Blood drips onto the ground, a soft sound in the post-battle quiet.
Team Seven watches numbly as blood runs down Kakashi's right leg, soaking the fabric of his pants and the ground underneath his feet in red. Sakura is so stunned that she can't speak, can't move. Kakashi is bleeding. The fight opened his wound again. They were all so occupied with fighting, with watching the missing-nin, that none of them even noticed. The genin were so proud of their strategy that they neglected to think about anything else.
Kakashi is still leaning on Sakura's shoulder; his hand tightens around her shoulder. He presses his other hand against his leg. "The stitches have torn," he says, his voice carefully level. "It's bleeding pretty bad." He swallows difficultly. "I'll be honest with you… this isn't good. But we shouldn't panic. I just need to stop the bleeding. And I'll probably need your help with that, because I don't… I don't think I'm going to stay conscious for much longer." He sways on his feet – Sasuke and Naruto rush forwards to steady him. "I should- I should sit down," Kakashi murmurs, his voice faint.
They carefully lower him down until he's sitting on the ground; he presses his hands tightly against the wound, trying to stem the bleeding. Blood flows out between his fingers. The wound is too large for just his hands, Sakura realizes, and her mind snaps awake.
"Naruto, help Kakashi-sensei put pressure on the wound!" she says. "Use your jacket! Sasuke, stand guard!"
Sasuke thankfully decides to listen to her; he looks out into the forest, his Sharingan still activated. Naruto quickly takes off his jacket and kneels down next to Kakashi. He folds the jacket over the cut, over Kakashi's hands, and presses it against the cut with both his hands. He pushes down on the wound as hard as he can, his brow furrowed with a quiet determination.
Sakura takes off her backpack and props it underneath Kakashi's leg – elevating the wound should help it stop bleeding. She presses down on the wound with her good hand, next to Naruto's hands. Their three hands are enough to put pressure on the entire wound, although it's only barely enough.
"You can let go, Kakashi-sensei," Sakura says, talking louder so that he can hear her; he's closed his Sharingan. "You should lie down. That'll help stop the bleeding faster."
"I know," Kakashi says, and he slowly pulls his hands back from the wound. His hands are covered in blood and visibly shaking.
As Kakashi lowers himself to the ground, Sakura and Naruto adjust their hands to apply direct pressure to the wound. Kakashi chokes out a groan.
Sakura winces in sympathy-pain. "Sorry."
Kakashi shakes his head, a hurried movement. "Don't apologize," he replies through clenched jaws. "I can… I can handle the pain. Just don't stop applying pressure, no matter what. If you let go, I'll-"
He cuts himself off with a wince. Naruto finishes his sentence for him, his voice faint. "If we let go, you'll bleed out," he says. "We know. We won't let that happen."
"Good. Thanks." Kakashi exhales shakily. His right eye slips shut; for a long, awful moment, Sakura fears that he's fainted, but then, he talks again. "I'm going to try to slow down my chakra flow," he says. "That should help stop the bleeding, but I don't know if I have enough chakra left to do it. I might pass out. If that happens, just- remember what we talked about, okay?"
"Okay." They've discussed this exact scenario before, and Sakura remembers every word of it, even though it feels like that conversation happened centuries ago. She remembers what they agreed to do in a situation like this: they have to apply pressure like their lives depend on it. Because Kakashi's life does depend on it. And if just pressure isn't enough, they'll have to pack gauze into the wound and hope that that stops the bleeding. And if that isn't enough…
Well, she'll just have to hope that it'll be enough.
Kakashi nods back at her and exhales another slow breath. It takes a while, but Sakura soon notices that the bleeding is slowing down a little; the blood doesn't soak through Naruto's jacket as quickly, anymore. She almost dares to feel a little optimistic. Maybe Kakashi won't bleed to death right underneath their hands.
But then, Kakashi's eye snaps open. To Sakura's horror, blood starts flowing from the wound again. Kakashi grimaces. "Can't do it," he pants. There's something terrifyingly hazy in his gaze. "I don't… I don't have enough chakra left to stop the bleeding."
Sakura can feel the blood seep through the fabric, once again at an alarming speed. It starts dripping onto the ground. Kakashi has started breathing faster, his chest hitching with shudders of pain.
Kakashi can't lose much more blood than he already has, Sakura realizes. She shares a panicked look with Naruto.
"This isn't working," she says. "We have to pack gauze into the wound, quickly. Sasuke, can you get the first-aid kit?"
"Good call," Kakashi says weakly. "First-aid kit's in my backpack."
Sasuke pulls the first-aid kit from Kakashi's backpack and puts it on the ground next to Sakura. "I can help," Sasuke says. His face is pale.
Sakura hesitates, but she decides it's worth the risk. "We could use an extra set of hands," she replies with a nod, shifting to make room for Sasuke.
Sasuke kneels down next to her and clicks open the first-aid kit. Sakura takes a breath, trying to stay calm. She can't expect Kakashi to give instructions in his condition. Sakura has read a lot about medical stuff, and they all know that – Naruto and Sasuke are expecting her to know what to do. The responsibility weighs heavy on her shoulders. She cannot lose her cool, no matter what.
"On the count of three, we'll let go of the wound and start putting gauze into it," she says to her teammates. "Put in as much gauze as possible, as quickly as possible. The goal is to pack the gauze as tightly into the wound as we can, to apply pressure directly to the ends of the torn blood vessels."
Naruto nods, clenching his jaws. He's been quiet. Sakura can tell that he's terrified. She wishes she could tell him that things are going to be okay, but she can't know that for certain.
"Ready?" she asks.
"Ready," echo Naruto and Sasuke.
"Ready," Kakashi says, his voice faint.
Sakura nods. "One, two, three-"
She lifts her hand from the wound and pulls Naruto's jacket aside. Sasuke pulls out a kunai and quickly cuts through the bandages around the wound. They remove the soaked bandages, revealing the wound. For a brief and terrifying moment, the cut bleeds freely.
Sakura only catches a glimpse of torn stitches and raw, swollen skin before she grabs a handful of gauze pads and presses them into the wound. Naruto and Sasuke follow her example; they're both able to use both of their hands, so they're quicker than she is. It doesn't take the three of them long to pack the entire wound full with gauze.
Kakashi digs the heel of his good foot into the ground, his hands balling into fists. A choked sound escapes from his throat as his head jerks to the side in pain. Sakura murmurs an apology as she stuffs the last piece of gauze into the cut.
"Done," she says. "Okay, we're done. Everyone, keep pressure on the wound. It should be easier to stop the bleeding, now."
"You okay, sensei?" Naruto asks Kakashi, who is breathing hard. "That looks like it hurt."
"I was prepared for it," Kakashi replies, his eyes squeezed shut tightly. "And you were quick about it, so that's good. You're doing good."
"We're doing our best," Sakura says. Something pessimistic inside her wonders if their best will be enough, but she can't afford to focus on that right now. She makes eye contact with Naruto and Sasuke. "Keep applying pressure, as much as you can," she tells them. "Hopefully this'll be enough to stop the bleeding. Kakashi-sensei, please try to stay awake, if you can."
"Copy that," Kakashi replies, giving them a thumbs-up. His hand trembles when he lowers it again. He huffs a wry laugh. "Sorry about all of this," he says. "This was supposed to be a C-rank mission, but it's starting to look more and more like medical-nin training."
"Don't apologize," Sasuke grumbles. "It's just stupid. Do you really think that we mind saving your life? Because we don't."
"And if we decide to become medical-nin, we'll already have a little bit of experience," Sakura adds faintly.
Kakashi shrugs, immediately wincing. "I guess that's true." He lowers his head to the ground. His chest is still rising and falling rapidly. It's a clear reaction to either blood loss, pain, or fear. Sakura doesn't know which of those options is worse.
They're all silent for a while, giving Kakashi a chance to catch his breath. Sakura keeps glancing at his face, making sure that he's still conscious. Even though his eyes are closed, it's clear that he's still awake; if he had fainted, that awful grimace would've disappeared from his face.
Sakura, Naruto and Sasuke keep applying pressure to the wound, leaning their entire weight onto it. A minute passes, then two minutes. Kakashi's breathing starts to slow down. The silence eases everyone's minds a little.
And then, Naruto turns to Sakura with wide, panicked eyes. "It's still bleeding," he says, his voice flat with shock. He looks nauseous. "The wound bled through the gauze just now."
Sakura can feel it too, now; the warmth of new blood underneath her hand. Something inside her chest goes cold. The bleeding hasn't stopped, despite their efforts. Kakashi is still losing blood.
She shares a look with Naruto and Sasuke, who both look about as panicked as she feels. Kakashi has opened his eye again and is watching them silently. There's something very vulnerable in his gaze, buried under layers of stoicism and pain.
"Give it a few more minutes," he says when nobody speaks. His voice is hoarse. "Continue to keep pressure on the wound for just a few more minutes. Maybe the bleeding will stop on its own."
It's difficult to have faith in that. Sakura nods anyway. She turns to Naruto. "Put your jacket over the wound again," she tells him. "It'll help absorb some of the blood."
"There's two jounin sweaters in my backpack," Kakashi adds quietly. "You can use those, too."
Sasuke quickly gets up to grab the sweaters – the three of them fold the two sweaters and Naruto's jacket over the cut and press down on the fabric. Kakashi groans through his clenched teeth and turns away. Naruto apologizes quietly, his face sheet-white.
The silence returns, except it's now filled with anxiety instead of calmness. Sakura's mind is racing. She'd love to hold on to what little optimism she still has, but she knows that pressure won't be enough to staunch Kakashi's bleeding. The wound is already bleeding through the fabric of Naruto's jacket. It's not stopping.
Against her will, she starts to wonder what will happen if they can't stop the bleeding. Logically, she knows what will happen; she knows how bleeding out works. The average adult human body contains about five liters of blood. If you lose more than half of that, you die. You lose consciousness and your organs shut down and you die.
Sakura knows the facts, but emotionally, it doesn't make any sense to her. Kakashi can't die here. He can't leave them alone. They can't return to Konoha without him. They can't go back and tell their village that they let Hatake Kakashi, hero of the Leaf, die.
She tries to forces those thoughts from her head. None of that is going to happen. They will stop the bleeding.
But they're almost out of options. Pressure clearly isn't working. Kakashi tried to stop the bleeding by slowing down his chakra flow, but he's too weak for that. A tourniquet wouldn't work either, because they'd have to apply it either on top of the wound or on a joint, which isn't possible. Not to mention that Kakashi could lose his leg if they tried.
The possibility of cauterization weighs heavy on Sakura's mind. It looks more and more like it's their only option, and Sakura hates it. It's too risky. They'd have to put Kakashi's body through even more stress, while he's already exhausted and sick and has lost a lot of blood.
Worse than that, though, is the fact that cauterization would be complete and utter agony. The ends of the bleeding blood vessels would need to be burned to make the bleeding stop. Practically, that means that they'd have to get something metal to red-hot temperatures and use it to burn Kakashi until his leg stops bleeding. He'd end up with a huge second-degree burn on his upper leg, which would be horrendously painful, and that's the best case scenario. In the worst case scenario, he gets burned too badly and the nerves in his leg could end up permanently damaged. Depending on how serious the nerve damage is, that could be a career-ending injury.
She glances at Kakashi, who is already balling his fists and digging the heel of his good foot into the ground. He's already in so much pain. They can't put him through even more.
No one says anything as they wait for the bleeding to miraculously stop. Kakashi visibly tries to slow down his breathing, his chest rising in an unnaturally slow rhythm. It makes sense; a fast heart rate will only make him bleed out faster. Despite his efforts to slow down the bleeding, Sakura can feel the fabric underneath her hands grow warm. Kakashi has at this point bled through gauze, Naruto's jacket, and two jounin sweaters.
Three minutes pass, and the stain of blood on the last jounin sweater doesn't stop growing bigger. Sluggishly, Kakashi slowly opens his eye. He looks up at his students, his gaze flat. "The bleeding isn't stopping," he says, "is it?"
Sakura swallows difficultly. "No," she replies. "It isn't." The backs of her eyes sting. She wishes she could cry, but she can't let herself do that. "What do we do?"
Kakashi visibly clenches his jaws underneath his mask. Sakura already knows what he's going to say before he says it.
"The wound needs to be cauterized," he says. "We've tried everything else. There's no other way."
A panicked noise escapes from Sakura's throat. "But what's going to happen to the infection?" she asks. "Won't it- Isn't it going to-" Sakura breaks off her sentence with a grimace. If they burned the wound shut, they would essentially be trapping the bacteria under Kakashi's skin. That can't be a good thing.
Kakashi shakes his head, a jerking motion. "I don't know," he admits. "Maybe the bleeding has washed the infection out. That's how it works with poison sometimes, but I don't know about infections. If I'm wrong, then burning the wound shut might make it worse. I don't know – I'm not a medical-nin, I don't know." His voice breaks; Sakura realizes abruptly that he's just as terrified as they are.
"So it's a gamble, then," Sasuke says, frowning. "If we burn the wound shut, you could die of sepsis."
"If we don't burn the wound shut, I'll bleed out. And soon, too." Kakashi's voice is weak, but his tone is pragmatic. "We have to cauterize it. The infection could get worse afterwards, but at least I'll have more time. It's our best shot." There's a spark of bitter determination in his tone. "Naruto, make some clones and have them gather firewood. Sasuke, you're good at building fires; get a fire going. I'm going to need a kunai and something to bite down on."
Naruto carefully lifts his hands from the wound – Sakura and Sasuke apply pressure in his place – and signs to make five clones. They quickly run off to find wood. Once Naruto is applying pressure to the wound again, Sasuke gets up to gather wood as well. Naruto and Sakura shift to fill the empty space.
Kakashi briefly closes his eyes, and then he pushes himself up on his elbows. It's clear that it takes him far too much effort, judging by the grimace on his face and the barely-stifled groans. Sakura wishes she could help him – either help him or stop him – but she can't risk letting go of the wound.
Naruto watches Kakashi struggle, looking as though he's in pain himself. "What are you doing?" Naruto asks him.
Kakashi hauls himself into a sitting position, panting. With twitching movements, he draws his left knee up to his face and leans his forehead against it. He's trembling all over, but when he speaks, his voice is strong. "I'm going to cauterize the wound."
Sasuke scoffs, gesturing broadly at Kakashi with a piece of firewood. "Don't you see the way you're shaking?" he asks. "You'd only hurt yourself more."
Kakashi raises his hand to his face and stares at it, his gaze unfocused. His hand is trembling badly, either from blood loss or from exhaustion. It's clear that it's a bad idea to let him do anything that requires precision, let alone something as delicate as burning his own skin shut. He balls his hand into a fist and leans his head against his knee again.
"We'll do it," Sakura says when nobody speaks. When she notices the hesitance on her teammates' faces, she corrects herself: "I'll do it. I'm good at things that require a lot of control. Leave it to me."
Kakashi looks at her for a moment. There's something resigned in his expression. "Are you sure you want to do this?" he asks her eventually, his voice low and serious. "This isn't going to be easy."
Sakura nods. "I know. But I promise I can do it. You can count on me."
"That's not what I meant," Kakashi replies. "I meant that this is going to be awful. Under any other circumstances, I would never ask a genin to do this. Or anyone, for that matter. Especially not my own students." He looks her in the eyes. "So are you sure you want to do this?"
Sakura doesn't need to give it much thought. As much as the idea of causing Kakashi pain terrifies her, it doesn't terrify her enough to let him die. It doesn't terrify her enough to let him try to cauterize his own wound, not when there's such a high chance that he'd only end up hurting himself more. Even if he'll forever associate Sakura's face with horrifying pain, that's fine with her, as long as he survives.
"No matter how awful this is going to be," she says, the resolve clear in her tone, "it can't be as awful as letting you bleed out."
Kakashi visibly chews on his lower lip underneath his mask, an anxious motion. He looks at his shaking hand again, and then back to Sakura. Slowly, he nods. "Okay," he says. "Okay. I'll walk you through it as well as I can, then."
Sakura shakes her head. "You don't have to," she says. "I know what to do." She paid attention in class, and she read about cauterization in a couple of her books. She knows what to do. On top of that, Kakashi shouldn't use his energy to talk more than he already has. He should spare his strength.
Kakashi huffs a laugh, despite everything. "Of course you do. I shouldn't have expected otherwise." He lowers himself back to the ground and closes his eyes. His eyelids have turned a color that's somewhere in between gray and blue, his face ghostly pale. It's clear that the conversation has tired him out badly.
During the silence, Naruto's clones return with firewood, and Sasuke uses a Fire ninjutsu to quickly light a fire. He lays a handful of kunai in between the flames. The fire casts harsh shadows in the dimming sunlight, crackling ominously. Sakura stares at the kunai, trying to wrap her head around the fact that she's going to be holding those kunai in a minute or so, and that she's going to use them to burn her teacher's leg. It feels surreal.
Kakashi is staring at the fire, too, his expression unreadable. His hand is curled around a stick that's lying next to him; one of the clones gave it to him, because he asked for something to bite down on. He keeps tightening his grip on the stick and then loosening it again, his fingers turning white. It's the only thing about him that shows how scared he is. He has every right to be.
Sasuke kneels down next to the fire, studying the kunai. "They're starting to turn red at the edges," he says. "I think they're almost hot enough."
Sakura swallows down the anxiety that that statement gives her. "All right," she says. "Once those kunai are entirely red-hot, we'll have to act fast. We have to take the gauze out of the wound first. Naruto, you'll have to keep the cut open so that I can reach the bleeding blood vessels. I'll burn the blood vessels shut, though the kunai will probably cool off before I can seal the entire wound. Sasuke, you'll have to hand me a new kunai when that happens."
"Sounds like a plan," Kakashi says. "You explained it well, Sakura." He pauses; his expression is somewhere between somber and apologetic. "You should be prepared for the fact that you're going to hurt me," he says, his voice low. "I might pass out, or I might ask you to stop, or I might try to push you away reflexively. It's probably for the best if the clones hold me down. I don't want to hurt you by accident." He pauses. "At any rate, whatever happens, don't stop cauterizing the wound. Not even if I ask you to. You're going to hurt me, but that's okay. I much prefer it over bleeding out."
The rest of Team Seven nods silently. The reality of the situation hits them once more.
Kakashi smiles at them. "You can do this," he says. "All you'll have to do is work as a team, and you've gotten pretty good at that lately."
"'Pretty good' is an understatement, sensei," Naruto corrects him. "We're awesome at working together now." The optimism in his tone feels a bit forced.
"Yeah. Damn right you are." Kakashi exhales a shaky breath, his stoic façade slipping. "Listen," he says. "I have all the faith in the world in you three, but if this doesn't work…" He swallows difficultly. "If… If I die here today, don't blame yourselves, okay? You have to accept it and work through it and move on. Don't make the same mistakes I did. I lost two of my teammates when I was about your age, and I lost my sensei when I was a bit older, and it took me until last week to even consider the possibility of not blaming myself for that. I spent over half of my life trapped in guilt and sadness. I don't want that for you."
It's the most he's ever told them about his past. A thousand questions present themselves to Sakura's mind, and it hurts that she may not have the time to ask Kakashi about them. If they fail, this really could be the last time they get to talk to him.
"We'll try," she replies, even though the possibility of losing Kakashi is so profoundly awful that she can barely even imagine it. Team Seven has only been a team for a couple of weeks, but Sakura had somehow thought that they'd be together for the rest of her life. It feels like they've already been together for a lifetime; the four of them have been through so much together. "We'll try, although we would really miss you, sensei."
Kakashi smiles sadly and closes his eye. "Thank you for saying that."
Their conversation is interrupted by Sasuke clearing his throat. "The kunai are ready," he says. "It's time."
Team Seven collectively tenses up, just for a split second, before they swallow their anxiety and get into position. Two of Naruto's clones hold Kakashi's arms to the ground and two more hold down his legs, and the fifth clone stands guard. Naruto himself stays kneeling on the ground next to Sakura, both of them still applying pressure to the wound. Kakashi has the stick between his teeth; he doesn't seem to care that his teammates can see his face. Sakura could've easily snuck a peek at his face, but that thought isn't on her mind, nor would it have given her any satisfaction. She looks away. She notices that Naruto and Sasuke do the same thing.
Sasuke retrieves a kunai from the fire; the hilt is almost too hot to touch, so he borrows one of Kakashi's gloves. Sakura wears the other glove. It's warm and sticky with blood. When Sasuke hands her the red-hot kunai, some blood squeezes from the glove and runs down the metal, immediately starting to boil. Sakura forces her eyes away from the bubbling liquid, forces herself calm. "Ready?" she asks.
"Ready," Naruto and Sasuke reply, faintly.
"Do it," Kakashi grits out around the stick in his mouth.
As quickly as they can, Sasuke and Naruto remove the gauze from the wound. Once again, Sakura is faced with the wound, still bleeding, still red and swollen and raw-looking. Hesitance rears its ugly head, though Sakura doesn't let herself slip into insecurity. She can do this. She has to do this. If she doesn't, Kakashi will die.
The red-hot kunai makes contact with Kakashi's skin. There's a faint sizzling sound, followed by the nauseating smell of burning flesh.
Kakashi bites down on the stick and screams.