This idea has been nagging me. It's just a one-shot so don't kill me for not updating AIA, Confession or Helpline… *cower*
Doctor, Doctor
Itachi woke up with a start, sweating and panting, his heart racing in his chest. He looked around his dark room in disorientation, Sharingan activated and kunai drawn. Even though his eyes told him there was no danger, his body was still at maximum attention. After a few moments, the hyper-awareness died down, and Itachi relaxed his posture, but his heart was still racing.
Had it been a dream? Another one of those nightmares that had been plaguing him recently? Itachi impatiently blew a strand of hair out of his face, only realizing then that his mid back-length hair had fallen out of its tie and was half hanging, half clinging to his sweat soaked face, shoulders and chest.
Why could he not remember what his dream was about?
Itachi sighed imperceptibly and felt around blindly on his bed for the hair tie. Securing his hair, the Uchiha heir rose from his pallet and walked across to his bedroom door. Sliding it open, he padded quietly into the dark passageway of his house and down to the kitchen. He poured himself a glass of water, noticing with great annoyance that his hands were shaking.
Thirteen hours later found Itachi in the Hokage's office debriefing after a mission. After getting clearance to leave, he and his ANBU team shunshined from the office, re-appearing outside. The late evening sunlight bathed them with soft pink.
"Anyone want to get sushi?" Shisui asked blandly, though they all knew he only wanted to ogle the pretty waitress at the sushi restaurant. Itachi was hungry enough to put up with Shisui's futile flirtations, so he gave a short affirmative grunt. Neji also agreed, and the metal glint in the Hyuuga's grey eyes told Itachi that there was some ulterior motive to his agreement.
The trio walked leisurely through the Konoha streets, but as they walked, Itachi began feeling that tell-tale tightness in his gut and chest. Though he tried to dismiss it, the feeling persisted, and the longer he walked, the faster his heart beat. Soon it was beating so rapidly it was making the Uchiha feel a bit fatigued. His chakra must have been flaring as well, because Neji activated his Byakugan and turned to face Itachi. His chocolate brows pulled together in concern.
"Uchiha-Buntaichou… Your chakra flow is cause for concern. Since we're close to the hospital anyway, it might be wise to get it looked into," Neji said softly. He was right, and the slight urgency in his eyes reminded Itachi why. He had to be in peak condition for the upcoming mission.
Itachi hated hospitals.
He stared balefully at the building looming in the near distance.
Shisui gave a knowing grunt. The majority of shinobi held a healthy aversion to hospitals, the male ones, that is. To them, hospitals meant failure, the possibility of failure, or something stopping them from even attempting, and therefore, failure before commencement… not to mention the hospital was crawling with women, kunoichi and civilians alike, and no man wanted to fail in front of a women. Ever. The older Uchiha turned to his cousin and pulled him to the side.
"This is a testament to how much I love you, Cuz…" he said in a low voice, sending a glance in the hospital's direction. Itachi prepared himself for one of Shisui's idiotic 'secrets'. However, for once, Shisui said something that sounded useful. "Go directly to Room 1007, and close the window. Put up an S-rank genjutsu barrier around the entire room and then press the red button above the cot. The medic that comes in will be the one some of us ANBU use. She always does the first exam at the hospital, but after that you can go to her place for medical exams or she can come to yours."
At Shisui's slightly lecherous tone, Itachi felt his upper lip curl back. Was she… like that? Shisui took one look at his cousin's face and shuddered.
"Don't even think about it. She'll bust your balls if you try anything…" he added with real fear. "It's all about the medicine for her, but at least she's quiet. She never blabs unless she can't help you, in which case she tells the Godaime… because then you'd be screwed anyway."
Itachi blinked.
He gave the hospital a contemplative glance. By the time he turned back around to look at Shisui, the older man and the Hyuuga had already disappeared.
'It's worth a try,' he thought.
Sakura collapsed in her chair and sighed.
Finally.
Blessed rest.
The pinkette leaned back in her chair and took a deep breath, blowing it out slowly between pursed lips. Her eyelids slid shut and she slowly rolled her shoulders to get rid of the tightness.
She could finally get a well-needed snooze.
Her pager buzzed insistently in the pocket of her scrubs.
Shit.
So much for that.
Sakura got up, with much effort, and checked her pager. Sure enough, Room 1007. Who was it this time? Shisui? Naruto? Sasuke? Genma? Kakashi? Shikamaru? If it wasn't one of them, it was another ANBU and they never set a foot out of that room. Not in this hospital. Apart from the fact that they hated the place, the hospital was overrun with fanclub members, and when wounded from battle, running from the rabid masses was more fatal than it sounded.
Sakura stretched, then began the jog to the elevators. She would just shunshin over, but her chakra stores were already depleted and more often than not, healing whoever was in that room took all the chakra she had.
Two minutes later, Sakura pulled to a stop in front where she knew the room door was… and stared at solid wall. The slight pull at the edge of her consciousness told her it was genjutsu, but it was so … perfect. This was definitely not Naruto. This screamed doujutsu kekkei-genkai. So either a Hyuuga or an Uchiha ANBU was behind the door. She healed more Hyuuga ANBU than Uchiha, since Uchiha tended to stick to Uchiha medics, which were readily available inside their clan compound. Besides, this level of perfection on a genjutsu she would credit more to someone like Hyuuga Jin than anyone else.
Every time she saw him, his genjutsu became more complex.
Sakura dismissed several layers of S-Class genjutsu before the door became visible.
"It's not fair for my patients to try to keep me on my toes like this, Jin-kun. Give a chick a break," she sighed when she entered, her complaint voided by her amused chuckle.
"Jin-kun?" a deep velvet voice echoed. Sakura looked up and gasped. In the midst of the shock, was rage.
"I'm going to kill that blasted Shisui," she muttered darkly, her lack of sleep and food greatly contributing to the general pissed-offedness that resulted from when another client was added to her list of special clients. This room and the method of alerting her was supposed to be top secret, so why did her top secret patients keep letting the cat out of the bag?
Haruno?
Haruno Sakura was the top secret medic?
How had he not seen this coming? Everything Shisui had said was a hint.
The first thing Itachi noticed was how stunning the kunoichi looked. Pink hair, green eyes and all. Somehow, she reminded him of candy, and unbeknownst to most, Itachi harboured an incredible sweet tooth. His eyes quickly scanned her, taking in whatever her white coat and scrubs would reveal... which sadly, at the moment, was only that she was attractively shorter than he was (her head would hit the top of his chest) and that she had a medium bust... which Itachi appreciated, because... well because that was just what he liked...
And he would focus on that after she fixed his palpitating heart.
"I'm going to kill that blasted Shisui," Sakura growled, the wave of killing intent flaring from her spurring Itachi into action. Pretty or not, she was still threatening his family. In less than a split second, he had her pinned against the wall, his forearm pressed to her neck, his other hand holding her wrists in an iron grip and his powerful legs holding hers apart. His Sharingan spun lazily and threateningly as he stared down the medic.
"You'll do what to my cousin?" he asked smoothly, daring her to repeat the threat.
"I'm going to kill him," Sakura repeated, eyes focused on a random spot on the wall behind him. "First, I'm going to seduce him, because he'd fall for it, then I'm going to poison his hot ass and watch him painfully die. How could he do this to me? How could he tell someone else about this room? That freaking insensitive bastard," she growled, visibly seething.
And Itachi's heart was thundering in the confines of his chest.
Still, his Sharingan picked up the dark circles under Haruno's eyes, the slight chakra burn at her wrists and the just visible sallowness to her skin.
She was exhausted.
'This is a testament to how much I love you Cuz.' Shisui's words rang in his ears. Maybe Shisui had seen this reaction coming. Itachi didn't have much to do with his little brother's ex-teammate, but apparently she had a temper. And he knew she was the Godaime's apprentice, and from seeing her in the field, Itachi knew that saying she packed a pretty punch was a gross understatement.
He released her.
He watch a sigh shake her, and then she looked him over tiredly.
"Get on the bed," she muttered, pulling her stethoscope from around her neck and putting the eartips into her ears. Itachi obeyed quietly. His heart was pounding in his chest, and it was making him slightly nauseous. "Alright, where does it hurt? What's wrong?" she continued.
"I have heart palpitations," Itachi said quietly. She looked up at him and smirked.
"Is there someone you like?" she chuckled quietly. "Take your ANBU gear and shirt off," she continued, saying the words so easily he didn't even feel awkward… well, not from the command anyway.
The question was a different matter.
"No," he responded, feeling like he was lying. He stripped his protective vest and shirt off and waited for her to be impressed by his body. This was one of the reasons he hated medics. Female medics at least.
But nothing happened.
Sakura just pressed the cold chestpiece to his chest, and all her playfulness dissipated.
"Mmm, your heart is definitely beating overtime. When did you start noticing this?" she asked, pulling a clipboard from the magnetic strip at the front of the bed and rapidly jotting information down with a thin black marker.
"They started roughly two months ago… after Sasuke's birthday party," Itachi supplied. He watched Sakura's cheeks redden. He'd come back from a mission to see his brother's house full to brimming with revelers. And Sakura had been dancing on a table.
"That night after I got back from a month-long reconnaissance mission, I…" Itachi realized a little late that he didn't want to tell Sakura that he had nightmares. Sakura looked up at him, her embarrassment fading and her green eyes sharpening.
"Spill it, Uchiha," she demanded, marker held at the ready. When she saw that he was unwilling to speak, she reached into her pocket and pulled out a scroll. Opening it, Sakura released the seal and withdrew a vial on a string. She resealed the rest of medical contents and opened the vial, using the nail of her forefinger to pull out a small roll of brown paper from inside it.
Itachi watched curiously as she opened the roll of paper and saw that it was an information seal. She bit down on her thumb, hard enough to draw blood, and smeared it across the seal.
"How's this for doctor-patient confidentiality? I promise not to tell anyone what you tell me regarding your medical condition without your permission, or unless it will somehow endanger the citizens of Konoha." She held the scroll out towards him. Preferring to trust the seal, Itachi bit his thumb and smeared his blood over it. The seal flared blue from the combined chakra, and when the light faded, Sakura rolled the brown paper up, slid it back into the vial, and closed the black glass container. She then handed it to Itachi.
"It's yours," she said in response to the question in his eyes. "Now, you were saying something about coming home from your mission…" she prompted.
"I get nightmares…" Itachi said slowly, gauging her reaction with his eyes. "However, I can't seem to remember what they were about when I wake." Sakura frowned, jotted down what he said and worried her lower lip with her teeth. Itachi found his focus pinned to the movement before he dragged his attention away.
"Do the palpitations occur outside of that?"
"Yes. They seem to come on randomly," Itachi responded. After a few more questions, Sakura set aside her clipboard and put her hands on her hips.
"I'll have to conduct a physical exam and a mental exam to make sure that there isn't anything to cause major worry. If you clear those then I suppose I'll have to monitor you some more. For now, just see me before and after all your missions so I can check your progress. Also I'll give you some medication with magnesium to help relax the muscle. Only take it when the palpitations come on. I can't rule out stress considering your job and what I know of your life, so try to meditate more often and think of more calming things," Sakura said with a reassuring smile.
Itachi's heartbeat refused to slow down.
"Palpitations tend to make you feel a bit winded, so I'll also include some Vitamin B for your energy levels," she continued. "I'll make up your pills after I do your exams."
Six hours later, Sakura was just about dead on her feet. She'd completed Itachi's physical and mental exams, and while there was a buildup of chakra waste accumulating in his eyes, he was in shipshape. Way to reinforce his place as Konoha's best weapon.
If she could just get his eyes sorted out with routine chakra therapy and find a way to rid him of his nightmares (possible PTSD) and the resulting palpitations, then he would be in absolute peak physical condition.
And it was only when he was already gone that Sakura allowed herself to drool over his body. She had gotten used to hot men, since it was pretty difficult for most shinobi to escape the rock-hard abs and defined pecs, but like his brother and cousin, Itachi was a cut above the rest. Still, she had to say, Neji, Shikamaru and Naruto were giving those Uchiha a run for their money.
And now it was time for blessed sleep, Room 1007 be damned.
Itachi jerked awake in sitting position, heart racing, blood pumping, chakra flaring and his breath coming in distressed pants. Once again, the moment he tried to remember what he'd seen in his dream to get him so worked up, it faded from his mind's grasp. It was the first in a very long time that Itachi was tempted to use expletives.
He scrubbed his shaking hands over his face and struggled to calm his breathing. His heart was still racing, and Itachi clutched his chest desperately, his breath still coming in harsh gasps. It was getting worse.
It had been two months since his first visit to Sakura, and though her chakra therapy was greatly aiding with the usage of his Sharingan, Itachi had hoped that his heart condition would have been getting better. Unfortunately, it had worsened considerably. His episodes occurred more regularly and with more intensity than before. Itachi reached for the bottle of pills that he now kept within reach at the side of his pallet. The pills in the bottle rattled conspicuously due to his shaking hands. Itachi unscrewed the cap and popped one of the pills into his mouth.
He swallowed it dry and tried to calm his breathing. In a matter of minutes, his heartbeat slowed. Sighing tiredly, Itachi flopped back down on his mattress and let his eyes slide shut.
He needed to see Sakura again.
The call of a messenger hawk pulled Sakura's attention from the paperwork she was reviewing during a lull in her duties on the night shift. She let the bird in through the window.
"Ah, Kakamaru," she said with a smile when she recognized Itachi's messenger hawk. "What have you got for me?" She pulled the scroll from it's foot and unrolled it. Two words stared back at her.
Come now.
Sakura blinked before performing a hand seal and flash-stepping from her office to the Uchiha compound. She was let through the gates without so much as an interrogation. He must have already sent the order for her admittance.
Sakura reached his house in record speed and found the door open. She let herself in and immediately saw Itachi in his living room. He looked up at her approach.
"My condition is worsening," he said simply. Sakura sighed.
"How bad is it now?" she asked.
"Whenever I fall asleep I get the episodes," he replied, his frustration evident in his inky eyes. "And they occur more regularly while I am awake as well."
"Does the medication help?" Sakura asked.
"Hn," he grunted. Sakura took it to mean "No." She rested her hand on his chest and let probing chakra enter his body. Sure enough, his heart was thundering in his chest, and it was speeding up rather than slowing down. At this rate, he could be in danger in the field if the fatigue after the palpitations hit him at the wrong moment.
"This is intense," Sakura said under her breath. She took a deep breath. "Alright. I'll stay the night and monitor you. Take your pill and try to go back to sleep. If you like, I can put you under so you get there faster."
As she predicted, Itachi opted for the pill. He was a shinobi after all, and they weren't nearly close enough for him to trust her enough to put him to sleep.
Somehow, the notion that Sakura was spending the night at his house made it harder than normal to fall asleep. While his heart-rate had slowed back to normal, there was a nervousness lingering around in his stomach. He knew he trusted her enough, but still…
When she began to peel off some of her clothing so as to get more comfortable, Itachi grew even more uncomfortable. It was becoming obvious from her sure, definite and uninterested mannerisms that she was not in his fanclub.
And the last thought Itachi had before he fell asleep was that that pissed him off.
He was sleeping so peacefully Sakura started to nod off herself. And then she heard it. A moan. Sakura was at full attention. Not wanting to wake him up suddenly, she slowly turned up the lighting in the room, just enough for her to see his skin colour, movements and any other details she might have missed if it was too dark.
Sakura watched in fascination as his lips parted slightly, and his breathing increased in speed. A flush rose up his neck. Sakura lightly rested her fingertips against his skin, to find his dermis heated and damp. Soon enough, sweat beaded at his forehead and his moans increased, mixed with breathless gasps and desperate pants. Sakura felt her own heartbeat pick up, and her cheeks redden. The sounds the Uchiha was making sounded more than just vaguely sexual.
'I need to start avoiding the lunch hour chatter with the other medics,' Sakura told herself. 'I never used to be this perverted. He's having a nightmare, for Kami's sake!'
"Sa… Hnnn…. Sa…" he muttered breathlessly in his sleep. Sakura watched as his hand came up to tug impatiently at the neck of his shirt. "O...Onegai…" he panted.
Was he calling for Sasuke? Was his dream about Sasuke leaving?
"Ikenaide," he murmured. Who was he speaking to when he said 'Don't go' like that? Sakura put her hand to his chest, to feel his heart racing like it did in the medical exams, only faster. She leaned over him, noting his feverish skin, sweat, and his eyes which were moving side to side under his eyelids.
And then he was awake and surging up towards her.
For the first time, Itachi was confused, when he woke up, as to whether or not he was still dreaming.
For the first time, Itachi remembered very clearly what was plaguing him, and as he surged up towards her, Itachi stared his illness in her shocked, concerned green eyes.
It had all been about Sakura... and he wondered if he'd known it... deep down.
And even as he came to a stop, the realization stunning him beyond anything he'd ever encountered, his hair loosed from its tie, his breathing erratic and his heart beating overtime, there was one though resounding in his head.
'Kami, I want to kiss her.'
Yeeeaahhh…. so somehow I doubt this will stay a one-shot. It can, but will you guys allow me to?
Please review (kindly, please, guys. Kindly)!
I love you all! Hopping over to continue what's shaping up to be another 8k word chapter of AIA…. PEACE!