Chapter 15 - Fighting as a team

Shikamaru stood in the middle of the road with his mouth wide open, gazing at the sky dyed in red. He hurried to the next house and forced his way in. Shikamaru started breathing heavily as he entered one house after another.

Thankfully, there were no zombies near the spawn point. 

After a couple of houses, Chōji caught Shikamaru and held him down. 

Sometime, the smartest individuals are the one who reject the most illogical things. Thinking logically and connecting chains are what they do the, best but when these chains are broken, disrupted and cracked, it leads to the current state.

"What is going on?" Shikamaru looked at the red moon and rubbed his thighs vigorously.

"Don't think too much." Raito activated the '[Area Sense]' of '[Chakra Sense]' and found the nearest zombie.

"We should-" Raito was confused as he looked behind. 

Hinata had her Byakugan activated, and Ino, in a rat hand seal with her eyes closed. The both of them, using sensor skills of their own, scouting the area for the danger.

"Just what are these?" Ino opened her eyes as shiver ran down her spine, "Eww, disgusting."

"They have some kind of chakra like thing." Ino frowned. "I don't know."

"There are less than twenty in four blocks." Hinata let out a breath and added, "They are just like… other humans but…"

"They are not." Raito sighed and helped Shikamaru stand. "They are just monsters, not human."

He looked at Shikamaru and patted his shoulder. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," Shikamaru regained control as he looked at Ino and Chōji, who remained as calm as cucumber. "Yeah,"

In the world of ninjas, there are far weirder, more dangerous and crazier things that one couldn't imagine. However, it was normal for these kids of 12 or 13 to react like that because, in fact, they weren't really ninjas at the moment.

Raito took out a kunai and looked at everyone. "These monsters are called 'zombies'. They are made up of black gasses. So, when you kill them, they release black gas."

Raito glanced at Naruto, then continued. "But when you kill a hundred or more, a bigger monster comes."

"What happens when you kill that big monster?" Shikamaru asked, taking out his own weapons.

"We go out." Raito replied simply. 

Everyone looked at one another and the two girls started telling what they saw on the other side.

"These monsters cannot see you until you make a noise. Once you make a noise, it seems they can sense you." Raito informed.

Walking to the nearest zombie, Shikamaru threw a stone and did a few experiments.

"That's weird," Shikamaru went into deep thought. 

"Naruto can easily kill these monsters in about a few hours. The only problem is the searching which takes a long time." 

Shikamaru opened his eyes and looked at Chōji, making eye signals. Chōji nodded and stood beside Shikamaru.

"Just think of them as a moving practice dummy." Raito passed the food boxes and said. "If you think you can't handle them, then just run."

"No way, that's not gonna happen." Naruto grabbed the closest person to him, Hinata and dashed off in a direction.

"Let's go, Raito." Ino took command as she looked at Shikamaru and Chōji. "We will get back here."

"Let's go, Chōji."

Ino turned head and looked at a spot. "It should be right here." 

At the end of the street, there it was: a hideous monster, grayish green skin and with a limp.

"I am gonna to finish this quickly." Ino took out her kunai and gripped it with both hands. After a deep breath in and a deep breath out, she aimed to finish this and return to her everyday routine.

Raito tapped Ino's back and said, "I'll show you, okay?"

Ino paused for a moment, her eyes veering away from the zombie to Raito, and then she nodded.

Raito dropped down, reaching the zombie's back. Taking out a kunai, he swiftly plunged it into the zombie's heart. That dropped its HP to half.

Taking the kunai back, Raito slashed a couple of times to zombie's neck.

[You have gained 50 Exp.]

The zombie turned into black gas and dissipated.

"It just disappeared." Ino jumped down and looked around.

"You try." Raito said, pointing at the zombie not far away, then stood behind Ino. "It's just like the training at the academy."

"This time… it's a moving and attacking one." 

Ino was still looking at the zombie at the other street, but her hands were shaking, "Easy for you to say."

Raito paused for a bit and said, "Remember the bunny you had to kill at the clan's ground on your tenth birthday." 

"White fur, red eyes, long ears, short tail."

"I liked that one." This had a stronger tone to it, slight twitches on her face.

"Just like that, you can do it to this thing too. These are not even real."

"I don't care." Ino jumped towards the zombie and plunged the kunai deep into the back of the chest region. However, the zombie reacted faster as it swung his arm backside. The force was enough to throw Ino a couple of meter back.

"That would hurt." Raito appeared behind Ino and grabbed her.

Enduring the pain, Ino stood up and pushed Raito, "Don't… help". 

With that, she charged forward, grabbed a rock and threw it towards the zombie. While the zombie was distracted with the stone, Ino kick the zombie's back and it happened again. The zombie reacted and threw her back.

"Naruto could do it faster, you know." Raito shouted, grabbing zombie's attention for a second.

"Shut it." Ino pushed on the wall, stood up, then looked at the bruise on her arm. 

Being able to get the kunai back was the biggest advantage.

Grabbing whatever she could find, Ino looked at the zombie's face. With a leap forward, Ino threw the brick towards the zombie's face. Then when the zombie swung, she made a huge cut with the kunai, nearly decapitating its head off.

After a bit of struggle, the zombie turned into black smoke and dissipated.

"I did it. I finally did it." Ino yelled with both here hand in the air. 

After a few more turns, Ino was getting better and there was clear improvement. 

Shikamaru and Chōji also killed a couple of zombies, easily with their prowess combined. Then, they later on tried killing zombie individually. For Chōji, it was a breeze, but for Shikamaru, he took quite some time.

The most difficult was Hinata. She was holding onto the kunai given to her. Naruto did a lot of talking and showing her a few examples then convincing her, which took a lot of time. Nevertheless, in the end, she was finally able to do it. 

Seeing the zombies turning into black smoke made Hinata more convinced.

Raito was looking at them from the rooftop. Sometimes it was wow, and sometimes it was envy. 

Sometime later, Shikamaru and Chōji were first to return.

"Wow Shika, I didn't think that I would see the day you ever wanna do some hard work." Raito teased, handing him a bottle.

"These zombies are pretty stupid, and well, I don't want to be a pain in the ass like Ino." Shikamaru groaned after drinking water. "But still moving so much is exhausting." 

"Uh, Shika, you just dug yourself a big hole." Raito said, slowly backing off with a smile.

Turning around, Shikamaru saw Ino, clad in the fire, glaring at him.

"SHI,KA,MA,RU!" Ino roared, gnashing her teeth, then threw a kunai, nearly turning Shikamaru into an actual porcupine.

"Ino here also killed a few dozen of those zombies, all alone." Raito confessed while calming Ino.

Hearing that, Ino made a small victory pose.

Shikamaru gave a stiff smile at the end.

"So Ino, Shika, Chōji, why didn't you use any of your clan techniques?" Raito asked after a bit of hesitation.

"Stupid." Ino pointed at Raito with a smug smile on her face. "Our clan techniques take quite a long time to execute. First, it is time wasting." 

"And it's not worth wasting chakra when they are that weak." Shikamaru answered and continued.

"I can use 'Shadow Paralysis,' where I manipulate shadows and link it with someone else's, paralyzing their movements. If I did it on a group or someone who is way stronger than me, they can just break my technique," Shikamaru explained with a shrug. "It means that while I am good at control, I am not so good at attack right now."

"My jutsu is much more complicated, and I think you already know about it. It is 'Mind Transfer.' I can switch my consciousness into someone else's body and control it," Ino explained with a small smile. "While I can easily do it here, it's not worth it."

"I can use "Expansion" technique but not as good as my dad," Chōji opened his box and started eating.

Looking at the group, Raito surrendered and joined in. "This jutsu… I do not even know what this is but it helps me come to this place, one is blank with nothing and another is here."

'This gift, thank you…'

"Oi, everyone. Sorry, we are late." Naruto jumped in, with Hinata in tow.

"So, how was the result?" Raito asked, looking at Naruto and Hinata.

"It was awesome. At first, Hinata was not into it but after, she started attacking those monsters. After one, she destroyed a whole lot of them." Naruto replied excitedly with all kinds of hand gestures whereas Hinata was all blood red. 

"Shikamaru, Chōji, Ino, and Hinata roughly destroyed nearly 100 of those zombies, but the bigger one has still not come." Raito ignored Naruto's fervent ramblings and started calculating then he used his '[Chakra Sense]' but could not find any zombies nearby. 

"Raito, Hinata can easily find those zombies with her…" 

Raito sighed then turned to others with hand covering his face. 

He glanced at Hinata then said in a soft voice. "Byakugan," 

"You see why I am worried about him." 

After a bit of shuffling, Hinata activated her 'Byakugan' and started searching. A while passed before she found them all.

With her guidance, they quickly defeated the remaining zombies.

When the last zombie disappeared in smoke, the sky darkened as black smoke started leaking from the ground and converged, making a taller zombie at the end. 

"Guys, the big one is here." Naruto activated his chakra, ready to fight. 

"Ino, Chōji, let's try basic combo." Shikamaru stood in position, Chōji and Ino stood just behind Shikamaru.

"Shadow Paralysis," Shikamaru's shadow latched onto the zombie, restricting it from movement. However, the difference in body size and strength was making it difficult to hold zombie in position. "Quick!"

"Mind transfer," After Ino made the special square-shaped hand seal, then she fell to the ground but was quickly caught by Chōji.

"This big guy is really strong but is also slow and feels heavy." Ino was in full control of the giant zombie and started making a different movement. 

"Ino, get ready," Shikamaru shouted.

"Partial Expansion Technique," Chōji arm extended and it looked amazingly huge. A swing back, and it destroyed a few things here and there. Clenching his hand, Chōji gave a nod.

Ino, inside the zombie's body, tipped on her toes and fell, facing towards Chōji.

"Now, Ino." Shikamaru shouted again as Chōji punched forward.

"Ah," Ino woke up, gently massaging her temples. "I definitely need more training."

Chōji's oversized hand struck the zombie's head, throwing it out of its path to the houses by the side.

Bang

Zombie S1 Lvl 20

HP 3000/5000

MP 250/250

STR 70

VIT 30

DEX 10

INT 5

WIS 10

LUK 0

Description: Zombie S1 is an undead, a variation of the normal zombie created through the combination of a hundred zombies. It possesses enormous power and defense.

Kill to gain: 10,000 Exp, Superior Healing Gem, and Money

Random Drop: Skill Book

"2000 points of health." Raito looked at the health bar then Chōji in awe then at Shikamaru with some amusement. "I think it is the first time I saw Shikamaru shouting-"

The zombie got up with anger then roared.

Chōji returned to his original size and looked at the monster with serious face. "Next time, I-"

The zombie swung his huge hand towards Chōji but neither Shikamaru nor Ino were ready. They never thought that the big zombie would recover so quickly and attack so swiftly.

"Ha!"

Chōji felt light as he was pulled and thrown to the safety line. Hinata stood in front with his palms pushed forward, Byakugan flaring.

While Hinata was on defense, Naruto used his shadow clone technique to form a human wall in front of Hinata.

It all happened in a snap.

Then there was Raito, on top of a building, throwing a Fuma, aiming right at the zombie's hand. "[Throw]"

Roar!

The Fuma shuriken struck the zombie's hand, embedded in it, and stopped the attack.

"Naruto clones, shuriken. Naruto, Hinata, back out." 

On Raito's command, Naruto's wall of clone threw their shuriken and kunai, turning the zombie into a porcupine.

"Roll-roll-roll," Chōji rolled down the street and jumped with his gigantic hands. 

Roar!

The zombie roared in anger and grabbed the rubble around before throwing it towards Naruto clones. The rubbles easily destroyed Naruto clones but thankfully, Chōji was above all the rubble.

"Shadow Paralysis," When the zombie tried moving, Shikamaru used his shadows to bind it.

"Mountain Crusher," Chōji crushed the paralyzed zombie to the ground with his gigantic hands.

Looking at the big zombie from the top of the building, Raito was amazed to see the teamwork. While Ino and Shikamaru dealt no damage and Chōji was the one doing four-pointer damage, it could be seen that the three of them already had great synergy.

Entrapment, manipulation and destruction. The three complimented one another, covering for their own shortcoming and making themselves useful in a situation. 

Zombie S1 Lvl 20 

HP 800/5000 

Raito grabbed the Ninjato from the ground and channeled chakra.

Ninjato (Rare) (Enhanced)

Raito didn't hesitated any longer as he jumped down the building. While Chōji retreated because of his transient weakness, Raito dashed towards the zombie.

The zombie stood in his knees as he roared in anger. The sky above the monster looked somewhat dark as reddish gas started surrounding it. Opening his mouth wide, the gas entered the zombie, making it swell.

Raito stopped in his track and looked at the monster in shock, "This didn't happen before."

Naruto looked at zombie and shouted, "Everyone, run." Then he grabbed Hinata and dashed away.

Raito jumped on the side of the pole, pushed with chakra then ran back. 

"Chōji, hand," Raito pulled Chōji and grabbed him tightly then channeled his chakra.

[Chakra Control Exercise (Subset > Chakra Leap)]

Using half of his chakra, Raito flew with Chōji and easily crossed Naruto and Hinata couple.

After running a couple of blocks, suddenly there was a loud explosion, 'Bang' and the force created great wind, which pushed the young ninjas. Some rolled away and some were got planted on the walls.