do not own naruto

Phobia

by Riverhaze

Chapter Six

Sakura was passed out on her desk when the Hyuuga's popped in for a visit. Almost two months had passed at this point, and Sakura was waiting on pins and needles for the Anbu to come back from the Wind Country. They were tracking down the source, led by Temari for good measure. That way she knew things would get done quickly, Sakura would have gone herself but no one trusted her to return.

After spending the morning locked in meetings and discussing funds for a new wing, a possible mental institution, and quelling false rumours about the disease to the press, Sakura was exhausted. So naturally she thought she'd just put her head down and rest her eyes on her lunch break, just for a little while. Almost two hours later, Ino was banging on her door shouting something about Hiashi Hyuuga.

She looked up, blinking in a daze still thinking about lollipops because they had been important in her dream. The Head of the Hyuuga clan pursed his lips at her as he took in Sakura's unprofessional state. Her hair a mess of tangles on her head, drool collecting on her desk, and a sticky note pressed to her cheek. Next to him stood Hinata smiling politely, her belly very tiny but noticeable. Several bodyguards milled about outside in the hallway behind Ino, no doubt there were several more on top of the roof and standing on the windowsill outside.

"Ah, yes, what can I do for you both?" Sakura cleared her throat and pressed her hair down, tossing the ruined paperwork randomly inside a desk drawer. Ino pointed to her cheek, with an embarrassed tint of red Sakura ripped the sticky note off.

"Erm, right. As I understand, you are second only to Tsunade in the medical arts. My daughter Hinata is pregnant, and wish that you be her sole doctor during the process for any complications that may occur." Hiashi motioned to Hinata who darted her eyes to her lap to avoid Sakura's emerald eyed stare. Ino's eyes looked like they were about to pop out of her skull, Sakura hoped not she didn't feel like pushing them back in.

"Oh! Well, thank you for such an...honor. I am very busy at the moment dealing with the ongoing epidemic, and it is inadvisable that we care for the fetus here. We're not sure what we are up against, just that the disease may be chakra oriented. We have taken to house visits for children born to shinobi for this very reason. I'll be able to visit on Tuesdays at three, when I am unable to make it Ino here will step in. Does that sound alright?" Sakura leaned back in her seat, not really fully aware of the commitment she had just made. But the words sounded right, and both of them looks satisfied.

"That sounds amicable. We also have our clan physician looking after her as well, you can share notes with him. Let's go, Hinata. We have lunch with the dammed husband of yours." Hiashi grumbled, slowly getting to his feet. Hinata silently nodded, quickly jumping out of her seat.

"Thank you so much, Haruno-san." Hinata bowed slightly, moving stiff and awkwardly after her father. Once the door was closed behind them, Sakura blew out a gust of air from her lips as Ino started freaking out. Then again, when wasn't Ino freaking out.

Line Break

Several days later, before Sakura could even make her first house call, a small piece of paper was waiting for her on her desk. She recognized the handwriting immediately, large and blocky.

'Anbu is back, they have the man who created the disease, come to my office.'

She jumped up so quickly she banged her knees on her desk, cursed, and told Ino she was in charge until Sakura got back. She took a few advanced medic nins with her for good measure, arriving at the Hokage tower a few minuets later. Naruto's office was calm, only the Anbu leader inside going over the mission report.

"Ah, Sakura-chan." Naruto said as the medic nin entered followed by her party. He picked up an extremely battered leather folder off his desk and handed it to her tentatively. Sakura took it and opened it, disturbed at how much detail the man went into his experiments.

With a bone chilling shudder she was reminded of Orochimaru, that dammed snake an his cursed experiments. What Orochimaru had been mutilating his way to was immortality, what this man wanted was to kill as many people as possible. It was a jutsu, plain and simple. So complex and almost self aware, the jutsu was engineered to mimic a disease so well it had been hiding in plain sight all along. Sakura's head was spinning, this was such a breakthrough regardless that the ninja world would be shaken to its core once it got out.

Sakura had to master it, know the ins and outs before any one. Just another puzzle, she told herself. Cracking the code meant finding a cure, and gaining this knowledge to put it toward a better use. She had to meet this man.

"Alright, I'll get started right away." She said and turned to leave with the other medics.

"Sakura, wait." Naruto said. Sakura turned back around, slightly frightened he was going to plead with her not to leave. "The man is facing trial, after the Anbu interrogate him, since he is a citizen. The disease effected other nations so the Kage's from the Wind, Mist, and Earth will come to the trial. You're to be a witness on the stands to describe the disease and give your opinion." He said. Sakura let out a silent breath of relief.

"Alright, just send me a date and time, and I'll get right on it." Sakura said and left with her fleet medics. She already had them assigned to various research tasks before they even arrived back at the Hospital. Reserving one of the larger conference rooms on the third floor, Sakura had Ino meet her there with several orders to Ichiraku's as the trusted medics came scrambling inside with the books, medical journals, scrolls, and numerous other texts she sent them after.

They all sat in silence, eagerly awaiting the next order to come from her mouth.

"We have the journals the sick bastard that invented this jutsu kept. Yes, we are up against a jutsu, not a disease. I've never seen anything like this before, we have eighty five dead already, over two hundred infected and about half of those close to perishing themselves. This group right here, we are going to find a cure before this spirals out of control. No one sleeps, no one showers, no one leaves this room until we've cracked this code. I hope you like ramen." Sakura locked the door to the room with a small silver key.

For the next forty two hours, Sakura and the group brainstormed their way to figuring out the jutsu. The creator had nicknamed it 'Jolly' for whatever creepy reason, so they took to referring to it as well. Better than Haruno Fever, at least. What had them stumped was just exactly how the jutsu mimicked a disease. It was this secret that made it resilient to medical jutsus and even old fashioned cures as well. It had something to do with chakra and the victim's own natural supply, that much they did know.

Halfway through the third day when the room started to stink with all of their funk, one of her assistants tried breaking down the door to inform Sakura about the House Call to Hinata Hyuuga she was supposed to make. She was going to decline, they were so close to cracking the case she could taste it on the tip of her tongue along with the day old ramen. Ino convinced her she could keep order, besides she should only be gone for an hour at least. Fresh air will do you good, too.

The fresh air did do some good for Sakura. She felt her head spinning and felt a little high as she walked down the street in a daze. The briefcase in her hand wobbled as she swung it around like a child, people stared at her as they crossed the street to avoid her. Boozing like Tsunade, they'd say.

Huh, Naruto obviously had moved out of that crappy apartment since she left. It wasn't the Hokage Mansion she remembered visiting Tsunade-sama at back in the day, but it was still pretty nice. A stand alone two story cottage with a cute orange tree out front. Of course there was an orange tree. In fact, the house reminded her of one she had seen out in the Land of Waves. Right on the edge of the ocean looking out onto an emerald green lagoon, real nice. The people had been nice too.

"Welcome, Haruno-sama. Please, make yourself comfortable, I'll let Lady Hinata know you are here." A Hyuuga servant pried the briefcase out of Sakura's hands, shoved a cup of tea in her hand instead, and steered her over to a plushy looking couch before the pinkette could even raise her hand to knock. She sat in silence, placing the cup of tea on the coffee table in front of her. There were pictures hung up on the wall, most of them a giddy and smiling married couple. Sakura spotted the infamous Team Seven photo taken during their childhood and felt her stomach lurch. She had burned that picture a long time ago.

"Forgive me, Haruno-sama, I was out back in the garden." Hinata bustled in followed by the servant who Sakura had to guess was the heiress' wet nurse. The lilac dress Hinata was wearing swirled at her ankles like water, it hugged her frame perfectly in a way that would make any man drool. She didn't look like she had been gardening to Sakura.

"Oh, it is quite all right, Hinata-san. And please, we have known each other long enough, call me Sakura." The medic smiled in her spot on the couch, which was sucking her in like quick sand. Soon she would pass out on it if she wasn't careful.

"Yes, Sakura-san. My apologies for my father yesterday if he was rather blunt, he is very concerned." Hinata smiled very meekly, her pearl colored eyes hooded and unreadable.

"I would hope so, having your first kids is no laughing matter. Now, lets get started." Sakura rubbed her hands together, eager to knock out this appointment and return to saving lives. She did the usual, recorded heart rate, took blood pressure, and checked other vitals. She went over Hinata's diet even though she knew she wouldn't need to. Her family doctor had already cleaned it up, Hinata was even chowing down on the food she was growing in the backyard. Sakura wondered if she had a fleet of servants doing all of this for her, but she couldn't sense anyone other than the one hovering behind the couch. Once everything was in order, she turned her attention to the fetus.

"Is it true that some of the Kyuubi's chakra could be inherited by the child?" Hinata asked tentatively, after a prolonged silence. Maybe this is what they were scared of.

"No, that's not how it works. Shouldn't the Hyuuga know that? I'm sure one of them has taken a glance already a few times." Sakura quipped a little irritably as she observed the developing baby. Good, healthy, exceptionally so for nine weeks. A little foolish, but she could see how someone would connect the dots, if they dropped out of the Academy. As if the Kyuubi, a demonic entity not of this world could just be transferred so easily, almost like a disease. Almost made her laugh.

Then it hit her. She almost gasped out loud, everything around her just froze for half a second as the answer was laid out in front of her. How obvious, why hadn't she noticed before!? Now Sakura was looking around, questioning the world around her like she discovered some ancient arcane magic.

"Yeah, I have. My sister likes to freak me out, and sometimes when my mind wanders I think about it..." Hinata trailed off, turning pink with embarrassment that rubbed off on Sakura.

"That's just your anxiety manifesting itself about the pregnancy, it happens." She quickly dismissed it, the flicker of green chakra from her palms wearing off. "I have to go now, I'll send you a note!"

Hinata was left staring a little confused at how quickly Sakura had left. Like she teleported or something, maybe she did. Had she said something wrong? Was Sakura upset? She also did not get the chance to ask Sakura how to keep healthy from the new flu.

"Oh, she didn't drink any tea." The nurse pursed her lips.

edited 4/7/15