"Shut the door please, Sakura," Tsunade said with a clipped voice.

Sakura did as she was told and stood at attention, awaiting Tsunade's next order. She had just finished a particularly boring shift at the hospital and was just about to head home when an ANBU had popped his head into the nurse's lounge and told her that the Hokage wanted to see her immediately.

She knew what that meant - a mission.

It had been almost a year since her last mission - Gaara's rescue - and the nervous butterflies in her stomach left her feeling a bit sick. It wasn't that she didn't want to take a mission - she did. It was just that with the Akatsuki threat looming over the village, and the fact that Sasuke was still missing she didn't feel comfortable taking a mission that would take her away from the village should anything happen. What if Sasuke's whereabouts were confirmed and a rescue squad was sent out without her? What if she ran into an Akatsuki member? Sure, she had taken out Sasori, but that was only with the help of Chiyo-baa-sama. She wasn't sure she could take on another one.

"I have a mission for you," Tsunade said, her hands steepled together in front of her, elbows perched on her desk. Her face was serious, but there was a mischievous glint in her eyes that Sakura decided she didn't like. "It's a solo mission. There is an epidemic in a small town near the border between River Country and Fire Country - Toyeiki."

Tsunade slid a white folder across her desk. "Here is all the information you'll need—"

"You're sending me away?" Sakura interrupted, "At a time like this?"

Tsunade frowned. She wasn't used to hearing that tone from her apprentice. Sakura hardly ever bit back - at least not at Tsunade. "Someone has to go," Tsunade said, "You are the only person I trust to do this other than Shizune, and I can't let her go for so long. I expect this will take at least a month."

"A month?" Sakura exclaimed. The butterflies had turned to full nausea now. She picked up the folder and flipped through the pages. The town was nearly right on the border, almost as south as it could be. It was certainly a long distance to have to travel in case an emergency came up. She flipped through several more pages and began reading about the disease. Dizziness, chills, blurred vision. It didn't sound serious, Sakura noted with annoyance.

"Yes, a month," Tsunade said, "Maybe even longer."

"But what about Sasuke?"

"What about him?" Tsunade demanded, "I've been as generous as I can be with that brat. I'm not wasting anymore of my resources on him. He's made it clear he does not want to come back"

Silence filled the room. Sakura kept her eyes low to the ground, avoiding looking at her mentor. Sakura's feelings toward Sasuke were no secret. Whatever Tsunade's opinion on the matter was, she was usually careful not to tread into that subject around her apprentice. It was a bit of a shock to hear her speak so frankly about him.

"Sakura, this is an important mission," Tsunade said when it was clear Sakura had no response, "An entire town is counting on you. You are the only person who can do this."

As proud as she was that the Hokage felt she was capable of handling an entire epidemic on her own, the guilt of leaving the village weighed down the high. Naruto would be upset left without both his teammates. She didn't even want to think about having to explain to him that she would be gone for possibly over a month.

"Do you even realize how big a deal this is?" Tsunade continued, "A disease is ravaging an entire town - eighty-one people have died so far, and hundreds more are infected. And you're more concerned with sticking around here just in case the Uchiha brat shows up?"

Sakura twisted her fingers together nervously, realizing that Tsunade was right. This was exactly the opportunity that she had been waiting for - a moment for her to shine and show off what she could really do.

"You're to leave first thing in the morning, Sakura," Tsunade said, noticing the determination that dawned on her apprentice's face. "When you get to the town, your contact's name is Rokuda. She is the head medic there. She'll fill you in on whatever information is missing from the file."

"Yes, Tsunade-sama," Sakura said. She tucked the file under her arm and went straight home.

.

Sakura had fourteen hours before she needed to leave. She debated whether or not she should say goodbye to her friends, or at least to Naruto. The more she thought about it, the more painful it felt. A month wasn't really so long - they would all understand. Goodbyes would only make it harder to leave. She could just imagine Naruto's whining - his insistence that she stay and help him track down Sasuke. No, she wouldn't tell him goodbye. She wouldn't be able to look into his eyes and not cave in. After all, if anyone wanted to get Sasuke back as much as Naruto did, it was her.

Instead, Sakura spent her last hours in Konoha poring over the mission file. The quicker she was able to crack the case, the quicker she could come back home. She settled into her couch with a warm mug of tea and began scribbling notes into a medical journal - a brand new one she had started specifically for the mission.

In spite of her unwillingness to go, Sakura was actually quite excited to have a medical mission for once. During her apprenticeship with Tsunade, she had developed an unrivaled skill for medical ninjutsu. Nothing made her feel as powerful, as smart, as accomplished as being one of the top medic-nin in the world. She didn't seek attention or validation very much, but the admiration from her peers after having saved the Kazekage's brother from a mysterious poison had left her with an immense satisfaction - one that had almost made her arrogant.

Now, another perfect situation to display her skill had come up, and no one important would be able to witness it.

Still, this notch in her belt would be a good thing, she decided. Missions like these would help her make her name known and advance her career.

She could still remember the exact moment - in the Hokage tower - when she realized that medical ninjustu was her thing. The thing she could excel at. The Mystical Palm Technique - the one she had practiced on the fish - had been the first time she felt so exhilarated by using a jutsu. Her hands could heal. Her hands could save lives.

Tsunade had been so proud of her, called her the best medic-nin she had ever seen (save for herself, of course).

It was a high Sakura would have been chasing all this time had she not been so worried about Sasuke.

Thinking about her dark-haired former teammate brought on a wave of sadness that she could feel all the way down to the tips of her toes. It was a burning, slicing feeling. She wondered what it must have felt like for him to lose his family in such a way - if just a friend leaving the village felt so awful, so consuming, what would it feel like if he had died? She couldn't even fathom feeling worse. The betrayal, the fact that he had tried to kill her - it ate her up like a fire.

She didn't let herself think about Sasuke often - at least not in depth. Of course, she missed him everyday. She missed him all the time. He may not have felt the same way, but they had created a bond (as Naruto liked to call it) that couldn't be severed. Sakura had long ago given up on the idea that Sasuke could ever be romantically interested in her. She would be hard-pressed to feel that way toward him after the way he had treated her. But Team Seven was different. Team Seven would be reunited again one day, she was sure of it.

A knock at her door brought Sakura out of her thoughts, accompanied by a flare of familiar chakra.

"Come in, Kakashi-sensei," Sakura shouted, not bothering to get up from the couch.

Kakashi entered and flashed a warm, eye-crinkling smile. "Good evening, Sakura," he said, joining her on the couch, "I heard you have a solo mission. I figured you'd try to leave without saying goodbye."

She shot him an annoyed look, "So you came by to force me to?"

He laughed, "Not at all, I'm just curious about your mission. Tsunade-sama indicated that you would be alone."

"Are you worried I can't handle it?"

"Well…" he scratched the back of his neck.

She glared at him with a little more heat than was probably necessary. It wasn't like he wasn't well within his rights to worry about her. Time and time again she had had to be rescued by either him or Naruto. It was embarrassing, of course, but she wasn't that girl anymore and she didn't like that he worried so much about her.

"It's a medical mission," she said, her tone dry, "No combat involved."

Kakashi's shoulders dropped a little, obviously relieved to hear that she wouldn't be fighting. "That's good to know," he said, "So what exactly is the mission?"

"There's an epidemic near the border of River Country," she explained, "It's infectious and deadly. Over eighty people have died already, and hundreds more are infected. I'm supposed to be finding a cure."

"That sounds like a lot of responsibility for one person," he replied.

She felt offended for a brief moment before realizing that he was probably right. She was a highly skilled medical ninja, but her strengths lied in battle inflicted wounds and poisons. Infectious diseases - or any kind of illness at all, really - were not something she was well-versed in.

Still, she was confident that she would be able to figure it out. If there was anyone out there who could, it would be her.

"I'll have other medics helping me," Sakura said.

"Aren't you worried you'll catch the disease?"

"It's crossed my mind, but that's something I'll have to worry about when I get there. There isn't much I can do about it now. I'll just have to make sure that the facility I'm in is sterile and that all of my help complies with cleanliness guidelines. It hasn't been a problem in the hospital in the past, but we'll just have to see," she explained.

"It would be quite a shame if you caught the disease on arrival and died."

Her eyes narrowed, "Yes, it would be…"

He stood up and brushed invisible dust from his pants, "I think I've annoyed you enough for one night," he said with a smile, "I just wanted to check in on you before you left. I'm sure you can handle this, Sakura. Tsunade-sama would not have given this mission to you if she did not believe you could do it."

Sakura grunted in response and turned back to the notes in her lap, not bothering to walk him to the door. When she heard the door open and then shut, she let her head fall back against the couch.

.

The first two days of the her trip to Toyeiki were as uneventful as Sakura expected and gave her plenty of time to stew over what Kakashi had said to her. She ran for nearly two days straight, unwilling to stop for too long, lest her thoughts creep back to Sasuke, or to the fact that she might not be able to cure this mysterious disease, or worse - she might catch it and die.

On the third day of travel, she stopped at an inn for a much needed shower. She was looking forward to getting a good night's sleep in an actual bed this time. The town could barely even be considered that, as it seemed to just consist of a general goods store, a post office, the inn, and what appeared to be five or six homes.

Luckily for Sakura, the inn had a bar.

She sat perched on her stool, sipping sake - a trait that she wish she had not inherited from her mentor. The inn was quiet - it seemed that Sakura was its only inhabitant at the moment.

Until three women walked in the door. Two of them were holding the third one under her arms, supporting her whole weight as they dragged her into the inn. They spoke in hushed tones that Sakura couldn't quite make out. One woman approached the counter and gave Sakura a passing glance - no doubt startled by her pink hair.

"We need a room for one night," said the woman to the innkeeper, "Just one bed."

The innkeeper, a friendly old man who had been nothing but kind to Sakura, grimaced. "Not for her. Take your business elsewhere."

"There is no elsewhere!"

"Look," the innkeeper began, "I can't have people bringing their sick here. It's bad for business-" Sakura resisted the urge to snort, as the inn was empty save for her "-and I can't risk my family getting sick either."

The woman huffed and began to argue. Sakura's eyes drifted over to the sickly woman who had been ushered into a booth in the far corner of the bar. Her skin was unnaturally pale and a sheen of sweat highlighted her brow. Her eyes were unfocused, almost milky, and a pained moan slipped from her lips.

Sakura left her drink and approached the booth. "Do you mind if I take a look at her?" she asked the woman who was still trying to support the weight of the sick woman's limp body.

The woman hesitated and glanced toward the third woman who was still heatedly arguing with the innkeeper.

"I'm a medic - it's okay," Sakura said, her tone as comforting as she could make it. "I just want to help."

The woman nodded wordlessly and shifted so that Sakura could easily access the sick woman without having to enter the booth. Sakura knelt down in front of her and let her hands - lit with green, healing chakra - flow into the woman's system.

This had to be a case of the mysterious disease, Sakura decided immediately. The poor woman's cells were ravaged by infection, affecting her whole body. In response to the infection, the woman's body had broken out in a fever - and probably other symptoms that Sakura could not yet see.

"Is she lucid?" Sakura asked.

"No," the other woman said, "She hasn't been lucid for almost a week. We've taken her to several different healers, but none of them were able to figure out what's wrong. Please, you have to help her."

Sakura held up a finger to the woman to indicate she would be right back. She jogged up to her room and retrieved her medical kit. "I'm going to have to take some blood samples," Sakura explained when she returned. "I'm not familiar with this infection and I need to know more about it before I can begin to help."

The woman nodded. Across the room, the innkeeper and other woman had stopped arguing.

"Hey, pinky, if you get sick you'll have to leave too," the innkeeper called out to her, "You'd better get away from that woman."

Sakura ignored the man and turned back to the woman in the booth. "What were her symptoms prior to this?"

"She complained about being dizzy a lot," the woman replied, "and she had chills, she was constantly shivering."

Sakura extracted a syringe and some empty cartridges from her kit and began to draw blood from the woman. Things were already not looking good. The woman's cells were badly damaged and not regenerating enough. Her body was fighting off the infection and in the process, killing her. She hated to admit it - the healer in her fought against it - but she knew that this woman was beyond help. Sakura could fight off the infection with the Mystical Palm, but in the end, the lack of white blood cells would weaken her immune system drastically. She would be immensely susceptible to future diseases, if she were to make it out of this one alive.

"Her body is trying to fight the infection," Sakura said to the now two women in the booth. The argumentative one had joined her friends in the booth, giving Sakura a suspicious glance. "But the infection - I believe it's bacterial - is too aggressive and her white blood cell count is low."

Silence fell over them. The women both looked at her, eyes wide with high expectations, with hope. Sakura wanted to look away from them, to cast her eyes down to the floor, but they would know what that meant.

"How long has she been sick?"

"Nearly a month," one of the women replied.

Sakura tried not to grimace at the information. It was an unpleasant thought, but Sakura felt good about now knowing how long a person could have the infection and remain alive. She also was pleased to have a blood sample to study. Even though it was too late to save the woman in front of her, Sakura had learned valuable information from her.

"You need to find somewhere for her to rest," Sakura said, "I will put her to sleep to ease the pain, but there isn't much else I can do for her."

One of the women choked back a sob and leaned forward into the table, clutching her arms tightly around herself.

"She's our sister," the other one - the arguer, said. "Please, isn't there anything you can do?"

"I will work on trying to find a cure tonight," Sakura said, though she knew the woman wouldn't make it through the night, "There is nothing else I can do right now. I'm sorry."

Sakura left the booth and headed back to her room, clutching the blood sample tightly in her palm.

.

Four days later, Sakura approached the perimeter of Toyeiki. For four nights, she had used chakra to analyze the blood sample and see what she could work out. She thought with a hint of bitterness that it would have been much easier to do from the hospital back in Konoha where she had the proper equipment for such tasks, but her chakra would have to be enough.

It had been a much slower process than she wanted. It took her the entire four nights to come to the basic conclusion that the infection was indeed bacterial, and that it was highly contagious. For the remainder of her journey, Sakura wracked her brain for a way to stave off the infection, to prevent herself from catching it.

She supposed that because she was familiar enough with her own body, she could use chakra to supplement her immune system and keep her own white blood cell count high. At the first signs of the bacteria in her body, she would be able to isolate it and burn it away with her chakra.

This method, she theorized, would only really work on herself. It wasn't a cure or a vaccine by any means, but it could potentially keep her healthy long enough for her to find a way completely eradicate the bacteria.

Still, she would have to make sure that everything was sterilized properly and that she avoided contamination as much as possible.

The town was indeed quite small, and it was obvious that the disease had taken quite a toll on the place. As Sakura ventured through the deserted streets she noticed that all of the shops were closed and the windows of every home she passed were boarded shut.

She wrinkled her nose as the smell of sickness and death filled the stagnant air around her. Against her instincts, Sakura followed the smell to what she presumed used to be an inn.

She realized upon entry that the civilians had used the inn as a sort of makeshift hospital. There were cots lined up against the walls, with hardly an inch between each one, all filled with bodies. Some of them were moving, groaning in pain, clutching at their stomachs. Others were completely still.

Sakura took a moment to take in the chaos. There didn't seem to be anyone in charge. A few young girls that she supposed were rudimentary healers were bustling around looking frightened and worried.

"We don't have any more room," said a frazzled voice behind her, "We're over capacity as it is. If you are sick, you will just have to find somewhere else to go."

Sakura spun around to face the woman who spoke - a dark haired, short woman who appeared to be middle aged. She was covered in all manner of fluids that Sakura prayed were not from the many sick bodies that filled the room. Her eyes were tired in a way that Sakura could see extended well beyond physical exhaustion.

"I'm not sick," Sakura replied, "My name is Sakura Haruno. I was sent here by the Hokage to help you."

Relief flooded the poor woman's face and Sakura thought for a moment that she would reach out and hug her. Thankfully, she did not, curtailing the need for Sakura to step away from her.

"Oh, Sakura!" she exclaimed, "I'm Rokuda. Tsunade-sama sent me a message saying that you would be here soon. I didn't expect you to arrive so early."

"Right," Sakura said, remembering the first two days she travelled without sleeping, "I came as fast as I could. Let's get started, shall we?"

Rokuda nodded and led Sakura through a door near the back of the room. The inn was not set up to contain nearly as many people as it currently contained, and Sakura had to weave her way around people curled up on the floor or braced against the walls. She held her breath as Rokuda took her down a long hallway that contained five doors on each side.

"Each room has two beds in it," Rokuda explained as she walked, "We've got ten cots set up in each one, so there are twelve people in each room."

At the end of the hallway they reached a stairwell. Rokuda led her up the stairs to another identical hallway. "This is the only other floor," she explained, "Same number of rooms, same amount of people in each."

When they reached the end of the hallway, Rokuda held the door open for Sakura, who stepped inside with a bow.

"This is the area we have designated for you and the nurses," she said.

Sakura glanced around the room. It was almost the same size as the lobby below them. The wall to her right was comprised entirely of built-in bookshelves filled with tomes and journals. Sakura wondered where those had come from if this building had previously been an inn. In front of her was a large window that took up a large portion of the wall and overlooked the street below. She would be able to see who came in and out. A massive wooden desk was in the far right corner, covered with what looked like surgical tools and bottles of medicines. A tall cabinet sat next to the desk, its doors opened to reveal rows and rows of syringes and colored vials.

In the corner to her left was a single cot, pristinely made, and next to it a door that Sakura assumed led into a washroom.

"We are short on rooms, obviously, but seeing as you are crucial to us now, we wanted to make sure you had a place to sleep away from the sick," Rokuda explained. "The nurses will still have to come and go from this room, as it is the center of operations, but they will not enter if you close the door. That is the rule."

Sakura turned back to the woman and gave her a tense smile. "Thank you, Rokuda-san," she said, "I'm going to get to work immediately, if you don't mind."

"Of course," she woman responded. She bowed low and left Sakura alone in her room.

Sakura set to work, unpacking her belongings and unfurling all the notes she had taken so far onto the desk. For a moment, she stared blankly at the scribbles in front of her. She had known going into to this mission what would be required of her, but now that she was here in a building full of sick people, she had no idea what to do. What was her first step?

The moans in the hallway distracted her as she tried to come up with a feasible plan. She closed her eyes and listened to the sound, horrified and enraptured all at once. She was used to being around the sick - she worked in a hospital! But the awful symphony of the cries of nearly four hundred people left her chest feeling tight and empty all at once.

With a minutely renewed vigor, Sakura headed out into the hallway and ducked into the closest room. She immediately wished she had chosen another room as this one was filled with twelve children. They were mostly silent save for an occasional quiet groan or rustle of movement.

Sakura stifled a choke of sadness that lumped in her throat as she placed her hand on the forehead of the nearest child - a girl, probably no more than ten. Her eyes were closed, but the slow rise and fall of her chest indicated that she was still alive - if only hanging on by a thread. Sakura let her chakra reach into the girl's body and noted with dismay that she was in the same condition as the woman from four days ago.

For an hour, Sakura went from bed to bed on the second floor of the inn, doing what little she could to ease their pain. Sakura hoped that the second floor had been reserved for those who had been sick for much longer, because if everyone in the inn was in the same condition as the first hundred or so bodies she inspected, the odds didn't look good that any of them would survive.

"Rokuda-san," Sakura called, walking back into the lobby. "I need to know more about the initial onset of the infection. Are there any people here that have been infected recently? Within the last week?"

Rokuda shook her head emphatically, "No," she said, "We've been turning away any newcomers for lack of space. Most of them seem to have been sick for a while now anyway. No one wants to come here except as a last resort."

Sakura took in a deep breath and resisted the urge to release it in an annoyed sigh.

"What about the nurses?" Sakura asked, "Have any of them taken ill?"

"There are only two, not including me," she replied, "And the three of us have miraculously remained in good health."

This new piece of information struck a chord in Sakura. She tilted her head in confusion. From her understanding of the first woman's blood sample, the infection was highly contagious. The nurses should not have been immune to it, especially after having been exposed to it for so long.

"Alright," Sakura said, "I need some time to think. I will be back in the office if you need me, but if someone comes in who has been infected within the last week, please let me know."

No one else came that night, which was probably for the best. After a few more hours of research, Sakura crawled into her cot and mashed her pillow into her ear, trying fruitlessly to drown out the garbled cries coming from the rooms around her.