Author's note: Honestly not going to be surprised if this story turns out even longer than The Long Run. Remember, you asked for this story, no complaining over the length :P

Thanks to the following reviewers: leighd1314; solitare1; 666snoopy

Warnings: Some action

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Kishimoto owns it.

I hope you'll like it!

Chapter 7

They worked out the plan in more detail. Keeping Naruto's injury in mind, they decided to wait two more days to leave so that Naruto's ankle could rest longer and hopefully be on its way to healing fully. It was doubtful that he would be fully healed in two days already – though Naruto insisted he would be fine, but Sasuke was already convinced that the guy sucked at taking care of himself – but Naruto refused to wait even longer. Truthfully it wasn't as if they could remain here for days on end either. At the very least Gaara would quickly run out of water and food, so their time here was limited.

In two days Naruto would leave as first one, taking their bags to the first floor where he would open a window and wait in front of it. While Naruto would make his way downstairs, Sasuke would go to the last apartment in the corridor, which faced the roofs. He would walk over the roofs to get as far away from the apartment as possible and use the fireworks to create a distraction. In the meantime Gaara would have covered himself with enough zombie guts to enable him to leave his own apartment building without attracting the zombies' attention. He would get in the van and wait there. Sasuke would jump down from the lowest roof, run all the way to the van and drive it straight to the window where Naruto was so they could pick him up as well. Then they would get the hell out of here.

It was all going to come down to timing mostly and the hope that the fireworks would distract the undead long enough for them to get in the van safely.

'You got enough guts to cover yourself?' Naruto wrote on the whiteboard, biting down on his lower lip.

Gaara nodded and held up his answer to the window. 'I killed some of them yesterday. Dumped their bodies in the hallway so I just need to carve them open and use their guts'

"Still gross," Sasuke stated calmly.

It was a tactic Gaara and Naruto had apparently used several times before to escape from a herd undetected, but that didn't make it any less nasty.

Muted tapping grabbed his attention and he saw that Gaara had written a question specifically for him.

'You sure you can get on and off the roof?'

"Valid question," Naruto muttered, scratching his neck. "This entire plan basically hangs on you being able to get on and off the roof. You're sure you can manage that?"

"The roofs are all lower than the apartment," Sasuke explained and stood up, rolling his shoulders. "But I'm going to check it out now, just to be sure. Keep your machete with you just in case."

"I basically sleep with it, dude, you don't have to tell me to keep it ready," Naruto said amused and wrote down Sasuke's plan on the whiteboard for Gaara.

"I'll be back soon," Sasuke said and shoved the table and nightstands back to the side again.

He could wait with checking the apartment, but why wait until tomorrow when he could easily check it now? Worst case scenario, that would give them extra time to come up with another plan, though he was fairly certain that the drop to the roofs would be doable.

He checked the corridor quickly and when it was just as empty as before, he slipped out of the apartment and made a beeline for the apartment at the end. The door was left ajar from his previous visit and he pushed it open, throwing a look around the room. This one was still empty as expected, so he walked over to the bedroom where the window faced a row of roofs. With some effort he managed to push the window open, grimacing when that was accompanied by quite a bit of noise, the frame groaning loudly in protest. He was too high up for any zombie to grab him, though, so he wasn't too worried about the noise. The drop to the first roof was doable as expected and he ducked, peeking over the gutters to study the street. Still too many undead people roaming around, fuck.

Even with the wind barely at full force today, it was still icy cold and he clenched his jaw; the cold air biting his cheeks and nose. The first roof led to another drop, which brought him a little bit closer to the grabby hands in the street. He studied the gutters and then the ground, worrying his lip between his teeth. Judging by the height of the other roofs, this one would offer him the best bet to get down without breaking a leg or worse his neck. However, that meant he would need to set off the fireworks at a serious distance from this roof if he wanted to have a chance at reaching the van unscathed.

He frowned and backed away from the gutters, jumping onto the next roof. Following the roofs, he managed to get all the way to the end of the street before the height of the house on his right forced him to stop. There was no way he could make that jump or even attempt to climb it; it was simply too tall. He looked back and counted the houses. Seven. That had to be enough to create distance. He glanced at the street below him, spotting the small collection of garbage bins he had had to dodge when they had arrived here. If he threw the fireworks near their vicinity, that should create enough noise to attract most, if not all of these dead bastards.

Nodding to himself, he made his way back to the window, ignoring how several zombies reached out to him with whatever was left of their arms; their awful, throaty moans following him all the way back into the apartment. He didn't close the window entirely; the less he would need to struggle with the window when they would leave, the better. Time would be of the essence then and he wouldn't be able to afford losing seconds because of a rusty window.

"So can you make it work?" Naruto asked when he slipped back into their apartment. His blue eyes were nearly luminous when the sunlight hit them.

"I can, yeah," Sasuke smirked and pushed the table in front of the door. He put the nightstands next to it against the wall; if the herd hadn't broken through by now, chances were very low they would in the next couple of days. "In two days we'll be getting the hell out of here."

"I call that music to my ears!" Naruto whooped quietly and flung his arms into the air excitedly. He quickly wrote down on the whiteboard, 'Sasuke can do it. Leave in two days' before limping back to the couch.

"And here I was thinking you were starting to like it here," Sasuke mocked. "Could hardly get you out of bed this morning."

"Now why would I want to leave the bed when I got to enjoy the nice vision of you with bed hair?" Naruto grinned and winked. He snickered when Sasuke picked up a pillow from the couch and flung it at him, hitting him in his stomach.

Sasuke hid his own smile and sat down in the armchair. "Anything interesting that happened in the meantime?"

"Gaara's going to look through the remainder of the apartments, see if there is anything useful left behind," Naruto told him. "He doesn't think he can find any food, but maybe clothes or so."

"Maybe he'll have better luck than us," Sasuke muttered.

The only useful thing they had found here – save for the packages of soup – was the whiteboard and they could hardly take that with them when they left. If there hadn't been a herd outside, he might have opted to take it because Iruka could use it for his class. With the zombies still crowding the street, though, that wasn't possible.

"Well, he's the one who had zombies in his building, so I'm not sure about his luck," Naruto said laconically.

Sasuke hummed and shot him a stealthy look. Not stealthy enough apparently, because Naruto quirked an eyebrow, crossing his arms behind his head.

"What are you thinking about?"

Sasuke debated whether he should ask the question. He didn't think it was too personal, but he could hardly claim to know Naruto really well already. These past couple of days was the longest time they had spent in each other's company, but that didn't necessarily make them close. Well, if Naruto didn't want to answer, he would tell him.

"That zombie guts idea," he started and Naruto's eyebrow lifted up even higher, "how did you come up with that? You woke up one morning and decided it'd be a fun idea to cover yourself in zombie guts?"

Naruto snorted; a spark briefly lightening up his eyes. "No, it wasn't anything like that. We actually picked it up from a guy we were chasing some months ago."

"What did that poor bastard do to you?" Sasuke questioned, figuring the guy had to have done something to have incurred Naruto's and Gaara's ire. They didn't seem like the type to just go chasing all nilly-willy after people.

"Fucker had stolen our food." Naruto bared his teeth; a faint frown marring his forehead. "So we went after him because it wasn't like we were close to a food source. He led us straight into some kind of factory and we had noticed too late that a bunch of those undead bastards had closed in on us."

He shifted, sitting up straighter. His thumb ran absently across the hilt of his machete. "But we figured, if we're fucked, so was he because there sure as shit wasn't a way to leave the factory again without being caught by the zombies. Except no matter how many corridors and rooms we checked, we couldn't find that guy at all. We'd found some zombies with their stomachs ripped to fuck, but none of them resembled the guy we'd been chasing."

"So we stood there, surrounded by a shit ton of zombies with no way to get out and not knowing where that guy had fucked off to," he continued and chuckled darkly. "Until we looked out of one of the windows and would you look at that? All the zombies were moving towards the factory – but one of them was going against the mass. That's an even bigger anomaly than zombies already are. We put the ripped open zombies together with the weird one and we realised that son of a bitch had actually covered himself in zombie guts and used that as a cover to escape!"

"Did you manage to catch up to him?" Sasuke asked, because obviously Naruto and Gaara had copied the guy's idea and had used zombie guts to escape the factory as well.

Naruto's roguish grin said it all. "We sure did. You should have seen the look on his face when he realised we'd caught on to his little trick."

"What did you end up doing to him?"

"Got our stuff back and beat the ever loving shit out of him," Naruto stated frankly and laughed, the sound short and abrupt, when Sasuke stared at him. "What? You didn't think we would let that shithead get away with stealing our stuff, did you? Fucker should be glad that's all we did to him."

"You only beat the shit out of him?" Sasuke questioned sceptically.

"And stole his crap too," Naruto admitted shamelessly and shrugged. "Eye for an eye and all that. Shouldn't have tried to fuck us over like that, especially after we helped him out when he'd been about to become a snack for some zombies."

"Ruthless," Sasuke commented, but he couldn't really blame them. If that guy had decided to repay their kindness with a raised middle finger, he shouldn't have been surprised that karma would catch up to him soon.

Naruto shrugged again. "You try to fuck us over, you best pray we don't catch you."

That was clear.

For the remainder of their stay Naruto could almost be called a model patient. He either stayed on the couch or on the armchair in front of the window, after Sasuke had dragged the beaten up chair towards it. He didn't even protest anymore whenever Sasuke would check his ankle to monitor the progress. If their situation wasn't so precarious, Sasuke would have laughed at how almost demure Naruto had become. If demure could be used to describe a man who had his machete resting across his lap the entire time and whose gaze sharpened every time the zombies in the street would turn a bit too rowdy.

Gaara meanwhile finished looking through the apartments the day after they had finalised their plan. He had found a couple of clothing articles and the paper pad and the markers he had been using to communicate, but that was about it. A meagre haul, but their van was nearly filled to the brim already, so they weren't lacking in supplies at least.

It was during a rare moment that Naruto was taking a nap that Gaara attracted Sasuke's attention. 'How's his ankle?'

'Doesn't look like it'll turn normal soon' Sasuke admitted, careful to move the marker as lightly against the board as possible to minimise the squeaking noise. 'Don't have anything that can act as support, so Tsunade's going to have to take a look at it when we're back'

Gaara seemed to grin. 'He ain't going to like that'

'Sucks for him, I guess' Sasuke wrote back and shrugged. He doubted many people were fond of seeing a doctor, but it was just what it was. They were lucky that they even had a doctor they could turn to in case of emergencies.

'You'll be surprised at how difficult he can act when it comes to seeing doctors' Gaara informed him.

Sasuke snorted quietly. 'Somehow I doubt I'll be surprised'

He had already figured out that Naruto was shit at taking care of himself; it made sense that would include refusing to be treated by a doctor.

"Are you two shit talking behind my back?" Naruto suddenly demanded, sounding remarkably awake for someone who had been napping quiet deeply. "Or shit writing, whatever."

"Don't know what you're talking about," Sasuke said dismissively and removed his latest messages.

"Fuck off, you don't pull off the fake innocence well," Naruto informed him with a huff and snatched the marker from him, almost puncturing the whiteboard with the force he put behind his writing. 'You shit talking me, you dick?'

'Wouldn't dare' was Gaara's solemn reply.

It made Naruto snort and throw down the marker. "Yeah, right. You both suck," he groused and hopped back to the couch. "You're both awful people, I hope you know that."

"Of course, should awful me get you another wet towel to wrap around your ankle?" Sasuke lifted an eyebrow.

Naruto sniffed and laid back down, propping his injured ankle on the arm of the couch. "It's the least you can do for shit writing me behind my back."

Sasuke shook his head, but got up to make the towel wet again. At least Naruto was actually resting now; he would make a decent patient one day at this rate.

When day broke, they all got ready to finally leave this town. Zombies were still wandering around the street, but they had grown relatively quiet. They most likely wouldn't remain quiet for much longer once Sasuke made his way to the roof.

"You ready?" he asked quietly, watching Naruto slipping his gun behind his waistband before he patted the whiteboard fondly.

"Going to miss you, old faithful," he sighed before answering, "Yeah, ready to go. Got everything with me." He stepped away from the board and settled Sasuke's bag over his shoulder. "Got a lighter?"

"Yes, once you're down the first set of stairs, I'm going to the roofs. Gaara should be getting ready now too," Sasuke said. "Make sure to be ready to jump on time."

"I will. You try not to break your neck or you know, just die in general," Naruto said almost casually, but a shadow passed across his eyes.

Sasuke smiled faintly and grabbed the fireworks. "Same to you. I'll see outside."

Naruto was still limping somewhat, which was a concern, but he managed to reach the landing without stumbling once. He clearly wasn't fully healed yet, even with the extra time to rest, but he was able to walk around well enough so that would have to do for now.

He hurried to the apartment at the end of the corridor once he was relatively sure that Naruto had managed to reach the second floor. Naruto would still have to go all the way down to the first floor and manage to get one of the windows there open, but Sasuke couldn't risk dawdling too long. They had a brief window in which the zombies would be distracted long enough for him to reach the van and they had to time this correctly. The window opening would no doubt attract the zombies' attention, so he needed to draw as many away from the building as possible.

"Sorry, Deidara," he mumbled as he climbed out of the window for the last time. "No gift for you this time."

Those soulless eyes were practically burning into the side of his skull as he rushed over the roofs; this time making as much noise as possible in the hopes of luring them away already. It appeared to work somewhat; more and more zombies started to follow him, their groans and croaked moans rising in volume, their arms outstretched as if they hoped to drag him off the roof. Even three years into this shit, the unholy sound of their guttural moaning was unnerving, especially when so many of them were following his journey across the roofs. He blocked them out, though, only focusing on the comfortable weight of the fireworks in his hand, Naruto back in the building waiting for him and Gaara currently making his way to the van.

With the ever growing group of zombies the rotting stench, the invasive smell of death, was impossible to ignore and he was forced to switch from breathing through his nose to his mouth just to find some relief. Even then he swore he could almost taste the vile stench on his tongue. How Naruto and Gaara could stand that disgusting stench enough to cover themselves in it, he couldn't understand.

He reached the end of the last roof and took a moment to study the street. Most zombies were congregating around the house he stood on; he wouldn't get a better moment than this. He flipped the cover back of the lighter and raised the fireworks higher. One brush of the small flame and the fuse instantly lit up. He was already gone from the roof by the time the fireworks landed amidst the bins. Instantly screeching filled the air, quickly followed by several loud BOOMs and the clattering noise of bins being pushed apart by the force of the explosions.

This was their only shot.

Using the gutters, he swung himself off the roof, much faster than he probably should have to be safe, but time really was of the essence right now; there was no time to be careful. As he ran to the van, he rammed his katana in the head of four zombies and kicked away a fifth one before he basically launched himself at the van.

"You made it," he greeted Gaara hastily and slammed the door shut. "This better fucking start." He turned the key quickly and the sound of the engine purring to life was like goddamn music to his ears. "Thank fuck!"

"You made it too," Gaara greeted in return; his face and upper body completely covered with blood and some bits and pieces Sasuke didn't want to examine in more detail. "We have to pick up Naruto now. Some of them are already making their way back here." He had lowered the window slightly, keeping his crossbow cocked and ready.

"You don't need to tell me," Sasuke muttered and shifted the gearstick in reverse.

One zombie – barely a teenager – got squished between the van and the car behind them. Sasuke could see an arm uselessly dangling in his side mirror, but he couldn't give two shits about that. He had to drive a bit further down the street before he could drive in reverse well enough to back up against the apartment building, right underneath the window Naruto was leaning out of with his four limbs steadied against the window frame. As soon as the back of the van bumped into the wall, a second, heavier thump followed on the roof.

"All right, let's fucking go!" Naruto sounded slightly muffled, but it was enough for Sasuke to slam his foot down on the gas, leaving the street with screeching tires.

A glance in the rearview mirror showed smoke escaping the apartment building and several of the undead trying to amble as quickly as they could after them, desperate to catch them. Even a herd wasn't a match for a van going at top speed, though.

Naruto's cackle made Gaara snort quietly, lowering his crossbow. "Guy's having the time of his life."

Sasuke smiled and shifted gears. Time to leave this town behind.

They left the town behind them less than ten minutes later, but Sasuke didn't slow down until they were far enough down to the road that he could no longer hear that god awful moaning or see the smoke trails like tendrils escaping from the building.

He lowered the window and called out, "How do you plan on getting down from there?"

They hadn't actually thought that far ahead; all their focus had been on escaping that town alive. There was no way Naruto could stay on top of the van, though; not with the weather being too cold for that and his ankle being fucked up still.

"Drive up to that tree there; I'm going to use that one to get down," Naruto replied.

Sasuke checked the road, spotting the aforementioned tree. He furrowed his eyebrows. "You sure?" Climbing down a tree with a busted ankle? That didn't seem like a good idea.

"Yeah dude, only way down for me. I'm not going to wait until we're back at the compound. I'm freezing my balls off here."

"Eloquent as always," Gaara murmured amused.

"Don't call me dude," Sasuke sighed exasperatedly, but manoeuvred the van until he could get it as close to the tree as possible.

He and Gaara stepped out of the van and Gaara flicked some bits and pieces off of him while Sasuke looked up, seeing Naruto peeking over the edge of the roof.

"Here, take this," he said, lowering their bags.

Sasuke accepted them and placed them on the ground for the time being. "You good?"

"Man, not the first time I'll be climbing down a tree and I doubt it'll be the last," Naruto scoffed and reached out to grab a branch that looked more sturdy than the others. He tugged at it a couple of times, seemingly to test its strength. It met his approval because he nodded and promptly let his body slip off the van.

For a moment he hung suspended in the air before he began swinging his body forwards, making his way to the trunk. He was admittedly quite adept at manoeuvring in the tree as if he were a bird or a monkey, making it look really simple.

"You're not going to make it," Gaara remarked suddenly, narrowing his eyes.

"Look man, who was the one who climbed trees the – FUCK!"

Sasuke, who was closest and who had been watching Naruto's progress with narrowed eyes as well, managed to catch Naruto around his – still way too thin - waist when he lost his grip, ensuring he couldn't fuck up his ankle even further.

"Got you," he sighed and released him once he was sure Naruto had his footing back. "Thought you were good at this?"

Naruto twisted his head around and scowled at him. "Yeah well, all the other times I didn't have to deal with a busted ankle. Excuse me for not entertaining you completely," he sniffed.

"We could have helped you down in another way," Gaara chided him gently to which Naruto promptly flipped him off.

"Where was that smoke coming from anyways?" Sasuke inquired, furrowing his eyebrows. "I don't think any of the fireworks made it into the building, did they?"

Naruto perked up and grinned, his previous ire completely forgotten. He snatched up his bag and walked around the van to the passenger's seat. "Ah that. Well, I figured the phone company wouldn't have any use for the overdue bills anymore and decided those creepers could use something else to focus on as well. They're similar to pyromaniacs in that regard."

He stopped right before getting into the van and shrugged his shoulders above the hood; a crooked smile twisting his lips. "They're stupid enough to get caught in the flames, though. I'd like to see them trying to come back from being barbecued."

"They do easily get set on fire," Gaara agreed lightly.

Sasuke shook his head, unwillingly scoffing amused when Naruto winked at him before climbing into his seat. Having removed most bits and pieces of the zombies he had gutted, Gaara got back into the van as well. Before Sasuke joined them, he looked back in the town's direction. If he stared long and hard enough, he thought he could still spot some wispy plumes of smoke rising high in the sky. He blinked a couple of times and climbed back behind the wheel of the van filled to the brim with their hard won supplies.

This trip might have taken longer than expected and they had encountered way more pitfalls than anticipated, but hell if this wasn't one of the most successful runs so far.

Although …

"We're stopping at that small lake we passed before," Sasuke decided and started the engine again.

"Impromptu holiday?" Naruto questioned curiously.

"More like an impromptu bath," Sasuke snorted and glanced through the mirror at Gaara, who stared back unimpressed. "Anko's going to kill us if she sees the state of this van."

"Like I'm scared of her," Gaara said derisively and rolled his eyes.

"Famous last words," Sasuke muttered underneath his breath and got the van back onto the road.

They were definitely going to stop by that lake. There was only so much zombie stench he could stomach.

"Here, keep your ankle in the water for now," Sasuke advised, rising up to dry his own hands on his trousers.

"Sure thing, boss," Naruto said leisurely and rolled up his trousers, carefully lowering his foot into the water. This time of the year it was ice cold, of course, making the blond man hiss, but he kept his foot submerged.

Leaving Naruto at the edge of the lake, Sasuke wandered over to Gaara next who was just finished rinsing out his jacket. He started wetting the smudged spots on his shirt next.

Sasuke watched him for a moment, noticing the way he favoured his one leg over the other. "Got problems with your limp?" he asked neutrally.

Gaara looked up sharply and his mouth thinned. For a couple of seconds it looked like he was going to snap, but then he sighed; some of the fight leaving him. "Better than Naruto's ankle at least."

Sasuke wanted to ask how exactly he had gained that limp, but he didn't want to test his luck too much. Instead he offered, "I've got some cream in my bag. Should help relax the muscles. You want some?"

"Doesn't hurt to try, I suppose," Gaara grunted.

Before Sasuke could turn around to grab his back, an unfamiliar voice spoke up behind them.

"And we meet again."

AN2: Dun, dun, dun! Who could this possibly be?

Please leave your thoughts behind in a review; should you spot any mistakes, please point them out to me.

I hope to see you all back in the next chapter! Please stay safe and take care of yourselves!

Cuddles

Melissa

P.S. For more information about my upcoming and posted stories, please visit my profile.