A team of doctors pushed the gurney towards the operating room, trying their hardest to hurry, as the situation was quite the emergency.

Kakashi's head lolled back and forth with all of the movement, an oxygen mask strapped to his face. His skin had taken on an unhealthy yellow tinge—this was a sign of hepatic encephalopathy. His liver wasn't working to properly process bilirubin, a yellow pigment, and had created an appearance of jaundice, all as a grotesque reaction to his chemotherapy.

In layman's terms, he needed an immediate transplant. Luckily, being an extremely important asset to the hidden leaf, he was always near the top of the list.

He blinked his eyes against the dizzying array of ceiling lights, feeling completely nauseated. He'd taken a small nap, and woken up completely ill. It was enough to piss anyone off.

Shizune held her side of the gurney as tightly as she could, never stopping for a moment to process what was actually happening.

She looked at him straight in the eyes through the chaos. "Kakashi! Listen to me...Kakashi?"

The Med nin could barely get the words out, completely out of breath.

He perceived her call, blinking towards the sound. "Shizune," he mumbled through his mask, fogging it up, "I'm going to die, aren't I?"

A tear slid down her face without her realizing. She shook her head, not allowing it.

"You're not going to die! Do you understand? You aren't allowed to die on me yet, Kakashi Hata-"

The doors of the OR opened and Shizune was ushered out, left to a torturous wait.

She stood still for a few moments, before ambling to the waiting room where everyone else was. Everyone, as in Asuma, Gai, Kurenai, and Sakura. Sasuke was nowhere to be seen.

Hungry eyes met her own, waiting for an answer, needing reassurance. Kurenai was leaning her head on Asuma's shoulder, her eyes red rimmed from the day's happenings. He stroked her hair, gaze stony and eerily blank.

Sakura held her head in her hands, having to cope with the prospect of death and serious illness as a 13 year old. Her hair was awfully disheveled, visage ashen and exhausted.

Gai stood up. "H-how is he, Shizune?"

The man looked completely serious, drained of all his exuberance and joy. Kakashi was slipping through his hands like sand. But Gai had to realize that he had been this whole time.

"He's…"

Shizune blinked, shaking her head and swallowing the lump of coins in her throat. Gai maintained his eye contact, waiting for an answer.

"Um...I...I-I need to go…" she said quietly, voice cracking with emotion.

She turned clumsily and went to find the only person who would understand her situation.

Tsunade.

——————————————————————

Shizune entered Tsunade's office without knocking.

The hokage was on her feet, a crease between her brows as she looked at a few sheets of MRI scans.

The kunoichi trudged in and Tsunade turned around, her features visibly grim with bad news.

Shizune's face twisted into an expression of worry. "Lady Tsunade, what is it?"

The old woman sat down at her desk, massaging her temples, averting eye contact. "…I really don't know how to tell you this. You might want to take a seat."

Her disciple rushed forward and did as she was told, gulping down the bile in her throat. "What happened?"

Are those Kakashi's MRI scans?

Tsunade looked into her eyes, sighing. "It's about Kakashi. He...he's going to die."

Shizune's heart stopped in her chest, gray orbs going wide. It was hard for her to take a proper inhale after hearing such a powerful statement. She clasped her hands together tightly, preparing herself for the blow.

"W-what?"

Tsunade nodded, past the point of crying. "We've definitely shrunk his Astrocytoma to a considerably smaller size. However, now we have to worry about the fact that he has new tumors. Both in his lungs. Lung cancer doesn't usually present symptoms in the beginning stages, so it makes sense that he didn't complain about it."

She pointed to the white masses on the chest area of the scan, as if to get her point across better.

"None of our treatments are working on him. And I suppose that's because his mother gave him an extreme sensitivity to most chemotherapeutic agents. We could try treating it, but to be completely realistic, with two different types of cancers, his prognosis is very, very bad. We have to think about his quality of life."

Shizune couldn't take in air properly. Her breaths came in fast inhales and even shorter exhales—she was hyperventilating.

"Shizune?" Tsunade called in concern, "Shizune."

The young kunoichi's heart was breaking. Kakashi was the only person she'd ever felt anything around, and now he was…

Dying.

In a few months, he would cease to exist.

She felt strong arms wrap around her shoulders and let herself openly wail as she'd been wanting to the whole day.

——————————————————————

It had been a few days since the operation, and Kakashi swayed in and out of consciousness, not staying awake long enough to hold a proper conversation with anyone.

His eyes opened blearily, inspecting the room. His gaze landed on a blonde woman hunched over on a chair, looking at her feet in deep thought.

"Lady...Tsunade," he croaked as loud as he could, trying to get her attention.

Her head shot up at his voice. "Kakashi? You're awake!"

"How are you feeling?" She asked him, almost as a routine.

He scoffed. "Drugged."

"Well, we did put you on some painkillers, call them what you may," Tsunade said, chuckling in response.

Kakashi shrugged with a wet cough, shifting on his pillows and closing his eyes with a deep exhale. He was very sleepy.

"Kakashi?"

He opened an eye, keeping the other closed. "Hm?"

Tsunade shifted uncomfortably in her chair. "I have something to tell you. It's bad news."

Staring at her, he sat up in bed, the effort taking away most of his energy. God, he was so tired of this bullshit. "Just say it."

She blinked at his straightforwardness, deciding to reciprocate it.

"Kakashi, you have two new tumors in your lungs."

He looked at her blankly.

"Your prognosis isn't looking good at all. We could start treatment if you'd like, but there's a low chance that it'll do anything. Your brain cancer is entering its last stages, and on top of that, you have another new cancer."

Kakashi's gaze shifted down to his lap.

"So what I'm trying to say is, there are a few key decisions you need to make right now. First, whether or not you're gonna take the treatment," she started hesitantly, "Second, your code status. If your heart were to stop… we could save you. Or you could be DNR. Do not resuscitate. And we would let you go."

He felt his eyes watering.

"I'm not telling you what to do, but I thought it would be best if I could personally present you with all of your options."

There was a long pause.

"I...I don't know what to do," he told her, voice breaking. "I was sure in the beginning of all of this that I would pull through...but now I'm scared. I can't..."

He started to visibly shake. Kakashi wrapped his arms around himself tightly, closing his eyes as he struggled to deal with the idea that he would soon be dead. His head slowly lowered, shoulders convulsing with silent sobs.

Tsunade softened, realizing that she should've been less blunt. Sometimes she forgot that the copy nin wasn't as emotionally tough as he seemed on the outside. But then again, they were talking about his death.

"Kakashi…" she whispered sympathetically, rubbing his arm.

He jerked away, ears ringing. "No! D-don't touch me...don't…"

He grabbed the cloth above his chest, now weeping loudly and openly, his breaths getting faster by the moment. The extent of his pain seemed to be never ending—he felt as if he'd never been more devastated than in that moment. This hurt much more than when he'd initially found out he had cancer. At least then there had been some kind of hope.

Now it was just...done.

Kakashi put his head in his hands, his heartbroken cries filling the room's silence. His eyes widened as if he were shocked at the sound of his own sobbing.

Suddenly, he was enveloped in a warm embrace. Not allowing any complaints, Tsunade silently motioned for him to scoot over on the bed and proceeded to sit with him. She reclined backwards into a comfortable position, putting her hand on his head and lowering it down to rest on her shoulder.

The two lay there, Kakashi shivering and hiccoughing in the hokage's arms, grasping her blouse tightly as uncontrollable sobs wracked his body.

He was supposed to stay alive for his students' weddings. He was supposed to be winning all his battles against Gai. He was supposed to be fighting as a ninja for his pride and joy, Konoha.

But instead, he was crying, having been given news of his new tumors and expected death.

Tsunade rubbed circles on his back, urging him to close his eyes, and just fall asleep.

"I can't…I c-can't breathe," he started painfully, "Lady Tsunade, I can't b-breathe."

She exhaled raggedly, a tear slipping out of her own eyes. Tsunade took his hand and held it tightly in her own, locking her gaze with his.

"Kakashi," she said, "inhale, then exhale."

She repeated the mantra several times, doing it herself an an example. Breath catching on his cries, Kakashi followed her command.

The hokage never thought the day would come that she'd be teaching Sakumo's son how to breathe. Her lip trembling, Tsunade held him tighter.

He slept in her embrace, face matted with the salty remnants of his panic attack.