Sasuke gasped and took a step back. "You're a Uchiha," he whispered.
The man studied Sasuke for a few moments. "You seem to be one yourself. But it doesn't look like your strength hasn't fully developed yet."
Sasuke hissed and took a kunai placing it at the other Uchiha's throat. "Who are you?" he screamed at him.
The man looked about Kakashi-sensei's age, with short, spiked hair and an eye patch over his left eye.
"Heh heh," the man chuckled to himself. "I guess you'll have to find that out yourself."
The man leaped into the air with such force that all of the clones disappeared and Naruto landed on his back with a yelp of surprise.
By the time Sasuke looked up, the man was gone. He cursed under his breath and looked down at Naruto who was rolling on his back and cradling the back of his head.
"What the hell are you doing?" the young Uchiha asked stupidly.
"What do you think?! I hit my head when the bastard jumped!" Naruto yelled.
Since, of course, Sasuke couldn't just let this conversation go, they continued it for another straight hour and still went strong.
Somewhere in the shadows, dozens of miles away, the Uchiha wandered below the trees.
"Tobi, you know how I don't like to be kept waiting," a voice called from the shadows.
The Uchiha just grinned. "Sorry, Sasori, I ran into our little demon holder."
"And which one would that be? There is more than one…"
"Oh, I'm so sorry. I ran into Kyuubi's holder. Is that better, My Lord?"
Sasori uttered a dark chuckle. "Uzumaki Naruto."
Tobi started laughing and pointed his face toward the sky. Sasori kept this bit of information in his head, grinning as his eyes danced with unexpected excitement.
Kakashi woke up with his head throbbing and an incredibly painful migraine. He looked around to see his window open and the curtains dancing in the breeze. The door was closed but he could still hear the voices whispering downstairs.
He also noticed that he wasn't alone. Sakura was at the beside table, looking in the mirror above it, pulling her hair this way and that way but not being satisfied with anything. He just continued gazing at her, an emotion he'd never felt toward her pulling at him inside. She seemed to feel his gaze because she turned to look at him.
"Oh! Sensei, you're awake!" She smiled at him pleasantly.
He smiled back and continued to watch as she sat in the chair beside him.
"How are you feeling? Would you like me to get you something?" she asked after looking him over.
"No, I'm fine thank you," he replied wearily. "I would like to know what happened however."
"What do you mean? I told you not too long ago."
Kakashi stared at her with bewilderment. "I did?" he asked after a long pause.
"Yes…right before you went back to sleep." She reached over and put her hand on his forehead. "Sensei, are you alright?"
"I…I don't know." He lightly touched the side of his head, which began to throb under his fingertips. His vision began to blur and he felt consciousness starting to fade away. Suddenly, he fell sideways on the bed which made Sakura begin to panic.
"Sensei? Sensei!" Sakura screamed. Downstairs, Tazuna and Tsunami heard Sakura and dashed up the stairs. Sakura was peeling off Kakashi's bandages to see that his wound had reopened and was bleeding heavily. Tazuna and Tsunami got up just in time to see Sakura pressing bundles of cloth against his head.
"Mr. Tazuna! Call the hospital! Tsunami come help me," the kunoichi instructed, trying to stay calm and remember what she knew about healing.
"Sakura, what happened?" Tsunami asked.
"I'm not sure," the girl replied quietly, concentrating on her teacher.
But she was too overcome by confusion and a variety of other mixed feelings to understand anything at the moment. For some reason she felt sad but it wasn't because he was her sensei. It was something deeper, stronger. It was something that she had never felt before.
Tsunami saw her hesitate and looked even more worried.
"Is he going to be alright?" she asked tentatively.
"I'm not sure. I…I don't know." A single tear slid down her cheek unexpectedly
Naruto and Sasuke arrived back at the house half an hour later. Naruto thought Sasuke had gone into shock or something. He hadn't spoken a word since they began their trip back and he was whiter than usual even though his face was contorted with rage.
They landed in the back yard when Tazuna ran up to the house and through the doorway calling for Tsunami. The two young shinobi looked at each other and ran forward. As they were entering the house, Inari was running out.
"Inari, what's going on here?" Naruto demanded the boy.
Inari looked at Naruto with wide eyes and bit his lip. "Your sensei collapsed. He won't wake up, Grandpa's taking him to the hospital."
"What?!" Naruto yelled and dashed up the stairs with Sasuke close behind and still not saying anything.
Naruto burst into the room to find Sakura helping Tazuna lift Kakashi on his back.
"What's going on here?" Naruto repeated.
"I'll tell you at the hospital," Sakura replied hurriedly. Naruto and Sasuke nodded and they all headed out to the hospital.
OMG I killed Kakashi! No, actually I could never kill him. Now Gai I could kill, lol. I PROMISE that I'm going to sumbit more chapters more often! And if I don't then you have the right to shoot me. Oh, you may have noticed some KakaSaku in here. Well, I'm officially a KakaSaku fan (I have been for a while but now I admit it). Sue me. PLEASE R&R! ;-;