'yaaaaaaaaAAAAWN,' naruto sat up in bed, rubbing his eyes. at first, he thought he was at home, and it was just about time to wake up and get ready to head out to training. he blinked and looked around, realising he wasn't actually at home. sakura was asleep beside him, and on his other side, sasuke was just starting to stir as well. he reached over to wake his teammate but sakura suddenly sat bolt upright, making him jump.

sakura looked to her right, to the other side of the room where kakashi's bed was- and saw it was empty, and his clothes were gone. 'he's gone!' she blurted, and sasuke sat up, startled.

'what?' he blurted, quickly getting to his feet. 'what do you mean, gone?' naruto exclaimed, getting up too.

'he's gone, and his clothes too! you don't think-' sakura said, covering her face with her fists. had they been too late? she could remember nothing from the time she'd lost the last of her chakra- had they done enough? she looked to the others, seeing similar concern- could none of them remember what had happened?

'no- he's got to have made it!' naruto said. 'he's got to- we did everything we could to save him.'

the door slid open and all three of them turned, gasping. in the doorway stood kakashi, completely his old self, his one visible eye scrunched shut with a smile. 'sorry I'm late,' he began. 'I meant to be-'

'KAKASHI-SENSEI!'

startlingly, all three members of team 7 jumped at him, hugging him tightly in relief that he was alive and well. 'you wouldn't believe what we went through to save you sensei,' naruto babbled. 'we had to go all the way to the sand village and some bad guys tried to stop us and then there were anbu and we got back here and we didn't know if it was gonna work but you're alive, dattebayo!'

'well, I guess that pretty much sums it up,' sakura muttered.

'I notice he left out how he ran off without us and we had to track him down,' sasuke commented, stepping back.

'well, it's about seven now,' kakashi observed, looking at the sun, low on the east horizon. 'let's get to training early today, how about that?'

'ooohhhhhhh!'