"Yeah, gotcha!" agreed Naruto, pumping a fist.
"Sakura, Sasuke, neither of you can pull off the solid-copy thing, right?" asked Omar.
"No," said Sasuke, reluctantly.
"No," admitted Sakura.
"Sasuke could work as a sniper from the blimp," continued Omar. "You've got phenomenal aim for not a lot of experience with rifles. "
"Hn," indicated Sasuke.
"Was that an agreement or an argument?" asked Omar.
"Agreement," indicated Sasuke.
"What about me?" asked Sakura.
"I'd prefer you stay here," said Omar. "Mel, I know you like your Glock - but from what I've seen the zombies would take three or four shots to take down from that."
Michelle nodded.
"Douglas, you got a large weapon you're comfortable with?" asked Omar.
"AR-15," said the large man. "We got plenty of ammo. Decent range."
"Me, Naruto, Douglas," said Omar. "I pilot. Sasuke and Douglas keep watch and try to pick off anything approaching. Naruto uses his clones to scope out the situation and, if possible, to start loading up the blimp."
"You are NOT going to load the blimp up with instant ramen," Sakura warned Naruto.
"A few cases at most," seconded Omar. "I'll go over the walkie-talkies and how to use them. That way you can check on what items you're grabbing before you go hauling them out. Need one more - someone more familiar with what we need than Naruto is. Following Naruto's copies and looking for stuff on the list. Any volunteers?"
"Uhm."
"Not you, Hinata. I've got something else I want you to consider doing."
"Winds are a bit heavy today," noted Omar as they approached the site.
"Not seeing any sign of zombies," said Sasuke, wearing the same headset as the others. With the doors open, the drone of the engines would overwhelm any attempt at hearing without ear protection.
"Clear this side too," said Douglas.
Movement. "Correction," said Sasuke. "One zombie. Approaching from canal to the East."
"See him. Naked guy breaking into a run chasing us. Put a shot in front of him. If he breaks off, we just caught him with his pants down. If he doesn't, zombie or crazy."
Sasuke lined up a shot. Fired. Noted the lack of reaction from the runner. Re-aimed. Fired. The zombie staggered but didn't drop. A third shot took him down.
"Good shooting. We're moving, they were moving, but you managed to hit him twice," said Omar.
"Yes," said Sasuke, deeming that he was expected to make a verbal response.
"Almost there," said Omar. "Looks like the two nearest buildings burned down. Good thing there's enough space between them that the center didn't get hit."
"Why do you suppose they burned down?" asked Sasuke.
"Could be as simple as coffee pots being left on or something," said Omar. "Naruto, you ready?"
"Ready!" announced Naruto. "Just a bit lower though?"
Sasuke waited until Naruto was at the door before kicking out. "We're low enough."
"DAMNIT, SASUKE YOU BASTARD!" yelled Naruto as he headed towards the ground. "Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
"I hope you're not going to do that to me," said Andrea.
"Sasuke. You could have waited until we touched down," said Omar. "As it is, his headphones are dangling beneath the blimp. Reel 'em in."
"Forty Naruto are now entering the building," said Douglas. "Approximately. Three remaining at landing site."
"No," said Sasuke, answering Andrea's question.
There were doors everywhere, big doors. Most of them had trucks backed up, blocking them off. Some were closed, rolled down and locked in place. There were three places where the swarm of clones briefly bottlenecked as they could enter the building freely.
The temperature was HOT. Hot as Suna, not that he'd been there. Wasn't any cooler inside the building either.
"Get outta the road!" complained a Naruto to the other Naruto standing around.
"Idiot. We gotta let our eyes adjust," complained one of the Naruto standing around.
"Spread out," ordered another Naruto. "Go through the place, find zombies, take 'em down."
"We know the plan," complained another Naruto.
"Let's go!" said a group of Naruto, drawing kunai and flipping it around in their hands before charging off into the shadows.
"AH! THERE!" Pause. "Oh. Plastic."
"Don't stab without knowing what you're stabbin' dummy."
"Boxes and boxes and boxes of boxes," complained another clone. "Too dark in here to read what's on the label."
"Found the lights!"
Click! Click CLICK!
"Whoa," said a Naruto on top of a stack of boxes. "That's LOTS better."
Groannnnnnnnnnnnnnn!
"That doesn't sound good," said a Naruto in the silence following that.
GROANNNNNNNNNNNN! came a sound from many throats.
"That sounds worse," stated a Naruto. "Movement!"
"Hinata? How did you get up there?" asked Sakura, staring at the girl now apparently clinging to the side of a large vehicle without a rope or other device.
"Ah. I'm sorry. I was using the 'tree walking' technique," apologized Hinata.
"'Tree walking'?" asked Sakura.
Hinata slid back down to the ground. "It's a basic chakra control exercise. My family uses that and 'water walking' to teach precise control."
"So what were you doing up there?" asked Sakura.
"Omar-san asked me to try and pick the locks on these 'arrvee' vehicles. He thought that my Byakugan could see the mechanisms inside and then manipulate them."
"Sounds good," admitted Sakura.
"Sakura-san. Locks don't have chakra networks. I can't see the mechanisms clearly enough to pick them. Possibly my cousin Neji could." Hinata shook her head. "I thought I'd go to the roof and see if there's another way in."
Sakura watched as Hinata began going back up the outer wall of the wheeled vehicle. "Do you suppose I could learn to do that?"
"WHY DO THEY HAVE GUNS THAT FIRE FOAM BULLETS?!"
"WHY DO THEY HAVE NAKED GIRL ZOMBIES?!"
"WHY DID THEY HAVE TO EAT ALL THE RAMEN?!"
Sasuke raised an eyebrow before thumbing the walkie-talkie. "Why are you wasting time?"
"WHY IS THERE A LOCK ON THE DOOR?!"
"I am NOT going in there until it's clear," said Andrea.
"Wasn't going to suggest it," said Sasuke.
Naruto created another wave of clones who shouted a battlecry as they charged the building.
"AGH! I GOT ZOMBIE SPATTER ALL OVER ME!"
"So? Dispel."
"Oh. Right."
"Your friend has a very useful skill, but he's a bit of an idiot, isn't he?" asked Andrea.
"NOT my friend," stated Sasuke.
He'd found a lot of not-weapons. But then one clone had found a box of twelve Gerber Gator Machetes. At which point he'd spent a lot less time trying to use kunai and shuriken (both of which didn't seem to faze a zombie much) and more time using what little he knew of kenjutsu. Which wasn't much, but which was MUCH more effective.
"TRY THIS! HA!"
And then one in Sporting Goods noticed an opened box. An opened box of axes.
He'd be sick later. Right now he was running on pure adrenaline and trying not to think of these as human beings. He knew what Sakura had been saying about permanent brain damage, mindlessly aggressive, human only in a purely biological sense. He also had the whole being-attacked-panic going for him. Which meant that stripping off the cover and then flailing away with an axe was perfectly acceptable.
Except that quite suddenly there were no more of them. A few hewed-apart zombies bleeding out on the floor with limbs that were no longer capable of moving them along - that was the last of them. And a single finishing blow for each took care of that problem.
Naruto held up his walkie-talkie as the last clone dispelled. "That's it. That's the last one. Little messy though. Excuse me."
Sasuke sneered down at Naruto, who was busy throwing up and choking. What kind of ninja let a little death bother him?
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(Posted Tue, 28 Jul 2015 16:23)
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