Here I go again... next chap up. Well, in here you'll find the answer to what's going on with Honoka. I'd bet that some of you already guessed... :D

Like always: please enjoy and pretty please leave some reviews.

He feared that she wouldn't make it; her state was slowly getting worse. As they reached the ocean she get fever, and nearly all wounds were infected.
"Sakura would be really necessary now." He mumbled.
"How's she doing?" Kiba asked him.
"Not really well…" Kakashi looked concerned down on her. "Not really well…"
As they finally reached mainland again they hurried back to the village hidden in the Leafs as fast as possible.
At the gate they the guards looked shocked as they noticed in which state Honoka was. None asked any questions, and no one tried to stop or slow them down.

"Where's Sakura? Or Tsunade?" Kakashi asked at the reception. "Tsunade-sama is busy and Sakura is upstairs in her examination room, but you can't…"
"Thanks, and I'm pretty sure I can." He stated and ran up the stairs. Ino just left Sakuras room, but as she saw the copy Nin she stepped back in.
"Sakura, I think you should come out. It seems important."
"What's up?" she said, and walked to the door. As she saw Kakashi and Honoka her eyes grew wide.
"Kami! What had happened?" leading him to an empty OP-room.
"They caught her, and tried to get information out of her."
"And failed." She stated, as he lay Honoka down on the table.
"Ino, fetch me some bandages and medicaments, you know what I need, Kakashi-sensei, can you give me a hand?"
"If you tell me what to do."

"Help me to get rid of her shirt, or what's left of that. I have to clean the wounds."
He curtly nodded, and helped as good as he can.
"Please hold her in that position." She said, starting to clean the wounds on her back.
"That was a whip, right?" she asked, and saw him nodding. "Bastards." She mumbled.
"I let them pay for that." He said, trying not to look at the wounds. As she was finished with cleaning them Ino came back with the ordered supplies.
"Here you are." She said, laying them down next to her. Sakura scanned Honokas front party, but couldn't find any fractures or damaged inner organs, but bruises, and loads of them.
"Ino, help me bandaging." She ordered.

It took them over one hour to treat every wound, and afterwards Sakura put Honoka in a room under steady watch. The machines were beeping, helping her to breath and controlling her heartbeat.
"Will she make it?" he asked his former student, as she left the room.
"I think so. She survived the last time, and her state was even worse back then. But the rest… We'll have to wait and look."
He sighed and nodded.
"You should go home and rest, Kakashi-sensei." She said, looking up to him.
"I think I can't."
"Of course you can! I'll stay here and watch her. In your actual state you aren't a big help after all. Go home, shower, eat something and sleep. I'll send someone to fetch you immediately if something changes." She looked at him.
"That was an order." He sighed again and then left without any furthermore argument.



The other ones had reported to Tsunade what had happened, and she went into the hospital to look after Honoka.
"How's she doing?" she asked as she entered the room.
"Stabile." Sakura answered, rubbing her temples. "I extracted nearly everything of the drugs, treated her wounds, gave her medics against the infection, but I'm not sure if the cells have any damage." She looked tired and sad.
"It's too early to say anything about that. We just have to wait and watch, at least four weeks." The Godaime stated, and after an examination she said:
"You really did a good job. The only thing she now needs is rest. How's Kakashi?"
"Nervous and concerned. I sent him home to rest, but I think I'll look after him later too."
"I often ask myself how a country can treat its people. I shouldn't have sent her, we all knew it was a trap."
"What happened had happened." Sakura said, while standing up. "Honoka is tough, she'll make it."
"Yes, she proofed that. And more loyal than some of the people who were born here."
Tsunade left and went back to work again, while Sakura stayed to watch her.

As she left hours later, after she had instructed the medic who took the watch during her break, she went past Ichirakus and bought some ramen. Only a short while later she knocked at the door of her former senseis apartment door.
It took a while until he opened.
"You look horrible." She said.
"Nice to see you too." He replied, and stepped aside to let her in.
"I brought you something to eat." She said, handing him over the box.
"That's nice Sakura, but I don't think that I can eat something right now."
"Then you can warm it up later." She said, and sat down on the floor, watching him as he sat down on the sofa.

"She'll make it." She said, trying to encourage him a bit.
"I really hope that." He said. "I never dreamed about finding someone like her, and now I nearly lost her."
"But you haven't, you came right on time to save her."
"I shouldn't have let her go."
"She's a kunoichi."
"I know."
"Giving yourself the guilt for what had happened is wrong, and you know that."
He remained silent.
"I'd love to tell you something that can cheer you up." She said, looking sad.
"What about the… Are you sure about the fact that…" he started.
"I'm pretty sure." She answered. "The test is clearly positive. She's definitely pregnant, but I can't tell you if… we'll have to see. I'm not sure if the drugs caused any damage. That's something time will show us."

Now he looked even more miserable, and Sakura felt horrible.
"I have the nightshift tonight, if you want, you can come with me." she said and looked at him.
"I mean, it can't be disturbing if you're there." She stated.
"Are you serious?" he asked her.
"Why not?" she smiled at him. "Let's go."



"And it's really no problem?" he asked her again as they reached the hospital.
"No." Sakura answered. "Plus I can watch you too, without any childish behaviour from your side." She grinned teasingly.
"Plus you can help me. There are some other badly injured too, and if you watch her it's easier for me."
"But what can I do?"
"You can cool her face that the swellings go back sooner, for example." She said, while ordering a nurse to put some cooling packs into Honokas room.
"If you want I can put a second bed into the room."
"No, there's no need to. I don't think that I'll sleep."
"I'll look after you all two hours. If you need something then call."

He sat down on a chair next to her bed, putting the cooling bag slowly and carefully on her cheek. In short intervals, as Sakura had ordered, so it won't get too cold. He gently stroked her hand, while he looked at her. It felt right to sit next to her, but so wrong to see her at that state. Somehow he wished that Yori would've died a more cruel way, because he was the source of that pain.
"Get well soon." He whispered, while listening to the constant beeping of the machines.

A while later Sakura entered the room, and sat down at the other side of the bed after checking her state again.
"Quiet?" he asked her after a while.
"Now, yes." She sighed. "One had a panic-attack, but I was able to calm him down."
"Good." He stated. "Has Naruto said anything because I wasn't there?"
"He was a little pissed that you haven't taken him with you." She yawned. "He said that we should do more together, and mumbled something about family…"

"A family is a quite important thing." Kakashi mumbled.
"Yeah." She said smiling a little. "And somehow we're like a big family."
He looked at her with a raised brow.
"Don't give me that look, Kakashi-sensei!" she laughed. "Naruto told me after the last mission where he met Sasuke-kun. We, means you, Iruka-sensei, 'Sasuke-bastard' and me, are his family. And somehow he's right. I mean, I still have my family, but the squad is sort of my second one."
"You have always been the part that balanced out the cool tempered Uchiha and the hot tempered Uzumaki, and somehow my laziness too." He said, looking more relaxed now.
"Iruka-sensei once said, the most beautiful thing in Konoha is, that no one is really alone, except he wants to be."
"Sometimes being alone isn't that bad. You only have your life that you can lose, losing other ones who are precious to you is harder than anything else."
"But doesn't one fight harder if one has someone to protect?" she said, looking at him questioningly. "You taught us that; stick together, trust each other, but you always acted against your own rules. But no one of us ever said something about that. That was and stays your business." She said.
"After Sasuke left we felt that he was missing, the gap he left behind… the sadness we felt back then was a sadness we could see and sense around you quite often. Like in the land of waves as Zabuza died. You wanted us to introduce our selves the first time we met, and we did it, but you only said your name, and even if we are a squad for years now, you never revealed more."



"Maybe I just didn't want to bother anyone with that. It was hard enough to carry and is still hard enough to deal with. But that's why I taught you teamwork, that at least I could prevent you from making the same mistakes."
"Some things we were able to find out." She said, looking at Honokas face. "Not that you think we sniffed around… most of the things Jiraiya told Naruto. I just think that in a team there should be enough trust under its members… and after Chijo-baa-sama attacked you and called you 'white fang' I just did a little research."
"And what have you found out?" he said in his usual bored tune.
"That he was a strong and respected man; that you somehow are like him, and a few other things... That so called 'incident'… I would've done the same."
"Is that so?"
"Yes, definitely. His actions were one reason why Konoha changed, why we were that special, why we care for each other. Being Shinobi is one site, but we're human after all."
"How much do you know?" he asked her, but instead of answering she stood up.

"I know little, but I feel much. Feeling guilty for things we couldn't have changed, because they happened as they had to, is sort of stupid. Being a human means suffering and feeling joy, sometimes at the same time. The biggest gift we have, and that really makes us human, is the ability to forgive. To forgive doesn't mean to forget, but it's the most important thing to be able to live on. I've learned that, and so did Naruto. It was the only way for us to cope with that what Sasuke did."
"You haven't answered my question." He said.
"See, that's another thing I've learned from you." She grinned. "But as I said, I know little. First because not everything is written down, second because we didn't know who to ask, third because we were afraid of you kicking our butts if you found out and fourth, because we maybe hope that you will tell us some day." She said and yawned again.
"Oh, by the way, Naruto and I still shut up about you two, but if everything is going to be alright, you will have to think about something, you can't keep that a secret forever."
"I know." He mumbled.
"What's the matter?" she grinned teasingly. "We knew pretty well that our famous and feared former sensei, the copy nin Kakashi Hatake is human after all, with normal and pretty funny weaknesses, just think about the bell-test, and how you act if you have to take some medicines."
He didn't know what to answer, and just looked at her.
"But honestly, you're the best sensei we could've get." She grinned and left the room.