If anyone wants to have a character in it, PM me. Word count this time was 4, 163. Fic rated M with good reason.

I do not own Naruto, just the zombies and the plot.

It was five years ago.

Japan was in its prime, everything completely in order and at peace, though the country itself had strove to create something to protect us. Privately funded pharmaceutical corporations popped up all over the country, claiming that they were around to provide medical assistance to those hospitals that needed it. And, of course, considering Tokyo was so huge at the time we needed all the help we could get. It seemed that nothing would really be amiss, but no one truly knew what went on behind the scenes of the two top companies: The Uchiha Corps and Senju Associates.

Of course no one knew. The government had not only been employing them for medicine, but also to create biological warfare, and the two competing companies strived to gain the government's respect and protection. Newer models of firearms were created, along with numerous viruses and mass murder weapons. Not one civilian had any idea, and at the time, neither did I.

But something that one of the companies was developing changed all that. It did not take long before Senju and Uchiha began to compete seriously, and yakuza ties and illegal trade were soon in order to keep everything hushed up and secretive. No one knew that they had been taking human subjects to test on, that their facilities operated underneath the city and that they dumped the waste into small areas in the countryside… Except for one virus.

This particular thing was supposed to bring the end to everything: it was ultimate. Of course when word was leaked to the opposing company, they had to have it by any means possible. They were going to keep it, yes, but first they would show their competitors who was really boss. Contacts were made within both companies and through hospitals and politicians, and it was soon arranged that it was going to be stolen. They employed the best of the best to take it from within, replacing it with a fake to keep down suspicion.

As it turns out, the thief had no idea what the virus did, and neither did their clients. It was asked to use a phial to infect the entire company with it, and then leave without another word.

This virus was potent. It would infect the body easily, and soon transform the host into a completely different person. The thief injected it into a single worker, and what happened to her was gruesome and something that I did not learn about until I was forced to help treat people, though I was completely unaware to what it really did. Nobody knew just what it did, or how incredibly infectious it was. It was like something out of a goddamn Hollywood horror flick…

Let me tell you about this. What the infection did was kill the host, and then reanimate the body. By stopping the heart and travelling to the brain it would transform it into an entirely new organ, completely oxygen-independent—something unheard of—and impaired the body in many ways. The host could not think, could not speak but merely release a low, keening moan when they spotted their prey. They did not bleed, they did not feel pain, they did not sleep. These creatures needed nothing but sustenance, and even then there was no real need for it: they only desired human flesh.

Gross, isn't it? First you're infected and then your body begins to shut down, starting with pain from the infection's entrance and then numbness of joints, then delirium and decreased motor function, paired with numbness…Then you fall into a coma and die. Within 23 hours of being infected, your body is reanimated into one of these ghouls, and you can't even stop it. There was no antivirus, and that was the worst thing, because it could be transmitted by a bite, a scratch, even the blood of one of these undead bitches getting into one of your wounds would turn you into one of them.

The company had no idea about what a grand scale this infection would take, though within three days the entire facility of developers was infected and roaming in search of their next meal. The employers of the thief panicked, and shut down the labs to try and quarantine everyone… But they had waited too late. One infected person had escaped in the early stages, heading to the nearest hospital and begging for treatment. That was all it took to bring the entire world to its knees, and I was there.

Employed as an emergency doctor at the age of twenty-two, I was one of the… Well, I would not say lucky, but I was certainly more fortunate than some other people. I was the youngest doctor there, and female to top it all off, and it had never been expected that I would be a survivor. I can still completely recall the day that the young man came stumbling in, his face gaunt with a sickly grey pallor and the bite on his neck a gruesome purple gash, surrounded by brown and rings of red. I had never seen such a thing before, but I knew it was in my best interests to treat it. It was my job.

If I had known what it was, exactly, I would have stayed the fuck away and killed the bastard to put him out of his misery, but of course I didn't. I didn't even know what had happened or why the virus had hit until I met him: my partner, the one person I can depend on. But of course he wasn't around yet, and there was nothing else I could do but treat the shaking man who was moaning in pain, writhing as the nurses held him down so he could be inspected and—so it was thought—treated.

March 22nd: 6:43 AM

Tokyo General Hospital

"Good morning to you, too."

Her voice was tired, having just arrived at the hospital after a few hours of sleep and a cup of much needed coffee. Her skirt was tight and pressed, her blouse open a few buttons and slightly wrinkled. It would have been perfectly ironed, but the woman in question did not have the time to iron her clothing. She was on call nearly all of the time, her godmother being the director of the hospital she was employed in and almost always bringing her back to work because apparently there was no one else that could be trusted with such a thing. It always made the young woman groan, because she knew that everyone else was just as fine a medic as she.

But she was new, and did need the experience. She already had an office here, and that was probably where she would be changing into her scrubs and drinking the last bitter dregs of coffee before she was pulled back into reality by the whimpers and cries of pain and distress that filled her ears as each day of work passed. Why she had brought such a hard life upon herself was no one's business but her own, and quite honestly she was not sure. Everyone had always told her that she should be a model or something, because her colouring and features made her rather unique among others of her ethnicity.

Once again, though, it was a matter of her self-confidence: she was only proud of her intelligence, and had therefore taken it and her skills and shoved it into the medical world. The young woman had passed her classes easily, graduated, and was now walking towards her office to get ready for the job that she had wished for, dreamed for. Her life was running pretty well: she went on dates every now and then, made money, paid her bills on time, and hung out with friends on a regular basis (more like when she had time, because being the over-achiever she was, it was nearly impossible to find such a thing).

The woman let out a sigh, finally unlocking the glass door that lead to her book-filled office. It was comfortable, she supposed, but not something that she would want to live in. Furnished in dark wood with dim lighting, it seemed more like something out of a horror movie than belonging to a hospital. She brought out her bag, removing her professional clothing and settling for the more practical scrubs that she had grown accustomed to. The pale pink fabric matched her hair, and was paired with the white coat and runners that signified her as a doctor. A badge was clipped to the pocket above her right breast, displaying the horrendous picture that had become mandatory.

Glancing in the mirror, she noticed just how drab she looked: there were concealed bags under her eyes, pale pink strands of hair falling across pale skin and verdant eyes. She looked old for her age, but the youth still kept her cheeks reddened and full, balancing her heart-shaped face so that it looked more angelic than it had in her younger days. That was not to say that she was a large woman, or even curvy, for that matter: the medic was as thin as a twig and had barely anything to accent her figure. Or so she said: she did not take to compliments well, and though she craved a lover she refused to take one... She never felt pretty enough for it.

And of course these thoughts were filling her head once again, and it caused her to flop back into her chair with a sigh, grabbing her travel mug of coffee and bringing the stale brew to her lips. The bitter taste stung her throat when she remembered she had added no sugar, and her pouty lips curled into a grimace as she put the mug down. There was no way in hell she was finishing that shit... It tasted like the underside of her stilettos, and she had no idea where those had been since Ino had taken them. That bitch...

And speaking of the bitch, just as she was about to put her feet up on her desk she just had to walk in, all flustered like and looking as if she had just seen a ghost, which automatically meant that something was terribly, terribly wrong. The blonde's cheeks were flushed, her hair in disarray as the door flew open somewhat melodramatically, and the rosette couldn't really help but raise an eyebrow in disapproval. Ino was being a tad over-the-top, even if they did work in a hospital... But she supposed it was merited. There had to be something that was worth all of this, and the young woman was just about to comment when Ino cut her off.

"Sakura!"

The woman winced at Ino's tone, viridian eyes squeezing shut at the panic and slight shrillness to the voice. The blonde had apparently slammed the door when she had opened it, and a picture had fallen... Well then. That was certainly the last time she brought something nice to work. Sakura parted her lips in yet another sigh, finally opening her sleepy eyes to fix the panicked woman with a bored stare. It wasn't fair to already doubt her fellow medic's abilities, but this was not the first time that she had done something like this. Everything else that had started like this had been something like a cold or yet another STI case... and Sakura really did not want to deal with that at the moment.

"Ino, if you would calm down for a second and would lower your voice I'd be happy to—"

"Sakura, there is not time for your sarcasm!" The other woman was practically screaming at her, and Sakura found herself still not quite alarmed. Sure, there was a degree of concern there, but there was no reason for her to be scared yet. Sakura sat up straight, her eyes intently fixed on the flustered blonde. By the looks of it she seemed to really be panicking, and she couldn't help but feel a bit worried... As she went to speak once again, she was indeed cut off for a second time, but this time Ino actually had a bit of information for her, which was fucking fantastic.

"We have a man in the ER who we don't have a diagnosis for. No one knows what's wrong with him... We think he's dying." Ino had always been terrible with the ER, constantly crying every time they lost someone. It was not really their fault if they couldn't fix it, but the blonde woman had a hard time with it ever since she had lost her old teacher and close friend, Asuma. And as much as Sakura would have loved to sit and have a minute to relax, but there would always be some injured person who needed help. Sakura got up from her chair, walking past the blonde at a brisk pace while pulling her pink locks into a high, messy ponytail.

"Lead the way, Ino."

What she saw when she entered the tented space was definitely something that Sakura had not been prepared for.

The man in question was literally trying to tug himself out of the restraints given; crying out that he couldn't be in a public room because he would kill everyone. Of course everyone's first instinct was that he was crazy, and though she was fairly sure he was, she still had to treat the poor bastard. Well, attempt to. Everyone else there had thought the same thing when they had seen him, and that was 'Holy shit, what the hell is that?'

'That' was the bite on his neck, which was an ugly myriad of colours and textures. Blood oozed slowly from it, staining the immediate area crimson, though the wound itself was purple and brown, the skin greyish. It looked completely dead... The bite was deep enough that she could see the bone underneath, the tendons, muscles and skin being completely ripped away. It was a miracle that he wasn't dead, because the wound had barely clotted over and the veins that spider webbed away from it looked as if he had been poisoned (which was close to the truth, but she didn't know that). According to the nurse that was chattering away in Sakura's ear, he had been here for about seven hours.

Seven goddamn hours and no one had told her? What the fuck. Seriously. He was already had an IV, being restrained, and then he was being left unattended... Even Sakura knew that there should always be a nurse and that he should be in the ICU. It did not take long before the rosette was nearly at her exploding point because of all the yelling and flailing and what not... Fuck, this day was not going to be a good one. The day before her birthday, too... She hated life. Hated it. The medic told the nurse to shut the hell up before setting to work, calling in people to move the man to a stretcher and to be taken down to the ICU.

Once set up she counted down from three, lifting the fabric below him to raise him onto one of the moving beds. They hooked him up once again, strapping the male down even though he had begun to go limp. Sakura kicked the locks off the wheels, and began to push out into the hallway. They were nearly around the corner, nurses working to keep the man alive and moving rather fast before she nearly hit someone... A tall, black-haired male in a suit, looking at the patient with disdain and coldness.

"Shit!" Sakura cursed aloud, turning the stretcher so that she would not hit the mysterious figure. "What the hell? You shouldn't be in the way!" Her voice was angry, her heart nearly beating out of her chest at the scare he had caused her. What a bitch... But he was pretty good looking, she had to admit. His eyes caught hers, glinting a dark, midnight blue as his lips parted to speak to her. His voice was soft, barely above a whisper, but she caught every word... Things were almost moving in slow motion.

"Kill him, Sakura."

Her eyes widened in shock, and she was about to make a comment about how horribly cruel that was when he pushed past her and stepped back into the ER, exiting with as much nonchalance as he had entered with. But there was more on hand then that, and it took a bit of shaking from one of the nurses, probably Ino, to get her moving once more.

March 23rd: 5:42 AM

Tokyo General Hospital

Sakura awoke rather groggily, having fallen asleep in the lounge on the couch. She had been here since yesterday's morning, and she had just realized now that it was her birthday. Well, what a great day to turn twenty-two years old. She should probably have been happy, but she was far from it. The encounter yesterday with that man... It was all she could think about. The fact that he knew her name was something that was bothering her, though she had been wearing a nametag... It was as if he had known her from somewhere. He looked familiar, yes, but she couldn't put face to name. Goddamn, something about all of that was seriously getting to her...

Not to mention that the fact her patient had been declared deceased, as the sticky note oh-so-conveniently stuck to her forehead told her. A loud groan escaped her lips, because that meant she had to call the family and tell them, comfort them and release the body and what not... Though the strange thing is that they could find nothing on the man. No file, no records, nothing. He had no ID on him, and they had run his face and fingerprints through the system and still nothing. That meant that the bill was going to fall onto the family, and that was not good news either...

But hey, she needed to get paid somehow.

She dragged herself off of the nice, warm couch and skulked off to get herself some more coffee. It filled the ceramic glass, and the young woman took it black this time so the milk in it would not go sour, because she knew that she would just end up leaving it on the counter like she always did. The medic sipped it quietly, thinking to herself about exactly what she would say and do when a piercing scream filled the air. The sounds startled Sakura and she dropped the cup and broke it, slicing open her hand as she tried to clean up.

Curses flowed from her full lips as she wiped the blood onto her coat, not having time to clean anything before running out into the hallway and sprinting full speed down to the room that the noise had come from. It was a good thing she had a great memory, or she would have forgotten exactly where it had come from... But as she drew closer, Sakura soon changed her mind about that. The room would not have been hard to find: she could see now why the screaming had even started.

Blood was pooling underneath the door, and that could so not be a good thing. Fresh, too. Gross...

What the hell had just happened here, anyway? Sakura grimaced, and was just about to open the door when she heard a low, keening moan and a very loud crunch. That... was not a happy sound. Not happy at all... Sakura began to think that maybe, just maybe she should go and get a security officer, but it wasn't long until a couple came around the corner, being followed by Ino. Some type of relief flooded through her system as they drew closer, and Sakura gladly stepped away from the door to allow them access to the room.

"What happened, Sakura?" Ino's voice was high and squeaky, her blue eyes wide in fear. Sakura was a bit apprehensive, sure, but there was no reason to be utterly terrified... Right? Sakura knew this room, the room of her patient, and knew that the man was dead. It's not like the dead could just come back to life and go on murderous rampages...

"I don't have the slightest clue, Ino, I really don't."

Just as she said that, one of the security guys—his nametag read "Akihiko"—figured out how to open the door, and finally pushed it open so that they could peer inside. What happened next happened so quickly that it was barely registered, but it was definitely not good.

As Akihiko poked his head inside everyone else leaned closer, nearly peering in the doorway when his head was grabbed by a pair of clammy, grey hands and pulled inside with another one of those awful moans. He yelled loudly, but it was cut off into a gurgle as Sakura once again heard the crunch. It was barely audible over the sound of Ino's screams, but there was no mistaking that sound. It was gross, and something that wouldn't leave the rosette's ears for as long as she managed to live. The sickening sound of a man's throat being ripped out.

The other guard grabbed his gun from the holster, taking open fire against the figure in there, and Sakura moved to get a better look out of morbid curiosity and fascination of the situation. She was scared shitless, but she had to know what had just happened... She thought she was prepared for it, but the second she looked in she could see why the door had been closed. It was gruesome, it really was.

There were two bodies on the floor, covered in blood and sprawled out, as if they were discarded toys on the floor. They weren't dead because Sakura could see the young nurse's—the one who must have screamed initially—chest heaving, her scrub shirt torn open and bites scattered over her collarbones and neck. They looked the same as the ones that her patient had been inflicted with... Speaking of her patient, what the hell had happened to him? He... He was supposed to be dead...

Not bent over Akihiko, gnawing away as if he were starved. Her eyes widened, transfixed upon the scene laid out in front of her. Sakura had never been a fan of horror movies, but now... Now she was living one. She couldn't bring herself to scream, but Ino did it for her: the supposedly dead man raised his head at the sound, his face covered in the sticky crimson fluid that was also on the floor. As if that wasn't bad enough he raised himself up off of the floor, those mottled grey lips opening to their fullest extent to groan once more and begin to hobble towards her.

She couldn't move or think as the other guard continued firing on the...zombie, as it looked... came towards them, but they did nothing. Every bullet hit its mark—legs, chest, arms—but nothing happened. No blood, no screaming anything...The ghoul just kept coming towards Sakura, arms outstretched towards her and bloodshot eyes trained on her. Everything seemed to fall into slow motion, Sakura hardly realizing that Ino was shaking her and telling her to run, but she couldn't. Her breath caught in her throat, her body completely paralyzed as the undead man came towards her... Fuck, why couldn't she move!

Just as she was about to just sit and accept her fate, one more bullet pierced the air, going straight through the zombie's skull. The man dropped to the floor, but he did not bleed, nor did he move... Twitched a bit, sure, but Sakura was fairly sure he was dead for good this time. The medic was honestly ready to kiss the person who had just saved her ass, and the second she regained movement she whipped around to look at her saviour... It was not who she had expected. Sakura sputtered and took a step back, not understanding anything that had just happened.

It was the man in the suit, holding a slightly smoking 9mm handgun.

"What're...? Who are...? I don't..." Sakura gasped. It felt like all the air had left her lungs, but she didn't really care. She was so, so grateful to him... Fuck, on her birthday, too. What a great time for zombies to show up on the planet. There was no one else there, just him... What had happened? How did he know how to kill that... that thing?

"You will know soon enough... And happy birthday."

With that he was gone, leaving her alone here in the bloody mess, with nothing but confusion to think about.

"Yeah... Happy fucking birthday to me."

Updated: 10/12/10