Naruto In The Apocalypse

Chapter 29

The house was silent for a while as she watched the streets through the window. There was a shuffle behind her and she quickly turned, seeing nothing. Suigetsu was slowly waking up, confused why there was a head of red in his face.

When he realized it was Karin, he merely sighed, not in the mood to freak out about it. Slowly, he tried to remove her hands from his shirt, but her grip only tightened.
"Come on, Karin, let go," Suigetsu whispered.

After a few moments, he gave up, settling back down, sighing loudly. Hinata wanted to giggle, but stopped herself before she could, she didn't want to anger Suigetsu. Minutes later, she could hear shuffling once more, but she didn't move to see who had been moving. It wasn't long after that Suigetsu joined her, sitting in front of her, completely silent.

Naruto stumbled tiredly through the woods, moving to the location that he had pointed out to Hinata on the note. There was an abandoned tree house in the woods near their homes that was quite tricky to find. He would go out everyday to look for them, but right now, he needed sleep.

Naruto tripped on a tree root, but managed to catch himself before he fell and broke his face. Naruto sighed in great relief once he spotted the tree house. It was built extremely high off of the ground, which was unusual for a tree house, but he wasn't complaining.

The tree was around a hundred years old, and was slightly hard to climb, but practice makes perfect, or so they say. Naruto gripped the tree and with some difficulty, managed to pull himself higher and higher until he finally reached the floor of the tree house. Naruto pulled himself up with a long grunt, falling onto his back, panting loudly from the exertion.

They were walking slowly through a deserted street, Suigetsu complaining about the heat all the way. Karin would usually punch him over the head by now, screaming at him to shut up, but she was unusually quiet ever since Sasuke had yelled at them two days ago.

When they all had woken up, Juugo had suggested they stay at that house and recover from their exhaustion. Sasuke had wanted to argue, but Hinata had agreed with Juugo, as well as Karin and Suigetsu, so they had stayed two days longer before finally leaving.

Karin was still bothered by what Sasuke had said to her and was seriously reconsidering her attraction to him. Sasuke's thoughts were on to much darker places. What would happen if Naruto was already dead? What if Hinata got bit and he had to kill her, like he had to do with Itachi? What if-

"Sasuke, let's stop for a while, we've been walking in this heat nearly all day," Jūgo said as he stooped walking.
"Alright," Sasuke said with a firm nod.

Hinata pointed to an abandoned shop and they all headed for it. As they entered, Sasuke and Juugo sat about blocking the entrance as Karin, Hinata and Suigetsu started to wander about the shop.

The shop held many things, from snacks, to a few pieces of clothing, to stationary. Hinata walked around the counter, looking over the paper scattered about, pictures drawn on them.

Karin walked over to the clothes, looking for something new to replace her already bloody and sweaty clothes, looking for something lighter. Suigetsu, on the other hand, went straight to the refrigerators to look for something to drink.

He ripped open one of the doors and started to down a bottle of water when he noticed a piece of paper stuck to a refrigerator door two doors down from the one he had opened.

Suigetsu plucked it off, trying to read the unknown language, but noticed a name at the bottom of the paper. Slowly, he walked back to the front, all the while staring at the paper, trying to decipher the words.

"Hey, uhm, Hinata?" He asked, grabbing the girls attention.
She looked up, as well as Sasuke, and noticed the paper in his hand.
"Was your friend's name by any chance Naruto?" He asked, a brow rose as he stared at the paper.

Sasuke and Hinata glanced at each other before running towards him, Sasuke ripping the paper out of his hand.
"I'll take that as a yes. Did he ever learn to write or spell? God," Suigetsu muttered as he stepped back.

"It's definitely his handwriting, but I don't understand what it's saying?" Sasuke said, handing the paper to Hinata as she started to read it, instantly decoding the note and reading the note aloud.

Hinata

I hope you can understand this note, I still remember how to write in our language that we made up when we were younger. I remember how we used to annoy Neji, talking in our own language, it was so much fun. I wrote this to tell you that I'm okay and I really hope your okay, too.

Please tell me Sasuke is okay, and that he has been taking care of you? If not, then I'm kicking him in the balls. Anyway, I am going to be waiting at that tree house we found with Shikamaru and Choji, do you remember? I'm sure you will. Please, be careful.

If you do find me and I'm not alive anymore, please know that I love you, and that I'm sorry. Maybe it's for the better to die? I mean, we've lost everyone already, heck, I don't even know if you will ever get to read this note, or actually, letter.

I don't even know if Sasuke is alive anymore. But if you are, please, I beg you, just hold on, and meet me here. I think I already know how we can survive, though this is really no life to live, is it? Anyway, I'll hopefully see you guys soon.

Love

Naruto

Hinata traced the water marks on the paper, knowing that Naruto had been crying as he wrote her this letter, a letter he wasn't sure would ever be read. Hinata felt her own tears fall, joining Naruto's on the paper. It broke her heart how he seemed to have lost hope entirely.

He wasn't sure whether she, or Sasuke, was still alive. What would have happened if it was just Sasuke? If he had found the note, felt hope at seeing Naruto's name at the bottom, but couldn't understand a word that was written?

Hinata shuddered to think what would have happened. She shudders to think how Naruto must be now, all hopeless and broken. Naruto was the reincarnation of hope and to have him lose hope, made her lose it, as well. She turned and gave Sasuke a sad look.

Sasuke, too, was shocked at the contents of the letter. His dark thoughts returned to him. If they found Naruto, but he was, in fact, dead, or worse, one of those things, will he be able to do the right thing and kill his best friend?

Sasuke could still feel the gun, tugged into the waist of his pants, covered by his shirt. If the time came, will he be able to use it again? He knew, deep down, that at some point, he probably would have to. Sasuke took a deep breath, closing his eyes in order to gather himself again.

As he opened his eyes, he noticed Hinata turn to look at him, her eyes still watery and cheeks stained with tears. He tried his hardest to give her a reassuring look, but it didn't turn out like he had hoped. He was thankful to Suigetsu, Karin and Juugo, who stood by their sides, silent and reassuring.