An odd hacking noise woke Karumi suddenly from from her sleep, and she groaned as she gingerly pushed herself up, glancing around and trying to let her vision adjust to the dark room. It couldn't have been any later than two or three in the morning, and yet, once again, the area of the bed beside Karumi was empty.

Typical, Karumi thought as she stretched her arms over her head. It wasn't as though he hadn't done this before, after all.

Yet, the sheets were still warm, and as the noise that woke her sounded again, Karumi now noticed the small stream of light coming from the slightly ajar bathroom door. Now more awake, Karumi could tell exactly what that sound was: a gagging, wet cough denoting something far worse than just a stuffy throat.

Slowly, Karumi reached for one of the two Akatsuki cloaks dumped carelessly on the floor, draping it over her bare shoulders and wrapping it around her body as she slowly crept towards the bathroom.

"Itachi?" she asked softly as she pushed the door open. "Are you okay?"

The figure in front of her stiffened, the muscles in his back tensing, as though he'd been caught doing something wrong. His large hands clutched either side of the sink so strongly that this knuckles were white - the sink, however, was not. Splatters of vivid red littered the basin and streaked across the metal taps, and as Itachi wiped his bare arm across his mouth and turned to look at her, that same deep red was now smeared across his lips.

Karumi was on him in an instant, one hand clutching his clean arm, checking his vital signs, while the other reached for a towel to begin wiping the blood away from his face. "How long have you been coughing up blood for?" she asked stiffly, her hand trembling with shock as she attempted to dab at his face.

"I'm sorry," he mumbled, wincing a little as Karumi squeezed his arm tighter.

"How long, Itachi?" she asked again, knowing full well that coughing up blood was an advanced symptom of any disease.

All Itachi could do was avert his eyes. "A few weeks," he finally murmured, bracing himself, readying himself for Karumi's fury.

But it never came. Karumi only stood, wide-eyed and speechless, her expression slowly sinking until it looked like she was about to cry. "Weeks?" she repeated, her voice only a hoarse whisper, her hands still shaking. "And you didn't tell me?"

Itachi swallowed. "I didn't want you to worry about me."

"Worrying about you is my job!" Karumi cried angrily, suddenly regaining her voice.

That burst of rage was short-lived, however, and her tone quickly turned soft.

"Come back to bed," she murmured eventually. "Lie down and get some rest."

Gently, she led Itachi back into the bedroom, helping him into the bed before sitting on the mattress by his side and placing her hand against his chest to assess the damage in his lungs. His bronchial tubes were inflamed, but that didn't really surprise Karumi. Mild bronchitis was common enough, and she'd picked up on it last time she'd done Itachi's medical examination - he just hadn't taken care of himself enough to fully cure it. What did shock her, however, was the additional damage to the air sacs in his lungs, meaning only one thing:

"Emphysema?" Karumi muttered to herself, confused, before she looked up at Itachi. "Since when? You were fine before you left for your last mission!"

Itachi only smiled tiredly, as if he'd known all along that this would happen. "It's because of this," he murmured, taking the hand that sat on his chest and placing it over his eyes.

The image in Karumi's non-functioning suddenly changed from Itachi's destroyed lungs to the structures behind his eyes. Small lumps dotted the ciliary bodies of both eyes, moreso on the left, and Karumi felt her breathing stop. "Tumors," she finally sighed, pulling her hand away. "They might be benign, but we can deal with it anyway. It'll involve surgery of some sort, but if I-"

"Karumi," Itachi interrupted. "Don't. I knew this would happen, so-"

"You knew?!" Now it was Karumi's turn to cut him off. "How could you possibly know this would happen?"

Itachi looked down. "It's complicated," he muttered. "As well as draining a considerable amount of chakra, the Mangekyou Sharingan is known to cause deterioration to the body. There have been several accounts of members of the Uchiha clan suffering from the same illness as I am."

Karumi paused. "So it's genetic," she stated quietly, thinking to herself. "Isn't the obvious answer to stop using your Sharingan?"

"I can't go on missions if I can't use my Sharingan," Itachi murmured.

"Then don't go on missions!" Karumi said obviously.

"You know I can't do that," Itachi replied quickly, tilting his head to the side as Karumi huffed and crossed her arms in front of her chest, but said nothing more.

The young woman spent about a minute glaring at the floor. It was true. She knew he couldn't suddenly stop working for the Akatsuki, because working for the Akatsuki wasn't his main goal - gathering intelligence for the Leaf Village was.

Still, she didn't like it; but there wasn't a lot she could do other than treat Itachi's symptoms and tell him to rest when he could. The more she thought about it, the more Karumi began to understand why Itachi didn't tell anyone he was sick.

Her expression softened as she looked over at Itachi once again. "Does it hurt?" she asked quietly.

"Just a little," he murmured.

Placing her hand back on his chest, the aura around Karumi's hand glowed green as she focused her chakra into his lungs, using her medical ninjutsu to heal some of the damage; though she knew this wouldn't be a permanent solution. "I'm sorry," she mumbled. "If I'd known you were sick, I - last night - I wouldn't have-"

"Don't worry about it," Itachi grunted as he pushed himself up into a sitting position, leaning forward to wrap both arms around Karumi's body and placing a soft kiss on her shoulder. "Is this my cloak?"

Karumi snorted, gently pushing him back down into the pillow. "Go back to sleep," she ordered. "I'll start working on some medicine for you."

"That can wait until morning," Itachi murmured, moving to pull Karumi down with him.

"Sleep!" Karumi giggled, glad that he was feeling a little better, before standing up and taking a step back. "Doctor's orders!"

Moving to her small closet, Karumi grabbed a dark t-shirt and a loose pair of trousers, tugging them on before quietly leaving the room, but she didn't head down to her workshop.

Instead, Karumi went up, jumping from ledge to ledge and building to building until she reached Pain's Tower, and quietly let herself in. Like many of the buildings in the Rain Village, Pain's Tower was dark and dank, its hallways lit only by a couple of strips of LED lighting.

"This is an unusual time for a meeting," a voice sounded from behind her, making Karumi stop in place and slowly turn around. There stood Pain's Deva Path, his grey ringed eyes narrowing as he stared down at her.

"I needed to talk to you about Itachi," Karumi said quickly. "He's...not well."

"So you finally found out," Pain muttered after a moment of silence, before continuing to walk down the hallway.

Karumi paused for a moment, confused. "What do you mean 'finally'?" she asked, moving to follow behind him. "You knew about this?"

"I've read his medical record, of course," Pain stated, barely even glancing at her. "But Itachi had also contacted me the first time he'd noticed the blood."

The young woman's eyes widened in shock. Judging by what Itachi had said, the first signs of his illness progressing as such would have been almost a month ago. "All this time..." she mumbled. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because Itachi specifically requested me not to."

Karumi fell silent. She knew Itachi didn't want her to worry, but to go so far as to ask their leader to keep such a secret from her? That hurt. "So when Konan asked me what I'd do if Itachi was killed in action," Karumi mumbled. "What she really meant was 'died of respiratory failure'?"

Pain didn't answer. As he reached the door to his office, he paused, as if deciding whether he should let her in or not, before pushing the door open and holding it long enough for Karumi to follow him inside.

"Who else knows?" Karumi demanded.

"Only you, Itachi and the Akatsuki leaders," Pain answered. "Not even Kisame knows - though he may suspect something."

Karumi rubbed her temples, feeling the first pangs of a stress headache coming on. "I came here to ask if you'd consider giving Itachi some time off," she muttered. "But since you've clearly known about how sick he was this whole time and still didn't bring him home, I guess there's no point."

As Karumi turned to leave, Pain spoke, stopping her. "Can you cure him?"

Sighing, Karumi glanced back at him. "Not with how far the disease has progressed," she admitted quietly. "All I can do at this stage is to continuously heal the deterioration, but if he pushes himself too much without treatment, he will die."

"Which is why you don't want him going out on missions?"

"Exactly," Karumi nodded.

Pain took a deep breath, holding it for a moment as he thought, before exhaling heavily. "I can't keep Itachi from going on missions entirely," he murmured. "But I can cut down the number of them, and keep him close. He'll never be away from the Rain Village for more than two days."

Relief flooded through Karumi's entire body. Her knees felt weak, and her face flushed pink as she struggled to hold back her beaming grin. "Thank y-"

"Providing," Pain continued. "That he is cured within the year."

The smile fell from Karumi's face as quickly as it had appeared. "Cured?" she repeated. "I just told you, he can't be fully cured. It's impossible!"

"Then you have a year to do the impossible," Pain said simply. "After that, he will resume his work as usual."

Karumi's face grew even hotter, though this time it was with fury rather than happiness. "Fine," she muttered through gritted teeth. "I'll cure him."

With that, Karumi stormed out of Pain's office, leaving his tower and quickly making her way back to her own building. Only, rather than crawling back into bed with Itachi, Karumi went straight to her workroom, wanting to start her work on Itachi's medication as soon as possible - but that wasn't soon enough.