Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
Here's the second chapter. Hope you like it and thank you for the likes and reviews. You know yourselves.
CHAPTER TWO
INVISIBLE ENEMY
The room was full of medical tools of all sorts. The floor tiled and the walls a dull white. It was as ashen white as the body lying horizontally on the dissecting table.
"What happened?" a pink-haired woman asked as she entered the room panting.
One medic answered her in a whisper, as if the dead would condemn them if it heard.
"We couldn't save her."
Sakura's eyes focused on the body. There were no visible bite marks or puncture wounds of any sort. No disfigurement, no trace of any poison- nothing. As if the patient had died a natural death. But she'd be a fool to think that it was a coincidence that 14 people had died a natural death within the past month. She'd rather believe that some of them died in an accident or an illness. But no. They all had died after a day of a seemingly harmless fever, all of them able-bodied except for the two elderly.
She looked at the tired faces of her medics, their eyes full of uncertainty and dread.
"Go back to the relatives, the archives- anywhere or anyone that can give us a clue. Leave no stone unturned. We'll find the culprit even if we die trying."
The medics wasted no time and got to work. Knowing their mentor, for Sakura Haruno, dying was the least of her worries.
She leafed through record books that outlived her for ninety years or so. Inside these books were valuable information on the medical history of the village: of who died and of what kind. She squinted, trying to focus on the letters. Five sleepless nights and her vision was failing her. Her refusal to take leave from hospital duties worsened her condition. She was tired, frustrated and hopeless.
Mustering up her strength, she reached out for the other book on the floor and continued.
Nothing.
Nothing.
Nothing.
Nothing.
Nothing.
.
.
.
.
.
.
"Nothing." She had read them. Reread them. And still nothing.
"I can't." Her green eyes blurred as if reverting to a distant past. "I can't fail again." She gripped her chair trying to stand up so that she could get more books from the archives, but her hand failed her. Her body was at its limits.
God, please help me.
And as if an immediate answer to her call, the phone rang. She reached out and put the phone on loudspeaker.
" Haruno-sama, this is Kishi. I have good news. We think we've found the culprit-"
Right, there and then her body went slack.
Kishi jotted down the details that the relatives of the victims said of where and what the victims had done during their last days. She occasionally nodded to indicate that she was listening. It had been three days since the recent victim's husband had alerted them of important information. And now they were close to proving their suspicions.
"Did he say anything about which particular honey farm he was going to work for?" The man nodded. He was the son of one of the two elderly man that had died. He told her of the conversation that he had with his father and the address of the said farm.
Kishi thanked him and bid him goodbye.
She immediately ran to the hospital clutching her notebook in hand. She went straight to the room where Sakura was currently resting. Kishi found Sakura staring out of the window, but the papers on her hands betrayed her seemingly relaxed demeanor. She couldn't help but smile inwardly. Here she was after she had collapsed from low blood, and Sakura Haruno still failed to listen to the incessant comments of her students on the importance of rest.
"Haruno-sama, I have confirmed the location." Kishi went over to Sakura.
"It's near the Siren Lake," she continued. It was part of a protected area for nightingales.
"Tell me all about it."
"Well, all the victims were seen or connected to honey farms there. They either worked, bought or passed by there. We've analyzed a sample. Most of them came clean, except for a few with an unknown content: pollen from an unknown plant." Sakura beckoned her to continue.
"We've researched the place and found that recently a hybrid plant has been exported and have been kept there. It looked like the bees carried the pollen. But we can't understand why it became like this. We've interviewed the owners of the plants and they've told us that they had those plants for almost 2 years now. And based on their contracts, they were telling the truth."
Kishi closed her notebook and look expectantly at Sakura who was now tidying up the bed.
"Go and get five people."
Kishi nodded and left. She dropped by the counter and filled in the form for her mentor's release. When it came to everything, Sakura was a medical ninja even if she was also now a patient.
Sakura quietly observed the scene before her. Her medics had tested and proven that the plants were harmless except for those allergic to it. And according to records none of the victims had an allergy for that particular plant. Her eyes wandered observing the various plants that were lined up according to their kind. She stood up assessing each one of them. Her eyes stopped on a patch of soil midst a throng of bulb-shaped yellow flowers and called the attention of the owner.
"What was here before?" she asked, surprising the owner.
"A Bulbweed," he said, referring to the bulb-shaped flowers. "It died so we had to throw it away."
"Where did you throw it?"
"Near the lake." He was talking about the Siren Lake.
"Can you show it to us?"
The owner nodded and personally led them there. He gasped when he saw the Bulbweeds growing everywhere.
"Looks like, it wasn't completely dead," commented Kishi, "How come you didn't know?"
"We weren't allowed to dump our waste here anymore. So we- Achoo!" the owner scrunched up his nose.
"I'm-"
"Wear your masks!" Sakura exclaimed. After putting on hers she went near the flowers and noticed plenty of dead plants.
"It looks like the flowers are releasing a chemical in the air to kill all other competition to sunlight. Your Bulbweeds weren't positive of anything because they were well kept and weed free. However, this one's another case of natural selection."
"How come not all who had eaten the honey died?"
"It wasn't the pollen nor the honey." She squatted down and picked a plant that grew well near the Bulbweeds. "It was this."
The owner looked at the plant in confusion. "I have eaten that, and I'm still alive."
"The question is did you get those you've eaten from here? These plants seemed to have survived the chemical, so that means that they were counteracting it with another thing. I have worked with these plants and learned that it has amazing adaptive capabilities. Like any other species under a new threat completely foreign, it starts changing its properties."
"Are you saying it mutated?" Kishi asked. Sakura nodded.
"These plants are known for their anti-inflammatory and calming effects. And because it had recently been branded rare because of the change in climate, they are quite expensive these days. It seems like some of our patients either had direct access to this secret stash or just happened to come across them. Either way, it seems that the new defense mechanism isn't favorable to man."
The people stood there amazed and speechless. But all of the talk was useless unless they actually tested the plants. The medics took samples of the plants and tested them, comparing data with the normal one sold in the market. It took them another week to get the results since they had to try the plants on lab mice to see if their negative properties rang true. And according to the results, they weren't wrong.
Sakura called for a meeting to discuss about the matters at hand.
"We're going to have the place banned from anyone. Further researches should be done on the plants, to make sure it has nothing more up its sleeves."
A brunette raised her hand and asked, "Haruno-sama, we've already found the cause but we still have no cure yet."
"That-"
" – is answerable by us," a bald man interrupted as he entered the room. The owner was behind him. He moved forward and whispered an apology.
"These are the men who sold me the plants," he explained.
Sakura assessed them. They wore no head protectors but by their clothes it was clear that they were merchants from the Earth Country.
"I believe you are well informed of our issue here," Sakura spoke. The merchants smiled at the irritation in her voice and the calm façade she was showing,
"We've encountered mutated Sap plants before," he said. "And we know of a cure. It's called Snake Vines. It's a sure cure but it's gonna cost you a lot."
"How much?"
The merchants smiled. "A gold bar or two."
"What?! What kind of costs that much. "The brunette before exclaimed.
"Meijing." Sakura shushed her up. She apologized and sat back down.
"An effective one," the bald man answered Meijing's exclamation. "You need it. The deaths won't stop unless your bodies cope up with it. And you need to survive first before you can survive again."
Sakura sighed.
We have no choice.
"Where can it be found?"
"That is the difficult one, you see," he stalled.
"It's in a town near the Village Hidden in the Grass. And might I add, there's one hell of a civil war going on."