I do not own Naruto Shippuden or any of the characters.

The Worm

Naruto shook both kunoichi awake barely three hours after they went to sleep. They both stood and the three of them left the room and continued through the hallway avoiding debris. Finally they reached a hallway that had no debris but had blood and body parts strewn everywhere. They made their way through that stretch quickly and soon found themselves at a dead end, the door locked.

"This door leads to the last hallway," Naruto stated. "The other side should have the engine room. I'll have to go under it."

He crouched and smashed a hole in the ceiling and they all saw water about a foot below them. He dropped into it without a word and swam past the door. After about a minute, there was a surprised shout and something slammed against the door. After another moment, the door swung open and Naruto dropped a zombie's body into the hole he had made.

"That was almost bad," Naruto smirked. "Come on. The engine room is this way."

They followed him, soon coming to a heavy metal door with the word engine on it. Naruto pushed it open and they all saw a massive room running the length of the ship with red emergency lights giving everything a blood red hue. They walked into the room but as soon as they arrived, several of the machines that were attached to the ceiling to raise and lower the bulkhead doors designed to keep the ship from flooding exploded. zombies began pouring out of every nook and cranny of the room and charged at Naruto and the others. Within seconds, they were all restrained. Hinata and Tenten were both battered and bruised already but Naruto didn't have a scratch on him.

"Tenten," Naruto called out. "I think it's safe to say a last resort would be nice."

Tenten grinned and hurled both scrolls skyward. They both unrolled and began raining every weapon they had at the zombies, killing dozens and sending the rest into chaos. Naruto and Hinata broke free, Hinata grabbing an axe from a fallen zombie and the two began to slaughter anything and everything that attacked them with renewed effort, quickly freeing Tenten as well who began to help as best she could. After a few more minutes, the zombies all backed away and more began to arrive. Their attention, however, was focused on three zombies in the front of the group.

"Recognize us?" Sai questioned. "They are quite effective as full parasite zombies, wouldn't you agree?"

"And you?" Naruto questioned.

"You never even noticed my arm healed did you?" Sai questioned. "Fucking idiot. My own passenger is very happy to be able to kill you. Orochimaru will welcome him back once his task is finished."

"The Worm," Naruto stated.

"Precisely," Sai stated. "The source of this outbreak. An experiment of Orochimaru's. Effective, no?"

"No," Naruto growled. "Because it's not leaving this ship."

"What, you're going to stop all of us?" Sai questioned. "Kill this fucker Sasuke."

Sasuke sprinted forward swinging at Naruto's head but Naruto blocked his sword and formed an imperfect Rasengan in the palm of his injured arm's hand and slammed it into Sasuke's stomach. The resulting explosion obliterated Sasuke's body and burned Naruto's hand. Sai rolled his eyes as Neji sprinted forward but Hinata stepped forward, abandoning her axe and hit Neji with a series of Gentle Fist strikes ending with one to the back of his neck killing the parasite. The rest were simply to keep him from moving while she moved around behind him. Sai sighed as the rest of the infected sprinted forward but a small army of Naruto clones met them and wiped most out, obliterating the rest with Rasengans.

"Really, you people are far more trouble than you're worth," Sai sighed. "Very well, my turn."

He sprinted forward and Naruto met him with a horizontal slash. The blade met Sai's palm and smashed, however, and Sai caught Naruto by the throat before Naruto could react.

"I expected more of a challenge," Sai sighed. "But, I suppose I'll just have to settle for this."

Before he could kill Naruto, Tenten appeared with Sasuke's sword and removed Sai's head, freeing Naruto. Naruto took the sword as Sai stood, growling in annoyance.

"You shits just signed your death warrants," Sai growled as his body picked up his head, the wound healing instantly.

"I don't think so," Naruto growled created several clones who all sprinted forward with Naruto himself.

Sai destroyed one clone before the rest pinned him to the ground with their swords, along with the real Naruto. Then, Naruto created a Rasengan with one of his clones and slammed it into Sai's chest. The explosion blasted several floors below them, allowing the water an easy path up to them. Naruto then turned around just as a zombie behind Hinata stabbed her with its sword and bit her.

"NO!" Naruto shouted grabbing a piece of metal and throwing it clean through the zombie's head, killing it since it was an infection type.

Hinata fell to the floor and Naruto dropped to the floor beside her. He could see a piece of the parasite struggling to get itself under her skin and grabbed it, pulling it out and trying to ignore Hinata's screamed of pain.

"Tenten, cut it out!" Naruto ordered.

Tenten dropped to the ground behind her and drew a kunai, cutting the skin over the parasite. Finally Naruto pulled it out and threw it, hurling a kunai through it and pinning it to the wall. Then, he removed his jacket and quickly cut it into bandages, wrapping Hinata's wound. After a moment of him struggling and getting nowhere, Tenten finally shoved him aside and easily bandaged the wound.

"Thankfully the wound was shallow," Tenten sighed. "It'll hurt but there's no real threat of her dying."

Naruto sighed in relief then looked at the sword still protruding from her stomach.

"That one is a different story," Tenten sighed. "I'm fairly certain that sword hit a vital point. There's nothing we can do for that one."

Naruto sat back against a support column and stared at Hinata. His mind was completely unable to accept the fact that she was going to die. she couldn't die. He needed her. That was about when reality struck him like a ton of bricks. He felt horrible for not realizing it sooner but it was too late to change it. He cared about Hinata far more than he did anyone else, even Sakura.

"Did you really forget about the several thousand year old demon living inside of you?" Kurama questioned. "Don't you think I picked up a few things in that time?"

Naruto blinked in surprise as Kurama forcefully took control of Naruto's body and pulled the sword out of Hinata, healing that wound before moving on to heal the one on her back. Then, he returned control to Naruto.

"N...Naruto?" Hinata groaned sitting up. "Please tell me I'm not infected."

Naruto responded to her being alive by throwing his arms around her and kissing her. She blinked in surprise as Tenten did the same but then Hinata began to kiss him back. Tenten grinned for a moment before remembering where they were.

"Um, guys, I hate to interrupt, believe me, but I think you should wait until we're off of the zombie infested sinking cruise ship to continue," Tenten spoke up and Naruto pulled away sighing.

"Right, sorry," Naruto said blushing.

"I'm not," Hinata grinned. "Come on. We should get out of here."

As they made their way to the hatch that led into the turbine room they were looking for, Naruto silently thanked Kurama for saving Hinata. He opened the hatch and instantly threw himself to the side landing beside Hinata and Tenten as water exploded out of the hatch.

"Damnit!" Naruto swore. "We're too late!"

"How far down are we?" Tenten questioned.

"We can't be that far but we will be if we let the water fill the ship so we can leave," Naruto stated. "Damn! I'll explain what I'm about to do afterward. And I'm sorry in advance."

Then, boiling red chakra began to rise from his skin forming a shroud of sorts with two long projections similar to ears on his head and three much larger ones like tails behind him. Then, he picked both women up. They both took a deep breath and Naruto leapt to the hole, barely able to withstand the current. He swam out through the turbine, destroying it on the way then swam to the surface. One of the turbine blades rose to the surface as well and he swam over to it and set the women on it before allowing the shroud to fade.

"What was that?" Tenten questioned after gasping for breath.

"That was the Nine-tailed Demon Fox's chakra," Naruto stated face and voice both betraying his hatred about the subject. "I'm his Jinchuriki. That's how I was able to heal Hinata."

"You...have the Nine-tails inside of you?" Hinata questioned.

Naruto nodded fully expecting her and Tenten both to hate him just like everyone else had.

"That would explain why everyone treated you like a monster," Hinata sighed remembering how he used to be treated. "But, you're not a monster. You're Naruto Uzumaki. You're the man I love. Just like you've always been."

Naruto blinked in surprise then smiled and Tenten smirked.

"I agree," Tenten agreed. "Well, minus the whole 'man I love' thing. Sorry but that was Neji. You're you. Same as always."

Naruto smiled and nodded then his smile faded.

"We're going to have to explain this to the others," Naruto stated.

"Fuck," Tenten sighed. "Better get swimming then. Which was Hinata?"

Hinata looked around with her Byakugan then pointed. Naruto instantly knew that she didn't see any land but slipped into the water and created a dozen clones anyway.

"Let's go then," Naruto smiled.

THE END

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