Chapter 4 Welcome to the Leaf

Warm sunlight came filtering through the gaps in the palm tree leaves, the sound of gentle crashing waves filled the air as the sweet smell of tropical fruit filled the air, it was a picture perfect beach day. Lying on a beach chair under that golden sun in a pair of orange swim trenches was the seventeen-year-old Naruto Uzumaki.

"Oh…Naruto-kun." said a voice as a wide smile came across Naruto's face, as a pair of slender hands came around his neck. "How are you doing?"

"I am doing just great Sakura-chan." Said Naruto as he turned and looked at his teammate, she was dressed in a tiny red bikini which left almost nothing to the imagination. Slowly Sakura moved and sat down in his lap, from his position he had a picture perfect view down her swim suit top. His manhood was hardening as he looked at the beautiful woman in his lap.

"Oh…Naruto-kun, I have your drink," said a soft voice as Naruto looked to see another one of his classmates, Hinata Hyuuga standing there in a blue bikini that was just able to contain her giant breasts. In her hands was fruity orange drink.

"Thank you Hinata-chan." said Naruto with a smile, which caused Hinata to blush as she lied down in the sand, allowing Naruto to drape his hand around her shoulder. Because of this his hand rested right above her breast.

All three of them looked out toward the water just in time to see a blonde hair bombshell walk out of the water. Her long blonde hair was dripping wet as she came forward in her own tinny purple biniki, which showed off her perfect feminine stomach.

"Like what you see Naruto-kun?" inquired Ino Yamanaka as she stretched a bit "Maybe I can convince you to go for a swim?"

"Of course Ino-chan." said Naruto

"Maybe some other activities after that?" inquired Ino with a soft perverted female smile.

Naruto simply smirked as Ino moved to sit beside Sakura allowing Naruto's free hand to move across her shoulder so that his hand was over her breast.

"This is the life." said Naruto "Three beautiful women, drinks and the beach."

"Only three?" inquired another voice as Naruto looked up to see Tenten dressed in a skintight one piece green bathing suit. She had her normally tight hair down so that it framed her face, beside her was a woman from another village dressed in a golden bikini.

"Why we always have room for you two," said Naruto as he looked up at Tenten and Temari. Both of them moved to stand behind Naruto, from out of nowhere. Temari began to serve him fresh oranges while Tenten messaged his shoulders, this was heaven.

"Five beautiful woman, Naruto?" said a voice as Naruto looked to see sensei the toad sannin Jiraiya standing on the beach in his own swim trunks with the 5th Hokage of the hidden leaf Tsunade on his arm.

"Couldn't get any better could it?" inquired Naruto as Jiriaya laughed

"True very true, but what if you could only have one?" inquired Jiraiya before looking at Tsunade in her white and gold bikini.

"Why choice?" inquired Naruto as he began to wonder why the legendary author of the most perverted book series in the world was now asking him to pick only one of the women around him.

"Who would you choice?" inquired Jiriaya again as Naruto looked around at all five women before his eyes came to rest on only one of them.

"I see." said a male voice which was not Jiraiya's but it came out of his lips. Naruto blinked as suddenly the world seamed to begin to melt all around him as if it was made out of wax.

Then the world itself disappeared replaced by a pile of papers. His dream world with five beautiful swimsuit clad women in his arms was gone replaced by the nightmare, which was his life now. He sat up and looked around his tiny dirty apartment; there was dirty dishes stacked up in the kitchen sink and on the coffee table. He would have done the dishes but there was no water in the tap for that. He knew that in his bedroom was a small mountain of dirty sweat covered cloths and even if he had water to wash them, he could not leave his apartment.

Slowly he stood up with a groan as his muscles screamed at him in pain, he walked over to the bathroom resting his hand against the wall to balance himself as he moved into the room flicking a switch.

"At least we still have power." said Naruto as he lifted up his three day old shirt and scanned his body in the mirror. No red boils or pealing skin so he was good there, then he did the same thing with his legs before using the toilet, he relieved himself with no pain before flushing the toilet. Since that water was not treated, it worked at least.

With that done Naruto moved into the kitchen and after a lot of time reaching into the very back of his tallest cabinet he found his last bowel of romen noodles. It expired a year earlier but it was all he had before going into his mission reserves, which he did not want to use. He poured some bottle water into the cup and heated up the noodles in the microwave before moving back to the desk.

The desk was covered with a small mound of scrolls all left to him by his sensei Jiraiya and since he could not go outside, he had spent the past week reading over the scrolls. They were full of Justus, summons and sealing techniques about a quarter of whom where either half way finished or just outlines of ideas. He had also skimmed through Jiraiya journal but most of it was story ideas for his perverted novels.

"I wish I could have avenged you sensei," said Naruto to the photo of the white haired man sitting on the desk. His sensei had been dead for almost five months. "Someone beat me too it."

A knock at the door caused Naruto to lift his head toward the door.

"Enter." said Naruto as he heard the door open; he knew who it was before she even entered. She was dressed head to toe in the standard chunin outfit, only difference was a white ninja vest which marked her as a medical ninja. He missed seeing her in red or better yet in that bikini, he had dreamed her in.

"Sakura-chan." said Naruto as Sakura moved away from the door making sure the medical seal was in place. Besides her normal medical ninja gear, she had a red band on her arm. That and the simple mask over her mouth and nose meant she had been one of the few to make it.

"Naruto, how are we going today?" inquired Sakura in her doctor voice as she placed a small black bag down on the coffee table.

"No sign of advancement which is good, I guess." admitted Naruto "How bad is it out there?"

"Naruto focus on getting better not anything going on out there." Said Sakura as she pulled out an ear thermometer and took his temperature. "Well you're down a few points."

"Good, when can I get out of here?" inquired Naruto

"Still high, Naruto." stated Sakura "You know what is next."

"I already checked Sakura-chan," reported Naruto as Sakura glared at him, she did not even had to say a word. Slowly Naruto stood up and took off his shirt; he lifted his hands over his head and turned.

"Back up." ordered Sakura as Naruto moved back. He shivered a bit as Sakura touched his side with the cold medical gloves. "Ok it was just a shadow."

"Well no boils or pealing skin and they would appear on your chest and back first." explained Sakura as Naruto put his shirt back on. He did not see when she reached into her bag but next thing he knew there was three five packs of instant romen noodles and some clean cloths. "I knew you were running out and I got the hospital to steam clean them for you."

"Thanks, Sakura-chan." said Naruto as he coughed a bit.

"Just get better Naruto, it looks like you're coming out of this which is great." explained Sakura

"So how bad?" inquired Naruto again, "I can see some of it out of my window and it looks like it is horrible."

"Naruto I know you're a chunin now thanks to you passing your test before this all started but I can't tell you, hell I can't even tell a Kakashi-sensie without permission of either Lady Tsunade or Shizune at least," stated Sakura as she looked away from those deep blue eyes. "All I can tell you is that it is bad, very bad."

"I can see that out of my window." Stated Naruto as he took a breath "Sakura-chan you don't have to come here every day, if the Kyuubi was going to heal this then he would have done it already. I don't have a cure."

"Naruto, I admit that I had hoped that your demon would help find a cure but the main reason I come is because you're my teammate and my friend." Explained Sakura as a little voice in her head added she liked seeing him shirtless, he wasn't totally ripped but had what her friend Ino would call a swimmer's body. Lean and strong but not over the top, all those years of training with Jiraiya and then with the toads had paid off.

"Thanks Sakura-chan." said Naruto as he took a breath "I guess you better get going you have other people to help."

Sakura stood up and head out the door, her last view of Naruto was he sitting at the desk eating the noodles. She would rather be in that smelling apartment with him then out in her own village at the moment.

She looked down the line of apartment doors on Naruto's floor, each one minus his had red X painted on the door with the date the apartment was searched on the top, the team which went in on the right, the number of survivors on the left and number of dead on the bottom. There was a lot of zeros painted on the survivors with multiple numbers among the dead. The entire floor minus Naruto's door had bright yellow tap over them tell everyone that there was no one living in there. Sakura felt like crying but she had to put on a tough face as she walked down the hall toward the staircase. She had to stop and wait on the stairs as a team of ninjas each dressed in bio war uniforms walked past. Each of them had every part of their body covered and had a full oxygen system with facemasks. All of them had built in radios and Sakura had her radio receiver in her ear.

"Where is your mask?" inquired the head of the team as Sakura pointed toward the red band on her arm. It was a sign that she had survived her encounter with this plague and so she did not have to worry about getting sick again.

"Lucky bitch." said a younger ninja who was carrying an extra small body bad over his shoulder like it was a duffle bag.

"Shut it and keep moving," ordered the senior member as they kept moving down. "Sorry about that."

"Everyone is on edge, I guess the red bands are a badge safety of some kind." admitted Sakura as she tried not to remember how close she had come to death, that close call had meant she had become immune to the death which was sweeping not only the Leaf but the world.

She followed the team down and paused for a moment as she watched the team throw the body bags into the burning pit. Within moments the bodies where engulfed in flames and once again Sakura wished she could carry round that air tank and mask so that she didn't have to smell the burning flesh, however those where needed elsewhere.

"How many?" inquired Sakura to the ANBU which was providing over watch to the group. Like almost everyone they had to carry oxygen tanks just in case it was an airborne. They had their normal masks painted on the clear visor.

"Only 60 so far but we are only half way through todays sweep." stated the ANBU as Sakura lowered her head, it was a bad day when sixty dead in a city block was considered good news.

"Do you have the village Total?" inquired Sakura fearing the answer; she looked into the burning pass of bodies. They had been lied just like firewood in giant stacks before being set on fire. Since they could not use Justus because of the risk of the virus possibly being airborne they had to use actual wood and kindling to start fires. When they started burning bodies in mass they had used actual firewood but with so many people dyeing or dead they didn't have people to go cut wood, so they would take furniture from the dead home to use.

"From all the teams we have 286 dead today alone." answered the ANBU as the glow from the fire light up the area. "It's dropping at least, we had 340 dead yesterday."

"It is dropping because the virus isn't spreading like it used to, we used to have over a thousand people dying a day." said Sakura as she looked up away from the fire, normally the sky would be blue and full of white clouds, now it was dark filled with smoke and ash. "It's the same everywhere, four in every five people die from this thing."

"Well they will not have to go into that apartment building anymore," said the ANBU pointing over his shoulder "Beside that one guy you keep visiting the whole complex is dead."

"The whole complex?" inquired Sakura as the ANBU nodded his head. "Well maybe in a few days Naruto can come out, he is on the path to recovery."

"Great everyone is dying from the red death but the demon lives," snapped the same ninja which had insulted her earlier, for a moment Sakura wondered if she should rip his mask off and possibly get him infected. Then she thought it would not be something Naruto would want her to do so she simply glared at him as he tossed a body onto the fire.

"I better get going," answered Sakura as she moved away from the fire and past the long line of abounded buildings, the village had been separated into multiple districts in hopes of containing the virus but of the 19 districts, which had been created. Some like the outlying district which Naruto called home was hit first and so the death total here was highest but the rate remained the same if they failed to contain it then it would spread through the rest of the village. Sakura stopped misstep as realized what that would mean, maybe it was the fact that she stood in a small neighbor market, which was now totally abounded.

"My God, 44,000 people would die." said Sakura as she did the math quickly in her head, the village had a total population of just over 52,000 people and if four in every five die that would leave the village with only around 10,000 people left alive. She tried to imagine what the village would be like with that few of people, the streets would be almost empty, entire building complexes would be left abounded and it would a ghost town. Then the fact that it the Leaf had not been the only village hit. Last, they heard was that it had reached every major village and town. It was an unstoppable plagues killing almost everyone in its path, what would the world be like with four out of every five people dead.

She kept walking before reaching a wall of earth maybe 12 feet tall made by the ninja force using earth Justus. The wall was the dividing line in between districts and had been set up to try to stop the spread. It had failed in all but three of the districts which were still at the moment infection free, that gave her some hope that they could physically stop this from spreading. If they could do that then there was still hope for a cure of some kind.

"It's Medic Haruno." came a voice as Sakura looked up to see the ANBU standing guard. Within moments, the wall was lowered allowing her to pass. She had to take a chemical bath and had her gears and cloths disinfected before she was allowed to keep moving. As she moved through the different districts, she had to go through the same screening over and over again. So it took two hours to travel a distance which would normally take less than half an hour on foot. Finally reached the first clean district in the center of the village.

"Welcome to green district." said a genin as she waved Sakura in through the disinfection shower. Once clear she moved into the district, it was a crowed place full of people which had been forced from their home. They it was full of scared people most of whom had seen members of their own families die from this plague. The streets where full of people since there was not enough homes for people and most of the people had maybe eaten a single meal today. Due to the plague, there was no farmers bringing their food into the village and that meant a bunch of hungry people.

It took another few minutes and passing through another wall but she reached the hospital. It had been separated from the three clean districts, which boarded it and the Hokage building to help prevent any infection from spreading. As she entered, she found Shizune walking out.

"Where are you going?" inquired Sakura to the woman who she saw as an older sister.

"I am on my way to get some sleep," explained Shizune with a deep yawn "I can't spend another night in the bunks I need to get away for a bit."

"I understand." Admitted Sakura, she wanted to sleep in her own bed but her home was district which was one of the hardest hit. Luckily, her parents had left on a cruise before the outbreak hit and last she heard the ship was free of sickness but that was a while ago.

To the North of the Village hidden in the Leaves on top of a small hill sat three figures, each dressed for combat. The smell of smoke was just as clear here as it was in the Leaf village down below, from their vantage point they could look over the wall into the smoking heart of the Leaf village.

"So do you think it's about time?" asked Raitaro as he stood in his armor, his giant sword hanging from his hip. His large wings folded up behind him, normally they would be worried about a human seeing them but since the plague was released, there would soon be no reason to hide.

"I have no idea Raitaro," said Keiji as she sat on a stump trying to entertain herself with a style magazine she had taken from a newsstand; she had actually stepped over the dead body of the owner to get it. "We have waited so long for this we can wait a little longer."

"I guess." grumbled Raitaro before looking toward the last person on the hill. She was the newest member of their little group and still not totally trusted but that was not going to matter soon. She was standing by one of the many trees looking at something. Unlike the two of them, she stood in her human form. "What are you looking at Rin?"

"That I am sad it came to this," explained Rin as she looked out at her home village which was burning before her eyes.

"It had to be this way, besides the human pushed us to the edge, we are paying them back." Defended Keiji "Also once we move in there will be no need to hide."

Before Rin could respond, Raitaro lifted his hand toward his ear, where his radio was.

"Understood." confirmed Raitaro before turning toward the other two "Seams that the humans have been able seal off three small areas in the village, we need to fix that problem."

Well I hope you liked this chapter. Well the situation is very bad in the Leaf village and more information about how it came to pass will happen in later chapter as the whole plan of the demons. Until next time, please keep reading. Thanks Wilkins75.