Author's Notes
I've recently seen a lot a reviews and I feel I should quickly address them.
The first review was asking why Kei is only as strong as Kakashi and/or Gai. Even though Kei has the Tenseigan, that doesn't automatically mean he'll be as strong as Toneri. First off, Kei is in the body of a 10 year old, secondly, Yamato was able to use wood style but he was FAR from Hashirama's level of strength so the Tenseigan does not automatically mean that Kei can cut moons in half. Kei doesn't have the body, or the chakra, of an Otsutsuki like Toneri, so what he's able to do with the Tenseigan will be a lot more limited.
The second review is about the Kakashi & Kei vs Juzo. If anybody is wondering, the reason why Kei wasn't able to tell the water clones from the original Juzo is because he simply couldn't. It was shown in Naruto vs Neji that, as long as the chakra is distributed properly, it isn't possible to tell shadow clones apart from the original even with the Byakugan and figured that extended to other types of clones as well. I had considered allowing the Tenseigan to be able to tell them apart but ultimately I thought it would take away from the fight so I decided against it.
The third review was on the story description. Yes I'm aware it's corny, I couldn't come up with anything better so I decided on that.
I'd also like give a thank you to the positive reviews I got. The support means a lot to me, thanks for taking the time to read my fanfic.
As usual feedback is always welcome.
I don't own Naruto.
Please enjoy.
Chapter 9 - Might Gai
Konoha is a fairly quiet village all things considered, most shinobi villages are. Despite them being seen jumping across rooftops quite often, not much noise is made by shinobi. There are few areas where it isn't quiet. The market district is one, made up of mostly civilians trying to sell their wares.
The orphanage has been one lately as well. Since the Nine Tails attack there have been a large number of residents there and not enough staff to keep up. All that combined with a particularly loud child with blond hair has made it a rather loud place.
Surprisingly the edge of the village is also one of these places. Usually it's rather normal and quiet with the only noise coming from the idle chatter of shinobi patrolling the walls. But every morning a certain Noble Green Beast gets rid of all of that quiet and replaces it with his 'youthful shouting'.
Like most days Might Gai was doing his daily laps around the village, but today the Green Beast wasn't quite as enthusiastic as he usually is, he hasn't been for a while actually.
Before the death of the Fourth Hokage, Gai had been sent to tail Kakashi on a mission. The purpose was to make sure that Kakashi's memories of Rin wouldn't interfere with the mission.
Ultimately it proved to be a wise decision when Gai had to step in to save Kakashi.
Since that day Gai had been trying to think of ways to help Kakashi but had ended up coming up with nothing, and after the death of the Fourth Hokage Kakashi's depression had gotten even worse. It made Gai burst into youthful tears just thinking about the state of his Eternal Rival.
"Um… Maybe I should come back later?" Gai heard a voice from behind him say.
Gai turned to face the voice and was greeted with the sight of a boy with brown hair and eyes that had to be a dojutsu. How else could such youthful eyes exist?! The boy looked to be about 10 years old. He was old enough to be an academy student, since they increased the age required to graduate to 12, but he was wearing a forehead protector so he couldn't be.
"Ah! Hello there my youthful friend!" Gai bellowed out while still running.
The boy didn't respond for a moment, just keeping pace with Gai while giving him an incredulous look. Finally he spoke.
"You're Might Gai right?"
"Oh? So you've heard of me?" Gai asked curiously
"There aren't many shinobi with your…" The boy trailed off, looking for the right word, "enthusiasm. Anyway, I've heard that you know Kakashi?"
"Why of course! Kakashi is my Eternal Rival! He's-"
"Good," the boy interrupted, "Oh, I'm Kei by the way."
"Nice to meet you Kei! I'm Might Gai! Konoha's Noble Green Beast!" Gai said, flashing a toothy grin and pointing his thumb to himself.
Kei gave him a dry look, "I know." 'We just went over this' went unsaid. "Look, I know Kakashi from… work, and he's been a bit out of it. I was hoping you could challenge him to one of those matches I've heard about, I think it would help cheer him up a bit."
One might expect various responses to that request. What one probably doesn't expect is for the one receiving the request to suddenly break out into 'youthful tears'.
"Oh Kakashi, my rival! To think you have such good friends!" Gai tearfully cried out while pulling Kei into a hug, both still running. Although at this point it was mostly Gai running while Kei was dragged along in the 'youthful embrace'. "Thank you for letting me know Kei-san! I have the perfect challenge to cheer my Eternal Rival up!"
Suddenly Kei disappeared from Gai's arms in an explosion of white smoke.
"Great," Kei's voice called out from a few feet away, "Kakashi's at the book store right now, he'll probably be there for a few hours."
"Understood!" Gai called out enthusiastically, "I'll challenge him right away! Right after I finish 200, no, 300 more laps!" Those were the last words spoken between the two as Gai ran off with a renewed vigour letting out more 'youthful shouts'.
Kei looked to the side to see many grumpy residents of the nearby apartment sending him and Gai dirty looks. He gave them an apologetic wave and then vanished in a Shunshin.