Kakashi woke Sakura up fifteen minutes before he knew the nurse would be in to make sure he was indeed still in his bed. She stirred sleepily and buried her face into his chest, earning a grunt of pain from the silver-haired man. She lifted her head immediately, her eyes meeting his in the dim lighting of the sterile, white room.
"Did I hurt you?" She mumbled, her words slurred with sleep. Kakashi shook his head, bringing his hand to the side of her face.
"No, but they're about to do a room check and they won't be too pleased to see you in my bed," he told her quietly. "Why don't you go home and relax in an actual bed for awhile, maybe read? I'm probably just gonna pass out when they give me a pain shot during the check."
Sakura pouted, and he smiled behind his surgical mask, the light of it reaching his eyes. After a moment, she nodded and brushed her lips over his cheek. "I'll see you tomorrow?"
The silver-haired man nodded, giving her hand a gentle squeeze as her fingers found his. She climbed out of the bed and had just managed to slip out the window when the door to his room opened and a nurse walked in, clipboard and syringe in hand.
"How have you been feeling since your last check this afternoon?" The nurse asked him, walking over to his bed. Kakashi shrugged, folding his arms over his chest and ignoring the urge to wince at the tight feeling that came in his back with the action.
"I feel fine. In fact, I'd rather not be injected with that painkiller. It makes my sleep restless," he told her, allowing the woman to go about her tasks. A thermometer was held out, and he opened his mouth, letting her make sure he wasn't running a fever.
"Fine?" She scoffed. "I've read your chart, Kakashi-san. You were close range to what sounds like an explosion. You won't be fine for quite awhile. There was a serious laceration to your throat, and your chest was full of holes before the doctors were able to really heal you. And that's not to tell of-"
Kakashi waved her off, and the woman huffed, ignoring him as she went about the rest of her tests. Determining that he was okay for the night, she agreed not to inject the painkiller if he agreed not to be a trouble patient during his stay. He promised, fingers crossed underneath the sheet and a plan already whirring through his mind. The nurse made a final tsk under her breath as she exited the room and the silver-haired man watched impatiently as the metal door slowly pulled shut until finally...click.
That was when he made his move.
Kakashi yanked at the sheet covering his body, tossing it to the floor. He lifted his legs slowly, his feet meeting the cold tile floor. There was no stopping the groan of pain once he was able to finally stand, his fingers clenched tightly around the bed's security bar as he took a shaky breath to steady himself.
He wasn't staying another damn minute in this hospital.
The short walk over to the window took him twenty long, agonizing minutes but he finally made it. With shallow breaths, he took a seat on the chair for what he intended to be just a few moments. Exhaustion won out, and Kakashi found himself drifting off to sleep even as he willed himself to stand.
He wasn't sure what time it was when he came to, but the room was still shadowed in the darkness that colored the sky outside. Unsure when the next room check would be, Kakashi forced himself to his feet right away, stumbling as he blinked away the sleep. Once his eye was focused, he slid the window open and slowly slid out belly first. The rasp of the metal window against his bandaged chest pulled a hiss of pain from Kakashi's lips, but he ignored it and willed himself to focus through the discomfort. Concentrating his chakra to his hands and feet, the silver-haired shinobi made his way down the wall. He lost his grip about five feet from the bottom and landed with a stifled moan of pain on his back.
He fumbled back to his feet, clutching his chest as he took shaky steps to the edge of the hospital's property, easily avoiding detection from the inexperienced Genins that were patrolling the grounds even in his injured state. He nearly couldn't stop himself from chuckling as one of them walked less than five feet away from where he'd hidden himself in a bush as he remembered the inmates he'd caught doing this very same thing recently.
One agonizing hour later, Kakashi was standing in front of the Hokage's tower. This was the whole reason he'd escaped the hospital; why he'd told Sakura to go home instead of just hiding until the nurse was done with her check. As much as he'd wanted to lay there with her all night, there were more important things at hand.
He didn't even make it two feet into the front door before Genma was standing in front of him, eyebrow arched and arms crossed across his chest. "Kakashi, you're supposed to be in the hospital."
"I need to speak with Lady Tsunade. It's urgent," the silver-haired shinobi told his friend before narrowing his eyes. "And don't tell me she's not here. If you're here, so is she."
There was a short silence before the tenbon-chewing shinobi chuckled, shrugging as he moved to help support Kakashi's weight. "Well, I can't say I've never sneaked out of there, either. Can't stand the smell of that damn antiseptic."
The two shared a shiver and then began to make their way up to the office. By the time they finally got there, Kakashi could see the sun peeking over the top of the great stone faces of the Leaf's former Hokages. Tsunade glowered at him from above the pile of paperwork on her desk, hazel eyes flashing red for just a moment.
"I've just received word from the hospital that you're missing," the lady Hokage hissed at him through gritted teeth. "They've requested a team to come and search for you."
Kakashi shrugged as he plopped down into a free chair against the wall. "I promised the night nurse I wouldn't be a problem patient. I didn't promise I'd be a patient, though."
A slew of curse words flew from the Sannin's mouth before she sighed, lifting a folder from the top of the pile. "I'm assuming you're here to debrief about the mission?"
"Yes. When Gai stopped by this afternoon, he mentioned that Ranka had completed the autopsy on the dead Iwa nin. Have Ibiki and Inoichi finished their interrogations?"
Tsunade pinched the bridge of her nose in aggravation, no doubt making a mental note to have a chat with Gai about his lack of discretion, but she finally nodded, sitting back down behind her desk.
"Yes," she answered him curtly. "But we're still trying to analyze some of the information retrieved. We have confirmed that all three of these Iwa nin belong to the same clan as the three you brought back from your mission into the Land of Earth. I've had Shizune looking through old ANBU records to see if your team was ever sent to Iwa, but it appears as though some of those records have been scrubbed," she sighed in frustration. "Do you recall any specific missions involving Iwa, Kakashi?"
The memory he had recalled upon hearing that it was Team Ro's files that had gone missing flashed in his mind again, this time with more detail - a cold and windy night in the North Pass, his team escorting a girl who had been about his age who had been from a small mining village outside of Iwa. His lungs exhaled sharply, and he met the blonde's expectant gaze. The Third Hokage and the village Council had forbade him from ever speaking about that mission with anyone - even a future Hokage, like Lady Tsunade.
"I can't answer that, Lady Tsunade," he answered her honestly. "I was forbidden by the same Council whom you yourself take orders from," this earned a defiant glare from her, but he continued with a question of his own. "Do we know why this group trespassed?"
Tsunade's eyes were guarded as she kept Kakashi's gaze. He knew she was lying when she answered, "No; they've so far withstood Inoichi's efforts. Ibiki hasn't reported his findings from today's interrogation."
"And what about that kekkei genkai?" the silver-haired shinobi asked coolly.
Tsunade thumbed through the stack of papers in the folder, stopping about halfway through. She allowed her eyes to glance over it and then finally began speaking. "The DNA from the deceased ninja point to a common origin point in the North Pass of the mountains bordering our nation," she spoke through measured words. "We've developed a hypothesis that the clan learned to harness the natural phenomenon known as rock rain that occasionally happens along that border and were able to develop the kekkei genkai that you witnessed in battle. That nearly killed you, Kakashi. You should still be in the hospital."
Kakashi's posture stiffened. He definitely knew what this was about now. There had only ever been that one mission that had taken Team Ro through the North Pass in those treacherous mountains. He had tuned Tsunade out until her voice had sharply called his name. He quickly turned his head and immediately let out a small sound of pain as he felt the wound in his neck re-open. The blonde Sannin rolled her eyes and looked up at Genma, who had been standing silently in the corner of the office in his usual spot.
"I'll go get Shizune-san," the man spoke, walking out of the room and leaving Tsunade alone with Kakashi, who was now holding a hand to his neck. He cursed under his breath when he pulled his fingers back to see fresh blood staining his fingers. The lady Hokage just glared at him, moving to stand in front of him. She activated her healing chakra, concentrating it in her hands as she placed them over his neck.
"There's only so much medical chakra can do, Kakashi," she snapped at him as she worked on closing the re-opened wound. "You still need to give your body time to heal itself. Escaping the hospital and crawling your way here isn't going to help."
"I didn't crawl," Kakashi huffed. "I limped, thank you very much."
He winced as the medical chakra turned a little sharper. The door clicked open and Genma walked back into the room, hands in his pockets as Shizune followed behind him, a medical kit in hand and a glare on her red face.
"You!" Shizune growled angrily as she pointed her finger at him accusingly. "Do you have any idea the commotion you've caused at the hospital? The alarms were activated! Patients were woken up!"
Kakashi gave her his best charming look, but it did nothing to sway the young woman. Shizune stomped over to him, grabbing him by the ear and forcing him to his feet. The silver-haired man yowled, clawing unsuccessfully at the young woman's arm and hand in an effort to free himself.
"Hey, oww!" He whined.
He wasn't given a chance to ask the Hokage anymore questions as her assistant dragged him out of the room, Genma following closely behind as Tsunade nodded at him to do so, her eyes narrowed in focus as she watched the injured shinobi being escorted out. She sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose again before she stood and turned to look out over Konoha in the early morning sunlight. She had told Kakashi the bare minimum of what she thought he'd believe. There was more; much more that was being unraveled. But Tsunade couldn't tell him right now, she mused as she watched the citizens of the village begin moving about. He needed to focus on healing, and she needed to get to the bottom of whatever had happened with Team Ro in the Land of Earth seventeen years ago.
-x-
Later that afternoon, Kakashi was dozing and dreaming of sitting in a nice, steaming onsen when he was rudely pulled out of his sleep by a metal door slamming against the drywall. He cracked his grey eye open and groaned when he saw Sakura standing at the foot of his bed. Her forehead vein was throbbing, eyes narrowed into slits as she gripped the railing keeping him from rolling off the mattress. Just how many angry women was he going to be dealing with today?
"You could have seriously re-injured yourself, Kakashi," she glowered at him. "What if you had ripped open that wound before you were in the office? What if your chakra control slipped and you fell?"
Kakashi decided it would be best if he did not tell her that he had indeed fallen. He crinkled his eye, holding his hands up in defeat as he smiled under the surgical mask. "It was just such a beautiful night, Sakura. I couldn't help but take a little stroll."
His attempt at using humor to deflect her did not work, and she folded her arms across her chest, her glare not wavering. She stared him down for a few minutes, her anger radiating through the room before finally her gaze softened and she walked up to stand next to him, her hand reaching for his. Kakashi squeezed her hand in reassurance, bringing it to his masked lips and leaving a spattering of kisses to her knuckles.
"I'm okay, Sakura," he murmured against her skin. The dam of tears that had been welling up in her eyes finally broke and they cascaded down her face. Kakashi felt a pang in his heart, and reached up to wipe them away with the pad of his thumb.
"You looked broken, Kakashi. You were broken," her voice whispered back, her words cracking as she leaned in to his touch. "There was so much blood."
Kakashi forced himself to sit up on the bed, doing his best to ignore the sharp pain shooting up his chest. "Sakura," he spoke her name softly as he placed his feet on the floor. He reached for her hands, pulling her so that she was standing in between his legs, his exposed eye studying her blotchy, puffy face. When she wouldn't meet his gaze, he dropped her hands, moving his fingers to her cheeks. "Sakura," he repeated her name more firmly. When she finally looked at him, he spoke again. "I'm not going anywhere, okay? I'm right here," his voice was a whisper now as he took her into his arms, her forehead falling against his shoulder.
Sakura clung to Kakashi's shoulders, her tears wetting his skin as he smoothed his hands up and down her back in an effort to comfort her. Her tears fell freely now; her breath hitching with sobs and cries that broke the older shinobi's heart. It wasn't the first time he'd seen her break down, nor was it his first time holding her through it. But this time, Kakashi felt his own heart breaking too.
"I'm sorry I scared you," he murmured against the top of her head. "I promise I'll stay put 'til they release me on their own, okay?"
Sakura arched her eyebrow as though she didn't believe him, and she moved her lips to the corner of his mouth, kissing him gently. "If you can actually manage to do that," she whispered, her fingers now moving to his thigh. Kakashi's hand gripped her wrist, his eye darkening when he saw a smirk tugging at her lips. "I might just have a reward waiting for you upon that release."
Before Kakashi had a chance to reply, they heard the door clicking open and Sakura took two steps back from him as a nurse walked in. Kakashi groaned, his head falling back against the pillow as he silently willed his body to heal faster. There was too much to do for him to be laid up in the hospital. And Sakura had just added herself to that list, he thought with a lick of his lips as the nurse began poking and prodding him with needles and thermometers.