Author's note: I'm astonished myself at how long this story is turning out to be. Hope you haven't grown bored of it yet!

Thanks to the following reviewers: solitare1; Richon; Weebio

Warnings: Disturbing imagery; references to cannibalism

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

I hope you'll like it!

Chapter 40

"Okay, I get being protective about your home and they might have considered them intruders, but they couldn't have killed them in a less gruesome way?" Karin mumbled aghast, paling rapidly until she appeared on the verge of passing out after glancing inside the room.

"This wasn't just about killing them," Sasuke said; his gaze drawn to the missing chunks of flesh and muscles in the thighs of the two dead people.

The chunks of flesh had been cut out in even squares and the blood had poured down from the cuts, smearing their torsos and faces with their own blood. The whiteness of their thighbones was clearly visible as if their murderers had been careful to reach all the way to the bone itself. A look at the ceiling showed that they were literally suspended by hooks stuck through their feet.

Stomach churning, Sasuke glanced away but the sight which greeted just next to the tubs wasn't any less gruesome. A pile of mostly clean picked bones laid discarded in the corner. On some of them – the femurs, his mind supplied – something eerily meat like was still stuck to the bone, like remains too clingy to be removed.

"They didn't murder them because they were intruders," Naruto stated flatly; his eyes empty as he stared at the dead. "They killed them because they needed food."

"They clearly developed their butcher skills," Gaara said disgusted.

"F-food?" Karin spluttered shocked and immediately backed away from the door, clasping a hand across her mouth. "Are you telling me that they're cannibals?!"

Even though she was whispering, harshly but still quiet, her words seemed to echo throughout the entire corridor, bouncing from one corner to the other, forcing the reality of the situation to sink in even deeper.

"Why else do you think they are missing chunks from their bodies?" Naruto questioned rhetorically and turned his head away, grimacing heavily. "A pile of bones in the corner, them hanging up like pigs in a slaughterhouse … Don't know how else you're going to interpret that."

"After all, you don't need to hang up people by their ankles in order to kill them in defence," Gaara murmured; his lips thinning when he pressed them tightly together.

"They're the couple from the picture," Sasuke realised with a sickening feeling as if this entire situation wasn't fucked up enough already.

"Looks like it, yeah," Naruto agreed quietly.

"But there was a little kid in the picture …" Karin trailed off; her eyes widening even further.

It didn't look like the kid was in the room with his parents, but … Sasuke glanced furtively at the towering pile of bones. Too many bones had been thrown together for him to make out just how many bodies had already been eaten, never mind that he would be able to discern whether those bones had belonged to adults or to kids.

"Guess we now got out answer as to why the town is so damn empty," Naruto mumbled bleakly; the knuckles of the hand holding his crossbow turning a stark white. "They got rid of anything that could be of use, forcing any visitors to follow the signs and go to this hospital. Fucking genius, really. Like some fucked up food delivery service."

"They really did adapt to the new world," Gaara said flatly.

"The cars were broken down, though, why would they go through the effort of doing that?" Karin asked, balling her hand into a fist when she lowered it.

"That might be because they want to prevent people from escaping town if they manage to run before they are killed," Sasuke replied contemplatively.

It made sense – as much sense as cannibals could make. When people wouldn't find anything to eat or drink in the town, they would find the signs pointing towards the hospital and follow those if they were desperate enough. Once here, the cannibals would trap them before murdering and eating them. Although the cannibals were clearly fucked beyond repair in the head, they weren't stupid either. They probably disabled the cars so that if their victims managed to flee, they wouldn't be able to escape using a car. All the cars outside the town in its vicinity had been completely useless too, Sasuke remembered. Anything attempting to flee would be forced to do so on foot; either they would collapse from exhaustion and be eaten by zombies or by these cannibals. There was no way to win at all.

"Fuck, you think they know we're here?" Karin whispered worriedly; her eyes darting wildly across the corridor.

"Doubt it," Naruto murmured; his own gaze skipping from door to door. "The cameras are all in the front; that makes sense because that's the direction they expect people to reach the hospital from. If they're aware we're here they would have already cornered us for sure. They're banking on the fact that people are desperate enough to follow the signs in search of food and safety." He shifted his left foot.

"They're assuming people coming across this town are desperate enough that they will ignore all the signs that something is wrong," Gaara remarked. "They won't expect people to already be on guard and enter from the back instead like we just did. If they had, no doubt they would have hung cameras there as well or had guards near the door."

Sasuke was inclined to agree with the both of them. If these cannibals were aware of their presence, they would have already tracked them down. Their only saving grace at this point was that they had left the car behind before entering the town and that they had taken a detour to the back of the hospital in order to get in. Cameras couldn't betray what they couldn't see.

"Look," Karin began in a shaky voice, "I really want to find those prosthetics so that we can help Deidara-san, but if we're dealing with honest to god cannibals here … Guys, I'm not sure about this. We have no idea how many of them there are or even what their location in this hospital is. We don't know this place at all, we never vetted it before while they, no doubt, know the entire layout by now. We're fucked if they get the drop on us."

"You're right," Sasuke grimaced and turned away from the room with its damning content completely. "I don't think we should risk it. Too many variables that can fuck us over."

"Yeah," Naruto sighed gustily. "I don't like this either. A bunch of dead fucktards? Fine, no issue whatsoever, we can deal with that but even though they share the same taste for human flesh, these cannibals are still alive. They aren't brainless nitwits like zombies are and they probably have perfected their strategies to capture people by now."

"The look of the town and the stench of blood certainly seems to indicate that," Gaara grimaced, shaking his head.

Naruto hesitated visibly, rubbing the back of his head. "I hate breaking off this run when we finally got so far, but …"

"It's too dangerous," Sasuke agreed hollowly.

Maybe if they had an idea of how many people they were dealing with, they could try coming up with a plan but without knowing what was awaiting them … Pushing on could very well mean suicide at this point. It would have been one thing if they only had to worry about zombies. As Naruto had stated the undead were stupid and while certainly dangerous when gathered in a group, if you knew what you were doing and were quick on your feet, they were fairly easy to deal with depending on the situation. They could be trapped, coaxed right into their doom, shot to death, stabbed, even burnt to death. Sakon's group, the priestess and Gaara's father, however, had proven just how dangerous people could be in comparison to the dead.

A group of cannibals who had devised an entire scheme to lure people to the hospital so they could eat them? Too dangerous to bet on a good outcome, especially when they had no clue how many of them were hiding somewhere in this hospital.

He didn't want to return without anything to show for it, without even something to give Deidara his arm back, but the number one rule of the compound since the start had been: never put yourself in danger for goods. Goods could be replaced or hunted down at a later date. Lives couldn't be replaced. Still, even knowing that rule, knowing Deidara wouldn't blame them when they returned empty-handed, the disappointment and sense of failure were a bitter pill to swallow, especially when they had come this far already.

"We can try to find a different hospital," Karin said softly; the dim light in her eyes showcasing her own disappointment. "I'm pretty sure Kakashi-san brought a phonebook with him he found during one of his runs. Yeah, it's an old one but maybe we can find something in there that can give us another chance at finding a prosthetic."

"It's the only thing we can do," Naruto muttered, pursing his lips. "We'll have to be careful when going back to the car so that we definitely won't be picked up by their cameras, but - "

He was cut off by the echoing sound of footsteps leisurely descending a staircase further down the corridor, causing them all to freeze up. They shared an alarmed look before Naruto grabbed Sasuke and Karin by their wrists, shoving them into the room right next to the one harbouring the bodies; Gaara slipping inside as last one. Gaara closed the door as quietly as he could before he and Naruto braced their bodies against it; Sasuke pressing against the wall next to Naruto. This room was so dimly lit he could barely see anything; the only source of light came from the cracked window pane in the door. He felt more than saw Karin retracing a couple of steps before lowering herself carefully so that she wouldn't immediately be spotted if someone happened to peek through the window.

The stench of rot and death hung heavily in this room as well, forcing Sasuke to switch to breathing through his mouth in an attempt to lessen the impact of the smell. That attempt wasn't very successful but the pounding of his heart was loud in his ears, distracting him as he tried to listen to anything that might indicate their position had been compromised. The people – it was definitely more than one person walking around – hadn't sounded like they were rushing down the stairs to get to them but that didn't necessarily have to mean anything. Both the priestess and Gaara's father had shown they liked toying with their captives; these cannibals might be the same. If they were the same …

He gripped his katana firmly and checked for the gun strapped to his hip. Well, if they were the same he wasn't about to make it easy on them if they tried to catch them.

"Hey, Koji, mind if I borrow some of your cigarettes?" a man asked lightly.

"Please inform me how you can call it borrowing when I won't ever see them returned?" a second man, Koji, retorted cynically.

Their voices neared the room and all three men ducked down in time. Straightening up as the first one, Sasuke peeked through the glass and caught a glimpse of a tall, white haired man with a dark haired man walking next to him, keeping pace. They meandered past the room; their footsteps echoing through the corridor.

"Aw man, you know what I mean," the first man scoffed. "I ran out of cigs a month ago, have some mercy on me."

"Deepa, you only ran out of them because you decided to be a sadistic fuck and have fun with that girl," Koji sneered. "Should have thought twice before doing that."

The cold chuckle following that announcement sent chills down Sasuke's spine. "What can I say? I like my meat a bit smoked and charred," Deepa snickered. "And I saw you getting off back then, don't fucking lie to me. Least you can do is give me a cig; I'll give you two back once I find some new stash."

"You better do because otherwise the next one who's going to be smoked, is you," Koji said darkly.

The noise of their footsteps died out then; their voices turning to nothing but faint muttered before silence returned once they had presumably walked outside.

"Well, I suppose if we had any doubts about what they are, I guess we now know for sure," Naruto mumbled disgusted.

"Did they just go outside?" Karin asked worriedly, straightening out to her full height again.

"Yes, which means we're screwed," Gaara sighed.

"There's no way we can sneak past them," Sasuke realised. "And there's no second door leading to the back."

"Maybe the front?" she suggested but her weak tone indicated she already knew that wasn't possible.

"Can't risk the cameras catching us," Naruto said and shook his head. "We have no idea whether they keep an eye on the camera all the time. I don't want to risk getting gunned down by them if they happen to catch us running away."

"We can't stay here, though," she insisted; her hand briefly brushing against Sasuke's arm when she swept her arm around her. "What if they decide to come into this room later on? Or in any of the rooms here? They store the bodies here, for fuck's sake!"

"Yes, we know!" Sasuke said irritated. "What do you suggest we do, though? We can't leave through the backdoor, they'll see us right away!"

"Look, we've got no time to argue," Naruto said harshly. After pressing his ear against the door, he stepped back. "We can only go up for now. We try to find a room that looks the least used, stay there until tonight and then we'll try to make a run for it."

"What if they patrol during the night?" she asked.

"Then we kill them before they can raise the alarm," Gaara said dismissively.

When she uttered a small noise of surprise, Naruto snorted derisively. "It's going to be them or us. I told you this before; if you can't stomach killing some creeps because of some old world morals then go ahead, try - "

"I wasn't protesting, was I?" Her voice turned a shade cooler. "Don't presume to know what I'm thinking."

"Let's not start fighting," Sasuke said tersely. "We need to have each other's back more than ever now if we want to make it out alive here."

"Of course I'll have your backs," she mumbled almost petulantly. "Just because you can be a prick sometimes doesn't mean I won't cover you in case shits hits the fan."

Sasuke shook his head. "Come on, let's go, before they decide they're hungry."

Naruto opened the door after a quick check and slipped through the gap, Gaara easily following behind him after which Karin walked out. Right before the door swung shut behind Sasuke, who brought up the rear, the room was briefly lit up by the light in the corridor. Right against the back wall a bloodied table had been placed with several chunks of meat resting on it, covered in something white. Salt.

They were curing human meat, fuck.

He doubted he would forget this particular stench of death any time soon.

Somehow, Sasuke had no fucking clue, they managed to make it all the way to the third floor without being caught. The first floor had been buzzing with people walking around; their shadows passing every once in a while over the door leading to the main staircase. Clearly the first floor was a bust. The second floor hadn't even been an option to begin with, considering Sasuke had seen light shining through one of the windows earlier and now they knew the light hadn't belonged to the family in the picture.

The third floor was completely devoid of people, no matter how long they waited in tense silence. It was darker here as well, no lights on at all. They wouldn't be able to shine even if the power had been running because a quick look at the ceiling informed them that the bulbs had all been smashed to pieces.

The entire floor was covered in dust, grime and lamp shards, making it a real hazard to cross the corridor without alarming anyone on the lower floors. It appeared as if mad people had raged about here: chairs laid shattered to pieces against the walls, some of the jagged pieces strewn carelessly on the floor; the nurses' desk had been hacked apart completely with only one part, the one anchoring the table to the wall, still remaining upright. Empty medicine boxes littered the floor behind the broken desk; the occasional bloody handprint decorating the boxes telling stories Sasuke would rather not listen to.

The windows in a couple of rooms had been broken; a light breeze whistling through the gaps, making the moth eaten curtains flutter if they hadn't been torn down yet. Graffiti covered the walls of the long corridor, but many characters were incomprehensible, being nothing but squiggly lines at best. Some read as a vague plea for help; the paint trailing down towards the floor as if the person who had sprayed it on the wall hadn't been able to remain upright until the end.

It was all too easy to imagine patients trapped inside these lengthy corridors when the apocalypse had begun; how terrified they must have been when zombies started to corner them, having no idea yet of the nightmare this world had turned into. How long had they been able to hang on until they had surrendered to the inevitability of death? A week? Two weeks? A month? How many of them had managed to escape before it was too late; how many of them had been torn apart by ravenous zombies?

The sight of a single bloodied crib had their group standing still for a long time. It hadn't even fallen over nor had it been pushed down. The crib was in the right corner of the room next to a broken bedframe; its blankets messed up, looking for all the world as if it had seen recent use, save for the darkened old blood stains. It was a sober sight to witness even with it being empty.

They had to put and end to their careful exploring when the debris on the floor grew worse and the risk of making one wrong move, thereby alerting their presence, became too high. They settled on one of the messier looking rooms instead to spend the night in. Here dust clung in thick layers to the remains of a gurney and three toppled over nightstands. A half collapsed wardrobe made up the rest of the pathetic furniture collection in this room. Taking into account the dusty state they deemed it safe enough for now; if this room was often frequented they would have spotted footsteps in the dirt at the very least. The dust was visibly undisturbed, making this one of the safest places to be – when one ignored the looming presence of the cannibals.

"I can't believe we're stuck here with a bunch of fucking cannibals," Karin whispered hollowly. She had her back pushed against the wall underneath the lone window, with her legs raised up and her arms wrapped around her knees. "This was supposed to be a fairly easy run, how the hell did it go to shit this fast?"

"You can try asking the gods but they won't answer. Trust me, I've tried that tactic before," Naruto smiled cynically. He sat next to Sasuke; their shoulders braced against each other while he had one leg stretched out, the other one bent. He rested his crossbow on his bent knee, keeping it aimed at the door.

"Not the first time we encountered cannibals," Gaara murmured from his spot on Naruto's other side. "'S not as rare as you would like it to be. Granted, those previous times we didn't get stuck in the same building with them."

There was a story there, or multiple ones, but Sasuke wasn't certain whether he was ready to hear those now.

"We need to come up with a plan," he settled on stating instead. Drowning in sorrow wouldn't help them at all, neither would exchanging stories of how fucked up humanity had become in the span of less than a decade. All they could do, was do their best to get out of this place alive – and preferably in one piece. "We can't stay here for too long; that's going to be too risky. We don't know if they never come to this floor and I'd rather not wait to find out."

"Normally I'd suggest we try to discover their schedule and base our actions around that but that might take days to accomplish and we don't have that time," Naruto said, worrying his lower lip between his teeth.

"Nor enough food or water to even contemplate the risk," Gaara pointed out.

"Being on the third floor rules out escaping through the window too," Karin piped up wearily, rubbing her forehead.

Naruto stirred slightly, an odd look passing across his face at the same time Gaara tilted his head to the left. "Well, we have - " he cut himself off immediately, frowning heavily.

"Naruto?" Sasuke furrowed his eyebrows as well, watching how blue eyes darted across the room.

Gaara had suddenly tensed up as well, his green gaze growing sharp, noticing whatever it was that had made Naruto quit talking.

"You hear that?" Naruto questioned, barely moving his lips.

Only because he was seated right next to him did Sasuke even hear his question. Karin's eyebrows drew together in confusion and she opened her mouth, closing it again when Sasuke placed a finger against his mouth. She nodded and they were all quiet, trying to listen to whatever had caught both Naruto's and Gaara's attention.

Sasuke was ready to dismiss whatever it had been after a couple of minutes spent in heavy silence, figuring the noise had probably originated from one of the lower floors, when he heard it.

A quiet shuffling sound, as if whoever was moving around was trying hard not to attract any attention. The noise was so faint he wouldn't even have caught it if he hadn't been intently listening for it.

It appeared to come from the collapsed wardrobe.

Naruto met his and Gaara's eyes before tightening his grip on his crossbow, slowly and silently rising up on his knees, standing up fluidly. Quickly catching on to what Naruto planned to do, Sasuke stood up as well, equally as silent, and followed Naruto on his tiptoes to the wardrobe, Gaara bringing up the rear. By now Karin had caught onto what was happening as well and she aimed her gun at the wardrobe; her arm steady in spite of how pale she was turning.

Naruto raised his hand in the air, sticking up three fingers. He lowered one. Two fingers left. He lowered a second one. One finger in the air. Then he closed his fist and quickly ripped the door away, thrusting it into Sasuke's direction, who caught it before it could fall on the floor and cause a ruckus. Not even one second later had Naruto aiming his crossbow in the middle of the wardrobe; his bolt drawn already. Gaara stepped up next to him, aiming his own crossbow at the wardrobe while Sasuke quickly but silently deposited the door against a wall.

"Get out of there slowly," Naruto ordered coolly.

Sasuke expected to see one of the cannibals, one trying to get the jump on them, and raised his katana, ready to slash it down before the cannibal could betray their presence.

But then the person hesitatingly crawled out of the small space, his entire form trembling viciously and Sasuke could only stare down stumped, echoing Naruto's and Gaara's shock.

A small boy with spiky hair, wearing a long blue scarf around his neck, sat curled up in a ball in front of them; his face hidden in his arms. Terror was practically blasting off the poor kid; he couldn't be older than five or six years old at best and he was covered in so much dirt it took Sasuke a moment before he realised his hair was brown and not black as he had initially assumed.

"It's just a kid," Karin sighed, almost incredulously.

Naruto lowered his crossbow just a smidgen; the tip no longer aimed at the boy himself, but also not completely turned away either. Gaara moved his own crossbow only slightly; a heavy frown cleaving his forehead in two.

"What's your name?" Naruto asked brusquely, but his tone was soft, almost compassionate.

The boy didn't move for a little while. When silence reigned, he peered up cautiously; his blue eyes catching the last rays of the sun. The sight of his face had Sasuke inhaling sharply when he recognised him: it was the kid from the picture. A realisation the others had as well, because Karin hunched up her shoulders, pursing her lips together. Gaara didn't react save for the narrowing of his eyes while Naruto twitched slightly. There was no doubt about it: this boy was the same one pictured in the photo, which meant that his parents …

Sasuke's stomach churned uncomfortably and he had to swallow a couple of times.

A small chip in the boy's front tooth was visible when he opened his mouth to speak; his voice rough and crackly, as if he hadn't talked in a while. No wonder when Sasuke remembered how the tomatoes in the plastic box had looked like.

"M-my name is – is Ko-Konohamaru," he stuttered; barely audible enough for Sasuke to hear him even though he was standing right in front of him.

Slowly Naruto knelt down in front of him and even slower he put his crossbow onto the floor. Sasuke quirked an eyebrow but didn't remark on it, choosing to keep an eye on the both of them instead. Gaara still had his weapon ready in case the kid made an unexpected move, but considering how thin his wrists were and how gaunt his face looked, it would be a wonder if he could walk far on his own. Just how long had he been hidden here? Had he seen his parents being killed? God, Sasuke hoped not.

"Hello, Konohamaru-kun, my name is Naruto," Naruto introduced himself; his tone warm even though his eyes were still heavy with wariness. He gestured at Sasuke. "This is Sasuke, my friend, next to him is Gaara, another friend of mine, and that girl over there, her name is Karin. How long have you been hiding here, Konohamaru-kun?"

Konohamaru began rocking back and forth; his eyes darting all over the room, never settling on them for long. "I – I don't know," he stammered. "Mum – mum – mum said – I heard her screaming and – and then – I – she told me that – if she calls me baby then I – I had to hide some-somewhere, because she – she knows how much I hate being called a – a baby and when I heard her scream that … I – I ran away and crawled into the closet, because in the closet the – the scary people can't get to me."

Naruto looked up at Sasuke and they shared a look of pained comprehension; Gaara grimacing as he lowered his crossbow completely. Konohamaru might not have actually seen his parents being murdered, but he had heard them – which was just as horrifying.

"You did really well listening to your mum," Karin praised him, yet when she tried to come closer, he flinched and she stopped, sadness briefly passing across her face.

"You did," Naruto confirmed and Konohamaru's gaze swivelled over to him immediately. "You're very brave, hiding here from the scary people downstairs. Very smart too."

Konohamaru looked away, staring down at his fingers. "Mum and dad – they're not coming back, are they?" he asked in a small voice.

The heavy resignation – a tone that shouldn't be present in the voice of a boy so young – squeezed Sasuke's heart together. He sat down on his haunches in front of Konohamaru, aware of both a blue-eyed and a green-eyed gaze resting on the side of his face.

"I'm afraid they won't," he said softly.

"Sasuke-kun," Karin protested upset, but what was the point in lying to the kid?

If they lied and claimed they would return soon, the boy would no doubt be eager to be reunited with them. How much worse would he feel if his hope would be snatched away in the end when they had to reveal the truth after all? Better to be upfront about it instead of lying to keep him happy, when that happiness wouldn't last long anyways. They no longer had the luxury of lying like that.

"It's okay," Konohamaru muttered to their surprise. He listlessly drew circles in the dust. "I knew mum and dad won't come back after the scary people started hurting them. I – I just …" He broke down then, big fat tears rolling down his cheeks even as he bit down harshly on his lower lip and he pressed his filthy fists into his eyes; his muted sobs heart wrenching in their quietness.

Before Karin could try to move forwards again, possibly to gather the boy in a hug, Naruto leant forwards and dragged Konohamaru into an embrace, settling him down on his lap.

"Let it all out, it's okay," he muttered; his hand rubbing across Konohamaru's back. "You don't need to be strong all the time. Sometimes it's okay to cry, like now."

As if a dam fully broke, shattering into a million pieces. Konohamaru covered his wailing noises just in time by burying his face into Naruto's leather jacket, one he had borrowed from Gaara a few days ago. The jacket had seen better days, but if the old scent of blood disturbed the boy, he didn't react to it. All he did was cling onto Naruto with all the might he could muster in his small body while he cried his heart out for the parents he would never see again.

"This is beyond fucked up," Karin muttered, running her fingers through her hair. She swallowed heavily, blinking away some stray tears of her own.

Sasuke gazed down at Naruto, who remained on the grimy floor, comforting the heartbroken boy in his lap, rocking back and forth smoothly, as if he did this every day.

Maybe he had done that before all this shit had happened, comforting little kids. With his magnetic personality Sasuke had no trouble imagining that Naruto would have been popular with the younger kids, perhaps even an older brother figure to them.

Gaara sat down on his haunches in front of Naruto and the kid, seemingly having a silent conversation with his friend over Konohamaru's head.

"Yeah," Sasuke finally said in response to Karin's statement, looking away from the scene to focus on the sun disappearing behind the horizon, the sky turning a deep purple as night started settling in, "it really is."

Now what?

AN2: Head's up: starting from the next chapter this story will once again deviate from the first version! Prepare yourselves :)

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

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