AND BACK AGAIN [ NARUTO ]

[ 07 ] zombie-ninja showdown

"They were all in my shop!" A stout, plump woman exclaimed, cowering behind a chuunin. "Normal! Normal for the first three minutes!"

Team 7 landed on a nearby roof, surveying the scene. Once again, Naruto noted, there was a crowd gathered -- but this time it was excessively thicker. Silver hitai-ate plates gleamed in the sun, indicating there were other shinobi present, but by the looks of it, only a few genin and chuunin.

"You three fall back and help maintain the barrier with the other genin." Kakashi squinted over the crowd. It wasn't hard to see a few of the genin from their year, who had most likely happened to be in the area when another infiltrator showed up. "Naruto will come with me." He turned his masked face on his students.

"Keeping the civilians back and safe is your job, understood?" His coal black eye settled on the young Uzumaki. "Nothing more, nothing less."

"Hai!"

"Alright, I--" Kakashi turned to see Naruto, still crouching next to him. The genin's (was he still a genin? Kakashi hoped not) eyes were locked onto the scene in front of him, narrowed in thought. Kakashi had, admittedly, expected him to have at least gone on ahead by now. But he seemed to be thinking about his next move.

"Naruto, let's go."

The blond nodded. He didn't jump into action as expected, though. His fingers raised in the half ram seal and a shadow clone burst to life beside him. Immediately, it crouched in a meditating position, eyes gently closed.

Naruto offered no explanation. He smirked and swung off the roof, forcing Kakashi to follow behind as the three genin spread out in different directions.

Kakashi and Naruto arrived in the middle of the commotion beside two jounin. Naruto did a double take at the shinobi beside him, recognizing them immediately.

Yuhi Kurenai's scarlet eyes were narrowed, trained on a few figures on the other side of the clearing, while Sarutobi Asuma's cigarette had been discarded in the dirt at his feet. His blades were pulsing with his lethal wind chakra, and he stood, as alive as Naruto had ever seen him.

He forced himself to take a deep breath and moved beside them with his sensei, only then noticing their opponent.

Scratch that, opponents.

Naruto counted four zombie-ninja (as he'd dubbed them) crouched in front of them, their gazes glazed over and faces expressionless. It was unnerving, seeing another human being so utterly lifeless -- and yet capable of so much destruction.

Kurenai turned to her comrades, tilting her head. "Kakashi?" It was obvious she and Asuma had no idea what was going on, what had provoked these villagers to attack their own.

"Hokage-sama sent us," the Hatake answered. "We're to gather information, I can't tell you what's going on. And Naruto here will help us."

Asuma grunted. "Who?"

Naruto leaned forward so the two jounin could see him behind Kakashi and waved. Kurenai and Asuma stared blankly.

There was no time to further explain as the zombie-ninja finally became restless with the lack of action, and charged. Naruto could see his companions take one each, but was forced to turn his attention to his own fight as a dark haired figure went on offense with a single kunai.

Naruto blocked and parried with his kunai, his mind racing. There were way too many people here. If they took the upper-hand -- which they would -- the zombie-ninja would just become provoked and blow themselves up, dragging the less fortunate down with them.

"We need to evacuate the villagers!" Naruto averted his eyes from his one-on-one for a moment to land on the nearest shinobi, a brunet. He was occupied with the civilians, so Naruto kicked a stone to grab his attention.