FicWad

Dead Rising

Chapter 9

Pain. That was all he felt as his floating body followed the current. He had fought his best friend at a place known as 'The Valley Of The End'. His mission was to retrieve his wayward friend who tried to defect to a traitor called Orochimaru, one of the Sannin trained by the Third Hokage of Konohagakure no Sato.

He was part of a team. There was five of them. Or was it six? Remembering was hard. Nevertheless as they got closer to their target, a member of their team would have to stay behind and hold off a member of another team that was sent by Orochimaru to escort the defector to him. It was the Sound Four?

Yes. That was it. The Sound Four, an elite team that was Orochimaru's body guard. Reassigned to escort his wayward friend to him. Eventually, it was only himself out of his entire team that caught up to their target. The other's staying behind to buy him time to catch up unhindered.

The next thing he knew, there was yelling, and then... a fight. A massive one. He remembered being pierced in the lung by a lightning covered hand. Getting his neck broken a few times as he was launched head first into a cliff side, as his friend dive kicked him under the chin. He remembered the environment getting destroyed as the two of them fought each other.

But in the end he lost. He held back. While his friend had been aiming to kill. Rather stupid of him to do now that he thought back on it. And all because of a damn promise from a girl he had a crush on. He had taken another lightning covered hand to the chest by his best friend – or was it ex-best friend? - and the strain his body had been under had finally taken its course. He fell unconscious.

He didn't know how long he had been knocked out for. But he was still aware even if his body was unresponsive. He could feel the rain pelting against his battered body. He could feel his own blood drench his clothing, only for it to be washed away by the water that fell from the sky. He had felt his body being dragged into a river as the unstable structure he had been on finally collapsed. Then he felt himself being washed away; his unresponsive body following the current of the river that was dragging to a place unknown to him.

His pre-teen physique finally became responsive to him when he felt himself hit against a riverside. Grunting softly a pair of blue eyes opened up, blinking repeatedly as to get the water out of the them. He bared his teeth as he hissed in pain as he felt his entire body burning in protest as he tried to move. After a few minutes of this the boy finally gave up and just laid there on the riverbank.

Curious as to where he, is the pre-teen, much to the protest of his body, leaned his head up and gazed around his surroundings. He found that the lower half of his body was still in the river but, he was under no risk of being dragged away by the current. Frowning slightly in curiosity his blue eyes darted to the left, and saw a series of trees, rocks and shrubbery. Looking to his right, he saw the river and more trees, rocks and shrubbery.

Inhaling through his nose and exhaling through the mouth, the pre-teen turned his head so he was looking toward the sky and as he rested his head against the ground he closed his eyes. His body was in so much pain attempting to move around would not be the smartest thing to do. So he did the only thing he could. He rested. If his body, despite being beat up as it is, could heal itself to the degree he would no longer be in pain then he would be able to move.

He didn't know how long he was resting for but when the pre-teen opened his eyes again, he was able to move his limbs freely. His muscles still burned when he moved but it wasn't as painful as it was before. Thank god for his quick regeneration. Gritting his teeth the pre-teen groaned as he dragged the lower half of his body out of the river before sitting himself up. Breathing heavily the pre-teen leaned forward slightly to see his reflection in the water.

Blue eyes. Blonde hair that was partially covered in blood. He could make out whisker marks on his bloodied face. He wore an eyesore of a jumpsuit. Bright orange, with the shoulders having a navy blue. The jacket had a fist sized hole on it with burnt marks around it. Through the hole was a slowly closing wound that was still bleeding and drenching his jumpsuit with his life liquid. How he was still alive was a mystery to him. Although he guessed he had to thank the bastard fox that is sealed in him.

Wincing the blonde haired pre-teen stood up, making sure not to do it so quickly other risk dazing himself. Reaching back the pre-teen winced again when he felt a sharp pain in the back of his head. He guessed his head impacting the cliff side did a lot more damage than he thought if that still hurt.

“Where am I?” Were his first words. Turning his waist so he could look over his shoulder the pre-teen found a little muddied path leading to somewhere. Knowing staying in one place would not be ideal and his childlike curiosity getting the better of him, the pre-teen decided to follow the muddy path and state his curiosity.

Putting an arm on his abdomen to lessen the pain he was getting as he moved, the pre-teen turned around completely and slowly walked along the muddy path while making sure to watch his step. With how much pain he was in – despite it not being as bad as it were before – he didn't want to risk tripping over something and injure himself even further.

He didn't know how long he had followed the path. A lot of trees had went by, and, to him it felt like hours had passed. It was that long for him. Eventually the blonde pre-teen came across a structure in the middle of a clearing. Putting his free arm on a tree bark next to him the blonde squinted his eyes as he tried to get a better look at it.

It was similar to a stone henge. And as he got closer to it he saw that the stones had runes engraved onto it, and it was in a language he had never seen before. What was odd was that the stones were glowing. More accurately, the engraved ruins on the stones were the ones that were glowing. He could make out two colours in the glow: green and blue.

Curiosity getting the better of him again, the pre-teen made his way to the stone henge like structure until he was right in the middle of it. Now in the middle the glowing lights seem to brighten; as if it knew someone was in the middle of it. The pre-teen blinked confusingly, and looked around when the lights on each of the stones suddenly scanned his physique from head to toe.

He didn't know why, but he was getting a bad feeling about all this. Before he could do anything the entire structure lit up drastically, the pre-teen instinctively raised his free arm to shield his eyes. The next thing he knew, he could feel the chakra of the Nine-Tails getting drawn out of his body, while the chakra monster itself was bellowing in anger, calling him an idiotic child in the back of his head before its voice was suddenly cut off.

The next thing he knew his eyes were closed. He was screaming in agony. His body screaming out in torment; as if a thousand needles were being stuck into him, roughly yanked out, before being stuck in again. It felt as if some of the injuries that were healed were opened again because of it. His chakra was getting strained as well as he felt something was being drawn out of him. He could hear a noise that was akin to electricity, and, energy pulsing around him that was growing with intensity. An explosion like sound deafened him, as the stone henge like structure and the boy was consumed by a flash of light that could have been seen for miles.

By the time the light settled down, the stone henge like structure, along with the pre-teen himself would be gone. A clear glade, with imprints showing the formations of the giant stones would be all that remained. However if you were to look closely you would be able to see a rift in the air. It was small enough that anyone can easily miss it if they weren't looking close enough.

X.X.X.X

“So who wants to be the one to open it first?”

Naruto stepped forward. “I'll go first. I need a better weapon anyway.”

With that the lid of the sarcophagus like box was opened. Instead of the music-box like jingle everyone was used to, it was machinery noise. The available weapons inside had ascended out of the box, while it randomized through each and every available weapon that was inside.

After five seconds, the randomized weapons stopped on a Colt Python with an 8' inch barrel. Widening his eyes Naruto slung his M-16 over his shoulder and pulled his M1911 out of its holster and with his free hand reached out and grasped the Colt Python. With the Colt Python in his grasp Naruto's M1911 suddenly vanished from his hand. A trade of weapons, and one that Naruto was happy to have.

This is a favourite of his because it is powerful and reliable.

Dempsey arched his eyebrows when he saw Naruto grab the revolver. “A colt Python? Dunno why you picked that. There are guns much more powerful that it.”

Chortling Naruto turned to face the American and asked, “Why did you get rid of your M1911 for your Remington revolver?”

“Because excluding the ray gun, the revolver is the most powerful pistol in the world. If you're hit by a revolver bullet, as long as it is in no lethal areas' then you almost guaranteed to die within the the first few minutes.” Dempsey easily answered. It was a no brainer for the marine. Apart from the ray gun, revolvers are easily the most powerful pistols in the world as of this moment.

“Then there's my answer for you.”

Dempsey's eyes narrowed in thought. “So... my answer is your answer to why you chose the Python?” He slowly asked to make sure he was hearing things right.

Naruto sighed in exasperation. “Yes Tank, your answer is my answer.”

“Okay.” Dempsey nodded his head. “Just wanted to make sure.”

As Dempsey and Naruto talked to one another, Nikolai walked up to the sarcophagus and opened it. The weapons ascended from the stone box, randomizing themselves between rifles, SMGs and LMGs until it landed on a wonder weapon they had not had since their trip to the moon base: the Gersch device.

Taking the Gersch device from the box before it could descend back in the box, the machine copied itself so Nikolai had three of them. “Black Hole Bomb. Use to take out very large numbers of enemies, or jump inside black hole itself to escape a very bad situation and totally not die of getting your body torn apart in the process.” The Russian said aloud to himself before tucking the ridiculously overpowered machine safely away.

Takeo after making the Staff of Fire disappear went to the box next. Opening the sarcophagus like box for the third time, Takeo waited patently for the weapons to stop randomizing. His eyes went wide for a brief moment when he saw the weapon he managed to get before he took it out in reverence.

It was the Galil, an automatic rifle that had proven to be very reliable to the group when they had faced off against numerous zombies. “With this mighty weapon within my grasp, the demons will find their end approaching sooner than expected.”

Nikolai in a dick move, quickly got in front of the box and opened the lid a second time before anyone else could. Samantha who wanted to be the next one to open the box glared at Nikolai and began to rant at him for taking her turn away from her. Of course, Nikolai ignored her completely and merely waited to see what he was going to get.

Finally landing on a weapon this time, Nikolai quckly switched to his M1911 to trade it away and grabbed the weapon that was presented to him with eagerness. It was a shotgun, the Stakeout in fact.

“Boom, boom the hell-pigs get blown away!” The Russian exclaimed with enthusiasm as he grabbed the Stakeout shotgun.

Samantha finally had her turn and opened the box. She too had swapped to her M1911 as she did not want to part with her MP40. She grinned with glee when the randomly swapping weapons that ascended out of the box had stopped on one of the rare guns: the Ray Gun. Naruto, Nikolai and Dempsey made disappointing sounds and felt a little jealous that Samantha had gotten one of the more rarer and stupidly overpowered weaponry from the box.

“Ah! Zhe veapon zhat my father made. How fitting!” The girl exclaimed as she gleefully and childishly hugged the Ray Gun.

“Lucky you.” Naruto said staring at the Ray Gun in the German girl's arms a little grumpily. “Nikolai has an overpowered sniper rifle along with a device that can make a black hole. Takeo has an insanely overpowered staff that can fire balls of molten rock that explode upon impact. And now you have an overpowered pistol that can literally melt zombies with one shot.”

“Are you complaining?” Naruto gave Samantha, who was grinning at him in a knowing yet teasing manner, a flat look at the question. He was not going to answer that. It was clearly rhetorical.

After a moment of silence and a knowing expectant look from Samantha provoked a sigh from Naruto, who proceeded to contradict his previous thought.

“Yes. Yes, I am.” His attitude matched his expression and Dempsey and Nikolai were thoroughly amused. Takeo silently chuckled if the slight jumping of his shoulders was any indication.

Sighing in annoyance Naruto opened the box again and waited to see what he was going to get. He arched an eyebrow when he got some Monkey bombs. Those weren't too bad. A good distraction to use when they're in a jam, but not as good as the totally overpowered Gersch device that Nikolai has.

“Hey! Naruto has the monkey! Lucky kid.” Dempsey was pretty jealous of the fact that Naruto has the distraction bomb.

“Hello, friend!” The toy monkey exclaimed with enthusiasm once Naruto had taken it from the box before it could descend back inside of it.

No one, not even Samantha, knows how the hell the bloody thing could be sentient. But it was, and it honestly freaked the hell out of everyone most particularly Nikolai. The only person who seemed to like it the most to the point of not being scared or freaked out was Dempsey.

“Hey, monkey! Nice to see you again.” Naruto tried his hardest to try and sound enthusiastic as possible. He really did. But those wide beady little red eyes freaked him the-fuck-out.

“Thank you! It is nice to see you too!” The toy monkey replied, its enthusiasm never faltered. If it knew Naruto was faking his enthusiasm, it didn't show it through the way it speaks.

“You wouldn't know what is going on here would you?” Naruto asked the toy with a questioning look. He got puzzled looks from the others when he asked the toy that question. Sure the thing was alive but it wasn't as if it would know what is going on would it?

“Sorry friend, I have no idea.” The monkey replied in the same enthusiastic tone it was speaking in before. Naruto tsked in disappointment while the others were unsurprised. “But the fog is what lets the zombified animals to move around freely. If you can get rid of it then they'll melt when they come in direct contact with the sun's rays!”

The group shared a look. That was what they suspected when they first saw those apes running along the edge of the fog Samantha was keeping back.

“Do you have any intel regarding the Elemental Staff that is trapped inside of that forcefield on top of the temple?” Naruto asked as he brought his gaze back to the toy.

The monkey made a thinking sound. “Hmm, I heard there are four generators that need to be turned on. When they are all on then you could possibly use them at the same time to overload the energy that is being generated around the Elemental Staff. If not then you could use the Soul Boxes to try and free that Russian trapped in that other dimension.”

Everyone narrowed their eyes at the alive toy in suspicion. That was oddly specific for something that just got out of the box. And how does the monkey know about Gersch?

“How do you know all this?”

“I've been inside of that annoying box for the past week. And I could feel an odd energy slowly blanketing this world for the past week I had been here. Do you really think I wouldn't notice all the happenings going down in this strange dimension, I literally found myself being dragged into all of a sudden?” The toy monkey now had a sarcastic tone instead of the usual enthusiastic one they were all use to hearing.

There was a growing sense of dread building up in Dempsey's stomach. “Wait, are you saying something or someone is controlling the zombies? And that someone brought those gas and pyro zombies from our dimension and into Naruto's?” The marine asked for clarification.

“Yep!” The toy chirped much to their horror.

“Fuck!” The five of them cursed simultaneously.

The situation in this dimension is more dire than they first suspected. If someone is capable of inter-dimensional travel, then it is entirely possible that person would be able to bring highly advanced technology from Dempsey's and Nikolai's, Takeo's and Samantha's dimension and bring it here to the Elemental Nations.

It gave them an explanation on how the generator they found was there in the first place. It also explained how the Staff of Fire and the other Elemental Staffs they are looking for had gotten here.

“That is just fucking wonderful.” Dempsey exclaimed throwing his arms up into the air as he turned his back to the group in dismay. “A fucking army of god-damn zombies that are being controlled by a single entity. This is just like home.” He stated as he turned to face the others again.

Nodding to himself Naruto put the monkey bomb in one of the pouches so he could use it later when he needs to. With a sigh Naruto looked at the others and said, “Well at least we now know for certain there is something controlling the zombies here in this dimension. We just need to figure out a way to break its connection to the zombies before it's too late.” He tried to be optimistic about all this. They still had time to fight back against this entity that was destroying the Elemental Nations for reasons unknown to them.

“That is easier said than done.” Dempsey said before looking around. “Anyway, if what that monkey said is true, then we need to find and turn on three more generators. Let's see if we can't find any more of them?”

Making sounds of agreement the group headed off to locate other generators to turn on or tomb like entry ways that would lead under ground. After all the rumblings they felt when they filled up those soul boxes had to have opened something in this place.

X.X.X.X

Meanwhile back in the Village Hidden in the Mist, Mei Terumi was now in her office looking out of the window that looked over the entirety of her village with sombre but hopeful eyes. She had left the war room just minutes ago after being in it for several hours. Her ninja were to ration the food between themselves and the populace. They also had to double the patrols that were taking place in the Hidden Village, in order to keep people from rising up and causing unrest, and, to make sure they would be ready to defend themselves if the creatures within the mist were to suddenly attack.

Despite the Mysterious Five making their appearance within their borders, Mei knew better than to put all her hopes into them solving this dilemma she herself and her village had found itself in. These five people, these five strangers, who managed to get themselves put in to such high regard, Mei had no choice but to put her faith in them.

Despite how much she may not want to, she knew no one in Kirigakure would be able to do anything to push back these creatures from her village walls.

Kirigakure no Sato was being slowly bled dry of food. Water. And most importantly moral. It had been like this for the past week. Then feeling that odd energy source appear out of nowhere, Mei knew the Mysterious Five were in the Land of Water and it had boosted the moral of her soldiers significantly when they all felt it. No one knew where the Mysterious Five was thanks to the mist blanketing everything outside; but they knew they were somewhere in the Land of Water.

Sighing to herself Mei sat down in her chair and spun around to face her desk. She hoped the mist would be gone soon. She had no idea how long her people could cope with being cooped up like this, but she hoped the dilemma would be taken care of before things spiral out of her control.

Sometimes being the Mizukage just plain sucked.

X.X.X.X

“You're sure that the courtyard is clear?”

“Yes.”

“You're positive?”

“Yes, Tank, I am absolutely, positively sure that the courtyard is clear.”

“Alright, alright, geez you don't need to whine about it.” The marine said with his hands raised in a placating manner.

Naruto stared up at Dempsey with crossed arms. “I'm not whining. I am being perfectly calm and collected.” The whisker face blonde said tranquilly.

“Your eye is twitching.” Dempsey pointed out to him with an arched brow.

Face not betraying him Naruto skillfully and expertly replied, “And I'm about to shove my boot up a certain American's ass for being too annoying.” Prompting Dempsey to give him an odd look before he took a step back, putting himself out of Naruto's kicking distance.

As this was happening Samantha was staring at the two with an amused smile. Nikolai was glancing between the two with a confused look on his face, not understanding what was going on while he was drinking another bottle of vodka he had gotten from his sack.

How he never seemed to run out of bottles of vodka was a mystery them, but they never commented on it or tried to get between him and his vodka, knowing how protective Nikolai is of his bottle of happiness.

Samantha frowned. The last time that happened...

X.X.X.X

“You spilled my vodka! Nikolai will avenge precious bottle!” Nikolai bellowed in outrage as he chased a terrified Naruto around the main building in the Swamp with a battle cry. The Soviet was slashing the air in front of him with his knife as he chased after the terrified blonde, while Takeo, Dempsey and Richtofen stared at the scene either in amusement or in complete dumbfoundment.

“Fucking hell, Nikolai! I said I was sorry!!!” Naruto yelled before letting out a terrified yelp, and ran as fast as he could to get away from Nikolai when the clearly insane Russian came close to slashing his back.

“Nikolai will still hurt you! Slow down it will only hurt for minute!”Nikolai yelled out in anger.

“Fuck you!” Naruto shouted over his shoulder. “I'm not suicidal!”

X.X.X.X

The girl shook her head. It's best if no one recalls what happened. But suffice to say Samantha had been watching down on them at the time, and she was surprised to see one of Naruto's own friends trying to hurt him over spilling and smashing a filled bottle of vodka.

Noticing the others were a fair distance away from her while talking to one another, well in the cases of both Nikolai and Takeo they were listening to Naruto and Dempsey converse with one another, Samantha ran to catch up with them. Given what she is Samantha is not that angry for them leaving her behind. She was a little irritated but not angry. Besides she would have been able to find them anywhere and in any place, no matter what the distance between them was. She would have been able to find them. That was why she wasn't all that angry with them.

When she finally caught up to them, the girl had caught the middle of Takeo's sentence. “...ere to head to the top of the temple. We would get a birds eyed view of the whole place.”

Dempsey shook his head negatively and pointed out two main flaws he could see in that plan they were given. “The temple isn't that high up for us to get a birds eyed view of the place, Takeo. Not to mention some trees around here are higher than the temple itself.”

“That is true. Forget I said anything.”

After an undetermined amount of time exploring, the group had finally come across another generator in a clearing a small distance away to the left of the courtyard. Unlike the previous one this generator was covered in camouflage for some odd reason. Because of this it was able to blend in remarkably well with its surroundings.

Getting themselves into position, those who weren't using their primary weapons quickly switched to them and checked the amount of ammo they had in the chamber. Satisfied that their weapons had a full magazine, Dempsey turned and activated the machine.

“Initiating conversion sequence.”

The second it came on the entire group heard the sound of the earth being upturned as the zombies pulled themselves out of the ground.

The ancient samurai warriors came from the tree line in large numbers from all directions. Easily numbering in the hundreds. Being surrounded from all sides with no way of escape, if it were any other group they would have soiled themselves by now, however, this group is full of hardened warriors who fought the undead on a daily basis. This was nothing to them. They had fought larger numbers than this.

Some of the undead samurai were moving as if they were marching. Some zombies had heavily rusted katana's and wasaski blades in their grasp as well. Naruto and Tank, Nikolai and Samantha and Takeo all quickly repositioned themselves so they were formed around the generator and knelt down. They took aim at the heads and opened fire.

They fired their guns in short bursts, and because of this, several zombies were put down in the first minute. However the zombies began to adapt to them and, much to the annoyance of the group defending the generator, they started to dodge their line of fire by sidestepping. It was nothing they couldn't handle however. Takeo seeing a group of samurai zombies closely packed together, grabbed a fragmentation grenade and over taking out the pin and cooking it for several seconds, threw the hand-held explosive at the feet of the zombies.

Two seconds later the grenade exploded at their feet and took out several of the zombies at once. Others were reduced to crawlers since they had either lost one or both of their legs to the explosion.

Another minute of this and the zombies were getting closer to the group defending the generator. Takeo and Dempsey, Naruto and Samantha and Nikolai were forced to reload their weapons and abandon their post when the undead came too close to attacking them. But being the brainless morons they are the zombies followed them like a follower to a leader.

Since the clearing is pretty big enough for them to run circles in, the five heroes decided to put one of their tactics into practice: run around in a big circle, while making the zombies following them turn to a horde before piling them all together and gunning them down. They ran around in a circle for about a minute, gathering as many zombies as possible before running to each other in the middle. After they met up they all ran in the same direction as the zombies converged on them. After another minute of running away the five stopped running, turned around, took aim and opened fire.

Within seconds the combined fire-power of Dempsey and Nikolai, Takeo and Naruto and Samantha had completely annihilated the zombies. It's an effective but risky tactic to use when you're up against large numbers.

They first used and mastered it the first time back in Shi No Numa, when they were running in a circle between the main building and the communication hut. It was so effective they would do it whenever there was a large enough clearing for them to do it, which was not as often as they would like unfortunately.

Several more minutes had past and the clearing was being filled with the blood and the bodies of the undead. But with every zombie they killed three more would come to take its place. It was a long and tedious fight for them. Then suddenly the generator made a whirring noise just like the first one they turned on. As they expected, a pulse of electricity shot out of the machine and spread out in all directions.

Nikolai and Takeo, Samantha and Naruto and Dempsey all groaned as for the second time in the same day an electrical pulse phased through their body. They staggered to regain their balance as they were not use to it, and, it made them feel a little dizzy. The zombies that were hit by the pulse on the other hand slumped to the ground like a puppet had its strings cut off.

“Conversion Process Complete. Generator 2 is now activated.”

The heroes quickly reloaded their guns the second the zombies stopped coming, and put away the used ones for later use. Since Samantha is sometimes able to give them more ammo because of her special power, the three adults and one teenager knew throwing the used magazines away would be the worst thing they could do.

“What is this...? Another energy influx?” The five heroes all looked toward the sky when they heard Gersch talk. “Strange, it seems this energy has more power behind it than the last ones you've sent. The cracks on the gateway is getting larger, almost big enough for me to slip through! I believe if you send another two inside of this place then the gap would be large enough for me to use.” He concluded with tints of excitement in his voice.

The five stood in silence before Takeo and Nikolai, Samantha and Naruto all slowly looked at Dempsey. The man was staring up toward the sky with a blank look on his face. No one could tell what was going on through his head, but they knew the man was irritated at Gersch's lack of helpfulness.

Sighing Dempsey shook his head and turned to look at the others and blinked when he saw them staring at him rather expectantly for some reason.

“What?” He asked, looking between the four of them with narrowed yet bewildered eyes.

“You are not going to complain?” Samantha asked.

“Nope. I don't see the point. Now let's go and get the last two generators turned on so we can get this over with.” With that declaration Dempsey made his way out of the bloodied clearing, stepping over the corpses in his path. The others followed the man out and together they all went in a random direction. Seeing as they had no idea where the other two generators exploring the area seemed like a good idea for them to do.

After a few minutes of walking in silence Samantha started up a conversation.

“Tell me something.”

“Hmm?” He sounded, glancing at Samantha with curious eyes.

“I know zhat you hate your birthplace. However, vhat vill you do once zhey come for you?” Samantha and the others already knew of the answer. However, this was just a way to start up a conversation and like all things, they have to start off somewhere.

Slightly frowning Naruto made a thinking sound as he rubbed his chin. “I believe I said something along the lines of: I won't be going anywhere with them. And if they try and force me to go back against my will, then I will kill them.”

“Have you changed your mind about that?” Nikolai asked Naruto questionably, gazing at the spiky haired teenager from the corner of his eyes.

Naruto shook his head in a negative manner. “No. There's a saying that some of you may recall; your home is where your heart is.”

“I've heard of that saying.” Dempsey said. “Do you still think of that place as your home?” He asked, turning to look at Naruto with a slight tilt of his head.

Once more Naruto shook his head negatively. “No. I don't think of Konoha as my home. I mean, how could I?” He replied, turning to look at Dempsey with a sad expression. “I may not remember much, but if you recall what I said before we came here, I can scarcely remember being ignored by nearly everyone there for most of my childhood. When they weren't ignoring me they would be glaring at me or whispering hurtful things behind my back when they thought I wasn't listening.”

While they knew of this, Dempsey, Samantha, Takeo and Nikolai couldn't help but give Naruto sympathetic looks. While the teenager may not have wanted any sympathy from people he didn't know, at least with these people, his friends, he knew that they cared about him and his welfare. It may seem pathetic to some people, but that right there, made him feel wanted. To know he could have people he trusted to watch his back when ever he needed them.

It was why he was so happy when Dempsey agreed to be his friend and hugged him shortly after they met in Der Riese. The man became his first true friend, as far as he knew back then.

He trusted the four of them a hell of a lot more than any of those fucks at Konohagakure no Sato. He would stay with this group, even if it would kill him.

“So... where do you truly feel at home with?” Takeo was the one to have asked that question.

Naruto looked at everyone and smiled genuinely at them, prompting them to smile as well in return. He didn't need to reply, his smile had done it for him; he felt most at home with them. And it touched them. It really, really did.

“So, anyone else got something they want to talk about?” Naruto asked, gazing between the four with questioning eyes.

Nikolai raised his hand and upon seeing Naruto gesturing for him to begin he said, “I have one: why do ninjas shout out their techniques?” Naruto opened his mouth to answer only to pause, close his mouth and think. To really think on the reason. “Because does shouting not reveal where they are?”

“To tell you the truth, I haven't got the foggiest idea on why.” The teen answered with a shrug of his shoulders. “Maybe they need to shout it out otherwise they won't be able to do it? That seems like a viable explanation for me.”

“Oh.” Was Nikolai's lame response. “I have nothing else to ask.”

“Oh lookie! An entryvay zhat leads to zhe underground!” Samantha exclaimed as she pointed directly ahead of her. The others followed where she was pointing and low and behold, there was an entryway that led to the underground. It was circular, like a tunnel.

Plus it had a light source which would have been a bad thing. However, considering what they've done so far the five heroes went inside of the tunnel entryway with no hesitation whatsoever.

“Definitely getting deja vu vibes here.” Commented Dempsey as he and the others followed the path leading them through the tunnel. “This is looking more and more like Shangri-la.” He added with a sigh just before they entered a large room.

Before their eyes were machines, like drills littering the place. There was stone coffins spread through out the room, and on the walls of the room as well. On their left was another entryway to another room, most likely leading to more coffins. Much to Takeo and Naruto's disgust many of them were broken and the continents were emptied. They all could see rusted katana's, Tantōs, Uchigatana's and Wakizashi lying on the floor; as well as pieces of samurai armour.

“Whoever was here has disturbed the graves of the ancients!” Takeo spat with clear disgust showing on his face. He was not pleased with this. Not at all. Such disregard to the final resting place of the fallen sickened him.

“How could anyone do this?” Naruto asked aloud as he gestured to the disturbed graves.

Frowning a little Dempsey walked to one of the ruined sarcophagus's and knelt beside it. He swiped his hand over it and brought his fingers to his face. They were covered in dust. “From what I can see; it was greed.” The marine answered Naruto's question as he turned to face the others and showed them his dust covered fingers. “It looks like the tomb was ransacked a long time ago. So, who ever did this to this resting place is long gone.” He added as he stood back up while wiping his digits against his jacket to get the dust out of them.

Naruto made a thinking sound as he tied up what he had seen previously on this island together. One; they were on an island away from the main-island. Two; there are ancient samurai warriors here. Three; there is an ancient temple. And lastly four; from what he had seen in this tomb where the first generator was, already there are a lot of coffins.

“Is it just me or is this whole entire island a giant tomb?” Naruto suddenly asked with a light frown.

Naruto's question had gotten them all to stare at one another. They too had a nagging feeling about them being in a tomb as well. However, it was Samantha who answered. “I have had a suspicion about zhat. Zhe tombs, ancient samurai's, and a massive temple.”

“A tomb that was desecrated.” Dempsey said in disdain, before sucking his teeth. “Still doesn't explain why there are drills and generators here though.” He added, gesturing to the drills in the room and making them remember about the first of the two generators they encountered. “It's too advanced for a seemingly primitive world.”

“Well, having generators is not THAT far fetched.” Naruto piped up.

“What do you mean?” Questioned Nikolai as he and the others turned to the teenager.

“Well in the first building we've been too in Yugakure, there were light-bulbs and light switches in nearly every room. Not to mention there was a fridge in the kitchen.”

“How come we never saw them?” Takeo questioned with a small frown.

“Samantha was indisposed at the time on the couch. You and Nikolai were trying to cover up the front door by moving a bookshelf and Dempsey was up the stairs doing god knows what.” Naruto informed, while pointing at every person in the order he spoke in when he explained what they were doing in his statement.

“Oh yeah.” Dempsey spoke up with his eyes wide in sudden remembrance. “And not long after they were finished bordering up the front door, Takeo and Nikolai went outside to set up traps for the zombies. Naruto, Samantha and myself meanwhile had moved to a different building so we could try and gain another vantage point.”

“And zhen zhe zombies came a few hours later.” Samantha finally concluded.

“So neither Takeo nor I were able to see these things because once we were done setting traps, we were suddenly beset by hell-pigs!” Nikolai exclaimed.

“Now that I think about it, I did see light switches, light-bulbs and a fridge even a television in the second building we went too.” Dempsey said in self-revelation. “But with all the shit that's happening to us right now I kind of forgotten about it. So considering what we know now, they are technically advanced enough to have electricity. So the generators and drills in here are not as far-fetched as we once thought.”

“Not to mention zhere is someone controlling zhe undead. So it is safe to assume zhat zhis being is capable of bringing things from our dimension to zhis one.” Samantha grimly reminded them.

“Right there's that too.” Dempsey added in grim acknowledgement. “But I'm getting the feeling we're missing something else. I don't know what it is, but I have this gut feeling that it should be important.”

“Maybe it vill come back to you later?” Samantha optimistically suggested.

“Probably. Anyway, we should get moving and see if there is another generator in this tomb. The sooner we do this the quicker we can get out of here.” The others made sounds of agreement as they moved further into the tomb. Walking through the entryway that connected them to another room the group had found out that the next room indeed had more coffins that were too forcibly opened. Like in the previous room they had been in this one had drills strewn about on the ground throughout the room.

This time they could actually see skeletons inside of the stone coffins. Oddly enough there was no scent of rot or decay in the air, which shows just how long the skeletons were exposed for. On the right side of the room was another entryway that led to yet another room.

Naruto couldn't help but gaze around the room with an unnerved look. Tombs like these gave him the chills. If these skeletons decided to rise up all of a sudden, with no warning, then the five of them would be forced to fight their way out while being attacked from all sides. Shaking those negative, yet rightfully paranoid thoughts from his mind Naruto slowly made his up to the entryway that led to the next room and walked through it.

His eyes darted from side to side as he took in the room. More forcibly opened coffins. More drills strewn about on the ground. Cables like the ones Dempsey found with the first generator going through the four corners of the room, and the third generator located on top of a metal platform with it being slap-dab in the middle.

“Found the third generator!” Naruto yelled out just as he walked further inside of the room. Almost a minute later, the others walked into the room and upon seeing the generator Naruto told them about they instantly got themselves into position around it.

Naruto being the one who found it first had turned it on this time. A second later the five heroes heard Maxis speak to them through the unseen speakers in the room.

“Initiating conversion sequence.”

The group raised their weapons and through the sights of their guns they thoroughly scanned the room. The screeching sounds came and among them was the familiar yelling and moaning of the zombies. Reacting to the noise' the five heroes all repositioned themselves so they were standing in a 'two-by-five' formation; with Naruto and Samantha kneeling in front of the grown ups with their primary weapons. All five of them had their guns aimed at the entryway as that was where the sounds were coming from.

The zombies and screecher's, in order to get to them, would have to get through the entryway. Which means they would have to get through the might of their combined fire-power. Nikolai having the perfect close-quarter in his possession, had swapped to his secondary weapon; the Stakeout shotgun while Dempsey and Takeo kept out their primary guns since those would be more effective against large numbers.

“Looks like they're only coming through this entryway. This'll be over before we know it.” Dempsey stated the obvious. Naruto made a sound of agreement as he forced himself to calm down. His heart was pounding in his chest. As far as he knew there was literally no way out.

Maybe it would have been wise of him to first check out the room before turning on the generator?

“Indeed. These unholy demon spawn will fall before our might!” Takeo exclaimed with conviction.

“Samantha and I will take care of any screecher's that come in the room. Just take care of the zombies and if possible get a Gersch Device at the ready in case we're about to be overwhelmed.” Naruto instructed.

“Why not use Gersch Device now and be done with it?” Asked a curious Nikolai.

“Because that only lasts for about 20 seconds, and the powering up for the generator takes around a minute” Naruto answered.

“No Gersch device unless we are about to be overrun. Understood!” Nikolai said in a serious tone.

“Here they come!” Dempsey yelled in declaration as the sounds got closer to them. A few moments of tense silence passed through the room, even if said silence was being ruined by the screeching noises coming from the imp like creatures, and the hungry moans and howls of the zombies.

The second the first samurai zombie appeared, it had its head blown clean off of its shoulders, curtsy of a well placed shot from Nikolai's shotgun. Cocking the pump bottom of the gun, an empty shell was ejected from the slot on the side of the shotgun.

That seemed to be the cue for the other zombies and screecher's to try and flood the room. Since they were kneeling, Naruto and Samantha had an easier time shooting the screecher's as they ran through the door way. They were fast for sure; but they were not fast enough to escape the trajectory of bullets. They were put down before they could get themselves completely in the room.

Takeo, Nikolai and Dempsey were shooting at the undead samurai's. These ones were the first type; the walkers. With Takeo and Dempsey's fully automatic guns, they were able to mow down several of them within seconds. Nikolai was able to kill two or three of them at a time with his shotgun. Aiming at their heads was an effective way to kill them. With the five of them working together as a team neither zombie nor screecher was able to even make a headway into the room.

The pile of corpses that was beginning to form at the base of the room's entrance had also helped in that endeavour. The screecher's had trouble climbing over them and when their heads poked out from cover, they would have their heads taken off of their shoulders by Naruto and Samantha. The zombies would slow down too as they too had to step over the bodies, only for them to get stopped in their tracks when their heads are reduced to a bloody paste by either Takeo, or Nikolai and Dempsey.

Luckily the five of them were able to hold their ground. Everyone had to reload their guns at least once. Nikolai was the only exception however as he had a shotgun that could only fit in around 6 shells at once.

Before they all knew it, a minute had passed; and they all heard the familiar whirring sound coming from the generator. A pulse of electricity they had been expecting had shot out of the machine and spread through the rooms that made the tomb. Causing every single zombie and screecher that were caught by the pulse to drop dead.

Since they were use to it this time Naruto and Samantha, Takeo and Nikolai and Dempsey did not groan. They shuddered however since having a pulse of energy going through their body felt weird.

“Conversion Process Complete. Generator 3 is now activated.”

“Thank. Fucking. God!” Dempsey yelled out in obvious relief. “One more to go and we're finally done with this bullshit!”

“This is rather... repetitive.” Takeo lowly grunted out in agreement. Three generators were turned on and each time they had to defend it from zombies. While it was a nice change from, 'turn on the power switch = shit we can buy', it was getting rather annoying having to sit in one. Fucking. Place. Over and over again waiting for the generator to power up before they can move on.

Not to mention Gersch was not being helpful in helping them. He's basically telling them to do something and expects them to figure it out. And when they figure something out that can help him, he will tell them to do it again and will give an estimate amount of times they need to do it for which for some reason is right, and not wrong whatsoever.

It's like a weird plot device you would find only in movies or video games... Takeo shook his head. He didn't need to think like Dempsey right now. Breaking the Fourth Wall is his thing!

After reloading his weapon Dempsey looked up at the ceiling and waited for Gersch to say something to them. Like a new set of instructions or something. After a minute had almost passed the American shook his head.“Aaaand he's not telling us squat. Again. What a surprise.” He said sarcastically.

Switching back to his PPSh-41 Nikolai shrugged his shoulders and said. “Maybe he is preoccupied? Seems like a good reason, no?”

“No, Nikolai. Just, no.” Dempsey scolded the man. Nikolai gave the man the 'fuck you' gesture. “...Yeah, fuck you too.”

Seeing an argument was about to kick off Naruto called out. “C'mon you two, let's get out of here. This tomb is giving me the creeps.” He didn't bother to wait for their response he just walked out of the cave.

Shrugging Samantha made to follow with Takeo not far behind. Giving each other mildly annoyed looks for a moment both Nikolai and Dempsey put aside their annoyance with one another and followed the other three out of the tomb. Once they were finally out of the tomb they all took long, deep breaths of fresh air and exhaled.

“3 of 4 generators are now on.” Naruto said to himself before he frowned thoughtfully. “Remind me; what were we doing again?”

“We were trying to get enough power to make a large enough crack in the gateway for Gersch to get through.” Dempsey answered.

“So...” The spike blonde haired teen began as he scratched the side of his head in confusion. “...our objective had changed from trying to take down the forcefield surrounding the Staff of Lightning and free Gersch, to send enough energy pulses through the generators and soul boxes into the other dimension the Russian's trapped in?”

The other four thought on this for a minute and it dawned on them that, that was what they were doing. They're not trying to take down the forcefield; instead they are sending energy to Gersch so it can make a big enough hole for him to escape through.

“The fuck...?” Dempsey expressed disbelief. “How the fuck did we miss something like that?!”

“We have been fighting the hell spawn whenever we activate the generators or the boxes that can absorb the souls of the deceased.” Takeo helpfully reminded, making everyone remember they could have forgotten the change in their objective because of the many battles they have had with the undead.

“Maybe we should check out temple.” Suggested Nikolai as he pointed in the direction of said temple. “We haven't checked place out in while. It could have changed in some way since... those three generators and filled 4 of those soul boxes were done.”

The other four thought on this for a moment and then made sounds of agreement; with Takeo vocalising it in his own way. “Agreed. The temple of the ancients may provide us answers to our objective.” His words had merit. They haven't been to the temple in a while so they won't know if it had changed in some way. If they went to it right now not, only would they know if there has been changes to it or not but they would know if turning on the generators is making the forcefield around the Staff of Lightning to short-circuit itself because of the amount of energy that was being generated by the generators and the soul boxes.

How the soul boxes added power to the forcefield they had no idea, but they weren't going to question it or risk getting a headache trying to find out.

Takeo had suggested they go to the temple and find out if anything has changed with it and seeing no one else has any other ideas they weren't about to argue with the man. So the five of them made their way back to the temple to see if there was any changes done to it while they were out there hunting for generators and soul boxes. Despite the need to get the mechanical staff that shoots out lightning and to free Gersch from that dimension he was trapped in, the group took their time in getting back to the courtyard where the stairway leading to the top of the temple was stationed.

So it was for that reason the five of them took an hour just to get there. It would have been 2 or three 3 hours, but Takeo was pissed off at the others for taking their time. They didn't want to see how much patience the samurai had left in him. So when they were around halfway back to the courtyard the others basically hauled ass the rest of the way there after Takeo began muttering darkly to himself in Japanese.

He was most definitely not staring at them with a blank face while doing it. Nor was he NOT curling his fingers as it made its way to the handle of his katana with the intent of drawing it out of its sheath and using the flat end of the sword on them. Because they hauled ass as if the devil were chasing them they never heard Takeo chuckling to himself in amusement.

Yes, people. Takeo has a sense of humour. Deal with it.

Now we find the group back at the courtyard exhausted with Naruto and Takeo being the only exceptions. They were standing at the base of the staircase that would lead to the top of the temple. Rolling his shoulders to get rid of the kinks from his joints Naruto gazed between his comrades before turning his gaze up the staircase and the top of the temple. With a determined look, the spiked blonde haired teen made his way up the staircase in a fast pace.

“Hey! Vait for me vould you!” Samantha yelled out at Naruto startlingly before running after him. Naruto barely reached the tenth step when the girl called out to him, so being the kind person he is he waited for her to catch up before continuing his way up the temple with Samantha by his side.

“Huh, I thought you'd want to stay down there and rest. You, Tank and Nikolai are fairly tired after all the running we did to get here.” Naruto commented conversely once Samantha caught up to him. He started walking in a sedate pace rather than the quick one he was doing before because the girl was still tired.

“I am fine. A little exhaustion never hurt anybody.” Naruto glanced at her from the corner of his eye with a sceptical look that could be faintly seen.

“Uh-huh.” He replied, sounding a little unconvinced. He had a little suspicion that she wanted to be beside him a little more; but he wasn't sure. However he decided to believe in her words. “So what are the chances of the generators are what we need to get that forcefield down?”

“I do not know. I vould think zhey are low in our chances, mien friend.” The girl replied before her face scrunched up in thought. “However, I do think zhat zhere is a chance zhe generators are vhat ve need to turn off zhe forcefield surrounding zhe Staff of Lightning.”

“That's what I was thinking.” Naruto agreed. “Gersch did say the gateway was closed because of the staff. So if we overload those 'lights' as he called them, then the forcefield will go down. Then maybe, just maybe, the gateway will open up leaving the staff for the taking and he would be freed from his prison?”

“But Gersch said zhere vas cracks in zhe gatevay did he not? Vhat about zhat?”

Naruto frowned thoughtfully for a moment. “Well... the man did say the energy influxes we were sending was flowing into the gateway. Maybe those cracks are representing the gateway is close to being opened?” He replied with a helpless shrug of his shoulders.

“Or maybe it vas meant to be closed for a reason.” The girl replied in a conspirational manner.

Naruto didn't look convinced however. “Or maybe that dimension he is trapped in is similar to the Casimir Mechanism in that Russian Cosmodrone.” The two of them were so entranced in their conversation they never realised they were near the top of the staircase. “Tank, Nikolai, Richtofen and Takeo and I had to do a similar thing to what we're doing now.”

“I know zhat.” She replied sharply, causing Naruto to inch back at the nasty look she was sending him. Seems Richtofen was still a sore spot for her. “And vhat happened to you after zhat?”

“We were given a mini-gun to use for about a minute before we were teleported from the Cosmodrone to a frozen... closed room...” He started before trailing off as he stopped at the top of the staircase. With a blank face he slowly turned his head to his friend and in a tone that suited his expressionless face said. “I really, really hope that won't be happening after this. Because if it is then Gersch is a troll.”

Now that her irritation was over with Samantha's attitude was back to normal; and she found Naruto's comment to be amusing if her soft, and mouth covered giggling was any indication. Once she got herself back under control she looked ahead. Before her very eyes was the shrine like structure that had the Staff they wanted floating in the middle. Three of four lights powering the forcefield were gone, and the last one was still activated. The source the lights were coming from, was something straight out of a Sci-Fi movie or book.

They were highly advanced technologically, and looked like the stop of a mini stage light. A really, really advanced looking stage light that looked completely alien and out of this world if you have never seen it before. The glass beam located at the front, where the energy would shoot out, was completely destroyed; shards of glass could be seen spread out on the ground in front of it.

Switching their gaze to the staff itself they could see the forcefield surrounding the powerful weapon was flickering on and off, and that the staff itself was almost touching the ground now that the gravitational field keeping it floating was almost gone.

This meant the 4 generators they need to turn on is the catalyst of the forcefield. They turn the last one on, and the forcefield keeping them from taking the staff would short-circuit completely and leave the staff for the taking.

And also freeing Gersch. Cannot forget about Gersch. Even if the man was completely useless in helping them.

Naruto narrowed his eyes a little in curiosity and followed Samantha's gaze. He saw the same thing as his friend did and quickly came to the same conclusion as her own.

“Find the last generator. Turn it on. Then grab that shit!” Naruto exclaimed in determination.

“Nice to see zhat you've got your priorities straight...” Samantha deadpanned at him.

“Hey, it's a staff of fucking-lightning Samantha! And I LOVE electrifying shit! Of course getting that staff would be my priority!” The blonde replied in exclamation as he pointed a finger at said Staff with wide, yet fierce and determined eyes.

“You just vant to impress zhe ladies.” Her replied unimpressed, her expression changing to match her tone.

“No, I want the staff so I can survive... and so I can electrify things.” He added as an afterthought.

“You just vant to impress zhe ladies.” Samantha repeated, still keeping the bland tone and expression from changing.

Naruto just gave her a blank look. “Who the hell could I impress someone with, with a Staff of Mass Destruction? You're the only girl I know and actually like and does not in any way get on my nerves.”

“Oh? You like me?” Naruto didn't know if Samantha was being serious or not, but he felt a little self conscious with that sly smile she was giving him. “Do you like me as a friend?” She questioned him, leaning forward until she was right in his face.

He was tempted to lean back when she leaned herself forward until their faces were nearly touching. But he kept his ground, for about three seconds before he leaned back to get his comfort bubble that Samantha burst back to normal.

He answered her question nevertheless. “Is that a trick question?” It was not said to be a good answer, only that it was AN answer. But if her question was a tricky one, then he had no idea what to say, just in case he accidentally offended her.

“Nein. Just say yes, or no.” Naruto noticed with a little worry that her smile seemed strained. She seemed more... possessive for some reason that is unknown to him.

“In that case; yes, I like you as a very, very good friend.” That was the right answer from the pleased smile she was giving him.

“Good! I vould have been upset vith you if you had said no, after all ve have been through. Now let us report back to zhe others and inform zhem on vhat ve know.” She told him with enthusiasm before she turned around and made her way back down the stairway.

She was a little disappointed but not that much. Her man didn't think of her in that way yet, but he did consider her to be more than just a friend. To him she was a very, very good friend and that was a lot better than being just a friend.

Naruto stared down after her feeling a little creeped out. Was it just him or did she seem a little... possessive? The thought of Samantha being possessive was very flattering, since she holds him in high regard to be considered possessive. But at the same time it is creepy and something he doesn't know how to handle.

He just hopes she won't become crazy or something. He would probably have to get Tank, Nikolai and Takeo involved in this if it goes too far. Well, may be not Nikolai considering his problem solving revolves around a weapon, a target, and killing said target without remorse.

...He'll keep Nikolai on reserve.