Happy weeknd y'all, and try to save your tears cause this story is blinding, get it... nevermind-_-

Anyway, I really wanna say something but I don't know what to say *Flip through scripts in my head until I found the right word*

Ahem* Like I was saying because I am too exhausted, not lazy mind you :)

I manage to complete this chapter faster because I might tap out for a while cause of some real life issues. Nothing major but definitely life concerning.

This chapter is kinda the same length as the last one. The game doesn't give much room for multiplayer so sometimes it's all on you whether you want to divide attention or create a whole new scene like what I have been doing previously. It kinda reminds me of the ps2 gow where one ashen man hugs all the screen time to himself.

Anyways without any further ado, I present chapter 6 to you. knock yourselves out.

Declaimer: _L_A_Z_Y_

'Thought'

"Speech"

Flashback

"« »"( )" I'll use this two to indicate an action taking place in the background and location.

"~" Radio communication.

.


Chapter 6

(Water Dripping)

(Thunderstorm, Heavy Rainfall, and howling wind)

Naruto and Lara sat on opposite sides of a camp fire in an open space on the side of the mountain in silence. The silence was palpable. It has been like this for a sometime. The light tower could been seen in the distance, a lot clearer and bigger than before. There were trees and debris laying around.

Naruto stared at the fire in a daze, lost in whatever it is he was thinking. Lara looked concerned at the silently brooding blonde. It had taken them a long two hours of scaling, running and bloody fights to finally make it within the vicinity of the tower. And during all of that, Naruto hadn't muttered a single word, he was just like he is now, looking lost.

They had managed to get in touch with Reyes when they first arrived on the mountain a while ago, but they still haven't found Sam.

She can understand how he must have felt knowing that the last words of your father was a letter of apology, and he wasn't even there during his final hours. She truly understands, that's why she had decided to give him some space, but she couldn't bare the depressing atmosphere anymore so she decided to express her concern.

She walked up to his side and sat down beside him. The sudden movement beside him snapped Naruto out of his thought. He tilted his head a little to look at Lara who was staring at the him with concern.

"Are you okay?"

He smiled sadly at her before turning back to stare at the camp fire.

Lara felt heart broken when she saw this. She opened her mouth to say something but he beat her to the punch.

"when I was 7, my dad left me and my mom for his big adventures. My mom died of a illness less than a year after he left, leaving me to be taken care of by my grandmother. After so many years of no contact, I thought he abandoned me and didn't want anything to do with him, so I threw away my last name because I was blinded by my hate for him. All those times I spent cussing his very existence, he had been here on this island fighting to survive, while still having the time to care for me. I don't deserve it...his love for me."

Lara smiled sadly at him when she heard this. This is the first time he has ever said anything about his past. They sat in silence for a few minutes before she finally opened her mouth to speak.

"Do you still remember when I told you about my wealth and why I didn't touch it?"

Naruto nodded, eyes still glued to the fire.

"My father also abandoned for the exact same reason. I loathed his very existence, and now here I am, doing the very same thing he loved doing the most." Lara smiled fondly as if remembering a pleasant memory.

"Someone once told me that the reason he joined this expedition was to find a spark. Now that that spark has turned into a flame, he doesn't know what to do with it."

Lara placed her hand on his own forcing him to look at her.

"You don't have to keep hating yourself, when you can finally have a chance to redeem yourself. Your father came here is search of something, and now it's up to you to find out what it is".

Her words striker a chord as a memory flashed before his eyes. The words his father said at the table that day circled around his mind.

He smiled and nodded gratefully at Lara.

"You are right. I shouldn't waste my time feeling sorry for myself. Thank you".

Lara smiled, happy that her words were able to get through to him.

"Don't think about you've lost but what you have, like me and Roth."

Naruto looked into her eyes and they unconsciously lean toward each other. When they were a meter away, Naruto suddenly pulled away. He returned his gaze to the fire and said.

"sorry"

Lara smiled sadly, deciding to forget what had just happened and said.

"It's okay"

She got to her feet and said

"Let's go"

Naruto nodded and quickly followed behind her. He felt better now he has poured out his mind to someone. The body visibly relaxed as if relieved of the burden it had been weighing down on it.

They moved through a passage near the camp into the mountain and eventually came upon a path where they heard voices. They slowed down their steps and stealthily walk deeper into the mountain where they saw a man standing guard beside a sand bag barrier with his back turned to them and quickly hide in front of a rusty old truck in the huge cave passage.

Naruto looked at the search light up on the second floor of an abandoned building a good distance in front of them. He turned to Lara to say something when they both heard one of scavengers say.

"Hey! Get that damned gun off of me"

Naruto felt a itch in his chest, his expression turned sour and so did Lara's.

He look at Lara and said. "This is not going to be easy"

"You think?"

It was one thing to go against people with arrows but with an MG it was a different story altogether.

Having more experience with gun wielding opponents, Naruto quickly formulated a plan in his head. He turned to Lara and laid down his plan.

"Okay this is what we will do. We need to first take out the search light, but doing that from this distance will attract attention, so we need to move closer. To be on the safe side we should first take care of those guys closest to us, as discretely as possible".

Lara nodded as this was the same thing she had in mind but Naruto wasn't done yet.

"The machine gun should be on the second floor beside the search light, so be careful. We also don't know if there is any othere person who has a hand gun or Molotov, so be careful. I'll take care of the two up front while you take out the search light".

After making sure Lara understands the plan, Naruto moved out from the front of the truck and stealthily made his way over to the man beside the sandbag barrier. There is another man standing a safe distance away, so he tried to be as quiet and possible. He pulled out a small throwing knife from his jacket and stalked closer to his target with measured footsteps.

The scavenger had his back turn when he felt a hand cover his mouth followed by a stinging pain in his head. Naruto dragged the body behind the blockage. He retrieved his knife from the scavengers head and signalled Lara over.

"Can you hit the search light from here?"

Lara nodded as the distance wasn't that great.

"Okay. Once you take out the lights I'll proceed"

Lara nodded, her bow and arrow moving to perform the task. She took aim and hold her breathe.

Naruto readied his machete and checked the bullets left in his gun as he waited for Lara to complete her task.

With precise aim, Lara let the arrow fly, the arrow hit the search light and destroyed it, accompanying her objective.

"Aw, darn it! burn out again."

"Surprise they even work after so many years"

"Now's who's gonna fix it"

Naruto wasted no time and quickly moved out through the confusion. He stalked behind a man and stab him in the head with the knife. He didn't cast him a second glance and quickly moved on to his next target and did the same with Lara covering up for his slip ups. Eventually someone was bound to notice their dwindling numbers and quickly sounded the alarm.

"Intruders!"

"What?...where?!"

"His over there!"

"Shoot him down!"

The matching gun turned in his direction and opened fire at him.

"Shit" Naruto dive out of the way of the gun fire and rolled back to his feet behind a cover. A machete wielding scavenger ran at him but was taken out by an arrow.

The others approaching noticed this and quickly warned the others.

"Shit! there's another one!"

Lara quickly hide behind the concrete road barrier as the machine gun opened fire on her from the second floor. Lara quickly switch to her gun and returned fire from behind the cover to distract the gunman.

Naruto didn't waste anytime and shot his way into the building with Lara covering for him while taking cover every now and then.

He reload his gun and slowly climb up the stairs to the second floor. The gunman caught sight of him and hurried to take cover but Naruto didn't give him a chance to do so before taking him down with two shots. Two other men jump into the second floor from a platform on the other side but Naruto took them down down before they could even relax.

After searching the floor and making sure there was no else left. He walked out to the balcony and called out to Lara.

"That was easy" Lara said as she meet up with him in the second floor.

Naruto shake his head and said. "Only because we caught them off guard. Here" He tossed her a rusted old coin.

She checked it out and asked. "Where did you find it?"

"I found it in a chest. Is it useful to you?" Although they might be stranded on the island right now, he didn't forget their main reason for coming here.

Lara gaze the coin a scrutinizing gaze and said. "This coin probably found its way into Japanese circulation sometime in the mid 19th century."

"So it's useful"

"Yes it is. thank you". She said before pocketing the coin and asked. "So where to now?"

"There's a way around here" Naruto lead her to the platform the two men had jumped from earlier, and jumped to the other side which happens to be a destroyed watch tower. They made their to the top where they found a zip line and used it to get inside a building on the other side.

They landed inside a pool of cold water and couldn't help but shiver.

Naruto exhaled sharply.

"Cold~"

"It's freezing"

"Over there!"

They heard voices causing the both of them to quiet down. They slowly climbed out of the water, make a right turn around a corner and slowly moved toward the metal door at the end of the hall where the voices are coming from.

"There are still more of them down here? Just how many of this guys are there?"

Lara shrugged and said.

"How am I to know?"

Naruto reached for the door handle and slowly turned it to not alert the inhabitants, only to find it locked. Lara looked around and found a hole in the wall to their left hosing dangerous gas, a large pipe with a wheel stood inches beside it.

She walked up to the pipe and called out to her partner.

"Naruto help me with this"

"Okay"

They turned the wheel and closing the pipe, stopping the release of gas. The gas in the whole cleared up, allowing them safe passage to the other side.

On the other side is an empty old room with few pipes on the wall and a open door at the far right side. They heard voices coming out of the door.

Naruto and Lara exchanged glances, nodded, and stealthily moved to the door. Two men stood at the end of the corridor conversing with each other.

Lara took out the first one with an arrow to the head. The second one turned around and managed to call for help before he succumbed to the same faith. A man rushed out from the right corner at the end of the corridor, he must have been attracted by the call for help but his arrival made no difference as a few seconds later, he too was dead.

They walked to the end of the corridor passing by an open metal door way to their right. They didn't bother searching the room as they had heard the man talking about some stairs previously.

They reached the end of this corridor, and to their left was an open metal door way, inside was barely lit and empty, while to their right was a broad stairway which they followed.

They reached to top of the stairs where a lock metal door stood, so they turned to the corridor on their right. They move forward when a man suddenly jumped out in front of them from a vent on the left side of the corridor.

"Die!" He raised his machete and charged at them. Naruto dodged his wild swing and tackled him to the ground. He pulled out his knife and stabbed the man's head.

Naruto looked up from the dead body at the vent. Lara followed his gaze and said.

"There seems to be a way up there"

"Might be the only way actually" Naruto said, gesturing to the dead end in front of them.

Naruto walk up to the wall under the vent, turned around, cupped his hands together and said.

"Here I'll give you a lift. Let me know if you find anything".

"Okay"

He lifted her up into the vent and watch her jump down to the other side. He waited patiently for her to reach out to him as time slowly pass by. Naruto was about to call out her name through the vent when an explosion took place on the other side of the wall that caused a small earthquake under his feet.

He grew worried and quickly climb into the vent. When he jumped down to the other side, he saw the destruction that had taken place with fire burning all around him and become even more worriedly.

"Lara! where are you?!"

"Am over here"

(Fire cackling)

He followed the voice through the destroyed wall. He arrived just in time to see Lara shoot a man trapped under a broken off piece of a wall in the head.

Naruto moved his gaze from. the dead body to her and asked. "Are you okay?"

Lara nodded. "Am fine"

Naruto glance at the old WWII submachine gun in her hands and said.

"Let's move on then"

There walk into an open room in front of them where lara finds a journal on the study desk and did a quick read while Naruto Savage the room for bullets and materials. There were few old recording and communication materials scattered around the room.

"Here" He handed two magazine of submachine gun bullets to her while keeping the rest in a small backpack he found in the room.

He look at at the journal in her hands and asked. "Are you done?"

"Yes" She put the boom in the small bag in his hand before making their way to a door way to their left leading into a dark room.

"Now! light it up!"

The room suddenly brightened up nearly blinding them from the sudden brightness caused by the three search light in front of them.

"Look out!" Naruto tackled Lara out of a flaming arrow. They hit the ground and quickly scrambled for cover behind one of the many metal crates and old consoles littered around the room. Naruto dealt with the two melee combatants that came at them while lara took out her machine gun and opened fire on the three archers standing far behind the group.

"Oh shit! she has a machine gun...get down!"

"She's tearing us to pieces! help us out!"

Naruto pulled out his Glock after Killing the two melee fights and opened fire on those on the upper floor.

The whole fucking place is like a open command center with old consoles, metal crates, metals slabs, work desks with monitors, bottles and other things scattered around the room. There is a platform on both side of the entrance leading from the lower floor to the upper floor in the back like a walkway, with old devices lining the walls on the upper floor.

Lara looked at the last of them and sighed.

"That's the last of them. let's see if she can find anything useful on them."

Naruto nodded and they wasted no time in searching the command center and dead bodies, retrieving ammo and others things they consider valuable. They walked into the room at the back where a text was written in white on the wall.

"Father Mathias, will set us free?" Lara read it out loud and looked confused as she turned to Naruto. "From what...This island?"

"Isn't that the man you said took Sam. Do you think he knows something about this island?"

Lara shrugged and said. "I can't say for sure"

"Well, there's no time to pounder about it now. Let's just keep moving"

"Okay"

They walk back out the door they came in from and walk up the stairs to their right.

They took a right turn around a corner when a man jumped down from the air vent in the ceiling. Lara one shot him before he could even move.

Naruto deadpanned as they walk pass the dead body and said "That was a foolish move"

"Agreed"

The reached the door at the end of the corridor, not that far away from the corner they came from. Naruto tried to open the door but it was jammed shut.

"It's stuck"

Lara grabbed her pry axe and handed it to him.

"Use this"

He collected the pry axe, stuck it between the door, and with all his might managed to pry the door open. The room on the other side happens to be a control room.

Lara walk inside to take a look around. Naruto following behind her after managing to catch his breathe. The strength he had used to open the door earlier made him feel a little numb all over and out of breath.

Lara stood in front of the consoles and grabbed a small black lever on it. She pulled it only to find out that it was broken.

She looked confused as she around to look at Naruto who has a questioning look on his face. She shook her head at him and he could only sigh in defeat.

He sat down on the ground and rested his back against the iron wall of the control room. The worst possible outcome has finally taken place.

Lara not knowing what to do next pulled out her back pocket. She turned it on and asked.

"Alex? are you there?"

Alex~via radio

"Yeah" Alex voice sounded out of breathe but neither of them could care right now as they also have their crisis to deal with.

Lara skipped the pleasantries and went straight to the point.

"The console's a wreck"

"Damn it"~

"..."

"Well, unless you see a radio shack around, you are going to patch it manually through the maintenance panel."~ Alex said in between pants*.

Lara exchanged glances with Naruto and said

"Okay, that sounds simple enough".

"Yeah, well huh...you are going to have to find it first. On those old towers they installed the panel high, I mean, way high up" ~

Lara looked up at the tower towering above them through a hole in the roof.

"Shit" Naruto could already feel his increased heart beat through his chest.

Lara sighed and muttered.

"Climbing again. Great"

Naruto heard this and asked.

"Is it took late for me to turn back"

Lara rolled her eyes at him and said.

"Unless you know another way out of here, I suggest you get off your ass and let's go". Lara said after retrieving her pry as from his hand and walked to a human sized hole in the wall.

Naruto got off his ass muttering about ungrateful women and their antics like a certain someone.

Naruto got off his ass and was about to follow her when he caught sight of a book with a brown lying on the table besides him.

He picked it up and read through the contents of the book written by Mathias, the same guy who took Sam. The more he read, the more his hatred for him grew.

"This father Mathias is one twisted human being".

He stored away the book in his backpack and arrived after Lara. After passing through the steamy hot pipe lines, they made it out of the building to the outside with a bridge right below them. He handed Lara back her pry axe once he catch up to her which she gladly accept.

(Wind howling)

Naruto raised his head to look at the towers that was now a lot bigger and closer to than before. The air around them was a little chilly as the area they are in now is surrounded by snowy mountain.

Naruto looked around the snow around them in confusion.

"Snow? isn't it supposed to be raining"

"This isn't normal" Lara looked just as confused as him.

"I have a feeling that we are in for one hell of a surprise"

Lara hit him on the arm causing him to flinch a little.

"Ow" He rubbed his right arm in pain, who knew her little fist could hurt so much. He turned to face her and asked with a frown.

"What was that for?"

Lara a replied with a light frown of her own and said

"Don't jinx it. I won't forgive you if things go bad"

Naruto's mouth spasmed at her words.

"You think?"

"Let's go"

They jump down from the high ground and walked to the bridge. The bridge covered in snow looked worn out with a gasping hole in the middle and an old truck wreck standing with one wheel into the the hole.

They walked on a narrow metal beam part of the bridge connecting to the other side. Lara move toward the back of the truck when a man suddenly jumped out from behind the truck wreck, he grabbed her legs and tried to pull her off the bridge. Lara grabbed onto the edge of the truck to keep herself from falling off, and struggled against his grip.

Naruto who had been following behind her, noticed this and hurried across the metal beam. He pulled out his axe and slashed at the man's neck, tearing through muscle tissue and bones. The man's neck dangled to the side as the muscle holding it up had been cut. His arms loss their strength unable to keep resisting. Lara didn't think twice as the grip on her legs loosened, she kicked him off the bridge.

She sighed in relief, it would have been over if she had fallen off the beidge. She turned to Naruto and said.

"Thank you"

"Don't mention"

They walk behind the truck and got off the bridge to solid ground. The took a few steps back and quickly took cover behind some obstacles. In front of them was a scavenger hiding behind a few drums. Lara took aim with an arrow and quickly took care of him before two more appeared.

A man with a machete ran towards them from within abandoned building. Naruto took care of him with an throwing knife to the head while Lara took care of the other one on the building with an arrow.

They waited a few minute to see if there was anymore coming before moving out. Naruto retrieved his knife as they cautiosly walked up building and turned a right corner but quickly scrambled for cover.

"Here they come! Get to ground level!"

Two men stood at the top an old two floor building with the top half destroyed with the passage of time. One of them jumped onto a zip line heading towards them. Lara wasn't just going to watch that happen and she proved her point by taking him down with an arrow before he could even reach the ground, before doing the same with the other. A melee scavenger with a machete rushed out from Lara's blindspot going in with a wide swing. Naruto moved in the nick of time and blocked the attack. His hand felt a little numb from the force behind the attack but he didn't back down. He retaliated with a sweep kick, taking the man oof his before and stab him in the heart faster than he could react.

Another one wielding a axe rushed at him from his left and tackled him to the ground, his machete fell out of hand from sudden attack. His assailant sat on him and aimed the axe at his head. Naruto moved his head in the nick of time causing the axe to miss by a few inches. Adrenaline pumped through his vain at the near death encounter and he retaliated with a mean right hook, driving the ground to the ground and off of him.

Naruto got back up to his feet and hurried for his machete. He grabbed it, turned around and blocked and overhead slash from the axe. The weight of the axe weighed down on him. It took everything he had in him to push the axe off, the scavenger stumbled backwards. Naruto didn't miss this small window of opportunity and performed a quick dash n slash his throat. A gun shot sounded out, followed by another one before everywhere went quiet.

"Naruto!" Lara hurried to his side. She had seen him get tackled to the ground and was concerned.

He shrugged off her concern and said "Am fine, let's go"

They took another right corner and fought their way through the storm of scavengers.

The closer they got to the tower the more dangerous it becomes.

Naruto and Lara arrived at a courtyard,in front of them is a double metal door and behind the building is the radio tower. They walk up to comm tower building doors.

The door to the building sudden swing open before they could reach it and a w meters tall bulky scavenger walked out from behind the door with a full body metal shield and machete in hands.

"Shit!"

"Move!" Naruto dived out of the way of a shield bash.

"DIE!"

Lara opened fire at him from behind a cover drawing the shield man's attention. He rushed at Lara and swing his machete at her. She scrambled out of the way of the attack. Naruto taking advantage of the distraction, took out his Glock and shot the shield man behind the neck, killing him instantly.

Naruto heaved a sigh and said.

"That would have been difficult if it was only one of us".

"I don't even want to think about it" Lara said as she rubbed her temple in frustration.

A man ran out of the doors holding a Molotov.

"Oh shit they're still alive"

Bang*

Lara glanced at Naruto who had a gun with a smoking barrel in his hands.

He noticed her gaze, shrugged and said nonchalantly.

"He was just a waste of time"

They searched through the corpses before making their way into the building and up the stairs. They took their time searching through the building for anything useful and they found a few things including an old Japanese dog tag and another page of Father mathias diary.

They reached the top of the building where there was a campfire and decided to take a break to catch their breathes.

Naruto took out two ration bars and had found on the way from his backpack and handed one over to Lara. He looked up and the monster of a radio tower on the other side.

"I can't believe we have to scale that thing.

"Are you scared?" Lara asked, there was no mockery in her voice, just concern.

Naruto shake his head, smiled and said.

"Am just happy that this nightmare is finally coming to an end"

Lara look up at the radio tower as if looking at a beacon of Hope and replied.

"Me too".

.


.

The End

Tough one if you ask me, it actually took me two days to get this done. I dare say that this is the fastest chapter I have ever written including chapter one since it took a lot of research to make that one.

I'm not really good with emotional scenes so don't judge me for that first scene with lara.

I really don't know how I feel about this chapter, I planned for it to be longer but circumstances forced me to end it here. I hope you guys don't mind.

I tried my best this time to not let my lazy powers take over me and such, I even went as far as to make sure I made so mistakes this time, though I guarantee nothing -

The next chapter might not be out anytime soon or I might try to get it done before my exam in two weeks time, so pls bare with me. Also, for my new followers I hope you enjoyed it just like the old guys here. I still have a lot of work in progress.

Like my earlier rituals, follow, favorite and review pls.

Until next time,

Sayonara.