side story set sometime after the White Fang rumors have settled but before the full escalation of the Third Great Ninja War. Taiichi is still a Chunin, Team 8 is grinding missions, and Kakashi is dealing with his father's "retirement" from frontline duty.
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The morning sun had barely cleared the Hokage Monument when Might Gai exploded onto Training Ground 7 like a green comet.
"YOUTH!" he bellowed, striking a pose that could have cracked concrete. His teeth sparkled so brightly that nearby birds temporarily forgot how to fly. "Kakashi! My eternal rival! Today is the day we surpass our limits! One thousand push-ups! One thousand squats! One thousand laps around the village! And then— the real training begins!"
Kakashi, who had been leaning against a tree reading Icha Icha Tactics (volume 3, the one with the plot twist), didn't even look up. "Gai. It's 6:17 AM. The village is still asleep. Go bother someone else."
"Someone else?" Gai clutched his chest as if stabbed. "Kakashi! Our rivalry is the flame that fuels my youth! Without you, I am but a lonely spring of burning passion with no one to ignite against!"
Kakashi turned a page. "Sounds peaceful."
Gai wasn't deterred. He dropped into a one-armed handstand and started doing push-ups at blinding speed. "If you won't train with me, then I shall train for you! One! Two! Three! Four—"
The ground shook. A nearby boulder cracked.
Kakashi sighed, closed his book, and flickered behind Gai. He placed two fingers on the back of Gai's neck.
"Stop. You're going to wake the entire Uchiha district again."
Gai flipped upright, eyes shining. "Then join me! Or are you afraid that this time... I will finally surpass you?"
Kakashi's visible eye narrowed. The challenge hung in the air like a kunai at throat level.
"...Fine. But only until noon. I have a mission briefing."
Gai's grin could have powered a small village. "DEAL! Let the flames of youth burn brighter than ever before!"
---
What followed was not training.
It was an act of war against physics, common sense, and the structural integrity of Training Ground 7.
They started with taijutsu. Kakashi, still half-asleep and using only his base speed, blocked Gai's opening Leaf Hurricane with a lazy forearm. The impact sent a shockwave that flattened the grass in a thirty-meter radius.
"Too slow!" Gai roared, spinning into a second kick. "Dynamic Entry!"
Kakashi sidestepped, grabbed Gai's ankle, and used the momentum to slam him face-first into the dirt.
"Point to me."
Gai bounced up, unharmed and ecstatic. "Again! Harder! Faster! YOUTHIER!"
They traded blows for two straight hours. Kakashi stayed calm and precise, conserving energy. Gai attacked like every punch was his last, sweat flying, muscles screaming, voice never dropping below "enthusiastic war cry."
By hour three the training ground looked like it had been hit by a small meteor shower. Craters everywhere. Trees snapped. One poor squirrel now had a new home in a bush three hundred meters away.
Taiichi, who had come to train alone, arrived at 9:30 AM and immediately regretted every life choice that led him here.
He stood at the edge of the field, arms crossed, watching Kakashi flick a kunai that Gai caught mid-air with his teeth.
"Impressive," Taiichi called out. "But you're destroying public property again. The Hokage is going to bill you both."
Gai spun toward him, eyes blazing. "Taiichi! My youthful comrade! Join us! Three-way training will multiply our flames!"
Kakashi glanced over, mask slightly askew from the previous exchange. "Don't drag him into your madness."
Taiichi sighed. "I was going to do light kenjutsu practice. But since you're both here..."
He drew his short sword, coated the blade in a thin layer of golden fire, and stepped onto the field.
Gai's eyes widened. "The golden flames! The legendary technique that even the Sannin respect! Show me its power!"
Kakashi raised an eyebrow. "You're not holding back today?"
"Only because you two are already turning this place into a quarry," Taiichi replied, then flickered forward.
The three-way spar that followed broke several unofficial records.
Taiichi's sword work was surgical—every slash left a trail of golden fire that forced Gai to use Eight Gates just to keep up. Kakashi countered with precise Chidori-enhanced strikes and shadow clones, trying to out-think both of them at once. Gai was a green whirlwind of raw power, shouting technique names so loudly the ANBU on the Hokage Monument probably filed noise complaints.
At one point Taiichi used a low-level Pyrofication on his arm, turning it into living flame to phase through Gai's Leaf Whirlwind. The heat melted the ground beneath them.
Gai laughed like a madman. "INCREDIBLE! Your flames burn with the passion of a thousand suns!"
Kakashi, dodging a flaming sword slash that left a molten trench, muttered, "Show-off."
By 11 AM the training ground was unrecognizable. The Hokage had to dispatch a team of Earth Style users just to stop the craters from spreading into the village proper.
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They took a break at noon, sitting on the remains of what used to be a large boulder.
Taiichi passed around water bottles (his own custom electrolyte mix—tasted like regret but worked wonders). Gai chugged his in one go and immediately started doing one-finger handstand push-ups "to keep the blood flowing."
Kakashi leaned back against a tree, eye closed, pretending to nap. "You two are exhausting."
"You're the one who agreed to train until noon," Taiichi pointed out.
"I didn't agree to this level of insanity."
Gai flipped upright. "Insanity? This is the pinnacle of youth! Kakashi, you have grown stronger today! I can feel it! Your heart is beating with the rhythm of a thousand galloping stallions!"
Kakashi opened one eye. "It's called a panic attack from watching you try to suplex a training log that weighs more than the Hokage Tower."
Taiichi chuckled. "You two have been at this rivalry since the Academy. Doesn't it ever get old?"
"Never!" Gai declared. "A rival is the mirror that shows you your true potential! Kakashi is my mirror! And I am his!"
Kakashi sighed. "My mirror is cracked and screams about youth at 6 AM."
Taiichi smiled. "Still... it's nice. Having people who push you. In my old life, I didn't have that."
Both of them looked at him. Gai's expression softened for a rare moment.
"Then let us push you even harder, Taiichi! Today we shall train until the sun itself begs for mercy!"
Kakashi groaned. "Gai. It's already 12:30. I have a mission at 2."
"Plenty of time for five hundred more laps!"
Taiichi stood up, stretching. "I'm in. But only if we make it interesting. Loser buys ramen for the whole team—including Obito and Rin."
Gai's eyes lit up like twin green stars. "DEAL!"
Kakashi muttered something about "idiots" but got to his feet anyway.
---
The afternoon session was legendary.
They ran laps around the village outer wall—Gai leading with weights on his arms and legs, Kakashi using minimal effort and shadow clones to keep pace, Taiichi alternating between normal running and short bursts of Body Flicker to stay in the middle.
Civilians cheered. ANBU took notes (and bets). A group of Academy kids started following them, trying to copy their movements.
At one point they passed the Uchiha district. Obito, who was training with Rin, saw them and immediately joined in.
"Wait for me! If Kakashi's doing it, I have to do it better!"
Rin facepalmed but followed anyway. "Obito, you're going to pull a muscle again..."
By the time they finished the five hundred laps, half the village was watching. The other half was complaining about the noise.
Gai was still going strong. Kakashi looked mildly winded. Taiichi was breathing hard but smiling. Obito was on the ground dramatically declaring his legs had betrayed him. Rin was handing out water like a battlefield medic.
"YOUTH!" Gai roared. "We have only just begun! Next— taijutsu sparring until sunset!"
Kakashi looked at the sky. "Sunset is in six hours."
"Exactly!"
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They moved to a larger training ground (the original one was now a crater field). The sparring was chaotic and glorious.
Gai vs Kakashi was a dance of speed and power. Gai opened the first gate early, turning into a green blur. Kakashi used Chidori and shadow clones to counter, but Gai's raw physicality forced him to get serious.
Taiichi sparred with Obito and Rin, giving pointers while holding back just enough to make it fair. When Gai finished his bout with Kakashi (a draw after Gai used the third gate), he challenged Taiichi next.
"Show me the flames again! Burn my youth to its limit!"
Taiichi obliged. He coated his sword in golden fire and met Gai's Dynamic Entry with a flaming slash that left a trench in the ground. The heat forced Gai to dodge in ways he rarely had to.
The crowd grew. Even some Jonin stopped to watch.
By sunset, all of them were exhausted, bruised, and grinning like idiots.
Gai stood on a boulder, chest heaving. "Today... we have grown! Kakashi! Taiichi! Obito! Rin! Our flames of youth burn brighter than ever!"
Kakashi, sitting on the ground with his mask slightly askew, gave a tired thumbs-up. "Yeah. Sure. Whatever."
Taiichi laughed. "Same time next week?"
"Deal!" x4
As the sun dipped below the horizon, the group limped toward Ichiraku Ramen—loser (Obito, who had passed out twice) paying the bill.
Jiji, who had been watching the entire spectacle from a nearby rooftop, squawked loudly.
"Jiji! Wants to train too! But first—snacks!"
Taiichi flicked a small golden spark at the bird. Jiji dodged it with surprising agility.
"Still got it," Taiichi muttered.
The village lights came on one by one. Somewhere in the distance, the Hokage was probably writing a strongly worded memo about "excessive training damage."
But for one day, Konoha had witnessed something rare: not a battle, not a mission, not a political scheme.
Just four (plus one bird) idiots training until their bodies begged for mercy, and their spirits burned brighter for it.
And somewhere in the shadows, Danzo read a report titled "Kakashi, Gai, and Matsushita Training Incident – Level of Destruction: Moderate to Severe."
He sighed and added another line to his growing file on Taiichi.
"Subject continues to associate with unpredictable elements. Monitor closely."
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