Kakashi was reading his book, so that's why he did not have the time to visit the people at the hospital. And when one book was over, there would always be another. Yes, he was just too busy.

And he was getting too old for this, he thought. He so wanted to persuade himself that it was not a mistake on his part, that it was his job, but there would always be a part of him which would not be convinced. He had learnt that at a very young age already. Especially since, God, it was Chidori again. Of course it had to be Chidori again…

He was in the Hokage's office when the news about the planned kage summit arrived. He appreciated the initiative as always. It was one of the few benefits that the war brought that now the villages were much more willing to cooperate. As a Hokage, he would never refuse to attend, and he knew that Naruto was not going to refuse either. Naturally, he would be the one accompanying Naruto as his bodyguard. And as expected, Shikamaru, Sakura and also Yamato would also be joining for additional protection and advising.

They were a day from Konoha, passing a large canyon, when they were ambushed.

"Naruto, duck!", he shouted as they were jumped at by three ninja. Wait, were these even ninja?

There were in total 7 of them, whoever they were. He got quickly engaged by one of them and he saw that the rest of his team had a similar experience, with Naruto and Yamato trying to fight off two at the same time.

But these were not normal ninja. At least, that was his first thought after he got attacked by Rasengan by the one fighting him. These were fighters, or mercenaries of some kind?, who were slower and clumsier than any ninja would ever be, but who were somehow capable of producing very advanced, chakra-demanding ninjutsu. One exchange of looks with Yamato during the fight told him that he was not the only one to realize that.

Shinobi or mercenaries, it did not really matter. The types of jutsu he was attacked with were surely very deadly, but that did not matter that much if they were not used with enough speed and a good strategy. After a few minutes, they took 3 of the adversaries down, with things looking a bit better. That is, until another man launched himself into the battle, with a speed that Kakashi hadn't really seen since the war.

The man made his way directly to Naruto, and reached his target in no time with relative ease. From the corner of his eye, Kakashi saw that Naruto was ready to block the man's attack, until something distracted him, or not, more like surprised him, causing his eyes to widen and his body to freeze.

"What the…?!"

The man did not react to the shout and took Naruto down, a kunai stabbing his target's stomach and his sharp teeth penetrating the Hokage's skin on the neck. Naruto screamed from pain, passed out and the man was soon jumping away from the Hokage, buying him some distance and time to fight back the counter-attack that he knew was coming.

Sakura was by Naruto's side in a second and looked more distraught than Kakashi had seen her in a very long time. She examined the wound on Naruto's neck and paled.

"It's poison! He poisoned him!"

Dammit, Kakashi's mind was racing. He saw that Shikamaru and Yamato still had their hands full with the other attackers, and as Sakura was busy trying to get the poison from Naruto and close the stab wound, he knew which job he landed.

He looked around to find the enemy ninja and when he finally spotted him at the other side of the field, he understood why Naruto froze and failed to block the attack. Kiba.

It was hard for him to recognise the young man at the beginning. The lower part of his face was covered in burn scars to the point that a large portion of his cheek tattoos were not even visible anymore. His hair was even wilder than Kakashi recalled and so were, even more disturbingly, his eyes. But while Kakashi recognised the young Leaf ninja, Kiba's expression when looking at him back spoke of no familiarity, just of a beast hunting down the prey.

He turned around to see if Naruto was still down and- well, he shouldn't have. The split second that he diverted his attention away was quickly exploited by dog-nin and as Kakashi turned back, he found himself being taken down by Kiba.

He was surprised by the speed with which Kiba was tackling him, and it took a great deal of his focus to fight back without resorting to something that would certainly kill the man. After blocking one stronger attack, he was thrown away by a few meters and quickly understood that Kiba was not going after killing him either. The moment he was free from Kakashi, the young ninja quickly launched himself back at the defenseless Hokage, apparently surprised that he was still not dead, with a look that spoke of complete determination and murderous intent.

Kakashi panicked. A Leaf shinobi or not, this man had already tried to kill Naruto once and was apparently going to finish the job no matter what. He got up at a speed that even he was surprised by and crossed Kiba mid-air, forcing him to retreat to the side, dangerously close to the edge of the cliff.

A bunch of shurikens flying his way in the air forced Kakashi to land and duck on the ground, after which Kiba used an Earth style jutsu, creating fangs protruding from the ground, which made Kakashi lose his balance. Regaining his posture, a second later he saw Kiba's eyes landed back on Naruto, and he knew what would follow. Sakura was still busy removing the poison from Naruto's body and would not be able to block the coming attack.

His instinct got the better of him and a moment later, he found himself flying towards Kiba, with a bright light and burning sensation informing him that his Chidori was activated. The young nin turned back to him, his hands already aggressively performing signs to launch a counterattack until-

-he stopped. He looked at Kakashi, with eyes that told Kakashi that the dog-ninja finally saw him, actually saw him, for the first time. Kiba's eyes widened with some humanity returning back to them and he lowered his hands down in a sign of an obvious capitulation. Kiba was back.

Kakashi had too much momentum and chakra in his hand already however. He cursed loudly, attracting the attention of everyone on the field, but that was not going to help. He managed to lower his Chidori to make sure he would not hit the heart, but a collision was now unavoidable, whether he liked it or not.

A second later he impacted Kiba, feeling how his Chidori penetrated the man's clothes and then skin and ended up throwing the smaller man several meters to the back - and down the cliff.

Silence ensued. He figured that both Yamato and Shikamaru had already defeated their opponents judging from the way they were staring at the scene. Naruto was also back to being conscious and based on his expression, he was also just realizing and absorbing everything.

"I- I can't believe what- what just happened...", Sakura said, voice shaking, pretty much voicing the opinion of everyone, he thought.

He hated to admit it, but he could feel his entire body trembling and sweating uncomfortably. He could not stop seeing Kiba's eyes just before he hit the kid with one of his deadliest weapons and launched him down the cliff. Wasn't the boy supposed to be dead in the first place?

"I think… maybe it is not that high in this region. A few dozens of meters or so? He might have survived… ", Yamato added, breaking the silence.

He was right, and Kakashi did not need further persuasion. Apparently, Sakura was also done treating Naruto as she quickly joined him on the climb down the rocky walls.

"Naruto will be okay?", he asked on the way, trying to get at least one concern out of his mind.

"Yes… it was a very nasty poison, but it is an Inuzuka-clan poison after all. We know about it and carry an antidote for it around along with other counteragents, just in case an Inuzuka ends up accidentally poisoning themselves in a battle. Granted, I don't think anyone ever thought it would be used to… ", she left the sentence hanging, but Kakashi did not need her to finish it.

They soon reached Kiba and one reassuring look that Sakura threw at him later, Kakashi could finally release the breath that he didn't even realize he was holding.

"Alive. I should have enough chakra to stop the internal bleeding, but the rest we will have to treat at the hospital. But we must be quick to get him there…"

Kakashi nodded. This was close. Too close. Once Sakura was done fixing the biggest, most urgent damage, he picked the young ninja up on his back.

As they climbed back to the rest of the group, they found Yamato and Shikamaru by Naruto's side, who was now at least sitting up, with some color having returned to his face. Their arrival quickly caught their attention.

"He is alive.", Sakura announced, also obviously relieved.

Shikamaru was just staring, mouth wide open.

"So it is him.", Shikamaru commented, matter-of-factly.

"Yes, I am quite sure. And I think he also recognized me at the end, just before… ", he started saying, but found himself unable to finish.

Yes, there was it, his friend, the one and only guilt. Great. He knew this drill very well. He also knew that he might as well get used to this feeling again since it was not going away anytime soon. At least this time, the receiver of his Chidori did not die with his hand penetrating their chest. Tsunade once called it a 'PTSD', Sakura an 'anxiety attack', but all he knew was that he was probably cursed. He could feel his hands embracing the legs of the burden on his back a little tighter.

"You did what you had to, Kakashi-sensei. Don't-"

"We don't have time for this, Naruto. We must get you both to the hospital as soon as possible, then we can discuss what next.", he found himself replying.

He was always at his most rational in situations like these, where he knew that the only alternative to 'rational' would be a breakdown. Of course, he would never let anyone see that side of him and the only person around who could probably now tell how he was feeling was unconscious on his back, so that also helped.

"Very well, let's go then.", Yamato concluded and without asking, threw Naruto's arm around his shoulders.

"Hey! I can-"

"No, you can't. You would have died were it not for Sakura being here and you are still not completely poison-free. Now, let's get going."

He would have never believed that a trip with Naruto could be this silent.

So yes, he was going to keep reading his book.