Catching Up – Chapter 10

Kurai-Hisaki

Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.

The air hung moist and heavy as one of Kakashi's eyes slid open. He had wished to be by Sakura's side and stayed there overnights regardless of the nurses telling him to leave. As hard as they tried, none of them could deny his request. Whenever Sakura made a small gasp or noise, he would snap his head up to look at her – in hopes that she woke up. Throughout the night, he could only feel his hope slowly slipping away.

He hated the hospital. He hated the smell; he hated the atmosphere of tiredness and death. He hated everything about it – the hopelessness and the sadness. He would never come here even if he had a giant hole through his stomach. Nevertheless this was Sakura and he continued to sit by her.

This occurred over three days and he never left her side. Naruto and Sasuke occasionally stopped by to visit her and to give him food. More than once they told him to go get some rest at home, or to get freshened up, but he refused to leave. At this point, even Naruto knew that something happened between Kakashi and Sakura, but he wasn't about to say anything about it at the moment. He figured that he will ask Sasuke what happened since he was there at the start of all this. He also figured that something was up with Sakura for this to happen to her. She was usually so strong and as a medic, she would never let herself fall ill this way.

It was only when Tsunade came in to check up on Sakura, did Kakashi leave her side to stand outside the room. After her checkups, she informed the jounin that something was preventing her from healing. It was like her chakra channels had been blocked off internally, so there's nothing they could do to wake her. The only thing they can do is hope for Sakura to be strong enough to heal herself enough to wake up. Her condition was stable in terms of her pulse, temperature and colours, but whether she can wake up or not, is up to her.

During these times, Tsunade would pat Kakashi on the shoulder while he sat by her. As much as she knew that he cared about her, she also knew that he needed his own health.

"Hatake, get cleaned up – you look like shit. You wouldn't want Sakura to worry about you when she wakes up, only to find you half dead."

Kakashi could ignore other's people's orders, but as much as he would like to stay by Sakura's side, this was one order that he can't ignore. He supposed that she was right anyways – as usual. He gave a sad smile as he thought to himself 'like teacher, like apprentice – always so demanding.' But he knew that they were both only looking out for him on the inside. He also knew that to a common bystander, he looked the same as he always did – a mask and messy hair, but he felt like a mess inside and was sure that his close comrades could see that. The one time that he went back to his apartment was to take a quick shower. Looking in the mirror, he could see darker circles under his eyes and his chin started to itch from not being shaved in a couple of days. He cleaned himself up and rushed straight back to the hospital in less than 15 minutes.

He continued to sit by her wordlessly. He didn't have comforting and encouraging words to say. What could he say? He had never been given the opportunity to sit beside a comrade in a hospital before – however, he sat glancing at her every now and then – hoping that he would see her emerald eyes.

It was around early morning when Sakura started to cough heavily and this alarmed Kakashi. She had never coughed continually like this throughout the night, and her breathing quickened. He instantly went to call the nearest nurse, and when he came back he saw that she started coughing out a dark liquid.

Blood.

The nurse quickly went to work as more nurses were alarmed and called into the room. In the distressed and busy atmosphere, the silver-haired ninja only found that he was in the way. Eventually one of the nurses pushed him out of the room and he found himself alone in the empty hallway. His acute hearing picked up on a noise that occurred inside the room.

Kakashi never knew that such a simple and small sound could cause him such distress.

It was a simple flat line buzz that rang throughout the room in a continuous wave.

His gloved hands instantly reached for the doorknob, but the door flew opened before he made contact with it. A second passed as a stretcher was wheeled out of the room. Words like 'emergency, contact the Godaime' and a whole bunch of medic terms reached his ears. But the one phrase that stood out the most was 'heart stopped.'

Hearing this phrase made his own heart stop.

This couldn't be happening…

He stood there watching the group's backs as they rushed the stretcher around a corner.

He heard Tsunade's voice as she ran down the hall after the nurses towards the Emergency Units.

"Don't just stand there Hatake."

What else could he do? He wasn't trained in healing, was there nothing he can do for Sakura? The feeling of hopelessness and uselessness rushed back to him and to the scene when Obito had died. He can't let this happen again, he wasn't strong enough to deal with the same guilt twice.

He heard his own footsteps taking him towards where Sakura had went. When he got there, he found that the blinds were closed and calmed voices talked in a rapid pace to each other behind the door. He knew that he shouldn't go in there but his hands and feet didn't listen to his mind.

Opening the door, he saw the nurses making reports and using their chakra to heal her internal injuries. Voices and commands drifted to his ears as he stood hear the door. No one cared whether he was there or not, they were all trying to heal their head medic, comrade and friend.

"It's not working! Her body isn't responding to our chakra. Something's attacking on the inside and she doesn't have the chakra to fight it off!"

"Try another portal, there's got to be a way to get in there."

"Her heart is not responding!"

"She's losing heat – her temperature is dropping!"

"How is her chakra not helping her? It's like she doesn't want to be healed."

"Inject this in her to open a portal, you have to try! Don't give up."

"Hai!"

No… you can't do this to me, Sakura…

Kakashi's hushed voice whispered repeatedly to himself, "Sakura, you can't do this to me…"

Beep.

"Portal opened! One heart beat!"

"She's not accepting our chakra! It's like there's something in her body trying to force our chakra back out."

The vision of lifeless emerald eyes and deathly pale skin returned to Kakashi and suddenly, he wasn't sure if he was shaking because of fear or anger. He couldn't save her. He couldn't save another comrade, teammate, and friend – possibly the person he was going to spend the rest of his life with. What good was he? He couldn't do anything for her.

"Hatake, get over here."

Kakashi's eyes snapped up to meet the Godaime's honeyed ones.

"What's your blood type?"

Dumbfounded, he replied with a confused answer. "What?"

"Blood type, Hatake, hurry!"

The wheels in his brain started turning and he quickly answered, "O."

The moment that alphabet left his lips, several pairs of eyes were on him. Two nurses hurriedly dragged him out the door. When he came back, he was a bag or two short on blood. They hooked the red liquid beside Sakura's stretcher and started to hook her up with it.

After that, they followed the red liquid with their chakra.

"Her body is opening up for the blood, get the chakra in!"

Tsunade stepped back from Sakura and wondered out loud.

"What's happening? Why is her body only accepting the blood and not our chakra?"

Kakashi looked over to Sakura. Her lips were pale and her cheeks were no longer pink. Blood was matted to her hair.

"No… Sakura… wake up…"

Before he realized what he was doing, his feet took him to the side of the bed.

Beep.

By now, the medics had stepped back and rather than pumping in useless chakra – it was only tiring them out and the chakra only burned the skin. They tried to figure out another method to speed up her heart beat to its normal pace. She jolted as she coughed lifelessly

"Don't give up, Sakura!"

Beep. Beep.

Quick clicks of Tsunade's heel could be heard as she rushed over to Kakashi.

"Hatake, activate your Sharingan and copy this."

Not surprised of being confused anymore, he lifted his headband, activated his Sharingan and watched the blonde force a steady stream of chakra into Sakura through any openings that she had, to the inside of her body. The Sharingan spun as he observed the portals being opened and the level of chakra being pushed in. He also saw where the Godaime's chakra stopped and where it was being blocked. His eyes widened as he realized what the Godaime wanted him to do and he quickly shook his head.

"I can't do that, you know I can't. I have not been trained in any medical ninjutsu, I will not put Sakura's life in more risk than it already is!"

"Give yourself more credit! You can do this! I trust you whole heartedly that you won't let Sakura die."

"Tsunade-sama, I can't –"

"Do it! She will die if you don't! Her body isn't accepting anything we are giving her except your blood; perhaps she'll accept your chakra too. We don't have time!"

With shaky hands, Kakashi placed his gloved hands over her chest. His breathing laboured as he tried his hardest to focus his chakra.

Beep. Beep.

"You can do it. Her heart rate sped up just knowing that you were here, you can do this. You aren't the copy-ninja for nothing. You have to get your chakra to the place where mine was being rejected by her body!"

Kakashi tried to reassure himself that he could do this. One wrong move and he could damage her heart completely – his chakra can be pushed up the wrong portal and crush her heart. A too strong stream will burst the portal, yet one that's not strong enough won't do her any good. Perspiration formed on his forehead as he started to push the chakra through her.

Don't die on me Sakura, please!

He knew that if she died by his hands, he will die too – he would make sure of it. A soft blue glow surrounded his hands as his chakra moulded around her organs. He couldn't believe the irony of this.

Hatake Kakashi, the former Anbu who had killed thousands with his ninjutsu, is now healing a medic with those very same hands that he had killed with.

Kakashi also never knew that such a small and simple sound coming from the same machine could bring him such relief.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

"Tsunade-sama! Her heart rate! The chakra is being accepted."

"How is this possible?"

Kakashi could only stare back at her.

"Hatake, you are a wonder."

He kept on giving her chakra until he was told to stop and when he did – he collapsed on the floor beside her bed. He just sat there shaking. He knew that the world could see him at his weakest right now, and he couldn't give a care in the world. He just couldn't think about anything, except for the steady beeps on the machine. He had done it; he had done something for her – the impossible.

I brought her back.

How was it? Too un-real? I know that it was a little out of the ordinary, but I felt like I liked Kakashi's character in this chapter.

I had to do research about blood types to know that Kakashi and Sakura both had type O – therefore they could donate to each other (lots of stuff can be explained by the positive and negative types, but I don't want to go into biology here since I suck at science.)

Sorry for the long wait!

Hope you all liked it!