If there was one accessory that could not be separated from Kakashi, it was his collection of Icha Icha.
Sorry, his collections.
Although his salary was decent – albeit lower than what he earned during his ANBU years – he generally spent it on his one pleasure, which happened to be reading this saga.
He owned practically every reprint of every volume, the collector's editions, the posters...
How many times had he been seen wandering around Konoha with his nose buried in one of the books? How many times had he turned away from the action in favor of reading?
Despite this strange behavior, he remained in the Bingo Book as an elite shinobi, a profile to watch, especially thanks to all the jutsu he had accumulated over the years...
Because of this dichotomy, many people thought it was a ruse to allow him to be underestimated and thus gain the upper hand in conflict.
Others simply shrugged their shoulders and labeled it a personality trait.
After all, wasn't the author one of the three Sannin?
His colleagues teased him when he took his current volume out of his pocket.
Iruka yelled at him for reading it in front of children.
The Third Hokage asked him for his opinion on the plot.
The elderly lectured him.
But Kakashi continued without paying attention to them, flipping through his dog-eared copy over and over again, displaying mostly the same blasé expression, with a few exceptions.
He guarded it like a dragon guards its treasure, refusing to lend it or allow anyone to peek over his shoulder.
But Gai knew.
Gai knew everything when it came to his greatest rival. He had been his closest friend and witness during too many dark years.
And he had seen him.
He had seen him keeping up with literary releases.
He had seen him acquire each volume and store them in his home like treasures.
He had seen them in his home, the only colour in an apartment that was too sober and too empty.
But if that were all, still...
Gai had also seen the rest.
He had seen him open each book with trembling hands, skim through the first few pages before closing it again.
Then he would see him spend days erasing the names of secondary characters and replacing them with others.
By Namikaze Minato.
By Uzumaki Kushina.
By Nohara Rin.
Then he would take a deep breath before resuming his exercise.
Then Gai would see him erase the names of the protagonists. To replace them, in turn.
By Hatake Kakashi.
And by Uchiha Obito.