"Ok." Naruto proclaimed as he sat down and crossed his legs. His two teammates sat around him forming a circle behind a large sculpture of a sea shell in a park.
"What have you found out?" Hinata asked him.
"So, here's the deal…" Naruto began. "In the factory where they produce pearls they had a, what the Lord called, a harvest period where they open up all the clams and get the pearls outta them. So occasionally they'll get a black pearl which is super rare and it's worth a lot of money so sometimes thieves try to steal them."
"That's why Wanizame told you to keep it a secret." Sasuke added.
Naruto nodded. "Before all the people got sick they discovered a weird, spiky, black pearl in one of the clams. They've never seen anything like it so some people took it in their hands and showed it off around the factory."
"Let me guess…" Sasuke interrupted. "All the people that touched it are the ones that got sick."
Naruto nodded in confirmation.
"We must go and tell the others not to touch it immediately!" Hinata panicked.
"That's the thing." Naruto grabbed her wrist to calm her down. "They put the pearl in a box somewhere until they find out what it is. Why do you think nobody else got sick the whole time we've been here?"
"Nobody else touched it." Sasuke concluded.
"Exactly." Naruto grinned. "Now, let's go and see if we can figure out what it is."
Hinata and Sasuke nodded and they all got up and headed for the factory. Once they got there the guards were reluctant to let them in. The three stood in front of them staring at the hardheaded guards while Hinata politely asked them repeatedly to let them in but they still refused.
"We were hired for this mission, we shouldn't have to ask for access." Sasuke said.
"That's what thieves might say." One of the guards spoke.
Naruto glared at the man. "Do I look like a pearl necklace would go with my outfit?" The guard blinked. "You've got two choices, buddy. One, we get in there and complete our mission and everyone's happy. Or two, everyone gets sick and dies, including you two assholes. So you either let us in or we're gonna beat the shit out of you cuz you are lookin' at the future Hokage of the Leaf Village so you better know I'm serious here!"
"You think you can handle the two us, you little shrimp?" The other guard teased.
Naruto sighed straight-faced and cracked his knuckles. "I think I look more like a lobster than a shrimp." Naruto joked before doing a hand sign for his signature jutsu and filling the surrounding area with shadow clones. "You know what an army of shrimp can do to two brainless clownfish like you?"
A bead of sweat rolled down the guard's nose.
"You wanna become a shrimp cocktail?" Naruto eyed them.
The two guards said nothing.
"Thought so." Naruto said dispersing his clones. "Now open the goddamn door."
"You called, my Lord?" Namazu said as he entered the Lord's room.
"Yes." The Lord confirmed. "Where is my son?"
"He is in his room, playing with his toys."
"How is my wife's condition?"
"Still no sign of an illness, my Lord."
"Excellent. Now, go to her and ask her if she touched any of the black pearls in the factory and report back to me immediately."
Namazu raised a brow in confusion. "Ugh, yes, my Lord. Right away."
"They look so slimy…" Naruto commented looking at a box full of freshly harvested pearls. "Then again, so do oysters and they're freakin' expensive too."
"Ah! Here it is!" A worker's voice startled the blonde.
He turned around to see the man they asked to look for the pearl holding a sealed blue container.
"Finally…" Sasuke said under his breath.
The man put the container on the table and opened it. Inside was a bunch of white cotton materially with the strange pearl resting in the middle.
"That's a pearl?" Naruto asked.
"It can't be, it looking nothing like a pearl." Sasuke replied.
"Maybe it's deformed or something."
"No." Hinata added. "Even deformed, pearls that grew in a clam would still be somewhat rounded, this one has sharp needle like pins covering the entirety of its surface."
"Have you ever discovered anything similar before?" Sasuke asked the worker who began denying such a discovery. While the other two began questioning the man Naruto stared intently at the small object. Suddenly, his voice interrupted his teammates' interrogation.
"It moved!"
"What?" Hinata asked.
"It just moved, I swear!"
"Pearls aren't living creatures, they don't move." Sasuke said.
"Didn't you just say that you don't think that it's a pearl?" Naruto fired back.
"What do you think it is then?"
"I don-" Naruto interrupted himself. "Hang on…I just remembered something…"
"What?" Sasuke asked.
Naruto looked around and saw a magnifying glass on the table. He took it and began examining the pearl with it.
"What are you doing, bonehead?" Sasuke asked annoyed.
After a few seconds of silence Naruto slowly put the magnifying glass back on the table and slapped his forehead.
"A sea urchin…"
"A what?" The worker said.
"It's a sea urchin, not a pearl!" Naruto yelled. "Those things can be poisonous, it explains everything!"
"The people got pricked and a poison was introduced into their systems." Hinata concluded.
"But how can this tiny thing kill two people?" Naruto asked.
"It didn't." Sasuke stated.
"What do you mean?" Naruto asked.
"The combination of medication given to those people is what killed them. And when they got sicker they were given even more medication and died from it. Sea urchins have a dissolvable poison which the body will eventually discrete through sweat and vomit, that's why the people didn't have symptoms of a cold."
"Yo!" Naruto screamed. "We need to go to the hospital and tell the doctors to stop giving meds to people!"
"You go, I'll go tell the Lord and Hinata can try and analyze this thing with her byakugan."
Hinata nodded before they all split up once again, but this time, in a way faster pace.
In an absolute panic, Naruto ran through the town towards the hospital. The few people who were outside looked at him in surprise as he whizzed by them in high speed. When he finally reached the hospital he completely ignored the befuddled guards and swung the door open.
"Where are the sick people?" He yelled as he entered.
"Be quiet, young man!" The lady at the reception desk scolded him. "This is a hospital!"
"No shit." Naruto fired back. "Where are the infected people?!" He yelled even louder.
"Excuse me!" The lady said in shock.
"What is going on here?" A man in a white robe approached Naruto.
"Are you a doctor?" Naruto asked right away.
"Yes,I-"
"Have you been treating the infected people?"
"Yes, but-"
"You need to stop! Right away!" Naruto yelled.
"What?" The doctor asked.
"They are ill from the medications! You need to pump their stomachs and not give them anything else. They were pricked by a poisonous sea urchin that made them sick but the poison has left their systems a long time ago but all the meds are making them worse!"
"What?!"
"It's not contagious so it's fine, just stop with the meds. Understand?" Naruto said seriously.
"Yes!" The doctor yelled before running down the hallway.
Naruto put his hands on his hips and let out a long sigh of relief and wiped the sweat from his brows with his forearm.
"So this is not a pandemic?"A nurse asked.
"No." Naruto smiled at her. "No one else will get sick."
"But… the two deceased people?" The nurse rubbed her ringing temples.
"They died from all the meds." Naruto dropped the smile.
"Oh, Goodness!" The nurse sat down.
"It's ok, you couldn't have known. You did all you could." He comforted her.
"I'm outta here, I gotta go tell the others." Naruto said as he dashed through the door. He didn't want to seem rude but he had no idea what else to say to that nurse. She was obviously upset, probably thinking it was her fault that the two people had died. He decided to stop thinking about it and focus on spreading the good news around town.
Meanwhile, Sasuke stood by the door of Lord Wanizame's room. His hand would twitch as he kept trying to reach the door knob but he had no idea how to get out of the room when the Lord was pacing up and down yelling at himself and occasionally looking at the speechless Uchiha.
"How could I have not recognized a sea urchin! I am the leader of this town, I should be protecting my people and yet I let two of my innocent citizens die!"
Sasuke sighed having had enough and finally opened the door. The creak of the hinges stopped the Lord mid rant.
"Would you like to talk to your wife?" Sasuke asked him.
The Lord straightened his posture and cleared his throat. "Why, yes…yes…" He mumbled adjusting his robes.
Sasuke just blinked before leaving the room with the Lord following him out to his wife's room.
"Oh, man this was a day…" Naruto remarked as the three left the town and headed back home.
They had been dismissed by Lord Wanizame after they had gone around town and announced a gathering in front of the Lord's home. He had started his speech about the truth of the situation trying to justify why the sea urchin was so hard to distinguish from a normal pearl. Team 7 did not want to hear the rest of the speech so they gracefully snuck out of town and took a deep breath before going on their way. The Lord's son had even completely forgotten about the three genin before seeing them once Naruto came to get him to see his parents again.
"Well, at least we got to say goodbye to Asari… kind of…" Hinata said.
"That kid didn't give a crap about the fact that we had totally saved the lives of the people in the whole town!" Naruto pouted.
"He's just a kid after all." Hinata replied.
"Yeah…" Naruto agreed. "I'm starving, let's just get back to the leaf as soon as possible. I'm craving Ichiraku miso ramen!"
Hinata giggled while Sasuke just quickened his pace. There weren't any trees to jump on yet so all they could do was walk for a mile or so. Sasuke looked at the forest near them which went to the left of their destination but they could still take a right after a while to get to the village. "Let's take a shortcut." He said before turning left to walk towards the forest.
"Whatever's faster." Naruto said and the other two followed Sasuke.
After jumping through the trees for a while they came upon a hill with very high stone stairs leading to the top.
"Woah, what's this?" Naruto asked as they stopped to look at the stairs.
"Not sure." Sasuke replied.
Hinata activated her byakugan. "It looks like there's a hot spring on top of this hill, and a tavern it seems like." She said as she focused her eyes.
"Do we check it out?" Naruto suggested.
"We're wasting time." Sasuke replied.
"Not if there's food up there." Naruto smiled.
"I see a waiter bringing a sushi platter to a couple of seated people." Hinata added.
"Heck yeah! Let's go!" Naruto grabbed Hinata's hand and started climbing the stairs.
"Hn." Sasuke simply followed the two. "Whatever."
Upon getting to the top Sasuke sniffed around a few times. "It smells like herbs and the air is warm. Definitely a hot spring."
"Ah, new young guest! Welcome! Come on in!" A cheery lady waved them over to the entrance of the hot spring. "Are you here for a meal?"
"Yes, please." Hinata replied.
"Excellent! My name is Mizu Attakai." The woman bowed.
"My name is Hinata Hyuga, nice to meet you." She bowed back.
"I'm Sasuke Uchiha."
"And I'm Naruto Uzumaki!"
The woman's smile dropped. "Uzumaki?"
"Uh, yeah." Naruto replied a bit confused. "Why?"
"I'm sorry, it's just that I have never seen a blonde Uzumaki before."
"What?" Naruto's eyes widened.
"Well, all the Uzumaki's I have ever seen were redheads." The woman added. "We had plenty of guests from the Uzumaki Clan back in the day."
Naruto just stared at her speechless.
Hinata and Sasuke made eye contact before he said: "Uzumaki Clan?"
"Yes…" The woman answered. "Did I say something wrong?"
"I…" Naruto began. "I am the only Uzumaki I know of…"
The woman gasped slightly before regaining her composure. "It looks like you and I should have a talk, young man."