A random scene. Ties loosely to "Subtlety" perhaps.

Title: Subtext
Rating: G
Characters/Pairing: Gai, Kakashi (possible Gai/Kakashi?)

Challenge: None

Subtext – Kakashi, Gai

Consulting his page over the shot of sake, Kakashi wryly shook his head and downed the tiny cupful. "The ideas Jiraiya puts in his head." The hypocritical tsk-tsk went unnoticed by his drinking partner who, in keeping with tonight's challenge, was busy with his own shot. Kakashi waited until Gai had finished and was reclining comfortably in his chair, before he added deviously, "Though I'm sure Lee didn't help the matter."

Gai's response was slowed ever-so-slightly by the onset of intoxication, and he mostly missed that Kakashi was setting him up. "What about Lee?" Kakashi purposefully remained silent behind his lurid orange book-cover. Now Gai sensed that he had been baited into a corner. But he was a curious man, and especially so when it came to matters concerning his favorite student. He leaned forward across the table and pushed down his rival's book so that he could squint up at that masked face. "When did you speak with Lee?"

"Yesterday," the Copy-Nin replied with easy poise. Those bushy brows raised in question, demanding he explain. "When you were late for practice. He asked if I had been keeping you."

"Keeping me?" Despite some confusion, Gai's voice rang with fear that a euphemism for something perverse was hidden in that phrase.

"Holding you up." A pause. Their eyes met and Kakashi again reconsidered his wording to something that implied a less troublesome train of thought. "Stalling you. With one of our challenges."

"Oh. I see," Gai answered rather slowly and carefully as he sat back in his chair, pondering this new development with a look of disturbed concern on his face. "Why would Naruto get ideas from that?" Kakashi took another shot of sake through his mask and pointedly missed the line of questioning. For just a minute, Gai gave him the benefit of doubt and waited for a response, even going so far as to meet the challenge of another shot and up the ante; but he knew Kakashi had the irksome habit of feigning ignorance just to avoid answering. He called the bluff. "I asked you a question."

"I'm sorry. I thought it was rhetorical."

"What did you say to Lee?" There was an edge of warning to his voice.

"I told him that you and I had a wrestling challenge that morning," Kakashi answered, waving his hand dismissively, "and that you might be a little late and a little sore because of it. But I assure you," he added pleasantly, grinning through the mask, "any impure thoughts were Lee's alone. I didn't imply anything."

Mask or no, it was hard to miss that Cheshire grin that turned Kakashi's usually sleepy-lidded eye into a happy crescent.

"No, of course not." Sarcasm sounded odd on Gai. "Who is lacking in subtly now, my rival?"

"It's not my fault everyone in Konoha is a pervert."

"My little Lee included?"

"Lee especially."