Disclaimer: First Chapter
Story Start!
The smell of burnt corpses was so thick that could be smelled from several blocks away.
The smoke could be seen rising from even further than that as well, to the level that even in the middle of the night Naruto could see it. He was sitting on top of the humvee, waiting for the herd of zombies to wander out of the road. He had turned the humvee engine off once he got close enough for them to hear it. Once they cleared away, he would start the engine and finish the trip back to the school.
Alice was asleep in the vehicle.
Everyone else was asleep but him in the humvee, since he told them to get some sleep. Naruto hummed slightly to himself as he picked up a glass bottle next to him, and he tossed it as far as he could behind the humvee. It shattered, and created enough noise that the zombies started to walk passed the humvee in search of the source of the noise.
He watched them.
They wandered, and just kept wandering in the darkness. They would keep wandering until they found the source of the noise, or until they heard something else to draw their attention. Even when they disappeared from his field of view, he didn't get back in the humvee right away. The sound of the engine starting up would be enough for them to come back.
Naruto waited a hour.
He slipped back in the humvee, started it up and drove several blocks in a matter of minutes. He didn't drive quickly, he went as slow as the vehicle would allow, just crawling along. He pulled up close to the wall around the school, since the gate was blocked off. He turned the keys in the humvee to cut the engine, and decided to leave them there for the moment.
'The smell of burnt corpses, you go a little blind to it after awhile.' Naruto sighed in annoyance. He looked at Shizuka, sleeping with her face against the window. He looked in the back and saw the Maresato and his daughter were sleeping peacefully. He closed his eyes and leaned back in his seat. They were right up next to the wall of the school, and in the humvee they were well protected.
It was also the middle of the night.
He wouldn't wake them up.
He would let them all sleep until the the light of day, and then he would have them jump over the wall to get into the school grounds. The sun roof on the car was open, and Kurama jumped into the vehicle and landed on Naruto's shoulder. The fox joined him once more, showing that everything was good on the school grounds. Naruto scratched his pet's jaw, and recieved a very friendly nibble of his finger in return.
"Noooo... that... naughty." Shizuka whispered in her sleep.
'Gonna ignore that.' Naruto would let it slide as just a wet dream. High stress times usually resulted in a higher raise in all emotions, which included a libido raise as well. Some people experienced a drop in libido, but others would experience a drastic raise in it. It would seem that Shizuka was among those who had their sex drive enhanced by being under stress.
A moment to reflect on that.
Naruto reached into his pocket, and he pulled out a frog shaped wallet and opened it up. He reached into his wallet, and he pulled out a small silver ring. He just looked at it tenderly and held it between his fingers. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a matching ring, only it was in a smaller ring size than the one in his pocket.
"Naruto... please... I don't want you to see me turn into a monster... please, give me mercy. I know I'm asking a lot, but... please... save me from becoming a monster and attacking you."
"I understand..." Naruto repeated the words that he told his fiance, moments before he ended her still human life. He had killed his own lover, his fiance, his other half, and the love of his life. He crushed her head with his own hands, and she never stopped smiling at him. She asked for mercy, but giving her mercy weighed heavy on him. '... we could never have sex with the lights on, she was always too shy... there was no way she would have ever wanted me to see her like that.' Naruto smiled to himself and wiped his tears.
He wasn't alone, so he couldn't cry.
She would have wanted him to do his best, and to protect everyone he could while staying alive. She would support him no matter what he chose of course, but he knew that he was doing right by her by becoming a protector for those who had a chance to survive.
Part of him wanted to go out and slaughter every zombie he could get his hands on.
She wouldn't be happy with him if he did that.
-Hours Later-
"Okay Alice, I'm going to toss you over the gate to your dad." Naruto stated as he held the girl by the middle of her back and her butt. He was holding her so that when he tossed her, she would land like a princess in her father's arms. He looked over to her father, and nodded his head. Once the man nodded back in return, Naruto looked down at the girl. "Ready?"
"Okay."
"Here you go." Naruto tossed the girl a good 10 feet, and her father caught her before stumbling back a few steps. "Okay, did all the supplies make it fine?" Naruto asked Shizuka, next to Maresato, and she looked around her. All of the clothes were on the ground next to her, as were the food, water, and weapons that they had gotten their hands on.
"Looks good."
"Perfect." Naruto made the jump over the wall and landed on his feet. He looked at the wall mini-mountain of burnt up corpses that were sizzling in the front yard of the school. Since none of the survivors were around, he would guess they had went to sleep somewhere in the school building. "Okay, lets go." Naruto started to lead the way.
He didn't get far before arms wrapped around his waist.
Alice had ran to him and hugged him from behind. Her head was in his side, and she was crying silently. She was moving her mouth, but the words were getting stuck in her throat. He looked at her father, who was crying with his daughter.
"Thank you... we might not be alive right now if it weren't for you... thank you." Maresato was able to get the words out, but they were choked up. Alice was still hugging him with all of her strength, and her father was letting out his gratitude as well now that he felt safe. Naruto gently pushed Alice off of him, very gently, so that he could turn around and get down on a knee.
He wrapped his arms around the girl and pulled her back into a hug.
"Thank you Alice, I'm happy I could help you." Naruto felt her genuine gratitude from her physical expression. Shizuka was watching.
"Oh... young love."
'Idiot nurse... Alice is less than half my age.' Naruto didn't let his annoyance at that comment get under his skin. Alice was around 7 years old, and an early bloomer she might be (he originally thought she was between 10 and 12) the fact was that he didn't consider the little girl to be in his strike zone.
Maresato laughed.
"I would be happy to call you my son-in-law."
'Idiot father... Alice is your daughter, don't joke about marrying her off to a guy my age.' Naruto allowed his eyebrow to twitch in annoyance, because he couldn't even tell if the man was joking. He knew the history of his country and father's marrying off their daughters as a show of gratitude to heroes.
Alice not letting go of the hug didn't help.
Naruto did get her to let go of him, and he was able to stand up again. He took a step forward, but he stopped himself when Alice grabbed onto his hand so that she could walk side by side with him. He looked at her father, to see if this was cool with him.
"Seem's she is attached to her hero." Shizuka hugged Naruto's other arm.
Naruto sighed.
-Later-
Naruto sighed again.
"Are you serious... I was expecting a school cafeteria to be stocked with more than this." Naruto looked at the list that Shido gave him, a list that had all of the food stuffs in the school documented. With what was on the list, Naruto knew a group of their total size would only be able to survive for 2 months off of the stored foods that would last.
"Of course, I counted it all myself. Now, if you want I can ration it out so that everyone gets a fair share... of course those who work harder will need more energy." Shido suggested and offered himself as a worker.
He spoke smoothly.
He talked with the air of a polititian.
"No thanks, everyone will get the same amount of food, regardless of how hard they work. If we're this low on food, I'll just have to do more food runs in the nearby area to find more." Naruto didn't mind putting himself in more danger to feed everyone. Naruto just knew that he did NOT want this man to be the one who rationed out food. Naruto didn't like the man's aura at all, it was like that of a slithering snake waiting to strike.
Just waiting to sink his fangs into an unprepared mind.
"Of course, of course. Just like the great leader that you are." Shido rubbed his hands together as Naruto passed by him, and the second he was behind Naruto his face became a scowl. He quickly put a smile back on his mouth when Naruto turned around to look around the room at the rest of the survivors.
Rei, the girl currently glaring death at Shido, seemed VERY happy that the man got denied a position with power.
"Everyone, this is Maresato-san and his daughter Alice. We found some food, clothes, water, and weapons. You-" Naruto pointed to Hirano, the only one who he really could see knew his way around a gun. "-... the guns belong to you. From now on, your only job is to stay on the roof and use the scope on the rifle to keep an eye around the school." Naruto assigned that job to who he believed was the best person for the mission.
"Sir, YES SIR!" He saluted Naruto and ran to go and get the tools of his job.
"He seems spirited."
"He does... and you are?" Naruto asked the wooden sword wielder of the group, and she smiled at him gracefully.
"Busujima Saeko, a third year here. Of course, that no longer matters. Thank you for risking yourself to get supplies, it was very manly of you. If there is anything you need me-"
-Later-
"... I understand this is what you need me to do, but can I ask why?" Saeko asked Naruto with a raised brow, since he assigned her a task that didn't make a lot of sense.
"Indoor pools like this use chlorine, and chlorine will fade away from water with time. So use these plastic buckets to take the water out of the pool, so we can have fresh drinking water." Naruto could see that there was enough water in the pool itself to last them for a LONG time. All they would need to do was keep the water clean, and remove the chemicals from it. "We can speed this up with iodine, I think the chemical was called... still... take all of the water buckets you can and store them in a classroom in the center of the school." Naruto wanted the water to stay where it could be kept track of easier.
"I see... this would make for plenty of fresh drinking water, but shouldn't we also use it for bathing?" Saeko asked Naruto.
"We can use the outdoor pool for bathing water, and it will work well enough. Still, we're going to keep the room with water locked up. Oh, and Saeko-"
"Well well, a first name basis already." Saeko smiled and closed her eyes, seemingly happy at how informal he was being.
He smiled for a moment.
"... and Saeko, we need to get you a real sword as soon as possible. I'm not sure of it yet, but I think Shido might try to brainwash the other students... and they might gang up on you." Naruto told her.
She smiled with confidence.
"I think I can handle-"
Naruto grabbed her by the neck with one hand, and with his other hand he grabbed her wrist. He squeezed her wrist hard enough that her hand opened up on it's own, and dropped her sword to the ground. Naruto pushed her back, and she had no choice back to walk backwards according to what he wanted from her. He pushed her back up against the wall, and it happened by instinct as she started to defend herself.
She punched and kicked him.
"As strong as you are Saeko, you're still a woman. Don't forget your limits... right now if I wanted to, I could easily force myself on you." Naruto wasn't going to allow her to get overconfident in her skills. Even if she could beat all of the men with her sword, all it would take is one of them taking her by surprise, and she would be unable to resist them all.
Saeko was still struggling to prove that she could break free.
'His grip... my hits aren't phasing him at all... he really could rape me here and now if he felt like it.' Saeko thought, and she was released from his grasp. All he did was grab her and force her to drop her weapon, but she was shaking. She was shivering down to her bones from how shaken up she was from their very brief, and very one sided conflict.
Naruto reached out and put his hand on the top of her shoulder.
"... I'm sorry, but don't underestimate dirty people. While the two of us are alone, I want to say... if Shido shows signs that he's going to brainwash the others, I'm going to kill him. Infighting will be the end of us all." Naruto didn't want anyone to cause a conflict that could start bloodshed. He trusted that Saeko would alert him the second she saw anything, even more so now that her guard was up so high. "... and I'm sorry for grabbing you like that." Naruto saw a bruise was forming on her neck and wrist.
She rubbed her neck.
"No, no... I was overconfident in my own skills. The others won't be as strong as you are, but... I shouldn't just assume I'll be able to fight them off." Saeko didn't look him directly in the eyes at first. It was only near the end of her statement that she did, and once she gazed into his eyes, she bowed to him and smiled. "Thank you for humbling me. While you were gone, I took a leadership role... and it made me forget my own limits."
She placed her hands on his chest and leaned forward.
Naruto backed off.
"Just get to..." Naruto started to say, but realized that he was about to come off as rude, and reject her in a way that could cause her to resent him. "... I barely know you. Please don't kiss me in the heat of the moment. I don't want to take anything important from you." Naruto changed his wording to be more... of an easy let down.
She smiled.
"You really are a good man. I let the heat of the moment get to my head, but I guess I know I can trust you... Naruto-kun." Saeko spoke with him exceedingly casually. "By the way... I'm going to warn you... I'm going to want a rematch in the future." Saeko promised him with a cool head.
He thought about it.
"... No."
"No?"
"As fun as it would be to fight you, no. I won't risk hurting you for real, so I'm never going to fight you if I don't have to." Naruto rejected her offer for a future spar as well. "I'm going to protect all of you that I can."
Saeko twitched.
"Very manly indeed." Saeko got to work with her second rejection hot in her mind. She didn't feel the slightest bit of resentment towards him for the double rejection. 'I was on guard when he disarmed me, but I was still defenseless. He's a man so much stronger than me, that the gap in our strength seems... impossible to scale.' Saeko felt her throat was dry.
He was a fine quality man.
Chapter End!
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