Sorry, took a long time with this one…

Ok, first, thank you for the reviews. I just want to ask all of you, regular readers, to keep reading and telling me what you think. I really would like suggestions about the plot; I do have an idea of how the story should go, but I would also like to please the readers, so... Just tell me what you think.

In this one, a little more of KakaSaku. Lots of Kakashi, though. Im trying to explore Kakashi being hard on himself, and punishing himself for what happened to his team… That's the story, after all: Kakashi and Sakura trying to overcome the end of team seven – together. But I think that a light of hope is showing to Kakashi.

We have flashbacks during the chapter, hope you like the way I put it.

Ah! Kakashi Gaiden spoilers, Im afraid… Not too much, but there is.

Enjoy!

Day 31

Blood.

Blood? Where was it coming from?

The nose. Ah, yes, the nose. How could he forget about it?

"Too slow, Kakashi!"

Again said Gai. Kakashi couldn't take it anymore. How many times a day he had to hear the same thing? Yes, he was slow. Too slow for Gai.

"What did I tell you, Copy Ninja? Its all about…"

"…about the speed…!", he finished Gai's sentence. "Yes, yes, I know…!"

He tossed his gloves on the floor. Their metal protectors were so wrecked from blocking Gai's attacks that they were now hurting him more than helping. Truth was, he couldn't even feel his fingers anymore. And his hands were trembling from the unbelievable impact that Gai's every punch and kick caused. It always felt like hitting a brick wall… He had no idea his taijutsu was so behind Gai's. Even though they had fought many times before, Kakashi's strategy hardly involved a taijutsu fight, of course. He knew it was Gai's best trait, and he usually kept his distance. However, he never thought that Gai could be that good.

"Yes, your sharingan can see me, but what is the use of it if your body cant…"

"…follow." Kakashi was sweating and gasping like he hadnt for at least a couple years.

"Exactly! Good, good, you are a fast learner!

"Fast learner?" He looked around. They were on the same training area he had taken his team seven on their first meeting. They were not even a team back then, and he had been so hard on those kids…! Just like Gai wasn't giving him any chances. Not that he was complaining. Kakashi knew what he was trying to accomplish, and no way he could get it just reading dirty books and… well, never mind. "I don't know, Gai, I really cant see any progress, and it has been two weeks already!"

Gai gave him one of his bright smiles. "Wrong you are, my rival!" He assumed a stern expression: "Speed training results are not always easily noticed. Improvement is slow, and, more than that, almost impossible for the student himself to realize…"

"Is that what I am? A student?"

"Don't interrupt me." Gai gave him a look of deep disdain for that lack of respect. "So, like I was saying, even a highly trained ninja can fail to see his improvements – or decays – until they are really needed."

"So, what are you saying? That only when I fight Itachi for real I will know…"

"Not exactly… But ok, that is a good example." He took a step forward. "An even better example is how you failed to see that you were no longer the great ninja you use to be, until the day Itachi defeated you…"

"Don't play me like that, Gai. I will not take it." Kakashi's tone betrayed the coldness that suddenly took him. Yes, he was there to learn, and he was trying to do his best, but he wouldn't stand there to hear Gai's mockery…

The blood was dripping from his nose, soaking his mask. "Damn!" He touched it slowly, very lightly. It didn't feel like it was broken, but it was hurting like hell. Actually, the punch had hit him just above the nose, between his eyes. So humiliating… No one, no one, had ever been able to put a punch between his eyes… If it wasn't for the forehead protector, maybe his head would be broken. "Maybe I deserved it…"

He pressed his nostrils with two fingers and bended his head back, waiting for a few minutes. When he felt the flow of blood slowing down, he went to the river that ran just a hundred feet away. He kneeled by the water.

"You are still only reacting to my movements, Kakashi!" Gai dodged a high kick that almost got his head, and punched a shadow copy of Kakashi that just desappeared in white smoke. "Shadow copies are no good… Do you think Itachi would fall for that?"

"Who cares…?" Kakashi emerged from the ground below Gai's feet. "You are my oponent now, not him…"

But Gai wasn't there.

"Again, too slow… Konoha Gouriki Senpuu!

Unable to dodge it, Kakashi blocked it with his left arm. He couldn't avoid to be thrown five feet back, anyway. More than that, the heavy kick was hard on his arm, and now he wasn't able to move it without causing an excruciating pain that would go from his elbow to his shoulder.

"You trust too much on that sharingan… What if your adversary has a better trick?"

He lowered his mask, contemplating his reflex on the water surface. It had become an unsual sight even for him. Kakashi could go for many days without looking at himself in a mirror, since it wasn't a vision that he missed. Specially those mismatched eyes, something that, no matter for how long he had it, seemed to him so strange. That sharingan… yes, Obito's sharingan. He could use it, all right, but still… It always felt like something he borrowed, not something that belonged to him. Looking at those mismatched eyes… It was like he was seeing two different people in one; and, worst, it was happening on his own face.

Long ago he realized he wouldn't be able to walk around showing that special eye. After all, different from the Uchiha who were born with sharingan, he wasn't able to "turn it off". It drained his chakra all the time, and he never had the choice of not use it. Fortunately, using his hitai-ate to hide it, or keeping his eye closed, both were ways of diminish the amount of chakra it spent. More than that, it also avoided the strange looks people gave him, faces in which he could read things like envy, anger, fear, disgust. He hated those looks. He hated when people judged him.

"You are not so cool now, Kakashi." Gai finished the sentence with a smile.

He was drained from training, and Gai knew it. His legs were heavy, his reflexes were slower, just like the speed of his seals. Gai wasn't a ninjutsu specialist, but even him could be able to read Kakashi's movements. His left arm was killing him, and he would be pleasantly surprised if it wasn't broken. However, the worst pain was the one in his left eye. He had been using it for hours now, and it felt like it was on fire.

"Shut up, Gai…"

"Should we take a break? You look exhausted…"

"I told you… Shut up, already!"

Kakashi was amazed on Gai's abilities when fighting the sharingan. Even though Kakashi himself was able to fight in situations were the visibility was low, it usually meant that the adversary was in a similar condition. However, Gai was fighting avoiding all eye contact, trusting only his instincts and the very limited signs he could take from Kakashi's feet and legs movements. Besides that, any advantage Kakashi could have from that was compensated by Gai's extreme speed – and even more ruined by Kakashi's exhaustion.

"Maybe you should just give up… Go back to your reading."

"I will… As soon as Im over with you."

The cold water ran through his face, the contact bringing a blessed relief. He washed the blood, his blood, that was already drying on his face. Slowly, he tried to move his left arm, just slightly raising it…

Kakashi couldn't avoid a gasp of pain, his stomach clutched with a sudden nausea. He bit his lower lip, holding the painful cry in his throat. "God…!" From his shoulder to his elbow, the arm was useless. He couldn't make a single move, and it was like that part of the body didn't even belonged to him. Could be broken, and he was sure the shoulder had dislocated. Oh, it was going to be some trouble to put it back in place… Yes, he could go to the hospital, but he hated hospitals. Maybe ask Asuma or Genma to give him some help? Perhaps the best option…

He felt a presence behind him.

"Konoha Shoufuu!"

As he predicted, Gai attacked him at his right side. That was the only systematic move Kakashi had been able to read so far: when possible, Gai would prefer an approach from the right, the side that had no sharingan. And it also was his remaining good arm… Was Gai softening?

It didn't matter, and was Gai trying to spare him or not, Kakashi had a plan that wouldn't do the same for his rival. He had been expecting Gai's kick. He could try to dodge it, he could block it with the kunai in his hand, but those would be things that Gai expected. So, with a spinning movement, Kakashi turned, letting his left and already hurted arm take another heavy blow.

Gai's foot landed on his shoulder, and Kakashi thought he could even hear the bones creaking. However, he made his best to ignore the pain. He leaned, and used his right and good arm to grab Gai's leg. He pulled it firmly, and using all the remaining strength he had left, Kakashi managed to toss his opponent over his head and heavly into the ground. Without giving Gai any time to think or react, Kakashi faced his rival:

"Sharingan!" He smiled as Gai's eyes went wide. "You are looking, Gai. Looking and losing…"

"What are you doing here?" He raised his mask, again covering his face. "I thought you were supposed to be at the hospital…"

Sakura aproached from behind him, coming out of the bushes near by. "She was watching? For how long?" Usually Kakashi was able to feel her presence in half a mile, but not that day. In that afternoon, all Kakashi could smell was his own blood, and all he could hear was a buzzing sound in his ears. For his own surprise, she was only fifty steps from him when he noticed her. And since when she was there? How much had she seen? Had she…?

"I didn't see your face, you know?" She risked a few more steps closer to him. "If that's what you are thinking…"

He turned to look at her.

"You missed a good opportunity, then."

Sakura was staring at him with a preoccupied expression.

"What happened to you?"

She moved quickly, too fast for him to react. Before he could say or do anything, she was kneeling next to him.

"Training." He added as she showed disbelief: "I swear, Im not lying…!"

"What kind of training is this?" She looked shocked as she glanced at him. "Look at you…! Are you bleeding?"

"No" He raised his hand to his mask, still soaked with blood. No wonder she was scared: his nose wasn't as bad as it looked, but it had bleed profusely. Not only his mask, but his shirt and hand were painted in red, what probably was a disturbing view. "Not anymore."

"What about your arm?"

"Ah, so that she saw…", was Kakashi's thought. He wondered how good in reading him Sakura was turning out to be. After all, he was good in hiding his pain, and he never made obvious that his arm was hurt. Never the less, she had been able to read his movements, so well that she didn't even bother asking if his arm was wounded. She knew it was, and plainly asked about it – a smart thing to do, since gave no space for him to pretend that everything was fine. "Such a bright girl…"

"Its nothing.", he answered. "Stretched the muscle too much… Don't worry about it."

She looked at him like he had slapped her on the face. It was a deeply hurt look, one that made her green eyes show sadness and disappointment.

"What?"

Sakura seated on the grass, holding her knees with both arms around her legs. That movement reminded Kakashi so much of the young girl he had as student, a girl that usually smiled and played, even yelled at him. One that, when seating like that, in that vulnerable position, face hided between her knees, use to turn to her sensei looking for confort and help. Back then, he was the one that would ask what was wrong… Now, now things were different. The Sakura seating next to him was not vulnerable. That girl was not even a girl anymore. She was almost a woman, and one that looked angry and frustrated…

"What?" She didn't turn to face him, giving nothing more than her delicate and beatiful profile to be seen. "You ask what?"

She was becoming really good at this, this way of making him feel confused and uneasy. He sighed:

"Look, I really don't get it… You asked and I…"

"Do you forget", she interrupted, "do you forget that Im having medical training? Don't you even remember that?"

Kakashi wasn't quite sure about her point. "I know. I know, of course. Don't I wait every day for you…?"

"And every day you have a new bruise… another cut… and your chakra is totally drained…"

Could she see that? Kakashi never imagined Sakura was already in that level… He never took much interest in medical techniques, but he had a medical ninja in his team for years, what gave him some basic knowledges. As it was explained to him, the training in medical jutsus was even slower than of the regular jutsus, since it required lots of chakra and a great ability to control it…

And Sakura had it in her, didn't she? In their first trainings and missions, Kakashi was surprised with her natural talent on chakra control. Actually, in that matter, she was ahead of Sasuke and Naruto… Also, she had a natural sensibility when it came to analyzing skills, meaning she could recognize a trap, or sense a genjutsu when most ninja wouldnever notice it. Unfortunately, Kakashi never had the chance of helping her to evolve those abilities, things happened so fast…

It seemed like Tsunade hadnt lost any time with her new student.

"I know you are hurt! You cant even move your arm!"

"Yes, Sakura… I am an idiot." What could he say? To hide things, specially the ones that made him look weak or frail, was already a habit. And old habits die hard.

"I know you would never ask… but Im the one asking!" She finally looked at him, her eyes searching for the only eye he allowed her to see. "Im asking you: Please, let me help you…"

It failed.

The sharingan failed.

Gai groaned and shifted under the weight of the knee that was pressed against his chest. He had already noticed that no genjutsu had happened or would come.

Kakashi pressed his hand against his left eye, a pain that took his breath and darkned all vision. It felt like a thousand needles were piercing his eye and head, an agonized feeling that was only overwhelmed by the shock brought from the fact that his sharingan had failed him. Blind and injured beyond his own understanding, Kakashi didn't noticed that Gai had not put an end into the fight.

He realized the punch was coming, but too late to do anything about it. He even tried to protect his face with a hand, but… too slow. He was too slow when compared to Gai.

Kakashi felt Gai's fist heavly on his face – just above the nose, between his eyes. The most difficult spot to touch in a ninja, his sensei use to say. "No one sees a fist coming and just accept it…"

Almost no one.

His back hit the ground, and all the air in his lungs was forced out of him. The warmth of fresh blood spread on his face, the taste of it taking his mouth, the smell suffocating him. Kakashi could feel the metal of his hitai-ate touching his forehead, the wrecked plate scratching the skin. He could only imagine how pathetic he looked: lying on the ground, blood all over his face, arms and legs stretched, open eyes that could see nothing but darkness.

"Kakashi?" He heard Gai calling from some place directly above him. He probably realized that something was wrong, and that Kakashi would not get up and continue the fight. "Kakashi? Are you alright?"

No. No, not alright. He wasn't alright. Actually, he was feeling terrible, he was feeling like a complete and total idiot, who had just behaved like he promised himself he never again would. He was too proud, he managed to engage in a useless fight with a person that was doing nothing but trying to help. So, no, he wasn't alright. His sharingan failed him, abandoned him like it never had. And now, now he laid on the grass wounded and defeated: just what he deserved.

"Im alive, Gai."

Yes, he was. Different from many others, other good ninja, good people that were now dead. While he insisted on living. Why? Just to accomplish embarrassing defeats? And in a fight against a hard working person, a man with a good heart, good enough to help him – despite the fact that Kakashi never took him seriously. A good ninja. A good teacher.

"What happened? I really thought you had got me back there…"

Now Kakashi could finally see something through the darkness – the day light, shades from clouds and trees, even Gai's head that was watching him from above. The pain in his left eye had eased a little.

"Gai…"

"Yes?"

"I don't want to talk about it."

Gai disappeared from his sight momentarily, and then was back again:

"Do you need help to get up?"

"I think I will stay here… for a while."

"I can take you to the hospital! That arm really…"

"Gai."

"Yes?"

"Please, just leave me alone."

Gai took a few seconds to answer it: "I see. As you wish."

If only his wishes could turn into reality… If only wishes could change the way things are… But Kakashi knew better than that. In his heart, he knew that the only way to make things happen was with his own hands. And work. And, of course, courage. The courage to take risks.

"Please, sensei…" Sakura stared at him, her voice showing how serius she was. "… trust me!"

"I do", was Kakashi's simple answer.

She looked surprised. "You do…?"

"Yes, I do."

Again she kneeled, now so close to him that she rested her hand on his leg. "Will you let me examine your arm?" She smiled. "Promise I wont touch your mask…"

"Help me with my vest. I think you'll have to cut it off."

Sakura approuched her former sensei, and reached his left shoulder with a hand. He holded his breath, waiting for the pain, but it that never came. All Kakashi felt was her touch, a kind and warm touch, light and skilled fingers that ran up and down his arm, pressing carefully, feeling him gently. She was using her chakra, he noticed, so his muscles would relax and the pain could ease. He glanced at her, watching her concentrated features as she worked, her eyes focusing his arm, the effort showing in her face as small drops of sweat appeared on her forehead. Was this too much for her? After all, she had been Tsunade's student for no more than two months, and she couldn't know more than the basic healing jutsus…

"Its okay, Sakura, you don't have to do all…"

"Please, be quiet." She commanded in a tone of voice that would make looks like she was an expert doctor, and not a recent apprentice. Closing her eyes, Sakura took a deep breath. A few moments passed before she spoke again, moments in which Kakashi could feel her chakra flowing through his arm, taking away the pain, giving him a blessed relief.

"Its not fractured", she finally said, and retreated her hands to her lap. Kakashi shivered, the sudden move causing the warmth she gave to turn into cold disconfort. "But your shoulder is dislocated, and the articular cartilage of your elbow is damaged."

"Sounds bad." However, his tone was calm and controlled. He had been injured too many times in his life to worry about this diagnosis. "Can you do anything about it?"

"Well, in the hospital they can…"

"Im not going to the hospital."

"But…"

"No."

She shaked her head in disapproval. "You are behaving just like Naruto – and that's not a compliment!"

"Can you help me? Or should I ask someone else…?"

"Someone else? Like who?"

Clearly, she was angry. Kakashi wouldn't want that, but the idea of going to the hospital, where they would sure keep him in for a few days, and where people would hear about his injuries, and every ninja in the village would want to know what happened, and questions would be asked… That would be worst than the actual pain he was in. He looked at her and said nothing. He had made up his mind, and it was time for her to decide if she wanted to be a part of it or not.

"What am I going to do with you?" She took another deep breath, now from recognizing a defeat.

"Please, just help me with the shoulder… I'll ask for nothing more."

"Yes, I suppose I can help you with that…" She took a kunai from her pocket, ready to cut the clothes he wasn't able to take off.

Under the mask, Kakashi smiled briefly to himself. "Sakura…?"

"Yes?" With speed and precision, the girl cut the front of his shirt in one skilled movement.

"I'm glad you are here", he said, only to realize that she barely listened.

The kunai had stopped, leaving his chest half exposed through the already opened shirt. A long and old scar crossed his body, and she was staring at it.

"What's the matter?", he asked.

Lightly, she ran her finger over the scar, all the way down. "Its from that day, right?" Her green gaze on him, memories coming to her. "When you fought Zabuza…"

"Yeah… "

"I remember. I remember like it was yesterday! Our first real mission, the first outside the village for team seven… It wasn't supposed to be difficult, remember?" He nodded, and she kept going. "And then, we were attacked… I was so scared! Those chuunin… and then, Zabuza, of course, a jounin." A smile came to her features, but quickly left. "On the bridge… I really thought… There were moments when I thought…

"…that we wouldn't make it."

"Right, that we wouldn't make it…" Kakashi could feel her fingers on his skin, the delicate touch that brought to him strange sensations. For so long he didn't have anyone that would just touch him, feel him, try to know him with this physical contact. A warm hand like her's, that took the pain away, that made him shiver because he wanted more, more of that caress. He couldn't help himself, and he took her hand in his own, pressing it against his chest, with such intensity that her palm and fingers - he could feel it so well! - almost seemed printed on him. The contact between them overwhelming all the pain.

Sakura didn't react. She just kept her green eyes on their clasped hands. But said: "You always protected us, sensei. Always. You are so good in it that I almost forgot you can get hurt too."

"What am I doing?", was Kakashi thought. It was wrong to touch her like that, to be so eager for her… wasn't it? Sakura. His former student. A young girl. She was trying to help him as a medical ninja, right? "What is happening here?"

He released her hand. "No… Im not so good with this protection thing…"

"That's not true." She raised her eyes, and tears could be seen there. "You stayed, didn't you?"

"Why…?"

She sobbed: "I have to tell you something."

So, what is Sakura about to tell him…? I promise I will read and review every chapter of every story that the person who guess it ever writes. However, I must say that I gave almost no clues of what is it, so, is a lucky guess…

I apologize for the grammar mistakes or any others. Im doing my best to correct them, but it takes so much time… I read and review my chapters many times, but Im afraid a few mistakes always escapes me.

I hope the next one will not take too long, I have it planned already. Actually, it was supposed to be in the same chapter as this one, but it would be too long…

Next chapter probably will have more special guests… And maybe we can start to look into the Mangekyou Sharingan, how about that? Lets just wait and see…

Thanks for reading!