Living Decay

Chapter 29


"Run."

Naruto's words where strained. He fell forward and was forced to hold himself up on his hands as his eyes once again became distant. It was taking all he could to slow down the Hunter's regeneration.

Sasuke snarled at his downed teammate before returning his attention to the partially completed Hunter. The beast's newly reformed head stared back at the Uchiha with it's angry yellow eyes.

Even as it's arms had yet to fully reform, the creature started walking towards it's prey. Each footstep thudding hard against the hospital floor as it walked at a steady pace.

Sasuke once again, squared off against the mighty creature. If he had reduced it to nothing but legs the first time; then he was going to turn it into nothing but ash the next.

"Naruto." Kakashi's voice held a slight tone of panic. "Call it off." He quickly stepped in between the monster and his student. Despite his extreme stupidity, Sasuke was still under his care. There was no way he was going to allow harm to come to the kid as long as he had breath in he lungs.

The Hunter continued to walk towards Sasuke with no change at all in it's pace. It did not regard the older shinobi one bit. He was nothing more than a breathing corpse that stood between it and it's target. Should he remain in the way, then he two will die.

Naruto did not respond to his teacher's words. His eyes once again becoming wide and distant. His blue orbs twitched and glanced about at nothing.

Kakashi quickly went through a few hand seals before slamming his palms onto the ground and a large wall of solid stone appeared separating the living from the dead.

Knowing that the wall was not going to keep the creature at bay long, Kakashi quickly pushed past Sasuke and grabbed Naruto's shoulders tightly.

The Uchiha could not hide the scowl at the loss of attention. Once again, Naruto was stealing his spotlight.

"Naruto!" The man shouted at the nearly catatonic lad. "Naruto, focus. You need to stop that thing before someone gets hurt."

Naruto was still not responding. His eyes had no blinked once since the Hunter had shown up.

On the other side of the wall, the Hunter could be heard slamming it's impressive bulk against the stone. Each ramming charge shook the floor and caused any loose stone to crumble away.

Seeing that he had proven himself and that there were no longer any eyes on him, Sasuke decided it was best for him to leave. He calmly walked past the two and went down the stairs, acting as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.

He ignored the rushing and panicked hospital staff as he traveled down to the bottom floor. The hospital entrance was partially barricaded with staff already hard at work removing the ramshackle together barrier of furniture.

Naruto's undead horde had calmed down and now the only one's left outside of the hospital were those waiting patiently to be let back in to go about doing their regular work.

Tsunade was overseeing the return to order as well as keeping a close eye on the undead to insure their intentions were not malicious.

Sasuke had just about reached the exit when the sound of loud crashing and screaming could be heard from several floors above. The boy paused for just a moment. Just long enough to be ever so delayed by the sound.

He was just about to leave when a loud crash from behind forced him to turn around. A small amount of rubble and random junk from the floors above now lay upon the once clean hospital floor.

In the middle of all the rubble stood the Hunter. The monster had smashed it's way down from floor to floor to follow after it's target. And the creature's vile yellow gaze instantly locked onto Sasuke and it once again began it's slow methodical walk.

Kakashi had clearly failed to snap Naruto out of his stupor in time to halt the creature.

Sasuke wanted to run. But he finally had a crowd. He had people that would be able to witness his power. The true power of the Uchiha.

He turned to face the beast and once again, began to charge up his newest favorite attack. Sparks began to form around his hands as his eyes became the signature red of his family.

The Hunter paused for a moment. It stared at it's prey and recognized what it was doing. The Hunter was one of the few privileged with the unique ability to learn. Only it and the Hive Mind were currently capable of learning and adapting their attack methods based on experience.

The Hunter waited for it's prey to make the first move this time.

And, Sasuke did. He charged forward once again, just as he did just a few minutes ago. His eyes focused only on the target in front of him and not on the large-breasted woman running to intercept his attack.

This time, instead of bringing it's arms down in an effort to impale the youth, the Hunter held it's wicked weapons to the side. Easier to bisect it's target that way.

Unfortunately, the beast did not have a chance to pour the young man's blood.

Tsunade, seeing the obvious attack, ran forward and quickly snatched Sasuke by the wrist. Unlike Kakashi who had simply knocked the attack away, the woman held onto the pale limb while using both her and his momentum to quickly fling the boy around and out right toss him right out the hospital door.

She quickly got out of the way of the annoyed Hunter as it stomped past her. The old woman knew better than to challenge the killing machine. No matter what she could do to it, she knew it would just keep coming back. Even if she somehow managed to completely destroy the beast, another would just take it's place.

It was not going to stop in it's slow hunt. There was nothing that she or anyone else could do except delay the inevitable. Kinda' why she tossed the boy out of the hospital; that and she really didn't want for there to be a gory display for the people waiting treatment to witness.

Sasuke was going to die.

Said boy was busy getting up off the ground. Tsunade's sudden action caught the young lad off guard, so he landed pretty hard on his stomach. It was not until he heard to hospital's automated doors open and the steady thumping of the Hunter's powerful foot falls did the boy realize he was still not safe.

So, finally using his head for once, Sasuke ran instead of attempting another attack on the creature. He did not nee to run fast. He just needed to move faster than the creature could.

Tsunade observed as the creature followed after it's target. A heavy sigh escaped from her lips as the inevitable backlash of the Hunter killing the "last" Uchiha was going to cause for practically the entire village was something that she knew she was somehow going to have to deal with.

By the time Naruto and Kakashi had reached the bottom floor, a clean-up crew was already hard at work cleaning the rubble the Hunter had created as well as starting repairs on the multiple holes it had made going down each floor.

Naruto appeared to have returned to normal, yet did not appear distraught over the eventual loss of a teammate. He walked through the hall as normal as could be.

Kakashi looked less than pleased about the whole ordeal. His posture was stiff and he walked as if walking on eggshells. The juxtaposition between the two was obvious.

Tsunade had to fight the urge to ask what had happened. Her assistant, however, did not.

Shizune had rushed over to the two mean and simply asked point blank.

"There is nothing that anyone can do." Naruto stated calmly. "They see what Sasuke did as an inexcusable act. He will be punished for it."

Shizune gave Kakashi a concerned look. The man just shook his head. He had already asked Naruto every question under the Sun in regards to there being some way for Sasuke's life to be spared.

Naruto left without saying anything further. Despite how normal he appeared to be on the outside, the boy was clearly torn apart emotionally. None of his creations had ever so directly ignored his orders as well as become a risk to a member of his own home.

He wandered aimlessly through the village; his mind preoccupied with the countless number of voices and images he had once been so used to. For some reason, he found it impossible to block any of them out.

A great depression had finally sunken into the boy.

He had failed his village. He had promised he could control his monsters and now one was set on killing a valuable member of the village. He had tried with everything he could to get them to leave Sasuke alone, and he was successful in getting most all of them to accept his rule.

Naruto was even able to convince the Hive Mind to obey him, albeit with a lot more difficulty than the others. It was only when he tried to control the Hunter did he find he was completely unable to.

Long and short of it; he told the creature to stand down, and it responded with a quick and harsh 'No'. Basically.

Obviously it was a little more complex then that, but who really wants to sit around for such details?

The weight of failure was heavy in the poor lad and he dreaded what was soon to become of him because of it. Already the usually cautious gaze of the villagers were glaring down at him with hate and spite once again. It had been so long since the boy had felt this useless and avoided.

Word had traveled fast; and probably horribly twisted.

"Lover?!" A collection of voices called out to him from the other end of the street. Once again it was La-Rn, holding herself up on the surrounding buildings, who had found him at his lowest. Whatever strange abilities she possessed, seemingly always able to find Naruto when he was not at his happiest appeared to be one of her strongest.

Not wanting to be seen any worse than he already was, Naruto continued without saying a word the creature. La-Rn followed, knowing why her lover did not speak.

"Hey." He finally said solemnly when finally nearing his home. So very few people were around that area, nearly no one lived in the surrounding buildings except for the most desperate in need of a roof.

La-Rn came down from the building she had been climbing over and lowered her head to level with the boy. She moved back and forth a bit to check the boy over, taking note of every bruise and scratch he obtained during his scuffle with the other human boy.

She did not like the other boy. He had attacked her lover unprovoked and risked destroying her lover and her other's homes in the process. His upcoming death was not something she was going to mourn; and she found it strange that her lover would.

He had attacked Naruto aggressively with the intent to seriously harm the blond. The fact that we was soon going to pass from this world was something that should be rejoiced.

Regardless of her own feelings, her lover was still upset over the entire matter. It was her duty as her lover's lover to do all she could to ease his burden.

"Lover...Ok?" Her tone was gentle as several of her tendrils slowly moved around to the boy. Naruto did not flinch when they rested against him and was in fact pleased with the soft contact. The lengthy appendages draped over the boy's shoulder and curled around him, forming a comforting embrace that made it almost impossible for Naruto to not give a slight smile.

"I just..I don't know." The boy mumbled. La-Rn simply tilted her large head without saying a word.

"I thought that Sasuke was at least someone I got kinda' along with." His voice was distant and clearly showed that he was upset. "I just don't get why he attacked me."

"Gone...Soon..." La-Rn tried to comfort her Naruto. To her kind, betrayal is an impossibility. So the concept of a friend becoming an enemy was something that her mind simply could not comprehend. Luckily for her, Naruto took her words more as meaning his sour feeling would eventually pass.

"I know." He sighed. "But I wish that there was just some way I could make that thing stop. And even if I could, I don't think it would even let me go through with killing that thing."

La-Rn gently began to hoist her lover into the air so that she did not need to be so low to the ground to properly converse with him. "Pleasure...Lover?" She offered; genuinely believing that it would put the boy in a better mood. She began to walk with her doll-like love to the one place she knew was safest for him; his apartment. It was just a block or so away, and with nobody willing to be around the area, there was no harm in the invisible monster carrying Naruto there.

Naruto gave the creature a confused look before realizing what she was implying. His face promptly heated up and he began wildly waving his hands in front of him.

"No, no, no! You don't need to do that!" He sputtered while noticing the creature's tentacles moving closer to hem of his pants. Naruto placed a hand on the appendage to signal he wanted the creature to stop. She took it to mean he did not want that specific tentacle, and so brought another one up; which was also promptly blocked by Naruto's hand.

A short distance away, a familiar head of dark blue hair could be seen peeking around the corner and observing the two.

Hinata wanted desperately to be in La-Rn's place. She really wanted to be there comforting Naruto and being there for him when she knew she was needed most. But, despite her near constant lustful desires, the young lady was unable to will her feet forward towards the boy and confront him personally.

She could interact with him like any normal person, but when it came to matters of the heart, Hinata would just freeze up. It was the most bizarre thing. The girl had hoped that her heightened sexuality would have done away with her shyness towards the boy, but it appears to have made it worse in some ways while better in others.

While hiding away and a new sense of self-loathing that could only be redeemed by several hours of vigorous masturbation, a small tendrils appeared seeming from nowhere and wrapped itself around Hinata's arm.

The disconnected appendage suddenly yanked Hinata out from her hiding place. The girl tried to resist it's pull, but only succeeded in making it drag her towards Naruto; whom had yet still to notice the girl.

It wasn't until the fleshy appendage gave one final hard yank and forced Hinata to stumble forward a bit did Naruto finally take note of the girl. It was only then did La-Rn suddenly drop her lover to the ground in front of Hinata and crouched back down to watch what was to transpire.

Neither knew how to start a conversation with the other.

Hinata because of what was already mentioned. And Naruto because he was too busy freaking out about his friend possibly seeing him floating several feet in the air.

"Um, Hey." Naruto mumbled while looking as far past the girl as he could. He was not looking forward to explaining pretty much anything at the moment.

Hinata nearly squeaked at the sound of the boy suddenly speaking up. She had been too busy looking at her fingers poking together.

"I-I heard about what happened." The girl nearly whispered, unable to look Naruto in the eyes. What the Hell was this!? Why couldn't she just look at him like she normally did? She could feel her other half looked down at her; whispering soundless words in her mind.

They told her what she needed to do. What she knew she needed to do.

"Yeah." Naruto responded somberly.

"I won't hate you." She said softly, still looking down.

"Wha?"

"I won't hate you." Hinata titled her head up to look Naruto in the eyes. Those fucking gorgeous eyes that needed to be peering out from in between her legs!

"No matter what happens. I won't hate you. Ever." She held her head up a little higher.

It took Naruto a moment to connect the dots before a sincere smile graced his lips. "Thanks, Hinata."

Now!

This was her moment! This was her golden opportunity. But how? How was she going to approach this?

Then a thousand gentle voices told her.

"Both of us could never hate you, Naruto." Her voice was nearly silent.

Now the boy's expression had shifted to one of confusion. "Hinata?" He saw the girl's mouth move but could not hear what was said.

The urge was coming back again, stronger than ever before. She wanted to push the boy down and just go at him until neither could move. But she. Could. Not!

She will not!

She had to remain as good and pure a friend for Naruto in his time of need. Even if she knew he needed something so much more than a friend to be there with him. He had no family; something she would be more than happy to fix in a heartbeat. So, as Naruto's friend, it was her duty to do all she could to help him.

Not molest him like a dirty old woman...With an amazing rack just begging to have a hard cock shoved in between and-.

NO!

She had to do this right. She had to do it perfectly or everything could be ruined and any other chances would be thrown right out the window.

"D-do you want to talk?" Her voice was audible again; though she went back to not looking the boy in the eye. This was the most she could do.

Naruto looked at the girl for a moment before looking at his apartment. The building was almost completely covered in that strange Corruptive flesh that had originated in Naruto's apartment. Strands of the foul stuff could be seen connecting and holding onto parts of the building that would have otherwise collapsed under the increased weight. Several nasty strands had already spread out and latched onto the surrounding buildings. Either to spread the Corruption, or to help keep the building they originated from collapsing was anybody's guess.

A large lumpy mass of the rotten matter was piled atop the roof of the roof. Out of the side of the mass was a large sycle-like appendage that appeared to lightly sway back and forth. The reason for it even being there was unknown since it was not made of solid bone matter and was not mobile enough to be a weapon.

"Uh." Naruto droned for a moment. Even if it was Hinata, a friend he had known for a good long time, she was still a girl and really did not deserve to see the nightmare that was the inside of his apartment."Sure, but where-?"

Hinata had already walked past him at a brisk pace and was making for the corrupted stairway to his apartment. Naruto had to do a double take before quickly following after. La-Rn just watched.

The young Hyuuga still did not look Naruto in the face when approaching his apartment door; or, more of where the door used to be. Instead was just a solid wall of the Corruption with no signs of there every being a door; or even any solid structure underneath.

Naruto approached the wall and a door shaped opening appeared in the flesh wall, showing the inside of his own Corrupted apartment.

"Uh, welcome." Naruto said as a small wave of nervousness washed over him suddenly. He really did not want his female friend to be disgusted with his home.

Hinata walked in and raised her head to finally look around at the place she had just entered. It had been a very long time since Hinata had last seen this apartment, so she took a minute to glance around the small place.

Surprisingly, the inside of his home was not as bad as outside of it. The Corruption covered the entire floor of each room and even a good majority of the walls and ceiling, but most of the furniture and appliances were left untouched.

Naruto quickly walked in and over to his modest kitchen table; just big enough to comfortably seat two people luckily enough, and pulled out a chair. "Wanna' sit down?" He offered. He had no idea why his voice was so shaky all of a sudden.

Hinata felt her face heat up as she walked over the fleshy floor and silently sat in the offered seat. She squeaked out something that kind of sounded like a 'thank you', but neither party was really sure what exactly the noise was.

Naruto sat down across from the girl and the two sat in complete silence; except for the odd gurgle coming from the Corruption around them.

Hinata had no idea what was happening. She used be able to talk to Naruto like anybody else, but now whenever she even thought of his face her own would blush deeply. She could not even bring herself to think of even the tamest dirty thought without suddenly felling faint.

What was going on!?

"So." Naruto suddenly spoke up, startling Hinata so much she nearly leapt out of her chair. "I guess you want to hear about what happened?" The boy sighed. "Or at least what really happened. I'm sure the village rumor mill is pumping out story after story to make things worse."

Hinata could not respond. It was true that people around the village were telling tales about what had transpired at the hospital, but each one Hinata heard sounded more outlandish than the last.

She had first heard that Naruto had tried to kill Sasuke in an effort to wipe out the last Uchiha and to destroy the clan forever. It got worse with her hearing claims that Naruto was using the hospital to create a giant undead monster to turn the entire village into his puppets and to conquer the world, and Sasuke had tried to stop him.

Neither of which were clearly true, but did concern Hinata enough that she had to find Naruto and clear things up. Which lead to this terribly awkward situation the two currently found themselves in.

Hinata nodded her head and Naruto began to talk; explaining everything that had transpired as well as letting our how he felt about the whole ordeal.

She could hear the pain of betrayal Naruto felt through his voice as well as his fears of the village and his power. But it was the fear and lonely resolution Naruto had in his eyes as words sprung forth from his lips that caused Hinata's fragile heart to break.

This was what she knew she was for. A shoulder to lean on and an ear to listen.

But deep down she wanted more. And she knew he needed more.

But the thought of doing anything further caused her face to heat up and made her want to attempt to bury her head into her jacket like a startled turtle.

Why? Why, why, why?! She begged for some reason to appear that would explain her sudden behavioral shift. Unfortunately, no such sign was given.

Or so the young love-struck girl thought.

It took a moment of her internally screaming combined with hearing nothing but Naruto's voice did she finally take note of something unusual.

It was really, really quiet. Besides Naruto's voice and the gurgling of the walls around her, there was no other noise. She slowly came to the realization that La-Rn was no longer listening in on the two; nor was she present within her mind at all.

Hinata was just Hinata once again.

Unfortunately, it also appeared that when La-Rn disconnected herself from Hinata, she had taken with her all of that pent up sexuality and aggression with her. Even stealing the amount that Hinata had to begin with!

She was no longer the horny slut that she knew Naruto was going to need! Now she was just a scared little wallflower that would appear vulnerable and easily taken advantage of. Someone he can force down and molest over and over until her scared little body was covered in his essence.

Maybe not all of her perversion had left Hinata.

"I'm sorry." Hinata finally said after Naruto finished his retelling of recent events.

"It's not like any of this is your fault." Naruto responded with an awkward smile. "It really isn't anything you should concern yourself with. Sasuke is my teammate and what is going to happen to him is something that I am just going to have to deal with."

NOW!

"But it is not something that you will have to deal with alone." Hinata's voice was so shaky that she doubted Naruto could understand her; but his choice of words mixed with her own conviction had finally lit a spark of determination.

She willed her head up so that she could look Naruto in the eyes. "You don't have to deal with anything alone." She gulped almost audibly. "I-I can help you whenever you need it. Wh-whenever you need me I can be there for you."

"Hinata?"

"I...I care about you, Naruto." Hinata's face was on fire and her vision was getting blurry. "I have for a long time. Your determination, your will to not let the words of the village get to you. Your strength to control things that would give even the strongest soldier nightmares. Your...Everything!"

"I-I appreciate what your saying, Hinata, bu-" Naruto tried to interject only for Hinata to suddenly interrupt him.

"Please Naruto! I need to say this!" He could hear the desperation in her voice. "I need to let you know how I feel!"

"I've been your friend for so long and have always wanted to be so much more. I want to be by your side so bad that it hurts me down to my very soul seeing you when your hurt or sad and just not being able to do anything about it."

Hinata rose to her feet. "I want nothing more than to be by your side. No just for the sad moments, but for the many happy ones as well. I care so so much about you. I admire you so much. My feelings overwhelm me whenever I see you. My heart skips a beat every time you smile. You mean more to me than anything else in the world."

Her eyes had begun to well up with tears as she poured her heart out to the boy sitting in front of her. She desperately wanted to use the four lettered word, but knew that doing so suddenly might scare him away faster than her suddenly crawling under the table and swallowing his dick in one mouthful.

Naruto sat silently, taking in everything the girl had said. She had listened to him ever so patiently when he rambled on, so it would be ungodly rude for him not to consider each word that had left her mouth.

Hinata's heart was pounding so hard that she was worried Naruto could hear it. He sat in silence in front of her, thoughts racing through his mind.

It was only after about a straight minute of thinking did Naruto move. Hinata waited with bated breath.

Naruto looked at the girl and gave a gentle but sad smile. He hated having to hurt the people close to him; especially when he was something he knew he had to do.

"Hinata, appreciate how you feel and everything you've done for me. But, I can not accept your feelings."

Hinata could not hide the single twitch her right bottom eyelid made. Both her and La-Rn were once again sharing their brain again. Neither liked Naruto's choice of words.

"It's not like I don't like you or anything!" Naruto quickly explained. "You are actually really cute, but I just can't risk you getting hurt because of what I am. I would not be able to live with myself if one of my own monsters ended up hurting you." It took him a moment or two to realize just how poor of an excuse that was. They were ninja after all and their entire lives revolved around killing and being constantly marked for death.

There was no real greater danger to either of them, no matter what he said. He even was capable of preventing his creatures from killing specific people. His reasoning was completely flawed.

"Naruto?" Hinata's sweet voice sounded...off. "You don't need to worry about me."

Naruto suddenly felt very uneasy when the girl gave him a very strange and terrifying expression.