Author's Note: I only own a few original characters that appear throughout this story. This story is rated M because of blood, gore, language, and the like.
Now, for an explanation: this is a revised and updated version of my story The Necromancer, released back in April 2007. It took exactly two years to finish it, but I never was quite satisfied with the finished product. True, I had finally finished writing something, but the quality of it bugged me. Two years elapsed while writing it, and my writing skills gradually improved throughout its course. The first few chapters were drastically different in comparison to the later ones. Also, I never really spent time on the chapters. Ideas would come to me, and I'd quickly whip up a chapter in a day and post it, leading to grammar and other mistakes. I've always wanted to rewrite it, but I didn't want to tarnish the antiquity of the original (wow, this sounds quite pretentious), or delete it and start anew, which would remove the reviews and cause other problems I won't like. So I shall rewrite it here.
But now for some notes about the content of the story before I stop rambling. The original story began in April 2007. This was just after Hidan and Kakuzu had been killed, and approximately right before Sasuke would kill Orochimaru. Some elements had not been revealed at that time, such as the identity of Pain and Konan, the bijuu and jinchuuriki, and, most importantly, the identity of Madara. While I did a great job predicting his past, there will be differences, but minor modifications were made as the manga progressed, such as fixing small plot holes or name changes. But some things, like the bijuu, are different.
As for this revision, there will be better writing (of course), better dealings with the characters, and new and extended scenes. Please review this upon reading. Well, enough with my rambling: on with the show.
The Necromancer Revisited, Chapter 1:
The full moon shone brightly, illuminating the forest path below. The night was tranquil and serene, and a light breeze drifted by, rustling the trees and adding further calm to this picturesque night. Yet despite the great beauty, the animals knew that something was wrong. There were no sounds common to the ambiance of the forest- everything was silent except the infrequent rustling of the foliage as the wind caressed them. The forest creatures knew of the impending disaster.
Two figures leaped and flickered from tree to tree, their black cloaks fluttering from their forward velocity. The sound of their sandals tapping against the wood of the branches they landed on was the only other sound heard in the area. One of the figures jumped across the cleared path to the parallel row of trees, briefly exposing themselves as the moonlight flashed across the person. Any nearby traveler with a decent eyesight and knowledge of the world could identify the crimson cloud design spread across the cloak.
The two figures landed on the ground after their extensive push towards their destination. They were close enough now to simply walk, and they needed to conserve as much energy as they could, for they were on an important mission. If anyone was present, they would have easily described the scene as eerie as the figures cloaked in black began moving forward.
One figure was the taller of the two, and a large bamboo shade shrouded the face of the figure. The height, muscular physique, and broad shoulders of this figure suggested that he was a man. His cloak was slightly open, showing that he was wearing a simple midnight blue gi uniform. Strapped to his back were two sheathed katanas, both of them lying in an X shape across his back, and behind the black sash around his waist were two smaller sheathed swords. His stance while he walked suggested that he was a brash individual.
Next to him was a smaller figure with more delicate features. The exact sex of this person could not be identified due to the bagginess of his or her cloak. In addition, this person wore a thick black hood that encased the face in blackness. This person did not seem to have any weapons on them, but what might lay under their cloak remained a mystery. The posture of this person as they walked showed refinement and dignity.
"We're close, aren't we?" questioned the male Akatsuki member, his voice deep and somewhat husky.
The smaller person simply turned to the man and nodded. The man sighed in exasperation and crossed his arms.
"Look," he said, "I get it. You're new, you're shy. But cut the act. I'm tired of you being quiet. We're partners now, and if we're going to pull this off, we need to speak with each other."
The other person held a black-gloved hand up, telling his or her partner to be quiet. The hand then pointed forward towards their destination- the gates of Konohagakure. The anger the hooded member's partner held had vanished as he beheld the gates.
"So... this is it..." the man said as his gently bit his lip in uncertainty.
The hooded member began to speak, but the words died in his or her throat. Apparently this person had not spoken in quiet some time. A clearing of the throat was heard, and the hooded member spoke.
"Yes," said the person, whose voice was a soft woman's voice, "tonight, we shall share our pain."
The man looked towards the hooded woman and took a step back in shock. He soon regained himself and rose a thick hand to rub against his chin.
"Huh... I never would've guessed that the mysterious 'Necromancer' would be a woman," he said in a tone that was hard to tell whether he was impressed or unimpressed.
"Let's just move," commanded the woman as she led the way to the gates.
Atop the gates stood a single Konoha ninja. It was quite early in the morning, so most of the night watch had clocked out to sleep. There were usually never any visitors at this hour, and the two jonin and three specialized jonin stationed near the entryway below would only deter any potential attackers. Therefore, he found it quite unusual that two figures were approaching in the distance. He rubbed his eyes in disbelief, and, upon seeing that his eyes were not fooling him, he pulled out binoculars from a pouch in his flak jacket and gazed into them.
His eyes widened with fear as he saw the red clouds on their black cloaks. Akatsuki was approaching! This was an emergency! He reached up to the earpiece he was wearing to communicate with the ninja below using radio, but his he felt his gut sink as the vision he saw through his binoculars become pitch black. He lowered them to see that a hooded Akatsuki member had jumped up to him! He tried to cry out for help, but his voice was silenced with a gurgle as the man's throat was slit with a short blade. The woman flicked the blood off of the blade, which had emerged from the sleeves of her cloak. A mechanical click was heard, and the blade quickly disappeared up the sleeve of the cloak.
Below, the man walked towards the five ninja in a pompous way as he unsheathed a single katana from his back.
"A-Akatsuki?" one of the Konoha ninja stammered.
"Quick, go alert the village!" cried another.
"I don't think so," spoke the Akatsuki man as he grabbed his shade with his free hand and threw it towards the jonin as a distraction. The shade flew towards them, obstructing their view of the Akatsuki man. When the shade landed, he was there no more. A pained cry was heard as one of the jonin was stabbed in the gut by the man, who had dashed over to him. Another jonin quickly fumbled with the contents of his flak jacket to find some sort of weapon, but he was felled by a swift blow from the blade. Two other jonin began making hand seals, but they ceased as two blades emerged from their foreheads. Mechanical clicks were heard as the tips of the blades sank back into the heads. The men slumped down, revealing that the cloaked woman had been behind them.
"Thanks," the man said to the woman as he walked over to pick up his shade. His short and scruffy hair was a vivid blue, and his light skin had a slight bronze tint to it. He reached down to pick up his shade, but reconsidered.
The cloaked woman turned to look at the sole remaining member of the night watch. He was holding a katana, his grip tight and trembling. The Akatsuki man stood up and turned towards him with a cruel grin.
"Oh, yeah. I forgot you were here. Quiet as a mouse, you are," said the blue-haired man to the Konoha ninja, who had spiked brown hair and a distinct scar that began on the bridge of his nose and spread and widened until it covered his entire left cheek.
What the hell is wrong with him? wondered Raidou Namiashi as he gazed at the Akatsuki man, who was wiping the blood off of his sword by using the clothing of the fallen jonin. The man's teeth were strange... his canines were sharper than a normal human's. His eyes... they were yellow like those of a wolf's! And not only that, these two had effortlessly taken down the rest of the watch men!
"S-Stay back!" Raidou spoke in fear, "I w-won't let you in the village!"
"You will be the first..." spoke the hooded Akatsuki member. The woman made a few hand seals in a combination that was foreign to Raidou. They weren't falling for his bluff, and Raidou cursed his foolishness for thinking that they would. The cloaked woman finished the hand seals and began slowly walking towards Raidou. She drew nearer and nearer, and with each step, Raidou felt his panic rising.
"I m-m-mean it! This is your la..." he warned, but his words died away, along with the last of his courage. He was paralyzed with fear, and he could tell that even if he fought or fled, they would kill him. The wolf-eyed man chuckled at Raidou as the woman placed a gloved hand over Raidou's face.
The latent jutsu was activated, and a pale yellow gas with a noxious odor manifested itself from the woman's palm. It rushed into Raidou's face through his nose and mouth, and he instantly fell to the ground, dropping his katana as he began to cough intensely. He began to spasm as he coughed up blood, and soon he was still.
"It shall take effect soon..." spoke the woman as she turned towards her partner, "...so we had best locate a proper building in this city to inhabit before the village wakes up due to the plague."
The man nodded, and stared at the limp figure of the man the "Necromancer" used the gaseous jutsu on. He shook his head in pity and sheathed his blade.
"Poor motherfucker..." the wolf-eyed man said to nobody in particular. He then looked up to see that his partner had already began to walk into the village.
"H-Hey, wait for me!" he called out as he ran after her.
In the distance, a wolf howled lowly. A requiem for what was going to occur.
Elsewhere, a figure underneath the covers of a bed tossed and turned. After a bit, the movement stopped, and the figure rose up. The sheets draped over the person's face fell, revealing a very tired Naruto. He scratched his messy yellow spiked hair and sleepily glanced over at the clock on his nightstand.
The blue eyes blinked a few times as they tried reading what the clock said in the low light of his room. Once they identified where the hands of the clock were located, he groaned and collapsed back on his bed.
"Why'd I have to wake up at four...?" he mumbled in a complaining tone. He closed his eyes and laid there for a while, trying to go back to sleep, but his brain had different plans for him. After about ten minutes of trying to return to sleep, he gave up.
He sighed as he slowly got up out of bed as he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. He wandered over to his closet and began to get dressed. After going through his normal morning routine, he decided to roam around town for a while, since there was nothing better to do. He could stop at Ichiraku Ramen when it opened, which was an upside to his early awakening.
As he headed towards the door leading into the hallway of the third floor of the apartment building, he heard slow and irregular footsteps in the distance.
Why's someone else up at this hour? he thought. He then quickly concluded, Maybe they're just going to the bathroom...
But that did not seem to be the case, for Naruto heard the footsteps get closer. Whatever was making them was heading towards his room. Naruto took a few steps back, unsure of what to do. The footsteps became louder, and louder...
...and then they stopped. Naruto stood still, and then a loud thud! was heard as something banged against his door. He jumped in fright as the sudden noise caught him off-guard.
What the hell did this person want with him? The banging continued, and Naruto got annoyed.
"Sheesh! Calm down! I can hear you just fine!" he shouted, but the blows against his door continued. Something was not right here. Nevertheless, Naruto decided to see what this person wanted.
"Hold on! Don't get your panties in a bunch!" he sighed in frustration as he walked over to the door. He opened it, revealing a woman in the doorway. Naruto instantly knew that he should not have opened the door upon seeing the condition of the woman. Her clothes were askew and had blood on some areas of it. Her red hair was draped over her face, and she suddenly snarled as she lunged at Naruto. She grabbed his shoulders and her mouth moved towards his neck. Naruto yelped and instinctively punched the woman in the face, knocking her back.
"What's the matter with you, crazy lady?" Naruto shouted as he took a few steps back. The woman groaned as she stumbled about, trying to regain her footing. Naruto noted that her right hand was missing a few fingers. What the hell was wrong with her?
The woman began to shuffle towards Naruto with an odd gait as she lightly moaned. No ordinary person would walk in such a way. Her steps were slow and irregular, and her head seemed as if it was too heavy for her neck. Overall, she moved very sluggishly... like she was shambling. Naruto took a step back in shock as the woman tilted her head to the left, parting her hair and revealing her face.
There was blood around the woman's mouth, and her eyes... they reminded Naruto of Hinata's Byakugan, but these eyes were different. They were completely white, and they were more dull, lifeless, soulless... there were no feelings behind those eyes. Naruto was now scared.
He then saw a wound on her left arm. He wasn't an expert on wounds, but he could tell that this was caused by a bite. A chunk had been ripped out of her arm, but it wasn't bleeding. There was blood around and in the wound, but none of it was flowing out... it was like the woman was dead.
Dead... was she dead? His brain was waking up further, and this all seemed very familar to him. He remembered going to the comic book store before he graduated from the ninja academy. There were many magazines with all kinds of stories, but the ones that appealed to him the most (besides the dirty ones) were about undead creatures... zombies. The dude that wrote them was kind of a nut case (Naruto had met him once, and he had decided to never do so again), but the woman before him acted terrifyingly similar to the monsters the man had created in his stories.
He bit his lip in worry. He knew he wasn't dreaming... this was too real to be a dream.
"Heh heh..." Naruto falsely laughed as he began walking back, "...I get it. Prank Naruto, right? Well, you can stop now..."
The woman continued to approach, and she continued to moan lowly. He then saw a man in similar condition to the woman before him enter his room. He, too, was shambling and moaning, but his wounds were more horrendous. The skin around the man's jaw had been torn off, exposing his gums and jaw muscles. This definitely was not a joke.
Zombies were real.
Naruto's eyes began to frantically dart across the room, looking for something, anything, to use as a weapon to defend himself from the inhuman monsters in front of him. He spied his pouch with various ninja tools and quickly dashed towards it. He flung it open and took a few shuriken. He turned around and threw the pointed stars at the two zombies. They flinched from the force of the weapons, but they continued approaching as if nothing had hit them.
Damn it! Naruto mentally swore as he remembered that zombies could not feel pain. He took a kunai from the pouch, What do I do? They can't feel pain, and I don't remember how you were supposed to kill them! And even if I did remember, who says that these zombies operate the same as the ones in the books?
The woman paused for a bit before making a ghastly snarl as she lunged towards Naruto, arms outstretched and mouth agape. Naruto gnashed his teeth in anger. He wasn't going to die here! He brought the kunai down into the woman's head. It slid into it, and the woman slumped down, dead once more. Naruto eyed the now-bloody kunai that slid just as easily out of the zombie's head as it entered it.
That's right... you have to destroy the brain... at least they're similar to the ones in the books in this regard, Naruto thought with sudden determination. He placed some chakra into the kunai and threw it at the other zombie, nailing it between the eyes. The chakra reinforced the kunai with extra cutting power, so it flew straight through the man's head like a bullet. Naruto felt satisfaction on defeating the undead assailants, but now that his mind was fully awake, it realized something. Something that made his eyes widen in fear.
"If zombies are real... Sakura and the others are in danger!" Naruto exclaimed aloud. He quickly gathered the pouches that contained his ninja gear and placed them on his black and orange outfit. He opened up a drawer in his desk and removed his forehead protector. He quickly tied it around his head and rushed out of his door.
He briefly stopped in his tracks. About five other zombies were mulling about in the apartment hallway. They all slowly turned to look at Naruto before they all began to shamble towards him.
Damn it, I don't have time for this! Naruto indignantly thought as he sprinted forward, shoving a zombie out of his way. He flew down the two flights of stairs, and he rushed out of the apartment building. He saw even more zombies wandering about, but he did not stop this time. He began to body flicker quickly towards Sakura's house, his heart pumping and his mind full of determination to save the woman he loved.