The Way Through Stone Village (Naruto)

59: A Change of Plans

[OP: "Bitter Water"--The Oh Hellos]

Day 50:

By dawn, Sasuke was much worse than he had been before.

His temperature was high enough to cause delirium. Before, they'd had hope it was just the initial shock, but now he was completely out of it. He didn't seem to know any of them were even there anymore.

He did talk to unseen people, but his words were pretty slurred, so it was hard to tell if the visions were significant or if they were just the confusion of the illness with no clear meaning.

Sakura was worn out since she hadn't slept a wink all night, but worse, she felt guilty. She wasn't convinced that she hadn't brought this on.

But they'd been so quiet about moving him that half the team Zoe didn't even know what happened till they were getting up and getting ready for breakfast.

"Yo," Camie said. "I just realized--where's Sakura, Karin, and Shine?"

"Probably still taking care of Sasuke," Ino yawned. "They gave me a reprieve since they said they didn't need all 4 of us."

Momo rubbed her yes. "Me too, but I didn't sleep well anyway. It was too awful to think about it."

"What are you talking about? It's just a little cold," Kankuro said, confused.

"Huh? Oh, you don't know." Ino sat up more. "Sasuke went out in the rain last night. He still had a fever at the time, and he gave himself something a lot worse. Well, we're not even sure it's just physical, actually, for what Karin was saying, but that didn't help. He's really sick now."

"Like...really really?" Camie said.

"I'll put it this way," Ino said, "Sakura's been a medical ninja for a few years now, and I've never seen her that unsure of herself."

"Normally for Sakura that wouldn't mean much, but with the medical stuff usually she's more competent," Dabi admitted. "Wow, so he wanted to catch his death for real, huh? Why would he do something so stupid?"

"I don't know," Ino said. "Sakura said maybe it was something she and Karin said, but I really don't think that's it. Shine thought it was probably the fight he had since he used his Sharingan... They think that has something to do with it. This is all very new to me. I've never learned anything about this kind of medicine before."

Shoto had frozen in place when they started talking about this, and now he shot them a very disturbed look.

No one noticed except for Momo.

"Wait, so are you saying that Sasuke's really in danger?" Naruto had finally understood. "Or is it just he'll be in bed for a few days?"

"He'll be in bed for a few days either way," Ino said. "And I don't know if he's in danger. He's pretty strong normally, but Karin was explaining that the stuff Orochimaru does can take its toll even if you're strong."

"Why's everyone so somber?" Tenten wondered. "None of you like Sasuke."

They all looked at her.

"Tenten," Momo began.

"No, she's got a point." Kankuro pulled up his hood. "It is kinda funny that you're all taking this so hard. A lot of people would say the world is better off without him if he takes himself out by doing stupid things like that."

"Kankuro!" Gaara was even angry at that. 

"I'm not saying that's what I think," Kankuro said, holding up a hand. "I get it, he's still a member of the team, and, like him or not, we're supposed to take care of him. But I wouldn't go around telling people about this either. And if he does bite the dust, you can't get your hopes up about people taking it that hard in Leaf Village."