Chapter: 5+ end

meanwhile, hetos men had started looking for kiba, sasuke and kakashi, when kiba was almost out of the ravine he met them

kiba told what had happened and where sasuke and kakashi were. shortly afterwards he passed out from all the exertion. one of the men brought him back to his village. the others started looking again, but it should take until the evening until they were to find sasuke completely exhausted and his sensei badly injured in a small cave.

meanwhile in this little cave

sasuke had nodded off a bit when he suddenly felt something nudging his arm over and over again. it was akamaru who had probably woken up and was now afraid.
"kiba will be back soon," he promised, more to himself than akamaru. he looked over at his sensei. he was freezing cold, so he sat down by the fire. akamaru jumped onto his lap and curled up. he was probably doing better, which one could not say about kakashi.He had been unconscious for 3 hours now and his breathing was very difficult. sasuke scratched Akamaru's ears for a while and watched his sensei. sasuke thought of his parents and how painful it was to lose them. it would be the same if he lost kakashi now. when he noticed that he was about to fall asleep again, he carefully laid akamaru next to him and stood up to stretch his legs a little. he ran to the cave entrance. It was dark outside, although it was only afternoon. That was probably because there was not much light left in the gorge.
when he went back to the fire, he noticed that not only akamaru was already awake. kakashi had opened his eyes. He was about to sit down by the fire when suddenly his eyes blacked out and completely dizzy. he groaned and fought against the faint.
"Don't .. overtaxing ..", he heard the jonin say next to him in a weak voice.
"You should rather take care of yourself.", replied sasuke, who had recovered to some extent."Do you want to know .. who these .. 3 guys were?", asked kakashi without waiting for Sasuke's answer. "4 years ago they were just .. like you. At first they didn't have any teamwork either. They didn't .. pass the exam. Then they .. betrayed the village .. and disappeared."
"Maybe you shouldn't talk so much." said sasuke.
"I think so too!" Came from the entrance of the cave. sasuke jumped up so quickly that he immediately fell back on his knees.
"not so stormy sasuke." said kai who had just stepped into the glow of the fire.
"what .. do you want this one?" asked sasuke. He slowly straightened up and put his hand on the pocket on his leg to grab a kunai if needed. He was shocked to see that there wasn't a single weapon in his pocket.
"I don't want to fight." Kai said calmly.
"good for you."
"No, you don't understand. I never wanted to fight."
"aha, how should I understand this now?" sasuke makes a questioning face."Ray had me under control, that's his kekkeigenkai."
"is that right?" asked sasuke kakashi.
"yes, he has such an ability .. but i didn't know .. that it was so strong."
"I just wanted to apologize. Something like that won't happen again. I will bring Ray to his village. There we will all be treated as renegades. I hope you will forgive me. Here is the snow crystal."
"thank you and .. good luck." said sasuke.
“Thank you, you too.” with these words, kai disappeared into the darkness.
Sasuke suddenly felt how he was feeling dizzy again. he fought against it too late, he fell forward and lay unconscious. he only heard his sensei calling his name.

.......................

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in the evening the men from heto found sasuke and kakashi in the cave and brought them to the village. the next day sasuke woke up in one
soft bed. sakura sat next to his bed with his head burned."Hi," he greeted her. when she didn't react he realized that she had fallen asleep. he got up slowly. he noticed that he was wearing new clothes. a number of bandages had also been put on him.
he looked over at sakura questioningly.
he left the room and met naruto straight away. better said the door met naruto's nose. he must have peeked through the keyhole. kiba leaned against the wall opposite and couldn't suppress a grin.
"I told you !!", laughed kiba.
"hmpf." was the only thing that naruto could think of.
"nice to see you kiba. hi, you looser.", sasuke greets his teammates in a friendly manner, "what about kakashi-sensei?"
the sad looks from his counterparts told him that things didn’t have to be good for him.
"he has a high fever and his wounds make him very weak." sasuke's look went straight through kiba. he had to think about the worst day of his life again.
"heto sent a messenger home," explained naruto.- home - this word made sasuke even more sad.
a man suddenly came rushing around the corner. he looked around searching. when his gaze fell on sasuke, his eyes lit up with relief.
"Your sensei has woken up. He wants to speak to you, sasuke. Come with me !!", he said. sasuke was taken to kakashi's room. he entered and
wished at the same moment that she hadn't. the sight that was presented to him was almost unbearable. his sensei lay in a wise bed with several bandages. the bandages were stained with blood and one leg and one arm were thickly plastered. kakashi had such a veiled look that you might think he was still unconscious. but he was awake because he had raised his arm slightly in greeting. sasuke walked slowly over to the bed and sat down on a chair that was next to it. he bowed his head so that his sensei couldn't see that he had tears in his eyes. he didn't want to lose kakashi, but he didn't want to show any weakness either."How are you?" asked the jonin with a tortured smile.
"to some extent. and yourself?"
"I'm getting on my feet again. There are a few good healers here." Sasuke knew about the healers, but with such serious injuries, they were actually powerless. kakashi just wanted them not to worry. they were silent for a while and at some point kakashi's breathing became more regular and he fell asleep again. Most of all he needed a lot of rest now. sasuke left him alone.
outside stood kiba, naruto and sakura. they pestered him with questions, which he answered with a nod or a shake of the head.

a month later, kakashi was actually halfway able to start the trip home. But he didn't want to expect his students to live any longer in this cold. when they talked out of the big gates of siku-gakure.

"a beautiful sunset, isn't it?" said kakashi."I think so too!" cried Naruto and cheekily put her arm around Sasuke's shoulder, "eh?"
sasuke was silent and enjoyed the last rays of the sun. - home at last - he thought to himself and was already happy, just like the others.

Now a new adventure could begin again!

End !!