Disclaimer: First Chapter
Story Start!
"So... we have 3 less men now..."
"Yes... but on the bright side Father, with this new information, we won't be losing anymore men hopefully." Hanabi reported everything she had learned to her father. That included the fact that zombies were blind, but the sad fact was that 5 Hyuga men, herself, Kohta, and Saeko all went into the forest to forage for food, and 3 of the men of her family never returned. She knew at least one of them had gotten taken down by zombies, and that made it likely the other 2 men also got taken before they could learn about the staying silent part.
So now, their numbers had dwindled further.
They only had 2 able bodied men, 2 men who were unable to hunt, and 17 women of the clan. It was an extremely unfortunate situation that made their home that much worse to survive in. They had a steady supply of water thanks to their well and the nearby freshwater river, but with only 2 men able to hunt, and needed to provide food for 21 members of their family, they wouldn't last forever. That wasn't to mention the guests who were staying with them.
While Kohta and Saeko were helping a lot in hunting with them and getting their food storage filled, the fact was that eventually they would leave them.
"This... I have tasked Naruto with finding us a new place to call home, once he is recovered and his RV is repaired." Hiashi informed Hanabi of the situation.
She gasped.
"No, no way! He is family, Onii-chan needs to stay with us! He's so strong, he is worth 20 men all by himself! He needs to stay with us, his family!" Hanabi stood up and looked down at her sitting father, who didn't react to her shouting. The sun was down, but her voice wasn't raised enough to cause problems for those around them at the moment. They were in the middle of the compound, so the zombies outside shouldn't hear them.
Hiashi looked up at her, and she sat back down.
She bowed.
"Every day it will become harder to stay here. Every day, we will struggle to..." Hiashi stopped talking when something extremely familiar entered the room, and looked around the room curiously.
Kurama.
Naruto's loyal and highly trained pet fox, and it had a package tied to it's neck. Kurama sniffed around the room, in search of Naruto, before it locked eyes with Hiashi and approached him. Hiashi, who was recognized by Kurama as family, was allowed to take the package off of his neck. On the package was a note.
Naruto
You were correct, I have survived this unfortunate event, and I am currently doing research on the traits these zombies possess. The EMP knocked out power, and my backup generators have 4 more weeks of power in them. I have discovered much about the zombies and how they breed via bite.
Zombies are biologically immortal, their cells are all infected with a new type of worm, these worms take control of the brain and all of the cells in the body and cause them to mutate. So long as the brain is undamaged or connected to the body, the zombie will not rot. After observing their skin changes, I have noticed that the gray skin is a side effect of the worms infecting the cells in the skin.
Only zombie saliva contains the eggs these worms use to infect living bodies, so long as you are not bitten, you will not become infected. Even if you are not bitten, if you can prevent the eggs from reaching and hatching in your brain, you can survive. Once the worms infect cells, they become part of the cells they infect.
If you can kill the eggs inside of you before they hatch, you can also prevent yourself from becoming a zombie. Once the eggs hatch, they will quickly start to shut down vital organs as they infect the brain and other organs. Death can take anywhere between a few minutes to at most 2 hours from what I have tested.
Immunity to the virus is in theory impossible, since it is parasite based.
Still, it can be medically treated if the treatment is administered quickly enough. I have provided you with 5 doses of Ivermectin injections, and 3 bottles of it in it's pill form. If you get bitten by a zombie, inject yourself with a dose, and then take the pills once a day for a few weeks. Ivermectin kills parasites and starts working extremely quickly, but you have to administer it before any symptons appear. Once the symptons start appearing, it will not work.
If you encounter any mutated zombies, kill them and send me samples of their flesh. I am working to restore proper power to my lab, but I have noted that creatures like these are prone to evolution at quicker rates.
Orochimaru
"Father?" Hanabi asked as she watched her father reading a letter that was addressed to Naruto, and she unrolled the paper surrounding the package, and she saw that there were 2 syringe and needles with 5 doses of some kind of liquid medicine, and 3 bottles of pills. She looked at her father, who stared down at the medicine in her hand.
Hiashi looked down at the note again.
He read the entire note close to 20 times before he closed his eyes and digested the information. He looked at the medicine, and the temptation inside of him told him to take it, rip part of the note up, and just give Naruto the part that mentioned there was no cure, and keep all of the medicine for him and his family. His fingers twitched as the urge to rip the paper up.
"Father?"
"... Hanabi, please take Naruto this note for me, and take him the medicine." Hiashi handed Hanabi the note without tearing it, or even admitting to the temptation he had. He felt an immense sense of shame in his own temptation. "Please, do not read the letter, it is for Naruto's eyes only." Hiashi didn't want Hanabi to be overcome with the same temptation for theft that he had felt. He closed his eyes and looked away from her.
-With Naruto Minutes Later-
"Well... Father told me not to read the note."
'Hiashi must have been very tempted to not give me this, and protect his family by keeping the medicine.' Naruto closed his eyes and smiled softly. He felt a little betrayed, but he wasn't angry. Naruto opened one of the bottles of pills and looked at how many pills were in a bottle. "Here Hanabi, give these to Hiashi." Naruto gave 2 bottles of pills, a syringe and needle, and 3 injection doses to Hanabi.
Honestly, the news was great.
Orochimaru had found the source of where the infection came from.
"What does the letter say?" Rei asked Naruto.
"Long story short, the zombies are never going to rot, they are immortal unless you destroy the brain. There are no immunities to being bitten, so no antibodies... but the virus is parasitic, meaning that zombie bites can be cured if you act SUPER fast." Naruto explained to Rei.
"How fast are we talking?" Rei asked in a dead serious tone. She grabbed a bottle from Naruto's hand. "... and is this some kind of... amazing new cure?" Rei asked him. "... Is this why you sent Kurama out, to an amazing scientist who could develop amazing medicine?" Rei continued to ask him questions whenever he opened his mouth to answer.
She opened her mouth right when he did.
Hanabi covered her mouth for Naruto.
"Before any symptoms start showing. No, this isn't a new medicine, the zombie virus is parasitic worms and the eggs are in zombie saliva... this medicine is literally just Ivermectin, which kills a lot of parasites and viruses. Well... Ivermectin is kind of a miracle medicine, it has been used to completely wipe out several infections and diseases, and is one of the most commonly used anti-parasite treatments in the world." Naruto had used Ivermectin whenever Kurama got worms. Actually, whenever he trained animals he used ivermectin to keep them disease and parasite free.
"Uh?"
"Ivetmectin was recognized by Japan as once of the greatest medical accomplishments of the 20th century because it has such a wide range of uses, very little to no side effects. I use it all the time. It has a good storage life. Once we're healed up, we can head to pretty much any pharmacy and get a ton of it." Naruto explained to Rei, who looked at him with wide, hopeful eyes.
Hanabi too.
She also looked at the medicine she was holding with an amazed look, since she never expected there could ever be a cure to getting infected.
"So... being bitten... doesn't have to be a death sentence anymore?" Hanabi looked down at the medicine with tears in her eyes. She looked at the medicine and held it closely to her chest.
"It's still pretty much a death sentence, so still don't get bitten. Never rely on medicine TOO much, because you might not have it when you need it." Naruto pointed out. Even if you had a cure, zombies might go for the neck, and at that point the medicine wouldn't be much use. A bite on the arm or leg would be fine, but the more fatal the bite location, the less time before death happened just from the wound and the parasites.
"That's pretty dark." Rei pointed out.
"This is pretty dark, but... there you are boy." Naruto greeted his pet when he finally joined them in the room, and Kurama got to Naruto's side and curled up next to him happily. Naruto scratched his fox behind the ears. "... The letter says that we need to be aware of mutations in zombies. Since these parasites change the cells of the zombies they create, I guess mutations can start to occur the longer this goes on. This also explains the blindness. if there are parasites in the eyes too, then that causes blindness. There are parasites that can just cause blindness in humans anyway." Naruto stated.
He wasn't a college student for nothing, he did get accepted into a pretty good college, and he had good test scores.
Actually, the second it was discovered the zombies were blind, the cause of the zombie virus should have been instantly been narrowed down to it being parasite based. It had slipped his mind for the longest time.
There were many parasites thet caused blindness.
"Kurama is back!" Rei hadn't seen the fox in awhile. "So... we have a cure, but at the same time, now we have to be careful because mutations in zombies? Why haven't we seen any so far?" Rei asked, since if there had been mutations, they should have seen them.
Naruto shook his head.
"We might have already seen some, but we didn't notice them. For all we know, the 1st wave of mutations in the parasites was them infecting animals. Mutations aren't allows extreme. If Orochimaru is saying be aware, we should expect some more noticeable changes, like body mutations." Naruto explained, since that scientifically perverted man would only ask for samples if he expected there to be huge variations in what to expect going forward.
The good: They had a way to survive being bitten.
The bad: The zombies were going to start getting more dangerous.
It was a perverted balancing act of good and evil.
Chapter End!
Please Leave Me Lots of Nice Long Reviews, But No Flames Please!
Note: The cause of the zombie virus is never revealed in canon HOTD.
I am saying it is parasites in this story, because there are already parasites in real life that do much of what zombies are.
1. Cause Blindness
2. Control the Host body
3. Cause death after being infected
This also means I don't have to invent a cure for it and explain it with some bullshit science, since if it is parasite based, then there would already be a cure for it that is fast acting in the form of anti-parasite medications that act quickly. So, the cure is easily available, but needs to be administered quickly to actually work.
Since it is parasites that infect and change the cells, this also lets me mutate the zombies with different adaptions, so it is easier for me to add mutant zombies in the future that make sense. Also, by having it be parasite based, I can make the zombies immortal so that they don't rot in the summer, and they can be a constant threat.
I did this so that the zombies could be a threat, but characters can get bitten and not turn into a zombie, and now since zombies won't rot, the characters can't just wait them out and now need to make an active effort to kill zombies in the future.
So, now there is an easy cure, but the zombies are also much more of a threat even though bites can be cured.