Catching Up – Chapter 11

Kurai-Hisaki

I would like to thank everyone who has supported me and encouraged me with the reviews from the last chapter! THANK YOU! It really made me happy and got me through my crappy exam week. I've never gotten so many reviews for one chapter before – thank you so much!

I've been asked to do an update soon, so hopefully I didn't make you guys wait too long.

Hope this chapter don't disappoint.

Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.

It was sunrise when Kakashi woke up in an unfamiliar room. Not being able to recall how he got there, he guessed that Tsunade had to carry him here and that he must have passed out after transferring his chakra to Sakura. He had stayed by her side after her situation had been stabilized. He had wanted to stay by her side the whole time, but he had also guessed that once he passed out, Tsunade took it as an involuntary agreement that he would go rest up properly.

After all it wasn't every day that he transferred chakra into someone to save them – rather, he had never transferred chakra like that at all. Suddenly he started to recall the events of what happened. Feeling groggy and gross, he ran his hand through his messy hair and swung his legs off the bed. Looking around he realized that this was one of the guest rooms that they had in the hospital for anyone who needed to stay overnight – they were usually used by loved ones who were here to visit. Never had he thought that he would be the one to use one. If anything, He had always thought that he would be the one in the hospital room. Making his way to the door, he casually made his way down the hall towards Sakura's room. During this process, he had found out that he had been out for longer than expected and a couple more days have passed.

Am I really that exhausted?

He didn't feel exhausted, but maybe he was still running on adrenaline.

Upon walking into her room, he noticed something was off. No matter how tired he was, he had always been an observant man. The first thing he noticed was her hand and that it had moved from its previous position. He was sure that her right hand had been by her side before he passed out yesterday. He had made sure that she was safe and back in her room before he lost consciousness. When he walked closer, he noticed that the hand was now slightly towards him – like it was reaching out to him. When he looked up, he also noticed that her head was slightly tilted in his direction as well.

He wanted to feel hopeful that maybe, just maybe Sakura had woken up. He had been at the hospital for far too long and he was beginning to feel irritated. He knew that he shouldn't feel that way, but for some reason he did. The Godaime had told him that it was up to Sakura whether she wanted to wake up or not. Following the incident where Kakashi had to pump his chakra into her, there had been no life-threatening danger. After feeling depressed and hopeless, he felt a bit angry about why Sakura hadn't woken up yet.

Sitting down, he moved his head closer to Sakura and resting it on her shoulder, he quietly mumbled – more to himself, "Why haven't you woken up yet? I hate this place… please wake up so I can get out of here…"

With a sigh, he rested his head there for a couple more seconds before getting up to look at Sakura's face. He was met with something that he had longed to see for so long.

Emerald eyes.

His eye widened as he felt his mouth open on its own accord.

"Sakura…"

His questioning eyes searched hers for answers, but to his dismay, all she did was look at him with expressionless eyes. After a couple seconds, she had closed her eyes again and this left Kakashi more confused than ever. He figured that he was probably so tired that he was seeing things now.

This had felt like the longest week of his life.

It was pitched dark when Sakura finally opened her eyes again. Adjusting her blurred vision, she stared at the ceiling. From working at the hospital so much, she instantly knew where she was. Judging from the lack of light, she guessed that she must have woken up very early in the morning. Glancing over to the plain walls without moving her head, the clock read '4:25'.

So… I'm alive?

After using many efforts to move her head, she strained her neck to look at her side. There was the famous Hatake Kakashi – his bottom half on the chair and his top half laying beside Sakura's legs on the mattress. With a curious look, Sakura tried to lift her hands to touch him; however, her arms wouldn't move more than a couple centimetres away from her side. It seems as though she can move her fingers, but it took more effort to move her arms. After trying and failing several times, she gave up.

She vaguely wondered what had happened. If Kakashi was here, then something was wrong. She knew that the man wouldn't stay in a hospital even if his life depended on it, and she wasn't entirely sure why he would stay – surely, she was fine.

She looked at her ex-sensei for a couple more minutes. Even in the dark, she noticed that he seemed extremely exhausted and wearier than the last time that she saw him. His hair didn't have its usual spikes and it was in more of disarray than she had ever seen. He looked as if he hasn't slept properly for days. She had never seen him so worn out before. His eyes shifted as he slept and his eyebrows creased in the middle, as if he was worried about something. Silently she wondered what had happened, but decided that she will ask when she gets a chance to.

With her head slightly tilted towards Kakashi, she drifted back to sleep hoping she will be able to move when she woke up.

"SAKURA-CHAN!!!" was the first thing Kakashi heard when he opened his eyes.

Kakashi instantly moved back from the bed and leaned against his chair as Naruto hopped into the room. Looking over to the doorway, he also saw Sasuke standing there with a slight smirk. He wasn't as oblivious as Naruto and he had noticed that Kakashi had been resting beside Sakura. It had seems that he had realized that Kakashi was serious when he said that he wasn't going to give Sakura to him. To prove his point, Kakashi never let her side and Sasuke saw his determination. What could he say? Sasuke was happy for Kakashi as he knew that Sakura needed someone to truly love her and to truly take care of her.

During the time when he took care of her, she had always seemed so sad. For some reason, he knew that she would be happier if Kakashi took care of her. As much as he did not like to admit it, maybe Kakashi's lazy ass brought comfort to her, and as much as he did not like it, he also had to admit that Kakashi had been able to bring him comfort in times of trouble as well. Maybe it was just one of those traits that the perverted copy ninja had.

Now, if only she would get better.

Tears started to rain overdramatically down Naruto's cheeks as he pushed Kakashi out of the way to hold onto Sakura. He hugged her while gently shaking her.

"Sakura-chan! I've missed you! You're finally awake!! We've all been so worried; you don't know how worried we all were. Especially Kakashi-sensei! He's been here every day and every night for the past couple weeks! You almost scared us to death when Obaa-chan told us that your heart stopped! Even Sasuke was so worried that he wasn't focusing when I kicked his butt during…"

Then he fell silent and all that could be heard was the ventilation system and the quiet beeps beside Sakura's bed. It was then when he finally noticed that something was wrong.

When Tsunade came to her room to check up on her, Naruto asked what was going on while Kakashi intently anticipated some answers.

Looking over to the blonde then to the Jounin sitting on the chair, she started to explain. "As you already know, your chakra and blood brought her back when we had thought that we lost her. We still don't know what made her go into the state of her heart stopping in the first place. We have found out however that something had attacked her throat. It was probably that common cold virus that had evolved into something else when she went out into the rain, and turned into that fever. During the time when you were resting, Sakura had been able to open her eyes several times, but during all of these times it does not seem that she can respond to anything. I personally think that her body is adapting to your chakra and it will take some time before she can move her body again. Whether she can actually see while her eyes are opened is still a mystery. I do suspect that she can hear us though… as her body responded very slightly every time you talked to her."

Naruto just blinked while absorbing the information and Kakashi simply nodded.

"So all I can say is to keep talking to her to see how she will progress."

Making her way to Sakura's side, she rested her hand on her forehead and spoke to her.

"Sakura, you get better soon. It's been dead around the office without you there. Do you know how boring it is to have no one to argue with?"

If Sakura could smile, she would. She had heard every word that was being said and to be honest, she didn't feel as if she had been revived from the dead. She didn't feel sick aside from the fact that she can't move. She couldn't believe that it was Kakashi who had brought her back and most of all… she couldn't believe Kakashi had stayed with her for all this time. From what Tsunade had said, he had never left except for the times when he was commanded to go freshen up.

Most of all, she couldn't believe that her body accepted Kakashi's blood and Kakashi's chakra, while it didn't accept anyone else's. Her mind kicked itself into high gear.

What did that mean?

Being a highly trained medic, she knew that there was no way that her body could just accept another's chakra. Chakra was transferred either through wounds or any other openings from your body to the inside. Sakura didn't recall getting any open wounds. There was no way that the chakra could enter her system without burning her. There was no way her body could take one person's chakra without accepting anyone else's unless…

Unless… that chakra is already in your system,

And…

The outside source is being accepted because your body had already accepted it once.

When had she ever accepted Kakashi's chakra before? She had concluded that the two chakra sources were simply attracted to each other because it belonged to the same owner… but the question was…

How did Kakashi's chakra get there in the first place?

She didn't understand. Her curiosity getting the better of her, she tried to sit up. This, of course, alarmed everyone in the room. Suddenly four pairs of eyes were on her and four pairs of feet made their way towards her bed. Tsunade already being by her side, gently held her so Sakura could sit. Sakura had never thought that sitting could be so hard. It felt like her body was on fire as she tried to keep her upper body upright and not to slouch over. It had never been so hard to keep her spine straight.

Opening her mouth to make an effort to speak, she realized she couldn't. Even after being offered water to drink through a straw, all that came out was a wheeze. She couldn't form words. It felt like something was blocking her throat. Her eyes widened and looked around as she started to panic.

Tsunade's voice comforted her as she explained. "Don't worry, once you feel better you'll be able to speak again. Do you have something important to tell us?"

With obvious hard work, she slightly shook her head.

"You should rest. Get better soon, you hear me?"

That being said, Tsunade gestured to everyone to leave so Sakura could rest. Stopping at Kakashi's side, she conversed with him. Sakura could see that Kakashi was slightly slouched while he talked to her shishou. With a pat on his shoulder, Tsunade left and Kakashi made his way back to the chair that was beside Sakura's bed.

Looking directly into her eyes, he held on to the edge of the bed – as if he was debating whether or not to touch her in any way. All of a sudden, holding her hands while she was awake seemed awkward to him. Showing affections seemed… strange. He suddenly didn't know how to act around her… when did he start having this problem?

Oh right… when you realized that you fell in love with your past student.

Sakura seemed to understand his dilemma as she shakily moved her hand closer to his. Even though she knew that her comforting face wasn't showing, but she had hoped that it would show through her eyes. He seemed like he got the message when he spoke.

"What are you so worried for? You're the one in the hospital for days."

Sakura merely answered his question while pointing her finger to him.

"I'm fine, you need to get better."

A slight tilt of her head was his response.

"I'm worried."

Her head stayed where it was. His head lowered.

"I've… never been so worried."

When her head stayed in the same position, he had guessed that she wanted him to explain. He didn't know what to do. He knew that telling her now that he loved her was a bad idea, especially when she can't move or respond in any way. Being the bright woman that she was, perhaps she already knew that he loved her – no one, especially him would stay in a hospital beside someone they didn't care for or love. But at the same time, he wasn't sure how she'd respond if he did tell her. What happens if all she felt was that he was an old pervert? It hadn't seemed that way from the times that they had shared together, but while he was confident on the battlefield, he had never been so afraid in this department. How did relationships work?

His thoughts were interrupted as he felt her hand touch his. He looked down to see Sakura pointing to a pen. His eyes widened once again as he realized that Sakura wanted to write – she wanted to tell him something! Pushing his chair back, he quickly walked out of the room and returned with a piece of paper. He grabbed the pen and gave the items to her. He gently lifted Sakura's hand and helped her hold the pen in her hand.

Laboured breathing could be heard as she lifted her hand to the paper. With shaky and slow lines, Kakashi could make out the word: How.

Being curious, Kakashi asked, "How what?"

He didn't say anything else as he received a glance from Sakura. He got from it that she was annoyed. With a chuckle, he muttered a 'sorry' to her and waited patiently for her to finish drawing on the paper. After several drops of the pen, sighs of frustration and minutes later, she finally stopped writing. Kakashi peered down to read her messy writing: How chakra in me?

He slowly looked up at her and saw her looking back at him with her finger pointing at him, and then, slowly pointed to herself.

Kakashi was no medic, but he certain knew the ways of how chakra worked and how it can be transferred to people. From the curious and slightly suspicious look that Sakura was giving him, he assumed that Sakura also knew how chakra worked. He mentally slapped himself. Of course she did, she was a medic-nin - plus she had the best chakra control when she was a kid. He was surprised that Tsunade didn't question him about it, or maybe she just never thought of it as an important question to ask, or maybe she didn't care. Maybe she accepted the fact that Kakashi fell in love with Sakura… But with all the questions running through his head, one look at Sakura and a particular thought screamed at him.

And it screamed…

Oh, shit.

Note: During the past week, there had been a sudden plot that popped into my head. Therefore I had to start writing it. So here's a head up...

There will be another KakaSaku story coming after this one. I am in the process of putting my thoughts down and editing the first couple chapters. In my opinion, the one that's coming up is a lot better than this one. Maybe it's because of the fact that it has more of a plot, or maybe it's because I've been writing for longer now.

At any rate, I hope that you will look forward to it!

Thanks again!