Hey, what's up people! I know your happy for this new chapter, because I'm happy, and sorta late ...anyway, my computer was broke so I couldn't really do much and in order to thank you for the long wait. I've made this chapter a whole 2000 or so words long! I barely noticed it until I saw the numbers. Anywho~ enjoy!
Chapter 3: A Shinobi's Power
"Okay ...so how are we going to do this?"
"Uh, I have no idea," Leon answered, looking out the front window of the hummer. "There's too many of them to just run up in there and take it."
"B-but we need the gas, or the car will run out before we can even make it to Atlanta," Emily responded, grimly.
Naruto sighed, as he leaned back into the soft backseats of the hummer. They'd been driver for a go two day since the incident with the 'window walker' as Leon had called it, only stopping to stretch out their legs, that one time they had shooting practice, and bathroom breaks, which Abigail hated because she had to use the bathroom outside rather then indoors on a toilet like a civilized person.
Even though the world couldn't really be considered 'civilized' anymore.
Now after driving for a good while, they finally had to take care of something that everyone had been trying to avoid ...and that was stopping for gas. Which would have been simple, if not for the fact that the gas station itself was full of at least fifteen or twenty walkers. That's where things got problematic.
"So what are we going to do, just sit here?" Naruto asked. "We need gas, and the only way to get some is to get rid of those walkers."
"We could do that, but, then we risk the chance of getting bite. Even with the guns, I'm the only one who knows how to use them properly, you and Emily can't shoot for shit, and after watching you guys at practice. I've come to that conclusion ...No offense, but your shooting game is ass." Leon said truthfully looking at the blonde, "so unless someone has any other ideas, a very good one, we might have to leave this gas station and go to another one."
"But the car might run out before we even find another one."
"We'll have to risk it, it's better then taking our chances and dying right here."
Abigail couldn't help but frown at that, if they left and the car stopped running, they'd have to walk the rest of the way to Atlanta, and that wasn't really something she felt like doing again. There has to be a way for us to get into the gas station ...wait! Maybe-! She smiled as an idea came to mind, there was a way to get rid of all the walkers, why hadn't she thought of it before.
"Wait, I've got an idea!" Abigail exclaimed, right when Leon was about to start up the car. "It's really good and it'll work too!"
The tall dark-skinned man turned around and to the little girl, sighing. Her idea was better then nothing at all. "Aight, kid, what's this really good idea ya got?"
"Well, I was just thinking, we could let hermano mayor could use his ninja powers to get the rid of the walkers! Then we'll be able to get the gas and maybe more food from the store next to it!" She answered, smiling brightly.
"Ninja powers?" Emily and Leon asked at the same time, Leon raised and eyebrow at her, and turned to the spiky blonde, who sighed, before looking back at the little girl. "Sorry to tell you this, Abi~, but this ain't no cartoon. Naruto ain't got no ninja powers."
"Yes he doe's, I've seen it!" Abigail said, then she turned to the blonde host. " You'll do it right, hermano mayor? I know you said you wanted to keep it between us, but you'll do it this one time and use your ninja powers to beat those bad walkers, right?"
Naruto sighed, his identity as a shinobi was something he had been trying to keep secret from other people. But, did he really have much of a choice? Right now getting to Atlanta was top priority, so he was willing to show off what he could do.
"Alright, fine, if it's gets us to Atlanta safe and sound then I'll do it." Naruto said with a smile, opening the door and got out of the hummer, closing it behind him. In Surprise at the shinobi, Leon got out the car as well and started to follow behind the blonde.
"Yo, Naruto, you ain't seriously gonna to fight those walkers on your own, are you?"
Naruto looked back at him and shrugged, "yeah, why wouldn't I, we need the gas don't we."
"B-but that's suicide, are you crazy or something. Do you wanna die!"
"Leon, trust me on this, I know what I'm doing," Naruto said, smirking. "After all, I'm about to show you guys something that you'll probably never forget."
In the hummer, Emily couldn't help but think the same thing that Leon had said. He's crazy, I know something was wrong with that kid, freakin' idiot. "Hey, you'd better call back your 'brother' before he ends up getting himself killed." Emily said, looking through the rear-view mirror at Abigail.
The Hispanic child smiled and said, cheerfully. "Nah, it's okay, I'm not worried."
"So what, you don't care if he dies?"
"No, it's not that, I mean hermano mayor going to kick all those walkers asses," Abigail said, leaning forward, pointing out the front window. "Just watch and see, Naruto's going to be fine!"
"Yeah, whatever you say, Abigail. I'll believe it when I see it."
Outside, Leon was still trying to convince Naruto not to go through with his plan to fight all the walkers on his own. The hummer was parked a little ways away from the gas station, so Emily and Abigail could see everything clearly as it happened.
"Naruto, come on, if it's about the gas we can go to another station," Leon whispered, harshly, grabbing Naruto by the shoulder. They were close enough to the walkers now and one loud noise would get them noticed by the flesh-eating corpse. "You can't fight all these things on your own, what the hell's wrong with you?"
Naruto turned to the dark-skinned man and gave him one of his foxy grins. "Leon, I know what I'm doing, you don't have to stay if you don't want to, ya know. Just let me handle this." He turned back towards the gas station and saw the zombies still weren't aware of their presence. I guess we'll have to change that, now won't we. He put his hands up to his mouth and whistled loudly, causing all the undead to look at him and, unfortunately, a very scared Leon himself.
Leon pulled out his 9mm out of his side holster and aimed it at the on coming horde, as they stumbled towards them, moaning hungrily as they approached their new meal. "What the fuck did you do that for? I don't know about you, but, I don't wanna get eaten alive, kid!" He yelled at the blonde, who grinned even bigger.
"Leon, put your gun away. I told you, let me handle this."
The zombies were closer and closer, Naruto could get a good count of them now, there were twenty-five walkers, all adults. He could finish this without a problem, it really had been too long since he'd used a jutsu.
And I think it's time to start out with one of my favorite high class jutsu. Naruto thought, as he put his hands in the cross-looking hand seal with both of his left and right index and middle fingers. The clone seal. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu(Shadow Clone Technique)!" In a poof of smoke, three Naruto clones appeared on each side of him, all wearing the same grin as the original.
Leon jumped slightly when the clones suddenly appeared and rubbed his eyes, not believing what he was seeing. What the hell? "No way ...no fuckin' way. Did he just-?"
"Ya might wanna stand back, Leon," One clone said.
"Hehe~ yeah, this is going to get messy," said another one.
Naruto smirked and pulled out a kunai and focused wind chakra into it. The other six clones did the same. "Alright, guys, lets show these things what happens when they try to make a meal out of Naruto Uzumaki!"
"Yeah!"
Then they all dash forward, cutting off limbs and some even getting cut right down the middle. It was a massacre if Leon had ever seen one, and the smell of rotting flesh and blood grew stronger with every walker he killed.
Naruto flipped through hand-signs again, and inhaled, stopping on the hare seal. "Suiton: Mizurappa(Water Release: Wild Water Wave)!" When he exhaled, water gushed out of his mouth like a waterfall and sent three walkers crashing into the some tree outside of the gas station, killing them instantly.
One of the clones hopped away from a zombie trying to grab him, and did a few hand-signs as well. "Fūton: Renkūdan(Wind Release: Drilling Air Bullet)!" He yelled, breathing inward and, pushing down on is stomach, breathing out. A ball of compressed air flew at the zombie's head and exploded on contact, turning the walkers head into nothing but bits of skull and brain matter.
After the assault by the clones only one walker stood, but, it's standing was short lived when a kunai flew and hit it right between the eyes and burst out the back of it's head. The undead stood there for a moment, before it fell face forward into the asphalt, leaving a slowly growing pool of blood.
Naruto looked at the now dead horde and grinned at his handy work, wiping some of the spattered blood off of his cheek with his sleeve. how long had it been since he'd last done something like this ...too long in his opinion. Hehe~ well, that was fun. Feels nice to finally use a jutsu for once. Naruto canceled his clone jutsu, making them disappear the same way they had came, and turned to very speechless looking Leon. "Hehe~ Soo, um ...how about gas, huh?" He chuckled nervously, rubbing the back of his neck.
Leon just nodded, but didn't say anything.
~ ~(Pt2)~ ~
"Naruto, you are one lucky bastard, ya know that." Leon stated to the blonde, as he filled the hummer up with gas. "Do you know how good you have it, being able to do shit like that, at a time like this."
Naruto leaned up against the side of the yellow automobile, shrugging. "Well, in all truth, everyone where I come from can do stuff like that. It what we were trained for."
"And where is it that you come from, Naruto? You've never told us and ...do you have any idea how many people you could save with powers like that?" Emily asked, as she packed some food from the small store near by, into the back of the hummer. "Why didn't you tell us about it sooner?"
"Emily, If I did, would you have believed me in the slightest?"
"Hmm ...no, probably not, now that I think about it."
"So you can see why I kept it between just me and Abigail, besides, she wouldn't have know either if she hadn't seen me do it for herself," Naruto said.
"Yeah~! Naruto was so cool, hey can you teach me how to spit out water like that, and make clones of myself too?" Abigail asked, looking up at him with an excited spark in her eyes.
Naruto gave her an apologetic smile, and patted her on the head. "Sorry, Abigail, but I think it's a little too late for you to try using chakra like I do. But, I teach you something just as awesome, how does that sound?"
"Wow~ really, you'll teach me how to be a ninja?"
"Hehe~ yep, it's a promise." He answered, giving her a big smile, though he did remember reading something about ninjas in one of Abigail's books and found out the shinobi in this world didn't use chakra, so he could show her things like taijutsu and, most likely, kenjutsu.
Abigail hopped up and down, happily shouting. "Yay~! I'm gonna be a ninja, I'm gonna be a ninja~!"
"Well, she's seems happy," Leon grinned, pulling gas pump out of the, now full, hummer. "Anyway, we should probably get a move on," he said pointing towards the forest treeline behind Naruto and Emily, and the little girl. "Looks like all your ninja tricks called some unwanted company."
The three looked behind them and saw a new horde coming slowly out of the trees, this one bigger then the one the blonde had cut down. Plus, there were also kid walkers in this group, something Naruto really didn't want to fight against, it wasn't that Naruto couldn't beat them, it was just he didn't have the heart to kill a child, even if they were a walker.
Such a shame, they had so much to live for. Now, look at them. Naruto thought, shaking his head in sadness.
"Let's go guys, everyone in the car!" Leon said, opening the driver seat door, hopping into the hummer, starting up the car.
The others didn't have to be told twice, Naruto got in the passenger seat this time, while Emily and Abigail hopped in the backseat. The hummer pulled away from the gas station before the first of the horde could even come within five feet of the car. They were back on the road again, on their way to Atlanta.
They'd been driving for about an five minutes, and the sun was starting to set into the horizon. Smiling, Emily turned to the young Hispanic girl and said. "So, now that that's taken care of," she started. "How did you end up seeing Naruto use his powers, anyway?"
"How did I end up seeing him? Well, it was a day when I ended up getting out of school super early, and I decided to try and prank Naruto-." Abigail said grinning, at the memory of the day when she first found out about Naruto.
~ ~(Flashback/three days before infection)~ ~
School was boring, just like always, and even though it was Friday and they got out earlier then usual at school because some of the kids were getting sick and coming down with the flu, at least that's what her teacher called it. Abigail still disliked school, somewhat. One reason why was they had a lot of homework to finish, Math, English, social studies and a history packet, that had to be done by the end of the weekend.
Why did the teachers torture them so much?
Was one weekend free of no homework too hard to ask for?
But at least we got out at twelve o'clock today. She thought, as she walked down the street towards her home. "I wonder what dad and Naruto are doing right now. Maybe we could go downtown today, that would be a whole bunch of fun!" She said to herself, turning into the alleyway she always used as a short cut to get home.
After passing through the bad smelling, trash can filled, alleyway, she took a left on 60th street and walked into the nice looking apartment complex.
"Hi, Mr. Mike, how's work going?" Abigail waved, greeting the slightly over weight security guard.
The brown skinned man, looked up from his news paper, and smiled at the girl. "It's going fine. It's looks like someone got off of school early, huh, How was school?"
"Ya know, boring like always," she sighed, fixing her backpack full of books, that felt like it weighed a ton. "So did my dad leave out for work yet."
"Yep, you just missed him," Mike answered. "But, I didn't see the blonde kid leave, so he might still be upstairs."
"Okay ...I'll see ya later, bye!"
Make waved at her, smiling, "bye."
Abigail walked over to the elevator and pressed the button going to the third floor of the apartment building, it only took a few seconds for the elevator to reach the first floor.
Bing!
Then the steel doors opened and she walked in and waited for the doors to close and take her up to her floor. As the steel box went up, she couldn't help but think about what games she would pay with Naruto, her dad wasn't home so it'd just be the two of them again. They could go to the park, or visit the mall downtown to do some shopping and maybe she might even use her allowance to buy some new books and maybe a manga.
After she got off the elevator, Abigail made her way down the hallway to her and her dad's apartment. She dug into her pocket and took out door key that had a small laser pointer on it, then opened the door, and walked into the house, smiling as she announced her presence, loudly.
"Naruto, I'm home!" Abigail exclaimed as entered the apartment. Not getting a response, she closed and locked the door behind her. "Hermano mayor, are you here?" She sighed after a moment, when she didn't get an answer, maybe he was sleeping in ...well, no matter, that just meant she ad to wake him up. The young Hispanic girl grinned as the thought of pulling a prank on the blonde while he was sleeping crossed her mind, he'd probably be mad at her for a while, but, he'd get over it.
She threw her heavy backpack on the couch and kicked off her shoes, then she slowly crept towards the guestroom. Naruto had ears like a cat, or better yet, a fox in her opinion. He could hear her coming from a mile away, so she made sure she was really quiet, taking one small step at a time, making sure not to step on any creaking spots on the wooden floor.
As she approached the door, Abigail smirked and placed her hands, slowly, around the nod and counted down in her head.
Five, four, three, two ...one!
Abigail turned the nob and burst into the room, "Naruto, I'm back hom-!" She blinked a few times as she starred up at the boy ...there wasn't anything wrong with the room itself, but there was something wrong with him. Why was there something wrong?
Because the blonde was, quite literally, standing upside down on the ceiling, like in was second nature.
"A-Abigail!" Naruto stuttered out, breaking the concentration of chakra to his feet. He fell off the ceiling and hit the ground head first, sending a shock wave of pain through his skull. "Ow, shit that hurt! Ow, ow!" He shouted out, grabbing the back of his head.
Abigail ran over to him and bent down, checking to see how badly he'd been hurt from the fall. "Oh no, Naruto, I'm so sorry! Are you okay?"
"Yeah, yeah, I just fine." Naruto said wincing, he said that but he still had a throbbing pain on his head. That fall was going to leave a lump, that was for sure. "I just need an ice pack or something, that's all."
"Okay, I'll be right back!"
Abigail ran out of the run to get an icepack from out of the deep freezer in the kitchen, when she came back, she lightly placed it on the top of his head and asked. "How about now, does it feel better?"
"Yeah, thanks, Abigail." Naruto said, holding the icepack on his head smiling at the girl.
The young girl smiled back, before asking, shyly. "Um ...h-how did you do that? And what were you doing on the ceiling?"
"Oh, that, well you see ...I, um." Naruto took a deep breath, if he was going to explain it, he was going to explain it right. "Well, you see, I was doing a exercise. To test out my chakra and see how long I could stay meditating on the ceiling."
"Chaka? What chaka?"
Naruto chuckled at the girl and patted her on the head. "Hehe~ not chaka, Abigail, it's called 'chakra'. It's made by mixing together physical and spiritual energy, and when you have chakra, with the help of hand-seals, you can preform jutsu."
"Jutsu? I think I've heard of that before in a manga ...somewhere, but I can't remember." Abigail said in thought, "what can you do with 'jutsu', where did you learn to do it?"
"I learned back at my village, you can do a lot of things with jutsu, from breathing fire, all the way to walking on water. For example, I can make a solid clone of myself and then there's-." Naruto went on to explain different techniques, like the academy jutsus', he even went on to explain what the Konoha was like and what it was like to be a shinobi, along with other things.
"-And once you graduate from the from the academy, that's when you first start off as a full fledged ninja. The first missions you get are D rank, they're sorta boring, you're mostly just doing chores and stuff like that. But, once you start getting serious missions, that's when the real fun starts."
"Whoa ...that is so cool~!" Abigail said, looking up at the blonde with great interest. "Can you show me one of your 'jutsu' moves Naruto?"
"Well, I don't know-."
"Aw~ come on, pretty please, I promise I won't tell anyone about it. No one at all," she said, giving him the puppy dog pout.
Naruto looked at her and sighed. "Alright, but remember, this stays between you and me, okay?"
She nodded, and Naruto stood up and put his hands into a cross-looking hand seal, focusing the right amount of chakra into the seal, before he said. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu(Shadow Clone Technique)!" There was a poof of smoke beside him and a clone of him appeared, with a grin.
"So what do you think?" The clone asked.
"Not to shabby, huh?" Naruto said, grinning at the girl.
Abigail hopped up and starting looking at the clone with excitement, poking the clone to see if it was really solid. "Wow~! You are so awesome Hermano mayor, what else can you do ...oh, can you transform into other people? The ninja in my manga can do that!"
"Yeah, I can do that too," Naruto answered, canceling the clone jutsu, sending the clone away in a poof of smoke. "But, for now, how about we watch some TV and maybe we can go to the park afterward. What do ya say, Abigail?"
Abigail nodded, taking his hand into her smaller one. "Sure ...oh, I know, how about we play tag again. Your fast but I think I can beat you this time!" She said, confidently, pulling him out the guestroom.
Naruto smiled at her, giving her a smug grin. "Whatever you say, we'll have to see about that."
~ ~(Flashback end)~ ~
"-And that's pretty much how it happened," Abigail finished.
Emily looked at the blonde, smiling. "I see, it's still amazing what you can do though."
"Yeah, I had my doubts when first met," Leon said. "But, after seeing you grind up those walkers, I'm starting to think things are going to be a whole lot easier with you around, blondie."
"As true as that might be, can you guys keep this between the four of us?" Naruto asked the two. "I really don't want people finding out what I can do, I mean I don't mind using jutsu when I have to, but I don't want people to get comfortable and depend on me too much."
"Uh ...sure, I'll keep it. Nothing will leave my lips, my mouth is sealed." Leon said, doing the zipper motion over his lips with his hand.
"Me too, I have no problem keeping secrets, even ones as big as this," Emily answered. "You have my word."
"Hehe~ thanks guys."
"So, how long do you think it'll take for us to get to Atalanta?" Abigail asked the three older group members.
Leon shrugged. "I don't know, but I can tell ya right now, it's not that far away," he said pointing out of the front window. "...see?"
They all followed his finger and saw what he was talking about, the big sign on the side of the road that came into view as clear as day, raising all of their hope.
Atlanta, Georgia 45 miles.
They were closer then ever now, safety was right around the corner ...at least that's what they all thought.
And that's it! The next chapter will be out soon, and it will also have some of the Atlanta survivors in it ...hopefully. Anyway remember to review and give me any opinions or ideas you may have for the story! ~Peace~