A/N – Yo, here's the first chapter I promised you guys, obviously longer than the prologue. This is the length I'll be aiming for with all of my chapters. They should be released every few days, maybe a week at the most. Thanks to all who followed or added this story to their favorites It would be nice to see a review for this chapter though. Tell me what you think so far.
Also looking for a beta, if anyone is interested? PM me.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or The Walking Dead...
That smell. He would recognize it anywhere. The familiar scent of disinfectant filled his nostrils before any of his other senses picked up on anything, this was soon followed by the soft voices of people discussing things that went way over his head.
"...Suffering from toxic-metabolic encephalopathy, organ failure is probably what caused it. He's been in that coma for near enough half a year now, we're not sure when – if he'll wake up. It's a miracle he's even alive given the condition he was in when he was found. Poor kid, we don't even know his name." What the hell? Were they talking about him? He'd never been kept down for more than a few days, even with life threatening injuries.
Wait, hadn't there been a war? Yes, he was sure of it. It was starting to come back to him now. Nothing but a quick sequence of flashes at first, faces that he recognized places that he had visited on his travels. But then they started to meld together into something more, almost like a slide show of memories within his mind. He saw himself defeating Kurama with the help of his mother and learning to control its Chakra, escaping the island with Kirabi, fighting the other Jinchuriki and their Biju, defeating the masked man with the help of Sasuke and then squaring off against the person who had brought the world to its knees. He remembered besting him with the help of his friends, pounding the Uchiha elder into the ground with everything he had.
But then he had stopped; even against the cries of his comrades he had relented and offered Madara a chance. A mistake which would see everything he held dearest wiped out in seconds.
"Be gone Naruto Uzumaki, allow this world to know true peace."
Those had been the final cryptic words he had heard before his mind knew nothing but the eternal darkness that had accompanied him for those long and lonely months. Not even his own screaming had registered as he felt a massive pulling sensation take over his body.
When the endless inky black had finally receded and dull blue eyes opened for the first time in six month he noticed changes almost instantaneously. For starters, his body felt weaker than it had in a long time, the muscle he had worked so hard to gain had all but vanished. Secondly, he had no idea where he was despite knowing he was almost definitely in a hospital. This place felt so wrong, almost alien to him.
The most glaring problem appeared to be his lack of Chakra, almost all of it was gone, after being idle for so long he had no idea how this was possible. What the hell had Kurama been doing all this time? Mustering up what meager amounts remained allowed him to asses his current situation, there were two other signatures in the room. Probably doctors, although the amount of Chakra they held inside of them was ridiculous, they shouldn't even be alive, it was almost non-existent. His own reserves had never felt so pitiful, just drawing on what was left sent shock waves of pain through his body.
Releasing the hold on his Chakra as it was probably doing more harm than good, he turned his head towards the men who had been conversing before. Both of them appeared to be males reaching their early thirties judging from the way they held themselves, they were garbed in identical white gowns which reached their knees. The bespectacled one whose voice Naruto recognized from before, stopped mid sentence when their newly awakened guest shifted his head to gaze at them with lifeless blue eyes.
"Where am I?" His voice was low and soft, it felt weird talking after being silent for so long.
Following the doctors explanation of his current circumstances Naruto had forced himself into a sitting position, which nearly caused him to black out. He had no idea where 'Atlanta' was and that confused him. He had traveled the world with Jiraiya and never once come across, or even heard of a place bearing that name.
At first he thought this was an elaborate Genjutsu, a ploy by his enemies to throw him off. Several bursts of his dwindling reserves had thrown that theory out of the window, he had even bit his lip hard enough to draw blood. Yet the doctors remained, their worried stares lost on him as he tried to figure out what the hell was going on. He nearly missed one of the doctors reaching out to assess the situation,
Slapping his hand away the blonde began to panic, his breathing became erratic and he clutched at his chest. This couldn't be happening, whatever was happening right now, it couldn't be. He had a war to fight dammit!
"Oi, where is Madara? Is he around here? Where exactly am I and how far away is Konoha?" This time his voice rose, the raspy voice sounded unpleasant to his own sensitive ears, with it also came a coughing fit.
After regaining his breath and wiping the spittle away from his mouth with the back of his hand Naruto watched as the doctors faced pondered his rapid onslaught of questions, then his face scrunched up in what looked like deep thought, Naruto knew he wasn't going to like what came next.
"Ma-da-ra? I'm sorry, but I'm sure I've never met, nor heard of such a person. As to where you are, your currently in the state of Georgia in a city called Atlanta. As for Konoha, I've never heard of such a place either..." The one with the glasses seemed genuinely surprised and unsure of what he was talking about. It looked like he had wanted to say more but the complete fear etched into Naruto's face had stopped him short.
This was bad. How could this guy not know who Madara was? Better yet, how could he not know about Konoha? The place was one of, if not the most important place in the history of the Elemental Nations.
"Can you tell us your name? Do you know where you live?" He heard the questions clearly but chose to ignore them; too engrossed in trying to wrap his head around this particular turn of events.
Perhaps his partner knew.
Focusing in on the core of his being Naruto appeared within his mind-scape only to find it in complete disarray; the blue pipes which signified his Chakra had completely ruptured, most of it dissipating as it left the imaginary iron containers. Walking further down he noticed the water now reached his thighs. Now slightly worried he rushed further down to where Kurama rested and burst into the large caged area he almost collapsed to his knees in shock.
Where the proud and mighty Nine Tailed Fox had once stood was now a shell of its former self.
It's vibrant orange fur had faded into an ashen grey and the aura it gave off could only be described as pitiable, this gave Naruto the impression that something was wrong almost immediately, its labored breathing and lack of reaction to his presence sent alarm bells ringing. What the hell was happening?
"What the- Kurama, what's happening to you!?" No response. Not even a growl.
The once familiar feeling of Kurama's Chakra was also absent. He couldn't feel it anywhere within his body, it looked like the giant beast had less than he did.
Walking inside the dwelling of the massive fox, Naruto couldn't believe how cold it was. His hand brushed the matted fur of the beast and found that the source of the freezing atmosphere was originating from the Kyuubi itself. Sadness welled up inside him as he attempted to swallow the lump in his throat. "Don't worry buddy, as soon as I know what's going on, I promise I'll fix this." A small whimper was his only reply.
Unable to see his once seemingly invincible ally in such a frail state, Naruto left. Fast.
Returning to the outside world just in time to see one of the doctors bring him some water whilst the other one went to work checking his vital signs, Naruto couldn't bare it any longer. Wherever this place was, it sure as hell wasn't home and he needed to get back there as soon as possible. The trouble was, he had no idea where he was or how to even get back there.
Consequences be damned he decided to go for broke and calmed his breathing, trying to relax as much as he possibly could. Going through the well practiced notions of drawing in the Natural Energy from the surrounding area he began to usher it into his body. As soon as he entered his coveted Sage Mode felt it he felt like being sick.
He'd never felt so much pollution in one place, the sheer filth in the air had hit him almost like a slap in the face. Worse than that however he couldn't sense anything familiar, none of his friends were nearby and the overall lack of Chakra in the surrounding populous was enough for him to release his hold on the technique.
"Okay Naruto, calm down, you can figure this out. Think, what did that spiral eyed bastard do to you and why aren't you a stain on the floor?" Quietly mumbling to himself as tried to make sense of the mess he found himself in he recalled the last words he had heard before he had woken up. Just as it seemed he was near the answer he so desperately craved another series of flashbacks came to the forefront of his mind. Images of his friends being murdered due to his inability to realize that some people were too far gone to save, the entire war effort had rested on his shoulders and he'd failed.
"...o, no, no, no, no, nooo-aaaaargh!" What had started off as a quiet murmur with his head held in his hands had picked up in volume until it was nothing but a heartbroken scream. It would be hours before the doctors and nurses managed to calm him down.
A mentally and physically exhausted Naruto found himself staring at the wall of his sparse hospital room, eyes dull and suddenly looking far older than he appeared. Anyone close to the blonde would have noted that he looked too different and the current slump he was in was far different from his usual happy-go-lucky demeanor. Unfortunately those people were dead.
After he'd calmed down he had been informed that he would be realized in the morning and escorted to the area that he'd been found. Something about a chance of someone recognizing him and coming to claim him.
'Ha, looks like I'll be waiting a good long time for that.' He'd thought about telling them what was really going on but that would be just as futile. Currently lost and without a single thing to live for he still didn't want to spend the rest of his life living with psychos in straight jackets.
He'd even tried summoning the Toads, all he got in return was a weird look from one of the passing nurses for his considerable effort. No smoke, no Chakra drain and no Toad. Wherever here was, it was too far from home for his amphibian allies to be of any use. His only hope now was to wait for Kurama to recover and see if he knew a way out of this predicament. From the looks of things though, that would be a hefty wait.
As he closed his weary eyes he tried to ignore the painful images that plagued him and get some rest. Despite being in a coma for six month he was still dead tired; something that he chalked up to the devastating realizations that had come one after the other.
Maybe tomorrow he would wake up and this would all have been a horrible nightmare.
Naruto had no idea that the nightmare was only just beginning.
The next day after waking up from his restless sleep, he found out that he was to be taken to a place called Macon by some local law enforcement that was willing to lend a hand. He was also not the only guys passenger as a dark skinned male in his late thirties would also be accompanying them. So after being given a fresh change of clothing courtesy of a generous donation from the hospital he was on his way, now dressed in a plain black t-shirt with matching track pants and blue sneakers.
Apparently due to the man, whose name he learnt was Lee, being a murderer he would have the 'privilege' of riding in the front of what looked like a miniature train from the Land of Snow. Not that it mattered of course, he cared very little about this turn of events, he was still trying to come to terms with what appeared to a very elaborate and well crafted Genjutsu or a brand new world devoid of Chakra.
As the journey progressed it became obvious that nobody in the vehicle was eager to start a conversation. Whilst still massively depressed, not that he would ever admit to that though, Naruto hated silence. Especially tense and awkward silences, his Ninja training had prepared him for situations like these and despite his body being in the worst shape of his life he was prepared to take out any threat that made itself apparent.
Thankfully he wouldn't have to make the first move though, the balding police officer in the drivers seat had taken the plunge head first. Glancing behind him as the driver probed his prisoner with what seemed like horribly intrusive questions, he studied the man's prisoner. A sort of scruffy looking guy in a pale blue, almost purple, shirt. Nothing really seemed to stand out about him until Naruto locked eyes with him. He knew those eyes, he'd spent almost every day looking into eyes like those. After giving Lee a small nod of the head he broke away the impromptu staring match to think over what he had just learnt, tuning out the rest of the officers basically one sided conversation in the process.
'So it appears the charges aren't false and this Lee guy really did kill someone. Huh, almost doesn't look the type...' his train of thought was cut off prematurely as his eyes focused in on something up ahead. At the high speed they were travelling at he only had a split second to realize that it looked like some guy was about to stumble into the path of their high speed vehicle.
"LOOK OUT!" It was Lee that screamed the warning but by that time it was already too late, the unknown man had already impacted with the front window and was violently knocked up and and over the car. From there everything went downhill, literally as the car impacted with the guardrails on the side of the road and flipped down a steep bank into the forested area below. All passengers inside were mercilessly thrown all over the place inside the metal death trap. In hindsight it was probably only the fact that he covered up his head that saved him from being knocked out cold like the unfortunate felon in the back seat.
Shaking his head to relieve himself of the grogginess, he crawled out of a hole where the window used to be just in time to see the his injured and dazed escort blowing away creatures left, right and center with a strange hand-held metal contraption. Naruto instantly knew something wasn't right with what he was witnessing. These 'things' attempting to surround the officer reeked of death for starters, also there was one crawling towards him... With no legs and the lower half of its jaw missing.
With no idea if this was a normal occurrence within these lands he didn't even think about defending himself, he just picked up a stray piece of metal that came off of the car and bashed it over the former humans head. A blow which should have knocked it out cold did little but make the creature groan and continue towards him at its slug-like pace. With a frown he hit it again, this time harder, his efforts earned him the sickening sound of metal piercing flesh as the metal scrap embedded itself halfway through the creatures skull. Whilst not exactly a stranger to killing he still found it pretty gruesome.
Hearing a scream his head snapped over to where the police officer had been holding his ground only to see a one of those things take a large chunk out of his neck and drag him to the floor, as if sensing his weakness others quickly converged on his now prone form. Over before he had a chance to blink, Naruto could only watch as they made a quick meal of the older guy.
Naruto quickly concluded that in his current state he wouldn't get very far and needed to find a place to lay low, preferably somewhere secluded and fenced off unless he wanted to become the main course.
A quiet pained moan sounded out from behind him and he realized that Lee was still in the back seat, unconscious and vulnerable. Cursing to himself quietly Naruto acted fast and dragged the larger man from the wreckage before hefting him onto his shoulders with a grunt. With what little Chakra he had remaining he willed it to life and sent it coursing throughout his body, the act of doing so bringing great pain in the process.
Momentarily ignoring it he pushed off the ground at speeds unseen in this world, narrowly avoiding a number of those monsters and the surrounding trees. It would have been easier to jump through the aforementioned trees but he wasn't sure if he trusted his body to be able to take the strain and was forced to stay on the low path.
After only a few seconds he came upon what looked like a home boarded off with a wooden fence. Smirking he hefted Lee over the fence first, uncaring if the man landed on his head, that was revenge for him being so freaking heavy in his eyes. Hearing the approaching footsteps behind him he then threw himself over after noticing the oncoming horde that was quickly closing in.
Brushing the dirt and leaves off of himself he stretched his now aching body as he sat up and looked around. The place seemed pretty safe, he couldn't sense any immediate danger beside those things banging against the fence and it seemed like he would be here a while. Well at least until Lee woke up so he could ask him what the hell was going on in this messed up world. A few loud bangs sounded from the distance and it seemed like the creatures were sensitive to noise as they all groaned and wandered into that direction, he just hoped those guys could handle it. In his current state he would be torn to shreds, oh sure he was positive he could kick so many of their asses that they'd remember his name until the end of times, but eventually they'd wear him down and make light work of his current frail form. Plus he had this unconscious mess to look out for,
Speaking of Lee it would probably be for the best to make the poor guy comfy, he hadn't noticed before but the way he had landed had seemed suspiciously soft. With a sheepish chuckle he stood up and propped Lee up against a nearby tree, glancing up he noted that the rather impressive tree house would be a very defensible position if more of those creeps came back.
The man in front of him didn't seem too injured, although the gash on his leg would probably get infected if it wasn't seen to soon. With another quick glance around he made his way to what he assumed to be the back entrance of the house, although no one seemed to be home he knocked a few times on the sliding glass door.
"Hello, anyone home? I could use some help out here, I've got an unconscious guy whose been banged up pretty bad..." He waited a few more seconds before sliding open the door.
"I'm coming in okay? I ain't an intruder... or one of those things outside." Once inside however he realized that these people probably needed more help than he did. Pools of blood and upturned furniture were scattered throughout the dining area and it looked like the house had been left like this for a few days at the least.
"Damn, what a mess..." Walking further in he noticed a kitchen and began to look for supplies, he almost slipped on the blood pool that was beside the counter. It would take some kind of idiot to slip on that though. He opened several of the drawers looking for something, anything that would help, a knife, a first aid kit, hell even some food would be great right about now. After searching around and coming up with nothing but an old walkie-talkie he leant on the kitchen sink whilst sipping on a glass of water.
A beeping noise went off every few seconds and after a while became highly annoying, so with a growl he marched over to the object responsible for the insufferable noise and punched whatever the hell it was. Naruto nearly jumped out of his skin when it began talking to him. Listening to it however he realized that these must be the owners of the house checking in with the babysitter they'd left their kid with, that would explain the note he'd found earlier. His eyes softened as he listened on they must have been caught by one of those things, that would explain why they weren't letting them go and the incident with the crazy guy they were talking about.
When the messages had finished Naruto sighed and looked up to the ceiling. He got another shock however when the walkie-talkie he had pocketed blared to life with a young girls voice.
"Hello?" The voice sounded extremely young, probably around 9 years old if he had to guess.
"Ermm, yo..." Silently berating himself for the lame response he reminded himself not to freak the young girl out, she may need his help.
"You need to be quiet." Naruto sweat dropped at that. First rule of his Ninja training being told to him by some kid.
"Who is this?" These walkies didn't look too advanced so whoever this young girl was she had to be close by.
"I'm Clementine. This is my house." Well she wasn't exactly talkative but it was better than nothing he supposed.
"Clementine huh? My name is Naruto. Nice to meet you." Walking around the house he continued his search for anything useful whilst trying to pinpoint exactly where she was.
"Your not my daddy." This Clementine kid was pretty blunt.
"Sorry Clementine, I guess not. How old are you?"
"Eight." Ah, his earlier estimation hadn't been too far off then. This begged the question of where the sitter was though. Judging by the blood though he already had a sinking feeling in his stomach that he knew the answer to that question. Had to be sure though so he pressed on.
"Are you on your own?" Dealing with kids really wasn't his thing, it only made it more awkward that it wasn't face to face as he'd have liked.
"Yeah, I don't know where anybody is. How old are you?" Poor kid was all alone, he could relate he supposed.
"I'm sixteen." Well he thought he was still sixteen, with the war going on he had kind of lost track of the date and he had no idea if the date was still the same in this place.
"Ok." What a way to kill the conversation kid.
"Where are your parents?" It was time to get to the bottom of this. He'd be damned if he let an eight year old girl wander around in this madness if she had no one to look out for her.
"They took a trip and left me with Sandra. There in Savannah, I think. Where the boats are." everything after 'they took a trip' was pretty much lost on the blonde, he had no idea where Savannah was and what impact the boats had on the place. Walking over to the sliding door Naruto quickly looked over to Lee, seeing that he was still unconscious he moved onto the most important order of business.
"Hmm okay, are you safe?" He was getting more and more worried as this conversation went on. No kid that age should be left to fend for themselves, it was slightly wrong of him but Naruto seriously hoped that blood was someone other than Clementine's.
"I'm outside in my tree-house, they cant get in." Naruto smirked at that, it looked as if this kid was pretty sharp. Before he could answer however he saw small baseball cap stick out of the wooden flap followed by a head of wavy brown shoulder length hair.
"See? Can you see me? I can see you through the window." Naruto nodded and gave Clementine a small wave and his trademark smile, he was so relieved that he almost let his guard down. The key word being almost.
He spun around just as what looked to be the remains of the babysitter lunged at him. He noted Clementine's scream over the hand held radio and let the walking abomination crash into the counter after he'd quickly ducked. He was certain that these things were dead. Whereas the people of this world held the barest minimum of Chakra needed to get by, these freaks had none.
With strength he didn't know he still had he grabbed the creatures back and threw it across the kitchen, watching as its head bounced off the stove. 'Well, this must be Sandra, or what used to be Sandra at least...'
Moving backwards a little he slipped on the blood patch he had noted before and would have chuckled despite himself if he hadn't also nearly knocked himself out on the bench on the way down.
Dazed but still very much aware of what was happening he crawled backwards and lashed out with a foot that struck true. The monster went flying back once more, taking a little bit longer to recover this time from the powerful blow.
His eyes widened as he noticed Clementine climbing down some rope ladders with a hammer in hand; it was useless at the minute though as Sandra was upon him once again. Numerous blows to her face did nothing but turn her head from side to side. Growling at the apparent endurance she possessed he planted both feet on her stomach and with a heave sent her flying for the third time.
Clementine had chosen this moment to slide open the door and with a very frightened look only a child in her position could hold, thrust it in his direction. Locking eyes for only a split second Naruto flipped to his, feet took the hammer and with an angry snarl brought it down upon the now crawling babysitter. The hammer met very little resistance as it crushed top of her skull He would later look back at this and regret showing such violence in front of the young girl behind him but accepted that it had to be done. Those things were hard to put down after all. It seemed only a solid blow to the head could keep them down.
Taking some time to catch his breath as the adrenaline wore off he looked at the terrified form of Clementine and winced, she was looking at him with wide eyes. He hated that look. He'd seen it all the way throughout his childhood; those fearful eyes had haunted him for years.
Shaking his head to rid himself of the unwanted memories of his youth he knelt down so that he was eye level with the young girl he now knew as Clementine.
"Hi there, its nice to finally meet you Clementine." Naruto gave her his most reassuring smile, although with the blood splattered all over his face and clothes, its purpose was mostly lost.
"Did you kill it?" She still seemed nervous, slowly inching away from the gathering pool of blood at her feet. Naruto also took note of how she referred to her deceased babysitter as an 'it' and not a 'she'.
"I think it was already dead, you know? But this time I think it'll stay dead." Naruto's statement seemed to reassure her a little bit as she nodded, her eyes avoiding his.
"Sometimes they come back." So that's what she was nervous about. Stealing a glance at the corpse by his side Naruto highly doubted that thing would be getting up any time soon.
"I don't think that will happen this time, I got it pretty good... Hey, have you been by yourself through all this?"
"Yeah, I want my parents to come home now." Naruto winced at that, remembering the voice messages he had heard on that machine, this kid would be lucky if her parents were still alive.
"I think that might be a little while..." He trailed off, not knowing what else to say or how to put what he knew into words. She looked visibly shaken by this, seemingly closing in on herself as she accepted his words as the truth.
"Look, I don't know what happened, but until we find your parents? I'll look after you. I'll keep you safe. That's the promise of a lifetime and a promise is something I never go back on." Finally her eyes met his and the sheer intensity behind Naruto's own blue orbs caused her to smile for the first time since this whole event occurred.
In that instant Naruto felt something in his chest. Something he hadn't felt in a long time. His subconscious desire to protect everyone still remained, even after failing everyone in his world, he would die before he let harm come to this child. He may have known her only a few minutes but she was so innocent and frail that Naruto couldn't help but want to shield her from the atrocities that he knew were around the corner. This was the moment the will of fire had rekindled and became the roaring inferno of his resolve. Nothing on this god forsaken planet could stop him from doing what he knew was right and he dared anything to come between him.
Whether they were living or dead.
"What do we do now?" That was something Naruto hadn't actually thought about. He didn't have any long term plans, aside from finding a way to get back home, he was stuck here for the foreseeable future. First things first though, he had to get Lee into the house and see what he could do with that leg. He could feel the air getting colder already.
"Well you see, my buddy and I, we were in a car accident. He's hurt his leg pretty bad and I'm gonna see if I can fix it. Then, we'll clean the house up so your folks have somewhere nice to come back to and we'll set off in the morning. So, would you like to help me get him in here?" Seeing Clementine nod, he led her to the back yard where Lee was resting against the tree.
After dragging the unconscious man onto the couch he and Clementine had went about fixing the house up as best they could. Obviously it had been Naruto had taken the body out back and thrown it over the fence, he had hoped the smell would drive off any more of those things who may come wandering too close.
Next on the agenda had been bandaging Lee's leg. Clementine had brought him some bandages that were kept under the sink, how he had missed them he had no idea. With Clementine's input and watchful eyes, Naruto had managed to cover up Lee's leg as best he could. He was no medic but it would do for now.
It also seemed as though there was plenty hidden as she had even managed to find some energy bars for them, as they relaxed against each other on the couch. This however, prompted Naruto to ask something that had been on his mind ever since he had woken up.
"Hey, Clem, you don't happen to have any ramen stashed around here do you?" At her confused look Naruto was convinced he must have died and went straight to hell.
A/N - And there you have it, the first chapter of this story. I think I did a good job of sticking to the basic story line this chapter but obviously with Naruto being here you are going to notice some changes as the story develops. Some changes will be small and have little impact on the story, others however will create much bigger ripples.
Notice how the police officer didn't come back during this, this is because I'm sure a few hours pass before Lee regains consciousness and therefore didn't have time to reanimate.
Review and tell me what you thought of this, or even if you just have a question, I'll answer them all.
Till next time folks!
