"Auu…" a tired and slightly annoyed sigh brushed through Naruto's lips as he continued to follow Gohan down a sunset lit dirt path.
"What's wrong, Naruto?" Gohan asked.
"I'm still stuck on Smok giving me a dated map…" the child struggled between feelings of extreme annoyance and forgiveness. He was annoyed over being given a map that would have caused issues later, but at the same time he knew there was really no reason to be upset at her. These two conflicting emotions clashing for hours upon end resulted in Naruto feeling somewhat num to the entire revelation.
"I'm sure she didn't mean too… Plus, Konan and the others were nice enough to give us a newer map," Gohan's eyes scoured the new map they were given. "All we have to do is transfer the coordinates from the old map to the new one."
"You can do that?"
"I used to study geography."
"They had map classes at your school too?"
"Actually… I studied a lot at home."
Naruto noticed the solemn expression on Gohan's face as he said that. But instead of asking why, he instead rested his hands behind his head and said, "Bet you had pretty lax parents when it came to your studies. My mom would lose it I fell really far behind."
A sharp shiver shot up the child's spine as he recalled moments like that. "Super scary…"
"Actually, my mother was pretty much the same," Gohan sympathized. "She was… is super strict about my studies too."
"What's with mothers and studying anyway?" Naruto wondered aloud.
"It's to make sure we're prepared to be successful in the future," Gohan replied.
"I guess. I just wish everyone wasn't so naggy about it," the young kitsune shrugged. "So, when are we gonna make it to the next town Nagato told us about?"
"Right about... now," his companion lowered the map and pointed to a small village in the distance. "That should be our first marker."
"Yes!" Naruto excitedly pumped his fists and eagerly dashed towards the village. "No more herbs! No more health fixing veggies or plants!"
Left behind, Gohan silently looked down and rubbed his grumbling stomach. "I'm already tired of just herbs too."
A small smile formed on his lips as ran down the path and into the village. He already saw himself getting lost despite the village's small size but that small worry was soon replaced with shock and curiosity the moment he stepped into the village's borders. Instead of arriving in a busy street filled with people, Gohan found himself alone.
"No one's around…" he mumbled as he slowly and cautiously walked further into the village. The child glanced around his surroundings, his curiosity evolved into uneasiness as he continued forward. Various buildings were had various holes, windows were shattered and more than a few doors were barely hanging onto their hinges. "What happened here?"
"What happened here?" Following that sudden voice, Gohan glanced up at the top of a nearby building and found Naruto pacing back and forth.
"Naruto," he called.
Without saying a word, Naruto jumped down to the street in a huff. "Does this place seem weird to you?"
"It looks like it's been ransacked by…" Gohan glanced around his surroundings, reaffirming the observations he had just made. "Someone really violent."
"'Someone'? I'm pretty sure whatever did this wasn't human. You sure that you didn't find this place on the old map?"
"I'm pretty sure Nagato and Konan pointed this place out on the new map."
"Hmm… Let's check this place out."
The two proceeded to search through a couple of the houses in the village. Naturally, each house had a unique style that reflected the owner, but there were several things that was the same throughout each one: Signs of a struggle.
Various pieces of furniture were damaged and turned over, blinds were torn to shreds and trails of nail marks leading out of the house.
"Yeah, definitely not human," Naruto thought aloud.
"Well, whatever happened, it's clear that no one left the village here willingly," Gohan concluded.
"N-Not really…" Gohan lamented. "And given the state of the village, I don't think that anyone left here willingly."
"Not to mention this place doesn't seem old either…" suddenly, Naruto's eyes widened with horror as he realized what was happening. "Wait… What if…?"
"What if what?"
Naruto slowly turned towards his travelling companion; his unnerved expression slightly scaring him. "This is place is haunted!"
"Haunted?!"
"Ghosts probably came dragged them to the next dimension!"
"N-Next dimension…?" Gohan averted his gaze as processed what he just heard. "That doesn't sound right."
"What? That's where ghosts drag people to," Naruto said.
"No, it's not the location; it's the term you used."
Suddenly, the two heard the sound of motor running, sending fresh waves of fear down their spines. They slowly, cautiously turned around to find a figure shrouded in the shadows standing in the front doorway. The figure then brandished a raging chainsaw from seemingly nowhere, raised it over their head and roared.
Naruto and Gohan screamed in unison and quickly dove behind an overturned couch.
"'Aaahh!'?" the mysterious figure lowered the chainsaw and walked into the moonlight pouring in from the hole in the ceiling.
Surprised by that young-sounding response, the two peeked over the edge of the couch.
"Chrome?!" Naruto exclaimed.
"Naruto?" the small succubus marveled. "What are you doing here?"
"What are we doing here? What are you doing here? I thought you were going home with your zombie rat."
"Zombie rat?" Gohan shot a surprised look at Naruto.
"She a nerco-something," he nonchalantly explained. "They mess with dead things."
"It's Necromancer and its art," Chrome corrected. "Plus, I was going home with my experiment, but it ran off again."
"Is that why you had a chainsaw?" Gohan nervously questioned, his eyes glued to the still running weapon.
"Yep," the tiny necromancer cut the weapon off. "I thought you two were it and thought a little scare from my vibro-blade would remind it who's the master."
"You thought a chainsaw would work?" Naruto asked, perplexed. "Wait, that actually makes sense."
"Just like it did for the snail I previously worked on."
"You made a zombie snail too?!"
"Anyway,you still haven't answered my question? What are you doing here?"
"Me and Gohan were just passing through and found this place looking like it was attacked by… something. Wait, your zombie rat didn't attack this village, did it?"
"No, I could tell my guinea pig's work. Looks like this place was ransacked in a very barbaric way."
"Like your zombie rat isn't barbaric, not to mention out of control?"
Chrome nervously chuckled as she recalled the small skirmish with her work the two previously had. "…Point taken. But it's just the control part that's a work in progress."
"She really has a zombie rat?" Gohan asked again, still trying his hardest to accept what he was hearing.
"Yes…" Naruto sighed. There was just something about a fight with a monstrous zombie rat that filled the child with slight apathy. "Wait, why did you even come here Chrome? I thought you could track it."
"I can," She pulled the same tracker out of her bag and powered it on. "And I tracked it to this- EH?!"
"What is it?" Gohan curiously asked.
"It's crossing the sea to the next landmass."
"How can a zombie rat swim?" Naruto questioned.
"I may have added some Scylla parts to it…" a giant grin crossed her face. "This is perfect. My guinea pig is using a feature I did not properly plan yet!"
"You do realize that means it's harder for you to catch your rat, right?" Naruto nonchalantly brought up.
"Eh…" Chrome glanced at the two then back down at her device. The look on her face made it clear she had no idea what to do "…Do you two know where I can find a boat?"
"There's a port town we were heading to that has one," Gohan answered. "Do you want to go with us there?"
"I see no reason not to, uh…"
"Gohan," Gohan introduced himself.
"Alright, Gohan, Naruto. From now on, consider me your temporary part member," Chrome proudly announced. "By the way, do you guys have any pudding?"
"All we have are herbs…" Naruto groaned.
"Oh… Let's check out some of these houses to see if they have anything," Chrome proposed.
"But we can't do that. That's stealing," Gohan objected.
"But there's no one here to claim their stuff, so let's claim some unclaimed stuff."
"She's got a point there, Gohan," Naruto nodded his head in agreement.
"Great," Chrome grinned as she headed to the kitchen. "Wonder if they have any pudding here."
"Isn't that stealing?" Gohan asked Naruto.
"I don't know. I heard a lot travelers take things from empty houses," he shrugged.
The two continued to converse unaware of a second figure cloaked in shadows watching them.
"But isn't it kind of morbid to take things from people who were taken out o their homes?" Gohan asked.
"Not as morbid as people making zombies," Naruto argued. "Speaking of which, you sure were quick to invite a nercomaker with a chainsaw to come with us."
"Despite the revelation that necromancers are real still sinking in, she doesn't seem that bad and I figured that she might as well come with us since we all need to go to a port town," Gohan awkwardly scratched the back of his head. "You don't have a problem with that, do you?"
"Not really. I just noticed that you're pretty quick to be nice to people who just scared or attacked you."
"Well, if they're not bad or did anything really bad, then there really isn't a reason not being polite."
Naruto curiously stared at his companion.
"They got a lot of pudding!" Chrome happily announced as she walked out of the kitchen with supplies. "Also some meat, dumplings and ramen cups."
"Did you say ramen?" Naruto's eyes lit up as he jumped towards food. "You're already the best temporary party member ever!"
Suddenly, the figure jumped into the building, grabbed Gohan and ran out of the house.
"Gohan!" the young kitsune quickly jumped through an open window and gave chase. Sprinting as hard as he could, Naruto caught up and kicked the figure with all his might, freeing the captured Gohan.
"You okay, Gohan?" he asked.
"Yeah…" Gohan laid motionless on the ground, waiting for the sky to stop spinning.
Naruto then turned his attention to the mysterious figure cloaked in shadows.
"Wait…" upon closer inspection, the child was shocked to realize that the figure was not bathed in shadows, but actually a humanoid that appeared to be bathed in shadows. Along with the fact it was standing in the moonlight in the middle of a deserted village... "Knew this place was haunted."
"Zombies and ghosts…" Gohan muttered, still waiting for his wits to come back to him.
"Yeah it's been a weird wee-" before he could finish his sentence, a giant jet black fist slammed into him, sending the child flying into a nearby building. "Ow!"
The fist shrunk and size and receded back to the indiscernible figure's side as it slowly approached Gohan.
"My turn!" Suddenly, Chrome jumped over the dizzy monkey-tailed child and raised her hands over her head. "Face one of the specialties of a succubus!"
"No!" Naruto's eyes widened with horror as he recalled what Smok had told him about Succubi the night before he embarked on his journey. "Anything but that!
"Wind!" Like a guillotine, Chrome swiftly swung her arms down, shooting small blades of winds from her fingertips.
The blades flew forward, slicing her opponents into bits. The various pieces bled into the ground and swiftly left the village.
"What happened to the ghost?" Naruto wondered as he approached the two.
"That wasn't a ghost. Whatever it was, it belonged to the shadow family of monsters," Chrome explained.
"How do you know that wasn't in the shadow family of ghost?"
"Becomes I'm part of the Artiste family and if there's one thing we know it's the three Dark Performance Arts: Necromancy, Medium and Puppetry," Chrome proudly stated.
"…One of those don't seem like they fit with the others," Naruto thought.
Zombies, ghosts and puppets…" Gohan muttered.