The Disease of Unrequited Love Chapter 8
This is for Sasuhina Renaissance Week 2018! Not sure how long this story is going to be, so hope you all enjoy the ride like I will be. I haven’t written in a while, so apologies for any mistakes. I’ll probably end up rewriting this someday because I didn’t like how I wrote in some parts, but for now please enjoy the story~
A/N: Slowly moving this story forward. By slowly, I mean SUPER SLOW....Anyways, thank you for taking the time to read this story, hopefully I’ll be able to finish writing this before the end of the year so I can start writing some other stuff xD If you ever have any questions about my stories, don’t hesitate to send me an ask!
“ You’ve gotten worse.”
Sasuke had woken up not too long ago while laying in one of the beds at the Konoha hospital. The familiar scent of chemicals and death that he hated seemed to linger everywhere. When he finally sat up, he was met with an angry Tsunade.
“ Do not ignore me, brat.”
He glared at Tsunade, but did not say anything. Instead, he tried to remember what had happened before he had passed out.
He had been assigned a mission with Hinata and her teammates. Hinata, Kiba, and Shino were supposed to track a missing shinobi and bring them back. There had been rumors of an organization that had been recruiting rogue shinobi in an attempt to overthrow the current allied powers that had formed between the hidden villages as a means of peace. Tsunade had assigned a Konoha shinobi to try to find their whereabouts, but within a week they had disappeared. When a week had gone by with no leads, she had decided to assign Team 8 with the task since they were known as the best trackers in the village.
When Hinata had told him, he had demanded to come with them.
“ Why does this bastard have to come with us?” asked an angry Kiba.
“ Sasuke will be going with you three to act as a bodyguard.” Tsunade answered.
“ Forgive me, Hokage, if I sound out of line, but are you suggesting that we can not take care of ourselves?” Shino questioned.
Hinata did not seem to mind, but the expression she wore seemed to be in agreement with Shino.
“ You all may be trackers, but I’m a much better fighter than all of you.” He said.
Shino had to restrain Kiba from punching him. Or rather, restrain him from getting hurt by Sasuke.
Tsunade let out a frustrated sigh.
“ Settle down. I have decided to assign Sasuke to this because I believe his powers and abilities will come in handy. While I do believe you three are more than capable of taking care of yourselves, it is true that Sasuke is a better fighter as evidenced by the past. This mission is no joke, and I want to take extra precautions. I do not want to lose my best trackers, so I made the decision that I saw would ensure the best outcome. I have already discussed this with Kakashi, Shikamaru, and a few others and they are all in agreement as well.”
“ Then assign us someone else! Why does it have to be him?” Kiba growled.
“ I understand, Hokage-sama. Thank you for the clarification.” Hinata bowed.
“ Yes, I understand as well. While I do not fully agree with this decision, I understand the need for this.” Shino responded.
The man stared at his teammates in disbelief.
Sasuke remained silent.
“ Kiba, whether or not you agree with this, I have already made my final decision on this matter. Sasuke was the only one available at the moment, and he had volunteered to assist with this mission as well. If you still disagree with this, you are more than welcome to drop the mission and I will assign you something else. Do I make myself clear?”
Not wanting to anger the woman any further, Kiba had annoyingly agreed and bowed his head in submission.
“ Uchiha! Are you even listening to me?!”
Unaware that he had become lost within his own thoughts, Sasuke glared at Tsunade again.
“ I heard you.” He said.
He could hear the woman sigh.
“ You haven’t taken my advice at all. Your chakra systems are worse than I thought. I’m taking you off missions for the time being.”
This made Sasuke furious.
“ You will not.” He angrily replied.
“ Excuse me? Do you realize what sort of situation your body is in?” She shouted.
“ It’s my body! I have the right, as a patient, to decide what I do with it. You can not force me off missions!”
“ I am not just ordering you as your doctor, but also as your Hokage. You are not fit for missions, so I am ordering you off of them!”
Sasuke sent the woman an icy glare that would have scared most people.
“ If you won’t let me go on missions, then I will go on them myself. You cannot stop me. You may be the Hokage for this village, but you do not have the authority to order me. I chose to stay here, I chose to follow your orders only because it benefits me. If I wanted to I could send this entire village into a frenzy within mere seconds. You would not want that would you, Tsunade?” He threatened.
They continued to exchange glares. Eventually, Tsunade closed her eyes and let out another frustrated sigh.
He knew this meant that she understood the validity of his threat. Taking the clipboard that had been lying at the desk nearby, she grabbed it before sitting at the chair next to his bed. Looking over what he assumed was his records, he noticed the blonde woman scribbling something before looking at him again.
“ What color are your petals now?” She asked.
“ Dark pink, almost red.” He answered, remembering the last time he had threw up.
“ Do you know what that means?” She asked again.
This time Sasuke did not say anything.
“ I did a scan on you earlier. Your chakra system has been damaged badly, to the point where it is irreversible. This damage has caused your chakra to leak throughout various parts of your body. I assume you have been feeling more tired lately and taking more breaks during training, yes?”
He nodded.
“ The reason why is because the chakra that has been leaking into your body has slowly been destroying your organs. Your lungs, heart, and muscles have been damaged, resulting in internal bleeding. When this happens, the tissues in your body automatically tries to heal itself. That is why the disease hasn’t killed you yet. But it takes time to fully heal, and even when it is healed, it leaves scars and doesn’t work the same anymore.”
Tsunade flipped through a few more pages of his records and wrote something else down before continuing again.
“ However, when you continuously wear your body down like this, when you continuously let the disease take over, and when you continuously go on these kinds of missions and get injured from it, your body will eventually be unable to keep up with healing your organs. That is the stage where you’re at right now, Sasuke.”
“ What does this mean then?” He asked.
“ The color of your petals indicate how much internal bleeding has been done and how much damage your body has taken. You may not feel much of the damage now, but you will when those petals turn red. You are already experiencing the symptoms, and they will only become more prominent as time goes on, unless you follow the advice I gave you. But once they turn red, the damage will exceed the amount of healing your body can do. You will feel a lot of pain and be significantly weakened. At that point, the damage to your body will be almost impossible to reverse. That’s why you should rest and let your body recover.” She answered.
Sasuke looked at his hands, remembering what had happened during the mission.
For the most part, Hinata and Sasuke were able to get along fine. Even Shino had eventually accepted that their friendship was genuine and had started to converse with him as well. Although there was still a distance between the two, to everyone’s surprise, Shino and him were able to get along as well. They would not consider each other friends, but they had formed a mutual respect and understanding that was enough to be of comrades.
However, Kiba was not so accepting.
It did not bother Sasuke because he didn’t expect anything from them, but the man’s stubbornness had made their mission difficult to complete. He would completely ignore Sasuke’s suggestion or pretend he wasn’t there in the first place. When no one else would follow his attitude, the man would start unnecessary arguments with Sasuke or his other teammates. At that point, everyone had become fed up with his attitude. Even Akamaru, the large dog who was always loyal to his master and friend, became fed up with him.
That did not stop Kiba though. He continued to treat Sasuke that way for most of the mission. It wasn’t until they had found a lead to the missing shinobi, did Hinata had finally snapped at him for his lack of professionalism. However, it was only when Hinata threatened to fight him and send him back to Konoha alone, did Kiba finally shut up.
Once they had located the missing nin, the team was able to retrieve him and were on their way back to Konoha. The journey back had been fine, and they only needed to travel one more day before reaching the village.
However, when night came, that was when they had been attacked.
“ And what happens if I don’t?” He asked.
“ Sasuke-kun!”
There had been five of them waiting deep within the forest. They were surrounded from all sides and were taken by surprised. Shino had been the first to get hurt. A poison-laced kunai had hit his arm causing the man to collapse in pain, while the missing nin was unconscious. It seemed the poison was specifically meant for Shino; the beetles in his body were unable to get rid of it. Akamaru was guarding the two, so that meant only three of them were able to fight.
Under normal circumstances, Sasuke would have been able to sense them and taken them all out before they would have arrived. But he hadn’t been able to notice anything astray. Neither had the others, but only because the enemies had seemed to know how to deal with them. It seemed his senses had been dulled from the disease. Not only that, but after just taking out two, Sasuke was already low on stamina.
“ We need to leave.”
Hinata nodded in agreement, but Kiba disagreed.
“ We can just take them all out! You already took two.” He growled.
“ No. We need to leave now.” Sasuke said as he continued looking around, waiting for them to strike.
“ Sasuke-kun’s right. We don’t know how many more there are. Our mission is to bring the nin back, not to fight. This isn’t the time to argue, Kiba-kun!” Hinata answered.
It seemed Hinata knew what Sasuke was thinking.
When two more kunais were thrown at them, Kiba finally agreed. The mission was more important.
“ Fine!” The man groaned.
“ Hyuga, Inuzuka, take those two and put them on the dog and leave.” He said.
When Hinata was about to protest against his instructions, Sasuke cut her off.
“ I’ll be following closely behind. I need you two to protect the others and get back to the village in one piece. Do not lose the nin. I’ll make sure to keep them off of you all. Now go!” Sasuke shouted.
Kiba nodded and started to gather the nin and Shino onto Akamaru, while Hinata and Sasuke continued to ward off the weapons thrown at them. When Kiba was finally done, he called for Hinata to get ready to leave. Right as they were ready to go, Sasuke had cleared an opening for them to go.
As Kiba and the others began running, Hinata gave him one last look. Her large, worried eyes stared at him as if she was trying to find something. When Kiba shouted again, it seemed to startle Hinata out of her thoughts.
“ Be careful.” she whispered before going to Kiba.
That was the last time Sasuke had seen Hinata before his eyes turned red.
“ If you don’t, then your body will continue to damage itself until it completely breaks down. When your petals turn as red as wine, then there will be no going back.” She said.
Sasuke looked at Tsunade again, this time with a blank expression.
“ Once that happens, it means you will die.”
A sudden crash by the door startled the two of them. When they both turned to see what had caused the noise, all they could see was a girl with short pink hair and green eyes standing by the door with a fallen tray and pieces of cut fruits on the floor. The girl looked terrified as she looked at them.
It was Sakura.
