Resident Evil: The Naruto Project
Episode 1: So It Begins
Chapter 10: Losing A Leader, Gaining An Ally
Ino squatted in the small, ramshackle house that the four had taken refuge in. They were close to the gates of Konoha. Not close enough to be in the clear, but close enough to give them hope. She glanced over at Chouji, who was wrapping his leg. In the process of jumping over a fence, he hadn't timed it right and sheared a good portion of skin away from his knee, causing him great discomfort as they continued their harried run towards hopeful freedom.
"Chouji...how are you doing?" Ino was still quite nervous for her friend, who smiled, looking up and giving her the ok sign.
"I'm doin' fine. This hurts like hell, though!" Tenten walked over, kneeling down and inspecting his crude job of patching it up.
"Hmm...this should work for a day or two. But we have to get that looked at. Who knows what you got embedded in there." Standing back up, she looked over at Asuma, who was lighting another cigarette. "How far do you think we are from the gate?" Asuma, glancing up, shrugged.
"I dunno. Probably another half mile. It should be right over that next ridge there. If we can get through there, we should be able to make it out." He looked over at Ino as he lay back, his arms holding him up.
"Hey, Ino. How much ammo you got left?" Ino did a hurried count of her remaining munitions, sighing.
"I only have about twelve shells left. Chouji, how about you?" Chouji glanced down at his rifle, digging his hands in his ammunition pouch on his side.
"Well, I have three in the rifle, and about nine shells in my pouch. So, what? Like, twelve or something?" Ino sighed. Chouji was never all that bright, nor did he ever take anything that seriously.
"Chouji, either you have twelve shells left or you don't. Now, which is it?" Chouji laughed, squatting back down.
"Ok, ok. I have twelve. Tenten?" Tenten smiled, picking up her homemade nunchucks.
"I'm fine. I got these babies. But if I had a pipe or a long broom handle or something, I could make a spear, or something along those lines." She began sorting through the rubbish that the old house contained, sweeping garbage away with her foot. She stepped back as she unveiled a corpse, laying on its side, a large hole in its head. From what she could tell from her hasty look, it was missing a brain...and eyes...and a nose. "Well, that won't help me any." She began to sort once again, crying out with glee as she came up with a long, broken piece of piping. She began at once, shaping the pipe on a large rock on the ground, delighting in the way the sparks flashed in front of her.
"Great job, Tenten. Now, we just need to make it over that hill. When we leave here, no one fire unless you need to! If the creature is far enough away, just let it alone. It'll rot soon enough." Ino and Chouji nodded. "If they get close, then I want Tenten to deal with them. Only take shots, good ones, at the beasts in front of us. Otherwise, you're just wasting ammo...and we need all of it we can get!" All three nodded, and Tenten put her pipe through a hole in her shirt so it stuck to her back. She stood up, smiling.
"All right! I'm ready!" The others stood as well, Asuma going to the door and opening it a crack.
"Well, I don't see anything out there. But that don't mean nothin'. You guys ready?" The others nodded, so he booted the door aside, hopping out and looking around. Nothing seemed amiss, so he gestured to the others. "Come on! We have to get to that gate!" The others piled out, and all four began running towards the hill, the gate...and freedom.
As they neared the hill, Chouji chanced a glance behind them. In their wake was a massive horde of creatures, all shambling and half-running towards the four as they scrambled up the hill. "Asuma! We got company!" Asuma turned his head, growling at the lines of undead coming their way.
"Crap! They must have spotted us. Alright, remember what I said. They aren't that fast, so let's just keep running!" Together, the four made it to the top of the hill, and Ino almost squealed as she saw the gate.
"Hey! There it is! The gate! I see it!" Asuma grabbed her hand, yanking her along as the four tripped and slided down the other side of the hill, making for the gate. However, the path wasn't clear, as a pack of un-dead canines ran into view, blocking their path to freedom and running straight at them. Asuma, being the one in the lead, spat out his still lit cigarette, shouting at the others.
"Ok, I want you three to make it to the gate. I'll take them. Keep going until you get there. Open the damn thing and wait for me. I'll be there in a second!" With that, and without listening to the shouts of the others, he ran straight for the pack of dogs, brandishing his two pistols with purpose. His first two shots took a dog low. Another two smashed the leg of another, but didn't put it down. He began firing madly, only stopping to reload. The pack was still coming as the other three pulled away, taking a longer route that would by-pass the animals and get them to the gate. Asuma glanced over as he saw the three run behind a house, and smiled. Good luck, you three. He stopped, with the pack of dogs only a few hundred feet away and closing. Taking another cigarette out of his pocket, he lit it, sticking it between his teeth and smiling as the smoke went down his lungs. "Well, at least I won't die from cancer. HAHAHAHAHA!" He threw himself headlong into the pack, punching and kicking out as the canines ripped at him. Whenever his hands were free, he would fire a shot, but the dogs had his arms already engaged.
Ino was the first to the main controls of the gate. They had checked to see if they would open by themselves, but they were shut. The only way to open them would be to use the main gate switch. She threw one switch, and then another. Soon, she had all of them to the open position, but none of them were working. "Crap! Why isn't the gate opening?" She got down on her knees, grabbing the panel board and ripping it off its hinges. Inside was a mess of wiring and lights. Half the wires had been cut, and some were disconnected. Whoever had sealed Konoha had made sure no one was to leave. "You guys...we have a problem!" The others ran up, noting the panel and tangled wires.
"Shit! We're doomed!" Chouji got on his knees, grabbing wires and glancing at them. He began frantically trying to reconnect broken wires and plug in some that were unplugged. It wasn't until Ino stopped him that he gave up, letting his arms hang loosely at his sides. "We...we're never getting out of here, are we?" Tenten knelt, grabbing his arm and hefting him up.
"Don't be silly. We just need to figure something else out! This can't be the only gate out of Konoha, right?" Chouji brightened, until Ino put the idea down.
"Yeah, it is. Konoha only has the one gate...the main road of traffic into and out of Konoha. The mayor saw to that." However, Tenten was adamant.
"Bull! I know that there has to be some sort of passage...or tunnel...or extra gate. Something!" Ino still refused to believe it, until Chouji pointed at the wall.
"Hey...isn't that the wall and the gate...the whole city?" The other two glanced over. There on the wall was a giant picture of the city, where the gate was...and where two other gates lay. They lay on opposite sides of the city. Only small foot gates, but gates out of the city nonetheless. Ino squealed, grabbing Chouji and giving him a kiss.
"Chouji! I love you!" Chouji stepped back, putting a hand to his lips.
"Really?" Ino sighed.
"No, not really. But still, you may have found the way out of here! Come on!" The three raced to the stairs, stopping when Ino blocked them.
"Wait, what about Asuma? He won't know where we went!" The other two glanced at one another, nodding briefly.
"Right...well, what should we do?" Ino clicked her fingers together.
"I know! We can run upstairs a little, catch a glimpse of him running this way, and know where to meet him halfway. Then, we can all get the hell out of here!" Without waiting, she ran up the stairs to a small tower on the inside of the wall. From the tower, she had a pretty good view of everything. Following the path they had taken, and the path that Asuma had taken, she looked around. She saw the pack of dogs...but no Asuma? He surely gave them the slip and is on his way...right? Grabbing a pair of binoculars that were sitting out, she swept the land. Chouji arrived as the binoculars fell from her nerveless hands.
"What? What is it? Where's Asuma? Is he on his way?" Ino turned, her face white.
"Asuma...Asuma...As...Asu..." but she didn't finish, instead running to Chouji to cry on his shoulder. That was all he needed. He patted her back, tears coursing down his face, as Tenten arrived. Seeing them both like that, she needed no answer. She turned to the barren landscape, shutting out the moans and cries from below.
"Thank you, Asuma. You got us safely away. We owe you one!" Taking a brief moment to wipe a tear from her eye, she turned back. "Well, come on! He wouldn't have wanted us to wait here to die, right?" The other two nodded, Ino gaining control of herself again. They took off, running to the bottom of the stairs and down to the main level.
"So, which way?" Chouji glanced left and right. Ino went to her memory map, trying to remember.
"Well, if we follow the wall each way, we come to one of the gates. All the monsters are to the right, so we might as well go left, right?" The other two agreed, taking off to the left and running towards the small foot gate that they hoped would be opened.
It was hours later when they arrived. They had managed to dodge most obstacles in their way, including dogs and humans alike, to get to the foot gate. Now that they were there, they were ecstatic. Ino walked grandly to the gate, grabbing the handle and turning to her friends.
"My friends! Welcome...to freedom!" She yanked, hard. However, the door wouldn't give. She put her weight into it, using both hands for leverage, but the door still wouldn't budge.
"Chouji, help her, won't you?" Tenten, who had her back to the door as a lookout, nudged him. He nodded, walking up and grasping the handle. Together, the two pulled, but the door still wouldn't open.
"For god sakes! Why won't you open!?" Ino gave the door a kick, sighing and flopping on the ground. "It's hopeless. We're dead!" Chouji sank to his knees, smiling at her.
"Don't say that! That's something I would say, remember?" Ino smiled back. However, they didn't have time to rest. At Tenten's course announcement of trouble, the two hopped up, weapons at the ready. A horde of un-dead were swarming towards them, moaning and crying out. They took off, running to the right as they fired into the packed masses of creatures. It did little to abate them, as each that fell seemed to be replaced by two more. The three wound up in a parking lot of a grocery store, taking refuge in the doorway. The store entrance was boarded and blocked up, with no way in or out. They fired shots off into the crowd, taking a few down.
"Crap! I'm out!" Ino jammed her gun into the ground, emptying the cartridges. Chouji fired his last shot, reveling in the spray that erupted out of his foe's head.
"Yeah, me to!" They both looked at Tenten, who smiled.
"Well, I'll take down as many as I can. But I won't take them all!" The three smiled at one another, glancing back at the horde.
"It was good knowing you guys!" Ino stood up, grasping her gun like a bat. Chouji did likewise, while Tenten thrummed the air with her nunchucks.
"Let's go down fighting!" The other two nodded, watching the masses of un-dead draw nearer and nearer. Just as the zombies had them cornered, shots rang out. The creatures went down in droves, each shot ringing out true and clear. They never got any further to the trio, all of them being laid out in a matter of a minute. The three gasped as the last one fell over, a hole in its forehead.
"Wait...what the hell was that?" Ino ran out from the cover of the doorway, looking up. On the roof of the building stood three individuals, all packing plenty of firepower. One, a boy with flaming red hair, stood out front, his face a mask of grim determination.
"Why are you here? And why did you lead them to us?"
Next Chapter: More notes on what the Genesis Project truly is.