"With enough dedication and hard work, he would have. I know it." Gai's voice was quiet. He wanted to believe it, stubbornly, that he could have changed Kakashi all on his own, and gotten the other boy to open that metaphorical door for him. He didn't want to believe that he had lost to Obito when it really mattered. "What kind of Eternal Rival would I be if I could not achieve at least that much for him?" Behind his smile and determination, his eyes looked for some sense of affirmation from someone else, for the first time in a long while. "After all, for a Rivalry to be worth its title, it must force both sides to grow and change."