It was around 2:00 in the afternoon, and the sun glared across the tile, illuminating the hospital room, and heating it up to a temperature that made it slightly more comfortable for Kakashi.

At that moment, he was sitting up, the slide up counter top on the side of his bed pulled out, so that he could place his tray of lunch onto it. Also in the room was his best friend, Gai. The man watched Kakashi carefully, noticing as he lazily pushed around his rather untouched beef and rice. The bowl of miso soup was about halfway finished, since the liquid broth was much easier to ingest.

"Kakashi, you need to finish your food. It's probably stone cold by now…" Gai pointed out, unamused, "And when you're done, we're going for a walk."

Sighing, the Hatake nodded, shoveling a clump of rice into his mouth. Kakashi didn't particularly like it, but recently, Gai had been making him walk around the hospital, at least a few times a week. The man insisted that Kakashi needed to stay mobile and active, because he was in bed all the time.

Suddenly, he put down his chopsticks, looking up and making eye contact with his friend.

"Can we go now? I don't want to eat anymore."

Gai eyed the tray, catching sight of how he hadn't really made a dent in the main entree.

"You should eat more, my rival," he told him with a furrowed brow, "You have so much left."

"I'm full," the Hatake responded blankly, already putting the tray onto the side table next to his bed. After proceeding to fold back the table top, he got up, his legs creaky and stiff from being in bed for such a long time.

"Let's go," he continued, slouching in front of Gai as he waited. The blood from his head surged down to his feet, leaving him lightheaded and rather dizzy. He hid it well.

It was starting to feel numbing and monotonous to be in the same position for hours on end, so Kakashi would gladly accept a change of scenery. It hardly mattered to him that he was exhausted.

"Right now? Sure," Gai responded quickly, glad that his friend was actually kind of initiating it. Perhaps he had more energy than usual today.

With that, they headed towards the door, opening it and turning towards the right, into the hallway.

For a minute or two, they walked in silence. Kakashi didn't feel like speaking- he was focused on making his gait as even as possible. His shins were leaden and weak, and there was a strange, prickly, pins and needles sensation throughout his feet and ankles. However, he wasn't particularly concerned, as it usually took him a bit to gain his bearings when he went on strolls around the hospital.

"Hey, Gai?" Kakashi started suddenly, unable to hide the slight stagger in his step. He felt cold, and as if each breath was tight and shaky. If you looked closely, you would be able to see the subtle tremor in his limbs.

He wanted to sit down, but of course, he didn't listen to his body. At this point, he felt quite normal, in that he didn't feel much of a difference from the pain and fatigue he normally endured.

"Yeah?" the man replied, slowing down his pace to match Kakashi's.

"I was thinking, Gai...and I want to compete with you. Like we used to," he started with a downcast gaze, reflecting on the progression of their friendship, and their long lasting rivalry, "Just one last challenge."

Gai's eyes widened at the idea, his lips slightly parted as he stared at his best friend. Ever since Kakashi had taken a turn for the worse, and especially after his lung cancer diagnosis, Gai had written off the prospect of a rivalry with him.

To hear Kakashi ask this late, in such a haggard state at that, made Gai wonder if he was doing so because he felt his end was close.

He sighed, breaking eye contact.

"Kakashi...As much as I want to, how can we? I-I mean we mostly used to spar, or do physical challenges…"

The Hatake chuckled at his friend's reluctance. To him, anything was fine, physically exerting or not. Even if they just played rock paper scissors, and called it a day, he would be perfectly content.

"What? You think I'm too weak?" Kakashi prodded, feigning shock and hurt, "I'll have to remind you then, that I'm currently in the lead. 51-50."

"Weak?! N-no, of course not!" he cried, oblivious to the Hatake's sarcasm, "It's just that…"

Gai knew that he wouldn't enjoy it; it would feel like he was finalizing the idea of Kakashi's death. Participating in their last competition would be like putting an end to their rivalry, and he didn't know if he could withstand that. All he wanted was to remember it for exactly what it was, not taint it with the hardships that befell Kakashi, and stole away his strength and will to live.

But he knew that this was important to his friend. Maybe Kakashi, who'd received torment after torment, wanted to reminisce on his past, and pass away with some solace and peace.

"It's okay. We can talk about this later," Kakashi told him lightly, observing how he was deep in thought, and visibly frowning.

Gai nodded in agreement, secretly grateful. He finally looked up, noticing that they'd practically made a whole lap around the fourth floor.

"How are you holding up? Wanna keep walking?" he started, eyeing Kakashi up and down. He could see how exhausted he was with a single glance, but then again, that was how he'd looked for at least the past month.

"Ah…" the man breathed out in return, wiping away the beads of sweat on his forehead, "Sure."

"If you want to stop we can," Gai reassured him, "Your room isn't far."

Kakashi shook his head. "No."

With this, the two continued, though Gai was genuinely concerned, eyeing his friend every other second. The Hatake was looking straight ahead, as if he were trying to focus. His manner of moving was a bit off kilter and awkward, and his face was pale, visibly clammy with perspiration. Kakashi gritted his teeth, knowing that he should return to the comfort of his bed. Memories of his rivalry had brought up an old flame that used to burn within him- maybe he couldn't actually fight Gai anymore, but he was going to walk that second lap.

He felt his breath starting to quicken; his legs were growing wobbly and numb, unable to handle the simple exertion.

"Kakashi? You okay?" Gai began with a furrowed brow, noticing the significant decline in his energy, "Okay, that's it, we're going back to the room-"

In a sudden lapse of balance, Kakashi awkwardly placed one foot in front of the other, causing himself to hurtle forward, grabbing at air. His stark surroundings rushed by, and before he knew it, he'd collided with the hard tile. The impact was enough to make him cry out, his bones reverberating with pain.

"Kakashi!" Gai exclaimed, falling to his knees at his friend's side. He put a hand on the man's heaving back, acutely anguished at the repercussions that such a dramatic fall could have on his rival's already unstable health.

He carefully turned him onto his side to see if he was conscious, eliciting a distressed moan out of him.

"H-how...?" Kakashi brought out with difficulty, clutching his chest as he tried to steady his ragged breathing. He put a trembling hand on the side of his cheek, hissing, as he already felt a bruise forming.

Letting his palm drop to the floor, he exhaled unsteadily, closing his eyes and wondering if he'd broken anything- the amount of pain he was in didn't feel right for just a fall.

Gai put a hand on Kakashi's bicep, reassuring him to stay conscious, as a resident from down the hall had seen the commotion, and was hurrying towards them.

"Kakashi? Kakashi?!"

Everything went black.

He woke up curled on his side, back in the hospital bed. It was dark outside, no natural light coming through the window. Almost instinctively, he put a hand to his burning chest, drawing in a tight, shallow breath.

"Kakashi?" Gai called, getting up out of his seat slightly, and then lowering himself back down again, despite the pent up potential energy within him. After his fall, Kakashi had slept for hours- it was now around 7 in the evening, so nearly five hours had passed.

Instead of responding to his name, Kakashi coughed- harsh, dry, barking hacks that were almost convulsional in nature. He scrambled to get up, holding onto the railing weakly, attempting to pull himself into somewhat of an upright position, but to no avail. He clutched his sweatshirt, trying to find a pause in between his coughing fit where he could breathe.

"Gai..." he wheezed with difficulty, sputtering with each violent expulsion of air.

Now standing up, Gai rushed to pour him a cup of water, observing the scene with hefty trepidation, as his friend was clearly not doing so well. Kakashi's face was sallow, and a blotchy bruise was spread across one of his cheekbones, green and purple in color, and slightly swollen. His hair was matted and damp, hanging over his dim eyes, which displayed just how exhausted his soul was.

In the midst of a coughing fit, Kakashi agitatedly pushed away the beverage with more force than he'd intended, causing a little to fall out of the glass and splash onto the tile. Involuntarily, Gai stepped back, wondering exactly what he could do to help. With panic brewing in his gut, he pressed the call button, knowing that something was different, and wrong.

The Hatake put his face in his hands, trying his best to draw in even breaths, though his were inevitably sticky and shaky at that moment. There was a perfusing heat throughout his body, adding to the anxiety that came with his insufficient breathing, and leaving his visage and his hands sweaty. Restlessly, he pulled off his black hoodie, revealing a loose gray t-shirt underneath, soaked with perspiration at the collar. He leaned back into the pillows with rather labored breathing, feeling as though he had absolutely no energy left to deal with his current situation.

Soon, an on-call resident entered, her eyes scanning the bed, and quickly realizing that the patient was in a huge amount of distress. She paced over to him, immediately beginning to check his vitals. Looking over at the EKG, she saw that his heart rhythm was relatively normal, though his heart beat was fast, in conglomeration with his abnormally rapid breathing.

"Kakashi, how are you feeling?" She asked him, placing the buds of her chakra infused stethoscope into her ears.

Though a normal one would've worked as well, the medical nin of Konoha had found that sending a pulse of chakra through the metal of the stethoscope could help one to do detailed auscultations quicker, and thus, more efficiently.

He shook his head, shutting his burning eyes, "Bad."

"I'm sorry to hear that," she spoke sympathetically, catching sight of how he'd practically gotten back under the covers, as if he didn't even know why she was there.

"I need you to sit up Kakashi," the middle-aged woman continued firmly at his silence, "After I'm done running my tests, you can go back to sleep."

When he failed to move, Gai put an arm around his shoulders and slowly helped him up, choosing to ignore his sharp inhale at being forced into sitting position. He sighed loudly, his head slumping forward almost immediately. Gai lips tilted downward as he noticed that Kakashi was still short of breath, occasionally releasing sharp, unproductive coughs.

Pulling up his shirt, she placed the drum of the stethoscope underneath his collarbone, instructing him to take a deep breath. He inhaled as much as he could, albeit shakily, in an unsteady manner. She moved down his chest, just under his ribcage, repeating the process on his right side as well. Over his normal lung sounds, she observed-just barely- a popping noise, that faintly sounded like opening a velcro fastener. Having finished her examination, she wrapped the stethoscope around her neck, her face becoming serious, as if there was something wrong.

The resident knew that his lung sounds indicated that he had too much fluid in his airways.

"You can lean back. It's okay," She told him, noticing how hard it was for him to keep himself upright. Placing a hand on his chest, she directed green chakra towards it, essentially performing a scan to check for any abnormalities. Closing her eyes, she concentrated on making a mental image of his lungs, using years of practice and built up intuition to find the general location of the fluid. After having checked various locations on his torso, she opened her eyes, retracting her arm, and jotting something down on a notepad she'd placed on the foot of the bed.

"What's wrong? Is there something wrong?" Gai questioned as he noticed her grave expression, fidgeting with his hands uneasily. She exhaled deeply, looking at Gai, and then at Kakashi, who was laying down, with a half-lidded, distracted gaze.

"Yes, there is," She said bluntly, "I'm afraid Kakashi has fluid in his air sacs...that's why it's so difficult for him to breathe."

She picked up one of Kakashi's limp hands, noticing that his fingernails were tinted blue, indicating that his oxygen levels were lower than they needed to be.

"W-what? He has pneumonia, maybe that's why?" Gai responded, paling significantly. He did't know much about medicine, and diseases. However, it was obvious to him that Kakashi might not be able to handle something as serious as excessive fluid in his lungs, especially given that he already had lung cancer.

"Pneumonia does cause fluid to gather in the alveoli, but so does ARDS. Actually, ARDS can happen because of pneumonia, too. It's a little confusing to draw conclusions between the two, since they both also present with similar lung sounds. However, I think Kakashi may have some sort of respiratory distress- his oxygen levels are lower than they need to be. And in my chakra exam, I saw that his air sacs were struggling to provide adequate oxygen to the rest of his bloodstream."

Gai gulped, looking down at the floor with parted lips and ringing ears, feeling as if he could barely breathe. Kakashi was literally fine earlier; He'd even wanted to go for a walk voluntarily.

He didn't understand what was happening; it almost felt like he was in a dream.

"-need to take him for a CT scan right away. Sir? Are you okay?"

He gazed at Kakashi with a palpating pain in his chest, watching how he'd drifted into unconsciousness, his complexion pasty, bruised and profusely sweaty. His chest was rising up and down quickly, and Gai could tell that he was acutely struggling much more than before- sure it had been hard for him to breathe in the past days, and even weeks, but it had never been this bad.

"Sir?"

All he could do was hope was that Kakashi's fate would miraculously change.

A/n: It's approaching an end. Also ARDS stands for Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome.