"All hope abandon, ye who enter here."
~Dante, Inferno

Chapter Two:
And Death Shall Have No Dominion

The street was coated with blood, but not as many bodies as there should have been.

Naruto flew down this street, looking for someone, anyone, who was still alive. And maybe they could tell him just what was going on.

A figure suddenly materialized beside him. Screeching to a halt, Naruto jumped back in time to see that it was a young man around Kakashi's age, biting the air where Naruto's neck had been. Shuddering, he drew a kunai and whipped it at the dead man, hitting him square between the eyes. He made no noise as he fell to the ground, where he lay unmoving.

That was the most dangerous thing about them—they were completely silent.

Naruto had fled his little apartment when the screaming started, grabbing a few weapons for good measure on the way out. Before he left, he had glanced out the window, seeing a few slumped figures slowly making their way to his home. Now that he knew what they were, he didn't dare go back.

He backed away from the man on the ground and took off again. He'd only gone a few steps when he came face-to-face with another one. This time, it was a woman; she looked to be a few years older than Naruto, with a tattered Konoha headband hanging off her forehead. She had probably been one of the first, for the decay was already starting to set in, and she had a large chunk missing from her left arm. But before she had a chance to lunge at Naruto, she started to fall towards him. He managed to stagger away as she landed face first in the dirt. Naruto made a noise of disgust, and then noticed the kunai sticking out of her graying neck. Looking up, he saw…

"Shikamaru!" The relief almost knocked him off his feet. There, standing a few feet away was Shikamaru; he had lost his Chunin vest and the headband usually tied around his arm, but other than that, he looked uninjured. Both boys were covered in dirt, muck and blood, but they mirrored each other's look of relief.

"Naruto!" Shikamaru ran over to him. "You ok?"

"Define 'ok'," Naruto said bitterly. "What the hell is all this?" He gestured to the dead woman behind him.

Shikamaru shrugged, but it was hardly casual. He was tense, but who could blame him? "I've heard a few things, and I was even talking to the Fifth about it—"

"WHAT?" Naruto interrupted. "You were talking to Grandma? When?!"

"Earlier? I don't know, just listen! She managed to examine one briefly, and we're pretty sure it's a virus."

"A virus?!" Naruto exclaimed. "A virus is doing all this?"

"I'll explain in a minute; let's just keep moving."

Shikamaru quickly relayed his findings to Naruto as they ran. "From what I've seen, and heard, it's basically a virus that kills the host, and then reanimates the dead corpse. They have just enough brain activity to experience the need to feed, but that's about it."

Naruto was horrified. "To…feed?"

Shikamaru nodded somberly. "On everything else. On the living. In other words, us."

"And if you get bitten, you're screwed." It wasn't a question; Naruto had watched it happen to a few unfortunate souls.

Again, Shikamaru nodded. "That's how I lost my vest." He gestured to the thin shirt he was wearing. "Got bitten here," he gestured to his left shoulder, "but it protected me. The bite didn't go all the way through." He shuddered at the memory. "Saved my life. But I had to ditch it; didn't want to take any chances."

Naruto blew out a long breath through his mouth. "Have you seen anyone else?"

Shikamaru knew what he meant. "Yeah, actually. I ran into—"

But he was cut off when a shadow crept up behind him, and before Naruto had a chance to open his mouth, it sunk its teeth in Shikamaru's arm, who cried out in surprise and pain. Panic-stricken, he tried to shake off the dead man. Naruto's reaction was purely reflexes; he quickly pulled out a kunai and threw it, where it hit the man's forehead. Blood and guck came out the other side of its head; it released Shikamaru's arm as it fell back.

They were both breathing hard, and Shikamaru fell back on his butt, staring at the large gash in his arm.

Naruto felt the cold dread settle in his stomach. "It's alright, Shikamaru," he said softly. "We'll figure out some way to—"

"No!" Shikamaru cut him off sharply. He exhaled shakily. "I'm not going to ask you to kill me, Naruto," he continued in a gentler tone. "And I'm not going to ask you to stay."

"But, Shikamaru…"Naruto trailed off. He knew he was right.

"I'm a liability now, and you know it," Shikamaru's voice shook a little. "We don't know when I'll…" his voice faltered, but then he continued. "You need to go, Naruto. Please."

Naruto bit his lip and knelt down next to his comrade. Wordlessly, he took a kunai—it was one of his last ones—and ripped off a part of his already torn shirt. He tore it into a long stretch of cloth, and tied it around Shikamaru's wound. Shikamaru whimpered softly in pain, but said nothing. When it was tied securely, he handed Shikamaru the knife, who took it. Naruto then got up, turned, and left.

That was the last time they would see each other.


"Rough night?" Sakura asked as Naruto came down the stairs from the upper level. He grunted in acknowledgement and slumped into the nearest chair at the kitchen table. Sakura glanced anxiously over her shoulder at him.

"It's fine," Naruto said dismissively. "Just a bad dream."

Sakura nodded. She'd had plenty of those.

"Well, here's something to cheer you up." Sakura turned away from the stove top with a fraying pan in hand. "Pancakes!"

Naruto smirked. "How many did you burn this time?"

"Two, thank you very much," Sakura huffed.

"Well, well," Naruto said. "You're getting better at the whole cooking thing."

When they had first moved into the house, they had the immediate problem of finding food. They then encountered the next dilemma: cooking it. After a couple of days of eating a lot of raw noodles, Sakura—after many burned trees, practicing, and colourful language—managed to perform the fire ball jutsu of the Uchiha clan, with barely half the power. But it was enough.

It didn't take too long to figure out who was the cooking expert of the two. Sakura was standing by the stove, sighing in frustration at the burned noodles, when Naruto gently took the spoon from her and began to stir it correctly. Sakura simply stood by as he expertly twirled the noodles around the spoon, pulled it out of the water, and let it cool for a few seconds before dipping it back into the boiling water; all without spilling so much as a drop.

Naruto smiled sadly at her unasked question. "I guess," he said softly, "you figure out how to cook when you live on your own for twelve years."

He thought for a second. "Well, I had to do my own cooking when I was training with the pervy sage, too."

But Sakura could still only stare, awed by this internal strength she had never seen.

From that day on, Naruto did most of the cooking, while teaching Sakura a thing or two, and every now and then, she would try her hand at making something simple, like breakfast.

This breakfast was made up of a pancake mix taken from the store— they had nicknamed it "Dead Man's Shop"—along with a carton of orange juice.

Sakura sat across from Naruto as he ate. "So?" she inquired. "Does it get your seal of approval?"

Naruto pretended to think for a moment, tapping his fork to his chin. "I guess so," he smirked. She smacked him playfully on the arm.

"So what's on the agenda for today?" Naruto asked as Sakura sat down with a plate of her own.

"Well…"Sakura thought for a moment. "We've got enough food, and nothing's broken…"Her face suddenly lit up. "So it's cleaning day!"

Naruto groaned loudly. "What?! Didn't we JUST do that?"

Sakura tsked. "I've seen your clothes, Naruto. It's definitely been a while."

Naruto made a face. "At least it's not my turn to do the laundry," he muttered.

Laughing, Sakura gathered up the dishes. "True, but you get to clean up the house!"

He rolled his eyes at the word "house", but said nothing. "Guess I'll start upstairs."

"Throw me down your dirty stuff, then."

Climbing the stairs two at a time, Naruto turned into the first room on the left in the upstairs hallway: his room. He swept up every piece of clothing he could find, then examined the shirt he was wearing—a dark blue short sleeve shirt, with orange swirls on the arms, and another, larger orange swirl in the center—and decided to chuck that in the pile, too.

With the stack of clothes teetering dangerous in his arms, Naruto staggered down the stairs. Sakura met him at the bottom and took them, chuckling slightly.

"Hurry up, eh?" Naruto joked. "I kind of don't have a shirt at the moment."

The sight of either one of them without a shirt on would have made the other blush, but these days it didn't matter. Instead, Sakura stuck out her tongue, put all the clothes in a basket, and walked out the back door. Just behind the house, they had set up a little washing station: a large pan that wasn't any good for cooking, filled with rainwater, and some soap from the store. The second floor of their home had 3 rooms, so they set up a drying rack in the extra room. It probably would have been faster if they had set it up outside, but they didn't want to take any chances.

Laundry was officially an extreme sport.

Most likely because it had to be done outside. Being outside was always a danger, but it couldn't be avoided. Whoever's turn it was would see how fast they could clean every article of clothing before they had a heart attack. That day, it was Sakura's turn.

She was barely halfway through of it when it happened.

Footsteps.

Sakura froze, the shirt in her hand falling to the ground. She tried to turn back to the house, but her feet were planted to the spot. The shuffling behind her grew closer, and it became apparent that there was more than one.

Then it abruptly stopped. "Hello?"

Sakura spun around, the sound of an unfamiliar voice having unfrozen her legs. A girl, around sixteen, was standing a few feet away. Her clothes were in tatters, her brown hair a messy halo around her head, but seemed otherwise unharmed. A headband around her neck showed she had once belonged to the Hidden Storm Village. A little ways behind her, two more people stood: a boy and another girl, both from the same village. The boy was leaning on the other girl, a bloody bandage around his leg.

"Oh dear God." Sakura put a hand over her heart, sighing in relief. "You're alive."

The girl smiled sadly. "Yes. I see the same thing has happened everywhere…"She trailed off, staring at something over Sakura's shoulder. "I'm Aichu," she said, snapping her attention back to Sakura.

Sakura bowed slightly. "Haruno Sakura."

Nodding, Aichu asked, "Do you live here alone?"

"No," Sakura replied. "Naruto lives here, too; he's a friend of mine. After the village was attacked, we managed to find this." She gestured to the house.

"Which village?"

Sakura sighed. "Konoha. Hidden Leaf."

"Yes, I have heard of that one." Aichu smiled. "You're very lucky to have found your friend…"

She was cut off by the boy behind her, who dissolved into a violent coughing fit, bending over with the force of it. The girl he was leaning on put a hand on his back, muttering softly to him. The ground was stained red when it subsided.

Sakura raised her eyebrows as she noticed the wound on his leg. "So he was…"

"Bitten, yes." Aichu turned to her teammates, shooting them a look of concern. The other girl looked up, her eyes filling with tears. The boy's dark bangs fell into his pale face in a way that reminded Sakura of Sasuke. Her heart throbbed painfully.

The boy was mumbling something to the other girl, who pulled him into her arms in response. "We know what will happen," Aichu said slowly, "which is why we cannot ask you to let us stay. He begged us to leave him behind, but we refused." She turned back to Sakura, and her eyes betrayed her pain. "We'll stay with him until the end."

After giving them some food to take along the way, and introducing them to Naruto ("Living people! Awesome! "), the Storm ninja went on their way.

Naruto and Sakura saw them off from just outside the door. Naruto put his hands behind his head. "What'll happen to them, I wonder?"

"They'll stay with him, like they said." Sakura replied. "Then, I guess they'll have to…kill him."

Sakura and Naruto exchanged nervous glances.

"Well," Naruto said finally, "I dunno about you, but I'm going inside. Screw the housework, let's have lunch."

Sakura nodded slowly. "Yeah."

Taking one last look at the three shinobi—who were little more than specks in the distance—Sakura turned and followed Naruto into the house.


I AM GOING TO FINISH THIS!

I'm really liking the way this is turning out, plot-wise. I don't care if it takes years! (which it probably will) I WILL FINISH THIS!

Anyways, sorry for the lllllllllllloooooooooooooooonnnnnnnnnnnnnggggggggggggggggggg break. I've been working on doing some more writing lately, but that hasn't really worked out. And things have been busy. Very, very busy. For this, I apologize. Sort of.

First title ever that isn't a song title. Huh. I stole this chapter title from City of Ashes. I know, I know, EVIL COPYRIGHT-NESS! well, not now! Bwahaha!

Big ass-kicking thanks to Tess for letting me steal her character and putting it in here. I changed the Village and hair colour, but that's it! I swear! I think!

Don't expect the next chapter anytime soon. Sorry, KK! and Tess!

I've probably forgotten to say something. Oh well. And I do apologize for the fact that it sounds like I'm ripping off Resident Evil (though I am, sort of :P)

Disclaimer: I own nothing, the usual, blah blah.

Reviews, constructive criticism are much appreciated!

SNK