A/N: sorry this chapter took a little longer to get out. I've been really busy, I have some really big end year tests coming up so I didn't have much time to write. Thank you to everyone that reviewed and keep them coming.
Chapter 16: Saved
Blood pooled on the floor as the red liquid gushed from the open wounds in the pink haired ninja's torso and the young boys head. A young woman stood quivering over the two dead bodies for a moment before reaching out to grab the syringe that had fallen lightly onto the bed where a third blonde haired women lay, sick.
Still trembling, scared about what she had just done, the women rummaged through some of the pink haired women's belongings and pulled out yet another syringe. She verified it was the same and looked frantically around here, hoping no one had seen her. When she saw no one around, the women turned and left the room.
In a brisk walk the women headed down the hallway keeping the two syringes she now held tucked away in her sleeve so that no one else could get a glimpse of them. Her jittery and overly anxious movements drew the gazes of the few other people in the hallways as she hobbled her way towards her son.
She couldn't imagine what she looked like right now. She had been up for days on end worrying about her son and overwhelmed with fear of what may happen with this disease. She hadn't bathed for an even longer time and she was sure if this place did not already have the foul stench of death hanging over it she would get more then a few looks because of the rank smell emanating from her body.
Now was not the time to think about her appearance though. She would do anything to save her son, and while she might regret what she had just done, now was not the time to reflect. With the answer in her sleeve, the women headed into the room that was now overflowing with infected people weaving around the many cots and sick people until she finally made it to her son.
Her son lay weak and sweating in a cot towards the center of the room. He was young, only six years old. He had shown symptoms no more then a day ago and the rash had overtaken much of his chest and had spread to his arms. He had a bad fever and a cold sweat had permeated from his entire body, soaking his cloths and dampening his messing black hair. Without treatment, he wouldn't last more then another day. His mom just hoped that the damage done so far would be reversible.
"It's okay, everything is going to be okay," The women purred, wiping away some of the sweat from her sons forehead. Around her, the few nurses and doctors that remained untouched looked at her strangely for a moment, but they were too overwhelmed with patients to pay her much mind.
As inconspicuous as possible the women pulled one of the syringes from her sleeve, making sure not to let anyone catch site of the needle. She was not a doctor or a nurse and she wasn't quite sure how to use the syringe, but it couldn't be too hard. Crouching down low over her son she pulled the cap off of the needle end and examined the liquid inside. There wasn't much, she just hoped it was enough.
Holding up her sons arm, the women looked for a vein. The arm was covered with the rash by now and some of the skin was starting to peel off. It was painful to see her son like this, but she would suffer through it if this would save his life.
"Please work," The young women whispered as she stuck the needle in her young sons arm, pushing the plunger down.
For a tense moment nothing happened. The young women held her breath, holding the needle in the young boys arm, pushing the plunger down even harder to make sure every last drop of the liquid made it into his bloodstream. The young boy remained motionless, still in a cold sweat, the rash slowly spreading over his body.
And then it stopped. The rash stopped spreading; it did not go away, but it was not getting worse. The boy's temperature started to drop slowly. He groaned quietly; his eyes cracked open slightly for a moment then shut again, not having enough energy yet.
"Mom?"
The women gasped, elated to hear her sons voice once again. She pulled the needle from his arm and tossed it to the side. She pulled the blankets over him and wrapped them around his body, holding him tightly to her.
"It's alright," She murmured, trying to sooth her son.
"What's happening?" The young boy asked, scarred by his unfamiliar surroundings. The last thing he had remembered he had been walking down the street back from school and the next thing he knew he was here, in the hospital, surrounded by hundreds of sick people; his whole body aching, feeling like his skin was about to fall off his body.
"Don't talk, everything is going to be alright," the mother whispered as she picked her son up, rocking him in her arms. As discreetly as possible, she held her son in her arms and started to walk out of the room. Some of the nurses noticed but still had their hands to full to care too much about one woman was doing.
"What are you doing?"
The young women gasped, turning to face the nurse that had been trying to console her in the waiting room.
"N-nothing," the women stammered. "I'm taking my son home; you aren't doing anything for him here."
"You can't do that," The nurse replied calmly. "There are orders to keep all infected here to control the spread of the disease."
"Mom, what's happening?" The young boy whispered, squirming in his mom's strong hold.
"Is he awake?" The nurse asked surprised. Very few of the patients that had the disease had been able to wake up, let alone speak.
"He's just talking in his sleep," the mother assured, trying to walk past the nurse.
The nurse stepped in her way, still interested in the young boy. "Is he cured?"
"N-no," the women stammered. If everyone found out that she had stolen the cure from the Konoha medics then they would find out she had killed them and there would be a panic.
"Mom, I'm feeling a lot better now, you can put me down," the young boy said, more strength returning to him now. He had no idea what the nurse meant about being cured, as far as he knew he just had a bad fever.
"He is cured isn't he?"
"N-no, now just let me go, I want to get my son home," The women tried to push passed the nurse again but was stopped.
"Where did you get the antidote?" The nurse asked manically, trying to get a better view of the child to see if he really was cured. "No one has told us about an antidote."
"There is none," The mother assured.
"What's going on?" a doctor asked as he came over to check what the commotion was about.
"She has a cure!" the nurse exclaimed excitedly.
"Where did she get it?" the doctor asked, interested now.
"There is no cure!" The women yelled. She couldn't get caught now. What would happen to her son and to her if she got caught?
More people had gathered around the scene now, having heard screams of a cure and antidotes. The women stayed in the center. All her escape roots had been blocked now. It was only a matter of time before someone stumbled upon the bodies that were in the room down the hall. Maybe if she just told them where she had gotten the antidote they would leave her alone long enough for her to get away.
"Where did you get the cure?" many people asked eagerly, swarming around the now panicked mom.
The young mother now had tears running down her face. She was surrounded. Her son squirmed in her arms as he was now worried as well. He still did not know what was going on and why so many people seemed to insist that his mother had some type of cure.
"Where did you get the cure?"
"Please go away…" the mother whispered.
"Where is the antidote?"
"Mom, what's going on?"
"Tell us now!"
The mother had now fallen down onto her knees, her son still held loosely in her arms. "Please…"
"Tell us!"
The mother was now sobbing. She couldn't take this anymore. "I-I got the antidote from Konoha."
xx
Shizune ran frantically through the hospital, trying to get a hundred things done at once. She had gathered every capable medic and doctor that was left in the village and had gone to work trying to mass produce the antidote. She ordered around many of the people, trying to make the process as effective as possible. Even though creating the solution was easy for her, for many of the lesser talented medics it was proving to be quite difficult and she often had to assist them to make sure that the antidote came out right. It was vital not to waste any material, as they needed to make as much of the antidote as possible.
So far production was going well enough. They had been able to make several hundred antidotes so far, but it was still far from enough. Word had gotten out to a few people in the village about the disease and that there was now an antidote, but Shizune wanted to keep things as quite as possible. If everyone in the village knew then there could be a panic. If word got out of the village it would be even worse.
Top priority for her right now was to provide the antidote to the Konoha ninjas. It would take about another two hours to create enough antidotes for everyone in Konoha if they continued at the current rate and didn't run out of materials. Shizune had already been administering the antidote to a few of the Konoha ninjas and there was now a small line growing in the hospital.
On top of all this they still had to deal with the source of the disease. According to the reports the infection spread through one of the fire countries main rivers that was its main source of water. The flow had been stopped at a purifying plant upstream from Konoha but the infected water had still spread throughout the entire fire country before they had stopped it. So now they had to put enough antidotes in the water to destroy the source of the virus or else much of the fire country could be in serious trouble from a lack of water.
And even with all this they still needed to supply enough antidotes for all the villages in the fire country that had already been infected. In many villages it had already become a full blown pandemic; they would have to be first priority. Hopefully by this time Sakura and Ino had received antidotes so they would be fine, but if the people in that village found out there was an antidote it could be trouble for Konoha.
Shizune sighed; this whole situation was proving to be very difficult. On top of everything that was going on, Naruto hadn't even returned yet. He had disappeared from his office in a flash without even a mention of where he was going and he hadn't returned since. Shizune was worried what he was doing, it would cause immense trouble for the village if another Hokage were to die such a short time after Tsunade's passing.
Whatever Naruto was up to, she had no time to worry about it now. She just had to trust he would be okay. He was strong, there was a reason that he had been made the Hokage, so she refused to believe he would be killed easily.
The real problem she had to worry about now was supplies. It wouldn't be long before they started to deplete their resources to make this antidote. She had already sent several squads to retrieve more material but if they had to make the antidote for the entire fire country they may never be able to gather enough resources.
"Miss Shizune."
Shizune turned to face one of the young doctors that were working in the hospital. "What is it?"
"Word has started to spread more throughout the village about the disease and the antidote," the doctor started, "Many people are gathering around the entrance, its starting to get messy."
Shizune sighed. She knew this was going to happen. Why couldn't people just keep their mouths shut? It would be much easier to administer the antidote to everyone in the village if they didn't tear apart the hospital trying to get it. "Thank you for the information, I'll take care of it."
The doctor nodded and ran back off to get back to work. Shizune placed the vial of antidote she was currently working on and headed down to the entrance of the Hospital. It would be trouble if things got too out of hand.
As Shizune made it down the entrance of the hospital she found chaos. The waiting room had completely filled with people, the nurses struggling to fend off the hordes from breaking into the main halls. Many more people were outside the front doors, unable to squeeze in to the already packed room.
Again, Shizune sighed deeply. Why did the people of Konoha have to be such idiots at times? The room was incredibly noisy and it was hard to hear herself even think. She quickly made her way to some of the nurses that were holding back the crowds and instructed them to only allow people that were showing symptoms and further. Everyone else should wait outside in an orderly line to facilitate the process.
And then suddenly, the whole room went quite. A few people whispered to each other but for the most part everyone stopped talking at once. Slowly the crowd started to part as someone made their way through it towards Shizune.
Shizune gasped when she saw what it was. Naruto walked slowly towards her, weaving his way through the still dense crowd. He was breathing deeply, looking exhausted. In his arms he held the limp body of Kiba; the one who had been captured by Sasuke.
Naruto approached Shizune, taking a moment to catch his breath before speaking. "You have to help him." Was all he could say as he held out the young mans body that he held in his arms.
Shizune nodded and took Kiba from Naruto's arms. Kiba had been thoroughly beat up. And Shizune would be surprised if he was even alive based on the wounds he had had inflicted. His body was horribly mutilated, horrible gash's ran all over his arms and chest and many bruises adorned the rest of his body. And to Shizune's surprise he was still breathing: albeit very weakly.
Shizune didn't waste any time. She quickly dropped his body onto a stretcher and with the held of some nurses, wheeled his body to an operating room. They didn't have any time to loose. The young man was pale, he had undoubtedly lost a ton of blood and if they didn't transplant some into him soon he would be at serious risk.
Shizune ordered some of the nurses to get several pints of blood and as they rushed off Shizune brought Kiba into an operating room, lifting him onto the operating table before placing an iv and sensors into his arm. Shizune bit her lip as she saw Kiba's read outs. His heart beat was weak and getting weaker by the minute and his blood pressure was dangerously low. As the nurses arrived back with the blood Shizune quickly got another needle to his arm and started resupplying his blood supply.
As Shizune continued to work inside the room, Naruto waited outside. He had followed Shizune to the operating room and watched her bring Kiba inside. There was nothing he could do now. He had brought Kiba back as quick as he could; that was the only thing he could do to try and save him.
Naruto collapsed on a bench outside of the OR: he was exhausted and still breathing heavily. Even though he had a massive chakra reservoir he had used up almost all if it to make the trip to the sound country and back at such a high speed. In the end he had had to let Sasuke go. He couldn't just let Kiba die there in that horrible place so that he could chase after someone that in all likelihood would get away.
Naruto sighed deeply. His plan had failed. While parts of it were a success he had hoped it wouldn't end up this way. In the end he had been too anxious and he hadn't thought through everything as well as he should have. Now Kiba was on the verge of death and Sasuke had gotten away.
"Where is he?!"
Naruto jumped, startled by the sudden outburst. Coming down the hall he saw Tsume, Kiba's mom, closely followed by Hana, Kiba's sister as well as Shino and Hinata, Kiba's teammates. Pacing anxiously behind all of them was Akamaru, who whimpered sporadically; never take his eyes of the operating room doors.
"H-he's in the operating room, Shizune is working on him right now." Naruto responded quietly. Even though he was now Hokage and technically all of their superiors, he knew the Inuzuka could be rather disrespectful and he hoped he didn't have to deal with Kiba's mother.
"Is he still alive?" Hana asked, far more calmly then her mother's previous screams.
"Y-yeah. Well at least he was when I got him here."
Everyone in the hallway remained quite now. Shino sat down with Hinata on the bench next to Naruto and Hana and Tsume sat on the bench on the opposite side of the hall. The only sound that could be heard echoing in the small hall was the clanking of Akamaru's claws as he continued to pace.
Hinata played with her fingers nervously as she waited for the news. She was worried about Kiba, and while it was encouraging to see him at least get back to Konoha still breathing, if he had to be in the operating room this long then there could be something wrong. It was also a bit unnerving to be sitting so close to Naruto. She was just inches from him right now and it was hard to keep herself from blushing. She watched as the blond haired man continued to breathe heavily, shifting uncomfortably from time to time.
They waited like this for what seemed like forever. No one spoke, most of them just starred at the ground, overwhelmed with worry. Hana tried to calm down Akamaru, but to no avail, as the enormous dog continued to pace. And then suddenly the in use light clicked off and everyone held their breath as they waited for the door to open.
The tense moment was broken as in a puff of smoke an ANBU member appeared in front of Naruto. "We've been looking all over for you," The masked man said.
"W-what is it?" Naruto asked, disoriented by the man's sudden appearing.
Everyone else in the hall was disoriented as Naruto. They were all eager to hear what had happened to Kiba, but the sudden appearance of the ANBU member had distracted them. The only one that did not turn to face the ANBU member was Akamaru, who now sat completely still starring intently at the door, waiting for any movement from it.
"Well," the ANBU men started, sensing that he was not completely welcome at the moment. "At the gates, there are several hundred, maybe thousands of people from other villages and they are all demanding an antidote."
So, like I said before I have many big tests coming up in the next two weeks so I'm sorry in advance if I don't update as often. Although after these next two weeks I am going to have tons of free time and I'll try to update more often then. So review and I'll be your best friend! XD