"What's taking them so long…" Kisame whispered to himself as he listened to the ventilator hum.

Itachi was slowly starting to come to. He opened his eyes a couple of times, but wasn't awake enough to focus on anything in particular. Kisame thought briefly about holding his partner's hand, but decided against it. Itachi was never one to accept pity or be coddled, and he wouldn't appreciate it now.

So, instead, he turned his focus to what was going on outside. The door was slightly ajar, and a break in the curtains gave him a partial view of the nurses' station. Despite being an intensive care unit, everything seemed remarkably calm. An orderly was mopping the floor. A male nurse stopped to chat up a chunin attendant and she elbowed him playfully in the gut. There was hardly anything worth noticing, until, out of the corner of his eye, he saw a familiar silhouette.

At first, he wasn't sure if he believed his own eyes. Might Gai, the jonin from Konohagakure they had fought just days before, was standing casually behind the nurses' station, and one of House's team, the one that was drawing Itachi's blood, was with him!

"The little bugger was small and fast." Chase sighed. "Now, are you absolutely sure he won't try to escape the hospital altogether?"

"He won't escape." Gai insisted. He cracked his knuckles and cleared his throat. "Everything Sasuke's ever wanted is right here at this hospital."

Sasuke? Kisame froze as he tried to remember where he last heard that name… It was the boy Itachi had incapacitated in Tanzaku Town… the one that looked like him… his younger brother! How he got here, and more importantly, what he was doing here – those were far more pressing concerns.

"He's been training for revenge since he was eight years old. His brother, Itachi, is a sitting duck. Trust me. He'll use that to his advantage." Gai continued. "And we get to use it to our advantage as well."

"Double-crossing bastards…" Kisame growled, as he slid closer to the crack in the door. If it was another fight the jonin was after, he would be more than happy to oblige. It might even be enough to dampen the disappointment he felt when Itachi ordered a retreat in the midst of their last victory.

He glanced over at the medical shinobi, scoffing under his breath as he quickly sized him up too. Compared to Gai, Dr. Chase was so tightly wound, he would hardly be worth toying with. It was almost comical the way he jerked to attention the minute one of the doors to the unit opened.

Dr. Cameron stopped dead in her tracks.

"Sorry." Chase scratched his head. "Thought you might have been someone else…"

"Right…" She was visibly shocked by her teammate's sudden fighting stance, and eyed him warily before moving closer. "What are you guys doing here? Aren't you supposed to be looking for Sasuke?"

"Why waste precious time?" Gai answered. "It's just like baiting a trap."

Cameron narrowed her eyes.

"Foreman's checking the other floors, but Gai's right." Chase insisted. "It won't be long before he comes right to us."

"You heard House's orders. Plus, if Foreman's theory is right, that Tsukuyomi technique could have set off massive hemorrhaging…" Cameron muttered. "A brainstem lesion or a fresh thrombus. Any one of those could kill him in an instant! Until we run more tests, we don't have the foggiest idea what's going on inside that body!"

There was a moment of silence between them. Chase, unable to argue with that particular assessment of events, opted instead to change the subject.

"So, why are you here?"

"I'm tending to our other patient." She replied, putting unusually heavy emphasis on almost every word in that sentence. "House instructed me to begin aggressive immunosuppressive treatment for systemic vasculitis. As quickly as possible."

"Do you have the lab results back?"

"Sed-rate and C-reactive protein levels were elevated. Combined with the steady fever, it just confirms the widespread inflammatory processes."

"Renal involvement?" Chase pondered aloud.

"The urinalysis did pick up microscopic levels of blood and protein. Not enough to cause any outward symptoms yet, but it's probably only a matter of time before his kidneys fail."

Cameron had already started toward the room when Gai put a hand on her shoulder.

"What would happen if you chose to forgo treatment?" Gai asked.

Cameron just blinked, shaking her head as though it were obvious.

"… He'd die."

"How long…" Gai stuttered a little. "How long do you think he has?"

"I don't know for sure." Cameron answered honestly. "Days, weeks… But after that kind of alveolar hemorrhage, he might not even make it through tonight."

Kisame's hand rattled the door handle.

"It's probably not my place to tell you how to do your job, but as a jonin of Konohagakure, I would highly suggest…"

"That you mind your own fucking business!" Kisame roared as the door slammed against the wall and back again. "I knew I should have never let my guard down! If you even think you can take down the likes of Itachi, try getting through me first!"