Tite: What's in a title?

Rating: T for language

Characters: Obito, Gai, Rin, Kakashi (Gen)

Disclaimer: The characters belong to Kishimoto.

Notes: written for the versus meme at naruto_meme on LJ.

There wasn't a day of training that didn't end with Gai showing up and spouting nonsense any more. Obito glared balefully at the obnoxious green figure waiting for them at the sidelines of their training ground. No, not for them really. Just for Kakashi.

Kakashi ,who was just now sparring with sensei. Kakashi, who was sparring with sensei and holding his own pretty well. It didn't look like sensei was going to fell him with one absentminded punch that would send him flying into a puddle of mud any time soon. Which was a damn shame. Unconsciously, he tried to wipe the mud of his pants while he watched Kakashi being… kind of cool, he had to admit. But he'd never say that aloud.

Obito's gaze unlatched from the two fighters and drifted over to Rin, who was tracking their teacher's and their teammate's movements with an expression of awe on her pretty face. Her mouth was just the tiniest bit opened, her lower lip—

"Hey, Obito-kun!" Gai shouted directly into his left ear in his way too loud voice, accompanied by minty fresh breath that wafted into Obito's face. He jerked away in annoyance.

"What the hell, Gai?" Obito yelled, outraged. How had he even got here so quickly?

As usual, Gai was completely oblivious to anger. He beamed at Obito, clearly waiting for a friendly greeting that he'd never get. Not from Obito at least, that was certain. And Rin was still too caught up in Kakashi and Minato-sensei, even though the fight was apparently over. Sensei had stopped and was helping Kakashi up. Great, thanks to Gai, Obito had missed seeing Kakashi get knocked down. That would have been the best part.

Obito whipped around to give Gai a piece of his mind about that, but Gai just pushed past him brashly and ran towards Kakashi.

"Oi!" Obito called after him, but was drowned out by Gai's own enthusiastic shouting.

"Kakashi, my Rival, I have come to challenge you!"

"Hello, Gai-kun." Minato-sensei smiled and waved. In the sunshine his blond hair was bright like a halo. He looked genuinely happy to see Gai, as if they didn't see him every day. Kakashi on the other hand didn't even spare Gai a glance.

"Are we done training for today?" Kakashi asked Minato-sensei.

"Yup," Sensei answered brightly. "But you can have the ground for another hour if you want to spar with Gai-kun here. I've got to go, bye!" The last part was said in a rush, before Minato-sensei vanished in a puff of smoke. Probably off to see his girlfriend, as usual.

"Oh, I've got to go, too," Rin said. "I've got classes at the hospital." She smiled apologetically, one of her best smiles. Obito had to get a hold of himself; he was in some serious danger of swooning.

"Have fun!" she called over her shoulder as he watched her go.

Well, that left him with Kakashi and Gai. If that wasn't fun, then he didn't know what was…

And no one was paying attention to him anyway. Gai was in the middle of one of his stupid speeches while Kakashi was pointedly ignoring him. As usual.

Only, for some reason this really pissed him off today.

Stupid Gai, always barging in. Who did he even think he was?

If anyone was Kakashi's rival, it was Obito. After all, he was the one who was compared to him every day. Why didn't Gai just pick someone from his own team?

"Okay, STOP!" Obito interrupted, just as Gai was whining about Kakashi's "coolness" for what must have been the fiftieth time. Gai's mouth closed with an audible click of perfect teeth. Kakashi just looked at him blankly.

"Can't you see that he doesn't want to be your rival or whatever?" he asked Gai.

"I'm sorry," Gai replied. "But this has nothing to do with you. It doesn't matter if he wants to be my rival or not, he already iis/i my rival because I have chosen him." He turned back to Kakashi, ready to pick up his shtick from where he'd left off.

"Hey, I'm talking to you!" Obito pulled on Gai's shoulder roughly. This was going too far. How dare Gai think he could dismiss him like that? "You can't just decide that Kakashi's your rival. Because if he's anyone's rival, he's mine. He's on my team and…" He thought about the way Rin had looked at Kakashi earlier. "And he's my rival!" He finished lamely.

"Kakashi hasn't acknowledged you as his rival," Gai said, but his tone had lost some of its confidence and his mega-brows were knitted in doubt.

"He hasn't acknowledged you as a rival either, has he? In fact, I don't think he's even acknowledged your existence." Hah, take that! If only Rin were still here to hear how witty he was.

"Well, why don't we just ask him then?" Gai narrowed his eyes at Obito, like he expected him to be afraid of that or something. Yeah, right. Kakashi was his teammate he had to be on his side. Kakashi was such a stickler for rules after all, and he was sure that "stand up for your teammates" was some really important shinobi rule or something.

"Yeah, let's," Obito said, cool as a cucumber, holding Gai's gaze.

He turned around, all self-assured and ready to let Kakashi give his verdict, which would totally be in his favor, and blinked at the empty spot of grass where moments ago Kakashi had stood.

Damn

-X-

"So tomorrow, Gai and I will face off, then we'll see who deserves to call himself Kakashi's rival." Obito looked at Rin expectantly, waiting for her to be suitably impressed. She didn't really look the part, though.

"You shouldn't be mean to Gai-kun," she said after a minute of contemplation. This was not the reaction Obito had hoped for.

"Why?" he blurted out and regretted it immediately. He should have said "I'm not being mean to him, I'm just defending my honor, or, even better, our honor as a team." Too late for that now.

Rin gave him a strange side-glance. "Because he has no parents and the other kids used to bully him all the time at the academy. He's all alone."

Yeah, he should have seen that one coming. Rin hated bullying. She'd always be on the victim's side. But it wasn't like Gai was some sad outcast. At least not anymore. And when he had been, it had almost seemed like he'd tried his hardest not to fit in.

Gai had been the worst student in their year. His grades had been downright abysmal, even compared to Obito's. He'd been completely clueless. But instead of sitting in the back and staying quiet, he'd still raise his hand constantly and shout the wrong answers, and he wasn't even trying to be funny and then, when the others made fun of him for it, he'd get all worked up and scream his head off or run out of the classroom. Add to that the ridiculous outfit and the most unfortunate haircut iever/i and you couldn't really say that Gai was entirely blameless.

But then something had happened when they were seven, something that had gotten Gai accepted into the academy exam early, which – inexplicably – he'd passed. Rumor had it that Gai had mastered some super high level jutsu, but Obito wasn't too sure about that.

Anyway, ever since he'd risen through the ranks, Gai wasn't exactly unpopular anymore. He had a lot of friends and seemed really happy – in that obnoxious and aggressive way of his – all the time.

"Well, he started it," Obito said, then cringed when he realized how petulant and childish he sounded. But it really wasn't his fault that Gai's parents were less alive than his, and it wasn't like Gai was the only orphan in Konoha.

Then another thought came to his mind. A very disturbing and unwelcome thought.

"I mean, it's not like you like Gai, right?" He hoped he didn't sound too desperate. Not that it was even remotely possible because Gai was just… no.

"I don't dislike him," Rin said. "He's a good person and very diligent."

"So am I" An entirely instinctive response.

"You're… always late, Obito." At least she tried to put it gently; he still felt a little hurt, though.

"But I'm diligent as soon as I get there!" Obito deflated a little under the look she gave him. "So, are you coming tomorrow?"

"Sorry, I can't," she replied. "Besides, you know I don't like to see you and Kakashi fight. We're a team, remember?"

"But I'm just fighting Gai," Obito whined. It was a lost cause either way.

-X-

"So tomorrow the big showdown's gonna happen and we will finally know who your true rival really is! I bet you're excited! Aren't you excited Kakashi? Yeah, I can tell you're all excited because you're making that face you always make when you're excited. Or when you're happy. Or sad. Or annoyed. Or angry. Or constipated. Has anyone ever told you that you're not exactly a genius when it comes to that weird "expressing human emotions"- thing?"

Kakashi gave him the blankest of blank looks.

"Shinobi aren't supposed to show emotions," he said emotionlessly.

Damn.

-X-

"No one else is coming," Obito announced to Gai the next day.

"I know! I invited Kakashi yesterday and he said he wasn't coming," Gai beamed; maybe he really was too dumb to understand the meaning of his own words. "In a fit of competitive passion he also threw a shuriken at me." Proudly, Gai pointed at a small red scratch that ran across his cheek.

"He just wanted to get rid of you…" Obito wanted to feel superior about that fact, but it dawned on him, suddenly and painfully, that Kakashi had never thrown anything at him outside of sparring. That realization made him kind of jealous. To his knowledge, Gai was the only person who could annoy Kakashi to that extent.

They hadn't even had their fight and he'd still lost.

He really didn't want to do this anymore. Besides, he'd heard that Gai only wore those bandages on his arms because he trained so much that his hands bled.

"You know what? Let's not fight. This is stupid anyway. I mean this whole rival thing is just silly." He made a dismissive gesture. "You can keep it."

"IT'S NOT STUPID! IT'S A DEEP AND MEANINGFUL BOND!"

Great, now he'd gotten Gai all worked up. He took one look at Gai's glowing red face and balled fists and decided that it was high time to retreat.

"Look, I don't really care, okay? You can be Kakashi's rival forever. Yeah, you can be his rival for all eternity if you want to," Obito said, fed up with it all. "Just go, be his eternal rival or whatever."

Gai blinked at him like he'd just been hit over the head with a dead fish. Like he'd had an idea. Yeah, definitely time to go.

"I gotta go," Obito said, but fearing he might sound like a coward otherwise, he added," I'm late for dinner…My parents are probably already waiting for me."

And then he caught a glimpse of something in Gai's eyes, like a veil dropping down for a split second. It vanished immediately, was consciously pushed away, but Obito had already seen it, and it made him remember what Rin had said, and that made him feel guilty.

Maybe that was the reason Kakashi tolerated Gai, because Kakashi was an orphan, too. And while Obito didn't know much about Kakashi's parents he did know that they weren't around anymore and that Kakashi, like Gai, lived alone in one of the small apartments in an apartment complex reserved for shinobi. Maybe there really was a bond he couldn't understand.

Shit.

Now he didn't have a choice, right? Oh well, maybe Rin would be impressed with his kindness if he happened to mention it at some point.

"Gai," he said, almost one hundred percent certain he would regret it later. "Do you want to come eat dinner at my house?"

-X-

Gai did. Of course he did. And Gai ate. Like a starving wolf. He really had no social skills.

But Obito didn't regret inviting him. It turned out that Gai – weirdness and all – was actually pretty nice. And after he had wolfed down his food, he complimented and thanked Obito's mother so much that she blushed, which was actually kind of strange, come to think of it.

That night Obito lay in bed, thinking about what he'd said to Gai. In hindsight the whole thing made him smile.

Gai had told him that from this day forward he would add the modifier eternal to his title, thanks to Obito – which pleased him immensely because it meant that he had made a contribution to annoying Kakashi.

He grinned to himself and tried to imagine their future selves. What would they be like in ten years? In twenty? Not just Kakashi and Gai, he and Rin too. And Minato-sensei and his bossy girlfriend. She'd probably become his bossy wife at some point. And Rin would just grow more and more beautiful every day. And maybe Gai would take a look in the mirror one day and lose the hideous spandex thing and maybe get a haircut, too. And Kakashi? Well, he'd probably always have a stick up his ass.

And in the end Obito would finally activate his Sharingan and surpass them all. Except for Rin, maybe.

And as he lay there dreaming of the future, he realized that he couldn't wait to see it.