#but there is a price to be paid when the owner is jiraiya

[padmerrie]

the hazards of going to your local bookstore....

bookends au

[trans-duckling]

KakaGai Week 2024: Fire Country's Wilderness

Words: 1,947 Pairing: KakaGai Promt: Collectables

Excitement ran through Kakashi’s veins as he jumped from one building to another on his way to the training ground where he knew Gai would be with his students. He just hoped he was almost finished, because what he had discovered had priority over any training. Or that was his opinion, anyways.

As expected, his friend was torturing the young genin with personalized exercises that would no doubt help them to become chunnin soon. The Hatake didn’t do a lot of that anymore, since Naruto had left with Jiraiya, Sakura was under Tsunade’s supervision and Sasuke… Well, he tried not to think too much about how he had failed him in order to avoid his brain messing up with him even more.

“Yo!” he exclaimed as he reached the team.

“My rival!” Gai greeted with way too much energy. “Have you come to join us in a youthful training?!”

Judging by Tenten’s and Neji’s expressions, the activity was being more a tortuous than youthful. Then again, they had to deal with a high-energy Gai for most of their day, so…

“Not really” he deadpanned. “Could I talk to you for a moment?”

Kakashi put emphasis on sounding serious but not urgent, though the matter was rather pressing, if they asked him. His friend, obviously noticing that, nodded while walking behind him until they were at a safe distance from the genin. Tenten and Neji took that as a signal for taking a break, while Lee started to do push-ups. He really was like a mini clone of Gai.

“So, what is it, rival? A mission?”

“Ah… No” the Hatake said. “I saw a new international delivery entering the village an hour ago.”

“Okay…” the other man nodded, as if waiting for something more. “And…?”

“It was an international delivery, Gai” he pressed.

A few seconds passed before his friend opened his eyes wide.

“Oh! OH! I see!” the taijutsu master exclaimed, suddenly excited and barely containing his energy. A moment after, his expression changed into a sour one as he looked back at the genin and then to Kakashi as if he didn’t know what to do. “I, uh… I know I promised you we would do this together, but my students…”

“Mah, Gai… You promised to open and build them together, but never said anything about shopping, so…”

“You’re right! GREAT!” he beamed, taking out his wallet the next second and offering him a bunch of money. “Here, there should be enough for two or three. We’re almost finished with the training, so maybe we can meet at your house in half an hour?”

The Hatake quickly took the money and put it away before the genin could start wondering what was going on.

“Sounds about right” he nodded. “See you in a bit.”

Not wanting to wait one more second, he shunshined back to almost Konoha’s center. There, at the corner of a building in a secondary street, an international shop brought items from all over the world once a month or so. It was a tricky business, since the provider had to have permits from all the countries to move freely and then be checked in every entrance to ensure they weren’t bringing anything dangerous to the villages. However, the price at which the products were sold definitely compensated those problems to the owners.

A few months ago, when Naruto left the village to study under Jiraiya’s supervision and Sakura told him about wanting to become a medic-nin, Kakashi had gone back to a normal jounin duty. That meant a higher number of dangerous missions and, since he was feeling rather guilty and useless about the whole situation, he also accepted those that nobody else wanted for morale or just because they bordered the suicidal. For several weeks his routine seemed to go back almost to what it was when he was in ANBU, the world grey around him. Of course, as soon as Tsunade noticed —she either paid more attention or cared more than other Kages—, he forced him to step down, but his guilt and sense of being useless remained there.

Until Gai intervened, that was.

Even after so many years, he still didn’t understand how it was possible for that man to find him at his lowest and manage to put him back together. One day, when he’d find the strength to do it, he would tell him how much that meant for the Hatake.

In that occasion, Gai had opted to make him focus on other things. Stupid things.

‘Maybe we should find a hobby for when we’re off-duty’ the taijutsu master had said. ‘We have too much money saved, anyways.’

It was a stupid suggestion. Shinobi didn’t need hobbies. And yet, the other man had dragged him through all Konoha’s streets until they found the international shop. There were a lot of different products they had never tried, so Gai made a challenge to finally do it. One of the things they bought were a couple of rectangular white boxes that were supposed to contain a puzzle or something like that. Obviously, the intention of buying two was too see who could put it together faster.

Once at Gai’s home, the package revealed to have not puzzles, but some kind of figures that could be put together to make a three-dimensional landscape of a well-known part of the world. And it was not one puzzle, but a series of collectables ones that could appear randomly in the box. The whole building process turned out to be way more difficult than what they had initially predicted, but the result was rather accurate and pleasant to the sight. And that without counting that each landscape was constructed to act as some kind of day-to-day object, like a pot, a door’s holder or fishbowl.

The thing was that, after hours of building those things, Gai won the challenge and Kakashi was left with the desire to get some of the other constructions that appeared in the pamphlet. One in particular became his favorite with just a simple look, but he would never admit it. As stablished before, to have a hobby like that was stupid for a shinobi. And those things were expensive to buy, even with their jounin pays.

The next day, Gai appeared at his house with two more and they spent all the afternoon at it again.

Little was needed after that, the activity becoming something satisfactory for both of them. To Gai, it was another opportunity for a challenge. To Kakashi, it was a relaxing activity. And, of course, it was also a nice way to spend time together without having to factor feelings in the equation. That was as completely different story.

One thing they didn’t consider after buying the six available constructions at the shop, was that once they were all finished they had to wait until the next delivery to get more, which could take from one to three months.

Thus, why Kakashi had run to find Gai the moment he had seen the international delivery arriving to Konoha. Now, he waited in his little apartment with four white boxes mocking him on the desk. They were challenging him to be opened and reveal if they had gotten anything new. Up until then, they had bought eight boxes —plus those four— and gotten five different landscapes and one duplicate twice. They both had one of the repeated, while the other four had been distributed by tossing a coin and the duplicates had been given to some friends. And they still had twelve more to collect each of them. The Hatake had opted to not do the math to calculate how much money he would need to make the whole collection.

What was most annoying —especially being a shinobi—, was that it was impossible for them to know what was inside of the box without opening it, which of course you could only do once bought. There was no serial number to check and the weights seemed to be identical.

“I’m here!” a loud voice exclaimed while banging at his door. “Open up, rival!”

Sighing after having to wait for so long, the Hatake left the chair to let his friend come inside.

“Four again?” Gai huffed, looking at the packages on the desk. “I really thought they would consider my suggestion of bringing more next time!”

“I guess we’re the only ones buying them for now” Kakashi shrugged. “So bringing more would probably take up space for other best-selling items, even if we do leave a fortune in this... Anyways, are you ready?”

“Always, rival!” his friend beamed. “You’ll see, I’m sure this time we won’t get any duplicate!”

They got two duplicates. Yup, their financial savings were going to disappear thanks to those collectables, Kakashi was sure of that now.

At least they got two news, too. And not some random ones, no, they got it. The one he had been waiting for since the first time. Called ‘Fire Country’s wilderness’, it was a small fountain and lamp that worked connected to the electricity by a plug. It had a conical form, with the most famous animal species of the territory, all replicated with absolute precision and a landscape so beautiful that it brought peace to the Hatake just by looking at it. That, together with the soft running of the water and the dim light, made of it an object that he would appreciate for the rest of his life. If he got it, that was.

“Well, then” he coughed, trying to look nonchalant. “Should we toss the coin to see who takes which?”

“We could, but I don’t think it will be necessary this time.”

That look again. The damn look indicating that Gai was able to read him like an open book even when the only visible part of his face was an eye. He hated and loved it at the same time.

“Are you sure? It would only be fair.”

“Of course I’m sure, rival!” the other man assured, patting him on the back. “You take the fountain, and I’ll take the Wind Country oasis, see? That way we’re all happy.”

Trying to hide how delighted he actually was about it, Kakashi took the object in his hands and found the perfect spot for it in the corner of the desk next to the bookshelf. There, it would be protected from falling and a plug was accessible to connect it so it could act as a lamp and a fountain when turned on. He did so almost immediately, satisfied with the calm sound of the thin creek running down.

“Would you like to stay for lunch?” he asked before thinking about it, his mind still focused on the warm feeling in his belly.

“Are you sure, rival? I wouldn’t want to impose…”

He wasn’t.

“I wouldn’t ask otherwise, Gai.”

“Well, in that case… Of course!”

They would slip. Again. Either if it was only making out or more, he knew it would happen. Some time ago, he had tried to promise himself to stop that kind of relationship with Gai until he could offer him what he really wanted: a partner. They had even —more or less— talked about it in the past and agreed it was for the best to not keep getting involved like that.

Evidently, the decision was not working for them. Not as long as Gai’s hands kept finding their place on his hips while he cooked in the kitchen. But it was ok, he tried to convince himself. That would be the last time. For sure. No more slips.

It was not the last time.