Naruto had an important mission. He was doing this mission as a ROOT agent. He was with two other agents as assistants. They were under names 432 and 219. Most ROOT agents didn't have a name or it wasn't mentioned on their profile.

They were simply assigned a number. However sometimes during these kinds of political missions, they would be assigned a code name by their leader. Naruto gave them the names rat and hawk.

From their profiles hawk was a bastard child of Hyuga. His eyes didn't look like a Byakugan but they were. His range was more limited. His mother was a civilian and was paid to give up the child at birth.

Rat was a normal orphan but he had a talent for blending in and following targets without being seen. He usually took spy missions. Overall his team was the best suited for this mission.

They were on a retrieval mission for Tsunade Senju. Naruto worked on the mission proposal for a long time. He knew he had the best chance of convincing her and it was vital to his plans.

It took some back and forth but finally, he managed a plan that could work. It was even confirmed with the Hokage. They were supposed to find her based on the information they had and Naruto as the leader was supposed to take the task of talking with her.

Rat and hawk were to stay behind in order not to intimidate Tsunade into fleeing. They were currently near the village she was last seen. It was a small village near the fire capital.

There was a disease going around and Tsunade had spent the last month trying to cure people. The disease would start with some sort of fatigue. Some patients complained about a lack of energy, aches, pains in their bodies, or headaches.

Then the other symptoms would show. There would be a high fever. The fever would keep going higher and higher. Then came organ failures. The body would shut down part by part. Making the patient unable to digest food and medicine and they would die within a month.

The village was under quarantine. No one was allowed in or out. They were guards stationed outside the village to ensure that rule. Some samples were sent to Konoha for Orochimaru and the medical division to find the source.

Both came to the same conclusion as Tsunade. The disease was not caused by viruses or bacteria. The was no sign of the cause without a personal investigation. There have only been some discoveries in medicine to force the fever down for a while and allow more time for investigation.

Naruto was sent on the delivery mission of the medicine since he has a natural immunity to diseases. He was carrying medicine and food rations for the medics to make sure the contamination wasn't from the food or water.

He was also carrying medical supplies and things for a makeshift lab for Tsunade to conduct more experiments. They were now at the village guard station. Naruto said goodbye to the agents and after some document checks, he was allowed in.

The village looked dead. Everyone was ordered to stay at home to minimize contact. Food and water rations were given weekly so that people didn't need to go out. The only reason for going out was for people who showed the early symptoms to admit to the giant tents set up as a hospital.

By the last reports, 23 percent of the 1000 population was either contaminated or dead. There were around 120 patients in the makeshift hospital. There were only 15 nurses and 5 medic nins. They were all heavily dressed to make sure they weren't in direct contact with the disease.

According to Tsunade's reports and Orochimaru's theories, whatever was causing the disease wasn't able to affect individuals with high chakra levels. So the medic nins weren't wearing heavy dresses.

Naruto asked a nurse for Tsunade's office and went there right away. Tsunade looked completely sober and was sitting behind a mountain of papers and books. There were bags under her eyes and she looked ready to fall asleep.

She looked skeptically at him and Naruto took it as his cue to introduce himself. "Good evening Senju-sama. My name is Naruto Uzumaki. I was sent by the leaf village for deliveries and assisting you in any way I can." Naruto said and gave her the mission scroll.

She looked at it for a few minutes before taking the other scrolls. "Where are the lab reports?" she asked.

"It is in the scroll which holds the lab equipment. Where do you want me to set up the lab?" Naruto said straight to the point. There was an emergency so they couldn't afford to waste time.

Tsunade unsealed the reports and called in Shizune to show him the empty room for the lab. He was also shown a shared room with other medic nins where he could put his stuff.

Naruto made a few clones to set up the lab. He then made a few more to assist the nurses and medics. He also had small scrolls containing chakra pills and energy rations which he gave the medics.

He then went back to Tsunade for his orders. "I finished reading your profile. For now, I expect your clones to help with the doctors since you have a high reserve. Shizune will be in charge of giving them orders."

"The real you will assist me in the lab. Let's go." Tsunade said and got up to go to the lab.

She handed Naruto a list of medicine and the dosages to make. They were dividing the patients into groups of 5 and gave each group one of the medicine to see the effects. Naruto got to work quickly he had a huge supply of medicine making courtesy of the daimyo to find a solution quickly.

It took him the whole day to make all the list and at some point, he had to make a clone. His body was so tired even more so than a full day of training. He couldn't even eat and just forced himself to drag himself to bed and fall on top.

He woke up early the next day. Someone put a blanket on him at some point which he was grateful for. He made a lot of clones to start. It was early and the patients were sleeping.

Naruto's clones interviewed them all yesterday so some of the clones were in charge of finding similarities to maybe find a source for the disease. Another group went outside to collect samples.

The samples were from everything. The water, food, anything they might've touched, and even animals that might be a carrier for the disease. It was a tedious task but it had to be done.

He also cleaned up the lab for when Tsunade was awake. Then he made some breakfast and got to work. Yesterday he got some chakra samples from some of the patients.

He had a theory maybe the disease was working through the chakra system since there wasn't any other evidence in the autopsy and nothing was showing in the medical scans.

He used iryojutsu yesterday but couldn't find a trace so the only other option was sage mode. His body couldn't handle the senjutsu yet so he was going to send the samples to Akira-hime.

He summoned Yuki. She was a little white fox. She hasn't reached adulthood yet but she had a specialty for being a messenger. "Hello, Yuki-chan. Can you give this scroll to Akira-hime? It's very important. There are also some sweets for everyone." Naruto said as he scratched the fox's ears.

She took the scroll after getting some more petting and poofed away. Naruto reached with his chakra and found Tsunade awake in the lab. He got some coffee and breakfast for her.

She was sitting behind a desk looking at and comparing results. She reached for the food and coffee absentmindedly. Naruto did his best to assist her handing her the files she needed. Giving the doctors and nurses their orders and monitoring the situation.

It was early in the afternoon when Shizune barged in. "Tsunade-sama we are losing another one." She said.

Tsunade got up and rushed after her to the room. The medics were trying to stabilize the patient who was a young man in his twenties. As soon as Tsunade got to bed the other medics made room for her.

They were losing him fast. "May I try something Tsunade-sama?" Naruto asked.

Tsunade saw the determination in his eyes and gave him the go. Naruto got near the patient's head and put his arm in his mouth and closed his jaw into a bite. He didn't have Karin's healing ability but he could fake it.

After the sage gifted him and Sasuke with his power, Naruto could heal any wound by using the special chakra. He didn't have the ability to form the golden cloak and truth seeker orbs yet since it would strain his body. But he could use it to heal.

He had already tried it on some of his clones and it worked. It took him a while to master passing his ability as the same one as Karin but it was worth it. He didn't plan on revealing the ability so soon but it was an opportunity to put himself in the slug sannin's favor.

He focused his chakra in his wound and through the patient's body. He could see the patient getting better and better. When he was stabilized he took his hand out and stumbled a bit.

Shizune caught him and helped him to an empty bed in the next room to lie down. His body felt so weak. He wasn't ready to use his abilities just yet. Suddenly Tsunade barged in.

"What the hell gaki? What was that jutsu you used in there it wasn't in your file? You managed to heal his organs enough to give him at least one more week." Tsunade then proceeded to tell how all the other organs were.

"I'm so sorry Tsunade-sama the ability is actually a secret. It is part of my Uzumaki bloodline. From the records, some of the Uzumaki's developed this ability to use their potent chakra as a healing ability."

"The downside is that it can drain me quite rapidly. More so than using normal iryojutsu, since I am technically forcing my chakra into their whole body instead of concentrating it in a small area."

"I hid my ability from everyone since I don't want it to be misused or to be used as a breeding tool to create children like me," Naruto said.

Tsunade got to his bedside quickly to check his vitals. "Yeah. It seems to be quite draining. You should rest for the rest of the day and don't worry gaki I'll tell everyone to keep your secrets." She said giving him a hair ruffle before going out.

Naruto closed his eyes for a while thinking about what to do. While he saved the man's life it was only a temporal measure. And while he was doing it he couldn't find a source for the disease.

It solidified his idea even more that sage mode was needed to discover the source. Naruto went through some of the memories his clone collected today. There was something going on that was beyond a simple disease.

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Naruto woke up early the next day. His clones collected a lot of samples. Some for the normal lab and some for Naruto's summons to try with sage mode. Yuki told her that the samples from yesterday were still in process so more time was needed.

Naruto made some clones and went to the lab to check Tsunade's progress from yesterday. He then started examining the samples he got. Tsunade joined him sometime in the morning.

The day ended in the same way without any progress. They lost a few patients who were elderly. Their hearts simply stopped and it was too late to do anything for them.

Some of the patients were reacting positively to the medicine so they were making more of those medicines. While other medicines were ineffective so they were eliminated for now.

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Naruto woke up to Yuki pawing his arms. He sat down and rubbed his eyes as the fox nestled in his lap. She pointed to the scroll beside Naruto which he picked up.

It was the result of the examination. Turns out there actually is something wrong with the natural energy. Some of the animal samples were showing similarities as well.

Akira-hime asked for permission to send two of her guardian foxes named Ayumu and Ichika for investigation. The guardian foxes were the ones in charge of the temple.

They didn't usually leave the temple unless it was an urgent matter. Naruto only got to meet the head of the temple, the great priestess, and the warden of the fox fire which was Akira-hime.

She didn't like to go by the titles. So she settled for hime when Naruto insisted. Naruto only knew that the guardians were often praying or looking for knowledge of the world.

They were what were called perfect sages just like Akira-hime. They were constantly in sage mode. Their bodies were so adapted that they didn't need to focus on gathering the natural energy since their bodies did it for them.

Some of the guardians were in charge of teaching the other priests and priestesses in training. All of the fox summons were associated with the temple in one way or the other after reaching adulthood.

They were also those who were in charge of raising the kits and teaching them, making sure they all reached adulthood with great knowledge and skills. they were also those in charge of gathering knowledge from the human world.

Knowledge was sacred to fox summons. They believed in balance and natural order. They weren't against change since staying the same way would cause withering and death.

Naruto put Yuki on his shoulder and went to Tsunade's office. She gave her approval after reading the letter and the test results. Naruto sent Yuki to deliver the message.

After a few minutes, there were 3 poofs of smoke as Ayumu and Ichika summoned themselves along with Yuki. They were both wearing white and red temple robes and face veils that also covered their hair.

Naruto bowed deeply while Tsunade who was standing beside him gave a smaller one. "thank you for your assistance Ayumu-san and Ichika-san." Naruto said.

They both gave a nod of understanding. "They understand the urgency of the situation. Ayumu-san wants to investigate the village and its surroundings with us while Ichika-san sees to the patients."

"She has some remedies that can help with the symptoms and ingredients for making more. As Akira-hime mentioned in the letter until the source of the fowl chakra is destroyed or cut off the disease cannot be cured." Yuki said.

"Then I will show you to the patients. Naruto you should go for the investigation." Tsunade said.

"Yes, Tsunade-sama. Yuki should stay. Fox guardians only communicate through mind powers. I can understand the basics of communication but Yuki can act as a translator for you." Naruto said.

Tsunade agreed so Naruto quickly went to his room to change into a proper outfit and they set out. Before going out he saw Yuki perched on Tsunade's shoulders translating for her.

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They started from the middle of the village where Naruto could feel closer to most of the people. Ayumu simply stood still for a few minutes before pointing in a direction.

He was pointing north but a bit towards the ground. They went north closer to the edge of the village. This time Ayumu pointed to the ground directly. "Ayumu-san are you trying to say we should go underground?" Naruto asked for confirmation.

Ayumu gave a confirmative message. While Naruto couldn't understand full sentences and complicated messages, from his time in the Inari temple he learned the basics.

He could understand basic words and phrases. Which was a lot since he only spent a few months there and it took foxes closer to a century to learn the language and sometimes up to half a millennia to master it.

"I will ask the locals if there are any tunnels or ways underground. Please wait for me here." Naruto said.

He quickly made clones to ask locals while he himself touched the ground and focused his sensory range and abilities in doton to see if he can find a passage underground.

He couldn't search very deep into the ground. Around 30 meters was his maximum but by using his sensory range he could search in a very wide area. He focused on the village and a close radius around it.

He could feel a few underground caves but they were man-made. He tried to see if any of them connect when his clone poofed. From the information the village elder gave them was an abounded mine outside the village.

Around 50 years ago some miners went missing and afterward whoever went inside didn't come back so it became an urban legend. Naruto focused his senses on the cave and the way it was positioned it would pass from under the village if it went deep enough.

Naruto explained things to Ayumu and they set out for the mines. The entrance was old and full of spiderwebs but it looked as if someone had passed through recently.

Ayumu walked behind Naruto holding out his hand where a small indigo fox fire was burning. They went deeper and deeper into the cave. Soon it was becoming a bit hard to breathe so they took a stop where Naruto draw seals for air purification to help them.

Soon they came to a dead end. There was a deep pit but no other way forward. They channeled the chakra to their feet to safely go down. it was a huge natural cave with a small stream going through it.

There were sharp stones hanging from the ceiling and on the ground. But none of these was the problem. What was right in front of them sent a chill down Naruto's spine which made him take an involuntary step backward.