It felt like days went by but I knew in my mind only four hours went by. I can't help but think about her, Kumi. The image of her cold body laying on her hospital bed made me shiver. I've seen a lot of dead bodies in my day since I was twelve to be exact, but dead children are...always hard to forget. It became especially hard once I had Shinachiku. All I could think about was my own laying there...lifeless...
"Sakura!"
I jumped at the sound of my name being called and answered still confused. "Y-Yes..!?" Neji looked at me with concern and a hint of annoyance. I was so deep in thought, I forgot he was reading out the jutsu Tsunade-sama found. We are supposed to be learning how to summon it since according to Tsunade-sama, it helps the children's inflation. I hope she's right.
"This is no time to be spacing out. Come on, focus!"
"Eaze up a little, Neji." Criticized Shizune. "It has been an...eventful day."
"No no, you don't have to defend me, Shizune." I gave her a reassuring smile then turned to Neji. "I'm sorry it's just... it's harder once you have a kid of your own. It's like...you see them instead of the actual victim and...I-"
"It's...alright." His facial expression seemed to soften at this point. "Let's just focus on the kids we still have to save, hm?"
"Mm."
"Han, what is this?" Tsunade asked while skimming over a piece of paper.
"This," He pointed. "Is a list of things-or rather notes-of things a villager named Chinami made while taking care of her children, and herself, taking note of anything important that happened. She started after her first child passed."
"And these are all the things that transpired?"
"That's what she said. She also alluded to the water being the cause of this, though she wasn't sure herself." Han poured some of the water in three single vials and put them in a machine of some kind. "It may be true though."
"The water...Sakura had a theory-"
"That the water was the cause too, right. It's too early to tell, we need to test both the grass and the water, but I'm starting to think your student is right."
Tsunade smirked at the young man though not looking away from her medical notes. "Oh she might have been my student, but she's long surpassed me." She put the notes down and looked at him. "They should have figured out how to do it by now, they're a talented bunch. I'll go check in on them and probably bring Sakura back here."
"and the I just..." I mumbled to myself. This was my third attempt trying to get this justu right. The second time around I had it but I lost the glow too quickly. Sure this is on-the-spot training but I don't have time for any fuckups at this point. After doing the hand signs, a familiar sound came and I felt my hands heat up. A redish orange glow surrounded my hands, it was similar to my healing hands glow. "Gotcha!"
"Well done, my student." Tsunade suddenly spoke. She was standing in the doorway, probably watching us the whole time, or at least some of the time. "I see all of you have successfully learned how to use this Jutsu."
"What exactly does this jutsu do?" Asked Shizune.
"It is a just I found. It helps stop inflation and or burning caused by jutsu." she explained.
"From...jutsu? Wait that doesn't make sense."
"Does that mean that we're dealing with something related to a jutsu?" Neji butted in.
"We'll see after we do some tests. But, as for right now, I recommend you all to take a break, except you, Sakura. I'm going to need you to do something for me."
"Yes ma'am!." all three of us said in unison and broke off.
As I walked behind her, I couldn't help but think about what Shizune and Neji suggested. A disease started by a jutsu? That would be a first...
"Sakura-san, I need you to help me decipher what the hell this is." She turned to Han and waved him off. "You can go on break with the others, Mr. Han. Sakura and I will stay back."
"Yes, Tsunade-sama."
"What are your thoughts, Lady Tsunade?"
"I hear you and the others think there's something wrong with the water...?" She leaned over samples that were currently in a vial. "Tell me again, what are you thinking?"
"Well," I walked over to the water and looked at it very closely. Even in bottle form, it still had that murky greyish color to it. "I think there's some type of chemical in the water, The plants that are usually planted on the banks had these weird black dots all over the parts that were in the water. From my talk with Chinami, it seems as if hardly anybody uses the water for drinking and such, there was a well that the kages built not too long ago, but there are some that do. And those that do found themselves to be sick and or coughing up blood and such."
"Interesting."
"However," I picked up the glass vial with some thongs and turned to my former teacher. "Now that you said that the just we just learned is to cure burning from poisons... Could it be possible that the conflict this village had in the past is behind all of this?"
Tsunade was silent for a moment before making eye contact with me. "Go call the other and bring that scroll with you. I think this may be more complicated than we thought."
"I hope you all enjoyed your break because that's the last one you'll be getting for the next few hours. You all are used to this so there is no sense in me speaking to you as if you all are genin. This jutsu you all just learned is to help cure bunning sensations from poisons of jutsus and or a number of other things. Sakura explained to me that there was a conflict that happened a few years ago. Mr. Han, if you would please explain further?"
"Right," Han cleared his voice and started to explain. "It was before our two Kages Taka and Yuta stepped foot here. There was another Kage that lead us on the path to destruction. I won't go into full detail but he burned our bridges with other larger neighboring villages that helped supply us with protection and other goods and as of result, we ended up being taken advantage of and attacked by a group of rogue nin. They heavily contributed to the landscape we had when you all first arrived."
"Do you remember what they did, what they used to hurt others?" Neji asked.
"Thy mostly used Kunai, Kitanas, and a few jutsu here and there. They weren't too skilled but just enough to overwhelm us, we were a tourist village, not a fighting one, but there were one or two particular people who used multiple kunai with a scroll attached to it. they threw it everywhere, from the houses to the grass, whipped out out flowers on that hill, to our...water...supply. Oh my God."
"What," Shizune asked. Han's eyes were filled with realization as he dashed around the table to the medical books behind Tsunade and me.
"I can't believe we didn't put two and two together! It was so long ago and people just started getting sick but still... still!" He mumbled to himself as he flipped the pages.
"What are you mumbling about, Mr. Han." Questioned Tsunade as she followed over to where he was. "What are you looking for."
"This!" Han slammed the book open on the table and held it up for the rest of us to see. "This is the name of the just they were using!"
"Endeavor...? I never heard of this before." Lady Tsunade said.
"That's because it's some kind of poison over in the western world, I told you, we were a tourist village. Because of that, We got a lot of information about foreign poisonings and herbal medicine."
"Okay, so how does all of that relate back to the water?" Neji asked.
"Months prior, we found a kunai lodged deep into the water, a bunch of kids, who have now passed sadly, found it. We didn't think it was part of the poisonings because it didn't have any kind of scroll on it and we combed through the village to collect all the weapons left behind. It was just rust. But I guess not..."
"Do you think there's poison in the water?" Shizune concluded.
"That's exactly what I think."
We all stayed silent for a moment to process the information before one of us spoke again.
"It's not far-fetched..." Neji broke the silence between us. "It's not something I haven't heard before. It's just environmental terrorism. Kill off the people by taking away their resources. That water is a vital resource."
"Well," I took a deep breath and walked over to the water samples. "There's only one way to find out." I laid out a durable piece of cloth and performed some hand signs to put a seal on. "I learned this from Chiyo-sama a long time ago." I took some of the water and carefully poured some onto the cloth. As soon as a few drops landed on the cloth, the water started to hiss and sizzle into two separate things. On one side was the water, clear as day and presumably healthy, while the other liquid was a deep dark amethyst color. "It's poison alright. Come look for yourselves." I stepped back and let the others see it.
"Exactly as you said, a chemical in the water," Tsunade said in a hushed tone.
"Okay," Neji once again spoke up. "We know what this is, we know what caused it, but how do we fix it?"
"...Han," I called to him.
"Yes?"
"Just how did you all get rid of the poison from those kunai?"
"We gathered some herbs and made the medicine we learned from a western priest that came by long ago but we tried that already. It was before you all came, the herbs that worked before did not work the same. I'm guessing because it stayed in the water for so long, it mutated because that medicine had little effect on the adults, and as for the kids... Here, It's all here in my lab notes." Han picked up his medical notes and handed them to me as he spoke. "Obviously we didn't know what this was but we had to try any and everything. The deaths were beginning to become too common for us to hold off on it."
"Lady Tsunade-sama, what do you suggest we do?" Shizune asked.
"Hm.." Tsunade didn't say a word, she only eyes the separate liquids on the cloth. "What do most vaccines have inside of them?"
"...the disease weakened state?" Shizune answered.
"Exactly. We're going to try and mix up this poison with our own medicine and see if that works." Tsunade declared.
"But what if it doesn't work?" Shizune asked. "I mean those kids are ticking time bombs..."
"Then we try something else. We're not giving up on those kids, you hear me?"
"Yes ma'am." We once again said in unison.
"Good. Let's get started."
It had been four hours since we started the process of making the medicine that could work. So far, we've come up with one formula that worked, at least we hoped, and two that were a complete failure. We tried the method that Tsunade-sama suggested and the formula come out decent but not quite as effective. As for the others...
I feel so exhausted, I can barely keep my eyes open. I'm starting to regret not sleeping last night, or was it two nights ago? I surely don't remember...
"Try this herb with it this time and see how it reacts," Shizune told me. I took the herb from her and smashed
it in the bowl before mixing it with the poison. As a result, the liquid became a questionable greenish color. "Let me see..." Shizune took the newly made medicine and tested it on a blood sample from one of the kids. As a result, there was the same sizzling and hiss sound and soon, there became two liquids. The blood and the poison. 'Guys, we might have a winner."
The four of us looked at each other then back at Shizune and approached her at the same time. "How did it react?" I asked.
"It separated just like the sample!" she excitedly exclaimed. "This may be the best version! The first method only did half of that! This one took all of the poison from the blood."
"What?"
"Are you serious?!"
"Finally."
"...Well done." Finally said Tsunade. We've been here long enough. Let's whip up some more of that medicine and give these kids some kind of relief."
With renewed determination, we all silently worked on more medicines until we were satisfied with the amount we had and left for the kid's tents. We greeted one of the staff as we made our way to one of the tents they were watching over.
"How is Kuma?" Han asked.
"Well, he's been moaning a bit here and there but he's about the same. Not worse but...not better either." They explained.
"That's alright. I think we may have something to help him." He said and walked into the tent with us trailing behind.
"Y-You all made the cure?!"
"We're hoping this can cure him. We figured out it was those poisonings from all those years ago so we tweaked some of it but essentially used the same method to create this." Han held up a needle full of the medicine. Now, if you would, please help me hold him down as this may be painful."
"O-Of course!"
The staff member and Han held down the young boy as I took the needle from him. "Remember Sakura, it's gotta be the neck." I heard Tsunade say from behind.
"Got it." I leaned over the boy to try and find a vein in his neck. His moans filled my ears as I twisted his head around as gently as I could. He had that same rash Kumi and the others had along his chest and neck. The poor child is suffering... "I'm sorry, but I got to do it," I mumbled. After I said that, I managed to find a vein and quickly stuck him and administered the medicine. Kuma was now howling in pain as the medicine worked its magic. "It's okay Kuma, we're going to help you just hold on! Han, the buckets!"
"Yes, here they are!"
After Han sat the buckets of water down, I dipped my hands inside and began to pull the poison from Kuma's body. Since the Medicine separates the poison from the bloodstream, we'd have to get that poison out of his body completely before it intoxicated another organ and such. So I suggested doing the method I did to save Gaara's brother, Kankuro, from Sasori's puppetry poison. I succeeded with him all those years ago, I hope it's the same here...
"It looks to be working!" Exclaimed Han. "The poison is coming right out!"
I could feel the sweat dripping from my forehead down to my shirt. "Good!" Was all I said before finishing up. After Taking out all of the poison from his body, Neji and Shizune followed up with the justu Tsunade taught us to get rid of the burning sensation. After that, We began healing the children like normal.
After we were done with Kuma, he seemed to be responding greatly to the medicine and no longer howled in pain. My tired eyes swelled with tears for a moment before continuing on with Aiko, Minari, and Aki using the same method. Aiko and Minari responded just as Kuma did. It was Aki who gave us trouble. He had it the worse after Kumi. He had a broken neck from a fall he took while playing so it was a little difficult trying to keep him safe during the extraction. But overall, the kids responded well.
"Seems like we made a successful discovery, huh, Neji?" I asked him in a low voice. At this point, my body is ready to collapse. I used up most if not all of my chakra on those kids. I barely had enough energy to blink.
"Seems like we did," he replied.
"Hm..."
Neji took in a deep breath leaned back against the bench before he spoke again."...You did a great job today... I know that you were hesitant to come and do this but I am glad you did. You should be proud of yourself, Sakura-san..." Neji looked over to say something but instead just smiled to himself. I was barely holding on before passing out on the bench, The last thing I heard was him caressing my hair and saying
"Naruto would've been so proud of you, Sakura-san."