Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

Summary: Oh, love. It wasn't exactly what Itachi was looking for at age 24, but his mother thought differently. It didn't appear time was on his side, either.


C2


Sakura had convinced both Sasuke and Mikoto that they could visit Itachi the next day, since he was still asleep because of his fever. Now, she was walking to Ichiraku with Sasuke. Sakura had actually planned on going straight home after telling them the news, but Sasuke had convinced her otherwise. It really didn't surprise her that he appeared to be cool about it. He was worried, really. He just didn't show it.

The sun had already begun to set as they walked through the village. She wondered if Naruto and the rest were there already. Their meeting wouldn't take as long as Sakura and Tsunade's had. It was a silent walk to Ichiraku as nobody dared to speak. Sakura wondered if Sasuke was thinking of Itachi. It was only natural, right? After a while, he broke the silence. ''So, how did your mission go?'' he asked by lack of a better question.

''Oh, you know. It went okay.'' Sakura answered him briefly. It wasn't that she didn't want to talk to him. In fact; she wondered whether or not he was okay. She knew Itachi was a role model for him. But, she couldn't just say ''it's going to be okay'', because she didn't know that herself yet. Tomorrow she would examine him to know exactly what was wrong with him.

When they finally arrived, half of team Kakashi was already there waiting for them. ''Sakura!'' Naruto started, ''And Sasuke? Are you two finally hooking up?'' he said bluntly with a huge grin on his face. He was clearly not seeing that the kunoichi's face started to get red. Not of shame, of course.

''Idiot! You know, I don't think Hinata's father will be happy when he hears you're dating his daughter.'' Sakura said while punching him on his head for the second time that day. Sasuke just ignored their argument and went to sit next to his best friend, Naruto. ''Hey,'' Sakura started, ''where is Kakashi?'' she asked the boys of her team.

''He went home.'' Sai said with a fake smile on his face. He didn't ask what happened at the Hokage tower. Instead, he went back to eating his ramen. It made Sakura wonder, why did Kakashi go straight home? Usually, he would go with them to Ichiraku. But Sakura waved the worries away, he was probably just tired.

''I'm leaving.'' Sakura said. Naruto looked up at her from his seat.

''What? Already? Why?'' he managed to say in one breath, not caring about the food that had previously been in his mouth was now all over the bar.

''I'm tired,'' Sakura started and yawned, ''I'm going by Ino and then I'll going straight home.'' It was true she was tired. She just wanted to go home. But if she didn't stop by Ino first, she'd get pissed as hell. Sakura didn't want that either. Like Shikamaru would say, it would be too troublesome. ''See you.'' she said before walking away.

Just like that, Sakura was walking through the Leaf again. This time alone. She was wondering if Ino was still working in the shop at this hour, because she hadn't seen her at Ichiraku. So, she decided to stop by. Sakura walked over the wobbly path that led through the Leaf. She could already see the flower shop Ino's family owned. Ino herself helped out a lot. Sakura reached the shop and looked at the open/close sign on the door. It said the store was open, so Sakura looked through the windows. There she saw her best friend leaning over the counter, kissing the boy before her. It was Chōji.

Finally, Sakura thought and decided to walk further. Ino had been crushing on him for a while now and she finally did something with it. Sakura herself didn't have crush. Hell, she didn't even have the time for that! Sakura had been busy at the hospital for a while now and it didn't look promising for the next few years. But she would manage. Sakura believed she would settle down, eventually. Now, her mind wasn't set on it.

Sakura decided to just go home and just read some books on how to treat her new patient. She didn't really know anything yet about his particular condition, so she would just have to look at what she did know about it since earlier that day and look things up. When she reached her apartment, she opened the front door and walked in. Time to finally rest from her mission.

The pink-haired kunoichi kicked off her sandals and walked to the kitchen with a slow pace. She could really use some tea after a long day. With that thought, she warmed up some water in a kettle. That kettle was really old and Sakura knew she had to buy a new one. But she always had the same excuse for everything. She was busy. While she was waiting, she walked over to her small living room. There was a couch and a table, but also a large bookcase. She adored the thing.

She stood on her toes, leaning against the bookcase to get a book of the highest shelf. She could only just reach it without it falling upon her head. She laid down the book on her couch and sat down next to it so she could read it. Flipping to the corresponding pages, she began reading.

After a while, while sunken into thought, something stirred her up. The whistling sound of the kettle rang in her ears, both annoying and alarming her. She sighed in relief and put her book away while standing up. She walked to the kitchen and poured the water into a cup.

This was going to be a long night.


''Ugh.'' Sakura moaned and lazily opened her eyes. While she saw waking up, she heard birds chirping. She wasn't one to get happy and excited about life when she heard those birds chirping. She'd get downright annoyed. Sakura quickly sat up, as it was the only way for her to completely wake up. If she would lie down for a few minutes more, she'd fall asleep again.

She turned off the alarm clock beside her bed, mildly said. She'd have to buy a new one later that day. Sakura stood up and walked to the shower sluggishly in order to fully wake up and get ready. Pulling of clothes as she walked, she stepped into the shower and turned it on.

When she was fully clothed minutes later, she stepped out of her bathroom and walked to the kitchen to continue her morning routine. First, there was the tea. While the water was slowly getting heated up, she put on her forehead protector. But instead of actually wearing it over her forehead, she put it over her hair like she used to wear Ino's ribbon. After that, Sakura made a small sandwich for herself. At that time, her tea was done too. Sakura really needed that routine, or otherwise things could get messy. She'd drink the tea first and then eat the sandwich on the way to the hospital.

Stepping out of her apartment with a sandwich in her mouth, she locked the door and walked down the stairs. The morning sun greeted her as she wandered through the Hidden Leaf. Because she couldn't talk to Ino yesterday, Sakura decided to stop by now. She didn't know if the shop was open yet, probably not. It was worth a try, right?

When she reached the shop, she glanced inside. The lights were out, nobody was there. Too bad, Sakura thought. Maybe she'd run into her at the hospital. Although Ino herself was a student of Tsunade, she didn't really work much at the hospital. She was more involved with the pharmacies.

In the meanwhile, Sakura had finished her sandwich and was now walking into the hospital, where smell of antibiotics dominated. She walked up to the front desk, where a nurse sat. ''Good morning, Shizuka. Do you know where lady Tsunade is?'' Sakura asked calmly.

''Ah, I believe she's in room 210. She said a while ago she was going to check up on mister Uchiha.'' The nurse named Shizuka said. Sakura hadn't known her very long, as she just worked here. Shizuka was a very nice girl, though.

''Okay, thank you, Shizuka.'' Sakura said with a smile. ''I'll be going there, then. See you.'' she greeted. Walking through the hallway, she greeted a few more of her co-workers. Sakura refused to use the elevator, as she was perfectly fine, she always said. She took big steps while on the staircase and got there within moments. When she stood before the room, she checked the chart next to the door. Then, she knocked on the door.

''A moment, please.'' a voice said, probably Tsunade's. Sakura waited for a minute. After a while, Tsunade called again. ''You can come in now.''

Sakura pushed open the door and stepped foot into the hospital room. Tsunade was leaning against the window behind the bed. In the bed lay Itachi Uchiha, coughing loudly. Sakura immediately frowned in worry and closed the door behind her. Tsunade handed the ANBU captain a glass of water, which he gladly drunk.

''Ah, Sakura. I already expected you. Have you read the books I told you about?'' she asked the young kunoichi. It seemed Tsunade had already done a check-up, as she was there already.

Itachi didn't look very sick; instead, he looked like he always did. But that could be misleading; he had always been pale and the bags under his eyes were nothing new either. Sakura walked closer to the bed in which Itachi lay. ''I have, master. I'll need to examine him, though. Although, I might know what's wrong.'' Sakura replied to her mentor.

''Enlighten me.'' Tsunade responded.

''Oh, well, I think the problem has to do with his lungs. As I discovered yesterday, there was some blood in both his lungs and some veins.'' Sakura stated, ''Judging by the information I obtained and the blood on his hand from just now, it might be a pulmonary embolism*.'' While she told both Itachi and Tsunade this, the latter nodded her head in agreement.

''I think you might be right.'' she said. Itachi had been silent the whole time Sakura had been there, not counting the sound the coughing earlier had made. ''Itachi, how long has this been going on? Tsunade asked him.

Itachi spoke, ''A while now, lady Tsunade. Maybe a few years, or so.'' he said calmly. ''At first, it was just coughing, so I thought was just sick. It stopped though. But then my chest starting aching from time to time. I didn't think much of it, until now.'' Tsunade narrowed her eyes at his statements.

''We'll have to see what we can do about it, then. It can be easily treated, but if this happens repeatedly, the consequences can be big; even if we do operate.'' the sannin said.

He narrowed his eyes and looked down. ''I see.''

Like Tsunade said, the consequences could be big if it happened repeatedly; it'd mean a lot for his shinobi career; or lack thereof, better said. ''Sakura, I'll leave this to you. I have to check on some other patients. Come see me later when you're done.'' Tsunade said to her pupil and left the room.

''How are you feeling, Itachi?'' Sakura asked the shinobi in the bed before her, walking closer to it. ''Please lay down.'' she continued. Itachi did as she said while answering her.

''I'm alright, Sakura.'' said kunoichi hovered her hands above his chest, sending some healing chakra to her palms. As she discovered yesterday, there were some blood clots in his veins, though there weren't much. They weren't big either, but they were still there. As she had read yesterday, most blood clots form in the area of the upper leg. With that thought, she moved her hands to the shinobi's legs. There she discovered some more, but like the others; they weren't fatal; yet.

''We'll see about that.'' Sakura said worriedly, as she moved her hands back. Her left hand was now hovering over his forehead. His fever had lessened, but didn't completely disappear. Using her medical skills, she managed to reduce the fever a bit. Sakura knew it had to do with the pulmonary embolism she was talking about earlier; she couldn't do much about it with just chakra. The kunoichi stopped sending chakra to her palms and let her hands drop to her side.

''You're going to have to drink a lot of water, since that fever is keeping up. Also, you'll need to stay here for a while. People can visit you, though. Your mother's very worried. I'm expecting her here soon.'' She said with an encouraging smile. ''I'll prescribe you some medicine and take the prescription to the pharmacy. I'll take my leave now'' the kunoichi continued.

''Thank you.'' Sakura heard Itachi say as she walked to the door.

''Don't thank me just yet.'' She said in response, turning around to answer him. Sakura opened the door and walked out, going to Tsunade's office.


A/N: Here's another chapter, guys!

I got the information on pulmonary embolisms from Wikipedia. I can't give you the exact website where I got it though; it's written in Dutch.

Translating medical things is a pain in the ass, I'll tell you that. And, like last time, please leave a review in order for me to improve both my English and my writing! I'll try to correct any mistakes as soon as possible. If you want to know about the updates, be sure to follow me or my story.

I also want to thank everyone who read both the first and this chapter. Plus, I want to thank the people who left a review; they helped me a lot. I've corrected the mistakes I made in the previous chapter.

That's all! Stay tuned for the next chapter.