Chapter 12: Epidemic pt. 1

I wish to God that they had killed the infiltrators on the spot, burned the remains, and banished what was left to Void. But the patrol, following standard procedure, engaged and when possible captured. I wasn't there, but was involved in the rather lengthy aftermath; rather than lay things out in the confused manner in which I learned them, I will relate my notes on the situation. This is what occurred.

Day Zero: A cell of four infiltrators were detected barely one week after the Pelican program went active. According to the report, the Ready-Team, a fast reaction group, had a pair of Pelican's on regional surveillance. The active chakra sensor detected a failure in one of the nodes of the Uzushio coastal waters sensor net. A full four action teams, 16 village guards in total, went to investigate and found the infiltrators. The infiltrators fought, wounding two of the guards, but were fairly easily overwhelmed.

Although they at first appeared resigned, when the guards came to apply chakra-sealing seals, the intruders activated a suicide jutsu. Three of the guards who were attempting to apply the seals were covered in blood and viscera.

Day One: I was congratulated by Hikaru jii-san; the use of the Pelicans was decided to be instrumental in preventing the intrusion. He remarked that I was likely to receive a reward from Kazuo-sama, likely a ceremonial weapon as a sign of honor, when all was said and done. First, though, the three guards, including the Group-Leader, would have to leave hospital. I asked jii-san to inquire as to what was wrong with them, and relay my wishes for a speedy recovery and congratulations on their success.

Day Two: Hikaru jii-san told me that the guards seemed to have contracted some sort of illness; all three, including the leader whose Uzumaki bloodline would normally prevent it, were running high fevers. Healing jutsu were less effective than expected, and poison was suspected.

I still remember that moment. A moment of thought, and I realized what had happened; the infiltrators had not failed their mission, or at least not completely.

Back on Earth, one of the biggest fears within the intelligence and military circles had been the idea of bio-warfare suicide-bombers. Basically, instead of walking up with a bomb on them, these people would walk up as incubators of engineered plagues; get on an airplane, and watch the pandemic spread. The carriers may die, but the disease would spread everywhere. An even greater fear was the idea that travelers could be mugged and injected, becoming a stealth-carrier.

This, I suspected, was a similar scenario. The operatives had likely wanted to spread this without dying, but, in failure, had used the suicide option. I even vaguely remembered that Kirigakure had done something similar to their bloodline users; I wasn't sure if that was canon, or fanon, or would have happened in our world regardless. I still had to tell Hikaru jii-san, especially if the illness was strong enough to overcome a Jonin-level Uzumaki with a full healing factor.

Hikaru thought it unlikely, but sufficiently possible that he demanded an immediate meeting with the head of the Medical Department and Kazuo-sama. Apparently, one of the clans that eventually formed Kirigakure was known for using targeted illnesses as poisons rather than more conventional concoctions; they had been rumored to be the founders of a Black Ops unit, referred to as the “Plaguebearers” by Konoha's intelligence briefings.

Quarantine was declared for both patients and any who had treated them. Bubble technique or seals which created a space of clean air were ordered for any coming into contact with them. Full measures were being taken, and preparations made for a full village-wide quarantine if needed.

Day Four: Several doctors and nurses, including those who had been taking full precautions, were sick. A few cases were seen in other citizens. The village went into full quarantine. Troops were sent into defensive positions; those that passed quarantine and were not needed within the village would deploy on ships to maintain health. Other cleared troops would deliver food and water rations in seals for all citizens, who were ordered to remain in their houses otherwise. The disease became the primary research focus for the village, and certain prisoners were authorized as test subjects.

All non-essential communication was ordered to occur through video-seals. A call was put out to Konoha to summon aid as per treaty, specifically the assistance of Tsunade who was already renowned as a medic-nin. She would arrive, at the soonest, a week later.

The panic was awful. The disease was capable of effecting Uzumakis, who were typically resistant if not immune to illness. Many had never been ill in their lives; whether because of this, or because of some trait of the disease, those with the strongest healing factors were impacted the worst. I was wracking my mind for more clues, but couldn't remember anything.

Day Five: Hikaru jii-san and I were assigned to a team focusing on decontamination measures. By the end of the day, we had a set of seals that use UV, soap, water, and even a light acid wash for decontamination. The seals were approved and produced. We were re-assigned to a long-range surveillance group responsible for watching Kirigakure for any signs of a possible invasion.

Day Seven: Containment measures, even those using decontamination washes, continued to fail. Medical stasis seals were being produced in record quantities, and dozens of victims were already sealed within. Some of the seals, particularly those containing the sickest, were draining faster than expected. Two and a half months was given as the amount of time that the patients could be safely sealed; they were expected to die within a week of being unsealed.

The full progress of the disease had been documented and disseminated. First, came an incubation phase lasting about a day, then a phase similar to a bad flu. The fever would continue to get worse, and the subject more ill, as their chakra drained. If the fever didn't kill the patient (which happened fifteen to twenty percent of the time), then there was a forty to sixty percent chance of the patient dying when their chakra reached a nadir. Those that recovered were expected to be basically useless for at least a month, and appeared to have some sort of chakra damage.

Based on the description of the disease, I had a theory that it was more chakra based and possibly somewhat metaphysical or spiritual in nature, with a focus on consuming chakra. With Hikaru jii-san's help we got a temporary leave, and with a few of the Spacial Sealing Group we modified some seals, including my vacuum-protection seal. We then launched a probe into space which would be in Geo-synchronous orbit. The probe contained a seal that opened a semi-stable gate at a remote distance, in this case to the outside of the probe’s void-shielding. The other side of the gate would be used to create a vacuum-shield to hopefully protect the medics, since the vacuum should be impenetrable to any chakra-based mechanism.

While the new containment system proved effective, it was bloody expensive in terms of chakra and effort. Each shield consumed the equivalent of 12 Chunin-equivalent chakra-sources, and required some fairly fiddly seals hand-written by at least a sealing expert. It did at least provide the necessary protection for medics to experiment or treat victims.

Day Nine: With the disease contained, and the clock ticking down for those already infected, stock was taken and a Council meeting called. Hikaru, as one of half-dozen High Masters of the Sealing Department, and the theoretical lead on the current containment system, was going. He brought me along as his aide and attendant.

As we are now approaching discussing the political sphere, I think it worth a brief diversion into the basics of Uzushio politics, at least so far as I am familiar with them.

First off, there were the village politics as a whole. There were two main “parties” or philosophies that tended to crop up. The first were the “Progressives”. The Progressives believed in “progress for Uzushio” which typically meant developing more seals and a more isolationist foreign policy. They were ascendant at the time of the epidemic.

The second party were the “Interventionists”. The Interventionists believed in bringing Uzushio enlightenment to the poor barbarians of the rest of the world. Honestly, both parties were somewhat patronizing and superior, at least in how they looked at outsiders (though, to be fair, Uzushio was decades more advanced than other nations, none of whom could produce things like air-conditioning). The approach was the main difference. At the time, the Interventionists were definitely in the minority. A large part of that was historical.

About forty years previous, in other words well within a standard Uzumaki lifetime, there had been a bit of an odd situation. See, the Naruto-verse was mostly feudal, and any student of feudal history knows what kind of a mess that can result in, particularly with regards to feudal inheritance and obligations after sufficient intermarriage. What happened for the Uzumaki, Uzushio and Whirlpool was an excellent example.

The problem was that different branches owed each other fealty in a circular fashion. A noble but fairly minor clan that owed fealty to the Uzumaki had, a couple generations previous, married into the Whirlpool Daimyo's family. His niece, to be precise, who was never expected to succeed. One illness and a boating accident later, and suddenly this minor clan contained the Daimyo. But, they owed the Uzumaki fealty, and the Uzumaki had military dominance.

The situation could have gotten a bit bloody, but the relations were previously cordial, and the leaders at the time astoundingly rational. There was already a marriage in place with the heirs, and an Uzumaki would be the eventual Daimyo. The problem is, it would be a fairly distant (and unimpressive) branch Uzumaki with no political or marital aspirations. The bigger problem, this Uzumaki's sister (who thus might end up inheriting) was Mito Uzumaki.

Mito Uzumaki, who would become Mito Senju-sama, was extremely politically divisive. She was a staunch member of the Interventionist party, and a fairly accomplished if not particularly gifted sealer, which was actually the biggest issue.

Within the Uzumaki clan, the clan head candidates were chosen from a dozen potential families by voting from qualified Uzumaki. It wasn't a “one-person, one-vote” system either. Votes were partially based on accomplishments, and sealing weighted heavily.

After the candidates (never fewer than three or more than five) were presented, the entire village, including the Uzumaki, would have a similar vote. The sealers were influential enough in the initial process that every time bar one, the candidates were at least level four sealers. That one time, the candidate was a young, but extremely accomplished for his age, and had achieved a level three sealing intuition. He lost that election, but survived long enough to be the next village leader.

So, the sealers had a lot of influence. And that brings us to factions within the Sealing Department. There were three main factions, mostly to do with beliefs towards higher-level seals dealing with Celestials, Demons, Gods, Powers and Concepts.

The first faction, which I belonged to, was the “Isolationists”, called the “Ostriches” by our opponents (because we didn't want to see things that scared us). We believed that the world should be as isolated as possible from these beings, and that anything that weakened the walls of reality, or summoned them (which was pretty much synonymous), was a horrible fucking idea. I would eventually learn things in the future, as I gained rank as a sealer and got access to more secret information, that would support these conclusions.

The second faction were the “Contractors”, or as we called them, the Demonologists. I think you may be able to guess what they believed in; they were a bunch of power-hungry fools who thought they could interfere with things we were not meant to without consequence. There were a number of hideously ugly actions that they took, often for “the sake of knowledge” or “the greater good”, or some other sop to their power-seeking morality. I'm talking about human sacrifice, black-sabbath type shit.

And that was before demonic corruption set in and started further warping their minds. Things could go very, very wrong. But, on the other hand, the power was a lure, and every now and then the philosophy would rise up in the Department. To give them their due, there were accounts of some High Masters and one Grandmaster who had in extremis and temporarily, successfully bound greater powers. But the aforementioned masters had level seven intuition (level eight in the case of the grandmaster), and significantly more knowledge than the Experts who were the typical demonologist dabblers.

The third faction were actually the Clerics. They ware a cult (by which I mean small order of religious adherents) of mostly Uzumaki sealing priests. They agreed with the Isolationists, for the most part, and pretty much quietly did their own thing.

So, want to guess which group Mito belonged to, considering she went on to seal the 9 Biju?

That's right, she was a Demonologist. In fact, she was the last of the high-ranking Demonologists, following an accident. She had been part of a failed summoning and binding; the Master of the group, and three other experts, ended up buying her just enough time (as their minds likely melted) to escape from the higher-seal testing room and hit the emergency vent seal. The room, and whatever was trying to come through, ended up in the Void, and Uzushio escaped a major incursion by the skin of its teeth.

Mito survived censure, barely, but was discredited and put under watch, supposedly for possible demonic taint, but more to make sure she didn't do anything else that was that fucking stupid. Interviews with her afterward showed that she had, apparently, learned absolutely nothing as to how bad such experiments were. Honestly, she was lucky not to be killed or sealed herself. After all, the fucking room that they did the summoning in was still sealed and forbidden territory decades later.

The village was thus, those 40 years ago, in an extremely tight spot. The possible successor to the Daimyo's seat was Mito, who's appointment would literally cause civil war. She couldn't be set aside completely though, at least against her will, since it would give other nations a causus belli to support her position and install her as a puppet; the dumb bitch was already being courted by several of our larger neighbors, and open to their proposals. So, Mito ended up married off to the Senju in a formal ceremony that cut the ties to her original family; while she could claim to be their child, she was out of the line of inheritance. Her brother happily joined a monastery, as he had wanted to do for years. And Kazuo-sama, the next in line as a cousin, inherited first the Clan-leadership, then the Daimyo's seat when the previous holder stepped down. Kazuo permanently linked the Daimyo's seat to the position of Uzumaki's clan leader, and left the clan-leadership as an internal matter.

In all this political maneuvering, Mito and some of the more radical Interventionist supporters managed to start the whole “Great Villages” experiment. At first somewhat promising, their faction was doing fairly well. Then, of course, Mito went and bound the Biju, pissing off the sealers. The other Villages formed, and it was shown that no-one was actually moving towards peace, as had been hoped. Hashirama died in the fighting around then, and Mito, now thoroughly persona non grata, was quietly asked by other Interventionists to stay in Konohagakure lest she distract the situation at home with talk of Demonology.

Then, the First Shinobi World War broke out, and showed that all these “Great Villages” had done was cause escalation. The Interventionists were massively discredited, and under the Progressives' influence, relations with Konoha cooled. There was still an alliance, but it had not been activated in decades, and Uzushio mostly used Konohagakure as a slightly discounted ninja force. No one was exactly sure of what influence Mito would have on how Konoha thought of Uzushio, but Konoha had been warned more than once that she had no influence back in Uzushio.

Moving into this important meeting about the Epidemic of Uzushio, bear this in mind. Most of the characters involved favored isolationist policies, though there were still a few that are pro-Intervention, and pro-Konohagakure.

Day Nine: We had the meeting that would determine our village’s future, and my own.

We filed into the room, taking up positions according to some set of rules I was unaware of. My position was standing about four-feet behind Hikaru jii-san. There were maybe two dozen people in the room all told. Kazuo-sama started it off in his role as Village-head.

“Well, I'm glad to see you all, you all look healthy, which is good,” he said plainly. There were some nervous chuckles. “No, really, this is good. The quick actions of Village Security and the Medical Department have made this disaster far less damaging than it could have been. I congratulate you.”

At this he bowed, fairly deep no matter what position he was operating under. Had I been back on Earth, living in the West, I wouldn't have been as cognizant of how much of an honor this was. Honestly, it was actually a bit much, making people embarrassed at the surfeit of praise.

“Ah, we don't deserve all the praise,” the active Chief-of-Medicine replied. His boss was currently in one of the stasis seals. “Hikaru-sensei, after all, gave warning that these actions may be necessary, and developed the seal that currently protects us.”

That's right, praise Jii-san! I thought. As a note, Hikaru was being called “sensei” because of his position as a seals-master.

Hikaru jii-san smiled. “You should praise Daichi, actually, I merely relayed his concerns, and the idea for the shield was his as well.” There were a number of glances and head-bows to me at this, and I blushed and shuffled under the attention while ducking my head in a return bow. Honestly, the whole thing was very Uzushio, this sharing of praise and honor, but without anything other than verbal acknowledgement.

Kazuo-sama laughed. “I knew I would be watching your progress with interest, Daichi-kun. But, to business. What are the numbers?”

“They're bad, but better than they might have been,” the Chief-of-Medicine replied. “We've got a hundred and forty six down with the illness so far. Of those, eight are doctors including the Chief-of-Medicine, and fourteen are nurses. There are eighty four Guardsmen down with the illness, of whom sixteen are genin equivalent and ten are jonin equivalent; the fifty eight others are chunin. Two sealers are ill. The other thirty eight patients are villagers, though some are retired veterans. All are currently in Stasis seals, and have an expected to last two and a half months from the date of their sealing. There have only been a pair of newly discovered cases since two days ago. Both were fairly advanced progressions from individuals in quarantine; they were discovered after they didn't pick up their rations. There have been two casualties, one a villager, the other the Patrol Lieutenant who first made contact with the enemy.”

“His family will want for nothing, and the villager's will receive standard compensation,” Kazuo-sama pronounced. “See to it.” One of his aides nodded, making a note, and Kazuo-sama continued. “And what progress towards a cure?”

The Chief-of-Medicine grimaced. “Slow. We've identified the disease vector; it's a chakra active illness, but it's extremely exotic, and doesn't act like anything we've seen before. We're having no luck in figuring out how to clean it from someone's blood, and it hasn't responded to any of our common treatments. Chakra exhaustion close to death appears to be a possible solution, using chakra-free life support and first aid, but even with full facilities we'll lose at least 5% of the patients to death, and another 10% will have permanent issues with their chakra system. We've requested Tsunade Senju come and provide assistance.”

Kazuo-sama rubbed his jaw, thinking about the implications. “That's understandable, if not what I was wanting to hear. I want all spare sealers to be working on possible solutions. When will the Senju arrive?”

The Minister of Foreign Affairs leaned forward to address the question. “Our messenger has arrived at Konoha, but the negotiations are complicated. Mito-sama seems to be looking for a successor to carry the Kyubi. Konoha has recalled Tsunade as a gesture of good faith, but is pushing for a potential host to be given in trade.”

There were grimaces and grumblings at this, and the sealing detachment looked positively murderous.

“Let's revisit that at the end of the meeting,” Kazuo-sama said, refocusing the conversation. “What's the military situation?”

I saw a man in the uniform of a high-officer shift forward; I vaguely recognized him as the Minister of the Military from the Pelican's launch party. “Nothing to report. We've had constant Pelican patrols in local waters, and over Kirigakure. No anomalous movement. We are now tracking sixty five percent of the Kirigakure fleet, and show no gatherings or unexpected behavior.”

Kazuo-sama nodded. “The investigation?” he asked.

The Military Minister motioned at the Commander of Village Security, one of the subordinates of the Commander of the Village Guard.

“Not much to report,” the commander replied. “The remains of the infiltrators were disposed of, save for samples, when they were found to be infected. The previous analysis didn't show any signs of where they were from. The gear was in the Kirigakure style, but the method used to get past the sensor-net is much more sophisticated than I would expect from them. The leading theory is that they used a dissolving seal to temporarily over-ride the sensor. There is no suspicion of any traitors at this time.”

“Did Intelligence turn anything up? Could Kirigakure have managed this?” Kazuo-sama questioned.

“Unlikely,” the Intelligence Commander answered. “Is it possible? Anything's possible. But Kirigakure is almost totally unfamiliar with Uzumaki sealing techniques. And there are no seal-users of sufficient skill outside of the village to teach that kind of talent, other than Mito-sama.”

“Sealing Department, do you agree?” Kazuo-sama requested verification. “And what's being done to prevent this from happening in the future?”

“We agree,” the Sealing Chief said, nodding. “That sensor net is solid, Expert-level work. It's unlikely that Kirigakure, who are among the least talented sealers, would have managed to get past it in such a subtle fashion. The network is being expanded with overlapping territories, and alarms and more aggressive fail-safes are being added. If a seal is deactivated in the future, we'll know about it, and those doing it will suffer if they're not very careful.”

“Good,” Kazuo-sama said with a sharp smile. “So, what do we do? Who do we think did this, how do we prove it, and what can we do to them?”

At this, the careful equilibrium shattered. People started talking, then arguing, then shouting at each other; I was not using my memory reinforcement techniques, and so do not remember it well enough to recount. It was, frankly, a bit embarrassing. To make that point clear, after Kazuo-sama released a burst of killing-intent that quietened the room, he turned to me.

“Daichi-kun. You've been surprisingly effective in this situation. What is your analysis.”

I was totally taken aback. I was seven! I sure as hell shouldn't be talking in this setting. I quickly realized why Kazuo-sama was doing this; it was a subtle remonstration and commentary on the behavior of his advisors. I cleared my throat, partially to give me a moment to organize my thoughts.

“Ah, Kazuo-sama,” I began. “Well, it seems like there are three simple questions, with not so simple answers. First, who are the suspects. In other words, who had the motive, means and opportunity. Second, how do we prove this, or how sure are we? And third, what can we do, or rather what do we do in reply?”

“A good framing of the question, but I asked for you answer,” he chided me in a fairly gentle tone. I blushed hard.

“My apologies, Kazuo-sama. First, for the medical situation, we should be testing samples of blood for immunity. We should start with those with the strongest healing factors among the Uzumaki, and see if there is some kind of immunity we can duplicate.”

“A worthy idea, yes?” he interrupted while looking at the Chief-of-Medicine, who nodded. “Continue.”

I cleared my throat again. “Well. I think it was Konohagakure, or elements within them.”

The room burst into another uproar; even Kazuo-sama had risen an eyebrow. The Foreign Minister, who was apparently an Interventionist, looked positively murderous. Once again Kazuo-sama quietened them.

“An unexpected answer. Explain your reasoning. Without interruptions,” he said, giving a quick glare at the rest of the room.

This whole thing was way too serious for me. I was comfortable working on seals; honestly, it reminded me of studying in university, and was always interesting. I enjoyed working out and sparring, and learning magic jutsu was freaking awesome. But standing in front of the leadership of my family, my country, and giving unpopular or shocking theories? Not so much.

“Well, first the suspects. Kirigakure is the most obvious. They resent our influence and wealth, and the fact that our ships both refuse to pay protection and are still safer is a serious threat to their economy. Further, their philosophy of the survival of the strongest and the shark-like nature of man are at odds with our own; so long as we exist, we represent an existential threat to their philosophy and encourage potential rebellion. This is the motive. As for means, it is well known, or at least well suspected, that they have that Black-Ops unit, the Plague-bearers. But opportunity is less well established; it seems unlikely they could have infiltrated in such a way. As for confirmation, they don't seem to have realized that our situation even exists, and have certainly taken no action to indicate the invasion we would expect to come on the heels of this illness.

“Compare this to Konohagakure. For motive, they have the general fear of our sealers and might. Especially with Mito-sama as an example, who knows what they think about our sealing-arts? Further, they need a new host for their asinine attempt at causing peace through mutual fear of the Biju; without the Kyubi, they may even be attacked. If Mito already needs a new host to take over her demon, then the damage caused by the chakra must be far too damaging for any other than an Uzumaki. For means, Konohagakure is known to have one of the best intelligence networks, and fairly good researchers; they may have invented the disease themselves, or stolen it from Kirigakure. As to opportunity, they have the best sealing training outside of Uzushio and some select monasteries, and are the best suspects as to how the ninja got through the sensor net. Their motive is weaker than Kirigakure's, but is it strong enough? I think yes.

“If I had to give odds, I'd say sixty percent Konohagakure, thirty percent Kirigakure, and ten percent someone we're not even considering. Note that when I say Konohagakure, I doubt that the Hokage knows; it is likely some conspiracy involving a less principled and more warlike senior adviser with the influence and knowledge necessary to pull off this plot.

“As to how we could test this, things get harder since we have called for Tsunade. Had we not, we could have waited, especially if we came up with our own cure, and seen if Konohagakure made any moves. The same for Kirigakure. Their reactions may have provided us with clues.

“As it stands, I see no easy way to test who is responsible. We could make seals to disperse aerosol samples of the illness over both Konohagakure and Kirigakure and perform this mission around midnight using Pelicans. If Kirigakure has a cure, they are likely to have developed it. If Konoha does, then they are likely to have deployed it. Either way, we can be fairly sure that the guilty will suffer, though so will many innocents. It will, however, make it far less likely for biological warfare to be used in the future if the users fear the spread of the disease.”

At my final recommendation of spreading the plague I caused another minor uproar. I could hear one of the military officers half-gasp and half-laugh something that sounded a lot like “the balls on that kid”, as well as gasps of horror and shock from the more civilian-minded advisers. The Minister of Foreign Affairs even jumped in.

“Kami above child!” he shouted. “What are you saying? Spread the disease to anyone, let alone our ally?”

This actually pissed me off a bit.

“Someone spread it to us, intending our destruction,” I retorted. “If we don't reply, we invite future attacks. It's distasteful, but worth considering seriously.”

Kazuo-sama, who had been watching things, re-took control before his minister could get in a shouting match with a seven year old.

“That is a disturbingly believable analysis as things concern Konohagakure,” he pronounced. “We will not release this weapon on others. We will however keep samples in the highest security sealing vault, and make it clear that any future attacks will not meet with such restraint. Now the question is, do we deal with Konohagakure, and if so, what are we willing to trade?”

The discussion continued, now much more strained than it had been before. It was no longer a question of who did this, and what we did to them, but the possibility that our strongest ninja allies may have factions seeking our destruction. As the discussion became somewhat circular as to whether to treat with Konoha or not, I payed less attention until something caught my notice, spoken by someone who I neither recognized, nor did I think they had been introduced.

“Who could we give them, if we had to?” the man asked.

“They would need the Adamantine chains, and be at least two years pre-puberty,” the Sealing-Chief replied. “Mito's seal cannot function without the chains; she was only an Expert Sealer when she left, and for something as strong as the Kyubi no-one below the 7th level could write an adequate seal. The youth is needed to acclimate to the youkai chakra, which would otherwise cause a very short life for the holder. In fact, without the Mokuton (wood-release) it may be too dangerous to seal into someone without some spare chakra flexibility.”

“What about simply sealing it ourselves into a subject of their choosing?” a second anonymous (at least to me) man asked.

This was definitely the wrong thing to say to the sealers. Before they could jump him however, a legal expert, easily the oldest man in the room, spoke.

“That's impossible,” he announced. “It's against clan, village and national law to give examples of such high-level seals to foreign nations in case they could reverse engineer it and continue to use it, and derivative seals, in the future. It would take too long to change this law, even if we wanted to.”

The first man leaned forwards again. “So, who would we give them, if we had? How many lives would it save.”

“We can't be sure,” the Chief-of-Medicine answered. “Possibly none, or possibly, preventing the death or permanent combat-ineffectiveness of about half the patients.”

“Seventy to eighty lives then, including half a dozen Jonin,” the other man summarized. “We can't not deal with them, then. Pretty much whoever we give would be worth it.”

“On the contrary, it shows we can be pressured in this way, and weakens us to the future,” the Intelligence Commander interjected.

“But, as Kazuo-dono said, we will make it clear that any future attempts will result in serious reprisal,” that first man argued. The Intelligence Commander scoffed, but didn't say anything. From this I at least knew that the man was a villager, and not an Uzumaki.

“So, we could seal it into who? Kushina-sama?” the second man asked. The two seemed to be working together; I suspected they were upper level merchants or landowners, political types rather than administrative, combatant, or skilled experts.

I saw Kazuo-sama wince at this. It was difficult to protect his niece without looking selfish, especially if eighty lives hung in the balance.

But, I was hardly going to throw my sole childhood friend to the snake-pit of Konohagakure. She was just a kid, and family, and that went against pretty much everything I believed in. I, at least, might eventually escape; I was far less likely to fall into some Demonologist's trap too. So, I spoke up.

“I am also capable of the chains, and am younger than Kushina-sama. Further, I am a more experienced sealer, and am somewhat more worldly and less likely to fall to Mito-sama's demonology. I will be more suited to keeping Konoha in line as well.”

I purposefully put as much sarcasm as possible into Mito's title, and used the term demonology to refer to her. Keeping your daughter selfishly is one thing. Refusing to give her to a Demonologist is something else entirely, and the rank badge on my robes spoke to the fact that I was a senior enough Sealer to make such a judgment.

I could tell from sensing his chakra that Kazuo-sama was grateful.

“Very well,” Kazuo-sama agreed solemnly. “I have decided. If Tsunade arrives before we find a solution, then in return for their aid in curing the Chakra-Consumption Epidemic, we shall send whomever is most suited to hosting the Kyubi. So I decree.”

At this, we all bowed. He stood and left the room. I had maybe three days for there to be a solution. And I knew jack-shit about biology.