FicWad

Dead Rising

Chapter 15

Not long after Kurotsuchi and the surviving citizens of Iwagakure no Sato were teleported just in front of the Naruto Bridge, Nikolai just like Takeo, had undergone an appearance change. The drunk had de-aged drastically as he now looked in his mid to late 20s. He had lost a lot of weight and is now much slimmer and he had grown facial hair just like Takeo had; sporting a moustache that stretched the sides of his mouth and a bearded chin. He had also undergone a change of attire since his clothes no longer fitted him. Gone was the kerchief and hat, and gone was his Red Army standard uniform he had worn in World War II. Now he was in a pilot's outfit, complete with pilots cap and goggles' thick leather gloves and a hanging from his side is small carrier bag he had slung over his shoulder.

He was basically wearing the attire he had on during the zombie outbreak in France back in World War I. And to be honest Nikolai liked the way he looked now rather than his previous appearance. Takeo on the other hand was still in his World War II outfit. Although he had forgone the cap and had the sheathe of his katana strapped up to his back.

Now there was a new dilemma: Fuu.

Dempsey was pacing back and forth as he stared at the newest member of their ragtag group, who was nervously fidgeting under his intense gaze. Behind the mint haired girl and off a little to the side was Samantha, Naruto, Takeo and Nikolai and they were watching the nervously fidgeting girl and the pacing Dempsey. The former United Stares marine had a good eye for people with the potential to fight and would train them under his methods accordingly.

Him training Naruto - someone who had no experience on how to use their weapons - how to use different types of pistols, rifles, SMGs can attest to that. Takeo and Nikolai had helped him when he needed it, but it was mainly him who had taught the boy to be a good shot.

Suddenly the American stopped pacing and stood in front of the girl. “Okay. From the looks of it, I'd say you're fairly good at hand-to-hand combat; and you use 'chakra' to make your hand-to-hand skills more deadly against your opponents along with you being able to stick on walls, manipulate the elements and if possible, walk on water. Sound about right?”

Fuu nodded in confirmation, prompting Dempsey to scratch the bottom of his chin as he hummed thoughtfully.

Dempsey nodded to himself and then stared at Fuu with a stern look. “Alright. This shouldn't be too bad. I managed to train someone with no experience with firearms on how to aim and shoot. This should be a piece of cake.”

“You know, Nikolai and Takeo helped out with that.” Naruto said.

Dempsey and Fuu looked at the blonde but it was the older blonde who spoke. “Yeah. But I was the one who did the majority of it.” He pointed out. “Nikolai was either to drunk to help out, and Takeo was either on watch or taking out group of zombies by himself.”

After the two blondes were finished with their short conversation, a worrying thought came to Fuu and she relayed it to Dempsey. “Not to sound rude, but, won't your weapons become useless against the zombies after a while?”

Dempsey who is not one to beat around the bush' decided to be truthful with the girl. “...Eventually yes. Some zombies though are impervious to damage, or can take a lot of punishment and will have to be taken care of through some other way. Thankfully we have specific weapons that are effective against them. The downside to those weapons though is they are too expensive to be mass produced so only a few of them were made. Some of them were never even tested. But don't worry about that; instead we're going to get you started on using your first weapon. Samantha, can you make a few targets for us to get started?”

Samantha nodded affirmatively. “Of course.” She turned to her right and held her hand out in front of her. Several yards away appeared 10 targets that took on the appearance of zombies.

She then directed her hand to Fuu and much to the mint haired girl's surprise, she felt a lot heavier than she remembered being. As she looked for the reason why she was even more surprised to see, she had several pouches strapped to her waist, a gun holster at her side and an odd looking kunai launcher slung over her shoulder.

Dempsey nodded at the girls' new get up with approval. “I was going to ask for that next. Thanks for thinking ahead.”

“You're welcome.” Samantha replied as she lowered her arm to her side.

The marine brought his attention back to the mint haired girl and began to instruct her on how to properly use her battle rifle, going as far to get Samantha to give him one so he could demonstrate on how the girl should properly handle it.

Despite having no experience using their weapons Fuu had adapted herself to using it rather quick. With Dempsey helping her out with the demonstrations she quickly learnt how to remove the empty magazine and inserting a new one in its place. Just like the marine had shown her to do.

But when it came to shooting the rifle... That's an entirely different story. The first time Fuu pulled the trigger the recoil, noise and kick from the rifle had taken her by complete surprise and knocked her down on her ass. Dempsey, Naruto and Nikolai and Takeo and Samantha were rather lucky to be behind the mint haired girl, otherwise the stray bullet would have hit one of them.

The second time she had been expecting for the recoil and kick from when she pulled the trigger and prepared herself accordingly. She lined up the first shot and looked through the sights as Dempsey had instructed her to do; she took aim at the head of the first zombie and pulled the trigger.

The bullet struck home. Gaining her a head shot and the target to fall down on its back.

But when she moved to take aim at another target, Fuu pulled the trigger several times in quick succession. The result was what you would have expected; her ass was sent to the floor again. Ten minutes and a couple of tries later, Fuu had finally gotten the hang of using a rifle and was able to shoot the weapon without the kick and recoil knocking her on her ass.

Seeing she had adapted to using the battle rifle fairly well, Dempsey had her switch to using her side arm and gave her a demonstration on how to fire, reload and take off and put on the safety on said pistol. Once she showed her understanding of Dempsey's instructions by repeating the process of the American's demonstration she was allowed to aim and shoot the targets.

Taking her past experiences with the rifle into account Fuu had prepared herself for the recoil and opened fire on the targets. While the pistol jerked in her grasp every time she pulled the trigger, she was able to hit all targets.

“Well...you got used to that quickly.” Dempsey said with his tone showing how impressed he was with her adaptedness.

“Well...” Naruto began as a beaming Fuu lowered the pistol to her side. “She is a quick learner. So it stands to say it's not that surprising to see her quickly adapting to using a gun.” He said with honesty.

“Yeah, but you were thirteen when I first started teaching you.” Dempsey reminded him pointedly, causing Fuu to deflate at the revelation.

“...That's true. But you can not deny that despite her not being experienced at firing weaponry like ours, being able to fire her battle rifle and side arm after a few shots is damn impressive.”

Dempsey nodded in agreement. “Yeah.” He began, looking at Fuu from the corner of his eye. “That is something I cannot deny. However, shooting at an idle target is child’s play.” The American gestured for Samantha to bring up a new set of targets for the mint haired girl to shoot.

The targets that Fuu had shot down had been repaired and set back up. This time instead of being idle they were moving from side to side.

“Let's see how you do against moving targets?” Dempsey challenged the girl, after the zombie based targets were set back up.

Fuu squinted her eyes and swapped her M1911 .Colt for her M-14 battle rifle. But not before she reloaded said pistol and proceeded to do the same to the M-14. Taking a calming deep breath, and closing one eye as to aim better, Fuu shifted her aim to follow the first moving target that came into her line of sight.

She lined up her shot and pulled the trigger...

X.X.X.X

17 hours later.

With the majority of their time in their dimensional base, Dempsey had been using that time in training Fuu in the use of their weaponry until she had gotten use to it. The mint haired girl had adapted a lot quicker to using her battle rifle and side arm than any of them had expected.

They were well rested now, and with 17 hours gone by in their dimensional base that translated to 2 weeks and three days going by.

It was time for the six of them to get back into action.

Samantha, Naruto, Dempsey, Takeo and Nikolai and Fuu were all assembled in front of the tactical map displaying the Elemental Nations. With Dempsey and Takeo, Nikolai and Naruto and Fuu seated at the table Samantha was standing in front of the tactical map and was was about to begin their debrief on their next mission.

“Alright. We got three out of the four needed Elemental Staves. The last one is located in the Land of Lightning.” Samantha began, with the tactical map zooming in on the now desolate Lightning country.

“Where 'bouts is this staff exactly?” Dempsey asked with questioning eyes. “It's not showing on the map.”

The map then zoomed in on a desolate location in the middle of nowhere, much to their confusion. “From what I can see, the Staff of wind is located somewhere around here.” Samantha informed them. “It is not located on the surface however...”

“Which means it's located underground.” Naruto said as he stared at the shown location with a frown. “Apart from it resembling a barren wasteland, what do we know of this place?” The blue eyed teen asked.

“Not much apart from what you have already told us I'm afraid.” Samantha replied with a shake of her head. She redirected her gaze to the tactical map as it zoomed even further to the ground. Giving the group a better and clear view of the surrounding area than from the sky. “But from what I can see, this location is in fact an ancient burial ground.”

And true to what Samantha had claimed, their field of view was filled with dead yet disturbed soil. There was a large gaping hole in the ground; looking like the jaws of hell had opened that led underground.

Dempsey and the others narrowed their eyes at the sight of the large gaping hole in the earth. “The hell?”

“That is the most likely place that will take us to the Staff of Lightning. It's also in the middle of the burial ground.” Samantha stated.

Dempsey let out a tired sigh as he stood up. “A scary looking hole in the ground that is surrounded by an ancient burial ground. And underneath that is the staff we're lookin' for. Something tells me things are going to get dicey once we get down there.”

X.X.X.X

The land of Hot Water along with the former and long abandoned Yugakure had long since been overrun with the undead. The defensive force stationed at the border between the two countries had been successful at holding the undead horde at bay. Yugito after informing her Raikage of the events at Yugakure had been sent back to the fray, and used her Two Tailed transformation to help keep the walking dead from advancing into their country was a major contribution to their continued presence.

As a testament of the spreading infection in the Elemental Nations, much of the Land of Lightning is now a barren wasteland. There was no sign of life anywhere. The soil was devastatingly infertile. The clouds were a dark colour instead of their natural white. It was a depressing sight.

Somewhere far, far away in the lowlands of The Land of Lightning, near an old and disturbed burial site located in the middle of nowhere within Lightning country, six sphere's of light and cackling electricity appeared without warning.

The sphere's of light suddenly expanded outwards and within said sphere's materialised six figures that were completely indistinguishable to the naked eye. When the sphere's dispersed, in their place was Dempsey, Naruto and Takeo, Samantha and Nikolai and Fuu.

The second they appeared all six of them raised their weapons and surveyed their surroundings through the sights of their guns. After a brief but thorough scan at the environment they slowly lowered their guns.

“Alright!” Dempsey exclaimed commandingly exuding an aura that screamed 'badass'. “'Operation: find a large hole in the earth' is a go!”

“That name is stupid.”

And, with just that one sentence uttered from Nikolai, it the aura was taken down. “Hey! I chose the name and we're keeping it.” The American had an annoyed look as he glared at the drunk Russian.

His annoyed glare had shifted from Nikolai to Naruto when the blue eyed teen added, “Only because no one in this ragtag team of ours had bothered to choose a better name.”

“Hey! I don't see you coming up with a better name Naruto!”

Naruto took that as a challenge. “Oh yeah?” He challengingly said; he looked at the others and added, “Raise your hand if you think that the name 'Operation: Underground', is a whole lot better than 'Operation: find a large hole in the ground'?”

Unsurprisingly pretty much everyone raised their hand at Naruto's suggestion, much to Dempsey's utter dismay.

“Well... I... You... Oh, screw you guys!” He stammered, trying to come up with a response, before abandoning what he was trying to say completely, and settled for just swearing at them.

Naruto smirked victoriously, knowing he had won this round. Before they derail from their reason of being in the middle of nowhere in the Land of Lightning, the blue eyed blonde quickly reminded them of the task at hand.

“So, does anyone know where the hole in the ground is?”

To that question being asked everyone frowned thoughtfully before they slowly turned to look at Samantha with an expectant expression.

The faintly glowing eyed girl sighed exasperatingly, before gesturing them to follow her. “Very, vell, zhe hole in zhe ground is over here.” She informed them as she walked in the direction the large hole in the earth was.

Their destination wasn't far away. It was merely obscured from their view by a small hill. The second the six of them reached the top, they've found the large hole in the ground, surrounded on all sides by disturbed, dead and uneven soil.

“Holy hell.” Naruto said as he looked at the gaping hole with astonishment. “It looks like the jaws of hell opened.”

Nikolai grunted in agreement as he surveyed their surroundings with cautious eyes. He didn't like the lifelessness of this place. Not at all.

“It is as if the spawn of hell have taken over this place.” Nikolai darkly stated.

The regression of his age and weight had a positive side effect to Nikolai. When before he couldn't function without vodka or any sort of liqueur he can now function without drinking alcohol. It was a relief to see the former drunk now being able to function without having to resort to vodka.

Luckily for him he was still immune to Element 115!

Dempsey scowled lightly as he stared at the soil with wary eyes. He rolled his shoulders, and made his way down the hill with his weapon raised and ready to fire. The others raised their weapon and made their way down the hill after him.

As they made their way across the dead soil the group of six kept an eye on the ground and their surroundings. Being an ancient burial ground' there is a very, very, very good chance there is still some zombies lingering about. And if one of them is alerted to their presence then all of them would have to fight off centuries old and decayed corpses.

In less than 5 minutes all 6 of them reached the gaping hole. They stopped at the edge and aimed the barrels of their guns down the hole. All they could see was pitch black. However, there was a crudely made staircase leading under ground.

“Everyone stay close to one another, and what ever you do: do not split up.” Dempsey told them with Samantha, Naruto, Takeo and Nikolai and Fuu making sounds of confirmation. Inhaling through his nose Dempsey closed his eyes momentarily, before opening them again while he exhaled from his mouth. “Alright. Let's do this.”

With that said the six cautiously made their way down the staircase. By the time they reached the bottom of the stairway, their eyes had adjusted to the darkness. The six of them were able to somewhat make out what exactly was inside this tomb.

They were in a large sized room with holes the exact size and height of coffins in the walls. Some of those holes had stone and wooden coffins in them. Like on that one island in the Land of Water, there were dozens upon dozens of coffins in the room that were broken in half (wood) or had the lids opened up (stone).

Thankfully, or worryingly, depending on how they view it, there's no sign of the walking dead.

Seeing there was nothing here Dempsey whispered, “Let's move on.” before slowly and cautiously making his way to the corridor that would lead them deeper into the ancient burial ground. The others were right behind him; Nikolai following up behind him, Naruto and Samantha in the middle and Takeo and the new comer Fuu taking their flank in case the zombies would be suddenly come at them from behind.

As they proceeded to move deeper into the tomb the six of them started to see things that should not have been there. The further they got inside of the tomb, the less they saw wooden and stone coffins.

Then when they seemingly reached the end of the tomb that had its wooden doors closed tight, Dempsey Spartan kicked it open, sending pieces of wood everywhere. Dempsey, Nikolai and Naruto all looked through the sights of their gun as they moved into the room at the same time. Takeo, Samantha and Fuu came in behind them.

Only for them to come to a stop at what they saw on the other side.

“Oh, for, crying out loud.” Dempsey almost lowered his weapon in dismay. The room was once part of a tomb. But now it had been refurnished to act as both a storage and research room. The room had dozens upon dozens of stacked crates; all of them had the Group 935 emblem of a fist holding an atom, with the organizations namesake on the sides.

“Of course they would have been here too!” The marine stalked to one of the crates with a deep scowl on his mouth. “Why the fuck wouldn't they?!”

As the marine cursed and yelled in frustration Samantha quickly made her way to one of the tables, that had research notes, along with pictures. As she suspected they were written in German. So with a shake of her head Samantha began to read in order to translate the words from German to English.

“What's Group 935?” Fuu the only companion who wasn't in the complete know, asked the closest person to her, which happened to be Naruto because the others at this time were making their way to different points in the room to see if there was anything they could use.

“Long story short: Group 935 is an organization that is responsible for creating the zombies and some of the weaponry you see us using.” Naruto informed her.

“They're also responsible for wiping our memories when they experimented on us.” Nikolai who had overheard what Naruto had said, added on as he gestured to himself, Takeo, Dempsey, Naruto and lastly Samantha.

“Don't ask.” Naruto told Fuu when he saw her look of interest. “Trust me when I say that it is better if you don't know the details of what they put us through. All you need to know is that it completely messed us up in more ways than one.”

Seeing the look on his face Fuu relented on asking any further questions. Still she had gotten some info. Group 935 is an organization that had apparently made the walking dead and some of the weapons they're using. She didn't know which ones' but she had a feeling – a really good one – that the pistol Samantha is carrying is one of those weapons. Another thing she knows is that Group 935 had apparently experimented on them and their experiments had caused them to lose their memory.

Meanwhile Takeo and Nikolai were busy shifting a large stack of crates around. The reason for this is because the boxes are positioned in such a way that they appeared to be hiding something. With that they set out to shift the boxes around to see if there was anything being hidden at all.

Their hunch was right.

“We have uncovered something!” Takeo called prompting everyone to look where he and Nikolai is. Both men parted as the others approached and much to Naruto's, Dempsey's and Samantha's agitation behind the boxes was an elevator that was an exact replica of the one they found on that one island in the Land of Water.

“Remember when I said 'I have a feeling things were going to get dicey' when we get down here? That feeling is now going through the roof.” Dempsey stated flatly.

“Group 935 has desecrated another resting place. And one where the Staff of Wind happens to be. This cannot be a mere coincidence.” Nikolai stated, as the Land of Water had the Staff of Lightning. Not to mention the location of said staff happened to be on top of a temple surrounded by a forcefield generated by several generators, as well as a Group 935 facility that was built underneath said island.

Fuu remembering what Naruto said earlier, and seeing the broken and opened coffins on their way in was able to connect the dots. “You're not saying that they are desecrating this tomb just so they can make more of these walking corpses are you?”

“That's exactly what we're saying.” Dempsey replied. “They committed a lot of heinous acts against humanity.” He turned and looked at Fuu directly in the eyes. “You saw first hand what one of their creations are capable of doing. All in the name of 'science and to better humanity'.” He finished, saying the last few words with quotations and a heavy dose of sarcasm.

“Suffice to say,” Naruto began, prompting Fuu to look at him expectantly. “if you see this emblem then you can expect trouble.” He said gesturing to the design on the crate.

Samantha quickly went back to the table to work on translating the writing on the sheet of paper from German to English.

Naruto seeing Samantha walk to the table she had been previously had gotten curious, and so he followed after her. He saw Samantha glance at him from the corner of her eye before she directed her gaze back to the messily assembled paperwork on the table. He noticed they were written in German. Looking at the table Naruto tried to see if there was anything that could help him discern what was going on in this tomb. Unfortunately, it became clear to him that there was no photographs that accompanied the written info.

They are going to have to rely on Samantha on telling them what is on the paper.

X.X.X.X

The others had gone over to the table when they noticed Naruto and Samantha were there. They saw the paperwork messily assembled on the table and saw the writing was written in German. Samantha was already working on translating what was on them so they had left her on her own so she would not get distracted by them.

An hour later Samantha had gotten a brief overview on what was going on here and what she had learnt so far was enough to cause worry. Naruto saw her expression and withheld the urge to let out a dismayed whine. If Samantha of all people was worried then then whatever is here is stupidly strong.

“What is it?” He asked her.

Samantha glanced away as she bit her bottom lip. “Do you vish to hear zhe good news, or, zhe bad first?”

“Tell us the bad. Let's get that out of the way first.” Dempsey told her.

Samantha nodded and started on what she knows. “From vhat I have discovered, Group 935 has been toying vith zhe corpses' in order to create a new breed of undead.”

“A new breed?!” Fuu was understandably horrified. There's so many zombie types out there already, the idea of a new one being right under their noses all this time.

“Ja. From vhat I have read, zhese undead vhere meant to be able to teleport anyvhere and are able to blend in with their surroundings.”

Despite hearing the capabilities of this new zombie type Dempsey, Nikolai, Takeo, Naruto and Fuu were calm. It wouldn't solve anything if any of them were to panic.

“Do you know how they tick?” Dempsey asked. Knowing their methods of attacking would make handling them easier.

Samantha nodded affirmatively. “Zhey are blind and move around through sound vaves and movement. As long as ve are quiet and still, zhen, zhey von't be able to track us.” She informed them.

With them being able to blend in with their surroundings it makes finding them difficult. And with them being able to track by sound waves and movment, it will mean these teleporting zombies can get the drop on them without them knowing.

Luckily for them Nikolai had the solution: the Infrared Scope on his Hyena Infra-dead. He would be able to find any invisible zombies' that come into range.

They directed their gaze back to a potential problem on their plan of silence. The elevator that has to be moved manually by two people. The last time they used a similar elevator, it had made a lot of noise and drew a lot of zombies to them. If it's the same this time then they're going to have to face zombies that are invisible to the naked eye.

“Alright.” Dempsey deciding to go full in silent this time around had slung his M-16 over his shoulder and bared his combat knife, holding it so the blade was facing downwards instead of upwards. “Given what we have learnt we'll forgo using our weapons and use our knifes to take 'em down.”

“I say not using our guns is a pretty dumb idea.” Naruto countered, but proceeded to do the same as Dempsey. “But none of us have a silencer attached to the barrel of our guns.” He said motioning to his own M-16 before slinging it behind his back. “And we were in worse situations with even worse equipment.”

Takeo, Samantha and Fuu slung their primary weapons over their shoulder' and brandished their combat knives – kunai in Fuu's case and a katana for Takeo – while Nikolai switched his primary weapon to the Hyena Infra-dead. He wasn't going to use it but it is going to help in locating the invisiporters and avoiding them.

They walked on the elevator while Takeo and Dempsey went to the lever pump so they could get started on getting them to descend deeper into the burial ground. As Takeo and Dempsey began to move the lever pump, the gears that allowed them to descend into the tomb groaned in protest as the elevator moved downwards.

Everyone was on edge as the noise vibrated off the walls. If there was anything in the tomb then it would've heard the elevator moving.

Nikolai looked through the scope of his Hyena infra-dead and carefully scanned the elevator to see if the noise had attracted any unwanted passengers. If it did then they would show up as a glowing green figure on the modified infrared scope. As they slowly descended deeper into the burial ground everyone slightly relaxed when nothing had happened. However they knew all of that could change in a matter of seconds if they were careless.

Nearly ten minutes later the elevator got to the bottom. The loud noise when the elevator touched the ground had caused everyone to tense up once again. They quickly brought up their knives and waited for any invisible-teleporting-zombies to appear with bated breath.

They let out a relieved sigh when nothing came and got off of the elevator one by one. The room the elevator had entered them was medium. There was a table and a bookcase on their right. But they were empty.

Looking at one another, they shared a nod and as quietly as they could they stepped off the elevator and made their way down a singular man-made tunnel that would lead them even further into the depths of the burial ground. Going down the path led the six to a large and bare room, that had a thick reinforced steel door that is large and wide enough to fit a Panzer IV tank at the bottom of said room.

Dempsey made his way over to see if there was a way for him to open it. Naruto frowned questioningly as the marine separated himself from the rest of the group. “Tank? What's the matter?” He asked.

Not answering Dempsey stopped his search and ran his hand along the surface. After nearly a minute of silence the American took a few steps back and looked over his shoulder at the others. “Does any one see a way to get inside? Or at least a way to open this door?”

Rubbing his bearded chin Takeo surveyed the room with focused eyes. “Perhaps the key to opening this door is hidden in plain sight?” The samurai suggested.

“Knowing the krauts they may have just done that. Sneaky bastards.” Samantha would have taken offense to that, and to be honest, she was mildly offended at having her nationality referred to that (in her mind) insulting slang.

But she knew Dempsey was talking about Group 935 in general since the organizational ranks were mainly filled with Germans.

Despite the room being empty Samantha, remembering what Takeo had said, had suggested to them all they look around and see if the way to open the door was indeed hidden in plain sight. So that's what they did. The six went off in their own direction and either stared at the walls with squinted eyes to see if they could see any detail such as a hidden door, or lightly knock on the surface wall to see if it was hollow.

Fuu and Takeo however went in the direction they all came from. The pair found themselves back in the elevator room and looked around. Looking at the table to her left Fuu narrowed her eyes as she discovered something that wasn't there the first time they had come through. As she approached the table she found that it was a closed hardback file.

Curiosity getting the better Fuu the mint haired girl picked up the file and opened it; after flipping through a few pages she frowned and narrowed her eyes as she couldn't make heads or tails of the written contents. The writing looked completely gibberish to her.

“Have you discovered something of importance?” Fuu jumped and quickly looked over her shoulder and found Takeo peering over her shoulder, staring at the file with a heavy frown. He held his hand out to Fuu who then gave the man the folder.

Takeo grunted thoughtfully as he quickly scanned through the first few words before closing it. German. He won't be able to read it. Holding the file underneath his armpit he gestured for Fuu to follow him. “Come along, Samantha will be able to translate it for us.”

With the file in their possession both Fuu and Takeo made their way back to the others, who are still trying to find a way to open the door. Takeo headed for Samantha who was staring at the door with her eyes narrowed in thought.

Samantha had her thoughts interrupted when Takeo tapped her shoulder bringing her attention on him. She gave a curious look at the file Takeo was holding out for her to take. Thanking Takeo for handing it to her Samantha hummed as she opened the file and started reading the German written notes and documents within.

Luckily there was labels on the sides of the paper. Allowing Samantha to know where everything is, just in case she would need to fast forward to a new page.

The others eventually took notice of Samantha reading through a documented file. Naruto, Nikolai and Dempsey gathered with the others and waited patiently as Samantha read through the documented folder.

“Anything interesting on that?” Questioned a curious Naruto.

“So far all zhis is mentioning are zhe invisible undead zhat are capable of teleporting.” Samantha replied gesturing to the document she was reading. “It turns out zhe teleporting zombies vhere made by Group 935, who vas kidnapping travelling civilians and bringing zhem to zhis location to be experimented on. Zhe experiments vas in zheir vords, successful.”

“Considering they made a new zombie type that cannot be seen, and can track us through sound and movement, I would consider that a success too.” Dempsey dryly said. “Is there anything else on that? Some thing that mentions how to open this thing?” He added, gesturing toward the double steel door behind him.

Samantha let out a thoughtful sound and looked at the labels. Luckily for her one of the labels was tagged 'Group 935 Facility' in German. Seeing it Samantha immediately turned to that label and began to read in the hopes of finding any clues as to how they can open the door.

As she read Samantha was relieved to learn that the facility was small. But it was large enough to store quite a few things. The mechanical staff that can generate and shoot wind being one of them. It is also large enough to contain zombies. So it would to be the size of a house or a warehouse. Samantha was even more relieved to learn that Group 935 was less than successful in creating the teleporting-invisible-zombies. They were in the double digits. There was less than 30 of them but more than 10. Unfortunately they were locked inside of the facility when an zombie outbreak occurred and they were forced to evacuate before they got overrun.

How no one had discovered this complex was a mystery. Until Samantha turned to the next page. Turns out there was a miniature forcefield surrounding the entrance, keeping the entrance hidden to the naked eye.

Where the German scientists went after they left this place is anyone’s guess at this point. They could be anywhere.

The German girl informed everyone of this and were relieved to hear the facility behind that door wasn't massive and weren't dealing with an entire army of these invisible, teleporting fuckers. That would be troublesome. And annoying. Can not forget annoying!

Then Samantha found what she needed. The way to gain access to the facility!

“Zhere's a lock zhat requires numbers to be inserted in order for us to gain access to zhe facility. It should be located on zhe door itself vhich has a hidden compartment.” Samantha said to them informatively as she closed the folder. “Zhe numbers are 02-09-45.”

Nodding everyone faced the steel door. Putting his combat knife back in its holder Dempsey walked over to the steel door and started his search for the hidden compartment by pressing his ear against the metal door and knocked on it in several places.

Naruto and Fuu were putting all their strength behind their hands as they pushed against the door. Samantha and Nikolai were doing the same thing as Dempsey. Takeo on the other hand did something different. He, simply, was being observant. Since there was a lot to cover Takeo thought by looking for something out of the ordinary, such as an extra door – would be more beneficial.

Thanks to him practising his kata's in his family dojo, Takeo is a patient man; and more importantly he is disciplined.

And his discipline and patience paid off. Takeo's observant eyes spotted a small steel door built in the bigger door on the far right corner. It was the same colour, same tone as the steel door; unless you looked at it from the right angle it was easily missed and overlooked. Walking over Takeo sheathed his katana then raised his hand, clenched it into a fist, and jabbed the metal cover.

The sound of flesh hitting metal had caught everyone's attention and they were surprised to see the covering hiding what they needed to use to get inside opening up.

Shaking his fist and clenching and unclenching to alleviate the stinging pain, Takeo quirked a brow when he found it was a number pad hidden behind. That made the numbers Samantha mentioned a few minutes ago more sense to him.

“A number pad?” Dempsey said with a arched brow. He frowned in an attempt to remember what the numbers Samantha had told them were. He looked at Samantha. “...What were the numbers again?” He asked, giving the girl an expectant look.

“02-09-45” She answered with a sigh. Takeo quickly pressed the numbers and then pushed the enter key. Those who had put away their combat knives, or weapons brought them back out again as the door opened.

“Alright everyone.” Dempsey began. “We get in. Get the Staff. And get back out.” He looked between them all with a stern expression. “Let's do this as quickly and as quietly as possible.”

The others nodded to show they heard. As the door opened completely Nikolai was looking through the scope of his Hyena Infra-dead in case the noise from the door opening had attracted any unwanted attention.

They entered the area beyond the door once it had opened completely. Almost immediately their senses were assaulted with the stench of rotting flesh and iron. The first room they entered appeared to be a bedchamber. Double-decker beds were lined up together in rows of five. All of them are untidy, with the quilt and mattresses covered in blood splatter and chunks of decaying skin.

The second room they entered after the bedchamber was the armoury. The gun racks are empty and there are bullet shells and casing lying on the floor. Further in the room are several bodies wearing German infantry uniforms. Most of them had guns in their hands.

There were 5 of them at the very least.

“These must have been a part of the defence when the zombies broke out.” Dempsey said. He stabbed his knife in the side of the corpses head and pulled it out again. His disturbing of the corpse had caused the body to shift and loosen its grip on its weapon; a Karabiner 98k bolt Action rifle that had deep scratches on the wooden surface. The German soldier must have used it in his final moments trying to fend off his attacker.

“Their guns did not do them much good if they could not see their enemy.” Nikolai stated who was kneeling beside another corpse. He had his own combat knife shoved through the corpses forehead to the hilt, before pulling his knife out with minimal effort.

The others were doing the same thing Nikolai and Dempsey are. By stabbing the corpses in the brain it would ensure they would not reanimate. Therefore giving them less things to worry about.

Once they were finished making sure the bodies would not come back the six continued on through the complex. The next room they entered was in fact another armoury that has even more bodies. A quick count in the room lead to fifteen bodies. All of them were German Uniforms. A quick scan from the scope of Nikolai's Hyena Infra-dead, the others slowly and cautiously walked in the room after it was declared clear.

In front of the door that would lead them to another room was a makeshift barricade. From its appearance it appears to have been torn apart.

Takeo narrowed his eyes analytically. “The demons must have teleported into the room and slaughtered everyone in their path. And while the defenders were distracted, the zombies behind the barricade tore through it.” The samurai said deductively.

Nikolai growled lowly as he knelt beside one of the corpses in the room. Putting his upgraded sniper rifle on the ground beside him, Nikolai took out his combat knife and stabbed the zombie in the head. Yanking the knife out Nikolai wiped the blood off of the blade by wiping the flat end of the knife against the uniform before putting it back in its sheathe.

“The poor bastards never had a chance.” Dempsey said as he looked around the room with a deep frown. Taking a step forward Dempsey halted when he heard a crunching sound under his boot. Looking down the American saw a framed picture under his boot. Taking his boot off of the frame the marine knelt down and picked it up and analysed it.

The photograph had thirty people on it. Twenty of them wore German Uniforms while the rest of them wore civilian clothes. They were possibly the scientists.

“You found something?” Fuu asked as she approached.

“Yeah.” Dempsey replied, as he turned the frame around to look behind it. He then proceeded to remove the back of the frame and took the photograph out, and set the frame back where it was. “Looks like these were the people who were here before things went F.U.B.A.R.”

“F.U.B.A.R? What does that mean?” Fuu asked, not familiar with that word.

“It's short for Fucked Up Beyond All Reason.” Naruto explained to Fuu. “Or Recognition. Whatever suits the situation.” He added on after a moment of thought.

“In this case it would be the second one.” Nikolai added.

“And those are the ones who are responsible for the abominations that may be lurking within this complex?” Questioned Takeo who leaned in to take a look at the photograph.

“Yeah. Now take a look at this photo and tell me what you see.” Dempsey passing the photograph to Takeo who then passed it on to the others as he had already gotten a good look at it.

Nikolai, Samantha, Nikolai and Fuu were studying the photograph. And they were quick to pick out the 20 people who are wearing World War II German Infantry uniforms. Just like the bodies they had seen coming in.

“There are twenty bodies. All of them are wearing the same uniform in this photo.” Naruto began and handed out the photograph to Samantha.

Samantha took the photo and took over where Naruto left off. “Zhere are zhe same amount of corpses' ve have seen vhen ve first entered zhis complex.” She said before passing the photo to Fuu.

The mint haired girl took the photograph and added her own thoughts. “There are 10 more people in this photo who are unaccounted for. This means they either got away, or, they met the same fate as the others.” Fuu concluded before handing the photo to Nikolai.

The Soviet took the photograph, examined it, before handing it back to Dempsey. He didn't have anything to add as Naruto, Samantha and Fuu had pretty much nailed it word for word.

Dempsey looked at the photograph one last time before he put it in one of his pouches. He had a feeling they were going to need it some time in the future. “Alright everyone, let's get back to finding the last elemental staff.”

With that said the group moved further inside of the complex. Nikolai having the weapon capable of seeing these invisible teleporting zombies took point with Dempsey and Takeo covering him. Naruto and Fuu were close behind the marine and samurai while Samantha took up their rear.

“Samantha, can you sense any freak-bags nearby?” Dempsey quietly, being loud enough for Samantha to hear but low enough for him not to be heard by the invisible zombies.

Samantha narrowed her eyes in concentration; spreading her senses outwards for the familiar feeling of Element 115 running through the rotting veins of the undead. She had gotten a positive response. “Ja. Zhere is a small contingent of zhese undead above us.” Her eyes narrowed even further. “I cannot get an accurate location on zheir positioning however. But zhey are definitely located up on zhe next floor.”

Dempsey licked his lips in anticipation for the possible battle up ahead. “Okay. Alright. Everyone watch your step and move carefully and quietly.”

With that said Nikolai, Dempsey and Takeo, Naruto and Fuu and Samantha proceeded to delve deeper into the complex. After going through another room that had the floor and walls covered in blood, the room was suspiciously voided of bodies, they came across a staircase that had dried blood and rotting limbs on it.

They went up to the next floor; taking care to not make any sudden noises that would bring attention to them. Reaching the top the six moved through the hallway and up to the partially open door in front of them. Stopping Nikolai cautiously and carefully opened the door with one hand and scanned the room for any zombies through the scope of his Hyena Infra-dead.

Through the scope, Nikolai saw the zombies standing idly in the room. There are 30 of them in total. 20 of them resemble the faceless crawlers they had fought in Kino Der Toten and on the Moon. The other 10 resembled humans in structure, but with the scope lighting them up he couldn't be too sure.

Luckily they didn't take notice of the door opening. The vibrations from the opening door wasn't strong enough to alert them.

Being outnumbered 3 to 1, Nikolai did something he would not have done if he was still a drunk. He took out one of his Gersch Device's, primed it, and tossed it in the middle of the room. Everyone looked at Nikolai questioningly. To Fuu's surprise and astonishment, a miniature Black Hole suddenly appeared in the room and started sucking in all the zombies against their will.

Seeing miniature explosions appear repeatedly in the black hole the other's who knew what the device is capable of realised why Nikolai had threw in a Gersch Device. And mentally applauded his quick thinking. The new batch of zombies were extinguished. Wiped out of existence in a matter of seconds.

“Well that was easy!” Naruto exclaimed cheerfully, as he and the others walked into the room just after the back hole had collapsed in on itself.

Samantha closed her eyes and concentrated. “Zhere are no more undead in zhe vicinity.” She said, reopening her eyes.

Fuu on the other hand stared on, her eyes wide with shock and astonishment. “What WAS that?! What did that thing do!?” She demanded waving her arms up and down frantically and confusedly.

“Zhat vas a black hole.” Samantha said, deciding to give Fuu the simplest explanation of what it does. “It sucked up all zhe zombies in zhe room and ripped zhem apart. Very effective against large groups, or cleaning out rooms.”

“Why it wasn't mass produced or lasted longer than 15 seconds is because it is an experimental weapon. It doesn't really exist and was made in secret. It also has a gravitational pull. Meaning that if it's strong enough, that pull will drag in anything and everything against their will. It can tear apart the entire world if it's altered incorrectly.” Naruto explained to Fuu when he saw her open her mouth.

And since everyone who was involved in making this weapon is dead...” Dempsey trailed off.

It wasn't far from the truth either. The Gersch Device is programmed to suck in the zombies' and is only strong enough to pull the undead. If someone, say, Takeo were to get pulled in, he would merely get spit out somewhere else. If the gravitational pull was stronger, then the very foundations of building structures, cars, trees and and plants would get pulled out of the ground. Large chunks of the earth would be ripped out too. And with everyone, except for Gersch himself, who was involved in making the weapon now dead, trying to alter or reprogram the weapon would not be a smart idea.

Fuu's eyes went wide in shock and she clamped her mouth shut. She was not expecting to hear that at all.

With the vicinity clear of zombies, Dempsey, Takeo, Naruto, Samantha and Fuu didn't see the point in not utilising their guns. So they sheathed their combat knives, switching them out for their more effective, but incredibly loud assault rifles, sub-machine guns and battle rifles.

“Searching for the elemental staff should be easier now that there is no obstacle holding us back.” Dempsey said as he looked searchingly around the room they were in. Three doors. Three rooms. One of them partially broken; and only one of them has the elemental staff that are looking for. “The question is; where has it been placed?”

“Well, there are six of us.” Naruto began, prompting everyone to turn and look at him. “We all go in to groups of two, and, search inside of the rooms. It would make our search for the elemental staff go smoothly if we were to split up.” He suddenly wrapped an arm around Samantha's neck, much to her surprise and said conclusively. “I am choosing to partner up with Samantha!”

Samantha looked at her friend from the corner of her eye and shrugged with an unbothered smile. Dempsey, Nikolai, Takeo and Fuu stared at Naruto for several seconds before they looked between one each other.

“Want to team up with me Tak'?” Dempsey asked. Takeo gave his answer to the question by shrugging uncaringly. Dempsey took Takeo's silent answer in a positive manner.

“Guess this means we're teaming up then.” Fuu said nervously, looking up at the Russian with an expression matching her tone.

Nikolai slowly nod his head in acknowledgement, and then, without looking at his temporary partner he said. “Now, let us begin on locating our objective.”

Now in groups of two's, the six of them went to the rooms closest to them. Dempsey and Takeo took the room on their left. Naruto and Samantha took the one on their right; and Nikolai and Fuu took the room in the middle.

X.X.X.X

Naruto and Samantha took in the room with a grain of salt. A desk, a bookshelf or two, several wall lamps and a chair. On the wall in front of the desk was a cork notice board with many, many pictures pinned on to it.

Unlike the folder Fuu and Takeo had found earlier, which was mainly word based, these pictures were far more detailed. Getting closer the two of them were able to get a good look on what was on them. It was the new zombie type they had destroyed.

There was a blown up picture that had taken up most of the board; it showed the anatomy of the invisible, teleporting zombie and beside it was the anatomy of a human being. In terms of appearance they were structurally similar to humans. However, the only difference is they had claw like hands and feet similar to the crawling zombies that exudes a green gas from their body. Most of their face was gone' leaving a large gaping mouth that was filled with rows and rows of sharp teeth.

“Well...it's a good thing those things were taken care of.” Naruto commented with relief as he pulled off one of the pinned pictured from the mounted board. He pulled a face at how ugly it looked. “Ugh, they're nasty looking.” He said before putting the picture back on the board.

Samantha grunted as she took off another pinned photograph from the mounted board and stared at it with a deep frown. Only pictures. No folders. Putting the picture back on the board Samantha gave the room another look over; in her eyes it appeared to be an ordinary but bare looking room. However, adding the desk, bookshelves and the cork notice board it resembles more of a downgraded office, reserved for information.

It couldn't stay here. It had to be destroyed otherwise it would be used to create even more zombies. Because, let's face it. There are bound to be some people in this world who would be insane enough to experiment on the corpses and Element 115 and potentially make the zombies even worse than they are now.

X.X.X.X

At an undisclosed location within Otogakure; Orochimaru, who was busy and happily dissecting the body of a captured Napalm zombie, sneezed without any warning. The noise alerted the Napalm Zombie, who was at the time incapacitated, to his position.

The pale man went even more pale if that was possible when the zombie's entire body began to glow and the temperature in the room started to drastically increase.

His survival instincts kicking into effect the madman immediately sprinted out of the room and locked the seal reinforced door behind him. Just in time too as he heard the Napalm zombie explode.

Orochimaru wiped his forehead as he sweated. The heat from the explosion could be felt through the seal reinforced door.

X.X.X.X

“What should we do Samantha?” Naruto asked.

“Zhe option available to us is something ve should not ignore.” The girl replied as she and Naruto looked at one another. Samantha motioned to the photographs and said in a tone that brokered no argument. “Ve should destroy it.”

“Good call.” Naruto said before reaching up to pluck off all the photographs from the mounted board. “With how everything is here in the Elemental Nations, a new zombie army popping up out of nowhere would be disastrous.”

“Indeed. It vould be best to destroy anything of importance.”

“I'll take the pictures. You take the bookshelves and assemble anything on there into a pile.”

Meanwhile Dempsey and Nikolai were rummaging thoroughly through their room to gather anything of any importance with the intent of destroying them. Significant or not. They had come to the same conclusion Samantha has and decided to destroy out any and all information in the precaution of making sure no one would be able to create another zombie army using the methods the Group 935 members have.

They were still on the look out for the Staff of Wind however. And were keeping their eye out for any information relating to it, or its location.

“Anything?” Dempsey asked as he looked at Nikolai from over his shoulder.

“No. I have had no luck in regards to finding any relevant information regarding the elemental staff.” Nikolai replied as he shook his head from side to side. The Russian growlingly exhaled as he chucked another folder over his shoulder into the pile of to-be-destroyed folders and pictures that are on the floor.

“Humph, I wonder if the others are having any luck?” Dempsey mused before he brought his gaze back to the folder in his hand; before chucking it over his shoulder and into the pile when he found it was mainly miscellaneous information.

At the same time with Fuu and Takeo.

“So what are we looking for?” Fuu asked as she looked at Takeo expectantly.

Takeo was busy searching through a bookcase. Books were being taken off the shelf and tossed to the ground behind him. He didn't bother checking through them because he can't read German.

Takeo's answer was both vague and crisp. “Pictures. Notes. Anything that will give us information.”

Fuu nodded in acceptance. Look for pictures and notes in the room. At least it gave her something to do. Sighing Fuu went to search the room for anything Takeo had said. Pictures or notes; how hard could finding them be?

Back with Naruto and Samantha.

“So the whole zombies situation your father and his assistant unwittingly caused; do you think we'll ever resolve it?” Naruto curiously asked Samantha as he examined photo after photo.

Samantha exhaled as she tossed another book aside as the contents were useless. “To be honest mien friend I do not know.” She answered as she picked out another book to look through. As she looked through the pages Samantha grimly added, “Zhe Earth ve have come from is destroyed because of our efforts to stop Richtofen. Everyone zhere is already dead, or, dying and if zhey are not zhen zhey vill be sooner or later. Unless ve manage to resolve zhe situation here, your vorld vill meet zhe same fate.”

Naruto reluctantly admitted to himself that Samantha had a point. Despite how grim it is. If they don't resolve this zombie infestation quickly, then everyone in the Elemental Nations will die and sooner or later the infection of 115 will spread across the seas, infesting new lands, turning everyone, human and animal into zombies.

Not that he really cared for the Elemental Nations anymore. He was BORN here in the Elemental Nations yeah; but, is it really home if you barely remember it? He felt more at home with Dempsey, Nikolai, Takeo and Samantha if he were honest with himself.

Naruto frowned as a thought came to the forefront of his mind. “It may not be too late in saving your world.” He suddenly said, much to Samantha's interest.

“Hmm?” She turned to look at Naruto with curiosity in her eyes as she lowered the book. “Vhat do you mean? Mien Earth is destroyed.”

“Well... it's just a thought, but, you know when Tank, Nikolai, Takeo, myself and Richtofen time travelled thanks to the teleporters?” Hearing her making a confirmation sound, the blonde continued. “Well isn't there a way for us to go to the past before Richtofen went insane and warn them of the future events?”

“...Ve could, but zhat can have dire consequences.” Samantha answered with a lot of thought and hesitation. “Consequences ve cannot predict. But it is something ve can consider.” She added on as an after thought.

It is a tempting idea; having to go back in time before Edward lost his marbles, and warn her father of her future. If that doesn't work, well it's not hard to see that the consequences for her failure would be catastrophic.