The Black Death
Dovesary
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, nor do I own the Bubonic Plague.
They died in heaps, and were buried in heaps.
--Daniel Defoe in England in 1665
Branches caught and broke, tearing clothing, scraping skin, stabbing eyes. Still she ran on. Screams of pure agony sounded from behind her and she ran faster, not daring to turn around. Tears blinded and streamed down dirt- and blood-stained cheeks. She felt terrible, awful, dreadful for leaving her companions behind but it was too late for them.
They had days at best.
To pull through.
To live.
To survive.
It wouldn't happen, though. They were too far gone and too weak to fight off the sickness that had struck their bodies. She was lucky enough that hadn't felt the full effects of the sickness yet. She still had three days ahead of her until she reached her destination. Hopefully her body could hold out. She prayed most desperately that it could. The people of the Sand village counted on her.
One and one-half days would go by before the first lump would appear near her groin. Black and purple stained the sizeable tumor. Panic zapped her blood stream and sent it boiling in fear.
She ran faster.
She would struggle the next day one and one-half days with intolerable pain coursing throughout her body. Blood dribbled out her nose and she knew it was too late. She stopped running, lungs heaving and burning, blood stewing in her body from the sickness. She fell in a dead faint, never to rise again.
She was a mere 90 yards away from Konoha, her destination, never to be reached.
The ANBU black ops sped silently through the vast forest, leaping branch to branch, quickly and effectively, the scenery passing as a blur. But even through the blur opal eyes saw a body, strewn in such a way Neji knew immediately that it was just a corpse. He stopped anyway, knowing that, as a ninja—a very high-ranking one—he should check it out.
"Capt'n?" A male called out, voice muffled from behind his badger mask. "What'd you stop for?"
His answer was silence.
Neji dropped to the ground, landing beside the body. The scent of old death wafted underneath his mask, causing his nose to wrinkle in unpleasantness. With a gloved hand, he slowly turned the body over.
What he saw was astonishing.
Kiba was pouting.
Shikamaru didn't care, though. Oh, no. That would be too troublesome. Besides, Kiba was an adult and he belonged to ANBU. He should've been more than capable to get over a little dirty work. Okay, sure. It was nasty, having to carry the corpse, seeing as how, well, it was a) dead, and b) rotting with a surprising amount putrid stink unparallel to anything Shikamaru had smelt—and he'd had many, unmentionable disgusting smells assault his nose. But still, Kiba was acting like a complete child.
That's when Shikamaru remembered that Kiba was part dog and Kiba's nose was ten times as efficient as his own. Sucks to be him, Shika thought with an inward snicker.
"Kiba, come on. We'll take a break over there by the stream and then I'll carry the body. Now stop pouting. It's troublesome." Shikamaru said as he landed gracefully on the ground, leaves crunching softly under his the worn soles of his old sandals.
As he sat down on a decaying log, Kiba landed, bringing along the smell of the corpse. His nose wrinkled.
"God, Kiba. Go put the body someplace else. It reeks."
"I would if I could, but I can't. Neji's orders." Said Kiba, while he was arranging the body on the forest floor. "Sucks that we had to stay behind with the body, doesn't it? I'd give anything to back in Konoha right now. I'm sure Akamaru is barely surviving without me." He sat on the log as well, stretching out his long legs.
"I don't even understand why we have to bring it along, anyway. It's just some dead girl."
Shikamaru glanced over at Kiba as he pulled a cigarette out of one of the many pockets adorning his ANBU vest. "Idiot." He muttered, knowing that dog-boy could hear him. "It's because of how she died that we're taking her with us."
The other boy regarded him confusedly.
"How'd she die?" He asked, glancing at the body.
Shika rose, sucking lightly on the end of the cigarette before puffing out a cloud of smoke. "We don't know, exactly. But remember those bodies we found on the trail to Konoha? They had some of the same markings as this one. I heard Neji over talking with one of the lieutenants. He thinks it might be some sort of cancer because of the large lumps found under the armpits of some of the victims and even a few near the groin." He bent down, resting on the balls of his feet as he observed the body.
The woman—no, girl. She looked no older than 15 at most—was frail looking. Pale from death with dark blue almost black circles under her glassy, brown eyes. Dried and crusting blood leaked from her nose, a few droplets caked onto the light covering of hair on her upper lip. Her lips were a light blue color, nearly white. Her brown hair was mussed and filthy. Her clothing odd, not from around here. If he guessed, he would say that she either came from Rock or Sand. It was a shame that she wasn't a ninja; it would've been easier to tell where she was from.
He ran a finger across her upper lip, flaking away more of the dirt and blood that marred her features. With a tired sigh, he stood up and threw this cigarette to the ground, stepping on it to douse the light flame at the end, before stooping down once more to pick up the body and throw it over his shoulder.
"Come on," he said to Kiba. "We're almost to Konoha."
With that, both ninja jumped into the tree tops and ran quickly home. Never feeling the sickness as it leaked into their bodies.
Latex-gloved hands resting on her hips, Sakura ran her eyes over the naked form of the corpse lying on the metal table before her. Several large, fresh-bruise-colored lumps marred the paleness of the girl's skin. Neck, armpits, and groin holding the most. There were no open wounds, and no sign of a beating. If her heart had imploded there would have been more blood from the nose and some from the eyes as well…
Sakura was stumped.
She had already done the first proceedings of an autopsy and she had found nothing. All that was left was sending a chakra flow through the body to locate any diseases. If she couldn't find anything then she would do it the old way and cut her open with a scalpel.
She placed her hands on the girl's stomach and sent her chakra flowing outwards so that it poured into the girl. It flowed through organs, muscles, bones. Finally, she sent it through the blood stream. At first there was nothing, and then suddenly, there was a tingling. The tingling turned into a painful pounding and Sakura gasped for breath.
It was like death itself had boiled this girls blood and turned it potent. She left the poisoned chakra in the victims body and pulled her hands away. Leaving the body where it was, she immediately headed for the showers. With a sickness such as this one, she couldn't leave the room without being clean and changing her clothes.
Never had Sakura thought something as horrible as this would come to Konoha. She thought Orochimaru was bad, but oh God, this was so much worse.
So, so much worse.
Tsunade sat behind her desk, idly twisting a pen between her fingers as Shikamaru and Kiba reported what had happened after the other ANBU members had left.
"…and then we took a br-break by….the river…" Kiba stumbled over his words and then coughed wetly and loudly.
The Hokage looked at the boy.
"Kiba? Are you alright?" Shikamaru questioned, glancing at him. A light sheen of sweat dewed his upper lip. He had a hand pressed to his chest and to his forehead. Kiba stumbled and Shikamaru grabbed his arm so that he wouldn't fall all the way.
At this point Tsunade was up out of her chair and standing in front of them. She told Shikamaru to lay Kiba down on the floor, and he did but not before Kiba coughed again and blood flew from his mouth and onto Shika's face and clothing. The coughing rattled Kiba and he groaned painfully.
"Oh, God…," Kiba moaned. "It hurts." He whispered, blood trickling from his lips as he passed out.
"Kiba!" Tsunade and Shikamaru said simultaneously.
Just then Sakura burst through the doors, Shizune in her wake.
"Tsunade." Sakura said, a desperate edge to her voice.
"Not now, Sakura. Shizune, open up a bed for me. Kiba's collapsed." The Hokage ordered, picking the younger boy in her arms.
"It's urgent. Please. It's about the autopsy of the dead girl." Sakura begged, hands twisting in the fabric of her fresh clothing.
"So is this, Sakura. It'll have to wait."
"Tsunade. It's the bubonic plague." She said.
Tsunade turned around, half-in, half-out the door.
"The Black Death is here. It's in Konoha."
Well, that's it. Please tell me what you think. Oh! For those reading Touching You, I've almost completed chapter four. It should be up soon. Promise.
Please review! I need to know whether or not I should continue with this story.
Also, I'm sorry for any and all mistakes. If you catch one, please let me know so that I may fix it.