Hopes Of People Everywhere

Oneshot

I didn't really want to write an entire zombie fic, so I made a little oneshot. I hope this will soothe your impatience while waiting for me to update my other stories. I know, I should, but I have headaches and a sore throat, and I don't feel like putting much thought into how my story will advance in future chapters. So, a oneshot! And yes, the reason I named it 'Hope of people everywhere' was so that it could be abbreviated H.O.P.E. And yes, I was going for angst. If I was going through this, I'd be pretty angsty.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto! But if I did, I might consider making some changes. Muahaha.

!

I was alone. All alone. There was no hope for me anymore. I clutched the fenced lining of my apartment complex rooftop. It would be so easy to jump. To end it all. Just like Ino, my best friend, had done only a month prior. My pink hair wavered in the wind, and my emerald eyes began to fill with tears. I quickly wiped them away on my old, torn red hoodie with a faded four leaf clover printed on it. With a sigh, I began to climb up on top of the fence.

With a similar sigh, I hopped back down onto the lonely little rooftop. I could remember them all. Every single one of my friends and family that died in exactly the order they died; My parents were the first deaths that affected me. Then Ino's parents were killed. The other parents. Then Tenten, one of my best friends, died next. Then Sasori. Zetsu. Kisame. Lee. Deidara. Ino.

But my life hadn't always been this way.

I was once a happy little schoolgirl. I went to school. I got good grades. I played a couple of sports. I had crushes. I dated guys. I had two best friends that were the greatest support system in the history of the universe.

But it was all taken from me, because of him. Because of that man, Orochimaru, my life was shattered into little pathetic, bloody, pain filled pieces. I am a shadow of the childish, innocent person I once was. A hollow shell, full of sadness. I have lost everyone. I could still hope for the survival of others, but why even bother? Even if I did have family and friends alive in the other parts of Japan, how would I even know? At this very moment they could be on the very brink of death.

It really was all Orochimaru's fault. He was the one who came up with the injection, insisting that it was a 'miracle cure' for AIDS. Which it, in fact, was. However, there were unfortunate side affects, which Japan along with most of the world, would find out within a month. After a few weeks, the miracle cure mutates when it is in contact with human blood for long periods of time, turning them into zombies.

Yes, you read that right, zombies. As in, walk without bending their joints, horror movie plot, ugly misshapen faced, arms outstretched, eat your brains zombies.

And unfortunately, their bites were infective. That is, if they don't eat you whole first. If you are bitten, and live to be more precise, within ten minutes you will mutate. The infection spreads so much faster when it's already been mutated, you see.

Even at the lowest point in my life, here where I had no one, I couldn't bring myself to let myself die. If I died, then the others would have died for nothing. I had to live on, to preserve their hopes for the future. A free future, where one could live without fear of, well, having your flesh eaten right off the bone. Even if I had to create, and live in, it by myself.

I keep myself calm with sadistic humor, you see. If I don't, I might lose what's left of my sanity.

I noticed a zombie making it's way down my street. I picked up a sniper rifle, one of the many I had stocked up here, and shot at it. The bullet hit, and the zombie fell over, finally truly dead.

You know, if there's any of my sanity left to lose.

!

With I sigh, I noted my food supplies were running low. I'd have to raid the supermarket, which I did about once a week. You would think a person would try to stock more and go into the open less, but I run faster and fight better with a lighter load. It's one of my zombie survival strategies. You know, like in that one movie... What was it called? I couldn't quite remember, my past life seemed so far away.

I grabbed some of her favorite weapons; Two pistols, the machine gun, a samurai sword, and two daggers. Though, I preferred the zombies not to be close enough for me to have to use the daggers.

I cautiously made my way down the street, inspecting every corner and surface with a suspicious eye. When it comes to saving your life, you could never be too careful. I could remember the mistake Tenten had made.

'I had noticed Tenten was missing. She had left a note, with four words written on it; "Went for food. -Tenten". I frowned. Tenten should've known better then to go by herself. Survival is much easier with a pack of people. More eyes to watch for the freakish creatures of the undead. I knew we were all starving, though. This was the risky period, you see, when we were all afraid of leaving our home.

I looked out the window, and saw her running down the street. As I was about to yell her name, I saw a figue lurking in the shadows. "Tenten!" I shrieked, as loud as I could muster, "Look out!"

But she was too far out of hearing range.'

I shuddered slightly, clearing my mind. I needed to be alert. People die when they're not alert.

I boldly walked into the grocery store, as the automatic doors opened. Be thankful for the modern conveniences, right? I fired a few test shots. The noise was sure to attract any lurking zombies.

Surprisingly, instead of the growl of zombies, I heard a voice shout, "Who's there?"

My eyes widened as I assumed a defensive position, hiding in a corner isle and pointing my machine gun around the corner, ready to fire.

"If you're alive, answer me!" The voice shouted again. It's was a boy's voice.

"Who are you?" Another boy's voice shouted. For some reason, this angered me. Who were they to demand answers from me? I come here all the time! They're the strangers!

"Who are you?" I shouted back, grabbing a dagger in case they decided to be not so friendly. I fired a shot with my pistol to prove a point; I won't take their bullshit. If they were going to try and rob me, or worse, they had another thing coming.

"I asked first!" The second boy's voice shouted, obviously annoyed. I heard him load his own gun.

"Dammit, Sasuke, she's just a girl!" The first boy shouted, "Hey! We won't hurt you! I'm Naruto!"

I peered out to look at the boys, far enough so that I could see them, but not so far that I could be shot easily.

One of them had blond hair, and pretty blue eyes. He had three lines on each cheeks. The way he walked suggested he was more easy going, and somewhat dim-witted. To be frank, I'm not particularly sure how he survived for so long. The stupid usually die pretty fast. It was a wonder Ino had made it as long as she did, and then chose to kill herself. Hell, Ino may've been dumb, but at least she was resourceful. This guy looked as if he would just walk blindly into danger.

The other one had black hair spiked backwards, and black eyes. He looked irritable and suspicious, and was definitely Sasuke, the owner of the first voice. He was probably the only reason Naruto was even alive.

"I'm Sakura, if you must know." I shouted, still cautious.

"Where are you living?" Naruto shouted, grinning.

"My apartment rooftop." I shouted back. Generic enough to be secretive, but somewhat informative.

"Would you mind if we joined you? We've been looking for a place to stay, traveling all the time is no good." Naruto shouted.

"Dobe," Sasuke interrupted, "She wouldn't agree to tha-"

"Yeah, I guess that'd be alright." I decided it would be better to let my guard down. After all, if I keep going on with no people, I'll end up a crazy lady keeping a severed zombie head so that she could talk to it. Well, that is, if the bastards didn't turn to dust a few hours after they die. Eco-friendly bastards. Besides, if they killed her in her sleep, she had to die sometime, right?

"Really?" Sasuke raised an eyebrow.

"Why not?" I stepped out so that they could see me.

"Wow! She's so pretty!" Naruto cooed, running up to her.

"So, uh, how many are in your group? Just you two?" I asked, blushing.

"No, there's two more boys and girl our age, and then twokids." Sasuke muttered, "What were you here for, anyway?"

Sakura looked at him strangely, "Food. Duh. I may be a girl, but I still need to eat."

Sasuke looked surprised. Apparently, in his past life, girls never talked to him like that.

"Did you walk here?" Naruto asked.

"Yeah, you?" Sakura grinned. Naruto was by far more sociable.

"Nah, we have a truck." Naruto grinned, once again. Hey, when wasn't he grinning?

"Perfect, then we can take extra!" Sakura grinned.

"Extra what?" Sasuke muttered.

"Well, there are blankets and stuff too, here, but I never carried them home with me because I thought it was a waste of energy that I needed for food." Sakura muttered sheepishly. In truth, she had only found the blankets recently, and didn't want them to drag her down in case she was discovered by a customer lacking a pulse.

"How come there aren't a lot of zombies here?" Naruto wondered aloud.

I gave him a devious look and said, "I exterminated the ones from this city. The only ones that come here now are from other cities, who sensed my presence." From what I have seen, that was their pattern of behavior. They somehow sensed living people, and would come for them. However, as they had noticed, there was a stunning lack of zombie in my city, thanks to me and my once living friends. We made a point to wipe out all that we could find. They still came, whenever they sense her, but they usually go for places with more people. In fact, a lot of them have been drowning themselves in the ocean, attempting to reach regions with more people. Stupid zombies.

Sasuke looked confused, then muttered, "Well, who are you with?"

I offered a sad smile, "Ah, no one, anymore."

Naruto gasped, "Oh, I'm sorry... How long have-"

"A month." I regained my composure, "Ino was the last one. She committed suicide."

"We've all lost people." Sasuke offered his sympathy, even if it was indirectly.

"Well, you have us now!" Naruto grinned, "We'll stick by you, Sakura-chan!"

I gave a smile. A genuine smile. I haven't smiled sincerely for a long time.

!

We piled up all that we could into the old rusty pick up truck. There were lots of canned foods. We found some bread that hadn't gotten moldy yet, and a still working fridge that held milk. There were all the blankets and pillows we could carry. I took bottled water, I had always liked the stuff. I gave a small smile when I noticed a television small enough for me to carry. Naruto, getting my idea, grabbed a box containing a DVD player, and all the DVDs he could carry.

"No horror movies!" I insisted, we were already living in one, after all.

Naruto gave an understanding glance and muttered, "Yeah, I know."

I met their 'family', as they called it. Hinata was the only girl. She blushed a lot, and stuttered. But I didn't mind, and we became fast friends anyway. She was cute, with short blue-ish hair and pearl colored eyes. I found out she likes Naruto, and I approve. They'd make a cute couple. Even in dark times, my romantic intuition still seems to be kicking in.

Gaara had red hair and seafoam green eyes. He had black rings around his eyes; He obviously hasn't been sleeping very well. He seemed rough and distant, but he was a kind person when he opened up.

Neji was Hinata's older cousin, and was very protective of her. Apparently, they were separated when the infection started spreading, but met back up. That's wonderful, it must've been great for them to have a surviving familiar face after all that they've gone through. He had long brown hair and the same pearl eyes as Hinata.

Konohamaru was one of the children. He was only eight years old. He had brown hair, and hid sadness and fear under childish actions. I would know, for a long time I did the same thing. Him and the other child, Moegi, protected each other for about two days when the person protecting them died. That was when the group found them.

Moegi was a little girl, who was eight as well. Her hair was dirty blond, and she was the epitome of cute and adorable.

!

So, we sat together on the rooftop, plugging the television into an outlet that before used to be for watering the rooftop garden. We all cuddled close, snuggling in our blankets, under the beautiful stars, watching movies on the television.

It felt good to laugh, and for at least one night, we were all people again. People who were capable of happiness, laughing, and relaxing. For the first time in a long time, we weren't scared.

We held the hopes of people everywhere, and for the first time, I knew we would all be okay.

!

Alright, that's all folks! Review please! Flame me, if you want! You'll get a chuckle! If you review, I'll do the same for your story. Also, try and guess what movie Sakura couldn't remember the name of. If you do review, with the name of the movie, you get a special prize. :]

~Ginny