Naruto vs the Walkers:
A/N: I have to admit that this story is great fun to write and the support from you guys is astonishing. I humbly thank you guys for the views, follows, favourites and of course reviews. They let me know that I am doing something right.
Another huge thank you for the 2'082 views, 71 follows, 56 favourites and 16 reviews – words can't express how happy I am!
This chapter is sponsored by 'Genius Sensei' by AlexDnD. It is a fantastic read and is without a doubt one of my favourite fanfics on this site.
I still have not thought of a possible title yet so please do leave a review or pm on a suggestion for the title!
Until then though, please enjoy the next instalment of NvW.
Disclaimer: I wish I owned them but I don't; otherwise I would have added Lucille in the Naruto world as a badass weapon for Naruto to hit Danzo's face in…
Chapter 3: What the hell is this place?
"Urgh… what hit me?" Groaned a very confused and tired Naruto. He had just come to, and the first thing that struck him was the hot sun on his face.
…He opened his eyes wide in shock before brutally closing them again die to the sun's brightness burning holes in his corneas. He kept alert for any foul play though and stretched his protesting senses to max to do so.
It was the evening by the time Naruto had started to do the Jutsu with Kurama!
It was absolutely boiling where he was and judging by the sun's position – he caught a glimpse of it when he had opened his eyes – it was only early morning to midday. Naruto's heart skipped a beat at this. Another thing that pretty much guaranteed his conclusion, was the fact that he found himself outside judging by the rough, rocky ground he was currently wedged into.
Did the jutsu actually work?
He tried to move but found that he could barely move a limb, let alone the rest of him. He had never felt so unbelievably weak before… and he had been trained by the strongest demon alive!
Naruto just knew that something must have gone wrong. It was him after all, it seemed that fate was out to get him even when he had retreated from it...
He tried to get in contact with his only friend but could not, even his attempts to enter his own mindscape ended with a throbbing headache and no progress. Fate is a bitch alright…
The pain eventually got to a point where he was about to pass out again before he finally realised that something had happened to the seal. It was the only explanation of why he couldn't get into his own mindscape seeing as the two are directly linked.
It seemed that he was, for the time being, alone in the hole he had been crushed into. He had no way of contacting his friend and it looked like his mind was drawing blanks on what to do next as well.
So he settled for the basics, which was finding out where the hell he was and what had happened to him? It took many tries and pure stubbornness before Naruto finally managed to raise his head enough – despite the exhaustion that it brought to his already tired form – to check out his condition and the situation he currently found himself in. Thankfully, his eyes had adjusted to the harsh brightness of the day.
"Well… at least my badass clothes survived whatever the hell happened to me. Kurama-senpai will be pleased." Naruto said with a slight hint of sarcasm, he may be externally alright but his chakra was so low that he could barely feel it!
His clothes were actually in remarkably good condition – ignoring the heavy layer of dust and sweat saturated into them - partly due to luck and the other being that they were ninja clothing – essentially they are designed to survive through even low level jutsus without breaking apart.
As for talking out loud, he was not worried about being overheard seeing as his keen hearing told him that he was completely alone in the surrounding area.
He took a second to quickly push his head up again to have a look around the crater he found himself in. It was an odd sight to the still rather confused and vulnerable Naruto – the crater had 'dented' the floor in such a way that a protective barrier had risen around the edges of said crater. He came to the conclusion that he must have been there for a while judging by the layer of dust and rubble that was layered on top of him.
Now that he thought about it; the protective walls looked similar to Konoha's walls… he was completely safe from any animals or other threats whilst here in the crater.
He edged his hands slowly towards his weapons to see what condition they were in. However, he stopped… just realising what he had just said.
Konoha!
He once again went into shock at hearing the name. He didn't remember anything after the beginning the hand signs along with his friends. All he knew was that the jutsu worked but didn't at the same time. He needed to talk to Kurama again as soon as possible.
One thing was for certain though, he was not in Konoha anymore. The fact that he couldn't detect any chakra at all, even in the ground he was currently residing in, meant that the jutsu most likely had worked.
But… but this wasn't what was supposed to happen?
Kurama had told him many times over the years that when they performed the jutsu/seal hybrid; they would be in perfect condition if they needed to move quickly but in return would receive some crappy chakra exhaustion that would eventually mean they would both have to rest for a while.
"That was a side effect he got right then…" Naruto said grumpily, yet again feeling his sad excuse for reserves – he had less than Sakura!
It also didn't help that he didn't even have the strength to reach for the food or canteen in his pockets. His body was screaming for both of them.
He felt the exhaustion starting to hit him hard now and was struggling to remain awake. It would have been probably better for him to have at least eaten and drank something before giving into his fatigue; if nothing else, then for the fact that chakra is gained quicker when you have more nutrients in the body.
Ironically, it was Kurama that had taught Naruto that rather than the actual Academy Senseis he had over the years.
His eyelids started to feel heavy now and sighing once more in resignation he let himself drift off into an uneasy sleep. Hopefully, he would have a better idea of what to do when he comes to next. If that does not happen, then perhaps he would at least be able to move a little so he can get to the food waiting for him in his pockets.
He was out before he could fully understand what had happened and as a result, he was unaware of the slight snapping of twigs and soft sobs of a clearly out-of-breathe person nearby.
His world was about to get a whole lot more complicated…
She had been alone for days now; having found a house and slept in the closet for two of those days before having to leave due to a lack of food and drinkable water. The monsters had been too close by for her to take the pressure of risking another night there anyway.
Ever since leaving the house, she had been running away from those monsters with silent tears spilling down her dirt covered face. That was over 6 hours ago now, at the dawn of a new day.
A part of her knew that she was as good as dead without any help. She had no weapons, no experience and diminishing hope. She was just a little girl, completely lost in the great expanse of trees and foliage surrounding her.
She desperately missed her mum! She missed playing with Carl and the other children at the campsite. Hell, she even missed the little doll that she had been forced to abandon several days ago now by the river.
She wondered why no-one had found her yet. Do they care? Did they even realise that she was gone?
These were just some of the things that plagued the poor girl's terrified and irrational mind in her desperate struggle to stay alive.
All she knew was what Rick had told her to do and that was to run with the sun over her left shoulder until she got back to the motorway. This was exactly what she did. The poor little girl had come very close to death several times thanks to those creepy 'Walkers' as Rick and the group called them.
She stumbled and staggered along in the hopes of finding help, any help at this point… she kept running and evading any walkers she saw along the way. Her feet were bloody and blistered from the hours she had been running but paid it no heed. She had to keep moving, or die.
It certainly helped with the motivation but less so on the morale of the terrified little girl.
The breathing of the girl had long since became sharp, painful pants and gasps from her terrified run through the forest. She was becoming alarmingly close to needing some form of a break or collapsing from hunger. Each one was dangerous and potentially deadly in the world she now lived in.
The trees and foliage, obstructing the girl's forward scrambling, began to decline making the ground a lot smoother and easier to run across for the exhausted and hurting young girl. She had to find a place soon, any place that was out of the way from the several walkers she had no doubt was following her due to the rather clumsy and panicked running.
She pushed on and found herself in front of a bizarre sight in front of her. There was a literal crater in the middle of the forest? If she wasn't so panicked and terrified of stopping for even a second; she would have questioned the inexplicable occurrence that had appeared in front of her path.
No, the only thing that went through her tired and sleep-deprived head was how it looked almost fortified with the way the crater was 'walled' off to the outsiders.
She wanted in!
No matter what was inside of there; it couldn't be any worse than what was waiting for her in the forest surrounding her. At the very least, it would be a great place to rest and rediscover her path back to the motorway.
That was her childish hope talking, violently stamping out the mature voice saying of potential dangers and risk of investigating. She had no choice anyway, it was either get in the crater now or collapse with a bunch of hungry walkers following your tail.
So with that cheery thought in mind, she made her way over to the wall using what was left of her strength. It helped that she was an experienced tree climber and had often climbed the trees in her back garden before the world had turned to shit.
It took a while seeing as the wall seemed to have sprouted out of the ground like magic but eventually she managed to pull herself on top of the wall and sat to regain her breathe slightly.
She turned to the path she had just came from and sure enough, she saw the approaching walkers, eerily making their way closer and closer.
For the first time in what felt like an eternity, she sighed in relief, it was the first real time since being left alone that she felt safe from those monsters that had got so many of her friends and family.
They couldn't get to her now seeing as she was a full 7 feet off the ground and except from falling off, was almost completely safe from the outside walkers at this moment in time.
Now that she was comfortable on top of the wall, with her legs dangling over the sides facing inside of the crater, she had the chance to have a closer look at what on earth was inside such a weirdly placed hole in the ground.
At first glance, it looked completely empty until the little girl's eyes focussed and saw that she was not alone after all.
There in the very centre of the crater was a small body of a human. She had no idea how it – no definitely a 'he', she corrected, judging by the clothing and hair style – how he got there and whether or not he had caused this destruction or not but… one thing stood out above all other questions, doubts and concerns to the girl at this point.
There was another living person here with her now!
She could clearly see the deep breathing of the unidentified person in question. A part of her couldn't believe he could sleep so soundly due to the walkers, the heat and the amount of cloths he seemed to have on. He must be slowly cooking with the dark clothes and heavy cloak he was wearing. She stood back up on her protesting legs and started to strain her eyes to get a better look at her fellow (living) human around 8-9 meters away from her position on top of the makeshift wall. Whilst the person was not all that far away from her, the sun's brightness and positon meant that she could only just make out the clothing and overall shape of the boy down below.
She peered closer at the young boy, only slightly stepping forward to do so; but in doing that, ended up stretching too far and falling down the inside of the wall. All she felt was her tired and bloody feet give up on her and then she was falling and rolling down to the centre of the crater.
A little scream of shock permeated the surrounding area but was quickly clamped out when the little girl used whatever survival instincts she had picked up over the last couple of days, and quickly held the spare hand over her mouth. The other hand, of course, was being used in a desperate attempt to protect herself while she was ungracefully making her way down the crater.
No point attracting any more attention than she had already done, thanks to the 'little' run through the forest earlier. Plus, she didn't know if the person was friendly yet. No point waking up a jerk… she had learnt that the hard way with her so-called dad.
She stared down at her sore and aching feet in frustration and harshly whispered:
"Urgh… you stupid, stupid feet! You couldn't have held on for two more minutes?" She said, not particularly expecting an answer from her now throbbing feet. She sighed tiredly while wiping her face clean of tears and as much dirt and sweat as possible with her arm.
After laying down for a second to recover her composure; she did a quick check over herself for any injuries or more bleeding apart from her feet. She couldn't do too much for her feet other than tying up her laces as tightly as possible for some form of compression. She didn't really understand how it worked but figured it had something to do with how bandages worked on other wounds.
As for her overall condition, she was still in a good enough state, with only a few added scratches and bruises on her petite form. Her clothes, consisting of a short-sleeve blue shirt and three-quarter length beige-coloured baggy jeans, were full of little tears and dirt where she had slept, ran and fallen thanks to her journey from Rick to the middle of this crater. However, her clothes were hardly the biggest problem for the 12-year-old girl.
Whilst looking over her rather depressing form, she couldn't help but start picking and brushing away any twigs and dirt that had clung to her clothes and hair during the run for her life.
It did not help that all her clothes were so caked in sweat, dirt and twigs that you could hardly tell the original colour of them anymore. However, it wouldn't have stopped her mum from doing something about it and it wouldn't stop her either.
After all, her mum had always told her that first impressions were important…
…Wait first impressions…
"Uhh… urgh…" a voice behind her groaned, making her jump in her current sitting/lying down position. She had almost forgotten the reason why she had fallen into the crater in the first place.
The 12-year-old twisted her body around, careful to not put any weight on her feet, to face her last hope of survival.
Her immediate reaction was a slight twinge of disappointment at the young boy currently wedged into the ground in front of her. He didn't look any older than her, maybe around 11-12 as far as she could tell.
If there was anything she had learnt in the new world that had replaced her safe and secure one, is that children didn't live very long on their own.
That wasn't to say that company of any sort was unwelcomed to the lonely, scared little girl.
She crawled over to the boy and thankfully he seemed to be perfectly healthy without so much as a scratch on his face, hands or neck. He was however, unconscious and seemed to be quite hot judging by the amount of sweat dripping down his face.
Now that she had gotten over her initial disappointment of no Prince Charming coming to her rescue, she had to admit the boy was quite cute; with his bright blonde hair, whiskered face and badass cloths. She had never seen such bizarre 'birth marks' or 'whiskers' on anyone but it kind of gave him a wilder persona than his clubby, young face would suggest.
As for the boy's 'badass clothing' - as she had called it – she was, quite honestly, stumped at the design and rather serious clothing he seemed to be wearing. What type of 12-year-old wore a large grey cloak, with a black shirt and bottoms on?
In fact, now taking a closer look, the little girl was a little surprised at how similar they were to what assassins would wear in those action films that her dad used to watch.
The girl had little idea of how to help the unconscious boy in front of her. She couldn't exactly walk right now, let alone carry him to safety. Then again, as far as she was aware, this could be the safest place out of the entire forest she found herself in.
Needing something to take her mind off the building pain in her feet and her overall lack of knowledge in helping the stranger, she started to carefully brush the dirt out of the boy's clothing, hair and face.
She was worried that he was overheating in that large cloak from the Georgian Spring weather.
She, without waking or disturbing the boy, carefully took him out of the slight dent that he was currently imbedded in, which then allowed her to take off his grey cloak. Underneath the cloak he wore a short sleeve black shirt, which clearly showed that the boy had done or been doing workouts judging by the callouses on his hands and the definition of his arm muscles.
Despite herself, she couldn't help but admire them but only in a sort of respectful way than anything else. Maybe she had Prince Charming's younger brother that could help rescue her?
It wasn't easy and took nearly 20 minutes just to take get him out of the ground without any sudden movements. By the time she had eventually taken off the boy's cloak it was well and truly the height of the day and they both had the sun pounding down on their small forms without much to protect themselves from the harsh sun rays of the Georgian Spring.
It made her feel extra thirsty and hungry but again decided to distract herself by a rather interesting discovery.
"What… or who is this boy?" She couldn't help but ask out loud due to the amount of weapons – or what she assumed was weapons of some kind – the boy had on him underneath the cloak.
And it was very true; the boy was armed to the teeth and she had to admit that she was slightly worried about how long this boy had managed to survive out here to obtain so many bizarre and dangerous looking weapons.
Now normally she wouldn't even dream of looking over anything without the person's expressed permission – her shy and respectful nature always dominating her attitude. However, in truth she was at that stage where the hunger and dehydration had meant that anything to preoccupy her mind was good enough.
Plus, she was rather curious about the weird weapons the boy had and was wondering if he would let her have one so that she could better protect herself against those out there trying to kill her…
It didn't take her long to justify and rationalise her decision with the small part of her brain that still said it was wrong. Before she knew it she was cautiously removing the holster containing all the weapons and setting it down before her.
She quickly looked over the boy to make sure he wasn't coming to – it would not look too good if a stranger was found going over all your stuff. Especially if they were all your dangerous weapons…
She was however, pleased to see that the boy's breathing had seemed to settle down now due to no longer being cooked alive due to his excessive clothing and the heat. He seemed to be completely out still and it didn't look like it would change anytime soon from what the girl could tell.
Turning back to the large selection of weapons in front of her, her attention was immediately drawn to the well-used scabbard of the sword or knife that the boy had on him. Whichever it was, it had been well used but very well cared for judging by the worn down scabbard but gleaming, sharp blade inside.
She couldn't help herself and unsheathed the full weapon entirely and had to admit that the blade looked fantastic. It wasn't much bigger than a machete that a few of the group had on them, but somehow, she could tell that this blade was so much more than meets the eye.
Her left hand went to gently feel the sharpness of both sides of the blade but before her hand could get even 4 inches close to the blade another hand grabbed it and pulled the weapon out of her other hand in one fluent movement.
She jumped a mile in the air whilst turning her head so quickly it felt that every muscle in her neck had been torn in half. It seemed that she was still jumpy and alert to sudden movements like when she was outside of the crater.
Having turned to the one responsible for the weapon snatch, she was met with the coldest, bluest eyes she had ever seen. They awed her as much as they terrified her – this apparent 'defenceless young boy' was definitely alone by choice rather than getting lost like her.
She quickly looked away embarrassed realising she had been caught going through his belongings.
'So much for a good first impression…' The girl thought sadly.
Whilst the girl was happily going through his belongings; Naruto had been coming to slowly only to become absolutely silent when he sensed the presence of another Being close by.
He had long since mastered silent breathing and sleeping which allows ninjas to better here for any disturbances even if they are unconscious/sleeping. It allows them to be on alert at a second's notice whilst their brains catch up to the real world.
He very slightly readied himself for a fight and brought his guard up whilst doing so. He vaguely noted that he no longer had his cloak or holster on and therefore had no weapons on him. He would have to remember to start putting a few spare kunai around his clothing in the case he finds himself in this situation again in the future.
Naruto slowly opened his eyes and using his already fading strength sat himself up to the ignorance of the person to his left hand side.
His eyes immediately moved to the person in question only to find that they were about to cut themselves on his tanto?
Without thinking he burst into action and within 2 seconds he had the dangerous weapon out of hands of the ignorant 'civilian'. Although in fairness, even in Konoha the civilians knew not to go round touching sharp and dangerous weapons.
Who would be dumb enough to do that?
His answer was clear, as a very startled and shocked little girl turned towards him and locked eyes with him. He could immediately tell looking into those scared brown eyes that she was desperate and needed help.
She wasn't a threat to him. His instincts told him so… but he still didn't lower his guard or 'Crimson Yellow' for even a second though.
Mid-way through their little staring contest, Naruto took the time to carefully look over the girl for any other threats (weapons – apart from his own) or genjutsu. He wasn't sure what power this world uses but he quickly came to his first conclusion.
Whatever it was, it is definitely not chakra based. He could tell from the absence of chakra in the air, ground and the girl to provide evidence to his theory.
Of course that did not mean that he would drop his guard at all; he had never done it anyway… Even in his own home his guard was always up for a possible strike – his instincts and senses where always on 'max setting' especially now in this new world/dimension he now found himself in.
After the initial analysis, he started to look at her more specifically and realised that: one, she was very dirty and tired, judging by the bags under her eyes and dirt that had smeared and caked all over her face, clothes and shoes. Two was that the girl was around his age, quite pretty and reminded him of a lot of Sakura in her physique and sharp brown eyes. Those same brown eyes seemed to sparkle with astuteness and hope despite the alarm and worry in her eyes he could clearly see that she needed him a lot more than the other way round. Finally, he noticed that she was injured; if the blood soaked socks and shoes were anything to go by…
He had to admit that he was slightly relieved to see that, after all, she had taken all his weapons off of him and he was still pretty weak judging by the amount of aching that took over his body. He ignored it easily enough… for now he had bigger issues to deal with.
As for the girl's injuries, well he is a glorified assassin, designed to take advantage of anything and everything to make it his advantage. He had to learn that one much earlier on than the others in his class.
He could barely move due to the hunger and chakra exhaustion – the power nap doing very little to change much of anything. If the mysterious girl had wanted to, she could have killed him quite easily when he was unconscious.
It seemed that his instincts were right again though, she was as harmless as he was right now.
It did not mean that he trusted her any more than he could throw her right now; and that wasn't much at the moment.
Naruto sighed deeply when the girl looked away from him, she was embarrassed and shy about getting caught. She reminded him so strongly of Sakura when she was younger, even down to the guiltiness of getting caught for something.
She had definitely not had the same upbringing as he did, he couldn't help but be slightly thankful for that…
Taking pity on the little girl before him, he decided to offer a conversation to calm the clearly still alarmed girl down a little.
"Hello there stranger-san, I am Naruto Uzumaki and who are you?" Naruto asked as politely as possible whilst still readying Crimson Yellow in his hand to attack if the girl made any sudden movements on his person.
He was unprepared though when she cutely and innocently tilts her head to the side in confusion at his question. He didn't understand why his question would confuse anyone but was quickly answered by her response.
"sdjv dkjvd Sophia, dsj fjvkdb jdvbs adjk?" Ah, a different language… great!
He obviously didn't understand what she was saying but did take away that her name seemed to be 'Sophia.'
He knew this was going to be embarrassing for both of them but he needed information on this new world and she was his best option right now.
So, with a little difficulty, he points to himself saying as clearly and slowly as he can: 'Na-ru-to' and then points to her saying in the same voice 'So-ph-ia.' It helped that it sounded like a name and he (again) likened it to the name Sakura.
At her encouraging nod, he relaxed a little – there was at least some hope for communication between the two.
He then points to his cloak and gestures it be brought over to him. Sophia looked at him puzzled for only a second before catching onto what he wanted. In reply, she quickly grabs the large grey cloak and returns it back to its rightful owner.
Without pausing to thank her, he quickly took out some ration bars and ripped off the wrappings before taking a huge bite out of the first one. He then looked over to Sophia and offered her a couple.
As on que, her stomach let out a massive grumble which was answer enough. She didn't even hesitate apart from saying what could only be a thank you.
And so they both ate what felt like a hundred of the rather foul tasting bars – they barely noticed due to the level of hunger they were both at – thankfully, Naruto had enough to feed himself for quite a while and it was the quickest way for her to start to open up to him.
It worked.
She started to talk mainly out of nervousness as she was clearly still a little uncomfortable with the silence of the two.
During the time of eating, Naruto also brought out the much appreciated canteen full of water and quickly took a few gulps of fresh clean water before handing it to Sophia.
As he listened, he began to notice something amazing. The more she talked the more he could begin to understand her speech patterns. Maybe not the actual words or their meanings, but after only 10 minutes he could tell certain words/phrases she liked to use more than others and as such began to build upon it.
It took a while, but he finally realised why the language was coming to him a lot easier than he imagined. Kurama had taught him various verbs and adjectives in a lot of different languages that he had come across over his centuries of existence. It was lucky that this was one of them.
So in order to pass the time, whilst eating and drinking there fill, he decided to play a game with her. Children liked playing games… right? He did not receive much of a childhood and certainly was never offered to play any games with.
The game was rather simple since he really didn't have much experience with them but she didn't seem to mind and enjoyed talking to him. All that it consisted of was him pointing to random things and Sophia calling out what they were called.
It included everything and anything, from cloak, to sky, to crater. After Sophia called out what it was, Naruto then had to reiterate what she had just said. A lot of the time ending with hilarious results; or at least according to Sophia's muffled laughter.
Of course, at first it went spectacularly wrong but over several hours his quick learning curve managed to pick up a lot of the words now spoken in the game. After that, they began to get a little cold due to the sun beginning to set. As a result, they both covered themselves over with the cloak – ensuring all the food and drink was put away beforehand - and continued to 'talk' to each other.
They were both starting to feel the adrenaline and nervous energy waring off at that stage and the game was beginning to become a bit harder to do.
He had managed to take a lot of the words and speech pattern together and was fairly confident that he could at least understand very simple sentences and grammar. He wasn't too sure about speaking the language yet but he was sure that his learning curve would at least make up some time when trying to learn the more advanced level of the language Sophia spoke.
And with that thought in mind, he drifted off to sleep but still held onto Crimson Yellow and a spare kunai. He only trusted one… he wouldn't make that two any time soon… not until he had talked to Kurama about it first.
Okay, that's the third instalment of Naruto vs the Walkers – Naruto has finally ended up in the Walking Dead Universe and is currently trying to communicate with little Sophia. What are they going do next?
As for the ending, sorry it ended kind of abruptly – I didn't want to start a new scene now otherwise the chapter would go on forever…
I felt that this chapter was perfect to end off here and next chapter we can focus mainly on walker action. Especially now that Sophia and Naruto have introduced each other and began to form some kind of communication and bond.
As for their feelings towards the communication problem that will be looked into more closely at the start of the next chapter seeing as I can go into a little more detail then.
Also, please let me know where any mistakes or continuity errors have been made so that I can correct them ASAP.
Thank you all,
Hollow Lives.