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love, through the generations.

this idea was sparked off by my friend mentioning how naruto started off being able to form the rasengan only if he was using his shadow clones to assist him, which kind of felt like his parents were "helping him along" in a way. which, obviously, sparked an idea in my head and thus led to the conception of this piece lol.

i have never drawn more than two characters in a scene before, so this was quite a time consuming piece!

My first procreate gif is Gaara getting overstimulated by this dudes energy

Him:

i think gai and dai were definitely both autistic; gai's coding works so well because of how he's been treated by the village, and that originated with dai. that said, i think both of them have more social awareness than they necessarily let on, and the way they behave/present themselves is very intentional

when you meet gai he seems to be like, completely oblivious to how he comes off. he is weird and offputting and loud and just kind of uncomfortable to be around, and appears to have absolutely zero social awareness of that. but like the reblog in the post linked above said, we see in gai's backstory that gai WAS aware of what people thought of him and his father, and in fact it bothered him quite a bit. dai, however, chooses to ignore the mockery (because he is an adult man and has had a lot more time to develop self confidence) and continue behaving the way he does, even allowing other people to believe he doesn't notice the poor treatment. through this, we know that's exactly what gai has chosen to do in his own adulthood too.

there's just something kind of special to me about gai growing up so ashamed--of himself, of his father, of how everyone treats them, and how his dad reacts to it--and not being able to understand why his dad doesn't try to act... normal, because surely that would make people like them more, and then growing up to realize it doesn't work that way, and he's better off being unabashedly himself. gai LOVES being weird and bizarre and throwing people off, and it's something he exaggerates in himself very purposefully! he chooses to dress and talk and act the way he does because that's just... how he is, and trying to suppress that is impossible and unnecessary. there ARE things he doesn't understand, and social cues he misses, and things he does that he clearly does not see as weird even though others do, but there are also things he 100% understands aren't considered socially "normal" and chooses to do anyway, because he doesn't care what anyone else thinks. and i love that for him

it worries kakashi more than him. kakashi leaning in to listen to his breathing, laying his head on gai's chest when he can do it without hurting him, just to hear it more clearly, just to be sure it's not getting worse. he's probably the only one who can convince gai to take anything for it, and only after being woken in a panic to the sound of gai coughing up a lung for the third time. he's grateful gai's breathing at all, but he'd like it to stay that way. especially if he's going to be sleeping in this hospital chair for a while

it gets better as gai heals but it never goes away. he'll never run a thousand laps around konoha again anyway, so it's less of an issue logistically than it would've been before, but he doesn't like it. makes it that much harder to get through the winters afterwards. he's not great at the whole "accepting what you can't change" thing, but ending up on the floor hyperventilating is certainly one way to get it shoved down your throat. not that he won't try to pretend it's not there but he will be reminded! he probably has a handful of bad scares that set him straight, maybe not so much because he wants to pace himself but he's trying not to give kakashi or his students any more grief. he's hurt them enough