FYI

Italic's are dream/memory

"Sai!"

Kakashi stumbled forward and fell on his hands and knees. Mud was splashed in his face and covered most of his body. The noise around him had completely stopped; the only sound he heard now was the rapid beating of his own heart.

Sai fell to his knees in front of him, the boy covered the wound on his stomach with both hands but the blood seeped through his fingers. The sticky crimson pooled around the pale teen's body as he finally fell back onto the ground.

Kakashi reached him and grabbed onto the collar of his jacket. His hands touched over Sai's injuries and he took in a deep calming breath. He needed what little medical training he had to fix this. Or Sai was going to die.

Kakashi's eyes opened wide and he sat up, his chest heaving and gasping for air. Slowly he calmed himself and looked over at the clock.

Noon.

Great.

He stood from his bed and reached over to grab his clothes from the basket on the floor. He hated his black uniform. It was only worn to funerals, and he didn't like those either.

Slowly he put on the black material and grabbed his keys off the counter as he headed for the door.

Kakashi reached the burial ground just as they'd begun the little ceremony. He didn't hear a word they said, both of his eyes were trained on the head stone in front of him.

He'd lost a student, a good student. And Sai was going to be greatly missed.

Kakashi glanced up and saw Naruto and Sakura, both of them had red rimmed eyes from crying. Kakashi didn't comfort them, he didn't even speak.

The older man's eyes locked back onto the headstone and after a while the rain began. The cold droplets pelted against the people's skin and painted the ground in a shimmering light.

Finally the ceremony ended and shinobi began to depart. Asuma laid and hand on kakashi's back and squeezed his shoulder before leaving as well.

The man hadn't moved the entire time.

Slowly he became the last one there, still just staring. His knees bent and he fell to the ground as the rain continued to pour. As he sat there on his knees he reached out and ran his battle roughened fingers over the groves of the headstone

Sai…

Slowly, minutes turned into an hour and kakashi stood. Above him the rain still fell, the cold wetness had long ago soaked through to his skin. gradually his body turned and he gave a last single longing glance at the memorial behind him.

He gave a small, saddened grin before making his departure just as the others had.

If kakashi let a single stray tear slip that day, you couldn't tell in the rain.