Hooray for a Double Update! Thank you to everybody still following this story. Things are going to take an interesting twist, the plot is finally starting to reaching a climax. More SasuSaku love on the way following these chapters. Hope you enjoy!
...
The wind tickled her rosette hair as she sat upon the large, inky bird. In her hand was the opened medical notes. She had been scouring them for over an hour while the bird flew toward the pre-set destination where she hoped Sasuke had indeed waited for her, and was doing okay...
The physician's notes were not detailed records of the Uchiha clan's health concerns, to her dismay. Rather, it was some seemingly unrelated research, chock full of terms she had never once heard. It was, however, certainly novel, and she wondered why his family had not shared the information with the medical world. DNA? Chromosomes? Genes? There had to be a connection between the notes and the health of the clan, otherwise there would be no use setting such a heavy seal on them, a seal that most likely took the life of the physician before Itachi ever could...She was only frustrated she could not find the apparent link between this health issue and these research notes...
"I...and my predecessors before me, have discovered that which writes all of our lineage, that which artfully passes on the traits of our ancestors," the physician wrote, "It is concealed tightly within each cell of our being, in a central location. Feeling it is both terrifying and invigorating...it seems that everything, the entire keys to our lives, is tightly woven together in a ladder-like structure, my great-grandfather has named it DNA. There are codes within it, and these codes seem to sew our very beings. They are housed in structures that appear X-like, my grandfather discovered this and has deemed them Chromosomes."
The words seemed strange in her mouth. This was clearly not the medical jutsu that Tsunade had taught her. This was an entirely different world. There had to be an excellent reason he had not shared these with others...perhaps he feared what would become of this if the medical field were to know, or feared ridicule for something so absurd. Whatever the reason, Sakura felt she might never know. She continued reading:
"I have yet to discover how to alter this structure - for the better, of course. This could prove dangerous, and this is why I have not yet attempted it. The village has concealed all medical techniques from our clan, and as such, I am not sure how to use jutsu to alter it..."
Sakura winced at the thought that all medical knowledge had been concealed from the Uchiha clan. Damn it, Konoha...she thought.
"There does seem to be an overall uncomfortable feeling, coming from many of my patients, in the regions of the 271st code..."
"What in the world is he talking about?" Sakura wondered aloud. Deep in her gut, she knew that this should be the link she was searching for. But what patients were coming to him? Did they have the same disease that Sasuke seemed to carry? And what is an "uncomfortable" feeling? How did you even get to this level of smallness to feel something uncomfortable, and if you did, how would you remedy it? She grit her teeth in frustration over these unending questions, when the ink bird suddenly swooped down toward the Earth below.
She had been so busy hunched over the notes she hadn't even realized they had arrived. And suddenly, her stomach was twisted into knots, realizing that she would soon face Uchiha Sasuke again.
Her eyes searched wildly for him in this frosty forest landscape, when finally she saw him standing with his dark cloak concealing his face. The bird began to spiral toward the ground, her signal to dismount. She jumped from the bird as it crashed into its initial puddle of ink once more.
"Sasuke-kun!" she called, running toward him. He moved to greet her as well.
"You've returned," his dark hair shifted in the wind, revealing his purple Rinnegan once more.
"Hai," she blushed, facing away from him as she tried to reign in her feelings for him.
"Thank you...for what you did," she nodded, "...Kakashi let me go without problem."
"Hn."
"...I...hope it was okay," she stammered, "I...visited the compound to see if there was any relevant medical records." He stiffened at her statement, as if she had thrown a blow. He was still sensitive about that house...those ghosts of people he used to know that only haunted him now...
"It's fine," he finally concluded abruptly, "...Did you find anything of use?"
"I...I think so," she responded, "I've studied it the entire way here, but...there's still so much I don't understand."
Sasuke blinked, and she knew he had never studied medical jutsu in depth.
"I'm sorry, but I cannot help you with that."
"It's fine. How have you been feeling lately?"
"Fine."
"...I mean, any pain from your lungs?"
"...Ah."
She observed his guarded nature, wondering how he had truly been feeling. It would be up to her to decide this. She noted his pale face, paler than usual, the way his clothes seemed heavier on him than usual, the way he stood at a strange angle and the sound of his still seemingly labored breathing.
"...Well, I've brought with me some supplies, let's start with lunch, and I'll get to work. Is that alright?"
"Hn. But first, we need to move. There have been scouts out search for us."
"Hai."
With that, Sakura followed him into the forest once more.
...
This research was taking too long.
She had been reading over her notes in their new camp for over a week now, noting his condition only worsening. She healed the collateral damage as much as she could, but it was clear the illness had reached its peak and was fighting his health with fury. He was thinner than he'd ever been, his eyes swollen in his sockets. She had instructed him only to sit and rest, and she could feel his eyes anxiously watching her. She could feel no sense of doubt coming from him, only eagerness, and it made her blood rush with adrenaline all the more, trying to find a cure before the illness caught up with her...She had a better idea of the structure of this small microcosm by examining her own cells, but finding something in the exact spot...she wasn't sure how to do this.
But it was that night, a week since she'd arrived, that things took a turn for much worse.
Suddenly, without warning, he spat blood and trembled, falling onto his hands.
"Sasuke-kun!" she cried, rushing to his side only to observe the terror in his dark eyes.
"...Can't...breath," he struggled to speak.
She pulsed her chakra through his system, frantically trying to clear his airway. Where had all this blood suddenly come from?!
She managed to clear it, but it was clear without changing the source of the problem, it would only continue. He had fallen to the ground in an unconscious state, and it was then she knew it was now or never. She couldn't know everything about this illness, but she would have to know enough to treat it. Now, or...it might be the end for him. And she had a promise to keep. She wasn't going to let him die here.
She knew what a cell was, she had studied the use of them to divide for her healing jutsu. She cautiously entered his cells with her chakra, probing each of them for something that resembled anything of an X, or a central location, or -
Her eyes dilated.
Perhaps this is what the old book had spoken of.
Something so small, it defied logic and reason. Curled up in the double helicies of the two x-like structures, somewhere held the key to curing the Uchiha of his ailment once and for all.
Of curing the Uchiha clan this ailment for all future generations.
And there was no way in hell she would fail this mission. Her green chakra pulsed determinedly into the very core of each of his cells. The sweat that had beaded on her forehead was now running down her face and dripping onto the ground around where Sasuke lay.
She gritted her teeth. This central location in his cells, it wasn't far enough...Drawing chakra from her own yin seal she pressed further into the depths of this mystery. Her seal began to expand, drawing lines across her entire body.
Finally she began to sense it - the two x-like structures, coiling up the entire mystery of the Uchiha clan. Chromosomes, is that what the book had called them...?
Yet as far as she had come, it was still not far enough. She drew in a ragged breath, yelling in frustration as she pressed even further...
Her eyes dilated.
She had found them.
The double coiled helicies.
In all their beauty. Tears welled up in her eyes. Her chakra scanned over them like a holy fire, searching for that number...Finally she had found it - number 271. Sure enough, it had a certain polarity to it, separating it, that she had a deep feeling it should not...
Suddenly she felt a sickly pulse from inside her. Her well of chakra had been completely and totally drained, and with nothing left, she was fading quickly. Panic set in as she desperately tried to think. She could feel herself zooming back out from where she had worked so hard to gain access to, as if his body were rejecting her presence. Suddenly she knew what she had to do.
"Haahhhh!" she cried, using a jutsu Tsunade had taught her and insisted she never use unless absolutely necessary. With sheer willpower, she used her own lifespan as chakra. She felt her life drain out of her, and suddenly blood spat forth from her throat. The world began to shift black, but she desperately hung on to that region of double helices. She shifted it with her own power, pulling away certain elements until it remained unpolar once again.
Then she collapsed.
...
His vision was blurry, and the entire room quiet. Slowly his hearing came back, the small chirping of crickets from outside the door. Then his sense of feeling returned, and he realized it was cold...finally he was able to open his eyes and see something other than blackness. He had been unconscious many times in his life, but this time, he felt different...
He felt...better.
That sharp pain that usually stung him in his lungs...it was entirely gone.
He slowly sat up, holding his head. And that's when he saw her.
"Sakura!" Sasuke cried, grasping her gently in his arms. She had been sprawled out on the ground, as if she had fallen and never gotten up...
He noted the blood that was dripping from her chin, the way she looked as if she were deathly ill - pale, light, and so cold... He found his Sharingan spinning simply from adrenaline, noting she although she had a pulse, she had no chakra at all.
"Shit...," he cursed breathlessly. What has she done now...?!
Her papers, bookwork, and belongings were all splayed carelessly on the ground around him. The ground beneath her was stained with a crimson color that ran from her parted lips...
...What happened...he tried desperately to remember, as if to be given any clue of how he could help her...
That's right...we were researching, and suddenly I couldn't breathe...
With a pang of immense guilt he realized that must be why she was now in this state. Desperately, he grasped for her papers, shifting through her notebook, searching for anything that could help him. There's nothing!
Determinately he formed a seal, summoning his hawk. He grasped her in his arms, slinging her arm around his shoulder and resting her head on his chest. Her legs dangled from his grasp, and he pulled the two of them onto the back of the great bird, heading back to the only place he believed could help her.
Tsunade...you better fucking be in Konoha...Sakura needs you...