I just spent about two hours looking for this fic, and had no luck finding it. You do NOT want to know some of the weirdass shit you can run across on AO3 when looking for things involving Kakashi and Gai.

I read this story several years ago.

What I remember:

Kakashi and Gai were in the middle of one of their weird rivalry contests when they discovered evidence of ...something... in the village. I can't remember if it was a crime or an intruder or what.

They investigate, and at some point they ended up on a mission outside of the village. I think Tenten might have been involved, but she wasn't with them. Like maybe someone was running around doing something to talented young ninja unaffiliated with clans, maybe? I seem to recall Kakashi checking on Sakura, only to find that she was with Tsunade and therefore not targeted.

I think this story was set in the middle of the timeskip, but I'm not sure. I'm also not sure if it was finished or not. I feel like it might have been trying to explain what prompted Kakashi to develop his Sharingan more during the timeskip, but I don't remember it actually getting to that part.

The main characters were Kakashi and Gai.

There were no hints of slash.

The story was short. More like a long chapter than anything.

Does anyone else remember this? I don't think it was actually that good, maybe a 3/5 at best, but it's bugging me that I can't find it. I am currently fond of the idea of telling stories during the time-skip.

...I am so tired of looking for this... there's so much slash when you try to search for Kakashi and Gai... *shudders* Be careful friends! I clicked on one where Kakashi was an 'incubus ninja' investigating crimes in the Red Light district...

Edit: Barring hints on where the above story might have vanished to... anyone have any recs set either during the timeskip (with any characters) or featuring Kakashi and Gai without any slash?

 

First, thanks for saying you'll help.

Second... dafuck? I'm not bothered by slash. It's true I don't want to read it, but there's a lot of stuff I don't want to read - hetero romance included. Some of the stuff on AO3 wasn't bothersome because it was slash so much as it went to a lot of effort to deviate completely from Naruto while including Twilight-esque vampires and nothing but slash. Kakashi/Gai doesn't squick me out as a concept - it's not like there's canon evidence either way... but again, not interested.

Anyway.

I'm not sure it was AO3, but I am reasonably sure it wasn't on ffnet. I add everything I read to my favorites list on ffnet, regardless of whether or not I liked it, so I'd have been able to find it again if it was still available there. Could be anywhere else though.

Thanks again! I hope you find it. I don't have a specific definition of short, but I'd guess it was still <20k.