Gai briskly walked down the hall to Kakashi's hospital room, a plastic bag in one hand, and a glass vase with a bouquet of white carnations in the other. He felt worried and tired, but he was still focused on making his rival as happy as possible.

He opened the door cautiously, careful not to drop anything. His eyes quickly found Kakashi, who was clearly asleep, propped up against some pillows instead of laying down flat, and nearly hidden under a thick mass of blankets.

The expression on the visible parts of his face was serene, and his silvery eyelashes provided an interesting contrast to the bruised, greenish purple skin underneath his eyelid.

Setting down the flowers on a table next to the bed, Gai lowered himself into a chair with a sigh. He couldn't bring himself to wake Kakashi up; it would be rather cruel.

At first, he'd ushered him awake every time he visited, excited to spend time with him, but now, his rival "napped" much more than often- sleep quite literally took up the majority of his day. There had come a point where Gai finally noticed how hard it was for Kakashi to actually sit up, stay awake and converse with people.

He gazed at his friend's face, noticing how the large mask from before had seemingly been replaced with a nasal cannula. It was rather relieving to him that it had, because Kakashi had looked absolutely miserable in the oversized, bulky mask. It was obvious that he'd hated it.

With a slight hitch in his breath, Gai achingly took note of how short-winded Kakashi was. Underneath the sheets, his chest rose up and down shakily, at a harrowing speed that made it obvious that breathing was a task for him.

Gai suspired for what must've been the billionth time over the last few months, closing his eyes and resolving to wait.

Inchmeal, time advanced forward, until over an hour had passed by. The usually boisterous shinobi just sat silently, plagued with anxieties about Kakashi's health.

The future scared him- he felt that at any second, something could go dangerously wrong.

"Gai…"

He tore his eyes away from the ground and looked up, his hands grabbing the metal railing connected to the side of the bed.

"You're awake!" Gai cried out, lowering his volume when he noticed how Kakashi flinched, "Sorry, just got kind of excited...Well, how are you?"

Smiling, the Hatake languidly brought himself into a sitting position, glancing at the bag placed on the side table.

"I'm fine...Breathing is better than it was yesterday," he lied, as if Gai couldn't notice, rubbing the back of his stiff neck, "What's that?"

Gai hurriedly picked it up, bringing out a plastic takeaway container filled with miso broth, and then another one with salted broiled saury. Immediately upon recognizing his two favorite meals, Kakashi's eyes lit up, the exhaustion temporarily leaving him.

Now that he thought about it, he was very lucky to have a friend that remembered his favorite foods- no one else did, besides Obito and Rin, perhaps. And his father, of course.

"Oh, it's just miso soup and some saury- your favorites! I remembered," Gai said exaltedly, with a bright smile, and a thumbs up, "I know you're not supposed to eat outside food, but...i thought it would be okay. Also it's probably uncomfortably cold by this po-"

"Who cares," Kakashi interrupted bluntly, excitedly pulling out the tray attached to his hospital bed. Chuckling lightly, Gai set down the dishes in front of him, handing him a pair of wooden chopsticks and a soup spoon.

Without any hesitation, the man opened both of the condensated lids, making a satisfying clicking sound. Pulling his mask down, he brought the bowl of soup to his mouth and began to guzzle down the lukewarm liquid, not really minding that it wasn't hot.

Gai just watched amusedly, unable to bring himself to tell Kakashi to slow down. He was glad that his friend was eating so heartily.

Within two or three minutes, he'd picked up his utensils and moved onto the fish, haphazardly digging his chopsticks into it, and bringing a sizable chunk to his mouth.

"Thank you for this, Gai," he said between chews, not really making eye contact, as he was completely focused on the food. "It seriously means a lot."

The said man blinked, a little taken aback by the compliment.

"You're welcome, Kakashi!" he said with a grin, feeling truly joyous that he'd made his friend's day a little better, "So, anyways, how've you been? I know it's kind of a redundant question at this point, but…thought I would ask anyway."

Kakashi shifted his criss-crossed thighs, closing the lid to the remaining fish, and then, setting both containers on the side table. Hadn't Gai already asked him how he was doing?

"Well, it certainly isn't easy being in the ICU."

Gai furrowed his brows slightly, finding the response rather glib, and lacking any substance.

"Ok, but how are you?"

"...I don't know," he started hesitantly, his eyes flitting to his lap, and then to Gai, "It's tough, but I'm managing."

I'm scared.

Kakashi moved his gaze to the wall in front of him, finding it difficult to sustain long eye contact with his concerned friend. He'd been doing such a good job of neutralizing his feelings, and becoming as numb as possible- he had never thought that a simple "how are you" would evoke the underlying fears within him.

He felt a strong, palpating wave of anxiety and nausea swirling in his stomach, his brows furrowed in confusion and discomfort at the sudden sensation.

"Well, I just wanted to say that you've been really strong...I'm very proud of you, my rival!" Gai began earnestly, "Anyways, I know you like dealing with things alone, but if you ever need anything, I'm here."

Kakashi looked up with a thick gulp, his eyes blinking rapidly as he took in the repetitively flashing fluorescent lights on the ceiling. They were excruciatingly bright, almost like someone was shining a camera in his face and constantly snapping pictures of him.

The Hatake shut his eyes tightly and lowered his head, overwhelmed by the sensory stimuli. He felt strangely dissociated, Gai's voice seeming as if it was echoing, processing in his brain slower than it should be.

He rubbed his tingling face with a placid look that hid his discomfort, hoping that maybe the strange feeling would go away on its own after a few seconds.

Opening his eyes, he found that his vision was still rather blurred, his surroundings seeming fuzzy and somewhat hard to distinguish. He could spot the dark green of Gai's jumpsuit in his peripheral vision. But as his gaze settled on the foot of his bed, he caught sight of a short blue figure, with orange goggles and black, spiky hair.

Kakashi's breath wavered in his throat, the blood draining from his face as he realized that he was staring at his dead teammate.

"What's with the look?!" the hazy figure cried, feigning hurt, "It's me, Obito. Geez, you look like you've seen a ghost...well actually, I guess you could call me that."

He sounds just like him...

"Kakashi?" Gai asked with blatant concern in his expression as he noticed the unhealthy pallor and unresponsiveness of his friend.

Unable to respond, he inhaled with wide, bloodshot eyes, the shakiness audible in his breath.

"I heard you were dying, so I came to see you," Obito spoke monotonously, beginning to amble closer to his side, seeming frighteningly lifelike.

No...this can't be real.

Kakashi's posture wilted, and he put his face into his trembling hands, unable to comprehend the idea of seeing someone who was obviously not alive. He felt fear coursing through his veins, and the idea looking again scared him to no end. He didn't want to see Obito.

Gai placed a hand on Kakashi's shoulder, having called his name several times without receiving a response. He was surprised when his friend jerked backwards with a gasp, visibly flinching at the touch. He noticed how wildly Kakashi was looking around, and how his gaping, terrified eyes kept focusing on a specific spot to the right of his bed.

"Kakashi? Are you alright?! Please, tell me what's wrong!" Gai questioned again, unable to identify why he was so anxious, and why he wasn't speaking. It seemed as if there had been a sudden shift in his mood, and as if he'd become absent from his environment, plain unresponsive.

"O-Obito…" The Hatake stammered in a whisper, his voice seeming foreign to himself, too deep and gravelly. His unblinking gaze stayed fixated to the same point, beads of sweat forming on his forehead.

"What?! What are you talking about?" Gai asked him, his concern heightening as he looked at what his friend was staring at, seeing nothing but the wall, and a window.

Kakashi felt an irrational, vehement sense of panic surging from within him- he felt a strong urge to jump out of the pile of suffocating sheets on top of him, and make a run for it.

In a sudden movement, he lurched off of the bed, stumbling forward a few steps before he clumsily tripped, falling unceremoniously onto his knees. Gai hurried over to him, grabbing one of his lanky arms to help him up, only to be shoved away.

"No, don't touch me!" Kakashi cried out desperately, cowering on the ground and holding his hands out in front of his face as a form of defense. Gai immediately drew himself back, feeling guilty for contributing to how anxious his friend was.

In truth, he was incredibly puzzled—Kakashi's behavior was uncharacteristically erratic and skittish, and Gai didn't exactly understand why he was acting in such a way. Sure, he'd seen the man anxious, even during a panic attack, but this was frighteningly different.

"Hey! You're really creating a scene, you know," Obito said from across the room, crossing his arms, completely unimpressed, "If you don't want me here you could just say so."

Kakashi looked askance at the window from his spot on the ground, his eyebrows knitting together as he processed what he'd just heard.

"I don't want you here...Leave!" the Hatake snarled decidedly, his shoulders tense, heaving up and down as he tore through the Uchiha with a piercing glare.

Gai just watched in bewilderment as Kakashi faced away from him and yelled at nothing. His mouth was agape, as he was in true shock- he knew the threatening words weren't directed towards him, that much was obvious.

But who was he talking to then? Was he seeing someone that Gai couldn't see?

Kakashi watched as Obito just shrugged, an unconcerned expression on his tan visage. His lips twisted into a familiar lopsided grin, eyes closing into crescents. "See you, Kakashi."

Without warning, he vanished into thin air, as if he'd never been there at all.

Blinking rapidly, Kakashi bored a hole into the spot where his dead teammate had just been standing, wondering just what the hell was going on with his brain.

"-kashi...Kakashi? Hey? Kakashi!"

Gai grabbed a hold of his shoulders, his chest brimming with heavy worry, as he'd never seen him this out of it. He'd been calling his name for ages, time after time, but to no avail.

Locking gazes with him, Gai noticed how far away his stormy, cobalt eyes were, and it quickly became apparent to him that his rival was not all there. It was almost like he was in some kind of trance, completely disconnected from reality.

"Okay, I'm getting a nurse," Gai said decidedly, beginning to walk away, until he felt a tight grasp encircling his wrist.

"No nurses...no nurses...I'm fine..." Kakashi brought out with difficulty, feeling his words droop, and slide over one another, as if they were the hot wax of a melting candle.

"No, Kakashi, I'm going to get a nurse. I have to," he protested gruffly, struggling to release himself from the Hatake's iron hold, "Let go!"

"You don't understand...I don't belong here...you need to get me out of here…" Kakashi rambled illogically with a crazed look in his eye, scrubbing his face, and pulling at the bangs that were hanging over his forehead, "...this place makes me so unhappy...it makes me so unhappy…I can't handle it."

Gai wrenched his wrist out of Kakashi's weakened grasp and took a good look at his sniveling, delusional form crouching on the floor, grimacing at the sight of his profusely trembling hands, and how he was quite literally on the verge of hyperventilating.

He turned on his heel with a start and hurried towards the door so that he could get someone with medical expertise, because his friend was definitely not acting like himself, that was for sure. And something told him that the nasal cannula wasn't cutting it- Kakashi's fast, shallow breathing was definitely one of Gai's major concerns.

Putting his fingers around the cool, metal doorknob, he began to open it, only to turn around when he heard a low, guttural groan coming from behind him. Looking back, he saw Kakashi hunched forward, his head bowed, and his hands stiff and outstretched, twisted into an awkward, rigid position.

"Are you alright?"

With a disgruntled moan, he fell backwards onto the hard tile, beginning to seize uncontrollably as his brain short circuited, sending out random electrical signals that caused jerking all throughout his body.

"Oh, shit," Gai cursed tensely under his breath, sprinting back to the door and yanking it open in one solid motion.

"WE NEED HELP IN HERE! HELP!"

Immediately upon hearing his alarmed cries, a group of four E.R. nurses hurried into the room, locking in on the man convulsing on the ground, next to the IV pole. Quickly assessing the situation, they collectively took note of how dangerous it was for his head to be colliding against the tile, along with the added risk of him hitting the I.V. pole, or the legs of the bed as he seized.

Getting to work, they split up, half of them moving to carefully position Kakashi on his side and stick a pillow under his head, while the other two worked on pushing the hospital "furniture" out of harm's way.

Gai watched in trepidation as his friend continuously shook, his mask having been pulled down to let all of the vomit and frothy spittle that he was choking up drain out of his mouth. At this point, the other two medical professionals had joined the working team, and crouched down on the floor beside the patient, one of them attempting to insert a syringe into him, while the other tried to strap an oxygen mask to his ashen, blue-tinted face.

"I'm going to inject you with something, sir. It'll make you feel better."

With the administration of the drug, Kakashi's violent jerking gradually slowed down, until he was beset with the occasional spasm.

Gai caught sight of a lone, droopy eye, hidden behind a mess of silver hair; it was dull and dimmed of any light, gazing into nothing. Feeling an intense sadness emanating from within him, Gai moved to wipe his watery eyes, sniffing loudly as he tried to stay strong.

"Relax now...That's right, just relax," a nurse encouraged him as the medicine began to take effect, rubbing his twitching arm in encouragement. He blinked sluggishly to clear the fog in his vision, feeling a rampant exhaustion weighing down on him.

Soon enough, Kakashi closed his heavy eyes and welcomed the darkness.