FicWad

Dead Rising

Chapter 14

While Dempsey, Takeo and Nikolai were up top setting up the Spikemores, Naruto and Kurotsuchi were waiting for their return in the vault. While the two teenagers were waiting for the adults to return Kurotsuchi was deep in thought. Thinking back on what Naruto had said to her when talking about the zombies and the elemental staves.

“Tell me something.” Kurotsuchi suddenly asked from her place next to the mystery box.

Naruto took his eyes away from his Colt Python and looked at the Jonin with curiosity. “Hmm?”

“What is the name of the power the staves use?”

Naruto stared at her for a long second. “Element One Fifteen. Or Element 115. That is what it is called.” He answered with a sigh. He closed his eyes and leaned his head back. He had a feeling what she wanted to know but he had to make sure “I'm guessing you want to know the side effects? Or what causes the dead to reanimate?”

“Yes.” Was her answer.

Exhaling through his nose Naruto opened his eyes and looked at her. He didn't see no harm in telling the teenage girl the side effects of Element 115. “The side effects of Element 115 are many. A lot of them are lethal. And too few of them are beneficial.” He took a deep breath. “Amnesia is one of the side effects you can get if you're exposed to it. Through the loss of your memory, your personality may go under a change too. Dempsey for example; before he was exposed, was calm and relaxed. After being exposed however he became brash, and self-satisfied. A benefit upon being exposed is your body may get healthier and stronger; but that's very rare.”

“What are the negative side effects?”

Naruto rubbed the back of his neck. “Well... Amnesia is one of them.” He pointed out re-mindedly. “But the lethal side effects are: cellular decay, mental degeneration, and lastly death and reanimation.” He raised four fingers for each side effect he had listed before lowering them again. “Cellular decay is when your body is deteriorating. An example of this is you're not preforming at your physical best; you are weaker than you remember; you're losing muscle in your limbs. Your bones are brittle and you get more tired than normal. Eventually in the late stages your skin starts to peal off. That unfortunately is the most common side effect when someone has been exposed to Element 115 and it eventually leads to your death.”

He paused to catch his breath and to gather his thoughts and to allow Kurotsuchi to process his words. He waited for a few seconds before continuing where he left off. “Mental degeneration is when you're losing your sense of self. You lose all rational thought and revert to your primal instincts. You become rabid. Like an animal.”

He didn't need to say anything about the death and reanimation side effects. Kurotsuchi already knew of them.

Kurotsuchi had a deep frown on her face. His explanation on these side effects have given her some answers. Answers that she desperately needed. She didn't tell any of them this but around the time the occupants of her home had been getting sick', there had been incidents and reports of people going rabid. Many of them had to be put down.

It wasn't until the fourth day when the dead started to rise up and infect everyone around them. With nearly all the ninjas and civilians weakened and sick they were easy pickings for the zombies. Those who were still able to move were easily picked off one by one by the overwhelming numbers.

It actually explained why the zombies were able to fight them. If her suspicions is correct then the cellular decay had weakened too many people during the early stages, but it wasn't enough for any of them to notice it. And with the zombies being able to adapt to their methods of fighting it was no surprise the high tier zombies were difficult to handle.

But that left another question; how come Naruto and his companions are able to fight the zombies so effectively? Because as far as logic goes if the zombies are able to fight the ninjas with little difficulty then logically they should have little trouble using their experiences against people who are not able to use chakra at all.

Little did she know the zombies have trouble distinguishing who they're fighting. And given the taint in their bloodstream the zombies are confused on wither Naruto and his companions are alive or not. Therefore they are ineffective against them, making the Mysterious Five the best people, for the moment, to fight the walking dead until they adjust to them too. It helps they're all are accustomed to fighting against zombies that are faster and stronger than them.

She was taken out of her thoughts by Naruto who asked, “Are the answers satisfactory?”

“Yeah. The answers are fine.” She replied.

Naruto let out an acknowledged grunt and returned to looking over his revolver. A minute later Kurotsuchi and Naruto both looked toward the vault's entryway when they heard someone coming down the stairs.

“Naruto the spikemores are set up. We're going to need you and girly-” Dempsey began, only to freeze mid-sentence when he saw the Colt. M1911 in Kurotsuchi's hands. He gave Naruto a questioning look as he pointed at the pistol in the girls' hands. “How'd she get a Colt.?”

Naruto jerked a thumb at the chalk outline that had the M1911 on it. “Showed her how to get one. Figured she wanted to help us out with the zombies that are coming for us.”

Dempsey gave Kurotsuchi a scrutinising look before nodding with acceptance almost a minute later. “Alright. She can keep the pistol. For now.” He added on as an afterthought. “Anyway, we need the two of you up top now that the traps are set. Naruto, if you can, get yourself some spikemores too and plant them with the others. The more traps we have the more zombies that'll be taken out before they reach us.”

“Understood!”

After buying a set of spikemores from the wall, both Naruto and Kurotsuchi followed Dempsey out of the vault and up the stairs where the others were waiting. Outside the office, in the hallway that lay beyond were the spikemores. They were all placed a fair distance apart from each other; so if one were to go off the explosion would not set off the rest of them.

Naruto went and set up his spikemores at a fair distance away from the narrow hallway. Hoping he could take out a fair number of zombies with his own traps before they would reach the main bulk. Setting up shop in the corridor did come with its risks; for one they would have nowhere to go except back if they were to get overrun. But with risks come the benefits; the zombies, providing they're not that smart, would have to funnel in through the doorway leading to them. Leaving themselves limited in the amount of space they can move.

With his spikemores set up, Naruto was about to go back to the others when he heard the faint sound of zombies making their way to their location. Frowning momentarily as the zombies got inside the building quicker than he expected the teenager made his way back to the others.

“The zombies are going to be here in a few minutes everyone.” Naruto informed his comrades once he was close to them.

“That quick?” Dempsey said with surprise lathed in his voice. “Damn, I thought we'd have more time after Takeo collapsed the bridge.”

“How many are coming?” Kurotsuchi asked. As if answering her question everyone heard the distant moans, groans and howls of the zombies; and it was getting closer with each passing second until it sounded like an entire army was coming after them.

“A lot of them.” Naruto casually exclaimed while jerking a thumb over his shoulder.

Sharing a look with one another Dempsey, Nikolai and Takeo all nodded simultaneously and after gripping Naruto and Kurotsuchi by the shoulder, they moved a safe distance away from the Spikemores.

Dempsey knelt down and looked through the sights of his M-16 as he aimed toward the doorway. Nikolai had done the same and aimed his PPSh-41 toward the doorway, ready to kill any zombies heading their way. Takeo was standing behind the two men and after checking the magazine for his Type 100, he looked through the sights of his sub-machine gun and took aim at the doorway.

“How come you're able to fight the walking dead evenly, but us ninjas' are not?” Kurotsuchi directed the question at Naruto.

“Well from what I gathered, the zombies have had the time to adjust themselves to the way you all fight. As for why they're having trouble fighting the four of us, I think they have trouble readjusting. Either that or they are having trouble fighting us because we have the same thing that made them inside our bloodstream, and they're having trouble discerning if we're alive or not.” He theorised.

“So because you have 115 inside your bloodstream the zombies don't know if you're alive or not?”

Naruto shrugged. “Possibly. It's just a theory though. It might be true it might not.”

It was the only thing he could think of that would explain their effectiveness against the zombies. The whole reason they had trouble fighting the zombies back on the other Earth, before they blew it up, is because Samantha was controlling them. The zombies had no trouble discerning them being alive or dead because she was leading them. If Richtofen was not leading them he's sure the zombies would be having the same trouble as these ones are.

As they all got themselves into position to prepare for the undeads arrival Kurotsuchi felt more pulses outside of her grandfather's residential building. The fifth and currently unseen companion must've found more survivors and got them out of Iwagakure. She then heard two spikemores exploding' ahead informing her and the others the zombies were now close.

Seeing as the eventual showdown with the zombies was steadily counting down, Dempsey looked at Kurotsuchi and decided to gave her a crash course on how to use her gun.

“Okay listen up, girly.” Kurotsuchi narrowed her eyes in annoyance at the nickname. “It's time to give you a crash course on how to shoot your weapon.” Dempsey switched out his M-16 for his Remington revolver. “Hold it like this.”

Kurotsuchi observed Dempsey's stance and copied it, holding her M1911 with both hands in front of her, with her finger securely on the trigger. The former Marine Raider then went on to give Kurotsuchi a brief summary on how it works and warned her of the recoil once it's fired. Because she never fired a gun before, the recoil it would have will be unexpected for first time users.

“Don't shoot unless you're sure you have a good, clear shot. And remember to aim for their head before firing.” Kurotsuchi nodded in compliance with the instructions given to her. While vague the girl knew enough about it in order to make it work. Aiming, shooting and reloading were the three key features she had been quickly instructed on.

And not a moment too soon. The first crowd of zombies came in their line of sight. However the group held their fire, allowing the spikemores to do their job and lessen the amount of zombies the group plus Kurotsuchi would have to fight.

A lone spikemore had taken out a large group of zombies. The spikes shooting out from the force of the explosion had impaled numerous zombies in fatal and non-fatal areas. The initial explosion had outright dismembered and killed many more.

So having them go off one by one had injured the zombies to the point their walking corpse would be unable to function. Leaving them to die by simply bleeding to death. By the time the last spikemore had exploded two waves had already been wasted.

“You all know where to shoot. Make sure you don't waste a bullet. Make every shot count.” Dempsey calmly said despite the circumstances he and his group were in.

The second a zombie appeared in her line of sight Kurotsuchi opened fire. She missed the first shot and almost dropped the M1911 because she wasn't expecting the recoil to be that big. However she adjusted and took aim again and pulled the trigger. This time the bullet met its target and the zombie fell on its back with a hole in its forehead.

“Not bad for a newbie.” Dempsey complimented the girl as he glanced at her from over his shoulder. “Remember to not straighten your arms before you fire. The recoil may hurt you.” He advised before he turned his gaze ahead of him.

The former Marine Raider frowned dangerously as Type 2 zombies came in his line of sight and he didn't hesitate to empty all 6 of his bullets in the cylinder in to the zombies. All bullets met their target and fell to the ground with most of their heads missing. The walls and floor covered in blood and brain matter.

Takeo, Nikolai and Naruto opened fire on the zombies in short bursts, and soon enough, all of them were shooting the walking dead, as they became too numerous. After reloading his revolver twice Dempsey felt he wasn't make that much of an effect to thin out the zombies. So he switched back to his primary weapon.

Nikolai stopped firing his PPSh-41, grabbed a grenade from one of his pouches strapped to his waist and removed the pin. “Throwing grenade!” The Russian yelled out warningly before he proceeded to do just that. The grenade landed right in the middle of the crowd of zombies where it proceeded to blow up, the shrapnel impaling many of the zombies, killing many of them when the metal pieces hit their most vital place. The force of the explosion severed their leg(s) reducing the runners to crawlers.

“Oh wonderful. Now we have to deal with the stumpies.” Dempsey yelled in complaint, just as he readjusted his aim to the more wounded zombies.

“At least they're slow.” Naruto said with optimism just as he was forced to reload his M-16. He was also more optimistic than usual because Nikolai grenade didn't destroy anything this time when it went off.

Inevitably though the five of them were slowly getting pushed back toward the Tsuchikage's office. Their slow retreat to the office was made worse when at least 2 to 3 people had to reload their weapons every 20 to 30 seconds.

2 – 3 people reloading = less zombies being killed.

Less zombies killed = being pushed back at a quicker rate.

It wasn't long that Naruto and Nikolai, Takeo and Dempsey decided to figuratively say 'screw it' and went into fully-automatic mode instead of burst-fire mode, since shooting the zombies in bursts wasn't being all that effective anymore.

Plus the zombies were getting closer with every passing second.

Naruto tossed a grenade to thin out the zombies. And it did its job. Somewhat. Just like Nikolai's grenade, the shrapnel from the explosion had impaled and killed many zombies. However many more had a leg or two blown off, reducing many of them to the more less threatening slow crawlers.

There were a couple of fast ones but Kurotsuchi had put those out of their misery before they could become a threat to her safety. Fighting side by side with these people, Kurotsuchi now realised why they were as successful as they are when fighting against these undead soldiers.

While elemental based attacks people like her uses are useful against large numbers in open spaces, chakra based attacks aren't all that effective if the zombies were able to see it. And because they had adjusted to their fighting style through 3 years of conflict, the zombies were able to avoid the majority of their attacks.

But then one of the more higher tier zombies appeared and that was when things went down hill for them. The Earth zombies are immune Earth based attacks and can shake off injuries that would normally kill a person. A small army of those things had slaughtered many a ninja in Iwagakure. And while it didn't take long for her and the others to find their weaknesses, a lot of ninja and kunoichi have already fallen victim to them because the Earth zombies were able to adapt to their method of fighting shockingly quick. Plus their ability to make body armour out of earth, including being able to control the element itself had made a lot of their attacks useless.

Only those with Bloodline limit based around fire or lightning, or has an affinity toward either of those elements was able to fight them. Despite that they still had their asses handed to them.

Anyway, the zombies weren't able to see the projectiles from the guns because they were too small to be seen. They were the best weapons to fight against them. They're not as good as elemental based chakra techniques, but they're still good.

As they slowly backed up into the office in pairs, Kurotsuchi felt another burst of energy in the Hidden Village. Samantha had found and evacuated more survivors. Now that they were in the office the five of them got in a line and took aim at the doorway. It was the only place the zombies are going to be able to get in.

Being able to see out of the room everyone was able to see the zombies were staying back. Odd. The five all glanced at one another with looks of concern. Something was most definitely not right. Suddenly they heard a thud; everyone looked in the direction the noise came from. It was a window that gave them an overlooking view of Iwagakure.

Everyone excluding Takeo let out a loud curse when a zombie suddenly appeared at the window and smacked its fists against it, before it followed the laws of gravity and fell down and out of their field of view.

Then another zombie appeared and did the same thing as the previous. And another, and another, and another.

“Everyone down to the vault.” Dempsey ordered. He along with everyone else had realised what the zombies were trying to do' and knowing the vault was the last, best place they could go – it had everything they would need in order to hold them off after all – everyone rushed down the staircase.

As they ran the window was already cracked in several places; beginning to give way to the punishment the zombies were putting on it. The zombies slammed against the glass window repeatedly and after the 9th attempt, the window finally shattered to pieces.

Once their feet touched the ground the jumping zombies' literally leapt down the staircase and into the vault room where the others were located. They were met with their opposition at the bottom and had their heads blown off of their shoulders for their trouble.

Takeo and Dempsey, Naruto and Nikolai all brought some ammo for their primary weapons. Kurotsuchi at the behest of everyone else had gotten one of the two starting weapons. She had gotten a semi-automatic assault rifle called M14.

The weight of it surprised her; she had almost dropped it to the floor when it fell out of the chalk outline and into her hands. She had 20 bullets already in the magazine and an extra 96 in reserve. Kurotsuchi despite never having used any of their weapons before was adapting well to the recoil. She had managed to take out several zombies' with a well placed shot to the head, and managed to dismember many more when she wasn't aiming at their skulls.

“They're dying rather quickly.” She calmly noted.

“Yeah. But these meat-sacks are more cannon fodder than anything. A few well placed shots and they'll go down fairly quick. It's the 5th and 6th zombie types you want to look out for. It will take specific weaponry like the Staff of Ice to take 'em out.” Dempsey informed the teenage girl as he reloaded his M16.

But she already knew that. However she didn't tell the American that she had already known tier 5 and 6 zombies were weak to specific elements. She kept silent about it though and allowed the former United Stated marine to think he had given her some useful information.

“If any of you are in desperate need for ammo, let me know and I'll toss out a Monkey bomb to distract them so you can buy some.” Said Naruto requestively.

“I throw out Gersch device if you run out of evil monkeys to throw.” Nikolai helpfully included.

Kurotsuchi unfortunately had no idea what Naruto or Nikolai meant. Throwing monkeys? A Gersch device? What were they talking about?

Seeing the confused look on the girls face Dempsey explained what they were with little information as possible. “They're talking about special weapons that were specifically designed to distract zombies. You'll know what they look like once you see them.”

She would trust his words on that. Besides' she had a feeling she would find out what these special weapons were sooner than later.

The four zombie slayers, plus the kunoichi, were doing pretty darn well at holding off the zombies. The dubbed jumpers were unable to take advantage of their jumping ability because the room outside of the vault was fairly small in height. It made them rather predicable as well.

Just aim and shoot them in mid-air and they would go down before they would even reach the vault. Kurotsuchi wanted to spit some quicklime lava at the base of the staircase to stop the zombies then and there. However it was Takeo who shot that idea down. Saying with the amount of zombies that would get melted down into the lava would cause it to spread throughout the room, including the vault they were taking shelter in.

“Samantha, we're pinned down in the vault with no way to escape! How far along are you with the evacuation?” Naruto yelled over ear rattling sounds of gunfire from their weapons. He let out a curse as the current magazine ran out of bullets, forcing him to reload his weapon.

As he reloaded his fully automatic assault rifle he along with everyone else heard Samantha reply almost exhaustingly, “I am almost done. Just hold on for a little while longer. I only need a few more minutes.”

“Dammit, there's too damn many of them!” Dempsey cursed viciously. After shooting a large amount of zombies in the head he took a quick glance toward the ceiling before redirecting his gaze on the zombies descending on them. “Can you send us a power up to help us out?”

Dempsey quickly got his answer in the form of a small orb of lightning appearing in front of the group. In the middle of the room outside the vault. The sphere dispersed, revealing a floating gold glowing icon in the form of a nuclear bomb.

Those who recognised it were surprised to see the infamous power-up. Kurotsuchi on the other hand was confused as to what it was. This was something she had never encountered before, so it is not surprising she did not know the significance of the icon.

“Hell. Yes.” Dempsey said with a vicious smile. Then without warning the former United States marine rushed out of the vault in an attempt to get the power-up before it vanishes. Putting himself in the others' line of fire. Naruto, Nikolai and Takeo were use to this' and automatically provided the man some covering fire to keep the zombies off of him while he tried to get the nuke.

Kurotsuchi on the other hand had almost accidentally shot the American in the head when he suddenly came within her line of sight. She was about to open her mouth to let out a curse, when she saw the zombies were all focusing on him. Looking to her left and right she saw that Naruto, Nikolai and Takeo were all providing covering fire to keep the zombies off of the former soldier. Something she quickly took part in too.

Tank ran into the glowing nuke icon causing everyone's vision to go briefly white as they heard something akin to a minor explosion go off.

And then they heard a demonic voice sound out in their heads. “Kaboom...”

When their vision came returned to normal they all bore witness the zombies holding the sides of their heads screaming before they were engulfed from head to toe in orange flames and collapsed to the floor when their heads violently exploded.

Dempsey walked back to the others with a satisfied laugh. “Ah, the nuke. My favourite power up! We bought ourselves a minute at the very least.” The soldier turned zombie slayer stopped in front of the others and proceeded to give them orders. “Naruto get yourself some perks I have a feeling you're going to need them soon enough. Everyone else use this time to restock on ammo if you're running low. Girly, get yourself a new secondary weapon. The zombies will get stronger to the point that rifle won't affect them so it's best to have a good second weapon in case you're in a tight spot.”

Everyone proceeded to do just that. Naruto got himself the Juggernog and Speed Cola perks and he then went to regain the lost ammo for his M-16, and he bought an extra 2 claymore mines and set them down near the front of the staircase. Since Nikolai, Dempsey and Takeo all had the current perks had gone to restock on ammo for their primary weapons as that was what they were using all this time.

And like Naruto they bought an extra 2 claymore mines and set them up outside of the vault. With the spikes facing toward the staircase.

With that said and done they all regrouped back inside of the vault and waited for the zombies to appear again. The five of them tensed when the ground began to shake. Takeo and Naruto as one slung their primary weapons over their shoulder and summoned their Elemental Staves. An Earth Zombie was coming so they had to take out their heavy weaponry for this one.

They all waited for what seemed like minutes. The earth shaking footsteps getting closer and closer to their location with every passing second. Then just when the foot steps was right on top of them it stopped. The five narrowed their eyes confused and a little worried. But not for long; they heard thudding at the top of the staircase, and stared with worried confusion as two orbs made of earth with spikes jutting out of them and had a faint green aura around it, rolled down the stairs and into the room where they both rolled right in front of the spikemores.

Everyone's eyes went wide; the same thought unknowingly entering their minds and they quickly took cover behind the edges of the doorway of the vault. The second the first spiked ball came in contact with a spikemore, the spike attached explosive went off, causing the spiky ball in front of it to explode too. The spikes attached to both the claymore and the orb shot out; the bamboo spikes embedding itself on the wall and staircase in front of it and the earth spikes from the orb to shot out an embed itself several feet into the walls around it.

The second earth orb had exploded automatically' destroying several more of the spikemores and their spikes to embed itself onto the walls and stairs it was facing. While the earth spikes shot out and embedded themselves on the surfaces surrounding it.

The others had made a wise choice when they took cover, because several of the earth spikes had entered the vault too. Had they not they would've been knocked to the ground with several harsh looking bruises on their body.

Kurotsuchi on the other hand would've been impaled by those spikes and fatally injured instead of getting nasty looking bruises. Why is this: Juggernog Soda. A body enhancing drink that is guaranteed to make your body more durable for as long as you don't suffer too much damage. They would be able to take a few hits from the earth spikes before the damage gets too much for the perk to handle.

Naruto and Takeo dangerously narrowed their eyes when they heard the elemental zombie roar out at the top of the stairs. The samurai and former shinobi got out of cover and aimed the top end of their elemental staff toward the door opposite them. The two Asians almost lost their footing when the elemental zombie suddenly leapt down the stairs and landed in a kneel inside of the room. Causing a small earthquake to spread through the two rooms.

It was covered in rock-like armour from head to toe looking almost like a golem than a zombie. In its hand was carrying a 9ft club made out of the same element in one hand. In its other hand was an earth orb that had spikes growing out of it. And it had a faint green aura around it. Well at least they now knew where those orbs came from.

“Fucking elemental.” Naruto hissed hatefully at it with a scowl.

“Elemental?” Takeo sounded out thoughtfully as he stared at the golem like zombie with narrowed eyes. The samurai then nodded with a brief look of approval. “That is a good name for these type of demons.”

The two staff holders took a step back when the golem like zombie slowly stood up as the top of the club in its hand grew crude spikes. It raised its head and looked at them with its glowing eyes. It took a step forward only to stagger back slightly when it was hit in the torso by three exploding balls of flaming molten rock from Takeo.

The molten rocks had easily blown off the rock armour from the golem's chest revealing the rotten flesh underneath. However the damage was repaired as soon as it was delivered. The moment Naruto saw the armour had just fixed whatever damage Takeo caused he immediately shot a lightning bolt at it. The golem like zombie staggered back, a large chunk of its earth armour breaking off. Naruto quickly fired another lightning bolt in the same spot even as the missing part of the chest armour regrew causing the golem to stagger back once more.

The golem roared out and lifted its club above its head before bringing it down to the ground. The impact created a small shockwave that made spikes stick out out of the ground as it spread through the room, consequently destroying the other spikemores that were outside the vault. However despite being the closest to the earth zombie, Takeo and Naruto managed to keep their footing and stay on their feet. The two staff wielders had also backed away from the spikes before they realised something...

“Ten spikes at a time? A range limit perhaps?” Naruto murmured with squinting eyes even as the spikes crumbled to pieces. The former shinobi glanced at Takeo from the corner of his eye and saw the samurai had came to the same conclusion as he did.

Kurotsuchi aimed her shotgun and was about to take a shot at it. However before she could get one off Dempsey quickly pushed the barrel of the gun down so it was aimed at the ground. The Jonin glared questioningly at the marine.

“What are you doing?” She hissed.

“Stopping you from wasting your bullets.” Tank replied as he turned his gaze back to the earth zombie. “That thing has somewhat adapted to the way we fight. The fact it took out our spikemores shows that. Takeo and Naruto have the things that are effective against it.”

“The American is right little girl.” Nikolai added as he stared at the golem with a hate filled scowl. “Them two are only ones capable of fighting that thing.”

“What about you though? You have an Elemental Staff of your own don't you?”

Nikolai nodded in confirmation as he glanced at the teenage girl. “Da! But I have feeling it will not be effective. Fire and Lightning is more effective against hell-spawn.” Admitted the Russian as he brought his gaze back to the earth zombie.

While they were talking to one another Naruto and Takeo were trying to figure out what they should do to take care of the zombie. It was armoured and whatever damage they managed to do, the armour would just regenerate!

Suddenly Naruto got an idea.

“Takeo!” Naruto called getting the samurai's attention. “We need to hit it from both sides. You take the left and I take the right?” He asked propositionally.

The man nodded affirmatively as he brought his gaze back to the golem. “A plan, no matter how small, is effective if used right.” Twirling the Staff of Fire Takeo suddenly side-strafed to the zombies left while Naruto side-strafed to the right. Both lightning bolt and molten rock smashed into the rock armour in two different directions, causing the rock armour to be melted and chipped off in many placed.

The golem staggered and stumbled as it was attacked from two sides and it almost fell to a knee from the onslaught. However it managed to keep its balance. It quickly became frustrated at being attacked from two sides however and it lifted its club up above its head before smashing it against the ground, causing more spikes to jut out of the ground in all directions like a wave.

Both Takeo and Naruto backed away from the spikes until it stopped at the tenth one. They had to move again however, when the golem horizontally threw three spiky orbs at them. The earth spikes shot off of the sphere a few seconds after they were thrown. Naruto let out a loud curse when several of the spikes came close to hitting him. Turning so he was side-strafing Naruto fired his Staff of Lightning at the hip and stared as many lightning bolts missed their target and explode in a great display of electricity as it connected to the wall behind the golem.

Those that managed to connect had one again chipped off chunks of the earth armour, briefly revealing the rotten flesh underneath the rocks before the armour regenerated itself. The same result has happened for Takeo who was growing irritatingly at the regenerating ability of the zombie.

“This one is definitely different than the previous ones!” Naruto yelled over its roar as it brought its club down on the ground once more. He took another side-strafing hip-shot at the zombie, somehow getting a headshot and getting an angered roar for it. “How are we going to hurt it if it just keeps on repairing itself?” He asked as he and Takeo passed one another.

“Perhaps there is a weakness we can exploit?” Takeo called out in response. He stopped side-strafing and vertically shot at the golem's chest. The molten rocks collided with the the lower torso, the upper torso and the head. Each rock exploded in a grand display of lava upon impact that somehow vanished by the time it reached the ground.

The golem staggered back from each impact, almost hitting the wall behind it as it let out a loud bellow. The armour repaired itself however Takeo noticed something that he would not have before if he was not paying close attention. Its head piece was repairing much slowly than anything else.

Odd. Normally repairing something that small would be quicker. Its head is the weak spot after all. It can't be that easy can it?

Taking aim Takeo shot at the head. The molten rocks exploded upon impact, exposing the head completely and making the zombie stumble backwards as it roared. Takeo smirked subtly as he stared at the slowly regenerating head piece. It was its weak spot just as he thought. He and Naruto shared a look, and as one, the two of them nodded in agreement.

Dempsey, Kurotsuchi and Nikolai took note of the slowly regenerating head piece and also came to the conclusion that is the weak spot. The three of them decided to stop holding off on helping and active try to take down the zombie whenever its head is exposed. Kurotsuchi switched back to her M-14 since it had a greater range than the Stakeout.

Now the zombie being attacked by everyone. And it didn't like that. Not at all.

The zombie swiped its club in an arc, taking both Naruto and Takeo by surprise when spikes shot out of it. The two staff wielders quickly dived to prone on the ground barely missing the spikes. However they had to move again when the zombie threw out another bunch of spiky orbs. This time there was 6 of them instead of 3. All spikes from the 6 spheres ejected forcing Takeo and Naruto to run and avoid getting hit.

Nikolai, Dempsey and Kurotsuchi quickly got themselves behind cover just as the spikes rushed through the doorway and into the wall behind them.

They would repeat this method for a couple of minutes. Takeo and Naruto would run circles around the earth covered zombie, avoiding its spiky spheres and spikes jutting out of the ground, and then start shooting at its head and exposing it. Then Nikolai, Kurotsuchi and Dempsey would open fire on the head until the head piece would regenerate.

Kurotsuchi had felt the strange chakra associated with Samantha – she really needed to come up with a name for that. Can't really call it 'strange chakra' – flare a few more times' telling her more of her people had been found and was promptly teleported away from danger.

When Naruto was avoiding the spikes shooting from the spheres one of them managed to get a luck hit. He let out a pained yell when he got struck in the calf. Luckily Juggernog came into play, and instead of getting impaled, the spike instead shattered into pieces upon impact. The force and suddenness of the contact had made Naruto trip and fall to the ground, and he spat out a bunch of profanities when he was suddenly struck by two more spikes when he tried to get back up. One on his thigh and the other on his upper arm. Both of them together almost knocked him flat to the ground again. He knew that was going to leave a bruise. He just knew.

“Naruto!”

“I'm fine!” Naruto yelled back in response to Takeo's alarmed cry. He grunted as he used the Staff of Lightning to help him stand back up. “Just... don't let that thing get to me!” He told the samurai as he glared at the golem like zombie; scowling with plan irritation and annoyance when he saw the head piece had completely regenerated.

The teen blinked rapidly as he steadied himself while putting all his weight in the leg that wasn't hit by those spikes. Fuck those things sucked ass! He blinked again when he realised his vision was slightly red. That's not good. A few more hits like that and he would lose his perks.

The golem staggered back as the molten rocks collided against the head piece blowing it to smithereens. Its hand reached up to cover its face as it roared out in annoyance. Naruto being at its side was able to see the earth zombie had its hand covering the front of its face.

The side was exposed.

That was an easy exploitable weakness if he ever saw one. Aiming the Staff of lightning at the exposed head, Naruto opened fire and watched as the electric bolt shot out of the top of the staff and collide against the exposed side of the zombies' head.

The zombie stumbled to the side with a loud roar when the electric bolt hit the side of its head, before falling to a knee with its arm at its side leaving its head completely exposed. Naruto and Takeo shared a look and shared an unspoken agreement.

The samurai and former shinobi then sprinted to the currently kneeling zombie and shoved the top of their staves right into its decaying face on both sides on the temple of its skull. The two of them pulled the figurative trigger on their Elemental Staves and the zombie let out an equivalence of an agonized roar as the electric bolt and molten rock melted and burnt the head and the regenerating head piece at the same time.

The samurai and former shinobi quickly backed away from now gargling zombie as the golem like armour crumbled from its body. Then it threw its arms back, arching its back before it exploded in a dramatic manner.

“...That's...new?...” Naruto said in an underwhelming sounding questioning tone.

He flinched slightly when he felt someone put a hand on his shoulder; and found an overly concerned Dempsey looking at him.

“You okay, kiddo?” The former Marine Raider concernedly asked.

Naruto nodded but winced when the pain from putting his weight onto his bruised leg when he was running, and getting away from the zombie before it exploded came back to haunt him. Not to mention it was doing his hurt arm in when he tried to move it. It's going to make holding his M-16 and Lightning Staff a bitch to do.

“I'm fine, Tank. I'm going to bruise a bit after taking those hits, but, I'm fine.” He reassured the older man as he kept taking deep breaths. “Good call on telling me to get Juggernog though. Those spikes would've impaled me otherwise.” He added in a thanking tone.

The five of them looked toward the ceiling when they heard Samantha say, “I've gotten everyone who're still alive out of there. Get ready I'll be getting you five out next.”

“Understood! We shall stay here until you retrieve us Samantha.” Takeo called out in response.

Dempsey gestured everyone else to follow him back into the vault. “Let's restock ourselves on ammo. That Earth Zombie really drained our ammunition.” The former Marine Raider told them. The others followed the solider into the vault without argument. They were close to running out on ammo now and if they didn't restock then it was certain they would be overwhelmed by sheer numbers they'd be unable to hold back.

Thankfully they didn't have another encounter with another one of those armoured earth zombies. And with them being fully stocked on ammo for their respective weapons, they were able to hold out against the runners and sprinters.

Though they have been adapting to their method of fighting now.

Many of the zombies were rolling forward. Something Dempsey, Naruto and Takeo and Nikolai had found odd and out of place in the Elemental Nations, as the zombies they encountered in the Russian Cosmodrone had done that very same thing. Then again they had encountered a trapped Gersch – who came from their dimension by the way! - back in the Land of Water and a Group 935 facility in the same place.

It is pretty obvious that people from Group 935 and possibly others back on Dempsey's, Takeo's and Nikolai's now destroyed planet had managed to find their way to this dimension. And from the looks of it they had brought a cache of Element 115 with them. It is currently the only explanation they had for how the undead had risen up from their graves.

By the time Samantha had gotten them all out of there there was a considerably large pile of rotting bodies in front of the vaults entry way. Once Naruto and Kurotsuchi, Dempsey and Nikolai and Takeo had been taken out of the the Tsuchikage's residence the perk machines and the weapon outlines were the next to go.

With everyone out of Iwagakure no Sato, the overrun Hidden Village was left to the mercy of the undead inhabiting it. It won't be long until the earth inside and out of the Hidden Villages dies thanks to the corruption of the earth zombies walking around.

X.X.X.X

The first thing Kurotsuchi noticed was the lack of weight in her hands and on her body. Her weapons were no longer in her possession and saw Naruto, Dempsey, Nikolai and Takeo no longer had their weapons in their possession either.

It was here that she took in her new surroundings.

All she saw was a white void that seemed to stretch on forever. There was a table with chairs nearby along with a gigantic map that showed her home. She bit her lower lip in dismay at what she saw. Iwagakure no Sato was completely overrun with zombies. Her former comrades, her deceased family, and many of the civilians were now no longer amongst the living. From the Earth Zombies walking around the overrun Hidden Village uninhibitedly she could see the earth around it slowly decay.

The map then zoomed out and showed the entirety of the Elemental Nations in its current state and seemed to be moving in real time. She saw an icon, an image, of an Elemental Staff shooting out ice above her home flicker away and found another one being of an Elemental Staff shooting out wind somewhere in the Land of Lightning.

Kurotsuchi realised that this map was how they knew the Staff of Ice was in Iwagakure. And from the looks of it they were going to go after the wind staff in the Land of Lightning.

Naruto sighed in relief when he sat down on one of the chairs in front of a table. Nikolai, Takeo and Dempsey all sat on chairs as well and leaned back against the back of the chair. Kurotsuchi merely stayed where she was, analysing the gigantic map that served as a tactical point of view for the 'Mysterious Five'.

“Going to find the Staff of Ice, only to end up rescuing the remnants of a Hidden Village.” Naruto leaned his head back and closed his eyes. “That was quite the adventure was it not?” He said opening his eyes to look at his comrades' with a tired grin.

“Hell yeah it was.” Dempsey said singingly.

Nikolai blinked repeatedly with a deep sense of confusion. He felt different for some reason. Bringing his hands to his face the Russian clenched and unclenched his fists with a small frown. He feels 20 years younger for some reason. He then remembered Takeo's age had reversed after he had gotten his hands on the Staff of Fire. Could the same thing be happening to him?

Because if it was... then that would be bad in ass! Or whatever it is that Dempsey says.

“What should we do now that we have achieved our mission?” Takeo asked as he looked at Dempsey, Nikolai and Naruto respectively.

“Ve can recuperate, or get zhe people I have rescued some place safe.” Everyone looked in the direction Samantha's voice came from; the teenage girl was walking to the table with her arms behind her back.

Kurotsuchi was surprised at Samantha's sudden appearance. She just appeared out of nowhere! And because this was the first time she had seen the fifth member of the 'Mysterious Five' in person, the former Iwa-nin took in her appearance with analystic eyes.

Samantha had wild and unruly dark hair. Her clothing consists of a dark brown trousers, a short sleeved jacket and a light purple blouse underneath; a pair of shin length boots and had a sheathed combat knife strapped to her left arm and had two medium sized pouches strapped around her waistline.

Samantha's eyes met hers and the teenage girl gave the now former Iwa-nin a wry smile at the look she was getting.

“I guess zhis is zhe one who vanted her people rescued?” Kurotsuchi gave Samantha an odd look at her accent change.

Dempsey gave a nod. “Yeah. She helped us out.” There was a pause as he gained a look of consideration. “Pretty much led us to the vault that had the Staff of ice. And helped us fight back a few zombie hordes.”

“And an Elemental.” Takeo interjected at the end.

“Elemental?” Samantha sounded out. She thoughtfully rubbed her chin and gave an accepted nod to that name. “I like it. It sounds like a good name for zhose type of undead.”

“Naruto came up with it.” Takeo said as he looked at the blonde in question.

“Well it did have the characteristics of a Super zombie. Being incredibly strong and difficult to get rid of at the beginning. But it was able to manipulate the earth around it.” Naruto pointed out. Then he had a thoughtful look. “I don't know what to class it as; a type 5 or a type 6?”

“As you said, it was able to manipulate the earth around it.” Takeo pointed out. “And it kills the very earth it walks on. A type 5 hell-spawn is capable of manipulating the elements in some way. Having this demon as a type 5 is the most logical choice.”

“So that zombie goes into the type 5 category?” Naruto asked with Takeo nodded affirmatively.

“At least they have a name to go by now.” Dempsey said. Then something came to the forefront of his mind and he looked at Samantha with squinting eyes. “By the way; where were you when we needed your help to find the location of the Staff if Ice? Naruto called out to you and you never replied.”

Naruto looked at Samantha with an almost devious expression. “I'm actually interested in that too.” He said his tone matching his expression.

Everyone suddenly looked at Samantha with a look of interest, while said girl chuckled nervously and rubbed the back of her head with a sheepish look. “Before I get into zhat.” She glanced at Kurotsuchi and teleported her to the rest of her people located in a separate area they would not be able to get out of without her consent. “Zhere, now no one but us vill know of zhis.” She stated declaratively.

“Know of what?” Dempsey asked, giving Samantha a suspicious look.

“Veeeeee may have a new recruit?” She answered him with a nervous grin. Seeing the surprised looks they were giving her Samantha quickly explained that she had found their possible recruit near the border between the Land of Fire and the Land of Grass with the intent on finding the five of them and ask permission to join their group.

“So after confronting her you decided to bring her here and wait for us to come back?” Asked Dempsey once Samantha finished retelling them the reason why she did not reply to their request for aid.

When Samantha nodded in confirmation Naruto rubbed his eye and sighed in exasperation. “You should've told us Sam. Well, no point in telling her we can't take her with us when we never met her. So where is she?” He asked looking at his friend with an expectant look.

“She is... somevhere.” She said vaguely taking a seat opposite Dempsey. “She vanted to see vhat ve are doing to fight zhe undead. And vhen you all returned she requested to not be seen until she is ready.”

“So what is she, people shy or something?” Nikolai asked.

Samantha inwardly frowned. Given how she was treated by her own people Nikolai wasn't that far off from the truth. Fuu was rather dispassionate toward her own people. Only a few people were a positive influence around her, while the rest – or rather everyone – was a negative influence in her life. She didn't want to go there. Nor did she want to fight for a Hidden Village that sent her to the front lines' by herself, hoping she would be killed off by the zombies while they were sitting on their asses behind the safety of the underwater cave system.

“Let us say she has bad experiences vith being around people and leave it at zhat.” Her tone had brokered no argument from any of them.

Naruto had a look of understanding on his face. “That is understandable. Tell her she can come and see whenever she is ready.” He told his friend; Samantha nodded and teleported away leaving the three men and teenager alone.

The four zombie slayers now that they're alone turned in their seats to look at the gigantic tactical map in comfortable silence. It was still looking down at the entirety of the Elemental Nations and because it is going in real time, they were able to see what was going on in the world with every second that passed.

Since everyone was inside the separate dimension place time was no longer going at the same speed in real life. Instead it was going by twice as fast. Within hours – minutes inside the dimension - the mushroom clouds covering the Northwest of the major island in the Land of Water was now fading away. And the four of them were able to see a glimpse of the island underneath said smoke. What they saw was what they were expecting to see.

An inhospitable wasteland. The environment was scorched and would take decades for it to recover. Charred remains of trees and acid lakes could be seen and from what they could see from the sheer height the view was, there was no sign of life.

“Well... hopefully that won't come to bite us in the ass sometime down the road?” That was a callback to when Takeo said a similar thing before they went to the Land of Earth.

“We caused that Tank.” Naruto dryly pointed out to the American with dull eyes. “That will eventually bite us in the ass sometime in the future. No doubt about that.”

“Not if we avoid everyone. That way we'll never get blamed!” Dempsey exclaimed while raising his fist self-righteously. Naruto, Nikolai and Takeo all stared at the former Marine Raider with dull eyes, and then they redirected their gaze to the tactical map. Dempsey tutted when they brushed him off before he joined them in looking at the tactical map with examining eyes.

“So what happens after we get the Staff of Wind? Tank? Nikolai? Takeo?” Naruto asked them after several minutes of comfortable silence.

Dempsey shrugged his shoulders. “I don't know. Originally we did come here to see what your world was like. Then we changed our objective to 'exploring your world' to 'kicking some freak-bag ass where ever we see them' once we learnt the meat-sacks were here.”

“Not to mention journey here is fun!” Nikolai cheerfully interjected. “No Nazi scientist bringing us to next locations. No Samantha trying to kill us.”

“And we can rest after each encounter with the demon spawn.” Added Takeo.

The four of them all turned to Samantha when they heard her say, “I am back mien friends!” They were surprised to see another girl with short green hair, shyly and nervously walking beside her. “Zhis is zhe one I vas telling you all about earlier. Her name is Fuu and she vants to join us.”

Fuu had gone under a severe wardrobe change. She didn't know how that had happened. Only she was taken to a strange place that seemed to be an endless void, and then without warning her line of sight was filled with different sets of clothes. Gone was her midriff shirt and apron skirt. Gone was her armlets and fishnet armour. Now her attire comprised of a jeans jacket with the sleeves rolled up to her elbows and a black shirt underneath. She's also wearing jeans and worn combat boots that reach above her shins. On her arms she had arm guards to protect her from getting bitten.

Naruto gave Fuu a look over and then declared, “I like her. She can join us.” This had gotten him surprised looks from everyone. He had seen her for the first time and declared that he liked her and wanted her to join them without interacting with the girl.

Fuu looked at Naruto with confused astonishment as she was sure he was going to want to know the reason why she wanted to join them. Her confusion quickly turned to surprise when she heard the older blonde say, “Well, if you like her then I'll give her the benefit of the doubt. She can join us.”

Takeo was the silent type of person. Instead of voicing his approval, he gave it in the form of an accepted nod instead. However, he did give the 'I'm watching you' gesture to Fuu because he did not trust her enough. He wasn't as stupid as to blindly trust a stranger right off the bad.

Naruto's the exception though. He was only a confused 13 year old boy that had no recollection of his past at the time. And he kind of grew on him so sue him.

Nikolai merely narrowed at Fuu with narrowed eyes. Slowly, dramatically, he raised his hand and pointed at her. “I do not like her! She reminds me of 6th wife. Killed her with double-barrelled shotgun because she was too fucking shy and cowardly!” He said in declaration, a deep scowl pulling at his lips.

“Nikolai, pretty much everyone we encountered in our journey reminds you of your wives.” Naruto dryly pointed out with Fuu looking between Naruto and Nikolai with a shocked expression. “And, remind me, didn't you kill your first wife with a double-barrelled shotgun?”

“Da! She looked much like me for comfort!”

“First of all it's: 'she looked a lot like me.'.” Dempsey calmly corrected Nikolai. “Secondly: couldn't she have been your sister that you hated?” He asked giving the hammered Russian a confused look.

Everyone was looking expectantly at the Russian now. That was a question they were all wondering the answer too. Because if Nikolai's first wife looked a lot like him, then she must've been a relative of his. How fucked up would that be? Marrying your sister only to kill her later on because she looked too much like you.

Nikolai stared blankly ahead of him and stared and stared and stared. Then it slowly dawned on him. “Oh...” He looked at his fellow experimented super solders' with wide eyes. “I think I married sister, and then killed her with shotgun to stomach.” Then his eyes narrowed. “That explains why she looked too much like Nikolai! And why I had hatred for her! That Bitch!”

“Oh god-” Naruto began, whining with despair as he face planted with the table.

“-Not again!” Dempsey finished, also whining with despair when Nikolai began to bitch and rant at how he had married his sister, and then shot her in the gut with his double-barrelled shotgun.

Takeo merely sat there in his chair with his arms crossed on the table in front of him, all the while sporting an indifferent look on his face. Acting as if this was an every day occurrence to him.

While that was going on Fuu slowly looked to Samantha. “Does this always happen?” She whispered in feared astonishment.

Samantha nodded confirmedly and patted Fuu reassuringly on the shoulder. “Don't worry. You get use to it.”

Now that Fuu was officially a part of their little ragtag group, there was one more thing that she must do...

X.X.X.X

Kurotsuchi stumbled as she suddenly touched solid ground. Blinking the former Iwa-nin looked around and to her joy, relief and despair she found that her surviving people were here with her. Joy and relief because they were actually here with her, and despair because there was a lot less than she was expecting.

50, there were 50 healthy people from Iwagakure. That was a lot less than what she thought there was. As loathed as she was to admit it, not everyone can be saved. It is the cruel truth of the world. But still 50 people is a whole of a lot better than no one being able to get saved. You had to take what you can get.

She was so distracted she had forgotten the weapons the Mysterious Five use were taken from her possession. And would not realise this until several hours later in the day.

As the others were getting their bearings back and were beginning to ask questions on what had happened Kurotsuchi was surveying her surroundings. The first thing she noticed there was an island in the far distance. In front of them was a mile long wooden bridge. A one way place to get in and out. The former Iwa-nin smiled. They could go there and fish for information in terms of their location. Maybe the people there would let them stay in exchange for protection against any zombies or bandits.

Smiling to herself at the plan Kurotsuchi turned and got everyone's attention on her. She saw the looks of relief on their faces once they realised the granddaughter of the Tsuchikage was still alive. She was the only person left they can confidently say can lead them to safety. Smiling at the looks she was getting Kurotsuchi got everyone organised and gestured them to follow her.

As the refugees from the Iwagakure made their way across the bridge Kurotsuchi stopped and looked up at the sign that was proudly displayed on top of it.

“The Great Naruto Bridge? Must be a coincidence.” Kurotsuchi mused in her head. Smiling faintly the former Iwa-nin followed the rest of the refugees across the bridge.