Summary
Naruto and Sasuke are fighting each other for the second time at The Valley of the End. During the final attack when Naruto used his Rasengan and Sasuke his Chidori it caused an unforeseen event. A dimensional tear had opened where the collision between attacks occured. After that Naruto found himself in an unfamiliar setting and the dead are eating the living. Naruto, in a world different from his own, now has to survive and he will do everything he can to do so with his new friends.
Small Talk
I was planning on writing an actual Naruto fanfiction and not a crossover for my first actual story. However, after recently rewatching The Walking Dead, I had an idea for a Naruto x TWD crossover. The Ideas are fresh in my mind, so why not write it? I'm not sure what kind of pairing to make for this one. I was thinking of pairing Naruto with Maggie, but I'm not sure how that would work out. Glenn will still be a thing, so I'm not replacing him with Naruto. Naruto will be an OP character, but not overly so. NO JUTSU except wall walking. He would be too OP with jutsu. Just enhanced strength and speed since he'll have very little chakra. Not sure what to do with Kurama. I'm open to suggestions and ideas.
Disclaimer
I do not own Naruto/Naruto Shippuden, nor do I own The Walking Dead.
Story Start
Atlanta, Georgia
A man could be seen on the road riding a horse into the city of Atlanta, Georgia. Not a sound could be heard in the streets. Nothing but the sounds of the horse's hooves on pavement and the occasional whinny could be heard. The man wore a sheriff's uniform and hat. He also had a duffel bag full of firearms and ammunition on his back. He had graying dark-brown hair and a beard. This man was Rick Grimes. A King County Sheriff Deputy.
Rick was hospitalized and in a coma when the outbreak occured. When he woke up, the entire hospital was abandoned and empty. All he found was countless bodies outside and abandoned military vehicles.
When he returned home, after finding a bike and riding it back, he found it to be empty. His son, Carl, and wife, Lori, were gone. He had feared the worst, but grew hopeful when he discovered that their family pictures and photo albums were gone and some of their clothes were missing. His wife would have packed those along with the clothes.
After a small confrontation, Rick befriended a man, Morgan, and his son, Duane, that were holed up in town. Rick learns from Morgan that there is supposed to be a safe zone in Atlanta where his wife and son may have gone to. After clearing the Sheriff's station of firearms and saying their goodbyes, Rick leaves for Atlanta. He left a radio with Morgan and promised to contact him when he could. On the way to Atlanta Rick's squad car runs out of gas and he finds a horse on a farm during his search for gas. Now here he is, in Atlanta, looking for his wife and son.
Rick passes a burned out bus with some walkers inside that begin to exit the bus while growling when his horse gets freaked out.
"Whoa! Calm down." Rick says while using the reigns to steady the horse. "It's just a few. We can outrun them if we have to." He has the horse move a bit quicker down the road and away from the few walkers following them.
After turning onto a different road, Rick finds an abandoned military tank with some crows cawing as they're picking at a dead soldier on top of it. He moves on after a moment and that's when he hears the sound of a helicopter's rotors that he spots in the reflection of a skyscraper's windows.
"Hyah! Come on, we've got to see where that thing's headed." Rick urges his horse to move quickly down the road so he can get a clearer view. As he turns a corner Rick runs into what could only be hundreds of walkers all standing around in the street. He quickly turns back around after his horse rears up while whinnying loudly. He now has the entire horde's attention.
Going back the way he came, Rick runs into more of them and his exit is cut off. "Oh shit!" His horse starts panicking as the walkers close in on them both. "Oh god! Argh!!" Rick falls off his horse as they're swarmed dropping the duffel bag full of guns and ammunition. He crawls backwards towards the tank and tries to make a run for it as the walkers begin tearing into his horse.
"Argh!" He falls back onto the ground as he's cut off. Diving under the tank, he begins to crawl underneath as he's followed by several walkers. He turns to look at the other side in hopes of it being clear. Unfortunately, the walkers on that side heard him as he struggled to get away from the others. He's surrounded by the undead, and he sees no way out of this situation.
Taking out his revolver he starts firing and killing several, but he leaves one last bullet in the chamber. Aiming under his chin he prepares to "off" himself. "Lori, Carl, I'm sorry." That's when he sees an open hatch under the tank. He hastily crawls inside and shuts the hatch closed as he narrowly escapes death. Crawling away from the hatch, Rick sees a dead soldier next him.
"Oh... God." He takes a moment to catch his breath then takes a handgun from the soldier's holster. The "dead" soldier turns its head and snarls at Rick. He panicks and shoots the soldier with his last remaining bullet in his revolver. The sound from the gunshot reverberates inside the tight space of the tank and causes him to become disoriented as his ears start ringing.
After recovering a little bit, he makes his way to the top hatch of the tank and looks around outside. Rick spots the duffel bag, but he is still completely surrounded and now some of the walkers are climbing onto the tank. He quickly closes the hatch and sits back down. Looking over his newly acquired handgun, he's glad to see that he has a full magazine and loads it.
Rick begins to contemplate on his plan of action when he hears the crackle of a radio. "Hey you. Dumbass inside the tank." He spots the radio. "Is it nice and cozy in there?"
Nearby Rooftop
"Hahaha. Oh man. What an idiot!" An unknown voice could be heard from on top of a building not far from where Rick was trapped inside the tank. "Somebody should have told him that Atlanta was not a safe place to be firing your gun. The city was lost within days." The voice was obviously male. He sounded young but had a bit of a deep voice. He stood at 5'7", had sky blue eyes, spiky blonde hair and three whisker-like birthmarks on each cheek. He was wearing black cargo pants with orange stripes on the sides, a black long-sleeved shirt with a burnt orange hoodie over it, black combat boots, a dark blue mask covering the bottom half of his face, a gray single-strap sling bag on his back and finally a sheathed machete on the small of his back. This was Naruto Uzumaki.
"Goddamn idiot is going to get himself killed. I wonder if this is his first time being here since the outbreak. That would explain why he didn't know how unsafe it was." Naruto mused as he watched the walkers continue to devour the horse he saw the guy ride in on. 'Poor thing.' He was mentally paying his respects to the poor creature when he noticed movement.
"Looks like he's making a run for it... and he's shooting even more now. Great. I guess I should help the poor guy out." Jumping down off the roof, Naruto made sure to channel some chakra into his body so he can take the landing. He landed in a crouch and made his way towards the cop that he saw run into an alley as he was being followed by dozens of walkers.
"Shit! That's too many for me to follow him." Naruto cursed as it looked like he may have to use some chakra in order to get to the cop.
"Whoa, I'm not one of them!" Naruto heard someone yell as he jumped up and used chakra to cling to the wall of the building he was next to. He made his way to the alley and peeked around the corner to see if that cop and whoever he ran into were still alive. They were and they were climbing a ladder up to the rooftop of the building as the alley was swarming with walkers.
Naruto waited for them to reach the top before he moved into the alley, still clinging to the walls, and towards the ladder. He jumped across to where the ladder was and started climbing up it. Once he reached the top he looked over the edge to see if they were there. He saw them running across the roof towards another building's roof that it was connected to via a small walkway. Following them, they soon arrived at a roof access hatch and that's when he decided to make his presence known.
"Hey, you guys alright?!" He stopped walking towards them when they turned around to face him and tensed up when they saw him. "Whoa, hey it's alright. I'm not here to cause trouble." Naruto raised his hands in a placating gesture to show that he was not hostile.
The other two glanced at each other and the cop stepped forward to address him. "Who are you? And how did you get up here?"
Naruto shook his head "It wasn't easy, but I have my methods. I saw you when you rode in on that horse. Thought you could use some help when it looked like you had no clue what you were doing, but looks like you found somebody. I mean seriously, shooting your gun in the middle of the city? You an amateur or something?"
Rick didn't like how he didn't get an actual answer and was going to press for answers, but then the other guy spoke before he could "I know right? First thing I did was call him a dumbass." The asian guy said after having a small laugh. The tense atmosphere somewhat lifting after that "I'm Glenn and this is Rick. It's nice to see another friendly face... er well, can't really see your face, but you get what I mean."
Naruto chuckled at that "Right. Well, I'm Naruto and I've been here in Atlanta since the beginning. Anyways you guys need some help? You got somewhere to go or what?"
It was Rick that spoke first despite wanting more answers, he was a cop dammit "I was coming here in hopes of finding people, but got trapped by those things. Glenn helped me out and I was following him to wherever he was going."
Naruto nodded his head and then looked at Glenn "I take it you have somewhere to stay then right?" He saw him gain a pensive look as if he was debating whether to say anything or not "It's alright. You don't have to say anything. I was just making sure this guy here would be alright. I guess I'll see you guys around or something." He started making his way back the way he came when he heard Glenn call out.
"Wait!" This earned him a look from Rick, but he ignored it "I have some people who came with me. We're going to need help since the geeks out there are all riled up. You think you can help us? We'd be grateful if you did." Glenn asked him, hopeful that he would lend his aid. He wasn't disappointed.
"Sure, I can help you guys out." Naruto nodded his head and smiled behind his mask "Naruto Uzumaki at your service." Hearing his full name earned him strange looks from the both of them "It's Japanese. Naruto means maelstrom and Uzumaki means spiral." He explained to them and they both nodded before moving towards the hatch.
Naruto walked over towards the hatch and followed them down the ladder. He made sure to close the hatch on his way down. They made their way through what seemed to be an office room that had cubicles inside. Exiting through a door opposite from where the ladder was, they walked down some stairs into an alley when Glenn started talking into his walkie talkie.
"I'm back and I have a couple guests with me. Plus four geeks in the alley." Glenn said as they all stopped at the bottom steps. Pretty soon a couple people wearing what looked like black hockey gear came out of a side door with baseball bats. Naruto tensed when he saw them, but calmed down when he saw that they started attacking the walkers in the alley. He didn't want to have to kill any living people, but he would if he had to. He had done it before after all.
"Let's go!" Glenn shouted as he ran for the side door the two people came from.
"Morales, come on, let's go!" Naruto heard one shout to the other when he, Glenn and Rick made it to the door. Naruto soon heard the door slam closed behind him along with the angry voice of a blonde woman with her weapon drawn on Rick.
"You son of a bitch! I ought to shoot you right now!" She yelled at him.
"Hey, calm down Andrea. Back off." One of the two hockey guys said as he took off the helmet he was wearing. Naruto figured this must be Morales since his voice was different from the other one he heard.
"Andrea! Ease up off of him please." Another voice was heard coming from an African American woman.
"Ease off? You're joking right? We're going to die because of this asshole." The now identified Andrea said angrily.
Naruto was about to step in when Morales walked up behind Andrea "Hey, I said to back the hell off." When she didn't, he spoke again "Go on then, do it." That made her finally step back.
"We're dead now. All of us are dead because of you." Andrea told Rick.
Rick look confused at that and made his confusion known "What do you mean because of me?" That's when Naruto finally decided to speak up.
"She means that you making all of that noise has attracted all of the dead for miles." Naruto explained to Rick and he gained a look of realization.
"And who the hell are you?" Demanded Andrea as she looked ready to draw her weapon again. "Are you with this asshole?"
Naruto shook his head as he answered her second question "No, I'm not with him. I was scavenging nearby when I saw him making all that noise. I was on my way to help him out when he ran into your boy here." He nodded his head towards Glenn "Glenn told me that you guys might need some help and I agreed to it."
Everybody seemed to accept that, but Rick still looked like he wanted to know more. Morales motioned everyone towards the front of the store and everybody followed him out there. Naruto could now see that it was a department store.
Morales started talking when they got near the front doors and stopped "He's right though. We came here to scavenge and the key to that is staying quiet and not shooting up the streets like it's the O.K. Corral." He spoke sternly.
That was when the other guy who was wearing hockey gear, which they seem to have removed during their conversation, spoke up "Every geek for miles around heard you popping off rounds."
"You just rang the dinner bell." Said Andrea in a way that portrayed how screwed they were. Dozens of walkers could be seen at the front doors trying to get in. They could be heard growling and snarling as they banged on the doors.
"Do you get it now?" Asked Morales as they observed the walkers. One walked up to a door brandishing a rock and started banging on the glass with it. This made everyone except Naruto back up. He raised an eyebrow at this, as it would suggest that the walkers possessed some miniscule amount of intelligence. However, he shook his head at this thought. 'That would be ridiculous. Right?' He questioned in his mind as he decided to stop thinking about it as it would only give him a headache. He turned back to others as he heard Andrea's voice.
"What were you doing out there anyway?" She asked as she thought he couldn't be that stupid and had some sort of reason for his actions.
"I was trying to flag down the helicopter that I saw flying overhead." Rick answered her.
"Helicopter? What the hell do you mean helicopter? There weren't no damn helicopter." The African American man said to Rick while looking at him as if he were stupid.
Everyone agreed that Rick was seeing things as he defended himself and swore that he saw it. He and Naruto learned the other guy was called T-Dog when Morales told him to try contacting the others, both assumed he meant their place of residence. He also learned that there was no refugee center. That was when they heard gunshots that sounded like they came from above them.
"What the hell, is that Dixon?" Andrea worriedly said as everyone looked up.
"What is that maniac doing?"
"Come on, let's go." Everyone started moving towards the back and to the stairs leading to the roof. Naruto wondered what kind of idiot the other member of their group was.
Roof of Dept. Store
Soon enough everyone was on the roof as Naruto heard Morales yell at the person shooting at walkers on the street. "Merle, are you crazy?!" All he got in reply was a laugh as Merle continued to shoot walkers with his rifle.
"Goddammit!"
Merle turned around and started speaking in a condescending tone "Y'all should be a little nicer to a man with a gun! It's only common sense." He jumped down off the wall that surrounded the rooftop. He laughed as T-Dog spoke angrily to him about wasting bullets that they didn't have.
"You're bringing more of them down here on our asses man! Stop it!"
"Hey! It's bad enough I've got this wetback riding my ass all day and now you're telling me what to do? (Merle was extremely racist to T-Dog and Morales so don't mistake what I write him saying as something that I think of people of different races please) I don't think so bro. That'll be the day." Naruto gritted his teeth as he did not like what this guy was saying and was ready to react if Merle tried something.
"You got something that you want to tell me Merle?" Demanded T-Dog as Morales tried to get him to calm down by telling him it wasn't worth it. Morales then tried to calm Merle down, but Naruto could tell it was usless.
"Merle, just relax alright? We've got enough trouble as it is right now." Merle just ignored him though and spoke to T-Dog.
"You want to know the day?"
"Yeah."
"I'll tell ya Mister 'Yo'. It's the day that I take orders from a n*gger."(Again, remember what I said before please) That earned Merle a punch from T-Dog. At least it would have, but Merle leaned back from the swing and hit T-Dog in the face with the butt of his rifle which he then placed down and started punching T-Dog. Rick moved in to put a stop to it, but he was backhanded away by Merle. Everyone was shouting at Merle to leave T-Dog alone when Naruto stepped in.
Moving faster than anyone could see, Naruto was behind Merle and he kicked the back of his knee, forcing him down into a kneel. He then proceeded to put Merle into a choke hold as he struggled to get out of it. However, Naruto had too strong of a hold for him to get out of. Merle started to turn red as he continued to struggle. His vision was beginning to fade. All anyone could do was watch with wide eyes as Merle passed out and Naruto let go of him. Naruto stood back up after setting Merle down on his back and taking his handgun from him.
"Holy shit." Naruto turned to look at Glenn who was the one to speak. "I didn't even see you move just now! One second he's beating T-Dog and the next you have him in a choke hold. How did you do that!" Everyone else was nodding in agreement as they were wondering the same thing. Naruto turned around when he heard Rick walking over to rejoin them.
Rick was giving Naruto a wary look as he looked at the passed out Merle and then back to him. "How the hell did you just do that? He knocked me back and you just swoop in and handle him with ease?" Everyone else wanted to know as well.
Naruto was contemplating whether or not he should even answer the questions or just leave and go back out on his own. He had been alone for most of the time he spent surviving. Occasionally, he would run into somebody or a group of people, but he never really stuck around long. Sometimes he would do some trading with other survivors in the city or help somebody, but that was it. If he was honest with himself, he did feel like finding a group to join up with and it seemed now was the perfect opportunity. He had come to a decision.
Lowering his mask with a sigh Naruto spoke "My name is Naruto, by the way, and I've been alone for most of this time. Even before all of this happened. I was orphaned the day that I was born and had nobody to take care of me. Living that way... you learn a few things about surviving and that's why taking him down was easy." Naruto explained a little bit about himself and his ability to take down someone like Merle.
There were some mixed reactions to his explanation. The women of the group looked saddened and sympathetic towards him. Meanwhile, the men looked understanding and their respect for the young blonde grew as they saw him in a new light. That was when Andrea noticed something and made her discovery known to everyone else.
"Are those whiskers on your face?" She spoke in a disbelieving tone. This made everyone else turn back to look at Naruto and sure enough, he had what looked like whiskers on his face. Naruto's face turned red as he blushed and he spoke in an embarrassed voice as he pulled his mask back up.
"No! They're my birthmarks dammit! They're not whiskers. Why does everyone always ask that? That's part of the whole reason I wear this mask in the first place." He mentally cursed the fact that his birthmarks garnered him so much unwanted attention. Everybody laughed at his obvious embarrassment. He spoke once again to change the subject. "Anyway, what do we do about him?" He asked as he lightly kicked Merle's leg.
Rick thought about what to do and decided to make sure Merle couldn't cause anymore trouble. Walking over to the unconscious man he handcuffed one of his wrists and cuffed the other side to one of the pipes on the roof. After that everyone started discussing what it was they could do to get out of their current situation. They were currently trapped and had no way out of the building with all of the walkers in the streets.
Rick had an idea and suggested the sewers. "Hey Glenn, can you see any manhole covers in the alley?" Morales asked Glenn as he thought that using the sewers was a great idea and Naruto had to agree. Glenn moved over to the side of the roof overlooking the alley and tried to see if he could see any manhole covers, but he couldn't spot any.
"No! They must be all out there on the streets."
"There's another way." Everyone looked at Jacqui. (I don't think anyone had said her name yet, but I'm just going to put it in anyways) "An old building like this would probably have a way into the sewers in case of flooding down in the subbasements." Everyone was curious how she knew that and it turned out she worked in the city's zoning office, meaning that she knew these things as part of her former job. Everyone, except Merle for obvious reasons, now knew what the plan was, and so it was down to the basement.
The plan was good and would have worked just fine. Unfortunately, access to the sewers was blocked by a large metal grate. Naruto was sure he could have broken through, but revealing his abilities was out of the question. After some time spent trying to find a way out, Rick makes another suggestion. He believed that a construction site down the street from the department store was their best shot. The vehicles there always had their keys somewhere nearby and there just so happened to be a box van parked in the construction site.
Unfortunately for Glenn, Rick had the brilliant idea of covering themselves in the guts and blood of a dead walker to mask their scent. This would keep them 'hidden in plain sight,' as the saying goes. The plan was to make their way down to the construction site while they were 'cloaked' and get the box van to use as their get away vehicle. Naruto wanted to go, but Rick told him it would be best if he stayed with everyone else. He figured there would be a better chance of success with less people. Naruto accepted that and stayed with everyone else.
"There they are. I can see them." Morales was looking through a pair of binoculars as he watched Rick and Glenn. Naruto had his own binoculars and was also using them to keep an eye on the duo down on the street. He turned around when he heard a groan and saw Merle waking up.
Blinking his eyes as he was coming to, Merle became and aggitated and angry that he was handcuffed. "What dead son of a bitch knocked me out and handcuffed me to this here pipe?!" The anger and animosity in his voice was palpable and it frightened everyone there, but Naruto was unfazed and so was T-Dog.
"I'm the one that knocked you out. The sheriff, Rick, he's the one that handcuffed you." He said so with a straight face and everyone there, except Merle, as he was too angry to care, was wondering how he could say that so calmly when Merle looked murderous but then scoffed as he spoke.
"Scrawny little chink like you kid? Yeah right. Now why don't y'all tell me who really pulled a fast one on me with my back turned huh? Was it the pig? Where is that cop at anyways?" Everyone watching this interaction between the two were uncomfortable, but it was T-Dog who answered.
"Naruto ain't lying. He came up behind you and knocked your ass out, but you're probably not going to believe me are you?" T-Dog spoke in a way that showed he enjoyed the fact Merle was knocked out by somebody who was probably like a third his age.
"Bullshit! Ain't no way some little chink wa- oomph!" He was cut off when Naruto ran forward and punched him in the face. It felt like he had been hit with a baseball bat for Pete's sake! Naruto had a frown on his face as he stepped back and away from Merle who was trying to recover. He had held back on that punch. No need to break anything or even possibly kill him.
"I'm Japanese and my name is Naruto. You'd best remember that Merle or next time I won't hold back so much." Rubbing his knuckles, he looked at them and saw they were red, but not in bad shape. Man could take a punch, that was for sure. Felt like he punched a tree. Any other person would probably have been out cold. After calming down Naruto made his way back down the stairs to wait for when Rick and Glenn succeeded.
"Dayum. He really rung your bell huh? Hahaha" T-Dog laughed after seeing what transpired. Meanwhile everyone else stood there, stunned by what they saw. A teenager had just punched a grown man silly. Everyone moved their attention back to the duo in the street when it started raining.
"It's just a cloudburst. Little bit of rain for a few minutes, it should be fine." Morales attempted to reassure everybody when they started to worry. Meanwhile the walkers around Glenn and Rick were starting to take notice of the scent of 'fresh meat.'
Soon enough Rick and Glenn were running down the street as the rain had caused the scent of 'death' on them to wash off and now dozens of walkers were chasing them. After hopping the fence of the construction site, Rick turns around to shoot any walkers that were trying to climb over. Meanwhile, Glenn went for the key box on the side wall of what must have been an office trailer for an overseer or something.
"Rick, I got the keys! Let's go, now!" Rick caught the keys that Glenn tossed to him when he turned around and they both ran to the box van which was coincidentally unlocked. After starting the engine, Rick backs up in order to get near the other entrance to the site. The fence gate stood no chance when Rick rammed it with the van and peeled out of there. This didn't look good to the others on the roof.
"They're leaving us behind!"
"What? What do you mean?!"
"No, come back, please come back."
"Where they going?"
"Relax. They probably realized that they should find a way to distract the walkers before coming back for us." This was Naruto who had come back up just a moment ago and heard everyone assuming the worst. "Otherwise, we'd be swarmed if they tried to pick us up at the moment."
This seemed to calm everybody down, even Merle, as it made sense to them and was actually quite true. Soon enough everyone could hear what sounded like a car alarm in the distance. Then they heard Glenn on the radio telling them to be ready for pick up at the roll-up doors that must've been used for delivering shipments to the store.
Naruto immediately began to descend the stairs back down to the ground floor. Everyone else was right behind him, except for T-Dog and Merle, since T-Dog had the key to Merle's handcuffs. Naruto was waiting at the doors when everyone else showed up and they could hear the car alarm getting louder as Glenn was busy distracting the majority of the walkers in the streets.
Rick soon arrived in the box van and that's when they opened up the roll-up door. Waiting for a panicky moment so Rick could open up the back door of the van, everyone immediately threw their bags inside the van and got in. Peeling out of the shipping area, they high-tailed it out of there.
Highway
They were out on the highway when Andrea asked where Glenn was. Soon enough they could hear the distant sound of a car alarm getting closer and closer. Naruto cursed in his mind and went to make voice his concern.
"Hey Rick we should pull over with Glenn and get that alarm turned off. Wouldn't want to lead any of those things to their camp now would we?"
"That's a smart idea. Even though it's pretty secluded, every once in a while we get one of them geeks roaming nearby." Morales agreed with what Naruto said and they talked to Glenn on the radio about pulling over. After finding a safe enough area, they pulled over and got to work turning off the alarm, but Glenn had no idea how to do that.
"So how do we turn it off?" Glenn was no mechanic and he had hardly any knowledge when it came to cars.
"Pop the hood. Disconnecting the battery should do it." Rick suggested this and it worked. After reconnecting the battery and getting the car started again, they were back on the road again. However Naruto had to ask a question had been bothering him for a while now.
"Where's Merle at?" The answer that Naruto got left him with a bad feeling.
"I dropped the damn key to the handcuffs." T-Dog sounded disappointed in himself for what had happened. Morales reassured him that nobody would feel to bad about Merle being left behind.
"Well, except maybe his brother, Daryl."
Well shit.
Cliff overlooking quarry outside Atlanta
A man could be seen working on some security measures, some kids could be heard arguing over a stick (Don't know why) as their mother stopped them, a boy was being fidgety while his mother tried to cut his hair and an older man could be seen keeping watch on top of an RV. This was the base camp that Glenn's people were from. It was on top of a cliff overlooking an old rock quarry not that far from Atlanta.
"Stop moving. The more you do, the longer this is going to take. Okay?"
"I'm trying." The boy getting his haircut said in an annoyed tone. This was Carl Grimes and his mother was Lori Grimes. The wife and son of Rick. There was a man sat across from Carl in a lawn chair cleaning a shotgun and he decided to speak up.
"If you think that this is bad, then just wait until you start having to shave. That stings and you have to do it so frequently too. There'll be a day when you'll be wishing for one of your mom's haircuts." This was Shane Walsh and he was Rick's best friend and partner in the sheriff's department.
"I'll believe that when it actually happens. Which it won't." Shane chuckled at Carl's disbelief at what he said.
"Hey, I'll tell you what... If you can make it through this, then I'll teach you something a little special tomorrow. I'll teach you how to catch frogs."
"I've already done that before."
"I said frogs-- As in more than just one. It is a skill not to be taken lightly my friend. It is an art. There are ways of doing it that not many people know about and I'm willing to share these methods." Shane explained while using a brush to clean the shotgun.
Carl looked to his mother and she told him that she was a girl and knew nothing about catching frogs. Carl asked why they would need to catch frogs anyway and Shane told him about eating frog legs. (I've actually eaten fried frog legs before and I thought it was chicken. They're actually pretty good)
"Eww!" Carl was grossed out by the idea of eating frog legs and his mother agreed with him that it was gross. Shane countered this by saying that when they ran out of beans that they would come to love frog legs. Lori disagreed with him about that.
A few moments later, Dale, the man on the RV, spotted something coming up the dirt road towards their camp. It was a red Dodge Challenger (I do not own Dodge) racing up the road and kicking up a lot of dirt. Dale decided to call out to Shane and explain the situation.
"Shane! There's a car coming up the road. A real nice one at that, but I think it's Glenn driving."
"Is it them? Are they finally back now?" This question was asked by a young blonde woman named Amy who was hopeful that it was her sister, Andrea, coming back from their supply run into the city. Her question would soon be answered as the car came up the camp's drive way with a roaring engine. Glenn was the one to get out of the car and Amy bombarded him with questions about Andrea's whereabouts.
"Where is Andrea? Is she okay? Is she alright? Where is she? Why isn't she with you?"
"Yes! She's okay. She's coming up with everybody else right now." Glenn was getting annoyed with all the questions Amy was asking him. After a minute, Glenn spoke again. "I got us a cool car." After that, the box van could be seen coming up the road before it stopped in front of a church van.
"You guys should come meet everybody." Morales spoke to Naruto and Rick as he patted Rick's shoulder. Rick looked down while pinching the bridge of his nose because he was having some conflicting thoughts at the moment.
"Hey, are you alright Rick? Something wrong?" Naruto was looking at Rick with concern as he seemed to be having a hard time with something.
"Yeah, I'm fine. It's just that... The reason I even came to Atlanta was because I had heard about the refugee center. I'm trying to find my wife and son, but now I don't know where to look. I was hoping they'd be there, but the whole city is lost." Naruto understood what Rick was talking about. It was his hope that his wife and son would have heard about the refugee center and gone there for safety.
"Hey. Don't worry so much about it alright? I'm sure they're alive and just fine. I'll even help you look for them when we get the chance okay?" Naruto was not sure why he offered to help Rick. Maybe it was because of the type of life he had lived before. He wasn't sure, but he had meant what he said. He would help Rick look for his family.
"Hey, you two! Come out and say hello." Morales called out to them from outside. Rick thanked Naruto before he got out of the van and Naruto followed while shutting the door. "The guy's a cop, just like you. The other one has been in the city since all of this started." Naruto heard Morales telling everybody about them as they walked over.
Time seemed to slow down for Rick as he saw his family was there. His wife and son had survived! He was absolutely shocked, but at the same time overjoyed that he had found them. His search was over.
Naruto was confused why Rick had stopped walking. The guy Morales was talking to looked completely surprised when he saw Rick. Naruto could only guess that this man knew Rick. Walking over beside Rick, he could see what Rick was looking at. A woman was kneeling in front of what was probably her son as it looked like she was trying to console him. The two of them looked over slowly and saw Rick as he walked towards them.
"Dad! Dad!" The boy ran towards Rick as he lowered himself to catch him in his arms.
"Carl." Rick sounded so relieved as he was sobbing. He walked towards the woman while holding Carl in his arms and they embraced each other in a group hug with Carl in between them.
Naruto was smiling as he watched the heartwarming moment of a family being reunited. 'Well... Seems I won't have to help him look for his family after all. I think I'll stick around for a little while. This group seems nice and I wouldn't mind staying with them.' Mused Naruto as he watched Rick with his family.
Naruto noticed Rick nod to the man that Morales spoke with. That confirmed his guess that they knew each other. Whoever this is, must have been the one that took care of Rick's family. However, Naruto noticed something a little 'off' about the way he was looking at Rick. Naruto was a shinobi and part of that was being able to read people by observing them. He would have to keep an eye on this man. He hoped it was nothing though.
Later that Night
It was dark out now as several of the camp members sat around a campfire. Rick was telling them about how he had awoken in the hospital and how disorienting it was for him when he saw the state of things. He told them about the fear that he had felt. How he thought he was in some kind of dream while still comatose.
Naruto thought about how similar Rick's situation was to his. He had been fighting Sasuke when something had opened up and sucked him in. The only thing he could think of was some type of dimensional tear caused by his and Sasuke's attack. Next thing he knew, he was waking up in a hospital and everything was chaotic. People running around screaming in some language he did not understand. Reanimated corpses were feeding on the living and the military were executing people. His body also felt extremely weak compared to his original strength.
He shuddered thinking about the Impure World Reincarnation and how it too brought the dead back to life. However, in this case, they were never really brought back. They were only turned into those things. Those flesh eaters.
Naruto was brought out of his mind when he heard the loud crack of a burning log. Rick's best friend, Shane, had also called out to a man in front of a different fire. Said fire was now growing larger and brighter thanks to the additional log he threw on it.
"Hey, Ed, think you might want to rethink that log?" All the man did was grunt out loud before answering.
"It's cold out here." This in turn made Shane sigh.
"That doesn't change the rules though does it? We're trying not to be seen from a distance, right?" He spoke sternly to try and get his point across.
"I said that it was cold. You should mind your own business." Ed spoke in annoyance. Shane got up and walked over towards Ed and his fire as everyone else watched the interaction. Naruto thought it was stupid that this guy, Ed, would rather worry more about the cold, than being safe.
After Shane came back, the people who were in Atlanta began discussing about how they were going to explain things to Merle's brother, Daryl. They were certain that he would be extremely upset to hear that his brother was left behind. T-Dog proposed that he should be the one to tell Daryl since he was the one that dropped the key.
However, Rick argued that it was he who cuffed Merle. Glenn was reluctant but thought it would be better if it was a white guy to tell Daryl. If he heard it from T-Dog, it may upset him even more. T-Dog, however, was adamant about it.
"I'm not going to hide from him."
"We could lie about it." Came the voice of Amy to which her sister replied.
"Or we tell the truth. Merle was being a danger to the group and could have gotten us killed. Rick did what was necessary. What happened to Merle was nobody's fault but Merle's." Dale was going to say something in reply to that but he was cut off before he could speak.
"She's got a point there you know." Naruto had finally spoken his mind about the situation. What he said got everyone's attention. "He wasn't going to listen to anybody. What happened was a direct result of his own actions. If he had cooperated with us, then we wouldn't have had to restrain him."
"And that's what we're supposed to tell Daryl? I'm sorry, what was your name again?" Dale had forgotten the young man's name.
"Naruto. My name is Naruto Uzumaki." Naruto found it understandable that someone would forget his name. It wasn't every day that you met someone with such a unique name.
"Naruto. I don't see Daryl taking that discussion very well now. Do you?" Dale was surprised that someone so young would respond so coldly. "Word to the wise-- Daryl is going to be quite the handful when he gets back from his hunt." T-Dog spoke after that.
"I was scared. I ran and I'm not ashamed of it."
"Your point being?" Andrea was wondering where he was going with this.
"I stopped to chain that door closed. Narrow staircase. Maybe a few geeks at any one time could be at the door. Not enough to break through though. Not with that chain and padlock. Dixon's alive. Still up there. Handcuffed on that roof. That's on us." At this point, everyone just wanted to get some sleep as it had been a tiring day.
Rick went to his wife and son's tent where he would happily be staying from now on. Everyone else turned into their own tent's for the night and Dale into his RV. Naruto chose to stay in the box van since he had no tent. Dale offered to let him stay in his RV with him, but Naruto waved him off, saying that he would be fine.
In the box van, Naruto was lying down on his back as he thought of everything that had transpired today. Hanging around these people was a nice change in pace. However, there would always be risks in staying with a group but that was a risk he was willing to take. He had been on his own for too long and he thought it was time to reconnect with some living people.
Chapter End
Well that was fun to write. Like I said, I'm open to ideas and suggestions about anything. Reviews are always appreciated whether they be good or bad. I'd also like to know what pairing people would like to see for Naruto. One with Maggie may be a little tricky with Glenn being there but it's possible and sort of what I wanted to go for to begin with. I wanted to use an existing character. It's also going to be just a single pairing. No harem.
Naruto is going to be colder and more serious than some people may be used to. However, he will still be a bit goofy as you've hopefully noticed when Andrea talked about his birthmarks.
I'm not going to be saving a ton of people or anything like that either. People will still be dying; as it should be. However, maybe saving a few people won't take away too much from the story and could add more to it. Anyways that is all I wanted to say and thank you for reading.