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As soon as Kakashi got home, he was bombarded with several confetti crackers going off, streamers falling around him as he blinked in confusion. Standing just inside the front door of his home were his father, his teacher, his teacher's fiancee, Gai, and Gai's father, each holding a slightly smoking confetti cracker.
“What's all this?” he asked, looking around at the bunch of them.
“Congratulations on becoming a Jonin!” Minato cheered, clasping his hands in front of him. “We're here to celebrate with you!”
Minato and Kushina both had ridiculously bright grins, and alongside Gai and Dai's beaming smiles, it was almost too much. Sakumo stepped out and crouched down, however, with his calm smile and open arms, and Kakashi hurried forwards into the hug. He took a deep breath, forehead resting on his father's shoulder, grounding himself after the startle that the confetti cracker greeting had given him.
When he pulled back, Minato crouched down, opening his arms for a hug of his own. Kakashi stared at him for just a moment before letting himself be pulled into a big hug from both Minato and Kushina. It was a bit overwhelming having all of these people greet him right when he got home, right after Obito and Rin spent a solid half an hour gushing over his accomplishment.
“Rival! It won't be much longer until I, too, become a jonin!” Gai announced, pointing at him from beside his father. “You won't be ahead for long!”
Kakashi rolled his eyes. Gai was definitely improving rapidly in all aspects of his training, particularly his taijutsu, but Kakashi suspected that it would still be a while before he was jonin level. He allowed Dai to lift him up, spinning him around with the bear hug before setting him back down.
“Is that all?” Kakashi asked, “Can I go?”
Sakumo chuckled a little bit. “I'll make some dinner, if you want to go relax after all the excitement of today. I'll make your favourites.”
Kakashi perked up at that, a light appearing in his eyes as he made his way into the house, kicking off his shoes on the way. Gai bound after him, his socks causing him to skid on the floor as he ran. The two spilled out into the courtyard of the Hatake compound, Kakashi getting caught up as Gai raced passed him and picking his own pace up. The two raced across the courtyard, only to come skidding to a halt near the other side.
Whipping around to face Gai, Kakashi's feet shifted apart as he settled into a fighting stance. Gai had stopped a few feet away, a wild grin on his face as Kakashi faced him. He shifted into his own fighting position, energy thrumming off of him as they stared each other down for a long moment. Even though Kakashi had been told that he could relax after such a high energy day, there was something about the way that he and Gai riled each other up that made him forget about how tired he was. No words were exchanged as the two leapt at each other, blows being parried, countered, and dodged with ease. While it hadn't been an officially announced challenge, they both knew that whoever won this little fight would be adding a point to their total wins score.
Minutes stretched out as they sparred, neither paying much attention to anything other than beating the other. It was with one well-timed sweeping kick that Kakashi managed to knock Gai off his feet, his friend landing hard on the ground in front of him.
“It seems you win this time, rival!” Gai laughed, picking himself up and dusting himself off. “Even after a long day like that, you've still got enough energy to win! That must be why they picked you to be a new jonin!”
Kakashi shrugged, stifling a yawn. “I think that was just about all that I had left, though... 'M tired...” he mumbled. Gai reached out and grabbed his hand, pulling him back towards the house.
“You've gotta restore your energy! Come on, let's go do something else before dinner!” he said, tugging Kakashi along with little resistance.
“Do you know how to be quiet at all?” Kakashi muttered, mostly to himself, even if it was directed at Gai.
Gai dragged Kakashi around the compound, seemingly trying to find a specific room, but not having much luck in it. Eventually, Kakashi got tired of running around, and took the lead, bringing the two of them to his room. The moment he got there, he collapsed into his bed, face first into the blankets.
He shifted around, doing his best to make room when Gai hopped up as well. It was a bit difficult, Kakashi barely managing to drag himself around at this point. Both of them were rather lanky, even if Kakashi was just barely shorter still, and they were still mostly bony joints and flailing limbs. No matter, it wasn't long until they had both piled into Kakashi's bed, figuring out how to do so somewhat comfortably in the meanwhile.
The pair lay around, occasionally dozing off for a few minutes before waking up just enough to be classified as doing so. Gai shifted around a lot, preventing Kakashi from truly falling asleep. It was for the best, however, when a little while later Sakumo peeked his head in to let them both know that dinner was ready.
With all the energy he could muster up, Kakashi hopped out of bed, untangling himself from his friend and hurrying after his father, Gai hot on his heels still. When they got back to the kitchen, it was a lively sight that greeted them.
Minato and Kushina were sitting next to each other, feeding each other bites of food, while Dai was serving four more portions for the rest of them. All three were chatting animatedly, greeting the other three when they arrived before continuing their conversation. Kushina and Minato both looked down as Minato dropped the spoon he had been waving around. With a sigh, Minato began trying to steal Kushina's spoon, failing pretty miserably at it as she held him off with one hand.
Gai and Kakashi took their places at the table, both swinging their legs back and forth as they waited for their bowls. As Kakashi's bowl was set in front of him, he tugged his mask down, letting the fabric rest bunched up around his neck. Gai glanced at him from the side, looking just a little bit confused and startled before shaking his head and digging into his dinner.
Kakashi ate quickly, not really paying any attention to the conversation happening around him. He faintly registered someone making a joke about how good the food must be for even Gai to be silent, but was too focused on emptying his own bowl to really process what was fully said.
A few minutes later, Kakashi set his spoon down, and looked up at his father. Sakumo raised an eyebrow with an inquisitive smile as he glanced down at Kakashi. “Is everything alright?” he asked, tapping the edge of Kakashi's bowl with his own spoon.
Kakashi nodded. He blinked a couple of times, glancing at the others in the kitchen and then back at his father with a slight pout. Sakumo looked over at them as well, glancing back at Kakashi as he tried to piece together what it was that Kakashi wanted. It took just a minute, but Sakumo laughed lightly as he finally seemed to figure it out.
“It's alright if you want to go to bed early, Kakashi. No one here will be upset that you're too tired to fully be into the celebration. We can always do something special tomorrow, when you've got more energy,” he said, reaching out and ruffling his son's hair. Kakashi did his best to slap his hand away, but was ultimately beat as a yawn caught him by surprise.
Sakumo took his and Kakashi's dishes to the sink, setting them down to get to later.
Minato looked like he was about to cry when Kakashi went over to him for a quick hug goodbye. He kept glancing at Kushina as if he could barely believe this was something that was happening to him, and the beaming smile didn't leave his face even when Kakashi pulled away to let Dai lift him up once more.
“Rest up well, Kakashi! We'll see you tomorrow, ready to go whenever you are!” he said, giving Kakashi a squeeze before setting him back down next to Sakumo. “You ready to head out soon, Gai?”
Gai shook his head rapidly, and Kakashi momentarily worried that he was going to give himself whiplash. “I want to stay!” he said, looking up at both his father and at Sakumo, eyes darting back and forth between them. “Can I stay, please?” he begged, drawing out the “please” for quite a long time.
Sakumo chuckled, “Well, that's up to Kakashi here, I'd think. He's the one who's both a new jonin and who wants to sleep.”
Turning to look at Kakashi, Gai broke out the puppy dog eyes. It took less than three seconds for Kakashi to look away, his cheeks tinted pink and a frustrated frown on his lips. “As long as you don't keep me up, fine. You move around a lot when you're trying to sleep, so as long as you don't do that, I don't care,” he said.
Gai grinned, turning to look up at his father. “I can stay, right?” he asked, his eyes sparkling hopefully.
“Since it's alright with Sakumo and Kakashi, I don't see why not!” Dai said, crouching down to ruffle Gai's hair. “Do you want me to bring you over your overnight bag?”
“Yes please!”
Kakashi wondered how he'd gotten into this mess. He was curled up in bed, tucked close to the wall with his back facing the rest of his room. It just so happened that in the way of the rest of his room was Gai, out cold next to him, face down in his own pillow. He had just wanted an early night, but he found that he couldn't sleep, even after laying there for a few hours in what turned out to be a feeble attempt.
Turning over, he looked at Gai. His face was squished into his turtle-patterned pillowcase, mouth open and drooling a bit as he softly snored. Kakashi's eyebrows furrowed a bit at the sight. He wondered if he looked like that while asleep as well, and if Gai would find it weird.
For some reason, though, he didn't think Gai would. He didn't actually think he minded the thought of Gai seeing him passed out cold like this. That was even weirder than the thought of Gai finding his sleeping habits weird, somehow.
With a heavy sigh through his nose, Kakashi reached out, letting his hand rest next to his friend; close enough that he could feel some of the warmth coming off of Gai's arm, but not quite touching. Letting his eyes slip closed, he found it a bit easier to relax now, and it wasn't much longer until he was able to drift off to sleep, his best friend laying just within reach, if he so needed him.