I do not own Naruto or Highschool of the Dead.

Cynical

Escape

Not Sakura. At all.

Wrong shade of pink, way too tall, hair too long, too old, too much curves.

Not Sakura, but pretty damn close.

Just a shame they were so damn far away, though.

Naruto's brows furrowed as a metallic clang seemed to engulf the whole world. All the … creatures that were closing in on him stopped dead and turned towards the sound.

Why? I'm closer. I'm bleeding. Why? Something to do with the sound?

And it did look like it was the sound. The group Not-Sakura was with was suddenly being swarmed by those guys. Not like they could actually swarm, more like slowly surround, but still…

That group seemed to be mostly civvies, so they were liable to panic, so he had better make his damn way ove-

Hello. Not a civvy, not that one at least.

Hell, that faintly blue-haired blur reminded him about the crazy-proctor lady in the exams. Not in the way she moved, gods no, but in the way he could see her mouth twitch into an almost smile. No way an untrained civilian reacted like that.

Interesting.

Making up his mind, Naruto started moving towards the group, taking out the occasional shambler on his way. Kunai through the top of the spine also seemed to work. Either that, or they were paralyzed from the neck down, which also did the job. Not like he was going to play ball with one of the heads.

As he got closer, he started really looking at the little group.

Two non-combatants, blondie and Not-Sakura.

One ranged attacker, short boy with strange, ramshackle object. Seems to launch nails. Be careful.

Three melee attackers, psycho-bluette, another guy and another brunette.

Looks like their objective are those strange metal boxes. Why? Shelter? The building was better suited.

Not important. I need to make contact with the natives. Hopefully they can explain what the fuck is going on here.

Time to make an entrance, dattebayo!

Giant-ass leap, kunai through the top the skull, save the life of short-boy and Not-Sakura and hello!

There was a freaking reason why skirts were considered distracting kunoichi-wear. Excellent at racking up kills from distracted male enemies, but also creating probable cause for friendly casualties.

In short, not ideal.

Blondie certainly didn't seem to mind, or even be aware of it for that matter. Must be a local custom or something.

"Heya! I'm Naruto Uzumaki, I'm kinda lost, you looked like you needed help and I sure as hell do need some, so mind if I tag along?"

There. Every major point, short and sweet, objective and circumstances lain out clearly and a bit of pity/sympathy built up. Jiji would be proud.

The other guy, the one with the club, quickly glanced around. "Sure. But we'll talk later, okay? First we need to get to that bus. Think you can keep up?"

Interesting. Not-Sakura was about to say something, but shut up when he started talking.

"Don't worry about me. These guys are a bit too slow to worry about. Nasty bite, though."

What the hell. Everyone suddenly looked at him like he was a blind and crippled puppy dying of cancer. Before he could ask, they seemed to have shaken it off.

Or maybe that was more to do with the shambler that suddenly lunged from around the corner. Meh.

Not like it really matters.

Quick rush forwards, slide on the ground, hit the legs, target tumbles, reverse grip, up and in. Done.

"Can we not stare right now… please?"

That should get them moving. Interesting though… psycho-bluette was staring more at the kunai than me… wonder why? It's standard shinobi kit, so it's not like it's uncommon. Bah. Follow own advice.

Not that they had a long way to go anymore. Just had to stay bundled up, protect the non-coms and cover each others backs.

That last part wasn't that difficult at all. These guys were already moving like a team. Psycho-bluette in front, knocking everything into next year. Club-guy follows up, eliminates the fallen ones. Brunette gets any of them he misses and covers the back and the non-coms. Short-boy covers the non-coms, the rear and the flanks.

Which might be a problem. They're slow and there are lots of them. If that guy isn't careful…

And, of course, he had no even finished the thought when the short-boy suddenly started spasming in panic. Which was totally unnecessary. There was only one of the shamblers close enough to be a threat and a simple kick would drive it far enough away that it wouldn't be a problem.

Naruto blinked. Shit. Civvy! He doesn't think like that!

Only one thing to do now…

Quick twitch of the wrist and the oh-so-satisfying slice-thunk of a perfectly aimed kunai.

Short-boy looked really freaked out for a moment, but that went away as soon as he pushed something into that strange object he cared. Naruto shivered. The look short-boy suddenly got was entirely too close to fang-face to be comfortable.

Turning back towards the front, Naruto saw that they were just about at the target-object. A bus, he called it?

The vanguard spread out and kept most of the things away, while blondie suddenly ran up and did something to the side of the box. A door opened up and Not-Sakura and short-guy piled in.

After knocking one of the shamblers back, brunette jumped into the doorway. Or tried to.

Naruto had to suppress a chuckle as the makeshift-spear clanged against the sides of the box.

The chuckle was much easier to dismiss when he remembered how every thing came towards that sound.

Not good.

At last, club-guy and psycho-bluette were also in the bus(?) and they motioned him over. Naruto was about to climb aboard when he realized he left one of his incredibly limited kunai (if bluette's previous expression was anything to go by) buried in the skull of one of the things.

"Two seconds! Won't be long!"

This was going to hurt like a bitch.

Quick channel of chakra to his legs, drop to a semi-crouch, kick away from the side of the bus and BAM!

Racing through all the shamblers, dodging hungry hands and gaping maws by centimeters…

Slide on the ground, leave patches of skin on the curiously gritty surface.

Scramble for the kunai, index-finger through the hole, quick spin to clean it as he extracted it.

Glance upwards. Panicked expressions on everyone he could see, barring the shamblers. Door was closed, path almost blocked by jerking bodies.

Crouch, jump. Land on torso of male shambler, push off before he gets a grip.

Land, roll, come up running.

Leap, use chakra to gain foothold, leap again upwards.

Land on roof. Brisk knocking of a kunai on the roof, signalling he was there.

And suddenly having to hold on as the whole building wrenched forwards.

Whoah! The fucking thing moves!

AN: Yes, it's shorter than the other two chapters, but it's a start.

I think this type of short chapter (1000 words or so) will become somewhat commonplace, sorry to disappoint.

Anyway… I'm going to try and keep things with Naruto's perspective from now on. Keeps things somewhat simpler for me.

Okay… Now, explanations…

I realize I said Naruto would be Takashi-level. I may have worded that poorly. I meant Naruto's contribution to the group as a whole would be comparable to Takashi. This includes combat, yes, but also extends to semi-military planning, scavenging, pragmatism and all-round being-willing-to-do-the-nasty-stuff.

Naruto is going to get Nerfed as the infection spreads, yes. But he is still going to be able to use chakra to a certain extent. That alone puts him on a level comparable to Saeko, combat wise. This also allows him some interesting opportunities, mainly scouting and thinning the hordes of the dead.

I realize I probably sound extremely inconsistent as to Naruto's strength and relative worth, but I suck at conveying my ideas. Suffice to say that, while Naruto will be incredibly important to the group, he will not be the sole reason they survive.

Takashi is there mainly to keep the group stable.

Rei helps him with that and serves as overall moral support and a helper to Saya.

Saeko is the main muscle and combat-leader.

Saya is overall knowledge, planning and record keeping (i.e. length food and water will last, etc.).

Kota is (duh) ranged and tech support.

Naruto will be scouting, scavenging and defense.

I'm over-simplifying things, but that's the gist of how I see thongs working out.

As for Naruto's drawbacks… He's going to get sick. He's going to get slower and weaker. Even then, he's still going to be as strong as a baseline-human (see my notes in chap. 2 about chakra's effects). He will need time to recuperate after strenuous activity. The exact circumstances haven't been completely plotted out yet, but expect a couple of detours before the apartment.

As for Shidou? I rather imagine he is dead. I'm sorry, but I'm not going to write about a sex-cult. That's a little out of my comfort-zone at this stage.

Why did he die here, where he survived in canon? Consider it the butterfly effect. Naruto's presence changed the positioning of the zombies, and Shidou's group got overwhelmed.

Oh yes, about that. Naruto has no idea about anything. He's going to call the zombies a bunch of different things (as you've no doubt realized) and he'll do the same to the survivors until their properly introduced.

Anyway… all questions and comments are, of course, welcome provided that I can actually communicate with you guys (guest reviews, I'm looking at you!). Hopefully I'll not lose to many of you with this chapter.

Also, I'd like some feedback as to the way I attempt to communicate the fight scenes. Is it terrible, stupid, inappropriate, unique, fitting, what? Every bit helps.

Read, enjoy and review.

~GrinGrin

PS- two things…

Firstly, I'm killing the poll regarding my ANs by tomorrow at the latest.

Secondly, I've been mucking about in my profile page. I've put requests, general info, milestones or targets and generally cleaned it up a bit. Pay it a visit and see if it can either help you or me, yeah?

Written: 06/01/2014

Posted: 07/01/2014