Kakashi weaved through the unusually busy streets of Konoha. Everywhere he looked foreign forehead protectors were gleaming in the sun, reminding him that the first round of the Chunin exam was merely a week away. More and more Genin teams accompanied by their Jounin teachers were arriving every day now.
As he made his way through the crowd, Kakashi could feel countless eyes on himself. He didn´t need to look up from his open book to know that every Genin he walked past was scanning the throng of people for potential competition. Their gazes slid over him, registered his vest, and moved on in search of other Genin. However, once in a while he felt the needle prick sensation of an unfamiliar Jounin´s attention focusing on him for less than the blink of an eye. Then Kakashi brought his nose even closer to the pages of Icha Icha and examined the person in question out of the corner of his eye. Sadly, for a ninja terms like "peace" and "allies" were always relative and it wouldn´t hurt to get a preview of possible future enemies.
Originally, he´d had high hopes that he'd be able to save himself a lot of time and energy by bumping into Gai somewhere in the streets of the village, but as he drew closer to the Jounin Lounge, the first and with any luck last place he was going to search for the other man, Kakashi was starting to suspect that this might not go as smoothly as he had planned. After all, there had been no sign of Gai on his way to the inconspicuous building near the Hokage tower which housed the meeting point for Jounin on standby.
As he approached, Kakashi saw a familiar, tall man leaning with his back against the wall right next to the entrance. Asuma seemed to be lost in thought, watching blue-grey swirls of smoke twisting around each other lazily in the air in front of him through half-closed eyes; the source of the thinning strands of smoke hanging limply from his lips. To almost everyone walking past the jounin probably appeared to be on the verge of falling asleep on his feet and quite oblivious to his surroundings. Kakashi, however, knew that his colleague had already noticed him, had identified him as a fellow Konoha Ninja and was merely too busy relaxing to greet him and start a conversation.
Kakashi contemplated just uttering a greeting and leaving Asuma to his cigarette break, but he was too tempted by the notion that disturbing the other man might save him some trouble. Asuma would know whether Gai was inside and not only that, he might even know what mood Gai was in. When it came down to the question whether to inconvenience somebody else to make his own life easier… Well, that wasn´t even a question, now was it? Kakashi couldn´t suppress an upwards twitch of the corner of his mouth; things were starting to look up again.
Pocketing his book and walking the last steps towards his victim with a feeling akin to elation, he didn´t need to fake the joyful tones of his greeting.
"Asuma! Hey. It´s been a while. How are you?" Then, thinking that if he was going to annoy the poor guy anyway, he might as well go all out, he added with a saccharine smile concealed by his mask, "How´s Kurenai?"
Asuma had reluctantly turned towards the other Jounin at his first words and responded with a less enthusiastic version of Kakashi´s "Hey." At the mention of Kurenai, however, a blush crept up his neck, he avoided Kakashi´s friendly gaze and muttered, "How would I know?"
It was a miracle Asuma had survived as long as he had with his evident lack of subtlety and stealth, Kakashi thought. He hadn´t even managed to keep the slight tremor out of his voice at that last question.
Seconds later Asuma had caught himself and focused back on his colleague.
"Is this about Sakura?"
Now it was Kakashi´s turn to be momentary flustered. He couldn't possibly imagine what Asuma was trying to say, or why he would bring her up and yet he suddenly remembered his promise to talk to his former student, which he had not actually kept at that point in time, he just hadn´t found the right moment to do it yet. But he would, of course he would. He could feel a tidal wave of guilt rising within him, which he immediately fought down.
"Sakura? What about her?" Now his voice, Kakashi noted proudly, didn´t betray anything but innocent curiosity.
"I just thought you might want to know how she´s doing." Asuma was looking at him funnily now, like there was something completely obvious he was expecting from him, which should be coming any second. Kakashi, however, had no idea what it was. Why would he have to ask Asuma of all people about Sakura? It was true that the two of them hadn´t seen each other for some time, since Kakashi had spent the last months either away on missions, or training alone and he clearly was behind on what was going on in the village.
Well, Asuma´s phrase was echoing his earlier question about Kurenai, so… Asuma was trying to tell him that he should have asked about Sakura instead? Because he wasn´t dating Kurenai anymore, but Sakura? No, that couldn´t be it! Sakura was 14 years old! Could it? Kakashi´s face was starting to grow incredibly hot; his headband and mask soaked up most of the sweat thankfully, but he really needed to tear himself away from this line of thought. Rationally, there was only one reason for him to enquire after Sakura right now.
"Does this have something to do with the Chunin exams? Why would I ask you about that?"
Asuma almost dropped his cigarette at that. "You mean you don´t know?" Without waiting for the at that point fairly redundant answer he went on, "Sakura is taking the exam as a member of my team – I mean, not that I´m her sensei now, but she´ll be put in a squad with Chouji and Ino, which is why I´m training the three of them."
"Ah." Kakashi realized that Asuma expected more from him than just this monosyllabic acknowledgement of the facts, at least now he had an idea what he was supposed to ask. "Well, I guess that´s only natural. So, how are they doing?" Still, there was that feeling of guilt again. Deep down Kakashi knew that he should show more interest in Sakura, but his predominating emotion at that moment was an appalling amount of sheer gratitude that Tsunade had not ordered him to assist Sakura in her training.
Shoving his tangled web of feelings aside, Kakashi focused on Asuma, who seemed to be in his element discussing his students. "They´re in pretty good shape; took them a while to adjust, of course. Sakura´s skills are quite impressive, but she´s a completely different type from Shikamaru." He shrugged. "I wouldn´t worry though, they´ve grown a lot."
It hadn´t even occurred to Kakashi to worry, at least now he wouldn´t have to feel ashamed about that. Their conversation had taken him into not exactly comfortable territory, however, he now sensed an opportunity to steer it back in the direction he had wanted it to take in the first place. Nevertheless, with the topic of the Chunin exams on hand, Kakashi had a convenient cover for bringing up Gai as a seemingly natural progression of their chat.
"You´re not bothered by the competition then," he wondered, keeping his voice light and playful.
"Hm," Asuma took the cigarette out of his mouth and flicked the ashes absentmindedly into the direction of the ground, while looking past Kakashi at the busy street. "There are a lot of Genin this time and there´s still a week left until the preliminaries begin. Ah well, that´ll only make it more interesting." He chuckled and slipped the cigarette back between his lips.
Apparently, the older Jounin needed another nudge into the right direction. "What about Kurenai´s and Gai´s teams?"
Just hearing Kurenai´s name was enough to bring bright spots of pink into full bloom on Asuma´s cheeks. Even behind his almost ever present veil of smoke, Kakashi could easily make them out. It was kind of endearing, he thought, his colleague clearly had it bad.
Asuma, quite embarrassed now, even had to clear his throat before speaking. "Kurenai is… I mean her team…they´re doing great. Yeah. Great." He smiled and scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "And Gai?" Kakashi prodded, "Any idea what he´s been up to recently?" At this point, he figured, he didn´t need to be especially subtle anymore, since the other man seemed to be rather lost in whatever thoughts he entertained about their female colleague.
"Eh?" Asuma jerked out of his happy Kurenai-fantasy and gave the question some consideration. "He´s been clocking in a lot of mission time with his team, as far as I know. Yeah, he told me some time ago that he wanted them to get as much experience as possible first and then use the time directly before the exam for individual training." He frowned as if remembering something unpleasant which had been repressed upon occurring. "Of course, Gai didn´t use these words. He called it a 'splendid' strategy, had a name for it and everything … burning …hot…something?" Asuma shook his head. "Can´t remember. Geez, how the hell does he come up with this stuff, anyway? And why?"
But Kakashi was only half listening at that point, because if Gai had indeed been as busy with missions as the other Jounin claimed – and he had no reason to doubt Asuma´s words – then there was the distinct possibility that Gai hadn´t snubbed him on purpose at all, but had just been too caught up in his preparation for the Chunin exams too issue his usual challenges. Also, Kakashi hadn´t exactly been idle himself. With their full mission schedules, maybe they had only accidentally missed each other and if that was the case, Gai had probably forgotten about their last challenge already and they could just go back to normal.
Now to verify the location of his target.
"He´s at the training grounds, I take it?"
"I´m pretty sure he is." Asuma tilted his head back and blinked into the bright, sunny sky. "I´ve got to go there, too. I told Shikamaru to develop combat strategies with Ino, Sakura and Chouji." He sighed; "It´s good training for him, though by now he´s probably cursing my name…"
Kakashi, who had already been on the verge of leaving, paused at that, feeling that he should show some interest in this after all. "Training not going as well as it should?" The least he could do would be to offer advice if needed.
"Nah, they make a pretty good team, I mean, sure they have the disadvantage of not being able to take the exam with their original teams, but… well, that can´t be helped.. .and they have known each other since they went to the academy together…" Another sigh. "Actually, that might be a part of the problem. They could be a great team if only there wasn´t so much… bickering."
Kakashi had to fight a smile at the utter misery in Asuma´s voice. "Sakura and Ino, hm?" He remembered their vicious match and the underlying tenderness they held for each other, which they had been trying so desperately to shatter with their fists. "Ah, the mystery of rivalries..."
"Yeah, I guess you know all about that."Asuma plucked the cigarette from his lips, dropped it carelessly, and ground it out with a quick twist of his foot. "Well, I´m going."
Kakashi hung back and considered his options. There was no way he could convincingly 'just happen to meet' Gai on the training grounds, then again he might not need to pretend anymore. It had been weeks since their fight – if one could even call it that – and Gai had apparently been extremely occupied with his team. In all likelihood, Gai had forgotten anything had ever happened, which meant that he could just stroll over to him without it seeming like he was giving in.
Since Kakashi was already tired of waiting, he decided to take his chances with the more or less direct approach. After all, what was the worst that could possibly happen?
Kakashi stood, frozen, clinging desperately to the tree he had been aiming to lean against with his usual air of cool charm, while Gai waved his index finger dramatically in his face and shouted for everyone on the surrounding training grounds– and possibly the planet– to hear, "AHA! My remorseful rival has returned to acknowledge his mistakes and make his apologies like a true man!" He whipped around energetically to address his three bewildered – on second thought make that two bewildered and one enraptured – students and proclaimed, "Like I told you, the passion of an intense rivalry can lead to fierce disagreements, BUT – " with a speed that would have given a lesser man whiplash he turned back to Kakashi, "after the initial heat of the argument has cooled off, the misguided party will surely see reason and seek forgiveness, isn´t that right, my rival?"
Kakashi stared, then glanced past Gai at the three teenagers, then stared at 'his rival' some more. "You told them?" To say his voice was incredulous would be like saying the sun was lukewarm. "Naturally, what better way is there to teach them about the difficulties they will have to face during the course of their youth?" Gai´s chest was swelling with pride in his own efficiency as a teacher.
"Ugh, there were tears," Tenten supplied, from the sound of it she didn´t exactly cherish the memory. "Hugs, too," Neji added, sounding completely resigned to his fate.
"Thanks for reminding me, I was repressing that."
"You´re welcome."
"It was a beautiful moment of bonding!" Lee chimed in happily.
Not for the first time, Kakashi felt his annoyance with Gai reach epic proportions; however, he stayed completely calm when he asked him whether they could talk this over somewhere else.
Alone.