For a bunch of shinobi, they really suck at surprise parties. That's what Kakashi thinks, at least, but then, this is the eleventh year in a row, and at that point it would have been hard for anyone to still be surprising. It would have been impossible to top the very first time anyway, when Kakashi had been so thoroughly and genuinely surprised that he almost sliced off Ebisu's ear with a shuriken.
Why Gai insists on doing this for him, Kakashi will probably never understand. He has long since filed it under because Gai is Gai and left it at that, as he has done and continues to do with so many of his friend's little and not so little quirks.
This year, like every year, the Hatake Kakashi surprise birthday party starts off at Gai's tiny apartment. Gai leads him there with a very lame excuse – I spilled tea on our last mission report, Rival, so I had to write a new one. It needs your signature again… OH NO, I seem to have forgotten the report at my apartment! Curses! Could you just go there with me? – after Kakashi has said no, sorry, I can't and Why don't you go and get it; I'll wait here just to see Gai sweat and squirm and sputter, he finally gives in and comes along.
Every year, Gai's apartment is crowded and decorated with garish banners in clashing colors. Kakashi gets his "surprise" and receives congratulations, handshakes and hugs (one from Gai at the very least), his annual congratulatory ass-grope, as she likes to call it, from Anko, and, most importantly, his presents. Those he actually looks forward to; everything else not so much.
After that, Kakashi withdraws into a corner with his piece of cake and watches the others. Somehow, they always seem to have a blast at his birthday parties. They chat and laugh, and once the sticky-sweet cake is gone and it's dark outside, Gai drags them all, including Kakashi, to a bar, where they seem to have even more of a blast.
Once there, Kakashi finds another corner and a drink to sip on, and continues watching.
Like every year, he sits there, in the dimly lit bar, looking at the people around him, and finds himself wondering, Are those really my friends?
Sure, he would die for them in a heartbeat, no questions asked, and he knows they would do the same for him, but even that—
It feels hollow somehow, compared to how easily Gai moves between them and talks to them and convinces Ibiki of all people to go up onto the stage and sing karaoke. Gai likes them and they like Gai, but Kakashi…
Kakashi can't remember the last time he talked to Shizune about anything that wasn't health or mission related, he can't remember the last time he went out to get a drink with Genma and Raidou or the last time he sparred with anyone other than Gai.
He spends a lot of time with Gai, but that's because Gai simply won't leave him alone.
Kakashi sighs. Across the room, Gai is talking to Shizune and Aoba. They're laughing about something, Shizune is pressing her hand over her mouth, stifling giggles.
Someone slaps a hand on his shoulder and Kakashi whips around on his barstool.
"You're such a maudlin drunk," Anko tells him earnestly, her breath like the fumes straight from a brewery. "Cheer up, birthday boy!"
He sighs again, and Anko grimaces in disgust. Then she sloppily pats his head as if he is some kind of barely lovable stray dog.
"Your hair feels weird," she declares before wandering away, leaving Kakashi to his depressing musings.
He must have dozed off at some point because the next thing he sees when he opens his eye is Tenzou, clutching a microphone, stumbling across the stage and doing some of the worst singing Kakashi has ever heard. The whole bar sighs in relief when he finally ventures too close to the edge and falls off.
To Kakashi's mild shock, Gai is next up.
He winks at someone in the by now fairly thinned out crowd and does that sparkly grin thing he does that always gives Kakashi a small headache when he's drunk, and then the music starts and it's surprisingly slow and soft.
When Gai starts singing, Kakashi can't help being impressed. Gai has a good, strong voice, Kakashi has always known that, but usually Gai uses it to belt out terrible, upbeat pop songs – occasionally, when he's very drunk, songs by girl groups which he sings in a shrill, high-pitched falsetto.
This time, however, it's different.
Gai is singing a sad song, a slow song, whose lyrics seem to reverberate through Kakashi.
The truth is, even I've noticed
Most of your indecision and excuses
It's ridiculous, the song's not about them, not by a long shot. It's about some couple and cheating or something, frankly, at this point, Kakashi is probably too drunk to get it, but still.
He has goose bumps although it's warm inside the bar, too warm even, and he can't shake that strange feeling. His head hurts almost as much as his heart.
So, with nothing else to do and one more year on his back, he decides to listen and simply keep drinking until he'll fall off is chair and Gai will have to carry him home.
A.N.: The song that I had in mind for Gai is Suga Shikao's Tsuki to Naifu (which I love). Lyrics are from that song, which belongs to its creator and not me.