First Disease

"What happened to you guys? Why are you looking at me like that?" Malaria questioned, not having the slightest idea why these 'replaceable-by-sludge' doctors dared to glare at him without any respect.

"Ha, now that you've handed over the formula for the medicine, who the hell cares about a little demon like you?" The female medic from before derided. "You can go about your own business, don't block the door to the commanders tent."

Leaving behind a stunned and fuming Malaria, they walked away back to their stations. There was still plenty of injured that needs stitches and bandages.

Malaria's lips twitched, 'Just you wait, now that I have the resources it won't be long before the world cowers under my diseases. We will see how you'll handle plasmodium without me.' At that thought, Malaria sported a grin once more.

Hikari pulled Yamana aside and whispered in a low voice, "Why is Malaria wearing such an expression after getting slandered face to face?" Yamana glimpsed Malaria and shivered at the drooling and slutty smile he was sporting.

"We'd better keep a distance from him. He's a man with no honour or integrity, although he's pretty strong with his devil bottles. It can't hurt for us to be more careful." Hikari nodded as they quietly walked ahead to ask how and why he's here, and what happened to the enemy?

Hearing their questions about the enemy, Malaria sidestepped it instantly, "Well, one thing led to another. After you blacked out, I finally got the recognition I always deserved. I'm now family with Shimura Danzo, the Hokage sent messengers to promote my status, and Orochimaru-sama is my teacher." With a smug look and his nose at a wide 90 degrees in the air, Malaria bragged.

"I won't have to join the battlefront anymore. And before you ask, why should I care for the both of…" before Malaria could finish, Orochimaru stepped out of the tent. "Well, nothing has changed for now. Even I, as you know, had to leave my laboratory to fight this campaign for Konoha." Mr. Snake said, glancing at the brats.

Eyes wide and mouth muted, Malaria glanced at the girls who were holding back their laughter. The initial shock they were supposed to show for what happened to him after they got knocked out didn't appear. They had already asked their families about the details regarding Malaria, and considering his medicine and backstory - it all made sense with just a little bit of thought.

Orochimaru simply instructed that things would continue as initially planned. Team Suzuki would still commence their infiltrations into the Land of Grass to confirm the status of Kusagakure. Just because Iwa shinobi showed up in the Land of Fire doesn't mean they have an iron grip over in Grass.

The girls acknowledged the order, not surprised in the slightest. Returning back to their mudhut, they started preparing something to eat. After all the fighting yesterday they fell asleep before having a meal, at this point they're terribly famished. Malaria shamelessly caught a few fishes in the river and cooked them over their fire without sharing.

Later that day, Suzuki Yamaha had managed to get his leg- and arm injury healed by the head medic-nin. Reporting in to Orochimaru in the command tent, "Orochimaru-sama, according to the medical staff, full battle capability has been restored to just about every unit. We're ready to continue travelling by evening."

Glancing up at Yamaha, Orochimaru nodded, "Very well, tonight we'll depart and reach for the border towards Grass." Glancing outside the tent flaps, he noticed Malaria fidgeting like an ant in a hot pan, not daring to come inside for some reason.

Squinting his eyes, Orochimaru beckoned Yamaha to invite the brat inside. Once before his desk, Malaria began by saying, "Orochimaru-sensei, I wanted to ask about something in regards to research. But I'm not sure if it's alright during the campaign." Feigning to be nervous in his presence, Malaria fidgeted.

"Very well, what is it you want to know?" Not believing someone of Malaria's level to have anything extraordinary on his mind, it's still a good method to teach through enquiry. After all, the true method of knowledge is gained through experiments, and he has done plenty of those.

"Well, you see, I've been thinking about combat methods that suit me. Unable to house kikaichū in my body, I've got a good idea where I want to go with my mosquitoes." Noticing the slight interest in Orochimaru's eyes, he continues, "Have you studied anything about the Kaguya clan, Orochimaru-sensei?"

As if a lightbulb was lit behind his eyes, Orochimaru couldn't help but stand from behind his desk. Mosquitoes? Kaguya clans' sickness? Carried by blood, the bone rot those clansmen carry from birth is truly a cruel twist of fate. But what if, bone rot could be transferred to your enemies through the use of mosquitoes?

Instantly activating his researcher mode, Orochimaru grabbed an empty scroll of paper and started writing down everything he knows about the biology of the Kaguya clan. The theory is that the rot comes from severe overdraft of calcium and other minerals in the body, while the regrown bones cause a certain level of 'osteonecrosis'.

[A/N: Osteonecrosis: blood supply to parts of the bone is disrupted, depriving bone tissue of nutrients and oxygen.]

That, simply was not the case though. The Macabra Bone Pulse is a bloodline limit with a drawback, but that got solved by a certain plant that's long gone extinct during the warring states period. After being cured by the medicine made from that plant, a Kaguya clansman can use their bones however much they like without any detriment.

Both Orochimaru and Tsunade had studied the pecularities of several bloodline limits in Konoha. Every village prey on the others special bloodline users, trying to crack the mystery and obtain it for themselves. In those endeavours they had the fortune to experiment with a Kaguya clansman before.

No matter what was done, the bone rot was as if one-being with the man. Cut off infected areas? Doesn't work. Erase with chakra? It shows up again after a day. Heal to sustain the diseased bodypart? Nope, you just fed the disease and made it stronger.

Watching the clansman twitch and constantly scream, as the bone rot consumed him after a few years did a number on Tsunade despite her best efforts to cure the man. Orochimaru on the other hand was intrigued by the disease's tenacity. The cells in question had a lot in common with the Hashirama cells he has been studying recently - they simply refuse to die.

How that plant medicine actually managed to target and kill only the dangerous cells in the Kaguya is also a supreme mystery to him. So far, nothing known in the Shinobi World has managed to completely nullify Hashirama's cell vitality, yet its equal in the Kaguya had a nemesis. If only the plant wasn't extinct, it would be a tremendously interesting research topic.

After writing down everything he remembers and some other thoughts on the Kaguya, Orochimaru summoned a snake that spat out a sealing scroll. Orochimaru unwound the scroll and urged his chakra in strange intervals until a blood centrifuge poofed into existence.

Malaria looked at the dozens of bottles sitting on the rack containing different samples from who knows where. 'I wonder if Orochimaru's got Hashirama's cells in one of those bottles. Perhaps he already has a few samples of every known bloodline limit in the world hidden somewhere.' Malaria thought.

Picking out a bottle, Orochimaru hurriedly sealed up the centrifuge again in a scroll. Putting it back in the mouth of the snake, it was hastily unsummoned back to Ryūchi Cave. Taking the written scroll and the bloodsample, he gave them both to Malaria.

"The scroll contains everything I know about the Kaguya clansmen and their biology. This tube is a sample containing both the Kaguya's bloodline limit, and the bone disease." Licking his lips through habbit, Orochimaru couldn't help but be happy that this brat became his student. What an interesting idea, spreading the legendary Kaguya Bone Rot to people unaffiliated with them.

"I believe I don't have to mention it, but you will not get another sample from me." Strolling back behind his desk to finish up the last of the reports, Orochimaru made it evident Malaria should leave. "And, before you ask - no, you will not be absent from your mission. You can take the opportunity to do some 'experiments' on the field, after all."

Getting chased out by Yamaha, Malaria found himself standing at the entrance with a foolish grin plastered on his face. Was it really that easy to get that blood sample? This is ridiculous, get a few bigshots behind you, have a few ideas and slight ability - BAM, all you require is placed before you on a platter.

Humming and skipping back to his mudhut, Malaria was ecstatic that things were rolling into place. He couldn't wait to start looking into if his little mozzies could somehow breed and multiply the disease genome through; one spreads, ten ingests, ten spreads, one hundred ingests. If successful, he would become the dread of every country in the Shinobi World!

—

The evening sun was setting over the Land of Fire, with the Konoha encampment remaining utterly quiet except for the occasional buzzing of insects.

Inside his hut, Malaria counted his loot from the past two days. He had obtained an Iwa Chakra Sword, countless shuriken and kunai sealed in scrolls, large amounts of food pills, mundane antidotes, bandages and other necessities. But to top it all of, was the scroll and sample he got from Orochimaru.

From Mr. Snakes research he found out that the nature of the Kaguya Bone Rot disease was odd in itself. Once separated from any sources of bone, the blood in itself looked like any other persons with just one tremendous and important difference. The blood doesn't coagulate, even when left in the air to dry!

Once the blood is forced into a non-Kaguya clansman, through any methods conceivable, the 'victim' have two things to look forwards to. First, their bones will grow, like, a lot in an instant. Second, their original bones will decay turning into some sort of nutrient for the bloodline to replace them.

First issue for assimilation is that the bones growing another full skeleton inside of you leaves your insides somewhat cramped - if it was just the skin, there are ways to solve it. Lots of bandages, healing techniques, sealing, etc.

At any rate, patching someone up is perfectly doable, but a body can't fit two skeletons. if unlucky you'll have a skull growing inside your skull, squashing your brain to whipped cream. If lucky, the new skull grows ontop of your existing one, and that's for every piece of bone in your body - roll the dice, inside or outside, hit the jackpot 213 times in a row and you're ready for part two.

Second issue, as your original bones disintegrates, everything else inside your body starts slushing around. You'll literally have your heart in your pants, your brain at your lungs, and lungs at your feet. Without any bones, your body turns to slime - and before the new skeleton that grew ontop of your last one can shrink and solidify properly, to fit its predecessor, you're already dead.

And that's only if your body is compatible with the Kaguya bloodline. If you aren't compatible, all you get is the Bone Rot. It's a miracle those warring maniacs in that clan never noticed their blood could possibly be the strongest poison in the world with slight chakra stimulation. 'At least Kaguya Ōtsutsuki figured that part out long ago.' Malaria thought.

After reading through the scroll and placing a single moquito on his finger tip, Malaria gingerly took a super tiny pipette to extract barely a tenth of a drop from the Kaguya sample. Mosquitoes doesn't have bones, so the Bone Rot shouldn't have any effect on them in the first place, but who knows? Perhaps he'll get a bone-plated mosquito, invulnerable to physical attacks?

Feeding the little bastard from the pipette, as if it's some sort of sick puppy, Malaria anxiously waited for a reaction. Nothing was happening at all, the little bug just stared up at him inquisitively.

'Wait a second… Did my mosquito just grow two dots for eyebrows!?' Malaria was flabbergasted.