Arc One: Seed

Konan never had a lot of free time to herself, and she found that she preferred it that way. Her days were spent to the monotonous tune of waking up, doing paperwork, running the occasional errand, making sure the men of the house weren’t at each other's throats, and returning to sleep.

If she had a moment of time distracted from the monotony, she might just ponder whether she actually did dislike having time meant solely for herself. Did she prefer to keep occupied because she knew she kept very few hobbies that she enjoyed over from childhood, that she had no connections outside this group of criminals she could hardly trust?

Was she afraid to spend time alone with her own thoughts and put under the whim of her own aimless devices because she truly wouldn’t know what she would do to pass the time?

Or was this preference towards productivity for the Akatsuki grown naturally through spending all of her time over the many years so that nowadays it had become an acquired taste? Did she prefer to stay busy by nature or by compulsion?

She frowned at the paper in her hands as her eyes gradually came back into focus on the numbers she had found herself rereading an unnecessary number of times until she could ascertain their meaning. 

She disliked wasting time with unimportant thoughts such as those especially when she was working. Currently she was seated at a desk which had quickly become her work station in the main office with Kakuzu sitting at the spare desk across from her. He read over their finances with an enviable speed and scribbled down the numbers on a sheet of paper with an unshakable focus. No doubt he was unhindered with such pointless thoughts that Konan had found herself wading through.

She couldn’t help the sigh that passed her lips and she rolled her shoulders out of the stiff posture they had been held in for an unknown time. Kakuzu’s attention never shifted and his motions remained uninterrupted.

Ever since the Akatsuki had regrouped after their disastrous attempt at capturing the jinchuriki, Konan had been working damage control.

Pain -or Nagato- needed rest due to his condition and the bodies he controlled needed to return to their pods to be kept in perfect condition. So many days he would be out of commission and leave leadership in her hands. Her eyebrow twitched in a mild furrow and she refused to allow her lip to purse; she had no thoughts on her taking command. She held no preference when it came to her place in the Akatsuki. Truly.

What would come of her liking or disliking her position? Either way it was a job that needed to be done. So she had nothing to say on the matter.

She spent recent days sorting through requests for their services, records on recent happenings in villages both nearby and far, and organising their finances with Kakuzu.

She needed to sift through requests and figure out what those missions would entail, which teams would be appropriate to assign, whether the payment was suitable or if negotiations needed to be made, what extra costs would need to go into the mission for food, resting accommodations, etcetera.

For village reports and records, seeing how they had recently suffered a series of defeats she had to keep an eye on if the villages were searching for them. Whether any had caught their scent and if they were in any current danger. It would be incredibly inconvenient if they needed to relocate.

Curiously she was seeing no worrying news from the Village hidden in the Leaf. She had assumed seeing how they had kidnapped the Hokage’s protégé that a search party would at least have been dispatched but at this point nothing had been done.

Going over their finances was the last thing to do today and thankfully she at least had Kakuzu to work with. The man worked seriously and silently which Konan was thankful for. But today she was more drained than usual.

She picked up her cup of tea only for it to feel cold to the touch. She bit back a sigh and rose to her feet. 

“I’m going to make a fresh batch of green tea, would you care for a cup?” She asked as she took the cheaply made and paint-less teapot and cup. Kakuzu shook his head, not looking up from his scribbling.

“I’ll be finished soon, so no need.” Their conversations were always short and to the point as she was used to. Konan was again, thankful.

She nodded and left the room. She made her way to the kitchen, it seemed the other members were in their rooms as the living and dining areas were empty. The only noise that filled the space was the running water in the sink as Konan emptied out the cold tea and cleaned the cup and teapot. She had left her cloak resting on her chair so she only had to roll back the sleeves of the sweater that complimented her hair colour. 

Just as she was about to turn the tap off, the entrance door opened. She left the sink and moved from the kitchen to look to see that Sakura with Kangae on her shoulder along with Tobi and Zetsu had returned. Konan watched curiously as another Sakura entered and was entirely engrossed in an enormous book held in her much smaller hands.

The first Sakura took notice of her and her face lit up like a sparkler. Konan still wasn’t used to being in the glow of such an expression.

“Konan-chan! Hi,” she smiled and approached in quick steps. She seemed to have the reflex to reach out and hug her but restrained herself to gripping the strap of her new shoulder bag. Konan thought she liked the restraint.

She chose to placate the girl with a smile. “Welcome back, Sakura. I see you’ve got a clone at work.” The smile must have done wonders because Sakura’s brightness hardly dimmed.

“Yeah! I remembered my chakra nature and have got my water clone studying this shark encyclopaedia in preparation for my proper analysis of Kisame. Speaking of which, I’d love to talk more later when we have some free time together but I’m going to go get my room ready with all my new equipment.” She shuffled on her feet for a second, almost reluctant to leave their conversation.

Konan shook her head, “I understand. I’m happy to see you so eager to set your room up.”

Sakura backed up, smiling apologetically, and her clone followed close behind without looking up from the book. “Thank you, Konan-chan. We’ll talk later okay? Okay, have a good night!” She skittered off and the room got noticeably quieter.

Konan led the two members left wordlessly back down the hall to the office and closed the door behind them. Kakuzu remained unbothered by the additional company. She stopped against her desk, Zetsu remained by the door and Tobi pulled a nearby chair from the wall that he poured weightlessly on to.

Konan crossed her arms, “report.”

Tobi began, “mission went off without a hitch! Girl was retrieved and safely returned, the old man was over the moon and got Sakura everything she asked for. We weren’t recognised and Zetsu-chan ate all the loose ends.” He gestured to his teammate with a thumb as he relaxed against the wooden chair.

“Did she fight?” Konan asked.

He nodded, “came back to her easily with exposure. Her taijutsu looks to be her main focus but she enhances it with precise chakra infused strikes to give her incredible strength.”

Konan nodded and noticed the sound of Kakuzu's pen scribbling on paper slowing. This confirmed what they knew of her thanks to Sasori informing her and Pain of their battle that left him near dead. She continued questioning, “and has she remembered anything? Did she behave in a concerning way?”

Tobi let out a quick breath, an aborted chuckle, and said, “she’s really open and honest. It’s like she’s desperate for friends and connection so she told me everything whenever I asked. So we’re friends now! But she seems to value you a whole lot more since she thinks you’re besties~” He made a heart shape with his hands and tilted his head in an attempt to appear cute.

“Elaborate. Is there anything I should be prepared for her to discuss?”

He crossed his arms and nodded. “Yep! We stopped by this place called Soil Town that was wiped out by the rain from Rain Village and Sakura thought she might be from there. She figures she must have trained at Petrichor centre or at least in Rain Village to explain her medical knowledge. But she figured out she wasn’t from Soil Town so I suggested she ask you where you two came from. So you’re gonna have to prepare a cover story for that.” He clicked his fingers.

Konan brought a finger to her chin. She would have to ruminate on that thought before she retired to bed so she could come up with a convincing story that revealed nothing. “I see. When the conversation comes up then I’ll feed her a few details vague enough to be convincing for a person in her condition and quiet any elaborative questions by displaying an emotional distress to guilt her.”

Tobi clapped, “yay for emotional manipulation! How long do you think you can keep the charade up?”

Konan dismissed him and circled her desk to retrieve her cloak. She had accomplished enough paperwork for the night and had a false backstory to concoct. “As long as we need her alive to heal the others.”

Tobi hummed in response, leaning back in his chair.

Konan blinked as she folded her cloak in her hand. “You object?”

Tobi slumped in his chair. “Not yet… I just think we should keep an eye on her and let her go on a couple more missions.”

Konan raised a brow. “Why?”

He shrugged, “Tobi just thinks she has more to offer us, and there’s no better way to build a shinobi like a trial by fire.”

Konan’s eyes remained on that spiralled mask for a moment longer than necessary, she couldn’t decipher the expression of a masked man more than she could understand his motives some days. Ultimately she would bring up his suggestion with Pain tomorrow and they would work with it. Nothing was set in stone yet.

“If there is nothing else then you are dismissed for the night.” She said as she left the room. Useless as the phrase was. Tobi would only play along due to Kakuzu’s presence, she could never give him orders he would follow especially if they weren’t in his interest. Zetsu was a likewise enigmatic presence that did as they wished but were at least susceptible to suggestions should they not go against their own wishes. While Kakuzu would finish his financial organising when he was satisfied and not a moment sooner.

Konan returned to her room for the night. A minimalistic space where the only personalisation added was the extra large dark comforter atop the bed, a set of thick curtains to cover the large window and set the room in complete shroud, and a desk littered with various origami folded into different creations.

She draped the familiar cloak on the desk's adjacent chair as she was suddenly too tired to do much else. She had enough sense of mind to wipe off her makeup in her adjoining bathroom but not enough energy to take out her hair from its bun. Instead collapsing into the sunken comfort of her bed and letting her thoughts trail off to a younger time to draw inspiration for her and her friend’s backstory.

❀

It was nothing short of a miracle that Sakura was able to get enough sleep as her mind had been running too many thoughts a second that it kept her restlessly tossing and turning for what felt like hours. But she was bright eyed with eager hands and preparations to finish as she dried her hair from her morning shower.

She had dressed in her basic grey yukata but felt more at home with the white medic coat she had acquired along with her equipment. Though she hadn’t asked for it, she was beyond grateful. She sent a brief thankful thought to the Nakaya’s as she began brushing her fingers through her hair to detangle it.

There was a knock at her door as she was mid-action, “come in!” she called.

Konan entered carrying a small breakfast on a tray and she admired the new set up of Sakura’s room. “I see you’ve been busy this morning, I was worried that I didn’t see you get any breakfast.”

She was both right and wrong, Sakura had been busy preparing things this morning but she had unloaded the entirety of the scroll the night before. What had once been a nearly empty room with nothing but a bed, desk, and chair, now stood a fully functional and perfectly equipped medical office/operating room.

The room was divided into sections via two long white curtains -‘which I didn’t even ask for!’ she thought happily. The large main section behind one curtain was the operating room. With a surgical table, patient stretcher, anaesthesia machine, an EKG machine and everything else a little medic could dream of having; it was a picture perfect replica for a hospital's operating room with the only difference being the wooden walls and floor in place of the white room.

The smaller area where she’d moved her desk acted as her medic office complete with a second patient stretcher and carts full of all the medical equipment she would ever need.

Finally the tiny area that was left of the room, resting along the wall and under the window was Sakura’s bed where her bamboo hat and the bundle of herb seeds she had acquired in soil town.

Konan and Sakura moved to the medical office where she placed the tray on the desk, Sakura finally realised thanks to the delicious smell wafting from the steaming plate that Konan had graciously brought her an omurice.

“Ah~ Thank you so much Konan-chan,” she seated herself and delighted in the taste of the fresh hot meal. After swallowing a mouthful she continued, “sorry I wasn’t out there earlier.” She tucked falling hair behind her ear as she returned to her breakfast.

Konan smiled and waved a dismissive hand, “think nothing of it,” she gestured to her own hair, “need some help?”

Sakura’s eyes unconsciously flickered to the white paper rose pinned to her friend’s bun before she quickly met her eyes again and nodded eagerly. Konan circled the desk, she accepted the hair tie Sakura offered and began pulling Sakura’s hair up into a bun. Sakura preened under her friend's delicate attention and pulled the plate closer so she could continue eating without disrupting her work.

“It does make me happy to see you so in your element. You seem quite eager.” Konan’s voice was as soothing as her deft hands convincing Sakura’s hair to comply with her ministrations.

“I’m just really ready to get to work on Kisame-san and Itachi-san. How have they been? Has their condition worsened at all?” Sakura asked.

Konan seemed to mull over her thoughts for a second, collecting her observations before detailing “Kisame’s wet cough remains as prevalent as when you first analysed him, he’s experienced increased bouts of dizziness and disorientation along with an overall weakness in regards to carrying himself. He’s experienced mild fainting spells at worst which have incapacitated him for at most fifteen minutes. Though he has tried to stay hydrated, he has barely been able to keep any water or food down. Itachi doesn’t appear as dire as Kisame but his symptoms are similar; dizzy, disorientated and finds it hard to keep water down.”

Sakura scribbled down in dot points what Konan said on a notepad she had acquired, chewing the last mouthful of rice and feeling Konan finish tying off her bun.

“I see, when is the earliest I can get Kisame-san in here for a proper diagnosis?”

“I can have him here within the minute,” she said as she took the finished tray.

“Perfect! Could you please?” Sakura wiped her mouth and spun her pen before adding to her notes what Kisame’s symptoms could be.

Konan bowed her head with a small smile, “of course doctor, right away.” Sakura giggled, her cheeks flushing a little as Konan left the room.

Sakura barely had the time to clean and glove her hands before her patient was brought in. The large man’s frame was folded nearly in half as Konan supported his weight. Sakura rushed to his other side as the women guided him straight to the patient stretcher and allowed him to drop his weight onto.

His eyes were closed, expression lax, he breathed in deep laboured breaths and his mouth appeared dry. Sakura pulled out a pen light from her pocket and held his eyelids open.

“Kisame-san? Can you hear me? Are you conscious?” His irises shrank appropriately to the light and the man grunted, coughing hard before easing back against the bed and nodding.

“I’m here. Just dizzy…” His words trailed off as Sakura pocketed the pen light. She hooked her foot on the nearby small wheeled table tray holding the necessary equipment she needed and began strapping his large arm with a blood pressure monitor.

“Okay and I’ve been told you’ve been struggling to keep water down, how much have you managed to eat and drink?” She pumped the strap until it gave her the numbers she scribbled down. ‘80/60, that's too slow. Especially for a man of his size…’

“Not much,” he mumbled, “the first day after you left I got two meals and I want to say three cups of water… After that it starts to get a bit fuzzy.

“Okay can you keep this under your tongue for just a few seconds,” he complied as she placed a thermometer there then grabbed her stethoscope from the tray table.

Konan spoke up, “Deidara was primarily on watch duty and he reported Kisame only taking three more cups of water since then and no food.”

Sakura nodded before putting on her stethoscope and leaning over to listen to Kisame’s pulse rate. The room was quiet for that minute save for Kisame’s harsh breathing. She pulled away and took the thermometer with her, scribbling her results.

“50 BPM's with a fever at 39.8 degrees. That’s too slow of a pulse rate and too high of a temperature.” She pulled out a wooden spatula and gently cupped the man's jaw with a “say ‘ah’ for me please.”

He obliged and in her previous observation weren’t far off though he appeared in worse condition. His mouth and throat were dry.

“How often are you urinating?” This question was rewarded with a brief snicker interrupted by another cough.

“Too often. Dunno how since I’m hardly drinking.” He eased back.

“Is it very yellow?” She asked.

“Very. Is this necessary? Can’t you just pull out the problem? Cause I’m pretty sure it’s in my lungs if you haven’t heard.” He managed to finish his statement before being seized by another coughing fit.

Sakura added to her notes, “it’s very necessary because my diagnosis will determine how exactly we approach this problem in your lungs.” She sat in her chair and looked at Konan who stood as pretty as a statue by the curtain and then at Kisame who laid like dead weight across the stretcher just big enough to hold his massive size.

She began, “high fever yet no sweat, dizziness, disorientation, dry mouth, laboured breathing, inability to take oral fluids, excessive urination, and a worryingly slow heart rate. You’re displaying all the signs of severe dehydration.”

Kisame tried to tame his breathing for a short moment and raised a sceptical brow before saying, “are you telling me I’m just dehydrated?”

Sakura raised a finger, “yes. However, dehydration does not affect the lungs. It causes all the symptoms you’ve shown except for the respiratory issues you’ve displayed. Short answer being the only reason your lungs are so affected by this is because there’s a foreign body in your lungs that is the reason behind your dehydration.”

She continued. “I believe this poison you’ve inhaled has settled in your lungs and is causing your body to reject fluids and overheat along with the respiratory struggles. I’m going to have to perform a couple scans to locate where exactly the poison has settled, if it’s seeped completely into your lungs or if it’s spread throughout your body.”

Sakura stood up, opened a drawer and circled around to the man forcing his eyes to stay open and follow her movements. She held out a cloth wrapped in plastic. “I’ll give you some privacy if you could please change into these.”

Kisame sighed, seeming to will himself into action, he pulled his torso up, swung his legs off the stretcher and accepted the offered patient gown. Konan followed Sakura as she pulled the curtains closed to leave him to change.

“How much danger is he in?” Konan asked.

“A lot. If the poison has seeped into his system it will become more time consuming to expel it, time which he is lacking. But I also have a theory thanks to these shark encyclopaedias I received that may help me buy us more time.” Sakura said before turning to look in the closed off man’s direction.

“Kisame-san, do you know what kind of shark you are? Or are you more of a man with various shark-like features?” She called.

He scoffed, though it sounded like he spoke through a grin, “You’re dealing with a bull shark, dunno how much of me is what you’d call a man but I get the feeling you’re planning to get real up close and personal with me.”

Sakura allowed herself a brief smile before she looked back at Konan, “once I finish my tests, I can hopefully confirm my theory and we can begin the extraction procedure within the day.”

“Wonderful news,” Konan’s smile was brief, barely there, bar from the slight quirk of her lips but it lit a pride in Sakura nonetheless.

Konan remained in the room as Sakura began her examinations. Ideally she would have loved access to an x-ray room to really see what was happening with Kisame’s lungs but she would have to make do with her chakra and a very perceptive eye alone.

It took nearly an hour for Sakura to circulate her chakra over every vital organ, through the bloodstream and essentially make a mental map of what the internal structure of Kisame’s body looked like. She spent the longest time on his lungs, meticulously feeling the lung tissue inside and out, the diaphragm, the capillary network, the bronchi, the bronchioles, the alveoli, every layer of tissue, every type of cell.

Sakura felt for it all, everything in a person’s lung that should be there, and thereby also everything that shouldn’t. It was long tedious work but she wrote down her findings along with her plan forward.

Once satisfied, she pulled out three blank pieces of paper. “Alright, in a better scenario I’d have x-rays to show you but we’ll have to make due with this.”

Sakura scribbled in a basic drawing on one piece of paper a set of lungs and on the other two she drew a single lung on each reaching to connect at the centre. She held up the single paper of the lung set up and gestured with her pen.

“For reference, this represents the lungs of a regular healthy person.” She held the paper pinched between two fingers then held up both of the other papers in her other hand so both pieces could be seen. “These are your lungs.”

Kisame and Konan looked to and from each set of lungs. On the drawings of Kisame’s lungs what stood out the most was the cluster of black scribbles sitting heavy at the internal base of each lung and crawling up the sides.

“As you can see, the poison is a heavy base so it hasn’t been consumed into your body entirely though it has begun to, which is leading to your dehydration.” She put the lung drawings down then picked up another drawing of a man’s torso with areas circled.

“At first I would have preferred to perform a video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery,” she pointed to the circled areas, “ that procedure would involve making three incisions in the side chest area to insert a camera to see and other surgical instruments to remove the foreign bodies. It would also be a short procedure lasting between 2-3 hours per lung and would result in a fast recovery time.”

Kisame shifted in place and cocked his head, “so why can’t we do that?”

Sakura put down the paper and once again picked up the single paper set of lungs in one hand and held up the double paper set in the other. “Well the main problem is that would be the go-to procedure for a regular person. You however are built differently due to your shark attributes and this very much includes your lungs. Can you see the difference?”

Kisame said, “they’re bigger?”

Sakura nodded, “that’s one difference which means the thoracoscopic surgery wouldn’t work as there’s a lot more space in there to clean out and heal so the small incisions would only reach limited spaces but there’s a bigger issue.”

“The lungs are separate?” Konan voiced and Sakura smiled.

“Exactly.” She dropped the single sheet and held each paper with a single lung in both hands, holding them separate from each other. “Your lungs are unique in that at any point in time, only one of them is functioning. They’re much larger than average because they are doing the work of two lungs. They’re separate because they both function differently.”

She gestured with the right paper. “The left lung is connected to the mouth and nose through the trachea to let you breathe air.”

Then gestured with the other paper. ”But the right lung connects to the gills on your neck which allows you to breathe underwater. I suspect the reason your lungs allow you to do this is because bull sharks can breathe in both saltwater and freshwater, so in comparison you are able to breathe in air and water.”

“Huh, I didn’t really put that much thought into how I’m able to do that. I just figured my lungs adapted to figure it out.” Kisame grinned.

“Were you always capable of breathing underwater?” Sakura asked.

“No.” His answer left no room for more questions so Sakura moved on.

“Well your lungs being separate provides the biggest complication. What needs to happen when performing surgery on a lung is it needs to be deflated so air doesn’t go in and out during surgery making it easier to operate on. So the other lung is left to do the work and keep the patient breathing. You however have two lungs that function differently, so in order to deflate one, I need to keep the other functioning and your right lung requires moving water in place of air at your gills to let you breathe.”

Konan brought her hand to her chin, resting her finger against her lips where she stood in the corner of the small office part of the room, “I see. This does complicate things. Do you have a plan to move forward?”

Sakura dropped the papers, leaned back in her chair, and picked up the paper with the man's torso drawn on and used her pen to draw a line along the side of his chest.

“Well seeing how the video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery won’t work, what I’m going to have to do is perform a thoracotomy. This involves a large surgical incision along the side of your chest to allow me better visuals and better access to the lung. I’ll be able to extract the poison while leaving none behind, using a direct process like this means I don’t allow it to spread during the extraction process.”

She leaned back in her chair. “The poison is such a thick solution that even if I wanted to extract it through a procedure like a liquid extraction where I manually push in a liquid solution to pull the poison into and extract it individually for each organ, I couldn’t. The poison is so thick that I’ll need to clear access and manually extract it. Once I’ve cleared it from your lungs then I’ll be able to analyse it and create an antidote to clear any lasting effects so you can get appropriately hydrated.”

Sakura put the paper down and brought a hand to her chin. “As for the separately functioning lungs problem, I want to get the poison out of your air lung first because that’s the lung that’s been doing all the work since you were hit with the poison. I want the strain taken from that lung as fast as possible. To do this, I’ll need to get a large amount of water and rig it up to a ventilator system but rig it to attach to the gills on your neck. This will let you breathe with your water lung and allow me to deflate and operate on your air lung.”

Kisame spoke up, “and how long would this surgery take?”

“Ultimately it depends on how well the procedure goes but it could take between three to six hours on a regular lung but for you it could take up to eight hours.” Sakura said.

Kisame frowned, “and that’s doubled since you’re gonna have to do the same procedure on both lungs and that’s not counting the recovery time in between. I can’t stay put that long, remember?” He arched his brow.

Sakura nodded, “I remember you mentioning the longest you could sleep is five hours before your body makes sure you’re moving. This results in your sleepwalking. My answer to that is this; seeing how sharks don’t have lungs and instead rely on ventilating oxygen through water which means they’re incapable of staying still for too long. You have lungs so you function differently. Have you ever slept under water?”

He shrugged his shoulders, “once or twice.”

“Alright, my hypothesis is that you don’t need to move when in water. Sharks need to move to keep the water moving through them and thus giving them the oxygen they need to breathe. You have lungs which means you function as a ventilation system so you are manually breathing in the water and thus getting the oxygen you need without the necessity of movement. So by operating on your air lung first, that means your water lung will allow you to stay still for as long as the procedure needs and during the recovery time in between.”

“What about when you operate on the water lung? He’ll need to move at points during the procedure.” Konan voiced.

“I’ll have to use water clones to move his limbs at each hour to keep him stimulated and so his body won't move on its own.” Sakura took a deep breath, silence passed as the three digested all the information that had been discussed.

Sakura allowed the moment to pass before she spoke.

“Kisame-san, is there anything else you want to know about the procedure?”

The large man’s eyes scrutinised her, he only broke away when a cough became too hard to stifle. After getting his breathing back under control, he looked to Konan.

Said woman inclined her head and said, “I’ll relay what’s been said to Pain and I’ll make sure there are two people present during the surgeries to monitor Sakura and step in should she do anything threatening your health.” She looked to the medic, a slight smile at the corner of her lips, “though I doubt she would.”

Sakura nodded, “whatever would make you feel more comfortable.”

He sighed, took a hard breath and looked back at her. “Alright. Do what you need to do, but I want Itachi here to watch you.”

“I’m fine with that. I’ll need an hour to prepare what I need and get the room ready. Would you be comfortable waiting here as you are until I’m ready.” Sakura asked.

Kisame shrugged, “you already have me in your paper gown, may as well stay put.” He dropped his head back against the bed and closed his eyes.

Sakura and Konan looked at each other, communicating with their eyes that they would leave him be. They left the area and Sakura pulled the curtain closed to seal the area. They spoke softly.

“Is there anything you need?” Konan asked.

“Just some buckets, and for whoever else will be in the operating room with us to be showered and wearing these.” She held out a set of five wrapped up scrubs that Konan took. She nodded and dismissed herself, leaving Sakura to prepare.

She immediately began preparing the operating room section, Kisame remained quiet in the curtain beyond, she set up the machines she’d need, she went over all the surgical equipment she would be using - even miming parts of the procedure she would be doing with the equipment she held.

When Konan returned with three clean metal buckets, Sakura took them gratefully, she made sure they were appropriately disinfected and then Konan followed her as she came to stop outside the base.

Winter was creeping through the air, not enough for snow but enough to pinken one's ears and a deep breath could bring the chill to touch one’s core through their lungs. It was the perfect weather for what Sakura had in mind.

Sakura placed the buckets on the ground and Konan watched as she formed the tiger hand sign.

When using a chakra nature it was much easier to manipulate the element if it was around you. Using a fire release would naturally require less chakra if you utilised a campfire at your feet for example. Rather than creating your own fire through shaping your chakra instead of the already existing fire.

This stood to reason that it would be a waste for Sakura to make water clones entirely herself when the winter air held plenty of moisture in the air.

Sakura created three identical water clones of herself and they followed the mindless instruction to stand in the buckets. They all looked to their feet and stood as straight as possible, all compacting themselves as much as they could so as to not spell over the sides.

Once satisfied, Sakura released the clones and they melted into pure water filling the three buckets.

“A creative use for water clones,” Konan’s smile was slight, but Sakura began to see it as how she normally smiled.

“Thanks,” Sakura grinned as she summoned three more clones to follow them. She easily picked up two of the buckets. “I can’t believe I forgot my chakra nature. In fact, apart from my medical knowledge, I’m struggling to remember much of any jutsu’s.” Her smile melted into a frown, looking down at the water in a bucket she held rippling with the swaying of her grasp.

Konan approached and picked up the last bucket, Sakura’s clone closest to the bucket wanted to protect but Konan shook her head and held the bucket, though she needed both hands. “Don’t hurt yourself over it, I’m sure you’ll remember with time.” Sakura smiled at the encouragement and happily hurried to keep step with her taller friend, shadowed by her clones, as they re-entered the base and took the buckets of water to her medical room.

Konan then excused herself to speak with Pain and Sakura and the clones began preparing the water and set up a ventilation machine. The one she had she would be for when his air lung needed support. As for his water lung she would need to get creative as there was no equipment prepared to handle gills.

So she took the largest plastic syringe she had and connected the ventilation tube to the end. She carefully punctured a hole in one side of the tube near the mouthpiece end and connected the tube of another to it. She used the fire of a candle to seal the tubes together without gaps and moulded the mouthpieces to cover a wider area.

The plan was throughout the surgery Sakura would have her clones acting as her nurses. She would have one clone at the water pump with her hands holding the syringe submerged in a bucket and manually pumping the water to and from his lung to match the constant pace of Kisame’s breathing.

Another clone would be at Kisame’s head and holding the mouthpieces to the gills at his neck to make sure they were held firmly in place and to prevent any gaps. Should the gills make contact with air then they would close up and stop Kisame from breathing.

Lastly a clone would act as he primary nurse handing her the equipment she needed and holding the light for her to see what she was doing.

She finished within the hour she’d requested and Konan returned followed by two others. All she, Itachi and Deidara wore the scrubs Sakura had provided with the woman holding the other two pairs under her arm.

“Konan-chan, you’re staying too?”

“Yes, that’s not a problem is it?” Sakura shook her head. Even donned in medical blue covering her usual attire she was a vision of beauty. While Itachi looked out of place in his and Deidara fiddled with the material, dissatisfied at the feel. Looking again, Itachi swayed on his feet, his eyelids hung tired and he struggled not to hunch in on himself. Sakura hurried and moved her chair from her desk to the wall of the operating room section.

“Itachi-san, please have a seat.” He said nothing as he staggered to the chair and dropped his weight onto it.

Sakura and Konan then helped Kisame move to the operating bed where he removed the scrub shirt at Sakura’s request. Deidara swaggered to stand by Itachi so they could be considered ‘close’ but with enough distance that made sure they wouldn’t even accidentally touch. “I’m just here to be another set of eyes since Itachi looks like he’s gonna fall asleep.”

He leaned against the wall lazily and Sakura noticed the difference between his hands, one fine, the other belonging to his decaying arm hanging in a disfiguring dull red colour.

Itachi didn’t dignify the blonde with a response, set already in his assignment of keeping his red eyes locked on Sakura and following her every movement as she nodded to her three clones to get in position. His lack of reaction made Deidara tsk and look away.

“I don’t mind why you’re here as long as you follow my instructions. You will be quiet and still. You make your presence as concealed as possible so you don’t distract me. And you touch absolutely nothing. Alright?”

Itachi was slow in his movement but he nodded. Deidara flicked his fringe from his face and said, “you got it, doc.”

Konan moved to stand as still and pretty as a statue in the corner of the room and said, “I’m here on your behalf, should Itachi or Deidara see something they perceive as you harming Kisame then they are to tell me and I will confer with you what’s happening.”

Sakura smiled, warm that Konan had such faith in her and would defend her from potential accusations. She didn’t blame the men. She held the life of their teammate in her hands. She was a friend to one in the room, a potential threat to the others.

Putting her mask on, a determined fire in her eyes, she would prove herself a healer to them all.

“Ready Kisame-san?”

His eyelids were heavy and eyes unfocused but he responded, “planning to knock me out first?” with a teasing smirk.

“That I am, just making sure you’re still alright with the procedure.” She slipped on her latex medical gloves.

The last of the tension was exhaled from the large man as his eyes slipped closed and he laid limp on the bed. “Get started then.”

Sakura and her three clones nodded, all springing into action. The incredibly convenient thing about having her nurses all be clones was they all shared the same thought process.

Knowing the gas anaesthesia wouldn’t work here the main nurse clone began preparing the IV drip to administer the anaesthesia, she did this whilst the clone in charge of the neck gill masks began strapping the masks in place and holding them with her hands to prevent gaps as he breathed. The water pump clone began pumping, counting in her head the appropriate number of seconds that his breathing should involve as the water travelled through the tubes and reached his neck.

Feeling the water on his gills, Kisame closed his mouth and Sakura’s many eyes watched as the gills slipped open, allowing the water to filter in. Seeing the breathing system working, the identical medic team continued.

The main nurse clone attached a pulse oximeter -a small clip attached to the vitals screen to monitor the oxygen in the blood- to the evenly breathing Kisame’s finger and set up the other vital monitoring devices.

Sakura scanned the vital screen ‘85% oxygen levels… that’s dangerously low’. Any number under 90% was considered too low but Kisame’s readings were accurate to the dehydration symptoms so Sakura moved forwards.

Sakura felt the centre of his chest with her medical chakra as Kisame drifted further and further out of consciousness until he was safely in the clear.

Once Sakura deemed the operation ready, she was handed her scalpel. Using chakra scalpels would have been preferable but she wanted to save as much chakra as she could to sustain her clones as long as possible.

The unconscious Kisame was adjusted to lay on his side with his arm raised above his head and the nurse clone at his neck adjusted herself to keep the masks at his gills firmly in place, and the bed was lowered by the main nurse clone to be more accessible to Sakura’s shorter frame.

The main nurse clone pulled down an adjustable light closer to where Sakura was, shining on his large ribs as Sakura began making her first move. Sakura made a long surgical cut between two ribs, the cut gliding from the front of his chest wall along to the back, passing underneath the armpit.

The main nurse clone assisted in separating the cut so that Sakura could access the chest cavity. The muscles stretched to comply with the man's resting position, the flesh a healthy mosaic of reds and pinks, flushed healthily with blood and at the moment, in the way.

Sakura manoeuvred the muscles, the anaesthesia making the entire process painless for her sleeping patient, the body slowly breathing warm to the touch. The process continued until she reached the target lug.

Thankfully Kisame’s body was so large that the ribs were separate enough that Sakura could work between them -if they posed a problem then she would need to remove one and that would have added time onto the procedure.

Now with access to the lung, the procedure continued until Sakura was handed the special tube by her main nurse clone that would deflate the lung.

Sakura monitored with both the vitals monitor and with her medical chakra in her hand how Kisame's body reacted to the lung deflation. On a normal person it was a perfectly safe procedure, the mask given would assist by keeping the other lung open and breathing.

With Kisame having a water lung, it made the practice one Sakura kept a cautious eye on. She watched and monitored as the man continued to breathe.

She watched, watched, and watched.

The four identical medics stood frozen for the long minute until they all recognised the lung deflation had worked safely and he was breathing well through the water pump system and all resumed their jobs.

Sakura’s hands were steady as she carefully stretched the lung with small forceps and with the tip of the scalpel, made an incision. She assisted this by channelling her chakra through the scalpel to only act as a balm along with the cut so it would be as clean as possible.

Sakura handed the scalpel away and then began the process of cleaning out the lung. It was indeed larger than the average lung. A regular deflated lung could be held in Sakura’s hand, but even deflated Kisame’s lung was as large as a new-born and handled just as gently.

She carefully opened the incision and nestled in clusters along the insides of the organ was a dark viscous substance. The thick poison crawled up the lung growing thinner as it stretched from its comfortable heavy weight at the base where it had made a home.

Sakura’s masked nose mildly wrinkled in response to the slight salty smell, though she wasn’t yet certain if that was coming from the poison or the shark man resting around her hands.

The removal would be a tedious procedure. She was handed a tiny vacuum tube that she steadily inserted through the cut she held open and began slowly removing the poison.

The process continued for almost an hour. The venom was resistant thanks to its thickness that Sakura could only suck up small amounts in increments.

When the time had reached the hour mark the operation was momentarily put on hold so the nurse clone in charge of the water pump could carefully swap out the current bucket for a second one. She did this to give the body the illusion that it was in a larger environment than it was. This was done to convince the body further that it didn’t need to move.

The identical medics kept the time in mind as they were all cautious of the five hour mark that determined whether her hypothesis was right. If Kisame’s body would move of its own volition and put either the surgery or his recovery time in danger.

The operation continued. Eventually Sakura came to the end of the vacuum process. All the chunks and clusters of the poison had been cleared but now all that was left was the areas where the poison stretched thinner.

To extract that which was too thin to be safely cleaned out by the tube, Sakura was handed a small utensil that closely resembled a dental mouth mirror only with a longer handle.

The main nurse clone had prepared two large clean bowls, one full of a water solution and the other empty, on a wheeled tray that Sakura used her foot to pull closer.

This process was more tedious than the last because what Sakura then did was dip the flat circular end of the tool in the liquid solution, then using her water release to retain a thin layer of the liquid to the flat metal surface, Sakura carefully placed it against the inner wall of the lung afflicted with the poison and focused her chakra.

Her chakra influenced the poison to separate from the organ tissue and it instead floated in the liquid. She then extracted the tool, held it in the empty bowl and released her chakra's hold on the liquid, allowing gravity to catch the murky solution safely from the man's body.

Predictably so, this process was incredibly meticulous and time consuming. But it would give her the cleanest result possible. Leaving behind a lung healthy and free of any trace of the poison that had plagued it.

The buckets were changed twice more.

She was near finished. Sakura had extracted every single scattered drop of poison speckled inside Kisame’s left lung that had been steadily choking the large man.

She was nearing the five hour mark as she handed the used tool to the main nurse clone who set it to a side tray to be cleaned later. Hand empty, she accepted the final tool to be used on the lungs; a long thin hollowed out metal needle.

To seal cuts on skin a healer would sew it with stitches to be removed at a later time. To seal cuts inside the body a healer would use absorbable sutures which were stitches the body would absorb over time.

But that would take time, Kisame couldn’t stay attached to the respirator for the entirety of his recovery time and his body would make sure he was moving every five hours once he was disconnected. Internal stitches would take weeks before movement would be safe. Sakura was going to reduce that time to hours.

Using the hollow instrument Sakura focused her medical chakra through the metal until it reached a fine point. 

She held the corner of the incision closed with the forceps and carefully brought the needle to the tissue, so steady her hands never once shook. The main nurse readied the tube that would re-inflate the lung.

Sakura carefully pulled the needle across the surface of the cut, ever so slowly so that she could influence the tissue to knit itself back together. What was left behind and she moved was a surface that looked like it had never been cut.

It didn’t take long but it wasn’t a quick process. Nearly half an hour later stood Sakura looking at a healthy, re-inflated, seemingly untouched, larger than average lung.

Sakura passed off her tools to the main nurse clone so she could shift the muscles back into place, she looked at his vitals, they hadn’t changed much but they were a little better. There was still another lung to heal later.

Finally she was handed a curved sewing needle and medical thread. She could stick to healing chakra but that came with a slight flaw. Medical ninjutsu wasn’t a miracle cure, healing the body was just influencing it to work faster, to heal itself faster. Due to this it meant that repeated healings would weaken that area, and Kisame as the fighter he was built as would no doubt sustain future injuries.

Medical ninjutsu was useful as an instant healing on the battlefield and in life or death situations, both where the time in the moment mattered more than the future to come.

Sakura didn’t want to give Kisame any place on his body that would be weaker than the rest. She wanted him as strong as the day before he was injured.

So sewing it was. She would influence the needle itself to encourage the body to focus, cutting the recovery time from potential weeks to days, but she would allow the body to mend itself.

The room had been silent for the entire operation, the only sound being the occasional clank of tools being picked up or put down to break up the rhythm of the water pump being manually pushed and pulled to keep the patient breathing.

A final snip of scissors cutting thread and she was finished.

Sakura allowed herself a long exhale before she and her clones looked to the water pump nurse clone changing to another bucket and marking the fifth hour.

She held her breath as she watched Kisame. He remained still. His chest rose and fell and he remained still. The seconds ticked by marking a minute past five hours and he remained still.

Sakura’s shoulders sagged with relief. She had been right. His body wasn’t required to move after five hours ‘under water’.

The first operation was a success.

She and the main nurse clone adjusted Kisame so his arm was down and he was moved from his side to his back. The nurse clone holding the mask to his neck looked to Sakura for the confirmation. Sakura nodded and the nurse clone looked to the water pump nurse clone who withdrew one last pump of water and the masks were slowly removed from his gills.

Sakura got closer and watched carefully as the gills immediately registered its access to water had been cut, the water that remained in the lung was slowly expelled to spill over the bed until they fluttered closed. Kisame in response unconsciously opened his mouth and began breathing the air.

Sakura held a hand of healing chakra to his chest and felt his clean lung working perfectly along with his breathing.

The clone that held the mask grabbed a folded towel and worked to dry the water the gills had pushed out onto the bed. The water pump clone began taking the buckets outside to get rid of the water. The main nurse took the tray of medical tools to be cleaned and disinfected. Sakura turned to face her audience, removing her mask.

“The first operation was a success.” She smiled.

Deidara who had sunk to sit against the wall groaned. “You have to do another one of these?”

“I do, this was just for the left lung, I’ve still got the right. But I want to give him a day to let his body recover so the next surgery will be at the same time tomorrow. I’m going to be analysing the poison for the rest of the day.” Sakura explained whilst removing her gloves. She and a clone easily lifted Kisame between them and carried him to the medical bed in the office area, it was comfier and with a blanket.

Sakura looked at Itachi, hunched in his chair and red eyes unblinking. “Was there anything concerning that you saw?”

He closed his eyes, then rose slowly to his feet. “Nothing this time, I will still be here for the next.” His words were a subtle threat. Sakura had nothing to be threatened as she never planned to hurt her patient.

He moved to the office area and looked over Kisame for a moment. “How long will he rest?”

Sakura’s main nurse clone was disconnecting him from the anaesthesia and connecting him to a fluid bag on the IV drip to keep him healthy. His vitals were still not healthy enough for Sakura to sit comfortably but that’s something she could properly combat once she’d cleaned his other lung.

“It won’t be long, I’d say in about an hour he’ll be waking up. I’m going to keep him here for a while after, at least until I say he’s healthy enough to be moving.” She took a towel offered by her clone and wiped the sweat from her face.

Itachi nodded, he then excused himself from the room.

Deidara rose and stretched with an odd noise, “god, are all surgeries this long?” he complained, stretching out his back.

Sakura rolled her eyes, “some surgeries can take longer. We were lucky nothing went wrong here or it could’ve taken a lot longer.”

“Fair enough,” Deidara muttered before clearing his throat and dismissing himself with a “well I’m getting myself some lunch, see you same time tomorrow doc.”

Konan called after him, her voice as even as ever, “don’t forget Deidara, you’re on sleepwalker watching duty.” He groaned loudly from beyond the door in complaint and reluctant acceptance.

“You handled yourself very well. Operating for hours without a break and in complete silence whilst in perfect synchronisation with your clones. I have to say it’s very impressive to watch you work.” Konan praised.

Sakura glowed for a second before tempering her joy. “I’m happy there was nothing to worry about. But I’ve still got the other lung to operate on tomorrow and I’ve got to analyse this poison to figure out an antidote for any remaining symptoms.”

Konan nodded in acknowledgment, “I respect your work ethic. I’ll fetch you some lunch.” She moved to the door and only stopped when Sakura voiced.

“Won’t you be joining me?”

“I’d like to but I have some work to do. Perhaps dinner?”

Sakura nodded once, “sounds good,” and Konan left.

Sakura sighed, feeling the muscles in her back and arms loosen all at once. Her hands dropped like dead weight at her sides. It was a soothing feeling after hours of tensing throughout the procedure, the ease at which she stood momentarily left her light-headed. She stood there for how long? She didn’t know.

Sakura opened her eyes when she was suddenly bombarded with memories of the surgery from different perspectives. Her water clones must have finished their duties and stepped outside to release themselves. The wonderful benefit of having her clones as nurses, she could see the entire procedure from every position. It was slightly overwhelming but Sakura was good at managing her thoughts.

She stepped back into the operating room section and took the bowl of water based solution mixed with poison that she had painstakingly extracted and moved to the row of equipment along the wall near where her audience had been seated. That wall was what she dubbed the examination wall.

❀

Konan soon brought her a light lunch to her desk and excused herself just as quickly. Sakura used her lunch break to relax before she returned to her work. She slipped on a new pair of gloves.

She kept an ear out to listen for when Kisame would begin to stir back into consciousness as she began to extract the poison from the liquid.

It was nearly an hour later when she heard fabric rustling. Sakura had been hunched over a microscope but stopped immediately and turned to her patient. She approached and slid the curtain divider open to see Kisame blinking himself awake.

“Try not to move around too much, how are you feeling, Kisame-san?” Sakura soothed him with a low calm tone as he tried to sit up. He only calmed when he became fully aware of his bearings, his eyes had taken his surroundings and Sakura in, his body tensed as he came back into control of his limbs, and he noticed his breathing was less laboured.

He met her eyes, momentarily wide, he opened his mouth to speak but only released a wheezy breath. Sakura passed a cup of water left on the desk to his hand. He downed the water in a single gulp and Sakura refilled it from the pitcher left at her desk. He drank two more cups before Sakura put a stop to it.

“Careful now, you’re not completely out of the woods yet. Too much water too fast could hurt you in the long run.”

Kisame took in a deep breath and eased back against the bed that Sakura adjusted to rest the back higher for him. “Did you get all that shit out?” He asked.

“From one lung, yes. I want to make sure the left lung is functioning well before operating on the other one.” He nodded along, shifting in place and frowning as he brought a hand to run along the stitches at his side.

“Stitches? Aren't you a healer?” He cocked a brow.

Sakura took a breath, “I could heal you, but unnecessarily healing your skin multiple times will eventually weaken that part of the skin.”

“You think you’ll be healing me multiple times.”

“I think I’ll be healing you as long as I'm here and you seem the kind of shinobi to seek out challenging battles with a smile on your face.” She matched his raised brow.

His lip quirked, as if preparing to stifle his chuckle before realising his lungs met no resistance and he allowed himself the amused reaction. His laugh was full of sharp teeth. “You’re not that far off, kid.”

“Good to know, and don’t fret too much, your stitches will be out by tomorrow. They're mostly there for when you inevitably start sleepwalking though I’ll be letting Deidara know to keep you from doing anything too strenuous.” Sakura pulled her chair to his bedside and began to check over his vitals now he was conscious.

He followed her requests and let her run her vital tests with much more ease than he had before the surgery; now he could breathe comfortably and hold himself up.

It was when Sakura was checking his temperature that she noticed something worrying. Gently running a gloved finger across his forehead to collect the perspiration, she frowned. “You’re sweating.”

“Is that bad? Doesn’t being dehydrated mean I’m low on water?”

“It does, your body is rejecting water to keep you dehydrated but you should not be sweating.” She took a sample of the sweat and kept the curtain open behind her as she returned to the examination wall.

She explained as she worked, “regular dehydration happens when the body lacks an amount of body weight in water. But here the poison you’ve got sitting in you is causing dehydration, preventing you from natural treatments, and actively worsening over time. That’s why I need to extract all the poison so I can begin to treat the dehydration.”

She separated the sweat drops on separate slips to get a closer look through her new microscope. “Overall there are four stages to dehydration for the amount of water weight a person lacks. The first is thirst, when the body lacks between zero to two percent of body weight in water; at this stage the body clings to all remaining moisture, the kidney sends less water to the bladder which darkens the urine and due to this you sweat less which results in fever and headache.”

She continued to prattle off the words without needing to pay attention to them, as though she was reciting from a book. “The second stage is fainting, here the body is lacking up to four percent of body water weight. This stage results in light-headedness, the blood concentration makes the blood flow slow down which as a side makes the hands shrivel, this causes the body to refuse to sweat or cooldown thus leads to overheating and fainting.”

She swivelled around and pointed to the reclined patient who was following along with her words. “You were at this stage and dangerously nearing the third.”

“What happens at the third?”

She turned back to her examination. “Organ damage. The body lacks up to seven percent of body water weight. At this stage the body can’t maintain steady blood pressure which results in a slowed blood flow to the non-vital organs like the kidneys and gut, which can lead to permanent damage.”

He dropped his head back and closed his eyes. “I’ll take a guess what the final stage is ‘cause it feels like it can’t be anything else.” Despite the morose words, his voice was controlled and even, “the fourth’s biting the big one.”

Sakura nodded slowly, “when the body lacks up to ten percent of body water weight… it results in death.”

There was silence for a moment. Kisame shifted and asked, “So why am I sweating when I shouldn’t be?”

Sakura bit her lip as she looked through the microscope, “I’m not sure yet. But I’m not stopping today until I know.” Kisame let her work after that. He closed his eyes and rested as Sakura continued her examination.

In the quiet of the room, the time ticking by, the stillness of the curtains, the barely there sound of the two occupants breathing; Sakura spared herself the offhanded thought that she missed Kangae. The bird was alive with chatter and child-like enthusiasm for even the mundane that Sakura found herself longing for the return of the endearingly annoying twitter of the raven.

But he had seemed so happy to flutter to Itachi and rave about his successful mission that Sakura could only feel happy for him.

Hours passed. At one point Kisame sat up and carefully moved his arms, mindful of the stitches at his side. Sakura helped him stand and he excused himself with a nod and grin that he would be back after he tried to keep some food down. Though he hadn’t been hungry since he’d been hit with the poison and still wasn’t hungry, he felt he should eat rather than he wanted to.

He returned to the patient bed he had been resting on and reported how he’d managed an apple and two cups of water before stopping at the nauseous feeling.

It was as the sun was starting to fall, rays of orange streaming from her high window, Konan and Deidara entering with the warm smell of dinner wafting in, that Sakura made her discovery.

“How’s it going, doc?” Deidara spoke around a mouthful of curry rice, the plate held balanced worryingly in his discoloured hand so his good hand could easily hold the fork.

Konan placed Sakura’s matching curry dinner sitting steaming at her desk and came to the quiet medic’s side. “Sakura? Is everything alright?”

Said medic pulled away from the microscope with wide eyes. The examination table stood a mess of scattered papers with notes equally as messily scribbled on, glass sample slates lining the area closest to her and various tools she had used to analyse the samples.

Her eyes snapped to Deidara, fork in mouth, as he dropped his palm on the sleeping patient, ready to shake him awake. “-Deidara! Don’t touch him!” the blond whipped his hand away and held it up in alarm, his one wide eye snapping to hers and his plate swayed uneasily in his poor arms hold.

“Sakura, what is it?” Konan’s voice was tempered, a sliver of worriedness slipping through.

Sakura’s stride was quick as she came to stand face to face with the blonde who stood stock still. She snatched his raised open hand and whipped out two swabs. He allowed her to manoeuvre his hand down, palm up, with no restraint to her command. She swabbed his palm around the lips of the mouth, then tapped the bottom lip with her pinkie to request entrance. The mouth on the palm opened, the tongue reflexively curling out, and without hesitation she drew a line with the swab up the centre of the tongue to the tip. 

Deidara’s frozen alarm thawed slightly at the motion and he furrowed his brow.

“Don’t touch Kisame-san.” She said offhandedly as she hurriedly returned to the desk and dabbed the swabs on glass sample slates.

Konan waited a breath before asking, “Sakura, what’s going on? What have you found?”

Sakura was quiet for that moment, completely absorbed in her work, it was when she was completely sure of the facts in front of her that she pulled away from the table and faced the others in the room..

“Through my examination of the samples of poison I extracted from Kisame-san’s lung I’ve come to understand how it spreads. The poison is heavy and will sit in the body if ingested, it then begins to seep into the tissue it has contact with until it successfully circulates through the body to infect all major organs to begin the process of dehydrating them.”

She pointed to the sleeping Kisame with a pen but kept her eyes on Deidara. “The skin is the largest organ in the body. Thirty percent of waste is excreted through the skin. I’ve analysed a sample of Kisame-sans sweat and have found traces of the poison contained in the moisture.”

Deidara’s exposed eye began to widen with realisation. “This stands to reason that excessive skin contact could transmit the poison though it would take a while before any symptoms would begin to show.”

“-are you saying I’m infected?” He cocked his head.

“If it was only transmitted to you through skin contact then I wouldn’t be too concerned. However you’re a unique case thanks to the mouths on your hands, this means-”

“-I’ve ingested the poison! Shit, Kisame! If your sleepwalking is the thing that kills me, I swear I’ll kill you!” He yelled at the unbothered patient, fork clattering to the floor so he could yell unhindered.

Sakura held her hands up in a placating manner, “Deidara, you’re not going to die from this. Yes, you’ve ingested some of the poison but not nearly enough in the sweat alone to put you in any danger right now. Once I’ve cleared all the poison sitting in Kisame-san’s other lung then I’ll immediately get to work on creating an antidote that will eradicate any traces left that threaten you.”

He frowned at the sleeping man one last time before nodding to her. “Good -tch! I can’t even imagine dying from poison sweat-” he scooped up his fork and stomped out the room “-I’m going out in an exploding blaze of glory or not at all!”

“Make sure you keep to yourself for now just to be safe!” Sakura yelled after him and he grunted loudly beyond the door in acknowledgement.

Sakura sighed deeply, leaning back in her chair to momentarily allow her weight to sag. A gentle hand was placed on her shoulder and she looked to see Konan offer her a small smile in support. 

“Thanks, Konan-chan.”

“I should be thanking you, seeing how hard you’re working. I feel like bringing you dinner isn’t enough to compensate for your stress.” She allowed her hand to linger and Sakura missed the contact even before it was gone.

“Your company during dinner is more than enough. Have you already eaten?” Sakura removed her gloves and dropped them on the table behind her.

“I have, but I can stay for a short while. You seem eager to spend time together after all.” Sakura felt her cheeks flush in embarrassment, she hadn’t been that clingy, had she? Was she being annoying?

Konan nudged her shoulder and Sakura jumped to her feet, pulling the chair to her desk where her food awaited. “Ah- I’m sorry if I’m pulling you away from your work.”

Konan shook her head and grabbed a nearby stool to sit on across from her. “I don’t mind, I’m happy to slip you into my schedule. I’ll just stay up a little later to make sure it all still gets done.”

Sakura felt guilt sit like a rock in her gut. So she really was inconveniencing her friend. She had hoped they could talk over dinner and Sakura could ask her questions about their home and personal questions about both herself and Konan in the hopes she could trigger some memories but…

Konan waved a hand, capturing Sakura’s attention and she hurried to dig into her still warm curry dinner. “Is there anything you wanted to talk about in particular? Have you managed to remember anything?” She hadn’t…

“Ah… no, not really…” Sakura muttered. 

“Oh…” Konan spoke softly, as if speaking louder would upset Sakura, she reached over and rested her hand on Sakura’s shoulder again. “Try not to worry too much, I’m sure it’ll come back to you.” She offered with a little smile, slightly bigger than the ones she usually allowed to grace her features and Sakura’s heart was warmed by the sight.

The other girl removed her hand and Sakura tried not to follow the motion, the physical comfort her friend provided a solace greater than she could ever realise. Spending time with people she didn’t know, especially amongst those who relied on her to heal them; Sakura didn't realise how drained she felt until the reassuring touch of her friend grounded her.

Sakura realised she had been silent too long and hurried to nod and fill her mouth with rice. Konan huffed a little laugh under her breath.

Sakura had originally wanted to ask admittedly upsetting questions; what was her family like? What was life in their village like? Did Konan have any family? What was their childhood like?

But already inconveniencing her friend and having no memories regained to smile over, Sakura didn’t want to bring down the mood. She wanted to be the reason Konan smiled so unrestrained and without worry.

Sakura swallowed her mouthful, her eyes briefly darting up to the paper flower decorating Konan’s hair. “I… wanted to ask about the paper flower…”

Konan blinked, her hand making a slight aborted motion to confirm by touch, the one in her hair. Her silence left Sakura momentarily floundering for an explanation. “It’s - I know it's not super important in the grand scheme of things and I’m sad that I can’t remember much else but… I remember the paper flower…”

“The one I gave you when we were children.” Sakura’s head snapped up, she nodded energetically.

“Yeah! I remember being so lonely and sad… but then you gave me a paper flower and it was one of the happiest moments of my life. I just… I’m upset that I couldn’t really…” She trailed off.

“Remember the real significance.” Konan finished for her. She carefully plucked the paper rose from her hair and slowly twirled it in her fingers, her eyes soft as a petal as she watched it

 “It was always rare to be around real flowers where we’re from. I remember seeing a little girl I hardly knew, a little girl hiccupping and crying with too much grief for her tiny body to hold and thinking only… that I wanted to be her friend…” She looked to meet Sakura’s eyes.

“I’ll admit that I was worried you had forgotten that day. I miss those moments of childhood where things were easier, where to make a lifelong friend we didn’t need to bleed for each other or lose sleep over the services we could provide in exchange for company over rushed dinners. Children needed only a flower folded from paper with clumsy fingers eager for connection…” Her expression pulled achingly at Sakura’s heart.

Konan turned the rose and gently offered it in her palm, her eyes as warm as tears and smile painfully hopeful. “Would it be too childish for me to offer this again?”

Was it possible for a heart to both break and grow?

Shattered with the painful realisation that Sakura forgetting Konan didn’t just mean that she lost a friend but so had Konan. Sakura holding herself back from acting like the person in front of her was anything other than her closest friend hadn’t only been painful to her. Konan had rescued her, nursed her back to health and in return she was faced with her best friend who couldn’t remember so much of their life together.

Sakura had been so selfish. She saw the issues of her lost memories as a problem solely resting on her when in reality it must have also been agony for her best friend. And here Konan was. Accepting Sakura’s current situation with nothing but understanding and patience. Longing for the friendship she knew of that Sakura had forgotten. Offering her that same gift of friendship she had offered once before.

Sakura’s heart broke for her, but looking at the paper offering, it healed and swelled with the warmth of the sun.

She gently took the offering. The paper flower was so light in weight but heavy with emotion. Sakura slowly twirled it by the paper stem between her fingers and a soft smile on her face.

She tucked it safely and securely in her bun atop her head. “Thank you, Konan-chan…” she traced the paper petals with the barest touch of her finger tip before pulling away.

Her smile was returned and Sakura couldn’t be happier. Not wanting to keep Konan any longer, knowing she had important work to do, she bid her a good night.

Sakura chose to stay up late and continue analysing the poison to begin the blueprints for an antidote. Kisame was woken up briefly and helped to the bathroom to relieve himself. The interruption of his sleep and movement enough to reset his body’s internal clock, once he was returned to the bed and fell asleep he would get his five hours before his sleepwalking began.

It was during her tests at her examination desk that a knock alerted her to Deidara sleepily and grumpily dragged himself in the room.

Sakura furrowed her brow, “I know you’re on sleepwalking duty tonight but are you getting enough sleep, Deidara?”

He had changed into a comfortable baggy set of sweat pants and large shirt, a sketchbook tucked under his discoloured arm and mug of coffee clutched in his good hand.

“When I’m on duty I get a couple hours of sleep earlier so I’m alert enough to watch him.” He directed a stink eye to the resting patient. “Besides, half the crew aren’t able bodied enough to stop him from doing things he shouldn’t or they’re too busy to. And since I’m already infected, it’s best not to risk anybody else.”

A sound reasoning, Sakura nodded in the direction of her desk. “Well you can use my desk if you like. I won’t be much of a conversationalist over here.”

“All good, I can entertain myself.” He dropped his sketchbook, placed his mug and plucked a pencil from behind his ear. “At least until the big blue problem child is up and running.” He glared again, clearly intending to hold this grudge for as long as he wanted. Going so far as when Sakura looked back at the blonde he had plucked three medical masks from her drawer and hooked them on his mouth and over both palms.

Sakura couldn’t stop herself from giggling at the sight.

“Not taking any more chances.” He muttered.

“It’s not airborne, I’ve checked and there’s no risk of contracting any of the poison through breathing it.” She struggled not to grin as he momentarily struggled to put his long blonde hair up into a messy bun.

“Still not taking any more chances.” He opened his sketchbook and began flipping through the pages.

Sakura let him be with an amused quirk of her lips and turned back to her work.

The room fell into a comfortable tune, the sounds of pencil drawing along paper, metallic taps of tools, and glass clinks gently handled, and faint breathing of the sleeping patient. Time passed and Sakura only shifted her attention when the sound of blanket rustling alerted her.

“...yeah, yeah, I’m coming…” Kisame murmured. Deidara sighed, dropping his pencil and leaning back in the chair to give the sleepwalking man his full attention.

Sakura watched with a worried eye as the towering man slid out of the bed and stood still for a moment, eyes open and glazed. Eventually he turned to the bed, yanked the blanket and began to messily fold it.

When he finished, instead of depositing it on the bed, he turned until finally spotting Deidara and marched up to him. Unceremoniously dumping the sloppily folded blanket atop the desk, consequently also atop Deidara’s sketchbook and pencil. The artist looked to be developing a twitch in his eye from what Sakura could see above his mask.

Kisame said in a tone that would suggest a smirk, “mama said it’s your turn to wash ‘em,” and spun away. He came to a stop at a random point in the room, not like he was thinking but more like he was just sleeping standing up.

“I swear he knows what he’s doing and does this on purpose.” Deidara glared at the blanket obscuring the desk he had been hunched over sketching away. 

“I know it looks kind of like that, but sleepwalkers don’t have any conscious awareness. Kisame-sans subconsciousness is doing the walking and talking.” Sakura tried to explain in an attempt to ease the blonde’s clear annoyance.

“So his subconsciousness is telling me his mama told me to do his laundry.” He stood and scooped up the offending blanket, throwing it to land clumsily  sprawled back on the bed. He dropped back in the seat and began rolling his pencil between his fingers, “you think if I fed him a bomb his subconscious would think its an apple?”

Sakura blinked, “as a medic I’d strongly recommend against feeding him a bomb, and it wouldn’t be guaranteed that he’d think of it as an apple. I think it would depend on how often he eats apples.”

“Then what if I made it into a spider?” He cocked his head, both of them keeping their eyes on the sleeping man who had yet to move.

“Why would he be more accepting of a bomb in a spider shape than an apple shape?” Sakura asked incredulously, truly unsure if the man was joking or not.

He shrugged, “don’t we swallow like eight spiders a year? I could totally trick his body by making tiny spider bombs and he wouldn’t even notice!”

Sakura huffed a little laugh, “I think that’s just a myth.”

He leaned back, balancing on the back legs of the chair and staring at the ceiling. He looked deep in thought. Sakura watched for a quiet moment and nearly jumped when the blonde let the chair fall back into place and he rapidly flipped through pages of his sketchbook, his eyes wide and he began sketching.

Sakura looked back at Kisame who had laid down and began doing push-ups. She watched carefully, then got up and came to crouch at his feet. She carefully touched a hand enhanced with healing chakra to touch his heel and let the chakra channel through the body and feel for the stitches. They were healing well with her previous healing push and weren’t at a risk of tearing.

She let go and returned to her examination desk and chair, she would only stop him if he continued unconsciously working out for too long.

Before she sat back down, she looked over to Deidara hunched over the desk. It didn’t look easy to draw with masks wrapped around his palms to cover his hands but his enthusiasm more than made up for it.

Following the lead lines with his eyes, recognising the rough shapes being given dimension with shading, she came to realise, “are those… spiders?”

“Yeah! Joking about it made me start to think about my art. Y’see the bigger the explosion the better, I always saw it. Yeah I’ve made small bombs before. But how small can I go?” He pulled away and began explaining his thought process. How the spiders would be the smallest creations he could possibly make, that he’d need to make thousands to really see the effect.

But if he was successful in making his miniscule bombs then the consecutive explosions wouldn’t even look like explosions to the naked eye, but rather something simply becoming dust.

His eyes shone with excitement under the prospect of another form of his art he could create and Sakura found herself smiling and nodding along. He’d just finished rambling about his creations small enough to hide amongst sand when Sakura yawned.

“Sorry-” she said quickly, “I promise I’m not bored, just a little tired.”

His eye glanced at the window in a brief flash before he leaned back on the chair. “S’ok, it’s getting pretty late and you should get some sleep.

“But you’re staying up to watch Kisame-san, and I’ve still got more work to do. I just feel like this poison has more to it, what I know it does is dangerous yes, but I feel like there’s more to it - and with lives on the like I wouldn’t feel comfortable if I didn’t do all I could.

Deidara cocked his head back. “Yeah but you also performed a surgery that went on for hours and haven’t stepped foot out of this room since.”

Sakura bit her cheek, in truth her eyes had begun to hang too heavy and made writing hard to focus on.

Deidara shrugged, “besides, you’ve got another surgery tomorrow and need to be well rested.”

He was right and Sakura knew it wasn’t worth arguing over so she sighed. “Will you be okay watching him by yourself?”

“Yeah, he should be returning to bed soon anyway.” Deidara directed his sharp gaze towards the sleeping man holding a pouch of seeds he had unknowingly swiped from Sakura’s bed. 

He was staring with a very pointed frown before grunting loudly and whining, “but I’m not hungry!”

“Then don’t eat them! No one’s forcing you!” Deidara scowled, throwing a pencil that the sleeping man spun around and caught in his pointed teeth.

Deidara shot to his feet, hands on the table and coiling himself, ready to leap over at any second. His lip curled, “don’t you dare…”

The pencil dented with a tiny cracking sound under the pressure of the powerful jaws that held it suspended. 

Deidara was about to jump the table and pounce on the man when Sakura beat him to it, hurrying to the large man. She telegraphed her movements so his unfocused eyes could easily follow along.

“It’s okay, you don’t have to eat it if you don’t want to.” Her tone was calm as if talking to a child, she held up her hand. “Can I please have it?”

His dreary eyes settled down on her, seeming to both see her and not, like a thin curtain he looked through her to a sight he wanted to see more. He blinked slowly, accepting whatever his subconsciousness had shown through that window, and began unclenching his jaw.

Sakura took the pencil before it could fall and accepted the seed pouch he offered. Before she could thank him, a weight settled atop her head.

She remained staring vacantly at the pouch in her hand as her hair was ruffled, the sheer size of the hand causing her head to sway with the motion.

“...you’re so fuckin’ small…”

Sakura blinked hard at the pouch. Her reflex was to be mildly offended but she settled on a more puzzled emotion, she was pretty small, now she thought about it Konan was a good amount taller than her. Was that strange? They were roughly the same height as little girls, did Konan go through a growth spurt or was Sakura just short for her age?

Come to think of it; how old is she?

The large hand began patting her head and by proxy shook the thoughts away. He continued, “y’need to eat more or else you’re gonna stay a guppy forever.”

Sakura sighed and carefully took the hand atop her head by the wrist. “Yes, thank you.” She said and guided him by the arm to the bed. She left him sitting perched on the bed, he wasn’t ready to return to a still sleep yet but his movements were steadily becoming more sluggish.

She handed Deidara the pencil now with sharp indents lining the utensil as evidence of Kisame’s teeth. Though curiously the end of the pencil was covered in toothy indents courtesy of a busy mind and possibly the outlet for one's stalled creativity. Perhaps Deidara was accepting of damage if he was in control of it.

“Sleep well when you can,” Sakura smiled.

“Yeah, yeah. When the big blue infection does then I will.” He waved off and Sakura excused herself to the bathroom to change into her simple two piece pyjama set.

The button up’s sleeves and pants were too long and a deep purple. Clearly they belonged to Konan, and looking at her fingertips peaking through the sleeves reminded Sakura of her prior thoughts. Yawning, Sakura shrugged the thought away again. Looking on the brighter side, having such long sleeves helped her sleep warmer in the early winter night.

She returned to the room, glancing briefly at Kisame who was still perched on the chair, legs hanging, arms rested in his lap, and staring vacantly at the ground not too far in front of him. Deidara meanwhile had returned to his drawing, tapping the pencil against his mask where his mouth was covered.

Sakura reached her bed and held tenderly in her palm rested the paper flower Konan had gifted her, her hair curled loose over her shoulders. Sakura’s smile was warm as she placed the gift atop her two shark books, nestled next to the seed pouches, and placed them safely on her bedside.

Sleep came as easily as an exhale.

❀

The next day began easy and Sakura was optimistic for her progress. Konan had dropped in to bring her breakfast. Kisame’s sleepwalking hadn’t disturbed the stitches. She pulled them free of the skin like one would pull a thread from a still lake, the flesh was undisturbed and successfully nearing the end of the healing stage; by tomorrow there wouldn’t even be a scar.

The second surgery went arguably better than the first. With Kisame’s air lung responsible and the standard gas mask on his face, the procedure became simpler and more routine. While both surgeries went without issue, this one went smoothly and quickly. Sakura, assisted by two water clone nurses, successfully finished the procedure and was stitching the large man up by the fourth hour.

With the final lung surgery completed, Sakura could begin the dehydration treatment whilst she could continue analysing the poison to make an antidote. Sakura removed her gloves as one nurse clone began cleaning while the other was checking the patient's vitals.

Kisame’s body circulated the anaesthesia faster than normal so he would be waking up pretty soon. Sakura began mentally planning the rest of her day watching over him and preparing an antidote. 

Until Kisame’s health took a dangerous turn.

The machine monitoring his blood flow began beeping. His eyes opened together before half of his face began to sag. His eyes looked around confused and any speech attempts came out slurred and garbled.

Sakura and her nurses spun to attention but before Sakura could so much as move, she was suddenly gripped tightly around her neck. “-ack!”

Itachi towered over her, his red eyes spinning and a single hand tightened around her throat, constricting the airway until all she could offer was slight desperate gasps and choked off pleas.

“What have you done?” His voice was clipped.

“Itachi.” Konan was suddenly at his side with a hand outstretched, fingers flared and paper peeling away from her in thin sheets to hover threateningly.

Sakura’s hands scrambled on the man's arm in an attempt to ease his grip so she could speak beyond a wheezy “..pl..ease..” Her clones stood frozen in place with wide terrified eyes desperate to move and help the patient but Deidara stood by them, eyes flickering over the bodies in the room, waiting for the order to take action.

“What is happening to him?” Itachi demanded and all his captive could offer was a breathy “..p…ple..ease…”

The clone nurse monitoring Kisame’s vitals hurried to speak for her. “He’s having a stroke!”

Her other clone nurse joined in, “Please let us help him!”

Itachi’s eyes were fixed on Sakura’s own pleading ones, his grip iron tight. Konan’s glare hardened on Itachi and her paper folded into thin points. “Let her speak.”

His grip loosened enough for her to plead breathlessly, “please… Even if you don’t trust me… then let my clones help him… Keep a hold of me… and if they do anything you think would harm him… then you can kill me… and they’ll be gone.” She was begging but Kisame’s vitals kept blaring and needed urgent attention.

Their eyes, red and green, alight with silent fury and hard conviction never wavered.

He accepted her desperate proposition and turned to focus his red eyes on the nurses. Said clones jumped into action.

The remedy for a stroke was thankfully within reach and simple. One clone prepped a vein in Kisame’s forearm while the other immediately began the necessary injection. They spoke to telegraph their movements and intentions so Itachi wouldn’t interpret anything as a threat to his teammate.

“Strokes are caused by blood clots that block the blood flow to the brain. We’re injecting him with a solution that breaks down the clot.” One clone nurse said.

“He was already suffering from low oxygen levels and a slow blood flow due to the dehydration.” The other said as their hands glowed a healing green and they began feeling his chest for the clot.

Deidara spoke up, “but you just got all the poison out. Why’s he having a stroke now and not before?”

A clone nurse replied, “we’re not sure yet. Theoretically he shouldn’t even be capable of suffering from a stroke.”

The other continued as they both worked, “last night Sakura was running tests on Kisame-san’s blood and tissue traces to confirm a theory. She discovered the extent of which Kisame-san’s biology is consistent with that of sharks. Kisame-san should be incapable of blood clots because sharks are. Shark tissue contains anticoagulant and antibacterial properties, meaning it produces substances that prevent and treat blood clots and act as blood thinners.”

The first clone spoke again. “This is why Sakura believed there was more to the poison than just causing a constant state of extreme dehydration until the victim dies. As Kisame’s body is capable of naturally fighting the effects. Once the poison was removed he should have been able to heal naturally, but something more is happening.”

The beeping ceased as the vitals stabilised. One clone monitored the vitals whilst the other finished her healing scan of his heart where she had found the clot.

Kisame lay resting on the stretcher bed, still and well. The clones took a step away and looked as confident as they did apprehensive. “He’s stabilised. Treating the stroke as soon as we did means he will suffer no side effects.”

Itachi remained still, his grip unrelenting and his eyes focusing on the steady movements of the large man's chest. Sakura struggled for breath but kept her grip on the forearm and wrist holding her.

After confirming to himself of his teammates wellbeing, the grip loosened. Sakura collapsed to her knees, coughing dryly and desperately inhaling all her chest could hold. She felt a hand rubbing soothing circles on her back, catching a glimpse of lavender through her pink hair then confirmed to Sakura that Konan was behind the kind gesture.

Said girl was glaring at the culprit, “We will be discussing this, Itachi.”

The man in question looked to the clone nurses who stood stock still, arms at their sides. One took the look in his eyes as a question and spoke to answer. “He will wake up within the hour and will be monitored for any possible complications. All procedures have been finished and all that’s left to do is create an antidote for the new diagnosis Sakura will prescribe once she can confirm what the problem is”

He could have nodded, but he chose not to. Getting the answers he wanted, the man excused himself from the room.

Sakura pet Konan’s hand that rested on her knees where she sat knelt on the floor beside Sakura. 

Deidara propped his good arm on his hip and sighed through his clenched teeth, “well that was something.”

“Will you be alright?” Konan asked tenderly, helping Sakura to sit up straight now that she could breathe comfortably. She nodded.

“I’ll have lunch brought to you in a moment okay? You sit down until you feel better. I need to have a conversation with Itachi.” Before Sakura could protest, the woman with fists now clenched at her sides flew from the room.

Sakura got to her feet and no sooner dropped herself in her chair by her desk.

Deidara’s eyes flickered from her to Kisame, to the door, seeming to bite his cheek behind the mask he waited for a few seconds before saying, “I’m gonna get myself some lunch too, see you for babysitting duty later.” He excused himself from the room.

Sakura sat in silence. Leaning back heavily on her chair and listening to the even breathing of her patient.

She looked up to see the two clone nurses standing rigid, waiting for instructions with nervous eyes. Sakura could tell her eyes mirrored their emotions.

Their thoughts were the same as Sakura’s after all.

She needed to be alone with her thoughts, the idea of seeing them externally brought an unpleasant taste to the back of Sakura’s throat. She swallowed and waved a hand, “good work, you’re dismissed.”

The clones shared an identical look of anxiousness between them before they nodded and excused themselves from the room, leaving the base and shutting the door behind them as they became puddled on the grassy floor.

Sakura shifted her focus onto the sound of her own deep breathing. She needed something to focus on as her mind began replaying what had just happened.

Deep breath in - Sakura had let her guard down for a moment when she knew there was still work to be done. Careless.

Deep breath out - Kisame had suffered a stroke whilst under her care and she had known it was a possibility, however incapable he should be she still knew it could happen. Negligent.

Deep breath in - Itachi choking her, believing her not to be aiding in Kisame’s recovery but directly responsible for his suffering. Incompetent bordering on malevolent.

Deep breath in…

That trust she had been so determined to cultivate; to be seen as an invaluable healer, a dedicated doctor capable of pulling patients from the brink of death and permanent injury… and a person worthy of finding a place for herself with this team by her best friend's side.

Hesitant fingers caressed her neck, the tender sting confirming the purple discolouration of a fresh bruise would be imminent.

A reminder of her failure.

Sakura began blinking more, attempting to stave off the impending tears she already felt beginning to grow. She’d just wanted to help, to show how useful she could be, and how much it would be worth it to keep her. She just wanted to save Kisame and her stupid ineptitude had brought her very intentions into harsh question.

Itachi had gripped her by the throat and choked the thought that she was being seen as a useful partner from her mind.

Her first patient… and she’d already shown she wasn’t a medical expert to be unquestioned. The surgeries had gone flawlessly, her theories were being proven right through research and experimentation, but what did it matter? Her patient had suffered under her care and she was thought to be deliberately behind it.

Sakura sniffled.

She rubbed her eyes of their tears and frowned. What did she mean ‘what did it matter?’ She still had a patient that needed her.

Pulling herself closer to her desk, she pulled out a pen and paper to take notes. Whilst yes, it did sting like a kunai to her gut to know that she was being seen as an inadequate healer, she was still a healer. She was still Kisame’s healer, and he was still in need of her.

She couldn’t quite stop the sniffling as the door to the room opened. A familiar childish tone greeted her and Sakura felt her mood lighten. “Doctor, doctor. It’s time for your lunch break.”

Tobi entered holding a tray carrying a simple lunch. “I don’t cook a lot and I wasn’t sure what you’d want but Konan insisted I make sure you eat well so I got a bit of everything.” Like their mission, he came offering a variety of store and market bought food, packets opened and plated to give them the look of more effort than required and the only thing he made himself was a small bowl with apple slices cut in it.

“Tobi! Thank you.” Sakura’s smile pinched her cheeks, going from such a despondent sadness to the elation of being met with a friend.

“Oh no…” Tobi placed the tray on her table and cupped her cheeks, squishing them slightly in his much larger gloved hands. “Your eyes are red.” He said sadly.

Sakura swallowed, to clear her voice, if it wavered she’d hate the further pity he might show her. “I’m okay, there was just an…incident.”

Tobi cocked his head slightly, still cupping her cheeks. “What is it? Did it have something to do with Itachi?”

Sakura’s eyes widened a little and she felt embarrassment colour her cheeks, “how did you know it involved Itachi-san?”

He released her cheeks and gestured over his shoulder with a thumb. “Tobi overheard Konan telling him off, didn’t hear why but she sounded cross.”

Sakura covered her own cheeks, warm to the touch with humiliation. She moaned “Oh no… It was just a misunderstanding! I should’ve stopped her, I don’t want to make something out of nothing.”

Tobi tapped her on the nose, causing her to go cross eyed for a second before centring her attention back on him.

“If it left you in tears then it wasn’t nothing.” He said.

Sakura felt her cheeks cool down, she slowly dropped her arms, finding nothing she could counter him with. Tobi nodded to the food on the desk. 

“Here, you sit down and eat your lunch,” he came to the side of the desk and dropped his lean frame down to sit cross-legged, back resting on the desk so he could look up at her, “and tell Tobi what happened.”

Sakura’s smile was soft as she sat down in her chair. She began to eat and explained how the surgery had gone up until the incident. Kisame lay sleeping undisturbed by their conversation.

“So he had a stroke right as you were finishing up and Itachi thought you’d done something that would kill Kisame.” Sakura nodded.

Tobi huffed and crossed his arms. “That’s dumb! If you were gonna kill him then why not when you literally had your arms inside his chest? Tobi can think of a bunch of better ways you could’ve killed him than giving him a stroke.”

“That’s the problem, Tobi. I wasn’t trying to kill him, but Itachi-san thought I was and reacted because he came to that conclusion.” Sakura held a fork with an apple slice in one hand and caressed her neck with the other.

Tobi saw this from his place on the floor. He said, “I have a question.” Sakura looked at him.

“So he grabbed you by the neck and started choking you, yeah?” she nodded, “Tobi’s confused why you didn’t break out of his hold, or push him off. Tobi’s seen how strong you are in a fight! Your strength is incredible! You definitely could’ve broken his grip or even his wrist. So why didn’t you?”

Sakura blinked, she spoke like the answer was obvious, because to her it was. “I didn’t want to seem like I had anything to hide. Fighting him would’ve been an admission of guilt, wouldn't it? I let him hold me to ease his mind, so that if he had objections to my capabilities then I wouldn’t fight him.”

Tobi remained still, his masked face locked on her. Sakura furrowed her brow, did she not make sense? The silence stretched for a moment, stopping just before it became uncomfortable.

“Tobi has another question.” His tone was slightly deeper. “Were you trying to kill him?”

“No!” Sakura nearly jumped to her feet, stopping as she realised how loud she had been before purposefully quieting her tone to not disturb the sleeping man, “I would never knowingly cause harm or ever even consider killing a patient!” 

He cocked his head, “why not?”

Sakura floundered for a second, stunned by the frivolous way he could even suggest such a thing. “Any self respecting medic worth half their weight in scalpels would never betray their ethics to bring harm to a patient -any patient!” Now she was standing, frustration pumping in her blood. 

He said bluntly, “are you a self respecting medic?”

“Of course!” She replied immediately.

“There it is!” Tobi pointed to her face with an arm outstretched.

“There ‘what’ is?” Sakura questioned, her frown evident.

“The confidence! You had it in spades back when you were healing the little rich kid. You were sure of yourself in everything you did, you were all methodical and smart and stuff. Even before from what I overheard when Konan explained to Pain what you found out about Kisame’s poisoning and everything you’d need to do. You adjusted where you needed to and stood firm where you felt it necessary. You’re the picture of a self respecting medic!” He finished by crossing his arms and nodding resolutely.

Sakura’s frown turned from one twisted by frustration into one of befuddlement.

He continued in a leading tone, “so were you trying to hurt your patient?”

“No,” Sakura replied evenly, slowly sitting back down.

“Were you trying to kill your patient?”

“No.”

“Were you doing everything in your capabilities to heal him?”

She bit her lip, “well I knew strokes were a very slim possibility so I should’ve been more vigilant-”

“Uh-uh!” He cut her off with a wag of his finger, “were you or were you not working to heal him?”

“...yes, I was.” She nodded, voice stern to match his.

“Then you were working as a great self respecting medic, yes?” His voice gathered energy.

“Yes!” His enthusiasm was becoming infectious.

“You’re competent! You’re working your hardest! And you won't stop until your patients are healthy!” He listed these points with fists pumping.

“Yes I am!” Sakura realised she was smiling.

“Then you can’t let Itachi or anyone push you around like that!” He ended with a pump of both his fists.

“Wha- but he was just concerned for his teammate?” Sakura was startled and objected.

“Sakura.” Tobi rose to his feet and carefully placed his hands on her shoulders. “He may have been concerned, but his concern almost stopped you from saving him. He brought your intentions into question and Tobi thinks that’s one of the most insulting things someone can do to a medic.”

Sakura bit her cheek, she was uncomfortable with how much she was agreeing with the man. She hated it but she had felt insulted. Tobi must have seen this because he tapped her on the nose again to get her attention.

“You’re a great medic and you shouldn’t let anyone try to convince you otherwise.” Sakura felt the back of her throat begin to sting but she refused to allow herself to cry again.

“In fact!” Tobi interrupted her thoughts by propping his hands on his hips and puffing up his chest. “Tobi’s gonna go have a chat with Itachi about it right now!”

He spun to the door. Sakura hurried to speak, “No! Tobi, you don’t have to do that!” Truthfully she was worried what a stern conversation from Tobi to a person like Itachi would look like. She fretted for her masked friend.

He spun in place again upon realising he’d forgotten something “-ah, food tray.” He muttered as he scooped up the tray but placed the bowl of apple slices and fork back on the table for her to finish. He carried the tray high with one hand as he began striding back to the door.

“Nope! Tobi has to. Itachi was mean to Tobi’s friend so he needs to be told off!” He said resolutely. Sakura felt so overwhelmed with gratitude, it was so overflowing that she only realised she had moved when Tobi had frozen still.

Sakura had rushed to thank him and in a mindless second she had wrapped her arms around his centre and pulled him into a hug, her cheek pressed against his back and her eyes squeezed tight. He was so tall that she only came half way up his chest but despite her smaller stature he froze like a tree.

Sakura’s eyes shot open upon realising what she had done. She released him like she had been burnt. “I’m sorry - I should’ve asked - it’s just-” she struggled for a moment, tongue like lead as she tried to articulate just how much his words of encouragement and comfort had helped her.

In the end she sighed, dropped her shoulders and spoke all she could to convey her genuine gratitude, “thank you Tobi.”

Her head was lowered as he slowly turned. A moment of silence passed between them and Sakura began to panic that she had been too forward, yes she saw him as a friend and he had just said aloud how the thought was mutual but still.

Her thoughts came to a halt when she felt a gentle weight perch atop her head. Her eyes widened as the gloved hand began to ruffle her hair… It was nice.

Tobi seemed to come back to himself as he said in a chipper tone, “it’s okay, just caught Tobi off guard is all.” Sakura smiled as he continued the kind gesture.

He then spoke almost too quickly for her to register “-but Tobi’s still gonna have a chat with Itachi and you better go eat up all your lunch so Konan will be happy okay bye!” He practically flew from the room and left Sakura laughing to herself.

Clearly there was nothing that could change Tobi’s mind, Sakura only hoped Itachi wouldn’t hurt him and that thought alone caused her expression to shift.

Tobi was right. Sakura couldn’t let Itachi treat her the way he had. She was a medic worthy of being recognised by this group and her skills would speak for themselves. She smirked to herself as she turned to sit back down. If Itachi had intended to scare her away with that behaviour then he had another thing coming. She would prove just how invaluable she was!

It was as Sakura was adding to her notes, she mindlessly snacked on her apple slices and found her mind wandering to Kangae. The room was quiet, absent of the chittering sounds of the raven who no doubt would have pestered her for some of her fruit. She found herself missing the lovable annoyance.

She doubted Itachi would let her see him again if she asked.

Kisame woke up not too soon after questioning what had happened. Sakura explained and went over his vitals to make sure he was safe. He eased back onto the bed, body lax and said easily “if Itachi let you live then you’re still healing me,” like Sakura’s internal struggle was so simple a thing to be brushed off.

Sakura left Kisame to rest and went back to her task at hand.

Sakura was so enraptured by her research and experimentation that she didn’t even react when two people entered the room.

Konan and Deidara entered just as Sakura had discovered the true effect of the poison.

Unfortunately this discovery left Sakura hunched over herself on the chair, elbows on her knees and hands gripping her head. Her eyes glared daggers at the ground beneath her, brows harsh and lips pinched tight.

“Sakura? What is it?” Konan broached, coming to her side.

Kisame, who had been awake for a short while, said, “she’s been like this for a couple minutes now. Think she’s found something she doesn’t like.”

Sakura took a long calming breath to compose herself and compile her knowledge. Deidara leant by the door with his arms crossed.

“The poison appears to cause extreme dehydration, but that's only a symptom and not the true diagnosis. Essentially what the poison does is it acts similarly to an autoimmune disease, by first draining the body of moisture and showing all the signs of dehydration, the true goal is to attack the immune system.” She pulled herself up to lean back in her chair and continued.

“This poison is very similar to Vasculitis which is an autoimmune disease where the body comes under attack by its own immune system, the part where this differs however is instead of the immune system attacking the body this poison is causing the chakra network to attack the immune system.”

Konan blinked twice, stunned. “I - I’ve never heard of that before. Is that possible?”

“Only here. There’s never been a case of a person's chakra network attacking them. This poison is the first of its kind.” She turned to her table, grabbed the notepad and pen so she could list off her findings.

“First the stroke was a symptom of polycythaemia - having a high concentration of red blood cells, making the blood thicker and less able to travel through blood vessels and organs- this resulted in a clot in the middle cerebral artery. Thankfully this was caught immediately and remedied so there are no lasting issues. However this left me concerned with Kisame-san’s immune system.”

She continued “as one of my clones said, Kisame-san is naturally built to remedy its own blood so this shouldn’t have been a problem in the first place. So I began analysing his blood, tissues, organs and most importantly his immune system to get to the bottom of this.”

“Through experimentation and analysis I’ve discovered that the poison’s lasting effects have turned Kisame-san’s chakra network against the body. The chakra system is convinced there is an infection inside the body that it needs to combat, inside the immune system.”

She held her hands palms facing together like claws, “think of it like the chakra network has become inverted spikes. It’s trying to help the body by searching for and eradicating this foreign body hiding in the immune system.”

Konan finished for her, “but there is no foreign body.”

Sakura nodded, “exactly. By having the chakra network attack the white blood cells and others, it’s thickening the already thick blood that the dehydration has added to with the lack of oxygen in the blood.”

Konan brought her hand to her chin to rub a finger on her lips, “That’s what caused the stroke, and it would have only been diagnosed as dehydration had you not discovered Kisame’s natural resilience to the symptoms.”

Sakura nodded. “Yes, it’s also designed to spread through skin contact thanks to the sweating which shouldn’t have been happening.”

“Lucky me,” Deidara deadpanned, clearly thrilled to have been a useful unknowing contributor in Sakura’s diagnosis.

Sakura continued, “in the past, new-born's who lacked neutrophils -a type of white blood cell that make up from forty to sixty percent of the white blood cell count- would die within a week of birth due to overwhelming infections. The goal of this poison is to convince your chakra network to eradicate your immune system thus causing you to become inflicted with multitudes of infections whilst the dehydration drains your bodily functions and all this together would kill you within a few days. Or a few days for a typical person within regards to how much of the poison you were exposed to and sat in your lungs.”

Konan spoke, “but his shark anatomy helped to naturally prolong the poison's effects to keep him alive for days.”

Sakura agreed with a nod, turning hard eyes onto Kisame’s, the weight in them a heavy stare. “I cannot overstate just how lucky you are to be alive right now.”

He held her stare unblinkingly before his brow twitched upon reaching a realisation. “What about Itachi? He wasn’t exposed to a lot of it but he’s still dying.”

Sakura leaned back in her chair, a contemplative glare pointed at the ceiling. “That’s a conversation I need to have with him. By all accounts he should have died within a week of being poisoned and although his symptoms are prevalent, something is keeping him alive and mobile.” His iron grip around her neck proved he was healthy in some regard.

Kisame, who had been sitting slumped and quiet, spoke up. “So how do you heal a chakra network?”

Sakura’s grip on her pen and notepad noticeably tightened. “That’s just it, it’s not something to be healed. It can be restricted. It can be fuelled. It can be focused. But it can’t be truly tampered with. Chakra points and chakra gates can be acted upon but they just act on the flow of chakra and don’t really affect it.”

She continued with frustration biting at her words, “I need to find a way to placate the chakra, convince it that there is no infection threatening the body so it rightens itself.”

Deidara cocked his head. “And just how’re you going to do that?”

Sakura’s hard stare snapped to the lax blonde, “I’m not going to stop working until I figure that out. Once I have, then I’ll be able to make an antidote to give Kisame-san, Itachi-san, you, and anyone else who's come into repeated contact with them.”

The silence hung heavy until Konan spoke. “I’ll bring Itachi here immediately so you can question him.”

“Thank you,” Sakura smiled.

“And I’m gonna go relay this to Sasori-danna.” Deidara threw casually over his shoulder as he pushed off from the wall.

Sakura furrowed her brow, “to - why to Sasori-san?” were those two teammates?

Deidara clicked his tongue, “yeah since his mobility’s been restricted on account of his temporary body he’s not been able to do much, meaning he’s bored, meaning he’s irritated - meaning when I’m not losing sleep babysitting the big blue infection I’m relaying daily events and happenings to my teammate.” His words became more terse as his annoyance grit his teeth together.

He waved a dismissive hand, as though forcing his body and tone into a state of nonchalance would convince himself he was unbothered. “Besides, he’s a poison master so telling him your findings is the closest thing to entertainment he gets right now.”

“He’s a poison master?” Sakura nearly shot up from her seat.

“One of the best.” Deidara stopped by the open door, “or the best if you asked him.” She could practically hear his accompanying eyeroll.

“Could I talk with him? I’d always value a second opinion especially if he’s a poison master.” She pleaded.

Deidara shrugged, “I’ll tell him but I wouldn’t hold your breath,” with that, he left.

Sakura allowed Kisame, while hooked up to a portable drip system for him to wheel around, to excuse himself from the room. Wanting some time to himself for food and leisure whilst Sakura worked.

Konan returned with Itachi following behind like a shadow. He took the seat Sakura gestured to and hardened herself.

“Hello again Itachi-san. I have some medical things I need to re-evaluate that demand your attention.” His posture was perfect, the slight tremor in his shoulders at particularly deep breaths would go unnoticed by those not paying as close attention as Sakura was. Konan remained in the room, a stoic presence standing close enough for Sakura to find comfort but by the wall to give the illusion of a private conversation.

Taking his lack of refusal in the form of silence as compliance, Sakura began by explaining the truth behind what the poison he was afflicted with was doing to him.

“So I’m going to be asking you more invasive questions. For starters, are you currently on any medication?” She held her notepad and pen ready.

Itachi sat unhelpful. “You’re here to cure my current infection, anything else is irrelevant.”

Sakura refused to let his stern tone shake her. “Any medication or cures I give you could conflict with others and cause more harm than good. I was operating on the belief that you weren’t currently diagnosed with anything since during our first check-up you said you hadn’t needed a team medic before-”

“We had no team medic and my life before and after joining this team are different. I have not seen a medic since joining.” He cut her off.

“But you have seen one before? Are you currently prescribed any medication? The fact that this team has never had a medic means I’m lacking in any prior paperwork going over anyone's medical history has left me with a blind spot spanning the moment you were born up until now. Are any of you even vaccinated?” She furrowed her brow.

“The past is of no concern-”

“The past is always of concern.” She cut him off this time and matched his red glare. “I’m working to save your life and if that means I have to start from the ground up then don’t think I’m above treating you like a patient zero to be coddled from every known danger. All I ask for is your cooperation and respect, you don’t have to agree with me, you don’t have to like me - you don’t even have to accept me as this team’s medic! But please cooperate with me so I can do my job.” She noticed her grip on her notepad was making it crack and eased up, however her expression remained tense.

Itachi cut a threatening figure but Tobi’s encouragement had Sakura sitting at full height.

Itachi took a deep breath, his shoulders tense, and said, “I have three prescribed medications.”

Sakura’s eyes widened momentarily before they darted to write the admission out. “Alright, what would they be?”

He listed off three medications and Sakura’s concern grew with each. “These are all drugs specifically for autoimmune diseases… Itachi-san have you already been diagnosed with an autoimmune disease?” Sakura could feel a cold sweat beginning.

“I could never get a solid diagnosis. Three separate healers prescribed me these pills so the symptoms are manageable.”

“Three separate healers!? Were they in communication!? Because they should not have prescribed you all three of these at once.” Sakura felt there was so much information tumbling in her brain that her pen couldn’t keep up.

“I found one prescription was inadequate for day to day life as the symptoms were too prevalent so I sought a second healer.” He certainly had a way of maintaining an even demeanour whilst every word seemed to drive Sakura closer to madness.

“And like now you thought your past medic visits were irrelevant so they prescribed you as they would a person at their first diagnosis.” Sakura nearly wheezed out a breath. “This is dangerous, Itachi-san.”

He sat silent but his attention was firmly on her so she tried her best to explain by gesturing to the drug names on her notepad.

“Prednisone is quick acting and has a broad range with attacking inflammations, it's a relative of a natural body hormone that our body delivers in the mornings which is when you take those pills to replicate what the body does naturally. However the number one concern I have with prednisone is a significantly increased infection risk. As said, this poison’s goal is to leave you vulnerable to contract every infection possible and this drug does put you in danger.” She explained.

Itachi’s face remained stern. “Then why haven’t I?”

Sakura pointed to the other drugs. “Each of these taken at once are trying to fulfil their intended purpose while simultaneously conflicting with each other.”

She continued, “Cytoxan is a more old school drug used to treat small and medium vessel vasculitis - the autoimmune disease you’ve most likely been diagnosed with. The problem with this however is that it demands a lot of fluid to flush it from the body so it doesn’t sit in your bladder and potentially give you bladder cancer. But the poison has given you severe dehydration meaning you’re not getting near the recommended amount of fluid to flush the drug out.”

Itachi’s silence following her explanation allowed her to continue.

“Lastly, Methotrexate is another medication for many different autoimmune diseases. My concerns here are the dosage changes depending on different factors, your weight being one of them and since you’ve not had consistent check ups, the dosage may need altering. Also possible side effects here involve lowering your blood count, irritating your lungs, and damaging your liver; all things the dehydration is affecting.”

Finished with her explanation, she leaned back in her chair, almost as if she hadn’t been breathing through her words.

“You should not be taking all these medications at once. But in light of discovering the goal of this poison, I can come to the only conclusion that the reason you’re alive is that your body is a cocktail of drugs and medication with such conflicting aims that all converge on fighting autoimmune diseases that it’s miraculously been able to stave off the effects of the poison.”

Itachi grasped the severity of Sakura's words as he was much more cooperative with Sakura’s further questions, granted his expression remained stoic and held himself like a man made of stone. Nevertheless she was able to get all the information she needed and when Itachi and Konan left her alone she said, “I’m going to have to cure Itachi-san, give his pre-existing condition a diagnosis and then accurately medicate him for it.”

❀

Sakura didn’t know how long she worked, hunched over her work table, hands never idle, she worked until she was interrupted. Startled from her work would be more accurate as the door was slammed open. She spun to see Deidara, leg raised evidently used to kick said door as both his arms were occupied.

His discoloured arm held a tray of food in a deathly grip, trembling with the effort, his other arm hooked around the wooden faceless puppet form that was Sasori, his stiff legs trying to walk but not fast enough for the blonde who seemed determined to drag his teammate instead.

“I’m not completely inept,” Sasori’s voice echoed from the hollow inside of his wooden body.

“Sure feels like it,” Deidara grumbled as he unceremoniously deposited the puppet to slump on a vacant stool by the wall near Sakura’s desk.

“If you’d listened earlier and helped me clean my leg joints instead of wasting your time on that garbage you call art-”

“Wasting my time!?” Deidara spat, “those hours were spent finalising my spider design! You’re stuck like this so it’s not like you’re going anywhere but inspiration is fleeting! I’d be an idiot to not let it take a hold of me for as long as it could-” 

“You’re an idiot regardless.”

Seeing Deidara ramp up to yell again, Sakura intervened. “Is that my dinner, Deidara? Thank you.” She smiled and stood from her chair, stretching her arms and back out she felt the satisfying ease of tension.

Said blonde redirected his attention to Sakura and placed the tray on her desk. “Konan sends her kind regards so I’ll tell her you said thanks.” Dinner was a simple rice, fish, miso, and vegetable dinner, but the heavenly smell carried in the steam reminded Sakura’s vacant stomach that she hadn’t eaten in hours.

She sat at her desk and looked to Sasori, he’d adjusted his posture so he was less slumped over and instead rested back against the wall, his vacant head twisted ever so slightly in Sakura’s direction. She felt unnerved at the odd presence for a moment before her manners took over.

“Thank you for coming, Sasori-san. Deidara said that you’re a poison master, the best as a matter of fact! So I can’t begin to tell you how much I’d value a second opinion here-”

His scoff echoed in his body, “‘the best’? Yes I did call myself that. Any undefeated poison master who perfected their craft would.”

Sakura held her chopsticks hesitantly, as if eating would halt the conversation that clearly needed to continue. “‘Did’? …Did something happen?”

“The only thing that would happen to break a poison master's perfect record. I was cured.” Despite not having a mouth to speak with, his words sounded like they were spoken through gritted teeth. “A poison I’d spent the better half of a year crafting, perfecting, one I would have come close to calling my current magnum opus. Cured in a day.”

Sakura felt sweat prickle the back of her neck, she fidgeted nervously under what she assumed was his stare. Deidara seemed uninterested in the conversation as he rolled his eyes and sat himself on another stool and pulled a sketchbook strapped on his back and entertained himself.

Her desperate wide eyed stare at the blonde went completely unnoticed so she was left to fend for herself in this tense conversation. “...I’m sorry?” she offered, at a loss for what to say.

“Keep your empty commiserations, they don’t interest me.”

Sakura shrugged, frowning, “that’s kind of all I’ve got. No poison master stays uncured forever. I’m sorry your ‘magnum opus’ was cured in a day but shouldn’t that inspire you to rise up to the challenge?”

His head tilted slightly with an accompanying creak, “who’s to say it’s a challenge?” 

“Don’t you? Finding a poison master capable of curing your poison should encourage you to get even better until you’re able to craft a poison they can’t counter.” She hoped she sounded encouraging and not condescending.

“Therein lies the most insulting factor in all of this - I don’t know if they’re even a poison master.” He spoke like dragging gravel. “I’ve met them once when they revealed that they had cured my poison and reduced me to this.”

Sakura fiddled with the chopsticks in her hand, not knowing what to say.

“Who’s to say it's a challenge when my adversary either bested me by being so incredibly skilled that they could cure my poison in a day, or even worse, by a fluke.” The emphasis on the last work made it clear which of the two scenarios he was more irritated by, and once again Sakura was at a loss.

She was saved however by the door opening, her saviour being Kisame who noticed the tension hanging thick in the air and smirked. “What’ve I just walked into?”

Deidara snorted and laughed under his breath before saying, “just Sasori-danna being moody and making it everyone's problem.”

“Shut up Deidara.” Sasori spat and Deidara giggled like he was in on a joke, one Sakura was not aware of.

“Good to know this poison talk is going well then,” Kisame said as he wheeled his drip to the patient bed and dropped his weight on, clearly tired.

“We haven’t gotten to that yet,” Sakura said as she finally allowed herself a mouthful of steamed rice.

“Then let us stop wasting time, explain to me your findings.” Sakura felt her lips pinch in irritation. ‘Weren’t you the one insisting on this topic you’re clearly annoyed by?’ She managed to keep her thoughts to herself and finished her mouthful. She could multitask, explain her analysis and diagnosis while eating her dinner.

Little did Sakura know that her primary emotion when dealing with Sasori would undoubtedly, undeniably, absolutely… be irritation.

After explaining her theories, analysis, examinations, and final diagnosis; Sasori chuckled.

The deep tone from the hollow body settled deep in Sakura’s gut, stirring uncomfortably, distaste rising in her throat making her expression twist to reflect how she was not enjoying being laughed at, especially regarding her medical practices.

“Incredible… For someone who put so much effort into figuring out the solution you neglected a core factor of the problem.” His tone was even, yet mocking.

Sakura felt her hackles raise, “what’s that supposed to mean? I’ve neglected nothing. I’ve gone over every detail about this poison from how it's built to how it functions to its ultimate goal. What could I possibly be missing?” A part of her didn't want to ask, like that would be admitting defeat, but information was information. Even if it did come from a condescending puppet man whose body shift and tone indicated he was delighted to talk down to her.

He shifted, joints creaking as he did so, until he raised up both the curved stumps of his hands.

“There are two factors always at play when a poison master creates their poison; cruelty and efficiency.”

Sakura crossed her arms, “not necessarily, there are painless poisons, some so unnoticeable they could be considered even merciful.”

Even without a face, Sakura felt a deadpan expression weigh against her.

“When every poison master is contracted by war profiteers, the cruller the poison the more attention the maker gets. The more attention, the more funding, the more other poison masters compete between themselves to be even cruller. When governments thrive off war and every generation seems obsessed with having them, they will always fund the cruel and efficient. In these constant circumstances there is no such thing as a merciful poison.”

Sakura bit her cheek, unfortunately he was right but Sakura hated the thought of admitting that aloud.

Sasori continued like he’d just been interrupted by a child. “As I was saying, those two factors should always be taken into account when creating poison. This poison may be incredibly cruel; forcing the body into a state of dehydration so it becomes more susceptible of its true goal to turn the chakra network into eradicating the immune system to the victim suffering every imaginable infection while its internal organs come to fail one at a time. Something I have never seen before, but it is not efficient.”

“How so? Curing a chakra network isn’t something that can really be done. This poison is one of its kind and in the body of a typical person, one lacking in shark anatomy or in a constant state of medicated being the likes of which Itachi-san is would die within the first few days of becoming poisoned.” Sakura said.

“That is unacceptable.” His tone was harsh. “A poison used in combat that requires possibly days before the victim dies? Unacceptable. No matter how incredible and cruel the poison, no poison master would use it in combat if it wouldn’t give them the immediate edge.”

Sakura leaned back in her chair and nodded along.

He continued explaining his other issues. “Furthermore, the consistency of the poison is another problem.”

Sakura looked over her shoulder at the various glass slates, each resting portions of the poison she had kept. “I agree, it's much thicker than any poison I’ve seen, so thick I was able to scoop it from the lungs and solid enough to hold its shape before flattening. It also doesn’t mix fast with many fluids, it retains its shape for almost an hour before beginning to seep into tissue.”

Sasori shook his head, not denying her word but rather the quality of the poison. “The best poisons are the ones no one knows about. A poison this thick and takes this long to kill would never be used in combat especially when the user never confirmed the kill. Allowing a victim to escape gives them time to find poison masters or medics like you or I to analyse the poison and create antidotes.”

Sakura found herself agreeing more and more.

Sasori spoke. “If a poison master is capable of creating such a cruel and humiliating poison, killing an opponent by using their chakra network against them and reducing them down to having the immunity of a weak infant, they should be smart enough to know that a poison this thick and this slow should never be used in a fight.”

Sakura brought her finger to her lips in a contemplative gesture. “Why would such a smart poison master make such a crucial mistake?”

“There is only one reason-” Sasori said.

Sakura finished his thought, “they aren’t a poison master - then this isn’t a poison-”

“-it’s a venom.” Sasori concluded for her.

It matched up. A venom that cripples the victim to the point where they’re incapacitated by the dehydration then die ultimately by infections and their body failing? The venomous predator need only follow them and they would have their meal. Or a defensive venom that would successfully frighten away any predator.

Even the way the venom held itself before melting into tissue was more likely something to occur naturally than be created and used by any smart poison master. Sakura snapped her attention to Kisame who lay drowsy on the bed, eyes half lidded as it was admittedly getting late.

“Kisame-san, did your opponent’s summons do this to you?”

He shrugged sluggishly, “yeah you could say that, this big ugly octopus thing when the fight was getting dicey and we were looking close to winning. Managed to get away by leaving a couple of water clones.”

Sakura wanted to tear her hair out.

She settled for gritting her teeth and clenching her fists until she felt the bite of her nails stab her palms. “Kisame-san, I say this with the utmost respect as your healer who is trying her hardest to save your life. Please tell me these things!”

Kisame blinked at her, taking in her furious disposition with the same seriousness one would look upon a hissing kitten. He chuckled a little before grinning, “sorry squirt, didn’t think it was that important at the time.”

“Every detail is crucial. I’m trying to keep you alive so please help me do that.”

“Yeah I can see that now.” The desperation and fury in her eyes was a sight he must have liked as he eased back, shoulders loosening on the bed.

Sakura sighed, tension bleeding out of her as her outburst receded.

She turned back to Sasori and asked, “what difference does this make with how we cure it?”

He shook his head, creaking with the slow movement. “Nothing at all. It was just important to me to know that you missed something.”

Sakura’s face froze in a mixture of shock and offence. Deidara barked out a laugh, clearly finding the situation hilarious.

Sakura thought to herself bitterly that this team would be the death of her.

Despite being atrocious company, Sasori at least was as great a poison master as Deidara claimed. Time passed as the two discussed various theories on how to cure the venom.

Kisame fell asleep and Deidara occupied himself now with a scope on his eye and clay in his palm as he focused on his project.

Each theory the two tested, each adjustment made, each solution conceptualised; all proved failures. Sakura combined a portion of the venom with a piece of chakra paper made to temporarily hold chakra as the testing pads.

She used them to experiment with the various solutions they attempted. Granted that meant they would talk of potential solutions then he would remain on his stool while Sakura did the work but it’s not like he was capable of contributing more than that.

Hours must have passed as the next test failed, leaving the paper to crumple as the venom affecting the chakra held caused it to become volatile and implode on itself. Ending up a scrunched ball, displaying failure attempt thirty six.

Sakura’s sigh was aggressive as she dropped her head unto her hands, elbows resting on the examination desk and her back slouched.

“Another failure.” Sasori deadpanned.

“Yes. Saying that out loud really helps.” She snapped, remaining in her position.

“I’m aware.” He replied, unaffected by her tone.

Sakura gripped her bangs in fists, the pinch along her scalp easing her tension. She took a deep breath to gather her raging thoughts so she could articulate her troubles best.

“The chakra network can’t be tampered with so there’s nothing I can do directly. The only way to get the chakra’s attention away from attacking the immune system is to redirect its attention to something else, meaning the cure has to be something the chakra sees as a foreign body.” Her grip on her hair tightened

“And I can’t use existing poison antidote blueprints because they all have a foundation that is fundamentally introducing an infection to combat the poison. Whereas this venom has made introducing any kind of infection fatal for the host.” 

She finished through clenched teeth. “Not to mention the fact that this is a naturally created venom means there’s no poison master’s lead to follow. There’s no mind for me to try and get inside of and follow their thought process to reverse engineer an antidote. I’m basically blind and alone here.”

“That reminds me, be sure to save a good amount of this venom. I’d like to study it to see if it’s possible to create.” Sasori said, uncaring of Sakura's plight.

“How about I focus on curing it first. Kisame-san and Itachi-san are literally dying and you’re thinking of reverse engineering this venom  for your own poisons.” She frowned, releasing her hair and glaring at the sitting puppet over her shoulder.

“For now they serve the purpose of displaying the symptoms and behaviours of a victim of this venom. Until things change they are still useful in that regard.” Sasori’s head twisted to view Kisame asleep and slowly doing chin-ups in Sakura’s doorway.

“Useful as human lab rats you mean, and until things change for the better or worse?” Sakura turned completely in her chair to direct her full attention to her patient whilst still glaring at Sasori.

Said puppet cocked his head, voice completely uncaring, “whichever is quicker.”

‘Either this venom kills them or I cure them.’ Sakura translated. She crossed her arms, ‘is he seriously so angry at being bested once by this person that he’s taking it out on me?’

She didn’t know what was more immature, Sasori for being such a bitter loser or her for wanting to prove herself just as good as his previous opponent.

But that didn’t change the fact that she’d hit a wall. She let her mind stir over her thoughts whilst she stared blankly at Kisame who had finished his reps and moved onto standing completely still. His vacant eyes looked out at nothing.

Sasori matched her silence, both of their minds furiously going over their information to come to an answer.

Deidara periodically looked up to check on Kisame but happily sat now on the floor, back to the wall, sketchbook to his side and surrounded by clay. One in the shape of a spider the size of a hand, a piece of paper with a pile of clay spiders the size of a finger, another smaller pile with spiders the size of a finger nails, and a handful of bowls circling him.

How could she make a base for a cure when any foreign body would do more damage considering the weakened immune system fighting for its life?

Kisame eventually began moving, now he seemed on a mission as he approached Deidara, scooped up the artist's eye scope he had momentarily taken off so he could wipe his eye, and opened his mouth.

Deidara leapt into action, springing from the floor to leap on the much larger man to wrestle for his scope back.

The only real cure was to give the chakra network something to attack other than the immune system, a placebo to placate the chakra and make it believe it saved the body. But how?

“Hand it over - Hand it over!” Deidara squawked as Kisame easily kept him from reaching the item.

“You already had yours.” Kisame argued, clearly trying to eat the scope whilst Deidara squirmed and scrambled in his hold to stop him.

If it was too dangerous to use the usual blueprints of an antidote then she’d have to create a more unconventional one. But what would an unconventional cure to this be built of? She’d need something that wouldn’t be absorbed into the body through the blood as the immune system isn’t in any state to fight anything off…

“I swear to god if you eat my scope I’m gonna replace your toothpaste with my spider bombs and blow your fucking head off!” Deidara managed to climb up the man’s back, just out of reach long enough to grab the scope and yank it from Kisame’s grip.

…Sakura’s eyes drifted from the duo down to Deidara’s clay creation piles. 

Her eyes slowly began to widen.

“You don’t have to be such a bitch just cause you’re shorter than me.” Kisame grinned before laughing heartily, either at his own comment or the reaction he thought he was getting. Deidara seemed ready to pounce again but was stopped by Sakura snatching his attention with her voice.

“Deidara! Could I ask you a few questions?” He turned his head to her and raised a brow at her wide eyes.

Nevertheless he shrugged, “what?”

“What are your clay bombs made of?” He seemed reluctant to let go of his anger which conflicted with the clear happiness at being asked to explain his art.

Sasori cut in, “no,” and Sakura held up a hand to silence him with a “shh.” She needed answers.

Deidara preened. “It’s my own creation. I’m super picky about my material so I make it all from scratch. The clay itself isn't actually a bomb, y’see I have explosion release chakra nature so when I embed my explosive chakra in the clay during the moulding process, it turns into a bomb. Then I’m able to activate them when I please.”

“Absolutely not.” Sasori’s voice was louder but Sakura again silenced him with a “quiet.”

She asked, “So your clay acts as basically a vessel for your chakra, you imbue it with explosion release to turn it into a bomb. Does any of the clay survive the explosion?”

“Nope! My mixture completely evaporates once the chakra is activated.” He grinned, attaching his scope back to his eye.

Sasori’s voice carried an air of disgust. “You can’t be serious.” Sakura cut him off with a “Shut up!” and continued, a smile starting to stretch on her face.

“When the chakra activates. Does that mean it doesn’t necessarily need to be explosive chakra? It could in theory be any chakra type that once activated triggers the clay into evaporating?” Sakura felt her chest buzzing.

Deidara looked from the medic to the poison master in mild confusion but nodded. “In theory, yeah.”

Sakura tried not to bite her lip in elation. “Last question, just how small are you capable of making these spiders?”

Sasori’s voice settled deep between resigned disgust and hopeless bafflement, “I can’t believe you’re actually entertaining this theory.”

“Can you object to it!?” Sakura spun to the poison master with a grin splitting her face and body wound up as tight as a spring.

“On a moral level as an artist that’s all I can do.” Sasori grumbled.

“But as a poison master can you object that this couldn’t work?” Her clenched fists shook, she wanted to test this theory right away.

Deidara cocked his head and put his hands on his hips. “What’re you two talking about?”

“A very unorthodox antidote!” Sakura spun around to the examination table to prepare more testing paper. “How small are you capable of making your spiders?” She asked again.

“Well my smallest used to be able to blend in with grains of sand but those were tiny clumps that formed spiders the size of my palm. Now I’ve got spiders as small as my fingernail - but the smaller I go the less detailed they become sadly. But for the smallest!” he scooped up a bowl, took off his scope and handed it to Sakura. “Have a look and try not to be amazed.”

Sakura hooked the scope over her ear and adjusted the lens. She looked into the bowl as the fuzziness blurred until it came into focus. Slowly she came to see a cluster of pale little spiders. Like Deidara said, it wasn’t as intricate or patterned as the main model that had crawled up to perch on Deidara’s shoulder. But the size was close to perfect.

“If you were to forgo the details, could you go any smaller?” She asked, fingers still on the lens.

“I’d usually never forgo the details as a matter of artistic principle, but it sounds more like you’re commissioning me over challenging me.” He smirked.

“I am. With an adjustment. You see these would easily be noticed by the chakra network as foreign bodies while presenting zero risk to the immune system and we imbue it with my health chakra so that when attacked by the bodies chakra the clay vanishes and my healing chakra acts as a balm to soothe the body!” She finished with a clap of her hands.

“It would even work on Itachi with zero risks as it has no effect regarding his various medications and pre-existing medical condition, effectively sidestepping any possible problems by being so unorthodox.” Sasori’s voice was even and annoyed, Sakura suspected because he had nothing to argue against this theory.

“Exactly!” Sakura beamed. “We just need to test it!”

She got to work. Deidara checked Kisame over his shoulder periodically but the sleeping man seemed to entertain himself by working out more, then he was hunched over the examination table with Sakura hard at work. Scope over his eye and breaking off tiny portions of clay to feed to his good hand’s mouth.

An hour later they had a success.

A droplet of venom on the chakra paper to cause the paper to react, a single spider almost as big as a grain of sand dropped in the centre.

The paper crinkled for a second.

Sakura held her breath.

The paper flattened itself out.

“Yes!” Sakura cheered. She and Deidara shared a high five. Sasori watched for that entire hour and success in complete silence. “It works!” Excitement buzzed throughout Sakura’s soul.

She had successfully made a cure.

She settled herself down after allowing herself the elation of success. “Okay, I want to test this a couple more times to make absolutely sure it works before I deem it safe to administer to Kisame-san.”

“Why not test it on me?” Deidara offered with a grin. “Since I’ve got a mild case compared to them it’d be safer.”

“Are you sure? I know Sasori-san is much more comfortable using people as lab rats but I’d like to exercise caution.” Sakura asked.

Deidara shrugged, “if it works then I’m cured, and if it doesn't then what better way to go than by my own creations in my very blood. The true death of an artist.”

Sasori scoffed. Sakura found it interesting he took more offence to an artistic choice than Sakura's comment about his ease when dealing with human lab rats.

She tested on papers a few more times before feeling comfortable administering a dose to Deidara.

The process of creation was admittedly pretty simple on Sakura’s part. She was handed a small clump of clay, she pressed it between her clasped hands and began focusing her healing chakra into it. Making precise care to seep into the very microscopic stitching of the clay so as to really fuse her chakra with it. 

She then would break off a tiny ball of the clay and deposit it into Deidara’s hand’s open mouth. It was a fascinating sight.

Deidara would sit with his eyes closed and focus for nearly an hour. He compared the difficulty with a smile, “y’know tying a cherry stem with your tongue? Like that but harder and doing it over a hundred times.”

He’d nod when he was finished and Sakura would hand him a vial. His hand’s lips would wrap around it and filling the vile would look almost like a white fluid. But it was a magnitude of clay spiders.

Sakura would combine the spiders with a syringe of the same solution that was in a basic drip system so it wouldn’t affect the blood.

Deidara happily presented his good arm's inner elbow and Sakura administered the antidote.

The spiders holding her healing chakra was an odd feeling. Like hearing a muffled sound from a room three doors away. She was faintly aware of its presence but so far from her it was easy to miss.

She could barely feel it circulating Deidara’s body but she held onto his forearm while pulsing healing chakra only to detect what was happening.

Not even a minute later she felt it. Deidara’s chakra network had detected the spiders and attacked.

The spiders upon contact evaporated, the healing chakra soothing what was left behind and the body’s chakra network accepted the result as an accomplishment. The foreign body was eradicated. The body was safe. The immune system would be left to rebuild itself.

Deidara was cured.

She met his eyes and his smile grew to match hers. “We did it!” Sakura cheered again, at the threat of herself once again pulling someone into a hug, she shared another high five. He seemed thrilled nevertheless as he was just as enthusiastic.

“Good job medic!” He turned to point his smirk at the still silent puppet man. “Hey Sasori-danna, how’s it feel knowing not only was I more helpful with this poison problem than you but that my art was the solution”

“Like the world has shifted an axis and all the people of the world can only pray it was a fluke never to happen again.” Sakura didn’t feel the need to gloat as the poison master in the room had obviously resigned himself to this outcome.

“Heh, as bitter as ever.” Deidara shook his head.

Kisame, who had been standing facing the wall for the past twenty minutes, suddenly cheered. “I’m ready! Let’s go!”

Deidara pulled himself to his feet, “yeah yeah, all in due time big guy.” He stretched long until he was satisfied. “It’s also really late so we should go, you good to tuck him in?”

Sakura nodded, “yeah I’ve got him. Thank you so much for your help tonight. Both of you.” As irritating as Sasori could be, she wasn’t above still being grateful for his insight.

He remained silent, though his head was still facing her. She wondered what he was thinking before Deidara helped him to his feet. Deidara agreed he would be back in the morning to help make another batch of antidotes once Sakura explained to Konan her cure.

She raised a hand to her bun and her fingers brushed along the paper rose that sat safely tucked there. She found herself smiling, cheeks warm and spirit high as she plucked the flower and held it cupped in her palm.

A symbol of Konan’s offering of friendship not once but twice.

She hoped tomorrow would help to prove just how worthy she was of such a gift.

❀

Konan had met with Sasori earlier that morning before she had Sakura. Sasori was many things, egotistical, impatient, one who held grudges tighter than some nations, but he was at the very least a man who knew when he was bested.

“She is indeed a medical genius. Capable of not only following medical practices to a tee but adjusting, re-creating and thinking so truly outside the box that she must have had mentors vying for her apprenticeship. That slug woman certainly lucked out.” His words held praises but his voice rang with contempt.

“And her antidote works? I want your guarantee on this.” Konan’s eyes were sharp. She knew Sasori was not above letting people suffer if he considered it his own learning opportunity.

“As much as I want to deny it, it does. I can find no fault in the antidote, in fact it exists as such its own entity that it conflicts with absolutely nothing else in the body. Kisame and Itachi shall live. I also suspect the rest of you in contact with Kisame will be given the antidote just to ease her worries.” He sat imobile atop his bed. A minimalistic room for a man who considered himself the perfect feature to display.

His desk was organised, his shelves matching it with art displayed and sketchbooks in an order personal to him. The only outlier in the room was a wooden toolbox half knocked over on the desk. A lapse in control he must have displayed upon his frustration as his current unfortunate circumstances.

He sighed, “she truly cares about her patients.” Konan didn’t need to be told that. It was her mission that Sakura keep caring about them, her most of all. She herself had no feelings on the matter. A mission to be done.

Their conversation concluded with no ceremony, a simple dismissal and she left the quiet man to his thoughts, no doubt mulling over his time with the medic who had bested him without even knowing it.

Entering Sakura’s room seemed to always carry with it an initial shock. That being just how delighted Sakura always was to see her.

The girl’s face lit up, elation coloured her in vibrant shades and a smile that unfurled like a flower to the sun. All just from seeing Konan for the first time that day.

Konan knew the reason why, knew the girl was a victim to the belief that she was her best friend. That they shared a childhood, a growing adolescence bringing unique experiences, shared secrets, innocuous milestones important only to the two friends, a life together. 

Konan knew the fundamental foundation for that smile was built on a lie.

Yet the initial shock each morning, fluttered an unimportant yet dangerous thought to the forefront of her mind; when was the last time someone was that happy just to see Konan?

Just as quickly she would silence that thought. It was a frivolous thought she didn’t need answered. 

Sakura wasted no time relaying her good news. Konan feigned surprise, already knowing the ins and outs of the antidote thanks to Sasori so her act was easier to maintain.

“I’ll relay all this to Pain. Don’t worry, I’ll vouch for you. If you say this antidote will work then I believe you.” She smiled and Sakura flushed with clear delight. “I’ll leave you to eat for now.”

“Oh! Uhm wait.” Konan stopped and looked back with an encouraging smile and a nod.

“What is it? Did you need something?”

Sakura bit her lip, seemingly in conflict with herself before speaking. “I know you’re busy and I really don’t want to be a burden… But… Do you think we could eat dinner together?”

Konan allowed her eyes to soften, “I can clear out that time for you, we have to celebrate your success after all.”

Sakura brightened further if possible, Konan wondered if the girl ever burned herself out with how intensely she seemed to care.

Konan reported to Pain accompanied by Tobi and Itachi. Pain allowed for Sakura’s antidote to be administered after a tense discussion. Itachi barely spoke. Konan hadn’t been happy with how hostile he’d treated Sakura and she was frustrated to know her discussion with him had not held the same weight as the one Tobi had with him.

She and Pain were unaware of how much Itachi knew of Tobi so nothing was said regarding their shadow leader.

Come lunch and Sakura’s room was full. Kisame sat weakly atop his bed, Itachi stubbornly sitting rigid on a chair, and Sakura with Deidara both working furiously at her examination desk. Konan loitered by the wall as an observer as Sakura began administering her antidote to Kisame.

Despite it being quite literally a miracle cure, it was not very theatrical to see work. She pulled the syringe from Kisame and held a glowing hand to his forearm. Konan watched as a minute passed and Sakura smiled.

Kisame blinked a few times as time passed, clenching and unclenching his hands, colour slowly coming back to his body.

“Your body is naturally going to right itself but I’m not letting you jump straight back into your usual diet. You’re still recovering from the dehydration so I’m going to prescribe you a few drinks to help the process. But thanks to your shark anatomy I suspect you’ll be back to yourself within two days.” She explained.

“Two days? Damn, you are a good medic.” Kisame grinned and Sakura flourished under the praise, her eyes fluttering to Konan at times.

Nearly an hour later she was administering the antidote to Itachi who underwent a similar process of slowly seeming to gain more control of his body and more colour to his form. Though Sakura had more to say to him.

“Likewise I’m prescribing you a few drinks to heal the dehydration though I suspect it’ll be possibly four to five days depending on how fast your body adjusts. Once you’re well enough to agree then I’d like to begin working on a proper diagnosis for your pre-existing autoimmune disease so I can get to work fixing your medication.”

Itachi’s breathing was noticeably becoming less laboured, “I will agree to your tests.”

Sakura looked visibly relieved at his compliance.

Itachi and Kisame were cleared to go once Sakura was happy with their vitals and assessed them as in good enough health to return to their rooms. Even removing the drip systems entrusting them to stick to the drinks she’d written down how to make and how often to take them.

Konan left for a few hours so she wouldn’t fall behind on her paperwork, but Sakura was entertained by Tobi so she wasn’t concerned with the girl being left to her own devices.

As promised, she returned to Sakura’s room with dinner in her hands. She had been able to discourage the girl from asking too personal questions earlier but she knew it wouldn’t deter her entirely.

Any rational person would still have a demand for personal information they were clearly lacking. Fortunately Konan took her missions seriously and had prepared a series of ammunition in the form of answers for the girl.

“This is so nice, it feels like we hardly get to spend any time together.” Sakura smiled, taking a deep breath of the simple dinner presented. The two trays atop the desk as each girl sat either side.

“I feel like that’s my fault, first for dumping my teammates on you and then being so busy with work.” Konan feigned guilt and Sakura reacted as predicted.

“No please don't apologise for that! Your work is important and your teammates needed urgent help, I’m just relieved two of them are taken care of. Or at least one, I still have Itachi’s other illness to look at.” She said, eyes looking off as if already creating plans for how to begin to approach Itachi’s problem.

“You really struggle to turn the medic thing off, don't you?” Konan teased and Sakura giggled, embarrassed.

“That actually reminds me of something I wanted to talk about,” Konan braced herself all but physically at the girl's words. “I don’t like the amount of missteps I’m making, the assumptions and such, it’s like I’m used to working with prior information readily available…”

Sakura’s brow furrowed and she came to a conclusion, “...I’m operating like I work in a hospital.” Because she did, at thirteen she was interning and apprenticing under one of the best medics in the world and by fourteen she had her own patient at Konoha’s general hospital. It was fortunate for Konan that their research had been so thorough that she was well equipped for this conversation.

“You somewhat did,” Sakura’s eyes lit up, god, the girl truly was desperate for any information about herself but so reluctant to ask lest she upset Konan. The woman continued, “our village didn’t have a very big hospital but we were lucky enough to get a doctor from Petrichor Centre who decided to take you on as an apprentice. They were strong and kind, you were a perfect apprentice. My only regret is that I left for my mission when you’d truly started to grow as a medic…”

Konan let her words trail off, her shoulders slump and her eyes grow melancholic.

It had the desired effect as Sakura dropped the topic in favour of comforting her friend, she reached across to rub her hand on Konan's. Her smile was small but Sakura accepted it readily.

Konan assumed guilting her by showing her own emotional distress would be enough but after a quiet moment of the two eating their dinner, she spoke up hesitantly. “Let’s… Let’s talk about something else.”

Whatever she wanted to know, Konan was prepared for.

“I feel bad that I don’t remember things about you, Konan-chan.” Not what she was expecting, surely the girl would have more questions about herself but nevertheless Konan could provide her own modified history to placate and pacify the girl.

“Like what’s your favourite hobby?” Sakura smiled.

Konan blinked, uncharacteristically taken aback. Her face was a blank mask if not for her eyes slightly widened.

Sakura shrugged, “I feel like I enjoyed studying but that's probably classified as more a work thing like how training would be too. But in a similar way I think I enjoyed reading as a hobby too?”

She filled in the silence completely unaware of Konan’s internal floundering.

What were her hobbies?

Writing? No, she just wrote a lot of papers, reports and letters for work. She didn’t necessarily enjoy it more than it was something she needed to do.

Cooking? No again, she was just one of the few people in the base that could cook and many were self-sufficient. She just needed to for herself and Nagato.

What were her hobbies?

Did she even have any?

Konan had been quiet for too long. Sakura was no longer filling the silence with her musings of her own possible interests that Konan had spent too long realising she had none. 

She couldn’t say that she had no interest because that would be incredibly suspicious. She was supposed to be a normal shinobi who had a normal childhood alongside her best friend, she needed to have a hobby or something to herself that wasn’t just her work and the organisation.

Time was slipping and she was going to look suspicious for taking too long to answer. In her desperation to seem normal, she had a horrific lapse in judgement, one she hadn’t expected to let slip. She was honest.

“Konan-cha-”

“Flower pressing!” Sakura blinked. Konan realised she had reacted too suddenly after too long a silence that she rearranged herself. She’d slipped and had been honest.

“I didn’t know you liked flower pressing - or I probably did and I just forgot.” Sakura laughed to herself a little before smiling encouragingly.

Konan spoke, “in our village you know it wasn’t too common to see flowers. But sometimes we’d travel with our group and we’d see flowers…” Konan’s slip was sending her down the footsteps of a memory.

Against better judgement she would scold herself for if she was in her right mind, she continued. “I remember seeing flowers in the wild and being so overwhelmed that I wanted to take them with me. That even if we couldn’t grow any at home, that I could have some with me.”

She remembered two little boys offering her what they had thought were lucky finds but were actually weeds she’d been too thrilled to receive to say anything other than it was the best birthday yet.

“So I’d press every new flower I’d find. That way the experience of being somewhere new and the joy of owning something I could never get back at home could stay with me forever.” She was losing herself. She was being too honest. She didn’t have those flowers anymore

She was pulled to the surface, freed from the alluring grip of those memories by Sakura once again touching her hand. The comforting touch matched by the smile she was offered.

“That’s a wonderful hobby, Konan-chan.” Her smile warmed something deep in Konan’s heart that resembled those two little boys. “And if I get to go on any more missions then I’ll be sure to bring you back some flowers.”

Konan swallowed and finally brought herself back under control. “I appreciate the thought, Sakura.”

Sakura kept on that topic for the rest of their short dinner, talking about their favourite flowers, what was native to where, and where the two would have to visit at some point in the future Konan knew would never come.

Konan took the trays of empty bowls and plates, she stacked and held them. “I’m happy we got to spend some time together, I’m sorry if I get too busy in the coming days.” She needed to go over her conversation plans again so as to never be that caught off guard again.

“I completely understand, it’s not like I won't be kept busy here either.” Sakura scratched the back of her neck.

“If that’s all, please try to get some sleep tonight. You really deserve it for what you’ve done for Kisame and Itachi.” Konan said.

Sakura nodded and Konan turned to leave.

“Oh - wait! One more thing,” Sakura sputtered, feet pattering over to stop behind the other girl.

Konan turned and felt her throat catch upon the sight offered. In Sakura’s open palms, offered earnestly with nothing but pure intentions was a paper rose. Crudely folded by inexperienced fingers, slight creases visible on the petals and clearly not made with skill but with love.

“It’s just that… You’ve offered me your friendship twice and I feel like I haven’t properly returned the favour. So I wanted to offer it now.” Her heartfelt smile gave Konan pause.

“...Thank you.” Konan’s voice was too soft. Too affected. She was not supposed to be affected.

Sakura looked at Konan's occupied hands and fumbled for a second before reaching a solution. “Here, I’ll put this here for now.” She reached up and tucked the paper flower behind Konan’s eye. She wanted to trace the petals.

“Good night, Konan-chan.” Sakura clasped her hands behind her back and smiled. It was so sincere. She was so sincere. Konan had to be alone.

“Good night, Sakura.” Konan would deny that she all but fled the room as her mission was to lie, but as evidenced prior, lying was something she needed to work harder on.

She threw the trays on the counter, someone else could clean them - did she even like cleaning? Konan shut her room door behind her.

With more care than she intended, she plucked the flower and held it between her fingers. She constructed beautiful origami creations with the ease of breathing so it was clear as day the misfolds and missteps that went into creating such a flower. Yet… Why didn’t she want to?

Konan’s expression hardened. What was she doing? Mulling over useless thoughts such as these. This flower was the offering of a naive girl clueless to her true situation, and had she been aware this surely wouldn’t have been offered so freely.

She disliked mulling over what amounted to such unimportant thoughts. None of this truly mattered in the grand scheme of things. She was fulfilling a mission.

Sure she had hobbies when she was young but what use were they now? Unproductivity was unacceptable where she was now. What use would pondering over her old hobby of flower pressing bring her?

What point would it serve her now? So she had realised she hadn’t kept a few interests but rather held none, what did that change? She was an essential Akatsuki member.

She didn’t like or dislike things unimportant to her cause.

She preferred it this way.

She had always preferred it this way.

She always would prefer things this way.

She would deny how she placed the gift offered with friendship with care atop her bedside, as details like that were unimportant.

She held no feelings on matters like this and she would keep herself productive so as to not burden herself with unnecessary thoughts. An occupied mind was useful to the Akatsuki.

Konan was comfortable with having no free time to herself. She was.