canon-compliant team gai post-war hc 🧵🍡
i just realised that i posted this on twitter months ago but never posted it here, so here you go. this is the thread that inspired this (tenten/nejiten centric) oneshot i wrote for nejiten week 2024
post-war team gai can't hang out together like they usually did because the weight of neji's loss is so harrowingly obvious when they do, that for a while at first, after that initial all-encompassing grieving process following the war, they stop really seeing each other.
the rest of the world had already moved on from the war & the village was already rebuilt. the people were rebuilding their lives and getting used to a peaceful life, so as shinobi they were forced to take on their new responsibilities and roles, which put their grief on the back burner. things like high stakes assassinations and recon missions werent as common anymore, and a lot of shinobi either retired or werent on active duty anymore. gai-sensei obviously wasnt active given his injuries, and both tenten and lee took on lighter loads to help care for him as well as help around the village when needed. i imagine tenten in particular though did not give up active duty— she was too work-oriented for that.
they eventually got too caught up with their own things — which was also a coping mechanism to deal with the loss of someone so significant — that they stopped seeing each other and meeting up. in the process of 'dealing with' (ie forgetting) the loss of neji and moving on from it, they ended up (advertently or in-) moving on from their bond as a team and all the memories they'd shared. it was easier to cut each other clean off and move on fully from team gai as a whole than it was to try and pick the pieces back up and reconstruct it, this time without someone as important as neji. it was easier to sever the entire limb off than to try and get used to its movements with a missing piece.
i feel like gai & lee would remain fairly close throughout it all, what with the nature of their personalities but also their inexplicable bond, and maybe gai & tenten would retain some of their bond, because they would maybe fall into this routine of taking care of gai in turns. always one of them at a time, but never both. so the three of them are never Really together yk. i imagine tenten would be the one to draw away more, her destructive instinct being to self-isolate. but this time there isnt someone to pull her back — and not for a lack of trial on gai and lee's ends, but still. she notices that.
one day though, tenten & lee respectively receive dinner invitations from gai sensei. while lee jumped at the opportunity, craving the nostalgia like it were a physical thing, tenten was a bit hesitant. still, they both showed up. it was awkward at first. the thought of making small talk with people that were once so engraved in each others very being was unbearable. the view of the vacant seat at the table was also unbearable— it had been so long since they'd met up like this for dinner that, when gai was making the reservation, he accidentally asked for a table for 4 instead of 3. force of habit.
but they'd manage.
"how has everyone been?" one of them would ask, and the others would shrug noncommittally, replying with that customary reassurance that made it seem like you were very busy while simultaneously downplaying whatever it is that you were doing. it would be obvious that they were ignoring the elephant in the room. nejis loss would be so palpable to the point where it would almost be taking up the space of the would-be conversation. once one of them— probably tenten — broaches the subject, it would, weirdly, be what breaks the tension.
and that would make sense! because team gai was never one for stuffy formalities or beating around the bush—they knew each other too well for that. gradually, the dinner would take on an air of normalcy, and things would almost be like the old times. almost.
"its getting late," one of them would say. "we should go before we get kicked out." with a frown, the other would respond, "yeah. you're probably right." they'd, reluctantly, say their goodbyes, one of them ending it off with, "don't be a stranger." and they'd go their separate ways.
this would be a turning point that would make them realise that they really do function better together & although it would open the unhealed wound of neji's death (bc let's be real, they definitely did not deal with that grief 'correctly', so to speak), it allows them to actually begin to move on properly, without needing to do the whole "cut everyone off and start fresh" thing. or maybe 'move on' isn't the right term, because we all know they'll carry those scars with them for a long, long time, but it's all semantics.
