Nobody moved. Everybody was frozen with fear and disbelief at what just happened. Naruto was still staring at the body that should not have been walking only just a few minutes ago. The smell alone was enough to tell him the man was dead, not just the dried blood that still remained on its crusty shirt or the missing arm that Sai had cut off.

Dead men were not supposed to walk. But in the Shinobi world, anything can be possible.

Sakura finally broke the stillness and slowly approached the body. She pulled off one of her gloves and knelt down with a glowing, green hand.

"Sakura," Naruto warned.

"It's fine. He's finally dead," she replied.

"Well I'm not going to take any chances." Naruto pulled another kunai from his pouch and gripped it tightly. He was ready to throw it if the body so much as twitched.

Sakura slowly passed her glowing hand over the body. She hovered over the body, the arms, legs, and the head. Naruto saw her frown and did a second pass, even more slowly.

She did this for several minutes before she finally stopped her jutsu and stood up, pulling her glove back on. Her frown was even more pronounced.

It was several seconds of silence before Sai broke it. "Well?"

Sakura kept staring at the body for a few moments before she answered.

"This man died nearly 15 days ago."

Naruto and Hinata gasped with horror. Sai didn't say anything put his eyes did widen with surprise.

"How is that possible?" Hinata whispered.

Sakura took a deep breath before she answered. "I've tried everything I know. As far as I can tell, this man died of a severe case of poisoning."

Naruto raised an eyebrow. "Poison?"

Sakura nodded. "This man's chakra coils were not severely developed, so I'm guessing he was a civilian. I detected no damage to the coils so he wasn't killed by a jutsu like Hinata's Gentle Fist. Also, despite the amount of damage to his body from decomposition, it's surprisingly well preserved. But I'm not detecting any type of foreign chakra in his body."

"So it's not similar to Orochimaru's technique?" asked Sai. Danzo once let him read the files of the Second Hokage's jutsu.

"No, it's not the Reanimation jutsu. It's also not the Temporary Resurrection technique, since that would work only on a fresh corpse. The only thing I can find is the poison."

"What kind of poison is it?" asked Hinata.

Sakura brushed a hand through her hair. "That I cannot tell you. It's not something I encountered before. It's more of a virus. I was able to detect a faint nucleic acid molecule that is normally found in viruses."

"It was in those wolves," Hinata said suddenly.

Naruto turned to Hinata. She was staring at the body with her Byakugan.

"You can see it?" asked a surprised Sakura.

Hinata nodded. "His chakra coils may not be moving but I can still see them. There is a black substance still moving through his coils. I saw the same substance in the wolves."

"So the virus is in the wolves too," said Sai. "Is that the reason they were so aggressive?"

"It may be. Rabies is viral," explained Sakura. "It would also explain the dead man's behavior to attack and bite us."

"But it doesn't explain why the wolves fur was red or how they were able leap from the ground into the trees," countered Naruto. "Rabies also wouldn't bring a man back from the dead."

Sakura slowly nodded in agreement. They all took a moment to take in what they have learned. Naruto was so confused about what was occurring. First, was the wolves. Wolves tried to avoid people on all occasions and only attacked when they felt threatened. Those outside purposely tried to kill them and showed abnormal abilities with their hunting.

Then there was the castle. Naruto pondered about why it was rebuilt. The area was a desolate spot in the middle of the country. Did a new lord decide to take up residence here? And if he did, did he know about what was happening?

Naruto shook his head and knelt down beside the body. He reached to pull his kunai from the man's skull.

"We still have a mission to do, guys. We know why people are going missing now so we should report back to Grandma as soon as we can."

"I wish you would stop calling her that," Sakura snapped.

Naruto chuckled as he looped his fingers around the ring of the kunai and pulled it free. It slowly emerged, covered in slime and blood.

"Naruto drop that!" Hinata yelled.

He yelped and dropped the knife. It clattered across the floor.

"What's wrong?" he asked Hinata.

"That substance, that virus, it's on the knife," Hinata explained. She still had her Byakugan activated and gazing fearfully at the knife on the floor.

Sakura knelt down and passed a glowing hand over the knife. A few seconds later, she frowned and stood back up.

"Hinata's right. This virus, whatever it is, is extremely contagious. It seems to be a blood transfusion virus."

"Meaning…," asked a confused Naruto.

"Meaning if that man bit your actual arm instead of your clone's, you would have been infected with whatever he has."

Naruto paled. If he was infected, would he have turned into whatever tried to just eat him minutes ago.

"You mean I would have become a zombie?"

Sakura scowled at Naruto. "Zombies do not exist, Naruto. You've been watching too many horror movies."

"Decomposed body that tried to take a bite out of me. Sounds like a zombie to me."

"Quit being childish, Naruto."

"Open your eyes, Sakura."

"QUIET!"

Naruto and Sakura turned with wide eyes towards Hinata, who just shouted at them. Her eyes showed a little of the fear they were all feeling, but a sheer determination was blazed across her face as well.

"We don't have time for this," she said with a fierce voice Naruto had never heard before. "Whether or not these things are dead or not, we need to get out of here and let the Lady Hokage know what's happening. Right now, we need to work together and need to leave alive."

Naruto stared at Hinata in awe. He was really impressed at her outburst that got him and Sakura back on track.

"You're right, Hinata," Naruto smiled. "We're being stupid."

"We are," Sakura agreed.

Hinata blushed, but had a small smile on face as well.

Naruto clapped his hands. "All right, guys. Let's get started on getting out of here." He bit his thumb, performed the correct hand seals, and summoned a toad.

"What's up, Naru-tan?" said a voice. When the summoned smoke cleared, there was a little, blue toad with goggles on his head.

"Gamajiro, I need you get a message to the Pervy Sage. Tell him to tell Grandma that we have a virus outbreak at Kibisaki castle. It has infected the wildlife around the area, causing animals to become violent and are attacking anyone who comes near. This virus is extremely contagious so any shinobi she sends needs to exercise caution."

"But what about you?" asked Gamajiro. "How are you going to get out of here?"

"We'll wait here until help arrives. We're in a fortified position," Naruto said grimly. "Now get going."

"Ok." The toad put his hands in a ram symbol. "Stay safe, brother." With that, it disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

Naruto then turned to his friends. "No matter what happens to us, we need to let the Leaf Village know what's happening here." All of them nodded.

"So what are your orders?" asked Sai.

Naruto didn't answer him, but instead put his hands together in his familiar jutsu. He summoned ten clones who were awaiting commands.

"Alright men, let's get started. I want you search this place from top to bottom. If you find any clues about how this castle was built or a possible exit away from here, report back here immediately."

"Right, boss!" they all yelled and took off down the hallways.

Naruto turned to his friends. "We've found out what happened to the missing people, so basically, our mission is complete. But the situation has become critical if there are wild animals in the area infected with a virus. Who knows when they could move off to another location and begin infecting others. If the man on the floor is any indication of what happens when you get bit, we need to alarm the not just the Leaf village, but the possibly the Land of Fire and Wind."

Sakura nodded, impressed by the way Naruto was handling the situation.

Naruto turned to her. "Sakura, is there any way to create an antidote, like you did with Sasori's poison in the Sand village?"

"Not immediately. I would need to get a sample from one of wolves. Alive."

Naruto winced at the implication. "Then we'll have to wait until reinforcements get here and try to capture one."

Sakura reached into her hip pouch and pulled out a vile. "But I will get one from our victim here. Something will be better than nothing." She knelt down and carefully began to collect the dead man's blood.

"Sai, if we can find a way to the roof, I want you to create one of your birds and get to the village. It may take Gamajiro a while to find the Pervy Sage and even then, who knows how long it would take him to get back to the Leaf."

"You want me to leave you three here?" asked Sai.

"We have no choice. This situation we're in might be bigger than all of us. Besides, it would be nice to know one of us got out of here safely."

Sai almost frowned. Since Team 7 got back from Orochimaru's hideout, Sai had begun to understand what it meant to be friends with Naruto and Sakura. To leave them behind made his heart tighten, a feeling he had only felt a few times in his life.

But they were counting on him, so he would not fail. "I'll do my best," he told his friend.

Naruto smiled. He was glad he could rely on his new friend. He then turned to Hinata.

"And us?" asked Hinata.

"The rest of us are going to remain here in the main hall until help arrives. The doors are solid wood so we won't have to worry about the wolves breaking it down. So now all we do-"

Naruto suddenly clutched his head in pain as images flashed before his eyes.

"Oh, crap! Not again!

"Another one?"

"Not the neck! Not the neck!"

"-Naruto!" Hinata yelled.

Naruto's visions stopped. It took him a moment to realize he was sitting on his haunches, with his friends beside him. Hinata's hands were gripping his arm tightly. Sakura and Sai were hovering over him.

"Naruto, are you okay?"

Naruto couldn't speak. The visions he saw freaked him out. He slowly raised his head up. His friends were shocked how pale his face had become.

"We're not alone," he said quietly.

"What?" asked Sakura.

"I mean there are more of those zombies in this castle. They just ate my clones."