Archive of Our Own ^beta

Despite their best efforts, the mission had been a success.

Sakura glanced up to observe the boys from where she was trudging along behind them on the dusty dirt road. Naruto was bouncing around excitedly, obviously not tired out by their little adventure at all. Words were pouring out of his mouth at such a lightning fast pace Sakura made no attempt to discern what he was ranting about. His blond hair was framed by the sun shining behind him, giving him a bright halo, and for a brief second Sakura was jealous of her teammate. Squashing the feeling aside, she looked further ahead to where Sauske was walking several feet in front of Naruto, the perfect picture of a hardened soldier returning from a grueling mission. Silent and enigmatic, he was the perfect contrast to Naruto’s never ending words and movement. Sakura felt her heart flutter in her chest. The spell was broken almost immediately, when Sasuke suddenly stiffened and spun around. Clearly he had finally lost his patience with the younger boy and he snapped angrily at him to shut up. Kakashi-sensei, walking between the two, made no attempt to stop the bickering that immediately broke out. Instead, he choose to shove his hands deeper into his pockets and continue lumbering along, pointedly ignoring the chaos. Sakura sighed deeply, and rubbed at her forehead. It was going to be a long hike back to Konohagakure. They had already been away from the village for close to 2 weeks, and she desperately was ready to be back at home. They had been sent on a C-Rank mission to the Land of Steam. The mission itself had been simple. Team 7 had been hired to bring a scroll to the Land of Steam from the 3rd Hokage himself. They had not been told the contents of the scroll, but Sakura wasn’t an idiot, and had done her research before they had even set out. The Land of Steam was one of the few neighboring lands that was firmly neutral and peaceful. Their Daimyo was a self proclaimed pacifist, and every year the Hokage sent a team comprised of a Jonin Sensei and their Genin to demonstrate their continued friendship and secure peace. Sakura could only assume that the scroll they delivered had something to do with that tradition. This hadn’t stopped Naruto from ceaselessly pestering Kakashi-sensei the whole trip, however, demanding that in order to become the Hokage, he needed to understand every mission better. And that just so happened to include the contents of the scroll. Kakashi had just smiled at him, visible eye crinkling, and calmly told him that if he had bothered to listen to the Hokage when he had given them the mission in the first place, he might have a better idea of what was going on. Sakura knew that her Sensei was just trying to encourage Naruto to listen better next time, but part of her wished he wasn’t quite so patient. Naruto would have shut up a lot sooner if Sensei has just told him, she thought bitterly.

They had delivered the scroll to the Daimyo and managed to not make any serious political blunders in the process. That in itself was a huge accomplishment Sakura thought, watching as the 2 boys continued to fight, and as her Sensei pulled out a rather questionable book from his back pocket. The unfortunate part of the assignment had been the second half of their instructions from the Hokage. The Third had instructed them to be of service, if they were asked, for the people of the Land for a couple days after delivering the scroll. This was, he said, an important way to solidify the friendship between the lands and their hidden villages.

Sakura had privately hopped that this would not happen. That perhaps the Daimyo didn’t need them, or that everybody would conveniently forget they were ninjas for hire. Her hopes were for naught though, solidifying in her mind that this was indeed a traditional mission. Immediately after delivering the scroll, they were set to work. From simple tasks like weeding and house repairs, to short body-guarding jobs and police work, they were very busy.

This lasted for around 6 whole days.

The boys were predictably upset and bitchy about the whole thing. Sakura couldn’t blame them. It had started to feel awfully like a 100 D-rank missions disguised as one very horrible C-rank. They had complained privately to Kakashi-sensei the first couple nights, when they were holed up and resting in their (actually rather extravagant) assigned quarters. It quickly escalated from there. While complaining to each other was acceptable, Naruto loudly asking in-front of the Daimyo himself why this was even ranked as a C-Ranked mission at all when they were doing all of this grunt work was not. Kakashi had grabbed the top of Naruto’s head and forced him to bow and apologize, but the Daimyo had just laughed and raised an eyebrow.

Their Jonin sensei was not as forgiving, however, and not a word of complaint was heard about the mission again until much much later.

On the 6th day of their stay in the capital of the Land of Steam, Kakashi-sensei finally announced that they must return to The Village Hidden in the Leaves. It had taken all of Sakura’s might to wrestle her Inner self from shouting in relief. The chiefs of the land and the Daimyo did not protest at their departure, instead loading them up with supplies, food, and even money for their 5 day trek back home.

The whole experience had been a relatively peaceful affair, the only odd thing being that moments before they left, Kakashi had been pulled aside for a quick discussion with some of the leaders. He had re-appeared again in a swirl of leaves at their side shortly after. He cleverly dodged any and all of their attempts to get information about the conversation out of him, saying that it wasn’t that important anyway, and that he would definitely tell them if he ever needed too. The comments seemed odd to Sakura no matter how nonchalantly Kakashi-sensei said it.

And now, as Sakura continued to watch him, it seemed even more odd. Kakashi-sensei, though on the surface seeming relaxed while holding that wicked book from Jairiya-sama, looked oddly alert. Sakura could see a slight rigidness to his shoulders that hadn’t been there earlier, and she could feel more than see that he was on full alert. It seriously amazed her how her two idiot teammates hadn’t managed to sense anything amiss yet.

Sakura suddenly felt the tip of her sandal catch in a small divot on the road. She stumbled slightly, flapping her arms in a manner unbecoming of a koinoichi, and regained her balance. It was getting quite dark out, she realized with a start. Kakashi-Sensei had been pushing them at quite a fast pace the last 8 hours, and suddenly she felt exhausted. They hadn’t really even taken a break for lunch, instead eating ration bars as they continued traveling quickly.

Though she caught her balance again almost immediately, Sakura knew that Kakashi-sensei would have noticed. As predicted, he finally shushed Naruto and made his way back to where she now stood several paces behind the boys.

“Are you okay?” he asked gently, looking her up and down for any sign of injury or weariness.

“I’m fine Sensei!” She smiled up at him brightly, “Just tripped a little.”

“We could keep going all night if you asked us to,” Naruto’s voice cut in, “believe it!”

Kakashi chuckled, his shoulders relaxing slightly, and Sakura felt some of her earlier worries slip away.

“We’ll start looking for a place to make camp now. No point in pushing ourselves to exhaustion, after all.” Kakashi gestured for them to gather closer to him. “What are some things we should look for in a place to set up camp?”

“It depends.” Sasuke’s bored voice finally joined the conversation.

Kakashi tipped his head to the side and Sakura recognized it as a gesture for Sasuke to continue.

“It depends,” Sasuke continued, “on location, level of danger, environmental threats, and a bunch of other variables.”

“Hnn. Good answer.” Kakashi said. “Are you listening Naruto? Let’s set some boundaries then, shall we. Let’s use this terrain as an example, and pretend the danger level is moderate. What now?”

“We’re in open plains right now, Sensei. You’ve made it impossible!” Naruto shouted, rolling his eyes.

“You’re right to a degree, Naruto, it is much harder in this type of environment compared to the trees and forests we are used to back home. Not impossible though. I like to use 4 ways to find the best place to shelter and stay safe for the night if it’s dangerous for ninjas.” Kakashi gestured widely to the plains around them. “Look for tall plants and vegetation to hide in. If your set up is difficult for you to get to, it will also be difficult for enemies to navigate. There usually is some sort of plant life around. Caves are another option- although they can be dangerous if you don’t have a quick exit available. Sometimes just a small hole in the ground will do in a pinch too! Make sure your camping spot is far away from roads, and unobservable from the sky if possible. You never know who’s looking! If the level of threat is high, it’s also important to remember to cover tracks, not to use campfires, and no sleeping without someone keeping guard.” Kakashi had started walking as he spoke, and the three genin followed behind. He suddenly stopped, and pointed to where the field dropped off into a thick tangle of taller vegetation and small hills. “This is the perfect example. I think we should practice roughing it tonight!” Kakashi clapped his hands together. “We’ve spent the last week sleeping like royalty, let’s remember what it’s like to be shinobi!”

Sakura immediately understood and distaste pooled in the pit of her stomach. It would not be a comfortable night. Kakashi-sensei ploughed into the undergrowth, unbothered by his team’s displeasure, and began to settle down for the night.

It wasn’t until much later, when Sakura was lying snug in her bedroll staring up at the brambles and vines that concealed them, that she realized what Kakashi had cleverly done.

She quietly rolled over to look at where she knew the silver haired joinin would be. He was lounging, back against one of the many small hills, fully relaxed to any untrained observer. But after that disastrous mission to the Land of Waves a couple of months ago Sakura could no longer be called such. She caught the way in which Kakashi’s eye roamed their surroundings ceaselessly and how his weapons pouch lay mere inches from his hands. He was being cautious while also trying not to worry them, hence their little impromptu lesson on finding good camping spots. She wondered what was happening. Or what had happened, that Sensei was not telling them. Across their tiny camp, Kakashi’s lazy eye caught her own worried ones and he causally threw up a peace sign. Sakura gave him a small smile and rolled over, settling deeper into her sleeping bag. Maybe it was nothing. Maybe she was just being paranoid, a completely reasonable thing to be after all of their “easy missions gone wrong” trend. With that thought in mind, she slipped into a deep sleep.

Their second day of traveling was about as uneventful as the first. So boring, in fact, that Sakura fully threw anyway any though of things being awry. They set off again in the early morning, and ran until lunch. Kakashi-sensei had allowed them to stop briefly to eat this time, proving further to Sakura that the eerie feeling she had the day before was nothing but paranoia. While their traveling speed was still quicker than normal, everyone was relaxed and Sensei had even paused to point out several different ideal camping spots as well as help a curious Naruto identify various edible plants. It was fun to listen to her sensei actually teaching them things, even if it wasn’t new ninjutsus or taijutsus. What he was teaching this trip were the foundational skills of a ninja, Kakashi sensei had proclaimed earlier in the day. That these were skills that would set them apart uniquely as shinobi. Simple skills such as identifying plants and knowing how to make a fire without chakara would keep them alive when all else failed. Sasuke had scoffed at such a notion, muttering that only strength could keep a ninja alive, but Kakashi remained undeterred. The afternoon passed easily, and they were making good headway. They would reach the Land of Fire that evening if they kept up the pace.

Sakura was correct, and the tree line that marked the beginning of the Land of Fire’s territory came into view only a couple of hours later. It was relieving to see the familiar sight of the woods that reminded her so much of home. 2 weeks did not feel like much when planning a mission, but in actuality, it was quite a bit of time. The only time Sakura had been out of the village longer was on their mission to the Land of Waves. Even though this trip had been considerably shorter comparatively speaking, her heart longed to be back in Konohagakure.

Kakashi slowed his pace to a walk, and turned around to look at the three genin trailing behind.

“Almost halfway home.” He stuck his gloved hands into his pockets and shot a glance at the darkening sky above them. “We’ll set up camp just beyond the trees and then-“ his words suddenly cut off as he stiffened and turned his head back and then forth sharply. She watched, alarmed, as he reached a hand up towards his mask, hooking a finger under the fabric to the right of his nose, pulling it away from his skin. Out of habit more than anything else, Sakura leaned forward to try to catch a glimpse of her Sensei’s illusive face, but all her eyes were met with were shadows. She heard Kakashi exhale deeply, and then sniff a couple of times. Almost like a curious puppy would, Sakura’s brain unhelpfully supplied. Seconds later Kakashi’s hand left his face and the mask(s) snapped back into place.

The darkening tree line was suddenly lit up with a flickering blue light, and Sakura heard the screaming of a thousand birds echo through the previously quiet evening. The Chidori blazing on her sensei’s right hand swung wide, and then collided violently into a dark figure. The figure had been moving so quickly and quietly towards them Sakura hadn’t even noticed them until Kakashi had struck them. The figure screamed, lightning coursing through its body, leaving the smell of burnt flesh and singed hair heavy in the air. Kakashi flung the body aside violently, and began running back to the three of them. His sharingan eye was uncovered now and flashing red.

“There’s more,” he shouted, “more than we can handle! You three need to run- you need to run right now! Get to the trees and GO!”

Three angry voices broke out in protest-

“But Sensei, what about you-“

“What happened to never abandon a teammate!”

“I can fight just fin-“

Kakashi yelled again, still running at them. “GO!”

A sudden cold breeze drifted across the plain, and Sakura felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. There was a brief second of silence before everything went wrong.

Several ninjas dressed all in long black robes identical to what the man who Kakashi already killed had worn, materialized around them. Panicked fighting broke out. Kakashi became a blur of movement, striking out at as many of the surrounding figures as he could, trying desperately to draw them away from the rest of his team. Sakura, Naruto, and Sasuke scattered in opposite directions, leaping backwards and dodging the attacks from the strange ninja. Sakura found herself flipping away from several well thrown kuni, and desperately ducked under a flying fist. She felt the air from the strike whistle past her ear as she avoided it. She heard a faint laugh, and the dark shinobi jumped away from her.

Kakashi’s voice sliced through the sounds of fighting, “Why attack Hidden Leaf ninja by the border of their land?! What do you want?”

“Something only your deaths will achieve!”

“That answers nothing!” Kakashi snarled. Sakura could tell he was already out of breath.

The heat and sound from an explosion nearby suddenly overwhelmed all of Sakuras senses, and she fell forward into the grass, ripping the hem of her skirt on a thorn on her way down.

“Katon, gōkakyū no jutsu!”

The world around Sakura suddenly grew as bright as it had been at noon earlier in the day as Sasuke’s fireball spun forward to crash into one of the dark figures. A howl of pain reached Sakura’s ears, as the ninja began to burn. The figure ran at Sasuke, a large kuni gleaming in one hand, and Sasuke, exhausted after the massive fireball justu but still determined, planted his feet firmly in the ground. His sharingan eyes activated and began spinning, ready to defend himself,

“No, get back you idiot, run away!”

Naruto was standing in front of Sauske now, his hands clasped together tightly, beginning to weave what was very likely either a stupid attempt at an S-ranked jutsu or his classic shadow clone move. He didn’t even get the chance. A white object sailed at them, and seconds later a large explosion knocked both him and Sasuke clear off of their feet, and flung them several feet backwards. Sakura was stunned- she had never even heard of a jutsu that exploded quite like this one that wasn’t a paper bomb. Her teammates landed in a tangle of limbs and blood and Sakura could only scream as she watched from where she had collapsed on the ground earlier.

Kakashi suddenly reappeared again several yards away from her and dropped down, slamming his hands into the ground. The ground cracked under his power as he shouted, “Doton, doryūheki!”

Thick mud walls erupted around Naruto and Sasuke, sealing them inside. The hounds engraved on the sides snarled down angrily at them.

“You think that will protect them forever, Sharingan no Kakashi? They will die here, and so will you!”

“I will protect my comrades, no matter the cost to me!”

Chidori cracked around her sensei’s fist once again, and he lunged forward at the ninja who had mocked him.

There were far fewer dark ninja around now. Sakura could only count 4 left, and for a second she dared to hope that this would all be over soon. It did not last. Strong, heavy hands reached around her throat, squeezing tight around her windpipe. Her eyes bulged. She hadn’t even noticed someone behind her at all.

“Say good bye, little girl.”

She scrabbled awkwardly at her throat, desperately trying to pull at the hands around her neck. She was being lifted clean off her feat, and the hand squeezed tighter, stealing her air and crushing her neck. Black spots began to dance in front of her eyes and she knew she would be joining Sauske in the realm of the unconscious soon-

No!

Then she would be leaving Kakashi-sensei all by himself, and who would protect him? He had drawn all the enemies away, and taken everything on himself! She didn’t want to be trash, didn’t want to abandon her team, her precious people!

Channeling all of her rage and the frustrating feeling of helplessness into chakra, she stopped struggling against the large man holding her and instead drove her elbow deep into his side. To her surprise, she heard the snapping of bone and an equally surprised and pained exhale. She was dropped back down to the ground in a heap, where she lay coughing and gasping and massaging her throat.

“Sakura! Where are you?”

Sakura couldn’t answer. She tried, but all that came out was a small squeak of pain. Her vocal cords must have been damaged, she thought faintly as she gasped and gagged.

“Sakura!” Kakashi sounded scared. Her heart thumped painfully in her chest, hearing his voice calling to her like that. If she couldn’t let her Sensei know she was safe verbally, she needed to go to him. She struggled upright, her eyes seeking out the familiar glow of Kakashi-sensei’s lightning blade and the comforting warmth of his chakra presence. He wasn’t all that far away from her, and was still fighting the last 4 ninja.

A slight movement out of the corner of Sakura’s eyes caught her attention. She started in surprise. There was a clone of her slipping through the shadows towards the silver haired jonin. Sakura felt a jolt of confusion shoot through her. What was going on? It wasn’t her clone, she hadn’t made one, had she? A faint memory came to mind, that fist earlier she had dodged, the wicked laugh that dirtied her ears-

The next few moments would be burned into Sakura’s mind for the rest of her life.

Kakashi was already distracted enough, attempting to keep the remaining ninja away from where Naruto and Sasuke were buried while also trying to find his last missing genin. His attention was divided and he did not notice the clone sneaking up behind him until it was a couple seconds too late. Kakashi sent one of his attackers flying forward before spinning around. He must have sensed chakara behind him, because as he spun, he was already instinctively thrusting his right hand forward. The Chidori flashed blindingly, the screaming of birds filled the air, and the crackle of the lightning charged the night with static- and Kakashi’s right hand plunged deep into Sakura’s chest.

Everything next happened in slow motion. The Sakura impaled on her sensei’s arm choked, blood sliding from her mouth.

Kakashi was frozen in place.

“You lied. Guess you really are the friend killer after all.” The not Sakura gurgled wetly. She collapsed in a pool of dark blood, sliding off of Kakashi’s arm, landing with a thump on the soft ground.

Kakashi still hadn’t moved, not seeming to hear the girls words. He was completely frozen, hand dripping with the blood of his student. He wasn’t breathing. He wasn’t even blinking. Both his eyes, the onyx and the scarlet, were blown wide. Sakura tried to scream, to let him know she was okay, that it wasn’t really HER, but her voice was low and gravely and not nearly loud enough to reach him.

A blank look slid across her sensei’s eyes, and he started forward slowly. The killing intent radiating from him was enough to send Sakura back down to her knees. Gone was the comforting and familiar feeling of his chakra, instead replaced with something cold and unfamiliar. She had never been afraid of her teacher before. But now, with his dead eyes and icy rage she wanted to flee.

“Raijū hashiri no jutsu!”

Sakura had never seen Kakashi use this jutsu before. Two lightning bolts shaped as wolves lunged forward, jaws snapping furiously at the remaining ninjas. Kuni in hand, Kakashi shot forward, forcing his enemies backwards as he twisted and spun and slashed. His silver hair was stained pink with blood.

“Doton, tsuchi nami no jutsu!”

The ground rippled beneath Sakura’s feet and two more of the dark clad shinobi went down, screaming in pain. Kakashi slit their throats effortlessly. He was a blur movement. No compassion, no hesitation. She had never seen him fight like this before. Gone was her goofy and eccentric sensei, replaced by a frightening and deadly jonin. He was actually really dangerous, she realized with a start. It was all so wrong.

Sakura couldn’t bear to watch any longer.

“Sensei! It wasn’t me! It’s not me!” She screamed.

This time her voice worked. It wasn’t loud, in-fact it was hardly louder that her normal speaking voice, but Kakashi heard her anyway.

The moment she had his attention, Sakura wished she could take her cry back. A distracted shinobi was a dead shinobi. Kakashi reminded his team of this often, and she had remembered his words a little bit too late. Kakashi turned towards her voice and saw her. Their eyes met, and in those mismatched eyes she saw deep grief. A fraction of a second later and his face twisted into one of recognition. He spun around, looking for the not Sakura’s body. The slim corpse of the pink haired kunoici was gone, instead replaced with the hulking body of an adult shinobi. The hole where his heart should have been continued to dribble blood onto the grass.

Kakashi was only distracted for 3 seconds as he finally processed what had actually happened. But it was enough. A white piece of clay sailed right for him, and he didn’t notice fast enough to get out of the way. He put his hands up, starting to sign for a water wall, calling, “Suiton suij-“

The white substance exploded, right on top of Kakashi. Sakura watched as he was launched backwards, smoke trailing from his flying body. He smashed with an audible crack into the mud wall he created earlier.

He crumpled to the ground.

Before she even realized what she was doing, Sakura began running towards her Sensei, to help him, protect him, to do something. It was her fault he was distracted, her face he had to watch die, her fault her fault her fault-

The last remaining ninja was blocking her way. He was laughing loudly, clearly not quite in his right mind. He rolled the palms of his hands together, and a white sticky piece of clay began to form. Probably a kekkei-genkai of some sort. This was the guy who had been causing the explosions, Sakura realized. The one who took out Naruto and Sasuke, and the one who finally broke through Kakashi-sensei’s defense. Likely the most dangerous out of all of the people they were facing that night.

“The death of Hatake Kakashi is certainly bound to get the Land of Fire’s attention. Do you think they will miss you too?” The ninja reached out his hands filled with white clay. Before he could hurl it at her, a crackling lightening whip encircled his extended wrist and jerked him backwards. It was the opening Sakura needed. Instinctively she flung herself forward, whipped out her kuni, and stabbed the man in the throat. He gurgled, eyes staring straight ahead, unseeing and clouded, and crumpled beneath her body. He was dead before he hit the ground. The two of them fell together. Sakura could feel warm blood slipping down her arms and coating her dress. She gave a small hiccuping cry, and threw herself off of the dead ninja.

The night was quiet once again, the only sounds a faint popping from where some of the grass continued to burn, and the chirping of crickets off in the distance.

Sensei!

For what felt like the 100th time that night, Sakura hauled herself back to her feet. She began to run, stumbling and crying, to where she knew Kakashi-sensei had been thrown. When she reached him, her heart shuttered in relief. He was still alive. (idiot, the lighting from earlier could only have been him, her foggy mind supplied) Her relief was short lived. He was still leaning up against the wall he had been thrown against. Even in the dark, she could tell he was injured badly.

She skidded to a halt in front of him. “Sensei?” she choked out, voice still raw and painful.

He made no reply. His eyes stared desperately up at her, as if he thought that she was going to disappear if he looked away. There were streaks beneath his eyes, and Sakrua realized with a start that they were tear tracks. One of his hands reached out slowly, as if he wanted to touch her face, to check to see did she was really there. His hand was trembling violently and he was shaking. His eyes were glazed over and his chest was heaving from the force of his heavy breaths.  He looked pale and frightened like he had seen a ghost. She had never seen him look this lost before. She stood there frozen, unsure of what to say or do.

The moment passed.

Suddenly he blinked rapidly and shook his head as if to clear it. His hand jerked back away from her, and he took a deep, shuddering breath.

“Are you okay?” His voice was low and shaky, and as he spoke he reached up to slide his hitai-ate back down to cover his sharingan. “Sakura?”

“I’m okay, Sensei.” she whispered. There were still tears slipping from her eyes, and she dashed them away furiously. This wasn’t over yet and shinobi didn’t cry.

Kakashi leaned up backwards against the wall, and took another deep breath, steadying himself. He was still shaking, Sakura noticed fainilty. As he moved, for the first time, Sakura had a chance to inspect his wounds closer.

“Sensei! Your hands!” she gasped.

“Ah.”

The sleeves of his uniform were badly scorched and his arms covered in burns, but they were nothing compared to his hands. His gloves had completely burned off, his hands already blistering and oozing from where she could see them in the flickering firelight. It must have been from when he tried to put up the water wall, she realized with a start. The explosion had melted the skin right off his hands. She could have sworn that for a second she could see the gleam of white bone too. How he was not screaming in pain, Sakura did not understand.

“Sensei-“

“We can worry about me later,” he said distantly, “we need to check on the boys.” He gracelessly pulled himself to his feet, where he swayed worryingly before he regained his balance. Sakura briefly wondered if it was due to chakra exhaustion or from the pain. He turned to survey the mud wall. His burned hands clasped together, and the jutsu was lifted- the giant earth walls collapsing back into the ground. He swayed again dangerously, before stumbling forward to check on the remaining two genin. Sakura stayed glued to his side. They found both boys in a jumbled pile of bloody limbs.

Kakashi knelt down next to the two boys. There was blood clinging to Naruto’s blond hair, running down his face and pooling on the ground. One of Sasuke’s ankles also looked twisted from where it stuck out from under Naruto’s body. Thankfully, despite the head wound, after just a quick shake Naruto began to stir. “Where the fireworks at?” He muttered stupidly, rolling over off Sasuke and then trying to sit up. Sakura couldn’t help herself, and snorted through her tears.

But Kakashi-sensei had already moved on to Sauske. “Sakura, I need you to check his pulse.”

“Why can’t-“ oh. OH. Sakura cut herself off and moved quickly back to his side to help. She placed two of her fingers along the side of Sasuke’s neck, feeling for his carotid artery. Beneath her fingers she felt the thump of his heart. It was beating slightly slower than normal, but joy flooded through her nonetheless. “He’s alive!”

“Good.” Kakashi said simply.

“What’s wrong with him?” Sakura asked, nervous. She hated seeing Sasuke like this.

“Chakra exhaustion.” Kakashi explained quickly, “Two fireballs and activating his sharingan depleted his reserves. His body just needs time to recover. He’ll be unconscious and miserable for a bit, but he’ll be fine. Speaking of,” Kakashi turned his gaze to rest on Naruto. “Naruto, how much chakra do you have left?”

“Plenty!” Naruto exclaimed, “I didn’t get to fight much.” He ran a hand across his eyes, smearing the blood on his face.

“We need to get out of here as fast as possible. Naruto, can you make two clones to carry Sasuke?”

Naruto nodded, finally sensing the seriousness of the situation from Kakashi’s clipped tone.

“Sakura, Naruto, any injures that will prevent you from running?”

Her head still throbbed, her neck burned, and her leg stung from where it had been cut when she fell, but there was nothing too serious. She was in the best shape out of the 4 of them. She shook her head mutely.

“Let’s go.”

No more words were needed. The two Naruto clones picked up Sauske’s limp body, and the 5 of them shot off together towards the Land of Fire’s border.

. . . . .

The running was helping clear Kakashi’s head. The constant movement of jumping through the trees was giving him a much needed chance to sort though his thoughts and analyze the situation. He needed his head to be completely clear before he had to confront his genin again. He was well aware that he had already scared Sakura- he desperately needed to reign in his emotions so it did not happen again. He would have to speak to her about what she saw at some point. This whole situation was a mess and had shaken him up badly. He swallowed heavily. His head began to swim, and unbidden, memories began to come to mind, flickering vividly in front of his eyes.

Kakashi…

His hands jolted suddenly in a wave of pain, and he gritted his teeth together, waiting for the agony to subside. He had slipped several painkillers into his mouth after the fight, but they were already starting to wear off. He was grateful, in a way, for the return of the pain. The pain was helping stave off the unpleasant memories and kept jerking him back to the present. On the other hand, he was also pretty certain he had a minor concussion and also a couple of broken ribs from his rough encounter with the wall, but those could wait as well. None of his injuries were life threatening and they needed to get away from the site of the battle quickly. He briefly considered summoning Pakkun, but decided against doing so yet. His Chakra reserves were virtually nonexistent and until he was able to replenish them, he didn’t want to attempt it. He couldn’t run the risk of collapsing from Chakra exhaustion again.

He had known a fight would be a possibility, but he hadn’t really expected it to be on the scale that it had been. That was his own fault, and he gritted his teeth again, this time in frustration. He should have sent for help the moment he knew of the risk. But when The Land of Steam elders had pulled him aside two days ago, he had been concerned, not worried. They had mentioned to him that there was a group of missing nin from Yugakure, their hidden village, that were beginning to become unsatisfied with the Steam’s neutrality. Apparently they believed that without a strong and military focused village of their own, they were completely at the mercy of the other Lands and Hidden Villages. Kakashi secretly agreed with them- without a aggressive village, in this day and age, lands inevitably ended up lacking the necessary military strength to defend themselves. When he had spoken to the elders, he had been under the impression that the cell consisted of angry civilians and a couple of shinobi. The elders themselves had not seemed super concerned either, saying that in the name of friendship, they just felt obligated to pass along the information. What no one had taken into account however, was how strong the cell had gotten. The rebellion had moved passed a couple of missing nin into a small army. All of the shinobi he had faced had the scratched hitai-ate, with three lines, signifying that they had at one point been Yugakure ninjas. Based on skills he assessed during the fight, he assumed the attacking squad had been composed of five chunin, and two jonin level shinobi. This dramatically changed how he was viewing the situation. This meant that the faction had money, resources, and even worse, a plan. A plan that probably involved pinning their deaths on failed negotiations. He was willing to bet that their bodies would have miraculously turned up back in Steam Daimyo’s city with conveniently planted evidence attached for the Land of Fire to uncover later. The rebels seemed willing to start a war to make their point. Fortunately, attacking them seemed to be only the first step, based on how the dark robed shinobi had been speaking and how the village elders hadn’t seemed too concerned yet. And the first step of acquiring their bodies had failed.

Unfortunately, he had seen one of the chunin flee early in the their fight, which probably meant they had run off to get reinforcements. They would likely be followed and attacked again. This was quickly escalating into another S-ranked mission.

Why couldn’t any of Team 7s missions be normal? The Land of Waves disaster had only happened a couple of months ago, and Kakashi had vowed not put his genin in such a dangerous situation unprepared again. Haku and Zabuza’s deaths had impacted his team greatly, and morally confused them. He hadn’t wanted to see his team look that way again. They had grown though, he was forced to acknowledge. Naruto was becoming more focused and less obsessed about becoming Hokage. He was beginning to recognize the importance of the here and now. Sakura professed her love for Sasuke less often, and was beginning to act more independently. Oddly enough, the biggest change had come from Sauske. Though he still maintained his grumpy and dark demeanor, he was putting up with both of his teammates better, and seemed more inclined to recognize the importance of teamwork. Kakashi was hopeful. Perhaps his goal of revenge would be tempered by working with the team.

His fist, clenched tightly, slick with blood, blue light flickering in scared brown eyes-

Kakashi shook his head, trying to clear it. Somewhere in the back of his mind he had known that the Sakura he had killed couldn’t really be her. The chakra signature he sensed behind him had been masked, and he was well aware that Sakura was unable to hide her signature quite that effectively yet.

That knowledge hadn’t stopped him from being convinced in the moment, however. It wasn’t until he heard her voice again that he’d fully been able to processes what was real, what was not, and what were memories.

He turned around to glance at his team, realizing that he hadn’t checked on them in a while. To his horror, he saw how far they were lagging behind him now. Lost in his own thoughts, he had forgotten that they had already been running all day and were injured now too. This was far enough away. Shame slammed into him and he skidded to a halt. The three Naruto’s caught up quickly, jumping up to join him on the branch. Sasuke was still unconscious, and Kakashi was pretty sure he’d be out for days at this point. He knew from loads of experience just how nasty chakra exhaustion could be, especially for children. Sakura landed next to them a couple seconds later, the branch creaking under the added weight. All 4 of them, clones included, were panting heavily. Sweat was pouring off the original Naruto’s face, mingling with the blood that was still tricking down his cheeks. It made him look ghastly. Sakura’s face was white as a sheet, and he could tell immediately by the fresh tear tracks on her face that she had not stopped crying when the fighting ended. Some sensei he was.

“We can keep going! Don’t worry!”

Naruto’s words echoed his sentiment from the night before, but this time they were forced and laced with exhaustion. He had been maintaining those clones for far longer than he should have.

Kakashi shook his head. “We’re far enough away now.” he said evenly, careful to keep the exhaustion out of his own voice, “Naruto, you can release your Jutsu. I’ll carry Sasuke for a while.”

Kakashi stubbornly ignored the sharp look Sakura shot in his direction.

Naruto’s clones carefully deposited Sasuke’s limp body onto the branch, and then his hands clasped together. With a pop, the clones vanished. Naruto’s breathing evened out almost immediately and Kakashi knew he made the right call.

Next up- shelter. Unlike the other night when he thought the risk was still relatively minor, they needed to camp somewhere far more fortified and safe. And they were all too injured and tired to look. Chakra exhaustion be damned, they needed help right now.

“Kuchiyose no Jutsu!”

The pain from his burned hands was excruciating and he was almost unable to complete the signs. Black spots danced in front of his eyes and there was now a sharp ringing echoing in his ears. He stubbornly fought back against the brutal combination of pain and chakra exhaustion that threatened to send him keeling over.

“Boss?”

Distantly, he felt a small hand on his thigh, gripping his pant leg tightly, grounding him. Kakashi looked down, and was relieved to see the little form of Pakkun staring anxiously up at him. For a second he had been scared the summoning jutsu had failed.

“Pakkun.” he gasped.

“You don’t look so good, boss. What’s going on?”

“Kind of a long story. Short version is that we were attacked a couple of hours ago, and really need a place to safe place to rest.”

“Villages?”

“No. We’re still too close to the border to risk them.”

“Alright. Be careful Kakashi.”

Pakkun shot off, nothing more than a brown and blue blur before he disappeared completely into the night.

The small hand was still gripping tightly to Kakashi’s pant leg, and he let one of his hands drop down to ruffle Sakura’s hair fondly. The burns on his hands protested angrily, but it was necessary to comfort her right now. She was one of his students who responded well to physical affection.

“We’ll all be okay. Hang on a little longer.”

Sakura’s eyes met his fearfully.

His fist, clenched tightly, slick with blood, blue light reflected in terrified green eyes-

He turned away, unable to keep meeting her eyes.

“Let’s rest up while we can, okay?”

Taking his own advice, he carefully lowered himself down to sit, trying not to jostle his ribs too much. The branch was wide and flat, and he dangled his legs over the edge causally. It wouldn’t do anybody any good if he let his concerns show. His relaxed movements must have got the point across, because it only took Naruto and Sakura half a second to also flop down beside him. Neither of them spoke. Kakashi smiled privately to himself under his mask, secretly proud. They must have actually been paying attention to him as he rambled yesterday. Out in the open like they were now, they both must have recognized the need to remain still and silent. They were turning into fine shinobi.

Pakkun returned after only ten minutes.

“There’s a cave not too far away,” he said, landing next to Kakashi. “and I checked it out. It’s probably the safest place we’re going to find tonight.”

“Thanks, Pakkun.” Kakashi carefully got back to his feet, and then knelt down next to where Sasuke still laid motionless, only the slight rise and fall of his chest proving that he was alive. Carrying him was going to be painful, Kakashi knew, but it had to be done. Some of the watery blisters on his hands popped when they grabbed onto Sauske, and the feeling of his skin sloughing off when he slung him over his shoulders made his stomach roll uncomfortably. Kakashi could recall being burned on several missions before, but never quite this severely. Though the burns on the back of his hands and arms still stung and flared with pain, the palms of his hands had lost feeling some time ago. They must have been the part of his hand most directly exposed to the heat of the explosion. Lack of feeling likely meant third degree burns, or even fourth, if the nerves themselves were actually damaged. He cataloged the information away for later. He would inspect them closer and bandage them, as well as his ribs, when they all safely reached the cave.

Sasuke securely on his back now, Kakashi gestured for his other two genin to get up. They stood slowly, weighed down by their own injuries and weariness.

“Lead the way.”

Pakkun shook his head in acknowledgement of the order, and leapt away again, running at a much slower pace than last time. The three ninja followed closely behind. Thankfully, the cave was only around a half mile away. Kakashi wasn’t sure if they could have held themselves together for much longer.

Pakkun was right about the location being safe too. The entrance was well hidden behind large trees and hanging vines, Kakashi only noticing it when the little pug pointed it out.

“I only found the cave because I smelled water and was curious where it was coming from,” Pakkun explained to him, “there must be a river or stream somewhere deeper down the passage.”

A stream flowing through a cave meant two things. One, they would have a clean supply of water. Two, they would need to be cautious of potential flooding. It was worth the risk, Kakashi decided without much further thought. It was mid-summer in the Land of Fire. Flooding was unlikely.

“A cave with a water supply!” Kakashi said to the ninken playfully, “you’re spoiling us Pakkun.”

The pug gave Kakashi an unimpressed look, and started forward again. He pushed through the hanging vines, and made his way into the cave. Kakashi followed, careful not to bump Sasuke on the rough cave walls. After around 15 yards of tight passageway, the cave opened up into a decently sized cavern. It was dark, but not completely pitch black, slivers of moonlight managing to make their way in from the entrance. Kakashi could also hear the faint sound of moving water in the back of the cave, where the earth dipped further down and the shadows grew deeper. They would be safe here, at least for a while. Kakashi felt himself relaxing for the first time in several hours.

“Sensei?” Sakura’s voice sounded strained. He would have to ask what happened to her voice now that they were safe. “Yesterday, you mentioned never to camp in a place with no way to escape. If someone comes in here,” her scratchy voice trembled slightly, but she plowed on, “we’ll be stuck.”

She was frightened, and understandably so. He would have to fix that. “You’re right, I did say that. Normally, that’s an excellent rule to follow. But things are different when you’re camping with me.” He curled his visible eye, smiling. “If we need an exit Sakura, I’ll make one.”

Understanding crossed the konoichi’s face, and she gave him a relieved smile. She had seen him fight. She knew what he could do if necessary.

“Let’s set up for the night.” Kakashi nodded at his two conscious genin, and slowly knelt down to place Sasuke onto the cavern floor. “Get out your bedrolls and open up your packs, I want to see all our supplies.”

Both nodded, and did as instructed.

There were still several things that needed to be done before they could rest. Taking a deep breath, he forced his shaking hands into several signs, and slammed his fist into the ground. This time, the summoning jutsu did make him collapse. His vision went completely white, and when it finally cleared, the ringing in his ears did not leave right away.

“Bull.”

Bull immediately ran to his side, big wet nose sniffing at him anxiously.

Kakashi shook his head, trying to get rid of the ringing. It only made him dizzy. “Pakkun, before I release you, can you please go back out and do your best to cover our tracks?”

“Sure thing, boss.” Pakkun turned on his heel to leave. “Take care of those hands as soon as you can. You’re not going to be able to do any more ninjutsu if they get worse.” Pakkun slipped from view.

“Bull, can you go out and bring back as much firewood as you can? I would do it myself but-“

Bull bumped his large head into Kakashi’s chest affectionately, and then lumbered out of the cave. With those two things taken care of, the jonin turned his attention back to Naruto and Sakura. Both had their bedrolls out now, and the contents of their backpacks were spilled across the stone floor. Saukra had also done the same with Sauske’s pack, and was now shifting the boy’s body into his own bed roll so he could rest more comfortably. Observing all the equipment, Kakashi was encouraged to see they still had plenty of supplies. The Daimyo had made sure of that, and the fight didn’t seem to have damaged too much of their gear.

“Naruto, come here.” As Naruto made his way over, Kakashi slipped two more painkillers over his mask and into his mouth. “How’s your head?”

The young jinchuriki reached up and touched the side of his head, where dried blood had crusted the most. “I think I’m okay?” Kakashi leaned forward inspecting the cut. It wasn’t too deep- head wounds just had a tendency to bleed a lot. “Are you dizzy?”

“Nope! Head doesn’t even hurt anymore.” Some of the ever-present pep was back in Naruto’s voice now, “just really REALY tired.”

“Hn.” Kakashi looked the boy over one more time, before deciding that the blond was telling the truth. The Kyubi’s chakra must have assisted in his quick healing. “Use some of the water and try to clean out the cut. I’ll have Sakura bandage it up afterword.” He would really prefer to do that himself, but he knew his hands were now completely useless for such delicate work.

“Sakura.”

Sakura finished gently draping a blanket over Sauske, and made her way over to where Kakashi still sat.

“Yes Kaka-sensei?”

He shifted closer to inspect her. Even in the faint lighting of the cave, he could make out dark bruises encircling her neck. That must be why her voice was so weak and raspy. There were few things more frightening than being attacked and strangled from behind. The reality of how he had failed to protect her suddenly struck him, and his heart ached. He reached into his hip pouch, and fumbling slightly, withdrew some pain relieving cream. He reached out clumsily, offering it to her. “Put this on your neck. When Bull gets back, I’ll start a fire and make some tea. That should help soothe your throat too.”

He tried to place the small jar in her palm, but his fingers refused to work, and it slipped from his hand. It fell, clattering loudly as it bounced on the stone. Sakura didn’t move to retrieve it. Instead, her shoulders began to shake, and she pressed her hands against her mouth to muffle a sob. Kakashi reached out to her in alarm. She flinched backwards, away from him.

“Sakura? What’s wrong? Are you hurt somewhere else?” He reached out again, panicking. What had he missed? He had pushed them too hard after the fight, they should have stopped sooner, and he should have looked them over more carefully. They weren’t anbu soldiers. They were children. He should have done better.

Sakura backed away again, green eyes peeking out from between her fingers. “No, no! Sensei- your hands!” she wailed, “You said you would take care of them!”

Ah.

Kakashi looked down at his hands. In Sakura’s defense, they did look pretty ghastly, even in the dim light. Many of the blisters had burst, and they were beginning to swell and turn odd colors. The painkillers he just took were numbing the agony a little, but Kakashi knew that once the adrenaline finally wore off, he would be in a world of pain.

“I was going to take care of them right after I checked on you, Sakura.” he said gently, “Please don’t worry about me.”

“Don’t you need the cream more?” Sakura scrambled after the small jar, and quickly returned to his side, offering it back to him.

“I promise I’ll use it after you put some on your neck.”

“Sensei-“

“There’s plenty here for both of us.“ he softly pointed out, “and I’ve been hurt way worse than this before. Many, many times, in fact. I’ll be okay. Promise.”

Still looking slightly doubtful, Sakura finally relented. She slid open the jar and scooped some of the gray cream out and began applying it in a thin layer around her neck. She was using less than she should, Kakashi noticed fondly, and decided not to call her out on it.

“Make sure you clean and put some of that on the cut on you leg too, Sakura. Don’t think I haven’t noticed it.”

Sakura’s face pulled into a little pout, and she nodded her head.

No better time to work on his own injuries, he decided. His carefully dumped his own pack onto the ground and pulled out his bamboo water bottle. The cave would provide them with enough drinking water, so he wasn’t too worried about using up it’s contents.

Crap.

There was no way for him to get the stopper out. Sighing internally, he turned away slightly, grateful Sakura was still distracted. He clumsily tugged down his mask with his wrist, and used his teeth to pull the small stopper out. Pulling his mask back up was slightly more difficult, and even when he got it back on, he knew it wasn’t set perfectly. He would deal with the uncomfortable seam pressing into his nose later.

To his genuine surprise, pouring the clean, cold water onto his burns felt amazing. It was reliving to finally get blood off of his hands too.

Washing, rinsing, scrubbing, the blood wouldn’t come off no matter how hard he tried-

The cleaning part felt far less good, however, and when he finished, his entire body was covered in a thick layer of sweat and he was struggling not to pant. Parts of his gloves had burned into his flesh, and picking them out was excruciating. Damn, sometimes he wished he had a medic who could use medical ninjutsu on his team. There was no way the burns wouldn’t get infected. Once he dubbed his wounds clean enough and he had run out of water, he turned towards Sakura.

“Does it feel any better?”

Sakura had finished applying the cream on her leg, and had started watching him closely.

“It feels a lot better.”

“Good.” Kakashi eye smiled at her. “Do you think you can help me out for a minute?”

It had been right of him to ask. Her eyes opened wide in surprise, and she excitedly moved back to his side.

“In my pack there should be some antibiotic medicine. Can you find it for me?”

The pink haired konoichi nodded eagerly, and seconds later she had it clutched in her hand.

“Unscrew the lid, and take the dropper out. Can you drip the medicine onto my hands, please?”

She nodded wordlessly, and did as he asked. He was pleased to see she was not crying anymore. Maybe someday he would have a medial ninja on his team again, he thought distantly. Sakura had fine chakra control, unparalleled book knowledge, and didn’t flinch at the sight of blood. He studied her face. It was lined with concentration as she applied the antibiotic medicine. Someday she would make a fine medic. He would have to speak to somebody about it when they got back home.

“Can I use the cream now?”

“Not on these burns. They’re just a little bit too deep,” he explained, “but after my hands are wrapped up, a little can go on the smaller burns on my wrist and arms.”

“There should be some-“ he paused, pleased. Sakura had already found the bandages and was beginning to carefully unroll them without contaminating the sterile surface.

“When you wrap them, don’t do it-“

“Tightly.” Sakura interrupted. “I know. At least one of us had to pay attention in the academy.”

Kakashi chuckled. “I’m sure Iruka-Sensei would be proud.”

The rest of the process was quick. Sakura finished wrapping his hands up and then despite his protests, covered his arms thickly in the pain cream. Her pushiness was so prominent he couldn’t help but be reminded of a rather overbearing blond Sannin.

In that time, Naruto had organized everything and officially set up camp. The bedrolls were all out and he had apparently located the river in the back of the cave, judging by how one of the camping pots was now filled to the brim with clear water. Sasuke still had not done so much as twitch.

He would need to stand back up soon, Kakashi realized bitterly. Exhaustion was settling into every bone in his body, and he still hadn’t wrapped his ribs or started a fire. If he hesitated any longer, he might not have enough energy left to do anything.

“Why don’t you go help Naruto now, Sakura,” he needed her out of the way while he addressed his remaining wounds, “he had a bad cut on his head that should be wrapped. I’m going to take a quick look outside and see how things are going.”

Once she left, Kakashi pushed himself back onto his feet. His head swam and his ribs shifted painfully, but he successfully managed to stand. He stumbled towards the exit, leaning heavily on the walls of the narrow passage to keep his footing. He pushed through the vines and took only a couple more short steps before he collapsed on his knees in the grass. He stayed like that, panting, for at least a minute before he had enough energy to lift his head again.

They were still in danger and he needed to be quick about this. His genin didn’t need to be even more worried about him. Awkwardly, he shrugged his jonin vest off, careful not to shift his ribs any more than necessary. Unfortunately, his black undershirt would need to be removed as well for him to be able to assess and wrap his ribs effectively.

The cool night air blowing on his bare face felt wrong and he shuddered, feeling unnaturally exposed. He hated it.

He looked down at his ribs and swore quietly. They looked far worse than he anticipated. The pain from his hands had apparently been distracting him from how badly they were injured. He prodded at the black and blue skin gently. At least 2 on his left side were broken and one was definitely dislocated. While burns needed to be wrapped loosely, broken ribs needed to be wrapped as tight as possible. He couldn’t risk them puncturing his lungs or stabbing any of the other organs they were supposed to be protecting.

Kakashi had wrapped his own broken ribs on more occasions than he could count during missions gone wrong, but never with burned hands. The whole process sucked, and even when he finished pulling the bandages tight, he knew he hadn’t done that great a job.

He tugged one last time, as hard as he could. It needed to be much tighter. The bandage he was gripping awkwardly in his wrapped hands slipped, catching heavily on the back of his knuckles.

His hand exploded in pain. Stars popped all around his vision, the world tilted sideways, the ringing in his ears was back-

“Kakashi!“

Rins’s beautiful brown eyes were staring at him, tears streaming down her decorated cheeks.

He could feel her warm blood cascading down his arm. She coughed, and bright red blood splashed from her lips.

Tears fogged his own vision, what did she do? What had he done?

When his sighed cleared, he jerked back in terror, the body sliding off his shaking fist. Brown eyes had been replaced by green, and reddish brown hair replaced by dusky pink-

No!

He had promised him! He had promised them!

He had failed again!

Kakashi’s eyes popped back open. Bulls’s large, rough tongue was running across his entire face, leaving a trail of soggy dog slobber behind. Pakkun was also there, small paws resting on his bare chest. He was laying face up in the grass where he must have collapsed.

Kakashi blinked lazily up at them both.

“Yo.”

Pakkun sighed, and removed his paws from his chest.

“How long was I out?”

“Just a minute or so.” Pakkkun glared at him. “You’re lucky we were on our way back.”

Kakashi could only nod. Him falling unconscious had left his team completely unprotected. One minute unprotected was one minute too long.

“Tracks are all cleared, except for the mess you made here,” Pakkun continued, “and Bull just took a load of wood back into the cave if you think it’s still smart to start a fire.”

Kakashi just hummed, and let his eyes slip closed.

“Why didn’t you ask for help?”

“Didn’t want to worry them more.” Kakashi grunted. He forced himself upright, and started shrugging on his old anbu tank top. He didn’t think he could deal with long sleeves catching on his burns right now. “They’re not supposed to worry about me.”

“All that teaching about teamwork, and look at you now. What would Minato say?” Pakkun grumbled.

Kakashi made no answer, and hauled himself back to his feet. He was pleased to notice that his ribs no longer twinged at every movement. Maybe he had actually managed to wrap them tight enough. He made his way back into the cave, the little pug right on his heels.

While he was outside, Sakura had successfully bandaged Naruto’s head, as well as her leg. On top of this, she had tightly wrapped Sasuke’s ankle. That would only be a temporary fix. If it was actually broken he’d have to reset it and splint it at some point.

Pakkun snorted in appreciation. “You should have had the little brat wrap you up. She would have done a much better job that you did, boss.”

“I let her do my hands.” Kakashi defended himself quietly, unwilling to panic Sakura further with information on his other injuries and exhaustion.

He rejoined his genin team, setting himself down on the ground besides the massive pile of wood Bull gathered. He stared at it, weighing the pros and cons. They were all so tired right now. Sakura’s eyes were drooping, Naruto had openly admitted to being exhausted, and they had run for around 8 full hours that day-

He would wait to build the fire until the morning when they all were more rested. Then he would force everybody to eat and make some tea for Sakura’s throat.

“Pakkun, Bull. Would you mind staying a bit longer to guard us while we rest?”

Bull barked his approval, but Pakkun looked at Kakashi sharply.

“You’re not going to send one of us back to get some help?”

Kakashi sighed. “I wish I could. We’re still too far away, Pakkun. There’s no way you would make it.”

“What about Uhei?

“We’re still 3 days out. Not even he would get there before time ran out.” Kakashi sighed, adding, “Please wake me if anything happens.”

Not much was said after that. Kakashi quickly checked on Sasuke before laying down on his bedroll. There was no change. The black and blue bruises that surrounded the potential fracture looked no worse than before, and the swelling had stayed relatively mild. Naruto and Sakura followed suit once he laid down, too tired to do much else.

He desperately needed to come up with a plan, Kakashi thought exhaustedly. There were still those missing nin out there to worry about, and they were all injured. He doubted wether he could protect the team at in in his current physical condition. On top of that, there was the political aspect to worry about. It looked as if things progressed much further, the Land of Steam could potentially either dissolve into a civil war or become an enemy to the Land of Fire. Or both. All three were unpleasant options that Kakashi wanted to avoid if possible.

Would the rebels choose to hunt them down, or go after another Konohagakure team? If they were trying to make the Land of Fire attack them, it would likely be both. He needed to warn the village as soon as possible that it had been a rebel cell that fought them, not the Land of Steam or Yugakure itself. If he didn’t manage to in time, he dreaded the consequences. He could picture it clearly in his head- The Hidden Village in the Leaves would have to send ninjas to check on why they were missing at some point. They would take their deaths one of two ways. One, they would blame the Land of Steam for the failed diplomatic mission and potentially start a war. Two, after a while the Leaf would recognize and defeat the Yugakure missing nin themselves in revenge. Either way, the rebels would get their way. Both outcomes would demonstrate the Land of Steam’s weakness and many would end up dying just to prove a point. As the only ones who knew and could prove the truth of the matter, he had to find a way to warn the villages, protect his team, and get them all home alive. It was a rather intimidating to-do list.

Pushing the unpleasant thoughts swirling around in his head aside and stubbornly ignoring the growing pain in his hands, he allowed himself to drift off to sleep. He couldn’t do much about it until morning anyway.

. . . . .

Sakura woke to the sound of snoring. Confused and more than a little disoriented, she pushed her blankets aside and sat up. It took her a moment to remember what was going on.

The mission, traveling, being attacked, Kakashi-Sensei getting hurt, running, hiding in the cave: everything came rushing back. She shook her head to clear it, and looked around more carefully. Small beams of daylight were making their way into the cave now, chasing some of the shadows away.

It was still dark in the cavern, but it was light enough now for her to just barely make out the small stream in the back of the cave. There must be several tunnels connecting to the cave and running below them, she mused.

She heard the muffled snore again, and turned her attention back to their small camp to locate the source of the sound. Naruto and Sasuke certainly didn’t snore, and she had never heard Kakashi-Sensei snore before, so it struck her as a little bit odd. Her eyebrows jumped up as her eyes finally landed on a very large, black, bull dog. It’s mouth was hanging open slightly, and drool was sliding out from between his massive fangs and dribbling onto the stone floor. Loud snores were emanating from it.

This was one of Kakashi-sensei’s hounds, she realized. Wasn’t he supposed to be guarding them while they slept?

“Dogs guard in shifts too, you know.” a rough voice growled, “he’s already watched over you and your team for several hours.”

The pug lifted one of his back paws and arched his back in a leisurely stretch. Shaking his fur out, he padded over to her side and flopped down.

“Sleep help at all?”

Sakura nodded timidly. She had never really interacted with any of Kakashi’s ninken before, and it felt just a little bit odd to be conversing with a dog.

It sniffed at her, and she eyed him warily. “You smell well rested.”

She had absolutely no idea how to respond to that, so she opted for silence. This did not seem to bother the pug at all, and he rested his head on his paws casually. They sat like that for a while. Sakura was unsure of what to do. The minutes ticked by, and she couldn’t bear it any longer.

“Is it normal for summons to talk?” Her voice was still rough and it hurt to talk, and she immediately blushed at the stupid question.

The pug didn’t seem to think so, and nodded thoughtfully. “Some do, some don’t. Bull here, he waved a paw in the sleeping dog’s direction, can, but for whatever reason the idiot doesn’t like to. Seems to think it makes him more intimidating or whatever. Others physically are unable to speak like this. Some of the pack can’t, but Boss still understands them, so it isn’t really any trouble.”

That kind of made sense, she figured.

“Do you have a name too, Pug-kun?”

The little dog snorted irritably. “Yes.”

Sakura waited, confused. When the pug didn’t offer more, she tried again. “What is it? I don’t want to be rude.”

“Respectful little pup, aren’t you? My name is Pakkun.”

Sakura couldn’t help the little giggle that escaped her at the name.

“I knew it!” Pakkun snapped. “Kakashi wasn’t a very creative kid you know. It’s not my fault.”

An image of a small Kakashi playing with a tiny Pakkun popped into her head, and she grinned.

“What was he like?”

“Hnn?”

“Kakashi-Sensei. What was he like as a kid?”

A small frown slid across Pakkun’s face and he tilted his head, considering her question. “He hasn’t told you much about himself, has he?”

Sakura shook her head, thinking. He hadn’t, she realized. That first day on the roof when they all introduced themselves he had only told them his name. Months went by and she still knew next to nothing about the jonin. She hadn’t really noticed that before. He was just… he was just Sensei. Their calm, perpetually late, slightly perverted and weird teacher. Did he even have friends, hobbies, or a life outside of being a shinobi? She really didn’t have any idea.

“Figures.” Pakkun snorted. “Would you believe me if I told you that as a kid he was always on time and a stickler for rules?”

Sakura couldn’t help herself, and she laughed again, struggling to imagine her Sensei not arriving hours late to practice. “I definitely wouldn’t believe that.”

The conversation lulled again. Sitting there in the silence, Sakura wondered what she was supposed to be doing right now. After the attack the day before and running all night, it felt wrong to be doing nothing. Should she wake the others? Should she start making breakfast?

She cast her gaze over the three sleeping figures still in their bedrolls. She was rarely the first to wake on a mission. Kakashi-Sensei usually woke first, followed by Sasuke and then Naruto. She usually was woken by one of the two boys. Waking to Naruto’s shouting happened the most often. They all must be exhausted if she managed to wake up before them.

Before she could decide what to do next, Kakashi’s sleeping bag rustled against the cave floor, drawing her attention.

She heard a low groan, and watched as his head twisted back and forth, clearly in discomfort. His face was scrunched up and his blood-stained silver hair lay damp and matted on his face. He must still be asleep. Guilt settled in her stomach. It was all her fault. She had caused this. Kakashi’s kind words the night before had helped a bit, but they hadn’t taken away the reality that she had distracted him in the middle of his fight. The way he had been fighting scared her, and she had just wanted to make it stop.

A distracted ninja is a dead ninja.

She had acted unthinkingly. As her sensei’s body was thrown through the air she finally understood why it was so important to remember. This was different from when he collapsed last mission. This was her doing.

When she saw his hands again last night when he was offering the cream to her, the guilt almost suffocated her. Her reaction just worried him more, and she had been unable to tell him what was truly wrong, fearful of his response.

Kakashi grunted, a little louder this time, and his head jerked again. Sakura began to crawl her way over to him, but little paws on her leg stopped her.

“Give him a minute. He’ll wake up.”

Pakkun was right, and after several long moments Kakashi’s visible eye blinked open. He stared blearily up at the cave ceiling, making no immediate attempt to move.

“Ow.” he muttered softly to himself.

“Sensei?”

“Ah, Sakura. Good morning.” He paused, clearing his throat. “Do you have any idea what time it is?”

“Around 11.” Pakkun answered for her. “You slept for about 9 hours.”

“9 hours?” Kakashi said, “guess we really must have needed it.”

“I’ll say.”

“Anything happen while I was out?”

“Not a thing.”

Kakashi sat up, wincing a little as he did. The way he was holding his moving alarmed her. His was holding his bandaged hands stiffly out in front of him, as if he was afraid to bump them on even his light blankets. They were shaking. The splash of burns on his uncovered arms looked angry and were also beginning to blister, the pain cream completely absorbed by his burnt skin.

She had never seen him sleeveless before.

He was wearing a black tank top, with one of his typical masks stitched onto the neck. There were white scars covering much of his exposed skin, and she wondered how he could have gotten all of them and still survived. She could also make out a large red tattoo decorating his upper arm, and her eyes widened when she recognized what it was. He had the Anbu symbol tattooed on him! He had been a member of the black ops? She was all too familiar with the rumors. That no Anbu ever retired because they all either died on mission or were assassinated, that they killed without mercy or thought, and that they were the best of the best. How had she not known her teacher had been a member? After watching him fight last night, she found that it surprised her slightly less than it would have a couple of days ago.

But Kakashi remained oblivious to all of her observations, and started kicking a couple of the logs Bull dragged in the night before into a smaller pile. He must be going to make a fire like he promised last night, she concluded. How he was going to do it with only his feet, she had no idea.

She went over to help, happy to finally have something to do.

“Mahhh, I sure wish Sasuke was awake so he could start this.” Kakashi said good-naturedly, “but for now, this will have to do.” He gestured with his foot towards the small pile of kindling and matches Naruto organized.

“Let me do it, Sensei.” she hurriedly knelt before he could try to pick the supplies up, and started trying to make the fire. She needed to be helpful. It was her fault he couldn’t do it himself anyway. She could feel his heavy gaze on her back, but he made no comment. After a moment she heard his footsteps retreat, and she gave a sigh of relief. She began reorganizing the wood into a teepee, like she had been taught, and reached for the matches. Catch the smaller stuff on fire, and the bigger stuff would follow. She could do this.

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay, boss. Bull won’t hold it against you either. This isn’t the first time and it probably won’t be the last.”

She could just barely make out the two voices from across the cave.

“I feel selfish not even trying to release you. I probably could, you know.” her Sensei muttered, so quietly she had to strain to hear it.

“You’ll just make them worse, idiot. The pups need you to be healthy. We’ll be fine.”

“After your time runs out, I probably won’t be able to summon you back for a while.”

“I know.”

She wasn’t able to catch the rest of their conversation. She was relieved. That had been enough. Kakashi-Sensei must not be able to do any ninjutsu because of his hands. They must have worsened overnight. Had she bandaged them correctly? Had they gotten infected?

There was a crackle, and a thin trail of smoke began to drift from the pile of wood she was working on. Encouraged, she shoved some dry grass into the new flame, and watched as it flickered to life.

Kakashi was back at her side in an instant, looking at her approvingly. “Well done!” Usually after giving praise Sensei would ruffle her hair, and Sakura keenly felt the absence of his hand on her head.

She nodded, choked up once again by her guilt. Kakashi must have misinterpreted her reaction, because he hooked his arm through the handle of the pot Naruto filled, and brought it closer to the fire.

“We’ll make some tea for your throat once there are embers, Sakura. That should help with the pain.”

She nodded again, helplessly.

“You should drink something, Sensei.” She blurted out.

“Hmm?”

“Burns.” Sakura flapped her arms, unsure of how to explain properly. “They get rid of the water in your body. Dry you out. Dehydration n’ stuff.” She looked down, unsure of if she just crossed any boundaries. Even though he had been the one to ask, he had seemed hesitant to have her help him with his arms last night. He had also looked deeply uncomfortable when she insisted he use the pain cream. Maybe he blamed her for his injuries too.

To her surprise, instead of reacting angrily, Kakashi appeared to be pleased with her again. ”Have you ever thought about becoming a medic? We could really use one on the team.”

Sakura shook her head, and his eye smiled back.

“Ah well. But anyway, you’re right. I probably should have something to drink soon. Burns do have an unpleasant way of sucking up all of our bodies’ water. It can lead to dehydration in time. Fluid gets lost through the skin, which can be dangerous if you’re not paying attention. I’ll drink some of that tea with you to make sure that it doesn’t happen to me.”

Soon, the fire was hot enough, and embers began to glow pleasantly under the flaming wood. Darting forward before Kakashi could do it himself, she lifted the heavy pot and placed it on the coals. Within only a handful of minutes the water began to boil.

By the time the tea was done, Naruto had woken up. He joined them by the fire, talking excitedly about the events of the night before. Sakura handed him a cup, before turning to give one to Kakashi too. He reached out to accept, spreading his wrists apart. Understanding, but not liking it, she put the cup between them and watched as he pressed his wrists together, gently supporting the cup.

How on earth was he going to get his mask down? Naruto’s words came to an abrupt halt as he processed the same question.

Kakashi just raised a silver eyebrow, and brought the cup up to his masked face and took a drink through the fabric. Naruto scowled in disappointment and Sakura felt relieved.

The tea really did help sooth her throat, she noticed as she sipped. The warm liquid made the achiness disappear a little. She took another sip, and closed her eyes in relief. Over the past couple of hours she grew accustomed to the tight feeling, but now that it was gone, she was grateful. She had a feeling that the bruises around her neck had worsened during the night, and she was glad she couldn’t see them. She shuddered. She never wanted to be grabbed like that ever again. She would have to train harder.

“I didn’t know you were in the Anbu, Sensei! Is that where you got all those scars?”

Naruto officially possessed the tact of a squirrel, Sakura decided. She spun on him angrily.

“Don’t be rude, idiot!” She smacked him on the head, and he cowered away from her.

“I’m injured there, remember?” he howled back. “It’s not wrong to ask!” His head snapped back to glare at the jonin, “Why didn’t you tell us?”

“You never asked.” came the simple reply.

Naruto leaned forward, excited. “So what did you do? Did you go on fun missions? Hunt down missing nin like Zabuza? Protect the Hokage?”

“Yup.” Kakashi drawled, “I did.”

“I’ll bet protecting that old man was boring,” Naruto grinned, “is that why you’re so late to all your meetings with him?”

“I wasn’t stationed to guard the Third often,” A distant look stole across his face, “but I did spend a lot of time with the Fourth.”

Naruto’s eyes popped open even wider, and he fired off a dozen more questions. Apparently, Kakashi had revealed as much as he planned to, because he skillfully dodged the questions, providing the blond with only annoyingly vague and uninteresting answers. Sakura wondered faintly if he even meant to let his comment about the Fourth slip.

It was amusing to listen to them banter nonetheless, and for a while it distracted her from her worried thoughts. Eventually Kakashi had enough of the interrogation though, and announced he was going to step outside to take a look around. After bending down to speak to Bull (Pakkun was curled up in a corner resting now) Kakashi left the cave.

“Taking a look around” took about an hour, and by the time Kakashi reappeared, Sakura had been on the verge of panicking and waking Pakkun.

While he was gone, they had both taken a dip in the small stream, and washed the blood and grime off themselves. There were puddles pooled about the cave now. Naruto was drying himself off by the fire, and Sakura was ringing out her hair. She heaved a sigh of relief when his silver head poked back into the cave.

“What took so long?”

Kakashi shrugged noncommittally. “A black cat crossed my path, you see, and I followed it for a while before-“

Sakura shook her head in defeat. There would be no reasoning with him when he was coming up with those ridiculous excuses. She studied him further and noticed that the bandages on his hands had been loosened slightly, untied ends now dangling loosely by his hips.

“Sensei! Come wash up!” Naruto interrupted from by the fire. “The stream feels great, and your hair is still pink. You look like Sakura-chan!”

Kakashi started forward and then hesitated, obviously torn.

“I promise not to try to look at your face, Sensei.

Maybe Naruto did have a little bit more tact than she gave him credit for. After a little more pushing they managed to convince Kakashi to wash off a little. Sakura and Naruto sat by the fire, backs to the small stream to give him privacy as he rinsed his face and hair. They heard him splashing around, and then felt as drops of water sprayed around the cave as he shook his head dry. He really was just like his ninken. When he returned, mask pulled back up in its usual place, he looked healthier and his hair was mostly back to its normal silver color. He hadn’t put his headband on though, which was a little odd. Without his hitai-ate, the scar across his sharingan eye was visible and his damp hair hung in waves about his face. He joined them by the fire to finish drying off.

It was well past noon now, and Sakura wondered what would happen next. They would probably eat soon, and then what? Would they stay hidden, or resume their trip home? She still wasn’t quite sure why they had been attacked in the first place. It was probably connected to the conversation Kakashi-Sensei had back in the Land of Steam, but she was hesitant to pry yet. There was also the fact that Sasuke still hadn’t woken up. Kakashi said that it was because he was exhausted from using up too much chakra, but how long did that really last? Would he ever wake up again? In the Land of Waves, Kakashi-sensei had only been unconscious for a couple hours before waking. Why was it taking Sasuke so much longer?

Her gaze must have lingered on Sasuke for a little too long, because Kakashi-Sensei noticed.

“He’ll wake up soon. Chakra exhaustion tends to hit kids harder than adults. Don’t worry.”

“Are you sure?”

“Positive.” Kakashi’s voice was kind, “He’ll probably be sore and grumpy after he wakes up, but he’ll be okay.”

“More grumpy than usual, you mean.” Naruto muttered.

Sakura spun on him again, fists raised.

“We’ll start heading home again once he wakes up,” Kakashi continued, uninterested in their little spat, “but his injured ankle is going to slow us down. Naruto?”

“Uh-hu?” Naruto had scooted several feet away from her.

“I am going to ask you to make a clone to help him walk again. I know he might be upset about this, but please don’t pick on him and make it worse. We need to be fast and focused.”

There it was. The urgency of the situation was back again. Something was going on that was bigger than being attacked by random bandits on the road. Sakura had so many unanswered questions, but she couldn’t even process where to begin asking them. Her head spun. None of it made sense. Weren’t they on a diplomatic mission?

“Kaka-Sensei,” she started timidly.

The silver haired jonin shifted his unscarred eye to look at her.

“Why did people attack us?”

“It surprises me neither of you asked that sooner. Ah well, I guess we were all busy.” Kakashi said, “I’m sure you noticed how I disappeared a little back in the Land of Steam?”

Both genin nodded.

“We’ll, apparently not everyone in the Land of Steam wants peace. My thoughts are that we were attacked to provoke the Land of Fire.”

“Why would someone want to start a fight like that?”

Sakura put her head between her knees. She knew where this was headed.

“Loads of reasons. This one seems to be to show that the Daimyo is weak and that Yugakure needs to be stronger to protect the Steam if something goes wrong. The missing nin would probably try to assume control of the village after the fighting. They’re trying to create a situation where the major country they rely on turns against them. Prove neutrality is worthless.”

“But that’s stupid. It doesn’t even make sense!” Naruto argued.

Kakashi shrugged, “Well, it makes enough sense to enough people that they’re willing to start a war over it.”

“They’re going to come after us again, aren’t they,” Sakura whispered, “they can’t have us letting everyone know about their plan.”

Sakura looked up. Kakashi’s mask shifted as if he was opening his mouth to speak, and then stopped moving. He was probably trying to figure out how much to share. He finally nodded his head.

“Yes. That’s why, once Sasuke wakes up, we need to get moving again.”

Despite his best efforts to conceal it from them, he was worried. Sakura understood a little bit better now. That must have been why he pushed them so hard last night, even when they were all inured and weary. It wasn’t a random attack. Somehow they had ended up in the midst of another conspiracy. And this time, because of her, Kakashi-Sensei was actually down for the count until he received medical assistance. They really didn’t stand a chance if it came to fighting again, with him unable to do ninjutsu and Sasuke weakened. Their only option was to run and hope no one caught up to them to silence them.

“Should we try to wake Sasuke?” Naruto asked curiously. “So we can leave sooner?”

“If he doesn’t wake in the next two hours I will. I want him to wake naturally, if he can.” Kakashi stood back up, damp hair dripping down onto the stone. “In the meantime, we should eat lunch and get ready to move.”

Lunch was fresh fruits and jerkied meat gifted to them by the Daimyo. Some was singed from the fight, but it still tasted mostly okay. Having a full belly felt good and she could feel her strength returning little by little. Sakura knew she would desperately need the energy the food provided in the days to come. Kakashi also made some more tea with some of the leaves and flowers Naruto collected the day before- it had tasted faintly of mint and sorrel and was delicious. It helped soothe both her throat and her nerves. After lunch, her and Naruto rolled up their bedrolls and redistributed the supplies evenly in each of the 4 backpacks. They also filled up their water bottles, put out the fire, and created some paper bombs just in case. They had done all this mostly themselves, their Sensei merely directing their efforts.

As the day wore on, Sakura began to suspect that Kakashi was hiding something from them. He was avoiding using his hands far more than he had last night, and though he was trying to hide it, he winced every time he was forced to bend over. She had offered to retie the loose bandages hanging from his hands several times, but he declined every time she asked. Perhaps she messed up the first time, and now he didn’t trust her. Maybe that’s why he’s been struggling to look her in the eyes too. After those thoughts crossed her mind, shame made her stop asking.

To everyone’s relief, Sasuke finally woke an hour before Kakashi’s appointed time to leave. Naruto noticed first, bounding over to the older genin in excitement, Sakura close on his heels.

“Sasuke! You’re finally awake!”

Sasuke didn’t answer straight away. He looked exhausted, like even sitting up might be too tiring for him right now. He wasn’t supposed to look weak. Sakura’s heart sank.

“Where are we?”

Kakashi came over to join Naruto at his side, and knelt down beside him with a quiet grunt.

“Cave, several miles past the border. We camped for the night.”

Sasuke nodded, expression carefully blank. “What’s wrong with me?”

Kakashi reached forward like he was about to place a hand on Sasuke’s shoulder, but pulled back. The loose bandages on his hand dragged across the cave floor as he withdrew it, collecting dust and dirt.

“Chakra exhaustion and a broken ankle.” Kakashi said, “You fought hard.”

“Naruto got in my way.” Sasuke sneered, “I could have fought harder.” He was trying to look aloof, but the effect was weakened by his prone position on the ground.

“Ah. Is that what you think?”

“Yes!” His voice was getting louder.

Kakashi sighed tiredly. “I guess now that the three of you are all awake, we should talk about this before we leave. When I ordered you all to run away, why didn’t you listen?”

Sasuke froze and Sakura felt her heart sink.

“We didn’t want to leave you behind!” Naruto sounded incredulous.

“So you wanted to protect me? Didn’t want me to fight alone?” Kakashi directed his questions toward Sasuke.

Sasuke nodded hesitantly, clearly wondering where this was headed.

“Now I’m not saying that you disobeying me was right, but how is what Naruto tried to do for you any different than what you did for me?”

“But I didn’t need him too-“

“Exactly. And I definitely didn’t need you three to stay and protect me. We'll have a conversation on that later, actually.” Sakura felt tears gather behind her eyes again. Her fault her fault her fault. “But that’s part of what teamwork is. Sticking your neck out for the other person. Making sacrifices not because they think they need it, but because you care for them. Naruto cares for you, Sasuke. Let him.”

Kakashi carefully got back to his feet, not waiting to see the fallout of his words. His speech was over now and he was back to the pressing business at hand. “Sakura, I am going to need your help splinting Sasuke’s leg. I’ll coach you through it. After that, we’re heading out. We need to run before Pakkun and Bull’s 24-time limit is up. When they’re gone, we’ll stop and figure out what to do next.”

Sakura nodded, still unable to look her Sensei in the eyes.

Splinting Sasuke’s leg was not too difficult and Kakashi’s instructions were easy to follow. After giving Sasuke painkillers, she took two medium-sized sticks to place around his fracture, and then, under Kakashi’s guidance, bound them to his leg. They were to be much tighter than wrappings on burns, but no so tight as to block blood flow from Sasuke’s foot. Throughout it all Sasuke sat stoically. It was clearly painful, but he tried to mask every flinch and was completely silent. After they were finished, Naruto helped him to his feet. Sasuke didn’t protest, and even Sensei looked mildly surprised by this new development. Sasuke swayed a little when he was finally back upright, but he stubbornly kept his footing.

They were almost ready to head out again when-

“Boss!”

. . . . .

“Boss!”

Kakashi jerked around at the voice. There was urgency in his ninken’s voice that made his heart sink.

“What’s going on Pakkun?”

“Someone is coming. About a half mile away right now. They stink of blood and fighting.”

This is what he had been afraid of from the very start. He thought they had gotten far enough away last night, that they would have a bit more time, but apparently that wasn’t the case. The rebels must be looking to rectify their mistake as soon as possible. The one after them was likely a scout, so if they were found, more would be on the way quickly. As he was now he could hardly move, let alone use ninjutsu. Sasuke was the same, Chakra exhaustion making him practically useless, and Naruto and Sakura were both emotionally and physically drained past the limits 12-year-olds should be pushed. Should they run or should they hide? If they left now, they were bound to get caught while also leaving a trail. If they remained hidden, at least they would have the upper hand in a fight if they were found. He gritted his teeth behind his mask, frustrated.

Kakashi didn’t like the idea of having to fight at all. It had not been a good day.

His sleep had been riddled with flashbacks and nightmares, and the moment he opened his eyes, the only thing he could feel was pain radiating through all of the nerves in his arms. All of his injuries piled on top of each other had been making it impossible to think clearly. The tea Sakura forced him to drink had sat heavily on his stomach, and even though he knew he needed to stay hydrated, the very thought made him nauseous.

As the day progressed it had gotten harder and harder to hide it from the kids. The pain and incident from the day before had scrambled his thoughts enough that when Naruto quizzed him as they sat around the fire, he had let his connection with the Forth slip. He was also struggling to look at Sakura without having flashbacks from the night before. Shortly after drinking the tea, he left the cave to reassess his injuries in private and clear his head. His hands had swollen badly during the night and begun leaking pus and fluid- it was so bad that he could no longer bend his fingers and was losing the ability to move his wrists too. He had been forced to loosen the bandages on his hands and then to his personal embarrassment, had been unable to tie them back. It took him far too long to pull himself back together and compartmentalize everything, and when he returned to the cave with a ridiculous story on his lips, the kids were understandably worried. Sakura had offered to fix the wrappings for him several times, but he was fearful that if she looked any closer she would notice how bad they were getting. He had scared her enough already and was hesitant to add any more trauma to her plate. He would deal with the pain himself. He was used to this. He’d spent nearly a decade as an Anbu, he could handle a couple of broken ribs and some burns.

He had felt a little bit better after taking more painkillers and rinsing his face and hair in the stream, but after coming out of the water had angrily realized that his hands were too messed up to tie his hitai-ate back on. He had been forced to forgo it and was relieved when Naruto and Sakura did not press him about it. They also did not question him as he ordered them to clean up camp without his help, and when Sasuke woke, Sakura did a fine job splinting his leg herself.

Everyone had finally been ready to start back to Konohagakure to warn the village and prevent a war, but now things were getting complicated again.

“Boss?” Pakkun’s voice was gentler this time.

His mind had been wandering, he realized. That was dangerous. He needed to focus. He shook his head, desperately trying to sort out his thoughts. That’s right. Run or hide.

“Staying here and hiding is our best bet.” Kakashi said aloud, “Hopefully he either passes by us or I somehow manage to get the drop on him if he comes in here. How close is he now?”

“Quarter mile.”

Whoever it was, was moving fast. He turned around to look at 3 pairs of wide eyes. “Get back as far away from the entrance as you can and duck down. I need you out of the way for this to work. Bull, go with them.”

The three genin turned to do as instructed, Bull hot on their heels. “Yo, Sasuke?”

Sasuke’s eyes snapped to look at him from where he was still leaning against Naruto.

“Don’t use any Chakra.” He curved his eye into a smile. “Teamwork is important, yes, but we just waited 16 hours for you to wake up. It could kill you.”

“But how are you going to fight, Sensei?” Sakura asked, “You can’t use chakra either!”

“I’m not a one-trick pony, Sakura. Don’t worry.” Kakashi kept his tone light, “Seems like my options today are genjutsu and tiajutsu.”

Kakashi’s useless hands fumbled in his hip pack, and a kunai clattered to the ground.

“Mouth?”

He nodded resignedly to Pakkun. He knelt down, and the little pug took the blade of the dagger in his mouth and offered it to him handle first. Kakashi took it between his teeth, and got into position by the entrance of the passageway that led to the exit.

“Quiet everyone. How far away?” He grunted from around the kunai.

“150 yards. He’s coming right at us.”

Damn it. Whoever it was could sense them. Maybe they should have run after all. Was he a sensory type?

He took a deep shuttering breath, calming himself. He gritted his teeth again and forced his mind off the pain. He needed to protect his team as he promised.

“Naruto, protect Sasuke and Sakura. Pakkun, you’re with me.”

With those words, he summoned what little energy he had left, directed his chakra flow into his feet, and shot through the cave entrance to intercept them. There was no point in hiding if the enemy knew where Team 7 was already.

He had made a major miscalculation, he realized a second later. There were two shinobi hurtling towards him, one a large man clocked in a black robe like the night before, and the other a slightly built woman dressed in scorched silver armor. He had been partially correct, it seemed. One must be a sensory type. The sensory type had been masking their chakra signal, and guiding the other ninja towards them. They must be good, Kakashi thought. Pakkun hadn’t noticed.

“Couldn’t hide forever, could you Hatake?” The larger shinobi roared as he flew forward, “Where’s that little girl? I’m going to flay her for what she did to me!”

Kakashi snarled around the dagger in his mouth, and opened his sharingan. The large man flung a heavy fist at him, and he jumped out of the way. The blow struck the ground, and Kakashi could feel the earth tremble beneath him. Before he even had a chance to take a breath, the girl in armor was upon him, fingers reaching for his bare forehead.

Ah.

She must be the sensory type. Fortunately for him, it seemed as if her jutsu was activated by touch. Pakkun shot toward her and fastened his small fangs into her ankle. She screamed, and he twisted backwards out of reach of her clutching fingers.

The bigger man was back in an instant, raising his big fists again. Even injured, Kakashi was faster. He used the opportunity to step in close, jerking his head sideways to skim the knife in his mouth across the big chest. Bringing his elbow up, he slammed it into the larger man’s nose. The man howled, and brought his fists together. Kakashi managed to step back to avoid most of the blow, but one of the fists still managed to clip him in the side. He staggered backward, as pain momentarily blinded him. He knew immediately that his ribs had shifted under the tightly wrapped bandages.

He ducked under the female ninja’s hands again, and used the momentum to put some distance between himself and the other two. He stood there, panting through the pain. Pakkun joined him, blood dripping from his jowls.

“Why are you trying to antagonize our village!?” Kakashi called, “You Steam bastards are really starting to give Yugakure a bad rep in my book!”

The large man laughed, and then spat on the ground. Blood was leaking from the gash on his chest and gushing from his nose. “That’s the point! That village and its neutrality can go fuck itself! Once we turn your land against the Steam, we’ll take whatever is left and recreate the village with the people’s support!”

So he was right about what their intentions were. Kakashi grimaced. This was a mess.

The sensory ninja began weaving signs, and with help from his sharingan, Kakashi immediately recognized the hand motions as poison mist jutsu. That wasn’t good. He flung himself forward, blade between his teeth flashing. Twisting and lashing out, he managed to stop the jutsu, and bloody her cheek with the knife. He dropped down and spun on the ground, kicking her legs out from underneath her, careful not to use his hands. Pakkun was on her again in an instant.

Suddenly, before he had a chance to react, the big man was upon him again, wrapping his massive arms around his chest. The woman flipped back to her feet, throwing the ninken off, eyes mere slits in her rage. She reached out for his head again. He was pinned.

This combination was starting to remind him a little too much of the Ino–Shika–Chō trio. This was a bad combo for him to face without the use of his hands.

He jerked backward, smashing the back of his head into the big man’s nose a second time. He roared in pain, and Kakashi felt his grip loosen slightly. He spun aggressively, and threw the man off. He jumped backward again, away from them both.

“Stop running away!” The big man was covered in blood now, his nose dyeing the front of his shirt red. “Homare! Go find the kids and make them scream!”

No!

The armor wearing shinobi turned towards the cave. Kakashi ran after her, desperate to prevent her from finding the kids. She turned back to face him, and they exchanged several blows before-

Pain. So much pain he momentarily couldn’t think, couldn’t see, couldn’t breathe. The kuni fell from his mouth and landed in the dirt.

Screaming echoed around the forest, and it took Kakashi a second to realize that the horrible sound was coming from him. The big man had his left hand grasped tightly in his own. He was squeezing it so hard he thought it might break. The pain from his burns was mind numbing and Kakashi thought for a second that he might vomit.

“Boss!”

The big man lifted him up by his hand, and threw him hard against one of the trees by the entrance to the cave. For the second time in as many days, he landed with a crunch. He laid there, crumpled, but for only a moment. Seeing Sakura impaled on his arm had dazed him, but this type of pain he could deal with. This time, he was back on his feet only a couple of seconds later. He had work to do before he was allowed to collapse.

The big man had stepped closer to him, expecting him to be down for longer. Mindless of his injuries, Kakashi threw himself on top of the big ninja. The man let out a surprised grunt as the silver-haired jonin landed on top of him. They both tumbled over, and Kakashi brought his knee down into the big man’s nose a third time.

Then a fourth.

Then a fifth.

There was a crunch as shards of the man’s nose were pushed up into his skull.

By the 6th strike, he was no longer moving. Kakashi quickly rolled off of the body, and reassessed his surroundings. The ninja who had been called Homare was not visible any longer. She must have gone into the cave when he had been grabbed.

He stumbled forward and coughed. Blood tricked out of his mouth, saturating his mask. He must have bitten his tongue at some point. Everything burned, and there were little black dots swimming around in his vision.

Kakashi!

No! He couldn’t let Rin die! Not again! He had promised Obito he would keep her safe!

“Pup! Focus!”

That’s right. The one who was calling him must be Pakkun.

“Sorry,” he muttered, blood sliding from his lips, “let’s go.”

He clawed his way through the mouth of the cave, numb to all of the pain now. When he finally emerged back into the cavern, the sight that met his eyes was horrific.

Bull was lying unnaturally still in a corner and Sakura was struggling to hold a very weak-looking Sasuke upright in the back of the cave. The worst, however, was how the sensory ninja stood in the center of the cave and how she had her hands lightly touching Naruto’s forehead. He wasn’t struggling, his eyes were closed, and blood was leaking through the bandages still wrapped around the jinchūriki’s head. The wound must have been reopened in the scuffle.

Red-hot rage filled Kakashi, and he staggered forward. As Homare spun to meet him, she dropped Naruto, whose eyes popped open immediately after she let go of his head.

She looked him dead in the eyes, grin on her face. It was her last mistake. With the last of his energy, he could still buy his team some more time.

Go.” He instructed. His vision was fading in and out and the ringing in his ears was deafening. He could feel his sharingan spinning wildly and his chakra leaking away as he cast the genjutsu. He knew he was finally about to loose his feeble grasp on consciousness. He couldn’t even feel his arms anymore and every inhale felt like knives stabbing through his chest. “Your partner’s death was an accident. The Copy Ninja is gone.” As soon as the words left his mouth, Homare’s eyes grew distant and she stiffened.

So much for not worrying his team, Kakashi thought foggily as he tipped sideways. At least they were all still alive. The ground rushed up to meet his face. He could hear Sakura screaming and Pukkun barking, but they were far away.

. . . . .

Sakura couldn’t help but scream as she watched her Sensei’s eyes roll up into the back of his head and crumple lifelessly to the ground. Nearly dropping Sasuke, she lurched forward, before stumbling to a halt. The armor-wearing ninja was still there, standing over Kakashi’s body. She had taken down Naruto’s many clones with ease, and dodged all of the shuriken and kunai she had thrown without any effort. What was she supposed to do now? She pulled out another kunai, preparing for the worst. They would have to protect themselves now. Naruto had a similar idea, readying his knife, and started forward towards the armor-wearing shinobi, several clones appearing alongside him with loud pops.

“Don’t!” Pakkun’s deep voice cut through the tension. “Wait!”

Both Genin froze. Sure enough, after a few tense moments, the woman turned slowly, and without so much as a glance at them, began striding intently from the cave.

“What was that?” Sasuke asked, unable to hide the curiosity in his voice.

“Kakashi put her under a genjutsu and wiped her memory. Let her go. He just bought us some time.”

Pakkun hopped forward, placing his paws on Kakashi’s chest. Naruto was right behind, kneeling at his side.

“Is he dead?” he asked, eyes wide and terrified.

“No. If he was dead, I would have disappeared. He’s not in good shape though.” Pakkun sighed loudly through his nose, “I am going to go check on Bull. You three, see to that idiot.”

He bounded away, and Sakura bent over, depositing Sasuke gently onto the ground. She looked at him, suddenly hesitant to leave his side.

“Go help!” Sasuke snapped, and she sprung into action.

This was bad. She began to go through everything in her head as she joined Naruto. She was once again thankful that she had paid attention during their first aid course at the academy. It was coming in very handy during this mission.

Kakashi had fallen unconscious immediately after using his sharingan. Sakera knew from experience that implied at least some degree of chakra exhaustion. He didn’t look any more injured than he had before, although there was blood staining the front of his mask now. The fabric was a little darker, and stank of copper. She desperately hoped it was from a bitten tongue, not internal bleeding. She reached out, feeling for a pulse. That was the first step.

She found it after only a moment. It was beating far too quickly for it to be normal, she concluded. At least it was still there. Next, check his breathing. His chest was going up and down in rapid shallow breaths, she noticed immediately. There must be something she was missing.

“Help me get off his shirt,” she ordered Naruto, “his breathing is weird. I think he’s hurt his chest.” With the blond’s help, she peeled the tank top off of her Sensei, leaving it pooled around his neck, careful not to uncover his face.

The sight of his bare chest made her gasp. His torso was already covered in white bandages, although they were beginning to slip off. Underneath, there was a patchwork of black and purple bruises, stretching from his upper left chest down to his hip. They weren’t new bruises either, she realized with horror. He had probably gotten them when he was thrown up against his mud wall, then night before when she had distracted him. This was far beyond the scope of the first-aid training she received. Tears threatened to leak out, and she swallowed them back, determined to be strong. Sensei, Naruto, and Sasuke were always protecting her. Now it was her turn.

Talking a deep breath, she reached out and started unraveling the loose bandages from around the silver-haired jonin’s chest.

“What’re you doing?”

“We can’t do anything for his ribs but wrap them as tight as possible so they don’t move around.” She explained, as the began re-wrapping the bandages. He had done a pretty terrible job of it by himself, she thought irritably. After she finished, she leaned back to study the unconscious man. He had hid this from them all day! All that talk about teamwork and being there for each other and he had been hiding his injuries. If he had been hiding his broken ribs, what else had he not told them? Nothing new looked torn or broken from his fight with the two missing-nin, so that left-

His hands.

Her stomach lurched. An image came to mind, of Kakashi shaking his hair dry, his hitai-ate curiously absent. She had briefly wondered at the time why he hadn’t bothered to put it back on.

He couldn’t.

It was also the reason why the bandages on his hands were hanging loose and his ribs were poorly so poorly wrapped. She swore angrily, and Naruto flinched beside her.

“What’s wrong, Sakura-Chan?”

She made no answer, instead reaching for the Copy Ninja’s hands. She could feel the heat radiating from them before she even made contact with the cloth surrounding them. As she began to unwrap them, the bandages she pulled off went from white, to yellow, to red, to black. The smell of his unwrapped hands almost made her gag. His fingers and hands were twice as swollen as they had been the day before, and clearly infected. Yellow puss and blisters were festering on his palms, and the back of his hands wasn’t much better. How had he been walking around like this, acting normally and joking with them?

“Naruto, go restart the fire. We’re going to need some more clean water.” She was pleased to hear that her voice didn’t tremble as she spoke. Someone needed to take charge. “Sasuke, can you look around in your bag for any medicines that might help? I think that’s where we put them.”

Both boys did as they were told, thankfully, seeming to be relieved to have something to do.

What else could she do right now to help? While she waited for the tools to clean his hands, she could try to make him comfortable, she decided. After pulling back down his tank top to recover his chest, she easily found Kakashi’s bedroll from where he abandoned it earlier before fighting, and laid it down on the ground. She propped the jonin’s head up under his backpack, and arranged his hands on his chest so they were off of the dirty ground. She also looked in his pack and found his hitai-ate and tied it back on for him, slanting it down to cover his scarred eye. It was unnerving to see him this way- so quite and so weak. If often felt as if nothing could touch him, as if he was unstoppable. Kakashi-Sensei was supposed to be untouchable.

Pakkun bounded up next to her, sniffing Kakashi. “Well done.” he said.

“Is Bull going to be okay?” She asked nervously. Bull had protected the three of them with fang and claw and she found herself desperately hoping that he wasn’t hurt too bad.

“He’ll be fine with enough rest,” Pakkun nudged Kakashi’s masked cheek with his nose, “unlike this one here.”

“What can we do?”

“What you’ve been doing already.” Pakkun said encouragingly. “Looks like you three will be here another night or two. Kakashi’s genjutsu likely got the rest off your tail, so you should be relatively safe once I’m gone.”

“You’re leaving?!” Sakura gasped. Then they would be all alone!

“We don’t have a choice. Our time is almost up. We’ve got maybe an hour left before the summoning jutsu is reversed.”

Sakura’s heart sank. They would just have to hold on until Kakashi woke or help arrived. Neither seemed likely. Kakashi was more beat up than she even had seen before, and even if he did wake, she wondered how he would be able to function through the pain he would inevitably end up in. Similarly, they were still not expected back in the village for two more days. And even if they weren’t back by then, it would probably still be several more before search parties were sent out.

“I’ll clean up the mess outside and keep watch for a bit, but after that, you guys will be on your own.” Pakkun glanced at Kakashi sadly. “Take care of him. I’ve known him since he was just a pup and I’ve grown rather fond of him.” With that, the ninken darted away.

She head a crackle and a pop, and warmth flowed through the cave as Naruto got the fire going again. She watched as he heaved the big pot of water they had used earlier for tea back on the flames. For wound cleaning, the water needed to be sterile. Which meant it needed to be boiled. For how long, she had no idea, but she had to try.

With not much else left to do as she waited for the water on the fire to boil, she laid out her own bedroll again and sat next to Kakashi. As she waited, Sasuke dragged himself on the ground over to her, and silently gave her the antibiotic ointment and pain cream she used the night before. Internally, she wanted to scream. If they hadn’t helped his hands last night, why would they help him now? She accepted them anyway, with quiet thanks.

15 minutes later the water was bubbling excitedly. Naruto took it off the fire, and carefully brought it over to her. They would have to wait for the water to cool down too- warm water in burns didn’t seem like such a good idea to her. She started in surprise as she saw Naruto’s face again for the first time since the fight.

“Your face!” She squeaked. Blood was matting his hair together, and the left side of his face was dripping blood. The white of the bandages she put on last night was fully saturated again.

Naruto put his arms behind his head. “I think it’s already healed back up again! It just looks really messy.”

She nodded, happy to hear that there were no more serious wounds to deal with. Another thought struck her.

“Naruto?” She asked, looking back up at him, “What did that ninja’s mind jutsu do to you? Did it hurt?”

“Huh?” Naruto looked surprised. “Oh that! I’m not really sure, but it didn’t hurt. She just grabbed my head and my mind went all fuzzy. I think she asked me some questions, but I can’t really remember.” He shrugged, unconcerned. “Sensei made her let go before anything really bad happened, I think.”

Curiosity satisfied, she dropped the topic.

After the water cooled, she began gently cleaning Kakashi’s hands. She took turns washing them with the cool water, and after she deemed them clean enough, dripped some of the antibiotic ointment onto his hands, before loosely wrapping them again. Remembering his words from the night before, she only applied the pain cream on the smaller burns on his wrists and upper arms. After she was finished, she collapsed backward, analyzing her work. Kakashi hadn’t made so much as a sigh as she worked. He must really be out if he hadn’t responded to any of her brutal ministrations. She hoped that was just because he overused his sharingan again. His breathing was still a little quick, but his heart rate had gone down, she noticed. She wondered what that meant. Hopefully, it was a good thing.

She was pulled violently from her thoughts by a loud crack. She knew immediately that Bull had disappeared from the corner of the cave. It had been about an hour since Pakkun left. Even so, she turned to look. They were alone now.

It was dark outside again, their only light now coming from the flickering fire Naruto restarted. An entire day had passed by. Pakkun had been right, they would end up staying here much longer. Hopefully, his other words were true as well, that Kakashi’s genjutsu bought them a little bit more time and that they were safe here a while longer. It was the sensor type who was sent back to the rebels confused- hopefully that meant they didn’t have another and they were permanently off their trail now. There wasn’t much for them to do now but wait.

“We need to set up a watch,” Sasuke said, breaking the silence, “and rest while we can.” He was starting to look much healthier, Sakura observed happily. Only interacting with Naruto the last day had been trying to say the least.

Naruto agreed readily, insisting that he take middle watch. For once, Sakura found herself agreeing with his self sacrifice towards her. Sasuke should take first, because he needed to eat and drink anyway, and she would take last, because she needed to rest the most. They also agreed that whoever was keeping watch should monitor Sensei as well, just to make sure nothing changed again during the night.

Sleep didn’t come to Sakura right away, guilt and worry making her toss and turn, but when she finally did it was a deep dreamless sleep. When Naruto woke her for her own watch, she immediately went to check on the Copy Ninja. He was still unconscious and motionless, and she was pleased to see that his breathing had evened out a bit as well. The fast harsh rasping from the night before being replaced with longer deeper breaths. It gave her some hope. Maybe his ribs weren’t as bad as they looked. She settled down close to the fire after completing her assessment, and poked mindlessly at the embers. Nothing eventful happened, and her 4 hours of watch passed by quickly. Naruto and Sasuke both woke up with the sun at around 8.

For breakfast they they all nibbled on ration bars, keenly aware that they were in a position now where they needed to conserve as much food as possible. Who knew how much longer they would be stuck here. Making tea didn’t waste food though, so Sakura spent a decent chunk of the morning trying to recreate the tea Kakashi made for them the day before. Although she wasn’t able to get the taste quite the same, the flavor was still okay, and the warm tea chased away the remaining soreness from her bruised throat. There was no longer any raspiness when she spoke, either.

The day passed slowly, and no one really talked much, not even Naruto. Kakashi did not wake, not even twitching in his unconscious state. Sakura replaced the bandages on his hands once at around noon, reapplied the ointment again, (they were running out of the cream, and she wanted to save the numbing medicines for when he woke) and was disheartened to see they looked slightly worse than they had the day before. He also was a little bit warmer, and Sakura knew right away he had developed a slight fever.

On the flip side, Sasuke was doing much better. He had been able to hop around, albeit a bit awkwardly, on the splint she had made for him, and didn’t seem to be in any pain. The break in his leg might actually just be a bad sprain after all, she thought. The soreness from the chakra exhaustion was also much less, judging by the fluidity of his movements and his energy levels. It seemed as if although chakra exhaustion hit kids harder than adults, they also recovered much faster.

The day continued on and not much else happened. If Kakashi didn’t wake soon, they would have to decide what to do themselves, Sakura realized fearfully at some point. They needed time to let Kakashi heal, yes, but they also still needed to warn the village about what was going on. It was making her nervous. If the rebels still didn’t have their bodies, wouldn’t that mean they might go after another Hidden Leaf team? That made their responsibility even greater. Kakashi needed to wake, to tell them what they should do! Splitting up was beginning to feel like the only option, but she didn’t want to make that call herself. Kakashi and Sasuke couldn’t move, and they couldn’t leave them both unprotected. Similarly, sending one person out unprotected would probably lead to something terrible happening. There were no good options and she felt helpless. She knew by the silence in the cave that the boys were thinking the same.

Kakashi did wake later in the day, although it wasn’t as pleasant as she hoped.

The three of them just finished up their dinner of packaged soup they boiled over the fire when Naruto froze.

“Guys.”

Sakura and Sasuke looked at him. Nobody had spoken for hours, and his voice seemed out of place.

“Kaka-sensei’s eye is open.”

Her heart leapt with joy, and she abandoned her soup by the fire to run over to him. When she got to his bedroll, she quickly realized something was wrong.

His dark grey eye was open, just like Naruto said, but he didn’t look awake. He was staring up at the ceiling, eye unfocused and glassy, and he made no sound or movement when she shook his shoulder. There was sweat beading on the visible part of his face, and a splotch of red high on his check. His breathing had deteriorated as well, rasping shallowly in his chest. The fever from earlier had worsened, she realized with horror. The small amount of antibiotics she put on his hands hadn’t been enough to fight it.

She gently shook his shoulder again, hoping to snap him out of it, but it did no good. He laid there listless and unresponsive. A sudden thought crossed her mind. He was probably badly dehydrated.

Fluid gets lost through the skin, which can be dangerous if you’re not paying attention.

He needed to drink if he was going to have any chance of recovering. She was ashamed- she should have thought about this sooner. She sorted through his backpack, and found his water bottle. She hesitated, hand in front of his mask. He desperately needed water but she was a little bit uncertain how to go about it. He could drink through his mask himself, but she doubted trying to pour water through it would work well. It seemed awfully close to waterboarding. She would have to remove his mask. Could she do it without seeing his face? He had never told them exactly why his mouth and nose were always covered and she definitely wanted to sneak a look someday, but seeing it now in his vulnerable state would just feel wrong. After several minutes of wrestling with herself, she concluded that her Sensei being even more disappointed in her was worth him still being alive.

“Can you guys give me some space?” She snapped at Naruto and Sasuke who were hovering behind her. “You’re just going to get in the way.”

Surprisingly, they listened to her. After sending them back towards the fire and making sure they weren’t looking, she readied the water bottle and gently pulled down her Sensei’s mask.

The first thing she noticed was that his chin was a little bloody. He hadn’t been coughing, so it probably meant he bit his tongue at some point during his fight. He had sharp features, an angular jaw, and a small beauty mark on his chin. He was young and quite attractive, Sakura realized suddenly. The gray hair and calm attitude always made her think of him as really old, but now, after seeing his face uncovered, he couldn’t be more than 30!

Realizing that she had been staring at his face for far longer than she had planned, she raised the water bottle to his lips and poured some of the liquid in. He swallowed reflexively, and encouraged, she tried again. She got most of the water in, before the lone gray eye blinked and slowly focused on her face. His uncovered mouth moved, whispering a single word she couldn’t quite make out. She caught the gleam of two pointed teeth.

“Sensei?”

His eye blinked again, and he shuddered, twitching uncomfortably. His breathing quickened, and it seemed as if he was beginning to hyperventilate. His shaking hands began trying to reach up toward his face, and he moaned when the bandages caught on the blankets. His breaths were loud in her ears and continued to get faster. His legs were jerking under the blankets, and his head began thrashing against the makeshift pillow. He was panicking.

Why was he panicking?

She was at a loss.

Her eyes landed on the mask still pooled about his neck. Was that it?

She tugged the mask back into place, and anxiously waited to see if it helped at all. It did. Almost immediately, his body stiffened and his breathing relaxed and deepened. Whatever nightmare he had been in the middle of had stopped.

“Rin?” His voice was so soft and rough she almost missed it. She had never heard him mention that name before. He must be disoriented because of the fever.

“It’s me, Sensei. It’s Sakura.” She wanted to cry.

His face scrunched up in confusion, and his eye squeezed shut. His chest heaved several times as he tried to catch his breath again. He was shaking badly, his whole body trembling now, not just his hands, but at least he wasn’t thrashing about anymore. He must be in a lot of pain.

After a few moments, his eye slid back open. He didn’t look at her, instead staring blankly up at the ceiling again. Unable to help herself, she shook him gently, hoping to make him respond again. He didn’t. She stayed with him for a while, as he laid there, lost in a daze as his fever burned.

“He needs sleep.” Sasuke said from behind her. She jumped. She had forgotten about the other genin. Sasuke stretched out a hand, and with a gentleness she had never seen from him before, passed his hands over Kakashi’s eye. When his hand retreated, the lone eye was closed. Now he looked like he was just sleeping.

“Come join us by the fire, Sakura!” Naruto’s energetic voice felt out of place, “He drank some water and woke up. He’ll be better in the morning, believe it!”

Doubt churned in the pit of her stomach at his words, but she still listened.

She offered to take second watch that night. Naruto was still recovering from his head wound, and Sasuke was almost back to normal, minus his injured leg. To stand a chance of getting back home the boys needed to be in good shape. She cleaned Kakashi’s hands again right before she went to bed, and reapplied the antibiotics. Maybe this time they would help fight the infection and lower the fever.

. . . . .

The second time Kakashi woke was far more encouraging.

She was halfway through her watch- both boys asleep and dead to the world, when she noticed the white of his uncovered eye gleaming in the low firelight.

As soon as she noticed, she returned to her spot next to him fearfully. Would he be confused and in pain again?

His eyes flickered toward her as she approached. This time they looked clear and alert. As their eyes met, Kakashi’s sparked in recognition. Her heart leaped joyously in her chest.

“Sakura.” He swallowed heavily, voice rough from disuse. “Is everyone okay?”

Of course he would ask about them first. Relief flooded through her veins. He recognized her this time! He was finally conscious and aware of his surroundings. It had been more than 24 hours.

She nodded several times, too choked up to confirm vocally. The rush of emotions was too much and tears started pouring down her cheeks. She let out a sob.

“Sakura-Chan?” Kakashi’s voice was laced with worry now, “Are you okay?”

She nodded again, letting out another sob. “I’m so sorry Sensei.”

He made a little confused sound in the back of his throat, and it sounded so weak it made her heart break.

“I’m sorry!” She wailed, “I distracted you and you got hurt! And then you didn’t tell us!” The words had been building up for so long now that she couldn’t stop, “And you couldn’t look at me because you were so disappointed and I made your hands worse!” She choked on the last word and broke off, crying silently.

He was badly injured with a fever, and she had just shouted at him.

“Sakura.”

If he wasn’t disappointed enough with her already, he must be absolutely crushed now. She buried her face in her hands, shaking.

“Sakura!”

Her head jerked back up violently at the sound of Kakashi’s raised voice.

“Sakura.” His voice was softer again as he spoke her name for the third time. It was gentle. Worried.

“You have nothing to be sorry about.”

“But that guy turned into me, and then I yelled and a distracted shinobi is a dead one!”

Kakashi tried to sit up at those words, and listed sideways. Sakura cried out in panic and reached out to steady him. His silver hair hung in curtains about his face, damp with sweat, and he groaned in pain as his ribs shifted. She could feel his chest rising and falling as he panted in her arms, trying to catch his breath again.

After around a minute, he took a deep breath and he lifted his head again to meet her wet eyes. It looked like it took all of his strength to do so. He was weak. But he was Sensei. So he managed.

Kakashi spoke again, voice dripping with exhaustion. “I’m not disappointed. None of this was your fault, Sakura. It wasn’t your fault that man stole your face, and not your fault I was hurt.”

“But I yelled-“

“Oh, Sakura.” His voice was filled with grief, “I’m sorry I didn’t catch how you were feeling sooner.” He looked at her sadly, “I am so glad you told me you were alive. I was so scared I had hurt you. I almost got lost.”

“Almost got lost?”

He sighed, leaning back and closing his eye. She let go of him slowly. His gave no verbal indication of being in pain, but his bandaged hands were shaking again. He must be in agony right now. And he was comforting her!

He took a deep breath before answering.

“A long time ago, I hurt one of my teammates. You sometimes remind me of her a little bit, actually. She was a great medic and an even better friend. I didn’t mean to hurt her, it was a horrible accident, but she- she ended up- she ended up not surviving.” He shuttered, the memories stimulating a visceral reaction. This was difficult for him to talk about. She wondered distantly if he ever even had before. “These burns are nothing, Sakura. That was the worst pain I’ve ever felt, and I am so glad you yelled and stopped me from feeling that pain again.”

Memories of Kakashi’s blank face as he slaughtered all of the remaining shinobi crossed her mind, and she finally understood. He had looked so scary and lost before she yelled. He had been fighting like a man possessed. Maybe he briefly had been. Her yell had brought him out of what she could only assume were horrible memories and back into the present.

Something else clicked into place. He hadn’t been avoiding her because he was disappointed, rather, she had probably been reminding him of the teammate he lost. He had mentioned being able to see her as a medic, like his friend had been she now knew, several times when he was first injured.

“You didn’t distract me. You refocused me. You have nothing to feel guilty about, Sakura-Chan. You have done a remarkable job on this mission, and I am so proud.” Kakashi continued, tired voice steadier now that he wasn’t talking about his past, “We would not have made it this far if it wasn’t for you.”

She finally believed him. Tears welled up in her eyes again, but this time for a different reason. She scooted forward and curled up next to him, leaning against his uninjured side, seeking physical comfort. He stiffened when she touched him, but slowly began to relax after a minute or so. He was still very warm. The water must have helped, but his fever was not gone yet.

“Why didn’t you tell us how badly you were hurt?”

Kakashi’s breathing had slowed and for a second and she thought he had fallen back asleep.

“Mah, that was a little silly of me, wasn’t it?” His voice was almost inaudible again.

“It was really dumb, Sensei. We could have helped. Teamwork, remember?”

“You all have been through so much.” Kakashi’s volume was growing weaker and quieter with every word, “I didn’t want to worry anyone. You especially. You had been through and seen enough already...” His voice trailed off, into a soft sigh, and Sakura knew right away that he was about to fall back asleep again.

She glanced at his face. His eye was blinking slowly as he struggled to stay awake.

“I’m sorry Sakura..”

“It’s okay, Sensei. Just rest.”

“No, no. I’m sorry I scared you. And I’m sorry I worried you.”

“Please don’t apologize Sensei.” she whispered, “if I’m not allowed to feel guilty, neither are you.”

Kakashi’s eye creased into a smile and didn’t reopen.

“It’s a deal, then.”

His breathing evened out as he slipped back to sleep. Sakura relaxed, thinking. There were so many things they needed to ask him and talk about, and she had wasted his time with her ridiculous insecurities and guilt instead.

But.

He was proud of her. And she reminded him of one of his old friends, someone amazing, based on how he spoke about her! She hadn’t failed him or the team. She was still scared, but her heart felt a little braver now.

She had learned more about her Sensei in the past two days than she had the last several months. He may not have taught them many of his thousand jutsu, but she was certainly learning the value of bravery, teamwork, and what true strength really was. She wouldn’t let him die. She snuggled up closer to him. The feeling of his chest rising and falling was comforting. He seemed to actually be sleeping now, not that frightening half-awake state he had been in earlier.

Unable to bring herself to move away from his side, Sakura kept watch for a couple hours longer than she agreed to. She woke Naruto only two hours before dawn, and collapsed back onto her bedroll.

When she woke in the morning, to her surprise, the other three were already awake. That was the way it was supposed to be, she thought happily. It gave her a much needed feeling of normalcy, being the last to wake on a mission.

Naruto noticed her sit up, and bounded excitedly over to her. “Kakashi-Sensei is awake!” He put his hands behind his head, leaning back. He would probably never change, Sakura thought annoyed. He would be an old man and still sound and act the same way probably.

“I can see that.” she snapped at him, trying to cover her own excitement. She got to her feet, and swayed once she stood. Maybe she shouldn’t have kept watch for quite that long.

Kakashi was still laying on his bedroll, but he was propped upright by his backpack and blanket now, almost fully sitting. His eye sparkled affectionately when he saw her awake, and he waved his bandaged hand at her as she moved closer to him. He still looked weak and ill, but his fever seemed to be much lower than it had been the day before and like last night, he was coherent.

“You keeping our deal?” he asked, winking knowingly. He must remember everything she had said last night, she realized. This was his casual way of checking in on her. Though he had been conscious, he had still seemed pretty out of it, and once or twice she had wondered if he would remember their conversation in the morning or not. It seems he did.

“I’m trying.” She smiled at him and he nodded approvingly.

Sasuke limped over to the pair of them, and held out two cups of water to her.“Make sure he keeps drinking.” The perpetually grumpy Uchiha’s eyes darted away uncomfortably as she took them from his hands. “We need him to be hydrated.”

“Thank you Sasuke-Kun.” she said, and handed one of the cups to Kakashi, placing it between his forearms. He took a sip of water through his mask, and sighed contentedly.

“After you finish drinking,” she asked timidly, “can I help you with your burns?”

The last time she offered, he had declined. She really hoped that this time he would agree, and not try to do it all himself again. He had apologized for hiding how bad they were earlier, but part of her still felt like he might say no.

There had been no need to worry this time around. After he finished drinking, he patiently held out both of his hands for her to inspect.

She treated the splash of smaller burns on his forearms first before dealing with his hands. They weren’t much better than they had been the day before, but they hadn’t worsened. As she removed the gauze and wraps, they came away bloody and foul-smelling. He closed his eyes and leaned back, jaw clenched in pain at her ministrations. She dipped his trembling hands and wrists in cool water that Naruto boiled earlier, and made sure he took some painkillers. He needed them.

“I don’t think this stuff is working.” Sakura said sadly as she applied the antibiotic ointment to his hands. This was the last of it. “Aren’t antibiotics supposed to prevent infections?”

“They are working, Sakura-Chan. Kakashi said softly, “They’re probably the only reason I’m still alive.”

That didn’t make any sense. His hands sure looked infected to her and he still had a fever. That was a sight of infection, right? Kakashi sensed her confusion.

“These are really bad burns,” Kakashi explained further, “the external antibiotics are doing their best to fight the infection, but they won’t be enough on their own. I’m doing better today because you put more on while I was unconscious. I am going to need oral antibiotics and probably an IV now that we’re out of antibiotics.” He grimaced at the thought.

“You’re going to get worse again?” The day before when he was unresponsive had been terrifying. She didn’t think she could deal with him in such a state again.

“Hopefully we’ll get some help before that happens.” He creased his eye at her warmly, trying to ease her worries. It didn’t work. He was on a time limit. How would they get help? They were still in the middle of nowhere! Her earlier concerns came rushing back full force. Sasuke couldn’t walk, let alone run, and Kakashi was so weak. While he was being honest now about the extent of his injuries, she had a sneaking suspicion he still wasn’t telling the truth about how much pain he was in or how tired he was. How would they get any type of help in time? They were still so far away from the village!

“Sensei?”

“Hmm?”

“How are we going to get help?” She asked, “Are we going to split up?” She shuddered at the thought. While sending the healthier members of Team 7 ahead would be much faster, it still felt very risky.

“No.” Kakashi said firmly. “Splitting up is far too dangerous right now.”

While she was relieved to hear that wasn’t part of the plan, it made her wonder even more what they were going to do.

“Originally I was going to have one of my ninken run back and let the Hokage know what was going on when we got close enough, but I can’t do that anymore.” Kakashi straightened up a bit, and called out, “Naruto, Sasuke, come here.”

Naruto hurried back over, and plopped down next to Sakura. Sasuke limped over and set himself on the ground carefully, stretching out his injured leg.

“What’s going on, Kakashi?”

“Are we making a plan?” Naruto asked at the same time.

Both were sitting up ramrod straight and looked tensed. It seemed they were tired of inactivity and ready for action too.

“Yes.” Kakashi seemed amused by their excitement. “We’re leaving as soon as we can get all of our gear together.”

How in Kami’s name would they make it back to The Hidden Leaf in the state they were in right now?”

Kakashi’s next words answered it.

“There’s a town about a 7-hour moderate hike from here. That’s where we’re headed. It’s by Yukki Lake. I have a friend there on a long-term mission who may be able to help us. We’d be able to send information back to Konoha quickly while we recover.”

Sakura was so glad they waited until Kakashi woke to make a decision on what to do. It hadn’t even occurred to her to stop at another town before heading back home. It looked like they would be able to take care of themselves while not abandoning their duties to the village after all.

“A friend?” Naruto’s whiskered face shone with interest.

“Yes. He should have a team with him too, if everything is going well.” Kakashi grimaced. “He’s not going to be very happy with me.”

“Remember our deal, Sensei.” Sakura whispered. He couldn’t be blaming himself for all this, could he?

Kakashi laughed. It was a rare thing to hear it so genuine, and the heaviness in the air disappeared completely at the sound.

“No, no. Nothing like that.” he replied, “He’s going to be very worried about me... and then will probably make fun of me for a long time after. It’s going to be embarrassing.”

“He doesn’t sound like a good friend.” Naruto said grumpily, sounding irritated that someone would dare pick on his Sensei.

Kakashi chucked. “Mah, we’ve certainly had our ups and downs.” He seemed amused by his own statement, and refused to explain more, even when they pressed.

And with that, for the second time, they began to get ready to go. It was great to finally have a plan, and have all 4 members of the team awake. Things were looking up. Under Kakashi’s guidance, they put out the fire, rolled up their beds, distributed food and medicine evenly between their backpacks, and filled up their water bottles. She also made sure to tighten up Sasuke’s splint so he could put a little more weight on his leg as he walked and did the same for the bandages around Kakashi’s ribs.

Eventually, everything was organized, and they started out at around 9 o’clock. She hadn’t quite realized just how much she missed the breeze and the sunshine until she stepped outside. It was the first time in days since she had been out of the cave and the fresh air and wind on her face felt amazing. It was a beautiful morning and the temperature was perfect for a long hike. Hopefully, as the day went on, it wouldn’t get too much hotter. She hated traveling in the heat. The sweat made her hair frizzy and she hated when that happened.

It was slow, ugly going, despite their need for urgency.

While Sasuke could put a little pressure on his leg without being in too much pain, Naruto still had made a clone to help him walk. Neither of them were very happy with the arrangement and the clone and the Uchiha had been bickering and snapping at each other the entire trip so far. Unlike usual, it wasn’t irritating to listen to. There was something calming about hearing Naruto’s boisterous voice and Sasuke’s rude comments flowing again. Things were going back to normal, it seemed.

Although Sasuke was moving slowly, it was really Kakashi who slowing the team down this time. When he first stood up for the first time in the cave before they started out, he had almost tipped right back over. She had panicked and wondered aloud how he would manage a 7-hour walk. He had shrugged lazily and said he would find a way to manage.

He was managing, but barely. He hadn’t complained at all, but sweat was already trickling down his face and arms despite the cool morning air, and he was breathing heavily too. He was walking unassisted though, pointing out casually that if a clone bumped his ribs he’d just pass out again and then they’d need to carry him. They all heard Sasuke mutter under his breath that “carrying him would probably be faster” but Kakashi pretended not to hear and plowed on cheerfully.

She herself was getting tired faster than usual, and 6 more hours on the road sounded quite daunting. Hopefully Kakashi’s friend was a little kinder than he sounded and would let them rest comfortably right away.

. . . . .

No other kind of injury was worse than burns, Kakashi decided sullenly. He had experienced almost every type in his 26 years already- from broken bones, to stab wounds, to cuts, scrapes, and gashes, to being electrocuted, beaten, poisoned, and impaled. He’d been tortured for days before and whipped until he couldn’t move, had all of his fingernails forcibly removed one time, and burns still took the cake in his book. They just sucked every bit of energy and life out of you and left you feeling like you wanted to shrivel up and die from the pain. The pain had been so consistent since he woke that he was virtually numb to it now, and although that was definitely a bad thing medically speaking, at least now he couldn’t really feel much beyond his exhaustion and fever. Tenzo was never going to let him live this down. How Kakashi The Copy Ninja, master of a 1000 jutsu, had been defeated by some burns on his arms.

In his defense, they were really bad burns. Yūgao was on the team originally sent out with Tenzo, so hopefully medical ninjutsu was in his near future. He was fearful what would happen if it wasn’t. He had been trying to avoid thinking like this, but the chances of him getting to keep all his fingers was growing slimmer by the hour. If the infection got worse and necrosis set in, The Hidden Leaf would likely be saying goodbye to their Copy Ninja for good.

He sighed irritably. They had been on the road for two hours already, and he was well aware that he was the one slowing the team down. There was nothing he could really do about it though, and so he concentrated on putting one foot in front of another. He hated traveling through the forest on foot like this. It halved their pace and left them vulnerable. It would be so much faster to just channel chakra into his feet and leap through the trees, but that was impossible to do right now. His chakra reserves were still returning and Sasuke’s limp was still quite prominent. Walking would have to do for now.

He desperately wanted to pull out Icha Icha and read to get his mind off of the pain and the misery of the trip. But he had discovered earlier, to his utter dismay, that the book was no longer in his back pocket where it was usually tucked away. Where he lost it he had no idea, and he doubted that if it he had it he could turn the pages anyway, but the loss of it still broke his heart a little.

“Is it okay if we stop for a little bit?” Sakura’s voice broke him out of his thoughts.

He was lagging quite a ways behind the group now and they had noticed. That’s probably why she had called for a stop. He nodded in answer to her question, and carefully lowered himself down into the soft forest grass. He was grateful for her concern this time. This wasn’t the Anbu, and they weren’t being chased right now. He could afford to take a minute to rest.

Sakura knelt beside him, and offered him a water bottle, the stopper already pulled out. He accepted it gratefully, and took a long drink. He was immensely relieved to find that at least the nausea from the other day hadn’t returned yet. If he had begun vomiting, the dehydration from the burns would have killed him two days ago.

“Thank you.” He smiled up at her. Pale cheeks flashed streaks of purple and for a second he could have sworn her eyes turned brown. He turned away. He couldn’t afford to have another flashback right now.

They rested for only around 15 more minutes before Kakashi determined that they needed to get moving again. He wanted to make it to the town before nightfall. Resting more was appealing, but they still were on a time limit. Konoha needed to be warned before another team was attacked or they took the bait and made the Land of Steam their enemies. Hopefully Tenzo would have someone fast on hand who could make the trip quickly. There was also a distinct possibility that by now, him and his team were aware of the situation. The town he was stationed in currently was close enough to the border that they may have already heard whisperings of a potential threat. That would make thing simpler. Then they could share information and decide what to do from there.

Getting moving again was harder the second time. His ribs burned with every step and it was getting harder and harder to breath. 3 hours of traveling left. He could do this. There wasn’t much he could do about it except keep on moving. So that’s what he did. One foot in front of another.

And another.

And another.

He was starting to get dizzy, the heat from the sun making the burns on his uncovered arms hurt more. He was sweating uncomfortably- it was dripping down his body making his tank top cling to his skin and his open blisters sting unbearably.

Another step.

Keep pushing.

Keep pushing through the pain like he always did.

“Are you okay Sensei?” Naruto was hovering at his side, face pinched in concern, “We can stop again.”

It had only been an hour and a half since their last stop, and he was hesitant to waste more time. But if he collapsed later, things would only get more complicated. Maybe rest now would help.

He huffed out what was hopefully a positive sound, and immediately sank down to the ground. Sweat had soaked all the way through his shirt.

Fuck.

His fever was worsening. All this movement was accelerating his timeline faster than he expected. His increased heart rate was pushing the infection throughout his body at a faster pace than before. The simple antibiotics were no longer working- the brief relief they had offered last night long over. Forget losing his fingers or hands, he would succumb to his injuries soon if he didn’t get treatment. They were still an hour and a half out from the town. He could feel his breath rasping deeply in his chest and he wasn’t sure if he would be able to get back to his feet. This might be it for him. He was going downhill, and fast.

Discouragement settled in his bones, and he listed sideways, ears ringing. It was becoming a familiar sound. He felt hands on his shoulders and a couple of voices shouting his name, but everything felt blurry and faint and he was so so dizzy. Everything was on fire and he couldn’t think.

He was lowered gently to the ground, and after a few long moments, his hearing and sight slowly returned. Naruto’s face was pressed up close to his, and his blue eyes were filled with tears.

“Please don’t die,” the blond boy wept quietly, “not you too. Not again.”

Kakashi’s heart nearly broke in two.

Not you too…

If he died here, he would be leaving Minato-sensei’s son, the one he sacrificed his own life for, unprotected and alone in this mission and in life. He had already failed his teacher three times- he would not do so a fourth. This team had such a bright future ahead of them and he wanted to be around to see what they would do. That was a new feeling. He felt his spirit revive a little.

“I’m okay, Naruto.” Kakashi said, “M’not dead yet. Just got a bit dizzy.” With every bit of energy he had left, he heaved himself back upright, small hands on his back assisting him.

“How bad, Sensei?”

Sakura expected an honest answer from him now, and no matter how much he wanted to protect her, he couldn’t bring himself to lie again.

“Bad.” his breaths were coming out in short gasps and each syllable was accompanied by a huff, “We need to hurry. No more breaks.”

There were several loud pops, and 3 more pairs of the trademark Namikaze blue eyes were staring down at him anxiously. Naruto wiped his tears away angrily.

“What kind of Hokage would I be if I let my Sensei die?”

Kakashi gave a choked laugh, and accepted the clone’s help. It would be agony for his arms and for his ribs, but if the clones acted as his crutches they would move much faster. He might make it.

“We should go.”

Even Sasuke had sounded worried about him now, Kakashi thought vaguely.

They set off again shortly after, and he was quickly reminded why he had hesitated to accept help earlier. It hurt horribly to have human crutches with broken ribs. But at least they were moving much faster now. He allowed his thoughts to wander- the two Narutos were holding him upright and guiding him. It required little of his attention.

Sasuke sounding worried about him was interesting. It could be a sign of something very good. Maybe his little teamwork lecture the other day actually had some effect on him. It would do the boy a world of good if he could take a look outside himself and his personal desire for revenge. Kakashi recognized now that he had been blinded by a similar darkness for years and all it had left him with was a plethora of constant guilt, nightmares, and pain. Perhaps he could prevent Sasuke from taking a similar path. Stop him from making the same mistakes he had. Often times he found himself aching for the young genin. An orphan prodigy, corrupted by death, afraid of more loss, and purposely alone- sometimes looking at the young Uchiha felt a little too much like looking in a mirror. If he survived this horrible mission he would work with him more attentively, he decided. He would keep taking care of the Fourth’s legacy as well. The two boys had been getting along a little better. Perhaps Naruto could do for Sauske what Gai had done for him. It would do the both of them good.

And Sakura? Once she got over her crush on Sasuke she would be a true force to be reckoned with. He couldn’t train her, he realized some time ago. He would need to find a better teacher for her at some point. Someone who better understood how women worked and someone who knew how to truly harness the strength she kept tightly hidden inside. He hadn’t been joking when he told her she would make a good medic.

But while he had Sakura under his care, he would teach her what he could. How to rely on others, to think tactically, and to respond calmly and evenly. She was getting better at all of them, except the last one. He snorted in amusement.

“You hanging in there, Kaka-Sensei?” The Naruto on his left side asked.

He lifted his head a little from where it was hanging exhaustedly by his chest, “I’m perfectly fine.” he managed to croak out, and the clone scowled at him disbelievingly.

“Yeah right, Sensei.”

He didn’t have the energy to mess around more, and let the comment slide. He had completely lost track of time at this point in his feverish daze, and distantly wondered how much farther it was. It couldn’t be too much longer now. He could sense faint fishiness in the air and feel the water nearby. They were approaching the far side of the lake.

Only a couple more miles.

Most of his weight was leaning on the clones now, and it was all he could do to keep taking small steps to stop his feet from dragging uselessly on the ground. He was going downhill so quickly.

He physically couldn’t do it any longer. His body was shutting down. Chakra exhaustion, the fever, necrosis, he didn’t know anymore.

His legs finally gave out and the sudden weight sent the three of them crashing to the ground in a pile.

He was getting tired of this, he thought as he laid there. He wasn’t going to be able to get back up again this time. He was probably fully in shock now, but he couldn’t bring himself to care anymore. He sighed, staring up at the bright blue sky. Ah well. He’d lived far longer than he’d expected to anyway. They were close enough to the town now that his genin would probably be safe. They’d be fine without him. They’d have to be. The message would get passed on to Konoha and war would be averted this time.

People were touching him all over. He hated when people touched him. He tried to tell them off, but his mouth felt like it was stuffed full of cotton balls.

He wanted to tell them to let him be. To let him go rejoin his team. He had kept them waiting for too long.

He was happy he hadn’t given up without a fight though. He’d made that promise to his father’s grave 20 years ago, and he was proud to have kept it.

Something pricked him sharply in the arm, and he flinched. Several seconds later and a hand pulled down his mask.

Not cool.

He thrashed about angrily as he tried to push the person off. He felt a hand grip his lower jaw, and force foreign things into his mouth. He swallowed reflexively as hands roughly massaged his throat.

He felt someone pull his mask back up over his nose. The fuzziness began to dim almost immediately and he was able to relax a bit. A calming buzzing sound greeted his ears as his hearing came back, and his hands felt cooler and a little less painful.

He wasn’t dead. That was interesting. He blinked his lone eye, and tried to focus. What was going on?

Purple hair and a white porcelain mask filled his vision, and though the world was still swimming he understood right away. They must have been found after he collapsed. They had made it in time after all. He owed Yūgao his life for a fifth time now. He’d have to figure out a way to repay her someday. Maybe ramen. Or his favorite copy of Icha Icha.

“Hound? You back with us?”

He tried to speak, but all that came out was an unintelligible groan. He swallowed again, trying to regain his voice.

“Yeah, yeah. You’ve sure done it this time.” Yūgao sounded a little tense, but not fully panicked. “What were you thinking, running around with broken ribs and 3rd degree burns all over? Idiot.”

“Is he doing okay?”

Unlike Yūgao, Tenzo’s voice sounded extremely panicked. His worry was predicable, but unbecoming of an Anbu Captian. He was a chronic worrier, in fact. But just about him. He’d come so far from the little Root solider who’d tried to stab him back in the day.

“He’s in terrible shape- we got to him just in time. I’ve got him as stable as he’s gonna get.”

“Finish up what you can here,” Tenzo said, “but let’s get him back to base quick. There’s got to be a messy story behind all this and I don’t want to wait around to see if it’s urgent.”

“My team? Tenzo, where’s my team?”

Both Anbu startled at the sound of his sandpaper voice, and their masks swiveled to land on his face.

“How are you still awake?” The purple-haired kunoichi snapped. “You can rest now. We’ve got it.”

“They’re okay, Senpai.” Tenzo was gentler, knowing what Kakashi needed to hear before he allowed unconsciousness to claim him. “Shuto took them back to the base. You’ll be right behind them.”

There was no point in him staying awake any longer then. The darkness that had been calling to him for hours now reached out once more, and Kakashi accepted it willingly. His body relaxed, and he let his head thump down on the grass. Team Ro would take care of the rest.

They were all still alive.

They were finally safe.

A smile, hidden beneath that dark mask, spread across his face and he fell asleep.

end