Author's Ramblings: Okay, the fight you've been waiting for. It will cover most of this chapter, along with some details that follow the battle. I'll be taking a while to explore the fighting style Naruto uses, as well as those of Mikase Shijimi, and only partly, the others present.

Chapter 3 : And the Dead Walked Again

"Well fuck." Chouji eloquently mouthed.

Certainly, the words very clearly described the situation, as almost every corpse that wasn't a charred husk slowly got up, all of them wielding various implements of war... and there was the scary part. Chouji had watched a few zombie movies, however these weren't the 'brains!', moaning and limping variant. Oh no, these were 'ninja' zombies apparently, as the dozen of them literally blurred away as soon as they were all up.

Naruto remained calm. To lose that calm was to get killed. What ever the hell those things were, their speed was impressive. It wasn't shunshin, that much he would have noticed, but high-speed motion, which was worse.

Once more, he saw just a glint, and all he had time to do was dodge. Backflip after backflip, he dodged as more an more projectiles landed in the spots he occupied just moments ago.

"Chouji! Get Mikase out of here! Find Asuma and the others! GO!" Naruto shouted during the short break as he had landed, only to roll away to avoid a massive axe crashing in the point he was at. But his staff was already broken and gone. A shame.

He didn't have time to think further as the one who had been pelleting him with projectiles appeared right over him in her gory glory, stabbing forward with a tanto. He was still in the air, no chance to dodge. 'Damn. No other choice'

Cold harsh logic dictated his moves now. These were corpses. Corpses didn't tire, non-lethal damage didn't affect them as much, and if his hunch was correct, unless destroyed, they would move for as long as they had chakra.

Only a dozen or so centimeters away from his chest, the tanto was fast approaching. Faster than the corpse could follow, Naruto's hands thrust at the earth that was right beneath him, launching him straight over the flying ninja-corpse

"Crumbling White Lotus!" he shouted, dropping straight into the corpse with both hands. Rapidly moving, the first thrust with his fingertips severed the spine, the second, fists half folded broke the ribcage, while the final, full fists broke straight through, literally severing the two halves of it's torso. Immediately, he used his hands to push himself off, just in time to flip over another swing of the axe at him, and to notice one disturbing fact. Corpses did not just sizzle.

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"PUT ME DOWN YOU FAT IDIOT!" Chouji once more ignored the insult at his weight. Pride set aside, survival was key now, and he did not want to be the one who explained to the Fire Daimyo just why his daughter had died.

And he still had no clue just where the hell Asuma, Shikamaru and Ino were. Considering how those corpses just came to life, they might even be.... no, he would not think of it. They were capable, they would be fine. What the hell was he doing? He had left behind a comrade. Well, not one that he knew well, but a comrade who had chosen to stay behind and fight of zombies!

"I SAID... what are you doing?" Mikase started to yell again, only for Chouji to stop still. Suddenly, they both heard an explosion and turned around to see Naruto standing, slightly burnt, but alive, hand pushed through the chest of one of the corpses while the other held a massive axe that it had been wielding seconds ago, right before said axe descended and bisected the corpse. A moment later, another explosion followed.

But there was no more time to stand and idly observe, as three of the walking corpses appeared around them. Chouji had already set Mikase down, and only heard the slight hiss as she apparently unsheathed her weapon, whatever it was.

Chouji wasn't stupid. Stupid ninja died quickly, and he had survived active service for three years. These things, whatever they were, were quick and powerful. He would think about just how Naruto obliterated them later, as now he had to do the same.

"Chouji, right? Cover my back." He heard the specific sound of a person jumping from his back. If the zombies didn't kill him, the Daimyo was...

Behind him, Mikase smirked confidently as her two weapons hissed in opening. The two metallic cylinders extended into two telescopic spikes that immediately locked into place through an unseen mechanism. Normally, such a weapon could only cause mild scratches, or a nasty piercing wound.

Her target was a large one, easily towering over her. Compared to the others, he was slow, lumbering, and the oversized kunai in his long hands were strong, but not fast. The first swing came straight at her neck, she dodged that one easy by ducking, straight into the way of the second one. However, not even that one had a chance, as those two spikes suddenly whipped, whistling as they went, at his left hand... and sliced clear through it. Then they continued moving, cutting his body to ribbons. One down.

Chouji however, didn't have the time to notice, considering that he had two on his hands.'No time like the present'

His hands moved into a handseal, while he whispered. The two corpses suddenly lunged forward, opting to stop his action.

"Body Expansion Jutsu"

Suddenly, the two corpses were no longer as big.. or rather, he had grown.

"Great Palm Thrust!" he bellowed due to his increased size, two palms slamming down atop the corpses before they even had a chance to do anything. A moment later, the jutsu faded away, returning him to his original size. He turned around to see a gaping princess standing atop a shredded enemy.

"Wow..." she barely mouthed, though her eyes quickly widened "Look out!"

Chouji could only watch as 'her ladyship' elegantly jumped on his shoulders and slammed two elongated spikes into something behind his back. It didn't take being a Nara clan genius to figure out what.

"Thanks for the save."

"You're welcome."

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Within one of the few remaining buildings, one erected from stone, Ino was panicking. Armed with only a kunai, she was standing over Shikamaru's unconscious body, seeing as her teammate had taken a blow to the head. By what, she wasn't sure, but the fact that his head was unconscious, but alive was a good sign.

The fact that there were corpses walking towards the two of them was worrying enough. It wasn't the slow gait she would have expected, but a relatively rapid, and fluid motion, and each of them had some manner of weapon in their hands. Axes, knives, most of them were simple tools used, however, a few had kunai, and one even sported a large katana.

The two foremost, two male corpses lunged at her, and she barely deflected the attacks with the two kunai she held, if only barely. As she did so, she slashed at their arms, hoping to get in at least some damage, but it proved worthless. These were walking corpses, and loss of blood meant little to them.

Calming herself as much as she could, she knew she could only hope for Asuma to get here soon. So, she quickly popped a soldier pill into her mouth during the short brake between their attacks, and rapidly went through a few handseals, before managing to slam her hands into the hard, stone floor, barely avoiding another attack.

"Earth Release : Dome Barrier Wall!" she uttered, and quickly, the stone rose around her and Shikamaru, forming a solid barrier between them. The flare of chakra would also serve to call in Asuma. Hopefully.

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'How many of these things are there?' Naruto soberly thought as he threw away the axe he had just used to cut apart one of the corpse-ninja. He had taken out two so far, and he had spotted, albeit barely, that Chouji and Mikase killed four others. He had seen twelve at first, which left six spotted, and likely a number of those he didn't spot.

His clothes had taken the brunt of the damage. The brown cloak was completely obliterated by the first explosion, and he had dodged the blast of the second. The orange robe he was wearing was smeared with black and crimson stains at several places, and he had several mild burns. But he was alive.

His instinct kicked in, and he jumped just in time to avoid the swipe of a large, metal fan.

Landing from the jump, he had a short chance to observe his opponent before she vanished. A female corpse, one that suffered almost no obvious damage, except for a blackened patch of skin on the right side of her neck. Sandy yellow robes covered a suit of armor, and her dead hands clutched the massive fan as she stood still for a mere moment. A deep groove was etched into the ground where he stood just moments ago.

Naruto's eyes widened as the fan unfolded, almost a complete semicircle extending almost one and a half meters from the handle... and worse still, he noticed that the ends were bladed, meaning that it wasn't just used as a helper for jutsu, but was a full weapon, attached to a length of chain, and now spinning fast enough to seem like a ring of black steel

And just like that, she vanished, and he only heard a near silent whistle in the air, his only indication that the massive blade-fan was aiming for his neck. Rolling forward, he manged to dodge another strike.

Again, she charged at him, forcing him on the defensive. That massive blade was no joke, and the corpse-kunoichi wielded it with great skill. Worse still, the strength needed to perform such a move meant that closing in was futile, except for a finishing blow. Naruto managed to dodge the blade again, but this time it came even closer. And he knew the next it would be closer still. He had to finish this, here and now.

Taking another few backflips away from her, he landed in a crouch, minimizing his exposed body area. Holding himself still on his right arm, his left hand immediately went to cover his right eye as he evoked one of the abilities that he had learned over the last five years. The beads on his arm glowed with a baleful black light as he opened his mouth.

"Eye of Benzaiten" he mouthed, letting out no sound. Or rather, he didn't hear it. Time slowed down, and he began to see the surface of the flying ring of death reduced to quickly spinning metal fan. And then it came, the incredible influx of information as his mind went into a state of battle trance, dropping all rational thought to process the sensory input of his sole remaining sense

'Five. Body motions limited due to movements required to use fan, and slightly sluggish, delayed, half step back before each movement forward. Chakra enhanced speed, surpass own. Four. Angle of attack leaves at least one opening over or under the blades. Strength easily countered by blows to the joints. Three. Side roll evasion. Style of combat leaves post attack opening on the hand holding the fan's chain. Attack leaves opening of exactly 1.2 seconds. Usable opening found, ending trance.'

He snapped out of it, all of his new found knowledge retained in his mind as the trance rapidly left him just in time to avoid another strike.

The fan sliced at the ground beneath him as he jumped up, an overhead axe kick slamming straight into the chain-holding arm, crushing the hand and releasing it's grip on the weapon that immediately flew away, slicing through one of the walls.

Relentless, he continued his assault with a spin kick from his landing, cutting the corpse off at the shins, and dropping it to the earth and ending the fight with a final, chakra empowered chop through the neck, decapitating the body. Immediately, he jumped back, and as expected, the familiar sizzle once more accompanied the explosion of the corpse.

"Great... just great." he mumbled, as he rolled away, avoiding even more kunai, this time joined in with shuriken and senbon needles

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"Ino!" Asuma shouted, cutting through yet another corpse, and rolling away just in time to avoid being blasted by the subsequent explosion. Ino wasn't as lucky.

She barely clung to her consciousness, but she still had enough fight in her to protect Shikamaru's unconscious body. The barrier had been broken at some point

"I can't hold them off much longer!" she shouted back, kicking off one of the corpses. Now she deeply regretted not taking the time to learn more elemental jutsus, as she had nothing in her arsenal that could kill the things that slowly, but surely advanced. Invading one's mind was quite useless if the mind was dead to begin with, and her added knowledge of poisons and anatomy was almost useless.

She slashed, and slashed and kept slashing, but the damage was minimal. A few cut tendons and fingers at best, and a number of wounds that should have been lethal a dozen times over before she finally understood it was pointless. But it keep them at bay, and away from Shikamaru's body. Finally, Asuma managed to slash through his own opponents, the trail of wind chakra going through them like a hot knife through butter.

"Finally." Ino breathed a sigh of relief, dropping to her knees after Asuma had cut through the last of the corpses, kicking them away before they exploded.

"You okay Ino? How's Shikamaru?" Asuma asked, still panting from the fight. There were six corpses attacking them in total, all were dead now. He didn't see them coming, he didn't hear them coming, but by god, he smelled them coming. The smell of guts, blood and putrid flesh was hard to miss.

While the movements were jerky, and somewhat under what they would have done while alive, the corpse-ninja were impressive. He noticed, however, that none of them used any ninjutsu, or genjutsu, or pretty much anything apart from raw chakra enhancement. For some reason, these things reminded him of the puppets Suna's ninja were fond of using. But there were no strings, no presence guiding them. He would have noticed, sooner or later. So the question remained. How?

Irate and tired, he knelt down to pick up Shikamaru's body, and helped Ino up. He had to get back to the others. Hopefully, they would still be safe.

"Look on the bright side Ino."Asuma commented as the two of them walked

"There's a bright side to thing?" Ino loudly wondered.

"Yep. Mission rank increase means payment increase, which brings us to..." he trailed off, waiting for Ino to fill in the blank.

"SHOPPING!" Ino nearly squealed with happiness, the pain temporarily forgotten in the euphoria of planning her shopping day once she got home. Asuma shook his head, while noticing that Shikamaru twitched at the noise, even unconscious.

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"Any ideas?" Chouji asked curiously as Naruto kept studying one of the still whole corpses.

"A few. Nothing conclusive yet, though." the blond responded. They were lucky, he knew that much, as Mikase and Chouji had somehow managed to disrupt the exploding tags hidden beneath the corpse-ninja's clothing before they went off.

"Well there has to be something." Mikase muttered "Corpses don't just get up and walk about."

"Chouji-san, help me out here for a moment." he spoke, putting the male corpse he was studying into a sitting position. Quietly, Chouji held the corpse while Naruto took one of the nearby kunai and slashed through the clothes, revealing the skin on his back. To his growing concern, there was something there.

"What to make of this?" he quietly asked no one in particular as he studied the three pieces of paper that seemed to have been stitched to the corpses back. One was an exploding tag, that had been cut straight through, but the other two were completely foreign to him. Strange symbols which only barely resembled conventional seals he had seen so far, the work of a master, no doubt. And while he didn't know what exactly they did, he could guess at their purpose easily enough. It was after all, obvious. But the how, that was the issue here.

It was no easy thing to make a corpse move, he knew that much from his studies. After about three hours after death, without special substances, the body entered a state of rigor mortis, meaning that it would be impossible to make the fine manipulations needed for fighting like this, and by the time it completely relaxed, the nerves were irrevocably degraded, making any attempts at such control impossible.

The notion of puppetry had occurred to him, however, even with that, the bodies would have needed a lot of working over to function like that. And here, he could see no cuts anywhere. So what the hell did those seals do exactly? And better yet... why wasn't there a second backup for the exploding tags? Someone smart enough to leave a way to destroy the evidence should have thought of at least one more backup plan to destroy them... or maybe he wasn't looking at it from the right direction. No answers.

Why was this fort attacked in the first place? While important, it wasn't the only passage between the two regions of the country, in fact there were more than a few that would have been a better choice if someone wanted to move covertly. Then, after ruining it, to leave behind something that was obviously a trap...

'Not enough information to make a sounds judgment' he thought. And it was true, his knowledge didn't extend to politics and to the various groups that would cause something like this. He read the Bingo books occasionally, and listened to rumors, but that was mostly for his concern about the Akatsuki coming after him.

Still, he could tell a few facts. There was likely more than one attacker if the traces were any indication, as very few people in the world could use strength of such level that breaking in a ton heavy wooden gate is easy, masterfully use fire and wind jutsu, and finally sealing of such level. He sighed in annoyance. Why just once couldn't things be nice, clean and simple?

"Hey what's wrong Naruto-san? We're alive, aren't we?" Chouji asked. He was already somewhat relieved that they had survived.

"Yes... that's true I suppose." he answered calmly. "However, we still know nothing about those who did this, how they did it nor why they did it."

"I...see." Chouji near instantly deflated.

"Don't worry Chouji-san. I may not be a shinobi of your village, but Konoha holds a number of people dear to me. So does Suna, and I'd hate for any of them to come to harm needlessly. So, we'll get to the bottom of this, one way or another." he comforted the younger teen with a hand on his shoulder. Even if he had no clue just how they were going to do that.

"He's right, you know Chouji. We do have to get to the bottom of this." Asuma suddenly announced his return, carefully putting Shikamaru on the ground. "One of the Daimyo's bases should be on the other side of this pass, if it hasn't been attacked as well. We need to inform both the Kazekage and Daimyo, not to mention the Hokage as well."

"Wise. That way we're left cleared of any doubts." Mikase stated "And we'll need help with these... things" he added, her distaste at the corpses very obvious. It didn't help that the traveling kimono she was wearing was now stained with their blood, much like Naruto was.

"Well, we can't stay here anyway." Ino added her opinion. "We should tend to the wounds and leave."

Asuma silently nodded, and proceeded to look into Shikamaru's wounds, while Naruto did the same for Ino, Chouji and Mikase. He was no professional healer, but he could mend minor wounds. Fortunately, they were mostly unscathed physically, even if they were slightly shocked by fighting those things. He himself wasn't much better.

His bag was still in good condition, thankfully. He had thrown it aside when they first got here, not expecting to need it for a while. He was glad he did so though, because otherwise, it would have been destroyed. He even had a spare set of clothes inside. He had a number of thoughts running through his head as he pulled out the sealed cloak, though the most urgent ones concerned getting to safety soon. Staying out here was tempting the vultures.

Carefully, he had removed the seal tags from all of the corpses, for later study. Even if he couldn't figure it out, he knew to people who likely could. Though that would have to wait for a while.

Within fifteen minutes, they were ready, and Shikamaru was up, even though he thought they were pulling his leg with the zombies. Quietly, they moved forward through the pass, hoping that the next place they encountered had living people.

"What do you think of it?" Asuma's question interrupted his thougts

"I think that the people who did this were quite powerful. But I can't draw any conclusions yet. Things are too unclear." Naruto responded.

"True. Any ideas about those seal papers you took from the corpses? It doesn't take a master of seals to figure out they were behind this" the older man muttered, taking a long drag from a badly needed cigar. Even if he didn't show it, he was shaken up a bit by the encounter. It was all nice saying you weren't afraid of anything, but one look into those dead, glass eyes was enough to send shivers up his spine.

"Nothing beyond what you already said. Though I believe that Jiraya might know more. I"ll send them to him as soon as we make a break."

Author's notes:

If you're wondering why Ino looked like a damsel in distress here, it was because these were the worst possible opponents for her. Anything even remotely human with a human brain and anatomy, she can handle, but zombies are somewhat... beyond her.

Most of the monkish techniques were made thanks to a little research done by yours truly. If you want to know more, go do a little research yourself, as I hardly intent to serve everything sliced, diced and cooked to ya. Only new, original techniques/jutsus/abilities are described here. I don't want to take up too much space. Well, more than I already did.

Anyway, as a small tip, I've taken the Japanese names where they existed. You'll know what I mean when you find it.

Earth Release: Dome Barrier Wall

Type: Ninjutsu/Earth

Ranking: C -Rank

Range: Reach of hands

Effects and Description

By manipulating earth chakra, this jutsu turns the ground around the user into a semicircular dome around him or herself, used to ward off attacks for a while. The size of the dome, and it's strength depends on the amount of chakra used and the skill of the user.

Gift of the Hermit Group

Type: Unique Chakra

Ranking: None

Range: None

Effects and Description:

A special form of chakra similar to Natural chakra used solely by the monks of the seven great monasteries. Alone, it has no special properties that can be used, but it allows it's wielders to utilize a number of special abilities. Among shinobi, only Asuma Sarutobi has a degree of skill with it, and even he doesn't know enough to teach another.

It requires years (four at least) of dedicated, daily training to unlock and harness.

Eye of Benzaiten

Type: Combat Meditation Technique

Ranking: Undecided (around B rank by apparent difficulty)

Range: Personal/Self

Duration: up to 5 seconds (less than 5 means less information)

Special note:requires the Gift of the Hermit Group to perform

Effects and Description:

By temporarily sacrificing sensory input from everything but the one eye, and stopping every thought but those dedicated to analyzing the opponent through a trained form of combat meditation, the user is capable of discerning any visible weakness in the enemy's body, movement or form. During the five seconds it lasts, the body is vulnerable due to the lack of all other senses, however, the disruption in chakra flow necessary to achieve the state renders the user temporarily immune to visual genjutsu, and the increase in mental resources and reaction time due to the effects of chakra drastically increase defensive capabilities, but this is offset by the drop in sensory capabilities. In other words, if you can see it, you can stop it, otherwise, you might as well be dead.

Crumbling Lotus

Type: Martial Art / Fist technique

Ranking: C to high C depending on the striking point

Range: Hand-to-hand

Effects and Description:

A punch attack that relies on dealing multiple hits in rapid succession with one blow by landing the first hit with the fingertips, the second with the knuckles in a half-bent fist, and the last with a full fist, using both arms to attack..

The attack itself can't kill unless it strikes a critical area such as the neck, however, a strike to an unprotected stomach or the solar plexus will temporarily stun the victim.

At least three years of conventional training are required to strengthen the hands and fingers so that they wouldn't brake from the blow.

Crumbling White Lotus

Type: Martial Art / Fist Assassination Technique

Ranking: High B to low A

Range: Hand-to-hand

Effects and Description:

An enhancement of the classical Crumbling Lotus that works by channeling excessive amounts of chakra into each of the six strikes dealt by the two hands, the first two piercing through any steeling the victim may have attempted(muscle reinforcement of any sort to lessen the strength of blows), the second two destroying whatever muscle was left in the way, while the final pair of blows then wreaked havoc on the internal organs.

Use of this ability is considered oath breaking for monks except under one of two condition:

1. Last resort to preserve self or others

2. To crush a life that would have disrupted others greatly

This skill is never used outside of mortal combat as any hit to the torso is in nine out of ten cases lethal. A hit to the head is lethal regardless of the number of blows landing successfully.

Telescopic spikes

Type : Weapon/Tool

User: Mikase Shijimi

Description:

A pair of black metal cylinders that extend into a meter long spike each. Alone they are pretty much harmless compared to other weapons, but if poisoned, or if used in combination with the Flying Swallow, they become lethal.