Disclaimer: First Chapter
Story Start!

He returned.

"MOM!"
"Rei."

Rei and her mother, an older woman who looked just like her with shorter hair, hugged as they were reunited. The woman was Kiriko Miyamoto, and she had bandaged wrapped around her wrist that alarmed everyone when they noticed them.

"Everyone calm down, she wasn't bitten by a zombie. Kurama bit her when she pointed a spear at me." Naruto told the people behind Rei who were about to protest her being allowed in. When Kurama had seen the woman point a spear at him, he lashed out and bit them woman. There was nothing else to it. "I'm late because it took awhile to convince her to leave the safety of her house and come with me." Naruto, in the end, had to break down the door of her home and convince her with force.

She did not believe him when he told her that he knew her daughter, so he had to kidnap the woman and convince her on the way to the school. She fought him damn near the entire way to the school, until the later part of the journey back.

"Where you able to find my Dad?" Rei let go of her mother and quickly approached Naruto.

"Not yet, the smell of gunpowder in the area your father was last at made it too hard for Kurama to track... I didn't find any zombies that were him though." Naruto couldn't confirm him alive, but he could ease her mind by not telling her he was dead. Rei rushed towards Naruto and wrapped her arms around him with the same energy that she hugged her mother with. "... Why isn't there a trench around the school... it's been 2 days." Naruto had taken 2 days to get Rei's mother and look for her father, and Takashi's parents.

"Did you find my parents?" Takashi came forward.

Naruto gently pushed Rei off of him, and he approached Takashi.

"I'm sorry. I wasn't able to get there in time. You can blame me if you want." Naruto didn't hesitate to wrap his arms around Takashi and comfort him. Takashi was stunned when he heard the news. There was a moment where the world felt frozen to him, and while he could feel Naruto hugging him... it just didn't feel like he was.

Rei covered her mouth in shock and horror, and even her mother seemed to be ashamed of the news that she saw delivered.

Takashi pushed Naruto off of him when it registered who was hugging him.

"You..." Takashi pulled back his fist, and for a moment he started to swing. His punch lost it's energy though mid swing as he stumbled back. The anger and rage he felt died down when he saw Naruto didn't flinch, or even move to stop him. Naruto was going to just take the punch right to his face. "... just leave me alone, you stupid bastard." Takashi turned around and started to storm off.

Rei started to chase after him, but Naruto reached out and grabbed her.

"Leave him... he needs a moment to himself. He isn't going to want to you to see him when he lets it all out. Tonight, talk to him when he's had a moment to himself." Naruto made sure that Rei understood. He wasn't telling her that she couldn't comfort him, just that she needed to wait until his feelings were sorted out.

There was clapping.

"Wonderful, the triumphent hero returns with a rescued beauty. It's too sad what happened to your father Rei, and what happened to Takashi's parents... all too sad." Shido made himself known as others were starting to join the crowd. Naruto glanced towards the man, and looked him up and down. "Of course, you didn't succeed."

"He succeeded well enough, if I didn't make him struggle, he might have saved the others in time. It's my stubborness that is to blame... don't you dare blame the guy who reunited me with my daughter." Kiriko growled, and then she bristled further when she realized just who it was that she was looking at. "Shido!"

Naruto stuck his arm out in front of her.

"Stop... Kiriko, go and take a shower in the locker rooms while we still have running water. Rei, you should show her around." Naruto looked and saw that when Kiriko went to attack Shido, that the students behind Shido looked like they were going to defend the man. The situation would have gotten very messy, very quickly if he had allowed them to fight. "Shido, why isn't there a trench around the main school building?" Naruto asked Shido instead.

Rei grabbed her mother and pulled her along, and just in time for Saeko to walk onto the seen from the opposite direction.

"Well, you see, you never explains why you wanted my dear students to work themselves to the bone digging some trench. It doesn't make sense for them to work so hard, when they aren't being told why they are working." Shido explained away his lack of actions. "It isn't very leader-like to not explain to people why they need to do something after all..." Shido stepped back when Naruto walked up to him, and everyone behind him tensed up.

Naruto looked Shido right in the eyes and scanned his face, and he scanned the faces of the people behind him and could see their eyes were dull.

"Leave."

"What?"

"Leave, take your followers and leave... right now." Naruto stated to Shido, plain and simple. Naruto could see Alice was watching from the 2nd floor, and he didn't want to make a little girl witness him turn a man into a bloody smear on the ground. He saw panic was starting to set in on Shido's face when Naruto spoke so slowly and clearly.

"You can't be serious, that is a death sentence... if me or my beautiful students die, our blood is on your hands... you can't be okay with that." Shido had panic setting in, but he still managed to speak in a way that manipulated his students behind him.

"Yeah, Shido is 100 times the man you are, you can't kick him out!"

"I'm not kicking him out, I'm kicking all of you out... you have 10 seconds to leave the school grounds before I start killing." Naruto started, and his words caused the boy who spoke up to shrink back. "... 10... 9..."

"He's bluffing of course (8... 7...), because he doesn't have..." Shido realized Naruto kept counting even while he was trying to talk his way out of it. Naruto stepped closer to Shido and grabbed him by his shirt, and he pushed him down to his butt.

"6... 5... 4..." Naruto got to 4, and the students behind Shido started to run towards the walls of the school. Shido scrambled to his feet as well, and this was what Shizuka walked to see. She saw Shido and his students were running as fast as they could to get away. Even when they were running away, Naruto didn't stop his count. In fact, he actually started to chase after them slowly. "3... 2..." Naruto watched as many of them started to climb the walls the best that they could.

Shido was the last one remaining.

He managed to get over the wall.

"This isn't the last you'll hear from me!" Shido spat at Naruto as he disappeared over the wall.

"1... and I don't expect it will be. The next time I see you, I'll make sure Alice isn't going to see what I do to you." Naruto turned around, and he saw Alice was waving down at him from the window with a giant smile. He waved right back to her, showing her that he knew she was waving. He smiled at her brightly. "Fuck... less people means less mouths to feed, but it also means less hands to work." Naruto sighed and rubbed the back of his head.

"I'll work twice as hard." Saeko promised him.

Just like that, the survivor group shrank to less than half of the size it had been before.

'... It's been several days... how long until the EMPs go out... I don't think the world governments will hold out that long.' Naruto frowned to himself as he looked up at the sky. He was guessing it was only a matter of time. He needed to copper plate and protect the humvee from an EMP blast and he needed to do it as soon as possible. 'They've already held out this long.' Naruto reached up and grabbed his face.

He wished Sasuke was here right now.

Sasuke was the type who could tell you when he suspected an attack like that would come, or if Shikamaru was still alive he could perfectly predict the actions of the world governments as well. It sucked that his smartest friends were dead, leaving him to try and figure it all out by himself.

"Naruto... you seem stressed." Shizuka leaned forward.

"I'm fine, just thinking about what we have left to do."

"No, you seem like you haven't had a good meal. Please, go rest in the gymnasium, and I'll bring you something to eat." Saeko insisted as she placed her hand very gently on his back, and she pushed him forward. "My father lives in a dojo on a mountain. He won't die easily. Kohta's family was on a cruise ship when this started... and-"

"My family is all gone already, so I'm good. You don't need to go out and find our families for us. You've worked hard, please let us take care of you for at least a few hours." Shizuka insisted, and she joined in pushing Naruto forward towards the gym. With how hard they were insisting, Naruto rubbed the back of his head and sighed.

He wanted to reject them.

'... Yeah... I guess they're right, I do need rest. I can't do everything, and if I keep pushing myself I'll collapse.' Naruto didn't say a word as he started to take their demands, and walked to go get some rest.

"Naruto."

"Yeah?" Naruto stopped when she addressed him.

"... I appreciate you."

"Thank you." Naruto smiled at the simple statement. He walked with a little more pep in his step when he was thanked like that. She didn't just thank him, she told him that she understood how much he was doing for her.

That meant much more than a simple thanks.

Chapter End!
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