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Maito Gai had always prided himself as someone who wasn’t easily afraid. The springtime of youth was a special one, and could never waver in the face of danger. He was a shinobi of incredible strength. He was the best taijutsu user in all of Konoha. Nevertheless, something about his apartment seemed… off. He couldn’t for the life of him figure it out.
It started on move-in day. Lee, his valiant student had come to help him move in his stuff. You could never miss a valuable moment for training. The boxes were weights to be held by your feet, and they would walk on their hands. He chose the top floor so that there would be even more of a challenge. When they got in the apartment, the temperature seemed to shift to the cooler side. Lee had flipped back on his feet after putting the boxes down, and his usually very straight black hair started to start to stand on end.
They hadn’t thought much of it, considering they were upside down for a great while, and started to put away Gai’s stuff. Despite the spooky aura it gave, it was a nice apartment. The floors were cherry wood, and the windows opened, so that certainly was a step up from his previous apartment.
As Gai and Lee were talking about which boxes to put where, one of the boxes they had put on the counter had fallen. They both looked at each other, then at the fallen box. Then at each other again. The air was still, and the only sounds heard were from the bowl that came rolling out to their feet.
It had spooked Gai a bit, but he didn’t think much of it. Things were bound to be weird in a new apartment. He just had to get used to the drafts, though the cabinets were the weirdest. Like, just the other week he had tried to fix himself dinner, and couldn’t get a single cabinet to open. He’d go to open one, and it just wouldn’t open. Then when he went to try another one, that one wouldn’t open, and the one he tried earlier opened on its own. So he tried to get into it after it had opened, and then it closed on him again. Something was definitely weird.
He had fallen asleep in his bed when he felt weight near his feet. It’s not like he had a cat or anything, so that was rather unusual. He opened his eyes to see what the issue was, and to his surprise, there was a man sitting there. He doesn’t recall letting someone into his apartment. He had silver hair that stuck up in ways that tormented his heart, a mask over the lower half of his face, and a dead look in his eyes. Wait a minute-
“I just don’t get it,” the man sighed. “I’ve tried everything in my power to scare you, and nothing is working. I’ve shoved your things to the ground, and you shrug and pick it up. I close cabinets on you, and you just try to open a different cabinet. I hide your leg weights from you, and you just go out and buy more. I don’t get it .”
“Ah, so it is you who’s been messing with me,” Gai’s low voice rumbled. The man jolted in surprise.
“Ah shit, when did you wake up?”
“When you sat on the bed.”
Kakashi nodded in thought. “Hmm. Do you have any constructive criticism for me?”
Gai sat up and got a better look at the man. His eyes seemed to hold something in them, something he couldn’t place, but he wanted to help. Did he have a special jutsu that caused this?
“For what?” Gai asked, dumbfounded.
“For haunting you. What would be scarier, what would give you an actual fright?”
“Wh- why?”
“ ‘Why,’ he asks. Why? Because I’m trying to haunt you. You’re in my apartment. I want you to leave. So I’ll haunt you until you do.”
“Oh,” Gai nodded. His usual boisterous personality quite subdued due to both the shock of being haunted without realizing it, and the fact that it was 4 AM. “Well, I’m not sure there’s anything you could do to get me to leave.”
“And why is that?”
“Well,” he cleared his throat. “I quite like it here. And to be honest, I find your tricks amusing.” Silence took its place between them. “The floors are quite lovely.”
The man chuckled. “They are, aren’t they? Well. If you’re not going to help me out, I guess I’m going to have to get creative.” He slapped his thighs, and stood up. “It’s been great, but back to the drawing board.”
He started to walk out of Gai’s room, but Gai called out to stop him.
The man turned around, and Gai noticed a playful glint in his eye, seemingly up for this competition.
“I never caught your name.”
“Kakashi,” he smiled. He wore a mask, but Gai saw it in his eyes. A playful, sincere smile. “It’ll be nice working with you, Gai-sensei ” Kakashi waved. And then he was gone.
Gai blinked. Either that was one hell of a dream, or he had a roommate he didn’t know about. He racked his brain to try and figure out why the man, Kakashi, had known his name, let alone the fact that he was a sensei. His mind flashed back to the first day he moved in, and Lee who was helping him. Ah, so he was there even then. Well, let the games begin.