Forward Unto Dawn

by Bleedndreamz

He had come so far in the shinobi world by the age of 17. However now due to the circumstances of battle against the Akatsuki, he finds himself in a place far from home. What he now knows is that all that he can do is move forward. Forward Unto The Dawn.

2. Unnecessary Deeds

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Highschool of the Dead.

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As ear piercing scream ripped through several levels of the school from the lungs of a young pink haired genius.

"Hi...Hirano!" she said in a panic back peddling from the hostile figure that was able to sneak up on her.

"The magazine is empty!" he said quickly as he experimentally pulled the trigger to his makeshift gun a couple times while aiming at the creature.

"No... no... get away!" she said in a panic as she backed up into a broken trophy case. "Get away!" she yelled as her foe approached closer step by step. She reached behind her and grabbed the closest trophy she could find to hurl at the dead student. But it was then in her panic that she realized that she still had yet to let go of the kunai knife she had been given earlier. The moment Hirano had created his gun contraption she hadn't needed to worry about it.

She quickly took the knife in hand and reared back her arm. Then with the accuracy of a textbook genius she threw the blade... and naturally missed. The blade sailed right over the monster's head and embedded itself into a far wall across from her.

Tears swelled up in her eyes as what she felt was her last ditch effort had completely and utterly failed. "Don't come..." she muttered, "Don't come..." she clenched her eyes shut as the monster fell into striking distance and she screamed once again. "Don't come!"

A quick rush of air, and the pink haired girl opening her eyes revealed none other than Uzumaki Naruto.

Naruto with a rather bored expression, and a girl in his arms had calmly come up behind the dead student and swept his leg quickly all the while keeping perfect balance with the girl in his arms. The dead student proceeded to take a spill as it fell backwards, only to come in full contact with the very same foot crushing his skull into the ground. The dead student surely returned to the grave after that, it was only through luck that the skull didn't outright crush under the shinobi's feet causing the surrounding students to outright lose their lunch.

Naruto gave a sigh as he gave a shake of his foot before he knelt down next to the pink haired girl and set Ayane down gently against the trophy case, being mindful of broken glass. He knew there were a few more of the dead he had to assist the chubby boy, supposedly named Hirano or something.

Although Naruto raised an eyebrow not a moment later as the repetitive sound of running footsteps approached closer and closer until in the hallway stood four people. Three students and a teacher or some sort. Naruto's eyebrow raised further as he spotted the two younger females of the group actually holding their choice of weapons in respectable stances. The purple haired female more so than the light haired girl. Although that may be more due to one fighting with a broom stick, and the other with a worn wooden sword.

However even though there were new arrivals, Naruto knew that he had a job he needed to do. And no one was moving into action quick enough. At least by his own battle hardened shinobi standards. Truthfully they probably hadn't been standing there for more than a couple seconds.

Naruto pinched the bridge of his nose as he moved to stand up, drawing a kunai knife from his pocket. However this process only served to have the platinum blonde clutch onto the young man's fleeting arm tightly. "Don't go..." she mumbled, short breaths still affecting her. While her attack may have passed, it was quite obvious that she was still feeling the negative effects of it after the fact.

Naruto rolled his eyes briefly before flicking his free hand into palm. The action was frankly subtle. But the effect of an invisible force slamming into the closest dead student on the right, rocketing him into the far wall without notice. His skull immediately crushed upon impact. They weren't shinobi, and there were few shinobi that could survive that technique in the first place.

Naruto noticed that while surprise shown on the civilian's faces, they all knew there was no time to stand and gawk.

"I'll take the right!"

"Rei!"

"I'll get the left!"

All three of the young students yelled virtually simultaneously. Naruto had to admit that it was quite impressive to see in contrast to the amount of students that had died to this... outbreak... disease... plague... whatever it was.

Naruto could completely understand how civilians fell to the mindless drones before him getting slaughtered by the three students. They were after all once friends of other students in the school. Teachers that some had grown fond of. He was sure that there were even a few that had lost their lovers to this epidemic.

However a lot of the respect he could muster was utterly drowned out when he realized if something like this ever happened when he was in the academy, a single genin or academy student could probably clean out an entire school of this size. That is as long as the young shinobi was careful.

Naruto shook his head and forcefully peeled himself away from Ayane despite her weak protests. He stood up and walked to the far wall leaving the two girls on the floor in shock. He frowned as he grabbed the kunai that had been poorly thrown and stuck into a wall.

Naruto grabbed the ninja tool and turned before throwing it at the pink haired girl's feet, sticking it into the tile floor. "Don't throw this again, you don't have proper training. Just stab them in the head if they get close, preferably the eyes."

Naruto glanced over the new arrivals before letting his gaze fall on Ayane as he spoke out, "Does anyone know how I can find the school doctor or nurse... or whatever this place has?" Naruto asked in a bit of annoyance. He didn't mind looking after the platinum blonde as per past agreement. However he did wish that she could as least walk on her own two feet.

The purple haired female gave a long appraising look as she looked over the blonde shinobi before speaking, "I'm surprised you don't know the school doctor." she said with a bit of apprehension in her voice as she glanced toward the kunai knife that was now pierced into the ground in front of the pink haired student. "Dr. Marikawa is right here." she said gesturing to the busty blonde haired woman. "My name is Busujima Saeko from class 3-A."

That seemed to get introductions rolling for everyone else as the brown haired teen with the baseball bat finished locking the glass door. "Komuro Takashi from class 2-B." he said with a level head. The female that followed was a great deal more cheerful than him.

"Miss Busujima, I remember you won the national championship last year. I'm Miyamoto Rei, a member of the spear martial arts club." the young girl said with a charming smile and voice. Frankly Naruto found it a bit surprising she could even have it in her to hurt anyone from first glance. She seemed far too innocent as far as Naruto was concerned.

The last formal introduction was barely that as the young chubby boy that Naruto simply knew as 'Hirano' gave his briefly stuttered introduction, "I...I'm Hirano Kohta... from Class B"

Naruto didn't really want to seem rude and not give his own introduction, but he simply tuned them out and stopped caring. The only one of even remote interest to him out of the students was the young purple haired female. And that was just due to Kimeko's earlier comment.

'I know you can help her, I haven't seen anyone move like you do in a fight except for that purple haired crazy Saeko'

Naruto was more interested in as to why he seemingly always got saddled with big breasted blonde doctors. "Uzumaki Naruto." he said simply as he moved past the few gathered students to the female doctor in the corner, ignoring the now dubbed Takagi Saya's outburst.

"Dr. Marikawa?" Naruto questioned as he stood before the blonde doctor. He could already tell that the woman was rather aloof as she simply watch from the sidelines, a soft expression adopting her features as she watched Saya break down into Saeko's arms. An expression mirrored by many in the room. At least those that actually cared. He knew the situation the students were in was stressful, but in contrast to having to fight The Salamander Hanzo without actually breathing the majority of the fight? This situation could be considered a vacation as far as he was concerned.

"Hmm?" she sounded off turning her head to the blonde at being addressed, "Yes what is it?"

Naruto resisted the urge to sigh. It appeared the woman's attention was barely even being held by the scene playing out before her. "Do you happen to have any medication for anxiety attacks?" Naruto asked in a professional tone he would use as an ANBU when needing to question civilians. "She had one not long ago and is still not effectively recovered from it."

"Oh! Sinjah-san!" The woman said in surprise looking over to Ayane. She then started to rummage through her bag, making random sounds as she searched. "Hmmm. Erm... Ah!" she finished much to Naruto's amusement by pulling out a small bottle of pills. Although from the sound they made, he could tell it didn't sound very full.

It was at that time when the doctor made her way over to Ayane that Naruto finally took a deep breath and looked down to his effective prison on his wrist. The smallest of hairline fractures began so slowly mend themselves together from the previous minor use of chakra he had partaken in moments before. Naruto didn't even bother to hide the scowl that appeared on his face at the ridiculous idea of potentially sentient metal.

"My pills..." was the faint whisper Naruto heard from Ayane as the dutiful blonde doctor practically bounced her way over to the injured student.

While Saeko held onto the now crumbled Saya in her arms, she turned her interest to the blonde. "Uzumaki-san." Saeko spoke gathering full attention of everyone in the remove except for Shizuka whom was busy getting Ayane to take her pill in her state without water. "I don't believe you stated your classroom, nor school year. You also do not wear the school uniform." Saeko merely observed, but his observations quickly allowed for an unasked question to form amongst the group. "And finally you carry weapons that... well I never thought I would actually ever see in person." the frown that marred her face seemed to trouble everyone around her as they now stared at the blonde enigma.

Naruto pursed his lips weighing the worth of even giving a straight answer to them. He had climbed the shinobi ladder, and quite quickly by most normal standards, with the few exceptions of genius' like Uchiha Itachi or Hatake Kakashi. One of the things you learn quickly on the 'Way to the Top' as he liked to reference it was that information was everything in his line of work. From information on landscape to information on the opponents he faced in battle. You could never know too much in his line of work.

"My name you already know, I'm not from around here and I don't go to this school." He said in a cool and collected voice. Although there were brief pauses as he thought through which information he thought was even worth giving in his situation. "I was merely passing through. As for my weapons, I'm surprised you know about them." Naruto finished, as he flashed a kunai, all the while avoiding answering the question asked about them.

Saya had since pushed herself out of Saeko's grasp, and gave a scoff. "Only an idiot would come to a place like this given the situation."

The temperature in the room seemed to drop several degrees as the heat was consumed by tension. That was probably not the best thing to say to a person whom seemingly carried around weapons of rare origin on a whim. Not to mention the said soldiers complete and utter lack of tolerance with the word 'Idiot' being thrown around. He had been called that far too much in his childhood to even begin to tolerate being called an idiot at the age and skill he had achieved now.

Although he retained his cool in the situation and merely replied, "Just as only an idiot would attempt to throw a close quarters weapon they have no training in?" his comment was had turned into a biting one by the end of it, his annoyance clear as day on his features.

The pink haired female visibly flinched at her own insult being used against her. It cut a great deal deeper after she had just spout off about being a genius only to see how worse for wear she truly looked.

There was a few brief moments of silence before Takashi spoke, "Hey..." he said slowly with a somber expression still on his face after Saya's initial meltdown, "If we are all going to just decide to rest right now, there is a room just over there that we can barricade us in. It would probably be safer since we wont have to deal with those things."

The now loosely formed group seemed to consent to this.

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Naruto rest his head on his hand as he propped his elbow up on the table. He was silently looking over the younger Sinjah sister with a bored expression. The girl had regained most of her ability having taken the pills. All it took was a water bottle, and a bit of hand fanning as she seemingly calmed down. However Naruto knew that as the girl calmed down, the weight of what had happened with her sister would only serve to crash down on her.

She had remained silent the entire time the room had broken out into various discussions about there situation. In fact the only time Naruto realized that she was not in fact simply mute was when she gave him a polite 'Thank you for saving me'. Yet beyond that, all Naruto could do was observe.

And to say he was glad he took the time to observe would be an understatement. It didn't take very long for Naruto to realize at all that he was in a world seemingly without the use of chakra. That much he could have figured out if he was still twelve years old, and a freshly turned genin. Given his experience over the years and add that to his rippled eyes he gained from his fallen foe. Finding out he was in a chakraless society was simple. In the words of his former ANBU captain whom could "smell danger" well he essentially felt that was about this different world or whatever he was in that was chakraless.

So that was why the girl sitting beside him in his opinion was a complete and utter anomaly. Naruto fought the urge to correct himself in his head as he subconsciously admitted he knew that the potential for chakra still existed. Where he came from the idea of chakra was that it innately flowed through every living being. Shinobi were simply living beings that had taken to learning how to grow and master the use of their chakra. As such in civilians chakra was pretty much non existent. So perhaps it wasn't that the world he was in was chakraless, it was simply that shinobi were absent from it.

Although this did not explain the chunin level chakra reserves he felt coming from the girl that sad beside him, cradling her water bottle in her hands while lost in thought. She didn't appear to have even the slightest bit of knowledge of her chakra. Otherwise he was sure she would be attempting to channel it to calm her nerves. It was one of the many reasons shinobi simply didn't suffer from anxiety attacks.

Naruto mulled over a textbook definition the blue haired former Akatsuki had given him while tending to the people of her village medically.

"Naruto, anxiety attacks are often spontaneous. They are spawned by the body essentially being pumped full of adrenaline as if they were in serious danger. However often times during an anxiety attack, there is no actual danger being present. So you simply have your body go into overdrive for no actual logical reason, and you start to panic."

Naruto grinned slightly at how knowledgable Konan was about... well virtually anything. After having a bit of a history lesson from her one day, he learned that a boy named Yahiko was the soul and spirit of her trio of friends. He later went on to be the figurehead for the Akatsuki. Meanwhile Nagato always was the muscle behind the group, perhaps the slightly shy and lacking confidence kind growing up, but the muscle none the less. Then there was Konan, the young girl that grew up holding everything together with vast knowledge and details.

It was almost funny how often that role was delegated to the female of a group in shinobi history.

Naruto continued to stare at the young female whom was lost in her own world as he continued to recall on his past conversation.

"But Konan... if that's the case, then why don't shinobi have panic attacks more often? Even in the and out of the field, you never hear about them?"

Konan pursed her lips before she had taken to gently moving her lip piercing as she rolled her tongue. Under other circumstances, the fifteen year old Uzumaki was sure he would have found it the slightest bit erotic if not for the simple fact that piercings in general were so exotic and rare in the shinobi profession.

Konan ran her tongue over her lips one last time, it was likely just a routine she simply did when she was thinking. She was apparently completely oblivious as to how utterly distracting it was. But then again, considering she was likely always at Nagato's side, and he was essentially her brother. Naruto highly doubted any of the Ame shinobi were even willing to think about touching the woman with a ten foot pole.

"Well, shinobi are soldiers and live their lives in combat, so the idea of anxiety is frankly fairly foriegn since combat in our profession is just to be expected. But in addition to that, bits and pieces of medical research has shown chakra to be a bit of a passive tranquilizer almost for the body to keep the nerves steady."

"You see Naruto, people, and this is my shinobi included seem to often boast about receiving a rush of adrenaline in combat. They often talk about how everything slows down, and how in those few moments their opponent didn't have a chance. Well simply put, they're wrong. Everything doesn't slow down, it's really the opposite. Everything in fact speeds up, and your body starts going into overdrive. And if you aren't careful your body speeding up and you not being prepared for it can consume you in the middle of combat. But again... shinobi don't really have these problems." Konan paused briefly as she was thinking over her words in the discussion with the one Nagato had passed his legacy onto.

"As I said before chakra acts almost like a passive tranquilizer. It will still 'speed you up' you could say if you got a huge rush of adrenaline. But it would simply not allow for the huge downsides of someone not being able to keep up with it. This may simply be due to, and this is my personal opinion Naruto... that as shinobi grow stronger and more capable, the effects adrenaline have on them are simply dulled by the training, experience, and skill the receive."

To say the young girl sitting next to him with virtually untapped chunin level chakra pools suffering from anxiety attacks was an anomaly. That would be an understatement. He had no idea how he should approach the situation. The limited amount of medical knowledge he learned was simply how to mend wounds for comrades in the field. One of his many different field captains at the time felt it should be mandatory for a 'walking chakra battery' like himself to at least be 'a walking medical chakra battery'.

"Uzumaki-san, it looks like everyone is out of breath, but why aren't you helping Komuro-san and Hirano-san with the barricade?" the purple haired sword mistress asked while rolling her shoulders.

Naruto rolled his eyes at that, he thought he had already explained why he felt that was a dumb idea. 'Perhaps I only thought it over in my head...' he thought in his own amusement. He had taken to doing that quite a bit as he grew higher in the ranks of the joint shinobi armed forces.

"Is there a reason I should help them?" he asked, a raised eyebrow cocked towards the senior student. "Is there a reason you're not helping them for that matter?" Naruto added on as an afterthought realizing he was being judged.

Saeko looked taken aback for a moment as she stared directly into Naruto's eyes and proceeded to take in his body language. His eyes were calm, and collected if not the slightest bit distant. Yet more importantly to be noted she felt was his body language. There was no visible tension at all in his relaxed posture as he rested with a rather bored expression. It was as if the things happening around them didn't bother the blonde mystery in the slightest. To say those details made the blonde's rippled gaze all the more potent would be an understatement.

Saeko looked away for a moment from the pale gaze waiting an uncomfortable few seconds to continue speaking. The other students in the room had actually taken time to stop their activities to listen in. Particularly the two boys stacking up boxes and flipping stables in front of the doorway. They looked quite interested in the explanation.

"I figured you seem to be a good... honorable man by the way you have taken care of Sinjah-san sitting next to you." she said after a few moments keeping her formal tone despite her recent lack of comfort under his gaze. She knew there was more to why his gaze was so unsettling, but the fact that she couldn't place why only left the unknown in it's place. "I only expected a man such as you to help them with the barricade to protect us from them." putting almost as much emphasis on the world man as she did when referencing the dead.

Naruto resisted well his urge to outright snort at the thought of honorable. He was honorable when he was twelve. That sense of honor died when he joined ANBU. He only gained some decent amount of it back through his battles with Pein and Hanzo of the Salamander. Both of them warriors with to different extreme ends of the spectrum when it came to honorable actions.

Naruto settled for rolling his eyes, "I'm not helping simply because it is a stupid idea." he said as he leaned back and relaxed in his chair. "And Saeko-san, if you want to help them, then help them. Being a man has nothing to do with it." Naruto said as he ran a hand through his hair as he thought back to all of the men and women he had under his leadership at various points in time.

He glanced over to the purple haired female before opting to glance at her wooden sword. "Busujima Saeko, you seem to have taken up the way of the sword. Samurai roots it would seem judging from the shape. Would I be correct?" Naruto observed, doing his best to bleed through any small amount of charisma he was sure he didn't have despite a few close shinobi's insistence otherwise.

Saeko's small nod of acknowledgment was all Naruto felt he needed to continue. "The way of the Samurai is often regarded as a man's profession." he said with a calm in his voice despite the slightest narrowing of the swordswoman's eyes. "Do you wish to be treated differently because you are a woman in the profession? After all most women that came from Samurai roots were often to stay at home and be housewives..." Naruto finished recalling small facts about the way Iron Country was run. He could only hope that whatever world he was in had at least some sort of similar background. However if he looked like a fool spouting about something he had no idea about... well it wouldn't be the first time.

The further narrowing of Saeko's eyes told Naruto he had seemingly struck a nerve. "Do you judge me because I am a woman who has taken up the sword?" she asked, a cold look appearing in her eyes. Naruto noticed that Rei seemed to be equally tense at the implication, her makeshift spear leaning beside her.

Naruto shook his head with a weak smile, but he quickly masked it with his regular expression, "No. I don't." he said as if he wasn't paying much attention to her, before he abruptly turned to the now relatively surprised girl. "Do you wish for me to do so?" he asked the pointed question.

Naruto had to admit that he was rather amused at the girl's casually shifting expressions, "No... I do not." she said quietly not realizing where this is going still. Partially due to values instilled in her from her upbringing no doubt.

Naruto smiled lightly at the answer, feeling as if he was given the shinobi vs kunoichi pep talk to a rather sexist member of one of his team once again. "Good. Because I don't plan to. However if one wishes to be treated equally, one must accept equal responsibility. I am not helping helping those two build a blockade, because the blockade is just potentially more detrimental than good. Not because some silly irrelevant discrepancies between men and women." Naruto finished, leaving a deal of room for thought to wash over the entire room.

"Naruto-san, why do you think the blockade will be detrimental?" Takashi asked with a jab of his thumb to where they had positioned tables and boxes in front of the door.

Naruto suppressed the urge to talk down to the young student as if he was a subordinate that needed disciplinary action for his stupidity, and simply realized that he was a civilian boy whom was likely quite a bit scared.

"I don't go to this school." Naruto began quietly. "But with the exception of the few old doors I saw on the second level of the school that slide open? All of the doors at this school open outwards. These doors are no exception. The amount of force and pressure needed to even knock down the door after it has even been locked would be far more pressure than would simply be practical. Not to mention if we were really that worried, you could have just taken Miyamoto-san's spear, and barred the doors."

Naruto paused as he watched the recognition flash over the faces of those in the room. "Now as for the outright downsides to the barricade? You are wasting your time you could be resting shifting around boxes and furniture. The hallways we each took were already well traveled and should have been cleared for us to get her safely. I hope that for you all it has been obvious that these blind creatures are only alerted to a presence by sound. Moving around a bunch of furniture was entirely unnecessary."

Naruto sighed, "And finally on the off chance miracle that these dead school children break down this door? Without a barricade, they will simply file into the room one by one, at which point you can just funnel them into being killed. With a barricade? They pile up on the door and the sound of the shifting furniture they are making themselves proceeds to alert more. This process continues until a complete flood of them enters the room at once. And considering this is your only exit besides the second story window? No... I think i'll pass on helping you erect that death trap." Naruto finished, fighting the urge to wince at the last comment he made. That one was probably unnecessary.

The shifting eyes that went across the room and then to the barricade were more than enough to speak volumes for what everyone was thinking.

"I wouldn't worry about it now that it is in place. Like I said the sheer chances of them even getting past the doors alone is slim to none." Naruto decided to add if only to calm the nerves.

Saya spoke up, "You seem to know an awful lot about the walking dead Uzumaki..." she stated as she rested her hands on her hips, having not forgotten of the previous battle of words earlier.

Naruto shrugged his shoulders, "I was carrying a girl around through corpse infested halls. I could only kick them. You have to pay attention when it comes down to that." he lied through his teeth. The truth was he noticed that they were blind the moment he started walking the halls. It was only when that awful announcement was given, and that students started screaming and rushing out onto the halls that Naruto could no longer simply walk past the ones he didn't feel like dealing with.

"I know, I remember when you saved Takagi-san! You took it out with just you feet while carrying Sinjah-san! That was so cool! Where did you learn that!" Kohta exclaimed with a great deal of enthusiasm.

Naruto didn't blush, but he couldn't help the amused grin that crept up onto his face as Kohta went on to proclaim his 'sweep and stomp' akin to some sort of comic book hero. Him? A comic book hero? Yeah right.

However the others that weren't privy to this detail recalled back on the fight now that the stress of battle had lifted during their relaxation period. However while what was being proclaimed would indeed be quite the display of skill. The comment bringing them back to the fight all brought the back to a more pressing matter.

"Does anyone know what made one of those things fly backwards when he just arrived. It was as if someone had hit it really hard in the chest but..." Rei began but her question fell dead as there was no real way to describe what was seen. It simply... it simply wasn't possible. An invisible force knocking things away? Those were reserved for movies about warriors in different galaxies, not the real world.

But then again... the dead coming back to life. Perhaps anything was indeed possible.

Naruto shut his mouth at that an focused all of his attention back on to the silent girl beside him, and he simply put a comforting hand on her shoulder. Naruto could only hope that when he could get the girl to a safer environment that she would open up a bit to him. He really doubted that Kimeko's last plea to him asking to help save her sister was simply on a physical level.

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Alright this wraps up a second chapter to this story. I had a few people asking about the pairing in the story, or if the story will even have a pairing. I can confirm that the story will have pairings/relationships for the characters that are going to grow and progress over the course of the story. I won't say that I necessarily know how it will pan out from this point, as to not spoil it, and simply because I don't have every detail worked out for the story. That said, I already have a good idea.

However a lot of people were asking about it. Now I sent some replies to most people that directly asked about the story pairings and gave them an explanation. And frankly as pairings for the story go, I don't care that much. I am going to pair Naruto with a character that fits him as the story unfolds.

BUT!

If you have a character you want to see in the pairing? Just say so. However reviews that are like "Naruto/xxxxx" with no explanation? Most will often be ignored. If you can provide a reason as to why X character would be good with Naruto? I may end up taking that into consideration. I'm not some writer that is going to make a poll and say "Herp'dy derp tell me what pairing you want and I'll awkwardly work them in even though their characters don't mesh."

First and foremost, I intend for this to be a good story because the Highschool of the Dead/Naruto crossover category deserves a better quality of those stories.

Now all of that being said, I hope you enjoy the chapter. Please review and tell me what you think of it so far. I know it is a bit different than standard given the changes to Naruto's character as well as his situation in this. So it is a bit of trial and error here. Any input is appreciated.