Disclaimer: Despite my borderline obsession with the series (I may be in slight denial), I still have no legal claim over character or places belonging to Naruto.

Hey, everyone. Thought I'd leave you this one-shot to tide you over during my vacation. Let me know how you like it! (Although it may take me a while to get back to you.)

Broken Rivalry

R. Winters

Obito glowered at his teammate's back as the other boy turned and walked away from him, with only the disdainful mutter of, "Loser," to acknowledge the end of their fight.

The Uchiha pushed himself up and winced, feeling bruises stretch over his ribs. When had Kakashi hit him there?

"Bastard," he muttered, wiping a trickle of blood from his mouth and continuing to glare as he watched their sensei catch up to the silver-haired boy. It was probably too much to hope that the man would give Kakashi a beating to equal the one he'd given Obito.

"Are you alright?" Rin asked tentatively, and Obito realized with a flash of embarrassment that the girl was at his side, and had seen the entirety of his miserable defeat. He could usually last at least five minutes against the Chuunin, sometimes more if Kakashi went easy on him. He hadn't even lasted three minutes today.

"I'm fine," Obito grunted, moving to dust himself off, but stopping with a hiss of pain.

As though she hadn't heard him, Rin moved forward to carefully analyze his body. Despite his irritation, Obito felt a flush of embarrassment redden his cheeks at the girl's close proximity, and he found himself becoming distracted.

With a frown that pulled her eyebrows together, Rin formed a string of hand seals and pressed glowing chakra against Obito's side, relieving the aching of one of his larger bruises. "Kakashi-kun is acting strange today," the girl murmured as she worked, her eyes fixed on where her hands hovered over Obito's side. "I wonder if he isn't feeling well…"

Obito snorted, "Kakashi's always a bastard."

Still, he paused to consider the girl's words. Kakashi was acting like more of a bastard than usual.

"How is he?" The two Genin looked up to see their teacher approaching again—Kakashi seemed to have disappeared.

"Nothing's broken," Rin replied, moving to examine Obito's opposite shoulder which had suffered a hard impact with a tree.

"That's good," the man smiled a little, his expression sympathetic. "I'm sorry, Obito-kun… I should have—well, Kakashi will be working with me for the rest of the day. I want you and Rin to train together, okay?"

Obito nodded and let out a yelp as Rin probed the muscle just below his shoulder blade. He tilted his head to shoot her a glare, "What was that for!"

"Sorry," the girl apologized quickly, "But I couldn't tell how far the damage went… Did it hurt?"

"Obviously," Obito humphed, turning back around—at the far side of the clearing he could see Kakashi enter again, screwing the cap onto a canteen and setting it aside.

"Sensei, I'm ready," the boy said arrogantly and Obito pinned him with a daggered glare again. Kakashi didn't even glance at him.

"I'll be with you in a minute," the Yellow Flash replied, turning back to the two Genin. "Now, I want to start you out on—"

"Ha ha!" A loud voice suddenly interrupted the man and Obito nearly fell over in his haste to see who it was and reach for a kunai at the same time. Rin looked around wildly and their teacher's lips twitched into the beginnings of a smile.

"Him," Obito said blandly when his eyes landed on the boy who was shaking splinters off his hand from a punch that had presumably been aimed at his teammate but had instead fractured the trunk of the tree he'd stood in front of.

It was Maito Gai, a rookie Genin Obito had had the dubious pleasure of meeting on a few occasions before. The boy was wearing his usual green leotard, which was enough to make Obito question his sanity, and appeared as dramatic as ever. Still, the Uchiha couldn't dislike him because he was a nice kid and he constantly bothered Kakashi.

"My Rival!" Gai had turned to face Kakashi again, his stance shifting between offensive and defensive. "You didn't think you could avoid me all day, did you? You may have slipped past me at your apartment this morning, and your cleverly winding path evaded me, however the Beautiful Green Beast always surmounts his prey!"

"Get out of here, Gai." The venom in Kakashi's voice surprised Obito. Despite how much he was sure that Gai annoyed his teammate, Kakashi usually acted coolly detached around him, never rising to his bait or biting off his head like he often did Obito's. It was almost as if he tolerated Konoha's self-proclaimed Green Beast.

"Heh." If Gai had heard the menace in Kakashi's tone, he didn't react to it. "I know you haven't forgotten our appointment, Kakashi, so there is no need to try to stave me off. No, we will fight today, here and now, and you will not run away anymore!"

Instead of responding with words, the silver-haired boy moved almost too quickly to be seen. Gai was barely fast enough to bring his hands up to block the blow and deflect the brunt of the kick that hit him.

"I'll just work with you two, then," the Yellow Flash said, apparently unperturbed by the violence commencing behind him.

"Sensei… are you sure that's alright?" Rin asked with concern, eyeing the two boys warily, Obito's bruises forgotten. "Kakashi might actually hurt him…"

"Gai's a tough kid," the Jounin shrugged, "Besides, if it gets too rough for him, Gai will pull out. Now, let's see that Suiton Jutsu you two learned last week." He smirked sideways at the battered Uchiha, "We'll give Obito-kun a chance to rest before we start sparring again."

"Yes, sensei," the two Genin responded, still casting the occasional glance back at the blurs that were Kakashi and Gai.

A Jutsu lesson and three sparring matches later, Obito had decided that Maito Gai was not human. He couldn't help but stare as the rock-headed Genin picked himself up time and again while Kakashi continued to knock him down, each time more violently than the last.

"Sensei," Rin started, aborting her attack as she frowned at the two boys. Gai was struggling to get up after Kakashi's foot had impacted his head with all the centrifugal force of a finely executed butterfly kick. Kakashi stood over him, dark eyes cold and gleaming with anger.

Minato turned to watch the pair as well, expression unreadable and face hard.

Somehow, Gai managed to find his feet. "If you thought you'd be rid of me so easily… my Rival, think again," the Genin's voice wavered halfway through the taunt.

Kakashi's expression was dispassionate as all he did was throw a hooking punch at the other boy's face. Gai's reflexes were dulled and he'd barely started to move when the punch sent him sprawling again.

"This is stupid," Kakashi said scathingly, "Stop wasting my time. Do you want me to break you into pieces?"

"If you can," Gai said, somehow staggering to his feet once again. With an amazing show of perseverance, Gai managed to stumble out of the way of Kakashi's punch and duck under a high kick, but the Chuunin changed the arc halfway through to bring it down in an axe kick on the other boy's back.

"Gah!" Gai grunted in pain and didn't move to get back up.

"Are we done?" Kakashi asked after several seconds had passed with no movement from his supposed rival.

Gai didn't respond.

"… I'm done, then," Kakashi said coldly and turned without a word to walk out of the clearing.

"That's it for training today," Minato told his team, quickly moving across the field to the downed Genin.

He knelt briefly at the boy's side, exchanging words in a low tone, before following after the direction Kakashi had disappeared off to. Rin and Obito watched him leave before hurrying to Gai's side themselves.

The other Genin was already starting to push himself back up by the time they reached him. His face was slick with sweat and his arms were shaking, his eyes took longer than they should have to focus on the two teammates.

"Rin-san… Obito-senpai…" he acknowledge through gritted teeth.

"Are you okay?" Rin asked with concern, "We need to get you to the hospital."

"That was a stupid thing to do," Obito added, "I hate to say it, but you're still a long ways from being his rival, Gai-kun."

The boy smirked, the expression looking strange on his swollen face. "If I were not his rival, I could not have done that," he said, and levered himself up with a hiss of pain.

Gai stumbled to one side immediately and nearly fell over. Rin caught him before he lost his balance completely.

"Couldn't have done what?" Obito demanded irritably, "Couldn't have gotten him to beat you up? If it's that easy, he must consider me and Rin his rivals, too."

Gai looked at him, and his dark eyes were strangely serious in his youthful face. He simply stared for several seconds before replying.

"It makes me his rival," he said somberly, "That he deems me worthy to share with him the brunt of his brokenness, on this, his Day of Great Sorrow."

Obito blinked, and then scowled. "Brokenness?" He repeated, disgruntled, "Sorrow? That's not what a sad person looks like, Gai—that's what an angry bastard looks like."

Rin shot the Uchiha an annoyed look before turning to the other boy, "What did you mean, Gai-kun? What's so special about today?"

Gai only shook his head and wouldn't say anything further on the subject.

Rin sighed and exchanged another glance with Obito. "We really should get him to the hospital," she noted, "Obito, help me with his other side."

Nodding moodily, Obito rounded the strange Genin's other side and carefully supported him. Despite his efforts, Gai groaned in pain. If that's what it meant to be Kakashi's rival, Obito wasn't sure he ever wanted the bastard to acknowledge his strength.