FicWad

Dead Rising

Chapter 12

It had been several days since Naruto had gone missing during the retrieval mission. He had been marked off as Missing In Action by the Fifth Hokage Tsunade Senju. Jiraiya, Naruto's godfather and mentor had tried his best to search for the boy. Only to come up with nothing thus far.

The Valley of the End at the climax of the battle between two friends was drenched in rain. Washing away any evidence of Naruto and Sasuke being there. No one knew where the Uzumaki went. But those who cared for the pre-teen were suspecting the worst.

Sasuke had managed to get away unfortunately.

In the middle of the stone henge a large patch of the earth was dying. Above the dying earth was the small rift. Once small that it was almost unseen to the naked eye, it was now the size of a car. The rift glowed a faint blueish green and the air around it seemed to distort.

Suddenly a form began to take shape in the rift. Seeming to resemble a giant outlandish looking rock. It fell out of the rift' and landed on the ground with a loud 'THUD!'. It was so heavy that it dug in the earth on impact.

Seconds after the rock fell out of the rift everything around it began to shrivel and die at a more rapid pace than before.

X.X.X.X

“I hate this fucking thing!” Naruto exclaimed in angered annoyance.

“You an' me both kid!” Dempsey yelled back. He heard the round of the earth being torn. Looking over his shoulder Dempsey widened his eyes in shock before he ducked and rolled, narrowly dodging a boulder sized rock that was thrown at him. He quickly got back to his feet and started running again. “Fucking boulder tossing prick! Why isn't your Elemental Staffs not doing anything!?”

“You're asking me?!”

The Super Zombie was a real pain in the ass. Their bullets were completely ineffective against it. It was seemingly invincible. The only way the four of them were able to hurt it in any significant way was because of the damn Elemental Staffs. And the fucker was STILL shrugging off the balls of molten lava and bolts of electricity that hit it like an' annoyance!

Even after taking a full magazine to the face the super zombie shrugged it off. Completely unaffected. If they didn't know any better they would think it was regenerating as quickly as it was getting hurt. It didn't register any damage at all.

And this is what made the Type 6 zombies incredibly dangerous.

And what was worse, the sounds their weapons were making was attracting unwanted attention. Zombies, walkers thankfully, were making their way to them. They were taken care of easily enough. The four zombie slayers had took turns in shooting the zombies, while the others would keep the stupidly overpowered super zombie focused on them.

What was worse they were unable to get a breather. The giant zombified Iwa-nin kept following them. Never tiring. Never stopping. It didn't help that it's capable of manipulating the earth.

“Watch out! It's about to throw another boulder!” Dempsey warned the others, hearing the zombie ripping out a huge chunk of the earth.

Naruto stopped running and turned on the heel of his feet. His Staff of Lightning had been changed for his M-16. With his assault rifle raised and ready to fire, the teenager took aim and fired at the zombies' wrists in short controlled bursts. The zombie grunted as it felt the bullets tear through its muscle and bone but shrugged it off. Pulling its arms back, with a mighty grunt, the zombie adjusted its aim and threw its arms forward; tossing the boulder at the teenager shooting him.

Naruto lowering his M-16 widened his eyes and instinctively channelled chakra into his legs. He bent his knees and jumped up and over the boulder much his own surprise. Nikolai and Takeo leapt to the side narrowly missing the boulder. They quickly got back up and stared, along with Dempsey, with wide shocked eyes as Naruto landed in the same spot he jumped from.

“The fuck was that?!”

“I don't know!” Naruto replied to Nikolai's question. “I just...did it!”

“Does this have to do with your past you have little memory of?” Takeo asked Naruto with a curious tone, despite currently being attacked.

“Now is not the time to be asking 20 questions!” Dempsey interrupted them before pointing at the super zombie that was now running at them at a faster pace than before. “We still have that fucking thing to deal with!”

The dark brown/greenish aura surrounding the zombie solidified and hardened. Forming a shell of armour made entirely out of earth around it from head to toe. Growling at the back of his throat Naruto slung his M-16 over his shoulder and held out his hand in front of him; the Staff of Lightning materialised in his palm and Naruto held it with both hands with a firm grip.

Seeing this Takeo saw what Naruto was going to do and he followed the teens example. Slinging his Type 100 over his shoulder the samurai held out his hand in front of him, and willed the Staff of Fire into his palm. The Elemental staff materialised in his palm and the samurai held in with both hands with the top end of the staff pointing at the encased zombie.

Naruto's intent was to chip away at the earth made armour that surrounded the zombie. Takeo's was to melt it off with the sheer heat and burning power the balls of molten lava is capable of. The two staves in the hands of Naruto and Takeo made quick work of the earth made armour.

Nikolai and Dempsey took pot shots in the gaps of the armour the lightning and fire/lava had made. Fortunately the Elemental Staves had hurt the super zombie a lot. The earth armour did nothing to stop the lighting from chipping away at it, and in some cases leaving charred, rotting skin.

The earth armour had literally no defence against the lava, heat and fire that came from the Staff of Fire. The zombie underneath had no defence against it. As a result it had most of its skin melted off of its bones. But that didn't matter; because it was still coming at them as if it weren't hurt at all!

Through all this the super zombie grunted and growled lowly with irritation as the lightning bolts and balls of fire either burnt or melted its skin from its rotten, decaying body. While it didn't feel pain from their attacks, it could somewhat feel the effects they were having on it. And it didn't like that. Throwing its head back with a loud roar the super zombie hunched down and moved! Sprinting to the zombie slayers with its arms sweeping from left to right in front of it.

Takeo and Naruto seeing this had to turn on their heels and run again. With Nikolai and Dempsey following after them. They had to keep themselves ahead of it at all times. If they were to let themselves slow down, even for just a second, then the zombie would capitalize on that and take advantage.

Just because the zombie was dead, doesn't mean it does not remember parts of its past life. The former Iwa-nin was a decent strategist was it was alive. And it had managed to retain some of that strategic mind.

Tossing boulders it had ripped out of the earth made the four dodge, thus making them slow down and for it to catch up to them. And since its nervous system was almost completely inactive, it couldn't feel anything happening to it that well. It would just continue to chase after its prey as if it weren't hurt at all.

Doing what he had done before Naruto bent his knees and jumped up in the sky. He twisted himself around in mid air, and opened fire on the super zombie.

The zombie feeling it being attacked from above stopped and turned its attention from Takeo, Nikolai and Dempsey to Naruto. Landing on the earth in a kneel Naruto kept his eyes on the super zombie, even as he slowly got back to his two feet.

This was likely to get him killed. He wasn't going to follow the others. Not this time. There was something he had to try concerning the strengths and weaknesses of this zombie in front of him. There was something bugging him about the way the earth is dying around it; he wanted to know what that was and if there was a way to stop it.

He skilfully spun the Staff of Lightning in his hands before stopping, with it being behind his back and with one hand reached out in front of him. With a hard look Naruto beckoned the super zombie challengingly.

Growling slowly the super zombie began to slowly walk to the whisker face' blonde. The dark brown/greenish aura hardened around its arms and legs.

“Naruto!?” Takeo called out in worry when he noticed Naruto wasn't with them. He stopped and turned around, and found Naruto and the zombie – with the aura hardening around its arms and legs - staring down one another.

Dempsey and Nikolai running stopped when they saw Takeo and Naruto wasn't following them. Turning around they saw Naruto, staff behind his back and one hand held out in front of him in a challenging manner. The zombie was walking to the teenager. Completely focused on him instead of them.

“Fucking hell! What is the kid doing?!” Dempsey hotly asked aloud as he made his way to help the teenager. There was no way in HELL he was going to leave him alone!

Nikolai growled under his breath. “He must have some death wish!” He exclaimed fiercely, following Dempsey as he reloaded his PPSh-41.

“Wait! Stay there!” Naruto yelled out to them once he saw they were coming back to help him.

“Do you have a fucking death wish Naruto!?” Dempsey yelled in outrage. But he and the others stopped moving and instead aimed their weapon on the super zombie. “That thing will murder you!!!”

“We will not leave you to face this demon spawn!” Takeo added.

“Da! What he said!” Nikolai added as well motioning his head to Takeo.

Naruto was about to respond and then he saw the super zombie was no longer paying attention on him and was about try and attack Takeo, Nikolai and Dempsey. “Hey!” He brought his staff in front of him and shot a lightning bolt at the super zombie, causing it to growl in annoyance and bring its attention back to himself. “Focus on me, asshole!”

Naruto quickly used a chakra enhanced leap to get out of the way when it moved. Its running speed was much faster than before. It had one arm raised to attack and when it reached the spot Naruto was once standing it punched the ground, shattering it completely and making a small crater around its encase fist. A cloud of dust and dirt was made and it completely surrounded the super zombie.

Naruto who had landed at this point had wide eyes. He could feel the shock waves running through the earth from that punch. Not to mention the ground around it was dying.

“It looks like the earth around its limbs has bolstered its strength and speed significantly.” Takeo stated analytically.

“Not to mention the ground around it is decaying at a much faster pace than before.” Dempsey pointed out.

Hearing this Naruto looked at the ground beneath the zombies feet. True to Dempsey's words the earth was decaying at a much faster pace than before.

“So that means every time it manipulates the earth, the ground around it decays faster.” Takeo added on.

“That's why our attacks don't seem to be hurting it all that much! It's using the earth to heal itself!” Naruto declared loudly in realization.

“Is that why you stayed back? To see if you can find out its strengths and weaknesses?”

“Yeah! It was!” Naruto answered Dempsey's question.

“You could have told us you idiot!” Nikolai exclaimed with a shaking fist.

“This is coming from the man that took down an entire building and a bridge with two separate grenades?”

“...Fuck you!”

Naruto recoiled as if he were burnt. “I don't swing that way, man.” He said with a gag before adding jokingly. “Samantha on the other hand is more like my type.”

He and the others were surprised when they heard Samantha yelling at them from above. “I heard zhat, Naruto!”

But none were more surprised than Naruto. “...Oh crap, you heard that?!” He called out looking toward the sky with eyes wide in shock.

“I heard everything, 'mien friend.” The girl replied in a sickeningly sweet voice that made everyone wince at how fake sounding it was. They were brought back to reality when the super zombie roared and came rushing out of the dust cloud it had created. Naruto was forced to run as it was focused on him. The blonde shuttered nervously when he heard Samantha say in his head in the same sickeningly sweet tone, “Ve vill be talking about zhis. Not today. Not tomorrow. But soon.”

He wasn't looking forward to that, not at all; but the super zombie demanded his full attention. And while he does like Samantha the super zombie was a much higher priority. Since it was like, the biggest threat to their very lives.

“Fucking boulder tossing prick.” The teenager muttered under his breath just before he heard the super zombie ripping out another large slab of earth. Groaning with frustration Naruto was forced to roll to the side to avoid the thrown slab of earth. Naruto flipped the Staff of Lightning so he was holding it in reverse, with the top pointed directly at the zombie behind him.

He pushed the trigger and held it causing the top of the Elemental Staff to whirr and buzz loudly, as lightning arched around it. The super zombie seeing Naruto wasn't running ran to him, the earth covered limbs doing its job in somehow making the 8 to 9 foot tall zombie move faster. It wasn't until the zombie was halfway to its intended victim that the Staff of Lightning was fully charged. Naruto released the trigger and unleashed one of the most devastating lightning bolts that ever came out of the lightning staff.

Naruto was unprepared for the recoil and it literally knocked on flat on his stomach. The super zombie didn't registrar the much more powerful lightning bolt that was racing its way toward it. All it was focused on was Naruto and once he was within its grasp it would proceed to kill the teenager. Nothing else mattered to it. So it was of no surprise that the lightning bolt collided with the super zombie and lit it up like a Christmas tree.

Tank, Nikolai, Takeo and Naruto watched in astonished shock as the super zombie twitched and spazzed out. They were stunned that, that lightning bolt had even managed to make it roar and bellow in agony. With the steam coming off of its rotten body and the smell of burnt flesh, the four knew the walking corpse was being fried from the inside.

The earth around its arms and legs began to crumble and fall to the ground. The zombie fell to its knees still roaring and bellowing in agony.

“Takeo!” Naruto called out and the samurai seemed to know what Naruto wanted him to do. With an affirmative grunt Takeo pulled the trigger on his staff and held it. Like the Staff of Lightning, it began to whirr and buzz loudly, as fire formed around the top and started crackling around it. Unlike Naruto, the Asian was fully expecting the recoil and prepared himself for it.

When he released the trigger, a large single ball of molten lava shot out of the staff. And raced to the stunned super zombie in seemingly a blink of an eye. The group were thrown off their feet when the fireball suddenly and unexpectedly exploded when it hit the zombie directly on the torso.

Naruto being closer to the zombie was thrown back quite a ways away and was sent tumbling across the ground before sliding to a halt. Groaning distressingly the teenager slowly pushed himself off the ground and stood up and as he held the side of his head he staggered in place for a moment as he couldn't find his balance. He looked down at himself and found his clothes were matted with dirt and was singed by the exploding fireball. Thankfully the Staff of Lightning was still in his grasp. Blinking twice Naruto slowly turned around and found Nikolai, Dempsey and Takeo were already getting back to their feet albeit in better condition as he was as they weren't that close to the explosion.

He was damn lucky he wasn't engulfed by the flames.

Coughing weakly Naruto made his way back to the others who're staring at the fire that seemed to resemble a pillar. Now beside the three Naruto was able to see the super zombie was burnt beyond repair. There was literally almost nothing left of it. The earth had stopped dying. The bellowing and roars had stopped. The zombie was currently being reduced to ashes.

Sighing with relief Naruto and Takeo now that they didn't have any other use for their elemental staves dematerialised them.

“That was surprisingly tough.” Naruto said with a grunt.

“Yeah. It was.” Dempsey said in agreement. He turned to look at Naruto and gave him a hard stare. “What you did was plain idiotic. What the hell were you thinking?”

Naruto gave Dempsey a tired look and replied, “I was thinking of trying to find out what its strengths and weaknesses are.” He sighed and rubbed the back of his head with a frown. “However, I didn't really think it through.” He added as he looked back to the pillar of fire.

“Give credit where credit is due, American.” Nikolai said as he gestured to the fire. “It worked out in end!”

“Yes. Because staying behind where the likelihood of getting killed is increased is such a good idea.” The American replied with sarcasm lathed in his voice. He sighed, “But I do agree with you Nikolai; it DID work out in the end.”

“Indeed. We know it is weak against lightning and fire.” Takeo said stroking his bearded chin with a thoughtful look. “We are now able to use this to our advantage.”

Nikolai made a thinking sound as he thought deeply. “What are we going to call the hell spawn?” He asked, looking between Takeo, Naruto and Dempsey with an expectant look.

Dempsey shrugged. “I dunno. We'll call it 'Earth zombie' for now. Until we can think of a better name for it.”

Naruto sighed exhaled lowly and nodded his head with a serious look on his face. “Alright. We'll call it Earth zombie for now. It's simple and easy to remember.”

The four stared in silence for seemed like ages. Until Dempsey broke it by randomly asking, “So...you leaping around the place like a frog; is that an ability you were able to do before you lost your memory?”

“I think so? I'm pretty darn sure there's even more things I can do with my chakra. I just can't remember how to do them.” The teenager replied honestly. “They will likely come back to me sooner or later.”

“Ah. Good to know.” Dempsey sounded out with a slow nod.

“We have big city to explore. Where do we go to find Staff of Ice?” Nikolai asked. The others looked at Naruto for an answer. Since this is his world they would await his decision.

Naruto tsked at the looks they were giving him and shrugged cluelessly. He had no idea where they should go to next. Heck the only Hidden Village he can recall being in is Konohagakure and that is only because he used to live there. Iwa on the other hand is a no go. He had no idea on where the Staff of Ice would be hidden and he had no idea of this Hidden Village's layout. So he was pretty much useless in this situation.

If they had a local to guide them through Iwagakure no Sato then that would be an entirely different story. But the likelihood of that happening is very unlikely since the Hidden Village is completely overrun with zombies. And no one apart from them is around.

If only they had an extra pair of eyes that could see beyond them.

Wait... they did have an extra pair of eyes!

Looking up toward the sky Naruto called out. “Samantha, can you help and guide us to where the Staff of Ice is located from where you are?” The other three quickly looked toward the sky as well as they quickly came to realise what Naruto was doing. Asking for 'divine intervention' or something along that line.

Samantha was quiet for a full minute. Naruto looking at Takeo, Dempsey and Nikolai with a worried look, looked up toward the sky and asked again. Again all he's gotten was silence.

“She has gone quiet.” Nikolai observed.

“I think it's because of that comment about her being more of his type.” Dempsey unhelpfully guessed, his tone extremely dry and bland.

“I do not like this.” Takeo stated warily. “Her being silent can be a very bad thing.”

Naruto nodded in agreement. She was talking to them just fine minutes ago. Why would she be quiet now? It couldn't be because of what he said could it? Or could it be some outside interference they didn't know about?

“So if she can't help us, then that means we're on our own in this search.” Dempsey grimly stated. He looked around and asked as he gestured in four directions that would take them to the North, East, South and West. “Which direction should we take?”

Takeo and Nikolai both looked at Naruto with a look of expectancy. They would let Naruto choose which direction for them to take. This would prevent them from being indecisive in their decision. Seeing they were going to make him choose, Naruto sighed and took a moment to think. After looking around for a minute he pointed to the East as that is where he could see the tallest building that had a cone-shaped roof. In his mind that building would give them a good vantage point of the entirety of Iwagakure.

Unknown to any of them that direction would lead them deeper into the Hidden Village bringing them to its centre where the undead are most concentrated. It is also where the Tsuchikage's residence is located as it is the tallest structure in the entirety of Iwagakure with a cone-shaped roof.

Takeo saw the tall building in the distance. “Is that structure the reason you have chosen this direction?” He asked turning to look at Naruto with a questioning expression. When the whisker face' teen nodded in confirmation, Takeo nodded with approval and turned his gaze back to the tall building. “I approve. It will give us a good vantage point.”

As Takeo and Naruto were speaking Tank and Nikolai used that time to reload their weapons. With Iwagakure overrun they were bound to attract unwanted attention. It was best to have your current magazine to be filled with bullets, rather than discovering it to be empty upon the next contact with the enemy.

“Let's get a move on people. That Elemental Staff won't find itself.” The American told them as he motioned to them to follow him. The four quickly fell into formation with their weapons reloaded, aimed and ready to fire. Tank was on point at the front, Takeo and Nikolai were covering the flanks at the sides and Naruto was positioned behind them covering the rear.

They moved as one. Each step they took was carefully made and executed. As if they were preforming an infiltrating mission deep behind enemy lines. They didn't like how the buildings in this Hidden Village were built into the mountains surrounding it. The streets were completely empty; and there was nothing for them to hide behind for cover. No boxes. No wagons or barrels. Absolutely nothing. The streets were completely barren of anything of cover worthy.

Well except for those holes that super zombie made when it tore out a large slab of earth to throw at them. Other than that they were literally sitting ducks as they moved down the streets.

30 minutes later Dempsey, Nikolai, Naruto and Takeo were half way to their objective. The four of them were on edge as they encountered no zombies of any type throughout their travelling through the deserted streets of Iwagakure no Sato. Which was odd in that they were under attack by both a zombie horde and an earth zombie just a half an hour ago.

“I don't like this.” Dempsey said with paranoia. “It's too quiet.”

Takeo grunted in agreement. While silence is a good thing for most people, for the four of them it is a bad thing. A very, very bad thing. If they were able to hear noises they would know what to expect. If not then that would mean something bad is about to happen.

Back when Samantha was their enemy, every time they didn't hear the moaning or groaning of the zombies it was the Hellhounds she sent after them they would be facing. But there was no howling of the hellhounds. No moans or groans of the undead filling their ears either.

It was dead silent. And it unnerved them greatly. But they were professionals and they were used to this sort of thing.

They were simply...too pro...to be scared by the likes of dead silence! To pro to stare at the face of a thousand zombies and flinch like a bitch! They were to pro...too simply pro...to be warded off by the likes of this.

“Ah. A Markiplier reference. Very nice.” Dempsey commented light-heartedly with a sagely nod.

Takeo, Nikolai and Naruto all looked at the marine oddly. “Marki-who?” Naruto asked questionably.

Dempsey easily brushed Naruto's question aside. “No one for you to be concerned with.” He said dismissively.

The others stared at Dempsey with deadpanned looks. “I think Dempsey is trying to break fourth wall again.” Nikolai said loudly.

“Ignore the fourth wall breaking.” Naruto said to Nikolai with a sigh, while he figuratively cracked the fourth wall too. “We are allowed to break it. Just not that often.” He added conclusively.

“I prefer if we did not.” Takeo grunted with dis-passion. “The plot of this story would be thrown out of line. And it would be unwise for us to derail this chapter any further than it already is.” He added with finality.

Seeing as they have been effectively silenced Takeo nodded to himself with a look of satisfaction.

Then suddenly the ground in front of them exploded! The earth cracked and uprooted itself as something impacted the ground in front of them. A thick cloud of dirt and smoke rose into the atmosphere. keeping the super soldiers from being able to see through.

The four taken completely by surprise and were thrown off their feet. As they skid and bounced off the ground, they quickly went with their momentum and after getting their timing right they rolled themselves to a kneel. Thankfully they had the foresight to put their sling over their shoulder. So they still had their main weapon in their gasp.

Dempsey and Takeo, Nikolai and Naruto all gazed at one another with concern. They were fairly spread out. The earth uprooting had separated them a little. They redirected their gaze ahead of them when they heard footsteps.

With the smoke impeding their vision they were unable to see just what was walking out of the like to be crater in front of them. Then they heard a low and hungry sounding growl' emitting from the smoke and dirt cloud in front of them.

“...Oh for fucks sake...” Nikolai cursed despairingly.

Walking out of the dust and smoke cloud in front of them was another earth zombie. It was dragging an object along the ground behind it. It brought its weapon in front of it, revealing it to be a spiked club made out of earth.

With a sigh Takeo and Naruto shared a look, nodded in silent agreement, and slung their primary weapons over their shoulder. With their hand held out in front of them, the staves of Fire and Lightning materialised in their palms.

They both pressed and held down the trigger on their Elemental Staves, causing them to crackle, whirr and glow at the front end as they powered up.

Nikolai and Dempsey seeing what they were going to do and knowing just how destructive those things are when they are powered up completely, quickly got themselves behind them. They did NOT want to be caught in the middle of the destructive blast that would be coming out of those staves.

It had taken Naruto and Takeo nearly ten seconds for their staves to be charged completely. Then after sharing another look they brought their gaze back to the zombie and just when it started to make its way to them, they both released the trigger.

The earth zombie didn't know what hit it.

The bolt of lightning, and the ball of flaming magma hit the zombie directly in the chest. The bolt of electricity shocked the zombie in place, rendering it immobile. And once the ball of flaming magma collided, it exploded violently creating another smoke cloud around it. The zombie let out a pain filled roar from the combined attacks and rushed out of the cloud of smoke covered completely in fire with the intent on killing its attackers.

Most of its decaying skin and torn clothes had been burnt away from the combined attacks. Leaving behind charred and blackened skin that was crumbling from the rotting corpse. There was a large gaping hole in its gut that went all the way through. The hole was large enough to fit an entire arm through.

Dempsey and Nikolai despite knowing their guns would be useless took aim and opened fire on the approaching super zombie. It grunted irritatingly as the bullets met its mark. But the zombie shrugged it off and with both hands grasping on the earth made club raised its arms above its head and leapt at the person nearest to it.

Takeo leapt to the side, narrowly avoiding the club as it was brought down on the spot where he was standing, making a small sized crater on the ground and rolled back to his feet. He had his Elemental Staff aimed at the zombie once again and was readying it for another shot.

Both Dempsey and Nikolai were still shooting the zombie and as it had its back to them the bullets were hitting its back. It was completely ignoring them though. Its eyes were focused entirely on him. And if Takeo was honest to himself it unnerved him.

The zombie roared and stumbled forward when it was stuck by a lightning bolt in the back. Curtsy of Naruto who had made the super zombie turn its attention onto him instead of Takeo. Still ignoring the other two men that were shooting at it, the giant zombie ran to Naruto with the intent to crush him beneath its makeshift club.

Naruto smirked and redirected his aim so he was pointing the top end of his staff at the super zombie's head. He pulled the trigger and a lightning bolt shot out of the top end of the staff, and hit the zombie directly between the eyes. The zombie roared out in frustration and dropped the earth made club it was holding to the ground as the lightning bolt roasted its eyes.

It staggered forward with another roar when Takeo fired another powered up ball of molten lava at its back. This third shot had finally brought the earth zombie to its knees; the first two charged shots wounding it severely' in the front. Naruto hurting it even more with his lesser charged shot to its back, and then blinding it by shooting a well placed lightning bolt to its face. And then Takeo delivering the third charged shot that finally brought it to its knees.

Naruto was the one to take it down once and for all when he fired a fully charged lightning bolt at its face. Completely destroying the entire skull and all of its contents. It slumped on its back lifelessly, blood pouring out around it from its neck.

Naruto spun the Staff of Lightning in his hands with expertise. He didn't know why but he had a feeling him doing that was important. He realised that once he stopped spinning his staff in his hands, the Staff of Lightning got a little heavier. This was the way for him to reload his Wonder Weapon! Odd, but he isn't going to argue with that.

The Elemental Staves dematerialised into particles in Takeo's and Naruto's hands. The two of them nodded to one another with a look of accomplishment evident on their faces and regrouped with the others, all the while bringing their primary weapons to bare.

Dempsey and Nikolai reloaded their primary weapons and walked over to the headless corpse with Naruto and Takeo joining them.

“That was a lot quicker than I thought it would be.” Dempsey said as he knelt down beside the headless corpse to analyse what remained of it. “It seems knowing its weaknesses had let you both kill it faster.” He turned his head to look at Naruto and Takeo as he said this.

“That is good news no?” Nikolai asked questionably as Dempsey got back to his feet.

Dempsey nodded as he looked at the Russian. “Yeah. It's very good news. We should be able to take care of any other earth zombie we come across.”

Naruto was very tempted to say “Unless they run out of power”. But he withheld his urge to do so. He didn't want to completely kill their enthusiasm and moral.

“We should not press our luck when it comes to facing these demons.” Takeo said to them before pointing at the Tsuchikage's residence, prompting the other three to look in the direction he was pointing towards. “We must continue on with our objective.”

Rolling his shoulders Naruto sighed as they all went back into formation and continued on to their destination.

X.X.X.X

30 minutes ago...

Samantha had been watching Dempsey's, Takeo's, Nikolai's and Naruto's progress through Iwagakure. She had felt a bit of nostalgia watching the four of them fighting against the type 6 zombie and the crowd that accompanied it.

It was just like old times when she was trying her damned best to kill them. Except for Naruto. He was her friend and she tried to help him as much as she possibly could. Which wasn't much considering she was trapped on the moon frozen inside of a pyramid that, thanks to Uncle Edward experimenting on her, had given her the power to control the undead.

She even tried to make the least amount of zombies to go after him. Which went unnoticed by the others; considering he was always with Dempsey, Nikolai or Takeo. And they always had a large amount of zombies going after them so that was why that particular detail went unnoticed for as along as it had.

And so after Naruto and Takeo had learnt the weakness that type 6 zombie had and used it against it, she made the tactical map zoom out of Iwagakure so she would have a full birds eye view of the entire Elemental Nations.

“Zhey have it under control.” She told herself with assurance. And she made the map zoom in on the Land of Fire. It was nowhere near Naruto's birthplace however as she wanted to see what else was within Fire Country.

The Land of Fire as she expected had a lot of trees. The further away from Konohagakure no Sato they were the more dead they appeared to be. The furtherest ones at the borders to the various countries were dead. Their bark was completely rotten. And the ground too was dead.

It was directly at the border between the Land of Fire and the Land of Grass that Samantha took notice of something. A girl wearing white clothing and has tanned skin and oddly enough green coloured hair was walking into the Land of Fire.

Curiosity getting the better of her Samantha made the tactical map zoom in on the girl so she could get a closer look. The girl is a teenager Samantha noticed; around the same age as Naruto. The iris of her eyes were an unnatural colour to Samantha. Her orange hair clip matched it.

She made a face at how much skin was showing on the girl.

She only wore a midriff shirt with fishnet armour underneath, a pair white long armlets on her arms and fishnet shorts with a apron skirt over it. The zombies would be able to bite into her legs and stomach no problem considering how much of her was exposed. And her clothes, the zombies would be able to bite through them no problem!

The fishnet armour would give her some protection; but without it covering the rest of her body then it would be close to useless as protective covering.

And so Samantha followed the girls progress into the Land of Fire. And before she knew it 30 minutes had past. During that short amount of time she felt Naruto asking her for help with something but since she was distracted she didn't notice it.

Just when Samantha was about to leave the girl and bring the tactical map back to the Land of Earth, the green haired girl stopped walking and started talking to herself.

“I can't go to the Land of Earth now. Getting there would mean I have to backtrack through the Land of Grass. And means going back in the direction of Takigakure.” She shook her head from side to side firmly, sighing she gained a determined look and starting making her way into the Land of Fire once again. “Its most likely the Mysterious Five will be gone by the time I reach the border to the Land of Earth, and I'll bet Shibuki has already sent shinobi to retrieve me by now. No. Going back is out of the question. I'll have to wait and go find them if they're going to be in the Land of Fire in the near future.”

Samantha cupped her chin thoughtfully as she took in this information. So this girl was looking for them? And from the sounds of it she's a deserter too? Samantha was in a bit of a dilemma here. She can make contact with the girl and bring her to them. On one hand that would mean they would have people from Takigakure after them once they realise this girl was with them.

On the other, they would have someone who is more knowledgeable of the Elemental Nations. Naruto may have been born here, but with his amnesia induced side effect of Element 115 his knowledge of his own dimension is severely lacking. Having this girl in their group would balance that out.

Taking her hand away from her chin Samantha nodded to herself and closed her eyes. Her skin paled until it was snow coloured. Her hair began to defy gravity as it whipped around her, despite there being no wind. She opened her eyes revealing the entirety of her eyes to be glowing yellow instead of their natural dark colour.

It was time to introduce herself to someone.

X.X.X.X

As she continued her way into the Land of Fire, Fuu decided she was going to stay in the Land of Fire and lay low for the time being. At least until the people she was searching for would show themselves.

After all if she were to go back through the Land of Grass, and therefore head towards the very Hidden Village she deserted from, then there's a good chance she'll be captured and brought back to Takigakure against her will.

That cannot happen. There was no way she was going back to that hell hole.

She abruptly stopped walking and raised her arm over her eyes to shield them from a blinding flash of light that suddenly appeared in front of her. Fuu with her arm still shielding her eyes quickly leapt back and got into a stance to defend herself from any sudden attacks. When the light died down, and nothing happened for a few long seconds, the girl cautiously lowered her arm from her face. Just enough for her to see.

In front of her was a teenage girl with yellow glowing eyes and pale snow white skin. Her wild and unruly dark hair was defying the natural force of gravity and is whipping around her face. Her attire consists of dark brown trousers, a short sleeved jacket and a light purple blouse underneath; a pair of shin length boots and a sheathed combat knife strapped to her left arm.

Fuu stared at the girl warily. If this girl in front of her were to attack her then Fuu is certain she wouldn't be able to defend herself. The girl appears to be transparent. Like a ghost. And if there's one thing she is unable to hurt it's a ghost.

And also...she has no chakra. Like the zombies she faced when they tried to invade her former home. The implications of her having no chakra is very bad. To Fuu that would mean this girl is a new zombie type. A zombie type that looked intelligent.

And that didn't bode well for her.

However this ghost girl didn't seem to be all that aggressive. She was smiling calmly. That smile would have reassured her that the girl had meant no harm. But the glowing eyes, the gravity defying hair and the pale snow skin made that smile more sinister than it intended to be.

“Hi...?” Fuu cautiously greeted the ghost girl with a wary expression. “...Who are you?”

“I am Samantha Maxis.” Samantha introduced herself while putting a hand to her chest. Her smile not leaving her lips. “A member of the Mysterious Five as you people are calling us.”

Fuu's eyes went wide with surprise upon hearing that. She quickly looked over Samantha again and tried to recall anything about the sort of attire the Mysterious Five wore. She remembered that out of the five there was only one girl in that group. And after digging even further into her memories, with the help of her tenant, she remembered that the girl in the rumours wore the exact same clothes as the one in front of her.

She also heard Yugito, Jiraiya and Kanon reappeared at the borderline to the Land of Frost by this very girl in a blinding flash of light, before taking Jiraiya away to Konoha.

Fuu lowered her arm completely. She was relieved to be standing in front of someone from the mysterious group and was quick to show it. “I thought I was going to be looking for you all for a long time. How did you find me?” She questioned Samantha with a look of curiosity.

With a sly smile Samantha tapped the corner of her nose and replied, “That would be a secret only I know.” She crossed her arms and gave Fuu a once over. “Why are you looking for us?” She was going to let Fuu join their group anyway; she seems like a nice girl despite her odd choice of clothing. She just wanted to know her reason for wanting to find them.

Fuu frowned a bit at that and crossed her arms over her chest. “My reasons are my own.” She told Samantha defensively with narrowed eyes. Seeing the narrowed eyes from the ghost girl Fuu sighed and went to give her a short, brief reason. “To make a long story short; I was tired with the way my home was treating me. After I heard rumours of your group around the Elemental Nations I ventured out to find you. I want to help you fight these zombies in anyway I possibly can.”

Samantha thoughtfully rubbed the bottom of her chin as she took in that information. That somewhat matched to what she heard Fuu say when she was watching her from the dimension. She's tired of the way her home treated her and so she abandoned it, once she heard rumours her and the others she went to find them.

Samantha already made her decision. She smiled at Fuu and uncrossed her arms and reached out to her. “Okay! You're allowed to join! Just take my hand and I'll take you to the place where I am currently staying.”

“Just like that?” The green haired girl raised a sceptical brow as she stared at the offered hand.

“Yep! Just like that.” She rubbed the bottom of her chin and with sarcasm lathing her voice she added, “Unless you want to stay here and be at the mercy of the people who will most likely want to bring you back to the place you don't want to be? Or be at the complete mercy of the zombies who will not hesitate to rip a chunk of flesh off of your body?”

Suffice to say Fuu was quick to grab Samantha's hand and looked at her with wide begging eyes. Samantha on the other hand smirked. “Glad to see you DON'T want to be at the mercy of that.” Her smirk then changed to one of complete seriousness. “Now I'll have to warn you, for first timers what I'm about to do can be a little...nauseating.” She warned.

Fuu looked at Samantha with curiosity. “What do you-?” Her question had been abruptly cut off when Samantha teleported both Fuu and herself off of the planet.

No other trace of Fuu being there would be found except for a pair of footprints that would suddenly stop.

X.X.X.X

Back to Tank and Nikolai, Naruto and Takeo; the four heroes were standing at the base of the Tsuchikage's residence. Tank, Nikolai and Takeo were admiring the massive building as they had never seen anything like it in their home dimension. Naruto on the other hand was keeping an eye on their surroundings.

Dempsey let out an impressed whistle. “That is one big ass building.” He said with his voice taking an impressed tone.

Nikolai made a sound of agreement. “It was big when we were further away from it. But now that we are here it's gigantic!”

With a small frown Takeo looked searchingly to the left and right sides. “Where is the entrance to this structure?” There was no doors or windows for them to use in their vicinity and he couldn't see any other way for them that would enable them to get inside of the building.

“Maybe we need to follow along the building?” Naruto suggested as he turned to look over his shoulder. “If we do that we will find something we can use to get inside eventually. What do you think Tank?”

Dempsey rubbed his unshaved chin. “I can't see any other way for us to get inside. Following along side the building to find a way to get in seems like the only choice we have right now.”

Takeo nodded thoughtfully as he continued to look at both left and right sides searchingly. Naruto's suggestion is a good one. It was logical too. As he said they would eventually come across a window, or doorway they can use to get inside.

The four heroes seeing as they had no other option walked along side the building. After a few minutes had passed they finally found a way inside of the building. It was a window and fortunately for them it was low enough for them to pull themselves through.

Unfortunately it was locked. Fortunately, the window itself was made out of glass. Dempsey walked over to the window and smashed the butt of his weapon against the glass shattering it to pieces. He then proceeded to smash the butt of his assault rifle against the edges of the window to get rid of any sharp of glass that could cut them.

While that was happening Naruto and Nikolai were looking out for any zombie that may have heard their activity. Thankfully the noise they were making never attracted any attention. So they were able to climb through the windowsill and get inside of the building one by one with no problems.

With the last person now inside the building they all took a look around the room. There was only a few couches and a table in the area. So there was plenty of room for them to move around without being obstructed.

They moved to the door, with Dempsey and Takeo positioning themselves on both sides of the doorway. Naruto had his M-16 pointed at the door, ready to open fire if there was someone hostile on the other side. Nikolai was standing beside the teenager with his sub-machine gun also aimed at the door.

Looking at the man opposite him Takeo nod his head once to which Dempsey responded in kind. Reaching for the door handle the marine pulled it down and pushed the door open. Naruto and Nikolai being the ones who were more ready and prepared were the first to move out of the room and into the area on the other side military style. Naruto scanned the area to the left and Nikolai scanned the area to the right. Takeo and Dempsey followed out after them and scanned their left and right sides.

They were met with darkness. The four waited a moment for their eyes to adjust and were able to see a corridor on both sides. However, the corridor on their left was met with a dead end. And there were no other doors for them to go through. That left them the right side which went on and on and on.

The group moved cautiously through the corridor with their weapons aimed and ready to fire. And as they were literally deep in enemy territory, they were extra careful on where they were going. When ever they were met with a corner, one would stay to check it and wait until the others moved past before moving on to follow them. They fortunately enough came across zero zombies when they were moving through the long, narrow passageway in the Tsuchikage's residence.

But they did not encounter any living people there either. They weren't too concerned about that. They're not being cruel, it's just they have been fighting the zombies for a long time now. And most places they've been too had no one else apart from them that were still alive. Gersch, Gary and Brock do not count. At all.

Gersch was trapped in another dimension thanks to his own machine – The Gersch Device - backfiring on him. And Gary and Brock are trapped in an infinite time loop that they cannot escape from. So they're technically dead/alive. They do not know.

After several long, tense minutes of wandering through the corridor the group finally found a stairway.

“About damn time if you ask me.” Naruto muttered under his breath as he and the others made their way up the stairs.

“You say something kiddo?” Dempsey asked.

“I said it's about damn time.” The teenager replied, being loud enough for the others to hear but not enough for his voice to echo and bounce off the walls. “We've been walking through the hallway for like 2 hours.”

“It's only been around 10 minutes, Naruto.” Dempsey corrected him blandly.

“To me it felt like 2 hours had past.” The spiked blonde returned.

“Will you two keep it down?!” Takeo hissed at them in a whisper, immediately silencing the two blondes and stopping them from creating a potential argument. “You will give away our presence to the enemy!”

“But there's no one here.” Naruto responded confusingly.

“Presence. To. The. Enemy!” The samurai hissed once more this time with more firmness in his tone. Naruto wisely shut his gob and kept his attention focused on the stairway leading them to the first floor of the building.

Upon reaching the top Takeo immediately turned to the left and scanned the area through the sights of his Type 100 before shifting his view to the right until he almost turned 80 degrees. Dempsey turned to the right and did the opposite/same thing as Takeo. When Naruto and Nikolai got to the top they immediately raised their weapons. The reason for this; the wide hallway in front of them all, wide enough for five people to walk through at a time, was covered in blood.

There were several dead Iwagakure ninja on the ground. All of them were torn apart and covered in blood.

“Fucking hell.” Nikolai lowly cursed with wide eyes.

“It looks like they were trying to hold off the freak-sacks.” Dempsey analysed grimly as Naruto walked to one of the corpses and knelt down beside it.

The teenager looked over the corpse undisturbed by the rotten scent the body was giving off. Female. Around 17 – 18 years of age. Body mutilated beyond recognition. Stomach is torn to shreds, chunks of skin ripped from the bones. An arm ripped out from its socket. This girl did not die peacefully.

Naruto shook his head and stood back up with a look of depression. This girl is just another casualty in this seemingly never ending war against the undead.

“Takeo, Tank, Nikolai, we need to make sure they don't come back.” Naruto told them without taking his eyes off of the body.

The three men looked at one another before turning to Naruto. “Erm, sure. Just leave it to us.” The American replied sounding a little unsure.

Naruto just nodded. “Okay.” He sighed and turned around and walked to the others who were still looking at him with concerned looks. “I wonder just how many people fell to the walking dead?”

“Too many to count kiddo.” Dempsey said solemnly walking over to one of the corpses while pulling his combat knife out of its sheath underneath the bandoleer he had around his chest.

“Their spirits, once released from their rotten corpses, will rest easy with their ancestors.” Takeo added as he slung his Type 100 over his shoulder before reaching for the hilt of his katana before drawing the blade out of its sheath.

“Many have already fallen comrade. And many more will inevitably follow in the days to come.” Nikolai said walking to another corpse while brandishing his own combat knife.

Naruto sat this one out as he didn't have a knife of his own. Not to mention if he were to stomp on their faces, then he would have made a lot of noise. Speaking of his knife what ever happened to it? He was sure he had one on his possession. Did he lose it when they were ambushed by that Earth zombie?

He did have his assault rifle locked and loaded though. So if those corpses were to suddenly come back to life, then he would be able to take them down at a distance. Keep them at bay while the others reorganise themselves. Thankfully he didn't have to use his assault rifle. Tank, Nikolai and Takeo were able to stab the zombies in the forehead, or in Takeo's case severe their heads from their shoulders, before they could rise up against the living.

Wiping their knives and katana against the cloth of the dead body to clean the blood off of the metal the three of them sheathed their knives and katana before looking around the hallway to see if they can continue onwards. Takeo quickly spotted Naruto leaning up against a door to his left, and tapped Nikolai and Dempsey on the shoulder. The two of them saw what Takeo saw and after sharing a look the three of them walked over to Naruto to see what he was doing.

While the three men were walking over to him, Naruto was pressing his ear up against the door to see if there was anyone on the other side. He had a deep look of concentration on his face as he tried to make out any sound on the other side of this door.

“Naruto, what are-” Dempsey asked, only to have his question cut off by a raised hand in the universal gesture of 'be quiet' by Naruto before he could say it completely.

Dempsey, Nikolai and Takeo all shared a questioning look before turning their gaze back to the teenager.

Squinting his eyes Naruto heard footsteps on the other side of the door. Nodding to himself the teenager pushed himself off the door gave it a once over, before preforming a chakra enhanced Spartan kick against it.

Suffice to say the door didn't stand a chance against a chakra enhanced kick of that calibre. It was effortlessly torn off of its hinges, and the door flew straight through the room and out through the window on the other side.

The action had taken anyone that was inside by surprise, if the screams were any indication. Naruto yelped in surprise when he was suddenly knocked to the ground. He strainfully grit when the person on top of him tried to frantically stab a kunai into his eye!

“You're not going to get us you zombie freaks!!!” The person on top of Naruto – a woman in her late teens - screamed in a deranged manner as she tried to stab Naruto in the eye.

“Get this crazy girl off of me!” A wide eyed Naruto cried out pleadingly.

“Get off of him you bitch!” Dempsey cried out vengefully just as he kicked the woman on the stomach.

The woman, was unprepared for the sheer force that was behind the kick was thrown off of Naruto and was sent rolling and sliding back in the room. Dempsey still had Juggernog in his system' and that increased his kicking power a lot more than it should have done. Hence why the American was able to kick the woman back into the room as he had done seemingly without effort.

“And fucking stay down!” The marine growled at her.

Takeo and Nikolai were quick to enter the room. Their primary weapons were being used once more and they scanning the room, tagging everyone they would see as they looked through the sights of their weapons. While they did that Dempsey helped Naruto back to his feet.

“Are you okay?”

Naruto looked at Tank and nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine. Just... shaken.” He replied shakingly.

Dempsey looked him over before nodding. “Next time let me or the other guys do it, okay?” He said light-heartedly.

Naruto chuckled. “Yeah. Sure.” He said with a small smile.

The two blondes looked toward the now doorless doorway and entered the room. Naruto blinked as he entered. It was a class room. There are frightened children huddling close together at the back of the room. A few adults, ninjas Naruto could see, were standing in front of them wielding tanto's and ninjato's in a defensive manner.

Takeo had his Type 100 aimed at them. Ready to unleash a storm of death upon them if they were to try anything aggressive.

“Survivors? Here?” Dempsey said with surprise evident in his voice.

“And a lot of them are children.” Naruto pointed out. He looked around wondrously. “Who's the leader of this group though?”

“That... that would be... me.” The woman Dempsey kicked off of Naruto painfully gasped out. Everyone looked at the woman who was slowly getting back to her feet.

When she was standing up completely Tank, Nikolai, Takeo and Naruto were all able to get a good look at her since no one was trying to kill anyone.

She has short, black hair and pupil-less pink eyes that are accentuated by her eyelashes running upwards at the corners. Her attire consists of a red uniform, with the sleeves of her shirt missing, the left one seemingly torn off while the right side seemed more natural. She had a lapel over her right leg, a brown Iwagakure flak-jacket that had several tears in it, fishnet tights that also had tears in them – as if they were clawed – and a skirt that also had tears in them worn over them. She wore a pair of dirty and bloodied shinobi sandals and a pair of blood splattered gloves.

“My name is Kurotsuchi. And I am the de-facto leader of Iwagakure's survivors within my grandfather's estate.” She introduced herself.