Sasuke's Weakness Ch. 45

The wind rushed past Sai as he ran along the forest floor. He had just given up his hunt for Kakashi by air since his line of vision was impaired by the trees and had taken to a ground approach. He figured it was too soon to call back his mice, if he called them back before they were able to locate anyone his drawings would be completely useless and he didn't think he had enough chakra to create one hundred more mice to scour the area. No, he would wait a few more minutes before he called them back. It was true, if Sai called the mice back now and they hadn't found anyone yet it would be a complete waste, but that wasn't the only reason for his postponment. Though he wouldn't admit it to himself, Sai was almost afraid to call back the mice and find them empty handed. By waiting five more minutes, that was five more minutes Sai could go without asuming the worst. Five more minutes without him worrying that his informationless mice meant that there no longer was anyone for them to locate- that his team members had been killed.

Not that he automatically thought the worst because he didn't believe that the others could handle themselves, on the contrary he became more and more confident in his new family each fight they went through, but he had seem many other ninja far more experienced fall victim to an early death. Also, he still was not sure about the Uchiha. Though he did not seem to have alterior motives to helping Naruto escape another attempt by Akatsuki to capture him, Sasuke still had not earned Sai's trust. Even now Sai had just begun to trust Naruto and Sakura, there was no way Sasuke could just come back and expect to be regarded in the same light as the others. Sai had never made a previous bond with Sasuke, and his only prior knowledge of him was what he was told by Danzo, which had been very tinted to begin with, and what he had learned of Sasuke during his short stay at Orochimaru's hide out. As far as Sai was concerned, in Sasuke's case, the Uchiha was once a traitor of Konoha, who was now trying to return and turn over a new leaf after realizing that he had nothing else left for him. He did not share the sentiments that Naruto, Sakura, and even Kakashi felt towards Sasuke because they were part of the original Team 7 with him. Sai was Sasuke's replacement. A substitiute sent in to fill the space left empty by a missing nin who no longer was part of Konoha. And now, Sasuke had returned and Sai questioned whether he would be needed much longer if Sasuke really did in the end decide to stay. "If" being a stronger word in his own vocabulary than it seemed in anyone elses.

It was obvious that Naruto expected beyond a doubt that Sasuke would be staying. Even if he was forced to physically keep Sasuke in Konoha, Sai doubted Naruto would allow Sasuke to escape again. Kakashi on the other hand did seem to be keeping a level eye on the situation, never bringing up plans for the future or mentioning anything that would entirely allude to Sasuke's remaining in Konoha. Sai guessed that Kakashi was aware that Sasuke Uchiha would not just be welcomed back to his old home with open arms, even if he would not openly express it. And Sakura... Well, Sai had heard enough from Naruto about what happened years ago between herself and Sasuke, and he was not so blind to emotion that he could not see that Sakura had her heart invested in Sasuke's stay. He wondered how one could even feel an emotion so strong as love, let alone harbor that feeling for years in dormancy, and then rekindle it so quickly. Sai might have come a long way, and learned a lot through his books and being with Naruto and Sakura, mostly the latter since he had begun to realize the former got him into more trouble than it helped, but he still was nowhere close to understanding love. And he wondered if Sasuke was any closer.

Sai glanced around the forest hoping for signs of Team 7, but was not surprised when he found none, and slid to a stop. Not sensing any chakra in the area, let alone familiar chakra, Sai decided it was time to finally call back the mice. Pulling out his blank scroll he laid it open on the ground and performed a group of hand signs before placing his palm on the scroll's center, and calling back the mice. It did not take long for mice to begin appearing back onto the scroll, and with each mouse coming back without encounter, Sai tightened his fist a little more. If this strategy failed there was not much else he could do but search the entire surrounding area of the forest, and that would take too much valuable time. That was another thing Sai was trying to avoid thinking about.

Every minute that went by was a minute wasted that should have directly been spent going after Naruto. Sai didn't know how long they had until Naruto would be beyond the reach of help, but he didn't allow himself to think about that. Right now all he could focus on was finding Kakashi, or at least Sakura and Sasuke. He wasn't foolish enough to think he could go after Naruto alone. Sai knew that he would be no match for Akatsuki, or whoever was now holding Naruto, and would only make matters worse. He needed to inform Kakashi of the new situation and let him come up with a new plan to recover Naruto.

Suddenly the tension in Sai's fist released as a mouse came back with Kakashi Sensei's whereabouts. For a moment he debated allowing the last of the mice to trickle in, in hopes of locating Sakura as well, but he had wasted enough time already and would deal with finding the other two once he found Kakashi. Before another minute could go by Sai quickly cleaned up his scroll, tucking it away, before starting up once again on his way to Kakashi. This time, however, he knew where he was heading and was no longer taking a shot in the dark. Kakashi was about a mile from where Sai was at the moment, and Sai knew he had to hurry since he doubted Kakashi would be staying in one spot for long. At first Sai stayed on the ground, running through the bushes and growth of the forest before he took to the trees, leaping from branch to branch in order to increase his pace. Now that he was no longer searching out of the blue he didn't need to be on ground level. With a sense of urgency Sai raced for Kakashi, but he was still unaware of how urgent his finding Kakashi in a timely manner really was. Unaware that Kakashi's life was now depending on him.

The air seemed so thick. Too heavy to take in. Impossible for him to manage a good breath. Kakashi's breathing was now labored to a point that he was now straining to take in any air, even the smallest breath, in order to keep oxygen in his body and his heart beating. The feeling that the next could be his last breath, the inability for him to satisfy his lung's capacity for air, the act of sufficating, was unbearable. Dying from a wound, or in the heat of the battle was one thing. Kakashi never pictured himself going out healthy, barely unscathed, and in this manner of helplessness. There was no pain to distract him from death, or make him wish for it to come faster. No quick ending while the adrenaline still pumped in his veins. There was just quiet, and stillness. Taunting him and his early departure from life. Taunting him with the deep breath of air his lungs should normally be capable to take. Taunting him with the realization that he had failed, that Naruto was in the hands in the enemy, that there was nothing he could do to change that.

Another few moments went by and Kakashi's numbing lungs struggled to take in another weak breath of air. In his head Kakashi laughed dryly to himself. To die from lung failure... He could hear Naruto going on about how lame that was, and complaining about how he couldn't believe Kakashi hadn't gone out in a cooler way like Asuma Sensei or Jiraiya. No cool battle scars or anything... Of course he could also hear Sakura's repremanding for saying something like that and see Naruto fly across the room with a bruised cheek... Though that didn't make Kakashi feel much better. If anything his heart stung a little that he wouldn't be able to be standing in the background reading one of his books and just passively pretending not to be noticing anything going on when in reality he was smirking behind his book over his old students. The first students he would ever pass to become his team, and the last... A sad notion that he wouldn't get to see them move on to bigger things.

A few more moments and it was time to take another breath, this one more difficult than the last and rather painful.

"Heh, now the pain begins..." Kakashi thought as his lungs began to burn with their failure.

He wasn't getting enough air to supply his body any longer. It would only be a few more moments before he would draw his last breath, and then it was just a matter of how long he would be able to hold his breath in hope of being saved. He had seen Sai's mouse before, or at least thought he had, but that had been some time ago and now he was wondering if that was his mind playing tricks on him trying to get himself to hold out longer in hopes of rescue. Or even if that was Sai's mouse, who knew how long it would take the mouse to get back to Sai, or how far the mouse had to go, and then how far Sai would have to go to find him. Kakashi's last hope was becoming feebler and feebler by the moment. Too many things could play into Sai finding him, let alond finding him in time, and Kakashi was realistic enough to know that the chances were slim.

Another breath again. Now he was needing to take them more frequently to make up for the lack of oxygen being supplied to his system. The imaginary clock seemed to tick faster now, while Kakashi's heart seemed to beat slower. The end was near.

Another breath. Tik! Tik! Tik! Thump... Thump.... Thump...

His vision began to darken, but that didn't really matter. The world around him had already gone blury from his eyes beginning to dry from the lack of blinking some time ago. Perhaps the mouse had merely been a crow or some other animal then...

Another breath. Tik Tik Tik Tik! Thump... Thump...

No more air. He was holding his breath.

Tik! Tik! Tik! Tik!

This was it.

Thump...

He could hold out no longer.

Thump...

"Sorry Naruto."

...

...

..

.

Thump...

The feeling of foreign chakra began to flow through Kakashi.

Thump...

A weight was lifted off his lungs and Kakashi realized the world was dark now because his eyes were closed.

Thump...

The relief of oxygen replenishing his body cooled the burn and his limbs lost the numbness keeping them still and unusable as his body went lax.

Thump...

He wasn't dead.

It didn't occur to Sai until after he had revived Kakashi, and saw the odd expression on his face how close a call that really was. Sai had been traveling for a few minutes when he finally neared the area that Kakashi was supposed to be at. For a second Sai debated even trying that location to begin with, figuring that Kakashi had probably moved by now, and nearly started his search a few meters farther to the south than planned, but decided against it. If for some reason Kakashi was still in the same area, resting, or perhaps still fighting, Sai would then miss him completely and have to back track in the end. A minute after making that fated decision, Sai finally came across Kakashi, though was surprised to find him standing perfectly still, kunai in hand, in the middle of the clearing. At first fearing an enemy close by Sai quickly scanned the surrounding trees and area, but found nothing. Then it occured to him that Kakashi was probably in a genjutsu if he was still frozen like that and not moving, even when Sai approached him, and he quickly set about breaking the genjutsu by forcing the little chakra he had left into Kakashi to disrupt the flow of the caster.

Of course Sai had no idea that this was not a true genjutsu, nor did he realize at first how lucky it was that this jutsu was only broken by an outside source of chakra. It really wasn't even until Kakashi fell over stiffly that Sai realized he hadn't been breathing. Checking Kakashi's pulse Sai was alarmed to find a weak one, and even more alarmed to find that even after breaking what he thought was a genjutsu Kakashi still hadn't revived or started to breath again. Sai immediately began to administer CPR, pumping Kakashi's chest a few times before a cough was heard and Kakashi took in a deep breath as his body loosened. He was alive. Thank God.