Paths of Divergence

Plague bearer

Chapter 47
-Plague Bearer

     Akari had witnessed a lot of things during her time serving as lead of scouting and intelligence. From spies to espionage and imminent threats of battles to come, she had seen it all. However, nothing prepared her for the grueling reports that had come to her this morning.

     The black haired girl sits in her tiny office, examining the reports that had come in. A small village located on the border of Lightning country and fire country had been practically wiped off the map. She scans through several paragraphs of information that her scouts had prepared as well as witness reports from neighboring villages.

      However hard she tries to understand the situation, she still cannot wrap her head around the sort of carnage and destruction that had befallen the village. One thing stuck out to her though - that being that the village was known for a handful of medical ninjutsu users.

      The thing which angers her the most though is that no one from that particular village survived. Even worse, the village and the area surrounding it had been quarantined off entirely. One of the statements within the report recounts someone trying to enter the premises only for their body to practically disintegrate into a mushy pile of blood, guts, and bones.

     Akari's stomach churns, averting her eyes from the overtly detailed report. She sets the file down next to her before closing it's contents. If there's one thing for certain it's that she wants to investigate this personally.

     "We need to find out what's behind this," she whispers to herself.

     A sudden knock at the door interrupts her thoughts before a certain purple haired girl peeks her head through the small crack. Azumi walks into the office, taking a seat across from Akari.

     Azumi tilts her head, examining Akari's complexion. "You don't look so well. Coming down with something?" she asks.

     Akari shakes her head, stealing a glance at the file next to her before sliding it across the desk to Azumi. "Read this and tell me if you can make any sense of it," she says before taking a sip of some soothing tea.

Azumi practically retches as she immediately closes the file and pushes it away from her. "What... the hell was that?" she asks, struggling to keep her breakfast down.

Akari shakes her head while shrugging, unsure of what to say. "It beats me but I feel we need to investigate this our selves. Whatever caused this could be moving to other places. Imagine if such a thing broke out in a major village... the world as we know it would collapse," she says. "I fear we may not have much time."

     Azumi sighs, "I suppose we have no other choice. You're right though, something of this magnitude would be devastating. We should at least try and bring back a sample for our scientists to look at.

     Akari nods her head although apprehensively. "That would be ideal. I'm just afraid we won't be able to step near the infected area. I'm not trying to risk our lives, we just need to gather information... but if the opportunity presents itself we might as well."

     "I'll head over to the hospital and see if I can secure us some gas masks and vials. Maybe some hazmat suits if there's any available too," Azumi says.

     "Good thinking. I'll prepare a preliminary report in the meantime. We'll head out once our supplies are ready," Akari replies.

*

The girls make the journey north, traveling far through the land of fire. The reported incident had occurred closer to the border of Lightning country but still within the borders of fire country therefore making it the leaf's responsibility to deal with.