Author's note: We're getting into one of the gory parts again :D

Thanks to the following reviewer: 666snoopy

Warnings: Mild zombie gore; character death; angst

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

I hope you'll like it!

Chapter 22

Naturally because it was just their luck, they failed to catch up to Naruto and Tobi. By the time they arrived at the desolate looking town, the sky was swirling with dark clouds as if it was already preparing for the evening that would fall in just a couple of hours. The severe overcast sky definitely did not do the place any favours. Perhaps at one point in time it had been an inviting place, but now …

When the car came to a stop and Itachi killed the engine, the first thing Sasuke took notice of was the deafening silence that fell like a blanket over them, nearly suffocating them. No matter where he looked, he saw nothing but rotting corpses, most too far gone to even have recognisable features still. Their faces were brutally mangled, having fallen victim to whoever had been here before. Some had their skulls blasted to smithereens; others displayed stab wounds in the centre of their forehead or the side of their head, an instant kill. Others had a bolt still buried in their brain, putting a stop to their undead state.

Relief filled Sasuke when he spotted the familiar looking bolts, but it was instantly washed away, replaced by apprehension because if Naruto had managed to successfully work his way through this undead mass, why couldn't he hear any signs that indicated a fight was still ongoing? Was it quiet because Naruto and Tobi were holed up somewhere? Why hadn't they simply turned around and left once they had seen the herd?

"Watch out for traps; there could be thin ropes near the ground," Itachi instructed in a low voice.

"Looks like not all the zombies were collected in the buildings again," Sasori commented; his eyes bright and sharp as he looked around, studying their surroundings. "If they had been, they wouldn't be turning into compost now."

"So does that mean the person who collected them in the first place isn't here anymore?" Sasuke inquired dubiously. "Would be nice if we didn't have to worry about someone like that."

"It'd be nice, but I think it'd be pretty stupid if we let our guard down now," Sasori replied; his mouth a thin line. "There has to be a reason why we don't see Naruto and Tobi around here."

"We'll check the streets first," Itachi suggested, throwing a cautious look around them. "We'll stay together while we do a sweep around town and then we'll check the buildings after that."

"Fine with me," Sasori muttered.

Keeping a hand on their respective weapons, they slowly made their way through the street, taking note of the motionless zombies sprawled across the broken asphalt and busted footpaths. Rotting entrails drooped onto the road, but it was hard to tell if that was a result of a recent attack or whether the zombies in question already had had their stomachs injured before.

While the street wasn't exactly filled to the brim with dead zombies, there was no denying either that carnage clearly had taken place here. Which begged the question: why hadn't Naruto and Tobi turned to escape instead of fighting through them? Naruto at the very least had enough experience to know that taking on a giant herd with just two people was far from a good idea. Especially considering Tobi had very little experience in battling them.

Sasuke came to an abrupt stop when realisation hit him, causing the other two men to stop walking as well.

"Sasuke? Something wrong?" Itachi frowned, casting a quick look around them in search for any immediate danger.

"Sasori, you said that not all zombies had been brought into the buildings again," Sasuke whispered, feeling too vulnerable all of a sudden even though they had their backs against what once had been a butcher. "What if they were, though?"

"I'm not following," Sasori admitted chagrined. "What do you mean?"

Sasuke jerked his head towards the gates where their car was parked. "All these zombies are dead and with several of them having been killed with bolts, it looks like Naruto and Tobi killed them. The thing is, we haven't found the bike yet. Don't you think that's strange? If these zombies had already been out on the street, the bike should still be at the gates," he argued, tense. "It clearly isn't, though, and we didn't catch them on our way here so they couldn't have left yet."

"What exactly are you thinking?" Itachi asked slowly, but the dark look in his eyes indicated he was also piecing the puzzle together.

"What if Naruto and Tobi were still driving the bike when the zombies were let loose?" The boulder in Sasuke's stomach increased in size and he swallowed, tightening his grip on his katana. "If that's what happened, they wouldn't have any choice but to fight them."

"And if they had to fight them off, they wouldn't have had the chance to turn around and drive away because they would have been blocked off," Sasori came to the grim conclusion. "If the zombies took them by surprise, it means the dead hadn't been present yet when they arrive – so whoever rounded them up in the first place - "

"Is still here," Itachi finished quietly.

Fuck.

The hairs in the back of his neck rose up and it took all of Sasuke's willpower to not allow the paranoia to take over, stopping it from letting him imagine odd looking shadows around every corner. He attempted to convince himself that he was merely being pessimistic, being influenced by the sombre atmosphere clinging to the town, amplified by the dead zombies surrounding them but he knew better. If the zombies had already been blocking the road when Naruto and Tobi had arrived, the bike and the two men would still have been at the gates because they wouldn't have been able to drive through, depending on the size of the herd. It was even very likely that Naruto and Tobi would have turned around instantly and driven straight back. Tobi might be fairly clueless but Naruto knew when a situation was a lost cause. He wouldn't knowingly put himself and Tobi at risk.

The bike wasn't here, however, and neither were the two men. Despite the dead zombies on the ground, Sasuke couldn't pick up any sounds that indicated the presence of zombies that were still walking around or even the noise of fighting. Tobi at least might be using a gun and that should be making noise if he and Naruto were still fighting. Were they hiding somewhere? That would be the best case scenario and the one Sasuke hoped for, but when he took into account the fact that they had probably been surprised by the zombies, which implied that at least one other person was currently in this town …

This wasn't good at all. This had gone from back to fucked up within just five minutes.

"Naruto-kun is an excellent fighter," Itachi tried to reassure him.

"Tobi isn't, though," Sasori snorted harshly, shaking his head. "Even I know that. During a fight he'd be dead weight pulling Naruto down."

"As long as we don't know anything for sure, there's no point in worrying," Itachi stated firmly. "They could be holed up in one of these buildings for all we know, waiting out a herd."

None of them mentioned what they were probably all thinking: that Naruto and Tobi could be in worse shit than merely waiting out a group of zombies.

"Let's continue with our search. Standing here won't do anything," Itachi decided.

Hyper alert now, Sasuke examined every building, every part of the road for a sign that might tell him where Naruto and Tobi could be. He clung to the knowledge that Naruto was a hardened fighter, had managed to kill off Sakon's group before one of them had even landed a single hit in return, but with every corner they turned and with each minute that passed in oppressive silence, it was becoming quite difficult to keep believing that Naruto and Tobi were completely fine.

If they were okay, shouldn't they have found something by now? Anything that could point them to where they were? Any sign that showed they were still alive?

They arrived at what had been at one point in time the town square. The bustling atmosphere of then had now made way for husks of cars; some of which had been rammed into houses while others had ended up smashed into each other. A couple of them were still neatly parked, like they had been merely left behind by their owners with the idea that they would come back for them one day.

More of the undead had been killed here. Sasuke was a bit disturbed to see that most of them had their heads neatly cut off; the skulls still mindlessly gnashing and moaning. The tool responsible for their decapitation was an iron chain of all things, lying discarded on the ground. One end had been tied to a withered looking tree, the other end –

"That's the bike," Sasori pointed out quietly.

Finally they had found the bike, almost hidden behind a van which had fallen onto its side. Underneath the bike there was somebody. Somebody who quietly groaned at their hurried approach. Somebody bloodied, crushed underneath the bike; a hand faintly twitching underneath one of the wheels.

Tobi.

"Where's Naruto, Tobi?" Sasuke demanded, falling onto his knees to check where the blood was coming from.

It didn't look like it was coming from his head; no visible injuries that could be the cause of the blood. When he pulled down the collar of Tobi's jacket to check for wounds there, he realised with a sinking heart that they were too late. He was vaguely aware of Sasori and Itachi coming to kneel down on either side of him, quick to examine Tobi as well – and just as quick to realise they had run out of time.

Tobi's throat was slashed and while both his collar and his hand – which now laid limply next to his head – had done their best to stem the bleeding, it hadn't been enough. The cut was too deep, the blood loss too severe for Tobi to survive. Even if Tsunade had joined them, she wouldn't have been able to help Tobi; this kind of damage couldn't be fixed. At this point it was a miracle Tobi was still clinging onto life and had survived until now.

"H-h … T-t-to-told … r-ru-run," Tobi gurgled amidst the blood dripping down the corners of his mouth, mixing with the blood spilling out of the cut in his throat. His brown eyes were wide, helpless, utterly terrified, and all Sasuke could do was hold his hand, let him know through that gesture that he wasn't alone anymore.

"Naruto-kun told you to run away?" Itachi questioned urgently and bent down closer to him. "Tobi, can you tell us what happened?"

"Sh-sh-he -s- he … re-re-rel-rela-release un-un-undead," Tobi mumbled; his voice growing weaker and weaker with each raspy exhale. "F-fought … f-f-fought o-o-off … G-go-go-got s-s-s-s-s-sent b-bu-t …"

A squeeze around Sasuke's fingers, the gesture so light he only registered it because he was concentrating, and then Tobi's eyes grew blank; his facial features slackening.

He was dead.

Taking a deep breath, Sasuke placed Tobi's hand on his chest. Dispassionately he watched how Sasori retrieved a knife from his bag and swiftly slid it straight into Tobi's right temple. His gentle care when he lowered Tobi's head back on the ground was almost uncharacteristic.

"I didn't understand much of that," Sasori murmured, gazing down at Tobi's glazed over eyes before he reached out and closed them. "But I guess we're dealing with either a man, a woman – maybe even both. Looks like they were fighting them off, but …"

Where the fuck was Naruto?

The pressing question screamed in Sasuke's mind, bouncing back and forth, while he rose up, looking around him; desperation tugging at him, threatening to take over. Naruto would have no doubt realised that Tobi had no experience with fighting off zombies, let alone other people. From what Tobi had said, Naruto had sent Tobi away, probably intending for him to return to the compound and find help while Naruto fought off both the zombies and whoever had been here with them.

Tobi hadn't made it out of town, however. Somehow he had had his throat slashed and had been left for dead. And Naruto wasn't here. If he had succeeded in killing whoever had been responsible for Tobi's murder, wouldn't he still have been here even if it was just to remain at Tobi's side until he passed away? Naruto insisted he wasn't planning on making friends, Sasuke knew, but Sasuke also didn't consider him the type to leave a person behind to die alone. If he had been able to, no doubt Naruto would still have been here. He might not have been able to help Tobi, but he wouldn't have abandoned him.

That he wasn't here could only mean …

"Hey." Sasori's voice sounded off, pricking through Sasuke's dark thoughts. The red haired man had wandered to the east of the square and was studying something on the ground. "I think I might have found something."

"Found what?" Sasuke was closest to Sasori and when he rushed over to him, he caught something glinting on the ground in front of Sasori.

That something gleamed weakly, catching the faint daylight struggling to break through the heavy clouds.

As Sasuke walked closer and closer, his heartbeat grew louder and louder until his ears were ringing with its beat and his heart was pounding so madly it felt like it would pump straight out of his chest.

"How come you never let anyone see your dagger?" Sasuke questioned curiously, watching from his reclined position in the bed how Naruto meticulously cleaned the blade; his fingers running over it with the utmost care.

They were in the shed, having snuck out for a couple of hours again, and Naruto currently sat at the foot of the bed, naked save for the blanket covering his lap. He shouldn't look so damn enticing after what they had just done and with him now cleaning the blade, but he did and Sasuke's body made a valiant attempt at rousing to the occasion again.

A mere five steps separated him from Sasori and the glinting object. The edges of his sight grew fuzzy, darkened.

Naruto glanced at him, cheeks still flushed with receding pleasure, but his eyes glimmered with amusement. "Man, Suigetsu been complaining to you this time, huh? Guy's like a Pitbull, it seems."

"Nah, Karin told me about it," Sasuke said and leant slightly forwards, bracing his chin on his curled fist. "It doesn't really matter to me, but I'm curious, I suppose."

"Sasuke, wait!" Itachi's voice sounded fuzzy too for some reason, as if he was fully under water; all the sounds muted, unclear.

"I don't really care that much about the other knives I use, but this one's special." Naruto's smile was tender when he carefully lifted the dagger; the light playing across its clean blade. "It's the last thing dad gave to me before he died."

Glinting. Gleaming. Steel. A blade smudge with red, smeared across the surface.

"Doesn't matter what might happen, there's no way I'll leave this dagger behind. This and my crossbow – they're one of the major reasons why I'm still alive." Naruto grinned and winked. "Don't tell Gaara; he might grow jealous."

There was a pool of blood on the ground, a clinical part of Sasuke noted objectively, but his entire body was frozen. The pool was large; the edge of it seeping into the tips of his shoes, colouring it a dark red.

Right there in the middle of it was a dagger.

Naruto's dagger.

The one he would never leave behind willingly. The one his dad had gifted him.

Sasuke couldn't say how long he stood there, frozen, his eyes fixated on the dagger. Time passed him by; it could have been a couple of seconds, it could have been several minutes. An obnoxious ringing noise blared in his ears when he bent down slowly, forcing his body to move. His fingers touched the cold blade; his grip slippery around the bloodied handle before he got a good grip on it.

He was pulled out of his daze by a hand clamping down around his shoulder. His first instinct was to lash out: his fist shot out already before he was stopped and he inhaled sharply when he realised Itachi was right next to him, having caught his fist mid-air.

"This doesn't have to mean anything," Itachi said lowly, letting go when Sasuke shook him off.

"He would never leave the dagger behind," Sasuke retorted blankly. Not this one; not when it held such an emotional connection.

"His body isn't here either," Itachi argued in return. "We haven't seen him in any of those zombie groups either. As long as we don't find his body, we have to assume he's still alive."

"I don't want to piss on your parade, but that's a rather big pool of blood we've got here," Sasori pointed out mildly.

"We don't have proof that it's Naruto-kun's, though," Itachi refuted calmly. "All we know for certain right now is that he got into a fight with somebody. It could be that he dropped the dagger after attacking them and had to flee. We won't know anything for sure until we find him."

Would they find him, though? What could possibly have happened that Naruto would choose to leave his dagger behind if the blood wasn't his? If he wasn't the one currently bleeding out, where was the other person then?

He startled slightly when Itachi gripped his shoulders and turned him around to face him, forcing him to stare into his brother's eyes. "Naruto-kun had no idea you were still alive when he and Gaara-kun set out to look for you but he still believed," he spoke lowly but intently. "He didn't give up on you, don't you dare to give up on him now either. We will look for him and we will find him, I swear. We won't leave until we get to the bottom of this."

"While I appreciate being part of this suicide mission," Sasori started dryly, "do we have a plan ready in case we run into whoever is herding these zombies like cattle? Seeing as Tobi's dead and Naruto's at the very least missing, I doubt this person can be reasoned with."

"Depending on what we will encounter, we won't have much choice but to get rid of them," Itachi replied grimly. "With what we've seen so far, I don't think it would be a wise decision to leave them alone."

Sasuke took a deep breath, using a tissue to get rid of most of the blood on the dagger before strapping it to his belt and throwing the tissue away. Itachi was right: as long as they weren't sure what Naruto's fate was, he shouldn't mourn him already. Naruto was strong; he had proven that again and again by surviving on the road for so long. Even with Gaara there with him, that was still an amazing feat. He had managed to get rid of Sakon's group without even giving them a chance to retaliate. He had gone after Sasuke when he hadn't even been sure Sasuke would still be alive by the time he would have found him.

Sasuke should give him the same courtesy: until they actually found his body, Sasuke would refuse to believe that Naruto had been killed as well. In the meantime he would keep the dagger safe until he could return it to its rightful owner.

"Let's go then, I suppose," Sasori sighed, grimacing slightly. "No point in staying here in the open when we don't know what we're going to encounter. Last thing we want is to make it easy on them."

"There's a blood trail," Sasuke observed now that he was no longer caught in a stupor.

Clear imprints of shoes led away from the pool of blood; there were some smears accompanying them as if something – someone – had been dragged along. Small blood droplets were splashed here and there across the ground.

Sasuke swallowed and held his breath for a moment, forcing himself to focus. If whoever lived in this town had killed Naruto as well, surely they would have just left his body behind to rot instead of dragging him with them? They certainly hadn't given one crap about Tobi. That had to mean they still had a chance of finding Naruto on time.

"Looks rather fresh still," Sasori commented, sitting down on his haunches while he studied the imprints. "They can't have left here that long ago. The trail would have been drier then."

"Tobi was still alive when we found him," Itachi pointed out. "Given the extent of his injury, he couldn't have survived for hours."

"Well." Sasori stood up and rested a hand on one of his guns. "I suppose we'll follow the trail they so graciously left behind for us. Can't say I've ever been a fan of Hansel and Gretel, though."

AN2: Any fans of fairy tales? Sasori clearly isn't one of them.

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.