A/N: Okay, here we go again. This was probably the hardest chapter to write, but I got 'er done! As always I only own Reyna. Kayha belongs to Kayha and everything you recognize belongs to the Masashi Kishimoto! Enjoy!
TO SAVE A FRIEND
The next afternoon found Sakura once again doing everything in her power to keep Reyna alive. Kakashi remained in the chair and watched with Pakkun sitting on his legs. The pug had tried to get Kakashi to go home and get some sleep or at the very least carry on a conversation but Kakashi had refused to do either one.
"What the hell?" Sakura muttered before pulling her hand away from trying to heal the wound on Reyna's back.
"What?" Kakashi leapt to his feet knocking Pakkun to the ground.
"There's shadow in her wound. How the hell does that happen?"
Kakashi shrugged even as Sakura returned her attention to the wound. Gaara appeared not long after that and told Kakashi the letter should have reached the Sand by now and that all they could do was wait and keep Reyna alive until Kayha could reach them. Sakura continued to work on the wound on her back, occasionally managing to pull a small sliver of shadow away from the wound. Kakashi watched and shook his head. Anytime that her shadows had shattered they had dissipated back into shadow, they hadn't remained solid. When Tsunade joined them, Sakura let her know what she had discovered.
"Well that would explain why it's being so damned difficult to heal. Can you draw out the shadow shards like you would a poison?"
Sakura shook her head, "No. They're solid shards of shadow; if I try I'll tear her apart from the inside out."
Kakashi glared at them, "Well, do something!"
"Gaara would you please remove Kakashi from the room?" Tsunade asked.
Gaara nodded and grabbed Kakashi by the shoulder. He drug the cursing, fighting ninja out of the room and pushed him down onto the bench in the hallway. Pakkun padded out after them and once again settled in on Kakashi's legs. Gaara glanced down at the pug and Pakkun shrugged.
"What? I don't think he should be left alone for any amount of time right now. Who knows what he'd do?" Pakkun muttered as Gaara dropped down to sit beside the Jounin.
They remained sitting there in silence for a while until Gaara glanced up again and caught sight of Kayha heading down the hall towards them, "Kayha?"
"Yeah, that would be me. Sorry I would have been here twenty minutes ago, but I kind of went to the wrong village," Kayha replied even as Kakashi launched himself to his feet, grabbing the front of her shirt and causing Pakkun to land on the floor where he grumbled.
"What the hell do you mean you went to the wrong village?" he snapped at her, shaking her a little as he spoke.
Kayha gave Kakashi a worried look and glanced over at Gaara, "Um…what's wrong with him?"
"Me? What's wrong with me? Reyna's dying and you go to the wrong damn village?" his voice was starting to get a bit hysterical and Kayha carefully pried his fingers from her shirt.
"If you want me to save your girlyfriend then you have to let me go," she muttered and Gaara none to gently shoved Kakashi back onto the bench as Kayha disappeared into the operating room where Tsunade and Sakura were still contemplating what to do about shadow shards.
It wasn't long before Tsunade stuck her head out the door and caught sight of Shizune at the end of the hall, ignoring Kakashi's expectant look and questioning eye, "Shizune! Get Ino and Iruka!"
"Iruka? Why the hell do you need Iruka? I'm right here!" Kakashi growled at the Hokage who decided to leave it alone.
"Because you are not going to be much help to us. I do need your vest however," she replied and he immediately handed over his vest.
Inside the operating room, Sakura stood next to Kayha, "So what do you think?"
"Well, you managed to get the main wound sealed which is good although why it's black I have no idea. It probably has something to do with the shadow that became embedded in the tissue. As far as getting those shards out, I've dissolved glass shards, but I don't know if it's going to work the same way with shadow. How the hell did it stay solid anyway?"
"We don't know. My best guess is that it has something to do with survival instincts."
Kayha nodded, drifting off into her own thoughts as Sakura and Tsunade went back to discussing what they would need in order to work on getting the shards out. The only thing that Kayha mentioned was that Reyna was going to need a lot of heavy duty pain killers. Outside the room, Iruka had started down the hall at a brisk walk, worry etched into his features. Pakkun, who had jumped back onto Kakashi quickly jumped off his legs when he felt Kakashi tense. The second he laid his gaze on Iruka, Kakashi was on his feet and in Iruka's face.
"Why the hell are you so freaking special?" Kakashi yelled at the startled Iruka even as Gaara jumped to his feet as well.
"Kakashi, calm down," Gaara said calmly and softly, laying a hand on his shoulder.
"Calm down? Reyna is in there dying and they won't let me close to her but this jackass can be in there with her?" Kakashi snapped.
Gaara grappled with Kakashi's arms as the older ninja made to attack Iruka, "Get in there already, Iruka," he grunted, managing to hold Kakashi in place.
"Let me go!" Kakashi hollered, struggling against Gaara's grip.
Iruka ducked past them and into the room where the three women turned their attention to him. He slowly stepped up to the bed and paled when he saw the shape his friend was in. To him, she was barely breathing and he didn't even want to try to find a pulse, afraid that he wouldn't be able to detect one. Outside, Kakashi seemed to have quieted down, though they could all guess that he was anything but calm by now.
"So are we ready to do this?" Tsunade asked once Ino had joined them as well.
"No, not yet. Reyna's going to need a hell of a lot more pain killers than that. And I just need to do one thing before I get going," Kayha responded and before they could even send her a questioning look, Kayha was out the door.
Kakashi's head snapped up when Kayha exited the operating room and only Gaara's hand on his shoulder stopped him from launching at Kayha. Finally Gaara released him and Kakashi pushed himself to his feet, starting to pace the hallway. When Kayha didn't return in the next few minutes, he started to mutter about finding her and hurting her.
Gaara stood and stepped in front of Kakashi, "Look, why don't you sit down and try not to give yourself a heart attack and I'll go and find Kayha. Pet your puppy, maybe that will make you feel a little calmer."
Kakashi finally nodded and once he was sitting back on the bench, Gaara headed after Kayha. Pakkun settled against Kakashi's leg and was shocked when Kakashi actually dropped his hand and started to stroke. Normally Pakkun would have said something about it, but in this particular circumstance, he remained still. It wasn't long after Gaara left that he returned, Kayha in tow.
"Kakashi, you may want to leave for a while. This isn't going to be easy on her and it's going to be damn painful," Kayha muttered to Kakashi before she headed back into the operating room.
Pakkun glanced up at Kakashi who made no effort to move, "You're not going to leave are you, Kakashi?"
Kakashi shook his head, "No."
Gaara and Pakkun both sighed and settled in beside him. Inside the operating room, Kayha got to work immediately putting Iruka and Ino to work holding down her patient. Tsunade handed her Kakashi's vest which she decided she wasn't going to argue about having to wear. If Tsunade said it would keep Reyna calmer to have that scent there, then she would wear the damn vest. Sakura was ready to help pull out the dissolved shards and Tsunade was standing by just in case they had extra wounds that would need to be healed while Kayha removed shards. Kayha focused, at first on the shards that had lodged around Reyna's lungs and started moving closer to her heart. Reyna yelped and hollered at the pain as Kayha methodically found, dissolved and removed each shard.
When she got around the heart, she stopped, fear in her eyes as she looked up, "We have a problem. We need to talk to Kakashi. Now."
Kayha walked out of the room, whether anyone was following behind her or not. She looked at Kakashi who was tense sitting on the bench, one hand methodically stroking Pakkun while he chewed on the fingernails of his other hand. His head snapped up immediately when the door opened.
"Is it done? She okay?" he asked hopefully.
Kayha shook her head, a touch of sadness in her eyes, "There's a problem. Reyna has a shard embedded in her heart. I can remove it now, but I may kill her. Then again if I leave it where it is, it could move and kill her in an instant at any point in time down the line. What do you want me to do, Kakashi?"
Kakashi's eye filled with fear and a touch of panic and Pakkun settled more firmly against his leg, lending what support he could, "What are the chances if you remove it now?"
"Honestly? I don't know."
Gaara looked between the two, remaining silent as Kakashi considered what should be done. Finally he answered slowly, "Remove it now. At least then I know the outcome. Either way I have to live with this decision."
Kayha nodded and started to turn back to go back into the room before she stopped and looked back at him, "You really probably don't want to be here for this. It's going to be a hundred times worse than it has been."
"I'm staying," Kakashi muttered.
Kayha returned to Reyna and glanced at Iruka who was holding down Reyna's shoulders, "Do not let her move, Iruka."
Iruka nodded and Kayha set to work. She knew that she couldn't dissolve the shard while it was still in her heart; doing so would kill her instantly. Instead she had to pull the shard out, healing the muscle behind it. Focusing her entire being on that one shard, she began. Reyna's eerie screaming howl filled the room and had Kakashi on his feet and pacing in the hallway again. Her body convulsed against the pain, and Iruka's grip slipped on her shoulders allowing Reyna's body to twist away from Kayha who lost the shard.
Tsunade immediately stepped in to help Iruka hold her down and Kayha returned to her task, muttering under her breath as she did so. She had just started to pull on the shard again when an unending beep emitted from the heart monitor. Tsunade immediately moved to begin CPR while Sakura got the shock paddles ready.
"STOP!" Kayha shouted at them both, "If you do that, she will die and there will be no chance of reviving her!"
Slowly, she pulled the shard out; healing muscle with each inch she moved the shard. Sakura was beginning to panic, insisting that Kayha hurry before Reyna suffered because of lack of blood flow. Kayha growled at Sakura to calm down and let her work as she healed as quickly as she could. Finally she had the shard out; the heart healed and dissolved the shard, pulling it out of Reyna's body.
"Alright, shock away," she muttered, stepping back.
Sakura immediately shocked Reyna's heart and the light flickered up as her heart started beating once again. Kayha went back to work once her heartbeat was stable. It took more than an hour before Kayha finally decided that she had removed all the shards she could. Sakura let out a sigh of relief while Kayha returned to see if she had missed any shards. Not finding any, she told Tsunade who ushered all but the hospital staff out of the room. Kayha grabbed Sakura and pulled her out of the room muttering about needing her to look at something.
The second that Reyna stopped screaming and the flat line signal reached Kakashi's ears, he seemed to deflate as he dropped back onto the bench. He looked completely defeated as he stared at the door, expecting someone to emerge at any second. When no one did, he questioned why they weren't coming out to tell him.
"Well, they must still be working on her," Gaara supplied.
Kakashi remained slumped in his seat as the hour drug on and finally Kayha and Sakura emerged from the room. He leapt to his feet as Kayha continued past him without a word about what had happened. Sakura stopped in front of him, looking tired and drained. Iruka stood behind her and Tsunade and Ino finally emerged from the room.
It was Tsunade who finally addressed the worried Kakashi, "We got all the shards out and she's stable again, Kakashi. We won't know for sure for at least twenty four hours whether there's going to be any permanent damage to her heart or not, but she should live."
Again Kakashi slumped in his seat, this time in relief as what she said sank into his sleep deprived, worried mind, "Thank you, Lady Tsunade."
"Don't thank me. I had very little to do with anything. Thank Kayha; she's the one who saved Reyna's life."
Kakashi nodded, "Can I go in now?"
Tsunade sighed, "We're moving her to a private room in the ICU but you can accompany her if you wish. I'll have an extra cot brought in for you. I'm also restricting access into her room, but I know better than to try to keep you out of there right now."
Kakashi muttered his thanks, gathered Pakkun in his arm and headed off to follow Reyna into her new room. She was still unconscious and pale but she seemed comfortable enough lying on a new bed in her room. Kakashi moved sluggishly across the room and settled on the wide window sill. His gaze settled on Reyna's face and Pakkun looked up at him.
"Do you want me to stick around, Kakashi?" Pakkun asked, drawing Kakashi's gaze to him.
"No, I'll be alright now I think," he replied.
"You'd better summon me when she wakes up, Kakashi," Pakkun told him and Kakashi nodded before Pakkun disappeared.
He was sitting there still when the door opened again a few hours later and he was expecting it to be Tsunade or Sakura or even Kayha but it was Iruka, "What the hell are you doing here?"
"I wanted to check on Reyna. She is my friend, Kakashi," Iruka replied quietly, his gaze fixed on the inert form of Reyna.
"Get the hell out!" Kakashi hollered at him, launching to his feet.
Iruka looked up at him, "You can't seriously be that jealous of our friendship that you won't even let me visit her in the hospital can you?"
"I am not jealous! Tsunade restricted access until they're sure that she's alright! Now get the hell out!"
"Are you kidding me? They let me in the damn operating room while they kicked your ass out, you can't expect me to walk out now!" Iruka shouted back.
Kakashi stepped up in front of him, getting in his face now, "Do not make me throw you out of here, Iruka."
"Fine, I'll sit outside until I see someone who can talk some damn sense into you!" Iruka snapped before turning on his heel and leaving the room again.
It was several hours later and Kakashi was just starting to drift off to sleep in the window sill when Kayha returned to the hospital room. She entered quietly but immediately Kakashi's head came up and his gaze settled on Kayha's form. He watched her silently as she checked on Reyna.
"Everything alright?" he finally asked groggily.
Kayha nodded and glanced over her shoulder, "Yes, I just wanted to check up on her before I headed to the hotel for the night. Sakura will be around all night though if you need anything or if anything changes. You know you can come in the room, she's not going to bite, Naruto."
Kakashi gave his student a cold glare but didn't say anything as Naruto cautiously entered the room, "She'll be okay, right Kayha?"
Kayha nodded, "As long as she wakes up in the next week. The only thing I'm worried about is that she may lapse into a coma."
"What are the chances of that happening?" Kakashi asked concern in his voice.
"I don't know, but if she isn't awake in the next week I would think that she's in a coma," Kayha spoke even as Naruto slid onto the window sill behind Kakashi and leaned his back against his teachers.
It wasn't long before Naruto slumped against Kakashi as Kayha finished checking on her patient. She grinned at the picture that the two of them made before she started out of the room, not having noticed that Gaara was waiting in the hall for her. Kakashi was just starting to drift off to sleep when the sound of their bickering pulled him back into the waking world.
"Seriously? What the hell are you two fighting about?" Kakashi snapped.
"Sorry, Kakashi, we didn't mean to get that loud," Kayha apologized.
"You two should grab what happiness you can for as long as you can. You never know how long you'll have or when or where it can be ripped away from me…Wait I mean you…No, ah hell, you know what I mean," he shook his head exhausted. "Not that I actually care at this particular moment what you choose to do, but get the hell out so I can finally get some damn sleep."
As soon as silence fell back over the room, save for Naruto's soft snoring, Kakashi closed his eyes with a sigh. It wasn't long before he was asleep his back braced against Naruto as much as Naruto was braced against him. He stayed that way until Naruto awoke the next morning, and not thinking first, Naruto stood. Kakashi fell back, the back of his head connecting with the wall behind him before he was awake enough to catch himself.
"Damn it, Naruto," he muttered, but the blonde was already gone.
Kakashi moved to the chair by the bed, still muttering when he pulled his book out of his pocket and started to read. It was only a couple of hours later that Naruto returned to the room. He kept his gaze down, looking depressed and a little ashamed.
"Hey, Kakashi-Sensei how's Reyna-Sensei?" he asked quietly.
"Nobody's come by to check on her yet, but she seems the same to me," Kakashi replied, icily.
"I'm sorry I didn't come with you guys to the hospital after the fight. It was just…" Naruto trailed off.
"Yeah, I know. Reyna did tell me to tell you that she was sorry before she passed out on the field," Kakashi replied before returning to his book.
"So it was Reyna-Sensei who sent me that puzzle box wasn't it?" Naruto asked.
"Yeah, she decided that you should know who your dad was. I should have told you a long time ago. I guess you finally figured out that box then, huh?"
"Yeah, Gaara helped me and once I found the right piece to pull out, the lid popped off. I recognized Reyna-Sensei's writing on the notes after that and it's alright that you didn't tell me. You were just following orders but if you could tell me a little about him later…"
Kakashi nodded, "Sure, Naruto. I'll tell you what I can about him, oh and if you want to blame someone about Thousand Years of Pain Jutsu, you can blame Minato-Sensei. He taught that one to me."
Naruto grinned a little and turned his attention back to Reyna, "She is going to be okay isn't she?"
Kakashi sighed and shrugged, "I really hope so, Naruto. I really hope so. Why don't you go and get some training or something in?"
Naruto nodded and before he left he tossed over his shoulder, "I'll be back later on to see Reyna-Sensei if that's okay."
"Sure, Naruto anytime you want to swing by."
Naruto left and Kakashi returned to his book. Kayha appeared not long after Naruto left and checked on Reyna again. She informed Kakashi that her heart rate had returned to normal and that was a good sign. She was confident that Reyna had the strength to pull out of it just fine. Kakashi nodded and thanked her for everything she had done to help.
"Hey, not a problem, but seriously it's her turn to save my ass for a change of pace. Besides which what you said last night to me and Gaara got us to thinking and we actually talked about everything. So whatever it is that you did to get him to talk like that, keep doing it," Kayha joked lightly.
Kakashi grinned, "And I am sorry about the way I behaved yesterday when you got here. I am glad that you got here as quickly as you did, which normally I'd ask how you did it but this time I'm just glad you did it."
Kayha shrugged, "Secret technique, Kakashi. Secret technique."
A/N: Whew, that took longer than I expected! So the next chapter should be far more fun than this one was; Reyna on heavy doses of pain medication! Please review and keep the muse fed!