Fragments
-o-
Contamination
-o-
Madara leaned back, sighing. Another failure, one in a long, long string of failures.
He glared at the seals covering the ground in front of him. What use were they, if the only thing they showed him were failures heaped on failures. World peace seemed an unattainable goal, the way things again and again conspired against him.
He snorted. At least the other side couldn't win either. No sign of them bringing about world peace with their morals and forgiveness and all that crap.
"I must say, this is slightly disappointing." A voice behind him sighed.
Madara suppressed his first reflex to whip around and hurl a kunai at the intruder. Whomever had managed to sneak up on him and find his base, wouldn't be given him the satisfaction of him seeming afraid or even startled.
"Hmm? And why would you think so?" He calmly asked whoever stood behind him. Slowly Madara walked over to a table in the back of the room, grabbing a bottle of water. Tearing a hole into reality always left his throat extremely dry.
"Though... I suppose this does mean I don't have to worry about you overpowering me, so that's a definite plus." The person rustled around, observing the seals Madara thought, as he sat the bottle down and slipped his mask back into place.
His eyes twitched as he saw who had somehow appeared in his most secret base. Orochimaru's little toy medic. How the brat had made it here...
"Tell Orochimaru he'll regret sending you here." He growled, the little upstart would soon find that a move so bold would have severe repercussions.
"Oh, I don't work for him anymore. He's way too excitable really." Kabuto smiled at him, eyes almost completely closed. Madara guessed that his smile wouldn't have reached the eyes anyway if they were open.
"How did you get here anyway?" He asked, no sense killing the brat before he found the leak that allowed him to find this place.
"Hmm... are you saying you don't know?" Kabuto leaned his head to the sight, looking at him curiously.
"I wouldn't ask if I did."
"Hahaha... I see, you were too focused on this little experiment to notice what happened outside of it. Too bad really, but that does make things so much easier... hmm I wonder if there are equivalents beside the tailed beasts... worth looking into." Kabuto trailed of muttering to himself.
Madara felt a shiver running down his spine, outside of the experiment? The last month or two he had focused entirely on this experiment, each failure driving him to delve deeper into the vast ocean of possibilities... he had totally ignored anything outside his base.
"What do you mean?" He asked, doing well to keep the dread out of his voice, by masking it with anger.
It didn't affect Kabuto sadly, he merely cocked his head and grinned. "Oh, so sorry, but that's a secret." He suddenly stood before Madara, no hand sign, no flash of chakra, he just stood there! And patted his shoulder.
Madara shuddered, he had seen it before, in one of the worlds he had visited. A demon, born from the various tailed demons when they roamed the earth, feeding on human emotions. But that couldn't be, Kabuto still registered as human!
Barely keeping himself from flinching back, Madara focused on Kabuto's words again.
"...have to see for yourself I guess." The boy, or demon or whatever said. "I've got some pressing matters to attend to though, there are a few toys that I really need to fetch. They are simply so precious." Kabuto hugged himself. "I couldn't live with myself if I didn't give them a chance to play."
Grimacing Madara watched the thing disappear again. Were the hell did it come from?
Though he feared he knew, feared it very, very much. And it meant he would have to go out and see what the hell it had talked about, he suspected something had gone wrong. And his gut told him that cleaning this mess up would be extremely difficult.
If his suspicions were correct though... he might as well give up the moon plan. It had been fun, but it had only been practical because he had been the only one who had an inkling of the plan. Well him and his most trusted underlings. If others had even the slightest suspicion at this stage of it...
-o-
Sakura woke up, her eyes flew open and she stared at the ceiling. Another nightmare, but this time she hadn't been back in that hellhole. No, this time she had been here and Naruto and Sasuke had grinned at her, telling her that they would enjoy turning this world to shreds as well.
And everything from hell had followed them, plunging the world into another apocalypse.
She whimpered silently, she would kill them before she let that happen.
Slowly she forced her breathing back under her control, that hadn't been what had woken her up though. She had dreams like that before and something like that hadn't woken her up before. What had it been that shocked her so much?
She closed her eyes, trying to bring back the dream.
There had been a forest, she had been there before, walking with Jirayia and her teammates. Oh, yeah on the way to Tsunade, where she had seen the...
And the dream came back with the force of a sledgehammer. She had been where she had seen the hexapods, only it looked weird now, the trees kinda looked as if they had been doubled, or some did, others stood in different positions. And around half of them were withered and dead, especially those who had the weird doubling effect going on, one of the pair seemed healthy, the other looked like a tree in the wasteland back...
She shuddered, but the worst thing had been standing in the middle of the clearing. A small group of hexapods, shuffling around in confusion.
And on the edge of it all stood Kabuto grinning at the hexapods and cooing and squealing at them, as if they were a kitten or a puppy... that he didn't intend to eat.
And then... and then he did something to the bubble? Bubble surrounding the weird area, she could see it now, the hexapods were trapped in some kind of bubble. And Kabuto did something to it, touched it, making it burst, releasing the hexapods here!
Her eyes flew open and she grabbed a new bottled. "Oh god, oh god, oh god." She whimpered silently as she quickly emptied the bottle, not bothering with filtering the alcohol out. The nightmare...
"Wake up Sakura, it won't be any fun if you don't warn anybody about this before they become a dangerous pest." She had heard him say and then he winked at her, in her dream.
She immediately flushed the alcohol. "Shit! That little rat bastard!" She cursed. He couldn't really do it right?
But what did she know about him? Obviously he came from a different world as well. And somehow Temari had brought that weird dagger with her, so maybe he could bring whatever power he had back there with him?
She groaned and lay back down, panicking wouldn't do her much good, not as if a few hexapods were that much of a danger. Sure, they would become a real pest real quick, but with a stable, more or less, power structure around they should be containable. Just another danger while traveling.
She forced herself to continue breathing evenly. Hyperventilating wouldn't do her any good, at all.
"What's wrong?"
Tsunade had woken up as well it seemed.
"Bad dreams... or maybe a message from Kabuto." She frowned. "I wish I knew what he's actually capable of, so I knew."
Tsunade frowned. "A message from Kabuto? You haven't mentioned him." She mirrored Sakura's frown. "Wait, he's come back as well?"
Sakura nodded as she propped herself up again. "He has and the first thing he did was make a fool out of Orochimaru. I don't know what he's thinking... but... but... in the dream, he released a few hexapods into this world. Why would he do that? Why would anybody do that?"
Tsunade winced. "Why would Naruto do it?"
"I still figure Kyuubi controlled him."
"Maybe it's something similar with Kabuto?" Tsunade looked around. "Come on down, it's still early and we don't need to wake the others."
Sakura nodded and wormed her way out of her sleeping bag. "I'm worried, if Kabuto can do that, so can others."
Tsunade looked at her funny. "And you aren't worried about his ability to invade your dreams at all?"
Sakura shrugged at her. "Meh, I'm sure there are other ninja capable of that. Unpleasant, but not entirely unexpected."
"Fair enough, let's see how the worst cases were, you take care of those close to recovery again." Tsunade sighed.
Sakura figured she wanted to distract herself from thinking about the various possibilities of what could come from the other worlds.
An hour later Shizune joined them, rolling her eyes at the early risers. "You really should get more sleep Tsunade. And who are the men? And her?" She pointed at Sakura and over her back.
They looked at each other and shrugged. "Can't help when we wake up really." Sakura answered for Tsuande. "As for who we are, Konoha nin here to make Tsunade Hokage."
Shizune looked at her for a second and nodded. "Ah, Tsunade said something to that effect, glad you showed up. Though why they send children..."
"They are pretty competent for their age." Tsunade shrugged indifferently. "Anyway let's get to work here, with Sakura taking care of the recovering we can focus on the worst cases."
Shizune nodded and gave a grumbling Sakura a quick smile.
Sakura still didn't like being commandeered to heal people. Breaking people had become so much more satisfying.
Of course, the pervert from yesterday considerately allowed her to indulge in those urges a bit. Had to give him points for persistence, which he lost immediately due to stupidity.
It took another hour for the men to make it down. Tsunade immediately ordered them to make breakfast and let them work in peace.
Soon though the menfolk had managed to make a passable breakfast and they all converged in the office again.
"Well, the plague really seems to have run it's course, two more days and I'll be finished here." Tsunade said as they sat down.
"Can we help?" Sasuke volunteered quickly. Sakura rolled her eyes, stupid goody two shoes.
Tsunade narrowed her eyes, when she looked at him, only Shizune smiled thankfully.
"You can carry heavy loads I suppose, now that the situation has calmed a bit we can make some more room..."
"Tsunade! Tsunade! There is a new group here!" A villager shouted from the entrance. "They have it bad, even worse than the last batch!"
Tsunade sighed. "Damn, seems like we might still need those beds." She pushed herself up and quickly walked over to the man and the group of peasants. Directing the stumbling and groaning mass of humanity to beds.
She frowned at one of the women in it. "Didn't I heal you last week?"
"I... yes. I followed your instructions, but the sickness came back again, just stronger." The woman hung her head.
"I'll start with you then, lay down here." She pointed at a bed and immediately started to work. Shizune at her side. Sakura took over assigning the other people to new beds, using the men as enforcers. Not that she couldn't do that herself, but more people did make it easier.
-o-
"Damn it. It's man-made, some sick fuck is making this plague." They found themselves in the office once again, Sasuke had made tea for them all, not trusting Naruto to get it right. He could make an adequate cup sure, but Sasuke noted with pride that he himself could make a good cup.
"Kabuto maybe?" Sakura immediately had a guilty party, though Sasuke would suspect Orochimaru for something like this, much more his style.
"I doubt it, even if he released those hexapods, I don't think he had the time to develop something like this. And he never seemed the type to go for some slow sickness that won't affect ninja." Tsunade shot the theory down.
"It won't affect ninja?" Jirayia asked for clarification.
"Our chakra will protect us, I should have seen it on the first victim... well no, I couldn't have seen it. This thing is very, very well made. Whoever made it is a genius, probably a ninja too. Maybe these people are just a testbed, a way to research the effects and make the plague more potent, until it can also overcome a ninja's chakra protection." She shook her head in disgust. "But even if it's not, if this is the goal he needs to be stopped. The plague isn't that contagious yet." She looked around a frown on her face. "And if I hadn't been so focused on healing all those people I might have noticed that too... damn he's good."
Naruto frowned. "What do you mean?"
"Simple, it's all very subtle. The plague shouldn't spread so fast. It's not transferable by air, or water, only direct contact can infect you. And then it needs to be blood. Of course the victims cough blood, but so many?" She swept over the moaning mass of humanity. "I assumed they were all infected by something else, mostly because according to my memory I came across something similar last time.
"I shouldn't have trusted those so blindly, but it made... bah, no sense moaning about it. And I have you three here now." Tsunade smirked at the men. "Sakura will stay here and help me with the sick, while you go out and put a stop to whoever is infecting these people."
Sakura squeaked in protest.
"Don't complain, you are the only one with any education in medical jutsu. I expect more sick will come in and I need all the help I can get. They are way too clumsy to help so it's you."
"But I hate healing people. I like breaking them." Sakura whined.
"Though luckily, you are a ninja again, not some lone wanderer." Tsunade glared down at Sakura. "Act like it."
Sakura sighed but straightened up. "Have a washed up failure telling me this. "She grumbled as she walked back to the less sick.
"What was that?"
"Nothing."
"It better be." Tsunade muttered and turned back to Jirayia. "Luckily our culprit seems to be focused around this village and foolish enough to stick around. I asked the victim that gave me the hint where she lives." She shoved a rough map at them with a few descriptions. "My first order as the fifth Hokage? Go and take that sick asshole out. I don't want to have to worry about people like him here as well."
They all nodded, though Naruto seemed a bit more reluctant, which Sasuke still found strange. In his world even with all the things that were better, killing still had been normal. At least once he got older. He tried to avoid it when possible, sure. But he did have his fair number of kills, no denying that.
"You can count on us Tsunade." Jirayia nodded. "Just keep an eye on the girl, she's dangerous."
She snorted and looked in the direction where Sakura had disappeared. "I know how dangerous she is... or had to be to survive the world she left. Before I died it got pretty damn bad, even if I didn't notice most of it, that I noticed."
She shook her head sadly. "I can handle her, just make sure you handle that bastard."
"We'll take care of him." Naruto grumbled as he looked over the people below. Sasuke noted with satisfaction that whatever reluctance he might have had, disappeared after another look at them.
"Good, come on Shizune. We have a lot of work to do."
-o-
The village they found themselves in two hours later barely deserved the name. The locals told them it was more of a trading post for the various farms outlying it. It seemed the are didn't have problems with bandits or animals in a long time. The plague the first real problem in a long time. Even the various wars had not affected the village, for it was hidden away from the main trade routes and strategical roads.
As they arrived Jirayia once again told them only to drink water from their flask and food they brought with them. They had no idea how they could infect themselves.
There seemed to be a sense of fear in the air of the village, fear and sorrow.
Soon an older man approached them. "Uhh, how can I help you?" He asked cautiously, his eyes flickering to their hitai-ate again and again. Probably the first time he had seen a ninja Naruto thought.
"We are here to stop this plague that seems to be a problem for you people." Jirayia quickly told him, a confident smile on his lips.
"You are doctors? And you came straight to us?" The man asked shocked.
"No, ninja, we think..." Jirayia trailed off frowning, then shock his head and sighed. "We think somebody is spreading the plague and we are to have a look at it."
The look of horror on the mans face, who hadn't even told them his name Naruto noticed slightly miffed, told it all. "Who would do something like that?" He asked horrified, before his expression slowly changed to one of anger. "I bet I know who..."
But Naruto stepped in, before any accusations could even start. "Please calm down. It probably isn't anybody from the village. Most outlying villages have been hit, so whoever it is has to travel a lot."
He hated that knee jerk reaction of blaming the village pariah and there was always one. The man immediately deflated. "I... yes I suppose you would be right. And the old hag has been here the entire time."
Sasuke smiled at Naruto and gave him a thumbs up. Jirayia merely nodded. "Can you tell us where the Unryu farm is? We would like to search for hints there, if the Unryu even have a farm."
Naruto could tell that would make it easier to notice anything.
"Yes, yes they have a farm. Do you think they..."
Naruto groaned, the man seemed to really want somebody to blame. "No, they have nothing to do with it. But I'm sure you notice that they have been infected by the plague. Even worse than the first time. So obviously whoever is to blame had to be there."
The man deflated, almost like a beat dog. "Oh, yes, yes I suppose."
Naruto glared at him until he felt Jirayia's hand on his shoulder. "Ok we'll be going then, as soon as you give us directions to the farm."
The man gave them quickly. "Could you tell me when you get the culprit? I mean..." The man begged. Naruto snorted in disgust, Sasuke merely shook his head.
They made it just out of earshot when Jirayia spoke up. "Village cohesion is an ugly thing, but necessary." He sighed. "He's trying to find somebody to blame, so the village can come together again. To fight somebody. It doesn't even matter if they are guilty or not, at least not to the village. They want the illusion of doing something about it."
Naruto grunted. "It's an empty solution. They gain nothing from it and they hurt innocent people."
"Well, they feel good about themselves." Sasuke grumbled. "Your father always complained when something like that happened." He smirked nastily. "And then went and shoved their noses into just how stupid they behaved. Made them pay for it as well. And much more than whatever the danger they did 'something' against would have cost them... had cost them anyway. In the end he managed to stamp the practice out, once people realized that the illusion wouldn't be worth the real cost."
"Sounds like a good idea. Once I'm Hokage I'll do it just like him." Naruto nodded. Jirayia seemed amused by the idea.
"It will take careful planning and balance to pull that off Naruto. Think you are up to it?"
"Of course I am. Just you watch old man!" Naruto shouted. Though he did try to keep his volume at a bearable level.
They reached the farm a few minutes later, they didn't sense anybody close, but since the entire family had made the trip they hadn't actually expected to find anybody anyway.
"Too much to hope for to still find the culprit close I suppose." Jirayia muttered to himself. "Ok fan out and search the area. Naruto have a look at the well, Sasuke check out the animals. I'm going to see to their crops."
Naruto nodded and made his way to the well right in the middle of the farm. He also send out several clones to scout for an additional well, maybe closer to the crops? In any case his clones might stumble over a hint, so even if they didn't find another well they might be useful.
He noticed Jirayia watching him. The older man nodded and shot him a quick smile before he disappeared in the direction of the fields.
Naruto send another clone down the well, no need to go in there himself after all. Though he honestly doubted anybody would have been so blatant as to poison this one, that stood in plain sight of everybody in the house.
He frowned as he followed his clone's descent. Maybe he should have gotten some water out before he send his clone? The soft blue glow of his chakra dimmed as his clone descended even deeper.
And how should he know if anybody had tampered with the water anyway? Taste test? He supposed he could do that, they could be back with Tsunade relatively easy after all.
"Gah!" He heard a shout from below followed by a splash. He sighed, his clones still had trouble acting as mature as himself, the fact that they weren't real allowing them some leeway in how they acted. Stupid clones.
"I'm alright." Came the shout from below. "But the water doesn't seem to be any different, and I couldn't find anything on the walls either.
"Did you check everything all the way to the bottom?" Naruto shouted back. Sometimes you just had to give additional instructions.
"Yes yes. I did, everything."
"And there was really nothing?"
The clone dispelled itself and gave his memories to Naruto. And, just as he said, he hadn't found anything in the well. Naruto shrugged. He hadn't really expected any find, maybe a few coins, but nobody seemed inclined to throw coins into the water. Probably because nobody had any to waste.
One after another his other clones dispelled reporting the same thing, no clues whatsoever.
Sasuke returned before even half of his clones had disappeared with roughly the same results. The only deviation would be the conclusions that farm animals were murderous beasts and totally deserved to be slaughtered and eaten.
Jirayia made it back before the last ten clones disappeared. He didn't have anything to add either.
"Well, this was a bust." He admitted, "We don't have anything to report, the farm seems to be in perfect condition and the plants, the water and the animals seem to be healthy as well."
"My clones haven't found a hint of anybody hiding around the farm either." Naruto reported.
Sasuke snickered. "We can see that." He pointed at a clone who had scaled the building and used it as a lookout, never mind that he couldn't even see over the next few trees.
Sasuke stopped snickering however when the clone's eyes widened and he disappeared. Naruto frowned as he sorted out the memories. "Uhh... maybe we should go on top of the house? I think I saw something."
A second later the three of them stared down on the ground, and onto the barely visible seal, etched into the ground so large standing on the bottom you wouldn't be able to see it.
"So... any idea what it's for?" Naruto asked Jirayia. He had come far in his seal studies, but really he sill preferred jutsu. Seals needed too much time to prepare than what he usually had after all. And he had Jirayia to ask questions.
The man in question shook his head, watching the seal in the shape of a bend and fractured arrow carefully. "There are even more seals hidden in the ink, but I can't make them out." He muttered. "I'm not sure I could, even if we were close. The ground isn't exactly made to hold a seal for long."
Sasuke frowned at the thing. "Is it still active?"
With a sigh Jirayia shook his head. "Luckily not. It's likely an one off seal, infecting everybody in the area of effect, then going dormant."
"Not everybody had been affected though." Naruto pointed out, only the mother and the father of the family.
"Well, they likely let their children do the fields for once." Jirayia smirked at him. Sasuke nodded in the background.
"Well, I suppose that's another reason not to have sex. You can catch diseases that way." He countered, frowning down at the seal. "But if they worked how did they not notice somebody doing that big ass seal?"
They jumped down and Jirayia knelt down to examine it closer. Naruto walked the edges searching for any hint on who or what had applied it.
"Hmm, it's kinda like the cursed seal of Orochimaru." Jirayia said after a few seconds. "You don't need to put a lot of chakra in and can apply it in a second. Maybe even over a distance. Also, civilians wouldn't even notice the spike in chakra. Not as if this needed any killing intent to work."
He spat at it. "Naruto? Can you get a scent from this?"
Naruto narrowed his eyes at Jirayia. "I'm not an Inuzuka, admittedly my nose is good, great even. But even Akamaru would have trouble getting any scent from something at least a day old."
"Well, I suppose we'll have to let whoever did this escape then." Jirayia shrugged indifferently.
"I hate you. I hope you know that." Naruto grumbled and focused his chakra on his nose. Kiba would pay for ever teaching him that jutsu. Even if he hadn't actually done it yet.
He leaned down and took a whiff of the ground, only to immediately recoil. "Gah!" His hand shot to his nose and mouth as he nearly keeled over. "Oh god, this smells so wrong! It smells as if... as if there's, I dunno. It's bad though, wrong."
He glared at the seal. "We should destroy it."
"Can you follow whatever it is?" Naruto quickly walked away from the seal and used the jutsu again. Stupid kyuubi enhancing his nose enough to make the jutsu feasible. If it hadn't then he wouldn't have to smell that!
The scent had become bearable as long as he didn't breath in through his nose. And he could smell a trail, much weaker, but it led away from the seal. Two trails to be accurate.
"Yes, they came from there." He pointed at the forest, his face a mask of disgust. "And returned to the forest here. Can we please destroy the thing? I really don't think it's actually spent. Maybe dormant, but it still has juice."
Jirayia frowned down at the ground, a hand wandering over the seal. "I suppose they could have put a seal in there to hide the chakra... step back."
Both Naruto and Sasuke moved away from the thing, Naruto much faster than Sasuke, but he just couldn't get the scent out of his nose. With a quick breath and a few hand-seals Jirayia torched the entire thing.
Something flickered before Naruto's vision, for a brief second the smell of wrongness intensified, then it thankfully disappeared again. Leaving only the much muted trail and a few remnants buried in the torched earth.
Jirayia and Sasuke frowned as well. "What was that?" Sasuke asked worriedly.
Jirayia just shook his head. "Whatever dormant energy remained... once we are back we'll let Tsunade have a look at us. We need to hurry though. Whoever did this, he might have been connected to the seal." He spat on the ground again. "Naruto lead the way."
-o-
Naruto quickly jumped through the forest, leading them after a trail Sasuke couldn't see and thankfully couldn't smell either. Even the sharingan had proven useless. Whoever they followed, he could hide his tracks well.
"It's getting worse again." Reported Naruto. "I think we are getting close to whoever."
"Any info you can give us?" Jirayia asked scratching his arm. Sasuke felt his eye twitch as he fought to ignore his own desire to scratch himself. The damn thing had affected them. Hopefully they would still be in a condition to fight when they reached the bastard behind it.
"Sorry, I can tell you how many different scents there are and how old they are. I have no idea what they mean though. And I honestly only guess on how old they actually are, you know I just know where they are weaker. Might also have left less of an imprint." Naruto shrugged and scratched himself furiously. "Damn it, why am I itching like that."
"So, you are the ones who destroyed my gift to this world!" A voice scratched out. They all stopped in their tracks and turned to the figure standing in front of them, they hadn't even heard him move.
Jirayia stepped in front of his charges, shielding them with his body. Somehow the figure managed to stay hidden, even in broad daylight. "Who are you?" He asked, while trying to get any hint on what their enemy looked like. He seemed shrouded in shadow, glowing red eyes regarding them hatefully.
Suddenly Sasuke gagged in disgust. "It's a henge, and damn, does he ever need it!"
The figure's glare shifted from Jirayia to Sasuke. "You would mock his holy gifts? Even when you are blessed by them?" It growled, turning a very unhealthy shade of red under the henge.
"Oh god, I don't want to end up looking like him!" Sasuke whimpered repressing the urge to scratch furiously. The thing in front of him had large patches of skin missing, probably from scratching the ugly black fungus off.
"What's the big deal?" Naruto asked, probably wanting to see the freak.
"So you want to see the glory the lord has bestowed upon me mortal?" The figure asked eagerly, a second before it dropped the henge, revealing a rail thin body of undefined gender. It might have been female at one point, but the chest had rotted away, revealing the ribcage beneath. And the pants, as full of holes as they were, hid anything else from view. A fact Sasuke found himself very thankful for.
"Ok, I get why Sasuke would like to avoid looking like you... can you turn the henge back on?" Naruto asked twitching like crazy, his hands had stopped scratching himself as soon as he saw the true form of the thing.
"You dare mock me as well? I shall grant you the full blessings of the lord, so you can understand his glory and his mercy!" The figure... whined. It didn't have the lung capacity to roar anymore.
Plenty of agility though Sasuke noted as he dodged the attack. How could the thing move that fast with muscles like that? He frowned and his sharingan spun wildly.
"He's saturated in chakra, as if... shit!" He dodged another punch. "Don't touch him, he's covered in some sort of... chakra armor? It's living though."
"The glory of the lord shall purge you of your destructive desires!" The thing screamed. "All life is sacred and you would destroy it, it and all I worked for. I've granted this world a gift! But you and your whore killed it!"
"Man, you should be glad Tsunade isn't here." Naruto quipped.
"Or what? The whore would try to steal the great gift the lord has bestowed upon me? She can't! She isn't powerful enough!" The madman screamed in response.
"No, she would simply have turned you into a smear on the ground." Jirayia deadpanned as he dodged the puss that somehow squirted from the things body.
"Hmpf, the great lord of life wouldn't let a ruthless killer like her touch me. Just like he won't let you touch me." It said, though it frowned at their ability to dodge every attack it send their way.
"Her a ruthless killer?" Jirayia blinked in confusion. "While you kill people, or well try to kill people, like that."
"Bah, people! Who cares about people one life for millions, no billions!" Sasuke dodged another punch it threw at him, Naruto stood back for some reason just outside it's range. A slight frown on his lips.
"What are you talking about?" Sasuke shot back, ignoring the itches all over his body. He just hoped they weren't sores developing, he would have a hard time attracting girls if his face resembled the moon.
"All those things that live in your body all those little lives! Aren't they as important, no more important than a meager human life? And if the human can't survive while giving them room to live on his body, is he even worth the live wasted on him?"
"Err... no." Sasuke shook his head. That thing had it's priorities extremely warped, no point talking to it anymore.
"Hmpf, you are as biased as they all are, but I will show them the glory of the lord, of life unshackled!"
Sasuke stopped listening, instead he shot a fireball at the walking pestilence dispenser. Jirayia had been kept back with the squirting shots of puss... and where did they come from anyway? Shouldn't the thing have run out at some point? The forest looked like a giant had vomited all over it. And the trees and grass it hit had already wilted!
"You are so gross." Sasuke complained as the thing easily rolled out of the way, into the real fireball.
"Iaaaahhh!" It screamed as the fire burned it's screen of whatever... slightly away. "How dare you hurt them? How dare you kill so many of my friends?" It whimper roared again and moved even faster. Only his sharingan saved him and only barely. He could feel a spittle of something hit his left arm, sending a ripple of pain down it and into his chest.
"Guh!" He moaned jumping back again and again, until he had put some distance between the thing and himself. "What..." He coughed up blood and stared at his hand. "What did you do to me?" He groaned. The pain seemed unreal, but he forced his way through it, maybe because it seemed unreal.
"I showed you the glory of the lord!" It cackled. "Submit to the lord and embrace the pleasure he grants you!"
Sasuke shook in disgust and pain, he wouldn't submit to a freak like that! He glared at the thing his sharingan sending images of Sasuke healing into it's brain.
"Hehehe, that doesn't work on me little boy. Your lies can't affect a chosen of god!"
"Or the insane." Jirayia panted looking worried at Sasuke. "You don't look so hot Sasuke."
"Where are you?" Sasuke ground out, he felt weaker by the second. And he didn't want to know what the stuff in his veins did to his skin!
"Dodging whatever it shoots at me. It's crazy! No matter how much it shoots it always has more!"
"Ok and where is Naruto?" Sasuke growled, he could have... his fevered brain registered the attack too late. Another gob of puss came flying his way, Jirayia had already moved out of the way, but Sasuke couldn't move fast enough. And if that hit... if...
Naruto stood before him, seemingly out of nowhere. "He's right, this is life." He grimaced as the gob hit him head on. "But it's corrupted, growing far too fast utterly out of control." He glared at the thing. "And it doesn't like dieing even though dead is a part of life."
"Sage mode..." Jirayia whispered.
"What? How can you repel the lords gifts? How can you spit on them like that!" The thing attacked again and this time actually managing a roar it slammed into Naruto, sending the both of them to the ground. But Naruto flipped it over himself and send it into a tree, following it on it's heels, simply ignoring the things fluids dripping off of him, in a way Sasuke could never do.
"Raseshuriken." He simply said, sending the perfected rasengan into the thing. It howled as the attack nicked an arm, even as it somehow made it out of the main attack.
Naruto and the thing stared at each other, hatred rolling off in waves of the thing, disgust came from Naruto. It's arm hung limply at it's side. "You killed them! You killed them all!" It howled.
"No, I didn't kill nearly enough." Naruto muttered, to Sasuke's horror he seemed to breath harder, much harder.
Sasuke coughed again, more blood landed on his hands. He would have to get to Tsunade fast, he stumbled barely keeping himself on his feet.
The thing charged Naruto again, heedless of any defense focusing entirely on the boy in front of it. A smirk played over Naruto's face as a kunai intercepted it, the blade sinking right into it's head.
"Again, Raseshuriken." He roared, sending another of his attacks at the monster, that struggled to it's feet again. This time it hit it's center, it didn't even whimper, or if it did Sasuke couldn't hear it over the roar of the wind... or was that his own blood?
He ground his teeth, he had to stay awake, who knew what would happen if he fell asleep? Every breath he took send a sharp stab of pain through his chest, his vision already swam. Only holding onto a tree kept him standing at all.
"That's..." He coughed more blood. "That's it hopefully?" He asked weakly. How could something like that work so damn fast?
Naruto nodded, though he looked flush as well. His short painful gasps told the story, whatever disease the freak hat infected Sasuke with, Naruto had caught it too, probably even worse, considering that he had been hit full force and not just a drop.
"I... the Kyuubi is doing it's best to keep whatever it is back..." A series of coughs wracked him and forced him to his knees. Red blood and yellow puss mixed on the ground. "But it's not exactly doing a good job of it." He groaned.
"Damn it..." Jirayia looked at them in horror. "I..." He shook his head and quickly two shadowclones of him appeared. They grabbed Naruto and Sasuke and brought them out of the clearing. Sasuke could see Jirayia look around the clearing, before he walked out, stripped out of his clothes and here Sasuke wished his eyesight had been worse, and proceeded to incinerate everything within the clearing. The fireball had been big, almost one tenth as big as that fireball he made with Gamabunta for the spring festival five years ago.
Sasuke smiled, that had been the day Sakura had given him his first kiss...
-o-
Naruto stared straight ahead, he couldn't really do anything else. Sasuke had fallen unconscious before they had even started traveling and Naruto only managed to hold on thanks to the Kyuubi. And the fluff-ball had problems of his own. Whatever the stuff was the freak infected them with, it affected the fox as well as Naruto. Both of them were sick.
How a chakra construct could even get sick Naruto had no idea, but he knew bad news when he heard them.
"Hold out a little bit longer Jirayia muttered, still mostly naked, though Naruto didn't blame him one bit. Who knew how much of the gunk had been on his clothes? Whenever Naruto or Sasuke had leaked a bit onto the ground Jirayia had burnt the stuff away. Sasuke hadn't actually stopped leaking in a while. Naruto wished he could tell if the other boy actually still lived. He certainly hadn't said anything in a while.
"I'll... try..." He managed to force out of his cracked lips. Dry lips, since every bit of liquid seemed to have gone to the production of puss and sweat. He tried licking his lips, but his mouth felt as dry as Suna on a hot summer day.
And he could hear whispering, not loud enough to make out words, but loud enough to be annoying. Everything hurt, every limb, every muscles, every organ. He wondered if even Tsunade could do anything for him now. He didn't think so, something this pervasive...
He blinked, how come he could think at all? He should be a gibbering wreck going by the temperature he had to be running at.
"How... far?" He asked Jirayia.
"Nearly there." The older man said, burning another puddle of pus.
Naruto noticed that he could indeed see the warehouse close in.
A cough made him try to look around. "Jira..." He coughed himself.
"We're nearly there." The old man said, his hands slapped together, probably forming another seal. "I'll send a shadowclone ahead, so we don't endanger the other patients."
Naruto would have nodded, if he had the strength. He hadn't though only... his eyes widened. "It... chakra... too..." He stuttered.
"What? That's impos." He shook his head. "Damn, I'm gonna leave you here then, gonna go and get Tsunade myself, won't make much of a difference."
And he tore away, even as he pulled a strip of cloth across his face, where did he get that anyway? Better not to think about it.
Maybe a hidden scroll?
Naruto didn't know how much time had gone bye before Jirayia returned with Tsunade in tow, spurting a new hand-print on his face and some pants at least.
Tsunade only needed to look at them once, to determine that they needed help now. And she sent Shizune out to fetch Sakura. Or he assumed she did, the whispering had gotten louder, much louder.
"She's a murderer, she's going to kill you! You have to fight her, beat her, purify her!" It seemed to be an endless litany. "We can make you stronger, just trust us."
He growled at the whispers and he could hear the Kyuubi with him there, howling at the intrusion and the rival for Naruto's mind. The thought almost made him smile, but smiling hurt, just like every other movement.
"We can make the pain go away! Submit and be reborn!"
"Oh shut up." He sighed resigned, the Kyuubi had more subtlety than those voices.
-o-
Sakura wiped the sweat of her brow, she hated looking after the sick. At least there were no dieing here. She hated that even more, much more. Better to just end it quickly instead of dragging it out for who knows how long.
She laid a wet blanket on the head of a little girl after she made sure her temperature had gone down at least a little bit. Since Tsunade had gone out to take care of the others Sakura had been alone in here, making sure the situation didn't worsen for some of the patients. So far she had no trouble with her job. It just tired her out, seeing all those sick people and keeping up the slight chakra shield, that prevented infection of herself.
In most cases at least, now and again a particularly stubborn intruder made it through, mostly the immune system dealt with those. Giving another glance at her charges Sakura nodded and left the room, she needed to have a look at the boys and Tsunade, if just to make sure they hadn't all died while she took care of the other sick people.
She glanced at the little girl again, but quickly shook the feeling off. It didn't feel that good really, killing the enemy felt much better.
She stepped into the darkness outside, her eyes immediately drawn to the flickering light in a tent a little bit off the warehouse.
As she came closer she saw Tsunade slumped against the edges, obviously tired but not in despair.
"How's it going?" She asked the woman, who didn't even bother looking up.
"Slow, very slow. We're winning, but... if that sickness didn't keep them alive, there would have been nothing we could do." Tsunade finally looked at her tired drawn eyes locking with Sakura's. "Whoever designed that virus... or bacteria or... I don't know! He's a sick genius." She looked at her trembling hand. "It's incredible, really. It spreads so fast, feeds on chakra and even though it damages large parts of the body it actually enhances the fighting abilities of those it infects. If they can work through the pain of course."
Sakura's eyes widened. "That... that sounds a bit like..."
Nodding Tsunade let her head fall down, "A bit like Sasuke, yes. Or maybe Orochimaru." Her hand trailed figures in the sand. "But neither of them could have created something like this. It's... it's impossible, it shouldn't be possible. Nothing like this should be able to exist, even with chakra."
Sakura stuck her head into the tent, Jirayia looked alright, as he paced between the two occupied beds, but he also seemed tired, as if he had gone through a long sickness.
Naruto looked the same, tired and worn, his muscles somehow had already atrophied after only a day! She glanced at Sasuke and almost recoiled, the boy looked as if he had lost all his muscle mass, he wouldn't have looked out of place in a grave. His skin hung off him as if he wore a human skin coat. She quickly stepped back walked away and puked her guts out.
"What, what the hell is that? It will take years for them to recover from that!" She stood in front of Tsunade, shaking in horror.
"No, they won't. As I said, whatever that is, whatever it does. It shouldn't be possible for it to exist. And luckily... this world seems to agree." Tsunade looked up at Sakura. Her eyes wide with fear. "Jirayia, before we could heal him looked as bad as Sasuke. He's back to his old self already. He just regrew all that muscle mass... do you have any of that sake left?"
Sakura handed over a bottle and sat down with one of her own. "That's... how why?"
"I have no idea, none at all." Tsunade stared at the shaking bottle, or the bottle in her shaking hand. "I just know, this has something to do with what's happening to the world. But I just don't know what, or how it's possible at all."
"Gimme that." Shizune sighed, grabbed the bottle out of Tsunade's hands and took a deep gulp. "Your turn again, I can't continue to work, just can't."
Tsunade nodded and pushed herself up, entering the tent slowly. Sakura looked at Shizune, sympathy in her eyes. "I know why I'm not a medic nin, it's just, things like this."
Shizune snorted. "It's not the state their bodies are in Sakura, it's not the sickness itself. We can beat that, we are beating it." Their eyes locked and Sakura could see the madness Shizune held barely at bay. "It's that it shouldn't even be possible that's getting to us. It shouldn't be possible for a sickness to just destroy any defenses of the body. It shouldn't be possible for a sickness to make a person stronger, even as it destroys every bit of muscle mass a body has! It... it..." Shizune drained the rest of the bottle in one go. "It's utterly insane is what it is." She closed her eyes and leaned into Sakura. "I just want this to end, just want to get away from here and this freaky sickness."
Sakura awkwardly hugged Shizune, she had never been friends with the woman. They had just never gotten very close. But she knew what a breakdown felt like and that you needed some comfort during it.
"Hey, as soon as we are done here I'll make sure you and Tsunade go and have some fun, you know relax, forget all about this for a few days ok?" Sakura smiled at the older woman. Who smiled back and nodded, before her eyes closed and she slumped into Sakura even more.
"Let's hope Tsunade doesn't need you any time soon." Sakura muttered, holding the other woman close. Kinda felt nice to have somebody holding onto you. Or holding onto somebody.
She didn't know how long they stayed like this, but at some point she heard Tsunade's voice, tired, rough and on the edge of a breakdown. She had heard her own voice like that often enough.
"Sakura could you come in please? I need some help."
Carefully she deposited Shizune on the ground and walked into the tent. Naruto and Jirayia had disappeared, leaving only Sasuke left. He looked better as well, much better. "I... this..." Most of his muscle mass had returned, and while the color hadn't, he didn't look as if he should be dead already.
"Yeah. I sent Jirayia and Naruto away, so they don't get reinfected. You know the basic medic shield?" Tsunade had her eyes closed and Sakura could see just how much her hands were shaking. Her entire body actually. Seemed like Tsunade had reached the end of her rope.
"Yes, want me to make sure he's stable until you've recovered a bit?"
"No, I need you to finish this. I know you don't have the training, I know you don't want it. But you have even better chakra control than I have. Which means you can do this, if I give you instructions.
Sakura grimaced, she could heal minor wounds, sure but a sickness? A sickness like this?
"It's easy, you just have to draw the little weird bits out of his body, while keeping up a barrier between the parts that you've already cleaned. It's just a long and hard process, nothing difficult or complicated. Hell healing even minor wounds is more complex." Tsunade slumped into Sakura, breathing heavily. "But... I can barely see straight. I can't do it anymore." Sakura nodded, she could understand that.
So she delved into Sasuke, her hands hovering over his chest, getting a feel for the various barriers Tsunade had erected. And she quickly realized that Tsunade had lied to her. The barriers were works of art, leaving blood to go through, while filtering out contaminants, to ensure the body still got what it needed. She shot the older woman a glare, only to see her slumped on the floor, sound asleep.
Sakura groaned, nobody to help her here. She supposed she could just make sure that Sasuke would be stable until either Tsunade or Shizune woke up again, but a quick scan of the barriers confirmed to her that they were weakening. Without somebody repairing them constantly they would eventually break down.
"Damn it. So I have to make sure you're clean before they break down? Damn it." She cursed at the boy sleeping beneath her. "Where are Jirayia and Naruto anyway?"
Knowing her luck also passed out somewhere, not that she could blame them, even if they recovered impossibly fast, the sickness would take a lot out of them. Though Naruto at least should have recovered by now.
She took a deep breath, this would be just like enhancing her own brain, extremely careful application of chakra on select places, making very sure that nothing got damaged while drawing out the... what the hell where these things anyway? Whatever, draw them out and... she looked at the burning oven beside Sasuke. Burn them she supposed. Sounded good, she wouldn't want any of that around either.
Quickly she delved into Sasuke again, his torso had been mostly cleaned, only his arms and legs were left actually, his head had been taken care of as well. So, this shouldn't be too hard. God she needed a drink.
With minimal effort she managed to snatch the first thing and draw it out, deposing it into the fire, not that anybody would even notice it without chakra, but that had just been a test-run, so she got back to work, eyes closed and concentrating on catching hundreds, thousands of the things, pump them to the top of Sasuke's skin, contain them, while going forward, she couldn't simply stop, not without the ability to erect a barrier in the cleaned parts.
Grimacing she continued, she would have to clean the entire arm before she could stop and dispose of the stuff. If she had to start at the torso she wouldn't have been able to do it. Even just one arm taxed her concentration to the limit. And she didn't dare enhance her brain, she didn't think the net benefit would be great enough to justify her split attention, never mind that she could only do that for a few seconds before she would damage her brain.
She focused on how much she still had to clean of the arm. With relief she noted that she had gone three quarters of the way already. She could feel the sweat dripping from her face, in the abstract at least. Only the contamination mattered, only cleaning the cells of the filth.
And she could see it clearer now. Just how wrong the stuff felt. It twisted, turned, almost like an animal, fighting against her control, without a brain, without even any senses, they knew when Sakura grabbed them. They knew and fought.
A dark grin spread over her face. "Shouldn't have started fighting you little shits." She whispered. "I love fighting. I love killing. I love destroying my enemy." Her grin widened. "And even better I love doing it with perfect precision."
In a weird way the realization that she actually had a fight going here, helped her focus. So much that she blinked as she came to the end of Sasuke's arm and noticed that she had run out of things to fight. She stared at the blob of something for a few seconds. Then, her grin still in place she pulled them over the fire. "Burn you little bastards burn!" She could feel them struggle, feel them try to escape. But they couldn't and soon they all died in the fire.
"Purge the inhuman filth." A deep voice said in her head. Sakura whirled around, looking for whoever said that.
"Maybe... maybe I shouldn't enjoy this so much." She muttered shakily to herself. This became weirder by the minute.
She quickly went over the arm again, finding no more of the things she nodded to herself and started on the other arm. The barriers wouldn't hold forever and she had to hurry.
-o-
Sasuke tossed and turned, but his captors held him easily. He couldn't do a thing to shake them.
"You will listen to the glory of the lord! To the mercy and freedom he offers you!" Another said, shrouded in shadows, standing in front of Sasuke. "He will make you strong, much stronger than you could ever imagine."
"I'll never follow that twisted freak you call your lord." Sasuke spat, shakily though. Even here, where ever her was, he could feel the pain.
The shrouded figure punched him, hard. Sasuke groaned, as if his body hadn't experienced enough pain already. "You have no choice but to listen to us! We are your destiny!" The figure chuckled. "We are the only way to strength! To power! Every other choice you have leads into death!"
Sasuke managed to stare flatly at the guy. "Is there a requirement to make every sentence an exclamation to your cult? Cause if it is, I'm not interested. You should ask Naruto, he might actually consider it."
Another punch landed in his face, forcing him to stop chuckling. "You will show respect soon enough brat!" The figure growled.
Sasuke blinked, something had changed, he hadn't noticed at first, but somehow... he laughed. "No, no I don't think I will, not to you at least." His chest had stopped hurting, well a bit. While the majority still hurt like a bitch, his heart managed to pump blood much easier. Somebody was healing him. Which meant... he looked at the figures holding him in place. "Genjutsu." He sneered at them. "So, this is just an illusion, nothing more. Easy enough to break."
The figure in front of him growled. "Oh, you think so? Your eyes couldn't help you against our brother, what makes you think they'll help against us!" Again it punched him, but the pain seemed muted now less real.
"Because this is my battlefield freak. And here there are other rules." His eyes changed into the sharingan attempting to see through the illusion. Sasuke tried not to show his disappointment, he still could only tear through the most basic illusion. Not the entire thing, he still had to hold him in place, he still had to punch him.
"Useless as I said!" The leader gurgled, puss and blood running out of his mouth. Maybe seeing the true him might have been a bad idea. "You are trapped within the domain of our master, and you won't escape, no matter what the whore is attempting to do!"
One advantage of being able to see the real them though, their feet were clearly visible. "Whatever you say freak." Sasuke answered, waiting for the expected fist. Just a second later it landed in his face and the two bastards holding him moved slightly, to keep on holding him.
But this time he moved with the punch, twisted ever so slightly and crushed one guys kneecap. The guy went down hard, the bone snapping as if it consisted of wood. His now free arm slammed into the face of his other opponent. And a quick jump back got him out of reach of the last one.
"So, I'm not getting free am I?" He taunted the thing.
It only sneered. "Where will you go! Only the master can show you the way!"
Sasuke shook his head, the thing actually believed that, but he could already see walls through the gloomy black mist. Stone walls, familiar stone walls.
"Keep telling yourself that. Meanwhile, I have an appointment with reality." He took a step back and another one, the creature didn't try to follow it shook his head and gave him a horrible imitation of a smirk. "You can't escape."
Sasuke shrugged and stepped out of his mind. It felt as if he moved through molasses, or through a very soft wall. He had to fight to get through this, probably the lingering sickness, he could still feel it, though his entire torso had been cleaned by now.
Maybe that was the reason he could simply crush his holders? Weakened by Tsunade?
It didn't matter, with every passing second he could feel himself become stronger.
Behind him he heard an outraged roar, cursing and shouting, mostly at Sasuke, though also at the lord, the farther Sasuke moved away and the fainter the voice became, the more it cursed that lord, Sasuke could only laugh. Apparently the lord didn't have quite the hold he pretended to on his followers.
He could see a light now, far away but coming closer and closer. And he moved towards it faster as well, soon, soon he would.
He opened his eyes and stared at a haggard Sakura. She had her hands over his legs, sunlight framed her back as her hands took the last bit of pain from his body, leaving only bone crushing fatigue.
A large blob of sickly yellow-green something floated at the end of his leg, until she disposed it into a burning container. He couldn't see what it looked like. He felt too damn tired.
"Oh shut up you stupid bastard. Hopefully once I'm rid of this I'll never have to listen to you rant again. Purge the unclean huh? Yeah fuck you too. You're not the boss of me." Sakura muttered to herself, clearly the night had taken it's toll on her... or it could just be a natural insanity. He had no doubt she had those as well.
"Hey." He muttered when she turned back to him.
"You are awake." She replied, staring at him. "Good, then Tsunade can take care of the rest. I'll just go outside and fall asleep on the soft, and nice grass. Good night."
He watched her stumble out of the tent and into the mentioned grass.
He opened his mouth to ask where Jirayia and Naruto were, or Tsunade and Shizune, but really. Her idea had merit, sleeping made a lot more sense.
-o-
I am back.
Hope the chapter didn't disappoint.
For those asking, yes the enemy was inspired by Nurgle. However I don't know enough about him to write him anyway close to WH40k canon, so I'm not even trying. I'm just stealing the idea and making it mine.
Hope this does highlight that not just good things come through.