First, let me thank everyone who left a review. Meinos Kaen, Irvin lizalde (love the name), celtic-pride, t-fly, WriterApprentice, narutodippy, and doryishness.
A special shout-out to doryishness for beta-ing this chapter!
NARUTO ZOMBIES!
Chapter 3:
Requiem for a Green Beast
Deddo wasn't doing to well.
You know, aside from being dead.
Aside from the wounds he had started out with, he had since acquired from his fight with Kakashi: one kunai to through his jaw, several broken ribs, another kunai through his left eye, and had nearly got his arms blown off by an exploding tag. To top all that off, he was now pinned to the ground by his own sword, which the copy-nin had driven through his heart.
Thank god for distractions.
"Looks like your friend isn't doing to well," Deddo told Kakashi as he dislodged himself.
"Hmm?" Kakashi's eyes followed Deddo's to see Might Guy clutching the remains of his once proud student, with Neji not far away. "Oh no…"
"Oh yes!" The zombie shouted triumphantly, "looks like my boys managed to take care of that little green guy! Won't be long before…!"
A kunai lodging itself in Deddo's throat stopped him from making any more commentary and Kakashi left the subdued zombie to get to his friend, hoping that he would be able to get there in time.
Guy sat there, his face dark as he looked down at his fallen student while Neji's words rang in his ears. Gently, he placed the cooling body of Rock Lee on the ground, closing the boy's no longer bright eyes.
Behind him, Naruto, Sakura, and Tenten came up, immediately crying out at the scene. Tenten rushed forward, taking Lee's head in her hands and unleashing a torrent of tears.
Sakura held her hand to her mouth, mouthing "No" over and over again, while Naruto looked over the mutilated body of Lee in shock, his mind unable to process what just happened.
Tenten held the lifeless head of Lee in her lap, her tears sliding from her face and falling onto Lee's bowl haircut. "Neji!" she called out, "Why? Lee…Lee was your friend!"
"Sorry Tenten," the zombie-Neji replied, his mouth still dripping with Lee's blood. "But you can't possible understand how hungry I am right now."
Tenten bit back more tears, "Neji…!"
"That's not Neji!" Naruto growled, "The Neji I know would never do something like this!"
Neji, or what was once Neji, looked at Naruto impassively. "Listen Naruto, I feel bad for Lee too, but…"
Naruto let out a scream of rage, interrupting Neji and putting him back on his guard. Red chakra began to pour from the fox boy as Naruto charged forward, creating a set of four new clones as he went after the zombified Neji with killing intent.
Zombie-Neji jumped back as the clones and the original all attacked simultaneously. Driven by rage, their attacks were sloppy and uncoordinated, so the Hyuuga prodigy had little trouble avoiding the blows.
With a spin, Neji activated his ultimate defense, creating a cocoon of chakra and sending the Narutos flying. He followed this with a jump into the air, grabbing the Naruto he perceived to be the real one and biting into his neck, only to groan in disappointment as he disappeared in a puff of smoke.
Sakura let out a gasp. "He's really trying to kill Naruto," she thought. "What's happened to him?"
As zombie-Neji landed gracefully on the ground, another Naruto had already gotten to his feet and with the help of one of the clones, was preparing a Rasengan in his hand.
Neji charged forward, dodging and blocking the attacks from the other Naruto clones as he made his way toward the original, who charged at him with the Rasengan primed and ready.
The two forces clashed, and in a flash of lightning-fast moves, Neji dodged the Rasengan and hit Naruto lightly in his arm, sealing his chakra points and effectively cutting off his main weapon. This would have sealed Narutos fate; had not the Naruto Neji was fighting disappeared as soon as he made the hit.
Nejis eyes widened in shock "That one was a clone too?!"
A sudden movement of the other Narutos behind him caught his eyes and Naruto, the real one this time, attacked with another Rasengan, one that he didn't intend to miss with.
Neji turned around to block the attack, but it was too late. The Rasengan hit him point blank in the chest and ripped into the zombie's body, tearing his skin to shreds.
Naruto grimaced as the attack made contact, his rage dying down once more. Underneath all that anger, his heart was breaking under the loss of two good friends, Lee and Neji.
The clasping of cold, dead hands on his arm dragged him back to reality and Naruto's eyes widened in shock as he saw Neji holding onto the arm driving the Rasengan into his gut, holding on for all it was worth.
Naruto let out a scream of pain as he felt a surge of chakra entering his arm, sealing off all his chakra points there and cutting off the source of control for his attack. A second later, without anything to keep it contained, the Rasengan exploded violently sending both combatants flying through the air. Naruto smashed into the stone wall of a house, breaking apart the stone and landing in a heap on the ground while Neji crashed into another building on the other side of the street.
"Naruto!" Sakura screamed, rushing to her friend.
Getting to her knees, Sakura helped her groaning teammate sit up. Carefully she took his arm, assessing the damaged.
Needless to say, Naruto's left arm looked like hell. His palm was badly burnt and cut up from the Rasengan becoming unstable, thus leaving it a bloody wreck. That was combined with that where the two hand-shaped burns along his forearm from where Neji had touched him.
"This isn't good," Sakura thought. "he can't use his Rasengan like this."
Not forgetting the ever-looming threat, Sakura turned her attention to the other side of the street where Neji's body had landed. To her shock and fear, Neji climbed out of the rubble of the wall he had hit like it was nothing, his body still working like it hadn't just taking a direct hit from a very powerful attack.
But what scared Sakura the most was Neji's stomach. The Rasengan had torn right through Nejis cloths and shredded his skin like a cheese grater, leaving a huge bloody circle in the middle of Nejis chest. From Sakura's vantage point, she could easily make out the muscles of Nejis chest, once concealed by a layer of skin and now unveiled to the world, twitching as he moved.
"That was incredible," Neji said as he looked over his chest. "If I hadn't pumped as much chakra as I did to shield against that he would have gone right through me."
"Don't come any closer!" Sakura screamed at him, pumping chakra into her fists. "You've seen what I can do, and know I'm not afraid to do it!"
"Sakura," Neji said calmly. "I think it's already been established that you can't hurt me. You should give up now and save us all the…"
The flash of a kunai being thrown interrupted his speech, and Neji quickly caught the offending weapon with his hand and threw it aside. "Tenten, that really wasn't very smart."
"That was a warning," Tenten told Neji, wiping away the tears from her eyes. "If you even dare take one more step, I'll cut you to pieces."
Neji shook his head. "Tenten, you've never been able to beat me in training, you know about my absolute defense, and you're clearly outnumbered."
Neji gestured to the remaining twenty to thirty zombies that had started to circle around him, seeing him as the strongest one among them and the best candidate to get their next meal. Naruto, Sakura, and Tenten all gritted their teeth; the odds of this fight were not in their favor.
"What makes you really think you can defeat me?" Zombie-Neji asked calmly.
Tenten, mustering all the strength she had, stood her ground. "I've watched you for years; I know all your tactics. Besides," she pulled out a handful of shurukin. "That was the real Neji that beat me all those times, not some monster in his place."
Neji narrowed his eyes, and in a flash, was upon her. Tenten jumped back to let loose a volley of shurukin, but one look at the face of her teammate caused her to hesitate for just a second. That was a grave mistake.
Neji, taking advantage of her hesitation, pumped chakra into his legs and propelled himself forward, driving past Tenten's defenses and landing a hit on her major chakra points, the ones connected to her major organs. Tenten cried out in pain and staggered back, coughing up blood as she falling on her back.
The other zombies cheered and started forward, and Neji with his mouth opened wide open, dived down to rip out a fresh chunk of meat from his other teammate, only to be smashed to the side by a green flash.
"Sensei…" Tenten whispered before she blacked out.
Guy looked down at Tenten, his face dark. Slowly he turned his gaze toward Neji who was just getting back to his feet.
"I always had faith in you Neji," Guy said solemnly. "Never once did I ever lose faith in you. But this…all of this…"
As Guy stuttered to find the words, Neji got back to his feet, his eyes falling back to the unconscious form of Tenten, more concerned for his lost meal than his sensei's speech.
Guy grimaced with disgust, wishing to tear his eyes away from the monster his student had become but not daring to. "This is my fault. I should have protected you; I should have been there to keep this from happening."
With a twitch of his muscles, Guy's body suddenly flared up with an enormous amount of energy, far surpassing the amount he had just a second ago. Neji's Byakugan eyes widened in shock as he saw Guy open up his sixth gate, and with it, turn the entire tide of the battle.
Guy's body flared up with chakra and with a mighty roar yelled his final promise to Neji, "SO I'LL BE THE ONE TO RELEASE YOU FROM THIS MISERABLE EXSISTANCE!"
By this time the other zombies could no longer hold themselves back from the prospect of another meal and charged forward. Only Neji, the only one with an idea of what was happening, stood back.
With a roar, Guy charged forward smashing through the wave of zombies, tearing them apart with his bare fists and sending the undead monsters smashing into the ground. He plowed through them with ease, making a beeline for his target, who took a step back nervously as he watched the green beast get closer.
In two seconds, Guy had made it through the twenty to thirty zombies between him and Neji, and putting all his strength into one punch, he let his fist fly into his former pupil's face. Neji released a shield of chakra around his head, trying to protect himself from the bezerker rage but it was almost useless as Guy's fist broke through and smashed into his face.
Neji didn't feel it when his nose was driven back into his skull. He didn't feel it when his skull cracked under the pressure of Guy's fist, almost dislodging his eyeballs. In fact, the only thing that registered with Neji at that moment was one thing:
"I didn't even get to finish my meal!"
Sakura stood over Tenten, putting all her medial skills into keeping the girl alive. Behind her, Naruto stood posed and ready to fight any zombies that should decide to attack, even though with his right arm still messed up, he would have some trouble.
"I can't fix these wounds," Sakura thought as she pumped her own chakra into the injured girl. "I can keep her alive myself, but if we don't get her to a hospital quickly, she could be crippled for life!"
A puff of smoke popped up in front of them, and Kakashi was suddenly there with them, quickly leaning over Tenten and looking over her wounds.
"How does she look?" he asked Sakura.
"Not good," Sakura replied grimly. "I don't have the knowledge on how to repair damage this extensive. We have to get her back to Konoha or there could be major long-term consequences."
Kakashi nodded, "All right then. Sakura, Naruto, escort Tenten back to Konoha. If Sai got back ok, they should already be preparing for our arrival."
"But Kakashi-sensei…!" Naruto shouted at him, not wanting to turn tail and run.
"Me and Guy can handle things here," Kakashi interrupted. "And Tenten needs medical attention from people who have treated these kinds of wounds before."
Naruto still didn't want to leave however. "But Kakashi-sensei…"
The loud crash of Neji plowing into the side of a house filled the background followed by the sounds of screams from zombies as they tried to take down an unstoppable Might Guy. "I'm not going to argue this. You two get her out of here and let us handle this. It's what Lee and Neji would have wanted."
Naruto's voice died in his throat, and he cast his eyes downward in disappointment of himself.
"Alright then," Sakura said, picking Tenten up upon her back. "Let's go. Naruto, you lead."
Naruto nodded and the two started off, giving one last look back before retreating.
"Be careful Kakashi-sensei." Sakura whispered.
Deddo looked over the battle that was happening around him. His zombie ninjas were being torn to shreds by the man in green, and the copy-nin was making short work of any stragglers. He hadn't seen any sign of that kid that turned since the attack from the green guy, but it more than likely he was done for.
Taking his sword in both of his decaying hands, he slipped into the shadows. He was almost mad with hunger, but he wasn't stupid enough to just jump into the fray.
Meanwhile, Kakashi was dodging flying corpses and other debris as he made his way toward Guy. Most of the zombies had been finished off by now, with the remaining on their way to being finished. Kakashi's main concern by this point was Guy, who looked like he was burning up most of his bodies energy and well on his way to attempting to opening the remaining two gates. If he didn't get him to calm down soon, Guy was a dead man.
Kakashi's plans were slowed however, when Deddo finally decided to launch his attack, jumping out from an alleyway and hurling a giant shurukin toward Kakashi. The copy-nin easily avoided the attack and moved to dodge another slice from the zombie's sword.
"I'm going to finish this here and now." Kakashi said as he avoided another attack.
"Don't be so cocky!" Deddo screamed at him. "Before this is over, you're going to be my dinner!"
Deddos words were short lived however, as Kakashi deflected his sword with a kunai and used the second he gained to slip behind the zombie-nin and grab him by the head, firmly locking his elbow around his neck.
"This ends now." Kakashi said simply, ready to snap the zombies neck.
The smirk on Deddo's face caught Kakashi's attention, but before he could act on it, he felt the tip of a cold, steel blade pierced his gut, slicing through him like butter and coming out the other side covered in blood.
"Told you not to be so cocky," Deddo told him, twisting the blade he had driven through his own gut to get to Kakashi, a move that had effectively turned the two of them into a giant shis-ka-bob.
"What…the hell…are you guys?" Kakashi said, the words hard to get out as he coughed up blood into his mask.
With a chuckle, Deddo pulled his sword out from the two of them, removing the only support Kakashi had and causing the copy-nin to collapse to the ground. The zombie-nin stood triumphantly over the fallen man as Kakashi's blood began to pool on the ground.
"We're the new masters of this world," Deddo said as he raised his sword to his lips, and licking the blood off. "And after I finish devouring you, I'm going to…huh?"
The sound of someone yelling caused Deddo to turn around, and to his shock, came face to face with the fist of Might Guy.
"Oh shi-!" were the last words spoken by the zombie-nin as Guy's fist smashed into his face, going straight through the front of his skull and out the other side.
With a grunt, Guy pulled his fist back, ripping through the remaining parts of brain and skull left and hurling Deddo's headless body to the ground. Shaking off the brain matter and pieces of bone, a very tired-looking Guy leaned over his friend. "How are you doing my eternal rival?"
"Fine," Kakashi choked out. "Are the…?"
"I believe I got them all," Guy reassured. "I'm going to get you back to Konoha."
Kakashi coughed up another mouthful of blood and Guy pulled back his mask, letting the red liquid pouring out of his friend's mouth.
"Lee's body…" Kakashi whispered.
Guys clenched his fists so tight, the knuckles turned white, but quickly composed himself. "I WILL come back for him, but he would never forgive me if I slowed myself down by carrying him with us."
Picking his friend up and resting him on his back, Guy took off running. He gave his favorite student one last look as he passed him, PROMISING he would be back for his AND Neji's body, because even after all that happened here, they were both his students. And nothing would ever change that.
Well, that about wraps everything up. The zombies are pretty much taken care of and it looks like everyones going to be ok. You know, aside from Lee and Neji who are, well...dead.
I've the got the fourth chapter almost all written. I'll finish it tonight and after it gets betaed I'll be sure to post it, by the end of the week at the hopefully.
Until then, leave a REVIEW. The more reviews the faster I post!