Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

Lacey Duval – Haruno Sakura

Monet – Ino

Katie – Temari

Sheila – Aiko

Amanda – Hinata

Jeff – Naruto

Todd – Sasuke

Chelsea - Lia

Chapter I

Haruno Sakura sat on her bed hating the filled insulin syringe she held in her hand. Another morning and she needed her shot. The needle made her feel like a prisoner, even though her doctor always said it made her life easier. She'd been a diabetic since she'd turned eleven, so she'd spent five years giving herself twice-a-day shots and of living in fear of untimely insulin reactions. She hated the whole business.

"Sakura!" her mother called from the kitchen. "The phone's for you. It's your friend from Michigan. Don't be too long, or you'll be late for school. I'm leaving for work now. I'll see you after six."

Sakura grabbed the extension on her desk. "Hi," said her friend Temari in Ann Arbor. "I know it's early to call, but I wanted you to know we're bringing Lia home from the hospital today."

"That's great. How's she doing?"

"So far no problems with organ rejection. Her new heart's working fine."

Sakura was relieved. She'd spent weeks worrying about Lia, afraid that her friend's heart transplant would reject and she would die. She shuddered over thoughts about sickness and death. "How's she dealing with Jilly's death?"

"That part's been rougher," Temari confessed. "She was in the pits for weeks and almost lost her will to live. You know that Jilly left Lia a videotape and Lia played it over and over. I think that helped change her attitude. I think she's crazy about Jilly's brother Neji too. But it looks pretty hopeless for them to get together."

Sakura had met Jilly only once, but the girl had had an impact on her. Sakura felt it wasn't fair that people got sick, or needed organs and there weren't enough to go around to make everyone well. Especially kids. She set down her insulin syringe, loathing it more than ever because it reminded her that although she felt fine, and looked "normal", she was saddled with a disease.

"How long will Lia and her mom stay with you before she can go back home?" Sakura asked.

"Another six weeks." Temari paused. "My parents have been great. We'll all miss her when she leaves. She's been living with us since September, so I've gotten used to having her around."

Sakura's beside clock radio warned her that she was going to be late for first period, but she didn't cut off the conversation. "How's track coming?"

"The season opens in April. I'll be ready. Right now there's snow on the ground."

"I've read about snow. White stuff that's cold. Here in Miami, it's going to be seventy-five today. I may have to dab on some suntan lotion."

"You're mean!" Temari said with a laugh. "We probably won't see the ground until March."

"How's your little problem with Kiba and Shikamaru working out? It must be hard to have two guys longing for you, although I wouldn't know."

Temari sighed and Sakura sensed her frustration. "Shikamaru still sees red if Kiba so much as talks to me in the hall."

"That's not who I'm asking about. How does Temari feel about Kiba?"

"I wish I'd never mentioned him to you. You ask too many loaded question."

"Remember what I told you over Thanksgiving break at Jenny House," Sakura answered. "Some guys like to mess with a girl's head. It makes them feel important."

Temari sidestepped Sakura's question. "How about you and Naruto? Did you hear from him over Christmas?"

"Naruto sent me a card from Colorado, but I ignored it."

"You are so cruel, Sakura."

"Don't preach. I know what I'm doing." Like the others in her circle of Jenny House friends, Naruto was also sick, a hemophiliac. Sakura knew she couldn't handle having a sick boyfriend no matter how much she liked him. The clock stared accusingly at her. She was going to be very late. "Listen, much as I hate to cut this short, I've got to go to school."

"I'm sorry to make you late. I miss talking to you."

"Same here. I'll call you and Lia on Saturday, when the rates are lower. Tell her I'm really glad she's doing so well."

"Will do."

Sakura hung up, grabbed her books, and headed to the door. She was turning her car into the school parking lot, when she remembered her insulin syringe lying beside the phone. If she returned home for it, she'd be worse than tardy, she'd be given a detention. All right, so you forgot, she told herself philosophically. No big deal. It wouldn't be the first time. She'd simply cut back on her eating all day and locate near a water fountain to deal with the thirst she knew would come.

By noon her burning thirst seemed unquenchable. Sakura pleaded sickness – in fact, she felt sick to her stomach from high blood sugar – and got out of phys ed. When the school nurse saw her, she sent her home. When Ten-Ten saw her in the hall on her way out, Sakura told her, "Touch of the flue." She didn't like fibbing, but there was no way Sakura wanted anyone from school to know she was a diabetic. She'd hidden that tidbit of information and would continue to do so.

"You've got to be better by tomorrow night," Ten-Ten insisted, her large brown eyes full of concern. "Sasuke's having a blow-out at his place after the basketball game. You know what fun Sasuke's parties are."

"I'll be fine," Sakura assured her.

By the time she arrived home, Sakura felt awful. She figured her blood sugar was sky high and that ketones, poisonous wastes from lack of insulin, were building in her bloodstream.

She realized that she should test her blood with her glucose monitoring machine, but that would mean pricking the sensitive tip of her finger to squeeze out a drop of blood onto the testing strip. "Forget it," she told herself, deciding instead to try to rid her body of ketones and excessive sugar by drinking large quantities of water and getting insulin into herself as quickly as possible.

She threw away the syringe filled with her morning dose of long-acting insulin and drew up a syringe of regular – short-acting – insulin. She reminded herself that too much would carry the risk of a reaction. And too little wouldn't solve her problem.

With a wince, Sakura inserted the short needle in to the fleshy part of her abdomen. She pushed down the plunger, and as the insulin flowed into her, it burned. She withdrew the needle, pressed the site with an antiseptic-drenched cotton ball, and waited for the burning to cease. Finally, she broke off the needle and threw the debris into the garbage.

Her forgetfulness about her morning shot would mean another shot of regular insulin later that evening. Why couldn't medical science figure out a better way to get insulin into a diabetic's body?

Lia had once asked if she could qualify for pancreas transplant – the organ that produced insulin in the body. She'd asked her doctor, who was also her uncle, about the possibility, and he'd shaken his head. "It's not practical. As long as you continue to do well on standard therapy, we won't rock the boat." Then he'd peered over the tops of his glasses and added, "If you'd come to some of the seminars and support group meetings at the hospital, you'd learn about these things."

"I attended some of the meetings," she'd said defensively.

"You came twice."

"Who wants to hang around with a bunch of sickies? I'm not sick," Sakura insisted.

"Sakura, be reasonable. Diabetes is a manageable disease. And support groups can help work out your feelings."

She'd grabbed her purse and ducked out of his office, saying over her shoulder, "I come in for regular checkups with you. That's enough."

The ringing phone made Sakura start. The second she heard her father's voice her stomach constricted. "How's my girl?" he asked. "Are we still on for this weekend? I've gotten us tickets for Cats Saturday afternoon at the convention center."

Ever since her parents had separated over the holidays and her father had taken an apartment, he'd been spending time with her by asking her to do things on the weekends. "Sure, Dad, that'll be fine."

Life's not fair! She thought. It's just not fair!