Disclaimer: Naruto is the property of Masashi Kishimoto, and not me in any way.

Author's Note: Thank you, mysterious guest, for your lovely review and thank you all who have followed, favourited or reviewed so far. This project wouldn't happen without your encouragement. Just to let you know, everything in this story has been planned out until the end. Any feedback at all on characterisation would be welcome. I'm not altogether confident representing some of the characters and any criticism would be great. I hope you enjoy this next installment!

In the darkness of a cave, a man was sat in the palms of a huge wooden statue. The cave dripped. The wood creaked and expanded with the moisture. The man was alone, and he was thinking such thoughts that he wondered why they weren't echoing in the cavern as violently as they were echoing around in his head.

Outrage, the voices were whispering. The insolence of it all.

The man took off his mask and turned it over in his hands. For all his plots and powers, for all his scheming, there was no denying that he was beginning to feel uncomfortably, intolerably, human.

An eye glowed red in the dark.

He was as close to god as a man could be in this crab bucket of a world. To think that he was being reminded of his mortality by a little bit of fat and protein, a hoop of DNA, things too small to be seen, an enemy too small to be struck down with a knife!

To think that the source of it all was one of Orochimaru's pets. He grimaced and traced a hand down the life-line of the palm beneath him.

How could this have happened? Everything had been going to plan. All that he had left to do was to capture the Nine-tails and the Eight-tails, and then the Moon's Eye would have opened.

The masked man had never factored for natural disasters. As far as he was concerned, he himself was a natural disaster. He was, after all, the force that would reshape the world.

The Zetsus he had sent to spy on Konoha, as the village panicked and scrambled in the initial outbreak, had melted into white puddles of bubbling sludge on their return, much to the alarm of the original Zetsu. Zetsu was now lying low somewhere, avoiding all ninja contact. Sasuke's team were having difficulties as well. The last the masked man had heard of them, their movement towards the Land of Lightning had nearly ground to a halt. It would be a long time before he had the Eight-tails in his grasp.

He clicked his tongue behind his teeth. That boy, Sasuke, if he was going to be of any real use, he was going to have to learn to cut his ties. He should have left behind the sick if they were slowing him down, not let them drag him into the dust.

This was, of course, assuming that Sasuke was not one of the infected and not the one drawing his last rasping breath in a ditch somewhere.

The man in the mask scratched his head and stood. The boy had his uses. He was honest and expected others to be honest with him. He was so naïve it almost hurt, but that made him wonderfully easy to make dance to whatever tune the masked man liked.

It was hard to find people that willing to be danced with these days and the masked man, whatever his real name was, hiding behind the name of Uchiha Madara, was not finished with his entertainment quite yet.

The man jumped off the hand of the statue and vanished in a swirl of air.

The paperwork in Tsunade's office had been pushed to the edges of the room and Shizune was pressing herself to the wall. When the door finally opened, Naruto took an involuntary step back and Sakura stared.

"Oh, hello, Naruto, you've come back," said Kakashi blithely, raising a hand from his place by Tsunade's desk. Naruto blinked. He wouldn't have recognised him under that red hood and cloak, but the voice coming from the figure was undoubtedly Kakashi's. The man even had his thumb tucked into a small, dog-eared paperback, which he had tried to hide unsuccessfully behind his back.

"Naruto?" Tsunade whirled around, her eyes flashing. She sighed then slammed her hands on the desk. "You little fool! Why the hell have you come back?"

"Give me a break! Why does everybody keep asking me that?" Naruto raised his hands as though warding her off and squeezed into the office. "I came back because I'm a Konoha ninja, of course. This is where I'm supposed to be. You know, helping other Konoha ninjas."

"Hah! Big words. If you think words mean so much, you might make a politician yet," Tsunade snapped, and she turned away from them to face out of the wide window that overlooked the town. "Welcome home, Naruto."

"Thanks," he replied, and then he looked around the room and said, "but, before we get started with the welcome home party and stuff, why are there so many dogs in here?"

Every inch of floorspace was taken up by dog. Twenty or so dogs lay around the room. They snuffled and tracked his movements with yellow and brown eyes. There were big ones, small ones the size of teacups, lithe ones sleek as sardines, and three that were identical and timbered like wolves, sitting at the feet of a woman in chuunin blue. Kakashi was surrounded by his own eight ninken. The smell in the room was a combination of wet dog and dog breath. Naruto wrinkled his nose.

"You got a problem?" said one of Kakashi's ninken. "We're here because the Hokage asked us to be here, unlike you, blondie."

"Now just wait a sec – " Naruto bristled.

"Sakura-chan." The woman in blue stepped forwards. She had eyes that were bloodshot and tired. When she was standing in front of Sakura, she bowed her head. "Thank you for everything you're doing for my brother. Mum told me you were up all night with him yesterday. I'm Hana. Inuzuka Hana."

Naruto saw Sakura's eye slide towards him before she took the woman's hands. "It was the least I could do for a friend. I'll be doing the same tonight. I thought your mum was going to be running the Hellhound Program?"

"She passed it on to me. Mum's more of a warrior, whereas I'm a vet and a medic, so she said it would be more useful if I helped Kakashi-san. And it would stop me moping about the house," said Hana. She reached down to ruffle the head of one of her wolves, or huskies, and it nuzzled its head into her palm.

"To be honest," said Kakashi, "I'm very glad that I'll be working with Hana-san instead of Tsume-san. Forgive me, but your mother – "

Hana laughed. It sounded brittle. "She has that effect on men. Don't worry. Our dad didn't last long in the house either. He ran away with his tail between his legs and his ears chewed off."

The dogs growled in unison and Naruto had a sneaking suspicion they were chuckling at the memory. Tsunade cleared her throat. "Anyway, welcome back, Naruto. I suppose now you're here, we'd best find you some work to do."

"What's the Hellhound Program?" Naruto asked eagerly, looking about the room full of dogs. "Can I help with that?"

"We're going to use dogs to sniff out the ninjas who are latently infected and bring them in before they become infectious and put them in isolation," Tsunade explained and folded her arms across her chest. "Kakashi came up with the idea. He will be teaming up with the Inuzuka clan to train the dogs. Essentially, it has a nice name, but the Hellhound Program is just a specialised dog training project. We were just finalising the details, Naruto, when you and Sakura arrived."

"We'll have our whole clan working on it," said Hana with pride, smiling affectionately at the dogs lolling about her. "It'll be the most efficient sniffer-dog operation ever seen in Konoha."

Naruto crossed his arms. "Guess that means you won't need me then."

"Don't sound so put out, Naruto, there are plenty of things that need doing around here," Tsunade said briskly. She picked up a file on her desk and looked at the cover. "Jiraiya sent me a message saying your chakra speciality makes you incapable of picking up chakra illnesses. Am I correct?"

"Yep." Naruto nodded. "So I won't need one of your stuffy suits either."

"Don't ask, because you won't get a straight answer," Kakashi said to Hana, as she looked about to say something. She closed her mouth, but was clearly more than a little nonplussed.

Tsunade chewed her lip in thought. She looked out of the window again. Beyond the woods edging the town, there were several pillars of smoke winding slowly up to the clouds.

"On behalf of my student," said Kakashi, clearing his throat. "No."

Tsunade coloured red. She looked down at the file in her hand again and came a decision. "You know Hyuuga Neji, don't you, Naruto?"

Neji? Of course Naruto knew Neji. When Naruto nodded vigorously, Tsunade looked pleased. "Good. Then for now you can work with him. He's supposed to do his job in a pair, but his partner died three days ago and according to this report Neji's been trying to do his work solo since."

"What does he do?" Naruto felt a pang of sympathy for his friend.

"He's on the Grey Cross," said Tsunade evasively.

"Okay. What do they do?"

As Tsunade began to fill Naruto in on the details, Sakura crossed the room to Kakashi, picking her way carefully between the bodies of sleeping dogs. Shizune was taking Hana through a series of forms and handing her sheet after sheet of guidelines and checks.

"Sensei," Sakura whispered. Naruto and Tsunade behind her started to raise their voices. "What was Tsunade-san thinking about assigning Naruto to?"

"Burning bodies at the plague pits."

She tried to hide her alarm but failed. Kakashi raised an eyebrow. "Naruto can't be infected by RAMK. He'll be fine no matter how many bodies he handles, and there aren't enough people on the job anyway."

"Why don't we ask the civilians?" Sakura turned over the possibilities. "They don't get sick. They – "

"But they get infected, and most of the men already at the pits are civilians, Sakura. They're volunteers, but we can't expect them to stay charitable for long. Having a ninja alongside them would stop them thinking we're sitting back and making them do all the unpleasant dirty work."

"But they're not – " Sakura started to protest.

"Anyway, the point is, Naruto won't be going there," Kakashi said with finality. "He'll be on the Grey Cross, and he'll be with a friend. It could be worse."

"The Grey Cross isn't much better, Sensei," Sakura retorted.

They watched Naruto and Tsunade arguing over something on a form she was making him fill. In an office piled with looming stacks of paperwork detailing the spiralling health of the sick and dying, Naruto seemed like a bright bird blown in by a hurricane from a far off continent.

"Well," said Kakashi with a shrug, "we'll just have to see what happens."

Tsunade gave Naruto the rest of the day off, which part of him felt somewhat indignant about. Part of him wanted to get stuck in, there and then, and do his bit, but another part of him, the part he would never admit to, least of all in front of Sakura, was grateful for the time off.

Sakura stayed in Tsunade's office to discuss something with her master and Shizune about treatment and new research, something about antibiotics, so Naruto followed Kakashi and Inuzuka Hana out of the room. Until Hana left them in the hospital reception, to go home and gather more members of her clan, Naruto felt as though he was wading through a river of dogs.

"Since it's your first day back, why don't we go for a spot of lunch?" suggested Kakashi, and he flicked his thumb in the direction of a street that Naruto knew very well indeed. "I think I can guess where you'd like to go?"

"That would be fantastic," Naruto agreed, "but aren't you supposed to be training your dogs?"

"I don't need no training," said the ninken with a mane like a Mohawk gruffly, winding its tail about Kakashi's knees.

"That'll start later in the afternoon when Inuzuka-san comes back. Until then, I'm a free man," said Kakashi lightly. He pushed Naruto out of the reception. "Come on. There might never be another chance. Every meal, you've got to think it might be your last."

"That's depressing," Naruto muttered.

"What? I thought you'd be pleased your last meal was a bowl of Ichiraku's tonkotsu special."

Naruto tried to scowl but he found he couldn't. He followed Kakashi out into the street and thought the man looked oddly imposing in his long red robes. Was he still wearing his mask underneath the visor? Kakashi's ninken stayed to mill around the hospital doors and didn't come with them.

The ramen shop was just as he remembered it, or so he thought until he came closer and saw a large sign at the side of the entrance.

BEFORE ENTERING:

PLEASE REMOVE ALL HAZARD ROBES AND VISORS

STEP IN THE DISINFECTANT TRAY
USE THE ALCOHOL HANDWASH

They had a put up a bench outside the shop and a stand like a coat hanger. Kakashi sat down and pulled off his visor. Lazy-eyed, face-masked, silver hair standing on end, Kakashi hung up the visor on the stand. "These visors get pretty stuffy."

"Says the person who covers half his face all day."

Kakashi handed Naruto the bottle of concentrated alcohol without a word.

"Welcome and good day!" called out the usual greeting as they entered, and an old, wonderfully familiar, man looked up. Teuchi was chopping apples. When he saw Naruto, his face shone. "Well, what do you know! Our favourite customer. Come in, come in. Take a seat."

He tossed the apples into the pot of stock bubbling behind him. As Kakashi and Naruto made to sit down, Teuchi set down glasses of water and hot handtowels in front of them.

"Where's Ayame-san, ojisan?" Naruto asked, once the old man had taken their orders.

"She was away with her aunt in Ochiba when Konoha was quarantined. Her aunt decided to keep her there,"Teuchi said, putting on new gloves. "I can manage the shop fine on my own. Only the civilians come, and they don't eat half as much as you ninjas do. Having said that, it does get lonely from time to time."

"Well, I'm back now, so I'll make sure you have company every day!" said Naruto magnanimously, swallowing his water in a gulp.

"Oh yes, forget about the Grey Cross," Kakashi rolled his eyes, "you can do your bit for Konoha by shoring up the small business economy."

Teuchi paused in slicing the char-siu pork. "The Grey Cross? For Naruto?"

"That's right! Believe it!" said Naruto.

"That's brave," remarked Teuchi. He exchanged a glance with Kakashi, then pushed two bowls across the counter. "One tonkotsu with extra nitamago, one soy. I'll leave you two gentlemen to it."

"What did he mean by brave?" Naruto wondered out loud, as Teuchi disappeared into the back of the shop. "Kakashi?"

"He's probably just saying you're brave to come back to Konoha."

Naruto wasn't sure he was entirely convinced. As far as he had heard from Tsunade, the Grey Cross wasn't much different from what Lee was doing – the Grey Cross was the name for the volunteer corps of ninjas who went visiting around houses. What was so brave about that?

He was suddenly aware that Kakashi had stopped slurping his ramen.

"Naruto," said Kakashi, suddenly serious. "Shall I tell you the real reason I dragged you here?"

"You didn't drag me. I wanted to come here – "

"I promised your old teacher, Iruka," Kakashi folded and unfolded his hands on the table, "that when you came back, I would bring you here and eat ramen with you in his stead."

"In his stead? What do you mean?"

Kakashi was silent. Naruto froze. He looked up with wide eyes. The slice of pork slipped from his chopsticks and splashed into the soup.

In Iruka-sensei's stead.

"I don't believe you," Naruto heard his own voice as though at a distance, as though through a glass window. "I can't believe you. No."

"You'd rather nobody ever told you?" Naruto was horrified to hear a tremor of anger in Kakashi's voice. "You'd rather I lied and told you that a number of your friends have all simultaneously and spontaneously gone on a permanent holiday?"

Naruto set down his chopsticks, suddenly feeling shaky. "I didn't say that."

Kakashi hesitated and breathed out slowly. "I'm not angry at you, Naruto. I know I sounded it just then, but I wasn't."

Naruto nodded, because he knew what Kakashi was really angry at. He was angry at the Plague of course, at RAMK, at the smoke in the air from the pits, at the shadow of the sickness that hung over them, at the emptying streets, at the heavy canvas robes that denied ninjas both their individual and professional identity.

"Please tell me, Kakashi-sensei," Naruto said quietly, "who else…who else from the people we know?"

"Yamato," started Kakashi without a pause. "Sai got it very early on. The whole Akimichi family went within a space of three days. Inuzuka Kiba has been in hospital for the past - "

Naruto reached for his ramen bowl. He tipped it up and drank down the soup. His mouth was wobbling and his eyes stung.

He put down the bowl. "That was a bit saltier than usual."

"I'm sure it would be if you're crying into it," said Kakashi. "Teuchi's soup is that good, eh?"

Kakashi turned away from Naruto, tugged down his mask and picked up his bowl too. Naruto remembered a time when a trio of misfits had spent a day trying to see what was behind that mask.

"You're right," Naruto heard Kakashi say. "It is that good."

The machine bleeped quietly next to the bed. Akamaru lifted his head as the entrance of the tent opened up and whined.

"Good boy, Akamaru," said Hana, as she came in. Outside it was getting dark. Medic-nins were lighting lanterns along the rows of tents. "Evening, Sakura-chan."

Sakura looked up. She pulled the stethoscope from out of the earflaps of her visor. "Evening, Hana-san. It's alright. You can bring in your dogs. The other patient won't mind."

The patient was no longer capable of minding. The equipment around him was dark. Sakura was alone in the tent because the other medic-nin had left to find a wagon, or a stretcher. By tomorrow morning, he would either be ash or a specimen for the pathology department.

"They said they'd rather stay outside," Hana replied. She smiled. "You don't want to hear them talk about the smell of death."

"Hana?" Kiba's hand moved across the sheets. He sucked in a deep breath. "Hana? Where's Mum?"

Hana went down to her knees beside him. She exchanged a look with Sakura. "Mum's at home with the pack."

The skin of Kiba's face was taut across his bones. His lips looked too thin. His eyes were hollow, and would have looked huge if they hadn't been closed from weariness. The clan tattoos on his face looked faded.

Hana smoothed back the hair from his forehead. "Your friend Naruto came back today," she told him conversationally.

Kiba frowned. "What? Why?"

Hana shrugged. The frown on Kiba's forehead eased away as he said softly, "He's such a moron."

"Don't we all know it," agreed Sakura, checking something off her list. "You're not doing too badly, Kiba. There's not so much sputum inside of you anymore. Who knows? You might be the first ninja to survive the Plague."

"Yeah," breathed Kiba, opening his fierce, dog-like eyes, "yeah, I might."

"That's right, Kiba," said Hana, taking up his hand in hers. "You might be coming home soon. Sakura-chan's working so hard to take care of you. When you come back, you can help me on my new project. Your sister's got her first big public job. Isn't that crazy?"

"Yeah," Kiba sighed, "yeah, that is crazy. Hana?"

"Yes?"

"I can't feel your hand," he rasped, "I can't even smell Akamaru anymore. I…I'm not as stupid as Naruto. I know what that means."

Hana's breath caught in her throat. She looked up at Sakura, who met her gaze and held it levelly. Sakura hated the Plague and how powerless it made her feel. She had trained as a medic-nin to be useful but the Plague made her redundant. No matter how much effort she put into a patient, the final result was the same. There didn't seem to be any point her being there.

Kiba's breathing hitched.

The machines that Sakura had gathered for her friend went silent.

He didn't cough. He didn't gasp for breath. Blood pooled at the corners of his mouth and trickled quietly down his chin, down the side of his neck, and onto the sheets below.

Akamaru leaped to his feet and began to whine. Sakura exchanged one more look with Inuzuka Hana, who was still clasping her brother's limp hand. Then Sakura reached up and brushed her hand lightly over Kiba's face, closing his eyes.

Somewhere in the forests, four young ninjas had set up camp in a cave. One was sitting in the entrance, looking up at the stars, feeling his chest fill with something cold and wet, and trying desperately to tell himself that it was the cold stopping him from feeling the ends of his fingers, and the cold that was sapping his strength. He had heard the birds talking. They had talked about smoke rising from holes in the ground. They had talked about fear, and an invisible hawk that was flying amongst the flocks of men.

Another was resting against his sword, sleeping apparently fitfully, but he flinched every time the one on the floor breathed.

The one on the floor was breathing. Just.

The last one was standing in the tree above them, looking back in the direction of a town he had left behind and sworn to destroy. The wind blew against his face. It was cold. Perhaps he smelled smoke, but he wasn't sure.

Next time: Pakkun raises an interesting possibility that could help beat the Plague and Naruto finds out about the Grey Cross.