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Last Man Standing	By : Sasunarufan13 Category: Naruto > General Views: 1191 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto nor make profit of it. Kishimoto owns it.

Chapter List
- 1-Last Man Standing
- 1
Author's note: As promised, here is Gaara's pov, situated in The Long Run. You don't necessarily have to have read "The Long Run" in order to follow this, I guess. Just prepare yourself for some heavy angst.
Warnings: Gaara's pov; Alternate universe; zombie apocalypse; main character death; character deaths; smidgen of Naruto's pov at the end; violence; blood; gore; injuries; grief; angst; mentioned child abuse; mentioned alcohol abuse; mentioned suicide in the past
Telling you to enjoy this fic seems rather morbid given the context ... Let's keep it at "I hope you won't dislike it too much"
Last Man Standing
Gaara got used to losing people at a very early age.
He was just ten minutes old when he lost his mother. She had started haemorrhaging and the doctors hadn't been able to save her. What should have been a happy day for the Sabaku family turned into one of grief when Temari and Kankuro had to say goodbye to their mother.
When Gaara was five years old, their uncle Yashamaru, the brother of their mother, killed himself by overdosing. The grief for his sister had eventually proven to be too much for him and one rainy day Gaara and Temari had found his cold dead body slumped in his armchair. Temari had become worried when their uncle hadn't shown up in a while and had taken Gaara with her, unwilling to leave him behind with their father. She had been quick to usher him out of the room once she'd realised what had happened, but it had been too late.
Gaara was almost twelve years old when their alcoholic, abusive father decided to fuck off to the gods knew where. For all the three siblings knew their old man was lying dead in a ditch somewhere, but they couldn't care less. His fists had always been rather loose ever since mother had died and neither sibling was interested in trying to find out where he had gone off to. Father's absence had naturally cut into their finances quite a lot, even if the bastard had been more drunk than sober the majority of the time, but Kankuro and Temari had managed to find work relatively quickly in spite of their young age.
They made it work, the three of them. Both Kankuro and Temari had forbidden Gaara from seeking out a job, insisting he just concentrated on school and on his best friend. Whenever things got a bit too rough, the bills piling up uncomfortably, the three of them found a seat at the Namikaze-Uzumaki table, Naruto's parents all too willing to feed the three siblings. What Gaara had always missed as a kid, the warmth and security and comfort of loving parents, he found in Kushina and Minato.
They were doing well on their own – and then the dead rose up and the world as they had known it went up in flames.
Gaara was used to losing people, but the rate at which they lost people when the dead started roaming, was enough to leave even the most hardened person adrift. The first one they lost was Gaara's older brother, Kankuro. What sounded as a stupid prank call at first filled Gaara with ice at the sound of absolute terror filling Kankuro's voice right before the call was cut off abruptly.
He did his best to not look at his brother's lifeless body, his throat and chest ripped apart, when he, Temari and Naruto collected knives and all the bolts they had at home before attempting to leave their neighbourhood safely. Some cars had smashed into each other, smoke billowing from the crashed hoods, and everywhere they looked they saw nothing but empty dead eyes, swaying bodies and outstretched, begging arms.
"Go on, get to Kushina and Minato, I'll be right behind you!" Temari urged them on, pushing them in the direction of the one single gap still left in the street.
"Wait, what are you going to do?" Naruto asked; a white knuckled grip around the biggest kitchen knife he'd found.
"I'm going to distract them, so go on," she replied, making a move towards the closest car that was still intact. "Rig the alarm so that will hopefully distract them."
"There are too many of them," Gaara muttered, at once realising the flaw in his sister's plan. Even if sound would distract them, the amount of apparently dead people stumbling into the street would overwhelm Temari immediately. There would be no time for her to escape.
His stomach plummeted at the look she gave him. Before he could say anything, do anything to stop her, she pulled him into a tight hug, pressing a wet kiss against his right temple.
"Take care of yourself and Naruto-kun, okay? I love you," she whispered; her voice thick and her eyes too wide, too shining when she pulled back.
"No, Temari, we can escape together!" Gaara hurried to say, grasping her coat firmly. "Don't do this, you don't have to! We can make it out together!"
"You've seen it too, otouto," she said softly before whirling around, stabbing a knife through the head of what used to be their old neighbour. "Now go!"
"Fuck!" Gaara swore and after one last look at Temari – his sister who'd taken care of him for as long as he could remember, who'd hugged him and taken care of his wounds, who'd teach him how to use the crossbow, who'd teased him and laughed with him, the sister he was going to lose the second the car alarm went off – he snatched Naruto's wrist, ignored his protest and ran away with him, dodging all the desperate arms and gaping mouths intent on taking bites out of them.
The alarm soon went off, the high pitched, shrill noise cutting through the air, making him wince, but it didn't miss its effect: every dead person turned towards the noise, shambling towards it as quickly as their dead legs allowed them to.
"Gaara, your sister!" Naruto brought out between laboured breaths as they kept dodging more and more undead people lumbering towards them.
Gaara clenched his jaw. "We have to keep going, Naruto. We have to find your parents."
Temari was the second one they lost not even one day into what would later be called the apocalypse.
From there it only grew worse. They started out with a relatively large group: Kushina; Minato; Naruto's godfather, Jiraiya; the elderly couple down Naruto's street; Naruto's neighbour Shion who'd only just moved into the town; their least favourite teacher Mizuki and three other families Gaara had never met before. They travelled in the caravan of Naruto's parents, Gaara following on the motorcycle he'd been working on before everything had gone to shit and four cars containing the others, crammed with as many supplies as they had been able to grab before the streets became too overrun. They had hoped that safety would come with big numbers even if some of them weren't in good condition anymore to defend because they either were elderly or still too young.
As it soon turned out only death came with high numbers. The old couple was the first one to perish when a night spent in an empty clothing store ended up with everyone having to run when a group of zombies grew so large they easily broke through the window. Unable to move quickly, two zombies managed to drag the elderly couple down before either of them could come to their aid. Shion followed not even two days later when trying to defend the two children of one of the families from a group of five zombies. The kids were killed in the same attack.
Mizuki got himself killed after getting into an argument with Minato about who'd be better suited to be the leader of their group. Minato hadn't even insisted on becoming the leader, but everyone aside from Mizuki had immediately sided with him, untrusting of the teacher who had insisted one too many time that they needed to get rid of the weak chinks in their armour. Enraged by the group's decision Mizuki had run away. They ended up learning his fate when they had been set to leave the town they had spent a week in, spotting his zombified body half slumped out of his car. His loss was the only one they didn't mourn at all.
One by one their group grew smaller and smaller until one day only Gaara, Naruto, Kushina and Minato were left. Jiraiya, the man considered larger than life itself, had sacrificed himself to give them a head start on the massive group of zombies which had been about to overrun their first real camp. Brave until the very end Jiraiya had remained there, shooting every zombie coming near him before ending it all with a giant explosion with whatever he'd managed to loot from the military basecamp.
They only pulled to a stop after four hours of nonstop driving, Gaara following on his bike, keeping an eye out for any possible herd following them. They parked behind a downtrodden farm and Gaara watched silently how the small family, the only family he still had left, stumbled out of the caravan, pale and bloodied and too weary of it all.
The second Naruto got out of the caravan, unusually quiet, Gaara went to him and grasped his hand. They had lost their entire group, yes, but so far the deaths hadn't been that personal. Jiraiya's death, however? He'd been Naruto's godfather, a near constant presence in his life whenever he'd return from abroad. If his death left Gaara already feeling shaken up, it had to be ten times worse for Naruto. Gaara had lost Temari and Kankuro, which hurt a goddamn lot even now months after it had happened, but he had experience with loss. Naruto hadn't lost anyone close to him – until today.
Naruto's chin wobbled, his eyes turning watery before he buried his face into Gaara's neck, slipping his hand out of Gaara's grip to hug him tightly instead. They were both covered in zombie guts, hadn't had a real clean day since this shit fest had started, but neither of them cared about that. Gaara clasped his arms around Naruto's waist in return, letting his best friend cry silently in the crook of his neck.
Kushina's face softened when her gaze landed on her son and she sank down on the step of the caravan with a weary sigh. She made a half-hearted attempt at wiping some blood away from her forehead before she glanced at her husband, who'd been staring empty at the horizon.
"What are we going to do?" she asked softly.
Around them birds were chirping cheerfully, mice scurrying around in the tall grass as if nothing was amiss. As if they hadn't just lost yet another person of their already small group.
"Check the farm, see if they got anything left that we can still use," Minato answered clipped; his hands resting on his hips. "We'll need to find a more secure place."
"Maybe we should try our luck in the country side?" she suggested hesitantly, rubbing her thighs anxiously. "I know that won't give us many supply sources then, but it might also be a lot quieter. A lot … emptier."
He was silent for a while, his gaze still trained at the horizon, before he finally looked away, glancing at her, then at the two boys still wrapped around each other. His face grew pinched, but he nodded. "We'll do that. Less people should mean less zombies. We'll check the map and we'll load everything we can find on our way there."
"All right," she said, relieved to have a plan again, and rose up. "Let me go grab the maps, see which place looks the most promising."
On his way back inside the caravan, Minato halted and rested his hand in Naruto's neck for a moment, giving it a soft squeeze. Blue eyes met green over blond hair and Gaara inclined his head the barest fraction in response to the unspoken question.
Once Minato was back inside the caravan, Gaara guided Naruto down on the ground, their backs against the vehicle; Gaara's crossbow resting next to him on the grass.
"You know, there were some people I pegged from the start that would make it," Naruto spoke out of the blue. His eyes were red-rimmed, the tip of his nose an equally cherry red, and his voice was rough, scratchy, but he was no longer crying. "I thought for sure Jiraiya would make it, I mean, the guy survived a goddamn blast in that rigged building, of course he would survive everything, you know?"
"Yeah, I know," Gaara said quietly. Jiraiya had been one of the quickest to acclimate himself to the new circumstances, even teaching them all kinds of ways they could use daggers and spears to defend themselves from the undead.
He had survived for so long, even at his age, that he'd seemed indestructible, untouchable.
Until today.
"Guess he would have made it if he hadn't sacrificed himself," Naruto went on in a whisper. He raised his legs, wrapped his arms around his knees.
Gaara shot him a glance. "He did it so we could have a chance."
"Yeah, I know … but …"
Naruto's head thumped against Gaara's shoulder, making the red haired boy look down at him. "Feels like out of us all, you'll be the last man standing, man," Naruto muttered.
Gaara frowned before he looked away, staring at the lone tree reaching barren branches high up in the sky. "Nah, we'll make it. All of us."
They had to. Gaara wasn't sure how much losses they could still handle.
Watching Kushina being pulled down by an unending squirming mass of the undead was horrifying, seeing Minato jump into the fray desperate to save his wife was painful, but seeing that empty look in Naruto's eyes …
Gaara snatched whatever bags he could get his hands on, which weren't many, strapped them on his bike before he grabbed Naruto and pushed him down onto the bike as well. He got behind the shellshocked blond and cranked down on the gas, hightailing it the fuck out of there. The caravan was a lost cause now, Kushina and Minato were dead, but they still had a chance. They were still alive, they had the bike, they would make it out of here!
He wasn't going to lose Naruto as well, goddamn it, he wasn't!
He had no idea how long they kept driving, couldn't even feel the rain streaming down on them, chilled to the bone as he had become already. All he knew was that they had to keep driving, putting as much distance between them and that cursed field as possible, until they found somewhere safe – even if that safety was only for one day. Just a few hours when they could rest, when they could gather their broken pieces once more, glue them together for the umpteenth time before they would decide where to go to next.
When the first morning rays broke apart the dark night sky, Gaara realised something had broken in his best friend as well. Naruto didn't even so much as twitch when Gaara finally pulled to a stop at a lonely house surrounded by nothing but empty fields. It wasn't the best option, but it would have to do for now.
"It's not much, but it'll give us time to rest," he muttered, removing the bags from the bike. One of them contained their stack of bolts at least and several daggers, which was something, together with two guns and some ammunition. This had to have been the bag Kushina had packed a week ago.
He swallowed at the thought of the woman he'd come to consider his mother and forced it away, not willing – not ready – to deal with her death yet. The two other bags contained two extra sets of clothes, some soap and some canned food. It was not even a tenth of what they had been able to stock up in the caravan, but they would have to make do for now.
"Naruto?" He stepped forwards when the blond haired boy made no move to show he'd heard him.
The dead look in Naruto's eyes turned his blood to ice. For one horrifying, heart-stopping moment he feared he'd been too late after all and somehow Naruto had got bitten during the fight. His fingers trembled when he reached out to check for a pulse, almost too scared to press them against Naruto's throat, afraid of what he might find – or not find.
But no, there was still a heartbeat. Somewhat sluggish or maybe that was just Gaara's fear talking, but it was still there. His heart was still beating, he was still alive. He was just …
Gaara swallowed, his throat protesting against the motion like there were shards of glass stuck inside. "Hey, it's going to be all right, okay?" he muttered, dumping the bags on the ground in favour of helping Naruto off the bike.
His friend let himself be manhandled and Gaara had the uncomfortable thought that this felt no better than playing with a doll.
"I'm not going to leave you, all right? I'm right here, I'm not going anywhere," Gaara said and guided him into the dingy hallway of the house.
He risked leaving Naruto in the corner of the hallway as he made a quick, but thorough check in all of the rooms, ensuring they wouldn't be surprised by yet another goddamn dead bastard intent on killing them. The house was clear, if incredibly dusty, and it was with some slight relief that Gaara brought Naruto upstairs, settling him in one of the bedrooms. The first floor wasn't exactly ideal, but if someone did happen to come into the house, the creaking staircase would warn them on time.
He only returned downstairs once, to hide the bike underneath a plastic sheet in the garage attached to the house before he grabbed their bags and made his way to the bedroom again.
Naruto was still in the same position he'd been left in: sitting straight up on the bed, his legs stretched out in front of him and his empty gaze staring at the opposite wall.
After dumping the bags on the floor Gaara crawled onto the bed as well, ignoring the way his wet clothes stuck uncomfortably against his skin. He dragged the moth eaten blanket over the both of them and tugged Naruto against his chest, letting his head rest against his chest so he could hear his heartbeat.
"We're going to be okay, you and me," Gaara whispered, clutching Naruto's shoulder tightly, paying no heed to the stinging sensation behind his eyes. "No matter what, we still have each other. I won't leave you, I promise. I'm right here. I'll always be here."
He closed his eyes and finally allowed the tears to escape as he mourned the loss of his family for a second time.
The death of his parents had broken something in Naruto. What Jiraiya's death, what their group members' deaths hadn't been able to accomplish, the attack on their caravan that night had done it.
Naruto didn't react to anything Gaara said or did. He would eat whenever Gaara prodded a spoon against his mouth and drink whenever Gaara pushed the bottle's opening against his lips, but that was about all he could do. He couldn't defend himself, couldn't even hold one of their smallest daggers. If Gaara wouldn't move him around, he would sit or stand in the same position all day long. Whenever his eyes were open, they looked dead, devoid of any spark of life. If not for the heartbeat Gaara could detect whenever he tested his pulse or rested his ear against his chest, the red haired boy would think he was hauling around a zombie.
Naruto had shut down completely.
Still Gaara didn't give up. Whenever he hunted, he hunted enough for the both of them, determined to keep up Naruto's strength even if Naruto couldn't do much but eat and drink whenever urged to. He scouted out potential places to stay at for a while before he would bring Naruto to a house or a shed or an apartment he deemed safe enough for the night. He walked around with Naruto sat astride on the bike as he checked new towns and villages for any possible supplies they could use. At night they slept together, side by side, curled into each other or when Gaara needed to stay awake, he would have Naruto resting against his side; his presence reassuring even if he was a bit lost now. Any zombie daring to come close would either meet its final demise through a bolt or with a dagger jabbed through their forehead. He would slash and stab and shoot until every single last one of them fell dead to the ground, no matter how long it took, no matter how much his arms would be shaking by the end of it.
He and Naruto kept surviving each day and that was all that mattered.
Throughout it all, he kept talking. Any other time and he would think it was amusing, how the roles suddenly had reversed between the two of them. Naruto had always been the chatterbox, the guy who could run his mouth for hours on a time, could spin tales so wide and grand it left people floundering whenever they tried to scold him about something. Gaara, on the other hand, had always been the quiet type, not seeing any point in opening his mouth unless he had to say something. He didn't talk just to talk. Had never done that.
But now he did. Because he didn't want to lose Naruto completely. Because he wanted to let him know that he wasn't alone, that he still had Gaara. He hadn't lost everything, even if it felt that way. His parents might be gone, but Gaara was still here, wasn't going anywhere.
So Gaara talked. Talked until his voice grew hoarse and the sound of it echoed through his own skull.
"We'll be okay, you'll see; nothing can get us down, remember?"
"Found a rather fancy place this time, think you'll like the bathroom there. Got a bathtub with the lion's claws and all that shit."
"I'm not going anywhere, you know. Take your time, I'll be here when you're ready, I promise."
"Actually found some canned fruit today, hope you like pineapple now!"
"Managed to pilfer some more gas, that should get us going until the next town for sure."
"I got you, Naruto, I promise. I'm right here."
The sight of a blue haired woman leaning over Naruto's slumped form against the oak tree Gaara had left him for just five minutes sent his heart racing and he instantly aimed his crossbow at the woman's head, his finger resting on the trigger.
"Get the fuck away from him! Now!" he growled. The three squirrels he'd managed to shoot fell down on the ground.
She whipped her head to him, surprised, before she raised her hands in the air placatingly, taking two measured steps back. "I mean no harm," she spoke smoothly. She wore a long trench coat, slim jeans and a black tank top which edged up slightly, revealing a piercing in her belly button. "This your friend?"
"Yes, so back off because I've got no qualms shooting you," he snapped and stormed over to Naruto, blocking him from her sight and forcing her to take five more steps back or risk being impaled by a bolt.
"I was only checking because he was unresponsive when I called out to him," she said, still calm even when faced with a bolt aimed directly in the centre of her forehead.
"Maybe that should have been your clue to go on your merry way," he said sarcastically.
"What's wrong with him?"
"There's nothing wrong with him!" he growled and jerked his head to the road. "Go on now, fuck off."
She merely raised an eyebrow. "Being unresponsive like that does not seem like such a good idea when the dead are walking around."
Gaara gritted his teeth together. "He's grieving, all right! He lost his parents a while ago and he's working through that shit. Is grieving not allowed anymore?!"
"He looks like one of the dead himself," she observed critically. "How long has he been like this?"
"What are you, a shrink?" he demanded annoyed. "I don't know, I didn't keep count of the weeks."
"If he's been like this for several weeks now, he's a lost cause," she stated bluntly. "You're only going to get yourself killed if you haul him around. He's dead weight. He's too far gone to come back."
He came this close to shooting her straight in her face. "That's my problem to deal with. He's not far gone! We're doing fine on our own. I won't tell you again, get the fuck away from here or I will shoot you – and I never miss," he hissed.
She scoffed, ran a hand through her short blue hair, but turned around regardless. "I bear neither of you ill will, but I do hope you know what you're doing."
He waited until she was completely out of sight before he lowered his crossbow. He knelt down in front of Naruto and brushed his hair away from his forehead, noting absently that soon it'd be time to cut it again.
"Don't fucking listen to her, I'm not going to leave you," he said fiercely. "I have your back, like I always do. I'm right here, you hear me? You can take however long you need, I'll always be here."
Naruto said nothing; his dead gaze empty on Gaara's chest.
Gaara swallowed and permitting himself a brief moment of weakness, he placed his crossbow on the forest floor and gathered Naruto's limp body against his chest, pressing their cheeks together.
"Just … Don't go where I can't reach you, okay? Don't leave me behind."
The morning he woke up from one of the rare nights of sleep he managed to get only to meet Naruto's bashful smile and two bowls of old oatmeal steaming weakly next to a freshly made fire was one of the best mornings he could remember in a long time.
And if the sight of his friend fully responsive and bright-eyed again, finally with him once more, had tears dripping down his cheeks, had him crushing the blond's body against him in a desperate hug – well, Naruto wouldn't tease him about this. Not for this.
It wasn't supposed to go like this. They were supposed to get the shit, get out of the mall and get back.
He wasn't supposed to be shot in his knee by the very same girl he had just saved. He wasn't supposed to go down, the first zombie reaching him and dragging him back by his ankle as he screamed in rage, wishing he had his gun with him so he could shoot that fucking bitch in the head.
He thought he'd never experienced such hellish pain before than when a zombie tore through the muscles in his left leg, making him shriek and lash out with his good leg in an attempt to shake them off. But then he caught sight of Naruto, of his stricken face, of the pure terror in those blue eyes, and Gaara realised sickeningly that nothing hurt more than the realisation that he was about to lose his best friend. Nothing was so painful as seeing the desperation in Naruto's face when he realised he was about to lose the only person he had left.
For one treacherous moment, however, hope flared up when determination replaced the terror in Naruto's eyes and he started killing one zombie after the other, shooting them down with bolts and bullets, doing everything he could to keep them away from Gaara. For one moment Gaara dared to believe that he could make this after all, that he could get himself free, and they would be able to get out of here, the both of them.
That deceitful hope was dashed the second he felt a zombie ripping apart the flesh of his belly, biting straight through muscles and it took every last bit of strength within him not to give in to the blinding pain threatening to drown him.
He knew it was too late for him. And if Naruto didn't leave soon, it would also be too late for him. Gaara couldn't let that happen. He couldn't be the cause of his best friend's death, wouldn't let himself be the reason why Naruto would die today.
Naruto dove forwards, grabbed Gaara's left hand and tried to pull him out from the growing pile of the undead eager to get to their prey. For one second, instinct had Gaara gripping Naruto's hand tightly before he forced himself to let go and push Naruto away.
His heart breaking at the utter terror gripping Naruto once more.
"No, come on, Gaara! We can still get out of here, come on!"
"No, Naruto," Gaara shook his head, feeling himself becoming light-headed as more and more blood pooled out of him, pouring out of the gaping wound in his stomach. He should have zipped up his jacket, he thought deliriously, maybe he might have stood a chance then. "Go, run. Get away from here."
"No, goddamn it, not without you, Gaara!" Naruto snapped and made to grab him again but Gaara pulled his hands back, shaking his head.
"Go, get the hell out of here, you have to save yourself!"
"No, come on, Gaara, you can't do this to me!" Naruto hissed, tears dripping down his cheeks. "You're the only one I've still got left, you can't fucking do this to me! You promised you'd stay with me, remember?!"
How was it possible, Gaara wondered, that a heart could still break so much even when there was barely anything left to break?
"I'm dying, Naruto," Gaara said brutally. "There's nothing left you can do. You still have a shot, get out of here. Don't make me die with the guilt that I caused you to die, please."
Naruto looked around them, at the group of zombies steadily growing larger and larger, shot five more of them down before he locked eyes with Gaara once more.
"Go," Gaara whispered and smiled. "Live for me."
Naruto wiped the back of his hand roughly across his eyes and nodded, turning away. He ran without looking back.
A strange daze settled over Gaara and he started drifting away even as more and more mouths hungrily bit down in his flesh, tearing apart skin and muscles, spraying blood in the air. He stopped fighting, secure in the knowledge that at least Naruto was safe now.
I'm sorry, Naruto, that I have to leave you behind. One day we'll see each other again, I promise.
Until then, live, please.
For me.
On automatic pilot Naruto stabbed the straggling zombie through his head without even looking up. Same shit, different zombie every day. Nothing remarkable. Every day had been the same since he'd lost his best friend.
Nothing remarkable until he saw the walls at a short distance in front of him, indicating something akin to civilisation. He followed the path, past the traps containing some zombies, and halted a few metres away from the gates.
He looked up, shielded his eyes from the rain. He locked eyes with deep black ones, watched them flare up with something unknown.
"You going to let me in or are you going to shoot me? Make up your mind; I don't have all day."
Every day was the same. He still lived. He would continue living as long as he could. The only promise he could still keep to the one who'd kept him going for so long.
Gaara, I'm still here.
The End
AN2: Man, this was heavy to write. I'm working on other updates, so hopefully I have those ready soon. For now I'm going to bed.
Please leave your thoughts behind in a review; should you spot any mistake, please point them out to me.
I hope to see you all back in my future stories! Please stay safe and take care of yourselves!
Cuddles
Melissa
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Last Man Standing