Disclaimer: First Chapter
Story Start!

"We broke down."

"Nah, we're not broken down, I can fix this." Naruto was looking at the engine of the RV, and it was something that he could easily fix. There were no real problems with the RV itself. "The issue is just a simple leak. Something pierced the power steering line, so we just can't make turns. I can patch the line, and we can just refill the fluid." Naruto explained what he would have to do.

Current location: Kusatsu

They had broke down in a small town known for hot springs resorts, so they broke down in a place that at least had a lot of parked cars and trucks. It would be an easy matter for them to just find a car they could siphon fluid from, and Naruto could find a temporary fix of electrical tape and duck tape to patch the hole in the line.

'Seeing him work on the RV is kind of sexy.' Shizuku thought to herself, and she looked at Saeko, who was circling around the RV. They were all outside of the RV since there weren't any zombies wandering around where they broke down. "Since we're in Kusatsu, we should visit the hot springs!" Shizuku realized.

Naruto looked at her.

There was a pause when everyone looked at Naruto to see what he would say. To say the least, Naruto could see the desire in almost everyone's eyes. Everyone wanted a nice hot bath, and only a few people among them had ever gotten the chance to use a natural hot springs from this region before. Naruto could see those younger than him were more excited than the ones older than him to say the least.

"... You know what, we need to go and find a car to siphon fluid from anyway. I'm sure there are some cars parked outside of the hot springs right now." Naruto rubbed the back of his head.

"YES!" Takashi and Rei actually shouted in unison.

"Sir."

"It's fine." Naruto told Kohta when he approached Naruto, gun across his chest. Kusatsu was a town with around 6,000 people at any time. It was just large enough that the zombies would be spread out, and considering the town was up in the mountains for the most part, a lot of zombies that tripped or fell wouldn't be able to easily get back into the town. "Just in case, be sure to have this on you... and... lets be real... BO is becoming an issue in the RV." Naruto whispered to the boy.

Who nodded.

They didn't have a shower in the RV that worked at the moment, and after 2 days of driving around different cities and stopping at gas stations without working showers, the RV was getting a little smelly.

Saeki heard that.

She smelled herself.

'... It isn't that bad, but cramming so many people in that RV is becoming a smell issue.' Saeko smiled at the thought of getting a hot bath. She saw the open windows and door in the RV, and smiled at how by the time they were done it would be nice and aired out.

"Okay, Takashi, Saya, and Saeko, you three go visit the Convenience stores nearby the hot springs and see what food you can find. Take the cooler with you and some backpacks." Naruto wasn't going to make it JUST a hot springs visit. It would be a waste to not check the local stores and see what they could find. "... Mr. Maresato, you go with them." Naruto realized the older man was going to be an issue with any team that might come across a zombie.

"Sure... can my daughter go with you?" Maresato asked Naruto as a personal favor.

Alice would be safest with Naruto.

As her father, if anything happened to him he wanted to make sure his daughter was safe. There was no safer place for his little girl than next to Naruto, even if he wanted to remain by her side at all times to keep her safe himself.

"Sure." Naruto watched as the group he mentioned started to get ready and gathered up with each other. "Kohta, Shizuka, and Kiriko, you three work together and go check out the hot springs together. Kohta, just make sure there aren't any zombies. Shizuka, you make sure place is health-safe... and Kiriko, we need a melee fighter with them." Naruto sent two of the adults with Kohta to make sure things went well.

He trusted Kohta, but he didn't want him making a bad judgement call.

"That leaves us 4." Asami realized when she looked at Naruto and Rei, Alice was part of their group as well, but she was a literal child. Takashi heard that, and he looked at Rei with some worry. Rei herself seemed very conflicted as she looked between Naruto and Takashi, her internal debate was unknown to Asami though.

"Yep... here you go." Naruto took a small firearm from his waistband and tossed it to Asami. She had some form of firearms training as a former police officer, so she would do a fine job if they needed her to fire. Rei had her makeshift spear, and she seemed to know how to work with it. That made them a more combat oriented group.

Every group needed at least 2 fighters in it.

Group 1 had Takashi (metal bat) and Saeko (sword).
Group 2 had Kohta (gun) and Kiriko (spear).
Group 3 had Rei (makeshift spear) and Asami (gun)... and him.

Every group also had at least one adult in the group as well.

"So what are we going to do?" Rei walked up to Naruto and joined his group.

"We're going to siphon gasoline from cars and power steering fluid, and refill the RV with it. Might as well gas up while we're doing repairs anyway. We'll all meet at the hot springs in... you know what, we can meet there just before sunset." Naruto looked at the position of the sun. That would give them all plenty of time to walk around the city, and get what they needed to do done. "Don't pick any fights with zombies that you don't need to pick." Naruto reminded them.

If they just stayed silent, they would have no issues at all if they ran into any of them.

-4 Hours Later-

"There isn't a lot for us to do, is there?" Rei asked Asami as she walked side by side with the woman, both of them holding gasoline in several gallon containers. The RV was almost full of gas again, and Naruto was currently underneath the RV patching the hole in the line. His legs were sitting out from the RV, and Alice was just crouched down next to him with her hands on his thigh.

She was watching him work, and just keeping him company.

"I mean, there isn't a lot left before we meet up with the others. I've only seen about a thousand zombies wandering about, and they seem really scattered. Not a lot of cars either. I think when this thing started, a lot of people drove off." Asami used the gasoline that she got and completely refueled the RV with it, it being the last little bit needed. That would leave them with some to spare, since Rei could put what she got into the U-haul attached to the back of the RV.

Which she did.

She came back with just her spear in her hands.

"Good... even if they are just zombies... I still don't like the thought of killing them... they were once people too." Rei muttered to herself. Asami heard her and nodded her head in agreement, though she was less hesitant to kill zombies than Rei.

She looked at the gun at her side.

She walked over to the front.

"Hey Na-"

"Ow..." Naruto jolted when she suddenly started to address him, and he jerked. He had been working in relative silence for about 40 minutes. Thankfully he was done, and he got out from under the RV. "Watch do you need Asami?" Naruto was rubbing his forehead as he spoke. Rei and Asami had finished gassing up the RV.

"Can I help with anything?"

"No need, I'm almost done here. I've already refilled the power steering, I just need to make sure my makeshift patch will hold. It would be nice if I had a real patch, or the tools to just replace the line. This will have to do though." Naruto hadn't heard any gunshots, so he would guess that everyone was okay with Kohta and his group. No gunshots was a good sign overall. "Ah, a couple of zombies that way. Seem's we're just out of earshot for them." Naruto noticed a few zombies.

Rei turned quickly to see where he was looking, and she saw 2 males and a female zombie. She settled down even more quickly when she saw the zombies were shambling in the opposite direction, having not noticed them. Alice held onto Naruto tightly though, because having targeted them or not, seeing zombies was still enough to set her nerves on edge.

"Why don't we just stay here, in this town?"

"It's a tourist town, it's a great place to stop, but they don't have a reliable way to get more food. It is for sure a safer place away from zombies... just not a place where we can really feed ourselves easily." Naruto needed to find a place that was a fine balance between safety AND food. While this town was relatively safe now that most of the residents had been turned to zombies and wandered off, it wasn't the best for keeping themselves fed.

Rei seemed uneasy.

'Is she interested in him?' Rei wondered, and she had to wonder. Asami had a look of a woman who wanted a certain man, and it would seem Naruto was that man. '... Should I be worried about that...' Rei sighed and leaned up against the RV.

She still didn't know if she was going to give Takashi another chance, or if she was going to try and go after Naruto. Takashi had improved his attitude and was showing Naruto some respect, but he still wasn't showing her that he was capable of being a real man either. Naruto on the other hand was becoming even easier to approach, part of his hard "no nonsense" attitude was gone and he was willing to be more playful.

Naruto was not only being their protector, but he was also becoming somebody everyone could approach.

"Haaaaaaah." Rei sighed.

7 girls and 4 guys.

'Eventually, even Alice will grow up and might be competition. Kohta is a nice guy, but he just... I just don't find him attractive. Maresato is a nice guy, but he isn't as reliable, and he's way older... not to mention he just doesn't have a lot of energy. Takashi and Naruto are the only guys that really get me hot.' Rei eliminated half of the guys from their group from her "I would fuck" list right off the bat with that.

That was the problem.

They almost had a 2:1 ratio of guys and girls, and half of those guys just weren't as attractive as the other half in some way or another. She could easily see that Saeko had Naruto in her sights, and as much as she disliked it, she could tell that Saya had Takashi in her view as well. The two more attractive guys both had girls who were after them.

"Rei?" Naruto asked her when she was visibly deep in thought.

'Then there is my Mom... I know she isn't interested in Takashi, he's like a son to her, and she wouldn't be interested in Kohta either... Maresato is way off her type... Naruto had a fiance and lost her, and Mom might have lost Dad... so if I go for Naruto instead of Takashi, then I might have to compete with her too.' Rei didn't want to compete against any other woman for a man. She just wanted to be able to pick the man she thought was best suited for her.

Like with Takashi and Hisashi.

She dumped Takashi and switched her affection to Hisashi because Takashi refused to grow up, and wasn't paying attention to her needs. It had been easy for her to just switch to the better guy, since there had been no competition for her back then. Now she was in a position where she needed to really fight for the man that she wanted, since she would have competition.

No matter which man she choose, there would be pros and cons.

"She's deep in thought." Asami noted with a happy smile.

"She really is."

"Yep." Naruto noted as he closed the hood on the RV. "Repairs are done, and it looks like they are going to hold just fine. Just in case though, I siphoned extra power fluid and stored it away." Naruto wanted to make sure if they broke down again, in case it happened in the middle of nowhere he could still repair it like he did.

"Why did it take so long?" Alice asked Naruto, letting go of him.

"I was checking everything else to make sure nothing else was damaged. I figured since I was already repairing one thing, might as well check everything else. We're good though." Naruto reached out.

He grabbed the top of Rei's head and shook her out of her thoughts.

"Huh?" Rei asked as she snapped from her deep concentration.

"We're heading out to the hot springs, lets get in the RV." Naruto was going to drive the RV to the hot springs building, that way they could just all drive off when they were done. Also, so the RV was really close by in case they needed to make a fast escape.

Rei smiled.

She hugged Naruto, before she followed instructions.

'Is she interested in Naruto too... I thought she was interested in that other boy?' Asami just tilted her head in confusion, not sure how she should take that hug. She looked at Naruto, who didn't seem to even think about the hug. He just got in the RV and went right to where the steering wheel was.

So she and Alice followed.

Naruto started up the RV and drove off.

*Kadunk, kadunk*

He then ran over the 3 zombies that were in the road ahead of them, because there was no reason NOT to kill them when they were just going to be attracted to the sound the RV made when it started up more loudly than they talked. Nobody but Naruto saw the zombies get hit, but everyone felt them get used as speed bumps.

"It is a 10 minute drive, this is a good chance for you ladies to get a change of clothes ready for when we're done with the bath... might as well get a chance of clothes for everyone." Naruto wanted everyone to have clean clothes.

"Okey dokey." Alice saluted him.

Off to the hot springs they go.

Chapter End!
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