Categories > Anime/Manga > Naruto > Primis
Chapter 17
0 reviewsA new land. A new place. Sure how he had gotten here was...bad. Which is an understatement. And, sure, he could whine and bitch about the unfairness of it all; but that won't change anything. All h...
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Primis
Chapter 17
It was nearly an hour since Galk and Sid took the 12 hybrids into the city. And Naruto was watching the refugees stripping themselves down to their underwear, to show they were not bitten, before joining with the others. Those who re-clothed themselves were then allowed entry to the Holy City.
Suddenly Naruto let out a startled cry when he felt... something nearly overcome his senses! It was indescribable! But, if he had to, then it was like he was feeling several people at once! Only... he wasn't. Some how Naruto knew he wasn't.
The blond ignored the alarmed cry from several people as he stared out at the horizon, with wide and frantic eyes. 500 yards away, a fog was rolling in – an unnatural one.
He could feel... their presence, the dead, lurking within it. He could feel their hunger. They were, hungry. Always, hungry. They souls are crying out for release from their broken shell of a body. A body that kept decomposing, but never died.
With a groan Naruto stood up and surprised everyone, when Ancients Wrath appeared within his palm in a glow of light. He didn't have his DG-4's or his FG-42 anywhere on him. The blond didn't think he would need it. It turned out he was wrong.
The blond walked past the refugees and came to a stop 5 yards away from them.
Dempsey saw the fog but didn't make the connection. It looked completely normal to him. He walked beside the blond and asked. “Naruto? What's going on?”
“Tell me 'Tank',” Naruto began, “what enemy is associated with fog?” he asked, while pointing the tip of his sword at the unnatural occurrence in front of him.
“Hellhounds, but what does that have to do...” he asked, and as Dempsey continued to speak he slowly began to connect the dots, causing him to trail off as the man looked at the fog dead ahead.
It wasn't moving. The damn thing was just sitting there. Any thoughts of the fog being a natural occurrence was long now by now. The top of his staff snapped open as it activated and Dempsey aimed it at the fog.
“Get every refugee in the city!” Dempsey bellowed at the soldiers. “There's going to be an attack!”
Several loud inhuman howls sounded through the air just after the man shouted. The wild dogs and wolves sound like a dying dog howling and crying at the same time. Then before everyone's very eyes, several dozen wolves and wild dogs menacingly walked out of the fog. All of them were in the early stages of decay. Chunks of flesh and meat were missing. Blood from their previous victims dripped from their maws. And the smell of rotting skin could be smelt from over 500 yards away.
After seeing the dead wolves and dogs emerge from the fog, the soldiers didn't hesitate in getting the refugees behind the city walls.
“Well,” began Naruto; the blond was walking to the zombified wolves and dogs with Dempsey keeping pace. “I never fought dogs before. I saw the memories belonging to my other selves, but fighting them first hand?”
Dempsey glanced at Naruto for a quick moment. “There's a first time for everything.” he said to him before the man looked ahead.
“Oh, I know.”
The two eventually came to a stop after crossing 125 yards. A brief decision later and Naruto switched out his sword for his bow. Sacrificing short range for long range.
Naruto exhaled in irritation before saying. “I know I couldn't have predicted this, but I should have taken my Ragnarok DG-4's and FG-42 with me. At least I'm not completely useless though.”
“Focus, kid. We got ourselves an old fashioned stand-off.” Dempsey looked over his shoulder. “Hopefully, Nikolai, Takeo and Richtofen.” he glanced up at the battlements. “A large party of soldiers are mustering on the walls.” the man looked ahead of him again. “Hopefully, they'll take the initiative and open fire on the maggot sacks.” the man said as he looked back to the wolves and dogs again.
The canines howled their deathly howls to the sky before charging at Naruto and Dempsey. A blue flame tipped arrow manifested in his fingers as Naruto pulled back on the string of his bow. Then the blond let it loose.
One dog rushed out in front of the others and leapt directly into the arrows path. The canine exploded in a display of gore, the second it was hit by the arrow. Blood, bone and chunks of flesh landed on the earth and the other zombified canines as they continued rushing to the two humans.
Naruto let loose another arrow, and a wolf rushed out ahead and took the hit. It exploded in a display of gore. Naruto sent out two more and two more canines ran ahead and jumped in its path. Becoming a mess of gore and body parts on the ground.
Naruto was shocked by this level of intelligence from brain dead animals. How the hell did they realise how to reduce the effectiveness of his bow?! Nevertheless he kept firing arrow after arrow at the canines. They kept on dying one at a time by rushing out to leap into the arrows path.
But that quickly changed when Dempsey entered the fray once they got close enough. With thinned lips and narrowed eyes, Dempsey took aim at the first animal that got in his line of sight and pulled the trigger.
A thunder clap was heard when a single bolt of lightning shot forth from the staff and struck the ground. A small glowing sphere grew on the earth, and when several wolves and dogs got near it, all of them were struck more bolts of lightning.
They spasmed as they were electrocuted; a white glow came from their eyes and mouths before they fell to the ground, dead. More thunder claps were heard as Dempsey continued to shoot bolts of lightning at the ground and more and more zombified canines were shocked and killed as they got close.
However, more and more of them kept coming out of the fog. And they were getting closer and closer with each passing second.
“Get down on ze floor!”
Naruto and Dempsey hit the ground and a second later, a highly concentrated blast went over them and blew several zombified animals off their feet. They got up several moments later – or that was what they tried to do, as they were hit by a small fireball that killed them on impact. More were flash frozen in place.
Nikolai, Takeo and Richtofen all stopped beside and around the duo as they aimed the top of their elemental staffs in front of them.
“Foul beasts such as yourserf do not berong in the rand of the riving!” Takeo barked in disgust; then he shot another ball of fire at the zombified canines, as they leapt at the five.
Nikolai used his staff to flash freeze several more as they tried to circle them, and Richtofen used his to blow several a hundred feet into the air, killing the closest ones and merely knocking back the others that weren't.
Then Miria appeared in front of the group, claymore drawn, like a mirage; she moved her arms so fast it was like a blur and many of the zombified canines fell to the ground around her in pieces. She sliced diagonally in front of her and more of the living dead animals fell to the ground, re-killed once more.
A claymore was flung out of nowhere, and sliced through a zombified dog or two in two, before landing embedded in the ground. Yuma appeared beside it and yanked it out of the earth with one hand, before turning around in a full circle. The zombified dogs around her suddenly sprayed out with blood from their waist and collapsed to the earth.
Then the teams of Dietrich, Audrey, Dominique and Letitia appeared, along with Yuma, Cynthia and Tabitha, Flora and Veronica and many, many others. They started slicing at the zombified wolves and dogs the second they appeared in front of the Primis Group.
Naruto stood up and stared at the fog with squinted eyes. There's more of them, lurking within, he can feel it; but... there was far to many to count. Then he saw several dozen fiery red eyes appear in the fog. And more, and more, and more.
Several loud demonic howls sounded out and the wolves and dogs quickly retreated back into the fog. As the hybrids went in groups everyone bore witness to a new breed of zombies.
They were giant German Shepherds, near the size of a full grown human, and are badly deformed, with nothing but bone that remained of their snouts. They had chunks of skin missing on their body, mainly around the stomach area, or on the upper back.
There were two types; the first type had no belly, and no ribcage. They were constantly on fire, with the origin of the flames coming from the belly of the beast, and it spread out and up its back, tail, head and hind legs.
The second type, had its spine and ribcage exposed on its back and the side of its belly. They were constantly smoking, almost as if they were going to be set alight but never was.
Naruto knew what these things were. He fought them plenty of times in that mirror dimension. “Hellhounds!” both he and Dempsey shouted at the same time, “Miria! Make sure you and the others are away from the ones on fire when you kill them! They explode upon death!” Naruto warned her.
“Understood!” the woman replied.
Then at the same time, the Hellhounds all reared back their heads and howled at the sky. Several balls of lightning, numbering in the tens of dozens, appeared around the women and the Primis Group and the ground shook, as more appeared from them.
“Oh, great, more of them.” Dempsey complained.
“I really wish I had my FG-42 now.” Naruto growled.
A few hellhounds were cut to pieces before exploding. The culprits were revealed to be Helen and Deneve who landed in front of them. Richtofen and Takeo got many of the Hellhounds off their backs by combining their attacks together, creating a devastatingly huge fireball that both flew back the zombies and burnt them until they were unrecognisable.
Naruto found Helen was carrying his FG-42 in one hand. and Deneve holding both of his Ragnarok DG-4 in her hands.
“Thought you might need these!” Helen announced, as she lightly wiggled the battle rifle with a wide grin.
“I do. Thank you Helen, Deneve.”
Said woman quickly ran to Naruto's side and handed over the battle rifle and wonder weapons to him. “No problem, kid.” she said, before pulling her claymore from its slot and looking to her friend with an eager, yet blood thirsty grin. “C'mon, Deneve! Let's go help the others!”
“Right!” Deneve replied with a nod.
The Wrath of the Ancients disappeared from Naruto's hand in a glow if light when he was handed his DG-4s and battle rifle. As he checked the magazine on how heavy it is, a hail of arrows rained down on the hellhounds still in front of the fog. Many of them struck true, but a great many others had missed by a land slide. The demonic looking German Shepherds now had arrows sticking out of them, but other than that it didn't do much to impair them.
Naruto got down on a knee and took aim at the first one that came in his iron sights. The blond opened fire on each hellhound he could see in short, controlled bursts. The Mauser bullets ripped through the flaming Hellhounds skull, dropping many of them and causing the flaming ones to explode upon death.
That was what set the Hellhounds off – the moment they heard the sound of gunfire, they immediately bolted towards the hybrids and the Primis group.
Miria narrowed her eyes and held her claymore out in front of her. “Engage!” she commanded, just before she faded away like mirage. The woman reappeared amongst a small crowd of flaming hellhounds, who all fell to the ground mid-run face first, before she faded away again just the fire enveloped dogs exploded.
The other women followed suit and engaged the dogs from hell, cutting many of them down with their claymores, and made damn sure they stayed away from the flaming ones.
Anastasia appeared above the others, floating in the air, along with Helen, Deneve and Tabitha where the eyes of all four women are feline like with the iris being demonic gold instead of silver. The latter of the four almost became a blur to the naked eye as they launched themselves at the hellhounds; away from the fog thankfully where more and more kept emerging from it.
The three friends rapidly slashed at the ground below them, the earth being reduced to rubble and chunks of rocks along with the hellhounds as they past over them. They landed on the ground in a kneel and got themselves back to back when they found themselves surrounded by both normal hellhounds and the flaming ones.
Helen smirked cockily and mocking beckoned them to attack. She got an irritatedly, hunger filled growl from them all. Then they attacked. Or that was hellhounds intention, as they were cut down into several chunks the second they were in mid-air. Curtsey of Helen, Deneve and Tabitha. They shared a look, gave a nod, before running off to engage more.
The other hybrids were fighting off several dozen at once. And were killing twice as many. Anastasia was helping Nike, Clarissa and Rachel. They couldn't help but be surprised at how easy this was. They had more trouble fighting yoma! But these things were going down like chumps!
Dempsey shot his bolts of lightning at the ground near the silver eyed women, and watched as they were surprised to see several hellhounds getting electrocuted in place. Richtofen blew several more off their feet, potentially saving a few of them from knocked down to the ground and shaken like a rag doll.
Takeo merely allowed himself to be surrounded by the hellhounds, before skilfully dispatching them one by one, by caving in their skulls with the top end of his staff, or all at once by charring them with the ball of fire.
There were many of them that Nikolai flash froze in place, a lot of them were flaming hellhounds, none of which went up in an explosion thanks to their deaths being instant. There were others the Russian took out through stabbing them in the brain with the spikes around the top of his staff. Or caved their skulls in.
Nikolai spat on the ground out of disgust. “I fought bears more scary than you, hell dogs!”
Unbeknownst to the others Naruto suddenly froze, going wide eyed as he rapidly looked towards the fog. There was... a lot of anger in there. Anger. Betrayal. Hate. Death and destruction... she was searching for someone, she was scared, she was in pain. She was looking for a little girl who meant so much to her.
A German Shepard she was bigger than the other ones. And is disfigured like the rest. But unlike the others, she had no missing flesh except for her snout, the front part of her head and her forelegs.
Naruto fell to a knee with a grimace as the environment began to twist and turn around him.
X.X.X.X
Naruto Namikaze stood up as he took stock of the new location he found himself in. It was a room; a child's room the blond realised.
“That's a good dog, Samantha! What's her name?” Naruto snapped his head in the direction the voice came from and found a younger version of himself, the same one he saw with that old man with the white scruffy beard.
Beside him was a brunette girl around the same age - probably a year or two younger - as him wearing a white dress with a blue cloak over her shoulders. She was on her knees petting a very pregnant German Shepard
“Thank you, Naruto. Zis is Fluffy!” Samantha said, wrapping her arms around Fluffy's neck in a loving hug. “Say hi, Fluffy!”
The dog barked and sat on her haunches, panting with a lolling tongue. The other Naruto walked over and knelt in front of Fluffy and held his hand out in front of her. She put her paw on top of his palm, before giving him a big, sloppy lick across the cheek.
The blond laughed and Naruto, the older one, watched as the environment began to twist around him once more.
X.X.X.X
Naruto shook his head as he found himself in the present. The blond staggeringly got up on his feet, stumbling a little and stared at the giant hellhound- no, she wasn't just a mere hellhound. That was the origin of the hellhounds, Fluffy.
And she wasn't a part of this dimension either. Neither were the other hellhounds.
Holding the battle rifle in one hand Naruto stumble walked to her.
Dempsey noticed him and finished bashing a regular hellhounds head in before looking at him directly. “Kid?” he called out, trying to get the blond's attention.
Naruto didn't respond outside of putting up a single, shaking finger. A gesture the man was familiar with. The blond kept walking to Fluffy, walking past the hybrids, and did the same thing he did with Dempsey when they tried getting his attention.
They kept fighting the other hellhounds. With every one they killed ten would come and replace it. It was a literal endless army of demonic monsters.
Fluffy's crimson, glowing eyes were suddenly on him and Naruto came to a stop. He looked over his shoulder and found the archers on the battlements weren't firing. Fluffy could have used this very moment to attack him, now that his back was to her. She could have done it, but never. Instead the mutated German Shepherd narrowed her eyes at him, cocking her head to the side out of curiosity. It was when the blond turned to look at her again that she managed to get a good look at him.
His vibrant blue eyes, the spiky blond hair, the rounded, yet angular face. The lack of whiskers on his cheeks aside Fluffy recognised him!
Naruto felt recognition and elation from Fluffy's soul. Her tail was wagging happily and saw one of her own children was about to attack him now that he was distracted. Fluffy quickly barked and her litter, all of them, stopped what they were doing and ran back to their parent.
Just like that the fighting had stopped; but that didn't mean they were going to lower their guard. The hybrids, the ones closest to Naruto personally, went over to him. With Dempsey, Nikolai, Takeo and Richtofen following suit.
Fluffy sat down on her haunches as she stared at Naruto, with her tongue lolling out of her maw.
The men and women did not put their weapons away. For the men it was practical – they wouldn't be able to defend themselves if they did that. For the women, they were mostly fast enough to pull out their swords before their enemy can react. But in this case it was for more added security.
Naruto crouched down with a grown and rested his FG-42 on his legs.
“Naruto!” Helen hissed, looking alarmingly at him, and rightfully so since he was practically leaving himself at the mercy of the hellhounds by doing that. “What are you doing?! Get up!”
The blond turned to address her, but didn't take his eyes off of canine in front of him. “Trust me, Helen.” he told her and everyone else at the same time.
Fluffy cocked her head to the side and slowly trudged on over to Naruto. Said blond raised his arm to tell everyone else to stand the fuck down and to not do anything completely stupid.
Then to the bewilderment of everyone the dog sat down in front of Naruto and whined.
“Hey, Fluffy.” Naruto greeted her with a soft smile. “What're you doing here?”
The blond frowned as he felt her loneliness; fear; and pain. She wanted to find her master; her friend and loving owner.
Recalling the recent memory he had received, Naruto correctly assumed the girl in it was who the mutated German Shepherd's looking for. “I... don't think you're going to find her here, Fluffy.” he looked at his hand in front of her and she reflexively placed her paw in it.
Naruto felt a presence in his mind – Fluffy's he wagered. He saw the German Shepherd's crimson glowing eyes brighten, quite literally at that too, before dying back down, and the presence leave. Huh. So Fluffy is... somehow capable of reading his mind?
The dog whined in distraught. He felt... sadness. Nothing else, just, sadness. Fluffy barked as she took her paw off Naruto's palm. And suddenly to the surprise and bewilderment of everyone nearby the other Hellhounds ran into the mist and disappeared while others left, via orb of lightning.
Then she vanished too, leaving behind a large number of bewildered people.
“...What the fuck just happened?” Dempsey and Helen asked aloud.
“I have an idea...” Naruto told them as he sat back up. The fog began to slowly disperse into the air now that Fluffy or the Hellhounds weren't around. “Fluffy was looking for someone. Don't know why she thought sending her puppies to kill was a smart idea though.”
“Really? Who?” Richtofen asked.
“Her owner. A girl called Samantha that I suddenly saw in my memories just a few minutes ago. Apparently Fluffy knew me, or rather knew one of the other Naruto's, which is why the other hellhounds stopped.” he answered.
“And the others?” Miria asked, referring to the wolves and wild dogs they were fighting before the Hellhounds appeared. “Are they going to be coming back too?”
Naruto looked at her for a moment and shrugged helplessly. “It's too early to say, but seeing as they weren't a part of her pack, I'd bet on it. But because Fluffy is not native to this dimension there is a good chance we'll be seeing the Hellhounds again.” he told her.
The last part flew over their heads as they did not understand what the hell he was going on about. But they weren't going to question him. After all Primis Naruto had told them Naruto Namikaze wasn't going to be all there at times, thanks what he went through in that other realm.
The top of Dempsey's lightning staff snapped shut as he deactivated it. With Richtofen, Nikolai and Takeo's following suit; the four men gave each other congratulating nods before they looked at the flash frozen, charred and chopped up bodies of the canines they just fought.
Miria sighed and looked to Nikolai, Takeo and Richtofen. “I take it you're still going to 'take care' of the infestation?” she asked them and Dempsey now that he was here.
It was Richtofen who answered her. “Yes. If zey have attacked in such large numbers, it vill only be a matter of time before zey return.”
“We take fight to them, and kill before they become problem.” the Russian scratched at his neck with an irritated growl as he said. “Reason we almost lost last time, is because nations were to busy were fucking around for solution to zombie problem. Lost millions, in mere days across the world, because military did not mobilise fast enough. Now, we solve problem before it can become problem!”
Dempsey chuckled as he joined in the conversation. “Good thing we're not tied to any government in this day and age - it means there no red tape to stop us.” he looked to the rest of his team mates and said in a stative tone. “I take it what was what you three were planning to do before this whole mess?”
“Yes. Ve vere coming to find you und Naruto.”
While they were busy talking the person they were talking about was swapping the magazine in his FG-42 for a fresh one. He frowned upon realising there was only three left. His battle rifle was going to be useless soon unless he found a way to get some more ammo. He can't rely on the Keeper forever.
He listened in on what the others were saying as the blond heard Dempsey ask. “And what about you? What are you going to do?”
“We're going to keep on protecting Rabona.” Miria answered. “If the towns in other regions have been met with the same fate as Nile... it would make the city the next place to be struck next.” she looked at her comrades, “And send out a few of our own on a search and destroy assignments to keep the numbers of these... wandering walking corpses low.”
“Then in that case we'll head to Nile and clear it out.” Dempsey said, them burning it down if it proved beyond recovery had went unsaid however, but they caught the undertone. “Which direction is it?”
Miria pointed to the South.
“Right...” the man trailed off as he followed the direction she pointed at. Behind Rabona. Well that wasn't helpful at all. Though Miria merely did as she was asked. He wanted a direction she gave him one.
“It'll be quicker to show them the way.” Dietrich told her commander. “My group was at Nile last; it would be easy for one of us to lead them there.”
Richtofen was about to say something, up until he and everyone else heard a mysterious, sophisticated voice talk in their heads. Naruto, Dempsey, Nikolai, Takeo and Richtofen all knew who the voice belonged to; everyone else didn't and were unsurprisingly shocked to hear someone they do not even know just talk to them.
“You know, you lot are really making this problem more complicated than it needs to be. Then again you little snow flakes can sometimes find the best solutions to the worst problems. It happens in reverse too. Far too often than I would like.”
“Monty.” Dempsey greeted. “I've been wondering when you would show up again.” the man said as he looked towards the sky.
“Wait, that voice belongs to Monty? The leader of the Keepers?” Miria asked.
“I wouldn't go so far as to call myself the leader. But, yes.” Monty answered her. “Anyway, Naruto, your Keeper friend managed to get in contact with me. Normally I would never do this... but, the Keeper protector brought up some facts I cannot glance over.”
“What does that mean?” Helen asked.
“It means I won't mostly be on the side lines anymore.” Monty answered her. “I'm going to make things easier on you all. First things first, getting the undead pests reduced to a manageable number.”
“Are you able to bring anyone that died back to life?” Helen hopefully asked.
“Their bodies were dead and their souls were corrupted by Element one-fifteen. They were to far gone to be saved, and had to be destroyed.” the unsubtle, and blunt manner Monty used had caused almost everyone to wince.
“...And, done.” the near omnipotent being said. “What were a few thousand are now down to a few hundred. Easy to manage as long as you don't fuck around and let them spread out again. They're coming from the South and West so if you were to go and take care of them now, you'll be free to repopulate your continent within several decades.”
“And what about the glowing orange rocks? And the mutated yoma zombies?” Naruto asked.
“If I remember correctly, there was one or two of them on the entire island. One was near that town you first met Helen and Deneve but, they're long gone now. As for the new zombies? They're gone too. I have no idea where they buggered off, but I have a feeling they're going to show up some time later.”
Everyone was relieved, yet worried to hear that, if the yoma zombies had upped and vanished the question was: what happened to them? But they were relieved to hear Monty had helped reduce a problem from being problematic and almost unstoppable to easy manageable.
Now that their zombie problem was easier to handle, Naruto remembered something and brought it to Monty's and consequently everyone else's attention.
“Doctor Monty, I remember there being a cache of Element One-fifteen back home. My dad may have said he had ordered it to be destroyed, I wouldn't put it past him or some other asshole trying to use it for their own ends. So can you get me home? I need to make absolutely sure it's destroyed.”
“I can. And that's a very wise decision.”
“I'm going with him if that's the case!” Helen quickly declared, as she stepped up beside him. Naruto was very surprised to see his fellow blonde volunteer so quickly... then again maybe he shouldn't be. This is Helen he's thinking about, she is a rather... erratic person with an erratic personality. She's intelligent but can come off as stupid with the way she says things, or from the lack of thinking things through.
However, Helen has a very legitimate reason for wanting to go with Naruto. He nearly died right in front of her, and she felt really guilty for allowing it to happen. She would have survived it as she took on worse wounds than Naruto ever had. She hoped that by going with him and watch his back, he wouldn't get fatally hurt.
“If you're going then I'm going as well.” Deneve said as she stepped up beside her friend.
Almost no one was surprised to hear that. Helen and Deneve did everything together; they fought together;, they travelled together, they eat together and they even sleep together. The Primis group were surprised to have two super soldiers going with Naruto, but they weren't going to complain or argue. The more help Naruto has the better chances his survival would be.
Plus they're mother-fucking super soldiers, refusing their help would make no sense!
“Alright, now... Dempsey, Nikolai, Takeo, Richtofen, Naruto, Helen and Deneve get ready. This journey's going to get bumpy. The Keeper will meet you at your destination.”
Before anyone could react, all seven were enveloped by a bright light. Moments later the light dispersed into the air, with the seven gone with it. The hybrids searchingly looked around for them, only to find nothing. They were gone; they were no longer here.
“Any time you want a status update on them Miria, or want to send someone or yourself to check up on them, just ask.”
And with that Monty went silent.
Chapter 17
It was nearly an hour since Galk and Sid took the 12 hybrids into the city. And Naruto was watching the refugees stripping themselves down to their underwear, to show they were not bitten, before joining with the others. Those who re-clothed themselves were then allowed entry to the Holy City.
Suddenly Naruto let out a startled cry when he felt... something nearly overcome his senses! It was indescribable! But, if he had to, then it was like he was feeling several people at once! Only... he wasn't. Some how Naruto knew he wasn't.
The blond ignored the alarmed cry from several people as he stared out at the horizon, with wide and frantic eyes. 500 yards away, a fog was rolling in – an unnatural one.
He could feel... their presence, the dead, lurking within it. He could feel their hunger. They were, hungry. Always, hungry. They souls are crying out for release from their broken shell of a body. A body that kept decomposing, but never died.
With a groan Naruto stood up and surprised everyone, when Ancients Wrath appeared within his palm in a glow of light. He didn't have his DG-4's or his FG-42 anywhere on him. The blond didn't think he would need it. It turned out he was wrong.
The blond walked past the refugees and came to a stop 5 yards away from them.
Dempsey saw the fog but didn't make the connection. It looked completely normal to him. He walked beside the blond and asked. “Naruto? What's going on?”
“Tell me 'Tank',” Naruto began, “what enemy is associated with fog?” he asked, while pointing the tip of his sword at the unnatural occurrence in front of him.
“Hellhounds, but what does that have to do...” he asked, and as Dempsey continued to speak he slowly began to connect the dots, causing him to trail off as the man looked at the fog dead ahead.
It wasn't moving. The damn thing was just sitting there. Any thoughts of the fog being a natural occurrence was long now by now. The top of his staff snapped open as it activated and Dempsey aimed it at the fog.
“Get every refugee in the city!” Dempsey bellowed at the soldiers. “There's going to be an attack!”
Several loud inhuman howls sounded through the air just after the man shouted. The wild dogs and wolves sound like a dying dog howling and crying at the same time. Then before everyone's very eyes, several dozen wolves and wild dogs menacingly walked out of the fog. All of them were in the early stages of decay. Chunks of flesh and meat were missing. Blood from their previous victims dripped from their maws. And the smell of rotting skin could be smelt from over 500 yards away.
After seeing the dead wolves and dogs emerge from the fog, the soldiers didn't hesitate in getting the refugees behind the city walls.
“Well,” began Naruto; the blond was walking to the zombified wolves and dogs with Dempsey keeping pace. “I never fought dogs before. I saw the memories belonging to my other selves, but fighting them first hand?”
Dempsey glanced at Naruto for a quick moment. “There's a first time for everything.” he said to him before the man looked ahead.
“Oh, I know.”
The two eventually came to a stop after crossing 125 yards. A brief decision later and Naruto switched out his sword for his bow. Sacrificing short range for long range.
Naruto exhaled in irritation before saying. “I know I couldn't have predicted this, but I should have taken my Ragnarok DG-4's and FG-42 with me. At least I'm not completely useless though.”
“Focus, kid. We got ourselves an old fashioned stand-off.” Dempsey looked over his shoulder. “Hopefully, Nikolai, Takeo and Richtofen.” he glanced up at the battlements. “A large party of soldiers are mustering on the walls.” the man looked ahead of him again. “Hopefully, they'll take the initiative and open fire on the maggot sacks.” the man said as he looked back to the wolves and dogs again.
The canines howled their deathly howls to the sky before charging at Naruto and Dempsey. A blue flame tipped arrow manifested in his fingers as Naruto pulled back on the string of his bow. Then the blond let it loose.
One dog rushed out in front of the others and leapt directly into the arrows path. The canine exploded in a display of gore, the second it was hit by the arrow. Blood, bone and chunks of flesh landed on the earth and the other zombified canines as they continued rushing to the two humans.
Naruto let loose another arrow, and a wolf rushed out ahead and took the hit. It exploded in a display of gore. Naruto sent out two more and two more canines ran ahead and jumped in its path. Becoming a mess of gore and body parts on the ground.
Naruto was shocked by this level of intelligence from brain dead animals. How the hell did they realise how to reduce the effectiveness of his bow?! Nevertheless he kept firing arrow after arrow at the canines. They kept on dying one at a time by rushing out to leap into the arrows path.
But that quickly changed when Dempsey entered the fray once they got close enough. With thinned lips and narrowed eyes, Dempsey took aim at the first animal that got in his line of sight and pulled the trigger.
A thunder clap was heard when a single bolt of lightning shot forth from the staff and struck the ground. A small glowing sphere grew on the earth, and when several wolves and dogs got near it, all of them were struck more bolts of lightning.
They spasmed as they were electrocuted; a white glow came from their eyes and mouths before they fell to the ground, dead. More thunder claps were heard as Dempsey continued to shoot bolts of lightning at the ground and more and more zombified canines were shocked and killed as they got close.
However, more and more of them kept coming out of the fog. And they were getting closer and closer with each passing second.
“Get down on ze floor!”
Naruto and Dempsey hit the ground and a second later, a highly concentrated blast went over them and blew several zombified animals off their feet. They got up several moments later – or that was what they tried to do, as they were hit by a small fireball that killed them on impact. More were flash frozen in place.
Nikolai, Takeo and Richtofen all stopped beside and around the duo as they aimed the top of their elemental staffs in front of them.
“Foul beasts such as yourserf do not berong in the rand of the riving!” Takeo barked in disgust; then he shot another ball of fire at the zombified canines, as they leapt at the five.
Nikolai used his staff to flash freeze several more as they tried to circle them, and Richtofen used his to blow several a hundred feet into the air, killing the closest ones and merely knocking back the others that weren't.
Then Miria appeared in front of the group, claymore drawn, like a mirage; she moved her arms so fast it was like a blur and many of the zombified canines fell to the ground around her in pieces. She sliced diagonally in front of her and more of the living dead animals fell to the ground, re-killed once more.
A claymore was flung out of nowhere, and sliced through a zombified dog or two in two, before landing embedded in the ground. Yuma appeared beside it and yanked it out of the earth with one hand, before turning around in a full circle. The zombified dogs around her suddenly sprayed out with blood from their waist and collapsed to the earth.
Then the teams of Dietrich, Audrey, Dominique and Letitia appeared, along with Yuma, Cynthia and Tabitha, Flora and Veronica and many, many others. They started slicing at the zombified wolves and dogs the second they appeared in front of the Primis Group.
Naruto stood up and stared at the fog with squinted eyes. There's more of them, lurking within, he can feel it; but... there was far to many to count. Then he saw several dozen fiery red eyes appear in the fog. And more, and more, and more.
Several loud demonic howls sounded out and the wolves and dogs quickly retreated back into the fog. As the hybrids went in groups everyone bore witness to a new breed of zombies.
They were giant German Shepherds, near the size of a full grown human, and are badly deformed, with nothing but bone that remained of their snouts. They had chunks of skin missing on their body, mainly around the stomach area, or on the upper back.
There were two types; the first type had no belly, and no ribcage. They were constantly on fire, with the origin of the flames coming from the belly of the beast, and it spread out and up its back, tail, head and hind legs.
The second type, had its spine and ribcage exposed on its back and the side of its belly. They were constantly smoking, almost as if they were going to be set alight but never was.
Naruto knew what these things were. He fought them plenty of times in that mirror dimension. “Hellhounds!” both he and Dempsey shouted at the same time, “Miria! Make sure you and the others are away from the ones on fire when you kill them! They explode upon death!” Naruto warned her.
“Understood!” the woman replied.
Then at the same time, the Hellhounds all reared back their heads and howled at the sky. Several balls of lightning, numbering in the tens of dozens, appeared around the women and the Primis Group and the ground shook, as more appeared from them.
“Oh, great, more of them.” Dempsey complained.
“I really wish I had my FG-42 now.” Naruto growled.
A few hellhounds were cut to pieces before exploding. The culprits were revealed to be Helen and Deneve who landed in front of them. Richtofen and Takeo got many of the Hellhounds off their backs by combining their attacks together, creating a devastatingly huge fireball that both flew back the zombies and burnt them until they were unrecognisable.
Naruto found Helen was carrying his FG-42 in one hand. and Deneve holding both of his Ragnarok DG-4 in her hands.
“Thought you might need these!” Helen announced, as she lightly wiggled the battle rifle with a wide grin.
“I do. Thank you Helen, Deneve.”
Said woman quickly ran to Naruto's side and handed over the battle rifle and wonder weapons to him. “No problem, kid.” she said, before pulling her claymore from its slot and looking to her friend with an eager, yet blood thirsty grin. “C'mon, Deneve! Let's go help the others!”
“Right!” Deneve replied with a nod.
The Wrath of the Ancients disappeared from Naruto's hand in a glow if light when he was handed his DG-4s and battle rifle. As he checked the magazine on how heavy it is, a hail of arrows rained down on the hellhounds still in front of the fog. Many of them struck true, but a great many others had missed by a land slide. The demonic looking German Shepherds now had arrows sticking out of them, but other than that it didn't do much to impair them.
Naruto got down on a knee and took aim at the first one that came in his iron sights. The blond opened fire on each hellhound he could see in short, controlled bursts. The Mauser bullets ripped through the flaming Hellhounds skull, dropping many of them and causing the flaming ones to explode upon death.
That was what set the Hellhounds off – the moment they heard the sound of gunfire, they immediately bolted towards the hybrids and the Primis group.
Miria narrowed her eyes and held her claymore out in front of her. “Engage!” she commanded, just before she faded away like mirage. The woman reappeared amongst a small crowd of flaming hellhounds, who all fell to the ground mid-run face first, before she faded away again just the fire enveloped dogs exploded.
The other women followed suit and engaged the dogs from hell, cutting many of them down with their claymores, and made damn sure they stayed away from the flaming ones.
Anastasia appeared above the others, floating in the air, along with Helen, Deneve and Tabitha where the eyes of all four women are feline like with the iris being demonic gold instead of silver. The latter of the four almost became a blur to the naked eye as they launched themselves at the hellhounds; away from the fog thankfully where more and more kept emerging from it.
The three friends rapidly slashed at the ground below them, the earth being reduced to rubble and chunks of rocks along with the hellhounds as they past over them. They landed on the ground in a kneel and got themselves back to back when they found themselves surrounded by both normal hellhounds and the flaming ones.
Helen smirked cockily and mocking beckoned them to attack. She got an irritatedly, hunger filled growl from them all. Then they attacked. Or that was hellhounds intention, as they were cut down into several chunks the second they were in mid-air. Curtsey of Helen, Deneve and Tabitha. They shared a look, gave a nod, before running off to engage more.
The other hybrids were fighting off several dozen at once. And were killing twice as many. Anastasia was helping Nike, Clarissa and Rachel. They couldn't help but be surprised at how easy this was. They had more trouble fighting yoma! But these things were going down like chumps!
Dempsey shot his bolts of lightning at the ground near the silver eyed women, and watched as they were surprised to see several hellhounds getting electrocuted in place. Richtofen blew several more off their feet, potentially saving a few of them from knocked down to the ground and shaken like a rag doll.
Takeo merely allowed himself to be surrounded by the hellhounds, before skilfully dispatching them one by one, by caving in their skulls with the top end of his staff, or all at once by charring them with the ball of fire.
There were many of them that Nikolai flash froze in place, a lot of them were flaming hellhounds, none of which went up in an explosion thanks to their deaths being instant. There were others the Russian took out through stabbing them in the brain with the spikes around the top of his staff. Or caved their skulls in.
Nikolai spat on the ground out of disgust. “I fought bears more scary than you, hell dogs!”
Unbeknownst to the others Naruto suddenly froze, going wide eyed as he rapidly looked towards the fog. There was... a lot of anger in there. Anger. Betrayal. Hate. Death and destruction... she was searching for someone, she was scared, she was in pain. She was looking for a little girl who meant so much to her.
A German Shepard she was bigger than the other ones. And is disfigured like the rest. But unlike the others, she had no missing flesh except for her snout, the front part of her head and her forelegs.
Naruto fell to a knee with a grimace as the environment began to twist and turn around him.
X.X.X.X
Naruto Namikaze stood up as he took stock of the new location he found himself in. It was a room; a child's room the blond realised.
“That's a good dog, Samantha! What's her name?” Naruto snapped his head in the direction the voice came from and found a younger version of himself, the same one he saw with that old man with the white scruffy beard.
Beside him was a brunette girl around the same age - probably a year or two younger - as him wearing a white dress with a blue cloak over her shoulders. She was on her knees petting a very pregnant German Shepard
“Thank you, Naruto. Zis is Fluffy!” Samantha said, wrapping her arms around Fluffy's neck in a loving hug. “Say hi, Fluffy!”
The dog barked and sat on her haunches, panting with a lolling tongue. The other Naruto walked over and knelt in front of Fluffy and held his hand out in front of her. She put her paw on top of his palm, before giving him a big, sloppy lick across the cheek.
The blond laughed and Naruto, the older one, watched as the environment began to twist around him once more.
X.X.X.X
Naruto shook his head as he found himself in the present. The blond staggeringly got up on his feet, stumbling a little and stared at the giant hellhound- no, she wasn't just a mere hellhound. That was the origin of the hellhounds, Fluffy.
And she wasn't a part of this dimension either. Neither were the other hellhounds.
Holding the battle rifle in one hand Naruto stumble walked to her.
Dempsey noticed him and finished bashing a regular hellhounds head in before looking at him directly. “Kid?” he called out, trying to get the blond's attention.
Naruto didn't respond outside of putting up a single, shaking finger. A gesture the man was familiar with. The blond kept walking to Fluffy, walking past the hybrids, and did the same thing he did with Dempsey when they tried getting his attention.
They kept fighting the other hellhounds. With every one they killed ten would come and replace it. It was a literal endless army of demonic monsters.
Fluffy's crimson, glowing eyes were suddenly on him and Naruto came to a stop. He looked over his shoulder and found the archers on the battlements weren't firing. Fluffy could have used this very moment to attack him, now that his back was to her. She could have done it, but never. Instead the mutated German Shepherd narrowed her eyes at him, cocking her head to the side out of curiosity. It was when the blond turned to look at her again that she managed to get a good look at him.
His vibrant blue eyes, the spiky blond hair, the rounded, yet angular face. The lack of whiskers on his cheeks aside Fluffy recognised him!
Naruto felt recognition and elation from Fluffy's soul. Her tail was wagging happily and saw one of her own children was about to attack him now that he was distracted. Fluffy quickly barked and her litter, all of them, stopped what they were doing and ran back to their parent.
Just like that the fighting had stopped; but that didn't mean they were going to lower their guard. The hybrids, the ones closest to Naruto personally, went over to him. With Dempsey, Nikolai, Takeo and Richtofen following suit.
Fluffy sat down on her haunches as she stared at Naruto, with her tongue lolling out of her maw.
The men and women did not put their weapons away. For the men it was practical – they wouldn't be able to defend themselves if they did that. For the women, they were mostly fast enough to pull out their swords before their enemy can react. But in this case it was for more added security.
Naruto crouched down with a grown and rested his FG-42 on his legs.
“Naruto!” Helen hissed, looking alarmingly at him, and rightfully so since he was practically leaving himself at the mercy of the hellhounds by doing that. “What are you doing?! Get up!”
The blond turned to address her, but didn't take his eyes off of canine in front of him. “Trust me, Helen.” he told her and everyone else at the same time.
Fluffy cocked her head to the side and slowly trudged on over to Naruto. Said blond raised his arm to tell everyone else to stand the fuck down and to not do anything completely stupid.
Then to the bewilderment of everyone the dog sat down in front of Naruto and whined.
“Hey, Fluffy.” Naruto greeted her with a soft smile. “What're you doing here?”
The blond frowned as he felt her loneliness; fear; and pain. She wanted to find her master; her friend and loving owner.
Recalling the recent memory he had received, Naruto correctly assumed the girl in it was who the mutated German Shepherd's looking for. “I... don't think you're going to find her here, Fluffy.” he looked at his hand in front of her and she reflexively placed her paw in it.
Naruto felt a presence in his mind – Fluffy's he wagered. He saw the German Shepherd's crimson glowing eyes brighten, quite literally at that too, before dying back down, and the presence leave. Huh. So Fluffy is... somehow capable of reading his mind?
The dog whined in distraught. He felt... sadness. Nothing else, just, sadness. Fluffy barked as she took her paw off Naruto's palm. And suddenly to the surprise and bewilderment of everyone nearby the other Hellhounds ran into the mist and disappeared while others left, via orb of lightning.
Then she vanished too, leaving behind a large number of bewildered people.
“...What the fuck just happened?” Dempsey and Helen asked aloud.
“I have an idea...” Naruto told them as he sat back up. The fog began to slowly disperse into the air now that Fluffy or the Hellhounds weren't around. “Fluffy was looking for someone. Don't know why she thought sending her puppies to kill was a smart idea though.”
“Really? Who?” Richtofen asked.
“Her owner. A girl called Samantha that I suddenly saw in my memories just a few minutes ago. Apparently Fluffy knew me, or rather knew one of the other Naruto's, which is why the other hellhounds stopped.” he answered.
“And the others?” Miria asked, referring to the wolves and wild dogs they were fighting before the Hellhounds appeared. “Are they going to be coming back too?”
Naruto looked at her for a moment and shrugged helplessly. “It's too early to say, but seeing as they weren't a part of her pack, I'd bet on it. But because Fluffy is not native to this dimension there is a good chance we'll be seeing the Hellhounds again.” he told her.
The last part flew over their heads as they did not understand what the hell he was going on about. But they weren't going to question him. After all Primis Naruto had told them Naruto Namikaze wasn't going to be all there at times, thanks what he went through in that other realm.
The top of Dempsey's lightning staff snapped shut as he deactivated it. With Richtofen, Nikolai and Takeo's following suit; the four men gave each other congratulating nods before they looked at the flash frozen, charred and chopped up bodies of the canines they just fought.
Miria sighed and looked to Nikolai, Takeo and Richtofen. “I take it you're still going to 'take care' of the infestation?” she asked them and Dempsey now that he was here.
It was Richtofen who answered her. “Yes. If zey have attacked in such large numbers, it vill only be a matter of time before zey return.”
“We take fight to them, and kill before they become problem.” the Russian scratched at his neck with an irritated growl as he said. “Reason we almost lost last time, is because nations were to busy were fucking around for solution to zombie problem. Lost millions, in mere days across the world, because military did not mobilise fast enough. Now, we solve problem before it can become problem!”
Dempsey chuckled as he joined in the conversation. “Good thing we're not tied to any government in this day and age - it means there no red tape to stop us.” he looked to the rest of his team mates and said in a stative tone. “I take it what was what you three were planning to do before this whole mess?”
“Yes. Ve vere coming to find you und Naruto.”
While they were busy talking the person they were talking about was swapping the magazine in his FG-42 for a fresh one. He frowned upon realising there was only three left. His battle rifle was going to be useless soon unless he found a way to get some more ammo. He can't rely on the Keeper forever.
He listened in on what the others were saying as the blond heard Dempsey ask. “And what about you? What are you going to do?”
“We're going to keep on protecting Rabona.” Miria answered. “If the towns in other regions have been met with the same fate as Nile... it would make the city the next place to be struck next.” she looked at her comrades, “And send out a few of our own on a search and destroy assignments to keep the numbers of these... wandering walking corpses low.”
“Then in that case we'll head to Nile and clear it out.” Dempsey said, them burning it down if it proved beyond recovery had went unsaid however, but they caught the undertone. “Which direction is it?”
Miria pointed to the South.
“Right...” the man trailed off as he followed the direction she pointed at. Behind Rabona. Well that wasn't helpful at all. Though Miria merely did as she was asked. He wanted a direction she gave him one.
“It'll be quicker to show them the way.” Dietrich told her commander. “My group was at Nile last; it would be easy for one of us to lead them there.”
Richtofen was about to say something, up until he and everyone else heard a mysterious, sophisticated voice talk in their heads. Naruto, Dempsey, Nikolai, Takeo and Richtofen all knew who the voice belonged to; everyone else didn't and were unsurprisingly shocked to hear someone they do not even know just talk to them.
“You know, you lot are really making this problem more complicated than it needs to be. Then again you little snow flakes can sometimes find the best solutions to the worst problems. It happens in reverse too. Far too often than I would like.”
“Monty.” Dempsey greeted. “I've been wondering when you would show up again.” the man said as he looked towards the sky.
“Wait, that voice belongs to Monty? The leader of the Keepers?” Miria asked.
“I wouldn't go so far as to call myself the leader. But, yes.” Monty answered her. “Anyway, Naruto, your Keeper friend managed to get in contact with me. Normally I would never do this... but, the Keeper protector brought up some facts I cannot glance over.”
“What does that mean?” Helen asked.
“It means I won't mostly be on the side lines anymore.” Monty answered her. “I'm going to make things easier on you all. First things first, getting the undead pests reduced to a manageable number.”
“Are you able to bring anyone that died back to life?” Helen hopefully asked.
“Their bodies were dead and their souls were corrupted by Element one-fifteen. They were to far gone to be saved, and had to be destroyed.” the unsubtle, and blunt manner Monty used had caused almost everyone to wince.
“...And, done.” the near omnipotent being said. “What were a few thousand are now down to a few hundred. Easy to manage as long as you don't fuck around and let them spread out again. They're coming from the South and West so if you were to go and take care of them now, you'll be free to repopulate your continent within several decades.”
“And what about the glowing orange rocks? And the mutated yoma zombies?” Naruto asked.
“If I remember correctly, there was one or two of them on the entire island. One was near that town you first met Helen and Deneve but, they're long gone now. As for the new zombies? They're gone too. I have no idea where they buggered off, but I have a feeling they're going to show up some time later.”
Everyone was relieved, yet worried to hear that, if the yoma zombies had upped and vanished the question was: what happened to them? But they were relieved to hear Monty had helped reduce a problem from being problematic and almost unstoppable to easy manageable.
Now that their zombie problem was easier to handle, Naruto remembered something and brought it to Monty's and consequently everyone else's attention.
“Doctor Monty, I remember there being a cache of Element One-fifteen back home. My dad may have said he had ordered it to be destroyed, I wouldn't put it past him or some other asshole trying to use it for their own ends. So can you get me home? I need to make absolutely sure it's destroyed.”
“I can. And that's a very wise decision.”
“I'm going with him if that's the case!” Helen quickly declared, as she stepped up beside him. Naruto was very surprised to see his fellow blonde volunteer so quickly... then again maybe he shouldn't be. This is Helen he's thinking about, she is a rather... erratic person with an erratic personality. She's intelligent but can come off as stupid with the way she says things, or from the lack of thinking things through.
However, Helen has a very legitimate reason for wanting to go with Naruto. He nearly died right in front of her, and she felt really guilty for allowing it to happen. She would have survived it as she took on worse wounds than Naruto ever had. She hoped that by going with him and watch his back, he wouldn't get fatally hurt.
“If you're going then I'm going as well.” Deneve said as she stepped up beside her friend.
Almost no one was surprised to hear that. Helen and Deneve did everything together; they fought together;, they travelled together, they eat together and they even sleep together. The Primis group were surprised to have two super soldiers going with Naruto, but they weren't going to complain or argue. The more help Naruto has the better chances his survival would be.
Plus they're mother-fucking super soldiers, refusing their help would make no sense!
“Alright, now... Dempsey, Nikolai, Takeo, Richtofen, Naruto, Helen and Deneve get ready. This journey's going to get bumpy. The Keeper will meet you at your destination.”
Before anyone could react, all seven were enveloped by a bright light. Moments later the light dispersed into the air, with the seven gone with it. The hybrids searchingly looked around for them, only to find nothing. They were gone; they were no longer here.
“Any time you want a status update on them Miria, or want to send someone or yourself to check up on them, just ask.”
And with that Monty went silent.
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