"How am I supposed to sleep in here?" Asari asked annoyed.
"Sleep?" Naruto looked back at the small chariot he was pulling with the boy in it.
"You don't really think I'm going to just sit in here awake the whole way home, do you?" The boy complained. "I'm bored already!"
"You have your toys in there, and a pillow and a blanket." Naruto said. "And you don't have to be in there the whole way, you can get out and walk a bit, get some air."
"There's bugs and animals that can bite me!"
"We're ninja, we can fight off a few bugs, ya know." Naruto rolled his eyes.
"What if I step in a deep puddle?"
"Why would you step in it if you knew it was there?"
"…"
Naruto smiled and shook his head.
"The bottom is hard, I can't sleep in here."
"Have you ever slept on the floor in your house?"
"Yeah? What does that matter?" Asari replied annoyed.
"You can fall asleep in there too then, you're bored as hell, remember?" Naruto added.
The boy's face reddened. "Can't you pull faster?"
Naruto sighed and took off running full speed.
"WOAH, WOAH, WOAH! OK, I GOT IT, OKAY!" The boy in the buckling chariot yelled.
Naruto chuckled stopping to let the other two get to him.
"Stop it, idiot." Sasuke added.
"Naruto smiled mischievously at Hinata who smiled back but shook her head sternly.
Naruto pouted at her before pulling the chariot again.
She giggled as Sasuke wordlessly continued next to his teammate.
"Are you sure there aren't any bears around here?" The boy asked.
"This is a forest…" Naruto replied. "Of course there are bears here."
Hinata cringed and Sasuke facepalmed as the boy screamed in terror and closed the little window on the chariot.
Naruto burst out laughing as his shoulders buckled.
"Naruto!" Hinata scolded him.
"What? You want me to lie to him?"
"You won't have to if you just shut your mouth, you idiot." Sasuke glared at him.
"Geez, fine, fine." Naruto grumbled.
"Alright." Sasuke began. "On a more important note, we need to read over this scroll again."
"Yes." Hinata agreed.
"So during the last couple of weeks, seven people in the Land of Pearls got sick with a mysterious illness. They all got sick one after another so Asari's parents got worried that it might be a pandemic of some sort so they decided to get out of the village to avoid it since Asari's father is the leader of the pearl factory. Two of the sick people died, one of them is in serious condition… Hopefully he doesn't die before we get there. But the others are stable. However, Asari's parents had to go back to observe a new development at the factory but his father got sick while he was there too." Sasuke explained.
"But why didn't his mom come back for him if she's not sick?" Naruto asked.
"Because they don't know if she is or not, maybe she's just not showing symptoms yet." Sasuke replied.
"So if she was and she infected others in our Village…" Hinata continued.
"Oh, man…" Naruto's head dropped.
"Now… I don't know what will happen if we get sick too so we need to be especially cautious."
"No, you two need to be." Naruto added. "I've never been sick in my life, never even had a cold. I don't think I can even get sick at all."
"You don't know that, so don't be a fool." Sasuke replied.
"Well, you know what they say…" Naruto grinned at him. "Fools don't get sick."
"Hn." Sasuke shook his head.
Not far away, in the Land of Pearls, a man lay in bed with a cold towel on his forehead. He gazed at the red colored ceiling while a drop of sweat ran down his beard. His musings were interrupted by a dull knock on the door.
"Yes." He shouted keeping his voice stern and powerful as to seem not so exhausted.
Another man opened the door. "I am sorry to bother you sir." His muffled voice spoke though the mask on his face while his hands covered in rubber gloves clenched into fists. "But I must inform you that our critical patient has passed away."
The bedridden man closed his eyes and took a breath. "Perform an autopsy then organize a respectful funeral for the man."
"Yes, sir." The man's gloved hand reached for the door. "Is there anything you need, sir?"
"How is my wife?"
"Still no sign of the illness, sir."
"Excellent."
"We are keeping a close eye on her, sir."
"Thank you, you may leave now."
"Yes, sir." The door slid closed and the man sighed again and tugged at his beard in frustration. What is this illness? How many people will have to die before it is all over?
Another knock interrupted his thoughts. "Yes?"
The same man from before opened the door. "I apologize, sir…"
"No need, what happened?"
"Your son just arrived, sir. There are three very young ninja with him."
"My son is here?" The man jumped out of his bed ripping the towel off of his head. "Why is he here?"
"Um… your wife asked us to bring him back, sir. I assumed you knew."
The man sat back on the bed and rubbed his had with his hands. "You let my wife know that if Asari gets sick, I am holding her responsible."
The messenger gulped audibly before turning to walk out. "Yes…sir."
"Finally!" The boy exclaimed before jumping out of the chariot.
Naruto dropped the handles and flexed his arms while his shoulders crackled. "Yeah… finally."
The boy saw a familiar face walking towards him and yelled. "Namazu! Will you carry my stuff back to my room? I want to see mom and dad!"
"Young Lord, please be patient." The older skinny man with glasses and a pointy mustache said. "We have to get you to a sanitized room first."
"A what?" The boy asked tilting his head. "Why are you wearing that white suit? What's going on here?"
Namazu blinked at him before looking at the other ninja.
Naruto looked back at him and mouthed: He doesn't know!
"Oh, dear." The man put his hands on his hips. "This will be quite a pickle."
"Where are mom and dad?" Asari jumped around impatiently.
"You need to come with me first, my boy. There is something I should tell you." He looked at the genin. "Thank you for escorting him here safely. Please, go to the front door over there to get suited, then the staff should lead you to Lord Wanizame."
"To dad? I wanna go with them too!" Asari pouted.
"I'm afraid you cannot see him right now, Young Lord." Namazu replied. "Come with me now."
"This is bad, guys." Naruto whispered.
"Yeah." Sasuke agreed looking at the boy being dragged away by his butler. "Let's hope it doesn't get worse."
"Guys." Hinata said somewhat loudly.
The two turned towards her only to see her shakily pointing at something. Upon looking toward where her finger was pointing they saw two men carrying a body on a stretcher towards a large door with the sign 'Laboratory' on it.
"You think that's the guy that was in critical condition?" Naruto asked rather quietly.
"Probably." Sasuke replied. "Let's go. Obviously, time isn't on our side."
Upon visiting Lord Wanizame, it was confirmed that the said man had indeed passed and the illness had claimed its third victim.
"What are the symptoms of the illness?" Sasuke asked him.
"Exhaustion, vertigo, nausea… all of which I have experienced… and then your body shuts down and you die."
Sasuke narrowed his eyes at the list of symptoms. "Thank you for the information. May we go talk to your spouse now?"
"Yes, you are free to go just, please, keep my son safe."
"No worries, we won't let this happen to anyone else." Naruto said as they exited the room.
"Something is not right." Sasuke said.
"What do you mean?" Hinata asked.
"When you get sick, how do you know?" Sasuke asked.
"I don't know, I've never been sick, remember?"
Sasuke sighed. "But how would you know if you were?"
"I see." Hinata deduced.
"Huh? See what? I have no clue what you guys are going on about." Naruto looked at them confused.
"Usually you would assume that you are sick when you get a cough, a fever, a runny nose… typical symptoms as such. When an illness enters your body, your antibodies try to diminish it. Because of their activity you get a high temperature also. But none of these symptoms have appeared in any of the sick people." Hinata explained.
"Aaahh." Naruto realized scratching his chin.
"However…" Sasuke shifted his gaze between his teammates. "If you were poisoned…"
Naruto's eyes widened. "Poisoned?"
"Yes." Hinata confirmed. "Maybe this is not an illness at all. If it was, at least some of the many medications the doctors administered would have some effect."
"But you can't treat poisoning with medication, only an antidote." Sasuke continued. "But in order to have an antidote you need to know what the poison is. After all, you can't cure a snake bite with spider bite antidote."
"So we need to find out how these people got poisoned." Naruto concluded.
Sasuke nodded. "Naruto, you go back and talk with Wanizame, find out what he ate, drank, touched, anything unusual. Hinata you do the same with his wife and I'll go to the infirmary and talk to the other victims. We need to know what they all have in common."
"Roger that." Naruto agreed.
"I'm on it." Hinata confirmed.
They nodded to each other one last time before going their separate ways.
Naruto sighed before slowly but firmly knocking on the Lord's door.
"Yes?" His muffled voice replied from the inside.
Naruto opened the door and cleared his throat before slowly closing it and discretely wincing at the squeak the door made before shutting. "Excuse me but ah… I need to talk to you again, sir."
"Is something the matter?" Lord Wanizame sat up firmly.
"Well… the thing is… we don't think what you have is an illness." Naruto replied.
Wanizame's eyes widened slightly. "Why is that?"
"We think that you have actually been poisoned."
"Poisoned?" Wanizame repeated. "And what had caused you to come to such a conclusion?"
"Have you had a fever, or a cough, or any typical symptoms of an illness?"
"No, but every illness has its own specific symptoms which is how you make a diagnosis."
"Yeah, but when you're sick your immune system tries to fight it so you get a fever and stuff, but when you're poisoned it's in your bloodstream and you need a specific antidote for the poison."
"I see." Wanizame put his hand on his chin.
"Also, if this was an illness and it started with what seems to be a cold, there would be a lot more sick people because you wouldn't really quarantine yourself if you had a regular cold, right?"
"Poisoning?" Wanizame's thoughts wandered off.
"Yes." Naruto confirmed. "So I need to ask you to tell me if you ate or drank or touched something weird recently."
"Weird?" the Lord looked at him.
"Yeah, like something unusual for you, something new." Naruto replied. "Because if you did and the others did too then that might be the cause of this."
The Lord got up from his bed and started slowly walking up the down the room. Naruto bit his lip as he impatiently followed Wanizame with his eyes until the man stopped and slowly turned towards the genin. "I trust that you can keep the following information confidential?"
"Yes, sir!" Naruto said immediately.
"Are they going to die?!" Asari yelled with tears running down his face.
"Now, now, Young Lord, I'm sure they'll be fine." Namazu comforted the bawling boy.
"I want my mommy!"
"You will see her soon, I promise."
"Why can't I see her now?!"
Namazu rubbed his forehead in exhaustion as he had already carefully explained the whole situation to the boy… twice.
"You must be tired from your trip, how about you go take a nap now, eh?" He picked the boy up from the living room couch and carried him into his room once there the boy sniffled and wiped his tears on his sleeve. "I'll go get you a nice glass of warm milk, you stay here."
As soon as Namazu got out of the boy's room he sighed deeply and dragged his feet into the kitchen and lowered himself on a chair.
"Are you alright?" The maid washing the dishes asked him before pulling out a wet ladle out of the sink and pointing it at him. "You're not sick too, now, are you?"
"No, Rikai, I am fine. Just tired."
"Did you tell Asari about…?" She trailed away as Nazame looked at her with a tired stare. "You did… of course." She threw the ladle in the sink again.
"Could you warm his milk, please?" He asked leaning back in the chair. "And sneak me a bit of your secret sake, if you don't mind."
Putting the last dish away Rikai smiled. "Coming right up."
Hinata sat patiently next to the Lady's bed as she rubbed her head in deep thought. "Anything?"
"No." The Lady said. "I have not consumed anything out of the ordinary lately."
Hinata sighed quietly. "Are you sure that-" The sound of the door suddenly opening interrupted her.
"Hey, we need to talk right away!"
"Naruto?" Hinata looked at him at the door.
"I'm sorry." He apologized to the Lady before turning to Hinata. "Team meeting… NOW." He closed the door.
"I apologize, thank you for your help." Hinata bowed before exiting the room herself to see Naruto and Sasuke in the hallway.
"Now, what is this about?" Sasuke asked him.
"I know what poisoned these people." He said.
"What? How?" Hinata asked.
"We need to go somewhere private first, where we can talk alone." Naruto said. "And we can take off these stupid gloves!"