Gai had arranged, and rearranged the picnic space a few times now, moving it to better keep them in the shade of the trees, to better avoid ants, to have a better view (both for safety and for pleasantness). He had even picked some wild flowers to dress it up. Gai dusted off the blanket again and wondered how late his two perpetually late friends were now.

Geez, Kakashi!

And then he spotted them. It was a relief to see Obito out of his office again, especially for an extended amount of time (and Gai knew he and Kakashi would extend that time as long as humanly possible) for this nice mini-vacation. And it was so nice to see Kakashi around the village more, too. It seemed he was always away on missions, and probably would be next month as well. They needed to squeeze in a challenge later.

He waved as they approached and bounded up to meet them both with an almost bulldozing hug. "Obito! I am glad you could join us!" He grinned at Kakashi and flashed a thumbs up. Good job, Rival! Mission successful!