It turns out that cauterizing a wound isn't nearly as difficult as Sakura expected.

It's all a matter of speed and precision, and she is skilled at both. All she has to do, is press the red-hot kunai against the wound and then remove the kunai again before Kakashi's skin burns too badly. The kunai is too small to sear the entire wound closed in one go, so she has to repeat this process a couple of times, burning a couple of centimeters of skin at a time. The quicker she works, the less time Kakashi has to be in pain, so Sakura needs to work as quickly as she can.

The steps are clear; all Sakura has to do, is follow them. Shinobi life, she's realized, doesn't often come with a step-by-step guide. Compared to battle, this isn't difficult at all.

What's truly difficult about all of this, is the knowledge that even when Sakura does everything perfectly, she'll still cause Kakashi unbearable pain.

The first time the kunai makes contact with Kakashi's skin, Kakashi cries out, and Sakura almost drops her kunai. She'd half expected that Kakashi would be silent. He'd been bearing all of his pain with a quiet stoicism so far – at worst, Sakura had expected him to bear this with a groan, maybe a grimace. At absolute worst, she'd expected him to simply faint.

But instead, he screams, the sound muffled behind the stick that he's biting down on. The sound is raw and rasping, like it's tearing right through his vocal chords.

Sakura instinctively pulls back, suddenly lightheaded. Her eyes are fixed on the fresh burn on Kakashi's leg; a red and moist patch of skin, about the size of the kunai's blade, and blistering grotesquely. The torn stitches stick from the burned skin haphazardly. It's a second-degree burn – the most painful type of burn. Sakura has just given her teacher a second-degree burn.

Her gaze automatically flickers over to Kakashi's face, looking for any indication of what she's supposed to do. She sees his face, but she doesn't register any of his features; just the tension in his jaw, the grimace around his mouth.

Kakashi looks back at her, his left eye squeezed shut and his right eye barely open. He doesn't speak, only gives her a shaky nod – and Sakura realizes that she already knew what she's supposed to do. She promised she wouldn't stop cauterizing the wound, no matter what. She promised she wouldn't let Kakashi bleed out.

So she turns her attention back to the wound, takes a breath, and presses the red-hot metal against the next part of Kakashi's skin. Blood bubbles, and skin blisters, and Kakashi thrashes against the grip of the clones that hold him down. The clones that hold down his legs almost lose their grip. Sasuke scrambles up and helps them. Even with five people holding him down, Kakashi is almost too strong.

Sakura forces herself not to pay it any mind. She forces the constant awareness that Kakashi is in horrifying pain to the back of her mind. Because, little by little, the bleeding is stopping. There is no blood leaking from the burned skin. It's awful, but it's working.

About halfway through, the kunai has cooled off too much to burn, and Sasuke gets her a new kunai from the fire. It gives Team Seven a few seconds to catch their breaths, though that's not necessarily a good thing. Those few seconds are enough for Kakashi to get used to the absence of acute pain – and when Sakura continues burning his wound shut, he cries out again, his voice breaking. It sounds far too much like a sob.

"We're halfway through," Sakura hears herself say. She doesn't consciously make the decision to speak, but trying to reassure Kakashi seems like the only right thing to do. "I'm almost done. Just hold on a bit longer."

"It's going to be okay, sensei," Naruto adds. "You're not bleeding as much anymore. It's working."

"You can survive this," Sasuke murmurs.

Kakashi doesn't react; Sakura can only hope that he heard them, and that their attempts at reassuring him helped. For now, all she can do is keep going, keep cauterizing the wound. She clings to her own words: they're halfway through, she's almost done. Kakashi only needs to bear this pain for a little while longer.

She works as quickly as she can, with an almost trance-like focus, an unparalleled precision. Her hand doesn't shake. Her mind doesn't wander. She doesn't move her eyes from her work until the entire wound is sealed, the cut replaced by a large burn, the skin red and blistering and not bleeding anymore.

Once she's finished, Sakura sits back, dropping the kunai on the ground. The hilt of the kunai has left a thin line of stinging skin on the palm of her hand; the glove that she's wearing is mostly heat resistant, but the metal has burned her hand through the glove regardless. She automatically cradles her hand to her chest. She's badly out of breath, though she hadn't noticed before.

Her eyes feel dry; she blinks a couple of times. Now that her focus is wavering, she realizes how quiet it is. Kakashi stopped screaming. For a split second, she fears that he's dead – that she let him die – but his chest wouldn't be heaving like this if he were dead. He simply passed out at some point, though Sakura hadn't noticed it happening.

The clones and Sasuke are still holding Kakashi down. Naruto is holding down Kakashi's right leg as well; it was his task to hold the wound open, but he doesn't need to do that anymore. They're all looking at Sakura expectantly, and she clears her throat.

"That was it," she says belatedly. "The wound is closed."

Her teammates visibly relax; Sasuke lets go of Kakashi and steps back. As Naruto brings his hands together and dispels his clones, Sasuke kneels down next to Kakashi's face and carefully takes the stick from his mouth. Sasuke quietly pulls the mask over Kakashi's face again.

Sakura clears her throat again, trying to keep her voice from cracking. "We should dress the burn before he comes to," she says. She'd meant to help her teammates take care of the burn, but she finds that she's too dazed to move. She can't focus her eyes, and her ears are ringing.

Naruto turns towards her, moving to put a hand on her shoulder, but Sasuke stops him. "Leave her be for a bit," Sasuke tells him. "The stress probably got to her."

Sakura nods – she can't disagree – and she moves aside so that Sasuke and Naruto can take care of Kakashi's leg. Her mind feels overfull, and she can't quite catch her breath. This was probably the most stressful experience of her life, and that includes everything that happened during this mission. Out of all the awful things that she's experienced during this mission, hearing Kakashi scream was by far the worst.

The next time she looks at Kakashi, the burn on his leg has been neatly covered in bandages, though Sakura doesn't recall watching her teammates work. The sterile white looks out of place in the middle of the bloody mess that Kakashi's leg has become.

Naruto and Sasuke quietly put the first-aid supplies back into the first-aid kit. As soon as the box clicks closed, Naruto stumbles to the side and squeezes his eyes shut. He's breathing heavily.

Sakura watches him as he leans his hands on his knees and tries to catch his breath. He's shaking all over. "Are you okay?" she calls out to him.

Naruto nods, though he seems hesitant. "I'm all right. I'd just never seen that much blood up close before."

"I have," Sasuke murmurs. "And I hoped that I never would again." He doesn't elaborate, but it's clear that he's talking about his family. Sakura wonders what's going on inside his head right now. Probably something dark. Sakura considers comforting him, but she knows that that wouldn't help. If she tried to comfort him, he'd probably just find that patronizing.

They sit in silence for a while, all of them trying to calm down. It's gotten dark, Sakura notices; the sun set while she wasn't paying attention. The fire provides some light, a small patch of warm light in the middle of the darkness. The soft crackling of the fire is the only sound in the silence – until that silence is broken by a gasp and a sharp groan.

Kakashi bolts upright, immediately flinching. Naruto quickly kneels next to him and lays a hand on his shoulder, helping him sit up.

There's a moment of tense silence before Kakashi gathers the breath to speak. "Did- Did you manage to do it?" he asks, looking up at Sakura. His hand hovers above the bandages, though he doesn't touch his leg. "Did you stop the bleeding?"

Sakura nods. Despite everything, there's a swell of pride in her chest. "Yeah. We stopped the bleeding."

Kakashi exhales a long, relieved sigh, and he closes his eyes again. "Good," he murmurs. "Thank you."

Naruto huffs a nervous laugh. "We really thought we were going to lose you, sensei," he says. "That was a little too close."

Kakashi smiles, his eyes still closed. "I won't lie, I wasn't entirely sure I was going to make it, either," he replies. "But the three of you did really well. I'm sorry for scaring you like that."

"It doesn't matter how badly you scared us," Sasuke says bluntly. "What matters is that you made it out alive in the end." He gets up and rolls his shoulders. "We should move," he continues. "Naruto, take us to that cabin that you saw. I don't want to sit unprotected in the middle of the woods for a second longer."

Kakashi nods. "Yeah. I can't disagree with that." He starts to push himself upright, though he immediately falls back down to the ground. It seems that the blood loss really took its toll on him. The fact that the soldier pill wore off probably doesn't help, either.

The effort of trying to get up jolts the burn on his leg; Kakashi's hand curls into a fist next to his leg, and he hisses through his teeth. "Argh-"

"Does it hurt?" Sakura asks quietly. She can't help but feel guilty – she's the one that caused this pain.

Kakashi nods once, shakily. "It hurts," he gasps out, "but that's a good thing. It means that there isn't much nerve damage. Or any at all." He sucks in a breath. "So it's all right. I'm just really glad that I'm alive enough to feel this pain. It could've been so much worse."

As Kakashi speaks, Naruto summons some clones again, and they carefully lift Kakashi off the ground. The real Naruto beckons for the rest of the team to follow him. "I'll get us to that cabin," he says. "I remember where it is. Just follow me."

Sasuke quickly stomps out the fire, though he takes one piece of firewood with him to light their way. Sakura gets to her feet, and Team Seven leaves the glade behind. Sakura looks over her shoulder once more, at the large, dark stain of blood on the ground. Kakashi lost so much blood. They could've very well lost him back there. The thought makes Sakura feel grateful and terrified in equal amounts.

Naruto leads them to the cabin through the darkness. He was right, the cabin looks abandoned, though Sasuke and Sakura check thoroughly anyway, just to be safe – they've learned at this point to look underneath the underneath. Once they've confirmed that there's truly nobody home, they go inside. The door isn't locked.

Sasuke lights up the cabin with the piece of firewood that he brought. The cabin consists of only a single room, with nothing but a rickety table and a couple of mostly-empty cabinets in it. There's a futon in the middle of the floor.

Everything is coated in a thick layer of dust; Naruto sneezes loudly as soon as he enters, and a startled spider hurries away from him across the floor. The blanket on the futon is the only thing that isn't covered in dust – it's Sakura's guess that the missing-nin may have been using this place as a hiding spot. Not that that matters. That woman is not going to come back.

The clones lower Kakashi onto the futon; he murmurs a "thanks", and the clones disperse quickly afterwards. Kakashi hauls himself upright and shakily takes off his sandals, setting them to the side. He lays down his weapons pouch and his headband next to his sandals. He's wearing only his tank top and his pants, now. Without the weapons and the bulky uniform, he somehow looks small. Vulnerable.

With a sigh, Kakashi lowers his head onto the futon and pulls the blanket over himself. The blood loss has left him looking ghostly pale. The lines of pain around his eyes don't disappear.

"Get some rest," Sakura tells him, even though he was probably already planning on doing that anyway. "We'll stand watch."

Kakashi nods. "Yeah. All right." His eye slips shut. "Wake me up if something happens, okay?"

"We will," Sakura replies, but he's already drifted off.


During the hours after that, Team Seven works on securing the cabin. Sasuke stands guard, because his Sharingan allow him to see in the dark. Sakura and Naruto set a couple of traps around the cabin; they work with what little supplies they have left and what they can find inside the cabin. Most of the traps are traps meant for catching people, which is weird, because those aren't traps that Naruto is used to making. He's not used to using his traps to hurt people. Still, it's a good way to keep people from getting inside. It's a good way to keep his team safe.

He and Sakura craft the snares inside the cabin, next to Kakashi, who is sleeping. Sakura burned her hand a little when she was closing Kakashi's wound, so it's probably super uncomfortable for her to help make the traps, but she insists on helping anyway. She says she doesn't want to sit around doing nothing.

Their work is illuminated by candlelight; the cabin doesn't have any electricity. Naruto found the candles in the back of a cabinet somewhere. It's nice to have some light, though the flickering shadows make Naruto jumpy. He's almost glad when he gets to step out into the dark forest to set up the traps. At least in the darkness, the light can't play tricks on him.

Sakura stays behind to keep an eye on Kakashi, and Naruto uses his clones to set the traps. He's been summoning a lot of clones these past few days, and it's pretty tiring. By the time all the traps are set and he's returned to the cabin, his head and his limbs have started feeling annoyingly achy.

Sakura is still sitting beside Kakashi's futon when Naruto returns. She gives him a little wave when he walks into the room, and he sits down next to her. "I've set the traps," Naruto tells her. "We should be safe here."

"Good," Sakura replies, and she immediately yawns.

"Tired?" Naruto asks her, though he doesn't wait for her to answer; she'd probably say that she's fine, anyway. "I can watch over Kakashi-sensei for a while, you know. You should get some sleep."

Sakura hesitates, but then she nods. "Okay."

She sits with her back against one of the walls, her broken arm resting on her stomach and her burned hand resting on her lap. She falls asleep almost immediately. Naruto doesn't blame her; she saved Kakashi's life today. Naruto would be pretty wiped out, too, if he were in her shoes.

The fact that Sakura has gone to sleep abruptly leaves Naruto with absolutely nothing to do, and he finds that he doesn't like that at all. He's already bad at sitting still on a good day, and this is very much not a good day. He offered to watch over Kakashi, but he's far too restless for that.

So instead of sitting still, he ends up cleaning the cabin. He doesn't like cleaning, but at least it gives him something to do. He finds that it's nice to rid the cabin of its thick blanket of dust – the dust makes his nose itch, and if Team Seven has to wait here for the next two days, Naruto would prefer to wait without his nose itching the whole time.

Cleaning is an effective way of keeping Naruto from having to sit still – and when the cabin is so spotless that it stops being effective, he takes over guard duty from Sasuke. He feels a bit guilty for not wanting to watch over Kakashi, but it feels far too much like doing nothing. He can't do nothing right now. He feels like he'd go crazy.

The night passes quietly, and before Naruto knows it, the sky has started to light up again. The sky is gray and cloudy; it'll probably rain later. Naruto feels distantly glad that they've got a roof over their heads.

Sakura calls from inside the cabin, asking if he's coming to eat breakfast; he leaves a clone outside and goes back into the cabin. He hadn't realized how hungry he was, though in hindsight it makes sense: after everything that happened yesterday evening, they forgot to eat dinner. It makes sense that his stomach is grumbling.

So they eat some of the plants that Naruto gathered yesterday. They manage to wake Kakashi up, and he eats breakfast with them, though it seems like he's forcing himself to eat. He's too exhausted to properly sit upright, and it seems like he barely has enough energy to chew. He's quiet, and visibly shivering. When he takes a painkiller from the first-aid kit, his hands shake so badly that he almost drops it.

When Kakashi lies back down on the futon, Naruto notices that his face looks red. Which is strange, because he'd been alarmingly pale since yesterday. "Sensei?" Naruto asks him, his voice small – he has a feeling that the redness in Kakashi's face is a bad sign. "Are you feeling okay? You look a little feverish."

Kakashi's eye widens minutely, and he presses the palm of his hand against his forehead. He sighs when he lowers his hand again. "Yeah, that's definitely too warm."

Naruto clenches his jaws. Crap, this can't be good. Kakashi lost a lot of blood, and he has pretty serious chakra exhaustion; if anything, his temperature should be too low, or that's what Sakura said at least. The fact that he has a fever anyway probably means that his system is completely out of whack. "That's bad, isn't it?"

"I don't know." Kakashi tiredly pulls the blanket over himself. "Sometimes people just get fevers because their bodies have been through a lot of stress. Considering everything that happened yesterday, I wouldn't be surprised if that was the case. Or it's just the same fever that I've had for the past week, and it was just briefly gone because the blood loss and the chakra exhaustion messed with my body temperature." Something darkens in his gaze, his optimism briefly lost. "Or…"

"Or you could be dying of sepsis," Sasuke finishes his sentence for him. His tone is curt, though Naruto knows him well enough by now to sense the absence of anger in his words; he's just anxious.

"It's a possibility." Kakashi shrugs. "But there's nothing we can do about it, anyway. So whatever is going on, I'll just have to hold on until help arrives." He looks at his students through his eyelashes. Naruto isn't sure whether his expression speaks of acceptance or defeat. "Backup should be here in thirty-six hours, more or less. I'll just have to hold on until then."

He's right: they're not medical-nin, and without a medic's help, they can't do anything to help Kakashi. That fact makes Naruto want to scream, but instead, he just nods silently. Kakashi nods back and closes his eye.

"I'll just spare my strength for now," he murmurs. "You guys should probably do the same. Don't waste your energy worrying, yeah? We've already survived so much during this mission. Surely we can survive this, too."

With that, he falls asleep again, leaving the rest of Team Seven alone with their thoughts.

Not long after that, the first drops of rain start falling down on the cabin, and the quiet sound of raindrops soon turns into a loud rattling. Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke stand outside one by one, letting the rain wash the blood off their clothes. Naruto's pants were entirely soaked in red from the knees down, a reminder of the fact that he sat in a puddle of Kakashi's blood yesterday. His jacket, which he held against the wound in his desperate attempts to stop the bleeding, stays vaguely red no matter how hard he tries to wash out the blood.

When Naruto walks back into the cabin afterwards, soaking wet and cold, he notices that despite his attempts to clean himself off, there's still dried blood underneath his fingernails. It makes him feel uneasy in a way that he can't quite put into words.

The rain continues, soon joined by the rumbling of thunder and the occasional flashing of lightning overhead. As the temperature outside gets lower and lower, Kakashi's temperature only rises. The genin soak some bandages from the first-aid kit in water and lay them on Kakashi's forehead, trying to help him cool off. He briefly shifts in his sleep, but other than that, he's too out of it to react to it. He barely reacts to anything, anymore; when it's time for lunch and his teammates try to wake him up, he stays unconscious.

Kakashi sleeps restlessly, tossing and turning on the futon. He's clearly having nightmares. Naruto tries to wake him up a couple of times, but Kakashi doesn't react to it. Occasionally, Naruto notices that he's staring at the ceiling through his eyelashes, but even in that state, he's still too out of it to respond to anything. It seems like even when Kakashi is awake, he's still dreaming.

Naruto forces himself to sit still and stay by Kakashi's side; he knows how much nightmares suck, especially if you can't wake up. He knows how disorienting it can be to wake up afterwards. When that happens, Naruto wants to be there for Kakashi.

At some point in the evening, Naruto steps outside to drench a new batch of bandages in rainwater – he's been laying new bandages on Kakashi's forehead every twenty minutes or so, though they always warm up again almost immediately. He tries to hold on to the hope that it's helping, though he knows that that's not the case.

When he gets back inside, Kakashi has thrown his blanket half off him, his hands balled into fists and his back arching off the futon. His eyes are squeezed tightly shut; he's clearly dreaming, and whatever he's dreaming about, it's clearly awful.

As Naruto sits down next to the futon, Kakashi jerks his head to the side, mumbling something unintelligible. Naruto can't hear what he's saying, but he knows that it's a name. Kakashi has been saying the same names over and over: "Obito", "Rin", "Minato-sensei". Occasionally, "dad". The name "Minato" catches Naruto's attention – how could it not, when it's the name of one of the former Hokage? Regardless, he tries his best not to pay too much attention to the things Kakashi says. Of course he's curious about Kakashi's past, but it feels like cheating to find out about it like this. He trusts that Kakashi will tell them when he's ready.

"Kakashi-sensei," he tries, although he knows it won't help. "Wake up. Kakashi-sensei."

Kakashi doesn't react, just digs the heel of his good foot into the futon, throwing the blanket off him further. A strangled whimper escapes from his throat.

Naruto carefully tugs the blanket over Kakashi again, and he switches out the bandages on his forehead for cold ones. When his hand accidentally brushes past Kakashi's forehead, he feels that it's far, far too warm. Quickly, he pulls the blanket off him again. It immediately leaves Kakashi shivering. He jerks his head to the side again, a restless movement, and the cold bandages slide off his face, leaving a damp stain on the pillow.

Naruto sits back, suddenly overwhelmed by the fact that nothing he tries is helping. It hurts that Kakashi is sick and visibly scared and probably in pain, and that Naruto can do nothing about it. It hurts that Kakashi helped Naruto with his nightmares, and now Naruto can't return the favor.

Except maybe… Maybe he can. Thinking back to when Kakashi helped him has given him an idea. It's probably a little childish, but Naruto decides to do it anyway. Nothing else he's tried is helping, anyway.

Naruto clears his throat and sings the lullaby that Kakashi sang to him.

He's not very good at singing at all; the first notes of the song make Sasuke and Sakura look up in confusion. Sasuke frowns, but he doesn't say anything. Sakura, who had been dozing off a little in the corner, soon closes her eyes again. They're probably weirded out, but they don't interrupt him, and Naruto appreciates that. He closes his eyes so that they won't distract him; he wants to sing this as well as he possibly can.

Singing to Kakashi is weird – not only because he's an adult and very much too old for lullabies, but also because Naruto isn't even certain if he can hear him – but Naruto does it anyway. He remembers how safe and comforted the words of this song made him feel when he was struggling with nightmares. Maybe, if Kakashi can hear him, it'll help him feel safe as well.

Naruto isn't a great singer, but he remembers every word of the song and he hopes that that makes up for the notes that he misses. Well, he remembers most of the song, because he fell asleep towards the end. He's just about to let his voice trail off – this really is the last line he remembers – when a second voice joins in, quiet and painfully hoarse.

Surprised, Naruto blinks open his eyes and sees how Kakashi sings the last few lines of the lullaby, his voice so soft that it's barely audible over the sound of the rain. He's staring at some nonexistant spot on the ceiling. He doesn't acknowledge Naruto, or Sakura or Sasuke, and Naruto finds himself wondering if Kakashi knows they're there at all. His eyes are open, but he seems like he's still dreaming.

By the time he's sung the last few words of the lullaby, he's out of breath, a drop of sweat rolling down the side of his face. His chest heaving, he turns to look at Naruto. The sudden eye contact startles him – especially since it feels like Kakashi is staring straight through Naruto, his pupils wide and his Sharingan spinning sluggishly. The faint glow of his Sharingan makes his face look even redder than it is. He looks really, really sick, and it startles Naruto so badly that he doesn't dare say anything.

A beat passes in silence, the sound of rain the only sound between them. Sakura and Sasuke are watching; Kakashi hasn't been properly awake in almost twelve hours. They're all anxiously waiting to see whether this change is a good thing or a bad thing.

And then, Kakashi squints at Naruto and asks: "Minato-sensei? What are you doing here?"

Naruto instinctively looks over his shoulder, but there's no one standing behind him like he expected. It takes him a few seconds to realize that of course there wouldn't be anyone standing behind him. Kakashi said that he lost his sensei when he was young. Whoever Minato-sensei is, he's been dead for years.

That realization feels like a punch to the gut. Naruto just stares back at Kakashi, unable to think, unable to speak. At his silence, Kakashi's eyebrows draw together in an anxious expression. "Tell me why you're here," he repeats. "Did another war break out? Is that why you're in my apartment in the middle of the night? We have to fight in another war?"

They're not in Kakashi's apartment, and it's not the middle of the night, and there hasn't been a war since before Naruto was born. Naruto decides not to focus on that, though – because even though all of that isn't real, Kakashi's fear absolutely is. His eyes are wide and his breathing is quickening, and Naruto has to help him calm down.

"No," he says quickly, "there's no war. It's okay." He remembers how Kakashi spoke to him when he was freaking out, and he tries to imitate that tone; Naruto hopes that it'll help Kakashi calm down like it helped him calm down. "You're safe. Just kinda sick. Kinda really sick. So I'm, uh, I'm here to take care of you." He feels like it'd only confuse Kakashi more if he tried to explain that he's not Minato-sensei, so he tries to fit into the role. It feels like lying.

"Oh." Kakashi's brow relaxes somewhat. "I guess that makes sense."

"Yeah. So you should probably try to rest some more." Maybe if he goes back to sleep, he'll sleep off this confusion. "Maybe you'll feel better when you wake up."

Kakashi nods slowly; his breaths seem to come a little easier, now, although he's still shivering awfully. "Okay." He lowers his head to the pillow. "You know you don't have to stay here, right? I'm not that sick. I'm sure you have better things to do, sensei."

Kakashi still thinks that he's talking to an entirely different person, and Naruto tries not to flinch at the reminder of that. Instead, he just smiles at him. "I'm not going anywhere."

"Fine, then. Good night, I suppose."

"Good night," Naruto replies faintly. Kakashi doesn't reply. In a way, Naruto feels glad that he's passed out. He's not sure if he would've been able to bear that conversation for much longer.

Naruto exhales shakily and looks up at Sasuke and Sakura, who are still watching from the corner. Sasuke is frowning deeply, and Sakura has her hand clasped across her mouth. "He's in really bad shape," she whispers.

"Yeah," Naruto agrees. "What just… happened?"

Sakura wipes at her nose with the back of her hand. "He's probably delirious," she replies, her voice cracking. "The fever must be messing with his head pretty bad."

Naruto looks down at Kakashi's sleeping form. "He's- He's going to recognize us again eventually, right?"

"I think he will, yeah. He's just hallucinating right now." Sakura sniffles. "He should be fine if we can get his fever to go down, but we're already doing everything I can think of with the supplies that we have. All we can really do is wait it out."

"Twenty-four hours until backup gets here," Sasuke says numbly, and Sakura sobs quietly into her hand.


After the brief, delirious conversation that Kakashi had with Naruto, Kakashi stays asleep. His fever worsens, and his nightmares worsen with it; he spends the whole night tossing and turning, occasionally crying out in his sleep. Naruto sits with him all night, humming that lullaby of his over and over. Sasuke chooses instead to give Kakashi what little privacy he can give him, and he stands watch outside.

In the morning, Kakashi slips deeper into unconsciousness, and he stops reacting to his nightmares. The fact that he finally lies still gives Sakura a chance to change the bandages on his burn. Naruto and Sasuke wait outside; they both prefer standing in the rain over dealing with the burned flesh on Kakashi's leg.

Sakura joins them outside after fifteen minutes or so, quietly. She doesn't say anything, but her eyes look puffy and her bottom lip is trembling and that says enough.

The three of them stand in the pouring rain for a while, not saying anything. Naruto is the one who breaks the silence. "So how bad is it?" he asks. His voice is hoarse, probably because he was singing all night.

Sakura tilts her chin upwards, letting the rain mix with the tears on her face. "It's bad," she replies. "There's a lot of swelling, and the burn itself is- It's-" Her words catch in her throat. "I don't want to describe it. I'm pretty sure it's septic. And his fever has never been this high before. Let's just hope that help gets here soon. I don't think Kakashi-sensei has much longer."

Her words leave Sasuke wanting to punch something. All of this is so damn frustrating. Kakashi has survived so much crap during this mission. He's survived getting his leg cut open with a sword. He's survived three battles, all of which against opponents that could've killed him. He's walked on a wounded leg for days. He's pushed through an infection, through fever, through pain and chakra exhaustion. He almost bled out and he endured having his wound burned shut. He's survived all of those things – and now he could die because they have to wait for too long.

Sasuke balls his hands into fists. "We should've taken Kakashi-sensei to Konoha ourselves," he mutters. "We would've made it there within twenty-four hours. We would've already gotten to the hospital by now, instead of being stuck here, waiting for help that may not even come."

Sakura shakes her head somberly. "We've gone over this already," she replies. "Kakashi-sensei needs rest; if we'd tried to move him, he might not have made it home alive. And on top of that, even if he did make it home, carrying him through the rain for so long would've only made him sicker in the long run."

"I know. I hate it anyway." He grits his teeth, trying to think of something, anything they can do to help. His mind stays awfully blank. Sakura said it before, and she was right: they're already doing everything they can. All they can do is have faith that Kakashi is strong enough to survive.

So, he realizes, the best way to help Kakashi is to make sure that he stays safe. To make sure that Team Seven isn't killed before they get rescued. So it's important that they stay in good shape, so that they're prepared to defend themselves, in case trouble finds them again.

And right now, Team Seven isn't in good shape at all. Naruto hasn't slept in two days, and Sakura is visibly breaking down – she stopped taking painkillers so that Kakashi could take double doses if needed, and it's clearly taking its toll on her. If they were caught up in a fight right now, they would be killed immediately.

"You two should go back inside," he tells Naruto and Sakura. "You'll just end up making yourselves sick if you stay in the rain for much longer. You should go get some sleep." He makes sure that his tone is as harsh as possible, to make it clear that he's not speaking out of concern for their wellbeing; he just wants everyone to get out of this alive.

At Sakura's questioning expression and Naruto's vaguely-amused look, he clarifies: "You're both clearly tired – if we were caught up in a fight right now, you'd be completely useless. So get back inside and get some damn rest."

The amusement in their expressions increases, but they thankfully decide to listen to him. Naruto casts him a teasing grin before he closes the cabin door, and Sasuke glares at him in return. He can't bring himself to truly feel mad, though.

It's a couple of hours later when Naruto emerges from the cabin again, looking considerably more well-rested than before. By then, Sasuke has started getting tired; he was standing watch all night, and his focus is wavering. When Naruto offers to take over guard duty from him, he doesn't protest.

Sasuke gets back into the cabin and closes the door behind him, shutting out the sound of rain. His clothes feel heavy and cold – he hadn't noticed how soaked he is until he stepped out of the rain. The air inside the cabin is slightly warmer than the air outside, and Sasuke realizes with a pang of uneasiness that the small room is probably being warmed up by nothing but Kakashi's body temperature.

Kakashi is still lying on the futon, unmoving except for the shivers that wrack his body every few seconds. Next to the futon, Sakura is sitting on the floor, with her back to Sasuke. She looks over her shoulder, acknowledging him silently. She doesn't say anything, and she quickly turns her attention back to Kakashi.

"I thought I told you to go to sleep," Sasuke says, looking down at her. "Were you watching over Kakashi-sensei the whole time?"

Sakura shrugs, her shoulders slumping. "I couldn't fall asleep. I figured I might as well make myself useful."

Sasuke gives a thoughtful hum. In any other situation, he might've yelled at her for not listening to him, but he just doesn't want to be mad at her. "I guess that makes sense."

A silence falls between them. Sasuke leans against the doorway, studying her. They're alone in here, except for Kakashi, who isn't conscious. The old Sakura would've used a moment like this to flirt with Sasuke, but she doesn't do that now. She's changed. So has he. Before this mission, he never would've willingly subjected himself to a conversation with her. Or with any of his teammates, really. He never got within a twenty-meter radius of them unless he was forced to.

Now, he finds himself sitting down on the floor next to Sakura. She doesn't look at him, so he doesn't look at her, either. Instead, he nods his chin towards Kakashi's asleep form. "Any updates on his status?" he asks, and he finds that his voice is soft.

Sakura shrugs again, her shoulders slumping even further. "Not really," she replies. "He hasn't woken up since yesterday. His fever's been getting higher, so I tried to get it down more." Sure enough, damp bandages are wrapped around his forearms. The cloth on his forehead looks like it's recently been drenched in water again, a few drops of water slipping down the side of Kakashi's face. Sakura shakes her head. "It doesn't seem like it's working, though."

She looks pale. Sasuke looks away. "I could watch over him for a couple of hours," he says. "Go to sleep. It's clear that you need it."

Sakura frowns and looks back to Kakashi. "I'd rather not," she says. "It's just that I… I feel responsible. I caused Kakashi-sensei so much pain… If he wakes up in pain, I have to be there to help. To make up for all the pain that I caused."

Something in Sasuke's brain short-circuits with anger. "That's bullshit, and you know it," he snaps. "You're the only reason he's still alive. You were the one who burned his wound shut, sure, but that made sure that he didn't bleed out." He scoffs. "You saved his life, and you saved mine and Naruto's as well, multiple times. You're the only reason why Team Seven is still complete. So don't say that you feel guilty for saving Kakashi-sensei's life. It's the dumbest thing I've ever heard."

Sakura sniffles, but she nods. "I guess you're right."

"Damn right I am," Sasuke huffs. "So just… don't feel guilty. And let me watch over Kakashi-sensei for a while while you get some rest. If it makes you feel better, I'll wake you up if he so much as rolls over, okay?"

"Okay." She gives him a sad smile. "Thank you."

Sasuke takes her place at Kakashi's side, and Sakura leans herself against the wall. She's drifted off within minutes.

In the new silence, Sasuke's anger wavers and is replaced by that heavy feeling of uselessness that has been sitting on his chest for the past day and a half. Sasuke hasn't been near Kakashi since yesterday, and he looks so much worse than he did back then. His face is a dark and splotchy red, his skin looking dry and raw, and his eyelids look bruised. He's curled up on the futon, shivering awfully.

He looks nothing like the shinobi that protected Team Seven's lives on multiple occasions. Sasuke can only imagine the level of misery that it would take to make someone so powerful look so small.

He's shivering so badly that it almost looks like he's cold, but he's so warm that Sasuke can feel the heat radiating off him. The futon's blanket is pulled off him in an attempt to help him cool off, but it doesn't seem to be working. Nothing seems to be working.

The whole situation pisses Sasuke off. This isn't how being sick is supposed to work. The last time Sasuke himself had a high fever, he got to lie in bed at home for a week. His mom read him a story and his brother taught him a card game. That's what being sick is supposed to be like.

It's supposed to involve tea and soup and safety, and proper medicine if necessary. It's not supposed to involve lying on the cold floor of a random cabin in the woods. It's not supposed to involve severe chakra exhaustion and almost bleeding out and being in pain from a burn that you can't get treated. And it's definitely not supposed to involve the fear that this fever is going to kill you.

It's not fair. Kakashi deserves better.

Sasuke sighs, trying to calm his mind. He realizes that getting frustrated won't help. It'll just tire him out. So instead, he tries to have faith. To believe that Kakashi will make it, despite the horrible circumstances. He has to make it. He promised he wouldn't die.

Six more hours until help arrives.