Who are you?

Part 11

Shiori jumped back to create some distance. He couldn't tell the expression of the man. He seemed furious, but at the same time, he seemed to be trying to hold himself back from attacking.

"YOU KILLED HER." He yelled.

Shiori stayed silent. He was blocking the exit, so Shiori started walking back. He needed to get closer if he wanted to attack so she could get around him and run to the exit if needed.

She brought a hand to her pouch, ready to grab a kunai if needed. The man started advancing toward her, but he stopped at where the woman lay dead. He kneeled down beside her. Grabbing the disfigured arm to check for a pulse.

Shiori wasn't holding back anymore. She was using her senses to make sure she was truly dead. The flesh was melted on the body, and it was a mangled mess. She knew logically it was not possible, but she had to be sure.

"What will I do now. My only job was to protect her. Everyone is already gone. What....." The man drifted on rambling.

He seemed less threatening and Shiori wasn't about to take her chances and provoke him. she let the man continue on rambling but the man grabbed his hunting knife and got up to his feet.

Shiori fell into a defensive stance with her kunai drawn as the man pointed the knife at her. There was a good distance between them and Shiori was already calculating which jutsu would be more effective.

"THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT." He yelled, and then, faster than she could even blink, the man turned the blade toward himself and cut his own neck deeply. Shiori let out a shocked noise.

This was not what she expected. With her medical skills, she knew it was too late to save him. he would die within a few seconds, and she wasn't about to risk getting hurt by the last-second effort of a dying man.

She stayed put until she was sure they were both gone. Even then, she proceeded with caution. She wanted to investigate them more, so she quickly drew some samples from their bodies. It was hard to get samples from the woman with how her body was, but she managed to get enough.

Then she sealed everything in preservation scrolls. She wouldn't be able to preserve them for long, but it should give her enough time to contact a few people and set something up.

She also sealed the metal bars and broke down the rest of the cage to seal in another scroll. She snooped around the rest of the cave to see if she can find anything of value but there was none beside a few historical scrolls which she took.

Before going back, she also went to dig in the holes of the forest for sampling what was killing the trees. It was hard to investigate everything on her own so she should probably write some letters for an investigation crew.

It was beyond her responsibility, and she wasn't about to reveal everything that had happened. So when she reached the village, she went to meet the chief and told him about the area and how she had found an unknown substance buried in the ground.

It was not hard to convince the man and write a letter for their Daimyo for the investigation crew. They made it seem dire enough to warrant an investigation. With that, her job was done.

She spent the next few days healing the villagers to gather enough money for her journey. She also sent a letter to Tsunade-sensei. explaining everything that happened and how she needed an expert to analyze the samples with.

Her sensei had a lot of connections around the nations to scientists and doctors and if there was anyone familiar with such cases she would be able to introduce Shiori to them.

Shiori also went through the historical scrolls and after finding nothing of value in them she gave them to Yuki so he would be able to make use of them in his journals.