"Gai…" Kakashi studied his visitor. He couldn't quite believe it yet. Too many times a similar setup had ended with him waking sweaty and shaking from a nightmare. However, even in the semi darkness Kakashi could tell that his vision of Gai was too clear, too vivid, too consistent to be a dream.

Gai sat in the chair Tsunade had vacated a few hours before. He looked if not exhausted, then at least slightly winded. His normally impeccable bowl cut was somewhat asymmetric as well; strands of hair sticking out awkwardly on the left side of his head, where he had probably brushed it out of his eyes at some point. It had to be sticky with dried sweat to have stayed stuck like that.

Now that Gai was close and Kakashi focused on him, he could smell him too. Almost completely smothered by the biting hospital smells, Kakashi could detect a faint whiff of Gai.

And if that had not been enough, Kakashi was convinced when Gai casually covered his hand with his own.

"Are you surprised? I raced here at the speed of light! Frankly, I thought my rival would be out of the hospital by now!" Gai leaned forward when he spoke, as if he was whispering… which he really wasn't.

"I'm touched by your concern," he drawled. The response was pavlovian – Gai bragged and challenged, Kakashi shot him down with indifference. But this wasn't the conversation he had expected. After what had happened how could they just go back to normal?

Gai patted his hand in a manner that was usually insufferably patronizing, now though, it just confused Kakashi. "It seems like you're getting old, taking this long to recover, Kakashi! Was I too much for you?" The little ping sound, Gai's teeth made when he grinned down at him, pulled Kakashi out of his confusion.

Looking – still somewhat dazedly – at Gai's hand, he noticed the dark rust-colored stain on his torn sleeve, his scraped knuckles.

Gai had come directly from his mission. He hadn't gone home; he hadn't showered or changed. He had hurried straight to the hospital because he was worried. And he had not once mentioned what had happened in the forest because he trusted Kakashi. They were friends, but their friendship was based more on what wasn't said than on what was.

If Kakashi didn't bring it up, then Gai would never mention it again. Things would just go back to the way they had been before. That was unacceptable.

"Gai," Kakashi began. "What happened?"

"Eh, you don't remember?" Gai looked honestly puzzled.

"No, that's not it. I want to know what happened after you stumbled." When I almost killed you, Kakashi added in his thoughts.

Gai shrugged. "You passed out. Then I carried you back to the village on my broad and manly shoulders!" He gave Kakashi a thumbs-up and winked.

"That's not what I meant." Kakashi sighed. Gai was having that effect on him again. "And you know it," he added accusingly.

Gai's gaze flickered. He avoided Kakashi's eye, but didn't respond.

"The kunai I threw at you…" Kakashi prompted. He could feel himself losing his drive as well. What was done was done, after all. Maybe he should just let it rest.

"Vanished." Gai was studying the wall intently, his face turned away from Kakashi. On the side of his neck, Kakashi could make out a small cut across the tendon. It had already scabbed over. He felt the sudden urge to reach out and touch it.

"My eye?"

"I couldn't see, I was too far away."

Also, there had been kunai flying towards his face, those had probably ranked higher on Gai's list of priorities. Beneath the mask, Kakashi bit his lip, bracing himself.

"At first, I thought it was a genjutsu… but that whole fight —" At a loss for words, he shook his head.

"Gai, I'm—"

"No," Gai interrupted him forcefully before he could complete the apology. "I agreed to your terms. I don't go back on my word! And I have no regrets!"

"You can't just say you have no regrets; it doesn't work like that." He was overwhelmed by an immense fatigue suddenly. Kakashi felt it seep into his bones. And if Gai didn't have regrets… Kakashi was sure he had enough for the both of them.

"Who says it doesn't work?" Gai asked gently; now his voice had taken on a hospital-appropriate volume. Gai's grip on his hand tightened ever so slightly.

"Gai, I nearly killed you. I could've. " He didn't dare to reciprocate Gai's touch. Frustrated with himself, he echoed his dream. "And for what?"

The hand withdrew; incomprehensively, Kakashi felt bereft.

"What? What do you mean what? You did it, didn't you? That's why you passed out. You activated it. I know you did!" Clearly, Gai was having none of that. His conviction was unshakable . He folded his arms and glared at Kakashi – the frown on his face made his eyebrows look like an arrow pointing at his nose, they looked like they had been drawn on his forehead in thick black felt-tip pen. "I will not tolerate you giving up! And I will not tolerate this self-pity."

Actual disgust underlined that last word.

"What makes you think that?" Kakashi asked.

"I spoke to Tsunade-sama when you were unconscious," Gai replied, self-importance back with a vengeance. "Like I said, I helped you." As if on cue, the first real rays of morning sunshine slid into the room, accompanied by birdsong.

Kakashi sighed again. It seemed like Gai would always be Gai in the end, nothing could shake him. He was truly like a rock. A big, green, overly dramatic rock.

This, Kakashi thought, is something to be thankful for.

In the end they talked about this and that.

Gai's mission, which he described as "a triumphant victory for justice" and then the chuunin exam preliminaries, about which Gai spoke as if he was describing the epic last battles of legendary shinobi against some cosmic horror. It was all hyperbole and wild gesticulation.

At some point Gai's hand returned to its previous spot, easing a pain Kakashi hadn't known he felt.

Apparently Kakashi had fallen asleep to the rise and fall of Gai's voice. When he woke up again, Gai had left and his blanket had been pulled up to his chin. So what had woken him?

There was movement in the room. Bleary eyed, Kakashi tracked the young woman's brisk steps past his bed to the window, which she opened with a little sigh. Her back was turned to him, but he could easily recognize her anyway. Her pink hair was a dead giveaway.

Like Asuma, she leaned out of the window, gazing out as if she was searching for something specific. Or someone. There it was again, that twinge of regret. For a moment Kakashi considered pretending to be asleep, just to avoid a conversation with his student. But he'd have to face her at some point. Might as well get it over with now.

"Sakura," he said softly to get her attention without startling her too badly.

She didn't flinch, didn't even seem surprised that he was awake. He wondered if she had been waiting for him to awake in the first place.

She turned to him and smiled.

Kakashi pushed himself up on his elbows; it just felt wrong to lie in bed like a frail old man with Sakura at his bedside.

"Kakashi-sensei, wait, I'll help you," she called immediately, hurrying over. And that was just unacceptable. He could already feel his dignity crumble beneath her soft hands. As fast as he could, he managed to pull himself up on his own, even if it did leave him a little breathless and dizzy.

Sakura stopped in her tracks, her outstretched arms falling to her sides uselessly. Kakashi was shocked at the hurt expression that crossed her face. Already he had managed to start them off on the wrong foot.

"Are you feeling better?" She asked.

"Yeah, somewhat."

"I'm glad."

And that appeared to have exhausted their repertoire completely right there. Every word they spoke just seemed to add another piece to a puzzle and with every added piece it became more and more obvious that there was a gaping hole in picture and that just reminded them of the fact that it was doomed to stay unfinished for the foreseeable future.

Naruto and Sasuke. They didn't speak their names but their shadowy silhouettes – their absence – loomed over them like a ghost. It was the elephant in the corner. Obvious to both of them but impossible to acknowledge.

Therefore talking to Sakura was just depressing.

He could tell that she shared his feelings, too. If her insecurely wandering gaze, that never wanted to rest on anything particular in the room – least of all him –, and her shifting stance were anything to go by.

Well, there was one topic that seemed safe enough.

"So, Gai tells me you passed the preliminaries with ease," Kakashi said, smiling his mostly concealed smile. "He couldn't stop praising you." To be fair, Kakashi had zoned out right at the beginning of Gai's account of the exam, but when he zoned back in ten minutes later, Gai was still going on about how "full of youthful passion" Sakura had been.

She actually blushed a little; her cheeks matching her hair. It reminded him of the looks she cast towards Sasuke when she was twelve and she still thought that her life was going to turn out like some fairytale.

However, the pink spots were gone as fast as they had appeared and then all Sakura did was say, "I haven't passed yet" matter-of-factly; she sounded like Tsunade-sama.

"Maa, Sakura-chan, don't push yourself. I'm sure you'll do great." He didn't know how to respond to her, so without thinking twice, he had fallen back into old habits; encouraging her with nothing to base his optimism on. He hadn't seen her fight once since Naruto had left with Jiraiya.

"Thanks, Kakashi-sensei," she said and there was no real feeling behind those words either. "I probably shouldn't disturb you any longer."

Not waiting for a reply, she just turned and left in a brisk stride. "Sakura," he called after her feebly, but it hung in the air unnoticed.

She was angry with him, and it wasn't like he hadn't given her reason to be. During the preliminaries, she must have been the only participant whose teacher wasn't present. Then again, that wasn't really true. Tsunade had been there and Tsunade was her teacher now.

But Sakura'd wanted him to attend.

For some reason.

Kakashi sank back into his pillow. He'd never been much good at understanding girls, and Sakura? When he'd first met her, she was just your ordinary teenage girl with a crush and dreams of romance and happy endings. Despite her solid skills, he had never been able to take her seriously. At best, he'd felt like he had to protect her.

But now things had changed. They had had to. When she had entered the exam last time, no one had known her; no one had expected anything from her. This time, however, she was the Hokage's apprentice. All eyes were on her and her performance would reflect on Tsunade-sama's reputation.

Sakura was under a lot of pressure. Reality was harsh.

And her dreams? Her dreams were a thing of the past.