Chapter 11: An Unexpected Target
"Well, it seems that he will have to stay longer now," the doctor explained, "He would have had to stay until he woke up, but after he hit his head a second time, we discovered a blood clot on the left side of his brain."
He was discussing Gai's condition out in the hallway. Either he didn't want his students to hear or he was staying away from Sasuke who was trying to get out of the chair.
"So...how long do you think he will have to stay here?" Kakashi asked, hoping he wouldn't have to stay much longer. The place reeked of sickness and urine.
"At least, two weeks."
"Two weeks!" Kakashi's jaw dropped under his mask.
"Yes. Two weeks. The children may go back home, but I suggest either you or the other guy," he pointed at Tazuna who was staring wide-eyed at Sasuke and slowly edging away from him, "should stay here for when he wakes up."
Kakashi sighed. Gai would kill him when he woke up, but he had to stay...Tazuna didn't know him so he had no reason to stay.
"I'll stay here with him," Kakashi muttered.
"Good." The doctor walked off to go flirt with one of the nurses. She certainly was offended by something he said and slapped him so hard that you could hear it clear down the hallway.
Kakashi ignored all of this and walked into the room with his head down.
"I've got some bad news, guys," Kakashi started not lifting his head, "Gai's gonna have to stay here longer. He has a blood clot on his brain and they're going to have to remove it. Don't worry, if they wouldn't have found it when they did, they might not have been able to do anything. Everything will be fine. You can all go back to Tazuna's house."
The silence that followed was heavy enough for a blade to cut through.
Tenten was the first to recover from the news. "But...who will stay here with Gai-Sensei. We can't just leave him here with that senile old fart." She had been referring to the doctor.
"Don't worry. I'll be staying here with him." Kakashi was trying to sound like everything was under control so that they wouldn't have to worry.
Then, everyone directed their attention to Sasuke as he began to snore. It seemed that his sugar rush had ended and he had fallen asleep.
Naruto went over and poked Sasuke. Sasuke just started laughing hysterically, then slapped Naruto's left cheek (face cheek not...the other cheek...yeah) which was hard enough to make him fly across the room.
Neji stared at Naruto now at his feet, unconscious, and then at Sasuke snoring in his chair, then back to Naruto.
"Time to go," Tenten decided then leaned down to pick up Naruto and slinging him over his shoulder.
Sakura nodded and grabbed Sasuke's chair. The others followed.
Kakashi was left alone with Gai. He sighed and looked out the window in time to see everyone else head back to Tazuna's house.
After watching them turn the corner and becoming part of the large crowd in the marketplace, he grabbed one of the two chairs left and sat beside Gai.
Sasuke smelled something good. What was it? Miso? Leeks? No wait, he hated leeks. What was it! He opened his eyes and found himself in his room on the second floor of Tazuna's house. He was still tied to the chair.
He got to his feet - and fell flat on his face. Kakashi-Sensei had tied his ankles too?
He somehow squirmed his way onto his feet again and started to hop out the door. He turned at the doorway, which took a few hops, and went down the hallway. By the time he got there, 20 minutes had passed. This was harder than some of his training.
He reached the stairs and started going down, when he remembered that his feet were tied together. It was too late. He landed onto the top step and began his descent down the stairs.
They rushed up to meet him and he hit his head. He had come down so fast that it had knocked him unconscious. Tsunami found him at the bottom of the stairway on his back, still tied to the chair. Amazingly, the chair was undamaged.
She stared at him for a while. She noticed a large bump on his forehead. It took her a while before she started screaming for help. Once Tazuna got there, he looked for only a few moments and grabbed the chair, dragging it down the street and receiving odd glances from the people standing on the side of the street.
Kakashi sighed. Maybe he should go back to Leaf and tell Tsunade that two different teams should take over for the rest of the mission.
Sasuke lay in the other bed on the other side of the room. He was snoring at the moment and it was driving Kakashi insane.
The doctor said that Sasuke would only have to stay until he woke up. It seemed that was what they told everyone who came in unconscious.
Despite the usual sounds of machines working and nurses and doctors walking down the halls and talking to one another, something didn't feel right. There was a tenseness in the air, as if everything was holding their breath and waiting to breathe again.
Then, something happened that Kakashi didn't expect.
There was a scream in the hallway as people were being trapped within invisible barriers. Enemy ninjas.
Kakashi leapt to his feet.
Once outside, it wasn't that hard to find the enemies. There was three of them. They were grass ninja.
Kakashi grabbed his kunai then froze. One of them was behind him, holding a kunai to his throat. The blade slipped across Kakashi's throat, the person holding it having no regret whatsoever.
Mwa ha ha! Don't worry, it's not what it looks like...but something does happen to Kakashi. He's my favorite character in the whole anime, but he can't go without being harmed. Nobody can! Oh well. Thanks for reading!