ᗰOᑎᔕTEᖇ [🧡 ᑎᗩᖇᑌᕼIᑎᗩ 💜] [Ɱҽէąʍօɾքհօʂìʂ] Bσσƙ Oɳҽ

Discovery

Chapter Sixteen

Discovery

May 21, 2009

"Kill me...please..."

Naruto paused as the agonized plea reached his ears. The jonin had just returned to the smoldering village, his clones dragging the unconscious creature a distance away. Several villagers had been brought over to a small patch of charred grass, a triage area to treat those with critical to minor injuries. The clones he'd left to clean up the other three stood next to their targets. They'd hog tied the unconscious beasts and taken them a good distance away from the remains of the raided village and his female teammates.

The two women were bent over the bleeding forms of the victims, their palms aglow.

The disgusting scent of burning skin and rotting flesh reached his nose, the smell putrid and overwhelming the closer he moved to the wounded. He swallowed, grimacing at the stench. It was worse than it had been the first time they'd encountered injuries of this nature.

The dead bodies hadn't smelled as bad.

He brought his forearm to his nose, his stomach rebelling, bile in his throat.

Sakura knelt over the bloody form of the elderly victim, her green glowing palms moving over his ravaged body. The man was twisting on the ground, shifting in pure, unadulterated torment. Wrinkled, trembling fingers clawed weakly at the medical nin, smearing dark crimson down her forearms.

"Kill me..." the man wheezed again.

The man was horribly brutalized. The side of his neck was torn and gushing fluid, black sludge oozed from his pores, sliding over his pruned skin. The telltale signs of seared tenketsu litter the right side of his upper torso, the coal colored spots standing out against his graying skin. His brown shirt was soaked in blood at his lower abdomen, the viscus liquid pooling beneath him. His ravaged face was contorted in agony, his brown eyes wide and bloodshot.

He was bleeding out, the hole in his gut leaking, the terrible wound gushing more than just blood. Bright pink chunks of his insides floated in the crimson pool, the bits of organ covered in a sticky black substance. The flesh sizzled, charring and dissolving where the dark spots touched.

The smell was atrocious.

He took a breath from behind his forearm, girding his stomach.

How Sakura could stand it, he didn't know. It was several seconds before he was able to compose himself, his mind revisiting the information he'd learned on the trip over the region. Over their journey, Sakura had talked in depth about the injuries these creatures left behind. The black, corrosive fluid they injected that opened tenketsu and melted major organs within minutes. The unknown substance contained thousands of microorganisms that died when exposed outside of the human body. The black liquid was impossible to remove, seeming to burrow into organic tissue inside the body and fusing into the very cells.

Once inside, it broke down everything it touched.

Seeing it for himself, however, was worse than he'd expected. More horrible than his mind had been able to imagine. Taking a stabling breath, he made his way to his friend's side, despite the stomach churning stench.

"Sakura." he murmured, his question implied in his tone.

The pinkette shook her head, fierce emerald eyes focused on the man beneath her palms. Lines of strain creased her brows, distress filling her gaze. Her hands were shaking, her throat working as she swallowed. Her hands moved over the male's chest, the glow brightening. The desperate, gripping hands of the man slid away, landing with a loud thump at his sides.