He was sweating. His skin was white, pure white, the kind of pallor usually only reserved for corpses, his lips tinged blue. His mouth gaped open and his body shuddered as he struggled to pull in a breath.

A blockage in his lungs.

Sakura knelt down next to him and checked her chakra reserves. Plenty to spare for a serious operation, but certainly not for a revival. If it came down to it, the only thing that could save Itachi was for her to give up all of her remaining chakra and life force. She wasn't certain that she was so willing to die for Itachi yet, but trying desperately to save him was a good start in their fragile renewed friendship.

Not wanting to risk turning him over to access his lungs and damaging something important, she decided to do it the hard way, through the chest, the muscle, the ribcage and every organ in the way.

Closing her eyes, she sifted through Itachi's inner body, trembling slightly at the mental exertion that seeking out the lungs through all of the obstacles brought her. Her fingers twitched over his chest as she reached the blockage in his lungs.

She focused, sweeping her hair out of her face and breathing slowly, her hands glowing, casting a sickly green glow over Itachi's unconscious face. The disease was twisting in his lungs, coating the surface, pulling at every weak breath Itachi fought to breathe.

She began the tedious job of figuring out what to do to fix the problem, prodding and pulling cautiously with her chakra, until she finally found that untwisting the black legions was working. It was like untying knots with your eyes closed. Each knot she untied dissipated into molecules that would be broken down by Itachi's body's defences – because while she was here she might as well fix his shoddy immune system – leaving weakened tissue behind.

Her hands were shaking by the time she finished unravelling the blight corrupting Itachi's lungs, but he drew a fresh new breath, no longer a death-rattle but a clean, unmarred sound, the kind of breath Itachi likely hadn't felt in a long time, judging by the extent of the damage to his lungs.

She could do clean-up in his lungs later on. Now for the second big problem.

His heart.

The corruption swelled fattest around his heart, curling possessively around the vital organ, suppressing every beat, making the blood flow sluggish.

Sakura felt sweat roll down her face and ignored it. She had to concentrate. If she didn't… Well, she'd lose him. And now, her chakra spreading about his heart, she realised she couldn't lose him. Not like Sasuke. Like it or not, she cared about him and his death would destroy her, damn him.

You'll be the one to ruin me, she told him silently.

Then she lined up a chakra scalpel to slide harmlessly through the skin, bone and sinew until it reached the corruption circling the heart. She gritted her teeth – God this was hard – and began to carefully, slowly, slice away the disease in pieces without even grazing the heart. She had only performed this level of surgery once before, and the patient had died. That couldn't happen today.

His heart pumped limply as she operated, bits of the disease being carved away with expert precision to be absorbed by the blood flow. Chakra flashed across tendrils of the corruption, slicing and hacking away until the heart was almost completely free.

Sakura opened one eye. Itachi's face was growing blue. Fuck.

She poured chakra over the heart, pinpointing the disease and siphoning off the disease's grip bit by bit, excruciatingly slowly.

Itachi gave a sigh as his heart broke free of the blight surrounding it.

Sakura broke away from the chakra contact and leant against the doorframe behind her, panting heavily, her head lolling backwards as though disconnected from her neck. She was so, so exhausted…

But Itachi moaned painfully and she wearily crawled back over to him, placing her hands on his head.

Oh thank God, his brain was unaffected.

But his other organs, on the other hand… most of them had at least some of the corruption tainting them, but the kidneys and pancreas were unaffected. It seemed this disease didn't need to take over every organ in order to kill its victim.

The sun was threatening to rise, bits of orange and red breaking over the horizon, splitting up the dark blue sky and signalling that morning was due.

How long had she spent on this already?

She had never felt so tired. Not even when she was strapped down to that bed and the pain kept her awake.

It was worse than sleep loss; it was the chakra deprivation that made her droop almost painfully.

Still, she pressed on, feeling that familiar determination fuelling her as she saw to the rest of the disease.

She was just cleaning out Itachi's poor lungs to help him breathe better when Kisame burst in.

He took one look at her, hands spread over Itachi's chest, him lying there unconscious, and flew at her.

She was far too exhausted to move, to defend herself, and felt herself freeze as a kunai flashed in front of her face.

Itachi's hand flew up, catching the kunai, letting it bite into his fingers. His eyes opened and he took a deep breath.

He stopped, his face twisted in confusion.

He breathed again cautiously, hardly daring to believe it…

Kisame's bloodlust waned as he realised Itachi wasn't dead. He dropped down next to Sakura, staring intently into Itachi's face.

"I can breathe." Itachi said wonderingly, his face moving all around as though searching for something.

Sakura was hit by an all-consuming relief that Itachi was OK, he wasn't going to die, he was fine…

But then Kisame put a hand in front of Itachi's face and waved it. Itachi, sensing something, grabbed Kisame's arm inhumanly fast, but the test had proven what Kisame was looking for.

Itachi's dark eyes were filmed over, leaving them weak and watery.

He was blind.

"Kisame?" Itachi turned his head the wrong way, his voice feeble, "I can't see you. Sakura?"

Kisame leant closer and murmured something comfortingly. Itachi closed his eyes.

"Sakura healed you," Kisame said, marvelling at the realisation that this sixteen year old chuunin had healed what so many medics had stated was terminal every time. Itachi should be dead. Kisame shook his head in disbelief, "She saved your life."

Sakura moved to put a hand on Itachi's but felt herself wobble, her balance shifting suddenly, and with a sickening lurch the ground moved to meet her as she fell.

She could see Kisame coming towards her, could feel him pick her up off the floor, looking into her face, examining her for traces of illness.

Her eyes slid away from him as she slackened in his grip, feeling faint.

All she could see was the ceiling moving above her as Kisame took her back to bed, telling her to stay awake in that demanding voice of his.

She ignored him anyway and felt herself slip into unconsciousness, her last thought hoping Itachi was alright.

xxxxxxxx

Water was being poured down her throat. She spluttered, sitting up abruptly, feeling the water spill out of her mouth and down her front. She blinked, licking her lips, becoming aware for the first time that her mouth was bone dry.

Kisame sat at her bedside, a jug of water in his hands, his expression annoyed.

"Messy brat," He scowled without any real heat behind it, offering a drink again, "Don't go spilling this again. Do you know how hard it was to find a medic who wouldn't talk in this godforsaken village? He said you were fine, it was just exhaustion, but he had no idea what to do with Itachi."

Sakura looked across the room at Itachi's bed, expecting to see him lying there comatose, but instead she saw him sitting in a chair facing the open window, his hair floating slightly on the breeze that was blowing into the room.

"How is he?" She asked, hardly daring to hope, not after seeing him lying so cold and so still, his eyes blinded. Her voice was cracked and hoarse.

Kisame made a face, "He's been a fucking mute. Wouldn't leave your side, held your hand for hours till the medic threatened to sedate him to force him to rest." Despite his caustic tone, Sakura got the feeling he was more worried than he let on.

Itachi could hear them, that much was obvious in the way his head was slightly turned in their direction. The sky outside was deep blue and cloudless, the breeze bringing with it the faint smell of flowers' perfume.

"Morning, Sakura." He called, still staring out into the sky that he could no longer see.

Sakura, ignoring Kisame's frown, got out of her bed easily, pleased to find she felt fine. It had been far too long since she had felt completely healthy. There had always been worry or anxiety, exhaustion or depression plaguing her.

She made her way over to Itachi, sitting in the chair next to his.

"Kisame put that chair there to cheer me up when I worried you would never wake," Itachi said quietly, not looking up as she noisily sat down, the chair legs clattering on the floor, "He said you would sit there the moment you woke up, wanting to know if I'm alright."

"Are you alright?" Sakura asked gently.

A small smile graced his lips, "I guess he was right. I am fine. I'll cope."

Sakura couldn't imagine him coping with this. For most of his life, he'd relied on his Sharingan to fight, have inhumanly good eyesight, mind control, etc… how do you cope with losing all of that?

"How long have you been keeping the fact that you are dying from me?" Sakura tried to keep the anger out of her voice but she kept picturing what would have happened had the breeze from the window not woken her up. She would have found Itachi dead in the morning and she would have been left with nothing. Go back to Konoha, her family and her friends, and be put in prison for life. Travel on her own, trying desperately to find somewhere… that sounded too sad for her. Too lonely.

He must have known he was dying. And yet, he took her with him anyway? Did he even make plans for her after his inevitable death?

Itachi tilted his head back, his expression serious, "It never seemed important enough to bring up. I was always going to be killed by Sasuke's hand, in my mind; I never planned any further than that."

"But you took me with you, knowing you would die soon!"

"I didn't know anything. I was…" He swallowed, his eyes watering, tears or a sign of his blindness, it was impossible to tell, "Sasuke died. My only concern was getting you away from the place where he had been killed. I only thought of keeping you safe. I worried about you for all of these years, and the thought of you dying as well, because of my influence, just like Sasuke, I couldn't…"

Sakura folded her arms and stared out of the window, seeing what Itachi couldn't. It was a fairly hot day and her wooden chair was in a patch of sunlight.

"Stop it," She said softly. He looked startled, opened his mouth to question her, "Just stop it. Stop being worried. Stop taking drastic measures to make sure I'm safe. Stop acting like I'm in a constant state of danger. Stop acting like I'm the helpless, useless twelve year old you left behind. I appreciate that you care, more than you'll ever know, but I will be seventeen soon. I've lived this long. I don't want you to feel like you need to be worried about me every minute of every day."

Itachi was silent.

Sakura watched a blackbird picking at the ground below their hotel window, sharp beak flashing in the sun, cocking its head and looking around in the grass,

"I'm still dying, Sakura." Itachi extended his wrists out to the open window, palms outward so he could feel the breeze, "I've been dying for so long now. I'm tired of living like a dead man. I'm tired of all of this. I couldn't believe it when Kisame told me you'd healed the disease. I still can't. I know inside, it's still there, lying dormant."

Sakura placed a hand on his chest, startling a small intake of breath from him. Chakra pulsed in her hand.

His heart was beating steadily, pumping blood regularly. The lungs were clean and no longer shrivelled up beneath the twisted corruption. His blood had absorbed the remaining diseased cells that Sakura's chakra had chased down.

She took her hand away, brushing her hair out of her face, squinting in the sunlight.

"I hate to tell you this, Itachi, but you aren't dying anymore." She couldn't fight back the grin that burst onto her face, her bare legs trembling as she folded them underneath her.

Itachi didn't move.

"If I monitor your progress for the next few months, I'm pretty sure I'll see the same thing. A healthy body, free of disease." She put a hand on his, feeling him curl his fingers around hers, the warmth of his skin encouraging. He'd always felt so cold before.

"I'm not dying." He said flatly, his blank eyes fixed on the deep blue sky, unseeing.

Sakura squeezed his hand as the first tears trickled down his cheeks and looked away.

He held her hand tightly and pressed his other against his heart, feeling his newly healthy heart beating fiercely, his heartbeat strong and regular like it hadn't been in years. Permanent. Forever.

He was alive.

"You – are – incredible." He choked out, gripping her hand like a lifeline.

"I try," Sakura said faux-modestly, grinning. The whole operation had been a damn nightmare, one that she spent convincing herself he'd die anyway and the whole thing would have been for nothing. Neither of them had expected to come out of this relatively intact. Sakura had actually thought about life after Itachi whilst cleaning up his lungs and cried a bit, convinced he was going to leave her again.

Like Sasuke.

Kisame had left a while ago without either of them noticing.

Sakura got up and headed to the kitchen, pottering about a bit, looking around, examining the insides of the cupboards and the fridge.

She managed to rustle up some onigiri with seaweed inside it, making a few for later in case dinner (Kisame's job) didn't materialise.

Itachi's hands were on the windowsill when she returned, enjoying the feel of the warm sun.

"Hey," She said, nudging him with her elbow by accident, "I've made some food for you. I'm guessing you've been fasting in my absence?"

Itachi's pained smile and the ravenous growl that emanated from his stomach said it all. God, he really did love to play the martyr, didn't he?

She carefully placed the plate onto his upturned palms before sitting next to him and taking a bite out of her onigiri.

He had guided a mouthful of rice into his mouth, but he froze. Sakura worried that she'd accidently soaked the rice in vinegar again, but he was smiling –

"Seaweed in onigiri," He turned his head to face her, his smile sweet. He looked younger than he had in years, "My favourite. You remembered."

Sakura felt herself blush and was momentarily relieved he couldn't see the red flush on her cheeks, before she chastised herself for being glad about Itachi being blind.

"Well, you know," She shifted awkwardly on her chair, "Good memory."

They ate in silence for a while, but it was peaceful instead of awkward.

Sakura realised that after seeing Itachi almost dead on the floor, all of the bad feelings, the anger, the resentment, the hatred, they'd died down. They were still there, but not prominent. Now, she just focused on enjoying a meal with her long lost sensei. God knows she'd earned it.

After they'd finished, Sakura picked up their plates and rinsed them in the sink, inwardly pleased that Itachi had not only eaten it all, he'd looked very forlorn when she'd told him not to eat anymore for a while.

She sat back in her chair, glancing furtively at Itachi, worried that his superior shinobi skills alerted him whenever someone stared at him, even without his eyes to rely on.

He looked… healthy. And strong. His skin was even lightly tanned from the day sitting in the sun, his muscles prominent under his skin, his white shirt slipping over his shoulder to show part of his chest. For a shinobi of his age, he had very few scars. It must be due to his high skill.

Itachi's eyes were closed and he was resting his chin on his hand, elbow on the arm of the chair.

She got up and knelt in front of him, staring into his face, breathing softly. Had Itachi always been pretty? In all the time she'd known him, she'd thought of him as strong and smart and kind, but never attractive… and yet, here she was, suddenly noticing little details.

He had clear, perfect skin. His eyes, whether they were normal, blind or Sharingan-red, were always beautiful. His jaw was strong and his teeth white. He was beautiful.

"Sakura," Itachi's voice broke the silence, making her jump, "Why are you staring at me?"

Stupid superior shinobi skills.

"Oh, I was just thinking about seeing if I could do anything about your eyes!" Sakura lied quickly. She had intended to examine Itachi's eyes, but that certainly wasn't what she'd been thinking about…

She was rewarded by one of Itachi's special smiles, the sweet, youthful one from earlier. "You don't have to try to fix everything, Sakura. I can cope."

"There's no point leaving it if I can help." Sakura frowned, reaching up to place a hand on both of his closed eyes. She felt his eyelids quivering beneath the light touch of her palms.

Hmmm…

Long term damage. Exacerbated by both the disease and near-constant use of Sharingan.

Optic nerve damage.

Overall, severe, but still reversible.

Sakura bit her lip as she slowly leaked chakra into his nerves, trying to encourage them into working once more. She felt a few of them flash in response. She needed to regenerate the fibre tracks slowly.

Having your eyes suddenly forced into light-converting capability must be painful, but Itachi remained still and quiet as she worked.

She suddenly became aware of how close they were, her kneeling in front of him, face hovering in front of his. A thought came to her unbidden; we aren't sensei and student anymore.

Touching his face seemed horribly intimate all of a sudden, and she flushed as she struggled to regain her concentration.

"I-I'll just leave it at that for today," Sakura squeaked, leaning back and withdrawing her hands hastily, "We'll see if your eyesight's improved by tomorrow and I'll continue from then, OK?"

Itachi opened his eyes and blinked rapidly.

His eyes were dark but alight with his usual intensity, no longer filmed over. They looked down and focused on her face, registering the small distance between the two of them.

Sakura couldn't move, she could only stare at Itachi's beautiful face as his eyes flickered around the room.

"It's not perfect, but I can see," Itachi commented, looking around the room. His eyes returned to her upturned face, "I can see you again."

His hand came out and brushed against her cheek.

"I was afraid I'd never see your face again." He said very quietly, eyes locked on hers, breathing rapidly.

Sakura gulped as that pale, soft hand caressed her face.

She smiled lopsidedly, nervous beyond belief for reasons beyond her comprehension.

His face broke out into a smile, "I'm glad I got to see you looking happy again. It's been a long time since you looked at me like that."

She felt the tension dissipate and genuine happiness fuelled her smile this time, prompting him to lean closer.

"I shouldn't…" He bit his lip.

She looked confused and tilted her head in silent question.

He groaned and ran a hand through his hair – Sakura noticed for the first time that it was down, not tied back as usual – not moving away from her despite whatever it was that was bothering him.

"Shouldn't what?" She whispered.

He looked down at her. The light of the day was fading but it was captured in the spark of his eye as leant down even further.

"Do this," He muttered.

Hands encircled the back of her head and pulled her up to meet him.

He kissed her.

Sakura's eyes were wide, his were closed tightly as he pulled her closer against him, rising from his chair to stand, head tilted down to allow for the height difference.

Sakura's mind ground to a halt at the feel of her sensei's lips against hers.

Never in the ten years she had known him had she ever thought this had the slightest possibility of occurring.

Sure, in her youth she'd daydreamed. But then again, she'd had the same, harmless thoughts about Sasuke, Kakashi, even Naruto… Though Kakashi had always looked disturbed by the speculative gleam in her eye as she considered him.

But her sensei… She'd viewed him as a mentor, an ally, a friend… never once had she entertained the thought that he might… like her.

Though her shock had caused her to hang limply in his arms, she timidly placed her hands around his waist, unsure of what to do.

The kiss was over before she knew it; Itachi broke away with a sigh, releasing her.

They stood there in the dim light in front of the window, staring at each other in absolute shock.

What was that?

Yes. They kissed.

Sakura cured his disease.

They kissed.

It's all going on, people!

With all the medical stuff in here… it's all total fabricated bullshit, don't worry about it being able to stand up to real medical scrutiny… I make it up.

OMG THEY FINALLY BLOODY KISSED IT ONLY TOOK EIGHTEEN SODDING CHAPTERS!

I have no idea if Itachi's disease was incurable in canon, but I figured even if it was, the healer scale goes like this: Tsunade = number one awesome healer, Sakura = number two awesome healer, so even if none of the medics a missing nin could use could heal Itachi, that didn't mean the Hokage's apprentice couldn't!

And Sakura's finally happy.

Good God, I put her through a lot of crap.

ARGHTHEYKISSED

I have so much homework, why am I writing this?

Btw, all of the homework and exams I was stressing about a while ago while still writing fanfiction? I passed it all, baby! :D

Woot!

Hope you liked this chapter, it certainly took a while to write.

P.S. In case you didn't notice, they kissed!

Quick poll take for SCIENCE!: Do you have any interesting scars/tattoos/medical rarities/awesomeweirdshit?

For example, I have central heterchromia, meaning I have blue-green eyes with brown around the pupil, which I think looks pretty cool! TRICOLOUR EYES, BABY!