The Kakashi and Naru retrieval squad stepped into the bustling little town three hours later than they were meant too due to the fact that Pakkun had kept getting distracted by squirrels and had had to be caught and physically restrained.

But after that there had been little difficulty in getting to the town several days travel from the leaf village. "Finally! We're here!" Kiba said, all traces of his earlier irritation gone.

"It's about time-" Neji mumbled under his breath. "I'm worried about Naru and Kakashi-sensei."

"We all are Neji, but I'm sure that they're fine." Sakura said in a mock cheerful tone. She hated acting like there was nothing wrong when there obviously was. Especially when all she wanted to do was curl up somewhere and cry for both of her wounded team mates.

But if she started acting different now, Neji and the others would catch on and ask questions that she didn't know how to answer.

How did one tell one's frinds that sensei raped one of their own in order to keep her from being killed?

It simply sounded wrong no matter how one phrased it. And then there was the fact that one of their own had raped their friend. This would breed malice, discontent, and distrust in Naru because every time she was sent on a mission, she would relive her attack at Kakashi's hands and she would fear the worst.

There was simply no way around this except for time. And both Naru and Kakashi would need a shit load of time to heal and maybe find a way to salvage their previous relationship. If it could be salvaged at all.

Then there was the fact that Sakura couldn't rule out that Naru or Kakashi or possibly both at the same time might go off the deep end. Naru might attack Kakashi, not understanding why he had hurt her, and try to murder him in an effort to remove the reason for her wounds and her fears.

And deep down Sakura knew that Kakashi wouldn't raise a hand against Naru, feeling that he deserved whatever she did to him which in itself was a chilling thought since it meant that he just might let Naru murder him.

Naru... Sensei... Please hold on just a little bit longer. We're almost there... Sakura thought as her eyes started to tear up for what must have been the hundredth time in so many hours. She blinked in an effort not to let the tears slip- If she did she doubted that she'd be able to come up with a believable lie once someone noticed.

She felt a hand on her left shoulder and turned turned her head to look at the person touching her. It was Sai touching her, offering silent comfort. His expression eerily calm despite the churning rage she felt in the few chakra spikes he'd lost control of on their journey to the town. Pakkun was still slung over one of his shoulders. Still attached to the yard long stick that Sai had hog tied him too.

"Hold yourself together Sakura. I know it's hard, but we aren't sure what we will find. If you must mourn then wait until we have the situation in hand before you do so."

Sakura bit her bottom lip and bowed her head. Sai was right. She needed to hold it together right now or she would be of no use to them once they found Naru and Kakashi. "Right. Thanks Sai."

He dropped his hand from her shoulder and made a humming sound before slipping the stick from his shoulder and shaking it a little bit to get Pakkun's attention. Once he had it he growled at the pug, "Which way?"

Pakkun looked around for a second then said, "Straight. The hotel with the red roof."

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Kakashi was getting more and more worried about Naru by the second. She had been asleep for almost three hours now and was starting to run a low grade fever and was totally unresponsive when he tried to wake her.

He leaned over her and ran a gloved hand along the curve of one cheek then straightened his spine for a moment and dipped his hands into the basin of cold water that he'd gotten when he had noticed that she was starting to run a fever and then leaned over her again and ran his hands along her cheeks, her forehead, taking his time to wet his hands again and run one of his palms along her throat to wet the skin.

Naru shivered and twitched as a small frown crossed her face. He wet his hands again, making sure to soak his entire hands up to his forearms in the water before turning back to her and running an index finger along the bridge of her nose and his other along her lips.

His hands had gone numb a while ago from doing this. But he didn't seem to mind since Naru appeared to be resting a mite more comfortably now than she had been earlier. He dipped his hands in the cold water again and started running his palms along her hairline, smoothing back her bangs while cooling her down.

He was just starting to run his hand along her throat again when she made a small sound and swallowed convulsively. Kakashi froze and glanced at her face as her eyes fluttered open for the first time in so many hours and she looked at him through glazed eyes and rasped. "My throat hurts."

Kakashi blinked and straightened his spine unsure of what he should say to that aside from a lame, "I'm sorry." While he mentally chidded himself on thinking of everything for treating her fever but for forgetting that sometimes sick people woke up needing water.

Their mouth's became unbearably dry, their throats became so sore that they were pulled from their healing rest to get something to ease some of the pain.

He got up and wiped his hands on his vest, for some reason finding the wetness of his gloves uncomfortable when it hadn't bothered him a moment ago and then headed to the bathroom where he was sure he had spotted some little plastic cups sitting on the counter. He'd use one of them to get her a drink so that she could go back to sleep until her fever broke.

He found the small cups exactly where he had thought he saw them at, and filled one with some water then headed back to the bed where he found Naru already asleep again and sat down and tried to shake her awake enough to get her drink, but she was again completely unresponsive.

Which left him in a little bit of a bind since it meant that for Naru to get her drink, he'd have to give it to her mouth to mouth. Dammit Naru. Kakashi thought in irritation before reigning his temper in. He knew that Naru wasn't doing this on purpose but he couldn't help wanting to avoid this if he could.

He tried shaking her awake again, this time a little more roughly but she still didn't react. Finally he gave in knowing that she needed the water and knew that whether he liked this or not, he'd give it to her mouth to mouth.

He sighed and made a mental note to cut himself again after this and lifted the cup to his mouth and took a small sip and held it while he set the cup on the bedside table next to the basin and leaned over Naru, and placed one hand on her throat just in case he needed to help her swallow and then carefully used his fingers to open her mouth and pressed his lips against hers and let the water slip from his mouth to hers.

He felt her throat move as she swallowed the water and repeated the move until the small cup was empty then sat back and wiped Naru's lips with one hand and his own with the other.

He didn't want either of them to have any lingering traces of this.