The Necromancer Revisited, Chapter 2:

With every step taken towards Sakura's house, Naruto's fear for her safety kept growing. On the way there, he had seen several zombies roaming the streets. Some of them were familiar faces, too... people that Naruto had seen before while going about the village. It was downright eerie to see someone you recognized, only with those soulless white eyes and perhaps any number of horrific wounds. They were so concentrated at one point that they completely choked out the street, so he had to move to the rooftops. It was safer and faster to travel above the ground, regardless.

"Help us!" Naruto heard a woman scream. He stopped and looked down from the building he was on to see a couple with their son cowering in front of an approaching crowd of undead. He grit his teeth, for he was caught between two fires. Would he risk himself to save these people, or would he ignore them to protect himself?

Screw that! Naruto thought as he reached into his rear pouch and produced a few smoke bombs and a kunai with an exploding tag on it. He jumped down, tossing the smoke bombs as he fell. The smoke shrouded the area, confusing the zombies. He threw the kunai into the crowd, and it exploded, scattering the smoke due to the tag using chakra-based explosions instead of gunpowder-based ones.

"There, you're safe! Run to safety!" Naruto urged the family, which ran through the clearing created by blasting the zombies directly in front of the family aside. Some of the zombies just had burns and were getting up, but a few unlucky ones had been hit directly by the blasts, and they laid in pieces... pieces that were still moving. Naruto turned away in disgust and body flickered back up to the rooftops. Hopefully the family could find a safe place to hide.

This event was still overwhelming to Naruto. How did it happen? Who was safe? What if someone died? What if Sakura, Kakashi, and his other friends... what if they were undead now? Would they make it? Could they make it? So many questions and fears whirled about in a torrential hurricane in Naruto's mind, but he had to endure and subdue the storm. He had to focus and act instead of just thinking: someone's survival (including his own) could depend on it. He had to adapt and hope someone else had the answers, because he sure wasn't going to find out.

And just as he thought that, he saw movement in the corner of his eyes. Someone else was on the rooftops! It could only be a fellow ninja, since civilians lacked the training on how to use their chakra. He stopped and turned to look at the person moving about. He saw a person in a black cloak hopping across the rooftops. Naruto's eyes widened in shock as he saw red clouds on the person's cloak. That shock quickly turned to anger as his mind pieced together things: Akatsuki was behind this!

Naruto roared and quickly pursued the Akatsuki member, letting his rage control him. Not once did he think about the consequences: he just knew that many innocent people had and were going to die because of their actions, and he wanted retribution.

"HEY, YOU!" Naruto yelled in anger. The Akatsuki person stopped, seemingly in confusion as to who would be calling out to him, and turned his head around to identify them. Naruto could tell that this man was unusual already, for he had blue hair and shining yellow eyes with irides that were unnaturally large. The man's bewildered look turned into a malicious grin as he glanced at Naruto's headband.

"Well, already we have Konoha ninja jumping around," he said as he fully turned around, "I guess we weren't as discreet as I'd've hoped."

We... there's more than one, Naruto thought, then again, Akatsuki travels in pairs. But what if there are more than two here?

"Why the hell did you do this?" Naruto growled, trying to hold back his fists so he could possibly get some information out of this man.

"Are you sure you have time to be talking to me? Surely there's someone out there you're trying to save. Why else would you be on the rooftops?" the man asked. Naruto clenched his fists so tightly that his nails were digging into his palms.

"ANSWER ME!" Naruto demanded.

The blue-haired man smirked and reached behind him, unsheathing a katana from one of the four scabbards on his back.

"Why don't you see if you can beat the information out of me?" he asked in a mocking manner as he smiled, showing his teeth. Naruto could see that the man's canines were longer and sharper, and his other teeth seemed to be slightly sharper all-around.

Naruto was successfully coaxed into fighting the man. He was prepared to demolish him. A shadow clone appeared next to him as he began forming a Rasengan. He really wanted to upgrade the Rasengan to a Rasenshuriken, but he remembered the grueling effort Tsunade had to go through to heal his arm afterward. And he definitely could not afford to be out of an arm during this crisis.

Naruto roared and darted towards the Akatsuki man, thrusting the twisting sphere of chakra at him. The man narrowly dodged and then stabbed Naruto in the back. There was a puff of smoke showing that the Akatsuki man had hit a clone. The man turned around to see that Naruto was inches away, the Rasengan still in his hand. The man widened his eyes in disbelief as the attack slammed into him and began grinding into his skin before launching him back while spinning. Naruto smiled triumphantly at this man's defeat.

"Ergh... that kinda hurt," the man said as he slowly stood up and turned to face Naruto once more. His clothing was torn on his upper torso where the Rasengan connected, but the wound it caused seemed less potent than a normal Rasengan wound. Upon closer inspection, Naruto noticed that the wound was healing itself! The wolf-eyed man seemed to notice Naruto's reaction, and he chuckled.

"Yes, I can overcome any attack with my regeneration powers," the man boasted, "so you cannot defeat me. That was an impressive jutsu you had there, kid, but it won't do any good."

"It's Naruto!" Naruto yelled as he formed another shadow clone to assist him in creating yet another Rasengan. The shadow clone vanished, and Naruto charged forward once more. This time, he decided to wipe that smirk off of this man's face. The Akatsuki man continued to grin right up until the point the Rasengan collided with his face. Once more he was sent flying backwards while spinning about. He stood up once more, clutching his bleeding face while laughing.

"You don't get it, do you?" the man asked as he removed the bloody hand covering his face. It was now not bleeding, let alone damaged at all!

"You can't injure me. Sure, you can hurt me, maybe make me bleed momentarily, but it will always heal with my powers," he continued, "And since I can tell you're the stubborn type that won't back down, I'll just get rid of you."

The man picked up the sword that had flown out of his grip earlier, and then he sprinted towards Naruto with great speed. The pommel of the sword was bashed into Naruto's face, and the man followed up by kicking Naruto in the gut, winding the blonde ninja. The blow sent Naruto flying back near the edge of the rooftop of the building they were on. Naruto gasped for breath while clutching his stomach, and the Akatsuki man chuckled as he walked over to the downed boy. Naruto struggled to regain his composure, but the pain from the Akatsuki man's blow swept through his entire body.

"Well, it looks like it's over for you," he said, "so I'll just let you know the name of the man that killed you. Kenokami Getsuken... be sure to tell the people you've killed just who did you in when you meet up with them in hell."

And with that, Kenokami nudged Naruto off of the building with a simple push from his foot. Naruto rolled in mid-air until he was facing the ground below that was quickly rushing up to meet with him. All Naruto could think of as he fell was his idiocy in attacking the Akatsuki man, and of Sakura's smiling face.

He landed, and all went black.

And then, the next thing he knew, his eyes were flickering open. His head was throbbing, but the pain in his body was gone. He sat up and felt his face. It was fine. He observed the rest of his body and saw that nothing was dislocated or broken. Looking around at the level of light in the sky showed that not a lot of time had passed, either. How did that fall not kill him, let alone incapacitate him? A booming voice from within his head answered.

You can thank me for that, the Kyuubi spoke; I wasn't going to let myself die for something so stupid that you did.

I didn't intend on it either... Naruto replied back with bitterness towards his actions and the attitude of the nine-tailed fox. Naruto expected the demon to reply, but he did not, so Naruto stood himself up. A realization then hit him.

Why had that Akatsuki man tried to kill him? Their goal was to collect all of the bijuu, and killing him would ruin that. Did he not recognize Naruto? He would worry about that Kenokami guy some other time. Right now, he needed to save Sakura! He looked around to see that he was in an alleyway near her house. He was close!

He exited the alley and saw her house across the street. He ran to it and, without thinking, opened the door and went inside. He felt a horrible internal sinking feeling that would eventually become all-too familiar with him.

He could easily tell that something had happened in the house. The place was a wreck. Sakura and her mom always valued tidiness in the home, but the current condition seemed like a bomb went off in the house. He glanced to his right and saw the kitchen. In the kitchen, several shelves were open and there were dining utensils and broken dishes on the floor. The dining table was askew, and the chairs were toppled over. In the room Naruto was standing in, there was blood on the walls... smears and handprints. More chairs were knocked over, and some potted plants were on the floor with their jars broken and soil in messy piles. A bookshelf had fallen down, and several books were on the ground like they had been thrown carelessly against it by a child. Some of them were pinned down by the bookshelf. He then heard a very quiet moan. He gulped in trepidation.

He peered around the corner he was next to so he could see the rest of the main room of Sakura's house. It was in a similar condition to the rest of the room, but here he could see who made the noise.

It was Masami Haruno, Sakura's mother. Her back was turned towards Naruto, and she was facing a mirror, but her head was obstructing nearly all of it. Her clothes were slightly askew and had dried blood on the shoulders of her shirt. Her long pink hair was a bit messy, too.

S-She's just up and about early in the morning, as usual! Naruto tried to convince himself, not wanting to accept that she was a zombie. The less likely Sakura was one of the undead, the more relieved he felt. And right now, Naruto was slightly panicking.

He then saw an arm by Masami's feet with several bloody chunks missing from it. Upon peering further out from the corner, Naruto saw that the arm was attached to a half-eaten corpse that had a kunai in its head. He was very worried, but he did not know if Masami... ate the man or not.

"Um... Mrs. Haruno?" Naruto asked fearfully as he stepped into the room to see the mirror from a different angle. He wished he had not once he gazed upon the reflection.

Her eyes were the soulless white of the undead, and her mouth was bloody. Several bite marks adorned her neck, but they were not bleeding anymore. She seemed to snap out of a trance as she growled and turned around to face Naruto. She moaned as she began to shamble towards him, reaching towards him with her blood-covered hands.

Naruto greatly feared for Sakura's safety. He ignored the zombified Masami, turned around, and ran up the nearby stairs to the second floor. He darted towards Sakura's room, but he heard a growl behind him. He suddenly found himself pinned against the floor with cold hands gripping his back.

Naruto struggled with the unknown undead attacker, and he managed to knock the zombie off of him. He rolled and moved around until he was facing the zombie, who was Sakura's stepfather. The man lunged towards Naruto's leg, and Naruto kicked out at the head of the undead man. The blow was so hard that his torn neck gave way, and his body fell to the ground while his head rolled away, the teeth still gnashing.

Naruto stood up and continued running towards Sakura's door, trying to suppress the bile he felt coming up. He reached her door and tried turning the doorknob. It was locked. He grit his teeth and pounded on the door.

"Sakura!" Naruto cried out, "Sakura, are you okay?"

"N-Naruto, is that you?" he heard Sakura ask from the other side of the door. Suddenly a great weight was lifted from his shoulders. Sakura was okay for now.

"Of course!"

Naruto soon heard the door click, and it slowly opened, Sakura's green eyes peering out from the cracked door. Upon verifying Naruto was actually there, the door opened fully. Naruto walked in her room, and the door was closed and locked once more.

Sakura's head hung low in sorrow, her hair shielding her face. Naruto looked at her with concern, and he heard her make a small sniffle. She then began to bawl as she walked over and hugged Naruto tightly. Naruto blushed and hugged her back. He frowned and looked down once he realized the pain Sakura had to go through. Both of her parents had become abominations that likely tried to eat her.

After what seemed to be a long while, Sakura released Naruto and wiped her teary eyes.

"Naruto... I... I..." she said quietly, failing to find words to convey her feelings.

Naruto looked down and away from Sakura; memories of the undead monstrosities flashed across his eyes.

"...I know, it's horrible," he said lowly.

"Do you have any idea how this happened?" she asked Naruto with concern.

Naruto clenched his fist as he thought of Kenokami and his mocking grin.

"...Akatsuki," growled Naruto.

Sakura gasped, "Why would they do that? That's basically declaring war on us! The other ninja nations would..." her thoughts and words trailed off and she began to cry once more.

"I don't know," Naruto said, "I encountered one on the way here. He beat me down... tried to kill me. Something's up, and I'm just not sure..."

Sakura wiped her eyes once more and sat down on her bed. Her hands grabbed the sheets tightly, and then she let go. There were so many emotions the two of them were feeling-- anger, sorrow, confusion, and hopelessness being the prominent ones.

"What are those things?" Sakura asked Naruto, but she never expected Naruto to actually know the identity of the monsters that were spreading throughout Konoha.

"Zombies," Naruto said.

Sakura tilted her head, "Zombies? What are those?"

"These creatures resemble creatures in a comic book almost perfectly. So they're zombies," Naruto said.

"But... Akatsuki wouldn't take ideas from a comic book!" she replied with scrutiny towards Naruto's claims.

"Maybe they didn't. It's pointless arguing about it. We need to-" Naruto began.

"Thank you, Naruto," Sakura interrupted while blushing slightly, "for heading straight here to make sure I was safe."

"Um... were you injured by...?" Naruto began, but he felt very uncomfortable bringing up the subject of Sakura's zombified parents.

"No... I wasn't bitten..." Sakura said quietly. Naruto frowned as he realized that Sakura must have observed firsthand how one became a zombie.

"I'm so sorry, Sakura," Naruto said, failing to think of anything else that was sufficient. Sakura shook her head.

"Don't be. It's not your fault... it's none of ours," she said.

At that moment, a roar was heard and the door to Sakura's room was bust down by Masami. Naruto and Sakura both turned to face the agitated zombie in fear as the door crashed against the ground. The zombie hissed as it lunged towards the closer Sakura. Sakura was frozen in shock as her zombified mother tightly gripped her shoulder and moved in for the kill. Naruto shouted, "NO!" as he ran forward and tackled Masami away from Sakura. The undead woman thrashed about and turned her head towards the nearest part of Naruto: his right shoulder. She greedily moved her mouth forward...

...and her progress was halted as a kunai was slammed into her head. The hungry moan died in her throat as her struggle ceased. Naruto released the corpse, stood up, and backed away.

"...You saved my life, Sakura," Naruto said.

"You protected me, and I wouldn't let that mockery of my mother take you away!" Sakura spoke, her voice wavering as her eyes began to well up with tears. Naruto roared in anger as he slammed his fist in the wall nearby.

"Those Akatsuki bastards are going to pay for the pain they've brought to us!" Naruto swore with determination. He regained himself and turned to look at Sakura. He then spoke in a softer tone, "And I will protect you, and everyone else we meet up with. That's a promise."

Sakura smiled, "Thank you, Naruto. And we... we need to warn the others that don't know about the monsters yet. We have to act now, so we can save people!"

"Kakashi-sensei! We need to find him!" Naruto said with determination, "He should be at the Shinobi Memorial Monument right now. I'm sure he'll know what to do from there on out!"

"Yes... but... what if he..." Sakura said grimly.

"Don't think that. Let's just go," Naruto said. Sakura nodded as the two left her room. Sakura paused and turned around to look at her mother's body for one last time. She stood there, silent for a moment, and then she turned around. She closed the door and followed Naruto. She did not flinch at the sight of her undead stepfather. She had resolved to face this catastrophe with courage and determination so she could save other people. So other people would not have to suffer what she had suffered.

Naruto opened the door that led to the outside of her house. The light of a new day shone upon them. A beacon of hope that inspired them to fight so other people would continue to be able to see the sun rise.