Love Song

Chapter 14: Painful Wait

"How did it come to this?" Hanare asked sadly looking down at the bed in front of her. Things had been going so well and yet things had gone so horribly wrong. Currently she was sitting in a hospital room as she was looking at the unconscious form of Kakashi. He almost looked like he was sleeping in the bed with his mask still on, Hanare had insisted since she knew Kakashi would want to keep his lower face covered.

Thinking back to when it had happened, it had just been a normal day. She had been with Kakashi as they were walking with Kurenai and Asuma. Hanare could have sworn she saw her two friends keep casting secret looks between the other. Hanare had thought that there might have been something between them, at least a physical attraction.

They had been by the one of the small rivers that ran through the village when suddenly things had changed. There in front of them had been two men in black cloaks and red clouds. At first she hadn't known who they were. But when the names Itachi Uchiha and Kisame Hoshigaki were mentioned that's when she knew they were in trouble. As a former Key ninja she had been trained to memorize a lot of information. These two were S Class criminal ninja and Itachi had been responsible for the infamous Uchiha clan massacre the other was one was well known as the Monster of the Hidden Mist and also one of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist Village.

Hanare had never felt so out of her dept in that battle but she had tried. These were criminals invading her new home, one having caused her new village great pain and death in the past. She tried her best, but she was no match for them, none of them had been. Kurenai's genjutsu was useless against Itachi whose own skills were far superior. Kisame was just as brutal fighting as the reports she had read said he was, and for some reason she got the feeling that he hadn't even been fully serious either.

Then when they had gotten onto the river, Itachi's eyes had changed. She had heard the stories and rumors of the sharingan; some were unconfirmed reports of a level above the three tome eye. Kakashi had shouted at them to keep their eyes closed. She trusted him but she could hear the worry in his voice. Then in an instant Kakashi was silent and she felt fear grip her heart. Kurenai had asked Kakashi if he was okay but there was no answer. They had opened their eyes and Hanare knelt down to help Kakashi who was kneeling and looked very bad. She still didn't know what Itachi could have done in that instant to Kakashi.

Thankfully Gai had showed up and he had managed to beat them back. Still they had said they were looking for Naruto, thankfully he wasn't in the village and was on a mission with Jiraiya to find Tsunade.

That had been a week ago, soon after Gai had come back with an unconscious Sasuke on his back. Apparently he had a run in with Itachi and whatever that man had done to Kakashi, he had done to Sasuke as well.

Every day she had came to visit Kakashi; she would talk to him hoping that in some way he might be able to hear her voice. Other times she just sat there holding his hand sometimes wishing he would wake up. She had never felt so helpless in her life. Even when she had been under torture by Ibiki she had never felt helpless as she had her mission to focus on. Now it was a different story, the only hope she had was the one that Naruto was out searching for. She heard the door slid open and looked up to see Sakura walking in.

"Hello," She said while trying to force a smile.

She had been coming every day as well to visit both Sasuke and Kakashi although Hanare thought that the young girl was also here to check to see how she was doing as well as making sure that she had some company. Plus Sakura was most likely wanting someone else that she could come to as well. Hanare didn't mind at all, in fact she preferred to have Sakura with her as the young girl's presence helped to make this more bearable.

Anko and Kurenai showed up as well for her benefit, Asuma and Gai too but also to check on Kakashi. It was nice to have friends at a moment like this.

Sakura sat down on the opposite side of the bed seeing her sensei so still was a bit unsettling for the young girl. Her sensei was supposed to be one of the strongest ninja the village had from what she had heard, so seeing him like this was a bit hard. Between Kakashi, Sasuke and wondering if Naruto was okay was emotionally draining for her. Ino was too busy with her own team and missions to be around much so Sakura spent much of her time with Hanare.

"Do you think that they'll be okay?" Sakura asked the older woman.

Hanare had thought of nearly nothing else her hand gently squeezed Kakashi's a bit more. "I have faith that Naruto-kun will return with Tsunade and that she'll be able to help."

"You really think so?" Sakura needed some kind of assurance and she would believe anything that Hanare would tell her. Even a lie would be a comfort for Sakura at this point.

"I do," Hanare said to the young friend. "I've may have only known you all for a short time but I can see that Naruto-kun always fights his hardest for those people important to him. He won't give up and he'll come back."

Hanare believed in her words the only problem was the waiting for Naruto to come back with help. How long would it take for him to come back, how much longer was Kakashi going to be like this, with Sasuke in the next room in the same state? It was the waiting around and seeing them like this that really hurt the most. The utter powerlessness was like a weight on her very soul. But despite all that she had one solid hope to hold onto and she just had to wait it out.

Sakura looked at Kakashi and thought about Hanare's words. Before now she would have just dismissed what was said about Naruto, but lately she had been slowly finding out more about him. Plus Hanare seemed so sure of her words so Sakura decided to put her belief in that as well.

-Two Weeks Later-

Hanare was at her apartment when she heard the knocking on the door, it was an urgent knocking and so she quickly went to open it. There she saw a panting Sakura looking like she had run a mile as hard as she could to get there.

"Sakura-chan, what is it?" Hanare asked her.

Sakura took a few breaths to help get her breath back. As soon as she had heard the news she had ran straight here to get her. Sakura wasn't sure she had run so hard in her life at that moment but she had to get the news to Hanare. "Back...they're back..." she breathed.

"Back? Naruto-kun is back with Jiraiya?" Hanare asked hopefully.

Sakura nodded her head. "I heard one of the nurses talking...said they saw Tsunade with them." Sakura smiled with real hope for the first time since a month ago.

"Let's go then," Hanare smiled as she closed the door and walked with Sakura. She wanted to run as fast as she could to the hospital but Sakura had ran so hard to tell her the news as soon as possible. So they both would walk to the hospital. Given that Sakura was in no shape to run at the moment, still, Hanare had to fight the urge to run there the entire time. She knew that Tsunade would take time in healing Kakashi and Sasuke but that didn't matter. She wanted to be there for him even if he wasn't aware of it.

Her heart was pounding not sure what to expect when she got to the hospital. Would Tsunade have healed Kakashi or would she say that there was no hope? Her heart felt cold at that last thought, she couldn't imagine her life without Kakashi, he was so much a part of her life for so long it was almost like he was a part of her.

She hadn't noticed it but soon after they left the two female ninjas started walking a bit faster to get there sooner.

Kakashi looked up to the ceiling of the hospital, he had been placed here a few times in his career to know that dull white ceiling anywhere.

"There that should do it." The female voice was unfamiliar to him.

Kakashi looked to his left to see a few people in the room. There was Naruto with Jiraiya but there was a short haired woman holding a pig for some reason. Then there was a very buxom blonde standing in front of him. It took him a moment to recognize the face as that of the legendary Tsunade.

"Kakashi-sensei are you okay?" Naruto shouted out suddenly.

"I've felt better," Kakashi sighed as he tried to remember what happened to him.

He thought back and remembered the battle in the village although it wasn't much of a fight he had to admit. He and the others were so out of their league that it just hadn't been funny at all. He needed to be stronger the next time they met and given that they were after Naruto, he was sure of that. He remembered that Itachi had started to use his Mangekyo sharingan, something called a Tsukuyomi.

He remembered now, that strange world of red skies and how everything looked like a photo negative. It was hard to remember it all; hours seemed to pass when it had only been minutes. He remembered being tied up in a crucifixion style like bonds. Itachi had been there plunging a sword time and time again into his body. How long had he been in there? Itachi said three days but it had felt more like years.

It was hard to remember it all, the only thing he could really remember was a thought of something important he had held onto while suffering. The thought of Hanare, that he had to get back to her, that he had to make sure she was going to be okay. That had helped to give him some strength in his ordeal.

"Try not to think too much about your experience," Tsunade told him. "I had to heal a lot of trauma to your mind, you're lucky. A person of weaker will would have had their mind shattered beyond repair or would have died."

"Nah, Kakashi-sensei is a lot tougher than that, there's no way he would have died." Naruto grinned with his arms behind his head. Although he was secretly glad that his sensei was okay, after the loss of the Hokage, Naruto didn't want to lose another precious person in his life.

Kakashi managed a weak smile at Naruto's brazen response. Just then the door opened up quickly as he saw both Hanare and Sakura standing there. Hanare just stood there staring at Kakashi as he looked back at her. Then she couldn't stand it anymore, all the emotions that she had been holding off for over a month just came crashing down. She quickly ran over to him and draping her arms over him held him tight as she called out his name.

Tsunade raised an eyebrow at the scene as she looked to the others.

"Hanare is Kakashi-sensei's girlfriend," Naruto said with a huge grin on his face explaining things. He noticed Sakura there with her own happy smile seeing the scene of Hanare holding Kakashi as he weakly had an hand stroking her back gently. "Hey Sakura-chan I brought back Tsunade-baachan just like I said I would. Now we can have her heal Sasuke as well so-." He was cut off by a sudden act by his long time crush.

Sakura actually hugged him and Naruto had no idea what to do next. For what seemed like years he had always wanted to know what it would feel like for her to do something like this. His face blushed bright red as he froze in place. He wasn't sure if he could hug her back or if she would pound him one for attempting to. Although for a moment he thought it might be worth it even to try.

She pulled back giving him a small smile. "You did it, if you keep this up you might actually become a dependable type of guy." She half-joked with him.

Naruto could only grin as he enjoyed being the center of attention from Sakura and that she seemed pleased with his actions. "Of course I am, when have I not been dependable?"

"Don't spoil the moment by making me answer that Naruto," She told him trying not to smile as he pouted at her. "Come on we need to heal Sasuke-kun now."

"Oh yeah, come on baa-chan, we got one more person for you to heal!" Naruto told her as the two genins went on ahead.

"I swear he better stop calling me that," Tsunade scowled but still smiled a moment later at what she had seen. It looked like Naruto had a little crush on his teammate and that maybe he had a chance. That was good for him, he was a very unique person and someone that Tsunade was looking forward to being his Hokage. A perverted giggled from her own teammate soon changed her mood as she glared at Jiraiya.

"What are you giggling at you perverted old lecher?"

"Oh nothing," Jiraiya told her but the huge grin on his face said otherwise. Mainly the fact that the material he had seen in this room alone was enough to spark a few ideas for his next novel. He couldn't wait to get started. "Come on, you know that kid has no patience so if we don't leave now he'll come back yelling at the top of his voice."

Tsunade sighed knowing he was right as the adults left only two people in the room.

Hanare was just enjoying the moment with being with Kakashi again, she hadn't even noticed that they had the room to themselves.

"You really scared me," She finally said to him.

"Sorry, didn't expect for what happened," Kakashi told her honestly. "You now that given out lives that-"

"I know!" She said cutting him off a bit harshly as she sat up looking down at him.

"I know that as a ninja we can die at any moment," She said softly to him. "I was fine with that before, back then I had only my life to lose. Now I have so much more to lose and it hurts."

Kakashi nodded, "Yes it does." He knew from experience how much it could hurt. Hanare really had never lost or nearly lost something important to her. Kakashi had experienced that kind of pain all too often himself. "Do you regret it? Would you rather not care about someone?"

"Of course not!" Hanare couldn't believe how he could ask that. "I know what I had and what I have now and I would rather have what I have now. My life before this village was empty and I hadn't really known by now much until this moment in my life. I could never go back to living like that."

"I'm glad to hear that but you have to know it's the harder path in life." He told her.

She nodded, "I know."

Kakashi stared up at her lovely face for a moment he could see the pain in her large expressive eyes. He didn't like seeing them like that, they were supposed to be full of life and wonder. So he decided to try and say something to help her. "You know I wouldn't change a thing either."

"Huh?" she blinked for a second.

He only smiled up at her. "I wouldn't go back to my old life before you either." He saw her blush and he always liked seeing her blush like that. She just looked so cute and in that moment he saw the look in her eyes change slightly.

She smiled as she snuggled up against him. "Just promise me that when we go to bed that you'll be there in the morning." She asked him holding on tightly to him. "I can't ask you to always come back from a mission or a fight but just promise me that when we're together that we'll always be together."

Kakashi ran his hand through her long hair before speaking. "That's a promise I think I can make and hold onto."

"Good, because I'm keeping you to that promise," she said.

The two stayed like that just together and enjoying the fact that they were together again.

Next up Chapter 15: Gifts

I think I'll do one more chapter and then an epilogue that will skip ahead for this story to be finished. It wasn't meant to be a long one anyway and I feel I can wrap up the story nicely now.