Thank you for the three people who DID review. It means a lot to me that I got even a single review! Enjoy the rest of the story!'

I glarred at the door, waiting for the traitor to return from his mission. He'd left three days ago and his sister had said that he would be returning today. Not that I cared, ya know?

Oh please, you not only care about him, you LOVE him!

Shut up!

My inner chuckled and I sighed. Like I could hide it from myself! I DID care. It didn't matter that he was Akatsuki, he'd been born into it. Just like I couldn't help that my uncle was the Hokage and the Kyubbi container.

And not only did I care...

I loved him.

The door opened and I was glarring, until I saw who was coming through the door with Ryou cradled in his arms dellicately.

"W-what happened?"

Itachi only set him down on the bed and tucked his bandaged body ever so gently into the bed before turning around and leaving. I sat next to him and looked down at his tattered form and gently brushed his bangs out of his face. I gasped when I felt the heat radiating from his face.

"Oh, Ryou-kun... what happened to you?"

I walked over to the small table that always had a pitcher on it and took that to the bathroom to fill so that I could cool down his body.

The next three days were the worst of my life. Ryou was steadily getting worse and even his mother's healing wasn't doing much good. If I had completed my apprenticeship under Lady Tsunadae I might have been able to help him more. By the fourth day he was near death. His breathing was so labored that he'd started turning blue.

"Kami, please help me. Let there be something I could do! If only I had access to a library and some wild herbs..."

"Do you think that would help?" a small voice I'd never heard before asked.

I turned around and saw a green-eyed, black-haired boy standing in thedarkest corner of the room.

"I hope it could. It couldn't make him worse."

After a moment, he put his hands together and they began to glow. The wall next to him opened the a library. I quickly looked for a medical guide while asking him some questions.

"Do you know why he is so sick?"

"Leader sent him on a mission and he was poisoned. Mama said that there was nothing she could do. She's really scared but Daddy won't let her go near him. She's already weak enough as it is from that leach."

I didn't ask what the leach was but looked in the medical guide for poisons.

"Do you know what kind?"

"Uncle Deidara said it was just like Sasori's poison."

"Where is Sasori?"

"He just got back from a mission."

"I need his antidote."

"It's soo late now. It's a slow-working antidote and the poison is too far-"

"Do you want me to save Ryou or not?"

He nodded and ran out the door. A minute later he arrived back and I asked for a few select herbs.

"I can look in my mother's garden for them."

"Hurry."

He returned not long after with the things I needed and I mixed it until I was sure it was ready. I consentrated my chakra into my salve-covered palms and spread it throughout his bloodstream, praying to Kami that it wouldn't be too late.

All I had left to do was wait.