A large group of children played in the yard in front of Hidden Leaf Academy. Tag, jump-rope, hit-the-loser-with-shuriken, you name it, they played it. They smiled and laughed and occasionally traded punches in the remaining minutes before their first day of school.
All, that was, except for one. This child stood in the shadow of the large tree overlooking the schoolyard, arms crossed and gray hair standing up at an unnatural angle. Shorter than the others in the yard, he neither smiled nor laughed; instead, he stared at his playing peers with a sullen expression and firmly-closed mouth.
The vast majority of the children did not even notice his presence, a lack of awareness that forced many of them to leave the path of the ninja early. However, one boy among them did notice and, taking in the other boy’s sour face, decided to rectify the situation. He toddled over to the tree and stood in front of his target, smiling a big smile to show off the teeth his mommy was so proud of.
“Hi!” he said. “I’m Maito Gai! Pleased to meet you!” The boy didn’t respond. Gai’s smile faltered, but he kept going.
“Are you gonna go to school here too? What class are you in? Do you think we could be friends?” Out of breath, he waited for the other boy’s response. To his dismay, the boy only turned away.
“Hey, what’s wrong?” Gai said. “Are you shy or something?” The boy shook his head no. Gai frowned. What could be wrong? As the silent boy’s new best friend, it was his job to find out!
“If something’s bothering you you can tell me,” he said. “I’m really good at keeping secrets. I haven’t even told anyone that my sister--”
“Shut up,” said the formerly-silent boy. Gai’s mouth dropped open.
“Wha--”
“You’re annoying.” Gai narrowed his eyes and clenched his fists.
“I don’t like you anymore!” he shouted. The other boy walked away. Gai followed him. “Come back here and fight me like a man!”
The boy paused. “And what’ll you do if I win?”
“Ah... I’ll, um...” Gai searched long and hard for the ickiest, most disgusting thing his six-year-old mind could think of. Finally, he had it. “If you win, I’ll kiss Keiko!”
The other boy turned his head slightly. “And what if you win?”
“If I win?” Gai laughed. “You don’t have to do anything, ‘cause I’m not mean like you, and it’s not an if ‘cause I’m definitely gonna win!
“Yeah, sure,” said the other boy. “So how are we fighting this stupid fight, anyway?”
Gai grinned. “Thumb War!”
Five rounds later, the boy had Gai pinned for the fifth time, and for the fifth time Gai insisted on a rematch. It was so annoying! The other boy wasn’t even trying! All he did was smirk like he was too good for Gai, but Gai would show him! He started to declare round six, but before they could start a female teacher appeared in a poof of smoke in front of them.
“It’s nice that you two are such good friends already,” she said, gently separating their hands, “but you don’t want to be late for your first day of class, do you?”
“But we were gonna--”
“You can do that after school,” she said, a hint of steel in her voice. “Now, are you going to go to class, or do I have to carry you there?”
“Nope,” said Gai, smiling brilliantly at her. The other boy’s eyes narrowed to slits. Gai bounded off, kissed Keiko, got a time-out for it and blamed the other boy. The other boy, in the meantime, decided that he really didn’t want to go to school that day, and thus snuck out of the schoolyard and walked home. He slammed the door on the way in and stomped to his room, where he sulked on his futon until his mother came in.
“Kakashi, honey?” she asked. “What’s wrong? Aren’t you supposed to be in school?”
“Don’ wanna go to school,” he said, his voice muffled by the pillow he’d pulled over his face as soon as the door had opened.
“Sweetheart, you can’t just not go to school when you don’t want to,” she said, taking the pillow away. “You’re four now, you have responsibilities, and you can’t just abandon them unless you have a good reason. Do you have a good reason, Kakashi?”
Kakashi nodded miserably.
“Well, then, tell me what it is, and I’ll tell you if it’s a good reason or not.”
Kakashi told her all about the boy he’d met in the schoolyard, Gai.
“Well,” she said, thinking carefully, “he seems like a nice boy. You should have been more friendly, Kakashi.”
“But Mom!” he cried. “His teeth were so white and shiny and nice, and he kept on smiling and I know he was making fun of me, I just know it!”
Kakashi’s mother laughed. “I don’t think he was, darling, but if you’re that self-conscious you can stay home for today and I’ll make you a mask tonight. But you only get it if you promise to stay in school all day tomorrow, okay? No more coming home without permission.”
“...Okay.”
She kissed his forehead and left, pausing at the doorway to say, “Remember, honey, you won’t have them forever.” Once she’d disappeared, Kakashi rubbed her kiss away, turned over and frowned.
“Yes I will,” he muttered. “I’ll be the only Jounin in Hidden Leaf Village with braces, I just know it.”
And, twenty years later, he was.
