A/N: Thank you all for the encouraging reviews. This story plot is going to be tough to deal with (you'll see why in this and the coming chapters) so I need all the encouragement I can get.

If any of you didn't know, Ukki is the name of Kakashi's potted plant on his window sill in the manga. I think you spot it in the anime..I'm not sure. I just added that in there for fun.

And to let all of you know, no Kakashi is not going to die. I'm not that cruel.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Right now the world seems so silent

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

A steady pulse beeped throughout his eardrums. The repetitive noise was his only accomplice in the small room, he had decided once he woke up five minutes ago. Despite his closed eyelids, he could feel that a darkness laid beyond them, signaling that day had not yet rose from its slumber. There was a constant dripping beside him that made his broken frame shiver with each plop. The cloud that refused to dissipate from his head made his usually tact mind slow and wither. No matter how much he clawed, the fog would not disperse and let him dwell on the situation at hand. All that he could do was wait and listen to the sound of a liquid dripping and remind himself to take a breath.

Something foreign aroused his clouded senses. Warmth upon his left hand, a murmuring of incoherent words. The cold ice of his hand melted as a smaller one incased it, squeezing with reassurance. He almost forgot to breathe.

He could not ward off the lethargic fog of his mind no longer. His senses dulled until all that was left was the distinctive warmth of his left hand and the consistent beeping. His fight was over and he had lost as the sweeping sense of forced sleep dowsed him.

It never gave him time to squeeze back.

Breathe in...

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

A fierce burning sensation on her eyelids jolted her awake. Snapping them open, Sakura twisted and turned, eyes darting about, to find the source of such a painful throb. Clutching a hand to her chest, she released a breath she had been holding as her gaze fell upon the small window. The sun had decided to awake her from her slacking off. As the thought entered her mind, she turned her head quickly over to Kakashi's monitors, earning her a nice stiff neck for the rest of the day.

Murmuring an annoyed "ow", Sakura's eyes traced over the ever-updated graphs and charts of Kakashi's vitals. Sakura knitted her brows together as everything seemed to appear abnormally normal. Her previous fear of last night resumed its choking hold, leaving her gasping for answers as to why? The clenching of her stomach didn't uphold while she tried to reassure herself and scolded as to why she wasn't rejoicing. The feeling of 'too-perfect' never withered, but as Sakura did a once over to Kakashi's monitors (making sure they were plugged in right) and his body (poor thing would probably have to be bedridden with those ribs), all signs pointed to healthy (well for the most part).

Sitting back in her chair, Sakura gazed upon her sensei's closed eyelids.

Please open...

She did all she could do. From chakra-healing exercises and regular medicine to holding hands and whispering warm words of comfort, Sakura drained herself useless over the course of the day and a half. The medicine world wasn't as exciting as some of her friends presumed it was. It had to do with a lot of waiting, testing a certain pink-haired kunoichi's patience to the brink (which wasn't much in retrospect). This was proven if one cared to take a look around in the small recuperating room. Numerous doodles sporting Sakura's latent drawing skills littered the room, some actually taped onto Kakashi's bed railings. The drawings ranged from tiny, undecipherable scribbles to elaborate portraits of friends and teammates. And senseis...

Sakura ran her hands down her sleep-deprived face, groaning softly at how her sensei seemed to be late for everything. Everything. The anesthesiologist had already come and gone, administering another minimal dose when Kakashi's stress levels had spiked. He had been puzzled as to why the copy-nin had not woken up in the time expected (being over a day late). He had told Sakura not to fret however, once she took on early signs of hyperventilating, and that this situation was perfectly normal.

Normal my ass. It's been "normal" with good ole Kaka-sensei since the first day we met him...

A sigh racked through her sore frame. Sleeping (even if semi-consciously) in a sitting-up position was never good for the spine. She could imagine a chiropractor slapping her at the positions she dosed in last night. It didn't matter though. Kakashi was the patient here and his spinal cord wasn't twisted and bent as he lay peacefully on soft bed sheets. It made Sakura jealous. Sakura rubbed out the incoherent envies from her sleepy eyes. Glancing once again at the man in the navy blue mask (wouldn't he be proud that she chose to blindly replace his mask over administering oxygen over his naked face), Sakura prayed he'd wake up soon so she wouldn't be so bored. And so she could beat the hell out of him all over again for not being more careful.

It worried her. His aloof personality in everyday life irked her to no end, but underneath the eye-creases and hair-ruffles and dirty little books, Kakashi was a killing machine that would take a three-month solo mission without a second thought. She didn't like that. One day, his loyalty will get him killed and Sakura couldn't help but to dwell that he was reckless (like overusing his Sharingan and draining his chakra from chidori) on purpose. The thought was utterly ridiculous, but she couldn't get the notion out of her head. Were these S-ranked missions not enough for him? So, to keep the adrenaline rush of clashing kunais, the man literally put his ass on a plate for the enemy to see if he could get out of the pickle he set up for himself?

No. Kakashi was clueless, but the elite jounin wasn't stupid. Why would he ever take such a huge risk? This wasn't a game to him. Well...it shouldn't be.

Shaking her head and blaming her inquiries on her half-hour-sleep, Sakura cracked her stiff knuckles and prepped for his awakening.

"SAKURA-CHAN!"

An annoyed shout from a nurse and a slight crash was Sakura's only warning before a streak of orange and black clambered into the small room, promptly slamming the door behind it. Sakura paused in her preparations, almost dropping her tray of gauze and iodine, and turned to glare at her intruder.

"Naruto! I thought I had set a strict rule with you about not barging into the recuperating room, BAKA!"

Naruto no baka only grinned sheepishly and rubbed the back of his blonde head.

Sakura wasn't finished with her lecture, stomping closer to Naruto with every hissed-out word, "No one is allowed to come in at such a precious time. It could be a life and death situation!"

Naruto laughed nervously, "Ah, Sakura-chan, I only wanted to see if Kaka-sensei was okay..."

Taking the time to look around the room for the first time, Naruto's brow creased in worry as he laid his cerulean orbs upon his former sensei's fragile body. Tilting his head to one side, Naruto stepped closer to the hospital bed and turned to stare at Kakashi's heart monitors.

His voice was suddenly - eerily - serious, "Why isn't he up yet?"

Sakura tucked a pink lock behind her ear as she bit her lip in indecision. To tell the truth? Or a sugar-coated lie?

Sakura thought Naruto was old enough to hear her diagnosis, "I don't really know. He's been like that for a day and a half. The person who sedated him doesn't know why he hasn't waken yet. I can only assume that his injuries may be more than skin deep."

Naruto's brow furrowed even further as he quietly added, "It takes a lot to underhand Kaka-sensei."

Sakura nodded, "Aa. According to my estimations, he should be waking in a few hours perhaps. I can't be sure though," Sakura snuck in a quick smile, "Sensei was always late."

Naruto's face beamed with humor as a wide grin plastered itself across his face, "Haha! Of course! It's baka-sensei. He always likes to have a suspenseful entrance, ne? You hear me Kaka-sensei?!"

Naruto leaned into Kakashi's exposed ear and bellowed, "If you don't wake up in time I'll burn all your books and tell ero-sennin not to give you anymore 'personal copies'!"

The stress level graph minimally spiked.

Sakura grinded her teeth and stomped her way to Naruto and smacked him upside the head and proceeded to drag him away from Kakashi by his ear. Sakura huffed and ignored Naruto's numerous pleas to be good and to not make any more threats and to try harder to not involuntarily kill their dear old sensei before being booted out of the room into the annoyed nurse's clutches. Sakura glared at the closed door before turning on her heel to fluff Kakashi's pillow.

Checking his stress levels, Sakura breathed a sigh of relief when they were at normal heights once she threw Naruto out of the small space. She made a mental note to get Tsunade's henchmen to guard the doors. She had been around Naruto for too long to know that he was not only a baka, but a stubborn one at that.

Sakura didn't trust herself to be alone with her thoughts, though. She rather not dwell on the option of Kakashi not waking up or that he was purposely reckless this time. The latter was a no-brainer of course (right?). Why would the copy-nin want to get stuck in a hospital? His top loathe? It was beyond Sakura but then again, most things about her loveable (and slightly hentai) sensei were just too far for her to reach.

Sakura pouted at the sudden memory of asking her sensei why he wore a mask in the first place. She was positively sure that there were no double-meanings in her query to actually take it off. She had constructed this question with much care and honestly wanted to know. Was it because of allergies? Too hot for Konoha? Just to mess with everybody's mind?

Sakura slurped up another ramen noodle and ever-so-innocently scooted closer to the sharingan user beside her. They were alone at the ramen hut, a perfect opportunity to ask him about that damn mask with no Naruto around to make it look suspicious. She watched with fascination as her sensei's ramen bowl became less and less filled before her very own jade eyes. No matter how long she stared at his hands and mask, they never seemed to move. His lightening quick skills her just too fast for her to follow. Inwardly sighing, Sakura propped up her arm on the counter and nonchalantly mixed her noodles and pork around while asking, "Kakashi-sensei?"

Kakashi only supplied her with a "Mm?" to indicate that he was listening. He idly lifted a chopstick wrapped with ramen to his face before it disappeared from view. When Sakura took longer than expected to answer, Kakashi raised his eyebrow as he turned his head slightly towards her. Sakura's sudden closeness did not go unseen by his keen eye.

Sakura fiddled with her own pair of chopsticks before blatantly asking, "Why do you wear that mask all the time?"

Kakashi tapped his chin with an index finger, seeming to think long and hard as to why indeed. Sakura silently fumed at him for not taking her question seriously. Her grip tightened around the wooden utensils and that too did not go unnoticed by the copy-nin beside her.

Sending a friendly eye-crease her way while pointing at the navy blue material in question, Kakashi denied every last ounce of false hope left in Sakura's being, "I like to think it raises my cool factor."

Sakura refused to pay that night.

Growling slightly, Sakura remembered that irking eye-creasehe had given her. Honesty wasn't the jounin's policy when it came to that damn piece of fabric. Looking at the mask upon her sensei's sleeping face, Sakura recalled the forlorn look his eye had held for a brief second once returning to his noodles that night. She knew that there was a deeper meaning to the seemingly innocent face mask. There always was with Kakashi. Everything the man did seemed to have a greater meaning that he didn't care to share with the world. So, it left it up to Sakura to figure out his hidden secrets.

For knowing the man six years, Sakura didn't really know him at all. Sure, he had opened up his protective, highly-guarded shell a sliver for her after the whole Sasuke fiasco, but he tended to stray away from his past and slightly personal information. Now that Sakura thought about it, where did the man even live? She had to send the hospital bill somewhere...

Perhaps to the memorial since Kakashi always seemed to practically live at the black marble stone. So many names etched upon it, names that Kakashi felt he had a duty to pay a visit to day after day. Sakura frowned. Just who did the mysterious jounin have a past connection to? She waved off her question. He'd never answer her anyway.

Sakura finished up her prep-routine and briefly wondered whether Kakashi would be hungry when (if, her mind whispered) he would wake up and if he liked orange or raspberry jell-o. It was the only safe thing the hospital had for patients these days. Ever since the expired-milk-incident with Naruto, the staff and Tsunade decided to limit the choices of food patients had. Anything that would expire must go. And that was pretty much everything.

Pulling up her trusty chair to Kakashi's bedside, Sakura laced her fingers together and propped her elbows upon the bed's railing.

"Wake up, baka-sensei. I need to take a shower."

Sakura sighed when she realized that she would be forced to talk to an unconscious person for the rest of the day since her doodle paper was no longer in supply and she didn't care to bring a good read with her. The roseate-haired medic didn't feel like writing her thesis on gastrula complications for her mentor and she would only end up like her KO-ed sensei if she even attempted to read through her Medic Terms textbook. A person can only read about liver cancer and aortic dissections for so long before they thrust the hefty book out the window onto the innocent passerby below.

The room fell silent suddenly, only the beeping assurance that Kakashi's heart was still beating uttering any noise. It unnerved her. Something was...off.

Shut up, shut up, shut up! You need sleep, Sakura. Stop thinking such stupid things. If Kakashi was in danger, the monitors and graphs would be off the charts. The emergency IVs would kick in and then you would have a real problem on your hands. Be grateful, dammit!

Running a hand down her bagged eyes and pale face for the umpteenth time, Sakura groaned.

"Dammit Kakashi, when you wake up I'm going to give you a painful lesson on being punctual..."

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Breathe in...

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Sakura's trained eyes widened as she saw a flicker of movement upon Kakashi's eyelids. She held her breath.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Breathe out...

Something lay beyond this darkness that had shrouded his mind. He pushed against it with all his depleted strength. He needed to see what was ahead of this desolated black space. Any longer in this hell hole, he would surely go crazy. More so than he was already.

Breathe in...

Open, dammit...

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Sakura refrained from chewing her fingernails in anticipation as she saw Kakashi's eyelids dance before her jade orbs. She knew he was trying to fight off the sedative and knew from experience that it was an uphill battle through and through. But Kakashi, which she also learned from beforehand experience, was a stubborn elite ninja who wouldn't give up until his lungs gave out.

She prayed that this situation wouldn't lead to that. She hadn't learnt how to cure burst lungs yet.

Sakura leaned slightly back in her chair just incase if Kakashi would decide to open his eyes. It would be confusing at first with his new surroundings and not to mention all the equipment strung to his body (and the slight pain). She didn't need to add anymore to that first-bewilderment with her striking locks a hairbreadth away from Kakashi's fidgeting lids.

Sakura bit her lip and whispered fervently, "Come on, Kaka-sensei. Just open your eyes..."

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Breathe out...

Just a little more.

There. The fog that doused his mind, refusing to uphold, finally gave in to his persistent pushing and clawing. The light was getting more pronounced and he could smell something distinctly of ink and metal. The faint, lingering fragrance of strawberries wafted in after and calmed him, the previous odors making him tense – leading him to think he had been captured in the enemies' stronghold.

He tried to move his left hand, absentmindedly missing the warmth that had encased it only hours before. There was something that was clamped onto his middle finger, but he was too fatigued to wiggle it experimentally.

One thing at a time, Kakashi.

It was so close. Sounds that were clouded before made their presences known. The clinking of thin metallic objects, the low hum of numerous machines surrounding him, slight chirping in the distance (a window was probably near), the soft, anxious breaths to the left beside him...

It was tantalizing him. Right when he thought that the haze would clear, give mercy to him, the precious light ahead would be pulled back slightly. He had always been a patient man, hell the jounin could sit in a ditch for twenty-two hours with nothing but his mind waiting for his target to show up, but this was sending him across the brink. It was a test of wits, of sanity, and he could feel his concrete self-control losing its foundation.

There, again. The light was breaching his senses once more. He wasted no time, jumping, mentally grabbing onto the illuminated world on the other side. It strained, it hurt as he was slowly being reintroduced into the reality he had come to know. Slowly, he could feel his body slightly propped up in a soft (yet itchy) bedding and mentally cringed at the dull ache that throbbed throughout his insides.

Shaking off the thrust of pain that had been happily thrown at his groggy being, he listened to the breathing next to him. Still worried, still anxious, still hoping. After years of conditioning, the supposed bedridden jounin had learned how to interpret breathing patterns exactly down to the last essence of a sigh (and not to mention body language overall). This pattern he closely regarded seemed familiar, but his still fuzzy mind couldn't comprehend who exactly owned it. It didn't matter right now. Time was of the essence. If he let this god given opportunity go to waste, he may become stuck between black and ebony once again.

Kakashi opened his eyes.

His vision was blurry and distorted, the only thing he could see being white walls and bleared furniture and machines. The sharingan user blinked twice, each time a new object making itself more presentable.

Kakashi would've groaned if there wasn't a sharp pain throbbing across the bones of his ribs. It was a small room filled with heart monitors, IVs and blood transfusion bags. A hospital. There was nothing like waking up to the sharp tinge of needles and the stifling smell of sterility. From what he could gather with his still slow-paced mind, bandages were wrapped around his middle, a sling cradled his right arm, a patch covered his sharingan and other numerous patches of gauze were scattered across his fragile body.

"Kaka-sensei?'

The copy-nin in question slowly swivelled his eye, trying to avoided disorientation, towards his left where he had heard the soft breathing moments before. A shock of vibrant pink overtook his senses and made him have to close his eye from its complete contrast to the dull, white and grey room. Reopening his good eye, Kakashi gazed upon the form of his former student. Her eyes were wide with wonder and skepticism, forcing herself not to give into false hope. His gaze softened. She learned well in the medic-world.

Kakashi's head was pounding, but he never let his eye stray from her own. He needed something to focus on. If his mind had nothing to occupy itself with, he'd be dragged back to that dark world where light was swallowed up. He could feel his eyelids fluttering despite his valiant attempts. His hands gripped the bed rails beside him, trying to hold onto this world of the living.

The copy-nin's breathing was deep and careful as he willed away the tempting lethargy. How he would love to go back to sleep, but a ninja was taught not to be selfish.

Sakura leaned in closer to his trembling form, "Kakashi-sensei? Are you okay? Are you with me?"

Kakashi regained his footing and returned his gaze upon Sakura, taking in the dark bags that dragged down her emerald orbs and the greasy appearance of her usually spick and span locks. She was tired. She must've been up all night watching over him.

Kakashi opened his concealed mouth to say he was okay, to say he could hear, to say thank you for all she had done and to ask when he would be leaving (and if it'd be soon, he silently hoped).

He opened his mouth to say all those things.

But what came out was silence.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

A/N: A little cliff-hanger for all of you. Yes, I am evil, but it seemed like a good (well...not good) note to end on.

 A little cliff-hanger for all of you. Yes, I am evil, but it seemed like a good (well...not ) note to end on.

I've decided to start a list of what song lyrics I use in the beginning of each chapter. I remember reading a story (I think it was actually Duty Before Honor – great story/plot/and KakaSaku. Read it) and I always wondered what songs the author used in the beginning. So I give you:

Oxygen Soundtrack

Chap 1: Pieces - Sum 41
Chap 2: Wind in My Sails - Spoken

Ooh, what is happening to dear Kakashi? Tune in for the next chap coming out soon. Reviews are greatly appreciated.

Thanks for reading.

- - H. 92