Chapter 9: Save Yourself

I'm alive. Was the first thing Kakashi thought when he regained consciousness. All around him he could see dust clouds slowly settling, and huge pieces of earth and brick lying around him. Kakashi was dangerously close to passing out again, but he knew he needed to move quickly. Two explosions was more than enough to draw the attention of the rogue ninja at the abandoned island, and if Orochimaru was there he wouldn't hesitate to drop everything and send a team to check on the hideout. Kakashi couldn't afford to wait. He had to quickly meet up with the team and retreat.

Kakashi managed to slowly drag himself to his feet only to topple back down again. It was then for the first time that he realized he couldn't feel his left leg at all. He quickly assessed the rest of his physical condition, avoiding looking at his left leg. The worst injury he sustained was a broken right arm. Other than that he was full of lots of cuts and bruises.

Kakashi cautiously looked down to his left leg, praying that it was still there. To his relief his leg was still there, however a deep laceration left his bone visible, and he was sure some of the nerves had been damaged, which would explain why he couldn't feel it. Sighing in relief Kakashi quickly bandaged the wound and willed his body to move forward.

Kakashi painfully made his way towards the west wing. He had to make sure Sai was ok, and then the both of them needed to retreat. Kakashi wasn't sure how long he had been unconscious but at most, he figured they had about twenty minutes before they would be discovered.

Upon reaching the west wing Kakashi found a similar scene to the one he just escaped from. Huge chunks of earth, brick, and splintered wood was littering the landscape, and a huge hole had been blasted through the roof connecting them to the surface. Kakashi found an unconscious Sai lying underneath a pile of rubble. He was just able to dig him out when he head a cry from above. "Kakashi sensei! What happened? Are you ok?"

Kakashi breathed another sigh of relief. The rest of the team was jumping through the hole to help him. Sakura quickly ran over to Kakashi and began healing his leg injury, while Tenten and Guy checked on Sai. "Kakashi sensei what happened?" asked Sakura.

"I heard an explosion from the west wing so I hurried over to check on Sai, but then I got caught in a room full of paper bombs and it exploded before I could dodge." Kakashi replied. "How is everyone else?"

"They are fine. Guy and Sasuke managed to finish their wings and were helping Naruto finish his investigation. You know how careless he can be. Anyway, they heard the explosion and joined us outside since they figured the enemy would have heard it and come after us." Sakura answered.

"No other injuries though?" Kakashi asked.

"No, everyone is fine." She answered.

Kakashi felt a weight lifted off his shoulders, until he saw the concerned look on Sakura's face. "What is it?" he asked.

"Kakashi sensei. I know we need to get out of here soon, but if I don't perform surgery on your leg soon you will lose it completely. We can't move you in your current condition." She solemnly answered.

Kakashi was prepared for bad news, but this was a little more than he was expecting. After a brief pause to collect himself he said, "That is a risk we are going to have to take. We need to get out of here now before we are discovered. Naruto, I want you to take care of Sai. The rest of us need to move out. If we are attacked I want you to leave me behind and get away. Make your way to the Cloud village and send word to Lady Hokage." A loud roar of protests erupted but Kakashi quickly silenced them. "Idiots, we don't need to give the enemy any more clues to our presence. Now let's get going!" With that said everyone leapt through the hold back out into the forest. Naruto carried the unconscious Sai on his back while Guy supported Kakashi.

They had run for about ten minutes when suddenly they were ambushed by a large group of ninjas. "We can handle this Kakashi sensei." Naruto yelled as he flung the unconscious Sai into Sakura's arms. We will fight off this group, you keep going Kakashi sensei.

"No! You get out of here. I will hold them off as long as I can. You must get word back to Lady Hokage!" Kakashi ordered back.

"But sensei!" whined Naruto, Lee, and Sakura together. "You are in no condition to fight let us stay and…"

"Go!" yelled Kakashi.

"Don't worry I will be right here with Kakashi. We will make it back." Guy smiled and gave his trademark thumbs up. With reluctant glances back the rest of the team headed off once again leaving Guy and the injured Kakashi behind. "Guy this goes for you too. If things get out of hand here I want you to leave me and catch up with the rest."

"Keep your shirt on Kakashi. Have a little faith in my why don't you?" Guy smirked back. "I refuse to be outclassed by my rival."

A giant shuriken came flying at the pair which both expertly dodged. Despite his injury, Kakashi was able to ignore the pain and focus on the fight. Waves of kunai and shuriken kept raining down on Kakashi, each of which he managed to dodge. I will not be able to keep this up much longer, thought Kakashi. I need to finish this now and let Guy escape. "What do you think about just calling it a draw between us? Neither of us has managed to injure the other side. Instead of pointlessly continuing how about you fellas just let us go on our way?" asked Kakashi.

"Hmph. As if we would let Kakashi the Copy Ninja get away from us. Do you know how valuable your head is? We could make a fortune off of killing you."

"Oh, little old me can't really be worth that much. Come on guys, lets just call it quits now." Kakashi negotiated.

"Hah! You talk big but we can see that you are already half bled dry already." Scoffed one of the rogue-nin.

It was true. Kakashi felt extremely weak due to the blood loss but he wasn't about to let the enemy know that. He had to finish it, now! "Don't say I didn't try." Kakashi raised his broken right arm into the air. "Lightning blade!" His whole arm was engulfed in his chakra and he poised himself, ready for his final blow. Kakashi charged right into the enemy lines, taking out three ninja as he ran. The fourth ninja he took down, managed to stab Kakashi with his kunai just before falling to the ground dead. Kakashi's leg gave out on him and as he sunk to the ground he yelled, "Guy, Run!"

Guy took down two more ninjas before he managed to tear himself away from Kakashi and get away. Go Guy, Kakashi thought. This is the end for me, but you must protect the rest. Darkness was starting to close in around Kakashi as he was able to make out the remaining ninja closing in on him. Rin. Obito. Sensei. Did I do the right thing? Kakashi thought as he slipped further into darkness.

As the last bits of light we fading from his eyes, Kakashi was just able to make out a hooded ninja slaying his approaching enemies before they made their way over to him. With one last breath he managed to get out, "Yue" before the darkness took him.