Living Decay

Chapter 9


The next day started like any other. The sun rose, the birds chirped until they were ruthlessly crushed to death by an instinctive Tormentor, and folks went to work to try and earn enough to support their family's.

"Are you sure it's alright to leave him here?" Tazuna asked as he hiked his slipping pants up. "The bridge is almost done. Anything could happen

"Naruto has been training very hard for the past few days." Kakashi responded while taking his one visible eye away from his favorite novel. "He deserves a little break. "I'm sure he'll rush to join us as soon as he wakes up."

Kakashi looked over to his other two students. Sasuke was brooding as always and Sakura was trying to cox the Tormentor to come off Tazuna's roof and follow them to the bridge. The promise of treats did nothing; but the rather unintelligent creature eventually understood the girl and got down to follow them.

"Besides." Kakashi started up again. "He said that there wasn't anything to worry about and that he had a fail-safe if things got too bad."

Tazuna gave a shrug before the group left. This was hopefully the final day that the build team needed to finally finish the bridge. If they could push as hard as they could and work through their break; there was a small sliver of a chance that the bridge could be completed.

Despite how happy a day this was; the old bridge builder had a terrible sinking feeling in the pit of his gut.


Tsunami watched her father and the Leaf ninja head for the bridge from her kitchen window. The young widow gave a happy sigh before beginning to clean the dirty dishes from breakfast. There was a lot more then usual due to her guests; but she did not mind. She felt good that she was able to help even the slightest even though she was just a simple civilian mother. Warm beds and a good home-cooked meal were the least she could offer the generous ninja that were helping her father.

After finishing with the dishes, Tsunami looked up at the clock and decided that it was about time to wake her son up for school. She, and the rest of the village was very lucky that most of the school teachers were willing to work with little to no pay; considering the current state of things.

However, instead of his mother waking him up; a loud crash and his mother's sudden scream woke young Inari. Without a moment of hesitation, the young lad leapt out of his bed, practically jumped down the stairs, and ran into the dinning room to see two mercenaries holding his mother.

"Now look and see what you did?" One chastised the woman. "You gone and woke up the kid. What kind of mother does somethin' like that?"

"Maybe we should punish her?" The other asked with a sadistic grin. He drew his sword and slowly ran it straight down the woman's clothing. The cloth easily tore through her apron and casual wear; leaving her in nothing but her bra and panties.

"Yeah." The first sounded way too eager. "The boss said he wanted her alive; he never said how alive." He held the woman's chin. :Maybe she'd like to show her kid here how he was made?" He chuckled. "Bet that turns out on doesn't it? Being watched by a little boy."

"Let her go." Inari growled while running to the kitchen counter and grabbing the largest knife he could find. That took the smirk away from both men.

"Now that ain't a very smart thing to do kid." The second thug threatened while pointing his sword towards the boy. "We were told to keep this bitch alive; we weren't told nothin' 'bout no brat."

"Fuck it." The first one said as he drew his weapon and began to approach Inari. "I'll just kill him now so he won't be no trouble later."

"NO! Please!" Tsunami shouted. "I'll come quietly. I'll do anything you want. Just please don't hurt my son." She begged. But she did not cry. Gato had taken to much from her. He was not about to have her son or the satisfaction of seeing her tears ever again.

"Smart lady." The second chuckled before backing out of the house and onto the deck that connected the small plot of land the house stood on to the rest of the village.

The other mercenary gave an annoyed grunt before putting his weapon away and walking out towards his partner.

Inari swallowed the fear he felt, gripped the knife as tightly as he could, and charged straight for the man; weapon held high and ready to plunge onto soft yielding flesh.

Only, instead of burying the kitchen implement deep into the man's back; Inari was instead met with a hard fist straight on the nose, breaking it instantly. The force of the blow was enough to send the kid right back inside his small home.

"INARI!" Tsunami shouted distressing and worry.

"What a fuckin' moron." Thug two bemoaned. "Your ma' just offered you a chance to live. Why don't you be smart and just lay there so we don't kill ya' for bein' a pest?"

It hurt. It hurt a lot. But Inari was sick and tired of everything. He was tired being hungry. He was tired of being afraid. He was tired of living under Gato's rule. The young lad ignored the pain in his throbbing nose and was about to charge once again when a hand on his shoulder stopped him. He looked up to see an awake and fully clothed Naruto standing behind him.

"Fuck." Thug one swore. "I thought they had all left already."

The first mercenary just smirked. "What you frettin' over? It's just one little brat. He looks like he'd wet himself if he even so much as saw a drop of blood; let alone what we'd do to him."

Naruto ignored the two men and smiled down at Inari. "Thanks for distracting them kid." Naruto said proudly. "Go wash up while I get your mom back. I don't want to amaze you too much with my awesome ninja skills." He falsely bragged. Really, Naruto wanted the kid to leave so that he would not be traumatized by what was about to happen.

Little Inari looked up at Naruto for a moment and noticed his expression turn from a carefree smile to complete and total seriousness instantly. Maybe it would be a good idea to do what the trained professional killer suggested. He quickly dropped the knife and ran into the bathroom as Naruto made his way outside.

The two thugs drew and pointed their weapons straight at Naruto. "Don't you even think about tryin' anything funny." The first warned before putting his blade against Tsunami's neck. "Or else there will be one pretty little head rolling around."

Naruto held both of his empty hand up with palms out. "I don't have any weapons. What are you scared of?" Nothing was in his hands and he had honestly forgotten his weapon pouch when he rushed downstairs to help Inari and his mother.

"Cut the crap!" The second shouted. "I know you ninja can do some crazy shit without needen' any sorta' weapon." He and his comrade slowly backed up while holding the silent Tsunami. The Hell she was going to even give these assholes the joy of hearing her whimper in fear.

Naruto took a step forward and the thugs stopped. "Don't fuckin' move!" The first shouted.

"Fine, fine." Naruto said almost with a sigh as he continued to hold he hands out.

Thunk! Something in the water bumped into the wooden pathway. Neither of the goons looked to see what caused the noise. Naruto did however and gave a very obvious smirk.

"Don't you want to see what made that noise?" Naruto asked.

Both thugs gave each other a short glance before the first hesitantly turned his head to see into the water. There, floating, was a badly damaged and waterlogged corpse. The skin appeared to be pulled so tightly against the bones that it became transparent as there did not appear to be any muscle at all in any of the limbs. The spine of the floating body was completely exposed but appeared to not be sitting just right in it's natural position while the head appeared to be the most normal with little hair and only a long line reached from the cap to the neck and the yellow eyes being the only unusual aspects.

The goon gave a confused glance at his pal before looking at Naruto. What the Hell could this kid be planning? It was just a body. Probably some idiot that tried to defy Gato.

The sound of splashing water drew both thugs' attention now as the corpse's head suddenly began to violently twitch and spasm before suddenly rearing up and extending on an impossibly long and thin neck made of nerves and muscle.

"I think I'll call you." Naruto thought for a moment. "The Grabber."

The two men faced the creature on surprise before the monster's entire head split completely in half; revealing countless small needle-like teeth and a very thick fleshy tongue.

Tsunami; correctly assuming the creature to be one of Naruto's took the small window of opportunity she had and smashed the back of her head against her capture's nose. Breaking it as payback for her son. This clearly forced her capture to let her go as well as distracted his friend long enough for the monster to lunge forward and snap closed around one of the mercenary's head.

Instantly, the man began to struggle and began swinging his word around wildly as the monster's head and neck thrashed about wildly; pulling the man closer and closer to it's mostly motionless body. Just as quickly as the head moved; the creature's spine pulled away from the body revealing that the rips and smaller bones had been used to elongate and sharped the spine into a nasty looking curved blade. The blade was held up and controlled using pure muscle tissue; allowing for unlimited directional use.

With each violent thrash the Grabber pulled the man closer and closer to it's primary method of killing before quickly thrusting the organic weapon forward and impaling the man through the back. The blade easily went right through the man's body as it was tore free before being plunged in once again. The creature continued to hold and stab at the man until his screams and movements had completely stopped. It then tossed the corpse aside

While that was going on Naruto had charged the other man and quickly beat him into submission. Not much you can do when your friend is being repeatedly stabbed by an undead freak.

"What was your bosses plan?" Naruto demanded. He forced the guy to his feet and the Grabber instantly latched onto the back of the guy's head; holding him up.

The man did not respond to Naruto and instead spat out a small bit of blood onto the kid's face. Naruto payed the man back with a nasty punch to the gut. This happened nearly a dozen times before Naruto gave up.

"He's not talking." He looked at his new friend and then back to the house that Tsunami had ran into after getting free from her captures. Said woman came out wearing some new clothes and carrying Naruto's weapon pouch. She handed Naruto the pouch.

"Thanks." He said while securing the weapon holster on him. He then gave the woman a thoughtful look. "Why don't you play around with him while I go save the day?" He suggested. "The Grabber will keep him still for ya'."

Tsunami blinked in confusion for a moment before a vile smirk adorned her otherwise pretty face. She did not need to say a word; Naruto knew that he had just unleashed a monster more terrifying then anything he had ever created.

He did give the woman a nod though as his Stalkers walked out of the house and made their way over to their master's side. He gave them a once over before running straight for the bridge Tazuna and the other ninja were currently at.

As he moved; undead creatures of all misshapes and terrifying sizes crawled out from under the water or from within the woods. All following their master loyally. This is what had become of the corpses within that massive graveyard; their body's had been brought back and their souls were hungry for vengeance.

Naruto; taking note of his entourage made two clones of himself and the three ran straight through the village's main roadway in a typical V-formation. All the while shouting for everyone to get off the street and into whatever safe area they could; the boy was not confident that he could prevent the large hoard behind him from going on a complete rampage.

He felt tired as he ran. His breath was short and sweat had started to fall from his forehead. Keeping so many under control at once was draining the young boy of his energy much faster then any training session he had ever taken part of. He needed to get his small army to the bridge as fast as he could. Naruto refused to allow any unnecessary deaths.

Upon arriving at his destination, Naruto found the bridge to be completely covered in a thick fog. His Tormentor stood just outside of the fog and gave an excited roar upon seeing it's master.

Naruto stood for a moment and allowed his army to arrive before taking a long calming breath and slowly open his bleeding eyes. The world around him had become a bright red as his bright blue eyes turned into dark red stone.

Looking forward, Naruto was able to see the circulatory systems of several different people moving about on the misty bridge. Three that were around the same size as Naruto and were probably Sasuke and Sakura along with an unknown assailant. The unknown individual moved much too fast for Naruto to really get a good look. A more hefty and rotund system crouched down and hiding; Tazuna obviously. And finally, two taller and more thickly veined systems could be seen further down the bridge; clashing into one anther before pushing away repeatedly. Clearly Kakashi and Zabuza going at it.

Naruto focused on his teammates and could see that at least one of them was on the ground and was slowly losing blood while the other appeared to be trying to deflect something.

The young boy leapt up onto The Tormentor's neck before giving the order for the rest of his creations to wait at the end of the bridge. He secretly hoped that he could help his team while keeping the group of monsters from going berserk. He gave his mount a pat on the head and the creature charged forward into the mist.

He had to blink a few times to change his eyes back to normal as his monster got closer to his ailing allies. He could see that the downed member was Sasuke while Sakura was doing her best to deflect what appeared to be a veritable storm of senbon needles. The weapons appeared to be coming from about a dozen icy mirrors that had formed a small cage around his fellow shinobi.

"Can't you see that it is hopeless?" A familiar voice said from within the cage.

"You clearly have never met me before!" Naruto shouted right as The Tormentor charged right through nearly every ice mirror. Leaving only a few to suddenly melt into puddles. Right on the front of The Tormentor's head was the same shinobi from a while ago that had taken Zabuza's body after their first meeting. The undead monster held the front of the enemy's outfit in it's jaws.

Naruto firmly planted both hands on the base of his mount's neck before lifting both of his feet up, pulling them close to his body, and slamming them both as hard as he could directly into the ninja's masked face. He then used the shinobi's face as springboard to launch himself off of his beast and to land firmly next to his female teammate; who was currently looking like she had just lost a fight with a giant pincushion. Sasuke looked about the same.

"Thanks." Sakura panted as she carefully pulled a few weaponized needles out of her arms.

"Need a break?" Naruto asked while watching his Tormentor thrash the enemy shinobi about like a rag doll.

"Hmph." Sasuke responded while weakly pushing himself to his feet. "The day i let you show me up is the day the sun dies." The Uchiha stated as he tried to remove the weapons embedded in his flesh.

"Well looks like I still got a chance then." Naruto smirked as his monster suddenly tossed it's toy towards him and his team. The figure slowly got to it's feet. Sasuke and Sakura got done in a stance, ready for another fight.

"I knew I had no real chance." The shinobi sighed as a large crack could now be seen running through their mask. "I thought that there might have been a small chance i could have at least taken those two down before you would arrive." The shinobi continued to look forward as it's broken mask began to slip from their face.

"But I knew I would never be able to defeat you, Naruto." The mask fell away to reveal Haku's sad face. "Your so much more than a mere tool, like me."

Naruto dropped his stance as his eyes widened in shock.

"You." Haku paused before smiling softly. "Are much too determined to be killed so easily. Plus your pets would have been upset with me." His gaze landed on the three Leaf ninja. "They are what you fight for? Your home? Your friends? The people you care for? Your pets? You are their tool as much as I am for my master. But your different."

Naruto felt a mix of emotions that he could not understand as he continued to stare at the boy he had befriended less then 24 hours ago. Someone he had hoped would have been a long time friend turned out to be a very dangerous enemy. He did not how to feel, or what to do.

"I seem to have outlived my usefulness." Haku stated solemnly. "I am a broken and useless tool that can no longer serve his master. Kill me so that I may die while doing what my master wanted."

Naruto could only shake his head no.

Sakura, seeing that something had happened between the two decided to stay out of the situation while Sasuke was simply too weak to do much of anything but glare.

Haku pulled several senbon out from within his outfit. "Then i will make you kil-!" He stopped mid threat when his eyes widened as a rush of chakra rushed over him.

"I still have one more task." He mumbled before suddenly vanishing in a splash of water. Not soon after, the leaf shinobi felt the same and dashed as fast as they could to were Kakashi and Zabuza had been fighting.

They came upon the sight of Kakashi thrusting his electricity covered arm right through the chest of a suddenly appearing Haku. The boy did not seem to notice as he tried to pull Kakashi's arm out from the bleeding hole, only to stop moving completely and slump over.

It was fast. The boy died then and there. No fanfare or great battle to the death like the stories that were told in the history books. The shinobi passed doing the one thing he had sworn to do; protect his master at any cost. He had succeeded with the cost being his young life.

Zabuza stood shocked for a moment before reaching for his sword and attempting to cleave right through both Haku's body and Kakashi. The jonin was able to leap out of the way while carrying the corpse.

"The Hell is wrong with you?!" Naruto shouted he jumped in between the rouge ninja and his instructor and blocked his next attack with his own kunai; just barely deflecting the attack away.

"He died for you!" Naruto shouted. "You were everything to him and you were just going to cut him up like that?" Naruto threw one of his weapons at the man; it sailed by harmlessly as the boy's growing tears blocked his vision. "You were his world, everything he ever cared for. And you would destroy his body just like it was trash."

Zabuza stopped moving.

"Did he mean nothing to you?!" Naruto shouted at the top of his lungs.

The bridge was silent for what felt like hours until Zabuza's gravely voice broke it.

"He meant more to me than anything else in the world." Zabuza said as he look Naruto straight in the eyes. Memories of him and his young ward filled his mind; and the sadness of knowing that they will never happen again broke him. Tears visibly streaked his face. He had never realized how much the boy had earnestly cared for him until seeing the life drain from his eyes. It was only then that Zabuza realized how much he actually cared for the now dead shinoi. Regret filled his heart.

A slow clap could be heard coming from the uncompleted end of the bridge. Zabuza cleared the mist to reveal the short and round Gato with an entire army of thugs and rogue samurai standing behind him. On either side of the short man sat two completely naked women; their bodies thin enough that their rips could be clearly seen. It was clear that they had not properly eaten in days.

"What a great show this has been." The short man chuckled while peering at the ninja through a pair of small sunglasses. He turned his head slightly to the Leave shinobi. "I am a bit disappointed however; I thought you would killed Zabuza by now."

Said assassin just made a grunt while smirking underneath his facial bindings. "You never intended to pay us did you?"

"Of course not." Gato chuckled. "Why would I pay two people the same amount when i can split that among all this fine gentlemen? It just wouldn't be good business."

"Good thing I didn't like you in the first place." Zabuza reached for his blade. "Hey kid." He addressed Naruto. "Haku told me what you can do. Mind bringing me back so that I can kill this fat fuck?"

Naruto did not have time to respond before Zabuza drew his large blade and dashed straight into the crowd of soldiers. Only to be stopped in his tracks by a hail of arrows. The man was dead before his body even hit the ground.

"That was easier then I thought." Gato chuckled.

"Really?" Naruto suddenly asked as a sudden reached and raspy gasp erupted from behind him and his team.

Out from behind the group walk what appeared to be an incredibly emaciated and lanky body with every inch of skin being completely frostbitten. No eyes, no air, no nose, and no body jaw with a stiff and sharp tongue were the only features of it's blackened head. That and the occasional spikes of frozen blood that poked out in random places. The arms were so long that the new creature was forced to keep it's long bony arms bent to prevent it's long and bloody talons from dragging on the ground. It's legs were thin and long and ended with feet encased in a shell of frozen blood. Every time the creature moved, small bits of ice would fall from various parts of it's body and it's joints would constantly crack. The monster was constantly shaking and shivering; as if it was always cold and could never get warm.

The simply designed monster walked over next to it's new master and tilted it's head at Zabuza's fallen body. The creature's basic appearance makes sense if one realizes that there is only so much that can be done with completely frozen muscle and organs

"Do you remember?" Naruto asked the creature without taking his eyes away from Gato. The boy's team slowly moved into better fighting positions on the bridge while the thugs were distracted by the new monster.

The beast did not show any sign that it had heard the boy.

"Huh," Naruto sighed. "Rest in piece Haku." He said quietly. The creature looked from Zabuza'a body then at Gato and back again. It did this several times before staring at Gato and letting out a long, raspy and shivered scream.

"Seems some memories might remain." Sasuke mumbled.

"Either that or it just knows how it needs to kill to make it's master happy." Kakashi whispered in retort.

"Not yet The Frozen." Naruto addressed the monster. "We should wait until your friend can join."

Gato and his men were already put off by The Tormentor but were confident that they would be able to take it down eventually. The inclusion of this Frozen creature was only slightly alarming. The now violently twitching and shacking body of Zabuza was even more disconcerting.

Naruto glanced at the body before looking back at the group of thugs and taking a small step towards the corpse. He suddenly found several dozen weapons pointed directly at him. The Frozen and Tormentor both gave low hissing growls at the threat towards their master.

The boy took another; the weapons remained pointed at him, but nothing else happened. This had become a sort of stalemate between the two groups; as long as Naruto did not step towards their boss they would not attack, and in turn they would not have to worry about the rotten beasts protecting the boy as well as his team of trained assassins.

Naruto still did not take his eyes away from the crowd. Neither did his teammates or his creations.

He approached the body before gently kicking the blade tip of Zabuza's massive sword in the direction of Gato.

"A-Are you threatening me boy?!" Gato shouted while trying to sound like he was somehow in control of the whole situation. Naruto did not respond as Zabuza's body began to change.

The first of which was the eyes sinking deep into their sockets and all hair being absorbed into the skin. The cranial and sinus regions of the skull became dis-articulated from the neck as the jaw pulled away from the skull; tearing the cheeks to the point of nonexistence, making the mouth able to open wide enough to easily fit a full grown adult's head into. Every tooth in the corpse's upper jaw were absorbed into the skull, along with most of the palate region vanishing within the throat. In their place sprouted a pair of multi-jointed appendages ending in a pair of sharp, jagged bony fangs. The bottom jaw split in two and curved into similar fanged appendages while the chin fused with neck into an almost immovable structure. Meaning that to bite, the creature would have to move it's entire skull instead of just the bottom jaw like it's once living body would have.

The body's arms became more muscular and developed while the fingers became long bladed claws. The thumb of each had tore itself away from it's original position and moved to the front of the wrists as the hands dislocated themselves; turning them into animal-like paws, in the most demented sense of the word. The creature's spine grew and grew until the ridging tore the back open and extended the spinal column, a clear sign that this new monstrosity was going to be able to move in ways not meant for a normal human.

The monster flipped onto it's back and started to viciously tear at the pants that contained it's lower portion until they were gone; revealing the flesh on it's legs being flayed and the muscles fusing and twisting together into one long appendage. Every bone was pulled out of the fused limb and was converted into matter to be added to the rest of the creature's skeletal system.

Naruto slowly knelt down. "Take it." He whispered.

The strands of muscle and tissue at the end of the creature's new tail reached out and grasped the handle of Zabuza's sword; breaking the grip and hilt away from the blade and absorbing a portion of the blade into the new fleshy appendage. This ended up turning the undead beast's flexible tail into a nasty bladed weapon.

The creature flipped back onto it's stomach and looked up at it's master.

"Wha-wha?" Gato stuttered. "What the fuck did you do?"

Naruto looked at the man with a heavily judgmental look as he stood up. "I simply gave the man his last request." He looked down at the excited monster. "You should be careful." Naruto sent a nast smirk at the mob boss. "He can be quiet a Leaper."

"K-kill them! Kill all of them!" Gato shouted. His men hesitated for a moment before all drawing their weapons and letting out a loud cry of war. Only to have their shout be answered by the collective roars, snarls, and screams of Naruto's own undead army; slowly making it's way across the bridge, brandishing claws, teeth, and tentacles all itching to tear at any exposed flesh.

The monsters walked past Kakashi and his other two students and stood directly behind Naruto.

"I should warn you." He said as his legs suddenly gave out and he feel to his knees. "I've never let go before!" He shouted loudly; a sign for his team to get as far away as possible. Sasuke was sure to grab Tazuna as he Sakura and Kakashi ran off the bridge.

"Fucking kill them all!" Gato shouted. His men charged forward.

"Have fun." Naruto said as he let go of all control he had over the monsters. For a moment, a split second, the smallest iota of time; the creatures did not move. Then they all charged; killing the only thing on their mind. Making their family bigger and protecting their master was only thing that existed within their limited minds. They held no concern for their own well being as blade and arrows pierced decayed flesh. They simply continued forward until their own organic weapons found their own marks.

It was a nightmare.

The humans had no chance against the undead masses. A few were able to cut off a limb or two, but that did little to nothing to slow down the living murder machines. Even worse was that with every thug that fell, not ten seconds later would start changing and would join the undead horde; making the small army even bigger.

Naruto fell onto his back and stared up at the clear bright blue sky; the sounds of clashing weapons and death screams echoed through his mind. Good thing he was used to such horrors from his container's nearly constant attempts at breaking his mind. He was just happy at the break from trying to control the entire horde of monsters. He had no idea how he was going to make it back to his home village with all of them.

As the shouts started to die down, Naruto slowly sat up and watched the last of the hired thugs try to run away; only to have several nasty blades pierce their vulnerable flesh.

There was a meticulous nature to how the undead monsters killed their prey. Where a normal soldier would deal a single lethal blow and leave the victim to eventually die; these beasts always insured their victim's demise. There was a zero percent probability of a target ever walking away alive. And the thugs on the bridge were proof enough of that fact.

One tried to jump off the bridge only to have a Slasher stab into the man's back and pull him back. Instead of pulling it's blade out of the clearly dying man; like the samurai of old would have, the Slasher stabbed into the man with it's other arm into the man while slamming him to the ground. Tearing it's arms free before repeatedly slashing and stabbing at the dying man until every possible sign of life was gone. No remorse or hesitation could be seen in the creature's as they went about their bloody work. They were not animals.

They were true monsters.

"Bring me the fat one." Naruto ordered as he witnessed a Puker's acidic bile melt away the skull of the last thug. The young ninja could not see what had happened to the two women that had accompanied Gato. They were probably already amongst his ranks of the undead.

He knew he should feel bad about knowing that the two clearly innocent women had been killed in most likely a very brutal fashion. But the knowledge that their souls had been freed from their earthly torment and that their bodies will be used to protect their new home kinda' made up for it in Naruto's slightly cracked mind.

A sudden shout notified Naruto of Gato's capture. The tired boy turned his head to see the man being dragged across the hard bridge by a Slasher's; the monster's blade having gone straight through the short man's leg. With a might swing, the Slasher slide Gato's struggling form in front of it's master.

"You've caused this village a lot of trouble." Naruto stated in a matter-of-fact tone. "I could just have my pets tear you apart, or I could leave your fate to the villagers." Naruto slowly got up on his shaking legs, he had to hold onto the shoulder of a nearby Puker for balance. "But I'm just a genin and it is not my place to determine that."

Naruto curled into a ball for a moment before throwing his head back as several bright red tentacles launched themselves out of his gut and quickly snatched up any body parts that were left on the bridge before retreating back into the seal.

"Damn." The young ninja mumbled. "That's another ruined shirt."

He turned to face the direction of the village and where his teammates were waiting; several of the undead monsters gave excited snarls in hopes of continuing their festival of slaughter. Naruto had just enough energy to command his soldiers not to kill his fellow ninja, or the nearby village. He had to use the Puker almost completely as support to walk forward; keeping his army under control took a lot more out of the Uzumaki then he had thought. There had to be another way to control them, or at least an easier way.

As Naruto slowly walked forward, the undead beasts followed while pushing Gato along on his injured leg.

Seeing their teammate stumbling towards them and the relative calm nature of his monsters; Naruto's teammates made their way to meet him halfway across the bridge.

"Fucking shit kid." Gato cursed as the bladed tail of the transformed Zabuza jammed itself hard into his back. "I should have killed that old man months ago."

Naruto did not respond.

"You think your hot shit don't you?" Gato tried to force a reaction out of the brat. If he was going to die, he was going to die pissing off his killer. "You ain't nothin'. You call yourself a ninja? Ha! Your just a little cowardly baby hiding behind the monster's he keeps under his bed."

Again, no reaction from Naruto. The boy was simply too drained to care about what the man had to say. He had done almost nothing to entire day, yet felt like he had been training for seventy-two straight hours. He could say without any exaggeration, that keeping his undead minions under control was the most difficult thing he has ever had to do.

Worse yet, Naruto was unsure if he could even go to sleep. With how many new additions to his family, there was no telling if his inner beast would do something or not. Until he had a way of knowing for sure that nothing would happen, Naruto could not afford to fall asleep.