THCB 8:

Sakura-

For the first time in years, she accepted the thought of him.

He had always been so cold and calculating throughout the entire time that she knew him in her life, forever keeping the world at a measurable distance and shouldering all of his problems. Sakura knew why he was so isolated, why no matter how hard she tried it would never be enough for him.

Sasuke had been lonely.

She remembered when they were young little tyrants, giving all of the shinobi headaches as they all squealed and boasted about the Nin they would live to be someday and she wanted to be included in that. When she was such a tender child it was hard for her to get past all the bullying and harassment that she suffered from.

It was odd for the other students to see this pathetic, pink-haired girl and match it to her dream of being a strong, unwavering kunoichi one day and they gave her hell for it. So when she met the lone Uchiha it was a dream come true; someone who didn't laugh at her outright; someone who did brush her off but it was ok because he did that to everyone. She honestly thought she loved him because he was the only one not to try and make the girl cry on purpose.

Sakura's twenty-year old self cringed at the realization that she spent so many years pining after someone just because he had better things to do than make her miserable like the other students. How many times did it cross her head that she wished she had fallen in love with someone like Naruto, someone who had always stood behind her to support her when she needed it (and even when she didn't) and always, always was one hundred percent positive with his love for her. Naruto loved her but she could never return the feelings that he held for her.

'Then why is the thought of his name making my heart race?'

Her own words were an echo in her head, a little flutter in a pool of darkness. Why was she so cold, so numb?

A part of her imagined this is what death was like; floating in a recurring resurrection of all her memories, all of her past doubts and worries. Did she finally die?

Trying to pull herself through the last of her memories, the young kunoichi grew more confused when the last thing she recalled was leaving the gates with her boys. She could even remember watching the happiness twinkle in Kakashi-sensei's eyes when Naruto and Sai were tossing back and forth groggy insults from still being half asleep.

"I didn't even do anything to you yet. Why are you already being mean to me?"

"Your voice this early in the morning is enough, dickless."

Naruto's enraged yell that he shot at Sai rang through her head. Once again the darkness around her seemed to press in at the sound of his voice and she felt it, almost as if the world revolved around them.

An ache presented itself moments later, starting out as a pinch in between her eyebrows but rapidly growing across her forehead and lodging itself at her temples. Confusion swept through her as she thought of where she was and what was going on.

Something was wrong.

She couldn't think straight and nothing in particular could stick long enough for her to rationalize what was happening. The ache in her head was growing, disrupting any train of thought that attempted to come next. Something was pulling at her mind, trying to make itself clear and she tried as hard as she could to focus upon it, whatever that small prick may have been but any attempts were futile.

As the pinching in her head swell and grew her consciousness dwindled until once again she fell back into darkness.

The next time she was aware of her body she had about three seconds of a notice to turn her head as hot bile raced up from her stomach and projected outwards. A small part of her wondered if she had ever felt so much pain at one time; her head pounding so hard that at any moment it would split in half and her body going through waves of agony.

The cold had not gone away since the last time she was coherent. Her bones felt as if they had been plunged in ice water and she could feel herself shaking viciously. Maybe it was the sickness that was contributing to her shakes but either way her body was not her body then.

She was throwing up again moments later and she faintly felt pressure on her back as she emptied the contents of her stomach. Her eyes burned behind closed lids and she retched again, aching at the feeling of her body convulsing.

There was so much pain and it made it hard to decipher what the pressure was on her back as she vomited. It moved upwards towards the back of her neck and then back down again, forcing her to realize that someone else was watching her be so weak. The thought made her stomach flip.

Who was she with that wouldn't be able to ease some of her pain and discomfort? It felt like she been in this position forever, an endless cycle of being sick and in pain. Surely that was enough time for someone to get her to Tsunade to fix or aide her.

At the memory of Tsunade, Sakura felt disappointment well up inside of her. Her Shishou would be so ashamed to see that so many years of training was wasted upon someone like her. How would she be able to make her legendary Sensei proud if she couldn't even open her eyes?

Sakura fell back into her previous position, chest heaving painfully after being sick again for the third time. Her head was cocked sideways and a picture of Tsunade popped into her head, having put her hand on her hip and shooting Sakura a glare. She had to try, she had to at least try to function.

Her head suddenly swelled again as if in preparation to reject the pinkette's plans before even doing so but the kunoichi pushed through, stilling her body the best she could and trying to reach deep within herself to move her chakra.

It wouldn't budge, not even a little.

What kind of situation was she in where she couldn't even activate her chakra?

Her questions must have fallen upon silent ears, for once again the darkness swallowed her whole.

Something, no, someone was sitting her up, forcing her body into an upright position causing her being to scream out in retaliation. Sakura tried to find her voice, tried to let whoever it was know what was going on and the person she needed to fix it but even when she parted her dry and cracked lips, no sound came out.

A hand gently grasped the of her head and something smooth and cold pressed against her lips. "You need to drink," a deep voice resonated next to her ear. Shivers erupted down her spine and her stomach tightened. She deeply hoped that whoever was trying to help her moved out of the way fast enough to not get vomit on themselves as she hauled sideways and was sick again.

A part of her figured they must have since the hands simply moved to her shoulders to keep her from falling off whatever she had been resting on and then laid her back down when she had finished.

"Sakura, you need to heal yourself." She couldn't tell where the voice was coming from now since it felt like she was on a boat, everything around her tipping and rocking even though she remained still.

When no sound would come again from her parted mouth, she shook her head in an attempt to tell whoever it was that she had tried but it wasn't working. Her vocal chords must have been damaged in whatever battle had left her in this condition but when she tried reaching out in her mind to remember what happened, a searing white pain erupted in her skull.

A piercing cry reached her ears and it took longer than it should have to realize it had been her scream ringing through her. Her throat was engulfed in flames along with her lungs and her body began following in suit. She could feel her skin splitting along her back and legs and her insides were melting; melting and easing out of the pores in her skin.

No coherent thoughts were flickering through her mind anymore, being all consumed by the agony that ripped through her. She felt her body starting to bend and shake and that's when the first tendrils of fear began to lace itself around her.

'I'm dying,' she thought. 'I'm really dying.'

Blue eyes suddenly came to her mind, the beautiful blue eyes of the best friend she had ever had. She missed Naruto so much and wished that it was he who was frantically moving above her, trying to eliminate her suffering. She didn't even know if he was ok, not knowing what had come from their mission.

It was he that she last called out to as she was once again ripped away from reality.

…..

She was sick.

Itachi eyed the girl warily from his perch in the armchair near where her feet were on the long couch. He didn't like babysitting, let alone babysitting a sick and possibly dying kunoichi whose existence was of no benefit to him. For almost the thousandth time he relived the moment in the clearing when he and Kisame had rescued her. He had never experienced the emotions that seeing that woman evoked in him that day and after mulling it over time and time again he reminded himself that this was the reason he cut off his feelings to start with; it always started issues that could have been avoided such as this one.

Kakazu had to come back to restitch the wounds on her back and some on her legs from her last episode. He mumbled the whole time about not being a doctor and how he should not have to keep tending to not only her but the other idiots in the Akatsuki that were too stupid to stop injuring themselves.

Itachi at the time said nothing, just watched as he worked away at the girl's body. It took him hours to remove all of the old strands and replace them with new ones. He even took the time to spread on an herbal paste that Zetsu had made at some point. It surprised the Uchiha that his fellow Akatsuki members were going through such lengths that they usually would not even imagine going through. As he had said before, this woman was becoming a weakness.

Despite watching the negative effects that she was having on the other men, Itachi couldn't lie and say that he hadn't felt guilty for the pain that she had gone through when they arrived back onto the base. By the time she had been placed upon the couch to hopefully warm her up with the fireplace, she was raging with a fever. A thick sheen of sweat covered her skin and after only a few hours began to dampen her clothes.

It was two days later when Kakazu declared an infection alongside of her pneumonia and, upon request from Pein, left to the nearby village to get her a stronger medicine than what they had. It didn't take a trained medic to realize the woman wasn't a far shot from death's door.

When he had returned he administered the strongest dosages that had been recommended in her case and from there hoped for the best.

Nothing changed for two more days.

It was on the third day after the medicine had started that she began throwing up, violently eradicating anything and everything that dared reach her stomach. Even into the next day when there was nothing left to get rid of her body still twisted to the side and convulsed, sweat glistening off of her face and skin turning a bright and blotchy red.

Itachi remembered very clearly from his early years in ANBU that the best thing to do with illnesses such as this was make sure that whoever was being affected had enough fluids to replenish what was being lost. Pein made it clear that the woman was to survive and it left very little room for the Uchiha to pass on his duties to someone else when all the other members had been sent on scouting missions with the exception of Tobi, Zetsu, and Kakazu.

He had tried being gentle as to not make the situation worse, holding up her slimming body and trying to get her to consume fluids. He tried desperately to convince himself that the worry that consumed him in that moment was strictly due to not wanting to face Leader-sama if they failed but he knew it was more than that. He honestly just didn't want to delve more into that matter when there was reality to deal with.

Reality was that she had lost way too much weight for it to be healthy and that her skin was hot to the touch despite the sweat the seemed to be running in rivulets down her. Her hair that was once a vibrant pink was losing its healthy sheen and she was weakening by the hour, no longer even able to hold herself up when puking.

He pushed her as gently as he could, urging her to drink and heal herself. If only she could use even a small amount of chakra the start pushing the infections out she would be doing so much better; but that's when once again her body convulsed with sickness and moments later she erupted into screams as the strain on the stitches when she was vomiting grew to be too much, tearing along the tiny holes.

Itachi couldn't ever remember feeling as helpless as the woman next to him was. Sure he had been sick throughout the years and no one was safe from injuries during battle but never once had he been so bad off that consciousness couldn't find him.

The girl cried for Naruto for hours, begging for the comrade she had grown up with to help her. She begged for the pain to be taken away and to be saved from the fire burning through her. He doubted that she remembered what the same comrade she called out to had done to her not once, but twice. She wouldn't be asking the blonde if she did.