End of an Era (Naruto AU)

Act 4, Scene 30 (Fin)

They left as soon as they could. Shizue, and her teacher, Chuichi. Who was also going to serve as a bodyguard.

Before she left, she needed to learn more about the poison, and so she slipped into the tent of the head poisoner and healer, who had slipped off out of the way, the better not to be there.

If he was a liar, or involved in this, he wouldn't want to be caught in the act: and if he was innocent, as was the tribe, then it was the wrong move to look as if he were trying to direct the investigation.

So either way, it was just Shizue and a quick glance at the notes on the poisons.

And a rummage through a rather well-maintained poison box. That's what she called it, the little box of antidotes and specific poisons that she'd seen Emiko with at times, actually. Emiko had a poison case, too, a small little box she could open up in one hand, for use in the field.

Shizue had never seen either of the two in action, but from the notes, she knew exactly what to look up.

There was a greenish-blue compound called Horinoke's elixir that could discover the poison, in the right circumstances, but that was the only real way find it, short of simply guessing the symptoms.

The poison was called I'shingbard, and was the subject of a number of songs and stories about the properties of the main two ingredients, which seemed to be some sort of strange… compound found in the dung of a certain animal that ate a certain rare desert flower, and a more artificial substance that seemed to involve the mixing of a slight amount of rubbing alcohol with a chemical that had to be bought from peddlers selling Suna compounds.

Apparently even a single vial of this substance, just one of the ingredients in the poison, could cost a thousand ryo. Add it all together, and it was hard work, but detecting it?

The elixir itself was cheaper than the actual poison was, when you put it all together and sold it. That was to say that the elixir, a mix of strange chemicals that Shizue couldn't decipher, could be bought for only seven or eight thousand ryo per dose, whereas even a single dose of I'shingbard would cost fifteen thousand ryo if they sold it. It was a very good poison, though, especially for its ability to be used in any amount. That was to say, among poisons that weren't entirely toxic, if the amount of poison was low enough, nothing happened, in essence.

The body's immune system and the weakness of the poison meant that it didn't do anything. Obviously there were fatal poisons, some very quick to act, that were fatal no matter how little you had.

But I'shingbard was still quite special. You could mix it in with a hundred gallons of water, and while its potency would be somewhat less, apparently what it did was create a chain reaction in the body. So that even if it was cured immediately, it'd still cause a long-term sickness, a sickness that would take precious time and energy to deal with. Unless, of course, you had a trained medic-nin.

Poison an enemy with it in the middle of a mission, and unless there was a medic-nin in the team, they were going to be suffering the effects for a while. Cramps, bowel trouble, pains in the chest, stiffness of movement… and in a large enough dose, a quick descent into death within all of a day or two. Even without that, it was pretty debilitating… especially in a desert.

Because, of course, all of that bodily movement meant likely dehydration, and in a desert that could kill just as fast as anything else.

And if it didn't kill, Shizue realized, with growing awe for the choice and a sort of impressed realization of how carefully it must have been chosen, it forced people to use their valuable water trying to help someone else.

It was a weapon not just against a single individual--there were lethal poisons you'd want to use anyways, if that was the only goal--but against an entire people, against a group or movement, or even just a team, it was a brilliant move. And because it could be calibrated, but would always cause sickness, that meant that you could avoid death or bring it on faster, but that you'd never underestimate amounts and do nothing.

Shizue wondered if she would ever be able to express thoughts like that to a non-shinobi and not be thought of as some sort of monster.

The elixir worked when you poured it into water or liquid. If there was any of I'shingbard in the liquid, it congealed a bit and turned purple: the deeper the purple, the more heavily dosed the liquid. She grabbed several small doses of the elixir, and then left some ryo and a note. She owed more than that, but she could pay it off later.

After that, she set off with Chuichi, while the sun was still high in the sky.

[End Credits]


Act 4, Scene 31: The People of the Desert: Questions and Answers?

After a certain point, the desert began to feel familiar.

"That's the first step," Chuichi told her. "First it becomes familiar, and then you see something that reminds you that it's an alien place. It's part of learning: first it feels alien, then you assume you know everything about it."

Shizue just nodded and hurried onward, wondering at how Chuichi knew exactly where to go. It was hot out, and she was sweating already, but they were rushing fast enough that she knew they could probably slacken the pace.

But instead, they hurried onwards, not even stopping to clear sand from their feet.

Up a dune, and down a rocky embankment, on and on until at last the grass started to be more plentiful, and for a moment Shizue had thought they'd reached it.

"No, not here," Chuichi said. "It's past this. This land's half-owned by ranchers, though they do use it some seasons."

"Ah, why?" Shizue asked.

"Ownership. And threats. We're actually pretty close to the Baron's land. It's just a mile or two north," Chuichi said, thoughtfully, shaking his head. "And we're a half-mile west of where the watering hole is."

Shizue tried to remember all of these details, feeling as if she were stepping towards something big.

"Do you think this is a bad idea? We're splitting up," Shizue pointed out.

"We are. But it's necessary for this mission. And Okiie-kun can take care of himself. And Seiichiro-kun can keep out of trouble."

Shizue didn't know what to say. "Did you suspect that the tribes were holding something back like that?"

"Yes. But what I want to know, is: how can Suna not know? Or is it that Suna knows but is allowing it to continue… why? Why would they do that?" Chuichi asked, tapping his chin a little. "It's something to get a guy a little curious. Emiko-sama'd be crawling all over the mystery trying to figure it out."

"She would," Shizue said. There were many words for her sensei, but one of the most prominent was: nosy. She was the kind of woman who always got into everything, and the fact that she could become invisible, sneak everywhere, and--

One wondered, sometimes, which came first. Was she a curious person, and so she learned to sneak and skulk, or was she good at being stealthy and that meant she had an opportunity to exercise her curiosity. And everyone knew what happened to a muscle when it was exercised enough.

"Yeah. My best bet is that they think it's harmless, or even think they're getting something out of it. But what? The various tribes, both here and deeper on, they're all scattered and disorganized… but powerful enough to annoy the Daimyo of Wind. Is that it? But it can't just be that. Plus, Suna has no reason to be that petty. It's not a grand gesture, all of the tribes together, both the marginal ones here, and the more settled ones deeper in the desert, don't add up to a large threat even if they all worked together…"

He mused, but Shizue was focused on the task at hand. She had a lot to consider, and she wondered at what would be done.

When they finally came upon the well, Shizue stared for a moment. There was short-grass nearby, yes, but it was very clear that this area had been almost picked clean, and it had to be the well, more than anything else, that drew people here.

"Well, well, well," Chuichi said, with a frown. "Here we are."

[Opening Credits]

The well was square, a brown thing, with a rather heavy looking cover on it that probably took multiple men to lift. Chuichi lifted it off himself and then stumbled back slightly.

"Huh, this really probably does need chakra to get off," Chuichi said, thoughtfully. "Or ingenuity."

He set it aside, and Shizue peered inside. It was a dark well, and there was a bucket there. It was a metal bucket, actually, and she found what looked like a small crank. The bucket itself and the rope all hung from a metal bar that ran along the base of the well, which probably meant it was hard to fall in, at least if you were an adult. It'd take some hard work to die like that.

Shizue slowly lowered the bucket down. "Chuichi-sensei, please watch my back."

"Alright. I should scout the area after you're done looking. There might be signs of whatever went down here. There should be trash, at least, over the rise, or… somewhere around here. I can't believe that an entire tribe survives like this. The well's the only feature worth visiting."

"Perhaps it's a very deep well," Shizue said, and indeed she had to pump it for a little while before she heard a slight splash. She moved it down a little, and then when she was sure it had the water in it, she began pumping it back up, shifting from one foot to the other, the vials of the elixir waiting to be used.

It was relatively useless, in the sense that it could only detect that one poison, but… hopefully it'd be what she needed.

Shizue finally pulled the bucket up and set it at the edge of the well, taking out the little bottle and shaking it delicately, concentrating on her task as she pulled out a cork stopped and poured it in.

The liquid spread out a little as she shook a bucket, but the water, clear and pure looking, didn't change colors at all. Or rather, the only change in coloration was from the elixir spreading out. "Oh," Shizue said, frowning.

"Did you not find anything?" Chuichi asked. "I guess it must have been a lie. Or… did someone purify it?"

"There are ways to purify the drugs, mostly with jutsu… but then when would just… how would they even--"

Shizue frowned, and turned away from the well for a moment. "I'll be fine, can you check the area to see if anyone is watching, I need to think."

"I can do that. This is your show, I couldn't figure out this poison stuff," Chuichi admitted.

Shizue sat on the well and thought. And then she thought some more, considering every angle. The poison was only dangerous if ingested. And it did have a shelf-life, of sorts. If the water had been in the well for a few months, she'd expect it to be mostly gone, enough that it'd be basically non-fatal.

It reacted, the notes had said, somewhat more strongly to heat, so the water at the top was more likely to be thin in the poison than the water deep down, but that wouldn't explain anything at all.

Or rather, it wouldn't explain it being entirely without poison. Unless there wasn't poison there at all.

Or, unless…

Shizue's mind threw up so many scenarios she was stunned for a moment at how inventively she could imagine trickery.

Scenario one: there was a shinobi waiting in the well. Whenever they drew water up, the person slipped poison into the bucket, leaving the actual well completely clean. Why? Shizue couldn't know what that was important.

Second, a shinobi could have poisoned it, having some way to get rid of the poisons? How? First and most obviously, there might be some substance that wasn't know that could eliminate it. After that there was the possibility that someone had pulled up the buckets bit by bit, and purified it by a more direct means. If you boiled water, and then used… certain water jutsu techniques, you might get it?

Shizue wasn't sure, but she knew there were ways to get rid of it at an individual level, and that if you just upscaled them all the way, you could get the whole well, though… how deep was the well?

The elixir was supposed to detect it no matter how faint it was, no matter how… she frowned, considering her options. She could try to pump the bucket all the way down to the bottom. But was the bucket itself with enough rope for that? She thought it'd be so, but who would need…

Thoughts whirred this way and that, possibilities. She could just get it as far down as it went, and drag it up again. Or… or what, Shizue, she told herself.

Think like a shinobi!

Chuichi. Chuichi could probably do something with the water. So could she, in theory: in the theory that if she crawled down there, she might be able to figure something out. Certainly, unless there were shinobi down there, water held no direct fear. But if she got some of the poison in her mouth… still, for a moment she could see it so clearly that it seemed almost tempting: a dive into clear, dark waters, to…

But there was where fantasy met reality, and she paced a little more.

When Chuichi came back, he found a frowning girl. "Chuichi-san, can you please use your jutsu. How great is your range?"

"Pretty great, why?"

"I need to get water from all the way down, as deep as I can get. Or at least, as deep as you can get."

"I can do that, then. Maybe. Let me get down there with a bucket and see what I can do. I can stick myself to the wall," Chuichi said.

"Alright," Shizue responded, dumping out the bucket, and with it thousands of ryo worth of product onto the hungry ground. Then she handed it to him.

She waited, in the sun, afraid at every moment that she'd see someone on the horizon while he was down there. But nobody came, at least not them.

And she heard a splash down there, and the sound of moving water, and almost two minutes later he climbed back up, his legs and one arm sticking to the walls of the well, as he pulled up the bucket and sat it down on the edge of the well before crawling out the other way, only moderately damp. "And there you go, Shizue-chan. I did want to say, I've found a few signs…"

"Of?" Shizue asked.

"Shinobi presence. Sandal prints… but individual ones, as if the user was choosing and then not choosing to leave a path. There's a discarded kunai pouch that's been buried that seems to have a tear in it." Chuichi frowned. "And there's enough signs of habitation that I can tell someone was here within the last week. Maybe even in the last few days."

Shizue nodded, "Do we know how to follow them?"

"I think we have tracks, of sorts. Or at least, it all points in a direction, and that direction is...north."

Oh. Shizue bit her lip. "Do you think?"

"It depends on what we see here."

Shizue took out the elixir, and then dumped it in the water, and then shook it up a little.

The water began to turn purple. Not very purple, but definitely so, the kind of purple that looked as if it had been--as if it was, in fact--watered down, but… that didn't matter. There was poison, and someone had tried to hide it. The surface had faded faster, and the stuff deep down? Who would even check.

Shizue looked at the bucket and then tried to think about how exactly she was going to save the water. It wouldn't even mean anything, would it? After all, they could poison any bucket of water and say it was from the well… and it wouldn't mean anything. Not on its own.

She needed to--

"Shizue-chan, look up."

On the horizon, there was a cloud of dust, and Shizue tensed a little as she saw the cloud of dust moving closer, and closer, to reveal itself as a full caravan, men on horseback in the front, well-armed and protecting the rest of the group.

It was a tribe, but was it--

"Not the same tribe as the one that attacked us," Chuichi said. "Look at the markings."

Shizue blinked and looked closer, listening as they approached. But she did see what he meant, their wagons had different markings on them, as they wheeled along. And there were a lot more wagons, too.

Shizue frowned, "What are they doing here?"

"Migrating? But then why the armed forces up front," Chuichi said, with a frown. "What's going on?"

[Commercial Break]

What to do?

[] Approach and talk to this new tribe, and see why they are doing what they're doing? There has to be a reason, right?
[] Follow the potential trail the shinobi seem to have left and see if you can catch them out.

*******

A/N: Another short update, but plot did happen!