Chapter 1 A Threat to Humanity
The 18 year old medical ninja Sakura Haruno looked had been looking into her microscope for the past 18 hours. "I thought by ending the war with the sound I would finally get some rest." thought Sakura as she pulled her face back from the microscope and rubbed her tired eyes. "Orochimaru so snake loving son of a bitch why would you create something like this?"
"Sakura how long have you been here?" asked Shizune as she walked up to Sakura.
"Around 18 hours." said Sakura
"And before that you were gone for two hours after a 24 hour shift you need to go home get some rest." said Shizune
"I can't sleep until I solve this." said Sakura "I mean two of the ten people infected by this thing are my friends."
"I know but you can't help them if you are so tired that you miss something." said Shizune "Go home and get some rest."
"Alright." said Sakura "I'll try to get some sleep but it is next to impossible."
"Ya, everyone in the world is on edge ever since Orochimaru let lose that virus." said Shizune
"Ya, and at the moment we are possible the best hope of stopping the spread of this virus outside of what used to be sound country." said Sakura
"And Waterfall." said Shizune as Sakura looked up at her.
"What?" asked Sakura
"We just got the first report of a case from Waterfall." said Shizune
"Have they contained it?" asked Sakura
"No, they are trying but you know how this thing spreads." said Shizune
"Damn that Snake, he knew he had lost but he decided to take everyone with him." Snapped Sakura
"There is still hope, it isn't here yet." said Shizune "Now go home."
"Alright." said Sakura as she stood up and headed toward the door. She placed her hand on a seal that was designed to tell if a person was infected by the virus. The door wouldn't open unless a person was clean of the virus. The door opened as Sakura existed the clean room where the sample of the virus and the five people who were infected where held.
She walked up the stairs and pass a few more doors with the seal on it and out of a hidden entrance. Finial she walked out of the hospital and into the dark streets. Ever since the virus was discovered the village was in a curfew only ninjas of Jonnin or higher were allowed out to portal the village. As she entered her apartment building she saw a familiar face pulling out his mail from his mail box. He looked so tired that he didn't even bother to look up. His black jonnin vest was covered in dirt. "Naruto."
"What…" asked Naruto as he looked up "Oh Sorry Sakura-chan I just zoned out for a second there."
"That's ok, you look like your tired as hell." said Sakura
"Ya, just got back from evacuating a small village near the infected zone." said Naruto "We were about half way though when a pack of those things showed up."
"Did we lose anyone?" asked Sakura
"Yes." said Naruto as he lowered his head "A chunin, I watched as those things tour him limb from limb before eating him."
"Naruto there is nothing you could have done, even if he wasn't killed he would have been infected and then it is only 24 hours till he turned." said Sakura as she remembered how this damn thing spreads "All the while he could have been infecting other people and not knowing it. Did you get tested."
"Would I be standing here if I wasn't." asked Naruto
"Sorry I forgot you have to place your hand on a dectation seal in order to get into the village." said Sakura
"Ya, I am just worried about what happens when they get here." said Naruto
"Well the victims lose most of their chakra during the change so they can't jump over the walls." Said Sakura "And all but the main gate as been sealed and even that gate has been reinforced."
"Sakura I saw one of those things punch though a foot of solid stone our walls will only slow them down." said Naruto "I just can't understand how those things used to be humans."
"Naruto its some advanced DNA multination but do you remember the potion that Orochimaru gave Mizuki?" asked Sakura
"The thing that made him that super strong tiger thing?" asked Naruto as Sakura nodded her head.
"Yes, basically Orochimaru perfected his mixer into a virus his hope was to make an army of those things and use them against us." Said Sakura
"If that is the case why aren't all of them a tiger like Mizuki I have only seen a few of them." said Naruto
"Because in order for it to spread better the virus picks a random string of Animal DNA that is dominate in all of us since evolution." said Sakura "The Virus activates that Gene and we get those monsters that are terrorizing the country side. Everyone is different."
"Ya, but they still don't seam human." Said Naruto
"Well they keep their human memoirs and even the power to speak but they revert back to basic instincts hunt, kill and survive. A few do seam to keep part if not most of their human mind." said Sakura "I mean look at Chouji, he has been helping us since he was infected. While Kakashi has been trying to bite our heads off with his new teeth."
"I see." said Naruto "To tell the truth I think our village only hope lies with you doctors Sakura-Chan. There is no way we get take all these things done without being touched by them."
"Well your fine unless you touch their skin, if you have a barrier between then you will not get infected." said Sakura as she noticed that apart from his face Naruto entire body was covered.
"That is what they said at the meeting but in a battle your cloths will rip and then you get infected." said Naruto
"We are trying to get help as fast as possible but this is the most complex thing anyone has ever seen, it changes a persons DNA and at the moment we are not even sure if we can change them back." said Sakura
"At the moment I would just be fine with a vacation that would protect us." said Naruto "Did my blood help at all…I mean I have that healing power from the Kyuubi."
"No, in fact all it did was speed up transformation." Said Sakura as Naruto shook his head. "We theorize that the more chakra a person has the faster the turn is."
"Well at least if I do get infected I know it will be over fast." Said Naruto as he lowered his head knowing that rumor was that the transformation was extremely painful.
"Naruto you are not going to get infected." said Sakura as a flash of worry filled her heart.
"Are you worried about me Sakura-chan?" asked Naruto with his normal grin.
"I am worried about a good friend." said Sakura
"And I am worried about you." said Naruto with a yawn. "Now I have to get some rest I have to report to duty in just under five hours."
"Night Naruto." said Sakura as she watched Naruto walk up the stairs toward the apartment he got less then a year ago after he got his inheritance from his father's family. Once it was shown who Naruto's parents were the mood of the village to toward him changed. He was the last of the Namikaze clan and while his clan wasn't a council level clan it was known for producing strong ninjas with the Fourth Hokage being the prime example.
"I better try to get some sleep." thought Sakura as she headed toward her apartment. When she first moved in she though Naruto was stalking her because he lived just next door down from her. Only after he explained that he had moved in two months before her did she realize that he wasn't a stalker.
"Would it be bad to be stalked by someone like him? I remember the last time he came in for a physical" said Inner Sakura in a perverted voice. "And we wanted to jump here right then and there."
"Shut up!" yelled Sakura back at her perverted self "I wouldn't like to be followed by Naruto no matter how hot he looks."
"Why not?" asked Inner Sakura
"Because at the moment I don't have time to worry about my love life." said Sakura as she walked up to her apartment and put her keys into the lock.
"So you love Naruto?" asked inner Sakura
"No…" yelled Sakura but somehow that didn't feel right "Well I don't know maybe after this thing is solved I'll think more about it."
"Well at least it is a step forward." Said Inner Sakura as outer Sakura closed her door. As she walked down her hallway and into her living room she forced her mind off Naruto and onto her work. She sat down on the couch with a large cup of tea as she looked at the files she had brought home on the virus.
"Ok what do we know?" asked Sakura as she looked at the data "The virus feeds on chakra and uses the energy to replace a persons DNA with Animal DNA making a hybrid. A person can be infected by a simple touch however it takes around 24 hours to turn and during that time a person can spread the virus. When they turn they lose most of their chakra. Their human mind is there in some form with memories and such but now they like the form they are in better."
She pulled out Kakashi's file including a picture of what he looked like after the infection. "Height 5'11 now 7'1 weight 149 pounds now 235." said Sakura and she knew that most of the weight added was pure muscle. He had ripped his restraints off the wall and tried to bite one of nurses sadly he succeed. It was lucky in a way since once the medical ninja got out of the containment room she ran into a nearby containment room. They had learned a lot by taking her blood while she transformed into one of those things. However they could only stand their and watch as she turned from a young ninja into a creature.
"If we don't find a cure then we all may end up like Kakashi and the others." said Sakura as she picked up the photo of Kakashi and looked at it. He looked like a creature out of the old fairy tales in this case a werewolf. Only in this case the person didn't turn back when the sun went up. He was like that all the time and what was even creepier was the fact that when Kakashi spook she could still hear a little bit of him inside the creature even as it threaten to bit her head off and eat her.
"1/3 of the people infected by the virus turn into wolf or dog like creature like Kakashi." said Sakura as she remembered the reports coming in of packs of those creatures roaming around the countryside hunting for their next meal. "Around a 1/5 turn into a form of a big half human half cat creature. Like Chouji."
She reached over into Choji's file and pulled his status. "Choji Akimichi height 5'9 weight 200 pounds. Now he is 6'7 and 275 pounds." said Sakura "Unlike the others he had kept his human mind and was even able to help the medical personals by pulling his own blood." Ino was working around the clock trying to save her boyfriend of two weeks from a life of a half human half lion thing. Ino had theorized that about 1 in a hundred thousand people infected keep their minds.
"Rounding off the top three transformations at 1/5 was a snake, the medical ninja infected by Kakashi had turned into one of those things." said Sakura to herself "It proved that the theory that just because you were infected by one type of creature doesn't mean you will turn into it." The remaining people turned into a lot of different things not all of them predator animals reports were those people who turned into prey animals became prey to the others.
"There were reports of bears, lizards, rhinos and almost any land animal out there. If we don't do something soon humans will become an endangered species." said Sakura
Feeling sunlight on her face forced her to look up just in time to see the sun coming up though her window. "I better try and get some sleep or else Shizune or Tsunade will kick me out of the lab again." said Sakura as she closed the files and headed toward bed to get what little sleep she could find.
Well I hope you like the first chapter of this story, I hope you keep on reading and reviewing. I normally update every Friday so keep an eye out. Thanks Wilkins75.