Chapter 9:
*static*
*banging on a metal door is heard*
"-as you can see the test subjects corpse had been brought back. I'm not entirely sure how or why that is the case.""Dear kami, look at the thing. It's mindless."
"I can see that Hir- *static* -ybe becoming Hokage was more of a hassle than I thought. Oh well, So Orochimaru, explain to me why you deemed this important to intrupt my date with Kush- *static*
"Yes well the subject is the result of a successful teleportation test and it seems, reanimation, is a side effect of the experiment."
"Hmmm, open the door."
"Minato I don't think-"
"I understand the concerns Hiruzen but I want to see something."
"Are you sure about this, Lord Hokage, maybe sensei is right about this?"
"I have faith in my abilities to handle this situation"
"Very well, Anko, release the subject."
*a hissing is heard followed by a door opening and a body falling foward*
"Seesh you're uglier than I thought."
*growl*
*shlik*
*hiss*
"Fascinating, a living corpse that doesn't seem to register any pain."
"Yaah yaah yaaaaah yaah yaaaaaaaaah!"
"Huh, even when impaled to the wall it still fights with everything it has."
"I shall alert Danzo of this development."
*fading footsteps, then a door is opened and closed*
"So, how are you feeling?"
"I'm sorry?"
"Come on, man. Everyone is worried about our snake summoner. You're always in your lab testing and tinkering. You need to go out more!"
"I.. I appreciate the concerns, Minato bu- *static*
"At least come over for dinner. Despite what people think, I enjoy your company, and I find your research to be necessary to - *static* - we'd like you to meet someone we think you'll like."
*static*
Present:
All hell had broken loose. One minute, he was resting. Awaiting Haku, who had left to go get his herbs roughly an hour ago, and the next he heard screams. At first, he thought they were the screams of Gatos thugs being idiots playing samurai and hurting themselves in "spars," but they just kept screaming. He looked out the window to see Waraji's corpse running back towards the mansion and start attacking. There was no mistake that it was a corpse. He saw the state he was in when he dropped. He didn't have much time left, that was a for sure. He's seen men riddled with disease more healthy than them. Still, that same corpse was standing up with those..red glowing eyes, decayed skin, and rigor mortis filled limbs, had wandered in the mansion, and started eating the others. It didn't take long before the rest of the corpse dropped into the woods and started showing up. People he saw die and be buried more than three weeks ago.
"Someone help me! Please. ANYONE!" Zabuza heard a man scream before his scream turned into one of fear and pain as he heard the sounds of flesh and bone being torn apart, followed by the sounds of eating.. "What in Kami's name is going on!?" he said to himself. He took this job just to get some money to retry his coup on that fucking Yagura! The next thing he knows, he's watching living corpses eat other people alive. Sometimes. They wouldn't eat the bodies of a couple. He noticed a few of those..creatures? People? Whatever they were, he noticed some of them just bite a few people once before swinging their arms at them. Beating them to death, with no sense of pain to stop them as they would get slashed. Once the viticim stopped moving, they would just leave them there. The eyes of said cadavers would start to glow a scarlet red and rise, joining the others. With every death their numbers rose. There were too many of them to fight in his state.
'Gozu, Meizu, I'm.. I'm so sorry' Zabuza thought to himself as he exerted himself to barricade the door by positioning his bed frame in front of the door, alongside as using what little strength he had to stab his sword into the ground fully blocking the door. He's the one who told them to keep tabs on the stupid rock. Gozu was in charge of staying by it to discover its value and applications while Meizu was in charge of discovering the buyers of said rock. 'Haku, I pray you find a reason never to come back here." he muttered to himself as he looked for anything to help his predicament.
"What's this?" he asked himself as he found a new addition in the bag. He knew he didn't put it in there as he had no clue what he was looking at all. Haku always told him every bit of information he deemed important. The object in question was a strange L shaped device within the bag. The device was heavier than it looked, made of metal. The handle, or what he assumed was the handle. The feel and texture of the material was more rough instead of smooth metal. His index finger rested on a little trigger where the bend was. He squeezed it.
*BANG*
Zabuza was surprised when the other side had smoke spewing out of a hole on the front of it. He looked at where it was pointed to see a hole matching what he now knew as a barrel of this contraption. A portable cannon? He looked at it again and grabbed the top of it with his other hand, and pulled back. The metal slid back to reveal a small rectangular hole. with a cinder like object that was rounded at the tip. He let go, and the weapon made a cocking sound. He looked over to where he saw something fly out the hole he revealed by pulling the top part of the thing. It was another small cylinder except the one the floor had the rounded tip missing with a small trail of smoke. He went to grab the object when he was suddenly interrupted by the sound of banging on his barricade.
"EYEAH! ROAH! SAM!"
He heard the freaks as they banged on the blocked door. He could see the edges of the door glowing red from the eyes of the dead. They kept banging on it till he heard the sounds of people running towards his direction. "I thought you said this was the exit!?" he heard the voice of a new thug Gato hired. The banging stop. and the attention of the shambles went from the door to them. "Oh Kami, RUN!" They ran the way they came, followed by the stumbling and tumbling corpses. Zabuza was left alone again to think. He had an idea as he looked over to the radio he started to talk into for documentation. He might not make it out of here alive, but he could leave a message for Haku. The kid deserved to have that, at least. Wait, was the writing on the wall always there?
A GREAT EVIL APPROACHS
How did they get there? Haku sure as hell didn't write the words. It wasn't his handwriting, Haku had better penmanship. He looked back at whatever weapon he held. This could definitely help, whatever it was. He pushed a button on the device and watched as a piece of it fell out. It had those same tiny cylinders. 'So this is what comes out the other end at high speed? It's no shinobi weapon as it's too loud for most ninja. However, in this current situation, keeping quiet isnt a concern as those things are constant yelling. This will do well to keep my distance.' He could survive with this. Looking back into Haku's bag he saw four more of the those things that fell out of the weapon. How much of those cylinders are in one? Looks like he'll have time to figure out what this is, how to use it, and who placed it here?
Someone left this here for him. The other thugs didn't get these, and he definitely would've remembered Haku carry this thing around. Having had enough of sitting on the floor, he stood up and looked out the window. The weather was beautiful, which was ironic since the sight before him wasn't one of comfort. The undead had swarmed the place and now just seemed to wander the vicinity. Zabuza chuckled darkly to himself.
"Maybe I'm already dead, and this is just my hell?" He limped back to where that thing he found lay on the floor. He sat down, picked it up, and then began inspecting it.
Kakashi was the first one to awake that morning. He looked over to where his current roommate was sleeping. Naruto had his limbs sprawled out with a bit of drool coming out of his mouth. He shook his head at the sight and got out of bed to get ready. He brushed his teeth and got dressed before heading out. He walked out of the room, and to his surprise, Tazuna was awake as well. He was holding his head groaning in regrets.
"Had a little too much to drink last night?" Kakashi asked the man a bit amused. Tazuna looked the man up and down before muttering out. "Weren't you bedridden?" He ignored Kakashi's question. His head was pounding fiercely, and the sun was too damn bright. "It's wonderful what the miracles of a good rest can achieve!" he said with an eye smile. Tazuna rolled his eyes at this statement, "Whatever, I'm making coffee, want any?" His answer was an approving nod, and he headed towards the kitchen. Kakashi headed towards the living room, pulled out a little notepad, and started thinking of his team's next training lesson. The water walking exercise was an obvious one. Zabuza was skilled in his water jutsus, and the Land of Waves gave him an advantage. His genin needed to know how to stay on the surface of the water, should Zabuza flood the area.
'I definitely need to give Sakura more physical training. The poor girl is the weakest one in the group so far, but her intellect is extraordinary. Naruto is more of a brawler, but he has some coordination, most likely due him training with the Uchiha's. He'll most likely need more coordination with his clones. Satsuki is a difficult one since she's already well off. Perhaps improving her speed should help."
Kakashi thought to himself. He had an idea of what to train them on after the water walking. Satsuki was the first one of the genins to walk down the stairs. She nodded at her sensei, who just gave a two finger wave. "What's the plan for today?" "So far, I believe just the water walking exercise." Kakashi told the Uchiha as she thought to herself. "I'm assuming another chakra exercise?" she asked her teacher. "That's exactly correct, my cute little genin!" he said with an eye smile. She lowered her head before mumbling. "Are you gonna make us.." she trailed off. This should be fun. "Make you guys what? Walk on water? Absolutely." The response annoyed her. "No, not that! I figured that out already! I meant, will we have to.. you know?"
"No, I don't think I know Satsuki."
"Grrrrr, that thing you made us do till we could walk on the walls without thinking?" Was he doing this on purpose?
"Did I make you guys do something?" he cupped his chin in a thinking pose. He was.
"Never mind!" she said with a huff and went to the kitchen as Tazuna exited. Quickly moving out of her way, "What was that all about?" Tazuna said has he handed Kakashi a mug. He took the cup, lowered his mask, took a sip. "Thank you, and don't worry about just so light teasing getting her flustered is all." Tazuna chuckled a bit, he had an inkling as to what the teasing had been about. A few seconds later The other two genin walked down stair. One looking like he was awoken by force. "Why couldn't you let me sleep for 5 more minutes?" Naruto whined.
"Because we're on a mission, and we have to train? Besides, you've slept long enough." was the response he got from Sakura. "Come on, let's go get breakfast." They both walked towards the kitchen, or Sakura did. Naruto was dragging his feet behind her. Once they entered, Tazuna looked over to Kakashi and spoke to him in a low tone. "Hey.. so what the kid said last night? Is it true?" Kakashi hung his head and sighed. "We're not too sure, but with the way we found him, I wouldn't doubt it. He went missing when he was two, and we didn't find him till he was nine. He was surrounded by the bodies of roughly 20 others that had gone missing as well. Men, women, and children were all dead by his hands, and I was almost one of those casualties." Kakashi said softly. They don't even know why he was taken.
Suspicions flew immediately to Danzo, who claimed to have no knowledge of the event, and the one response had already abandoned the village roughly the year before. Naruto never spoke about what happened to him even after he was rehabilitated. "That's awful." Kakashi agreed with his client. "Enough about him, though. "What's the story with Inari? If you don't mind me asking?" Tazuna sighed and recounted the story of a man named Kaiza and how he became Inari's father figure after he saved Inari from drowning. How they became close and how he saved the wave with his heroism. And him being made an example of.
"-Gato didn't like that Kaiza gave people. So one day, he grabs the man and makes an example of him in the time square. Inari watched as they stapped him to a wooden chair with leather straps. One of Gato's newest invention." This caught Kakashi's attention. "We're not sure what its power source is since we've never seen anything like it, but I know it must've required a lot of power for what it did." Tazuna continued grimly, "Gato went on a tirade about how it was our fault he was in the chair and that this will happen if we dared go against him. They put a metal cap full of wires on his head and flipped a switch. Kaiza's death was long and painful as we watched electricity surge from the cap into his head. Inari watched his father figure get electrocuted for 2 minutes before he died. The poor kid hasn't been the same since."
Kakashi took in all this information and saved it for later before offering his condolences. "I see. Sorry for your loss. As much as we want to, we can't change the past." They then heard a hushed voices at the doorway between them and the kitchen, followed by Tsunami walking into the room. "Breakfast is ready, you two. The others are already eating." They nodded and went to join them.
"Alright then, we have roughly an hour before Tazuna heads out to the bridge to continue construction. So I'll have to be quick this time." Kakashi said to his three students. They were in a clearing with a small pond. It wasn't too deep from what he could tell, but he didn't really fully check. "So the concept is fairly similar to walking on trees. However, the catch with water walking is that the shrface you're standing isn't solid. So you'll have to constantly be fluctuating your flow of chakra to stay on the surface of the water." he explained as he started walking towards the center of the pond.
The three took in this information, and they each channeled their chakra to their feet once again. Naruto removed his jacket beforw starting. He didnt have enough confidence in himself to get this on his first try. Sakura was walking slowly across the pond. She seemed to get the hang of it but didn't take the chance, "as expected from her. Could be her improved chakra control with the dancing I had them do or her lower chakra reserves. Pehaps a bit of both? Kakashi mused as he watched. Satsuki was walking slowly as well but not as smoothly. She would stop in place and wobble a bit before righting her chakra control and trying again. "Hmmm, she's getting it down faster than I thought. Seems her dancing lessons helped her more than I thought, which is good because I honestly wasn't expecting it to work. " Kakashi chuckled to himself silently, and he looked over at Naruto. He would walk on the sruface of the water for about 5 steps before he would sink knee deep into the pond. It took him a few seconds to lift his feet onto the surface and try again. 'Not bad, Naruto, most impressive with your reserves. Although im not sure you'll see it that way,' Sure enough, Naruto wasn't happy. He could be seen grumbling a bit before he sank like a sack of potatoes. He resurfaced and threw a bit of a tantrum."I almost had damm it! Guh. now everything is wet!" he was pulled up a bit by Satsuki, who was trying not to sink in with him, "Stop squirming you goofball or we'll both -" she sank as well. She resurfaced rather quickly while coughing and stood on the surface again. "Gah, you see what you've caused, you idiot!" she shouted as Sakura started to laugh until a pair of hands wrapped around her ankles. "Waitwaitwait-" was all she managed to say before she too was dragged underneath the water.
She resurfaced with a gasp of air. "I-Its so c-cold! Naruto, I'll k-k-kill you-ou!" She chattered, walking back to the edge of the pond. Satsuki was already over there trying to dry off.Naruto decided he would just swim back to shore. "Aw, c'mon, it was funny," Naruto laughed out loud while arriving next to them, trying to dry off. Kakashi chuckled at the sight. "I'll admit that was entertaining." The girls growled at that. "That's because YOU didn't get wet!" Sakura yelled at the man while pointing her fingers at him. "True, I wasn't -" Four Naruto's appeared from below him before they wrapped their arms and legs around each limb. "Aw, you little basta-" He was cut off when another Naruto emerged from behind him and out him in a choke hold, and all of them pulled him under. "HA THATS HOW THAT FEELS! Sakura yelled before laughing at her sensei along with Naruto. Satsuki let out a small giggle but was able to contain herself better than her peers.Kakashi emerged from the pond with an eye smile on his face. "Well, that wasn't a bad plan, Naruto," he stated before disappearing in a poof of smoke. "But you're still nowhere near sneaking up on me." his voice continued from behind him to reveal a completely dry Kakashi. "Oh, come on!" Both Naruto and Sakura yelled while Satsuki just looked defeated. "Now, now, you three did better than expected!" he said cheerfully while clapping his hands."Keep up the practice for today. I'll gaurd the bridge builder for now while you practice. "And when we finish?" Satsuki questioned her sensei. "Hmmm, I shall test you with a light spar. If none of you are sinking into the water during the time i set, I'll consider you to done with it."
"Oh, sparing, yeah, that would be better, totally." The ravenette almost sounded disappointed. Almost. "Something wrong, Sat-suk-i." Sakura sang out.
She glared at the cherry blossom who just whistled innocently while Naruto just looked at them confused. "No, nothing is wrong, you pink haired billboard." she said. Sakura, however, wasn't fazed. "Hohoho, scathing." she laughed off the hidden threat and insult. "Now I'll be off, remember don't be afraid to ask each other for tips and feel free to practice anyway you see fit. Ja Ne." He jumped into the trees and headed for the bridge at a casual pace. Well, for himself, maybe.
"Alright, let's do it!" Naruto said while trying the walk again, followed by the girls. Of course, after an hour, Sakura had the control down perfectly. Satsuki was able to fully run without losing balance, and Naruto was no longer sinking into the water. The sun was beginning to set. They were catching their breath as they spent almost 2 hours straight learning how to walk on the sruface of the water, and they decided they deserved a break. As they sat down, Naruto decided to lay down in a way where he was resting his head on her lap. "What are you doing?" she asked the blonde but didn't do anything to remove him. "Oh, nothing much, just resting on my favorite pillow!" he was rewarded with a smack to his chest before she started running her fingers through his hair.
"I'm not your pillow." Sakura and Naruto both chuckled at this."Aww, well, if you're gonna be like that, you could use my lap Naruto-kun." she replied, purposely adding the kun suffix at the end of his name. "NO! I-I mean, i-its not a problem at all, " she said, trying to sound nonchalantly while giving Sakura a "don't ruin this for me" look who had an ear to ear smile. "Hehe thanks you're the best, Suki-chan!" Naruto said with a genuine smile for Satsuki, who looked away, trying her hardest not to blush. "Obviously." Sakura rolled her aways but never lost her smile. Before she stood up and stretc. "Welp, I'll see you two at the house. I wanna get cleaned up with soap and not just pond water. " she waved at Naruto and winked at Satsuki, who in turn just huffed and turned away. She walked back in the direction of Tazuna's, leaving the two alone.
'Thank you, my friend,' Satsuki thought to herself as she continued playing with her favorite blonde's hair. "Hey Satsuki," said blonde got her attention, "What do you think your family is doing?" he asked her. She hummed as the thought about it. "Father is probably still stuck in the KPD office filing paperwork. Itachi-nisan is still on mission, I believe, and mother should be visiting her friend." she said. "You think your brother will teach us something cool now that we can walk on water?" he said hopefully. Hell, the thought even got her hopes up! "We have improved our chakra control, so the chances are pretty high. I'm curious, how many clones can you produce now? she replied.
"Uuhhh, I don't know. I never thought about it. but i was able to make a couple hundred of them before we graduated the academy. Maybe I could summon an army!" he pumped his fist in the air. He got smacked in his face for the thought. "Yeah, an army that can't take a punch." Satsuki was rewarded with a pout that made him look totally stupid. It totally didn't make him adorable in any way, shape, or form. "I thought it was a good idea." he mumbled out. "You're adorable." she said as she cupped his cheek and rubbed his whisker mark. He nestled into it. He didn't like it when people rubbed his whiskers. It made him purr uncontrollably, and his pride refused to let others see him this was. Only Mikoto and Satsuki have been allowed to rub them. Mikoto was always kind to him and made sure he had a happier future, so she got a pass. As for Satsuki, well, he just loved seeing her happy, and she never looked happier than when they were alone for moments like this.
Her smile slowly faded before she spoke again, "Naruto, about last night?" he knew what she was gonna ask. "What happened to you?" he sighed. After a bit of silence, he finally responded "Its all true...I... I really did kill to survive. I don't remember much, just a lot of pain and being strapped down before being put in an area with others. I'm sure not everyone down there was a ninja. I don't know what the purpose was for those 'test' were for, but I was forced into them, i swear!" Satsuki continued playing with his hair. It seemed to calm him down. She was processing the information. 'What did they make you do?' she thought. "Do you remember anything else?" he pondered the thought. Besides the death he caused on people, he assumed weren't ninja. He didn't know what those were till he was roughly ten. "I remember being strapped down for..." he trailed off. He couldn't remember. They experimented on him for something. He sat up in a thinking pose. "Why can't I remember..I remember th pain of being strapped down, the violent shocks of electricity coarsing through my bones, injections, and the death...they said it was for a purpose...what was it?" he muttered to himself, forgetting that the Uchiha was there for a second. Loud machines, screams of agnoy, multiple tests, but something was missing. Something that was supposedly mind shattering.
He was broken from his thoughts when Satsuki poked his cheek. "Hey." he whined, which earned him a giggle. "Sorry, it's just you seemed to be thinking too hard, and I didn't want you to hurt yourself. And, I'm really sorry about what happened to you and just so you know.. you'll always just be Naruto to me." she said softly. She watched as he looked at her with shock before he smiled at her. She's never seen this smile before. She couldn't place her finger on it. "Thank you, that means everything comes from you." he said just as softly before the sun started to set. he looked at the pond before looking back at her with a cheeky grin. "Hey wanna dance?"
"Now, why on earth would I want to do that?" Satsuki asked, her heartbeating rapidly at the thought. "It worked on our chakra control for wall walking. It could totally help us out here." Naruto replied as it was the most obvious thing in the world. He stood up and offered his hand to help her stand. She took it, fighting down a blush. "Fine, it's not like I want to dance with you or anything." she replied. Thank Kami Sakura wasn't here, or she would have said something about how quickly she gave in. It was just to help with chakra control! He led her to the center of the pond before taking her, wrapping his arm around her waist while she wrapped hers around his neck. They started off slowly, making sure the other wouldn't sink under when they felt the other's balance stumble a bit. It didn't take long for them to find an unheard rhythm between them as they stared at each other, losing track of time.
"Well, look at you two mastering the water walking exercise!" The voice of Kakashi mortified Satsuki, whose head snapped into the direction she heard it from.' Aw, crap,' she thought as she saw both Kakashi and Sakura standing. Kakashi had an eye smile while Sakura had a look that just showed she was loving this. "Hey, yeah, me and Suki-chan have mastered this!" Failing to notice her cringe at Suki-chan. "Oh, pet names already?" Kakashi chuckled out, causing Naruto to look confused. "Anyways, I just thought you wanted to know that dinner is about to be ready." Kakashi said. They both walked back towards them. As Kakashi turned to walk back already.
"Hey, thanks, Kakashi-sensei. I'm hungry!" he hadn't eaten since breakfast was ready to eat. He followed behind his sensei while the two girls followed behind them. Satsuki refused to look at Sakura. "Sooooo," the pinkette "It was just training." That's all it was nothing more. "Is that why you didn't notice us for 5 minutes?" she groaned. How long were they standing there for? "So tell me what happened."
"Nothing, we just talked a bit and trained, that's it!" the Uchiha said with certainty. Sakura just raised an eyebrow while her smirk remained. "He asked me to dance." she muttered out with a small blush. Sakura squealed a bit. "You two are the cutest thing, I swear. Ugh, Ino is gonna be so livid!" Sure, Ino and her have been friends for a while, but that didn't mean she couldn't torment her a bit. Satsuki was having similar thoughts. 'Yeah, I can't wait to rub it in that dumb blonde's face!' she grinned at the thought.
The sun was beginning to set, and Haku was headed back to the mansion with his herbs. He didn't run into any of the ninjas, thank goodness. Everything was going according to plan, so why did he feel that something terrible had happened. As he got closer to the mansion, he noticed someone stumbling around the woods. The person seemed lost as he stood, looked around, and then would wander aimlessly forward. "Zori?" he recognized the other swordsman that was one of Gato's gaurd. He looked awful he left ankle and was twisted. his clothes were torn. With closer inspection. turns out some of the torn pieces of cloth turned out to be Zori's flesh, revealing his muscles below. Some tears went deep enough to show bones! Haku took a step back from the sight as Zori dropped. He stood back up, and Haku saw the glowing red eyes. He couldn't possibly be alive and moving with all that damage. Why did his eyes glow?
Haku grabbed his senbon to steel his nerves. He felt safe with a weapon. Deciding to take him out, he threw the senbon straight into Zori's heart. The senbon hit its mark perfectly. Zori didn't budge. He started looking around for whatever had hit him, just biting at the hair and hissing. Haku almost dropped then senbon, did he miss? Haku took aim again and threw four more senbon this time. They landed this time, and he made sure of it. Zori still didn't drop. Instead, he started stumbling in the direction the senbon came from. "Impossible." This time, Haku threw a kunai at the head. This time, the eyes stopped glowing, and he fell this time. Haku didn't know what to make of this. Zori took more killshits than normal and kept moving. What caused him to turn out like that? Was it because of his proximity to his partner or..
"Zabuza!" he ran towards the mansion. He hoped his master didn't suffer the same fate or worse.
So, this chapter turned out longer than expected. Thanks again to everyone who is liking and following the story. It's genuinely surprising how the number of people who enjoy this story is growing. Thanks again, and let me know what you think. As you guys can tell, I'm absoulte dog water when it comes to describing the Colt M1911 pistol. But I tried to write it from the perspective of someone who never encountered one. I'm not sure when the next chapter is gonna be up, but I plan to make it about the escape from the mansion. Anyways I hope everyone who reads this have a wonderful day!