It has been two days since Naruto last saw Kakashi awake. After their encounter with Iruka, Kakashi passed out – and, to Naruto's knowledge, he hasn't woken up since.

Something's wrong. Naruto isn't a medic, but even he can tell that sleeping for two days straight probably isn't good, and that it's probably even less good that Kakashi seems to be having more and more trouble breathing.

Naruto has decided to camp out in the hole to keep an eye on him – he just wants to make sure that Kakashi isn't, like, eaten by a wild animal while he's defenseless like this. Or arrested by Konoha shinobi, though Naruto isn't sure how much he'd be able to do to keep that from happening.

The nights are quiet, though, apart from the rasping sound of Kakashi's breathing. Last night was another quiet one; Naruto blinks his eyes open to the song of a blackbird, breaking the silence in the morning. He hadn't meant to fall asleep, but it'd been so quiet, and he'd been so tired…

He sits up, rubbing at his eyes. His clothes feel cold and damp; it's cold underground, and the fact that it only stopped raining last night certainly isn't helping. He'd originally brought a sleeping bag with him – Hokage-jiji had gifted it to him years ago when he started his first year at the Academy, along with some other things that Naruto would need for field trips – but Kakashi had seemed like he was cold, so Naruto had surrendered his sleeping bag to him.

Naruto rubs his arms, trying to warm up a bit. The chill is unpleasant, but that's all it is. It's not like Naruto needs to worry about getting sick, anyway. Idiots don't catch colds, or that's what his classmates always say.

A soft cough from Kakashi draws his attention – for a hopeful second, Naruto thinks that he might be waking up, but Kakashi only coughs a few times and keeps sleeping. The coughs make a rattling, wet sound. It's not a sound that Naruto has heard him make before.

Worried, Naruto scoots over to him and holds out a hand towards his forehead. He doesn't even need to touch him to feel the warmth that his skin is radiating. It feels like his fever is even higher than it was yesterday.

Naruto sits back, anxiously balling his fists, his nails digging into his palms. Kakashi said that he needed rest, but he's been resting for the past two days straight and he's only getting sicker. At this point, Naruto is terrified that Kakashi will just die if he doesn't get some kind of medical attention or medicine.

He'd borrowed a few books about pneumonia from the library yesterday, so that he could maybe figure out what he's supposed to do, but the books are filled with kanji that Naruto can't read, and reading large difficult books feels like such a waste of time when Kakashi is getting sicker by the hour. It's becoming more and more apparent that Naruto will have to ask someone for help – which is a massive risk that he doesn't feel like taking, but he fears that he'll have to.

At any rate, Naruto has to do something. Today.

He leaves for school with that worry weighing down on him, and he spends most of the morning trying to figure out who he can safely ask for advice. Naruto usually asks Iruka-sensei about stuff, but that's not an option; Iruka is definitely smart enough to know the answers to Naruto's questions, but he'd also be smart enough to figure out what Naruto is hiding. Also, he still thinks that Naruto is taking care of a dog instead of a person. So, Naruto can't ask him.

Maybe he can ask one of his classmates? Sakura would certainly be smart enough to know, but she's also kind of mean sometimes. And a tattletale. Ino would probably know some answers, too, but she's also mean, and she always shares everything she knows with Sakura, so… nope. Shikamaru is smart, too, but he's a little bit too smart. Asking him about stuff might lead to him wanting something in return, and Naruto is currently very short on things that he can give in return.

Which leaves… a whole bunch of idiots and assholes, honestly. The rest of Naruto's classmates either wouldn't help him or wouldn't be able to help him. That thought leaves Naruto on the brink of panic for a good half hour before he realizes that there's someone he'd overlooked.

Hinata. Who is neither an idiot nor an asshole.

Naruto formulates his plan as lunch break approaches. Hinata is really shy and easily startled into clamming up or running away, but fortunately Naruto has learned from his conversations with his also-easily-startled missing-nin friend. As long as he doesn't make too many big movements or sudden loud noises, tries to be clear about what he means, and maybe asks questions that Hinata can just nod or shake her head to, he thinks he should be fine.

Lunch break rolls around, and Iruka lets his students out into the schoolyard. Naruto had intended to follow Hinata immediately, but he's slowed down when some of his classmates find it necessary to shout at him that he smells like dirt. By the time Naruto has yelled back that they smell like shit, Hinata has disappeared from view.

He finds her again sitting behind a corner of the building, out of sight from the rest of the class. She's alone, as she always seems to be.

Naruto approaches her with a grin and a wave of his hand, trying to seem as non-threatening as he can. Hinata's shoulders tense up regardless, her eyes widening, but she doesn't seem like she's about to run away just yet. That's good.

"Hey, Hinata," Naruto greets her. "Is it all right if I sit with you for a sec? I need to ask you something." When she hesitates, he adds: "I'm not trying to play a prank on you. I just… need some advice from someone who's smarter than me, because it's important but I can't figure it out by myself."

Hinata looks at the ground, and for a moment Naruto is terrified that she'll ask him to leave, but then she shifts to make room for him behind the corner. "I'll try to help as well as I can," she replies in that soft voice of hers, and Naruto is so relieved that he feels a little lightheaded.

He gratefully sits down next to her. "So," he starts, "this is kind of a secret, kind of a really big secret, so would you please not tell anyone? I mean, I assume you won't tell anyone because you don't talk very much anyway, but still."

She nods. "Sure."

Naruto gives her a nod back. "So, the thing that I need your help with," he begins, pausing to try and think. How much should he tell her? He'd promised Kakashi that he wouldn't tell anyone about him, so… "There's, uhm, this friend I have. And, he's really sick. And he can't go to the hospital, even though he should. He said it's probably pneu- pneuno- pneumonia, and he said he'd need to rest a lot to get better, but it's not working and I don't know what to do."

He looks up at Hinata, and she looks away, her eyebrows nervously drawing together. "Sorry," she says, and Naruto has to bite his tongue to conceal his anxiety. "We haven't had a lot of classes about medical things, so I don't… I don't know very much about that… It sounds serious, so I don't want to give you any wrong information…" She twists her hands together in her lap. "But… maybe I could go to the library after school and read up on it?"

"You'd be willing to do that?" Naruto exclaims, instantly forgetting about his strategy of not making sudden loud noises. "Ah- Wait, you wouldn't even need to go to the library! I have most of the library books on pneumomia in my backpack! If you'll wait a moment, I'll go grab them."

A quick hop through the classroom window later, Naruto returns with his backpack. Hinata spends the rest of their break pouring over the books, and Naruto tries his best to answer the questions that she asks him about Kakashi's health without giving away any information that could put anybody in danger.

As it turns out, it's pretty complicated to figure out how to treat Kakashi's illness. Hinata explains to Naruto that the hospital would normally run a bunch of tests to figure out what kind of pneumonia Kakashi is sick with – because apparently there's multiple kinds of pneumonia – but since Naruto doesn't know medical ninjutsu, they'll have to make some guesses instead.

Hinata eventually decides that Naruto's best chance at success is to get Kakashi some antibiotics from the pharmacy – she writes down what types of antibiotics would work – and to get him some medicine to help his fever.

"We don't know what kind of pneumonia your friend has, but the most common kind is treated with antibiotics," Hinata tells Naruto, her eyes trained on the book on her lap. "There's a pretty big chance that that'll work, and if it doesn't work, not much harm should be done. And, uhm, even if I'm wrong, bringing down his fever should always help." She gives him a smile; a nervous one, but a smile nonetheless. "I hope it works. I'm, u-uhm, I'm rooting for you, at least."

Naruto beams back at her. "Hinata, you're brilliant," he tells her, and she hides her face behind her hands. "I owe you big time. Thank you. So much. Seriously."

He was prepared to thank her a million times more, but at that point, the school bell rings, signalling the end of lunch break. Hinata ducks away with a "You're welcome", hiding her blush behind the hood of her vest.

Naruto stays behind to pack the library books into his backpack. He feels a lot less hopeless than this morning. He has a plan to help Kakashi, now – all he'll have to do now, is execute that plan.


He doesn't go back to class after lunch break; the quicker he can get the medicine to Kakashi, the better. Plus, he often skips school in the afternoons, anyway. It might even come across as suspicious if he suddenly had a perfect attendance record.

He makes his way to the village's pharmacy, on the other side of the village. He's never been inside the pharmacy before; he never gets sick, so he's never needed to buy medicine before. He's not certain how expensive it is. If he didn't have enough money for both, would the antibiotics or the fever meds be more important? Maybe he should've asked Hinata about it.

Naruto hesitates in front of the pharmacy's door, his hands tightening around the straps of his backpack. He's always nervous about entering stores he's never been to before. Whenever he enters a place like this, there's always a fifty percent chance of getting kicked out and an eighty percent chance of getting glared at.

But, he reminds himself, no one has been particularly mean to him today. Maybe this is just a good day for him.

He bounces on his feet a couple of times to bounce away his nervousness, and then he enters the pharmacy.

A bell rings above the door, making the people inside look up; Naruto flinches automatically, but no one immediately starts yelling at him to screw off. A few of the customers narrow their eyes at him, and the guy who's manning the counter frowns at him, but it seems that they're tolerating Naruto's presence for now.

With a relieved smile, Naruto takes out the list of meds that Hinata had written down for him and walks up to the counter. "Hi!" he greets the guy behind the counter. "Uh, I want to buy some medicine- These ones, please." He puts the list down on the counter.

The man studies the list, looks Naruto up and down, and takes out two small opaque glass bottles from underneath the counter. Naruto squints to read the labels, scanning to find the price, and he can feel the blood drain from his face.

He can't afford it. He can't afford either of the meds.

His fists clench at his sides. For a crazy, desperate moment, he considers grabbing both bottles and running, but he would never make it all the way to Kakashi without getting caught. He'd only land himself in trouble and make everything even worse.

He'll need to find someone to borrow money from. For the third time today, he'll need to involve other people and risk someone getting suspicious.

"This sucks," he hisses, only realizing belatedly that he said it out loud. "Uhm, I'm sorry," he tells the guy behind the counter. "I can't pay for this right now. I'll… come back later, I guess."

He scrunches up the list in his fist and walks out of the pharmacy. One of the other customers whispers something to her friend, but Naruto can't even hear it over the rushing of blood in his ears. As soon as he makes it outside, he kicks a streetlight, sends a vicious glare to a passerby who's staring, and walks in the opposite direction with his hands in his pockets.

Damn it. How is he supposed to fix this? Who can he ask for money? That list of people is painfully short. The Hokage would probably find something to be suspicious about, and the same goes for Iruka-sensei. His classmates don't trust him with any of their possessions, let alone their money, and he's already asked far too much of Hinata. Would Kakashi carry money on him? Would it be all right to borrow some of his? But Naruto doesn't know if he'll be able to pay Kakashi back before he has to leave…

"Hey, Naruto. Shouldn't you be in school right now?"

A girl's voice pulls Naruto from his thoughts – when he looks up, he realizes that he's standing right in front of Ichiraku Ramen. Huh. Apparently, he's wandered here so many times when he's feeling anxious that his subconscious just leads him here automatically.

It takes him a couple of seconds of looking around to realize that it was Ayame who just spoke to him; she's standing at the side of the restaurant, apparently just returning from making a delivery.

He scratches his head sheepishly. "Yeah, I guess I should be," he replies. "School just… isn't the most important thing right now."

It's not an unusual thing for him to say; normally, Ayame would probably shrug at him and tell him to keep out of trouble, but there must be something different in his tone today, because she gives him a sympathetic smile. "Care to talk about it?" she asks, and nods her chin towards the entrance of the restaurant. "Go and sit down. Dad! One serving of ramen for Naruto, please!"

"Sure thing," comes Teuchi's voice from inside, and Naruto waves his hands around in protest.

"No, I can't, I'm sorry," he replies. "I can't pay for it right now."

"Doesn't matter," Ayame replies with a wink, and she disappears through the back door of the restaurant. Naruto ducks into the restaurant, feeling like he might cry out of gratitude. Teuchi greets him with a friendly smile, and Naruto feels even more like he might cry.

It's quiet inside the restaurant. Lunch rush has ended; right now, Naruto is the only customer inside. He prefers it this way. He picks a stool and sits down.

It smells nice in here; it always does. Naruto's stomach grumbles in response, and he's reminded that he didn't eat breakfast, or lunch. With everything that's going on, he'd completely forgotten to eat.

Teuchi boils up a portion of ramen, and then he turns to Naruto with an expression that's a mix of stern and sympathetic. "Any particular reason you're not in class, Naruto?" he asks.

Naruto swings his legs, thinking. He doesn't need to think for long, though. There's no doubt that Teuchi and Ayame can keep a secret – they've probably heard more secrets than anyone in the village, and they never run their mouths about it.

"Well," he starts with a sigh, "there's someone that I'm trying to help. He's really sick, and he can't go to the hospital, so I skipped school this afternoon to buy medicine for him." He leans his chin on his hand. "It was a bust, though. I'm too broke to buy the meds. So now I have to figure out how to fix that."

"How much was it?" Teuchi asks. "I could lend you some money again."

Naruto stays silent. It's a kind offer, of course – but Naruto has already borrowed so much money from Teuchi over the years, and he's only rarely been able to pay it back. Sure, Teuchi has never held it against Naruto, he's far too nice for that, but it still doesn't feel good to borrow even more money from him that he might not be able to pay back.

Then again, this is Kakashi's life they're talking about…

"Which meds do you need?" Ayame asks him as she enters the kitchen; apparently, she'd overheard. "I'll need to run some errands anyway, so I might as well do them now and swing by the pharmacy while I'm at it."

Naruto bites his tongue. They're being too nice to him, and he really can't ask this of them – but he finds himself holding out the list of meds anyway. Ayame takes it from him, and Teuchi reads along over her shoulder.

"Shouldn't be too complicated," she declares, stuffing the list into her pocket. "I'll be back in a bit."

Naruto thanks her, and his voice comes out a little choked.


He's only just finished his ramen when Ayame returns, proudly holding up the two bottles of medicine. Naruto hugs her as soon as she comes in, too grateful for words.

He leaves a little while later, his spirits lifted, the bottles in the pockets of his jacket. Teuchi and Ayame wish him good luck, and Naruto waves at them until he can't see them anymore.

His optimism has returned, at least a little. All he'll have to do is bring Kakashi the medicine, and then things will work out. It had seemed hopeless there for a moment, but it seems like it'll be okay after all.

He runs into a bit of trouble as he approaches Konoha's gates, though: there's a chuunin patrolling around there. Normally, Naruto would just be able to sneak outside without anyone noticing except the two guards. And the guards aren't a problem – it's always the same two guys, and they've said themselves that they're not being paid enough to keep track of his whereabouts – but a chuunin on patrol would probably take note if he saw Naruto leave.

Naruto hides around a nearby corner. He'll just have to wait it out. He hardly ever runs into patrols, but that's probably just because he always leaves Konoha when school is over. Naruto's just early today – by the time the school day has ended, the chuunin will probably have left.

But he waits, and waits, and the chuunin is talking to the guards and he's taking his sweet time. The three of them spend a ridiculous amount of time complaining about the fact that the Hokage has made them go on more patrols since they found those two jounin, which- well, Naruto supposes it's useful information for him to know, but can't they complain about it a little faster?

He's just started considering causing a diversion when the chuunin checks his watch and tells the guards that he should get going. Naruto feels as though he could collapse with relief. Good. As soon as the chuunin is gone, he'll sprint through the gates and all should be well-

"Well, if it isn't Uzumaki Naruto," a voice sneers behind him, and Naruto freezes.

A hand grabs the collar of his jacket and yanks him backwards. Naruto almost loses his balance, but he manages to stay upright and turn around.

Four of his classmates – the shitty ones – are standing behind him, smirking down at him. The fifth one is still clinging to Naruto's jacket, undoubtedly trying to tear the fabric with his fingers. He's snickering into his ear. "Let me go," Naruto growls, clenching his fists at his sides. "I don't have time for this today."

One of the boys grins wider. "Hey, no need to be rude," he replies. "We just want to talk to you for a bit. You seemed a special kind of weird today, and then you didn't show up for class after lunch. We were just wondering what was up with you today."

"None of your business," Naruto replies, before he realizes that he's just making this conversation last longer – the more he talks to them, the more they'll find to be cruel about. He glares up at them. "I don't have time for this," he repeats, slowly. "I'm leaving now. Have a good day."

But the kid behind him is still holding his jacket, and the kid in front of him grabs his sleeve, and all of a sudden Naruto's impatience is boiling inside him. Before he's fully realized what he's doing, he's elbowed the boy behind him in the stomach and punched the boy in front of him in the face.

The grasp on his jacket loosens, and the other kid stumbles backwards, holding his nose. Naruto turns and dashes for the gates.

"Get him!" one of the boys roars behind him – and the next moment, something hits the back of his head, hard enough to make his vision go white.

He stumbles, and he can feel his knees scrape against the ground, and then his hands. With a whine, he tries to scramble to his feet again, but he's too dizzy to get up. Through the ringing in his ears, he can hear the footsteps of his classmates approaching, and he knows what's coming. He curls in on himself on his side, trying to protect the glass bottles in the pockets of his jacket.

The first kick connects with his back, followed by someone stomping down on his side. Naruto tries to curl himself into a ball as well as he can, squeezing his eyes shut. It's cowardly, and any good shinobi would be fighting back, but Naruto is dizzy and outnumbered, and he's not sure whether he'd be able to protect the fragile bottles of medicine in a fight. It's better to just endure this. He'll heal, anyway.

The group of boys has surrounded him, now, and the kicks come from every side. The bruises they leave don't hurt for long, but they hurt nonetheless. In the dizzy darkness behind Naruto's eyelids, it feels like nothing exists except the unpredictable pattern of blows.

At some point, someone stomps down on the side of his head, and another wave of nauseating dizziness follows. Naruto uses the moment to his advantage; he lets himself go slack.

"Oh," one of the boys reacts. "He's passed out. Guess he couldn't handle it. What a wuss."

The other boys laugh, the barrage of kicks stopping. "Serves him right," one of them says, and Naruto recognizes the voice of the kid that he just punched in the face. "Well, we've wasted enough time on him. Let's go to my place and play some card games, yeah?"

A final kick to Naruto's face follows – he can feel his lip start to bleed, but he forces himself not to react – before the footsteps start leading away from him. Naruto stays motionless for a while longer, just to make sure that his classmates are truly gone, and then he stays motionless some more so that the dizziness has a chance to go away. Ugh, his head really hurts. His own heartbeat feels too loud.

Apparently, he's lying there for a bit too long, because at some point, he can hear one of the guards nervously clear his throat. "Kotetsu," he asks the other guard, "is he-"

The other guard gets up, his footsteps approaching Naruto. "Uh, kid?" he asks. "Naruto? Are you good?"

Oh, so now they're worried. The guards must've seen everything, but they only decided to butt in now that it's already too late. Naruto knows he should be grateful that they decided to worry at all, but right now, he's only hurting and dizzy and pissed off.

He gets to his feet, wobbling. Baring his teeth, he pushes past the guard that's approaching him and dashes for the gates. Finally, finally he disappears into the forest.

He's too dizzy to walk in a straight line, and he has to stop a couple of times along the way to catch his breath and to spit out a loose tooth – thankfully, that one was just a baby tooth. He manages to make it to Kakashi eventually, gratefully sliding down the tunnel.

The hole smells profoundly of sick person, even more so than this morning. Kakashi is right where Naruto left him, still sleeping, still breathing like his lungs are filled with gravel. "I'm back," Naruto tells him, even though he knows that Kakashi won't hear him. "I brought you medicine. You're going to be okay."

He takes the bottles out of his pockets – Naruto is relieved to see that they're still whole – and opens them. He shakes two of the pills into the palm of his hand and turns to Kakashi.

It's only then that he realizes his mistake. The medicine is pills. How in the Hell is he supposed to give pills to Kakashi when he's unconscious? He hadn't thought to consider that.

It feels like the world crumbles around him. Unless Kakashi wakes up right now, this medicine is useless. Naruto wasted an entire day. He took so many risks for nothing.

He should really start thinking up a new plan – but his head hurts so much, and he's so tired.

With hitching breaths, Naruto curls up on the ground and cries.