidence in her ability to pass whatever test Kakashi might have set up.
He still recalled her Youthful determination years ago, when she'd come up to him and respectfully asked for help. She'd been a very tiny thing, scrawny but brave, and had asked him to devise a training plan for her along with advising her on a basic taijutsu style.
"Please teach me, Gai-san," she had asked, head bowed low on the ground. He'd been punching a tree, but had turned around to look at her. "I'll take whatever you can offer."
He'd been surprised. Most people tended to respect his abilities, but thought of him as eccentric or socially incompetent. Of course, Gai was neither blind or deaf, despite many opinions to the contrary.
(He wouldn't be a good shinobi, would he, if you could tell how he planned to kick you to death with a shining grin on his face?)
But he respected her ability to ask him of all people, who would get her results; there was no doubt about that. But Gai's plan ensured that there'd only be a true return with tremendous effort put into training.
With the permission of the Hokage, he'd set up a week with her to train her in basic taijutsu and help her create her own style. In that one week, she'd improved leaps and bounds— and he knew that just like her parents, Uzumaki Naruto would become a force to be reckoned with.
"Thank you for everything, Gai-sensei," she'd said. Her blonde hair was covered in mud, and her clothes were too, but there was a bright grin on her face.
If there was a little bit of despair in the smile too, it went unnoticed.
"No problem, Naruto-chan!" he'd replied. "Now, go shine with the power of Youth, and do the village proud!"
Her smile had become a bit more strained after that (everything always came back to the village, of course), but he chalked it up to tiredness.
Leaping over the final roof, he met the ground only to come face-to-face with Kakashi.
"Kakashi, my rival!" He intoned, excitedly. Hopefully, Naruto had managed to impress him. "How was the test?" Please tell me you didn't fail yet another team… again.
For some reason, his rival seemed very pale and… a little traumatized? Kakashi had been an ANBU, and he'd only just conducted a genin exam— surely nothing too extreme had happened?
"The… test," Kakashi said weakly, as he continued to look at Gai. He had no knowledge of the images of him in clothing that might as well have been from a yaoi version of the Icha-Icha books which his rival had burned into his eyes (he hadn't even used the sharingan!).
In a blink of an eye, Kakashi had vanished, leaves trailing behind him. Sure, Gai could go after him, but he decided to give his rival the benefit of the doubt.
He didn't know what exactly had happened to Kakashi, but he could always corner him later. Besides, he had to prepare for his team's C-rank mission tomorrow. This was going to be the year he planned for them to enter the chunin exams.
Of course, Gai never found out why Kakashi avoided looking at him for nearly a week after. When he'd asked Naruto-chan about it when they were catching up after Kakashi had administered the test to her team, the only answer he'd received was "You don't want to know, Gai-sensei."