Chapter 19 Developments

Shizune's mind could not process what she was seeing in front of her, the land before her was burned black and scared with the remains of buildings.She had been to the small town which had stood here, the small dinner at the corner had made in her view the best chicken noodle soup she had ever had. Now nothing remained. The only things which could possibly pass as structures, were the mounds of wood, bricks and other building material which marked the location of former buildings. The trees, which had not been ripped from the ground, lacked any branches and most of them had been blown apart into shards only useful as fire kindling.

"What type of power could do this?" asked Shizune

"We have another body." Said a voice as Shizune moved toward the source, she looked down and saw the broken and twisted body of a Rhyuu. His scales had actually melted something that Shizune had never thought possible. His body was twisted and turned in such ways that his leg was up by his head with an arm touching the other foot. His wings where ripped to shreds and broken, in so unnatural ways that it actually made Shizune fight down the need to throw up.

"Ma'am what do we do?" asked the young Bakeneko feline demon as she looked at the corpses.

"Try your best to put in him in a body bag and we will take him home to be buried." ordered Shizune as she turned away from the remains of the Rhyuu. As she did a new cry filled the air.

"We have a live one." Said the voice as Shizune rushed toward a large pile of twisted wood and rubble. As she neared she saw a team of demons pulling a blood covered kitsune, as Shizune came closer she realized who it was.

"Minato." stated Shizune as she moved toward the former Hokage of the hidden leaf village.

"Yes." answered Minato as he tried to focus on the speaker. Blood ran down his face causing his blonde fur to mat, his eyes where not focused and it was clear to Shizune that he didn't see her. She reached out and placed her fingers on this throat. It took a moment but she found his heart beat, it was fast but strong. She then looked over the rest of him, one arm was broken but not badly but his legs where a mess. His right was broken in two places while his left had been broken in three places, bones where poking out of each leg and there where likely even more breaks she couldn't see.

"What happened?" inquired Shizune

"Naruto, my son somehow he did this." answered Minato as Shizune's eyes widened, she had felt Naruto's chakra but she didn't couldn't believe that damage on this scale could be done by a single person releasing chakra. "They took him and Mieko…Kushina I didn't see them take her. Tell me she is alive."

"We will find her." reassured Shizune deep down believing that odds where she was dead. Seamed that fate was out to prove her wrong as another cry went up.

"We got another one!" yelled a voice as Shizune looked toward the source to see, them pulling out a red furred Vixen. "She is hurt but alive."

"We have found your wife, she is alive." reassured Shizune "We will find your children."

"Thank you." thanked Minato as he passed out from the pain.

"If Naruto can do this, we better find him and soon," thought Shizune as she looked at the destruction, the council would either want him killed or more likely they will want him turned. A demon with that much power would be among the most powerful demons ever known to live. There where ancient legends of demons who had similar power but those where legends and likely not true. Naruto had just shown his power and he was still a human, if he became a demon and the natural chakra boost that came from that he would be even more powerful.

"The real question is how could he so powerful." added Shizune to herself, Naruto was always powerful but this was over the top.

"Have we sent out search teams yet?" inquired Shizune to a nearby demon.

"We have been with all this destruction it will be impossible to track whoever made this." Said the demon "And that is if they are unskilled at hiding their tracks, if they are they could go anywhere from here and we would have no way to find them."

"We have to find them, send orders to all outposts, we need to find Naruto Namikaze and any other Leaf ninjas." ordered Shizune

"If we are looking for this Naruto, why worry about the other leaf ninjas?" inquired the demon

"Because if we find them we find Naruto." answered Shizune as she turned her attention back to the situation before her. "Maybe if we find more survivors we can get a better image of where they are going."

The sound of a crackling fire filled the air as the world began to come back to Sakura Haruno, she could not remember where she was or what had happened. Last thing she remembered was being thrown backwards against a wall and falling to the ground. The only thing she remembered after that was a thunderous roar of wind and the ground shaking, it sounded like she was standing in the eye of a small hurricane but for some reason she felt safe. She slowly began to regain her thoughts as she began to wonder if she was still human. Her eyes opened as she saw that she was in a what appeared to a small house, as her eyes focused she saw that Naruto was lying across from her.

"He looks so peaceful," thought Sakura as she smiled that he was still human and from what she could gather was not restrained in anyway. She stretched her hand out and smiled again as she saw that her hand was still human, she placed her hand on top of those whisker marks.

"Naruto-kun." said Sakura using kun outload for the first time.

"Well kun is it, your friend didn't tell me you two are together." said a voice as Sakura lifted her head up to see a woman she had never seen before. She was about their age maybe a year or two over but not much more than that. She was dressed mostly in a dirty white, a white which showed it hadn't been once been pure white but hadn't been washed in a while. She had tanner then normal skin with orange eyes and mint green hair, a Takigakure forehead protector was above the coverings on her arms.

"Who are you?" asked Sakura as she sat up.

"I am Fu from Takigakure, well I was from Takigakure the village kind of kicked me out when the virus hit." explained Fu "They blamed me for it, on some levels they were right."

"What?" asked Sakura

"I am or should I say was a Jinchuriki for the seven tailed demon just like your boyfriend," explained Fu as she looked at the small pot of soup, which was boiling over a small portable field oven. Sakura was about to argue that she was not Naruto's girlfriend but decided against it, she had something more important to ask.

"What the hell happened?" asked Sakura

"Well I can't answer for sure, I came on after the chakra explosion that your blonde hair man did but after that I and your friend Sasuke picked you two up and carried you away before the demons descended down upon you." Explained Fu as she pulled a small pouch of spices and put some of it in the soup.

"Chakra explosion?" inquired Sakura

"I don't know for sure, but something like it happened to me." explained Fu "Best I can guess the last gasps of human chakra explode outwards along with demon chakra as the demon took over the chakra network. Makes for one hell of an explosion, luckily I didn't pass out when it happened to me but from what I saw your friend's explosion was almost double the size of mine. That thing must have been flattened everything within a half a mile of the center."

"I see, and where is Sasuke?" asked Sakura fearing this was just some trap.

"Here." answered Sasuke as he walked up; he was zipping up his fly telling Sakura where he had gone.

"Soup is done," answered Fu as Sasuke poured some of it into a small cup without even asking if he could go first. Sakura took her share after Fu had some leaving some for Naruto. It wasn't much, mostly a brownish water that had the faint taste of beef with a handful of sorry looking potatoes and carrots.

"So where are we going?" inquired Fu "You haven't told me that."

"And I will not, not yet not until Naruto wakes up and sees if you really are a human." explained Sasuke as Fu rolled her orange eyes, before looking at Sakura. "Is he always such a jerk?"

"Yes, when I was younger I didn't see it but yes." admitted Sakura "However in this case he is right, I will tell you we are heading west."

Sakura could feel Sasuke's glare but he said nothing.

"A wise move, from what I have been able to gather these things have already taken the Land of Lightening and half of the Land of Fire." explained Fu "I don't know about the Land of Water, but from what I can gather they seem to be working from North to South and East to West."

"And their virus is everywhere." added Sakura as Fu nodded her head. "The world is dying either from the red flu or by being transformed into demons."

It was at that moment that Naruto began to groan a bit as he rolled over onto his belly before realizing that he was looking at the floor. Once he realized that, he rolled back over and sat up, rubbing his temples.

"Ah…what a headache." complained Naruto as he blinked a few times and looked around. "What the hell happened?"

"That may take a little bit of explaining," explained Fu as Naruto looked at her as confused as the others.

"Who are you?" asked Naruto

"She claims to be a woman named Fu who had the seven tailed sealed within her." explained Sasuke as he crossed his arms over his chest. "The question is if she is telling the truth or is she a demon hiding her true form."

"Normally a person introduces themselves." Explained Fu "But with the world the way it is right now, I guess manners is among the last thing we have to worry about."

Sakura watched as Naruto's turned his face toward the newcomer, she watched as Naruto's eyes became silted again. Sakura then turned her gaze toward Fu, her eyes had also changed. They were not silted like Naruto's but instead her pupils had changed from the normal human circle to a pentagon shape.

"She seems human enough but her eyes are demons," stated Naruto

"So are yours," stated Sasuke as Naruto looked toward him.

"They are?" asked Naruto surprised as his eyes turned back to normal.

"They are, I have noticed that a few times." admitted Sakura as Naruto turned to look at her. "Judging from when they happen most often when you're upset or when you see another demon."

"That is what I find." confirmed Fu as she leaned back a bit. That is when Sakura took in where they were, it appeared to be a barn of some kind with multiple stalls for animals and farm equipment stored in the center area. A rafter full of dried hay was above them and the smell of animals was still in the air.

"We have camped out in worse spots," stated Inner Sakura as she noticed that the door to the barn was closed but through the slits in the woods she could see rays of sunlight outside.

"How is the Kitsune doing?" asked Fu as both Naruto's and Sakura's head turned toward the woman.

"What?" asked Sakura

"We captured a young female kitsune, you're…would you call him a friend?" asked Fu as she looked at Sasuke.

"Friend by necessity." stated Sakura more interested in the kitsune.

"Well we have her restrained in one of the animal stalls," explained Fu as Sakura got up, only then did she realized how hurt she was herself. The pain in her ribs had to mean at least a broken rib, she lifted the side of her shirt to see a deep bruise already forming.

"Sakura-chan are you alright?" asked Naruto with worry in his voice.

"Damn, that must have hurt," laughed Fu "It is going to be a while before you can walk around in a bikini."

"It is almost winter," countered Sakura "You don't go to the beach in winter that often."

"Good point." laughed Fu which Sakura joined in. "You know that may be the first time I laughed in over a month."

"Same here." admitted Sakura as the reality of the state of the world they found themselves in came down upon them again.

"If you're looking for the demon she is in that stall over there," explained Fu as Sakura moved toward the stall only to have her path blocked by Sasuke's sword which suddenly pulled and placed edge toward Sakura.

"What do you want?" asked Sakura coldly

"Tell me, is this demon and the ones we fought the blonde idiot's parents?" inquired Sasuke as Sakura looked into this dark eyes. She used to find those eyes so enchanting but now they seemed like dark void of emotions.

"Yes, that is Naruto's sister and his parents are now demons," confirmed Sakura as the sword moved away from Sakura and toward Naruto.

"So, Naruto tell me why should I trust you." Inquired Sasuke coldly as his black eyes became red as he activated the Uchiha bloodline ability the Sharingan.

"What the hell?" asked Sakura

"Dead last here has always wanted a family and his family is demon, why should we trust him now," explained Sasuke.

Sakura looked down for a brief second; as much as she hated to admit it Sasuke had a point. Naruto had always wanted a family and to get a family all he had to do was hand himself over and embrace the demons. He would loss his humanity but gain the family he always wanted.

"No, I told Naruto that his parents where the demons and he fought them anyhow." countered Sakura "Naruto is on our side."

"I guess you are correct," confirmed Sasuke as he put his sword away.

"Naruto do you want to talk to your sister?" inquired Sakura as she looked at Naruto, without her noticing Naruto had gotten to his feet and was standing behind her. His eyes were locked on Sasuke and for a brief moment, she saw that his blue eyes where once again silted.

"No, I need to process that she is my sister," explained Naruto as Sakura's eyes narrowed a bit. Something did not sit right, his eyes where still locked on Sasuke and so was Fu. Then again, it would make sense that Naruto would need time to process that he actually had a little sister.

"Alright." answered Sakura as she moved toward the pen where Meiko was being kept.

"Fu can you go guard Sakura-chan, I need to talk with Sasuke?" asked Naruto as Fu jumped to her feet and followed Sakura across the barn leaving Naruto and Sasuke alone standing across from each other.

"So you finally see what I am," stated Sasuke with a small chuckle.

"I do, but I don't understand," admitted Naruto as his blue silted demon eyes looked through the hedge that Sasuke had to the real man under the illusion. "You should be dead."

"Yes, I should." confirmed Sasuke. "As you can see I am not a demon so can we leave it at that, this is my business not yours."

"So be it," said Naruto with a shake of his head. "I actually feel sorry for you."

"I don't need you to feel sorry for me," snapped Sasuke. "This is my concern not yours."

Across the barn, Sakura moved to where Mieko was restrained, her arms and legs where bound together with a combination of ropes and seals. They had even placed a gag in her mouth to prevent her from screaming or calling out. Fu stood back and simply watched making sure nothing went wrong.

"I am going to remove the gag but if you make a sound I will put it back." Said Sakura using her doctor's voice, a voice that made even the most battle hardened ANBU battlefield leader obey. Meiko nodded as Sakura undid the gag before looking at the young woman.

"Thanks." said Meiko

"Now, where does it hurt?" asked Sakura

"Mostly along the my right side." admitted Meiko as Sakura lifted up the side of Naruto's sister shirt to see a long gash crusted over with dried blood. The red fur made it hard for her to tell where the cut actually was, but she found it.

"Alright, this is bad but not too bad." explained Sakura as she channeled healing chakra into her hand and placed it on Meiko's side. The wound began to heal but not as fast as she expected, she had to force the chakra harder then she would expected. Then she remembered Meiko had demon chakra not human, the chakra must be fighting hers.

"Is my mom and dad ok?" asked Meiko with worry in her voice.

"I don't know for sure." admitted Sakura "However I don't see the 4th Hokage and his wife going down to that."

Sakura knew she was lying, even the best ninjas could be killed by something simple and that blast was far from simple. Meiko smiled at the lie before moving on.

"I am sorry for hitting you with a Rasengan." apologized Meiko "But you did hit my mom."

"I wouldn't tell that to Naruto, he will not take kindly to what you did." ordered Sakura as Meiko shook her head. "And truth be told, I don't know what he would think about what I did to his mom."

"I don't understand him, why is he fighting this so much." admitted Meiko "He doesn't seem like either one of our parents, he seems cold and hateful."

"He isn't." said Sakura as she came to Naruto's defense. "I admit he is more distance then normal but you fail to see what had change in everyone in the world."

"What do you mean?" asked Meiko

"Meiko, where were you before you became a demon?" inquired Sakura "Where did they keep you?"

"I was at home," answered Meiko

"And your home had running water, electricity and you had enough food in your belly?" inquired Sakura as Meiko nodded her head. "Well that isn't the state of the world right now; your brother like everyone else had to go without sleep, without food and all the while watching horrible things before their eyes. He likely saw more things than most, he volunteered for some of the more dangerous tasks, he thought that the Kyuubi's healing power would protect him."

"It did." countered Meiko

"It did, but what he had to do that changes, people." explained Sakura "I can't say what Naruto has all done but I know what I have done has changed me."

"What did you do?" inquired Meiko

"I personally ended the lives of 1,347 people who it was duty to care for but they were beyond saving so I ended their pain," admitted Sakura calmly as Meiko's eyes widened. "I killed men, women, children I even killed whole families who had come down with the flu, and the worse thing is I did it so often I can't remember their names. There was a nurse who worked at the hospital for over 50 years who remembered the name of every child she helped bring into the world and I can't remember the name of everyone I helped take out of this world."

"How could you do that?" asked Meiko as Sakura gave a sad smile.

"I am not surprised, I saw a father smash his own child's head in with a rock," stated Fu as Meiko looked at the other woman. Horror filled her eyes as Fu went on with her story, "It was a mercy killing, the little boy had the flu. I also saw many people fighting over scraps of food in trashcans and even kill each other for things such as medical supplies. This flu basically brought the animal side back to humanity."

"I was kind of luckily as a Doctor," admitted Sakura as she remembered the near heaven that she had back in the Leaf hospital compared to others. She had a bed, food, hot and cold water most people could not say that. "I was on the top of the list when it came to getting supplies."

"Well you were more important than others," explained Fu with a sad look. "Then again you where luckily you never had clean up duty did you?"

"I did, do one and that was horrible," confirmed Sakura more to Fu then to Meiko. "In the early stages of the outbreak in the Leaf, but then I moved to finding a cure."

"Clean up duty?" inquired Meiko afraid of the answer.

"Removing the dead," explained Fu "I did a few before some holy man who claimed that I was the source of the flu and enough villagers believed him for me to be run out of town."

"Tell me, Meiko did they ever tell you the effects of the red flue or did they only tell you the percentages?" asked Sakura however she went on before Meiko could answer. "There are four stages; the first stage is nothing more than a flu, that is how it spread at first. No one paid much attention that a flu bug was going around. Then people started to enter the second stage, here skin turns red, blisters and boils begin to form. All of which is extremely painful. It is in this stage that a person either lives or mores on to the third stage. Here is where things get painful. The boils become filled with blood and pus, then they begin to burst in quick order covering the victim with their own blood. Blood also begins to pour out of every and I mean every opening. Eyes, nose, ears, mouth and people piss and shit blood. Because of all the blood and pus that is why it is called the red flue."

"My God." exclaimed Meiko as she fought down the need to throw up. "That sounds just as bad if not worse than all the massacres that I was taught about in school."

"What massacres?" inquired Sakura

"It is ancient Demon history, when humanity had death squads of humans hunting down demons and skinning them alive. Demons getting lined up against walls to be killed by arrow fire, humans locking demons into buildings and either leaving them to die or more often burning them alive." explained Meiko as she tried not to remember the looks she got from her classmates, she was after all a human then. "There was also the massacres in the cities of Keb, Hio and countless others, the demons where once as populous as humans are now. They didn't have the drop they had by nature, they were hunted down and killed on sight until only a few thousand left alive on a tiny island."

"And now you're doing the same thing to humanity." stated Sakura with a shake of her head. "Where will it end?"

"What is the 4th Stage?" inquired Fu "I never heard of that."

"The fourth stage is something we have only see in Lee, somehow he was able to live through stage 3 which has killed everyone beside somehow he was able to live through all the painful bursts of puss and the blood stopped coming out of him." explained Sakura to both Meiko and Fu. "The problem was that his brain started to swell up from pressure building on the brain and he fell into coma. We relieved the pressure with surgery but he remained out."

"Believe me, going into a house to find the people who used to live there covered in their own blood and pus is bad, but what is worse is win you actually see those boils burst before your very eyes." answered Meiko. "More than a few battle hardened ninjas threw up in their gas masks, one even removed his to do it and ended up getting infected."

"They never told me that, they never told mom and dad that." gulped Meiko

"Your brother was on the front lines of this fight, he was one of the man who had to separate infected children from their parents and vice a versa. He had to listen to the screams and the cries," explained Sakura in a sad monotone voice, as if she was explaining something totally normal. "He had to go into the homes of the dead and remove the bodies covered with blood and puss. He had to carry them down and throw them into the fire. Tell me, how could anyone not be changed by that?"

"Which is why a family is needed, a family can help heal those wounds." countered Meiko "Family helps."

"In normal states true and Naruto always wanted a family." admitted Sakura as Meiko smiled. "However how many orphans did the red flu make? How many families where torn apart?"

"Untold thousands at the least." said Meiko

"Naruto may seem cold right now, but he isn't I know he felt all those deaths and to find out that he helped so many die even indirectly because he was a pawn in the demons game is killing him up inside." explained Sakura. "He always wanted a family but he loved the leaf and everything it stood for, you may be offering him a family but the price was too high."

"I guess, I was so focus on getting my brother back that I didn't think about everything else," admitted Meiko as she looked down. "My parents had a photo of him sitting across from me every night at the dinner table. He is my brother, I would daydream about the games we would play together and how we would get into trouble together. I wanted my big brother but it seems he doesn't want me."

Sakura lowered her head a bit.

"Meiko, it may be difficult but I believe there is still a chance for you to get to know your brother." Answered Sakura as Meiko looked up at her, for a brief moment she actually looked like Naruto. Even though she was very different when it came to eye and hair color, she was actually still appeared as a kitsune, but the way she looked up reminded her of Naruto. "Naruto knowns you were turned recently and that you were a prisoner, he should be able to find room to forgive you. Hell he has forgiven the villagers for what they did to him."

"What did they do?" asked Meiko

"Sakura, Fu make sure that demon is secured we need to head out." Yelled Sasuke before Sakura could answer.

"That is something for another time and something your brother should explain to you." added Sakura as she cut Meiko's hands and feet free. This caused Fu to look at her in amazement. "Now I am not going to carry you and I don't think anyone else is either."

"Aren't you worried that I will run?" asked Meiko as Sakura shook her head.

"No." answered Sakura as she looked at the young woman. "Naruto-kun has always wanted a family, if you try anything he will never trust you. You always wanted your big brother and he always wanted a family, neither of you will risk destroying that chance."

Meiko looked down for a moment before forming a hand sign, Fu moved for her weapon pouch but before she pulled anything, the justu was done. The kitsune with bright red fur was gone, instead sitting there was a young woman with the same red hair of her mother.

"I will not run," confirmed Meiko as Sakura offered her a hand up.

Well I hope you liked this chapter and the interactions between Meiko and Sakura, also I hope you understand why Naruto's personality has changed slightly. Now until next time please keep reading. Thanks Wilkins75.