Diagnosis

Sakura never came back for Clark. He wasn't particularly surprised by that. He was, though, getting more worried by the second. He knew things weren't the best between him and Sakura but he liked to think that she wouldn't abandon him in a world he knew nothing about. She wouldn't deliberately keep information about Conner's condition away from him. She couldn't be that angry at him. He hoped she wasn't that mad at him. That wasn't the point, though.

Ino had left him citing that she had work to do and would check on him later. That was all right. He was okay with being alone—he wasn't okay with not having news.

He went to the desk to make inquiries of the nurse behind it. She had short brown hair and sharp blue eyes that alighted on him the moment he rose to his feet like she sensed he was coming her way.

"Excuse me," Clark began then hesitated.

The nurse raised her head looked him up and down slowly and said, "Gai is now taking visitors. He's in room 206."

Clark frowned sure that had to be a breach of some protocol. "I'm sorry. I don't know who that is. I was hoping for a status update on Conner Kent."

The answer he received was, "There's no one here by that name." Her heartbeat nor did her pulse change when she uttered the lie—so she must have believed it to be the truth. Or she was a remarkable liar.

"Of course there is! I was outside with him when they brought him in!"

The woman gave him a blank before understanding entered her eyes. "You mean, Conner Haruno." Clark couldn't stop himself from flinching. "He just got out of surgery about thirty minutes ago. We're only allowing family in right now so if you'll-"

"I'm his father," Clark stated his firm and rigid solemnity. The nurse looked for a second like she was about to object to his claim before she looked directly at him. Her eyes narrowed slightly on his frame as she took in his face. Instinctively he knew that she was looking at his forehead. In all the fuss at their arrival, he barely remembered that Sakura had laid a hand on his forehead and muttered, "Don't talk too much."

He hadn't known what she meant, but when rubbed his hand over his face after Ino had left him, he felt something that felt very similar to the diamond that Sakura wore on her forehead.

"Go straight down the hall, when it dead ends make a left. The recovery ward is the third door on the right. Visitors check in with the medic right across the hall and he or she, I don't recall who's on duty right now, will let you know if it's alright to go in."

"Thank you, ma'am." Clark gave her a small smile that she waved off and he wasted no time following her instructions.

When Clark arrived at the designated area, the medic took one glance at him and said, "Are you the father of Conner Haruno?" That time Clark didn't flinch.

"I am."

"Sakura's expecting you. She's in with Tsunade and Conner now. Conner is sleeping, but they're waiting for you so that they can go over the possible treatment for Conner. Just go right across the hall through the double doors. They're in room 221B."

Clark frowned. If they were waiting on him why hadn't Sakura come and searched for him?

Clark murmured a thank you and went to find Sakura and Conner.

The second he opened the door all eyes turned to him. A set of honey eyes were assessing him critically. Sakura, on the other hand, watched him cautiously as if expecting him to hurt her at any moment.

He hated that look.

Conner was lying down; his eyes were closed apparently unconscious. He wondered what they had given him to make that happen. There were no medications without the influence of Kryptonite that affected him. So how had they managed it? Was he just sleeping? Clark had so many questions.

"Hi, I'm—" Clark halted at his name.

He didn't know if they could be trusted. He didn't know what Sakura had told them. This wasn't something they had discussed—and of course, they hadn't considered it because she hadn't known he was coming.

"Conner's Father." He finished with and didn't meet Sakura's eyes. There was a brief silence where Clark expected Sakura to deny his claim, but she didn't.

"Well, since you're both here then I want to know how you want to do this. Technically, the boy is a little less than two years old, but he has the body and mind of a seventeen-year-old. How are we making health decisions?"

Clark looked at Sakura who was worrying her bottom lip. She looked like she didn't know what she wanted to do so cautiously he stepped in treating this like he would an injured teammate. "We'll start with you telling us exactly what's wrong with him. When he wakes up, we'll explain the situation to him and ask him what he wants to do."

It would be better for Conner if the answers about what was wrong with him came from them. He looked at Sakura questioningly whose lips quirked slightly but nodded.

"Yes, Shishou. That's what we'll do. How did this happen?"

"Am I correct on the details that he was created and not born?"

"Yes, Shishou."

"Well, whoever made him knew nothing about chakra." The derision in her voice made him uneasy. "They advanced his age, but they didn't do anything to develop his chakra pathways with him." Tsunade paused her eyes searching Sakura as if expecting her to understand and maybe she should, but Clark didn't so he asked.

"What does that mean?"

"It means either we do something or his undeveloped chakra pathways will kill him or disable him fairly soon."

Clark watched as Sakura closed her eyes.

"Rock Lee—" Sakura began.

"Is an entirely different case and has no relevance to the situation."

"Fine," Sakura said sounding almost petulant. "What can we do?"

"How old is he exactly?" Tsunade asked.

"Two."

"Then we'll de-age him so that he's two and not seventeen. I'll just need the data that they used to make this mess."

"I don't—"

Sakura began, and then Sasuke chose that moment to appear within the room—Clark could have sworn that only family was allowed inside-with a folder full of papers and what looked like a flash drive.

He placed them in Tsunade's hand who raised a brow at him to which he replied with a, "Hn."

A smile bloomed on Sakura's face, and she hugged Sasuke. Unfortunately, they were positioned so that Sakura's back was to him giving him a clear view of the slow smirk that Sasuke sent his way. Clark wanted to burn his face off. Not quickly enough Sakura pulled away and turned her attention to Tsunade. "You can do this? You've never taught me this jutsu."

Tsunade tapped her forehead where a diamond rested against it. "Sakura, the possibilities of this are endless."