Chapter 9 From Bad to Worst
Sakura walked down the hallway toward one of the multiple rooms in the base. The base was designed to hold over a hundred ninjas because of that they now had their own private room. Not that it meant much, the rooms where designed the same. Five sets of bunk beds with a bathroom. Sakura finally found her room which was located near the stairs, after closing the door she headed straight for the shower.
"This sticks, if Naruto-kun rate of change keeps up then he will completely turn within a couple of days." Thought Sakura as she let the hot water roll off her body as she placed her hands against the wall. "That isn't counting the fact that his mind may change first, he could become a fully animal at any moment."
"Then we need to find a cure as fast as possible." added Inner Sakura as she rested her head against the wall.
"But how?" asked Sakura as suddenly the wall started to shake. "What the?"
An alarm filled the air as Temari's voice came out of loud speakers located all over the base.
"Infected have broken though the front gate." stated Temari as Sakura's eyes widened as she rushed out of the shower, not even bothering to turn off the shower. She quickly got dressed and grabbed her gear. She stepped outside to see Captain Yamato coming down the stairs at the far end of the hallway.
"Captain Yamato!" yelled Sakura as suddenly Captain Yamato's shirt ripped open from the back as his body began to change.
"Get out of here." ordered Captain Yamato as he held onto his sides as he began to turn.
"Hello Sakura." said Lee as he stepped down from the stairs and began to move toward Sakura. Sakura quickly grabbed a kunai and threw it at Lee hitting him in chest. Lee quickly pulled the kunai out of him before tossing it the ground. "I will forgive you for that my cherry blossom, for you don't know what our future together will be like."
"We have no future Lee!" snapped Sakura as she threw down a paper bomb. The bomb exploded filling the hallway with smoke blocking Lee's sight. Using the smoke as cover Sakura bolted down the backup stairs.
"I have to get to Naruto-kun." thought Sakura as she reached the lower level of the base. She ran toward Naruto's door.
"Naruto-Kun!" yelled Sakura as she reached the door. However it was now open up. Her eyes widened as she looked into the cell. There on the ground was Hinata, her body slowly turning into a dark blue female fox. Beside her knelt Naruto, rubbing his face against hers like a wild fox.
"I love you Naruto-kun…and we will be together even as animals." said Hinata as her face pushed out into a muzzle.
"No…no…Naruto-kun, why didn't you pick me?" asked Sakura as tears began to flow from her eyes. Suddenly a shooting pain came from her neck. She snapped her head to see Lee biting her shoulder.
"Now we can be together Sakura-chan." said Lee as Sakura fell to her knees.
"No…no.!" cried Sakura as her shoes burst apart as new hooves began to form as pink fur began to spread. "NO!"
Suddenly Sakura opened her eyes to find herself lying on her bed.
"It was just a dream." Said Sakura as she ran her hand though her hair. "Thank God it was all just a dream."
"Ya." said Inner Sakura
"However we were more upset that Naruto took Hinata over me, not the turning." Thought Sakura
"We just want to be with Naruto-kun more than anything else." added Inner Sakura "It is better to be an animal with Naruto-kun then to be without Naruto-kun."
"Being human with Naruto-kun is the best." stated Sakura
"Of course." said Inner Sakura as Sakura looked at the clock.
"My God I have been asleep for over 14 hours." thought Sakura as she got up and quickly got dressed. It took only a few minutes for her to reach the medical bay on the top floor of the base. She found that Ino had already set up the medical supplies and testing equipment.
"You sleep ok, forehead?" asked Ino
"As good as I can." said Sakura as she sat down across from Ino. "Have we learned anything?"
"Not yet, I placed the blood samples from Naruto, Tenten, Neji and Shizune." said Ino as they looked toward medical machine that was studying the blood. They were lucky that the machines had been left behind when the base was closed down. "I also placed in clean samples of their blood from the Leaf records hopefully we will find the differences and the virus itself."
"Ya, finding the damn thing will be a huge step forward in finding a cure. Right now we can only confirm if someone is carrying the virus." said Sakura as she took out a copy of Tsunade's notes. "Ino I have to tell you I saw Kiba when we were in the Leaf."
"Really?" asked Ino
"He was asleep on your bed when I went into the apartment." said Sakura as Ino looked down.
"He was waiting for me, he probably turned there." said Ino "He always does that, he would wait for me to come back from a mission and then when I got back we would…"
"Ino I don't need to know the details." said Sakura
"We would make love." said Ino "In a way it's cute that Kiba-kun would stay there and wait for me to return."
"He may be a dog right now but we will find a cure for them." said Sakura as she went back to the notes. However something wasn't sitting right with her. "Ino have you came across any psychology report about the infected?"
"No, it takes time to do a full psychology work out." said Ino "They didn't have time."
"Maybe we should, it may help us." said Sakura
"I am working on prepping blood samples from everyone else." said Ino
"I can start at the basic question and answer part but you will need the carry out the mind prod." said Sakura
"I am fine with that." said Ino as Sakura stood up. "The blood sample reports should be done in half an hour so try to be back by then."
"I will." said Sakura as she headed out the door.
Sakura walked down the halls of the base, pass the store room where Sai was checking supplies to the kitchen where Hinata was making Kakashi a late lunch. Finally she walked down the stairs pass Captain Yamato who had taken Kakashi's place on a chair near the staircase.
"What are you doing?" asked Captain Yamato
"I plan on doing a psychology exam on them." said Sakura as Captain Yamato nodded his head.
"Just be careful, Tenten is acting up." said Captain Yamato
"I will be careful." said Sakura as she moved toward Naruto's door.
"Did you get a good night sleep, Sakura?" asked Naruto before Sakura could say anything.
"How did you know it was me?" asked Sakura as she looked inside. Naruto had changed yet again two large pointed black ears popped out of the top of his head as white fur started at the base of his neck and ran down the front of his chest, growing at the breast line before thinning at the waist line. The fur was also thicker at the base of the neck. However even though his chest was covered by fur Sakura could still see every muscle on his chest.
"I heard you talking to Captain Yamato." said Naruto as he sat down on the ground, his tail moving behind him. "So you want to do a psychology exam?"
"Ya, Ino will be done later to do a mind probe to do a deeper examination." explained Sakura
"Alright." said Naruto "Do we have to do the whole my name is Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze part?"
"Sure, how do you feel?" asked Sakura
"It's strange seeing the changes aren't freaking me out as much." said Naruto as he looked at his arm. "I mean I know this isn't natural but yet I am not freaking out like I did at first. I guess that is a bad sign."
"It is." said Shizune as she appeared in her own door.
"Shizune what is it like to become an animal?" asked Naruto
"I am not a typical case, I was able to pull out a lot of the virus when I was first bitten but still it is strange." said Shizune "You begin to think being an animal is normal. You don't even notice that your nude, that you haven't had any meat for days or even that you just go to the bathroom anywhere."
"What about your human memories, your humanity?" asked Sakura
"I relate it to trying to hold onto a bunch of sand in your hands. You will try to keep it from getting out but over time it all escapes from the many different holes." said Shizune "In time you forget about things and care only about the basic things."
"I see." said Naruto "So in time we will become nothing more than animals."
"I don't know, it seems that people at least remember their name and loved ones so we seem to keep some humanity." said Shizune
"I know this isn't about the psychology report but I have to ask does it hurt? When you turn?" asked Sakura
"At first when I fought it, it hurt like bitch." said Naruto "However when you stop fighting it and just let it happen it doesn't hurt that much. Also the big changes hurt the most."
"Same here." said Shizune "It felt like my head was being ripped open when my ears however when I stopped fighting it, it stopped hurting on some level it became…pleasurable."
"That is strange." said Sakura
"What isn't strange about this?" asked Naruto
Above their heads in the command center Temari sat at the security desk. She had been looking at monitors for hours keeping an eye on everything. A knock at the door caused Temari to look away from the monitors for a moment.
"Come in." said Temari as Kakashi walked into the room.
"Anything going on?" asked Kakashi
"Found Guy." said Temari as she pulled up one of the monitors "This is from one of the hidden camera by the road."
Kakashi watched as a large black man bear walked by on all fours, his claws digging it the ground as he kept moving. In a lot of ways he just looked like an extremely large bear, however the human looking hands and the slightly human looking face told him he was once a man.
"How can you be so sure?" asked Kakashi
"His eyebrows." said Temari as Kakashi looked at the face again; two large busy black eyebrows and what looked like the remains of a bowel hair cut meant it had to be either Lee or Guy. With Lee being confirmed as a horse meant this man bear was his friend Guy.
"Is he coming this way?" asked Kakashi
"No, he seems to just be passing though." said Temari "However more and more of those predator creatures are leaving the Leaf to go looking food."
"So it is only a matter of time until a group comes to us." said Kakashi
"We are located under a river, and animals always come toward water at some point." said Temari
"How hidden are the cameras?" asked Kakashi
"Very well hidden but if someone should find one." said Temari
"Then they know we are here and attack us." said Kakashi
"It is only a matter of time until they find us." said Temari
"We need to find a better place to hide, a village that isn't infected." said Kakashi
"I don't know how we are going to find one." said Temari "We can't go out because if anyone gets infected then they will lead other infected back to us. Hawks could work but we don't have any."
"And any ground massager would take days and have a high risk getting caught." said Kakashi "Even summoned animals are at risk."
"We will have to take the risk soon." said Temari
"I know." said Kakashi
Down below Sakura was finishing up the question when suddenly Captain Yamato spoke up.
"Sakura." stated Captain Yamato from down the hall as Sakura turned to look at him. "Ino needs you right now."
"I'll be back soon." said Sakura as she looked at Naruto again before walking away. Unknown to her the moment she walked away Naruto's tail stopped wagging back and forth.
It took only a few minutes to walk back up the stairs to the lab. She found Ino looking at lab reports.
"What is it?" asked Sakura
"Take a look." said Ino as she handed over the report. Sakura quickly read the report and with each passing line her eyes widened.
"This….this can't be right." said Sakura
"I am running the test again, but what if it is right?" asked Ino as Sakura tried to wrap her mind around the implications.
"When where the old samples taken?" asked Sakura
"When they became ninjas they were stored in a warehouse on the outer edge of the leaf that survived Pain's attack on the Leaf." said Ino
"That means, that they were infected with the virus long before they turned." said Sakura
"Yes, both blood samples have the virus in it." said Ino as the computer beeped as a new print out came out.
"Another blood test?" asked Sakura
"Yes, it's ours from our blood samples." said Ino as she picked up the report. "Take a look."
Sakura eyes widened as she read the report.
"We have to run it again." said Sakura "because according to this we are all infected."
I hope you liked this chapter and I will explain how everyone is infected in the next chapter. Thanks for reading. Wilkins75