Evil!Kakashi or missing-nin AU? take your pick
“R-r-rival…? What are you doing there?”
The enemy hefts a sword over his shoulder. Gai tenses and shifts his stance, widening the protective radius over his students. He keeps his eyes fixed on the ninja before him, brain on the verge of short circuiting.
“Hmm,” the masked ninja hums, tone tilting at the end. “You’re a teacher.”
Tenten tightens her grip on her kunai while Neji and Lee drop into a defensive stance. They can barely see over Gai’s broad shoulders, shielding them, but the killing intent oozing past their invincible shield is tremendous.
“Why didn’t you come back to Konoha, rival?”
Scratch. Scratch. The scraping of the sharp edge of the masked ninja’s sword against the bark of the tree he is perched on raises the hair on their skin. “Why should I?”
Gai winces. “We thought you were dead.”
A pause. A hand reaches up to his scratched headband and Gai immediately diverts his eyes, shouting a warning to his students, “Don’t look in his eyes!”
“Are you sure, Gai?” He can hear the smirk in his rival’s tone. “We haven’t seen each other in years and you don’t even want to look at me?”
“I mourned you.”
“Why?”
Gai pushes off the ground, leaping back, his students following his lead. The sword slices through the air where Gai stood a second ago.
“You’re my Eternal Rival, and my best friend. Of course I would,” Gai says through gritted teeth. The sheer intensity of killing intents clashing sends his students trembling. Gai bites down on his cheek and wonders how he can get out of this situation safely. His rival barely gives him time to breathe, sending sparks of lightning in his direction, which Gai deflects with the opening of the first five Gates. He keeps his students behind his back, the safest place he can think of in this forest clearing, where they are engulfed by a ring of fire.
Trapped.
“But you were the one who left me for dead, isn’t that right,“ Kakashi sneers, sending shurikens flying towards his chest, “Rival?”