Insomnia

WC: 558

After the Third Shinobi War, many of those involved were left with new quirks.

Kakashi, for one, was suddenly late for everything, and could often be seen carrying porn around (and then there was the hitai-ate tilted over his eye, but no one cared to mention it).

Anko decided that she didn't care what the hell anyone thought and would do whatever she wanted – including dressing in only fishnet, a skirt, and a trench coat.

Asuma picked up smoking.

Kurenai read romance novels.

Genma started to chew on senbon, just to focus on something.

Minato and Kushina... well, let's leave them alone.

And Gai... Gai became an insomniac.

Truthfully, having insomnia wasn't too uncommon for shinobi. But it was often cured when they went on high ranked missions that forced them to sleep. Sleeping at anytime was something all jounin – and more usually, ANBU – ended up learning.

But after the war, Gai found he couldn't sleep. Most times, he would wake up from sleep, sweat running down his brow, and wondering if anything he had just dreamed was real. Was Kurenai alive? Or did she die, being tortured to death? What about Kakashi? Did Gai not get there in time to stop him from doing something his father once did, or did he fail? Asuma? Anko? Genma? Anyone?

He stopped sleeping. He stayed awake for all hours of the night, and into the morning, training as much as possible. He covered up his tiredness by shouting about the joys of youth. He dressed in the most obnoxiously bright color he could find (although, after awhile, it really did grow on him).

Eventually, the sleep terrors began to fade. But Gai found he still couldn't sleep. So he trained some more. And when his genin came along, he taught them to train. They thought he was insane – well, Neji and Tenten did. Gai thought Lee had some inkling of what was going on, but he never wanted to ask. Because asking meant admitting weakness, something he could never do to his students. Though they didn't know it, he knew they were fragile. Most genin were. Any wrong move and they could snap.

So, he kept up the front. Well, it wasn't so much a front as an exaggeration. He drank more coffee (by the time he entered his team into the Chunin Exams, he was drinking five cups a day) and he trained even more.

At times, he wondered how long he could keep this up. But each day, even if he only got an hour of sleep, he kept moving. And he didn't stop until he had to repeat again. He made it his own personal mission to see how long he could go without sleep (and that, he figured, he would always be able to beat Kakashi at).

He learned to live with it. For his friends. For his village. For his students. Because he knew that sometimes all anyone needed was a constant, and he was determined to be that. If he had to give up hours of sleep for that, why should he care?

Ten years later, on the anniversary of the death of his student, Rock Lee, Gai died in his sleep, a small smile on his face. The doctors said his body had simply stopped working.

But at long last, Gai was finally sleeping.

Gai angst? Two updates in the same day? A third update coming in two seconds? Yay!