DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN NARUTO. MASASHI KISHIMOTO IS THE ONE WHO HAS THAT PRIVELEGE.
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Naruto caught her as she fell. Her already pale skin was paler still and clammy. He pressed his fingers to her neck and felt for a pulse.
Her heart was beating weakly, barely able to be felt.
She'd done something again. She was always in something.
He slid his arms under her to hold her in the bridal position he'd seen other happily married couples perform. She didn't weigh as much as she had when he'd found her three years ago, collapsed in the street from hunger.
She'd been kicked out of her home after her mother's death, and hadn't been able to steal any food.
She'd always driven the men in the market crazy, flaunting what little curves she had to distract them while Naruto or one of the others swiped the goods (usually food or medicine). She'd made a few enemies with the other street gangs, but nothing that couldn't be solved with a peace offering.
Now she'd gotten herself poisoned. It was the only possibility. Nothing else could make someone throw up from having one bite of food.
Where on earth could she have eaten poisoned food? She's a street kid like me, though it isn't by birth. The only people who ever get poisoned in this city are the rich and prominent families.
Had she met a member of one of those families? Or had someone discovered her parentage?
Probably the latter, but even then, that would be nearly impossible. Sakura was close-mouthed about her past. All he or the rest of their group knew was her name, and only he knew her last name.
The former was just ridiculous. Sakura hated rich and prominent families, particularly the Uchiha, though she hadn't told him why. He hadn't asked, not wanting to intrude on her private life because he could tell it was a sore spot for her, and he had many of those himself. They all did.
He brought her up the stairs, mindful of her head and legs in the narrow space, then set her down on the pallet on her bedroom floor. The padding of two blankets wouldn't protect her body much, but it wasn't her outside Naruto was concerned with, it was her inside.
"Naruto? What's wrong with Sakura?" Tenten had woken, probably because of his yelling.
"I think she's been poisoned. Do you have anything that could help?"
Tenten's face went from shock to concern within seconds.
There wasn't much hope they'd find an antidote for her. Antidotes weren't sold to commoners, much less street rats like them.
"If I don't know what kind of poison it is, I can't help much. But I do have something that lessens some symptoms. It isn't a sure thing though. Can you tell me what symptoms she's had?"
"She was dizzy, and she threw up from one bite of bread, and her legs and arms were shaking and could hardly support her. Then she passed out." Naruto rattled off the symptoms he'd noticed and brushed her hair out of her face.
She was running a temperature now, and a very high one at that.
"I think the potion I have should help. But, Naruto, that poison doesn't sound good." Tenten sighed. "She just can't help but be in the thick of things. But this is different. Poisonings usually happen to more prominent families. Sakura isn't from one of those."
"She was." Naruto said softly.
"We all have secrets, and I won't begrudge her hers, but if it puts any of us in danger..." Tenten didn't need to finish the sentence as she exited.
She'd be kicked out of the gang. It was harsh, but surviving in a city like Konoha was hard enough without having more people than usual out for your blood.
"We heard. I think it has to do with her being gone last night." Kiba said softly, appearing suddenly in the doorway, Lee standing just behind him. Akamaru whined pitifully from Kiba's shoulder, expressing his worry in the only way he could.
"Sakura's youth could be cut short! We have to find the perpetrator!" Lee said loudly, making Naruto shush him.
"We'll follow her scent and find out where she was last night. Lee, you come too." Kiba was already turning away. Lee followed him, and soon the two were on the street.
Tenten came back in with a small vial of a rose pink liquid.
"This should help. I lifted it off a merchant about a month ago on a whim." she smiled proudly, but it didn't quite reach her eyes.
Naruto nodded, watching apprehensively as Tenten opened Sakura's mouth and poured some of the pink liquid into her mouth. She then sat her up and tilted her head back so that it would be swallowed.
"Will it work?"
"We can only hope." Tenten left the room with one last worried look for Sakura.
Naruto bit his lip as he watched his feverish friend sleep.
"Dammit, Sakura, what have you gotten into this time?" he asked, though he knew she couldn't hear.
---
"Sasuke, Father wants to see you." Itachi said, poking his head into the room.
Sasuke sat up slowly in his bed, rubbing his eyes clear of sleep. He gave his older brother a sleepy glare that had no effect. He only shot him a scowl back.
"No. I'm going back to bed." he flopped back onto his pillows and jerked the silk coverlet over his head, pulling it in tightly.
"I don't care if you are the heir and neither does he. He's the head of the family and even the heir has to listen. Understand?"
Sasuke mimed choking his brother under the covers.
It didn't make him feel any better though.
"Yes. But I'm going to listen later. Right now, I'm sleeping." Sasuke's voice was muffled, but Itachi could get the gist of what he was saying by his tone.
The older Uchiha growled before crossing the four short strides from door to bed and yanking the covers off his brother.
"Not later. Now."
"No." Sasuke said firmly, getting out of his warm bed to stare his brother down.
At fifteen, Sasuke was just his brother's height and could look him eye to eye. Itachi knew this, and so did Sasuke.
"Brat. What the hell happened to you while we were separated?" Itachi glared back.
For a minute, they stood there, neither blinking, unwilling to bend.
"Nothing. Now get the fuck out of my room. I'll talk to Father now that I'm up." Sasuke bent but only so he could return to bed all the sooner. If he ever caught his brother alone and off guard...
That thought alone was enough to put an evil looking grin on his face.
"Good." Itachi threw the silk coverlet to the floor before storming out and slamming the door.
"Good." Sasuke spat.
He was not a morning person. He hated them with a passion. Everyone in the family knew it, including his father.
So why would he wake up his son if he knew he'd be a grouch?
People would be avoiding him within the compound for the remainder of the day to avoid any of his famous temper tantrums.
He kicked the bed angrily and instantly regretted it when the wooden frame stubbed his toes rather badly. He sat and nursed his wound for a few minutes, milking his time for what it was worth.
He was going to make him wait.
Finally, he decided he'd procrastinated long enough and pulled a shirt from his chest of drawers. He was just pulling it over his head when he noticed the scrap of paper on his desk.
'Be back at noon.'
She knew how to write?
Commoners didn't know how to write, so where had she learned?
A waft of a breeze edged into his room and toyed with his inky locks. The piece of paper with Sakura's thin, flowing script fluttered to the floor and he picked it up, tucking it inside his shirt.
He'd ponder this revelation later when he was through with his father.
---
Naruto wrung out the fifth rag in the last three hours then placed it gently on Sakura's feverish forehead. Despite the wet cloths, her temperature was still high, and that was what worried him. If the fever got too high, she would die.
And he did not want to bury his friend.
"Sasuke..." Sakura groaned in her sleep, her hand clasping on air as if she was trying to grab someone or something he couldn't see.
Naruto's eyes widened when he heard Sakura speak the name of the Uchiha heir.
Every street kid worth his salt knew the names of every heir to the prominent families within Konoha, hoping to get a chance to rob them blind on the streets.
When had she met him?
Yesterday, it had to be. But why would she be saying his name if she hated him?
Her face had looked more peaceful when she'd spoken his name, as if he were a balm for all the hurts she'd suffered.
His face twisted in anger.
It hadn't been his name she'd said, it had been an Uchiha.
Was he that much better than her best friend?
She'd only met him yesterday, what the hell could he have done to make her like this?
The bastard was going to pay.
"Tenten, get in here and keep an eye on her! I have to find Lee and Kiba!" Naruto yelled, pulling on his leather boots.
Tenten rushed into the room, wiping her hands free of flour. She'd been in the kitchen baking fresh loaves of bread. Flour dusted her brown locks white, making her look ghostly.
"Okay. Naruto, why are you so angry?" the look on his face had not escaped her gaze. She placed a hand on his shoulder only to have him pull away and exit the room.
"I know where she was yesterday! I need to tell Lee and Kiba!" he was already downstairs.
"Stay safe!"
---
"Why isn't he sick, old man? There should be news already that the Uchiha heir is sick and dying! You lied to us!"
"N-No, I put it in, I swear! I don't know why it didn't work!"
"You're dead. You and your family."
The poor cook fell to his knees, hands clasped tightly together, begging silently for another chance.
"Sir, we were watching his room this morning and we saw a girl leave. Maybe the food was for her?"
"Then it was wasted. You're lucky we were watching, old man. Keigo, what did she look like? If she was in his room, she may be a hostage we can use against the boy."
"She had pink hair, and green eyes-"
"-Sakura?"
"Sir? You know her?"
"Yes."
Keigo shifted his weight on his feet, expecting to hear more, but his master was silent.
It didn't matter anyway, he'd probably be meeting the girl soon.
His master always kept track of his women.
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A/N: R&R Please!
Also, the next chapter is one of the reasons this is rated M.
Just a heads up.