Author's note: I actually managed to finish this chapter last night somehow! First time in a long time that I actually managed to finish a chapter ahead of my self-imposed deadline, holy crap. This chapter also turned out to be longer than I expected; I didn't think I would reach 4K with the ending I had in mind for this one, but somehow this one turned out to be 6K, whoops.

Thanks to the following reviewers: 666snoopy; solitare1; Iraheta 127

Warnings: Zombie crap; implied mature content; some violence

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

I hope you'll like it!

Chapter 37

The first three days on the road were rather uneventful. They encountered some small zombie herds, but none of them were big enough to actually pose a threat and their car had already passed them by the time the slow fuckers heeded the instinct to turn around and attempt to go after them.

They had a couple of jerrycans with petrol secured in the boot just in case, but instinct had them looking out for any abandoned car on the side of the road. It was better to take petrol from those cars first before emptying the jerrycans: a matter of saving their small stock considering how long they would be on the road. They hit such a jackpot during their fourth day on the road, finding three empty cars with enough petrol in each left to fill up their own gas tank.

"You ever thought about what we'll do when there's no petrol left to pilfer anymore?" Karin asked idly from where she was leaning against the front of the car.

Gaara was busy transferring the remaining petrol from the last car they had found to theirs after having parked next to it. Everyone was actually out of the car, using this moment to stretch their legs before they would continue driving until nightfall.

"I think Sasori was working on that. Father said he was trying to figure out if it's possible to create fuel ourselves," Sasuke replied, rolling his shoulders. "Not sure how much progress he's made on that, though."

"Well, if anyone can figure it out, it's him," Karin said lightly.

"Done!" Gaara announced, closing the fuel doors of both the abandoned car and their own.

"All right, we all ready to go?" Naruto asked, walking back to the car. He had been pacing back and forth on the road, keeping an eye on the treeline.

"Yeah, let's go before the dead show up," Karin sighed and after stretching her arms again, she got into the back of the car.

Sasuke joined her, leaving Naruto to take the passenger's seat and Gaara to slide behind the wheel again.

They had already turned around the corner by the time a zombie shambled out of the treeline.

They spent the nights in the tents; keeping both the tents and the car hidden from view using whatever they happened to find as coverage at that moment: bushes, thick trees with low hanging branches, a plastic cover hiding rusty frames of what had once been cars … Everything big enough to hide them was used. The chances of encountering other people were low, but not impossible and with how the previous encounters with unknown people had gone, Sasuke didn't want to take any risks.

Having the same line of thought about their stored food as they had about the jerry cans, they collectively agreed to try to catch their food as much as they could before starting on the food they had taken with them. It was smarter to make their stock last as long as possible because even though the trip was uneventful so far, that didn't mean it would be this calm the whole way through.

It was a rather pessimistic way of looking at things but if life during the apocalypse had taught Sasuke something, it was that it was better to always expect the worst and be prepared for it.

During the nights they took turns keeping watch, deciding to keep it simple and have the guard shifts last around three hours before they would switch places, ensuring that everybody could sleep for a decent amount. One tent was always reserved for Karin, leaving the second one to be shared by the men – something she didn't really agree with.

"You know I don't mind sharing," she commented, eyeing the two tents which had been put up behind a shed they had decided would be their cover for the night.

It was Gaara's turn to keep watch first, though with no buildings in the vicinity, all they probably would have to worry about was the undead.

"Yeah, count me out for that; not going to do that," Naruto snorted, nipping from a water bottle. "That'd be too weird."

"How would that be weird?" Karin demanded; her eyebrows drawn together.

"Because you're a girl," Naruto replied in a matter-of-fact tone, eyeing her as if she was being a weirdo.

Gaara snorted from his spot next to the small fire they had created to cook their dinner.

"Yeah, and we both love sucking dick. What's the difference?" she scoffed.

Her frank answer surprised Sasuke so much that he couldn't help but chuckle.

"The difference," Naruto grinned, dropping the water bottle back in the boot of the car, "is you've got boobs and we don't. We're also gentlemen who would never presume to share a tent with a lady."

"Why still have a sense of chivalry during a zombie apocalypse?" She rolled her eyes, but neither man would budge on this.

As Gaara settled in for the first guard shift, Karin crawled into the first tent while Sasuke and Naruto shared the other tent. Sasuke was used to sharing tents whilst on the road, but he had been surprised the first night when Gaara had joined him in the tent, switching places with Naruto.

"I thought you didn't like sharing with people?" Sasuke muttered half-asleep when he realised who had crawled into the sleeping bag next to him. Right, it was Naruto's turn next to keep watch.

"I don't like sharing with people I don't know," Gaara mumbled, the rustling of his sleeping bag quietening when he settled down. "I know you, though."

"What are you thinking about?" Naruto murmured, slinging his arm over Sasuke's chest.

"Just was thinking that I'm still surprised Gaara's willing to share a tent with me," Sasuke answered, lacing their fingers together.

"Why be surprised about that?" Naruto asked, coming close enough to nuzzle Sasuke's cheek. "We've shared a tent plenty of times before."

"Yeah, but you are best friends," Sasuke said dryly.

"So? If you're going to use that argument, he considers you a good friend," Naruto mumbled. "I'm still his best friend, though. Don't think you'll be taking that title away from me."

Sasuke snorted and decided not to argue about what Gaara considered him to be. He and Naruto shared a quick kiss before they settled down to catch some sleep.

They finally reached the halfway point of their journey after having driven for a week. They might have reached this point quicker if they hadn't been forced to backtrack the previous day when the bridge they had planned on taking, had turned out to be blown up quite a while ago. It was the first setback they had experienced so far, but all in all it had been a minor one and they had found another way to continue their journey.

"You want to stop and stretch your legs or something?" Sasuke asked when he noticed the car slowing down.

It was Karin's turn to drive now, having taken over from Naruto a few hours before. A lull in the conversation had nearly caused Sasuke to nod off, the sunlight pouring into the car turning it almost pleasantly warm, when he felt the car slow down gradually.

"No, sorry, just noticed that bike," she replied, pointing at something lying on the right side of the road.

Sasuke sat up straighter but considering how tall the grass had grown here, he could only see something red and black gleaming a bit further down the road. Only when Karin slowed to a complete stop in front of it did he realise he was staring at a relatively unscathed motorcycle. Not a lightweight by any means either judging by the looks of it. Could it be a Yamaha perhaps? Sasuke wasn't certain, never having excelled at guessing brands. He did know enough, though, to recognise what an absolute beauty this motorcycle was and he wondered why it had been left abandoned here. The frame appeared intact still; in fact, the motorcycle looked as if it had merely fallen over, awaiting its owner's return.

That thought had Sasuke casting a wary look around them, feeling apprehensive at the idea that somebody might be nearby. Someone else being nearby would explain why the motorcycle still looked so decent even when surrounded by the tall grass.

"You think we can do something with it?" Karin mused aloud; her eyes glued onto the motorcycle half hidden underneath the grass. "Even if it doesn't start, we could check the tank, see if there's anything left."

"Don't bother with it," Naruto piped up out of the blue, startling them both.

"What? Why not?" she asked perplexed. "Doesn't look like it got into an accident or so, so the tank might still have some left in it."

"It doesn't," Gaara was the one to answer this time.

"And how would you know?" she challenged, staring at the both of them through the rearview mirror.

"Because that's the motorcycle we had to abandon when it ran out of petrol," was Naruto's laconic reply. "The tank doesn't have shit left in it; trying to take it with us would only drag us down for no reason."

"Oh." She flushed a bit, looking away.

"It still looks great; doesn't seem like you just picked it up somewhere," Sasuke remarked neutrally.

He turned around to face them. Naruto sat slouched in the corner of the backseat, his face deceptively calm, but his eyes were too flat to be considered tranquil. Gaara's face was blank, not revealing anything.

"Belonged to the family," Gaara said curtly. "We used it until it ran out of fuel. You might have noticed there's fuck all to find here, so when we couldn't find any cars to drain petrol from, we left it behind. End of story."

While his face remained blank the entire time, there was a hint of bitterness tainting his voice. Had the bike belonged to his sister or his brother? Sasuke doubted Gaara would have taken such good care of it if it had been from his father. He knew better than to ask, though. There was no point in prying open old wounds.

Either Karin had picked up on the bitter tone or she just knew better than to keep prying. She took a deep breath and started the car again. "Well, now that we know where it is, we can always go back for it later with one of the vans," she said cheerfully. "A sweet ride like that can't be left behind ad we can always use extra vehicles."

Naruto snorted, but didn't reply and Gaara remained silent as well; each man staring out of their own respective window when Sasuke glanced at them.

Settling back in his own seat to face the road, Sasuke pondered about this new revelation. If Naruto and Gaara had been forced to leave the motorcycle behind here, did that mean they had been walking the entire time until they had come across the compound? Even when driving a car it had still taken them a week to reach this spot; on foot it must have taken them at least two weeks if not longer! All that time on the road without a safe way to escape the zombies quickly …

Not for the first time since meeting them Sasuke was astonished at how long they had managed to survive on their own out here. Especially with how many things and people they had been forced to leave behind every time.

He stole a glance at Naruto, who was still staring out of the window, clearly lost in thought and not ready or willing to start talking any time soon. A glance at Gaara revealed that the red haired man had his eyes closed, but whether he was actually sleeping was a good question.

Karin was right, though: now that they knew where to locate the motorcycle, they could return at a later date and pick it up. Both men deserved to have something more from their past than just some pictures and crossbows.

Never having been an optimist in nature, Sasuke had known their reprieve from the zombie bullshit would hardly last long. To be frank, though, he hadn't expected things to go to shit quite this badly from the very start.

They had just finished eating lunch in a field – a couple of hares courtesy of Gaara's quick draw – and had used the small stream adjacent to the field to freshen up when out of nowhere zombies surrounded them, blocking off their escape. They weren't that far from the car, but there was a group of undead fuckers surrounding the vehicle, cutting off their only means of escaping this madness. They would have to fight their way through them in order to get out of here. Clearly the reprieve they had been enjoying for more than a week now was officially over.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Karin hissed while she snatched her knives from their place at her sides. "We only have a bit longer to go until we reach the hospital and they decide to start swarming us now? Fuck them all to hell!"

"Guess we woke them up," Naruto sighed annoyed and grabbed his dagger, Gaara taking his blades. At Sasuke's look, Naruto elaborated, "Don't want to start wasting bolts just yet. I've got no idea how big this group is exactly and trying to retrieve them while these dead arseholes try to get a bite out of you is a pain in the arse, man."

"Plus there are too many to properly shoot and reload," Gaara said critically before sinking his blade into the head of a dead elderly man.

The herd swarming them was quite big, Sasuke quickly realised to his dismay while he stabbed one zombie after the other one. They must have been in that strange type of sleep modus most of them sank into when there wasn't any prey around. With the four of them here, however, the undead had 'woken' up again and now they were hoping to catch some fresh meat.

"How many of these sons of bitches can there possibly be?" Karin snarled, ducking out of a zombie's reach when he grasped at her. She stabbed him forcefully through the temple, making him sag down with a last bloody gurgle.

"No clue, but we need to make our way to the car," Sasuke said curtly, cutting a young woman in two whose skin was pressed taught against her skull before she could do more than weakly grab at him.

The noise of the undead groaning and moaning as they attempted to grab them was nearly deafening and several times Sasuke lost sight of the others as one zombie after the next kept attacking. He hacked and slashed and stabbed his way through the undead on automatic pilot by now, trying to find the other three. Ideally they would have kept their backs to each other and made their way to the car like that, but of course as always with this shit storm nothing went according to plan. The only good thing about this herd was that they were so old their skulls had become too fragile with age and exposure to the nature elements, making it a lot easier to kill them. The bad thing – aside from the fact that they were the undead – was that the size of this group was quite substantial and there didn't appear to be coming an end to this shit soon.

How many of these fuckers could possibly be hiding in these woods?! Had they all been planning to hold a goddamn picnic or something? Fucking bullshit!

Someone slamming into his back had him hastily whirling around, his katana raised high and ready to slash down before he recognised the long, red hair and he stopped his attack just in time, releasing a sigh of relief.

"Fuck, thought you were a zombie for a sec," he said and spun around, stabbing his katana straight through two skulls when one zombie lined up neatly behind the other one. If only they could all be this courteous, it would make killing them a lot easier and faster to do.

"Well, fortunately I'm still alive and in one piece, thank you very much for keeping me in this state," Karin mumble, grunting when a zombie child slammed into her right side.

She promptly kicked it away before he had the chance to open his mouth, driving a knife straight through his forehead. Some of the brain matter splattered on the ground when she pulled out her blade.

"Have you seen - "

The revving of an engine cut through his question and had him whirling around in surprise. Their car ploughed straight through a group of zombies, sending some flying through the air while others were flattened underneath the tires, limbs getting torn off amidst blood spurting in small arches. The car – with Gaara behind the wheel – skidded to a stop right in front of Sasuke and Karin, crushing a small zombie kid to bits.

The window on the driver's side lowered and Gaara beckoned them impatiently. "Get in before we are completely overrun!"

Karin drove her knives into two skulls simultaneously, kicking away a third zombie before she wrenched open the door to the backseat and dove inside. Sasuke had to cut an old zombie man in two and use the butt of his gun to smash a hole through the fragile skull before he was also able to get into the car, slamming the door shut behind him.

Gaara didn't waste another second and slammed on the gas, forcing Sasuke to grab onto his seat before he would bash his head against the window. Five more zombies slammed into the car and rolled over the hood before they reached the road again.

Naruto cursed, smearing blood further down his cheek when he rubbed it. "We have to backtrack and see if we can take another road. This one's busted."

"We can't just drive through?" Karin asked, pushing some wayward red strands out of her face.

"Cars aren't exactly made to keep running over a large group of people – dead or not," Gaara retorted dryly, spinning the car around. "There were more of them coming from the south; no way we can push through that without risking the car. Is there another road we can take to reach that hospital?"

Naruto opened the glove compartment, retrieving the map and smudged the edges of it with some blood. "Looks like we have to go back to that stone bridge we passed yesterday and turn left there. We'll have to follow the road until we reach a lake and from there we need to turn right." He sighed and folded the map again. "It's a serious detour but it's the only route that won't take us an extra three days or so."

"At least we got away relatively quickly here," Karin sighed, slumping into her seat. "Seriously, what kind of bullshit was that?"

"Like I said, we probably woke them up," Naruto said tiredly.

"You think we can stop near a pond or so if we can find one before we reach that lake?" Karin asked, rolling her shoulders. "I can do with some washing up."

"What, not a fan of eau de zombie?" Naruto snorted, grinning when she kicked the back of his seat.

"Can't say it's a favourite scent of mine," she replied dryly.

"You good with driving for a while?" Sasuke asked Gaara, because it had actually been his turn to drive next.

"Yeah, it's fine," Gaara said dismissively.

"All right, onwards to the stone bridge we go!" Naruto faux cheered.

This detour would for sure set them back at least a day if not longer, but at least they had got out of that herd alive.

"Time to switch," Gaara announced softly.

Sasuke blinked and rubbed his eyes; they were starting to burn a bit so Gaara showing up to take over the watch was good timing.

"All right, thanks," Sasuke mumbled and straightened up from his leaning posture against the car.

"Did anything happen?" Gaara questioned, keeping his crossbow aimed at the ground.

"No, nothing showed up," Sasuke replied. "Think we picked a good spot to spend the night."

They hadn't managed to reach the lake before evening had fallen, but they had found a dusty unused side path, leading to a half burnt farm. The farm itself wasn't suitable to act as cover with the majority of the roof burnt away, but the walls still offered enough protection.

"Well, we were due for some good luck after that shitshow earlier today," Gaara muttered.

Sasuke snorted quietly before pushing away from the car and walking over to the tent on the right which he knew was the one Naruto was sleeping in.

His breath left him in a surprised huff when Naruto rolled against him the second he laid down. "Hello there," he murmured, his hand resting against Sasuke's cheek, cupping it lightly.

"I thought you were asleep," Sasuke commented, tapping against the hand on his cheek.

Naruto had been the first one to take up the guard shift earlier this evening, so Sasuke had expected him to be fast asleep by now.

"Hm, felt Gaara leave the tent," Naruto replied.

He had apparently shimmied at least partly out of his sleeping bag because Sasuke felt his leg curl around his thighs; the warmth of his leg seeping through the cloth.

"And you decided to remain awake?"

"What? I can't say goodnight to my boyfriend?" Naruto said almost coyly before his warm lips found Sasuke's jaw, mouthing at it gently.

"And is that all you're planning on doing?" Sasuke questioned, raising an eyebrow even though in the darkness of their tent Naruto wouldn't be able to see any of his facial gestures.

"It's the human drive to celebrate still being alive," Naruto fibbed breezily.

"Oh, the human drive, huh," Sasuke repeated lightly as Naruto rolled on top of him; his limbs bracketing the dark haired man. "Not just you being horny?"

Naruto huffed. "Look, can you blame me? It's been several days and you're hard to resist on any given day with your stupid pretty face."

"Thanks, I guess," Sasuke said after a pause. "We didn't bring anything with us, though."

At least he hadn't brought any lube in his bags. Given Naruto's shrewd priorities when it came to packing bags, hell, he might have actually brought some with him.

He could practically hear Naruto pouting when he said, "Goddamn it, I didn't bring any with me either."

"Didn't think of that before, huh?" Sasuke said amused.

"We could use spit?" Naruto asked, but he sounded unsure even when suggesting it.

Sasuke quirked an eyebrow. "You really think using spit for that will be comfortable?"

"Eugh," Naruto dropped down on him. "I hate it when you make sense."

Sasuke grunted when a hand smacked his shoulder out of the blue.

"We can use our hands! Or mouths!" Naruto whispered excitedly. "That'll work with spit!"

He squeaked softly in surprise when Sasuke grabbed his hips and flipped them around, grunting when he landed on his back. Sasuke stole a kiss before the blond could say something.

"Always so creative, hm?" Sasuke breathed out, kissing the corner of Naruto's mouth.

He hissed when a devious hand slipped into his trousers, palming his groin through his boxers.

"Doesn't feel like you're complaining about my creativity," Naruto snickered and nipped at Sasuke's lower lip. His breathing hitched when Sasuke's hand dipped into his trousers, his fingers tracing the outline of his rapidly hardening length; his move causing Naruto's hand to tremble against Sasuke's groin.

Sasuke quickly muffled Naruto's moan with his mouth when he rubbed his thumb across the tip through the cloth. He grabbed the waistband of Naruto's boxers and pulled it down enough to free him, wrapping his fingers around the shaft. "Ssssh, you have to keep quiet," he murmured against Naruto's lips. "Don't want to alert the others."

"You better keep kissing me then," Naruto murmured; his own hand pulling down Sasuke's underwear.

Well, that wouldn't be a hardship at all.

Sasuke thought their fooling around had been discreet enough, but it seemed that Karin had just been awaiting her moment. She decided that the perfect moment was when they paused on the side of the road right next to the lake. They would have a quick lunch here before they would turn right and continue their journey. Hopefully within a couple of hours they would finally arrive at the town with the hospital.

"So, did you sleep well last night?" Karin asked lightly when they were nearly finished eating.

Sasuke eyed her suspiciously, growing more wary when she smirked slightly.

"Never slept better," Naruto replied with a straight face.

"Hm, hm, you both looked very well-rested this morning," she said airily.

"Jealous of how well-rested we were?" Sasuke asked, lifting an eyebrow.

She grinned and opened her mouth to reply, but Gaara suddenly shot up, cursing. "Motherfucker!"

"What's wrong? Fuck!" Sasuke cursed as well, scrambling upwards.

Naruto and Karin followed swiftly, abandoning their water bottles.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Naruto hissed. "Can't we ever have a goddamn lunch in peace?"

No, apparently they could not. Because at this very moment they were nearly completely surrounded by a bunch of dead arseholes, blocking off access to the lake and part of the road. They ambled towards them, a wriggling mass of groaning, deteriorating dead bodies; some of them dragging themselves forwards across the ground, having lost their legs a long time ago.

"Should have fucking stayed in the car," Karin groaned and grabbed her knives. "This is getting ridiculous now; how many of these herds are around here?!"

"It's like they are migrating, like ducks or so," Naruto sighed aggrieved.

"We'll have to fight our way through them," Sasuke realised with growing dismay.

Their car wasn't entirely surrounded, but the zombies did form a barricade between them and the vehicle, forcing them to repeat their fight of yesterday. They would have to be quick, though, because more and more undead were joining the others, already blocking off the road they had just taken.

"Sometimes I wish we had some fireworks or so to blow them up," Naruto said darkly, swinging his machete into the forehead of a brunette who was missing a good chunk of her left side.

"Well, we had them before but we had to use them to get away from other dead fucks, remember?" Gaara snorted and stabbed three zombies in succession.

Jaw clenched, Sasuke started hacking and slashing, kicking others away before cutting off their heads. The mindless groaning was loud enough to drown out even Karin's very coloured cursing as she jumped from one zombie to the other, stabbing their temples or cutting off their heads. Amidst the mass of zombies, it was becoming difficult to keep track of the others and Sasuke hacked through the next dead guy with a lot more severity when he realised that they were making the same mistake as yesterday: getting split up instead of keeping back to back. God fucking damn it!

He caught red hair and rushed over only to come face to face with a red haired woman whose face was missing its lower half. He cut off her head before whirling around and stabbing two others, kicking them away to free his katana.

"Sasuke!"

His head shot up and he spotted Karin to his right. He had to stab four more zombies in their heads before he could reach her and they immediately slammed their backs against each other. He looked around, slicing off two arms reaching for him before he stabbed the zombified man right in the middle of his forehead.

"Doesn't look like there are more zombies arriving," he noted.

He didn't dare to feel relieved yet because they were still surrounded by these sons of bitches, but at least the group wasn't growing anymore and they had a decent chance at thinning out the herd now.

"Whoop-de-doo," Karin said sarcastically. "We're still stuck with these fuckers."

"Don't I know it," he grunted, hacking off the top half of a dead girl's head. The top of her head sailed through the air, smacking another zombie in the chest. "Have you seen Naruto and Gaara?"

He had lost complete track of them the moment they had started stabbing and slashing the zombies and he was growing more and more agitated the longer it took them to find them. They were far from weak, but this herd wasn't exactly small either and Sasuke didn't dare to bank on their luck too much.

"I don't think I've seen – oh, there's Gaara!" Karin suddenly called out, jerking her knife to the left, waving it in that direction before she used it to put down a young kid.

Sasuke looked over his shoulder and indeed, there Gaara was, slashing through zombies with a cold look on his face. Some blood had already splattered across his face and together with the cold indifference he had when he stabbed several zombies in a row, he made for quite the scary sight.

"Gaara!" Sasuke called out and ducked just in time before a dead woman could grab hold of his shoulder. He kicked her viciously in her stomach and when she buckled down from the blow, he brought his katana down into her skull, splitting it apart.

"Where's Naruto?" Gaara demanded the second he was with them.

Sasuke froze up before he forced himself to keep moving, grabbing his knife to ram it into the temple of an elderly woman. "I thought he was with you?" he demanded in return, because Naruto had been standing right next to Gaara when this whole shitshow had started.

"We got split up," Gaara replied and snarled when he stabbed two zombies at once. "Fuckers are like annoying kids: can't keep their fucking hands to themselves!"

Where was Naruto? He couldn't have gone that far; he definitely wasn't anywhere near the car or in it – no doubt he would have started the car already if he was. Had he been driven to the edge of the road by the zombies?

"NARUTO!" he yelled, loud enough to cut through the mindless dead moaning.

"Shit, warn a girl, will you?" Karin winced, shaking her head before she sank her blade into yet another skull. "We need to make our way to the car. We can't just keep standing here."

"We need to find – oh thank god," Sasuke sighed relieved when something blond briefly flashed in the corner of his eye. He spun around to be sure, and yeah, there he was: Naruto had been driven to the treeline, standing there with his back to them. "Naruto! Come here! We're going to make our way to the car!"

All around them dead bodies – fully dead this time – littered the ground; the blood of the fresher ones seeping into the earth. There were still several undead wandering around, trying to bite them, but the herd was finally thinning out, slowly creating an open path to their vehicle.

Naruto didn't react immediately and Sasuke spared a moment wondering if he hadn't heard him. That seemed rather unlikely, though, as the distance between them wasn't that big.

"Naruto, come fucking here already!" Gaara called out as well and swore when he rammed his blade into the temple of a muscled guy. "Motherfucker, will you stay dead already?!"

"NARUTO!" Sasuke snapped, getting pissed off when the blond man still didn't show any signs of listening. "The hell are you ignoring us for? Come here, we need to fucking go already!"

Naruto appeared frozen like a statue, however, not even twitching to show he was listening. What the fuck was wrong with him? Why would he freeze up when they were still being surrounded by zombies? This wasn't the first time they had encountered a herd before so that couldn't be the issue and this was definitely far from the first time Naruto had to kill several undead in a row.

His anger quickly made way for worry when he spotted several zombies ambling towards Naruto's back, eager to sink their teeth into an easy meal.

"Fucking hell, we need to get - " Gaara cut himself off when he had to grapple with two zombies at once. "Sasuke, go get him!"

He didn't even need to be told that. Before Gaara could finish his order, Sasuke was already running towards Naruto, but was forced to slow down in order to kill some zombies first. They blocked his path, kept him from moving forwards in a straight line and panic threatened to completely take over when he saw Naruto just standing there still, not moving or doing anything while Sasuke and Gaara now as well were trying to reach him as fast as they could.

He cut off the heads of three more zombies when something reddish caught his attention and he whipped his head around. Had Karin –

It wasn't Karin.

A female zombie was stumbling her way over to Naruto. A zombie with long, red hair, milky white eyes with purple bleeding through the dead colour. A zombie who wore a long purple dress, blood splattered across it while her entrails dripped partly out of her guts, bared by the large tear in her dress. Her jaw was unhinged, showing her tongue missing.

An alarm started to blare in Sasuke's mind, the zombie looking so awfully familiar; an alarm that only turned more pressing when Gaara's aghast, "Fuck …" sounded feebly next to him before the red haired man froze up in shock as well.

The alarm grew piercing loud when the zombie walked closer and closer to Naruto with the blond making no attempt whatsoever to move out of the way or kill her.

"NARUTO, FUCKING MOVE NOW!" Sasuke roared and was barely quick enough to dodge another pair of persistent hands attempting to take him down. "Gaara, a little bit of help here?!"

Not looking to check whether Gaara had heard him, he kicked that dead fucker away, causing the zombie to take down a little boy in his fall. He stabbed his katana in the skull of a teenaged girl and almost slipped in the pool of blood that gushed out of her head. He managed to remain upright with the help of Gaara; the man was looking exceptionally pale for some reason, but Sasuke didn't pay him any mind, Naruto being his priority right now. He spun around, preparing to rush to Naruto and push him out of the way when Naruto's voice floated over towards him. One word. One simple word, but it had enough power to cause him to freeze up, Gaara's breathing hitching right next to him. One word. Spoken in such a broken, such a small voice, it was enough to break his own heart into several pieces.

"Mum …?"

Mum. Naruto's mother. The one he had seen die in front of his own eyes, together with his father, turning him into a catatonic state for weeks according to Gaara.

Naruto's mother, who was now shuffling over to Naruto, her arms – gnawed open to the bone, fuck – outstretched before they closed around Naruto in a mockery of a loving motherly embrace. Fucking shit!

The alarm exploded into sheer piercing wails in Sasuke's mind and he didn't recognise his own voice when he shouted in desperation, "NARUTO, DUCK!"

Milky purple eyes drifted over Naruto's shoulder and seemed to lock onto Sasuke, watching him as he ducked past a zombie and shoved another one out of his way, desperate to reach Naruto on time with Gaara following closely behind. Right as Gaara knocked a zombified man to the side and Sasuke kicked another one viciously out of his way, cracking bones in the process, Naruto's mother's head fell forwards –

And her open jaw closed down around Naruto's neck.

AN2: Yep. Will Naruto survive this time? That's a very good question, isn't it? Like I said before: prepare for shit going down ...

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.