Injured
Genre: General
Rating: T
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Please R&R…Thanks! (Really, please review/begs/)
Remember, I'm taking requests too. Requests on /anyone/. That means /any character/. Not just Kakashi.
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The silver-haired Jounin had fallen asleep in his chair, head resting against the wall the chair was leaning against.
He was waiting, along with the red-eyed Jounin sitting in a chair opposite him. She had also fallen asleep.
If there had been a window in the small hallway they would've noticed that the sun had risen high in the sky, they would've noticed that it was no longer night and that they had been waiting for hours.
They had both come when they were first told, when it was just barely past midnight. She had been awakened by the knock on her door; he had just arrived back from his own mission.
She was tired, so was he. She was healthy, he was injured.
He refused to leave, refused to get medical treatment until he knew whether his friend would live or die.
She had fallen asleep; he had passed out from lack of blood. The shallow wound in his stomach and the deep gash in his right thigh had been bleeding when he first came here. Now the injuries had clotted and begun to heal, but not before he had lost more blood than what is considered healthy.
She awoke first, to the sound of one of the two doors in the hallway opening up, she watched through half-lidded eyes as three young Jounins walked into the hallway, two men and one women.
"Kurenai?" the woman asked the red-eyed Jounin, "How is he?"
"I don't know Ino," she whispered in response.
"Is he okay?" the skinnier of the two males asked, pointing at the silver-haired Jounin.
A pool of blood had collected under his chair.
"He'll be fine Shikamaru," Kurenai replied, "I think."
"Is he passed out?" the same male asked.
"Looks like it," the other male responded.
The red-eyed Jounin sighed and lifted herself out of her chair. She took the few steps required to cross the hallway and stood in front of the silver-haired Jounin.
"Kakashi?" she questioned, slightly shaking his right shoulder in an attempt to wake him.
He didn't respond.
"Kakashi?" she questioned again, slightly louder, and shaking him slightly harder.
The Jounin in question coughed slightly before finally opening up his one visible eye. His breathing was ragged and his body was shaking slightly. He no longer had the strength to keep his body warm.
He was more injured than he had originally believed.
"You should get your wounds checked," the red-eyed Jounin stated.
"Has she…?" the silver-haired Jounin asked, slowly pushing himself into a more comfortable sitting position.
"No, she hasn't come out yet," Kurenai replied distractedly, "They've been in there a long time."
Almost as if on cue the other door in the small hallway opened up and out stepped the Fifth Hokage; tired, worn, and dejected.
"Kakashi, Kurenai," she addressed the two older Jounins with a nod, "Shikamaru, Chouji, Ino," she addressed the three younger Jounins with a sad smile.
The five Jounins waited in silence for the Hokage to tell them what happened, to tell them whether their friend was alive or dead.
"I'm sorry," Tsunade began, "Asuma's injuries were too severe. We tried as hard as we could but we couldn't save him."
Kurenai and Ino gasped, tears springing from their eyes. Chouji nodded in acceptance and Shikamaru made no visible response.
Kakashi sighed, combing his hand tiredly through his matted hair.
Tsunade turned her gaze to focus on Kakashi and she would swear until the day she died that she saw the Jounin's visible eye glaze over with the wetness that only comes with tears.
But he denied it for the rest of his life.
The last remaining person that the silver-haired Jounin could truly trust had finally died.
And he couldn't help but feel responsible. The mission his friend had gone on had supposed to be assigned to him, but he hadn't returned from his other mission in time.
Now his friend was dead, and it was suppose to be him.
It always ended up being his fault.