"This is crazy..." Lady Tsunade mumbled under her breath. "I've never seen anything like this, and I've been around some of the most deadly diseases and poisons." In the room, Tsunade, Shizune, and Han observed the children and shared notes with one another.

"So what are you saying Tsunade-sama?" Shizune asked

"I'm saying," She turned to her former student. "We have our work cut out for us." She looked back at the kids with a worried look. "With not a lot of time on our side."

"Can you tell how long they have until they..."

"I'm not sure but for now, with the way they look, I'd say no longer than two weeks. This disease...you said it is making these children rapidly deteriorate?" Tsunade questioned Han who was standing near one of the other children.

"Unfortunately... The adults who caught this strange disease seemed to recover just fine but with the children, it's fatal. So many of our fatalities have been children with this specific disease..." Han trailed off. There was a thickness in the air for a moment as everyone looked at the sickly children in silence. "I...do have a theory.

"... I'm listening."

"Well,' Han swallowed hard and scanned through his notes on his clipboard. "I've been taking care of and observing the children and, though I don't have as much education in medicine, I theorize that this disease hits harder for children is because of their immune system. I-I mean if you think about it, when someone is sick, the body detects the sickness, and our immune system is supposed to fight back and eventually cure us of such sickness, right? It is working with the adults because let's be honest, my people, both from my generation and the generation before have been through hell, including war and diseases. But these children haven't dealt with any serious sickness until now. It's a foreign strain that the body isn't used to fighting and as of now, they're losing the battle."

"Hmm...Mr. Han, you might not be too far off the mark. I'll keep this theory in mind whenever we find out more about this strain. Thank you for sharing."

Han nodded his head. "Of course, thank you for considering despite my lack of knowledge."

Tsunade shot him a smirk. "Nonsense! It doesn't matter if you know more or less than I do, I don't have the time nor the patience to look down on others because of it. I need all hands on this, including yours. Speaking of..." Tsunade questioned her assistant. "Where are Neji and Sakura?"

"I'm ready for this to be over." I bit into my apple and continued talking. "I can't stand seeing these kids get worse and worse while not being able to help them as we should."

Neji inhaled a spoon full of yogurt humming in part of his response. "I know what you mean. I don't know if you sense it like I do but...I can feel the girl's chakra fading by each day. It's not looking good."

"Damnit!" I cursed under my breath. What Neji said was true, I just did;t want to acknowledge it. That girl is fading away and we're still at square one.

"We have to find out what's going on soon or else every last of those kids will die." he said.

"It's got to be something around here causing it." I squinted my eyes as I cracked open the tent he and I were in and took in the scenery. The village's atmosphere definitely picked up a bit as more and more of their old buildings are nearing the halfway mark to being completed. I spotted some of the elders watching some children plat around near the wildflowers and dome taking a sip from the pond near it. "The answer is here, we just have to look a little harder."

Neji, again, hummed in response as he wolfed down another spoon full of yogurt. For the rest of our lunch break, we stood in comfortable silence. I reverted my attention back to the village children and smiled to myself. looking at them made me think of my own children, always playing, always laughing, always fighting... My then warm smiled was slowly replaced with a frown along with a sick feeling down in my stomach.

"What if they were our children?"

The children Neji and I were treating were practically the same ages. What if they fell ill to some unknown disease? What if I had to watch them suffer? Just imagining Shina laid on that hospital bed looking half dead sent chills up my spine.

"If these were our children..."

"They are our children, in a way. They're our patients, our responsibility." Neji focused his eyes on me and continued, "Try not to falter so easily Sakura. It's been a long, yes, but don't be so grim."

I scoffed and looked at him. "I'm not acting grim nor am I faltering. If anything, analyzing this situation has lit a fire up under me." I threw away his and my trash and walked back towards him. "I'm just saying that these kids are dying at a fast rate and for weeks nobody knows what this is nor how they got it. Medical knowledge or not, I would be fighting tooth and nail to try and figure out what's happening to my children and how it all started. I'd do anything to keep babies safe..."

"Speaking of, when's the last time you've seen any of the five children's parents?"

"I've never met any of them actually... Yeah-why aren't they here?"

"It's strange... Maybe they came beforehand? Before we were here?" Neji questioned.

"Even if that were the case, it's been two weeks since we've arrived, and nothing..." I pondered for a second before speaking again. "We should as Han and see what he knows since he's been with the children dor the longest.

After eating and cleaning up the rest of our lunch, Neji and I walked back into the North Wing where Han who was speaking with Lady Tsunade and Shizune. Tsunade took notice of our return and greeted us with a faint smile.

"I see you two are back. Ready to go for another round?"

"We will be but I'm curious about something. Mr. Han," I walked over to him. "Neji and I were discussing some things and I just noticed that none of these kids' parents have shown up. Why is that?"

"Well, that is because two of them lost their parents to the disease and the others are in fear of catching it for a second time."

"Catching it again? So the disease spreads through families?" Shizune asked.

"Well, it's a theory but other patients and their results say otherwise. For every family that has the disease, only one or two have it in the next household which is usually a child."

"Interesting," Tsunade mumbled. "'It may be something certain people are affected by... Then again..."

"So wait back up, two parents are dead and the remaining parents are afraid of getting the disease again, meaning they have had it before? I wonder..."

"What are you thinking?" Tsunade inquired.

"I think... I think we should pay a visit to their families. I don't think we'll get far without talking to the people closest to them."

"I agree," Neji spoke up. "I believe they may give us some hints to go off on and lead us to a cure."

"Going to the parents huh? I can't argue with that and plus, we're going to need all the tips and input we can get. When you take a visit, note down anything that you think could be helpful to this case, And while you're at it, speak around to the village and see what else you can find."

"Yes, Hokage-sama."

"And while you do that, us three will take a history lesson because I have a feeling about this disease and how it's spreading and killing so fast. Good luck to you.