Title: Ugly

Summary: A snippet from Kakashi and Gai's teenage years.

Rating: G

Notes: first written for naruto_meme. Prompt: ugly

As usual, Kakashi didn't even turn around when the three giggling girls walked past him – for some reason he was not like his peers in that regard; all the other boys reacted to the presence of girls like compass needles to the north pole.

He would have kept walking, too, if the girl in the middle hadn't spoken up right then, loudly enough for him and everyone else in the street to hear, "And then he asked me out!"

The two other girls stopped in their tracks, stunned.

"Seriously?"

Kakashi slowed down; to him juicy gossip was almost as entertaining as cheap romance novels.

"That's so gross! What was he thinking; you're way out of his league, Chizu-chan!"

Yep, this sounded entertaining.

"I know!" The girl in the middle, Chizu-chan, clearly didn't lack self-confidence. Well, even Kakashi had to admit that she was fairly pretty, in a frail, doll-like kind of way. Her frilly pink skirt and her many impractical accessories – none of them could be repurposed as weapons – made him suspect that she was a civilian, though, which killed most of his interest in her right there.

From a safe distance, he watched the girl's friends crowd around her, blocking his view.

"What did you say?"

Although he couldn't see her face, he could just about imagine the self-satisfied expression on it as she answered in a voice so saccharine he feared it might raise his blood-sugar just from listening to it, "What do you think I said? I said I would love to go on a date with you, Gai-kun!"

"Eeeh?!"

For a second, Kakashi was as shocked as the two girls, Gai-kun?

"The day hell freezes over!" Chizu exclaimed and the girls burst into laughter in unison.

"That's so cruel, Chizu-chan!" The true sentiment behind the words was betrayed, however, by the vast amount of pure glee in the girls' voice.

And to his own surprise Kakashi found himself wishing and hoping they were talking about some other poor kid, anyone but the boy he was thinking of.

Chizu dashed his hopes – she was good at it, she'd had practice after all.

"Can you imagine how awful a date with Maito Gai would be?" she mused as the three girls slowly got moving again. Kakashi followed, slipping from cover to cover, listening with morbid fascination.

"What a nightmare!"

"He's such a weirdo! I could never live it down if people saw me with him!"

"Those eyebrows give me the creeps! It's like they're alive!"

"More like he found a couple of dead mice and stuck them to his face."

"Every day I wonder when those caterpillars are going to pupate and turn into butterflies!"

"And that suit he wears!"

"I don't even know what to say about that…"

"It's so disturbing!"

"You know what? I once saw the bandage on one of his hands come off and it was super-disgusting! His hand was all scabby and scarred and gross!"

"Eeewww!"

"What if he tried to hold your hand?"

"Imagine you'd have to touch that!"

They all grimaced and shuddered.

"Ne, I heard that he might make jounin soon, though."

"So what? He'd still be totally dorky and uncool."

"Gai-kun can become Hokage for all I care, I still wouldn't go on a date with him!"

"Ugh, can you imagine his face on the mountain? Looking up and seeing that every day? People would flee the village!"

"Well, it'd definitely keep the crows away!"

"Definitely!"

"By the way, did you see Kakashi-kun earlier?"

"He's so cool!"

"Why can't he ask me out?"

Following a strange instinct he couldn't quite place, Kakashi, hands shoved into his pockets, wandered off Konoha's main road and down the dirt path that lead to the training grounds at the edge of the village.

He could hear the familiar thump thump long before he was close enough to catch sight of its source. Not that he had to. Just from the sound he could already tell that Gai had abandoned the wooden training posts and moved further west to the giant rock boulder Gai's sensei had dragged down from the mountains so his over-eager student would stop destroying the regular training equipment.

As expected, he found his "rival" – and he still couldn't even think the word without rolling his eye – pummeling away at the jagged grey stone as if it had grievously offended him.

Casually proving his superior talent for stealth, Kakashi stepped up right behind Gai and –

Hesitated.

From where he stood he could see the shiny red smears Gai's knuckles left wherever they struck.

Like finger-paint.

He thought about the chorus of "Eww!" from the girls. Thankfully, Kakashi wasn't the type to get angry over something like this. He barely even cared. He'd just been bored enough to wonder what Gai was up to.

"Yo," he said and then quickly ducked under the fist that shot toward his face. Pretty good reflexes for a chuunin, Kakashi had to give him that.

"Gah! Kakashi!" His momentum sending him stumbling past, Gai needed a second to get his bearings, but as soon as he had, he puffed out his chest and said with stubborn pride, "I totally knew you were there; you didn't startle me at all!"

Very smooth.

"Anyway, good timing, rival! I was just thinking that I would like to challenge you to—"

It was clear where this was going and Kakashi was not going to have it, not with Gai already tired and blood seeping through his bandages. If he said that, though, Gai would only feel like he had to prove himself and insist. Better nip this in the bud.

"Actually," Kakashi interrupted, "I was going to get some dinner, want to come along?"

Gai's face lit up. "Are you treating?"

There was a dark brown smear right under Gai's left eye, as if he had tried to wipe something off with his dirty hand. Kakashi averted his eye.

"Mmmh, I would, but a crow stole my wallet earlier," he lied.

"Ehh? Really? I didn't know they could do that!" Only Maito Gai would buy that, in a way, it was kind of endearing, so endearing in fact that Kakashi couldn't help but smile a little.

"Yep, you'd better be careful with your money," he advised gravely. "So, are you coming or not? I'll treat you next time."

A frown materialized on Gai's face; he rubbed his chin in thought. "Come to think of it…You always say that…"

If Kakashi gave him time to really think about it, even Gai might be able to put two and two together and realize that he was being duped. He needed a distraction.

A particularly big blood smear on the rock behind Gai caught his eye.

What if he tried to hold your hand? Imagine you'd have to touch that!

"How about, in exchange, I'll redo your bandages for you later?"

"Why? I can do that myself." Gai sounded somewhat pouty, but Kakashi knew exactly how to get him to agree.

"I just think I can do it better and faster…" he said, letting the words do their magic.

Gai practically jumped out of his sandals. "No way!"

All that was left to do now was seal the deal.

"Want to make that our challenge?" Kakashi asked. At this point it was very much a rhetorical question. "I'll do your right hand – one handed, of course – you the left, we time it and then we'll see."

The grin his challenge earned him was nothing short of blinding, and for once Kakashi was almost tempted to return it, but he had a reputation to maintain.

"YOSH! You're on!"

"Let's go then," Kakashi said and when Gai fell into step next to him, already babbling incoherently about his bandaging skills and crow-fighting strategies, he did allow himself another smile; thanks to the mask, no one would be able to tell the difference anyway.