I loomed over his and TenTen's sleeping bodies. I'm so tired, I could barely keep my eyes wide open, but that's not important. I found something, a name! It took me all night but I think this is the answer to all of our problems!
"Neji!' I half-whispered half yelled while shaking him. "Wake up, I think I got something!"
"...Sa...kura? You're up already?" I heard Neji call to me. He looked at me bleary-eyed and confused.
"Actually..."
"Don't tell me you didn't sleep at all."
"I took cat naps in between, honest!"
He scoffed at me and gently left TenTen's sleeping body behind and wandered over to my side. "What have you been doing all through the night? What is all of this?" He picked one of the books spilled across my sleeping bag. "This is from Han?"
"He let me borrow it along with his notes and clipboard. I didn't feel like sleeping so, I stayed up looking at this and it wasn't all for nothing.I found something! Possibly an answer to what we've been dealing with!"
"You're serious?"
"Yes! Now come on, put on some clothes and let's go. The sooner we tell what we've found, the faster we can help those kids."
We walked in silence all the way there. I could feel Neji's eyes on me but I tried not to look at him. I already know what he's thinking and I don't have time to hear his mouth. No matter how good his intentions are.
"...You sure you're alright? You pulled an all-nighter and..you don't look too good..."
He was right somewhat. My hair, which has grown a little long since we've been here, was not brushed too well and I was fighting for my life trying to keep my eyes open. "How I look isn't important. What is important is helping those kids."
"How can you help them feeling the way you do?" He put his hand on my shoulder and looked me straight in my eyes. "I know I can't stop you, however, If it looks like you're about to pass out, I'll be forced to pull you out. And I guarantee you I'm not the only one who feels the same...' Neji gestured to the medical tent in front of us. Through the slit, I could see Shizune and Lady Tsunade speaking with each other. "You understand, Sakura?"
"Yes." I whipped my tired and presumably red eyes and headed inside.
Both women were speaking in a hushed tone looming over a chart of one of the children. I could just barely hear their voices.
"Yes, I do see what you're saying. The rash is looking worse than before..." I could hear Shizune say.
Tsunade rubbed her face. "Just what are we dealing with..?"
"I may have an idea.." I interuppted. The two women quickly turned to face Neji and me. A slight smile crept onto my mentor's face as she looked at me.
"Good morning, Neji. Sakura-san...you look like shit."
"And I feel like it too." I let out a dry chuckle and walked closer. "What are you looking at?"
"One of the kid's charts, the girl Kumi. She's getting worse by the day."
"And the others?" Neji walked over.
"Doing about the same," Shizune answered. "But as you can assume, not better. At least they are consistent... But you said you may have an answer, Sakura-san?"
"yes... Yes! But first, where's Mr. Han?"
"Still resting. Since the case started, he's been working around the clock. Poor guy hasn't had a break in a while since, before us, he was the most educated. So, I told him to take some time to rest up and come back refreshed. He was a bit stubborn but I put my foot down." Tsunade narrowed her eyes at me. "And I think I should do the same thing to you-"|
"No! I'm fine! This isn't my first rodeo!" I shot back. "This is nothing new and you know that. I'm fine! I'm..good."
Neji and met Tsundae's eyes as if telepathically agreeing on something. She sighed and shook her head at me and let out a dry chuckle. "My my, Sakura-san. You haven't changed a bit. My wonderful student... Fine. But the moment I see you slip-"
"I understand, Lady Tsunade."
"Alright then. Tell us what you know."
"Okay," I dropped the bag I was carrying and started to dig for Mr. Han's notes and books and some notes of my own. "Mr. Han, before he retired for the night, let me borrow some of his notes and medical books. I stayed up all night, with some cat naps in-between don't worry, looking through it. It was just some things that did and didn't make sense. But, after talking with some of the villagers, Neji and I theorized it was something in their environment making them this way."
"I can attest to that," Neji interrupted. "These kinds of symptoms are consistent with something you would come into contact with or consume. Like poison Ivy to the flesh."
"Right! and so it got me thinking, this is definitely something like that instead of consumption. Mr. Han told me and wrote in his notes in great detail that the cuts on the children's bodies are puss-filled and changing color. No matter what antibiotic, cream he applied, nothing worked. I believe it's because those open wounds came into contact with something."
"So what you're saying is that those wounds came into contact with whatever is causing this and as a result, infected the wound and is causing these sensations to happen." Shizune summarized.
"Essentially, yes."
"So what do you think they came into contact with?' Lady Tsunade asked.
"that part... I'm thinking it is one of the lakes or the grass, much like the analogy Neji said earlier. A lot of things happened in this village, who's to say something didn't get in the water? Or affect the grass? One of the elders did say there used to be thousands of wildflowers everywhere but after that Crane guy came and messed things up, the village was never the same."
"Who is Crane?" Shizune asked.
"The Kage before Taka and Yuta. Terrible man. So what do you suggest we do now?"
"Well, I think we should-"
"Lady Tsunade! Sakura, Neji! Come quick!" A sudden shout came from behind. I looked to see who it was and it was a disheveled Han.
"Mr. Han, what's going on?" Tsunade questioned.
"It's one of the children, K-Kumi, she's having a seizure!"
"Oh, God!" Shizune cried out.
All of us ran out of the main tent and headed towards Kumi's. She was definitely seizing alright, violently. "Shit! Turn her over so she can breathe! Protect her body from the objects around her!" I demanded. "K-Kumi, if you can hear me, everything is going to be alight?! You're going to be fine, okay honey? E-Everything...everything is going to be fine.."
The girl convulsed for a total of three minutes before she calmed down. I saw her eyes roll to the back of her head... The choking noises she made.. It was terrible.
"I-I think she's okay now. Let's give her some room." Everybody except I stepped away from the girl. I opened her eyes and checked her pupils and checked her breathing, "She good, for now. Thank you, Mr. Han."
He nodded his head and cleared his throat. "I know you told me to rest, but I just had to come back. I'm glad I did... Did we make any progress?"
"Sakura was just telling us what she found," Neji answered him.
"Yes, I was basically saying with your notes, I think we're dealing with a disease that happens when you come into contact with something with open wounds. Your notes about how the wounds on the children were changing color made it click. I think it's either the grass or...the water."
"...Hold on," Han approached Kumi and looked over at her legs where most of the cuts lay bare. "These are the kind of wounds I was noting. They were small and significant, often brought upon by the amount of rubbish that was around the village at that time..." I walked over and examined her legs. Though they were small, the cuts didn't look normal and they weren't healing. "I..didn't see them as too much of a problem until a few days ago. That's when they started changing color and they didn't really heal as they should, even with cream that you all have provided and the healing technique."
"...This might be something we may have to pull out. But in their conditions..." Shizune trailed off.
"But we have to do something. This child just had a seizure, the first right? We're running out of time and options. We need to do something before it's too late. For now, let's make some medicine to help stop the infection in the wounds. Let's get them nice and clean, Shizune...Neji." Lady Tsunade ordered. "As for you, Mr. Han, you're with Sakura."
"What are we doing?" he asked.
"We're going to test Sakura's theory out. She believes it's the water or grass so, we're going to take samples and test them. Meanwhile, I'll see if I can place a name with this thing. This can't be a first case thing, somebody somewhere must've experienced this." Lady Tsunade looked at all of us, eyes filled with determination. "You all know what to do. Let's find out what is causing this disease and save lives. Let move."
