'it's ready to be infused,' the matron said, stepping into the side room. the three genin looked up wearily- they had fallen asleep while matron worked through the night preparing the broth from the sand village herb. it was now the morning of the fourth day, a matter of now or never- it was clear their sensei was weakening fast.

sakura looked into the bowl of brown liquid skeptically. 'how are we ever going to put enough chakra in it?' she wondered aloud. 'minto said it took a person's entire clan to make the broth usable!'

'we'll just have to find a way, dattebayo! we'll save him ourselves if we have to!' naruto said, getting to his feet. 'come on, guys- we have to do this!' he took the bowl carefully from matron and set it on a low table, placing both his hands on the sides of it and nodding to the other two. sasuke and sakura stepped over and knelt down also, placing their hands and focusing hard, letting their chakra- their very life energy- flow out through their palms into the liquid in the bowl, which slowly began to glow a deep blue, then slowly, bit by bit, to lighten...

sakura was the first to give up, panting and exhausted. she let go the bowl, watching as the two boys continued to put all they had into it. it was close to the color of a dawn sky when sasuke could give no more, and finally naruto brought it just over the line before he was forced to let go, trembling with weakness. they slowly sat up and looked in awe at the broth, now a sparkling iridescent light blue, like the sky around the sun at noon. 'it's done,' sakura said, shocked. 'it's really done.'

'well, come on, we have to get it to kakashi-sensei!' naruto said, remembering the point of all their struggles. he staggered tiredly to his feet- it was mid-afternoon now- and picked up the bowl, swaying a bit as he headed for the hospital room.

as he walked toward the bed where his sensei lay near death, something tripped naruto- probably his own feet, he was too tired to tell- and a little of the shining liquid fell out and onto kakashi's chest before he could catch himself. naruto watched in shock as the liquid seemed to disappear, soaking into the pale skin. he knelt down beside the bed and realised his hands were shaking too bad to pour the broth without spilling it.

suddenly he was aware of other people in the room- sasuke and sakura had followed him in, and they now knelt on either side of kakashi, one hand under his head to hold it up, and the other steadying the bowl naruto held. slowly, carefully, a little at a time, they tilted the bowl, pouring the broth into their sensei's open mouth until it was all gone. naruto let the bowl clatter to the floor once it was empty, and the others sat back. 'now we wait,' sasuke said.

but they didn't have to wait long. it was less than a minute later and kakashi was suddenly thrashing, fighting to get up and away from something they couldn't see. the three of them were too weak to restrain him properly, so sasuke and sakura pinned down one arm each and naruto pinned kakashi down by laying bodily across his chest. after a few minutes, he subsided, and naruto, sasuke, and sakura, now completely exhausted beyond what they'd ever before experienced, lost consiousness.

when kakashi woke a couple of hours later, he was feeling much better. he glanced over to the side of his bed, seeing a set of his clothes there. the sun was just setting as he finished lacing his sandal and he glanced over to the other side of the room, a bit shocked to see his three students in apparent comas, and naruto with a bandaged, bloody nose. 'hmm,' he hummed, 'I suppose I'd better start asking questions. I think I've missed a few things.'