Chapter 1: Sasuke
"Sasuke, stop," the man's shout followed after aforementioned male as he slipped out his apartment's front door. Raven colored strands of hair shot forward, obscuring his vision as the racing man stopped short and changed his direction. His feet pounded out an even beat against the cheap carpet below. Yellow lighting failed to block out all the shadows as Sasuke charged down the hallway, barely blinking at the horrible smell coming from some of the rooms. Faint thuds of bodies striking boarded up windows came to his attention. He knew that the blonde man was following behind him, eager to keep him from bursting out of the apartment building.
Blinking once, the system of electric lights he had spent a good two days setting up failed and plunged his world into darkness. This one thing alone finally gave Sasuke pause as his grip on suppressed memories slipped and they floated to the surface of his mind, dimming his will to keep moving. His feet were rooted to the ground as flashes of tear streaked faces dashed about his mind. Hands, so many hands had reached out to where he had stood on of the last helicopter heading away from the main land. The moment they figured out that he was not going to save them, their desperation had melted into other emotions. Some faces expressed abject disbelief and others had snarled at him, damning him to hell. It was the face of one woman in particular that would haunt the man for the rest of his limited days. She had simply watched his chopper pull away with a trembling smile and a hint of betrayal in her gaze. Sakura was supposed to come with them but she had thrown her luck in with the mob.
He had had no choice in the matter. It was the life of his squad or the death of everyone. There would have been no logical way for him to save the people that poured into the military base, let alone everyone that still clung to hope within the city itself. He, as their temporary captain, had made the decision to save his group of 13 over those they had sworn to protect. The fact that they only had the one helo and that three of their squad had been injured did nothing to ease the weight on his shoulders. He had willingly sentenced countless to death and in retaliation one of his best had decided to stay behind.
"Sasuke," the words were more of a sigh as a familiar hand rested on his shoulder. The darkness had only thin a fraction but Sasuke still looked at where he knew the other's eyes were. Naruto had given up everything to ensure that his safety was put first after that. When the Tenten and Kiba would no longer meet his gaze, Naruto had stayed by his side. He knew that the blonde had purposely handed out the easier jobs to him and he knew that Naruto knew he knew. The others had seen through their captain's ways sooner than Sasuke had but no one mentioned it. It was for that reason that he refused to stay behind the safety of the building. With a quick jerk, his elbow planted itself firmly in Naruto's stomach and the man gasped. The raven knew it was more out of surprise than pain and turned on his heel, running at full speed again.
Never had he thought wandering the halls while on 'patrol' duty would have actually come in handy. Unlike his blonde friend, Sasuke knew his way about their building even with his vision impaired. Dark eyes flickered instinctively to his right as he bypassed one room in particular. Room 213 had been the setting of one of the most terrifying nights of his life. Human raiders had shattered the wooden planks keeping the dead at bay, thinking that the people on the inside would be easy targets. They had been wrong and the remaining members of Delta squad had fought them back with everything they had. Sasuke's presence within the building was enough to explain how that battle had ultimately ended. However, like many great battles fought before it, this one had come at a cost that might have better paid with all their lives.
Shikamaru was a brain that Sasuke had never seen before, able to analyze a situation and create an effective countermeasure to it in moments, he had been one of the army's best. It had been him that lead the counter attack, coordinating everyone based on their best attributes. Ino had stayed in the background with one of their few pistols left while Sasuke, Lee and Shikamaru were the ones to break through the enemy's guard. Again and again they pushed the raiders back until Sasuke stood alone in the foyer of the apartment building, blood not his own soaking through the legs of his pants. Not hesitating, the young soldier had raced back to room 213 where the raiders had first broken in through.
He had arrived in time to watch Shikamaru shoving Ino out of the room and locking the door behind him. The sounds of multiple hands pounding on the wall did not escape Sasuke. He knew that some how the dead had managed to infiltrate their home and in order to protect them all Shikamaru had given himself up. Shino had shown up after that, holding Ino as Sasuke could not. Though they all waited for it, the brunet strategist never made a sound as he was torn apart. The result of the night had been a crack in the squad that even the charismatic Naruto could not seal. Many had wanted to leave, claiming that the building could no longer keep them safe but Naruto refused to budge on the matter. He brought up the fact that they had nearly lost Choji when they had secured their current base and he would not endanger everyone's lives again.
Sasuke would never forget standing on the roof of their base with four others, watching over half their squad steal away into the night. Three years before the outbreak they had all been meeting only for the first time as inexperienced children. Three months after Sakura went AWOL and they had finally broken apart without a single goodbye. Hinata had buried her head in Sai's chest as her last living family lead the others through the streets. Instead of going with Neji she had chosen to stay with them because she was their last medic. As Naruto had so eloquently put it when they had been stationed on the main land, "we all would have died long ago if Hinata hadn't been around to stitch our dumb asses back together." Sai had stayed simply because he owed his life to some quick thinking on Naruto's part during their first mission out in the field. At the time, Sasuke had done the only thing he could think of to comfort his captain and placed a single hand on his shoulder.
Eyes hardening in determination, Sasuke skidded to a halt in the foyer where he had slain the last of the raiders that night and turned towards the left. It had been an idea of Shikamaru's that they keep at least one emergency exit. The storage room was empty with the exception of a few scattered boxes but they were not the raven's objective. Behind the back shelf was a door that they had mostly barricaded on the off chance that someone tried to use their exit as an entrance. Sasuke grasped the giant shelf and began to pull it away from the door. He huffed as the shelf scratched the tacky linoleum under his feet but dropped it the moment a gap big enough for him to slip through had been created. The alley behind the door was the very same that Lee, himself, and Choji had cleared when they had first invaded the small town. To this day it remained blocked off at both ends at the suggestion of Shikamaru.
"Will you just listen to me," the plea reached his ears as a tan hand came down on his, keeping him from turning the door knob.
"Why? There are people out there that need our help, Naruto," his words were harsh but he did not stop. "Don't you get it? We are all alone in here. Sai and Hinata are dead, Naruto. They're dead and its only us left," his captain flinched at the mention of their recent losses and it was enough to still Sasuke's tongue. Sorrowful sky blue eyes stared dully at him. Sasuke knew that Naruto was recalling the failed scavenging mission. Since the group was so small everyone had agreed to go together to search for more supplies. The abandoned grocery store Sai had pointed out had been a gift of the most precious sorts and Hinata had rushed in with Sai at her side. Sasuke and Naruto had stayed outside to guard the entrance. For the first time in a week everything had been quiet but that tranquility shattered when the building behind them groaned.
His captain had barely managed to scream out Hinata's name when the grocery store had crumbled. Despite the need to find them, make sure they were not alive, Sasuke had dragged the blonde from the scene. He knew that the shriek of twisting metal and grinding concrete would not had gone unnoticed by the dead. Sasuke had been right about that but it did not lessen the pain any. "Naruto, they need us," he whispered to the blonde, dark eyes searching for the answer he so desperately sought.
The blonde man shoved past Sasuke and shouldered the door open. He knew that Naruto had slipped back into his captain mode and was quick to follow him out the door. Early morning light tried to penetrate the relatively dense cloud cover. It succeeded in only easing the late night dark. The pair charged down the alley way towards the trio of dumpsters that kept the enemy at bay. Sasuke clambered to the top of the first dumpster before turning to help Naruto up. Even before the crisis they had always worked the best as a team and the raven could have smiled at the fact that the end of the world could not change that fact. Both men leapt over the edge of the final dumpster, the sounds of battle becoming clearer the closer they came to where the survivors were trying to defend themselves.
Sasuke swung his crowbar first, nailing a rather obese man in the back of his head. The dead fell to the ground as Naruto struck one of the few who turned across the eye sockets. Bone crunched satisfying as Sasuke's crowbar exposed the brain matter of another enemy, an exhilarated grin stretching along his lips. It had been so long since they had fought for someone other than themselves. Too long since they had done the very thing they had sworn to do. The captain turned on his heel and broke the kneecap of an infected attempting to tackled Sasuke's back. He sneered at the bloodied corpse before returning to his initial task. By now they could hear a few well chosen curses of one person in the group as another enemy fell without protest. Sasuke pushed past one of the men he was trying to rescue and took out the last infected with relative ease. His shoulders were shifting with every breath he took but he still managed a tiny smile as he faced the group he had saved.
Naruto was standing beside a man with blonde hair thrown up in a ponytail and a piece of an iron fence hanging from one hand. Behind him was a woman with short green hair that was slowly turning a snowy white. Her short sword had been placed in its scabbard and she looked closer to Sasuke's age than her blonde companion. She eyed him with cold curiosity before shifting her gaze to another of her group. Following her lead, Sasuke watched as a man with curly black hair was being tended to by a second man, their matching baseball bats resting beside them. The doctor pulled away from the other, brushing his red hair behind his ear as he walked towards Naruto. Sasuke only had a moment to wonder why his captain was starring at the redhead in awe before a pair of arms pulled him into a hug. "Sasuke," even if he had not heard that voice in years, the raven knew he would always remember it.
"Shisui," he uttered softly, quickly retuning the embrace that only lasted a moment. His older cousin laughed deeply as he held Sasuke at arm's length and looked him over. A curl fell into his eyes but he ignored it with a glance over the young man's shoulder.
"As much as I love hogging the attention, there it someone who needs you more," Shisui smirked at the confusion on his cousin's face before he spun the young man around. Sasuke's breath hitched as his eyes landed on the one person he loved as much as he loved Naruto. The man in front of him watched Sasuke wearily as if he were afraid that the young man was still angry at him. They had fought the last time they had met and Sasuke had declared that he never wanted to see him again.
"Itachi," he shouted as he tackled the older man, forgetting about their situation if only for a moment. Not once since the outbreak had Uchiha Sasuke held onto the hope that any part of his family was still alive. Not once had he considered the idea of what he would say if he ever met his big brother again. Warm arms held him gently and the only words Itachi had wanted to hear tumbled out of the young man's mouth, "I've missed you."
Shisui shook his head as he looked to where Naruto was shaking Nagato roughly, pretending that he hadn't seen the tears falling from Itachi's eyes.
"What do you mean that Konoha is secured," the younger blonde's voice ripped through the street as he shook his uncle all the harder.
"If you'd stop trying to kill him I'm sure he'd tell you, un," Deidara grumbled before he grabbed Naruto's hands and twisted them behind his back as Ryuuzetsu steadied the redhead.
"The outbreak only lasted for a month before Kusa came in to clear out the infected," she continued where their leader had left off with a rather bland tone. "This island is the last place left that the enemy dwells. We and several of our forces are searching this island for any remaining survivors. In approximately two days Iwa and Kumo will bomb this island until nothing is left," she shrugged her shoulders at the incredulous stares she was receiving from Naruto and Sasuke.
"So," Sasuke began, sounding unsure, "If we hadn't come out."
"You would have died in the end, yes," the green haired woman finished for him. No one missed the look Naruto and Sasuke shared.
A hand ran through his hair harshly before the blonde spoke up again, "H-how many?"
"We personally encountered no survivors as of yet," Ryuuzetsu moved to shrug when she paused suddenly. Sasuke's eyes darted about the group as each member held a hand to one ear, faces twisted in concentration. After a moment Nagato offered his nephew his best smile to which the blonde scowled. Ryuuzetsu spoke before he could, "it would appear that our brothers to the east have just discovered a band of 10 soldiers from Konoha. Do you know anyone from Delta Squad?"
A/N: Yep. I'm playing with the idea of telling this same story line from the different characters' perspective but I'm not sure yet. Each chapter would be for a different character but it would all be based around the zombie outbreak. So, tell me what you guys all think and who should be next! Remember, everyone in Naruto is in this with a few exceptions. (Naruto's and Sasuke's parents are dead and so are Kakashi's parents.)
On a side note, Ryuuzetsu is not an OC. She is from the Naruto movie Blood Prison. :D