Sakura wasted no time in ushering Naruto from the room, urging him to go back to Tsunade's office and wait for his daily check up. She certainly didn't think it wise to antagonize Kabuto more than he already had, even if his intentions had been in the right place. It was a dangerous game balancing working side by side with a criminal with swallowing healthy doses of caution.

But she had to admit that after the time she'd spent with the bespectacled man, she had developed a certain level of trust with him. She didn't trust him completely, of course. Even with her tender heart that would have been far too much. But she didn't trust him to hold up his end of the bargain, to refrain from hurting anyone in Konoha. Kabuto was sly and slippery, but he wasn't the type to hurt people without what he thought was a good reason.

So as she shut the door behind Naruto's dumb ass, she sagged back against the frame, eyeing Kabuto warily. He didn't seem angry anymore, the fury dissipating as soon as the blond was gone. Sakura was grateful for that, grateful that his irritation with Naruto didn't seem to extend to her as well.

"Umm, I'm sorry about that," Sakura said sheepishly, brushing a strand of hair out of her eyes. "As you may have noticed, I didn't tell him about the seal. He wouldn't approve and I don't think telling him would be wise."

"How astute of you," Kabuto said dryly. His back was turned to her as he stood at his worktable, inspecting the vials of liquid lined up in front of him.

She didn't appreciate his sarcasm, but she also somewhat understood what he was feeling. She didn't want to provoke him any further, or dissuade him from wanting to help anymore. At this point he was probably beginning to suspect that no one would want to give him the list of jutsu by the end of his time in Konoha and was likely considering whether or not to bail on her. She couldn't let that happen, though, and even though she didn't think it was fair that he had demanded the list in the first place, she would have to find a way to either guarantee it to him or offer him something else.

"Kabuto-san?"

"What?" he said shortly, still facing away from her.

"I promise that you'll have something to take back to Orochimaru when you leave here," she said earnestly. "Whether it's the list of justu or something else, I won't let you leave here empty-handed."

Kabuto froze, his fingers curled tightly around a vial of liquid. Slowly, he set it down and turned to face her, his expression infuriatingly neutral. "What is it that makes you capable of being sincerely nice to me in spite of how much you hate me?" he asked. "Naruto is clearly not capable of it, nor is anyone else I've ever met. How do you set aside what you feel in order to extend this olive branch?"

Sakura's brow furrowed in confusion. She hadn't expected the conversation to take this turn and it made her uncomfortable. She only wanted him to give her options, to tell her what would make him want to stay here in Konoha and help. It wasn't as altruistic as he seemed to think it was.

"It can't just be for my help," he continued. "We're well on our way to a cure now. You could easily finish it without me if you could take just a day or two off from healing everyone else. With Tsunade's help, I'm sure you could manage from here without me. So please tell me. Why are you so desperate to keep me here?"

"I'm not desperate to keep you here," she replied, the words spilling out of her before she had thought them over. Of course she didn't want to believe she was desperate to keep him in Konoha, but the more she thought about it, the more true it sounded. She could handle things from here, even though it would be tough. She just didn't want to be in the position she was in before – alone and helpless.

"Then why are you still being so nice?"

She sighed and pushed herself away from the door, moving to stand beside him at the worktable. She glanced down at the vials he had arranged, the no nonsense labels, the chicken scratch sprawled across the open notebook beside him. He had truly done a lot since he had gotten here and she was sincerely grateful for everything he had done. Maybe he hadn't extended the same kind of olive branch to her, but he had set aside whatever personal feelings he had toward Konoha in order to help her.

"You've been nice to me, too, Kabuto-san," she countered, "or at least respectful and courteous. I appreciate what you've done for Konoha."

"It wasn't a favor," he said tersely, "it was a bargain. This is just your tender heart again, making more of something than there really is."

Sakura scowled at that and shoved him, not hard, but enough to make him take a step backwards. His eyebrows flew up in surprise at the unexpected contact. Sakura was pleased to see the emotion on his face, to know that she was capable of eliciting something other than irritation from him.

"Would you rather I be mean to you?" she demanded.

"I…" he paused, absently rubbing at the spot on his shoulder where she had pushed him. He was staring at her, but it looked more like he was just seeing through her, his eyes unfocused. She could feel his heartbeat through the seal on her wrist, thumping wildly.

Her brow furrowed again. She scrutinized him, trying to determine what could have caused that. Surely a little shove didn't make his heart race. Hesitantly, she reached an arm out toward him, her hands alright alight with glowing, green chakra. "Are you alright?" she asked, trying to sound more clinical and less concerned, given the nature of their conversation. Unfortunately, she was unsuccessful; even she could hear the worry in her voice.

"Stop," he shouted, shoving her hand away. "Don't touch me."

Unnerved, Sakura took a step backwards, retracting her hand. She could feel his pulse beating even quicker now. Curious, she glanced down at the glowing seal on her wrist. Kabuto, too, looked at her wrist, watching the faint pulsing glow with wide eyes.

"You should probably go check on your patients now," he said, his voice quiet, but not soft. Not happy.

Without another word, Sakura left.

/

Sakura wanted to be quick with her rounds today. She had wasted a lot of time that morning with Naruto and Kabuto, and now she was forced to play catch up. Unfortunately, by the time she had reached the Hyuuga compound, she had discovered something extremely disturbing.

More people had begun to develop polyps in their throats. She had noticed it first in Yamato, whose condition had remained fairly stable up until recently when she noticed it beginning to worsen. The next person she found with polyps in his throat had been Hiashi, who had been quite displeased by his lack of voice. It was then that she realized every single Hyuuga had throat polyps.

What Sakura made of this discovery was a link to kekkei genkai. The only people who had been afflicted with the throat polyps had been people with either kekkei genkai unlocked naturally, or in Kakashi's case, one transplanted.

She wasn't quite sure what it meant, but the link between throat polyps and kekkei genkai was undeniable. After spending a long day doing some extra healing for the Hyuuga clan, Sakura made her way back to Kabuto's lab to see what he made of all of this.

She wasn't exactly thrilled to be seeing him again after their conversation that morning, but duty called.

"Kabuto-san?" she ventured, knocking before she opened the door to his lab. "I've got a new development to sha—"

Kabuto was lying in his cot, his breathing slow and even. It wasn't all that late yet – the sky had only just begun to darken so she hadn't expected him to be asleep already. Slightly concerned, she made her way over to him and funneled a bit of her chakra into his system to see if he was okay.

Unsurprisingly, she found that he had contracted the disease. She assumed that it happened at some point last week and he had been doing the same thing she did each morning to keep the symptoms at bay. Perhaps it had started to catch up with him now.

Gently, she shook his shoulders.

"Kabuto-san," she said softly. "Wake up."

He quickly sat up, immediately on alert. Sakura could feel his heartbeat speed up in her wrist and then slow down again as he realized it was only her. With a bit more force than necessary, he pushed her arm away.

"I've discovered something new with the polyps," she explained in her most apologetic tone. No one liked to be woken up from a nap – definitely not when they were sick.

He shifted so his legs were hanging off the side of his cot and rubbed at his eyes. Sakura could see him attempting to suppress a yawn for a moment before giving up and doing it anyway. "What is it?" he asked in a tone that might have been irritated if he hadn't been drowsy still.

"Today during my rounds I noticed that all of the villagers who possess kekkei genkai have polyps in their throats now," she explained.

He fixed her with a curious look, his mouth settled into a serious line. "And no one without a kekkei genkai?" he asked.

"Correct," she said, nodding.

"Hmm, that is quite troubling," he said. "That exacerbates your problem a bit because it probably means that this was man-made."

Sakura blinked in confusion. "What makes you think that?"

"If someone wanted to engage in biological warfare, a disease that not only wipes out civilians, but specifically targets shinobi with kekkei genkai would be the perfect illness to weaponize," he said. "It's definitely possible that this was something created intentionally to inflict harm."

The look on her face must have been quite telling of her fear and worry, because Sakura swore she saw a brief look of sympathy flicker across his face.

"You're right to be concerned. This is quite serious," he continued, "but with you and me working on it, I'm sure we'll be able to adapt to whatever gets thrown our way."

She stared at him for a moment, unsure of whether or not there was a compliment in there somewhere. It was true that if someone had decided to weaponize a disease, they picked the worst possible village to test it out on. If anyone could figure out a cure, it was Sakura or Kabuto. With them both working on it, the aggressor didn't really stand a chance.

If only Sakura had the confidence to believe that.

"Who would do something like this?" she asked, looking down into her lap instead of at Kabuto. She highly suspected that this was something Kabuto might do. She almost felt suspicious that it was, in fact, him.

When he didn't respond to her, Sakura glanced back at him through her lashes. He was watching her, his expression neutral still. He was still as stone, but there was a very faint blush on his cheeks. He quickly looked away from her and she did the same.

"I'm sorry I shoved you earlier," she murmured. She moved to sit beside him on the cot. He tensed up beside her, but then he relaxed. She could feel heat emanating from him, still warm from his nap.

There was a tense moment of silence, which Sakura took as an acceptance of her apology. They sat next to each other, each with their hands fisted in their laps. Their thighs were nearly touching, but Sakura didn't want to offend him by inching away. And if she were quite honest with herself, she didn't even mind being so close to him.

"I've always wondered what you see in Sasuke," he said, his eyes as far away from her as they could be. "He isn't nice to you at all, but for whatever reason, you still love him anyway. I used to think that made you an idiot."

Sakura narrowed her eyes, ready to snap back at him, but he didn't sound malicious. Even though they had agreed that Sasuke was a forbidden topic, she didn't want to discourage him from speaking more because she was deeply curious as to where he was going with all this.

"But it's clear to me now that you just have an immense amount of compassion and empathy," he continued. "Probably more than is appropriate for a combative kunoichi, but I suppose that's what makes you so good at medical ninjutsu. Your emotional nature probably drives you to work harder to save your patients. If you feel this level of sympathy for me, for Sasuke, for others who treat you poorly, who are your enemies… Well, I can't imagine what you must feel for your friends and comrades."

Sakura's mouth fell open, her eyes wide as she regarded him with curious astonishment. His cheeks were fully red now, even the tips of his ears burning. It was far from glowing praise, but it was enough of a compliment that Sakura felt her own cheeks heating up as well.

"Umm, thank you," she muttered, a little unnerved.

He turned to look at her after his blush had begun to fade. Their faces were close enough that Sakura could see flecks of ash in his coal black eyes – eyes that wavered behind those squared glasses that made him look like a completely different person. If she hadn't known any better, she might not had believed that this was the same Kabuto she had always known. For a reason completely unknown to her, she felt her pulse increasing, her heart thudding hard in her chest.

She watched Kabuto's eyes flick down to his wrist where his seal had begun to pulse along with her heartbeat.

Brusquely, he stood up, breaking whatever spell had been cast over the two of them for those strange few minutes. He kept his back turned to her and made his way over to his worktable, busying himself with shuffling papers and rearranging the vials of liquid.

"Tomorrow you should collect more samples of the polyps," he said, his tone clinical again. "We need to act on this new information quickly."

Sakura nodded, feeling that he was dismissing her now in spite of his words. She didn't blame him – she felt a little uncomfortable, too. Their research could be postponed for now.

"Okay. Goodnight, Kabuto-san."

He didn't say it back.

/

Taking samples of throat polyps was far from an enjoyable way to pass time. Sakura spent all morning and afternoon, arm deep in the sickest mouths of Konoha, scraping out organic tissue and all other manner of gross things. Sure, she was a medic and she was used to things like that, but it never really got less gross. Fortunately, Yamato and the Hyuuga's were hygienic people, and didn't put up too much of a fight in spite of their obvious discomfort.

After an entire day of harvesting samples, Sakura made her way up to Tsunade's office instead of Kabuto's lab. She had all the necessary equipment she would need to analyze the samples in there, plus she could take care of a few Hokage duties while she was there.

And truthfully, she wasn't prepared to see Kabuto again after their weird ordeal. She could feel that something was up with him. She hadn't known why he brought up all that stuff about her being compassionate, nor had she understood why he seemed so nervous. He instinct was to believe that he was planning something bad, but for some reason Sakura just didn't think he would do that to her. She couldn't explain it, but he had seemed very genuine with his comments on her compassion and empathy. She really wanted to believe that if he was being honest with her, then he wouldn't jeopardize what she was doing here.

But then why had he seemed so nervous?

Instead of lingering on the subject, Sakura quickly prepared slides of her samples and began to analyze them under the microscope near Tsunade's desk. It was clear to her after the first couple of samples that they were benign like Kakashi's had been, but Sakura was thorough and finished going through each sample meticulously.

After she had spent a few hours looking at the microscope, Sakura moved over to Tsunade's desk and sagged her body in the chair, resting her face on her palm. Up until the polyps had made an appearance, Sakura had been so sure that the finish line was in sight. Now she wasn't so sure anymore. She could only hope that Kabuto would stay in Konoha even if it took a little longer than expected.

With a sigh, Sakura glanced down at the stack of papers on Tsunade's desk. There were purchase agreements, tax revenue forms, mission dossiers, and all kinds of things she should have addressed a while ago. She didn't want to leave things a mess for Tsunade when she got back on her feet, but she felt too overwhelmed to do anything about it right now.

She felt too overwhelmed to do much of anything, actually. She should have reported to Tsunade by now, but she didn't have anything to tell her, progress-wise. Telling her about the backslide with the polyps just seemed too draining, too humiliating.

And the next alternative was to check in with Kabuto – an equally unappealing option. As much as she wanted to get all the research done that she could, she also couldn't bear to face him after how unbelievably tense and awkward things had been between them for the last couple of days.

Of course when Sakura was in need of cheering up, or just some familiar company, Naruto was her go-to. Though most of the time he got on her nerves, today she found herself wanting his company, his calming presence. Unfortunately, Naruto was outside the village, waiting for the arrival of the caravan from Sand. She briefly considered joining him for the wait, but she didn't want to add to the risk of spreading the infection, nor did she want to be too far away from the hospital in case something happened.

That left Ino, Sakura mused. Ino could be abrasive at times, but she was fiercely loyal to Sakura and always there for her when she needed it. In the back of her mind, Sakura felt a nagging guilt for wanted to pester Ino while she was sick. During her check up that morning, Sakura had noticed that Ino's condition had begun to worsen. Not to Kakashi's extent, but certainly enough that she had preferred to sleep instead of talk to Sakura.

Logically, Sakura knew she shouldn't be bothering Ino now – she still needed rest. But Sakura needed her, too, and if their positions were reversed, Sakura wouldn't hesitate to be there for her friend. It wasn't like she needed Ino to do something difficult for her. She only wanted to company. Perhaps Ino would even be flattered instead of annoyed.

Sakura prayed that that was true as she slowly opened Ino's door and peered inside through the tiny crack. It was nearly pitch dark in there, but Sakura was able to see the lump under the blankets that was Ino.

Instead of flicking on the harsh fluorescent lights above, Sakura tiptoed over to the lamp beside Ino's bed and tugged on the chain, casting a warm, soft glow over the room.

"Ino," Sakura whispered, placing a comforting palm on the blonde's shoulder.

Beneath the blankets, Ino groaned – an awful sound that wasn't annoyed, but rather borne from serious agony. Sympathetically, Sakura rubbed soothing circles on her back, biting her lip with worry. Perhaps she should have left Ino alone and just gone home to get some extra sleep instead.

"Forehead, is that you?" she hear Ino's muffled voice call from beneath her mound of blankets.

"Yeah," Sakura said softly. "It's me."

The blankets began to shift and after a moment of struggling, Ino freed herself from her plush cocoon and fixed Sakura with a gaze so desperate that Sakura felt her heart seize up and stop beating for a moment. He hair was wildly mussed, loosened from its usual ponytail and loose around her face in greasy, unkempt strands. Her face was unnaturally pale and her skin had jaundiced around her eyes and cheeks, which were now sunken in from lack of appetite.

"Oh, Ino," Sakura murmured, reaching out to smooth her bangs away from her face.

"I know you don't have a lot of chakra to spare," Ino croaked, her voice a hoarse whisper, "but do you think you could do something about the pain? Please?"

Sakura's hands were on the poor girl's chest before she could even finish the sentence. She nodded wordless as she began to dull some of the ache in Ino's muscles, alleviate some of the pressure in her head, and quell the nausea brewing in her stomach. Ino's relief was visible and immediate. She leaned into Sakura's hands, her eyes falling shut as Sakura propped her up against the headboard.

To Sakura's surprise, she heard Ino laugh weakly and glanced up at the blonde's face to see what was so funny.

"I feel so fucking pitiful," she said. "You're out here sick as anyone else, running the village and shit. And you've got to work close to Kabuto, you poor thing! I can only imagine how much that sucks."

"He's actually been fairly pleasant," she murmured in response, pushing lightly on Ino's chest so she would recline even further.

She scoffed. "I'll believe that when I see it."

"It does suck, though," Sakura continued, removing her hands from Ino's chest once it was clear she had done all that she feasibly could. Ino did seem to feel a little better, moving to sit up straighter. In fact, her gaze was now penetrating as she fixed it on Sakura, scouring her for information in the state of her appearance and body language.

"Tell me about it," Ino said earnestly, surmising that her friend was in need of a venting session.

"Working with Kabuto has been fine on a professional level," she explained, twisting her fingers together nervously. She didn't want to speak the words out loud, the thought that had drifted across her mind exactly one time before she had whisked it away. But if anyone could give her some clarity on the issue, it was Ino, who, in her present state, did not have the ability to spread the information across the village.

"Go on," Ino urged, her gaze lit with curiosity, a spark of life behind those ice blue eyes that only juicy gossip could put there.

"He just acts so weird all the time," she said bitterly. "I mean I know we're not friends or anything, but he's so cold and sarcastic. He's been such a huge help and he's held up his end of the bargain so far so it's hard to be angry with him, but I just wish that…"

"That what?" Ino asked, filling her pregnant pause.

"I don't know," she confessed, "maybe that we could be sort of friends, or something."

"You actually want to be friends with that lunatic?"

Sakura shot her a dry glare.

"Does it have something to do with Sasuke?" Ino asked. "You know he's not going to help you get closer to Sasuke at a—"

"It's not that," Sakura snapped.

"I have to say I just don't get it," Ino said. "Why do you want to be friends with him? Just because you're working together?"

Sakura groaned and buried her face in her hands. Ino unsympathetically grabbed onto her elbow and pulled her arm away from her face. "Come on," she said. "Just tell me what's up."

"It's just that we keep having these weird, awkward moments where for a second it seems like we're, I don't know – not friends, but sort of cordial outside of what it necessary," Sakura explained. Absently, she rubbed at the seal on her wrist where she could feel his heartbeat. She wondered if that was the source of her discomfort. "But then he acts all aggressive and weird about it. He thinks I'm too compassionate, too soft – even toward him."

"Well then fucking stop being compassionate and soft toward him," Ino sassed.

Sakura sighed and rubbed at her temple, willing the migraine to go away without the aid of her precious, dwindling chakra.

"Sakura, listen to me," Ino said, drawing Sakura's gaze up to those icy blue orbs. "You're feeling overwhelmed and annoyed. You're in over your head and I'm sure it's really scary, but eventually this will all be over. You and Kabuto are on your way to a cure and then you can have you life back and not have to think about any of this anymore."

Sakura nodded in understanding, and though she was comforted by Ino's attempts, her words left her feeling a bit empty.

"And you know what else?" Ino asked. "You have me. You can always come talk to me, even if it's just to say some stupid shit about wanting to be friends with Kabuto. I'll always listen. I'll always be here."

Feeling a lump of emotion form in her throat, Sakura swallowed, sure that her eyes were watering as she gazed affectionately at her best friend.

"Ugh, don't cry," Ino said dryly, though there was a faint smile at the edges of her mouth. "You're such an ugly crier."

Sakura laughed, feeling a little bit better. She had to give credit where credit was due – Ino always knew the right things to say to cheer her up. "Thank you, Pig," she said, leaning forward to embrace her sick-in-more-than-one-way friend.

When she pulled away, she was careful to avert her gaze quickly, to look to the floor instead of those piercing eyes. Ino knew her too well – she would see the hesitancy on her face, the covert shyness in her eyes that indicated that Sakura had a secret – one she had been intent on telling Ino when she came here.

Now that she was actually here though, Sakura had some qualms about telling her that for a very brief, very tense, very confusing second, she had wanted to kiss Kabuto.