Cat'O'Nine Tails Chapter 26 Cat Scratch Fever, a naruto fanfic

A/N-Big Brother is trying to get a little too controlling of our internet—infringing on our First Amendment rights.

Have you heard of the SOPA bill?

If not, you better find out, because this bill could shut down fanfiction, youtube, DA, manga sites, facebook, google, streaming video-anime sites, as well as many, many others, to users in the USA.

I personally think that these sights actually make artists, writers, video/movie makers more well known and thus, more money because they create a much, much larger fan base then they would otherwise get.

Alright, guys, put on your best thinking caps and write a well thought out letter to your congressmen, asking them firmly but politely to butt out of stuff they have no right to control. You do not need to be old enough to vote to be heard—you are all future voters, I hope.

I'm sure you heard of how some countries rule their people's internet with an iron fist. Do we want this?

Sign a petition, write a letter, vote—get involved people—this is your future internet being taken away—do something about it.

Many voices speaking together get heard.

K&K

Happy Thanksgiving!

Here's the extra update I promised, and it's early! I'm giving thanks for my readers, family and friends and their health and mine and my super beta friend and her family too. Thanks, SU!

!Hey, I'm gonna hit 100,000 words this chapter!

DNON

Cat-o-Nine Tails

By Kaze and Kiba

Chapter 26-Cat Scratch Fever

0o0o0

As the days wore on, the tension between the two brothers grew. No matter if the Hokage and Neko-chan had asked them to work together or not, the stress grew worse and worse.

Every interaction Sakura had with Sasuke seemed like a misstep—from when they found they shared sleeping quarters to the odd seal she'd discovered on his back. It made him completely unreceptive to any sociable overtures from her. Sasuke rarely talked to Sakura and even seemed embarrassed when she tried to question him about where the new seal might have come from. She needed something to give her a clue as to its source or it was going to take forever to track down the nature of the seal.

No matter how many times she tried to extend a hand in friendship, Sasuke seemed to slap it away.

"Sasuke, I am going into the lab today. Perhaps—"

"I don't care."

So, she tried again.

"Sasuke, I brought home some fresh tuna from the market. It's really delicious. Would you like to try—"

"Not hungry."

He walked away to sit alone in the corner.

And again.

"Sasuke-kun, I found a nice—"

"Don't need it."

It bothered her to see him so dark and dismal, so she spent extra time pouring over medical texts to try to find a way to help him, hoping to melt his cold shoulder a little.

It didn't make Sakura's life any easier that, after the initial round of tests following Itachi's first successful healing, the unyielding disease seemed to grab hold of him even stronger.

'Maybe it would help if Itachi had Sasuke on his side,' she thought. 'If they could make up then Itachi's stress would lessen and the healing sessions might be more productive.'

"Sasuke, I—"

"You're just as annoying now as you ever were, Sakura."

"You don't need to be rude, otouto."

"Who asked you?"

"You can at least be polite."

"Sorry I can't be more like the super fucking hero, Itachi. Maybe if I kill everyone I care about, I can be a hero, too," Sasuke snarled.

Sakura went back to work on Itachi's disease. There was no way Sasuke would budge even an inch. Each subsequent day she healed Itachi only kept him at the same level as before—he did not improve as she'd hoped.

So, instead of pacing herself, she'd worked harder until the tell-tale signs of chakra exhaustion showed clearly.

At the end of the week, Tsunade found her in the library at two a.m.

"Sakura, what the hell are you doing?"

Carefully marking her place, Sakura closed the huge tome she was reading. "I'm looking for the results of a study from five years ago on Crypts done by researchers in Waterfall." She pointed to the other, older books. "I'm also looking through some of the material collected from Orochimaru's laboratory to see if I can figure out what curse is on Sasuke. I think if I can identify the right enzyme that it's derived from and what the foreign chakra is attaching itself to, I'll be able to remove it soon."

"I meant what are you doing to yourself?!" Tsunade scolded her. "You look like hell." She pulled the ponytail in Sakura's hair and dragged her head back, coming eye-to-eye above her. "Are you sick?"

"I'm just tired. I have a lot on my plate."

"Too much, maybe. I know things aren't what you planned. Are you sure—"

"I can handle it, Shishou." Sakura smiled. "I want to handle it."

"How goes it with Itachi's case?"

Sakura pursed her lips and tapped the top of the book she had just closed.

"It started out well, but we've had some setbacks. I'm trying to see if there were any breakthrough treatments that could help. And, I'm also hoping some samples from Sasuke will give me some clues to figuring it out, but I wanted to get those samples voluntarily."

"Let me know if you need my help. I'd be more than happy to hold the little brat down while you take whatever you need."

Sakura giggled. "He's not that bad. He's been through a lot and he's dealing with it pretty ok."

"From your lips to God's ear, Sakura. If I had to deal with that attitude every day, I'd just— "

"I know what you'd do, but I don't think he'd learn as well from a beating as Naruto does."

"Well, maybe not, but I'd love to try," she said as she grinned at her assistant.

Turning serious, Tsunade said, "Sakura, I want you to take the rest of the week off from the hospital and ease off on trying to be super doctor. Itachi's made it this far on his own—you've got a little time."

"If he dies, then Sasuke—" Tsunade slapped a hand over her mouth to stop her worrying and then she moved her hand to Sakura's cheek and lastly her forehead. Her student felt warm, but not hot—it was probably just from overwork.

"Give yourself a break," she growled. "That's an order."

"Hai."

"Bring me all the results from Itachi's tests and I'll see if I can't think of something else."

"Arigato, Shishou."

Sakura packed up her books and dragged herself back to the Uchiha district, using what was nearly the last of her chakra to transport. She didn't even bother to undress—she simply dumped her books on the dresser, pulled off her hitai-ate and climbed into the futon. She didn't even notice that the brothers were in already her room. She immediately fell asleep.

For a while, all was peaceful—until Itachi walked over and curled up next to Sakura.

Sasuke growled.

"Why are you always so close to her?"

"She's warm," Itachi told him, with a flick of his tail. He laid his head on Sakura's chest and she didn't even stir, but Sasuke did. He jumped from the windowsill and stalked across the room.

"Hentai."

"Pfft. As if you didn't do the same thing when she held you in the woods—you even purred."

Sasuke sputtered. "That's a lie!"

"Hmm?" Itachi purred, rubbing his cheek against the side of Sakura's breast.

"Bastard," Sasuke hissed.

"You know she really has exquisite breasts, otouto." Itachi yawned and snuggled into her even more. "You should see them."

"Liar!" Sasuke never believed that crap Itachi had confessed to the Hokage. Sakura would never do something like jump into bed with a complete stranger—not even for a mission.

"I undressed her myself…but she was the one who asked me to shower with her. It was very cute. She was nervous because I was her first."

"I'll kill you." Sasuke snarled and leapt at his brother.

0o0o0

Sakura woke through a foggy haze. It was still dark, but something seemed wrong.

The first thing she heard was a low, throaty growl. She saw a dark flash out of the corner of her eye and acted on instinct—she reached up just as Sasuke leapt at Itachi on the other side of her.

"Sasuke-kun! No!"

Sasuke snapped—he hadn't even heard her. He'd had enough of his brother's perverted taunts. He'd had enough of everyone ignoring Itachi's crimes and catering to him like he was some fucking hero. He was so irate that, at first, he didn't even notice that Sakura had come between them. His claws ripped and dug as he opened his jaws wide and clamped down fiercely. Suddenly, Sasuke became conscious of the feeling of flesh that wasn't Itachi's.

Sakura hissed in pain and Sasuke, finally recognizing it was her, let go and fell to the floor. He felt a hard smack and Itachi hissed at him.

"Foolish otouto! Look what you've done."

"It's ok," Sakura said softly. "It's nothing, Sasuke." Blood trailing down her arm, Sakura left for the bathroom.

After she shut the door, she flicked on the light to inspect the damage. Her wrist was punctured in four places and the claw marks looked worse then they felt. Sasuke had been quick to release her arm when he realized it was her.

"Well, I knew it would come to a head sooner or later," she murmured, "Sasuke's been so angry and Itachi's been teasing him. Forcing them to live and work together was probably not the best idea that Neko-baa ever had."

Sakura knew the old woman meant well and wanted them to resolve their differences, but maybe it was too much to expect. Sasuke had been deeply hurt. Sakura had seen him deal with his pain every day when they were on Team Seven. She couldn't stay mad at him—even if she was sort of fond of his older brother.

She washed her wounds and wrapped them in gauze. Her chakra was low and she felt a slight cold coming on—this was no time to be draining her chakra completely. She glanced in the mirror and saw the dark circles under her eyes that her shishou had admonished her for and sighed. Tsunade was right—if she didn't take a few days off, she was going to be no help to anyone.

She took a deep breath before going back into her room. She half expected to find herself in the middle of an epic catfight, but all was silent. She turned on the light to see if they were alive.

Sasuke was in his familiar spot on the windowsill and Itachi sat on the corner of the futon. Seeing them unharmed, Sakura let out the breath she had been holding and closed the door.

"Daijoubu, Sukoshi?"

"I'm fine, Itachi-san, uh, I—"

"Sakura," Sasuke interrupted her. "Gomen."

Sakura's mouth hung open and for a few seconds—she was speechless. An apology was the last thing she expected out of Sasuke, but even so, it made her very happy to hear it—very happy indeed.

"I'm ok, Sasuke-kun. It was just a scratch."

Itachi nodded to her bandaged hand. "You didn't heal your arm, Sukoshi?"

Sakura shrugged it off. "I'm a little low on chakra right now—it can wait until tomorrow."

Itachi stared at her intensely and she knew that he was thinking about why she was so low on chakra—she'd used most of it working on him these last few weeks. His tail twitched, he closed his eyes, and tilted his head, acknowledging his culpability. He couldn't possibly scold her without letting Sasuke know why he was scolding her.

"It was my fault as well, Sukoshi. I goaded him into it. Sumimasen."

"It can't be easy for you two to adjust to this so quickly. I'll do my best to help." Sakura smiled tiredly. She couldn't believe how polite they suddenly were—she prayed it would last for a little bit.

"Get some sleep, Sakura," Sasuke told her.

"Yes." She yawned. "I think that's for the best." She flipped out the light and crawled back into bed.

"Goodnight."

0o0o0

It was nearing one in the afternoon and Sakura still hadn't risen from bed.

Breakfast and lunch had already passed. When he and Itachi returned to the room, Sasuke noticed that she was very still and her skin appeared flushed. He exchanged a look with his brother and both silently decided that it wasn't normal for her to be this way. Sasuke went to find Kakashi.

Kakashi closed the door and went quickly to where Sakura lay. He shook her shoulder.

"Sakura-chan. Hey, you feeling all right?" He gently slapped her cheeks. "Wake up. You plan on sleeping the day away?"

Sakura groaned softly. Kakashi placed a hand to her forehead. "She's very warm. You two stay here and watch over her. I'm going to get Tsunade."

0o0o0

The shoji door slid open again to reveal Tsunade followed by a friendly face.

"Neko-baa," Sasuke said, surprised. "Why are you here?"

"I said I'd be back to check in on you boys." She patted each of them on the head. "You two look in good health. Have you been behaving yourself?"

Sasuke's ear flicked and Neko-baa's sharp eyes caught the guilty twitch instantly.

"What's this?" Tsunade lifted Sakura's bandaged wrist and looked crossly at the two cats. Itachi glanced at Sasuke who sighed, looked at the floor, and confessed.

"I bit her last night. I got mad at aniki, and when I acted on it, Sakura came between us. She didn't heal herself. She said her chakra was low and bandaged the wound instead."

Tsunade already had the dressings off and was examining the injury.

"The scratches appear to be ok, but the puncture marks here are inflamed. Odd. Neko-chan, could you come take a look at these?"

The women leaned over Sakura's futon, checking her lymph nodes and pulling back her eyelids among other things. Sakura remained mostly silent except when Tsunade pressed on her abdomen—then she groaned faintly. Finally, Tsunade ran chakra-laden hands over Sakura's temples until her eyelids fluttered open.

"Shishou?"

"Sakura. I warned you about wearing yourself thin. Give me your symptoms."

Sakura took a deep breath and closed her eyes in contemplation. "Headache—no, not just that—my eyes are throbbing. Abdominal and back pain…and my throat's a little sore."

"Anything else?"

"I'm pretty tired." Her eyes were already closing of their own volition. "I'd like to go back to sleep."

"Neko-chan?"

"No doubt about it. I've seen it quite often. I'm sure she has cat scratch fever. If her immunity was low, a feline scratch or bite can give her the illness."

"What do you think is the best course of treatment?"

"First, get the menfolk out of here," Neko-baa said seriously. "I want to ask Sakura a few personal questions."

Tsunade frowned at Kakashi and the two cats. "You heard her, out. And keep everyone else away from here."

Kakashi shrugged and shuffled out, followed by the two Uchiha. They sat right outside the door, guarding it and trying to listen to the two older women talk.

"Sakura-chan, wake up. I need to talk to you about your condition."

"Hai, Baa-chan," Sakura said softly.

"Ok. Don't be frightened, dear, but is there any chance that you could be pregnant?"

Outside the door Sasuke's whole body twitched and he glared at his brother. Itachi ignored him, finding an interesting spot on the wall to stare at. Kakashi got ready to grab them both if a fight broke out. Seeing this, Sasuke put his head down and curbed his anger, but his tail whipped back and forth.

Inside, Sakura's eyes opened wide and she gasped. "Of course not, Baa-chan! I've never even, uh, never—you know. There's absolutely, one-thousand percent, no chance of that."

Sasuke's tail stopped. His head came up and he triumphantly caught Itachi's eye. Hah! his knowing glance said. He knew Sakura would never do the things his brother had boasted about. Itachi shrugged and started cleaning his paw.

Inside the room, Sakura's face glowed with embarrassment. The old woman patted her consolingly on the back.

"I'm sorry, child. I had to know. The remedy we're going to give you can cause miscarriage. It's best to get everything out into the open rather than grieve over a life lost." Neko-baa stroked Sakura's hair back from her too-warm forehead. "Nade, I think it'd be best for Sakura to change back while she recovers from this. Cat scratch fever is more serious for a human body. As a cat, she'll better metabolize the herbs I want her to take plus, the illness will not progress as quickly." She pressed Sakura back onto the futon.

"How long will it take, Baa-chan?" Sakura suddenly realized she couldn't be down for too long, or Itachi could become ill.

"It varies dear. If you get plenty of rest and take your medicine, perhaps four or five—"

"But—" She tried to get up and the older women persistently pushed her back into her pillow. "What about Itachi? His treat—"

"I'll take care of that until you're better," Tsunade assured her. "I need to speak with him about a rather important mission I want him to undertake anyhow."

Outside, Sasuke kept looking from the door to his brother and back again. 'What are they talking about?'

"He doesn't want anyone to know."

"He doesn't, does he?" Tsunade traded a look with Neko-baa. "Well, we'll worry about that later."

"My experiments—"

"I'll take care of them, too. You keep meticulous notes. I'm sure I'll be able to follow up easily enough. I'll even see if I can remove that problem for Sasuke, ok? You just need to worry about getting yourself better. We'll bring you back to your apartment so you can have some peace and quiet, too." Tsunade laid her hand on Sakura's brow soothingly and Sakura relaxed, automatically closing her eyes while Tsunade eased her pain with soothing chakra.

"Yes. The boys will take good care of you. I'll make sure of it," Neko-baa guaranteed her. "Now remember, just like before, you won't be able to speak while you're shape-shifted—but if you need anything, just let them know. That's kind of what I'd returned to talk to you about anyhow, Sakura-chan."

"Hm," Sakura's brow rose groggily.

"Pay attention, dear," Neko-baa said softly. "Whenever the moon is full, you must return to your cat form for twenty-four hours. Just as at the birth of the new moon, your captives will resume their form for a day. Nothing else is different—they are still your captives and, as such, may not harm you. However, it will probably be best if you remain away from them when you are a cat. You will be vulnerable the same as any feline."

"Oh," Sakura said, groggily calculating that it should be almost a full moon now.

"Don't worry about that now, Sakura. We'll get you to your apartment and work from there."

"It probably will draw suspicion if we carry her out like this. I'd rather they not see her in this state."

"Yes." Neko-baa placed her hands over Sakura, changing her back to her small, cat form. "I'll carry her out under my shawl. No one will see her. Nade, you come with the boys."

"Kakashi, escort Neko-baa to Sakura's apartment through transportation jutsu. I'll follow." She reached down and snatched the two Uchiha boys off the floor. They all went down the hall and were almost out of the house when Neko-baa stopped short.

"Who do we have here?" she said with a knowing smile.

The black and tan, striated cat running across the room slid to a halt and a low growl rumbled from his throat. Neko-baa took another step toward him and he hissed, scrambling back.

"Huh? Still up to mischief, aren't you, old man?"

"Meddling witch," Madara hissed and disappeared out the door, racing across the yard to jump up into a tree and watch them carefully. The group continued on and transported to Sakura's apartment.

"Old man?" Kakashi asked. "Do you know him, Neko-baa?"

"Of course. He's Uchiha Madara—the most selfish, troublesome man who ever walked the five nations. And he's probably the most dangerous, too. Don't be fooled by his friendly manner or his foolish trickery—it's all an act."

0o0o0

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