Sakura stood in front of Sai's building with stir fry in her hands, her pink lips pressed together in a displeased line.
In all truth, she had actually been hoping to be snuggled up in her pretty silk robe right now, along with a face mask to soothe the neglect and the harsh sunburn earned after a few weeks in Sand.
All her boys had greeted her warmly even that morning. Kakashi ruffled her hair, Yamato took the burden of her bags, and Naruto trapped her in the snuggliest, smelliest hug ever. He smelled of toads.
When she had finally struggled out of his sweaty chest with a squeak of disgust, Sakura irritably smoothed her clothes and asked where Sai was; the kid wasn't exactly the president of her fan club, but he usually at least kissed her cheek and called her a hag when she returned from a long mission.
"Oh, uh..."
Great, Sakura thought, her eyes narrowing as Naruto continued on, "wow, now that you mention it, I haven't actually seen him for a while...what about you guys?"
Yamato and Kakashi looked sheepish.
"And so you just didn't check on him?"
"Sakura-chan, I've been busy with training! Oh, but I got Shino to take the wasp nest that's been living in Sai's mailbox!"
The cling film on the stir fry was getting all sweaty. She had reheated it before coming, having hoped to pawn some of it off on Sai. For some reason, Neji and Lee had found a shared passion in cooking. Sakura would sit by Tenten while enjoying some fresh strawberries as they watched the two ninja pipe delicate peaks of frosting onto a layered cake, or fry up a perfectly seasoned pot roast with yeast rolls on the side.
Above all else however, Neji made a killer stir fry. She had befriended him a while back when he was suffering from severe spring allergies, and so Sakura now often found herself with a bounty of stir fry or some other such hearty meal (Lee always supplied dessert and Tenten would slip her some money and thank her for being so patient with the boys).
Sakura shouldered her way inside the building's entrance. It was really dark and dingy inside, so she was glad when she finally found the door she knew to be his.
"Sai, are you okay?" She accompanied her call with a knock that shook the entire floor.
No reply.
Grisly images from the true crime shows Yamato loved flashed through her mind, and for a moment she had a nauseating vision of Sai lying face down on his carpet in a pool of blood, Rigor Mortis having long since set in on his fragile body...
The door was going to need to be replaced. Sakura walked into Sai's house through the rubble with purpose, setting down the stir fry on the small kitchen table on her way into the other room. She came to a sharp stop and clutched at the fabric covering her breast.
Sai was laying face down on the floor, and there something wet staining the carpet underneath him. Sakura screeched and rushed forward, flipping the corpse over to reveal…
A very much still alive Sai, who was looking at her unhappily with swollen eyes. The front of his shirt was covered in vomit, which is evidently what soaked the rug.
"You're alive!" Sakura declared, automatically moving to remove the soiled shirt from his body. She had seen, smelled and touched far worse than a little vomit, and Sai was far too used to not owning his body to protest being stripped...he had experienced far worse.
Sai's torso, while hard with muscle, still felt weak under Sakura's hands as it heaved with labored breaths. His stomach was hiding in the cage of his ribs and she could see where he had clawed at his chest in desperation.
He sniffled hard when the fabric of his shirt caught on his nose.
"You're sick?" Sakura realized, taking his head in her hands as he groaned softly, blinking the water out of his eyes at all the movement. She pressed her index and middle fingers to the sides of his neck, feeling the swollen lymph nodes throb under her fingertips.
Sai winced at the pressure . "From what I read, it seems the symptoms I have been experiencing point to the flu."
Yes, this was definitely the flu. As much as her friends moaned at having even a cold, Sakura knew the flu was far worse. Poor thing, she decided, drawing back a bit.
"How long have you been sick, Sai?"
The artist coughed into his discarded shirt. "A day or so after you left, I was sitting down on a bench and speaking with Shikamaru when a child came up to us. I wondered if they were lost, and leaned down to ask...they sneezed into my mouth. Shikamaru emptied an entire bottle of hand sanitizer onto his hands, but it was too late for me."
Sakura had been gone about three weeks. He had been sick and alone for three...weeks?
Sakura scowled and jabbed her finger at the stupid boy. "Well, why didn't you ask someone to come over and help you to the hospital?"
Sai smiled at her and then, as if he was reciting a carefully memorized quote, said, "'When he allows himself to become ill, he becomes a liability and a burden to his allies. It would be better that he simply die than waste resources and the time of his fellow Root or ANBU.'"
Danzo is going to get a punch in the face one of these days.
"Sai, those days are over." Her heart felt funny and she could feel the waterworks wanting to start. "You don't have to crawl into a hole to die. If you're still squirrelly about the hospital, you can come stay with me. I'm off work for a few days."
Sai simply said louder, 'When one allows himself to become ill, he becomes a liability and a burden to his allies-"
"Sai," Sakura took his face in her hands. His eyes and nose were swollen, and his breath smelled like saltines, "those days are over now."
He closed his eyes, his long black eyelashes brushing against his pale cheeks.
Sai was sitting in Sakura's bathtub now, watching her while she rooted through her bathroom drawers for yet another box of tissues.
Having a full grown man sitting in her bath and using up her expensive bubble bath up was certainly not Sakura's first choice, but Sai was in enough of a daze that Sakura couldn't just leave him when he could drown...and besides, he didn't seem to particularly mind, just sat there listless, hugging his knees. He was seemingly entranced by the graceful way Sakura was crawling around on the floor in her hole-y T-shirt and old second hand boxers.
"Ugly," Sai asked, and the woman turned sharply with a pack of aloe infused Kleenex that was now being crushed in her hands, "if I had died before you found me -"
"You likely wouldn't have died, Sai," Sakura sighed, moving to get a towel. "People in the most danger from the garden variety flu are adults with pre-existing conditions and children under the age of-"
"Sakura." Sai opened his mouth and dug into his tattooed tongue with fingernails painted black. "Would anyone have come to my funeral?" Sai thought of all the empty pages in his little red address book, and he thought about the smile at the thought of death on his brother's pale lips. No one had come to Shin's funeral - his body had been burned. Sai could still remember that smell.
A warm, fluffy towel wrapped around his shoulders, and Sakura hugged it tight around his pale body from behind, her mouth smiling kindly. "I would come, Sai."
Sai was tucked into her bed. He wore sweatpants printed with Manga girls in various compromising, drooling positions (no great mystery who had left these here...she'd kill him one day), but was shirtless. His skin looked as white and fragile as printer paper.
Sakura screwed off the cap of the Vicks VapoRub and picked up a clump of it with her fingertip. Placing her hand on his chest, she rubbed the paste into his skin. As she did so, her fingers brushed over small, whitened scars; they were neat, purposely cut little tally marks. She didn't say anything, but decided she would ask Kakashi if he could speak to him some time.
Sai coughed into the old washcloth she had given him, and it sounded wet and disgusting. Good, the junk in his lungs was breaking up.
"What is this substance? It burns my skin like ice water." He placed his hand over hers.
Sakura smiled at him. "It's an over the counter topical ointment. It contains eucalyptus oil and menthol which will help clear up your chest. You should've heard Naruto whine when I had to put some on him last time he was sick."
Her hand began to glow a soft, spring green. Sai eased back into the pillows, not letting go of her wrist as his eyes slid closed at the human contact. Sakura wandered how long it had been since someone had touched him without the intention of harm.
"Want me to stay with you in case you need to throw up?" She murmured, well versed incoming up with helpful excuses to ease the touch starvation of the ninja in her life.
Sai smiled without mockery. "Yes, Sakura," he murmured, and drew her down to kiss her cheek. He then promptly grabbed the bucket next to her feet and vomited.
It had been three days.
"Byakugan!"
Neji' s eyes paled further, veins popping. His strong hands tightened on the dish of stir fry, and his floral apron came untied as he moved sharply to get a better look inside of Sakura's apartment.
"She's definitely in there," he said, before a frown cut across his face. "There seems to be someone inside with her...a male…?"
Yamato and Kakashi bristled like protective dogs; Lee almost dropped his plate of cupcakes, and Tenten dived just in time to save them.
"What if he's taking advantage of her!" Naruto cried in hysterics, which set the others off further. Lady Tsunade stepped forward, rolling her shoulders,"calm down and don't worry kids, I've got this." And she gracefully blew the door off its hinges with a graceful kick. It seemed doors were having a hard week in Konoha.
Everyone sans Tsunade exchanged a long look as they shuffled inside. Hopefully Sakura had homeowners insurance.
Tsunade breezed through the apartment like it was her own and quickly disappeared into the bedroom. Kakashi followed her while everyone else nosed around their friend's house, trusting the two to beat the shit out of anyone in need of it.
Kakashi soon saw no beatings were currently in order: Tsunade was knelt beside the bed, a hand on the foreheads of both Sakura and Sai, who were cuddled together under a hideous quilt that used to be Sasuke's.
"They're sick, looks like the flu," Tsunade murmured, planting a kiss on her flushed student's cheek - she would fetch some medicine for them later, but for now rest would do them good. "I'm going to go ask Neji and Lee to prepare some chicken soup."
She left with the smell of perfume, and Kakashi took her place by Sakura's bed as the sounds of crashing pots and pans (along with the equally loud yells to quiet down) came from outside the room. He moved to cup Sakura's face with his hand, so as to use his calloused thumb to wipe away the stain of lipstick Tsunade had left.
A pale hand caught his wrist before he could touch her, and Kakashi glanced over to see Sai with one eyelid cracked open; his grip was painfully tight. Kakashi raised his arms up in surrender, his eye wrinkling with a nervous smile (and widening with a decision to teach some sex ed to the boy) when Sai said,
"We have slept together, so Sakura belongs to me now. And I do not give you permission to touch her."
When Sakura's eyes shot open at Sai's words, Kakashi's smile fell completely.