Chapter 10
Sakura glanced at the ticking clock hanging above the door of her office. The hands on it indicated “midnight”, which in response, Sakura sighed and leafed through her files faster. It was her second time working late into the night this month, the first time it had occurred was only days ago when she was informed of a friend’s recent sleep paralysis that sprang onto the man out of nowhere. Now one case was sorted, and many more popped up; at first, Sakura thought they were from recent affairs but upon closer inspection, most of them were dated back to when the fourth war had ended. Sakura frowned concerningly as she read the dates on each one of the reports: they were all from at least a year ago, and some had occurred shortly after the ending of the conflict…yet why were they delivered to her a few days ago and so late? Was there some sort of hindrance in the research or had she simply neglected those files? Sakura pried the binder open and saw no other documents slipping out. These must be it then, she studied the folders in her hands, maybe it was an observation the other units of the Department were trying to make. However, Sakura was still confused about why she wasn’t informed about these works as she was the Head of the Medical Department in the village so it seemed reasonable that she would at least be notified of the occurrences of these issues; however it was the Hokage that had given her access to these files after the dinner they had at Ichiraku.
“There are some cases I’d like you to inspect, Sakura.” The woman recalled the evening’s conversation grimly. “There are some files the Hospital has been hiding from the majority of the authorities…Although I’m sure these might just be minor trifles like electricity bills the facility forgot to pay due to the economic crisis during and after the war…but if these documents are left alone for too long, they will have the potential to cause something far more harmful.”
Yet the cases she received had nothing about money or partner businesses in them. They were reports of patients written by private doctors and were later delivered to the hospital, all processes done in complete confidentiality. Along with that, Sakura had received two other letters from people who were beyond the borders of Konoha: Sasuke and Karin. Sasuke, whose sleep paralysis she had already cured and Karin, who wrote to her with the same kind of reason.
Sakura stood with her head bowed to her chest; her figure cloaked in the spotlight which was the only spot in her room cast by the moon’s soft reminiscence. The window behind her office chair was unlocked and opened slightly, allowing the night’s chill wind to drift and accumulate through the room, filling the space with a breeze of freshness. Sakura gazed outside her window and saw the numerous roofs of houses, their windows dark with the absence of light; her office was one of those that were still flickering with faint lights in these hours. Sighing, Sakura brought the documents she took from the binders stacked on the bookshelves with her as she walked back to her desk and fell into her chair. She spread the papers out across her organized desk and began taking notes on the conditions described in each one of them whilst her Inner Sakura mumbled drearily: Cha! Guess I won’t sleep until the next night then.
“Short-term memory loss…abnormal abilities…” Sakura circled every symptom she could spot in the Leaf Hospital reports, “strange behaviors…sleep disturbance…and lack of energy.” These were all symptoms that could potentially lead to severe psychological, neurological, and physical health conditions that might require serious health conditions, Sakura noted in her head as she tapped the end of the brush against her chin, but none of the papers described the origin of these conditions…they were all after-effects of something. Can it possibly be an unknown illness? If it is, does it only impact certain individuals or everyone? Sakura studied the relationship between the patients’ names and their conditions on the documents and nearly gasped when she saw some familiar names popping up in the list.
Hyuuga Hinata…Senju Tsunade…Uchiha Sasuke (this was from a letter Sasuke had personally sent her, asking for her advice on alleviating his conditions, and Sakura just happened to have it sitting below a stack of paperwork on her desk; yet in the depth of her mind, she was inclined to believe that Sasuke would have some involvement with this case she’s currently studying about)…Uzumaki Karin (again, a letter too although this one was sent to her lately so Sakura didn’t get the chance to read it through thoroughly until tonight. Guess I will have the chance to read through it now…Karin does share similar symptoms with the rest of the patients on this list and the dates of her illness match up with the latest reports as well…could there be any correlations here or is my hypothesis going too imaginative?)…
Her brows furrowed slightly…Tsunade-sama and Hinata? She asked herself, what’s the meaning of these people being diagnosed? As she had met up with them often, Sakura was certain that there wasn’t anything unusual or frail in their appearances and behaviors. Gulping down a cup of tea that sat at the corner of her desk, accompanying her during the days when she worked restlessly for the night shifts. Carefully, Sakura flipped to the next couple of files and her eyes skimmed through the synopsis of each patient.
There were other names that Sakura concluded belonged to kids training in Leaf’s Ninja Academy or otherwise, talented people from influential clans. Yet what intrigued Sakura was the fact that three out of the nine people on this list had great chakra reserves. Sakura trailed off in her thoughts as her eyes (that were suddenly sparkling with vitality when her curiosity overtook her dreariness) gazed at the smiling faces of a few of the academy’s students in the pictures…and the other two were children that haven’t yet mastered their chakra control. The remaining one was a new orphan she recognized immediately from Ino and her Mental Health Clinic and the other two were members of the Hyuuga Clan. Hyuuga Clan…the brush paused in midair as Sakura muttered to herself about something; a few droplets of red ink splattered across the blank spaces on the paper. Briskly, Sakura pushed the documents aside and took out a blank piece of paper from the wooden drawers below her desk, switched to a black-ink-tipped brush, and began writing down on it furiously.
“Hyuuga Shota, Hyuuga Yuuto, Hyuuga Hinata, Uchiha Sasuke → Kekkei Genkai.” Sakura jotted down on the paper. She hurriedly dipped the brush in ink and flicked her wrist (already sore from marking the previous files) before resuming to record her findings. “Senju Tsunade, Uchiha Sasuke, Uzumaki Karin → Great chakra reserves.”
“Okada Kimura, Shibazaki Nozawa, Matsuyama Nihikido → Weaker control of chakra.”
Sakura exhaled heavily and peered over at the sentences she underlined from the patients’ reports and began a process of copying them down and transferring her various notes.
“Symptoms:
Hyuuga Shota - Declination in Physical Abilities
(20th of February) For two weeks, Shota’s Byakugan wasn’t functioning properly, and was observed that it was not a repercussion of the man’s excess usage and over-training.
Hyuuga Yuuto - Abnormal abilities
(28th of February) For reasons unknown, Yuuto’s Byakugan had transformed into the rumored Tenseigan in a relatively short period: 2 nights. The only members alerted about this transformation were the Head of the Hyuuga Clan and Yuuto’s family members.*
*Some information is chosen to be left out by the writer of this report, for any further information, please contact the Head of the Clan or the doctor.
Hyuuga Hinata: Weak Health Conditions & Decline in Physical Abilities
(25th of December) Recently, Hyuuga Hinata, the head of the Hyuuga Clan endures countless occurrences of headaches and insomnia. This issue was later resolved by Clan’s private doctor.*
*Some information is chosen to be left out by the writer of this report, for any further information, please contact the Head of the Clan or the doctor.
Matsuyama Nikihido - Declination in physical abilities
Nikihido has been an excellent student in the Ninja Academy in the past years and has excelled in taijutsu and ninjutsu. However, a drastic decline was observed in his physical performance when Nikihido constantly received injuries from his training when he shouldn’t, as it was an easy routine that everyone in his class could pass.
Okada Kimura - Abnormal abilities & Weak Health Conditions
A report written by his academy’s teacher stated that Kimura had gained a Kekkei Genkai release despite not having any DNA anomalies in his clan or inheritances from his family. On the 22nd of July*, during Genjutsu Resilience training in school, Kimura was found to have abilities comparable to those of Kurama Clan’s Kekkei Genkai. A prowess so powerful that even without proper training, the clan’s inherited genjutsu is simply overwhelming. Kimura was sent to the Leaf Investigation Department first before the Hospital and his family had been under supervision for a few days shortly afterward. However, they couldn’t discover why and how Kimura obtained these abilities. To this day (which was two weeks ago, when this report was delivered to Sakura) Kimura still had the prowess of the Kurama Clan. However, it was predicted through scanning his chakra systems and calculating his genjutsu scale that his skill was declining over the months. Kimura suffered from chronic headaches and soreness in eyes ever since this unique, not-inherited prowess of his was discovered.
*~ten months after the end of the Fourth Great Shinobi War
Senju Tsunade - Strange behaviors
Although Tsunade’s conditions weren’t as obvious as the others, from a talk originated from the gamblers and people who had known the Fifth Hokage from the sake shops, it had been reported that Tsunade had obtained a very strong dislike for alcohol and drinking a month after the war. There were moments when Tsunade had talked about considering quitting her role as a medical ninja and resorting to becoming a chef as Shizune had reported to the staff. However, it was believed that the abnormal behaviour and thoughts of Tsunade were gone now; it had lasted for five weeks.
Shibazaki Nozawa - Short-term Memory Loss
(Report #44) Shibazaki Nozawa. Age: eight years old. Sex: male. Occupation: student. Address: Konoha, Northern Forest District, Orphanage of Konoha. Illness: Short-term memory loss. Symptoms: in the span of a month time, Nozawa’s symptoms involved him forgetting information to which he had recently been exposed, asking the same questions repeatedly, and frequently forgetting where he had put his possessions and various events in life ranging from trivial to profound ones, such as forgetting about how where the bathrooms were to memories of his parents' divorce.
Date issued: 10th of November (a month after the Fourth Shinobi War)
Uchiha Sasuke - Sleep Disturbance
- Sleep paralysis
- Lasted generally for two minutes
- Symptoms: hallucinations, paralysis in limbs, inability to speak, and sense of suffocation
- Cause: possibly sleep deprivation and shift work
- Recently cured
Uzumaki Karin - Weak health conditions & Decline in Physical Abilities
- Fatigue
- Blurry visions, headache, dizziness and hallucination
- Spiritual energy…is draining fast??? ← Chakra imbalance, potential loss of chakra
- Cause: unknown (at this, Sakura paused halfway through the line and drew an arrow next to it with the text: consider the relation to other cases).”
With her gaze tunneled into her work, Sakura grabbed her cup sitting on the edge of the desk and gulped from it only to realize that it had very little water left. A little annoyed, Sakura stumbled out of her seat and trudged sulkily over to a drawer next to the door with a gleaming silver kettle positioned on top. She fumbled tiredly for the kettle under the pale light of her desk lamp yet as soon as she felt the light weight of the kettle in her hands…Sakura’s chin dropped to her chest…Cha…another empty cup, looks like I might need to get some water from the staff kitchen on this floor. Sakura threw a reluctant glance at the faltering lamp light on her desk behind her shoulders; her discarded lab coat bundled up messily on the armrest of her office chair; sighing, Sakura turned her gaze up to the clock then to the door handle glinting in the darkness. Silently, she opened the door and slid outside with an empty kettle grasped tightly in her hand.