Impossible to Forget

Chapter 42: Medical-nin

I awoke to the sound of beeping.

"Well, it's good to see that at least you're awake now." I heard Sakura's voice above me.

I cracked open an eye to see her standing there with a huge grin on her face.

"I'm glad that you're okay, Kaiyo."

I nodded slowly.

"Where's Kakashi?"

"He's going to be just fine, but for now he's in a mild coma. I swear, this is the worst chakra drain that he's ever gotten, and that's saying something. He doesn't even have his sharingan anymore so I have no idea how he did it."

"It wasn't his fault."

Sakura looked skeptical, but before she could ask any questions, the door to my room was thrown open and a blonde streak flung its arms around me.

"Kaiyo, I was so worried!"

I ran my hand through her curly hair and pulled her into my lap, "Shh, Anzu, it's fine. Everything's going to be just fine now."

"I know, I know you always think of something really brilliant and stuff, but I just couldn't help but worry, and-"

"A little bit of caution will go a long way for you out on missions, and I want you to know that I'm very proud of you for finding the Kazekage and telling him what happened. You did very well."

I pressed a light kiss onto the top of her head as Anzu tightened her arms around me. I didn't have the heart to tell her that she was hurting my injured ribs.

Sakura looked like she was considering leaving, but I could tell that there was still something on her mind.

"Sakura, what's eating at you? Do you need something?"

She sighed, "It's just, Kakashi-sensei's injuries... They're so strange, and I was hoping that since you're awake now, you could tell us what happened. Gaara told us that Nori was no longer a threat when he left the two of you at the gate of the village half-dead and unconscious."

With a sigh, I tucked Anzu under my chin and looked over at the young medic. "Sit down, this will take a bit of time to tell."

Sakura sat down, and by the way that Anzu's grip on me tightened slightly, I could tell that she was listening intently too.

I gave them a pretty quick recap of the events, leaving out all mentions of love confessions, of course. I wasn't sure that I was ready to face that much... emotion... just yet. And honestly, I was still coming to terms with that myself. I've never been very in touch with my sentimental or romantic side, and I really didn't want to get sucked into a conversation about that with two people decades younger.

There was stilled silence in the room for a couple of moments after I finished telling Anzu and Sakura what had happened.

It was Sakura who spoke first, "Kakashi-sensei always did say that he'd put the life of the team ahead of his own, and I guess that when it came down to it, that's just what he did. Wow."

I nodded, "That's just what he did... How long until he will wake up?"

She laughed, "Well, you know him. He'll sleep in a hospital bed for a week or two and then he'll be back up and running again like nothing happened. Lady Tsunade thinks that Kakashi-sensei should be awake in about eight or so days. It's a little hard to guess when it comes to chakra drain."

"Thank you, Sakura."

She smiled and then pulled out a chart, "So, about your injuries, you had four cracked ribs and one that had a large fracture, luckily nothing fully broken there. Your breathing's going to be a little labored for the next few weeks so just take it easy. Your right hand had a broken thumb, two shattered metacarpals, and one metacarpal that was just fractured. We healed the damage, but you're going to have to keep a cast on that one for a while because the bone is susceptible to rebreaking right now. We also healed the skin around your wrist, but it will leave a slight scar. You had a lot of other minor injuries, but those have all been healed. Kabuto came by and worked on your hip as well when you were unconscious so everything should be back in working order again."

Nori really had beaten the shit out of me. Although the worst of it, my right hand, I had done to myself. "How long was I asleep?"

"Almost three days. Between the dehydration and fatigue, we felt that it was safest to let you sleep it off."

"When can I leave?"

Sakura pondered that for a moment and read back over my chart again, "You'll probably be released tomorrow. We're going to want to keep you here over night to monitor your vitals." She turned to leave, but before she stepped out the door, Sakura smiled at Anzu and I, "Visiting hours technically ended two hours ago, but I don't think that anyone will bother you. I can see if there's an extra bed that we can wheel in here for Anzu if she wants it."

"Thank you, Sakura, for everything."

"It's nothing; I'm only too happy to help."

A/N: Dear god, it took me almost a week to write these last few chapters. Sorry about the delay, by the way. But holy shit was it hard to bring this book to a conclusion that I was at least mildly happy about. This series has been a labor of love and by far my favorite thing that I've ever written and tying it together was just so damn hard. I hope that I did the rest of the trilogy justice.