A/N: Hey, guys, here's the third chapter of "Selective". "Silver Behind Red" is coming along smoothly. I've rearranged some of the chapters and edited a few things. The major plot really won't change, although there will be a forest scene. -evil grin- Let me say that I'm very grateful to Mary B. Wolf, who is writing a spinoff/sequel to "Hunger". I can't wait to see it. It should be out by October (if it's not, it won't be coming, sadly). Thank you, Mary!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Selective
Blood and Actions

We returned to Konoha a month later, after we helped Ke establish himself as the new ruler of the Land of Canyons and took the boulders away from one of the many unused fields. It was dirty work, but surprisingly fun to do, considering there was nonstop music celebrating the new leader and all the little children were handing out sugar cubes. We popped them in our mouths and sucked on them as we worked, and I thought, Life doesn't mean suffering. It's only that way if you make it.

We promised Ke that we'd be back in a year to see how his progress rebuilding was, and then we headed out to return to Konoha.

At last, our mission was over, and we passed in our report to the Hokage with relieved smiles and the promise of hot ramen waiting for us. We went to Teuchi's stand to eat, and then we said our goodbyes, and I wandered home with a soft content sitting in my belly (and no, it was not the ramen). Sasuke hadn't coughed since we'd gotten home. It seemed as though the bamboo sugar had done the trick. I had no trouble falling asleep that night, nor waking up in the morning when Naruto pounded on my door. I rose, got dressed, and finally opened it to allow him, Sasuke, and Sakura inside.

We sat in the living room and chatted for a few minutes before Sasuke got up and excused himself to go to the bathroom. We watched him leave, and then we continued to talk. My thoughts were detached, though, and I kept staring into the wavy plaster of the walls, watching the shadows blend to create various images. There was the face of the Kyuubi, and over there a laughing jackal, and just above that, there was a rose. They melted into each other with liquid friction.

"I can't wait for my next mission," Naruto said. He grinned.

I smiled too, but it broke away almost immediately when I heard a heavy thud coming from the bathroom. My eyes widened a little bit, and we all got up to go see what was wrong.

"Sasuke? Are you okay?" I asked. I was the first to reach the door, and wrenched it open. Then I saw something that made my legs weak. He was lying on the bathroom floor with blood on his hand and on the cuff of his shirt.

"Sasuke!" I knelt down beside him and rolled him over so that he might be able to breathe. We couldn't all fit in the small space, so while Sakura and Naruto tried to push past each other, I gently slapped Sasuke's cheeks in an effort to get him to come to. His chest heaved awkwardly, and then he rolled over and coughed up blood all over my arm, the one that was supporting his shoulder.

"Sakura?" I called nervously. I couldn't tear my eyes away from his red chin. The bloodstain on his white shirt was spreading and causing the fabric to stick to his skin, and I could see his eyes were misty and dilated. He was delirious and unresponsive to my voice or to the fact that I was shaking him in my arms to try to get him to come out of it. I choked on Sakura's name. This blood smelled so tainted that it made my eyes water. It was an undiluted version of the sickly stench that had been on his breath in the Land of Canyons.

Naruto finally let Sakura pass, and she immediately dropped to her knees to get a better look. She pushed me out of the way, and I sat, stunned, against the toilet.

After a quick assessment, she said, "I'm about to use a forbidden jutsu." Pulling a kunai from her pack, she sliced open Sasuke's shirt and placed her bare hands over the hollow of his ribcage. Her palms glowed sage green with her healing chakra, and then she pressed it into his body.

Sasuke gave a shudder and then rolled over again, heaving up mouthfuls of blood onto the bathroom floor.

"We have to get him to the hospital, now," Sakura said. She grabbed his shoulder to make him stand. I stood too, and he fell back against me. I caught him under the arms and hoisted him upright, hooking one arm underneath his shoulders and the other beneath his knees. He was just conscious enough to be able to hold his head against my upper arm, but every once in a while he would cough, and I could feel the wetness on my shirt.

We rushed to the emergency room. Naruto quickly checked us in once we reached the hospital, but when the secretary saw whom I was carrying in my arms and what exactly we were both covered in, she quickly punched in a few numbers on her office phone and had the intercom buzzing away with her voice in a matter of seconds.

"Please get Tsunade-sama to emergency room number seven as quickly as possible."

Sakura waved Naruto and I down the hall and to a small room marked "ER7". There, she held open the door so I could sidestep inside. I set Sasuke quickly down on the bed and then stepped back to allow Sakura to hook him up to an oxygen mask. My hands shook as I stared at them. I peeled off my gloves, which were soaking wet, and dropped them to the floor as though they were burning me. But my hands were still stained, like I had stuck them elbow-deep into a massive wound.

Not a moment later, Tsunade burst into the room. She looked at Sasuke, then at me, and ordered me to sit down immediately. I did, still staring at my hands, and then she turned to Sakura for a briefing.

Sakura quickly explained the situation, and then Tsunade slowly turned to look at Sasuke again.

"You did use that jumpstarting jutsu I taught you?" she asked. Sakura nodded. "Good."

Tsunade brought chakra to her hand and placed it over Sasuke's chest, but unlike Sakura, she didn't press it in. She held it there, and then after a few moments, pulled it back.

"Naruto, leave," she ordered.

"Tsunade-baachan…" Naruto began, but she whirled around and cut him off.

"Leave now, Naruto! Kakashi, get yourself cleaned up. Sakura, go get Shizune and one other medic. You're not going to be taking part in this surgery. You're too emotionally attached to him."

"What?" Sakura whispered.

"Believe me, I know first hand what it's like when you're attached to someone and you lose them during a surgery you perform. I won't allow it to happen to you. Now get going!" Turning her back, Tsunade pulled Sasuke's bed to the center of the room as I got to my unsteady feet and went quietly for the door. Naruto and Sakura were both struck dumb, so I hesitantly grabbed their wrists to drag them with me. My gloves remained unnoticed on the floor. Only Naruto resisted.

"You think Sasuke's gonna die?" he asked Tsunade. She didn't look at him. She didn't dare.

I gave another tug on Naruto's wrist, and he followed me out the door. We left the hospital together in a fearful silence, and then, with evening coming on, we went our separate ways.

I rocketed towards my apartment and ran to the bathroom, not quite knowing what to do. I couldn't stop shaking. Everything was covered in blood. I was afraid to perform a summoning jutsu because that would require biting my thumb and at this point, I didn't want to put it in my mouth, but I closed my eyes anyway and did it.

Pakkun burst into the room in a puff of smoke to find me spitting into the sink.

"Kakashi? It reeks in here! What happened? Why is there blood all over the place?" he asked. He took a tentative step towards me, concern contorting the wrinkles of his face. "Are you wounded? Why did you summon me?"

"Sasuke was coughing it up," I said. My mouth was drying out and my throat was contracting. "I'm going to be sick," I murmured, and pushed past him to vomit into the toilet. "I need your help cleaning up," I said. My face was still in the confines of the bowl just in case I had to throw up again. "I can't deal with the smell and I have to get this fucking blood off of me!" I was almost freaking out at this point, realizing the extent of what was going on.

Pakkun noticed. He said, trying to get me to calm down, "I'll need some help, though."

"I am not biting my thumb again, Pakkun!" I snapped.

"Right," Pakkun said. "I'll get them then."

For a moment, he burst into a puff of smoke, and then he solidified again with Zeki and Jenou by his side. They each had rags in their mouths.

"You get yourself showered, boss," Jenou said. His long floppy ears were pinched forward in worry. "We can take care of things here."

"Yeah, leave it to us," Zeki said. He dropped the rag and started scrubbing the floor back and forth with his paw.

I pulled myself up and turned on the shower, then undressed, squeezing my eyes shut as I felt the blood on my shirt slide over my face. I choked on a sob once, and Zeki came and nudged me with his nose to comfort me. I refused to rub the tangled patch of fur on top of his head like I normally would. I didn't want to get it dirty. Instead I gave him a reassuring smile and stepped into the tub under the spray.

My mouth tasted sour as I scrubbed mercilessly at my skin with the sponge. I lathered up twice, anxious to be clean, and then when I shut off the shower, I toweled off and stepped out to brush my teeth. Pakkun was busy rubbing the last of the blood on the floor away. My clothes were gone. I had seen Zeki take them, and Jenou was nowhere in sight.

"They're both in the living room with Sakura," Pakkun said in explanation. My gaze shot down to him.

"Sakura?" I asked.

"Yep. She knocked on the door after your first rinse," he said. "Jenou opened it for her."

"I have no clothes on!" I snapped. Then color flared to my face because I realized how loud I'd been.

I heard Zeki bark in surprise and then rush into my bedroom. I leaned back against the wall with a heavy sigh. "Great," I muttered. "My student is in the hospital, I'm pulling a Tsunade over some blood, and Sakura's in my living room while I have no clothes on in the bathroom. Perfect."

Zeki scratched at the door and I opened it just enough so he could toss me a sweatshirt and some pants. "Thanks," I said, and shut it again. I pulled it all on as fast as I could, remembered with a whispered curse that I didn't have a mask, and then opened the bathroom door wide to join Sakura in the living room. I would have told the dogs to leave, but at that point, I just wanted them there for some moral support.

It was unnerving to see Sakura there, leaning forward on her elbows with her hands clasped. She was staring at a rusted stain on the carpet, but her eyes were glazed and unfocused. Jenou, sitting next to her, looked very unhappy.

"Is Sasuke…?" I asked. Sakura snapped to attention, and looked up at me. She had her eyes trained on my face as she spoke.

"I checked in on him a little while ago. His x-rays aren't promising, but he's fine for now. He's sleeping." At last, she managed to tear her gaze away and looked back to the floor.

"What does 'for now' mean?"

"The next few weeks will be rocky." Her voice was shaking.

"Sakura, I…"

"You what?" she snapped, causing Jenou to jump off the couch. "What, Kakashi-sensei?"

"Nothing." I sighed heavily and sat down beside her. "Or… I'm sorry, I guess. But there's nothing I can do."

There was a long silence. I watched Pakkun come out of the bathroom and head into my room to dump the rag in the hamper.

"What did his breath smell like?" Sakura asked suddenly. The question was slow, the words carefully picked. I looked over at her. Her hands trembled, and she was sniffling back tears.

"Sour," I said.

She jumped up off the couch and glared at me. "What the fuck does that mean: 'sour'?" she shouted.

I stood, too. "Don't yell at me, Sakura," I said, though I was shouting as well. "It smelled sour. It was a while ago. Sour is all I remember. Like he hadn't brushed his teeth in a while. Like a cold."

"Liar!" I glared at her, but I said nothing. She stamped her foot and raised her hand to slap me, but I caught her by the forearm. I could feel the surge of chakra dissipate, and stared at her hand in shock.

"You could kill me that way," I said. "I thought Tsunade taught you control."

"Like you never did," she seethed. She pulled away from me and took a few steps back. "You're a damned liar, Kakashi-sensei."

"Why?" I asked.

"Why?" she said, turning her back. "You haven't been in ER7 yet. It's the smell of blood and vomit mixed together." She turned around again. "Blood and vomit does not smell like a cold!"

I stiffened, and in stiffening, I gave something away to her that she pounced on.

"What?" she asked.

I said nothing.

She took a step towards me, threatening me. "What?" she asked again.

I looked away. My breath was speeding up. What had I done? I could have prevented this from the start! Instead, I ignored it until it was almost too late—and at this point, who knew if it was already?

"What?" she kept asking. "What? Tell me!" The dogs were sitting at the far wall, watching the exchange closely.

I looked from them to her. She must have seen the fear on my face, for her eyes widened, and she raised her hand to slap me again. I let her. The sting ripped up through my skin. I thought my eye might explode. Yes—there was definitely chakra behind that slap.

"Damn you!" she snarled, raising the other hand. I caught it, just in time.

"Once is enough," I said.

"You killed him!" she said. "You killed him—God damn you!" I let her go, and she took a few steps away from me. "Don't speak to me again! Don't even come near me! Otherwise… It's your fault he's…" She didn't finish her thought. Instead, she ran out the door and slammed it shut behind her.

I stared after her and sighed a little. My cheek throbbed. I went into the kitchen to get some ice, and when Zeki nudged me this time, I fell to a crouch and let him slobber all over my face.