One month, ten days and one hour
One month, nine days and twenty three hours
The great copy-nin squirmed under the covers of his double bed unable to shut down his mind for even a few moments of rest from his mental torment.
The ANBU wished that he could help his former sensei in his half-empty bed and sighed momentarily lifting his mask from his face to rub his temples before quickly letting the mask fall again.
Kakashi brought his plushie up to his face and gave it a quick mask-covered kiss on what would be the bridge of its nose before nuzzling it into his neck.
There was a build up of chakra nearby as another ANBU ran towards Sasuke Uchiha over the roof tops to his vantage point that overlooked Kakashi in his room.
There was a pause before the other member took the final few slow steps towards the Uchiha, their own mask and black cloak concealing their identity.
"Just to warn you, I will be sending her over in a couple of minutes to get him so don't worry when you see her." The other ANBU drawled from behind his mask, facing away from Sasuke and looking over the restless nin.
The Uchiha nodded, knowing who he would be seeing in that room soon without being given the name, he looked at the other ANBU as they taw their eyes from the copy-nin below.
"How long has he been back?"
"Nearly seventeen hours." Came the reply.
He nodded again, had it really taken that long to get him to talk, were his injuries that bad or was it at his request because he knew that he needed rest before seeing the copy-nin.
"He was in good shape, answered all the questions in under an hour and then just asked for some rest before others came, we had Neji check over him and Sakura look after him, just the three of us." Came a reply to unasked questions.
The Uchiha looked up to his partner and smiled behind the mask, "See you later Shika?"
"Hn." There was a curt nod before he took his leave, not wanting to make the other nin wait for too long.
Sasuke smiled as the other ANBU ran off in the direction to collect the only person who would be able to break the news without a dozen or so kunai being lobbed at them from a very tired and emotionally strained but very precise copy-nin.
He sat down on the roof top taking one last long look at the great shinobi that had been reduced to nothing from the events over the month or so.
…
Kakashi sighed as he wondered what was going on, there was no scheduled swap for the ANBU watching him, he knew because he had had Sasuke watching over him all the time with no change over until the morning at about seven.
That new chakra presence was not unusual but he could not place it or hear what they were saying, his skills no longer up to scratch as they should be as a shinobi.
He started to berate himself as he knew that a shinobi's life was a difficult one with many consequences. It was part of what they do to put their lives on the line and so they should not get into relationships as they could be taken down at any time.
However everyone needs someone even if it was for a short period of time.
He twisted, as he felt that chakra presence leave, to look at the ceiling, still trying to get some form of rest...Twenty three hours.
A/N Thanks for reading, please leave a review so I know what you think of it, one chapter left K.M.