FicWad

'Sometimes when you're dealing with an enemy that outnumbers you two to one, you're gonna have to do some pretty risky, and often, insane things just to even the odds in your favour.'

When he woke up Naruto found himself laying on rough ground. Hard. Uncomfortable. Unforgiving. Inhaling and exhaling he slowly dragged his arms and legs in and pushed himself up on his hands and knees. It took a lot of effort because his strength had left him. His arms and legs were shaking uncontrollably. He let his head hang there, it was straining enough just to get himself in the position he is in now.

Then he remembered what happened. He took the Keeper by the hand hand, an exhausted Keeper, and it intended to bring him to safety. With the other women was his guess. But then his hand slipped out of the Keeper's and he was dropped elsewhere. He several metres up in the air and lost consciousness when he hit the ground.

“Stupid, stupid, stupid!” he berated himself.

It was a stupid thing to do. Very stupid. He knew the Keeper was exhausted. He should have told it to rest first. To get its strength back before bringing him to the others. But because the Keeper said it could bring him to the others he believed it.

Which led him to where he was now.

Taking in another deep breath Naruto exhaled and pushed himself up once more. He dragged his feet in and with one final push he put himself in a sitting position. Breathing heavily Naruto pulled down his hood and looked for his assault rifle. It was just within arms length to his right and he leaned over and dragged it to him.

He checked the monitor attached to its side and to his relief and dismay he discovered there was no one around. Relief because there was no enemy and dismayed because that means there's no friendlies either.

“Shit. Alright Naruto...” he said as he began to look around for any familiar landmarks. There were none. But that meant he found his new environment. “Where the hell did you end up...?” he breathed out in dismayed awe.

A night sky with a lot of stars. A gigantic blue moon that illuminated everything. He could see large floating islands with buildings on it elevated around him. Some were familiar; others were very familiar, and many were not.

Around him were houses. Houses from his home with all the furniture and utilities still contained within. There was a church on a hill nearby that had large cracks and fissures running along its structure. It was blocked off by by a large hole in the ground around it.

And down the street ahead of him was a two storey building. He knows that place. It's his home. What he didn't recognise was what is floating above it: a tall floating tower. And what was in front of the house. A turret in the shape of a head with an open mouth. It was wider and taller than him.

On the nearest elevated land he could see a mound with trenches surrounding it. On another he could see several buildings in ruins. While some of them were still standing, a large part of them had a massive hole blown through the walls. All in all the entire place looked like it had just gone through a war. He could see a tower, similar to the one above his house, on those elevated landscapes as well. And a small floating island had the structure of a mostly intact cathedral on it.

Naruto slowly got back up and walked over to the turret in front of his house. He'd might as well see what the hell it is.

...On second thought he will do that right after he checks out his house first.

X.X.X.X

After an undetermined amount of time.

Miria slowly opened her eyes and immediately closed them again when snow fell into them. Her silver eyes snapped open when the last thing she remembered was Rigaldo glaring down at them from the rooftop and she immediately sat up. She frantically looked around for her comrades and found their bodies laying in the snow around her.

Fear and terror gripped her heart when she found they were unmoving. And as seconds seemingly went to minutes she was about to go over to each one and check if they were alive. Before she could do so however the women groaned and slowly sat up one by one. All of them. All twenty four were alive. All were healed! Her fear, her terror was replaced with immense relief.

“Wha- what happened?” Miria heard Undine, the formerly muscular hybrid, now thin and frail looking, groggily asked.

“We...we're alive. All of us! Ha ha! I don't believe it!!!” Helen cheered happily, she fell back into the snow and laughed with relief.

“The Keeper...” Miria looked at Zelda who was standing unsteadily on her feet. “It was the Keeper who got us out of there.”

“I'm going to kiss that kid when I get my hands on him!” Helen declared as she sat back up with a fist clenched determinedly in her face. She was just so god damn happy that everyone was alive!

“Get in line.” Cynthia said with a smile. It was at this point that everyone was laughing joyously. Well except for a small few.

One of them being Deneve. Now that he was brought up Deneve realised he was being eerily quiet. Almost as if he wasn't.... Inhaling sharply the pixie-haired woman quickly got up and wildly looked around, much to the surprise and bewilderment of everyone and started counting the amount of people here. There was twenty four of them.

Wait...there was a person shaped lump in the snow near them.

“Helen, help me out!” she yelled out as she ran over to the lump she was hoping is Naruto.

“Wha...” the woman in question looked at Deneve in confusion for a moment. Then she saw where she was going. She cursed as Naruto is an ordinary human and being in the snow like that could potentially kill him. “Yeah, okay!” she quickly got up and ran after her friend.

When the two hybrids got halfway they froze mid run when the lump slowly rose and as the snow dropped onto the floor it was revealed to be the Keeper.

Growling in confusion the Keeper held the side of its head as it slowly looked around. It saw Helen and Deneve staring at it. And the other twenty two were in the same spot but standing. It quickly dismissed them and continued looking around.

There was a person short. Hissing frantically the Keeper quickly floated up and started looking around.

All of the hybrids watched as the Keeper started to have a small panic attack. The sight would have been hilarious if it weren't so serious.

“Deneve...” Helen was flat eyed and deathly calm as her eyes followed the frantic Keeper.

“....Yeah?” Deneve was the same.

Slowly ever so slowly Helen turned to look at her friend. “I don't think the kid is with us.” Deneve nodded to show she agreed and knew. Taking a deep breath Helen closed her eyes faced the direction the Keeper is in. When her eyes opened the short haired woman snarled and yelled out in the most outraged tone she could muster, “HEY! KEEPER! WHERE THE FUCK IS NARUTO!!!”

The Keeper stopped what it was doing and looked at Helen. It hissed at her and to the hybrids frustration she was unable to understand what the hell it was saying!

“I can't understand you Keeper.” Helen said through grit teeth. “Can you like, do whatever you did that let Naruto understand you?”

The other hybrids walked over to Helen and Deneve and just watched. Then everyone reached for their claymore's when they heard an unfamiliar voice only to realise they don't have their swords.

“There. Now you and everyone else can understand me.” everyone stared wide eyed at the Keeper. They can actually understand it!

“Can you tell us why Helen and Deneve's...companion is not with us?” Miria respectfully and politely asked the Keeper before Helen could say something that would offend it.

“...My teleportation limit is twenty four. And there are twenty four of you. When you went out the one you are asking for had asked for the limit on how many humans I can teleport.” the Keeper told her.

“What happened after that?” Miria asked as she sent a quick glance to Helen. She looked impatient and worried.

“He requested to get you all out first if the situation becomes dire. After the enemy got you spooked he had I retrieve you from peril.”

“You. Left him. Alone?! With the awakened beings?!” Helen growled fiercely.

So those creatures are known as awakened beings as well? The Keeper filed that phrase away for later.

The Keeper loomed over Helen threateningly, “You underestimate how resourceful he can be, hybrid.”

“There's over twenty of them Keeper.” Miria butted in before Helen could make a scathing retort. “We may have killed three of them but that still left over twenty. The chances of him, a normal human, getting out of there is...abysmal.” and despite how much she wants to believe the young man is alive, the likelihood of him getting out of that mess at Pieta is very unlikely.

The Keeper chuckled, “Truly? Because when I went back retrieve him, he was already out of the city. Several miles out in fact. The blizzard of snow that was there may have helped.” it informed her, then the Keeper sighed as it turned around and began to monologue to itself, “I do not understand what had happened. I may have been exhausted teleporting all of you to safety, but I had the human in hand. He should be here...unless...”

“Unless?” Miria prompt from it.

“It is a long shot, but if he had lost the grip on my hand, he may have ended up in a place that is very dangerous.” the Keeper replied turning back to face the captain. “If he is where I think he is then his life will be in constant danger.”

“Where ever he is I'm going after him.” Helen declared as she got up in the Keeper's face. Or tried too. It was floating after all. “I don't care how dangerous this place he ended up may be, I'm going after him! Just try to stop me!”

Instead of being offended the Keeper just laughed, “Ha ha ha! Very well. Does anyone else want to volunteer?”

Deneve stepped up. “I'll go too. Someone has to keep you in check.” she said with a sigh.

“I'll come with. If this boy means that much to you Helen I might as well help.” Clare said as she approached them.

“I'll join you.” Jean stepped up she did owe Clare and now this Naruto her life.

Sighing Miria stepped up as well, “I'll accompany them as well. It's the least I can do for this kid.” he did risk his own life to get everyone out of there alive. So getting him out of this potentially dangerous place is one way to repay him.

“Does anyone else want to join?” asked the Keeper.

Cynthia looked at the others, and seeing as no one was going to volunteer she shrugged and went to the others. “I'll join. What is the maximum limit of people that can join if I may ask?” she questioned the Keeper.

“Eight. The more people I have to teleport the easier it is for I to tire. So eight is the limit.”

Two more stepped forward and joined the other six, Yuma and Tabitha. While the former was shy and in-confident with herself she had wanted to help Naruto since he practically got them out without any deaths. And she wanted to return the favour.

Tabitha was in a similar state of mind. While she was annoyed that Naruto had not allowed the Keeper to help them, that changed when he allowed the Keeper to get them to escape at the risk of his own life. She felt she owed him.

“Alright. That is eight.” The Keeper looked over them all. “Be warned: where we are going is nothing like you have seen before. Do not wander off and if you must split up do so with another person. Do you eight understand?”

The eight women all nodded in affirmation; satisfied the Keeper teleported itself and the eight women away. The remaining women shared a look and decided to get themselves comfortable. The snow had let up for the moment and while they were unaffected by the cold weather, it didn't mean they did not find it uncomfortable.

X.X.X.X

He saw crouched on the windowsill to peer through the window and look inside the interior of the building. It was a medium sized bedroom, with a bed, three wardrobes, a beside table, two shelves, a television and a computer. Naruto nodded to himself; this was definitely his home. Or it was very similar to it.

If the building is similar to his then there should be a built in solar generator on the roof and a battery storage inside that powers up everything in the house.

While Naruto's homeland may be advanced enough to have muskets, they're advanced enough to have built radios, televisions and computers. How they didn't create more powerful weapons yet is beyond him.

He pulled himself in and then gravity took hold and he fell to the floor with a scream. Face first. He rolled on to his back and stared up at the ceiling with a red imprint of his face.

“Ouch.”

He grunted in discomfort since the Commando was angling his back in a very uncomfortable way. Letting out a growling exhale Naruto sat himself up, rubbed his face and briefly looked at the wardrobe then down at himself.

“Yeah a change of clothes would be nice.” with a groan the young man stood up and went to one of the wardrobes, “Hope they're actually stocked on clothes. I really need to change.”

When he opened it he paused and narrowed his eyes in confusion. None of the clothes he was familiar with was there. Everything in there was different from what he was use too. Thankfully none of them were all that different from what he was wearing right now.

He grabbed a shemagh scarf, not that he knew what it was, a long and thick double breasted, wide lapelled brown heavy coat with straps on the wrist, a storm flap and pockets that button-close, and shoulder straps that also button-close.

Some long length, straight leg cut trousers was grabbed next that had a battle dress wool fabric and metal brace buttons. A long sleeved tunic with four pleated pockets, reinforced shoulders, brass buttons and the same wool fabric as the trousers. A pair ankle boots, and long putties that were on the floor. All the same colour as the rest of the clothing. He also grabbed a pair of brown gloves made of leather that was on the bottom of the closet as a last minute decision.

He also took a webbing set. Which consisted of a belt, ammunition pouches, shoulder straps, cross straps, a water bottle carrier, a blue enamelled water bottle, a bayonet frog and bayonet, a helve carrier and handle, an entrenching tool carrier and an entrenching tool head and a small pack.

Naruto gave them all a look over. “Well it's a heck of a lot better than what I'm wearing now.” he told himself. Not to mention he would be better equipped as well. Then he proceeded to swap clothing and but the new ones on. They were a perfect fit.

He checked himself out on the mirror and nodded to himself. This was good. A heck of a lot better than what he had been wearing previously. Not to mention he felt more protected. He grabbed his commando and slid his arm through the rifle's sling and allowed it to hang at his back. After that he grabbed the orange glowing blood vial he had taken off and reattached it to the small bag on his back.

Alright. Now to check out the turret!

This time he'll go out through the front door.

After exiting the interior of the building, and making sure to take a key in order to get back inside through the front door rather than through the window again, Naruto walked to the turret and slowly walked around it in a circle. Taking in the detail and craftsmanship that was put into it.

To be frank it was disturbing. It looked like a Keeper's head with four eyes and a open mouth that showed several sharp teeth. It looked...wrong. Unnatural.

His curiosity getting the better of him Naruto reached up and touched the turret. Naruto jumped and looked ahead of him with wide eyes when he heard noises. Hungry screeches and moans that seemed like it was coming from hundreds of people.

Then several rotting corpses, wearing clothing familiar and unfamiliar to him crawled out from the buildings in front of him. Numbering in the dozens and steadily growing higher. Many had chunks of skin ripped from their bodies. Some were burnt beyond recognition. Others were missing entire limbs.

And all of them had dark red glowing eyes; just like that yoma he encountered a week ago.

Panicking but keeping a level head Naruto reached for his Commando and held it in his hands. He checked the monitor on it and growled in concern when nothing showed. He glanced between it and the zombies who had noticed he was there. He closed the monitor and recalling his training with Kakashi and Yamato he held the assault rifle like he would use a musket and took aim.

The first zombie fell to the ground like a sack of potatoes from a bullet through the skull. And to Naruto's surprise the gun kept firing, and the recoil of the gun had made him redirect his him upwards.

He let go of the trigger and the gun stopped firing. He took a shakingly deep breath and redirected the barrel to another zombie. He has no idea how many bullets this gun can hold but he's fairly sure there's not a whole lot thanks to his blunder.

He fired in short controlled bursts. Killing several of the shambling, groaning corpses before they could even reach him. But because he was only experienced with muskets, a lot of the bullets had missed their targets entirely. The recoil was something the blonde was not use too but he adapted. It was a slow adaptation but he adapted.

Eventually he ran out of bullets. Which was too soon for his liking as he barely killed 20 of them.

He growled in dismay when he realised he didn't have anything to reload it with and he guessed that cartridge or, whatever it's called at the bottom is what is used to contain the bullets. The Keeper didn't provide him with any extra ammo as far as he knew. Doesn't mean he can't use anything else at his disposal though.

He slipped his arm and head through the sling once more and summoned Ancients Wrath. Blue flames enveloped the blade as he closed the rest of the distance between him and the zombies.

He stabbed a zombie through the head with the blade, burying the skull to the hilt while stabbing another zombie behind it through the head as well. He dragged the blade out and started hacking and slashing through several zombies with ease.

He shoved and kicked away the ones that had gotten too close for comfort, and in doing so Naruto had inadvertently knocked several zombies to the ground and gave himself a small path to get through. But the zombies were many and he was but one person.

Beheading a zombie and punching the face of another Naruto spun around in a full 360 with his sword. The fire enveloped blade cut through the encircling zombies with ease and the seventeen year old dart his eyes around for an escape route.

He quickly ran back to where he first awoke with the zombies in relentless pursuit and took a brief look around. He spotted something near the edge of the floating island he's on and seeing as he didn't have any other options at the moment he went over there to check it out. But not before hacking and slicing through another zombie or two that caught up to him.

It was a curved encircled wall with engravings on them. He didn't know the language though. It's written in a completely different text. With odd pictographs and everything. But on the floor there was a pad of some sort. He didn't know what it entails though.

Naruto quickly looked behind him when hearing the hungry howls of the dead. His eyes went wide in slight panic as the undead horde approached in a huge pile. There was no way he was going to get through them! And they were a little too close for him to safely use the arrows from Wrath of the Ancients!

He let out a loud curse, “Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck!”

Naruto quickly looked back at the pad took a leap of faith and stepped on to it. His stomach dropped as he was suddenly thrown through the air off of the floating island!

“FUCK FUCK FUCk fuck fuck fuck!!!!!!!!” Naruto's screams could be heard through the air as it became more and more distant, the further away he got from the starting island.

“Gah!” he landed rather harshly on the other island and fell flat on his stomach after stumbling forward upon handing. Quickly getting his ass up Naruto hastily took in his new surroundings as he moved.

He was on the island that had a mound and trenches. And he landed right at the bottom of it. Now that he was actually here he could see everything in better detail. It looked like hell on earth. Barbed wires; corpses wearing similar clothing to the one he's got on are impaled on spikes; metal pipes ran along and sometimes through the trench walls.

And there was a lot of blood and gore everywhere. Suffice to say whatever happened here must've been bad. Really bad. And he had his suspicions this was once part of the Old World.

As he heard a distant noise of howls and the growls of the dead Naruto turned to face the launch pad – because it launched him from one floating island to another – and swapped his sword out for his bow. He pulled the string back as a flame tipped arrow manifested in his grip and released it once the first set of zombies made land.

The arrow exploded in a beautiful display of fire, blood and gore as it met its target. Naruto rapidly backed away as more and more zombies landed, and fired arrow after arrow at them.

He growled in frustration as more and more kept on coming; their numbers were forcing him to back away until he had to inevitably turn around and make a tactical retreat.

There was no end to them!

Naruto retreated through the trench he was in with the zombies in hot pursuit. Then he caught a lucky break: a heavy, reinforced steel door. He quickly ran through, turned around and shoved all his weight against it in an attempt to get it closed.

The blonde grit his teeth, groaning strainfully against the door as he tried to close it. His brow creased when he saw the zombies getting closer with every passing second. Eyes narrowing with sheer determination Naruto let out a force filled yell as he finally closed the door and locked it just as the zombies reached it.

Naruto let out a breath of relief as he slid to the floor. He could hear the zombies pounding their hands against the metal. But he didn't care. He was safe from them; for the moment at least.

He just hoped they weren't smart enough to climb over things. Or that there wasn't any teleporting zombies like that yoma he killed a week ago. That would suck!

X.X.X.X

A few minutes later...

When Miria, Helen, Deneve, Clare, Cynthia, Yuma, Tabitha and Jean found themselves in a strange area the eight of them had no idea what to think. They saw the star filled night sky, the gigantic blue moon or sun that illuminated everything but didn't burn them to ashes. And around them they could see floating islands with buildings on them.

One of them looked familiar to Clare though. It was a mostly intact cathedral on its own floating island and as she squinted her eyes to get a closer look, the pageboy haired woman recognised it as the cathedral from Rabona! Why was it here? And why was it in that state?

The other hybrids had spread out a bit with were within range of one another. They're on the very same island Naruto was on, and when they had finished looking at the other floating islands they finally took notice of Naruto's handy work.

“Deneve, does their condition remind you of anything?” Helen asked because she was heavily reminded of the yoma Naruto had killed a week ago.

Deneve nodded in affirmation and turned a corpse over on its back with her booted foot, “They're like the decaying yoma we saw a week ago.” she looked at the other corpses and grimly added, “Only there's more than one here.”

“This is why I said to not split up. The enemy is numerous here. They never tire and are relentless in their pursuit.” the women all jumped in surprise at the Keeper's sudden appearance. It surveyed its surroundings as it tried to locate Naruto to no luck. “The more you fight them the stronger they become and the smarter they get.”

“But they're dead! How can they get smarter and stronger if they're already dead?” Tabitha questioned; it was a logical thing to ask since such a thing boggled her like nobodies business.

“No one knows. Not even I know how this came to be. But it is.” stated the Keeper. “Eventually your weapons will become useless against them. But there are a few weapons from the Old World that will always guarantee a kill. Unfortunately most of them has been lost to time and the ones that were recovered are inoperable due to the primitiveness of your technology.”

“How do you know all of this? When these weapons were recovered I mean?” Cynthia questioned.

“I have been around for a...very. Long time. There were times the Keepers checked in. To see if the situation here had waned or not. If it had degraded to the degree it was a near catastrophe we would have interfered. It has not reached that point as of yet. I am only here because I have sensed the human using one of our weapons.”

Once that conversation was done the girls looked at the zombies again and noticed many of them were hacked and slashed with a blade, but the wounds were cauterised. And a small group of zombies further ahead were more intact.

Miria went to look and she found the wounds they suffered were similar to the one that had killed Dae.

“There's corpses here. But the boy here for isn't among them.” Miria said, and everyone had one thing going through their minds: if Naruto's not here then he's still alive and fighting.

“To kill so many by himself – for an ordinary human that's impressive.” Jean commented and she honestly was impressed at how many corpses there were. There had to be over twenty, at least!

“Let's follow the bodies. Often following bodies leads to where people need to go.” Cynthia suggested and then clarified.

“Or too their doom.” Yuma nervously countered and eeped in surprise when Cynthia lightly elbowed her on the waist.

“Or both. We never know, right?” the pig tailed woman brightly said.

They didn't have as many options here so they decided to follow with Cynthia's suggestion and follow the bodies. They found a few more bodies behind them and went over to them. And after a short look around all nine found the launch pad Naruto had used to get to the other floating island.

“What's this?” Helen asked aloud as she approached it.

When she went to step on it Deneve's eyes grow wide and reached out to her, “Wait, Helen! Don't-” her warning came short when the short haired woman was thrown through the air and off the floating island. The other 7 watched with stunned eyes as Helen was thrown clear through the void of space, and unknown to them, to the other island Naruto was on. Her scream of terror fading away from their ears the further away she became.

“-step on it...” the pixie-haired woman finished lamely.

X.X.X.X

Helen was not having a fun time.

“AAAAHHHHHAHAHAHAHA!!!!! I'M GOING TO DIE!!!!”

Not at all. She could see everyone else becoming a speck as she was launched through the void of space. The fact they were standing on a floating island, on the other hand had gone completely dismissed because she was flying through the air.

To her relief the short haired woman saw she was approaching another floating island. One with a mound and trenches that also had a ton of bodies, impaled on spikes and bits and pieces of zombies laying around along with barbed wire and pipes.

And as she approached the new area she saw someone new someone she didn't know but looked a little familiar. And he was heading right for her trajectory!

“LOOK OUT!” she screamed out at him.

Naruto looked up and went wide eyed in surprise when he saw Helen coming down towards him at a rapid pace. He didn't much time to react and before he knew it the woman collided with him. Both yelled out in pain, Naruto more so than Helen since the latter was wearing plate armour and that added a lot more weight. He was thrown clear off his feet and the two hit the ground with Helen straddling him.

Shaking her head Helen sat up, still straddling Naruto and looked down at him. It was then she realised who he was despite the new get up, because she recognised his vibrant shade of blonde hair and eyes.

But to make absolutely sure, “...Naruto?”

Groaning in pain and discomfort Naruto blinked repeatedly and looked up at her with squinted eyes, “Yeah...?”

With his voice all but confirming his identity Helen pulled down his shemagh scarf, and before Naruto could react she pressed her lips to his, fulfilling what she said she was going to do.

Stunned Naruto didn't return the kiss for the past few seconds. But once he got over it he really wanted to return it, because it felt nice. But priorities came first. So reluctantly he pushed Helen away causing her to pout.

“Now is not the best time to do this Helen.” he told her.

Her pout became even more pronounced, “How come?”

She got her answer from the hungry howls and screams of the dead. And looking in the direction the noises came from she saw an entire horde descenting on them through the trench. Helen quickly got up and off of Naruto who in turn got up. Bringing Wrath of the Ancients to bare once more Naruto fired a few more arrows and the two blondes watched as the projectiles exploded in a fiery display of blood and dismembered limbs.

However despite how many he killed more and more kept replacing them, making the undead seemingly endless. Dismissing the bow Naruto took Helen by the wrist and pulled her on to the launch pad with him.

“Wait not thaaAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!” she started only for the words she wanted to say to change to her screaming as they were lunched off the floating island and back to the one they were on previously.

Naruto was able to keep his panic induced cursing to himself this time around and he looked behind him as he and Helen were launched through the void of space. He saw the zombies were after them. Having been launched by the pad as well. Growling the young man looked ahead and saw the starting area ahead of them.

And he saw the Keeper, along with Miria, Deneve, Clare and Jean, Cynthia and Yuma all staring up at them in bewilderment as they approached the ground. Helen was still screaming her head off as the floor rapidly descended upon them.

The seven women plus Keeper all vacated from the area of impact and a moment later both Naruto and Helen landed on the ground. The former quickly turning around and summoning the bow to his hand again. He took aim with it as he yelled out, his tone filled with controlled panic, “Keeper! We gotta get out of here! Right now!”

“What's going on?!” Miria demanded.

“No time!” Naruto told her just before he fired an arrow. They followed the arrow and their mouths dropped open and their eyes grew wide at the sheer amount of zombies coming. Even as the zombies in the front were blown out of the sky, it didn't make a dent in their numbers. More just replaced them.

“We need to get out of here before we become their chew toy!” he exclaimed, drawing and firing another arrow at the horde. The women all drew their blades as they got ready for a fight against a seemingly endless amount of enemies.

However the Keeper seeing as they had gotten who they had came for decided that was a good time as any to get them out of there. When the zombies were almost touching the ground the Keeper teleported everyone out of the realm they were in. Not a moment later the zombies touched the floor and howled to the void of space.

X.X.X.X

When they reappeared amongst the other 16 hybrids they jumped out of surprise at their sudden reappearance. Seeing as he was in a completely safe place Naruto with a sigh of relief and exhaustion fell back on his rear and closed his eyes and allowed his head to hang forward.

“Naruto!” Helen cried out in concern.

He quickly raised a hand to stop her, not that it actually stopped her from kneeling down beside him, and without opening his eyes said, “I'm fine. I'm just...resting for the moment. God I'm so tired...”

“I'll say.” the haired haired woman said as she sat beside him. “How many of those things were there after you?”

“Too many to count.” was the reply she and everyone else had gotten. “No matter how many I killed more just came. There was an entire army of those things after my head.”

“What happened?” Flora asked unknowingly asking the question all the other hybrids that weren't there had in their minds.

“...It was...weird to say the least...” Miria began to retail everything she and the others had seen in that place. From the floating islands, to the houses, to the strange towers to the large source of light that is similar to a sun. Even going in to detail on what they had encountered.

“That is weird. And worrying.” Flora commented.

“To think such a place exists!”

“A place where the dead walks? As if!”

“I don't know...if there are beings such as the Keeper then who's to say the dead do not walk?”

“How did you manage to survive for as long as you did?” while the other claymore's were talking amongst themselves about what the nine had seen and experienced, it was Veronica who asked this question. And she was directing it to Naruto.

Naruto tiredly opened his eyes and looked at the pony-tailed hybrid. “In short: tactical retreats. I knew I couldn't win in a direct fight; I would have been ripped to shreds if I tried.” he said and clarified when he saw the look the woman was giving him.

“I saw wounds on the corpses that were similar to the one on Dae while we were there. I take it you caused that?” Miria asked this question; images of zombies having bullet holes on their bodies and heads flashed in her mind.

“Yeah. That was me.” he confirmed and shrugged off the sling to show them the assault rifle the Keeper had given to him. “I did that by using this thing. I was not all that good using it to be honest. It's a lot different to using a musket.” he added and watched with some amusement as the women all looked at it in dumbfoundment and in some cases with awe.

“It looks a little similar to the thing the Keeper had shown us in Pieta.” Deneve pointed out.

“It does doesn't it?” he said with a small grin and then he placed the rifle on the snow covered ground beside him. He then glanced at Helen with a small smile, “Hey, Helen, remember when I told you about my home?” he suddenly asked.

Furrowing her brow in thought the short haired woman nodded and said, “ Yeah. I remember. Why?”

“You saw a part of it in that shattered place.” he informed her.

It didn't take long for her to realise what he meant. “The island we appeared on was-”

“Part of my home? Yes.” he finished for her. “How it is there on the other hand, I have no clue.”

“You weren't kidding when you said your homeland was more advanced than this place,” Miria said as she sat down on the snowed ground with a sigh. “A lot of things inside of those houses I haven't gotten the slightest idea on what they do.”

“A lot of things back home weren't re-discovered here yet.” Naruto shrugged. Sighing he looked around their surroundings and frowned.

Deneve noticed this and asked with a concerned frown of her own, “What's the matter?”

“Just wondering how I'm going to survive in these conditions.”

“We'll be fine! Don't worry about it!” Helen ran her gloved hand through his hair and ruffed them with a cheery smile.

Naruto made no attempt to stop her. In fact he closed and eyes and leaned in to her much to the woman's amusement. “Oh, I agree, you women will be fine. The cold doesn't affect you after all.” he said; then he opened his eyes and pointed at himself with his thumb; he then added, “But I can get sick. And if I get sick, then there is a possibility that I'll die. And I like living.”

Seeing an opportunity to tease him some more Helen put an arm over Naruto's shoulder and pulled him to her. Her fellow blonde didn't bother to resist this time around and just allowed her to do what she wanted. He was too tired to resist.

“I can keep you warm, kid! So buck up!” she cheerfully said with an equally cheerful smile. And everyone knew there was something about it. It was off. The smile was too sickingly sweet. Deneve gave her friend a warning look when she saw the mischievous look on Helen's face.

Naruto couldn't care less though. “Y'know what? I don't care how you're gonna keep me warm. Just keep hugging me.”

Helen pouted in disappointment at his lack of reaction to her declaration. She had an entire response of her being naked to keep him warm planned out and everything! Darn it!

Deneve and Miria were amused at the look of disappointment on Helen's face but kept it hidden. Cynthia was outright giggling, making Helen glare weak heartedly at the pigtailed woman and Veronica lightly shook her head while pinching the bridge of her nose.

The others were either looking on in amusement or were good naturedly exasperated.

Sighing Helen looked down at Naruto, sighed again and leaned down to rest her face against his scalp. Naruto didn't react at all. She won't admit it, but she is happy to see that her week old companion is alive and unhurt. She was touched and downright terrified to learn he practically gave his life away to get them all to safety.

It goes to show he would risk life and limb for those he cared about. And if she ever managed to meet his parents, she'd make them regret selling him to the organization!