Fixing the Famine

Mission:

Oda’s stomach grumbled as he ate the last of his rations for that day. He was never good at organization and that went doubly for any of his food. This simply wouldn’t do. He packed one of his remaining rations for the week, a simple cup of ramen and a head of lettuce- all that was left for the next two days- and made his way out to the Kage Tower to see if he could assist in any way.

As he exited though, he could see his neighbor sitting wearily on the steps to their building. He looked down at the food in his bag and pulled the ramen and lettuce out. His shinobi job afforded him some small military rations, he could make do with those. He gently walked down the stairs and once in sight, handed the food out for her.

“Oh Oda I couldn’t-”

“I Insist, ma’am. I’ll make do” He gave a weary smile and held the food out further. The old woman gave a bow, keeping her eyes to the ground and thanking Oda profusely. He simply stopped her and gave his own bow. “We’ll get through this Ma’am. I’ll get to the bottom of it!” He said with some tired enthusiasm.

With that, he set off towards the Kage Tower to get a read on the situation that had developed over the last month. All Oda knew at the moment was that at first food became very expensive, so expensive that many were being forced to ration.

As Oda walked through the village he could feel the malaise that had been laid over it like a blanket. There was no laughter, no cheery visitors to the markets. Most restaurants had closed by now, and the few remaining open were sparse. People huddled close to their families as they walked, as if afraid to be out. The tension of the village was building, a community was a resilient thing. It could withstand storms, war, pestilence. But famine, famine was a different beast altogether.

Oda was no stranger to strife within a community, he watched as scarcity forced his family and the numerous other Terumi clansmen to spread out, to fight for survival. And, the problem with fighting for survival is that it never gives you time to establish anything else.

He kept his head down as he moved through the town and finally reached the Kage Tower. Inside it seemed to be the only place alive with action, people moved through hallways with focus, and multiple teams could be seen planning something. He stood in the tower for a bit before someone finally was able to address him.

“Yes?” The flustered and busy woman said

“Oda Terumi, just came to see how I can help, I’m a lower rank shin-”

“Yes yes, we could use all the help we can get. Join team 4 over there” The woman interrupted, pointing towards a team assembling in front of a more experienced Jounin. Oda walked up to the group as the leader began to brief the team. He didn’t recognize anyone else in his group but he was sure they were a capable bunch.

The leader nodded to all who had assembled around his small area of the Kage tower. Around the building multiple teams began converging, and as they did the Jounin of each team could be seen starting to brief them. Oda’s particular Jounin did the same.

“ Our Kage has tasked us, and any shinobi willing, to find the source of why the crops are failing.” He pointed to the white board adorned with some small drawings of what looked like some sort of bug. “Luckily, a few teams have found that this bug seems to be the culprit. However, the source of these bugs is unknown. A couple of Sensory teams have figured out that there IS a central hive of these bugs.” He pointed again to another part of the board, this time a map of the area of Tsuki in question. “Located somewhere here. Your task is to eliminate as many bugs as you can without undue damage to the surrounding environment. Additionally, we are all to converge on this central location and attempt to root out the hive together. Any questions?”

A tall man from the back raised his hand, he spoke with a low voice and with a serious demeanor to him, he was large and muscular but- like all the shinobi here- the famine had been getting to him. His face was gaunt and his expression a mixture of anger and concern. “Why are we being tasked with this? Its bugs, why are all the Jounin on edge?”

Oda looked around and could tell the same question was being asked of the other Jounin. Their own leader paused and looked around uncomfortably for a second.

“We believe this wave of bugs could be caused by a rogue agent. A member of the Aburame clan.” He said

Some people gasped, many got angry including Oda. The tension of the room amped up as the groups in the building learned of this development. Oda simply was too tired to do much but stand there, in his time being hungry he knew he had to conserve his energy. As the groups became fully aware of the situation the Jounins around the building began to lead their teams out of the building and towards the farms of Tsukigakure. As he walked with his group he met a few of the shinobi he would be working with.

Two were a pair of sisters named Yuki and Yuki, confusing to Oda but he made no comment. They were sensory specialists, and had a friendly and bubbly demeanor to them. They had a habit of finishing each other's sentences and almost moved as a single entity.

Another was the tall man in the back who had asked about the bugs, he was quiet and reserved but undoubtedly smart. Like Oda he seemed to be a ninjutsu specialist specializing in water.

Their final member was a rather small man, a medical specialist with taijutsu. He was small but made up for it in ferocity, out of all of them he seemed the most angry over the revelation of foul play. Oda could tell he was itching for a fight.

Their leader was an unassuming man in a dark cloak, he moved with an air of professionalism and had an analytical sense. Oda would learn through talking with him that he was a Genjutsu specialist.

After some walking and some more discussion between him and his squad mates, they finally reached the edge of the affected zone. Already Oda could see the little bugs, moving closer to the village and other farms. He shuddered, who would do something like this? He thought to himself. Their leader turned to them and nodded “You know what to do, Oda-” He pointed at Oda “Your techniques are too risky for small removal, I want you to head directly into the center, the other teams will have sent their own strikers as well. You will convene with them at the center of grid C5.” He pointed to a small map, Oda recognized the systeming and briefly beamed with pride before subduing it and focusing on the mission.

He nodded seriously and nodded to his teammates “I’ll be going then, see you guys in there.”
With that, Oda began to run towards the center of the influence of the bugs. Luckily, the center was estimated to be in a wooded area, and Oda was happy for the cover as he ran.

Unluckily, this also meant the forest was teeming with not only bugs all around Oda on the ground, but above him as well. He kept sprinting until the density of the jungle became too much and forced him to a walking speed. He could hear a yell in the distance, one of the strike team? He thought as he got up and began running.

As he reached a small clearing he could see one of the Striker shinobi, frozen on the ground by some sort of paralysis. Bugs crawled over him and bit at his exposed skin. Oda brushed any off, almost getting bit by one himself. He picked up the shinobi, a younger man with a messy bundle of brown hair. His eyes pleaded with him while his body remained rigid.

“It’s alright bud I got you. I have to continue on, but here.” He quickly used a Fire Dragon Bullet followed by a Water Dragon Bullet. The resulting flame and water created a torrent of steam and forced the bugs back.

“That will buy you some time, I have to keep moving, I’ll return when I can.”

The young paralyzed shinobi closed his eyes in understanding.

Oda ran off, further into the woods. Now that he knew about the paralysis, he couldn’t afford to be bit. He activated his Fire Invigoration and boosted his speed to 99. Sprinting through the woods he could see the other shinobi begin to converge with him. Except instead of the expected 4, it was only Oda and another shinobi who had managed to avoid the bugs.

He nodded simply to the other shinobi as they ran, wordlessly they converged and continued forward to the established center of where the bugs were coming from.

As they got closer, they could hear the chilling laughter of a human, distorted with crunching and coughing. They came to the edge of a clearing, and both Shinobis mouths dropped in disgusted fascination.

At the center of the clearing was a Shinobi, or what was left of him. His body was stuck in rigor mortis, only occasionally jerking and twisting unnaturally. The man's head was stuck staring up into the sky, a sickly maniacal laugh emanating from him. As he laughed, bugs came crawling forth from his body, continuously. Oda had no idea what was going on, but this needed to end. He nodded at his companion, the other shinobi began circling around until on the other side of the crazed Aburame.

On Oda’s signal, they launched their attack. Oda activated his Great Dragon Fire technique and launched a series of fireballs at the man. With lightning speed the other shinobi striker burst out and charged with a chidori in hand.

The Aburame did not react, however the bugs did, shooting up to block the incoming fireballs, while at the same time forming a sickly tendril of bugs and shooting out at the other shinobi. This was the moment of truth. A massive explosion occurred, as Oda in his desperation shot out a debuff bolt at the bugs. The first ball of fire exploded and didn’t make it through, however the next 2 splashed against the bugs and widened a hole, leaving the next 2 to make it through and hit the Aburame.

Conversely, the other shinobi was quick enough to dodge the tendril, deftly flitting to the side and impacting the Chidori into the Aburame's neck. The maniacal laugh was cut abruptly short. At that, the clicking of thousands of bugs stopped, their chakra source cut off. The silence of their lack of movement was deafening. Oda was almost taken back by the anti-climactic nature. He looked at the other shinobi in the clearing and they simply nodded, wide eyed at each other. In too much of a shock at their near death experience. They collected the body of the Aburame and continued back to the village.

In the ensuing Debrief a few days later, after study by Tsukigakure scientists, it was discovered that this was an experimental Jutsu gone wrong. Using a combination of nature chakra and his own chakra, he had accidentally created a jutsu that would continuously create chakra, which in turn sped up the process of the bugs reproduction, rapidly filling his body continuously forever, keeping him in a liminal state of being alive while paralyzed. Oda shuddered at the thought, suddenly feeling remorse for the man.

It took another month, but the town gradually returned to normality, people laughed and walked the markets, restaurants opened and had more customers than they had ever had before. Oda relished the returned energy, but from that day on he always had a box of food tucked away in his closet for a rainy day. He also can’t stand beetles now.

---

[exit]

WC: 2064

Claims: