Chapter Text
The last thing that Naruto remembers is being in a mission out of Konoha along Team 10, he was going as reinforcement in case things went south. The mission had been classified as a A-Ranked one, but soon turned into a S-ranked when they came across with a place that had to do with the Ootutsuki clan, in order words, Kaguya’s clan name.
Since the moment they made it into the temple, Kurama had been quite restless inside him, and was quite insistent in making them get out of there, and warn him of not touching anything— The fox’s voice sounded so nervous, and Naruto never heard him like that before, his warning seemed genuine and rational, like there was really something inside that place that made him incredibly uncomfortable and uneasy.
When he tried to get more information about why, the Bijū simply snarled and ordered to comply, saying that they shouldn’t be messing around with things they didn’t understand.
He recalls the eerie feeling around the ruins, which got heavier and heavier the further they made it into the place, even the other three, who weren’t as versed in sensing energy as he was, noticed that something was off about the whole thing. To the point even Shikamaru was jumpy about it.
And then nothing at all.
For a second, he had first thought that he had been dreaming, because he was so comfortable at the moment. Feeling his body bath under the morning sun warm rays, just like it always did when he was done training and decided to take a break laying on the grass and enjoy the warmth. It was pleasant, the breeze tickled his whiskered cheeks and moved his hair around gently, being that to which he slowly woke up. He looked into the clear blue sky and decided to close his eyes one more time, letting go a delighted exhale.
It was simply too comfortable; The sun, the breeze, the smell of morning dew, the rustling of trees, the growling noise getting closer, the smell of rot- Wait. — Naruto opens his eyes, confused when the odor hits him straight in the nose, as a ninja, he’s supposed to be used to such things, to the smell of iron, of blood, amidst the battlefield– But this…It wasn’t normal. He looks around, just in time to see an approaching figure, he sits down in the grass, taking into account that he was sitting in the middle of a park? Maybe? There were lots of trees, and he could see a playground from there. Naruto puts a hand over his eyes, trying to obstruct the sunlight from hitting him straight in the face, and takes in the approaching figure.
When he was about to say something – because they must be a civilian, since he couldn’t really notice chakra coming from this person– words die on his throat at the sight– The person, if he’d still call them that, was walking really slowly, mindlessly, eyes unfocused and blank, skin a sickly, grayish tone, clothes torn and stained with darkened, old blood. There was no doubt the smell of something rotting was coming straight from them, he was about to ask if they needed help or something, but when he took notice of a concerning fact, he stopped halfway– This person…
This person was walking around with a big hole at the side of their abdomen, Naruto could see and count perfectly all their ribs, and where some organs and muscle were supposed to be, there was nothing. The wound stopped bleeding long ago, and the color it took was sickening, like when one simply left blood droplets to dry and these lost all the vibrant red color they used to have when fresh from a wound.
No one could just walk around like that, while they had their insides out, something that he is pretty sure would kill anyone on the spot. That means this person…
This person must be dead.
“What the fuck is going on?” he mumbles under his breath, completely awestruck with what he was witnessing at the moment. The pretty-much-dead-person immediately turned to him and their groaning and growling turned louder, quickening their paces towards him.
At that, Naruto felt the urge to move away immediately, and he did, standing up automatically as the- the thing stretched an arm to him, hands stained with blood and dirt, what looked like a bite mark of some kind on their wrist –skin completely teared apart like some animal had devoured it hastily–. He jumped a few steps away from it, still trying to process what was going on.
This must be the product of a jutsu, right? The Edo Tensei had similar effects if the user had been an amateur and didn’t know how to perform it successfully, simply killing and bringing back to life the human supposed sacrifice they used– It was forbidden for a reason, because it’d create lifeless creatures, completely mindless that would roam the land like that, nothing left of what had made them a person before.
Messing with the dead and death itself was a quite disrespectful thing to do, since they were supposed to stay dead. Not roam the world they had long since departed from, while there was still a beating heart in their chests.
There was, without a doubt, a zombie in front of him. Growling like a mindless animal.
Just when Naruto was thinking of what to do, a deep familiar voice rumbled inside him, ‘Naruto, don’t engage with that thing. Something is not right– Don’t let it touch you’ Kurama warned, and he immediately jumped away once again when the creature got too close to him, landing on top of a tree.
“Kurama, do you know what’s going on? This must’ve been from a jutsu like the Edo Tensei, right?” He asked, looking as the zombie continued walking towards him and stayed on the ground, completely unable to climb a tree like a normal human would’ve been able to do so. “Ugh, the smell is disgusting” he brought a hand to his nose, trying to keep himself from smelling that odor.
‘I told you not to touch anything in that place. Why can’t humans simply keep their nosy little hands away from things that do not concern you?’ Naruto’s eyes widened, was this something they accidentally triggered by stepping into those ruins? In that case, he needed to look out for Shikamaru, Chōji and Ino, and go back to Konoha, maybe even take this thing with them for further investigation and let Kakashi-sensei decide what they should do with it.
To think there was a place like that so close to Konoha, on the limits of the Land of Fire, and no one knew… ‘Naruto, look around you. Do you think we are in the Land of Fire?’
At the question, he looked around, taking in with what looked like a couple of houses he had never seen before in his entire life, the infrastructure was really different from what he had seen, even from other lands and villages, they all looked pretty alike to one another, and some…Large objects that looked to be made of some kind of metal were on the side of what looked like an empty path.
But not the dirt path he was so used to. Where were they?! “Where the fuck are we, Kurama?! What 's this place?! Oh goodness, what happened to the rest?! How am I supposed to know where I am? Or get back to Konoha on my own? I’ve no idea where I am! And that thing–!” The zombie growls louder when hearing his voice again. Naruto groaned, lifting his hands to his hair and ruffling it, “This is a mess!”
He’d tell Kurama was rolling his eyes at his dramatic demeanor when he spoke again, ‘Chill, kit. This place looks like it was made by humans, for other humans. So it's quite likely you’ll find some around here, go ask someone for directions first.’
At the idea, he immediately calmed down, taking a shaky breath before he finally let his hands drop to his sides back again, “You’re right, yes. I’d do that! Let’s look for someone!” A grin made its way to his face, as he jumped down the tree, and landed a few steps away from his new friend.
The creature almost instantly turned its head towards where it heard him landing, and tried to approach him once again, arms stretched and growling intensifying. Naruto made a disgusted expression, feeling a shiver down his back at the prospect of getting touched by that thing, and immediately flickered away.
He landed on that black path he saw before a few blocks away from the spot he woke up in, and looked around. The entire block looked quite desertical, like someone hadn’t been around there in ages. Some houses’ doors were wide open, the far tingling sound of a wind chime being hit by the breeze was the only thing he’d hear.
It was…Upsetting, so much silence. Too used to the streets back at the village being swarmed by crowds and crowds of people all day long. Naruto rubbed his arm, uncomfortable with the feeling that crawled up his back, like something bad happened around this place.
He tried to shrug it off, and walked up to the house in front of him, walking up the wooden porch that creaked under his weight.
Once standing in front of the door, he knocked a few times and made the doorbell ring, “Uh…Hello? Is someone home? I’m…Kind of lost at the moment, I’d use some directions so-” There came no response from inside, and noticing the door had no locks on, he pushed it open, taking a peek inside, “Heeeelloooo? Uhm, excuse my rudeness, I guess?”
The silence went on, and Naruto walked into the place, closing the door behind himself as he stepped into the hall.
He kept himself quiet, trying to discern any kind of noise inside the house. When there was nothing, he adventures further inside, there were some pictures hung on the walls, from what he supposed had been the family that lived, or err- Lives? inside.
In his staring, he almost bumped into a table, the furniture shook and something was about to be knocked off it. In his quick reflexes, Naruto caught it immediately, sighing in relief when the framed photo didn’t fall to the floor and broke into millions of pieces.
He put it back where it used to be before, and accidentally took a look at it. It was a family photo, the two adults he supposed were the parents of the three smiling-looking kids, all different ages. They all looked happy.
He ignored the pang of jealousy that got through his stomach and returned his attention to the rest of the house. Naruto walked onto what he supposed was the living room, which was as empty, and then into the kitchen, every cupboard and drawers were opened and emptied, like someone did it in a rush and took everything they’d grab with them.
There was no food aside from the awful smelling fruits that had been long since left to rot. Everything on the fridge was rotting as well, it seemed the energy in the house was cut a while ago, but not that long, since there was water still dripping from behind the fridge. Every piece of furniture had thin layers of dust on them, like someone had not cleaned them in a long time. In fact, the entire place looked like no one lived inside for a while now.
Naruto wondered where that family went. No one would leave their home without a good reason, leaving most of their things behind like they just needed and had to get away as fast as possible. What happened in this place?
He looked around some more, walking upstairs to the second floor, which was in the same condition as the lower plant. He peeked around the rooms and found them all abandoned, the only thing left were those no one would need. Apparently, they packed a lot of clothes and food, enough for a long trip.
If his calculations weren’t wrong, Naruto could tell that they took enough to last for a few weeks if they knew how to ration the food well-enough, given that they had three young kids with them. Why would they leave like this? He sighed as he made his way downstairs.
He left the house and tried with the rest, finding them in similar conditions, avoiding the ones that had blood stains and big red markings on the walls and doors. He couldn’t quite discern what they said, but the vibrant red paint simply told him it was meant to be a warning, of something that was inside and not supposed to get out.
So Naruto avoided the marked houses, still confused about the foreign language, “Kurama? Have you ever seen words in that language before?” He pointed towards a sign, one that he couldn’t understand.
It took a few seconds before Kurama answered, just as confused as he was, ‘It does not ring a bell, kit. And this is why I told you to not touch anything back in the Ootutsuki shrine. But you and your friends just had to touch something, didn't you?’ He scolded with a badly-contained snarl.
And Naruto flinched, scratching his neck with a nervous smile, “I don’t really remember much… I’m not sure what we touched exactly. Maybe we triggered some kind of space transportation seal? It doesn’t explain why Ino, Shika and Chōji aren’t with me, though…”
At that, the Bijū didn’t reply for a while as Naruto kept walking down the empty streets, looking around. ‘You’d try to get into Sannin mode and see if you can find the Nara boy, the Yamanaka girl and that fat boy’
Naruto made an annoyed face, “His name is Akimichi Chōji, Kurama. He doesn’t like being called that, y’know. And Chōji is a nice guy!” The fox scoffed, dropping the matter altogether. Naruto rolled his eyes and meditated on the other’s suggestion, “Maybe you’re right, I’d try to find them with Sannin mode!”
He drops to the floor and sits down, crossing his legs right at where he once stood.
Naruto closed his eyes, and tried to focus. He slowly managed to relax, inhaling and exhaling slowly until his heartbeats steadied completely, mind blank and devoid of any thought. He tried to feel the natural energy around him, but…It was weird.
After a few moments, he found out he didn’t quite recognize the energy around him– There was, of course…Just not the one he was used to. This place’s energy felt…Different, somehow. Nothing Naruto has ever felt before, it was like– He couldn’t finish his train of thought when the annoying noise he had heard from afar got louder, and closer .
It was extremely irritating. So Naruto opened his eyes, furrowing his eyebrows in a frown. How was he supposed to focus with all that growling and groaning?!
His annoyance left when he took sight of the scene in front of him. A few meters in front of him, was a big group of the same creatures, very similar to the one he saw back at the park, only in different states of decomposing. Some even missing an entire limb, or dragging an entirely broken foot by the teared muscle of their ankle.
Naruto immediately raises a hand to his mouth, feeling sick, not only by the smell but by the sight. As a shinobi, he thought he had seen it all, but this just proved him wrong– Never once in his life he saw something like this. It was- It was just nauseating. Before they noticed him, he immediately flickered away, landing on a rooftop, away from them.
He saw as they mindlessly continued their path, not following a concrete direction or anything. Just…Walking around, groaning and growling. Totally unfazed by their slowly rotting bodies that’d eventually crumbled down. A mess of dry putrid blood, sick-looking skin, broken body and unfocused eyes.
A knot settled on his stomach, staring down at the now crowded street from where he was standing on the roof of an abandoned house, watching as a group of walking corpses simply made their way through it, all wearing different faces, from older, elderly people, to young adults and teenagers. Just…what happened here?
“Kurama…?” he mumbled under his breath, tentatively and shaky.
Unfortunately, his friend had no comforting or reassuring words for him, ‘I’ve no idea, kit…I don’t know what happened here. Just, let’s stay away from their path for the time being. Just focus on finding someone alive to get some answers.’
He could only nod, hesitant, as he simply jumped from roof to roof quietly and fast enough. The unsettling feeling in his stomach only worsened.
Naruto was glad to at least have Kurama’s company. He felt less alone this way.
.
.
.
Throughout the evening, as night neared down, Naruto had to put a stop to his searching. Almost the entirety of that town was a ghost place only roamed literally by the dead, the streets a mess of blood and laying corpses, he saw some stand out and walk like nothing if something triggered them.
He noted that they seemed to follow noise, even the noise made by other zombies like them, and they were automatically drawn to the source of the noise.
He had to keep himself from staring at them when he took sight of a small girl from around them, she simply couldn’t be older than five years old- And seeing her like that, chin teared apart until you’d see bone, blood staining her clothes and hair, still mindlessly clinging to her toy– It was simply too much for him.
What happened here? Was this really the product of one person? Who’d do something like that?
He settled up camp on top of a building, and he spent the first night there. His only company being Kurama, who since they stumbled upon this whole mess, decided to ditch his napping and pay close attention to everything. Remembering Naruto to eat and drink water, not wanting the teen to get weak.
Thankfully, he had packed a lot of ninja rations and water, and since he was a Jinchūriki, he was sturdier than most, so he’d endure going a few hours, even days, without eating proper food. He only needed to pay close attention to his water rationing, making sure he’d not dehydrate. He spent some days like that, waiting to see if he’d find anyone, when he was awoken by a loud, heartbreaking, scream.
It made him immediately rise from where he was resting, and glance down towards the streets, only to see a lone woman running, looking for a place to hide. She looked wounded, hand putting pressure to a bleeding wound on her arm.
She was crying and her breath was rushed, clearly distressed and desperate. However, her screams only lured in more zombies, from which she tried to run away. He was about to jump down to help her, but he was stopped by Kurama, ‘You can’t help her, kit. She’s long gone’
Naruto growled under his breath, why? She had a not life-threatening injury, if she got help she’d survive and be alright! —Noticing his anger, Kurama tried to soothe him, ‘Didn’t you notice? What do all those things have in common? They all have similar bite marks on their bodies, like something bit hard on it. She has been bitten’
Naruto was about to ask what the hell did he meant by that, but stopped altogether, angry inquiries dying on his throat when his blue eyes went back to the lady on the streets, blood sputtered from her mouth suddenly, she coughed, trying to breath between the blood and her broken sobs.
Choking in her own blood, he saw her tremble, double up on herself, and then fall to the floor, convulsing.
He tried to look away from the gruesome sight but couldn’t as she finally stopped moving and he only stood there, frozen. The things got a grasp of her and lunged in — ‘Naruto, close your eyes. You don’t have to see that, kit.’
He forcefully tore his gaze away from the scene, feeling tears welling up in his eyes as he tried to swallow the tight knot inside his throat.
Like they had been completely bored out of their now completely unmoving prey, those things walked away. Minutes after, the same poor lady that had been alive, running to save her life while crying and screaming for help, simply stood up and joined the roaming corpses, her guts falling out of her open stomach.
But she just walked unfazed by her missing inner organs. Blank, unfocused eyes and the same groaning the rest did.
Just like Kurama said, she was long gone. Naruto could do nothing to help her.
Days passed as he roamed the town, trying to see if he could find any survivors, but he hadn’t been lucky at all. Since he was jumping from rooftop to rooftop, he barely walked down the streets, suddenly very afraid of running into one of those things.
If what was only needed was one bite…He didn’t want to turn into one of those things!
Naruto knows that, rationally, he is stronger, faster and smarter than them, and that he’d probably take them out easily, but he didn’t want to try to get too close to them if he’d help it.
He made an itinerary of the things he had with him, like how many kunais, shurikens, bandages and food he had with him. It wasn’t enough, but he’d manage for a few more days. Whatever happened here, must’ve been big if people were so unorganized to the point the non-living simply governed this place.
He noted that the zombies preferred to lay around during daylight, and would get surprisingly active during nighttime, surely because the heat from the sunlight made them rot even faster. He didn’t want to wander farther, given that he didn’t know whether Ino, Shika or Chōji would’ve appeared in this place just like he did, Naruto had better chances if he managed to reunite with them, in case they’d been transported there.
If not, he needed to find some people that could tell him where he was and what exactly happened here. He took off his hitai-ate and stored it away, not knowing if it was safe to let anyone know that he was a ninja from Konohagkure.
Day 5, he noted, that while he was traveling across the rooftops once again, he finally found some very alive people.
It was getting dark, so he didn’t think someone would be going around so late. Naruto noted that it wasn’t a big group of people, three adults and two little kids. A woman, two men, a boy and a girl. They didn’t seem to be related, and they were walking around like nothing was bad, or that they didn’t think was bad, he observed quietly to see what they were doing.
The little boy wandered away from what, he thought, were his parents, and pointed to something. Naruto narrowed his eyes and when he took note of the multiple laying zombies around, he felt himself froze on the spot.
Even more when the boy’s father started waving towards one of the zombies, trying to gain its attention. Naruto panicked, fearing they’d drive the whole group’s attention to themselves.
And of course, his waving and voice immediately did. Knowing that this time he’d help them, he jumped through the rooftops and then jumped down, running towards them. Just in time to see one of the corpses getting a hold of the little boy.
Naruto put some chakra in his legs to quicken his pacing and made it just right in time to kick the zombie away and carry the boy.
The kid screamed, out of terror and surprise, “Don’t worry, I gotcha!” He quickly reassured, and took out of his pouch one kunai, throwing it to the approaching corpse, hitting it straight on the head, stopping it immediately as it fell to the ground.
The boy wiggled away and went back to the arms of his mother, it was then a loud, banging sound made him close his eyes in pain, hands coming to his ear to obstruct the noise, someone pulled him along and he followed, seeing they were all getting into a store of some kind, a boy a little older than him closed the gate behind them.
Kurama grumbles inside him, ‘You just had to get delved into this mess, don’t you? Your kind heart and soul will get yourself killed one day, Naruto.’
He was barely recovering from the loud noise when he finally took in his surroundings, the ringing in his ears slowly vanished and that was then he heard the shouting— “–can’t just let people die like that” the woman that had the loud as hell weapon said to a brunette woman, they were wearing clothes Naruto never saw before.
The brunette didn’t look quite pleased, “When I say that ‘that door stays closed no matter what’ I fucking mean it!” She growled.
As he massaged his ear, Naruto simply watched the scene, feeling still quite shaken by the bang-thingy. That was awful! If the purpose of that weapon was being loud as fuck then it certainly is good at that!
A wide, old and mean-looking man with gray hair immediately spat, “Worse is, that you could’ve lured them right towards us!” He loudly complained. Why is everyone here so loud? —The growling outside just intensified.
Naruto sighed, pulling himself away from the entrance, “Hey, gramps. You are going to lure them here with your shouting. Chill”
He suddenly speaking brought them all’s attention to him, the blond woman, who had been the only one to notice him before, pulled her son closer and gave him a grateful nod, “You saved my son, thank you.” She mouthed, and he gave her a smile, before his attention went to the rest, the mean man kept the snarl and frown in his face.
“I won’t chill when they could’ve gotten bitten! That kid is covered in blood!” He pointed to the little boy, and Naruto frowned.
The nice blond-haired lady pulled him closer to her, “He wasn’t! There isn’t a bite, I cleaned him! Kenny, tell him!” she rushed to say, protecting the kid with her own body, he still looked terrified, and Naruto was starting to lose his patience when the large man just kept talking in a raised tone.
Kenny, who he supposed was the boy’s father, looked ready to throw a punch.
“They can’t stay here! They’ve to leave! All of us could die because of them!”
Naruto rolled his eyes, “Gramps, you’re going to infarct yourself. Shut up. No one’s going to throw anyone out, but if you don’t keep your tone in check, you’ll tell the entire zombie population in a mid-radius to come here” He pointed out harshly, “There’s two kids so let’s all calm down, ‘kay?”
The boy that closed the gates spoke next, trying to make sense out of the equally mean-looking brown-haired woman, “They’ve kids, Lily. We can’t just throw them out”
Lily, which is a pretty odd name, scoffed, “Believe me, those things outside won’t care.”
Kenny, quite hot-headed from what Naruto already noted, immediately pointed out, “You’d join them, then. I’m sure you've got something in common!”
“Damn thing, Lily, You’ve got to get these people in line!” The large man complained again . And Naruto was this close to punching him.
The man that was followed by a small girl spoke, “She’s right, they took a risk. And we appreciate it, so can we please settle down like he said?” He gestured to Naruto who by the corner of his eye, saw the little girl with dark curly hair walk towards somewhere inside the shop.
She did a funny dance with an uncomfortable face and then turned towards who he thought was his dad, “Lee? There’s someone in there”
The man spared her a look and kept his arms crossed, “There should be a key on the counter somewhere– Probably.”
Mean grandpa kept complaining, “How do we know that we can trust these people?! For what we know, they’d be all infected! Beginning with that kid! We all know how this whole thing starts, you get bitten and wake up to eat anyone around you. The first thing he’ll do is sink his teeth into his mum!”
Kenny growled, putting himself between the man and his family, “Don’t you dare do anything to my boy. We already told you he wasn’t bitten. Blondie over there saved him!”
They were all interrupted by the little girl’s shriek, everyone, including him, turned their heads towards where she was, a zombie had opened that door and fallen to the floor, trying to reach the little girl.
Naruto was the only to break out of his surprise quicker and react fast enough to reach the small girl, he tightened the hold on his kunai and pulled her away from that thing, in a swift movement, he kicked it away, making the zombie stumble against the wall, before it recovered, Naruto shot a kunai that struck on its eye socket.
Not leaving room for more moving, he lunged against the creature, shoving it to the floor harshly and stabbing him deeply.
Once it stopped moving, dropping to the floor and leaving along that nauseating smell of rot, Naruto stepped away, letting go a sigh of relief, pulling out his kunai and with a disgusted face clean it with the edge of his clothes.
He turned around to see if the little girl was okay, she was still shaking, hands covering her eyes. Naruto kneeled down and hesitantly placed a hand on her shoulder, “Hey, kiddo, it’s over, ‘kay?” He softly reassured, seeing as she put her hands away from her face, giving her a soothing smile, Naruto asked, “Are you alright?” She sniffled and nodded.
Naruto raised his head and rose from the kneeling position he was in, sparing the rest an intense glare, “Can y’all take that as a cue to chill? We’re all in the same boat here, so let’s think together how we can leave this place safely without dying and what to do next. You won’t be able to do anything on your own— So for the sake of everyone here, let’s calm down and breathe.”
Silence filled the room, and his gaze wandered around everyone’s face.
Naruto beamed at them then, seeing that they were at least calmer now, “Alright,” he clapped his hands, “My name’s Naruto, nice to meet you!”
What a way to meet new people.