FicWad

Cycle No: Unknown.

Naruto felt weightless. He couldn't feel the ground; couldn't see his own body; all the young man could see was glimmering lights; they almost reminded him of stars; along with that Naruto thought he could...see something – multiple something's coming towards him. Images showing things he didn't understand or places he had never seen before. But they would vanish as quickly as they came.

Although he could have sworn one of the images he saw was his home. He didn't know what to make of it though.

When he finally re-materialised on a mainframe Naruto was disorientated and dizzy and had a slightly blurry eye sight. All the blood had rushed to his head and he was light headed along with having trembling legs. He also felt lighter for some reason unknown to him at the moment.

As he hunched over Naruto started dry heaving. The acid in his stomach threatening to come up and out of his mouth. Fortunately that didn't happen as his stomach managed to settle down before it could.

It was around this time that his eyesight began to clear up, and he was finally able to see where he had ended up.

“What the hell..?” he whispered to himself in shocked disbelief and astonishment.

It was his home. But at the same time it wasn't his home. It was in a state of ruin. Partially standing buildings, rubble covered the streets, small craters and shrapnel could be seen and he could see lots of red as well.

All in all it looked like a war zone.

But Naruto knew better. Going over to get a closer look the young man knelt beside a piece of rubble and ran his fore and middle fingers through the redness surrounding it. It flaked under his touch and Naruto was able to pick up a smell he had not noticed before: iron.

Exhaling Naruto rubbed his fingers against his thumb watching as the dried blood flaked its way to the ground. Sighing the blonde reached for his CAR-15 only to grab nothing. He quickly looked over his shoulder and to his dismay he found it gone! It was no longer on his possession!

“The fuck!?” so that was why he felt more lighter than normal? Because his weapon was gone?! At least he has the bayonet on him, that way he won't be completely weaponless. And speaking of weapons Naruto held his hand out and to his relief Wrath of the Ancients materialised in his palm. After that the ancient bow dematerialised and Ancients Wrath took its place.

Relieved that he knows he has two powerful weapons still in his possession Naruto dismissed the sword and briefly scanned the area. There was something off about all this and the young man was smart enough to observe what it was. There was no activity – as in no people and no animals. There wasn't any noises either.

Narrowing his brow Naruto slowly made his way further into the ruins of his city. All he could see no matter where he looked was rubble, destroyed buildings and dried blood. And the more he went into the city he started to see a blood of blood trails. Like bodies had been dragged through the streets.

That certainly explained why there were no corpses around. But that didn't explain where they had been taken too but he had a few suspicions. A mass grave being one of them. There was one way to find out though – follow the trail.

It didn't take long for him to hear something. He paused and strained his hearing to figure out what it was.

His eyes slowly went wide in realisation upon figuring out just what he was hearing. It was the groaning of the dead.

“...Oh shit...” Naruto quickly crouched and quietly made his way to the cover of a wall. He brought back out Wrath of the Ancients in the likelihood of him having to fight.

Pressing his back against what remained of the interior of a house, Naruto pulled back on the bow string and felt as the back end of the arrow materialised in his fore and middle fingers and thumb and then slowly peered past the edge of the wall.

The living dead; hundreds' of them shambling from place to place uncoordinated. They were unrecognisable to him. They were either to decayed beyond recognition, or to bloated for him to make out any defining features. A lot of them were both of these.

But they were people he use to know. He could recognise some of their clothes decayed as they were.

“...Fuck.” grudge for his parents and the council side Naruto didn't want this to happen. Or maybe he did? No he's pretty sure he did... didn't he?

Scowling, he shook his head – he was getting confused again! Conflicting memories and personality of the other Naruto's was interfering with his own.

He hated his parents but he didn't want this to happen. He would never want this to happen.

Naruto slinked back into cover. What was it that Monty said? About the dead? They were created by the reanimation of dead cells? Yeah that was it. Or something like that. He said they were revived by Element One-Fifteen; but that can't be right. As far as he knows there's no meteor here.

Wait...his mother said there was a boulder here. But his father said they had it destroyed. And what he had seen here, that may have been a lie. Or...

“Or...is this all fake?” he murmured to himself with an inquisitive expression on his face. Naruto decided to think on it later as he had more pressing matters at hand. He contemplated on what he should do next before deciding to avoid aggravating the zombies, unless the odds are in his favour or if he has no other choice.

Call it a gut feeling, but, something tells him if he tried to fight them now he would get killed within minutes. With that in mind Naruto quickly went back the way he came as quiet as humanly possible. As he wondered around in the ruined remains of his home Naruto couldn't help but feel angry. Angry at its current state. Angry at his parents. Angry at everything really. But he kept his temper in check and didn't allow it to influence his actions. He did have a few close calls with the zombies too but thankfully he was evasive and savvy enough to give them the slip.

He would have taken them on but with the way things are now, with him having a sword and bow the young man wasn't feeling all that confident. Not to mention every single time he ran into a small group of zombies that gut feeling would come back, telling him to do something else instead of what he had originally planned. And so he did and snuck his way past the zombies or outright avoided them all together.

Back in that shattered world though he didn't have much of a choice – it was either fight or die. So he choose the third option: fight and run. Helen and the others arriving in the shattered world with the Keeper was good timing, he wasn't sure he would have lasted a lot longer if they didn't come when they did.

He finally stopped when he came across a familiar sight. Ruined houses were lined together on the street on opposite ends. Many of them were intact but had the doors kicked in. Others looked like it had an artillery shell dropped on top of them and the church on the nearby hill was reduced to a single tower, and the front section with everything else collapsed.

And down the street was his house. It had a massive hole on the roof and the front door was missing, but it was still intact for the most part. After taking another look at his surroundings for any zombies, Naruto took a deep breath and jogged to his house.

Stepping into the interior of his house Naruto made his way into the front room and took it all in. The place was the same as he remembered. There was a great amount of dust though. But from what he saw so far he wasn't surprised. There didn't seem to be anyone alive here, excluding him of course.

Inhaling and exhaling as he gave the front room of his house one last look Naruto went up the stairs to his room. It too looked the same as he remembered it.

“Hmm?” noticing something on his bed he went over and picked it up. The object in question is a hand-held recorder with a built in microphone.

But for some reason unknown to him it felt familiar. Like he had seen it before. But that couldn't be right. Going on his gut he pressed a button and listened to the pre-recorded audio that was on it. Who he heard surprised him.

It was himself.

“I'm getting a lot of deja-vu being here.” Naruto heard the radio him sigh with exhaustion, “This is the fifth time I've got to this point. Five cycles of being in this mirror image of my home. There is a cycle, I am beginning to notice: I do one stupid thing, the zombies know where I am, I die within moments to minutes later, and then everything resets back to the beginning. Only I don't have that perk anymore...what was it again? Quick Revive?” then the message stops leaving a gob-smacked Naruto to stare at the recorder with a gaping mouth and wide eyes.

Another message began short after.

“Turns out the other me was here. Key word being 'was'. Can't remember where I found evidence of him being here. Don't know how I lost my memory but from what I can recall, the other me learned the system of this place and used it to his advantage. He got very close to getting out of here from the looks of it too. Only the...the last cycle he was in...turned out to be his final cycle. His soul is still around I think. Watching. He never made contact with me though – so that's up for debate.”

Another message played moments after the last one ended.

“Went out searching for the body of the other me. Got killed by the zombies in the process and I ended up back at the beginning. I lasted for what seems like a month or something. Time is meaningless here really. But it turns out the longer you stay alive, the more easy it is to recount what you've been through. Who knew, huh? And this is just a theory – but if you died pretty early, then the only thing you'll get is a gut feeling telling you to do something else. I've been getting them a lot lately so take what you will from that.”

Now sitting on the edge of his bed Naruto kept listening to message after message after message. And learned a while lot in the process. And throughout it all he kept an even expression that didn't show what he thought or truly felt.

Then he listened intently to the last message as the last cycle of himself revealed some important information to him.

“There's a couple of things that weren't here originally. In the real world I mean. No matter how many cycles you- I go through they're always there. But in the case you don't know what I am talking about, these things are crafting tables. They're not that hard to miss; they have blueprints of weapons and other essential things on the board above them. The parts to make them are lying around somewhere. You just need to find them-” the message cut off from there. With that knowledge in mind Naruto stopped the recorder from playing, put it on his bed and made his way outside. He has a new mission to do.

X.X.X.X

Meanwhile back in the underground facility Helen was becoming more and more distressed as she paced back and forth. Deneve was closely examining the control panel for the teleporter for any clue as to what happened to their wayward friend. An endeavour that had little to no progress being made. It was beyond Deneve's understanding, and there was no manual to show them how it worked. As for Clare she was making sure Helen wasn't going to do something stupid – like trying to go after Naruto.

The Keeper was being strangely quiet and unconcerned. But given it knows what had happened to Naruto that was understandable. The other women still didn't notice this but that may have been because the Keeper was always quiet, unless it was speaking to Naruto.

“I don't know what to do. How this is meant to work or how to get it to work, is beyond me. What ever this thing is, and what it did to Naruto he is beyond our reach now.” Deneve finally said as she backed away from the panel with a tired sigh.

Helen stopped her pacing and glared at Deneve from the corner of her eye. “So you're saying we should just abandon him?” she demanded with a fierce snarl.

Deneve sighed and shook her head. She looked at Helen and said, “We can't do anything for him until we know what this thing does and how it works. We would be doing more harm than good otherwise.”

Helen growled but conceded to her best friends reasoning. Clare frowned and made her way over to her fellow hybrids and asked, “So what do we do now?”

Deneve sighed again. “We have to inform Miria.”

“Do we have to?” Helen whined with growing dread in the pit of her stomach; Miria is not the type of person to give you a slap on the wrist for the littlest of mistakes.

“She's going to question why Naruto isn't with us when we come back. Might as well come clean before it gets any worse.” Clare pointed out to the short haired woman.

“And let's not forget about the ghost there too. He'll be wondering why he's not with us either.” Deneve added.

Helen palmed her face and dragged it down with a groan that sounded akin to frustration and reluctance mixed together. “Alright. Might as well let her know now than later.” said a sighing Helen; she looked at the Keeper who was floating in place with its hands moving around the orb floating up and down on front of it. “Keeper, can you bring us back to Miria and the others in the tomb in the mountains of Alphonse?”

The other worldly being nodded and they were gone. Much in the similar manner as they appeared in the cathedral above.

When Helen, Deneve and Clare all returned with a person short everyone as expected, was quick to notice. Miria stopped asking the ghost questions about the past and focused her attention completely on Helen and the other three. When they were asked where Naruto was, Miria and everyone else was they were informed that the young man had gone missing. Which leads to the situation that is currently happening.

“What the hell do you mean he's missing?!” an enraged Miria demanded.

“The kid was there one second and the next he was gone!” Helen who was using Deneve as a shield between her and Miria tried to explain to the woman.

“Did you even try to get him back?!”

“We didn't know how to work the damn thing that took him!”

Seeing the opportunity to butt in Dempsey did so and asked Helen, “Can you recall what the thing that took him looks like? It's shape, what it's made of. Stuff like that?” When he asked that Miria stopped her arguing with Helen and looked at him with a deep frown, that showed irritation in his interruption in her interrogation. Helen on the other hand looked at the ghost for a moment and nodded in the affirmative.

“It was round. Big and wide; wide enough to fit more than people in it. And it was made out of metal. It had these...things coming out of it. Don't know what they are and there was a smaller object with round things on them.” the short haired woman had tried to recount as much of the machine as she possible could. And considering she didn't know what a lot of the things about it was, her description of the MTD was fairly good.

“Sounds like an MTD you found.” the ghost said a few seconds after Helen finished her description.

Flora made a disgusted face, “Sounds like a decease.” with Yuma, Cynthia, Jean and Tabitha voicing their agreement.

And Dempsey rather predictably gave the women an appalled look at the misnaming and was quick to correct them, “What? No! It's not STD, it's an MTD! M T D.” he looked back to Helen and added, “It's a teleporter. Meant to bring a person or a small group of people from point A to point B.”

“A machine from your era?” Clare questioned.

“Yeah, it is.” Miria's eyes lit up at the confirmation. No one noticed it however since it was brief. “I'm surprised you found a working one underneath that Cathedral to be honest.”

“Can we use it to get him back?” Helen had a hopeful look on her face as she asked that. That quickly changed when she saw the uncertain look on the ghost's face. “We can get him back if we use it...right? Right???”

“Here's the thing...there are different MTD's. Some have to be reconnected to the mainframe after every use. Others if they were overloaded can even throw you forward in time. It can be used to bring a person back, yes, but...” he trailed off as he was uncertain on how he was going to explain the next bit.

“...But?” Miria prodded the ghost.

Dempsey sighed and crossed his arms, “...unless you know people who can actually work the damn thing then you're shit outta luck. It can be used to bring a person to you, but you need the knowledge to work the machine to do that. And everyone who does know how to work the thing is dead.”

“Do you know how to work it?” questioned Jean.

“I use to know. But that was a long time ago. I haven't seen or even used an MTD since the Great War.”

Jean tutted in disappointment at that. “Then we can't get him back; he's stuck wherever he is?”

“Yes. But on the likelihood he was thrown through time – you just have to wait for him to reappear.”

“...How long?” Miria asked after she and the others briefly exchanged looks.

“Dunno really. One time someone overloaded the MTD, and they ended up twenty years into the future.” Dempsey wasn't lying about that either; he discovered that another version of himself did end up two decades into the future with three other people thanks to one of them overloading the MTD they were using. “Just be ready for a long wait. Or if worse comes to worse...accept that he is most likely never coming back.”

That was a bitter pill for them to swallow and Helen shrank in on herself when her fellow hybrids, excluding Deneve and Clare, slowly turned to give her dirty looks. God why did she lean on that thing?

No one noticed that the Keeper was gone. Having left the women when it brought Helen, Deneve and Clare back to them.

Closing her eyes with a sigh Miria took Dempsey's advice into account and decided to follow it. In the meantime they're going to have to train and get their skills and abilities honed in the years to come. There is a whole world out there – entire continents even; the organization is not going to let them get off this island without a fight.

X.X.X.X

Cycle No: Unknown.

Naruto felt weightless. He couldn't feel the ground; couldn't see his own body; all the young man could see was the familiar sight of glimmering lights. He saw pictures, images of different people instead of places this time though. A lot of them were women with familiar silver eyes and pale blonde hair. Quite a few of them were familiar and a lot of the others were not.

When he finally re-materialised on the mainframe a disorientated and dizzy Naruto stumbled fell on to his hands and knees. Growling with tightly clenched and bared teeth he barely contained the urge to scream out in frustration at how unfair his situation was.

How many times did he die now? Seventeen? Eighteen? He lost count shortly after the eleventh time, and he was slowly losing his mind going back to the beginning of the cycle after dying time and time again.

Forcing his temper down Naruto inhaled and exhaled as he got up on his feet. He checked what equipment he had on him. The audio recorder was gone, not to surprising there. It'll probably be in his room again. He didn't leave any messages for himself during the last cycle so he'll have to take it with him this time once he gets there. He still has Ancients Wrath and Bow of the Ancients in his possession so that's a two up from nothing.

“Alright Naruto. Let's try this fucking thing again.” he told himself. The objective didn't change: find a way to get out of here. And maybe this time he will be one step closer at getting out of...where ever this world is. Because it's not home!

Taking a deep breath Naruto made his way back to his house. He used his previous experiences to get the best result out of this. Avoiding the hordes of zombies and outright backtracking at least twice when two small to medium sized groups were in places they weren't in the previous cycle. It was at that moment Naruto knew things were changing and he didn't like it. Not one bit.

When he made it to his family house he went to his bedroom and stopped. There was a weapon on his bed. A rifle. Along with several magazines stacked in three piles next to it. On said rifle was a sticky note. He went over, yanked the note off the weapon and read it.

'Dear Naruto.

Jesus Christ, seeing you die nearly 30 times is sad. Like really, really sad. You're a scrub mate, getting owned by things that can't even think. So I'm going to help you out – the weapon on the bed before you is a battle rifle. This was one of the most advanced weapons design of its time: the FG-42. This is the late design of it, so much of the faults would have been taken care of. Take good care of it.

From Naruto

P.S: Zombies are fucking dumb. Distract them with sound and you'll be able to sneak past them easy peasy.'

Naruto frowned; he may not know some of the wordings on here – what the hell is a scrub? - he was pretty sure he was being insulted. And nearly 30 times? He's really doing that bad? Nevertheless, the recording of one of the past cycles was true. The other Naruto was watching him.

He grabbed the hand-held audio recorder and made a new entry.

“Something different happened in this cycle. I have a more accurate number – of a sort – on how many times I died and restarted the cycle in this fucking place. Nearly thirty times. So I died at the most twenty six or twenty seven times. Also the other me got in contact with myself. Sort of. He sent a note along with a new weapon; a battle rifle called 'FG-42'. Looks better than the one I use to have prior to being here to be honest. Also, zombies are dumb – use noise to distract them and then sneak past them. Maybe I can get a message or something to Helen and the others...just to let them know I'm alive. A guy can dream right?”

He stopped the recording and placed the hand held device in one of his hip pouches. He grabbed the FG-42, saw it had a sling on it like his CAR-15. Happy with that he put the magazines in their own pouches on his waist. He put an extra one in the side slot of the rifle and locked it in by pulling on the small lever on the other side. He flicked up the iron sights on the front.

He held it up and looked through the iron sights and scanned his room. Satisfied he lowered the weapon and looked down at it.

“Heh. Nice.”

Geared up he walked out of the room and outside. Maybe things are looking up for him now?

X.X.X.X

A bloated zombie was shambling around by itself, minding its own business. Suddenly it heard the sound of rubble moving and it swiftly turned on its heels with a menacing growl. Only for it to be cut in two by Naruto with Ancients Wrath where the blade was alight with blue flames. As the zombie fell in two Naruto was about to dismiss the sword, only to pause when a small see-through sphere that was glowing orange emerge from the body.

“What the...?” Naruto stared on, curious and astonishment as the orb floated into a nearby vase. That...never happened before. Getting an idea Naruto dismissed Ancients Wrath and brought out the FG-42. If he's going to do this then he's gonna need a little more fire-power.

This is going to be one of the stupidest things he's ever done. But at least he'll put down as many zombies as he possibly can before things go sideways.

He took a deep breath and bellowed out as loud as he possible can, “HEY! ZOMBIES! I'M RIGHT HERE!!!”

His voice echoed though the air and as expected Naruto heard the nearby zombies make their way towards him the second he revealed his location. It didn't take long for a zombie to poke his rotten and decaying head through a corner. And it immediately fell to the ground when a large chunk of its head was taken off by a bullet.

Like before Naruto saw a glowing see-through orange sphere emerge from the corpse. He didn't have time to check where it flew into since he was beset by more and more zombies that came out of the woodwork’s. But with each zombie that died the more of those sphere things floated into the vase behind him.

He quickly looked to his left, saw a bloated zombie within arms reach of him and by pure reflex he smashed the butt of his battle rifle into the stomach of the walking corpse. It staggered back from the impact and Naruto put it down by putting a bullet into its skull. He quickly turned to look in front of him and saw a large group of undead shambling towards him. He quickly looked through the sights and blew their heads off.

They fell in seconds, with blood, skull fragments and brain-matter flying everywhere thanks to the sheer fire-power of the FG-42. Unsurprising too, since it was made to have the same output as a light sub-machine gun.

“That's what I'm fucking talking about! Die! Die! DIE!” Naruto bellowed with a mad grin.

With a corpses being piled on top of one another, and zombies being forced to step over them in order to get to Naruto, the young man was able to hold his ground without being forced to move. He quickly ran out of bullets in the magazine he is using so he quickly swapped it for a new one. He pulled the lever to lock it into place and continued firing on the crowd of zombies.

Eventually the glowing orange balls stopped coming out of the bodies signalling that the vase was full. Seeing as he wasn't going to get anything done here Naruto quickly got out of there with the zombies stumbling and shambling after him with out stretched arms. They weren't running yet which was good and since he wasn't going to fight them all in large groups now that he is on the run Naruto slung the FG-42 over his shoulder and got out his long sword and as the blade was enveloped once more with blue flames he started slashing the heads off of zombies that were unfortunate enough to get in his way.

He took a corner found it was almost blocked off by an obstacle that was high enough for a grown man to crouch or slide under. He didn't stop running and when he gained enough speed he slid under it and at slashed at the support keeping it up. The obstacle happened to be a large metal container big enough to block the entry way. With the entry way sealed the blonde could hear the zombies pounding their fists against it in an attempt to get in.

Naruto watched with abated breath and intense eyes. He was prepared to take action if the barrier didn't hold them off. Thankfully for him however the zombies quickly got bored, and because they didn't hear him make any noises the walking dead shambled off. Sighing in relief at having survived Naruto nodded to himself and took in the new location he found himself in.

His eyes narrowed with curiosity; this was something he didn't see before. It was completely new to him. Casually twirling the sword Naruto walked around and took everything in.

A tall and wide machine the same one underneath the Cathedral was in a corner with a single, blocky looking computer hooked up to it. On both sides were two tubes that was big enough for a full grown man to fit in. One of them was filled with blue liquid of some sort.

Off to his right was an doorless entryway. Naruto peered inside and saw a single table inside with a strange tube-like devices with hand-grips and knuckle protectors on them. Pinned to the wall above said table was a single blueprint. He was too far away to get any clear details on what the blueprints were though.

Near a set of tables in the middle of the room was a single black board with words written in plain English.

The list presented on it went as followed:

The mainframe – No idea who build it. Found similar ones in various locations in Germany, France, America etc. Needs to be powered on in order for it to work.

Vases – I have no idea what these vases do. The souls of the dead seem to go into them when their undead bodies are re-killed by them. Maybe if they're all filled up, something will happen?

Converters – These machines power up everything. From turning on the MTD to the defences. There's three in total and turning them on will make zombies come at you. Thankfully they're more focused on deactivating them than on me. Better weaponry is needed due to the sheer numbers.

Cycles – this world is in a constant state of flux. Every time I die everything resets to when I first arrived here. Not everything does fortunately: previous notes of mine are still around. And any progress I make is not lost. There's still a chance to get out of here.

Ragnarok DG-4 – Got the parts together on the crafting table in the next room. Should grant you the power to hold back numerous zombies at once, when slammed into the ground. Has a hand grip and a knuckle protector. Almost looks like a glowing blue spike.

Finished reading the list Naruto went back to looking around the room. He found a bed and unlike the one at his house, this one didn't have any noticeable dust on it. Well at least he has now got a safe place to say.

He wondered how he didn't find this place in the previous cycles. Maybe he forgot about it when he died the last 20 or so times?

But those converters... was that was he meant in one of the previous cycles? On how the Naruto from the Old World nearly got out of here? By turning that on he got the...MTD to work but died before he could get here?

He'll have to think on it later. Letting a sigh pass his his Naruto went over to the bed and laid on it sideways. He never realised just how physically and mentally exhausted he was until his body touched the mattress. He yawned and closed his eyes and quickly fell asleep.

X.X.X.X

Miria was in a clearing peering off in the distance. Her eyes thinned slightly as several yoki approached her general location. But she wasn't worried. She knew who they were and is happy to know they were still alive.

A little ways away leaning against a tree was Tabitha. On guard and keeping an eye on her surroundings like a hawk. Helen and Deneve were sitting around a camp fire on a log, a skinned and gutted rabbit on a spit.

Clare and Flora were mock fighting using Windcutter without yoki. Mainly to see how far the former had gotten when using it.

Cynthia, Yuma and Jean were watching the two women fighting and were talking to one another as well.

Then everyone stopped what they were doing when several women walked into the clearing parting the shrubbery as they did so.

“Nice to see you're all alive.” Veronica said with a smile once she and the other hybrids assembled together. She looked around and frowned, noticing there was one person short. The human male that saved them in Pieta. “There's one missing. What happened to him?”

“He probably left a while ago.” Undine said dismissively; while she was thankful for him saving everyone from that mess the Organization got them into Undine didn't know him that well. Her dismissive words made the nine women that were with him wince, something the other women picked up.

"...Something tells me it's more complicated than that." Emelia said as she exchanged a wary look with Natalie and Diana.

"...It is." Helen said with reluctance. "We found a strange device dating all the way back to the Old World. Somehow it was still working and...it did something to him."

"Which was what?" Eliza questioned with a curious frown.

"From what we were told, it brought him to a place that is out of our reach." Deneve informed them all when it was clear Helen wasn't going to say anymore. "And not even the Keeper knows where he is. It left to locate him two years ago and if possible bring him back."

And that was the last time they saw the Keeper. They have no idea if the other worldly being is still looking for him or not. And Dempsey wasn't showing up in his tomb anymore either and they had no idea why – with Naruto going missing being the only conclusion they can think of, of course.

Everyone exchanged looks and murmured to themselves. After a moment Miria coughed into her hand to bring everyone's attention on to her. "Now that is out of the way - we need to discuss some things: Undine, how has your group been doing for the past two years?"

Training was going well, if the strong woman said so herself. Dare she say it, she almost becoming proud of her girls. "Great. Juliana's sensory ability has been pushed to the limit, capable of locating us even when we're suppressing our yoki the best we can."

"I have been training to fight without using yoki. It's been difficult so far but I am now capable of fighting several yoma without them knowing where I am." Claudia said with absolute confidence in her own achievement as she had done exactly that when several yoma's were discovered hiding in the mountains near their camp sight.

"I'm training in hand to hand - in case I happen to lose my claymore. Undine is also teaching me how to fight with my claymore using one hand." Zelda added; while hybrids are capable of fighting with only one hand the way Undine does is unique. Given the muscular woman is constantly using yoki to give her the appearance she has now, Zelda is trying to fight without augmenting her body in any way."

Miria nodded and looked to Veronica next.

"I am trying to increase the speed of my healing and regeneration. The faster I can get back in combat the better." she informed Miria while rubbing her upper arms with a slight wince. Getting her arms and legs cut off and reattaching them again and again in an attempt to increase her defensive abilities hurt like a bitch.

One by one Miria was informed what the groups had been doing for the past two years. And while they were increasing the abilities associated to them, they were also trying to get some new abilities under their belt too. All in all Miria was happy with everyone's current progress.

When they were done Miria then got to one of the problems they're going to have to deal with once they're done in the mountains. “We need to find a way for the organization to not notice us once we leave the mountains. Does anyone have any ideas?”

"Getting rid of these uniforms would be a start," one spoke up. It was true, for thet past two years they had been using the surplus stock the Organization left in Pieta. If they were going to venture out, wearing their uniform wasn't exactly the brightest idea.

"Queenie has a point. We'd get discovered quickly otherwise." another added.

It was here that Clare remembered meeting Irene for the second time after getting rescued by said woman from Ophelia. And she remembered the outfit she wore. If she recalls, the black outfit the elf eared woman wore did look similar to the fabric Helen is wearing on her arms.

"Why don't we get an outfit made from the material that allows Helen to stretch her arms?" Clare suggested; everyone looked at her, with Miria giving the page boy haired woman an inquisitive frown and gestured her to continue. "I met someone a long time ago, Quicksword Irene who deserted the organization shortly after a failed mission to...kill Teresa of the Faint Smile."

"I heard of that mission." Miria said with wide eyes. "Didn't everyone die? Including Teresa, thanks to Priscilla awakening?"

"Apparently not if she found Irene." one of the hybrids pointed out.

And her knowing the Quicksword made a whole lot of sense to them now.

"What does this have to do with getting a new outfit?" Jean asked because as interesting as this is she failed to see the relevance of this and a new set of clothing.

"Irene was wearing a new outfit." Clare said. "All black. Similar to the fabric around Helen's arms."

“A black outfit?” Miria trailed off questioningly and thoughtfully. That is a sound idea – an outfit that is all black. It would make them inconspicuous for a while. Not to mention they'll be able to blend in with the shadows a lot more easily. “I like that idea. How long do you think it would take to make these outfits?”

“At most?” at Miria's nod, Clare sighed and crinkled her brow. “Taking to account we need the right material and equipment to make them, it could take us several months. Maybe even longer since there's 24 of us all together.”

“We should lessen the amount of time if more than one person does it.” Cynthia said.

Miria nodded with approval; the more of them that works on getting these outfits made the faster they'll be able to replace their uniforms. "Then we should get started with that as soon as possible."

X.X.X.X

Remembering she had a disguise to blend in with the populace while she was trying to avoid the organization, Clare was the only one who could venture outside of the Paburo mountains to get the materials needed for their new outfits without drawing attention to herself.

She first had to buy a set of new clothing for her fellow deserters. That way if they wanted to help get resources and food, or just mingle with the common people in the nearby towns then they can. Clare made sure to buy twenty three hooded cloaks like hers to keep the facial features of the wearer hidden and out of sight.

Pieta had been reduced to ruins a while after they had been taken out of there. This was completely unsurprising to any of them. That was their base of operations after all during the suicide campaign/mission, and the King of the North would want to be sure there's no survivors they had missed.

After seven months of going back and forth, back and forth to get the resources needed to make their new clothes, Clare with the help of Jean, Flora and Veronica and Undine had managed to get their new set of clothes ready.

With their cloaks and new attire replacing their old uniforms all twenty four women were able to be inconspicuous. They also kept their skills sharp – mock fighting during a bi-monthly meet up to see if they've improved themselves.

That was until years later they felt the time was right to come out of hiding.

X.X.X.X

In front of the blackboard stood Naruto.

How many times did he die now? He forgot to be honest. He lost count sometime after 30. But the times he died and restarted in this alternate reality was reaching its toll on him.

While he didn't look different at all there were a few changes that were noticeable. He had bags under his eyes, looked to be physically and mentally exhausted from the way he carried himself, and his uniform had blood on it a result from the constant battle with the undead.

The FG-42 while it had been taken care of had also suffered. There was a few indentation marks on the metal of the barrel, showing that something had bitten down on it. Or that Naruto had used the battle rifle to protect himself from something that tried to rip out his throat.

On the plus side he has some new weapons on his possession. Hanging from his waist are the Ragnarok DG-4. A large tube with a glowing blue liquid in it. Like it was described on the blackboard it has a hand grip and a knuckle protector. And the tube itself was held securely in place by metal clamps.

He was writing a new entry on the blackboard.

The mainframe – No idea who build it. Found similar ones in various locations in Germany, France, America etc. Needs to be powered on in order for it to work.

Vases – I have no idea what these vases do. The souls of the dead seem to go into them when their undead bodies are re-killed by them. Maybe if they're all filled up, something will happen?

Converters – These machines power up everything. From turning on the MTD to the defences. There's three in total and turning them on will make zombies come at you. Thankfully they're more focused on deactivating them than on me. Better weaponry is needed due to the sheer numbers.

Cycles – this world is in a constant state of flux. Every time I die everything resets to when I first arrived here. Not everything does fortunately: previous notes of mine are still around. And any progress I make is not lost. There's still a chance to get out of here.

Ragnarok DG-4 – Got the parts together on the crafting table in the next room. Should grant you the power to hold back numerous zombies at once, when slammed into the ground. Has a hand grip and a knuckle protector. Almost looks like a glowing blue spike.

Dragons – their heads and necks emerge from these strange glyphs on walls when zombies are killed near them. They eat the bodies of zombies that are near. Seem to be friendly enough.

Hellhounds – giant, decaying and literal flame enveloped dogs that are Hell bent on killing me. The only thing that signifies their arrival is the fog rolling in and the sound of electricity hitting the ground. They always come in groups. Easy to pick off one at a time though instead of in pairs – my FG-42 can attest to that.

Tank Soldier – zombies that are in an armoured suit. Seemingly invulnerable to bullets, the only way to kill them is to shoot off the protective see-through glass on the front of its helmet. It can fly, has an extendible claw, and can shoot fire from its wrist. Explodes when killed.

Thankfully the Hellhounds and Tank Soldier didn't get into his only safe heaven in this damned place. He didn't understand why either. The Tank Soldier was strong enough to get past that barrier blocking the entry way and the Hellhounds can teleport inside of buildings. But he wasn't about to question it. It's a small blessing in disguise anyway. And he's sure as hell isn't complaining either.

As he dropped the hand clutching the chalk to his side Naruto stepped back and looked over the new entries for any spelling mistakes. He nodded with a look of satisfaction when he saw none.

Then he heard an inaudible whispering like echo behind him. Frowning he looked partially over his shoulder and found nothing. He gazed around the room with suspicion and got more than a little wary when the same result came up.

There was no one here, yet he could hear people whispering. With a sigh Naruto shook his head and tried to ignore it as he looked back at the blackboard. Stepping to the board again Naruto wrote his objective for the day.

Objective: Get the converters online.

Finished Naruto put the chalk on the chalk holder and made his way to the container. If he gets those converters up and running then that MTD will have enough juice to work. He just has to keep the zombies off of the darn things while they're powering up.

Thankfully the first time he went outside he pushed the container out far enough for him to slip in and out with ease. The zombies are pretty fucking stupid so they weren't intelligent enough to do what he did.

Not out of the safe house Naruto went out on his search for the converters. How difficult can finding them be?