Disclaimer: I own nothing but the general plot and OCs

So, I had another short break to regain some writing juice. As for Gai's pov, I sort of did it. He's a very extreme character and I found that almost impossible to write from his pov, so you'll probably find it to be a very toned down version of him. Sorry about that, it was really difficult.

I probably won't do this more than a couple more times. It's super tricky for me. To the point that I want to state that's a couple more times just to make sure ya'll know how tricky I found it.

Another feel good chapter. next is the meeting of the pack, where some of Sonaru's past is touched on. So like I said at the end of last chapter, don't get too excited for that.

Very little editing, warning you.

English speaking that Gai actually understands is underlined. Japanese isn't

Thank you so much for your awesome reviews, as well as favs and follows! Let me know what works or what doesn't work for you, as well as any prompts for scenes you'd like to see.

Chapter 20 - It's My Party, I Do What I Want

Gai dropped by the Hatake apartment after a light training work out that day, full of energy and Youth for his Eternal Rival and beautiful blossom. After a well executed Dynamic Entry- which was blocked by a Hip and Cool Kakashi before he returned to his cooking- he was delighted to see his goddaughter's big smile as she clapped for him.

"9.5 out of 10, Gai! You missed the .5 because DFB didn't have to take his eyes off the fish."

"I WILL BEAT KAKASHI NEXT TIME AND GAIN THAT .5 FROM YOU, BEAUTIFUL BLOSSOM! WITH HARD WORK I SHALL-"

"Help me beat DFB in the prank war he challenged me to?" She gave an innocent smile.

"I WOULD BE HONOURED TO HELP YOU BEAT KAKASHI IN A CHALLENGE OF PRANKS!"

"Excellent! DFB is allowed to ask the help of any Shinobi I've met before, but can't use weapons or chakra. But that does leave a lot of loopholes. It doesn't matter though, he could have the help of all the shinobi he knows and you'd still be my first choice as a teammate."

Kakashi deadpanned something to Subaru in that code they spoke to each other. Gai only understood the most basic things that they had told him, but he picked up more each time he visited.

She stuck her tongue out playfully in response at him, and held her arms up to Gai. He lifted her onto his shoulder, where she balanced with the help of one hand on her thigh.

His eyes watered emotionally at her touching words and he opened his mouth to belt his appreciation out. A tiny hand slapped down over it.

"Sona safe volumes please, Gai," Kakashi reminded without turning around.

"Ah, sorry Su-hime! Your words were so inspiring, I forgot myself! I must make it up to you!"

"Can I be strapped to the backs of your legs again as you race backward on your hands up that big hill? That was fun, and the view was nice."

"Of course! I will run up and down twenty times!" Gai enthused with a grin, "No, I will do it thirty times! With one hand!"

He automatically turned to help his Rival bring the bowls to the table once he served out, as the man commented, "maa maa, stick with both hands if you're carrying Sona during exercise. I don't want her throwing up on me again."

He handed his beautiful blossom over to his best friend who placed her down by the table and then sat next to her, handing her chopsticks as Gai sat on the other side of the table. She narrowed her eyes at him, as he fished his Icha Icha out and began to read.

"First of all, I did not throw up on you, I expertly averted my head and missed you entirely. Secondly, I wasn't sick because of that, it was just acid reflux- itadakimasu," she took a nibble of her fish and then stabbed her chopsticks in Kakashi's direction, "which was because you made me eat spicy food even after I said I didn't like it."

Without looking up from his book, Kakashi waved a dismissive hand in her direction, "maa you'd never tried spicy food, how could you have known?"

Subaru turned her head to Gai, "Gai let me try some of his spicy food when we went out to eat months ago, didn't you?"

"That is true, I don't believe I have ever seen quite that mixture of green and red before on someone's face, outside of poisoning. It was quite distressing," Gai took a bite and nodded with a thoughtful frown, before swallowing, "and yet also funny."

"Thank you... sort of," she turned back to Kakashi, "see?"

"You hadn't tried my spicy food. How you could know for sure until you had?" He droned, unbothered, "also do you have pictures of that, Gai?"

Gai smiled happily, a hot bubbly feeling inside, as his family light heartedly bickered and argued and teased and laughed, nobody caring who won or what the argument was about. Eventually his Rival managed eat his entire meal at some point when no one was watching, Subaru got bored of lifting her hand to feed herself and so waited until Kakashi was distracted by Gai to place her chopsticks by him, so that he picked it up absentmindedly and started feeding her, Gai challenged his Eternal Rival to a chopstick balancing competition and lost, and Subaru laughed until she fell over- like she did during almost every competition she observed. He left after helping with the tidy up as she fell asleep, having migrated into his best friend's arms.

With a cheerful beam early the next morning, Gai picked up some five spice, turmeric, and chilli powder and mixed them together on his way to the Hatake apartment. With a silence most would deny him capable of, he let himself in through the apartment, bypassing the well placed traps he knew to avoid after a close shave during his first Dynamic Entry.

Less than a few minutes later, he was whisking a sleepy blossom away on his shoulder, with a booming, "THE CHALLENGE OF PRANKS BEGINS TODAY MY YOUTHFUL RIVAL!"

His beautiful blossom made a whining noise and slapped her hand over his mouth, as back in his bedroom his Eternal Rival sighed under his breath and after a moment of debating pulled the cover back over his head and went back to sleep, rather than preventing the benevolent kidnapping.

Half an hour later, Kakashi lazily made his way into his shower. He turned the water on hot, and ten seconds later swore, leaping back in disgust as the water bubbled back up the drain over his feet, a revolting brown colour.

He stared at his stained feet in horror, wondering what had gone wrong with the drainage system, when the distinct smell of spices reached his nose. He cautiously sniffed a few more times, before drooping in irritation.

"Maa already? Guess I'll have to step it up earlier than I thought."

After unblocking the carefully blocked drain, and rewashing, he returned to the bedroom, only to stop short at the sight of a smug Tora purring away on his pillow with a little henohenomoheji on a piece of paper stuck to its ribbon.

His eyelid narrowed into an unimpressed stare, "this is war."

Gai and his beautiful blossom went back to his apartment to cook breakfast, after making their plan of attack over the next three days before her birthday, when the cease fire had been agreed in case of risk to chocolate and cake- nobody wanted to see the worrying amounts of disappointment and upset on Su-hime's face when something happened to her sweet things.

They kept the food simple, and as they bit into it, she only had a moment to moan, "oh nooo." Before the heat kicked in, and they were both lying on the floor sweating and desperately crawling to the fridge for milk. Only to find none there.

"How did he retaliate so quickly without chakra?" She complained. Gai knew vaguely that Kakashi must have put a much milder version in his goddaughter's food if they were both showing mostly the same amount of pain, but as he looked at her rapidly red and green turning face, he didn't think she'd appreciate the thoughtfulness if he pointed it out.

His Rival was hit on by an uncomfortably lecherous old woman as he felt obliged to help her carry her bought furniture home for miles. After she pinched his butt as he put them down, she told him a message from a 'sweet little girl who said she knew someone who would help me out if I would do her an odd favour'. He noticed them only after he turned to leave, as they sat some distance away in the trees with a camera.

Gai and Su-hime found their skin dyed blue. Gai mourned his green jumpsuit which had been caught too, and his beautiful blossom placated him by telling him he looked just as fabulous as Konoha's Blue Beast for the morning. She on the other hand, thought she looked fantastic, with her hair caught too her eyes contrasted greatly with the colour and stood out vibrantly.

His best friend got himself caught in a string of glitter bombs, until they knew it wouldn't be coming out for a very long time. He'd be finding little pieces of glitter in his life for years probably.

Su-hime found herself serenaded by tenacious, snot nosed four year olds, and although at first Gai thought it was incredibly sweet and Youthful of them, at his goddaughter's extremely horrified and ill looking reaction, he realised this was a prank from his Rival. It seemed that at times, even Gai could not escape the stubbornness of young children, though- everywhere he thought to hide for the next two hours there was a lisping child with bad poetry waiting.

After that, in which Su-hime had spent the whole time treating them with the aggressive wariness a cat treated dogs, and shuddering in traumatised disgust, they took a break for lunch.

They found a glittery Kakashi, looking for all the world like he wasn't being looked at oddly by the other customers, at a ramen stand. Gai slipped into the seat next to his Rival, and his beautiful blossom easily hopped from his lap, to be caught by Kakashi and settled down.

He raised his eyebrow as he looked down at her, "I'd have thought you'd be avoiding direct contact with the enemy until tonight. Or possibly even after it's all over, Sona."

She tilted her blue head back to look at Kakashi and smiled a small sweet smile, looking a very cute blue version of his Eternal Rival when he eye smiled, "we're taking a break for lunch."

She took out a child's colouring book, as she sometimes did in public in order to both be left alone by cooing strangers, and appear deceivingly young and innocent. "Also I missed you," she muttered quietly under her breath as she drew, not looking at Kakashi.

Gai looked on with quiet amusement as his usually impassive- nonchalant at best- best friend softened and melted. He was completely wrapped around her little finger and everyone knew it. Gai would perhaps be more inclined to make the occasional teasing comment if he wasn't also wrapped around her little finger and they all knew it. It was alright though, because it was more than obvious that she too was completely unable to deny them anything they wanted from her for long.

After she complained that her mouth was numb and she didn't want anything to eat, Kakashi snorted at her pointed jab, and obligingly lifted his chopsticks to share with her and feed her. After that her numb mouth mysteriously got better.

"9 o clock, tou-san," Su-hime rolled her eyes and didn't look up from her drawing. Both men discretely glanced to their left, where a dressed up Terada Sana sat, trying quietly to draw attention without wanting to appear she desired attention. Terada Sana had a strong and unrelenting crush on Kakashi, which he always remained very Cool and Hip toward her about.

She was undoubtedly beautiful, but admittedly she was very civilian. The fact that she had only stepped up her game when his Rival and his beautiful blossom had started being seen together in public without disguise a few weeks ago, after determining that there was no mother in the picture, seemed to have earned her Su-hime's instant dislike.

His goddaughter was not UnYouthful about it, but she didn't bother trying hard to convince Kakashi and himself that she had any liking for the lovely lady. It wasn't helped by the fact that Terada Sana neither picked up on his goddaughter's dislike, nor gave up in her approach of befriending and mothering the girl to impress his best friend.

Terada stood from her seat and moved past them to sit next to Su-hime and Kakashi. She smiled invitingly at his Eternal Rival.

"Good afternoon Hatake-san. I didn't expect you to be here."

Subaru commented something under her breath in their coded language, and Kakashi let out a choked wheeze, before covering her mouth and collecting himself.

"Hello Terada-san, it's good to see you again. Are you on a date?" He didn't eye smile, but nor did he radiate any of the reluctance Gai knew Kakashi was feeling. Personally he would be honoured to hold the attention of such a delicate swan, but unfortunately his Rival held no interest in civilians, and they tended to be overwhelmed by the Roaring Flames of his Youth.

"Oh, no!" She laughed, "whatever gave you that idea? Was it my dress? It's old, I have other better clothes for dates. Thank you though, Hatake-san."

It was to Kakashi's clear suspicion, and Gai's hopeful confusion, that Subaru lit up with a truly adorable and innocent grin when Terada turned to the small child.

"Hello there Subaru-chan," she bent over, and cooed slowly at the girl. Subaru ducked her head shyly, and then waved cutely.

"Good af'ernoon, Terada-san." It wasn't until Subaru spoke to strangers, acting closer to her age, that Gai was reminded how unlike her age she was usually. He words, generally carefully and clearly spoken, albeit with an often strange intonation making her sound like she had an accent, had become lisped and childish sounding.

"So polite! You've raised a very polite and obedient daughter, Hatake-san. Aren't you Subaru-chan? Aren't you just special."

Kakashi laughed nervously, rubbing the back of his head, and discreetly removed anything sharp from Su-hime's immediate reach. Even Gai acknowledged the sinking feeling inside. His beautiful blossom could not stand the word obedient when applied to other human beings. Especially herself. He didn't know where it had come from, but the one time she had been scolded by an elderly neighbour for not being more obedient, she had almost snarled at the woman.

To both their surprises, although his friend tried unsuccessfully to tug the sharpened colouring pencils out of his beautiful blossom's gripped hand, the girl didn't show any other sign of her anger. Instead she blushed expertly, and gave a coy smile.

"Me n tou-san wew drawin'!"

"Oh, were you! How sweet, may I see some of your drawings Subaru-chan?"

Su-hime's demeanour lit up in victory, and Kakashi, realising there was something up, failed to prevent the woman from opening the book.

Immediately the smile that Gai- and therefore everyone else- could tell was insincere in preparation for whatever drawings had been done, slid off Sana's face. She flipped through the pages one by one looking more and more disturbed and concerned.

"You say you drew these with your tou-san?" She stammered. His beautiful blossom beamed and nodded.

"Uhuh, dey fwom be'time stawies he read me!"

She glanced up at a bewildered Kakashi, and backed away slightly, "which bed time stories are these?"

"Tou-san fav'rit book." Su-hime held up his Rival's favourite Icha Icha book which he snatched back from her too late, at the sight of which Sana's face turned a purple shade, and she hissed at a wide eyed but resigned Kakashi.

"How dare you! You revolting man! You- you- you- ugh!" She slammed the colouring book down, and stormed away. His goddaughter tilted her head after the woman.

"You know I'm not sure if she was offended by the idea that you read Icha Icha to me, you helped me draw pictures based off of it, or you owned the books at all."

Kakashi face palmed and groaned, "what did you draw." She handed Kakashi the colouring book, and both men leaned over to look. It was an ordinary child's drawing book, with some outlined cartoonish characters and the rest of the page blank, to give the children a starting point.

As they flicked through the book, it became clear that his beautiful blossom had some talent at shading and colouring, and doctoring images with black pen. Each innocent image had been transformed into something undeniably adult; either monstrous, gruesome, perverted or all of them.

"These are very well done Su-hime!" Gai praised loudly. She grinned genuinely up at him.

"Thank you. At least someone has appreciation for my talent."

"I appreciate your talent, Sona," his Eternal Rival pouted, "but did you have to use it to chase away a pretty lady?"

His goddaughter scoffed, "it was that or stab a bitch. Also you can't fool me in this, you had no desire to date her at all. She may be beautiful, but you're only interested in one thing from civilians and she treats sex like it's some scandalous act nobody even mentions until marriage. Face it, you were never getting a look under that skirt, and her fantastic cleavage isn't enough for the payoff of her annoying presence to be worth it."

With that, his (now slightly glittery as well as blue) beautiful blossom climbed onto her feet, with Kakashi's help, and he obligingly reached out to pick her up.

"Our ceasefire is over, my Eternal Rival! My beautiful blossom and I will prevail over your natural talent, with the art of Hard Work and YOUTH!"

He sped away to ensure his friend couldn't get any parting shots at his back, leaving his best friend with the bill.

With all of their tame pranks out of the way before the first lunch, they chose to step it up a notch.

It started with being chased by a hoard of Inuzuka dogs convinced they were dog nip, as Su-hime simultaneously screamed and cackled in his ear, and ended three days later with more building damage than initially predicted, a hoard of angry Kunoichi from Anbu after Kakashi for 'unforgivable perversions', the Hatake bathroom transformed into a pond- fish and ducks and all, all of his beautiful green outfits replaced with grey, a training ground completely ruined with neon yellow paint, thirty children completely hyper and crazy on too much sugar, the Hyuuga mortally offended by an unknown person who had vandalised their compound, some of the Hokage's tobacco leaf and underwear missing, the Nara deer causing a traffic blockage in the middle of town, all of his Eternal Rival's outfits replaced by green spandex and orange leg warmers, Su-hime's hair at least two inches shorter on one side, and half the hopeful female civilians let down by the presence of a thick eyebrow, black contact, mask wearing Su-hime in green spandex who had convinced them she was a love child of Gai and Kakashi through experimentation.

He, Kakashi and their beautiful blossom lay panting on the floor of his apartment, hiding from multiple shinobi of all ranks, and civilians of all classes, who were on a man hunt for the perpetrators of the destruction.

"So," she gasped between pants, "maybe this wasn't the best idea."

"Who won?" He asked the other two.

"I don't know. I lost count after I was too busy trying not to get flattened by Akimichi who thought I'd eaten all their food and then insulted their cooking. I'm banned for life from five of my favourite restaurants," his friend moaned miserably.

"Psh like that'll stop you," Su-hime limply dismisses his concern with a wave of her hand, "if anyone asks, we've spent all three days in Gai's apartment having a prolonged birthday celebration. We know nothing."

Everyone agreed for the sake of self preservation.

It was less than a day later, during which Kakashi efficiently tidied his bathroom out, Gai swapped their wardrobes around, and after a picture for posterity, his beautiful blossom reluctantly allowed herself to be dragged out of her outfit by an insistent Kakashi, that he found himself in the park, with balloons tied to a bench, flowers on top of it, and party food spread out.

Gai had wanted to find more children to invite, so that Su-hime might have some friends around her own age, but for reasons he wouldn't elaborate on, his best friend had nixed the idea (as well as the live band, the entertainer, the bouncy castle, the hoard of gifts, the kittens, and the pony).

They had each stuck to three gifts for the beautiful blossom, and Gai had been warned by Kakashi that she had something important to tell him before the evening was over.

His Eternal Rival approached carrying a sleepy Su-hime, who had needed a nap that day- as she still occasionally did in the afternoon. She rubbed her eye, and when she saw what was waiting for her he felt rewarded for his efforts at seeing her face brighten and a delightful laugh escape her.

They ate far too much, and Gai was warmed to see their beautiful blossom look emotional at times as she contentedly watched Kakashi and Gai talk. He could clearly compare the despondent, withdrawn, unemotional girl of a year ago, to the smiling, vibrant and caring person in front of him. He knew when he held the pictures of those two people up next to each other in one he would see a pale, dull eyed, sallow, and hollow faced waif in one, and a pink cheeked (perhaps closer to purple with her still stained skin), beaming, bright eyed blossom in the other.

He knew, when he had first come to know her, that she was more like her father than perhaps either of them realised. They liked to be quiet and removed, observing more than partaking, using their jokes and their humour to keep people at a distance rather that to pull people in close. He also knew that they needed the opposite of what they would ask for with their actions. They needed someone to unrelentingly knock down their barriers with Youth, in order to ignite their own flames. They needed people's springtime flames to keep light their own, or they got lost in darkness.

He was gratified, looking at the duo, to see how good they were for each other. They kept each other's flames of Youth lit now, and he was glad.

As the evening wore on, and the small intimate party wound down, they tidied up and made their way back to Gai's apartment. There, it was clear from the look of anxious anticipation on his goddaughter's face, as she fiddled with her fingers, that she was about to impart her thing of importance to him.

A look at his Rival revealed him to be unusually serious, and although his posture was relaxed, he clearly found what she was about to say to be as significant as she did.

She cleared her throat, and nervously darted glances at him as she spoke, "so DFB told me that I have an unusually complex brain development because of circumstances of my birth. When he first got me, he knew I wasn't going to be like other children. This can explain why I can already talk as well as I do, and I can write, although I still need practice at it. But it explains... you know... other things about my behaviour."

Gai nodded, saying nothing when it was evident she wasn't finished.

"But the truth is, as far as I- as far as we can tell, the only thing it's really done for me is to speed up the rate at which I can learn and how easily I remember things, if I concentrate. I learnt to speak quickly and I'm learning to write quickly too, but everything else was already in my head. I didn't learn it."

She took a deep breath, and met his eyes, "what I'm trying, and sort of failing, to tell you, is that I was born with a full set of memories of another life. From the age of two till just before I turned twenty. A life from another world."

Gai blinked twice as he wrapped his head around this, before he asked, "and your mind is okay? Your brain is not any larger than average from what I see, do you experience headaches or pain of any sort?"

Su-hime released a breath that was half laugh half choked sob, "no. No I don't feel any pain from it. From what we guessed, either the complex development of my brain allowed a blank slate for my memories to go, or I was already... there and the brain was forced to grow differently to account for that. So you're not angry? Or... I don't know. I lied to you and I want make sure we're okay."

Gai grinned a hugely at her in comfort, "you didn't lie to me my beautiful blossom! I knew there were circumstances behind your birth that were unusual, and so I knew there was an explanation behind your behaviour. I didn't expect the one given, but I'm not too surprised. I assume my Youthful Rival has known for a while."

"He's known for some months now."

"I see, I am pleased that your Flames of your Youth still burn brightly together! It is inspiring to see!"

He had been present for both of them during strained times, and he was happy that they had prevailed. They were very good for each other. His goddaughter gave Kakashi what Gai hadn't been able to, and vice versa. The fact that as a side effect of this, Gai and Kakashi had become closer friends, and he had gained his cute little Su-hime was just a wonderful bonus.

Su-hime smiled at him for a moment, before she rubbed the back of her head, looking exactly like his Eternal Rival as she did, "right, I suppose that slightly underwhelming but excellent conclusion of the conversation is over. So...present time?"

"Maa, presents are supposed to be opened after the party, Sona," Kakashi informed, however nonetheless he unsealed a scroll and held the six gifts in his hands.

"But the party is over?"

"Aa, but it should be after the guests have left." She frowned, confused.

"We didn't have any guests."

His friend sighed, "I mean Gai." Su-hime rolled her eyes at him.

"Gai isn't a guest, asshole. He's family. And this is as good as home. I don't see why I have to wait."

At that, he felt emotion well up, and tears spilled over, he just before he opened his mouth to belt out his feelings and appreciation for his family, he heard his beautiful blossom say to a retreating Kakashi.

"No! You are not leaving me here to deal with that! You bastard!"

I don't know if you noticed, but the vast majority of English that Gai understands is to do with sex and swearwords. Haha

I'm not sure how I feel about this chapter, but as always the point is to write it up, sometimes remove obvious spelling or grammar mistakes, and post it without thinking too hard.

I'm not well at the moment, so it may be tomorrow or it may be a couple of days before the next chap, it depends on my health.