This is truly something only Gai would do. Keeping a picture of himself and his students, taken right after their successful completion of a C-rank mission, all of them still wearing the disguises they had been forced to use to sneak into the bandit hideout.
Had the disguise been anything else it might not have been something only Gai would do, Kakashi has to admit that, but the fact that the picture shows all members of Team Gai dressed as concubines firmly pushes the event into no one but Gai -territory.
He's pretty sure that the kids didn't appreciate it, judging from the look on Neji's face alone, it seems like he would have appreciated being stabbed more than the flash of the camera. The boy looks good, though, not even a little bit like a boy dressed as a girl but exactly like a haughty, moody teenaged beauty with flawless skin.
Lee doesn't fare as well as Neji, but he's still too young to be completely obvious and his wig and unusually big, bright eyes and long lashes do a lot for him. His smile is a little shaky, however. Kakashi can just imagine his internal conflict. He's almost physically incapable of doubting his sensei, but the faint blush on his cheeks betrays his embarrassment. At least Kakashi hopes it's embarrassment…
As for Tenten, her smile is the smile of someone who has endured a lot worse. She looks cute in her pink kimono and if the picture had only shown her and her two team mates, most people probably wouldn't have noticed anything off about it.
But there is Gai, standing between Lee and Tenten, grinning his toothiest grin and looking very much like a man in drag. It's his jaw, Kakashi thinks. Although that certainly isn't the only thing that gives him away. There is simply nothing about him that looks feminine and it's as if his colorful kimono, his make-up, complete with glossy red lipstick, and the hair-piece pinned up into a complex hairstyle only emphasize that fact.
He looks ridiculous. He looks awful. Like a joke.
And Kakashi has to wonder if those bandits were blind or something because how could you look at that and think it was a woman? Or maybe they were just perverts.
That might be it.
Still undecided, Kakashi puts the photo back into the open drawer of Gai's dresser. It's just a silly memento; there's no need—
But his gaze is drawn to Gai. He can't help it. Once again he finds himself staring at the kimono, imagining those layers and layers of silk, imagining what it would feel like to slide his hands under them. His palms on warm skin, the backs of his hands being tickled by cool silk.
He thinks about Gai's legs, Gai's muscular, hairy man-legs hidden beneath that fabric and very nearly shudders – not with disgust but some strange— no doubt twisted— longing.
The thought of Gai's body, that finely tuned weapon, wrapped into lavishly embroidered cloth—
Kakashi feels a groan building somewhere in the back of his throat. Gai grins at him from the photo, all pride and joy. His lipstick is smudged at the corner of his mouth, Kakashi notices, and immediately fantasizes about smudging it more.
He bites his lip. No.
Hastily, Kakashi snatches the photo, slips it into his pocket without another look at it and slams the drawer shut. He'll go the way he came, sneaking through the bedroom window as if he doesn't have a key to Gai's front door.
It's the right thing to do, he tells himself. He'll burn the damn picture for Neji, Tenten and Lee's sakes.
Sometimes Gai is just too embarrassing.
(Two weeks later, Kakashi still hasn't gotten around to destroying it – but he's going to, at some point. Definitely.)