You sure know how to create a certain...mood with your writing style. I wasn't even sure what was going on until the end.
Nice work! 10/10

Even though this is for an AU, it's beautifully in-character and has potential to be thought of as something of a future-of-canon. It's eerie and chilling to read each of his steps, his confidence, his familiarity with the dance...all the while knowing as the audience that he is doomed to die. Lovely. The pacing is brilliant, the flux between his imagined Kakashi (in a wonderful pseudo-flashback) and the real opponent is very gracefully carried off, and I just love it. If Gai has to die, this is how I think he should go.