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They had just got back from a mission a few hours ago and already they had been ambushed and challenged by gai to a competition and, well, kakashi figured they weren’t really all that injured (it was just a messenger mission after all, no fighting, just days of running) so when gai proposed a spar they had happily agreed.
What kakashi had forgotten to account for however were post mission nerves. It was common, regardless of mission difficulty or success all shinobi had to deal with them, a consequence of being so keyed up and on guard throughout the duration of the mission.
All shinobi had different ways of dealing with it too, ways to help adjust and drop that hyper vigilance so they could relax and breathe again now they were back in the village.
Kakashi knew, he did, that sparing was not safe for them just after a mission, the nerves often leaving them unstable and at risk of lashing out due to their brain mistaking small things as potential danger.
And yet here they were.
Kakashi and gai locked in an intense taijutsu only spar and holding very little back. It should have been of no surprise then that just 20mins in consequences caught up.
Gai had levelled a kick out toward kakashi’s head forcing kakashi to duck down and retaliate by trying to sweep out the other jonins legs, to which gai countered by grabbing the white haired shinobi’s leg and triggering a grapple.
Gai knew he had advantage here, his rival was slippery, extremely so, but not necessarily built for this kind of combat. Especially in comparison to gai himself. As such it wasn’t too hard to secure a pin, making use of past experience to leave the slippery kakashi no potential escape routes.
For kakashi, the sudden feeling of being trapped, pinned between the floor and gai brought on a horrible and overwhelming feeling of claustrophobia and caused his heart rate to shoot up as panic set in.
The other consequence? The brain, clearly recognising kakashi’s panic and fear and now recognising gai as threat made its own decision. Kakashi could very obviously not deal with this situation and with a threat present it couldn’t not act. As such only seconds after gai had first pinned kakashi, Hound was thrown into front, primed and ready, to attack and defend.
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Gai knew something was wrong immediately upon pinning his rival, if the sudden uptick in heart rate under his arm didn’t clue him in the fast dilation of his rivals visible pupil did. As such gai paused, taking stock, scanning for whatever was wrong, initially he assumed pain but while the hold he had was secure kakashi should not have been hurt by it, no limbs or muscles were strained or bent beyond what he knew was safe and he couldn’t spot any evidence of injury. That confusion gave way to realisation only moments later as he caught the slight stutter of breath and flicker of panic across the visible portion of his rivals face.
Now most in this situation would probably scramble back, give their friend some space in the hopes it would calm them and they could then talk said friend down and later apologise.
Gai knew better.
He knew his rival, and instead further secured his grip. while he knew that it could make it worse to stay that way, potentially feeding the panic, he also knew the most likely response from kakashi would be a retaliation and so the safest thing for them both would be to keep him held and secure, limiting the risk of damage kakashi could do to either of them in the panic.
That hold was secured not a moment too soon as his rival started bucking and flailing in his grip, trying to find a week point in either the hold or on gai in his hopes to fight back or escape.
“Rival you must breathe, I promise you are in no danger” Gai spoke, keeping his voice calm, “it is only me, we are in the village, we are safe”.
The dark haired man was slightly shocked when barely a moment later kakashi paused, staring him in the eye and upon lightly flaring his chakra started to methodically release the tension he was holding and relax onto the hold.
“Gai” kakashi? Stated, flat, with a slightly irritated growl beneath. Curious.
“Rival, are you feeling ok?” Gai asked, still slightly worried.
His rival replied with an uchia like grunt “Fine, can I be let up now?”
“Are you going to stab me?”
“Not if you let me up in the next 10 seconds”
He wasn’t joking, gai could see that, he knew his rival would never truly hurt him, but he took the threat as the hint it was anyway. Carefully releasing his rival and sitting back a couple paces away he watched as his rival sat up and took stock of themselves and-curiously-gai and the environment too.
Gai knew-was one of the very few in konoha who did-that his rival was actually a collection of individual people piloting his rivals body instead of the standard one. It had never bothered him, they were still his rival and he had found each of those who he’d had the opportunity to speak to interesting in their own unique and youthful ways. As such he recognised the switch quickly and found he could make a good guess as to what had happened.
And who he was now speaking to.
“Hound?”
A quick moment of eye contact and a quiet grunt of confirmation and gai was pleased to have got it right.
Tho he supposed hound was one of the more obvious, at least when he wasn’t masking his presence and acting as kakashi. Hound could be a very good actor, anbu infiltration training no doubt.
“That was a rather incredible spar, but I suppose your power of youth has recently been tested on a mission and as such had allowed my win this day!, unless you wish for another round?” The underlying “are you alright?” Clear in the question.
“I think I’m done for the day, as you said recent mission” hound confirmed, then hesitated before asking “I’m thinking dinner, going to join me?”
“Yosh! Lead the way rival!”
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Overall it ended up being a relatively good evening and if hound spent an hour or 3 that night lecturing kakashi like a misbehaving child on why his earlier decisions were stupid? Well what happens in their head stays in their head.