Forward Unto Dawn Chapter 4: For Tonight I'll Be Your Cornerstone, a Naruto + Highschool of the Dead Crossover fanfic

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Highschool of the Dead.

An important note, short but read: I want to let it be known that for any reader unfamiliar with how I write. The relationships in the stories I write are never simple. So just because you see characters getting close does not necessarily mean that they are the "pairing"... It just means that two characters are getting close. After being on the site for nearly 10 years, I know how people get when they see characters getting close like this. I just don't want to see the reviews flooded with "I can't believe you made it NarutoXblahblahblah. Have you not listened to reviews!" etc etc etc. So without further wait, please feel free to read on.

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Naruto took a deep breath and ran a hand through his hair before he heard the sound of movement that wasn't Rei's. A monster had launched itself from a flight of stairs at the young Uzumaki, fully intent on biting the young man. The irony of the whole situation was that the monster was wearing a helmet for some reason.

Regardless, the thing didn't stand a chance. Naruto caught the monster by the helmet in mid air, and then slammed him to the ground with enough force to kill the abomination and crack the helmet.

Rei frowned heavily at Naruto's immense display of strength. His body did not seem to be the type that should have been capable of displaying that much power. "I don't understand how you are able to kill these zombies with such ease Naruto-san. It is like you have practiced doing it?" Rei commented hoping to sate her own curiosity.

Naruto on the other hand was more curious about her own comment than her question about his abilities, "Zombies?" he asked curiously before looking down at the being under his hand.

"Hirano-san was going on about creatures similar to these things being called zombies in TV shows over seas." she said quietly, how tired she was becoming quiet evident by the way he shoulders were lax and how she held her spear.

Naruto frowned as the stood up, his eyes still cast down. 'Well at least I have a name for the creatures now.' Naruto thought to himself.

Naruto shook his head as he reached into his back pocket for the map he had quietly borrowed without asking from Saito when he finished tending his wounds. He moved without saying a word to be under the street lamp, as Rei quietly followed.

Naruto crouched down on the grass by the river and the street lamp as he unfolded the map in the light. He could honestly see incredible well in the dark, particularly given his profession. But making out small details on a sheet of paper in the dark would still be quite troublesome.

And then as he unfolded the map for the first time since he had appeared in this world, he felt lost. He had been able to seamlessly get his group out of the school, as well as gather their respect from his bravery and skills. And all of that now weighed down on his inability to read a foreign map.

Rei had stuck her spear into the ground in a bit of surprise, "Oh? A map? Where did you get that Naruto-san?" she asked trying to be polite to well... her leader. The idea seemed so foreign and strange to her. Just yesterday she was an everyday girl. A smart one that got straight A's, but still rather regular besides that. She had good father, a bit of an eccentric mother, a sweet boyfriend. Then in one day, everything had change to the point that she needed a leader and a map to even walk down the street effectively.

"I took it from Saito to look at after I finished with his wounds. I would have given it back had all of this not happened." Naruto said in a bit of frustration still trying to figure out where he was, having been used to working alone. Or alternatively working with a few shinobi he trusted that could either fly or had been in the field for quite awhile.

Rei felt a pang of guilt at that thought. Never did she think that the boy before her that couldn't be more than a couple years older than her would command more authority over her classmates than Mr. Shido, a teacher. It was pretty much completely her fault that they were stuck out there now. "Sorry." she said slowly as she crouched down beside Naruto, being mindful of her rather short school skirt, and not wanting to give Naruto a free show.

However that thought didn't seem to cross the boys mind in the slightest as he looked around past her as if she wasn't there while gently tracing his finger over the map.

"What are you looking for?" Rei asked with a soft raised eyebrow, silently thankful for the boy's respect and self control.

"Where the hell we are on this thing. I'm not from around here." Naruto said a bit distastefully. This wasn't even like a standard map. Saito, the student that had this likely had some sort of project or something with the map. It was littered with numerous notes, as well as with very small stickers, every shop was labeled. It was as if he was busy trying to make a full layout of the city, without simply taking a picture of it from the sky.

Rei seemed to notice the slight slip up Naruto spoke of as she leaned a bit over the map, moving onto her knees, thankful that the grass was dry. "You're not from around here?" she asked quietly trying to make conversation. "Where are you from then?" She asked as she brushed her hair behind her ear before leaning and looking over the map.

After a long day, and many suppressed snorts and scoffs, Naruto had let one through. "You wouldn't believe me in the slightest even if I told you." he said rather confidently, although in Rei's eyes he didn't appear as if he was trying to be insulting.

Rei just took it in stride looking to know more about their now supposed leader. "Well how about this, I tell you where we are, you tell me where you're from." she said with a smile trying to make a small but bright game in their gloomy situation.

Naruto's eyebrow twitched a bit as he thought 'She should tell me where we are regardless of what I tell her if she doesn't want to get lost.' but none the less he nodded. Even if he told her, it changed nothing as she wouldn't believe him. It was part of the reason he didn't feel the need to develop any form of a relationship with the few students around him. The moment he dropped Ayane off, he could figure out how to get home and be done with everyone else. Although... that probably wouldn't be the best thing to tell Rei at this given moment.

"Alright." she said a bit of cheer in her voice. She seemed like to type to enjoy meeting new people. Probably more so before this world went to hell, and less so now. She gently moved Naruto's hands off the map before turning the map and proceeded to point to a spot. "We are right here, we just moved through this tunnel under this highway."

Naruto pursed his lips as he looked over the map in a new light with the additional knowledge as he plotted his course of action judging from where he could sense Ayane's chakra from here. "Fine." he muttered in a bit of annoyance not entirely wishing to be forthcoming as he folded up the map so it would just show the particular section they currently resided in.

"I'm not from this world." he said as he stood up and gave Rei a serious look.

Rei looked him in the eye seemingly upset at his lie. But as she continued to stare, and his expression seemed to be unwavering, her eyes comically widened. "Wait are you serious?" she asked in almost a yell of surprise as she thought of the display in the parking lot that had gone utterly unexplained except for that no normal human could do it.

Naruto did a double take as he turned to face her fully and looked at her incredulously. "You believe me?" Naruto asked not quite believing that she actually believed him. If he was in her shoes, he sure as hell wouldn't.

Rei frowned as she too stood up, "Well why would you lie?" she asked. "What's the point?" she said as she tilted her head to the city that had pillars of smoke rising from various areas. "I mean it would explain what you did in the hallway and in the parking lot I guess. I suppose it would also explain why you are dressed weirdly and carry around weapons while in the school. Not to mention your skill with them."

Naruto didn't know how to feel about her easy acceptance. Initially he simply felt she was just foolishly naive at the mere question of why he... a shinobi... would lie. That and the fact that she had said he was dressed wierd. Naruto pursed his lips and said nothing as he began to walk down the road.

Rei was almost a bit surprised by this action as she scrambled up off the ground and picked her spear out of the dirt, "Well I mean that's true right?" she asked as she caught up in step with the blonde.

Naruto spared the girl a glance still trying to comprehend her acceptance, "Yeah it's true. I just don't understand why you are so accepting of the idea." He said a bit sourly under the impression she was pulling his leg. If she honestly believed him? This wasn't the situation he was originally counting on. Were people visiting from other worlds common here? The thought tightened the warriors stomach even though he knew it shouldn't effect him that much.

Rei blew a few strands of hair out of her face as they settled into a brisk walk alongside the blonde. "Well." she began thoughtfully, "Yesterday I was just a regular girl going to school. I went to my classes. I had a good boyfriend. I went to clubs and spent time with my parents. However today everything changed. The students I went to school with I had to kill in order to escape. Those students that ended up dying would come back from the dead to try and kill us. I guess I don't know what to think anymore. How strange is someone being from another world, when everything else in the world has turned to chaos?" She asked, their formerly brisk pace of walked had slowed as Naruto let her words sink in.

Naruto pursed his lips and figured it wouldn't hurt to throw the girl a bone and open up a bit. She didn't outwardly freak out when he let slip he was thinking of killing Shido earlier. "I'm from the Elemental Nations, more specifically Fire Country in the village of Konoha." he said quietly to gauge her reaction. They walk once again had stopped as he gazed at her.

To her a credit, it took Rei only a moment to process what exactly was said. However before a serious frown could appear on Naruto's face, she nodded. "Well... whats it like?" She asked.

Naruto relaxed a great deal as he took in the tone of her voice. Her skepticism was completely apparent, but she was just being polite not to completely blow him off. He could deal with that far better than he could deal with what he formerly assumed was blind faith.

"Different..." he said as he looked around at the large buildings in the distance, once again beginning a slow pace, one which Rei evenly matched. "This world is a lot more technologically advanced than where I'm from. Like we don't have these cars or these bus things that you all have. However at the same time the people are a lot weaker here." he said honestly. Although Naruto realized this did serve to make Rei a bit upset if her scowl was any indication, so Naruto elaborated.

"I don't mean that as an insult." he explained, "Where I am from, most of the world is at war with each other. A large portion of the population trains to become shinobi... or ninja I guess I should say from their childhood." Naruto explained in simpler terms for the young teen walking beside him.

Rei's skepticism was quite refreshing as she looked at Naruto incredulous, "You're saying... you're a ninja." she deadpanned as she looked at him as if he had just said he could create a moon.

Naruto nodded, further emphasised by him pulling out a kunai and a shurikan from one of his pouches as if it was a show of proof.

Rei took a good few moments not moving as her eyes moved over Naruto, then up to his face before back to the weapons in his hand, before repeating the process. Rei grimaced as she realized that perhaps she didn't want to know that her world was this far turned upside down. Zombies, and now real life ninjas appearing in her world. Her social bubble used to be so peaceful...

She took a deep breath and decided to ask, "And how young are you when you start training to become... a ninja." her twitching eyebrow was rather amusing as she couldn't even believe she was asking the question.

Naruto held back his amusement and stated bluntly, "Four."

Rei tripped.

Although Naruto was quick and caught her be the waist before she slammed into the concrete, but he could no longer suppress his giggles.

"Are you just screwing with me?" She asked with a glare taking in his chuckling form.

"No I'm being completely serious. I'm honestly surprised you are this understanding." he said with still barely contained amusement.

Rei grit her teeth at that, "Well, so it's like a military right?"

Naruto nodded his head at that, but said nothing.

"So what rank were you?" Rei questioned as she ushered Naruto over to a fallen motorcycle.

A silence fell over the duo as Naruto got a far away look in his eyes and they took a few minutes to set up the bike and roll it up the hill. It was during these moments that Naruto was able to truly think about everything that he was trying to get back to in his world. Everyone that was counting on him. Rei almost thought he didn't hear her question. However after she got ready to get on the bike, she got her answer.

"I was commanding general of the joint shinobi alliance forces." he said with a detached voice as he looked down at the bike, not really caring all that much about what they were doing anymore.

Rei looked a bit surprised, but she did her best to hide it. That rank sounded pretty high. But she didn't particularly want to jump the gun as she had no idea how high that rank actually was in their military. "How high of a rank is that?" she asked curiously.

Naruto pursed his lips at the thought, "The highest rank ever achieved in the Elemental Nations." he said quietly. That seemed to end their discussion on his home world for the time being.

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"Naruto-san! Please! Can you hold on to me tighter! It's hard to balance the bike when you lean back like that!" She said loudly as the wind whipped past her face. She had to admit it that it was almost comical the situation they were in. Although she would never actually admit it out loud.

Rei didn't want to sound arrogant, but she knew that as a woman she had the all the right curves in all the right places. Training with her dad at the police station with bayonets had considerably helped with staying in shape while keeping a good figure. Joining the spear martial arts club only further helped her body. And the fact that her body grew rather young, given that she was only fifteen. She had quite the body.

So the fact that she practically had to beg Naruto to hold on closer to her just so she could keep the bike steady was almost comical. Multiple times she had needed to pull over and stop just in order to find her balance on the bike once again. She had never driven anything in her life, and she wasn't entirely fond of the idea of having to learn how to drive in some sort of Zombie apocalypse.

Hell, she never envisioned herself driving in the first place. She personally always felt that if anyone in their group would ever be driving it would always be Shizuka-sensei or Takashi. Takashi always had a thing for driving the few cars he had the opportunity to even though he never had a license.

She resisted the urge to swing an elbow back when the blonde seemed to heed her request in an almost comical fashion. He had opted to scoot up extremely close and virtually cling every muscle on his chest to her back. He proceeded to wrap one arm tightly across her stomach, while another arm across her chest, latching his hand onto her shoulder. He then rested his chin on her free shoulder. And then he proceeded to start speaking in a bored tone, much to Rei's frustration.

"On no we're going to crash..." Naruto drawled. "Am I holding tight enough?" Although silently Naruto would never admit, he had almost perfected annoying his allies after his battles and encounters with Tobi.

Rei sighed thinking her life couldn't get much more frustrating than that moment. But she couldn't help but smile at the blonde's antics, despite the fact that she probably would have hit him on any other occasion. It seemed that after she had accepted him opening up to her, he had loosened up quite a deal in contrast to how he was around the others when he was on the bus.

Yet as quick as the antics began from the blonde, they quickly died. His grip on the brown haired girl in front of him considerably softened, and he once again leaned back again just enjoying the ride Rei could only assume. He had even removed the rather offending arm, and simply settled for a handle lightly resting on her stomach. Although she secretly felt that he was just doing that for her comfort. While he said he didn't know how to drive or ride the motocycle they were on. His balance on it was flawless, he didn't falter for a second as she went through some twisting turns. He had even helped her stabilize the bike a couple of times.

The ride was mostly in silence, they had probably been driving around for nearly a couple hours. Naruto just would occasionally pull out the map from his pocket, and point in the general direction he wanted Rei to go. It was quite ridiculous in her opinion. She felt like "The General's Personal Driver" as they road around the city.

She however was broken from her thoughts when the blonde spoke.

"Is there any way to make this thing go any faster, it is going a bit slow." Naruto said calmly in her ear.

Rei looked down and frowned, the meter saying she was going sixty-four. She knew it wasn't that fast. Takashi would brag sometimes about going speeds at least ten or fifteen higher. She personally didn't even feel comfortable going that fast given that at any turn they could be coming across a vacant car. And given this was her first time driving, on a motorcycle no less, she wasn't a huge fan of the idea.

"Erm why, do you want to try and drive it faster?" she asked. She knew her lack of confidence was bleeding through, but she didn't particularly care at the moment. She was more just focused on not ending both of their lives in something as trivial as a under aged driving accident with those zombies walking around freely.

Naruto's answer only served to surprise her though, and she didn't know what to think. "No it's not that, its just if this is as fast as we can safely go on this thing. You should just let me put you on my back so I can run. It's pretty late and I'm sure you're rather tired.

Rei raised an eyebrow at that, was he just insulting how she drove the motorcycle? "Umm no, I can make this go faster." she relented with a frown. "Just let me go stop for some gas." she said quietly. She wouldn't admit it, but Naruto's statement made her feel... well bad. Almost like he didn't approve of her.

Before hand when they were just running around through the school. She would admit that he was brave, and skilled. But to her that really meant nothing, she didn't need his approval. The only thing that really mattered was getting to safety with Takashi. It was likely the ideals everyone had in their group. Everyone had arrived in pairs of two, and each one had specifically looked out for one another on a level far greater than that of which they looked out for other people in the group.

However now it was just him... and her. She didn't even know if she would ever even get to see Takashi again. Naruto didn't seem to be worried about finding the group. But he only said that they may need to find a place to sleep for a few nights. He didn't say any more than that. They were expected to track down a group of people in a zombie infested city on a whim basically. Rei didn't have much hope.

Then add to the fact the Blonde's background? He was some sort of super trained ninja from the age of four that achieved the highest military rank in his world by seventeen?

Rei's body tensed at that. At the fact that she realized that she indeed was seeking his approval. The girl leaned forward on the bike slowly as in began to speed up. And quickly, that sixty-four on the meter had turned into a ninty-four. But more importantly...

Naruto had taken to wrapping both of his arms around her form in order to hold on, and said nothing else about the speed of the ride.

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Naruto smiled lightly as they came to a stop at what Rei called a 'Gas Station'. He didn't quite understand what it was, but there was gasoline where he came from. Just no stations dedicated to it's distribution.

The ride he had to admit had been rather boring for the first part of it. The speed was only a little bit faster than the speed at which a ninja could comfortably run. But then you had to take into account that a ninja was often running across water, or up cliffs, or through tree lines. And over all the ride was rather dull as it simply followed relatively open roads into the city.

However the last part of the ride after his suggestion to carry Rei, he didn't know what changed, but she decided to go faster. He had to admit the ride was considerably more fun as they reached speeds that no ninja could hope to run at for a long distance without any special abilities involved. He just hoped he didn't hurt the girl's feelings or that she didn't take what he said the wrong way.

"So what do we do here?" He asked with a raised eyebrow, as he unwrapped his arms from around the girl.

She gave him a look that was silently asking if he was an idiot before she quickly realized his rather unique situation. "Right, you don't have any idea what this is do you?"

Naruto simply shook his head and voiced his earlier thoughts, "We had gasoline where I came from for stoves and what not, but we didn't have a place dedicated to distributing it. It simply wasn't in that big of supply. Particularly after someone developed a unique power source that siphoned a power from seals that had raiton chakra stored inside of them."

Rei looked at Naruto curiously for a moment almost expecting an explanation to seals and chakra. However Naruto seemed a bit lost in thought as he looked around the gas station as if he was hearing things.

Rei shook her head and sighed. She knew that she wouldn't gain a total understanding of the blonde after spending only a few hours with him. And she could accept that. She just wish she had a bit of a greater knowledge base of... anything revolving around him. All conversation about his personal life had died on the note of his military rank.

"Alright." Rei said, "Well this looks like a self serve gas station like the one's my dad occasionally uses. I don't have any money though so you are going to need to go in there and break the register for some cash." she said calm, volunteering the shinobi for the job.

Naruto didn't seem to care, he just nodded his head, "Alright be careful, I'm hearing something out here, just keep your guard up." he said as if he was talking to one of his shinobi under his command. However the statement didn't serve to make the young schoolgirl any bit safer. She now silently wished that she was the one going into the store to break the register.

She did have some level of comfort though. She felt Naruto was probably only hearing a distant zombie or something like that. And given how they always seemed to stagger and groan upon approach. If she remained relatively silent, she could get the jump on it.

Naruto stepped into the store and took a glance around for a second, extending his senses. Upon knowing the coast was clear from the simple few seconds it took to check, he walked over to the register and stared at it for a moment.

He then knelt down and saw a keyhole in the bottom of the register, and quickly went through his tools to pick the lock in order to not make noise.

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Rei sighed as she was lost in thought. She leaned against a stone column in between a couple stations for distribution of gas. Her mind wandered in between what Takashi was doing, and the few bits and pieces of information she had learned about Naruto.

Part of her knew that Takashi would be safe, particularly alongside Busujima-san. However that thought didn't make her feel that much better as a sinking feeling of jealousy crept up inside of her. There was a time where she and Takashi were close, but then one day quite abruptly that time had come to an end as his friend Hisashi had proven to be there for her more so than Takashi had been when she needed him.

She knew it wasn't completely fair to be jealous and to want him to stay away from the purple haired student that was technically her senior. After all she by all accounts had a boyfriend only about twelve hours ago. Still that didn't stop the sinking feeling in her gut that wondered if he even cared if she was jealous. And the thought that she slightly hoped that he was jealous of that fact that she was alone with Naruto.

However all of those thoughts came to an abrupt halt as something crept up from behind and grabbed her.

She let out a piercing scream, as something grabbed her chest believing that any moment, a bite to the neck was coming. However it was then as whatever grabbed her ripped at and eventually ripped off her school shirt, and pointed a knife at her throat that she realized she was not dealing with a zombie. And it was why this person got the jump on her despite her thoughts being elsewhere.

A zombie did not have the intelligence to sneak up on a person like a living breathing human being. At least as far as they knew.

That thought quickly died though as the sick freak proceeded to grope at her now barely covered chest, and started to fiddle with her skirt while holding a knife to her throat. He was breathing heavily, and she could only pray that nothing further would happen.

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Naruto had rushed outside with the speed of a seasoned shinobi the moment he had heard the scream, and his worried face instantly turned into a cold one at the sight before him.

It was barely a couple articles of clothing from rape, and that thought alone soured his mood. He had seen quite enough of that before the war with all of the various bandit camps that were able to skate by being on the outskirts of country borders. Far enough away from the shinobi villages. But close enough to being able to cross a near by border so that shinobi would have to risk provoking an act of war in pursuit of them.

Rei's face that was formerly one full of a confidence that he respected. Now that same face was one that was filled with distress and panic. She was growing teary eyed by the second at her situation. 'Yeah well who can fucking blame her...' Naruto added his conscious thought.

"Hey bro! Your girl is pretty cute!" he taunted Naruto. "Kinda surprising really! You dress a like idiot!" He barked out a laugh.

Naruto resisted the urge to roll his eyes at the last bit. His clothes were his clothes. Call him an idiot for wearing them all they wanted. The clothes had a very fine link weaved only possible by an expert craftsman that made the clothes he was wearing virtually a suit of armor. The link laid in between a couple layers of fabric that had seals in it to regulate the temperature of the fabric to a comfortable degrees, up to the shinobi's personal preference. He wouldn't give up his clothes in this hell bent world for anything but a way back home.

"You should let her go." Naruto stated calmly. Although he didn't want to draw a weapon, he knew he was perfectly capable of using that idiot's own knife against him the moment the opportunity arose.

"You dumb? Like hell I'd do that. If I'm going to survive this monster filled shit hole, I need a woman." He only further made his intentions clear as he groped Rei's breast, trying to peel the bra down, while still maintaining firm control over her body.

"I'm going to repeat myself again, you should let her go." Naruto said with a cool edge to his voice.

"Are you insane?" the guy asked in respond. Naruto resisted the urge to snort at the irony. "All of my family turned into those things in front of me! I had to smash ev-"

"Shut up, I don't care. Let her go, or it will end badly."

Rei's eyes bugged at Naruto's statement. 'Is he trying to get me killed?' She kicked out of the man's arms and got a couple steps forward, but couldn't get further than that before the man gripped her by her chest once again.

Naruto clenched his jaw at Rei's move right there. She nearly slit her own throat open trying to break out of the man's grip. He shot her a very pointed glare, but she didn't even notice as she cried out at being touched again.

"You don't care?" The man gave a crazed laugh once again before moving in closer on the girl. "Her tits and her voice are might fine! And this ass!" he said as he clutched at her throat with a knife, ripping her skirt off with a deal of force.

Naruto's eyes narrowed further at the action. He never appreciated hostage situations. The reality of hostage situations is that nine times out of ten, if the person has only a single hostage, they aren't going to kill them. Because doing so would only mean that they were going to be killed moments later. So you often just had to stand there and watch often disturbing things until a proper opening was shown. However at this distance, with this idiot. Naruto despite his rising anger was sure he wouldn't have to wait much longer.

"Hey... you fuck her, right? Every night, don't you?" the man asked as Naruto kept a cold blank stare. However he did tense a bit as the man's hand began to wander further south. It made Naruto just want to take the risk, and make the kill, despite the obvious danger.

The man raised his arm back up at Naruto's lack of response, "Or... wait... You don't? You idiot!" he burst out laughing. "Now fill up the fucking bike! While I have fun with-"

"Naruto!" Rei cried in fear and panic at the thought.

Naruto clenched his jaw and took a step forward. And he honestly wish he had done so earlier, as it prompted a rookie mistake. "Fill up the bike or you'll be d-"

He pointed the knife at Naruto, instead of the hostage.

Naruto was in the guys face in a second, Naruto utilizing the man's own fist and arm to jab the knife into his throat, before slitting it open in a shower of blood.

The man crumbled to the ground wide eyed, dropping his knife and clutching at his throat.

"Dead?" Naruto asked finishing the man's earlier sentence cold dead eyes of a shinobi. A freightening sight truth be told. However the shower of blood that rained down from a throat being viciously cut open being poured on both Naruto and Rei did not stop the girl from running into his arms crying.

Naruto adopted a surprised look on his face as the near naked girl crashed into his chest sobbing over the very near rape experience. However as she leaned against him sobbing, he was suddenly brought back to the six year old blonde running down the street pulling pranks. Proclaiming that he was going to become Hokage so that he could protect everyone.

Naruto pursed his lips as he slowly wrapped his arms around the girl, despite the dying man at their feet.

She needed someone to remind her that she was safe.

And tonight he was reminded of a time where he wanted to keep people safe.

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Alright and that is another chapter. This chapter actually is only half of a chapter. The original chapter I wanted to post was about 12k words, and I simply didn't wanna post that much. I personally feel that when chapters start going into the double digit range? It becomes hard to sum up the events that really happened in the chapter, and it takes away from the key ones and generalizes them. Something I am not quite a fan of.

Anyways this was some more insight into Naruto's character, and you can see a bit as to why he acts how he does. Simply keep in mind that while all of this is going on here, every moment he sticks around in this world, his world is without's it's commanding general, and is likely losing the war because of it.

It was also a bit of a look at Rei I suppose. A lot of people aren't the biggest fan of her character. Either you are a fan of Rei or Saeko in most cases. More are fans of Saeko. However I personally always felt Rei had a lot of untapped potential with the concept of being a police officer's daughter, her street smarts, and how well she seemingly adapted to the situation. (Being honest, she adapted better than anyone else in the series. Any issues she had were with actual living people. The only one that could really be argued to having adapted better would be Shizuka... but she has no character anyways...)

So now finally I have been asking you to mention things about how you feel about X girls and why. And frankly you are still perfectly able to do so. There is actually a particular idea I am mulling over in my head right now that a reviewer left for me that I may end up using. So you do all help in regards to that. So feel free to continue posting about it or any ideas you have on it.

However more importantly for me right now.

I like Rika's character and want to add her into the story sooner(Her presence with meeting up with the actual team) Leave reviews on how you think I could do that.

(I am personally mulling over a very direct and early phone call from Naruto that gets straight to the point before handing the rest of the phone conversation to Shizuka. However I am hoping to think up a better idea soon.)

So anyways read and review, I actually do look forward to them. The fact that this story has actually been getting such popularity, interest, and good reviews is why I'm posting a bit faster than I feel I should be.

Info on Naruto's shackle slowly bleeds into the story as Naruto takes the time to analyze it.