Kakashi slowly made his way down the street toward the hospital. He was exhausted. Completely and utterly spent. It was taking all of his energy to stay vertical as he stumbled along. The fact that it started raining about a half an hour before hand wasn't helping.

Lack of blood? The fact he knew he had more than one broken bone? Pushing himself to get back to Konoha without a decent night's rest?

Old age? He couldn't help but smirk bitterly at that thought.

He didn't know why he was struggling just to make it to the hospital, but ever since he left the wedding his stamina had been dropping faster than a new born giraffe.

He didn't think much of it till he finally lost his balance and dropped to his knees clumsily. He now noticed his breathing was becoming labored. Thinking something was wrong was a little obvious. His vision was becoming blurry, and he knew if he passed out in the state he was in he would be in serious trouble.

He pawed at his side pouch until his summoning scroll fell out and rolled across the ground. Dropping to all fours quickly bit down on his thumb and smeared the blood across the scroll as he propped himself up on his elbows to make the hand signals awkwardly.

In a large puff of smoke his entire pack of dog-nin appeared. Pakkun leapt down from Bull's head with a soft snort.

"You always like to summon us in abysmal weather, Kakashi… Kakashi?" Pakkun took a few steps toward him when he noticed the forced, wheezing breaths.

"Pakkun-… get help." With that Kakashi checked out. Face first into the cold mud, water splashing onto his face from the hard falling rain. Pakkun had to get closer to be able to sniff Kakashi through the rain. Pakkun snorted out the scent as if it was foul.

Poison. From his scent it had plenty of time to set in.

"Kakashi, you moron! These are things you should notice!" The little pug turned toward the rest of the pack. "Take him to the Clinic, it's closer. I will meet you there." With that he sped off down the street through the rain. He needed to find one of two people, and through this rain their scent was going to be near impossible to find.

Sakura leaned down and helped Ino finish wringing out Hinata's dress.

"The heaven's cry at weddings too, apparently." Tsunade chuckled as she shook out her coat from under the reception tent.

"I knew these tents were a good idea." Naruto said as he threw an arm around his new wife's shoulders. She beamed and leaned into him.

"Most of the guests have run away. I'm glad your mom already took the kids home, Ino." Sakura said over her shoulder before turning her attention back to the deserted, rain drenched field. "For a village of Shinobi, you would think a little rain wouldn't bother them so bad."

"More than likely worried about their hair." Sasuke said with an amused smirk playing on his lips.

"Like you have any room to talk about hair Sasuke!" Sasuke gave Naruto a dirty look.

"It's your wedding day, so I'll let that slide." Naruto got a sly smile as if Sasuke had given him permission to insult him for the rest of the night.

"Well, you know Sasuke, for the longest time I thought you had to be ga-"

"Is that Pakkun!?" Ino said, cutting Naruto off before he could go on a tirade of insults.

Sakura's head whipped around to where Ino was point and she could see the small pug racing toward them across the flooded field.

"Pakkun!" Sakura called as she opened her arms for the little pug to jump up into her chest. He shivered slightly as she wrapped the shawl around him. "What are you doing here, Pakkun?"

"Sakura, it's Kakashi…"

Was she going to have to go through this again? Lose some one so dear to her that a piece of her goes with them? If it wasn't for Kakashi, she wouldn't have been able to bounce back like she did from losing her parents. Did he think he was going to leave her too? Not give Obito the chance to grow up knowing how wonderful his father was?

She would be damned!

She was a stampede the entire way to the clinic, and she nearly kicked the doors down as she approached them. She was instantly being followed by a team of medics, nurses and Ino sprinted to keep up as she kept Pakkun snuggly to her chest like an infant. He didn't look too thrilled with the fact he was being babied, but he knew this was not the time to complain.

"Haruno-san, we have prepped all the solutions that you asked for and they are in the room next to the patient."

When Sakura's hand touched the door though to the ICU, the fury inside her subsided as she had the same empty feeling grow inside her she felt when she stood outside of her parents' hospital room. The medic just called him a patient, as if he was just another faceless person they treated every day.

He wasn't just another faceless patient though...

The night with her parents the nurses and medics looked at her questioningly, just as they were doing now. Could they not understand that it was unnerving to know that it was in your hands whether one of the people you loved survived?

Sakura felt Ino's hand on her shoulder and she took a deep breath. Without another thought, she pushed the doors open to the ICU.