Chapter 17

*static*

"-Entry Log 174: Dear Diary, Dr. Hirukama and I have come up with a word for our new... creations that we have created. They seem to hold no will of their own. Only follo- *static* -incts; however, further tests show that the nervous system suffers deterioration caused by *static* -ever; the chakra points seem to deteriorate at a much slower rate depending on *static* -els. However, with the blessing of the Yondaime, we have labeled these creatures as zombies."

*static*

*static*

"-me go! Do you know who I am? I am-"

"Kukukuku I know exactly who you are! The head ninja of Kumo, no less!"

"Exactly so when my village finds out."

"Oh, the same village that'll defend your attempted—*static*—-ukukuku, I doubt it."

"It's your word against mine!"

"You see, here's the thing. *click* I've developed a new security system that I've been testing over these past few months! And what do I find? Someone being a naughty, naughty, boy, kukukukukuku!"

"I-I-impossible!"

"Yes, but there it is~ Clear as day! You break into the compound, sneaking away with a suspicious package, and boom! Caught by the all-seeing eyes of the Hyuga!"

"Grrrrr, so now what! You'll try to ransom me? Try to-"

"SHHHHHHHHHHH! Do you hear that?"

"What!? What are you talking about? Let me, Mnph."

sounds of tape being ripped and placed, followed by the sounds of someone equipping rubber gloves*

"You see, I've been needing new test subjects, but the council and the hostage wouldn't approve. I've been thinking of ways to improve the capabilities of Chalra users! Don't tell~ I don't want prying eyes for my experiments!"

*sounds of muffled cries*

*sounds of a drill powering up*

"You see, my dear subject, I'll find out everything I need to know about the human body, one way."

Muffled screams of pain echo through the room.*

"-or the other!"

*static*

Present:

The streets were filled with rotten corpses. Both walking around and laying on the floor dead. They turned and roared only for one of the heads to explode completely. Haku landed on the corpse and pumped his Spas-12 and fired at another one. Behind him was Satsuki, a dual-welding MAC-11 firing off in 2 directions, taking out multiple zombies at once. The horde didn't slow down as more started to converge on their location. Suddenly, kunai fell down from the roof, stabbing onto the heads before exploding. The ones that fell to the impact were quickly taken out by Sakura and Kakashi, who were on the roofs, providing cover and keeping the shamblers that joined them on the roofs at bay.

*click click click*

"What the?" Satsuki looked at the weapon in confusion before realizing that she had to reload. She ejected the magazine before she noticed a shadow over her. She turned in time to see the corpse standing above her get a purple chain through its head before it's body was dragged over to Naruto, who lifted him up and slammed it into a group of 3, sending them flying. Naruto looked over to the Uchiha, who nodded at him.

Naruto smiled before the four chains appeared from his back, and he used them to maneuver the area, jumping around impaling every undead insight or just shooting them with his toy-looking gun. The green laser with rings around would hit a corpse, causing it to explode, killing those close to it and blowing off the legs of others, causing them to hiss as they crawled on the floor, still wanting to get their meal, before they were killed by another blast, otherwise, a kunai-tipped chakra chain would finish them off. Sakura herself was firing off, assisting the 3 on the floor while slowly moving closer to the docks. Progress was going well, they'd reach it in about 20 minutes if they were lucky.

*groan, hiss*

Sakura turned in time to put her AK-74u in between herself and the jaws of a boy no older than her, causing her to lose herself in her thoughts. She was almost pushed to the ground when Kakashi looked up to see his student in peril. He aimed his M14 and landed a clean headshot before having to reload. The body went limp, and a green glow appeared before quickly disappearing.

"INSTA KILL!"

The demonic voice echoed through the area, followed by Naruto's cackling. His chains retracted back into him, and he hoisted his weapon before he charged into the horde with a kunai in hand. Haku tried to grab him to stop him from his suicidal charge while Satsuki called out to him in terror. Once he closed the distance, he started punching, kicking, and slicing. Instantly, whatever undead he touched would have their heads explode and instantly dispatched. Whether he hit them directly or just barely grazed the skin, the heads would explode, killing them instantly. Seeing this, Kakashi yelled orders at his team.

"Looks like we have an advantage, use it!" He fired wildly into them, no longer caring about being precise about his aim. He would graze one and hit the one behind it in the shoulder. Foot, hand, chest, arm—no matter where he hit, the heads exploded and instantly killed them. They were now halfway there until Naruto stabbed into the chest of another corpse. Instead of its head exploding, it swiped and hit him in the face. Naruto's body fell due to the slap, causing the corpse to try and pin him down and eat him. Naruro managed to evade and deflect the attack. After a brief struggle, he kicked off the corpse, which fell back into others, and they didn't die either.

"There goes the fun." He said as chains shot out of his back once more and he started using his toy-looking weapon again. Satsuki backhanded a zombie into the ground and saw that it wasn't dead, so she aimed and fired. The corpse went limp, and it's eyes stopped glowing. She looked up and noticed that the numbers were thinning. She looked up towards her teammate and sensei, who continued firing at streets below while occasionally stopping to defend the roof they stood on. They kept moving, turning corners and into alleyways, avoiding the areas that had too many to take out. Suddenly Sakura yelled out.

"Sensei, I'm running low!" She looked over to see that Kakashi was no longer using his M14 as it was strapped over his back and was now using kunai and jutsus to hold them off.

"Welcome to club! Use what you know!" He yelled as he stabbed a zombie in the head and threw it off the roof. Sakura didn't have to respond as she heard one behind her, and she swung her AK like a club, smashing the head of the one behind her. Two more were behind them and fired at them until a familiar click was heard. This time, however, she didn't have any ammo.

Haku, Naruto, and Satsuki were clearing out a path below before their weapons started clicking. Naruto noticed that his gauge was low. They each reached into their packs. Satsuki found one more magazine for only one of her MAC-11s, Haku and 3 shells left, and Naruto only had one shot left as he no longer had power cells. Before they could voice their concerns, Sakura spoke up again.

"Over there, I see the docks! We're almost there!"

"Everyone quick as fast as you can to the docks!" Kakashi yelled before a ball of lightning appeared in his hand. "Get down!" He yelled before suddenly he shot forward faster than anyone could see. Even Satsuki's sharingan struggled to keep up. Kakashi zipped around the area, leaving a trail of lightning as he went from corpse to corpse, decimating them all. Once finished, Kakashi fell to his knees in exhaustion before standing back up and yelling.

"We're cleared, GO!" Everyone ran as fast as they could to make it to the docks. They weren't lucky enough for them to be cleared, however. They landed on some poles high enough for the undead to be unable to reach them as they surveyed the area. A couple of ships were available for travel before Naruto spoke up.

"Say we made it all the way here for a ship? Do we know how to sail one?" He asked as he tilted his head to the side. His purple eyes darting from boat to boat to corpse. Everyone looked at each other before Satsuki spoke up.

"No, but I'm sure with Sakura or Kakashi we should be able to figure it out."

"What makes you think I know?" Sakura asked.

"Because your the smartest one amongst us minus Kakashi. You can figure it out." Satsuki said to the pinkette, who just nodded. She appreciated the words and tried to not let them down. Haku then spoke up.

The docks were pretty big for a town this size. 'Although since this was... an area that made most of their income via ship trade.' Kakashi thought to himself, and he noticed that his weakest, yet smartest, student was slowly coming to the realization. He saw a couple of poles with wires connecting to all parts of the docks. Silver boxes with a mesh-like covering leading to a single tower along with heading towards a lighthouse on a small island nearby. If you asked Kakashi, there was no way this kind of setup was created without an outside force.

"It seems not all the ships that were delivering the rock didn't make it in time." Haku pointed at a couple stacks of wooden boxes labeled 'Warning: Potential Hazardous Material'. The stacks were scattered around the docks, prepared to be loaded onto some ships. However, it seems the crew either attacked or turned during it as blood and limbs littered the floor of the docks along with multiple undead roaming the docks.

"Over there! That ship looks the most ready to sail. Maybe just untie it or raise the anchor, but it should be ready to sail." Kakashi pointed at one of the ships. Unfortunately, it seemed to be the most surrounded. Before they leapt into action, they watched as a puddle started to shift around before it rose and took the shape of an undead Zabuza. The water clone started to wander the area aimlessly but never straying too far from the boat. 'Are they capable of putting together our plan?' He asked himself.

"Oh, not him again!" Naruto whined at the sight of Zabuza. His teammates agreed, while Haku just stared on at his former master with a mix of guilt and shame. He should've been the one to die, not Zabuza. He felt a hand on his shoulder and looked over at Kakashi, who held a look of understanding. He patted his shoulder and didn't say a word before he pulled out his Colt 1911, his M14 slung around his back out of ammo. Satsuki had one MAC11 without a magazine, which was holstered while she held her other one ii bith hands, as well as a kunai in the other now unoccupied hand. Sakura held her AK-74U and loaded her final mag. Kakashi didn't know how to feel about that. They were too familiar with these new weapons. Weapons he was sure weren't designated only for the undead horde. hope that his students could be ready for the Shinobi world by the time the chunin exams. Now when he looked into their eyes, they looked older and tired. He remembered when he had that very look in his eyes. After they failed to save...

He shook his head; this wasn't the time to think about that. His students have been thrust into a land of darkness that no one was prepared for. The dead rise up from their graves and eat the living. He shuddered as he remembered the sounds of Gatou's thugs on the bridge. Their screams of horror and pain as the previous workers that had been killed rose from the ground and started attacking everyone. Tearing everyone limb from limb. "Except for Zabuza's corpse." Kakashi couldn't help but think back at how one encounter caused such...madness to spew forth.

Minutes before the "Incident"

"Now then, where's Tazuna?" Gatou sneered as he struggled to see through the mist. He had brought a small army to help him out with his new plan. Roughly 60 men that wouldn't mind getting their hands dirty for a few bucks. Gatou couldn't be bothered to remember their names. He was hoping they would take each other out in the confrontation. Still, he needed them to get 4 sacrifices, preferably the two disposables missing Nin and the bridge builder. His men had already inadvertently sacrificed an innocent. The child of the bridge builder. The poor child thought he could stop his men. The poor fool. Oh well, less work for him in the long run.

He looked down at the Tsunami, who didn't bother to put up a fight. She was gagged and had a dull look in her eyes as she cried. However, she didn't try to escape her bindings or help herself out of the situation. The former mother just stared at the floor. Gatou recognized that look from one of his previous merchandise. The look of someone who has given up and accepted their fate. He smirked at the sight; she would be a great form of "stress relief" until she was sold off to someone. His train of thought was broken suddenly.

"The source? Yes, they caused it! The what!? What are you talking about? Wait no! Shut up!" Naruto yelled as Kakashi struggled to restrain him. It wasn't an easy task, as he didn't want to hurt the blonde. His student, however, didn't share the same sentiment as he thrashed against Kakashi's hold.

'What the hell is he on about? Damn, I knew I should've brought the mask! But no! You decided to listen to-' and his train of thought was cut off as he noticed a faint purple aura surrounding the blonde. Kakashi let him go and threw himself as far as he could before purple chains exploded from his blonde student. The barbed, kunai-tipped chakra chains flew out of his body and violently whipped back and forth in what resembled Jiraiya's Needle Jizo, though it didn't have the same defensive capabilities. The attack range of Naruto's version was a lot more useful for offenses, as they would shoot out at least 6 feet from the user's body, giving them more range before the chains would whip around in every way to hit anything that dared get close enough.

He stood up and did a double take, as if just realizing the situation he was in. He looked over and saw the mob of thugs being led by Gatou. He lifted his finger and pointed at them. "You! Do you hear the voices too!?" Everyone looked at each other confused at what this mad child was saying. However, he did get an almost unheard response. A response that only Gatou heard.

"Ah, so he's being corrupted by the aether's energy," Gatou heard the voice of the Shadow Man say in his head. Before he could answer, the voice spoke again. "You know what I need. Finish the task!"

Gatou cleared his throat and spoke again. "I said, Where's Tazuna?" He yelled once more. Naruto tilted his head in confusion at the request. Zabuza had a coughing fit before he already had his throat. "Gatou you bastard! What did you do to us?" The missing Nin snapped at his former employer.

"I was just making sure you would complete your job. After all, I was paying you a hefty price. But then I had...an idea to force you to actually complete it!" Gatou yelled back before he sighed and smirked. "No matter," he reached into his vest and pulled out a device. It was a long barreled contraption that he held from a wooden grip. Naruto's eyes widened in recognition. However, no one seemed to notice as they were enthralled with what he was holding.

Gatou pointed it at Zabuza before 3 bangs were heard. With each click of the trigger, a round part above the handle would rotate with every bang. One of Kakashi's ninken yelped as it was hit by the first of whatever Gatou used, causing the rest to disperse immediately to avoid further injury. Two holes suddenly appeared in Zabuza's torso. One lucky shot hit him in the chest, and the other hit him in the shoulder. Zabuza gasped as he fell forward, no longer being supported by the dogs. His hold over the Hidden Mist Jutsu was released, and the mist was slowly dispersing, clearing everyone's vision slowly.

"Zabuza-sama!" Haku yelled as he ran forward to him. As Haku ran towards the body, Gatou spoke once more. "Sorry, but you're just not worth the money, my friend. Now then!" He pushed the revolving weapon at Tsunami's skull. Tears slowly dripped down her face as she sobbed. Tazuna saw what awaited him as the mist cleared up. His eyes widen in horror. "Gatou, you scum! What have you done?"

Gatou chuckled coldly. "See, since threatening your life didn't work, I decided for a different approach. Threaten your daughter and to show you I'm serious," he motioned for one of his goons to come forward. The thug walked forward and threw a blood-covered hat. The sight of it caused the tsunami's sobbing to become more intense. Team 7 and Tazuna looked at the hat shocked. It didn't take a scientist to figure out the rest.

"No, you wouldn't." Tazuna let out a horrified gasp at the realization. "You wouldn't..." Tazuna whispered. His response to the questions was a cruel laugh.

"Please, I've killed for less and a lot of people to get what I want. This is nothing." Gatou said smugly. Enjoying the misery he was causing Tazuna. Gatou chuckled again at the site. "See, this is what I warned you about, Tazuna." He pointed the weapon towards him. I've got 3 shots left, Tazuna. Step forward or she dies." His finger cocked a small lever back. The bridge builder gritted his teeth as tears fell from his face. 'This is all my fault.' Tazuna thought to himself.

As the mist cleared, Sakura caught a glimpse of her teammates bodies. His blood ran cold at the sight. "Satsuki..." she whispered. She refused to believe what she was seeing. She flared her chakra to remove any genjutsu that might have been cast over her. However, Satsuki's body still remained, covered in senbon needles.

"SATSUKI!" Sakura ran towards her fallen comrade and fell to her knees beside her. She held her friend's body and buried her face into her neck and sobbed. It was still warm and smelled of blood and sweat. Her crying out caught Naruto's attention. He snapped his head towards the two and froze at the sight. He held his head in one hand in frustration and pain. "shut up...please..." Naruto mumbled. The voices in his head came back whispering their words of violence and corruption.

Kakashi stood up from his fallen position and faced Gatou. "You're going to have to go through us, I'm afraid. And unlike you all," he went through a series of handsigns before 50 more Kakashi's materialized around him. This caused a bit of fear in the opposing army. So much so that they took a step back, including Gatou. Naruto slowly turned back towards the group. A frightening calm look on his face as he stood up. Redish purple chakra chains started to emerge from his back.

"No." It was almost unheard by anyone, but it got everyone's attention. They looked towards Tazuna, who hung his head. "I've already lost my grandson. There's no point. I can't lose my daughter as well... I won't be the reason. I don't want to be the reason another child dies." He choked out. Kakashi looked back at him.

"Look, I know how you feel, but we signed."

"NO! To hell with the stupid mission contract! We failed anyway. You can keep the money we paid you. Just please stay out of this. Tazuna said firmly. His shoulders sagged. "We've lost." He stepped forward and walked past the Kakashi's clones. He stepped through a couple, causing them to shimmer, but the thugs didn't notice as the mist covered it. However, once he stood about 20 feet from Gatou, the mist had cleared. Everything was in clear view. Sakura crying over Satsuki's body, Haku walking towards them, leaving his master's corpse unattended. Four of Naruto's chains on his back stabbed into the ground, slowly lifting himself off the floor. He looked at Sakura and glared at Gatou.

"The distributor got her killed. We shouldn't allow that, shall we?"

"So what happens now, you monster?" Tazuna yelled at the shipping tycoon. Said tycoon just smiled and pointed his revolving contraption.

*BANG*

Tazuna's head jerked back and he immediately dropped like a sack of potatoes. A small hole in between the eyes spurted blood as smoke rose from the wound. The great bridge builder Tazuna of the wave was killed in an instant. The tsunami yelled and sobbed at the sight. Everyone except Naruto stared at Tazuna, shocked. Unsure as to what killed him. Gatou chuckled.

"You know, when I first got the blueprint for this, I wasn't so sure. I think I'm a fan. Haven't named it yet; maybe I should call it "

"It's a revolver, my good lady, and I have many more blueprints for you should you continue to prove your worth." A voice told Gatou.

"a revolver!" Gatou finished up; he cocked it back one last time. "I love this thing; it removes problems easily, like so." Gatou quickly pointed it back at the tsunami and pulled the trigger. Another bang was heard, and the tsunami's body jerked and fell limp. A small hole where the bang came from and a slightly bigger hole from where the shot exited out. Gatou chuckled as he looked over to the rest. "Well, then our job is done here." He looked over to the ninja and smiled cruelly. "So much for protection detail." He laughed again, along with the army behind him.

"I'm going to kill you," both Naruto and Haku said in unnerving unison. A mist started to form slowly on the bridge once more. The army of thugs was once again unnerved at the thought of fighting the ninja; however, everyone stopped at the sound of a growl. Everyone looked around for the source when they saw it. Zabuza is slowly rising once again.

"Zabuza-sama.." Haku said as he immediately jumped away from him. He noticed that his master now had glowing red eyes. The same glowing red eyes everyone back at the mansion had.

"What!? I killed you!? Gatou yelled. Zabuza jerked his head towards Gatou and charged at him. Gatou panicked and pulled out his revolver and fired. Zabuza flinched, but it didn't stop his charge. Gatou started running to the back of the crowd but was quickly tackled by Zabuza. Gatou screamed as Zabuza started to eat him alive. His army was taken back by the sight of a ninja clawing at Gatou's torso. He attempted to fight back but could only scream as the hand tore through his skin, muscle, and fat. He felt the living corpse grab hold of his liver before it was yanked out, followed by a kidney, then his intestines. Each time a hand re-entered, he could feel as a hand would grip an organ and forcibly tear it out, pulling along other organs and tendons. He could even feel as Zabuza bit down a couple of times before dropping it and digging back in for more.

Haku fell back in horror at the sight. Kakashi faired a bit better but was still horrified. Sakura buried her face into the chest of the unmoving Uchiha to shield her eyes from the sight. Naruto stared blankly at the carnage as his purple eyes started getting a more reddish hue. Suddenly one of the thugs gathered the courage to strike at the feasting Zabuza, which caused others to join in to put him down once again.

Gatou tried to gasp for air but chocked on his blood. He couldn't die here. He remembered the voice in his head. The voice that gave him the blueprints for his new toy. The idea of using the rock to mind-control the two missing Nin. So he called out to him. 'Save me, please. I did what you asked!'

"That you did, my friend. I've got all I needed from you. You've distributed the element, which is bound to sow chaos in this world. And you gave me 4 sacrifices. Tazuna, Tsunami, Zabuza, and now you." The Shadow Man said to Gatou. "Good day, Mr. Gatou; die knowing that you have played your part in a much bigger role." He finished with a laugh before Gatou was left alone to die.

As he took his final breath, a blue pulse exploded outward, spreading through the entire area. No one knew how far the blast extended. Everyone looked around confused, not noticing that a certain pair of eyes turned from purple to blood red. "Hey, what was that!?" A thug asked. Rumbling was heard, and suddenly pieces of the floor started to break and erupt upwards. Suddenly a hand came out of the breaks in the ground. Everyone except Naruto, who looked excited, looked around fearfully at what was happening around them.

Soon a bunch of bodies emerged from the ground. Some of the thugs realized that these were the previous workers of the bridge. The ones that wouldn't quick and had been taken out by Gatou. Their decayed bodies fought out of their graves; glowing red eyes filled the entire bride. Kakashi grabbed Haku and ran towards the girls as all hell broke loose. The revived workers started charging towards the army, causing them to step back in fear, causing some to trip on their own feet. The undead workers fell upon those and started consuming them. Some of the thugs attempted to fight back, but we're overwhelmed by the sheer number of undead, and those that weren't fully consumed would slowly rise as well.

Sakura clutched her friends bodies close to herself as cracks formed around her. Before she could react, Kakashi and Haku were suddenly upon her. Kakashi picked up Satsuki's body and turned back to Haku. "We need to leave now!" Haku nodded his head and began to drag the pinkette away from the carnage. "What about Naruto?" She screamed as she was yanked away and forced to run in the opposite direction. "He'll follow, c'mon, Naruto!" However, as Kakashi feared, Naruto didn't listen. Instead, the last thing he saw before fully running into the mist away from the horde was the blonde jumping into the fray, laughing gleefully as his chains impaled the first corpse to attack him.

He wouldn't get to ask why the bridge builder burried his men in the bridge. Still, he would never forget the sounds. He looked over to his final student. The blonde was inspecting his new 'toy'. It seemed he was counting how many shots he had left. His purple eyes had a blueish hue to them, confirming that he hasn't lost himself yet since coming back from the brink.

Kakashi didn't know how they would manage to calm him down without Jiraiya's suppression mask. Although even if he had it, he wasn't sure if he was able to put it on. He still had to go through the trouble of putting the mask on him to neutralize him. He wasn't very confident he could fight a rage-filled Naruto using the Kyuubi's chakra.

"So what's the plan?" Haku asked as he loaded his final shells into his Spas-12. He now had 5 shots in his weapon. Kakashi watched as Satsuki threw away one of her MAC11s as she noticed she no longer had the resources required to use both. Sakura held her AK-74u as she readied to use the last of her ammo. Naruto looked up from his weapon and inspected the docks in front of him. Sakura then spoke, "Naruto, how many clones can you create?" She asked her blonde teammate.

Naruto chuckled at the questions while Kakashi looked at her. "Distractions?" He asked. Sakura responded with a nod. Satsuki held Naruto's hand and squeezed it reassuringly. "Even if you can't create a lot, we just need them to leave the area." She trusted her friends plan. Sakura's intuition hasn't failed them yet. However, the main reason for the act was to see if her Naruto was still in there. She felt reassured as Naruto intertwined his fingers with her own. Even amongst his new brutality and madness, he was still in there. She could bring him back.

"Alright then we use Naruto clones to distract the horde. Maybe give the clones our weapons to make them more believable." Kakashi stated using Sakura's idea. He looked towards his students who nodded her head in confirmation. This may not be the best time to test her thought process in the field but what better way for her to learn the in an active life or death situation. So far she's doing well under pressure.

Naruto looked towards Satsuki. Looking at their intertwined hands before saying, "I won't let anything happen to you two he said addressing both girls while gently squeezing the Uchiha's hand. His eyes now the familiar cerulean blue that they've known. Kakashi watched this interaction and took note of it. Suddenly he voice rang out from a speaker system.

"Hey you people over there!" The undead raised their heads due to the multiple sources the voice came from. The 5 inspected the area before Satsuki's red eyes landed on the previously seen boxes. It turns out they were some kind of communications device.

"If you need someone to sail you of this island I'm your gal! Just please get me out of this damned lighthouse!" As her voice rang out through the entire area. The horde in front threw their heads back and screamed. All of them continued to walk around aimlessly just a little quicker. Naruto pulled Satsuki closer to him, the ravenette didn't put up any resistance. Sakura took a deep breath while Haku counted the last of his senbon. Kakashi sighed, then spoke.

"Well looks like there's a change of plans."

Au: So, I finally managed to get the chapter up as best I could. Im not kidding when i say this app made me have to reupload the document like 50 times. So, believe that this is gonna be the final chapter that i post here. I am now looking elsewhere to continune the story as its just too much of a hassle here. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed leave a review, and I guess a recommendation on where to move to.