Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. Maybe one day I'll wind up making something that will cause thousands of people to write their own creative versions of the universe and story that I've created? That'd be awesome. Hopefully if I make a deeply woven tapestry of a setting the way *some people* did, I'll do a better job of putting it all to use instead of keeping it as fanfic fuel.

And then when I don't, Kishimoto will come see me and laugh in my face, taunting me for all the years of good-natured mockery I've given him, and I'll laugh too. We'll both have a big laugh. Then I'll push him down the nearest flight of stairs and keep laughing.

I always get the last laugh, damn it.

Chapter 19: Down With the Sickness

Tenten wasn't certain what fear looked like when it came to Shino. After all, the young man never made any sound of the sort, and no one could ever see his face. Even so, if ever there was a moment where she figured Shino would be afraid, much like she herself was, it would be when he was standing in front of both Uzumaki Kushina and Namikaze Minato to tell them that their son was posted up out of the town they were holed up in for the safety of the people who lived inside.

If he was, he didn't show it, because the words rolled right off of his tongue.

"Why you ask? Because it was safer that way for the time being."

Thankfully, he was still willing to speak, even as Tenten wisely stood out of Kushina's reach. Yes, she loved Naruto to death, but Kushina really loved Naruto to death. The redheaded mother could be touchy to say the least when it came to Naruto, which was appropriate because he was her firstborn child. Hopefully she wouldn't blame them for what happened.

...Whenever Shino got it out of his mouth. He did have that roundabout manner of speaking that took forever to get to the point.

Kushina and Minato looked at each other with varying levels of confusion on their faces as they heard the even-tempered Aburame out, "Shino..." Minato said, articulating words that Kushina felt she wouldn't be able to make without babbling, "Why is it safer for Naruto to be out of town right now?"

"Why you ask? Because Naruto-san is currently infected with the Uchiha Clan's bioweapon," Shino elaborated, ignoring the sound of a dying cat that Kushina made as her mouth fell wide open, "If he were to come into contact with others, there is a chance he could infect them."

Minato wasn't much better off. They didn't see him lose his composure often. The man was as collected as they came, but when he was being told something of this magnitude about his son, even he reacted strongly, "W-W-What? How? Is there an actual outbreak somewhere?"

Tenten shook Shino's shoulder and whispered in his ear, "Hey, try and break it a bit more gently, huh?"

Shino looked at her and nodded before turning back to Naruto's parents, "No, there is no outbreak. It was merely a desperation ploy by our enemy to escape us. Naruto is the only one we know of currently infected."

Tenten palmed her forehead. That wasn't exactly her idea of breaking it gently. Then again, if she wanted it done any better, she probably should have done it herself. Shino wasn't exactly a people person.

"I think I'm gonna throw up," Kushina said, her skin ashen and pale at the thought, "Where is he?"

"He's not far away!" Tenten jumped in hurriedly before Shino could do anymore damage, "But that's just the bad news!" She cringed after realizing that she was trying to put a silver lining on this particular dark cloud, "I bought the formula for the antidote. All we have to do is get the ingredients and find an apothecary to make it."

Minato held his hand out as Tenten handed him the scroll that Orochimaru had given her, containing everything that needed to be gathered and how it needed to be prepared to become a viable cure, "Well that's no good."

Kushina grimaced, not wanting to hear any more bad news today, "What is it now?"

"I have no idea what any of these things are," The blond leader admitted grimly, scratching at his wild hair, thoroughly at a loss, "I don't think anyone other than a doctor or some kind of medic-nin would know much of what to make of this, and we don't know any."

The town they were in was nice, but the medical staff there left much to be desired. The best they had was a friendly town physician, but the best he could really do on his own was stitch up bad gashes and set bones. Their clan connections didn't have any high-level medics either. Battlefield medicine was the best that most of them were capable of.

"Inuzuka Hana is some kind of medic-nin," Tenten happily pointed out quickly, hoping this could all be worked out swiftly.

"A human medic," Minato specified, remembering what he was told of the girl that had gone on this dangerous assignment with Naruto, Shino, and Tenten, "From what I know, this Hana girl specializes in veterinary medicine more than anything else."

Poisons and other apothecary makes were not focused on animal companions very often. She had some experience in them, yes, but physical healing was the primary focus of her training. They needed someone else with different medical training, the kind of disposed to creating remedies, to make better heads or tails of what they needed to find and where they could get it.

XxX

(Meanwhile – With Naruto)

For once, Naruto was at a loss for how to deal with a particular opponent. The reason being, you couldn't exactly punch a disease in the face to get rid of it. There wasn't a jutsu that would magically cleanse him of the illness. It wasn't a poison. It was a lifeform inside of his body with the sole purpose of destroying him through his chakra.

Fortunately, there was lot of it to go through and taint. Unfortunately, the longer it took, the more it would hurt by the time the end came.

Sitting in a tree outside of the nearby village with a rebreather in his mouth for safety, Naruto winced at the mere act of flexing his fingers into a fist. It had started modestly enough a day or so ago, and then he had taken it as the grind of their hurried travel wearing on his body a bit. But it never went away. Even then, he felt sore for no reason, all over.

Dying in a battle didn't scare him. At least, not as much as dying without so much as a fight. Being poisoned, or dying from an illness left nothing up to him. It wasn't the sort of enemy he could rage against and overpower or outfox.

Was this how it was going to end? No grand battle? Never getting to prove just who and what he really was to the world? He wasn't even going to get the chance to see what would become of the whole village thing?

"I haven't even gotten sick in forever, and now I'm gonna get killed by the sniffles?" Naruto asked himself, "That's lame."

Come to think of it, he hadn't gotten sick since Kurama had been sealed inside of him. Apparently it was because of the qualities of Kurama's chakra that reinforced Naruto's immune system and improved his natural ability to heal granted by his clan's powerful life force.

"Kurama, is this something you could get rid of if you had enough time?" The blond Uzumaki asked his biju partner.

"Boy, what in the hell makes you think I'm able to do something that precise?" Kurama replied inside of Naruto's head. He could mentally see Kurama batting his tails in irritation inside of the cage representing the seal within him, "You would be better off asking me to try and to pluck a nest's worth off ants from the ground than do anything like that."

Naruto figured as much. If Kurama could get the bioweapon out of his system, he would have done it by now. Even so, the gigantic fox seemed angrier at the question than he normally was, "You heal me all the time, and I don't remember ever getting sick since we've been stuck like this. I just want to know what's going on."

"That's because I normally just zap it out with the chakra I always have circulating inside of you. You monkeys have simple enough body structures where all of your guts are close to your chakra pathways."

Even so, that didn't still explain much for Naruto, as his body structure had never seemed to matter before. Everything had been fixed previously, "What's the difference this time?"

"It's in your chakra. It's not your organs or any other part of your system, it's your chakra itself. Whatever this is, it's meant to survive better in stronger forms of chakra somehow. I can't just burn whatever this is out of you, because it's infecting what I would use to do it in the first place."

Naruto grumbled to himself until something with what Kurama said managed to click with him, "When you say that, does it mean that you're sick too?" He asked, waiting for and getting no answer from the massive fox inside of him. It was eerie. Kurama was never at a loss for words, "...You can get sick?"

"..." Kurama said nothing at first before sighing and letting his thoughts be known, "You humans like to think that we biju are mere forces of nature, and that is true. But we are living things. We're mortal. Killable. It's just far more difficult to do it to us than it is to do to you."

Bijuu were made of chakra, the very blend of energies that living beings survived off of. The seal on Naruto's body automatically mixed their chakra together to a controlled degree. When Naruto's chakra was infected, Kurama's was as well.

So not only was Kurama going to die with him when this all finally ended, he was going to die painfully. Even if Naruto got him out of the seal at this point, he would still have the disease.

Naruto opened his mouth to speak, only for a guttural growl to cut him off, "I swear to God, you had better not apologize."

Apologize? To hell with that.

"Bleh, no," Naruto responded distastefully, "I was gonna say, we'll fix it. Somehow."

"How exactly are we going to do that?" Kurama was skeptical to say the least.

Naruto shrugged, as if Kurama could actually tell that he'd done so, "I dunno. When I said we, I didn't mean you and me. I'm pretty sure there are actual smart people working on this right now."

"That actually makes me feel somewhat better about our chances. Thanks."

"Anytime," Naruto said before letting out a yawn, "You know, dying like this is boring. Can't even hang out around anybody. You want to play a game while we wait for somebody to come get us?"

"What game?"

"How about 'I Spy'? I'll start. I spy with my little eye, something brown."

"…"

"Come on, we're in the woods Kurama. What's brown and everywhere in the woods?"

"How the hell would I know? I'm colorblind."

"…Great."

XxX

Even with a new place to learn about and get her bearings in, Tenten couldn't really focus herself on taking in her new surroundings. They were in a nice enough place with friendly people, and yes it seemed quaint and safe, but she found it difficult to take it all in.

Her best friend was waiting all alone outside of the village, slowly dying. But there wasn't anything that she herself could do. She didn't know much about saving lives. All of her creations were meant to assist in some way with taking life. So unless Naruto wanted something pointy to stab himself with to put himself out of his misery, or an explosive so that he could go out with a bang, his help would have to come from somewhere else.

How much time did he even have? Most people lasted two weeks at most. What did that mean for Naruto with his chakra reserves? How much more time did that give him?

Tenten's thoughts on the matter were disrupted by a hurried set of loud footsteps tapping on the paved road behind her. A smile came to her face, knowing that it was Kanako before she even turned her head to look. Kanako was young, so her footsteps were loud and clumsy. It was cute just how easy it was to hear her coming.

She stopped and stumbled forward when Kanako ran right into the back of her legs, not expecting the older girl to stop, "Ow…"

Tenten picked Kanako up off of the ground and set her back on her feet. The three-year-old didn't even bother dusting herself off. Most other instances of interaction with Kanako would lead one to ask how much she could have possibly been related to Naruto, but then things like that happened and it was easier for people to see.

Even after hitting the ground, she didn't miss a beat, grabbing onto Tenten's hand with both of her tiny ones, "You're back! You're back!" Kanako exclaimed, jumping up and down energetically, "I don't like it when you all leave me alone!"

Tenten fought the urge to pick Kanako up and give her a gigantic hug. Naruto was her real flesh-and-blood brother, but she had been around more than enough that Kanako had gotten very attached to her as well. She wasn't sure how she felt about Shino, since Shino was very quiet and kept to himself for the most part, but she was certain that Kanako liked him too.

"Sorry Kana," Tenten told her, "I don't think we'll be doing any more missions that'll be sending us away from your mom and dad for a while."

With how disastrous things had gone on this last one, even if Naruto survived there was a good chance his parents would keep a watchful eye on him for quite some time afterwards. And for the time being, there was no chance he was going anywhere. His condition would only get worse over time.

Kanako immediately frowned despite the apparent good news, as if she could feel Tenten's mood without needing to see it on her face or be told about it, "I wanna go see him. Where's my brother?" If Naruto had come back, the first thing he would have done would have been to report to Minato and Kushina. Then he would have immediately gone to her.

That was what Tenten had expected, but it definitely hadn't been what she'd wanted to hear, "You can't see Naruto right now, Kanako," Tenten told her, stooping down to her level as close as she could to look the little girl in the face, "It's a little too dangerous to go near him right now. He's kind of sick, and we don't want you to get it too."

Sick? Naruto didn't get sick. Kanako knew, as there had been times when she'd been sick and everyone taking care of her had gone to lengths to keep from picking up whatever bug she happened to have. Naruto never did. He would climb into bed right with her to give her something to hold onto, comforting her all while she was coughing and sniffling, and nothing had ever happened to him before.

Kanako was an empathetic child who adored her family. Her face twisted into what Tenten recognized as deep concern, causing the older girl to set her hands on Kanako's shoulders to try and assuage her, "Hey, he'll be okay. Don't worry," She said, "You don't think a little something like being sick would hurt Naruto, do you?"

Of course not. That made perfect sense as far as Kanako was concerned. Naruto was the strongest… other than their mom and dad. If she got sick and then got better, he would do it in way less time than she ever did.

Agreeing with Tenten's point, Kanako shook her head. A few more words passed between them as Tenten took Kanako back to the place where her parents were staying. Tenten satisfied Kanako's childlike curiosity on the life that older ninjas led and just what they had been doing for a few days, skillfully avoiding answering her questions properly in the process, and then sent her off to play with a pat on the backside.

Just as soon as Kanako was out of sight, Tenten let out a sigh and let her wooden smile drop. That had been tough. How could she convince Kanako that Naruto would be okay when she couldn't honestly say if she thought he would herself?

They needed someone with experience making drugs and other medical creations. A full-blown medic wasn't necessary, but it wouldn't have hurt.

XxX

(Central Hi no Kuni – Uchiha Clan Headquarters)

Sasuke's stony countenance belied the fire that rested inside of his stomach after receiving a verbal dressing down from his father. Uchiha Fugaku was none too pleased at the clan's ace-in-the-whole bioweapon being used on three riffraff shinobi.

He had given his son one assignment, oversee a transport. It shouldn't have been difficult. And yet, the package had never reached its intended destination.

"That canister was supposed to be opened deep within the heart of the Inuzuka Clan's defenses," Fugaku told his youngest son. His stony expression did nothing to hide the look of disappointment radiating from his eyes, "Countless Uchiha Clan lives would have been preserved. Now we'll have to suffer through a costly campaign to get what we need."

Sasuke all but squirmed under his father's gaze. It was just a reminder that he wasn't seen in the same light as Itachi. He'd taken assignment after assignment to try and curry as much respect as he could, but no matter what he did, he couldn't get it from the one person that really mattered to him; the head of the clan.

"It was either do what I did, or fight three against one and lose it anyway," Sasuke said through gritted teeth, "One of them was Uzumaki and another was an Inuzuka. I couldn't have escaped," It left a deep, throbbing pain to say such a thing aloud. He didn't fail. He didn't lose.

Sasuke had an inflated sense of his own abilities, but realized when he was facing quite the steep challenge. With Naruto's enhanced speed and Hana's ninken able to follow his scent easily, there was no chance that he could get away when the two of them were on him at once.

The entire mission had been a series of unfortunate occurrences. Between the Inuzuka Clan ambush that led to the bioweapon being lost in the first place, to running into Uzumaki Kushina of all people and her pain-in-the-ass son soon thereafter while trying to retrieve it… Sasuke would have liked to see anyone come out on top and get everything they wanted out of that satiation.

Fugaku paused upon hearing what or whom Sasuke had to contend with on the battlefield, "By 'Uzumaki', do you mean the boy?" And Sasuke opened the bioweapon canister on him? "…Well, at least that will be one problem solved to see that abomination wiped out. At least something useful came from this."

He didn't say it, but Sasuke could tell that he had just been dismissed.

The teenage Uchiha swallowed his anger until he left Fugaku's office. He planned on walking what he felt was a safe distance away to vent, and anyone who came across him in the mansion halls were wise to steer clear of him. He made it all the way outside into the garden near the center of the compound before something interrupted his threatening march.

"Whoa, careful kid. You might set something on fire if you glare any harder."

Sasuke's attention rounded onto the carefree figure of Obito, leaning against the railing of a bridge that spanned a pond. The last thing he wanted to hear was some sort of smartass remark from a member of the clan that Sasuke didn't think took their aims and future desires to heart.

"Don't speak to me," Sasuke demanded as he stomped past. There was nothing he had to say to someone like him.

For someone as talented as Obito was to not have a higher place in the clan hierarchy than he did, it smacked of nothing more than laziness, of disenchantment, of something along those lines. There was no passion there for being a shinobi. Nothing held Obito back except for Obito himself.

It made Sasuke sick to think about something like that ever happening to him. The day he didn't care about excelling and standing head-and-shoulders above everyone else in his line of work, he hoped there was someone around to take his head off of his shoulders for him.

Obito just grinned at Sasuke despite the scorn he was clearly receiving from his younger family member, "Come on now. Want to talk about what's got you so pissed? I've been told I'm an excellent conversationalist," Sasuke tried to ignore him as he walked away, but Obito had a gift when it came to getting one's attention, "Did Big Daddy Fugaku yell at you?"

It wasn't the right thing to do for several reasons, but at that moment, Sasuke just wanted Obito to shut up. Walking away to make that happen was an option, but there was also the problem with him needing to vent his anger.

Reaching into Obito's throat and ripping out his vocal cords just killed two birds with one stone.

The speed behind his turn and lunge was impressive. It would have been impossible for a normal person to follow, especially if they weren't prepared for the move.

To Sasuke's surprise, he missed, even though he could have sworn he'd made contact. Obito didn't dodge so much as he walked through Sasuke's attack hand. It made Sasuke turn his Sharingan on to make sure that he hadn't been caught in a genjutsu.

Just how did he do that? It wasn't speed. It couldn't have been.

"No need to be so hostile, little cousin," Obito said, standing right behind Sasuke, his back to him, hands nonchalantly in his pockets, "That temper of yours, that need to prove something to everyone around you, it makes you weak. Easy to manipulate," He said as he walked away, "You should work on that."

"Wait," Sasuke said, regaining his composure and now wanting answers, "I hit you. I know I did. Is that why they call you 'The Ghost'?" It had been years since he'd earned that title, but Obito's more unique abilities were still a mystery to the entirety of the clan.

Obito spared a moment to stop and look back over his shoulder for a second with a grin, "No, they call me 'The Ghost' because the best part of me died a long time ago… but I just keep on hanging around. And nobody knows why."

XxX

(Yu no Kuni)

Fuu enjoyed how peaceful the village she and Anko found was. It was quaint, quiet, with lots of friendly people.

What she didn't like was that there wasn't really anywhere she could go that was high up. She was a fan of high places, but the best that she could do around that area was hang around up in the trees. There was nowhere to stare out over the landscape and just think. That made her grumpier than she already was.

Even the little kids that enjoyed her energy and company weren't enough to cheer her up, and she took to brooding on her own instead of doing it around them and bringing them all down as well.

Eventually, Anko came searching for her, and found her close to where she'd last heard that Fuu was, "There you are, partner!" The purple-haired freelancer chirped heartily at the sight of the jinchuuriki, "I've been looking all over. I thought you… why are you sulking?"

Fuu let out a desperate sigh and turned her orange eyes onto Anko, "Naruto is sick with the Uchiha Clan's illness, and Fuu can't do anything to help him," She said, "He's all by himself at the edge of town, and no one can go to him."

She really wanted to go to him. Naruto was one of her favorite people. Other than being the only other person she had ever met that could relate to being a jinchuuriki, he was always good to her, and trusted in her despite her attempt to kill him when they first met.

Anko knew that Fuu liked Naruto, and often teased her about possibly having a crush on him; though all of it went over Fuu's head. The poor girl had no sense of romance or lust whatsoever, thus making anything she felt for Naruto completely platonic. Until that changed, Anko might as well have tried to tease a brick wall.

Still, she liked the golden-haired dunderhead, and learning of his current predicament probably made her quite upset, "Uh… you wanna go punch some bad guys in the face for money?" Anko offered, "It might make you feel better. It always makes me feel better."

"Fuu doesn't want to punch anything unless it's Uchiha Sasuke."

Anko knew that tone. She used to speak in that tone about Kakuzu. It didn't sound right coming from someone as peppy as Fuu, "Look, no one's as much of an advocate for vengeance-based murder as I am, but there's a time and a place for everything," She said, trying to talk the girl down, "Right now, as far as I know he's still up and moving around. So the best thing anyone can do is act like business is as usual. He isn't dead yet, and it would probably piss him off if everyone acted like he was."

Fuu knew Anko was right. It didn't make everything okay, but it did make her realize that acting down in the dumps wouldn't do anyone any favors.

"Hey, check that out."

Anko directed Fuu's attention to a contingent of what was clearly shinobi entering the village. A closer glance as they walked nearer let the two women see that they were of the Hyuuga Clan, one of the organizations aligned with Minato in his bid to form a permanent union between different powers of the ninja world.

Well that was a good thing at least. A sign that things were moving along in the right direction. Maybe all of this hard work would begin to bear physical fruit in the near future.

The thought of that did put a smile on Fuu's face, until she realized something. Her face scrunched up in thought, which Anko noticed in her younger charge, "Hey, what's the matter?"

Nothing was the matter, particularly. At least it might not have been, "…They're here earlier than Minato-sama expected, aren't they?"

Actually, they were. By a few days. And once they got closer they seemed as if they had been traveling quickly from their somewhat bedraggled state.

"What the hell happened to them?" Anko asked, moving in to try and get some answers.

XxX

(With Naruto)

One thing that Naruto hated more than almost anything else was inaction. Sitting back and waiting was the worst thing in the world to him. He didn't mind failing. He didn't mind hardship. Just as long as those things could come while he was actually trying to do something about it.

The thing about his current affliction was that there wasn't much he could do about it without more knowledge.

Then again, medicine had never particularly been his forte, to say the very least.

Naruto sighed from where he rested underneath the shade of one of the forest's many trees, "Who would've thought that having a big chakra fox in your belly to burn all of the bad stuff out of you for years could turn out to be a bad thing?" All he got in response was a grunt or snort from Kurama, "Dying is boring."

A soft gasp in response to his statement elicited his attention. His surroundings were too quiet for him to miss it. Jumping up to his feet, he quickly scanned the area to try and find the source of the noise. There was no other sign of anything in the forest other than him, which was wrong. Naruto's gut told him that he had definitely heard something, and it was still there.

"Alright," Naruto said, trying to appeal to whatever it was' sense of reason, "Come on out and I won't tear this whole place down to make you. I'll do it too. I'm really bored."

It took another few moments, but eventually a young woman with long, dark blue hair showed herself. Her eyes were a telltale sign of the clan she affiliated herself with, and her timidity was something that helped Naruto pick up on just who she was.

"Hinata!" He exclaimed as he scrambled to his feet. The girl shivered a little at Naruto's shouting of her name, but she smiled and came out more from her hiding place, "Wow! What are you doing all the way out here? I didn't think your clan would let you go anywhere by yourself."

"I'm not by myself," Hinata said with a light laugh as she started to move closer, "Father sent me with Neji-niisan and a group of our shinobi to do our part to help get your Minato-sama's village together. I didn't think you would be here."

She had hoped that he would be, but Naruto was normally dispatched on some kind of mission whenever Minato had met with Hiashi, or whenever she and Hiashi had gone to meet with Minato somewhere. She was ecstatic to see him. Her smile lit up the forest, and put one on Naruto's face… behind the rebreather… which was very difficult to tell because it covered a lot of his face.

Stupid breathing mask.

Wait, he was wearing that for a good reason. And Hinata was getting a little too close, standing just outside of ten feet to him.

"Wait," Naruto suddenly said, getting the girl to stop in her tracks, "Did someone tell you where I was?" He asked tentatively.

Hinata didn't know why that mattered, frowning as she answered, "No," She said softly, "But with your chakra, you're very easy to find," At that, she turned her Byakugan on for emphasis, only to tilt her head slightly in curiosity as she tried to figure out the particulars of what she was seeing when it came to his chakra network, "There's something different about it though. Tainted."

"You shouldn't get any closer," Naruto told her with a deep sigh in his voice. And here he thought he'd be able to forget about all of that for a short while to talk with her. But he couldn't just not tell her about it, "There's a reason my chakra looks off. I got hit with the Uchiha Clan's bioweapon," He could see the realization mount on her face before he even finished his admission, "I'm sick with it right now."

Thankfully, when the poor girl fainted, she fell into a nearby bush instead of on the hard, hard ground.

Naruto debated what to do for the longest time before tugging at the modified rebreather on his face, "…Well, I can't really infect anyone if I'm not breathing into the air. And this thing is keeping me from doing that," It would probably be alright to take her somewhere in the village to lie down. He'd even avoid most everyone else until he could find a place.

To the town it was. Hopefully no one asked him why he was wearing the stupid thing and just chalked it up to being a ninja thing.

XxX

Minato sat in his temporary office at the inn he and his followers and family were living out of for the time being. The Hyuuga Clan had arrived on-time and safe, for the most part at least. Neji had a few burns on his left arm, but it was nothing a tough young man like him couldn't just ignore.

He was troubled because of what he had been told, that the Hyuuga Clan had been targeted en route to the village.

It hadn't been an attack from bandits, but an organized fighting force, willing to sacrifice themselves to prevent as many Hyuuga as possible from meeting up with him. The Hyuuga Clan that had traveled to meet with Minato had no valuables on them. Their attackers had no intention to kidnap them. And in the end, the last one alive had left a cryptic warning, that it was just the beginning.

What was just the beginning?

He didn't want to think about it, but he had to. If it was the beginning of a force directly opposing what he was trying to do to bring people together, yes, he had to think about it. He had to be concerned. He had to figure out everything he needed to stop it before the damage was done.

"Thank you for telling me all of this, Neji," Minato told the young Hyuuga, setting his hands on his shoulders in what he hoped was a comforting gesture. He had just led his clan out of a sticky situation and had been wounded because of it, "We'll find out the reason behind all of this and deal with it."

Neji accepted the famed speedster's words, though begrudgingly. He wasn't happy with the way they were in the dark. Things didn't feel safe, and at the moment no one had the answers to make things better, "I wish I had more information that could help with learning who they were. But they didn't use any specific techniques that could be attributed to any particular organization, nor did I see any markings signifying who they were."

Not that it would have mattered after the one kunoichi he'd left alive to try and interrogate blew herself up in close proximity to the other bodies. There wasn't much left to check over. Were it not for a timely special defensive technique allowed to be taught to Neji as the guardian of the main branch's heiress, there wouldn't have been much left of him either.

"There's not much more we can do about it now. I'm just grateful that no one was killed and you weren't hurt any worse than you were," Minato said, trying to put some kind of positive spin on things, "I promise, I'll handle this matter personally when the time comes."

This wouldn't be the only time that something like this would occur if there really were active parties out to try and destroy them for attempting to align. Though it would have been best to prevent a next time from happening, that wasn't realistic in this case. The next time would have to be the last though, before bad things started happening.

The atmosphere of the room shifted when the door slowly moved open and Naruto backed into the room with Hinata unresponsive in his arms.

"Hey, Old Man, where are the Hyuugas supposed to be staying? Because-," Naruto stopped completely after turning around and noticing Hinata's older cousin, whose job it was to be as overprotective of her as possible. As time had passed and Neji's anger had decreased, he had really taken to his role as her bodyguard, which made the current situation possibly dangerous, "…Neji, before you say anything, she passed out all on her own. It's not my fault."

Neji stared at Naruto with a piercing gaze before relenting with a sigh and walking over, "Give her here," He told him as he took Hinata off of his hands, "What are we going to do with you, Hinata-sama?" He said under his breath.

He hadn't really blamed Naruto for the fainting spell from the outset. He of all people knew that she could be rather… frail, about certain things.

Minato walked up to Naruto with a stony expression on his face that almost made his son take a few steps back. Blue stared into blue before Minato threw his arms firmly around Naruto and pulled him into a hug.

Naruto's eyes widened in shock before narrowing, realizing the likely reason why Minato was hugging him as though this were the end, "Old man, if you don't let go of me right now, I'm gonna knee you in the junk," He warned. He was not about to sit through a pity parade featuring all of his friends and loved ones, "I'm not dead yet."

Minato let go of Naruto and smiled with a laugh. That was the prickly brat he'd spent the last few years trying to connect with. It was clear that Naruto wasn't going to let what was happening beat him down, "Well we're all perfectly reasonable, intelligent people. I'm sure we can figure out that list and get you what you need."

At was at this time, Neji felt the need to bring up the elephant in the room. In other words, the rebreather on Naruto's face.

"What on earth are you wearing that ridiculous thing for?" Neji asked, an eyebrow raised at the sight of the apparatus covering his would-be comrade's nose and mouth.

Naruto didn't know quite how to put it mildly. He would have been just as bad at breaking the news to his parents as Shino had been, "…So I don't infect the whole town with a deadly, deadly virus," Maybe even worse.

Neji took a step back that likely wouldn't have been noticed, had he not been in front of shinobi, "And by deadly, deadly virus, you mean-?"

"Uchiha Clan bioweapon thingy."

"Of course it is."

Fainting wasn't Neji's thing. Not like Hinata's. But he could now see why she might have been overwhelmed enough to do so. Hearing that Naruto was walking around with a dangerous sickness, even if there were measures taken to protect others from having it pass onto others through the air, was still a bit much to think about.

Wait. Naruto having the virus meant that he was technically dying, didn't it?

Now Hinata fainting made much more sense.

XxX

(Meanwhile – Elsewhere In the Village)

As Shino wandered the village to try and get his bearings, just in case something dangerous happened, he happened upon Inuzuka Hana sitting alone, looking quite despondent. He didn't understand why. While yes, things could have been better, the negative circumstances didn't particularly affect her.

Naruto was the one who was sick, and she didn't know him well enough that anything happening to him should have bothered her.

Come to think of it, why did he care that Hana seemed to care? How she was feeling most certainly didn't affect him. Either way, he stood by where she was sitting and attempted to make conversation.

"You are troubled by something," He said, getting her attention, "This does not make sense."

The key word was 'attempted'.

Hana spared Shino a glance before letting out a huff and turning her gaze away once again, "A kid no older than my brother is basically walking on death row, and it's because I wasn't strong enough to handle this on my own. Our clan wasn't strong enough to handle this on our own."

"It was a professional assignment for accepted compensation."

Hana let out a bit of laughter that didn't quite convince anyone who heard it that it was real, "Payment. We didn't exactly discuss any kind of payment before we set out," She explained softly. While the tribes that comprised her clan did have some money, they didn't exactly have a lot that would have been valued material-wise by much of the rest of the world. They tended to live off of the land, "So I basically got him killed while he was still working pro bono."

Naruto and his team would most certainly be getting compensated now. Hana would make sure of it. Whatever she had to give them to make up for what they'd done. Even if she had to fight her mother for the right to give that order herself. It was war time, yes, but a service had been done for them, and once the cure was produced for the Uchiha Clan's horrid bioweapon.

After hearing all of that, Shino had run fresh out of empathy, "I understand. When you put it that way, one can see why you would have a problem with your conscience," He said, nodding to himself, "…Carry on then."

Once again, at least he made the attempt to converse and ease Hana's mind. The fact that it wasn't a very good attempt should not have mattered.

Fortunately, Tenten was nearby for the tail end of it and saved everyone from more of the same.

"Shino, you aren't exactly doing very well on the positive reinforcement front today," Tenten pointed out, tugging at the hood of Shino's jacket, "Maybe you should stop trying to cheer her up?"

"It is not my strong suit, I will admit," Shino said, readjusting his clothes appropriately after being previously jostled.

"And we love you for it, but it's good you realize it," Tenten told him with a smile before turning her attention to Hana, whom she sat down beside, "You shouldn't beat yourself up about what happened," She said, "He was the one that made the choice, and if he hadn't given the last antidote to you he'd be feeling just like you are right now."

It was awful. It made her upset to think about. But it was the truth. After he'd made his decision, Naruto probably would have physically fought against any attempt to give him the last remaining antidote instead of Hana.

It was also of little comfort to Hana, "That still doesn't mean anything. This whole thing was my clan's problem. It was our responsibility to handle, and I just went and passed the buck to you all. It's terrible."

Tenten gave her a friendly jab in the arm to try and cheer her up, cringing at how unlikely it was to work and how much of a tomboy that probably made her seem like, "Naruto was the one that took on the mission for all of us, so in his mind it was his responsibility to deal with the consequences. You were technically our employer, and this whole thing was meant to benefit you. He probably figured that he couldn't just let you die."

"It makes sense to me," Shino chimed in from the sidelines, "Why, you may ask? In my observations, Naruto-san does have something of a hero's complex."

"A lot of good that did him, and all of you," Hana said, "…Poor kid, should have never gotten involved," Her three ninken whined pitifully along with her words.

It was one thing to accept responsibility for one's role in unfortunate events. Dwelling over them rarely did anything helpful, and it could be exceptionally annoying for certain people related to the person dealing with the most misfortune.

Tenten turned her entire body to Hana, an unsmiling expression on her face, most of her compassion set aside, "Look, I can't even image how bad the last week and a half of your life has been, but my oldest friend is hanging around somewhere all alone with a modded piece of old gear on his face to keep him from breathing on someone and killing them while he's slowly dying," She said, "Now you can sit here and be down in the dumps, but I'm going to go find him and figure out where we're going to go and what we're going to do to fix this."

With that said, she got back up and began to leave to do just that, when Hana's voice called out and stopped her, "Wait."

Tenten paused and allowed Hana the time to say what she wanted to say, despite how prickly their talk had just gotten moments ago, "Yeah," She did feel a little bad about it, but she had meant it.

Hana stared straight ahead, reaching out to stroke the head of one of her dogs, "I'm going to stay for a little while before I head back home. With the bioweapon gone, things should be safe for a bit. If you need something, I'll be somewhere around here."

Another body around a possibly vulnerable place was always appreciated, but Tenten figured that Hana would have wanted to get back to her clan as soon as possible, with it being at war and all, "You don't have to do that,"

"I would like to find a way to negotiate the bioweapon antidote once you all get it," The Inuzuka girl admitted for the sake of honesty, "Besides, I want to see what Naruto of the Nine-Tails is capable of. I've seen him fight. Now I want to know if he really could survive something like this," And if she would really need to feel any guiltier about his death one day soon.

Tenten grinned and scoffed, "Please. As if something like being infected with a deadly disease could kill Naruto. Tons of people wish it was that easy."

"I wonder if it's wrong that I could probably count as one of those people at times?"

That dull, indifferent voice. The somewhat mean-spirited, possible life-threatening underlying statement that she knew him to give regularly, even to small impressionable children.

Tenten turned with a gigantic grin on her face at the sight of gravity-defying silver hair and a lazy one-eyed gaze sitting just above an ever-present facemask, "Kakashi-sensei!"

"Hiiiiii," Kakashi droned in his usual unenthusiastic manner, waving his hands and wiggling his fingers, "So, what's this I hear about a deadly infection? Sounds absolutely funderful," He said with blank sarcasm, "It also makes me wonder why I didn't take those vultures eating that black cat on the side of the road on the way up here as a sign to stay away from this place."

"That was… morbid, sensei."

"Mmm, sorry," He didn't sound sorry at all, not that Tenten expected any sincerity out of him, "Hello, Shino. You look well," Kakashi added after the fact, noticing the bug-user's presence.

Shino nodded, thoroughly satisfied that Kakashi remembered to acknowledge him. At least one person could usually tell when he was around.

"Anyway, you were saying," Kakashi said, getting the conversation back on-track, "Who's infected with what now?"

XxX

Naruto didn't want to compare a child to a dog, especially when that child was his younger sister, but the look Kanako was giving him from her place in their mother's lap across the room made him think of a dog that you told to sit, but knew it would do the exact opposite the moment you took your eyes off of it.

Kushina was holding onto her, but he knew that the second her grip lapsed and they weren't paying close enough attention, Kanako would squirm down and run over to him to sit in his lap. Not that he had any problem with that. As a matter of fact, he had been the one who had spoiled her into getting used to sitting with him like that. But he was holding back a dangerous illness with a rebreather that filtered every last breath he took.

While it probably was safe for her to come over and sit with him, and he knew she had missed him, he didn't want to take the chance that she would get sick with what he had.

"So," Kushina said, wondering exactly what she could say after spending most of the day trying to cope with what was happening with her son. It took a lot to be in a room with him without bursting into hysterical tears and doing something embarrassing, "…Is that mask a permanent thing now, or what?"

"God, I hope not," Naruto said with a sigh, his shoulders slumping. It was uncomfortable sitting there and spending time with the woman who brought him into the world, "Look, mom, can you not treat this whole thing like this."

"Like what?"

"Like this," Naruto said, as though that explained everything. He silently motioned to his ears to prompt Kushina to cover Kanako's, much to her chagrin, "I might be dying, but I'm not dead yet. Don't act like there's a clock on my chest counting down how much time I've got left. I'm gonna fix this. I'll fix it for everyone."

Kushina thought for some time about what she could say in return. It wasn't that she didn't have hope. But statistics were statistics, and they were added on to the fact that the virus was more fatal to people with greater amounts of chakra.

When the adversary was something tangible that they could touch, speak with, she never doubted that anything could be done. It was something Naruto had inherited from her. But this was nothing like that.

Still, he was her son. If he told her he was going to do something, and said it with as much belief as he just had, she would believe that he could.

"You'd better," Kushina asserted as a method of saving face, "I swear, the day my baby gets killed by a bug… you know I raised my kids to be tougher than that! You sure as hell didn't get the ability to take a punch from Minato. Why do you think he got so fast?" She joked, letting Kanako pry her hands off of her ears.

"You baby Kanako," Naruto pointed out with a grin that was covered by the rebreather on his face, "It's not fair. I got all the hard-knocks. She's getting pampered."

"That's because you baby Kanako," Kushina corrected in return, "Any spoiled habits she ends up getting are because of you. Don't blame me. Besides, yours is the unfortunate nature of being the first-born. New parents make all of their mistakes with the oldest kid. That's what makes the ones that come after easier. You'll see one day. All of that aside, I think I did a fine job with you regardless," She finished with a haughty sniff.

"A fine job?" Naruto repeated, playing into his mother's own ego-driven comments on her own parenting, "Nah, that's not a good enough word to describe what created all of this. I'm awesome, right Kana?"

"Uh-huh!" Kanako said, her eyes shining brightly as she wiggled in the seat that was Kushina's lap. It was clear that she'd agreed on the chance that Naruto would okay her coming over to him instead, as she was clearly poised to run over and jump right at him the moment she was given the okay.

Naruto rolled his eyes before nodding to Kushina and opening his arms for Kanako. The second Kushina let go, the little girl bolted across the room and jumped right into her older brother, knowing full well he would catch her. Naruto let out a little grunt of pain at the little missile plowing into him and trying but failing to wrap her arms around him. He made sure to wrap his arms around her extra-tight to make up for it.

Not that he had plans to die or anything, but if he had to, he definitely wouldn't have wanted to do it until Kanako was much older and could process it better. He liked to think he'd done a good job of keeping his sister from being mentally scarred thus far, and he wanted to keep it that way for as long as possible.

"Mrphrfrr…" Kanako muttered into Naruto's chest.

Naruto squinted down at her, trying to decipher what she'd said, as it didn't look like she would be letting go anytime soon, "What did you say?"

"Stop going away," The tiny redhead mumbled pitifully, "I don't like it when you're not around."

It was a terrible thing to think about, but Kanako might have been lonelier than Naruto had been when he was her age. Even if most of the other kids stayed away from him, he still had Karin picking on him. And while that had been awful, at least it had been some sort of constant company.

Now, they kept moving so much that any friends Kanako might have made that were her age in any one place had probably forgotten or would forget her. He was really her only constant acquaintance, and he was ten years older than her, which wasn't good for a child's development, "When you're a little bit bigger, I can take you with me."

Which was the only promise he could make, and it wasn't one he was entirely certain he could keep.

Kushina slipped out of the room while Naruto was sitting with Kanako. They would be fine, but once Naruto truly started showing symptoms of his illness, she would be scared to death of what was happening to him. Hopefully, things wouldn't get that far.

As she wandered the halls of the inn where they were staying, she thought about how well Naruto had taken the changes to his life. From having Kurama sealed inside of him and being ostracized from the Uzumaki Clan, to meeting his father for the first time ever and settling into that as his new normality, to getting a younger sister. And then there was his being used as something of a bargaining point for Minato's unified village plan.

He'd taken it all in stride, adapted to every bit of it, even taken to some of those things like a duck to water, no matter how sudden some of those changes and situations had occurred. No matter how much they had completely turned his life upside-down.

She peeked into the suite that contained Minato's office and the room that they shared, finding Tenten inside with Kakashi, seemingly conferring with Minato over some matter or another, "Hey, what's going on?" She asked. The door hadn't been shut, so it wasn't a private matter, "Hello, Kakashi."

"Kushina-sama," Kakashi greeted warmly and respectfully, "I was just repeating what I said to Tenten earlier. She dragged me all the way here so I could tell Minato-sama, so it's good you're here to listen in too."

Speaking of Tenten, the girl seemed like she could barely hold still. She wasn't quite smiling, but she seemed to be happy or excited about something, likely whatever Kakashi had yet to tell the rest of them.

"There's a world-renowned medic and expert on poisons who may be able to help you find everything you need to fix what ails Naruto," The mask-wearing shinobi said, immediately gaining every ounce of Kushina and Minato's undivided attention, "True, none of us can make heads or tails of Orochimaru's list of ingredients, but I can guarantee you that she can. I just wish I knew more medics by name."

Kakashi was visibly uncomfortable in his body language for whatever reason when it came to the topic of medics that he knew. The only one who seemed to understand just why was Minato, but for Kakashi's sake and for the sake of moving the conversation along, Tenten and Kushina let it go. They squared it away for later though.

"Don't we all?" Kushina said. They really didn't know enough people that were good at medical ninjutsu, or medicine in general. Unfortunately, most of them tended to be affiliated with Senju Tsunade, who was the best of them, "But you're saying that this person is top-shelf?"

"Oh absolutely," Kakashi said, holding up his right hand as though he were swearing on something, "And fortunately, she's not hard to find."

At that, Tenten couldn't contain herself any longer, "Yes! Finally, no wild goose chases or dangerous searches! It's always 'secret' this, or 'hidden' that," For once, it was just a matter of going to a place that one of them already knew about and could find already.

She could help out her best friend, and the path to doing so was a straight line. That was a change of pace. Even if the path wound up being blocked by some kind of brick wall, the fact that things could be straightforward for once was encouraging.

A thoughtful look came over Minato's face before he addressed Tenten, "I think I should see to this myself," He said, much to everyone's surprise. Minato's work had been centered around networking to get the village off the ground, "It's only right."

"Minato-sama, are you sure?" Tenten asked, "This is kind of a boots-on-the-ground thing, even if it does involve Naruto."

The would-be leader waved off his young subordinate's concerns on the matter, duly noted though they were, "I've been delegating responsibilities a bit too much for my tastes lately. I think I can spare the time to go and look for a cure to help my son," Minato said wryly, "Besides, after the last mission, you were all supposed to get a vacation, remember? Obviously, that didn't happen."

He would be damned if he would just sit back and let someone else handle searching for the person who could get him what he needed to fix his only son. It might not have been fitting for the leader of a powerful organization to get personally involved in matters involving one of his soldiers, even if that soldier was his own child, but he wasn't the leader of anything yet. He could still take things personally.

Time was of the essence. So who better to put on the matter than the fastest man in the world?

Kushina nodded at Minato's points. Naruto was their son. There was nothing keeping them from stepping in and doing what they could themselves instead of leaving it to his friends instead. She would have never forgiven herself if she let things go that way and Naruto died as a result.

"Sure," She said in agreement with her husband before looking over at Tenten, "That means you lot are holding down the fort until we get back, so to speak."

Somewhat befuddled by Kushina's declaration of 'we', Kakashi pointed to himself to clarify whether or not that included him, "Wait, you don't mean I'm going, do you? Who are you leaving in charge then?"

Not that he wanted babysitting duties all over again, and not that he thought the kids were incapable of keeping things under control by themselves. After all, he'd had a hand in training them, back when they were a pack of miserable, squishy runts.

But the Hyuuga Clan had sent representatives and shinobi to assist with anything Minato needed in the meantime.

Minato. And while Hinata and Neji were on good enough terms to listen to others aside from him, the rest were older, more wizened, cynical, and would be difficult to say the least.

Naruto, being Minato's son and a symbol of his movement's power, might have been able to get some loyalty out of them in a pinch, but he would be sidelined soon, and it would be best that as few people as possible knew that he was sick, even allies. Kakashi also doubted the Hyuuga Clan would be too eager to take any kind of direction from any clanless ninja that wasn't getting marching orders directly from Minato's mouth.

Taking orders from a ninja different clan, Shino for instance, was entirely out of the question. Even if he was old and experienced enough to have their respect, which he wasn't.

"Anko," Minato said absently before stopping and thinking about his statement. A shiver went down his spine at just how unwise that idea would have probably been. Anko was perfectly fine to consider for most any kind of work in the field. If it was anything more delicate and political, not so much, "…Nevermind. I'll send a message and get someone else to come."

"It better be someone the Hyuuga Clan will respect, Minato-sama," Kakashi added as an aside, "I'm just saying."

"I know, I know," Kakashi meant well, but if Minato needed to be told that, he had no business being in the position that he was in, "That shouldn't be a problem. The problem is, will this person actually be able to help?"

Kakashi crossed his arms and leaned against the edge of a desk, "You shouldn't ask that, because she definitely can. The question is, will she help? From what I've heard, she can be rather difficult. I guess we'll see when we get there."

"And where is 'there' exactly?"

"Sora-ku."

Tenten's jaw dropped. The city? The gigantic city? The only real city that existed in the desert? She had never been, and didn't know anyone that had, but she had heard about it. Honestly, she just wanted to see it. Honest-to-goodness cities were a rarity. Most countries didn't even have them.

Minato's blue eyes hardened with resolve, "Alright then. We have a destination. Let's prepare and head out. I can get us into Kaze no Kuni in a flash, but I don't have a marker down in Sora-ku. We'll still have to head the rest of the way on-foot."

"Great," Kushina rubbed her hands together in anticipation as she headed deeper into the suite to gather her things for the journey, "Sunburn-city, ahoy-hoy. Let's do this."

"That's the spirit!" Minato said, following after his wife.

And that's the chapter. In case you're wondering, yes, I did want to punch myself for blatantly taking the title of a Disturbed song from 1999 and using it as a chapter title. You aren't alone.

So, true, I haven't updated anything for a while, and it sucks. I'm getting used to a very recent promotion at work that comes with actual responsibility and people relying on me having my shit together, so I wind up working 10 to 12 hour shifts to make sure I have everything in order. That won't happen forever, but for now I need to, just until I get used to what's needed of me.

Television, people. It's a mean bitch of a field to work in.

So that's all I've got for you guys for now. I hope you enjoyed.

Kenchi out.