A few hours had gone by since their kiss, but they had hardly spoken to each other since. Kakashi and Yamato continued to sit against the bark of the tree together, Yamato leaning lightly against Kakashi, their fingers intertwined, both silently watching the forest around them. By now it must have at least been early morning, and Mother Nature had been quiet, aside from the chirping of crickets somewhere near by, and an occasional coo from an owl.

Then they heard something snap.

The both of them froze, their hands squeezing the other tightly, their senses on high alert as they scanned the area for other chakra signatures. Kakashi slowly and silently rose up, pulling Yamato up with him with the same amount of care.

A heartbeat.

A heavy figure dropped from the very tree they had been leaning against, landing directly behind Yamato. Before Yamato could react, the person had wrapped his left arm around his neck in a tight choke hold and placed a cloth over his nose and mouth with his right hand, then jerked his body away from Kakashi. Yamato let out a muffled scream as his fingers slipped from Kakashi's, realizing too late that he should have been holding his breath. Reacting, he grabbed the man's arm and dug his nails into his skin, attempting to break free from his grip. Kakashi panicked.

"Yamato!" His scream rung through the trees.

Deathly afraid of losing his new lover, he lunged forward in an attempt to knock the attacker on his back, which he hoped would have freed Yamato, only to miss by mere inches, landing on his hands and knees. The man took a few steps back, pulling Yamato with him. Kakashi looked up, positioning his weight on his feet, and watched as Yamato struggled to free himself while he pulled his throwing knife out from it's holster on his belt.

He began to take aim at the perpetrator, until he noticed Yamato's body beginning to stop struggling, his hands falling from their grip on the man's arm, weakly reaching out a hand for Kakashi. All Kakashi could do was gape in horror, pure agony painted on his face, fear clouding his eyes. Yamato desperately tried to keep eye contact with Kakashi, his vision growing blurry, his body suddenly feeling as if he was thrown into a pool of cement. He could no longer keep his eyes open, and he tried calling for Kakashi, still muffled by the cloth that was suffocating him, but his voice was too weak.

Tears began to well in Kakashi's eyes and stream down his face as Yamato's arm fell down to his side, and the rest of his body collapsed against the man, limply. Out of sheer rage, he let out a cry as he launched himself, knife in hand, at the man, only to be knocked down by something incredibly sharp and heavy.

A searing pain tore through Kakashi's lower torso. He was now on his side, dizzy from his head slamming the ground, with a weapon consisting of three blades in the shapes of sickles stuck about a quarter of the way inside of him. He was bleeding out already, a pool beginning to form under him.

"I normally don't like to use this when I'm not worshipping, however you are in my way," the sultry voice came tauntingly. A second man had appeared, his hair slicked back, shirtless. He leaned over Kakashi, who was now attempting to rise to his elbows with the triple-sickle still lodged in his body, and rested his foot on part of the blade so that his weight pressed the tips farther into Kakashi's torso. Kakashi nearly screamed out from the pain, being pressed back down into the dirt, the blades now close to halfway inside of him.

"Hidan, just kill him already." The first man's voice rang out, annoyed. "We have what we need for our bargain already, let's go. Hmmph!"

Kakashi paid careful mind to these words and he knew he would need them later to rescue Yamato. He looked up, his body trembling from the pain, to see if Yamato's condition had changed. He was now slung over the first man's shoulder. Kakashi grit his teeth.

"He'll die here anyways. The least I can give him in exchange for an shortened battle is a prolonged death." Hidan let out a maniacal laugh as he pulled out his weapon and shook the blood off in one forceful stroke. Kakashi winced in pain, staggering slightly onto his arm, coughing out blood. He glared at Hidan challengingly, attempting to get up again.

Hidan raised his eyebrow upon seeing this, and pulled out a kunai from behind his back, slashing Kakashi down the left side of his face, right over his eye. Kakashi cried out, immediately cupping his already bloody hands over his blinded eye, falling back onto his side.

"That's for having an attitude. You should be grateful I'm letting you experience death to it's fullest," Hidan slithered. "Let's go, Deidara." He kicked Kakashi in the abdomen, making him cough blood before turning around and accompanying Deidara, who was carrying the unconscious Yamato to wherever their destination was.

Kakashi spat more blood onto the ground as he coughed again, attempting to call out for Yamato once more. Curling tighter in pain, he let the fresh wound on his face bleed and clot as he applied as much pressure as he could to the three new gashes that would undoubtedly be his end. He heard birds beginning to chirp, meaning that sunrise was soon to follow. It would only be a matter of time before someone found him. He only needed to hold on as long as he could...

TWO HOURS LATER

Rays of sunlight shone modestly upon Kakashi's body, intermittently blinding his good eye. He could feel that his heart rate had slowed to a dangerous rate. He knew he was dying, but he couldn't let himself die before telling someone what happened, and the names he had heard exchanged. Breathing deeply caused him to hack up more blood, so he struggled to breathe as shallowly as he could, the tearing pain from his abdomen not making it easy. He needed to find Yamato. That was all he could focus on. He couldn't let another one be taken from him. He closed his eyes, lining Yamato up right next to Obito and Rin...

Each time he thought of it, which was very frequently, he struggled not to burst into tears of agony and guilt ridden sorrow. If he had been paying more attention, if he had reacted sooner... He continued to blame himself. I literally let him slip from my hands... his fingers... literally slipped from mine... He bent his head down, staring at the hands that ironically now actually were covered in blood, but only seeing Yamato's fingers interlaced with his.

He couldn't help the sobs that followed after feeling the warmth of Yamato's hands slip from his over and over. Tears mixed with blood spilled from his blinded eye, while blood trickled down his face from the corner of his mouth as he cried harder. He hadn't realized how close to death he was until he heard distorted voices surrounding him. When he opened his eyes, he could only see the silhouettes of bodies rushing towards him, shouting, calling out to him. He felt his weight shift out from under him as he was gently placed on his back.

He stared up, looking straight past the fuzzy faces hovering over him, gazing at the tops of the trees that he could no longer distinguish. He felt the fabric of his shirt being ripped open, the cool morning air brushing against his skin as his wounds were now fully exposed. Someone began to pack gauze on the insides of his abdomen and someone else was pressing gauze over his left eye. It burned, but he was beginning to not feel the pain so much anymore.

He could tell that whoever was there were all trying to speak to him, trying to get his attention, but he couldn't make out what they were saying. He could only let out small groans and choked sounds in response, until he couldn't make any more sounds.

"Dammit, Kakashi, stay with us!" Itachi screamed at the top of his lungs, continuing to pack the pads of gauze and putting more anti septic over the remainder of his wound before covering it more. At least a dozen ANBU members had been called out to find them when Kakashi and Yamato hadn't reported back, most of them qualified medics, but none of them could do anymore without having the proper equipment. They were not prepared to come across a scene like this.

Finally Kakashi managed to cough out one word.

"Yamato..." was all he could muster before blacking out.