Disclaimer: I don't own naruto.

Oh and one more thing to note: Kakashi is 31, the rookie nine are 17, and team Gai are 18. Sasaki Lina is 29. Please don't dispute the numbers, I got them from Naruto wikia, and just added the differences. Also: Sasuke is back, but the Pain arc is still going to happen, as is the rest of the stuff not involving Sasuke (including Shinobi Alliance arc! can't wait to see how that turns out). I'll make the necessary changes to story line, but whoever dies/gets injured in the original will remain so in my story (except the OC character cuz...well, she's OC, what do you expect?) So basically, this begins in the Tsuchigumo Kinjutsu Arc in the anime (eps 144-151). Enjoy!

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Chapter 4

Lina woke up several hours after Kakashi had brought her to the hospital. Opening her eyes, she only saw pitch black around her for a while before her eyes adjusted. Through the moonlight streaming in from the window in her room, she could make out a faint outline of a person sleeping in a chair beside her bed. She saw a faint glint of silver, but before she could see much more, a wave of drowsiness washed over her and she fell back asleep. The next day, Lina woke up to a nurse busying over her. Looking over to the chair that was beside her, she found it empty. 'Was it a dream?'

"Sasaki-san, how are you feeling today? Any lightheadedness, nausea?" the nurse cheerily asked.

"I'm fine, just a little sleepy. Where am I?"

"You're in the Konoha Hospital. You gave us quite a shock when Hatake-san brought you in yesterday. You really should be more careful with your body, such a small girl shouldn't use up her energy so quickly. What would your parents say?"

"Hatake...-san?" Lina ignored the rest of the speech and focused on the one thing that made her heart twist.

"Oh yes. Hatake-san ran into the hospital yelling for Shizune-sama to heal you. He seemed quite worried. In fact, he was here all last night, sitting in that very chair! He just left about an hour ago, but he said he'd be back later." the nurse informed Lina while adjusting the blankets around her.

A soft knock on the door revealed a fair-skinned woman of average height and slender build with black eyes and straight shoulder-length hair. "I see you've woken up. My name is Shizune, I'm a medic-nin. How are you feeling?" Shizune asked Lina.

"I'm doing fine, thank you for treating me so kindly without knowing who I am." Lina said gratefully.

"Well, Kakashi-san did look worried. In fact, he should be here in a couple of minutes, I saw him downstairs. Why don't we wait so that we can all talk? There are a couple of things I'd like to ask you, and I'm sure Kakashi-san has some questions as well." With that, the two ladies sat in silence. Thankfully, the silence was short, as Kakashi walked right into the room holding a beautiful red and white carnation wrapped in plastic*. Seeing Lina awake, he visibly relaxed, placing the flower in a vase next to the bed and coming around to sit on his original seat.

"I see you're feeling better. I guess I wasn't needed after all." Kakashi spoke aloofly yet not unkindly. He nodded to Shizune and looked at Lina.

"Hey, Kakashi-san. I heard you berated the nurses to give me the best care huh? I'm surprised you worried so much." Lina teased, obviously thinking she was exaggerating the facts, when in actuality she wasn't. For a moment, Kakashi looked shocked ('Did Shizune tell her that?'), but quickly composed himself. "Hn. Well, looks like you're all good here. Guess I can go now." He turned to leave.

"Hang on, Kakashi-san. I would like you to stay while I ask her some questions." Shizune spoke.

Kakashi sat back down and pulled out his Icha Icha book (to which Lina raised an eyebrow) as Shizune began asking/interviewing/interrogating Lina about who she was, why she had been gone so long, how long she was planning to stay, etc. Reluctant to give out the full details, Lina only told the basic outline of her story, leaving out the details regarding Souta, Hanaki, Aoi, and the scene at the cave. As more questions came, Kakashi put down his book, and listened in interest. Obviously, as an ex-ANBU, he knew that Lina was hiding something, but figured that she wasn't about to tell them anything in such a public environment. 'That's fine. She'll tell the Hokage. No one can keep anything a secret from that woman.'

"So let me get this straight: You are a chunin who left Konoha 12 years ago, supposedly on leave for a year and then fled, travelling across the 5 nations? How on earth is that possible? You're a chunin! It's unheard of that a chunin could survive so long out there. You're name is Sasaki, so you have the Kekkei Genkai to control water-based disasters, so of course you're strong but still! Oh, just wait till Tsunade-sama hears about this, she's going to freak! The last of the Sasaki Clan is actually alive!" Shizune murmured the last part of her speech to herself, not realizing that Lina had no idea what she was talking about. Hearing this, Lina swiveled her head and gaped.

"What? The last of the Sasaki clan...what are you talk about?! Kakashi-san, what's she talking about? My family was the last of the Sasaki clan. My parents, my sister and brother, my grandparents, what happened?!" Lina started shaking, and Shizune and Kakashi had to hold her down as she started convulsing.

"Calm down, breathe! Damn it, she's losing herself, we need a sedative, now!" Shizune yelled for a medic to plunge a large needle into Lina's leg. Instantly, she relaxed and sank into the bed, sound alseep. Shizune sighed. "I wish I didn't have to do that, especially after she'd just woken up. But I guess it can't be helped. She's going to be restrained until we can get Ibiki and Inoichi down here to check her out."

"Wait, what? You're going to let that sadist interrogate her? Isn't that a little harsh? Look at her, she's just traumatized cuz you told her her family's dead. Well, you didn't actually tell her that, but from an outsider's perspective that's what it sounded like, no wonder she went nuts." Kakashi protested, knowing that Morino Ibiki would have quite a bit of enjoyment torturing the girl, and despite her power in battle, he wasn't sure she'd be able to handle the psychological trauma.

"Hey, I'm not saying they're going to interrogate her like a criminal! But they ARE our best intelligence gathering jonin, and Ibiki is also very good as a psychologist, so don't you think him checking her out to make sure she's stable is a good idea? I mean, if she needs therapy, he'd be the one to administer it anyway." Shizune defended.

"No. No Ibiki, and no Inoichi. I have nothing against either of them in battle, but Kami knows that they're methods are far too rough for a girl, especially one in her situation." Kakashi stood his ground, unwavering as Shizune scrunched her eyebrows in thought. "What?"

"Well, I'm just thinking. Why are you being so protective of this girl? You don't know her. And even if you claim that it's for Tenten's sake, which I doubt you would, you normally aren't even remotely close to being this agitated. Aren't you the one who's known for being stealthy and staying in the background? Aren't you the one who prefers to watch things play out rather than actually do something? Aren't you the one who always listens and talks later? What's different now? Is it the girl?"

"Fine fine, I get it, I'm the one! I just...I just don't want to see a beautiful flower go to waste. You know much I appreciate beautiful women. She may not look like much now, but you should have seen her in battle. She was amazing. I don't want that to disappear because we thought we needed to interrogate her for no reasion."

"Whatever. Wait, hang on. How old is she?" Shizune looked down at the girl. "What, 16? Kakashi, you pervert! Don't go getting any ideas in that giant sick brain of yours. Just because you read Icha Icha doesn't mean you can actually go and DO any of those things, especially not to a girl like her! She's jail-bait dammit!" Shizune whacked Kakashi over the head with Lina's medical chart with a resounding 'smack'.

"OW! Hey hey, stop it! I'm not that stupid, ok? And for your information, this 'little girl' here is actually 29! So see? Even if I had any inappropriate thoughts, they wouldn't be all that inappropriate, considering she's only a few years younger than me. But I'll have you know that I'm NOT having any weird thoughts. I may be a pervert, but even I have some standards-OW!" A scroll came flying in from the window and Kakashi turned to see Tenten standing furiously inside the room. Slightly behind her stood Neji, arms folded across his chest as always.

"What's wrong with nee-chan? Why don't you think she's good enough for you? I'll have you know she is 10 times better than any woman you will ever meet, anywhere! She's adorable, strong, maybe not book smart but definitely has good instincts, and even if she's a bit of a spazz she's got a heart of gold and-"

"ENOUGH! We're bothering Sasaki-san's rest! Everyone, out!" Shizune pointed to the door and glared at all the standing occupants. In single file, they all walked out to the hallway, where they decided to live and let live and part ways. Kakashi walked out of the hospital, picked up a serving of Ichiraku's miso ramen with eggplant and broiled saury, and slowly made his way home, while Tenten and Neji went off to practice for a few hours before he walked her home and kissed her goodnight (awww).

line

The following day, Lina awoke with a lot of questions and no one to answer them. Deciding she was fine, despite having suffered serious injuries from a battle just 2 days ago, she took out her IV tubes and climbed out of bed. It seemed her legs were fine, if a little shaky, but otherwise uninjured. Reaching the door, she swung it open, and crashed her face smack into someone's flak jacket. "Ow!" Rubbing her nose, she looked up to see Kakashi looking down at her in mild amusement.

"Going somewhere?"

"Yeah, I'm getting out of here. Why are you standing outside my door?" standing her ground, Lina refused to budge despite the close proximity. Of course, Kakashi didn't even seem to notice it, so he didn't move either.

"I was going to come see you. But I guess if you're all better there's no need." And so they stood, talking (well, arguing is more like it) about 3 inches apart from each other. Finally, Lina caved and walked back to the bed, partially because her legs were starting to shake pretty badly and she didn't want to have to fall into some stranger's arms. 'Because despite how nice he is, Kakashi is still a stranger. I know nothing about him. Get a grip.'

"Well, this has been fun, and as much as I would love to stay and argue with you over my intentions and why or why not it's appropriate to stay outside of a room, I really must get going. Later." Kakashi turned to leave.

"Wait. Erm..." Here Lina squirmed, looking a little uncomfortable in the silence that had fallen. "Thanks. You know, for bringing me here and all. And for helping out back in the forest. You didn't know me, and you could have just left me out there. So...thanks." She looked away and tried to focus her attention on something, anything. When Kakashi didn't break the silence, she half-heartedly joked, "But I guess you couldn't exactly ignore me in front of Tenten without looking like a bad guy hu-"

"You know," Kakashi had some how moved right beside her bed and was speaking directly in her ear. 'When did he...?' "It's incredibly rude to not say thank you directly to a person's face." Kakashi's soft voice and breath through his mask was making Lina's neck hairs tickle, making her stutter and stammer for a few moments before he let out a chuckle and straightened up and said "Maa maa. You're right, I couldn't have ignored you without looking bad. But also, I would never let a fellow Konoha comrade die in front of me if I could help it. So you can forget about it." He walked out of the room, leaving Lina to calm herself and try, TRY not to think about his voice in her ear, how close he was, if she had just turned she could have kis- "GAAHHH! No! Bad Lina, bad Lina! Stop it stop it!" Seemingly out of nowhere, Lina started smacking her forehead and yelling. While kissing a mask didn't exactly appeal to her, the thought of what lay underneath was enough to make her face steam. A nurse quickly came in and worriedly asked "Sasaki-san, are you alright? Would you like me to call Shizune-sama?"

"No, that's fine. But, when can I get out of here?" Despite not minding the hospital, Lina had a distinct feeling that she had forgotten something important, and she wanted to know what. That, and she REALLY needed to have sex. Meaningless, animalistic, sex. Anything to get her mind off what just happened.

"I'd say tomorrow afternoon, you should be good as new." With that, the nurse left the room, closing the door behind her. 'Well, she SEEMS to be doing better. At least she isn't going nuts, but what was that just now? Oh well, I guess it's a good thing that she's forgotten about 'losing' her family. Poor girl, if I'd found out my family was gone, I'd go crazy too. But thankfully that's not true for either of our cases. Oh, I hope Shizune-sama or the Hokage tells her soon.'

-end-

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*I read somewhere that carnations mean wellness? If i'm wrong sorry about that, but just substitute whichever flower means get well soon :)

A/N: Ok, so this chapter was super boring I know, but I had to get the hospital scene and some more intros out of the way. I promise, after this chapter it'll get better. See? I put in some steaminess towards the end! I'm sorry...I know it's bad. It'll get better. I already have all the steamy/fluffy scenes written, and I know where the story is headed and the steps to get there, it's just the in between boring stuff I gotta write. Forgive me?

Ohh and please review! I'd love to hear your input. Do you think Sasaki Lina is too Mary-Sue? I tried to make her as normal as I could, but it's always possible that I made things worse. How's my writing style? Is there a side story you'd like me to put in? (here are some of the ones I support: NejiTen, SakuSasu, NaruHina, ShizuGai, AsuKurenai, ShikaTem, ShikaIno, InoCho, GaaMatsuri, RaidouGenma, KankuKiba, and although I really do love KakaIru, I won't put it in for obvious reasons) But yeah, please review! 3