Adult-FanFiction.org : Naruto

Contagious	By : rabid_behemoth Category: Naruto > Het - Male/Female > Itachi/Sakura Views: 3361 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto, not making money, but you already knew that.

Chapter List
- 1
- 2
- 3
CONTAGIOUS

Chapter One: Smile

Two years earlier...

"Something weird is going on."

Sakura lifted her heavy head from the table, peering through half-lidded eyes. "Huh?" she articulated thickly.

"Good lord, somebody get this girl some coffee," a bossy voice commanded.

A moment later a steaming mug appeared in front of Sakura's face. "Here you are, senpai," a different voice chirped. She blinked and sat up a bit, taking a sip of the bitter liquid. It helped.

"Thanks Eri-chan," she managed to smile at the new intern with the short blonde curls.

"You're welcome Sakura-senpai, but you really should take better care of yourself." Her childlike voice sapped most of the bite from the rebuke.

"Yeah Sakura-san, quit getting conned into doubles or you'll work yourself to death. More importantly, you're making the rest of us look bad," agreed Daisuke.

"I know," Sakura grunted. "Either that or beg Shizune for a budget increase to install a pull-out futon in the break room..." Now that was a nice fantasy. What a shame the older nin was as stingy about the hospital budget as the Hokage was about her sake supply. There are some things medical-ninja just learn not to touch...ever.

"Sure, but then we'd have to move everything else out to make room for your stuff, Forehead. 'Cause if you could sleep here we'd never get rid of you," snipped Ino.

Sakura suppressed a snort. "Anyway, what's weird, Ino-pig?" She asked, steering the conversation away from her workaholic habits. This is a lunch break people, not an intervention.

"It's Shizune," Ino responded, low tone promising something juicy. "Earlier today I was looking for the pile of recent intakes to finish them...and she said not to bother! Said she'd be happy to do them herself!"

"Wow, the tyrant volunteered to do paperwork for you? For free?" Daisuke exclaimed. "Who did you have to lay around here to get that kind of favor?"

"That's just it! There's only one possible explanation," Ino continued, stabbing a fork into her salad with relish. "Shizune must have a boyfriend!"

Sakura rolled her eyes. "Don't listen to this nonsense, Eri-chan. Shizune is married to her work."

"Says the pot to the kettle," Ino quipped. Eri hid a giggle behind her hand.

"Still, you have to admit that's pretty out of character for her, Sakura-san," Daisuke pointed out.

"Hn. I can try to probe Tsunade-shishou for information later...assuming anyone ever sees her again." Sakura stared into her coffee thoughtfully. Just how long had her mentor been MIA for? Five days?

"Did Tsunade-sama go somewhere?" Eri asked, confused.

"No, but her birthday was last week. She's probably still lying around her office in an alcohol-induced coma," Ino drawled, popping a cherry tomato into her mouth.

"Or maybe she's got that bug that's been going around," Daisuke offered between bites of his sandwich. "It's in this season."

"The flu is so not fashionable," Ino objected. "Shizune already got it last week, and so did Fuu and Kimiko from medical records, not to mention both my teammates! If I'm next, I just know it'll be Shikamaru's fault —"

Sakura stood, cutting off the impending rant. "I've got patients to see. Coming, Eri-chan?"

"Y-yes, senpai!" the girl squeaked, gathering up her papers and following Sakura out the door.

"ACHOO!"

Ever the professional, Sakura ducked just in time.

"S-sorry, Sakura!" Hinata sniffled.

"It's okay Hinata, you didn't get me," Sakura laughed. "Half of Konoha's been in here, sneezing and hacking and puking on me all week; I'm used to it."

"Oh Sakura, that's awful! Um, a-aren't you worried you'll get it too?"

"Not really, I can always use my chakra to boost my immune system if I have to," Sakura replied, shining a light down Hinata's left ear.

"Wow, that's amazing! Can all medic-nin do that?" Hinata asked, opening her mouth so Sakura could examine her throat.

"Um, probably not...it only takes a minute amount of chakra to boost immunity, so you have to be able to redirect a tiny bit of it over a long period — as long as you want to be protected for. Most people would probably use too much without realizing it and end up exhausting themselves."

"Um...b-but Sakura, if you can do something like that, I wish you would, I'd hate to be the one to get you...get you...a...ACHOO!"

Sakura danced out of the way. "You know Hinata, the way things are going, I just may," she laughed. "Unfortunately you've got the same virus as everyone else, so antibiotics are useless, sorry." She jotted down a prescription for an herbal tea to soothe congestion. "Make this as often as you like, though I can't promise it'll bring much relief. If symptoms change or you get any worse, please let me know." She tore off the paper and offered it to Hinata.

"Th-thank you, Sakura, I will," Hinata sniffed, accepting the prescription gratefully. A soft knock came from the door.

"Yes?" Sakura called.

A head of blonde curls peeked in. "Excuse me, Sakura-senpai."

"Oh there you are, Eri-chan. Come in," Sakura beckoned from her stool, where she sat putting the finishing touches on Hinata's chart. "What's up?"

Eri flounced over to her side, clutching her ever-present clipboard to her chest. "Shizune-senpai wants to see you in her office."

"Ah. Probably to foist the reports she offered to do for Ino back onto me," Sakura muttered. Eri hid her smile behind her clipboard. "Please tell her I'll be over in a moment."

"Yes, Sakura-senpai," Eri sang.

Sakura knocked on the door with her left hand, gripping a fresh cup of coffee in her right. If only they made a coffee IV drip...hey, now that could be your next big research project. Nobel Prize for the addict, please...

"Come in!" Shizune's muffled voice called from beyond the door.

Sakura opened it and stepped inside. She nearly dropped her drink in surprise. Shizune's office was incredibly...neat. Gone were the usual stacks of folders piled on top of folders, the rows of filing cabinets dominating the walls; there was not a loose paper in sight. Even the desk was visible. Sakura picked her jaw up off the (spotless) floor.

"Shizune-senpai...what the heck did you do to your office?"

"Hmm? Oh, I just did a bit of organizing. It's no big deal." She smiled serenely at Sakura.

Sakura stared. Could Ino be right?

"Uh. Okay. Well then. What did you want to talk to me about?" Sakura helped herself to a seat and blew on her coffee.

Shizune flipped through a report absently. "Oh, nothing...I just wanted to check on you, make sure you're doing okay...I know you're seeing a lot of patients with that virus that's been going around. Are you feeling well?"

Sakura raised an eyebrow. Shizune was a busy woman; it was a bit unusual for her to take such an interest in her subordinate's personal health. "Um, no, I feel fine actually. I'm thinking of boosting my immune system with a little extra chakra just in case, though."

"Oh, there's really no need for all that now!" Shizune said lightly. "You don't want to accidentally deplete your chakra; if you haven't caught it yet I'm sure you won't. It can't be all that contagious, right? Cookie, Sakura?" Shizune offered the tin.

Sakura stared. "Uh, no thanks," she declined. "Was there anything else you wanted?"

"Not really. Feel free to take off early today though. I'll see you tomorrow!" Shizune dismissed her with a friendly wave.

Sakura closed the door behind herself and stared down the hallway.

Yeah, Ino was definitely right, something's up with her.

Sakura walked past Tsunade's office on her way out, but there was only darkness in the crack under the door.

"Sakura-chaaaan! You made it!" Naruto grinned up at Sakura over his bowl of ramen.

"Yeah, Shizune let me off early...it was weird," Sakura replied, pulling up a stool to Ichiraku's bar.

"Oi, oi! A miso ramen for Sakura-chan! And another pork ramen for me!" Naruto called to the owner.

"One miso ramen! One pork ramen!" Teuchi called back.

"Naruto, I can order for myself. What if I wanted something else?"

"But you love the miso ramen!" Naruto protested. 'Love' was a stronger word than Sakura would've used, but her teammate did know her tastes.

"Eh, I guess," Sakura admitted with a sheepish smile as Teuchi set a hot bowl in front of her. "Thank you, Teuchi-san. How is Ayame-san?"

"She's sick," Teuchi replied brusquely, turning back to the kitchen.

Sakura raised an eyebrow and leaned over to whisper to Naruto. "Hey, what's with Teuchi tonight?"

"I don't know. He won't speak unless spoken to, and even then he barely talks. But he smiles the whole time like nothing's wrong, it's weird."

"Maybe he's upset his daughter's sick?"

"Everybody's getting sick, it's not a big deal, just a cold. They get better in a few days. Something else must be bothering him." Naruto slurped his noodles noisily.

Sakura picked at her vegetables with her chopsticks. "Shizune was acting weird too today. She was offering to do paperwork for people...and she organized her office."

Naruto's feeding frenzy slowed. "Yanno, Shikamaru's been funny lately too. All cheerful. Yesterday I asked him if he wanted to skive off and get some ramen with me, and he turned me down. Said he had a lot of work to do. Only he actually seemed to be doing it...and not complaining..."

Sakura stared into her bowl, unsettled.

Naruto frowned. "We're not imagining it, right? Should we talk to someone about this?"

"And say what? That people are acting funny and it must be from some kind of weird enemy jutsu...that makes people act funny? We don't have any proof; we're not even sure anything's really happening," Sakura reasoned. "I guess if we see more weird stuff, we should tell someone...but not before then or we'll look like idiots. Which we probably are."

Naruto nodded. "Hey Sakura-chan, how 'bout we meet up, same time next week? If we see anything else strange by then we'll report it, and if we don't, we forget about it."

"Deal," Sakura agreed. She stood up and stretched her stiff back, leaving money on the counter. Naruto looked at her half-finished bowl with longing. Sakura rolled her eyes.

"You can have the rest."

"Yeeeees! You're the best, Sakura-chan!" he cheered, diving in.

"Goodnight, Naruto."

"'ight, Shakula-cham!" he answered, a long noodle dangling out of the corner of his mouth.

Sakura grinned on her way out.

For the next few days, everywhere Sakura went people were sneezing and coughing — a disproportionate amount of which seemed to be directed at her.

Now that's an alarming thought. Maybe you're losing it. Can caffeine withdrawal cause paranoia?

Sakura, ever the cautious type, decided some extra immune system support would be worth the edge of fatigue that came with continual low-level chakra use. She'd been protecting herself ever since an incident four days ago when a child patient of hers literally held his breath and waited until she came within range to cough on her. She'd barely escaped that one with her life and would rather be safe than sorry.

One by one, her co-workers were dropping out sick. She hadn't seen Ino in several days. Shizune should have been manic, trying to fill shifts with a constantly dwindling supply of staff, but all she did was smile and offer cookies to everyone. Sakura couldn't figure it out.

And still nobody had seen Tsunade.

Sakura sighed and pulled out yet another folder from the dusty filing cabinet. November, December, January, February, March...here it is, April. Just as she opened the thick file, the medical records door creaked. Blonde curls popped into view.

"Sakura-senpai? What are you doing down here?" Eri asked.

"Eri-chan, you're still here! I didn't think we had any other staff left," Sakura said, only half-joking. "I'm looking up the admission records for this month, I want to find out how many people have gotten sick exactly. This is looking like a full-blown epidemic."

"What's it say?" The small girl peeked over her shoulder.

Sakura glanced down at the figures. "It says...it says...oh god...this has to be half of Konoha's entire population!" The color drained from Sakura's face. It was far worse than she imagined. And this was just the number of reported cases...

Sakura snapped the file shut. "I need to get this photocopied. And I need to speak with Shizune immediately. And I really need a cup of coffee." She could feel the headache coming on already.

"I'll get it!" chirped Eri.

"It's okay, Eri-chan, the break room is on my way," Sakura said, setting off at a brisk pace. With so many germs flying around it's better to get your own coffee. Yikes.

A few minutes later, armed with cup in one hand, photocopied file in the other, Sakura marched straight to Shizune's office and rapped on her door.

"Come in!"

Sakura let herself in and sat down with a businesslike thump, wasting no time getting to the point. "Senpai, I think we have an emergency situation."

Shizune, sitting at her desk, looked up from her paperwork.

"What do you mean?" She sat back and picked up Tonton, scratching the pig behind her ears.

"I mean an epidemic. This virus is out of control, about half the population has been admitted here in the last few weeks," Sakura replied, using her no-nonsense voice. Shizune fed Tonton some cookie crumbs.

"Oh Sakura, you worry too much. It's not a deadly outbreak or anything, just an unusually contagious cold. Everyone's fine, right?"

"Everyone is not fine, senpai! I don't think you're taking this seriously enough. We are horrifically understaffed, and if the disease is really that infectious things are only going to get worse before they get better." Sakura came close to shouting at her superior.

"But there's nothing we can do. Let the epidemic run its course, everyone will get sick for a short while, then things will go back to normal. It's not such a big deal."

Sakura stared. "Shizune-senpai. The people who get sick...we don't even know what this virus is. What if they don't go back to normal?" Sakura looked at Shizune. Shizune's eyes narrowed imperceptibly.

"I will speak to Tsunade-sama about it," she acquiesced, still stroking Tonton.

Sakura seethed and bit her tongue.

"Was there anything else you wanted?"

"No, senpai."

Shizune held up a tin. "Care for a cookie?" She smiled sweetly.

Sakura glared and left without another word.

The pale solution in the test tube glimmered under the flourescent lights. Sakura added the protease carefully, followed by the RNase to remove solids from the cell (a skin sample she discreetly scraped off a sick patient).

Sakura was not one to sit on her butt and do nothing if a situation needed fixing. If Shizune didn't want to take this threat seriously, Sakura would find out what this virus was and make her take it seriously.

Now to precipitate the DNA with alcohol. Her gloved hands picked up the flask of freezing ethanol and poured it into the test tube. She placed the sample in the centrifuge sitting on the lab's counter next to her workspace. After taking it for a spin, a tangled mass of white strands clumped together at the bottom.

Bingo.

Sakura helped herself to another cup of coffee as the pellet air-dried. A few minutes later she had the extracted DNA suspended in water and mounted under a powerful microscope. She pressed her eye to the lens eagerly.

The virus' DNA was quite normal.

What gives? It looks like any ordinary cold. Why is it spreading so aggressively?

Sakura studied the specimen for over an hour, taking meticulous notes. She compared several chromosomal locations with a database containing information on common viral strains, but found nothing too unusual. Sure, there were a few mutations here and there, but that was only to be expected.

There was one location that piqued her curiosity. The nucleotides were arranged in such a way that they looked nonfunctional, like a piece missing from a puzzle. It was probably a useless mutation that had no evolutionary value and was in the process of slowly disappearing from the strain. At this chromosomal location, Sakura conjectured that maybe it once contained instructions for the host cell that controlled either protein production or reproduction. Obviously there were no reference books for each of the billions of variations of viruses found in humans, so Sakura just didn't know for sure. Yet.

Growling in frustration, she put her lab coat away and packed up her stuff. She had a sick friend to check in on, and who knew? Maybe Ino would have some ideas about more tests she could run on the DNA sample. Sure! Just picture it, you and Ino sitting around her living room, chatting about men, hospital gossip, that stupid new zombie movie...and molecular biology.

Sakura burst into peals of laughter as she marched down the hallway on her way out. Eri stared after her in bewilderment.

"Ino-pig!"

Sakura rapped on the door again, shifting the grocery bag onto her hip.

"Hey, open up! I've got soup and stuff for you!"

"Who is it?" a muffled voice called from inside the little apartment.

"It's Sakura of course! Who else calls you 'pig' with such affection?"

The door cracked open, revealing Ino's smiling face.

"Hi, Sakura! How are you?"

Sakura stared. "What did you do with Ino?"

"Huh?"

"You know, Ino. Long blonde hair, about yay high, looks just like you...except much bitchier."

"You're a riot, Sakura," Ino giggled. Was that...sarcastic or not?

Sakura blinked. "You must really be sick. I, uh, brought you soup. And magazines. And stuff."

"Thank you Sakura, but I'm actually feeling much better now."

"Oh. Really?" Sakura blinked in surprise.

"Yep. I think I'm over it. I was just about to go to bed actually. But thanks anyway."

"Ah. Okay. You're welcome...I guess, uh...I'll see you at work tomorrow then?"

"Sure thing. Goodnight, Sakura...a...a-CHOO!"

Sakura swerved to the right, narrowly avoiding the blast and making intimate friends with a nearby flowering hedge. She was still boosting her immune system with chakra, but that didn't mean a point-blank hit like that would've been safe.

"Are you sure you're better? You seem off to me," Sakura pointed out incredulously, plucking a twig from her short, pink hair.

"Everything's fine, I promise! 'Night!" The door clicked shut on Ino's smile.

The setting sun dyed the streets of Konoha a rich ochre. Sakura hurried to Ichiraku. She was already late, and she didn't want to miss Naruto; she was dying to hear his reaction to her news of more strange behavior. She wondered what their next move would be.

As if Ino's weirdness yesterday wasn't enough, it seemed to be spreading through all the medical staff at the hospital. They carried on as normal, making small talk and doing their jobs, but something was off. Everyone was just a tad too smiley, a bit too polite. The change was almost imperceptible, but once she noticed it, it was unnerving.

Sakura pulled aside the curtain and stepped into the cozy restaurant. She spotted Naruto on his usual stool in the middle of the polished wooden counter.

"Naruto! I'm so glad you're still here, I have so much to tell you," Sakura gushed, taking a seat next to him.

"Sakura-chan. It's nice to see you. What's on your mind?" Naruto smiled and picked up some noodles with his chopsticks.

"I found more people acting weird besides Shizune. Ino, and the people at work...they're all being too nice."

Naruto laughed. "That doesn't sound so terrible. Why are you complaining about people being nice?"

Sakura blushed, feeling a bit foolish. "That's not the point! The point is that it's weird. It's an unusual change, and we agreed last week that if we saw anything else strange, we'd talk to someone about it...right?"

"What strange things? Who would we talk to about people being too nice? The Hokage?" he chuckled into his soup.

Sakura grew distressed. "What happened to what you said last week? Why aren't you taking this seriously anymore?"

"Relax, Sakura, it's not a big deal."

Sakura was getting real tired of people telling her to relax. She was about to tell him so when a bowl of steaming ramen appeared in front of her.

"Have some miso ramen on the house, Sakura-san," Teuchi interrupted. Sakura stared at his smiling face, then at Naruto's identical one.

"I already ate." She got up and left.

Major alarm bells were ringing in Sakura's head now. Something was wrong in Konoha. On a hunch, Sakura went home and browsed through her pilfered copy of the hospital admission records. She didn't think it was a coincidence that people started acting weird shortly after an unidentified virus began infecting everyone in sight. She couldn't possibly imagine what one had to do with the other, but she couldn't ignore the facts either.

After a cursory examination, Sakura could see she was onto something. Many of the names on the list were people she'd observed acting oddly. Shizune's name was on there...Ayame, the ramen chef's daughter, as well as Teuchi himself...and Ino...and as of a few days ago, Naruto...

Sakura needed to talk directly to Tsunade, but no one had seen the woman in two and a half weeks. Going through her aides to make an appointment was no good, she couldn't trust any of the medical staff anymore. She needed to talk to some figure of authority, though, and she needed to do it now. But who?

Sakura smacked her palm into her forehead at her own shortsightedness. Of course! Kakashi-sensei. His name wasn't on the admission records, he'll know what to do!

Sighing in relief, Sakura bounded off for her sensei's place on the other side of town.

Sakura climbed the rickety wooden staircase to her sensei's second floor apartment eagerly. She knocked on the door and waited.

And waited.

"Sensei? Are you home? It's Sakura, I need to talk to you," she shouted, knocking again. Silence.

Determined, she decided to use the more personal, teammates-only entrance. She descended the staircase and shimmied up the drain pipe to her sensei's bedroom window. Grabbing hold of the potted plant holder beneath it for support (empty, save for a single dying cactus...Sensei must have worked hard to neglect Mr. Ukki. How do you even manage to kill a cactus?) she thrust her head to the side to peer into the window.

Her knuckles were poised in the air about to tap on the glass when she froze. Kakashi was home alright, not to mention naked and dripping wet. His back was to her as he toweled off his hair. Sakura's eyes fixed on his rear first (you can't blame the girl), before traveling up his back to a patch of dark color between toned shoulder blades.

Is that a tattoo? When the hell would sensei have gotten that? Or maybe it's just a rash?

Sakura squinted and leaned forward trying to get a better look. The drain pipe supporting her let out a groan.

Kakashi whirled and locked eyes on her through the window, expression thunderous. Sakura started.

"What do you think you're doing?" Kakashi snapped, throwing his window open. Sakura stared in shock at the tone of voice of her normally easy-going sensei.

"N-nothing! I didn't see anything, I swear!" Sakura insisted, shaking her head. "I just wanted to see if you were home, I'm sorry!"

Kakashi eyed her, mouth a hard line. "You didn't see anything?"

"N-no! Nothing good, promise!" Sakura replied, forcing a smile.

Kakashi relaxed, frown melting into a grin. "That's okay, Sakura. It's nothing you haven't caught a glimpse of before on missions anyway, eh?" He chuckled. "You might as well come in, I'll meet you at the door."

Unnerved, Sakura slid down the drain pipe.

"So what you brings you here out of the blue? Wanted to pay your respects to your favorite teacher?" Kakashi quipped, indicating Sakura should have a seat on the sofa. She plopped down on the worn gray leather, shaking her head.

"Uh, not this time, sensei. I need to talk to you about something important."

"Go for it. I'll make tea." He drifted away into the tiny kitchen.

This gave Sakura pause. "Since when do you drink tea, Kakashi-sensei?"

"Since recently. It's good for your health, you know," Kakashi called over the creak of cupboards opening and closing.

Since when does Kakashi-sensei take care of his health?

Shrugging off an unidentifiable feeling, Sakura continued, "Well health is kind of what I wanted to talk to you about. You must have noticed something weird is going on in the village lately."

The sound of boiling water floated from the kitchen.

"Sensei?" Sakura prompted.

"I'm not sure what you mean."

"Just that for the last few weeks, more and more people have been acting...funny. You haven't noticed?"

"Funny like how?" Kakashi asked, appearing in the doorway to the living room. He had a peaceful expression on his face and held out a tray with two steaming mugs on it. "Tea, Sakura?"

Sakura couldn't help but stare. "Um, no thanks."

"No really, I insist." Kakashi flashed her a smile beneath the mask. He held out the tray obstinately. Sakura took a mug and stared into its murky contents.

"Funny like...not themselves. Off, somehow. It's hard to explain." She snuck a glance at her sensei.

"Hmm. I'm afraid I don't really know what you mean. Everyone seems normal to me," Kakashi responded smoothly, taking a sip of his own chipped mug.

Sakura was getting a very bad feeling. But his name wasn't on the admission records! Why is he acting this way? Oh no —

"Sensei, you haven't been...sick lately, have you?"

"Hmm?" Kakashi paused, thinking. "Well now that you mention it, I did have that bug that's been going around. Don't worry Sakura, I'm sure it's not contagious." Smile. He glanced at Sakura's unmoving hands. "Drink your tea before it gets cold."

The hair stood up on the back of Sakura's neck. How could she have made such an oversight? Kakashi-sensei NEVER goes to the doctor's no matter how sick he is! Of course he's not listed on the records!

"...I'm not thirsty," Sakura replied with a dry throat, setting down her mug.

Kakashi looked at her. "Then can I get you something to eat?" he asked, just a bit too casually.

"Since when do you offer anyone free food?" Sakura shot back, eyes narrowing. She was beginning to sweat.

Kakashi said nothing. He put down his own mug before locking eyes with her for a long moment. Sakura's stomach flipped-flopped.

"Is there...something else I can get you?" Kakashi asked, voice low. There was a peculiar gleam in his eye. Suddenly he was close enough she could smell him. Sakura froze as his face inched nearer. Before she understood what was happening, Kakashi had pulled his mask down. She could count his eyelashes, felt his warm breath fanning across her lips...

Sakura yelped and leapt off the couch as though burned.

"Kakashi-sensei, what the hell!?"

A dark look clouded Kakashi's face for an instant. It was utterly foreign on him; Sakura glanced at the door, taking an automatic step back.

"Sakura," he said, tone gentle, that relaxing smile painted on his lips again. He raised his hands in a supplicating gesture. "Wait...it's okay, I just want to..."

Kakashi lunged, but Sakura was already out the door. She flew down the staircase. She stomped her chakra-laden feet into the wood, turning it into splinters in an attempt to slow him down. Fortunately he didn't seem to be following; she knew she couldn't outrun the infamous Copy-nin if he really wanted to catch her.

This was an emergency. She had to see the Hokage immediately. Heart pounding, Sakura set off for her shishou's house at a sprint, trying to ignore the chills running down her spine.

It was past midnight by the time she reached the northernmost section of the village. Sakura had been to Tsunade's house only once before and was struggling to remember where exactly it was.

She darted up a street that looked vaguely familiar, eyes roving over the manicured lawns and front porches for a spark of recognition. She got nothing. She was beginning to worry she'd never find the place when she spotted an empty cardboard box next to a trash can full of equally empty bottles on the curb. The side of the box read 'Junmai Daiginjo Sake.'

Bingo. Why am I not surprised she buys in bulk?

Sakura dashed up the lawn to the front door and knocked wildly for at least five minutes. A sleep-tousled Tsunade opened the door, flooding the patio with light.

"Sakura? Is that you? Do you have any idea what time it is?" The Hokage yawned, rubbing her eyes.

"Shishou!" Sakura shouted, unable to remember the last time she'd been so glad to see her mentor. "I need to talk to you! It's an emergency!"

"Sakura, unless the village is on fire it can wait until morning. Come back then." She started to close the door.

Sakura stuck her foot in the jamb.

"I'm serious, shishou! Something really bad is going on in the village! There's this virus...and I think it's making everyone act bizarrely! Kakashi-sensei tried to attack me! Something's very wrong!" Sakura sucked in a breath and stared hard at Tsunade.

Tsunade stared back, cogs turning in her head. Finally she said, "I think you'd better come inside."

Sakura heaved a sigh of relief and followed Tsunade into her tastefully decorated (courtesy of Shizune) living room. She collapsed onto the wide couch.

"Thank you for believing me, shishou! Nobody else has taken me seriously, but I think it's because they're all infected. What should we do?" She dragged her fingers through her hair.

Tsunade stood facing the wall near the staircase, hands crossed behind her back in thought. "Are you sure about all this, Sakura?"

"Yes! Absolutely!"

"How did you find out?"

"First I noticed people behaving oddly...and then I checked the admission records of the hospital because of the epidemic and I realized there was a correlation. The people who are acting weird are the same people who were admitted recently to be treated for that virus."

Tsunade studied a painted scroll hanging on the wall next to her collection of modern and ancient ninja weapons. "You're a smart girl, Sakura. Have you told anybody else about this yet?"

"Nobody who believes me. Everyone I've talked to about it has been sick at some point."

"Well, you were right to come to me. Thank you, Sakura."

Tsunade turned around slowly. She had a benign smile on her face.

Sakura's heart stopped. She saw Tsunade's eyes flicker to the decorative ninjatou hanging on the wall. She had a fraction of a millisecond to make her decision.

Sakura's fist cracked Tsunade squarely in the jaw just before the Fifth moved. She fell to the floor in a heap, unconscious.

Sakura stared at her own hand in mute horror, as though it belonged to somebody else.

Oh my god, oh my god...I just knocked out my shishou. I just attacked the Hokage!

Panic flooded Sakura's veins. She had to get it together and make a plan. She couldn't tell who was infected and who wasn't. Maybe everyone was infected! And after this...after attacking the Hokage...

Sakura made the only decision she could.

Before leaving Tsunade's house, she straightened her mentor's unconscious form, lifting her onto the couch and flipped her onto her stomach.

"Sorry about this, Tsunade-shishou..."

Sakura ripped open the collar of Tsunade's robe, exposing her upper back. There, right between her shoulder blades in the same place as the one on Kakashi's back, was a rash. A deep red rash in the shape of a serpent eating its own tail.

Sakura memorized it. She pulled the ninjatou off the wall. It had white satin cloth wrapped around the handle, and an emerald green sheath flecked with gold. She used the blade to carefully scrape some skin cells off Tsunade's back.

"When I figure out what's going on, I promise I'll return this."

Sakura gave one last look to her unconscious mentor before slipping out the back door.

"Haruno Sakura!"

The four-man ANBU team burst through Sakura's front door and spilled into her living room.

"Haruno Sakura, you are under arrest for treason, by order of the Hokage!" The shout echoed off the walls of the empty apartment.

The squad searched the place from top to bottom, ransacking every drawer and cupboard, dumping Sakura's things onto her once-tidy carpet. But they found no weapons, scrolls, money, nor medical supplies. The figures finished their search and looked at each other, expressions hidden beneath their frozen white masks.

Haruno Sakura, missing-nin, was nowhere to be found.
- 1
- 2
- 3
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

Contagious