AN: Wow this was a quick update! And the chapters seem to be getting longer each time. I just had to get the final scene down on paper though while the idea and dialogue were buzzing round my head. I am very excited about this fic at the moment and it looks like my other one Ramen Soup for the Soul is coming to an end... But alas am leaving to go to Amsterdam tomorrow so I won't be updating most likely until I'm back on Friday. Although maybe I can get some writing done on the plane potentially... Anyway, please let me know what you think, if you like where this is heading at the moment.

Chapter 4

The next two days passed in vigorously youthful training. Gai pushed his body to its limits each day and then spent the nights recovering. From scouting the area and foraging for herbs he had managed to make a basic kind of food pill. It wasn't anything great or particularly effective but it gave him a bit of an energy boost all the same.

That last night Gai had dinner with Kairi and her father in their home. She had made his favourite meal: super spicy curry! It was delicious. Gai even made room for seconds while the other two watched fondly. They would miss their hyperactive saviour and patient. Gai's youthful energy and incessant talking filled their days. They would be sad to see their new friend go.

But alas Gai was a shinobi, and they knew he could never be happy in such a small village, with no missions. They only job here was protecting them from bandits, and they were so far out few ventured here at all. And besides Kairi knew Gai could never stay here knowing his Kakashi was so far away. She had never seen a man so in love. Sometimes she wished that love was directed at her. Kakashi was a lucky man and she hoped he appreciated Gai and treasured his love like he should. Like she would if Gai looked twice at her.

Finally it was the third day; the day Gai had set upon to leave his home for the past year. Kairi had packed Gai a lot of food for his return journey home. She surprised him by meeting him at the cliff for his morning stretches. The bento boxes were filled with the most delicious things: noodles, sushi, tempora, pickles and neganegi stuffed with crab meat.

"Oh thank you!" Gai beamed. "It all looks delicious it should be more than enough to keep me going."

"Somehow I doubt that with the amount of food you can out away," she laughed, smiling fondly at her enthusiastic friend. She really would miss the man.

Kairi had also made some clothes to fit Gai a little better than the ones her father had lent him. The enemy ninja he had been fighting had stripped Gai of his infamous green spandex along with his Konoha headband. It didn't matter though as Gai had a whole wardrobe full of them back in the Konoha. It just meant his entrance into the village wouldn't be as epic and youthful as the green beast's entrance should.

So, with a back pack full of delicious bento and boring, normal civilian clothes, Gai bid a fond farewell to the two that had taken care of him for so long. They had literally nursed him back from the dead and he would be forever grateful and in their debt. Gai hoped that one day he could do something for them to show them even mere fraction of his appreciation.

The journey was long and lonely but the thought of seeing everyone again kept him going at top speed the whole way. Every time he camped at under the stairs and looked up at the silver moon he thought of his rival, his lover.

He wondered how Kakashi had been. Had he been out looking for Gai? Maybe he had become a wondering nin, walking from place to place searching for his lost soul mate. OK Gai doubted very much that that was the case, but the thought made him happy all the same. After all Gai was incredibly sappy and romantic and he loved the idea of Kakashi longing for his lost love.

Then Gai thought of the reuniting sex they would have and wondered if it would be so passionate that maybe it was worth staying away all this time. Hmm maybe not. Although he had basically been asleep for a whole year he had still missed his boyfriend and rival to the point of pain. His heart ached to be with him again. And besides Kakashi was probably out of his mind with worry. Gai felt guilty that he had put him through so much emotional pain again. That was the last thing Kakashi had needed so soon after love had bloomed.

"Rival," a fourteen year old green clad ninja said. He stood behind the younger silver haired ninja. "Rival."

Kakashi ignored him still, looking at the same names on the same stone. He did this every morning. Gai had been stalking his rival for over a week now and had discovered Kakashi's unhealthy obsession.

"Rival. Come on, turn around. Why are you here again?"

"To remember..."

"You don't have to be here to remember them. They will always be in your heart!" Gai struck a pose at the corny line, hoping to distract Kakashi away from the cold stone. Still his rival did not turn from it. "Come on, Kashi, they wouldn't want you to be here every day. And it's not like you'll forget them if you visit less."

"It's not them I'm remembering..."

"Then what? Spit it out!"

"It's my promises... and my failures."

Ergh so much damn angst! Gai had had enough! He grabbed Kakashi's small hand and pulled him away, all the way back to his house. Gai's father was already out training so Gai cooked Kakashi breakfast and gradually pulled him out of his brooding.

The morning ended with a head stand challenge in Gai's bedroom. Kakashi had never seen his room before. Gai had lost, feeling to dizzy to stay on the spot and fell. Though he had vaguely wondered at the time if his light headedness had been less about the blood rushing to his head in the challenge, and more about seeing Kakashi so close to his bed.

It was mid day when he arrived and the gates of Konoha were already swung open for travelling merchants, as if in welcome. Gai proudly walked through the doors with the crowd. Izumo and Kotetsu were supposed to be keeping watch but were too busy arguing over a game of marbles.

Gai stopped at the split in the path. To the left would be Kakashi's apartment. To the right the Hokage's office. Gai was torn between his head and his heart. He wanted nothing more than to run into the arms of his love. But shinobi always reported straight to the Hokage after a mission; especially one that led to you being missing in action for more than a year.

Gai sighed in a way reminiscent of his rival. He headed right and hoped to get the report over quickly. Although he admitted to himself that once they got him talking his enthusiasm for storytelling might just take over...

"BUSHIER BROW- SENSEI!"

"Naruto!" Gai beamed at the welcome. "Or should I say Hokage-sama!?"

The blond was as loud and excited as ever regardless of the ominous Kage uniform. Upon seeing Gai in his doorway he had dropped stamp seal, watched him with a blank face for a few awkward moments, and then proceeded to bear hug the older man.

Gai also was a little shocked: Naruto had not been Hokage when he had left for his mission. He wondered how much else had changed in his absence.

"Ah this?" Naruto said, indicating his coat. "Ah, it's nothing. The important thing is that your here, that your alive."

"What? You thought I was dead?"

Naruto's eyes were sparkling with tears he was trying to hold back."Well yeah..."

At that moment Sakura kicked open the door. "Gai-sensei!" she squealed.

"Ah the lovely Sakura!" Gai greeted.

She also hugged him and then turned to Naruto. Sakura threw a pack of papers onto the hokage desk and took a breath. Evidently she was Naruto's Shizune.

"How did you survive?" she asked gently. "What happened?"

Gai put a hand on his chin in confusion. Why did everyone underestimate the graceful green beast of their village? "So you also thought me dead, Sakura-chan?"

"Well...yes. Everyone did."

The colour left Gai's face. Everyone? Even Kakashi...? No! His rival would never underestimate him. He would wait for the return of his love in longing passion! Gai took in the anxious faces of the young man and woman. "But why?" was all he could manage.

"The enemy nin...they said..." Naruto began.

Sakura sighed, knowing she would have to be the one to explain. "The enemy delivered to us your head band and the head bands of the others. As you were – are – one of top jounin and a well-known name, they also sent us your green spandex suit as a warning. They sneered and left a message that they had killed you and all your chunnin, and anyone that came after them would suffer the same fate."

Gai went white and Sakura pushed a chair under him just in time. He sunk into it, all at once showing his years of fighting, of suffering, of pain as a shinobi.

"And- and you believed them? Just like that?"

Naruto looked aghast. "No! We wanted to hope, wanted to believe you were out there, that maybe they had taken you prisoner. We sent a squad after you, an Anbu one led by Kakashi-sensei-"

"Kakashi joined Anbu again?"

"Well it was supposed to be a one-off. But he ended up going back to them properly. Sakura and I both advised against it, and wanted him to train new genin, but he refused..."

Gai was about to respond when Sakura butt in. "Anyway," she said giving Naruto a look that warned him not to venture off topic. "Kakashi-sensei hunted down the enemy nin and killed them all single-handedly, one by one. He even tortured one of them for information. They said they had killed you and thrown your body in the sea with the other chuunin. Kakashi searched the shore and they found one of the bodies..."

"But not mine?"

"Well Kakashi-sensei had fainted at that point. He had been so weak, so depressed before he left for the mission. When he woke back in Konoha Tsunade worried that he wouldn't recover without closure so she told him..."

At this Sakura looked around uncomfortably, looking anywhere but at Gai and Naruto. Even Naruto was looking intently at her now; evidently the story was heading in a direction even he was not aware of. Though he hadn't been Hokage at the time.

"What Sakura?" Naruto asked, voicing what Gai was too shocked to himself.

"Tsunade-sama feared Kakashi might not have the will to go on if we didn't have a definite answer to your whereabouts. We all thought you were dead except him. So she told Kakashi-sensei she had found your body, had seen it with her own eyes, and buried it while Kakashi-sensei was still unconscious."

Gai gasped, horrified. Naruto was looking at Sakura as if she were a stranger to him.

"She did it to protect him," Sakura feebly tried to explain. "She wanted to help him get over-"

"I have to see my rival!" Gai bellowed. He turned toward the window.

"No, Gai-sensei, wait! You don't understand! I need to tell you-"

But Gai had already jumped out the window and was dashing along the rooftops. Naruto watched Sakura in shock. Sakura was horrified.

"We have to stop him! He doesn't know!"

Naruto narrowed his eyes. "Know what?"