Naruto’s brow knits.
Broaden his horizons?
Life and death?
Every word sounds deep.
Strung together, he cannot catch the meaning at all.
Is Uncle saying that if he wants to get stronger— if he doesn’t want to be a burden—he has to keep walking into the world?
Feel life and death.
Grow through struggle?
The Plague Doctor speaks again.
“There is only one disease in this world. The plague. Nothing else.”
The team stares.
Only one disease?
What does that mean?
**Kumogakure**
The Fourth Raikage watches the screen and turns the words over.
Only one disease—the plague?
Are there illnesses in this world no one has found yet?
And what *is* this plague?
Something that strong?
A wild thought lands. This story is hosted at g.com.
“It’s possible. The plague he talks about is real.”
**Otogakure — an unknown underground lab**
Kabuto keeps running the line through his head.
“This Plague Doctor is interesting. What he says might even be true.”
He is a medical fanatic—just not the hospital kind.
Kabuto leans toward research.
Watching the man stitch Zabuza and Haku until they stood and walked had already set him on edge.
He wants to be there now.
He wants an academic exchange.
**Iwagakure**
Ōnoki stands with his hands behind his back, eyes on the light screen, muttering.
“Perhaps the Plague Doctor isn’t wrong.”
The room blinks at him.
Kurotsuchi puts a hand on his forehead, then on her own.
“Hiss. No fever. Why is he talking nonsense?”
To her, and to the others, the speech has no footing.
It is just talk.
Ōnoki rolls his eyes at his granddaughter and looks back at the screen.
They haven’t lived as long as he has.
The world is large.
*There is always someone further along.* What if they have only seen the surface—and this man has seen the grain of it?
What if he is right?
While every village is busy with its own theory, seven figures in strange gear appear around Kakashi’s team.
The team tenses.
Another ambush, maybe.
The strange part: the Plague Doctor, who went feral at the last attack, only stands there.
Calm.
The newcomers hide their faces, but there is a sharp light in their eyes.
They drop from the trees and close the circle.
Kakashi’s team drops into stances.
They don’t know the numbers.
The newcomers aren’t showing killing intent.
No one wants to strike first.
The seven barely glance at them.
They split.
Two go to the 049-1 walking behind the group.
The rest go to the Plague Doctor.
Only then does the ninja world read the words across their backs.
**Anomalous Containment Facility**
The whole world goes still.