Maito Gai

[sunshinehistory]

Country/Village: Fire, Konohagakure
Rank: Jounin
Age at Game Start: 29 (for like two seconds)
Birthday: January 1st

Appearance

Standing 6 feet tall and weighing in at 168 lbs, dressed in a one-piece, skintight green jumpsuit and orange legwarmers, Gai makes a striking first impression. What that impression strikes, however…

His entire appearance is exaggerated. Even though his standard-issue flak vest is left open for easier upper-body movement, underneath his orange legwarmers are weights so heavy they could shatter a solid concrete floor. Beneath the bangs of a shiny black bowl-cut of hair, he has notably large, thick brows and eyes with longer lower lashes. His skin is tan, with prominent cheekbones and a fairly broad nose, and when he smiles, which he often does, it is a broad, toothy dazzling grin. Even when not smiling, his face is very expressive, showing off pouts, frowns, and whatever emotion he is feeling.

Abilities/Powers

Gai's greatest skill is hand-to-hand combat (Taijutsu). His style (Strong Fist) consists of mostly punches and kicks--fast, hard, and endless--designed to break bones and do increasing damage. He also possesses a proficiency with weapons that has allowed him to teach Tenten at least the basics on an array of different types of weapons; Gai's personal weapon of choice is a pair of nunchucks which he wields with surprising force.

Although not as strong, Gai does have the ability to do ninjutsu and genjutsu (his stats for the two are consistently listed in the databooks at three each). It's stated in the flashback that he doesn't have the ability to use either, but it's probably meant that he doesn't possess an aptitude for either.

He definitely has the ability to do both: he dispels genjutsu during the attack on the Chunin exams (speaking in terms of canon, not game canon) and he is capable of summoning tortoises (ninjutsu). However, he consciously makes the effort to avoid using either as much as possible to prove to Lee that one can be a great ninja without those abilities at their disposal.

But a great ninja is nothing without a signature move: Gai's is his Dynamic Entry. In this patented entry technique, he first deploys a kunai to distract and then follows up with a swift kick coming in from the blind side. Possibly enough to debilitate the enemy before he knows what hit him, it is effective, if somewhat annoying to the opponent or ally who survives the attack with his wits about him. It's basically a flying kick to the head.

The most devastating of Gai's abilities is the one he learned from his father: the Eight Gates. The forbidden technique can unlock hidden potential at great cost to one's body. Each inner gate opens, releasing chakra that Gai can use fuel his attacks, but this brutal double-edged sword strains and deteriorates one’s muscles and tissue, destroying the fighter’s body from within.

    Each of the gates opens up unique attack options:

            Gate 1 - Front Lotus

            Gate 3 - Reverse Lotus

            Gate 6 - Morning Peacock

            Gate 7 - Daytime Tiger

            Gate 8 - Evening Elephant & (unseen) Night Moth

Opening the Eighth Gate is certain to kill the user, therefore the gates are not to be used for anything less than protecting one's important people.

Ninjutsu	Taijutsu	Genjutsu	Intelligence	Strength	Speed	Stamina	Hand seals
3	5	3	3	5	5	5	2.5

I would be remiss if I left out this important piece in Gai's arsenal:

Gai is the only ninja fully able to avoid falling victim to a Sharingan-based genjutsu; he does so by avoiding eye-contact with the user and instead predicting their moves based on their feet. This is a skill he learned as Eternal Rival to Hatake Kakashi. Given that a Sharingan user is Hokage and the Uchiha are still very much a part of the village arsenal, Gai would guard with his life the secret to fighting the Sharingan.

Personality

It is often hard to tell if he's really that weird, or if it's an elaborate act. It's a little of both.

Maito Dai, Gai's father, was a failure of a ninja, never amounting to anything more than a genin. But despite that, Dai met the ridicule and taunts against him with a smile and over-the-top optimism. Gai himself was insecure and angry, very aware of what other people thought and said about their family, but his father's youthful spirit, and ability to let even the harshest taunts roll off him, inspired Gai. I don't think Dai was the most brilliant man, but he was a great father, filled with love for his son, and he knew that what his son needed was a role-model. That role model didn't have to be the best--Dai couldn't be--but at least he was not an angry, spiteful, unhappy loser because of his shortcomings. He was a good person, worked hard, and didn't shy away from doing what he was capable of, however limited. I'm sure Dai was partly that kind of man before Gai, but he probably dialed it up for his son. And Gai saw that and appreciated it. In fact, the older Gai became, the more he could appreciate the gesture and what it did for him.

Gai gradually began to adopt Dai's youthful philosophy and learn what skills his father could teach. Those would stick with Gai for the rest of his life.

Now Gai embodies that youth, that fire and passion for life, adding his own ambitious flair to it. He lives in the moment with his eyes on the future, striving to always get better, stronger, faster. Determination and hard-work are his governing mantras. With a self-imposed set of rules, he turns failures into additional tasks, so he is always getting something out of a loss.

Training, too, is a series of extremes and self-rules. For everything he accomplishes, he has a new task right behind it, aiming to take his goals a step further. He knows he is good at what he does, but Gai does not know how to rest on his laurels.

Gai is old-fashioned, uncool, and a little silly. He can be verbose--but that is just a way of being precise!--and quite loud and boisterous (it means he's cheerful!). Jokes, especially those at his expense, sometimes initially go over his head. He seems to ignore or miss entirely when someone is laughing at his appearance or behavior. Gai is boldly and passionately himself, regardless of what others think of him. But he is his friends' and comrades' #1 Cheerleader when they need it. He's full of words of wisdom (if somewhat cliched and odd wisdom) and lengthy we-can-do-it-team! speeches no one except Lee (and Naruto) really listens to. If you need a shoulder to cry on, he will be there. And while he has a tendency to strike goofy poses, like a smile and thumbs up with a promise, a promise from Gai is a promise that you know will be kept.

But he is intensely serious when it counts. In battle, in friendship, in training his students, Gai understands his responsibility. Responsibility does not weigh him down; it is what gives him his strength. He takes pride in his students and Rivalry, and for him...these are his important people. He works hard to build up their self-esteem, to embolden them, to be the sensei and friend and source of smiles they need him to be. These are the people that he would lay down his life for. And enemies are to be respected and Gai gives his all in a fight. He is governed by morals and an honor code, but he's not afraid to be as ruthless as needed to fight for his precious people.

The secret of Gai is that he's a man who knows he will die. This is not an intangible fact for him. This is not a 'I will probably fail a mission and it will cost me my life someday.' No. With the Gates, death is his future, an inevitable and conscious decision Gai will make for himself to protect something of value to him. He has known this since he was a child and Dai first taught him the Eight Gates, but moreover, he has seriously contemplated it since his father's death and sacrifice.

He knows the day will come when he will give his life for the people he cares about. Gai has made his peace with that and so he can live each day trying to make the world as bright as possible for those he loves. Being that person for his comrades may make them laugh at him, but every smile is worth it, and the laughs have long stopped hurting. Mostly.

History

Gai's history before Obito and Kakashi's mission stays much the same.

(Without Obito's death, there is less of a reason for Kakashi to lean so heavily on Gai and the rivalry, so the extent to which they grew beyond mere competition (towards friendship) would be dependent on the Kakashi player's willingness/agreement/interpretation. We can assume they were rivals before that mission, so the Rivalry still exists--in what form/how much is the question. I would personally like to keep their friendship as near as possible where I perceive it is in canon--Gai is a close friend, maybe Kakashi's best, and possibly a confidante--but as this history affects Kakashi, Obito, and to a lesser degree, Rin, it will have to be determined by all currently involved.)

Beyond that, Gai continues to work to hone his taijutsu and his use of the Gates to make his father proud and to protect those most important to him. He gains notoriety as a Taijutsu Specialist and probably makes it into several less-friendly village's BINGO books. Eventually, Team Gai/Genma/Ebisu dissolves and Gai works as a jounin, taking missions either solo or with whatever team he is assigned. He was never especially close to either Genma or Ebisu, though he valued them as comrades.

He is overjoyed for Obito when his Rival's teammate is chosen for Hokage. The two have not always gotten along, but they have come to be friends since making chuunin.

Eventually, Gai meets of Rock Lee. The child's dream to be a ninja inspires Gai to take up teaching--specifically to teach Lee. The village elders and Hokage assign him Rock Lee (at Gai's request), Hyuuga Neji, and Tenten. All are exceptionally ambitious children and Gai is immensely proud of each of them. He does his best to cater his training and teaching styles to each of their very different personalities, and though the children do not always get along, the team succeeds. Even after the team has been together long enough and completed enough missions, he still holds them back a year--to allow them to mature--and then allows them to take the chuunin exam.

(Either in the exams or in another mission, Lee probably faces the equivalent of the aftermath of the fight with Gaara. If so, Gai would still make him the promise and, presumably, Lee would still survive and recover. Obviously if this isn't the case, it changes a great deal about what Gai does from here on out, but for the sake of things...like my sanity, we'll say it happens mostly like in the series.)

At the point Gai is at now, his students are each chuunin or jounin and are pursuing their own individual aspirations. Gai has returned to running missions without a consistent team.