I would like to thank Masashi Kishimoto and those involved in the Sunny Side Battle OVA for their inspiration and creativity.

Chapter 8: Out of the Night

It was midnight, and Tsubaki found herself cold and wet. And regrettably, awake. The Land of Storms had finally decided to live up to its name, and a sudden thunderstorm had forced them to take shelter in a small cave. Unfortunately, the downward slope of the ground had invited streams of rainwater to pool, turning the cave floor to a muddy mess over the course of the night.

Surprisingly, the wretched state of the cave was not what was keeping Tsubaki awake. A rattling cough echoed off the walls of the cave.

She sat up from her mud-soaked bedroll. She ran her hands through her mud-caked hair, and she grimaced as she noted the way the mud had seeped into her clothing. She wrinkled her nose at the stench.

She growled. Someone had a lot of nerve to be suffering from respiratory distress while she was attempting to catch up on three years of sleep debt.

The cough sounded again, followed by three more in quick succession. She stood and followed the noise. Her feet sank into the mud nearly up to her ankles with each step.

She found him just outside the cave entrance. He stood hunched over in the rain, leaning against the rock surface for support as he fought for air.

When he sensed her approach, he attempted to straighten. In the dark, she couldn't see him clearly, but the light from his Sharingan was unmistakable.

"Itachi-san, what's wrong?" From Orochimaru's mission briefing, she knew Itachi suffered from a degenerative condition of his eyes. She was supposed to use her medical ninjutsu in order to increase their proximity and gain his trust. She wasn't aware, however, of any other illnesses.

"It's nothing. Go back to sleep."

It clearly wasn't nothing. "Nonsense. You woke me up, and there's no way I'm falling asleep anytime soon in these conditions. At least let me examine you."

"No." She felt the subtle pressure in her head that told her he was trying to use his Sharingan to peer into her mind again. He didn't trust her. Fair enough. He really shouldn't. That didn't make it any less exasperating.

"Whatever it is, standing outside in a thunderstorm isn't going to make it better unless lightning strikes you and puts an end to your misery. At least come back into the cave."

Her words triggered an image of Sasuke charging towards him with a screeching Chidori. Perhaps lightning would put an end to his misery, but it wouldn't be tonight. "I prefer not to disturb Kisame." This statement was punctuated by another cough.

"Oh, for Kami's sake I'm sure he's already awake. But if he's not, I'll go wake him and get his opinion on whether or not we all would benefit from any medical treatment I could offer you."

Itachi stared at her. "Kisame is a heavy sleeper. It would be unwise to wake him." He took a slow, deep breath. "This has nothing to do with you."

His breathing was stabilizing. Tsubaki doubted he would waste so much breath to lie about Kisame's morning disposition, so she tried to offer a compromise. "If you come back inside now, I'll wait to ask him until morning."

Itachi sensed the worst of his attack had passed. He inclined his head in acceptance and proceeded slowly back inside the cave. He concentrated his chakra to keep from sinking into the mud, and reclined against the cave wall.

Tsubaki returned to her bedroll, not bothering with chakra control. She was already wearing a cloak of mud, anyway, and she couldn't muster up the strength to care as she sunk into a numbing sleep.

When Tsubaki woke again, she sensed she was alone. She emerged from the cave to note with gratitude that the storm had thankfully. Once again, the sun shone without a cloud in the sky. She also saw that both her partners had already washed away the evidence of their rough night. Which left her looking and smelling like something that had crawled out of a sewer.

"Morning Tsubaki-san! You look horrible," Kisame informed her. Itachi didn't look up from the skillet where he was preparing breakfast with single-minded focus. She smelled eggs frying.

"Morning Kisame. Thanks for the honesty," she returned. "I'm going to wash up. When I get back, we need to talk."

"Hurry up or you'll miss breakfast," was Kisame's reply.

It took far longer than she would have liked to wash the last particles of mud from her clothes and body, especially as she took extra care to make sure there were no surprise ninja hiding beneath the water's surface, but when she returned to their camp, she was clean. Even if her clothes were still slightly damp.

She helped herself to the last egg from Itachi's skillet. It was cooked to perfection. "Kisame. Are you aware of your partner's condition?" she asked between bites.

Kisame looked like he'd swallowed something the wrong way. He glanced back and forth between Tsubaki and Itachi. "What condition?" he asked. It was a safe, diplomatic response. Tsubaki rolled her eyes.

"I caught him coughing up a lung last night, and he tried to tell me it was 'nothing.' He declined my offer to examine him and offer whatever healing I could. Now that it's daytime, I need you to explain to him that as a team, we need him in top condition."

Kisame realized he was trapped. Two sets of eyes looked at him with stone-willed determination. He opted for a strategic retreat. "You two can talk it out while I take care of the dishes," he said, escaping with all the grace and subtlety of a shark caught in a fishing net.

Itachi let out a small sigh. "Go ahead if you insist," he said flatly. "If you attempt to harm me, you will die." At their first encounter, he had placed a genjutsu suggestion that would activate if she ever attempted to attack him in earnest. She would wind up impaling herself on her own blade in short order. He considered it a courtesy to warn her, especially since she was so obviously hiding something.

"Of course, Itachi-san." Her tone somehow seemed to mock his courtesy. He removed his cloak and sat down on a flat rock.

Tsubaki came to stand in front of him. "That shirt will need to come off, too."

Without any change in his expression, Itachi removed his shirt. He folded it with precision. He met her eyes steadily, searching for any hint of deception.

"Thank you." Tsubaki maintained her professional demeanor. After three years with Kabuto, she had seen nearly everything. That did not stop her from making the objective assessment that Itachi Uchiha was a work of art. His thin frame accentuated his musculature, which belonged in an anatomy textbook. A swirling tattoo decorated his left arm.

She watched the rise and fall of his chest. Requested that he breathe deeply. Listened to his heart and lungs. Then finally she passed her hands slowly and deliberately over his front and back, probing with chakra as she went. Itachi remained motionless and never took his eyes off of her.

At one point, she raised her hand toward his eyes. He grabbed her wrist. "Don't."

"If you'd let me check–"

"No."

She sighed and resumed her exam. He didn't yet trust her with his eyes. She felt his irregular pulse. Noted swelling in his right calf. His veins in his neck were mildly distended, and his liver was enlarged.

After several minutes, Tsubaki withdrew. There was no doubt in her mind: Itachi was dying. He might survive for a year without treatment, but anything further was terribly unlikely. "You're sick," she told him plainly.

Her patient didn't respond. He knew.

"Really sick. Itachi-san, your lungs are in terrible shape. They're full of fluid and there's a large blood clot putting strain on your heart. Your kidneys are fine, and you're lucky your brain still works, but if this continues you're going to have a stroke. Your body is at war with itself."

Itachi's mind was at war with itself. He should never have let anyone this close, much less someone able to ascertain his weaknesses and potentially exploit them. He was considering threatening her when she spoke again.

"You're lucky we caught this when we did. It could have killed you, otherwise." His immune system was attacking his own tissues, and the blood clot had caused the right side of his heart to swell to twice its normal size. Every breath he took would be incredibly painful, yet she had watched him spar as if it were nothing. How could someone hide so much pain?

Although the precise cause of his particular illness wasn't understood, she knew that stress could exacerbate his condition. And the man before her certainly had reasons to be stressed.

Itachi was surprised by her apparent concern. He was more surprised, however, by her use of the word "otherwise." "You speak as though treatment is possible."

Tsubaki nodded. "Of course it is. If you'll allow me to, I'll start right away. It will probably take more than a day, though, if I don't want to exhaust myself. You've built up a lot of cumulative damage to repair."

He eyed her suspiciously. "I have been told there is no cure."

She looked affronted. "I have not let my patients die in vain," she said solemnly. "In my training, if I couldn't save someone, I worked on their corpse until I found a way to reverse the damage for the next time. There was no cure available for the last person I treated with your condition, but you can bet I figured out a way to treat it if I ever saw it again." Her eyes blazed with emotion at the memory.

"Hn." Itachi was impressed. Her words crept their way deep into his heart. The deaths of her earlier patients allowed her to save more lives later on. At what point was death permissible to save another life? Another hundred lives? He still firmly believed that the deaths of the Uchiha avoided an even greater loss of life that would have resulted from another war. Were those deaths necessary? He had convinced himself they were. Yet in his case, he had actively ended innocent lives, instead of fighting to save them, as Tsubaki had. In the end, he remained guilty, while in this at least, she was innocent.

He wished he had the power to heal instead of to destroy.

"Does that mean you'll allow me to heal you?" Tsubaki asked when he didn't say anything else.

"Go ahead," he replied.

"It will feel strange, but that's normal," she warned as her hands warmed with chakra. Her warning didn't come a moment too soon.

He could feel her chakra moving in his chest. It felt like something was crawling around inside him, and it was distinctly uncomfortable. He was reassured that she was not intentionally causing him harm, given that his genjutsu suggestion had not activated, but he couldn't stop himself from breathing more rapidly.

"I know it's uncomfortable. Superficial healings aren't a problem, but the damage here is deep and severe. Would you prefer to lie down?" she offered. For a moment, the discomfort receded.

He considered refusing. Lying down would leave him more vulnerable. But he realized it would make the healing easier for her if she could lean over him instead of crouching at his side like she was now.

Wordlessly, he lay in the grass. The new position made him cough. He had the sensation he was drowning and sat back up. It had been a long time since he'd slept lying down. He hadn't fully appreciated the progression of his illness. Or maybe he hadn't wanted to. He coughed a large blood clot onto the grass and stared at it as if he could make it answer for its crimes.

"I was afraid that might happen." Tsubaki watched him with concern. "We'll get you propped up. After today you shouldn't have a problem lying flat." It was no wonder he'd had such a horrible time coughing the previous night.

Tsubaki folded Itachi's Akatsuki cloak and used it as a cushion so that he could recline comfortably against a rock. "Is that better?"

He nodded.

Tsubaki wished she could read Itachi's mind. She couldn't tell if he was pleased, irritated, disappointed, or just bored. He trusted her enough to let her examine him and start a healing. What would it take for him to let her near his eyes?

Surely he would appreciate her for healing what he thought was an incurable disease, right? But what if she was mistaken? Could he have wanted to die? He had made it clear he was aware of his condition, and knew it to be fatal. Perhaps he had struggled and finally come to terms with the end of his life, only for her to turn his expectations inside out.

Regardless, she had another excuse to be near him. She did her best to limit the discomfort she knew he would be experiencing. She didn't want him to associate her touch with anything unpleasant. Almost without thinking, she started to hum a calming melody from a song her mother used to sing to her in difficult times. Little had she known just how much more difficult the future would be.

If she had known, what would she have done differently? Was she wrong to set out on her own? Any other path would have involved seeking help from others, and ninja simply couldn't be trusted.

"What song is that?" Itachi asked, startling her. He wasn't usually one to ask prying questions.

"It's a lullaby my mom taught me," she admitted. "Sorry if it bothered you. The lyrics promise a hope for a better future. They tell of a faraway land where all will be well."

Itachi knew. He knew because his mother had once sung that song for Sasuke when he was frightened after a nightmare. Their father had sent the young boy back to his room, instructing him that cowardice was unbecoming of an Uchiha, but shortly after, Mikoto had walked down the hall to offer the comfort that only a mother could.

He wished he could believe in the future the lyrics painted. Blue skies, warm breezes, and a land free of troubles. Unfortunately, when he looked forward at his own future, he saw darkness, sorrow, and death. No amount of healing would save him from his final battle with Sasuke.

Tsubaki did not hum again. Instead, she talked in soothing tones. She told a story of a village surrounded by waterfalls, with colorful birds and brilliant rainbows. She spoke of an over-eager cabbage salesman who was once known as the "King of the Market" for the way he promoted his produce with unrivaled enthusiasm. The stories were simple and light, and he began to relax. His respirations slowed, his breath coming easier than it had in a long time.

The sensation of foreign chakra in his chest slowly changed from uncomfortable to reassuring. "You are not alone," it seemed to insist, even though he knew that was impossible.

He would always be alone, he thought as he drifted off to sleep.

Tsubaki noticed the change in Itachi's breathing. She continued with the healing, even as she took in his serene features. His sharp eyebrows were relaxed, and even his stress lines seemed to soften slightly. She fought the urge to brush his hair away from his eyes, and focused again on the task before her.

When Kisame returned, he was surprised to find his partner lying shirtless on the ground. Tsubaki sat nearby on a rock, watching him with a thoughtful expression. Kisame considered inventing an excuse to delay his return even further, but she had already noticed his presence.

She looked up, with no signs of embarrassment over having been caught staring. Instead, she fiercely lifted a finger to her lips indicating that he was to leave Itachi undisturbed or face her wrath.

While Kisame imagined he could handle her wrath, he knew it had been a long time since Itachi had uninterrupted sleep, so he acquiesced.

Meanwhile Tsubaki wondered how Kisame ever participated in stealth missions. He was noticeable from a mile away. She was glad he had caught her staring. He had been supportive of her pretend infatuation thus far, and it was in her best interest to convince him that her feelings for his partner were genuine.

What troubled her was that it hadn't been quite as hard as it should have been to feign the emotion in her eyes. His criminal acts were still repulsive to her, and she wouldn't forget the way he had humiliated her in their fight. But the more time she spent in his presence, the more she felt something was off. She imagined him as a cold-blooded killer, but she struggled to reconcile that image with the quiet man who had fallen asleep in her presence.

Kisame came and sat by her side. "You're good for him. But be careful. He's a dangerous one."

"I know." She was surrounded by vipers.

Author's Note:

I will head hop and hop until I drop. I don't have enough time or chakra to reconstruct everything in third person omniscient POV, and I want to be in everyone's head.

Itachi has heart failure with atrial fibrillation secondary to his pulmonary embolism possibly provoked by his underlying autoimmune condition. He has secondary liver congestion and orthopnea. He likely has a right-sided deep vein thrombosis.

Until next time.