"What's that?" Sakura and Naruto were trudging their way around the outskirts of the village.

"It looks like… but that's odd."

"Yeah, why would there be a light in the Uchiha part of town?"

"Should we…?" Sakura shifted nervously, worrying at a pink strand of hair.

"Yeah, let's check it out!"

The door was right in front of them, filling them with apprehension. It was Sasuke's door, which left them wondering if their friend had come back, or if some rogue ninja was just using this as a temporary hideout.

Neither seemed like a great option.

To their surprise, the door was unlocked and swung open without protest. Naruto stepped forward, motioning for Sakura to stay behind him. She didn't complain. In front of them was a hallway, half-lit by a fire they could hear but not see. Following the light, they found themselves at the doorway to a kitchen.

"Hey!" the blond exclaimed as something small and hard rammed into his stomach, knocking him to the ground.

"You're Kakashi's humans!" the small thing shouted in relief.

"Pakkun?" Sitting up, he got a better look at the pug taking up his lap. "Is Kakashi here?"

"Yeah, but the idiot's gone and passed out again."

Sakura pushed past them into the warm kitchen, nearly tripping over her sensei in the process. "Really, sensei?" She bent over, wincing when she felt his forehead. "What are his symptoms, Pakkun?"

Trotting back into the room, the pug sat by his master's head. "As far as I can tell, he just had a bad cold and refused to do anything for it. And, judging by the one eye I can see, he hasn't gotten any sleep in a couple of days, either. Now he's got a fever and is delirious. At least, he was when he was last talking to me."

"At least he had the good sense to summon you."

"Yeah…" Pakkun didn't see the need to tell them it was only because the copy ninja was craving ramen. He could at least save Kakashi the small shred of dignity he had left. Small being the operative word here, as he was passed out on the floor of his ex-student's kitchen. "Yeah, at least he did that."

"What should we do?" Naruto joined the pug on the floor.

"Well," Sakura bit her lip in thought, "we probably shouldn't move him back to his apartment. At this point, the best we can do is to try and keep him cool so his fever goes down. I'll see if I can help that along with some of the medical ninjutsu Tsunade-sama showed me."

The blond nodded enthusiastically, looking at her with a serious expression.

"So don't just sit, baka! Go grab a cloth and get it wet!"

Saluting, Naruto raced to one of the cupboards. "Ok, I'm looking for a cloth. Cloth, cloth, cloth… Ooh, look! Cup ramen!"

"Cloth, Naruto!"

"Can I eat the ramen after I find the cloth?"

She sighed. "I don't really care, as long as you grab me a cloth!"

"Here!" He finally grabbed a washcloth, running under the tap. "Catch!" He tossed it to Sakura, who caught it easily. She set it on Kakashi's forehead, mentally going over the hand seals for an appropriate jutsu. "How long has it been since he passed out?"

"About two minutes," replied Pakkun.

Sakura's hand started glowing, surrounded by a sphere of chakra, and she gently placed it on the man's chest. "Now, this won't heal him completely, but it'll at least bring down the fever a bit."

"Anything's a help at this point. Hey, think we can move the kid to a bed or something?"

"Not a bad plan. Hey, Naruto!"

Naruto looked up from the cup of ramen he had just placed on the stove. "Hm?"

"Come and help me carry Kakashi-sensei to a bed, will you?"

"Sure!" He grabbed the man's shoulders as Sakura picked up his feet. After a bit of resituating their load, they managed to take several weaving steps toward the doorway. "Man," he panted, "for not eating anything, he sure is heavy!"

"Yeah, well," Sakura gasped, trying to get a better hold on her sensei's sandaled feet, "he should be significantly heavier."

"Is it bad that I'm kinda glad he's not?"

"If he weighed what he was supposed to, we might not have to carry him like this!" She blew a piece of hair out of her eyes, realizing that they had inadvertently carried him to Sasuke's bedroom. Well, this was awkward. A subtle blush crept into her cheeks as she realized she had never been in his bedroom before. "Hey, would you mind opening the door, Pakkun?"

"No hands, remember?"

"Oh, just break it down, then! No one's going to care at this point!"

"If you say so."

The two kids closed their eyes as splinters of wood bounced off their exposed arms and legs. At least the door was open now. Sakura blushed fiercely as they lugged their ungainly load over to Sasuke's bed. The whole room was plain, with gray walls and a deep blue bedspread. The only decoration in the room was a large Uchiha crest on the far wall, and several kunai were scattered on a plain wooden desk.

They set Kakashi down on the bed with simultaneous sighs of relief.

"Now what?"

"We wait for him to wake up so we can get him some fluids."

"Right."

Sitting down by the bed, Naruto crossed his arms. Soon, Sakura joined him.

After several minutes of silence, the blond started tapping his fingers on the floor. "So… know any good games?"

"I spy?"

This worked for about three rounds, but became increasingly difficult, due to the sparse nature of Sasuke's decorating.

"Is it… a kunai?"

"Yeah, but which one?"

"The left one."

"…Yeah."

"I spy something… gray."

"Is it a kunai?"

"No."

"Is it the wall?"

"Maaybe. Which one?"

"The one right in front of us."

"…Yeah."

If there was one thing Maito Gai was known for, it was for his legendary persistence. He would train harder than anyone else, pushing himself to his limits. He would do countless pushups, countless laps, countless exercises, all so that he could be a master of taijutsu. None of these exercises, of course, were helping him find Kakashi any faster. But he refused to give up! He would find his rival!

If only he knew where to look. He had sprinted around Konohagakure at least three times by now, and none of the (slightly scared) bystanders he had questioned had seen Kakashi. His rival had to be somewhere in the village! A growing worry started gnawing in Gai's stomach. Wherever he was, he hoped Kakashi was ok. Surely his friend would have the good sense to-

Then again, Kakashi had just stood outside for four and a half hours when he knew he was sick.

Gai looked around himself with renewed energy. He had to find him!

"Hnn…"

Sakura and Naruto leapt to their feet as Kakashi stirred. "Sensei? Are you awake?" Sakura asked eagerly.

Instead of replying, Kakashi continued to turn restlessly in the small bed. His face held a pained expression, and he drew in several strained breaths. "Mm, I'm s-sorry."

"Is he…?" Naruto asked.

"I think he's still delirious, Naruto," she replied.

Pakkun scrambled onto the bed. "Shhh, you're fine, 'Kashi-kun."

"No, n-no, it's… it's not ok. I killed her, but I p-promised…"

"Naruto. Sakura. Leave now. Your sensei probably won't want you to hear whatever he's going to say in this state."

"Well, he should've thought of that before he refused to take care of himself!" Sakura crossed her arms. "Besides, I'm a medic nin, and I will stay with my patient."

"Fine. But don't bring any of this up to him, alright?"

"Rin," he groaned, "Rin, I'm… so sorry; it was the only way." He brought a shaking hand up to his covered eye, then shook his head violently. "Don't look at me like that, please."

"Shhh," Pakkun awkwardly patted his master's head.

"P-please forgive me," the man was shaking now.

"He forgives you; it's ok, kid."

"No, no, he's angry."

"He's not angry."

"I'm sorry! I tried, I tried to save her!"

"I know you did; he knows you did."

"How… I couldn't…"

"Shhhh," he tried again, "It'll be ok."

Suddenly, Kakashi's eye flew open, and tears started running down his cheek, quickly darkening his mask. "Did I… did I really kill her?"

"It's ok, 'Kashi."

"Did. I. Kill. Her. Tell, me, Pakkun!" he panted, sitting up abruptly and clenching the scruff of the dog's neck with one hand. His eye was on the pug, but didn't seem to truly see him at all.

"It's ok," he repeated, slightly afraid of the strong hold his master had on him. "It's ok, kid, you… you didn't have another choice."

"There's… always… another choice," he growled.

Voice growing more confident, "There wasn't then."

"But…" his voice wavered, "I still broke my promise. I still… failed. I, I failed, Pakkun."

"You didn't fail, kid." He tried to keep himself from crying along with his friend. "Sometimes, doing the right thing isn't all it's cracked up to be."

"I… I guess it's not."

After another minute, Kakashi's eye fluttered closed, and he released the grip on his neck, falling back onto the pillows with a sigh. Pakkun let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding. "Sakura," he said quietly, "now would be a good time to do that fever-reducing jutsu again."

Sakura flinched, feeling that she had just witnessed something intensely personal. Which, to be honest, she had. As she put the glowing sphere of chakra onto her sensei again, she couldn't help feeling sorry for not obeying Pakkun.

Seeing the look on her face, the pug said, "Hey, don't worry about it. You were bound to hear something like this sooner or later."

"I am sorry, though."

"I know. But, there's nothing you can really do about it now. How's the jutsu coming?"

"I just finished. I put a bit more chakra into this one than the last one. Hopefully, his fever will come down enough for him to be lucid sometime soon."

"And kids?"

"Yeah?" Both Naruto and Sakura turned to look at the small dog.

"Don't go bringing this up to Kakashi or anyone, got that?"

They nodded, and Pakkun was satisfied.

Comments welcome. Thank you to all who have followed/favorite/reviewed so far! I'm glad you're enjoying this so far!

Predictions: Will Gai actually find Kakashi?